Top 20 Quotes From Mitch Leary

Mitch: [to Pam Magnus before he kills her] You shouldn't have been from Minneapolis.

Frank: [Leary is hanging from an elevator alongside a hotel building. Horrigan offers his hand to him] Take my hand. If you don't, you'll die.
Mitch: [smiling] Do you want to save me, Frank?
Frank: To be frank and honest with you, no. But it's my job.

[on the phone]
Mitch: Trying to trace me, Frank?
Frank: Heh, now why didn't I think of that?
Mitch: You did, or you're not the adversary I'd hoped for.

Frank: [over the phone] I know who you are - Leary.
Mitch: I'm glad, Frank. Friends should be able to call each other by name.
Frank: We're not friends.
Mitch: Sure we are.
Frank: I've seen what you do to friends.
Mitch: What's that supposed to mean?
Frank: You slit your friend's throat.
Mitch: You talked to Coppinger, Frank?
Frank: Yeah, that's right.
Mitch: Did you delouse? The man's a professional liar.
Frank: I saw the photos.
Mitch: No, you saw what he wanted you to see, Frank.
Frank: I saw a picture of, uh, your friend lying on the floor with his throat cut.
Mitch: What you didn't see, Frank, what you couldn't possibly know, is: they sent my best friend - my comrade in arms - to my home to kill me!

Mitch: [over the phone] There's no cause left worth fighting for, Frank. All we have is the game. I'm on offense, you're on defense.
Frank: Well, when do we start playing the game?
Mitch: The clock's ticking, Frank.

Mitch: Do you have what it takes to take a bullet, or is life too precious?
Frank: Well, I'll be thinkin' about that when I'm pissin' on your grave.

[Leary makes the first of a series of taunting phone calls]
Frank: McCrawley?
Mitch: Why not call me Booth?
Frank: Why not Oswald?
Mitch: Because Booth had flair, panache - a leap to the stage after he shot Lincoln.

Mitch: [over the phone] What did happen to you that day? Only one agent reacted to the gunfire, and you were closer to Kennedy than he was. You must have looked up at the window of the Texas Book Depository, but you didn't react. Late at night, when the demons come, do you see the rifle coming out of that window, or do you see Kennedy's head being blown apart? If you'd reacted to that first shot, could you have gotten there in time to stop the big bullet? And if you had - that could've been your head being blown apart. Do you wish you'd succeeded, Frank? Or is life too precious?

Mitch: [Horrigan is hanging from a roof] Take my hand, Frank. Take it. If you don't, you'll die.
[Horrigan does so and then pulls his gun out]
Mitch: You're gonna shoot me, Frank, after I saved your life? The only way to save the president is to shoot me. Are you willing to trade your life for his, or is life too precious?

[second phone call]
Mitch: I was worried about you with the motorcade today. You looked like you were going to faint. You really should get into shape for that type of job.
[about 15 minutes later into the film when the Secret Service is looking through the park]
Mitch: [sees Frank exhuasted through binocoluars and mutters] I told you to get into shape.

Mitch: [Leary's final words on Frank's answering machine as Frank and Lily listen briefly then leaving his apartment together] Hello, Frank. By the time you hear this, it'll be over. The President is most likely dead, and so am I. I wonder, Frank, did you kill me? Who won our game? Not that it really matters, for among friends like you and me, it's not whether you win or lose but how you play the game, and now the game is done and it's time to get on with your life. But I worry, Frank, that you have no life to get on with. You're a good man, and good men like you and me are destined to walk a lonely road. Goodbye, and good luck.

Frank: [over the phone] What to do you see when you're in the dark, and the demons come?
Mitch: I see you, Frank. I see you standing over the grave of another dead president.
Frank: That's not going to happen. I'm onto you.
Mitch: Fuck you Frank. I am willing to trade my life for his. I am smart, and I am willing, and that is all it takes. That president is coming home from California in a fucking box.
Frank: Where in California?
Mitch: Uh, the address? Come on, Frank. I'll keep you in the game, but I'm not going to throw it for you.

Mitch: [over the phone] The world can be a cruel place to an honest man, Frank.

Mitch: [over the phone] Watching the President, I - I couldn't help wondering why a man like you would risk his life to save a man like that. You have such a strange job - I can't decide if it's heroic or absurd.
Frank: Now, why would a man like you want to risk his life to kill a man like that?
Mitch: Don't you have a psychological profile on me yet?
Frank: I don't put a lot of stock in them.
Mitch: Nor do I. A man's actions don't equal the sum of his psychological parts. Doesn't work that way.
Frank: Just how does it work?
Mitch: It doesn't work, Frank. God doesn't punish the wicked and reward the righteous. Everyone dies. Some die because they deserve to; others die simply because they come from Minneapolis. It's random and it's meaningless.
Frank: Well, if none of this means anything... why kill the President?
Mitch: To punctuate the dreariness.

[Horrigan and Leary are in a glass elevator. Sharpshooters are in place to take out Leary but can't see the target because the lights in the elevator are out. Horrigan is on the floor while Leary is standing over him and pointing a gun at him. Unbeknownst to Leary, Horrigan has a microphone concealed in his hand and is transmitting]
Frank: Go ahead and shoot, dammit.
Lilly: They can't see inside. If they fire, you'll be hit.
Mitch: I want you to thank me first, Frank.
Frank: Shut up and shoot.
Lilly: All right, Frank.
Mitch: All right, Frank.
Lilly: Shooters, stand by to fire. Wait for my command.
Mitch: [cocks gun] Sleep well, my friend.
Frank: Just one thing: aim high.
Mitch: What?
Lilly: Aim high.
Frank: Now!
Mitch: [sees the microphone and realizes Horrigan has been talking to Raines] You bastard!
Lilly: Fire.
[glass is shattered by gunfire. Leary is forced to duck, giving Horrigan an opportunity to grapple with him]

Frank: [over the phone] I want you to give yourself up.
Mitch: So I can live a long and fruitful life?
Frank: Oh, we can work something out.
Mitch: [laughs] Jesus, Frank, don't fucking lie to me. I have a rendezvous with death, and so does the President, and so do you, Frank, if you get too close to me.
Frank: You have a rendezvous with my ass, motherfucker!

[assassination attempt botched, Leary takes Horrigan hostage onto a hotel elevator]
Mitch: [removing facial disguise] So, you have the guts, Frank. You took the bullet.
Frank: [holding his chest] I think you broke my damn ribs.
Mitch: Sorry, I wasn't aiming at you.

[in the elevator]
Frank: Okay, now what?
Mitch: [while holding him hostage] Do you believe in the nobility of suicide?
Frank: No. But if you wanna blow your goddamn head off, go ahead. Be my guest.
Mitch: Nicely put, Frank, but I don't want to leave this miserable world alone.

Mitch: [over the phone] The irony is so thick you could choke on it.
Frank: There's no fuckin' irony, Mitch.
Mitch: Think, Frank. Think. The same government that trained me to kill trained you to protect. Yet now you want to kill me while up on that roof I protected you. They're gonna write books about us, Frank.

Hunter: [in the woods near a pond] Was that you shooting?
Mitch: Yes.
Hunter: What the hell kind of gun is that?
Mitch: Something I made.
Hunter: No kidding? You made it? Guess it beats paying for it, huh? Can I see it?
Mitch: Yeah.
Hunter: Shit, it's light. What's it made of?
Mitch: It's composite, like plastic.
Hunter: Pretty neat. You, uh, you mind if I give her a little dance?
Mitch: Not at all.
[the hunter shoots a duck]
Hunter: That is great! That is really great! You, uh, wouldn't be interested in selling her, would ya?
Mitch: No, I need it.
Hunter: For what?
Mitch: To assassinate the president.
[the hunters laugh]
Hunter: What would you wanna do that for, mister?
Mitch: Why did you kill that bird, asshole?
[proceeds to nonchalantly kill both of the hunters with his gun]