John Doherty Quotes in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)

Lightfoot: [Hitchhiking: Thunderbolt and Lightfoot have accepted a ride from a crazy driver with a mess of a car] This guy another friend of yours?

John Doherty: Slightly advanced, isn't he?

John Doherty: [Exhaust fumes start billowing up in the back seating area] Hey, what's wrong with this wreck? We're gettin' gassed back here!

Lightfoot: This guy's a basket case. He's got the exhaust pipe in here.

John Doherty: You don't look so good, kid.

Lightfoot: I believe you're right.

Lightfoot: [John Doherty, aka Thunderbolt, dressed in preacher's garb, has jumped into Lightfoot's stolen Trans-Am] I thought you were the heat.

John Doherty: Do I look like heat?

Lightfoot: You look like one crazy sonofabitch for a preacher, I'll tell ya' that.

John Doherty: I don't wish to be forward but we'd like to exchange cars with you. So the faster you get out, the better it'll be for your ass.

Lightfoot: How you feelin' today, preacher?

John Doherty: [Reciting a line of poetry] The clock uncoils the working day, and he wakes up feeling his youth has gone away.

Lightfoot: Now what the hell is that? A prayer?

John Doherty: A poem.

Lightfoot: [In a mocking tone] A poem?

John Doherty: Poetry.

Lightfoot: Ah. You stick with me, kid. You can live forever.

Lightfoot: A man can do whatever he sets his mind to. Now, me, I wanna' walk in and buy a white Cadillac convertible. Actually walk in and buy it, cash.

John Doherty: You might set your mind to gettin' us a lift. This walkin' is tough on my bad leg.

John Doherty: In small-town banks, they leave the telephone off the hook in the vault at night so the local operator can listen in.

Lightfoot: People walk into these banks with paper sacks, fill 'em with money and walk out. Anybody can do it.

John Doherty: Bullshit. The newest bank vaults have walls of reinforced concrete five feet thick, backed by six inches of steel. The vault door is stainless steel-faced. It's an inch and a half of cast steel, another 12 inches of burn-resisting steel, and another inch and a half of open-hearthed steel... A vault door has 20 bolts, each an inch in diameter. Eight on each side, two top and two bottom. This holds the door into a 16-inch steel jamb set in 18 inches of concrete. It's crosshatched by steel bars running both vertical and horizontal. This door is precision-made so you can't pour nitro between the door and the vault. If that isn't enough, there's microphones, electric eyes, pressure-sensitive mats, vibration detectors, tear gas, and even thermostats that detect the slightest rise in temperature. Still interested in banks?

Lightfoot: I *knew* you weren't a preacher!

Lightfoot: [Asking about a former heist in which Thunderbolt played a role] Montana Armored? How did you get into the vault?

John Doherty: 20mm cannon with armor-piercing shells. Wasn't too hard.

Secretary: [Thunderbolt is working in a metal shop] You forgot to give me your Social Security number.

John Doherty: What?

Secretary: I said that you forgot to give me your Social Security number.

John Doherty: Oh, I've forgotten it.

Secretary: Forgotten it?... Ha ha!... Nobody ever forgets their number. Where you been workin'?

Lightfoot: [Final lines] You know... you know somethin'? I don't think of us as criminals, you know? I feel we accomplished something. A good job. I feel proud of myself, man. I feel like a hero.

John Doherty: Are you all right, kid? You don't look too well.

Lightfoot: I believe you're right.

[Slumps over]

John Doherty: Lightfoot!

Red Leary: Does he know everything?

[At the same time]

John Doherty: No.

Lightfoot: Yes.

Lightfoot: [Eyeing the clothes in the back of the car they've just stolen] Hey, look at this, man. It's like they got a whole department store back here. I like that.

John Doherty: Yeah... Those clothes and your mouth, you could be a big man.

John Doherty: Hey, why don't you take this watch, huh? I want you to have it.

Lightfoot: I don't want your watch, man... I want your friendship!

John Doherty: [Thunderbolt and Gloria are having sex] Take it easy, Gloria. You're killin' me.

Gloria: Where'd you get all those scars from?

John Doherty: Marines. Korea.

Gloria: Oh, yeah? I heard about that war...

Lightfoot: Thunderbolt! Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. That sounds like somethin'.

John Doherty: You're forgetting I'm a lot older than you.

Lightfoot: There are plenty of guys twice my age who don't know their ass from a hole in the ground.

John Doherty: I won't fault you there.

Lightfoot: [Arriving at the site of what was supposed to be the old schoolhouse, now replaced with a modern new school] Are you sure this is the spot?

John Doherty: Yeah.

Lightfoot: What? I didn't hear what you said.

John Doherty: I said, yeah, this is it.

Lightfoot: Well, what happened to it?

John Doherty: I don't know... Progress.

Red Leary: What you been preachin' lately, Johnny.

John Doherty: Survival.

Lightfoot: The rich get richer, the poor get poorer.

John Doherty: Where do you pick up these pearls of wisdom?

Lightfoot: Books.

Red Leary: [Mockingly] You mean you can actually read?

Lightfoot: I read *you* loud and clear.

Red Leary: You better believe it.

Lightfoot: [Expressing reservations about his role in the upcoming heist] Look, I don't know if I can pull this thing off. How do I know what to do?

John Doherty: What's the matter? The job too tough for ya'?

John Doherty: Seems there was another hook-up after all.

Lightfoot: Everything I did was for nothing?

John Doherty: Seems that way, doesn't it?

John Doherty: What happened to Goody?

Red Leary: I threw that little sucker out.

Lightfoot: You prick!

Red Leary: [Knocks Lightfoot to the ground and kicks him savagely] Say somethin' funny now, smart-ass!