Mitch Leary Quotes in In the Line of Fire (1993)

Frank Horrigan: [over the phone] I want you to give yourself up.

Mitch Leary: So I can live a long and fruitful life?

Frank Horrigan: Oh, we can work something out.

Mitch Leary: [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 Horrigan: You have a rendezvous with my ass, motherfucker!

Hunter: [in the woods near a pond] Was that you shooting?

Mitch Leary: Yes.

Hunter: What the hell kind of gun is that?

Mitch Leary: Something I made.

Hunter: No kidding? You made it? Guess it beats paying for it, huh? Can I see it?

Mitch Leary: Yeah.

Hunter: Shit, it's light. What's it made of?

Mitch Leary: It's composite, like plastic.

Hunter: Pretty neat. You, uh, you mind if I give her a little dance?

Mitch Leary: 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 Leary: No, I need it.

Hunter: For what?

Mitch Leary: To assassinate the president.

[the hunters laugh]

Hunter: What would you wanna do that for, mister?

Mitch Leary: Why did you kill that bird, asshole?

[proceeds to nonchalantly kill both of the hunters with his gun]

Frank Horrigan: [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 Leary: [smiling] Do you want to save me, Frank?

Frank Horrigan: To be frank and honest with you, no. But it's my job.

Frank Horrigan: [over the phone] I know who you are - Leary.

Mitch Leary: I'm glad, Frank. Friends should be able to call each other by name.

Frank Horrigan: We're not friends.

Mitch Leary: Sure we are.

Frank Horrigan: I've seen what you do to friends.

Mitch Leary: What's that supposed to mean?

Frank Horrigan: You slit your friend's throat.

Mitch Leary: You talked to Coppinger, Frank?

Frank Horrigan: Yeah, that's right.

Mitch Leary: Did you delouse? The man's a professional liar.

Frank Horrigan: I saw the photos.

Mitch Leary: No, you saw what he wanted you to see, Frank.

Frank Horrigan: I saw a picture of, uh, your friend lying on the floor with his throat cut.

Mitch Leary: 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 Leary: [over the phone] The irony is so thick you could choke on it.

Frank Horrigan: There's no fuckin' irony, Mitch.

Mitch Leary: 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.

Mitch Leary: [over the phone] Frank, you of all people, I want you to understand because we both USED to think this country was a very special place...

Frank Horrigan: You don't know what I used to think!

Mitch Leary: Oh, but you know about me? Do you have any idea what I've done for God and country? Some pretty FUCKING HORRIBLE things! I don't even remember who I was before they sunk their claws into me!

Frank Horrigan: They made you into a real monster, right?

Mitch Leary: That's right and now they want to destroy me because we can't have monsters roaming the quiet countryside, now can we?

Mitch Leary: [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 Horrigan: Now, why would a man like you want to risk his life to kill a man like that?

Mitch Leary: Don't you have a psychological profile on me yet?

Frank Horrigan: I don't put a lot of stock in them.

Mitch Leary: Nor do I. A man's actions don't equal the sum of his psychological parts. Doesn't work that way.

Frank Horrigan: Just how does it work?

Mitch Leary: 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 Horrigan: Well, if none of this means anything... why kill the President?

Mitch Leary: To punctuate the dreariness.

Mitch Leary: [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 Horrigan: Well, when do we start playing the game?

Mitch Leary: The clock's ticking, Frank.

Frank Horrigan: [over the phone] What to do you see when you're in the dark, and the demons come?

Mitch Leary: I see you, Frank. I see you standing over the grave of another dead president.

Frank Horrigan: That's not going to happen. I'm onto you.

Mitch Leary: 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 Horrigan: Where in California?

Mitch Leary: Uh, the address? Come on, Frank. I'll keep you in the game, but I'm not going to throw it for you.

[in the elevator]

Frank Horrigan: Okay, now what?

Mitch Leary: [while holding him hostage] Do you believe in the nobility of suicide?

Frank Horrigan: No. But if you wanna blow your goddamn head off, go ahead. Be my guest.

Mitch Leary: Nicely put, Frank, but I don't want to leave this miserable world alone.

Mitch Leary: Do you have what it takes to take a bullet, or is life too precious?

Frank Horrigan: Well, I'll be thinkin' about that when I'm pissin' on your grave.

[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 Horrigan: Go ahead and shoot, dammit.

Lilly Raines: They can't see inside. If they fire, you'll be hit.

Mitch Leary: I want you to thank me first, Frank.

Frank Horrigan: Shut up and shoot.

Lilly Raines: All right, Frank.

Mitch Leary: All right, Frank.

Lilly Raines: Shooters, stand by to fire. Wait for my command.

Mitch Leary: [cocks gun] Sleep well, my friend.

Frank Horrigan: Just one thing: aim high.

Mitch Leary: What?

Lilly Raines: Aim high.

Frank Horrigan: Now!

Mitch Leary: [sees the microphone and realizes Horrigan has been talking to Raines] You bastard!

Lilly Raines: Fire.

[glass is shattered by gunfire. Leary is forced to duck, giving Horrigan an opportunity to grapple with him]

Mitch Leary: [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.

[Leary makes the first of a series of taunting phone calls]

Frank Horrigan: McCrawley?

Mitch Leary: Why not call me Booth?

Frank Horrigan: Why not Oswald?

Mitch Leary: Because Booth had flair, panache - a leap to the stage after he shot Lincoln.

Mitch Leary: [over the phone] What's kept you in the game all these years?

Frank Horrigan: Why don't we get together and have a drink? We could talk about that.

Mitch Leary: Oh, I'd love to, but I think the less you know about me the better.

Frank Horrigan: Oh, why?

Mitch Leary: Because I'm planning to kill the President.

Frank Horrigan: Oh, now you shouldn't have gone and said that. It's a federal offense to threaten the President. You could go to jail, even if you don't mean it.

Mitch Leary: I mean it all right. John F. Kennedy said all someone needs is a willingness to trade his life for the President's, right?

Frank Horrigan: That's right.

Mitch Leary: I'm willing.

Mitch Leary: [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 Leary: [speaking to Horrigan on the phone] Do you know how easily I could kill you, Frank? Do you know how many times I watched you go in and out of that apartment? You are still alive because I have allowed you to live so you show me some GODDAMN RESPECT!

[slams phone down]

[on the phone]

Mitch Leary: Trying to trace me, Frank?

Frank Horrigan: Heh, now why didn't I think of that?

Mitch Leary: You did, or you're not the adversary I'd hoped for.

[assassination attempt botched, Leary takes Horrigan hostage onto a hotel elevator]

Mitch Leary: [removing facial disguise] So, you have the guts, Frank. You took the bullet.

Frank Horrigan: [holding his chest] I think you broke my damn ribs.

Mitch Leary: Sorry, I wasn't aiming at you.

[second phone call]

Mitch Leary: 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 Leary: [sees Frank exhuasted through binocoluars and mutters] I told you to get into shape.

Mitch Leary: [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 Leary: 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?

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

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

Mitch Leary: [repeated line to Frank] or is life too precious?