Memorable quotes for
Ronin (1998) More at IMDbPro »

Deirdre: You're scared!
Sam: Of course I'm scared! You think I'm reluctant because I'm happy?
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[Sam accepts a cigarette offered by Vincent]
Sam: So, are you labour or management?
Vincent: If I were management, I would not offer you a cigarette!
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[discussing interrogation techniques]
Larry: How did they finally get to you?
Sam: They gave me a grasshopper.
Larry: What's a grasshopper?
Sam: Lessee, two parts gin, one part brandy, one part Creme de Menthe...
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Sam: Whenever there is any doubt, there is no doubt. That's the first thing they teach you.
Vincent: Who taught you?
Sam: I don't remember. That's the second thing they teach you.
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Spence: You ever kill anybody?
Sam: I hurt somebody's feelings once.
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[Vincent has just removed a bullet from Sam's side]
Sam: If you don't mind, I'm gonna pass out.
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Deirdre: [Sam retrieves his gun from behind some crates] What exactly were you doin' back here?
Sam: Lady, I never walk into a place I don't know how to walk out of.
Deirdre: Then why are you gettin' into that van?
Sam: You know the reason.
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Sam: So, how'd you get started in this business?
Dierdre: A wealthy scoundrel seduced and betrayed me.
Sam: Same with me. How about that?
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Spence: You worried about saving your own skin?
Sam: Yeah, I am. It covers my body.
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Sam: You aren't going in there?
Spence: Yeah I'm going in there, and so are you.
Sam: Why am I going in there?
Spence: Why? To protect me!
Sam: There is no protection there. If it's a come on we're fish in a barrel. What are you doing? Why do they want you in there? What are you, crazy?
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Gregor: You're going to kill me?
Seamus O'Rourke: No, I'm not going to kill you.
[the moment Gregor takes off his glasses, Seamus punches him on and on until a blow at Gregor's stomach lands him on the floor]
Seamus O'Rourke: Why would I want to kill you?
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Gregor: So what brought you here?
Sam: A fellow that doesn't work so well.
Gregor: The man in the wheelchair? How did he get there?
Sam: Seems to me that was in your neck of the woods back in the late unpleasantness.
[Sam deliberately tests Gregor by spilling the coffee and pushes Gregor's cup off the table. Gregor catches it very fast]
Sam: Good reflexes.
Gregor: Oh yeah, they die hard.
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Spence: We got shooters here and here. I tell you an old trick.
Sam: Hey...
[rubs the board]
Spence: What's your problem?
Sam: Draw again. Draw it again. You're the ace field man. Draw it again. It's a simple diagram. Just draw it again. Draw what you saw. Draw it again! Draw it again!
Sam: [Spence remains silent. Sam takes the marker and draws on the board] Two shooters. Car comes through here. Shooters across each other. Kill each other dead. Oh my, where'd you learn that?
Spence: In the regiment.
Sam: What regiment was that?
Spence: The 22nd Special Air Service.
Sam: What's the color of the boathouse at Hereford?
[repeats]
Spence: I don't like your attitude!
Sam: What's the color of the boathouse -...
Spence: Fuck off!
Sam: What's - -you got the gun. I'm unarmed. Do something. Go ahead. Do something. DO SOMETHING.
[Spence spills the coffee cup and Sam subdues him]
Sam: Tell me about an ambush. I ambushed you with a cup of coffee!
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Gregor: How does the day find you?
Dapper Gent: How do they say in French - en plein forme?
Gregor: [body searches Dapper and finds a gun] This was supposed to be a social occasion?
Dapper Gent: Life is uncertain.
Gregor: It is indeed.
Dapper Gent: But Gregor, we have so much history together I was sure you wouldn't mind. Besides the world these days is so...
Gregor: Unsafe?
Dapper Gent: Exactly.
Gregor: I'll show you how unsafe it is.
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[last lines]
Vincent: No questions. No answers. That's the business we're in. You just accept it and move on. Maybe that's lesson number three.
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Gregor: So what could have been conducted in collegial atmosphere is now fucked into cocked hat.
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Sam: All good things come to those who wait.
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Sam: Either you're part of the problem or you're part of the solution or you're just part of the landscape.
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Gregor: It would be nice to do something.
Sam: We are doing something. We're sitting here, waiting.
Gregor: [scoffs and walks away]
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Vincent: What do you want for Christmas?
Sam: My two front teeth.
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Vincent: A friend of yours?
Sam: Yeah, we went to high school together.
Vincent: Well, everyone's your brother 'till the rent comes due.
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Vincent: Everyone's your brother until the rent comes due.
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Vincent: Are you sure you can do this?
Sam: [Preparing to perform surgery on himself] Yeah. I once removed a guy's appendix with a grapefruit spoon.
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Jean-Pierre: At the end of the day we are likely to be punished for our kindnesses.
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Spence: You think too hard.
Sam: Nobody ever told me that before.
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Spence: You ex military?
Sam: No, I got my job in the New York Times.
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Sam: You're great in the locker room, pal, and your reflexes might die hard, but you're weak when you put your spikes on.
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Sam: Excuse me, could you tell me how to find the post office?
Man with the Newspaper: Do, uh, do I know you? No, I'm sorry, do I know you? Cause, uh, how did you know I speak English?
Sam: You got an English newspaper.
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[Spence is walking into a possible ambush]
Vincent: Do you want to back him up?
[Sam shrugs]
Vincent: What would I profit from your death?
Sam: Well, you'd have the money.
Vincent: I have the money already.
[pause]
Vincent: [nods] I'll watch the back.
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[the Dapper Gent pulls a gun on Gregor after he had already been disarmed]
Gregor: Where did that come from?
[the Gent smiles lecherously]
Gregor: I should've made you strip.
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Spence: Almost turned into a bit of raspberry jam back there, yeah, a bit of raspberry jam!
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Spence: Got the swag, kept the money. It's a job well done, a job well done. That's a fact.
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Gregor: So, what colour *is* the boathouse at Hereford?
Sam: How the fuck should I know?
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Seamus O'Rourke: [pointing his pistol at Sam] You stupid shite! You're a dead man!
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Vincent: [Gregor has just stolen the case for himself during a shoot-out] Where is Gregor?
Sam: Gregor fucked us!
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Sergi: Where do I know you from?
Vincent: Vienna.
Sergi: Of course!
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Sam: What's in the case?
Deirdre: That isn't necessary.
Sam: Is it heavy, is it explosive, is it chained to some unlucky bloke's wrist? Are we gonna have to chop it off?
Deirdre: All right. But I am not under any obligation to let you know...
Sam: If not, the price has gotta go up. I'll get you the case, but the price has gotta go up. If it's gonna be a amateur night, I want a hundred thousand dollars. I want it upfront. I want it in a bank account. I want another $100,000 when you get the case.
Deirdre: [after a phone conversation with someone] You'll get your money when we get the case.
Sam: The others too.
Deirdre: That is what I understood. We've gotten the word.
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Spence: [in French] Don't make any sudden moves. Just because we're buying guns doesn't mean we didn't bring any.
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Seamus O'Rourke: You bollocksed it up.
Dierdre: I bollocksed it up?
Seamus O'Rourke: You hired them.
Dierdre: Through your fucking contacts!
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Seamus O'Rourke: I was clearing up your mess.
Dierdre: My mess? Oh, well, you take over then.
Seamus O'Rourke: Eh?
Dierdre: But you can't, can ya? It's you that's hidin' isn' it, Seamus? It's you that can't show your face.
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Seamus O'Rourke: You're a good girl, Dierdre. Do your job, eh?
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Vincent: [shaking Sam's hand] What was in the case?
Sam: [grins] I don't remember.
Vincent: [smiles] Lesson number two.
Sam: Keep in touch.
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Vincent: Under the bridge, by the river, how did you know it was an ambush?
Sam: When ever there is any doubt, there is no doubt. That is the first thing they teach you.
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Vincent: We need some information. We're looking for some people in Paris.
Jean-Pierre: Who?
Vincent: An Irish man and a woman, and a German, ex-KGB. They're professionals, and they're in hiding.
Jean-Pierre: This is really important to you?
Vincent: He saved my life.
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[looking at Jean-Pierre's model]
Jean-Pierre: The Forty-Seven Ronin. Do you know it?
[Sam shakes his head]
Jean-Pierre: Forty-seven samurai, whose master was betrayed and killed by another lord. They became ronin - masterless samurai - disgraced by another man's treachery. For three years they plotted, pretending to be thieves, mercenaries, even madmen - that I didn't have time to do - and then one night they struck, slipping into the castle of their lord's betrayer and killing him.
Sam: Nice. I like that. My kind of job.
Jean-Pierre: There's something more. All forty-seven of them committed seppuku - ritual suicide - in the courtyard of the castle.
Sam: Well, that I don't like so much.
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Jean-Pierre: But you understand it.
Sam: What do you mean, I understand it?
Jean-Pierre: The warrior code. The delight in the battle, you understand that, yes? But also something more. You understand there is something outside yourself that has to be served. And when that need is gone, when belief has died, what are you? A man without a master.
Sam: Right now I'm a man without a paycheck.
Jean-Pierre: The ronin could have hired themselves to new masters. They could have fought for themselves. But they chose honor. They chose myth.
Sam: They chose wrong.
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Dapper Gent: [after he has deflected Gregors shot at a small girl] Have you lost your mind? Why did you do that?
Gregor: To make a point. I don't know her, but I was ready to splatter her brains all over the playground. But you... I don't particularly like you. Just imagine what I'll do to you if you try anything. Now give me my money!
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Jean-Pierre: [in his modeling workshop] My hobby. One grows old.
Sam: Most of the guys I knew just wanted to stay alive long enough to go home and open a bar.
Jean-Pierre: Had they lived, would they have done it?
[Sam shrugs]
Jean-Pierre: Then they were spared their disillusionment.
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