Ronin (1998)
Robert De Niro: Sam
Photos
Quotes
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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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Spence : [drawing a diagram on the white board - two circles with arrows pointing at each other] We got shooters here... shooters here. I'll tell you an old trick...
Sam : Hey.
[Sam puts his cup of coffee down on a table, walks over to the white board and rubs out Spence's diagram]
Spence : What's your problem?
Sam : Draw it 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.
[Spence just stands there]
Sam : Draw it again! Draw it again.
[Spence still does nothing so Sam takes the marker pen off him and redraws his diagram]
Sam : Two shooters, car comes through here, shooters across from each other, kill each other dead. Oh my, where'd you learn that? Huh?
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? What's the color of the boathouse at Hereford?
Spence : I don't like your attitude.
Sam : What's the color of the boathouse?
Spence : Oh, fuck off!
Sam : [moves closer to Spence, who backs away] You got the gun, I'm unarmed. Do something. Go ahead, do something. Do something. Do something.
[as he backs away, Spence bumps into the table with Sam's coffee cup on it, spilling hot coffee onto his leg. Sam grabs his neck and face and bends him backwards over a railing, completely overpowering him. He takes Spence's gun off of him, then releases him]
Sam : Tell me about an ambush? Tell me about an ambush? I ambushed you with a cup of coffee!
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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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Sam : All good things come to those who wait.
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[Sam looks 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, 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.
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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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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[the arms dealers want to complete the deal inside a tunnel]
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?
Spence : You know, you think too hard.
Sam : Nobody ever told me that before. But I wouldn't go in there.
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Sam : The only thing is that the map, the map is not the territory.
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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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Jean-Pierre : [in his modeling workshop] My hobby. One grows old.
Sam : I knew a lot of fellas, friends of mine, that just wanted to live to open a bar.
Jean-Pierre : Had they lived, would they have done it?
[Sam shrugs]
Jean-Pierre : Then they were spared their disillusion.
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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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Sam : [Sam walking in hotel with Dierdre as they pass the Carousel; she rolls her eyes when he finishes saying:] You're my wife; maybe you want to look like it. It's just a game; just a game. Man and woman going for a walk and all that that entails. Piece of cake. Relax. Relax, darling.
[pause]
Sam : You look good cleaned up.
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Spence : What do you use, weapons-wise?
Sam : Hm?
Spence : Weapons. I'm a weapons man.
Sam : Weapons man?
Spence : Yeah. They tend to settle the argument. So what do you favour?
Sam : Oh, you know, it's a toolbox. I don't care, you put the tools in for the job, that's all.
Spence : What?
Sam : You know, I actually favour the old 1911.
Spence : .45. Old gun.
Sam : It served my country well. A long time.
Spence : Your country. Not done too well though, have you, last few wars?
Sam : Perhaps not, but at least we don't go around whining about it.
