Heart of Stone (2023 film)

Heart of Stone is a 2023 American action spy thriller drama film about an intelligence operative for a shadowy global peacekeeping agency who races to stop a hacker from stealing its most valuable and dangerous weapon.
 * Directed by Tom Harper. Written by Greg Rucka and Allison Schroeder.

Defy the odds (taglines)

Dialogue

 * Bailey: [Banter over comms, regarding Rachel] Four hours in the van, she's eating all the crisps.
 * Parker: While she's stuck in there with you, so that's comfort eating. Have you been boring her with your cat chat again?
 * Bailey: Cat chat? Actually, Parker, she likes my Barry the cat stories. [To Rachel] You like my Barry the cat stories, right? Hey, before you know it, you're gonna want one of your own.
 * Stone: Cats hate me. Sorry, baby.


 * Bailey: [Toasting] To Stone!
 * Parker: First one out of the van.
 * Yang: Hey!
 * Parker: And she didn't blow the op, so...
 * Yang: No, we did it all on our own.
 * Parker: Too bad. We'd make a winning trick if Stone joined us. Might be our lucky charm. But... you did well at blackjack.
 * Stone: And I'm never gambling again. Or stepping out of the van.


 * [They all vacate the van after a chase and walk after Rachel walking through a town square fountain]
 * Yang: Rachel... Rachel... Stone... who the hell are you?!
 * Stone: It's complicated.
 * Parker: From where I'm sitting, a baby agent from IT just took out an entire kill team. Bailey, what's taking you so long?
 * Bailey: Shit. The Charter?! You're the... you're the bloody Charter?! What, are you trying to bring in Dhawan yourself?! Are you working with her?!
 * Yang: Answer him! You owe us that!
 * Stone: We're after her too!
 * Bailey: Oh, my God! The Charter's real!
 * Yang: And you're one of them!
 * Stone: I wish I could've told you more. But we all want the same thing.
 * Parker: No, we don't. [He executes Bailey and Yang] You're not the only one with a secret. Did they mean something to you? Oh, come on, Rachel. You're only playing a part, right?
 * Stone: Who are you, Parker?
 * Parker: Why don't you ask The Heart?
 * Stone: If you wanted me dead, you would've shot me first.
 * Parker: Still a few things I need to know. About you, the Charter. But, perhaps most of all, I was looking forwards to a fight. [Stone lunges at Parker punching him in the face and Parker slashes her abdomen and she throws him onto fountain steps] Keya and I learned that the Charter infiltrated MI6. I had to flush out who. At first, I thought it was Yang, but I was so pleased it was you.
 * Stone: Keya's working for you?
 * Parker: Your hand's shaking.
 * Stone: You barely nicked me.
 * Parker: That was the point. Poison tipped. A little basic, I know, but it hits the spot. [Parker maneuvers Stone off him and onto steps] Looks the paralysis is kicking in. I spent six years looking for you people, Stone. Then fate brings you straight to me. You're a very good agent. But you were so busy letting a machine think for you that you missed me. Right here, in front of your face... the whole time.
 * Stone: And Mulvaney?
 * Parker: Oh. Well, he was tech-averse, like me. Kept everything up here. So, Keya and I set up our casino of blood to lure him in. We needed to have a little chat about the Heart. [Flashback to Italian alps mission with Parker holding Mulvaney at gunpoint in cablecar]
 * Mulvaney: All right, ok, ok, ok. Talk. Yeah. I- The Heart is what gives the Charter its power. It's the most formidable weapon you never knew existed. It can hack into anything, anywhere. Cell phone, power grids, the banks, governments, military, health records. Your secrets. It knows you better than it knows yourself. It's determinism. With access to trillions of data points at once, its modeling is so accurate it can predict the future. The Heart is knowledge and power. It can crash a market or drop a plane out of the sky. Who needs to steal a nuclear bomb when you can control them all? If you own them all... you own the world.
 * Parker: Where is it? Where... is it?
 * Mulvaney: Only a Charter member could tell you. [Parker shoves poison pill into Mulvaney's mouth]
 * Parker: The poison's a Cholinesterase inhibitor. Cold War paralytic. My chemist does all the classics. Like cyanide. [Scene goes to present and Parker injects ] Oh, Rachel. Killing you is not part of the plan. We need to deliver a package first. I've loved working with you Rachel. Hand on heart. [Parker walks away]


 * Nomad: What's happened? I need to know what's happened. How long were we compromised?
 * Jack of Hearts: Three minutes and 45 seconds. Running a system check now.
 * Nomad: We need to know what they accessed. Is the Locker safe? Boom.
 * Jack of Hearts: The Locker is still high with the Locker safe inside, 85,000 feet up. No one's getting up there without a Space Shuttle. It's passing over the Atlantic towards West Africa.
 * Nomad: And the other suits, can they still access the Heart?
 * Jack of Hearts: Looks like it-- Jesus.
 * Nomad: What?
 * Jack of Hearts: There's been 100,000 attempts to access files. Clubs teams are analyzing the date, but looks like our security held.
 * Stone: We need to shut it down now.
 * Nomad: Shut what, down? The Heart?
 * Stone: Until we know what they've done. We have no idea of what they're capable of.
 * Jack of Hearts: Don't shut it down to find out what they've done. We'd be harming ourselves.
 * Stone: We don't know. She's not stupid.
 * Jack of Hearts: And neither are we.
 * Stone: Sure about that? Because right now.
 * Nomad: Rachel, Rachel. He's right. We'll sort it.
 * Stone: "We"?
 * Nomad: A word in private. Now.
 * Stone: I told you. I knew Keya was playing us, playing the Heart.
 * Nomad: No, you didn't. No, you didn't. You had a feeling. Nothing... nothing concrete, nothing actionable. A mood! A notion! A hunch! A bollocks! We don't trade in those!
 * Stone: I knew she wouldn't be there.
 * Nomad: You ignored the Heart and you went back in.
 * Stone: To save my team.
 * Nomad: They weren't your team! They died anyway! You going back made sure of that. You blew your cover! If you'd left when we told you to, Parker would've followed you, we'd have caught him and Bailey and Yang might be alive!
 * Stone: I should've just listened to the Heart?!
 * Nomad: Yes. The Charter exists for one reason. To maximize lives. That's the only moral metric there is. And it's a calculation. A pure and objective calculation.
 * Stone: Made for us by a machine.
 * Nomad: Have you forgotten how radical this is? It doesn't mean that what we do is easy or feels nice. you'll have the voices of those people in your head for the rest of your life. And you will never not feel responsible for them ever. But the end justifies the means.
 * Stone: I spent every day with Parker for a year and didn't see it coming.
 * Nomad: No. Neither did the Heart.
 * Stone: So, what do we do now?
 * Nomad: I'm... gonna make some tough choices, and this is the first one. I'm standing you down, Rachel. Go home. Get some rest. Keep your head down. Don't do anything stupid.
 * Stone: You can't do this.
 * Nomad: You're compromised. Parker knows you. Dhawan knows you. And the other, quite Kings... don't know if you can be trusted.
 * Stone: And you?
 * Nomad: I want to protect what we've spent 20 years trying to build.
 * Stone: So, I'm just out.
 * Nomad: It's about the greater good. it's nothing personal.
 * Stone: No. I'm starting to see that.


 * [Stone is riding a city bus and Keya calls a man's cellphone in front of her and a bus electronic screen reads; Still wanna play?]
 * Keya: Stone?
 * Bus rider man: Wrong number.
 * Stone: Wait. [She snatches phone from man] It's for me.
 * Bus rider man: That's my phone. I--
 * Keya: So, why is a Charter agent riding around all alone, just hours after being poisoned? Doesn't feel like they're taking care of their most valuable player.
 * Stone: Wait, do you want?
 * Keya: Don't be a sore loser. I bet you used to think we were so alike. Now you know I'm better.
 * Stone: Better? You killed my friends.
 * Keya: What?
 * Stone: You didn't know huh? Well, I told you this wasn't a game, Keya. Heart or no heart, I'm coming for you.
 * [Stone gives phone back to man and gets off bus]


 * [Nomad is meeting with all Charter kings at an opera house]
 * King of Clubs: All four kings in the same room. How long has it been, three years?
 * King of Diamonds: Not long enough.
 * King of Spades: So, who is this Parker, and how did we miss him?
 * Nomad: Career intelligence agent. Born in Belfast, lives alone. He has no one to care for.
 * King of Diamonds: There's nothing much to live for. He has devoted his life to a country that sees him as expendable.
 * King of Spades: Okay. We get it. All that is fuel for the fire. But it won't burn without a spark.
 * King of Diamonds: I was getting to that. I had to lean extremely hard on some very old friends for this. Chechnya, December 2015.
 * Nomad: What's this?
 * King of Spades: It was before your time. Before the Heart, for that matter. A Chechen warlord was given free rein by the Chechen and Russian governments. the West, as always, was looking the other way.
 * King of Diamonds: He was wiping out whole villages, trying to stamp out dissent.
 * Nomad: But... what's this got to do with Parker?
 * King of Diamonds: He was there. Different identity. No electronic records. But he was there, with MI6, delivering weapons to take the warlord out. Intelligence came through from MI6 that their entire team had been executed. We thought there was no one left to save.
 * King of Clubs: The region was a tinderbox, on the verge of civil war.
 * King of Diamonds: We had a drone that was stationed overhead armed with missiles.
 * King of Clubs: I gave the order myself.
 * King of Diamonds: We made it look like the rebel force had ordered the drone strike. MI6 buried their mistake. No report, no investigation. No record of the personnel who had been involved. We thought everyone had died. Until a few hours ago.
 * Nomad: What a mess.
 * King of Spades: So, you think... he knows it was us?
 * King of Diamonds: I think it's a safe assumption. And now he wants to destroy the Charter.


 * [Keya is riding in a truck with Parker in Senegal]
 * Keya: You killed Bailey and Yang? That wasn't the plan.
 * Parker: You stick to the tech and leave strategy to me, okay? Let me remind you, we're partners, okay? So if you want me to do my job, you have to tell me what you're doing before you do it. Let me remind you, the Charter doesn't give two shits about people like Bailey and Yang. So, if you want us to succeed, you shouldn't either.


 * [Parker and Keya walk into aviation hanger]
 * Parker: You ever done this before? Choppered in at 40,000 feet? Trick question. No one has.
 * Helicopter pilot: But my mama always said; I can do anything.
 * Parker: How long do we have before the Locker descends?
 * Keya: Eleven hours and seven minutes. At which point, the Charter will realise what's going on. It'll take nine minutes and 26 seconds for the Locker to drop 40,000 feet. We''ll have eight minutes to get in, take the Heart, and get out again before they regain control.
 * Helicopter pilot: Very precise. You're sure?
 * Keya: No. I'll be sure when it descends. If they found my code, it won't descend, they'll be waiting for us, and we'll all die.


 * [Stone is freefalling towards the airship]
 * Jack of Hearts: We have a something approaching fast. A something? Thirty seconds out.
 * Nomad: What is it?
 * Jack of Hearts: I think-- I think it's a someone.
 * Nomad: Who is that? Go in closer?
 * Jack of Hearts: Is that...?
 * Nomad: It's Stone!


 * Helicopter pilot: I have to descend. Lower the rotor speed. Copy that. See you in seven minutes.
 * Nomad: [Stone appears to have difficulty landing on the airship, going under] She's not gonna make it.
 * Parker: [Stone maneuvers upwards and succeeds in landing on top of the airship and Parker has spotted her] Look who it is. I'm gonna need a minute [Draws a handgun and Keya thwarts him]
 * Keya: No! The ship's lining is filled with hydrogen, one spark and we're all dead!
 * Jack of Hearts: No way to get ahold of her.
 * Nomad: Come on, Rachel, come on.
 * Stone: [Stone walks up airship structural beam] It's over Keya.
 * Keya: For who?
 * Parker: I told you not to get out of the van.
 * Stone: You also told me to have some fun.
 * Jack of Hearts: It's gone.
 * Keya: Now you answer to me.
 * Jack of Hearts: We have lost the Heart.
 * Nomad: Not yet.
 * Keya: Parker. Ninety seconds. Let's go.
 * Parker: [Parker has caused Stone to lose footing on airship structural beam and Stone has torn her parachute hanging off it] Shame about your parachute. You'll be needing that.
 * [The airship is imploding and Parker and Keya have secured a rope from a helicopter and Stone successfully jumps ahold of the rope and she successfully separates Keya from Parker's helicopter rope by cutting it]
 * Parker: Get after them.
 * Helicopter pilot: Impossible. We'll be lucky to get to base as it is.
 * Keya: [Keya and Stone are in free fall with airship debris raining down on them and Stone is trying to get ahold of Keya] Get away! Leave me alone! [Debris burns a hole in the parachute so they both land hard in the Senegalese Lompoul desert]


 * Keya: [Stone wakes up with Keya standing over with a gun] Morning sunshine.
 * Stone: Give me that thing before somebody gets-- [Keya discharges the gun over Stone's head as an I'm-serious-don't-fuck-around-with-me-shot]
 * Keya: I don't think so. So, here's what's going to happen. You're going to secret agent our way back to civilization, and I'm going to follow you three steps behind you with this gun. [Stone throws a handful of sand into Keya's face and hijacks the gun]
 * Stone: Where's the Heart?
 * Keya: Parker has it. But I encrypted it to my biometrics so it's useless without me. Come on, get up.
 * Stone: If I shoot you now, it's all over. Show you the same mercy you showed Bailey and Yang.
 * Keya: It's the logical play, Rachel. It's cause the Heart would tell you what to do that.
 * Stone: I'm not like you. On your feet. We need to keep moving. So, what's the plan, Keya? Trying to get even with Liam Kharche for kicking you out of the penthouse?
 * Keya: Right. You think you know everything. I bet the Heart told you that he adopted me, lifted me out of nothing. But did it tell you why? Kharche used my parents like lab rats in a medical trial, and it killed them. He covered everything up and took me in thinking he was doing me a favor, but I let him think that because I knew one day, I'd be strong enough to make him pay for what he did to my parents.
 * Stone: So, you get to tear the whole world down?
 * Keya: Oh, this is not just for me. It's for people like me. Parker's going to destroy the Charter. I've got my whole naughty list, and we're going to expose them all.
 * Stone: With no thought of what comes next. You're a child.
 * Keya: And you think the Charter's any better? Just because they saved you doesn't make them any good. You think I didn't look into you? How many schools did you get kicked out of? Seven? Eight? Always a rebel. Always a problem. Violent, alone, helpless.
 * Stone: Stop.
 * Keya: Until the Charter comes along, right? And gives you that discipline you so clearly crave. But did they take you in because you were good? Or because you were broken?
 * Stone: Enough. Maybe I was broken. But there's a woman I know only as Nomad. She rescued me, trained me, showed me what's possible when there's someone watching your back.
 * Keya: Where is she now?
 * Stone: Let's go. Parker's coming for you and I wanna have a bigger gun when he shows up.
 * Keya: [Keya has spotted someone in the distance] They're headed for us. Maybe it's Parker.
 * Keya: It's definitely not the Charter. Mercenaries? Okay, let's just, um, give them a good cover story. They'll keep us alive for ransom. We'll reel them in and then bam. Just to be clear, the "bam" is for you to take them out. Yeah, I get that.
 * [The pickup stops at them and the female driver speaks her language] Who are you? And what the hell are you doing out here? Need a ride?
 * Stone: You're an angel. [Radio song lyrics: Zombie no go go unless you tell 'em to go, Zombie no go stop unless you tell 'em to stop, Zombie no go turn unless you tell 'em to turn, Zombie no go think unless you tell 'em to think]
 * Stone: You know, the Charter can take down Kharche. Parker's way isn't the only way. [Speaks in truck driver's language: How can we repay you?]
 * Truck driver: You already have. [Gunman open fire on the truck and Keya grabs a gun]
 * Stone: [To Keya] Come with me. [Stone evades gunman by running through village and jumping off a seacliff]
 * Blond: She got away. That wasn't the deal.
 * Truck driver: Killing wasn't the deal either. You have to pay me now.
 * Blond: The deal changed. [Blond shoots her]


 * Parker: Nice trick you pulled with that facial recognition yesterday. Trying to put a lock on our new toy.
 * Keya: Would you come back for me if I hadn't?
 * Parker: We're a team, Keya. Don't do it again.


 * Parker: Is this your naughty list?
 * Keya: Emails, texts, bank accounts. The Heart's using my algorithm to sort through it all.
 * Parker: So, we find anyone? Gain access to anything?
 * Keya: Greatest skeleton key in the world.
 * Parker: Show me.
 * Keya: There it is. Evidence of Kharche's years of experiments on innocents across the country. That's the truth... for the world to see. That's impressive. But let's see what else this thing can do. [To a woman on his left] Find me the Kings.
 * Keya: What are you doing?
 * Woman: Nancy Morrison. King of Diamonds. Ex-CIA. The Heart tells us she's heading to a safe house with her family. [Screen shows her entering an elevator with family in a high-rise in a North-Eastern American city]
 * Parker: Drop the lift. [Elevator goes in free-fall with Nancy looking up to security camera like; are-you-fucking-kidding-me?]
 * Keya: [Keya runs over to woman objecting] Are you serious? No. Do--
 * Woman: You're welcome. Hang on. I have another one. I think you're gonna like this one, boss. An unidentified military plane landed at a private airfield 33 minutes ago. There. Jiang Hsu. Served 35 years in Chinese State Security Service. The King of Clubs is here in Iceland.
 * Parker: Even better. Where is he now?


 * Keya: There were other people in that elevator. In that lobby.
 * Parker: Calm down, Keya.
 * Keya: You said we were going to expose Kharche and then the Charter, not murder them.
 * Woman: The King of Hearts with her team. They're in a bunker outside of London.
 * Parker: Good. Take them out.


 * Jiang: We're approaching now. We'll see you on the other side.
 * Nomad: You're going in with them?
 * Jiang: I ordered the strike on Parker. It's only fair. You know... I would have made the same call in Chechnya.
 * Nomad: Thanks. The right-- I've lost contact. The Heart's online.
 * Jack of Spades: No, no, no, no. We're locked in. Oh God, they've shut off our ventilation system. No, no, no, no.
 * Nomad: Jack, how long we got? At this rate, an hour and we're out of oxygen.
 * Parker: The Charter never worries about who gets in their way. Neither will we. King of Hearts is locked in. They'll be dead in an hour.


 * Keya: You have to stop this, please.
 * Parker: Someone has to control the power, Keya. Why not us?
 * Keya: This is not what we agreed.
 * Parker: You're still not seeing the bigger picture. This isn't about some pissy disagreement you had with the bad man who killed your mom and dad. This is about power. Concentrated in the hands of the few, of the very few who could use it for good, who could actually make but they don't. At this moment, we are mining trillions of pieces of data. In a matter of hours, I will be able to take down the remaining members of the Charter. We've been used and manipulated our whole lives. Now it's time for us to take control.


 * Keya: What... what are you doing?
 * Parker: You wanna know how great men get power, Keya? It's not because they earn it, or they deserve it, it is because when the moment comes, they take it.

<hr width="50%"/>
 * Nomad: Stone, thank god, where are you?
 * Stone: Clubs are dead. University was a trap. I have new intel. A new location.
 * Nomad: We've-- We've lost Clubs? What new Intel?
 * Stone: Keya. She shut down the Heart.
 * Nomad: How do you know she's not playing you?
 * Stone: I don't.
 * Nomad: We're gonna die in less than an hour. They shut down our air supply.
 * Stone: What?
 * Nomad: She shut down our air supply.
 * Stone: Parker did. I believe her, Nomad. I'd be dead too if I hadn't listened to her. I trust her, and you need to trust me.
 * Nomad: Fifty minutes.
 * Stone: I can work with that.
 * Nomad: I'll see you. You too.

<hr width="50%"/>
 * Jack: [Gets in van holding cup of coffee] Um, they were out of oat milk.
 * Rachel: Jack.
 * Jack: What? You told me to blend in.
 * Rachel: Did we get into the power grid?
 * Keya: Yeah, it wasn't that hard, because their password was "password". [Rachel chuckles]
 * Jack: [Hands cup] Your coffee.
 * Keya: [Takes cup] Thank you. [Takes sip of coffee] Um, this is cold.
 * Jack: You know we can still throw you in jail?
 * Rachel: Hey, stay in the van. [Gets out]
 * Keya: Go give them the bam. [Presses button]
 * Rachel: Always [Street lamps shoot sparks in town square in Christmas celebration entertaining revelers]

Cast

 * Gal Gadot - Rachel "Nine of Hearts" Stone
 * Jamie Dornan - Parker
 * Sophie Okonedo - Nomad / "King of Hearts"
 * Matthias Schweighöfer - "Jack of Hearts"
 * Paul Ready - Bailey
 * Jing Lusi - Yang
 * BD Wong - "King of Clubs"
 * Alia Bhatt - Keya Dhawan
 * Archie Madekwe - Ivo
 * Enzo Cilenti - Mulvaney
 * Jon Kortajarena - the Blond
 * Glenn Close - "King of Diamonds"
 * Mark Ivanir - "King of Spades"