Ronin (film)

Ronin is a 1998 film action-thriller film about a freelancing former U.S. Intelligence Agent who tries to track down a mysterious package that is wanted by the Irish and the Russians.
 * Directed by John Frankenheimer. Written by J.D. Zeik and David Mamet.

Your ally could become your enemy.taglines

Sam

 * All good things come to those who wait.


 * Either you're part of the problem or you're part of the solution or you're just part of the landscape.

Vincent

 * Everyone's your brother until the rent comes due.


 * No questions. No answers. That's the business we're in. You accept it and move on. Maybe that's lesson number three...

Jean-Pierre

 * At the end of the day we are likely to be punished for our kindnesses.

Dialogue

 * Jean-Pierre: The forty seven Ronin. Do you know it?
 * 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.
 * 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.


 * Sam: You labour or management?
 * Vincent: If I was management, I wouldn't have given you a cigarette.


 * Spence: You ever kill anybody?
 * Sam: Hurt somebody's feelings once.


 * 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.


 * Spence: You worried about saving your own skin?
 * Sam: Yeah, I am. It covers my body.


 * 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?


 * Deirdre: What exactly were you doing back here?
 * Sam: Lady, I never walk into a place I don't know how to walk out of.
 * Deirdre: Then why are you getting into that van?
 * Sam: You know the reason.


 * Vincent: [as Sam is preparing to perform surgery on himself] Sure you can do this?
 * Sam: Yeah, I once removed a guy's appendix with a grapefruit spoon.


 * [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.


 * Spence: [drawing a diagram on the white board - two circles with arrows pointing at each other] Okay. 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 is getting impatient] 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 despite carrying a gun] 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!


 * Gregor: So, what color is the boathouse at Hereford?
 * Sam: How the fuck should I know?

Taglines

 * Your ally could become your enemy.


 * The map is not the territory


 * How do you catch an enemy, When's he's your best friend


 * Loyalty is bought, betrayal is a way of life...


 * Anyone is an enemy for a price.

Cast

 * Robert De Niro - Sam
 * Jean Reno - Vincent
 * Natascha McElhone - Deirdre
 * Stellan Skarsgård - Gregor
 * Sean Bean - Spence
 * Skipp Sudduth - Larry
 * Michael Lonsdale - Jean-Pierre
 * Jonathan Pryce - Seamus O'Rourke
 * Michael Lonsdale - Jean-Pierre
 * Katarina Witt - Natacha Kirilova
 * Féodor Atkine - Mikhi