Sin City Quotations

Sin City is a 2005 neo-noir film about the ultra-violent denizens of Basin City.

Directed by Robert Rodriguez (Frank Miller is credited as Co-Director, and Quentin Tarantino as Special Guest Director). Based on Frank Miller's graphic novels of the same name.

Dwight

You shut the hell up, Jackie Boy. You're dead. I'm just imagining this, so shut the hell up.

Dozens of them, armed to the teeth. I'm outnumbered, outgunned... but the alley is crooked, dark, and very narrow. They can't surround me. Sometimes you can beat the odds by a careful choice of where to fight...Where to fight counts for a lot, but there's nothing like having your friends show up with lots of guns.

Most people think Marv is crazy. He just had the rotten luck of being born in the wrong century. He'd be right at home on some ancient battlefield swinging an axe into somebody's face. Or in a Roman arena, taking his sword to other gladiators like him. They would've tossed him girls like Nancy back then.

I'm Shellie's new boyfriend, and I'm out of my mind. If you so much as talk to her or even think her name, I'll cut you in ways that'll make you useless to a woman.

You made a big mistake yourself...you didn't flush.

A hardtop with a decent engine. And make sure it's got a big trunk.

It's time to prove to your friends that you're worth a damn. Sometimes that means dying, sometimes it means killing a whole lot of people.

I let him know I'm not fooling around.

She doesn't quite chop his head off. She makes a Pez dispenser out of him.

Sure, he's an asshole. Sure he's dead. Sure, I'm just imagining that he's talking. That doesn't stop the bastard from being absolutely right.

I don't have a chance in hell of outrunning this cop. Not in this heap. The only question left is whether I'm gonna kill him or not. Tough call. For all I know, he's an honest cop, regular guy. Working stiff with a mortgage, a wife and a pile of kids.

Little Miho, you're an angel, you're a saint, you're Mother Teresa, you're Elvis. You're God. And if you'd gotten here about ten minutes sooner, we'd still have Jackie-Boy's head.

The girls all know the score. No escape. No surrender. No mercy. We got to kill every last rat bastard one of them, every last one. Not for revenge. Not because they deserve it. not because it'll make the world a better place. We need a heap of bloody bodies so when the mob boss, Wallenquist, looks over his charts of profits and losses, he'll see what it cost him to mess with the girls of Old Town. The valkyrie at my side is shouting and laughing with the pure, hateful, bloodthirsty joy of the slaughter. And so am I. The fire, baby. It'll burn us both. There's no place in this world for our kind of fire. My warrior woman. My valkyrie. You'll always be mine. Always. And never.

Miho, I hope to hell ya left one of them alive enough to talk.

Just look at that trunk. We'll never fit them all in.

Hartigan

Hell of a way to end a partnership. Hell of a way to start my retirement.

[While police brutally try to blackmail him] This is just a price I promised myself I'd pay, now I'm paying it. You don't save a little girl's life and then turn around and throw her to the dogs. Not by my books. They want a confession? They won't get it.

I take his weapons away from him. Both of them.

Things go dark. I don't mind much. It's okay. She'll be safe. An old man dies. A little girl lives. Fair trade.

Skinny little Nancy Callaghan. She grew up. She filled out.

[after being shot several times] I'm doing fine, Bob. Never better...ready to kick your ass.

When it comes to reassuring a traumatized 19-year-old, I'm about as expert as a palsy victim doing brain surgery with a pipe wrench.

There's wrong and there's wrong and there's this.

Let go of my coat, Bob.

This guy smells awful. Like bad food. Like a corpse left in a garbage dumpster in the middle of summer, he stinks so bad I want to throw up.

Just one hour to go. My last day on the job. Not my idea. Doctor's orders; heart condition. Angina, he calls it. I'm polishing my badge and getting myself used to the idea of saying goodbye to it. It and the thirty odd years of protecting and serving and...blood and terror and triumph it represents. I think about Eileen's slow smile, about the thick fat steaks she picked up from the butcher's today. I think about the one loose end I haven't tied up. A young girl who's out there, somewhere, helpless in the hands of a drooling lunatic.

An old man dies, a young woman lives. Fair trade.

Marv

You can scream now if you want.

[During his execution] Will you get a move on, I haven't got all night.

Lucille's my parole officer. She's a dyke, but God knows why. With that body of hers she could have any man she wants.

I'm on my feet for about ten minutes before the cops kick them out from under me. They don't ask me any questions. They just keep knocking the crap out of me and waving a confession in my face. And I keep spitting blood all over it and laughing at how many fresh copies they come up with. Then along comes this worm assistant district attorney who turns the recorder off and says if I don't sign their confession, they'll kill my mom. I break his arm in three places and I sign it.

He never screams. Not even when the mutt's had its fill. Kevin's guts are lying all over the place and somehow the bastard is still alive still staring at me. Not even when I grab the saw and finish the job, he never screams.

I've been framed for murder and the cops are in on it. But the real enemy, the son of a bitch who killed the angel lying next to me, he's out there somewhere, out of sight, the big missing piece that'll give me how and the why and a face and a name and a soul to send screaming into hell.

Guess when I shot you in the belly, I aimed a little too high. [Shoots him in the crotch]

The night is hot as hell. I'm in a lousy room in a lousy part of a lousy town. I'm staring at a goddess, she's telling me she wants me. I'm not going to waste one more second wondering how I've gotten so lucky...She smells like angels oughta smell. The perfect woman. The goddess.

I don't know about you, but I'm having a ball.[while dragging a man across the road by his face with a car]

Walk down the right back alley in Sin City and you can find anything...

I'll stare the bastard in the face as he screams to God, and I'll laugh harder when he whimpers like a baby. And when his eyes go dead, the hell I send him to will seem like heaven after what I've done to him.

That there is one damn fine coat you're wearin'. [repeated on several occasions]

Aww, Jerks! They should've shot me in the head...and enough times to make sure.

I love hitmen. No matter what you do to them, you don't feel bad.

This is blood for blood, and by the gallons! This is the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days! They're back!

When I need to find something out, I just go out and find somebody that knows more than me, and I go and I ask them. Sometimes I ask pretty hard.

Worth dying for. [gunshot] Worth killing for. [gunshot] Worth going to hell for. [final gunshot] Amen. [said while shooting the priest in a church]

Modern cars — they all look like electric shavers.

When you got a condition, it's bad to forget your medicine.

I was pretty steamed about what he had done to Lucille, so I took my time with that son of a bitch. It wasn't until I showed him all of those pieces of himself that he gave me a name.

Patrick Henry Roark. A man of the cloth. Could've become president but chose to serve God, and along the way just happened to become one of the most powerful men in the state. He's brought down mayors and govenors like they were nothin'. Even made his rotten brother a US senator. And now here he's gonna die in the name of a dead hooker. More and more I like the sound of it.

Then it hits me like a kick in the nuts: What if I'm wrong? I've got a condition. I get confused sometimes. What if I've imagined all this? What if I've finally turned into what they've always said I'd turn into? A maniac. A psycho killer.

Can't kill a man unless you know for sure you ought to.

I know it's pretty damn weird to eat people.

I got 'em good for you, didn't I, Goldie?

[Last words] Is that the best you can do, you pansies?

Hell's waking up every goddamn day and not even knowing why you're here.

Shellie

Jackie-Boy, it's a regular African love-fest in here. I got me all five starters and half the bench of the Basin City Blues keeping me company. You feel like taking them on?

Shut up and keep your hands to yourself or I'll cut your little pecker off!

Wish you coulda dropped by earlier, Jackie-Boy. You coulda met my new boyfriend. Coulda seen what a real man looks like.

Nancy

And here I thought you'd forgotten all about me. Me and my dumb letters.
Let me stay close. Nothing can happen to me when I'm with you. Please? Let me stay close.
It's always been you, Hartigan. All these years.
I didn't scream, Hartigan. Not once. I didn't scream

Jackie-boy

I know you're angry, baby. And I forgive you for that without you even asking me to.
It's one thing for you to play hard to get... but don't go trying to cut my nuts off.
I've had a hell of a day. I been beat up every time I turn around. But the day I get turned down by a whore when I got good cash money to pay her with... well, there's only so much a man can take.
[after getting slashed by Miho] Out of nowhere... without any reason!
Nobody ever really quits. A smoker's a smoker when the chips are down. And your chips are down.
You're makin' a big mistake, man... a big mistake.
Those hookers let you down!

Gail

I tied those knots — that's my specialty!
Yeesh.
He's dead. He's just too damn dumb to know it.
We got guns. We'll fight the cops, and the mob, and anybody who tries to move in on us. We'll go to war!
You stupid little bitch!
Your precious scrawny little neck.[said before tearing a piece of skin off Becky's neck with her teeth.]
My man will find a way. He always finds a way.

Becky

It's not a woman you need, it's a good night's sleep. You couldn't handle a woman in the state you're in.
Aw, sugar, you just gone and done the dumbest thing in your whole life.
I didn't have no choice. They were gonna hurt my mom.
You could've ripped my throat out, you crazy whore!

Others

Wendy: Kill him for me, Marv. Kill him good.

The Salesman: Turn the right corner in Sin City and you can find anything

The Salesman: Care for a smoke? [repeated line]

Brian: I coulda put a bullet in your ear just now, laddy, if I hadn't gone off and got me revolver all wet and useless.

Brian: Better come clean with ya now, sweetheart. That was an outright lie I was giving ya about my revolver.

Junior: You recognize my voice, Hartigan? You recognize my voice, you piece-of-shit cop? I look different, but I bet you can recognize my voice.

Senator Roark: Power don't come from a badge or a gun. Power comes from lying. Lying big and gettin' the whole damn world to play along with you. Once you've got everybody agreeing with what they know in their hearts ain't true, you've got 'em by the balls.

Senator Roark: Everyone would lie for me. Everyone who counts. Otherwise, their own lies — everything that runs Sin City — it all comes tumbling down like a pack of cards.

Dialogue

The Salesman: [voiceover] She shivers in the wind like the last leaf on a dying tree. I let her hear my footsteps, she only goes stiff for a moment.

The Salesman: Care for a smoke?"

The Customer: Sure, I'll take one. Are you as bored by that crowd as I am?

The Salesman: I didn't come here for the party, I came here for you. I've watched you for days, you're everything a man could ever want. It's not just your face, your figure, your voice. It's your eyes, all the things I see in your eyes.

The Customer: What is it you see in my eyes?

The Salesman: I see a crazy calm. You're sick of running, you're ready to face what you have to face but you don't want to face it alone.

The Customer: No, I don't want to face it alone.

The Salesman: [voiceover] The wind rises electric. She's soft and warm and almost weightless. Her perfume with sweet promise that brings tears to my eyes. I tell her that everything will be alright. That I'll save her from whatever she's scared of and take her far far away. I tell her I love her. [gunshot] The silencer makes a whisper of the gunshot. I hold her close until she's gone, I will never know what she was running from. I'll cash her check in the morning.

Cardinal Roark: Will that bring you satisfaction, my son? Killing a helpless, old, fart.

Marv: Killing? No. No satisfaction. Everything up until the killing, will be a gas.

Marv: I had to fight some cops.

Lucille: Oh, that's lovely. You didn't happen to kill any of them, did you?

Marv: Not that I know of, but they know they been in a fight, that's for damn sure.

Gail: Those boys in that Chrysler are one mistake away from seeing what Miho can do, and she's been aching for some practice.

Dwight: She guides my glance upwards to the pixy perched on the roof's edge. Deadly little Miho.

Wendy: You sat there and took it... when you could've taken my gun away from me any time you wanted to...

Marv: Sure, but I thought I might be able to talk some sense into you. And I probably would've had to paste you one, getting the gun, and I don't hurt girls.

Marv: Wait a minute. Why'd she call you Wendy?

Wendy: Because that's my name, you ape. Goldie was my sister, my twin sister.

Marv: I guess she was the nice one.

Hartigan: I'm looking for Nancy Callahan?

Shellie: Eyes to the stage, pilgrim. She's just warming up.

Gail: Those four in the Chrysler, are they some of the barmaid's boyfriends?

Dwight: One of them thinks he is. I followed him here to make sure he didn't hurt any of the girls.

Gail: Us helpless little girls.

Marv: There's no settling down. It's going to be blood for blood and by the gallons. It's the old days. The bad days. The all-or-nothing days. They're back. There's no choices left and I'm ready for war.

Lucille: Prison was hell for you, Marv. It'll be life this time.

Marv: Hell? You don't know what hell is. None of you people do. Hell isn't getting beat up or cut up or hauled in front of some faggot jury. Hell is waking up every god damn morning and not knowing why you're even here. Why you're even breathing.

Cast

Mickey Rourke - Marv

Bruce Willis - John Hartigan

Clive Owen - Dwight McCarthy

Benicio del Toro - Det. Jack Rafferty ("Jackie-Boy")

Jessica Alba - Nancy Callahan

Nick Stahl - Yellow Bastard ("Junior")

Brittany Murphy - Shellie

Elijah Wood - Kevin

Jaime King - Goldie (and Wendy)

Rosario Dawson - Gail

Powers Boothe - Senator Roark

Rutger Hauer - Cardinal Roark

Devon Aoki - Miho

Alexis Bledel - Becky

Michael Clarke Duncan - Manute

Josh Hartnett - the Salesman

Michael Madsen - Bob

Frank Miller - the Priest

Quoternity