In the Line of Fire

Synopsis: Frank Horrigan is a secret service agent who keeps thinking back to November 22, 1963, when, as a hand-picked agent by President Kennedy, he became one of the few agents to have lost a President to an assassin when Kennedy died. Now, former CIA assassin Mitch Leary is stalking the current President, who is running for re-election. Mitch has spent long hours studying Horrigan, and he taunts Horrigan, telling him of his plans to kill the President. Leary plans to kill the president because Leary feels betrayed by the government -- Leary was removed from the CIA, and the CIA is now trying to have him killed. After talking to Leary, Horrigan makes sure he is assigned to presidential protection duty, working with fellow secret service agent Lilly Raines. Horrigan has no intention of failing his President this time around, and he's more than willing to take a bullet. White House Chief of Staff Harry Sargent refuses to alter the President's itinerary, while Horrigan's boss, Secret Service Dir
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama
Director(s): Wolfgang Petersen
Production: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
  Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 2 wins & 13 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.2
Metacritic:
74
Rotten Tomatoes:
96%
R
Year:
1993
128 min
1,973 Views


Oh, my God!

Frank, thank God! I'm dead.

I'm dead.

Frank, I'm sorry. I got lost.

This town is so confusing.

What a day.

My wife had to work early.

My kid was crying when I took him to

school. He hated to leave Chicago.

- It broke my heart, Frank.

- Any more excuses?

- No.

- Good. In the future be punctual.

- You got it?

- I'm sorry. It won't happen again.

- Frank, how are you doing?

- It's good to see you again.

- Hi, Marty. Sorry we're late.

- Al, go help Jimmy and Raul.

Yeah, sure. This is his.

- You don't trust me?

- I live in a crappy neighbourhood.

- Have you got that funny money?

- Yeah. Right here.

It looks good. It looks real good.

- We're in business.

- Excellent.

There's just one problem.

This guy Al...

He keeps asking all these questions

about my counterfeiter.

My instinct usually tells me

when something's wrong.

And there's something wrong.

So I had him followed.

He's a Secret Service agent, Frank.

- What do you think I ought to do?

- Be sure the body doesn't wash up.

I want you to pop him for me, okay?

- I think maybe you're with him.

- You came to me, remember?

- So pop him. Show me I'm an a**hole.

- I'm just a businessman.

So pop him...

and let's do some business.

Yes, that's what I'm looking for.

Come on, let's go get an omelette.

Let me get my pistol.

My gun?

You're under arrest.

You're under arrest, too.

Secret Service.

You knew from the weight

of the gun that it was empty, right?

There could have been

one bullet there.

Do you think we can go someplace

and talk about this?

- Doesn't killing guys get to you?

- It gets to you.

I don't like this undercover stuff.

I was so scared.

I joined the Secret Service...

...to protect people.

You like the idea of

throwing yourself in front of a gun?

Hoping you get hit instead of

the guy you're protecting?

I don't know. Maybe I'm...

- Maybe I'm just wrong for the job.

- You're a good man, Al.

- You'll make a good agent.

- How do you know?

I know things about people.

- Come on, let's eat.

- I've got to go home to my family.

A lot of guys warned me

you were a pain in the ass.

- I'll see you in the office.

- Damn! The office.

- Monroe wants us to check this out.

- I'll take care of it.

- I'll go with you.

- No. Go hug your wife and kid.

I was not snooping,

but the smoke alarm was going off.

I got scared.

I got more scared

when I saw what was inside.

The smoke was from crumbs

in the oven he left on.

I love the United States.

I've been to the White House.

Only in the United States can just

anybody go to visit the President.

So when I saw this,

these killing things...

...I called the police.

They called the Secret Service.

That was two days ago.

The President gets 1,400 threats

a year. We've got to check them all.

- You say his name's McCauley?

- No, McCrawley, from Denver.

I remember it like yesterday.

I cried and cried.

Joseph McCrawley, Denver.

Died 30 years ago, age 11.

Your guy is using his ID.

Thanks, Jack.

Federal Agents. Open up!

Oh, my God! That's you.

- Yeah?

- Frank Horrigan?

- Yeah?

- The Secret Service agent?

- Yeah. What did I win?

- My God, it's really you?

- Who the hell is this?

- That was you in my apartment.

- McCrawley?

- Why not call me Booth?

- Why not Oswald?

- Booth had flair and panache.

The leap to the stage

after he shot Lincoln.

- Where are you?

- Closer than you'd imagine.

It's very ex citing to talk to you.

I feel like I know you.

I've read about you and seen photos.

You were JFK's favourite agent.

But that was a long time ago.

What keeps you going?

Let's get together and talk.

I think the less you know about me,

the better.

- I'm planning to kill the President.

- You shouldn't have said that.

Threatening the President is a federal

offence, even if you don't mean it.

I mean it.

One need only be willing to trade

one's own life for the President's.

- That's right.

- I'm willing.

Going up against you raises

the game to a much higher level.

Fate has brought us together, Frank.

- I just can't get over the irony.

- What irony?

Your intimate involvement with

the assassinations of two presidents.

Hang on a second.

I've got something on the stove.

He was a tenant for three weeks.

What's really weird is the other

tenants never really saw him.

Statements vary.

He was between 5'8"and 6'2".

Between 165 and 180 pounds.

- Age?

- Between 28 and 45.

Before an election, panic is what

you've got on a good day.

- They're waiting for you.

- Hey, Frank.

- Sam.

- It's been a long time.

- I hear the new director isn't much fun.

- I've been the director for two years.

Al D'Andrea.

You know Matt Wilder.

He still owes me $20

from Super Bowl 21.

This is agent-in-charge Bill Watts

and Lilly Raines.

- She's very pretty for a secretary.

- And you're very old for an agent.

Lilly's an agent.

I just wanted to see

if she had a sense of humour.

Have a seat.

Let's talk about this guy.

I guess we're calling him Booth for now.

- What do you know about him?

- He's dangerous.

- How do you know?

- I know things about people.

Why didn't you take steps

to know more that first night?

- We had a busy day.

- Too busy to investigate properly?

- A 10-minute search of his room?

- I didn't have a warrant.

- Given your reputation...

- What reputation is that?

- Let's get back on track.

- What are you referring to?

Am I paranoid,

or is he busting my balls?

Probably a little of both.

Bill, there was a time around here

when I was almost as arrogant as you.

I don't have time for this. I've got

to pull 75 agents out of Miami.

Keep me posted, Sam, will you?

- So what do we do with this guy?

- We keep investigating.

- Tap my phone.

- Will he call again?

- He'll call. He's got panache.

- Panache?

- Yes, it means flamboyance.

- I know what it means.

- Really? I had to look it up.

- All right, we'll tap your phone.

By the way, Watts isn't nearly

as arrogant as you were.

Just what reputation was Watts

referring to, Sam?

You know.

Am I considered a borderline burn-out

with questionable social skills?

What do you want to talk to me

about, besides your reputation?

I want to be assigned

to the President.

Protection? After all these years?

Frank, you're a dinosaur.

- This guy's gonna make a try.

- Watts will fight me all the way.

You owe it to me.

- I've kept you in a job.

- I've got to come back.

Do you really want

to stand post again? At your age?

Yeah, I've got at least

one pair of good shoes somewhere.

We're stopping.

Traveller wants to work the ropes.

The French President's coming.

Get a security man up here.

Damn it! Get back.

- What's going on here?

- Horrigan had a heart attack.

- Hey, are you okay?

- Get the hell out of here.

- What's going on?

- I had a call about a cardiac case.

- Are you all right, Frank?

- I'm on my break here.

I get it, you bastards.

Who's the wise guy?

Okay, everybody, back to work.

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Jeff Maguire

Jeff Maguire (born 1952) is an American screenwriter.Regarded for his talent for writing sports films, Jeff Maguire got his first screenwriting break with his script Escape to Victory, a film about soccer directed by John Huston in 1981. His most recent contribution is Gridiron Gang, released in 2006. Maguire's most famous film is In the Line of Fire starring Clint Eastwood and directed by Wolfgang Petersen, for which he received a Best Original Screenplay Oscar nomination for 1993. In 1990 Maguire was approached by producer Jeff Apple to develop his Secret Service agent concept into a film treatment. Maguire was in debt to his relatives and about to have his utilities turned off when his script based on Apple's concept, "In the Line of Fire," went into a bidding war between Tom Cruise, Sean Connery, and Clint Eastwood. When he received a call from Eastwood congratulating him on the completed deal (over $1,000,000.00) Jeff's wife reportedly had to return a dress so they could afford to go out to dinner to celebrate. Prior to this, various moguls had rejected and almost destroyed the story. Dustin Hoffman cleverly added the hero's guilt over failing to save JFK, then exited; Tom Cruise's people demanded this be deleted, because a 28-year-old hero would not have been around for JFK. The dead-broke writer spurned about $100,000 from Cruise, but wound up with Clint Eastwood and about $1,000,000.Jeff Maguire is a graduate of Hampshire College, Amherst, Massachusetts. Raised in Greenwich, Connecticut, Maguire was once a railroad worker, a waiter, and a volunteer counselor with Mother Teresa's group, Missionaries of Charity, in the Pico-Union section of downtown Los Angeles, working primarily with Hispanic gangs. In the 1980s and 90s, he also frequented the famous Manhattan Beach, California video store Video Archives, where future filmmakers Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary were clerks. Today, Jeff Maguire is a follower of Meher Baba and has contributed to the Meher Baba journal, Glow International.Jeff Maguire appears in In the Line of Fire briefly as a secret service officer running alongside the president's limousine. more…

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