HBO Max original movie Sin City was released April 1st, 2005.
#SinCity made $158.7M at the international box office.
rottentomatoes: 76%
metacritic: 74
imdb: 8.0
John Hartigan
Hartigan is a 30-year cop in Basin City, USA.
“Just one hour to go. My last day on the job. Early retirement. 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 30-odd years of protecting and serving and tears and blood and terror and triumph it represents.” — John Hartigan
“I’m thinking about Eileen’s slow smile, about the thick, fat steaks she picked up at the butcher’s today. And I’m thinking 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.” — John Hartigan
“Let go of my coat, Bob. Sure, Bob. We’ll just wait, sit on our hands while that Roark brat gets his sick thrills with victim number four. Victim number four– Nancy Callahan, age 11. She’ll be raped and slashed to ribbons. And that backup that we’re waitin’ on will just so happen to show up just late enough for Roark to get back to his U.S. senator daddy.” — John Hartigan
“You got a great attitude, Bob. A real credit to the force you are. Heck, Bob… maybe you are right. Hell of a way to end a partnership. Hell of a way to start my retirement. Nancy Callahan, age 11– for all I know, she’s dead already.” — John Hartigan
“Halfway to the warehouse where Weevil said they took her, and it hits– a wicked spot of indigestion. At least that’s what I pray it is. Burt Schlubb and Douglas Klump– two any-dirty-job-there-is thugs with delusions of eloquence.” — John Hartigan
“Got to keep this quiet, take ’em down fast. Catch your breath. Give your heart time to slow down. But it won’t slow down. Get over it. She needs you. The doctor said it’d be like this. Just take the pill he gave you. No need to play it quiet, not anymore. Breathe steady, old man. Prove you’re not completely useless. What the hell? Go out with a bang. He likes to hear ’em scream. I’ve seen his victims and their twisted little faces, all widemouthed and bug-eyed, frozen in their last horrible moment of living. No screams. Either I’m just in time, or I’m way too late.” — John Hartigan
“It’s nothing. Barely a flesh wound. On your feet, old man. Roark! Give it up. Let the girl go. Sure, I can. Cover your eyes, Nancy. I don’t want you watching this. I mean it, baby. Cover your eyes right now. I take his weapons away. Both of them. Hell of a way to end a partnership. I’m doing fine, Bob. Never better. Ready to kick your ass. Keep him talking. Buy time. Just a few more minutes. Just till the backup gets here.” — John Hartigan
“Keep his mind off the girl– skinny little Nancy. He can’t kill her once the backup gets here. Run home, Nancy. Run for your life. A real tough man you are, huh? You shoot your partner in the back, and then you try to scare a little girl. Maybe I’ll pull my spare rod, plug you a couple times, show you how it’s done. You’re so slow, you’ll never stop me. You’ll never be able to stop me.” — John Hartigan
“I finally sit down, just like you told me to. The sirens are close now. She’ll be safe. Things go dark. I don’t mind much. Getting sleepy. It’s okay. She’ll be safe. An old man dies, a little girl lives– fair trade.” — John Hartigan
Marv
“The night is hot as hell. It’s 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 gonna waste one more second how I’ve gotten so lucky. She smells like angels ought to smell. The perfect woman. The goddess. Goldie. She says her name is Goldie.”
“Three hours later and my head’s feeling several sizes too big and that cold thing happens to my stomach. And I realize Goldie’s dead. Not a mark on her. You’d have to check her pulse to notice those perfect breasts of hers aren’t moving like they would if she was breathing. She was murdered, and I was right here when it happened, lying next to her– stone drunk, just like she was.”
“Damn it, Goldie. Who were you, and who wanted you dead? Who were you besides an angel of mercy, giving a two-time loser like me the night of his life? It sure as hell wasn’t my looks. So why the sleazy saloon? Why the kindness, Goldie?”
“The cops, they’re telling me too much– showing up before anybody but me and the killer could know there’s been a murder. Somebody paid good money for this frame. No reason at all to play it quiet. No reason to play it any way but my way.”
“Whoever killed you is gonna pay, Goldie. I’ll be right out. I don’t know why you died, Goldie. I don’t know why and I don’t know how I never even met you before tonight, but you were a friend and more when I needed one. And when I find out who did it, it won’t be quick and quiet like it was with you. It’ll be loud and nasty– my kind of kill. And when his eyes go dead, the hell I send him to will seem like heaven after what I’ve done to him. I love you, Goldie.”
“Now, don’t worry, Lucille. I was just grazed. You got any beers around this place? No. Thanks. You’re the best. 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. The pills come from her girlfriend who’s a shrink. She tried to analyze me once, but she got too scared.”
“Got in a fight with some cops. Not that I know of. But they know they’ve been in a fight, that’s for damn sure. There ain’t no squaring it, not this time. This isn’t some barroom brawl or some creep with a gas can trying to torch someone. Oh, hey, hey. This is big. Hey, there ain’t no settlin’ down! This is blood for blood, and by the gallons. This is the old days, man, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They’re back! There’s no choices left. And I’m ready for war.”
“Hell’s waking up every goddamn day and not even knowing why you’re here. But I’m out now. It took somebody who was kind to me getting killed to do it, but I’m out. I know exactly what I got to do. So you were scared, weren’t you, Goldie? Somebody wanted you dead, and you knew it. So you hit the saloons, the bad places, looking for the biggest, meanest lug around and finding me.”
“Well, I’m gonna find that son of a bitch that killed you, and I’m gonna give him the hard goodbye. Walk down the right back alley in Sin City…”
The Man
“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. Care for a smoke? 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, or your figure, or your voice. It’s your eyes– all the things I see in your eyes.”
“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 wind rises electric. She’s soft and warm and almost weightless, her perfume a sweet promise that brings tears to my eyes. I tell her that everything will be all right… that I’ll save her from whatever she’s scared of and take her far, far away.”
“I tell her I love her. The silencer makes a whisper of the gunshot. I hold her close until she’s gone. I’ll never know what she was running from. I’ll cash her check in the morning.”
The Customer
“Sure, I’ll take one. Are you as bored by that crowd as I am? What is it you see in my eyes? No, I don’t want to face it alone.”
Basin City, USA
“Damn it, Hartigan. I won’t let you do this. You’re gonna get yourself killed. You’re gonna get us both killed. I won’t let you. I’m warning you. You’re dragging me down with you. I’m your partner. They can kill me too. I ain’t puttin’ up with that. I’m getting on the horn and calling for backup.”
“Take a deep breath, Hartigan. Settle down and think straight. You’re pushin’ 60 and you got a bum ticker. You ain’t savin’ anyone. Eileen’s at home waiting for you. Think about Eileen. I’m glad to hear you’re finally talking sense.”
“You’ve been a very good girl, Nancy. You’ve been very quiet. Don’t be scared. We’re gonna be taking you home really soon. But first, we’re going to introduce you to somebody. He’s a very nice man.”
“I seek only the most light-hearted and momentary digression, the briefest indulgement in automotive pleasure. For cheap thrills. Such short-lived durability, Mr. Shlubb. You would risk endangering ill will on the part of our employers. This Jaguar you so pinheadedly covet, temporarily remanded to our custody it may be, remains the property of the son of Senator Roark. A single dent, the merest scratch thereupon, and the beforementioned consequences of which I so recently made mention shall surely be athwart us.”
“We’re all done here, Benny. Let’s give them some time together, give them some privacy. Be with you in a minute, Lenny. I’m just making sure they get along really well. And what kind of beast couldn’t get along with a precious girl like this? You must be awfully scared now. But you’ve got nothing to be scared of. All we’re gonna do is have a nice little talk. That’s all. Just a nice talk. Just you and me. Don’t you cry now.”
“You can’t do a goddamn thing to me, Hartigan. You know who I am. You know who my father is! You can’t touch me, you piece of shit cop! Look at you. You can’t even lift that cannon you’re carrying. Aah! Aah! Aah!”
“For God’s sakes, don’t make it any worse. Don’t make me kill you. Sit down and stay down. I’ll kill you if I have to. Hey, don’t listen to him. He’s a crazy man. You stay right where you’re at. We could’ve worked something out, but you’ve blown that. Sit down, or I’ll blast you in half. Sit down!”
“I want you. I need you.”
“Open up! Police! Aah!”
“Claire? No way I’m giving you any alcohol. Besides, it’s not what you came here for anyway, is it? Go ahead. You’re worse without ’em. Haven’t seen you like this in a while. Didn’t happen to kill any of them, did you? How do you suppose I’m gonna square this with the board? Settle down, Marv. Take another pill.”
“Prison was hell for you, Marv. It’s gonna be life this time.”
“Leave your hands off Nancy.”
