Original subtitles

Every night a different club. The most gorgeous girls, all models.

Each one hungry for the perfect guy.

Yeah, but guys like us. From Omaha.

Wow. Man, a L .A. woman sees a corn -fed Midwestern boy, it's like catnip.

Wow. Yeah, I should have moved out of here years ago.

You see this tan line?

My convertible.

You see that white thing through the trees?

Yeah. It's the bottom of the Y on the Hollywood sign.

What was that?

The girl next door practicing her kickboxing. Now you should see this

Ass like a Brangus steer.

Yep, L .A.'s crawling with stars.

Everywhere they go, cameras flash, spotlights shoot into the sky.

I mean, they roll out the red carpet for Carrot Top when he goes to the dry

cleaners.

Oh, God!

My head is splitting. I'm going in the back to pick up. Can I work the register

alone? Give Mr. Solonik his check, whatever he pays. It's fine.

Hey, hey, hey, we're in America speaking.

It's the dream to own my own gym.

My name still means something.

In Russian, maybe.

A whiskey dream, but I'll pay back the first one.

Every ruble.

Dollar's only, please.

That's either.

I will pay back every dollar to remind you I'm a man of my word.

And if you see fit, you offer another loan.

So this is the third Western shooting this month, isn't it?

Yeah. The last one was a dying guy missing his fingertips.

Do you know why he was missing his fingertips?

The shooter chopped him off to avoid ID?

That's right.

We had 27 people here at the time of the shooting, but none of them saw

anything. You know why? Must like their fingers.

Make a hell of a detective, Ms. Ortiz.

Ortiz!

What happened, honey?

Broken glass.

Cut her knee.

I got it.

So you're saying you saw nothing?

Nothing.

Lara and I live in back.

We had gone to get some aspirin. Yeah, I think you saw what happened here.

We keep on clearing back. Is that true?

Huh?

Lara?

The broken glass is on the floor. Now don't tell me it flew all the way back

here to cut your knee.

That happened later.

When the shooting started, she wasn't here.

What are you doing?

Get a little girl to do your job for you?

Drag her into court to make her testify?

Whoa, whoa, ma 'am, look, I just want to know what she saw.

I promise no one's going to make your daughter testify. And why should I

you? Well, if it helps any, I believe him. And that's because I know him, and

know that he's a man of his word.

Isn't that right?

Detective?

Um... Lara.

Can you tell us what you saw?

I saw who shot the man.

Right there.

Vadim Solonik shot him.

It was like X -Files or something.

We were there having a coups when bam!

Right out of thin air.

Albert Beecham's body was stolen from a funeral home.

He was, uh...

Already dead?

Oh, man, that's just wrong.

That's why we need you to tell us everything that happened the moment

landed. Think carefully.

Looking for details, Hollywood.

So your husband died of natural causes?

Well, Albert and I were newlyweds, and, well, like a lot of newlyweds.

I understand.

The deceased passed away in flagrante.

No, he died during...

The act of love.

Ma 'am, do you have any idea who might have wanted to steal your husband's

Well, there's one guy, but he'd never... Who?

Well, I used to go out with this guy, Charlie.

He was Albert's best friend. But he was such a wimp, I dumped him and I hooked

up with Albert instead.

So, he's a guy with a grudge. Yeah.

Oh, but he never could have done it.

He's never done a thing in his life.

If he threw himself at the ground, he'd miss.

Okay. Why don't we give him a call and see what he has to say? All right.

You'd think more people would have shown up with all the nice things Albert did.

Well, maybe it's traffic, ma 'am. And after all it is, almost midnight.

And you think it's possible to live a whole life on this earth and then nobody

gives a damn when you're finally dead and gone?

Well, I guess it depends on how you live your life, ma 'am.

There he is. There's Charlie.

Charlie Graham.

I have to talk to you about the disappearance of Albert Beecham. Oh,

talk about. I did it.

I'm the one that stole Albert.

Chan behind your back, Charlie. Huh?

Ten years old. Forget about it.

Look, for six years we've been trying to nail Solomon, right?

Murder, prostitution, fraud, extortion. This kid is the first shot that we've

had to actually put this guy away.

The mother said no testifying. Then change the way she's thinking. Look, she

every reason to say no, all right? She understands that her kid would probably

never live to see a pre -lift. Then I'll arrange protective custody. Oh, yeah,

because that never goes wrong. Look, do you have any better ideas?

It's the Russian mob.

It's not a softball team.

They have a code. The first rule of the code is carry out punishment to all

offending parties, all of them, including 10 -year -olds.

You might sleep like a baby at night, knowing that you put a 10 -year -old

girl's life on the line, but we don't. Great. That's a really nice egalitarian

point of view.

I love the way you can assess all these situations, even though they're a little

tricky. However, my job is to get scum like Thalnick off the street, and while

I'll do my best to protect a witness, if I turn my back on every case out of

fear of what might happen, you'll be able to walk a city block without being

raped, robbed, or murdered.

No one walks in L .A.

Are we keeping you awake, Detective?

You okay, Bobby?

We're going to bring in Vadim. We're going to make our case. But we're going

do it without the girl.

Well, by all means, bring in Vadim.

But I'm going to start the wheels on the protective custody. If you can make a

case without the girl, my hat's off to you. Just bring in Vadim.

Okay. I stole Albert Beecham's body from the funeral home. So you're saying you

broke into the place?

Well, forget all technical.

It's not like it was hard or anything.

You acted alone in there?

Yes, sir. Trust me.

On solo.

You're hauling 185 pounds stiff as Sunday all by yourself.

Hey, I was on the wrestling team in high school. I had it all under control.

Why? Oh, it's a damn cool sport.

Yeah, plus you get to wear a unitard.

No, not why wrestling. Why did you steal Albert?

You had a beef with him?

Oh, no, sir. No, sir, no way. It was nothing like that.

You know what this is, Albert?

This is friendship and dedication.

You ripped my guts out when you stole Darlene because I love that girl. You

my best friend and you stabbed me in the back. So I wanted to hurt you, but I

couldn't do it.

Because you're already dead!

All right, this is it, Al.

Am I going to honor that promise I made to you for so many years, or am I just

going to stew in my own stinky juice of jealousy and fear?

Promise. You mean like a pledge?

Yes, I made a pledge to Albert.

A pledge to dump his remains in a hot tub?

No, no, no. It was supposed to be the ocean. In fact, if there's any part I'd

want to take back, it would definitely be the hot tub part.

The hot tub only happened because I hit the trigger button.

Trigger button.

We got everybody out of a cannon.

Yeah, it just went off, you know.

Wait a minute. This cannon, this is something that you just have laying

the house?

Not exactly. No, I sort of borrowed it from a circus supply store.

But I took it back right away. They never even knew it was missing.

Which brings us back to the beginning. Why?

Why did you shoot your friend's body out of a cannon?

Because every year, Albert made Charlie promise him he'd launch him from a

cannon when he died.

But Charlie...

I thought you were just playing along.

What do you mean?

It was a joke.

It was just Albert's idea of a joke.

Oh, no, no, no, no.

Don't you see, Charlie?

It doesn't matter if it was a joke.

See, Albert didn't think you had it in you to do something like that. But you

did, Charlie.

You shot him from a cannon.

Yes, I did, didn't I?

I really did.

I stood to use the restroom, walked a few feet, heard the gun, turned to see

friend Oleg.

Yeah, and you didn't see the shooter's face, huh?

As I already said, no.

I ran to Oleg, called 911, then went after the man in the alley, but he was

for some time.

It's late, gentlemen. My client has been more than cooperative.

Your client's story is garbage.

We are sorry that you feel that way, but unless you are prepared to charge my

client with some crime... Excuse me.

You didn't have time to change your shirt, Vadim?

Or did you not notice?

The dots.

The little red dots.

Take the shirt off.

Please.

And if those splatters turn out to be blood, detective, my client told you

he was standing over the victim who had been shot in the heart and was

splattering blood into the air.

Brezhnev.

So the prison guards won't shoot you in the back?

Looks like you've had quite a ride.

This is mostly about women, you know.

I'm romantic at heart.

Yeah.

I see you're also a member of Organizazia.

And a known gangster.

Your American obsession with gangsters is amusing.

Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, you make famous for being pretend gangsters.

Tupac Shakur, Suge Knight, you make millionaires for being the real thing.

John Gotti's on the cover of People magazine. Tony Socrano gets a big, shiny

statue, and yet you stand here and say, gangsters, gangsters, mafia,

organizatio. Like it's a bad thing.

Wish I was a gangster.

They have a very big house. Go to Hollywood parties.

Instead, I'm a businessman.

A tired, hungry businessman.

So, uh, if you don't mind, gentlemen, I'm going home.

You're not going anywhere. Sit down.

Sit your ass down.

Lab did a preliminary test. It's blood.

Same as the Vic.

Well, we can send it out for DNA, but that'll take at least a week. What's

Solnick saying?

Well, he's saying that blood sprayed on him when he was helping the guy.

Problem is, this guy is going to be tough to crack.

Problem is, you won't crack him.

We can check the DNA, but that doesn't prove that the blood didn't get there

way he said it did.

The problem is, you squeezed every single witness in the place, and they're

standing behind his story, all except one.

So here's the question you've got to ask yourself.

What's the greater good?

We can leave Solnick on the street. He may or may not harm the girl, but he's

certainly going to kill again. Or we get the girl to testify, put Solnick away,

and then bust our asses to keep her safe. The greater good.

An imperfect system.

That's all we've got.

The girl who walks out of here.

Bob.

I want to talk to Solonik first.

All right, let's talk to him. I want to talk to him alone.

You okay?

Yeah.

Sure, I like being the police.

Did you always want to be the police, even when you were 10?

Well, I don't know about when I was 10.

I don't know if I had a game plan back then. Do you want to come watch with me?

I'm going to stay and talk to your mom, and after that, I'm all over those kids.

Did something happen?

Yeah, well, it's more like what didn't.

You know, we're not going to find another way to get Solonite. There's not

single person who saw the shooting. We haven't come down on hard, and no one is

cracking.

So you want me to sign my own daughter's death warrant?

Is that what you came here to ask?

I'm not asking anything. I just want you to know where we stand, that's all.

Every time I try to explain, she looks at me and says, Mama, you always

said don't be afraid.

You must see she's all I have. I see, Katrina.

I'm just not sure it's me you're trying to convince.

I was 19.

Got pregnant.

Of course, I was going to end the pregnancy like most women in Russia do.

I went to a clinic.

There were dozens of women there.

Many for their third and fourth times.

And they're all talking about their struggles.

The hardness of life that never changes.

But I realized they have no hope.

And that's when I knew.

I would rather die than to live like that.

So I went home, watched my belly grow, and I told the life inside

me that I would do better, that she could have a good life, that she

could have hope, and learn to believe that things would be okay.

If we do this, can you tell me things will be okay?

I won't let anyone harm that little girl.

I can tell you that.

Bye bye.

Had a good day.

Either there was a lot of vodka in there, or he's been drinking.

How have you been?

Wonderful.

The night that you said you didn't want to see me anymore, the very afternoon I

was sleeping in there.

What did you say?

I told you the truth.

I told you no.

I'm not sleeping anymore, actually.

There's a reason people tell lawyer jokes.

I promise, no one is going to make your daughter testify. And why should I

believe you?

Well, if it helps any, I believe him. And that's because I know him, and I

that he's a man of his word.

Isn't that right?

Detective?

We get the girl to testify, put Thalnick away, and then bust our ass to keep her

safe. The greater good.

An imperfect system.

That's all we've got.

The girl you want is out of hand.

Robin.

I want to talk to Salinik first.

All right, let's talk to him. I want to talk to him alone.

So, uh, when do I get my shirt back?

I know about the threat you've been making to Katrina and her daughter.

My lawyer stepped out for a piss.

We'll talk when he's back. No, we're not going to talk.

You're going to listen.

The girl's not cooperating as a witness.

Her mother won't let her.

So I want you to leave them alone.

I appreciate you asking so nicely.

I'm not asking.

We either do this the easy way, you leave them alone, and your case goes

Or you go after them, then I go after you.

That's the hard way.

I spent many years in Russian prison, detective.

Russian prison is not like your prison here.

Russian prison is hard.

Fellow prisoner once told me he will kill my family. Cut out my tongue, eyes,

burn off my skin with acid.

Shut down my business.

He did kill my family.

But I still have my eyes, tongue, skin.

Most important, I'm still in business.

Because I understood the man.

So I was ready.

You see, we Russians don't make threats.

Only promises.

I know why you're here.

I'm going to keep my word this time.

It won't be like last time.

Last time what?

Oh, hey.

I know what you're thinking.

Yeah? Yeah, why am I talking to myself?

Looks a little weird, huh? Yeah, looks a little weird.

I've been thinking about Freak Town a lot lately.

It's like he's just popped into my mind or something.

Freak Town?

I haven't talked about him in a while.

Well, I guess I haven't thought about him much.

I mean, until now.

Man, that guy was such a goofball.

Man. Woo -hoo!

Good Lord!

Look out, Miss Boo Job. We got another fine hiney coming in.

Bam!

Man, don't show me that while I'm eating.

Oh, wow, you can't feel the love coming from your little 12 -ounce can of sand

and dog food?

Well, I understand. I truly do, my brother.

Ah!

It can touch, Miss Amber Collins.

You will regret the day.

Woo! Look at you!

Ain't nobody going to mess with your little girlfriend.

I'm just going to hang up the porterhouse right next to Miss M. Plant

just see who the real star is.

Boo! Come on, man!

Jeez, man!

That ain't funny! What?

It's going to be a long war, freak.

It's going to be a short one. You keep that up.

Besides, I'm not the badass here. You the badass. Come on, General George

Patton. They should just pin that fruit salad on your chest and we can all just

go right home right now.

Yeah, yeah, you're pointing your weapon at your boot, man.

You know you're right, but you know what? As long as I'm with the general,

dogs will stay.

Come on, man. How many times have you pulled me from stepping on a mine?

Too many. Too many is right, and that's why I hang with your ass, because you're

the toughest, baddest general there is.

Yeah.

Too bad you don't know a damn thing about life. About what?

About life, General.

Sometimes you got to relax, man. You got to step back and just sniff the hot

links, baby.

Smell the roses, man. No, see, now the net of negativity just dropped again.

can't go sticking your nose in a bed of roses. That's like putting bacon on a

double cheese.

Or putting armor all on some 20 -inch tires.

Those are life's little beautiful moments because God is in every single

itty -bitty detail.

You didn't crack up, you know that? I might have cracked up. Might be cracking

up. Might keep cracking up.

But you got to promise me something, General.

You got to make me a promise that you'll keep me alive over here in Sandtown.

And I will unlock for you the mysteries of life.

Come on, General, it's a one -time offer. The clock's ticking. Tick -tock,

General. Tick -tock, tick -tock, tick -tock, tick -tock. Okay, okay, fine.

All right, General.

Deal. Damn, man. I knew I could count on you. I knew it.

I knew I could depend on you.

And then two days later, we were at the crash site.

He took the bullet that was meant for me.

Except it doesn't work that way.

The bullet was not meant for you.

Did you know that?

You don't think about things that happen.

Like maybe you could have done something. Even though everybody keeps

that what happened wasn't on you. Yeah.

You know I do.

I'm just trying to tell you what a good friend keeps telling me.

I guess I keep thinking about Frick because I promised Katrina that I would

Laura safe.

If I can keep my word on this one.

I just figured somehow I can make things right.

You know, find some peace.

You're dead, man.

You're dead, man, you son of a bitch.

You hear me? You're dead.

Your life is over. You're going to send me to hell.

It's over for you. It's over. You're dead.

It's over for you, man.

It's over.

Nice job, partner.

Nice job.

Me.

Hey.

Hey.

We're playing Go Fish.

You want to play Go Fish with us? Laura, it's enough games for tonight.

I'm going to bed.

No, Mama.

Laura, go brush your teeth.

Just tell me one more story, please.

She made it clear she wouldn't go to sleep until I told her two stories.

Not exactly shy, is she?

I'm sorry.

Hey, no problem.

Just so happens I enjoy telling stories.

There was a bomb at the restaurant tonight.

But Dean Solonik did it, so we covered it and made it seem like you and Laura

were killed.

Solonik saw the whole thing. Body bags and everything.

Every five minutes, I change my mind about death.

And that's okay.

One step at a time, remember?

End of the day, you can still say no.

Thank you, my friend.

What are you looking at?

It's hard to explain.

I have time to listen.

OK.

See, the first thing you got to do, you got to make a list of everything you

ever dreamed of. Then post a bunch of way out stuff that you never even

of. And I'm not talking about just fun stuff, too, like eating a hot fudge

sundae off a fine girl's ass.

I'm not talking about that kind of stuff. But, you know, stuff that scares

You got to put it all down.

You know what I'm saying?

You listening to me?

You ain't even listening to me.

You know what? I take it back. I think the first thing on your list should be

take that giant stick up out your ass because you're the toughest case I ever

did see.

You don't sing. You don't dance.

You're just a wet dog blanket.

You coming or you going to stand there and dance?

I'm going to dance. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to dance, General

George, because we're all going to be dead and buried waiting on you to move.

You know that?

I can see clearly now the rain is gone.

And I can see all obstacles in my way, General George.

It's gonna be a bright, bright, sunshiny day.

Come on, General.

I think I can make it now. The pain is gone. Did you start your own list?

Well, I still have it, even.

I'm slowly making my way through.

Yet nice.

So where is he now, your friend Freak Town?

Believe it or not, he's here somewhere.

Detective Smith?

Got a call for you. You want it in the office or you want it in your room?

Office is fine.

You did a good job clearing the place. Hey, it's on the city's dime, right?

Yeah, right.

Yeah. Bobby, John Summers down at M -8.

Hey, John, what's shaking?

Two cops came in about 20 minutes ago. They wanted to see the bodies pulled

the restaurant fire.

What?

Which cop?

John. John.

Kurt.

You got a gun in here?

What?

Pistol, rifle, whatever you got, I need it right now.

Great. Shells, too.

All right, hurry up. The room behind you, there's a door locked from the

Yeah, I'll keep it. Okay, I want you to get in there and lock the door. Don't

come out until I tell you, all right? Yeah, all right. Okay, hurry up.

Keep the door locked.

Joe Stevens.

We got a problem. Hey, I just talked to the coroner. I'm on my way.

I need backup. Lots of it. Now.

We're on our way.

Go, go, go.

Wait! Wait!

Wait!

Where's your mother, Lara?

Where is she?

She went out to find you.

Okay, listen.

All right. You got to do everything I say, okay?

Okay. All right, I want you to put this on.

Your mother's here.

Come out.

Don't listen to that, okay?

Just look at me.

Give me a hand.

Hold on tight.

Yeah,

come on.

I'm going to go with my partner, okay?

I'm just going to take you someplace safe.

Come on! I'm scared.

You just do everything I say, and everything will be all right.

Come on!

I want to see her mother alive. Please open the door.

Open my dead body, you bastards.

I'm here to send a message.

If anyone ever looks at, ever touches this lady and her little girl again,

they're dead.

You got that?

Is that another threat, detective?

I warned you. The hard way or the easy way.

But I don't care about him.

He's Latvian. I'm from Chechnya.

You

got

the message?

Tell your friends.

Night's work.

You think?

You still on your mind, huh?

I hope you find some peace, Bob.

Look, I know saving that girl is not going to change things.

But if it helps even a little, maybe it begins to make up for what happened.

What are you talking about, dog?

I'm sorry as hell that you got shot that day, freak.

I know you are.

I know you are. But it wasn't your fault. It was. I promised you. And you

good on that promise.

Come on, man.

You pulled my ass out of the fire like what?

Like a hundred times?

I mean, what happened that day?

Jesus himself couldn't have stopped.

It was an accident, brother. An accident.

Yeah, well, I don't believe in accidents anymore.

Yeah, that's because I'm not done teaching you about life yet.

Wait a minute. If you didn't come back because of the girl... No, don't get me

wrong. I got to give you the heads up on that.

See, I can see it was going to get all heavy.

And there's nothing I'd like more than to see you go all Terminator.

But you and me, man, I'm here because we got that other business to settle.

What business?

Did you forget what today is?

Oh, no.

Only you could find a cake out here.

Auntie Jasmine sent it to me.

You know this thing been kicking around her condo for like 20 years?

It's the thought that counts.

Man, that's sad.

Come on, at least sing to myself, dog. Sing to your own damn self. I can't sing

to my own self. That's sadder. It's your birthday.

Fine.

No candles, no songs, and a 20 -year -old cake.

At least I can still make a wish. No law against that.

Make me a promise.

I heard you earlier. Be your great protector.

No, no, no, no, no. I mean another promise.

Man, you got more requests than an AM radio freak.

No, no, man, listen. All I want you to do is next year on my birthday, I want

you to sing me a song.

Come on, man. It doesn't have to be a birthday song. It could be any song, any

song you want.

But it's just got to be loud and it's got to be proud.

You promise?

No.

I tell you what, I'll put it to you this way. It's my birthday and I'm about to

get a scud missile up my ass. So what it's going to be, General? Loud and

or what? Loud and proud or what, General? Loud and proud or what? Okay,

right, all right, all right, all right. Okay.

I promise.

Next birthday, I'll sing.

Now be quiet, man. Damn.

Happy birthday, freak.

Happy birthday, freak.

I can see clearly now the rain is gone.

I can see all obstacles in my way.

Gone are the dark clouds that made me blind.

It's going to be a bright, bright, sunshiny day.

We are out.