"There are over 550 million fire-arms in world wide circulation." "That's one fire-arm for every twelve people on the planet." "The only question is... how do we arm the other eleven ?" "You don't have to worry." "I'm not going to tell you a pack of lies to make me look good." "I'm just going to tell you what happened." "My name is Yuri OrIov." "When I was a boy, my family came to America." "But not all the way." "Like most Ukrainians we congregated in Brighton Beach." "It reminded us of the Black Sea." "I soon realized we'd swapped one hell for another." "Even in hell an angel sometimes makes an appearance." "I'd worshipped Ava Fontaine since I was ten years old." "Of course, she didn't know I existed." "I was starting to think she had a point." "For the first twenty odd years of my life," "little Odessa was to me what it is to the Q train:" "the end of the line." "I did lie about my name." "It's not really Yuri Orlov." "On few occasions in the 20th century it's been an advantage to be a Jew." "But in the 70s, to escape the USSR, our family pretended to be Jewish." "little about my life has been Kosher ever since." " How's it going, brother ?" " lt's not." "That's VitaIy, my brother." "He was as lost as me but he didn't know yet." "My father took his assumed identity to heart." "He was more Jewish than most Jews." "Which drove my catholic mother crazy." "I can't eat shellfish." " lt's treyf ." " You're not Jewish." "I Iike it." "I Iike the hat." "It reminds us there is something above us." "I Iike that." " l'm going to temple." " You go more often than the Rabbis !" " Leave me alone." " When will you open your eyes ?" "Don't forget to check the specials at the palace." "Growing up in little Odessa, murder was an everyday part of life." "Russian mobsters had also migrated from the USSR." "And when they came to America, their baggage came with them." "There was always some gangster getting whacked in my neighbourhood, but I'd never seen him with my own eyes." "I had this knack of showing up 5 minutes before something went down." "Or 5 minutes after." "Not that day." "It couldn't have hit me harder if I'd been the one that'd been shot." "You go into the restaurant business because people always have to eat." "That was the day I realized my destiny lay in fulfilling another basic human need." "The next Sabbath I went to temple with my father." "However, it wasn't God I was trying to get close to." "Yuri, my eldest son." "The Synagogue landed me my first Israeli-made Uzi machine gun." "The first time you sell a gun is a Iot like the first time you have sex." "You have absolutely no idea what you're doing but it's exciting, and one way or another it's over way too fast." "Gentlemen... the new Uzi pistol, big fire-power in a small package." "9 millimetre points." "20/25 extendable racks." "Trigger of adjustable size, excellent recall reduction." "muzzle jump reduced 40, 60 improved noise suppression." "You could pump a magnum in me, right now, and never wake the guy in the next room." "Of course, that would eliminate your opportunity to repeat business." "I did have a natural instinct for smuggling contraband." "Fortunately, back then, a video cam was as big as a Bazooka." "Here I'd been running away from violence my whole life and I should have been running towards it." "It's in our nature." "The earliest human skeletons had spearheads in their rib-cages." "Where have you been ?" "What if we'd had a costumer ?" "God Bless America." "Come on !" ""Beware of the Dog" ?" "You don't have a dog." "You're trying to scare people ?" "It scares me." "Reminds me to beware of the dog in me, the one that wants to fuck anything that moves and kill weaker dogs." "I guess it's to remind me to be more human." "Isn't being a dog part of being human ?" "What if it's the best part of you ?" "What if you really just a two-legged dog ?" "You need to see somebody." "It stinks in here." "I'd always wanted to do something big with my Iife." "I just didn't know what." "Anyhow, I figured if I was going into the gun trade," "I was going to aim high." "Stop fucking around." "I want to talk to you." " You read the newspapers, Vit ?" " Newspaper ?" " lt's always the same." " Right." "Every day people shoot each other." "Know what I do when I see that ?" "I Iook to see what guns they're using and I think, "Why not my guns ?"" "You want to open a gun shop ?" "More of those in America than mcdonalds." "Even with all the gangsters the margins are too low." " You've worked out the margins ?" " Sure." "Forget gang wars." "The real money is in actual war, between countries." "Yuri... what the fuck do you know about guns ?" "I know what side I'd rather be on." "I made the first sale." "We're already in business." " We ?" " l need a partner." "I don't know, Yuri." "Vitaly, I've tasted your borsch, you're no fucking chef." "I won't even eat your food." "Fuck you !" "We're doing nothing with our lives." "I mean... this is shit !" "This is shit !" "That's true." "But maybe doing nothing is better than doing this." "I need you." "Brothers in arms." "Can I interest you in the SA7 missile launcher ?" "The older Chinese model." "Not effective against modern military aircraft but deadly if used against a commercial airline." "I'm giving them away at 8.50." "It was the 80s." "The cold War was far from thawed." "Most deals were government to government." "It was a mostly private club with a Iife-time club president." " That's him." " Who, the big shot ?" "Simeon Weisz," "Exocet missiles in the falklands." "He was selling guns before there was gunpowder." "I'll be right back." "Mr. Weisz ?" "It's okay, they're talking." " May I help ?" " A mutual friend, EIi Kurtzman... said to contact you." "I have a business proposal." "I thought perhaps we could discuss it." "I don't think you and I are in the same business." "You think I just sell guns, don't you ?" "I don't." "I take sides." "But in the lran-lraq war you sold guns to both sides." "Did you ever consider that I wanted both sides to lose ?" "Bullets change governments far surer than votes." "You're in the wrong place, my young friend." "This is no place for amateurs." "Bastard !" "curiously, you revert to your native tongue in moments of extreme anger." "And ecstasy..." "Oh, God !" "Oh, my God !" "You're beautiful !" "What's your name again ?" "The only option for Vitaly and me was under the counter gun-running." "I got my first break in Lebanon after the suicide bombing." "But I wasn't the only local kid making good." "When the USA leaves a war zone, they don't take their ammunition." "It costs more to bring it back than to buy new stock." "So... we sell by the kilo." "They're second-hand weapons but they're still okay." " How many kilos would you like ?" " 5,000." "I had a flair for languages." "But I soon learnt what talks best is dollars, drachmas, roubIes and pounds fucking sterling." "Of course the US Army got a piece of the action." "Army salaries were no better in the 80s than they are today." "Some of the brass, Iike Lieutenant colonel Southern needed to raise money for their own private wars." "Good to make your acquaintance." "This is bullshit money, Vit." "These are just small fucking potatoes." " You want to go more legit ?" " No, more illegal." "What I'd give right now for a plate of cabbage and potatoes." "It's not our fight." "Vit, come on." "Let's go." "Selling guns is like selling vacuum cleaners." "You make calls and take orders." "I was an equal opportunity merchant." "I supplied every army but the Salvation Army." "I sold lsraeli-made Uzis to Muslims." "I sold communist-made bullets to fascists." "You're not selling these." "They're for personal use." "There are a hundred thousand bullets." " They're easy trigger ones." " Easy trigger ?" "I even shipped cargo to Afghanistan when they fought my fellow Soviets." "I never sold to Osama Bin Laden." "Not on any moral grounds, back then he was always bouncing cheques." "By the mid 80s, my weapons were in 8 of the world's top 10 war zones." "There's no problem leading a double life." "It's the triple and quadruple lives that get you in the end." "Back then I carried a French, British, Israeli and Ukrainian passport and a student visa for the US, but that's another story." "I also packed six different briefcases, depending on who I was that day and the region I was visiting." "Without operations like mine it'd be impossible for certain counties to conduct a respectable war." "I was able to navigate around those inconvenient little arms embargos." "There are three basic types of arms deal." "White, being legal, black, being illegal, and my personal favourite colour, grey." "Sometimes it was hard for me to work out if they were on the level." "To keep authorities in the dark, I often spoke in code." "Rocket launchers were mothers." "The rockets, children." "The AK4 7 assault rifle was the angel king." "It's Yuri." "Yes, RaouI." "Raoul, the angel king will arrive tomorrow." "HalleIujah to you too." "If I've done myjob right an arms embargo should be practically impossible to enforce." "What ?" "Just slow the fuck down !" "I can't understand you." "What do you mean "tipped off" ?" "They know where we are ?" "well, where are they ?" "well, how long have I got ?" "Not long ?" "What does that mean ?" " We will try to lose them." " On this ?" " We have to get off this thing." " No one's going anywhere." "slow." "Buy me time." "Yes, it's Yuri." "Get that fucking flag down !" "I need another handle for this hub, something of its weight class." "You, over this side." "We're changing the name." "Yes, it's got to check out !" "The way I looked at it, "What's in a name ?"" "Have you got a shorter name ?" "I'd often changed the registration of a ship or a plane, but never at such short notice." "Damn, they're hauling !" "What ?" "Kono ?" "How do you spell that ?" "KONO." "Okay, that's good." "What do we fly ?" "Dutch ?" "Get me Dutch flag, will you ?" "Faster or I'II send your ass in !" "I don't have Dutch." "I got Belgian." "What the fuck use is that ?" "It's registered in the Netherlands !" " l've got a French flag." " So ?" "Turn it sideways and it's Dutch." "That's why you're my brother." "Good !" "Everybody look innocent now." "They say every man has his price." "But not every man gets it." "interpol agent Jack Valentine couldn't be bought." "At least not with money." "For Jack glory was the prize." "It's the Kono, it's not the KristoI." " lt's clean." " clean ?" "She doesn't look clean." "I'm going to go aboard." "Refer to the sighting of the KristoI south ofAruba." "Even when I was up against an over-zealous agent," "I had a number of methods for discouraging a search." "I routinely mislabeIIed my shipments "farm machinery"." "I had yet to meet a lowly paid customs official who will open a container marked radio-active waste to verify its contents." "My personal favourite is the unique combination ofweek old potatoes in tropical heat." "It smells !" "Sir, a sighting of the KristoI up north." "I kept a number of intelligence people on a pay roll to supply their colleagues with counter-inteIIigence." "The second rule of gun-running is always ensure you get paid." "Preferably in advance, ideally to an off-shore account." "That's why I chose my customers so carefully." "Say what you like about war-Iords and dictators, but they have a sense of order." "They always pay their bills on time." "What's this ?" "Six kilos of pure cocaine." "I can't give that to the damn bank in Chase Manhattan." "You idiot." "First of all you should thank me." "You know how much this is worth ?" "After the raids that went on at the border last week, its value has increased 30." "I sell arms, not drugs." " ls there a difference ?" " l have some rules." "If you don't pay, you don't play." " What the fuck are you doing ?" " Fuck you !" " Fuck you !" " No, you won't fuck me !" "We can find a solution." "No, Vit." "We made a deal." "The first rule of gun-running is never get shot with your own merchandise." " Are you okay ?" " l think so." " So what do we do now ?" " We'II celebrate." "That narco-gueriIIa had his facts right." "After shipping into stateside that got me a healthy profit." "It could have been better except one kilo never made it back." "Vitaly !" "To this day, I don't know what Vitaly was running away from." "Maybe just from Vitaly." "I found him 1 2 days and 1 50 grams later in a bolivian boarding house." "Of course, my dream girl had gone there before me." "Come on !" "It's my brother, Yuri." "He's my big brother." " What the fuck is that ?" " Ukraine." "I was young, but I remember." "Look..." "I start in Odessa, right ?" "Then I work my way to the Crimean..." "You're going to be dead before you fucking reach Kiev." " We're going home." "Come on." " You fuck !" "You fucking fuck !" "What the fuck is your problem ?" "Come on, Vit." " lt's nice to be home." " Yes, we're going to get you home." "Get out of the car." "I need you to get out of the car." "I promised our parents." " Please." " You're going to have a great time." "This is a top place." "Two Ford models checked in last week." "And that cute weather girl's been here since july." "please." "please, Yuri." "You're a good brother." "Get out of the car." "From then on I was a one-man operation." "I never understood what separated recreational users from habitual." "It could have been me snorting lines as long as the Dull Park Way." "However I wasn't entirely free of the grip of addiction myself." "There she was again:" "Ava Fontaine." "In my neighbourhood they say, "The good get out"." "In our own ways, we both conquered the world." "You can't force someone to love you, but you can improve your odds." "It cost me 20,000 to book her for a fake photo shoot." "And another 1 2,000 to buy out the hotel." "Popular hotel, huh ?" " Ava Fontaine." " Yuri OrIov." " What brings you to St. Barts ?" " A photo shoot." "I guess the photographer got stuck in Miami." "Hurricane, but there's nothing on the news." "Those things can come out of nowhere." "The job's cancelled and there's no flying back to New York till Tuesday." "You can hitch a ride with me, I'm leaving tomorrow." "meanwhile, why don't I take your picture ?" "From my experience, some of the best relationships are based on lies." "That's where they usually end up, so it's a logical place to start." "Hold on." "Oh, my God !" "I nearly went broke trying to convince her I was anything but." "I knew Ava was not the kind of woman to be smoothed by a ride in a jet, unless you owned the jet." " ls this your plane ?" " That is my name." "Of course I was lying." "The plane was a rental, like the car and the suit I was standing in." "At the Iast minute, I got out a crew for the paintjob." "Luckily when we landed, Ava wasn't looking anywhere but in my eyes." "I had no idea." "I'm sorry I didn't recognize you." "Don't apologize, I put clothes on for a living." "At least you're not taking them off." "I would be if half the photographers had their way." "What about you ?" "I'm in transport." "International air freight, mostly." "Business is good." " Where are you from ?" " l was born in Ukraine." "But I grew up in Brooklyn." " What ?" "You too ?" " WiIIiamsburg." "Here's to the hurricane." "Without it, I never would have met you." "This is no accident, is it ?" " lt feels like fate." " l don't believe in fate." "What do you believe in ?" "Is that a view or is that a view ?" "That's a view." "Thank you all." " Good luck." " Congratulations." "Thanks." "always remember, son." "There's something above you." "Sure, dad." "A 40,000 dollar crystal chandelier." "Make yourselves at home." "Go !" "I'm sorry." "It must be tough." "It'd be nice to have a couple more guests from my side of the family." " l'm sure they're watching you." " Thank you." "But you don't believe that, Yuri." "Remember ?" "I know you." "I know you're not everything you seem." "Don't worry, I won't ask a lot of questions." "I don't want to hear you lie." "You take risks." "Just promise me you won't risk us." "That's the trouble with faIIing in love with your dream girl." "They have a habit of becoming real." "I've never been so glad to see Vitaly." "Aren't you fucking beautiful ?" "Brother, thank you so much for giving me such a beautiful sister." "He was out of rehab and out of his mind." " Dance, dance !" " Alright..." "It's a wedding celebration !" "For once, he rescued me." "I was still living way beyond my means." "Mortgaged to the hilt, using one credit card to pay off another." "Anything to keep Ava in the style to which she had, thanks to me, become accustomed to." " Ava, this is too much." " Yuri likes to spoil you." "Then suddenly all my christmases came at once." "You did it !" "Good boy !" "That's my grandson !" "Yuri, don't you want to see what your son is doing ?" "Whoever said it's best to give than to receive never got a christmas present like the one I got in 1991 from Mikhail Gorbachev." " What the hell's the matter ?" " lt's over !" "The Cold Fucking War !" "The Soviet Fucking Union !" "The Evil Fucking Empire !" "Mikhail's throwing in the towel !" "It's over !" " Your son is walking." " That's incredible, honey." "At least they'll get religious freedom." "Let's hope so." "I think I'll go back for a visit." "Do you stay in touch with Uncle Dimitri ?" "I'm not a fool, Yuri." "I don't think you're going there just to sell Pepsi Cola." "Is this how you want to be remembered ?" "I don't want to be remembered at all." "If I'm being remembered it means I'm dead." "Merry fucking Christmas !" " Who is this ?" " l'm angel." "Her name really is Angel." "Let's put her on top of the Christmas tree !" "I Iove you." "I Iove you all." "Take this." "You're going back to Ukraine." "I miss Odessa." " l miss you." " l miss you." "Be careful, Yuri." "Those things you sell kill... inside." "You're high." "It's true." "Hello, Christian." "During the cold War, the Red Army stationed 1 million troops in Ukraine because of its strategic military importance." "The day after the wall came down the pay checks stopped coming." "There's nothing better for an arms dealer than the combination of disgruntled soldiers and warehouses of weapons." "I was hoping Major general Dimitri Volkoff would open a Iot of armoury doors in a lot of military bases." "First start, he was family." "He was a highly decorated hero of the Red Army." "And he was almost permanently shit-faced." "I can't sell you government property." " l have to report." " Report to who ?" "Moscow." "Moscow's a reformed country." " New flag, new boss." " There is no new boss yet." "They're all busy squabbling over who's going to get the presidential home by the Black Sea." "It's beautiful." "The ones who know don't care anymore and the ones who do don't know." "Show me your inventory." "Those 45 years of mutual hatred between the East and the West had generated the highest weapons build-up in history." "The Soviets had guns coming out of the demon hole." "Huge stock piles and now no enemies." "How many KaIashnikovs do you have ?" "Forty thousand." "Is that a four ?" "Doesn't look like a four to me." "Looks like a one." " No, it's a four." " lt's whatever we say it is." "Because no one else will know the difference." "Ten thousand Kalashnikovs for a battalion." "Your stocks are dangerously depleted." "You should order more from the manufacturer." "Someone will look it up." " What happens then ?" " We'II cut them in." "The end of the cold War was the beginning of the hottest time in arms dealing, the arms bazaar was open." "Guided missiles, un-guided missiles, mortars, mines, armoured personnel carriers, whole tank divisions." "This is what we'll do." "Buy six and you'll get one free." "I even landed a squadron helicopter gun shooter." "The most sophisticated fighting machines, built for a war with America that never happened." "Get down from there before you get hurt." "I could dismantle it with my eyes shut." "Thanks to me, they'd finally get to fire a shot in anger." "I had a feeling it wasn't exactly what my comrade Lenin had in mind when he advocated the redistribution ofweaIth." "But I wasn't the only one offering a crash course in capitalism." "I had rivals." "Inform your commanding officer that Simeon Weisz is here to meet him." " You don't know who I am, do you ?" " l couldn't care less." "You're late." "So it appears." " Thank you." " You're welcome." "Are you here to sell arms ?" "Perhaps you want to come to my room so I can show you my pistol ?" "You look lost." "Is the world changing too fast ?" " l'm here, aren't I ?" " Not all of you, I think." "You've gotten so rich selling for the ClA you can't seem to get that ideology completely out of your head." "The cold War had its uses." "It got the pensions frozen." "Now it's hard to determine which side to be on." "Things have become more complicated." "No, it's gotten simpler." "There's no place in gun-running for politics anymore." "I sell to leftists, to rightists." "I sell to pacifists, but they're not my regular customers." "But that's nothing until you supply weapons to kill your own country." "This current state of chaos won't last forever." "There will have to be order." "Instead of cutting each other's throats it may be beneficial if we worked together, what do you think ?" "What do I think ?" "I think you are the amateur now." "I think you should go with your instinct." "Your first instinct." "I'm the same man that wasn't good enough for you before and I'm just not good enough for you now." "The problem with gun-runners going to war is that there's no shortage of ammunition." "This was the chaos that the old guard had always feared." "As far as they were concerned, I was giving arms dealers a bad name." "But then they could hardly report me to the Better Business Bureau." "And Ukraine wasn't the only former state with an unpaid army and stock piles of guns." "There was bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, belarus, all there for the taking." "Of all the weapons in the vast Soviet arsenal nothing was more profitable than the Avtomat KaIashnikov, model of 194 7, more commonly known as the AK 47, or Kalashnikov." "It's the world's most popular assault rifle, a weapon all fighters love." "An elegantly simple 9 pound amalgamation of steel and plywood." "It doesn't break, jam or overheat." "It will shoot whether it's covered in mud or filled with sand." "It's so easy even a child could use it and they do." "The Soviets put the gun on a coin." "Mozambique put it on their flag." "At the end of the cold War the Kalashnikov is the USSR's best export." "After that comes vodka, caviar, and suicidal novelists." "One thing's for sure, no one was lining up to buy their cars." "What damn paperwork ?" "Sergeant, keep them there as long as you can !" "Fight till the end !" "Moscow is behind us, you got that ?" "It's an order !" " You must watch out for these people." " How can I ?" "You keep selling my helicopters." "You're too greedy !" " l can't hold them forever." " l've got paperwork." "Not for the gun-ships." "You know the penalty for falsifying papers ?" "Selling military helicopters is a major violation." "Military helicopters..." "It's not a military helicopter." "It's a rescue helicopter." " Get to work, son." " No problem." "The law's on our side." "Let me see your papers." "Put that away." "Let me see your papers." "always in the wrong place at the right time." "Who are these people ?" "We've met before." "Off the coast of Columbia." "What was the name of that freighter ?" "Was it the Kono or the Kristol ?" "The crew called that vessel a lot of names." "None of them repeatable in polite company." " Answer the question." " Oh, the new MP5." " would you like a silencer for that ?" " l need to see your papers." " Keep away from me !" " Dimitri !" "The end user certificate for this states Burkina Faso." "Very nice." "Did you type this up yourself ?" "The helicopter is to be used on humanitarian missions." " So you're a humanitarian ?" " absolutely." " This is a military aircraft." " Not anymore." "Listen to the nephew." "What can we do with military hardware but convert it to civilian use ?" "This can only kill if the food hits you." "Is this going to Burkina Faso as well ?" "Yes, but to a different client at a different address." "That's just a coincidence, is it ?" "You take me for a complete fucking fool ?" "Not complete, sir. I want to hesitate to tell you yourjob..." "I must point put that when shipped separately both weapons comply with the Interpol standards and practices." "We both know that is an obscene bureaucratic Ioop-hoIe that's going to be closed any goddamn day." "But it's not closed." "And while certain people might consider this cargo as suspicious we live in a world where suspicion alone doesn't constitute a crime." "And where men like you respect the rule of law." "I was as guilty as sin but valentine couldn't prove it." "And he was the rarest breed of law enforcement." "He knew I was breaking the law but wouldn't break it himself to bust me." "Valentine wasn't the only one trying to put me out of business." "My uncle had turned down a half-dozen rival arms dealers often with offers better than mine." "But to Dimitri you couldn't put a price on loyalty." " What was he doing here ?" " He was hoping to beat your offer." "I told him to go have intercourse with himself." " You need to make more pay-offs." " Too many." "Don't worry." "VCR cigarettes." "I Ieft them in your new car." "Even your enemy was admiring that car." " l'm the luckiest man alive." " You are." " Hello ?" " Ava ?" "Hi, baby." " You know what time it is ?" " Sorry, I..." "How was that audition ?" "They're going in another direction with someone who can act." "They don't deserve you." "Where are you ?" "Is everything okay ?" "It was a rough day at the office." " Just come home." " Soon." "How's Nicky ?" "He misses you." "We both do." "It's lonely without you here." "You know I don't like nights." "Ever since my parents..." " What's that ?" " A party." "I'd better go. I just wanted to call and hear your voice." " Kiss Nicky for me." " l Iove you." "The pillaging didn't die with my uncle." "After the wall came down, 32 billions worth of arms were stolen and resold from Ukraine alone." "One of the greatest heists of the 20th century." "The primary market was Africa." "11 major conflicts involving 32 countries in less than a decade." "A gun-runner's wet dream." "The West couldn't care less." "They had a white war in yugoslavia." "I did the bulk of my business in Liberia. "Land of the Free"." "Originally a homeland for freed American slaves." "It's been run by one dictator or another ever since." "The latest was American-educated, self-proclaimed president, André Baptiste." "Mr. Yuri !" "I'm Andrè Baptiste Junior." " My father would Iike to meet you." " What an honour!" "Thank him but unfortunately I have other business." "It's a shame, it's a very busy schedule." "It is not... as they say... optional." "My father's easily offended." "My schedule just freed up." "Baptiste was my best customer but I wasn't in a hurry to meet him." "He got the reputation of chopping off the wounds of those who opposed him." "His seven year civil war is described as a relentless campaign of wanton sadistic violence." "That kind of sums up Andy for me." "The Glock is interesting." "It's made of a polymer composite." "plenty of my clients feel they can get through airport security without setting off a Iot of bells." "personally, I do not recommend that." "On the other hand, if you are looking for a traditional wheel gun there's no substitute for the 6 inches of muzzle energy of the 357 Magnum." "And of course, it will neverjam." " Why did you do that ?" " What did you say ?" "Now you're going to have to buy it." "It's a used gun." "How can I sell a used gun ?" "A used gun." "A used gun ?" "That's a good one." "You know, there's no discipline with the youth today." "I try to set an example but it's difficult." "personally, I blame MTV." "A used gun." "I think you and I... we can do business." "If I thought I was scared of André Senior," "I knew I was scared of André Junior." "Like father, like son." "The guava doesn't fall too far from the tree." "He was also a cannibal." "They say he would eat a victim's heart while it was still beating to give him superhuman strength." "Monrovia itself was like being on another planet." "planet Monrovia." "From the temperature it was obviously close to the sun." "I rarely saw another white man and I never left town alone." "Outside town was the edge of hell." "I didn't want to even gaze at it." "This is your hotel." "Two stars." " Can you bring me the gun of Rambo ?" " Part One, Two or Three ?" "I've only seen Part One." " The M60." " With the armour piercing bullets ?" " Please." "My father left a welcoming present in your room." "Enjoy." "My God !" "She nearly got her head cut off." "When I get to America, I will not live in Brentwood." "Second floor." "In the most AlDS-infested region of the globe, where one in four is infected" "André's idea of a joke was to put a young Iman and Naomi in my bed." "And no condom within a 100 miles." "Hello, Mr. Yuri." "We'd be happy to make you happy." "I can't." "I'd love to." "But I can't." "Don't worry." "We don't have anything." "How do you know ?" "Do we look like it ?" "What if I have AIDS ?" "Don't you worry ?" "You worry too much." "Why do you worry about something that can kill you in 10 years ?" "When there are so many things that can kill you today." "How can we make you happy ?" "By leaving." "These are my Kalashnikov kids." "Boy brigades." "I can see what you're thinking." "We need every man we can get." "Even if they're not men ?" "A bullet from a 1 4-year-oId is just as effective as one from a 40-year-old." "Often more effective." "No one can stop this bath of blood." "It's not "bath of blood", it's "blood bath"." "Thank you." "But I prefer it my way." "I'm not going to pay your asking price, we are not a rich people." "Besides, the market is already flooded with your KaIashnikovs." "You realize in my country you can get one for the price of a chicken." "You can'tjust look at the unit price, you forget ancillary costs." "And user certificates need to be forged and notarised." "Show companies set up, insurance policies, not to mention the bribes." "You can't get a nut and bolt out of the east without a bribe." "There's one bribe for the nut, another for the bolt." "Andy, listen to me." "This is an expensive proposition." "Andy..." "I'm going to pay you in timber or stones." "I'll take the stones, it's hard to get a tree trunk into my luggage." "I know you're playing a new offensive." "If you can delay a week, I can get you armoured personnel carriers." "They'd greatly reduce your casualties." "And give you a significant strategic advantage." "You know they call me the Lord of War." " But perhaps it is you." " lt's not "Lord of War"." "It's "warlord"." "Thank you, but I prefer it my way." "Diamonds are a common currency in West Africa." "also referred to as "blood diamonds", since with bloodshed they generate finance." "By the 90s my wealth had caught up to my lies about my wealth." "Even surpassed my Iies. I couId even afford to become a patron of the arts." "Jesus, I can't believe it !" "Of course, it's wonderful." "I didn't expect it to happen so soon." "Yes, that would be great too." "It's wonderful, thank you so much." "It's Yuri." "Okay, thank you." "That was the dealer on the phone." "I just sold my first painting." "That's fantastic !" " Who bought it ?" " Someone important." " They want to remain anonymous." " This is so wonderful." " How was your trip ?" " Same old..." "Where's Nicky ?" "In bed. I'm sorry, he couldn't stay up." " That's best." " My first painting !" " l'm officially an artist !" " This calls for a drink !" "What doesn't ?" " Yuri, this is..." " Candy." "Candy, of course..." "Every friend of my brother's... is a friend of my brother's." "You have a beautiful..." "everything..." "Yes." "well, I'm going to kiss Nicky goodnight." " How are you, brother ?" " You know..." "still the resident family fuck-up." "well, I guess someone has to do it." "Ava knows, right ?" "I never want to say anything..." "She doesn't have to know, she understands." "She's a survivor, like me." "She may be a survivor, but she's not like you." " She knows how you pay for all this ?" " We don't talk about it." "How many car salesmen talk about their work ?" "And cigarette sales men ?" "Both their products kill more people than mine." "At least mine has a safety switch." "If those guys can leave their work at the office, so can I." "God..." "Damn, you're good." "You really are." "You almost had me convinced." "could you... help me out ?" "Why ?" "Why what ?" " Why ?" " l don't know." "I don't know why." "What ?" "Why are you so fucked up all the time ?" "Because I am." "I didn't know how much Ava knew and how much she ignored." "She never questioned how a guy in transport could afford 1 8 carat earrings." "I guess she didn't want to hear the answer." "mostly she seemed content that I was a good provider and as far as she was concerned, loyal." "Despite the other women, I made love to Ava as if she was the only one." "I'm not saying I had no set-backs." "It's called gun-running." "You have to be fast, revolutions can blow over before the guns get there." "There's nothing more expensive for an arms dealer than peace." "What do you mean "truce" ?" "The guns are already on their way." "Peace talks ?" "I'll reroute it to the balkans, now they mean war." "A new breed of gun-runner requires a new breed of cop." "Henry, take Park Avenue." "Take them on a tour of New Jersey." "There are men going through our garbage cans." "It's probably just reporters looking for somebody else." "I have a feeling they don't work for the tabloids." "Is there anything I should be worried about ?" "No." "Nothing." "I Iove you." "I Iove you too." "Sir." "FLIGHT PLAN" "I was now the best merchant of death alive." "I didn't own my own plane, I owned a fleet." "Running guns into Liberia, Sierra Leone, or the Ivory coast once a week." "Most trips I had phoney paperwork" "If the deadline was tight, I had to cut corners, I had no paperwork." "But I wasn't very concerned." "There were hardly any radars over Africa and even few people to watch them." "charlie, Echo, India re-route to Kabala airport on air route 0-2-9." " comply immediately." " What's going on ?" "Southern ?" "I'm sorry to call on this number but InterpoI's on my ass." "I can't help you right now, it's not a good time." "It's not a good time ?" "comply immediately." "This is your last warning." " When was the first ?" " Rock your wings if you will comply." "I'm putting us down." "You land, we're all going away." "I don't have paperwork." " We're in a flying fucking bomb." " They're firing bullets at ours." " l'm putting us down." " Okay, fuck !" "This is charlie, Echo, India, requesting re-route to KabaIa airport." "Not the airport, the highway." "It's our only hope." "Are you fucking mad ?" "A pothole will set us off." "You underestimate yourself." "You're the best !" "You're the shit !" "You're the shit !" "He wasn't the best, he was number 2 at the Moscow flight School." "What the hell is he doing ?" "Is this guy nuts ?" " l can't land there, sir." " Kabala's only 1 5 minutes away." "He can't get far, I want a truck on the tarmac." "We're going to be okay." " Where are you going ?" " As far from evidence as we can get." "Wait, there's not going to be any evidence !" "Come here." "Don't be shy, look." "A free sample." "tell your friends." "Come here, you want something ?" "Happy times." "Help yourselves." "Everything goes." "Come on up !" "Bullets, guns, grenades !" "Guns, grenades !" "That one's got your name on it." "Don't forget the bullets !" "How can you shoot a gun if you have no bullets ?" "Everything goes for free !" "What cargo crew at Heathrow Airport does in a day, took a bunch of malnourished Sierra Leone locals ten minutes" "By the time Valentine got there, you find more guns on a plane of Quakers." " Fuck !" " You run from us ?" " Mbizi, no !" " Can you run with no legs ?" "Let me make him disappear." "Around here people disappear all the time." " l can't do that." " Look where we are." "Who will know ?" "We will." " He'II get what's coming to him." " l'm not as certain." " What's the charge ?" " What are you doing in Sierra Leone ?" "I'm on a safari." "You're hunting wiIdebeest with a sub-machine gun ?" "You also work for the park service ?" "Hunting without a Iicence ?" "Why are we playing games ?" " You traffic arms." " Trade." "Trade, traffic." "You get rich by giving the poorest people the means to continue killing each other." "You know why I do what I do ?" "There are more prestigious assignments." "Keeping track of nuclear arsenals, you'd think that's more critical." "But it's not." "Nine out of ten war victims today are killed by assault rifles and small arms like yours." "Those nuclear missiles ?" "They sit in their silos." "Your AK47 ?" "That is the real weapon of mass destruction." "I don't want people dead." "I don't put a gun to anybody's head to make them shoot." "I admit a shooting war is better for business." "I'd Iike my guns to miss, just as long as they're firing." "Can I go now ?" "You got nothing on me." "Except cuffs." "Since you're so concerned with the law, you must know that" "I'm permitted to hold you 24 hours without charges." "You might ask why." "I can assure you it's not because I enjoy your company because I don't." "The reason I will delay you for every second of the permissible 24 hours is I am delaying your deadly trade and the deaths of your victims." "It's not taking a day from you, but giving a day to them." "Some innocent man, woman or child, is going to have an extra day on this earth, because you're not free." "So I will see you in 23 hours and 55 minutes." "Valentine knew he didn't have to guard me, there was nowhere to go." "Maybe he was hoping the locals would tear me apart." "But they were too busy with the plane." "It's like parking your car in certain neighbourhoods in the Bronx." "You just don't do it." "The way I looked at it, it's the way of Africa." "Maybe life." "Everything that comes from the earth, eventually returns." "Even a 40-ton 1 2 Atonov cargo plane." "A gift." "For you." "You've arrived just in time." "I was afraid he might die before you got your chance... to kill him." "This man came here hoping to take your place." "Is that not so ?" "No, I'm not here to supply Mr. Baptiste." "I'm here to supply his enemies." "I fear it's a sale I shall never complete." "He killed your blood, your uncle, when he tried to kill you." "You want me to let him go ?" "You do want him dead." "You just don't want to have to do it yourself." "So... we will do this together." "This will be a bonding experience." "You know you can stop this anytime you want." "But I don't think that you do." "Just say the word." "Say," ""Stop"." "I will get you another room, my friend." "With a much nicer view." "He ordered you brown-brown ." " What ?" " Brown-brown ." " What is it ?" " A mixture of cocaine... and gun powder." "They give it to the young boys before they do bedlam." "They'II do anything." "Some other time." "I suggest you try it, at Ieast once." " Why ?" " Because it's your gun powder." "Even before that night I started doing a Iot of cocaine in West Africa," "I'd never tried brown-brown before." "But then I never killed a man either." "I didn't do anything, did I ?" " l didn't do anything ?" " You didn't do much." "Wait, are you sick ?" "syphilis ?" "AIDS ?" "Ask the white man, he will know." "Sir, will my hand grow back ?" " Simeon." " Remember, Yuri." "Take sides." " He a friend of Andrè's." " Fuck Andrè." "Yeah, fuck Andrè." "I'm sorry, they don't usually do that." "Let me look at it, maybe I can fix it." "Give it to me." "Fuck you !" "I started to feel I'd been cursed." "The curse of invincibility." "Nicky, please." "Go to your room." "I don't believe you." "Can you prove any of this ?" "Mr. OrIov goes to a Iot of trouble to make his business look legitimate." "Even to you." "Perhaps, especially to you." "I don't expect we're going to find anything here today." "So what do you want ?" "I was hoping that you would help me." "I understand that your parents died tragically." "The illegal fire-arms used to murder your mother and father were procured from men exactly like your husband." "I'd Iike you to leave." "Gentlemen." "What's wrong ?" "I can't wear the clothes." "I can't wear the jewellery." "I can't drive the car." "I can't live in this house." " Everything's got blood on it." " Blood on it ?" "What's the matter with you ?" " Don't be so melodramatic." " Of course I am." "I'm a failed actress, remember ?" "I told you, these people..." "It's political." "They lie." "They're liars." "They lie to make themselves look good." " You can't trust them." " lt's notjust them." "Don't worry, your family didn't say anything." "They didn't have to." "I sell people the means to defend themselves." " That's all." " l see the news." "I see those pictures." " The guns are bigger than the boys." " Nothing's illegal about what I do !" "I don't care if it's legal." "It's wrong !" "please, stop." "It makes no difference if I stop." " Someone will take my place." " So let them." "We have enough." "It's not about the money." "Then what is it ?" "I'm good at it." "I feel like all I've done in my Iife is be pretty." "I mean... all I've done is be born." "I'm a failed actress, a failed artist." "I'm not much good as a mother." "I've come to think that I'm not even that pretty anymore." "I have failed at everything, Yuri." "But I won't fail as a human being." "My enemies had finally found a weapon that could hurt me." "For the next 6 months, I stopped running guns. I went legitimate." "This is an untapped market." "Over 5 million cubic metres of timber in the first year alone." "Over a hundred exploitable species." "The oil ?" "Between you and me, this is the new Texas." "What do you say ?" "Ten thousand barrels a month ?" "He must be lying." "He's talking." "There are gas reserves on the Ivory coast that Opec doesn't know about." "The phone numbers all check out." "It's all on the level." "No wonder Valentine was confused." "Thank God there are still many ways to exploit developing countries." "The only problem with an honest buck is they are so hard to make." "The margins are too low, too many people doing it." "still, I'd promised Ava." "The president of Liberia is on his way up." "He's early." "I'll be back in a minute." " What the fuck are you doing here ?" " Peace talks with the United Nations." "So you drop in on your arms dealer ?" "I was beginning to wonder whether that was still your profession." "You're a hard man to get hold of all of a sudden." "That is a shame." "My son and I were hoping to do a little shopping while we're here." " You know they're watching you ?" " They blame me for everything." " There on a hunt for a witch." " "Witch hunt"." "Hostilities have escalated and they are making it very difficult for me to re-supply." "That requires a man of your ingenuity." "I can't help you I'm sorry." "I understand, but you know this ?" "In our current situation we are compelled to be generous." "See you soon." "Lord of War." "You still haven't brought me the gun of Rambo." "At four and a half months old, a human foetus has a reptile's tail." "A remnant of our revolution." "Maybe that's what I couldn't escape." "You can fight a lot of enemies and survive." "But if you fight your biology, you always lose." "You're not waiting to say goodbye ?" "I've got 10 more minutes." "Nicky has swim practice." "I'm kind of glad you're going." "You're starting to get on my nerves." "This should be wrapped up by Thursday." "I'll be back at the weekend." " We'II go somewhere." "The sea." " That would be fun." "You trust me, right ?" "She looked me right in the eyes" "like I'd looked at thousands of custom officials and bureaucrats." "Yes, I trust you." "She lied without flinching." "See you, big boy." "Bye, papa." "She'd learnt from the best." "Have a safe trip." "That's him." " Where are we going, mama ?" " lt's a game, honey." "Like hide and seek ?" "Yes." "Like hide and seek." "I can always sense when I'm being tailed, I know what to look for." "But then I've never been tailed by the woman I love." "I can put myself in Ava's place." "She might've understood if the combination was the last four digits of my social security number, my birthday or hers, but not NikoIai's." "My son's birthday opened up what the government would later describe as a "catalogue of carnage"." "Stay right here." "Come on, Nicky." " Curious how the other half lives ?" " l miss your borsch." " Mom and Dad say you're clean." " Yeah, you too." "You went legit, huh ?" "That's hard to believe." "That's because it's not true." "only you know." "I'm leaving tonight on a job. I want you to come." "I can't." "I've got a girlfriend." "I think she might be the one." "plus, I'm thinking of opening my own place." "Maybe this trip would help, it's good money..." "Yuri..." " l've given my word." " No one has to know." "We'll tell them we're going for a little R and R." " What do you need me for ?" " West Africa's fucked up." "More than usual." "I can't trust anybody." "I need you to watch my back." "We're brothers in arms." "Welcome back !" "Welcome both of you !" " Welcome to democracy !" " Democracy ?" " What have you been drinking ?" " You have not seen the news ?" "They accuse me of rigging elections." "But after this, with your florida and your supreme court of Kangaroos, the US must shut up forever." "How do you do this ?" "How do you do this when they're watching all of my air space ?" "Where there's a will, there's a weapon." "Come on, where's my fucking money ?" "When it is delivered." " lt is delivered." " This is not for me." " But for my neighbours to the west." " The West ?" " We're going to Sierra Leone." " Yes." "And my son, Baptiste Junior will go with you to make proper introductions." "We have no trucks." "You will, as soon as we get the food out of there." "The gun of Rambo." "Mr. Yuri, you're a man of your word." "Where are we going ?" "You wait." "The freedom fighters !" "Every faction in Africa calls themselves by these noble names." "Liberation this, Patriotic that, Democratic Republic of something..." "I guess they can't own up to what they usually are." "Federation of worse oppressors than the last bunch of oppressors." "Often the most barbaric atrocities occur when both combatants proclaim themselves "freedom fighters"." "I've got 500 units, brand new." "Right out of the box." "AII as clean as this." "What have you got ?" "God !" "Jesus !" "Yuri, I need to talk to you." " Not now." " Now !" "Excuse me." "What ?" " We can't do this deal." " What's the matter with you ?" "Look !" "As soon as we give them the arms, those people are going to die." "It's not our business." "They killed a boy just now as young as Nicky." " What is the hold up ?" " There is no hold up." "I'll be right there." "It's what we always know, you can't control what they do." "No, today we can !" "They're right there !" "They'll kill us if we back out." "And ifwe go ahead, what do you think they'll do to them ?" "We've got to do something." " For Heaven's sake !" " lt's not our war." "please." "Brothers in arms !" " What is he saying ?" " lt's the deal." "My brother's not happy with the terms." "We're working it out." "It's nothing." "Right ?" "It's nothing." "Yeah, nothing." "You're right, Yuri." "I have to get my shit together." " This is not our fight." " Right." "What's the deal ?" "300 RPG's, 500 assault rifles and 800 grenades." "I thought it was 1 ,200 grenades." "I was so caught up in the deal, I didn't know what was in his head." "I thought it was 1 ,200 grenades." "I got confused." "Maybe I never understood what was going on in his head." "I beg your pardon." "May I see another stone ?" "One thing I do understand for certain is that VitaIy broke the carnal rule of gun-running." ""Never pick up a gun and join the customers"." "What are you doing ?" "Something for Yuri." "Step away... slow." "No !" "Vit !" "only half the guns were gone, I was still entitled to half the diamonds." "If I took them, I was lost." "If I left them, I was lost." "The massacre played out exactly how Vitaly had predicted." "But then another dozen massacres happened in Sierra Leone that week." "You can't stop them all, you can't stop any of them." "They say evil prevails when good men fall to act." "What they ought to say is... evil prevails." "I now had more in common with the leader of the country God forsake.." "We saw something in each other neither one of us liked." "Or maybe we were just looking in the mirror." "I paid a Monrovian doctor 20 dollars to remove the lead from VitaIy's body and write a bogus death certificate." "I should have paid more." "I sold tons of rounds of ammunition and the bullet that lands me in jail was found under my dead brother's rib." "Yuri Orlov." "We're with the Bureau of alcohol, Tobacco and Fire-Arms." "I guess this isn't about the alcohol and the tobacco." " Crimean Restaurant ?" " Papa ?" "Both my sons are dead." "There are only two tragedies in life." "One is not getting what you want, the other is getting it." "Is this one of yours ?" "Jack valentine finally had what he wanted." "Curiously, the death certificate says he died of heart failure." "A false death certificate ?" "That's not going to hold me." "You're right !" "As usual, you are right !" "Have you seen today's paper ?" "Fake end-user certificates, cut-out companies, meticulously catalogued." "There is hardly a war lord, dictator or despot anywhere in the world that you're not on a first name basis with." "It was your wife..." "your trophy wife that led us to the prize." "It's not her fault." "She's just easier to follow than you are." " May I ?" " Yeah, go ahead." "Enjoy !" " What ?" " This." "tell me I'm everything you despise, that I'm the personification of evil." "That I'm what ?" "responsible for the breakdown of the fabric of society and world order." "I'm a one-man genocide !" "Say everything you want to say to me now." "You don't have long." "Are you paying attention ?" "Or are you delusional ?" "You have broken every arms embargo written." "There's enough evidence to put you away for consecutive life sentences." "You'll spend the next 10 years going from a cell to a courtroom before you even start serving your time." "I don't think you fully appreciate the seriousness of your situation." "My family has disowned me." "My wife and son have left me." "My brother's dead." "Trust me, I fully appreciate the seriousness of my situation." "But I promise you. I won't spend a single second in a court room." "You are delusional." "I Iike you, Jack." "Or maybe not..." "but I understand you." "Let me tell you what's going to happen." "This way you can prepare yourself." "There's going to be a knock on that door, you'II be called outside." "In the hall, there will be a man who outranks you." "First he'll compliment you on the fine job you've done, that you're making the world a safer place." "That you're to receive a commendation and a promotion." "And then he's going to tell you that I am to be released." "You're going to protest, you'll probably threaten to resign." "But in the end, I will be released." "The reason I'll be released is the same reason you think I'll be convicted." "I do rub shoulders with some of the most vile, sadistic men that call themselves leaders today." "But some of those men... are the enemies..." "of your enemies." "And while the biggest arms dealer in the world is your boss, the president of the United States, who ships more merchandise in a day than I do in a year." "Sometimes it's embarrassing to have his fingerprints on the guns." "Sometimes he needs a freelancer like me to supply forces he can't be seen supplying." "So..." "You call me... evil." "But unfortunately for you..." "I'm a necessary evil." "I would tell you to go to hell... but I think you're already there." "pleasure doing business with you." "Most people are happy just to get out ofjaiI." "I expect to be paid to leave." "I'm not a fooI. I know just because they needed me that day didn't mean they wouldn't make me a scapegoat the next." "But I was back..." "Doing what I do best." " Umbrellas in the Sahara ?" " Sun umbrellas !" "Okay, go through." "You know who's going to inherit the earth ?" "Arms dealers." "Because everyone else is too busy killing each other." "That's the secret to survival." "Never go to war... especially with yourself." "THIS FILM IS BASED ON ACTUAL EVENTS." "WHILE PRIVATE GUNRUNNERS CONTINUE TO THRIVE, THE WORLD'S BIGGEST ARMS SUPPLIERS ARE THE US, UK, RUSSIA, FRANCE AND CHINA, THEYARE ALSO THE FIVE PERMANENT MEMBERS OF THE U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL." "Subtitles by:" "Laser S. film s.r.l." " Roma"