[first lines]
Ace Rothstein: [voice-over] When you love someone, you've gotta trust them. There's no other way. You've got to give them the key to everything that's yours. Otherwise, what's the point? And for a while, I believed, that's the kind of love I had.
[Ace's car explodes]
Ace Rothstein: [voice-over] No matter how big a guy might be, Nicky would take him on. You beat Nicky with fists, he comes back with a bat. You beat him with a knife, he comes back with a gun. And if you beat him with a gun, you better kill him, because he'll keep comin' back and back until one of you is dead.
Nicky Santoro: I think in all fairness, I should explain to you exactly what it is that I do. For instance tomorrow morning I'll get up nice and early, take a walk down over to the bank and... walk in and see and, uh... if you don't have my money for me, I'll... crack your fuckin' head wide-open in front of everybody in the bank. And just about the time that I'm comin' out of
jail, hopefully, you'll be coming out of your coma. And guess what? I'll split your fuckin' head open again. 'Cause I'm fuckin' stupid. I don't give a fuck about jail. That's my business. That's what I do.
Ace Rothstein: [voice-over] In Vegas, everybody's gotta watch everybody else. Since the players are looking to beat the casino, the dealers are watching the players. The box men are watching the dealers. The floor men are watching the box men. The pit bosses are watching the floor men. The shift bosses are watching the pit bosses. The casino manager is watching the shift bosses.
I'm watching the casino manager. And the eye-in-the-sky is watching us all.
Nicky Santoro: Where the fuck do you get off talking to people about me behind my back, going over my head?
Ace Rothstein: What people?
Nicky Santoro: What people, d'ja think I wasn't gonna find out?
Ace Rothstein: I don't even know what you're talking about Nick...
Nicky Santoro: No?
You said I'm bringing heat on YOU? I gotta listen to people because of your fuckin shit? You're orderin me out? You better get your own fuckin army pal!
Ace Rothstein: I didn't do anything, I mean, I didn't order you or anybody. I only told Andy Stone that you had a lot of heat on you and that was a problem.
Nicky Santoro: You want me to get out of
my own fuckin town?
Ace Rothstein: Yeah I said l-let the bullshit blow over for a while, so I can run the casino. Anything goes wrong with the casino it's my ass, it's not yours, it's my ass!
Nicky Santoro: Oh I don't know whether you know this or not, but you only have your fuckin casino because I made that possible. I'm what counts out here, not
your fuckin country clubs or your fuckin TV shows! And what the fuck are you doing on TV anyhow? You know I get calls from back home every fuckin day, they think you went bat shit!
Ace Rothstein: I'm only on TV because I got to be able to hang around the casino. You understand that, you know that, come on.
Nicky Santoro: Your fuckin ass! You coulda
had the food and beverage job without going on television. You wanted to go on TV.
Ace Rothstein: Yeah I did want to go on TV. That way I have a forum, I can fight back. I'm known. People see me. They know they can't fuck around with me like they could if I was an unknown, that's right, yeah!
Nicky Santoro: You're making a big fuckin spectacle of
yourself!
Ace Rothstein: Me? I wouldn't even be in this situation if it wasn't for you. You brought down so much fuckin heat on me, I mean every time I meet somebody the big question is "do I know you?"
Nicky Santoro: Oh sure now you wanna bring your fuckin license on me, is that it?
Ace Rothstein: No, Nicky, when you asked me
if you could come out here, what did I tell you? I mean you asked me and I know you were gonna come out no matter what I said, but what did I tell you? Do you remember what I told you? Do you remember what I told you?
Nicky Santoro: Back- Back up, back up a fuckin' minute here. One minute. I asked you? When the fuck did I ever ask you if I could come out here? Get this
through your head, you...
Ace Rothstein: You never...
Nicky Santoro: Get this through your head you Jew motherfucker, you. You only exist out here because of me. That's the only reason. Without me, you, personally, every fuckin' wise guy skell around'll take a piece of your fuckin' Jew ass. Then where you gonna go? You're fuckin' warned. Don't ever
go over my fuckin' head again. You motherfucker, you.
[Last lines]
Ace Rothstein: [narrating] The town will never be the same. After the Tangiers, the big corporations took it all over. Today it looks like Disneyland. And while the kids play cardboard pirates, Mommy and Daddy drop the house payments and Junior's college money on the poker slots. In the old days, dealers knew your name, what you drank, what you played. Today,
it's like checkin' into an airport. And if you order room service, you're lucky if you get it by Thursday. Today, it's all gone. You get a whale show up with four million in a suitcase, and some twenty-five-year-old hotel school kid is gonna want his Social Security Number. After the Teamsters got knocked out of the box, the corporations tore down practically every one of the old casinos. And
where did the money come from to rebuild the pyramids? Junk bonds. But in the end, I wound up right back where I started. I could still pick winners, and I could still make money for all kinds of people back home. And why mess up a good thing? And that's that.
Nicky Santoro: [narrating] it wasn't long before what I was afraid what was going to happen: happened, Nicky managed to get himself banned from every casino in Las Vegas, from then on I couldn't be seen talking to him anywhere in Vegas or anywhere near it.
Nicky Santoro: [meeting at Idle Spurs bar after reading a letter from the government informing him of
his banishment] so in other words: I'm fucked.
Ace Rothstein: In so many words, yes.
Ace Rothstein: [Narrating] It just didn't sink into his head what the Black Book is and what it meant, not being banned from every casino is just one thing but being this book gets you into the brains of every cop and FBI agent in the state, I mean you're listed in
there with Al Capone, but Nicky didn't care.
[Describing Kansas City family underboss Piscano]
Nicky Santoro: This guy could fuck up a cup of coffee.
Flirting Executive: Hello Mrs. Rothstein, how are you?
[kisses her hand]
Flirting Executive: You're one of the most gorgeous women I've ever seen. You're a lucky man, Mr. Rothstein.
Ace Rothstein: [hesitant] Thank you, thanks for that compliment.
Ace Rothstein: [voice-over] He was a young kid from the
casino. Nice kid, bright boy. What balls on this fuckin' kid. The next day I fired him.
Nicky Santoro: [voice-over] A lot of holes in the desert, and a lot of problems are buried in those holes. But you gotta do it right. I mean, you gotta have the hole already dug before you show up with a package in the trunk. Otherwise, you're talking about a half-hour to forty-five minutes worth of digging. And who knows who's gonna come along in that time? Pretty soon, you gotta
dig a few more holes. You could be there all fuckin' night.
Ace Rothstein: I'm just curious. I saw you shuffling your checks with your right hand. Can you do that with both hands?
Signaller: No.
Ace Rothstein: Can't do it with both hands?
Signaller: No, sir.
Ace Rothstein: Can you do it with your left hand?
Signaller:
Well, I... I never tried.
Ace Rothstein: So you're a righty?
Signaller: Yeah.
[one of the guards repeatedly bangs the signaller's right hand with a hammer]
Ace Rothstein: Now you're gonna have to learn with your left hand.
Nicky Santoro: Listen to me Anthony. I got your head in a fuckin' vise. I'll squash your head like a fuckin' grapefruit if you don't give me a name. Don't make me have to do this, please. Don't make me be a bad guy, come on.
Tony Dogs: Fuck you.
Nicky Santoro: This motherfucker, you believe this? Two fucking days and nights! Fuck me?
*Fuck me?* You motherfucker!
[turning the crank]
Nicky Santoro: Fuck my mother? That's what you fucking tell me? You motherfucker you!
Ace Rothstein: From now on, I want you to put an equal amount of blueberries in each muffin.
Ace Rothstein: ...An equal amount of blueberries in each muffin.
Baker: Do you know how long that's going to take?
Ace Rothstein: I don't care how long it takes. Put an equal amount in each muffin.
Nicky Santoro: And we know what you do, don't we Charlie? You fuck people out of money and get away with it.
Charlie Clark: You can't talk to me like that...
Nicky Santoro: Hey, you fat Irish prick! You put my fucking money to sleep. You go get my fucking money or I'll put your fucking brain to sleep.