West Side Story (2021)

Mike Faist: Riff

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Riff : [Tony arrives at the rumble]  And just when all hope is lost. So, is this the shot heard round the world, or just, you know, more of your bullshit?

  Tony : Don't ask me about shooting, pal. You're the one with the gun.

  Riff : That's right, and who are you? Friend or foe?

• Riff : What are you afraid of, your Patrol Officer? You're breaking my heart with this shit!

• Lieutenant Schrank : What's a gang without its terrain, its turf? You're a month or two away from finding out, one step ahead of the wrecking ball. And in this uncertain world, the only thing you can count on is *me*. I'm here to keep the civil peace until the last building falls. And if you boys make trouble on my turf, Riff, hand to heart, you're headed to an upstate prison cell for a very long time. By the time you get out, this will be a shiny new neighbourhood of rich people in beautiful apartments with Puerto Rican doormen that chase trash like you away.

  [starts to leave] 

  Riff : Wait! I got a question for you, Lieutenant. How tall did you used to be before you, you know, "schrank"?

  Lieutenant Schrank : Come on, Sergeant, ride with me.

  Officer Krupke : Long as I know you, Riff, you ain't had the sense, God gave a pigeon.

• Riff : I get confused when you say "our streets," seeing how these streets are ours by right of being born here, amigo.

• Riff : Look, Tony and me started the Jets cause none of us would even be here if it wasn't for all of us. And all you know it.

  [singing] 

  Riff : When you're a Jet, You're a Jet all the way, From your first cigarette, To your last dyin' day...

• Tony : Womb to tomb.

  Riff : Sperm to worm.

• Riff : You know, I don't know who I am. And who cares who I am? Nobody, including me. I know that this dust that's covering everything right now, that's the four-story buildings that was standing here when you went upstate a year ago. You know, I wake up to everything I know either getting sold or wrecked, or being taken over by people that I don't like. And they don't like me. And you know what's left out of all that? The Jets. My guys. My guys, who are just like me.

• Riff : You see us coming, and we will keep coming, you Sharks make like the rats and skedaddle.

• Bernardo Vasquez : Better without knives.

  Riff : Better for who is the question that comes to mind, but no knives. And no jazz till then. Copasetic?

• Tony : When are you gonna grow up?

  Riff : Never, probably. Born to die young, Daddy-o.

• Abe : I don't sell heaters to unscrubbed boys.

  Riff : These guys, the ones we're rumbling with, they're bringing heat.

  Ice : Cause they think we're bringing heat.

  Riff : So, we need to bring heat so they know that we ain't defenceless. And vice versa.

  Abe : Mutually assured destruction.

• Tony : Gee whillikers, Batman. Since when you carry a rod?

  Riff : Well, I don't got magic powers like you, Superman, so I got this.

• Tony : All right, let's get some beer and some weed and let's go to the zoo.

  Riff : Like the old days, huh?

  Tony : Yeah. I will if you will.

  Riff : You know me, brother. I don't look back.

  Tony : Why? You afraid of what you're gonna see?

  Riff : No, I look ahead. I wanna be prepared in case they come prepared. So, give me the gun, Tony. I mean it. Now.

  Tony : [singing]  Boy, boy, crazy boy, Get cool, boy, Got a rocket, In your pocket, Keep coolly cool, boy...

• Riff : Did you bring him flowers, too? Come on, quit flirting with him! Close his eyes!

• Riff : How many times do I gotta tell you, Bernardo? I don't speak spic.