(machine gun fire)
(machine gun fire continuing)
There are over 550 million firearms
in worldwide circulation.
That's one firearm for every 12 people on the planet.
The only question is...
how do we arm the other 11?
("For What It's Worth" playing)
(men shouting indistinctly)
# There's something happening here #
# What it is ain't exactly clear #
# There's a man with a gun over there #
# Telling me I got to beware #
# I think it's time we stop, children #
# What's that sound? #
# Everybody look what's going down #
# There's battle lines being drawn #
# Nobody's right #
# If everybody's wrong #
# Young people speaking their minds #
# Getting so much resistance from behind #
# I think it's time we stop hey, what's that sound? #
# Everybody look what's going down #
- # What a field day for the heat # - # Ooh-ooh #
# A thousand people in the street #
# Singing songs and a-carrying signs #
# Mostly say, hooray for our side #
# It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound? #
# Everybody look what's going down #
(clamoring)
# Paranoia strikes deep #
# Into your life it will creep #
# It starts when you're always afraid #
# You step out of line, the man come and take you away #
# We better stop, children, what's that sound? #
# Everybody look what's going down #
# There's battle lines being drawn #
# Nobody's right #
# If everybody's wrong #
# Young people speaking their minds #
# Getting so much resistance from behind #
# It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound? #
# Everybody look what's going down. #
Man: You don't have to worry.
I'm not gonna tell you a pack of lies to make me look good.
I'm just gonna tell you what happened.
- My name is Yuri Orlov. - ("America the Beautiful" playing)
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 just swapped one hell for another.
Even in hell,
an angel sometimes makes an appearance.
I'd worshipped Ava Fontaine since I was 10 years old.
Of course, she didn't know I existed.
I was starting to think she had a point.
For the first 20-odd years of my life,
Little Odessa was to me what it is to the Q train.
The end of the line.
Oh, I did lie about my name.
It's not really Yuri Orlov.
There have been few occasions in the 20th Century
when it's been an advantage to be a Jew.
But in the '70s to escape the Soviet Union,
our family pretended to be Jewish.
Little about my life has been kosher ever since.
How's it going, brother?
It's not.
Yuri: That's Vitaly, my younger brother.
He was a lost as me. He just didn't know it yet.
Yuri, you're late.
My father took his assumed identity to heart.
He was more Jewish than most Jews,
which drove my Catholic mother crazy.
How many times? I can't eat shellfish.
- It's trayf. - You're not Jewish.
I like it.
I like the hat...
to remind us there is something above us.
I like that.
- I'm going to temple. - You're not going to temple.
You go to temple more than the rabbi.
(speaking Russian)
Yuri, don't forget to check the specials
at the Palace.
Yuri: Growing up in Little Odessa,
murder was an everyday part of life.
Russian mobsters had also migrated from the Soviet Union.
And when they came to America, their baggage came with them.
There was always some gangster getting whacked in my neighborhood.
But I'd never seen it with my own eyes.
I had this knack of showing up five minutes before something went down,
or five minutes after.
Not that day.
It hit me.
It couldn't have hit me harder if I was the one who'd been shot.
You go into the restaurant business because people are always
going to 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.
Eli, my oldest son Yuri.
My contact at synagogue
landed me my first Israeli-made Uzi submachine guns.
The first time you sell a gun is a lot like the first time you have sex.
You have absolutely no idea what you're doing.
But it is exciting, and one way or another,
it's over way too fast.
Gentlemen, the new Uzi machine pistol...
big firepower in a small package.
This little baby uses 9mm hollowpoints,
2025-round extendable mags,
rear-flip adjustable sights.
Silencer comes standard. Excellent recoil reduction.
Muzzle jump reduced 40%, 60% improved noise suppression.
You could pump a mag into me right now
and never wake the guy in the next room.
Of course that would eliminate your opportunity for repeat business.
Yuri: I did have a natural instinct for smuggling contraband.
Fortunately, back then a video camera 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 ribcages.
# All right #
# He was a young American #
# Young American, young American #
# He was a young American... #
Where have you been? What if we had a customer?
God bless America.
- Mm, mm-hmm. (gags) - Yeah?
(speaks Russian)
"Beware of the dog"?
You don't have a dog. Are you trying to scare people?
No, it's to scare me.
Remind me to be aware of the dog in me.
The dog that wants to fuck everything that moves,
wants to fight 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 that's the best part of you, the dog part?
What if you're really just a two-legged dog?
You need to see somebody.
It stinks in here.
Yuri: I'd always wanted to do something big with my life.
I just didn't know what.
Anyhow, I figured if I was going into the gun trade,
I was going to aim high.
Vitaly, stop fucking around. I want to talk to you.
You read the newspapers, V?
The newspaper?
It's always the same.
You're right. Every day there's people shooting each other.
You know what I do when I see that?
I look to see what guns they're using,
and I think to myself, why not my guns?
What, you opening a gun shop?
Already more of those in America than McDonald's.
Even with all the gangsters around here,
the margins are too low.
- You've worked out the margins? - Sure.
Forget gang wars.
The real money's in actual wars between countries.
Yuri, what the fuck do you know about guns?
I know which end I'd rather be on.
I made the first sale. We're already in business.
Whoa. We?
I need a partner.
I don't know.
Uh, I don't know, Yuri. I don't know.
Vitaly, I've tasted your borscht. You're no fucking chef.
I can eat in the restaurant for free, and I still don't eat there.
Fuck you.
We're doing nothing with our lives.
I mean, this is shit. This is shit.
That's true.
But maybe doing nothing's better than doing this.
I need you.
(speaking Russian)
("Ride of the Valkyries" playing)
Sir, sir, may I interest you in the shoulder-fired SA-7
surface-to-air missile? It's the older Chinese model.
Not so effective against modern military aircraft,
but deadly if used against a commercial airliner.
Giving them away at 850.
Yuri: It was the '80s, and the Cold War was far from thawed.
Most of the deals were government to government.
It was a mostly private club with a lifetime club president.
- That's him. - Who, the big shot?
Simeon Weisz.
Angola, Mozambique, those Exocet missiles in the Falklands.
He was selling guns before there was gunpowder.
I'll be right back.
Mr. Weisz. Mr. Weisz.
It's okay. They're talking.
- May I help? - Yes, a mutual friend, Eli Kurtzman,
from Brighton Beach, import, exports, said to contact you.
I have a business proposal,
and 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 Iran-Iraq 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.
Yuri: Curious how you always revert to your native tongue in moments
- of extreme anger and ecstasy. - (heavy breathing)
- Oh, you are beautiful. - (TV playing)
What's your name again?
(man on TV speaking foreign language)
Yuri: 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 United States leaves a war zone,
they generally don't take their munitions.
It costs more to bring it back than to buy new stock.
So we sell by the kilo.
They're secondhand weapons, but they're still okay.
How many kilos would you like?
- 5,000. - Yuri: I had a flair for languages.
But I soon discovered that what talks best is dollars,
dinars, drachmas, rubles, rupees 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.
And some of the brass, like Lieutenant Colonel Southern
needed to raise money for their own private wars.
Good to make your acquaintance.
This is bullshit money, V. This is small fucking potatoes.
What do you want to go, go more legit?
No, more illegal.
What I would give right now for a plate of cabbage and potatoes.
(machine gun fire)
It's not our fight.
V, come on.
Let's go. Come on.
Yuri: Selling guns is like selling vacuum cleaners.
You make calls, pound the pavement, take orders.
I was an equal opportunity merchant of death.
I supplied every army but the Salvation Army.
I sold Israeli-made Uzis to Muslims.
I sold communist-made bullets to fascists.
(speaking Chinese)
I even shipped cargo to Afghanistan
when they were fighting my fellow Soviets.
I never sold to Osama bin Laden.
Not on any moral grounds. Back then he was always bouncing checks.
(machine gun fire)
By the mid '80s, my weapons were represented
in eight of the world's top 10 war zones.
(cash register chiming)
There's no problem leading a double life.
It's the triple and quadruples 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
of the world I was visiting.
Without operations like mine,
it would be impossible for certain countries
to conduct a respectable war.
I was able to navigate around those inconvenient little arms embargoes.
There are three basic types of arms deal.
White being legal, black being illegal
and my personal favorite color gray.
Sometimes I made the deals so convoluted,
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 AK-47 assault rifle was the "angel king."
It's Yuri.
Yeah, well, yeah, Raoul...
Raoul, the angel king will arrive tomorrow.
Hallelujah to you too. All right.
The point is if I've done my job right,
an arms embargo should be practically impossible
- to enforce. - (telephone rings)
What? Okay, just slow the fuck down.
I can't understand you. What?
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? Shit.
- Do we try to lose them? - On this?
- Yuri, we have to get off this thing. - No, no one's going anywhere. Slow.
Dead slow. Buy me time.
Yeah, it's Yuri. Get that fucking rag down!
I need another handle for this tub.
Something in our weight class.
You, over the side. We're changing the name. Now!
Yes, it's gotta check out.
Yuri: The way I look at it. What's in a name?
Have you got a shorter name?
I'd often change the registration of the ship or a plane.
But never at such short notice.
Damn, they're hauling.
What? "Kono." How do you spell that? K-o-n-o.
Okay, well, that's good. Kono.
K-o-n-o.
What are we flying? Dutch. Got it.
V, get me a Dutch flag, would you?
Faster or I'll send your ass in!
Yuri, I don't have Dutch.
- What? - I've got Belgium.
What the fuck use is that? He's painting a name
registered in the fucking Netherlands.
- I've got a French flag. - So?
Turn it sideways...
it's Dutch. (laughs)
That's why you're my brother.
All right, good. Everybody look innocent now.
Yuri: 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.
Yeah, it's the Kono. It's not the Kristol.
Kono. K-o-n-o.
- It's clean, sir. - It's clean?
Sure doesn't look clean.
I'm gonna go aboard.
Phone in a sighting of the Kristol south of Aruba.
Yuri: Even when I was up against an overzealous agent,
I had a number of methods for discouraging a search.
I routinely mislabeled my arms shipments "farm machinery."
And I have yet to meet the lowly paid customs official
who will open a container marked "radioactive waste"
to verify its contents,
but my personal favorite is the unique combination
of week-old potatoes and tropical heat.
(insects buzzing)
It smells.
Sir, sighting of the Kristol due north.
Most importantly, I kept a number of intelligence people
on the payroll to supply their colleagues
with counterintelligence.
Let's go.
The second rule of gun-running is always ensure
you have a foolproof way to get paid.
Preferably in advance, ideally to an offshore account.
That's why I chose my customers so carefully.
Say what you like about warlords and dictators.
They tend to have a highly developed sense of order.
They always pay their bills on time.
(speaking Spanish)
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa...
What the fuck are you doing?
- Fuck you! - Fuck you!
(screams) No, V.
Shit.
The first and most important rule of gunrunning
is never get shot with your own merchandise.
You okay?
I think so.
- So what do we do now? - Let's celebrate.
# If you wanna hang out, you've got to take her out #
# Cocaine #
- # If you wanna get down # - God.
# Down on the ground #
# Cocaine... #
That narco-guerilla had his facts right.
After shipping it stateside, the return on that blow
netted me a healthy profit.
It would have been better, except one kilo never made it back.
Vitaly.
Vit.
To this day, I don't know what Vitaly was running away from.
Maybe just from Vitaly.
I found him 12 days, 2,000 miles
and 150 grams later in a Bolivian boarding house.
Of course, my dream girl had gotten there before me.
# Cocaine... #
V.
# If your thing is gone and you wanna ride on #
# Cocaine... #
- Come on. - # Don't forget this fact #
# You can't get it back #
# Cocaine #
# She don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie #
# Cocaine #
Yuri. 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?
And then I work my way to the Crimean.
You're gonna be dead before you fucking reach Kiev.
- Come on, we're going home. - You fuck!
You fucking fuck! You fucking fuck!
What the fuck is your problem?
(snorting)
Come on, Vit.
It's so nice to be home.
Yeah, we're... we're gonna get you home.
Come on.
(sighs) Get out of the car.
Vitaly, I need you to get out of the car.
I promised our parents.
Please.
Vitaly, you're gonna have a great time. This is a top place.
Two Ford models checked in last week.
And that cute weathergirl's been here since July.
Please, please.
Please, Yuri.
(snorting)
You're a good brother.
- Okay. - You're a good brother, Yuri.
- Okay, all right. - Good brother.
All right, get out of the car. Okay.
Get out of the car.
Yuri: From then on, I was a one-man operation.
I never understood what separated the recreational drug user
from the habitual, but for the grace of God,
it could have been me snorting lines as long as the Belt Parkway.
However, I wasn't entirely free of the grip of addiction myself.
There she was again.
Ava Fontaine.
In my neighborhood, they say "The good get out."
In our own ways, we both conquered the world.
(woman singing in French)
You can't force someone to fall in love with you.
But you can definitely improve your odds.
It cost me 20 grand to book her for a fake photo shoot.
Another 12 to buy out the hotel.
It's a popular hotel, huh?
- Ava Fontaine. - Yuri Orlov.
What brings you to St. Bart's?
Photo shoot. At least that was the plan.
Guess the photographer got stuck in Miami.
Hurricane, though there's nothing on the news.
Those things can come out of nowhere.
So, the job's been canceled,
and wouldn't you know it, there's no flight back to New York until Tuesday.
You can hitch a ride with me if you like. I'm leaving tomorrow.
Meanwhile, why don't I take your picture?
Yuri: In my experience, some of the most successful relationships
are based on lies and deceit.
Since that's where they usually end up anyway,
it's a logical place to start.
Right there. Right there. Hold it.
Oh my God!
Yuri: I nearly went broke trying to convince her I was anything but.
I knew Ava was not the kind of woman to be seduced
by a ride in a private jet unless you owned the jet.
This is your plane?
That is my name.
Yuri: Of course I was lying.
The plane was a rental like the car and even the suit I was standing in.
At the last minute I bribed the crew for the paint job.
Luckily by the time 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.
Well 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?
I was born in Ukraine but I grew up in Brooklyn.
- No. - What, you too?
Williamsburg.
Well, here's to a hurricane.
Without it I never would have met you.
This is no accident, is it, Yuri?
It feels like fate.
I don't believe in fate.
What do you believe in?
Is that a view or is that a view?
That's a view.
(people applauding)
Thank you. Thank you all.
- Mazel tov. - Congratulations.
Thanks.
Always remember, son, there's something above you.
Sure, Dad. A $40,000 crystal chandelier.
(laughs)
Make yourselves at home.
Go. Go!
I'm sorry. Today must be tough.
Be nice to have a couple more guests from my side of the family.
I'm sure they're watching right now.
Thank you.
But you don't believe that, Yuri.
Remember?
I know you, Yuri.
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.
Yuri: That's the trouble with falling in love with a dream girl.
They have a habit of becoming real.
I've never been so glad to see Vitaly.
- So fucking beautiful! - Oh!
Brother, brother, thank you so much
for giving me such a beautiful sister.
Yuri: He was out of rehab and out of his mind.
Dance! Dance! Dance! We have to dance!
- All right. - It's a wedding. A celebration. To Yuri!
Yuri: But 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 largely to me, become accustomed.
Ava! Ava this is too much.
Yuri likes to spoil you.
Yuri: Then suddenly all my Christmases came at once.
Nicki, you did it! Good boy!
Ha ha! That's my grandson!
Yuri, don't you want to see what your son is doing?
Yuri: Whoever said it's better to give than receive
never got a Christmas present like the one I got
in 1991 from Mikhail Gorbachev.
- What the hell's the matter? - It's over! It's over!
- What's over? - The Cold-fucking-War!
The Soviet-fucking-Union! The evil fucking empire.
Mikhail's saying "no mas." He's throwing in the towel.
It's over!
- Your son is walking. - That's incredible, honey.
At least there'll be religious freedom.
Let's hope so.
I think I'll go back for a visit.
Do you stay in touch with Uncle Dmitri?
I'm not a fool, Yuri.
I don't think you're going just to sell Pepsi-Cola.
Is this how you want to be remembered?
(laughs)
I don't want to be remembered at all.
If I'm being remembered it means I'm dead.
Merry fucking Christmas! (laughing)
Who is this, Vitaly?
- I'm Angel. - Her name really is Angel.
She's a fairy.
Let's put her on top of the Christmas tree.
- Vitaly: I love you! - Come on.
- I love you all. - (Nicki crying)
Take this.
I'm going back to Ukraine.
I miss Odessa.
(inhales)
- I miss you. - I miss you.
Be careful, Yuri. Those things you sell kill.
Inside.
You're high.
Well, that's true.
Hello, Christian.
("Soviet National Anthem" playing)
Yuri: During the Cold War the Red Army stationed
nearly one million troops in Ukraine
because of it's strategic military importance.
The day after The Wall came down the paychecks stopped coming.
(speaking Russian)
There's nothing better for an arms dealer
than the combination of disgruntled soldiers
and warehouses full of weapons.
I was hoping Major General Dmitri Volkoff
would open a lot of armory doors in lots of military bases.
For a start, he was family.
He was a highly decorated hero of the Red Army
and he was almost permanently shit-faced.
I can't just sell you government property, Yuri.
I have to report.
Report to who? Moscow?
As of last week Moscow's in a foreign country.
New flag, new boss.
There is no new boss yet.
They're all too busy squabbling over who's gonna get
the presidential holiday home at the Black Sea.
It's beautiful.
The ones who know don't care anymore and the ones who care don't know.
Show me your inventory.
Yuri: Those 45 years of mutual hatred
between the East and the West had generated
the highest weapons buildup in history.
The Soviets had guns coming out of the demon hole.
Huge stockpiles, and now no enemy.
How many Kalashnikovs do you have?
40,000.
Is that a four?
Doesn't look like a four to me. Looks more like a one.
No, it's a four.
It's whatever we say it is because no one else will know the difference.
10,000 Kalashnikovs for a battalion.
Your stocks are dangerously depleted, Dmitri.
You should order more from the factory.
Someone will work it out.
What happens then?
We'll cut them in.
Yuri: The end of the Cold War was the beginning
of the hottest time in arms dealing.
The arms bazaar was open.
Guided missiles, unguided missiles,
mortars, mines, armored personnel carriers.
Whole tank divisions.
I even landed a squadron of helicopter gunships...
the most sophisticated fighting machines,
built for a war with America that never happened.
Thanks to me, they'd finally get to fire a shot in anger.
I have a feeling it wasn't exactly what comrade Lenin
had in mind when he advocated the redistribution of wealth.
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?
You're late.
So it appears.
(speaks Russian)
(imitates gunshot)
You look a little lost, Simeon. Is the world changing too fast?
I'm here, aren't I?
Not all of you, I think.
You've gotten so rich selling for the CIA
you can't seem to get that ideology completely out of your head.
Oh, the Cold War had its uses.
Kept attentions frozen.
Now it's harder to determine
which side one's on.
Things have become more complicated.
No, it's gotten simpler.
There's no place in gunrunning for politics anymore, Simeon.
I sell to leftists and rightists.
I'd sell to pacifists but they're not the most regular of customers.
Of course you're not a true internationalist
until you've supplied weapons to kill your own countrymen.
This current state of chaos won't last forever.
There'll have to be order.
Instead of cutting each other's throats,
it may be beneficial if we work together. What do you think?
What do I think?
I think you're the amateur now.
I think you should go with your instincts.
With your first instinct.
I'm the same man who was not good enough for you before
and I'm just not good enough for you now.
The problem with gunrunners going to war...
is that there's no shortage of ammunition.
Yuri: 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 stockpiles 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 Avtomat Kalashnikova,
model of 1947
more commonly known as the AK-47 or Kalashnikov.
It's the world's most popular assault rife.
A weapon all fighters love.
An elegantly simple 9 lb. Amalgamation
of forged 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 can use it, and they do.
The Soviets put the gun on a coin.
Mozambique put it on their flag.
Since the end of the Cold War the Kalashnikov has become
the Russian people's greatest export.
After that comes vodka, caviar and suicidal novelists.
One thing's for sure.
No one was lining up to buy their cars.
I thought you were supposed to be watching out for these people.
How can I? You keep selling my helicopters.
You are too greedy, Yuri.
I can't hold him forever.
- I've got paperwork. - Not for the gunships.
You know the penalty for sanction-busting.
Selling the military helicopter is a major violation.
Military helicopter.
It's not a military helicopter.
It's a rescue helicopter.
Get to work, son.
The law is on our side.
All right, let me see your papers.
No, no, put that away. Let's see your papers.
- Yuri Orlov. - Mr. Orlov.
Always in the wrong place at the right time.
We've met before. Off the coast of Columbia.
What was the name of that freighter? I can't remember.
Was it Kono or the Kristol?
The crew called that vessel a lot of names,
none of them repeatable in polite company.
- Answer the question. - The new MP-5.
Would you like a silencer for that?
I need to see your papers.
Dmitri!
The end-user certificate for this aircraft
states "Burkina Faso."
Nice. Very nice. Did you type this up yourself?
The helicopter is to be used on humanitarian missions.
- Oh, so you're a humanitarian? - Oh, absolutely.
(laughs) This is a military aircraft.
- Not anymore. - Listen to the nephew.
What can they do with military hardware but convert it to civilian use?
The only way you could die from this baby now is if a food drop hits you.
And this stuff over here? Is that going to Burkina Faso as well?
Ah, but to a different client at a different address.
Just a coincidence, is that it? Do you take me for a complete fucking fool?
Not complete, sir. And while I hesitate to tell you your job,
I must point out that when shipped separately
the weapons and the aircraft both comply
with the current Interpol trade standards and practices.
We both know that is an obscene bureaucratic loophole
that's gonna be closed any goddamn day.
But it's not closed.
And while certain people might interpret this cargo as suspicious,
thank God we live in a world where suspicion alone does not constitute crime.
And where men like you respect the rule of law.
Yuri: I was as guilty as sin, but Valentine couldn't prove it.
And he was the rarest breed of law enforcement officer.
The type who 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.
Sometimes with offers better than mine.
But to Dmitri, you couldn't put a price on loyalty.
- What was he doing here? - He is hoping to beat your offer.
I told him to go have intercourse with himself.
- But Yuri... - You need to make more payoffs.
- Too many know. - Don't worry.
There are more VCRs, cigarettes. I left them in your new car.
Even your enemy was admiring that car.
(laughing) I am the luckiest man alive.
You are.
(phone ringing)
- Hello? - Ava?
Hi, baby.
You forget what time it is?
I'm sorry, I...
how was that... your audition?
They're going in another direction.
Direction of someone who can act.
They don't deserve you.
Where are you? Is everything okay?
It was a rough day at the office.
- Come home. - Soon.
- How's Nicki? - He misses you.
We both do.
It's lonely without you here.
You know I don't like nights.
Ever since my parents.
(gunfire)
Yuri, what's that?
A party. I better go.
Just wanted to call and hear your voice.
- Kiss Nicki for me. - I love you.
(dial tone)
Yuri: The pillaging didn't die with my uncle.
After The Wall came down $32 billion dollars
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 gunrunner's wet dream.
At the time, the West couldn't care less.
They had a white war in what was left of Yugoslavia.
I did the bulk of my business in Liberia.
"Land of the Free."
Originally established as a homeland for freed American slaves,
it's been enslaved by one dictator or another ever since.
The latest was American-educated self-declared president
Andre Baptiste.
- Mr. Yuri! - (engine revs)
I'm Andre Baptiste Jr.
My father would like to meet you.
What an honor.
Thank him, but unfortunately I have other business.
It's a shame. It's a very busy schedule.
(laughing)
It is not...
as they say, optional.
My father is easily offended.
My schedule just freed up.
Whoo!
Yuri: President Baptiste was my best customer
but I was in no hurry to meet him.
He's gotten a reputation for routinely hacking off the limbs
of those who opposed him.
His seven-year civil war has been described as
a relentless campaign of sadistic wanton violence.
That kind of sums up Andy for me.
(engine revs)
The Glock is interesting.
It's made of a polymer composite.
Many of my clients feel they can get through airport security
without setting off a lot of bells and whistles.
Personally, I do not recommend that.
On the other hand, if you are looking for a traditional wheel gun,
there is no substitute for the six inches of muzzle energy
of the.357 Magnum. And of course, it will never jam.
Why'd you do that?!
What did you say?
Well now you're gonna have to buy it. It's a used gun.
(cocking guns)
How can I sell a used gun?
(chuckles) A used gun.
That's a good one. (laughs)
You know, there is no discipline with the youth today.
I try to set an example but it is difficult.
Personally, I blame MTV.
(distant gunfire)
A used gun.
(laughs)
I think you and I,
we can do business.
Yuri: If I thought I was scared of Andre Sr.,
I knew I was scared of Andre Jr.
Like father like son.
The guava doesn't fall too far from the tree.
He was also a cannibal.
They say Andre would eat a victim's heart while it was still beating
to give him superhuman strength.
(gunfire)
Monrovia itself was like being on another planet.
Planet Monrovia.
From the temperature, it was obviously a planet 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 into it.
Andre Jr.: 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 M-60.
Would you like the armor piercing bullets?
Please.
My father left a welcoming present in your room.
Enjoy.
(laughs)
(gunfire)
(man speaking French on TV)
My God, she nearly got her head cut off.
When I get to America, I will not live in Brentwood.
Second floor.
Yuri: In the most AIDS infested region of the globe,
where one in four is infected,
Andre's idea of a joke was to put a young Iman
and a young Naomi in my bed
and no condom within 100 miles.
# Yes #
# Give me a reason to love you... #
(clears throat)
# Give me a reason... #
Hello, Mr. Yuri.
Hi.
We'd be happy to make you happy.
Uh...
I can't.
I'd love to, but I can't.
Don't worry. We don't have anything.
Oh.
How do you know?
Do we look like it?
What if I have AIDS? Don't you worry?
- (distant gunfire) - (laughs)
You worry too much.
Why do you worry about something that can kill you in 10 years
when there's so many things
that can kill you today?
Now...
how can we make you happy?
# Give me a reason to love you... #
- By leaving. - (music stops)
(exhales)