Burn Notice (TV Series)

Breaking and Entering (2008)

Jeffrey Donovan: Michael Westen

Photos 

Quotes 

• Michael Westen : [voice-over]  It takes a good marksman to shoot you at 50 feet from a moving car, but it takes a great marksman to miss... while making it look like they are trying to hit you... or markswoman as the case may be.

• Michael Westen : You said we'd meet. You promised, I believe.

  Carla : But we did meet, Michael. Tell Sam thanks for the help with the crossword.

  Michael Westen : [realizing]  Oh, sh-!

• Michael Westen : Hey, Fi.

  Fiona Glenanne : I can't believe you, Michael. Forty-eight hours ago we said "good-bye", possibly forever. And then I get a message from you on my cell that I should come right over because you got a job.

  Michael Westen : Fi, there's a lot going on, so...

  Fiona Glenanne : You couldn't start with "I'm alive"?

  Michael Westen : I thought the fact that I was calling covered that.

• Fiona Glenanne : [setting up C4 in a boat]  You want this big, right?

  Michael Westen : Just enough for the boat, Fi. Try not to break all the windows in South Beach.

• Michael Westen : Seems the people who burned me want me for a job. For now, that's all I got.

  Sam Axe : A job? Does it pay?

  Michael Westen : More of a "we'll kill you if you don't do it" type of thing.

  Sam Axe : Ah. Never liked those.

• Michael Westen : [voice-over]  In intelligence gathering, too little information is obviously a problem, but too much information is just as bad in some ways.

• Michael Westen : Making yourself comfortable I see.

  Sam Axe : Err, comfortable? I wouldn't go that far. Mike, how do you fit into these little shirts? They're like doll clothes.

• Michael Westen : [voice-over]  When you work as a spy, it's easy to think of people as assets. Resources to accomplish a goal. Because you don't have a personal relationship with an asset. You don't care about an asset. You don't miss the scent of an asset when she leaves the room.

• Michael Westen : [voice-over]  Airbags are great for surviving crashes but they make some evasive maneuvers tough. Gone are the days when you could run through a stand of trees without a face full of nylon. Of course anything you used to do head-on you can still do... but it's a little hard on anyone who's stuffed in your trunk.

• Michael Westen : [voice-over]  When you're claiming to be someone you're not, the key is commitment. You've got to sell it like your life depends on it. Because sometimes it does. One reason to work with the same people is you know each other's moves; so if you shoot at your team in the middle of an operation, they know to go with it.

• Michael Westen : [voice-over]  Private military companies are best known for their bodyguard work. It's a big part of their business but it's not the only part. For a big enough check they'll rain hot lead down wherever you want. It's not work that attracts service-with-a-smile types.

• [first lines] 

  Michael Westen : [voice-over]  As a spy, you get to spend a lot of time alone... Whether you're in an Indonesian prison, a cave in the Afghan mountains, or the back of a cargo truck, it comes with the job. You're trained to make the most of it, plan your next move, go over your intel, review your training, but, when you've cleaned your gun thirty times, and reviewed the past tense of every verb in five languages, you start itching to make a move.

• Michael Westen : [voice-over]  Security measures can sometimes seem a little cruel. Just like parents sometimes twist their kid's arm, yanking them out of a busy street. Sometimes the safest thing, isn't the most comfortable.

• Michael Westen : [voice-over]  Every thief knows that the best way to scout a place you want to rob is as a customer. Who gets to see the vault at the local bank? The rich guy with something to protect. Who gets to see the security at a private military company? A guy who wants to start his own little war.

• Michael Westen : [voice-over]  A great way to get people talking about their security, is to put them on the defensive. Accuse a guy of having bad locks, and before you know it, he's telling you where his motion detectors are.

• Michael Westen : [voice-over]  It takes some practice, but counting your steps can be extremely useful if you need to reproduce a floor plan from memory... Once you're memorized a floor plan, you want to get it down on paper a quickly as you can. Combine that with the technical specs of the security devices in the room, and you'll know where the holes in the security are. Then it's just a matter of slipping through one of those holes.

• Michael Westen : [voice-over]  Getting into a secure facility is as simple as giving yourself a good reason to be there.

• Michael Westen : [voice-over]  The typical floor is concrete slab over 20-guage steel pan with the steel trusses spaces thirty inches for support. When you cut through a floor, the thing you have to worry about is wiring. Cut into the wrong wire, and you'll set off the building alarms, electrocute yourself, of both. If you don't want a chunk of concrete crashing through to the floor below, you need to drill a hole, and anchor the slab. A concrete saw cuts it like butter. If you've done your planning right, you'll be dropping in to a blind spot in the security system, usually behind an interior wall.

• Michael Westen : [voice-over]  Motion detectors bounce sound off objects, and analyze the reflection. If something changes, the alarm goes off. Move slow enough, and a wool comforter absorbs enough sound to keep it from triggering. A thermal blanket, meanwhile, shields your body from heat sensors.

• Michael Westen : [voice-over]  Quadrangle buckshot is a specialized round designed to destroy the inside of any delicate. A computer for example. For hardened security glass I prefer Frag-12, a military round with an explosive projectile.

• Michael Westen : [voice-over]  Once the cops pick up a call on a flagged cell, they triangulate it's location. From there, they organize and deploy units - a process that can take ten minutes, give or take. Bad guys don't have that chain of command, they can be anywhere as fast as their wheels can take them.

• Michael Westen : [voice-over]  Security measures can sometimes seem a little cruel. Just like parents sometimes twist their kid's arm yanking them out of a busy street sometimes the safest thing isn't the most comfortable.

  Michael Westen : [to Jimmy, in the trunk, zip tied, mouth duct-taped]  Sorry about the trunk, but I had to keep you out of sight for a few counties until we got clear of the police.

  [trying to hit Michael with a crowbar] 

  Michael Westen : Jimmy, what are you doing? We don't have time for this. I'm here to help you. Now the people who did this are putting the screws to me too. I don't wanna be here any more than you do. Now, do you want your family back?

  [Jimmy nods] 

  Michael Westen : I'm gonna work on that. Can you be good? We have a long drive back to Miami. If you can be good, you get to ride up front.

• Michael Westen : [Explosion] 

  [Cell Phone Rings] 

  Michael Westen : Hello?

  Carla : Hello, Michael.

  Michael Westen : Sounds like you're having quite a party out there.

  Carla : Indeed we are, and you're the guest of honor.

  [Michael pointing his gun] 

  Carla : No need for that, Michael. The shooting's all over. I hope you're not too disappointed.

  Michael Westen : You can see me? Oh, I wish I could see you. I thought we were gonna meet.

  Carla : We will. First some business.

  Michael Westen : Yeah, sweetie. I thought we were gonna discuss why you burned me.

  Carla : We've had our eye on you for a while, Michael.

  Michael Westen : I'm sorry. I didn't catch your name.

  Carla : No. You didn't. Why don't you call me Carla. Go over to the car. We have something we want you to take care of for us.

  Michael Westen : A job?

  Carla : Don't call it a job. Call it a favor.

  Michael Westen : [Muffled Screaming]  I assume it has to do with the guy you've got gift-wrapped and duct-taped.

  Carla : His name is Jimmy. He's someone else we asked for a favor. You see, he decided to skip town instead.

  Michael Westen : Oh. So this is your employee retention program.

  Carla : You could call it that. He needs to go back to Miami and do as he's told. You need to help him.

  Michael Westen : I do? And why's that?

  Carla : We have his wife and daughter. If you don't help, what happens to them?

  [Sirens Wailing] 

  Carla : Oh, and one more thing. Jimmy called 911 when he saw our team.

  [Sirens Wailing] 

  Carla : You probably wanna move along.

  Michael Westen : I do this, and then we meet.

  Carla : I keep my promises.

  Michael Westen : I'll see what I can do.

  [Michael kicks Jimmy. Jimmy sobs] 

  Michael Westen : Don't move.