Science Fiction Video Games

"[about the Splicers] Why do they wear those masks? Maybe there's a part of them that remembers how they used to be, how they used to look. And they're ashamed."

"Ryan's handed the keys to Fort Frolic over to a guy named Sander Cohen. Cohen's an artist, says some. He's a Section Eight, says I. I've seen all kinds of cutthroats, freaks, and hard cases in my life, but Cohen, he's a real lunatic, a dyed-in-the-wool psychopath..."

"[after completing Sander Cohen's masterpiece] What happened to you? I've been trying to raise you for a dog's age. Never mind. Would you kindly leg it over to the 'sphere and head to Hephaestus? It's time to settle up with Ryan."

"Watch yourself. Ryan's stirring. We best keep to our knitting. It's time to either run the table or go home empty. Ryan's got the genetic key to Rapture. We get that from him and we get out of this hellhole. We don't, then you and I are ghosts. Now, would you kindly head to Ryan's office and kill the son of a bitch? It's time to finish this."

"Hurry now, grab Ryan's genetic key! [Jack does so] Now would you kindly put it in that goddamn machine?! [when he does] Aaah! Nice work, boy-o! [laughs evilly, then speaks in a Bronx accent] It's time to end this little masquerade. There ain't no "Atlas", kid. Never was. Someone in my line of work takes on a variety of aliases. Hell, once, I was even a Chinaman for six months. But you've been a sport, so I guess I owe you a little honesty. Name's Frank Fontaine."

"I gotta say, I had a lot of business partners in my life, but you... 'Course, the fact that you were genetically conditioned to bark like a cocker spaniel when I said "Would You Kindly" might've had something to do with it, but still... Now, as soon as that machine finishes processing the genetic key you fished off Ryan, I'm gonna run Rapture tits to toes. You've been a pal. You know what they say: never mix business with friendship. Thanks for everything, kid. Don't forget to say "Hi" to Ryan for me."

"And now you've got hooked up with Tenenbaum, huh, kid? She's a regular Mother Goose. All right, fun's fun, kid, but now ... go get stepped on by a Big Daddy, would you kindly? [nothing happens] Huh? I says, would you kindly go get stepped on by a Big Daddy? [pause] Ah. Seems like Mother Goose has been playing around in your egg salad. If you won't dance to that tune, I got others. "Code Yellow". [Jack cries out in pain] I just told your brain to tell your heart to stop beating. Not right off the bat, mind you. The heart's a stubborn muscle. But, not that stubborn."

"Ryan's flesh and blood. Why'd I go to the trouble? Otherwise you'd have been cut in two by the first Security Bot you crossed paths with. But not Ryan. He made it so his security would recognize his genetic structure. With half his genes, you ain't immune, but you got just enough to throw them metallic mooks off their game."

"That Tenenbaum ain't what you think. Florence Nightengale, huh? That'll all come crashing down 'fore you can say "canned tomatoes". I've seen good bunco, and I've seen great bunco. But, when you waltz through Rapture and World War II without even a scratch? You got more than leprechauns watching over you."

"ADAM's the ultimate score, kid. No more grifts. No more scams. A monopoly on ADAM makes Standard Oil look like the Piggly Wiggly. All that's left is burying the bodies... And, when they're already six miles under the Atlantic, you got one helluva head start!"

"You think you're some kind of hero? I ordered you up from Suchong like a Chinese dinner: a little from column A, a little from column B. What do you plan on going back to? Your fake family? Your phony dreams? Putting you out of your misery will be the nicest thing anyone's ever done for you."

"Made Ryan good and mad when I started playing the charity angle. Fontaine's Home for the Poor. 'Fore I knew it, I was calling myself Atlas and leading an army. Ryan and his precious Rapture. You don't have to build a city to make people worship you... Just make the chumps believe they're worth a nickel."

"I'm gonna miss this place. Rapture was a candy store for a guy like me. Guys who thought they knew it all. Dames who thought they'd SEEN it all. Give me a smart mark over a dumb one every time."

"[angered] You broke the spell?! [pause] But layin' all your chips on Mother Goose – it's not like you never been double-crossed before, you know what I'm sayin'? Hoof it to Point Prometheus. We'll discuss this like men. You, me, a submarine topside, and more ADAM than you could possibly imagine."

"All right, all right, you looking to slug it out? I'm game. But I've got all the ADAM in the city, pal. And now, I'm jake to take her out for a spin..."

"Last chance, kid. You pack it in now, and I'll leave this dump to you and Frau Kraut. You keep on comin', and Rapture a fish tank."

"Look around you, kid. You think two-bit heroics count for a fig in this pit? You're staring down the puke stain of Ryan's busted dream. You think there's something worth saving down here? Then you deserve to gargle with the rest of these scrubs."

"Where you gonna go? Your life? Your family? They're a fairy tale, kid. No more real than something you read about in the Saturday Evening Post. Poor bastard. A motherless freak whipped up in a half-baked science experiment."

"[laughs cruelly] I really wound you up with that wife and child bit: [in Atlas' voice, mockingly;] "Oh, me poor Moira! Ah, me wee baby Patrick!" [laughs again, normal voice;] Maybe one day I'll get me a real family. They play well with the suckers."

"Don't know what I was thinkin'. Never spliced up once the whole time I was down here in this aquarium. Figured it was bad to mix business with pleasure, but whooo! Forget all the nose-candy and floor polish I been wastin' time with! This stuff is the mother's milk!"

"Hah! That might be enough for the working scrubs and the pencil pushers, but I need more, more. I want to splice 'till there ain't nothing left to splice with!"

"I remember when me and the Kraut put you in that sub. You were no more than two. You were my ace in the hole, but you were also the closest thing I ever had to a son. And that's why this hurts. Betrayal, kid. Life ain't strictly business."

"I had you built! I sent you topside! I called you back, showed you what you was, what you was capable of! Even that life you thought you had? That was something I dreamed and had tattooed inside your head! Now, if you don't call that family, I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS!"

"We all make choices, but in the end, our choices make us."

"A man chooses. A slave obeys."

"I am Andrew Ryan, and I'm here to ask you a question. Is a man not to the sweat of his brow? "No," says the man in Washington, "it belongs to the poor." "No," says the man in the , "it belongs to God." "No," says the man in Moscow, "it belongs to everyone." I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose... Rapture. A city where the artist would not fear the censor; where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality; where the great would not be constrained by the small! And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well."

"Good evening, my friends. I hope you are enjoying your celebration; it has been a year of trials for us all. Tonight I wish to remind each of you that Rapture is your city. It was your strength of will that brought you here, and with that strength you shall rebuild. And so, Andrew Ryan offers you a toast. To Rapture, 1959. May it be our finest year."

"[upon finding out Jack is in Rapture] So tell me, friend, which one of the bitches sent you? The wolf, or the CIA jackal? Here's the news: Rapture isn't some sunken ship for you to plunder, and Andrew Ryan isn't a giddy socialite who can be slapped around by government muscle. And with that, farewell, or dasvidaniya, whichever you prefer."

"[before the player picks up the Incinerate Plasmid] A Parasite wanders the halls. We rebuilt the city, and the doubters send a fly to spoil our ointment. One thousand ADAM to the man or woman who pins its wings."

"[to Jack over the radio, after the submarine explodes] You ooze in like an assassin and then you try to sneak out like a thief. You're no CIA spook. Who are you? Why have you come here? There's two ways to deal with a mystery...uncover it, or eliminate it."

"I came to this place to build the impossible. You came to rob what you could never build. A , gaping at the gates of Rome. Even the air you breathe is sponged from my account. Well, breathe deep ... so later you might remember the taste."

"[speaking to Jack over the radio in Arcadia] On the surface, I once bought a forest. The Parasites claimed that the land belonged to God, and demanded that I establish a there. Why? So the rabble could stand slack-jawed under the canopy and pretend that it was paradise earned. When Congress moved to nationalize my forest, I burnt it to the ground. God did not plant the seeds of this Arcadia; I did. [Arcadia fills with poisoned gas]"

"Julie, we made a business deal, you and I, did we not? Money changed hands. Let me read to you from the agreement... Section 3, Subsection 4: 'Ryan Corp maintains exclusive rights to the creation, use, and exploitation of the Lazarus Vector'. [floods Langford's office with poisoned gas] Ownership is civilization, Julie. Without it, we're back in the swamp..."

"Why are you so resistant to the traditional methods of separating a man from his soul? You're not CIA, are you? You belong to Atlas, the one roach I can't seem to exterminate. Don't worry. I just need time to find the proper poison."

"A worm looks up and sees the face of God! But look around...it's a regular convention of worms in here. They all had mothers, fathers, people who loved them. They got married, fucked their wives. What makes you think you're any different? I haven't chosen a spot for you on the wall yet. Let me know if you have a preference."

"A man builds a city at the bottom of the sea. That's a marvel. Another man happens to be on a plane that crash lands on the same city in the middle of the ocean. Why, that sounds more like... A miracle."

"Imagine the will it took to create a place like this. And what have you built? Nothing, you can only loot and break. You're not a man... you're just a termite at ."

"So far away from your family, from your friends, from everything you ever loved. But, for some reason, you like it here. You feel something you can't quite put your finger on. Think about it for a second, and maybe the word will come to you: Nostalgia."

"Though my physical defences fall, you'll not defeat me. My strength is not in steel and fire, but in my intellect and will. You hear me, Atlas?! Andrew Ryan offers you nothing but ashes!"

"[as Jack enters Rapture Central Control room] Even in the book of lies, sometimes you find truth. There is indeed a season for all things. And now that I see you flesh-to-flesh and blood-to-blood, I know I cannot raise my hand against you. But know this: you are my greatest disappointment. Does your master hear me? Atlas! You can kill me, but you will never have my city! My strength is not in steel and fire, that is what the parasites will never understand. A season for all things! A time to live, and a time to die. A time to build... And a time TO DESTROY! [suddenly sets core to self-destruct] Come now, my child. There is one final thing to discuss."

"[casually playing golf in his office as Jack approaches] The assassin has overcome my final defense, and now he's come to murder me. In the end, what separates a man from a slave? Money? Power? No. A man chooses; a slave obeys. You think you have memories: a farm, a family, an airplane, a crash, and then this place. Was there really a family? Did that airplane crash, or was it ? Forced down... Forced down by something less than a man. Something bred to sleepwalk through life until they are activated by a simple phrase, spoken by their kindly master. Was a man sent to kill, or a slave? A man chooses; a slave obeys. Come in. [Ryan's office door opens; Jack approaches] Stop, would you kindly? [Jack obeys] Would you kindly? Powerful phrase. Familiar phrase? [Jack recalls all the times Atlas said "Would you kindly"] Sit, would you kindly? [Jack sits] Stand, would you kindly? [Jack stands, Ryan motioning him up with his club] Run. [Jack runs away from Ryan] Stop! [Jack stops] Turn. [Jack turns to face Ryan] A man chooses; a slave obeys. [hands Jack his golf club] Kill! [Jack strikes Ryan in the head] A man chooses...! [Jack strikes again] A slave obeys! [Jack strikes again; Ryan grabs Jack as he screams in agonizing pain] OBEY!! [Jack lodges the golf club in Ryan's skull; Ryan falls over dead]"

"To build a city at the bottom of the sea! Insanity. But where else could we be free from the clutching hand of the Parasites? Where else could we build an economy that they would not try to control, a society that they would not try to destroy? It was not impossible to build Rapture at the bottom of the sea. It was impossible to build it anywhere else."

"I will dictate no laws. The Great Chain moves slowly, but with wisdom. It is our impatience that invites in the Parasite of big government. And once you've invited it in, it will never stop feeding on the body of the city."

"What is the difference between a Man and a Parasite? A Man builds. A Parasite asks, "Where is my share?" A Man creates. A Parasite says, "What will the neighbors think?" A Man invents. A Parasite says, "Watch out, or you might tread on the toes of God...""

"Free will is the cornerstone of this city. The thought of sacrificing it is abhorrent. However… we are indeed in a time of war. If Atlas and his bandits have their way, will they not turn us into slaves? And what will become of free will then? Desperate times call for desperate measures."

"[On Protectors/“Big Daddies” and Gatherers/“Little Sisters”] On my walk today I had my first encounter with a pair of them… he, a lumbering palooka in a foul-smelling diving suit, and she, an unwashed moppet in a filthy pink smock. Her pallor was off, green and morbid, and there was a rather unpleasant aspect to her demeanor, as if she were in an altogether different place than the rest of us. …I understand the need for such creatures, I just wish they could make them more presentable."

"I believe in no God, no invisible man in the sky. But there is something more powerful than each of us, a combination of our efforts, a Great Chain of industry that unites us. But it is only when we struggle in our own interest that the chain pulls society in the right direction. The chain is too powerful and too mysterious for any government to guide. Any man who tells you different either has his hand in your pocket, or a pistol to your neck."

"Atlas radioed on ahead. Says you were looking for an invite to the fisheries. Nuts, I say. But, if'n you heads up to the wharf master's office and find ol' Peach a Research Camera, maybe I could manage an invite."

"Just remember, sonny friend: I smell an ounce of Fontaine on you, and I'll have you in a box! Atlas gives you the vouch, but I ain't turning my eye just on his say so!"

"The wharf rat didn't get himself wet. You got something for me and my crew, or are you just looking to get criticized? You set here a spell. I needs to put on some coffee. Maybe puts on silverware and the like."