Dark City (1998) - Quotes

Genuine Love Cannot Be Faked

Emma Murdoch: I love you, John. You can't fake something like that.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Connections in a Shared Past

Emma Murdoch: What brings you here?

Mr. Hand: I met my wife at this place.

Emma Murdoch: It's where I first met my husband.

Mr. Hand: Small world.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Reflections on Memory and Haunting Places

Mr. Hand: We're very lucky, when you think about it.

Emma Murdoch: I'm sorry?

Mr. Hand: To be able to revisit those places which have meant so very much to us.

Emma Murdoch: I thought it was more that we were haunted by them.

Mr. Hand: Perhaps. But imagine a life alien to yours, in which your memories were not your own but those shared by every other of your kind. Imagine the torment of such an existence: no experiences to call your own. If it was all you knew, maybe it would be a comfort.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Planning the Capture of John Murdoch

Mr. Book: Is it done?

Mr. Hand: Oh, yes, Mr. Book. I have John Murdoch in mind.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

The Illusion of a Case

Inspector Frank Bumstead: You saw something, didn't you, Eddie? Something to do with the case?

Det. Eddie Walenski: There is no case! There never was! It's all just a big joke! It's a joke!

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Strength and Weakness in Dark City

Dr. Daniel P. Schreber: I have a weak heart, you know.

Mr. Hand: Your weakness is not, we think, an affair of the heart.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Judging Character: A Clash of Perspectives

Inspector Frank Bumstead: I've met quite a few murderers in the course of my work. Murdoch doesn't strike me as one.

Dr. Daniel P. Schreber: Perhaps you are not accustomed to digging deep enough.

Inspector Frank Bumstead: Well, I do know when someone is lying to me, Doctor.

Dr. Daniel P. Schreber: Forgive me, Inspector, but you are not a clinician. Judging personalities happens to be my business.

Inspector Frank Bumstead: Well, maybe you could give me a few pointers.

Dr. Daniel P. Schreber: Certainly. Let's take you, for instance. You are a fastidious man, driven. Consumed by details. I would say your life is rather lonely.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

The Fate of Mr. Quick

Mr. Wall: No more Mr. Quick. Mr. Quick, dead, yes.

Stranger: Poor, poor Mr. Quick.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Trust and Doubt in Uncertain Times

John Murdoch: What you do seems kind of dangerous right now. I mean, how do you know I'm not the killer?

May: You don't seem like the killer type. Why? You feeling any urges I should know about?

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Accountability in Detective Work

Husselbeck: Well, everything Detective Walenski committed to paper should be here, so...

Inspector Frank Bumstead: The only thing that should be committed is Walenski.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Inspector Bumstead Comments on Investigation Progress

Inspector Frank Bumstead: What's that make so far, Husselbeck? Six hookers in all?

Husselbeck: I believe so, sir.

Inspector Frank Bumstead: Give the man an "A" for effort.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Permanently Ending Operations

Mr. Book: Shut it down! Shut it down forever!

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

The Final Phase of the Experiment

Mr. Book: He is powerful, yes — dangerous — but he can also lead us to what we seek: what the doctor calls the soul. It is time for our experiment to move into a final phase.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

The Manipulation of Memories and Identity

Det. Eddie Walenski: They steal people's memories, you know? Then they swap them around between us. I've seen them do it! Back and forth, back and forth, until no one knows who they are anymore.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Struggling with Identity and Memory Unraveling

Det. Eddie Walenski: See, I've been trying to remember things — clearly remember things from my past — but the more I try to think back, the more it all starts to unravel. None of it seems real. It's like I've just been dreaming this life, and when I finally wake up I'll be somebody else: somebody totally different.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Transformation into the Intended Monster

Mr. Hand: You see, I have become the monster you were intended to be.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

The Nature of Their Existence Revealed

Mr. Hand: You've seen what we are. We use your dead as vessels.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

The Creation of a Fabricated City

Mr. Hand: We fashioned this city on stolen memories: different eras, different pasts all rolled into one. Each night, we revise it, refine it, in order to learn.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

The Necessity of Action

Mr. Hand: There's work to be done.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

The Unpredictability of Imprinting and Awakening

Mr. Hand: On occasion the imprinting does not take. They behave erratically when they awaken. We find them wandering like lost children.

Feeling Unheard in a Chaotic World

Inspector Frank Bumstead: No one ever listens to me.

The Value of Healthy Paranoia

Inspector Frank Bumstead: Nothing like a little healthy paranoia.

The Paradox of a Compassionate Killer

Inspector Frank Bumstead: So, Husselbeck, what kind of killer do you think stops to save a dying fish?

Advice on Interacting with Strangers

Dr. Daniel P. Schreber: Now remember what I told you: Never talk to strangers.

The Struggle of Erasing One's Past

Dr. Daniel P. Schreber: When they first brought us here, they extracted what was in us so they could store the information, remix it like so much paint, and give us back new memories of their choosing. But they still needed an artist to help them. I understood the intricacies of the human mind better than they ever could, so they allowed me to keep my skills as a scientist because they needed them, but they made me delete everything else. Can you imagine what it is like being forced to erase your own past?

The Nature of Identity and Memory

Dr. Daniel P. Schreber: First there was darkness. Then came the strangers. They abducted us and brought us here. This city, everyone in it, is their experiment. They mix and match our memories as they see fit, trying to divine what makes us unique. One day, a man might be an inspector; the next, someone entirely different. When they want to study a murderer, for instance, they simply imprint one of their citizens with a new personality — arrange a family for him, friends, an entire history, even a lost wallet. Then they observe the results. Will a man, given the history of a killer, continue in that vein? Or are we, in fact, more than the mere sum of our memories?

The Search for the Human Soul

Dr. Daniel P. Schreber: Weren't you looking for the human soul? That's the purpose of your little zoo, isn't it? That's why you keep changing people and things around every night. Maybe you have finally found what you are looking for, and it's going to bite you on your—

The Weight of Memories and Identity

Dr. Daniel P. Schreber: [examining a sample of memory serum] Tonight's requirements are: family photo albums, nine personal diaries, love letters, assorted childhood photographs, ID's and social security cards. These do bring back memories. This one is still warm. What is it? The recollections of a great lover? A catalog of conquests? We will soon find out. You wouldn't appreciate that, would you, Mr. Whatever your name is? Not the sort of conquests you would ever understand. Let's see: a touch of unhappy childhood; ah, a dash of teenage rebellion; and last, but not least, a tragic death in the family.

The Absence of Daylight in Dark City

John Murdoch: Daylight. When was the last time you remember seeing it? And I'm not talking about some distant, half-forgotten childhood memory. I mean like yesterday? Last week? When? Can you come up with a single memory? You can't, can you? You know something? I don't think the sun even exists in this place, because I've been up for hours and hours and hours and the night never ends here.