BioShock: why the game’s dialogue still stands — and 32 quotes that prove it

# Quick overview BioShock (2007) places the player in Rapture, an underwater city built by Andrew Ryan as a haven for the brilliant and unbound by government or conventional ethics. The player character, Jack, arrives after a plane crash and is drawn into Rapture's collapse: surviving, exploring, fighting Splicers, and uncovering what happened before his arrival.

# Why the dialogue matters

# Characters and quote samples

• "Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?"
• "A man chooses. A slave obeys."
• "We all make choices, but in the end, our choices make us."
• "I came to this place to build the impossible. You came to rob what you could never build."

• "Would you kindly?"

• "It's time to end this little masquerade. There ain't no 'Atlas', kid, never was."
• "But you've been a sport, so I guess I owe you a little honesty. The name's Frank Fontaine."

# How the quotes connect to theme The assembled lines underline two consistent threads:

• Authority and control: Andrew Ryan's rhetoric defends a social order organized around production and merit, rejecting external moral authorities.
• Manipulation and agency: The repeated phrase "Would you kindly?" becomes the pivot that exposes how Jack (and by extension the player) has been guided, reframing earlier commands as coerced actions.

# The story arc in brief

• Arrival and survival: Jack arrives in Rapture and initially operates under the assumption he's acting of his own accord.
• Discovery: As Jack explores, the city's collapse and its ideological conflict emerge through audio logs, confrontations, and character lines.
• Twist and re-evaluation: The revelation that Atlas is Frank Fontaine and the implications of the "Would you kindly?" line force a reassessment of player choice and the narrative's manipulation techniques.

# Why revisit these quotes now The quotes collected in the article are presented as a way to revisit the original game's writing — lines that carry philosophical weight, characterize Rapture's leaders and manipulators, and encapsulate the moral questions BioShock uses to shape its plot. For readers who want the narrative essentials without replaying the game, the selection highlights the dialogue moments that most directly convey theme and character.

# Bottom line