BioShock Infinite

BioShock Infinite is a 2013 game, and an indirect sequel to the first two BioShock Games (BioShock and BioShock 2). The game follows Booker DeWitt, a Wounded Knee veteran and former Pinkerton agent, as he attempts to retrieve Elizabeth, a young woman with mysterious powers, from Columbia, a flying city based on White supremacy, Christian fanaticism, and American exceptionalism. The game is only loosely connected to its predecessors but shares many of the same themes, concepts, and gameplay elements.

The game received a two-part DLC, Burial at Sea, a film noir inspired story that transplants the game’s characters to the setting of the first two BioShock games, immediately prior to the fall of Rapture.

Booker DeWitt

[If player chooses to throw at announcer during the stoning of an interracial couple] I got something for you, you son of a bitch.
”Bring us the girl, and wipe away the debt", that was the deal. The details elude me now. But the details wouldn't change a goddamn thing.
One thing I've learned: if you don't draw first, you don't get to draw at all.

Elizabeth

[when throwing supplies to the player] Booker, catch!
Booker, if the Vox get their weapons, there's going to be a revolution just like Les Misérables!
There’s always a man, always a city, always a lighthouse.
It's another world. Another Columbia.
There's a world of difference between what we see, and what is.

Alternate timeline

My children are without blame, without fault -- and without choice.
If the mind will not yield, then you must expose the mind to every version of itself. Either the mind will yield, or be reduced to a blank.
It wasn't the torture that broke me. It wasn't the indoctrination. It was time. Time rots everything, Booker. Even hope.
Some men dream of money, some men dream of love. My father dreamt of a flood of fire. We were given Eden, and we turned it into Sodom.
I am here to finish my father's work. As he baptized me with water, I shall baptize the Sodom Below with fire...and prepare for the coming of the Lord.

Rosalind and Robert (“R.”) Lutece

Robert: We are where we are needed.
Rosalind: And needed where we are.

Bring us the girl and wipe away the debt!

Rosalind: The Universe does not grade on a curve. It's strictly pass/fail.
Robert: Surely it's better to have died trying.
Rosalind: Better trying not to die.
- if the player dies in Burial at Sea Part 2

Rosalind: A disagreeable fellow, this Suchong.
Robert: That's surprising, I'd imagine he'd be right up your street.
Rosalind: Hmph. I feel dirty sharing a universe with the man.
Robert: How poorly we see our own traits in others.
Rosalind: What do you mean?
Robert: You both see the world through a lens of science.
Rosalind: "And what's wrong with that?
Robert: Ask young Ms. Comstock.
Rosalind: I would, but I don't suppose she's in any position to answer.
- if the player dies in Burial at Sea Part 2

Robert: I don't suppose there's much about the man that's authentic.
Rosalind: He's authentically homicidal.
Robert: And you view this as a positive?
Rosalind: Well, one has to start somewhere.

Robert: You'll find the going tough enough without squandering your friends.
Rosalind: Or your ammunition.
- If the player fires near the Luteces early in the game

Robert

The mind of the subject will desperately struggle to create memories where none exist…

Rosalind

I had trapped the atom in mid-air. Colleagues called my Lutece Field “Quantum Levitation”, but in fact, it was nothing of the sort. Magicians levitate. My atom simply failed to fall. If an atom could be suspended indefinitely, well -- why not an apple? If an apple, why not a city?
When I was a girl, I dreamt of standing in a room looking at a girl who was and was not myself, who stood looking at another girl, who also was and was not myself. My mother took this for a nightmare. I saw it as the beginning of a career in physics.
Hopes, like quantum superpositions, have a tendency to collapse.
A middle C vibrates at 262 Hz, no matter what the universe.
This evening, on my way back from supper, my theory became reality: a spontaneous Tear had opened in the Market District, emitting both sights and sounds. I observed what I could only imagine to be some future version of Columbia. Though familiar, strange red flags with a small yellow icon flew from her rooftops. Although we can lock up the girl, it appears her powers will not be imprisoned so easily.
A theory: we are scattered amongst the possibility space. But my brother and I are together, and so, I am content. He is not. The business with the girl lies unresolved. But perhaps there is one who can finish it in our stead.

Father Zachary Hale Comstock

The Lord forgives everything. But I'm just a prophet… so I don't have to. Amen.
And when I came to Washington, there were few in Congress who saw my vision for Columbia. But it is the burden of the Prophet to bring the wicked to righteousness. For what am I, if not a mirror to reflect the face of God?
To tax the black more than the white, is that not cruel? To forbid the mixing of the races, is that not cruel? To give the vote to the white man, and deny it to the yellow, the black, the red -- is that not cruel? Hm. But is it not cruel to banish your children from a perfect garden? Or drown your flock under an ocean of water? Cruelty can be instructive, and what is Columbia, if not the schoolhouse of the Lord?

Lady Annabelle Comstock

Love the Prophet, because he loves the sinner. Love the sinner, because he is you. Without the sinner, what need is there for a redeemer? Without sin, what grace has forgiveness?

Daisy Fitzroy

There's already a fight, DeWitt. Only question is, which side you on? Comstock is the god of the white man, the rich man, the pitiless man. But if you believe in common folk, then join the Vox. If you believe in the righteous folk, then join the Vox.
When I first seen Columbia, that sky was the brightest, bluest sky that ever was. Seemed like…Heaven. Then your eyes adjusted to the light and you saw that sea of white faces lookin' hard back at you…
Who is this Prophet? Who is this fraud, this charlatan, this salesman of snake oil?
Change. That's what the people need. But sometimes I feel all I have to offer them is blood and fire. The things they done to me… I can't forget 'em. I was Columbia's victim -- and victimhood begets shame. Oh, what element of human experience is more corrosive than shame? I'm rotted from the inside out. What do I have to offer this revolution except my own dark motivations? When all is said and done, what's more important to me: the people I want to save -- or those I want to murder in their beds?

Jeremiah Fink

What is the most admirable creature on God's green Earth? Why, it's the bee! Have you ever seen a bee on vacation? Have you ever seen a bee take a sick day? Well, my friends, the answer is no! So I say, be… the bee! Be the bee!
[As an interracial couple is about to be stoned] Come on, are ya gonna throw it, or are you taking your coffee black these days? [chuckles cruelly]
[on sign] A good worker always has his eyes on the task at hand!
The ox cannot become a lion. And why would you want to? Who wants all those responsibilities and worry? You do your job, you eat your food, you go to sleep. Simplicity is beauty.
Now, some folks just aren't satisfied with their place here at Fink Industries. But I tell you, there's a purpose for all living things. Would the Pharaohs of Egypt have been able to stand at the top of their pyramids if the Israelites had not made their bricks? Would the captains of industry have been able to ride the rails had not the Chinamen laid the track for them? So, I say, chin up! History is built on the backs of men like you!
These holes have shown me yet another wonder, though I’ve yet to see the application for it. They illuminate a merger of machine and man that is somehow the lesser, yet the greater, of both parties.
Lions walk with lions, DeWitt, not hyenas!

Firemen

YOUR FLESH WILL BLACKEN AND CHAR!
BATHE IN FLAME!

Motorized patriot

The lord judges. I act.
The seed of the prophet shall sit the throne and bathe in flame the mountains of man!
Why would you run if you were not guilty?
Twas yellow skin and slanted eyes that did betray us with their lies. Until they crossed the righteous path of our Prophet's holy wrath.
With hue and cry, with hatchet red, they danced amongst our noble dead. But when our soldiers took the field, the savage horde could only yield.

Handyman

Every step is like coals!
Stop moving! Every sound hurts!

Preacher Witting

And every year on this day of days, we recommit ourselves to our city, and to our prophet, Father Comstock. We recommit through sacrifice, and the giving of thanks, and by submerging ourselves in the sweet waters of baptism.

Zealot of the Lady

And so, the Prophet led us into Peking, where we demonstrated to the Sodom Below the true mission our Founders had given us. And when the Mandarins and hypocrites of Washington betrayed him, our Prophet did not heel. He did not come crawling for their forgiveness… Like our fathers broke from the Great Apostate, our Prophet broke with these so-called "patriots"… and today is the day we celebrate the secession…

Cornelius Slate

COMSTOCK WASN'T THERE! The Boxers took my eye and thirty of my friends! Is there even a stone to mark that sacrifice?!
Tell her, Booker! Tell her how we strode that battlefield like the heroes of Sparta! I still hear the screams… Does Comstock?
It was SLATE who killed for his country at Wounded Knee! It was SLATE who stormed the gates of Peking! SLATE!!!
Tin men, Booker! That's what Comstock will turn us into! Wires and gears to replace heads and hearts!

Andrew Ryan

Do you know the value of the shark? Without them the sea would be littered with the detritus of the weak. The men who come for you have much in common with these great animals. What sharks do for the ocean, these men do for Rapture.

Sander Cohen

It used to be such a thrill to hear Ryan speak. "Parasites" this and "the exaltation of man" that. Sure, it could all get a bit of a bore -- but the old bear sure knew how to enunciate.

Children

Songbird, Songbird, see him fly,
drop the children from the sky.
When the young ones misbehave,
escorts children to their grave.
Never back-talk, never lie,
or he'll drop you from the sky!

Dialogue

Elizabeth: Are you afraid of God, Booker?
Booker: no, but I am afraid of you.
- First spoken lines, heard in voice-over at the beginning; later heard in-game near the end as Booker and Elizabeth are preparing to infiltrate Comstock’s flagship

External links

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