Elijah PriceLike, if there ever was a fire on floors 1, 2 or 3, everyone in that hotel would be burned alive.
[after flashbacks end]
Elijah PriceYou know what the scariest thing is? To not know your place in this world. To not know why you're here... That's... That's just an awful feeling.
Elijah PriceNow that we know who you are, I know who I am. I'm not a mistake! It all makes sense! In a comic, you know how you can tell who the arch-villain's going to be? He's the exact opposite of the hero. And most times they're friends, like you and me! I should've known way back when... You know why, David? Because of the kids. They called me Mr. Glass.
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Elijah PriceDo you know what the scariest thing is? To not know your place in this world, to not know why you're here. That's - that's just an awful feeling.
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ER DoctorAnd, to answer your question, there are two reasons why I'm looking at you like this. One because it seems in a few minutes you will officially be the only survivor of this train wreck, and two, because you didn't break one bone, you don't have a scratch on you.
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David DunnFriends listen to each other! And they don't shoot each other, do they Audrey?
Elijah PriceYou could have been a tax accountant. You could have owned your own gym. You could have opened a chain of restaurants. You could've done one of ten thousand things, but in the end, you chose to protect people. *You* made that decision, and I find that very, very interesting. Now all I need is your credit card number.
Elijah Price[message on David's answering machine]David, it's Elijah. It was so obvious. It was this one issue that brought it back for me: Century Comics 117. That's where this group, the Coalition of Evil, tried to ascertain the weakness of every superhero because they all have one, just like you. Your bones don't break, mine do. That's clear. Your cells react to bacteria and viruses differently than mine. You don't get sick, I do. That's also clear. But for some reason, you and I react the exact same way to water. We swallow it too fast, we choke. We get some in our lungs, we drown. However unreal it may seem, we are connected, you and I. We're on the same curve, just on opposite ends. The point of all this is now we know something we didn't. You have a weakness: water. It's like your kryptonite. You hearing me, David?
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Comic Book ClerkYou'd better not be back there jacking off to the Japanese comics, I swear to God...
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Joseph DunnI thought maybe because you're my dad... I thought I might be like you... I'm not like you...
David DunnYou are like me. We can both get hurt. I'm just an ordinary man.
Joseph DunnNo, you're not... Why do you keep saying that?
David DunnI've never been injured, Elijah. What am I supposed to do?
Elijah PriceGo to where people are. You won't have to look very long. It's all right to be afraid, David... because this part won't be like a comic book. Real life doesn't fit into little boxes that were drawn for it.
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Joseph DunnDo you think you could beat up Bruce Lee?
Elijah PriceA 737 crashes on takeoff. 172 die, no survivors. A hotel fire downtown. 211 die, no survivors. An Eastrail train derails 7 1/2 miles outside the city. 131 die... one survivor. He is unharmed. I've spoken with your husband about his survival. I suggested a rather unbelievable possibility. Since then, I've come to believe that possibility - however unbelievable - is now more a probability.
Elijah PriceThese are mediocre times, Mrs. Dunn. People are starting to lose hope. It's hard for many to believe there are extraordinary things inside themselves as well as others. I hope you can keep an open mind.
Elijah PriceI've studied the form of comics intimately. I've spent a third of my life in a hospital bed... with nothing else to do but read. I believe comics are our last link... to an ancient way of passing on history. The Egyptians drew on walls. Countries all over the world still pass on knowledge through pictorial forms. I believe comics are a form of history... that someone somewhere felt or experienced. Then of course those experiences and that history... got chewed up in the commercial machine, got jazzed up... made titillating, cartooned for the sale rack. This city has seen its share of disasters. I watched the aftermath of that plane crash. I watched the carnage of the hotel fire. I watched the news waiting to hear a very specific combination of words... but they never came. Then one day I saw a news story about a train accident... and I heard them. "There is a sole survivor... and he is miraculously unharmed." I have something called Osteogenesis Imperfecta. It's a genetic disorder. I don't make a particular protein very well and it makes my bones very low in density... very easy to break. I've had 54 breaks in my life... and I have the tamest version of this disorder, type one. There are type two, type three, type four. Type fours don't last very long. So that's how it popped into my head. If there is someone like me in the world... and I'm at one end of the spectrum... couldn't there be someone else... the opposite of me at the other end? Someone who doesn't get sick, who doesn't get hurt like the rest of us? And he probably doesn't even know it. The kind of person these stories are about. A person put here to protect the rest of us. To guard us.
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David Dunn[talking to Elijah on phone]I've never been sick, I've never been injured... what do I do now?
Elijah PriceGo to a place where people are... you won't have to wait very long.
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[Elijah's mother has just given birth to him in a '60s dress store; a doctor, Dr. Mathison has arrived to take care of her before the ambulance arrives]
[She hands him the wrapped child. We can't see the baby, but the piercing cries seem to get louder]
Elijah's Mother[almost laughing]Is he supposed to crying like that?
[Elijah's mother can't see her baby anymore. She watches Dr. Mathison as he looks down and examines her child. Dr. Mathison doesn't look up for the longest time]
Audrey DunnUm... not a specific day. What - what's this about?
David DunnAudrey, do you remember me ever getting sick? In the three years we lived in this house? In the old apartment? Before Joseph was born? Before we ever got married?
Elijah PriceI followed the guy in the camouflage jacket. He had a silver gun with a black grip tucked in the back of his pants. Were you really injured in that car crash in college? Because I believe you faked it. I believe you took the opportunity to end your football career, no questions asked. And I think you did it, of all things, for a woman. I guess that makes sense. Football's what... just ten years? But love? Mmm. Now that's forever. And that little bit of sadness in the mornings you spoke of? I think I know what that is. Perhaps you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing.
David DunnMost guns have a black or silver handle. I had a 50/50 shot of getting it right.
Elijah PriceThere have been three major disasters and you were the only one unharmed.
David DunnI have been sick. When I was a kid, I spent a week in the hospital getting better from pneumonia. I almost drowned. Two skinny little kids were fooling around in a pool dunking me and I swallowed some water. They didn't know it and it almost killed me. Heroes don't get killed like that. Normal people do, right? I don't need to see you anymore, okay? Please stay away from my family.
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David DunnOkay, I got you a seat in the yellow section. It's in the nosebleeds, but at least you won't get spit on.
Elijah PriceHow'd you know the guy you bumped was carrying a weapon?
David DunnI don't know. Maybe it was the camouflage Army jacket he was wearing. Those guys like to carry hunting knives and stuff for show.
David DunnLook, I gotta be down on the sidelines during the game. You can get to your seat right down...
Elijah PriceCharacters in comics are often attributed special powers: invisibility, X-ray vision, things of that sort.
David DunnOkay. I don't wanna play this game anymore.
Elijah PriceIt's an exaggeration of the truth. Maybe it's based on something as simple as instinct.
David DunnBut he might not have been carrying anything.
Elijah PriceBut he might have been carrying a silver gun with a black grip tucked in his pants.
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Elijah PriceThis is from Fritz Campion's own library. This is before the first issue of the comic book hit the stands in 1968. It's a classic depiction of good versus evil. Notice the square jaw of Slayer, common in most comic heroes. And the slightly disproportionate size of Jaguaro's head to his body. This again is common, but only in villains. The thing to notice about this piece... the thing that makes it very, very special... is its realistic depiction of its figures. When the characters reached the magazine, they were exaggerated... as always happens. This is vintage.
Young FatherWell, wrap it up.
Elijah PriceYou've made a considerably wise decision.
Elijah Price[frowning]No. No, no, no, no, no. You need to go. Now.
Young FatherWhat'd -- What'd I say?
Elijah PriceDo you see any Teletubbies in here? Do you see a slender plastic tag clipped to my shirt with my name printed on it? Do you see a little Asian child with a blank expression on his face sitting outside on a mechanical helicopter that shakes when you put quarters in it? No? Well, that's what you see at a toy store. And you must think you're in a toy store, because you're here shopping for an infant named Jeb. Now, one of us has made a gross error... and wasted the other person's valuable time. This is an art gallery, my friend... and this is a piece of art.
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[Elijah is sitting alone in the living room of his apartment staring at the TV]
Elijah's MotherNo more sittin' in this room. I let it go on long enough.
Elijah Age 13I'm not goin' out there any more. I'm not getting hurt again. This was the last time, I told you.
Elijah's MotherYou might fall between this chair and that television. If that's what God has planned for you, that's what's gonna happen. You can't hide from it sittin' in a room.
Elijah Age 13They call me Mr. Glass at school 'cause I break like glass.
Elijah's MotherYou make this decision now... to be afraid... and you will never turn back. Your whole life, you will always be afraid.
Audrey Dunn[answering to Elijah Price's question about why how her husband quit the football]I couldn't spend my life with someone who played football. It's pretty much that simple. I don't hate the game. I admire the amount of skill it involves. Like everyone else, I was in awe of the way he played it, but football, in many ways, is the opposite of what I do. You're rewarded the more you punish your opponent. It's too much about violence, and I don't want violence in my life. It's not a thing many people can understand, but... Anyway, fate stepped in with that car accident and took football out of the equation.