Lucius Fox Quotes in The Dark Knight (2008)

Lucius Fox: [to Reese] Let me get this straight, you think that your client, one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the world, is secretly a vigilante, who spends his nights beating criminals to a pulp with his bare hands, and your plan is to blackmail this person?

[Reese's face falls and Fox smiles]

Lucius Fox: Good luck.

Bruce Wayne: [standing next to the storage drawers in the applied sciences division at Wayne Enterprises] How will it hold up against dogs?

Lucius Fox: We talking Rottweilers or Chihuahuas? Should do fine against cats.

Bruce Wayne: [standing next to the storage drawers in the Applied Sciences division at Wayne Enterprises] What about getting back into the plane?

Lucius Fox: I'd recommend a good travel agent.

Bruce Wayne: Without it landing.

Lucius Fox: [smiles] Now that's more like it, Mr. Wayne.

Lucius Fox: [Wayne Enterprises accountant Coleman Reese believes that he's discovered Batman's secret identity]

Lucius Fox: [in his office] Let me get this straight. You think that your client, one of the wealthiest, most powerful men in the world, is secretly a vigilante who spends his nights beating criminals to a pulp with his bare hands; and your plan, is to *blackmail* this person?

[pause, Reese looks nervous]

Lucius Fox: Good luck.

Bruce Wayne: [in an empty conference room] I need a new suit.

Lucius Fox: Yeah, three buttons is a little '90's, Mr. Wayne.

Bruce Wayne: I'm not talking fashion, Mr. Fox, so much as function.

[hands him a diagram]

Lucius Fox: You want to be able to turn your head.

Bruce Wayne: Sure would make backing out of the driveway easier.

Lucius Fox: [on the midlevel shopping center in Hong Kong] It emits a high-frequency pulse for mapping an environment and records a response time.

Bruce Wayne: Sonar. Just like a...

Lucius Fox: [interrupting before he can say "bat"] Like a *submarine*, Mr. Wayne. Like a submarine.

Lucius Fox: [On the plan to capture Lau] Now, for high altitude jumps, you'll need oxygen and stabilizers; but I must say, compared to your usual requests, jumping out of an airplane is pretty straightforward.

Bruce Wayne: And what about getting back into the plane?

Lucius Fox: I'd recommend a good travel agent.

Bruce Wayne: Without it landing.

Lucius Fox: Now that's more like it. The CIA had a program back in the 60s for getting their people out of hotspots called Skyhook. We could look into that.

[examining one of the gauntlets for his new and improved Batsuit, Bruce presses a button, and the spikes are launched across the room, narrowly missing Fox before they bury themselves in the wall]

Lucius Fox: Perhaps you should read the instructions first?

Bruce Wayne: [sheepish] Right.

Lucius Fox: No, I really came to tell you that our business deal has to be put on hold. You see, we can't afford to be seen to do business with whatever it is you're accused of being. I'm sure a businessman of your stature will understand.

Lau: I think, Mr. Fox, a simple phone call might have sufficed.

Lucius Fox: Mr. Wayne didn't want you to think that he was deliberately wasting your time.

Lau: Just accidentally wasting it.

Lucius Fox: That's very good, Mr. Lau. Accidentally. Very good.

Batman: [seeing the wall of monitors for the first time at the Applied Sciences division in Wayne Enterprises] Beautiful, isn't it?

Lucius Fox: Beautiful... unethical... dangerous. You've turned every cellphone in Gotham into a microphone.

Batman: And a high-frequency generator-receiver.

Lucius Fox: You took my sonar concept and applied it to every phone in the city. With half the city feeding you sonar, you can image all of Gotham. This is *wrong*.

Batman: I've gotta find this man, Lucius.

Lucius Fox: At what cost?

Batman: The database is null-key encrypted. It can only be accessed by one person.

Lucius Fox: This is too much power for one person.

Batman: That's why I gave it to you. Only you can use it.

Lucius Fox: Spying on 30 million people isn't part of my job description.

Lucius Fox: This conversation used to end with an unusual request.

Bruce Wayne: I'm retired.

Lucius Fox: Well let me show you some stuff anyway. Just for old time's sake.

Lucius Fox: It has a long uninteresting name. I just took to calling it... The Bat, and yes, Mr. Wayne, it does come in black.

[a couple thugs go to attack Lucius while he's handcuffed. Catwoman intervenes and beats them down]

Lucius Fox: [to Batman] I like your new girlfriend!

Catwoman: [she undoes his cuffs] He should be so lucky.

[Fox and Miranda come off the elevator at Wayne Enterprises, heading for a board meeting]

Lucius Fox: I still don't see the need for a board meeting for the energy project.

Miranda Tate: Bruce got a lot of things right. Keeping the board in the dark wasn't one of them.

[They enter the boardroom, and find Bane and several of his henchmen standing at the head of the table, holding the board members hostage with assault rifles. Bane turns to the newcomers]

Bane: How good of you to join us, Chair, President. All I need now is one more one ordinary member. Mr. Fox, would you like to nominate?

[Fox starts to speak, but Fredericks interrupts and stands]

Fredericks: No. I will volunteer.

Lucius Fox: Where are you taking us?

[Bane doesn't reply and he starts walking off]

Lucius Fox: [as Batman flies The Bat] Nothing like a little air superiority, isn't it?

[Fox takes Miranda to a recycling plant]

Miranda Tate: You brought me out here to show me this, Mr. Fox?

Lucius Fox: Bear with me, Miss Tate.

[leads her inside a portakabin]

Lucius Fox: Please keep hands and feet inside the car at all times.

[presses a button. The office floor descends like an elevator down a shaft]

Miranda Tate: This is it, isn't it?

Lucius Fox: The reactor is beneath the river so it could be instantly flooded in the event of a security breach.

Miranda Tate: Is Bruce Wayne really that paranoid?

Lucius Fox: I'm gonna plead the fifth on that one.

[When the elevator office stops, they find Bruce waiting in the reactor chamber]

Bruce Wayne: I thought you might like to see what your investment built.

Miranda Tate: No fossil fuels. Free, clean energy for an entire city. Three years ago, a Russian scientist published a paper on weaponized fusion reactions. One week later your reactor started developing problems. I think this machine works.

Bruce Wayne: Miranda, if it were operational, the danger to Gotham would be too great.

Miranda Tate: Would it make you feel better to know that the Russian scientist died in a plane crash six months ago?

Bruce Wayne: Someone will work out what Dr. Pavel did. Someone will figure out a way to make this power source into a nuclear weapon. I need you to take control of Wayne Enterprises and this reactor.

Miranda Tate: To do what with it?

Bruce Wayne: Nothing. Until we can guarantee its safety.

Miranda Tate: And if we can't?

Bruce Wayne: Decommission it and flood it.

Miranda Tate: Destroy the world's best chance for a sustainable future?

Bruce Wayne: If the world's not ready, yes.

Miranda Tate: Bruce, if you want to save the world you have to start trusting it.

Bruce Wayne: I'm trusting you.

Miranda Tate: Doesn't count. You have no choice.

Bruce Wayne: I could have flooded this chamber any time in the last three years. I'm choosing to trust you. Please.

Lucius Fox: Remember where you parked?

[Bruce nods]

Lucius Fox: [Bruce points to the Tumbler] The Tumbler? Oh you wouldn't be interested in that.

[Cuts to Bruce test driving the Tumbler on an indoor course, with Fox in the passenger's seat describing the vehicle]

Lucius Fox: She was built as a bridging vehicle. During combat, two of these would jump over a river, towing cables. Over here on the throttle, flip that open and throttle up. This will boost you into a rampless jump.

[Bruce goes to flip the throttle]

Lucius Fox: Not now! Not... not now, Sir!

[Bruce flips it back]

The Tumbler: Afterburner disengaged.

Lucius Fox: We never could get the damn bridge to work, but this baby works just fine.

[Bruce brings the Tumbler to a stop. He is very impressed]

Lucius Fox: So what do you think?

Bruce Wayne: Does it come in black?

Bruce Wayne: [answers the phone] Bruce Wayne.

Earle: What makes you think *you* can decide who's running Wayne Enterprises?

Bruce Wayne: Well, the fact that I'm the owner.

Earle: What are you talking about? The company went public a week ago.

Bruce Wayne: And I bought most of the shares. Through various charitable foundations, trusts, and so forth - look, it's all a bit technical, but the important thing is that *my* company's future is secure.

[speaks up]

Bruce Wayne: Right, Mister Fox?

Lucius Fox: Right you are, Mister Wayne.

[Fox hangs up the phone, turns to Earle and takes off his glasses]

Lucius Fox: [with relish] Didn't you get the memo?

[Earle is speechless]

Lucius Fox: It's called memory cloth. Notice anything?

[Bruce runs the material through his fingers, and shrugs, "no."]

Lucius Fox: Regularly flexible. But put a current through it...

[the cloth springs into the shape of a one-person tent]

Lucius Fox: Molecules re-align, becomes rigid.

Bruce Wayne: What kind of shapes can you make?

Lucius Fox: Can be tailored to fit any structure based on a rigid skeleton.

Bruce Wayne: Too expensive for the Army?

Lucius Fox: I don't think they tried to market it to the billionaire, spelunking, BASE-jumping crowd.

Bruce Wayne: Look, Mr. Fox.

Lucius Fox: Yes, sir?

Bruce Wayne: If you're uncomfortable...

Lucius Fox: Mister Wayne, if you don't want to tell me exactly what you're doing, when I'm asked, I don't have to lie. But don't think of me as an idiot.

Bruce Wayne: Fair enough.

Bruce Wayne: [about the prototype Batsuit] Tear resistant?

Lucius Fox: This sucker will stop a knife.

Bruce Wayne: Bulletproof?

Lucius Fox: Anything but a straight shot.

Bruce Wayne: Why didn't they put it into production?

Lucius Fox: Bean counters didn't think a soldier's life was worth 300 grand. So, what's your interest in it, Mr. Wayne?

Bruce Wayne: I wanna borrow it. For, uh, spelunking.

Lucius Fox: Spelunking?

Bruce Wayne: Yeah, you know, cave diving.

Lucius Fox: You expecting to run into much gunfire in these caves?

Bruce Wayne: Look, I'd rather Mr. Earle didn't know about me borrowing...

Lucius Fox: Mr. Wayne, the way I see it, all this stuff is yours anyway.

[Earle enters the conference room and, in disbelief, sees Fox, resplendent in a suit and bow tie, distributing materials to board members seated around the table]

Earle: Fox? I seem to remember firing you.

Lucius Fox: You did. I got another job: Yours.

Earle: On whose authority?

[after taking a ride in The Tumbler]

Lucius Fox: So, what do you think?

Bruce Wayne: [smiling] Does it come in black?

Lucius Fox: [Bruce Wayne is recovering after being poisoned by Scarecrow] I analyzed your blood, isolating the receptor compounds and the protein-based catalyst.

Bruce Wayne: Am I meant to understand any of that?

Lucius Fox: Not at all, I just wanted you to know how hard it was. Bottom line, I synthesized an antidote.

Bruce Wayne: Could you make more?

Lucius Fox: You planning on gassing yourself again, Mr Wayne?

Bruce Wayne: Well, you know how it is, Mr Fox. You're out at night, looking for kicks, someone's passing around the weaponized hallucinogens...

Lucius Fox: I'll bring what I have. The antidote should inoculate you for now.

Bruce Wayne: They're planning on dosing the entire city with toxin.

Lucius Fox: [shaking his head] Water supply won't help you disperse an inhalant...

[pauses, realizing]

Bruce Wayne: What?

Lucius Fox: ...Unless you had a microwave emitter capable of vaporizing all the water in the mains. A microwave emitter like the one Wayne Enterprises just misplaced.

Bruce Wayne: "Misplaced?"

Lucius Fox: Earle just fired me for asking too many questions about it.

Bruce Wayne: I need you to go back to Wayne Enterprises right now and start making more of that antidote. I think the police are going to need all they can get their hands on, okay?

Lucius Fox: My security clearance has been revoked.

Bruce Wayne: Oh, that wouldn't stop a man like you now, would it, Mr. Fox?

Lucius Fox: [smiling] I suppose not.

Bruce Wayne: You were on the board?

Lucius Fox: When your father ran things, yeah.

Bruce Wayne: You knew my father?

Lucius Fox: Oh, yeah. Helped him build his train. Ah, here we are. Kevlar utility harness. Gas-powered magnetic grapple gun. The three hundred and fifty pound test monofilament. Wonderful project, your dad's train. Routed it right into Wayne Tower along with the water and power utilities. Kind of made Wayne Tower the unofficial centre of Gotham City. Of course, Earle let it go to rot. Here we are. Nomex survival suit for advanced infantry. Kevlar biweave, reinforced joints.

Lucius Fox: Well, what is it today? More spelunking?

Bruce Wayne: No. Today it's BASE-jumping.

Lucius Fox: BASE-jumping. That like parachuting?

Bruce Wayne: Kinda. Do you have any light-weight fabrics?

Lucius Fox: You know... I think I have just the thing.

Bruce Wayne: What's that?

Lucius Fox: The Tumbler? Oh, you wouldn't be interested in that.