- [last lines]
- Jesse Chapman: [when the Stannards' son is discovered to be alive] "This my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost, and is found!"
- [the quote from St. Luke, Chapter 15, Verse 24]
- David G. Stannard: [home from work 2 hours early, getting intimate with his wife] Now I see why the unemployed have so many children.
- Jesse Chapman: "King David was much moved and thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son, Absalom! Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!"
- [while crying and holding and comforting David Stannard, who has just learned that his son appears to have been killed by the kidnappers. From 2 Samuel, Chapter 18, Verse 33]
- Police Chief Jim Backett: You could pay the ransom, and get your boy back, or you could not pay and not get him back.
- Charlie Telfer: Or you could refuse to pay, and lose. Or you could refuse to pay, and you still get him back. You see, Stannard, the odds are still 2 to 1 in your favor.
- David G. Stannard: You mean my paying the ransom won't affect the odds of my getting him back at all? Then why pay? Why do people pay?
- Police Chief Jim Backett: It'd be easier for police if nobody did.
- David G. Stannard: What do you mean?
- Charlie Telfer: No ransom, no kidnapping racket, no profit margin.
- [first lines]
- Charlie Telfer: [voice over as the camera pans down an upscale tree-lined suburban street] Millions of people are named Stannard. Used to be just the name of a vacuum cleaner. But just a few months ago, it suddenly became more than that. To people all over the country, it became... a man... and his family. A man who lived here in this house. One of the most beautiful houses in town. A man with a wife and an eight year old boy, and a warm family life.
- David G. Stannard: When you catch that kidnapper, I want you to lock me in a room with him for 20 minutes and throw away the key. Anybody should have that right with the man who steals his kid!
- Mrs. Partridge: [to the Stannards, deflecting any blame] I am the first victim in this!
- Charlie Telfer: Now I've heard everything.
- Mrs. Partridge: [to the Stannards] Who is this man?
- Charlie Telfer: Jack the Ripper. Times Chronicle.
- David G. Stannard: Hot or cold, I have to press on like my son's still alive. That's the barrel they have me over. They don't have to trust me. I have to trust them.
- Charlie Telfer: Exactly. Trick, or treat.
- Chief Jim Backett: You've seen it yourself. The biggest man in the country openly bartering with kidnappers, and the voting public wouldn't have it any other way, even though the kid were already dead from the start.
- Chief Jim Backett: Me? How long do you that I'd keep my job in this community if I went around doing what I thought was right?