- Sol: [Thorn is seeing the beautiful images shown in Sol's euthanasia chamber] Can you see it?
- Det. Thorn: [choked up] Yes...
- Sol: Isn't it beautiful?
- Det. Thorn: Oh, yes...
- Sol: I told you.
- Det. Thorn: [humbly] How could I know? How could I... how could I ever imagine?
- New Tenant: How old are you?
- Shirl: Twenty-one.
- New Tenant: Charles said you were twenty-four.
- Shirl: That makes us both liars.
- [last lines]
- Det. Thorn: Ocean's dying, plankton's dying... it's people. *Soylent Green is made out of people.* They're making our food out of people. Next thing they'll be breeding us like cattle for food. You've gotta tell them. You've gotta tell them!
- Hatcher: I promise, Tiger. I promise. I'll tell the Exchange.
- Det. Thorn: You tell everybody. Listen to me, Hatcher. You've gotta tell them! Soylent Green is people! We've gotta stop them somehow!
- Det. Thorn: I know, Sol, you've told me a hundred times before. People were better, the world was better...
- Sol: Aw, nuts, people were always lousy... But there was a world, once.
- [Thorn chuckles]
- Sol: I was there, I can prove it! When I was a kid, you could buy meat anywhere! Eggs they had, real butter! Not this... crap!
- Gilbert: [hesitating before killing Simonson] Uh... they told me to uh... to say that they were sorry, but that you had become... unreliable.
- Simonson: That's true.
- Gilbert: They can't risk, uh... catastrophe, they say.
- Simonson: They're right.
- Gilbert: Then, uh... this is right?
- Simonson: No, not right... Necessary.
- Gilbert: To who?
- Simonson: To... God.
- Hatcher: And what about the furniture?
- Det. Thorn: [motions to chest] Like grapefruit.
- Hatcher: [chuckles] You never saw a grapefruit.
- Det. Thorn: You never saw her.
- [Announcer doing a commercial announcement before Gov. Santini's interview]
- Richard: ...is brought to you by Soylent red and Soylent yellow, high energy vegetable concentrates, and new, delicious, Soylent green. The miracle food of high-energy plankton gathered from the oceans of the world.
- Sol: There was a world, once, you punk.
- Det. Thorn: Yes, so you keep telling me.
- Sol: I was there. I can prove it.
- Det. Thorn: I know, I know. When you were young, people were better.
- Sol: Aw, nuts. People were always rotten. But the world 'was' beautiful.
- Hatcher: What's the story with the Simonson homicide?
- Det. Thorn: It was carefully set up to make it look like he was killed after he caught some punk burglarizing his apartment.
- Hatcher: What do you think it was?
- Det. Thorn: It was an assassination. A well-planned assassination.
- Hatcher: You know this for a fact?
- Det. Thorn: Four reasons. One: the alarm system in the building was out of order for the first time in two years. Two: the bodyguard who was supposed to be protecting him was conveniently out shopping. Three: the punk that broke into the apartment didn't take anything. And four: the punk who killed Simonson was no punk because he used a meat hook instead of a gun to make it look like a punk.
- Hatcher: Well, if the punk didn't take anything from the apartment, what did you take?
- Det. Thorn: Everything I could lay my hands on.
- Sol: [after reading the Soylent report] Good God!
- Exchange Leader: What God, Mr. Roth? Where will we find him?
- Sol: Perhaps at home...
- [with resignation]
- Sol: Yes, at home.
- Det. Thorn: Turn the air conditioning way up!
- Shirl: Way up! We'll make it as cold as winter used to be!
- Martha Phillips: I should've offered you something, Mr. Thorn.
- Det. Thorn: If I'd had the time, I would've asked for it.
- [Shirl tells Thorn that she's getting a new tenant]
- Det. Thorn: He'll like you. You're a helluva piece of furniture.
- Shirl: Don't talk to me like that. Please.
- Det. Thorn: OK.
- Sol: [through the audio system] I've lived too long.
- Det. Thorn: No.
- Sol: I love you, Thorn.
- Det. Thorn: [tearfully] I love you, Sol.
- Sol: [seeing the steak that Thorn has brought home, breaking down in tears] How did we come to this?
- Det. Thorn: [Det. Thorn takes a cigarette from one of the furniture girls at the party and smokes it] You know if I had the money, I'd smoke two or three of these every day.
- Sol: You know, when I was a kid, food was food. Before our scientific magicians poisoned the water, polluted the soil, decimated plant and animal life.
- Det. Thorn: [inquiring about her incinerator] Used it lately?
- Martha Phillips: It doesn't work.
- Det. Thorn: What does?
- State Security Chief Donovan: Do you have the words straight?
- Gilbert: You know, I won't understand them if I live to be a hundred.
- State Security Chief Donovan: You won't.
- Hatcher: So, you finally made it. Do you know what time it is?
- Det. Thorn: You tell me. You're the only one here who has a wristwatch.
- Hatcher: I can't. The damn thing won't run.
- Sol: Why, in my day, you could buy meat anywhere! Eggs they had, real butter! Fresh lettuce in the stores.
- Det. Thorn: I know, Sol, you told me before.
- Det. Thorn: You know, there are 20 million guys out of work in Manhattan alone just waiting for my job.
- [first lines]
- Voice over PA: First stage removal. First stage removal. Streets prohibited to non-permits in one hour. Streets prohibited to non-permits in one hour.
- Det. Thorn: You know what, Lieutenant?
- Hatcher: What?
- Det. Thorn: [tossing back Hatcher's wristwatch] I think it really is broken this time.
- Kulozik: They're running out of the damn Green again!
- Det. Thorn: Geez, those idiots!
- Kulozik: Somebody fouled up on the transport again.
- Det. Thorn: This crowd will blow.
- Kulozik: I know. I've got the scoops standing by two blocks away but... I don't know if they can even handle this crowd.
- Det. Thorn: When are you going to make the announcement?
- Kulozik: As soon as I get the nerve. About five minutes. Pass it on.
- Det. Thorn: I will.
- State Security Chief Donovan: I am here to inform you sir, that the board has decided to resolve the Simonson case.
- Gov. Santini: But I thought it was resolved. I ordered the investigation to be shut down right away.
- State Security Chief Donovan: I know, but the police officer in charge of the investigation refuses to close the case.
- Gov. Santini: Oh, I see.
- State Security Chief Donovan: Maybe it's because we went to church yesterday.
- Gov. Santini: What does that mean?
- State Security Chief Donovan: It was Simonson's church. My associate told me that the cop spoke nearly 20 minutes with the priest.
- Gov. Santini: So?
- State Security Chief Donovan: It was the same priest who heard Simonson's confession the day before he died.
- Gov. Santini: I don't want to hear any more about it. I can't hear any more! Contact all of your associates and then some, Donovan. Just do what you have to do.
- Det. Thorn: Hey, what's your name? Shirl?
- Shirl: [softly] Yes.
- Det. Thorn: Come on in here a minute, Shirl. Come on.
- [as she follows, commands Tab:]
- Det. Thorn: Shut the door.
- [snaps his fingers once they're in the kitchen]
- Det. Thorn: Let's see your hands.
- [finds nothing inordinate]
- Det. Thorn: How many times have you been in trouble with the police, Shirl?
- Shirl: Never.
- Det. Thorn: Can't hear you.
- [pulls her blouse off her shoulder]
- Shirl: Never!
- Det. Thorn: Hmm. No fresh bruises. He didn't knock you around, huh? You're a lucky girl.
- Shirl: [softly] He never hit me.
- Det. Thorn: What?
- Shirl: [firmly] He was a gentle man. He never abused me. I wished he'd live forever.
- Det. Thorn: Unless you were fooling around.
- Shirl: No...!
- Det. Thorn: With the bodyguard maybe?
- Shirl: No, I'm straight! Ask Charles, I don't cheat!
- Det. Thorn: Come on!
- [dirty grin]
- Shirl: I'd never risk my job.
- Det. Thorn: When you came back, did you see the body?
- Shirl: Just for a moment.
- Det. Thorn: Was it like it is now?
- Shirl: Yes, like it is.
- Shirl: [re the pimp] Charles isn't as bad as some.
- Det. Thorn: [advances on her] Don't you ever get mad?
- Shirl: What for?
- Shirl: How is your leg?
- Det. Thorn: It still hurts a little.
- Shirl: I removed the bullet and stiched up the wound best I could, but I think you should see a doctor.
- Det. Thorn: No way! He might relieve me from duty.
- Shirl: You really need a rest, Thorn. You've been working double shifts for weeks now.
- Det. Thorn: If I take more than two days off, I'll loose my job.
- Shirl: So what? You can move to another city. Apply for a transfer.
- Det. Thorn: What for? They're all like this. Overcrowded and overpolluted.
- Shirl: You can move to the country.
- Det. Thorn: That isn't allowed. I was out there once a few years ago. Those farms are like fortresses.
- Shirl: Why?
- Det. Thorn: Good fertle farmland has to be guarded just like they guard that waste disposal plant operated by the Soylent corporation just outside this very city.
- Voice over PA: Because of its enormous popularity, Soylent Green is in short supply. Remember, Tuesday is Soylent Green Day.