- Hennessey: [having always shown before a distinct aversion to foul language] Okay, cocksucker. Fuck with me, and we'll see who shits on the sidewalk.
- [last lines]
- Jensen Ames: Someone once asked me if I was the best future for my little girl. I've thought about this for a long time, and here's what I've decided: No one in this world is perfect. Heaven knows I'm not. But I love her more than anyone else possibly could. In the end, that's all that matters.
- Nasty Teller: Cash or check?
- Jensen Ames: Better make it cash.
- [the teller hands Jensen Ames some money]
- Jensen Ames: Three hundred dollars? I've worked a hundred and twenty hours in the last two weeks.
- Nasty Teller: Cash fee. Next!
- Jensen Ames: Cash fee?
- Nasty Teller: You wanted cash, there's a fee. You want a check instead?
- Jensen Ames: Seeing as how the company's out of business, not exactly.
- Jensen Ames: [after being introduced to three gay cellmates, there are the sounds of a fight. The guards walk back, then see Jensen Ames standing at the cell door with the bodies of his three cellmates on the floor] They slipped.
- Jensen Ames: So where's the ammo?
- Gunner: We get that on race day.
- Jensen Ames: Pity.
- Coach: Yeah, everyone thinks that... the first time.
- Jensen Ames: Thinks what?
- Coach: About turning the guns on the guards. About escaping.
- Jensen Ames: No, I wasn't thinking that.
- Coach: Well, I'm glad, because Hennessey's got electric kill switches on all the guns on all the cars. And all the guard towers are fortified, and their guns are bigger than your guns. Oh, did I mention the helicopters and also the fact that we're on an island here a mile from the nearest shoreline? The only way in or out of here is on that one skinny bridge you came in on.
- Jensen Ames: So what are you in for?
- Case: They say I killed a cop.
- Jensen Ames: Did you do it?
- Case: Yeah.
- Jensen Ames: Bad cop?
- Case: Good cop... lousy husband.
- Jensen Ames: [threatening to eject Case from the Monster] Did you kill the old Frank?
- Case: I sabotaged his rear weapons.
- Jensen Ames: Why?
- Case: Hennessey. She said she'd sign my release papers. It's my life back.
- Jensen Ames: You killed him too.
- Case: I didn't kill him. He wouldn't quit! I just wanted to make sure he wouldn't win.
- Jensen Ames: Why would Hennessey want that?
- Case: To keep Frank here, racing.
- Jensen Ames: And yesterday?
- Case: I was trying to set you back.
- Jensen Ames: So, I'm not supposed to win either. Just make it exciting.
- Jensen Ames: [to his daughter, Piper] What does little Piper want? Do you want a story? You know, you won't understand it, but it'll be good practice for me.
- Coach: Who's the new guy?
- Lists: Jensen Ames.
- Gunner: The driver?
- Coach: Never heard of him.
- Gunner: Oh, yeah. I saw him race years ago. He was good. He did some time upstate. Killed his career.
- Lists: [reading from a notebook] Holder of the fastest laps at Willard, Union, and Butler.
- Coach: [seeing some prisoners approach Jensen Ames] I hope he's as fast off the track as he is on it.
- Hennessey: This prison is the home to murderers, rapists, and violent offenders of every kind. The United States penal system sends me the worst of the worst. But the men you've provoked, well, let's just say, Mr. Ames, that the life term you've joined us for may be a lot shorter than you think.
- Jensen Ames: I understand tradition. Shuffling up the new guy, having an ass-slapping good time up my butthole...
- [Jensen Ames is sharply nudged in the side by Ulrich]
- Hennessey: Foul language... is an issue... for me. While looking over your record, I couldn't help noticing your occupational history. It seems you have some talent behind the wheel. Out of curiosity, when was the last time you raced?
- Jensen Ames: It's been a while. I lost my license.
- Hennessey: What if I could help you?
- Jensen Ames: Get my license back?
- Hennessey: I had something else in mind. You're familiar with the Death Race, and the driver the fans call Frankenstein. A man so disfigured by crashes that he's forced to wear a mask. His return to the track is highly anticipated, and therein lies my problem. No one knows yet, but poor Frank died on an operating table not long after his last race. Anyone can wear the mask, but not just anyone can drive the car. You have the skills required to keep the legend alive. I want you to become Frankenstein.
- Jensen Ames: No thanks. He's dead. Why don't you just tell the truth?
- Hennessey: The audience wants to see Frank again. He moves them. Inspires them. And in this world, that's not easy to come by.
- Jensen Ames: What makes you think for a second I would risk my life doing this for you?
- Hennessey: Win five races, you go free. Those are the rules, and Frank has won four. Win one more, you walk. Call it intuition, but I don't think you belong in here with the rest of these animals.
- Jensen Ames: I might surprise you.
- Hennessey: The race is Friday, and I need your decision. You're a skilled driver. Your chances are good. I'm offering you your freedom, Mr. Ames. If it's not worth risking your life for, what is?
- Coach: Tomorrow morning you'll meet your navigator, Case. She'll help you navigate the course, reload your weapons, and help with the running of the car.
- Jensen Ames: I'd love to talk to her ahead of time before the race.
- Gunner: Yeah, I'd like a big-tittied girl to lick peanut butter off my toes, but it ain't gonna happen. This is still a prison, man. She's a chick. They get bussed in from the women's facility upstate.
- Coach: It's all about ratings. Fast cars, pretty women...
- Gunner: Machine-Gun Joe's the only one that has male navigators, 'cause he's gay.
- Lists: A-a-actually it's because he goes through them so fast, and the a-a-audience gets squeamish.
- Gunner: Yeah, he goes through them... through their ass.
- Coach: He cuts each kill into his skin as a souvenir, I hear.
- [about to throw the car's cigarette lighter towards Travis Colt's car]
- Case: Merry Christmas, ASSHOLE!
- Travis Colt: Oh, shit!
- Grimm: [after crawling out of the wreckage of his car, which was caused by 14K blowing it up] I'm the fuckin' Grim Reaper, baby. Can't kill me! You can burn me, you can even fuckin' shoot me, but you just can't motherfuckin' kill me!
- [Machine-Gun Joe comes up from behind, ramming Hector Grimm's head with one of his car's turrets and killing him in the process]
- On Screen Text: [first lines, the text that appears on screen] 2012 - The United States economy collapses.
- On Screen Text: Unemployment hits a record high.
- On Screen Text: Crime rates spiral out of control. The prison system reaches breaking point.
- On Screen Text: PRIVATE CORPORATIONS now run all correctional facilities for profit.
- On Screen Text: TERMINAL ISLAND Penitentiary streams a series of Cage Fights live on the Internet.
- On Screen Text: Prisoners fight to the Death, creating a ratings sensation.
- On Screen Text: They are the new Gladiators and Terminal Island is their Coliseum.
- On Screen Text: But like the mob of ancient Rome, the modern audience soon becomes bored.
- On Screen Text: They demand more...
- On Screen Text: DEATH RACE is born.
- Coach: [to Jensen Ames, who is wearing Frankenstein's costume and mask] Don't talk to the other drivers. Frank never did. Part of the mystique. Let the mask do the work.
- Jensen Ames: Why don't you wear a number, Coach?
- Coach: Because I'm not a prisoner. I qualified for parole three years ago. Got as far as the gate. They got a name for it: something-or-another syndrome. Simple fact is, world's changed since I've been in here. Don't know what, don't much want to. But this... this I know.
- Jensen Ames: What did they send you away for?
- Coach: Oh, plenty... and nothing.
- Coach: And what do we owe the pleasure of your company?
- Jensen Ames: I killed my wife.
- Coach: Bullshit! You're a hard man, but you ain't no wife killer.
- Jensen Ames: And how do you know?
- Coach: I've met my share. But you, the way you look at her, couldn't do that if you killed her mother. So I say, bullshit.
- Jensen Ames: [sees Coach walking away] Coach? What would you say if Hennessy got my wife killed? Got me framed to come in here to be a Frankenstein, what would you say to that bullshit?
- [pauses]
- Jensen Ames: Her name was Suzie. I was headed here. Always knew it; she didn't. She was my chance of something else and that bitch took her away from me.
- Coach: [after Jensen Ames wins a short prison fight in the cafeteria] I guess he didn't like the oatmeal, neither.
- [the bomb planted underneath Jensen Ames' car does not go off]
- Hennessey: [screaming] Son of a BITCH! Get the choppers in the air!
- Jensen Ames: [seeing Gunner push a button in the car] What's that?
- Gunner: The most important part of the car.
- [a cigarette lighter pops up and Gunner lights his cigarette with it]
- Lists: Hector Grimm, the Grim Reaper. The man's a master. Clinical psychopath. Three-time consecutive life sentences. He's killed six men off the track, another 12 on it.
- Machine-Gun Joe: [referring to Jensen Ames] Who's the new fish?
- Coach: Grease monkey.
- Machine-Gun Joe: [to Jensen Ames] Well, well. Monkey. I got a new name for you - Igor, because you about the ugliest motherfucker out here in this prison, yo!
- Jensen Ames: You sure are lucky a driver like me just happened to turn up in your prison when I did.
- Hennessey: Oh, I'm more than lucky. I'm blessed. Sometimes, it's like the right hand of God is sitting on my shoulder.
- Joe's Navigator #3: I'm honored to navigate for you, sir. They call me...
- Machine-Gun Joe: [interrupting him] Save it. We won't have time to get acquainted.
- Lists: Jensen Garner Ames. Moved to the States at 24 years old. Named after a car, the Jensen Interceptor. A three-time local speedway champion.
- Jensen Ames: You've done your homework, or do you just know everything?
- Coach: Jensen Interceptor. I had one. Handled like a school bus.
- Lists: [to Jensen Ames] You've already met the local chapter of the Brotherhood. Their driver, Pachenko, has killed nine men on the track. Nobody knows how many off.
- Lists: Travis Colt. Our local superstar. He used to race for NASCAR...
- Gunner: Yeah, he was good too.
- Lists: ...until he fell asleep behind the wheel of his Mercedes with the help of a bottle of Scotch and a handful of 'ludes. Wiped out the entire patio of Moscala, sent a dozen people to the hospital... and killed three of them.
- Coach: Technically, he's the best driver in here, but a mean son of a bitch quitter.
- Coach: [from track #1 of the film's soundtrack] Now pay close attention. You may not know it, but the next Great Depression is right around the corner. People will lose their jobs, then their homes. It's gonna be the perfect time for the Race, a hard sport for a hard age. Millions watch the raw footage streamed live over the Net. The drivers are convicts, and the rules are simple: it's kill or be killed. Frankenstein had lived through it, made with a steel mask as the crowd's favorite. Behind that plate is a face so torn up and burned from the half a dozen crashes that nobody can stand the sight of him. But shoot him, burn him, run him over, he just won't die. He's won four races. Just one more and he wins the ultimate prize... freedom.