Closing Narration quotes from The Fugitive

Richard Kimble, fugitive. On a brief visit to a dead past. Now once more in search of a future.

One man dies and another survives for at least another day. For one, the sound of laughter has faded. For the other, the echo of that sound remains. Richard Kimble's lonely flight continues, but now perhaps, he will find an occasional moment to remember and smile.

All men run the risk of being chained to their pasts. For Richard Kimble, that bondage is stronger than the steel that hangs from his wrist; and so he moves on, searching. Knowing that for him, now there can be no freedom.

Even for the guilty, there is relief when the truth is known, but for Richard Kimble, the truth that will free him lies somewhere ahead. Over the next horizon, beyond the next town. At another place, at another time.

The carnival has moved on, and so too has Richard Kimble. The carnival moves north, taking its ragbag of noise and excitement to another town, searching for the crowds that are its life, and Richard Kimble, a fugitive still, searches for the one man who can mean HIS life.

Without a past, a man has no future. For Richard Kimble, his memories are the source of his courage. They give him the strength to face another uncertain tomorrow.

A fleeting moment to laugh, to be warmed, to contemplate what could have been. An hour ago, he was Jack Fickens. Now he must find a new name, a new place. A man who must lose himself in order that someday, he might again find himself. Richard Kimble, fugitive.

The storm has come and gone, but few of those who sought shelter together that night will forget it. And Richard Kimble, the next hill now in his eye, will find occasions to look back and remember. A fugitive has time for that.

Some men can never be free. From birth, they are their own jailers, they are their own prisons, they are trapped by their own talents. For Richard Kimble, a fugitive, freedom is flight. For flight brings hope, and with hope, there is always tomorrow.

In the storybooks, when you save a man’s life, you are richly rewarded. For a fugitive, it doesn’t always work that way ... and sometimes, when you are chased by the Furies, the life you must save is your own.

If you are Richard Kimble, fugitive, your already complicated life has become more so. You can no longer rely upon on your instinct, because for all you know, your pursuers may be machines, and you are merely a human being.

For some, an end finally comes to the running. But for Richard Kimble, the end has come to only one more day and the running must go on.

Love needs time to grow, and a hunted man has no time. Yesterday, a need that found hope in a look, a word, a touching of hands, is today denied by flight -- a flight from guns. Today’s guns are already miles behind, but the need remains.

The highway north carries a fugitive to freedom -- a freedom shadowed by his own special jinx. He cannot look back now. He can only look ahead to the day when that jinx will ultimately be broken.

To Richard Kimble, a border is a dark tunnel whose other end might lead to the final encounter with a many-faced enemy. But for the moment, it leads to safety.