Closing Narration quotes from The Fugitive

A fugitive ropes his way into a small corner of darkness, hoping for sanctuary from the relentless force that eternally pursues him. Now, thrust once again into the harsh, inquisitive light, Richard Kimble must run, searching for the elusive place where a new life can commence.

As one road is blocked, Richard Kimble takes another. For a fugitive, there are no freeways. All roads are toll roads, to be paid in blood and pain. There are many roads. There is only one goal.

So darkness swallows the fugitive. But it merely covers, not hides him. He is still hounded, still hunting, but still free. Until tomorrow.

For Richard Kimble, the mind’s eye is always open. Scanning the nightmare landscape for his pursuers. He wakes from brief dreams of tomorrow’s reprieve, but they are only dreams and he runs on.

Safe, for one more night. Richard Kimble continues along the twin paths of the hunter and the hunted. Continues along, without the knowledge that either road will lead to freedom.

A fugitive lives with many emotions. Hope, gratitude, loneliness. But among the emotions, one stands out: fear, and every day it’s embedded a little deeper. Each step taken a little faster as the contest continues to take its toll.

To Richard Kimble, the fugitive, the respite of love is brief: the end of love, a necessity of survival. In flight from the numberless enemy, darkness and loneliness are harsh but sheltering friends.

For Richard Kimble, a moment of safety ends, and the long search must continue. For he knows, the only true sanctuary lies in the elusive proof of his innocence.

Barbara’s sentence will come finally to an end. But for Richard Kimble, there is no calendar on which to mark the days. Loneliness once again stretches ahead, is apparently endless as the city streets.

A fugitive is a man in exile. A woman’s love can remain with him only long enough to remind him of his loss. For Richard Kimble, it is the price of freedom.

A free man, Fred Johnson, boarded a train that will take him east, to Indiana, to Stafford. Hours later, two men boarded another train which will bring them to the same destination. For one of these, the moment arrival will be one of grim and long-sought triumph. For the other, his homecoming will mark only one more stop on his way to a destiny decreed in a court of law four years before. Richard Kimble is on his way home, and to an overdue appointment with death.

Tuesday, August 29. The day the running stopped.

Richard Kimble

(speaking into a pay phone) I'd like to make a person to person call to Lieutenant Philip Gerard at the Baker City Police Department.

Richard Kimble

Yes, it's G-E-R-A-R-D. That's right.

Richard Kimble

I'll wait.

And Richard Kimble waits, not yet aware that his hope for salvation has again disappeared. Waits to be reminded by Lt. Philip Gerard that he is still as much a fugitive as before.

Lt. Philip Gerard

I wanted both of them. One was a killer. He'd killed before and if allowed to escape he'd have killed again. The other one, Kimble, he's done the one murder he'd probably ever do. And until I find him....and I will....he's no real menace to anyone, but himself.

(finally sinking in what Kimble really is compared to her late husband) Honest Sam.

No real menace to anyone but himself. That’s the way it must be for Richard Kimble. Still alone and hunted. Even the good he might do is unable to balance the scales of justice which have made him, and keep him, a fugitive.

Wyler City, a rugged frontier town in the mining country of northern Montana. To the ordinary man, a place where he can test himself against the harsh demands of nature. To the Fugitive, a corridor of danger.

A fugitive’s life is not measured in years. It is measured in moments won, a day gained. Richard Kimble has won another day. Tomorrow, he must win it all over again.