Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
A creed carved over the door of a city that later drowns in it. The line promises freedom from church and state and the whole game is the cost of that promise: Rapture's founder cannot tolerate anyone, god or king or ordinary rival, above his idea of man. Players quote it as shorthand for libertarian utopias gone wrong, and the banner is the game's first, cleanest image of how a philosophy can look noble until you read where it leads.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for BioShockShow the scene
In BioShock (2007) the phrase is Rapture's creed, the first thing the player reads. After surviving a plane crash in the Atlantic, Jack reaches a lighthouse, and inside the door a banner hangs in an octagonal rotunda beneath a large bust of a man, bearing the words. The door shuts behind him, a bathysphere waits at the bottom of a staircase, and as it descends a prerecorded speech by city founder Andrew Ryan, voiced by Armin Shimerman, explains his philosophy of free will and independence before the glittering underwater city comes into view.
Sources (2)
- BioShock Wiki: The Lighthouse (Rapture)Walkthrough, The Lighthouse and The DescentReference checked
- Wikipedia: Andrew Ryan (BioShock)LeadReference checked
Context reviewed
