Someone made fire. Someone was first. I don’t mean the idiot who found a burning stick and kept it going. I mean the fellow who could make fire. And until that knowledge was stolen, that fellow was the most powerful person on the planet. And it means something to be first. To be most. It means a great deal. It means you have an opportunity to reproduce with the highest frequency and with the most desirable partners. It means your offspring have the greatest chance of survival and a better opportunity to make their own fire. I personally believe that human evolution has run its course. We live in a world where the people who can make fire have a tendency to wear condoms, sit in casinos and drink themselves into a stupor.
— Howard Tully (Tom Wilkinson, Duplicity)