Original subtitles

[man] Okay, roll film.

[machine powering up, whirring]

Don't think of a car crash in a movie as a violent act.

No, these collisions are part of a long tradition

of American optimism.

A reaffirmation of traditional values and beliefs.

A celebration.

Think of these crashes like you would Thanksgiving

and the Fourth of July.

On these days, we don't mourn the dead or rejoice in miracles.

No, these are days of secular optimism.

Of self-celebration.

Each crash is meant to be better than the last.

There's a constant upgrading of tools, skills, a meeting of challenges.

An American film director says, "I want this flatbed truck

to do a double mid-air somersault that produces an orange ball of fire

in a 36-foot diameter."

The movie breaks away from complicated human passions

to show us something elemental, something loud and fiery and head-on.

Watch any car crash in any American movie.

It is a high-spirited moment,

like old-fashioned stunt flying

or walking on wings.

The people who stage these crashes

are able to capture a light-heartedness, a carefree enjoyment

that car crashes in foreign movies can never approach.

You might say, "But what about all that blood and glass?"

"The screeching rubber, the crushed bodies,

the severed limbs?" "What kind of optimism is this?"

Look past the violence, I say.

There is a wonderful brimming spirit of innocence and fun.

[female volunteer] Welcome, freshmen! Any questions, ask me.

Welcome. Come on, freshmen.

Hey, you guys! Welcome!

-We've got to go. We're double-parked. -Do not rush me.

[father 1] Traffic is bad right now.

You're not planning on helping me move in? I got all this stuff.

-[father 2] Hey, buddy! -We've got this.

I can't believe that you said that to my roommate.

You don't even know him. Don't tell him my own business.

You've tied this three times already.

-It's the same every time. -I didn't like the way it looked.

[car horn honks]

[man] Let's enjoy these aimless days while we can.

-You should have been there. -Where?

[man] It's the day of the station wagons.

Did I miss it again? You're supposed to remind me.

[man] It was a brilliant event.

They stretched all the way past the music library

and onto the interstate.

You know I need reminding, Jack.

-They'll be back next year. -I hope so.

I realized it was 1968 I started the Hitler Studies program.

I've witnessed this event now for 16 years.

I don't care about the station wagons. I wanted to see the people.

What are they like this year?

The women wear plaid skirts and cable-knit sweaters.

I knew it. And the men are in hacking jackets.

What is a hacking jacket?

They've grown comfortable with their money.

They believe that they're entitled to it. They glow a little.

I have trouble imagining death at that income level.

Maybe there's no death as we know it, just documents changing hands.

-How do astronauts float? -They're lighter than air.

There is no air. They can't be lighter than something that isn't there.

-Not that we don't have a station wagon. -It's small and maroon.

-I thought space was cold. -[Jack] It has a rusted door.

-Space? -Our station wagon.

It's called the sun's corolla. We saw it on the Weather Network.

-I thought Corolla was a car. -Everything's a car.

Where's Wilder?

-Wilder? -[Jack groans]

-Wilder, are you hungry? -[girl 1] How cold is space?

You still playing the fellow in prison?

-I think I've got him cornered. -Who did he kill?

-He was under pressure. -How many did he shoot?

-Five. -Five people?

Not counting the state trooper which was later.

This is not the lunch I planned for myself.

I was thinking yoghurt and wheat germ.

-Where have we heard that before? -[girl 1] Probably right here.

You keep buying stuff you never eat.

Steffie, Capricorn…

Babette thinks if she keeps buying it, she'll have to eat it.

We love her habits.

If anybody here has to show discipline in matters of diet, it's me.

…in your favor into profitable enterprise.

-[girl 2] What's beeping? -Smoke alarm.

-Is there a fire? -That or the battery's dead.

Jack, Virgo, you've been swimming against the tide…

Most fires in buildings start because of faulty wiring.

Phrase you can't hang around without hearing.

-You'll add to your possessions. -I'll replace them.

He tries not to listen although he secretly wants to.

It's like love slash hate.

Did he know who he was killing or were they strangers?

-[boy] Total strangers. -Was he hearing voices?

-[boy] On TV, yeah. -What did they say?

[boy] They told him to go down in history, but I don't think he will.

-Iron City is too small of a media market. -Okay!

I'm going to take a shower

and then we'll go to the mall and then I'll teach my posture class.

-[Steffie] I didn't know we had Pringles. -Didn't she already shower today?

Can I have one? No, actually two.

[boy] I'm going to give you three because you'll ask for more later.

[Steffie] Maybe I won't.

[objects clatter]

[man on TV] Start your good breakfast with Eggo waffles from Kellogg's…

[girl] Dylar.

-What do you want to do? -What do you want to do?

I want whatever's best for you.

What's best for me is to please you.

But you please me by letting me please you.

Is it wrong for the man to be considerate to his partner?

I'm your partner when we're playing tennis,

which we ought to start doing again, by the way.

Otherwise, I'm your wife.

-Do you want me to read to you? -[sighs]

First rate.

[Jack groans]

Please don't choose anything that has

men inside women or men entering women.

-Got it. -We're not lobbies or elevators.

"I wanted him inside me."

As if he could crawl completely in,

sign the register, sleep, eat, and so forth.

I don't care what these people do as long as they don't enter or get entered.

Life is good, Jack.

[Jack] What brings this on?

I just feel it has to be said.

I want to die first.

[Jack] You sound almost eager.

Life would feel unbearably sad and lonely without you.

Especially if the children were grown up and living elsewhere.

Right now we're safe.

As long as the children are here. They need us.

It's great having these kids around but once they get big and scattered,

I want to go first.

No, Jack.

Your death would leave an abyss in my life.

I'd be left talking to chairs and pillows.

Your death would be more than an abyss.

-What's more than an abyss? -A yawning gulf.

Your death would be a profound depth…

-A void. -Don't be an ass.

Your death would leave a bigger hole in my life than mine would in yours.

You'll be fine.

You'll travel and live a new and exciting life.

I'll just sit in that chair in the suit that I wore to your funeral forever.

You're wrong. And you don't really want to die first.

You don't want to be alone,

but you don't want to die more than you don't want to be alone.

I hope we both live forever.

Doddering, toothless,

liver-spotted, hallucinating.

Who decides these things?

[both chuckle]

Who's out there?

Who are you?

[mysterious instrumental music playing]

[chanting in German]

[cheering]

[announcer speaking German]

[projector whirring]

[crowd cheering]

[in English] When people are helpless and scared,

they're drawn to magical figures.

Mythic figures.

Epic men

who intimidate and darkly loom.

Could you talk about the Stauffenberg July 20 plot

to kill Hitler?

All plots move deathward.

This is the nature of plots.

Political plots,

terrorist plots, lovers' plots.

[Babette] Way, way up…

[Jack] Narrative plots.

Up to the sky…

Plots that are a part of children's games.

And now make fists…

We edge nearer to death every time we plot.

Left foot, left arm, and what was that?

It's like a contract all must sign.

Perfect!

The plotters,

as well as the targets of the plot.

-Let me see. -[interviewer speaking on TV]

[girl 2] Give it back.

[man on TV] …45 years of age, brown hair, dark eyes.

-Six feet tall, 165 pounds… -[mumbles]

-A most fascinating phenomenon. -[man] Study my tongue.

"Tomorrow is Tuesday."

Morgen ist Dienstag.

Morgen ist Dienstag.

-Morgen… -Morgen…

-…ist… -…ist…

-…Dienstag. -…Dienstag.

-[casually] Morgen ist Dienstag. -Morgen ist Dienstag.

[in English] "Tomorrow is Tuesday."

Tomorrow is not Tuesday. Tomorrow is Wednesday.

But, "Tomorrow is Tuesday."

"Tomorrow is Tues--" Well--

"I am eating potato salad."

Ich esse Kartoffelsalat.

-Ich… -Ich…

-Ich… hef… -…esse… Ich esse…

Ich heffe Forto-- Forto salad.

-Fortofu salad. -Ich esse Kartoffelsalat.

Ich heffe… Ich heffe Fortofu--

Ich esse Kartoffelsalat.

-Iche… Iche… -Ich…

-Ich. -Ich.

[Jack, in English] I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention

these lessons to anyone.

You probably don't know,

but I may be one of the most prominent figures

in Hitler Studies in North America.

I'm J.A.K. Gladney.

I… I teach Advanced Nazism over at the College-on-the-Hill.

So as you can understand,

it's a great source of embarrassment for me that I don't speak German.

Maybe it explains the dark glasses, but…

best not to analyze it.

As you can probably see,

something happens between the back of my tongue and the roof of my mouth.

After all, I require my students to take a minimum of one year of German.

The urgency is the Hitler conference.

It's coming here to the College-on-the-Hill in the spring,

and scholars from all over Germany will be in attendance.

Do you think you can get me up to speed on the basics of the language by then?

I also teach sailing.

[PA chimes]

[announcer] Kleenex Softique, your truck's blocking the entrance.

This is exciting.

[man] We have these in New York.

The oven aroma of bread

combined with the sight of a blood-stained man

pounding strips of living veal is very exciting.

Murray Suskind, this is my wife, Babette.

Murray came to the college this year from New York.

-Oh. -His specialty is living icons.

You have a very impressive husband, Mrs. Gladney.

Nobody in any university in this country can so much as utter a word about Hitler

without a nod in J.A.K.'s direction, literally or metaphorically.

-He's Jack in real life. -Hitler is now Gladney's Hitler.

I marvel at what you've done with the man. I want to do the same with Elvis.

-[Steffie] My dirt. -[girl 2] Dirt's dirt.

Who are these children? Yours?

Well, there's Denise, of course…

[boy] "Hot" and "cold" are words. We have to use words…

-We need more Glass Plus. -[boy] We can't just grunt.

That's Heinrich…

…there are more people dead today than in the rest of world history.

-[Jack] Steffie. -We have to boil our water…

[Jack] Mine from wives one and three.

-There's Denise… -On Neptune it rains diamonds.

…Babette's from husband two.

Wilder is ours. We're each other's fourth.

[Heinrich] The French eat glands.

Family is the cradle of the world's misinformation.

There must be something in family life that generates factual error.

That's because facts threaten our happiness and security.

It's the over-closeness, the noise and the heat of being.

[announcer] Tegrin. Denorex. Selsun Blue.

[Murray] Your wife's hair is a living wonder.

[Jack] Yes, it is.

-She has important hair. -I think I know what you mean.

-I hope you appreciate that woman. -Absolutely.

-A woman like that doesn't just happen. -I know it.

[announcer] Dristan Ultra. Dristan Ultra.

That stuff causes cancer in laboratory animals if you didn't know.

You wanted me to chew sugarless gum. It was your idea.

There was no warning on the pack then.

Then they put a warning, which I don't believe you didn't see.

Either I chew gum with sugar and artificial coloring

or sugarless gum that's harmful to rats. It's up to you.

Don't chew at all. Ever think of that?

Denise.

Steffie.

-Either I chew gum or I smoke. -[Denise] Why not do both?

That's what you want, isn't it?

We all get to do what we want.

Unless we're not allowed to because of our age and height.

You're making a fuss over nothing.

I guess you're right. Never mind. Just a warning on the pack.

-Just rats. -Just useless rodents.

Plus, I'd like to believe she only chews two pieces a day,

the way she forgets things.

What do I forget?

It's all right. Never mind.

-What do I forget? -[clattering]

[announcer] Sunny Delight. Sunny Delight.

-[shopper] Leon! Parsley! -79!

Let me help you up.

[announcer] Uh, Cheerios spill in aisle 6.

Sorry, aisle 4.

You stole my visor.

Hey, give it…

[announcer] Sorry. Lucky Charms.

Tell Denise you're sorry.

Maybe later. Remind me.

She's a great girl

and she wants to be your older sister. And your friend, if you let her.

I don't know about "friend." She's a little bossy.

Aside from telling her you're sorry, be sure to give her back her book.

It's a medical journal. She reads it all the time. It's weird.

-At least she reads something. -It's lists of drugs and medicines.

-You want to know why she reads it? -Why?

She's trying to find out

the side-effects of the stuff that Babette uses.

What does Baba use?

Don't ask me, ask Denise.

-How do you know she uses anything? -Ask Denise.

-Why don't I ask Baba? -Ask Baba.

[pleasant music playing]

[Babette] I know I forget things, but I didn't know it was so obvious.

[Jack] It isn't.

[Babette] I dial a number and forget who I'm calling.

I go to the store and I forget what to buy.

[Jack] We all forget.

[Babette] Sometimes I call Steffie "Denise."

I forget where I've parked the car.

I don't care what the girls say. It can't be the gum I chew.

-That's too far-fetched. -Maybe it's something else.

[Babette] What do you mean?

[Jack] Maybe you're taking something besides chewing gum.

-[Babette] Where did you get that idea? -I got it from Steffie.

-[Babette] Where did Steffie get it from? -Denise.

What does Denise, through Steffie, say that I'm taking?

I wanted to ask you before I asked her.

We always tell each other everything.

I am not taking anything that would affect my memory, Jack.

These are the days that I want to remember.

[Jack] Everybody forgets things. There's a lot going on.

My life is either/or.

Either I chew regular gum or I chew sugarless gum.

Either I chew gum or I smoke. Either I smoke or I gain weight.

Either I gain weight or I run up the stadium steps.

Sounds like a boring life.

I hope it lasts forever.

-Do you drink coffee yet? -No.

Baba likes a cup when she gets back from class.

Her class is demanding.

-Coffee relaxes her. -[car door closes]

That's why it's dangerous.

-Why is it dangerous? -Whatever relaxes you is dangerous.

[enunciating words in German]

[in English] What are we going to do about Baba?

She can't remember anything with those pills she takes.

We don't know for sure she's taking something.

I saw the empty bottle in the trash under the kitchen sink.

-How do you know it was hers? -I saw her throw it out.

It had the name of the medication.

-Dylar. -Dylar?

"One every three days,"

which sounds like it's dangerous or habit-forming or whatever.

-What does your book say about Dylar? -That's just it.

It's not in there. I spent hours.

There are four indexes.

It must be recently marketed or go by different names.

-Do you want me to doublecheck? -No, I looked.

If we could get a pill, maybe you could get it analyzed?

I… I don't want to make too much of this.

-We could call her doctor? -Everybody takes medication.

-Everybody forgets things occasionally. -Not like my mother.

-I forget things all the time. -What do you take?

Uh, blood-pressure pills, stress pills, allergy pills…

Eyedrops, aspirin.

I looked in your medicine cabinet. I thought there might be a new bottle.

-And no Dylar? -No.

Well, maybe she's done taking it.

Why don't you wanna believe something might be wrong?

We have to allow each other to have our secrets, don't you think?

She hides books on the occult in the attic.

I found them.

Also, I don't think she went to her posture class tonight.

[Jack] Why do you say that?

She went right instead of left at the stop sign.

-Maybe she took the scenic route. -That's left too.

Come on, hurry up. Plane crash footage.

[reporter on TV] …a maneuver called a reverse Cuban Eight…

[Heinrich] It was a jet trainer in an air show in New Zealand.

They'll show it again.

[reporter on TV] …did not have enough room to make.

[reporter] The plane came down in a field next to the Ball corporation…

None of the thousands of spectators have been allowed in that area…

-Let's watch a sitcom or something. -[kids] No!

[reporter] …it appears the F-86 was coming around,

but not far enough or quickly enough.

-[crashes] -[siren wailing]

[breathing heavily]

[clicks]

[softly] Baba?

[clicks]

[clicks]

[clicking]

[chair creaking]

[urinating]

[toilet flushing]

[eerie music playing]

-[Jack wheezing] -[music stops]

[sighs]

[breathes heavily]

[inhales deeply]

I felt like I was falling through myself.

Like a heart-stopping plunge.

Someone was here with us. Something.

[professor] It's natural.

It's normal that decent, well-meaning people would find themselves

intrigued by catastrophe when they see it on TV.

[professor 2] We're suffering from brain fade.

We need an occasional catastrophe

to break up the incessant bombardment of information.

The flow's constant. It's words, pictures, numbers…

Only catastrophe gets our attention. We want them.

This is where California comes in.

Mud slides, brush fires…

If I were to get you a pill…

A pill? Like… a pill?

Yes, a pill.

-Could you analyze it? -Jack.

-Why do you ask me? -You're brilliant.

We're all brilliant. Isn't that the understanding around here?

You call me brilliant. I call you brilliant.

-We call Alfonse brilliant. -California deserves whatever it gets.

Californians invented the concept of lifestyle.

This alone warrants their doom.

-Jack… -No one calls me brilliant.

They call me shrewd. They say I latched onto something big…

You're saying it's more or less universal to be fascinated by TV disasters.

-Where's the pill? -I have to find it.

[professor] …whether to feel good or bad that my experience is widely shared.

Jack, I… I need your help

establishing an Elvis Presley power base in the department.

What does Alfonse say?

He seems to feel Cotsakis has established a prior right.

Cotsakis was in Memphis when the King died.

He interviewed members of his entourage…

Did you take a crap in a toilet bowl that had no seat?

A great and funky men's room…

To Cotsakis, Elvis is just Elvis. But for me, Elvis is my Hitler.

How can I help?

If you could drop by on my lecture this afternoon,

lend a note of consequence to the proceedings.

Your prestige, your physical person. It would mean a lot.

Pissing in the snow is also a fetish for me.

These are the things we don't teach. Bowls with no seats, pissing in sinks,

the culture of public toilets.

I've pissed in sinks all through the American West.

I've slipped across the border to piss in sinks in Manitoba and Alberta.

Ever had a woman peel flaking skin from your back after a few days at the beach?

Cocoa Beach, Florida. It was tremendous.

Second or third greatest experience of my life.

-Was she naked? -To the waist.

[chewing] From which direction?

[train engine chugging]

[singing] ♪ Stop, look and listen, baby ♪

♪ That's my philosophy ♪

["Rubberneckin'" by Elvis Presley playing on radio]

[tires screeching]

[Murray] Did his mother know

that Elvis would die young?

She talked about assassins.

She talked about "the life."

The life of a star of this type and magnitude.

Isn't this life structured to cut you down early?

This is the point, isn't it?

There are rules, guidelines.

[students murmuring]

Now, I have a feeling about mothers.

Mothers really do know.

The folklore is correct.

[Jack] Hitler adored his mother.

He was the first of Klara's children to survive infancy.

Elvis and Gladys liked to nuzzle and pet.

They slept in the same bed until he began to approach physical maturity.

They talked baby talk to each other.

Hitler was a lazy kid.

His report card was full of unsatisfactorys.

Gladys worried about his sleepwalking.

She lashed out at any kid who would bully him.

Gladys walked Elvis to school and back every day.

-She defended him in street rumbles. -But Klara loved him.

Spoiled him.

Gave him the attention his father failed to give him.

Elvis confided in Gladys. He brought his girlfriends around to meet her.

Hitler wrote a poem to his mother.

He took piano lessons, made sketches of museums and villas.

When Elvis went into the army, Gladys became ill and depressed.

Hitler is what we call a "mama's boy."

Elvis could hardly bear to let Gladys out of his sight.

As her condition grew worse, he kept vigil at the hospital.

When his mother became severely ill,

Hitler put a bed in the kitchen to be closer to her.

Elvis fell apart when Gladys died.

He cooked and cleaned, he wept at the grave.

-Fondled and nuzzled her in the casket. -Fell into depression and self-pity.

He talked their baby talk.

For the rest of his life, Hitler couldn't bear…

…Gladys's death caused a fundamental shift…

…died near a Christmas tree.

-…King's world view. -Years later…

Elvis began to withdraw…

…deep remoteness…

…into a state of his own dying.

Hitler put a portrait of his mother in his quarters at Obersalzberg.

He began to hear a buzzing in his left ear.

Elvis fulfilled the terms of his contract.

Excess,

deterioration, self-destructiveness, grotesque behavior,

a physical bloating and a series of insults to the brain, self-delivered.

His place in legend is secure.

He bought off the skeptics by dying early, horribly, unnecessarily.

No one could deny him now.

His mother probably saw it all, as on a 19-inch screen,

years before her own death.

[Jack] Picture Hitler,

near the end,

trapped in his Führerbunker, beneath the burning city.

He looks back to the early days of his power,

when crowds came.

Mobs of people overrunning the courtyard,

singing patriotic songs,

painting swastikas on the walls, on the flanks of farm animals.

Crowds came to his mountain villa.

Crowds came to hear him speak.

Crowds erotically charged,

-the masses he once called his only bride. -[crowd clamoring faintly]

Crowds came to be hypnotized by the voice,

the party anthems, the torchlight parades. But wait!

How familiar this all seems to us.

How close to ordinary.

Crowds come, get worked up,

touch and press,

people eager to be transported. Isn't this ordinary?

We all know this.

-We've been part of those crowds. -[crowd squealing]

But there must have been something different about these crowds. What was it?

[sighs]

Let me whisper the terrible word

from the Old English,

from the Old German,

from the Old Norse.

[grunts]

[whispering] Death.

Death.

These crowds were assembled in the name of death.

They were there to attend tributes to the dead.

But not the already dead.

The future dead.

The living dead amongst us.

Processions, songs, speeches, dialogues with the dead,

recitations of the names of the dead.

They were there to see pyres and flaming wheels,

thousands of flags dipped in salute,

thousands of uniformed mourners!

There were ranks and squadrons, elaborate backdrops,

blood banners and black dress uniforms.

Crowds came to form a shield against their own dying.

To become a crowd is to keep out death.

To break off from the crowd is to risk death as an individual,

-to face dying alone! -[tires screeching]

[panting]

Crowds came for this reason above all others.

They were there to be a crowd.

[screeching, grinding]

[indistinct praise]

[screeching]

[indistinct praise continues]

[sinister music playing]

[siren wailing in distance]

[Jack] May the days be aimless.

Let the seasons drift.

Do not advance the action according to a plan.

[thuds]

[breathing heavily]

[woman] Decongestant, antihistamine, cough suppressants, pain reliever.

[speaking]

[siren wailing in distance]

Hey. What do you see out there?

The radio said a tank car derailed, but I don't think it derailed.

It got rammed and something punched a hole in it.

There's smoke, I don't like the looks of it.

What does it look like?

[siren wailing]

-[Jack] You see fire engines or… -They're all over the place.

It looks to me like they're not getting too close.

It must be pretty toxic or pretty explosive stuff.

-It won't come this way. -How do you know?

It just won't.

The point is, you shouldn't be standing on ledges. It worries Baba.

You think if you tell me it worries her, I'll feel guilty and not do it.

But if you tell me it worries you, I'll do it all the time.

Shut the window.

Did you finish your homework?

Can you see the feathery plume from the attic?

-It's not a plume. -Will we have to leave?

-Of course not. -How do you know?

I just know.

What about that leak at school and we had to evacuate?

That was inside. This is outside.

They're using leaf blowers to blow stuff onto the spill.

What kind of stuff?

I don't know, to make the spill harmless.

-Doesn't explain what they're doing. -Keeping it from getting bigger.

-When do we eat? -[Steffie] Dunno.

If it gets bigger, it'll get here with or without a wind.

-[Jack] It won't. -How do you know?

Because it won't!

The radio calls it a feathery plume, but it's not.

-That's what Dad says. -[Denise] What is it?

Like a shapeless, growing thing. A dark, black breathing thing of smoke.

-Why do they call it a plume? -Air time is valuable…

[Denise] Have they said what chemical it is?

It's called Nyodene Derivative or Nyodene D.

We saw it in a movie in school on toxic waste.

-[Jack] What does it cause? -Those videotaped rats?

It wasn't sure what it does to humans. Mainly it was rats growing urgent lumps.

That's what the movie said. What does the radio say?

Skin irritation and sweaty palms.

-Sweaty palms in rats? -The radio, not the movie.

They updated it to nausea, vomiting, shortness of breath.

-[Steffie] The radio or the movie? -Both.

-It won't come this way. -How do you know?

Because it won't. It's calm and still today.

Wind at this time of year, it blows that way, not this way.

-What if it blows this way? -It won't.

-What if just this one time? -Why should it?

-They closed part of the interstate. -They would do that.

-[both] Why? -Why would they?

They just would. It's a sensible precaution.

-It's a way to facilitate movement… -Hold on, Helen. Jack is here.

The Stovers say the spill from the tank car was 35,000 gallons.

Her girls were complaining of sweaty palms.

There's been a correction. They ought to be throwing up.

Is anyone nauseous?

-Okay, okay. Thanks, Helen. -[helicopter whirring]

Stay in touch. The Stovers spoke directly with the weather center outside Glassboro.

They're not calling it a feathery plume anymore.

What are they calling it?

A black billowing cloud.

That's more accurate. They're coming to grips with the thing. It's good.

[garbage disposal crackles]

It's expected that some sort of air mass may be moving down from Canada.

There's always an air mass moving down from Canada.

That's true. There's nothing new in that.

Since Canada is to the north, if the billowing cloud is blown due south,

it'll miss us by a comfortable margin. When do we eat?

Maybe we ought to be more concerned about the cloud.

-I know we don't want to scare the kids… -Nothing is going to happen.

I know nothing's going to happen, you know nothing's going to happen,

but we ought to think about it just in case.

I mean, when do we know when this is real?

These things happen to people who live in exposed areas.

Society is set up, I mean sadly,

in such a way that it's the poor and uneducated

who suffer the main impact of natural and man-made disasters.

It is sad.

Did you ever see a college professor rowing a boat down his own street

in one of those TV floods?

-Why do you want dinner so early? -I missed lunch.

-Shall I do some chili-fried chicken? -First rate!

-Where's Wilder? -I don't know.

-I ironed your gown. -Thank you.

-Did you pay the phone bill? -I can't find it.

I paid the gas and electricity.

Let's think about the cloud a little bit, okay?

What if it's dangerous?

Everything in train tank cars is dangerous.

But the effects are long-range.

-So we die later? -We don't die. Not from this.

All we have to do is stay out of the way.

Let's be sure to keep it in the back of our mind.

Here's Wilder. Baba's making chili-fried chicken.

[Heinrich] They're calling it a black billowing cloud.

-That's what the Stovers said. It's good. -Why is that good?

I told your sister they're looking the thing more squarely in the eye.

Can you spot me?

[siren wailing in distance]

Okay.

[grunts]

Well, it's still hanging there.

Looks rooted to the spot.

Make sure Wilder doesn't get into that insulation.

So you don't think it'll come this way?

I can tell you know something I don't know.

Think it'll come this way or not?

You want me to say it won't come this way, then you'll attack with your data.

-Come here, buddy. -What'd they say?

It doesn't cause nausea, vomiting,

shortness of breath, like they said before.

What does it cause?

Heart palpitations and déjà vu.

Déjà vu? Come on.

It affects the false part of the human brain.

-I don't believe that. -That's not all.

They're not calling it the black billowing cloud anymore.

What are they calling it?

The airborne toxic event.

Names are not important. The important thing is location.

It's there. We're here. Wilder!

A large air mass is moving down from Canada.

-We knew that. -Doesn't mean it's not important!

Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. Depends.

The weather's about to change.

[cutlery clinking]

Aren't we eating a little early tonight?

-What do you call early? -'Cause we wanna get it out of the way?

What do we wanna get out of the way?

-In case something happens. -Like what?

This is delicious, Baba. You're not eating, honey.

[retches]

-[Babette] Denise, honey, are you okay? -She's showing outdated symptoms.

[Denise retching]

-Um, Steffie, can you… -[siren wailing]

[Denise vomiting]

[toilet flushing]

-Baba, could you pass more of the corn? -Sure.

Thank you so much. [grunts]

[grunting]

-Are you feeling better? -These peppers have a wonderful…

[siren blaring]

-I think that came from the firehouse. -What's for dessert?

[siren continues blaring]

-[dogs barking in distance] -[tires screeching]

[Fire Captain] Cloud of deadly chemicals.

Evacuate all places of residence.

Cloud of deadly chemicals. Cloud of deadly chemicals.

Evacuate…

They want us to evacuate.

They were only making a suggestion or was it a little more mandatory?

It was a fire captain's car…

In other words, you didn't have an opportunity

to notice the subtle edges of intonation.

Due to the sirens.

The voice said something like,

"Evacuate all places of residence. Cloud of deadly chemicals."

-"Cloud of deadly chemicals." -[Steffie crying]

[upbeat purposeful music playing]

[Babette grunts]

It's okay.

[Babette] Jack, just leave it!

Has anyone seen my ski mask?

[chatters]

-I couldn't find my ski mask. -[Babette] Why do you need a ski mask?

[Denise] It something you take in these kind of things.

People waste tremendous amounts on motion.

[Jack] I'm not sure we need the plant, but…

-Are we all here? -[Babette] Accounted for.

[Denise] Everyone's gone already.

We're late.

[engine starts]

[tires screech]

[radio crackling]

[man on radio] Blacksmith residents are to take the parkway

to the fourth service area where they would proceed

to a restaurant called Kung Fu Palace.

[Steffie] Is that the place with the lily ponds and the live deer?

That's right.

-[Denise] Where do we go? -[Jack] They'll tell us.

-Can we play my mix? -[Babette] Later.

Was this a mild winter or a harsh winter?

-[Babette] Compared to what? -Don't know.

-[man] If you're from the west side… -This is us.

…head for the Boy Scout camp called Camp Daffodil,

where Red Cross volunteers

-will dispense juice and coffee. -Okay, we have a plan.

That's Highway 10 after Inerson's Ford dealership…

[Jack] Oh, shit.

…between county line and Interstate 5. We are being asked to stress

that you do not attempt to shelter outside your designated cachement.

[helicopter whirring]

[horns honking]

[Heinrich] The whole point of Sir Albert Einstein is…

Things should clear up where it turns into four lanes.

[Denise and Heinrich speaking]

They don't look scared in the Crown Victoria.

[Denise] Yeah, they're laughing.

These guys aren't laughing.

-Where? -In the Country Squire.

[Denise] They look devastated.

What does it matter what they're doing in other cars?

-I want to know how scared I should be. -We just don't know at this point.

-That makes me more scared. -Don't be scared.

Nobody's coming in the opposite direction.

Police must have blocked…

Where are the police? Did they leave us on our own?

They're around.

Why are they shopping during an airborne event?

-[Heinrich] There's a sale. -[Babette] Maybe they know something.

-[Denise] Maybe there's no way out. -Maybe it's raining Nyodene D.

Is that possible?

[man on radio] People indoors are being asked to stay indoors.

-Why would they say that? -We were told to leave.

…you should remain there.

If you have already evacuated, find shelter immediately.

Again, if you are indoors, remain indoors.

If you're not, authorities are suggesting you get indoors as soon as possible.

-[Steffie] They're passing us. -[car honking]

Technically, that's illegal--

[screams]

[speaking indistinctly over walkie-talkie]

[woman crying]

Baba cooked chili-fried chicken for dinner.

Dad's favorite.

Dad said not to worry, the plume will not come this way,

but it wasn't a plume, it was an airborne toxic event.

We packed in a hurry. We ran to the car

only to realize we were latecomers to an evacuation.

Is this everything that happened?

Rain pelted the roof of our station wagon. Pip-pip-pip.

We hit traffic as we left the comfort of sycamores and hedges.

Dad searched for information on the radio.

Traffic lined up on the freeway like lighted-up dominos.

We passed by people in distress.

An unspoken bond with our fellow journeymen formed.

And then a crash. A car flipped on the road.

-People ran to their aid. -Oh, those poor people.

[Heinrich] We were waved by, only able to watch in sympathy and awe.

-[Jack] What… What's that? -Drive the car, Jack.

I saw your throat contract. You swallowed something.

Just a Life Saver. Keep your eyes on the road.

You place a Life Saver in your mouth

and you swallow it without an interval of sucking?

Swallow what? It's still in my mouth.

You swallowed something. I saw.

That was just saliva I didn't know what to do with.

Drive the car, would you?

[man on radio] The situation's scary, I imagine.

[woman on radio] Yes. This is a very dangerous chemical we're dealing with.

It could affect a lot of people.

[man] Do you have any idea how many people in Glassboro have been evacuated?

-We're running out of gas. -[woman] I have no idea.

-There's always extra. -How can there be extra?

That's how tank is constructed. So you don't run out.

Can't be. If you keep going, you run out.

You don't keep going forever.

-How do you know when to stop? -When you pass a gas station.

Look.

[bell dings]

[window creaking, thudding]

No one's here.

It's working.

[speaking indistinctly]

[wind howling]

[eerie music playing]

[gasps]

[electrical buzzing]

[rain stops]

[static]

[electrical buzzing]

[thunder rumbling]

[rain pattering]

You didn't pay, Dad.

There was nobody there.

You could've left money on the counter.

-[car honks] -I was in a hurry.

-I… I'll send them a check. -Yeah, but you probably won't do that.

What happens if the dogs get contaminated?

-[Babette] Nothing happens to dogs. -How do you know?

-Ask Jack. -Ask Heinrich.

Could be true. They use rats to test for things humans can get,

means we catch the same diseases.

They wouldn't use dogs if they thought it could hurt them.

-[Denise] Why not? -A dog is a mammal.

-So is a rat. -[Babette] A rat is a vermin.

-Mostly, it's a rodent. -[Babette] It's also a vermin.

-A cockroach is a vermin. -[Babette] A cockroach is an insect.

You count the legs, is how you know.

-It's also a vermin. -Does a cockroach…

Family is the cradle of the world's misinformation.

…than it is like a cockroach, even if they're both vermin.

[echoing] Since a rat and a human can get cancer but a cockroach can't.

What she's saying is two things that are mammals

have more in common than two things that are only vermins.

[Babette] Are you telling me a rat is not only

a vermin and a rodent, but a mammal too?

Oh, shit.

[dramatic music playing]

[helicopter whirring]

[thunder rumbling]

[Heinrich] Look at it. Look at it.

-Can I see through those? -Me too.

Come on, kids, share. Please.

-We are! No… I'll look first and then-- -No, share. Actually share.

[arguing]

[speaking indistinctly]

[thunder rumbling]

[speaking indistinctly]

Welcome to Camp Daffodil.

[radio crackles]

I heard we'll be able to go home first thing in the morning.

I don't know if I want to go home.

My mother-in-law's been staying with us.

-This has been a respite. -[evacuee 1] Heard it might be two weeks.

[evacuee 2] The government knows more…

[evacuee 3] The reports are coming in fast and furious.

And they're not saying jack shit.

A helicopter flew into a toxic cloud and completely disappeared.

I can think of at least seven things that could mean.

I can think of six, what's the seventh?

Well, without knowing the six you're talking about…

The dogs are in from New Mexico,

they parachuted into a meadow in a daring night drop.

Those are real heroes.

[Babette] "A world-renowned institute has used hypnosis to induce

hundreds of people to recall their previous life experiences

as pyramid builders, exchange students and extraterrestrials."

"In the last year alone," declares reincarnation hypnotist Ling Ti Wan,

"I have helped hundreds to regress to previous lives…"

[Heinrich] …they sprayed on the big spill was probably soda ash.

It was a case of too little, too late.

My guess is they'll get some crop dusters up in the air at daybreak

and bombard the toxic cloud with lots more soda ash,

which could break it up and scatter it in a million harmless puffs.

Soda ash is the common name for sodium carbonate,

which is used in the manufacture of glass, ceramics, detergents and soaps.

It's also what they use to make bicarbonate of soda,

which is something I'm sure a lot of you have guzzled after a night on the town.

[all chuckle]

[Heinrich] So what you're all probably wondering

is what exactly is this Nyodene D

we keep hearing about.

Well, I'm glad you asked that.

In powder form, it's colorless, odorless and incredibly dangerous.

[evacuees chattering indistinctly]

[evacuee 4] Two looters are dead…

[evacuee 5] There have been a bunch of UFO sightings around this area.

[evacuee 6] Ronald Reagan. Do you know that he was going to be in Casablanca?

Heinrich seems to be coming out of his shell.

Where's he? I haven't seen him.

You see that knot of people?

Don't stand up. He's right in the middle.

He's telling them what he knows about the toxic event.

-What does he know? -Quite a lot, it turns out.

Why didn't he tell us?

He probably doesn't think it's worth his while

to be funny and charming in front of his family.

We present the wrong kind of challenge.

Don't you think you ought to go there,

show him his father is there for his big moment?

-He'll get upset if he sees me. -What if I went over?

-He'll think I sent you. -Is that so awful?

-Just a Life Saver? -What?

Just some saliva you didn't know what to do with?

It was a Life Saver.

-Give me one. -It was the last one.

-What flavor? Quick. -Cherry.

[technician 1] Attention, attention.

If you have been exposed to the airborne toxic event

for any amount of time longer than ten seconds,

proceed to the front… -Didn't you hear what the voice said?

-Something about exposure. -That's right.

What's that got to do with us?

Not us. You.

Why me?

Weren't you the one who got out of the car to fill the gas tank?

But the airborne event wasn't on top of us then.

It was ahead of us.

Remember you got back in the car and there it was in all those lights.

-Beautiful. -Yes.

You're saying when I got out, the cloud may have been close enough

to rain all over me?

It's not your fault,

but you were practically right in it for two and a half minutes.

-How long were you out there? -Denise said two and a half minutes.

[crying]

Is that considered long or short?

Anything that puts you into skin

and orifice contact with the emissions means we have a situation.

This Nyodene D…

Congratulations!

[technician 2] …new generation of toxic waste. State of the art.

One part per million can send a rat into a permanent state.

What about the people in the car?

I had to open the door to get out and back in.

I'd say their situation is they're minimal risks.

It's the two and a half minutes standing right in it which makes me wince.

-What does SIMUVAC stand for? -It's short for "simulated evacuation."

A new state program they're battling over funds for.

This evacuation isn't simulated.

-It's real. -We know.

But we thought we could use that as a model.

Are you saying you saw the chance to use the

real event in order to rehearse the simulation?

We took it right to the streets.

How's it going?

The insertion curve isn't as smooth as we'd like.

We don't have our victims laid out where we'd want them

if this was an actual simulation.

You've to make allowances for the fact that everything tonight is real.

What about the computers?

Is that real data you're running through the system or practice stuff?

You watch.

[keyboard clacking]

I was outside for two and a half minutes.

The only thing that she was exposed to is good luck.

That's how many seconds?

I'm getting bracketed numbers with pulsing stars.

What does that mean?

-I mean, am I going to die? -Not as such.

-What do you mean? -Not in so many words.

How many words does it take?

It's not a question of words, but of years.

We'll know more in 15 years.

In the meantime, we definitely have a situation.

What will we know in 15 years?

If you're still alive at that time, we'll know much more than we know now.

The Nyodene D has a life span of roughly 30 years,

so you'll have made it halfway through.

To outlive this substance, I'll have to make it into my seventies?

I wouldn't worry about what I can't see or feel.

Now, I'd go ahead and live my life.

-Get married, settle down, have kids. -[sighs]

There's no reason you can't do these things, knowing what we know.

-But you said we have a situation. -I didn't. The computer did.

What the computer says is not a simulation,

despite that armband you're wearing. It is real.

It is real.

[evacuees speaking indistinctly]

Thank you.

[evacuee 1, faintly] They want you to think it's a train crash, but actually…

it's a dirty nuke.

Murray!

-You're here. -Jack.

Hey, big boy.

All white people have a favorite Elvis song.

I thought you were going to New York.

I stayed back to look at car crash movies.

I heard a rumor about painted women and came out to investigate.

One of them says she has a snap-off crotch.

-What do you think she means? -They don't seem busy.

I don't think this is the kind of disaster that leads to sexual abandon.

We might get one or two fellows skulking out eventually,

but there won't be an orgiastic horde, not tonight anyway.

-Any episodes of déjà vu in your group? -No.

Any episodes of déjà vu in your group?

Why do we think these things happened before?

Simple. They did happen before, in our minds, as visions of the future.

Supernatural stuff.

Maybe when we die, the first thing we'll say is,

"I know this feeling. I was here before."

How are you doing?

I'm dying, Murray.

I spent two and a half minutes exposed to the toxic cloud.

Even if it doesn't kill me in a direct way,

it will outlive me in my own body.

I could die in a plane crash and the Nyodene D would be thriving

as my remains were laid to rest.

A computer told me.

I'm truly sorry, my friend.

But computers make mistakes.

[chuckles]

Carpet static can cause a mistake.

It was in the barrack. There was no carpet.

Lint. Hair in the circuits. There are always mistakes.

Not a word to Babette about any of this.

-She'd be devastated. -Of course.

Sometimes I actually think I see it coming for me.

At night, usually.

The thing I've always feared, and now it's here.

We're all aware there's no escape from death.

And how do we deal with this crushing knowledge?

We repress, we disguise. But you don't know how to repress.

Wish there was something I could do, and I could out-think the problem.

You thought Hitler would protect you. Some people are larger than life.

Hitler is larger than death. I understand completely.

Do you? Because I wish I did.

It's totally obvious.

The overwhelming horror would leave no room for your own death.

It's a daring thing you did, a daring thrust.

Daring but dumb.

If I could just lose interest in myself.

Here, take this. I have another one at home in the drawer under my hotplate.

Heft it around. Get the feel.

It's loaded.

It's an itty-bitty thing, but it shoots real bullets.

It's a .25-caliber Zumwalt automatic. German-made. Up your alley.

I… I don't want it.

I believe, Jack, there are two kinds of people in the world.

Killers and diers. Most of us are diers.

We don't have the dispositions, the rage, what it takes to be a killer.

But think how exciting it is, in theory, to kill a person.

If he dies, you cannot.

To kill him is to gain life-credit. Who knows?

Maybe violence is a form of rebirth.

And maybe you can kill death.

[guitar music playing]

[puppeteer] And they were running because they didn't know what to do.

The townspeople were scared.

They were in awe of the cloud, it was beautiful above their heads…

[singing] ♪ The Nyodene dogs Are here to stay ♪

♪ The government knows More than they say ♪

♪ UFO sightings in Farmington town ♪

♪ Widespread looting all around ♪

♪ Three live deer At the Kung Fu Palace are dead ♪

♪ Those pretty clouds Ain't what they seem ♪

♪ See the men in the Mylex suits ♪

♪ Coming here to burn and loot ♪

♪ There's no difference Between the blue and the red ♪

♪ The cloud is comin' for us all ♪

♪ There's no difference Between the blue and the red ♪

♪ The cloud is comin' ♪

[female singer humming]

[male singer] One more time.

[female singer humming]

[faint yelling]

[announcer] Toxic! Toxic everywhere! Toxic everywhere!

-Jack! Jack, wake up, we have to leave! -[announcer] Proceed to your vehicles!

-Mom! Mom! -Five more minutes.

No more minutes!

Why does she say everything twice? We can hear her.

She likes to hear herself talk.

[announcer] The toxic is coming closer!

Toxic! Toxic!

[indistinct yelling]

[organizer] It is imperative that you wear your protective face covering.

[engine roaring]

[panting]

[horse neighing]

[boy] That's a fucking horse!

Watch out! Watch out! Watch out!

[indistinct yelling]

-[car honking] -Stop, stop, stop!

Oh!

-Jack! Jack! -[kids] Dad! Dad!

-Steffie, you lost your Bun Bun! -What? What?

-My bunny! Baba, I dropped Bun Bun! -Jack! Jack!

-Here! -Jack!

Steffie lost her Bun Bun!

Jack!

Get Steffie's bunny! Her bunny!

-She dropped her bunny! -[Steffie] Over there!

[Babette] The keys! I need the keys! The car keys!

The keys! The keys!

[grunts]

[Babette] Everybody get in the car right now!

[grunting]

[Jack] Thank you.

[people yelling]

I got it.

[engine starts]

[engine revs]

-Jack! -We're going the wrong way!

What're you doing?

I have a feeling this Land Rover knows how to stay alive.

[engine revving]

[Denise] Oh, my God!

[Steffie] This isn't a road.

[Babette] Okay, get down. Whoa!

Headlights at nine o'clock.

[Jack] On it.

[tires screech]

[Babette] Oh, God. Oh, my God.

[Denise] The lights aren't getting any closer.

Now they're over there.

[Steffie] They're behind us now.

-Do it. Do it. -[barking]

-Fourteen hundred o'clock. -That is pretty good.

[barks]

[yelps]

-[Steffie] We're in the water, Dad. -I… I realize that now.

Dad, turn off the engine.

-Do sheep have lashes? -Ask your father.

-We're going sideways. -[Steffie] Do sheep have lashes?

[Jack] Doesn't anyone want to pay attention to what's actually happening?

[Babette] Dad wants credit for fording the creek.

No, I don't want credit. Forget it, go back to your conversation.

-What if there was a waterfall? -Dad, is there a waterfall?

-[kids grunt] -Oh.

[kids grunt]

-[clattering] -[water bubbling]

Turn it back on.

[engine sputtering]

-[engine starts] -Floor it.

[engine revs]

[all screaming]

-[Babette sighs] -[Wilder] Again.

[man on radio] Could this kill somebody

if they got too close to it or is this an irritant?

[car honks]

-Thank you. -[man speaking indistinctly on radio]

[voices overlapping on radio]

[reporter] …have a built-in appetite for the particular toxic agents in Nyodene D.

The cloud continues to travel west as residents are now being asked

to relocate to Iron City

where local businesses have opened their doors

to shelter evacuees who have been further displaced from their homes.

[evacuee 1] Two of the men from the switching lot are dead,

with acid visible on their Mylex suits.

[organizer] Listen up, everybody! Hold on, let's stop the chatter!

No one is allowed to leave the building! Okay?

If somebody comes up to me and says, "Can I leave?"

I'm just going to say the same thing I'm saying now.

No one is allowed to leave the building.

-[Jack] How is Babette? -[Babette] I don't like the latest rumor.

Tell me.

They're lowering in technicians from army helicopters

to plant microorganisms in the core of the toxic cloud.

-What don't you like about it? -I don't know.

The greater the scientific advance, the more scared I get.

Nothing on network. Not a word, not a picture.

On the Glassboro channel, we rate 52 words by actual count.

No film footage.

No live reports.

Does this thing happen so often that nobody cares?

-We were scared to death! -We still are!

-We left our homes. -[all agree]

Drove through a rainstorm.

We saw that deadly specter.

That death ship as it sailed across the sky.

Are they telling us it was insignificant?

Do they think this is just television? Don't they know it's real?

[all agree]

Shouldn't the streets be crawling with cameras and reporters?

Shouldn't we be yelling at them,

"Leave us alone. We've been through enough."

Haven't we earned the right to despise their idiot questions?

-[all] Yeah! -[slurps]

Look at us in this place.

We are quarantined.

[all] Yeah!

We are like lepers in medieval times.

[evacuee 2] We are!

Everything we loved and worked for is under serious threat.

Even if there hasn't been great loss of life,

don't we deserve attention for our suffering?

-Our terror? -[evacuee 3] Yes!

Isn't fear news?

[all] Yes!

[evacuee 4] We matter! That's right!

[cheering]

[reflective music playing]

I saw this before.

Saw what before?

You were standing there, I was standing here.

Your features incredibly sharp and clear.

It all happened before. Hissing in the pipes.

Tiny little hairs standing out in your pores,

that identical look in your face.

What look?

Haunted.

Ashen.

Lost.

[Jack] It was nine days before they told us we could go back home.

[digital beeping]

[announcer] Welcome back, shoppers.

It's comforting to know the supermarket hasn't changed

since the toxic event.

In fact, the supermarket has only gotten better.

Between the unpackaged meat and the fresh bread,

it's like a Persian bazaar.

Everything is fine,

and will continue to be fine as long as the supermarket doesn't slip.

Do you know the Tibetans believe there's a transitional state

between death and rebirth?

-[announcer continues] -That's what I think when I come here.

The supermarket is a waiting place. It recharges us spiritually.

It's a gateway.

Look how bright. Look how full of psychic data,

waves and radiation.

All the letters and numbers are here, all the colors of the spectrum,

all the voices and sounds, all the code words and ceremonial phrases.

We just have to know how to decipher it.

[shopper] Whoa! Oh, jeez!

How's that lovely woman of yours?

She's been different, somehow, since the event.

We've suffered a collective trauma.

She wears her sweatsuit all the time.

She stares out of windows and cries for no reason.

I don't know how to help her.

I've been distracted preparing for the Hitler conference--

-And the kids? -Back in school.

Steffie no longer wears her protective mask.

And you?

I've got another doctor's appointment tomorrow.

What does he say about your status as a doomed man?

I haven't told him.

Since he hasn't found anything wrong, I'm not going to bring it up.

-I lie to doctors all the time. -So do I.

But why?

Do you know the Elvis struggle you helped me with?

It turns out, tragically, I would've won anyway.

-What happened? -Cotsakis, my rival,

is no longer in the land of the living.

-He's-- -Dead.

Lost in the surf off Malibu.

During term break.

I found out an hour ago, came right here.

I'm sorry to tell you.

Particularly because of your condition.

Poor Cotsakis.

Lost in the surf?

That enormous man.

-He was big, all right. -Enormously so.

-He must've weighed 300 pounds. -Oh. Easily.

Dead! A big man like that.

It's better not knowing them when they die, but better them than us.

To be so enormous. Then to die.

I can picture him so clearly.

Maybe once we stop denying death, we can proceed calmly to die.

We simply walk toward the sliding doors.

[cash register dinging]

[announcer] Now. Cool.

Crush. Jolt. Hi-C.

[cash register dinging]

[sniffs]

[announcer] Nancy. Senca.

Senca, Nancy.

[cash register dings echo ominously]

[Jack] What if death is nothing but sound?

You hear it forever. Sound, all around.

-[Murray] Uniform, white. -[clacks]

It's strange in a way, isn't it?

That we can picture the dead.

[announcer] Disregard last announcement. Disregard.

Hold on, what?

Oh, regard.

Why so many checkups, Mr. Gladney?

In the past, you were always afraid to know if anything was wrong.

I'm still afraid.

Well, I'm glad you're finally taking your status as patient seriously.

My status?

Once people leave the doctor's office,

they tend to forget that they are patients.

But a doctor doesn't cease being a doctor at close of day.

Neither should patient.

I don't like your potassium very much at all.

-What's that mean? -There isn't time to explain.

We have true elevation and false elevation.

That's all you need to know.

Exactly how elevated is my potassium?

It's gone through the roof evidently.

Could this potassium be an indication of some condition

just beginning to manifest itself?

Some condition caused perhaps by an exposure,

an involuntary spillage-intake, some substance, say, in the air or rain?

Have you come in contact with such a substance?

Were you exposed to that cloud?

Why? Do the numbers show some sign of possible exposure?

If you haven't been exposed, then they couldn't show a sign, could they?

Then we agree.

And you'd have no reason to lie to me.

I'm going to send you to Glassboro for further tests.

They have a brand-new facility called Autumn Harvest Farms.

Have you heard of it?

They have gleaming new equipment.

It gleams, absolutely.

Tell them to send you back to me with sealed results.

Together, as doctor and patient,

we can do things that neither of us could do separately.

Uh, Dr. Lu, have you heard of Dylar?

-Is that an island in the Persian Gulf? -No, it's a--

Oil terminals crucial to the survival of the West.

[overlapping] Something that comes in a little white tablet.

Never heard of it.

[reporter] Life is slowly but surely returning to normal here

in Blacksmith and the surrounding areas. I'm told German shepherds

have sniffed out only a very low level of toxic material on the edge of town.

But there is no more danger posed to humans or animals.

The last of the emergency personnel are packing up

and taking the dogs with them.

[Heinrich] The real issue is the radiation that surrounds us every day.

Your radio, your TV, your microwave oven, the powerlines outside your door.

Forget toxic clouds.

It's the electrical and magnetic fields. Industry would collapse

if the true results of any of these investigations were released.

Is Wilder talking less now?

If they release the findings,

there'd be billions of dollars in lawsuits.

-That's a little extreme. -[footsteps]

[Heinrich] What's extreme, what I said or what'd happen?

[Steffie] Why are mountains upstate?

-[Denise] Mountains are always upstate. -Say more.

The snow melts as planned in the spring,

and flows down to the reservoirs near the cities,

which are kept in the lower end for this reason.

-[Jack] Is that true? -What do you think?

-I honestly don't know. -Kids, listen to me.

Hold hands when you cross the street.

Be careful around swimming pools.

If you think someone is a kidnapper, they probably are.

Where are you going?

They gave me a new class at the church.

-[Jack] In what? -Eating and drinking.

-Isn't that obvious? -What's there to teach?

Isn't it kind of late? It's almost night.

What is night?

It happens seven times a week. Where is the uniqueness in this?

Jack,

can you help me with my homework after dinner?

Homework was a canard. I wanna show you something.

Dylar.

There were four left. Take one for proof. We need physical evidence.

-We say nothing to Baba. -All right.

She'll say she doesn't remember why she put them there.

I'll go to the drugstore in the morning

and ask the pharmacist about Dylar.

-I already did that. -When?

Around Christmas.

-I went to three drugstores. -What'd they say?

Never heard of it.

-It's not on any list. -Unlisted.

-We have to call her doctor. -I'll call him tomorrow.

[upset] Call him now!

This is serious, Jack. Something is wrong with her.

I'll call him now. I'll call him at home.

Surprise him.

If I get him at home, I won't be screened by a receptionist.

Call him at home. Wake him up.

Trick him into telling us what we wanna know.

I'll call him at home. Wake him up.

Trick him into telling us what we wanna know.

-Hello? -Dr. Hookstratten.

This is Jack Gladney, you treat my wife, Babette.

Okay.

I'm sorry to call you at home, but I'm concerned about Babette.

And I'm pretty sure the medication you prescribed is causing the problem.

What problem?

Memory lapse.

You would call a doctor at home to talk about memory lapse?

If everyone with memory lapse called a doctor at home, what would we have?

The ripple effect would be tremendous.

They are frequent, the lapses.

Frequent and prolonged.

You would call a doctor at ten o'clock at night,

you would say to him "memory lapse."

Why not tell me she has gas? Call me at home for gas.

Frequent and prolonged, doctor. It has to be the medication.

What medication?

-Dylar. -Dylar.

Never heard of it.

A small white tablet.

Comes in an amber bottle.

Comes in an amber--

You would describe a tablet as small and white

and expect a doctor to respond at home, after 10:00 at night.

Why not tell me it is round? This is crucial to our case.

It's an unlisted drug.

I never saw it.

I certainly never prescribed it for your wife.

-Okay. Sorry to bother you. -Tell him I went to three pharmacies--

I'm never in control of what I say to doctors.

I will take the tablet and have it analyzed

by someone at the chemistry department at the school.

Unless you've already done that too?

[chemist] It's not a tablet in the old sense.

The medication in Dylar is encased in a polymer membrane.

Water from your gastrointestinal tract seeps through the membrane

at a carefully controlled rate.

What does the water do?

It dissolves the medication encased in the membrane.

The medicine then passes out of the polymer tablet

through a single small hole.

It took me a while to spot the hole.

That's because it's laser-drilled.

It's not only tiny but stunningly precise in its dimensions.

-Lasers? Polymers? -[slurps]

I'm not an expert in any of this, Jack,

but I can tell you it's a wonderful little system.

-Ah, Twinkie! -What's the point of all this precision?

The drug is delivered at specified rates over extended periods of time.

The system is efficient.

I'm impressed. I'm even dazzled.

Now, tell me what this medication is designed to do.

What is Dylar?

-I don't know. -Of course you know.

-You're brilliant. Everyone says so. -What else can they say?

I do neurochemistry.

No one knows what that is.

All I can tell you for certain

is the substance contained in Dylar is some kind of psychopharmaceutical.

It's probably designed to interact with a distant part of the human cortex.

I wish I knew more. But I can tell you this.

It's not on the market.

I found it in an ordinary prescription vial.

I don't care where you found it.

This is unknown.

It's time for a major dialogue. You know it, I know it.

We found the Dylar.

What Dylar?

Come on, Baba. It was taped to the radiator cover.

Why would I tape something to the radiator cover?

That's exactly what Denise predicted you would say.

-She's usually right. -You'll tell me all about Dylar.

If not for my sake, then for your little girl's.

She's been worried. Worried sick.

Besides, you have no more room to maneuver.

We've backed you against the wall.

I had one of the tablets analyzed by an expert.

Dylar is almost as ingenious

as the microorganisms that ate the billowing cloud.

We know something else, something crucially damaging to your case.

We know Dylar is not available to the general public.

As you well know,

I don't have the temperament to hound people.

But Denise is a different kind of person.

If you don't tell me what I want to know, I'll unleash your little girl.

She'll come at you with everything she has.

She'll hammer you right into the ground.

You know I'm right, Babette.

Just let me tell it in my own way.

Take your time.

We've got all day.

I'll be right here for as long as it takes.

I don't know exactly when it started.

Maybe a year and a half ago.

I thought I was going through a phase.

Some kind of watermark period in my life.

"Landmark" or " watershed."

A kind of settling-in, I thought. Middle age. Something like that.

The condition would go away, and I'd forget about it, but it didn't.

What condition?

-Never mind that for now. -I've never seen you like this.

This is the whole point of Babette. She is a joyous person.

She doesn't succumb to gloom or self-pity.

-Let me tell it, Jack. -All right.

You know how I am. I think everything is correctable.

Given the right attitude, a person can change a harmful condition

by reducing it to its simplest parts.

I went to libraries and bookstores, watched cable TV,

made lists and diagrams, talked to a holy Sikh man in Iron City.

Even studied the occult, hiding the books in the attic

so you and Denise wouldn't find them and wonder what was going on.

All this without my knowing?

The whole point of Babette is that she speaks to me,

she reveals and confides.

This is not a story about your disappointment in my silence.

The theme of this story is my pain and my attempts to end it.

Okay.

I did all this research, but I was getting nowhere.

The condition hung over my life.

Then one day at the supermarket,

I was reading a tabloid in line.

There was an ad. Never mind exactly what it said.

Volunteers wanted for secret research. This is all you have to know.

I answered the ad

and was interviewed by a small firm doing research in psychobiology.

Let's call the company Gray Research, although that's not the true name.

Let's call my contact Mr. Gray.

Mr. Gray is a composite.

I was eventually in touch with three or four or more people at the firm.

One of those long, low, pale brick buildings with electrified fencing

and low-profile shrubbery.

I never saw their headquarters. Never mind why.

The point is I took test after test.

Emotional, psychological, motor response, brain activity.

Mr. Gray said there were three finalists and I was one of them.

Finalists for what?

We were to be test subjects

in the development of a super-experimental and top-secret drug. Code name:

Dylar.

Aha.

He'd found a Dylar receptor in the human brain

and was putting the finishing touches on the tablet itself.

I felt hopeful for the first time in so long.

But there were many dangers in running tests on humans.

Among other things, it could cause death. Or I could live but my brain could die.

Or I could not distinguish words from things,

so that if someone said "speeding bullet,"

I'd fall to the floor and take cover. In the end, it just made me forget things.

And they let you go ahead anyway, a human test animal?

No, they didn't.

They finally said it was all too risky. Legally, ethically, so forth.

Well, that's good.

No.

I refused to accept this.

I want you to try to understand what happened next.

If I'm going to tell you this story, I have to include this aspect of it,

this grubby little corner of the human heart.

You say Babette reveals and confides?

-This is the point of Babette. -Good.

I will reveal and confide.

But you don't want to know what happened.

You think you do, but you don't.

Mr. Gray and I made a private arrangement.

We would conduct the experiments on our own.

I would be cured of my condition

and he would be acclaimed for a wonderful medical breakthrough.

Okay.

It involved an indiscretion.

It… It was the only way I could get Mr. Gray to let me use the drug.

It was my last resort, my last hope.

First, I'd offered him my mind.

Now I offered my body.

How do you offer your body to a composite of three or more people?

This is a compound person.

Let's concentrate on the genitals.

How many sets are we talking about?

Just one person, Jack.

A key person, the project manager.

So we are no longer referring to the Mr. Gray who is a composite.

He is now one person.

[hesitates] We went to a grubby little motel room. [sobs]

Never mind where or when.

It had… It had the TV up near the ceiling.

This is all I remember.

I was so ashamed, I wore a ski mask to cover my face.

You call this an indiscretion? You traded sex for pills.

-Jack… -You walked barefoot

on the fire-retardant carpet.

Mr. Gray put his car rental keys on the dresser

and he entered you.

Please don't use that term. You know how I feel about that word.

He effected what is called entry.

[angrily] In other words, he inserted himself inside you.

No one was inside anyone.

I did what I had to do. I was remote.

[hesitates] I was outside of myself.

It was a capitalist transaction.

You cherish your wife who tells you everything.

I am doing my best to be that person. [sobbing]

I'm only trying to understand.

How many times did you go to this motel?

More or less on a continuing basis for some months.

That was the agreement.

Did…

Did you enjoy having sex with him?

I… I only…

I only remember the TV up near the ceiling, aimed down at us.

Did he have a sense of humor?

I know women appreciate men who can joke about sex.

I can't, unfortunately. And after this,

I don't think there's much chance I'll be able to learn.

[Babette] It's better if you know him as Mr. Gray. That's all.

He's not tall, short, young or old.

He doesn't laugh or cry. It's for your own good.

No, you have to tell me who he is.

No. How do I know you won't kill him?

Because I'm not a killer.

You're a man, Jack.

We all know about men and their insane jealous rage.

-This is something men are very good at. -I'm not good at that.

I… I twirl garbage bags and twist-tie them. I…

Is this still going on?

-No. -Why not?

Because the drug didn't work.

At least on me.

Maybe I should go.

Get a hotel room or…

I don't know.

-I don't know. -[Babette whimpers]

[sniffling]

[emotional music playing]

[sobbing]

No.

No.

You've taken me this far,

put me through this much.

I have to know. What's the condition?

I'm afraid to die.

I'm afraid of my death.

You?

You're still young.

You run up and down the stadium steps.

This is not a reasonable fear.

I… I just can't believe

that we're all marching towards nonexistence.

All of us.

It haunts me, Jack. It won't go away.

Baba, everyone fears death.

But Mr. Gray said I was extra sensitive to it,

that I fear it right up front. That's why he was eager to use me.

Baba, I'm the one in this family who is obsessed by death.

I have always been the one.

[crying] I love you.

I just fear death more than I love you. And I really, really love you.

There's something I promised myself I wouldn't tell you.

I'm tentatively scheduled to die.

It won't happen tomorrow or the next day.

But it's in the works.

So we are no longer talking about fear and floating terror.

This is the hard and heavy thing, the fact itself.

Apparently, in the amount of time

that it took me to walk from my door to the gas station pump,

I was exposed to enough chemicals in the air that…

[Alfonse] Imagining yourself dead is one of the cheapest, sleaziest,

most satisfying forms of childish self-pity.

How much pleasure did you take as a kid in imagining yourself dead?

I still imagine my death. Whenever I'm upset about something,

I imagine all my friends, relatives, and colleagues,

they're all gathered around my casket.

They are very sorry they weren't nicer to me while I lived.

Children are very good at self-pity,

which must mean it's natural and important.

There's something more childish and satisfying than self-pity,

something that explains why I try to see myself dead regularly.

[overlapping voices increasing in volume]

[Murray] Death, disease, outer space. It's all much clearer here.

-[man on TV] Start your breakfast… -[Murray] …that's what it comes down to.

A person spends his life saying goodbye to others.

[Alfonse] But how does he say goodbye to himself?

[German instructor] Show me your tongue. -[Alfonse] We are awaiting your lecture.

Panasonic.

[woman on TV] The kids are real fond at my house of pepperoni,

so I'm going to throw on some pepperoni slices here…

Cooked ham or sausage…

This is a great way to get rid of leftovers.

Anything you have in the refrigerator is fair game for a sandwich,

at least it is at my house.

I have some mozzarella cheese here, we'll just load that up in the center.

[objects clattering]

[Denise] What are you doing?

[whispering] Don't worry. It's only me.

I know who it is.

I know what you're looking for.

What did you do with the bottle? There were three tablets left.

-How do you know I took it? -I know it. You know it.

If somebody wants to tell me what Dylar is, we'll get somewhere.

Your mother no longer takes the medication.

Your reason for holding the bottle, it's not valid anymore.

Tell me what it does and I'll give it to you.

Okay.

I had a recent scare.

I thought something awful was about to happen.

It turned out I was wrong, thank goodness.

But there are lingering effects. [chuckles]

I need the Dylar.

What's the problem?

Isn't that enough to know the problem exists?

I don't want to be tricked.

There's no question of tricking. I just need the medication.

You'll give them to my mother,

who I think stole my ski mask, by the way.

-Is she a drug addict? -You know that's not true.

You two aren't going to get divorced, are you?

Why would you ask that?

You're sleeping on the pull-out. It's uncomfortable.

[sighs]

We are talking about death.

I fear it.

And the tablets probably don't work, but maybe they will in me.

Even if they don't, it doesn't matter what they are. I'm eager to be humored.

Isn't that a little stupid?

This is what happens to desperate people.

You remember you heard on the radio, the billowing cloud caused sweaty palms

and then your palms got sweaty, didn't they?

The power of suggestion

makes some people sick and other people well.

If I think it will help me, it will help me.

-I threw the bottle away. -No, you didn't. Where?

I put it in the garbage compactor.

-When? -A few days ago.

[dogs barking in distance]

[mysterious music playing]

[grunting]

[objects clattering]

[thudding]

[cat yowls]

[phone ringing]

[Mr. Gray] Hello?

I'd like to buy some Dylar.

-Rid the fear. -Rid the fear.

Clear the grid.

The Roadway Motel in Germantown.

Room 8.

[speaking in German]

[continues lecture in German]

[continues speaking in German]

[guests speaking indistinctly in German]

[in English] Yes. Yes.

[guests continue discussion in German]

[in English] Go, go, go, yep…

Great speech, Jack.

You drank a lot of water, Dad.

Don't wait up for me tonight.

-But I need the car. I have my class. -You take the car.

I don't need our car.

There's a chill in the air.

You know what a chill in the air means?

What does it mean?

Wear your ski mask.

[Jack breathing heavily]

[Murray echoes] I never realized there was so much to say about Hitler's dog.

Elvis loved dogs too.

There was Woodlawn and Muffy Dee and Champagne…

Also, Muffin. And Wendell, but of course, Wendell was a cat.

-Murray, I need your car keys. -Okay.

[keys jingling]

[purposeful music playing]

[engine revs]

Steal instead of buy.

Shoot instead of talk.

[Babette] You're a man, Jack.

We all know about men and their insane jealous rage.

Steal instead of buy.

Shoot instead of talk.

[Murray] Maybe violence is a form of rebirth.

And maybe you can kill death.

[twisted music playing]

[faint electrical buzzing]

[suspenseful music playing]

[squeaking]

[door creaking]

[crunches]

["I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" playing on TV]

♪ Some fellows make a winning sometime ♪

♪ I never even… ♪

[Mr. Gray] Are you heartsick or soulsick?

♪ Believe me ♪

♪ I'm always chasing rain ♪

I know you.

Yes. I've been around.

I'm the chick and the cheese.

Um…

Where was I?

♪ I'm always chasing rain-- ♪

What do you want?

I want some Dylar.

♪ Waiting to find a little bluebird… ♪

What do you want?

I want to live.

But you are dying.

But I don't want to.

Then we agree. [chuckles]

To enter a room is to agree on a certain kind of behavior.

It isn't a street or a parking lot, for instance.

The point of rooms is that they are inside.

Good point.

There is an unwritten agreement between the person who enters the room

and the person whose room has been entered.

A room is inside.

That is what people in rooms have to agree on,

as differentiated from lawns, meadows, fields, orchards.

That makes perfect sense.

To convert Fahrenheit to Celsius, this is what you do.

I wasn't always as you see me now.

That's what I was thinking.

I was doing important work.

[scoffs]

I envied myself.

Death without fear is an everyday thing.

You can live with it.

Are you saying there's no death as we know it

without the element of fear?

People would adjust to it?

Dylar failed…

reluctantly.

With everybody?

With all bodies.

But it will definitely come.

Maybe now, maybe never.

Eventually, there will be an effective medication, you're saying?

Just between us, chicken, I eat this stuff like candy.

I was just thinking that.

How much do you want to buy?

How much do I need?

You're a big man. Middle age?

Does this describe your anguish?

I see you as a person

with your dark-brown leather jacket,

champagne-colored pants.

Tell me how correct I am.

I learned my English watching American TV.

I… I barely forget the time I had in this room

before I became misplaced.

There was a woman in a ski mask…

but her name escapes me at the moment.

American sex.

[chuckles]

Let me tell you, this is how I learned my English. [chuckles]

[static]

[sinister music playing]

-[man speaking indistinctly on TV] -[gulps]

[feedback]

[electrical buzzing]

[rain pattering]

[TV crackling]

[static]

[Babette] I could not distinguish words from things.

If someone said "falling plane,"

I'd fall to the floor and take cover.

Falling plane.

-[plane whirring] -[gasping]

Plunging aircraft.

-Why are you here, white man? -To buy.

You're very white, you know that?

It's because I'm dying.

[panting] This stuff fix you up.

-I'll still die. -But it won't matter,

which comes to the same thing.

Hailing bullets.

-[gunshots] -[thuds]

Fusillade.

[grunting]

[gun cocks]

My name is Jack Gladney and I'm here to kill you.

I'm a former dier who is now a killer.

You know my wife, Babette.

She wore the ski mask.

[panting] She wore the ski mask so as not to kiss my face,

which she said was un-American.

I told her a room is inside.

Do not enter not agreeing to this.

This is the point, as opposed to emerging coastlines, continental plates.

Or…

you can eat natural grains,

vegetables, eggs…

no fish,

no fruit.

Or fruit,

vegetables,

animal proteins,

no grains, no milk.

Or…

lots of soybean milk for B12

and lots of vegetables to regulate insulin release,

but no meat,

no fish, no fruit.

There are endless workable combinations.

Did you ever wonder why out of 32 teeth,

these four cause so much trouble?

I'll be back with an answer in a minute.

-[flushes] -[gunshot]

["Can't Help Falling In Love" plays faintly]

[sounds muffle]

[sounds sharpen]

♪ For I can't help ♪

♪ Falling in love with you ♪

♪ Like a river flows Surely to the sea ♪

♪ Darling, so it goes ♪

♪ Some things are meant to be ♪

♪ Take my hand ♪

♪ Take my whole life too ♪

♪ For I can't help ♪

♪ Falling in love with you ♪

♪ Take my whole life too ♪

♪ For I can't help ♪

♪ Falling in love ♪

♪ With you ♪

Jack?

Jack?

-[grunts] -Ah! [groans]

-Baba? -[whimpering]

[gun clicking]

You've been shot!

Oh.

So have you.

I… I'm sorry.

This could represent the leading edge of some warmer air.

-It must have ricocheted off my wrist. -And hit my leg.

How did you know I'd be here?

Men are killers.

-He needs help. -[Jack] Let's get him out.

[Babette grunting]

We need help.

Why did you give him a loaded gun?

Well, I was thinking I shot him three times, but it was only twice.

And my plan was…

I don't know, I clearly fucked that up.

[both grunting]

I'll come back and get Murray's car later.

-[choking] -He's choking.

[coughs]

[blows]

-[gasping] -[panting]

-Who shot me? -Um…

I…

You did.

You shot you.

-And who shot you? -You did.

-You… You have the gun in your hand. -[groaning]

What was the point I was trying to make?

You were out of control.

You weren't responsible.

We forgive you.

Who are you, literally?

We're passersby. Uh, friends.

It doesn't matter.

Some millipedes have eyes, some don't.

-Okay. -Sure.

[purposeful music playing]

[Mr. Gray] These playful dolphins

have been equipped with radio transmitters.

Their far-flung wandering may tell us things.

You are on the air!

[tires screeching]

[panting, grunting]

-Have you got his head? -[grunts]

Tennis, anyone? Anyone, tennis?

-[doorbell ringing] -We've been shot!

[sighs]

We're shot.

[chuckling]

We see a lot of that here.

[whispering in German]

[both grunting]

[nun speaking German]

[in English] Stretcher. How come we have only two stretchers?

Sister Hildegard!

Bring Einkaufswagen.

[nun, annoyed] Na mach schon!

-Amateurstunde in Dixie? -[in English] Sorry, ma'am.

[both grunt]

[nun continues] Hier der dünne Mann… Karl!

-Trag ihn da rüber. -[Mr. Gray mumbles]

[nun, impatiently] Vorsicht! Nimm ihn am Arm.

[nun continues directions in German]

[nun] Eins, zwei, drei!

[nun continues in German]

[nun calling out orders in German]

[Mr. Gray, in English] Inflated, adjusted, real income.

[hopeful music plays]

No one knows why the seabirds go to San Miguel.

[hopeful music surges]

[Jack laughs]

What is your name?

Sister Hermann Marie.

Gut, besser…

-Best. [Sister Hermann Marie chuckles]

Am besten.

[Jack repeats] Am besten.

[Jack begins to count] Eins, zwei…

[nuns join in] drei, vier…

fünf, sechs…

sieben, acht, neun, zehn.

[light conversation continues in German]

[nun] Fuß…

[Jack] Sessel.

-[nun] Stuhl. -[Jack repeats] Stuhl.

[in English] What does the Church say about Heaven these days?

Is it still the old Heaven, like that?

[contemptuously] Do you think we are stupid?

We are here to take care of sick and injured.

Only this. You want to talk about Heaven, you find another place.

Why do you have that picture on the wall?

It's for others, not for us.

[incredulously] You don't believe in Heaven? A nun?

If you don't, why should I?

If you did, maybe we would.

If I did, maybe you would not have to.

-Someone must appear to believe. -[groans]

Is death the end then?

Does anything survive?

Do you want to know what I believe

or what I pretend to believe?

I don't want to hear this. This is terrible.

-You're a nun! -Act like one!

You come in from the street, married,

dragging a body by the foot,

and talk about angels that live in the sky.

Get out from here!

[in German]

[Babette whimpers]

[in English] So maybe you should try to believe in each other.

[speaking quietly in German]

[Jack] Herr Dokter.

Herr… Herr Dokter?

[in English] Will he be all right?

Not for a while. But he will survive.

[exhales]

[emotional music playing]

I wish I hadn't told you about my condition.

Why?

Because then you wouldn't have told me you were going to die first.

The two things I want most in the world

are for you to not die first

and for Wilder to stay the way he is forever.

[chuckles]

Once I almost asked you to put on legwarmers before we made love.

Why didn't you?

I thought you might suspect something was wrong.

[pleasant music playing]

[nuns whispering]

[reporter on TV] …new nuclear weapons and their delivery systems.

In addition, conversion planning is urged to protect

the economic well-being of those people in communities

who would be impacted by a nuclear weapons freeze…

[Denise] What is it camels store in their humps? Food or water?

It depends which kind. There are one-hump and two-hump camels.

[Denise] Two-hump camel stores food in one and water in the other?

[Heinrich] The important thing is that camel meat is considered a delicacy.

-[Denise] Thought it was alligator meat. -[Heinrich] Are you sure?

Who introduced the camel to America?

Murray says that we are fragile creatures surrounded by hostile facts.

-[Steffie] Bolivia has tin. -[Denise] Chile has copper and iron.

[Steffie] I'm the only person I know who likes Wednesdays.

We're out of milk.

[reporter on TV] …the next World War may be fought over salt.

[Jack, voiceover] There is just no end to surprise.

I feel sad for us and the queer part we play in our own disasters.

But out of some persistent sense of large-scale ruin,

we keep inventing hope.

And this is where we wait…

together.

["New Body Rhumba" playing] ♪ Climbing ♪

-♪ …the down escalator ♪ -♪ Up! Up! Up! ♪

♪ To the frigid bardo ♪

♪ Rise ♪

♪ Kidnap yourself ♪

♪ Fives, tens, twenties, fifties Hundreds, hundreds, hundreds, hundreds ♪

♪ Yeah, I need a new body I need a new body ♪

♪ I need a bit of shape and a tone ♪

♪ Yeah, I need a new body I need a nobody ♪

♪ I can't shake sleeping alone ♪

♪ You see, I have been misplaced ♪

♪ I have been mislaid ♪

♪ Like a covetous dog That you can't just leave in your home ♪

♪ Yeah, I need a new lover I need a new buddy ♪

♪ I can't stay out too long ♪

♪ Yeah, my hands have gone numb ♪

♪ Pana! Sonic! Pana! Sonic! Pana! Sonic! Pana! Sonic! ♪

♪ Just give us what we want ♪

♪ Pana! Sonic! Pana! Sonic! Pana! Sonic! Pana! Sonic! ♪

♪ I never deny it, no point in denying ♪

♪ The ransom and the defense ♪

♪ Has drained us with their expense ♪

♪ It's endless ♪

♪ Yeah, I try not to hide it I try not to buy it ♪

♪ But you can't just sit on the fence ♪

♪ It's true ♪

♪ And no, I have been mispriced ♪

♪ I have been mispriced ♪

♪ Chipped and then deviced ♪

♪ Tagged and rinsed for lice ♪

♪ No, there's never a warning I needed a warning ♪

♪ I try to be content ♪

♪ But I'm tight in the chest ♪

-♪ Pana! Sonic! Pana! Sonic! ♪ -♪ Necco! Mini! 'Nilla! Wafers! ♪

-♪ Pana! Sonic… ♪ -♪ Necco! Mini… ♪

♪ So, give us what we want ♪

-♪ Pana! Sonic! Pana! Sonic! ♪ -♪ Necco! Mini! 'Nilla! Wafers! ♪

-♪ Super! Super! Super! Super! ♪ -♪ Necco! Mini! 'Nilla! Wafers! ♪

-♪ Super! Super… ♪ -♪ Necco! Mini… ♪

♪ Please give us what we want ♪

♪ Super! Super! Super! Super! ♪

♪ Super! Super! Super! Super! ♪

♪ Over 200 miles of turnpike ♪

♪ 3,000 miles of goods! ♪

♪ Would you like to add a protein? ♪

♪ Would you like to ask me About my day rates? ♪

♪ I need a new body, I need a new party ♪

♪ To represent my needs ♪

♪ Yeah, the distance is growing but so is the longing ♪

♪ Which leaves the in between ♪

♪ And so, this is the end Or near to the end ♪

♪ Let's say goodbye To our beautiful friend ♪

♪ Staggered and blind on the rack On the mend ♪

♪ Let's close the eyes Of our beautiful friend ♪

♪ So, I need a new love And I need a new body ♪

♪ To push away the end ♪

♪ To the water we send you ♪

♪ Dim that light in your eyes ♪

♪ Coming out of your eyes ♪

♪ People can see it ♪

♪ When it pierces the veil ♪

♪ The pink ones at night ♪

♪ When it gets too much ♪

♪ Otherwise, too much noise ♪

♪ If you look up ♪

♪ Block out the periphery ♪

♪ The earth and trees surround you ♪

♪ Framing your escape ♪

♪ Into the sky ♪

♪ Into the stars ♪

♪ Leaving the ground ♪

♪ You feel your feet let go ♪

♪ The air a bit cooler now ♪

♪ Thinner in the lungs ♪

♪ Cleaner in the mouth ♪

♪ And you know what they say ♪

♪ "Don't look down" ♪

♪ "Don't look down" ♪

♪ But they also always say ♪

♪ Selfish, by the bed ♪

♪ "Don't go to the light" ♪

♪ "Don't go to the light" ♪

♪ "Don't go to the light" ♪

♪ "Don't go to the light" ♪

♪ Well, go into the light ♪

♪ Go into the light ♪

♪ Go into the light ♪

♪ Go into the light ♪

[song ends]