Original subtitles

(dramatic orchestral music)

(scene whooshes)

(scene whooshes)

- 1-6-6-6. It's practically my birthday.

I'll send you my wishlist. I was hoping for a new hand.

(paper rustles) (Morgan sighs)

- How long must I stay here?

- What? The accommodation's not to your liking?

- I don't wanna stay in a monastery.

- Oh, oh, I see. So it's the religious aspect, is it?

Aye, well see, that's the trouble with being a collector

for a small country like the Netherlands.

You have to do a bit of traveling to meet your quota,

and it's not always easy finding a new room

at the inn, ya know.

- You could buy me houses in every city to live in.

You enjoy putting me here. - Not a bit of it.

I just don't want you to forget your roots, that's all.

- How can I forget it? It's all happening again.

- Oh, aye. How long's it been now?

300 years, and the plague still makes the rounds. (laughs)

- You losin' interest in trying

to find a cure for it, now, are ya?

- I see now that the plague is simply proof

that God doesn't love mankind.

There's nothing I can do to cure that.

(somber music)

- Well, there's nothing like work

fulfilling a man's pointless existence.

- You have a name for me. - That I do.

His name is Jan van der Heyden, and if I were you,

I'd hurry along to taking of this soul.

- [Morgan] Why is that?

- Because, under God's indifferent eye,

he's playing with the very forces of creation.

(ominous music) (flames whoosh)

(dramatic music) between

(electronic beeps trill)

(people scream)

(graphics whoosh)

(graphics whoosh)

(graphics whoosh)

(graphics whoosh)

(flames whoosh)

(villagers chatter) (soft dramatic music)

(chickens cluck) (cart creaks)

(knock taps)

- Yes?

- I'm here to see Jan van der Heyden.

- About what?

- A matter of grave importance.

- Oh, you're from the duke! Come in, come in.

- You'll have to excuse my appearance.

I've been in the laboratory all day and night.

- Laboratory?

- Generally, a man of my husband's abilities

has several apprentices, but he's very secretive,

so he only allows me to help him,

and he has good reason to be secretive.

You can tell the duke his investment

is about to be richly rewarded.

- Just take me to your husband.

- Yes, well, he's in the middle

of a very important distillation at present.

He'll be out in a few minutes.

(footsteps thud)

Wait! No, wait!

(footsteps thud) (goats bleat)

(Jan grunts)

- No! Leave us alone!

I'll go with you to see the duke. Just, just give it back.

- I'm not sent by the duke, Mr. van der Heyden,

but by the devil. - That's too soon.

I still have two days. Why have you come?

- To offer you a chance

to escape the misery the next 48 hours will bring you.

- By sending me to hell early? Impossible.

Now give me the book!

- You're an alchemist. - Shh! They're here.

- Anyone who'd be interested is a fool.

- You're right.

Most alchemists are fools or charlatans,

but the very few are rumored to have succeeded

in the great work.

- Creating the Lapis Philosophorum.

- An educated man. Yes, the philosopher's stone.

- Is that why you sold your soul? The secret of making gold?

- For millennia, the secrets of alchemy

have been written down by its masters

at depths we called an in code

or to keep the knowledge secret and to escape persecution.

- One of the few areas where I agree with the Inquisition.

- The same Inquisition that forced Galileo

to recant what he knew to be true?

Surely you don't favor ignorance

over the advance of science! - Alchemy is not science!

If it were, you wouldn't have had to sell your soul

to get any use out of that book.

- You're right in a way.

Alchemy is beyond science, at least as you know it.

When these two days are over,

I shall leave a legacy for my family

that surpasses men's imagining.

- You will leave them a corpse and no more.

All your dreams will be destroyed in these two days,

and you will never accomplish your goal of untold riches.

You'll see that you sold your soul for nothing.

- Do you know the guiding principle of alchemy?

As above, so below.

It's a short way of saying what happens here on earth

is a reflection of what goes on above as in the heavens.

All things are connected, heaven and earth,

and I'm going to prove it.

Come, join me tonight. You'll see.

(soft music)

Hildie!

(soft dark mysterious music with choral vocals)

(mixture bubbles)

- We really do appreciate the duke's help, Mr. Pym.

We never could've done it without him.

- I couldn't have done it without you either.

(Hildie and Jan laugh)

(footsteps thud)

Be careful with that.

- It's been sitting on a desk for an hour,

and it's still hot. - Yes, I've noticed that.

- Unusual for mercury.

- This is not ordinary mercury.

The term philosopher's stone is just more code.

The truth is it is an elixir.

10 years ago, Devil gave me this, the Mutus Liber.

He said these pages contained the key

to all of alchemy's secrets,

clues to when to gather the prima materia,

the prime material, how to prepare it,

how many times to distill it.

Took years of work.

Some substances had to be distilled hundreds of times.

I made mistakes, misinterpreted symbols, but I kept working.

- And finally arrived at that.

- They say the elixir is simple to prepare

once you understand the process.

The years of work are only needed to prepare the alchemist.

- You wasted your 10 years.

You should've asked for a mountain of gold on the first day

because you'll never create an ounce of it now.

- Well, let's see, shall we?

(soft mysterious music)

(metal clangs)

- And now to turn lead into gold.

(mixture sizzles)

(bright music)

(Hildie and Jan laugh)

(door creaks open) (footsteps shuffle)

- Is it really gold? - Yeah.

- Oh Jan, you're a genius!

(Hildie laughs) (door thuds open)

Oh, there you are! Where have you been?

The brewer couldn't give me a barrel,

so I had to bring flagons.

I, I'm sorry.

I, (laughs) it's just that the duke's representatives

are usually fat, old and ugly.

- Cilia! - Please.

I'm rude and have less sense than a rabid dog,

as my mother's so fond of telling me,

but I would very much like to have someone

to celebrate with besides my aged parents.

- Aged? - Won't you please join us?

- Please don't be put off, sir.

Go tell the duke the good news.

We're going to be richer than our wildest dreams. (laughs)

- Okay, okay, okay, for you, sir.

Let me see, let me see. Oh, it really is beautiful.

It's heavy.

(door thuds shut) (people chatter indistinctly)

(cleaver slams)

- Oy there. How goes the person?

You catch anything in your net?

- Van der Heyden's last two days seemed

to be bringing him the success that has so far escaped him.

- [Devil] Ah.

- What's up your sleeve, I wonder?

- Only this, slaves.

They bring in more money than any other cargo,

and I'd wager every one of 'em will make a deal

to buy his freedom before we reach the Americas.

- Excuse me, sir!

My father asked me to find you

and bid you to come to our house right away.

- Why?

(Hildie coughs) (soft mysterious music)

(door opens)

(footsteps shuffle)

(Hildie coughs)

- It started during the night, terrible fever, vomiting,

and she's developing these blisters.

You don't think that- - It's not plague.

I know the symptoms.

(carts rattle in distance) (Hildie coughs)

(footsteps thud)

- How dare the devil attack my wife! She hurt no one.

For that matter, neither have I, just the opposite.

My work will benefit my family and all of humanity!

- The devil does as he pleases.

The only way to avoid the heartache

that awaits you is to go early.

- If I did, would it cure my wife

or prevent the devil from doing further harm?

(door creaks shut above)

(door opens and creaks shut) (footsteps shuffle)

- Why was my father so insistent that you come?

Are you a doctor?

- I've studied medicine over the years.

- But do you think it's an imbalance in her humors?

I've learned a little from watching the local surgeon.

- You've learned nothing but ignorance and superstition!

You'd do better to read the works of men like Paracelsus

than to study with these butchers they call surgeons!

- So does that mean that you can cure her?

- The cause of her disease,

I'm not sure it cures within the power of men.

- But you could try. Please, she's a good woman.

- I'll look into it.

(heels clack)

(door opens) (soft mysterious music)

(flames crackle)

(door opens)

- Leave me alone! I must finish my work!

The gold we produced is only 30% pure.

- I'm here about your wife. - What about her?

- I've been trying to identify her illness.

- Why would you concern yourself with that?

- No one in the village has heard of anything like it,

which means it must be a result

of working in your laboratory.

- Ah, I see. So I'm to blame.

- It can't have been caused by any

of the materials you ordinarily use

or she'd have become sick before.

- Aren't you missing the obvious explanation

that the devil simply struck her ill to punish me?

- The devil uses the tools in front of him.

It seems to me the most likely tool

is the elixir that you prepared.

- What? - Last night,

your wife was exposed to the vapor from your red mercury.

(dramatic music) (scenes whoosh)

If you tell me more about the elixir,

perhaps I can tell you why it's having this effect on her.

- I don't know anything about it.

I, I, I can't tell you anything about it.

- This is no time for secrecy! Your wife's life is at stake!

- I'm not keeping secrets!

(soft mysterious music)

The truth is I, I don't know anything about the elixir.

- You spent 10 years making it.

- No, I spent 10 years failing to make it!

I sold my soul for knowledge,

and I was sure I was smart enough to use that knowledge,

but I was wrong.

I studied the diagrams, followed the instructions,

but every experiment was a failure.

So two days ago, I asked the devil for help.

(scene whooshes) (cart rattles)

He gave me a quantity of cinnabar,

the ore from which mercury is distilled,

but cinnabar like none not ever seen.

- He told you nothing else?

- Only that the red mercury given by this ore,

when completely pure, yearns to be gold

as all the great masters have written.

The philosopher's stone.

But even that appears to have been a trick.

- Why do you say that?

- Because the elixir disappears

almost as quickly as I can make it.

I've been distilling it for two days now,

and already, half of it is gone from sealed bottles!

The devil will not cheat me!

The goal is within my grasp,

and I will reach it before you have a chance to collect!

(soft mysterious music) (Hildie coughs)

- Oh. Oh, Cilia. - Shh.

(knock taps) (Hildie groans)

The elixir?

How could such a small amount of vapor affect her?

- I think there's more to its ill effects

than just the vapor,

something to do with the heat it generates.

I've never felt anything like it.

- But why would heat make her sick?

She spends all day by a hot furnace.

- Well, I think this is different.

I think there's something radiating from the elixir,

invisible like the sun's rays but harmful,

and these rays are planting the seeds

of disease in your mother's body.

- Then what can we do for her?

- I've seen the apothecary, made some mixtures of my own.

I want you to get clean water and soap.

- You want me to give her a bath?

- Her skin's been affected.

A good scrubbing might slow the illness.

- For years, the duke has sent hard men to bully my father,

demanding the gold he was promised

in return for supporting my father's research,

and now he sends you, an angel.

(footsteps thud)

(Hildie slurps)

- I prepared the tea myself. - Thank you.

- But I'm only guessing at the cause of your trouble.

- I forgive you.

(pot thuds)

- For what?

- For not being able to save my life.

I know you won't and I know you can't.

(Hildie moans)

There is one life I want you to save. My husband's.

He works like a demon,

and without me there to care for him, he...

Promise me you'll save his life.

(door creaks open and shut) (heels clack)

(heels clack) (door creaks open and shut)

(water pours)

He's a good man.

And easy to look at.

(dark brooding music) (flames crackle)

(mixtures bubble)

(door creaks open)

- Your wife needs you. - Yes, she does.

- I mean she needs you now. - Just get out of here!

- She's dying! Listen to me!

- Just get out!

- You had the love of a good woman, and you threw it away!

Are you now so callous that you won't even stop your work

to go see her in her final hour?

- You understand nothing of my work!

You have the right to come and shame me for my choices,

you work for the devil himself!

I love my wife, and I will do anything! (speaks in Latin)

- Acid. - Oh my gosh!

(dramatic music) (mixture hisses)

(glass explodes) (Morgan cries out in pain)

(flames whoosh and crackle) (Morgan cries out and moans)

You saved my life. Why?

Why would you do that?

- I made a promise, and now that it's kept,

I'm free to send your soul to hell.

(footsteps thud) (glass crunches)

(door creaks open)

(flames crackle)

- What instinct is it, do you suppose,

that moves a man to save the life of somebody he hates?

- Perhaps I wanted to have the pleasure

of being the cause of his suffering at the end.

- (laughs) You do a poor imitation of me. (laughs) No, no.

The truth is, much as you'd like to deny it,

that part of you is still human.

(door creaks open and shut)

- Your mother, is she- - No. My father's with her.

He told me to sleep.

I thought the apothecary was teasing

when he said he delivered his wares to you here.

We could've offered you better lodging than this.

- I won't be staying long.

(soft music)

- It seems I owe you thanks again for saving my father.

But for you, I'd be an orphan. - You owe me nothing.

- Then let what I bring be a gift.

- I'll be gone tomorrow night.

I can't be anything to you, Celia.

- Hello, my love. Is there anything I can do for you?

- Don't be hard on him. - Who?

- Morgan.

(dark brooding music)

She cares for him.

(soft music) (flames crackle)

- Why did you decide to study medicine?

(scene whooshes) (dramatic music)

- (sighs) Oh, but I ache, everywhere, especially my neck.

- Why do you ask?

- Well, I often wonder whether men

of science start to find God unscientific.

- Is that what happened to your father?

- I don't know. I'm not sure he ever felt a need for God.

I have a theory about God. - Hmm, and what is it?

- (laughs) My theory is that God stops time,

sometimes for a day or a year or a million years,

but we're frozen, so you never know.

(soft music)

- Why would he do that?

- Well, sometimes he has to go to the privy

(both laugh)

or make some soup or another star.

- He doesn't wanna miss anything.

- Oh. Exactly.

And sometimes it's because he finds a particular moment

so beautiful that he wants to stop it,

like a painting, and gaze at it in absolute wonder,

and I think that this is one of those moments.

(door thuds open) (soft dramatic music)

- So this is how you turn the knife, by seducing my child.

- She came of her own accord.

- Bewitched! More of the bad luck you bring!

- Mind your tongue!

If you care for your daughter,

you will keep our affairs private.

- Your mother is dead. I'm sorry.

I never imagined that my work would exact such a cost.

Go home now.

(flames crackle) (Cilia breathes shakily)

So innocent.

(door thuds shut)

How could you, knowing that you came to kill her father?

- I'm here because of your choice.

You set these wheels in motion.

- Hypocrite!

You judge me for neglecting my family,

and then you use them to sate your appetite!

- Then end it!

Give me the word and I'll take you now and leave this place.

Your daughter is safe and well tonight,

but as long as you live, she's in danger.

- It's not I that put her into danger.

It's the devil, and it's only through the accomplishment

of my work that she will be truly safe!

- A pile of gold ingots will not protect her

from the consequences of your deal.

- You fool. Gold was never my goal.

Using the stone to produce gold

is just a test of its purity,

a sign that it can be used to accomplish its real purpose.

- Which is?

- Transportation of the soul.

My elixir will purify us and put my daughter

and myself beyond your reach forever.

- What?

- All the great masters back to her mistress Magistus

have written that the true goal of alchemy

is a spiritual transformation.

Transportation of metals is just a, a reflection,

of changes taking place in the higher realm.

As above, so below.

- You think the devil gave you the power

to save your own soul? - The devil is clever.

He knew that I would not understand how to use the elixir

because I had not created it myself.

I did not know its danger as a poison.

But so my wife is beyond my help,

but the devil underestimated the power

of science to move beyond his own power.

When my elixir is completely pure,

I will no longer need God or devil.

His fate will be entirely in his own hands.

- So I'll be out of a job, then he?

Oh, well, it's been a full life.

Maybe it is time to look into retirement.

- Why give him false hope?

It only prolongs the time he clings to life.

- Who knows?

Perhaps his elixir will work

and he'll run the good ship Lucifer

up on the rocks for once and all.

At least God and I'll be castaways together. (laughs)

- You mock me,

but you don't know that you have already lost.

(Devil laughs)

(footsteps shuffle) (doors thud open)

- So what now? You can't deny him what he's bargained for.

- Ah.

- [Morgan] But you can't deliver it either.

- Dear boy, people don't sell their souls for money or power

or sex or even a ticket to heaven like Mr. van der Heyden.

They sell their souls to be sure,

and no one does more damage

than the man who's sure he's right.

(dark brooding pounding music)

(people chatter indistinctly) (birds chirp)

(door creaks open) (soft dramatic music)

- I think you should leave him be.

- Get out of my way. - Morgan, please.

- Cilia, your father is right. What we did was a mistake.

I can't let it interfere with my business.

- He's angry about my mother, about us.

His desire to finish his work has become a madness.

He's been working all night.

- Move aside. - No!

Tell me what you want with my father!

- I can't.

- He says you mean to kill him!

(tense music)

No, it can't be true. You don't have it in you.

- I've killed thousands. It's what I do.

- Are you a soldier? - I'm a murderer,

and when I'm done with your father,

you will never speak of me to anyone ever

or I will come back for you. - No, you're lying.

You have a kind heart.

I felt it. - Just because you are kind

and loving doesn't mean those qualities reside in me!

Move aside and do not follow me.

(footsteps thud) (door creaks open and shut)

(soft dramatic music) (mixture bubbles)

(door thuds open) (dramatic music)

- [Jan] Hey! Let me alone!

No, let me go!

- Not until you ask me to send you to hell!

- These last hours are mine.

You cannot force me to give them up!

- Don't be so blinded by your arrogance and self delusion

as to think I am bound by rules.

- Cilia! Cilia, for God's sake, come!

- Pity for your daughter made me try

to save your wife from the harm that you did,

but now you've made me realize the only way I can do good

is to cleanse the world of the wicked,

and I intend to cleanse the world of you

before you afflict it any further.

- No!

- [Morgan] This is no business of yours.

- He's my father! Whatever debt he owes you, we'll pay it!

- This is a debt only he can pay.

- And I will. Don't you see?

My success will benefit everyone. It will benefit you.

Who among us does not need salvation?

- Salvation? - There is no salvation.

- There is. I'm only hours away from proving it.

- Your unholy experiment is at an end.

- No, it is not.

(vapor sizzles) (dramatic music)

(Cilia gasps and gags)

(dramatic music)

- You poisoned her, you bastard!

- It will be all right.

When I finish the elixir, it will cure her!

- The devil was never needed

to balance the good fortune from your deal.

You willingly did all the evil yourself.

(footsteps shuffle) (dramatic music)

(footsteps thud)

(flames whoosh)

(soft dramatic music)

(beakers clink)

She's still alive. When will you be finished?

- So you believe in the elixir.

- I cannot save her and the devil will not,

so it falls to you to save her if you can.

- I am close, an hour, maybe less,

but it keeps dissipating no matter how tightly I seal it.

- I think the atoms of mercury are escaping by radiation.

They're affecting you, too, just more slowly.

- Do you think the Devil will allow me to finish it?

- He's let you come this far.

He's given you secrets no other man has had.

- This is the only writing in the book,

a few lines saying it.

The book contains everything I need to know

to make the philosopher's stone,

mocking me with my own ignorance. (laughs)

And this.

- It looks like some kind of code.

- So I thought.

I passed over it for years thinking it was the missing key

to unlock the mystery of the prima materia,

the ingredient that must be the distilled to make the stone.

- You never solved it? - Oh yes.

- They're citations from the Bible written backwards.

- Yeah. - Genesis and Deuteronomy.

The first one is about Jacob's ladder.

- More mockery,

calling for the alchemist to ascend to heaven.

And the others are about dew.

- "Therefore, God gave thee of the dew of heaven."

- I wasted years out in the field with Hildie,

gathering the morning dew, distilling it,

and it dissolved and crystallized, coagulated and calcined,

but in the end, I found it was nothing but water.

(whimpers)

I would give anything just to have one

of those years back with Hildie.

- Your wife is beyond hell,

but it may mean that your daughter is not.

Finish the elixir. Every moment counts.

(Jan whimpers)

(door creaks open and shut)

- Almost time to set off for the far shore.

(footsteps thud)

- Maybe not.

I'm betting there's more to your game

than you're telling me.

- What is it with you and women anyway?

Having sex with you seems to be riskier

than jumping off a cliff.

You're a regular homme fatale.

- She'd be well if my job as a collector

were more than a charade. - What do you mean?

What good is this ring when I cannot force them to go?

What you trying to punish, them or me?

- Both.

- Give me the power to prevent the destruction

of the last two days.

Give me the power to send them to hell.

- That is the power you do not want.

(Cilia coughs)

- How do you feel?

- [Cilia] I knew there was good in you.

I knew you'd spare his life.

- I'm sorry I was cruel to you earlier.

You said you see goodness in me.

I think it's easier for me to believe there is none.

- It's all right.

I've spent years being tempered

by the furnace of my father's moods.

- I didn't want you to get caught in the middle of this.

- It's been a good experiment. We've done our own alchemy.

We've created something out of nothing,

the only thing it has ever created out of nothing, love.

I want to ask you a favor. I want you to hear my confession.

- What? No.

If, if that's what you want, I'll get a priest.

- We haven't been churchgoers. I don't want a stranger.

I want someone who loves me to hear my last words.

Bless me, friend, for I have sinned.

I've lain with a man out of wedlock,

(soft music)

and it was wonderful.

I envied those who had more than me

and sometimes been indifferent to those who had less.

There were times when I was cruel to my mother,

(Hildie laughs)

and I didn't show my father how much I loved him.

(dramatic moving music)

(Jan whimpers)

(vapor sizzles) (Cilia coughs)

(flames roar and crackle)

(soft music)

(door creaks open and shut)

- The distillation is complete.

This is the elixir vitae in its purest form,

2,000 years of research completed in my laboratory!

- Let's not waste anymore time.

- You want me to give it to Cilia?

- Wasn't that your wish? To save her?

- Yeah. I, oh, I love her, but look how it was left.

Only a few ounces. The rest has dissipated.

- She's your daughter. - Yes, I know!

Don't you think I know? I would.

I, I would give it to her, you see? But she is innocent.

You said so yourself. She doesn't need it.

- Meaning what?

- She will go to heaven with or without the elixir.

Even if it cured her illness,

it would only give her a few more years,

but I, I am in danger of going to hell for all eternity,

(dark brooding music) (flames crackle)

and it's only logical that the elixir should go to save me.

- Logical?

(poker scrapes)

- Don't you take it away from me!

- I don't need to take it away from you! Cilia is dead!

(soft music) (Jan groans)

- Then why ask me?

Why trick me into thinking that she's still alive?

- You said you never really

understood the books the devil gave you,

that you misinterpreted the symbols.

That wasn't all you misinterpreted.

In your certainty, in your logic,

you misinterpreted the symbols in the Bible as well.

- The Bible?

- The dew of heaven that Isaac spoke of

wasn't the morning dew.

You took the symbols literally

and brought about the destruction

of everything that you loved.

- The dew. Then what was it?

- The dew of heaven.

The prima materia was your soul given to you by God!

And you might've saved it.

The devil gave you, among all men,

the means to your own salvation,

but that could've happened only by your actions,

by your willingness to make amends for what you've done,

not by any elixir!

But you failed that test.

(power whooshes)

And so Jan van der Heyden,

you have twice earned your eternal damnation.

(dramatic music) (people's screams echo)

(portal growls)

- No! (screams)

(soft dramatic music)

(bird caws) (wind blows)

- It's just like I always say.

The family that dies together lies together.

Oh, we're not feeling guilty, are we?

- I tell myself I do good by killing monsters.

The truth is that he who deals with evil becomes evil.

- You know what the greatest irony of alchemy is?

All these people spending a lifetime

to try and make pure gold,

but pure gold is too soft to be useful.

Even from the earliest times,

metal smiths have only used it to make alloy.

They had to add impurities to make it strong.

See, purity doesn't work in the real world, Morgan.

You have to have a little evil mixed in. (laughs)

(soft dramatic music)

You know, this is too good to waste on the one dear.

I think I'll publish it, anonymously, of course.

It's nothing like a goal that's always just

out of reach to help my sail.

(birds caw) (Devil laughs)

(footsteps shuffle)

(dramatic music)

(fireworks whistle and explode)