Original subtitles

1-6-6-6.

It's practically my birthday.

I sent you my wish list.

I was hoping for a new hand.

How long must I stay here?

What?

The accommodation's not here like it.

I don't want to stay in a monastery.

Oh, I see.

So is the religious aspect, is it, I 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 quarter.

And it's not always easy finding a new room at the inn, you 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, how long's it been? 300 years and the plague still makes the rounds.

You lose an interest in trying to find a cure for it, don't you?

I see now that the plague is simply proof that God doesn't love mankind.

There's nothing I can do to cure that.

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 Huyten.

And if I were you, I'd hurry along to take in this sword.

Why is that?

Because under God's indifferent eyes, he's playing with the very forces of creation.

Yes?

I'm here to see Jan van der Heijden.

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.

No, wait!

No, leave us alone!

I'll go with you to see the Duke. Just give it back.

I'm not sent by the Duke, Mr. Van Hyden, but by the devil. But it'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.

I'll give me the book.

You're an alchemist.

Anyone who'd be interested is a fool.

You're right.

Most alchemists are fools, or charlatans.

But a 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,

adepts, we call them, in code,

to keep the knowledge secret and to escape persecution.

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

With 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 man'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 us in the heavens.

All things are connected, heaven and earth, and I'm going to prove it.

Come, join me tonight.

You'll see.

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

We never could have done it without him.

I couldn't have done it without you either.

Be careful with that.

Been sitting on the 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.

Ten years ago, the devil gave me this.

The Mutus Libra.

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 ten years.

You should have 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?

And now to turn lead into gold.

You're... You're...

You're a genius.

Oh, there you are. Where have you been? The brewer couldn't get me a barrel,

so I had to bring flagons.

I'm sorry.

It's just that the Duke's representatives are usually fat, old, and ugly. Celia,

please. I'm rude and have less sense than a rabbit 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.

Okay, okay, okay.

For you, sir. Let me see, let me see. Really, it's beautiful. It's heavy.

Coiler, how goes the fishing? You catch anything in your net?

Vanderheiden's last two days seem to be bringing

him the success that has so far escaped him.

What's up your sleeve, I wonder?

Only this.

Sleeves.

They bring in more money than any other cargo.

And I'll wager every one of them 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?

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.

She's 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?

Why was my father so insistent that you come? Are you a doctor?

I've studied medicine over the years.

Do you think it's an imbalance in our 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 man.

But you could try. Please.

She's a good woman.

I'll look into it.

Leave me alone. I must finish my work.

The gold we produce 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.

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.

Last night, your wife was exposed to the vapor from your red mercury.

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 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!

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

You spent ten years making it. I spent ten 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.

He gave me a quantity of cinnabar, the ore from which mercury is distilled.

But cinnabar like none I'd ever seen.

He told you nothing else?

Only that the red mercury given by this ore went completely pure.

It turns 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 gold is within my grasp,

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

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.

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. I had 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.

I prepared the tea myself.

Thank you.

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

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.

Promise me you'll save his life.

Your wife needs you.

Yes, she does.

I mean she needs you now.

Just get out of here!

She's dying! Listen! 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 no right to come and shame me for my choices.

You who work for the devil himself.

I love my wife, and I will do anything.

Diogo Fortis.

Acid.

Oh my gosh!

You saved my life.

What?

Why would you do that?

I made a promise. And now that it's kept, I'm free to send your soul to hell.

What instinct is it, do you suppose,

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

Perhaps I wanted to have the pleasure of being

the cause of his suffering at the end.

You do a poor imitation of me. No, no.

The truth is, much as you'd like to deny it, that part of you is still human.

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 words to you here.

We could have offered you better lodging than this.

I won't be staying long.

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.

Is there anything I can do for you?

Don't be hard on him.

Who? Morgan.

She cares for him.

Why did you decide to study medicine?

Why do you ask?

I often wonder whether men of science start to find God unscientific.

Is that what happened to your father?

Hmm. What is it?

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.

Why would he do that?

Well...

Sometimes he has to go to the privy. Or make some soup.

Or another star.

He doesn't want to miss anything.

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.

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.

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 shake 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 is 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?

Transmutation 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 Hermistris Magistris have written

that the true goal of alchemy is a spiritual transformation.

Transmutation of metals is just 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.

And 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, Danny. 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 will be castaways together.

You mock me, but you don't know that you have already lost.

So what now?

You can't deny him what he's bargained for.

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 De Heiden.

They sell their souls to be sure.

No one does more damage than the man who's sure he's right.

I think you should leave him be.

Get out of my way.

Morgan, please.

Celia, 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. I'm sorry.

Tell me what you want with my father. I can't. He

says you mean to kill him. 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've done with your father, you will never speak of me to anyone ever.

Or I will come back for you.

Are you lying?

You have a kind heart.

Just because you are kind and loving doesn't mean those qualities reside in me.

Move aside and do not follow me.

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.

It's Syria!

Syria, for God's sake, come!

Pityfully, your daughter made me try to save your wife from the harm that you did.

No!

This is no business of yours! He's my father!

Whatever debt he owes, you will 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 has had an end. No, it is not.

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.

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'm 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 that the book contains everything

I need to know to make the philosopher's tongue,

mocking me with my own ignorance.

And this?

It looks like some kind of code.

So I thought.

I buzzed over it for years,

thinking it was the missing key to unlock the mystery of the Prima Materia.

The ingredient that must be distilled to make the stone.

You never solved it?

There's citations from the Bible written backwards.

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 Duke.

Therefore God gave thee of the dew of heaven.

I wasted years out in the field with healthy gathering the morning dew.

And you still eat?

Dissolved and crystallized?

Coagulated and co-signed.

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

I would give anything just to have one of those years back with Ildy.

Your wife is beyond help.

But it may mean that your daughter is not.

Finish the elixir.

Every moment counts.

Almost time to set off for the far shore.

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

Who are you trying to punish? Them or me?

What do you mean?

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 a power you do not want.

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.

I want to ask you a favor.

I want you to hear my confession.

What?

No, 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 what?

And it was wonderful.

I've 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.

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

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 any more time.

You want me to give it to Celia?

Wasn't that your wish?

Save her?

Yeah, I... Oh, I love her.

But look how little is left. It's only a few ounces.

The rest is dissipated. She's your daughter.

Yes, I know! Don't you think I know? !

I would.

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.

It is only logical that the elixir should go to save me. Logical?

About to take it away from me! I don't need

to take it away from you. Cillia is dead.

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 have saved it.

The devil gave you, among all men, the means to your own salvation.

It 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.

And so, Jan van der Heijden, you have twice earned your eternal damnation.

It's just like I always say.

The family that dies together lies together.

Oh, we're not feeling guilty, Ari.

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.

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

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

There's nothing like a goal that's always just out of reach to help myself.