This man has been brought to me as one who misleads the people.
He is accused of sedition and blasphemy, for which he should suffer death.
My Lord Governor!
My Lord Governor...
...there is a custom in Jerusalem, that at this season of the feast...
...one condemned man should be released.
I remember the custom.
Who shall it be? This man who many of you call their king?
Or shall it be Barabbas?
Release Barabbas!
- Release Jesus of Nazareth! - No, not Barabbas!
- Barabbas! - Release Barabbas! Crucify the Nazarene!
They're mad, Lord Governor. Barabbas is a rebel.
A robber, an assassin.
Release Barabbas!
Take the Nazarene, scourge him and bring him here again...
...and he shall be crucified.
All right, that's enough.
Take him out.
Open up.
Come on.
One man to be set free.
Set free?
You ought to know the custom of the season.
The Governor offered them either the prophet or you.
He listened to the voices and they chose you.
I make no comment. Come on. Get on the move.
All right.
Give us a hair of your beard.
It ought to be lucky, considering how things have gone for you.
I'm not used to the light. It plays tricks.
If I was you, I shouldn't loiter.
I'd want to see the back of this place before they change their minds.
Get on your way, will you?
- Who do you think you're shoving? - Get going.
All right. I'm going.
Move on.
- There he is. Release the Nazarene! - Get out of the way.
What are you standing for, like an idiot? What are you all hanging around for?
Here's a fine sight. Six weeks and nobody's moved.
What's happened then? How did you get out?
This is a surprise, let me tell you.
Is that my duck? It's him!
- Sara! - There's the black knave himself...
...come back to his own.
Cheating his death again, like a good boy. The clever one. How did you do it?
I was released to celebrate the holiday as a surprise for you.
Here's a day to celebrate in all my god. Come on and tell us the whole story.
You've not heard? I'm the choice of the people.
"Give us Barabbas," they said. Give me some food.
Food for Barabbas. Food for a hungry man.
How does it feel? How did you feel when they told you?
The choice of the people, eh?
Old Sara here dropping tears so fast all the slopping wine got watered.
- Where did you get your luck? - What witch gave you that?
Pass him across to me!
- Touch him for luck. That's it. - I'm not taking chances.
Get away.
Where's Rachel?
Shut away mourning for me? Fetch her down here.
She's no good for you or anyone else.
- She's completely changed, I'm telling you. - What's wrong with her? Bring her down.
She's no good to my old rascal now. She thinks of nothing, day or night...
...except this prophet from Nazareth, who's on trial for blasphemy.
Ever since she heard him preach, she has gone off her life...
...like a sick child goes off its food.
Come on, you old empty belly. There's no food inside you worth vomiting.
Sit down and eat.
Barabbas, that girl's no good for you.
Take my word for it. As morbid as a crow in a chimney.
Bewitched by a prophet. A waste of a handsome girl.
And she's gone to his trial looking like a widow already.
She knows what happened to her prophet. That's the end of him.
- Condemned, was he? - That's just it.
They had the choice between him and me, and they chose me. How do you like that?
The idol of the city.
Tell you what. You're as good as a king, Barabbas.
They call the prophet King of the Jews, but they chose you.
Show your respects to King Barabbas.
- Let's have a crowning of him. - Yes!
- The wicked old King of Judea. - What are you doing?
- Come on, give him his robes. - You be nice to your King Barabbas.
More wives than Solomon and his subjects as ripe as old pumpkins.
Here's your scepter. Take it.
Set him on his throne.
- What's that? - That's the scepter.
Sit down on your throne.
Kneel down, all you miserable scum of the earth, and acknowledge.
Kneel down, you scum of the earth.
Hail! Hail!
I'll make laws for you that will tax your constitutions.
I crown you, King Barabbas.
What are you treating me like a clown for?
Here she is, Barabbas, if you want her.
Look here, Rachel, look who's been asking for you.
The old rascal back from the dead.
So, here she is.
What's the matter with me? Why don't you look at me?
Barabbas, let me go.
Not until you've told me you're glad I'm alive.
- I wouldn't wish any man his death. - What do you mean by that?
Don't make me speak to you.
- What do you mean by that? - Don't make me speak to you.
That's a warm welcome.
I couldn't follow any further.
I daren't say what is still to come, but God forgive us all if he can.
What did I tell you? She's no good to you now, Barabbas.
Come on.
I'm not here to be made a fool of.
What's the matter?
Remember how it used to be.
Barabbas, don't you see what's happening? Don't you understand what set you free?
I just got out of prison.
I need to get the cramp out of my bones. That's what's happened.
- I'm not the same. Nothing is the same. - You'd better try and make it the same.
Barabbas, listen to me. For pity's sake believe me.
He came from God, the man who's taking your place.
You think I should have been killed instead of him?
You think I ought to be dead?
Barabbas, hear what I say. He came from God.
That's none of my worry. God can look after his own.
- And you can look after me. - No!
That girl up there was always coming back with strange ideas.
She's got her head full of them.
Well, it seems she's got something to think about now, anyway.
- I don't like the look of it. - Look of what? What's the matter?
The sky. The light's gone out of it.
I've never known it dark like this in the middle of the day.
Get a light, for mercy's sake.
Something's wrong with my eyes.
I can't see.
Something's wrong.
Everything's black.
Black as death.
I knew there was something wrong when I saw that light.
Tell me. Am I going blind?
Am I going blind?
What's happening?
You know what has happened.
Even the light has left us, now that we've killed him.
Well, are you satisfied now?
He's dead. Just the same as any other man.
- We've seen it. That's the end of it. - He promised to come back.
We shall see that, too.
Only two days and he'll be in the world again.
Look at his friends. You think they believe it?
I tell you, you're mad. That's the end of it.
Not tomorrow, but the morning after.
How many days have I been here?
Can't you hear me?
What's the matter with you?
What's the matter? Two days.
Two days.
Then today's the third day?
Two and one make three. What's so odd?
We'll see, then.
This is the morning of the third day.
Barabbas, where are you going?
Now you know it's true.
All I know is the tomb is empty.
- Who moved the stone? - God moved it.
God himself? You saw him do it?
A power came from the sky.
It was when the sun was rising, at the beginning of the day.
- First there was the music of a horn. - Horn?
Then in the air there was an angel.
The whole sky seemed to dismantle.
It was white, it was fire.
It was white fire.
He stretched out his arm. It seemed as long as a spear.
The point of the spear went between the stone and the rock...
...and the stone rolled away.
If only you had been here sooner and seen what I saw.
My eyes are good. They see nothing but real things.
You have to believe this, Barabbas.
The Master was a man of truth, and he said this would be so.
Did you see a prophet come out of the tomb?
My eyes were so dazzled.
I think I must have covered them.
But when I could see again...
...a man and a woman were together in the garden. Then the woman was alone.
And then she went quickly away.
And the man was the same man they buried in there?
He was like a shadow.
The morning light was behind him. But I'm sure it was he.
Shadows, light, that's about the truth of it.
Here's the truth of it:
Why do you think he should lie about himself...
...when it meant he would be killed?
How do you know what he said?
The priests ought to know more than you do. And they call it blasphemy.
He said:
"Love one another."
"Love one another"?
And they crucified him for that?
Where are you going?
There are those who can tell you more.
There's a house in the street of the potters where they meet.
You may find them there. Go and ask them.
It's a trick they're playing.
They took the body and hid it to go on with their story.
Or are you afraid?
Are you afraid of knowing what has happened?
Are you looking for someone?
You like to see it?
The clay making itself?
Some other day.
What's happened? I heard there was news.
The tomb's empty, the women said they saw him.
Creed can have strange visions. Only it's true. Where's Peter?
Who could it be?
Don't open it.
We should get out of this city. Wiser to go down to Galilee.
Can we hide from the future forever? Let's see what is here.
What if they mean to destroy us all?
Leaving no one to tell the knowledge of the man.
Can the word turn to silence? I'm not afraid of that.
Where is he?
- What have you done with him? - What do you want with us?
- The truth. What happened? - What right have you to be here?
You know what I mean.
What are you all afraid of?
What are we afraid of?
You want to know what we want to know.
- What is the truth of this morning? - I know the truth.
You stole the body.
You think we might have hidden it here among us.
But something else has happened.
If you find him here, it will only be if he comes himself.
Through that gate, as you did just now.
Don't you believe it. I saw the body. He was a dead man.
If you were sure of that, you wouldn't be here.
He's risen.
I trust in him and wait.
You're all mad.
What do you think you're doing, making that net?
There's no sea to fish in closer than Galilee.
It's what I'm used to doing, my hands go to it.
But the streets in the cities have to be the sea for me now.
He made a joke about it when he took us away from the boats.
He said that in the future our fish would be men.
It was a serious joke.
It meant he'd given us the word to draw men out of the dark sea...
...into the light.
And you call yourself a fisherman?
Do I have to tell you what happens to the fish?
They struggle about, gasp and die.
We struggle and gasp. You said something good.
Poor fish.
I, too...
...must struggle and gasp.
And die.
And die in order to live.
That's where men have the advantage over fish.
They can die to the world, die to the dark sea...
...and begin to live again in the light.
That's what he promised, and what he promised has happened.
But what has happened...
...we still don't know.
He's come back to life.
- He'll lead us to the new kingdom. - I'll believe it when he's before us.
When I can touch him and hear him.
You're always full of doubts without any cause.
No cause to doubt that a dead man can come back to life?
No cause.
I can take you now to talk with a man who was dead.
The Master brought him back to life. Thomas knows him well.
Come, talk to him.
Let him tell you.
You needn't be afraid.
Lazarus? Will you come to us?
Here's someone wants to question you.
Come in.
I'll leave you with him.
You can ask him whatever you like.
They told me death is not...
Is not death.
They brought me here to see...
...because you could make me believe it.
Because you were dead, and were raised from the dead by the man.
I mean...
...the Master.
That is true.
I was dead.
And I know that he is Christ...
...the Son of God...
...who has power over life and death.
What's it like there?
You were there.
- Tell me what it's like. - Like?
- Yes, what is it...
...this thing you experienced?
What is it?
I have experienced nothing.
Only death.
And death is nothing.
Nothing?
No.
What should it be?
You want me to tell you about the realm of the dead?
I cannot.
How would you tell an unborn child what life is?
It exists.
But it isn't anything.
To those who've been there...
...nothing else is anything either.
No one has asked me this before.
They have listened how life came back to me and gone away praising.
Only you have asked about death.
And none the wiser.
We're two men who might be dead.
Sharing his body.
Life.
Love one another.
Listen, everybody! That's the word. Love one another!
We can tell them about loving one another.
- Leave me alone. I want to sit. - What do you want to do, sit and think?
It's no good thinking.
Come on, let's go and find a new life.
- Where are you going, Barabbas? - To see what "brought back to life" means.
Love one another!
- Come on. - My shoe.
Look.
- Hey! Get up! Come on! - Leave it alone.
Stay alive.
It's all you have to do.
It's not my fault they let him get killed.
You can't hang it around my neck.
I've as much right to be alive as any of you.
You stinking fish.
You're afraid to look at me because I'm alive.
You, look at me. Look at me!
It may be today that the new world comes.
Today or tomorrow. But it will come, you will see.
Every day you have promised us, it has never come.
- It will never come. - It will come. I know it.
Please, Rachel, tell us again what it will be like.
You'd better mind what you say.
Don't you know what can happen to you if they hear you?
Anybody now caught spreading such stories...
...the Son of God, the Messiah and such, is to be judged an enemy of the State...
...and stoned until he's dead.
It will be as though the Earth has become like a star burned clean.
Everything evil swept away.
We shall look up and there will be angels coming down from the sky...
...and they will put food in front of us and perhaps new clothes to wear.
White, like their own. Or some blue, like the color of the sky.
Pain and sorrow will sink into the ground, and everything will be made new...
...because the Son of God has risen from the dead.
The world has become his kingdom.
There's no truth in any of it.
I know this woman.
She doesn't know the difference between what is real...
...and what she dreamed in her sleep.
Don't you listen to her.
She's raking up trouble. Nothing but trouble.
Trouble for you...
...if you won't turn and listen to the sounds that have come.
He knows but is afraid to believe it.
Look at you, Barabbas. How can you see or hear what's to come?
It will happen, whether you take part in it or not.
He's right. It's dangerous talk. They'll pull down our homes, drive us out.
Better listen to this man.
- Let's hear what the prophet said. - Don't leave. Where are you going?
To where the lepers are, to tell them to be ready for the freedom that's coming.
- She's going among the lepers! - Stop her!
She's going to set the lepers free.
- Don't let her go among the lepers! - Don't let her set the lepers free!
You have no right to go among the lepers!
Look out, it's a temple guard!
We don't want the lepers to be free!
A charge has been lodged against this woman.
- She must be questioned. - We heard she preaches blasphemy.
Bring her to the temple and we will judge her.
- Take your dirty hands off her. - Don't take her! She's done no wrong.
Don't take her away.
Rachel!
For blasphemy, and spreading blasphemy, this woman is condemned.
For stirring up evil matters among the people...
...for misleading their minds and denying the wisdom of authority.
For her sins, she has been condemned to death by stoning.
Let the man who accused her and was found just in his accusation...
...cast the first stone.
What must I do?
Take this stone. Come on. Throw it at her.
Why should I throw?
- I've nothing against her. - You accused her.
- The law gives you the first stone. - It was you.
Or you'll find yourself there beside her.
Throw quickly. If you wait, I may be afraid.
You don't have to think of Barabbas any more. He's not coming back.
And if he did, we'd know what to do with him.
You're still afraid of him because he used to roar at you like a brass bull.
You can't stand up to him even when he's gone.
He's gone to the devil once and for all, I can tell you.
He's lost his nerve.
He's creeping about the city like a shivering priest.
Why do you think he's not come back? Because he's afraid to stir hand or foot.
- We don't know yet, he won't come back. - Who cares if he does?
We got a man here who can hang him in his own guts.
He came out of that prison mad. Acquitted but mad.
We'll soon see it then.
So, you remembered the way to get here.
Given you up this past week.
You'll find things altered.
What's over is over.
I remembered the way.
Bring them across.
God's curse on you! The money is sacred! It belongs to the temple!
- The god of battle will destroy you! - Blasphemy!
You hypocrites. I'll kill you both.
What are you doing?
Here's all the treasure we wanted. Come away!
I'll kill you the way you had her killed.
It seemed to me at the time, Barabbas, when you were given your liberty before...
...it wasn't a fortunate exchange.
They were calling for death and disorder when they called your name.
This is what I thought and this is what has occurred.
They put the scourge back into the fist.
By that I mean you and your life.
And many men have suffered and died in consequence.
The other man, too. They're dying because of that.
This is a local matter, which I hope will soon be adjusted.
The shock and fear of an unreasoning fanaticism will pass.
But the appetite to destroy...
...which, alas, the human being shares with the wild beast, is always with us.
And it has rigorously to be disciplined in the name of civilization...
...and according to the law. - That's what you say.
But I tell you, whichever side of the law we're on, we're the same men.
You and your kind, and me and my kind.
How else have you lived except my way? What we haven't got, we go out and take.
Let him speak.
How else have you lived except my way?
Whoever's against us or gets in our way, we get rid of.
My knife may have bitten a few throats, but what about your weapons?
They've split thousands upon thousands.
If I've taken a passing woman to myself...
...your armies have looted and raped across continents.
And have been called the glory of the earth for doing it.
You were born according to the law and raised according to the law.
I was born by a girl thrown out of a brothel...
...who gave birth and cursed me before she died.
But I tell you, we belong to the same herd.
Unfortunately for you, Barabbas, the law is indispensable.
The law is the pass and permit to life in this world.
You were without it.
However, the law here tells me...
...that a man released by the will of the people at a holy festival...
...cannot thereafter be given a capital punishment.
You can't kill me?
Easier on you if we could.
I sentence you to transportation for life, whatever that's worth...
...to the sulfur mines on the island of Sicily.
I can't...
...be killed.
He meant me to live.
Deliberately he did it.
No killing Barabbas. No death for Barabbas.
He died in my place.
The death has been paid.
He's taken my death.
That's it. He's taken my death.
That light, that wasn't light.
The dark, that wasn't dark.
That wasn't dark, that was life.
- That was life. - Take the man away.
You'll die and rot, but I'll live forever!
I've got my life and you can't take it!
You stinking fish!
I've got my life and you can't have it!
I've got my life!
- Well, which are you? - I'm Scorpus.
That means nothing, idiot. What's your number?
- 563. - That's better.
564.
- Who's the god? - The divine Emperor Tiberius.
You have the privilege of being his property.
Move.
565.
Go on, move.
That's all. Move on. Next two.
Put your back to it.
Move. Get your feet on the ground.
What are they doing?
They're sending us down to the next level to make room for you.
That's how you know how long you've been here...
...by how deep you're down.
They break you in gradually to get used to the dark.
Wait.
You've gotten used to the dark.
Did it take long?
Long enough.
It's got into me.
Come here.
What do you see?
You're blind.
Sulfur burns.
Dig.
Here.
You've got a partner there that seems to know how to live forever.
Better learn from him.
How long has it been?
Who was emperor then?
Tiberius? That was long ago.
Almost in another world.
Here, I'm called Sahak.
That's mine.
Here.
Move!
You make this even a worse hell than it is.
You don't care how I got here...
...but I'll tell you.
The ship I was serving on took on a cargo of slaves.
Some of them got free.
Slipped over the side, during my watch.
So, the captain put the chains on me.
What about your world?
What's your name?
- I asked you what your name is. - All right.
If it's going to keep you quiet.
Barabbas.
What are you saying?
Barabbas.
What's the town you came from?
Jerusalem.
Are you the man they acquitted?
What is that to you?
Chained to you, of all men on Earth.
That's what I like to see, devils and beasts going for each other's throats.
Here's a head of you to hate each other. Now work, you crazy dogs.
Let's see you working.
Work!
Get out! Move!
You hate my name.
You hate the sound of it.
You weren't even in Jerusalem, but you hate my name.
That's right. We hate it.
What does it matter? What does it matter to you?
- You know who was killed in your place? - Still that?
So, why shouldn't we hate your name?
I thought what he said was to love one another.
I can't imagine...
...he expects a man to have a spirit...
...as strong and patient as a dray horse.
It was only something I was told.
If you think I got the best of it, you stay here for a generation or two.
We've got a special duty for you two.
This'll show you what happens to fighting mongrels. Come on.
Why isn't it all forgotten?
That's what I don't understand.
Who's been spreading things about? Keeping that tale alive all these years?
What could kill it?
When you think it was God's will come to Earth to show what he is.
I can see the reality of that.
Which is why the name of the Master goes on growing in the world.
I began to meet it wherever I sailed: Phoenicia, Cyprus, Greece.
Even at the Port of Rome.
I began to understand what it meant.
But...
...it's a tough demand, the will of God.
I'm a poor hand at it. And look where I've got us now.
Even though I've got his sign scratched on the back of the Emperor's head.
It means I belong to him, not to the Emperor.
It's the sign he has put on us all, if we give way enough to see it.
Look at this.
There's the shape of the cross.
Keep your God to yourself.
Why did you come here and rake up old lies about killing God?
What's going on down there? Move yourselves or I'll leave you to rot.
Pull!
You think what it's like to me.
You're the only man I've met who saw him.
You were there at the beginning, and you won't talk.
You won't tell me.
- What are you afraid of? - Nothing I'm afraid of.
Then you can tell me.
You see the darkness that went over heaven and Earth when he died?
Suppose I did.
The man died in a dust storm, the same as anybody's death.
Suppose his tomb was empty.
Can't a dead man be taken away? You want the truth? I'll give it to you.
That's all of your God you'll get out of me.
Here, what's the matter?
Come on, get up.
If they see you can't work they take you and you won't come back.
Hey! Away!
All right, wake up.
- Come on. Move out, all of you. - Get on your feet. You've had your sleep.
- You two, get your feet on the ground. - Get out of there. Come on. Move!
Root yourselves out! Move, I say!
Wake up.
All right, there's work to be done.
- You've had enough sleep now. - Wake up.
Come on, you! You, over there. Wake up, you hear me?
- Get on your feet, I say. - One dead man here.
I said get on your feet, all of you. Now come on. Up on your feet.
- You've got to look as if you can work. - What's the matter with you?
You can't stand up? Can't work?
I can work.
Here, this one's no use.
- How many survivors? - None, sir. There can't be any.
- It was like the end of the world to them. - The end of the underworld.
- What did you say, sir? - Nothing.
Survivors!
Over here. Survivors.
Get ready to receive survivors!
Away.
Pull!