[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]
[CRICKETS CHIRPING]
[FATHER SIGHS]
[EXCLAIMING IN ANNOYANCE]
[UTENSILS CLATTERING]
Honey, it's family hour,
there must be something on.
DAUGHTER: Oh, wow, Candied Critters!
[FATHER EXCLAIMS]
"Oh, Great. It's Monsters, our favorite show!"
[MONSTROUS LAUGH]
[SHUSHING]
It's starting.
[MONSTROUS LAUGH]
[FATHER CHUCKLES]
[FAINT ROCK MUSIC PLAYING]
[MUSIC PLAYING ON STEREO]
Jake, Jake, I know you're in there.
[ROCK MUSIC CONTINUES PLAYING]
Dad.
Well, I'll be damned.
Look who the cat dragged in from the desert.
It's good to see you too, Jake.
[LOUD ROCK MUSIC PLAYING ON STEREO]
I thought you said that you'd never come back to the desert.
Will you please turn that off, Jake.
This is my place, Dad.
I didn't come here to fight with you.
Please.
[TURNS OFF MUSIC]
You look terrible.
What's wrong with your arm?
What's wrong with it? It's attached to a dying man.
What?
I said, I'm dying.
What is it?
Brain tumor.
And if I can predict your next question, the answer is anytime.
Tomorrow, a few weeks, anytime.
[SIGHS] Oh, Dad.
You know the volumes of books I wrote on these Indians.
There are thousands of things that they kept hidden from me.
You've come out to the desert following in my footsteps.
I've read your papers.
You know more about these tribes than I ever did.
Their scared mysteries.
The cave of the creator, the waters of life.
What?
All those years they hinted about it.
The waters of life are a myth.
They never told me where the cave was.
Where do I search the Everglades for the fountain of youth?
But they've told you things I never thought they would tell a white.
Father, tell me the truth.
Do you really believe that there are waters that can cure the ill?
That can grant immortality?
You're the one that brought me up
to be skeptical. To test ideas.
What good is that?
What good is science?
What, what good is the truth when you're dying?
Jake...
What you see, this flesh. That's all there is. I don't want to die.
I've never seen it.
Besides, Father,
these people trust me.
They trust me with things they haven't even told the rest of the world.
I have a time-bomb ticking away in my brain.
And that changes your perspective.
All those important things.
Truth, science, honor, love,
they all become negotiable.
I asked myself, "What price I would pay?"
To go on with my work?
Watch a beautiful sunset.
And maybe,
someday,
feel the joy of grandchildren.
[COUGHING]
I do love you, you know.
And I love you.
Please help me.
[SOFTLY] Okay.
[LAUGHS] Okay.
Thank you so much.
[SIGHS]
Help me.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING]
[WHISPERING] Look at it.
It's real.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]
[WHISPERING] Don't touch it.
What's the matter?
Afraid it's gonna bite?
MAN'S VOICE: It's a matter of respect.
This is a place for worshippers.
For those who have faith, Dr. Miner.
You know who I am.
I thought that you'd left.
Only to return.
Yes.
Yes, Saspondo.
You broke a promise to us.
Saspondo.
My father is sick, he's dying.
The promise you made is more important than the life of your father.
More important than your own life.
You don't believe these waters will cure him.
You humor him.
A dying man.
Daddy, don't.
SASPONDO: You must have true faith
in the miracle, Dr. Miner.
Dianoga, the God of forever.
A man's true faith is one who drinks of these waters.
Daddy, you don't know what you're doing.
The hell I don't.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING]
[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]
[EXCLAIMS IN SURPRISE] Daddy.
Tell me it's true.
You look young again.
And my hand, and my eyes.
It's a miracle.
JAKE: Oh, God!
Now I know what a condemned man feels like after the reprieve!
And my life.
I have my life back again.
It was like drinking liquid fire.
You can't understand.
It's as if all
the scars and pains of a life time have been taken off.
And you, why haven't you drunk from these waters?
It is not for me to drink.
Only to guard.
This task has come down,
from father to son since my people first came to this land.
To guard, to serve, to die.
In our own time.
But if you can drink,
and live, how can you choose to die?
It's an act of faith.
I am here as all these braves,
to serve Dianoga.
Jake,
get something for a sample, this can be the most important discovery.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]
No. It can't be.
[GROANING IN AGONY]
What kind of a God gives you a taste of life and then takes it away.
Who are you to make demands of a God?
A God? A piece of stone.
JAKE: Don't drink anymore.
Don't you understand? It's a cheat. It has to be.
No one can live forever.
[WHISPERING] My eyes.
I need my glasses.
Jake.
Yes?
[WHISPERING] You see, just before your mother died,
she said to me there is nothing but life, Alfred.
And hold on to it.
Whatever the cost?
Dad.
You had enough. It's time to go.
I'm gonna take you home.
Whatever the cost, Dr. Miner?
Dad, we'll go home and I'll take you back.
I'll take you back to New York and I'll stay with you.
Yes, hold on to life for all it's worth.
Unless that worth is lost.
And then of course--
Say what you mean for once.
How much do you love your daughter?
What?
[LOUDLY] How much?
I love my daughter, like my own life.
How much is that?
Don't play the inscrutable red-man.
But Dianoga wants worshippers.
Worshippers who serve.
Those he takes into his service are given the gift of long life.
But there is a price.
A token of faith.
The God gives of his body to the pool.
We must also give of our bodies, a gift.
A gift of what?
Of blood.
Blood? My blood?
No, it is a kind of trade.
One form of immortality for another.
I don't understand.
[SOFTLY] Don't you see? He's talking about human sacrifice.
You sacrifice your children, "one form of immortality for another."
And then you will be young forever.
Jake.
Listen,
this sacrifice,
I mean, we are talking about a sacrifice here.
The blood of your blood.
Of your children. A great, selfless gift to the God of forever.
A means to serve, doctor of science.
Not to be served.
Make this sacrifice,
and you enter into the service of the old one.
And will live as he lives.
Until the mountains are worn away.
Is that what you wish?
[SOMBRE INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING]
Jake,
there's a way I can live.
What are you talking about?
We can beat this.
[SHOUTING] No. I don't think so.
Wait. Listen to me.
Everything will be okay.
We'll be together.
And you can drink from the water when the time comes.
[CRYING] Dad, this water is a drug. It's a poison.
It's already poisoned your soul.
I just need to make a small cut on your hand.
And mix the blood with the water.
No, what you need is my life blood.
How can you deny me a few drops for me life!
I'm going, Father.
Now let me go.
[GASPS] Ah!
I can't let you leave me.
I need you.
You're crazy. Look at what your doing.
Jake.
[SCREAMING] Daddy.
[SCREAMING] Don't.
[SCREAMING IN PAIN]
[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]
So this is it?
I'll never go back to being what I was?
No going back.
What do you think? How old? 30?
God, to be 30 again.
To be 30 forever.
Everything is ahead of me.
The thousands of things. The ten thousands of things I've always wanted to do.
The books I wanted to read, the languages I wanted,
I've always wanted to learn languages.
And the women, all the regrets.
All the missed opportunities of a lifetime.
I can make everything all right.
I can make everything come out all right.
And what is this?
Your daughter.
My daughter.
She'll be grown. She'll be almost as old as I am.
She was your daughter.
Have you forgotten so soon?
Yes, of course. Jake.
She was always a disappointment to me.
Now I can have more children.
And watch them have children.
And on and on. This is fantastic.
How is it that no one has ever tried to sell this stuff?
There are those in the past who have heard about it.
But they didn't like the part about you-know-what, is that it?
Yes.
The price is high.
There's got to be a solution.
We can have it analyzed. Find out what its made of.
Blood can be transfused. Stock piled.
Water can be synthesized.
I mean, how complicated could it be?
Maybe just a precise combination of minerals in the rock.
Or just a result of micro-organisms that live
just in this one place. It's a question of science.
Before, you called it a miracle.
[LAUGHS] Miracle.
We'll take samples. Perform tests. Find out what it's made of.
We will solve it.
Then don't you see?
You can drink the water and be young again.
I do not drink of the water.
It's a matter of faith.
Ah, suit yourself, my friend.
A mystery that lives in this place cannot be solved.
Not by your science.
I don't believe that.
Every generation has it's ineffable and solvable mysteries.
Until they solve it. Then they go on looking for more
insolvable mysteries. I am a rational man,
You're crazy, Dr. Miner.
The fear of death has made you crazy.
You did everything to save yourself.
But now you are lost forever.
There will be no grandchildren playing at your feet.
There is a time for grandchildren.
I don't need to worry about that now.
Besides, you gave me the knife.
You told me what had to be done.
You took the knife. You did what had to be done.
And for what?
For what? You know, my life.
What is that?
Greater men than you have lived.
Wiser men. Stronger men.
Better men.
What made you think that God would give you the gift?
I am not interested in Gods.
I am a man of science.
You're a fool.
You were a foolish old man. Now you have become a foolish young one.
You will not take the water away.
And are you gonna stop me?
[LAUGHS]
You know nothing.
And for most men and most places that is a small thing.
But now you stand in a dark place, in the earth.
Before the eyes of a God.
Don't speak to me of Gods.
If all the good and all the evil
that the Gods have contributed to this earth
were added up, the sum would be exactly zero.
And if this hunk of stone wants to punish me for my sins,
he better hurry up, because I am not gonna be here for long.
Punish your sins.
What does Dianoga care about the little crimes of men?
That's for the invisible God of your churches to worry about.
Good and bad.
You white men have forgotten to fear your Gods, but we have not.
The God is a thing of blood, fire, terror.
Yes, God is a savage thing.
A God is a scarecrow built to chase away men's fear.
But I am not afraid any more.
I have no need for Gods or scarecrows.
Look, this is business. Now, get out of my way.
No business, Dr. Miner.
You spoke to me about my fear of death.
Now how about yours?
What?
What's happening?
You said I would never go back to being what I was.
I spoke the truth. There's no going back.
It is allowed by Dianoga
that those who make the supreme offering
will enter his service and live long.
I can hardly move.
By they will live as he lives.
Very slowly.
[WHISPERING] The water.
Soon you will be as the both of them.
One second will be a month,
one minute, a decade.
And on and on. For all eternity.
[SHOUTING] There must be a way to stop it.
There is no way to stop it now.
These braves who served Dianoga
entered the service of the waters long ago.
Here they wait.
In the 40 years I have served,
he has moved.
His eyes once opened and closed.
His hand once closed has opened.
[SCREAMING IN DESPAIR] This can't be!
What is my faith compared to that?
What is your science?
My arms! My legs!
What will these faithful ones think of you?
What will Dianoga think of the man who lives by scarecrows.
[VOICE DISTORTING] Is this some sort of a trick?
Forever can be measured in the life and death of the world.
Or the last heartbeats of a dying man.
[DISTORTED VOICE] You've cheated me.
[GROWLING IN DESPAIR] No.
SASPONDO: One second will be a month. One minute a decade.
For all eternity.
[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]