"Karl
"is a good
"B-O-Y,"
"Boy,"
Very nice, Karl,
But, remember how we make our "b's",
It's a straight line down, and a circle to the right,
See? There you go,
Looky here, Rose,
You finished the whole page!
That's very good, Willy,
She liked mine better!
Willy, Don't pay him no mind, Karl,
He's just a big show-off,
That's my ride,
Hey, Rose,
I made this,
It's for you,
Thank you,
That's so sweet,
Thank you, Karl,
Okay,
I've got to go, See you tomorrow?
Come on, Karl,
You're gonna be late for work,
Put the mop away, Karl,
You don't have to clean up today,
Listen to me carefully,
I'm going to give you something today, Karl,
Something wonderful,
I'm going to give you
a new mind,
You'll still be Karl,
but better,
You'll be able to do things you've only dreamed of,
It'll be like having an extra mind,
My mind,
Don't you need it?
No,
The truth is I don't,
I'm dying, Karl,
But I don't want all this to die with me,
I don't want you to die,
Then help me, Karl,
Help me to live on, through you,
This is good, Karl,
Believe me,
You want to be smart, don't you?
Rose likes someone who's smart,
All right,
Just watch how I put on the machine,
When I'm done, you'll put it on
and press the green button,
No, Will it hurt?
It won't hurt you, Karl, I promise,
Remember, Karl, no matter what happens to me,
and how bad it looks,
you've got to put on the machine and press the green button,
You remember that, Karl,
Press the button,
Goodbye, my friend,
Dr, Valerian?
Dr, Valerian! No!
Press the button...
There is nothing wrong with your television,
Do not attempt to adjust the picture,
We are now controlling the transmission,
We control the horizontal and the vertical,
We can deluge you with a thousand channels
or expand one single image to crystal clarity
and beyond,
We can shape your vision
to anything our imagination can conceive,
For the next hour,
we will control all that you see and hear,
You are about to experience the awe and mystery
which reaches from the deepest inner mind
to The Outer Limits.
It is only human to dream of rising above one's limitations,
But what if we had the power to instantly acquire the
qualities that we envy in others?
Would it bring real fulfillment,
or a hunger that can never be filled?
- Two pin-sized burn marks, one on each temple, - Yeah,
You want my guess?
I'd say the man fried his brain,
Let me see if I got this,
You arrive after 4:00,
and he's already dead?
I poked him and he didn't move, so I called 9-1-1,
Can you think of any reason why he would use this machine on himself?
Maybe because he knew he was dying,
He told you he was dying?
Pancreatic cancer, heavily metastasized,
Um...
Check, Check with his doctor,
You know, at the hospital,
Rose,
I gotta talk to you,
What is it, Louise?
Karl, he's acting real funny,
You hear that? How do you mean?
It's beautiful,
It's Bach, if I'm not mistaken,
It's Karl, Rose,
If it's bothering you, just have him turn down the radio,
Karl's playing that music on some kind of a keyboard,
God,
I had no idea our Karl was a savant,
Hello, Miss Rose,
Hi, Karl,
Your music was lovely,
Yeah,
No, I thought it sucked eggs,
That's not nice, Willy,
He's just jealous,
I am not!
Calm down, Willy!
Am not!
It's okay,
Pretty ring, is it new?
It's from my fiancee,
I bet he's rich,
Must have cost like five zillion dollars,
Are you getting married?
That's the rumor,
Come on, why don't we get started on our lessons?
Come on,
Who the hell are you?
I'm Karl, I work for Dr, Valerian,
Valerian's dead,
I know that,
I'm William Talbot,
I know that too,
What are you doing with those papers?
I'm just taking what belongs to me,
To you?
Who do you think paid for all this?
I poured close to half a million into the ravings of that lunatic,
the least I can do is salvage the wreckage,
Maybe you can help me, Karl,
I just clean up,
Your boss, he was working on an electronic device,
a smaller version of this prototype here,
He showed it to me once, It fit in a small case, maybe 20 inches wide,
I'm just the janitor,
Idiot,
It's gotta be here somewhere,
It's all he ever talked about,
You shouldn't be doing that,
There it is!
Yes,
Maybe this won't be a total loss after all,
I'll send my people over for the rest of it,
No! No! No!
Hey! Get out of my way! Get out of my way!
Damn it! No!
No! Stop it! That's Dr, Valerian's!
Rot in hell,
I'm gonna tell! I'm gonna tell!
You can't take that! You can't take it,
Screw off, moron!
You can't take it!
No! No!
I didn't...
I didn't mean to...
I didn't...
It's okay,
It's okay, Karl,
It's not your fault,
Maybe... Maybe it was meant to be,
Okay.
Hi...
Yep,
Yes, this is Karl Durand,
and I'd like to open up a trading account,
Stocks, commodities, options mostly, Out of the money calls and puts?
And I'll be funding those with municipal bearer bonds,
$100,000 to start off with,
Okay, I want to buy 500 contracts, Oscillator Technologies,
Oscillator, that trades on CBOE, right?
Exercise price of $60, expiring next month,
I'll send my man by this afternoon with the bonds,
Let's make some money, shall we?
Okay, bye.
You're not really reading that,
Yeah, right!
You don't have a brain in your head,
I have three,
One, two, three,
Karl,
this just came for you in the mail,
Is it porno?
Hello, Karl,
If all has gone well,
you'll be watching this with part of me inside you,
I pray that I haven't saddled you with too great a responsibility,
But if my theories were correct,
we'll both have made history,
When the time is right,
we'll share our triumph with the world,
I'm counting on you, Karl,
to continue recording
the progress of our experiment,
If I'm right, you took the video equipment home with you,
What do you know,
Experiment log, day three,
It would be incredible enough only to document that the mind transport
device has proven itself a success,
But something has happened
which makes the experiment all the more remarkable,
Sorry, Dr, V, but I...
I took on a new consciousness,
I assimilated someone else,
Somebody... Somebody you know,
William Talbot,
Self-loathing has never had a more literal meaning,
The feelings are mutual, Ha, ha, ha!
That was him, if you hadn't guessed,
As you can see, it's not just his brain power that I've absorbed,
Talbot himself surfaces every so often, the same as with you, Dr, V,
The amazing thing is his brain was subsumed
in the minutes after his accidental death...
Accident, my ass!
You just wanted to use your machine on me,
The ability of the device to transfer the mind's contents
postmortem, in the few minutes that the brain cells are still alive
is something that you had theorized,
but now we proved it,
Now we proved it,
We're now three individuals living in a single body,
We share knowledge, memories both long and short-term,
and motor skills, and most of the time I'm in charge,
Pretty neat?
This all falls well within the bounds of the experiment's predicted results,
Well done, Karl, Rest now,
I feel you slipping away, Dr, Valerian,
Hey, what do you say we hit the Castaway for a drink, take in a strip show and
plan my next stock manipulation,
This is too perfect,
I can break the law and hide out in the body of an imbecile,
No! None of that!
All I want is Rose,
Karl loves Rose,
Who's there?
Karl, this is Detective Landers
Just a minute,
Detective,
Yeah, just a couple of questions have come up,
Is now a good time?
Okay, I guess,
Does the name William Talbot mean anything to you?
I heard something about it,
It's that businessman that you found in the trunk?
I... I read... I saw it on the Channel 6 News,
Live... Live Five,
"All news, every morning,"
Yeah, That's right, exactly,
You see, he died in exactly the same way as Dr, Valerian did,
Did the... Did the doctor know him?
No, not that I'm aware of,
Karl?
We found this notebook,
In the alley outside the lab,
Is this yours?
Yeah, Mine?
Are you kidding? No,
Are you sure? No,
Were there any kids there, at the lab? Did you see anybody in the alley
with their grand kids, at the doctor?
Maybe a neighborhood kid?
Yeah, a neighborhood kid I was helping with his homework,
He forgot it,
Neighborhood kids,
Is there anything else you want to tell me, Karl?
No,
If I have any more questions?
I can come back, right?
Yeah, I guess,
Thanks,
These emerald pendants are very popular,
Rose would like that, It's pretty,
Can I ask what you were thinking of spending for this gift?
Money,
What are you doing here?
I brought you some cool presents,
You shouldn't do that,
Did Louise tell you where I live?
I... I looked in the office,
Aren't you gonna open them?
God,
Where did you get this?
I bought it, I got earrings, too,
Real diamonds,
You don't have the money for this,
Yes, I do,
Isolator Technology just split two for one, I cashed out,
Listen, Karl, I don't know who put you up to this, but you gotta take it back,
But I bought it for you, Rose,
I love you,
I have a boyfriend,
I'm gonna get married,
He says what you feel for me isn't love, it's gratitude,
It's infatuation,
I'm not... I'm not good enough, right?
No, that's not what this is about,
You tell me what you want, I can be anything that you want me to be,
Okay, listen to me...
I could change!
I could be as good as he is, I could...
Stop it, Stop it,
I don't know where you got these things, but the last thing that I want is for you
to get in trouble because of me,
I can't... I can't live without you, Rose,
I can't stop thinking about you,
You need help,
I'm gonna get somebody to see you,
No, it's not what you think,
I do not have bipolar disorder, my serotonin levels are stable,
I'm gonna call Louise, I want you to go back to the Claymore house right now,
When will I see you?
Goodbye,
Now, we're almost done, just a few more questions,
That's a very interesting construction, Karl,
What do you call it?
2- Methyl-hexahydroxy-p,
Phone call for you, Karl,
Who is it?
It's your broker, Again,
Thank you, Karl, that should be it for today,
It's my broker,
I'd like to check in on him in a few days,
and in the meantime I'll be talking to my colleagues
and, um, looking at the appropriate literature,
Thank you,
Well?
She wants us to keep a close eye on Karl, let her know if anything dramatic happens,
More dramatic than his reading level going from grade school to graduate school overnight?
Or him showing up on my doorstep with thousands of dollars of jewelery?
I didn't mention that,
Louise,
He has no family and no money,
They had to be stolen,
I don't think you can assume that,
He's been getting calls from a broker, Maybe he's turned into a financial whiz, too,
I like Karl as much as you do,
But I gotta tell you,
He's beginning to scare me,
Experiment log, day five,
I have to fight now to keep Dr, Valerian present,
The migraines
are continuing, sometimes it feels like my head's gonna explode,
I find... I find myself
obsessed with learning everything I can about the man Rose is gonna marry,
His name is Thomas Langley Russell,
He's a prize-winning poet,
I always wanted to write,
Jealousy, you green-eyed monster,
It seems to be devouring me,
What does she want?
Slow down, Karl,
What does she want? The words keep ringing in my ears!
Slow down, Karl,
Slow down,
If you love her, or you don't want to scare her away,
Shut up, old man! This is all your fault!
Dr, Valerian began this experiment
believing that I would be the perfect subject
because portions of my brain
are supposedly dormant,
Now, I wonder
if it was ever vacant at all,
Maybe... Maybe I've inadvertently found the seat of conscience,
Maybe even the soul,
How else could I have sunk to such depths?
What is it?
Deep poet ruminations?
If you must know,
I was thinking of this,
That's deep,
A dirty mind is a terrible thing to waste,
How long has he been a boarder here?
After his aunt died, three years ago, he became a ward of the state,
At first he was institutionalized, Then they realized he was ready for
a transitional facility and he came here to Claymore House,
Yes! Do you recognize this?
It's Karl's workbook,
Although, to tell you the truth, I think he's outgrown it,
You think Karl's capable of taking care of himself?
I know that's what he wants,
He talks about moving soon, getting a place of his own,
Can he afford that?
Actually, Karl's doing really well for himself,
Has his own stockbroker and everything,
Really?
He's onto us, Karl,
This isn't working for me, because you're giving me the
same information that I got yesterday,
I need more information,
No, this is not good, Hold on a second,
The captain wants to know if we made any progress on the Valerian murders,
Tell him we're working on it, we'll have something for him tomorrow,
Lieutenant, phone call for you on line two,
Guy says he's got information on the Talbot case,
I gotta go, Landers,
Wanna know how Talbot died?
Meet me in the alley behind the Castaway bar, 11:30,
Hello?
What do I... What do I do?
What do I do?
My father always said, "Know your enemy,"
"Bereft of all remembering,
"the sound of breaking glass, jagged shards of memory,
"dissolving dreams in silence,
"Cascading into dark, strung like paper lanterns across the void,
"Gasping, spilling hot breath from open mouth to open mouth,
"Succor and warmth, with the turning cries of last love,
"everlasting love,
"sharp dominion... "
Garbage!
It's beautiful, How can you say that?
How can you trust a critic who's buffing the artist?
I am such a fool,
Forgive me?
You are so delicious,
When are we gonna make it official?
How official do you want it?
I'm serious, Tom,
Book tour's next month,
You mean it? As soon as it's over?
It may be the only thing I do mean,
Why do I feel so worried?
Think I'll backslide?
I couldn't go through that again,
Finish your wine,
She loves me,
She loves me not,
She loves Tom!
Give it up, you moron!
My head,
It's getting too crowded in here, just let me think!
Notes, Tom, The experiment!
Experiment log, day eight,
Anxiety, stress overload,
Third assimilated brain,
What does that make, three and a half?
You blew it big time, you killed a cop, you half-wit!
You know what they do to cop killers? You're gonna get us all put away!
Some of us should be, by the way,
We're gonna make the best of it, all right?
We're alive right now, that's all that really matters,
Survival, Karl,
Problems come up, you deal with it!
You don't know what the hell you're talking about,
He's a liar, Karl, don't listen to anything he says,
I should lock the both of you up,
I just want Rose to kiss me the way she kisses him,
Forget Rose! She loves you not, remember?
Besides, women like that are a dime a dozen!
Don't listen to him, Karl would kill for a woman like that,
He already did,
It's your life, Your life,
You took our lives, you pathetic piece of crap!
Problem comes up, you deal with it,
Experiment log, day eight...
That's bull, who gives a damn? That's bull, who gives a damn?
The experiment!
Just relax, Karl, just relax, One thought at a time,
Just one thought at a time, okay,
If a problem comes up, you deal with it,
You deal with it,
What's the problem? What's the problem?
What's the problem, Karl?
What the hell's the problem, Karl?
What's the problem?
Thomas!
Thomas,
Thomas Langley Russell,
The man Rose loves,
She'll never love anyone else,
It's not... It's not Tom she loves,
It's the way he is with her,
It's his poetry,
It's his mind,
- Thomas Russell? - Hello?
This is the police, Yep?
Lieutenant Landers, There's been an accident, a girl named Rose Ciotti,
she asked me to call you,
My God, is she all right?
There's an ambulance on the way, She says you're not far, you should be able to be here
before they are,
It's the corner of 4th and Pomerantz, in the parking lot of the plating plant,
Tell her to hold on, I'll...
Rose?
Damn,
Whoa!
God forgive us all,
A signal between serifs,
clumped in innocence, a whispered trail of glory,
Violence, pale, blush, careening through seven dawns,
A single, fearsome twilight, all of it speaking a single name,
Your name, Rose,
Thomas, Thomas!
"Rising spires of fractured light,
"lingering whole... "
"Water-color bleeding, reflections of a tender heart,
"perfect heart, Your heart, Rose,
"You're the sadness, the prophet,
"the listless gatekeeper,
"Teeming raptures of heart and soul, unspoken vigils of desire,
"An icy hollow that cannot be filled,
"but for a perfect love, your love, Rose,"
Marry me, my Rose,
Karl, this is crazy!
What do you mean? You don't like my poem?
This is not your poem! This is Thomas' poem!
You don't understand, I wrote that...
Stop it, Karl!
... every word of that,
I did write that!
Don't you think I know Thomas' writing?
For god's sakes, it's even his handwriting, He left the poem, you found it!
No, that's not what happened!
You have gone too far,
If you ever come back here again, I am going to call the police!
I want you to go!
And I want you to marry me!
I'm gonna change! I'm gonna change, I'm gonna...
You can love me, Rose, if you would just take the time to find out!
Find out what!
To find out who we...
Who I am,
Get out!
I want you to go!
For God's sakes, get out!
I'll go,
I'll go now, Rose,
Karl, listen to me,
I never meant to hurt you,
I can forgive you for this, I can help you, if you let me,
Was gonna help me, was gonna help me,
She said she can love me, She can,
Drumbeats, pounding relentlessly,
Nowhere for you to go,
Pounding relentlessly!
Rose Ciotti?
Yes?
Police, Lieutenant Krakowiak,
What is it?
I'm afraid I've got some bad news,
You hurt her, Thomas,
She said she was gonna help me,
and you closed the door, dimmed the light,
Stop whining!
We don't need Rose, we don't need anybody!
We have it all, money, power, strength in numbers,
There's always hope, One day at a time,
Take it easy, Karl,
Focus, Focus,
She can love you, Karl,
Destroy the machine, It was never intended for this,
Save yourself, life is a gift,
It's a precious gift, It's a curse!
Dark, Comfortless,
Dark! Comfortless!
A smothering eternal night,
She's dimmed the light,
Closed the door,
... dimmed the light!
She's closed the door,
I'm sorry, ma'am, he's been dead at least 12 hours,
The coroner thinks he might have hit the abutment on the way down,
He jumped?
That's what we're going on,
The body was only 100 yards from the bridge,
God, Thomas,
Thomas,
No!
No,
No, No,
I don't wanna die,
We can work it out,
There's always...
No! Please,
Please! Please!
I really flattered myself,
I thought I could save him,
I thought marriage would turn everything around,
I wanna live,
Had he threatened something like this before?
Didn't you see the scars on his wrist?
- Do it, Karl, - He'd attempted suicide before,
Three times, Goodbye,
In the last year alone,
Goodbye, my love,
How easily we scorn what fate has dealt us
and dream of what it has not,
Before we cast aside our lots, it would be wise to remember
that dreams have a way of turning into nightmares.