Book of Life, The (1998)

[bunniefuu]

Forgive me Jesus,
for I have sinned.

And mercy on us now
and at the hour of our death.

Mercy.

It's OK.

I could never get used to
that part of the job.

The power and the glory.

The threat of divine vengeance.

But I persevere.

That was about my father's business.

And I was the good son.

It was the morning of
December 31, 1999 when I returned.

At last.

To judge the living,

...and the dead.

Though still, and perhaps always,

...I had my doubts.

Last day of century,
believers praying for end.

Hello.

Hello. Checking in?

We have a reservation.

Rome.

What name is that reservation under?

Mr. and Mrs. D. W. Griffith.

Thank you Mr. Griffith.

And how many nights
will you be staying?

Just one.

Look, I'm sorry,
you have the wrong number.

I feared my father's wrath.

His love was a burden.

He knew this about me, too.

My ambivalence.

But we shared the blame, he and I.

He made me a man as well as a god.

And I felt myself...

...well...

...blessed.

This is the hour of trial,
Magdalena.

The good and the bad.

Together...

...they question themselves.

...and me...

...yes, me...

And I wonder.

I like this city.

Call the lawyers.

Good morning, Edie.

I'll have a cup of coffee.

Will you be able to pay for it?

What, you mean right away?

Soon.

It's a distinct possibility.

I've got $20, which I, in fact,
borrowed from a friend,

...riding on a vastly underrated
long shot in the first race of the day.

Cheer up, Mac.

Tomorrow is a new millennium.

When is your holiday's period?

It's all over.

Nah! It's just beginning.

Pull yourself together.
Here, take the sports section.

You saw it, didn't you?
- What? [/ P ]

In the sky, you know.
You saw it, too.

You saw that?

It's all over.

What the hell was that?
- A sign.

Of what?
- The end.

The end of existence, reality,

...history, whatever you want to
call it. It's finished,

...over, done.

God's tolerance for you, stupid
human beings, has reached its end.

Edie, get my unbalanced friend
here a cup of coffee, will you?

Will he be able to pay for it?

Hey, Chuckles,
do you got any money?

"Rejoice then, you heavens,
and those of you who dwell in them,

...but woe to the earth and the sea,

...for the devil has come down to you
with great wrath,

...because he knows
that his time is short."

– Revelations: 12,12.

Not my favorite passage.

Many people believes
the world is going to end tonight.

You don't believe that, do you?

There is a priest on the radio
and that's all he ever talks about.

He says that the planets and the stars
are all lined up...

...the right way now.

And that the prophecies
have been fulfilled.

And he says that
when Jesus returns to Earth,

...he's going to gather around him


And then...

...destroy every viles.
- Why do you listen to that crap?

I like the hymns.

Armageddon, Armageddon and Co.
How may I direct your call?

Thank you.

He's not in right now,
can you call back later?

I doubt it.

Excuse me a minute.

May I help you?

Hands out of your pockets!

Thanks.

Leave it there.

Scram!

Armageddon, Armageddon and Co.
How may I direct your call?

Please, hold.

Excuse me, sir, the call you're
waiting for is on line 2.

Where the hell have you been?

This is no time to hesitate.

We've got trouble.

Big trouble.

The adversary won't settle
for arbitration.

He can take it to the regular court
and try for ever.

Of course he is bluffing.

Well, we're in no position to
tempt fate.

Look, you know what your father wants.
Quit stalling!

I remember the flood.

Babylon, Sodom and Gomorrah...

T'was before your time, Magdalena.

My father, he is an angry god.

To him, the law is everything.

Still, to this day,
attorneys are his favourites.

Now, let's get on with it.

It will be ugly...

The end of the world.
Carnage like you've never seen before.

An unimaginable, immense cosmic
catastrophe, out of which...

...lo, will arise a new world.

Which will be nothing less
than a new Eden.

Because of our neglect to the Lord
we must be punished.

By famine and pestilence...

...w*r and captivity.

We must be subjected
to a judgment so severe that...

...it will make a clean break
with our guilty past.

The day of wrath has come, when
the sun, and the moon and the stars...

...will be darkened.

When the Heavens are rolled up together
and the Earth is shaken.

The day has come when the unbelievers
are to be cast out and...

...utterly destroyed.

What, you lose?

Hey, it was a long shot,
give me a break.

Do you really wanna win?
- Bug off!

Use my money and buy a lottery ticket.

You win.

The lottery?

What do you take me for?

A compulsive gambler,
a lonely directionless human being...

...forever at the mercy of your
own insignificant hopes and dreams...

...afraid to admit you need love,

...and too weak to accept it
when it is offered.

She pays for your unending coffees
herself, you know.

She doesn't want to cheat the boss.

She gave you that jacket, too.

I found this.

Mmm... you found it on the rack over there?
- So?

So she bought it at the flea market
in September,

...and put it there, knowing
you would eventually try to steal it.

What if I win?

You keep all the money.
- Sounds too good to be true.

It is.

I gotta think about it.

Do you believe you have a soul?

Who... me?
- Yeah.

No.

I have a mind, I have senses.

The soul is... only what we
call our awareness of things,

...but it's really just a
material phenomenon.

So you don't think
Edie has a soul, either?

Well, not in that...

She is soulful.

Full of soul.

People don't have souls.

It's something from outside
that they acquire?

Yeah, that's it. Sure.

People aren't born with souls.
- No.

People...

...are material... mechanisms,
biological accidents.

Okay.

Look...

Let's say that if you win the lottery
with my money, you keep all the cash.

But tonight, when God
destroys the world as we know it...

Edie's soul goes to the Devil,
and remains in hell for all eternity.

Take a powder, creep.

I'll be back.

Lunatic.

Edie!

Come on, let's play the Lottery.

Pick some numbers.



Sure, go ahead, call me petty.

But one more good soul snatched away
from the all-kowing unknowable is...

...still another feather in my cap.

So what if it's the last day of the world?

I'm not gonna give in without a fight.
Come what may!

Let God the Almighty
rule eternity.

My precincts are the
minutes and hours of the every day.

And as long as people have
hopes and dreams,

...well, then...

...I'll have my work to do.

So you believe in God?
- Unfortunately.

And you really believe
the world's gonna end tonight?

It's been prophesied.

"Then I saw in the right hand
of the one seated on the throne...

...a book with seven seals.

And I saw a mighty angel
proclaiming with a loud voice:

'Who is worthy to open the book,
and to break the seals thereof?' "

What is a seal?

It's kind of like a stamp.
- It sort of keeps the book shut.

What's written in that book?

The names of the 144 000 good souls
who will be saved from eternal damnation.

"Then one of the elderls said to me
'Do not weep.

...See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah,
the root of David,

...has conquered, so that
he can open the book,

...and its seven seals.' "

And every time he opens one of those seals,
he brings the Apocalypse one step closer.

Oh, really?

Seals 1 through 4:
warfare, slaughter, famine, pestilence.

Open a newspaper,
see for yourselves.

This is it.
Three more to go.

It's all over. Everything I've
worked so hard to achive...

...wiped out.

Shouldn't take it so hard.
- I've been misunderstood.

They think I hold a grudge
against humanity, but that's not it at all.

I just happen to think
that this is a good system.

This tug of w*r between heaven and hell.
It keeps people honest.

How will I know if it's
win my lottery numbers?

They'll announce it on the radio.
- What numbers did you pick?

Today's date:


Excellent.

My new year's resolution is
to give up gambling.

But there isn't going to be a new year.

Each one of them painful...
over the centuries.

The bringing of w*r,
death, famine, and pestilence.

But this one, the fifth seal...

...this was the one I feared the most.

When I had opened the fifth seal,
I saw the souls of those...

...who had been slaughtered
for the word of God.

Savior Lord, holy and true,
how long would it be before you judge...

...and avenge our blood
on the inhabitants of the Earth?

It was the darkest hour
of a long dark night of the soul.

The chill center of
divine callousness.

What twisted fairy tale that I
allowed myself to be tangled up into?

What misplaced gratitude?
And I believed to be all.

Why had I let these souls believe
there was anything other than sacrifice?

Why were they comforted
with dreams of vengeance?

Why hadn't I interfered more?
Agitated, questioned, revolted?

Panicked by both the legitimacy
and the hopelessness of their cries...

I rose to the occasion...
and lied.

Rest a little while longer... until the
number of your fellows will be complete:

...those who'll die...
as you yourself have died...

...for the word of God.

So, if we're all just
biological accidents,

...how you explain love?

Love is a complex of perfectly concrete,
natural impulses.

Survival mechanism?
- Exactly.

In that case, I can understand
why you love Edie,

...but why does Edie love you?
- Hey, watch it.

Any purely biological unit attempting to
mechanise and sound survival...

...would seem likely to pass you by.
I'm sorry, you're less than reliable.

Yeah, well, you can't imagine
what that girl is capable of.

Oh, I can imagine all too well.

That's my problem.

I can imagine everything... too well.

A person's capacity for sacrifice,

...someone's life ruined
by a simple misunderstanding,

...the possibility of disaster at just
reaching out to shake someone's hand;

...the crumpling of a person's
self-esteem by an overheard remark.

How can I be responsible for all that?

Every intimacy engenders expectation, and every
expectation some unknown disappointment.

If the world were only
as large as this room.

OK, sure, then I'd be fine.

But it's not.

The world is infinite, expansive,
and full of possibility.

It's debilitating.

We won.
- What? - The Lottery.



Tell us Edie, what are you gonna do
with the... all the money you won?

Oh, I have a dream.
When I come to New York...

I saw many homeless people in the street,
and I wanted to... make soup.

And I think it's a good for winter.
Because people can be warm tonight.

If they can have warm soup...
take this cold, snowy day...

Sure, sure. Now, what kind of soup is that?
- A carrot soup.

Yeah. - No meat. - Just vegetables,
no noodles or chicken or like that?

Mmm, maybe noodles is good!
Maybe good idea.


get very soft and mild,...

...and I'm going to put in mixer,
and the onions, too.

Just go ahead.

Oh, oh, no!

That's OK. - You gonna put it
into the mixer? - Thick soup.

Oh, right. - Ok let's... break yourself.
That's all right.

All right, I think we had enough.

Thank you, thank you very much.
- That's OK.

Can we turn that off please?
- Oh, water! You have to put water...

Where is he?

What does he plan to do?
Who does he think he is, anyway?!

My client's authority rests
on this threat alone.

He can't just take things in his own hands
and call off the Apocalypse.

We can't afford not to go
all the way on this thing.

But he is going all the way.
Like at the beginning.

Where is the Book of Life?

Where is the Book of Life?!

I don't know!

You see? This is what happens when you put
responsibility into the hands of amateurs.

He is willing to forgive...
completely.

The way I remember it,
he was on his way to the temple.

He saw they were throwing stones at me.

He asked them why they were doing this,
and they told them what I was.

And what were you?
- Adultress, whore, prost*tute.

Self-employed.

He kneeled and looked to the ground.

He said, let anyone among you who has not
sinned be the first to throw a stone.

Typical!

He was writing something in the dirt,
and he would not look at me.

The people began to leave,
the old people first, then the young.

We were there alone,
and there was no one around.

I was looking at him,
but he would not look at me.

He was looking at the ground.
He said "Where are they?...

...Has no one condemned you?"
And I told him: "No. They're gone."

And...then he said:
"Neither do I condemn you...

...Go your way,
and from now on do not sin."

A likely story.

Yeah....

Right...

New developments.

Let her go and give me
Jerusalem on the line.

I thought he'd fallen in love with me.

He's that kind of guy.

Here, have a hot soup.

I'm not hungry.

Yes, sure, not now, but later...
You know how it is.

You should give it to
someone that needs it.

We all need to eat.

Got a light?

You work for a charity organisation?

No, er... my girlfriend's idea.

She's, you know, like,
terminally good.

She'll be remembered.

Can I ask you a question?
- Okay.

You think
the world's gonna end tonight?

It might.

And you think God's gonna save only the
good souls and send everybody else to hell?

It's what prophets say.

I think I gambled away my girlfriend's
soul to the devil today by accident.

Why?

It's a long shot.
I lost.

Sorry.

Look, I'm an atheist.

How was I supposed to know
it's the devil?

They don't teach atheists stuff like that.

What am I gonna do?

I know someone who'll help you.

Excuse me, have you got
a quarter for the phone?

Thank you.

Yeah.

It's me.

Listen, I want to talk.

Okay.

When?

Where?

Right.

Are you OK?

I think so.

Do you work for a
charity organisation?

No, I'm rich.
- Really?

Yes, very rich.
Bye.

This is breakin' the rules,
you know?

I work for the one
who makes the rules.

Yeah well, I used to work for him too.

Until I quit.
Started makin' my own rules.

You didn't quit.
You were fired.

I won't do it. I refuse.

What are you talking about?

The Apocalypse.

Pull yourself together.
You can't do that.

Why not?

Well... it's prophesied.
- I don't give a damn about the prophets.

I never liked those guys anyway.

We're supposed to change the world
with love, compassion, and forgiveness.

This divine vengeance crap
is all wrong.

Are you saying
what I think you're saying?

I won't judge the living and the dead.
I hate this exclusive closed-door policy.

Who do these 'Christians'
think they are, anyway?

My friend, you speak herresy...
worse, revolution.

What's that to you?

Well, I have... as it were
merely a professional interest.

If the current state of affairs is to continue
it'd be nice to know you are on my side.

That will never happen.
- You have exiled yourself from Paradise.

We've allowed a huge misunderstanding
to distort the soul of humanity.

We?!

Hey, look, it wasn't my idea
to give them souls.

Without souls they could've never
invented us. - That's true.

And we are their greatest creation.
-There's no creation without responsibility.

Oh, yes, remember Frankenstein.
- Faust. - Rabaillot of Prague.

I imagined the truth of the
Gospel to be self evident.

But I had no idea it would
be perverted...

...by the very people who claim
to preach it in my name.

You shouldn't take it so hard. People
just like to k*ll each other. It's natural.

No, you're generalizing. You can't
do that with these human beings.

They're too complex.

Ah... That's how it starts: the allure
of their free will, the infatuation,...

the thrill of infinite possibility;
then, before you know it,...

...wham,
you're addicted to human beings.

I admire their persistence.

It's amazing, the things they do.
They're inventing themselves, now.

Artificial intelligence, and
cybergenetics, and so on...

It's impressive, I admit.

They're cross fertilizing pears with apples
and goats with sheeps,...

...tobacco plants with lightning bugs—
- Now, that's just stupid.

Oh, and I agree...

...but the potential for synthetically
fabricated organic diseases is too good to be true.

They'll be obsessed with themselves
in entirely new ways now...

And frankly:
I think it's about time...

That is... if there is time.

There is time.

You sure?

There's time for these people to
prove you wrong.

I doubt it.
- You always do.

Listen, I've got a better idea.

As long as you're banished from
the presence of the most 'perfect'.

How many seals are left open?

Two.

When he opened the sixth seal, I looked
and there came a great earthquake.

Huh, natural disasters,
profitable.

It's not that you're so despecable,
it's that you're so amazingly trite.

We can start a new religion.

Seems to me it is the last thing
these people need.

What they need and what they want,
are two entirely different things.

They want divine retribution and
they're willing to pay for it.

I've been in the advertising business,
so to speak, since the beginning,...

...my idealistic young Nazarene.

I'm a pro: at telling people
what they wanna hear,...

...and somehow makin' them think
that they've gotta be talked into it.

This... uh... you know,
it flatters them.

A human being doesn't wanna be
anybody's fool.

"The kings, the magnates, the generals,
the powerful of the Earth...

...They hid in the caves,
and the rocks of the mountains, and...

...called to the rocks and the mountains: 'Fall
on us and hide us from the wrath of God.' "

Little dramatic, but I'm telling you
that is exactly what is going to happen.

We capitalize on that.

Who else are they gonna believe?

We'll have the goods
to tend their wounds,

...nurse their starving children, make
sense of their suffering. In general,

...instantanous, worldwide, total belief.
And then, you know, eventually...

...of course, they'll be
fighting amongst themselves.

Some claim to believe in a better and
more effective way than the others...

And a new era of prideful
self-assertion will be assured then.

And the innocent will be persecuted
by the alongside of the guilty.

And nobody's gonna know what's
right from wrong any more, even the—

Hey, where are you going?!

You bore me.

Hey, listen, wise guy,
you can never go home again.

That's it! We're in the same boat now!

Sink or swim!

You're a man without a country:
an exile.

He was right. Nothing ever changes.

No one ever learns.

I thought maybe the Apocalypse
was a good idea after all.

Where's it?
Where is the Book of Life?

He's a bastard, after all.
More humanly than me.

Hard to read.

But I can't give up now.
I've come too close.

He has a weakness for sacrifice.
And I know I can work that angle.

I've got to get my hands on that book.

Edie, Magdalena.
Magdalena, Edie.

Hi.

She knows someone who can help you.
- Do I need help?

Yes, you're in a lot of trouble.

Fine.

I'll explain later.

He's not here.

Will he be back?
- I don't know.

I know he'll want to help.
If he knew.

All right, look,
enough with the long faces.

Let's go shopping.

Finally, the son of man.

Sorry I can't talk right now.
We're in a hurry.

There's no need to run.

Yeah? Is it what you think?

The Apocalypse will be a holiday
compared to what's gonna happen...

...now that you've become a traitor.
- I'm not a traitor but...

...I'm not a judge, either.
Why are you so sure that...

...you would've been saved?
- I got a deal.

Ther was a compromise, certainly,
but I was saved.

And I've got the documents
here somewhere to prove it.

And you, you're gonna do the unthinkable.
- I'm sorry but...

...retribution seems so petty.

I never thought it was a good idea
to have God made flesh.

It's messy.
The human element, you know.

Has it had no benefits?
- That depends...

...on whether what you see out there is or
is not an improvement on imperial Rome.

Though, personally, I couldn't stomach a
Saturday afternoon at the Colloseum...

...watching human beings
being eaten alive by wild animals.

Yes, it's had its benefits, but it needed
be carried through to the end.

A threat is a threat.

And this... this change of heart
you've had suddenly...

...well, this is a disaster.

Yeah... What, here?

Now?

Shit! It's the Mormons.
I'm out of here.

You're on your own.

Now, who are the Mormons?

Where iss the book,
What have you done with it?

It's not important.
- It's easy for you to say.

I'm falling now to exile,
further from God than you yourself.

That doesn't make it any
easier for the rest of us.

It was never supposed to be easy!

I was the victim of my own history.

A pawn in my father's troubled empire.

An insult to humanity's own
god-like self-esteem.

I ran for my life.

And waited for the walls
to come tumbling down.

Hello, Magdalena.

Get your shoes off the bedspread.

Where is it, Magdalena?
- I don't know what you're talking about.

But if you're gonne hang around here,
then make yourself useful...

Open the champagne.

Yeah, here.

I talked to your boyfriend today.

You're so unimaginative.

He told me you have the Book of Life.

Liar.

Hello, Edie,
- Are you really the Devil?

Yes, I am.
- Would you like some soup?

She's a Buddhist.

Oh, my God. That him?
- Relax.

Hello, my name is Dave, and...

...first of all I just like to
apologize for my entire existence.

Give me the Book of Life.
- Bug off! - Don't do it.

He's got Edie's soul.
- Who's Edie?

She is.
- Konichiwa.

I thought you might be
able to help them.

Let go of Edie's soul
and I'll give you the Book of Life.

No!
- It's a deal.

Give it to him.

Have you lost your mind?
- Thanks, man. - Don't mention.

This is a mistake.
He'll just make things worse.

Yes, it's a tragedy.

But it's a beautiful thing
nevertheless.

Oh, it doesn't get any better than this!
- It doesn't get any worse, either.

We'll see.

What have I done?

I was changing.
Fast.

Addicted, perhaps...

...to humanity.

Hey you!
You know anything about computers?

A little.

Open this thing for me, will you?
I've got, uh ... arthritis.

Sorry, there seems to be some sort of
a lock on it. - Gimme that thing!

I need this thing fixed.
- Sir, there's a line.

Open it!
- We don't service that brand.

That's not what is says
on the sign outside.

It's a foreign manufacturer.
- How foreign?

Egyptian.
- Is it old?

It's ancient. And the warranty is expired.
I'm sorry. Next!

Who said it first?

"Childlike innocence is...

...not a viable alternative to...

...despair."

Those b*stards in Heaven.

They think of everything.

Is that it?
- Back off, pal.

Listen, I know with the recent
developments no one can be sure of anything.

It's a volatile time. Only the fittest
will survive this... time of transition.

Yeah-yeah-yeah,
what are you getting at?

I's my professional opinion that
at this crucial junction of your career...

...you need serious legal counsel
of the kind only someone with...

...my expertise can provide.

You with him?

That depends.

Come on.

And the new year arrived.

The new millennium.

Just another day
in the lifetime of similar days.

But each one of them
crowded with possibility.

The possibility of disaster.

And the possibility of perfection.

To be there amongst them again was good.

The innocent...

...and the guilty...

...all equally helpless.

All perfectly lost.

And, as frightening as it was to admit,

all deserving a forgiveness.

What would become of them, I wonder.

In another hundred years,
will they all be born in test tubes?

Or perhaps evolved
through computers...

...to become groups of disembodied
digital intelligence machines.

Would they remember who I was?

Would they remember what I said?

Would it matter?

Maybe someone else will be come along
and say pretty much the same thing.

Would anyone notice?

In a hundred years, would they
be living on other planets?

Will the Earth still exist?

Would they engineer themselves genetically,
so that disease was a thing of the past?

Would they all just become
one big multiethnic race?

Will they discover
the secret of the universe?

God—
will they become gods themselves?

What will they eat?

What sort of houses will they live in?

Cities? Think about it.

What will the weather be like?

Will they still have to
go to work every day?

What will they wear in the future?

How smart will they get?

And will being smarter
make them happier?

Will they all speak
the same language in the future?

Will they make love?
Maybe there will be more than two sexes?

Will they still believe
life is sacred?

Will that matter?

Do we matter?