Equilibrium (2002) - full transcript

In a futuristic world, a strict regime has eliminated war by suppressing emotions: books, art and music are strictly forbidden and feeling is a crime punishable by death. Cleric John Preston (Bale) is a top ranking government agent responsible for destroying those who resist the rules. When he misses a dose of Prozium, a mind-altering drug that hinders emotion, Preston, who has been trained to enforce the strict laws of the new regime, suddenly becomes the only person capable of overthrowing it.

In the first years of the 21st
century...

a third World War broke out.

Those of us who survived knew...

mankind could never survive...

a fourth.

That our own volatile natures...

could simply no longer be risked.

So we have created a new arm
of the law...

the Grammaton Cleric...

whose sole task it is:

His ability...



to feel.

Police!

You know what to do.

Get down!

We have an unknown number...

barricaded in the southeast end
of the compound.

Read that.
Tetragrammaton team en route.

Cleric, lights out.
Maybe more than a dozen inside.

When the door's down, blow
the bulbs.

Yes, sir.

Go.

Where is he?

Shut up.

Anybody get him?
Did anybody hit him?



Shut up!

Listen.

This is it.

Where?

There.

It's real.

Burn it.

Why didn't you just leave it...

for the evidentiary team
to collect and log?

They miss things, sometimes.

And I thought I'd take it
down myself...

get it done properly.

How long, Preston, till all
this is gone?

Till we've burned every last
bit of it?

Resources are tight.

We'll get it all, eventually.

Libria...

I congratulate you.

At last...

peace reigns in the heart
of man.

At last, war is but a word...

whose meaning fades from our
understanding.

At last...

we... are... whole.

Librians... there is a disease
in the heart of man.

Its symptom, is hate.

Its symptom... is anger.

Its symptom is rage.

Its symptom... is war.

The disease...

is human emotion.

But, Libria...

I congratulate you...

for there is a cure for this
disease.

At the cost of the dizzying
highs of human emotion...

we have suppressed its abysmal
lows.

And you as a society have
embraced this cure.

Prozium.

Now we are at peace with
ourselves...

and human kind is one.

War is gone.

Hate... a memory.

We are our own conscience, now.

And it is this conscience that
guides us to rate EC-10...

for emotional content...

all those things that might
tempt us to feel again...

and destroy them.

Librians, you have won!

Against all odds, and your own
natures...

you have survived!

Every time we come from the
Nethers to the city...

it reminds why we do what we do.

It does?

I beg your pardon?

It does.

The following items have been
rated EC-10...

condemned...

seven works of two-dimensional
illustrated material...

seven discs of musical content...

twenty interactive strategy
computer programs.

Seven works of two-dimensional...

Thank you for coming, Cleric.

I assume you know who I am.

Yes, sir.
Of course.

You are Vice-Council Dupont...

of the Third Conciliarly, of
the Tetragrammaton.

Father's voice.

Quite frankly, Cleric...

I am told that you are very
nearly a prodigal student...

knowing almost instantly if
someone is feeling.

I have a good record, sir.

Why, do you imagine that is,
Cleric?

I'm not sure, Vice-Council.

Somehow...

I'm able, on some level...

to sense how an offender thinks...

to... put myself in their position.

If you had ceased your interval...

if you were a sense offender...

I suppose you could say
that, sir.

You're a family man, Cleric?

Yes, sir... a boy and a girl.

The boy's in the monastery
himself...

on path to becoming a Cleric.

Good.

And the mother?

My spouse was arrested and
incinerated...

for sense offense, four years
ago, sir.

By yourself?

No, sir... by another.

How did you feel about that?

I'm sorry.

I don't... fully understand, sir.

How did you feel?

I didn't feel anything.

Really?

How is it that you came to
miss it?

I...

I've asked myself that same
question, sir.

I don't know.

A nearly unforgivable lapse,
Cleric.

I trust you'll be more vigilant
in the future?

Yes, sir.

Every time we come from the
Nethers to the city...

it reminds me why we do
what we do.

It does?

Every time we come from the
Nethers to the city...

it reminds me why we do
what we do.

It does?

It does.

Prosecutorial evidence for
A.N.R. 136890.

I need it.

It was late this afternoon.

May not have showed up in the
records, yet.

I'm very sorry, Cleric.

Nothing has been logged...

and nothing is pending under
that entry.

It was an item of evidence
brought in personally...

by Grammaton Errol Partridge.

Check again.

Sir, Cleric Partridge has not
entered anything in, for weeks.

You're mistaken.
It was a book, of some kind.

Cleric...

there's nothing.

Thank you.

He's been passing through the
gate into the Nether...

every night, for the last two
weeks.

We assumed it was enforcement
related.

You always knew.

"But I, being poor...

have only my dreams.

I have spread my dreams under
your feet.

Tread softly...

because you tread on my dreams."

I assume you dream, Preston.

I'll do what I can to see
they go easy on you.

We both know... they never
go easy.

Then, I'm sorry.

No, you're not.

You don't even know the meaning.

It's just a... vestigial word...

for a feeling you've never felt.

Don't you see, Preston?

It's gone.

Everything that makes us what
we are... traded away.

There's no war.

No murder.

What is it you think we do?

No.

You've been with me.

You've seen how it can be.
The jealousy, the rage.

A heavy cost.

I'd pay it gladly.

Don't.

You and your partner were close?

I hope you're as pleased to be
assigned me...

as I am the placement.

I was told this would be a
career-making advancement.

I'm like you, Cleric... intuitive.

Sometimes I know when a person's
feeling...

before they know it themselves.

Cleric...

I can only hope one day to be
as...

uncompromising as you.

Good night.

The later 20th century...

saw the fortuitous and
simultaneous rise...

of two synergistic political
and psychological sciences.

The first, the revolutionary
precept of the hate crime.

John?

Yes?

I saw Robbie Taylor crying, today.

He didn't know, but I saw.

Do you think I should report him?

Unquestionably.

a single inescapable fact...

that mankind united with
infinitely greater purpose...

in pursuit of war...

than he ever did in pursuit
of peace.

"But I, being poor...

have only my dreams.

I have spread my dreams under
your feet.

Tread softly...

because you tread on my dreams."

Viviana Preston, don't move!
Don't move!

Comply, comply!

Stop! Stop where you are!
Get down! Get down!

Don't shoot.
It's a lawful entry.

We have a warrant for your
wife's arrest.

She's charged with sense offense.

Hey!

Get her!
Get her off him, now!

Remember me.

Libria...

awaken.

Awaken to triumph again in the
face of yet another day...

another step in our unified
march...

into the unwavering purpose...

move ahead together...

into the certainty of our
collective destiny.

What are you doing?

I said, what are you doing?

I accidentally dropped my...

morning interval.

I took it out before I brushed
my teeth.

I never take it out before
I brush my teeth.

Then you'll go by Equilibrium,
log the loss...

and get a replacement.

Yes.
Of course.

Your new partner called.

He says he'll pick you up at
10:00, for the A.N.R.

I hope you don't mind.

I took the liberty of telling
him...

you would be at Equilibrium,
replacing your dose.

No, of course not.

That was the right thing
to do.

Stop that.

Due to terrorist activity...

this site is temporarily closed.

Proceed to the Equilibrium
Center in Sector 8A.

Due to terrorist activity...

this site is temporarily closed.

This site is temporarily closed.

Proceed to the Equilibrium
Center in Sector 8A.

More than punctual, Cleric.

Hop in.

How were the lines?

I'm surprised you were able
to get your interval...

and get out so quickly.

No, they're... they're fine,
today.

Maybe I'll drop by later, get
my interval adjusted.

You expecting Resistance?

That's something you'll find
about me, Cleric.

I'm a wary person, cautious
by nature.

Always expecting the worst.

You can't do this.
You cannot do this.

Tetragrammaton.
There's nothing we can't do.

How long have you been off
the dose?

Look at you.

Look at you!

Look at you.

The mirror's frame is illegal.
Destroy it.

We have suppression.
We're making entry.

Standard deployment.

Collecting catalog.
Illegal articles.

You're gonna burn it, aren't
you?

Eventually.

However, you couldn't have
accumulated all this...

by yourself.

It'll all be sorted and examined.

We'll discover who your
confederates are.

Gun!

We need her.

What's your name?

O'Brien, Mary.

Well, Mary...

you can either wait...

and tell the technicians at
the Palace of Justice...

or you can tell me now.

Who are your friends?

I'm wondering if you have
any idea at all...

what that word means.
"Friend."

There's nothing you don't feel?

How about guilt?

Let me ask you something.

Why are you alive?

I'm alive...

I live...

to safeguard the continuity
of this great society.

To serve Libria.

It's circular.

You exist to continue your
existence.

What's the point?

What's the point of your
existence?

To feel.

'Cause you've never done it,
you can never know it.

But it's as vital as breath.

And without it... without love...

without anger, without sorrow...

breath is just a clock, ticking.

Then I have no choice but to
remand you...

to the Palace of Justice, for
processing.

Processing.

You mean execution, don't you?

Processing.

The Gun Katas.

Through analysis of thousands
of recorded gunfights...

the Cleric has determined...

that the geometric distribution
of antagonists in any gun battle...

is a statistically predictable
element.

The Gun Kata treats the gun
as a total weapon...

each fluid position representing...

a maximum kill zone, inflicting
maximum damage...

on the maximum number of
opponents...

while keeping the defender
clear...

of the statistically traditional
trajectories...

of return fire.

By the rote mastery of this
art...

your firing efficiency will
rise by no less than 120%.

The difference of a 63% increase
to lethal proficiency...

makes the master of the Gun
Katas...

an adversary not to be taken
lightly.

Without love...

breath is just a clock, ticking.

Prozium... the great nepenthe.

Opiate of our masses.

Glue of our great society.

Salve and salvation...

it has delivered us from pathos,
from sorrow...

the deepest chasms of melancholy
and hate.

With it, we anesthetize grief...

annihilate jealousy, obliterate
rage.

That those sister impulses towards
joy, love, and elation...

are anesthetized in stride...

we accept as fair sacrifice.

For we embrace Prozium in its
unifying fullness...

and all that it has done to
make us great.

Good morning, Cleric.

Good morning.

...intrinsically, humans, as
creatures of the Earth...

were drawn inherently always
back to one thing.

War.

And thus we seek to correct
not the symptom...

but the disease itself.

We have sought to shrug off
individuality...

replacing it with conformity.

Replacing it...

with sameness...

with unity...

allowing each man, woman,
and child...

in this great society...

to lead identical lives.

The concept of identical
environment construction...

allows each of us to head
confidently into each moment...

with all the secure knowledge...

it has been lived before.

What are you doing?

I'm re-arranging my desk.

You didn't like the way
it was before?

I had no feelings about it.

I'm merely attempting to
optimize.

Sense offenders holed up in
the Nether.

We estimate... we estimate
fifty men, sir.

Intelligence tells us they're
all fully armed.

This is the group that bombed
the Prozium factories.

You clean, we'll sweep.

Yes, sir.

Go! Go! Go! Go!

Go!

Take it!
Take the landings!

Cover me.
I'm going in.

Nice grab, Cleric.

"Ludwig Van Beethoven."

Cleric...

Why didn't you leave that...

for the evidentiary team
to collect and log?

They miss things, sometimes.

I'll take it in myself...

make sure it gets done properly.

You know, Preston...

If we keep burning all this
contraband...

eventually there won't be
anything left to burn.

What'll there be for men
like us?

Sir!

We got something out back.

We're gonna need two more men,
on this.

These animals were defended
by women and children.

We put them down easily.

This isn't the first time
we've seen this.

Why do they keep these animals?

What, do they... do they eat
them?

What do you want me to do, sir?

Exterminate them, of course.

All right.
Let's do it.

No.

What's wrong, Cleric?

Nothing.

Hey...

Grab it.

Grab it!

Sir... toss it back in.

I'll finish it off.

Give it to me, sir.

Give it to him, Cleric.
He'll finish it.

Wait!

It seems to me that...

at least some of these animals
ought to be tested for disease.

If there's an epidemic in the
Nether...

it's best we know about it.

I don't quite follow your
logic, Cleric.

They were Resistance.

They could have led us to
the Underground.

But instead of apprehension
and interrogation...

they were slaughtered.

Yes, but, Cleric, given the
circumstances...

the Father has decreed...

that there will be no more
"process" for sense offenders.

They are either to be shot
on sight...

or incinerated without a trial.

But, it's counter to law.

You're a member of the Council.
If...

It is not the will of the
Council...

it is the will of Father... and
he is law.

Sir...

without the logic of process,
is it not just mayhem...

what we have worked so hard
to eradicate?

You must understand, Preston...

that while you... and even I,
may not always agree with it...

it is not the message that
is important...

it is our obedience to it.

Father's will.

Call it, faith.

You have it, I assume?

Yes.

I have it.

Good.

Confiscated evidence X23-T45...

Mary O'Brien.

Cleric John Preston passing
into the Nether...

enforcement-related.

Thank you, sir.

I don't know what else to do
with you.

Go on.

Go on.

Go!

Fine.

But you're going back in the
trunk.

Okay.

Here.

Step away from the vehicle!

Step away from the vehicle!

This is your last warning!
Step away from the vehicle!

Identification.

I'm a Cleric.

I'm here on official business.

Identification!

It's in my coat.

Where's the coat?
Where is it?

I don't have it.

Unidentified individuals are
subject to summary destruction.

You're making a very big mistake.

I'm a Grammaton Cleric, first
class.

We'll search your vehicle.

No, you're not.
There's nothing in it.

Search it!

Clear, sir.
Keys to the trunk.

I'm trying to tell you.

I have a pre-dawn combustion
to witness.

I'm not...

Captain, this is a waste
of my time.

My name is John Preston.

I'm the highest-ranking Cleric
of the Tetragramm...

Wait!

Stand off!

I'm sorry I didn't recognize
you, sir.

That's okay.
Just doing your job.

Thank you.

We'll escort you back to the
gate.

Thanks.

Animals.

Nether's full of them.

Sounds like it came from your
trunk.

Impossible.

Just give me my keys.
I'll be on my way.

Captain...

I'm asking you one last time...

don't do this.

Down on your knees!

Down on your knees!
Down on your knees!

Drop down!

On the ground!
Comply!

Shoot him, shoot him!

No.

Fuck!

What?

Aw, shit! Shoot him!
Shoot him, shoot him!

Always practicing, Cleric.

I guess that's why you're the
best.

Maybe I'm just better.

Something on your mind?

Why do you ask?

The intuitive arts, Cleric.

It's my job to know what
you're thinking.

So, then... what am I thinking?

About the murders in the Nether
last night...

and if they know who did it.

Am I close?

So, tell me... do they know?

There are theories.

I have one or two of my own,
but at the moment...

they're premature!

I'm glad it happened.

Why?

Because now Father and the
Council...

have decreed an acceleration
in the crackdown on offenders.

Whoever did it...

all they accomplished was a
quicker end to the Resistance.

It's gonna be a massacre, Cleric.

I came to tell you... there's
a raid in the Nether...

Sector 7.

So, get ready.

That door behind you...

Go.

Go, damn you!

Get out of here, Goddamn it!
If you don't, you're dead!

Don't do it.
He'll shoot us in the back.

If I was gonna shoot you, I'd
shoot you in the face.

Now, go.

Damn you!
Follow me.

Now!
Let's go!

There will be no detention.

Repeat... no detention for any
purpose.

All prisoners and apprehendees
are to be put down.

Look out!

Cleric, what's happening?
We heard gunshots.

Go!

What are you doing?
Cleric!

They're Resistance fighters.

Cleric!

He's a sense offender!

Cover all quadrants!

Secure the perimeter!

What is this?

What are you doing?

Nicely done, Cleric.

You drive them into the trap...

I close it.

The very definition of teamwork.

Don't you think?

Why don't you take the honors
of the execution, Cleric?

These people should be taken
for clinical interrogation.

Cleric...

Father's rulings are quite
clear.

Offenders are to be shot on
sight.

They have valuable information.

Cleric...

They can be put to much better
use.

Cleric.

If your weapon's low, please,
use mine.

No.

I think, in the end...

it'll be better if you have it.

Captain.

Yes, sir.
Firing positions.

Ready...

Aim...

Fire!

Sir?

Yes, Cleric?

You asked me to become Father's
instrument...

against the Resistance.

I'm ready.

Today.

I wish to show my faith.

I wish, with your permission...

to locate the Underground once
and for all.

To destroy it.

To destroy it.

Good.
Do it.

I'm so...

so very sorry.

These are the possessions he had
on him, at the time of death.

The illegal ones will be
burned with him.

Good.

Errol Partridge.

The name supposed to mean
something to me?

He was a Grammaton Cleric,
first class. You knew him.

News bulletin... I'm a sense
offender.

I don't hang around much with
the Cleric.

I want to know about him.

Well...

I suggest you go ask him.

But I understand that he's
dead...

killed by your friends at the
Tetragrammaton.

Not by my friends.

By me.

You were lovers.

The Underground is our foe...

and greater than even the
threat...

of those who have forsaken their
Prozium for emotion...

is the threat of those self-shamed
individuals united.

They are the secret organization...

and thus, it is in the writing
of the Father...

that we find our greatest...

Good afternoon, sir.

What will it be for you?

The latest copy of the inserts?

Revised edition of the manifesto?

Errol Partridge.

What do you know about him?

I beg your pardon?

Everyone out.
Now.

I'm gonna ask you one more time.

Errol Partridge... what do you
know about him?

I'm sure this must be some
mis...

You're an offender.
I'm not.

No? Then why are you so scared
of me?

Now, you will tell me everything
you know about Errol Partridge...

or I will have a wagon come
to take you...

to the Hall of Destruction,
for summary combustion.

I... I really don't know...

Speak!

He... he'd come in here with
a fellow named Jurgen.

Why?

That's... that's all I know.
I swear.

Jurgen!

Interesting.

Ugh-ow!
Ugh!

We've been watching you, Preston.

You're Jurgen.

You're feeling.

Do you know why you came?

Welcome to the Underground.

Polygraph.

It detects fluctuations of
human emotion.

We have to be sure.

Mary.

You're carrying in your left
pocket...

a red ribbon sprayed with
her scent.

You breathe it in sometimes...

when you think there's no one
to see.

But what you feel...

what you feel could only be
satisfied...

by falling yourself into her.

She's scheduled for combustion...

tomorrow.

I know.

You know, I was like you.

But the first thing you learn
about emotion...

is that it has its price...

a complete paradox.

But, without restraint...

without control...

emotion is chaos.

But, how is that different...
The difference being...

is that, when we want to feel...

we can.

It's just that...

some of us...

some of us have to forgo that
luxury...

so that the rest can have it.

Some very few of us...

have to force ourselves not
to feel.

Like me.

Like you.

What can I do?

You can kill Father.

Cleric John Preston...

you are to come with us,
immediately.

Cleric Preston.

Sir.

I've heard the most disturbing
rumor.

Rumor, sir?

Yes.

A rumor maintaining that one
of us...

one of the Cleric...

has secretly taken it upon
himself to cease his dose...

that one of our elite number...

is actually feeling.

Feeling, sir?

Are you playing with me,
Cleric?

No, sir.

This person, I'm told...

is actually attempting to
contact the Resistance.

Now tell me, if you'll be
so kind...

how exactly...

have you been making use of
your time, of late?

Attempting to contact the
Resistance, sir.

Attempting?

How is it that you intend to
expose this traitor...

if all you do is attempt?

You're...

absolutely...

100% right, sir.

Of course I am.

The Cleric is the final line
of defense.

If the Resistance compromises
it...

we are doomed.

Father is doomed.

I will redouble my efforts,
sir...

to locate the Resistance...

to find this traitor...

and bring them all to the
Council's fair justice.

Do it.

What are you doing?

What are you doing?

I, uh...

I was checking to make sure
you've been...

taking your interval.

And are you satisfied?

Yes, I am.

Good night, Dad.

I don't understand.

My execution's set.

Why are you here?

Aren't you gonna dose?

My God.

What...

What'll you do?

I don't know.

Fifty sweepers, maybe more.

What about an audience? Can you
arrange to meet with him?

Father's never given a single
audience since the upheaval.

The danger of assassination
is too great.

They trained you your whole life
to fight these kind of odds.

Even if I could...

even if I could make it
through...

what guarantee is there it
would accomplish anything...

that anything would be different?

We have a network that's larger
than you could ever imagine.

Instant word comes that Father
is dead...

that the Council is leaderless.

Bombs that have already been
planted will be set off...

at Prozium clinics and factories
around Libria.

If we can succeed in disrupting
the supply...

for even one day... one day...

our cause will be won by human
nature itself.

What about war, the everyday
cruelties that are all gone now?

Replaced by the touch of Grammaton.

Will you do it?

Yes.

Can you?

I don't know.

Don't...

Seeing her one last time...

will only make it harder to do
what you have to do.

...designed especially to deal
with it.

The Cleric was implemented...

and sent out to search and
destroy...

such objects that remained...

and, if necessary, those who
attempted to...

File footage.

The Council...

Viviana Preston.

Sentence and incineration.

Auditory.

Viviana Preston...

for ceasing your interval, for
the crime of feeling...

you stand condemned...

to suffer annihilation in
the city's furnaces.

You will be taken there immediately,
and you will burn.

The Cleric was implemented...

and sent out to search and
destroy...

such objects that remained...

and, if necessary, those who
attempted to...

The Council...

The incineration.
Has it gone through?

It's going through now.

Hey!

Machine turbines priming.

Machine turbines priming.

Tetragrammaton... I need to
speak to this woman!

You're too late, sir.
The time lock is engaged.

If we force the door now...

the turbines will explode at
street level.

...personnel, clear the area,
immediately.

All unauthorized personnel,
clear the area immediately.

Turbines primed.

Fire in 10 seconds...

9 seconds...

8 seconds...

7 seconds...

6 seconds...

5 seconds...

4 seconds...

3 seconds...

2 seconds...

Turbines... fire.

Cleric John Preston...

you are under arrest.

This man...

this senior Cleric...

has ceased the dose.

He is feeling!

He is the worm that has been
eating at the core...

of our great society!

And I...

I have brought him for your
justice.

Ugh!

I told you I'd make my career
with you, Preston.

Vice-Council...

this man is guilty of consorting
with sense offenders...

of having relations with
a female...

of sense crime, itself.

Dispatch a search team to the
Cleric's quarters...

to search for unused...

Uh, that won't be necessary,
sir.

If you'll run the trace record
on his side arm...

you will find that it was he...

who was with the sweeper team
when they were murdered.

Cleric...

I assume you have something
to say to me.

I know...

it's hard to believe...

that a Cleric of the
Tetragrammaton...

could turn his back on everything
that he's been taught...

would become associated with
the Resistance...

even becoming a champion
in its Underground.

But it's true.

I promised that I would bring
you that man.

And I have.

Cleric Brandt...
Sir?

The trace shows that it was
your gun...

in the Nether, with the sweepers.

That's impossible.

This is wrong.

I think, in the end...

it'll be better if you have it.

He switched them.

He switched them!

See, I have his gun now.

Of course you do. You took it
when you arrested me.

What?

Take him to the Hall of
Destruction...

for summary judgment, and
combustion.

Wait, wait, wait. Wait!
I can explain this.

Uh, sir... I'm not feeling!

He is the one who's feeling!

This is a mistake!

Of course...

since a complaint has been
lodged...

law and the letter is that
I allow a team...

to carry out the search of
your premises.

Do you think that's entirely
necessary, Cleric...

or am I being too... exacting?

As you say, sir...

it's the law and the letter.

And it doesn't disturb you
in the least...

that your colleague is going
to his end?

The only thing that disturbs
me, sir...

is that I am Father's instrument
against the Underground...

and yet... I've never had the
honor of meeting him.

Hmm.

Yes, but, Cleric, you know...

that Father never grants an
audience to anyone.

Even to the man who brings him
the Resistance?

Sorry, sir.
Just a formality.

The search team will be up,
momentarily.

Excellent.
I have nothing to hide.

The search teams are already
inside, sir.

Excellent.

Looking for something?

If I were you...

I'd be more careful, in the
future.

How long?

Since Mom.

And Lisa?

Of course.

How did you know?

You forget...

it's my job to know what you're
thinking.

Then you know what I'm gonna
do, now.

You have a message for the
Vice-Council?

It's done.

I've located the Resistance.

Come now.

You'll have them all.

Do not address Father unless
first addressed by him.

Avoid eye contact.

If you should break his personal
security zone...

you will be immediately put
down by snipers.

Is that understood?

You'll be required to surrender
your firearm, of course...

and then there's the test.

Test?

Yes.

You didn't imagine we would
risk exposing Father...

to even such a dedicated servant
as yourself...

without first having tested
you, did you?

Please.

Cleric, your weapon, please.

Here.

Sit.

We'll start with a test question,
first.

More of a riddle, actually.

What would you say is the
easiest way...

to get a weapon away from a
Grammaton Cleric?

You ask him for it.

I told you I'd make my career
with you, Cleric.

to combine the capacity...

Preston...

Brandt's job was simple...

to make you feel like you'd
won...

to make you feel safe.

For years, I tried to infiltrate
an agent...

into the Underground...

until it hit me...

in order to pass undetected
into their midst...

in order to be trusted by them...

my provocateur would have to
think like them...

and would have to feel like them.

But where to find such a man...

a man with the capacity to feel
who didn't yet know it?

But...

we've never met.

No?

Don't look so surprised, Preston.

Why should Father be more real...

than any other political puppet?

The real Father died years ago.

The Council simply elected me...

to pursue his paternal tradition.

And you, Preston...

the supposed savior of the
Resistance...

are now its destroyer...

and, along with them, you've
given me yourself...

calmly...

cooly...

entirely without incident.

No.

Oh...

shit!

Not without incident.

I'm coming.

You really should learn to
knock.

How did it feel, Preston?

Mind the uniform, Cleric.

I plan to be wearing it for
a long time.

Be careful, Preston.

You're treading on my dreams.

Wait!

Wait!

Look at me.

Look at me...

I'm life.

I live, I... I breathe...

I feel.

Now that you know it...

can you really take it?

Is it really worth the price?

I'd pay it gladly.

The following items have been
rated EC-10...

condemned.

In the 19th century...

world to its knees.

Two millennia ago...

in his conquest of the known
world...

Alexander the Great slaughtered...

more than one million human
beings.

Three centuries later, purely
out of jealousy...

Gaius Germanicus Caligula
murdered his own sister...

impregnated with his own child.

In the...

Items have been rated EC-10...

rated condemned, destroyed.

Items have been rated...