The Secret Life of Nikola Tesla (1980) - full transcript
Life and times of Nikola Tesla, famous scientist whose inventions were stolen, but whose greatest contribution to mankind remain a mystery to this day.
THE SECRET OF NIKOLA TESLA
There are statements I made
when I believed people
would listen to me,
at least as regard certain things
which are important for us all,
but now it makes no difference.
But how come you are here at all?
I mean in my hotel room...
I haven't been visited by
anyone for a very long time.
Which paper will you
be publishing this in?
As a matter of fact,
I'm a freelance reporter.
Mr. Tesla,
you were once a very wealthy man.
You worked with JP Morgan,
didn't you?
We were given a great opportunity.
And what was that opportunity?
It had to do with the
course mankind had chosen
and the one that might have chosen,
which would have led in a
very different direction.
Mr. Tesla,
is it true that you once received
some unidentified signals from
space in Colorado Springs?
I have already made a very
full statement on that.
And when was that?
At a press conference, at the Waldorf
Astoria Hotel, that was in 1890.
Just one more question,
if you don't mind.
At one time, you worked very closely with
George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison.
Is it true that you gave up 10 million
dollars owed to you by Westinghouse?
Young man, Edison and Westinghouse
are very different men.
George and I still see each other often.
Mr. Tesla, George Westinghouse is dead.
He died a long time ago.
I suppose you're going to tell
me that Mark Twain is dead too.
He's been dead for over 30 years,
Mr. Tesla.
It's 1943 now.
Well, you see,
I was speaking to him just yesterday.
But the man I really want
to talk to is Morgan.
And now, young man,
I should be grateful if you would leave.
Than you very much, Mr. Tesla.
Morgan...
the others were always happy
to speak with me, but Morgan,
after all these years,
he still refuses to answer.
All these terrible things, they need
never have happened. I told him that.
I showed him what the world could be.
He'd let me know, he said,
when he was ready.
I'm still waiting.
LOS ANGELES COVERED IN SMOG
Here you are, sir.
Welcome to the United States of America.
Next.
Here you are, sir. You're all set.
Welcome to the United States of America.
Are all these children yours?
You're their legal guardian?
(speaking Italian)
All the children are healthy.
We had a checkup in Italy,
on the Piroska.
We are all healthy, sir.
No one in our family had ever been ill.
These are all the documents.
Thank you.
(speaking Italian)
The man asked if you were
responsible for all those kids.
What a question!
Who else should be responsible for my kids?!
We've come to America for their sake,
good God.
There you are.
Welcome to the United States.
Thank you, sir.
Let's go, kids.
Now we're in America.
Now we have everything.
Nikola Tesla, from Paris.
Born in Smiljan, Croatia, Austria.
And how big a family have you got, sir?
No family at all. I'm not married.
All right.
You're all set. Welcome to the
United States of America, Mr. Tesla.
- Thank you very much, sir.
- All right. Who's next?
It's just like magic, Tom.
Every time I hear that
voice right of yours
it just seems more wonderful than ever.
Yeah, thank you, Katherine.
I've got a new name for it:
a phonograph.
What do you think?
Whatever you call it,
it's another one of our miracles.
- Maybe the greatest.
- You know, Bob...
we're all friends, you and Katherine,
I feel I can confide in you.
I got a hunch that this Niagara project
could be about as important
as anything I have ever done.
You're the only man on Earth who could
pull it off. We can be sure of that.
Sorry to bother you, folks.
Yes, Albert. What is it?
It's that fellow from France.
He was here yesterday,
but you were too busy.
Now he's back again.
Well, I'm busy again.
Tell him to try early next week.
Poor man.
Don't put him off because of us.
It seems like every inventor in Europe
is heading straight for America.
He has a letter for you.
From the manager of your company in Paris.
Oh...
well, ok, ok. Let him in.
Mr. Tesla, Mr. Edison will see you now.
All right, fella...
- is this the letter?
- Yes, Mr. Edison.
Well, it says here,
this one introduce Mr. Nikola Tesla.
Ok, Tesla, consider yourself introduced.
Mr. Tesla, welcome to America.
- Thank you, Miss.
- It's Mrs.
I'm Mrs. Robert Johnson
and this is my husband.
Maybe he'd rather see you alone.
Oh, no, I would be happy if
you'd stay, Mrs. Johnson.
What I would like to talk about can be
of benefit to the whole of humanity.
If you said that anywhere else, Mr. Tesla,
I might not be inclined to believe you.
But this is the birthplace
of many wonderful things.
Here we've become accustomed to
see the impossible come true.
Better mind (?), sonny.
This man is none other than
the editor of Sentry Magazine.
Well, I don't suppose Mr. Tesla has even
heard of Sentry where he comes from.
You're French, aren't you?
I've been working there
but I was born in Lika.
Well, who knows? Maybe Lika is another
birthplace of wonderful things.
- What do you say, Tom?
- Never heard of the place.
It's on border between
Austria and Turkey.
Lika is the province.
Smiljan is the town.
Well, you know what it says here?
This is from the manager
of my company in Paris.
It says dear Mr. Edison, I know of only
two really great men in this world.
You are one of them...
and the young Nikola Tesla is the other.
Ok, Tesla, let's come down out of the clouds.
You got something to show me?
Here, Mr. Edison.
As you see,
this is a rotating magnetic field.
What's it for?
It cuts the coils at point
A and induces a current,
which flows to the
contact rings at point B.
You expect that to start your motor?
Of course, and there is no waste of
power from long distance transmission.
You've seem to forgotten something,
sonny.
You don't have a commutator.
There's no need for one.
This is alternating current, Mr. Edison.
- Alternating?
- Yes.
Using direct current,
you'd need over a hundred power stations
to light up the city of New York, and even
then, the outskirts are left in darkness,
because direct current
cannot reach that far.
But with my system,
I guarantee that just one power station
can light the whole city...
and the whole state as well.
We are throwing the power given
to us by nature to the winds.
Electric power in its present
form is not only imperfect,
it's unnatural.
As I know you'll agree, Mr. Edison,
we are out of step
with nature's harmony.
With alternating current, we are talking
about energy in an undreamt of degree.
We will built new power
stations and demolish old ones.
It's a giant step forward.
It will transform the whole world.
Demolish all my power stations...
just because of this
little motor of yours?
But Tom...
Do you know what they call me,
Tesla?
They call me the king of electricity.
I transformed the world already...
and everything I have accomplished has
been based on direct electric current.
You're heading up the wrong street with
this thing, believe me, it's a dead end.
Where are you going?
I'm sorry...
I'm very sorry to have
taken up your time.
Well, I thought you
wanted to work for me.
You have an original mind...
maybe even a brilliant one.
Just because you made one little mistake,
doesn't mean I
ought to throw you out of our ear.
I can use all the
bright people I can get.
You be here tomorrow morning,
7 o'clock, sharp.
Thank you.
I'm so grateful.
Good-bye.
I'm sure we'll be seeing more
of each other, Mr. Tesla.
I hope so.
So do I.
Tom, you're a big man.
Hm-mm.
Yes, I'm glad you were so generous.
He's a very young and
interesting person
and he came all the way to
America just to work with you.
I would have hated to
see him lose the chance.
Well, I've got an eye for brains,
Katherine.
He's a bit wrongheaded but...
got something all the same.
I will knock some sense into him,
you will see.
Do you see what I see?
Mr. Tesla?
Good afternoon, Mr. Johnson.
Mrs. Johnson.
Is this some kind of a
scientific experiment
or are you actually doing what
it looks like you're doing?
I am digging a ditch, Mr. Johnson.
That's very obvious.
Then you must no longer be with Edison.
That's obvious too.
What happened?
There were differences between us.
I'll go see him right away,
then fix it up.
Thank you, Mr. Johnson, but in some ways,
this is better than the place I left.
If you are really through with Edison,
Bob will find something for you
on the magazine, won't you, Bob?
- Yes.
- Give him your card.
And please, Mr. Tesla,
come up out of that ditch.
We don't stop work until 5,
Mrs. Johnson.
Then 7 will be fine. We'll see you at
our house, the address is on the card.
You promise?
Yes, I promise.
Has Katherine fully explain
what I had in mind for you?
It's most kind of you and
indeed I'm very grateful.
You don't want the job?
Is that what you're telling me?
I'm afraid so.
Do you really prefer
digging those ditches
to being on the editorial
staff of Sentry Magazine?
Anyone would be honored, Mr. Johnson.
- Bob.
- Bob.
But it could only be temporary
and it wouldn't be fair to you.
Well, I...
Don't go yet, Nicky.
Stay for a moment and tell Bob some
of the things you've been telling me.
About that first induction motor...
About you and your family and
that place where you were born.
- Lika, isn't it?
- Yes.
Nicky spoke five languages
when he was only a child
and his mother has invented
all kinds of things too.
But she can't read or write,
can you imagine?
And his father was a priest.
Of course, in the orthodox
Church they're allowed to marry.
You aren't marry, are you, Nicky?
Not yet?
If I ever did marry,
it could only be with someone like you.
And, of course, that's impossible.
Good night.
Thank you both.
Please, see Mr. Tesla to the door.
He must be very poor.
Yet he bought me these flowers.
- He's working in that ditch over there.
- Well, let's go see him.
There, that's Tesla.
My name is Hiram Brown, president
of Western Union Telegraph Company.
Nice to meet you, Mr. Brown.
I'm prepared to finance the
development of your motor, Mr. Tesla.
Are you prepare to finance all further
work on alternating current as well?
I hadn't really thought about that.
Let's see what happens with the motor first.
I will construct it
only in my own workshop.
Would you expect to build it for you?
I'll build it Mr. Brown.
You just pay for it.
You're pretty cocky, aren't you, Tesla?
They told you would be.
Exactly how much would you be needing?
Thirty thousand dollars
and my own workshop.
Well, then quit playing ditch
digger and get up here
and I'll make out a check.
- Here, Renato.
- Va Bene, Nikola.
(speaking German)
Gramm's machine wastes a lot of energy.
I'm sure there must be some
simpler natural principle
whereby energy may be obtained.
Go right ahead, Mr. Tesla.
Nature is at your disposal.
What's stopping you?
Discover your simple principle.
We'd all be delighted.
(speaking Serbian)
Antall, I'll go crazy if this goes on.
I didn't sleep last night.
The slightest noise
sounds like thunder to me.
Don't worry, you're just too sensitive.
You'll get over it.
There's something
wrong with my senses.
I hear everything louder
than the other people.
(speaking German)
The glow retreats,
Done is the day of toil.
It yonder hastes,
New field of life exploring.
(speaking Serbian)
You must be feeling better
if you can recite Faust.
Turn it back...
We must turn it back.
It should flow back in
order to produce light.
The magnets should rotate
like the Earth revolving
around the Sun.
These are the coils.
If the reversed magnetic
field moves in this direction,
the electricity will
flow in this one.
There's no need for a commutator.
This is alternating current.
Undreamt of supply of energy!
I've made a discovery!
I can see every little detail.
This motor is in harmony with nature.
I can see it.
I can see it.
Ladies and gentlemen,
to convince you that this theory will work,
I'll turn off the
direct current for a moment
and will light up this
hall with my system.
Turn out the lights.
This, ladies and gentlemen,
is alternating current.
You see how much power was
produced with this small generator.
And now imagine what
would be like if we had
an enormous generator that
could fill up this hall.
Well, we'd be able to light
the entire state of New York,
more even than that.
We could have power for the factories,
all of public transportation,
all of industry.
Once we'd accomplished that,
greater discoveries lie ahead,
just as long as we keep
in step with nature.
Each new discovery will lead to another
and we will revolutionize life on our planet.
Look, Mr. Tesla...
can you back up your theories
with a few guarantees?
You don't really believe that we'd put out
our money without knowing the results?
Can you show us evidence
that this thing will work?
Gentlemen, I can make no guarantees
other than my discoveries.
I am not an insurance company.
You must take my word.
You will have to rely on instinct,
intuition and imagination.
And now,
I shall switch back to direct current.
(indistinct conversations)
Mr. Edison,
what is your opinion on Mr. Tesla?
Oh, very best.
Extremely capable engineer.
What could be the practical
application of his generator?
Well, I'm sorry to say it has
no practical application at all.
I have said before, gentlemen,
that I do not consider fantasy
to be any kind of conception.
At least of all a scientific one.
That'll be all.
Thanks, Mr. Edison.
Oh, Mr. Edison, one last question, please.
Enough for today, gentlemen.
Another time.
If the thing had any value you can
bet Edison would have grabbed it.
He'd bet on the wrong horse.
Mr. Tesla, Thomas Edison
claims your electrical system
has no practical application.
Do you have any comment?
Mr. Edison is a very practical man.
I'm sorry he feels that way.
It was a real pleasure to meet you, Mr.
Tesla. Let me congratulate you once again.
I wish you good luck.
Yes, so do I.
Thanks for your demonstration.
It was most impressive,
even if it is impractical.
Thank you, gentlemen.
Mr. Tesla, could you explain
a little more clearly?
I don't think I have
anything more to say.
That's all for today.
Thank you, gentlemen.
Thank you.
Bye, gentlemen.
Mr. Tesla?
Allow me to introduce myself.
I'm George Westinghouse,
president of Pittsburgh Electric.
How do you do?
I'd be happy if you would have
dinner with me at the Waldorf.
That would be a pleasure,
Mr. Westinghouse.
Call me George.
- Call me Nikola.
- Nikola.
All right... Nikola.
Delicious.
So...
to put it in a nut shell,
Mr. Tesla,
I'm prepared to buy all your patents for
alternating current for a million dollars.
The important thing is that you'll
be able to decide for yourself
how your invention is to be used,
while I will function
as a kind of money bag.
And an open money bag.
What do you think of that?
Bring me a dozen napkins,
would you please?
- A dozen napkins, sir.
- Thank you, that's fine.
I hope you find the dinner to
your satisfaction, Mr. Tesla.
I think you are being somewhat hasty,
Mr. Westinghouse.
Possibly.
There can be no scientific
progress without some risk.
People have been known
to risk their lives.
What then is my money to that?
Do you really sincerely
believe in the project?
I wouldn't be here if I didn't.
What if, on top of that
million dollar sum,
I asked you to pay me one dollar
for every horsepower we produce?
I would agree.
We'll put it in the contract.
Don't be so quick to agree.
You realize that we are talking
about calculess units of horsepower.
And how about Edison?
He won't take it without a fight.
As long as he is opposed to it,
how do you introduce our system?
I'll be able to manage
it with your patents.
The point is you have
truth on your side.
Tell me the truth, Mr. Westinghouse.
Are you helping me because you
believe this will be a value
to science and civilization,
or are you in it for the profit?
Listen to me, my friend.
I'm an inventor myself,
but I never forget
that without money...
I cannot put my
inventions into practice.
So, what if I do hope
to make a little profit?
I'm happy you got angry,
I'm beginning to believe you.
Some Swiss cheese and an apple.
And make sure the apple is
washed with boiling water.
A creamy caramel and... some fruit.
Coffee, of course, and...
cheers, Tesla, to your health.
You seem to be drinking my wine.
You're right. I'm so sorry.
You're confusing me, Tesla.
Can I assume then that
we have an agreement?
That you accept?
- I was joking.
- What do you mean?
No charge for horsepower.
But I wasn't joking.
You will get a dollar for
every horsepower generated.
You got to be rich, Tesla.
So that you can be free and independent.
What's wrong, Tesla?
Peaches, please, take them away.
They make me ill.
Waiter... Fred, Fred!
The peaches, take the peaches away!
No dessert of any kind.
Gentlemen,
I would suggest a short break.
- Those in favor?
- Aye (all).
I could use a break.
George, now why do you think
Adams wanted a break at this point?
Come on, Billy,
don't pretend such innocence.
It isn't Adams who was
chairing this meeting,
but one who's more conspicuous by his
absence and we all know who that is...
Oh, yes, only too well.
Can you hear me?
- Yeah, I hear you, Adams.
- The preliminary is over.
- As Edison made his speech yet?
- No.
- George Westinghouse?
- Not yet.
Well, call on Edison to speak first,
then Westinghouse,
then put forward proposal number 2
and close the meeting, is that clear?
Yes, yes, proposal 2.
Gentlemen, we are fortunate to have
Mr. Thomas Alva Edison here
in the capacity of advisor.
It would be most helpful
to hear his opinion.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Now, gentlemen, I'll say this:
at whether we pipe water to the plant
or built the plant near Niagara Falls,
is a matter to be discussed.
But there is only one system.
Direct current has already been
adopted throughout the world.
- Mr. Chairman? Mr. Chairman?
- Mr. Westinghouse.
Gentlemen, direct current is not
the only system in existence.
There is also Mr. Nikola Tesla's
alternating current.
It can guarantee the transmission
of power over enormous distances.
It is simple. It is practical.
It is the system
that Mr. Tesla himself has perfected
along with 40 registered patents.
Now, I have here a...
Gentlemen, that system is nothing but
pure fantasy... a dangerous fantasy that...
That is a subject for discussion,
Mr. Edison.
It's a subject I would be happy to
discuss with you, Mr. Westinghouse.
Gentlemen, gentlemen, gentlemen!
We're discussing a matter
of great importance.
I think it would be best to have
an international competition.
Mr. Edison, you are the best qualified
among us to name the man
who would have the panel of judges.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Gentlemen, there's only one such man
in the world, I'm sure you all agree,
physicist, mathematician and great inventor,
Lord Kelvin of Great Britain.
Will the International Exposition in Paris
be another triumph for you, Mr. Edison?
Well, my electrical current
will light up the whole fair.
And will your principles be
applied at Niagara Falls?
I was not aware of the possibility of
any other principle was being applied.
Young man,
the whole of Europe uses my system.
- The whole world, in fact.
- Well, what about alternating current?
Oh, that system shouldn't
even be considered.
Alternating current is
a danger to human life.
Start the generator.
Ladies and gentlemen, you have just
seen alternating current in action.
Now, it is a cruel fact that
we had to kill this little dog.
But we did it as a preventive measure...
in order to ensure that in the
future people will not fall victim
to alternating current in the same way.
Now, we need devices to help
improve humanity, not kill it.
I'm going to ask Congress to put a
ban on the use of alternating current.
Thank you, thank you.
- Edison, Nick! That damned Edison!
- What's happened, George?
Oh, the committee... the committee
is to be chaired by Lord Kelvin.
He's Edison's stooge,
that's why he picked him.
But, listen to this:
alternating current used at Sing Sing.
The condemned man William Kemmler
did not have a painless death after all.
The electric current had to
be switched on several times.
Those who constructed the electric chair
failed to calculate the voltage required.
Now, isn't that disgusting?
Go back where you came from!
Let me take care of this, Mr. Tesla.
I'll go teach them a lesson.
Let them be, Zito. It's not their fault.
George,
get together all the people you know
as quickly as possible and bring them here.
Tell them Tesla is going to torture
his guests with electricity.
They will all come, you will see.
Mr. Enrico Caruso, Mr. Nikola Tesla.
(speaking Italian)
Bravo, Tesla, mio caro!
- Mr. Ignas Pederesky, Mr. Nikola Tesla.
- How do you do?
Mr. Samuel Clemmons,
alias Mark Twain, Mr. Nikola Tesla.
What a pleasure, Mr. Tesla.
For all the pleasure you
have given me in your books,
I'm very much indebted to you,
Mr. Clemmons.
I'm glad to hear I have one debtor,
mostly, I'm blessed with creditors.
Is there anything you need,
Mr. Clemmons?
I have hoped I'd see a
few of my critics here.
I was thinking I'd recommend
them for the electric chair.
- Won't you sit down?
- Thank you.
George.
- Katherine... Bob...
- Hello, Nick.
I'm curious, Nicky.
What is it that you plan to do this evening?
Katherine,
I am now considered an executioner.
I never believed that for a moment.
Mr. Jack Wilson, Mr. Nikola Tesla.
What is it, George?
Thank you.
No, thank you.
No, thank you.
No, thanks, I have mine.
Ladies and gentlemen,
here in front of me
you see two electrodes.
When I switch on the electric current,
there will be a tension of
1 million volts between them.
That is alternating current.
Now, if I touched the
electrodes with my hands,
what do you think would happen?
Ladies and gentlemen,
if my electric current kills,
then I deserve to be its victim myself.
Nicky, don't, please, I beg you.
Mr. Morgan is waiting in his study.
He's here, commodore.
Bring him in.
- Who's that?
- A friend of yours.
Mr. Tesla.
You don't shake hands,
they tell me.
- Why?
- For reasons of health, commodore.
Edison here tells you're always
washing your hands 20 times a day
and every time there's
gotta be a fresh towel.
I don't have to ask if
you two know each other...
Oh, we know each other, all right.
He also tell me you don't take any
coffee or tea, so what can I offer you?
- Some whiskey, perhaps.
- Oh...
makes you sound almost... human.
Tom, give a friend here some whiskey.
You know...
some people are sure
that you're crazy...
others think you're a faker.
Now, both those things could be
true and you're still could be...
some kind of... genius.
Sit down, Mr. Tesla.
I'd like to know what makes you tick.
You know what Edison
says about genius?
Yes, one his pet quotations.
Genius is 1% of inspiration and
99% of perspiration. He says you...
don't perspire enough.
And, for scientific conclusion,
he says, ahm,
you don't use any brain work at all.
Instead... how did you put it, Tom?
Well, ask Tesla. According to him,
he says he gets mental pictures.
Mental pictures,
that's the word with everything
complete down to the
smallest the detail.
Is that how it happened with that
brushless, commutatorless motor of yours?
Says here, Tom, that the whole
thing just... appeared to Mr. Tesla.
- Some king of vision?
- It was really more like a flash of lightning.
And you got this vision or...
a flash, suddenly... in the middle of a poem
you happen to reciting out in
the streets somewhere in Hungary?
Yes, it was Goethe.
At what?
He's a German author.
I'll send you a translation, if you like.
Well, thank you very much, Mr. Tesla.
The motor, it was turning in a huge...
- Have your whiskey, Mr. Tesla.
- Oh, thank you very much.
The motor has spun in a huge whirlwind of
electricity, a rotating magnetic field.
Tremendous energy produced by a
balance of alternating current.
Alternating current.
He got the patent 6 years later and
every detail was just the way it
appeared to him in that first mental picture.
Adams got the whole story for me.
What is that thing
you're reading there?
It's the file...
we put together on Mr. Tesla.
I never go into anything blind, Tom.
You know me well enough to know that.
It says here,
when he was still working for you,
you gave Mr. Tesla a
problem to solve for you.
Well, what of it?
I give my people problems all the time.
Well,
this one must have been important.
Maybe something you couldn't
work out for yourself?
Who says so?
Where did you get that story?
We talked to people in your shop.
Oh, I could have solved that thing easily,
but, as it so happens,
I was busy with all other problems
of the time, like I always am.
The way we heard it, you told Mr. Tesla
if he worked it out you'd give him
50,000 dollars, then, when he did,
you said he didn't...
understand the American sense of humor.
That is not the reason we quarreled.
I'm not interested in money.
Aren't you? Well, I am.
The point is that you
quit working for Edison.
Now, it's been suggested that
you start working for me.
Sit down, Tom,
I haven't quite finished yet.
Yes, Tom?
Frankly, commodore...
I'm beginning to wonder what
the hell I'm doing here.
Well, I didn't take it to be fair to
hold this meeting without you.
Well, am I right?
It's about the steelworks in Pittsburgh?
Well, I'm still waiting for the electric
power, Tom, they can't wait forever...
Well, neither can I...
it's been over 5 months now since I
submitted my plans to the committee.
- Mr. Tesla has some different ideas.
- Different?
Well, I guess that's one word for it.
You know what he did at
the Chicago World's Fair?
It's all in here.
Yes, up to that time, there were no
large poliphase generators in existence.
- I'd rather hear it from Mr. Tesla.
- Oh, sorry.
Well, I took 24500-horsepower generators.
Single phase generators, that is.
Coupled them all in pairs
and then hooked them up so the circuits
would be 90 degrees out-of-phase.
Ahm, translate that in English.
It means I made the equivalent
of 122-phase generators,
each with a thousand horsepower.
It was the first world fair in
history to be lit by electricity.
Well, wasn't that funny?
Right up to this very minute,
I was always under the impression
that electric light was
something that I invented.
Of course.
And now I find that Mr.
Tesla here discovered it.
Where the hell you come
off with a report like that
on a subject that you couldn't
even begin to comprehend?
I just collected information,
Mr. Edison.
I certainly don't pretend to
be an educated man of science.
Educated?
Like Tesla?
You mean he is educated and I'm not?!
No, Tom, nobody said that.
Oh, you don't have to say it.
Everybody knows it.
Well, we know you're a self-made
man and so is Tesla, he...
came to this country with four
cents and a book of poetry.
Yeah...
well, I never got near a university.
I had to teach myself as I went along.
Yes, and the first thing I learned was
respect for the scientific process.
Reasoning based on
provable assumptions.
Controlled experimentation...
trial and error.
But... your educated man of science...
he does everything by guess work.
He doesn't even have ideas,
he has hunches!
No wonder he's gotten hay wired
over this AC business.
- AC, alternating current, right, Tom?
- There's nothing right about it at all!
Mr. Edison's whole system has been based
right from the beginning on direct current.
Tesla?
Despite all evidence,
he is convinced the system of
alternating current will never work.
Oh, I see...
the man of visions and
lightning flashes feels that
Thomas Edison is
suffering from delusions.
(?) down, Tom. Tell us about Frankfurt.
Frankfurt, Germany, Tom. Oh, don't
you know what happened in Frankfurt.
Adams, tell Mr. Edison what
happened Frankfurt, Germany.
A man called Dolivo...
and another man called...
The hell with the names.
Just tell him what they did.
They've just managed to transmit
electricity over a distance of 160 km.
And they were using... Tesla's system.
(?) in Europe, for God's sake.
We got Tesla right here under our noses!
You get together with General Electric,
and I'll take care of the financial side.
We're gonna build that power
station in Niagara right away.
And...
what system are you going to use?
Well, Tom...
what's wrong in giving it a try?
It's a useless complication,
that's what's wrong with it.
Besides, that is dangerous.
And if I have it my way...
I'd have the goddamned
thing prohibited by law.
Oh, I hope you aren't leaving.
We haven't finished our card game.
Just don't slam the door.
He does it every time.
My friend Edison is a stubborn man, Tesla.
He's also...
the greatest inventor in
the history of the world.
And if you can prove him wrong...
just once, I won't say I'll be happy...
but I'll tell you this:
you and I are in business.
Incredible things are happening, Nick.
Edison has had to join
up with General Electric.
But they won't swallow us up, Nick.
We'll swallow them.
We've got the patents, Nick.
The Niagara Project can't
be started without us.
You realize that is quite possible
to get a hundred thousand?
Or even a million electrical
impulses per second?
Can't you see what
fantastic possibilities
that could open to us
for the use of energy?
Nick, did you hear what I said about General
Electric, about Edison, about Niagara?
- I know what Morgan told me.
- Don't listen to him, Nick.
He plays with people like
their child playing with dolls
and he brakes them like dolls.
The hell with Morgan.
A million electrical impulses
per second.
All right, Nick.
All right.
Dream as much as you want to.
But just be sure you wake up in time
for that opening of the power station.
After that...
just let somebody try to stop you.
George, how could anything stop me?
Well, I guess I don't
have an answer for that.
All the same,
for a man who's that damned sure of himself,
- you don't look very happy.
- How can I be?
- George?
- What's wrong, Nick?
For several days now,
I've been seeing pictures.
Could you please ring up Mr. Tesla,
it's very urgent.
- I have to see him immediately.
- I cannot disturb him.
If I wake him now,
I'll hold you responsible, Mr. Zito.
Nothing can save it.
I guess we may as well let him
sleep in peace while he still can.
I'll tell him later.
Can I ask what the trouble is, Mr. Zito?
After all, this hotel's his home.
It'll break Mr. Tesla's heart.
His laboratory's on fire.
It's gonna be completely burned.
All his work will be gone.
His inventions, his equipment,
his plans, everything up in smoke.
Ladies and gentlemen,
America has today put into operation
her first electric power station
generating alternating current.
We must thank all those who have
helped to create this power station.
However, ladies and gentlemen, we should
not forget that without Nikola Tesla,
the great visionary and inventor,
none of this would exist.
The celebration I've been waiting for.
Bravo, Nick, bravo.
Well, speak to them, Nick.
Your audience is waiting.
When all is said and done, this power
station is not terribly important.
It simply makes practical use of
theories we have long known about.
Rather than congratulate ourselves,
we should all feel ashamed
that it was not built earlier.
The real work is yet to come.
Now we must destroy distance.
Our senses tell us about
things that are close by.
To know what is happening far away,
we must be able to transmit scenes
from other places over long distances.
Pictures, the news, energy and...
why not matter too?
Now, we must liberate thought.
We must set it free of limitations
that space and time impose on it.
And yet, keep its principal characteristics.
Now, and in future centuries,
here on Earth and thousands of
light years into the unknown.
Excuse me, please, I...
Tesla... Tesla,
what am I supposed to tell the commodore?
- Tell him that I'm going to Europe.
- Europe? Who's in Europe?
My mother and sister.
(speaking Serbian)
Dane! Dane!
Mother!
It's cold out tonight, you're not kidding.
Hey, look.
- We're gonna have a smoke.
- Yeah.
Hey, baby, come on, be nice.
George?
What is it?
Thank you, Katherine.
Come.
- Yes, but...
- Please... this way.
Why don't you go in?
- He won't let me.
- I explained to Mr. Westinghouse.
I'm not to let anyone in the laboratory.
But this is ridiculous.
Those are Mr. Tesla's orders.
I'm desperate, Katherine.
I simply got to see him.
My whole future is at stake.
But why did you send for me?
Because of Nikola. He's in a terrible state.
Ever since his mother died.
I'm afraid he may have
gone out of his mind.
I'm serious, Katherine.
Zito...
I know how much you love Mr. Tesla.
So do we.
He must know that.
And don't you think is
in need of our help now?
Yes.
I admit I've been worried about him,
Mrs. Johnson.
Then open the door, Zito.
Attraction and repulsion,
Katherine, a strange effect.
Very stimulating and exciting.
Electricity and magnetism, George,
are unique forces in nature.
How are you, Nick?
Nick...
please, listen to me.
I'm...
well,
I'm at the end of my rope.
There's nothing left for me
but to ask for your help.
Nick, there's a crisis on.
Pullman has laid off
4,000 workers in Chicago.
Yesterday, the National Guard was out
shooting people down in the streets.
I can't get any more credit, Nick.
Everybody is pulling out.
They're charging me with a debt
of over 10 million dollars.
Now, that's the money I owe you,
Nick, remember?
A dollar for every horse power?
General Electric is behind it all.
Morgan wants to swallow me, so does Edison.
I can't let them do it, Nick.
My company is my whole life.
And I thought, Nick,
if we could share the loss... a little...?
- This is the contract, George.
- Yes.
Nick, I can't let you do that!
I owe you that money, it's yours!
You don't owe me anything, George.
When nobody listened,
you believed in me.
You held out your hand when
others turned their backs.
Thank you, Katherine.
Thank you...
my friend.
That was generous, Nicky.
Maybe a little too generous.
Of course you want to help George
Westinghouse when he's in such trouble,
but how can you...
just tear up 10 million dollars?
I don't have a family, Katherine.
I just need to get on with my work.
All that money would
only get in my way.
Put it to the right.
Now to the left.
Can you make it go down to the end?
And then back toward us?
But where are the wires, Mr. Tesla?
By this time, Mr. Adams,
I thought you understood.
I'm afraid I don't.
What do you want me
to tell the commodore?
Just tell him what you've seen.
And about the wires...
tell him there aren't any.
Tesla?
Ahm... this little boat of yours...
Adams has been telling of
all the tricks you can do...
the same thing will work on a bigger scale,
you could actually...
move energy,
electrical energy from one place to another,
you can take the power, you...
harness from Niagara and move it
to my steelworks in Pittsburgh?
Without any wires at all?
There is no limit to the possibilities.
Communication... over great distances?
Anywhere,
Europe even and without using cables.
I didn't call you on the phone,
Adams, let me hear it from Tesla.
Ships at sea, Tesla?
Everything, the human voice, pictures...
they're all just electrical impulses.
And what's this place where
you wanna go and work on it?
Colorado Springs.
It's rich in natural electricity.
Look, Tesla...
you fix it so I can send
words without wires...
from one city to another and
over the ocean without a cable,
just give me that and you can go to...
Colorado Springs or Timbuktu.
The sooner you get started,
the better.
That was Morgan... he's agreed.
This is really a turning point,
Nicky, isn't it?
Pictures... and voices...
moving through the air...
without wires.
Does he really want
me to swallow that?
You must believe it yourself,
commodore,
why else would you be
investing your money?
Giving money to Tesla is
like playing roulette.
It's a game.
I play it to amuse myself and...
out of a certain... curiosity.
Is he a lunatic or a (?) artist?
He promises miracles...
We're gonna see now if
he can deliver them.
If in a thunderstorm the
earth is struck by lightning,
the force creates concentric waves
which slowly expand to circle the world
until they come back
to where they started.
This proves to us that the earth's crust
is a conductor of electrical energy.
Now, if we were to produce large
quantities of electrical energy
and if we directed it
into the earth's crust,
then that energy would
travel in concentric waves.
There were rumors you
went to Colorado Springs
in order to contact Mars,
is that true?
It is possible for us to send out waves
which can travel around the world.
There are waves as well
which can travel into space.
- How are you going to talk with them?
- I never intended to.
However, I recorded certain
electrical impulses of unknown origin
and these were repeated at
constantly timed intervals.
It's possible they were a
kind of signal from space.
And did you in turn
sent them a message?
- Ask the Martians that question.
- But you did send some sort of signal.
A signal which might not be
received for a million years.
Therefore, Mr. Tesla, you do believe
communication with distant worlds
may some day be possible?
Perhaps they've been sending us messages
for ages but we aren't aware of it.
Mr. Tesla, what's that big pile
of papers down there on the floor?
- My file on the work in Colorado Springs.
- Can you tell us what's in it?
It's a new electrical system,
completely different.
As yet, it hasn't been finished.
In just what way is it different?
How it'll affect us?
Well, a great deal of
it is merely guesswork,
but it might have an important
impact on the future.
I hope it will lead to a decisive
answer to the problem of energy.
- Good day, gentlemen.
- Mr. Tesla... (indistinct talking).
Not more today...
no more questions, please.
I come tell you how
much it means to me
that I can once again
have the opportunity to see
the greatest of the great,
the genius Nikola Tesla.
I'm terribly sorry,
but I don't recall having met you.
Mr. Tesla,
my name won't mean much to you...
I'm a humble follower of your work.
I heard your lecture in London when I
was a student. It's my greatest memory.
You've been a big influence.
Permit me to introduce myself,
Marchezzi Guglielmo Marconi.
Well, I'm pleased to meet you,
Marchezzi Marconi.
And how may I be of service to you?
Mr. Tesla, I perceive ideas which
I know are true but I can't formulate.
You seem aware of such things.
I think I might be of some use in
the field of telecommunications.
If that is what interest you,
Mr. Marconi, then you've chosen wisely.
Always trust your own instinct.
Not that knowledge lead you astray(?)
can be deceptive.
Mr. Tesla, I came all the
way to America to meet you.
Would it be possible to come and
watch you while you're working?
Why, certainly.
You'd be very welcome.
My laboratory and all of my
notes are at your disposition.
Thank you, Mr. Tesla, it's a great honor.
Thank you.
Zito, would you be please
look after Mr. Marconi.
Whatever you say, Mr. Tesla.
Tell me the truth, Tesla...
does anybody really
understand what this is about?
I certainly hope so, commodore.
I ought to... after all these
years, let's see... energy.
According to you,
energy is the big problem of the future.
A life and death problem.
And what we're using now, ahm...
the sources of energy are not inexhaustible...
And they are poisoning our planet.
Oh, I hadn't noticed that.
Believe me, you will.
Perhaps we can survive the poison,
but there will come a day when
the sources of energy will dry up.
And then what? The whole shebang?s
gonna run down like a clock?
Not with my project. I can give
the world all the power it can use...
clean power.
- I was afraid of that.
- Afraid?
Yes, I was afraid
that after all this time
I was really going to begin to
understand what you're talking about.
But this... psychic business...
Pardon me, I don't understand.
These weird stories about you that keep
getting into the papers like the...
the train wreck and this fella...
what's his name?
- Brown, commodore.
- Yeah, how'd that one go?
Mr. Tesla is supposed to
have told him that he mustn't
on any account take the
certain train and he didn't.
The train was wrecked and
everybody on it was killed.
That really happened?
People said that it could
have been a coincidence.
I don't care what it was... to the
public mind, science or the supernatural
don't make you either
a serious inventor
or a gipsy fortuneteller
with a crystal ball.
I don't presume to tell people's
fortunes and I'm not an inventor.
- And what the hell are you?
- I'm a discoverer.
Columbus.
Yes, I guess he must have
sounded quite a bit like you.
Sometimes, before his discovery,
and there must have been quite a lot
of Columbuses we don't know about,
who just sailed away in the wild blue
yonder and never were heard of again.
Is there where you're going to go, Tesla,
to get lost in the wild blue yonder or...
Mars, for God's sake?
You told me I could reach a ship
by wireless and now you're
telling the newspapers
that you're reaching outer space
somewhere out there in the stars.
There's a strong possibility that...
The hell with your possibilities,
Tesla, keep all that...
- wild guessing to yourself.
- It's not just guessing, commodore.
No?
Well, as long as I am backing you,
I can't afford to let the world
think I'm associated with a nut.
Ok, fellas, here comes Mr. Tesla.
You're having whiskey as usual, Nick?
I'll have champagne with you,
Bob, with pleasure.
Good. Let's drink to this
new project of yours.
We'll drink to you, Bob,
our new ambassador in Rome.
(indistinct talking)
Our boat sails early tomorrow
morning and I wouldn't dream
of leaving until you
tell us all about it.
There isn't much to tell.
What he means is there's
not much he wants to tell.
Why all the secrecy?
It's Morgan's idea.
He made it a condition.
You two are playing cat and mouse together.
I think Morgan's afraid of you.
Afraid of Morgan? Never.
Maybe you outta be.
I think Nick is still sure that
he's going to change the world...
- and I hope he's right.
- Of course I'm right.
You're an incurable optimist.
I wouldn't want to cure him.
What you mean is that you
wouldn't ever want to see an end
to all those beautiful dreams of his.
But darling, you know yourself that
you're always asking him to face reality.
My tower... that is reality.
You will see.
We're on the verge of world war, Nick.
War? What's all this about war?
I hope Tesla isn't concentrating on
that subject. He's much too clever.
He'll (?) to blow us to kingdom come.
That's just the opposite, Mr. Twain.
Instead of sending human armies
marching out to the battlefields, we could
make robots to do the fighting force.
Look, Tesla, if you ever invent
a robot to do our drinking force,
then I for one will
fight you to the death.
Excuse me.
Do you really think there
is going to be a war?
- That doesn't have to be.
- No... not if people use their heads.
And who knows?
Someday,
if we are lucky and there isn't war...
perhaps we'll be able to get away
for long enough to pay a visit
to that far off place
where you were born...
to Lika.
You see, I still remember the name...
I wish you could have known my mother.
I wish I could have known you, Nicky.
I mean in ways that
haven't been possible.
There were times when I thought
that everything was possible.
Remember what your mother said that time
when you made yourself a pair of wings
and climbed upon the roof of
your house and tried to fly?
"You're not a bird, Nikola",
she told you,
"you're a man".
Don't bother me about money.
The workers should know that they'll
be paid. We've got Morgan behind us.
Yes, Mr. Tesla.
Mr. Tesla,
I've been instructed to show you this.
Just in case you didn't
happen to see it.
Mr. Tesla...
he wants to see you right away.
There was one promise,
with all the damned visions
and lightning flashes of yours,
one odd promise I thought I could count on:
I was gonna be able to send messages
to distant places without any wires...
and now, sure enough,
the thing's been invented,
but not by you, Tesla,
no, by some Italian...
- Marconi.
- Whatever.
Well, he's made some kind of box
he's talking to England with it
and I've gotta buy patents from him!
What if he did steal it from you?
You're not the only one with ideas, you know,
there's a Jew over in Germany...
Einstein.
The whole scientific world is
talking about that new theory of his.
- And in Paris, what's that about Paris?
- They have split the atom.
Whatever that means.
It could mean a whole
new source of energy.
Such energy is created by
destroying natural elements.
That is a serious crime
against nature and one day
it's going to bring on catastrophe.
The world is at a crossroads right now.
And if we pass up this chance, we shall be
held responsible by future generations.
Chance? Chance with what?
Commodore, we send energy...
all energy to the outer shell of the Earth,
the ionosphere...
Energy from the sea,
the wind, energy from the sun...
We no longer need to
burn or destroy anything.
We simply take what already exist and put
it to our use in unlimited quantities!
And you want me to believe
all of this is possible.
But I have proved it already!
Everything is in that file!
All we have to do is apply it.
- Adams...
- Yes, commodore?
- You've seen all this?
- Yes, commodore.
One single...
source of energy,
that's what this means.
Right, Tesla?
Yes, that is right.
And anyone can draw it
anywhere in the world.
The Earth's outer shell, remember,
goes around the whole planet.
Yes... power will belong to everyone,
like the air we breathe.
There's some financial details
we are go over... Tesla...
I won't keep you any longer, I... know how
anxious you are to get back to your work,
we'll send this stuff (?)...
I forgot you... never shake hands.
Supposing...
just supposing he isn't crazy...
that man could... turn the world
upside down standing on its head.
Yes, I do believe he could.
It's a wonderful prospect.
Wonderful?
(?) lunatic can really do
what he says he can do,
- do you have any idea of what's gonna happen?
- No, sir.
One source of energy,
that's what's gonna happen, just one.
So anybody, anybody at all... can just
stick an antenna on his backyard and...
(?) we won't have anything
left to sell but antennas.
We'll producing the power and anyone who
feels like it can milk our cow for free...
Oh, no, thank you, Mr. Tesla,
I'm not contributing to that charity.
Write him a letter, Addams, and have
it ready for me to sign in the morning.
Yes, commodore.
- What shall I tell him?
- Tell him...
tell him goodbye.
After all these years,
he still refuses to answer.
I showed him what
the world could be.
He'd let me know, he said,
when he was ready.
I'm still waiting.
subtitle by:
Tio Beto from Brazil
suggestions and corrections, please contact me
There are statements I made
when I believed people
would listen to me,
at least as regard certain things
which are important for us all,
but now it makes no difference.
But how come you are here at all?
I mean in my hotel room...
I haven't been visited by
anyone for a very long time.
Which paper will you
be publishing this in?
As a matter of fact,
I'm a freelance reporter.
Mr. Tesla,
you were once a very wealthy man.
You worked with JP Morgan,
didn't you?
We were given a great opportunity.
And what was that opportunity?
It had to do with the
course mankind had chosen
and the one that might have chosen,
which would have led in a
very different direction.
Mr. Tesla,
is it true that you once received
some unidentified signals from
space in Colorado Springs?
I have already made a very
full statement on that.
And when was that?
At a press conference, at the Waldorf
Astoria Hotel, that was in 1890.
Just one more question,
if you don't mind.
At one time, you worked very closely with
George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison.
Is it true that you gave up 10 million
dollars owed to you by Westinghouse?
Young man, Edison and Westinghouse
are very different men.
George and I still see each other often.
Mr. Tesla, George Westinghouse is dead.
He died a long time ago.
I suppose you're going to tell
me that Mark Twain is dead too.
He's been dead for over 30 years,
Mr. Tesla.
It's 1943 now.
Well, you see,
I was speaking to him just yesterday.
But the man I really want
to talk to is Morgan.
And now, young man,
I should be grateful if you would leave.
Than you very much, Mr. Tesla.
Morgan...
the others were always happy
to speak with me, but Morgan,
after all these years,
he still refuses to answer.
All these terrible things, they need
never have happened. I told him that.
I showed him what the world could be.
He'd let me know, he said,
when he was ready.
I'm still waiting.
LOS ANGELES COVERED IN SMOG
Here you are, sir.
Welcome to the United States of America.
Next.
Here you are, sir. You're all set.
Welcome to the United States of America.
Are all these children yours?
You're their legal guardian?
(speaking Italian)
All the children are healthy.
We had a checkup in Italy,
on the Piroska.
We are all healthy, sir.
No one in our family had ever been ill.
These are all the documents.
Thank you.
(speaking Italian)
The man asked if you were
responsible for all those kids.
What a question!
Who else should be responsible for my kids?!
We've come to America for their sake,
good God.
There you are.
Welcome to the United States.
Thank you, sir.
Let's go, kids.
Now we're in America.
Now we have everything.
Nikola Tesla, from Paris.
Born in Smiljan, Croatia, Austria.
And how big a family have you got, sir?
No family at all. I'm not married.
All right.
You're all set. Welcome to the
United States of America, Mr. Tesla.
- Thank you very much, sir.
- All right. Who's next?
It's just like magic, Tom.
Every time I hear that
voice right of yours
it just seems more wonderful than ever.
Yeah, thank you, Katherine.
I've got a new name for it:
a phonograph.
What do you think?
Whatever you call it,
it's another one of our miracles.
- Maybe the greatest.
- You know, Bob...
we're all friends, you and Katherine,
I feel I can confide in you.
I got a hunch that this Niagara project
could be about as important
as anything I have ever done.
You're the only man on Earth who could
pull it off. We can be sure of that.
Sorry to bother you, folks.
Yes, Albert. What is it?
It's that fellow from France.
He was here yesterday,
but you were too busy.
Now he's back again.
Well, I'm busy again.
Tell him to try early next week.
Poor man.
Don't put him off because of us.
It seems like every inventor in Europe
is heading straight for America.
He has a letter for you.
From the manager of your company in Paris.
Oh...
well, ok, ok. Let him in.
Mr. Tesla, Mr. Edison will see you now.
All right, fella...
- is this the letter?
- Yes, Mr. Edison.
Well, it says here,
this one introduce Mr. Nikola Tesla.
Ok, Tesla, consider yourself introduced.
Mr. Tesla, welcome to America.
- Thank you, Miss.
- It's Mrs.
I'm Mrs. Robert Johnson
and this is my husband.
Maybe he'd rather see you alone.
Oh, no, I would be happy if
you'd stay, Mrs. Johnson.
What I would like to talk about can be
of benefit to the whole of humanity.
If you said that anywhere else, Mr. Tesla,
I might not be inclined to believe you.
But this is the birthplace
of many wonderful things.
Here we've become accustomed to
see the impossible come true.
Better mind (?), sonny.
This man is none other than
the editor of Sentry Magazine.
Well, I don't suppose Mr. Tesla has even
heard of Sentry where he comes from.
You're French, aren't you?
I've been working there
but I was born in Lika.
Well, who knows? Maybe Lika is another
birthplace of wonderful things.
- What do you say, Tom?
- Never heard of the place.
It's on border between
Austria and Turkey.
Lika is the province.
Smiljan is the town.
Well, you know what it says here?
This is from the manager
of my company in Paris.
It says dear Mr. Edison, I know of only
two really great men in this world.
You are one of them...
and the young Nikola Tesla is the other.
Ok, Tesla, let's come down out of the clouds.
You got something to show me?
Here, Mr. Edison.
As you see,
this is a rotating magnetic field.
What's it for?
It cuts the coils at point
A and induces a current,
which flows to the
contact rings at point B.
You expect that to start your motor?
Of course, and there is no waste of
power from long distance transmission.
You've seem to forgotten something,
sonny.
You don't have a commutator.
There's no need for one.
This is alternating current, Mr. Edison.
- Alternating?
- Yes.
Using direct current,
you'd need over a hundred power stations
to light up the city of New York, and even
then, the outskirts are left in darkness,
because direct current
cannot reach that far.
But with my system,
I guarantee that just one power station
can light the whole city...
and the whole state as well.
We are throwing the power given
to us by nature to the winds.
Electric power in its present
form is not only imperfect,
it's unnatural.
As I know you'll agree, Mr. Edison,
we are out of step
with nature's harmony.
With alternating current, we are talking
about energy in an undreamt of degree.
We will built new power
stations and demolish old ones.
It's a giant step forward.
It will transform the whole world.
Demolish all my power stations...
just because of this
little motor of yours?
But Tom...
Do you know what they call me,
Tesla?
They call me the king of electricity.
I transformed the world already...
and everything I have accomplished has
been based on direct electric current.
You're heading up the wrong street with
this thing, believe me, it's a dead end.
Where are you going?
I'm sorry...
I'm very sorry to have
taken up your time.
Well, I thought you
wanted to work for me.
You have an original mind...
maybe even a brilliant one.
Just because you made one little mistake,
doesn't mean I
ought to throw you out of our ear.
I can use all the
bright people I can get.
You be here tomorrow morning,
7 o'clock, sharp.
Thank you.
I'm so grateful.
Good-bye.
I'm sure we'll be seeing more
of each other, Mr. Tesla.
I hope so.
So do I.
Tom, you're a big man.
Hm-mm.
Yes, I'm glad you were so generous.
He's a very young and
interesting person
and he came all the way to
America just to work with you.
I would have hated to
see him lose the chance.
Well, I've got an eye for brains,
Katherine.
He's a bit wrongheaded but...
got something all the same.
I will knock some sense into him,
you will see.
Do you see what I see?
Mr. Tesla?
Good afternoon, Mr. Johnson.
Mrs. Johnson.
Is this some kind of a
scientific experiment
or are you actually doing what
it looks like you're doing?
I am digging a ditch, Mr. Johnson.
That's very obvious.
Then you must no longer be with Edison.
That's obvious too.
What happened?
There were differences between us.
I'll go see him right away,
then fix it up.
Thank you, Mr. Johnson, but in some ways,
this is better than the place I left.
If you are really through with Edison,
Bob will find something for you
on the magazine, won't you, Bob?
- Yes.
- Give him your card.
And please, Mr. Tesla,
come up out of that ditch.
We don't stop work until 5,
Mrs. Johnson.
Then 7 will be fine. We'll see you at
our house, the address is on the card.
You promise?
Yes, I promise.
Has Katherine fully explain
what I had in mind for you?
It's most kind of you and
indeed I'm very grateful.
You don't want the job?
Is that what you're telling me?
I'm afraid so.
Do you really prefer
digging those ditches
to being on the editorial
staff of Sentry Magazine?
Anyone would be honored, Mr. Johnson.
- Bob.
- Bob.
But it could only be temporary
and it wouldn't be fair to you.
Well, I...
Don't go yet, Nicky.
Stay for a moment and tell Bob some
of the things you've been telling me.
About that first induction motor...
About you and your family and
that place where you were born.
- Lika, isn't it?
- Yes.
Nicky spoke five languages
when he was only a child
and his mother has invented
all kinds of things too.
But she can't read or write,
can you imagine?
And his father was a priest.
Of course, in the orthodox
Church they're allowed to marry.
You aren't marry, are you, Nicky?
Not yet?
If I ever did marry,
it could only be with someone like you.
And, of course, that's impossible.
Good night.
Thank you both.
Please, see Mr. Tesla to the door.
He must be very poor.
Yet he bought me these flowers.
- He's working in that ditch over there.
- Well, let's go see him.
There, that's Tesla.
My name is Hiram Brown, president
of Western Union Telegraph Company.
Nice to meet you, Mr. Brown.
I'm prepared to finance the
development of your motor, Mr. Tesla.
Are you prepare to finance all further
work on alternating current as well?
I hadn't really thought about that.
Let's see what happens with the motor first.
I will construct it
only in my own workshop.
Would you expect to build it for you?
I'll build it Mr. Brown.
You just pay for it.
You're pretty cocky, aren't you, Tesla?
They told you would be.
Exactly how much would you be needing?
Thirty thousand dollars
and my own workshop.
Well, then quit playing ditch
digger and get up here
and I'll make out a check.
- Here, Renato.
- Va Bene, Nikola.
(speaking German)
Gramm's machine wastes a lot of energy.
I'm sure there must be some
simpler natural principle
whereby energy may be obtained.
Go right ahead, Mr. Tesla.
Nature is at your disposal.
What's stopping you?
Discover your simple principle.
We'd all be delighted.
(speaking Serbian)
Antall, I'll go crazy if this goes on.
I didn't sleep last night.
The slightest noise
sounds like thunder to me.
Don't worry, you're just too sensitive.
You'll get over it.
There's something
wrong with my senses.
I hear everything louder
than the other people.
(speaking German)
The glow retreats,
Done is the day of toil.
It yonder hastes,
New field of life exploring.
(speaking Serbian)
You must be feeling better
if you can recite Faust.
Turn it back...
We must turn it back.
It should flow back in
order to produce light.
The magnets should rotate
like the Earth revolving
around the Sun.
These are the coils.
If the reversed magnetic
field moves in this direction,
the electricity will
flow in this one.
There's no need for a commutator.
This is alternating current.
Undreamt of supply of energy!
I've made a discovery!
I can see every little detail.
This motor is in harmony with nature.
I can see it.
I can see it.
Ladies and gentlemen,
to convince you that this theory will work,
I'll turn off the
direct current for a moment
and will light up this
hall with my system.
Turn out the lights.
This, ladies and gentlemen,
is alternating current.
You see how much power was
produced with this small generator.
And now imagine what
would be like if we had
an enormous generator that
could fill up this hall.
Well, we'd be able to light
the entire state of New York,
more even than that.
We could have power for the factories,
all of public transportation,
all of industry.
Once we'd accomplished that,
greater discoveries lie ahead,
just as long as we keep
in step with nature.
Each new discovery will lead to another
and we will revolutionize life on our planet.
Look, Mr. Tesla...
can you back up your theories
with a few guarantees?
You don't really believe that we'd put out
our money without knowing the results?
Can you show us evidence
that this thing will work?
Gentlemen, I can make no guarantees
other than my discoveries.
I am not an insurance company.
You must take my word.
You will have to rely on instinct,
intuition and imagination.
And now,
I shall switch back to direct current.
(indistinct conversations)
Mr. Edison,
what is your opinion on Mr. Tesla?
Oh, very best.
Extremely capable engineer.
What could be the practical
application of his generator?
Well, I'm sorry to say it has
no practical application at all.
I have said before, gentlemen,
that I do not consider fantasy
to be any kind of conception.
At least of all a scientific one.
That'll be all.
Thanks, Mr. Edison.
Oh, Mr. Edison, one last question, please.
Enough for today, gentlemen.
Another time.
If the thing had any value you can
bet Edison would have grabbed it.
He'd bet on the wrong horse.
Mr. Tesla, Thomas Edison
claims your electrical system
has no practical application.
Do you have any comment?
Mr. Edison is a very practical man.
I'm sorry he feels that way.
It was a real pleasure to meet you, Mr.
Tesla. Let me congratulate you once again.
I wish you good luck.
Yes, so do I.
Thanks for your demonstration.
It was most impressive,
even if it is impractical.
Thank you, gentlemen.
Mr. Tesla, could you explain
a little more clearly?
I don't think I have
anything more to say.
That's all for today.
Thank you, gentlemen.
Thank you.
Bye, gentlemen.
Mr. Tesla?
Allow me to introduce myself.
I'm George Westinghouse,
president of Pittsburgh Electric.
How do you do?
I'd be happy if you would have
dinner with me at the Waldorf.
That would be a pleasure,
Mr. Westinghouse.
Call me George.
- Call me Nikola.
- Nikola.
All right... Nikola.
Delicious.
So...
to put it in a nut shell,
Mr. Tesla,
I'm prepared to buy all your patents for
alternating current for a million dollars.
The important thing is that you'll
be able to decide for yourself
how your invention is to be used,
while I will function
as a kind of money bag.
And an open money bag.
What do you think of that?
Bring me a dozen napkins,
would you please?
- A dozen napkins, sir.
- Thank you, that's fine.
I hope you find the dinner to
your satisfaction, Mr. Tesla.
I think you are being somewhat hasty,
Mr. Westinghouse.
Possibly.
There can be no scientific
progress without some risk.
People have been known
to risk their lives.
What then is my money to that?
Do you really sincerely
believe in the project?
I wouldn't be here if I didn't.
What if, on top of that
million dollar sum,
I asked you to pay me one dollar
for every horsepower we produce?
I would agree.
We'll put it in the contract.
Don't be so quick to agree.
You realize that we are talking
about calculess units of horsepower.
And how about Edison?
He won't take it without a fight.
As long as he is opposed to it,
how do you introduce our system?
I'll be able to manage
it with your patents.
The point is you have
truth on your side.
Tell me the truth, Mr. Westinghouse.
Are you helping me because you
believe this will be a value
to science and civilization,
or are you in it for the profit?
Listen to me, my friend.
I'm an inventor myself,
but I never forget
that without money...
I cannot put my
inventions into practice.
So, what if I do hope
to make a little profit?
I'm happy you got angry,
I'm beginning to believe you.
Some Swiss cheese and an apple.
And make sure the apple is
washed with boiling water.
A creamy caramel and... some fruit.
Coffee, of course, and...
cheers, Tesla, to your health.
You seem to be drinking my wine.
You're right. I'm so sorry.
You're confusing me, Tesla.
Can I assume then that
we have an agreement?
That you accept?
- I was joking.
- What do you mean?
No charge for horsepower.
But I wasn't joking.
You will get a dollar for
every horsepower generated.
You got to be rich, Tesla.
So that you can be free and independent.
What's wrong, Tesla?
Peaches, please, take them away.
They make me ill.
Waiter... Fred, Fred!
The peaches, take the peaches away!
No dessert of any kind.
Gentlemen,
I would suggest a short break.
- Those in favor?
- Aye (all).
I could use a break.
George, now why do you think
Adams wanted a break at this point?
Come on, Billy,
don't pretend such innocence.
It isn't Adams who was
chairing this meeting,
but one who's more conspicuous by his
absence and we all know who that is...
Oh, yes, only too well.
Can you hear me?
- Yeah, I hear you, Adams.
- The preliminary is over.
- As Edison made his speech yet?
- No.
- George Westinghouse?
- Not yet.
Well, call on Edison to speak first,
then Westinghouse,
then put forward proposal number 2
and close the meeting, is that clear?
Yes, yes, proposal 2.
Gentlemen, we are fortunate to have
Mr. Thomas Alva Edison here
in the capacity of advisor.
It would be most helpful
to hear his opinion.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Now, gentlemen, I'll say this:
at whether we pipe water to the plant
or built the plant near Niagara Falls,
is a matter to be discussed.
But there is only one system.
Direct current has already been
adopted throughout the world.
- Mr. Chairman? Mr. Chairman?
- Mr. Westinghouse.
Gentlemen, direct current is not
the only system in existence.
There is also Mr. Nikola Tesla's
alternating current.
It can guarantee the transmission
of power over enormous distances.
It is simple. It is practical.
It is the system
that Mr. Tesla himself has perfected
along with 40 registered patents.
Now, I have here a...
Gentlemen, that system is nothing but
pure fantasy... a dangerous fantasy that...
That is a subject for discussion,
Mr. Edison.
It's a subject I would be happy to
discuss with you, Mr. Westinghouse.
Gentlemen, gentlemen, gentlemen!
We're discussing a matter
of great importance.
I think it would be best to have
an international competition.
Mr. Edison, you are the best qualified
among us to name the man
who would have the panel of judges.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Gentlemen, there's only one such man
in the world, I'm sure you all agree,
physicist, mathematician and great inventor,
Lord Kelvin of Great Britain.
Will the International Exposition in Paris
be another triumph for you, Mr. Edison?
Well, my electrical current
will light up the whole fair.
And will your principles be
applied at Niagara Falls?
I was not aware of the possibility of
any other principle was being applied.
Young man,
the whole of Europe uses my system.
- The whole world, in fact.
- Well, what about alternating current?
Oh, that system shouldn't
even be considered.
Alternating current is
a danger to human life.
Start the generator.
Ladies and gentlemen, you have just
seen alternating current in action.
Now, it is a cruel fact that
we had to kill this little dog.
But we did it as a preventive measure...
in order to ensure that in the
future people will not fall victim
to alternating current in the same way.
Now, we need devices to help
improve humanity, not kill it.
I'm going to ask Congress to put a
ban on the use of alternating current.
Thank you, thank you.
- Edison, Nick! That damned Edison!
- What's happened, George?
Oh, the committee... the committee
is to be chaired by Lord Kelvin.
He's Edison's stooge,
that's why he picked him.
But, listen to this:
alternating current used at Sing Sing.
The condemned man William Kemmler
did not have a painless death after all.
The electric current had to
be switched on several times.
Those who constructed the electric chair
failed to calculate the voltage required.
Now, isn't that disgusting?
Go back where you came from!
Let me take care of this, Mr. Tesla.
I'll go teach them a lesson.
Let them be, Zito. It's not their fault.
George,
get together all the people you know
as quickly as possible and bring them here.
Tell them Tesla is going to torture
his guests with electricity.
They will all come, you will see.
Mr. Enrico Caruso, Mr. Nikola Tesla.
(speaking Italian)
Bravo, Tesla, mio caro!
- Mr. Ignas Pederesky, Mr. Nikola Tesla.
- How do you do?
Mr. Samuel Clemmons,
alias Mark Twain, Mr. Nikola Tesla.
What a pleasure, Mr. Tesla.
For all the pleasure you
have given me in your books,
I'm very much indebted to you,
Mr. Clemmons.
I'm glad to hear I have one debtor,
mostly, I'm blessed with creditors.
Is there anything you need,
Mr. Clemmons?
I have hoped I'd see a
few of my critics here.
I was thinking I'd recommend
them for the electric chair.
- Won't you sit down?
- Thank you.
George.
- Katherine... Bob...
- Hello, Nick.
I'm curious, Nicky.
What is it that you plan to do this evening?
Katherine,
I am now considered an executioner.
I never believed that for a moment.
Mr. Jack Wilson, Mr. Nikola Tesla.
What is it, George?
Thank you.
No, thank you.
No, thank you.
No, thanks, I have mine.
Ladies and gentlemen,
here in front of me
you see two electrodes.
When I switch on the electric current,
there will be a tension of
1 million volts between them.
That is alternating current.
Now, if I touched the
electrodes with my hands,
what do you think would happen?
Ladies and gentlemen,
if my electric current kills,
then I deserve to be its victim myself.
Nicky, don't, please, I beg you.
Mr. Morgan is waiting in his study.
He's here, commodore.
Bring him in.
- Who's that?
- A friend of yours.
Mr. Tesla.
You don't shake hands,
they tell me.
- Why?
- For reasons of health, commodore.
Edison here tells you're always
washing your hands 20 times a day
and every time there's
gotta be a fresh towel.
I don't have to ask if
you two know each other...
Oh, we know each other, all right.
He also tell me you don't take any
coffee or tea, so what can I offer you?
- Some whiskey, perhaps.
- Oh...
makes you sound almost... human.
Tom, give a friend here some whiskey.
You know...
some people are sure
that you're crazy...
others think you're a faker.
Now, both those things could be
true and you're still could be...
some kind of... genius.
Sit down, Mr. Tesla.
I'd like to know what makes you tick.
You know what Edison
says about genius?
Yes, one his pet quotations.
Genius is 1% of inspiration and
99% of perspiration. He says you...
don't perspire enough.
And, for scientific conclusion,
he says, ahm,
you don't use any brain work at all.
Instead... how did you put it, Tom?
Well, ask Tesla. According to him,
he says he gets mental pictures.
Mental pictures,
that's the word with everything
complete down to the
smallest the detail.
Is that how it happened with that
brushless, commutatorless motor of yours?
Says here, Tom, that the whole
thing just... appeared to Mr. Tesla.
- Some king of vision?
- It was really more like a flash of lightning.
And you got this vision or...
a flash, suddenly... in the middle of a poem
you happen to reciting out in
the streets somewhere in Hungary?
Yes, it was Goethe.
At what?
He's a German author.
I'll send you a translation, if you like.
Well, thank you very much, Mr. Tesla.
The motor, it was turning in a huge...
- Have your whiskey, Mr. Tesla.
- Oh, thank you very much.
The motor has spun in a huge whirlwind of
electricity, a rotating magnetic field.
Tremendous energy produced by a
balance of alternating current.
Alternating current.
He got the patent 6 years later and
every detail was just the way it
appeared to him in that first mental picture.
Adams got the whole story for me.
What is that thing
you're reading there?
It's the file...
we put together on Mr. Tesla.
I never go into anything blind, Tom.
You know me well enough to know that.
It says here,
when he was still working for you,
you gave Mr. Tesla a
problem to solve for you.
Well, what of it?
I give my people problems all the time.
Well,
this one must have been important.
Maybe something you couldn't
work out for yourself?
Who says so?
Where did you get that story?
We talked to people in your shop.
Oh, I could have solved that thing easily,
but, as it so happens,
I was busy with all other problems
of the time, like I always am.
The way we heard it, you told Mr. Tesla
if he worked it out you'd give him
50,000 dollars, then, when he did,
you said he didn't...
understand the American sense of humor.
That is not the reason we quarreled.
I'm not interested in money.
Aren't you? Well, I am.
The point is that you
quit working for Edison.
Now, it's been suggested that
you start working for me.
Sit down, Tom,
I haven't quite finished yet.
Yes, Tom?
Frankly, commodore...
I'm beginning to wonder what
the hell I'm doing here.
Well, I didn't take it to be fair to
hold this meeting without you.
Well, am I right?
It's about the steelworks in Pittsburgh?
Well, I'm still waiting for the electric
power, Tom, they can't wait forever...
Well, neither can I...
it's been over 5 months now since I
submitted my plans to the committee.
- Mr. Tesla has some different ideas.
- Different?
Well, I guess that's one word for it.
You know what he did at
the Chicago World's Fair?
It's all in here.
Yes, up to that time, there were no
large poliphase generators in existence.
- I'd rather hear it from Mr. Tesla.
- Oh, sorry.
Well, I took 24500-horsepower generators.
Single phase generators, that is.
Coupled them all in pairs
and then hooked them up so the circuits
would be 90 degrees out-of-phase.
Ahm, translate that in English.
It means I made the equivalent
of 122-phase generators,
each with a thousand horsepower.
It was the first world fair in
history to be lit by electricity.
Well, wasn't that funny?
Right up to this very minute,
I was always under the impression
that electric light was
something that I invented.
Of course.
And now I find that Mr.
Tesla here discovered it.
Where the hell you come
off with a report like that
on a subject that you couldn't
even begin to comprehend?
I just collected information,
Mr. Edison.
I certainly don't pretend to
be an educated man of science.
Educated?
Like Tesla?
You mean he is educated and I'm not?!
No, Tom, nobody said that.
Oh, you don't have to say it.
Everybody knows it.
Well, we know you're a self-made
man and so is Tesla, he...
came to this country with four
cents and a book of poetry.
Yeah...
well, I never got near a university.
I had to teach myself as I went along.
Yes, and the first thing I learned was
respect for the scientific process.
Reasoning based on
provable assumptions.
Controlled experimentation...
trial and error.
But... your educated man of science...
he does everything by guess work.
He doesn't even have ideas,
he has hunches!
No wonder he's gotten hay wired
over this AC business.
- AC, alternating current, right, Tom?
- There's nothing right about it at all!
Mr. Edison's whole system has been based
right from the beginning on direct current.
Tesla?
Despite all evidence,
he is convinced the system of
alternating current will never work.
Oh, I see...
the man of visions and
lightning flashes feels that
Thomas Edison is
suffering from delusions.
(?) down, Tom. Tell us about Frankfurt.
Frankfurt, Germany, Tom. Oh, don't
you know what happened in Frankfurt.
Adams, tell Mr. Edison what
happened Frankfurt, Germany.
A man called Dolivo...
and another man called...
The hell with the names.
Just tell him what they did.
They've just managed to transmit
electricity over a distance of 160 km.
And they were using... Tesla's system.
(?) in Europe, for God's sake.
We got Tesla right here under our noses!
You get together with General Electric,
and I'll take care of the financial side.
We're gonna build that power
station in Niagara right away.
And...
what system are you going to use?
Well, Tom...
what's wrong in giving it a try?
It's a useless complication,
that's what's wrong with it.
Besides, that is dangerous.
And if I have it my way...
I'd have the goddamned
thing prohibited by law.
Oh, I hope you aren't leaving.
We haven't finished our card game.
Just don't slam the door.
He does it every time.
My friend Edison is a stubborn man, Tesla.
He's also...
the greatest inventor in
the history of the world.
And if you can prove him wrong...
just once, I won't say I'll be happy...
but I'll tell you this:
you and I are in business.
Incredible things are happening, Nick.
Edison has had to join
up with General Electric.
But they won't swallow us up, Nick.
We'll swallow them.
We've got the patents, Nick.
The Niagara Project can't
be started without us.
You realize that is quite possible
to get a hundred thousand?
Or even a million electrical
impulses per second?
Can't you see what
fantastic possibilities
that could open to us
for the use of energy?
Nick, did you hear what I said about General
Electric, about Edison, about Niagara?
- I know what Morgan told me.
- Don't listen to him, Nick.
He plays with people like
their child playing with dolls
and he brakes them like dolls.
The hell with Morgan.
A million electrical impulses
per second.
All right, Nick.
All right.
Dream as much as you want to.
But just be sure you wake up in time
for that opening of the power station.
After that...
just let somebody try to stop you.
George, how could anything stop me?
Well, I guess I don't
have an answer for that.
All the same,
for a man who's that damned sure of himself,
- you don't look very happy.
- How can I be?
- George?
- What's wrong, Nick?
For several days now,
I've been seeing pictures.
Could you please ring up Mr. Tesla,
it's very urgent.
- I have to see him immediately.
- I cannot disturb him.
If I wake him now,
I'll hold you responsible, Mr. Zito.
Nothing can save it.
I guess we may as well let him
sleep in peace while he still can.
I'll tell him later.
Can I ask what the trouble is, Mr. Zito?
After all, this hotel's his home.
It'll break Mr. Tesla's heart.
His laboratory's on fire.
It's gonna be completely burned.
All his work will be gone.
His inventions, his equipment,
his plans, everything up in smoke.
Ladies and gentlemen,
America has today put into operation
her first electric power station
generating alternating current.
We must thank all those who have
helped to create this power station.
However, ladies and gentlemen, we should
not forget that without Nikola Tesla,
the great visionary and inventor,
none of this would exist.
The celebration I've been waiting for.
Bravo, Nick, bravo.
Well, speak to them, Nick.
Your audience is waiting.
When all is said and done, this power
station is not terribly important.
It simply makes practical use of
theories we have long known about.
Rather than congratulate ourselves,
we should all feel ashamed
that it was not built earlier.
The real work is yet to come.
Now we must destroy distance.
Our senses tell us about
things that are close by.
To know what is happening far away,
we must be able to transmit scenes
from other places over long distances.
Pictures, the news, energy and...
why not matter too?
Now, we must liberate thought.
We must set it free of limitations
that space and time impose on it.
And yet, keep its principal characteristics.
Now, and in future centuries,
here on Earth and thousands of
light years into the unknown.
Excuse me, please, I...
Tesla... Tesla,
what am I supposed to tell the commodore?
- Tell him that I'm going to Europe.
- Europe? Who's in Europe?
My mother and sister.
(speaking Serbian)
Dane! Dane!
Mother!
It's cold out tonight, you're not kidding.
Hey, look.
- We're gonna have a smoke.
- Yeah.
Hey, baby, come on, be nice.
George?
What is it?
Thank you, Katherine.
Come.
- Yes, but...
- Please... this way.
Why don't you go in?
- He won't let me.
- I explained to Mr. Westinghouse.
I'm not to let anyone in the laboratory.
But this is ridiculous.
Those are Mr. Tesla's orders.
I'm desperate, Katherine.
I simply got to see him.
My whole future is at stake.
But why did you send for me?
Because of Nikola. He's in a terrible state.
Ever since his mother died.
I'm afraid he may have
gone out of his mind.
I'm serious, Katherine.
Zito...
I know how much you love Mr. Tesla.
So do we.
He must know that.
And don't you think is
in need of our help now?
Yes.
I admit I've been worried about him,
Mrs. Johnson.
Then open the door, Zito.
Attraction and repulsion,
Katherine, a strange effect.
Very stimulating and exciting.
Electricity and magnetism, George,
are unique forces in nature.
How are you, Nick?
Nick...
please, listen to me.
I'm...
well,
I'm at the end of my rope.
There's nothing left for me
but to ask for your help.
Nick, there's a crisis on.
Pullman has laid off
4,000 workers in Chicago.
Yesterday, the National Guard was out
shooting people down in the streets.
I can't get any more credit, Nick.
Everybody is pulling out.
They're charging me with a debt
of over 10 million dollars.
Now, that's the money I owe you,
Nick, remember?
A dollar for every horse power?
General Electric is behind it all.
Morgan wants to swallow me, so does Edison.
I can't let them do it, Nick.
My company is my whole life.
And I thought, Nick,
if we could share the loss... a little...?
- This is the contract, George.
- Yes.
Nick, I can't let you do that!
I owe you that money, it's yours!
You don't owe me anything, George.
When nobody listened,
you believed in me.
You held out your hand when
others turned their backs.
Thank you, Katherine.
Thank you...
my friend.
That was generous, Nicky.
Maybe a little too generous.
Of course you want to help George
Westinghouse when he's in such trouble,
but how can you...
just tear up 10 million dollars?
I don't have a family, Katherine.
I just need to get on with my work.
All that money would
only get in my way.
Put it to the right.
Now to the left.
Can you make it go down to the end?
And then back toward us?
But where are the wires, Mr. Tesla?
By this time, Mr. Adams,
I thought you understood.
I'm afraid I don't.
What do you want me
to tell the commodore?
Just tell him what you've seen.
And about the wires...
tell him there aren't any.
Tesla?
Ahm... this little boat of yours...
Adams has been telling of
all the tricks you can do...
the same thing will work on a bigger scale,
you could actually...
move energy,
electrical energy from one place to another,
you can take the power, you...
harness from Niagara and move it
to my steelworks in Pittsburgh?
Without any wires at all?
There is no limit to the possibilities.
Communication... over great distances?
Anywhere,
Europe even and without using cables.
I didn't call you on the phone,
Adams, let me hear it from Tesla.
Ships at sea, Tesla?
Everything, the human voice, pictures...
they're all just electrical impulses.
And what's this place where
you wanna go and work on it?
Colorado Springs.
It's rich in natural electricity.
Look, Tesla...
you fix it so I can send
words without wires...
from one city to another and
over the ocean without a cable,
just give me that and you can go to...
Colorado Springs or Timbuktu.
The sooner you get started,
the better.
That was Morgan... he's agreed.
This is really a turning point,
Nicky, isn't it?
Pictures... and voices...
moving through the air...
without wires.
Does he really want
me to swallow that?
You must believe it yourself,
commodore,
why else would you be
investing your money?
Giving money to Tesla is
like playing roulette.
It's a game.
I play it to amuse myself and...
out of a certain... curiosity.
Is he a lunatic or a (?) artist?
He promises miracles...
We're gonna see now if
he can deliver them.
If in a thunderstorm the
earth is struck by lightning,
the force creates concentric waves
which slowly expand to circle the world
until they come back
to where they started.
This proves to us that the earth's crust
is a conductor of electrical energy.
Now, if we were to produce large
quantities of electrical energy
and if we directed it
into the earth's crust,
then that energy would
travel in concentric waves.
There were rumors you
went to Colorado Springs
in order to contact Mars,
is that true?
It is possible for us to send out waves
which can travel around the world.
There are waves as well
which can travel into space.
- How are you going to talk with them?
- I never intended to.
However, I recorded certain
electrical impulses of unknown origin
and these were repeated at
constantly timed intervals.
It's possible they were a
kind of signal from space.
And did you in turn
sent them a message?
- Ask the Martians that question.
- But you did send some sort of signal.
A signal which might not be
received for a million years.
Therefore, Mr. Tesla, you do believe
communication with distant worlds
may some day be possible?
Perhaps they've been sending us messages
for ages but we aren't aware of it.
Mr. Tesla, what's that big pile
of papers down there on the floor?
- My file on the work in Colorado Springs.
- Can you tell us what's in it?
It's a new electrical system,
completely different.
As yet, it hasn't been finished.
In just what way is it different?
How it'll affect us?
Well, a great deal of
it is merely guesswork,
but it might have an important
impact on the future.
I hope it will lead to a decisive
answer to the problem of energy.
- Good day, gentlemen.
- Mr. Tesla... (indistinct talking).
Not more today...
no more questions, please.
I come tell you how
much it means to me
that I can once again
have the opportunity to see
the greatest of the great,
the genius Nikola Tesla.
I'm terribly sorry,
but I don't recall having met you.
Mr. Tesla,
my name won't mean much to you...
I'm a humble follower of your work.
I heard your lecture in London when I
was a student. It's my greatest memory.
You've been a big influence.
Permit me to introduce myself,
Marchezzi Guglielmo Marconi.
Well, I'm pleased to meet you,
Marchezzi Marconi.
And how may I be of service to you?
Mr. Tesla, I perceive ideas which
I know are true but I can't formulate.
You seem aware of such things.
I think I might be of some use in
the field of telecommunications.
If that is what interest you,
Mr. Marconi, then you've chosen wisely.
Always trust your own instinct.
Not that knowledge lead you astray(?)
can be deceptive.
Mr. Tesla, I came all the
way to America to meet you.
Would it be possible to come and
watch you while you're working?
Why, certainly.
You'd be very welcome.
My laboratory and all of my
notes are at your disposition.
Thank you, Mr. Tesla, it's a great honor.
Thank you.
Zito, would you be please
look after Mr. Marconi.
Whatever you say, Mr. Tesla.
Tell me the truth, Tesla...
does anybody really
understand what this is about?
I certainly hope so, commodore.
I ought to... after all these
years, let's see... energy.
According to you,
energy is the big problem of the future.
A life and death problem.
And what we're using now, ahm...
the sources of energy are not inexhaustible...
And they are poisoning our planet.
Oh, I hadn't noticed that.
Believe me, you will.
Perhaps we can survive the poison,
but there will come a day when
the sources of energy will dry up.
And then what? The whole shebang?s
gonna run down like a clock?
Not with my project. I can give
the world all the power it can use...
clean power.
- I was afraid of that.
- Afraid?
Yes, I was afraid
that after all this time
I was really going to begin to
understand what you're talking about.
But this... psychic business...
Pardon me, I don't understand.
These weird stories about you that keep
getting into the papers like the...
the train wreck and this fella...
what's his name?
- Brown, commodore.
- Yeah, how'd that one go?
Mr. Tesla is supposed to
have told him that he mustn't
on any account take the
certain train and he didn't.
The train was wrecked and
everybody on it was killed.
That really happened?
People said that it could
have been a coincidence.
I don't care what it was... to the
public mind, science or the supernatural
don't make you either
a serious inventor
or a gipsy fortuneteller
with a crystal ball.
I don't presume to tell people's
fortunes and I'm not an inventor.
- And what the hell are you?
- I'm a discoverer.
Columbus.
Yes, I guess he must have
sounded quite a bit like you.
Sometimes, before his discovery,
and there must have been quite a lot
of Columbuses we don't know about,
who just sailed away in the wild blue
yonder and never were heard of again.
Is there where you're going to go, Tesla,
to get lost in the wild blue yonder or...
Mars, for God's sake?
You told me I could reach a ship
by wireless and now you're
telling the newspapers
that you're reaching outer space
somewhere out there in the stars.
There's a strong possibility that...
The hell with your possibilities,
Tesla, keep all that...
- wild guessing to yourself.
- It's not just guessing, commodore.
No?
Well, as long as I am backing you,
I can't afford to let the world
think I'm associated with a nut.
Ok, fellas, here comes Mr. Tesla.
You're having whiskey as usual, Nick?
I'll have champagne with you,
Bob, with pleasure.
Good. Let's drink to this
new project of yours.
We'll drink to you, Bob,
our new ambassador in Rome.
(indistinct talking)
Our boat sails early tomorrow
morning and I wouldn't dream
of leaving until you
tell us all about it.
There isn't much to tell.
What he means is there's
not much he wants to tell.
Why all the secrecy?
It's Morgan's idea.
He made it a condition.
You two are playing cat and mouse together.
I think Morgan's afraid of you.
Afraid of Morgan? Never.
Maybe you outta be.
I think Nick is still sure that
he's going to change the world...
- and I hope he's right.
- Of course I'm right.
You're an incurable optimist.
I wouldn't want to cure him.
What you mean is that you
wouldn't ever want to see an end
to all those beautiful dreams of his.
But darling, you know yourself that
you're always asking him to face reality.
My tower... that is reality.
You will see.
We're on the verge of world war, Nick.
War? What's all this about war?
I hope Tesla isn't concentrating on
that subject. He's much too clever.
He'll (?) to blow us to kingdom come.
That's just the opposite, Mr. Twain.
Instead of sending human armies
marching out to the battlefields, we could
make robots to do the fighting force.
Look, Tesla, if you ever invent
a robot to do our drinking force,
then I for one will
fight you to the death.
Excuse me.
Do you really think there
is going to be a war?
- That doesn't have to be.
- No... not if people use their heads.
And who knows?
Someday,
if we are lucky and there isn't war...
perhaps we'll be able to get away
for long enough to pay a visit
to that far off place
where you were born...
to Lika.
You see, I still remember the name...
I wish you could have known my mother.
I wish I could have known you, Nicky.
I mean in ways that
haven't been possible.
There were times when I thought
that everything was possible.
Remember what your mother said that time
when you made yourself a pair of wings
and climbed upon the roof of
your house and tried to fly?
"You're not a bird, Nikola",
she told you,
"you're a man".
Don't bother me about money.
The workers should know that they'll
be paid. We've got Morgan behind us.
Yes, Mr. Tesla.
Mr. Tesla,
I've been instructed to show you this.
Just in case you didn't
happen to see it.
Mr. Tesla...
he wants to see you right away.
There was one promise,
with all the damned visions
and lightning flashes of yours,
one odd promise I thought I could count on:
I was gonna be able to send messages
to distant places without any wires...
and now, sure enough,
the thing's been invented,
but not by you, Tesla,
no, by some Italian...
- Marconi.
- Whatever.
Well, he's made some kind of box
he's talking to England with it
and I've gotta buy patents from him!
What if he did steal it from you?
You're not the only one with ideas, you know,
there's a Jew over in Germany...
Einstein.
The whole scientific world is
talking about that new theory of his.
- And in Paris, what's that about Paris?
- They have split the atom.
Whatever that means.
It could mean a whole
new source of energy.
Such energy is created by
destroying natural elements.
That is a serious crime
against nature and one day
it's going to bring on catastrophe.
The world is at a crossroads right now.
And if we pass up this chance, we shall be
held responsible by future generations.
Chance? Chance with what?
Commodore, we send energy...
all energy to the outer shell of the Earth,
the ionosphere...
Energy from the sea,
the wind, energy from the sun...
We no longer need to
burn or destroy anything.
We simply take what already exist and put
it to our use in unlimited quantities!
And you want me to believe
all of this is possible.
But I have proved it already!
Everything is in that file!
All we have to do is apply it.
- Adams...
- Yes, commodore?
- You've seen all this?
- Yes, commodore.
One single...
source of energy,
that's what this means.
Right, Tesla?
Yes, that is right.
And anyone can draw it
anywhere in the world.
The Earth's outer shell, remember,
goes around the whole planet.
Yes... power will belong to everyone,
like the air we breathe.
There's some financial details
we are go over... Tesla...
I won't keep you any longer, I... know how
anxious you are to get back to your work,
we'll send this stuff (?)...
I forgot you... never shake hands.
Supposing...
just supposing he isn't crazy...
that man could... turn the world
upside down standing on its head.
Yes, I do believe he could.
It's a wonderful prospect.
Wonderful?
(?) lunatic can really do
what he says he can do,
- do you have any idea of what's gonna happen?
- No, sir.
One source of energy,
that's what's gonna happen, just one.
So anybody, anybody at all... can just
stick an antenna on his backyard and...
(?) we won't have anything
left to sell but antennas.
We'll producing the power and anyone who
feels like it can milk our cow for free...
Oh, no, thank you, Mr. Tesla,
I'm not contributing to that charity.
Write him a letter, Addams, and have
it ready for me to sign in the morning.
Yes, commodore.
- What shall I tell him?
- Tell him...
tell him goodbye.
After all these years,
he still refuses to answer.
I showed him what
the world could be.
He'd let me know, he said,
when he was ready.
I'm still waiting.
subtitle by:
Tio Beto from Brazil
suggestions and corrections, please contact me