Zeros and Ones (2021) - full transcript

Hello, my name is Ethan Hawke,
and I just wanted to talk to you briefly

about the new film
I'm working on

called Zeros and Ones,
by Abel Ferrara.

I've been a fan of Abel since I
first fell in love with the movies.

He's a completely unique
and extraordinary filmmaker.

He's got voice with the camera.
He has depth with his actors.

The work that he's done most recently with
Willem Dafoe has been wildly inspiring to me,

so I was very grateful
to get the script.

Especially considering that the
script speaks to this moment.

Not in any obvious,
uh, didactic way,

but you can feel
that this is Abel's hit



on what we've all been going
through for the last year or so.

Uh, it's a beautiful script.
I play a military man.

You're not exactly sure whether
I'm a good guy or a bad guy,

and I also play my own brother,
who's a revolutionary.

And so, that's very dynamic
for me to get to play

these two characters that are
representing contrasting viewpoints.

I think we're gonna be able
to do something really special.

Uh, I consider the most
important aspect of my job,

who I choose to work with,
that's what actors do.

You know, we champion filmmakers,
uh, we champion voices.

And I'm excited for the world
to see Abel's response

to-to this wild year
we've been living through.

I hope you enjoy it.

Yo, you good?



Still here.

All right, here,
let me pull it up.

Hey, let me... let me
work with this some more.

What's it say?

You're still alive.

You trust it?

Come on.

That's the news to the world.

It is
to religion that we call you.

The religion of sincerity.

The best manners,
righteousness,

mercy, honor, purity, piety.

It is the religion
of showing kindness to others.

Establishing justice
between them,

granting them the rights,

and defending the oppressed
and the persecuted.

We call you to be a people of
principles, honor, and purity.

That you may be freed from the deceptive
lies, that you are a great nation.

Do you now know why we fight
and why we shall be victorious?

Hey, shoot it
so they believe it.

Symbol of Christianity...

death to the infidels...

The 3,000-year war...

Jesus was just another soldier,

another war casualty...

but on whose side?

Hey.

Come up the back.

His father?

Your brother...

is still in prison.

Well, at least he's alive.

For now.

Are you sure?

You tell me.

Is that your rabbit?

Does he have a name?

What are you dreamin' about?

Fish?

Porcupines?

Goodnight.

I only have tea.

That's fine.

Have you figured out
what you're doing in my country?

I'm workin' on it.

Lots of honey?

- Mm-hm.
- Right.

What's with you
Americans and honey?

You don't care
if he ever gets out.

He won't last
ten minutes on the street,

knowin' what he knows.

How do they know what he knows?

You told them?

I heard you're back.

Show him.

And they're both negative.

He's addicted to the screens.

In another time and place,
it could be castor oil,

and I'd call you partigiano.

Made in Swiss...

made popular in San Francisco,

and perfected recently by a chef
not far from here.

It's quicker and more effective.

Ah, shit.

No... you don't...

Shh... Shh...

Where?

Where... and when?

Okay?

It takes more than guns
to kill a man.

You think I'm your enemy?

Yeah, is that what you think?

Your fear made me,
and now, here I am.

I am your enemy, but your enemy
won't be gone when you kill me.

You can't kill me.

Try it, watch what happens.

I'll be right back after the
sound and the fury is finished.

Where, and when?

Come on.

This machine kills fascists.

This machine is my voice.
It's the human voice.

My heart is the drummer...
Okay, all right.

You wanna know... you wanna know
where the door is, eh?

Where, and when?

No, wait, wait.

I'll tell you...

I'll tell you...
I'll tell you...

I'll tell you where the...
where the door...

I'll meet you...
I'll meet you there.

And I'm not afraid to die.

And you?

You're dead already.

I would light myself on fire!

How come no one is lighting
themselves on fire, eh?!

How come no one is lighting
themselves on fire anymore?!

This country
was conceived in liberty,

dedicated to the proposition
that all men are created equal.

This is a battleground.

The world is watching
what happens here,

and it is up to us,
the living...

to finish the work of the dead

so they will
not have died in vain

and that a government
of the people, for the people,

by the people, shall not perish
from this earth!

Hail Caesar! Hail Augustus Caesar
'cause he-he got it, he got it.

And you-you, are you American?
You're American, right?

I can't see him,
behind his mask!

Are you American?

♪ One Sunday morning ♪

♪ By the shadow
of the steeple ♪

♪ By the relief office ♪

♪ I saw my people ♪

♪ They stood there hungry ♪

You know the song!

Are you American?

♪ One Sunday morning ♪

♪ By the shadow
of the steeple ♪

♪ By the relief office ♪

It's the law of
nature, nature's God.

We hold these truths
to be self-evident

that all men are created equal
and that they are endowed

with certain unalienable rights:

Life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness.

Do you know who said that?

Who knows who said it,
raise their hand.

It wasn't one man,
yet you wanna kill one man.

All right, all right, all right.

You wanna know
where the door is.

Didn't you find it?

When you were
rifling through my bag?

Writing my suicide note?

Where did you
come up with that idea, huh?

You learn that
from your scoutmaster now?

Are you guys Boy Scouts?
Do you swear to be faithful and true, huh?

Huh? Don't you even know
that your strippers are Marxist?

Your shoemakers are my soldiers?

That your cameraman
is my brother, huh?

Nobody living's ever going to stop
me from walking the freedom highway.

Nobody living's gonna
make me turn back

'cause this land
was made for you and me.

You don't know
how to work with wood.

You don't love it, huh?

- You hate trees, that's why you hate me...
- Okay.

No, no, no, no, no, no.
Oh, no!

Ah, fuck! Oh!

Oh, please, Lord,
grant me the courage

to love those who hate me
so that we may change the world.

Oh, please, Lord, grant me the courage...

...to love those who hate me
so that we may change the world.

Grant me the courage to love those who
hate me so that we may change the world.

So when is this gonna happen?

It has been happening
for a thousand years.

Is he here now?

He was born here.

Do you remember how you felt when
you first put on that uniform?

I felt useful.

Did your brother
ever wear a uniform?

No.

We had a deal.

Oh, my American friend.

Always talking about a deal.

Hm.

You still wearing your vest?

At all times, Captain.

So how are things with you?

You tell me.

Stop playing games,
imperialist.

You worship it.

It is time to live it.

Oh.

Where is he?

In training.

Don't move!

Don't move!
I said, don't fucking move!

Fuck you!

You think we're playing
fucking games?

Everything you need to know is on
this, in five languages.

Get it?

Study it, destroy it,
make it happen.

Oh!

Oh...

- It's funnier in Russian.
- Yeah.

It looks like Moscow...

That's happenin' here
in real time.

The waiter's filmin' this.

The last thing he'll ever do.

You recognize the guy?

Looks like the boss.

And the other guy?

His boss.

Looks like what he is.
Russian SVR.

I want to drink
for our future big success.

Very good.

- To our friendship.
- Yes.

They look like
they could be sisters.

Know them?

Your brother's dead.

We're negotiatin' for his body.

This is really
how he wants to die?

I paid dearly for the words
you put into my mouth.

You fooled me
that I can see the hereafter.

The time has come.

It was told to me
from the Holy Father...

in his prayer.

He wants you
to initiate the response.

Ask help from no one.

They will all betray you.

They will deny
you even existed.

Do you know
what happened to my brother?

He has risen.

He sits with his father now.

Aiuto! Aiutami!

Aiutami!

Aiutami!

Okay, soldier boy,
hands up!

Drop the gun.

Nice and easy.

Get in the car.

Hey, relax!

We're all negative here!

When was the last time
you did some giga giga?

Here's the deal:

You knock her up
and you walk out of here.

How's that gonna work?

He's a doctor.

We have methods.

Call it advanced medicine.

Now turn that
fucking camera on.

♪ A clouded dream
on an earthly night ♪

♪ Hangs upon
the crescent moon ♪

♪ A voiceless song
in an ageless light ♪

♪ Sings at the coming dawn ♪

♪ Birds in flight
are calling there ♪

♪ Where the heart
moves the stones ♪

♪ It's there that my heart
is longing for ♪

♪ All for the love of you ♪

♪ A painting hangs
on an ivy wall ♪

♪ Nestled in the emerald moss ♪

♪ The eyes declare
a truce of trust ♪

♪ And then it
draws me far away ♪

♪ Where deep
in the desert twilight ♪

♪ Sand melts in pools
of the sky ♪

♪ When darkness
lays her crimson cloak ♪

♪ Your lamps will call
call me home ♪

Get the fuck out of there, man!

Come on, get the fuck
out of there!

Get the fuck out of there!

They're coming, man.
Get the fuck out of there!

Go! Go, man, come on!

Move! Move! Go! Go! Go!

Get the fuck out of there, man!

They're coming, man!
Go! Go! Go!

Go! Go!

Motherfucking cocksucker!

You fucking cocksuckin'
motherfucker!

Fuckin' piece of shit!

Hey!

The world
is the hiding place of God.

You know who said that?
Jesus.

To understand
what's outside of you,

you must use what's in you.

If we hear only what we already
know, nothing new happens.

The hard road
leads to a real life.

"I have done
what is mine to do.

Do what is yours to do,"

the dying words
of Saint Francis.

For you.

Being out of uniform
in a war zone

is a crime punishable by death.

Listen, soldier, convening with
the enemy is a serious offense.

Can you understand that?

When?

When?

Did you plan on
keeping this to yourself?

Have you talked to Steven?

You just got him killed.

Where's my brother?

Your brother was an anarchist.

Your brother was a communist.

My brother
was a revolutionary.

- We gotta get out of here.
- Where?

New York?

Shit.

When?

Right now.

Get the baby.

It's on.

Thank God.

Well, the movie's over.

Uh, when I first
spoke to you, um,

I was really
just recording a video

to help raise money
to make the movie.

And now, uh,
we've made the film!

And I just watched it,
and you just watched it.

When Abel gave me the script
and, uh...

script is a really, uh,
not accurate term for what he sent.

I really didn't understand
a word of it...

Yeah.

But I really liked it.

Uh, I did, but I didn't know
what was happening.

I felt like somebody
was up to something,

and that I wanted to be
a part of it,

but I didn't know
what he was trying to say.

And now,
after watching the film,

I think what I began to feel
while we're making it is true.

Which is that you're...

You can have kind of two
opposing outlooks on the world

and that they're both accurate.

You kind of can
align your shoulders one way

in which you realize you wake up
in the morning and you think,

"Oh, shit, I'm gonna die.

I mean, this is real.
I'm gonna die."

And the world is run

by corrupt, greedy individuals

and there's great tragedy
and disease

and the planet is eroding.

And not only am I gonna die,
everybody I know is gonna die.

And brothers lie to each other,
and people hurt each other.

And you just... you just don't know if you
can go on, or what the point of it all is.

And then almost
with-with the same ease,

you can align your shoulders
a different direction and go,

"I was born! Why was I born?
I'm so glad I was born.

Everybody was born,
and the sun comes up and there're flowers.

And guess what,
a lot of people are really nice!"

And there's a kind of
pervasive kindness and healing

that runs through the world
as it spins away.

And there's all this
tremendous beauty!

Every child is a miracle

and I wonder why I was born,
you know.

What I'm doing.

Both those outlooks
are a hundred percent true.

This is part of the movie,
by the way.

And now it's over.