Æon Flux (1991–1995): Season 3, Episode 5 - The Demiurge - full transcript
Aeon leads the Monicans in a battle against Trevor to destroy an illusionary God who induces blind devotion and insanity in all those who see it.
Light, in the absence of
eyes, illuminates nothing.
Visible forms are not
inherent in the world...
but are granted by
the act of seeing.
Though the world and events do
exist independent of mind...
they obtain of no
meaning in themselves.
None that the mind is not
guilty of imposing on them.
I bid my people follow, and like
all good equations, they follow.
For full endowment of
purpose they do submit.
In turn, they resign
me to a role...
inhuman, impossible,
and unaccountable.
But I can no longer stand
the sleepless nights.
I think I am learning
to love the Demiurge.
Ground engagement effective.
The enemy resistance has failed.
Monican launch effort
has been scrubbed.
Target payload is secure.
Dismantle that cheap rig...
and let the Demiurge bring
us to peace eternal.
Yes?
I didn't want this either,
but you're alive, Rubio.
I'm as good as dead, sir.
You're not as good as dead.
I'm not as good as
I would be dead?
Understand why. What
we're doing here.
Sir?
Aeon.
Sir.
What are you waiting for? Regroup
and take apart the launch vehicle.
- Wait!
- Sir?
I remember now.
Sir, I can't...
Let no Monican near the missile.
Do you see how the blue light is
making those patterns on the joints?
Yes. It's beautiful.
It's delusion. Come on.
We launch now.
Celia, you can make it
out of here without me.
There's a box under my bed.
Destroy it.
Crush it, burn it, anything.
But don't open it.
You mustn't look inside.
No, please don't go.
Promise you won't look inside.
I'm going out. Just
keep me covered.
You're a better shot.
I'll run, you cover.
Fine. You know the sequence?
Yes. I'm ready.
- Do you have enough ammunition?
- Trust me.
Almost there.
Nader.
You shot Rubio and not me.
Now why is that?
Trevor, don't trouble me
with your thin smile.
Stop!
There's a pain in my back.
Can you describe it in words?
- What?
- I want you to tell me about the pain.
Sharp.
Stabbing. Piercing.
You're telling me nothing.
It feels like...
a nail twisting into my spine.
- Yes, but there is no nail.
- No.
And so there is no pain.
Nader.
You bastard! I
thought he was dead.
I think he is.
No!
Yes, it is that which is!
It is not.
What?
No!
Nader, how are you?
Aeon Flux, stop and think.
It could have
changed everything.
Not the ways that we are.
Everything!
Family members are reminded to
have identification ready...
when entering the morgue area.
Weapons and personal effects
may be reclaimed in hanger 12.
Have you found this man?
Zenith, Nader.
You were out there. You were...
Weren't you with... I'm sorry.
This man's body is missing.
- Listen, please!
- I'll listen later.
- After I find my gun.
- Your gun?
Yes. Is this...
This one looks good.
Please, tell me what you know.
We won. We must have been right.
You know something.
- Tell me what you know.
- What I know?
He said the light was beautiful.
Yes, it was.
No use, see? Because the
truth isn't even pretty.
What else? Oh, right.
Love isn't the answer,
it's the problem.
You don't know
anything about us.
- Your friend Nader?
- Yes, Nader, Zenith.
I'm sorry about what happened.
It was that gun. It was you!
Nader is dead. Nader's
worse than dead.
You saw it yourself.
I know what I saw. You...
Got it.
There's a box under my bed.
Destroy it.
Crush it, burn it, anything.
But don't open it.
With the perdition of dreams, the
rights of youth fade like pale smoke.
And on embers doused
by blood of loss...
we ask, "For whom serves this
vantage of hideous strength?"
To reap another harvest and...
Address to the public,
number 41961, take 1.
Fellow citizens, at 4:20 this morning,
the 39th division special forces...
carried out a daring strike
against those Monicans...
who have conspired to deprive
us of a great event.
An event that could usher
in a new era of peace.
As planned, our precise
tactics have kept...
casualties on both sides
to minimum levels.
May we all hail a great victory.
To those who have lost
sons and daughters...
we express our
deepest gratitude...
Sir, excuse the interruption.
Yes, what is it?
There seems to be a disturbance.
Incoming Monican aircraft are
releasing projectiles of some sort.
Sending us our own dead.
Erase take 1, record take 2.
The height of tension
in any game occurs...
when the rules allow for the
influence of human judgment.
The advantage in this instance is held
by the player who drops the ball...
to allow the opponent
a hollow victory.
Half of eternity
is still eternity.
Infinity and zero are different
degrees of the same value.
Pain isn't real beyond the
individual who feels it.
But the nail is real.
Trevor, what are you up to now?
Who was that?
Damn.
That's it, forget the damn bird.
Nader!
Natural evolution
should amount...
to nothing by now but a vicious
cycle of obsolescence.
A world unaccountable to its own past
and doomed to repeat it indefinitely.
Oblivious of any consequence.
- Sagittal dilator.
- Huh?
Quickly, damn it!
Oh!
Hernial contractions! Scalpel.
I said, scalpel!
Not you again.
Trevor, you looked
better before.
You don't know what you're doing.
That thing...
Is your salvation, and mine.
It is the everywhere, the
everything, the every all!
You!
You drove it out!
All right, you got it.
You got what you wanted.
So you answer to no one.
Are you out of your mind?
The only reason I don't shoot you has
nothing to do with duty or principle.
It's simply a matter
of knowing who I am.
Is that why you won't let it see you?
Why you can't bear the gaze?
Because you've done
terrible things.
Then there are the transgressions
you never even knew you committed.
Those are the worst because
those you can never forget.
All you can do is suspect.
I'm not in the habit of arguing
over the colour of red herrings.
Help me save your friend.
Maybe you were wrong
to have shot him.
Just check his breathing.
Celia.
You didn't look in
the box, did you?
Just keep breathing.
- What's so funny?
- I don't... Nothing.
- Am I making you uncomfortable?
- I'm fine.
No, I don't think so. See, I
think you just gave it away.
You laughed but you
caught yourself.
Why? Because you're conscious of it. You
didn't drive it out. It's still here.
I forgot something.
You can't hide from it,
Aeon, it's everywhere.
What? Now this is odd.
What?
Get out!
This is all wrong.
It must still be down there.
And it knows we have its
best interests at heart.
Let it go.
Funny how things work out.
No! Don't let go!
- Trevor, I can't keep...
- Don't let go!
If but the cosmos could possibly have
come about innocent of history...
and not wholly ignorant
of all its potential.
- Celia!
- Unprejudiced but aware.
Nader!
- You didn't look in the box, did you?
- No.
- I didn't see it.
- It?
Yes. No. I didn't look.
I never saw it.
Rather than that its only
trial be performed...
at the mercy of all its error.
eyes, illuminates nothing.
Visible forms are not
inherent in the world...
but are granted by
the act of seeing.
Though the world and events do
exist independent of mind...
they obtain of no
meaning in themselves.
None that the mind is not
guilty of imposing on them.
I bid my people follow, and like
all good equations, they follow.
For full endowment of
purpose they do submit.
In turn, they resign
me to a role...
inhuman, impossible,
and unaccountable.
But I can no longer stand
the sleepless nights.
I think I am learning
to love the Demiurge.
Ground engagement effective.
The enemy resistance has failed.
Monican launch effort
has been scrubbed.
Target payload is secure.
Dismantle that cheap rig...
and let the Demiurge bring
us to peace eternal.
Yes?
I didn't want this either,
but you're alive, Rubio.
I'm as good as dead, sir.
You're not as good as dead.
I'm not as good as
I would be dead?
Understand why. What
we're doing here.
Sir?
Aeon.
Sir.
What are you waiting for? Regroup
and take apart the launch vehicle.
- Wait!
- Sir?
I remember now.
Sir, I can't...
Let no Monican near the missile.
Do you see how the blue light is
making those patterns on the joints?
Yes. It's beautiful.
It's delusion. Come on.
We launch now.
Celia, you can make it
out of here without me.
There's a box under my bed.
Destroy it.
Crush it, burn it, anything.
But don't open it.
You mustn't look inside.
No, please don't go.
Promise you won't look inside.
I'm going out. Just
keep me covered.
You're a better shot.
I'll run, you cover.
Fine. You know the sequence?
Yes. I'm ready.
- Do you have enough ammunition?
- Trust me.
Almost there.
Nader.
You shot Rubio and not me.
Now why is that?
Trevor, don't trouble me
with your thin smile.
Stop!
There's a pain in my back.
Can you describe it in words?
- What?
- I want you to tell me about the pain.
Sharp.
Stabbing. Piercing.
You're telling me nothing.
It feels like...
a nail twisting into my spine.
- Yes, but there is no nail.
- No.
And so there is no pain.
Nader.
You bastard! I
thought he was dead.
I think he is.
No!
Yes, it is that which is!
It is not.
What?
No!
Nader, how are you?
Aeon Flux, stop and think.
It could have
changed everything.
Not the ways that we are.
Everything!
Family members are reminded to
have identification ready...
when entering the morgue area.
Weapons and personal effects
may be reclaimed in hanger 12.
Have you found this man?
Zenith, Nader.
You were out there. You were...
Weren't you with... I'm sorry.
This man's body is missing.
- Listen, please!
- I'll listen later.
- After I find my gun.
- Your gun?
Yes. Is this...
This one looks good.
Please, tell me what you know.
We won. We must have been right.
You know something.
- Tell me what you know.
- What I know?
He said the light was beautiful.
Yes, it was.
No use, see? Because the
truth isn't even pretty.
What else? Oh, right.
Love isn't the answer,
it's the problem.
You don't know
anything about us.
- Your friend Nader?
- Yes, Nader, Zenith.
I'm sorry about what happened.
It was that gun. It was you!
Nader is dead. Nader's
worse than dead.
You saw it yourself.
I know what I saw. You...
Got it.
There's a box under my bed.
Destroy it.
Crush it, burn it, anything.
But don't open it.
With the perdition of dreams, the
rights of youth fade like pale smoke.
And on embers doused
by blood of loss...
we ask, "For whom serves this
vantage of hideous strength?"
To reap another harvest and...
Address to the public,
number 41961, take 1.
Fellow citizens, at 4:20 this morning,
the 39th division special forces...
carried out a daring strike
against those Monicans...
who have conspired to deprive
us of a great event.
An event that could usher
in a new era of peace.
As planned, our precise
tactics have kept...
casualties on both sides
to minimum levels.
May we all hail a great victory.
To those who have lost
sons and daughters...
we express our
deepest gratitude...
Sir, excuse the interruption.
Yes, what is it?
There seems to be a disturbance.
Incoming Monican aircraft are
releasing projectiles of some sort.
Sending us our own dead.
Erase take 1, record take 2.
The height of tension
in any game occurs...
when the rules allow for the
influence of human judgment.
The advantage in this instance is held
by the player who drops the ball...
to allow the opponent
a hollow victory.
Half of eternity
is still eternity.
Infinity and zero are different
degrees of the same value.
Pain isn't real beyond the
individual who feels it.
But the nail is real.
Trevor, what are you up to now?
Who was that?
Damn.
That's it, forget the damn bird.
Nader!
Natural evolution
should amount...
to nothing by now but a vicious
cycle of obsolescence.
A world unaccountable to its own past
and doomed to repeat it indefinitely.
Oblivious of any consequence.
- Sagittal dilator.
- Huh?
Quickly, damn it!
Oh!
Hernial contractions! Scalpel.
I said, scalpel!
Not you again.
Trevor, you looked
better before.
You don't know what you're doing.
That thing...
Is your salvation, and mine.
It is the everywhere, the
everything, the every all!
You!
You drove it out!
All right, you got it.
You got what you wanted.
So you answer to no one.
Are you out of your mind?
The only reason I don't shoot you has
nothing to do with duty or principle.
It's simply a matter
of knowing who I am.
Is that why you won't let it see you?
Why you can't bear the gaze?
Because you've done
terrible things.
Then there are the transgressions
you never even knew you committed.
Those are the worst because
those you can never forget.
All you can do is suspect.
I'm not in the habit of arguing
over the colour of red herrings.
Help me save your friend.
Maybe you were wrong
to have shot him.
Just check his breathing.
Celia.
You didn't look in
the box, did you?
Just keep breathing.
- What's so funny?
- I don't... Nothing.
- Am I making you uncomfortable?
- I'm fine.
No, I don't think so. See, I
think you just gave it away.
You laughed but you
caught yourself.
Why? Because you're conscious of it. You
didn't drive it out. It's still here.
I forgot something.
You can't hide from it,
Aeon, it's everywhere.
What? Now this is odd.
What?
Get out!
This is all wrong.
It must still be down there.
And it knows we have its
best interests at heart.
Let it go.
Funny how things work out.
No! Don't let go!
- Trevor, I can't keep...
- Don't let go!
If but the cosmos could possibly have
come about innocent of history...
and not wholly ignorant
of all its potential.
- Celia!
- Unprejudiced but aware.
Nader!
- You didn't look in the box, did you?
- No.
- I didn't see it.
- It?
Yes. No. I didn't look.
I never saw it.
Rather than that its only
trial be performed...
at the mercy of all its error.