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这个男人来自地球
目录
英语对话(上)
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英语对话(下)
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英语对话(上)
Hey,
buddy. You don't waste time, do you?
I try not to.
Well, you need help?
Sure.
Would you
like to tell us... what the hell that was all
about?
I don't like good-
byes.
Kind
of
the
point
of
a
goodbye
party,
John.
Went
to
a
certain
amount
of
trouble,
you
know? Could've at least stayed a few minutes, huh?
Eaten some of the food
we so feverishly
prepared?
I apologize,
Harry.
But why are you
moving so quickly? You only resigned a couple of
days ago.
You got the
history chair at Stanford.
I wish.
Well,
taquitos,
chicken
wings,
Roastie-toasties
and
beer.
If
we'd
had
more
time,
We'd
have
done
something
a
little
more
grandiose.
Candlelight
dinner
at
Mcdonald's. Strippers.
Taquitos are fine.
A'right.
Art's
gonna be along, too.
He's,
uh, talking to a student. Pfft.
Is George taking over for you?
2
/
126
George or Trimbell
–
Has the Dean made up his
mind?
He hasn't called.
My
god!
Wh-What
is
this?
It
looks
like
a
Van
Gogh,
But
I've
never
seen
it
before.
Is that an original, John?
No, it's just a gift someone gave me.
Still, it's a superb copy.
Contemporaneous, I think, May I take a closer
look?
Please, yeah.
Yeah, it's the same
stretcher as Van Gogh used.
Yeah, there's writing on the back in
french.
Oh,
Wonder who that was?
Someone he knew, I guess.
Brilliant deduction, sherlock.
Surely you'll have this
looked at, appraised?
Well,
maybe sometime,
But I
wouldn't really want money for it.
That does it.
Put that stuff in the kitchen.
No, I'm gonna put it in the
bathroom, John.
Gas is off,
electricity's on.
Get
comfortable while you can.
The furniture's going this afternoon.
It's been years since I sat
on a floor.
3
/
126
Heh. I can't remember her name.
Eh, it's good for the back.
Can we do yoga exercises?
Tantric yoga, we can.
( Chuckles )
So you're leaving good old
Rather suddenly, you must admit.
Truth time, John.
Is there a problem?
No.
Oh, come on, you know we wanna help.
That's appreciated, but
really--
There's no
problem.
Well, now I am
curious.
Where are you
going?
Givin' up tenure...
a decade of professorship,
In line to chair the
department,
And you don't
know where you're going?
Call it cabin fever.
After a while, I get itchy feet.
I've done this before.
4
/
126
No, no, no, you're too young to have
done this before.
And he
hasn't aged a day in ten years.
Every woman on the faculty
Would give anything to have that
secret.
Is that what
they're after, Edith?
Oh,
stop, Harry.
( Giggles )
Wow, can you pull this?
What the hell?
What do you hunt?
Deer, mostly.
Around big bear.
With a bow and arrow?
Most people can't bag a deer
With a rifle and a
telescopic sight.
Though,
good eatin'.
The best wild
game.
Lives naturally, eats
naturally.
Well, it's
beautiful.
( Motor hums )
Art.
Ah.
5
/
126
So, can I get an
Oh, my gosh.
( Chuckles )
That was fun.
Hey, John.
You
know Linda. You had her last semester.
Hi. Hey.
She's
one of my victims now. I'm taking her home.
She wanted to come by and
say hello goodbye.
Is Art
as tough as I hear?
Oh,
archaeology's tough.
Dr.
Jenkins is a fine teacher.
Oh, that's very politic.
It's very true. Uh-huh.
Something for you to read on the road,
pal.
Author: M. Jenkins.
Publish or perish.
I'd rather read
Than write another one.
Thank you.
Hi.
6
/
126
Oh, everybody, this is Linda.
Linda, this is everybody.
Linda. Hi.
So.
Where you
going, John, like we give a damn?
We've already covered that.
John's got itchy feet.
There are over-the-counter remedies for
that, John.
( Laughs )
So there is a problem.
No.
I just like to move on now and then.
It's a personal thing.
Well, not to pry.
I'm sorry I don't have more
to offer you.
Got
conversation, some seats for your behinds,
And, uh...
Is he ducking out on us again?
...I do have this.
Oh ho ho! Johnny Walker
Green!
( Laughs ) didn't
even know they made it in green.
What do they pay you?
7
/
126
Nothing is too good for my friends.
But I'm sorry-- We are down
to plastic cups now.
That's
a sacrilege I'll tolerate.
I will do the honors.
Oh, come to papa.
Ooh! Here, cups, cups.
There we go.
Step on in here.
There ya go...
one for the birthday boy-- Excuse me.
Art?
No, not for me.
Oh, no, I don't drink.
( Laughs ) we're not gonna
card you, darling.
All
right, here, join the circle at least.
Well, to long life and good fortune
To our esteemed friend
And colleague, John Oldman.
May he find undeserved
bliss
Wherever he goes.
Here, here.
Skael. Na zdorovye.
One off the top, John.
8
/
126
Mm! Oh, that's good.
Excuse me.
John,
we're all sorry to see you go.
Truly.
Okay. Now
we're done with that,
What
do we do for the rest of the afternoon?
Anyone got a good topic?
Like this, maybe? Heh.
What is that?
It's a burin of a parrot beak.
Inclined chisel point...
probably early magdalenian.
May I see that? Sure.
Yes indeed, that's what it
is.
What's a burin?
A burin is a flint tool
For grooving wood and bone,
antlers especially,
To make
spear and harpoon points.
Magdalenians weren't noted for flint
work,
So this is a very
nice specimen.
Okay, what's
a magdalenian?
A later Cro-
magnon,
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/
126
Without gettin' technical.
It's the final culture of the upper
paleolithic.
If stones
could speak, eh, Art?
So
where'd you get that, John?
Believe it or not, from a thrift shop--
A quarter.
You lucky dog!
I gotta go digging for this
kind of stuff.
Can I,
uh...?
Yeah.
Huh.
Maybe...
I'm glad you did this.
Did what? You mean come
over?
Maybe?
Definitely.
Gee,
thanks.
Well, so are we. So
are we.
We couldn't let you
just run off.
Thanks.
John, what is up, huh?
Are you on america's
most wanted?
We won't
turn you in.
10
/
126
Yeah, come on, out with it.
You're among friends.
Snoopy friends.
Forget it.
You
are creating the mystery here.
Obviously, you have something you'd
like to say. Say it!
Well,
maybe I...
ten, nine,
eight, seven...
Harry,
stop.
There is something
I'm tempted to tell you, I think.
I've never done this before, and I
wonder how it'll pan out.
( Harry chuckles )
I wonder
if I could ask you a silly question.
John, we're teachers.
We answer silly questions all the time.
Hey!
What if a man from the upper
paleolithic
Survived until
the present day?
What do
you mean, survived?
Never
died?
Yes. What would he be
like?
Well, I know some
guys.
11
/
126
You ever been to the ozarks?
It's an interesting idea.
What, are you working on a
science fiction story?
Say
I am. What would he be like?
Pretty tired.
(
Laughter )
Well, seriously,
As Art's book title
suggests,
He might be like
any of us.
Dan. A caveman?
Well, there's no anatomical
difference
Between, say, a
Cro-magnon and us.
Except
that as a rule, we've grown taller.
What's the selective advantage of
height?
Better to see
predators in tall grass, my dear.
Actually, tall and skinny
Radiates heat more effectively in
warmer climates.
And as for
neanderthals,
I mean, we've
all seen apish people.
That
strain's still with us.
But
he'd be a caveman.
No, he
wouldn't.
12
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126
John's hypothetical man
Would have lived through 140
centuries...
yeah, roughly.
...and changed with every
one of them.
I mean,
assuming normal intelligence.
Well, we think men of the upper
paleolithic
Were as
intelligent as we are.
They
just didn't know as much.
John's man would have learned as the
race learned.
In fact, if
he had an inquiring mind,
His knowledge might be astonishing.
If you do write that, let
me have a look at it.
I'm
sure you'll make some anthropological boners.
It's a deal.
What would keep him alive?
What does the biologist say?
Cigarettes.
And ice cream. ( Laughs )
All right, all right, I'll play.
All right, um, in science
fiction terms,
I
would
say...
perfect
regeneration
of
the
body's
cells,
Especially
in
the
vital
organs.
13
/
126
Actually, the human body appears
designed
To live about 190
years.
Most of us just die
of slow poisoning.
Maybe he
did something right,
Something everybody else in history had
done wrong.
What, like eat
the food,
Drink the water,
and breathe the air?
Prior
to modern times,
Those were
pristine.
We've extended
our lifespan in a world that's, uh...
not fit to live in.
You know, it could happen.
The pancreas turns over cells every 24
hours,
The stomach lining
in three days,
The entire
body in seven years,
But
the process falters.
Waste
accumulates, eventually proves fatal to function.
Now if a quirk in his
immune system
Led to
perfect detox,
Perfect
renewal, then yeah.
He
could duck decay.
Mm,
that's a secret we'd all love to have.
14
/
126
Would you really want to do that?
Live 14,000 years?
Well, if I could stay
healthy and I didn't age,
I
mean, why not?
Yeah. What a
chance to learn.
Is anyone
hungry?
You know, the more
I think about it, yeah, it's possible.
Anything is possible, right?
After all, one century's
magic, another century's science.
They thought Columbus was a nut job,
right?
Pasteur, Copernicus?
Aristarchus long before
that.
Right.
I had a chance to sail with columbus,
Only I'm not the
adventurous type.
I was
pretty sure the earth was round,
But at that point, I still thought
He might fall off an edge
someplace...
look around,
John.
We just did.
I suppose there's a joke in
there somewhere,
But I
don't get it.
15
/
126
There's nothing to get.
What are we talking about?
We were just talking about a caveman
Who survives until the
present time.
As you said,
what a chance to learn,
Once I learned to learn.
Did you start the whiskey before we got
here?
Pretend it's science
fiction.
Figure it out.
Okay, a--( Laughs )-- Very
old Cro-magnon
Living until
the present.
( Grunts
loudly )
Oh!
( Laughing )
What?
John just
confided that he's 14,000 years old.
Oh, John, you don't look a day over
900.
Okay, okay.
All right, spock, I'll play
your little game.
What do
you want? What's the punch line?
Every ten years or so, when people
start
To notice I don't
age, I move on.
16
/
126
That's very good, that's very quick,
John.
I wanna read that
story when you're done.
You
want more?
By all means.
This is great.
All right,
now...
( laughs )
So you think that you are
a... a, uh, Cro-magnon.
Well, I didn't learn it in school.
That's my best guess,
Based on archaeological
data, maps, anthropological research.
Since mesopotamia,
I've got the last... 4,000 years
straight.
You're ahead of
most people, so please, go on.
Well, you know the background stuff,
So I'll make it brief.
In what I call my first
lifetime,
I aged to about
35...
what you see.
I ended up leading my
group.
They saw me as
magical.
I didn't even have
to fight for it.
Then fear
came, and they chased me away.
17
/
126
They thought that I was
Stealing their lives away to stay
young.
The prehistoric
origin of the vampire myth.
That is good!
First thousand years,
I didn't know up from sideways.
How do you know the first
thousand years?
An informed
guess, based on what
I've
learned in my memories.
Most people can scarcely remember their
childhood,
But you have
memories of that time?
Like
yours, selective.
You know,
the high points, the low points, traumas.
They stick in the mind
forever.
Put down at 3 or
35, you still feel a twinge.
Go on.
I kept
getting chased because I wouldn't die,
So I got the hang of joining new groups
I found.
I also got the
idea of periodically moving on.
We were semi-Nomadic, of course,
Following the weather and
the game we hunted.
The
first 2,000 years were cold.
18
/
126
We learned it was warmer at lower
elevations.
Late glacial
period, I assume.
What was
the terrain like?
Mountainous.
Vast plains to the west.
West--Something you learned in school.
Towards the setting sun.
I suspect I saw the british
isles
From what is now the
french coast.
Huge
mountains...
on the other
side of an enormous deep valley
That was shadowed by the setting sun.
This is before they were
separated
From the
continent by rising seas, as glaciers melted.
That happened?
Yes, the end of the pleistocene.
So far, what he says fits.
Oh, yeah, into any
textbook.
And that's where
I found it.
How can I have
knowledgeable recall
If I
didn't have knowledge?
It's
all retrospective.
19
/
126
All I can do is integrate my
recollections
With modern
findings.
Caveman, you
gonna hit me over the head with a club
And drag me into the bedroom?
You'd be more fun
conscious.
Oh, John.
Let me get this straight.
We're not talking about
reincarnation.
You're not
saying that you remember
Whatever the hell it would be,
200 separate lifetimes,
dying
And being born again
and yada yada?
One
lifetime.
Some lifetime.
Wow.
Maybe there is something to this
reincarnation thing.
You're
supposed to come back
Again
and again, learn and learn,
And somehow, John, you just managed
To bypass all the other
bodies.
Well, what's the
point?
What about oceans?
20
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126
Didn't see them till much later.
So how would you know an
ocean from a lake?
Big
waves-- Something else
I
can only surmise in retrospect.
Were you curious about where it all
came from?
We would look up
at the sky and wonder.
What else made
all this down here?
At first
I thought
There was
something wrong with me--
Maybe I was a bad guy for not dying.
Then I began to wonder if I
was cursed
Or perhaps
blessed.
Then I thought
maybe I had a mission.
Do
you still think you do?
God
works in mysterious ways.
I
think I just happened.
(
Phone ringing )
( Laughs )
Wow.
Hello?
Yes,
ellie?
21
/
126
What's wrong?
Sandy?
Coming.
Yeah?
Do we have ellie's midterm here?
Yeah, sorry.
I picked it up with the periodicals.
Got it.
No, you're worried about your parents?
Don't--Don't worry. You
passed, c+. Take care of yourself. Good kid. What
does
pre-Med need with history?
Got it.
Thank you.
Sorry, guys.
John, please continue.
Come on, I thought we were done with
that.
No! Let's go on with
it.
It's interesting.
Besides, I think he's
making a certain amount of sense.
Like hegel
—
Logic
from absurd premises.
That
Van Gogh?
He gave it to me.
I was, uh, jacque bourne at
the time,
22
/
126
A pig farmer.
A
pig farmer?
( Laughing )
I like to work with my
hands.
He would come out to
the place, paint.
We talked
about capturing nature in Art.
Turner, cezanne, pissarro.
Oh, the nolde landscapes.
Not in Van Gogh's time.
He would have loved them, though.
Yes.
Well, I don't understand
Why you can't remember where you're
from.
Geography hasn't
changed.
I learned that
in--
Professor hensen's
tepid lectures.
But you're
right.
Where did you live
when you were five years old?
Little rock.
Your mother, she took you to the
market?
Mm-hmm. What
direction was it?
From your
house.
23
/
126
I don't know.
How far?
Um,
three blocks.
Were there
any references
That stuck
in your mind?
Well, there
was a gas station
And a big
field.
I was told I could
never go there alone.
And
if you went back there today,
Would it be the same?
No. I'm sure it's all different and
built up.
Thus the saying--
Because it isn't there
anymore.
Picture it on my
scale--
I migrated through
an endless flat space
Full
of endless new things--
Forests, mountains, tundra, canyons.
My memory sees what I saw
then.
My eye sees freeways,
urban sprawl,
Big macs
under the eiffel tower.
Early on, the world got bigger and
bigger,
And then...
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/
126
think what I've had to unlearn.
And now you're moving on.
As you've said, there's
talk of my not aging,
And
when that happens, I move on.
Well, it might make sense to set up
your next identity,
Your
next ten years, and then just drop into it.
I've done that a few times,
Even passed as my own son.
You're ben's son. He was a good
man.
Saves trouble with
credentials and references.
On the other hand, I've been busted a
few times.
Spent a year in
jail, Belgium, 1862--
I
won't forget that--
For
faking a government application.
When'd you come to america?
1890, right after Van Gogh's death,
With some french
immigrants...
moving on.
An answer for every
question.
Except one, John.
Why're you doing this?
25
/
126
A whim. Maybe not such a good idea.
I... wanted to say goodbye
to you as me,
Not what you
thought I was.
Well, since
this isn't funny,
We think
you might have a problem.
A
very serious problem.
I've
got boxes to move.
I'll
give you a hand.
Wouldn't
you have some relic, an artifact
To remind you of your early life?
Like this, maybe?
Thrift shop.
Really.
If you
lived 100... 1,000 years...
would you still have this?
What would cause you to keep it?
As a memento to your
beginnings,
Even if you
didn't have
The concept of
beginnings?
It would be
gone, lost.
No.
I don't have artifacts.
26
/
126
Keep that.
Interesting.
You
could have lied about that.
Don't talk about me while I'm gone.
Is he serious?
If he is, I'm sorry to say he's...
oh, how could he have
concealed that for ten years?
Least he doesn't appear to be
dangerous.
What are you
doing?
Checkin' for a
hidden mic.
Candid
camera.
He's
fabricating these wild stories.
I've never seen him acting like this.
Oh, it's crazy.
All right, all right, as soon as you
can, then.
I love you, you
know.
I know.
Since my first week at the office.
And?
I care very much about you,
But now you know what you'd be getting
into.
Do you really think
you're a caveman?
27
/
126
Do you?
Could
you love me,
Or don't you
believe in that anymore?
I've gotten over it too many times.
Fond of you...
certainly attracted to you.
That's it?
I can
work with that.
If what I'm
saying is true,
You and any
children will age.
I won't.
And one day I'll leave.
You'll go back to your May-
December romances.
The
simple fact is
That I can't
give you forever.
How
long's forever?
Who ever
really has it?
My parents
split up before I was born,
And then my mom's next marriage lasted
What, a whole three years?
Then there's death,
illness, acts of god...
no
one knows how long they have.
28
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126
Or how little.
I
love you.
Take whatever you
can get.
Like ten years?
Ah! Ha ha ha!
( Yells )
Uhn!
Oh.
Why did you do that?
I wanted to see how fast you were.
Check your reflexes.
I
don't have eyes in the back of my head,
I can't hear a flea
walking,
I am not in any
way superman.
Well, I'm a
second-degree black belt.
Give it another thousand years.
Well. I got it, I got it, I
got it.
Jesus.
Smooth demonstration, Harry.
Sit on it, Dan.
I still have questions.
I-I do too, John.
I mean, are we done with prehistory
yet?
29
/
126
Remember any of your original language?
A little. One thing hasn't
changed much...
( wolf
whistles )
Did you ever do
any cave Art?
Do you know
the rock Art at les eyzies?
Mm-hmm.
It was
the work of a man named...
giraud.
He did a
pretty good job.
He would
draw the animals
That we
hoped to find to eat.
One
day after a fruitless hunt,
Our chief stomped his teeth out
Because his magic had
failed him.
After that,
someone had to chew his food for him.
Finally, he got-- I suspect--
An infected jaw,
And he was abandoned.
That's awful.
You have to know what to kill.
Is this why all your
students
Say your knowledge
of history is...
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/
126
so amazing?
No,
that's mostly based on study.
Remember, it's one man, one place at a
time,
My solitary viewpoint
Of a world I knew almost
nothing about.
Well, let's
talk about
What you say you
do know about--
Historical
times.
Don't encourage him.
Edith.
Next few thousand years, it got warmer.
A few thousand years--
See, now, I know you're
guessing.
You can't get
there from here, Art.
Well
then, pray, continue.
We
hunted reindeer, mammoths--
Bison, horses,
The game retreated northward
As the climate changed,
You got the idea of growing
food
Rather than gathering
it,
Raising animals rather
than hunting them.
31
/
126
Am--Am I getting warm, here?
I bet I am.
Lakeside living becomes commonplace,
Fishing, fowling-- Come on!
John, this is out of any
textbook.
Even yours.
You got most of it right.
Eventually I headed to the
east.
I'd grown curious
about the world.
I'd gotten
the hang of going it alone,
Learning how to fit in when I wanted
to.
East.
Towards the rising sun?
Yes. I thought it might be warmer
there.
That's when I saw an
ocean.
The mediterranean,
probably.
It was around the
beginning of the bronze age,
So I followed the trade routes from the
east,
Copper, tin,
Learning languages as I
went.
Everywhere, creation
myths,
New gods, so many,
so different.
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/
126
I finally realized that it
was...
probably all
hogwash,
So I was sumerian
for 2,000 years,
Then
finally babylonian under hammurabi.
Great man.
And I
sailed as a phoenician for a time.
See, moving on had been easier as a
Hunter-Gatherer...
difficult when villages emerged,
Tougher still in city
states where authority was centralized.
Strangers were suspect.
It seemed as though I was
always moving on.
I learned
some new tricks--
Even
faked my death a couple of times.
I continued east
To india,
Luckily at the time of the Buddha.
Luckily.
Most extraordinary man I've ever known.
He taught me things
I'd never thought about
before.
You studied... with
the Buddha?
Until he died.
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126
He knew there was something different
about me.
I never told him.
This is fascinating.
I almost wish it were true.
Yeah, if it was true, why
are you telling us?
I mean,
we might leave here today,
Go out there, tell everybody.
It would vanish in
disbelief.
A story that
goes around the room.
No
credibility.
Even if I
could make you believe me,
In a month, you wouldn't.
Some of you would call me a psychopath,
Others would be angry at a
pointless joke.
Some of us
are angry now.
This
—
This was a
bad idea.
Uh, I love you
all, and I do not want
To
put you through anything.
Then why are you doing it?
'Cause I wanted to say goodbye--
As yourself.
I think you've done that,
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Whoever that self is.
Easy, Edith.
We're just grading his homework.
I see what's going on.
You're playing the good cop, Dan.
That's fine. Just enjoy it.
All right, I think this whole thing is
just a crock!
I should
leave, but I'm gonna stay.
You know why? 'Cause I wanna see what
this is all about.
So do I.
What is this all about?
Let's ask Dr. Freud, who's just
arrived.
Hey, will! Will!
Art. Hey.
John!
I'm glad I
caught you.
Someone
mentioned that you were leaving--
Called you, told you that I've lost it.
Glad you're here. Things
are going in unexpected directions.
Yes, so I hear.
Hi.
Are you
hungry?
Uh, thank you, no.
Whiskey? Johnny walker
green.
35
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126
Oh, yes.
(
Closes door )
You look very
familiar, my dear. Linda murphy.
I'm in your Tuesday psych 1 class, Dr.
Gruber.
Ah, well, this
lesson may be something
I
could not have imagined.
I
regret being so obvious about this, John,
But these people are all
very concerned for you.
Yes, I'm cutting out paper dinosaurs.
I really wish I'd been here
from the beginning.
Me too.
Let me just say something
right now.
There's
absolutely no way in the whole world
For John to prove this story to us,
Just like there's no way
for us to disprove it.
No
matter how outrageous we think it is,
No matter how highly trained some of us
think we are,
There's
absolutely no way to disprove it.
Our friend is either a caveman, a liar,
or a nut.
So while we're
thinking about that,
Why
don't we just go with it?
I
mean, hell, who knows,
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126
He might jolt us into believing him,
Or we might jolt him back
to reality.
Believing?
Whose reality?
So... you're
a caveman.
Yes. Uh...
uh, I was a Cro-magnon,
I think.
You don't know
if you're a caveman or not?
No, I'm sure about that.
A Cro-magnon, then.
When did you first realize this?
When the Cro-magnon was
first identified,
When
anthropology gave them a name,
I had mine.
Well, please continue.
I'm sure you must have more to say.
Would you like me to lie on
the couch?
( Laughs ) as
you wish.
As a physician,
I'm curious.
In this
enormous lifetime you describe,
Have you ever been ill?
Sure, as much as anyone.
Seriously ill?
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126
Sometimes.
Of
what? Do you know?
In
prehistory, I can't tell you.
Maybe pneumonia once or twice.
Last few hundred years,
I've gotten over typhoid,
yellow fever,
Smallpox...I
survived the black plague.
Bubonic?
Oh,
that's terrible.
More so
than history describes.
And
smallpox
—
But you're not
scarred.
I don't scar.
No, John, that is not
possible.
Please, let's
take John's story
At face
value and explore it from that perspective.
If he doesn't scar, it's no
stranger than the rest.
John, would you please stop by my lab,
Suffer a few tests from
Your friendly neighborhood
biologist.
I'm leery of
labs.
Afraid I might go in
and stay for a thousand years
While cigarette smoking men try to
figure me out.
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126
You don't think that I would betray
you?
Walls have ears.
Medical tests might be a
way of proving what you say.
I don't wanna prove it.
So you're telling us this,
The yarn of the century,
And you don't care if we believe it or
not?
I guess I shouldn't
have expected you to.
You're not as crazy as you think I am.
Amen.
I've always liked you.
Why, thank you, dear.
Now that's changing.
Surely you don't believe this nonsense.
I think we should remain
courteous to someone
Who
we've known and trusted, Edith.
Here you sit
—
You
can't break his story.
All
you can do is thumb your nose at it.
Is that what you're doing, John?
Are you laughing at us
inside?
I wish you didn't
feel that way.
What you're
saying-- It offends common sense.
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126
So does relativity, quantum mechanics--
That's the way nature
works.
But your story
doesn't fit into nature as we know it.
But we know so little, Dan.
We know so little.
How many of you know
Five geniuses in your field
That you disagree with...
one you would like to strangle?
Strangle them all.
It's bad enough we have to
listen
To Harry's idiotic
jokes.
Thank you very much,
Edith.
Maybe when I'm 110,
I'll be as smart as you are.
If you lived as long as John did,
You still wouldn't grow up.
Come on, guys. Take it
easy.
How often do we get
to meet someone
Who says
he's a stone age man?
Well,
once is enough.
Edith.
All right. A guy with your
mind--
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126
You'd have studied a great deal.
I have ten degrees,
including all of yours...
except yours, will.
That makes me feel a trifle
lilliputian.
That's over
the span of 170 years.
I
got my biology degree at oxford in 1840,
So I'm a little behind the
times.
The same in other
areas--
I can't keep up
with the new stuff that comes along.
No one can.
Not
even in their specialty.
So
much for the myth
Of the
super-wise, all-knowing immortal.
I see your point, John. No matter how
long a man lives, He can't be in advance
of his times.
He
can't know more than the best of the race knows,
If that--I mean, when the
world learned it was round,
You learned it.
It took some time.
News traveled slowly
Before communications were fancy.
There were social
obstacles,
41
/
126
Preconceptions, screams from the
church.
Ten doctorates.
That's impressive, John.
Did you teach them?
Some.
You might have all done the
same.
Living 14,000 years
didn't make me a genius.
I
just had time.
Time.
We can't see it, we can't
hear it,
We can't weigh it,
we can't measure it in a laboratory.
It's a subjective sense of becoming
What we are instead of what
we were a nanosecond ago,
Becoming what we will be in another
nanosecond.
The hopis see
time as a landscape,
Existing before and behind us,
And we move
—
We move through it,
Slice by slice.
Clocks measure time.
No, they measure themselves.
The objective referent of
clock is another clock.
How
very interesting. What has it got to do with John?
Oh,
he
—
He might be a man
42
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126
Who lives outside of time as we know
it.
Yes, uh, well.
People do go around armed
these days.
If I shot you,
John-- You're immortal?
Would you survive this?
I never said I was immortal, just old.
I might die.
And then you could wonder
The rest of your incarcerated life what
you shot.
Well, uh, may I?
( Sighs )
Preferable to a gun.
Will, that was a bit much.
Ooh. Books.
Doctorates.
Yes,
you have grown and changed.
But there is always innate nature.
Wouldn't you be more
comfortable
Squatting in
the backyard?
Sometimes I
do, will.
Look up at the
stars.
Wonder.
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126
And what did primitive man make of
them?
A great mystery.
There were gods up there
then.
Shamans who knew
about them told us.
They
still do.
Have you ever
wished it would end?
No.
Fourteen thousand years.
Injuries, illness,
disasters.
You've survived
them all.
You're a very
lucky man.
( Knocks )
Come in.
John Oldman?
Yes.
Charity
now. We're here to pick up the furniture.
It's all yours.
Here, take this chair.
I'm gonna go drink in the corner.
You're, uh... you're
donating it?
Everything?
I'll get more.
44
/
126
Do you always travel this light?
It's the only way to move.
Oh, you--
You've talked a good deal
About your extraordinary amount of
living.
What do you think
of dying, John?
Do you fear
death?
Who wouldn't?
How did primitive man
regard death?
Well, we had
the practical concept.
You
know, we stopped,
Fell
down, didn't get up,
Started to smell bad, come apart.
Injuries we could
understand--
If someone's
insides were all over the ground.
Infections...
they were, uh, mysterious.
Aging...
the
biggest mystery of all.
You
realized you were different.
Longer to realize how I was
different,
To find a
way to synthesize
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126
My experience into a view of myself.
At first, I thought
everybody had
Something
wrong with them.
They got
old and they died, animals, too...
but not me.
(
Coughs pointedly )
Oh,
forgive me, my dear.
You
live simply.
I've owned
castles, but why leave a lot
If you're always leaving?
I have money.
What, you get into at&t at 50 cents,
John?
As one grows older,
The days, weeks, months go
by more quickly.
What does
a day or a year
Or a
century mean to you?
The
birth-death cycle?
Turbulence.
I
meet someone,
Learn their
name, say a word, they're gone.
Others come like waves. Rise, fall.
Ripples in a wheat field,
blown by the wind.
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126
Do you ever get tired of it all?
I get bored now and then.
They keep making the same
stupid mistakes over and over.
Hey.
Then you
see yourself
As separate
from the rest of humanity.
I didn't mean it that way.
But of course...
I am.
(
Chuckles )
Are you
comfortable knowing that you have lived
While everyone you knew--
Everyone you knew, John!--
Has died?
I've
regretted losing people...
often.
Have you
ever felt guilt about that--
Something akin to survivor's guilt?
In the strict psychological
sense?
I suppose I have.
Yeah.
But what can I do about it?
Indeed.
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/
126
I'm sorry, ma'am.
Gentlemen, I'm-- I'm gonna keep the
couch.
Thanks.
Ladies? Will? Oh, no...
you've got a heart condition. Don't
grump about it.
Hey, how
about changing the subject, will?
Enough with the-- With the dying.
But this is the flip side
of his coin, Harry.
I'm
very curious to know his feelings.
Would you prefer I asked him about his
father?
I thought you
always started with
Yes, but
prehistory was strongly patriarchal.
Surely you remember your father.
I seem to remember a
figure,
Perhaps an older
brother, a social father, maybe.
Well, no matter.
I can scarcely remember mine.
Do you feel a vacancy
In your life about that,
John,
Something you wish
could be filled
By a face,
a voice, an image?
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/
126
Not at this late date.
There must be someone-- Probably many--
That you valued intensely.
Loved.
You saw them age and die--
A friend, a colleague, a wife.
Certainly you've had wives
and children?
I'd move on.
I had to move on.
Making him history's
biggest bigamist.
(
Chuckles softly )
Have you
ever in your life thought
Maybe.
Yeah, Art has told me
That some of your early
fellows
Feared you were
stealing their lives.
Have
you thought that perhaps you were?
Perhaps you are!
There have always been legends of such
a thing,
A creature not
quite human
Taking not the
blood, but the life force itself?
49
/
126
My god, will.
Unconsciously, perhaps,
By some biological or psychic mechanism
That we can only guess at.
I'm not saying you would do
such a thing deliberately.
I'm not saying that you would even know
how to...
would you?
But would such a thing be
fair?
So you believe me
now?
I'm only exploring
what you have said.
Whether
I believe it or not is of no importance.
We will die...
you will live.
Will you come to my funeral, John?
Hey, will...
you've gone too far.
John didn't ask to be what he is.
And we did not ask to hear
about it.
But if it were
true,
Is there one among us
who would not feel envy,
Even perhaps a touch of hatred?
You told us of yourself,
John.
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