current guest in room 2426:
martin decker, theoretical biochemist.
checked in for observation a week ago.
it seems he was displaying antisocial behavior,
wrong thinking, and other intellectual crimes
against the state.
schizophrenia.
curable only by intense therapy sessions
followed by a full confession and disclosure of the facts.
once cured, martin will be released
or buried.
i have a feeling we'll be seeing a breakthrough
in his therapy soon.
how are you feeling?
it's none of your damn business.
let's have a look.
he is not fit to be released as yet.
he needs another treatment
or two.
you could make things simple
by telling us where the notebooks are.
notebooks? what notebooks?
oh, dear.
we'll have to start all over again.
the notebooks!
you'll never see them.
you're willing to suffer for a few sheets of paper?
a few chicken scratches in ink?
it's only a new way to kill grasshoppers.
you make a modification here, a little adjustment there
and then you can annihilate millions of human beings.
why do research if you never intend to use it?
i'm a scientist.
you wouldn't understand this
but there are people who believe
that ideas have an innate
intrinsic value.
we believe that ideas have value—
values when applied to the service of the state.
until then, they're just
worthless, abstract, theoretical equations.
come, dr. decker, surely you must have known
how this might be put to use.
i was blinded by the research grants and the awards
and my pride in my work.
i thought of the bacteria
as a way to wage war on famine and hunger.
then i realized, in your hands
it would just be a way to wage war
and you don't have a right to knowledge like that.
that's where you're wrong, dr. decker.
we have a right to all knowledge.
why don't you just write down the processes?
it would save us all a lot of trouble
and you a lot of pain.
i couldn't do it if i wanted to.
it took years...
where have you hidden the books?
i see this
will be a useless discussion any further.
that's totally wrong.
come on, martin.
your pragmatism blinds you.
there are many things which are important
yet cannot be measured in any scientific way.
avery, youtaught me to be pragmatic
and to insist on empirical data.
as a scientist, yes
but as a human being, it is also your job to dream
to believe, to be committed to great truths
besides the physical laws.
what truths?
that knowledge is power.
that there is inherent value in a human life.
great thoughts don't come from minds in shackles.
what about gandhi?
he thought his best thinking in prison.
only his body was in prison.
his mind was free.
here's a playmate for you.
there.
they're gone now.
thanks.
it looks like you're going to live.
can i have some more?
there isn't any more till morning.
what?
you gave me the last?
that's all i'll be able to give you.
you're on your own now.
i had no idea it was going to be this hard.
it gets worse.
what did you do to get thrown in here?
sleep with some bureaucrat's wife?
wish i would have thought of that.
it would have been the easy way.
but i like the image of the outsider
fighting against impossible odds.
kind of like you.
what do you know about me?
a lot.
in a sense, we're brothers.
you're not my brother.
you don't know anything about me.
i know enough.
oh, really?
i know about the notebooks.
who sent you?
friends.
your sacrifice has not gone unnoticed.
you have allies who think as you do.
i'm here to help you escape.
escape?
you're a fool.
the security at this so-called hospital is notorious.
no one gets over the walls.
oh, yes, the walls, of course.
there are other ways
i can help you escape safely.
how do we do this?
we fly?
your skepticism doesn't surprise me.
you will find it hard to believe,
but i've been trained to use my mind
differently from you.
i can go anywhere i want to.
no walls can contain me.
i think dr. ostroff
has given you one too many treatments.
go ahead, laugh.
but teletransportation
is a reality.
teletransportation—
teletransportation is the fevered fantasy
of a very disturbed individual
with whom i happen to be locked up.
you're a lunatic.
it does sound ridiculous, doesn't it?
yes, yes.
that sums it up very well.
is it so ridiculous to think men can transport themselves
with the powers of their minds?
when they already use a simple beam of light
to carve holes in granite
and knock satellites from the sky?
shining a beam of light from here to there
is very different from teletransporting matter.
is it?
mr. decker, the doctor will see you now.
i can't believe we're here.
see how simple it is?
it's been so long
i forgot what the real world was like.
and all you had to do was believe.
really believe.
dr. where are the notebooks?
are there copies?
where are the notebooks?
where did you hide them?
are there copies?
turn it up.
where are the notebooks?
are there copies?
tell me about the girl.
she was very beautiful.
she sat right next to me.
i could almost touch her.
i don't want to think about it.
it was a drug-induced dream.
another one of dr. ostroff's tricks.
we can't let him beat us.
let's finish our chess game.
maybe that will keep us focused.
bishop to queen four.
bishop takes pawn.
your move.
rook to king seven.
check.
all right.
good move.
let's see.
king to, uh...
knight... knight.
i can't.
i just can't see the board anymore.
i want to help you, friend
but i'm not sure i can hold out much longer.
then go.
go!
take a walk on the beach
or spend the night in a woman's arms.
leave me alone!
i can't.
i have a mission.
unless i get you out of here
i've failed.
you are not the only one with convictions.
idiot.
they've gotten to you.
they're making you believe these damned dreams.
they're illusions. let them go.
it's you they've gotten.
you've lost your faith, your imagination.
i can get us out.
we can be free.
just answer me this.
why didn't you just appear here in the first place?
why were you physically thrown in here?
for them. For the people who run this place.
i knew you'd be hard to convince.
and i knew i had to spend time here.
but i can't do it alone.
to get you out of here
i need your cooperation
your faith, your belief.
just leave me alone.
i don't want to share in your insanity.
you don't need to suffer like this.
please stop.
just listen.
all it takes is belief.
all right, all right.
let's just say for a moment
that i believe.
how do you do it?
how do you transcend matter?
like all great truths, it's profound yet simple.
you believe with all of your being
that you are in another place
and you are.
just like that?
only if you truly believe.
what does it feel like?
it's kind of hard to describe.
it's kind of...
well, the closest thing i can think of...
it's like falling asleep, feeling weightless.
what if something goes wrong?
at least you won't be here.
well, i'll do anything to get out of here
so you just tell me and i'll do it.
all right, close your eyes.
you believe, don't you?
yes, i believe it.
i believe.
fine.
how do i know where i'm going?
i'll guide us in our journey.
just let yourself go.
you'll be safe.
just let go.
it's a safe place where no one can find us.
a room above a boulevard.
a safe place.
a safe place...
tea?
what is this place?
it's a safehouse.
please, you mustn't do that.
we can't risk your being seen
from the street.
there are more lives
at stake than just yours.
come sit down.
we'll have a cup of tea.
the first time is always a little disorienting.
why did you do that?
i just wanted to make sure that it wasn't a dream.
you convinced?
i can't believe we did it.
we got out.
but how is that possible?
i have to understand the mechanics of this.
it has to be some kind of biochemical energy exchange.
how do you work it?
you made it work.
yes, i did, didn't i?
but how?
in due time.
sit down.
we have more important business.
what could be more important
than a scientific breakthrough like this?
we've got to destroy the notebooks.
i'll have to go get them.
no, that would be too risky.
it's broad daylight.
i'll wait till nightfall.
no, it can't wait. tell me where and i'll get them.
no, it's too important to trust anybody with.
besides, what if somebody sees you?
i'm a mere flea on the system's back.
but you're known, a real threat.
by now, every cop on the corner
knows who you are.
all right, all right.
give me a pencil.
you'll have to go to the university
and you go to this room in the biochemistry building.
behind the lectern, in the wall
there's a false panel
and the notebook is there.
i won't let you down.
good work.
he was hardly a challenge.
these idealists are always such dreamers.
he's gone.
there's no sign of him.
close all the exits!
you understand that if he's not found
you will be held fully responsible.
but it was just a trick.
he couldn't have actually done it.
as man has progressed up from the mud and down from the trees
his best tool has always been logical thought.
that tool has taken us in a grand arc
from the first flint against steel
to the apocalypse of colliding atoms.
what martin decker, man of science, has learned
is that every once in a while
we must step out of the confines of logic
and take a leap of faith into the twilight zone.