Flatland (2007) Movie Script
You ready for your first
Sight Recognition lesson?
I guess so.
- What do you see when you look at me?
- A square.
Is that what you really see?
Uhm...
- Go on.
- A line?
- Is that all?
- Uhm...
What do you see at the edges of the line?
Look closer.
I see, like, shadings?
That's the ether. The Fog. It dims
the light the further away you are.
It's everywhere, so to children and
the uneducated it's nowhere, invisible.
That's why they have
to feel their way around,
touching people in order to
figure out who or what they are.
- Feelers are sticksville.
- That's right, that's right.
Now,
suppose two individuals are approaching.
A triangle... and a pentagon.
Which is which?
Ah ah ah! No touching!
If that were a real triangle you could
hurt yourself on his sharp angles!
Why can't I just walk around it?
That way I could see the shading easier.
Now, that's not done in polite company.
Sometimes when there are a lot of people
you can wiggle back and forth to triangulate,
but you don't want to go
all the way around someone.
- So you figure it out by
standing right where you are.
- Urgh!
- But how do I do it?
- Infer the shape through the shading.
- See?
- B Square! How are you?
Not bad, not bad. Is my brother in?
I can't do it!
Am I stupid?
- I must be a feeler!
- Sight recognition isn't easy,
I know, but it'll come to you...
Your brother is here!
- We'll continue the lesson in a moment.
- Do we have to?
- Wee! I got you!
- No you didn't!
- Yes I did!
- B Square!
- A Square!
What's this about representing A Line?
I haven't taken her case yet.
I'm meeting her this afternoon.
- But she's a Chromatist!
- Accused.
- Like five percent of the population.
- Of the male population.
- She's the first woman who's joined the...
- Just because you work at the ministry,
you can't go around accusing
people without evidence.
Oh, there's plenty of evidence, big brother.
Ah! So, another show trial.
Can't you talk any sense into your husband?
I might puncture some into him.
- Don't forget your Peace-cry!
You could be arrested!
- Right.
That's not funny.
Don't encourage her, B...
A Hexagon! How's my favorite nephew?
O.K.
What are you talking about?
Is it about Chromatism? Is it?
Chromatism is cool...
Where did he hear that?
- Go to your room!
- But my lesson!
- In your room!
- Oh, all right.
Can I get you anything B?
Well, I can't stay.Big doings this afternoon.
The President is going to
meet with Chromatistes.
- A concession?
- Just... don't go out for a while.
- That's why I came by, to warn you.
- But...
my client... I'm meeting her this afternoon.
- I never miss an appointment.
- Listen to your brother for once!
Sometimes even lines give
good advice, big brother.
- Attend to your Configuration.
- Attend to your Configuration.
President Circle! Sir! Where are you going?
Follow me,
we'll talk as we head for the Hospital.
The... Hospital of Reconfiguration?
Yes, yes,
the First Line had a child last night.
Something went wrong. An irregular side.
- I'm... so sorry sir...
- These things happen.
The Hospital has good doctors.
In fact I'm heading over now
to see my son for the very first time,
completely reconfigured by now!
- And your wife? Is she all right?
- Yes, of course,
in the recovery room.
But she picked a terrible time for a pregnancy.
The Chromatists... Senator Chromatistes...
The constant threat of war on the border...
- So, did you review my plan?
- Yes, sir...
- Problems?
- No, sir.
Good. And the speech?
- Brilliant, sir. Absolutely brilliant..
- Good.
What's wrong with Hex?
He doesn't seem interested in his lessons.
One of his older brothers told
him that he was reconfigured.
What?
Hex was making fun of them, taunting them...
Low class! Low Sided!
I think E Pentagon just wanted
to make him shut up.
- Now why did E go and do that?
- Hex was being pretty nasty.
There's no shame in reconfiguration.
It was a small genetic defect.
We should make Hex proud
that he's A Hexagon.
- The first in the family.
- Some humility would help
to temper that pride.
- Go talk to him.
- I will.
- Find the physician.
- Yes sir, Mister President, right away.
- So, B Square. Is everything in place?
- Yes, sir.
No doubt it's just year 3000 madness.
Color can't make us all equal.
It's morally repugnant.
- Mr. President.
- One moment, Doctor.
- Sir. I...
One moment. Affairs of State.
The evil of it is
so perfectly straightforward...
There is good and evil, B.
Why can't they see it?
- I can't explain such blindness, sir.
- Mr. President.
Sorry, to interrupt, but I must inform you.
Your son. He...
Oh no...
- I'm sorry, he didn't survive the procedure.
- Where's my son?
Son?! Where is he? Where's my son!
Son! Son!
- We did everything we could!
- Son! Where is he?
His body just couldn't take the procedure.
The deformity was too great!
Son! Son!
- How could you do this to him?
- We did try.
No, of course - you're all good men...
- Is there anything we can do for you sir?
- He didn't even have a name yet!
- A sad day!
- A terrible loss, sir
- The loss of a child...
- You have my sympathies, sir
- We should kill the
physicians for incompetence!
Please. Gentlemen.
One moment...
We all have to be brave.
Make sacrifices for the greater good.
Please, accept my apologies for my...
emotional outburst.
Of course, no problem sir,
totally understandable, how admirable!
- Perhaps we should postpone our plans...
- No. This country needs me,
especially now.
Grief is a luxury that a leader
cannot afford in these times.
We all must attend to our configurations.
Attend to your configuration.
Let's roll.
Okay, sorry about the delay. Your mother and I
had something to talk about and...
Son?
That is you, isn't it?
My son Hex with a.. a... purple side?
- I just figured out how to do it!
- Remove that coloration at once!
- But Dad!
- Son, society makes laws for a reason.
- You're old enough to know
that's against the law.
- If I was a circle I could change the law!
- But you're not a circle!
- Why can't I be more of a polygon?
I could have been a heptagon
if you'd been a pentagon!
- Why couldn't I have skipped
a side when I was born?
- Few are as many-sided as you, son.
Fewer still are certified Prist Circles.
And I wouldn't be so
impressed by them either.
- They aren't true circles.
- They aren't?
No, of course not.
Circles simply have lots and lots of sides.
Some have 36, some have 72, 360.
Now, those are the ones
that are the closest to the...
divine circularity that we all aspire to,
but none of us will
ever be able to achieve it.
Why do we have the ability
to colorize if we can't use it?
Hex, what am I to do with you?
Be satisfied with your configuration!
It's crazy to want more.
- You are what you are!
- Just leave me alone!
Noon News with Peter Pentagon.
- Noon! I'm late!
- We never finished my lesson.
- I'm gonna be a feeler forever.
- It will have to wait!
I never miss an appointment!
In other news, additional troops
are being deployed to the Northern
Border in a show of force...
Oh get a load of that one!
President Circle's arriving!
Attend your Configuration!
We have the right to color!
We have the right to color!
Attend to your Chromatization.
Attend to your Chromatization.
Attend to your Chromatization.
Attend to your Chromatization.
Attend to your Chromatization.
Attend to your Configuration!
Attend to your Configuration.
Attend to your Configuration.
Attend to your Configuration.
Attend to your Configuration.
Attend to your Chromatization.
Attend to your Chromatization.
Attend to your Configuration!
Attend to your Configuration!
- Hey watch it buddy!
- I'm not a Chromatist can't you see that!
- Eh, whadda ya in for?
- I wanna see my lawyer.
...What's in charge here?...
Careful, she's a Chromatist and a female.
Accused Chromatist.
Yeah, that's what they all say.
But she ain't no accused female.
She's very sharp and can kill you in a second.
Watch yourself.
If she gets out of line I'll be down the hall.
Ms. Line?
Ms. Line? I'm your court-appointed attorney.
I'm required by law to tell you that
I'm not obligated to take your case.
Is that understood?
- You must answer me if I'm to remain.
- I understand!
Good. Now, do you...
- wish to confess?
- Confess?
Your affiliation with the Chromatic Sedition?
My what? Is that what they said?
- Yeah.
- Do I look like a Chromatist?
But the arrest warrant states
that you were picked up as a...
I was arrested for failing
to use my Peace-cry.
- Well, Is that all?
- YES!
Well...
I'm afraid the charge just can't be changed.
So why are you here?
I know why I'm here, but why are you?
When you came in I was dreaming about...
I can't explain it.
There are no words.
A not-here, an else, a something else.
Elsewhere.
It wasn't here, it wasn't our world...
In my dream I thought,
so this isn't all there is?
I know. Crazy.
What else is there but here,
this... this Flatland?
- What did you say?
- Ugh! Nothing.
Why do you call the world Flatland?
I don't know. Because it's FLAT?
I don't see your point.
The world is a plane, of course it's flat.
I know, but in my dream...
Dreams? Dreams aren't admissible in court...
I don't see any angle I can take that
could possibly change your sentence.
- Which will be?
- Do you want to hear what the judge will say?
- His exact words?
- Yes!
Angles of sharpness will pierce and slice and
segment your person until you are dead, DEAD...
I'm sorry. Is there anyone?
- A husband, children?
- No, I'm alone!
Who am I? What am I?
Counselor, what are we here for?
To prepare your defense.
Maybe I'm nothing. Or will be soon.
So hey...
Why not simply do it for them now?
- Do what for them?
- My execution!
Because that's... against the law...
oh no... wait a minute!
WAIT! WAIT!
Guards! Guards! Guards!
ALL HANDS MAN YOUR BATTLE STATIONS!
ALL HANDS MAN YOUR BATTLE STATIONS!
GUARDS! GUARDS!
- What the! Where is she? Did she escape?
- You're not going to find her!
- She didn't escape!
- You don't mean she...
But you're her attorney!
How could you let her do that?
And how was I supposed to stop her?
I told her it was illegal!
What's going on here?
Where's the prisoner?
- She... she, uh, ate herself, sir.
- WHAT?
It's true. I was in the cell with her,
discussing her defense, when she... she...
- You couldn't stop her?
- What was I supposed to do?
She was a line! She could've killed me!
- There was nothing I could do!
- Nothing? Nothing!
All attorneys should be sliced into
little pieces and fed to the irregulars!
Oh, I've seen a lot of things!
I've rounded the cape and
watched the burning of Glenhaussen!
I've seen compatriots split
in two by the thousands
and I've killed just as many
of the enemy in my time!
But in all my years...
I have never seen such
a sniveling coward as you!
Get out of my sight!
Come on man. I'll show you out...
I'm going to inform
the bar association about this!
- He didn't mean what he said.
- Yes he did.
And... he's right.
This is a bad time.
Big things at the Senate today.
I'd get home as soon as possible if I were you.
All the CDF units in the city are mobilizing.
- Mobilizing?
- That's all I can say.
Citizens!
This is a crucial moment in world history.
Conflict looms between our Republic
and our Northern neighbors.
Even now the engines of war
are building at the border.
I understand the need for reunification.
For too long, families have been
torn apart by the political divide.
For too long,
we've watched our
poor brothers across the border
crushed by the tyranny of the Northern Monarch.
Citizens, has it been so long since
we've cast away the cruelty of kings...
that we've forgotten how precious freedom is?
The Northern Kingdom preaches equality...
...but practices Chromatism!
They allow Irregular children
to avoid reconfiguration.
Some years ago we followed suit,
and allowed reconfiguration to become optional.
And what happened, friends?
We blurred the lines of freedom, perhaps forever!
Ah, interesting trinkets, aren't they?
I can't take my eye off them.
What are they?
Uh, umm I don't really know.
What is the, ah, the purpose of the glowing?
No clue.
- Are they alive?
- Naw. Maybe. Naw.
- What are they made of?
- Rocks. Minerals. Crystals or something.
- Don't know, really.
- Where are they from?
A distant territory in the Northern Kingdom.
The North?
But you can't sell those here, can you?
That's illegal...
They change the law every other day.
I can't keep up.
You won't turn me in will you?
Well, I'm an attorney.
That makes me an officer of the court.
I guess that entitles you
to a little discount, hmm?
- What do you call them?
- Glow Points.
Do they do anything else except glow like that?
- Well, that depends.
- On what?
On your mood.
Here, hold one.
Careful, they're delicate.
And be careful what they touch,
they can go dead in a heartbeat.
- All right. How much?
- Oh, they ain't cheap.
Tough to get all the way
through the border, you know.
- Especially in these times.
- Of course, of course...
Senator Chromatistes does have his points.
Of course reunification under
our own terms is desirable.
But under Chromatistic terms?
A thief could color himself
to resemble a priest.
A rapist could color himself
to resemble an attorney.
Under Chromatism, the whole science
of Sight Recognition perishes!
Citizens, how are we to protect our daughters
and wives under The Senator's scheme?
Oo hoo hoo hoo!
Let me through, let me through!
Wherever possible,
our Prist Circles seek equality for everyone.
That's why we have the
Hospital of Reconfiguration.
Yes, we lose some children,
but in every case, EVERY case,
the parent knows the risk.
What is civilization based on if not
Regularity and Equality of Angles?
It is nothing!
Do any of us seriously believe
that there is no connection...
between geometrical and moral Irregularity?
Citizens! There is good and evil!
Let me through, let me through!
Civilization as we know it would end!
- We would relapse into barbarism!
- Let me through!
You can't go on repressing
the lesser-sided forever!
Color is equality!
We can find a third way!
Let us consider compromise
with the Northern Kingdom!
Citizens! Look what happened when
we relaxed our standards,
and allowed our elected officials
to include citizens of any shape!
We now have an Irregular as a Senator,
who introduces this Color Bill to our body.
A Bill that, if voted into law,
would allow our citizens to color
themselves as they see fit!
If we adopt the Color Bill,
our friends to the North could SEE
that we mean them no harm.
They would reduce their arms freely!
They would make peace with us!
Appeaser! The Northern Kingdom
will see this as weakness
- and enslave us all!
- Lies!
Lies! The Northern Kingdom is not evil!
They simply feel threatened by us,
just as we feel threatened by them!
Senator, you don't KNOW that.
You are hoping that.
I am not willing to gamble away
our very survival on your HOPES.
You've already put the future
of the Republic at stake!
At any moment the North might attack,
and it's your fault!
No no no! Stop it!
Oh stop it! Oh that hurts!
Wait a minute! No no no!
Oh put that down! Oh!
Hey now I'm warning you!
I'm peaceful, but ... oh!
Oh, no no! Oh my goodness! Oh!
- He interrupted my speech!
- We can fix the records, sir.
The bloodshed. The death.
Are we doing the right thing?
How will history remember me?
As the man who saved the Republic?
Or a butcher who destroyed innocents?
- Can I sleep tonight?
- Don't falter now, sir.
Great figures in history never falter.
I don't want to be a great figure.
I want to be a good person.
- Mr. A Square! Go home!
- I dropped my Glow Point!
- I gotta go back and get it.
- Go home and lock your doors...
- Wait I jus...
- Oof! Oh! Oh!
Do you know the way out of here, brother?
Can't you see there's a
riot going on out there?
Do you know the way out of here,
out of this world?
Out of this... you old fool,
there is no out of here.
We'll see. We'll see.
Gods preserve his angularity in death...
Gods preserve his angularity in death...
He had children!
He was more than a soldier!
He may not have been a big important man,
but he was worth something!
He was practically my brother!
I was so worried!
The news said those horrible
Chromatists had started a riot!
Yeah! I was caught up in it.
- Are you hurt?
- No. Geez. Just, I'm just exhausted
- What happened?
- It's the end of the world.
Blood. Death. Murder.
Everyone killing everyone.
What are we to do?
Not much to do. Keep the door
locked and we'll stay inside.
I'm frightened!
Well, perhaps the new
day will bring a new world.
Hello. Hello there. Can you hear me?
Hello. Hello there.
What's going on here? Where am I?
What's all this monotonous chirping,
ya little line?
- Little?
- Monotonous?
I'm King of Lineland, Monarch of the world!
What are you, puny-voiced intrusion?
I'm A Square.
- A what?
- Square.
- A what?
- A Square.
- A squire?
- Don't talk gibberish to me.
Let's just say I'm a voice...
You are not one of Lineland's voices.
- I would recognize you.
- Let me hear your bass voice.
- My what?
- Your other voice.
I don't have any other voice.
- Then you're a woman?
- No.
- No! I'm a man.
- I thought you said you were a quare.
I am a visitor,
let's say from another world.
There's no world beside Lineland.
- Oh, you're wrong about that
- Is that so?
Prove it!
And address me as Your Majesty!
But, Your Majesty,
- you can't actually see lines?
- Impossible.
- Although,
- In death,
yes,
some of us believe we will
experience this mystic awareness
of a Straight Line in an afterlife.
Ah! Yes, of course!
I must be from that world,
the world of your afterlife,
where... you shall join me in the
Absoluteness of Two-Dimensionality!
Nonsense!
I see to the left of you two lines,
a point, a line, a point, a line...
and two points.
- Is that correct?
- What do you mean by left?
I mean to your... your bass end.
And to the right are two points, a line,
a point, a line, a point, and two lines.
Now, how did I know that
if I couldn't see them?
Tell me the length of the nine hundred
ninety-ninth male to my backwards!
- I ..aaa.. I can't see that far.
- Ha! Three inches.
By the same means my shape
can be exactly ascertained.
- Behold me!
- I am a Line,
the longest in Lineland,
over six inches of Space.
- Space? Of Length, don't you mean?
- Idiot.
- Space is Length.
- Don't interrupt me again.
- Oh! Forgive me, your majesty.
- Hear, now,
with your own ears,
how by means of my two voices
I reveal my shape to my wives,
who are at this moment over
six thousand miles away,
one forward, one backward.
Listen and I will sing.
Why don't you just feel your neighbors?
- What?
- Explain yourself.
Feel, touch, come into contact with.
That offense is punishable by death.
Really? Why is that?
- And what purpose would be served by touching,
- when there is sound?
But isn't life in Lineland just a little dull?
I mean... To see nothing but points!
- Not even to be able to see a line?
- Mindless man aren't you!
Mindless? Sounds like your music is mindless.
I can tell with a glance how many
people are to your right and to your left.
And there's nothing easier than a glance.
What is this left and right?
And how could you see the Line,
the inside, of anything?
Left, right.
You must mean backward and forward.
- No. Not so.
- Exhibit these directions to me!
I can't.
Unless you step out of your Line altogether.
- Out of my Line?
- Out of the world?
- Out of Space?
- Well, yes.
Out of your world, and into the greater
plane of two dimensions, where...
all is plane and you can
move in four directions...
- If you can't show this or describe this to me,
- then go away!
Hasn't it occurred to you that you
could move in some other direction,
- towards which your side is facing?
- What?
- Never.
- What do you mean by side?
- There is before and behind,
- nothing more.
Fine. Let me show you.
Here, I'm going to move into your world.
Here I come.
- There. Can you see me now?
- Yes...
- but...
- you're only a point!
Well, to you I'm only a point,
but in fact I've moved into Lineland.
Now I'm gonna continue to move
and, from your perspective,
I'm going to vanish.
- What does your majesty say now?
- Charlatan!
- Tricks! Tricks!
- Come back!
- How did you do that?
- I moved out of Lineland.
- Convinced?
- If you had any sense, the smallest particle of...
You ask me to believe that there's another world.
You say there's another motion
besides forward and backward!
But when I ask you to show it,
all you can do is babble and
- practice magic tricks!
- You must be a madman,
or dimensionally deficient!
You six inch idiot!
You think you're the perfection of existence,
but in reality you're the most imperfect.
You say you know the world,
but all you see is a Point!
You can't even see Lines!
Well, I can! In fact, I am a Line of Lines!
A Square!
In my world, as superior as I am to you,
- in my world I'm nothing compared
to the greatest of polygons!
- Enough! Enough!
I'll pierce you through!
DIE, EVIL CREATURE! DIE EVIL CREATURE!
DIE! DIE! DIE!
Yay! Last day of the year!
Last day of the millennium! Eeeeee!
- Go play in your rooms!
- Can we play outside?
- No. In the house today.
- What for? It's New Year's Eve!
- The city's not safe. OK? Inside today!
- That's not fair!
And mind your angles and points!
- Any news on the radio?
- Static.
- Not a good sign.
- The whole world's gone mad!
- Remember the client I saw yesterday?
- Yes.
- She killed herself.
- Your brother warned you.
- Well, I certainly can't defend her now.
- I don't know if I can continue.
- Continue what?
- My practice.
I can't defend guilty people anymore...
- But...
- not after yesterday.
- What would you do?
- How would you make ends meet?
- Peter Pentagon, morning news!
Sorry for the technical
difficulties this morning.
Turns out a couple of Chromatists
broke our transmitter.
But everything's back to
normal here at the station.
Speaking of Chromatists,
they caused a lot of problems yesterday.
Thankfully,
President Circle's fixed them but good.
A riot raged across the city
for over twelve hours yesterday.
The death toll is mounting and
officials say it may reach thousands.
- Thousands...!
- But authorities finally achieved
order round midnight last night.
Over three hundred Irregulars and
Chromatists are under arrest.
The President will be speaking
to the citizenry later today.
In his public statement,
he's going to warn the North...
not to take advantage of the
unrest to start anything funny...
- Not funny like that. Funny the other way.
- At least they stopped the riots.
But so many dead!
Those horrible Chromatists!
What about your brother?
You should go out, find him,
you make sure he's okay!
Get that off your side this instant!
Don't you know what those
Chromatists did yesterday?
- They're murderers!
- What?
Do you want to be associated with murderers?
They killed people by the thousands!
Your uncle may be dead!
- And here you are coloring your sides!
- I didn't know! I didn't know!
Keep the door locked while I'm gone!
B! B Square! Are you in there?
- Who is it?
- It's me, A Square!
- Mrs. B, do you know where your husband is?
- How do I know it's you, A Square?
- It's me, it's me!
- My husband told me not to
open the door for anyone!
- Is your husband there? Is he alright?
- No! I haven't heard anything!
- He didn't come home last night!
- Do you know where he might be?
- He told me he would be at the Great Hall.
- I'll go there and check for him, Mrs. B.
You stay there and do as
your husband told you to do.
Keep your door closed and locked!
f I hear anything I'll come
right back and let you know.
- Tell him I love him!
- I will! Be safe!
- Ah, Excuse me...ah..
- Whaddya want?
My brother... B Square is his name.
He works for the President.
- Is he here?
- I don't know, pal.
Can I go in? I promise
I won't be a brother... uh,a, a bother?
Buddy, you already are a bother.
- We got martial law here.
Head home, wait it out.
- I know you.
Mr. Attorney for the suicidal Chromatists.
My brother works for the President,
I was just trying to find out if he was okay...
Well if you and your kind
hadn't spent all our taxes...
defending those Irregular Chromatist Scum,
maybe you wouldn't have to be
worried about your damn brother.
- Look at what they've done!
- Sir, I just do my job...
Yeah? Did your job choose you?
- You didn't have any choice in the matter?
- Please. My brother works for the President.
I need to know if he's alive.
Can I please pass?
- What've you got there?
- A... glow point...
- Yeah?
- Let me see.
- I... it's for my son...
Not anymore.
Wow! Must be pretty expensive.
- Yes, yes it is...
- Money don't mean much right now.
Not with martial law.
No commerce allowed.
Course a smart man might make his way...
- illegally bartering...
- I got it yesterday,
before everything happened...
- as a gift for my son..
- You didn't steal this, did you?
Partake in a little looting?
Now that it's yours, can I pass? Please?
Soldier,
if this Square is still here when I get back,
I will personally run you
through before I slice him.
- Am I clear?
- Crystal, sir.
- Damn sympathizers...
fifth columnists...
- Move along, sir.
- Can you at least give him a message?
- Can you...
- A lot of people are dead.
Let's not add to the count.
- A! Did you find him?
- The city's locked tight as a drum
- What do you have there?
- Nothing. I found it on the street.
May be valuable.
I'm gonnna go put it in the safe...
- Dad?
- What is it, Hex?
- If three to the second power is nine,
- what is three to the third power?
- Son, this isn't a good time for a math lesson.
In math class, I asked what three
to the third power means in geometry,
- and my teacher threatened me with detention!
- Well, she should have.
Geometry and the world
have only two dimensions.
- But why?
- It's the way of the world.
- Last night, for instance, I had a dream...
- But what does a square,
moving somehow parallel to itself,
what would it make?
- Like, it must make something else...
- It would make a wonderful brainache.
- Now, go play with your brothers.
- But they're all...
- Pentagons, yes. They're pentagons
And you are A Hexagon.
If you're too good to play with them,
- then go study in your room
and stop talking nonsense!
- I can't do anything right!
The boy must be going mad...
He isn't mad. How can you say that!
He's just a little confused.
Three to the third power
has an obvious meaning!
- Ohh! Ohh ....What is that - a point?
- No... a line!
- It's a... a demon!
- It's a circle!
I'm no demon.
You were right the third time.
In a sense, I am a circle.
A circle more perfect than any seen in Flatland.
Sir, forgive us, but...
How did you change your circumference?
No circle I've heard of can do that...
and how did you get in here?
- By "in here", do you mean Flatland?
- Flatland...?
A woman who...
A woman I met yesterday
called the world Flatland.
Did she? Good for her.
Madam, I have a message
to deliver to your husband,
if you wouldn't mind...
Oh! Are you really are a circle?
I mean a... priest? Eeee, eeee, eeee.
A message for my husband from a Prist Circle?
Oh! Yes, by all means. Eeee, eeee, eeee.
Please forgive us our shock...
our amazement... our...
Eeee, eeee, eeee. I'm leaving, I'm going.
Eeee, eeee, eeee.
Would you like... No, of course not.
If I may then... Eeee, eeee, eeee..
. Oh. A Prist Circle! Eeee, eeee, eeee...
- What on earth is that horrid
sound she spits out?
- Her ..Her... peace cry?
- What in the world is a peace cry?
- How can you not know...
- what a...
- Indulge me. Explain.
- See she's a line.
The Law states that she has
to cry out as a warning.
A locator noise.
She could kill someone accidentally
if they don't see her.
- They could move right into her
without ever knowing she...
- How clever your little law is!
Forgive me, sir. I must feel you.
You have no... no angles, not a one.
Are you... a perfect circle?
- Yes and no.
- AGHH! Two eyes! Agh! Oh, disgusting!
- Oh! I'm going to vomit!
- Oh, calm down, silly little square.
I am a more perfect being than you.
- I am a circle made up of circles.
- Argh! Two eyes!
I am perfection.
I am A Sphere,
- CEO of Messiah, Inc!
- A what? Where did you come from?
- From... space, where else?
- But aren't you already in space?
- What do you know of space?
- Space is length and width.
No. There is a third dimension,
- of length, width, and height.
- Please, your... circular Lordship,
what direction is this third dimension?
- Up. Down.
- North and south?
Nothing of the kind.
A direction in which you cannot look,
because you have no eye in your side.
- But I have an eye. It's on my northwest side.
- In order to see in space...
you'd need an eye, not on your outside,
but on your inside,
- looking up or down.
- An eye in my stomach!
Please, sir, this is New Year's Eve...
there were horrible riots yesterday...
my only brother may be dead...
I have family obligations...
- This is no time for jokes...
- I didn't come to joke!
I am from the Land of Three Dimensions.
3D.
I looked down and saw
the plane on which you live.
I can see into your churches, your ministries,
your banks, your houses.
Even your insides and stomachs!
Everything open and exposed to my view.
I saw your five sons fighting each
other with rubber swords.
And your other son, the hexagonal one,
was sulking off in his room.
Likes to color himself.
How do you think I knew that?
We have a name for people like you.
- Yes?
- Perverts! There are laws, sir!
- There are...
- I am what I say I am!
- You must have drilled through the walls.
- Holes!
- Holes! What holes?
- I tell you I came from three dimensional space!
- You could have filled them back in!
Difficult little creature.
- Holes!
- I'm not difficult, I'm a lawyer!
- Let's start over.
When you see your wife, what do you see?
- I mean in geometrical terms?
- If you think I'll say a one-dimensional line,
you're wrong.
Every educated person knows
that women are very thin rectangles,
possessing complete two-dimensionality,
length and width,
- just like...
- No, no, no!
You also see her height.
If a line were just width and length,
it wouldn't occupy space.
- It would be invisible.
- What?
When we see a line,
we see length and width and brightness.
- Is brightness a dimension?
- No! Height is a dimension,
like length, only in a different direction.
In your world,
- height is just very, very small.
- Point out this direction otherwise leave me alone!
- Listen!
To you, Flatland is your whole world.
To me it's a flat plane,
on top of which you move around.
You call me a circle.
No. I'm an infinite number of circles,
A Sphere, a solid.
When I enter your world you see a circle.
For instance...
Last night I saw your dream about Lineland.
- What?
- As clear as a movie on your brain.
- Movie?
- Nevermind. Look.
The King of Lineland saw you
not as a square, but a point.
It's the same for me in Flatland!
You're seeing only a slice of me!
Watch.
I'm going to rise up and down in space.
Watch!
See?
Up, down. Up, down.
- And now I'm going to rise out
of your world altogether.
- Where did you go?
- Where are you?
- Here!
- Here!
- Am I still dreaming?
- Convinced?
-No, it's a Chromatist trick!
- Idiot!
It's no trick.
- I thought I was dealing with an adult!
- You're a spy from the Northern Kingdom!
- I know it!
- Politics? I hate politics!
War is merely an extension of politics,
my friends...
just as murder is an extension of business.
I am pleased to announce that
our generals have reported back...
we have successfully crushed
the Chromatist rebellion!
Good job sir! Great work! At last we have safety!
Now let's kill the irregulars!
Ah! B Square!
My friends, we have B Square to thank
for orchestrating the maneuver.
B Square, you have saved our great Republic!
Good show old boy... what a hero...
never seen anything like it...
he's fantastic at logistics...
But I'm afraid our job
isn't finished, my friends.
There is even now a greater
threat that will emerge.
- This very evening!
- Greater threat?
It will rock the very foundations
of our civilization!
We must be ready.
B Square, I'll be depending
upon you for logistics support.
Can't you understand anything?
Look. If a point moves north,
and leaves a luminous wake,
what name would you give that wake?
- A... a straight line.
- And how many points would it have?
- Two.
- Now let's move that line parallel to itself.
A distance equal to its length.
What would you call its wake?
- A square.
- And how many sides does a square have?
- How many angles? Points?
- Four sides, four angles, four points.
Now imagine a square
moving parallel to itself...
- Upward.
- What do you mean? Northward?
UP, upward.
Pass every point in a square UP,
so that no point passes through
any position previously occupied.
- Each point draws a NEW line on its own.
- You are hurting my brain!
Look, we began with a single point.
One point produces a line with two points.
One line produces a square with four points.
One, two, four.
What's next?
- Eight?
- Yes!
It produces a Something which you do not know
the name for but which we call acube.
- With eight points.
- This cube has sides?
Yes, but what you call sides,
we call faces of a solid in the 3D world...
- How many sides?
- A point has zero sides.
A line has two sides. A square has four sides.
Zero, two, four. Get it?
- And now the next number would be... ?
- Six?
Yes! You see it now, don't you?
You're a monster! You Devil! You Die! You Die!
What is wrong with your species?
I see a brain, but when it comes to imagination,
all you try and do is kill something!
I come for an apostle of the Three Dimensions
- and find a fool instead!
- I'm no fool!
We're only allowed to appear in
your world every thousand years!
You've been chosen!
I can't go change directions
and find someone else now!
- There isn't any time!
- I'm just an attorney. Not an apostle!
Okay then, how would you convince me
if our roles were reversed?
- How would you convince a jury?
- I would have to show them. Directly show them.
Of course. Action, not words!
Listen, I can see from here your study.
On the wall is a hidden safe,
inside of which is hidden a little glowing thing.
It's called a Glow Point.
- No! Wait! Leave that alone!
- I'm entering the safe now.
Grabbing the glowing thingie.
Notice that the door does not move.
Now I am in the safe and
I'm taking the glowing thingie...
- uh... whups...
- What? What?
It stopped glowing. Well, never mind.
Ah. Here's your thingie.
The door to the safe is closed.
Ta-dah!
Get it? ME Spaceland, YOU Flatland.
I look down upon you.
all you've proven is that
you are a... a... skillful thief!
And a vandal!
You fix my Glow Point!
You people certainly like your shiny things,
don't you?
Ok, listen.
The higher I go,
the further away from Flatland I go,
the more I can see,
though of course I see it on a smaller scale.
For example:
now I can see your neighbor's house
and your five Pentagonal Sons
banging against its sides.
- I told them to stay inside!
- Now I'm going far, far up.
Buildings, buildings, buildings...
now I see the border between your
country and the Northern Kingdom.
Uh oh. Looks busy.
Mostly Soldier Triangles.
Looks like they're getting ready for something...
- Oh, anyone can listen to the radio!
- Fine, fine, fine.
- How about if I touch you?
- Touch me?
Sure. Just a little touch,
gently, here. In your stomach!
- Ow! Stop! Ow! Stop! Help! Help! Ow!
- Dad?
- What's happening dad?
- Why are you stuck in the corner?
- Where's the priest?
-Go back to your rooms, both of you.
- Should I use my peace cry?
- Just go. Go!
There's only one other thing to do.
It's never been done before,
- but I suppose I'll have to do it.
- Do what?
- Murder me? You've done everything else!
- Nothing of the sort.
It will be painful, and I could get in trouble,
But I've got no choice if the Gospel of
Three Dimensions is to be revealed.
Hang on, apostle.
One, two, three,
out of Flatland we go!
I'm mad! I'm insane!
What have you done to me?
Lifted you out of Flatland into reality.
Steady. There, can you stand?
Rest on your bottom hairs for a moment.
What is this pressure?
It's pushing me southward. My south hairs hurt!
Oh, that! You'll get used to that.
That's just gravity, something we
all have to contend with in Spaceland.
Nothing to worry about.
Now that I see you... all of you...
you're... you're so, so perfect.
Your circularity... is beyond circularity.
Everywhere you're circular, divine. Perfect.
A divine ideal of loveliness and wisdom!
Feel free to worship me at any time.
But first,
let's take a look at where you've been.
Look! Look, a Flatlander!
You can see their insides!
- I see! I see!
- I take it that my experiment worked.
I hope my ends will justify my means.
Care to see yourself?
Myself? How can I see myself?
I am inside of myself.
In 3D, you can have reflections.
Light can bounce off an object,
which you can use to see yourself.
Here
That's me?
No, it's your reflection.
Thank you!
Thank you for showing me this!
I see now, I see everything! Everything!
I understand it all!
I can see!
- What's that glowing sphere in the sky?
- The sun.
Best not to look at it for too long,
it could blind you.
- How does it stay up there in the sky?
- Just does.
Our scientists say it is immeasurably huge.
- Larger than anything else in the entire world.
- But... it's...
- smaller than you...
- No, that's just perspective.
The further away something is,
the smaller it looks.
But no, it's very, very large.
- Makes me puny by comparison.
- That can't be.
You're a perfect circle,
- divine in all respects...
- Yes, yes,
can't argue with you there.
But still, some of us even worship it.
ow wondrous a world that gods would
have even greater gods to worship!
I guess there's always something smaller
and always something larger than you.
I wonder, what does this sun worship?
Are there beings even greater
than this glorious sun,
- Alright, that's enough.
Let's not get silly, now.
- What is that?
- Oh! And look at those Glow Points!
- That is the moon.
Another Sphere of great proportions.
And those aren't Glow Points.
Those are stars.
If only I could show this to my wife!
- And my son Hex!
- It's rather expensive to pull
someone out of Flatland.
I'm afraid this production really can't
really afford anyone but you. Sorry.
There is so much to understand.
For instance,
I am in Spaceland,
and can see the insides of myself,
and I can see the insides
of all my fellow Flatlanders,
yet,
I see no brain, lungs,
or heart inside of you.
Of course you can't see in my insides.
Spacelanders are of a
greater order than Flatlanders.
I am a being of many circles,
the Many in the One.
What we in Spaceland call A Sphere.
Don't worry.
The mysteries of the world, of Spaceland,
will become plain to you after a while.
We can fly anywhere you like
and view your world in detail.
Let's start with your
house and work our way out.
Eeee, eeee, eeee. Is someone there?
It's me! I'm here, outside the world.
Can't see you, can't hear you!
Eeeee, eeee, eeee!
I can... see everything.
You've given me the eyes... the eyes of God.
You can see what any fool
in the world of 3D can see.
The Great Hall!
Now that I'm in Spaceland,
I can get past the soldiers
to see if my brother is inside!
Now you're thinking in 3D!
I've got business there too. Let's go.
Oh! There he is! Hey, B!
- B!
- Shh!
Looks like your elite priests are
gathering for their millennial meeting.
- Let's listen in.
- Whereas the States have been troubled
by ill-intentioned persons
pretending to have received revelations
of Three Dimensions every thousand
years since Time Began,
it has been unanimously resolved
by the Grand Council that on the
first day of each millennium,
all such apostles of the Three Dimensions...
shall be imprisoned and
executed three days hence.
- Blast!
- What's wrong?
How could I expect this?
You people can't write!
- Write?
- Writing. Recording words visually.
It's what we do to pass information
down through the generations.
- I don't understand.
- Your people worked around it!
You memorize everything!
- Pass it down through voice.
- Of course!
Every child learns how to
memorize great quantities of words
and can repeat them back.
I'm doing my best to remember
every word you speak,
- for instance...
- I hadn't counted on them remembering!
It's 1000 years between each visit!
- They can't blame me. It's not my fault!
- What's wrong?
Didn't you just hear your fate
pronounced by your flatheaded brethren?
Death or imprisonment
awaits the Apostle of 3D
They'll understand.
It's so clear to me, the nature of 3D.
I could get a child to understand it.
Put me down right now,
- I'm sure that I could go down there...
- No, I have to perform my mission.
In fact, unless I miss my guess,
your President is waiting for me.
You stay here. Time for reality
to intrude into Flatland once again.
I come to proclaim that
there is a land of Three Dimensions!
Guards!
Stop that!
I am a perfect circle, a divine Sphere!
Listen to me you flatbrains!
- Hear my word!
- We've got him!
- Where is he? Look Out!
- HEAR MY WORD!
Where did he go? He's gone!!
My Lords, do not be alarmed.
We took care of the Chromatic insurrection.
I assure you this one will be even simpler.
The secret memories have
predicted everything we have seen.
The circle who claims
he's from another world,
all this was as our forefathers foresaw.
The priestly circles alone remember
how the same occurrence...
happened on the last two
millennial commencements.
How can you people be
so smart and yet so stupid?
- Just look at this...
- You are all required to say nothing
of these trifles outside this Cabinet.
Call for the Praetorian Guards!
These Soldier Triangles must
be put to death right away.
All of them!
There, that's done.
No trace, no harm.
These are serious times, gentlemen,
and must be met with determination and resolve.
My Lords,
the business of the Council being over,
I wish you all Happy New Year.
Attend to your Configuration.
- Attend to your Configuration!
- Ah, B Square.
I haven't forgotten you,
my dear assistant,
for the sake of secrecy, you too should die.
But since you've been loyal
and for the most part efficient,
I'll spare you your life and
grant you instead life imprisonment.
However, should you ever mention
what you've seen today,
you will be executed.
Attend to your Configuration.
And Happy New Year.
Guards!
Mr. President!
I promise I won't say a word.
- Not a word! Please!
- Hey! You don't know what you're doing!
There really is a third dimension.
- Listen to me!
- Give it up, Mr. Attorney.
- Let me go back!
- Let me talk to them!
- We don't have a lot of time.
- Please! He's my brother!
Your brother is expendable.
Round Table, Round Table.
Come in, Round Table.
This is Alpha Omega calling.
- Come in, Round Table.
- Roger Alpha Omega.
This is Round Table. Over.
I'm on my way back, Round Table. Over.
We hear you Alpha Omega.
How was the mission? Over.
I'll file a report as soon as
I get back, Round Table.
Until then, cue the triumphant Return!
- What's going on there?
- Oh, even in Spaceland we
have our problem children.
Stay there,
I have to write my After Action Report.
Welcome back, sir. Welcome home.
- We're all so proud of you.
- And the company!
Was your manifestation a successful one?
There were a few complications.
- Your messages, sir.
- On my desk, Mathilde.
I've got to send an e-comm report
quick to the board of directors.
What a cute drawing!
- What?
- The drawing. On your desk.
Where did you get it?
Did you bring it back with you?
A Square?
He's not a drawing, he's a Flatlander.
- Flatlander?
- That's never been done before!
I thought you were a cartoon!
- A cartoon?
- He can talk! How delightful.
- Isn't he cute, Millicent?
- I think it's disgusting!
- A cartoon?
- Something you can't do in Flatland.
- Can it think?
- Oh, yes. Though not very well.
- Smile for the camera, A Square!
- Is this allowed?
No previous Messiah ever brought
their chosen apostle back with them.
He's here, isn't he?
And my e-comm is now finished!
Can we show him around the office?
This will cause quite a stir!
- I could just eat it up!
- Ladies, it's not a trinket.
Its time here is limited.
Gravitational forces will
kill it if it stays too long.
- What?
- If you ladies will see that
I'm not disturbed for the next hour...
- After that, I want to meet with Marketing.
- Yes, sir.
Solids.
That's the first lesson and the last. Solids.
That's what we are and you're not.
You're not solid, not really,
because solid implies thickness.
Your thickness is microscopic.
Let's begin.
First, a cube is made up of a
number of square planes like yourself.
Now here's a pack of cards.
I put one down. Now a second, now a third.
See? I'm building a solid by a multitude
of squares parallel to one another.
And now the solid is complete,
being as high as it is long and broad.
We call this solid a cube.
- It hurts my brain.
- I'm sure it does.
Light, shadow, perspective...
you're not used to it
- Yes, sir?
- Send in a cube.
- Which one?
- Anyone.
Yes, sir.
I'm going to let you feel a cube.
That'll help you understand solids.
Let this Flatlander touch you.
Don't worry, it won't hurt.
And there won't be any side effects...
that we know of.
Dean in Sending, isn't it?
- Carlton in Receiving.
- Of course, of course.
Just stand here on the desk.
And you, A Square, you may feel Dean.
- Carlton.
- Sorry?
- Cube Carlton. Receiving.
- Right. Right.
A Square, please go over and
feel the generic cube person.
Not a plane. Not a plane. A solid.
Six planes. Eight terminal points. Angles.
A square moving parallel to himself in space.
Yes! I am a part of this...
This is bliss!
What wonder to know so much!
That's enough.
We can't go on like this forever, you know.
Thank you, Carlson.
Carlton.
- Now, lesson two.
- Your pardon, Great Sphere of 3D, but...
might I be granted a look at your insides?
- My what?
- Your stomach, brain, heart.
What the devil are you talking about?
When I was feeling the cube,
a light overwhelmed me
and I saw more and farther
than I've ever seen before.
Uh huh?
What I saw... or sensed... or felt... Was
that a dimension greater than yours existed.
Just as I am to you,
so you must be to someone else.
If your dimension is
greater and purer than mine,
then there must be a fourth dimension
even greater and purer than yours.
Good friend, philosopher, priest,
don't you see what you've taught me?
Some more spacious space,
some more dimensionable dimension,
- lies beyond this one.
- Time's short.
We've got a lot to do before you're
fit to proclaim the Three Dimensions
Please, sir, let me see your insides.
In the first place your request makes no sense.
In the second place I can't
turn myself inside out.
But you showed me the insides of Flatland
by taking me from the land of two dimensions
into the land of three.
Please, take me into a fourth dimension...
so that we can look onto the land of 3D
and see the secrets of solids!
And where is this land of
four dimensions supposed to be?
Doubtless you, O great Teacher of
dimensionality greater than mine,
surely you know where it is.
Damned if I do. There is no such place.
The very idea! Inconceivable!
Well, you taught me that when
I see a line in Flatland and infer a plane,
in reality I see a third dimension.
Not the same as brightness,
but one called height.
So it follows that in Spaceland,
when I see a plane and infer a solid,
I really see a fourth unrecognized dimension.
Just as the monarch of Lineland couldn't
turn right or left or see Flatland,
so I couldn't see Spaceland even
though it was all around me!
So there must be a fourth
dimension outside Spaceland!
Tell me,
has anyone seen any... you know...
visitors, here in Spaceland?
A few madmen.
The usual visions, delusions, brainstorms.
Nothing worth writing about.
Tell me, did any of these delusions...
- appear and vanish suddenly?
- Well, that's how the story sometimes goes
a story written by deluded,
mentally sick brains.
- Maybe they come from...
- I thought I told you not to disturb me.
I'm sorry sir.
The Board of Directors are here.
- We've got a problem, A!
- What?
- Your e-comm was leaked to the public.
- What?
- When? I just submitted it!
- Public opinion is against us.
They think you've made a terrible mistake!
There's a hearing in the Senate
Chambers going on right now.
The Zeroes are winning.
We must do something!
Your cartoon thing has been subpoenaed!
- He must appear at once!
- Great Balls of Fire!
There's no need to be worried.
Just be polite.
Try not to say too much,
yes and no answers,
Be as boolean and binary as you can be.
No pressure, but the Zeroes in the
Senate may have enough votes to win.
- The Zeroes?
- Political faction.
They've gotten momentum because
I brought you out of Flatland.
They think Flatland is an abomination
that should be wiped out.
What?
It disturbs them that there are
creatures such as yourselves.
They think we shouldn't be trying
to teach you the Gospel of 3D.
They think we should be putting
you out of your misery.
- Misery?!
- Just don't say anything stupid.
- Do you mean to tell me, Mister Sphere...
- Just call me A Sphere, Senator...
I'll call you what I like, boy!
Do you mean to tell me that
you took it upon yourself...
to bring this disgusting
creature into our world...
- without any oversight? Hmm?
- It was a split-second decision, Senator.
Our company had done research on what
such an action would mean, of course.
- We'd run computer simulations and...
- Computer simulations!
And these simulations made you certain that
there would be no unintended consequences?
- That there would be no danger to Spaceland?
- Of course, Senator...
- But you weren't 100 percent certain, were you?
We're still here, Senator.
Is a computer simulation PROOF of no danger?
No, Senator, of course not.
A computer simulation is only a simulation.
It isn't real.
We simply had a good idea...
- of what...
-You scientists never consider the
possibility that you could be wrong,
that your science could one day
be the end of the entire world...
you look at your computer simulations
and take great risks with the public good,
- without oversight, without any
- If you'd relinquish the floor,
I'd like to interview the Flatlander, Senator.
We're here to decide if we should
perform euthanasia on Flatland or not.
After all, the scientists are not
the ones on trial here. Not yet.
Of course, of course, I yield the floor
to my distinguished Cubic Colleague.
Now. Mr. A Square. You've been sworn in.
Yes, Oh Great and Divine Cube.
Knock it off with the Great and Divine.
Call him Senator.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry, your Senatorness,
uhm, Cube, ah, Senator Cube...
- Don't coach the witness.
- I'm sorry Senator.
It's his whole world you're
standing in judgment over,
he's just arrived here, he doesn't know
anything yet, it isn't right, it isn't fair...
A Sphere,
you are excused while we interview this witness!
And take your board of directors with you.
Guards!
Ixnay on the Fourth Dimensionay.
What? What? What did you say? What?
- Remember. You're an attorney!
- This is a disaster, Sphere!
We're going to hold an emergency
board meeting and elect a new CEO...
Oh, the shareholders! The shareholders!
Now, Mr. A Square...
Let's ignore the media here.
Let's ignore everything.
It's just you and me.
You know what's at stake.
Tell me what's on your mind.
Why should we preserve your world?
- Why should Flatland continue its existence?
- Because...
- Speak into the microphone, please.
- Because... ack!
Can someone prop the witness upright please?
Yes, you there. You diamond guy there.
Lift him up, please.
Answer the question, Flatlander.
Why should Flatland have a continued existence?
Because...
In order to turn a circle into A Sphere,
we rotate ninety degrees
the circle along its vertical axis.
Thus a circle becomes A Sphere.
So in order to make A Sphere into a hypersphere,
we would rotate spheres within spheres...
Oh enough of this stupidity.
- What is it talking about?
- It's there, I know it is.
- We need to get out of hear now.
- It's all around us.
- Fourth dimension?
- This is madness, madness!!
- The fourth dimension is here.
Are you alright, Mr. Square?
Are you suffering from your
transition into our world?
You must be ill. Four dimensions?
Space is space!
Point of order, I say!
Point of order, Senator Cube!
Our enemies in the X-Axis
have seen our continued inability,
our continued weakness, our failure,
I saw our failure to destroy Flatland!
We have little time for this circus!
They see our delays as an excuse to attack.
- Doom may fall upon us at any moment!
- No, no. It's clear in my head.
I understand everything.
I just don't have the words.
- Space is space, yes...
- I voted against using Messiah Inc.
- but space is curved...
- I never trusted that A Sphere!
I thought we were here to
discuss the bowling ball bill?
Who brought that thing in here?
Mr. Square. It sounds as if the government
has made a terrible mistake...
in Chartering A Sphere's company
to perform Millennium duties.
It sounds as if you are incapable of understanding
the Gospel of the Three Dimensions.
No... no your worship! That's not true!
I understand.
And I know there are dimensions even beyond it.
You've all led me into a world of
understanding that I can never repay...
Surely you, you,
as great divine solids, can understand...
there is always something beyond...
there is always... infinity!
Mister Square! Are you alright?
Mister Square! Can you hear me?
- Apostle! Are you okay?
- What's the matter with it?
It's gravity! He must return! And soon!
Infinity. Infinity. Infinity.
What's happening?
Oh, it's just a little war.
The X-Axis is attacking us.
Savages.
- Everything's black. I can't see.
- Our time is up, my friend.
I have to send you back.
Good luck preaching the Gospel of the 3D.
No... please don't send me back.
- I can't bear to go back.
- A Square!
I'm afraid I won't be answering
any calls from Flatland...
for the next thousand years.
Did I save my world?
Shh! Ignorance is bliss.
Please don't send me back!
Infinity...infinity.
Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! No!
No! No!....No! No!....
Let's go, Dad. It's New Year's!
It's the New Millennium!
Come listen to the Proclamation! Hurry!
Whereas the States have been
troubled by ill-intentioned persons...
pretending to have received
revelations of Three Dimensions
every thousand years since Time Began,
it has been unanimously resolved
by the Grand Council that on the
first day of each millenary,
all such apostles of the Three Dimensions...
shall be imprisoned and
executed three days hence.
Tell your mother. Tell your mother I'll be back.
Tell her I had to go see your Uncle B.
Dead, all dead!
- Halt! Who goes there?
- I'm A Square, Attorney At Law,
here to see my client, B Square!
- Allow me to pass in the name of the Law!
- No one's allowed in!
Get out of here you pest!
- A Square! EEE! EEE! EEE! A Square!
- Mrs. B! Are you okay?
- Children! Say hello to your Uncle!
- Hello, children.
Children, go play off to the side.
They won't tell me what the charges are!
They won't let me in!
-- What's going on, A?
- I need to get in there.
I have to talk to your husband.
- Can you distract the guard?
- You bet your southside!
Yikes! Look out! Look out! It's a woman!
Watch it, buddy! Hey!
Well, Mr. Suicide!
What are you doing in here?
I'm here to see my client, B Square!
Allow me to pass in the name of the law!
Law? What Law?
I was sworn to protect
the Law, the Constitution.
They tore it into pieces yesterday!
I'm a soldier!
They have me guarding a bunch of civilians.
- I should be in battle!
- He's my brother.
- Brother, huh?
- Yes, sir.
Five minutes.
- How did you know I was here?
- I saw it. I saw what happened.
- I saw them arrest you.
- What, you dreamed it?
- Had a vision or something?
- No no, I was there, sort of.
I was in Spaceland looking down onto Flatland
and saw President Circle arrest you.
He had no right.
I can get you off. I know I can.
All I have to do is explain to them that...
that up...
you know, up, not northward,
but up, above, on top of.
They'll understand then.
I should've remembered all of the words,
but I was distracted and beside myself.
I was sick. But listen, B.
There's another dimension.
There's a third dimension...
- and I'm here to spread the word.
- WHAT! Are you mad?
You're a monster! You'll get us all killed!
- Die! Die!
- What are you... Ow!!
...the Infinite beatitude of existence.
It is, and there is no other...
... of the infinite in the One
of the infinite beatitude of existence...
... It is and there is no other beside It,
the cloudland of metaphysics,
the universe from the cloudland of metaphysics...
- The unity that exists...
- Thus speaks the Monarch of Pointland.
... the allness that is One, that final
universal analogical instinct that is
the Oneness of the One to which It...
- ... it is...
- Listen to that babbling!
- ...and there is no other beside it...
- Can't you stop it?
Give it a try yourself,
my Apostle of the Three Dimensions.
Let's see you lead the Monarch
of Pointland to a higher dimension.
Ok, No problem.
Hey, pea brain. Listen to me.
You're not the all in all.
You're the Nothing of Nothing.
Your so-called universe is
a mere point in a line,
and a line is as nothing compared with . . .
... the divine creative
power of the all in One...
Hey pea brain!
... the joy of being you...
Ah! Nobody's home!
See the difficulty you'll
have in your own world?
The Monarch, in so far as he hears you at all,
accepts your words only as his own,
then plumes himself in the
variety of The Great One's thoughts.
Truly he is omnipresent and omniscient,
truly he is the Monarch of Pointland.
Good luck, Apostle.
There's not much time left!
Up, not northwards.
It's been a wonderful interlude, this.
Up, not northwards.
You've not much time left.
Guard! Guard! He's mad!
- He's one of them!
- B! What are you doing?
- B, what would our dad say?
- Our dad was a TRIANGLE!
What do you want?
Are you finished in here?
Yes, I've nothing more to talk
with my client about today.
Thank you.
Don't let him get away!
He's a proselytizer!
He's a desperate man, Colonel.
A truly desperate man.
He's one of those proselytizers
for the third dimension!
Stop! Halt! To arms, to arms!
Stop that square!
A Square! Where are you going?
- What did you learn about my husband?
- Don't worry, he's alive and well!
We'll file an injunction,
a writ of habeas corpus,
we'll fight this all the way
to the Supreme Circle.
But right now the police are after me!
Square heading toward suburbs.
Believed dangerous.
Hey! Don't I know you?
Not in this world.
- Where've you been?
- My brother B turned me in.
The police are after me.
- They'll kill me!
- Kill you?
- No time. Pack your things!
We're going to defect to the North!
They'll understand me there!
- The north?
- Don't think, pack! Pack!
I have to see Hex! Hex!
I have a new lesson for you!
Remember how you asked me
what three to the third power meant?
It was before that New Law was announced!
It was a silly joke!
No, no, it wasn't! Look!
All I have to do is take a square,
myself, for example, me, you see,
not northward but...
yes, I would move myself...
Up. Up. Nothing.
Not exactly like this. But...
- You know, somehow...
- Okay buddy, time to go.
Be careful! He's a tricky little square!
Oh, Gentlemen!
I am woman!
Hear my WAR CRY!!!
Get back! Get back! It's a woman!
Get back! Watch out! It's a woman!
Run darling! Run!
We'll meet you at the border!
He went thata way, north by northwest.
- Dismantle and segment!
- Wait!
There really is, I promise you,
there really is a third dimension.
- That's absurd.
- He's stalling.
- No, no.
- Freak
- I... I can prove it.
- You can't!
It's.. it's elsewhere. It's.. all around us.
Mathematics proves that God limited
the number of dimensions to two for a reason.
- For several reasons.
- Symmetry, for one.
- Beauty and perfection and simplicity for another.
Dismantle and segment!
No, please, I'm not .. ah, ahh!
The Army from the North! At last!
My destiny fulfilled! WAR!
Please, I have to meet my wife
and family up in the North.
I... I never miss an appointment.
Greetings, A Square.
Sight Recognition lesson?
I guess so.
- What do you see when you look at me?
- A square.
Is that what you really see?
Uhm...
- Go on.
- A line?
- Is that all?
- Uhm...
What do you see at the edges of the line?
Look closer.
I see, like, shadings?
That's the ether. The Fog. It dims
the light the further away you are.
It's everywhere, so to children and
the uneducated it's nowhere, invisible.
That's why they have
to feel their way around,
touching people in order to
figure out who or what they are.
- Feelers are sticksville.
- That's right, that's right.
Now,
suppose two individuals are approaching.
A triangle... and a pentagon.
Which is which?
Ah ah ah! No touching!
If that were a real triangle you could
hurt yourself on his sharp angles!
Why can't I just walk around it?
That way I could see the shading easier.
Now, that's not done in polite company.
Sometimes when there are a lot of people
you can wiggle back and forth to triangulate,
but you don't want to go
all the way around someone.
- So you figure it out by
standing right where you are.
- Urgh!
- But how do I do it?
- Infer the shape through the shading.
- See?
- B Square! How are you?
Not bad, not bad. Is my brother in?
I can't do it!
Am I stupid?
- I must be a feeler!
- Sight recognition isn't easy,
I know, but it'll come to you...
Your brother is here!
- We'll continue the lesson in a moment.
- Do we have to?
- Wee! I got you!
- No you didn't!
- Yes I did!
- B Square!
- A Square!
What's this about representing A Line?
I haven't taken her case yet.
I'm meeting her this afternoon.
- But she's a Chromatist!
- Accused.
- Like five percent of the population.
- Of the male population.
- She's the first woman who's joined the...
- Just because you work at the ministry,
you can't go around accusing
people without evidence.
Oh, there's plenty of evidence, big brother.
Ah! So, another show trial.
Can't you talk any sense into your husband?
I might puncture some into him.
- Don't forget your Peace-cry!
You could be arrested!
- Right.
That's not funny.
Don't encourage her, B...
A Hexagon! How's my favorite nephew?
O.K.
What are you talking about?
Is it about Chromatism? Is it?
Chromatism is cool...
Where did he hear that?
- Go to your room!
- But my lesson!
- In your room!
- Oh, all right.
Can I get you anything B?
Well, I can't stay.Big doings this afternoon.
The President is going to
meet with Chromatistes.
- A concession?
- Just... don't go out for a while.
- That's why I came by, to warn you.
- But...
my client... I'm meeting her this afternoon.
- I never miss an appointment.
- Listen to your brother for once!
Sometimes even lines give
good advice, big brother.
- Attend to your Configuration.
- Attend to your Configuration.
President Circle! Sir! Where are you going?
Follow me,
we'll talk as we head for the Hospital.
The... Hospital of Reconfiguration?
Yes, yes,
the First Line had a child last night.
Something went wrong. An irregular side.
- I'm... so sorry sir...
- These things happen.
The Hospital has good doctors.
In fact I'm heading over now
to see my son for the very first time,
completely reconfigured by now!
- And your wife? Is she all right?
- Yes, of course,
in the recovery room.
But she picked a terrible time for a pregnancy.
The Chromatists... Senator Chromatistes...
The constant threat of war on the border...
- So, did you review my plan?
- Yes, sir...
- Problems?
- No, sir.
Good. And the speech?
- Brilliant, sir. Absolutely brilliant..
- Good.
What's wrong with Hex?
He doesn't seem interested in his lessons.
One of his older brothers told
him that he was reconfigured.
What?
Hex was making fun of them, taunting them...
Low class! Low Sided!
I think E Pentagon just wanted
to make him shut up.
- Now why did E go and do that?
- Hex was being pretty nasty.
There's no shame in reconfiguration.
It was a small genetic defect.
We should make Hex proud
that he's A Hexagon.
- The first in the family.
- Some humility would help
to temper that pride.
- Go talk to him.
- I will.
- Find the physician.
- Yes sir, Mister President, right away.
- So, B Square. Is everything in place?
- Yes, sir.
No doubt it's just year 3000 madness.
Color can't make us all equal.
It's morally repugnant.
- Mr. President.
- One moment, Doctor.
- Sir. I...
One moment. Affairs of State.
The evil of it is
so perfectly straightforward...
There is good and evil, B.
Why can't they see it?
- I can't explain such blindness, sir.
- Mr. President.
Sorry, to interrupt, but I must inform you.
Your son. He...
Oh no...
- I'm sorry, he didn't survive the procedure.
- Where's my son?
Son?! Where is he? Where's my son!
Son! Son!
- We did everything we could!
- Son! Where is he?
His body just couldn't take the procedure.
The deformity was too great!
Son! Son!
- How could you do this to him?
- We did try.
No, of course - you're all good men...
- Is there anything we can do for you sir?
- He didn't even have a name yet!
- A sad day!
- A terrible loss, sir
- The loss of a child...
- You have my sympathies, sir
- We should kill the
physicians for incompetence!
Please. Gentlemen.
One moment...
We all have to be brave.
Make sacrifices for the greater good.
Please, accept my apologies for my...
emotional outburst.
Of course, no problem sir,
totally understandable, how admirable!
- Perhaps we should postpone our plans...
- No. This country needs me,
especially now.
Grief is a luxury that a leader
cannot afford in these times.
We all must attend to our configurations.
Attend to your configuration.
Let's roll.
Okay, sorry about the delay. Your mother and I
had something to talk about and...
Son?
That is you, isn't it?
My son Hex with a.. a... purple side?
- I just figured out how to do it!
- Remove that coloration at once!
- But Dad!
- Son, society makes laws for a reason.
- You're old enough to know
that's against the law.
- If I was a circle I could change the law!
- But you're not a circle!
- Why can't I be more of a polygon?
I could have been a heptagon
if you'd been a pentagon!
- Why couldn't I have skipped
a side when I was born?
- Few are as many-sided as you, son.
Fewer still are certified Prist Circles.
And I wouldn't be so
impressed by them either.
- They aren't true circles.
- They aren't?
No, of course not.
Circles simply have lots and lots of sides.
Some have 36, some have 72, 360.
Now, those are the ones
that are the closest to the...
divine circularity that we all aspire to,
but none of us will
ever be able to achieve it.
Why do we have the ability
to colorize if we can't use it?
Hex, what am I to do with you?
Be satisfied with your configuration!
It's crazy to want more.
- You are what you are!
- Just leave me alone!
Noon News with Peter Pentagon.
- Noon! I'm late!
- We never finished my lesson.
- I'm gonna be a feeler forever.
- It will have to wait!
I never miss an appointment!
In other news, additional troops
are being deployed to the Northern
Border in a show of force...
Oh get a load of that one!
President Circle's arriving!
Attend your Configuration!
We have the right to color!
We have the right to color!
Attend to your Chromatization.
Attend to your Chromatization.
Attend to your Chromatization.
Attend to your Chromatization.
Attend to your Chromatization.
Attend to your Configuration!
Attend to your Configuration.
Attend to your Configuration.
Attend to your Configuration.
Attend to your Configuration.
Attend to your Chromatization.
Attend to your Chromatization.
Attend to your Configuration!
Attend to your Configuration!
- Hey watch it buddy!
- I'm not a Chromatist can't you see that!
- Eh, whadda ya in for?
- I wanna see my lawyer.
...What's in charge here?...
Careful, she's a Chromatist and a female.
Accused Chromatist.
Yeah, that's what they all say.
But she ain't no accused female.
She's very sharp and can kill you in a second.
Watch yourself.
If she gets out of line I'll be down the hall.
Ms. Line?
Ms. Line? I'm your court-appointed attorney.
I'm required by law to tell you that
I'm not obligated to take your case.
Is that understood?
- You must answer me if I'm to remain.
- I understand!
Good. Now, do you...
- wish to confess?
- Confess?
Your affiliation with the Chromatic Sedition?
My what? Is that what they said?
- Yeah.
- Do I look like a Chromatist?
But the arrest warrant states
that you were picked up as a...
I was arrested for failing
to use my Peace-cry.
- Well, Is that all?
- YES!
Well...
I'm afraid the charge just can't be changed.
So why are you here?
I know why I'm here, but why are you?
When you came in I was dreaming about...
I can't explain it.
There are no words.
A not-here, an else, a something else.
Elsewhere.
It wasn't here, it wasn't our world...
In my dream I thought,
so this isn't all there is?
I know. Crazy.
What else is there but here,
this... this Flatland?
- What did you say?
- Ugh! Nothing.
Why do you call the world Flatland?
I don't know. Because it's FLAT?
I don't see your point.
The world is a plane, of course it's flat.
I know, but in my dream...
Dreams? Dreams aren't admissible in court...
I don't see any angle I can take that
could possibly change your sentence.
- Which will be?
- Do you want to hear what the judge will say?
- His exact words?
- Yes!
Angles of sharpness will pierce and slice and
segment your person until you are dead, DEAD...
I'm sorry. Is there anyone?
- A husband, children?
- No, I'm alone!
Who am I? What am I?
Counselor, what are we here for?
To prepare your defense.
Maybe I'm nothing. Or will be soon.
So hey...
Why not simply do it for them now?
- Do what for them?
- My execution!
Because that's... against the law...
oh no... wait a minute!
WAIT! WAIT!
Guards! Guards! Guards!
ALL HANDS MAN YOUR BATTLE STATIONS!
ALL HANDS MAN YOUR BATTLE STATIONS!
GUARDS! GUARDS!
- What the! Where is she? Did she escape?
- You're not going to find her!
- She didn't escape!
- You don't mean she...
But you're her attorney!
How could you let her do that?
And how was I supposed to stop her?
I told her it was illegal!
What's going on here?
Where's the prisoner?
- She... she, uh, ate herself, sir.
- WHAT?
It's true. I was in the cell with her,
discussing her defense, when she... she...
- You couldn't stop her?
- What was I supposed to do?
She was a line! She could've killed me!
- There was nothing I could do!
- Nothing? Nothing!
All attorneys should be sliced into
little pieces and fed to the irregulars!
Oh, I've seen a lot of things!
I've rounded the cape and
watched the burning of Glenhaussen!
I've seen compatriots split
in two by the thousands
and I've killed just as many
of the enemy in my time!
But in all my years...
I have never seen such
a sniveling coward as you!
Get out of my sight!
Come on man. I'll show you out...
I'm going to inform
the bar association about this!
- He didn't mean what he said.
- Yes he did.
And... he's right.
This is a bad time.
Big things at the Senate today.
I'd get home as soon as possible if I were you.
All the CDF units in the city are mobilizing.
- Mobilizing?
- That's all I can say.
Citizens!
This is a crucial moment in world history.
Conflict looms between our Republic
and our Northern neighbors.
Even now the engines of war
are building at the border.
I understand the need for reunification.
For too long, families have been
torn apart by the political divide.
For too long,
we've watched our
poor brothers across the border
crushed by the tyranny of the Northern Monarch.
Citizens, has it been so long since
we've cast away the cruelty of kings...
that we've forgotten how precious freedom is?
The Northern Kingdom preaches equality...
...but practices Chromatism!
They allow Irregular children
to avoid reconfiguration.
Some years ago we followed suit,
and allowed reconfiguration to become optional.
And what happened, friends?
We blurred the lines of freedom, perhaps forever!
Ah, interesting trinkets, aren't they?
I can't take my eye off them.
What are they?
Uh, umm I don't really know.
What is the, ah, the purpose of the glowing?
No clue.
- Are they alive?
- Naw. Maybe. Naw.
- What are they made of?
- Rocks. Minerals. Crystals or something.
- Don't know, really.
- Where are they from?
A distant territory in the Northern Kingdom.
The North?
But you can't sell those here, can you?
That's illegal...
They change the law every other day.
I can't keep up.
You won't turn me in will you?
Well, I'm an attorney.
That makes me an officer of the court.
I guess that entitles you
to a little discount, hmm?
- What do you call them?
- Glow Points.
Do they do anything else except glow like that?
- Well, that depends.
- On what?
On your mood.
Here, hold one.
Careful, they're delicate.
And be careful what they touch,
they can go dead in a heartbeat.
- All right. How much?
- Oh, they ain't cheap.
Tough to get all the way
through the border, you know.
- Especially in these times.
- Of course, of course...
Senator Chromatistes does have his points.
Of course reunification under
our own terms is desirable.
But under Chromatistic terms?
A thief could color himself
to resemble a priest.
A rapist could color himself
to resemble an attorney.
Under Chromatism, the whole science
of Sight Recognition perishes!
Citizens, how are we to protect our daughters
and wives under The Senator's scheme?
Oo hoo hoo hoo!
Let me through, let me through!
Wherever possible,
our Prist Circles seek equality for everyone.
That's why we have the
Hospital of Reconfiguration.
Yes, we lose some children,
but in every case, EVERY case,
the parent knows the risk.
What is civilization based on if not
Regularity and Equality of Angles?
It is nothing!
Do any of us seriously believe
that there is no connection...
between geometrical and moral Irregularity?
Citizens! There is good and evil!
Let me through, let me through!
Civilization as we know it would end!
- We would relapse into barbarism!
- Let me through!
You can't go on repressing
the lesser-sided forever!
Color is equality!
We can find a third way!
Let us consider compromise
with the Northern Kingdom!
Citizens! Look what happened when
we relaxed our standards,
and allowed our elected officials
to include citizens of any shape!
We now have an Irregular as a Senator,
who introduces this Color Bill to our body.
A Bill that, if voted into law,
would allow our citizens to color
themselves as they see fit!
If we adopt the Color Bill,
our friends to the North could SEE
that we mean them no harm.
They would reduce their arms freely!
They would make peace with us!
Appeaser! The Northern Kingdom
will see this as weakness
- and enslave us all!
- Lies!
Lies! The Northern Kingdom is not evil!
They simply feel threatened by us,
just as we feel threatened by them!
Senator, you don't KNOW that.
You are hoping that.
I am not willing to gamble away
our very survival on your HOPES.
You've already put the future
of the Republic at stake!
At any moment the North might attack,
and it's your fault!
No no no! Stop it!
Oh stop it! Oh that hurts!
Wait a minute! No no no!
Oh put that down! Oh!
Hey now I'm warning you!
I'm peaceful, but ... oh!
Oh, no no! Oh my goodness! Oh!
- He interrupted my speech!
- We can fix the records, sir.
The bloodshed. The death.
Are we doing the right thing?
How will history remember me?
As the man who saved the Republic?
Or a butcher who destroyed innocents?
- Can I sleep tonight?
- Don't falter now, sir.
Great figures in history never falter.
I don't want to be a great figure.
I want to be a good person.
- Mr. A Square! Go home!
- I dropped my Glow Point!
- I gotta go back and get it.
- Go home and lock your doors...
- Wait I jus...
- Oof! Oh! Oh!
Do you know the way out of here, brother?
Can't you see there's a
riot going on out there?
Do you know the way out of here,
out of this world?
Out of this... you old fool,
there is no out of here.
We'll see. We'll see.
Gods preserve his angularity in death...
Gods preserve his angularity in death...
He had children!
He was more than a soldier!
He may not have been a big important man,
but he was worth something!
He was practically my brother!
I was so worried!
The news said those horrible
Chromatists had started a riot!
Yeah! I was caught up in it.
- Are you hurt?
- No. Geez. Just, I'm just exhausted
- What happened?
- It's the end of the world.
Blood. Death. Murder.
Everyone killing everyone.
What are we to do?
Not much to do. Keep the door
locked and we'll stay inside.
I'm frightened!
Well, perhaps the new
day will bring a new world.
Hello. Hello there. Can you hear me?
Hello. Hello there.
What's going on here? Where am I?
What's all this monotonous chirping,
ya little line?
- Little?
- Monotonous?
I'm King of Lineland, Monarch of the world!
What are you, puny-voiced intrusion?
I'm A Square.
- A what?
- Square.
- A what?
- A Square.
- A squire?
- Don't talk gibberish to me.
Let's just say I'm a voice...
You are not one of Lineland's voices.
- I would recognize you.
- Let me hear your bass voice.
- My what?
- Your other voice.
I don't have any other voice.
- Then you're a woman?
- No.
- No! I'm a man.
- I thought you said you were a quare.
I am a visitor,
let's say from another world.
There's no world beside Lineland.
- Oh, you're wrong about that
- Is that so?
Prove it!
And address me as Your Majesty!
But, Your Majesty,
- you can't actually see lines?
- Impossible.
- Although,
- In death,
yes,
some of us believe we will
experience this mystic awareness
of a Straight Line in an afterlife.
Ah! Yes, of course!
I must be from that world,
the world of your afterlife,
where... you shall join me in the
Absoluteness of Two-Dimensionality!
Nonsense!
I see to the left of you two lines,
a point, a line, a point, a line...
and two points.
- Is that correct?
- What do you mean by left?
I mean to your... your bass end.
And to the right are two points, a line,
a point, a line, a point, and two lines.
Now, how did I know that
if I couldn't see them?
Tell me the length of the nine hundred
ninety-ninth male to my backwards!
- I ..aaa.. I can't see that far.
- Ha! Three inches.
By the same means my shape
can be exactly ascertained.
- Behold me!
- I am a Line,
the longest in Lineland,
over six inches of Space.
- Space? Of Length, don't you mean?
- Idiot.
- Space is Length.
- Don't interrupt me again.
- Oh! Forgive me, your majesty.
- Hear, now,
with your own ears,
how by means of my two voices
I reveal my shape to my wives,
who are at this moment over
six thousand miles away,
one forward, one backward.
Listen and I will sing.
Why don't you just feel your neighbors?
- What?
- Explain yourself.
Feel, touch, come into contact with.
That offense is punishable by death.
Really? Why is that?
- And what purpose would be served by touching,
- when there is sound?
But isn't life in Lineland just a little dull?
I mean... To see nothing but points!
- Not even to be able to see a line?
- Mindless man aren't you!
Mindless? Sounds like your music is mindless.
I can tell with a glance how many
people are to your right and to your left.
And there's nothing easier than a glance.
What is this left and right?
And how could you see the Line,
the inside, of anything?
Left, right.
You must mean backward and forward.
- No. Not so.
- Exhibit these directions to me!
I can't.
Unless you step out of your Line altogether.
- Out of my Line?
- Out of the world?
- Out of Space?
- Well, yes.
Out of your world, and into the greater
plane of two dimensions, where...
all is plane and you can
move in four directions...
- If you can't show this or describe this to me,
- then go away!
Hasn't it occurred to you that you
could move in some other direction,
- towards which your side is facing?
- What?
- Never.
- What do you mean by side?
- There is before and behind,
- nothing more.
Fine. Let me show you.
Here, I'm going to move into your world.
Here I come.
- There. Can you see me now?
- Yes...
- but...
- you're only a point!
Well, to you I'm only a point,
but in fact I've moved into Lineland.
Now I'm gonna continue to move
and, from your perspective,
I'm going to vanish.
- What does your majesty say now?
- Charlatan!
- Tricks! Tricks!
- Come back!
- How did you do that?
- I moved out of Lineland.
- Convinced?
- If you had any sense, the smallest particle of...
You ask me to believe that there's another world.
You say there's another motion
besides forward and backward!
But when I ask you to show it,
all you can do is babble and
- practice magic tricks!
- You must be a madman,
or dimensionally deficient!
You six inch idiot!
You think you're the perfection of existence,
but in reality you're the most imperfect.
You say you know the world,
but all you see is a Point!
You can't even see Lines!
Well, I can! In fact, I am a Line of Lines!
A Square!
In my world, as superior as I am to you,
- in my world I'm nothing compared
to the greatest of polygons!
- Enough! Enough!
I'll pierce you through!
DIE, EVIL CREATURE! DIE EVIL CREATURE!
DIE! DIE! DIE!
Yay! Last day of the year!
Last day of the millennium! Eeeeee!
- Go play in your rooms!
- Can we play outside?
- No. In the house today.
- What for? It's New Year's Eve!
- The city's not safe. OK? Inside today!
- That's not fair!
And mind your angles and points!
- Any news on the radio?
- Static.
- Not a good sign.
- The whole world's gone mad!
- Remember the client I saw yesterday?
- Yes.
- She killed herself.
- Your brother warned you.
- Well, I certainly can't defend her now.
- I don't know if I can continue.
- Continue what?
- My practice.
I can't defend guilty people anymore...
- But...
- not after yesterday.
- What would you do?
- How would you make ends meet?
- Peter Pentagon, morning news!
Sorry for the technical
difficulties this morning.
Turns out a couple of Chromatists
broke our transmitter.
But everything's back to
normal here at the station.
Speaking of Chromatists,
they caused a lot of problems yesterday.
Thankfully,
President Circle's fixed them but good.
A riot raged across the city
for over twelve hours yesterday.
The death toll is mounting and
officials say it may reach thousands.
- Thousands...!
- But authorities finally achieved
order round midnight last night.
Over three hundred Irregulars and
Chromatists are under arrest.
The President will be speaking
to the citizenry later today.
In his public statement,
he's going to warn the North...
not to take advantage of the
unrest to start anything funny...
- Not funny like that. Funny the other way.
- At least they stopped the riots.
But so many dead!
Those horrible Chromatists!
What about your brother?
You should go out, find him,
you make sure he's okay!
Get that off your side this instant!
Don't you know what those
Chromatists did yesterday?
- They're murderers!
- What?
Do you want to be associated with murderers?
They killed people by the thousands!
Your uncle may be dead!
- And here you are coloring your sides!
- I didn't know! I didn't know!
Keep the door locked while I'm gone!
B! B Square! Are you in there?
- Who is it?
- It's me, A Square!
- Mrs. B, do you know where your husband is?
- How do I know it's you, A Square?
- It's me, it's me!
- My husband told me not to
open the door for anyone!
- Is your husband there? Is he alright?
- No! I haven't heard anything!
- He didn't come home last night!
- Do you know where he might be?
- He told me he would be at the Great Hall.
- I'll go there and check for him, Mrs. B.
You stay there and do as
your husband told you to do.
Keep your door closed and locked!
f I hear anything I'll come
right back and let you know.
- Tell him I love him!
- I will! Be safe!
- Ah, Excuse me...ah..
- Whaddya want?
My brother... B Square is his name.
He works for the President.
- Is he here?
- I don't know, pal.
Can I go in? I promise
I won't be a brother... uh,a, a bother?
Buddy, you already are a bother.
- We got martial law here.
Head home, wait it out.
- I know you.
Mr. Attorney for the suicidal Chromatists.
My brother works for the President,
I was just trying to find out if he was okay...
Well if you and your kind
hadn't spent all our taxes...
defending those Irregular Chromatist Scum,
maybe you wouldn't have to be
worried about your damn brother.
- Look at what they've done!
- Sir, I just do my job...
Yeah? Did your job choose you?
- You didn't have any choice in the matter?
- Please. My brother works for the President.
I need to know if he's alive.
Can I please pass?
- What've you got there?
- A... glow point...
- Yeah?
- Let me see.
- I... it's for my son...
Not anymore.
Wow! Must be pretty expensive.
- Yes, yes it is...
- Money don't mean much right now.
Not with martial law.
No commerce allowed.
Course a smart man might make his way...
- illegally bartering...
- I got it yesterday,
before everything happened...
- as a gift for my son..
- You didn't steal this, did you?
Partake in a little looting?
Now that it's yours, can I pass? Please?
Soldier,
if this Square is still here when I get back,
I will personally run you
through before I slice him.
- Am I clear?
- Crystal, sir.
- Damn sympathizers...
fifth columnists...
- Move along, sir.
- Can you at least give him a message?
- Can you...
- A lot of people are dead.
Let's not add to the count.
- A! Did you find him?
- The city's locked tight as a drum
- What do you have there?
- Nothing. I found it on the street.
May be valuable.
I'm gonnna go put it in the safe...
- Dad?
- What is it, Hex?
- If three to the second power is nine,
- what is three to the third power?
- Son, this isn't a good time for a math lesson.
In math class, I asked what three
to the third power means in geometry,
- and my teacher threatened me with detention!
- Well, she should have.
Geometry and the world
have only two dimensions.
- But why?
- It's the way of the world.
- Last night, for instance, I had a dream...
- But what does a square,
moving somehow parallel to itself,
what would it make?
- Like, it must make something else...
- It would make a wonderful brainache.
- Now, go play with your brothers.
- But they're all...
- Pentagons, yes. They're pentagons
And you are A Hexagon.
If you're too good to play with them,
- then go study in your room
and stop talking nonsense!
- I can't do anything right!
The boy must be going mad...
He isn't mad. How can you say that!
He's just a little confused.
Three to the third power
has an obvious meaning!
- Ohh! Ohh ....What is that - a point?
- No... a line!
- It's a... a demon!
- It's a circle!
I'm no demon.
You were right the third time.
In a sense, I am a circle.
A circle more perfect than any seen in Flatland.
Sir, forgive us, but...
How did you change your circumference?
No circle I've heard of can do that...
and how did you get in here?
- By "in here", do you mean Flatland?
- Flatland...?
A woman who...
A woman I met yesterday
called the world Flatland.
Did she? Good for her.
Madam, I have a message
to deliver to your husband,
if you wouldn't mind...
Oh! Are you really are a circle?
I mean a... priest? Eeee, eeee, eeee.
A message for my husband from a Prist Circle?
Oh! Yes, by all means. Eeee, eeee, eeee.
Please forgive us our shock...
our amazement... our...
Eeee, eeee, eeee. I'm leaving, I'm going.
Eeee, eeee, eeee.
Would you like... No, of course not.
If I may then... Eeee, eeee, eeee..
. Oh. A Prist Circle! Eeee, eeee, eeee...
- What on earth is that horrid
sound she spits out?
- Her ..Her... peace cry?
- What in the world is a peace cry?
- How can you not know...
- what a...
- Indulge me. Explain.
- See she's a line.
The Law states that she has
to cry out as a warning.
A locator noise.
She could kill someone accidentally
if they don't see her.
- They could move right into her
without ever knowing she...
- How clever your little law is!
Forgive me, sir. I must feel you.
You have no... no angles, not a one.
Are you... a perfect circle?
- Yes and no.
- AGHH! Two eyes! Agh! Oh, disgusting!
- Oh! I'm going to vomit!
- Oh, calm down, silly little square.
I am a more perfect being than you.
- I am a circle made up of circles.
- Argh! Two eyes!
I am perfection.
I am A Sphere,
- CEO of Messiah, Inc!
- A what? Where did you come from?
- From... space, where else?
- But aren't you already in space?
- What do you know of space?
- Space is length and width.
No. There is a third dimension,
- of length, width, and height.
- Please, your... circular Lordship,
what direction is this third dimension?
- Up. Down.
- North and south?
Nothing of the kind.
A direction in which you cannot look,
because you have no eye in your side.
- But I have an eye. It's on my northwest side.
- In order to see in space...
you'd need an eye, not on your outside,
but on your inside,
- looking up or down.
- An eye in my stomach!
Please, sir, this is New Year's Eve...
there were horrible riots yesterday...
my only brother may be dead...
I have family obligations...
- This is no time for jokes...
- I didn't come to joke!
I am from the Land of Three Dimensions.
3D.
I looked down and saw
the plane on which you live.
I can see into your churches, your ministries,
your banks, your houses.
Even your insides and stomachs!
Everything open and exposed to my view.
I saw your five sons fighting each
other with rubber swords.
And your other son, the hexagonal one,
was sulking off in his room.
Likes to color himself.
How do you think I knew that?
We have a name for people like you.
- Yes?
- Perverts! There are laws, sir!
- There are...
- I am what I say I am!
- You must have drilled through the walls.
- Holes!
- Holes! What holes?
- I tell you I came from three dimensional space!
- You could have filled them back in!
Difficult little creature.
- Holes!
- I'm not difficult, I'm a lawyer!
- Let's start over.
When you see your wife, what do you see?
- I mean in geometrical terms?
- If you think I'll say a one-dimensional line,
you're wrong.
Every educated person knows
that women are very thin rectangles,
possessing complete two-dimensionality,
length and width,
- just like...
- No, no, no!
You also see her height.
If a line were just width and length,
it wouldn't occupy space.
- It would be invisible.
- What?
When we see a line,
we see length and width and brightness.
- Is brightness a dimension?
- No! Height is a dimension,
like length, only in a different direction.
In your world,
- height is just very, very small.
- Point out this direction otherwise leave me alone!
- Listen!
To you, Flatland is your whole world.
To me it's a flat plane,
on top of which you move around.
You call me a circle.
No. I'm an infinite number of circles,
A Sphere, a solid.
When I enter your world you see a circle.
For instance...
Last night I saw your dream about Lineland.
- What?
- As clear as a movie on your brain.
- Movie?
- Nevermind. Look.
The King of Lineland saw you
not as a square, but a point.
It's the same for me in Flatland!
You're seeing only a slice of me!
Watch.
I'm going to rise up and down in space.
Watch!
See?
Up, down. Up, down.
- And now I'm going to rise out
of your world altogether.
- Where did you go?
- Where are you?
- Here!
- Here!
- Am I still dreaming?
- Convinced?
-No, it's a Chromatist trick!
- Idiot!
It's no trick.
- I thought I was dealing with an adult!
- You're a spy from the Northern Kingdom!
- I know it!
- Politics? I hate politics!
War is merely an extension of politics,
my friends...
just as murder is an extension of business.
I am pleased to announce that
our generals have reported back...
we have successfully crushed
the Chromatist rebellion!
Good job sir! Great work! At last we have safety!
Now let's kill the irregulars!
Ah! B Square!
My friends, we have B Square to thank
for orchestrating the maneuver.
B Square, you have saved our great Republic!
Good show old boy... what a hero...
never seen anything like it...
he's fantastic at logistics...
But I'm afraid our job
isn't finished, my friends.
There is even now a greater
threat that will emerge.
- This very evening!
- Greater threat?
It will rock the very foundations
of our civilization!
We must be ready.
B Square, I'll be depending
upon you for logistics support.
Can't you understand anything?
Look. If a point moves north,
and leaves a luminous wake,
what name would you give that wake?
- A... a straight line.
- And how many points would it have?
- Two.
- Now let's move that line parallel to itself.
A distance equal to its length.
What would you call its wake?
- A square.
- And how many sides does a square have?
- How many angles? Points?
- Four sides, four angles, four points.
Now imagine a square
moving parallel to itself...
- Upward.
- What do you mean? Northward?
UP, upward.
Pass every point in a square UP,
so that no point passes through
any position previously occupied.
- Each point draws a NEW line on its own.
- You are hurting my brain!
Look, we began with a single point.
One point produces a line with two points.
One line produces a square with four points.
One, two, four.
What's next?
- Eight?
- Yes!
It produces a Something which you do not know
the name for but which we call acube.
- With eight points.
- This cube has sides?
Yes, but what you call sides,
we call faces of a solid in the 3D world...
- How many sides?
- A point has zero sides.
A line has two sides. A square has four sides.
Zero, two, four. Get it?
- And now the next number would be... ?
- Six?
Yes! You see it now, don't you?
You're a monster! You Devil! You Die! You Die!
What is wrong with your species?
I see a brain, but when it comes to imagination,
all you try and do is kill something!
I come for an apostle of the Three Dimensions
- and find a fool instead!
- I'm no fool!
We're only allowed to appear in
your world every thousand years!
You've been chosen!
I can't go change directions
and find someone else now!
- There isn't any time!
- I'm just an attorney. Not an apostle!
Okay then, how would you convince me
if our roles were reversed?
- How would you convince a jury?
- I would have to show them. Directly show them.
Of course. Action, not words!
Listen, I can see from here your study.
On the wall is a hidden safe,
inside of which is hidden a little glowing thing.
It's called a Glow Point.
- No! Wait! Leave that alone!
- I'm entering the safe now.
Grabbing the glowing thingie.
Notice that the door does not move.
Now I am in the safe and
I'm taking the glowing thingie...
- uh... whups...
- What? What?
It stopped glowing. Well, never mind.
Ah. Here's your thingie.
The door to the safe is closed.
Ta-dah!
Get it? ME Spaceland, YOU Flatland.
I look down upon you.
all you've proven is that
you are a... a... skillful thief!
And a vandal!
You fix my Glow Point!
You people certainly like your shiny things,
don't you?
Ok, listen.
The higher I go,
the further away from Flatland I go,
the more I can see,
though of course I see it on a smaller scale.
For example:
now I can see your neighbor's house
and your five Pentagonal Sons
banging against its sides.
- I told them to stay inside!
- Now I'm going far, far up.
Buildings, buildings, buildings...
now I see the border between your
country and the Northern Kingdom.
Uh oh. Looks busy.
Mostly Soldier Triangles.
Looks like they're getting ready for something...
- Oh, anyone can listen to the radio!
- Fine, fine, fine.
- How about if I touch you?
- Touch me?
Sure. Just a little touch,
gently, here. In your stomach!
- Ow! Stop! Ow! Stop! Help! Help! Ow!
- Dad?
- What's happening dad?
- Why are you stuck in the corner?
- Where's the priest?
-Go back to your rooms, both of you.
- Should I use my peace cry?
- Just go. Go!
There's only one other thing to do.
It's never been done before,
- but I suppose I'll have to do it.
- Do what?
- Murder me? You've done everything else!
- Nothing of the sort.
It will be painful, and I could get in trouble,
But I've got no choice if the Gospel of
Three Dimensions is to be revealed.
Hang on, apostle.
One, two, three,
out of Flatland we go!
I'm mad! I'm insane!
What have you done to me?
Lifted you out of Flatland into reality.
Steady. There, can you stand?
Rest on your bottom hairs for a moment.
What is this pressure?
It's pushing me southward. My south hairs hurt!
Oh, that! You'll get used to that.
That's just gravity, something we
all have to contend with in Spaceland.
Nothing to worry about.
Now that I see you... all of you...
you're... you're so, so perfect.
Your circularity... is beyond circularity.
Everywhere you're circular, divine. Perfect.
A divine ideal of loveliness and wisdom!
Feel free to worship me at any time.
But first,
let's take a look at where you've been.
Look! Look, a Flatlander!
You can see their insides!
- I see! I see!
- I take it that my experiment worked.
I hope my ends will justify my means.
Care to see yourself?
Myself? How can I see myself?
I am inside of myself.
In 3D, you can have reflections.
Light can bounce off an object,
which you can use to see yourself.
Here
That's me?
No, it's your reflection.
Thank you!
Thank you for showing me this!
I see now, I see everything! Everything!
I understand it all!
I can see!
- What's that glowing sphere in the sky?
- The sun.
Best not to look at it for too long,
it could blind you.
- How does it stay up there in the sky?
- Just does.
Our scientists say it is immeasurably huge.
- Larger than anything else in the entire world.
- But... it's...
- smaller than you...
- No, that's just perspective.
The further away something is,
the smaller it looks.
But no, it's very, very large.
- Makes me puny by comparison.
- That can't be.
You're a perfect circle,
- divine in all respects...
- Yes, yes,
can't argue with you there.
But still, some of us even worship it.
ow wondrous a world that gods would
have even greater gods to worship!
I guess there's always something smaller
and always something larger than you.
I wonder, what does this sun worship?
Are there beings even greater
than this glorious sun,
- Alright, that's enough.
Let's not get silly, now.
- What is that?
- Oh! And look at those Glow Points!
- That is the moon.
Another Sphere of great proportions.
And those aren't Glow Points.
Those are stars.
If only I could show this to my wife!
- And my son Hex!
- It's rather expensive to pull
someone out of Flatland.
I'm afraid this production really can't
really afford anyone but you. Sorry.
There is so much to understand.
For instance,
I am in Spaceland,
and can see the insides of myself,
and I can see the insides
of all my fellow Flatlanders,
yet,
I see no brain, lungs,
or heart inside of you.
Of course you can't see in my insides.
Spacelanders are of a
greater order than Flatlanders.
I am a being of many circles,
the Many in the One.
What we in Spaceland call A Sphere.
Don't worry.
The mysteries of the world, of Spaceland,
will become plain to you after a while.
We can fly anywhere you like
and view your world in detail.
Let's start with your
house and work our way out.
Eeee, eeee, eeee. Is someone there?
It's me! I'm here, outside the world.
Can't see you, can't hear you!
Eeeee, eeee, eeee!
I can... see everything.
You've given me the eyes... the eyes of God.
You can see what any fool
in the world of 3D can see.
The Great Hall!
Now that I'm in Spaceland,
I can get past the soldiers
to see if my brother is inside!
Now you're thinking in 3D!
I've got business there too. Let's go.
Oh! There he is! Hey, B!
- B!
- Shh!
Looks like your elite priests are
gathering for their millennial meeting.
- Let's listen in.
- Whereas the States have been troubled
by ill-intentioned persons
pretending to have received revelations
of Three Dimensions every thousand
years since Time Began,
it has been unanimously resolved
by the Grand Council that on the
first day of each millennium,
all such apostles of the Three Dimensions...
shall be imprisoned and
executed three days hence.
- Blast!
- What's wrong?
How could I expect this?
You people can't write!
- Write?
- Writing. Recording words visually.
It's what we do to pass information
down through the generations.
- I don't understand.
- Your people worked around it!
You memorize everything!
- Pass it down through voice.
- Of course!
Every child learns how to
memorize great quantities of words
and can repeat them back.
I'm doing my best to remember
every word you speak,
- for instance...
- I hadn't counted on them remembering!
It's 1000 years between each visit!
- They can't blame me. It's not my fault!
- What's wrong?
Didn't you just hear your fate
pronounced by your flatheaded brethren?
Death or imprisonment
awaits the Apostle of 3D
They'll understand.
It's so clear to me, the nature of 3D.
I could get a child to understand it.
Put me down right now,
- I'm sure that I could go down there...
- No, I have to perform my mission.
In fact, unless I miss my guess,
your President is waiting for me.
You stay here. Time for reality
to intrude into Flatland once again.
I come to proclaim that
there is a land of Three Dimensions!
Guards!
Stop that!
I am a perfect circle, a divine Sphere!
Listen to me you flatbrains!
- Hear my word!
- We've got him!
- Where is he? Look Out!
- HEAR MY WORD!
Where did he go? He's gone!!
My Lords, do not be alarmed.
We took care of the Chromatic insurrection.
I assure you this one will be even simpler.
The secret memories have
predicted everything we have seen.
The circle who claims
he's from another world,
all this was as our forefathers foresaw.
The priestly circles alone remember
how the same occurrence...
happened on the last two
millennial commencements.
How can you people be
so smart and yet so stupid?
- Just look at this...
- You are all required to say nothing
of these trifles outside this Cabinet.
Call for the Praetorian Guards!
These Soldier Triangles must
be put to death right away.
All of them!
There, that's done.
No trace, no harm.
These are serious times, gentlemen,
and must be met with determination and resolve.
My Lords,
the business of the Council being over,
I wish you all Happy New Year.
Attend to your Configuration.
- Attend to your Configuration!
- Ah, B Square.
I haven't forgotten you,
my dear assistant,
for the sake of secrecy, you too should die.
But since you've been loyal
and for the most part efficient,
I'll spare you your life and
grant you instead life imprisonment.
However, should you ever mention
what you've seen today,
you will be executed.
Attend to your Configuration.
And Happy New Year.
Guards!
Mr. President!
I promise I won't say a word.
- Not a word! Please!
- Hey! You don't know what you're doing!
There really is a third dimension.
- Listen to me!
- Give it up, Mr. Attorney.
- Let me go back!
- Let me talk to them!
- We don't have a lot of time.
- Please! He's my brother!
Your brother is expendable.
Round Table, Round Table.
Come in, Round Table.
This is Alpha Omega calling.
- Come in, Round Table.
- Roger Alpha Omega.
This is Round Table. Over.
I'm on my way back, Round Table. Over.
We hear you Alpha Omega.
How was the mission? Over.
I'll file a report as soon as
I get back, Round Table.
Until then, cue the triumphant Return!
- What's going on there?
- Oh, even in Spaceland we
have our problem children.
Stay there,
I have to write my After Action Report.
Welcome back, sir. Welcome home.
- We're all so proud of you.
- And the company!
Was your manifestation a successful one?
There were a few complications.
- Your messages, sir.
- On my desk, Mathilde.
I've got to send an e-comm report
quick to the board of directors.
What a cute drawing!
- What?
- The drawing. On your desk.
Where did you get it?
Did you bring it back with you?
A Square?
He's not a drawing, he's a Flatlander.
- Flatlander?
- That's never been done before!
I thought you were a cartoon!
- A cartoon?
- He can talk! How delightful.
- Isn't he cute, Millicent?
- I think it's disgusting!
- A cartoon?
- Something you can't do in Flatland.
- Can it think?
- Oh, yes. Though not very well.
- Smile for the camera, A Square!
- Is this allowed?
No previous Messiah ever brought
their chosen apostle back with them.
He's here, isn't he?
And my e-comm is now finished!
Can we show him around the office?
This will cause quite a stir!
- I could just eat it up!
- Ladies, it's not a trinket.
Its time here is limited.
Gravitational forces will
kill it if it stays too long.
- What?
- If you ladies will see that
I'm not disturbed for the next hour...
- After that, I want to meet with Marketing.
- Yes, sir.
Solids.
That's the first lesson and the last. Solids.
That's what we are and you're not.
You're not solid, not really,
because solid implies thickness.
Your thickness is microscopic.
Let's begin.
First, a cube is made up of a
number of square planes like yourself.
Now here's a pack of cards.
I put one down. Now a second, now a third.
See? I'm building a solid by a multitude
of squares parallel to one another.
And now the solid is complete,
being as high as it is long and broad.
We call this solid a cube.
- It hurts my brain.
- I'm sure it does.
Light, shadow, perspective...
you're not used to it
- Yes, sir?
- Send in a cube.
- Which one?
- Anyone.
Yes, sir.
I'm going to let you feel a cube.
That'll help you understand solids.
Let this Flatlander touch you.
Don't worry, it won't hurt.
And there won't be any side effects...
that we know of.
Dean in Sending, isn't it?
- Carlton in Receiving.
- Of course, of course.
Just stand here on the desk.
And you, A Square, you may feel Dean.
- Carlton.
- Sorry?
- Cube Carlton. Receiving.
- Right. Right.
A Square, please go over and
feel the generic cube person.
Not a plane. Not a plane. A solid.
Six planes. Eight terminal points. Angles.
A square moving parallel to himself in space.
Yes! I am a part of this...
This is bliss!
What wonder to know so much!
That's enough.
We can't go on like this forever, you know.
Thank you, Carlson.
Carlton.
- Now, lesson two.
- Your pardon, Great Sphere of 3D, but...
might I be granted a look at your insides?
- My what?
- Your stomach, brain, heart.
What the devil are you talking about?
When I was feeling the cube,
a light overwhelmed me
and I saw more and farther
than I've ever seen before.
Uh huh?
What I saw... or sensed... or felt... Was
that a dimension greater than yours existed.
Just as I am to you,
so you must be to someone else.
If your dimension is
greater and purer than mine,
then there must be a fourth dimension
even greater and purer than yours.
Good friend, philosopher, priest,
don't you see what you've taught me?
Some more spacious space,
some more dimensionable dimension,
- lies beyond this one.
- Time's short.
We've got a lot to do before you're
fit to proclaim the Three Dimensions
Please, sir, let me see your insides.
In the first place your request makes no sense.
In the second place I can't
turn myself inside out.
But you showed me the insides of Flatland
by taking me from the land of two dimensions
into the land of three.
Please, take me into a fourth dimension...
so that we can look onto the land of 3D
and see the secrets of solids!
And where is this land of
four dimensions supposed to be?
Doubtless you, O great Teacher of
dimensionality greater than mine,
surely you know where it is.
Damned if I do. There is no such place.
The very idea! Inconceivable!
Well, you taught me that when
I see a line in Flatland and infer a plane,
in reality I see a third dimension.
Not the same as brightness,
but one called height.
So it follows that in Spaceland,
when I see a plane and infer a solid,
I really see a fourth unrecognized dimension.
Just as the monarch of Lineland couldn't
turn right or left or see Flatland,
so I couldn't see Spaceland even
though it was all around me!
So there must be a fourth
dimension outside Spaceland!
Tell me,
has anyone seen any... you know...
visitors, here in Spaceland?
A few madmen.
The usual visions, delusions, brainstorms.
Nothing worth writing about.
Tell me, did any of these delusions...
- appear and vanish suddenly?
- Well, that's how the story sometimes goes
a story written by deluded,
mentally sick brains.
- Maybe they come from...
- I thought I told you not to disturb me.
I'm sorry sir.
The Board of Directors are here.
- We've got a problem, A!
- What?
- Your e-comm was leaked to the public.
- What?
- When? I just submitted it!
- Public opinion is against us.
They think you've made a terrible mistake!
There's a hearing in the Senate
Chambers going on right now.
The Zeroes are winning.
We must do something!
Your cartoon thing has been subpoenaed!
- He must appear at once!
- Great Balls of Fire!
There's no need to be worried.
Just be polite.
Try not to say too much,
yes and no answers,
Be as boolean and binary as you can be.
No pressure, but the Zeroes in the
Senate may have enough votes to win.
- The Zeroes?
- Political faction.
They've gotten momentum because
I brought you out of Flatland.
They think Flatland is an abomination
that should be wiped out.
What?
It disturbs them that there are
creatures such as yourselves.
They think we shouldn't be trying
to teach you the Gospel of 3D.
They think we should be putting
you out of your misery.
- Misery?!
- Just don't say anything stupid.
- Do you mean to tell me, Mister Sphere...
- Just call me A Sphere, Senator...
I'll call you what I like, boy!
Do you mean to tell me that
you took it upon yourself...
to bring this disgusting
creature into our world...
- without any oversight? Hmm?
- It was a split-second decision, Senator.
Our company had done research on what
such an action would mean, of course.
- We'd run computer simulations and...
- Computer simulations!
And these simulations made you certain that
there would be no unintended consequences?
- That there would be no danger to Spaceland?
- Of course, Senator...
- But you weren't 100 percent certain, were you?
We're still here, Senator.
Is a computer simulation PROOF of no danger?
No, Senator, of course not.
A computer simulation is only a simulation.
It isn't real.
We simply had a good idea...
- of what...
-You scientists never consider the
possibility that you could be wrong,
that your science could one day
be the end of the entire world...
you look at your computer simulations
and take great risks with the public good,
- without oversight, without any
- If you'd relinquish the floor,
I'd like to interview the Flatlander, Senator.
We're here to decide if we should
perform euthanasia on Flatland or not.
After all, the scientists are not
the ones on trial here. Not yet.
Of course, of course, I yield the floor
to my distinguished Cubic Colleague.
Now. Mr. A Square. You've been sworn in.
Yes, Oh Great and Divine Cube.
Knock it off with the Great and Divine.
Call him Senator.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry, your Senatorness,
uhm, Cube, ah, Senator Cube...
- Don't coach the witness.
- I'm sorry Senator.
It's his whole world you're
standing in judgment over,
he's just arrived here, he doesn't know
anything yet, it isn't right, it isn't fair...
A Sphere,
you are excused while we interview this witness!
And take your board of directors with you.
Guards!
Ixnay on the Fourth Dimensionay.
What? What? What did you say? What?
- Remember. You're an attorney!
- This is a disaster, Sphere!
We're going to hold an emergency
board meeting and elect a new CEO...
Oh, the shareholders! The shareholders!
Now, Mr. A Square...
Let's ignore the media here.
Let's ignore everything.
It's just you and me.
You know what's at stake.
Tell me what's on your mind.
Why should we preserve your world?
- Why should Flatland continue its existence?
- Because...
- Speak into the microphone, please.
- Because... ack!
Can someone prop the witness upright please?
Yes, you there. You diamond guy there.
Lift him up, please.
Answer the question, Flatlander.
Why should Flatland have a continued existence?
Because...
In order to turn a circle into A Sphere,
we rotate ninety degrees
the circle along its vertical axis.
Thus a circle becomes A Sphere.
So in order to make A Sphere into a hypersphere,
we would rotate spheres within spheres...
Oh enough of this stupidity.
- What is it talking about?
- It's there, I know it is.
- We need to get out of hear now.
- It's all around us.
- Fourth dimension?
- This is madness, madness!!
- The fourth dimension is here.
Are you alright, Mr. Square?
Are you suffering from your
transition into our world?
You must be ill. Four dimensions?
Space is space!
Point of order, I say!
Point of order, Senator Cube!
Our enemies in the X-Axis
have seen our continued inability,
our continued weakness, our failure,
I saw our failure to destroy Flatland!
We have little time for this circus!
They see our delays as an excuse to attack.
- Doom may fall upon us at any moment!
- No, no. It's clear in my head.
I understand everything.
I just don't have the words.
- Space is space, yes...
- I voted against using Messiah Inc.
- but space is curved...
- I never trusted that A Sphere!
I thought we were here to
discuss the bowling ball bill?
Who brought that thing in here?
Mr. Square. It sounds as if the government
has made a terrible mistake...
in Chartering A Sphere's company
to perform Millennium duties.
It sounds as if you are incapable of understanding
the Gospel of the Three Dimensions.
No... no your worship! That's not true!
I understand.
And I know there are dimensions even beyond it.
You've all led me into a world of
understanding that I can never repay...
Surely you, you,
as great divine solids, can understand...
there is always something beyond...
there is always... infinity!
Mister Square! Are you alright?
Mister Square! Can you hear me?
- Apostle! Are you okay?
- What's the matter with it?
It's gravity! He must return! And soon!
Infinity. Infinity. Infinity.
What's happening?
Oh, it's just a little war.
The X-Axis is attacking us.
Savages.
- Everything's black. I can't see.
- Our time is up, my friend.
I have to send you back.
Good luck preaching the Gospel of the 3D.
No... please don't send me back.
- I can't bear to go back.
- A Square!
I'm afraid I won't be answering
any calls from Flatland...
for the next thousand years.
Did I save my world?
Shh! Ignorance is bliss.
Please don't send me back!
Infinity...infinity.
Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! No!
No! No!....No! No!....
Let's go, Dad. It's New Year's!
It's the New Millennium!
Come listen to the Proclamation! Hurry!
Whereas the States have been
troubled by ill-intentioned persons...
pretending to have received
revelations of Three Dimensions
every thousand years since Time Began,
it has been unanimously resolved
by the Grand Council that on the
first day of each millenary,
all such apostles of the Three Dimensions...
shall be imprisoned and
executed three days hence.
Tell your mother. Tell your mother I'll be back.
Tell her I had to go see your Uncle B.
Dead, all dead!
- Halt! Who goes there?
- I'm A Square, Attorney At Law,
here to see my client, B Square!
- Allow me to pass in the name of the Law!
- No one's allowed in!
Get out of here you pest!
- A Square! EEE! EEE! EEE! A Square!
- Mrs. B! Are you okay?
- Children! Say hello to your Uncle!
- Hello, children.
Children, go play off to the side.
They won't tell me what the charges are!
They won't let me in!
-- What's going on, A?
- I need to get in there.
I have to talk to your husband.
- Can you distract the guard?
- You bet your southside!
Yikes! Look out! Look out! It's a woman!
Watch it, buddy! Hey!
Well, Mr. Suicide!
What are you doing in here?
I'm here to see my client, B Square!
Allow me to pass in the name of the law!
Law? What Law?
I was sworn to protect
the Law, the Constitution.
They tore it into pieces yesterday!
I'm a soldier!
They have me guarding a bunch of civilians.
- I should be in battle!
- He's my brother.
- Brother, huh?
- Yes, sir.
Five minutes.
- How did you know I was here?
- I saw it. I saw what happened.
- I saw them arrest you.
- What, you dreamed it?
- Had a vision or something?
- No no, I was there, sort of.
I was in Spaceland looking down onto Flatland
and saw President Circle arrest you.
He had no right.
I can get you off. I know I can.
All I have to do is explain to them that...
that up...
you know, up, not northward,
but up, above, on top of.
They'll understand then.
I should've remembered all of the words,
but I was distracted and beside myself.
I was sick. But listen, B.
There's another dimension.
There's a third dimension...
- and I'm here to spread the word.
- WHAT! Are you mad?
You're a monster! You'll get us all killed!
- Die! Die!
- What are you... Ow!!
...the Infinite beatitude of existence.
It is, and there is no other...
... of the infinite in the One
of the infinite beatitude of existence...
... It is and there is no other beside It,
the cloudland of metaphysics,
the universe from the cloudland of metaphysics...
- The unity that exists...
- Thus speaks the Monarch of Pointland.
... the allness that is One, that final
universal analogical instinct that is
the Oneness of the One to which It...
- ... it is...
- Listen to that babbling!
- ...and there is no other beside it...
- Can't you stop it?
Give it a try yourself,
my Apostle of the Three Dimensions.
Let's see you lead the Monarch
of Pointland to a higher dimension.
Ok, No problem.
Hey, pea brain. Listen to me.
You're not the all in all.
You're the Nothing of Nothing.
Your so-called universe is
a mere point in a line,
and a line is as nothing compared with . . .
... the divine creative
power of the all in One...
Hey pea brain!
... the joy of being you...
Ah! Nobody's home!
See the difficulty you'll
have in your own world?
The Monarch, in so far as he hears you at all,
accepts your words only as his own,
then plumes himself in the
variety of The Great One's thoughts.
Truly he is omnipresent and omniscient,
truly he is the Monarch of Pointland.
Good luck, Apostle.
There's not much time left!
Up, not northwards.
It's been a wonderful interlude, this.
Up, not northwards.
You've not much time left.
Guard! Guard! He's mad!
- He's one of them!
- B! What are you doing?
- B, what would our dad say?
- Our dad was a TRIANGLE!
What do you want?
Are you finished in here?
Yes, I've nothing more to talk
with my client about today.
Thank you.
Don't let him get away!
He's a proselytizer!
He's a desperate man, Colonel.
A truly desperate man.
He's one of those proselytizers
for the third dimension!
Stop! Halt! To arms, to arms!
Stop that square!
A Square! Where are you going?
- What did you learn about my husband?
- Don't worry, he's alive and well!
We'll file an injunction,
a writ of habeas corpus,
we'll fight this all the way
to the Supreme Circle.
But right now the police are after me!
Square heading toward suburbs.
Believed dangerous.
Hey! Don't I know you?
Not in this world.
- Where've you been?
- My brother B turned me in.
The police are after me.
- They'll kill me!
- Kill you?
- No time. Pack your things!
We're going to defect to the North!
They'll understand me there!
- The north?
- Don't think, pack! Pack!
I have to see Hex! Hex!
I have a new lesson for you!
Remember how you asked me
what three to the third power meant?
It was before that New Law was announced!
It was a silly joke!
No, no, it wasn't! Look!
All I have to do is take a square,
myself, for example, me, you see,
not northward but...
yes, I would move myself...
Up. Up. Nothing.
Not exactly like this. But...
- You know, somehow...
- Okay buddy, time to go.
Be careful! He's a tricky little square!
Oh, Gentlemen!
I am woman!
Hear my WAR CRY!!!
Get back! Get back! It's a woman!
Get back! Watch out! It's a woman!
Run darling! Run!
We'll meet you at the border!
He went thata way, north by northwest.
- Dismantle and segment!
- Wait!
There really is, I promise you,
there really is a third dimension.
- That's absurd.
- He's stalling.
- No, no.
- Freak
- I... I can prove it.
- You can't!
It's.. it's elsewhere. It's.. all around us.
Mathematics proves that God limited
the number of dimensions to two for a reason.
- For several reasons.
- Symmetry, for one.
- Beauty and perfection and simplicity for another.
Dismantle and segment!
No, please, I'm not .. ah, ahh!
The Army from the North! At last!
My destiny fulfilled! WAR!
Please, I have to meet my wife
and family up in the North.
I... I never miss an appointment.
Greetings, A Square.