Depeche Mode: M (2025) Movie Script
To ensure the sunrise
through an offering of blood.
This was the premise
of Mexica human sacrifice.
A daily sacrifice by the individual
to guarantee
the community's well-being.
The location for the sacrifice,
atop a pyramid.
The connection
between art and offering
was absolute for the Aztecs,
and with these actions
they were consecrated.
Therefore, in Mexico,
pre-Hispanic cultures
stood out for their humanism.
Mictlan, the Underworld,
the land of the dead.
Each one recalling
their honorable actions in this life.
Nine levels to pass through on the way
towards the soul's full liberation.
And Death would say,
"I am that charming
and mournful magician,
who, in reaping love and joy,
forever douses the fevers of pain."
Nationalization of death,
and glorification of Mexican attitudes
towards death,
are a 20th Century phenomenon.
I don't know why we were given
the 'copyright' of Death.
The idea of a candy skull,
because Mexicans laugh at death.
When one reads old Mexica poems,
they are not making fun of death, no.
I mean, there is a hyper-tragic sense
of existence.
We realize that funeral rites
in Mexico are extremely complex...
...and this is still
part of everyday life.
I think Depeche Mode belongs
to a different time.
Depeche Mode is tattooed in the heart
of three or four generations...
...and that lets them connect
with new generations.
What I think is hard
for a band nowadays
is to last as long as Depeche did.
Clearly, filling the Foro Sol
many times over is impressive.
People here 'get' their music.
We feel it.
We have a lot of that
undercurrent of death,
of darkness, we're well aware.
Mexico's reality
is rather dark itself.
Memento Mori is mature,
remarkably interesting...
...a great record conceptually
and the dark stuff it contains
related to death, to the pandemic,
what is going on in the world.
Where we keep sinking lower.
It's that kind of record.
What country can we go celebrate
in a way that isn't tragic?
Mexico.
Because in this part we're celebrating
and remembering the dead,
we're celebrating
what we were in life.
So I believe this album somehow
brings us back to reality,
not just in the poetic sense, but also
talking about experiences, right?
Particularly after all these years
have passed,
and what the band has lived through.
In the end, we shouldn't forget
we will all die someday,
and thinking
something will last forever...
isn't good, right?
And I went into a room
covered in eyes,
eyes on the walls,
eyes on the ceilings,
eyes in the corner,
eyes looking everywhere.
As if there was anything
other than eyes watching eyes.
Then suddenly, they all saw me,
and blinked at once.
"Come back here, behind the hill
to the great beyond."
My people,
who are visiting me, tell me.
Tell me it's similar to this place,
but things are more like...
you know...
like the pause between parties,
when another party might be coming.
But now it's silent.
A long silence
that refuses to take shape.
And no, to answer your question,
there is no Divine justice.
The only justice is Cato's justice.
I want to answer, but how?
When what little I know,
I learned on this side of blinking.
What we've got here on either side
is a 'Huey tzompantli'.
An altar made by the Mexica
to honor the Gods.
It's made of dead bodies,
skeletons, and skulls.
I also have here
some technological corpses
that met with commercial death
years ago,
but I see in them a chance
to overcome that death
and to give them a new purpose.
And there is a long tradition
of links between death and technology,
especially representative technology.
I mention this
'cause of the obsolete tech, right?
It begs the question of,
well, what Is real?
What does it mean
to represent what's real?
Maybe representing reality
is more like representing a feeling,
or a moment, right?
It's interesting to think about
how in an aesthetic universe,
we have access
to the best possible tech
we've had in the history of mankind,
it really feels more authentic
when something uses
some older technology.
So how does death
become a national symbol?
That's a very strange
and curious thing about Mexico,
because many things that are called
Mexican traits really are not.
Starting with the Day of the Dead.
And in that sense,
I think it should be compared...
to something like,
if you want to call it,
the nationalization of Sex in Brazil.
I mean,
in Brazil they nationalized Carnival,
in Mexico,
we nationalized the Day of the Dead.
And neither one is a National holiday.
Carnival and Day of the Dead
are both Catholic holidays.
No, Carnival is not Brazilian.
Day of the Dead is not Mexican.
And, why in the 20th Century
do you have these countries,
who are and consider themselves
'mestizo' countries,
are these two subjects being fused?
Death and sex are similar,
because in both cases
you have blending bodies,
dissolving bodies,
bodies dissolving for the common good.
Every death is a unique event.
The radical singularity
of that moment of passing
is quite overwhelming, isn't it?
And all the while,
there is a brutal contrast
with the fact that thousands
are born and die every day.
Hence we come
to the question of mourning,
which has to do with memory.
One night I dreamt
that my mother had died.
At the edge of the garden,
I saw a kind of
natural limestone step,
a malformation, perhaps an altar,
and on top of it,
hundreds of heads weeping,
praying for their dead full of hatred.
I remembered my brittle-boned
Indian mother,
and I bowed my head to pray as well,
but my language was different
from theirs.
And then Death
slapped the back of my head
with disdain and confronted me.
"You should learn to pray
for the unknown first."
Someone placed a tray filled with cups
in my hand, and Death added,
"Now I'll pray for a girl's corpse,
and you'll dance
to the rhythm of my tears
without spilling a single drop
from these cups,
until the wine or your mother's bones
are consumed,
and you discover that the pain
in this scarring being
does not lie in prayer, but in dance."
In the earliest written account
on record,
the Sumerians told the story
of Gilgamesh,
a man who sought to become God
in order to attain immortality.
In his quest, Gilgamesh finally learns
that immortality doesn't lie
in eternal life,
but in the legacy of our actions,
that will live on in the memory
and in the hearts of others.
through an offering of blood.
This was the premise
of Mexica human sacrifice.
A daily sacrifice by the individual
to guarantee
the community's well-being.
The location for the sacrifice,
atop a pyramid.
The connection
between art and offering
was absolute for the Aztecs,
and with these actions
they were consecrated.
Therefore, in Mexico,
pre-Hispanic cultures
stood out for their humanism.
Mictlan, the Underworld,
the land of the dead.
Each one recalling
their honorable actions in this life.
Nine levels to pass through on the way
towards the soul's full liberation.
And Death would say,
"I am that charming
and mournful magician,
who, in reaping love and joy,
forever douses the fevers of pain."
Nationalization of death,
and glorification of Mexican attitudes
towards death,
are a 20th Century phenomenon.
I don't know why we were given
the 'copyright' of Death.
The idea of a candy skull,
because Mexicans laugh at death.
When one reads old Mexica poems,
they are not making fun of death, no.
I mean, there is a hyper-tragic sense
of existence.
We realize that funeral rites
in Mexico are extremely complex...
...and this is still
part of everyday life.
I think Depeche Mode belongs
to a different time.
Depeche Mode is tattooed in the heart
of three or four generations...
...and that lets them connect
with new generations.
What I think is hard
for a band nowadays
is to last as long as Depeche did.
Clearly, filling the Foro Sol
many times over is impressive.
People here 'get' their music.
We feel it.
We have a lot of that
undercurrent of death,
of darkness, we're well aware.
Mexico's reality
is rather dark itself.
Memento Mori is mature,
remarkably interesting...
...a great record conceptually
and the dark stuff it contains
related to death, to the pandemic,
what is going on in the world.
Where we keep sinking lower.
It's that kind of record.
What country can we go celebrate
in a way that isn't tragic?
Mexico.
Because in this part we're celebrating
and remembering the dead,
we're celebrating
what we were in life.
So I believe this album somehow
brings us back to reality,
not just in the poetic sense, but also
talking about experiences, right?
Particularly after all these years
have passed,
and what the band has lived through.
In the end, we shouldn't forget
we will all die someday,
and thinking
something will last forever...
isn't good, right?
And I went into a room
covered in eyes,
eyes on the walls,
eyes on the ceilings,
eyes in the corner,
eyes looking everywhere.
As if there was anything
other than eyes watching eyes.
Then suddenly, they all saw me,
and blinked at once.
"Come back here, behind the hill
to the great beyond."
My people,
who are visiting me, tell me.
Tell me it's similar to this place,
but things are more like...
you know...
like the pause between parties,
when another party might be coming.
But now it's silent.
A long silence
that refuses to take shape.
And no, to answer your question,
there is no Divine justice.
The only justice is Cato's justice.
I want to answer, but how?
When what little I know,
I learned on this side of blinking.
What we've got here on either side
is a 'Huey tzompantli'.
An altar made by the Mexica
to honor the Gods.
It's made of dead bodies,
skeletons, and skulls.
I also have here
some technological corpses
that met with commercial death
years ago,
but I see in them a chance
to overcome that death
and to give them a new purpose.
And there is a long tradition
of links between death and technology,
especially representative technology.
I mention this
'cause of the obsolete tech, right?
It begs the question of,
well, what Is real?
What does it mean
to represent what's real?
Maybe representing reality
is more like representing a feeling,
or a moment, right?
It's interesting to think about
how in an aesthetic universe,
we have access
to the best possible tech
we've had in the history of mankind,
it really feels more authentic
when something uses
some older technology.
So how does death
become a national symbol?
That's a very strange
and curious thing about Mexico,
because many things that are called
Mexican traits really are not.
Starting with the Day of the Dead.
And in that sense,
I think it should be compared...
to something like,
if you want to call it,
the nationalization of Sex in Brazil.
I mean,
in Brazil they nationalized Carnival,
in Mexico,
we nationalized the Day of the Dead.
And neither one is a National holiday.
Carnival and Day of the Dead
are both Catholic holidays.
No, Carnival is not Brazilian.
Day of the Dead is not Mexican.
And, why in the 20th Century
do you have these countries,
who are and consider themselves
'mestizo' countries,
are these two subjects being fused?
Death and sex are similar,
because in both cases
you have blending bodies,
dissolving bodies,
bodies dissolving for the common good.
Every death is a unique event.
The radical singularity
of that moment of passing
is quite overwhelming, isn't it?
And all the while,
there is a brutal contrast
with the fact that thousands
are born and die every day.
Hence we come
to the question of mourning,
which has to do with memory.
One night I dreamt
that my mother had died.
At the edge of the garden,
I saw a kind of
natural limestone step,
a malformation, perhaps an altar,
and on top of it,
hundreds of heads weeping,
praying for their dead full of hatred.
I remembered my brittle-boned
Indian mother,
and I bowed my head to pray as well,
but my language was different
from theirs.
And then Death
slapped the back of my head
with disdain and confronted me.
"You should learn to pray
for the unknown first."
Someone placed a tray filled with cups
in my hand, and Death added,
"Now I'll pray for a girl's corpse,
and you'll dance
to the rhythm of my tears
without spilling a single drop
from these cups,
until the wine or your mother's bones
are consumed,
and you discover that the pain
in this scarring being
does not lie in prayer, but in dance."
In the earliest written account
on record,
the Sumerians told the story
of Gilgamesh,
a man who sought to become God
in order to attain immortality.
In his quest, Gilgamesh finally learns
that immortality doesn't lie
in eternal life,
but in the legacy of our actions,
that will live on in the memory
and in the hearts of others.