Equilibrium (2002) Movie Script
In the first years
of the 21 st century...
...a third World War broke out.
Those of us who survived knew
mankind could never survive...
a fourth...
that our own volatile natures
could simply no longer
be risked.
So we have created
a new arm of the law...
...the Grammaton Cleric,
whose sole task it is
to seek out and eradicate
the true source
of man's inhumanity to man.
His ability...
to feel.
Police!
You know what to do.
Get down!
We have an unknown number
barricaded in the southeast end
of the compound.
Read that.
Tetragrammaton team en route.
Cleric, lights out.
Maybe more than a dozen inside.
When the door's down,
blow the bulbs.
Yes, sir.
Go.
Where is he?
Shut up.
Anybody get him?
Did anybody hit him?
Shut up!
Listen.
This is it.
Where?
There.
It's real.
Burn it.
Why didn't you just leave it
for the evidentiary team
to collect and log?
They miss things sometimes.
And I thought
I'd take it down myself...
get it done properly.
How long, Preston,
till all this is gone?
Till we've burned
every last bit of it?
Resources are tight.
We'll get it all eventually.
Libria...
I congratulate you.
At last...
peace reigns
in the heart of man.
At last, war is but a word
whose meaning fades
from our understanding.
At last...
we...are...whole.
Librians...there is a disease
in the heart of man.
Its symptom is hate.
Its symptom...is anger.
Its symptom is rage.
Its symptom...is war.
The disease...is human emotion.
But, Libria...
I congratulate you.
For there is a cure
for this disease.
At the cost of the dizzying
highs of human emotion,
we have suppressed
its abysmal lows.
And you as a society
have embraced this cure.
Prozium.
Now we are at peace
with ourselves,
and humankind is one.
War is gone.
Hate, a memory.
We are our own conscience now.
And it is this conscience
that guides us to rate EC-10
for emotional content
all those things that might
tempt us to feel again...
and destroy them.
Librians, you have won.
Against all odds
and your own natures...
you have survived.
Every time we come
from the Nethers to the city,
it reminds why we do
what we do.
It does?
I beg your pardon.
It does.
The following items
have been rated EC-10...
condemned...
seven works of two-dimensional
illustrated material,
seven discs of musical content,
computer programs.
Seven works
of two-dimensional...
Thank you
for coming, Cleric.
I assume you know who I am.
Yes, sir. Of course.
You are Vice-Council Dupont
of the Third Conciliarly
of the Tetragrammaton...
Father's voice.
Quite frankly, Cleric,
I am told that you are
very nearly a prodigal student,
knowing almost instantly
if someone is feeling.
I have a good record, sir.
Why, do you imagine,
that is, Cleric?
I'm not sure, Vice-Council.
Somehow...
I'm able, on some level,
to sense
how an offender thinks,
to...put myself
in their position.
If you had ceased
your interval,
if you were
a sense offender...
I suppose
you could say that, sir.
You're a family man, Cleric?
Yes, sir...
a boy and a girl.
The boy's in
the monastery himself,
on path to becoming a Cleric.
Good.
And the mother?
My spouse was arrested
and incinerated
for sense offense
four years ago, sir.
By yourself?
No, sir...by another.
How did you feel about that?
I'm sorry.
I don't...
fully understand, sir.
How did you feel?
I didn't feel anything.
Really?
How is it
that you came to miss it?
I...
I've asked myself
that same question, sir.
I don't know.
A nearly unforgivable lapse,
Cleric.
I trust you'll be
more vigilant in the future.
Yes, sir.
Every time we come
from the Nethers to the city,
it reminds why we do
what we do.
It does?
Every time we come
from the Nethers to the city,
it reminds why we do
what we do.
It does?
It does.
Prosecutorial evidence
for A.N.R. 136 890.
I need it.
It was late this afternoon.
May not have showed up
in the records yet.
I'm very sorry, Cleric.
Nothing has been logged
and nothing is pending
under that entry.
It was an item of evidence
brought in personally
by Grammaton Errol Partridge.
Check again.
Sir, Cleric Partridge has not
entered anything in for weeks.
You're mistaken.
It was a book of some kind.
Cleric...
...there's nothing.
Thank you.
He's been passing through
the gate into the Nether
every night
for the last two weeks.
We assumed it was
enforcement-related.
You always knew.
"But I, being poor...
have only my dreams."
"I have spread my dreams
under your feet.
"Tread softly...
because you tread
on my dreams."
I assume you dream, Preston.
I'll do what I can
to see they go easy on you.
We both know...
they never go easy.
Then I'm sorry.
No, you're not.
You don't even know
the meaning.
It's just a...vestigial word
for a feeling
you've never felt.
Don't you see, Preston?
It's gone.
Everything that makes us
what we are...traded away.
There's no war.
No murder.
What is it you think we do?
No.
You've been with me.
You've seen how it can be...
the jealousy, the rage.
A heavy cost.
I'd pay it gladly.
Don't.
You and your partner
were close?
I hope you're as pleased
to be assigned me
as I am the placement.
I was told this would be
a career-making advancement.
I'm like you, Cleric...
intuitive.
Sometimes I know
when a person's feeling
before they know it
themselves.
Cleric...
I can only hope one day
to be as...
uncompromising as you.
Good night.
The later 20th century
saw the fortuitous
and simultaneous rise
of two synergistic political
and psychological sciences.
The first, the revolutionary
precept of the hate crime.
John?
Yes?
I saw Robbie Taylor
crying today.
He didn't know, but I saw.
Do you think
I should report him?
Unquestionably.
...a single inescapable fact...
that mankind united with
infinitely greater purpose
in pursuit of war...
than he ever did
in pursuit of peace.
"But I, being poor...
have only my dreams."
I have spread my dreams
under your feet."
"Tread softly...
because you tread
on my dreams."
Don't move! Don't move!
Comply! Comply!
- Stop! Stop where you are!
- Get down! Get down!
Don't shoot.
This is a lawful entry.
We have a warrant
for your wife's arrest.
She's charged
with sense offense.
- Hey!
Get her!
Get her off him now!
Remember me.
- Libria...
Awake.
Awaken to triumph again
in the face of yet another day,
another step
in our unified march
- Into the unwavering purpose...
...move ahead together
into the certainty
of our collective destiny.
What are you doing?
I said, what are you doing?
I accidently dropped my...
morning interval.
I took it out
before I brushed my teeth.
I never take it out
before I brush my teeth.
Then you'll go by Equilibrium,
log the loss,
and get a replacement.
Yes.
Of course.
Your new partner called.
He says he'll pick you up
at 10:00 for the A.N.R.
I hope you don't mind.
I took the liberty
of telling him
you would be at Equilibrium,
replacing your dose.
No, of course not.
That was the right thing
to do.
Stop that.
Due to terrorist activity,
this site is
temporarily closed.
Proceed to the Equilibrium
Center in Sector 8A.
Due to terrorist activity,
this site is
temporarily closed.
This site is
temporarily closed.
Proceed to the Equilibrium
Center in Sector 8A.
More than punctual, Cleric.
Hop in.
How were the lines?
I'm surprised you were able
to get your interval
and get out so quickly.
No, they're...
they're fine today.
Maybe I'll drop by later,
get my interval adjusted.
You expecting Resistance?
That's something you'll find
about me, Cleric.
I'm a wary person,
cautious by nature.
Always expecting the worst.
You can't do this.
You cannot do this.
Tetragrammaton.
There's nothing we can't do.
How long have you been off
the dose?
Look at you.
Look at you!
Look at you.
The mirror's frame is illegal.
Destroy it.
We have suppression.
We're making entry.
Standard deployment.
Collecting catalog.
Illegal articles.
You're gonna burn it,
aren't you?
Eventually.
However, you couldn't have
accumulated all this
by yourself.
It'll all be sorted
and examined.
We'll discover
who your confederates are.
Gun!
We need her.
What's your name?
O'Brien, Mary.
Well, Mary...
you can either wait
and tell the technicians
at the Palace of Justice...
or you can tell me now.
Who are your friends?
I'm wondering if you have
any idea at all
what that word means...
"friend."
There's nothing
you don't feel?
How about guilt?
Let me ask you something.
Why are you alive?
I'm alive...
I live...
...to safeguard the continuity
of this great society.
To serve Libria.
It's circular.
You exist to continue
your existence.
What's the point?
What's the point
of your existence?
To feel.
'Cause you've never done it,
you can never know it.
But it's as vital as breath.
And without it...
without love,
without anger,
without sorrow...
breath is
just a clock ticking.
Then I have no choice
but to remand you
to the Palace of Justice
for processing.
Processing.
You mean execution, don't you?
Processing.
The Gun Katas.
Through analysis of thousands
of recorded gunfights,
the Cleric has determined
that the geometric distribution
of antagonists in any gun battle
is a statistically
predictable element.
The Gun Kata treats
the gun as a total weapon,
each fluid position
representing
a maximum kill zone,
inflicting maximum damage
on the maximum number
of opponents
while keeping
the defender clear
of the statistically
traditional trajectories
of return fire.
By the rote mastery
of this art,
your firing efficiency will rise
by no less than 120%.
The difference of a 63% increase
to lethal proficiency
makes the master
of the Gun Katas
an adversary not to be
taken lightly.
Without love...
breath is just a clock...
ticking.
Prozium...
the great nepenthe.
Opiate of our masses.
Glue of our great society.
Salve and salvation,
it has delivered us
from pathos, from sorrow,
the deepest chasms
of melancholy and hate.
With it, we anesthetize grief,
annihilate jealousy,
obliterate rage.
That those sister impulses
towards joy, love, and elation
are anesthetized in stride,
we accept as fair sacrifice.
For we embrace Prozium
in its unifying fullness
and all that it has done
to make us great.
Good morning, Cleric.
Good morning.
...intrinsically, humans,
as creatures of the Earth
were drawn inherently always
back to one thing...war.
And thus we seek to correct
not the symptom
but the disease itself.
We have sought to shrug off
individuality,
replacing it with conformity.
Replacing it...
with sameness...
with unity,
allowing each man, woman,
and child
in this great society
to lead identical lives.
The concept of identical
environment construction
allows each of us to head
confidently into each moment
with all the secure knowledge
it has been lived before.
What are you doing?
I'm rearranging my desk.
You didn't like
the way it was before?
I had no feelings about it.
I'm merely attempting
to optimize.
Sense offenders
holed up in the Nether.
We estimate...
we estimate 50 men, sir.
Intelligence tells us
they're all fully armed.
This is the group that bombed
the Prozium factories.
You clean, we'll sweep.
Yes, sir.
Go! Go! Go! Go!
Go!
Aah!
Take it! Take the landings!
- Aah!
- Aah!
- Cover me. I'm going in.
- Aaaaaaaah!
Nice grab, Cleric.
"Ludwig Van Beethoven."
Cleric...
Why didn't you leave that
for the evidentiary team
to collect and log?
They miss things sometimes.
I'll take it in myself...
make sure
it gets done properly.
You know, Preston...
If we keep burning
all this contraband,
eventually there won't be
anything left to burn.
What'll there be
for men like us?
Sir!
We got something out back.
We're gonna need
two more men on this.
These animals were defended
by women and children.
We put them down easily.
This isn't the first time
we've seen this.
Why do they keep
these animals?
What, do they...
do they eat them?
What do you want me
to do, sir?
Exterminate them, of course.
All right. Let's do it.
- No.
What's wrong, Cleric?
Nothing.
- Hey...
Grab it.
Grab it!
Sir...toss it back in.
I'll finish it off.
Give it to me, sir.
Give it to him, Cleric.
He'll finish it.
Wait!
It seems to me that...
at least some of these animals
ought to be tested for disease.
If there's an epidemic
in the Nether,
it's best we know about it.
I don't quite follow
your logic, Cleric.
They were Resistance.
They could have led us
to the Underground.
But instead of apprehension
and interrogation,
they were slaughtered.
Yes, but, Cleric,
given the circumstances,
the Father has decreed
that there will be no more
"process" for sense offenders.
They are either to be
shot on sight
or incinerated without a trial.
But it's counter to law.
You're a member
of the Council. Lf...
It is not the will
of the Council,
it is the will of Father...
and he is law.
Sir...
without the logic of process,
is it not just mayhem...
what we have worked so hard
to eradicate?
You must understand, Preston,
that while you...and even I...
may not always agree with it,
it is not the message
that is important,
it is our obedience to it.
Father's will.
Call it faith.
You have it, I assume?
Yes.
I have it.
Good.
Confiscated evidence
X23-T45...
Mary O'Brien.
Cleric John Preston
passing into the Nether...
enforcement-related.
Thank you, sir.
I don't know what else
to do with you.
Go on.
Go on.
Go!
Fine.
But you're going back
in the trunk.
Okay.
Here.
Step away from the vehicle!
Step away from the vehicle!
This is your last warning!
Step away from the vehicle!
Identification.
I'm a Cleric.
I'm here on official business.
Identification!
It's in my coat.
Where's the coat?
Where is it?!
I don't have it.
Unidentified individuals are
subject to summary destruction.
You're making
a very big mistake.
I'm a Grammaton Cleric,
first class.
We're gonna search
your vehicle.
No, you're not.
There's nothing in it.
Search it!
- Clear, sir.
- Keys to the trunk.
I'm trying to tell you.
I have a predawn combustion
to witness.
I'm not...
Captain, this is a waste
of my time.
My name is John Preston.
I'm the highest-ranking Cleric
of the Tetragramm...
Wait.
Stand off.
I'm sorry
I didn't recognize you, sir.
That's okay.
Just doing your job.
Thank you.
We'll escort you back
to the gate.
Thanks.
Animals.
Nether's full of them.
Sounds like it came
from your trunk.
Impossible.
Just give me my keys.
I'll be on my way.
Captain...
I'm asking you
one last time...
don't do this.
Down on your knees!
- Down on your knees!
- Down on your knees!
Drop down!
On the ground! Comply!
Do it!
No.
Fuck!
What?
Aw, shit! Shoot him!
Shoot him! Shoot him!
Aah!
Always practicing, Cleric.
I guess that's why
you're the best.
Maybe I'm just better.
Something on your mind?
Why do you ask?
The intuitive arts, Cleric.
It's my job to know
what you're thinking.
So, then...
what am I thinking?
About the murders
in the Nether last night...
And if they know who did it.
Am I close?
So, tell me...do they know?
There are theories.
I have one or two of my own,
but at the moment...
they're premature!
I'm glad it happened.
Why?
Because now
Father and the Council
have decreed an acceleration
in the crackdown on offenders.
Whoever did it...
all they accomplished was
a quicker end to the Resistance.
It's gonna be
a massacre, Cleric.
I came to tell you...
there's a raid in the Nether...
Sector 7.
So get ready.
That door behind you...
Go.
Go, damn you!
Get out of here, God damn it!
If you don't, you're dead!
Don't do it.
He'll shoot us in the back.
If I was gonna shoot you,
I'd shoot you in the face.
Now go.
Damn you! Follow me.
Now! Let's go!
There will be no detention.
Repeat...
no detention for any purpose.
All prisoners and apprehendees
are to be put down.
Look out!
Aah!
Aaaah!
Cleric, what's happening?
We heard gunshots.
Go!
What are you doing?
Cleric!
They're Resistance fighters.
Cleric!
He's a sense offender!
Cover all quadrants!
Secure the perimeter!
What is this?
What are you doing?!
Nicely done, Cleric.
You drive them
into the trap...
I close it.
The very definition
of...teamwork.
Don't you think?
Why don't you take the honors
of the execution, Cleric?
These people should be taken
for clinical interrogation.
Cleric...
Father's rulings
are quite clear.
Offenders are to be shot
on sight.
They have valuable information.
Cleric...
They can be put to
much better use.
Cleric.
If your weapon's low,
please, use mine.
No.
I think, in the end...
it'll be better
if you have it.
Captain.
Yes, sir. Firing positions.
CAPTAIN: Ready...
Aim...
Fire!
Sir?
Yes, Cleric?
You asked me to become
Father's instrument
against the Resistance.
I'm ready.
Today.
I wish to show my faith.
I wish, with your permission,
to locate the Underground
once and for all.
To destroy it.
To destroy it.
Good. Do it.
I'm so...
so very sorry.
These are the possessions he had
on him at the time of death.
The illegal ones
will be burned with him.
Good.
Errol Partridge.
The name supposed to mean
something to me?
He was a Grammaton Cleric,
first class. You knew him.
News bulletin...
I'm a sense offender.
I don't hang around much
with the Cleric.
I want to know about him.
Well...
I suggest you go ask him.
But I understand
that he's dead...
killed by your friends
at the Tetragrammaton.
Not by my friends.
By me.
Aaah!
You were lovers.
The Underground is our foe,
and greater
than even the threat
of those who have forsaken
their Prozium for emotion
is the threat of those
selfsame individuals united.
They are
the secret organization...
And thus, it is in the writing
of the Father
that we find our greatest...
Good afternoon, sir.
What will it be for you?
The latest copy
of the inserts?
Revised edition
of the manifesto?
Errol Partridge.
What do you know about him?
I beg your pardon?
Everyone out. Now.
I'm gonna ask you
one more time.
Errol Partridge...
what do you know about him?
I'm sure this must be
some mis...
- You're an offender.
- I'm not.
No? Then why are you
so scared of me?
Now, you will tell me everything
you know about Errol Partridge,
or I will have a wagon
come to take you
to the Hall of Destruction
for summary combustion.
I-I really don't know...
Speak!
He...he'd come in here
with a fellow named Jurgen.
Why?
That's...that's all I know.
I swear.
Jurgen!
Interesting.
- Ugh-ow!
- Ugh!
We've been watching you,
Preston.
You're Jurgen.
You're feeling.
Do you know why you came?
Welcome to the Underground.
Polygraph.
It detects fluctuations
of human emotion.
We have to be sure.
Mary.
You're carrying
in your left pocket
a red ribbon
sprayed with her scent.
You breathe it in sometimes
when you think
there's no one to see.
But what you feel...
what you feel
could only be satisfied
by falling yourself into her.
She's scheduled
for combustion...
tomorrow.
I know.
You know, I was like you.
But the first thing
you learn about emotion
is that it has its price...
a complete paradox.
But without restraint...
without control...
emotion is chaos.
But how is that diff...
The difference being is
that when we want to feel,
we can.
It's just that...
some of us...
some of us have to forgo
that luxury
so that the rest can have it.
Some very few of us
have to force ourselves
not to feel.
Like me.
Like you.
What can I do?
You can kill Father.
- Cleric John Preston...
you are to come with us
immediately.
Cleric Preston.
Sir.
I've heard
the most disturbing rumor.
Rumor, sir?
Yes.
A rumor maintaining
that one of us,
one of the Cleric,
has secretly taken it upon
himself to cease his dose,
that one of our elite number
is actually feeling.
Feeling, sir?
Are you playing with me,
Cleric?!
No, sir.
This person, I'm told,
is actually attempting
to contact the Resistance.
Now tell me,
if you'll be so kind,
how exactly...
have you been making use
of your time of late?
Attempting to contact
the Resistance, sir.
Attempting?
How is it that you intend
to expose this traitor
if all you do is attempt?
You're...
absolutely...
Of course I am.
The Cleric is the final line
of defense.
If the Resistance
compromises it,
we are doomed.
Father is doomed.
I will redouble
my efforts, sir,
to locate the Resistance,
to find this traitor,
and bring them all to
the Council's fair justice.
Do it.
What are you doing?
What are you doing?
I, uh...
I was checking
to make sure you've been...
taking your interval.
And are you satisfied?
Yes, I am.
Good night, Dad.
MAR Y: I don't understand.
My execution's set.
Why are you here?
Aren't you gonna dose?
My God.
What...
What'll you do?
I don't know.
What about an audience? Can you
arrange to meet with him?
Father's never given a single
audience since the upheaval.
The danger of assassination
is too great.
They trained you your whole life
to fight these kind of odds.
Even if I could...
even if I could
make it through,
what guarantee is there
it would accomplish anything,
that anything would be
different?
We have a network that's larger
than you could ever imagine.
Instant word comes
that Father is dead,
that the Council is leaderless.
Bombs that have already
been planted will be set off
at Prozium clinics and factories
around Libria.
If we can succeed
in disrupting the supply
for even one day...one day...
our cause will be won
by human nature itself.
What about war, the everyday
cruelties that are all gone now?
Replaced by the touch
of Grammaton.
Will you do it?
Yes.
Can you?
I don't know.
Don't...
Seeing her one last time
will only make it harder
to do what you have to do.
...designed especially
to deal with it.
The Cleric was implemented
and sent out to search
and destroy
such objects that remained
and, if necessary,
those who attempted to...
File footage.
The Council...
Viviana Preston.
Sentence and incineration.
Auditory.
Viviana Preston,
for ceasing your interval,
for the crime of feeling,
you stand condemned
to suffer annihilation
in the city furnaces.
You will be taken there
immediately, and you will burn.
The Cleric was implemented
and sent out to search
and destroy
such objects that remained
and, if necessary,
those who attempted to...
The Council...
The incineration...
has it gone through?!
It's going through now.
Hey!
Machine turbines priming.
Machine turbines priming.
Tetragrammaton...I need
to speak to this woman!
You're too late, sir.
The time lock is engaged.
If we force the door now,
the turbines will explode
at street level.
...personnel,
clear the area immediately.
All unauthorized personnel,
clear the area immediately.
Turbines primed.
Fire in 10 seconds...
Turbines...fire.
Cleric John Preston...
You are under arrest.
This man...
this senior Cleric...
has ceased the dose.
He is feeling!
He is the worm that has been
eating at the core
of our great society!
And I...
I have brought him
for your justice.
Ugh!
I told you I'd make my career
with you, Preston.
Vice-Council...
This man is guilty
of consorting
with sense offenders,
of having relations
with a female,
of sense crime itself.
Dispatch a search team
to the Cleric's quarters
to search for unused...
Uh, that won't be
necessary, sir.
If you'll run the trace
record on his side arm,
you will find
that it was he
who was with the sweeper team
when they were murdered.
Cleric...
I assume you have something
to say to me.
I know...
it's hard to believe...
...that a Cleric
of the Tetragrammaton
could turn his back
on everything he's been taught,
would become associated
with the Resistance,
even becoming a champion
in its Underground.
But it's true.
I promised that I would
bring you that man.
And I have.
- Cleric Brandt...
- Sir?
The trace shows
that it was your gun
in the Nether
with the sweepers.
That's impossible.
This is wrong.
I think, in the end...
it'll be better
if you have it.
He switched them.
He switched them.
See, I have his gun now.
Of course you do. You took it
when you arrested me.
What?
Take him
to the Hall of Destruction
for summary judgment
and combustion.
Wait, wait, wait. Wait!
I can explain this.
Uh, sir, I'm not feeling!
He is the one who's feeling!
This is a mistake!
Of course...
since a complaint
has been lodged,
law and the letter
is that I allow a team
to carry out the search
of your premises.
Do you think that's entirely
necessary, Cleric,
or am I being
too...exacting?
As you say, sir,
it's the law and the letter.
And it doesn't disturb you
in the least
that your colleague
is going to his end?
The only thing
that disturbs me, sir,
is that I am Father's instrument
against the Underground,
and yet...I've never had
the honor of meeting him.
Hmm.
Yes, but, Cleric, you know
that Father never grants
an audience to anyone.
Even to the man
who brings him the Resistance?
Sorry, sir.
Just a formality.
The search team will be up
momentarily.
Excellent.
I have nothing to hide.
The search teams are
already inside, sir.
- Excellent.
Looking for something?
If I were you...
I'd be more careful
in the future.
How long?
Since Mom.
And Lisa?
Of course.
How did you know?
You forget...
it's my job to know
what you're thinking.
Then you know what
I'm gonna do now.
You have a message
for the Vice-Council?
You have a message
for the Vice-Council?
It's done.
I've located the Resistance.
Come now.
You'll have them all.
Do not address Father
unless first addressed by him.
Avoid eye contact.
If you should break
his personal security zone,
you will be immediately
put down by snipers.
Is that understood?
You'll be required to surrender
your firearm, of course,
and then there's the test.
Test?
Yes.
You didn't imagine
we would risk exposing Father
to even such a dedicated servant
as yourself
without first having
tested you, did you?
Please.
Cleric...
your weapon, please.
Here.
Sit.
We'll start with
a test question first.
More of a riddle, actually.
What would you say
is the easiest way
to get a weapon away
from a Grammaton Cleric?
You ask him for it.
I told you I'd make
my career with you, Cleric.
...to combine the capacity...
Preston...
Brandt's job was simple...
to make you feel
like you'd won,
to make you feel safe.
For years, I tried
to infiltrate an agent
into the Underground...
...until it hit me...
in order to pass undetected
into their midst,
in order to be trusted by them,
my provocateur would
have to think like them
and would have to feel
like them.
But where to find
such a man...
a man with the capacity to feel
who didn't yet know it?
But...
we've never met.
No?
Don't look so surprised,
Preston.
Why should Father be more real
than any other
political puppet?
The real Father died
years ago.
The Council simply elected me
to pursue
his paternal tradition.
And you, Preston,
the supposed savior
of the Resistance,
are now its destroyer,
and, along with them,
you've given me yourself...
calmly...
cooly...
entirely without incident.
No.
Oh...
Shit.
Not without incident.
I'm coming.
You really should learn
to knock.
How did it feel, Preston?
- Agh!
- Ugh! Ugh! Uhh-ah!
Wah!
Ugh! Agh! Uhh!
Ugh!
Ugh!
- Aggh!
- Aggh!
Mind the uniform, Cleric.
I plan to be wearing it
for a long time.
Be careful, Preston.
You're treading on my dreams.
Ohh!
Wait!
Wait.
Look at me.
Look at me.
I'm life.
I live, I-I breathe...
I feel.
Now that you know it...
can you really take it?
Is it really worth the price?
I pay it gladly.
The following items
have been rated EC-10...
condemned.
In the 19th century...
...world to its knees.
Two millennia ago...
in his conquest
of the known world,
Alexander the Great
slaughtered
more than one million
human beings.
Three centuries later,
purely out of jealousy,
Gaius Germanicus, "Caligula,"
murdered his own sister,
impregnated
with his own child.
In the...
...items have been rated
EC-10...
...rated condemned,
destroyed.
...items have been rated...
of the 21 st century...
...a third World War broke out.
Those of us who survived knew
mankind could never survive...
a fourth...
that our own volatile natures
could simply no longer
be risked.
So we have created
a new arm of the law...
...the Grammaton Cleric,
whose sole task it is
to seek out and eradicate
the true source
of man's inhumanity to man.
His ability...
to feel.
Police!
You know what to do.
Get down!
We have an unknown number
barricaded in the southeast end
of the compound.
Read that.
Tetragrammaton team en route.
Cleric, lights out.
Maybe more than a dozen inside.
When the door's down,
blow the bulbs.
Yes, sir.
Go.
Where is he?
Shut up.
Anybody get him?
Did anybody hit him?
Shut up!
Listen.
This is it.
Where?
There.
It's real.
Burn it.
Why didn't you just leave it
for the evidentiary team
to collect and log?
They miss things sometimes.
And I thought
I'd take it down myself...
get it done properly.
How long, Preston,
till all this is gone?
Till we've burned
every last bit of it?
Resources are tight.
We'll get it all eventually.
Libria...
I congratulate you.
At last...
peace reigns
in the heart of man.
At last, war is but a word
whose meaning fades
from our understanding.
At last...
we...are...whole.
Librians...there is a disease
in the heart of man.
Its symptom is hate.
Its symptom...is anger.
Its symptom is rage.
Its symptom...is war.
The disease...is human emotion.
But, Libria...
I congratulate you.
For there is a cure
for this disease.
At the cost of the dizzying
highs of human emotion,
we have suppressed
its abysmal lows.
And you as a society
have embraced this cure.
Prozium.
Now we are at peace
with ourselves,
and humankind is one.
War is gone.
Hate, a memory.
We are our own conscience now.
And it is this conscience
that guides us to rate EC-10
for emotional content
all those things that might
tempt us to feel again...
and destroy them.
Librians, you have won.
Against all odds
and your own natures...
you have survived.
Every time we come
from the Nethers to the city,
it reminds why we do
what we do.
It does?
I beg your pardon.
It does.
The following items
have been rated EC-10...
condemned...
seven works of two-dimensional
illustrated material,
seven discs of musical content,
computer programs.
Seven works
of two-dimensional...
Thank you
for coming, Cleric.
I assume you know who I am.
Yes, sir. Of course.
You are Vice-Council Dupont
of the Third Conciliarly
of the Tetragrammaton...
Father's voice.
Quite frankly, Cleric,
I am told that you are
very nearly a prodigal student,
knowing almost instantly
if someone is feeling.
I have a good record, sir.
Why, do you imagine,
that is, Cleric?
I'm not sure, Vice-Council.
Somehow...
I'm able, on some level,
to sense
how an offender thinks,
to...put myself
in their position.
If you had ceased
your interval,
if you were
a sense offender...
I suppose
you could say that, sir.
You're a family man, Cleric?
Yes, sir...
a boy and a girl.
The boy's in
the monastery himself,
on path to becoming a Cleric.
Good.
And the mother?
My spouse was arrested
and incinerated
for sense offense
four years ago, sir.
By yourself?
No, sir...by another.
How did you feel about that?
I'm sorry.
I don't...
fully understand, sir.
How did you feel?
I didn't feel anything.
Really?
How is it
that you came to miss it?
I...
I've asked myself
that same question, sir.
I don't know.
A nearly unforgivable lapse,
Cleric.
I trust you'll be
more vigilant in the future.
Yes, sir.
Every time we come
from the Nethers to the city,
it reminds why we do
what we do.
It does?
Every time we come
from the Nethers to the city,
it reminds why we do
what we do.
It does?
It does.
Prosecutorial evidence
for A.N.R. 136 890.
I need it.
It was late this afternoon.
May not have showed up
in the records yet.
I'm very sorry, Cleric.
Nothing has been logged
and nothing is pending
under that entry.
It was an item of evidence
brought in personally
by Grammaton Errol Partridge.
Check again.
Sir, Cleric Partridge has not
entered anything in for weeks.
You're mistaken.
It was a book of some kind.
Cleric...
...there's nothing.
Thank you.
He's been passing through
the gate into the Nether
every night
for the last two weeks.
We assumed it was
enforcement-related.
You always knew.
"But I, being poor...
have only my dreams."
"I have spread my dreams
under your feet.
"Tread softly...
because you tread
on my dreams."
I assume you dream, Preston.
I'll do what I can
to see they go easy on you.
We both know...
they never go easy.
Then I'm sorry.
No, you're not.
You don't even know
the meaning.
It's just a...vestigial word
for a feeling
you've never felt.
Don't you see, Preston?
It's gone.
Everything that makes us
what we are...traded away.
There's no war.
No murder.
What is it you think we do?
No.
You've been with me.
You've seen how it can be...
the jealousy, the rage.
A heavy cost.
I'd pay it gladly.
Don't.
You and your partner
were close?
I hope you're as pleased
to be assigned me
as I am the placement.
I was told this would be
a career-making advancement.
I'm like you, Cleric...
intuitive.
Sometimes I know
when a person's feeling
before they know it
themselves.
Cleric...
I can only hope one day
to be as...
uncompromising as you.
Good night.
The later 20th century
saw the fortuitous
and simultaneous rise
of two synergistic political
and psychological sciences.
The first, the revolutionary
precept of the hate crime.
John?
Yes?
I saw Robbie Taylor
crying today.
He didn't know, but I saw.
Do you think
I should report him?
Unquestionably.
...a single inescapable fact...
that mankind united with
infinitely greater purpose
in pursuit of war...
than he ever did
in pursuit of peace.
"But I, being poor...
have only my dreams."
I have spread my dreams
under your feet."
"Tread softly...
because you tread
on my dreams."
Don't move! Don't move!
Comply! Comply!
- Stop! Stop where you are!
- Get down! Get down!
Don't shoot.
This is a lawful entry.
We have a warrant
for your wife's arrest.
She's charged
with sense offense.
- Hey!
Get her!
Get her off him now!
Remember me.
- Libria...
Awake.
Awaken to triumph again
in the face of yet another day,
another step
in our unified march
- Into the unwavering purpose...
...move ahead together
into the certainty
of our collective destiny.
What are you doing?
I said, what are you doing?
I accidently dropped my...
morning interval.
I took it out
before I brushed my teeth.
I never take it out
before I brush my teeth.
Then you'll go by Equilibrium,
log the loss,
and get a replacement.
Yes.
Of course.
Your new partner called.
He says he'll pick you up
at 10:00 for the A.N.R.
I hope you don't mind.
I took the liberty
of telling him
you would be at Equilibrium,
replacing your dose.
No, of course not.
That was the right thing
to do.
Stop that.
Due to terrorist activity,
this site is
temporarily closed.
Proceed to the Equilibrium
Center in Sector 8A.
Due to terrorist activity,
this site is
temporarily closed.
This site is
temporarily closed.
Proceed to the Equilibrium
Center in Sector 8A.
More than punctual, Cleric.
Hop in.
How were the lines?
I'm surprised you were able
to get your interval
and get out so quickly.
No, they're...
they're fine today.
Maybe I'll drop by later,
get my interval adjusted.
You expecting Resistance?
That's something you'll find
about me, Cleric.
I'm a wary person,
cautious by nature.
Always expecting the worst.
You can't do this.
You cannot do this.
Tetragrammaton.
There's nothing we can't do.
How long have you been off
the dose?
Look at you.
Look at you!
Look at you.
The mirror's frame is illegal.
Destroy it.
We have suppression.
We're making entry.
Standard deployment.
Collecting catalog.
Illegal articles.
You're gonna burn it,
aren't you?
Eventually.
However, you couldn't have
accumulated all this
by yourself.
It'll all be sorted
and examined.
We'll discover
who your confederates are.
Gun!
We need her.
What's your name?
O'Brien, Mary.
Well, Mary...
you can either wait
and tell the technicians
at the Palace of Justice...
or you can tell me now.
Who are your friends?
I'm wondering if you have
any idea at all
what that word means...
"friend."
There's nothing
you don't feel?
How about guilt?
Let me ask you something.
Why are you alive?
I'm alive...
I live...
...to safeguard the continuity
of this great society.
To serve Libria.
It's circular.
You exist to continue
your existence.
What's the point?
What's the point
of your existence?
To feel.
'Cause you've never done it,
you can never know it.
But it's as vital as breath.
And without it...
without love,
without anger,
without sorrow...
breath is
just a clock ticking.
Then I have no choice
but to remand you
to the Palace of Justice
for processing.
Processing.
You mean execution, don't you?
Processing.
The Gun Katas.
Through analysis of thousands
of recorded gunfights,
the Cleric has determined
that the geometric distribution
of antagonists in any gun battle
is a statistically
predictable element.
The Gun Kata treats
the gun as a total weapon,
each fluid position
representing
a maximum kill zone,
inflicting maximum damage
on the maximum number
of opponents
while keeping
the defender clear
of the statistically
traditional trajectories
of return fire.
By the rote mastery
of this art,
your firing efficiency will rise
by no less than 120%.
The difference of a 63% increase
to lethal proficiency
makes the master
of the Gun Katas
an adversary not to be
taken lightly.
Without love...
breath is just a clock...
ticking.
Prozium...
the great nepenthe.
Opiate of our masses.
Glue of our great society.
Salve and salvation,
it has delivered us
from pathos, from sorrow,
the deepest chasms
of melancholy and hate.
With it, we anesthetize grief,
annihilate jealousy,
obliterate rage.
That those sister impulses
towards joy, love, and elation
are anesthetized in stride,
we accept as fair sacrifice.
For we embrace Prozium
in its unifying fullness
and all that it has done
to make us great.
Good morning, Cleric.
Good morning.
...intrinsically, humans,
as creatures of the Earth
were drawn inherently always
back to one thing...war.
And thus we seek to correct
not the symptom
but the disease itself.
We have sought to shrug off
individuality,
replacing it with conformity.
Replacing it...
with sameness...
with unity,
allowing each man, woman,
and child
in this great society
to lead identical lives.
The concept of identical
environment construction
allows each of us to head
confidently into each moment
with all the secure knowledge
it has been lived before.
What are you doing?
I'm rearranging my desk.
You didn't like
the way it was before?
I had no feelings about it.
I'm merely attempting
to optimize.
Sense offenders
holed up in the Nether.
We estimate...
we estimate 50 men, sir.
Intelligence tells us
they're all fully armed.
This is the group that bombed
the Prozium factories.
You clean, we'll sweep.
Yes, sir.
Go! Go! Go! Go!
Go!
Aah!
Take it! Take the landings!
- Aah!
- Aah!
- Cover me. I'm going in.
- Aaaaaaaah!
Nice grab, Cleric.
"Ludwig Van Beethoven."
Cleric...
Why didn't you leave that
for the evidentiary team
to collect and log?
They miss things sometimes.
I'll take it in myself...
make sure
it gets done properly.
You know, Preston...
If we keep burning
all this contraband,
eventually there won't be
anything left to burn.
What'll there be
for men like us?
Sir!
We got something out back.
We're gonna need
two more men on this.
These animals were defended
by women and children.
We put them down easily.
This isn't the first time
we've seen this.
Why do they keep
these animals?
What, do they...
do they eat them?
What do you want me
to do, sir?
Exterminate them, of course.
All right. Let's do it.
- No.
What's wrong, Cleric?
Nothing.
- Hey...
Grab it.
Grab it!
Sir...toss it back in.
I'll finish it off.
Give it to me, sir.
Give it to him, Cleric.
He'll finish it.
Wait!
It seems to me that...
at least some of these animals
ought to be tested for disease.
If there's an epidemic
in the Nether,
it's best we know about it.
I don't quite follow
your logic, Cleric.
They were Resistance.
They could have led us
to the Underground.
But instead of apprehension
and interrogation,
they were slaughtered.
Yes, but, Cleric,
given the circumstances,
the Father has decreed
that there will be no more
"process" for sense offenders.
They are either to be
shot on sight
or incinerated without a trial.
But it's counter to law.
You're a member
of the Council. Lf...
It is not the will
of the Council,
it is the will of Father...
and he is law.
Sir...
without the logic of process,
is it not just mayhem...
what we have worked so hard
to eradicate?
You must understand, Preston,
that while you...and even I...
may not always agree with it,
it is not the message
that is important,
it is our obedience to it.
Father's will.
Call it faith.
You have it, I assume?
Yes.
I have it.
Good.
Confiscated evidence
X23-T45...
Mary O'Brien.
Cleric John Preston
passing into the Nether...
enforcement-related.
Thank you, sir.
I don't know what else
to do with you.
Go on.
Go on.
Go!
Fine.
But you're going back
in the trunk.
Okay.
Here.
Step away from the vehicle!
Step away from the vehicle!
This is your last warning!
Step away from the vehicle!
Identification.
I'm a Cleric.
I'm here on official business.
Identification!
It's in my coat.
Where's the coat?
Where is it?!
I don't have it.
Unidentified individuals are
subject to summary destruction.
You're making
a very big mistake.
I'm a Grammaton Cleric,
first class.
We're gonna search
your vehicle.
No, you're not.
There's nothing in it.
Search it!
- Clear, sir.
- Keys to the trunk.
I'm trying to tell you.
I have a predawn combustion
to witness.
I'm not...
Captain, this is a waste
of my time.
My name is John Preston.
I'm the highest-ranking Cleric
of the Tetragramm...
Wait.
Stand off.
I'm sorry
I didn't recognize you, sir.
That's okay.
Just doing your job.
Thank you.
We'll escort you back
to the gate.
Thanks.
Animals.
Nether's full of them.
Sounds like it came
from your trunk.
Impossible.
Just give me my keys.
I'll be on my way.
Captain...
I'm asking you
one last time...
don't do this.
Down on your knees!
- Down on your knees!
- Down on your knees!
Drop down!
On the ground! Comply!
Do it!
No.
Fuck!
What?
Aw, shit! Shoot him!
Shoot him! Shoot him!
Aah!
Always practicing, Cleric.
I guess that's why
you're the best.
Maybe I'm just better.
Something on your mind?
Why do you ask?
The intuitive arts, Cleric.
It's my job to know
what you're thinking.
So, then...
what am I thinking?
About the murders
in the Nether last night...
And if they know who did it.
Am I close?
So, tell me...do they know?
There are theories.
I have one or two of my own,
but at the moment...
they're premature!
I'm glad it happened.
Why?
Because now
Father and the Council
have decreed an acceleration
in the crackdown on offenders.
Whoever did it...
all they accomplished was
a quicker end to the Resistance.
It's gonna be
a massacre, Cleric.
I came to tell you...
there's a raid in the Nether...
Sector 7.
So get ready.
That door behind you...
Go.
Go, damn you!
Get out of here, God damn it!
If you don't, you're dead!
Don't do it.
He'll shoot us in the back.
If I was gonna shoot you,
I'd shoot you in the face.
Now go.
Damn you! Follow me.
Now! Let's go!
There will be no detention.
Repeat...
no detention for any purpose.
All prisoners and apprehendees
are to be put down.
Look out!
Aah!
Aaaah!
Cleric, what's happening?
We heard gunshots.
Go!
What are you doing?
Cleric!
They're Resistance fighters.
Cleric!
He's a sense offender!
Cover all quadrants!
Secure the perimeter!
What is this?
What are you doing?!
Nicely done, Cleric.
You drive them
into the trap...
I close it.
The very definition
of...teamwork.
Don't you think?
Why don't you take the honors
of the execution, Cleric?
These people should be taken
for clinical interrogation.
Cleric...
Father's rulings
are quite clear.
Offenders are to be shot
on sight.
They have valuable information.
Cleric...
They can be put to
much better use.
Cleric.
If your weapon's low,
please, use mine.
No.
I think, in the end...
it'll be better
if you have it.
Captain.
Yes, sir. Firing positions.
CAPTAIN: Ready...
Aim...
Fire!
Sir?
Yes, Cleric?
You asked me to become
Father's instrument
against the Resistance.
I'm ready.
Today.
I wish to show my faith.
I wish, with your permission,
to locate the Underground
once and for all.
To destroy it.
To destroy it.
Good. Do it.
I'm so...
so very sorry.
These are the possessions he had
on him at the time of death.
The illegal ones
will be burned with him.
Good.
Errol Partridge.
The name supposed to mean
something to me?
He was a Grammaton Cleric,
first class. You knew him.
News bulletin...
I'm a sense offender.
I don't hang around much
with the Cleric.
I want to know about him.
Well...
I suggest you go ask him.
But I understand
that he's dead...
killed by your friends
at the Tetragrammaton.
Not by my friends.
By me.
Aaah!
You were lovers.
The Underground is our foe,
and greater
than even the threat
of those who have forsaken
their Prozium for emotion
is the threat of those
selfsame individuals united.
They are
the secret organization...
And thus, it is in the writing
of the Father
that we find our greatest...
Good afternoon, sir.
What will it be for you?
The latest copy
of the inserts?
Revised edition
of the manifesto?
Errol Partridge.
What do you know about him?
I beg your pardon?
Everyone out. Now.
I'm gonna ask you
one more time.
Errol Partridge...
what do you know about him?
I'm sure this must be
some mis...
- You're an offender.
- I'm not.
No? Then why are you
so scared of me?
Now, you will tell me everything
you know about Errol Partridge,
or I will have a wagon
come to take you
to the Hall of Destruction
for summary combustion.
I-I really don't know...
Speak!
He...he'd come in here
with a fellow named Jurgen.
Why?
That's...that's all I know.
I swear.
Jurgen!
Interesting.
- Ugh-ow!
- Ugh!
We've been watching you,
Preston.
You're Jurgen.
You're feeling.
Do you know why you came?
Welcome to the Underground.
Polygraph.
It detects fluctuations
of human emotion.
We have to be sure.
Mary.
You're carrying
in your left pocket
a red ribbon
sprayed with her scent.
You breathe it in sometimes
when you think
there's no one to see.
But what you feel...
what you feel
could only be satisfied
by falling yourself into her.
She's scheduled
for combustion...
tomorrow.
I know.
You know, I was like you.
But the first thing
you learn about emotion
is that it has its price...
a complete paradox.
But without restraint...
without control...
emotion is chaos.
But how is that diff...
The difference being is
that when we want to feel,
we can.
It's just that...
some of us...
some of us have to forgo
that luxury
so that the rest can have it.
Some very few of us
have to force ourselves
not to feel.
Like me.
Like you.
What can I do?
You can kill Father.
- Cleric John Preston...
you are to come with us
immediately.
Cleric Preston.
Sir.
I've heard
the most disturbing rumor.
Rumor, sir?
Yes.
A rumor maintaining
that one of us,
one of the Cleric,
has secretly taken it upon
himself to cease his dose,
that one of our elite number
is actually feeling.
Feeling, sir?
Are you playing with me,
Cleric?!
No, sir.
This person, I'm told,
is actually attempting
to contact the Resistance.
Now tell me,
if you'll be so kind,
how exactly...
have you been making use
of your time of late?
Attempting to contact
the Resistance, sir.
Attempting?
How is it that you intend
to expose this traitor
if all you do is attempt?
You're...
absolutely...
Of course I am.
The Cleric is the final line
of defense.
If the Resistance
compromises it,
we are doomed.
Father is doomed.
I will redouble
my efforts, sir,
to locate the Resistance,
to find this traitor,
and bring them all to
the Council's fair justice.
Do it.
What are you doing?
What are you doing?
I, uh...
I was checking
to make sure you've been...
taking your interval.
And are you satisfied?
Yes, I am.
Good night, Dad.
MAR Y: I don't understand.
My execution's set.
Why are you here?
Aren't you gonna dose?
My God.
What...
What'll you do?
I don't know.
What about an audience? Can you
arrange to meet with him?
Father's never given a single
audience since the upheaval.
The danger of assassination
is too great.
They trained you your whole life
to fight these kind of odds.
Even if I could...
even if I could
make it through,
what guarantee is there
it would accomplish anything,
that anything would be
different?
We have a network that's larger
than you could ever imagine.
Instant word comes
that Father is dead,
that the Council is leaderless.
Bombs that have already
been planted will be set off
at Prozium clinics and factories
around Libria.
If we can succeed
in disrupting the supply
for even one day...one day...
our cause will be won
by human nature itself.
What about war, the everyday
cruelties that are all gone now?
Replaced by the touch
of Grammaton.
Will you do it?
Yes.
Can you?
I don't know.
Don't...
Seeing her one last time
will only make it harder
to do what you have to do.
...designed especially
to deal with it.
The Cleric was implemented
and sent out to search
and destroy
such objects that remained
and, if necessary,
those who attempted to...
File footage.
The Council...
Viviana Preston.
Sentence and incineration.
Auditory.
Viviana Preston,
for ceasing your interval,
for the crime of feeling,
you stand condemned
to suffer annihilation
in the city furnaces.
You will be taken there
immediately, and you will burn.
The Cleric was implemented
and sent out to search
and destroy
such objects that remained
and, if necessary,
those who attempted to...
The Council...
The incineration...
has it gone through?!
It's going through now.
Hey!
Machine turbines priming.
Machine turbines priming.
Tetragrammaton...I need
to speak to this woman!
You're too late, sir.
The time lock is engaged.
If we force the door now,
the turbines will explode
at street level.
...personnel,
clear the area immediately.
All unauthorized personnel,
clear the area immediately.
Turbines primed.
Fire in 10 seconds...
Turbines...fire.
Cleric John Preston...
You are under arrest.
This man...
this senior Cleric...
has ceased the dose.
He is feeling!
He is the worm that has been
eating at the core
of our great society!
And I...
I have brought him
for your justice.
Ugh!
I told you I'd make my career
with you, Preston.
Vice-Council...
This man is guilty
of consorting
with sense offenders,
of having relations
with a female,
of sense crime itself.
Dispatch a search team
to the Cleric's quarters
to search for unused...
Uh, that won't be
necessary, sir.
If you'll run the trace
record on his side arm,
you will find
that it was he
who was with the sweeper team
when they were murdered.
Cleric...
I assume you have something
to say to me.
I know...
it's hard to believe...
...that a Cleric
of the Tetragrammaton
could turn his back
on everything he's been taught,
would become associated
with the Resistance,
even becoming a champion
in its Underground.
But it's true.
I promised that I would
bring you that man.
And I have.
- Cleric Brandt...
- Sir?
The trace shows
that it was your gun
in the Nether
with the sweepers.
That's impossible.
This is wrong.
I think, in the end...
it'll be better
if you have it.
He switched them.
He switched them.
See, I have his gun now.
Of course you do. You took it
when you arrested me.
What?
Take him
to the Hall of Destruction
for summary judgment
and combustion.
Wait, wait, wait. Wait!
I can explain this.
Uh, sir, I'm not feeling!
He is the one who's feeling!
This is a mistake!
Of course...
since a complaint
has been lodged,
law and the letter
is that I allow a team
to carry out the search
of your premises.
Do you think that's entirely
necessary, Cleric,
or am I being
too...exacting?
As you say, sir,
it's the law and the letter.
And it doesn't disturb you
in the least
that your colleague
is going to his end?
The only thing
that disturbs me, sir,
is that I am Father's instrument
against the Underground,
and yet...I've never had
the honor of meeting him.
Hmm.
Yes, but, Cleric, you know
that Father never grants
an audience to anyone.
Even to the man
who brings him the Resistance?
Sorry, sir.
Just a formality.
The search team will be up
momentarily.
Excellent.
I have nothing to hide.
The search teams are
already inside, sir.
- Excellent.
Looking for something?
If I were you...
I'd be more careful
in the future.
How long?
Since Mom.
And Lisa?
Of course.
How did you know?
You forget...
it's my job to know
what you're thinking.
Then you know what
I'm gonna do now.
You have a message
for the Vice-Council?
You have a message
for the Vice-Council?
It's done.
I've located the Resistance.
Come now.
You'll have them all.
Do not address Father
unless first addressed by him.
Avoid eye contact.
If you should break
his personal security zone,
you will be immediately
put down by snipers.
Is that understood?
You'll be required to surrender
your firearm, of course,
and then there's the test.
Test?
Yes.
You didn't imagine
we would risk exposing Father
to even such a dedicated servant
as yourself
without first having
tested you, did you?
Please.
Cleric...
your weapon, please.
Here.
Sit.
We'll start with
a test question first.
More of a riddle, actually.
What would you say
is the easiest way
to get a weapon away
from a Grammaton Cleric?
You ask him for it.
I told you I'd make
my career with you, Cleric.
...to combine the capacity...
Preston...
Brandt's job was simple...
to make you feel
like you'd won,
to make you feel safe.
For years, I tried
to infiltrate an agent
into the Underground...
...until it hit me...
in order to pass undetected
into their midst,
in order to be trusted by them,
my provocateur would
have to think like them
and would have to feel
like them.
But where to find
such a man...
a man with the capacity to feel
who didn't yet know it?
But...
we've never met.
No?
Don't look so surprised,
Preston.
Why should Father be more real
than any other
political puppet?
The real Father died
years ago.
The Council simply elected me
to pursue
his paternal tradition.
And you, Preston,
the supposed savior
of the Resistance,
are now its destroyer,
and, along with them,
you've given me yourself...
calmly...
cooly...
entirely without incident.
No.
Oh...
Shit.
Not without incident.
I'm coming.
You really should learn
to knock.
How did it feel, Preston?
- Agh!
- Ugh! Ugh! Uhh-ah!
Wah!
Ugh! Agh! Uhh!
Ugh!
Ugh!
- Aggh!
- Aggh!
Mind the uniform, Cleric.
I plan to be wearing it
for a long time.
Be careful, Preston.
You're treading on my dreams.
Ohh!
Wait!
Wait.
Look at me.
Look at me.
I'm life.
I live, I-I breathe...
I feel.
Now that you know it...
can you really take it?
Is it really worth the price?
I pay it gladly.
The following items
have been rated EC-10...
condemned.
In the 19th century...
...world to its knees.
Two millennia ago...
in his conquest
of the known world,
Alexander the Great
slaughtered
more than one million
human beings.
Three centuries later,
purely out of jealousy,
Gaius Germanicus, "Caligula,"
murdered his own sister,
impregnated
with his own child.
In the...
...items have been rated
EC-10...
...rated condemned,
destroyed.
...items have been rated...