Victor Frankenstein Do you share my madness?
RW Robert Walton
No, not madness.
Victor Frankenstein What, then?
RW Robert Walton
There is a passage to the North Pole. And I will find it!
Victor Frankenstein At the cost of your own life and the lives of your own crew?
RW Robert Walton
Lives come and go. If we succeed, our names will live on forever. I will be hailed as the benefactor of our species.
Victor Frankenstein You're wrong. I of all men know that.
The foolish and vain force their views by their brawn. But knowledge is power only through god, our motto, easily forgotten by you young men in a hurry... . But perhaps the greatest mistake that all students make during their time here is to suppose that they can ever have an original or creative thought. We have all imagined that in our time. But gentleman you have not come here in order to think for yourselves. You are here to learn how to think for your patients. You must learn therefore in the first place, to submit yourselves to the established laws of physical reality.
Victor Frankenstein But surely, Professor, you don't intend we disregard more philosophical approaches.
Victor Frankenstein Those which stir the imagination as well as the intellect. As in Paracelsus, for example.
Ah, Paracelsus. An arrogant and foolish Swiss.
Victor Frankenstein Albertus Magnus.
His nonsense was exploded 500 years ago!
Victor Frankenstein Cornelius Agrippa.
A sorcerer, an occultist. What is your name?
Victor Frankenstein Victor Frankenstein sir. Of Geneva.
Oh-ho. Another Swiss. Mr. Frankenstein here at the University of Ingolstadt, we teach and indeed hope to advance the science of medicine. Chemistry, biology, physics. We study hard science.
Victor Frankenstein But surely professor the greatest possible advances lie in combining these things.
We do not study the ravings of lunatics and alchemists hundreds of years in their graves because they're kind of amateur, fanatical, fantastical speculation does not heal bodies or save lives! Only science can do that. Now have we your permission to continue.
Once and for all, Frankenstein. Life is life, death is death. These things are real. They are absolute... .
Victor Frankenstein That is rubbish and you know it. The premise has been repeatedly challenged by members of your own staff! to Waldman Yes you sir! We don't know where life ends or death begins. Hair continues to grow after what we choose to call death, so do fingernails! We know that a man's brain may die, but his heart and lungs may continue to pump and breathe. Now you know that!
Mr. Frankenstein of Geneva, I warn you what you are suggesting is not only illegal, it is immoral.
Victor Frankenstein Rubbish!
Now for thousands of years, the Chinese have based their medical science on the belief that the human body is a chemical engine run by energy streams.
Victor Frankenstein That's fascinating, then how do they explain... .
Henry is looking through his journals Don't touch that! Their doctors treat patients by inserting needles like these into the flesh at various key points to manipulate these electric streams
Victor Frankenstein I see! So electricity is the key.
Victor Frankenstein No I'm serious. You take vaccine for instance. 30 years ago the entire concept of vaccine was unheard of, and now we save lives every day. But that isn't the whole answer.
Victor Frankenstein That sooner or later the best way to cheat death, will be to create life.
Now you've gone too far. There's only one God, Victor.
Victor Frankenstein No. Leave God out of this. Listen. You love someone they have a sick heart. Wouldn't you give them a healthy one.
Victor Frankenstein No, it's not impossible. We can do it. We're steps away. If we can do that if we can replace one part of a human being. We can replace every part. And if we can do that we can design a life. We can create a being that will not grow old or sicken. One that will be stronger than us, better than us, one that will be more intelligent than us, more civilized than us.
Victor Frankenstein How close did you get, Professor?
Victor Frankenstein Professor, I beg you, let me see these notes!
No! My work now and it's application, lies exclusively in the preservation of life. I abandoned my researches many years ago.
Victor Frankenstein Why?
Because they resulted in abomination.
Victor Frankenstein Come on, Henry.
I can't help you, Victor. I can't help you.
Victor Frankenstein You won't. What are you frightened of?
Everything! What do you think? And what if the authorities--?
Victor Frankenstein Will do this in secret. I've got the raw materials, I've got Waldman's journals. Together we know more than Krempe's whole staff
You stole Waldman's journals?
Victor Frankenstein We owe it to him to complete this work. He was one step away.
Victor Frankenstein He couldn't face it, there's a difference.
Even if it were possible, and even if you had the right--which you don't--to make this decision for us... can you imagine for one second that there wouldn't be a terrible price to pay?
Victor Frankenstein I think for the chance to defeat death and disease to let everyone on this Earth have the chance of life, sustained, healthy life, to allow people who love each other to be together forever... For all of that, I think it's a risk worth taking.
Victor? Victor! Victor, open the door! Victor, please!
Victor Frankenstein What do you want?
There's cholera. It's an epidemic! The city's been placed under martial law. Are you listening to me, Victor?
Victor Frankenstein Yes. And?
The militia's arriving to quarantine the city. Most of us are getting out while we still can. Krempe knows you're here. What if he tells the authorities?
Victor Frankenstein Goodbye, Henry.
Victor, it's me. Elizabeth. Can you hear me? Victor, I have to see you.
Victor Frankenstein Go away.
Please, Victor! I won't leave here until you see me.
Victor Frankenstein Come in the side door. Alone!
What's happened to you? How can you live here like this? And that stench.
Victor Frankenstein Don't go in there!
He shuts the doors
We have to leave. It isn't safe.
Victor Frankenstein No, I have to stay.
Even if it means you'll die?
Victor Frankenstein Yes.
Victor Frankenstein No, that's impossible.
We made a promise. Victor, I beg you.
Victor Frankenstein Look, I know that this is difficult for you to understand..but I cannot abandon this work now. It is too important. Not just for me, but, believe me, for everyone. And it must come first.
Victor Frankenstein Elizabeth... I love you so much, but...
You gave me these emotions, but you didn't tell me how to use them. Now two people are dead, because of us. Why?
Victor Frankenstein Something at work in my soul, which I do not understand...
What of my soul? Do I have one? Or was that a part you left out? Who were these people of which I am comprised? Good people? Bad people?
Victor Frankenstein Materials, nothing more.
You're wrong. [picks up recorder] Do you know I knew how to play this? In which part of me did this knowledge reside? In these hands? In this mind? In this heart? And reading, and speaking. Not things learned so much as things remembered.
Victor Frankenstein Trace memories in the brain, perhaps.
Did you ever consider the consequences of your actions? You gave me life, and then left me to die. Who am I?
Victor Frankenstein You? I don't know.
And you think that I am evil.
Victor Frankenstein What can I do?
There is something I want. A friend.
Victor Frankenstein A friend?
A companion... a female. Someone like me, so she won't hate me.
Victor Frankenstein Like you? Oh God, you don't know what you're asking...
I do know that for the sympathy of one living being, I would make peace with all. I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine, and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other.
