Zardoz (1974)
John Alderton: Friend
Photos
Quotes
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Arthur Frayn : You see, our death-wish was devious, and deep. As Zardoz, Zed, I was able to choose your forefathers! It was careful genetic breeding that produced this mutant - this slave who could free his masters! And Friend was my accomplice! Don't you remember the man in the library, Zed?
[a chime is heard]
Arthur Frayn : It was I who led you to the 'Wizard of Oz' book! Ha-hah, it was I who gave you access to the Stone! It was I!
[a chime is heard]
Arthur Frayn : I bred you! I led you!
Zed : And I have looked into the face of the force that put the idea in your mind. You are bred, and led, yourself.
[He strides away, and Friend advances to join Arthur]
Friend : Arthur! We've all been used!
Arthur Frayn : And re-used.
Friend : And abused!
Arthur Frayn : And amused!
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Friend : I will not go to second level with you!
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Tabernacle : You are asked to vote at the termination of the trial of George Saden. Final statement from the accused begins.
George Saden : I confess to the charges, but plead mitigation. These thoughts are constructive criticisms. Pyramidical. I try to suppress these thoughts, but they leak out in Second Level through the head-wound of my third death. I was imperfectly repaired. No. That is not true. I think what I think!
Friend : [murmuring] That's more like it! I'm with you, George.
George Saden : I hate you all. I hate you all. I hate you all. Especially me.
[the Tabernacle chimes]
Tabernacle : Vote, please. Vote, please.
Friend : [to Zed] I'm voting for him, Monster. It won't do any good. Nothing ever does.
[Friend speaks into his ring]
Friend : Absolute acquittal!
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May : Friend, I cannot sanction this violence and destruction.
Friend : It's too late, May. There's no going back.
May : Don't destroy the Vortex! Let us renew it. A better breed could prosper here. Given time...
Friend : Time? Wasn't eternity enough?
Zed : [enters suddenly; May wheels to face him] This place is against life. It must die.
[Zed gently grasps May's pistol hand and raises it so that the weapon points right between his eyes]
May : I have my followers. Inseminate us all, and we'll teach you all we know, give you all we have. Perhaps you can break the Tabernacle. Or be broken.
[Friend advances to place his hand on the others', in a triple pact]
Friend : An end to eternity.
May : A higher form.
Zed : Revenge.
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Zed : What is it you want?
Friend : Sweet death. Oblivion.
Zed : For yourself, or for the whole Vortex?
Friend : For Everybody. An end to the human race. It has plagued this pretty planet for far too long.
Zed : You stink of despair. Fight back! Fight for death, if that's what you want.
Friend : I thought at first you were the one to help. But it's hopeless. All my powers have gone.
Zed : Where is it? The Tabernacle?
Friend : The Tabernacle... is... I can't remember!
Zed : Who made it? Someone must know how to break it.
Friend : Yes, but you can meet him for yourself! One of our founders, one of the geniuses who discovered immortality.
[Friend goes to the bed of the Old Scientist and, rousing him noisily, shouts]
Friend : We want to die! Hm? What - what's the trick?
Old Scientist : [feebly] Death... death... Talk to May!
Zed : May? May!
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Friend : Ever hear the expression "if looks could kill"? Well, here they can.
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Friend : I hate all women. Birth, fertility, superstition.
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Friend : We have eternal life and yet we sentence ourselves to drudgery. I tell you, I'm sick of 200 years of washing-up. And I'm sick of pitting my bare hands against the blind, brute stupidity of nature!
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Friend : This man has the gift of death.
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Friend : The Vortex is an obscenity!
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Zed : What happens to him then?
Friend : He'll get six months at least.
Zed : Prison?
Friend : Ageing.
Zed : Ageing?
Friend : Yes! I'm getting old myself. Three months here, a year there. These sentences add up.
Zed : So if you're bad often enough, you'll die.
Friend : They make you old, but they don't let you die.
Zed : So what's to stop you killing yourself?
Friend : I do now and again. But the eternal tabernacle simply rebuilds me.
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Friend : Didn't Zardoz tell you about the apathetics? It's a disease. And it's slowly creeping through all the Vortexes.
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Friend : We applied ourselves to the unsolved mysteries of the universe but even with infinite time and the help of the tabernacle our minds were not up to it. We failed.