Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994)
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Screenplay: Steph Lady, Frank Darabont
Based on: Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818) by Mary Shelley
Release dates: November 3, 1994 (London); November 4, 1994 (US)
Stars: Robert De Niro (The Creature), Kenneth Branagh (Victor Frankenstein), Helena Bonham Carter (Elizabeth Lavenza), Ian Holm (Baron Alphonse Frankenstein), John Cleese (Professor Waldman), Tom Hulce (Henry Clerval), Richard Briers (Grandfather), Robert Hardy (Professor Krempe), Cherie Lunghi (Caroline Beaufort Frankenstein), Celia Imrie (Mrs. Moritz), Trevyn McDowell (Justine Moritz), Patrick Doyle (Pock-marked man).
Plot: In 1794, Captain Walton leads an expedition to the North Pole. While their ship is trapped in ice, a frightening noise is heard and a cloaked man emerges from the mist, telling the crew to follow him with their weapons. The dogs run toward the noise, but are killed by its source. Walton is determined to continue the expedition; the newcomer asks “Do you share my madness?” He reveals that his name is Victor Frankenstein and tells his life story (in flashback).
Victor grows up with his adopted sister Elizabeth Lavenza. Victor’s mother dies giving birth to his brother William and Victor vows on her grave to find a way to conquer death. Victor and his friend Henry Clerval study medicine at the University of Ingolstadt under professor Shmael Augustus Waldman, whose notes contain information on creating life. Waldman warns Victor not to use them lest he create an abomination.
While inoculating people for smallpox, Waldman is murdered by a patient who is subsequently hanged. Using the killer’s body and Waldman’s brain, Victor builds a creature based on Waldman’s notes. He becomes so obsessed with his work that he drives Elizabeth away when she comes to take him from Ingolstadt which is being quarantined amid a cholera epidemic. Victor gives his creation life, but is horrified by the creature’s hideous appearance and tries to kill him. The creature steals Victor’s coat and flees.
The creature shelters for months in a family’s barn without their knowledge, learning to read and speak by watching them. He attempts to earn their trust by anonymously tending to their land and bringing them food, and eventually converses with the elderly, blind patriarch after murdering an abusive debt collector. When the man’s family returns, they are terrified and chase the creature away. The creature finds Victor’s journal and learns the circumstances of his creation. After returning to the farmhouse, he discovers that the family has abandoned it. He burns down the farm and vows revenge on Victor for bringing him into a world that hates him.
Returning to Geneva to marry Elizabeth, Victor learns that his younger brother William has been murdered. The Frankensteins’ servant Justine is blamed and hanged by a violent mob. The creature makes his survival known to Victor and soon abducts him, demands the creation of a female companion for him, promising in return to leave Victor and humanity in peace. Victor gathers his tools. When the creature insists that he use Justine’s body, Victor breaks his promise. The creature exacts revenge on Victor by killing his father, During Victor’s wedding night, the creature breaks into Elizabeth’s bridal suite and rips out her heart.
Victor races to bring Elizabeth back to life. He stitches her head and hands onto Justine’s body and reanimates her as a disfigured, mindless shadow of her former self. The creature appears and demands Elizabeth as his bride. Victor and the creature fight. Realizing what has been done to her, Elizabeth ends her existence by setting herself on fire. Victor and the creature escape as the mansion burns.
Back in the Arctic, Victor tells Walton that he has been pursuing his creation for months to kill him. Victor dies of pneumonia. Walton later discovers the creature weeping over Victor’s body, having lost the only family that he has known. The crew prepares a funeral pyre, but this cremation ceremony is interrupted when the ice around the ship cracks. Walton invites the creature onto the ship, but the creature chooses to remain with the pyre. He takes the torch and burns himself alive with Victor’s body. Walton orders the ship to return home, avoiding repeating Victor’s mistakes.
* * *
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994) | Transcript
[♪♪♪]
NARRATOR: I busied myself to think of a story which would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature and awaken thrilling horror. One to make the reader dread to look around. To curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart.
[♪♪♪]
ARCTIC SEA 1794
[GRUNTING]
SAILOR 1: Tell the captain, we’ve got to take in the topsail.
She’s going to rip!
Please, captain! We have to drop the sails!
All hands to the mast!
Take the wheel!
Come on!
SAILOR 1: Captain, we’ve hit the ice!
We’ve hit the ice!
Iceberg ahead!
Hard to starboard!
SAILOR 2: Go back!
[SCREAMING]
Help! Help!
Help!
Hold on, Vernon!
Hold on!
WALTON: Put your backs into it, men!
Let’s go!
Captain, this is useless.
The ice stretches for miles.
What do you suggest we do?
Lay down and die?
The men are exhausted, sir.
They can’t go on, man.
I tell you, I have not come this far to give up now.
They knew the risk when they signed on.
And we are gonna chop our way to the North Pole if we have to.
Then you run the risk of mutiny, captain.
Did you say mutiny?
Yes I did, sir.
We proceed north as planned.
At the cost of how many more lives?
As many as it takes!
[CREATURE HOWLS]
[BARKING]
There’s something out there.
MAN: What is it?
What the hell is that?
Who is your captain?
I am.
Who the devil are you?
I’ve no time to talk.
You bring your men and your weapons and follow me.
Now!
Stay where you are.
I give the orders here.
[CREATURE HOWLS]
Get the dogs! Get them!
Leave them.
They’re already dead.
[GROWLING THEN WHIMPERING]
[CREATURE ROARS]
Get back to the ship now!
Everybody back to the ship!
[♪♪♪]
Bears don’t kill like that, nothing does.
MAN: Maybe it wants the man with the captain.
Or it wants the captain.
It’s the devil come for the captain.
For the last time, I made my way from St.
Petersburg to Archangel on foot.
From there I took a whaling ship north.
When we hit the ice, I used the dogs.
[CREATURE HOWLS]
What’s out there?
[CREATURE PANTING]
Listen to me. I have spent six years planning this, my entire fortune.
I will not be stopped by you or some phantom.
Do you share my madness?
What, then? No. not madness.
There’s a passage to the North Pole, and I will find it.
At the cost of your own life?
The lives of your crew?
Lives come and go.
If we succeed, our names will live on forever.
I will be hailed as the benefactor of our species.
You’re wrong.
L, of all men, know that.
Who are you?
My name… is Victor…
Frankenstein.
[HARPSICHORD PLAYING]
Mother!
Oh, my wonderful son Victor!
You are the handsomest, kindest, cleverest, most wonderfulest boy in the whole world!
[WHOOPS THEN LAUGHS]
MRS. MORITZ: Madam! You will spoil the boy, really.
FATHER: Would you and your daughter leave us, please, Mrs. Moritz?
Doctor.
Come along, Justine.
Victor, this is Elizabeth.
She’s coming to live with us.
She’s lost both her mother and father to the scarlet fever, Victor.
She’s an orphan now.
You must think of her as your own sister.
You must look after her, and be kind to her.
Always.
[♪♪♪]
Mother, oh. How is the imminent arrival?
Oh, a little frisky today.
Yes.
When you were a little boy, you used to chase fireflies in the field.
Yes, and when I trapped them in my jar, they died.
Yes. And do you remember how you cried?
Yes.
Because you wanted to keep them glowing by your bedside to light you as you read.
You were so hungry for knowledge.
Such a serious little boy.
You’ve become such an earnest young man.
All these strange and ancient books.
You’ll be an even greater doctor than your father.
But you know, Victor, life shouldn’t be all study.
There’s such fun to be had.
Oh.
Give me that back.
No.
Give me that back, Mother.
[HARPSICHORD PLAYING]
[LAUGHING]
MRS. MORITZ: Change partners. And twirl!
Now, Caroline.
You’re right.
You mustn’t exert yourself. Please.
I know.
MRS. MORITZ: Don’t worry, madam. Your new baby will be a natural dancer.
Excellent.
You’ll be the envy of all the young ladies and gentlemen.
[HARPSICHORD CLANKS]
Justine.
Justine, may I have this dance?
[LAUGHS]
[GRUNTS]
MRS. MORITZ: Madam!
Hurry!
[GRUNTING]
Sir. You must make a decision!
FATHER: How can I? The baby’s in the wrong position.
I can’t proceed…
I can’t…
[MUTTERING INDISTINCTLY]
Cut me. Save the baby.
[CAROLINE SCREAMS]
[♪♪♪]
She’ll be all right.
Your father’s the finest doctor in Geneva.
[FATHER SOBBING]
Father?
Father?
Father, how is she?
I did everything I could…
Everything I could…
VICTOR: Mother? Mother!
Bring her back.
Please, bring her back.
No!
Please, bring her back.
[VICTOR SOBBING AND MURMURING INDISTINCTLY] Oh, Mother.
You should never have died.
No one need ever die.
I will stop this.
I will stop this.
I promise.
ELIZABETH: Victor, you’re completely obsessed. Please explain what that is.
VICTOR: It’s energy. It never disappears, it merely changes form.
It’s possible to convert this candle wax into the convulsions of a mechanical dog.
But the applications of this are limitless. Really.
Oh, please come outside, Victor.
It’s such a beautiful day.
Go away, I’m busy.
What’s this?
It’s for spraying down the electric eels.
[LAUGHING]
Now, put it down. Put it down.
It’s not for playing with.
It’s not for playing with. Put it down, put it down
Don’t do that.
I warned you. Don’t
Don’t–
Give me that, you little…
VICTOR: Come on!
[ELIZABETH & VICTOR SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY] Yes! Come on!
After all, we should be grateful to Victor for abandoning his experiments for one afternoon.
Well, who says I have?
What do you mean?
[THUNDER CRASHES]
Look!
ELIZABETH: We’re all going to die.
You knew this was going to happen.
No, not for certain.
But I had hoped the conditions would be right.
They’re quite common here at this time of year.
I’ve never seen one quite as large as that, though. Look.
Isn’t it wonderful?
Victor, you shouldn’t have done this.
It’s all right, it’s all right.
We must take cover.
A tree!
No, no, no. That’s exactly the wrong thing to do.
It’s potentially a much larger conductor than we are.
Victor, what about Willie?
Um…
What are we to do?
Come on.
VICTOR: Now, everyone, spread out.
Elizabeth, take this. Now, quickly.
Come on, quickly!
ELIZABETH: What is that?
VICTOR: Dig it right into the ground.
Go ahead.
ELIZABETH: Now what?
VICTOR: Justine, take this. Come on.
JUSTINE: Willie!
VICTOR: Everyone down.
[LAUGHING]
VICTOR: Give me your hands. It’ll be fine.
Now take him. Now, that’s good.
ELIZABETH: Victor, I hope you know what you’re doing.
VICTOR: Willie? Willie, don’t look up!
Willie.
Victor–
Wait!
One, two, three…
[♪♪♪]
Now.
[ELECTRICITY CRACKLING]
VICTOR: So how do you feel, Elizabeth?
ELIZABETH: Alive.
[CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYING]
[LAUGHING]
Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends.
Gather round and listen.
As you probably know, tomorrow my dear son Victor leaves me to pursue, what I’m sure will be an illustrious career in a profession I, myself, am not altogether unassociated with.
Ha, ha.
Oh, modesty.
[LAUGHING]
No. My
My
My one regret is that his mother my late wife, is not here to share the pride which our son fills me with tonight.
Yes.
She wanted you to have this, Victor.
On your graduation.
And in it she has written: “This is the journal of Victor Frankenstein.”
The rest of the leaves are blank, to be filled with the deeds of a noble life.
[GUESTS CLAPPING]
[CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYING]
We’d, uh, better go in, before they miss us.
Just a little while longer.
Please.
I don’t know when we’ll be alone together again.
[LAUGHING]
Oh, dear Victor.
I shall miss you laughing at me.
I’ll miss you making me laugh.
So… how do brothers and sisters say goodbye?
Perhaps they never have to.
I won’t, if you won’t.
[♪♪♪]
Are you my sister?
Sister… friend… lover.
Wife?
Yes.
Then come with me to Ingolstadt.
Marry me now.
Victor, no.
Well, then I’ll stay.
Oh.
I want more than anything else in the world to be your wife.
But as long as you’re away, I belong here.
I want to make this house live again.
I want to make this a great home for our children.
And now you must go, and do the great things you need to do.
I want you so much.
I’ll be here when you return.
Each holiday.
Every visit.
Then on our wedding night.
Until our wedding night.
[♪♪♪]
[SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY]
WOMAN: Lots of stairs, I’m afraid.
How was your journey?
It was very good, thank you.
I made very good progress over the mountains. Clear run.
Good. I am pleased.
Well, as I said, we’ve only got attic space.
VICTOR: It’s exactly what I’m looking for.
But Frau Brach, there will be a great deal of scientific equipment and rigging to be delivered.
Every day, I’m afraid, for the next week.
I trust you have no objections.
I’m sure you appreciate the need for a proper laboratory, madam.
Oh, Putzi likes you.
[♪♪♪]
This will be perfect.
MAN: “The foolish and vain force their views by the rod.
But knowledge is power only through God.”
Our motto. Easily forgotten by you young men in a hurry.
[LAUGHING]
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 gentlemen, 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.
But surely, professor, you don’t intend we disregard more philosophical approaches?
Philosophical?
Those which stir the imagination as well as the intellect, as in Paracelsus, for example.
Ah, Paracelsus.
An arrogant and foolish Swiss.
Albertus Magnus?
His nonsense was exploded 500 years ago.
Cornelius Agrippa?
A sorcerer. An occultist.
What is your name?
Victor Frankenstein, sir.
Of Geneva.
[STUDENTS CHUCKLE]
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.
Yeah, 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 their kind of amateur, fanatical, fantastical speculation does not heal bodies or save lives.
Only science can do that.
[STUDENTS MURMUR AND APPLAUD]
Now, have we your permission to continue?
[CHATTERING]
Nice coat.
Why, thank you.
Don’t take it too hard.
It’s just that Krempe doesn’t approve of public humiliation.
I am not mad!
My dear fellow, of course you’re not.
In fact, that’s just the sort of thing I’d expect a perfectly rational person to say to a complete stranger.
Henry Clerval, by the way, and I’m completely crazy.
Victor Frankenstein.
Of Geneva.
Of Geneva.
Yes, I noti…
Why don’t you look where I’m going?
That’s Schiller. Ornament of the playing field.
Really.
He’s new as well.
You can tell because he goes around looking at things with his mouth open.
What are you here for?
Research.
Very grand.
I’m here to become a mere doctor.
I’m told it has something to do with healing the sick.
Which is a pity, really, because I find sick people rather revolting.
Still, I’ll have a good time, get my degree…
If I can stop failing Anatomy.
And settle down to relieve rich old ladies of their imaginary ailments and then relieve their very real and beautiful daughters.
Who was that?
He was at the lecture.
Ah. That’s Waldman.
Ah, that’s Waldman.
Yes.
Interesting case.
They say in his youth he could break into heaven and lecture God on science.
Ran into trouble with the authorities a few years back.
Something to do with illegal experiments.
But what kind of experiments, I wonder?
So what was it you were saying? Uh…
Rich old ladies and their daughters?
Yes, it’s a life of sacrifice, I know, but someone’s got to do it.
[BOTH CHUCKLE]
[HORSE NEIGHS]
[♪♪♪]
WALDMAN: And that is why the central nervous system and its crowning achievement, the brain, are as complicated and mysterious a set of organs as you are ever likely to encounter.
Mr. Frankenstein, the incision is yours.
Excellent.
Mr. Clerval, you may remove the cranial lid.
“Henry, now fully recovered, and continues his struggle to pass Anatomy.”
I was always terrible at anatomy.
“Professor Waldman is very tolerant of him, and of myself.
I’m learning a great deal.”
Professor Waldman is remarkable.
And so is Henry.
“God bless you, all my love, Victor.”
That’s very nice.
“P.S. I’ve fallen in love.”
I beg your pardon?
“She’s dark, sleek, and beautiful, and always wags her tail whenever she sees me.
Her name is Putzi, and she’s the friendliest sheepdog that I’ve ever known.”
[LAUGHING]
“P.S. Elizabeth, I dream of how your hair shines…”
VICTOR: “Of how your lips taste.
I dream of your arms and breasts and of the time on our wedding night when we will be atone together at last.” WILLIE:
What else does it say?
It says, “I’m working very hard to make lots of new friends.”
More coffee, anyone?
Once and for all, Frankenstein!
Life is life, death is death.
These things are real.
They are absolute.
That is rubbish and you know it!
That premise has been repeatedly challenged by members on your own staff!
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.
Rubbish!
“Dear diary, why does no one understand me?
P.S. I am not mad.”
WALDMAN: You.
Explain yourself.
Professor, I’m sorry.
Listen, I came here to learn all about the new science.
About galvanism, Franklin’s experiments.
The combination of modern disciplines with ancient knowledge in an attempt to protect and createTo create what?
Sir, we can change things. We can make things better. You know that.
We are on the verge of undreamed of discoveries if we only have the courage to ask the right questions. Now, you must help me. Please Come on.
Victor…
VICTOR: Come on.
[♪♪♪]
Henry…
Lock the door.
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: That’s fascinating.
Then how do they explain?
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.
I see.
So electricity is the key.
Now, look at this.
[♪♪♪]
[BOTH GASP]
Go on, touch it.
It feels warm.
It is.
Yes. How do you do?
Aah! Turn it off!
I can’t, it’s not working.
Try to stay calm, Henry.
It’s simply a matter of reducing the polarity in your body 0r in the arm.
A monkey’s arm is basically the same as a human being.
No arm is this strong!
Now, this must work.
[ELECTRICTY BUZZES]
Let me help you, professor.
You shall, of course, tell no one.
They wouldn’t believe you anyway.
Dearest Victor.
Nothing much changes here.
Mrs. Moritz continues to love and torment Justine, in equal measure.
Willie grows more precocious every day, and Father almost expires with pride at the very thought of you and your work.
And I…
Well, I just miss you, very much.
Please write soon, Victor.
VICTOR: ‘No, I’m serious. You take vaccine, for instance.
Thirty years ago the entire concept of vaccine was unheard of and now we save lives every day.
But that isn’t the whole answer.
What do you mean?
That sooner or later the best way to cheat death will be to create life.
HEN RY: Now you’ve gone too far.
There’s only one God, Victor.
No, leave God out of this.
Listen, if you loved someone, they had a sick heart, wouldn’t you give them a healthy one?
Impossible.
VICTOR: No, ifs not impossible.
We can do it, we’re steps away.
And if we can do that
If we can replace one part of a human being, we can replace every part.
And if we 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.
In our lifetime?
No.
[♪♪♪]
How close did you get, professor’?
Too close.
Professor, I beg you, let me see these notes.
No. My work now, and its application, lies exclusively in the preservation of life.
I abandoned my other researches many years ago.
Why?
Because they resulted in abomination.
[WOMAN SCREAMING]
[PEOPLE SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY] You’re not sticking that in me.
It’s got a pox in it, I hear.
Pox? They’ve given us pox?
That’s right. Pox.
It’s not pox, it’s a vaccine that will prevent a plague in this city.
What’s that?
It’s a tiny, harmless amount of anti-smallpox serum.
You just said pox!
WALDMAN: I said it was harmless.
It’s a necessary precaution, without which this godforsaken city would be immediately put under quarantine.
You doctors kill people. I don’t care what you say. You’re not sticking that in me.
Yes, I am. It’s the law!
Sit him down, someone.
Come on.
You’re not sticking that in me!
[GRUNTS]
Sir?
Professor? Sir?
[SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY AND WOMEN SCREAMING] Find him!
Come on! Come on! Come on!
It’s no use, Victor, he’s gone.
No! No, Henry!
Let him go!
No! No, this shouldn’t happen!
Let him go! Victor, stop!
VICTOR: It shouldn’t happen!
HEN RY: Stop! Victor.
It need not happen!
[CROWD JEERING]
MAN: The hell with you!
Whatever you say, whatever you call it, you doctors are killers.
You murder people!
Evil! You’re evil!
Evil!
You’re the ones that deserve to die.
God will punish you. He’ll punish you!
God will punish you!
[CHEERING]
My God, you were so close!
Of course, the power!
The materials were wrong.
You needed auxiliary sources.
“The experiment a failure.
Resulting reanimant malformed and hideous to behold.
This factor dependant on the appropriate raw materials.”
Raw materials…
[♪♪♪]
[THUNDER RUMBLING]
VICTOR: Come on, Henry.
HEN RY: I can’t, Victor.
I can’t help you.
You won’t help me.
What are you frightened of?
Everything! What do you think?
And what if the authorities?
We’ll 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?
We owe it to him to complete this work.
He was one step away.
He never wanted this.
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?
I think for the chance to defeat death and disease, to let everyone on this Earth have the chance at 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.
[♪♪♪]
ELIZABETH: Please, Justine, just leave me alone.
I won’t talk about it.
But all these letters, you read them to us yourself every week.
I wrote them.
I wrote the letters.
He hasn’t written to me in months.
Elizabeth…
Something horrific is happening to him.
I can feel it.
At first I wasn’t sure, but I knew I had to hide it from Father.
Now there are rumors of cholera.
I can look after Father and Willie.
You go to Ingolstadt…
No, that’s not possible.
He won’t want me.
He’s probably found someone else.
If he was mine, I would have gone already.
But he isn’t mine.
He’s yours, and you must go to him.
Raw materials, that’s all they are.
Tissue to be reused.
The very finest brain.
MAN: But they all died of cholera, sir.
No matter.
Thank you.
The assembled organs must have the appropriate nutrients and heat and crucially, more direct power.
More direct power.
[SCREAMING]
VICTOR: Amniotic fluid is the chief biogenic element.
The subject is injected with this. The copper acupuncture needles pierce the flesh at all key energy points.
Now, after the removal of current, the dead toad should retain animation.
But independently of external power sources.
Yes.
That’s it.
That’s the combination.
That’s the combination!
That’s it!
[CROAKING]
[♪♪♪]
[KNOCKING ON DOOR]
HENRY: Victor? Victor!
Victor, open the door!
Victor, please!
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?
Yes. And?
The militia’s arriving to quarantine the city.
Most of us are getting out while we still can.
Krempe knows that you’re here, for God’s sake. What if he tells the authorities?
Goodbye, Henry.
ELIZABETH: Victor, it’s me.
Elizabeth.
Can you hear me?
Victor, I have to see you.
Go away.
ELIZABETH: Please, Victor!
I won’t leave here until you see me.
Come in the side door.
Alone!
What’s happened to you?
How can you live here like this?
And that stench.
Don’t go in there!
Aah!
We have to leave. It isn’t safe.
No, I have to stay.
Even if it means you’ll die?
Yes.
[♪♪♪]
Well, let me help you.
No, that’s impossible.
We made a promise.
Victor, I beg you.
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.
Before us?
Elizabeth, I love you so much, but…
Goodbye.
[♪♪♪]
[CRYING]
Elizabeth! Elizabeth!
[SOBBING]
Oh, God! Elizabeth!
Elizabeth!
[♪♪♪]
Live! Live! Live!
Live!
Yes!
No…
No!
No!
No!
It’s alive.
[THUMPING ON METAL]
It’s alive.
[♪♪♪]
[GRUNTING]
No.
What have I done?
What have I done?
“Massive birth defects.
Greatly enhanced physical strength.
But resulting reanimant is malfunctional and pitiful and dead.”
Tomorrow this journal and its secrets must be destroyed forever.
Oh, God.
[CRYING]
[THUD]
Aah!
[GROANING]
No!
You fool, Victor Frankenstein of Geneva.
How could you know what you’d unleashed?
How is it pieced together?
Bits of thieves, bits of murderers…
Evil stitched to evil stitched to evil.
Do you really believe this thing will thank you for its monstrous birth?
Evil will have its revenge.
God help your loved ones.
[♪♪♪]
[PEOPLE CHATTERING]
What do you think you’re doing?
Aah! He’s got cholera! He’s the one who’s been spreading the plague!
Get him!
[PEOPLE YELLING AND WOMEN SCREAM]
[♪♪♪]
[GRUNTING]
MAN 1: Come here, you
[ROARS]
WOMAN: Keep away from him.
MAN 2: No, kill him now!
MAN 3: He went this way.
HENRY: There now. Easy.
Easy. Just a bit.
That’s it. There, now, rest easy.
Henry, you’re here.
Of course I’m here.
It was touch and go with you, though.
Just a bit more.
I feared cholera, turned out to be pneumonia.
Yes, I’m becoming something of a doctor.
Even Krempe seems pleased with me.
At this rate, I might even pass Anatomy.
The epidemic?
Dreadful.
There’s nothing we can do for them.
The vulnerable, anyone who’s without shelter or food, the newborns, especially, will die.
Are you sure?
I’m certain of it.
Thank God.
What do you mean?
Nothing.
Well then, that’s my shift finished.
I’ll see you later.
[PIANO PLAYING]
Elizabeth.
[♪♪♪]
Elizabeth.
[SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]
VICTOR: Please, please, forgive me!
Of course I do. Of course.
Victor, I don’t know what you’re working on, and I don’t want to know.
But it nearly killed you.
It’s over, it’s finished.
It should never have started.
It’s dead! It’s dead.
[FLUTE PLAYING IN DISTANCE]
[LATCH RATTLES]
WOMAN: Felix!
FELIX: Yes?
WOMAN: Don’t forget the onion scraps.
FELIX: All right, I’ve got them.
Go on, get.
Come on. Come on.
Go on, go on. Go on. Get.
How are the pigs?
FELIX: They’re happy they’ve been fed.
How are your hands?
FELIX: Oh, they’re bleeding again.
MARIE: Let me see them.
[MARIE HUMMING AND FELIX GRUNTS] FELIX:
That’s better.
MARIE: There.
The soup’s ready.
THOMAS: Come on, Grandpa.
Sit down.
GRANDPA: Thank you.
[♪♪♪]
[THUDDING]
We’ll never get through the winter with this yield.
The ground’s frozen hard.
We’ll sell another pig at market.
We can’t. Not until they lift the quarantine.
Even then, it’s one less for us. Last month’s rent, he’ll be back for that.
Come on.
We’ll do this together.
You’re right.
We’ve got to, before the snow comes.
Come on, then.
The ground’s frozen solid. We haven’t the strength to do this.
We’d need 20 men to work this field.
It’s useless!
We should stop now.
It’s getting late.
We don’t have enough to eat.
We’ll manage.
Let’s go.
Look. Look.
[LAUGHS]
They must be gifts from the Good Spirit of the Forest.
Father, nothing in this life comes free of cost.
I would like to know who and why.
THOMAS: Was it, Grandpa? Was it?
Was it the Good Spirit?
GRANDPA: I believe it was.
FELIX: Will you stop filling their head with nonsense?
[TWIG SNAPS]
Who’s there?
Felix? Children?
MARIE: Right.
What’s this one?
Fr
Eh
Nd.
Friend?
Ha, ha. Friend! Well done!
That’s very good.
You’ve got lots of friends, haven’t you?
Grandpa and…
Friend…
Friend…
Friend.
Friend.
Family.
Ff
Fa..
Father.
Now, this is very important. You must travel with them for the entire journey.
This equipment must not be left unattended.
My father will personally take delivery of them in Geneva. Do you understand?
I do, sir.
Thank you.
HEN RY: Going somewhere?
ELIZABETH: Henry, look.
Look at this locket Victor gave me.
Isn’t it beautiful?
Yes, it’s lovely.
ls this really you?
Yes, it’s a bad likeness, I know.
But for now, it will serve instead of a ring, huh?
HENRY: Congratulations on the entirely expected!
When?
As soon as we get home.
Ha, ha. Oh.
I can’t believe we’ll be there for New Year’s Eve.
Victor’s going to take over Father’s practice.
And expand it.
I’m going on ahead now the quarantine’s being lifted.
There’s so much to do for the wedding.
Now, the practice needs a partner.
Now, there’s not much money, but there is food and board and some very good company.
And it’s the ideal position for someone who has finally passed Anatomy.
And so we were wondering if there was anybody that you could recommend?
Victor, II don’t know what to say.
VICTOR: Well, please say yes.
Yes.
ELIZABETH: Yes!
Yes, yes! VICTOR: Yes!
And you can write that down in your journal!
[LAUGHING AND SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY]
[♪♪♪]
“This is… the journal… of…
Victor…
Frankenstein… of…
Geneva.”
FELIX: Come on, quickly.
Come on, then, off you go.
Quickly, now.
Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas.
Come on, now. Come on.
Time for bed.
MARIE: In you go.
CREATURE: “For the Good Spirit of the Forest.”
Are you the Good Spirit of the Forest?
Not exactly.
Where’s your father?
I said, where’s your father?
Who’s there?
Maggie?
No.
Oh, it’s you.
What have you done to Maggie?
ls he in there?
Hiding behind a blind old man?
Get away! Get away!
LANDLORD: Don’t blame me.
Blame your son for not paying his rent on time.
[FLOOR CREAKS]
[LANDLORD SCREAMS]
My God.
Thank you, my friend.
Thank you so much.
Won’t you come and sit by the fire?
Please, don’t be afraid.
Come. Come in.
Have a rest, sit down.
Ah. That’s better.
I’m glad you finally came in.
A man shouldn’t have to hide in the shadows.
Better that way, for me.
Why?
People are afraid.
Except you.
It can’t be as bad as that.
Worse.
I can “see” you with my hands, if you’ll trust me.
Papa, Papa, he hurl Grandpa!
FELIX: Who hurt Grandpa?
MARIE: What was that noise?
FELIX: Tell me what the noise was.
What happened, Maggie?
Poor man.
Have you no friends?
There are some people.
But they don’t know me.
Why do you not go to them?
Because I am so very…
Ugly And they are so very… beautiful.
FELIX: Father! Get out of here!
Get out of here, monster.
Leave him alone!
We have to leave here.
[SOBBING]
[♪♪♪]
No.
[GRUNTS]
[♪♪♪]
[ROARS]
I will have revenge!
Frankenstein!
[♪♪♪]
Geneva.
Yay!
MAN: Quickly, quickly.
She’s here, she’s here!
ELIZABETH: Willie!
We got your letter!
We got your letter!
It’s the first one I was allowed to read.
Congratulations, Elizabeth.
I’m happy for you.
Thank you, Justine.
Oh, is that the locket?
Oh. Look how handsome Victor is.
Elizabeth, can I take this to show Peter?
Yes, but, Willie, it’s not a toy.
Let him go. Let him go.
Don’t dawdle, William!
[JUSTINE & MRS. MORTIZ LAUGHING] Justine, you idiot.
Pay attention.
Anyone would think you’re the one that’s getting married.
Yes, Mother.
ELIZABETH: What’s wrong?
JUSTINE: Nothing. Really.
MRS. MORITZ: Just leave it.
You’ve ruined it now.
[FLUTE PLAYING]
No! No!
Frankenstein.
You, with me.
FATHER: Have you seen Willie?
Isn’t he back yet?
Claude rode over to find out if he’d lost track of time.
They say he never arrived.
Far too late for him to still be out.
[♪♪♪]
William!
MAN: William!
William!
William!
Willie!
Willie!
[THUNDER RUMBLING AND MEN SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY]
[CRYING]
Willie…
Willie!
This isn’t a game!
Willie!
It’s so late.
We’re all so tired.
I’m so tired.
Father! I’m so pleased to see you.
What’s wrong?
[THUNDER CRASHES]
[♪♪♪]
[WHIMPERING]
[DOG BARKING IN DISTANCE]
MAN: William!
VICTOR: We checked the east ridge.
There’s nothing there.
Damn!
Elizabeth?
I found him!
I found him!
Elizabeth!
No!
[SOBBING]
We did everything we could, sir.
You just rest easy now.
We did everything we could.
MRS. MORITZ: Sir, I’m terrified for my girl. She’s still out looking for William.
We parted badly. I was cruel to her.
I didn’t mean it.
I think she finds it very hard now, with your wedding. She loves you dearly.
I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to her.
She’s all I’ve got.
Please, help me!
We’ll organize another search now that ifs light.
We will find her, Mrs. Moritz, I promise.
[SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]
How is Father?
His heart is breaking.
[KNOCKING ON DOOR]
Mr. Frankenstein, we’ve apprehended the murderer, not five miles from here hiding in a barn.
We found this on her.
It’s yours, I believe, sir?
Sir, you must come immediately.
The townspeople have gone mad.
[SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY]
My God.
What are they doing?
They must have broken into the jail!
Well, for God’s sake, man, can’t you stop them?
They’ve gone wild!
This is a lynching mob!
Stop! This is unlawful.
Justine.
Justine!
[SCREAMING]
[SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY]
Victor! Help me!
I was trying to find him!
I went to the lake, but it was dark!
I wanted to bring him to you!
He must be there for the wedding!
I’m sorry! He’s so tiny.
[♪♪♪]
[SCREAMING]
[SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY]
VICTOR: We managed to close the gates on the mob, Claude.
What about Justine?
We’ve cut her down. We can bury her in the morning.
Thank you, Claude.
Get to bed.
CREATURE: The sea of ice.
I will meet you there on the sea of ice.
Oh, Justine, forgive me.
Victor, tell me.
Who is this man?
How do you know he’s responsible?
I’ll tell you everything after I’ve destroyed him.
But if what you say is true, then surely this is a matter for the police.
They wouldn’t understand.
Well, neither do I.
Then just accept it.
[GRUNTING AND PANTING]
[♪♪♪]
[GRUNTING]
CREATURE: Get up.
Get up.
You do speak.
Yes, I speak.
And read.
And think.
And know the ways of man.
How did you find me?
Your journal.
Then you mean to kill me.
No.
You murdered my brother, didn’t you?
I took him by the throat with one hand, lifted him off the ground and slowly crushed his neck.
And as I killed him, I saw your face.
You gave me these emotions. But you didn’t tell me how to use them.
Now two people are dead because of us.
Why?
There’s 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?
Materials, nothing more.
You’re wrong.
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.
Trace memories in the brain, perhaps.
Did you ever consider the consequences of your actions?
You gave me life, and then you left me to die.
Who am I?
You…
I don’t know.
And you think I’m evil.
What can I do?
There is something I want.
A friend.
A friend?
Companion.
A female.
Someone like me.
So she won’t hate me.
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.
And if I consent, how will you live?
We would travel north, my bride and I, to the furthest reaches of the Pole.
Where no man has ever set foot.
There, we would live out our lives together.
No human eye would ever see us again.
This, I vow.
You must help me. Please.
If it is possible to right this wrong, then I will do it.
Victor!
Victor.
Are you all right?
Yes, I’m safe. I’m safe.
What happened?
Tell us.
Victor.
Victor, you have to tell us what happened!
One month, that’s all I ask.
And then we can be married, and we can forget this whole business.
I promise.
Promise? Promise.
Oh, don’t dare use that word to me.
You promised to tell me who this man was.
You promised to abandon this work for good.
Your promises don’t mean anything.
Elizabeth.
I have to leave this house.
What are you saying?
Where will you go?
I don’t know.
Somewhere I can recover.
Well, look. This is ridiculous.
I haven’t got time to argue.
Oh, isn’t it convenient? Or doesn’t it fit in with your plans?
Don’t you ever think of anyone or anything but yourself?
God forgive me.
[♪♪♪]
Why her?
Materials, remember?
Nothing more.
Your words.
No.
You will honor your promise to me!
I will not.
Go on, kill me now.
That is mild compared to what will come.
If you deny me my wedding night, I will be with you on yours.
Elizabeth!
Elizabeth.
Wait. Wait, please wait. Please. I have to speak to you.
Please!
What do you want to say?
Don’t go.
[♪♪♪]
Please, don’t go.
I’m frightened.
Of what?
I have done something so terrible, so evil.
And I’m frightened that if I tell you the truth that I will lose you.
You’ll lose me if you don’t.
I… don’t know… what… to do.
[CRYING]
Will you marry me, Victor?
Marry me today.
Tomorrow, tell me everything.
But you must tell me the truth.
And together, we can face anything.
Whatever you’ve done, whatever has happened, I love you.
To share the truth, the whole truth, for good or ill, to stand by each other in sickness and in health, and in joy, from this day forward till death do you part.
Who is this man, sir?
How shall we know him?
Believe me, you’ll know him.
He killed Master William, and Justine Moritz died for it.
No hesitation, lads. Shoot the bastard on sight!
Henry?
HEN RY: Don’t worry about a thing.
You two look after each other.
I’ll look after your father.
[♪♪♪]
I’m sorry, sir.
The last ferry’s gone.
There’s nothing now till morning.
Damn.
I’ll ride on ahead and secure you lodgings for the night.
Thank you, Claude.
Come on.
Keep your pistols dry!
MAN: They’re dry enough.
And if they fail, we’ve others.
And if those fail, we can always gut the bastard.
Go to your post.
Yes, sir.
Don’t worry, sir.
You’re well guarded.
Now, why don’t you go on upstairs to your wife?
It’s not often a man has his wedding night.
[♪♪♪]
You’re soaking.
Brother and sister no more.
Now husband and wife.
[FLUTE PLAYING]
Victor?
Lock the door.
Lock the door.
Victor.
I saw him in a flash of lightning.
He ran to the lake.
You two stay here.
[THUNDER CRASHES]
MAN: We lost him.
VICTOR: Elizabeth!
Don’t bother to scream.
Please…
Please don’t hurt me.
You are lovelier than I ever could have imagined.
VICTOR: Elizabeth!
Elizabeth!
[♪♪♪]
I keep my promises!
[GUNSHOTS]
[VICTOR SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY]
[SOBBING]
For God’s sake, tell me what happened.
No point.
I know what I have to do.
God. No, Victor! You can’t do this, I won’t let you!
She’s gone. I love her.
What would you do?
Leave her in peace.
Peace? You call this peace?
Think my father wouldn’t have done this for my mother?
Your father’s dead.
Then there’s nothing left to lose.
Nothing but your soul.
[♪♪♪]
Live!
No!
Live. Live.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
[COUGHING]
Say my name.
Please, say my name.
Remember!
You must remember.
Elizabeth?
Elizabeth?
That’s it.
That’s it, you remember.
That’s it.
Now, stand. Stand.
[GRUNTING]
Yes. Yes. Yes.
You remember.
You remember.
[♪♪♪]
[THUNDER CRASHES]
She’s beautiful.
She’s not for you.
Come.
Elizabeth?
Say my name.
Elizabeth.
Yes.
Elizabeth!
You’re beautiful.
Say my name.
Elizabeth, come to me.
Come to me.
[♪♪♪]
Say my name, Elizabeth.
Vic…
That’s right, Elizabeth.
Victor.
No, you’re mine.
You’re mine.
Leave her alone! No!
Get away from her. She’s mine.
VICTOR: She’s mine! She said my name!
She remembers!
She’s mine!
[SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY]
[♪♪♪]
VICTOR: No!
[GASPS]
VICTOR: All that I once loved lies in a shallow grave by my hand. I followed the trail he left for meNorth.
Always north.
For months now with one intent: To kill him.
Now…
I’m tired.
I’m so very, very tired.
What did he say?
He’s dead.
He died raving about some phantom.
What is it out there, captain?
He told me a story that… couldn’t be true.
He was mad, I think.
A warming breeze.
The ice will melt yet.
And what then, captain?
We head north.
No.
[CREATURE GROANS]
[CRYING]
[♪♪♪]
Who are you?
He never gave me a name.
Why do you weep?
He was my father.
WALTON: “And yea, I gave my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly, and I perceived that all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
For in much wisdom is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow.
For God shall bring every work and every secret thing into judgment, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”
Captain–
He has a right to bear witness.
[ICE CREAKING]
[♪♪♪]
Jesus, ifs breaking up!
[MEN SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY]
[GRUNTS]
Get back to the ship, captain.
Leave the damn torch!
Leave it!
Come with us.
I am done with man.
MAN: Hang on, I’ve got you!
Help! Help!
MAN: Here, captain. Here, captain.
Quick, grab my hand!
Where to now, captain?
Home.
[♪♪♪]
[♪♪♪]
