(TICKING)
(SIREN WAILING IN DISTANCE)
(TICKING MULTIPLIES, OVERLAPS)
FUNDI: Our American republic is not all that different from old Rome.
Can we preserve our past and all its wondrous heritage?
Or will we too fall victim, like old Rome, to the insatiable appetite for power of a few men.
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
(HORNS HONKING)
(WIND HOWLING)
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING)
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
(TENSE MUSIC CONTINUES)
CESAR: Time, stop!
(BREATH TREMBLING)
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
(SNAPS FINGERS)
(HORNS HONKING)
(TICKING RESUMES)
FUNDI: I sing of Colossus, and the history of Man.
Let us go whither the omens of the Gods and the iniquity of our enemies calls us.
(INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER)
The die is now cast.
MAN: (OVER RADIO) …whether or not their president is a crook.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER OVER RADIO)
(RADIO STATIC)
(UPBEAT DANCE MUSIC PLAYING)
(CROWD CHEERING)
(IMPERCEPTIBLE)
(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING)
(CROWD WHOOPING)
(CROWD CHEERING)
(SCREAMS)
DRIVER: Watch it! HART: Julia!
Come on. Hey.
CLODIA: Please.
We’re gonna go out again.
JULIA: Call me. Call me later.
CLODIA: Like, for breakfast.
Ugh. Whoops!
I hate and I love, why do I so,
perhaps you ask?
HART: All right, let’s go.
You think so?
HART: Julia, get in the car.
(JULIA CHUCKLES)
All right. Bye, Clodio.
Goodbye, my love.
You’re not mad at me? You’re going to tell my dad?
Let’s go.
(SIREN CHIRPS, WAILING)
MAN: (OVER RADIO) Mayor Cicero’s financial problems are so huge that only a federal bailout can solve them.
MAYOR CICERO: Julia…
(INDISTINCT CHATTER OVER RADIO)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(SIREN CHIRPS)
MAN: (OVER LOUDSPEAKER) Attention, attention!
Detonation imminent.
Clear the area! Repeat, clear the area!
Explosion imminent.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING)
CESAR: Wait.
Go.
(CLICKS)
CESAR: Wait.
(GASPS)
(BUILDING CRACKLING)
CESAR: Go.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(CHEERING)
HART: This time, you’ve gone too far, Catilina.
This site is under Design Authority jurisdiction.
And what happens if you’ve overstepped your mandate?
We’ll apologize.
HART: Apologize? After the building’s down?
Mayor Cicero will be pissed!
(GRANDIOSE MUSIC PLAYING)
Yeah!
(GRUNTS)
(MUSIC STOPS)
FEMALE NEWSCASTER: Recently elected
New Rome Mayor Cicero’s poll numbers continue to drop.
MALE NEWSCASTER: Cesar Catilina, of the blue-blood Crassus family, wins a Nobel Prize for invention of the Megalon, a miracle building material.
FUNDI: When does an empire die?
Does it collapse in one terrible moment?
No.
No, but there comes a time when its people no longer believe in it.
Then does an empire begin to die.
WOW: (ON TV) Our new mayor Franklyn Cicero has inherited a nasty fiscal situation, so now he is blamed for the firing of teachers, police…
(PHONE RINGING)
Design Authority office.
WOW: Put Cesar on the phone.
Hold, please.
WOW: (ON TV) …budget. Uh-oh.
In hot financial news today,
Crassus National is down seven points…
FUNDI: I’m sorry, Ms. Wow,
Mr. Cesar is unavailable just now.
WOW: (OVER PHONE) I know he’s there.
I’ll let him know. Goodbye.
WOW: (ON TV) Wow Platinum, your very own Money Bunny, giving you the score from the trading room floor.
FUNDI: Cesar gained to his side history’s richest man, his uncle, Crassus, who was here to support Cesar’s vision of New Rome, which was displeasing to Mayor Cicero,
Cesar’s bitter rival.
(REPORTERS CLAMORING)
Hello, gentlemen.
Welcome. Good to see you.
(ALL CHEERING)
MAYOR CICERO: Good to see you all.
Here we are, waiting above this model of the city, over the Design Authority’s newly demolished site, which everyone is now claiming as their own.
NEWSMAN: Hey, Mr. Crassus, over here!
Hey, Mr. Crassus! Over here.
Let me ask you a real question, okay?
CRASSUS: Turn the cameras off. Let’s have some fun.
Fuck the cards. What is it like being rich?
What’s it like?
Yeah.
Well, you can scare people.
You like to scare people?
Sleighboy, Strayboy, Playboy…
Gay boy?
(WOMEN EXCLAIMING)
CLODIO: (CHUCKLES) No, sir, that’s my sisters you’re thinking of.
Word has it, you’re doing a little hanky-panky with your sisters.
If it’s true, stop it.
Rumors, Grandpa, rumors. Rumor.
You could be the next male heir… Could be.
Clodio Crassus Pulcher the Third.
But you never know.
Running a bank is no joke!
…is no joke!
Claude, protect our family name!
Whoo!
(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)
(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING)
Hi.
MAYOR CICERO: Hello. Hello.
Welcome. Welcome. Welcome, thank you. Thank you.
The heartbeat of our golden city on a hill.
Envision what could be…
A fun casino, the latest in electronic gaming.
And no construction delays of any kind, or trouble from the unions or the waterfront, thanks to the Mayor.
CLODIO: It’s really neat, when you run concrete.
Aw, come on.
Come on! No?
Whoo!
(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)
(IMPERCEPTIBLE)
(CROWD CHEERING, WHISTLING)
(CHEERING QUIETENS DOWN)
(WHISPERS) Let’s go.
(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING)
(WOMAN LAUGHS)
(ALL LAUGHING, APPLAUDING)
“To be or not to be, that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them. To die, to sleep no more… and by a sleep to say we end the heartache, and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep… To sleep, perchance to dream, ay, there’s the rub: For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, when we have shuffled off this mortal coil, must give us pause.”
(CROWD MURMURING)
(ALL LAUGHING)
CESAR: “There’s the respect
“that makes calamity of so long life…”
MAYOR CICERO: Nush, what do you think we do here?
Wait it out.
(MAYOR CICERO LAUGHS)
“Who would bear the whips and scorns of time, th’oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, the pangs of dispriz’d love, the law’s delay.
“The insolence of office, and the spurns that patient merit of th’unworthy takes, when he himself might in his quietus make with a bare bodkin?”
Where’s my bodkin?
(ALL LAUGHING)
As Chairman of the Design Authority, my jurisdiction covers parks and fairs…
Please don’t take a picture of that.
(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING)
Thank you.
Come out with me.
I can’t. I’m sorry.
Why?
My jurisdiction covers parks and fairs, and we’ve already issued the necessary bonds to develop this site.
The Mayor’s show for the honchos has become a battle for their attention, especially with Cesar Catilina, whom I am acquainted, denying my requests for a comment.
I cleared this site to create something to inspire people.
MAYOR CICERO: People? Oh, wha…
When have you ever even cared about people, Catilina?
CESAR: Here is my plan: a city that people can dream about.
MAYOR CICERO: People don’t need dreams. They need teachers, sanitation, jobs.
The “need” is to create something that lives on after a City Fair, Mayor.
Which is why Megalopolis will be built entirely out of the Megalon, which is imperishable.
NUSH: The Megalon is unsafe!
Concrete, concrete, concrete, and steel, steel, steel is safe!
Imagine today’s society a branch of civilization about to reach a dead-end…
Humanity as an old tree with one misguided branch called “civilization…”
(PENCIL CLATTERS)
…going nowhere.
I like trees as much as the next guy,
but we’re not here to discuss trees.
People need help, and they need it now!
No. Don’t let the now destroy the forever.
We are talking about people.
People, Catilina,
and how they live now.
CESAR: No time to talk of people’s future?
Yet there’s always time to convince them
to use money they don’t have,
to buy things they don’t need,
to imitate people they don’t like.
Which makes you the chief slumlord
and the Mayor of the city of nothing.
You call me that again, and I will smash your face.
Easy, gentlemen.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
Were you so cool and collected
when you poisoned your wife and her body disappeared?
Is Megalon, your miracle method,
made from her body?
Is your poor Sunny Hope a plastic girder somewhere?
A wall panel?
What really happened?
Well, you were the prosecuting D.A.,
so you know I was acquitted.
And you’re still a slumlord.
I am not a slumlord!
You will not stand here
and call me a slumlord.
No, no, no.
MAYOR CICERO: No. No, no, I am not a slumlord!
Stop. I’m…
You will never call me that!
HART: Easy. Easy, Frank, calm down!
No! No!
Hold him.
I’m so sorry.
MAYOR CICERO: Is that what we’re playing?
Three-year-old games.
Thank you.
WOW: Hit it, Jerry!
(PIANO MUSIC PLAYING)
♪ I’m Wow Platinum, and that is the score ♪
♪ Come for me on the trading room floor ♪
Every weekday at 9:00 a.m.
Mwah!
FUNDI: The great ladies of Rome
obsessed over fashion while having intimate dealings
with the scum of the gladiatorial shows,
poisoners, and blackmailers.
I really want to take him down
for being so nasty to my father.
CLODIA: Oh! JULIA: Yeah, right?
(CROWD CHEERING, WHISTLING)
Okay, we’re gonna write him a poison-pen letter.
I’m very, very good at those.
Oh. Let’s kick his ass.
A devil?
Oh, yeah.
Give him a little mustache.
Mm. Mm.
He’s still kind of hot though.
CLODIO: Who?
It’s your cousin.
My cousin? Really?
CLODIA: You’re bad.
(CROWD CHEERING)
(LAUGHING)
You should wear that.
Mm-hmm.
(SNAPS FINGERS)
CLODIO: Fucking clown.
(GASPS)
I think I hate your brother.
I do too.
Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
Oh, my God. Oh, my fucking God.
Yeah, I will, I fucking will.
(DOOR CLOSES)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER OVER TV)
(WOW CHANTING SOFTLY)
(INHALES DEEPLY)
WOW: (ON TV) Yes, we do.
When you were 22,
your buildings created the future.
But now your nephew, this genius,
he says they are obsolete.
(CONTINUES CHANTING SOFTLY)
CRASSUS: …I still have some powder in my pistol,
I must say.
WOW: Is that right?
(WATCH BEEPING)
Have you no concept of time?
Oh, for God’s sake, turn yourself off.
CRASSUS: Like most geniuses, he can be…
WOW: You were in that car and you didn’t take my call.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER ON TV)
I waited till I had good news to share.
Fuck your stupid Megalopolis!
Wow, it’s the beginning of the discussions.
It means more to you than I do.
Conversation, it isn’t enough.
It’s the questions that lead it to the next step,
but initially you have to have a conversation.
WOW: Mm-hmm-hmm.
The city itself is immaterial, but they’re talking about it,
for the first time.
And it’s not just about us talking about it,
it’s the need to talk about it.
It’s as urgent to us as air, and water, and…
Is it getting messier in here?
Mess? What mess?
(WOW SCOFFS)
Come on,
you’re an obsessive-compulsive wacko, Cesar.
You’re anal as hell.
I, on the other hand,
am oral as hell.
(SIGHS)
What about your bad habits?
I’m trying to improve.
Well, I’m bored being your mistress.
I need to be half of a power couple.
Which half?
Whichever half you want to put your giant foot on.
My career is beginning to slump,
my ratings are down,
and now
I need more.
(GRUNTS SOFTLY)
(WOW BREATHING HEAVILY)
Cesar.
Cesar. Cesar.
I love you.
I love you with all my heart.
Really, I do.
(SOFT DESPONDENT MUSIC PLAYING)
(SIGHS) Never marry for love.
SUNNY: Cesar…
CRASSUS: (ON TV) Why would you say such a thing?
Are you trying to deflect from my amorous behavior?
No, I’m just trying to do a goddamn interview, come on.
Is there anything that you don’t have?
There certainly is, young lady.
There certainly is.
(SLOW DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
(TELEPHONE RINGING)
I’d like to see Dr. Catilina.
About what?
The future of the world.
Oh, that.
(OVER INTERCOM) Boss, some sixth grader is here…
And did she say I was tall?
She remembers you talked to her class
because it got them out of gym.
I know the one. Okay, go ahead and send her up.
What if what connects power also stores it?
Good idea.
Thank you.
I like that idea myself.
(CONTINUES INDISTINCTLY)
She’s on her way up, Chief. She ain’t what you expected.
My great expectations?
Oh, no.
(GRUNTS)
Holy Jesus Christ.
Aren’t you a bit big for a sixth grader?
(LAUGHS)
I sent a letter to you last night.
A, uh, childish letter,
and I want it back before you read it.
CESAR: Childish…
JULIA: No.
That one.
Uh-huh.
May I have it, please?
Unfortunately, I have already read it.
And yes, it was childish.
I had help, and we weren’t in our right minds.
But witty, I’d say, in a cruel and insulting way.
Well, I think the way you treat the mayor
is cruel and insulting.
Defending your father is admirable, Julia Cicero,
as delinquent as usual.
(JULIA SIGHS)
I’m turning over a new leaf, don’t mess with me.
CESAR: I’m not messing,
you’re the one who came in disguise.
I finished a year of medical school.
One year of medical school. Were you kicked out?
I was not. I dropped out.
I wonder why.
(JULIA SIGHS)
I guess you could say my love of science
bumped up against a brick wall of…
intellectual vigor
on the subject of jellyfish.
Mm.
Their mesoglea material
is a flexible skeleton, unique…
until encountering something higher, almost spiritual…
like the Megalon.
Look, a real Nobel Prize.
Expired?
Nobel Prizes don’t expire.
I meant your medication.
What I’m curious about is the Mayor’s take
on your absurd behavior.
You ask my father about people living as I do,
and he’s shocked.
What’s shocking about you?
I want to be the Statue of Liberty!
I see.
The gossip columns say that you…
You read gossip columns.
Whatever for?
To waste time.
You have so much of it you can waste it?
Sometime.
Hmm.
Oh, dear.
Lots of empty bottles.
(BOTTLES CLINKING)
You know, I was reading about you last night,
where you said,
“In order to understand time, consciousness, courage,
“you must identify it in yourself.”
(CUTLERY CLATTERS)
You really must have been a rude and spoiled child.
As you are now?
So, do you still have your med school microscope?
No, I sold it when I dropped out,
to buy drugs.
Psilocybin, of course.
And who supports your lifestyle now,
Daddy?
I hope I didn’t ruin your breakfast.
(LAUGHING) Come back.
What for?
Well, for laughs, of course.
What else did you come here for?
I was trying to be a go-between.
CESAR: Oh. You want to help me.
JULIA: Yeah. And, well, I…
Well, I want to learn.
And you think one year of medical school
entitles you to plow through the riches
of my Emersonian mind?
Entitles me?
Yes.
(SCOFFS)
Entitles me?
Yes.
Entitles me?
Yes.
You have no idea about me.
You think I’m nothing, just a socialite…
CESAR: No, not nothing,
but I reserve my time for people who can think.
About science and literature and architecture and art.
You find me cruel, selfish and unfeeling? I am.
I work without caring what happens to either of us.
So go back to the club, “bare it all,”
and stalk the kind of people that you enjoy.
Fine. I will!
CESAR: Come back when you have more time.
JULIA: Yes.
I saw you change the laws of physics.
Could it be the great Cesar Catilina
doesn’t obey anything, not even T-symmetry?
What did you see?
I was hoping you’d tell me.
(INTRIGUING MUSIC PLAYING)
Interesting.
Follow me.
(PILLS RATTLING)
FUNDI: It is the daughter
of his rival Cicero standing here,
the offspring of Cesar’s opposition. And yet…
I like her.
(CHILDREN CHATTERING)
This is it?
Walk into the future.
With your eyes closed.
And tell me what you see.
Um…
(CHUCKLES SOFTLY)
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING)
I see everyone, in their neighborhood.
Creating together, learning together…
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
perfecting body and mind…
And they’re celebrating.
Uh! They’re…
They created shelter.
(THUNDER RUMBLING)
Oh!
Because of the rain. (LAUGHS)
Just came right above me.
It’s a perfect school-city for its people,
able to grow along with them,
just like great cities have always done.
(BIRDS CHIRPING)
What about those standing in your way,
who like it the way it is?
Like your father?
(UPBEAT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING)
MAYOR CICERO: What, him?
You’re working for him?
(HESITATES) My daughter, a traitor?
Daddy, please!
You taught me to be true to myself.
(CROWD BOOING)
You can’t keep living in the Middle Ages.
That man is a megalomaniac!
He lures young beautiful girls like you
with his bullshit genius.
He destroys innocence, loveliness, and asks of them
what Pygmalion asked of marble!
Daddy, he’s not as evil as you think.
But there’s… there’s something.
Something almost magical.
(CROWD CHEERING)
Hey, ladies!
(SIREN CHIRPS)
Hi.
POLICEMAN: Hold up, sir.
What?
You’re going to stop the Mayor’s parade?
You gotta be fucking kidding me.
This man is the bane of my existence.
I want him out of my life.
Yes.
He actually made sure I was here on time.
He dropped you off?
(BLOWS WHISTLE)
(CROWD BOOING)
Smile. Smile. Smile.
Smile. Smile. Smile.
BANDMASTER: “…Soviet satellite
“falling out of orbit in space…”
“…and its nuclear fuel
“will scatter harmlessly over Labrador…”
CLAUDINE: Hi! CLAUDETTE: Hi.
BANDMASTER: “…an earth-orbiting…”
And you!
“…nuclear-powered Soviet satellite
“will plunge through earth’s dense…”
Hi.
HUEY: Hello.
What’s your name?
HUEY: How do you do?
Huey.
Huey.
Great to meet you.
Claudine. Claudette.
“…combust…
(GIRLS LAUGHING)
“…in the residual atmosphere,
“of the satellites nuclear fuel cells…”
CLODIO: Yeah, welcome to the magic carpet ride.
“…emergency management discerned.”
Which way did Huey go?
That way.
Well, let’s all go this way, then.
(SIREN WAILING)
(HORNS HONKING)
(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING)
(OBJECT CLATTERS)
SUNNY: Cesar…
(PENCIL CLANGS)
SUNNY: Cesar, my darling.
(THUNDER RUMBLING)
JULIA: May 12th.
Reviewing District Attorney Cicero’s files
regarding Catilina murder case.
(MYSTERIOUS MUSIC PLAYING)
Hmm.
FUNDI: Any place in particular, Chief?
Uptown, downtown, heaven, or hell?
Purgatory.
Copy that.
You like ruins…
You like going to Atlantic City? We got time.
Well, we’ve always got time,
even if I don’t understand it.
Time’s a funny thing to understand.
Passing the time,
finding time, losing time.
Time that flies.
(TUNES RADIO)
(SOFT MUSIC PLAYING OVER RADIO)
BALIN: I don’t get it. How is spying being ethical?
It’s not spying, it’s research.
His wife’s body completely vanished. How? Why?
To where?
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING)
CLODIO: Julia.
I love you, Julia.
FUNDI: You can’t cheat time and you can’t beat time.
You can’t touch it, taste it, see it, smell it.
Time stops for nobody. And I mean nobody.
(CLOCK CHIMES, TICKS)
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING)
CLODIO: Cesar.
(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING)
You piece of shit.
(ENGINE REVVING)
(TIRES SCREECHING)
Pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull around!
(SOFT DESPONDENT MUSIC PLAYING)
(DOGS HOWLING)
Hey, honey.
(INDISTINCT POLICE RADIO CHATTER)
(CLOCK TICKING)
(RUMBLING)
Surrounded by injustice…
so much suffering.
(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)
(MOANING)
(SOFT DESPONDENT MUSIC CONTINUES)
(THUDDING)
JULIA: Stop, stop.
This doesn’t make sense.
(THUNDER RUMBLING)
Cesar buys flowers.
But for who?
Okay, stop, stop.
My heart breaks for you, Chief.
GUARD: Evening, Mr. Catilina.
All right, wait for me, okay?
(CAR DOOR CLOSES)
(HARP MUSIC PLAYING)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING)
(GASPS SOFTLY)
(GASPS)
He still loves her.
He still loves…
(THUNDER RUMBLING)
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
We should go.
FUNDI: Such are the mysteries of the human heart,
making it difficult for this historian…
to understand.
(EERIE MUSIC PLAYING)
(CREAKING)
(GATE CLOSING)
JULIA: What goes there? CESAR: A small stadium.
With a roof like gold tissue.
Tell me, of all the institutions
your utopia will preserve,
which is the most important to you?
Marriage.
(WIND BLOWING)
FUNDI: The wind blows across the Aegean,
bringing what the ancients learned from their ancients,
the poetry of Sappho.
“Some say cavalry
“and others claim infantry and a fleet of long oars
“is the supreme sight on the black earth.
“I say…
“it is the one you love.”
(SERENE MUSIC PLAYING)
CRASSUS: They’re so happy to see you.
(LAUGHING)
(INDISTINCT CONVERSATION)
FUNDI: Where stands the Colosseum,
so stands Rome.
When the Colosseum falls, then Rome falls too.
And when Rome falls, the world falls with it.
CRASSUS: Yes.
My wedding gift to you.
(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING)
CRASSUS: Wow!
(WOW GRUNTS)
CRASSUS: Oh, this is it, huh?
God damn it, Jerry! (GRUNTS)
“Greed is but a word…
“jealous men inflict upon the ambitious.”
CRASSUS: Now you have everything you always wanted.
Wow!
ANNOUNCER: Here, folks, are the richest grandkids,
the notorious Claudettes:
Clodia, Claudine, and Claudette,
along with their tagalong brother,
Claude Crassus Pulcher.
Banker Hamilton Crassus’s snotty trust fund grandkids
show up everywhere in the city.
The richest kids in the world.
And rumor has it, they’re sleeping with each other too.
JULIA: Thank you, Jake.
PHOTOGRAPHER 1: Cesar! PHOTOGRAPHER 2: Cesar!
Cesar!
Cesar, right here!
Okay.
PHOTOGRAPHER 3: Julia!
CESAR: Hold on, hold this.
There’s more here.
CLODIO: You see this? REPORTER 1: Cesar!
We understand Megalon is not safe,
do you have any comment on that?
No, it is not safe, it is incredibly dangerous.
REPORTER 2: What’s your plan for Megalopolis?
We all should run! No, it’s very safe.
Best question anyone’s ever asked.
What kind of pizza places?
Just a couple questions. Just a quick statement.
REPORTER 3: How do you feel about
your father bankrupting the city, Julia?
I am not here representing the Mayor.
REPORTER 4: Cesar, do you plan
on staying out all night partying?
Always. Always.
Thank you for your question.
REPORTER 5: Julia,
do you still prefer girls?
Questions?
REPORTER 5: Do you want to dispel any rumors
right now about your lifestyle?
Who doesn’t prefer girls?
Who doesn’t prefer girls? Everyone prefers girls.
Thank you for your questions, have a great night.
Okay, we just head this way.
There’s one more here, you need to talk about the dress.
REPORTER 6: Tell us more about Megalon.
Hired help.
(CROWD CHEERING)
REPORTER 6: Vesta, over here!
Hi!
I can never get used to this. Hi!
Vesta!
Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen,
ladies and gentlemen, Vesta Sweetwater.
INTERVIEWER: Is it true, Vesta,
is your dress made of Megalon?
Yes, the first one ever.
Designed by Cesar Catilina just for little ol’ me!
PHOTOGRAPHER: Vesta, over here!
REPORTER: Vesta!
Looking absolutely gorgeous tonight!
(CROWD GASPING)
Millions of tiny cell cameras transmit
what they see through to the other side.
I’m invisible! (LAUGHS)
(ALL LAUGHING)
(APPLAUDING)
(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)
(CAMERAS FLASHING)
(DINGS)
(CROWD BOOING)
Hello, would you like to buy
a military college cadet uniform?
Patches, golden buttons, everything…
What a disgrace.
He used to be an Academy cadet,
now he’s selling the fucking thing.
(BOOING CONTINUES)
Ladies and gentlemen, and children of all ages.
Welcome to this wonderful gathering
in celebration of the marriage
of our brother Crassus and his Wow of a bride.
Crassus Bank is saving our city from debt.
CLODIO: Did you get a prenuptial agreement?
Oh, it’s you.
(LAUGHING)
What are you up to with this…
Fraternity prank.
Oh.
Did you get a prenup?
Well, I may be old but I’m not stupid, you know.
CLODIO: Well, then why are you marrying her?
She’s my gift to myself.
She cures my headaches, and she keeps me young.
I might even live forever.
Huh!
Excuse me.
Whoop-de-do for the heir!
There he is!
Hello, genius cousin.
My congratulations, Uncle,
you’ve chosen well.
CLODIO: Well, you would know.
I’d like to propose a toast.
CRASSUS: Oh.
To Wow Platinum and my dear Uncle Hamilton.
Together they represent the big three:
economics, journalism…
CRASSUS: Oh.
…and sex appeal.
(WOW LAUGHS)
That’s a good one, I like it.
To the future of our family.
To the future of our family!
CRASSUS:…future of our family. Future…
They say the only thing bigger
than Hamilton Crassus’s bank account
is his prick.
(CRASSUS MOANING)
(WOW SIGHS)
Good evening, Mother.
WOW: Don’t drink too much.
I think maybe alligators have the right idea.
What’s that?
They eat their young.
CRASSUS: It’s what I’m gonna do.
WOW: Crassie.
CRASSUS: This is my wedding.
WOW: It’s your wedding.
That’s why…
CRASSUS: My wedding…
It’s your wedding too.
WOW: It’s our…
How did you get the name Wow Platinum?
Is it Greek?
I picked it up at Penn Station
on my way to an employment agency.
Holy… See, that’s a lie.
CLAUDINE: Wow!
CRASSUS: She told me it was from a Cracker Jack box.
Jesus, you can’t trust what she says.
RINGMASTER: And let’s give a round of applause
for our reigning champion,
Gaius Metalus!
(FANFARE PLAYING)
(WHIP CRACKS)
Hyah! Hyah!
(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)
These are his.
Oh!
Byfavo remimazolam. Yummy!
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING)
Reporting for duty.
Listen, you’re an aide-de-camp, not a minder.
But once I cut loose,
don’t worry, you’re off the clock.
You’re absolved. Have a punch.
Why do you pretend you’re so bad?
(CROWD CHEERING)
Well, if you pretend to be good,
the world won’t take you seriously.
But if you pretend to be bad…
(SNIFFS)
…they kill you.
(BELL RINGING)
(BOTH GRUNTING)
Are the wrestlers coming?
(GRUNTS)
Oh, there’s Gargantua! Gargantua’s here!
Hi, I’m Leah Arpelles, from my school’s newspaper,
it’s called the Dingbat News.
(SCREAMS)
Is it better to look good, or is it better to smell good?
I think both.
Amazonia!
Big-time hunks!
LEAH: Is Cesar Catilina sexy?
That… is a big question.
I’m so jealous.
CLODIO: We call them C-notes,
I’ve got my cell phone number on them.
Okay, don’t grab.
When did you smoke your first joint?
Never.
(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)
LEAH: Your father hates Cesar. Why work for him?
Is he your boss,
or is he your boyfriend?
(ALL APPLAUDING)
Uh… (SIGHS)
CESAR: Thank you very much, Your Majesty,
Your Highness, King.
Here we are in Sweden.
Thank you very much for having me.
From what I understand, there’s a buffet after this.
So, the faster I can say my speech,
the faster we can all eat.
What I like are those little hot dogs
wrapped in the pastry.
I think they’re…
I can’t remember the name of them right now…
Pigs in a blanket, that’s what they’re called.
Really, the Nobel Prize should be
for the person who invented those.
CROWD: (CHANTING) Cesar! Cesar! Cesar!
CESAR: Make no mistake,
this discovery will change the world.
Nice jacket, Cesar.
Is that Baratha from Savile Row?
May I touch it?
10:17 p.m. Drunk and stoned,
Cesar doesn’t know who he is for a few hours.
A moment of grace, perhaps?
Are they together?
No.
MAYOR CICERO: And with that womanizer?
TERESA: “Womanizer,” that’s an awful word.
(SCOFFS) As if the woman had nothing to do with it.
(CROWD GASPING)
Look at that.
CESAR: When you leap into the unknown,
you prove that you are free.
When we leap into the unknown, we prove we are free.
(GLASSES CLINKING)
…we prove that we are free.
When we leap into the unknown,
we prove that we are free.
(BOTTLE CLINKING)
WOMAN: Follow me, I’ll show you.
(ALL CHEERING)
(WOW LAUGHING)
CESAR: But if it’s our mind that can invent gods,
and if from them flows such power,
why can’t we apply that power directly?
(SLOW INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING)
(GRUNTING)
(GRUNTING)
RINGMASTER: From this moment forward,
we perform without a net.
WOMAN: Oh, my God!
Look at that!
But if it’s our mind that can invent gods…
…that can invent gods…
ALL: His pleasantness, his beautiful skin,
middle-aged women scream for him
as girls scream for rock stars.
But if it’s our mind that can invent gods,
and if from them flows
such power…
SUNNY: Cesar…
CESAR: …prove that we are free.
(SCREAMS)
(CROWD GASPING)
(ALL CHEERING)
You fooled me!
When we leap into the unknown, we prove we are free.
When we leap into the unknown, we prove we are free.
(FANFARE MUSIC PLAYING)
When we leap into the unknown, we prove we are free.
But if it’s our mind that can invent gods,
and if from them flows such power,
why can’t we apply that power directly?
But if it’s our mind that can invent gods,
and if from them flows such power,
why can’t we apply that power directly?
But if it’s our mind that can invent gods,
and if from them flows such power,
why can’t we apply that power directly?
SUNNY: Cesar.
CESAR: But if it’s our mind that can invent gods,
and if from them flows such power…
(MUSIC CONTINUES)
(GLASS SHATTERING)
(ALL CHEERING)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
ENGINEER: Mr. Crassus?
CLODIO: Who’s in charge?
ENGINEER: Right here, Mr. Crassus.
Well, hello,
Mr. Boss Man.
Play this for my grand finale.
Listen, do what he says.
The bank is his.
Absolutely free.
So everyone can see!
HUEY: For your time, putz.
WOMAN: Widen out, camera 3. Camera 4, punch in.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING)
CLODIO: We did it!
(BOTH LAUGH)
CLODIO: Whoo!
(MAN 1 LAUGHING)
(MAN 2 WHISTLES)
Hey, get outta here, bozo!
(CLODIO BREATHING HEAVILY)
(LAUGHS)
Enjoy the show. (SMACKS LIPS LOUDLY)
(BOTH LAUGHING)
(CROWD CHEERING)
FUNDI: The vestal virgins assured the success
and sanctity of ancient Rome.
Dedicated to Vesta, goddess of the hearth,
whom Ovid calls “custos flammai,”
or “keeper of the flame.”
Ladies and gentlemen, a vision of virginal
veracity…
She took the “Pure Love Pledge.”
(JULIA CHUCKLES)
I present to you our own virgin sweetheart,
Vesta Sweetwater!
(CHAMPAGNE CORK POPS)
(CROWD CHEERING)
CLODIO: Okay, girls, come here.
Grab that and go in front. You go in the front.
(PLAYING UKULELE)
♪ I always thought that it wasn’t true ♪
♪ That in the darkness, the light came through ♪
♪ And then I found it, the missing key ♪
♪ Right there inside me, God’s purity ♪
♪ I’m reachin’ out See through the clouds ♪
♪ Stand with me now, and lose all doubt ♪
♪ I’m reachin’ out ♪
♪ ‘Cause I’m here now ♪
♪ See through the clouds ♪
♪ You have my vow ♪
♪ Stand with me now ♪
♪ Serenity is fine with me ♪
CLODIA: Foreplay…
BOTH: ♪ I’ll stand under the sun ♪
♪ Hear my song and hear my prayer ♪
♪ I’ll pledge my purity ♪
♪ It’s my promise, it’s my swear… ♪
RINGMASTER: I want each of you
to look into your heart and give generously
to support her virgin pledge.
JULIA: Uh-uh.
Which of you will pledge a hundred thousand?
MAN: One hundred thousand.
RINGMASTER: Two hundred thousand?
♪ ‘Cause I’m here now ♪
♪ You have my vow… ♪
RINGMASTER: Five hundred thousand!
♪ I know you, I feel you, I see you, I hear you… ♪
RINGMASTER: Remember,
her pledge to marry as a virgin,
that is money to the city!
And your pledge, joined with hers,
is helping our city 10, 12, 20 fold!
♪ Been down the roads You’ve been down ♪
♪ ‘Cause I am you I know… ♪
RINGMASTER: $1 million!
Just reach into your pockets and give!
We can make the difference!
CRASSUS: That’s it, that’s it, you see that?
There’s some big money up here!
RINGMASTER: We can make the numbers board
go up, up, up!
(CROWD CHEERING)
$10 million!
(WOMEN GIGGLING)
RINGMASTER: We are going to do it! We can do it!
Do I hear $100 million?
$100 million!
Thank you, Nush Berman,
for your generous pledge!
♪ Under the sun, hear my song And hear my prayer ♪
♪ I’ll pledge my purity ♪
♪ It’s my promise, it’s my swear ♪
(ALL CHEERING)
(AIR HORN BLOWS)
You can see right through me!
DIRECTOR: That’s good, stay with that.
Stay with that, camera 3.
(ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYING)
(CROWD MURMURS, EXCLAIMS)
MAN: It’s Cesar!
(GIRLS SCREAMING)
(CAMERAS FLASHING)
CROWD: Liar, liar!
(CROWD BOOING)
(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)
CESAR: Rather than just design the form
or shape of an object,
you can actually design at the cellular level.
…you can actually design at the cellular level.
…you can actually design at the cellular level.
MAYOR CICERO: Ladies and gentlemen, stay calm!
Ladies and gentlemen…
Wait, ladies and…
Ladies and gentlemen!
Hey! Can you bring me down? Bring me down!
Ladies and gentlemen! Wait, ladies and gent…
Testing, testing. One, two, three.
Testing, testing.
(CROWD CLAMORING)
In heaven’s name,
Catilina,
how long will you try our patience?
How long will this madness of yours mock us?
(GRUNTING)
MAN: Hey, buddy,
don’t look at your nose in the mirror
’cause it’s not where it used to be.
(BOTH LAUGH)
MAYOR CICERO: To what depths of devastation
will your unbridled audacity hurl this city?
(GRUNTS)
(MAN LAUGHING)
(GROANS)
MAYOR CICERO: Your sordid life is marked
with every sort of scandalous blot,
every dishonor
and wicked stain
our human imagination can conceive.
Oh, what times!
Within this city…
(CROWD CLAMORING)
…there is nothing that can give you satisfaction anymore.
Apart from your own degraded band of hangers-on,
does not the alarm of the people
have any effect upon you?
(SNIFFS)
No man exists
who does not hold you in detestation.
I hold you in detestation,
whatever the hell that man means.
MAYOR CICERO: Resign in disgrace, Catilina.
It is your only choice, step down now!
(ALL CHEERING)
Huey, anyone can own this city.
There’s a big sign nailed to it,
“City for Sale.”
(SENZA MAMMA BY SUOR ANGELICA PLAYING)
(CESAR SINGING ALONG)
(SENZA MAMMA CONTINUES PLAYING)
FUNDI: Catilina stumbles into the night,
broken and dazed,
but there is no softness in his degeneration.
This breakout was long overdue, Miss Julia.
(SIREN WAILING)
Oh, Lord.
Wait, what’s happening?
(SIREN CHIRPS)
OFFICER 1: Hands where I can see them!
FUNDI: Hands where you can see them.
OFFICER 1: Cesar Catilina, open the door.
FUNDI: He’s asleep.
OFFICER 2: Hey, Cesar.
I don’t care if he’s asleep, get him up!
JULIA: He’s sleeping!
OFFICER 2: Get him up right now.
He’s sleeping! Excuse…
Hey! Hey!
Hey, no!
OFFICER 2: Let go!
JULIA: This is not…
OFFICER 1: Stop resisting! JULIA: Stop it!
Commissioner.
Fundi,
take it easy. Take it easy.
FUNDI: What’s going on?
Mr. Catilina is under arrest.
What are the charges?
Unlawful intercourse with a minor,
statutory rape, and more coming.
What are you talking about?
JULIA: No. No.
No. It was a setup, okay?
Get your hands off him!
OFFICER 1: Give me your hand!
JULIA: Fuck You! FUNDI: Julia. Julia,
please get back in the car.
JULIA: No, he’s not… No. HART: Julia.
JULIA: Okay, no.
This is not right.
HART: Please, Julia.
Wait! It’s not…
HART: Julia!
JULIA: Fuck you!
(GRUNTS)
JULIA: This is not right!
HART: Julia, don’t make it any worse.
This is wrong. No!
Would you just get back in the car, please?
You’re wrong.
(SIREN CHIRPING)
HART: Until he can understand his rights,
we’ll call it “protective custody.”
Come on, Miss Julia, let’s get you home.
(SIGHS)
(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING)
(WHIMPERING)
Revenge tastes best while wearing a dress.
(LAUGHING MANIACALLY)
(FLY BUZZES)
Time,
stop.
JULIA: Vesta, not a single thing on her.
CLODIA: Yeah.
JULIA: I don’t trust her.
CLODIA: Wait, what’s this over here?
Got it?
JULIA: Yeah…
Oh.
Oh!
CLODIA: Here it is. Oh.
Bingo. Vesta.
Oh, my God. (EXHALES)
Got it.
She wasn’t even born here.
(SIGHING)
She was born in Indonesia.
JULIA: Huh?
She came here when she was six.
Lying little slut.
JULIA: Good job. Nailed it.
(WHISPERING) Okay, let’s go. Quick, quick, quick.
(BOTH LAUGHING)
(IMPERCEPTIBLE)
(TELEPHONE RINGING DISTANTLY)
(SIGHS)
MAYOR CICERO: You can sit down.
Mm.
(SPEAKING LATIN)
(BREATHES DEEPLY)
(JULIA CHUCKLES SOFTLY)
(IN ENGLISH) Exactly who else knows about this?
Come on, Daddy. She’s 23 years old.
Clodio faked that video.
Catilina is the guiltiest man unhanged.
But that’s Vesta’s birth certificate.
It exonerates him.
Legally, yes.
But not morally.
I can get another one.
Don’t.
Julia.
I’m going to Hamilton Crassus.
Julia?
(FOOTSTEPS RECEDING)
All the money in Rome
couldn’t get me to change my mind.
(DOORBELL CHIMING)
(JULIA CHUCKLES SOFTLY)
Julia.
Hi.
Come in, come in, come in.
JULIA: I had hoped to speak with Mr. Crassus.
(RATTLING, DINGS)
Oh! I love that sound.
(ALARM BEEPS)
Listen, bitch.
You and I ought to have an understanding.
You’re on my territory now,
and you’re going to play by my rules!
Okay?
One, Crassus is mine.
(JULIA SCOFFS SOFTLY)
Two, the bank is mine.
(CHUCKLES)
And three, and this may come as a little surprise to you…
Right.
…Cesar’s mine.
And he has been, for a long time.
(KNOCKS)
CRASSUS: Romans ruled the world,
but their wives ruled at home.
I’ll be Robin Hood for Saturnalia.
Tra la la! Beautiful.
It’s all great, and the shoes?
I can’t trust you.
Why not?
You’ve been attacking your cousin
since you were six years old,
and I only hope you had nothing to do with that shit.
Of course not. How…
How could you say that?
So what happens now?
Am I off the list?
What list?
Your list of heirs.
You’re going to have to prove yourself to me, son.
And cut your hair!
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING)
Teen singing sensation Vesta Sweetwater,
who had marketed herself
as being a 16-year-old,
and the city’s “Virgin Sweetheart,”
is actually 23 years old,
the New Rome district attorney announced today.
Forensic examination of the photos of sexual acts
revealed that they were doctored and not authentic.
(INDISTINCT CONVERSATION)
(IMPERCEPTIBLE)
♪ There goes the dream that you had for me ♪
♪ I guess I’m burning it down ♪
♪ It’s all fucked ♪
♪ And there’s no turning around ♪
(MUSIC STOPS)
(CLOCK TICKING)
Hello!
How do you feel today?
What great new ideas do you have?
I bet there’s at least 50 of them!
Four: Addiction, Disgrace, Scandal,
and Murder.
The charges against you were dropped!
CESAR: I’ve lost my power.
I can’t control time anymore.
Artists can never lose their control of time.
You taught me that,
how painters stop time,
how architecture is frozen music,
how dancers combine time and space,
musicians rhythmatize it, poets sing it.
I didn’t murder my wife…
but my moods…
my mania…
they drove her to, uh…
I’m sure she was proud to be your wife.
(INHALES SHARPLY)
CESAR: Now, time,
stop!
Do it for me.
Try.
Stop time, for me.
Try it.
(CLOCK TICKING FASTER)
Oh, hear me, time.
For Julia…
Just try.
Hear me, time, stop now.
(SERENE MUSIC PLAYING)
We seem to have done it.
(MUSIC BUILDS)
(MUSIC FADES)
(BREATH TREMBLING)
Dream?
The omens are bad, my love.
I was looking at the full moon,
when a cloud that looked like a hand grabbed it.
Only those in a nightmare
are capable of praising the moonlight.
(LIVELY PIANO MUSIC PLAYING)
DR. LYRA: Poor Chippy broke his leg in the door.
First Megalon splint, by Julia!
WOMAN: Chippy! Aw, what happened?
DR. LYRA: Her leg tissue will be fused with the Megalon
in just a few weeks.
(ALL CLAPPING)
CESAR: Make an interesting shape,
but try not to break the structure.
Within five minutes,
we should be able to get to a hospital, to a theater.
All within five minutes.
This is what I’m talking about,
we need to be interconnected.
(INDISTINCT CONVERSATION)
Let’s take things from nature.
These are legs, faces, heads…
The fastest way is through a straight line to a point.
(INDISTINCT CONVERSATION)
CESAR: Okay, next.
Look at that model again
and explain it to me one more time.
What’s this?
Look just below the top. That’s gotta go.
Try to maintain the shape.
(LIVELY PIANO MUSIC CONTINUES)
CONSTANCE: I remember,
they rushed me to the hospital
because I had a terrible stomachache.
Instead… what I had was you.
A genius son.
Mom, this is… this is Julia.
CONSTANCE: Oh. (SIGHS)
I wish I could have had a girl.
We could have gone shopping, we could have had lunch…
Mom, Julia’s a girl.
Instead, you were my great surprise…
And you go on and on and on and on surprising everyone.
Ah. Ah.
I don’t…
Despite what you think, I’m not crazy.
My voices say I’m sane.
(CHUCKLING)
Ah, well.
(SIGHS) Without that girl’s love,
you’re going to be a has-been and a fake,
like your father.
Do you know that there is string theory?
Do you know what that means?
That there are 11, 11 dimensions.
It hasn’t been proven yet, but that’s what they think.
It’s all just strings, you know…
(HUMMING)
…that interesting?
(CESAR HUMMING)
You know, when you got that Nobel Prize,
why didn’t you mention my name?
You could have gotten up,
and you could have said, “To my mother.”
I was very sick.
You could have said…
I forgot.
I’m sorry.
I don’t think so.
They don’t know I’m your mother.
When you’re with her…
you’re finally able to forget me.
No, no.
No?
No.
(EXCLAIMS)
That hurt.
He hurt me.
You hurt me.
I was kissing you, Mother.
(WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES BY DINAH WASHINGTON PLAYING)
♪ What a diff’rence a day made ♪
(JULIA CHUCKLES SOFTLY)
♪ Twenty-four little hours ♪
♪ Brought the sun and the flowers ♪
(CLEARS THROAT)
♪ Where there used to be rain ♪
Ow!
(LAUGHING)
That’s it. Faster.
No, you were doing it.
You were doing it.
I’m just doing a solo.
(GRUNTS)
(SQUEALS)
(CESAR GRUNTING)
You’ve taken my life and turned it
into something really beautiful,
and I can’t create anything without you next to me.
No, I mean it.
You’re the driving force behind everything.
My inspiration comes from you, my clarity comes from you,
my patience comes from you.
If I can imitate just 10% of how you are in the world,
it would be a success.
I’ve never loved anybody like you.
Love you. I love you. I love you.
(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)
MAN 1: Go to hell, Cesar!
(CROWD CLAMORING)
CLODIO: Excuse me.
What is this about?
Catilina leveled their fucking neighborhood
for his stupid Megalopolis.
He’s an unelected monster!
He tore down our house, ripped off the roof,
now we got no food, we got nothing!
Fucking disgusting.
Give them some money.
Here. Here, take it.
Hey, you guys okay?
Just look at them… I’m not sure…
See, this…
this is power, this is where you find it.
You want power, you go public,
that’s where the real power is.
Then you’d be giving the city to a bunch of mongrels.
I mean, look at them, look at them.
Not mongrels, immigrants.
They’re citizens these people,
they believe in voting, you understand?
They hate Cesar, okay?
This is my chance to tear down this bullshit Megalopolis.
I’m a citizen, you’re a citizen.
These people are just human garbage.
Okay, okay, give me my money,
and get me to the front of them,
that’s what you’re doing. Yes?
Make way for Clodio!
All hail, Clodio! Hail, Clodio! Make way!
CLODIO: Power to the people.
Yeah?
Get that for me. Buy that.
HUEY: Hey, here, give him the mic.
I’ll give it back to you.
Power to the people.
I care.
Hand this out. Hand this out.
I care. I see you.
MAN 1: Fuck Catilina.
Where the hell is Cesar?
CLODIO: I see you.
MAN 2: Power to the people!
CLODIO: Power to the people! CROWD: Power to the people!
CLODIO: I care.
CROWD: Power to the people! I care about you
and I’m here and I see you!
Hands off our homes!
CROWD: Hands off our homes!
CLODIO: Hands off our homes! CROWD: Hands off our homes!
(THUNDER RUMBLING)
ZANDERZ: Sorry. MAYOR CICERO: What is it?
Mr. Nush Berman is here,
he’d like a minute of your time.
(SIGHS) I’ll… I…
Not in the residence.
I’ll see him in the banquet hall.
Excuse me just one moment, I’ll return soon.
Come back soon, Frankie.
So we’re going to go slow,
quick quick slow, quick quick slow…
(PLAYING DRUMS)
Slow, quick quick slow…
I’m aware that this kid Clodio
is a close friend of your, uh, your daughter Julia?
He’s no friend of Julia’s, he’s an acquaintance,
and a bad influence.
(THUNDERCLAP)
He faked that video of Catilina somehow.
He’s picking up a large popular constituency.
He’s some kind of genius, he can talk everything.
You handle this, Nush.
Okay. I’ll fix it.
Just wanted to check with you first
because, you know, uh…
Julia?
(THUNDERCLAP)
I don’t mind the lightning,
but the thunder scares the shit out of me.
(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING)
And…
ZANDERZ: Your Honor,
you’re never going to believe this.
What?
You know that satellite that’s coming down over Labrador?
Yes?
Well,
it’s not coming down over Labrador.
How… How do they know?
Well, that’s just it, sir, they don’t know,
not exactly.
Well, when will we know, when it hits?
Yes, Your Honor.
That’s too late.
I’m aware of that.
What do we do?
(SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYING)
(SIRENS WAILING)
(MUSIC FADES)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(MICROPHONE FEEDBACK)
MALE REPORTER: Mr. Catilina, you’ve said that,
as we jump into the future,
we should do so unafraid.
(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING)
But what if when we do jump into the future,
there is something to be afraid of?
(WOMAN SHUSHES)
Well, there’s nothing to be afraid of if you love.
Or have loved.
It’s an unstoppable force. It’s unbreakable.
It has no limits,
it’s within us, it’s around us,
and it’s stretched throughout time.
It’s nothing you can touch,
yet it guides every decision that we make.
But we do have the obligation to each other
to ask questions of one another.
What can we do?
Is this society, is this way we’re living,
the only one that’s available to us?
And when we ask these questions,
when there’s a dialogue about them,
that basically is a utopia.
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING)
Ralph Waldo Emerson said,
“The end of the human race will be
“that it will eventually die of civilization.”
But trend is not destiny.
Time,
show me the future.
Together, we’ll discover new paths,
which lead to the unknown world ahead of us.
(SURREAL MUSIC PLAYING)
(IMPERCEPTIBLE)
(SLOW TICKING OF A CLOCK)
(SHATTERING)
(SURREAL MUSIC CONTINUES)
(TICKING FASTER)
(TAPE WHIRRING)
CESAR: You found me. SUNNY: I have good news.
CESAR: What’s that, what’s your good news?
SUNNY: Those cigarettes, Cesar…
Why is there lipstick on the cigarettes? (ECHOING)
CESAR: Are you really asking me
why there’s lipstick…
Who’s been in our home again?
…I was at home and not on a jury stand…
SUNNY: Why do you do this?
…where the judge is asking…
SUNNY: Why do you do this? CESAR: Why do I do what?
SUNNY: You use that great brain of yours.
And you manipulate. And you blame.
CESAR: Why do I use my great brain
to find a bunch of logical things…
SUNNY: And you try to make me feel like I’m the crazy one.
…as opposed to hypothetical situations?
SUNNY: But I’m not the crazy one here.
CESAR: I’m not trying to tell you you’re crazy,
but you’re trying…
SUNNY: You are, you are.
CESAR: How are you not trying to tell me that I’m crazy?
SUNNY: You make me feel that I’m imagining.
It’s not my imagination!
CESAR: It’s so convenient…
I’m so prepared, all I do…
SUNNY: Save your dreaded heart, our family together.
MAYOR CICERO: How long will this madness of yours mock us?
(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING)
(GASPS)
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
A man of the future so possessed by the past…
Which is important now, more than ever before.
Why now?
(JULIA SIGHS)
(KISSES)
Can’t you even guess?
No.
Can’t you see it in my eyes?
The result of all our drunken messing around?
A baby?
(GASPS)
Yeah.
A baby?
A baby.
(LAUGHS)
Let’s get married.
Married? What is that? We can’t get married.
Why not? Of course we can. A baby!
No, Cesar, you’re in a moral pickle
of your own conscience.
You’re already married.
Why didn’t you and Sunny have children?
We were trying.
Sorry.
Anywhere in Megalopolis,
you’ll be able to ride one of these to a park
in less than five minutes.
Would you like to try?
TERESA: I would love to try.
Would you… Thank you.
CESAR: All this is just an exhibit, of course.
Frankie, come on.
Stick in the mud.
I mean, he comes up with magic
whenever he needs to sell something to the people.
(TERESA VOCALIZING)
Frankie, come on, I’m floating.
(LAUGHS)
Don’t get it.
You will.
Plus, every adult,
every single adult will have a private beautiful garden.
And I’ll put this in, uh, the kitchen.
Welcome to our home.
MAYOR CICERO: Oh.
Cards, what fun.
What should it be, poker?
JULIA: Uh, nickel-dime. I’ve put beans on the table.
Utopias offer no ready-made solutions.
Well, they’re not meant to offer solutions,
they’re meant to ask the right questions.
Yes, but… utopias turn into dystopias.
CESAR: So, we should just accept this
endless conflict that we live in now?
Wasn’t it human friendliness
that stimulated our brains by “learning,”
and enabled us to out-compete
all the other species on earth?
Oh, dear. Blah blah blah.
It’s a nice picture, but how do we know?
Well, there’s no other way.
How else could such a slow-maturing species
make it through the Ice Age?
TERESA: Now, boys…
How could such few,
weak, bipedal apes
evolve more costly brains,
smarter brains than other apes,
and do it without reproducing so slowly they’d go extinct?
(CARDS SHUFFLING)
We were fierce, aggressive, war-like
as our closest ancestors, chimpanzees.
Yes, yes, but there were so few of us,
and scattered across a vast continent,
so… no.
In or out,
are we playing cards or reinventing history?
Where were we? This is an enormous pot.
TERESA: Cesar is winning.
“Civilization itself remains the great enemy of mankind.”
Rousseau.
You’re quoting Petrarch,
to be accurate, misquoting him.
(JULIA SIGHS)
Julia can quote anyone.
JULIA: I…
Humor me, please.
JULIA: Daddy.
You remember. Mm-hmm.
I do, I remember.
(EXHALES)
Poise… Mm-hmm.
“It is the responsibility of leadership
“to work intelligently with what is given,
“and not waste time fantasizing about a world
“of flawless people and perfect choices.”
Marcus Aurelius.
MAYOR CICERO: Hear, hear.
Excellent.
Don’t say your philosophy, Daddy,
embody it.
“The object of life is not to be
“on the side of the majority,
“but to escape finding yourself
“in the ranks of the insane.”
Marcus Aurelius.
Ah. (SCOFFS)
(MAYOR CICERO SIGHS)
“The universe is change,
“our life is what our thoughts make it.”
Marcus Aurelius.
TERESA: (CHUCKLES) Oh, Julia,
there is no one like you,
having such beautiful things in your home.
And I understand it can expand as needed?
JULIA: Well, yes.
Now that we’re going to have a baby.
What?
Oh, darling!
If it’s a girl, she’ll be given the name “Sunny Hope.”
And if it’s a boy,
he’ll be named Francis.
TERESA: Oh, Julia.
JULIA: Daddy. Daddy, please.
Daddy, look at me.
In my eyes. It’s me.
Could I love someone evil?
TERESA: Frankie…
Amor?
(SOFT DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS)
JULIA: Daddy?
Daddy.
We fight for what we love.
But we don’t always win.
Julia.
Cesar, I…
I just…
I’m breaking his heart.
So what do you want to do, do you want to leave?
No.
(SOFT DRAMATIC MUSIC CONTINUES)
FUNDI: It was a time of excess and greed.
No one was satisfied with the senate
and practically everyone contemplated
the idea of change with pleasure.
(CROWD CHEERING)
CLODIO: Hi, Channel 4! What do you say?
Hi, Crosstalk.
Hi, TV, New Rome.
(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING)
Hi, all news.
He has no boundaries. And that’s how you get into…
that makes a political leader.
A little crazy, no boundaries,
and he’s an entertainer.
CLODIO: Say, “Hi, all news.”
That old fool Nush tried to muscle you out of politics.
(RUMBLING)
(SCREAMS)
Yeah, well, he dropped dead, and I won.
Don’t you see what we built?
This is the dream, the unwanted,
the unneeded, the uneducated,
we’re all together now. Power to the people.
Power to the people!
CROWD: Power to the people!
Pulcher for the culture!
CROWD: Pulcher for the culture!
Cesar’s not a pleaser!
CROWD: Cesar’s not a pleaser!
Pulcher for Alderman, it’s only me, no one else!
You can’t name anyone else!
It’s just…
MAN: Cesar Catilina!
Who said that?
MAN: Cesar Catilina!
You shut the fuck up!
(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING)
Will no one rid me of this fucking cousin?
Will no one rid me of this fucking cousin?
Stop. Go film them.
Fuck Cesar!
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING)
(DOOR OPENS)
Catilina.
This is an unexpected visit, Cicero.
Call me Frank.
It’s not Franklyn, but really Frank.
You know, like Sinatra, Francis.
Francis. Is this Design Authority business?
(SIGHS)
There’s something I need to say.
It’s difficult.
May I?
Sure. Go on.
Please. I know I’ve attacked you,
prosecuted you,
but you can’t begin to know what Julia means to me.
Oh.
I’ll give up everything.
Please, pass her by.
We both know what’s best for her and the child.
Let Julia go. Think of her.
If you could make her feel you no longer love her…
I would put this in your hands.
It’s my signed confession.
Evidence about your wife’s body.
Now that Nush Berman is dead, I can say it.
I was dishonest in my prosecution of you.
Now, I can survive anything,
just not her
to know my complicity.
This is your insurance policy.
Although I don’t understand what you’re doing,
I will support you.
Privately
and publicly.
If you can do this for my family,
we will always be grateful.
I’ll wait three days to hear from you.
Oh, Cicero.
There are only two things
impossible to stare at very long,
the sun
and your own soul.
Wow, where’s your coat?
I waited with no coat
because I knew you’d give me yours.
And it would be warm.
(SNIFFS) Oh. Oh.
It smells of you.
Sandalwood… citrus…
sweet male memories.
It can still all be yours, Cesar,
me and Crassus’s bank,
which I’ll steal so I can give it to you.
Wow.
(ENGINE STARTS)
WOW: I should really learn more about banking, dear.
I’m so bored all day.
CRASSUS: That’s no good.
And you want me to, right, darling?
CRASSUS: Oh.
You want me to take over?
CRASSUS: Yes.
Yes.
I’ll start with Cesar’s accounts.
HOST: Tonight on Crosstalk.
HOSTESS: Is Megalon the path to a better life
for you and your family?
Or is it the dream of an eccentric
mad scientist that could kill us all?
HOST: On Crosstalk.
MAN 1: Megalon is from outer space.
MAN 2: Open your window, man,
look at what’s happening in the streets.
The new revolution, man! Sex, drugs, and Megalon!
“Megalopolis Doesn’t Fit Together!”
“Megalon Deemed Unsafe by Experts.”
FUNDI: What are you doing?
What bullshit.
FUNDI: What are you doing?
You can’t park here.
This is a construction site.
(MAN SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)
You can’t park here. Look!
(SPEAKING SPANISH)
FUNDI: (IN ENGLISH) You don’t…
Oh, you don’t understand. Okay.
Okay. Okay.
You got it.
I have to get home soon to make dinner.
FUNDI: You have to move. You have to move.
I’m just going to go say hi.
FUNDI: I’ll deal with this guy.
You, get in your car, you don’t understand me?
Move! I said, get in your car and move it. Let’s go.
(MAN SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)
FUNDI: Let’s go. Let’s go!
Get in. Let’s go!
The mayor’s waiting.
FUNDI: Let’s go. Let’s go!
Can I have your autograph?
CESAR: Of course you can.
What’s your name?
Sam.
Sam. I love that name Sam, it’s to the point.
Cesar will never say no to a child.
“To Sam…” How old are you, Sam?
I’m 12.
Twelve. I used to be 12,
you believe it or not.
Do I look 12 now?
No.
Thank you, Sam. (CHUCKLING)
All right, there you are, Sam. (TAPS PEN)
Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you too.
(BULLET CLINKING)
JULIA: No!
Boss!
JULIA: Hey! Hey, stop!
Help him!
(SIREN WAILING)
(FUNDI MUTTERING)
Come on.
CESAR: I will not let time
have dominion over my thoughts.
…have dominion over my thoughts.
(SHOUTS) I will not let time
have dominion
over my thoughts!
(GUNSHOT)
I will not let time
have dominion over my thoughts.
I will not let time have…
I will not let time have dominion… my thoughts.
…let time… I will not let time
have dominion over my thoughts.
…my thoughts…
I will not let time have dominion over my thoughts.
Time, stop! (ECHOES)
JULIA: I’m here, my love. I’m here, my love.
DR. LYRA: Megalon has no delineation,
knows no boundaries… (ECHOING)
Megalon will activate some of the signals
that will express genes,
sub-atomic particles, atoms, molecules, human connection…
JULIA: Cesar.
Megalon fuses all forces…
…will activate some of the signals
that will express genes…
…enabling Cesar to grow his face like a second skin.
Do you have the cells?
It is a language.
Sunny’s hair.
CHARLES: We found a sample of Sunny’s hair.
DR. LYRA: The first of its kind bio-hybrid.
A living material combining man-made
and nature-grown tissues.
The Megalon is the connection, the signal.
You think this is a joke?
You’ve made him a martyr, you fucking idiot.
It’s bad enough he won the Nobel,
now you’ve made him a martyr.
You’re an ignoramus.
Sic semper tyrannis!
(CLODIO GRUNTS)
(CESAR MOANING IN PAIN)
Sunny…
JULIA: I’m here, honey.
I was desperate.
(SHUSHES) It’s okay.
I discovered the principle of Megalon
trying to save her life.
(WATER SPLASHING)
The red envelope…
Cicero.
Something never disclosed.
The embodiment of all my desires and regrets
were named Jane Doe.
My mania,
my obsessions,
my greatest loss,
Jane Doe.
Condemned with the truth.
Truths, found in the coldest, darkest morgue of our heart.
(WHISPERING) Be with her.
CESAR: She came home with good news,
but saw something that enraged her jealousy.
I followed, but I saw her drive over the bridge,
and into the icy water.
And in that madness, it came to me.
I discovered the principle of Megalon
trying to save her life.
She said she had good news… (ECHOES)
her secret.
And then all was lost to me forever.
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
This is my heart.
(SIGHS WEARILY)
(DOOR CLOSES)
CESAR: No, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no! No, no!
ARAM: We’re here to see Crassus.
Someone froze our accounts.
Someone’s messing with the…
No, no, no, no, no!
I’ll be in the car if you need me, okay?
What…
(DOOR CLOSES)
You know, when I heard you were shot, I was pissed…
that I didn’t get to do it myself.
(SCOFFS)
CLODIO: Ah… It’s a joke.
But you never had a sense of humor.
(TAP DANCING)
I have a sense of humor.
And I have everything else that you have.
Brains, family,
name, talent.
It’s injected the wrong way, but I share your passions.
…creation…
Creation…
…destruction.
You know, your way,
it’s meticulous and it’s hygienic,
but it’s fucking soulless.
And my way is real, and I want it.
I want it all. I want the moon.
And I’m going to have it.
WOW: Clodio.
Creation…
No, no, no, no, no, no, no!
(SHUSHES)
No, no, no, no, no, no, no!
Darling, what is it?
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING)
Our accounts are frozen.
I’m in a position where I can do
all kinds of things on my own, Cesar.
(LAUGHING)
(SITAR PLAYING)
(GASPS)
Oh, my God…
It can all be yours, Cesar,
everything.
These diamonds mean nothing to me.
Take me.
Take my love.
CRASSUS: Cesar!
Come in. Come in, Cesar.
You got to be careful, huh?
Yeah. Okay.
You just sit right here.
Here. Here.
Oh, let me just see…
I came to ask why…
our accounts are frozen.
Frozen?
Must be a mistake, son.
Wow, do you know anything about this?
“Moxie.”
CESAR: Uncle…
Yes.
Be remembered…
for your generosity.
CRASSUS: Remembered?
(WOW CLEARS THROAT)
I’m not going anywhere.
What’s a seven-letter word
for “God’s revenge on mankind”?
Pandora.
Bingo.
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING)
Huey.
Pick up my hat.
HUEY: Pick up my hat.
ASSISTANT: Pick up my hat.
(ELEVATOR DINGS)
AUTOMATED VOICE: Going up.
Yes, we are.
We are going up, and they are going down.
We just have to get our affairs in order,
tell all the little boys what to do.
One, two, three, yippee yay.
Hello.
Do you like my outfit?
(LAUGHS)
Yes, it’s beautiful, Wow.
Yes, Auntie Wow.
(CHUCKLES) Yes, it’s beautiful, Auntie Wow.
Does it make my ass look good?
I can’t see it.
Yes, it’s beautiful, Auntie Wow.
(CHUCKLES)
WOW: Kiss it.
Grandpa Crassus is beginning to doubt
that you’re giving up on politics.
You are a very bad, bad boy.
(KISSING)
But you’re lucky,
because Auntie Wow has come here to help you.
(CLODIO MOANING)
WOW: Are you lucky?
Yes.
Yes what?
Yes, Auntie Wow.
(MOANS)
(LIGHTS FLICKERING)
What’s that?
That’s your pussy.
I said, what is that?
That’s Cesar’s Megalopolis using up the city’s power.
Think it’s all over the city?
It’s all over the city.
Do you want to fuck me?
I want to fuck you so bad, Auntie Wow.
(WOW GRUNTS)
Then take your pants off and get on the table.
CLODIO: Yes, Auntie Wow.
WOW: Now,
your grandfather insisted on a prenuptial agreement
so that I can’t inherit his bank.
Therefore…
you and I are going to do a takeover.
You and your Auntie Wow,
and she knows how.
Mm.
Yes, Auntie Wow.
One, you will suggest to Crassus…
Yes.
…that you become interim
CEO of his bank,
that they draft up a memo of his support
and that you two work…
Oh, fuck!
…on a “term sheet” together.
We’re gonna work on a term sheet…
WOW: Yeah.
…Auntie Wow.
You understand?
Now, he’ll think…
Yes.
…that he’s going to remain Chairman and CEO…
But he won’t.
…and keep you as interim CEO.
Two, when he does that…
Two.
Yes.
…you’re going to refuse, okay?
I’ll say, “No, no!”
And then all the friendly talks are going to fall apart.
(MOANING)
Okay.
You like obeying me, don’t you?
CLODIO: Yes.
I’ve come to ask if you’d consider saying
you support my becoming interim CEO.
CRASSUS: You cut your hair. CLODIO: I did.
You’re making an effort, good!
Well, what I would need is,
I would need a memo from the board, Grandpa,
saying you support my becoming interim CEO.
CRASSUS: You’re a banker now.
I’m proud of you.
Yeah, I’ll give you a title,
teach you the game.
Wait,
this term sheet says
that you would be interim CEO and Chairman.
Well, yeah. I mean, I don’t know.
Interim CEO… Huh.
And I would retire.
It’s not friendly.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
This is hostile. This is treacherous!
I didn’t mean…
Villainous!
I didn’t mean it to be hostile!
CRASSUS: Whose name is this?
CLODIO: I thought it was inevitable.
CRASSUS: Who signed this?
Just stay still, please.
I did what you asked.
Yes, indeed. Grandpa, please.
No! No!
(CRASSUS GRUNTING)
Get away from me! No!
Please, you have to lie down!
CRASSUS: I can’t…
(GRUNTING)
AIDE: Mr. Crassus!
CRASSUS: God, it was you who gave me my fortune.
And It will be the will of Chronos
to seek our revenge.
FUNDI: “Let us fall in love again
“and scatter gold dust all over the world.
“Let us become a new spring
“and feel the breeze drift in heaven’s scent.
“Let us dress the earth in green
“and like the sap of a young tree,
“let the grace from within sustain us.
(BABY CRYING)
“Let us carve gems out of our stony hearts
“and let them light our path to Love.
“The glance of Love is crystal clear
“and we are blessed by it.”
(BABY FUSSING)
I now pronounce you husband and wife.
(TRIUMPHANT MUSIC PLAYING)
(IMPERCEPTIBLE)
(CHILDREN GIGGLING)
(TOY TRAIN TOOTING)
(FESTIVE MUSIC PLAYING)
CHILDREN: ♪ Happy Saturnalia to you! ♪
♪ Happy Saturnalia to everyone! ♪
♪ Happy Saturnalia to you! ♪
(INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING)
(CLANGING)
(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)
Okay, gentlemen,
deliver.
(ALL CHEERING)
This is an inside takeover.
Begin.
♪ O beautiful for spacious skies ♪
♪ For amber waves of grain ♪
♪ For purple mountain… ♪
Doesn’t that feel good?
Cause for celebration.
Now get the fuck out of my car.
♪ America! America! ♪
The move is final
as of 11:00 p.m., Eastern Standard Time.
♪ And crown thy good with brotherhood ♪
♪ From sea to shining sea! ♪
CHAIRWOMAN: Now that the new board is installed,
and has voted…
Speak louder, I’m hard of hearing!
The board has voted to remove Hamilton Crassus
from the office of CEO of Crassus National Bank.
Arigato.
(SCATTERED CLAPPING)
(WOW GRUNTS)
(IN ENGLISH) Thank you very much.
We got the bank,
now unleash the mob.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING)
(FUNDI SPEAKING LATIN)
(IN ENGLISH) Be just,
unless a kingdom tempts to break the laws,
for sovereign power alone can justify the cause.
(SIREN WAILING)
(CROWD CLAMORING)
CLODIO: Where is Cesar now? Where is his Megalopolis?
We’ve waited long enough, no?
If you don’t fight like hell, we’re gonna lose the city.
Keep what’s ours.
Cesar has failed,
Cicero has failed.
(MUMBLING)
CLODIO: The city is ours!
MAYOR CICERO: Attention, attention.
Murder and violence stalk our streets…
We are here,
we are powerful,
and we are taking our country back!
Pulcher for the culture!
MAYOR CICERO: We are threatened by evil men.
New Rome, the greatest country
the world has ever known, is threatened
by those men who propose to take charge
of the affairs of the government.
CLODIO: Fuck Cesar!
Fuck the Mayor, and fuck City Hall!
POLICEMAN: Back away from the gate of City Hall.
Commissioner? Over here, the train’s coming.
(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)
(BABY CRYING)
POLICEMAN: This is an illegal gatherin.
MAN 1: What have you done with Megalopolis?
MAN 2: Where’s Megalopolis?
POLICEMAN: Hold the line! Hold the line!
Mayor Cicero?
There’s another car coming, guys.
The mayor’s extraction is underway. Over.
Hi…
Hi.
May… May I hold her?
Yeah. It’s your grandpa.
Hi…
Who’s that?
Hi…
Oh…
Oh, I used to hold you like this.
(LAUGHS)
Oh, look at you.
Look, she likes you.
Yeah.
You’re holding the future in your hands.
Don’t you want a better world for her?
Cesar is a reckless dreamer who will destroy the world
sooner than he can build a better one.
(BABY FUSSING)
Can’t you and I be like we were before?
Could we?
Can’t we, Julia?
My little girl, my angel?
Trust us.
Trust me, Daddy.
(JULIA SNIFFLES)
(EXHALES)
There’s been some news.
The rioters have been pushed back,
and the road’s cleared.
Thank God.
(JULIA MURMURS AND COOS)
REPORTER: …earlier today has devolved
into a scene of violence.
CRASSUS: America,
master of the known world, is now kaput.
(CLODIO LAUGHING)
WOW: Be quiet for once and follow my lead.
(DOOR CLOSES)
WOW: Our poor Robin Hood.
He doesn’t have much time left,
but he wanted to see you.
CLODIO: Well, he’s not one to give up on things.
He can barely speak.
We came to pay our respects, Grandpa.
What do you think of this boner I got?
(CLODIO CHUCKLING)
One look at her and I’m up…
(WOW CHUCKLES)
If it wasn’t for this,
I would have been able to out-spend you
in the end.
But I will
outlive you.
Wow,
you Wall Street slut, this is your closing bell.
(GASPS)
CLODIO: What?
No.
No, Auntie Wow.
No, no, no.
(GRUNTS)
(YELPS)
Fuck!
(SCREAMING)
FUNDI: The gods have decreed that history teach us,
all that is needed is a slight push
to send our republic toppling.
For it is in the power of any daring man
to overturn a sickly commonwealth.
POLICEMAN: You are here illegally.
Go home or you will be arrested.
(CROWD CLAMORING)
Put down your weapons
and go back to your homes, please.
(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)
MAN 1: Cesar is alive!
POLICEMAN: We need you to stop!
Man.
(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING)
What is that?
What do we know of him?
His gods?
Liberty…
love…
…kindness,
mind,
death,
destiny.
Destiny.
(BABY CRYING)
I’m not concerned with my place in history.
What I am concerned about is time,
consciousness, and courage.
But what is time,
except a curve of past and future around us?
What is consciousness,
except a burst of the soul from inside?
And what is courage,
but the beginning of a vital conversation?
We’re in need of a great debate about the future!
We want every person in the world
to take part in that debate.
This city is threatened by unusual
and dire circumstances…
Wait, Your Honor.
…we have…
Your Honor, listen.
He’s incriminating himself.
Tear down debt!
Tear down the world of ready-made slums
that those families that run the world shove you into.
You were born with the option to be what you want to be,
and must!
MAN 1: Cesar! Cesar Catilina!
Let it not be said that
we reduced ourselves to be brutes
and mindless beasts of burden.
The human being shall rightly be called a great miracle,
and a living creature for all to admire!
We are such stuff as dreams are made of.
MAN 1: Yes! MAN 2: Yes!
MAN 1: Catilina!
MAN 2: Hail, New Rome! Hail, Megalopolis!
CESAR: Our Mother Earth gave us the genius
to see a future so beautiful
that we can’t let it be denied.
The gates of Megalopolis are open!
Go now, and know our world is changed foreve!
(SURREAL MUSIC PLAYING)
CRASSUS: Evoke the contingency clause.
I’m going to leave the patents to Megalon,
the bank, my entire fortune,
to Cesar’s Garden of Eden, to Megalopolis!
I’ll be known as “Crassus the Generous,”
loved for eternity!
CLODIO: Yeah, go, go.
(GROANING)
One more.
Wait!
All right.
One more.
Okay.
Ready, and pull!
Yeah, go, go, go.
(MUFFLED GROANING)
MAN 1: You threw us under the bus, you piece of shit.
Yeah?
MAN 2: Where’d all the money go?
The team!
MAN 3: You double-crossed us.
CLODIO: “Don’t tread on me!”
MAN 2: You double-crossed us!
You own the bank?
MAN 2: You used us.
So much for your loyal base, asshole, what’d I tell you!
“No crutches, no crosses!”
MAN 1: Tie him up!
(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)
CLODIO: Wait, wait, wait! Wait!
Help!
Help me, Grandpa!
Help me, Grandpa!
Thank you.
TERESA: Come on.
Please.
(INDISTINCT POLICE RADIO CHATTER)
Come on, Frankie.
Teri…
Darling.
(SURREAL MUSIC PLAYING)
(CROWD CHEERING)
MAYOR CICERO: Happy New Year!
Good to see you! Good to see you!
TERESA: Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!
TERESA: Happy New Year, everybody!
(LAUGHING) Happy New Year!
Oh, we’ve got a new year…
(IMPERCEPTIBLE)
(CHEERING CONTINUES)
MAYOR CICERO: Happy New Year!
Mwah!
TERESA: Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!
MAYOR CICERO: Happy New Year!
(JULIA CHUCKLES)
Mother.
While I’m here, can I just have one?
(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS)
There’s still so much to accomplish…
but is there time?
Promise me, you will build nobly.
Yes, Dad. We promise.
Oh, yes,
be assured.
Build a future for her.
Julia…
CROWD: Ten, nine…
…stop time.
…eight, seven, six,
five, four…
Now, time, stop!
(BABY GURGLING)
(CLOCK TICKING)
CHILDREN: I pledge allegiance to our human family, and to all the species that we protect.
One earth, indivisible, with long life, education and justice for all.
FUNDI: …education and justice for all.
MAN: One, two, three, four.
(LONELY PLANET BY THE THE PLAYING)
♪ Planet Earth is slowing down ♪
♪ Overseas, underground ♪
♪ Wherever you look around ♪
♪ Lord, take me by the hand ♪
♪ Lead me through these desert sands ♪
♪ To the shores of a promised land ♪
♪ You make me cry ♪
♪ When you look into my eyes ♪
♪ And see me for who I really am ♪
♪ If you can’t change the world ♪
♪ Change yourself ♪
♪ If you can’t change the world ♪
♪ Change yourself ♪
♪ If you can’t change the world ♪
♪ Change yourself ♪
♪ If you can’t change the world ♪
♪ Change yourself ♪
♪ If you can’t change the world ♪
♪ Change yourself ♪
♪ And if you can’t change yourself ♪
♪ Then change your world ♪
♪ The world’s too big ♪
♪ And life’s too short ♪
♪ To be alone ♪
♪ To be alone ♪
(VOCALIZING)
(SONG FADES)
(TRIUMPHANT MUSIC PLAYING)
(CAPTIVATING MUSIC PLAYING)
(MUSIC FADES)
