Original subtitles

People ask, where do you get your ideas?

Right here.

All this is mine.

I'll never starve here.

I'm Ray Bradbury.

And this is...

When I was a boy, my

dad, looking for work, picked up my mom, my brother Skip, and myself, and headed

west. Along the way, in the middle of nowhere whatsoever at all, on a hot

desert moon with the wind still and heat rising from the sand dunes, we were

witness to a miracle. Years later, I remembered the miracle.

This is that remembrance.

Yeah.

No, there he is. Where?

There. Where?

There. Where?

There.

Hi, Dan.

Come on, baby. Come on. Go, go, go, go, go.

Come on.

Gated. Yeah.

All right, I'm going to turn off.

I'm going to turn off here.

Where? Here.

Where? Right here by the sign.

As one drifter to another, so long, Ned Bantley.

Why's he always got to follow us?

Because somehow, we're always leading him to luck, Will. We find harvests, and

Ned gathers them in.

I wish we could get something that was just ours.

Never winds up his.

changing? Yes.

Something close by?

Almost.

Almost here.

Why the hell did you pull off here?

I don't know.

There's nothing here. Let's get back on the road.

Nothing here.

Sure.

Only mountains and desert.

And that.

Oh, hold on.

I'm holding.

It can't be.

Robert. I ain't had an acid flash in ten years.

Me neither.

But that ain't no hallucination.

Phoenix is 90 miles off.

There ain't no other town in 100 miles.

That's right.

Well, then, my gosh, what the hell is that?

It's a mirage.

No.

Yeah.

Light rays.

Just right.

Atmosphere, sky, temperature.

City's the other side of the horizon, see?

Reflected off the sky up there like a mirror comes down here for us to see.

Hey!

Mirages come in all sizes, but that is the granddaddy of them all. I mean, look

at that thing.

That ain't Santa Fe.

No?

Or Alamogordo?

That's too far off.

Those buildings are the tallest in the world.

Oh, really, really, really.

Never ask nature.

There's things about radio waves and rainbows and northern lights you ain't

never gonna know.

What happened?

Well, what?

What minute it is New York, next minute it isn't. It keeps changing.

How come?

Well, hell, you got one set of eyes.

I got another.

Maybe it's different for both.

No, Willie, come on. On a day that we need to be cheered, that's a beautiful

gift horse.

You gonna look it in the mouth?

No.

That's a gift, all right.

That's just for us.

No, it's not just for us.

Look.

Tie him.

There's hundreds of them.

Lots of cars pulled off here.

To look at the Mirage, of course.

Oh, right.

Willie, look east.

Look west.

There's thousands of cars been here.

This is the only place that you can really stop and take a look at that

You know, it's nice folks got an eye for beauty.

Eye for beauty, my socks.

Who owns this land?

U .S. government, I guess.

Well, why not us?

We set up camp.

We improve the property.

Law reads it belongs to us. Am I right? Hold on. You mean... You bet I mean.

And ain't it sweet, partner?

We're going to homestead a mirage.

Now, excuse my dust, okay? But from here to here. Get some twine, peg it down.

Then from there to up here. What are you going to do with this mirage once we

got it? It's a cow. We're going to milk it. It's a lake of money.

We're going to swim in it.

Sure you know what the hell property law, homestead law is?

One day won't hurt, if that's all we get.

One day?

Willie, let's give you a test.

Pull out your right pocket. Go ahead.

Now pull out your left pocket.

That's it.

There.

God's truth?

What the sign by the highway says?

It's gratis.

It's free. You're not satisfied.

No way to say.

No way to tell.

I ain't seen the old place in so long.

Well, it's ten times the asking price.

Uh, hold on there, sir.

You're giving me too much.

No.

It was a revelation.

Much thanks.

My pleasure.

What do you mean?

I ain't seen the old places so long, just like old times.

What they mean?

What you mean.

Good gravy, we're back where we started from.

Willie, we're ahead.

Ah, get out of my way. I'll handle the advertising and the box office.

Sir, here it is up here. It's right up here.

You're going to love this.

Come on, it's over here.

It is just like Rome.

Rome? No, she said home.

Boy, I almost feel like I can speak French.

French?

Fog and then the bridge.

I can hear Big Ben.

Almost talked French, that other fellow said. That woman, she did say Rome.

Now, now, all those places, we didn't tell anybody what city they'd see.

view mirages, I say.

Xanadu. In Xanadu did Kublai Khan a stately pleasure dome

decree.

Where out the sacred river ran through caverns measureless to man.

Down to the sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground with walls and towers

girdled round.

And here were gardens, bright with sinuous rills, where blossomed many an

incense -bearing tree.

First ancient things, enfolding sunny spots of

greenery.

What a miracle, who reared a biker,

a sunny pleasure dome.

It changed.

What?

No, no, please. You've already paid her.

Mountain, storm, case of ice.

Hallelujah.

Steak dinner's a new suit.

Look at my big bowl.

Willie.

It's still New York.

You ever been to New York?

Always wanted, never did.

Always wanted, never did.

Same as them?

Paris, Rome, London?

And this last?

Danadu?

Willie, we got hold of something real big here.

It's different for each one that sees it.

Now, how? Why?

We got to do right by it, partner.

We are.

Robert, Bob, our luck's changed. It's all ours. No one to get in the way.

No one?

Nick Bentley.

You.

Shut up!

Why?

Why? You bust it like a mirror.

Bust what? Like what mirror? There's nothing out there.

What you guys up to?

Ditch me this morning?

Hell, that ain't like my buddies.

Loan me my bike in 68.

You stole it! No, we're pals.

We picked cherries in Oregon, apples in Washington.

Help me.

But now, sudden like, you panic off like shotgun rabbits.

What are you hiding from old Ned?

Nothing. No?

I've been up on that hill all day.

See these binoculars?

I can read lips.

Saw all the cars, the cash.

Quite a circus you got here.

Now, if you don't mind, get off my property.

Yours?

When I seen what you was up to, I headed into the Phoenix land office.

Father Homestead clan?

How do we know you ain't lying?

You don't know.

Now, I put down all the money you earned since two this afternoon, which is the

hour I file my claim, from which time on, you was trespassing my land.

I'm in here.

Nothing to see.

People pay cash.

Howdy -dow.

Dantling, are you sure you can't see anything out there?

Nothing.

Now, don't try to tell me you see something.

We do.

Come on.

Yeah, but we... You heard what he said. There's nothing out there to see.

Excuse me, gents.

Gotta mind the box office.

Yes, sir. Yes, ma 'am. This way. Roll right up.

Come along, sir. Roll right up. Cash in the vest, please.

Cash in the vest.

If I can let him do this.

Yes, sir.

It's a wonderful sight.

I'm glad it's not ours, Will.

Glad?

It ain't right.

handling a natural thing with unnatural rules.

We should have just taken enough to buy gas and then put the rest of the money

in the first church poor box we come to.

That's a clear river running, Willie.

People coming by thirsty.

If you're wise, you dip one cup of water, drink it cool in the

heat of the day, and you go on.

Ed Bantman did us a favor.

He's always doing us favors.

Why?

Because, Willie, we're the pure in heart.

Never quite got around to being villains.

And the true villains of the world, they see our light and they come a -running

to warm their hands at our fire.

Well, fair's fair.

A man like Ned Bantler living his white underbelly of a life, ain't he but due

for a bolt of lightning?

And I think it just struck.

Willie, give an iPhone.

feeling sorry for Ned Bantlin.

Sorry? Sure.

He never saw what we saw.

He never believed, not for a second.

When people drove in here, the city, Mirage, whatever,

it was there.

And Ned Bantlin put his big hand across the sun.

People wanted their money back.

The theater was closed.

Well, can't we open it up again?

How do you bring a thing like that back?

Can we?

Oh, hell.

Are we the pure in heart?

Not like the kids that came through here today who saw anything they wanted to

see.

And not like the big folks with them, born in wheat fields and by God's grace

wandering the world.

No, we're not the big children.

We're not the little children.

But Willie, we're glad to be alive.

You know the morning air?

Early, on the road.

Maybe, take it easy, don't think.

Relax.

See anything?

It's late.

Maybe tomorrow.

Are we too late, or are you closed up for the night?

It's no use.

What he means is, uh, no money. Last customer of the day, free.

Why, thank you, neighbor.

Bob, what ails you?

Now, just hush up.

Late.

Can't see much.

We can see lots.

Yes. There.

Of course.

Say now, ain't that a beaut?

Is it there?

Maybe if we don't try, just take it. nice and easy.

It was a miracle, a rare device, a sunny pleasure dome

with caves above it.

What a miracle.

I've read it.