Original subtitles

People ask, where do you get your ideas?

Right here.

Oh, this is my magician's toy shop.

I'm Ray Bradbury.

This is...

The barometer is steady, the humidity is 95%, and the temperature is 94 degrees

with a high expected today of 102.

30 bucks!

Are you out of your minds?

You've got the last daughter's week already!

No,

it doesn't.

If you didn't spend it all breaking, we wouldn't have to live in this stinkin'

sweat. That's enough out of you.

Shut your mouth shut.

I don't need to listen to this.

Good grief, Mr. Todd.

It's hot.

Are you telling the devil about hell, Mr. Shaw?

It's hell, all right.

Ah, it is. It's coming through. Oh, come on. Hey, come on. Watch it, will you?

Is this the right street?

Right? Of course it's right.

Yes.

I've been watching this woman every day for three days. Now, will you let me

tell it?

I've been watching this woman every day for three days now, and believe me, she

is the ultimate subject.

You wait till you see her.

She's still alive, that is.

Lord, what a case.

Yeah, but should we be spying on her? I mean, people will think we're peeping.

Oh, no, no, rubbish, rubbish.

Psychologists, more like.

Census takers of the almost dead.

Collectors of living nightmares.

No, no, no. We are professionals, Mr. Shaw.

And Samaritans. Good Samaritans.

Is that her?

Ah,

you get it.

Where? The butcher's.

I want a good cut of meat.

Let's see what you got hidden to take home for yourself.

Chopped stink.

What's the price of steak?

6 .80 a pound.

That's too much fat.

Stretch bone.

Come on, I've changed my mind. Give me him.

Keep your hands off the scale.

Charge it.

Look at her.

Mrs. Death Wish.

Like watching a two -year -old wander out onto a battlefield.

Any moment, she'll run into a mine, and then... You get

temperature just right. A little too much humidity, everybody sweating and

itching, irritable.

And then along comes this fine lady, whining and shrieking, and

goodbye.

That isn't fresh.

I don't want any.

Well, do we start business,

Mr. Shaw?

Oh, come on. Come on, Mr. Fox. We're not really going to do this, are we? Oh,

sure. But, I mean, I thought it was just a hobby, you know. I mean, just for

fun. Studying people, their habits, their customs.

Actually getting involved.

Yes. Oh, we've got better things to do.

Have we?

Just look at her, Mr. Shaw.

Do we let her feed herself to the lions, or do we convert her?

Convert her? Yes.

To serenity, love, and a longer life.

Dream.

Takes you an hour to make a mess like that.

Get it right.

She's in trouble, Mr. Shaw.

Murdering almost for certain. An accident waiting to happen.

Someday, someone will favor her with a hammer.

Her dose is 13.

Now, let us plan our strategy, Mr. Shaw.

Otherwise, our victim will find her murderer for sure.

a long time.

How's the insurance business?

We're retired.

We got a new business now.

Heaven help us.

We're detectives.

Investigators. Band full again.

Searching for lost soldiers.

Streets full of them.

What will you have?

Ah, usual.

Do you have to tell everybody what we're doing? They'll think we're idiots.

It's respectable work, Mr. Shaw.

What else are we going to do between here and the grave, huh?

Now look.

See?

That's her place.

Her husband's a longshoreman. You know, big, hulking, brutal fellow.

Saw them out walking together on Sunday.

Her jabbering and him saying nothing, not even looking at her.

Is she on the top floor?

Yeah.

And no elevator?

Uh -uh.

And we are going to climb up?

After we've planned our strategy.

Strategy? By the time we reach the top floor, you're dead.

No, no.

Tap on her door.

Mm -hmm.

And when she opens it? When she opens it.

We show her this.

What's that?

Look.

So it's hot.

Uh -huh.

Hot. Uh -huh.

Jeez.

This heat is killing. Hot.

Now, you hear that? Hear what the man said?

The heat is killing.

Does a two -ton block of ice have to fall on you?

Now, look, Mr. Fox.

You may have some great ideas.

Six murders have been reported in the last 24 hours alone. Police Chief

O'Shaughnessy commented on the possible relationship between the upsurge in

violence and the rising temperatures.

And there is no relief in sight. Believe your ears.

Believe your eyes.

Here.

At 102 degrees Fahrenheit, more murders are committed than at any other

temperature. Warm.

Over that, it's too hot to move. Under that, it's cool enough to survive.

But right on 102 degrees lies the apex of

irritability.

Everything, everything is just itches and sweating and your mind like a...

crazed rat rushing around in a red -hot maid.

And then just one word, just one look, one sound can produce

irritable murder.

Now there's a terrifying phrase if ever I heard one.

And look, look.

96 degrees and climbing.

Do you really think she's endangered?

A nice cold icebox is waiting for that lady down at the morgue.

Unless someone saves her.

Us? Who else?

Who's gonna do it?

Her husband? Her friends? The grocer?

The butcher?

No. Oh, they'll sing at her wake.

Will they tell her that she needs to see a psychiatrist?

No.

Does she know?

No. So who's going to tell her?

We know it. We must tell her. Now, you don't keep vital information like that

from a victim, do you?

It's too hard to argue.

So don't.

Sixth floor.

Smith, Marconi, Simmons. But can you really help people like her unless they

want to be helped? Oh, boy.

You guess which name fits her.

Huh. Shrike.

Yeah, Shrike.

Annabelle Shrike.

Doesn't that have a ring?

Yeah, like a funeral bell.

You got it.

Yeah.

It's only her name there, you see.

Only her.

Bidding a poor husband.

Poor guy.

He'd be lucky if she puts his name on a tombstone.

Couldn't we call up first?

No, there's no turning back now.

Come on, Mr. Shaw.

Give me another beer.

I want to do is post a warning.

Just tell her you're a potential murderee.

A victim looking for a perpetrator. But you're a hopeless optimist if you think

that we can change anything.

Well, maybe we can.

But that one seed that we're going to plant in her mind may flower and spread.

We can't not do it.

I wouldn't want her on my conscience.

I

hope

there's a cold breeze up there.

No. No.

Only a victim waiting to be killed.

Oh, God, where would this end? End?

This is over the beginning.

This is the first case for Lost Souls Incorporated.

We throw out the lifeline, rescue the drowning victims, mouth -to -mouth

resuscitation. I got a list.

I knew it.

Now, don't check the apartment numbers. Let's see if we can guess which

apartment is hers.

There'll only be one choice.

She doesn't need a phone. All she needs to do is open her window.

Go ahead, knock.

Go on, knock.

You bring that paycheck home right now, you workaholic bum.

Stop bringing it away with those horrid excuses from human beings.

You hear me? I mean it. You come home.

Mr. Shrike? Who the hell would it be?

Fine. Well, then... Speak up!

Could you turn the radio down, please, ma 'am?

I'm not buying anything.

Oh, no, no, it's... Let's hear your pitch. I've got work to do.

I'm Miss Fox, and this is my colleague, Miss Shaw, and we are retired

insurers. Well, you're here to sell me insurance?

No, no, no, no. There's no money connected with this. No, it's just...

hardly know how to begin.

Why don't we just sit?

No, never mind.

You see, having been in insurance these 40 years, we've been seeing people

from the nursery to the cemetery, so to speak.

And we formulated some theories, some ideas, and we've realized that there are

some people who needn't die when they do.

Oh, I ain't sick. Oh, but you are.

You're telling me.

Some people die every day because they are what we call accident

prone.

Accident what?

That's prone, ma 'am.

Well,

now, look here.

Above your tub there. Now, that light, that electrical wire, that wire is very

frayed and worn.

And if you should ever slip in your tub and grab up and touch that wire, why,

ooh.

Are you criticizing my housekeeping, Buster?

No, but in almost every home, you can see and accept... Well, now, there,

look. Your refrigerator door is half open, and the food spoils. What have you

done? Botulism. Death.

You came here to close my fridge?

No, no, no. You came here to take out the trash?

Well, we thought we might... You came here to tape up the electric cord, the

wires? No, it wasn't any of those. Oh, it's hot in here.

It's very hot.

Ma 'am, could you open the window, please?

Why don't you be my guest?

I forgot

to

tell you, don't open.

No, no, no, please, ma 'am, ma 'am, just look around you, would you, please?

Just look.

What we're trying to tell you is that people, just like cars, need their

checked once in a while. The time's up.

Emotional brakes. The time's up, mister.

I ain't learned a thing. You don't understand.

Sometimes, sometimes, we all take a wrong turn.

Like we picked the wrong job or picked the wrong marriage partner. You know,

irritating little things. And then before you know it, you're taking it all

on everybody, everywhere.

I'm bugging you. We want to save your life, madam.

Why, you don't say.

Ain't nobody ever wanted to do that before.

It's not raining and no lightning.

Come on, Fox.

No earth.

Making enemies, you know.

Making people think that they would like to see us gone or sick or dead.

You're sick.

Get out of here.

No, no. Get out of here. You don't know it. You don't know it. You don't see the

way you act. But you have tattoos all over your body.

Invisible ink, of course. And your face, your face says, I don't want to live.

Some night you'll meet a murderer in the street, and he'll read those invisible

marks on your face, and he'll say, ha -ha, why, there's a murderee.

You lunatics, you're both lunatics.

Now, get out of here, you crazy old... No, no, come on, come on. Will you not

let go of me? No, about a year ago, we decided to find people who needed help.

Now, Mr. Shaw, he was against it, but I showed him case after case. Yes, he did.

And every time we found people who were death -prone, they came to a bad end.

Yes, that's right, that's right. There was one killed in the par room, and one

pushed through a window, and that woman was run down by a streetcar.

Horrible. What?

We've been watching you. We've been keeping tabs on you. You've been

me? Yes, just for the... You've been following me? No, for research.

You... Get out! Oh, ma 'am. Get out!

I'm not a... How dare you?

Here, here.

I'll get these.

Where are you?

That's what I think it is.

That's the husband.

What the fuck is this?

It's a long term. It's fucked.

No, no.

shouldn't get involved.

That's it. If I'm still there, you...

102 on the nose.