Original subtitles

People ask, where do you get your ideas?

Well, right here.

All this is my Martian landscape.

Somewhere in this room is an African belt.

Just beyond, perhaps, is a small Illinois town where I grew up. And I'm

surrounded on every side by my magician's toy shop.

I'll never starve here.

I just look around, find what I need, and begin.

I'm Ray Bradbury, and this is...

Well then, right now, what shall it be?

Out of all this, what do I choose to make a story?

I never know where the next one will take me.

And the trip?

Exactly one half exhilaration, exactly one half terror.

Where to this time?

Anywhere, everywhere.

Hogtown, Ironville, Worcester Falls. Look at all those names. Hard to decide.

So that's where you get all them crazy ideas.

Yes, blind faith.

I collect things.

Train schedules, signal lights, train tracks, switches.

Collect them all up, write them down, and...

Hey, what? Happy old 99.

What's that coming down the track?

Might be old 99.

It might be a story.

What kind of life do people live in God's forsaken place of life?

Peace and quiet.

Clean, fresh air. Friendly people.

Looks good to me.

You believe that. You're dreaming.

What? Corruption?

Mugging? Murder? Suicide?

Living in a city full of crazies that doesn't get to you?

You think that's the answer?

As a matter of fact, I do.

A place where you know everybody and everybody knows you.

People give you the time of day and look out for each other instead of always

looking out for number one.

You know what you sound like?

Know what?

A damn fool writer.

A nipped in the bud, oh, so sensitive author of books. Probably never

I got you nailed.

I have some stories being considered.

You see, by God, I spot them every time.

Bleeding hearts of their heads buried in the past.

Think the solutions to life's problems are waiting around that bend on small

town front porches, hogwash.

Son, there's no answers out there.

Nothing but boring people and boring houses and boring jerkwater junctions.

I'll take the ride race any day, thank you very much.

I think otherwise.

Well, hell, if you think, why not ask?

I mean, next town comes up.

Stop the train, jump off, and meet the wonderful folks in your rural paradise.

Go on. Do it.

I believe me. I've thought of it.

Sure.

Someday, huh?

Someday.

But right now, you haven't got the guts.

Because if you did, you'd grab your suitcase and jump off this train the

time we come to you.

Excuse me.

What's the name of the next town we come to?

That'd be, uh, Erewhon.

But no one gets off there.

No? Hang on.

Well, no one until now.

Thank you.

Am I?

You're locked. You'll need it.

I'm as boring as hell.

Where do you want to get out?

Well,

in a row.

Out.

Thank you.

Hi, how you doing?

Say, I wonder, um, I decided to drop in on your town here kind of as far as the

moment. Probably staying a couple of days. Would you be able to steer me to a

rooming house in town? Something with a bed and breakfast, maybe?

No? I'll be able to find something, I'm sure.

Um, do you have a locker here or something where I can keep my bag and

Quote while I find a place to stay.

All right. Thank you.

Hi.

What do you think you're doing?

I'm, uh, trying to get a drink.

I've never seen you before.

Well, I've never seen you before either.

Might as well quit banging on that thing. It's broken already.

Hello there, young lady.

Is your mother home?

Mommy!

Good

afternoon,

ma 'am.

I see you have a room for rent. Is it possible? Sorry, room's rented.

Oh.

Okay. Thank you.

Hey, fellas.

What's that?

What time's the next train stop here?

It don't.

Oh, sir, what does that mean? What do you... It comes here about 10 o 'clock,

but it doesn't stop unless you see a flare out on the track.

You're leaving us already, are you?

Thank you.

Been a long time.

Long time.

Me waiting at that station platform.

Who were you waiting for?

You.

I'm sorry, have we ever met? Do you know me?

Didn't say I did.

You said I was waiting.

I'm surprised you're here at last, that's all.

Surprised?

And pleased.

How long were you sitting at the station platform?

Twenty years, give or take a few.

Twenty years waiting for me.

Or someone like you.

What do you think of our town?

Uh, it's nice.

What do you think of our people?

Quiet.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Nice and quiet.

You know, when I retired, 20 years ago.

Set my chair down on that railway station back there.

And I've been sitting there ever since.

Sitting and waiting.

Waiting for something to happen.

Didn't know what. Couldn't say.

When it happens, I said to myself, I'll know it.

I'll know it just as soon as I see it.

And I say, yes, sir.

That's it.

That's what I've been waiting for.

Train wreck?

No. Old girlfriend come back to town after 50 years?

No.

Right now, it seems to have something to do with you.

Well, I don't know what you're talking about, really, but I don't see how it

can.

I'm just passing through. It's a spur -of -the -moment kind of thing, you

Do you know anything about your insides?

Maybe my stomach or psychologically?

That's it.

That's what I mean.

What goes on up there in your head?

In your mind?

You know much about that?

A lot.

Mostly pretty basic.

Tell me.

Did you, uh, hate many people in your time?

Some.

Well, there's nothing wrong with hate, is there? I mean, we all do it.

But even more than a hate, didn't you sometimes think you'd like to hit

for hurting it?

Or maybe even kill them, eh?

You know, I don't think there's anybody who hasn't felt that at one time or

another.

But, you know, you hide it away.

Sure. All your life you hide it away.

Father and mother tell you what's right, what's wrong.

School says this, the town says that. Law says such and such.

Pretty soon you put away all those thoughts of hitting and killing.

By the time you get to be my age, there's an awful lot of yells and

blood.

The lost killings stored up here between the ears.

Not a way in the world to get rid of them.

No way to work them out of your system.

I've got a bottle stored in here.

Come on. Let's have a nip.

I'm talking about the ones that don't.

For instance, me.

I'm insulting them, those bodies, and putting them on ice in my head all my

life.

You know, you know, there are times when I think I hate everybody in this whole

damn town.

Oh, yeah.

standing in my way, making me save up all my nightmares.

Oh, just once.

Just once, I'd like to be like one of those old cavemen and pick up my axe and

bash somebody's head in.

Yes,

I know what you mean.

Oh, everybody!

I'd like to do one killing in his life.

You know, just to get rid of that rot in his mind for all the killings

that he never did.

And every once in a while he gets a chance.

You know, somebody runs in front of your car, you forget the brakes, keep going.

Nobody's to blame.

Man just didn't get his foot down on the brake on time.

Mm -hmm.

What really happened, don't we?

Mm -hmm.

You know, the only killing worth doing is one where they can't guess

who did it or how or why, huh?

I had a notion, oh, maybe 18, 19 years ago. I had this

notion, and I've never let go of it.

You see, there's only one train that stops in this town every day.

And it's just the pickup stop.

No one ever gets off.

Now, what if you wanted to kill somebody real bad?

What would you do?

I would go down to that station.

And I would sit there and I would wait.

Patient. Oh, for years.

Until one day, a complete and actual stranger would get off that train.

For no reason. A man who nobody knows.

A man who knows nobody in the town.

Then, only then, would I be certain that I could get up from my

chair.

And I couldn't follow that stranger.

Got him someplace inside alone.

And... Kill him.

Throw him in the river.

Body would be found miles downstream.

Maybe never found at all.

I mean, who would come here looking for this lost, lonely traveler?

He was on his way to somewhere else.

No one noticed him getting off.

idea in a nutshell.

And the time has come at last.

That stranger got off the train and I knew him

right then.

Well, I've said enough.

Yeah, this is incredible.

How very much alike we are.

You and I, our lives, our thoughts.

It's incredible. Just today, I was on the train and I had this thought.

I had this notion.

I thought how perfect it would be. How very perfect it would be if I got off

train in a town where nobody knows me.

And I walked through the town with this revolver.

What do I have in my pocket?

And I find a stranger.

And just like that, kill him and bury him and

no one to know and no one the wiser and no one to get who did the murder ever.

Perfect.

I thought, perfect.

So I got off the train.

How do I know there's a gun in that pocket?

You don't know.

Can't be sure?

No.

No.

That's how it is, huh?

That's how it is.

what you were looking for.