Original subtitles

NARRATOR: In the city of Betaville, in the near future,

the technology we developed confronts us.

The science we created seduces us.

But will our dreams of tomorrow be turned into a nightmare?

Welcome to Paradox.

[theme music]

Be careful what you wish for.

Nothing is impossible anymore.

At Betaville University, the powers that be

think Ovid Brazil is a dangerous man.

Ovid is a researcher of the human mind.

His offense?

A new way of healing human pain.

The erasing of memory.

But Ovid has some painful lessons of his own to learn.

Terrible memories may seem best forgotten.

But if we are all the sums of our experience,

what do we become without them?

WOMAN [ON INTERCOM]: The Tuesday genetic fusion lab will

be postponed to a later date.

The Tuesday genetic fusion lab will

be postponed to a later date.

Claire, hi.

You didn't forget, did you, Ovid?

It's half past six.

No, I didn't forget.

I just didn't realize it had gotten so late.

I'll be there in about half an hour.

Promise?

Cross my heart.

OK.

Time.

MAN [ON WATCH]: The time is 8:08.

OVID: Claire, I'm home.

Sorry I'm late.

Every single test subject today was a success.

Can you believe it?

It took me this long just to log in all the data.

The pen works.

It erases memories.

It's as simple as that.

Claire.

Claire.

Write down anything you remember, any memory at all.

Go ahead, so you can see what it looks like on the screen.

Anything?

Dumbest thing in the world.

See?

Right there.

That's exactly where it's stored in your memory.

The brain and the hand have been hardwired

together ever since man started using any tool at all.

And the pen utilizes that link up to tap directly

into the memory that you write.

And erase it?

No, no, no, it doesn't erase it.

It cuts the connection.

It's not that the memory is gone.

It just can't be accessed.

And it feels like it's been taken from your mind

and left on the slate.

And what if somebody wants it back.

No one's wanted it back in over 100 trials.

Well, something about this whole thing

makes me very uncomfortable.

What's the matter with helping people who can't deal

with what they've been through?

You think endless talk therapy is any better?

If it's so good, why haven't you tried it?

Who needs it more than you?

You're torturing yourself, Ovid.

And do you honestly think that helping other people to forget

is going to change the way that you feel?

I can't risk losing what little of Claire I have left.

Dr. Brazil.

Thank god I found you.

Mr. Steele, whoa.

What's going on?

Thought it would be better without always

having to be reminded of--what?

God, I don't even know.

Don't you get it?

I don't know.

I don't know who I am like this.

You got to give me back what you took from me.

OVID: Mr. Steele, you realize this is a--

an experimental procedure.

I signed your consent form, didn't I?

Yes, but there may be some side effects--

Will we just get started?

Of course.

Mr. Steele, this is called amylin.

It'll repair the connections in your mind that were broken.

Hold still, slight push.

OK.

Now, the words coming across the screen in your glasses

is the memory.

I want you to read it back to yourself,

and then that memory will become part of you again.

It was the day after my boy David was born.

I was on the way to work when the phone rang.

I ran back inside to answer it.

[screaming]

Mr. Steele.

David.

Mr. Steele?

No, David.

Mr. Steele, come on.

Thought I'd come and give you a hand.

I'm done.

Anything new from the board?

Yes, they said I was lucky they didn't prosecute.

He was so desperate.

What else could I have done?

There was a problem with your idea that just removing memory

can ever solve anything.

Well, I still believe it can.

And if the medical establishment doesn't think so,

I'll just go make my own place.

Yeah.

This-- this may sound crazy, but whenever

I-- whenever I hear sirens, I think

that they're coming for me.

OVID: There's nothing crazy about that

at all Ms. Wong Smith.

OK, but sometimes--

sometimes, I, um, I even hear them when

they're-- they aren't there.

OVID: It's not unusual for feelings

of terrible killed to be accompanied

by symptoms of paranoia.

What exactly do you feel so guilty about?

No.

I heard that all you had to do was write it down and it

was gone, that you didn't-- you didn't-- you

didn't have to say.

Of course.

I'm no talk therapist.

It's just that talking about the memory

helps clarify whether or not you really want to lose it.

I know.

I really know that I want to lose it, all right?

So just don't you worry about that.

Very well.

There's, um, just one other thing.

Yes?

I don't have a lot of money, and I heard

that this can be expensive.

Just pay me what you can.

All right.

Rudy, can you watch the desk while I'm gone, please?

What should I say if anyone comes in?

Have them fill out a patient profile and tell them

I'll be right back.

Right.

RWANDA: There was this horrible cursing and screaming.

I could hear him hitting her, and she

was begging him to stop.

Ma?

[laughter]

Come on, Rwanda.

Come on, sweetie.

Give daddy a little kiss, ah.

Daddy loves you, huh.

RWANDA: Hey, Dr. Brazil?

Yes?

OK, I feel--

I feel so different, you know, so happy, but I--

I can't remember why.

Well, if you could, we'd know we failed.

RWANDA: Yeah, right, of course.

Say, is it always so empty here?

Depends on the time of year.

More patients in winter.

BIRD: More patients in winter-- winter--

winter-- more patient-- winter.

Hey, that's my bird.

Yeah, it has chips in it that tell fortunes.

I just got it over at the open market.

Say, you wouldn't want it, would you?

No.

No, no thank you.

RWANDA: No, really, go on, it's a present, right,

because you're so nice to me.

I mean, there is something right about you

owning a fortune telling bird.

Erase the past, know the future.

It makes sense, right?

Well, if you insist, thanks.

RWANDA: Don't worry, I'll still bring

you the money when I have it.

BIRD: We failed.

Well, if you could, we fail-- failed.

I feel-- I feel--

I feel-- makes sense, right?

Make sense-- make sense, right?

Make sense, right?

There was this-- there was this hor--

there was this horrible cursing--

there was this horrible-- cursing and screaming.

Erase the past, know the future.

OVID: Rudy, what are you doing here so late?

This thing keeps on talking when nobody asks.

Saying crap that don't make no sense.

Or it's just loose and shorting out, cheap back way import.

That's why it was talking in her purse.

I think that was a random sample off a word list.

Comes out sounding deep if it's wired up right.

Didn't know you knew about this kind of stuff.

When you can't buy new, got to.

What are you doing hanging around here so much for anyway,

Rudy?

Waiting for you to ask.

What do you mean?

Just seems like you're doing a good thing here, Dr. Brazil.

Just want to help out.

If you want to come back and take a look at my monitor,

I can't get anywhere with it.

I'll get my kit.

I'm looking for an Ovid Brazil.

You found him.

I understand you do memory work.

That's right.

FRANK: Who is that?

It's my assistant, Rudy.

You have nothing to be afraid of, I assure you, Mr--

Daskin, Frank Daskin.

I understand that you had trouble a few years back.

Trouble? What do you mean?

FRANK: Well, you got thrown out of the Psychiatric Institute

for doing the exact same thing you do right here.

If that's what you heard, then why did you come?

You ride the shrink go around for long enough,

then it comes to the point where you've

tried just about anything.

You know, I figure a man who sticks to what he believes,

like you, is a man who's worth checking out.

Does that mean you want to make an appointment?

How about right now?

Rudy here is making some repairs on the equipment.

Uh, just--

You know, I've--

I've done things in my life that I can't live with any longer.

Well, everything should be fixed in the morning.

You can come back then.

And for yourinformation, that problem

that you're referring to is something

that I solved years ago.

How is that?

You wouldn't encounter it unless you

wanted your memories back.

Well, do you want them back?

Some patients find they've made a mistake.

[laughter]

Um, I won't.

BIRD: I understand that you had trouble a few years back.

I understand that you had trouble a few years back.

I understand that you had trouble a few years back.

He looked at me like he could see right through my skin.

No, they're all haunted.

That's why they come here.

So, what kinds of trouble was he

talking about that you got in?

When I first started doing this kind of work,

I didn't know that restoring memory

could traumatize the brain.

I didn't think anybody would want it back.

Makes sense, why would you?

You read it back to yourself.

It comes back too fast, too strong.

One man did.

He never recovered.

He destroyed the memory centers in his brain.

RUDY: I bet that really got to you, huh?

Yeah, it did.

Later on, I realized that if someone else reads it back

to you, he acts like a filter.

You get the memory back, but in a way you can take.

I've heard you.

You read the memories back to them.

Actually, the reading is just the start.

The rest comes through me like a dream.

What if you pull out? They still get hurt?

What happened to that man would happen to them?

But I don't pull out.

That's why you're down here in an alley

and not in some big fancy office downtown.

Yeah.

Well, I'm glad you are.

RWANDA: Dr. Brazil?

Rwanda?

Could I talk to you alone for a minute?

Sure.

BIRD: Waiting for you to ask.

Waiting for you to ask.

Oh.

The bird.

Yes.

It had a loose connection.

What can I do for you, Rwanda?

OK, you know, what you said might happen?

FRANK: Hey.

Did you fix the machinery yet?

Dr. Brazil's with another patient right now.

You tell him I need him right now.

OK.

[slap]

OVID: Everything's going to be all right.

You'll have your memory back in a few minutes.

But then I'm just going to feel like I did before again.

No, I promise, you won't.

Well, why not?

You know I can't stand having it,

I can't stand not having it.

Rwanda, trust me.

Dr. Brazil, that guy Daskin's back.

Did you tell him I'm with a patient?

This guy's crazy, Dr. Brazil.

Can't you just tell him to go away?

I'll be back in a minute.

Mr. Daskin.

What?

I'll be with you as soon as I've taken

care of this other patient.

I've got to see you right away.

Every patient feels he needs the quickest

possible care by the time he decides to come to me.

It'll just be a minute.

OK.

I'm Not talking about feeling bad because I

didn't go to the prom.

I could, uh, read the slate to Ms. Wong Smith,

if you want to take care of Mr. Daskin.

You have to take the amylin.

You do, don't you?

Hey, Dr. Brazil, but I want you.

All you need is for someone to read the memories back to you.

Rudy can do it as well as I can, maybe better.

I'll come back in a couple of minutes to talk.

You all right with this?

I wouldn't have offered.

Sit down, I'll show you what to do.

The room was dark.

He lay on the bed dead drunk, but he was only pretending.

[laughter]

Will anybody see what I write?

Only if you want the memory back,

and it has to be read to you.

Like she's doing with the kid?

Last night, you were certain you'd never feel that way.

I still am.

I'm curious as to how you found out

about my clinic, Mr. Daskin.

An old colleague of yours at the university,

Newman, she said that she heard you were still

working in this part of town.

Of course, Newman.

She was a friend.

Were you a patient of hers?

No.

I-- I was just looking for some information.

I remember everything, but it doesn't hurt the same.

I feel released.

That was utterly brilliant.

What did you do?

Mr. Daskin, I'm with a patient.

Please wait.

Oh, sorry.

Rudy, are you all right?

Yeah.

The memories seem to lose some of their emotional weight

in transfer, that's all, something

like what talk therapy is used to do after many, many years.

Rudy, can you set up another patient for me, please?

What's the matter?

You look like you swallowed some of what she just ate.

You just want to sit down, Mr. Daskin, I'll get you set up.

Don't worry, I'm not going to want mine back.

RUDY: He's been in there a hell of a long time.

OVID: Maybe he's got a lot to write about.

Well, I want to know what.

You don't have to.

Who will, you?

Any nightmare you won't take on?

I understand now.

I understand why the memories come

back and don't feel so bad.

Because all the bad stuff stays with you, things like guilt

and regret, uncertainty about whether they did

the right thing or not, you filter it all out for them,

but it stays with you.

Talk therapies would take years to yield

the same results, if at all.

Not with someone else taking it on himself.

Why didn't you tell me it was like that?

When could I have?

You could have pulled me aside.

You said you wanted to help me.

You said you wanted to be part of this.

You're in this so deep, you don't even know

what's right or wrong anymore.

That Rwanda killed somebody.

It feels like a part of my life now.

That'll fade away.

I wouldn't have let you do it.

Does it fade for you?

All these people, all these years.

People have to have a right to move on with their lives

if they can.

Yeah?

What about you?

What happened to you to make you think you deserve this?

My wife Claire was murdered.

The work gives me a reason to live.

FRANK: Ah.

Do you know this-- this damn bird started talking,

so I couldn't concentrate, all right?

I didn't know how to turn it off.

- Thanks a lot. - Don't mention it.

I'm just getting started.

OK, well, if we can start with one memory at a time

and just work from there, that'd be great.

Gee, you know-- you know, I don't care what people

said about you, Dr. Brazil.

You are a damn genius.

OK, I'm going to be back for sure.

OK, you two have a good night.

Ever think you might have left someone

off the hook who shouldn't be?

BIRD: I smashed in damn near every window in the place

before I remembered I only broke in for the money.

The cat spun like a damn tornado until the fuse

burned down to its tail.

Daskin, Frank.

The cat spun like a damn tornado until the fuse

burned down to its tail.

I smashed damn near every window in the place

before I remembered I had broken in for money.

Ovid, it is you.

Newman.

What are you doing here?

I came here to see you.

Oh.

My god, I can't believe it.

So where have you been?

I'm still working.

I have a practice on the South Side.

Oh, yes, I'd heard that you did.

Actually, I came to ask you about someone who

came to see me there recently.

He said you sent him to me.

That I did?

Frank Daskin.

Frank Daskin?

Oh, yes, now I remember.

We were discussing alternative therapies

at lunch the other day and I mentioned your work.

I'd heard a rumor you were still in town.

So he tracked you down?

He's a therapist here?

Yes.

Did he discuss your work?

No, he came to have a memory eradicated.

What do you mean?

What, for research?

No, as a patient.

Come on, let's go talk in my office.

Oh.

I'm sorry, I forgot they assigned me your place

after you left.

Water under the bridge.

Where's Daskin's office?

It's down the hall, but he's not there right now.

How long has he been working here?

He started graduate studies a few months before you left.

How come I never met him?

Well, you were in different departments.

Did he know who I was?

I don't think so.

He just seemed fascinated by your work.

What's all this about, Ovid?

What about Claire?

Did he ever meet her?

Now, how would I know that?

What does she have to do with it?

I had a dream about her last night,

about the night she was murdered.

It's been a long time.

Well, you never really worked through it, Ovid.

You just worked.

I found a way to restore memories safely, Newman.

I turned myself into a sieve.

I hold everything unbearable, I restore the rest.

They remember at peace, I become full of their horror,

the voices, all the reasons they came

to see me in the first place.

Mhm.

And what does all this have to do with Frank Daskin.

Why were you two talking about me?

We were debating the merits of talking

through the past versus just getting rid of it somehow.

Why?

I think what drives some people mad about when they have

a memory erased is the idea that they've changed their fate

or tempted it, and this terrible unknowing

that hangs over them about what the consequences will be

and when.

Are you talking about your fate?

You always said you'd never use the pen yourself.

And you said I'd never have to.

Burned out my past with my work, that I hid from it

in thousands of other people's.

For, like my patients, I was always afraid

they would come searching, in my case, drawn by all the others,

like flies to other flies.

And then I'd see the true picture of myself.

Ovid, I think you need help.

And if that's why you came here, then I

will do everything that I can--

Daskin frightened me so much that I let someone else read

for me, a boy with no business taking on anything more

than his own life.

My conduct was inexcusable.

It was deplorable.

What do you want me to do?

Nothing.

The day I was afraid of has come.

FRANK: I can't wait.

I got to get rid of the rest of them.

I told you, Dr. Brazil's not here right now.

So you do it.

Once he got rid of one of the memories, the rest of them

became more unbearable.

OK, he's grooming you, I can tell.

Just hook me up, come on.

Mr. Daskin, you're just going to have

to come back another time, OK?

No, no, I don't.

OK, look, I want my memories erased and I

want 'em erased right now.

Do you understand me?

Rudy?

WOMAN: Office files of Frank Daskin require a voice match.

Security code override 2XG811.

WOMAN: Overridden.

Ovid Brazil Memory Clinic.

Promise?

Promise?

Promise?

Promise?

Promise?

Can I help you find something?

There's something I needed to know, Frank.

Why don't you just ask?

I don't understand.

Ovid Brazil came to see me today.

He seemed very peculiar.

He seemed crazy actually.

It was a relief when he left.

But he made me think about something that I

hadn't thought of in awhile.

That night that you first came to my house to talk,

we barely knew each other then.

You said there were a lot of things

you had to get off your chest and you

didn't know anybody else.

Do you remember?

I don't think that has anything to do with you

breaking into my office.

NEWMAN: OK, very upset about a woman

you said you loved, but wouldn't have you.

And we talked about how that happens to all of us

at least once in our lives.

You went away very much relieved by our conversation.

And the next morning, everyone heard about Claire.

I don't know who she is.

Everyone assumed her killer came and went, a nightmare

that no one would ever know.

Well, tell me who she is.

NEWMAN: Don't lie to me, Frank.

Look, I don't know.

No matter how much I want to know, I don't know.

Where were you just now?

What?

Were you at his clinic?

What clinic?

What did he do to you?

Look, stop, stop.

Why don't I remember anything?

What did I do?

What did I do?

Why are you accusing me of these things

I don't know anything about?

Oh.

If you knew how broken and empty I am inside.

Rudy?

What happened?

What do you think?

One of your patients came back, wanted to forget

and I didn't want to help.

Daskin.

And did you help?

Look, I only stuck around to tell you I wasn't

coming back here anymore.

It's all about waiting for somebody like him, isn't it?

That's done something so bad it might nail you hard enough

and give you enough of what you think you deserve.

A guy like that deserves his memories.

Who the hell are you to let him off the hook?

I just want to ask you a few questions.

OK.

OK, OK, what are you grabbing me for?

You-- you and those birds, you look familiar to me.

Yeah, so what?

Wait a minute.

Hey, haven't I seen you before?

Where? Where?

Where?

Easy, easy, um, oh, doctor--

Dr. Brazil's office.

Yes, yes, yes, that's it.

OK, OK.

So if you knew, what do you want?

Please, take me there.

Take me there.

Mr. Daskin, I was hoping you'd come back.

Are you Ovid Brazil?

That's right.

You know, I got the strangest feeling

of having been here before--

and of having known you.

You did.

Yeah, how is that?

It seems you even wrote down the fact that you came here.

Cut to the chase.

This is a memory clinic, Mr. Daskin.

You came here and had some of yours removed.

Why would I do that?

You'd have to have them restored

to know the answer to that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's what I want to do, restore them.

Why?

I-- I hurt a friend without knowing why.

She kept accusing me of things over and over again.

I snapped her neck.

I don't remember anything else.

All right.

Step this way.

Whoa.

Mr. Daskin, I want you to relax now.

Are you ready? - Oh, yes.

OK.

I met her in the park down the street from the apartment

I'd rented.

She was by herself.

She said her husband was at work.

Right away, I knew there was something special about her,

something I liked, something I wanted to destroy.

FRANK: You know, I don't know how anybody could

leave you alone for one second.

My husband is the most wonderful man I know.

I want you to stop bothering me, because, I swear,

if you don't quit, I'm going to go to the police.

[laughter]

Hey, Rwanda, what's up?

Hey, Rudy.

Not feeling down again, are you?

No, it's not that.

It's just some guy just scared me.

Oh, yeah, where'd he go?

RWANDA: Well, OK, he was that-- the creep who was in the clinic

when I was, and he was half out of his mind

looking for Dr. Brazil.

Do you think that I shouldn't have

shown him where the clinic was?

Half out of his mind how?

RWANDA: Practically choked me not being able to remember

the directions.

I mean, he was-- he was like ranting and raving

about somebody named Claire.

Oh, no.

What's going on?

FRANK: Hey, beautiful.

Hey, come on.

Come on.

Come on, step back.

How does it feel now?

You don't reject me.

Come on.

You don't reject me.

You will never reject me again.

I don't know how anybody can leave you alone for one second.

My husband is the greatest man I know.

My husband is the greatest man I know.

How does it feel?

Come on.

I'm going to stab you.

How does it feel now?

Stab you in the heart.

I'll stab you in the heart.

Dr. Brazil.

You didn't kill her, all right?

You didn't kill her.

I'm not going to let you take it for him.

Daskin.

No, I don't want to.

I don't want to.

I don't want to.

I'll stop.

I don't want to.

You don't have to suffer for what he did anymore.

I just have to live with it.

So just write it all down.

Everything you know about the pen and the amylin.

I'll be waiting outside.

All right.

[music playing]

What it is this stuff anyway?

Just some old junk.

Come on, let's go.

Ovid Brazil took on the pain of others to hide from his own.

But buried memories have a way of surfacing

in unexpected ways.

Technology may cure the pain, but it's living

with it that makes us human.

Welcome to Paradox.