Original subtitles

Subtitle by hamonwheat88

My father is a well-known plastic surgeon in Indianapolis, so it was only natural that I go

into a field of science, but I chose a field that may change the future of the human species.

When I arrived at the University of Amsterdam, they thought I was too young to be the

Dr. Benjamin Land whose research papers were starting to be talked about even here.

Three score and ten

70 years says the bible... is the lifespan allotted to mankind.

Medical and technological progress have not substantially increased this lifespan,

But they have put it in the range of more and more people.

As more people live on into old age...

The study of aging demands increasing attention.

I was looking forward to this conference and to meeting my colleague Paul

Linden, but I spent most of it wondering why he was acting so strangely.

We believe we can discover why we grow old and how we can lengthen our lives.

Aging, most of us will agree, is a loss of information.

The old organism lacks the resources to preserve or renew itself.

Is this information lost in the fixed cell or in the cells that should

reproduce or is it lost because of random interference in cell processes?

Can the biological clock be slowed down or stopped?

Or turned back.

I believe that we're on the verge of finding out the answers to these questions and that the lives

of many people sitting here today will be happily prolonged by imminent discoveries in this field.

The next speaker should have been Paul Linden.

Instead we were treated to the academic wit of Professor Van Arte.

Thank you, Dr. Winston.

As Dean of this university, it is my honor to welcome you.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen.

My training was in biology, so we are at least cousins.

I don't mind you, Gerontologist, trying to lengthen my life.

As long as you don't ask me to give up my vices.

He's an old-fashioned biologist.

Yeah, I wonder how I'll get along with wonderboy Dr. Land.

Who's he?

You don't know about Ben Land.

Well he thinks that we're all going to be immortal?

You really believe that?

Yeah, I did a piece on him.

He's not the only one.

Did you see Dr. Paul Linden up on the stage?

He's been sprouting the same things here in Holland.

Who do you think Lang came over the team up with?

With Paul Linden, right?

Did you happen to see how Dr. Linden paled up on the stage?

No.

He was looking up at something and suddenly went gray.

I wonder why he hasn't made a statement?

Because he's either got something, or else he's on the verge.

He could be true.

Let's talk about a breakthrough.

You know what these guys mean by breakthrough?

Somebody's wiped myself if somebody else is by two months.

Perhaps Linden was having trouble verifying his results.

He certainly implied to me he was on the verge of something extraordinary.

Though you never could tell with Paul Linden,

his disdain for scientific jargon made his letters a little vague.

But I knew he had to be serious when he wrote to me

that very soon all of us might be living for as long as he said he like Amsterdam.

Growing old gracefully, renewing ourselves for hundreds of years.

Of course, I wrote back and told him I wouldn't

settle for anything less than immortality.

I didn't get off to a good start.

I forgot to extend my hotel reservation.

And another convention was about to move in.

I suddenly found myself out on the streets

before I'd had a chance to find a place to live.

It's always difficult here.

Holland's a small country.

The university as a housing system have you tried them?

No, I didn't know about that.

Dr. Winston, you gave a magnificent speech.

Excuse me, gentlemen.

Dr. Linden.

Get a bite?

I'm eating.

You can stay at my place.

From tomorrow.

I hate your impose on you.

It will be no trouble at all.

The woman downstairs owns the building.

She'll let you in and give you a key.

Well, if you're sure.

Just for a couple of days.

You can stay longer if you like.

So, what did you think of the conference?

Frankly, I wasn't paying too much attention.

There is something wrong.

No, no.

All right.

See you tomorrow.

Tomorrow I have a feeling I may be tighter.

Good luck.

I was almost angry that he wouldn't discuss his troubles with me.

And then I noticed his thinning hair.

Paul Linden was aging.

I know I'll never forget the sound of his shoes ringing on that marble floor.

In time, those shoes would come to haunt me.

Oh, the moment I saw you...

I knew you were the young man he spoke of.

Oh, really?

You've come to work with Dr. Linden, haven't you?

Yes, that's right.

He's probably gone over to the lab.

I didn't hear him this morning.

It was the last thing he said to me.

Tomorrow I may be tied up.

I must say it was rather bad taste to chose hanging.

He was a doctor.

Could have used pills.

The strange thing to me is that he would do it at all.

Because he wanted to make life well for others.

The two are not necessarily related, Dr. Land.

I suspect some people go into your field

because of a certain fascination with death.

The desire to beat the devil, so to speak.

But to death would usually win such contests, I'm afraid.

You say the devil defeated Paul Linden?

No, I'm speaking generally.

But Paul did have a few personal problems.

I see.

We're still going to tell you us now.

I expect you will to go back to America.

I've thought of that.

But my grant lets me do whatever I like for a year.

If it's alright with you, I'd like to stay on.

At least have a look at his papers.

Good.

That makes you our whole channel policy program now.

You'll need an assistant.

The men don't live in a hands act if you must be told.

I'll get you a boy from the biology department.

This is Pim Henke. He speaks excellent English.

That understands very little about your ontology, I'm afraid.

That's okay.

If you could help me go through his papers.

I hope it's okay with the technical term.

Your biology studies will help him.

But uncle, I thought.

I should have told you, finished my nephew.

Holland is a small country, Dr. Land.

You mentioned that Dr. Linden had personal problems.

Pim.

Would you leave, please.

A year ago, he divorced his wife and she took the children.

He had become involved with a much younger woman.

He was maintaining two households.

He was a constant financial difficulties.

He was consulted for us with pharmaceutical company, I believe,

to make some extra money.

But he had expensive tastes.

His funeral was a simple affair.

There were a few mourners.

His family, some people from the university.

Almost no friends.

No one talked about his motives.

Or that suicide note he forgot to write.

Dr. Bezel.

That man was his assistant for some time.

Cigarette?

No thanks.

Did you see her?

It was the girl.

Why don't you want to meet him, Anna?

I must.

It's very nice.

He was never the same after he met her.

By the way, have you found a place to live?

- Yes, I'm staying at Dr. Linden's place. - Really.

So now I was alone in a strange city,

trying to fall asleep in a dead man's bed,

under the beam ceiling where he hanged himself.

Whereas he was spending his first night in the ground.

Would he miss the table where he used to write?

Or the hum of that awful clock?

I had to be careful.

Or his death might become an obsession.

I fixed up this place for Paul, and he left his wife.

You knew him well, didn't you?

Are you sure you want to stay here?

How much is the rent, Lydia?

Oh, don't worry about that.

I only rent it to friends.

Well, I'll pack his things.

No, don't.

Leave everything just as it is.

Okay.

Dr. Linden's file seemed to be complete up until a year ago.

Then nothing but reports on some mice he was studying.

That strange, what kind of a study was it?

It says about 200 mice.

And does it say what he was feeding them?

I haven't had the chance to read it all.

That reminds me, there was a man here from the feeding department...

asking what you wanted to do about those mice.

- If you don't want to continue to project, he'll destroy them. - Destroy them?

Why?

I think he needs the space.

Ah, here he is.

This is Dr. Linden.

I told him about the feeling of mice.

Ah, Dr. Linden's mice.

Can we see them?

Over there.

Down the stairs and to the right.

Well, you certainly have a lot of room.

We keep all kinds of animals for the university

and these buildings for all the studies.

We just don't have enough space anymore...

with all the scientific experiments.

Pim!

I hear they use mice to study aging because they're like people.

But I don't see any resemblance.

Well, mice are mammals like us.

I thought they used rats.

Some people do.

But it takes longer to get results.

With mice, the entire lifespan is only about two years.

I could swear that some of Dr. Linden's mice have been here longer than that.

Well, here they are.

These are Dr. Linden's mice.

They look young and healthy.

Do you know what he was feeding them?

Just these.

He feed these to all the mice,

was he adding anything to their water?

No.

Do you think he was feeding them something special?

Well, in this last paper, he talked about using an antioxidant

to slow the decay of the cells.

He could have been given it to them either orally or intravenously.

You mean a serum?

Perhaps.

Didn't Dr. Linden ever talk to you about this project?

I never met him.

He always sends his assistant.

Pim, we ought to talk to that guy.

I saw Dr. Linden's picture in the paper when he killed himself.

He seemed very young.

Are you scientists getting younger or am I getting older?

We're all getting older.

Do you really want to kill these mice?

The medical school wants me to find space for 150 rabbits.

I know this is a small country, Dr. Land.

I don't want them destroyed.

What about a room in the back of our office?

He could put him in there.

Then we'd have to feed them.

I don't mind.

I like mice.

I hate them.

- I hope they like their new home. - Yeah.

Well, say thank you to Dr. Land for saving your life.

It's purely selfish.

Maybe they'll save mine.

Do you think someday we'll have a death control pill?

You're making a joke.

But we're further along than you think.

You mean it's really possible?

Pim, scientists all over the world are working on this problem.

And Paul Linden was one of the best.

By the way, I found out about Dr. Linden's position.

His name is Felix Dolder.

And he runs a pharmacy now in the suburbs.

Felix Dolder?

Yes, I saw him at the funeral.

Look.

Same car, same color.

That could have been me.

What about accidents?

Boom, your head sliced off.

That's the end.

You can't prevent that.

I think we can do anything we set our minds to.

But not instant death.

Maybe we can.

Some friends in mind of Caltech are doing a project they call electronic reincarnation.

What's this?

They're trying to find a way to feed your personality into a computer.

Record your life experiences.

So they have a matrix of you.

And if you died, they'd feed into a new body.

Right!

But it would be a copy.

It wouldn't be you.

It's better than nothing.

It won't happen in our lifetime.

That depends on what you call a lifetime.

Isn't Bibi Kitterman a fool?

You could have been there to Caltech.

You say?

You find him in a church.

This is my hobby.

I'm glad I have time now for good things like this.

Mr. Dolda, I wanted to ask you about Dr. Linden's research.

Shall we talk about that outside?

Not in the house of God.

Was Dr. Linden's work offensive to God?

Perhaps it will offend the devil.

Devil, people seem to mention the devil quite often today here.

Do you think the devil removed Dr. Linden's research papers, Mr. Dolda?

Oh, call me Felix, Dr. Land, please.

Felix, you assisted Dr. Linden at the university.

Oh, I wouldn't say assisted death too much.

I was more like a stable boy.

I used to clean out his mouse cages.

Well, Felix, that's very disappointing.

I was hoping you could tell me why some of his papers are missing.

Oh, the work I did for Dr. Linden had nothing to do with his papers.

Well, thanks anyway.

Goodbye.

I began to wonder if someone wasn't toying with me.

Leaving me just enough clues to feed my curiosity.

Nothing of any scientific interest had been left in his apartment.

As I patted around the place, I knew I wouldn't

need to make more than a casual search.

All I was being allowed to know about Paul Linden

was that he was keeping some mice and a girl.

The picture was displayed almost to invitingly.

Pretty.

But would he have killed himself over her?

I decided to ignore her for the time being and

continue to badger people about his work.

He was usually involved in several projects.

I know for instance if a study was doing in an old

age home, only this moment the director called me.

I have to go out there. Why don't you join me so we can chat?

If you only study aging in a laboratory, you forget a human reality.

I wonder if Linden completed this study.

I have no idea.

You'll find out for the director.

No.

I'm afraid Dr Linden's study was interrupted.

There are many things here by death.

You say he abandoned it?

He had to.

We had an influenza epidemic.

I'm afraid many of the people taking part died.

It was chaos here.

This isn't a hospital, Dr. Land.

It's just a place for those who are alone.

Who cannot take care of themselves.

We just try to make the last days comfortable.

They were so fond of Dr. Linden.

He would come with his little boxes and blocks to test them.

To them it was a game.

There was one woman she said to him, I want to play the game.

And then he recognized her.

She was once the cleaning lady in his building.

And now she was here.

So he used her also in his study.

For her.

It was a visit from a friend.

Did he tell you the purpose of his study?

He tried to explain.

I believe he was measuring the loss of coordination between the hand and the eye.

I remember feeling admiration and a kind of envy for Paul Linden.

I couldn't have worked in a place like this.

The sight of old people reminds me of my own death.

I was anxious to get back to the lab,

especially because in my absence, Pim had been translating a few papers we'd found.

I've been over the records of Dr Linden's mice.

And you know it's amazing.

They're over four years old.

What? Are you sure?

Yeah.

You see?

It says they're all born in the same month.

But that's twice the average life span.

They should have been dead two years ago.

And he just abandoned this project?

Why didn't he publish the results?

We'd better run some tests on these mice.

It's an activity meter pin.

Every time the mice move it registers.

I explained to him that the activity meters

would give us some indication of whether the mice

were showing any effects of their advanced age.

These instruments also keep experimental animals under observation at night,

when mice are most active.

By morning it appeared that Linden was even further ahead than I had ever imagined.

This is incredible.

They're showing the activity level of very young animals.

Let's put them in the maze and check their learning capacity.

If you were that mouse, you could take up Greek at

the age of 140 and still be the first in your class.

How did Linden do it?

Nothing in the feed.

Nothing in the water.

I checked all the water bottles.

No traces of anything.

And no needle marks.

So he wasn't giving any injections.

He could have been.

The marks would have disappeared by now.

He had to be given them something.

Too bad those mice couldn't talk.

I was now ready for someone who could.

Anna.

The dark lady of Linden's life.

Fortunately, old Lydia was about to have a birthday party downstairs.

Oh, well.

Yeah.

Especially for you, Ben.

This year I don't lie about my age.

Well, happy birthday, Lydia.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Paul was in excellent health.

I was the Linden's family doctor.

I examined him this summer.

Of course, when they found him,

I asked to have a look at the body.

I thought they might have missed something.

His health was very good.

But why would he hang himself?

Paul had a touch of the macabre.

You found him, didn't you?

Perhaps he was trying to tell you the price of failure.

Why do you ask so many questions about Paul?

Well, if you don't mind, I've got one for you.

Do you know where he kept his papers?

Some of them are missing.

You mustn't talk about Paul all of the time.

She doesn't need to be reminded of him every moment.

Anna, do you know the story of the woman of Ephesus?

No.

Who was she?

She was a very proper lady of ancient Rome.

And when her husband died, she mourned for him all the time.

And one day, when she was weeping at his grave,

a soldier came by and offered her something to eat.

And then she made love to the soldier.

If wish somebody had told me that story when my husband died.

And by the end of the decade, we may see a lifespan of well over 100.

But do we really want to go on living forever?

No, no, that's not the point.

There isn't enough room.

We're too crowded already.

Because we breed too much.

Take an elephant.

It has a long lifespan and few offspring.

Now a mouse.

Lydia, the elephants.

Oh, you must do the thing with the elephants.

Yes, Lydia.

The people at the zoo told me not to.

Oh, please.

That's more likely.

Come on, Lydia.

All right, then.

I'll do it once more.

Ben, come to go.

I'll get the horn for you, Lydia.

Come on.

Come on.

Come on.

Come on.

I think I know what you put in the cake.

What's that, Lydia?

No, it was the elephant.

Can't you tell after all these years?

This is something we'll like to do.

That mating call was intended for the elephants.

But I got the message.

Anna wanted to be alone with me.

And since everyone pretended not to notice.

I'm sorry.

I wanted to see this place again.

We did that stupid thing with the elephants.

The night I met Paul.

Did you?

Do you believe that story about the woman in the soldier?

Are they together now?

No.

It's mine.

It's private.

I'm sorry.

What did you think it was?

Paul's papers.

I don't know anything about his work.

Maybe he didn't want anybody to have his papers.

I didn't want anyone to have these.

Did Paul take those pictures?

Yes.

He used to call it his double helix knot.

Isn't that something to do with a secret of life?

Oh, why do I always enjoy the same things as the man I'm with?

The bicycle ride was my idea.

Of course, she'd seen the windmills before in different company.

We promised ourselves that we wouldn't let him come between us that day.

Aren't they fantastic?

They can go in a straight line for miles that way.

Paul told me they've been using the same method for centuries.

I thought we weren't going to mention Paul Linden.

Well, it is difficult to ignore him.

Of course it is.

Some people say that he killed himself because he was too old

and he was afraid of losing me to a younger man.

Did he?

I'll let you know.

She didn't seem to realize I was using her.

And it didn't cross my mind that she might be using me.

Oh, I'm tired. Can't we take a taxi home?

Did those pictures excite you?

Yes, but I don't want to try that, Anna.

Of course you do.

Yeah, well, if I had a rope.

But the late Dr. Linden used up all the rope in the house.

Why don't you look in the closet under your college sweater?

Of course, I could say I did it for science.

But that would only be half true.

How's it go now?

Cross in the front.

Like that?

Uh-huh, tighter.

Yeah.

Tighter.

Tighter.

All I learned from Anna was who gave Linden the rope.

But if she didn't know anything more about his work,

than double helix knots, I'd have to go back to his mice.

I've never liked doing what I had to do next.

Do we have to kill it?

My last step was to immerse the sample in a solution.

And then for the second time, this ordinary lab

played host to a great scientific discovery.

There seems to be a membrane.

It's like a coating around the cells.

Wait, I want to get a closer look at this.

It's thick enough.

It could be to protect the cell against radiation.

What has radiation got to do with it?

Yeah.

Nobody quite knows why we age Pim.

One of the theories is that it's caused by radiation coming through the atmosphere.

Every living thing seems to have a clock inside it.

It looks now as if this clock runs on the radiation

that comes through the atmosphere all the time.

Radiation slowly messes up the cells.

It's allowed to mess them up, so to speak.

We're all programmed to die Pim,

but maybe we can change that program or protect ourselves against it.

That's what Linden seems to have done to his mice.

If we only think of aging as a disease, we'd find a cure for it.

We must show this to my uncle.

I've never seen anything like it.

It means Linden's found a way to stop aging.

Maybe permanently.

Only in mice, Dr. Land.

Then it can't be far off for us.

I hope you were wrong.

It would be a disaster.

Overpopulation, starvation.

It would be the end of this planet.

Or the beginning of a new civilization.

Come on, Dr. Land.

Sooner or later, we all have to surrender our places to others.

And the more gracefully we do it, the better.

I refuse to believe it.

It's incredible.

It's too big.

If this is true.

What's wrong? What are you doing?

Tell us, please.

He is dying.

Alright be quiet, Pim! Please.

Van Arp was so angered by immortality.

It almost killed him.

And he was so furious with me that he even refused the kiss of life.

I can't move my leg.

I had to move fast now.

Van Arp wouldn't be in the hospital forever.

Hoe gaat het vandaag? Dit is El Leon.

Anna, it's for you.

Can you take care of this?

Hello?

Oh, it's you.

I don't know.

Why don't you come and get me?

Make it snappy, please.

I'll ask for the afternoon off then.

All right?

Okay, see you later.

Bye.

If only Anna would realize what this meant to me.

- Ben, what are you doing? - Anna, did you lie to me?

Paul must have told you something about his work.

You mean you came here just to talk about that?

Look, he was really on to something.

Ben, I'm in a hurry.

I've got to talk to you.

Can we see each other later?

No.

I have to meet somebody.

Listen, I have to live my own life too.

Don't be like Paul.

Please.

What would Linden have done?

Followed her home to see who she was meeting.

And Linden wouldn't have wanted her to know he was watching.

So I too looked for a quiet spot where she couldn't see me.

Coming.

You too?

Huh, Dr. Land?

I remember seeing poor Dr. Linden...

standing in that very spot many times,

take the advice of an old family doctor.

Don't make the same mistake as Linden.

Don't ask Anna about the Swiss man.

The Swiss man.

This was something new.

Everyone was so helpful.

They didn't want me to retrace Linden's footsteps.

But weren't they in fact leading me on?

I remember Van Arpe mentioned something about Linden in a Swiss pharmaceutical firm.

And here was an expensive car with Swiss plates.

OK, Anna, let's hear it.

I like him.

Ah.

Tell me more about this.

He's so different.

He can tell from my heartbeat when his fingers are doing the right thing.

Oh, Dr. Land.

Who's the Swiss man, Anna?

You've been spying on me.

Paul used to spy on me too.

From the chess bar, right?

Um hmm.

Until they kicked him out.

They said he always looked so miserable by the window that

he was ruining their chess games.

After that, he started watching my house from the Anne Frank museum.

The Anne Frank Museum turned out to be just across the street from Anna's house.

Excuse me.

Excuse me, please.

Anne Frank and her family hid for three years in a small loft.

And this was their secret entrance.

Will you now follow me, please.

Anne Frank collected movie stars.

Where's Anne Frank?

Here's Anne Frank.

There's Ginger Rogers.

Excuse me.

Coming here, like this fisherman bag or something.

Oh come on, Dad.

Look at this.

It's collective insanity.

That's what it was.

Hitler was crazy.

Hitler was crazy.

It's as simple as that.

Look at this, for instance.

The Nazis measured noses.

If it was big, you were a Jew.

Really?

Well, we forget.

We forget the Nazis were obsessed with their idea of the Thousand Year Reich.

The superior race.

But dad.

Dad.

So they justified packing human beings and concentration.

This is.

People with their brains cut open.

Maybe while they were still alive for medical experiments.

Daddy.

Listen, you know those pictures are for sale downstairs?

I know. Come on. Let's go.

Oh, can we buy some?

Why?

We can take some back with us.

I want to show my friends.

They are so fond of Dr. Linden.

He would come with his little boxes and blocks to test them.

To them it was a game.

There was one woman.

She said to him, I want to play the game.

And then he recognized her.

She was once the cleaning lady in his building.

And now she was here.

So he used her also in his study.

I had the strangest dream.

Was it about me?

I dreamt at Poland and was with some people from the old age home.

But it was in a concentration camp.

One of them was his old cleaning lady.

Mina Hochstra.

Old Mina.

What was he doing with her?

Medical experiments.

That's what he was doing with all of them.

It doesn't make any sense.

No.

Of course not.

It was a dream, wasn't it? Mm-hmm.

I wish you'd forget about Paul.

I've forgotten it all.

Everything.

I've forgotten him completely.

Well, that was quick.

What beautiful roses.

Yes, they are.

They're unusual.

Where did you buy them?

Oh, in a little shop near the station.

They wouldn't be Swiss roses, would they? All right.

Alright.

So the Swiss man sends me roses every day.

So what?

And did he also pay for Paul's experiments?

Yes.

No.

I don't.

Did he? I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

Ben, I don't want you to get mixed up in all that business.

So... I had caught her in a lie.

She was probably keeping her Swiss friend informed of my every move.

That suited me fine.

Let him know what I was up to.

I made a point of telling Anna that I was headed

back to the old age home to ask a few questions.

Of course I remember you.

You came here with Professor van Arp.

How can I help you, Dr. Land?

You told me about that experiment of Dr. Lindons.

Do you have a list of the people who took part?

Of course.

It will be in the file.

That's strange.

Doesn't seem to be here.

I wonder who could it?

Is it possible that someone has taken this file?

It's possible.

But why?

You have a lot of funerals here.

Yes, I'm afraid so.

Especially during that influenza epidemic.

When did it happen?

About three months ago.

But what if they did die of influenza?

How can we be sure?

We could dig up a grave.

Are you mad?

I have to clean up these mouse cages.

Here I'll help you.

All we need is a sample of tissue from one of those graves.

We'll never get permission for that.

How do you think they managed in the early days of medicine?

Doctors have to steal a corpse in order to study anatomy.

They didn't ask permission.

But which grave? We can't dig up the whole cemetery.

Lindons cleaning lady.

She was in the experiment.

Her name was Mina Hochstra.

Give me the scalpel, Pim.

I don't know? he scalpel.

No!

Yeah, that's it.

I was too scared to look dead in the face.

And a piece of a leg would do just as well.

The stench was getting to me despite my mask.

Give me the slide, Pim.

I'd never be the same after that site.

They don't show you rotting corpses in medical school.

I admire his style.

Look, the same rings we found in the mice.

I wonder what the hell he used.

The professor testing drugs on old people.

My uncle will be deeply shocked.

He respected Paul Linden.

He must have felt it had a chance of working.

Or he wouldn't have done it.

This is going to cause a terrible scandal.

Maybe he got the dosage wrong.

I wonder how many died.

What did you do last night?

I was on top of the church tower.

The church tower?

Watching my lover make a fool of himself.

So we're good?

OK

- Thank you. - You bet.

Anna.

I thought of everything now.

Okay, so you have.

I'm done playing ignorant.

I don't think there's any need to make a big scene now.

Is there? Please.

Get in the car.

I'll take you.

In the Swiss man's car?

It's a nice car.

Well, did you remember when Dr. Linden used to live?

Yes, Missus.

How many did Paul kill?

Nine, I think.

Oh, maybe it was nineteen.

Does it shock you?

Well, if you told me before, it would have saved time.

I know where to keep my mouth shut.

I want to meet the Swiss man.

He wants to meet you, too.

I'll arrange it if you insist.

Tomorrow, she said he would be visiting his favorite antique store.

I was being granted an audience.

How much you want for that?

Through here.

I think that's one of the best pieces in my shop.

Hello.

Oh, Nicholas Ulrich Dr. Land.

We should have met sooner.

Max, leave us alone.

Lyndon worked for a Swiss firm, I'm told.

Yes.

It is an old established one.

What was he testing for you?

You mean on mice?

I mean on people.

Why didn't it work?

Careful, Ben. He's a monster.

Shut up Anna.

What you think of this?

Max claims this mask was used in 37,

when Faust was performed for the Nazis.

All Amsterdam dealers are thieves.

Can we please talk about Lyndon?

The pity is... the poor fool killed himself too soon.

He never found out... he had succeeded.

What?

He said they would all die.

But didn't they?

Why don't you go back to the old age home

and ask about Emile van der Lutte.

- Emile van der... - Just ask for Emile, who plays the piano.

You won't need your assistant.

There are no graves to dig up this time.

No, they are very sensitive about that in Holland.

At first I dreaded going back to that house of the almost dead.

I was beginning to ask myself if all this

exposure to the horrors of the aging process

might not be affecting my mind.

But the visit turned out to be well worth the risk.

Of course Emile van der Lutte is here... and very much alive.

Years ago he was a concert pianist,

one of the finest in Holland.

Just recently he started playing again.

So, one of them had survived.

Meneer Lutte, I present to you Dokter Benjamin Land.

How'd you do?

Are you American?

Yes, that's right.

I'd like to take a biopsy.

Could you explain to him what that is?

Oh, Biopsy. I know what biopsies are.

From the skin.

Dr. Linden took them many times.

It's not painful.

Did he ever give you injections?

Yes, during the influenza epidemic.

One injection.

But it made me feel wonderful.

What's this all about, Dr. Land?

Dr. Linden's experiments.

I think we should go to my office.

And then in San Francisco,

I played there in '24.

And Philadelphia, at the Academy of Music.

Of course, all that's quite a long time ago.

The second time I went to America was in '27.

On the Mauritania.

You have quite a memory.

What were you playing when I came in?

Oh... Satie.

I studied with him in Paris for a while.

In 1912.

Thank you.

But I was not one of his best pupils.

You do remind me of Dr. Linden.

Really?

All the cells were protected from further deterioration.

This time the membrane had been perfectly formed.

A brilliant young physicist once said to me,

the deeper I go into science, the more I trust in magic.

Shortly after, he went mad.

I told you, I don't want any calls.

No, I have lost my concentration.

Don't be upset.

Come.

No, tell him I insist! It's Dr. Ben Land.

Ah, Dr. Land.

We do have a few things to talk about. Don't we?

Why don't you come over?

Dr. Land isn't going to be as easy as you think.

He's not a pushover like Paul was, you know.

Why don't you help me to get him, Anna?

You don't want to spend your life in a beauty shop.

I don't mind the beauty shop anymore.

You're falling in love with him.

You fell in love with a finger.

Come on, make the bed.

Okay, I will do it myself.

As I went to meet Ulrich at his hotel on that windy October evening,

I couldn't stop thinking about those immortal cells.

What if we all became gods?

Amazing, isn't it, Dr. Land?

You'll never grow any older.

Linden only hit on the right dosage once.

The work isn't finished yet.

The right dosage of what?

You don't expect me to tell you just like that.

Look, I had...

to build a whole new wing at my plant to make this stuff.

It cost me part of my life.

Oh, I'm sure it'll pay off in time.

Time is a one thing I don't have, Dr. Land.

I'm not interested in being an old rich man.

Dr. Land...

I'm looking for a scientist who has the guts to speed up all this research.

You mean Linden's kind of research?

Murder.

Mercy killings, Dr. Land, to end nature's murders.

I think you're my man.

And how much do you think I'm worth Mr. Ulrich?

Why don't we talk about that over dinner.

I only stay in this cheap little hotel because the food is good.

Turkmenistan, Dr. Land.

It's in the south of Russia near the Armenian border.

Some of those people have a healthy sex life at the age of 110.

It's just heredity.

There are dozens of studies.

There's one by the Russian scientist, Rashinsky.

I don't know it.

Of course not.

Rashinsky ended his life in a mad house because of his politics.

He wanted everybody to have long lives.

Not just good party members.

So now only rich businessmen will live longer.

That's hardly better.

I don't care how many people live longer.

I just want to be one of them.

Going on. It is terrible.

It's a disease.

Then help me to perfect the cure.

You still haven't told me what the cure is.

He told me a story I almost believed.

How he'd smuggled Rashinsky's papers out of a Russian

asylum and contracted Linden to finish the work.

Anyway, we both knew what he was leading up to.

But the dose is critical.

I've got to test and test until it's safe.

But that could take years.

Okay, okay, but we must test on people.

Well, what testing are the people?

Only when I say it's safe.

That's my answer.

Then I'm going to give you my answer.

Keep your mouth shut and you can't have the same deed as Linden.

There's a copy of our contract in his files.

I don't have his files.

You took them didn't you?

I will tell Felix to put them back.

But don't expect to find Rashinsky's file in there.

That you can see once we have made our arrangements.

Well, call me when you have made up your mind.

Switzerland is a direct dial.

I'll be at my factory.

I was close to the secret that men have always been looking for.

But like all treasures, this one was guarded by an ogre.

Was it my imagination?

Or was he following me around... mocking me with his offer?

What about testing on people, people, people?

He knew how badly I wanted his treasure,

but he kept it locked away in a factory high in the Swiss Alps.

Don't do it Ben.

I remember when Paul went to Switzerland for the first time.

For the weekend to take a look, he said.

But when he came back, he was a different man.

I'm not gonna kill old people, Anna.

You'll be part of his factory, just like Paul.

I tried to warn you.

Haven't you understood yet?

You're going to be Ulrich's new man.

It was all set up.

I can beat Ulrich at his own game.

No, you can't.

He's too clever. He'll trap you.

You'll be quite helpless.

Ben, don't answer that.

Yes?

Dr. Land, this is Prof. van Arp.

Oh, Professor van Arp, how are you feeling?

Be at my office... tomorrow morning. See you then.

It is very important.

I don't quite understand.

It's too late now.

I see.

Oh, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye.

Can't you tell me what this is about?

Oh, it's so unfair.

The devil always wins.

Yes.

Goodbye, Ben.

Yes, all right, eleven o'clock at your office.

Anna!

A puzzle of a factory... Ulrich's factory in the Alps?

That puzzle wasn't there by accident.

But the events were way ahead of me.

This is Dr. Land, gentlemen.

How could you have done it?

Digging up a grave in the middle of the night.

This gentleman is from the police.

Did you tell them, Pim?

Ben, my uncle says that we made a mistake about Dr. Linden.

He had the absurd idea that the member of our faculty, Dr. Paul Linden

was a mass murderer.

Don't you think I had good reasons?

Or haven't you told them about Dr. Linden's experiments?

I didn't have to.

This gentleman already knew.

I'm from the Ministry of Science, Dr. Land.

I can assure you, we followed very carefully what Dr. Linden was testing.

It concerned a new method of adding a color process

to an anti-influenza vaccine.

So one can check the effectiveness of the vaccine.

People are more interested in a cure for the common cold

than any of your immortality serums.

The process is quite safe.

By the way, it does create a ring-like effect

when viewed under a microscope.

You have been perhaps misled by that.

You made a lot of accusations.

But you've proved nothing.

I never wanted to prove anything.

I wanted to understand why Linden killed himself.

Why don't you dig him up and ask him?

It's my fault, Ben.

I told you the mice were four years old.

They were not even two years old.

My uncle showed me.

I made a mistake reading the record.

No, I did, Ben. Really, I did.

Then someone changed the record, it's not possible.

It is possible, Ben.

Think carefully.

We got at all wrong.

Dr. Land, I knew you were a bit mad.

But now you've turned into a dangerous lunatic.

You went to the old age home.

And you took a biopsy of an old man.

Yes, I did.

You don't deny it.

I knew I shouldn't have let you touch him.

Emile van der Lutte is dead.

What?

That's impossible.

The infection started in his arm where you took the biopsy.

You've killed him.

I couldn't have killed him.

People have so little resistance at that age.

Dr.Land, did you sterilize your instruments...

after you used it to poke around in a graveyard?

Of course I did.

Or did I?

I was in such a rush.

Some people might call you a murderer.

I don't believe you.

You're trying to frame me.

He can't be dead.

I don't believe it.

Let go.

You're mad.

You need a doctor... Dr. Land.

They called for an ambulance.

And under heavy sedation, I was taken to a clean white mental hospital.

I keep thinking about the old piano player.

What if he's really dead?

And then I say to myself,

no, he can't be.

Because I can hear him.

Paul?

How does it feel... to have made your first kill?

It was an accident.

So was mine.

I gave the wrong pills to one of the old dears.

It bothered me for a few days.

You'll get used to it.

Then why did you kill yourself?

Don't worry about it.

Paul, if those people didn't matter to you, why did you kill yourself?

Paul, I've got to know.

Answer me, Paul!

These fantasies about Dr. Linden

must have started before the old man's death.

Ben, I know you didn't mean to kill him.

I'm a psychiatrist.

I want to help you.

Why won't you answer me anymore?

I'm real.

My footsteps are real.

The boy in the next bed is real.

This hospital is real.

But the dead Dr. Linden walking around and talking to you is one of your fantasies.

And you see, Ben, the great danger with fantasies...

is that one can get trapped in them.

I'll see you tomorrow, Ben.

Well, call me when you have made up your mind.

I'll be at my factory.

I finally made that call to Ulrich for the right directions.

Take the express to Geneva, he said...

and then change to a little red alpine train...

that will get you almost up to the factory.

I told Ulrich not to pick me up at the station.

I was going to meet the devil on a mountain top

and I wanted to take my own good time about it.

He'd gotten Linden to sell his soul to him

and now it was my turn.

But I know how to beat him in his own game.

I'm going to work day and night on that formula until I'm sure of the right dosage.

And then I'll try it on myself.

In that dream lab, high in the Alps.

And if it works on me, then Mr. Ulrich will

be the first to line up for the treatment.

Only maybe I won't be so careful when I measure out his dosage.

Unless, of course, I've forgotten about revenge by then.

Because... I'll be immortal.

To me, that's a blessing, not a curse.

We may even have to move off this aging planet in order to survive.

But someday we'll look back and wonder how we ever tolerated life with death.

After all, how can you be satisfied with something that has to end?