Videodrome

Brian O'Blivion:
The battle for the mind of North America will be fought in the video arena - the Videodrome.

Barry Convex:
You'll forgive me if I don't stay around to watch. I just can't cope with the freaky stuff.

Max Renn:
I'm looking for something that'll... break through. You know?

Brian O'Blivion:
The television screen is the retina of the mind's eye.

Max Renn:
I want you to stay away from them. Those mondo-weirdo video guys. You know, in some countries, like Argentina, making subversive video is considered a criminal act. They execute people for it. In Pittsburgh... WHO KNOWS?

Max Renn:
Death to Videodrome! Long live The New flesh!

Nicki Brand:
I live in a highly excited state of overstimulation.

Brian O'Blivion:
Television is reality, and reality is less than television.

Brian O'Blivion:
I believe that the growth in my head-this head-this one right here. I think that it is not really a tumor... not an uncontrolled, undirected little bubbling pot of flesh... but that it is in fact a new organ... a new part of the brain.

Barry Convex:
I think that you'll find a little SandM will be necessary to trigger off a good healthy dose of hallucinations.

Max Renn:
Have you ever heard of Videodrome?

Masha:
Video what?

Max Renn:
Videodrome. Like video circus, video arena.

Masha:
No.

Max Renn:
It's just torture and murder. No plot, no characters, very realistic. I think it's the next thing.

Masha:
Then God help us all.

Max Renn:
Better on T.V. than on the streets.

Brian O'Blivion:
After a while, I started hallucinating, and developed a tumor. I believe the visions caused the tumor, and not the other way around.

Nicki Brand:
Got any porno?

Max Renn:
You serious?

Nicki Brand:
Yeah. It gets me in the mood.

Nicki Brand:
What's this? "Videodrome"?

Max Renn:
Torture. Murder.

Nicki Brand:
Sounds great.

Max Renn:
Ain't exactly sex.

Nicki Brand:
Says who?

Max Renn:
Have you been hallucinating lately?

Max Renn:
Yes, you should be.

Brian O'Blivion:
After all, there is nothing real outside our perception of reality, is there?

Max Renn:
I am the Video Word made Flesh.

Masha:
Videodrome. What you see on that show, it's for real. It's not acting. It's... snuff TV.

Max Renn:
I don't believe it.

Masha:
So... don't believe.

Max Renn:
Why do it for real? It's easier and safer to fake it.

Masha:
Because it has something... that you don't have, Max. It has a philosophy, and that is what makes it dangerous.

Harlan:
I don't work with you for the money.

Max Renn:
I know that. With pirates, it's never just for the money, is it?

Barry Convex:
Why would anybody watch a scum show like Videodrome? Why did you watch it, Max?

Max Renn:
Business reasons.

Barry Convex:
Sure, sure... what about the other reasons? Why deny you get your kicks out of watching torturing and murder?

Brian O'Blivion:
Max, I'm so glad you've came to me. I've been through it all myself you see. Your reality is already half video hallucination. If you're not careful, it will become total hallucination. You'll have to learn to live in a very strange new world... I had a brain tumour and I had visions. I believe the visions cause the tumour and not the reverse. I can feel the visions coalsce and become flesh. Uncontrollable flesh. But when they removed the tumour, it was called Videodrome. I was the-- I... I... was... Videodrome's... first victim...

Max Renn:
Who's behind it? What do they want?

Nicki Brand:
I want you, Max. You.

Prof. Brian O'Blivion:
The television screen has become the retina of the mind's eye. That's why I refuse to appear on television, except on television. Of course, O'Blivion was not the name I was born with. That's my television name. Soon all of us will have special names, names designed to cause the cathode ray tube to resonate.

Prof. Brian O'Blivion:
The battle for the mind of North America will be fought in the video arena — the videodrome. The television screen is the retina of the mind's eye. Therefore the television screen is part of the physical structure of the brain. Therefore whatever appears on the television screen emerges as raw experience for those who watch it. Therefore television is reality, and reality is less than television.

Harlan:
North America's getting soft, padrone. And the rest of the world is getting tough. Very, very tough. We're entering savage new times, and we're going to have to be pure... and direct... and strong... if we're gonna survive them. Now, you and this, uh, cesspool you call a television station... and, uh, your people who wallow around in it... and, uh, your viewers... who watch you do it— you're rotting us away from the inside. We intend to stop that rot.

Harlan:
Your head, we have you head in the box.

Barry Convex:
You know me and I sure know you, everyone.