Zardoz

Arthur:
It was I! I bred you! I led you!

Zed:
And I have looked into the face of the force which put the idea in your head. You are bred and led yourself.

Zed:
We've all been used and reused...

Friend:
...and abused...

Arthur:
...and amused!

Zardoz:
The gun is good.

Zardoz:
The penis is evil. The penis shoots seeds, and makes new life, and poisons the earth with a plague of men, as once it was. But the gun shoots death, and purifies the earth of the filth of brutals. Go forth and kill!

Zed:
Stay behind my aura!

Consuella:
The brutal is now in fourth hour of unconscious sleep. It's astonishing that Homo Sapiens spends so much time in this vulnerable condition, at the mercy of it's enemies.

Zed:
I want the truth.

May:
You must give the truth, if you wish to receive it.

Zed:
I'm ready.

May:
It'll burn you!

Zed:
Then burn me.

Zardoz:
Zardoz is pleased.

Arthur Frayn:
I am Arthur Frayn, and I am Zardoz. I have lived 300 years, and long to die. But death is no longer possible, I am immortal. I present now my story - full of mystery and intrigue. Rich in irony, and most satirical. It is set deep within a possible future, so none of these events have yet occurred. But they may! Be warned, lest you end as I. In this tale I am a fake god by occupation, and a magician by inclination. Merlin is my hero! I am the puppet master. I manipulate many of the characters and events you will see. But I am invented too for your entertainment and amusement. And you, poor creatures, who conjured you out of the clay? Is God in showbusiness too?

Consuella:
Penile erection was one of the many unsolved evolutionary mysteries surrounding sexuality. Every society had an elaborate subculture devoted to erotic stimulation. But nobody could quite determine how this...

Consuella:
becomes this.

Consuella:
Of course, we all know the physical process involved, but not the link between stimulus and response. There seems to be a correlation with violence, with fear. Many hanged men died with an erection. You are all more or less aware of our intensive researches into this subject. Sexuality declined probably because we no longer needed to procreate. Eternals soon discovered that erection was impossible to achieve. And we are no longer victims of this violent, convulsive act which so debased women and betrayed men. This brutal

Consuella:
, like other primates living unselfconscious lives, is capable of spontaneous and reflexive erection. As part of May's studies of this creature, we're trying to find, once again, the link between erotic stimulation and erection. This experiment will measure autoerotic stimulation of the cortex, leading to erection.

Zed:
What is it you want?

Friend:
Sweet death. Oblivion.

Zed:
For yourself, or for the whole Vortex?

Friend:
For Everybody. An end to the human race. It has plagued this pretty planet for far too long.

Zed:
You stink of despair. Fight back! Fight for death, if that's what you want.

Friend:
I thought at first you were the one to help. But it's hopeless. All my powers have gone.

May:
Friend, I cannot sanction this violence and destruction.

Friend:
It's too late, May. There's no going back.

May:
Don't destroy the Vortex! Let us renew it. A better breed could prosper here. Given time -

Friend:
Time? Wasn't eternity enough?

Zed:
This place is against life. It must die.

May:
I have my followers. Inseminate us all, and we'll teach you all we know. Give you all we have. Perhaps you can break the Tabernacle. Or be broken.

Friend:
An end to eternity.

May:
A higher form.

Zed:
Revenge.

Friend:
Arthur! We've all been used...

Arthur Frayn:
...and reused...

Friend:
...and abused...

Arthur Frayn:
...and amused! [laughs]

Zardoz:
Zardoz speaks to you, his chosen ones. You have been raised up from brutality, to kill the brutals who multiply, and are legion. To this end, Zardoz your god gave you the gift of the gun. The gun is good.

Exterminators:
The gun is good.

Zardoz:
The penis is evil. The penis shoots seeds, and makes new life, and poisons the earth with a plague of men, as once it was. But the gun shoots death, and purifies the earth of the filth of brutals. Go forth and kill!

Zed:
It’s a trick! A trick!

May:
What was a trick? Tell me.

Zed:
Zardoz said "stop". He said, "no more".

May:
No more what?

Zed:
No more killing.

May:
He told you to take prisoners?

Zed:
Yes.

May:
To make slaves?

Zed:
Yes.

May:
To cultivate instead of kill?

Zed:
Yes.

May:
To grow wheat?

Zed:
Yes!

May:
Did you need wheat?

Zed:
No! We ate meat! Zardoz betrayed us. We were hunters, not farmers!

May:
Your friends were mutants, too?

Zed:
Yes.

May:
You had a plot?

Zed:
Yes.

May:
Revenge?

Zed:
The truth. We wanted the truth! I told them about the book.

May:
Show it. What is the book?

Zed:
No. No. No! ZARDOZ!!!

May:
So that was it.

Zed:
The Wizard of Oz. Zardoz. The Wizard of Oz was a fairy story about an old man who frightened people with a loud voice and a big mask.

Zed:
How did it come about, the Vortex? How did it start?

Friend:
[referring to the Renegades] They did it. They were the scientists, the best in the world. But they were middle-aged, too conditioned to mortality. They went renegade. We were their offspring and we were born into vortex life. [...] We applied ourselves to the unsolved mysteries of the universe, but even with infinite time and the help of the Tabernacle, Our minds were not up to it. We failed. And now we’re trapped by our own devices. There is no exit.

The Tabernacle:
Sleep was necessary for man when his waking and unconscious lives were separated. As eternals achieved total consciousness, sleep became obsolete, and second level meditation took its place.

The Tabernacle:
You have penetrated me. There is no escape. You are within me. Come into my centre... Come into the centre of the crystal.

The Tabernacle:
[after Zed shoots the crystal] You have destroyed us. You found the flaw in the crystal. We are gone. You... are alone.

Friend:
It's an ark. A ship. A spaceship. All this technology was for travel to the distant stars.

Old Scientist:
We seal ourselves herewith into this place of learning. Death is banished for ever. I direct that the Tabernacle erase from us all memories of its construction, so we can never destroy it if we should ever crave for death. Here, man and the sum of his knowledge will never die, but go forward to perfection.