Midnight Mass

Riley Flynn:
I think we all want so badly for there to be a reason. For everything. And some justice and some comfort when we die.

Erin Greene:
Yeah, that's where religion comes from. That's the whole question.

Riley Flynn:
It is.

Erin Greene:
What happens when we die?

...

Riley Flynn:
[describing his death] And my neurons are firing and I'm seeing this firework display of memories and imagination. And I am just tripping. I mean, really tripping balls, because my mind's rifling through the memories. You know, long and short-term, and the dreams mix with the memories. And it's a curtain call. The dream to end all dreams. One last great dream as my mind empties the fucking missile silos, and then...I stop. My brain activity ceases and there is nothing left of me. No pain. No memory. No awareness that I ever was. That I ever hurt someone. That I ever killed someone. Everything is as it was before me. And I'm serving a purpose. I'm feeding life. And I'm broken apart and all the littlest pieces of me are just recycled and I'm billions of other places. And my atoms are in plants and bugs and animals, and I am like the stars that are in the sky. There on moment, and then just scattered across the goddamn cosmos.

Erin Greene:
I'm not the one who died today. She was never awake. When she came down into this little body, this just forming body, it was asleep. So all she ever knew was dreaming. She only ever dreamed. She didn't even have a name. And then in her sleep, that perfect little spirit just lifted up. Because God didn't send her to suffer through life on Earth. No. This one? This special little soul, God just sent her down here to sleep. Just a little nap. A quick dream. And then He called her back. He wanted her back. [pause] And that's what we mean when we say Heaven. No mansions, no rivers of diamonds, or fluffy clouds, or angel wings. You are loved. And you are not alone. That is God. That is Heaven. And that's why we endure on this big, blue, sad rock. I'll be there soon enough. And I'll see my father. And my grandmother. And I'll see my little girl, and she will be happy and safe. And I will be so glad to meet her.

Riley Flynn:
I really hope you're right.