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Eugene Fitzpatrick: [First lines - Voice Over] 1999 was the year that the Indian nuclear satellite went out of control. No one knew where it might land. It soared above the ozone layer like a lethal bird of prey. The whole world was alarmed. Only Claire, couldn't care a less. At the time, she was living her own nightmare. The same dream arrived each night. She was gliding over an unknown land, pleasantly at first, but; then the gliding would turn into falling, the falling into panic, and then she'd wake up.
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Claire Tourneur: If I knew where he was, I wouldn't be here with you. I would be with him! I would be making love with him! Why did I say that?
Burt: I've given you pantetheine-phosphate. It's a truth drug.
Claire Tourneur: That's okay. I've given you five sleeping pills myself.
Burt: Oh, you bitch.
Claire Tourneur: Is he really a criminal?
Burt: Waiter! Coffee...
Claire Tourneur: So what, I'm a criminal too!
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Eugene Fitzpatrick: [voice over] I'd always cherished the beginning of the Gospel According to John, "In the beginning, was the word." I was not afraid the Apocalypse would read, "In the end, there were only images." I didn't know the cure for the disease of images. All I knew was how to write. Winter had once said to me, "Words won't help us now, Mr. Fitzpatrick." But, words were all I had.
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Car navigation system: Friendly reminder that you are over the speed-limit... Claire.
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Car navigation system: Traffic congested for the next thirty kilometers. Unable to provide alternative route. I'm sorry... Claire.
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Car navigation system: You are leaving the map-zone database: you're on your own... Claire.
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Phillip Winter: We need to find him first and fast. "First" and "fast" are my names.
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Claire Tourneur: [to Eugene] I still love you, broken ladder.
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Phillip Winter: Love or money? Either way, you win.
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Claire Tourneur: They did it. They shot down the satellite.
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Edith Farber: Stay calm.
Henry Farber: [nervous] I'm always calm!
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Claire Tourneur: It's the end of the world.
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Claire Tourneur: Hey, it's you... broken ladder.
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Claire Tourneur: I just want my money back.
Eugene Fitzpatrick: [looking speculatively at the "Bounty Bear" interface] How much would it cost to set me up with one of these hard and soft?
Claire Tourneur: Gene?
Phillip Winter: No, no, no, please. Marry her. Slap her around. But, don't go chasing after this guy. She's not going to fuck you, she wants to fuck him!
Eugene Fitzpatrick: I don't think you quite understand the nature of our relationship.
Phillip Winter: Besides, you're out of your depth! To buy a computer from this... you think you're a detective? When you get back from Moscow you'll be broke. They'll have repossessed your car. You'll have... turned off. You're computers will be down. You're garbage won't be picked. You won't...
Eugene Fitzpatrick: Mr. Winter, admit it! You'd love it but you can't afford it!
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Paris Station Graffiti: The end of the Century, the end of us!
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Eugene Fitzpatrick: [voice over] Soon they were hooked; all of them. They lived to see their dreams, and when they slept they dreamed about their dreams. They had arrived at the island of dreams together; but in a short time they were oceans apart. I watched helplessly as Claire and Sam were drowning in their own nocturnal imagery. They ignored each other, and neglected themselves. The dreams which should have been flushed away with the first yawn, were now their only diet; and thus became more and more concentrated. They made monsters for themselves that they could neither tolerate nor do without... They wandered in and out of lost worlds. Feelings and figures emerged from a forgotten past. Their dreams became black holes of isolation... They suffered, finally; from a complete loss of reality.
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Claire Tourneur: [the dream-player is out of battery] Gene, can't you make it work?
Eugene Fitzpatrick: I can't, Clarire. It's dead.
Claire Tourneur: I'm dead. My heart is dead! Ahhhhhhhhhhh! Ahhhhhhhh!
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Eugene Fitzpatrick: [voice over] As for Claire, the next time I heard from her she was working for Greenspace. Her extraordinary vision had found her a place on their space observatory. She and her crew mates, orbited the earth, watching the oceans for pollution crimes. She stayed up there for six months. She spent her thirtieth birthday - in space.
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U2: I was so near for quite a while/ I was down the hole just passing time/ the last time we met was a low-lit room/ we were as close together as a bride and groom/ ate the food/ drank the wine/ everybody having a good time/ except you/ you were talking about the End of the World.
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Peter Gabriel: Is that a dagger or a Crucifix I see/ you hold so tightly in your hand/ and all the while the distance grows between you and me/ I do not understand/ in the Blood of Eden/ lie the woman and the man/ with the man in the woman/ the woman in the man/ in the Blood of Eden/ lie the woman and the man/ we wanted the union/ the union of the woman, the woman and the man.
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Henry Farber: In science there's always tomorrow.
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Eugene Fitzpatrick: Do you love him?
Claire Tourneur: Yes, I do.
Eugene Fitzpatrick: Well, I hope he loves you.
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Claire Tourneur: I trusted him.
Eugene Fitzpatrick: Sure, and then he robbed you...
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Sam Farber, alias Trevor McPhee: I am neither a Spy or a Jewel Thief!
Eugene Fitzpatrick: What are you, then?
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Singer: In beginning is dream... Halls of Disorder...
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Henry Farber: Herr Dr. Jung! Herr Dr. Freud! Oh, If only you could see us now!
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Claire Tourneur: It's incredible. I just seem to attract criminals.
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Sam Farber, alias Trevor McPhee: Where have you been?
Claire Tourneur: Everywhere - and back.
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Sam Farber, alias Trevor McPhee: You tired?
Claire Tourneur: Me? Never.
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Sam Farber, alias Trevor McPhee: I told them we were on our honeymoon.
Claire Tourneur: And they believed it?
Sam Farber, alias Trevor McPhee: So, who am I married to? To a pusher or a bank robber?
Claire Tourneur: Take your pick.
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Sam Farber, alias Trevor McPhee: What do you do?
Claire Tourneur: Everything. Nothing.
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Sam Farber, alias Trevor McPhee: Good luck.
Claire Tourneur: That's what I need.
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Claire Tourneur: What do you do?
Sam Farber, alias Trevor McPhee: I travel - and - I see.
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Sam Farber, alias Trevor McPhee: I hope you learn to sleep.
Claire Tourneur: We'll see.
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Claire Tourneur: I forgot - how nice you smelled.
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Eugene Fitzpatrick: Come on, you can't be upset about having stolen money stolen.
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Claire Tourneur: I think he's a spy. I didn't think they had spies anymore. I mean, we are here in Moscow in 1999. Actually, I'm not a tourist, I'm a burglar. I've stolen these things to protect a man who has stolen my money. I had it - from other guys - who had stolen it from the people who had stolen it from a bank. Are you following me?
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Claire Tourneur: Remember the first time we came to Tokyo? It was the summer of 1994. Our first summer.
Eugene Fitzpatrick: It rained all the time.
Claire Tourneur: We saw the Rolling Stones last concert.
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Claire Tourneur: Do you know who I am?
Sam Farber, alias Trevor McPhee: Weren't you the angel in Lisbon?
Claire Tourneur: I am the angel again.
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Sam Farber, alias Trevor McPhee: That camera takes pictures - that blind people can see. My - my mother is blind. What I am doing is collecting images for her to see. All I want is my mother to see. And for my father to know that I love him.
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Sam Farber, alias Trevor McPhee: The camera records what you see, but, it also records how your brain reacts in response to what your eyes see. It records the bio-chemical event of seeing. The more you concentrate, the more clearly the computer can read and transmit your experience of seeing.
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Sam Farber, alias Trevor McPhee: You are so wrong! If you were any more wrong, you'd have ears growing out of your armpits.
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Sam Farber, alias Trevor McPhee: I am neither a spy nor a jewel thief.
Eugene Fitzpatrick: What are you then?
Sam Farber, alias Trevor McPhee: You don't know? You followed me all around the world and you don't know who I am?
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Eugene Fitzpatrick: My computer's whacked!
Phillip Winter: Mine too. All electromagnetic circuits get wiped by a nuclear blast. Computer memories too. Its an EMP effect.
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Eugene Fitzpatrick: Bastards! Two years of my life just - wiped!
Phillip Winter: Oh, who cares about your work? What do you think is going to happen to Goethe? Think about that. Goethe! Gone forever.
Eugene Fitzpatrick: Goethe? What the fuck would you know about Goethe?
Phillip Winter: What do you know about me? You think I'm just a pigeon in a hole?
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Chico Remy: It's the end of the world. No?
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Claire Tourneur: [Listening to a Aborigine singing] What's he singing?
Sam Farber, alias Trevor McPhee: He's singing the country. The country is like their bible. It's like - that tree is Jonah. That rock - is the whale. Everything is part of a story. He's the custodian of this stretch of the country, this part of the story. If he doesn't keep it alive, by telling it, it'll die. And so will he.
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Edith Farber: Terrible things have taken place. But sometimes the greatest happiness happens in the worst times.
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Phillip Winter: I'm more worried about - reality, than fiction. I'm worried about the present, Mr. Fitzpatrick.
Eugene Fitzpatrick: The present will look after itself. But, it's our duty to realize the future with our imagination.
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Eugene Fitzpatrick: What do you do?
Karl: I'm a genius.
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Eugene Fitzpatrick: [voice over] Edith Eisner had been 8 years old when she lost her sight. The experience of seeing the world again was exhilarating; but, it was also confusing and sad. The world she discovered was darker and uglier than she could have imagined. It would have been ungracious of her to mention this. The grief was only there for those with eyes to see it.
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Karl: He wants his Nobel prize.
Claire Tourneur: Making blind people see.
Karl: You're joking. The potential for this device is awesome. It can take visual information straight from the brain. Once they do that, you can suck out our dreams and look at them like television.
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Phillip Winter: For a writer, you don't type very fast.
Eugene Fitzpatrick: How do you spell nuisance?
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Chico Remy: The world is still alive! The world is still alive!
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Henry Farber: You can't just decide to die.
Edith Farber: I don't decide anything. I just let go.
Henry Farber: I'm sorry, my liebe. We've been pushing you too hard.
Edith Farber: No, Henry. There's nothing to be sorry for. Life ends. But, I've seen finally, after all these years, this is our story, my darling. What a chase it has been. What a dance.
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Claire Tourneur: [singing] I wish today could be tomorrow, The night is dark, It just brings sorrow, let it wait, Thank you for the days, Those endless days, those sacred days you gave me, I'm thinking of the days, I won't forget a single day, believe me, Days I'll remember all my life...
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Eugene Fitzpatrick: I moved into the now defunct radio station to write what I thought was going to be the last chapter of my novel. But, none of us knew that Dr. Farber was pursuing a new line of research which would take us all onto another journey - down dangerous pathways, down into the garden of dreams itself.
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Peter: You come along now Henry. You come away from here. You know its wrong for you to be here.
Henry Farber: Wrong for you Peter. But, okay for me. You know, I'm a white fellow, you know.
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Peter: You're my brother, Henry. That never changes. Never! You helped our people and for that, I thank you. But, I didn't understand what you wanted! If Ronda hadn't...
Henry Farber: Peter, no one ever did this before - in the history of our planet.
Peter: A damn good job to! Imagine what you could hang on your walls, instead of my people's paintings? You could exhibit the inside of our heads! Our dreams! And all our old people's secret knowledge. You know that, Henry.
Ronda: You think we want you walking through our dreams - with your fancy cameras?
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Claire Tourneur: What's he doing?
Sam Farber, alias Trevor McPhee: He's trying to record his own dreams.
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Claire Tourneur: I shouldn't be seeing this.
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Henry Farber: Oh, Claire, look at this. We've made progress. A cacophony of brain waves transformed into a symphony of colors and shapes. Bio-chemical images.
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Claire Tourneur: This is so beautiful.
Henry Farber: Beautiful? Wallpaper is beautiful. You're now looking at the human soul - singing to itself, to it's own God!
Claire Tourneur: I don't know about - God.
Henry Farber: The God within us! Look at it. It needs nothing!
Claire Tourneur: It needs everything.
Henry Farber: No! Nothing! Nothing, dear!
Claire Tourneur: It will eat us up alive.
Henry Farber: Never.
Claire Tourneur: We should really stop this.
Henry Farber: Stop it? How could we stop it? This is all we've ever wanted! This is what we feed on. Could we ever - turn away from this?
Claire Tourneur: We don't have the right.
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Karl: There's a line that should never be crossed - and we passed it a long time ago.
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Eugene Fitzpatrick: [voice over] I believed in words. And I believed in the magic and healing powers of storytelling.
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Claire Tourneur: But, now. What happens now?
Eugene Fitzpatrick: Oh, that's for you to invent.
Claire Tourneur: The Dancer on the Planet, you call it.
Eugene Fitzpatrick: Yeah. I watched you dance.
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Makiko: Hi Claire. Hi Gene.
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Eugene Fitzpatrick: I love loving you.
Claire Tourneur: That's a good song title.
Eugene Fitzpatrick: Ah, its too corny.
Claire Tourneur: It depends.
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Eugene Fitzpatrick: What is this?
Claire Tourneur: Pygmies.
Eugene Fitzpatrick: Pygmies?
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Claire Tourneur: Thanks for the music; but, you still owe the bank.
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Madman in Bar: Look at them. We're on the eve of destruction and all they give a damn about is laughing, drinking, carousing. Don't they realize that this satellite business could mean the end of the world as we know it?
Claire Tourneur: If it was the end of the world, why shouldn't we go down laughing?
Madman in Bar: I could fall in love with you right now.
Claire Tourneur: Don't.
Madman in Bar: Then, I'll love you in my dreams.
Claire Tourneur: I will remember you too.
Madman in Bar: One day, I will no longer be alive. And when that day comes, remember me as I am now.
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Claire Tourneur: What I'm really worried about is - there's a hit man chasing after him.
Phillip Winter: Then we better get him fast - and first. Fast and first.
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Sam Farber, alias Trevor McPhee: I'm not the one who robs banks, you know. You are.
Claire Tourneur: First you stole from me and then you stood me up.
Sam Farber, alias Trevor McPhee: You just - happened to wander in here today to find me? That's three countries in three days, baby!
Claire Tourneur: Don't call me baby.
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Claire Tourneur: I am not sharing your room!
Phillip Winter: You expect me to pay for two rooms?
Claire Tourneur: I expect you to pay for mine!
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Eugene Fitzpatrick: Who is this Trevor McPhee character?
Claire Tourneur: Tall, handsome stranger from Australia with an American accent.
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Claire Tourneur: I still love you; but, its a different sort of love, that's all. It's like a ladder.
Eugene Fitzpatrick: I'm like a ladder?
Claire Tourneur: Like a ladder with a broken step.
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Aboriginal: You think we want you wandering through our Dreamings with your fancy cameras?
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Aboriginal 2: Time for you to get all that shit out of your system.
[Tradition]
Aboriginal 2: Sleep between these two old fellas.
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David Byrne: 'Cos we are Criminals that never broke no laws. And all we needed was a neck to break our fall.
Until the End of the World Quotes
Extended Reading
Director: Wim Wenders
Language: English,French,Italian,Japanese,German Release date: December 25, 1991