Altered States Page #2

Synopsis: It's the late 1960's. Just for a lark, graduate student Eddie Jessup, known for being unconventional, brilliant and slightly mad, conducts experiments with an isolation chamber, using himself as the subject. His experiences in the chamber cause him to hallucinate, much of the imagery being religious-based despite he not being a religious man. Seven years later, he is a respected full professor in the Harvard Medical School. Believing he has lost his edge and has fallen into an unwanted state of respectability, Eddie decides to resume his work with sensory deprivation, this time using hallucinogens, specifically untested ones used in mystical Mexican rituals, to enhance the experience of being in the isolation tank. After initial tests, he claims he entered an alternate physical and mental state. Although unbelieving of Eddie's claims, his colleagues Arthur Rosenberg and Mason Parrish, as well as Eddie's wife, Emily, who is in her own right a respected academic, are concerned for Eddie'
Director(s): Ken Russell
Production: Warner Home Video
  Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 1 win & 5 nominations.
 
IMDB:
6.9
Metacritic:
58
Rotten Tomatoes:
86%
R
Year:
1980
102 min
1,688 Views


at Harvard in September.

Looks that way.

Well, you can't get any tidier

than that, can you?

We're gonna be together in Boston,

and l think we should get married.

You know, of course,

I'm supposed to be a little bit nuts.

A little bit?

You're an unmitigated madman.

You don't have to tell me how weird

you are. I know how weird you are.

I'm the girl in your bed

the past two months.

Even sex is a mystical experience

for you. You carry on like a flagellant...

...which can be very nice, but l sometimes

wonder if it's me that's being made love to.

I feel like I'm being harpooned by some

raging monk in the act of receiving God.

And you are a Faust-freak, Eddie.

You'd sell your soul

to find the great truth.

Well, human life

doesn't have great truths.

We're born in doubt. We spend our lives

persuading ourselves we're alive.

And one way we do that is

we love each other, like I love you.

I can't imagine living without you.

So let's get married, and if it turns out

to be a disaster, it'll be a disaster.

We'll shake hands and say good-bye.

He's giving her dimethyltryptamine.

It takes effect in about a minute

and she'll trip out for about half an hour.

Do you feel different now?

Yes.

Less anxious?

Much less.

Do you have any special feelings?

I feel...

...like my heart

is being touched by Christ.

There's a lot of religious delusion

among acute schizophrenics.

Some say schizophrenics

are physically different from the rest of us.

It's almost as if they were trying

to change their physical selves...

...to adapt to their schizophrenic image

of themselves.

All right, we'll get married,

since it's that important to you.

I'm not comfortable with women...

...and I'm not likely to find anyone

half as remarkable as you again.

I think I can make

a reasonably good husband.

I don't want to lose you, you see.

I suppose that's the closest thing

to a declaration of love...

...that l will ever get out of you.

Am l really that weird in bed?

Sometimes.

Shall l try to change?

No, I kind of like it.

Daddy, I'm tired.

We'll give the lady a ride.

- Whoa! Oh!

Hey, Mason, be careful.

How you doing, Eddie?

- Hi, Mason. How about a beer?

- Lf I didn't see this, l wouldn't believe it.

- You weren't supposed to be here.

Hi, what's your name?

My name's Mason Parrish. This is Margaret.

Mason, Arthur Rosenberg

I'm always telling you about.

- How are you?

- Mason Parrish, nice to meet you.

Look at the family man.

Oh, why, Eddie, you look so wonderful.

I don't believe it.

Not again. When did this happen?

- Lt's a long story.

- You look wonderful.

Have you found a place yet?

We got a nice little place

near Huntington Field.

It's been seven years

since we moved to San Francisco.

Arthur's gonna to teach at Boston U.

Eddie's been telling me.

I hear you just got associate professor.

You guys must be loaded.

Two professors in one family.

We've got a place in Maine

you can use for the summer.

I'm going to Africa again.

Eddie'll be in Mexico.

You know a guy named Eccheverria,

University of Mexico?

- He worked with you in California.

- Sure. Bright young guy.

He's here at the museum.

We'll all have to get together.

I'm going back to Mexico

with him in June.

What's in Mexico?

Eccheverria's got this witch doctor

down there, the Hinchi Indians.

They're an isolated tribe in Central Mexico

who practice ancient Toltec rituals.

Sacred mushroom ceremonies,

that kind of thing.

Apparently they use some kind

of hallucinatory drug...

...that is supposed to evoke

a common experience in all users.

Maggie's fallen asleep on the couch.

Will you take care of her?

Sure.

Did you ever get into an isolation tank

since New York?

No. Did you?

No, but they've got one here

at the medical school.

I didn't think anybody was doing

those studies anymore.

We did interesting stuff

in that tank in New York...

...for the months we played with it.

Maybe when l get back from Mexico

we'll get into it again.

Why not.

A terrific housekeeper she's not.

- They're getting a divorce, you know.

- Who?

- L don't know if they're actually-

- What are you talking about?

She and the kids are moving to Cambridge.

That's why this place is such a mess.

They're moving her stuff

into storage tomorrow.

Then she's going off to Africa

for a year with the kids...

...and he's going to Mexico.

When she comes back, she's gonna live

in Cambridge and he's staying here.

It's him wants the divorce, not her.

I'm surprised

they stayed together this long.

When did all this happen?

She just told me five minutes ago.

What about all those letters she kept

writing us about how happy they were?

Don't ask me. She's still crazy about him.

He's still crazy.

- Listen, Sylvia just-

- Shh.

Sylvia just told me

you're getting a divorce.

Well, we're getting separated.

We won't get to the divorce

until next year.

Well, look, I mean, I know

it's none of my business, but why?

You are married to a great woman

who adores you.

My God, if anybody has it made,

you have.

You are a respected

and an admired figure.

A full professor on the faculty

of the Harvard Medical School.

For God's sake, is that how you imagine

me? A respected and admired figure?

A devoted father? A loving husband?

I've also published nearly two papers

a year for the last seven years...

...and not a fundamental piece of work

in the lot.

I sit around the living rooms

of other young married faculty members...

...talking infantile masturbation:

"Who's sucking up...

...to the head of the department?"

"Whose tenure is hanging by a thread?"

Emily is content to go on with this life.

She insists she's in love with me,

whatever that is.

What she means is

she prefers the senseless pain...

...we inflict on each other to the pain

we would otherwise inflict on ourselves.

But I'm not afraid of that solitary pain.

If l don't strip myself of all this clatter

and clutter and ridiculous ritual...

... l shall go out of my f***ing mind.

- Does that answer your question, Arthur?

- What question was that?

- You asked me why I was getting divorced.

- Oh, listen, it's your life.

I'm sorry I even asked.

Listen...

...why don't l call Eccheverria

and we'll all go out and have some dinner?

As a matter of fact, Eduardo,

my year in India was disappointing.

Yoga is still a state-specific technology...

...operating in the service

of an a priori belief system.

We scientists have a moral obligation to

the public as well as to our own research.

It just never occurred to baboons

that they could shorten that time...

...to five minutes if they used a stick.

Originally, man was just another

savanna-living primate like the baboon.

What dignifies the yogic practices...

...is that the belief system itself

is not truly religious.

There is no Buddhist God, per se.

It is the self, the individual mind, that

contains immortality and ultimate truth.

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Paddy Chayefsky

Sidney Aaron "Paddy" Chayefsky was an American playwright, screenwriter and novelist. He is the only person to have won three solo Academy Awards for Best Screenplay. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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