Videodrome Page #3

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- Uh -

- What?

Are you all right?

Bridey, I didn't mean to hit you.

Hit me?

You didn't hit me.

No? No.

No, I know I didn't hit you. I meant -

Do you want me to stay here?

- Uh -

- You look awful.

- Can I get you something?

- Uh, no, uh -

No, I'm just, uh -

Uh, I'm -

I'm exhausted.

I was in a deep sleep when you knocked...

and I guess I'm still not out of it.

I'll remember to set the timer.

Don't worry.

- You're sure? Are you sure?

- I'm sure. Yeah.

Thanks, Bridey.

Tomorrow.

Max, that other cassette

is from the office of Brian O'Blivion.

I promised

I'd hand-deliver it directly to you.

Will you call me

if you need me?

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.

Max.

I'm so glad you 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 tumor...

and I had visions.

I believed the visions

caused the tumor...

and not the reverse.

I could feel the visions

coalesce and become flesh.

Uncontrollable flesh.

But when they removed the tumor...

it was called Videodrome.

I was the -

L- I...

was Videodrome's...

first victim.

But who's behind it?

What do they want?

I want you, Max.

You.

Come to me.

Come to Nicki.

Come on.

Don't make me wait.

Please.

I want you, Max.

You.

Come on.

Come on.

Come to me now.

Come to Nicki.

Don't keep me waiting.

Please.

Please.

Today Lady Luck

may smile on these four players...

and start them on the road

to $ 12,000-

We have a new group of people

coming in this afternoon...

- so tell the staff about that.

- All right. Good.

Exciting. Very lively.

Careful. It bites.

- You watched the cassette?

- Yeah.

- And?

- It changed my life.

I'm not surprised.

It's dangerous, you know.

Because your father admits

he's somehow involved with Videodrome?

More than that. It bites.

Isn't that what you said?

What kind of teeth

do you think it has?

It triggered off a series of hallucinations.

I woke up with a headache.

- First time ever?

- No, l-I've been hallucinating for a while...

- ever since -

- What?

Since I first saw Videodrome.

How did you come

to be exposed to it?

Pirate satellite dish.

A- An accident.

I made some tapes.

This is part of my own

Videodrome collection.

But that tape is just your father

sitting at his desk.

The tone of the hallucinations is determined

by the tone of the tape's imagery.

But the Videodrome signal,

the one that does the damage...

it can be delivered

under a test pattern, anything.

Mmm.

Damage?

The signal induces

a brain tumor in the viewer.

It's the tumor that creates

the hallucinations.

You let me watch it?

I expect them to come to me eventually

to hurt me. I thought it might be you.

Now I realize you're

just another victim...

like Father was.

Where is your father?

I think I'd better talk to him.

He's in there.

I'm afraid he'll disappoint you.

This is him.

- This is all that's left.

- What are you talking about?

Brian O'Blivion died quietly

on an operating table 11 months ago.

- The brain problem?

- The Videodrome problem.

- You have it too.

- But he was on that panel show with me.

On tape.

He made thousands of them.

Sometimes three or four a day.

I keep him alive as best I can.

He had so much to offer.

My father helped

to create Videodrome.

He saw it as the next phase in the evolution

of man as a technological animal.

When he realized what his partners

were going to use it for...

he tried to take it

away from them.

And they killed him.

Quietly.

At the end, he was convinced

that public life on television...

was more real than

private life in the flesh.

He wasn't afraid

to let his body die.

Tell me about

my Videodrome problem.

My father knows much more

about it than I do.

Listen to him.

Where's Harlan?

He's not in the lab.

- I think he's up in V.T.R. Max -

- Not now.

- Harlan.

- S, patrn.

Have you been hallucinating lately?

No.

- Should I be?

- Yes.

You should be.

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 offlesh...

but that it is in fact...

a new organ...

a new part of the brain.

I think that massive doses

of Videodrome signal...

will ultimately create

a new outgrowth...

of the human brain...

which will produce

and control hallucination...

to the point that it will

change human reality.

After all, there is nothing real...

outside our perception of reality...

is there?

You can see that, can't you?

- Max Renn?

- Yes.

Who is this?

Barry Convex would like to talk

to you about Videodrome.

I've got a car waiting

downstairs for you, sir.

Please direct your attention to

the television set in front of you, Mr. Renn.

Mr. Convex has recorded

a little introduction for you.

Hi, I'm Barry Convex,

Chief of Special Programs...

and I'd like to invite you

into the world of Spectacular Optical...

an enthusiastic global corporate citizen.

We make inexpensive glasses

for the Third World...

and missile guidance systems for NATO.

We also make Videodrome, Max...

and as I'm sure you know...

when it's ready for the marketplace,

things will never be quite the same again.

It can be a giant hallucination machine

and much, much more.

But it's not ready.

Those were test transmissions you picked up.

We thought nobody

could tap into them.

He's good, that Harlan.

Good pirate.

Well, now that you have...

I think we oughta have

a little talk, don't you?

I thought maybe... my place?

I hope you realize

you're playing with dynamite.

That's our spring line.

Top secret stuff.

I brought it with me for a trade show

here in town later this week.

Max Renn, I'm Barry Convex.

I -

I think that machinery

you're wearing is...

too much for the shape of your face.

Overwhelms you.

Try something more, uh, spidery...

more delicate.

Here she is.

This is our prototype.

This is the little number

that started it all.

Max...

I would like you

to try this on for size.

I would like to use this machine

to record one of your hallucinations now.

Then I would like to take that tape

back with me to home base for analysis.

Do I get to keep the copyright?

I mean, I'd hate to see it show up as

a Movie of the Week and not get paid for it.

Max, I'm trying to help you.

What makes you think

I need help, Barry?

None of our test subjects

has returned to... normality.

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