Zardoz Page #3

this knowledge from the others,

for the moment, keep you alive.

But you must follow me. Obey me.

Be circumspect. Make no disruption.

Quietly do whatever work is given you.

I will watch over you.

Get a move on, you silly beast.

Friend, put that thing outside.

Anyone else disturbed?

Let's take yet another boringly

democratic vote, shall we, Consuella?

It's Friend's day to make the food.

He must do this without help

as we all do.

It's fundamental to our society that we do

everything on a basis of absolute equality.

- And Friend knows that perfectly well.

- Yes or no?

Potatoes? Yes or no?

I say get more Zeds to do the work.

We have eternal life and yet

we sentence ourselves to drudgery.

I tell you, I'm sick of 200 years

of washing-up.

And I'm sick of pitting my bare hands

against the blind, brute stupidity of nature!

- You'd better do something about this.

- Consuella is right.

Zed is being kept here

for scientific study.

It can earn its keep on the land,

but it should not work as a servant.

Time enough has gone to finish

your study, May. Destroy it.

See how it disrupts our community.

- It is almost over.

- How can you speak such in front of Zed?

It feels. I sense that.

- Vote!

- Yes, vote!

Give your votes.

May has been given seven days

to complete her study.

Then Zed will be terminated.

The monster is a mirror,

and when we look at him,

we look into our own hidden faces.

Meditate on this at second level.

No.

No.

I will... I will not go to second level.

No.

No!

I will... I will not go

to second level with you!

I will... No!

I will not be one mind with you!

I know what... I know what

May wants with Zed.

No!

No.

The vortex is an obscenity!

I... No.

I hate all women.

Birth, fertility,

superstition.

Friend is beyond redemption.

- Renegade.

- Renegade.

Friend is renegade.

He must be cast out.

He is no longer one with us.

- Renegade.

- Cast him out.

No!

Renegade.

Renegade.

Renegade!

Caution. You are approaching

the periphery shield of Vortex 4.

Caution. You are approaching

the periphery shield of Vortex 4.

Have you seen Friend?

Friend. I seek Friend.

Friend.

I seek Friend.

Friend.

Old Friend.

This is your fault.

Now hear this, you old farts!

Meet this creature

from the outside world.

- This man has the gift of death.

- Death?

He can mete it out,

and he can die himself.

He is mortal.

- He can die!

- Die.

- Shall we give him back to death?

- Yes!

- Silent death?

- Yes!

- Glorious death?

- Yes!

May, the scientist, wants him to spawn

another generation to suffer our agonies.

Stop!

Stop!

What is it you want?

Sweet death. Oblivion.

For yourself, or for the whole vortex?

For everybody.

An end to the human race

that has plagued

this pretty planet for far too long.

You stink of despair.

Fight back.

Fight for death,

if that's what you want.

I thought at first

you were the one to help.

But it's hopeless.

All my powers have gone.

Where is it, the tabernacle?

The tabernacle is...

- I can't remember.

- Who made it?

Someone must know how to break it.

Yes.

You can meet him for yourself.

One of our founders. One of the geniuses

that discovered immortality.

He found he didn't like it for himself.

He didn't conform, so this is what

his grateful people did to him.

We want to die!

- What's the trick?

- Death.

Death.

Talk to May.

May.

May!

May!

May!

May, I want your help.

You want to destroy us. The tabernacle.

I want the truth.

You must give the truth

if you wish to receive it.

I'm ready.

- It'll burn you.

- Then burn me.

Tell me everything.

Show me pictures.

Open your mind, your memory.

Go back to the beginning.

- Open.

- Zar...

- Open.

- Zar...

- Open.

- Zardoz.

Zardoz gave us the gun.

We were the chosen ones.

What was your task?

To kill the brutals who multiply

and are legion.

We rode out. We roamed the outlands.

We killed. It was enough.

Man was born to hunt and kill.

- And then?

- Then one day...

- Yes?

- ...something happened.

It changed everything.

I lost my innocence.

A face in the window.

- Who was he?

- I don't know.

He wore a mask.

He led me on, like a game.

Why did you spare him?

Something... I don't know.

- Had you seen a book before?

- Never.

- You learnt to read?

- Yes.

- How long did it take?

- It came easy.

I read everything. I learnt

all that had been hidden from me.

I learnt what the world had been

before the darkness fell.

Then, one day, I found the book.

The book called... called...

What was the book?

What was the name of the book?

- I don't remember!

- Tell me. Show me.

- You must tell me.

- No! No!

Zardoz!

Tell me. Show me. You must tell me.

- I can't.

- Tell me how you came in the stone.

- I don't know.

- Of course you know.

- You knew Arthur was Zardoz, didn't you?

- No.

- You killed Arthur, didn't you?

- No!

Show me the whole image!

What are you doing?

You murdered your own god, by accident.

Or was it an accident?

Now show me that book.

What did you find in that book?

Show it to me.

It's a trick! A trick!

What was a trick? Tell me.

Zardoz said "stop".

He said "no more".

- No more what?

- No more killing.

- He told you to take prisoners?

- Yes.

- To make slaves?

- Yes.

- To cultivate instead of kill?

- Yes.

- To grow wheat?

- Yes!

- Did you need wheat?

- No. We ate meat.

Zardoz betrayed us.

We were hunters, not farmers.

Show how you came into the stone.

Show.

It was easy.

Each season Zardoz came down

to take our harvest.

Zardoz! Zardoz!

- Your friends were mutants, too?

- Yes.

- You had a plot?

- Yes.

- Revenge?

- The truth.

We wanted the truth.

- I told them about the book.

- Show it. What is the book?

No. No.

No! Zardoz!

Zardoz is pleased.

- So that was it.

- "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.

It was Arthur Frayn's idea.

A simple way of controlling the outlands.

But remember the end of the story.

They looked behind the mask

and found the truth.

I looked behind the mask

and I saw the truth... Zardoz.

So that was your plan...

to stow away in the head.

Yes.

What was your purpose? To kill Arthur?

To penetrate the vortex? To find a way in

for your friends to destroy us?

- He made us killers.

- Revenge. You wanted revenge.

The truth. The truth!

The truth! The truth!

The truth! The truth!

Truth or revenge?

Revenge!

Revenge.

I remember feelings such as those.

They stir in me.

So this is your scientific

investigation.

There's another word

for it... bestiality.

For this you will be aged

50 years, no less.

No man, woman or beast

will ever desire you again.

He can't see.

He's blind.

We can no longer quell him.

He's out of control.

We must now become

hunters and killers ourselves.

Come.

This will restore your sight and you will see

more and deeper than you ever saw before.

I've seen men rape an old crippled woman

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