The Man Who Thought Life (Manden der tænkte ting)

Hello? Yes, one moment. Max! It's from the hospital. It's Robert.

Aren't you finished yet?

Hello Robert. Well, I was just shaving.

Is it urgent?

No, I don't know anyone by that name.

Is that really neccessary?

Very well then. In that case I'll be there in a minute. Bye.

What did he want?

That's really strange...

A new patient at Robert's ward claims to know me.

He refuses to speak to any other doctor than me.

His name is Steinmatz...or Metz, or something like that.

I don't know anyone by that name.

- Maybe it's one of your former patients? - It could be, I guess.

- You'll go to the hospital now? - Robert asked me to come at once.

- What about our lunch then? - I'm back before 13.00.

You promise?

I'll do my best.

I should raise the rent seeing how people sleep over as suits them!

I was just here to give my fiancée a message. That's not illegal, I suppose?

Next time I catch you sleeping over, I'm afraid I'll have to raise your fiancée's rent!

I trust my nose! When it smells cigar smoke, it smells cigarsmoke!

I demand to know who has been smoking?

Tell me now!

You said he knows me? What was his name again?

- Steinmetz... - Steinmetz?

- He never actually met you, but he heard about you. - Heard about me?

I don't get him. He's a mystery to me.

- Psychotic? - Hard to tell….

He seems to be very intelligent. Apart from that I have no clue about him yet.

You said the police brought him here?

Yes, they caught him running around asking people if they could see a white mouse in his hands.

but he was acting like he didn't believe it excisted himself.

People having hallucinations is common, but not believing in what they see, that sounds interesting!

Indeed. But now you can have a look at him yourself.

The man is sitting there smoking cigars! Who gave him permission to do that?

What are you saying? How the hell did he get them?

- Maybe the nurse made a mistake? - Impossible! Smoking is forbidden here.

He must have sneaked them in. But how?

Well, you better go talk to him.

Good morning. I'm doctor Holst.

Very well. At last. Good morning.

You want a cigar?

No thank you. You didn't know smoking is not allowed here?

No, nobody told me. Does it really matter?

I'm afraid it does. How did you get the cigars?

Mr. Steinmetz, I'll know sooner or later how you got them, so you might as well tell me the truth right now.

Tobacco and alcohol are under no circumstances allowed!

As long as I'm locked up, I'll tell you nothing.

If only I tried to tell you the truth, you would really start to think I was insane.

Insane is such a harsh word, Steinmetz, why would I think you were insane if you just told me the truth?

The truth? It's beyond your comprehension. You would not believe me.

I understood from my colleague, Robert Klausen, that you already know me?

I've followed you. Followed your work.

- Why? - I will say nothing further at this moment.

- You're not very cooperative. - Let me out of here, and I'll tell you everthing.

That's the wrong order of how things work around here.

First you tell me everything, then I'll help you.

Well, Dr. Holst. I'm not the one who needs help. It is you!

Ahh yes, I see. And I suppose you're the one who's going to help me?

Why do you keep me here?

This room, the bed, the window, the bars?

If you release me I promise you I'll explain the cigars and the cognac.

Mr. Steinmetz, you're not well.

I'll show you a world you could never even have dreamed of.

You'll be face to face with a whole new science that only I can open up for you.

Well. You think I'm crazy, but put me through any mental examination you can come up with,...

- and you'll realize that I'm what you'd call perfectly mentally normal.

It's not uncommon around here that the patiens consider themselves to be perfectly well.

Well. Then tell me, what's my diagnose?

You'll stay here for further observation, and I'm still waiting for an answer how you got these things.

I already told you that I'll say no more! Besides, I do not intend to stay.

You do realize that you have been involuntarily committed?

You can not keep me locked in!

Let me decide what the hospital can do, or not can do.

Go ahead, take them with you. The cognac is outstanding, and so are the cigars.

But I warn you! A man of my stature can not be kept behind bars.

Try to understand it!

Dr. Holst. You are a recognized brain surgeon and psychiatrist.

Yet your knowledge is immensely limited compared to mine.

If you discharge me, I will reveal new depths in life, that will make your entire world of ideas come to an end.

Do you remember from history how the workers destroyed the machines in fear of the industrial revolution?

We both know how revolutinary scientific discoveries are being restrained...

- due to fear of humanity getting into a panic!

But do you realize that in hundred years, the humans of our time will be regarded with the same distance...

as we today regard, let's say, the Neanderthals?

Dr. Holst, will you coorperate or will you act like the workers who destroyed the machines?

Do you want to know the truth? Do you want to belong in the future?

Steinmetz is gone!

- You couldn't prevent him from doing that? - I don't understand….

Where does this key come from?

I don't understand. My keys are here!

I found this when I saw Steinmetz was gone. You're name is written on it.

Why didn't you give me this before?

- Sorry... - If you want to make yourself useful, you can get me coffee.

"To Dr. Max Holst. Meet me friday at 19.00 at the canal bridge. Come alone. Steinmetz".

Dr. Holst. I knew you'd show up. Come.

Do you still think I'm insane?

Dr. Max Holst. Born September 1st. 1925, in the sign of the Virgo. - The sign of the gifted and the sensitive,...

- Student 1944, took part of the Resistance. Orphan. Cand. Med. 1952, Studied in America 1956-58,...

- Divorced. No children. Engaged to Susanne Plesner, actress.

Is that all I came to hear?

- Isn't your specialty the central nervous system? - Mmmm...

You're studying certain pathological precedents to complete a doctoral dissertation?

Yes, that's right.

Then you should absolutely be perfectly able to understand what I'm about to tell you.

Please!

Please have a seat. Please.

- Admit I'm a riddle to you. - I'm here to get an explanation.

Yes, of course!

Please pay attention to what is about to happen.

Keep quiet! Don't move.

Look at the table.

Look at the table!

Cigar?

- Light? - No thanks!

Cheer up, Dr. Holst. A better cigar is not to be found.

They were my only comfort in your miserable hospital.

I must admit I'm impressed. How did you put me in trance?

Trance? You dissapoint me, Dr. Holst. Is that all you have to say?

Well, you'll get an explanation on two conditions.

And they are?

First: You give me your word as a doctor that you'll tell no one, what you'll experience here.

Secondly, that you will perform a brain surgery on me!

A brain surgery? That shouldn't be neccessary.

You'll do what I tell you to!

I can make you rich. I can make you a millionaire,...

- well, even billionaire, if that's what you desire.

You're an extraordinary hypnotist, Steinmetz.

You have great powers. Dangerous powers! But you're mad.

Follow me. Come.

I promised you an explanation on two conditions.

1: Your absolute discretion!

2: That you'll perform a brain surgery on me.

Here.

You won't find a more modern operating room anywhere, let alone one so specialized in brainsurgery.

How did you get access to all this?

The same way as I got the cigars, and the key I used to get out of the hospital.

Do you accept my conditions?

Yes.

You see, Dr. Holst….

The recent years I've been working with various mental states,...

- such as suggestion, hypnosis and other subconscious phenomena.

By time I've come to realize,...

- that the human brain is center for several powers we absolutely know nothing about.

We have now lived through a great part of the century of technology.

We are now entering the century of the soul!

You see, some people have a bad memory or a weak level of imagination,...

- some have a good or even strong power of imagination...

Mine is tremendous!

When I concentrate hard on an object, it affects my eyes and my brain center.

That means a certain power has been transferred to me from the thing I concentrate on.

Meanwhile, through my work, I've reached a point where I can reverse the proces.

I can radiate the object from me!

I see actively. I think things!

- You see that mouse? - Yes, what about it?

I can easily create any material thing.

But I've spend several days of mindwork on that mouse.

I need you to help me create organic life!

To help me use my creative powers to the utmost!

How will I do that?

I want you to make a brain surgery on me near basis cranii.

I know it could be fatal, but I'm willing to run the risk.

Because even though I've already made extraordinary achievements with my brain,...

- I've come to realize that an operation is absolutely neccessary to reach my ultimate goal:

To create a human being, and maintain it!

The mouse you were showing the day you came to the hospital, was it also your creation?

Yes. It was the first organic life I was able to create and maintain.

It had been working my mind for days.

Then I finally succeeded, and...well, you already know the rest of the story.

How many like this one have you managed to create?

This is the third.

But I can not maintain them. After a short while they dissolve.

They dissolve?

My concentraion can only keep the organic life for few hours.

That mouse will dissappear soon enough.

But after the operation…

I'm sorry, but I can not under any circumstances help you on this basis.

Your oath, Doctor!

I break it. Your inquiry is insane!

I don't feel bound by a promise to a madman!

Good bye, Mr. Steinmetz.

You remember the man in the operating room that night?

Even if my brain will explode, you'll get to meet him again!

Blood pressure:130 Pulse: 110.

Blood pressure:100 Pulse: 130.

Blood pressure: 90 Pulse: 140.

- What happened? - You got sick? - Why did you leave?

Leave? What are you getting at?

- Why are you all looking at me like that? - Dr. Klausen?

Come here for a second.

This was on the floor, why was it there? Who does it belong to?

But..lt's yours...

- I'm sorry. - No worries...

Well well, already back again?

Susanne?

Is it you again, Max?

- Ehh, how are you? - How I am? Why do you ask me that so sudden?

Did you get the cigarettes?

- The cigarettes? - Yes, didn't you go to buy cigarettes?