Euphoria

There's a beginning. There must be an end.

I don't usually do Blacks.

-Yeah? -I don't wanna get killed.

For you, I'll make an exception.

Why's that?

You have good teeth. You seem clean.

You're married.

I'm on vacation.

That must be nice.

Yeah, I'm-- I'm at work right now.

You got kids?

- -

Uh-huh. You?

-Mm. -

-Hope they don't turn out like us. -Amen.

Get you some of this.

Come on.

Come on. Come to daddy.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Ali wasn't always religious.

But without God, short-term desires

become long-term patterns.

And when you have a family...

...you hurt more than just yourself.

- -Where you been?

I don't get the dignity of a response?

Fuck you.

Fuck me?

-Yeah? -

-Fuck you, bitch! You get the fucking... -You shut the fuck up!

- - Don't fucking grab me!

I'm in your fucking face. What are you gonna do?

- - Throwing shit in my fucking-- fuck!

- -

- Fuck that. -

...last round, he's got a little bit of blood

under the eyes, still going strong.

Trying to get on the inside now.

- -There's a hard left!

- -Good shot!

Here on the outskirts of sunny Los Angeles,

in a roach motel.

- -This is where the champion

comes every day for his workout.

Let me ask you, champ.

The world wants to know, what does he eat?

Pussy and crack cocaine.

Delicious.

How does that diet prepare you...

- -...for the brute force of Sonny Liston?

I'm gonna hit him so hard, the crowd will go frantic.

Our radar stations will pick him up somewhere over the Atlantic.

-Boom, boom, boom! -Muhammad Ali!

Wow, nothing can stop him. Nothing can stop him at all.

Nope. Got a heart of a lion. "Pff, pff."

-Cock of a rhino. -Yeah!

Ears of a Chihuahua!

- -Ow!

Ow! Ow!

Ohh. Pow, pow, pow.

-Pop-pop-pop. -

Oh, hey. What are you doing?

Morphine.

-I don't want it. -You're gonna need this.

You have to stay ahead of the pain.

Oh, no, no, no, no, get that shit away from me.

Don't put that shit in my body.

Don't put it in my body, I don't want it.

I don't want...

Hi, my name is Ali.

Hi, Ali.

And I've been, uh, struggling.

Ali figured if he could change his habits...

maybe he could heal his past...

and transform his mistakes into blessings.

It became his mission in life.

Where is the hope?

You want hope? Be the hope.

Fuck that mean?

Well...

hope ain't gonna stroll along and mug yo ass.

Fall out of the pocket of some politician.

It's in there.

There ain't nothing in there.

Ammanuel. You know what your name means?

-"God is with us." -That's right.

All your struggles prepared you for now.

And if you believe it and stay clean,

I promise you, the future will be bright.

The future will be bright.

And even though he lost some battles,

Ali knew he was doing good in this world.

And when the pandemic hit,

he made sure to check in with his sponsees every day.

Hey, it's 15 past 9:00.

Wonder where you are.

Call me.

- Unfortunately... -

...there was no place to gather.

Hey, Sean. How you doing?

Yeah, I miss going to meetings, too.

You know, you can always hang at my place, right?

Trust me. You hang in there.

The future will be bright.

Every time he lost someone...

he'd write down their name and the date.

I guess you could say it was a book of the dead.

A reminder of how the story of addiction often ends.

That's some kind of trophy.

Hm.

Where's your belly button gone?

They had to open me up.

Clip my large intestine.

-I'm gonna have this bag the rest of my life. -Mm.

Hey.

That there a shit bag, huh?

Yeah, it's shit--

Hm. Got you a whole new booty hole.

-Mm. -All these staples

look like railroad tracks.

Cover that shit up. Nasty.

Don't be showing that to no motherfucker.

I'm gonna need you to take a trip down to Mexicali.

Got a couple of girls that need a tune-up.

Why me? Why not one of the other guys?

'Cause they didn't fuck up.

You fucked up.

So it's on your ass to correct it.

That it?

I'm gonna need you to take one of Laurie's boys.

Why the fuck would I be taking one of Laurie's boys?

Consider it your road to redemption.

Aye-aye, cap'n.

Drive safe now.

Look who's still alive and kickin'.

Yep.

Still.

So I'm riding with you?

Nah, dawg. I wish.

No, you ridin' with Mitch.

How 'bout next time, we all have guns, huh?

- -See how that works.

How we looking?

Come and see.

It's interesting because as soon

as I started believing in God, my life got considerably worse.

Until it got better.

So this is the better part?

Pfft, beyond!

I mean, I thought, let's see if this works.

And then, things got terrible,

which is good.

Okay.

You know, it might sound crazy, but...

I think He revealed Himself to me.

Who?

God.

What are you saying? 'Cause this doesn't track for me.

No, I know, I get it, believe me.

But I think that's the thing with God, right?

Like, you need to believe in order to see.

Okay, you're totally welcome to stay here,

but I just have a lot of writing to get done,

so I don't know how much longer

I can engage with your revelation.

Yeah, it's fine.

I'll just be over here reading my Bible.

You know, I think God set the Joshua tree on fire

because He could sense that I was giving up.

You know, like the pressure was too much.

What Joshua tree?

It was on the side of the road, um...

past the, uh, Texaco station.

So, He set an endangered tree on fire

just to talk to you?

I mean, you don't have to be sarcastic about it.

I get you don't believe me, but I'm just telling you

the facts of the situation.

Okay, I'm gonna keep writing, and then you're gonna read the Bible.

-Deal? -Deal.

Man.

I've done a lot of evil.

I mean, I've never really thought about it until now,

but it's definitely fucking clear.

Okay, I've had issues with your behavior,

but I wouldn't call you evil.