The Frankenstein Theory

Where do you want me to look, here to the camera or to you?

Just look at me. Nah, just ignore camera.

Okay. Let's see. Grew up in Washington D.C.

My parents were diplomats.

I attended GDS, it was a private school in the city.

I graduated high school when I was 16.

That's impressive.

Well, not really. I started early and skipped 8th grade.

College was Columbia.

Double major in history and chemistry.

Odd combination.

No, not really, not really,

not when you consider my work.

After college I received

my Masters in European History from Oxford.

I liked Oxford, I liked it a lot.

That's where I met Annie.

And then, uh, then here to L.A. for my Ph.D.

Why Los Angeles?

The department chair, Paul Zelevansky. He's, uh...

He's by far the best mind in my particular

area of expertise.

Which is...

Yes, well, that is the heart of the matter, isn't it?

These letters... They changed my life.

My grandfather showed them to me when I was about

10 years old.

And since then, the subject of those letters

has been the focal point of my whole life.

What is the subject?

Well, uh, here goes.

In the novel Frankenstein, the opening narrative is told

through a series of letters that a Captain Walton

writes to his sister, Margaret Saville.

Walton is an Arctic explorer, his ship gets trapped in the ice,

somewhere in the Arctic Circle,

and it is there that he meets Dr. Victor Frankenstein.

He tells Walton his story.

Walton then relates this same story to his sister

through a series of letters.

And these letters form the basis of the novel.

These letters are the basis of the novel.

What are you saying exactly?

I'm saying that, um...

I'm saying that Mary Shelley's Frankenstein,

the novel, is a work of non-fiction.

I'm saying it's a work of non-fiction disguised as fiction.

Or, or more accurately, it is a fictionalization of

one of the most incredible, true events in human history.

Annie, what's up?

Can I talk to you, please?

Yes... Um...

Can I talk to you now, please?

Could you excuse me for just one second, please?

Yeah, of course. No problem.

You want me to eavesdrop?

Yeah.

Good friend.

They'll be here as long as they need to be. Just tell them to go please.

We talked about this. You know that they gotta be here

as long as they need to document me. So you can do whatever you want,

and I just have to live with it?

You can let them finish what they're doing and they'll leave.

I don't even know what they are doing. Should we go?

Maybe I should just cancel my trip. Yes, that'll be great.

I guess, that's not important to you.

It's absolutely what you do every single time.

Don't "please" me.

That has nothing to do with what we are talking about now.

Fine. You know what? Fuck you. Fuck you. Do whatever the fuck you want.

That's not good.

Okay. Is everything okay?

Yeah, I'm sorry about that. We just got our schedules crossed.

Sure, is it... Should we...

take off and maybe come back tomorrow? No, no, no, no, no, no.

Yes. Maybe that's not a bad idea.

- Sure thing, we'll do that. Okay. - Okay.

Luke, Luke.

Hi! My name is Brian and I run sound on a documentary film crew

our latest subject is fucking...

Frankenstein!

Are you fucking kidding me, Vicky?

You're welcome.

Oh, thank you. You have got some awesome friends.

I can't wait to see where this goes, man.

Do not fuck this up. Guys, do not fuck this up.

I just spent an hour talking him down.

What I might fuck up is his girlfriend.

Oh, come on.

Did you see her? What she was wearing.

Hey, stop it.

She and I...

Looked at me.

Smelled me.

All right, look, guys, I don't know what's going on with her right now,

'cause she's not usually this highly strung, but we have got two days

until we go to Canada and she's not going with us.

So just keep it together until then, 'cause I don't know about you,

but I need this job.

Okay, so we're back on our way to Jonathan's.

Hopefully today will go a little smoother than yesterday did.

Obviously, there's some tension,

between Jonathan and Anne over Jonathan's theory.

I've known Jonathan since college.

He always lets his work take priority

over the rest of his life, it's just that right now...

Sorry. Um... Where was I?

You were talking about your obsessive, slightly insane friend who is

looking for Frankenstein.

Brian, and I say this with love,

please have some respect for Jonathan.

He's a friend of mine.

And if that's not enough,

do I need to remind you, he's paying for all of this?

He has my undying respect... As does his girlfriend.

Oh, my God!

What the fuck!

I'm so sorry.

Get the fuck out of the car! I'm so sorry, I didn't see you.

Get the fuck out of the car. Get the fuck out of the car!

I'm sorry!

Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!

Jesus!

Fucking...

Okay, let's go.

You sure you're okay?

Yeah. I'm fine. Busy day.

The Illuminati was a secret society that was founded in Ingolstadt University

in the late 18th century.

Now central to their work was discovering the origin of life,

which they felt was the key to immortality.

They worked relentlessly and they passed on information and experiments

so what you have, if you can imagine it, is the greatest scientific minds in Europe

building upon each generation's work.

Culminating in the creation

of what most people call the Frankenstein Monster.

The actual creator was Johann Venkenheim,

he was my grandfather's great-great-grandfather.

This is Johann's lab.

So what does this prove exactly?

What does it... Well, it's a genetics lab.

That's from my family's photo archives.

That was the first of its kind. I mean, fuck Mendel,

Johann was the father of modern genetics.

His work predates Mendel by over half a century.

While Mendel was splitting peas and fooling around with flowers,

Johann was bringing something miraculous into the world.

Something that's never been done before, hasn't been done since.

And who do I read about in a text book?

At any rate this, this lab... This is where he created him.

Can you explain that?

The technique?

No, I can't. Unfortunately. The technique is lost.

The notes, the research destroyed.

It seems that Johann and whoever assisted him,

they were so frightened or appalled by what they'd created,

that they destroyed everything

so that the experiment could never be recreated.

That sucks.

That sucks?

Yeah, it sucks. It sucks because it means

no matter how much evidence I collect, no matter how much data I collect,

my theory will never be accepted until I find him.

And I can say now with the utmost confidence

that the Frankenstein Monster is real.

That he exists, and he's alive now,

and I think I can find him.

You know, Jonathan's theory is

a lot to swallow.

So I just don't want people getting a bad impression of him.

But do you believe it?

What exactly are you asking me here?

Do you believe that there is a Frankenstein Monster?

Just take that and come here.

Excuse me.

Don't you know he's on suspension from the University?

Really?

Yeah.

No, I didn't know that.

Well, he's embarrassed about it.

Jonathan is obsessed with this bullshit theory.

You know it, I know it.

I mean, it's all he talks about.

He barely sleeps, barely eats, barely talks to me.

It is ruining him and you're helping.

And you're gonna go off to the Arctic.

You're gonna be in search of this Frankenstein, and you aren't gonna find him.

Because to answer your question, no, he doesn't exist.

You know that.

But Jonathan, let me tell you he's not gonna give up.

This is not gonna end well.

This is the first movement of Mozart's requiem.

He wrote it on his deathbed.

It started out as a commission piece

but ultimately ended up becoming his own requiem.

So I wanted to propose a toast, if that's all right.

The British explorer Freya Stark once said, "There is no happiness

"in the things that we believe if they're different than the things that we do."

Now, tomorrow will be

for me the first step in what stands to be the most important chapter of my life.