Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994)

John Cleese: Professor Waldman

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Quotes 

• Victor Frankenstein : How close did you come?

  Professor Waldman : Too close.

• Professor Waldman : You! Explain yourself!

  Victor Frankenstein : Professor I'm sorry. Listen I came here to learn all about the new science. I'm Galvanism, Franklin's experiments. The combination of modern disciplines with ancient knowledge in an attempt to protect and create...

  Professor Waldman : To create what?

  Victor Frankenstein : So we can change things. We can make things better. Now you know that. We're on the verge of undreamt of discoveries, if we only have the courage to ask the right questions. Now you must help me. Please.

  Professor Waldman : Come on.

• Professor Waldman : Lock the door.

  [Henry closes doors] 

  Professor Waldman : now for thousands of years, the Chinese have based their medical science on the belief that the human body is a chemical engine run by energy streams.

  Victor Frankenstein : That's fascinating, then how do they explain... .

  Professor Waldman : [Henry is looking through his journals]  Don't touch that! Their doctors treat patients by inserting needles like these into the flesh at various key points to manipulate these electric streams

  Victor Frankenstein : I see! So electricity is the key.

• Murderer : You're not sticking that in me? Got a pox in it, I hear.

  Woman : Pox? They're giving us pox?

  Murderer : That's right, pox.

  Professor Waldman : It's not pox. It's a vaccine that will prevent a plague in this city.

  Woman : What's that?

  Professor Waldman : It's a tiny harmless amount of anti-smallpox serum.

  Murderer : You just said "pox"!

  Professor Waldman : I said it was harmless. It's a necessary precaution, about which, this godforsaken city would be immediately put under quarantine.

  Murderer : You doctors kill people. I don't care what you say you're not stickin' that in me!

  Professor Waldman : Yes I am. It's the law! Now sit him down, someone.

  Murderer : You're not stickin' that in me! You're not stickin'that in me!

  [Pulls out knife and fatally stabs the professor] 

• Victor Frankenstein : No I'm serious. You take vaccine for instance. 30 years ago the entire concept of vaccine was unheard of, and now we save lives every day. But that isn't the whole answer.

  Henry Clerval : What do you mean?

  Victor Frankenstein : That sooner or later the best way to cheat death, will be to create life.

  Henry Clerval : Now you've gone too far. There's only one God, Victor.

  Victor Frankenstein : No. Leave God out of this. Listen. You love someone they have a sick heart. Wouldn't you give them a healthy one.

  Henry Clerval : Impossible!

  Victor Frankenstein : No, it's not impossible. We can do it. We're steps away. If we can do that if we can replace one part of a human being. We can replace every part. And if we can do that we can design a life. We can create a being that will not grow old or sicken. One that will be stronger than us, better than us, one that will be more intelligent than us, more civilized than us.

  Henry Clerval : In our lifetime?

  Professor Waldman : No!

  Victor Frankenstein : How close did you get, Professor?

  Professor Waldman : Too close.

  Victor Frankenstein : Professor, I beg you, let me see these notes!

  Professor Waldman : No! My work now and it's application, lies exclusively in the preservation of life. I abandoned my researches many years ago.

  Victor Frankenstein : Why?

  Professor Waldman : Because they resulted in abomination.

• Professor Waldman : And that is why the central nervous system and it's crowning achievement the brain, are as complicated and mysterious a set of organs as you are ever likely to encounter.

  [Handing a scalpel to Frankenstein] 

  Professor Waldman : Mr. Frankenstein the incision is yours. Excellent. Mr. Clerval you may remove the cranial lid.

  [Henry faints]