The Fly (1986 film)

Directed by David Cronenberg. Written by Charles Edward Pogue and David Cronenberg, based on the short story by George Langelaan.

Seth

• What am I working on? Uhhh ... I'm working on something that will change the world and human life as we know it.

• You're afraid to dive into the plasma pool aren't you? You're afraid to be destroyed and re-created, aren't you? I'll bet you think that you woke me up about the flesh, don't you? But you only know society's straight line about the flesh! You can't penetrate beyond society's sick, grey fear of the flesh! Drink deep or taste not the plasma spring, see what I'm saying? Now, I'm not just talking about sex and penetration, I'm talking about penetration beyond the veil of the flesh! A deep, penetrating dive into the plasma pool!

• A fly...got into the...transmitter pod with me that first time when I was alone. Uh, the computer got confused, there weren't supposed to be two seperate genetic patterns, and it decided to, uh, splice us together. It mated us, me and the fly. We hadn't even been properly introduced! My...teleporter turned into a gene-splicer. And a very good one, now I'm not Seth Brundle anymore. I'm the offspring of...Brundle and housefly.

Dialogue

Seth: Don't be afraid.

Veronica: No. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

(At Brundle's lab, Veronica finds him scaling the walls.)

Seth: I seem to be stricken by a disease with a purpose, wouldn't you say? Maybe not such a bad disease after all.

Veronica: I can't stay here.

Seth (jumps onto floor): No, no, no! Why not? Why can't you?

Veronica: I can't take it ... It's too much.

Seth: What's there to take? The disease has just revealed its purpose. We don't have to worry about contagion anymore ... I know what the disease wants.

Veronica: What does the disease want?

Seth: It wants to ... turn me ... into something else. That's not too terrible, is it? Most people would give anything to be turned into something else.

Veronica: Turned into what?

Seth: Whadda you think, a fly? Am I becoming a hundred-and-eighty-five pound fly? No, I'm becoming something that never existed before. I'm becoming ... Brundlefly. Don't you think that's worth a Nobel Prize or two?

Seth: You have to leave now, and never come back here. Have you ever heard of insect politics? Neither have I. Insects ... don't have politics. They're very ... brutal. No compassion, no compromise. We can't trust the insect. I'd like to become the first ... insect politician. Y'see, I'd like to, but ... I'm afraid ...(groans)

Veronica: I don't know what you're trying to say!

Seth: I'm saying ... I'm saying I-I'm an insect who dreamt he was a man ... and loved it. But now the dream is over ... and the insect is awake.

Veronica: No...No, Seth ...

Seth: I'm saying ...I'll hurt you if you stay.

Seth: Help me. Help me be human.

Veronica: How?

Seth (indicating the appropriate telepods): Well, I go there, and you go there. We come apart, and then we come together there. You, me and the baby. Together.

Veronica: No...

Seth: We'll be the ultimate family. A family of three, joined together in one body...more human than I am alone.

Veronica: No!!

Veronica: We've got to do this, Seth. Talk to the tape, get in the habit. The world will want to know what you're thinking...

Seth: FUCK is what I'm thinking!

Taglines

• Be afraid. Be very afraid.
• Half man, half insect... total terror!
• Something went wrong in the lab today... something very wrong...

Cast

• Jeff Goldblum - Seth Brundle
• Geena Davis - Veronica Quaife
• John Getz - Stathis Borans