Professor Millar Quotes in Britannia Hospital (1982)

Professor Millar: Friends! Fellow Members of the Human Race! We are gathered here for a purpose. Let us look together at Mankind. What do we see? We see Mastery. What wonders Mankind can perform. He can cross the oceans and continents today, as easily as our grandfathers crossed the street. Tomorrow he will as easily cross the vast territories of space. He can make deserts FERTILE and plant cabbages on the Moon. And what does man CHOOSE? Alone among the creatures of this world, the Human Race CHOOSES to ANNIHILATE itself. Since the last world conflict ended, there has not been one day in which Human Beings have not been SLAUGHTERING or wounding one another, in 200 and 30 different wars. And man BREEDS as recklessly as he lays waste. By the end of the century, the population of the world will have TRIPLED. 2/3rds of our plant species will have been DESTROYED. 55% of the Animal Kingdom. and 70% of our mineral resources. Out of every hundred Human Beings now living, 80 will DIE without ever KNOWING what it FEELS like to be fully nourished... While a tiny minority INDULGE themselves in ABSURD and EXTRAVAGANT luxuries. A motion picture entertainer of North America will receive as much money in a MONTH as would feed a starving South American tribe for a hundred YEARS! We WASTE! We DESTROY! AND, we cling like SAVAGES to our SUPERSTITIONS. We give POWER to LEADERS of State and Church as prejudiced and small-minded as ourselves, who SQUANDER our resources on instruments of destruction... While Millions continue to SUFFER and go hungry, condemned FOREVER to lives of IGNORANCE and DEPRIVATION. And why is this? It is because mankind has denied Intelligence, the unique glory of our species - the Human Brain. Man is entering an era of INFINITE possibility, still imprisoned in a FEEBLE, inefficient body... Still manacled by primitive notions of morality, which have NO PLACE in an Age of Science... Still powered by a brain that has HARDLY developed since the species emerged from the caves. Only a NEW intelligence can save Mankind! Only a new Human Being of PURE BRAIN can lead man forward into the new era. I do not speak of DREAMS. Such a being exists already. I have created it! It is HERE. NOW. Prepare yourselves to meet the Human of the Future. Neither Man nor Woman. Greater than either. I have given it a name. Genesis. Birth. A New Birth. A New Beginning for Mankind. People of Today, Behold Your Future!

Professor Millar: What do you think is the most successful animal that's ever lived on this earth?

Michael Arnold Travis: The ant?

Professor Millar: The dinosaur. Uh, do you realize that the dinosaurs dominated this globe for 140 million years before they became extinct? Modern Man has been on this planet for only a fraction of just over 40,000 years and yet already he faces extinction. In fact, the species will be lucky to survive beyond the year 2010. Mankind has only one hope: science. Technology is a survival kit of the human race. Even the politicians realize this. What they don't, or won't realize is, that the technical solutions are already entirely within our power. The entire population of India could be rehoused on the moon within ten years. It's only a matter of learning to live in a new way.

Professor Millar: Michael, I don't know if anyone's ever told you this, but you happen to belong to a very rare group of encephaloids.

Michael Arnold Travis: Yes, but what's gonna happen to me? Will I come out the same as I went in?

Professor Millar: Not the same: better.

Professor Millar: Now, I would just like you to sign this release form.

Michael Arnold Travis: [reads from the form] "I hereby consent to lease the Millar Research Clinic all physical experimental rights in my body for one week for the sum of £100." Well, I'd like to help Professor Millar, but £150 is definitely my minimum price.

Professor Millar: Definitely? A figure like that is just beyond us.

Michael Arnold Travis: One hundred and fifty pounds... and I'm not going to argue about it.

Professor Millar: A hundred and thirty.

Michael Arnold Travis: A hundred and forty-five.

Professor Millar: A hundred and thirty-five.

Michael Arnold Travis: A hundred and forty.

Professor Millar: Done! Sign by the cross.