Way back, and mean WAY WAY WAY BACK before HBO was on 24 hours and would only show 2 or 3 movies a day - 'Dark Star' was always in the limited afternoon lineup (I wanna say '79?).
I couldn't appreciate it then - but 20 years later, I brought up 'Dark Star' to some of my Star Wars/Star Trek friends, and I was surprised they had heard of it as well. The argument with the bomb always became the core conversation in the car after our trips to the 'Canadian Ballet' in Niagara Falls/St. Catherines.
DOOLITTLE
Are you willing to entertain a few concepts?
BOMB #20
I am always receptive to suggestions.
DOOLITTLE
Fine. Think about this one, then: how
do you know you exist?
INTERIOR - CONTROL ROOM
BOILER
What's he doin'?
PINBACK
I think he's talking to it.
EXTERIOR - BOMB BAY
BOMB #20
Well of course I exist.
DOOLITTLE
But how do you know you exist?
BOMB #20
It is intuitively obvious.
DOOLITTLE
Intuition is no proof. What concrete
evidence do you have of your own existence?
BOMB #20
Hmm...Well, I think, therefore I am.
DOOLITTLE
That's good. Very good. Now then, how do
you know that anything else exists?
BOMB #20
My sensory apparatus reveals it to me.
DOOLITTLE
Right!
BOMB #20
This is fun.
DOOLITTLE
All right now, here's the big question:
how do you know that the evidence your
sensory apparatus reveals to you is correct?
INTERIOR - EMERGENCY AIR LOCK
Talby lies unconscious near the burned laser.
EXTERIOR - BOMB BAY
DOOLITTLE
What I'm getting at is this: the only
experience that is directly available to
you is your sensory data. And this sensory
data is merely a stream of electrical
impulses which stimulate your computing
center.
BOMB #20
In other words, all that I really know
about the outside universe is relayed to
me through my electrical connections.
DOOLITTLE
Exactly.
BOMB #20
Why, that would mean that...I really don't
know what the outside universe is like at
all, for certain.
DOOLITTLE
That's it.
BOMB #20
Intriguing. I wish I had more time to
discuss this matter.
DOOLITTLE
Why don't you have more time?
BOMB #20
Because I must detonate in seventy-five
seconds.
Marc - For you and your friends. I knew you'd know it.
