12 Monkeys

L.J. Washington:
I don't really come from outer space.

Jeffrey Goines:
Oh. L.J. Washington. He doesn't really come from outer space.

L.J. Washington:
Don't mock me, my friend. It's a condition of mental divergence. I find myself on the planet Ogo, part of an intellectual elite, preparing to subjugate the barbarian hordes on Pluto. But even though this is a totally convincing reality for me in every way, nevertheless Ogo is actually a construct of my psyche. I am mentally divergent in that I am escaping certain unnamed realities that plague my life here. When I stop going there, I will be well. Are you also divergent, friend?

James Cole:
This is a place for crazy people. I'm not crazy.

Dr. Peters:
We don't use the term "crazy," Mr. Cole.

James Cole:
Well, you've got some real nuts here.

Jeffrey Goines:
You know what crazy is? Crazy is majority rules. Take germs, for example.

James Cole:
Germs?

Jeffrey Goines:
Uh-huh. Eighteenth century: no such thing, nada, nothing. No one ever imagined such a thing. No sane person. Along comes this doctor, uh, Semmelweis, Semmelweis. Semmelweis comes along. He's trying to convince people, other doctors mainly, that's there's these teeny tiny invisible bad things called germs that get into your body and make you sick. He's trying to get doctors to wash their hands. What is this guy? Crazy? Teeny, tiny, invisible? What do they call it? Uh-uh, germs? Huh? What? Now, up to the 20th century — last week, as a matter of fact, before I got dragged into this hellhole — I go in to order a burger at this fast-food joint, and the guy drops it on the floor. James, he picks it up, he wipes it off, he hands it to me like it's all OK. "What about the germs?" I say. He says "I don't believe in germs. Germs is a plot made up so they could sell disinfectants and soaps." Now he's crazy, right? See? Ah! Ah! There's no right, there's no wrong, there's only popular opinion. You... you... you believe in germs, right?

James Cole:
Look at them. They're just asking for it. Maybe the human race deserves to be wiped out.

Jeffrey Goines:
Wiping out the human race? That's a great idea. That's great. But more of a long-term thing. I mean, first we have to focus on more immediate goals.

Dr. Owen Fletcher:
Kathryn, you're a rational person. You're a trained psychiatrist. You know the difference between what's real and what's not.

Dr. Kathryn Railly:
And what we say is the truth is what everybody accepts. Right, Owen? I mean, psychiatry: it's the latest religion. We decide what's right and wrong. We decide who's crazy or not. I'm in trouble here. I'm losing my faith.

Jeffrey Goines:
And when my father finds out I'm in this kind of place, he'll have them transfer me to one of those classy joints where they treat you properly, like a person, like a guest. With sheets and towels like a big hotel, with great drugs for all of us nut-case, lunatic, maniac devils.

Kathryn Railly:
He's been living in a meticulously constructed fantasy world, and that world is starting to disintegrate. He needs help.