Prophecy (1979)

Robert Foxworth: Rob

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Quotes 

• Maggie Verne : Rob, what is it?

  Dr. Robert Verne : It's methylmercury poisoning, that's what it is. This whole place has been contaminated.

  Maggie Verne : How do you know?

  Dr. Robert Verne : The Indians eat the fish, and they behave like they're drunk when they haven't had a drop of liquor. That raccoon convulsing and turning vicious, its brain turned to mush. Even that old man, that Indian, you saw the burns on his fingers.

  Maggie Verne : Is that from mercury?

  Dr. Robert Verne : It's from cigarettes; the reason he didn't feel it is from mercury. You see, it acts on the nervous system; it destroys the brain.

• Dr. Robert Verne : What's going on here?

  Isley : There were more killings in the forest last night. We're not waiting for any more.

  Dr. Robert Verne : Who was killed?

  Isley : [referring to the dismembered campers]  A family up at Mary's Bend.

  Dr. Robert Verne : [referring to John Hawks and the people of the Indian village]  What makes you think these people had anything to do with it?

  Isley : They're guilty as hell, Vern.

  Sheriff : [speaking through his megaphone]  I want the following people to step forward as their names are read! John Hawks!

  Dr. Robert Verne : Where's the evidence?

  Isley : The evidence is at the hospital! It's in baskets!

• Dr. Robert Verne : Can these people help us?

  [Dr. Verne after saving a dieing mutant cub and treating it in a tent at the Indian site referring to some Indian men who are with Hawks] 

  John Hawks : They can send someone from the village.

  Dr. Robert Verne : Send them. Tell them to get people here. I want people to see this. Is there a newspaper in town?

  John Hawks : Yes.

  Dr. Robert Verne : Get them here with a camera... and people from that paper mill... and that sheriff.

  John Hawks : Not that sheriff. I can't do that.

  Dr. Robert Verne : Hawkes! He'll see the truth here and you have more here at stake in this truth than I have.

• Dr. Robert Verne : Inorganic methylmercury, known as PMT, used as a desliming agent that collects algae and prevents it from forming on preprocessed timber. Its widespread use discontinued in 1956 when evidence of its fatal effects... were seen in the deaths of 100,000 people in Minamata, Japan.

• M' Rai : This camp is as the old people did it. I'm teaching these young people so that someone here will remember. There are underground tunnels beneath the frost line to store perishables. The forest provides more food than a man could possibly need. Here, everything grows big... real big.

  Dr. Robert Verne : Well, I saw a salmon that, uh, took my breath away.

  M' Rai : It is the garden of Eden. I've let no one come here. You are the first to see it.

  Maggie Verne : It's magical.

  John Hawks : We were once a magical people.

  Ramona : It's true. When I was a child, every rock, every tree had a story. The whole forest was filled with legends.

  Maggie Verne : We heard about one of them.

  Ramona : Yes?

  Maggie Verne : Uh, katydah, something.

  Ramona : Katahdin.

  M' Rai : Katahdin is no legend.

  Ramona : My grandfather is the oldest person in our tribe. It's his duty to foster these beliefs.

  M' Rai : I have seen him.

  Maggie Verne : And what does he look like?

  M' Rai : He is part of all things created. And he bears a mark of each of God's creatures.

  Maggie Verne : You say that with great affection.

  M' Rai : He has awakened to protect us.

• Maggie Verne : I believe him.

  Dr. Robert Verne : Why?

  Maggie Verne : Why would he have offered to let you test the water?

  Dr. Robert Verne : Maybe it wasn't in the water.

  Maggie Verne : Huh?

  Dr. Robert Verne : Maybe it's heavier than water. That silvery stuff on your boot, is it dry?

  Maggie Verne : Yes.

  Dr. Robert Verne : They gave us a trick question in medical school. What's the only liquid in the world that isn't wet?

  Maggie Verne : What was the answer?

  Dr. Robert Verne : Mercury.

• Maggie Verne : Jumps the placental barrier. What does that mean?

  Dr. Robert Verne : [referring to methylmercury]  It's a mutagen.

  Maggie Verne : A mutagen. What is that?

  Dr. Robert Verne : Freakism! Freakism! That's what's been going on out there. That's why there's a goddamn salmon five feet long, and a tadpole the size of what a bullfrog should be! And stillbirths.

  Maggie Verne : What?

  Dr. Robert Verne : That's what that Indian woman said. And deformed children. And God knows what else has been going on out there.

  Maggie Verne : So if a pregnant animal ate some fish, it could...

  Dr. Robert Verne : Yes. My God. Is it possible?

  Maggie Verne : Yes.

  Dr. Robert Verne : The size of a dragon.

  Maggie Verne : What?

  Dr. Robert Verne : The size of a dragon. Isn't that what Isley said at the airport? And something about eyes, cat's eyes. And the old man, the Indian. Didn't he describe that creature as being a... part of everything in God's creation? Isn't that what he said?

  Maggie Verne : Yes.

• Dr. Robert Verne : [from the tape recorder]  Described as the most potent neurotoxin of the post-World War II age. Used from 1948 to 1956 in pulping processes as a cheap and effective caustic agent that prevents algae from forming on waterlogged timber. It is also known for its mutagenic properties, concentrating in the bodies of fish and plankton-eating crustacea, affecting the fetal development of everything that ingests it. The ratio of toxin to blood level is 30% higher in the developing fetus than in the host. It was discovered, after extensive testing, that it is the only mutagen that jumps the placental barrier, concentrating in fetal blood cells, where it adheres to the DNA and corrupts the chromosomes.

• Dr. Robert Verne : A developing fetus goes through certain distinct phases. Each phase represents a specific stage of evolution. A human fetus, for instance. At one stage, it's a fish. It looks like a fish; it's got fins and gills. At another, it's amphibian - webbed hands; at another, reptilian; at another, it's feline - developing upward in the distinct shapes and phases of the evolutionary scale. If this chemical, methylmercury, adheres to the DNA - DNA's a chromosomal fixative - it could freeze certain parts at one evolutionary stage, while the other parts continue growing. A pregnant animal ingests the fish, and it corrupts the fetus to a point where it gives birth to a monster.