ll settle up.
I see this place is still
under seven locks.
Come in, Mr. Olsen.
Please, wait here.
Ah, Olsen! It's been a long time!
It wasn't easy getting in.
It wasn't intended
to keep you away.
Break those secret doors.
Don't bury yourself alive.
I have my reasons
to be afraid of people.
Twenty years ago a band of ignorant
fools destroyed my laboratory.
They even tried to shoot me.
I hope you're not accusing
the entire human race
of being as unprincipled
as those vandals.
You still treat patients,
don't you?
I'm a scientist. That's my duty.
Dear friend,
I've come here for two reasons.
First, what can Dr. Salvatore
tell our newspaper
about the sea devil?
Devils don't exist,
either in the sea or on land.
That's all you can print
as my statement.
Couldn't it be some creature
not yet known to scientists?
You must be hungry.
Will you join me for breakfast?
He's been seen here several times.
Dive in once more, Balthazar.
- Drop the anchor.
- Good!
You look like a pirate!
With such knives my forefathers
would slice out the stomachs of
anyone who go in their way.
- Well, what?
- I saw...
- What? Him?
- No. His burrow.
It leads somewhere over there.
- Who lives up there?
- God.
Quit joking.
I'm not joking.
He must be a god.
He makes lame people walk,
he gives blind people their sight.
We've got a devil in the bay
and some god over it...
It's the home of
the great Dr. Salvatore.
We won't waste our time then.
But that tunnel, that's where
we're going to catch him.
Last week the prosecutor
read my article
and a fine was imposed
on our newspaper.
We don't have any money,
our newspaper is for poor people.
Won't you be willing
to lend us ten thousand?
Otherwise, we'll be closed.
My dear Olsen! If it's for you,
you have only to ask.
But I won't give anything
for your newspaper.
Thank you very much, but
personally, I don't need a thing.
With me it's a matter of principle,
not to get involved in politics.
So let's leave everything
the way it is?
Not at all! The unfortunate
people should be helped.
Not by a politician, or a newspaper
man, but by a scientist.
- Really?
- Yes.
- And that means you?
- Exactly!
I will lead the poor
to a land of abundance
where no one will oppress them.
Where to?
Heaven? The moon?
No.
To the ocean!
At the bottom of the ocean,
there're neither poor nor wealthy.
Everyone will be free
and happy there.
Will it be a republic
of the drowned?
Don't laugh. I am letting
you in on a great secret.
Can you imagine an ocean
populated by people capable of
breathing under water like fishes?
Dear friend,
that sounds like a fairy tale.
No, it's not a fairy tale.
Come with me.
lchthyander!
The sea devil!
If you don't mind.
It's my son, lchthyander.
The first citizen
of the underwater republic.
Change your clothes
and come back here.
All right, father.
As a young boy, he contracted
an incurable lung disease.
In a desperate attempt to save him
I replaced his lungs with
the gills of a shark.
This risky operation
was a success.
That's when I got the idea of
creating an underwater republic.
I bow before your surgeon's skill.
But your idea of the underwater
republic is an utopian dream.
What's to prevent poor and rich
from springing up again?
I've already read all that
in your newspaper.
Suppose you plant gills in
everybody who wants them.
Human nature won't change.
People will miss the land.
Let's stop this discussion.
Don't be afraid.
This is my friend, Olsen.
Tell me, you...
Don't you miss people,
the land?
Today you have learned
more than enough.
And remember, not a word
to anyone!
Did you forget what you were
supposed to bring me back?
Did I ask you for that?
Stop that. You're behaving
like a little boy.
You've been attracting
quite a bit of attention.
I don't want people to know
about you.
The newspapers are printing
ridiculous tales about you.
Father, I saved a girl's life