Who needs it?
Mankind.
Will it do?
Why does mankind need it?
Mankind got enough of everything.
Man has reached such level of
excellence
that he can destroy
everything on earth in 20 minutes.
Don't be an idiot. What I'm working on
has nothing to do with war.
My dear, it would be impossible
to keep it within one country.
- The whole world will know about it.
- So what?
Science has created
the most sophisticated chemistry
and the Germans have produced poison
gas.
As soon as we got the internal-
combustion engine,
the British built tanks.
With the discovery of chain reaction
the Americans dropped
a bomb on Hiroshima.
Doesrt it lead you
to some conclusions?
All right, let's assume there'll
be no war. What then?
People need energy. Do you
realize that energy is everything?
It's light, heating, transport,
prosperity, communism, if you want.
And so, my dear Ilya,
I want very much
to try and find that energy.
I'm afraid mankind won't have time
to take advantage of your good deed.
Nonsense!
- Are you counting on common sense?
- Precisely!
Do you really believe
that man has got any smarter
in the last 30,000 years?
No. Our brain has got no larger,
it hasn't got more convolutions.
He who invented the wheel
was a genius, like Einstein.
The first man to strike fire
was more talented
than the discoverer of quantum
mechanics.
Oh God, how clever those two are.
Itjust makes me sick.
I wonder where it will lead them.
Remember the portrait of Pharaoh
Akhenaton who lived 4,000 years ago?
Or Queen Nefertiti.
What delicate, intelligent,
inspired faces!
And now look around you.
The Neanderthals.
Look, look.
Look over there.
Those, I think, are the Danes.
These are ours.
The Americans.
Just look at this Australopithecus.
- Would you like something?
- No, nothing.
Yes, a pharaoh could exterminate
5, 10 thousand people.
From today's point of view,
it's just a trifle, nothing.
He loves me.
He still loves me.
I can see it now.
Mitya, look at me.
He won't.
And Ilya will.
Besides, no Genghis Khan
could ever have thought of
concentration camps and gas cameras.
He just couldn't have got the idea of
fertilizing soil with human ashes,
of stuffing mattresses with womers
hair
and making lampshades
from human skin.
I look at you, Ilya, and I envy you.
One has to be a very
happy man
to be able to afford the luxury of
taking such a gloomy view of the world.
I see you're doing pretty well.
Why this exchange of glances?
There was a custom in our village: If
you dated a girl 3 times - marry her.
Watch out - she can make
quick work of you.
Those jokes of yours, they're always...
awkward.
- Let's get out of here.
- No, I'm going to eat.
This is, too, my friend,
mankind walking.
Yeah...
- Come here, Ilya.
- What?
Buttermilk and yogurt
regulate the functioning
of your alimentary canal.
There you are.
- All right, let's say goodbye.
- All right.
I got a plane to catch.
We need to talk.
- Didrt we talk?
- No.
I think we said more
than enough.
And still we need to talk.
It's not the time and the place.
It's cold.
Let's go to the telephone station.
Remember we used to go there?
- Ilya dear, wait for us, please.
- All right.
I understand you needed that
talk to clear your conscience.
You may rest assured
it's clear now.
What about yours?
He's a good physicist,
he'll become a great theoretician.
He's a fine man,
honest and comfortable.
He's kind, very kind.
And you, Mitya?
Do we have nothing to remember?
I would have never married you anyway.
Why not?
Just wouldn't have,
that's all, with no whys.
- You want to hurt me even more?
- Why should I hurt you?
- Why, then?
- That's enough. Let's go.
No, I want to know.
Believe me, you have nothing to do
with it. Take my word for it.
- That's enough.
- No, it's not enough.
All right.
When did we first meet?
In 1954.
You were directing our practical work.
Yes... about 7 years before