Altered States (1980)

Bob Balaban: Arthur Rosenberg

Photos 

Quotes 

• Eddie Jessup : Emily's quite content to go on with this life. She insists she's in love with me - whatever that is. What she means is she prefers the senseless pain we inflict on each other to the pain we would otherwise inflict on ourselves. But I'm not afraid of that solitary pain. In fact, if I don't strip myself of all this clatter and clutter and ridiculous ritual, I shall go out of my fucking mind. Does that answer your question, Arthur?

  Arthur Rosenberg : What question was that?

  Eddie Jessup : You asked me why I was getting divorced.

  Arthur Rosenberg : Oh, listen, it's your life. I'm sorry I even asked.

• Arthur Rosenberg : The way I feel, I don't expect to go to sleep for a year. I'm on fucking fire!

• Arthur Rosenberg : What we saw tonight was a physical phenomenon, an inexplicable physical phenomenon!

• Mason Parrish : He is off the wall.

  Arthur Rosenberg : [holds the microphone]  Are you okay?

  Eddie Jessup : Get this stuff. It's new. It's deafening. The noise is deafening.

  Eddie Jessup : [shivering with strut]  Can you hear me above this noise? Oh, my God. The most unbelievable thing I've seen. I'm watching the birth agony of a mountain.

  Mason Parrish : Oh, my God.

  Arthur Rosenberg : Are you okay?

  Eddie Jessup : [still holding the microphone]  I'm fine. Really, I'm fine.

  Arthur Rosenberg : Do you want me to bring you down now?

  Mason Parrish : What happens now?

  Arthur Rosenberg : He's blacked-out. His blackouts can get pretty freaky. Sometimes they last as long as four hours. When he comes out, he's chipper as a bird but doesn't remember a thing.

  Mason Parrish : Just how dangerous is this stuff he brought back from Mexico?

  Arthur Rosenberg : I didn't say dangerous, l said it was weird. Hangs around too long. And what's really screwy is it heads straight for the brain.

  Mason Parrish : Well, l don't believe this. You guys are shooting up an untested drug that stacks up in the brain, works in the nucleus of the cell, and don't call that dangerous?

  Arthur Rosenberg : For the record, we don't actually shoot up.

  Mason Parrish : Heh, heh, heh.

  Arthur Rosenberg : Eddie drinks a 10...

  Mason Parrish : Well, It's gonna stop right now. You guys are supposed to be scientists, not two kids in the dorm, freaking out on Mexican mushrooms.

  Arthur Rosenberg : Well, why do you think I called you for? Let's see you stop him.

• [First line] 

  Arthur Rosenberg : The tank itself was unusual in that it was vertical, and looked like an old boiler.

• Mason Parrish : It sounded like he was having a bad trip to me.

  Arthur Rosenberg : Some of these tank trips can get pretty creepy.

• Arthur Rosenberg : Couldn't resist, right?

  Mason Parrish : Well, somebody's gotta keep an eye on you two sorcerers.

• Mason Parrish : Where are we going now? I thought we were gonna eat.

  Arthur Rosenberg : Eddie wants to show me an isolation tank.

  Mason Parrish : Isolation tank? You guys get flakier every time l talk to you. I thought all that isolation-tank stuff went out in the'60s with Timothy Leary and all them other gurus.

• Arthur Rosenberg : I don't expect to go to sleep for a year. I'm on fucking fire!