Joe Black

 In Green Mile the scene were the Chief talks to Paul about going back to the time/place where you were happiest, what Heaven is like, and Paul agrees he believes That Very Thing 

At the hospital, Joe showed the Sista a glimpse of that

That Next Place, for those who have earned it, is peaceful, warm, loving, and with no Pain 

It's where Buffy went 

Swamp Thing - there are no strangers in Heaven it's too small 

Heaven - Nirvana - Eden - Elyssia 

Joe showed the Sista a glimpse of what was waiting 

Where Sam went at the end of Ghost

 Unlike Drew, facing Eternity in a Place With No Doors 

Just like Carl and Willie 

Joe to Bill in answer to "Should I Be Afraid" 

- Not a man like you 

Same answer to Sam in Ghost, to Maximus in Gladiator 

The answer to Drew, Willie, Carl, Commodus - "Yes, Be Afraid, Be VERY VERY Afraid" 

Smith Cypher

 

A lot of discussion around would the Machines honour the deal with Cypher 

Cypher wants to go back to the Matrix - he wants to remember nothing - he wants to be given a life where he can enjoy the things he covets - be someone rich, like an actor 

It would not cost the Machines anything to give him whatever life he wanted in the Matrix program so no logical reason why they would not 

Cypher wanted to get out and they want people to choose to stay in the Matrix 

Once out Cypher realised he wanted to be back - would he subconsciously look for the exit again or would he be content, especially if he had a really good life 

The Machines would maybe not want to put someone back who may want to escape again so killing him would be easier 

Though why waste a fully grown adult battery 

Like the end of Spartacus - the Roman leader announces the intention is not to kill them, but make them slaves again - why waste all those slaves - especially the battle experienced one who would make good gladiators 

He asks for his memory to be wiped, but they would logically do that anyway as they wouldn't want someone in there who was aware 

Would they need to honour the request to give him his great life - there is no reason they have to - would they use logic - or do they have some kind of "honour", similar to what we saw in Second Renaissance - as this was a deal, honouring their end balances the equation 

Does Smith actually have the authority to make a deal like that anyway - a different "department" would set up the lifestyles, part of the architecture

 Smith is an Agent program and an unstable one at that 

The opportunity would be to give him a life where he suffered - this could be for Smith's sadistic satisfaction, which he may well have developed as part of his character dealing with the human red pills in his job 

The Machines may decide because of what he escaping and being an enemy he deserves a punishment life where he suffers, the opposite of what he requested 

Consider people in our world who are born disabled, without sight, without limbs - in the Matrix, there are people who have been chosen to live those kind of lives, some sort of logical program selection process and a certain percentage who have to be that way 

If Cypher is going back at the same age, with his request to be an actor, why not send him back as someone who had an illness or an accident victim 

Paralysed, in a wheelchair, ALS, an illness like Helen Keller, what happened to the soldier in Johnny Got His Gun - they could put him into any one of those scenarios and make him live a life of Hell - a punishment he wouldn't know why he was suffering 

How many people condemned to live that way do the "God, why has this happened to me" at many points in their life 

And after watching him kill Dozer, Apoch and Switch that way, how many might agree he deserved it 

And wouldn't that have some logic, balancing the equation

Some of them are Vulcans ...

 

Mirror Spock warning Mirror Sulu "Some of them are Vulcans" 

This hadn't been explored that much back then but the look on Sulus face told us everything

 For a human facing revenge torture is frightening enough 

It would be terrifying to have it done by a Vulcan

War Doctor

 

What I pick up, what I feel and think, is that each of us has a "War Doctor" who breaks the promise that we made to ourself 

Do we turn our back on this version, do we embrace as just part of us, or do we forgive

 At the end of the 50 year episode, John playing War says "I can be The Doctor again" 

Do we break the promise we make to ourselves 

Can we then be forgiven

Who remember watching this that night Matt 11 literally turns his back on him 

Who is this Who? 

Introducing John Hurt as The Doctor 

I can't think of a more powerful piece of Television between now and then 

Except maybe "All Thirteen"

Superman Hulk

 While Hulk could argue come close to Superman in terms of strength, physical muscle exertion, when Superman is flying he is defying Gravity, so there is no limit to his propulsion ability 

In the first Superman film, Jor El tells him he can propel himself at "almost limitless speeds"

 In Superman Returns we see him lift a continent - this is possible because the continent weighs nothing when there is no gravity 

Despite Hulk's strength, Superman has his speed, as fast as Flash or Whizzer, faster than Hulk could see, his heat vision, and his flight 

Perhaps the only Marvel hero who could match Superman would be Thor 

So yes, flying Hulk to the upper stratosphere, or whatever it should be called. where he can't breath - and where there is extreme cold of course 

Hulk has awesome strength, but no match for Superman

Ghost

 Sam at the hospital saw the old man and watched one person being taken up 

Sam had already seen the light come for him on the street that night

 The old man mentions The Other Ones 

When Willie dies Sam sees The Other Ones drag him screaming to Hell 

As this is the man who killed him Sam knows its deserved though seeing it is chilling 

With Carl he did not mean for Sam to die, he sent Willy to steal the book 

Sam still remembered Carl as his friend despite Carl choosing the wrong path

 So we see that sympathy as he knows what coming and then as he watches it

 

Where would Jesus be if no one had written the gospels?

 

What ever you do,
dont congratulate yourself too much
or berate yourself either.

Your choices are half chance.
So are everybody elses.

 

Working in jobs they hate 

To earn money 

To buy things they don't need 

To impress people they don't like 

 

One door away from Heaven,
But, oh, the entry dues

The Missing Pound

 

Three men go for a meal in a restaurant. At the end of the meal the waiter brings them the bill and it comes to £30. Each man puts in a ten pound note. The waiter rings it up and then realizes he made a mistake and the bill was actually for £25.

The waiter brings back five pound coins. As five doesn’t divide into three very well, the men take one pound each and leave two pounds as a tip which the waiter pockets.

Each man has now paid 9 pounds, which adds up to £27. The waiter has 2 pounds in his pocket. That adds up to £29.

What happened to the extra pound from the original £30?

Try as hard as you like to make the formula for that work and there will always be one pound missing.

The answer is that there never was an extra pound.

The three men paid £27 and the waiter took two leaving £25.

The way the conundrum is worded leads you to believe that there was £27 with £2 added to give £29, and therefore one pound short of £30, with £1 missing.

It is a good example of how easy it is to mislead somebody’s thinking so they mathematically “prove" something to be other than it is.

 

you're alive by recognizing beauty 

-- seeing truth because when you discover truth you discover what love is.

.. we're all saying the same thing. 

It's "love me and I'll love you."

 

you're alive by confronting death 

-- by experiencing pain.

 

Every man knows that he will die: 

and nobody believes it. 

On that paradox stand not only a host of religions 

but the entity of a sane being

Four Thirty

 

the shadow of a giant hand. . .

 at exactly four-thirty the hand was perfect. 

The giant shadow hand was perfect for one minute, 

and for one perfect minute 

 sat in the palm of a perfection he'd created himself.

 One minute was enough, 

, a person had to work hard for it,

 but a minute of perfection was worth the effort

. A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection.

 

• • Flowers bloom and die
  • Wind brings butterflies or snow
  • A stone won't notice
• • 
    
• 
  

 

You want fantasy? 

Here's one... 

There's this species that lives on a planet a few miles above molten rock and a few miles below a vacuum that'd suck the air right out of them. 

They live in a brief geological period between ice ages, when giant asteroids have temporarily stopped smacking into the surface. 

As far as they can tell, there's nowhere else in the universe where they could stay alive for ten seconds.

And what do they call their fragile little slice of space and time? 

They call it real life.

 

 two firemen go into a forest to put out a small fire.

Afterwards, when they emerge and go over to a stream, the face of one is all smeared with black, while the other man’s face is completely clean. 

My question is this: which of the two will wash his face?

That’s a silly question. The one with the dirty face of course.’

No, the one with the dirty face will look at the other man and assume that he looks like him. 

And, vice versa, the man with the clean face will see his colleague covered in grime and say to himself: I must be dirty too. I’d better have a wash.’

 

        Your children are not your children.

        They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.

        They come through you but not from you,

        And though they are with you yet

they belong not to you.