All the Light We Cannot See (2023) s01e02 Episode Script

1
Five, four
three, two, one
Fortunately for you, I cannot shoot you.
I need you.
But, Marie, there is no escape from me.
The tide is rising
and only I can get you to safety,
because only I have the light.
I have tried tenderness.
Now, let me try reason.
Your life is in my hands.
Just as my life is in yours.
I'm looking for the Sea of Flames.
How do you know about the Sea of Flames?
Your father told me.
You've spoken to my father?
Just tell me where it is.
Tell me he's alive.
I know he's alive.
I hear his voice.
Listen to my voice.
Listen to me.
Stay close. It's very crowded.
I'm sorry, Marie.
I know it's your birthday, but there's
still things I must do. Careful.
- You said we're going on holiday.
- We are.
Then why are we in such a hurry?
Because, Marie, sadly the Germans
have chosen your birthday to invade Paris.
Excuse me.
What will
the Germans do with France?
For the vanity of one man, they'll ransack
whole cities and take everything of value.
Here, would you please help me find
the key to the dinosaur gallery?
You're much faster than I am.
Come, Marie, we must save what we can
and then save ourselves.
There's a crate on your right.
- Daniel! You still want this?
- Yes, urgently.
I'll be back as soon as I can.
Sorry I brought you, Marie,
but if I left you at the apartment
there's no guarantee
that I would have made it back.
They'll close the streets,
and impose a curfew.
When the Nazis come to the museum,
this is what they'll be looking for first.
- Are we taking these stones with us?
- No. Grab a hold.
I'll be giving them to some people
that I trust to take them out of Paris.
And what will happen if they are caught?
One last thing.
When we get aboard the train, we'll
have cake to celebrate your birthday.
We're heading south
to the home of a friend.
What friend?
The kind of friend I can rely on
to take care of precious things.
Like you, Marie.
Here, fold that side over for me.
There we are.
Now, the dinosaurs await.
Give me your hand, and off we go.
Make sure you tell them it's urgent.
Daniel, thank God you're back.
The Germans are at the public door.
We told them that we're closed,
but I think they're about to blow it in.
Let them in. Make them coffee.
Give them cigarettes.
Delay them five minutes.
Give him the key
so he can lock every door we came through.
On the way out,
pretend you can't find the right key.
People who only use their eyes
find it difficult.
You see, she takes very good care of me.
- Where'll you go?
- Don't worry, we'll be okay.
Take care of yourself.
Mr. Daly,
open the doors and let them in.
- I'll be there straight away.
- Tell me what's happening.
I'm using my ten-franc raincoat
to carry diamonds and jewels
worth more than half of Paris,
and sending them to Geneva
in the head of a Tyrannosaurus rex,
one of the most terrible monsters
to walk the face of the Earth
until the coming of the Third Reich.
Come, stay close,
there's a column on your right.
Careful, careful. Here.
The Germans are close now.
Here. Over here. Stop, stop, stop.
Give me your bag.
You're going to sit on the trunk.
Step up. Here.
There you are.
I'm going to run. You'll have to trust me.
- I trust you.
- Here we go. Off we go.
I can guarantee you one thing, Marie.
This is one birthday you'll never forget.
What happened then?
There was a truck waiting for the jewels.
I don't know if the one
you were looking for was in there.
I do.
Stop lying to me.
I know it was not with the others.
Your father kept it for himself.
He gave it to you. Where is it?
Where is my father?
Marie, there's something you should know.
It is your father's fault you went blind.
The Sea of Flames is blessed,
but it's also cursed.
The loved ones of its owner
are struck with terrible afflictions.
Your darkness was a gift
from your precious Papa.
Corporal Pfennig.
Once again, the bombing is being
carefully directed and targeted.
I came here to see
if you had intercepted any transmissions
that might be guiding the bombs.
But I find instead that
you're engaged in a bit of
housekeeping!
I'm curious. Where is Schmidt?
We We lost power, a fuse blew,
he went looking for a spare one.
I am worried he might have been
caught in an explosion.
So worried that you decided
to clean the floor.
If the fuse blew, why are the lights on?
And why is the radio working?
I found a spare fuse in the basement.
There was still blood down there.
I got some on my boots.
I decided to clean it up.
Look.
Someone is broadcasting.
Let's see what they are saying.
"It's just like old times,
in my office
in the Botanical Gardens in Paris,
only"
"I'd like to know
what you mean by a Happy New Year."
A girl.
A girl is broadcasting.
The code is directing the bombs.
But you already knew that,
didn't you, Pfennig?
And when Schmidt found out,
you killed him. Hmm?
Why?
Gun.
- You're a spy.
- No.
Then explain!
I did it to protect a memory.
A place of hope.
The only one the Reich could not destroy.
I could execute you here and now, Pfennig.
But
you are the only radio operator
left in Saint-Malo.
So you and I
are going to find the location
of the person who's broadcasting.
Then I will put a gun in your hand
and you will kill this girl yourself.
Do you understand?
Yes, sir, I understand.
The broadcast stopped.
We have the whole day.
The bombers have gone.
Next time she broadcasts, we'll find her.
I put Schmidt with you because I was
suspicious of you from the beginning.
Last night, I called the commander
of the institute where you trained.
He said you were chosen for this work
because you were a genius.
One of the best boys in Germany, he said.
Gather your equipment.
Move.
So how did it come to this?
Carry on with your work, children.
It is probably the radio police,
come to get you
for listening to illegal broadcasts.
You don't know what you're talking about.
Heil Hitler.
Children.
Heil Hitler!
To what do we owe this visit, Commander?
How many of you children
have listened to the radio today?
Hmm?
If you have been listening
to the national broadcast,
you would have heard the glorious news.
This afternoon,
German troops entered Paris.
The French gave up the city
without a fight.
The French are a very decadent nation.
The rest of France will soon follow.
It came in with the kindling, Commander.
Hmm. Yeah.
Did any of your children
listen to anything other
than the national broadcaster today?
You. You were about to raise your hand.
He He was going to explain that
since the Brandenburg Antennae was raised,
no signal other than the national signal
can be received, sir.
Heil Hitler.
Yeah, that is the theory,
but clever people find ways
around the block.
They find ways
to listen to broadcasts from abroad.
Clever people like you, boy.
- You are Werner Pfennig, yes?
- Yes, I am.
Yes.
Yes, you are.
Indeed, you are
and you are the reason I'm here.
Because word of you has reached my ears.
They say you're a genius.
They say you are half-boy,
half-radio transmitter,
that you have wires inside your head
that can pick up signals from New York.
I have not listened to a foreign broadcast
for many weeks, sir.
Heil Hitler.
- Not for months, actually
- Oh, hush.
I'm not here about foreign broadcasts.
No.
No.
I
I am just here because I have
a friend whose radio is broken
and I want you, Werner Pfennig,
to come and fix it.
And in one moment, a life is changed.
Shall we?
The most beautiful house in Essen.
Requisitioned from a Jew
who left her fingernails in the gate,
such was her reluctance to leave.
A gift to me from the Führer himself.
My dear, turn off the music
and show the boy the broken machine.
I want my radio back.
Pfennig, fix it.
To fix it, I would need tools, sir.
And before we picked you up,
we entered the local school
and opened your locker
and found the tools you've been
using to make illegal radios.
We found one tuned
to shortwave frequency 13.10,
a forbidden station
located somewhere in France.
You've been listening to an old professor
who broadcasts to children about science
and light and imagination and such things.
Yes.
He talks only about truth
and beautiful things, sir.
- Heil Hitler.
- Heil Hitler.
Yes, truth and beautiful things,
all forbidden, Werner Pfennig.
Your ears have consumed forbidden words,
so your mind is in itself, forbidden.
Now
we know what you've been doing,
and you know
the punishment for it is death.
So, here's my proposition
You fix my wife's radio
or you die.
Come on.
The connection has gone bad.
I need to solder it.
There's no solder here.
Fix it or die.
Today at 1:00 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time,
German troops, tanks, and other vehicles
The radio's fixed, sir. Heil Hitler.
Very good, Pfennig.
Now, change the fucking channel
before all our minds are poisoned.
Yes, sir. Of course.
To your right.
Come on, quick, quick, quick.
Coming in to the landing. Up.
Careful. Hold onto me.
Hold on, Marie. Stay close.
The last train from Paris
has already left!
You are wasting your time! Get back!
Get back! You must turn back.
You must leave the station.
Leave the station!
The last train has already left!
You must leave the station now.
We have to walk.
- Walk?
- Come on. Yes.
We have no choice. Come.
Excuse me. Excuse me.
Come, Marie, hold on to me.
Hold on.
Marie, honey, let me take your bag.
It's so heavy.
Is this your radio?
Where we're going they may not have one.
I want to know what the professor
thinks of what's happening.
Marie. I'm sorry,
but we cannot take this with us.
So, can you explain to me why a whole city
is running away with nowhere to run to?
Can you explain why the Jews
are running the fastest?
Can you explain why
one country wants to own another?
I cannot. I can't explain any of it.
On the radio, they say
the Nazis hate anyone who's different,
and they hate anyone who speaks the truth.
- Marie
- Listen to me. Listen.
I'm different.
I know I am.
I know you've tried to protect me,
but I'm different.
You speak the truth.
Yes. And I'll stay silent
to keep you safe.
The only different thing about you is that
you're willing to carry a heavy weight
at your side in order to hear the truth,
which is one of the many extraordinary
things about you, Marie.
In life, you must never hide who you are.
But in war,
being unseen can keep you alive.
I'll carry your bag.
You know, the professor,
he speaks only to young people.
We need to understand
the madness in this world.
- I'll carry my own burden.
- No.
It's not your burden to carry alone.
Come.
I'm here. Here I am.
So, Marie, I chose this particular hotel
because the service here is extraordinary.
Papa, I hear live chickens.
Indeed, only the freshest food.
And the waiters and the waitresses,
and the butlers,
and maids are so discreet,
you don't even know they're here.
I feel a cool breeze.
So we're on the terrace, yes?
Yes. And the view
to the poppy fields is stunning.
I do hope there's nothing as bourgeois
as table and chairs.
Oh, no, the theme is Japanese.
We all eat on our knees,
and the starred Michelin chef
is famous for his salami sandwiches.
- Here.
- Thank you.
Could you ask one of the butlers
for a shawl please.
- Yeah.
- It's a bit cold.
Thanks. And
maybe tell the chef that just
half of one of his famous sandwiches
will be enough.
- Why? Are you not hungry?
- No, uh
We should save our food, Papa. I
Because since
you don't know where we're going,
we don't know how long it's going to take.
I do know where we're going.
I've decided we're going to Saint-Malo.
By the ocean?
Yes, by the ocean. Eat.
Mmm.
Who do you know in Saint-Malo?
We have family there.
How are we going to get there?
I mean
There are no trains.
No one's going to give us a ride
because kindness is dead
and all the people of the world
have become evil at the same time.
Not all the people.
Marie, it's almost 10:00.
Time for your professor.
If he knows what's happening,
I'd also like to know too.
Tonight, I believe he's talking
about the nature of time.
But whatever it is he talks about,
it's always about everything.
Good evening, children.
I'd like to start tonight's broadcast
with some words which,
wherever you are, you might find timely.
They were written a long, long time ago
by a Greek playwright named Sophocles.
But I think the words prove
that things don't really change,
no matter how much time passes.
Here is what he wrote
"The tyrant is a child of pride
who drinks from his sickening cup
of recklessness and vanity
until from his high crest,
he plummets headlong to the dust of hope."
I know that times
are dark right now, children,
but trust always that light does prevail.
Speaking of light,
I'd like to talk to you about
Werner!
You get dragged away by the Gestapo,
and still you listen?
For one hour of the day,
I want to listen to kindness and reason.
- Ow! That hurt!
- I should cut them off.
That hurt.
Not as much as a bullet in your head
or a rope around your neck.
Werner, you're all I have.
You're my family, all of it.
I cannot lose you.
- Sorry about your ears.
- You are really strong.
Very strong.
I found some chocolate.
- So, what did the professor
- Werner!
Soldiers are here.
They say they want to speak to you.
Werner, you're not being taken away.
You have been chosen
because you're so clever.
They'll say that you're too little.
That you came from nowhere.
That you shouldn't dream big.
But I believe in you.
I know you'll do something great.
Thank you.
You will stay the same, Werner Pfennig.
Even though you're often annoying.
- You must not change.
- You're hurting me again.
Do not let them impress you.
Do not let them convince you.
Keep the inside of your soul
the same, okay?
Like one of your silly radio stations.
Keep the frequency the same.
I promise.
Yeah.
I promise.
Jutta Jutta Jutta Jutta
- I promise.
- Jutta.
Congratulations.
Fixing the radio was my little test,
you passed it with flying colors.
Where are you taking me?
To a place where they will
turn the boy into a man,
and the man into a soldier.
Heil Hitler.
Heil Hitler.
All right, here we go, Marie.
There we go.
Turn right, Marie. Turn right. That's it.
Okay. Now, pop the clutch.
- What's a clutch?
- The clutch!
Pick up your left foot. There you go.
Yeah! All right! Scoot over! Scoot.
We steal cars now?
This is not a car, it's a Citroën.
We're not stealing it,
we're liberating it for all of France.
Look, Werner Pfennig, the houses
I bring you to get bigger each time.
The National Political Institute
of Education.
The most elite school in Germany,
built for the most brilliant minds
and the strongest bodies.
Only the superhuman survive here.
Do you read Friedrich Nietzsche, Werner?
No, I do not read.
I only listen.
"That which does not kill us
makes us stronger."
Heil Hitler.
Who are you?
Lieutenant Colonel Siedler.
I have a candidate here for submission
from the Essen Department.
I was told to come here first.
What is he?
He's a wizard.
This is Werner Pfennig.
He has a very particular
aptitude with radios.
Yes, well
I didn't ask about aptitude, did I?
I asked very specifically, what is he?
He's a boy.
When someone asks what you are,
they are asking what race you are.
What you are is your race.
So, please, what is he?
He's German Aryan.
Uh, but according
to the application paper you submitted,
Werner Pfennig was found in the orphanage.
So, he's an orphan.
Who was your father, Werner Pfennig?
I don't know who my father was.
Sir.
Sir.
Your mother?
Dead, sir.
Dead what?
Dead, sir Heil Hitler.
I mean, was your mother German Aryan?
Yes, sir.
But your father who came and went
might have been anything.
Take off your clothes.
If a boy has no clarifying paperwork
regarding his ancestry,
before he can even step inside
the inner sanctum of this institution,
he must be thoroughly examined,
so we can be sure
of his racial genetic makeup.
I said, take off your fucking clothes!
I will do measurements
of every part of his body.
Lip thickness, angle of nose projection,
bone density, eye color, skin color,
distance between temples,
circumference of head.
And only if after completing
my examination,
there is no question about
whether he has Jewish blood
Take everything off.
he will be accepted.
Herr Siedler,
thank you for thinking of us.
Now, please, go back to Essen.
Werner Pfennig is in our hands now.
Heil Hitler.
Good news, Werner Pfennig!
You are not a Jew,
so you can be allowed to live and
you can join this institution.
But know this.
The boy you are now will soon be dead,
replaced by something more than human.
Attention!
- Heil Hitler!
- Heil Hitler!
New boy for proofing.
This is your field uniform.
This is your gym uniform.
Suspenders crossed in the back,
parallel in the front,
sleeves rolled to the elbow,
you will carry a knife and a scabbard
on the right side of the belt.
No books, no cigarettes.
No personal possessions.
This is your locker.
There will be nothing in your locker
but uniforms, boots, knife, polish.
No talking after lights out.
Letters home posted Wednesday.
We will strip away your weakness,
your cowardice, your hesitation.
You will become a waterfall,
a volley of bullets.
You will forego comforts
and live by duty alone.
You will eat country and breathe nation.
Do you understand?
Yes, sir. I understand.
Good.
Give him the traditional welcome.
Run.
My dearest sister, Jutta,
this is a very interesting place.
There are lots of forests and open country
and the air is very clean.
The other boys seem okay,
though mostly they are bigger than me.
I still haven't yet
even picked up a radio,
but I'm sure that will come.
Please tell Frau Elena
not to worry about me,
as I'm fine
and enjoying the fresh air.
I hope you're all well.
I love and miss you very much.
Best wishes and Heil Hitler,
Werner.
That's enough! Enough!
You must be the new radio boy.
Get up. Get up, boy.
Be gentle with this one.
The Reich has high hopes for him.
Come on.
You either die like a lion,
or you go over
like a glass of spilt milk.
Get up. Come on.
Remember, Pfennig
in case you're planning
to fail on purpose,
it is not just your life at stake.
I understand you have a sister
Jutta.
If you fail to find the location
of shortwave 13.10,
your sister will die too.
And she will die very badly.
Papa, today
I've been remembering our journey
Go!
to Saint-Malo,
in the stolen car,
how we slept in barns and hedges
and stole eggs along the way.
I remember how we arrived in the town
just as the gasoline ran out
She's broadcasting
half a kilometer to the west.
Turn right here.
And I remember I was so nervous
when we first arrived here,
not knowing what our fate would be
or who we would meet.
But we were met with only love and joy.
All of that seems so far away now.
Papa
I pray that the signal from this radio
is reaching you wherever you are,
because I will never, never give up hope.
Not ever.
All my love.
Get out.
It's time to meet your friend.
Whoever you are, please forgive me.