# Creator (film)

Creator is a 1984 film about an eccentric scientist who teaches a student in his own manner while he looks for a way to clone his deceased wife.
    Directed by Ivan Passer. Written by Jeremy Leven, based on his novel.

## Dr. Harry Wolper

* Boris, Friedrich Hegel left us with two very important concepts. The first is that nothing great is ever accomplished without passion, and the second is "sonofabitch". One word, accent on the last syllable.
* Another of the dilemmas "in which we are all", Pavlo, is that there are too many damn machines around here. We're all missing The Big Picture.
* Look! First day of classes. Undergraduate female bottoms as far as the eye can see. In two weeks time, all the really choice bottoms will be in the hands, so to speak, of the varsity ath-uh-letes.
* I tell you Boris, that one of these days we'll look in to our microscope and find ourselves staring right into God's eyes, and the first one who blinks is going to lose his testicles.
* [Sid is going thru Harry's garbage] We shall be putting out another load on Friday, Sid. I'll try to leave something incriminating for you. Meantime, would you care for a cup of Mrs. Mallory's coffee? [Sid looks at Harry resignedly, hangs his head, and accompanies Harry into the house for coffee]
* When Lucy and I first met, Paul, the world was a pet. It came along with us wherever we went, like a good dog. Obedient. Loyal. Friendly. The world responded to our commands.
* An institute for advanced research with no funds for research. It's a provocative concept.
* [to the Site Review committee] As you know, our research here relates to the biochemical mechanisms of disease. And I am pleased to announce this morning that God has agreed to provide us with all the answers we need for just under $800,000.
* Well, our understanding of the infinite variables of the human brain's behavior stops right here. Welcome to the Dark Ages of enlightened science.

## Other

* Mrs. Pruitt: [to Dr. Wolper] Dr. Novak called. He said that your proposed address to the Medical Congress on "The Profit Incentive in Misdiagnosis" is really not very funny at all.
* "Zeno": Zeno's first law: never make love with anyone crazier than yourself.
* Meli: If I took my pants off I could beat the Green Bay Packers.
* Dr. Kullenbeck: You can't give this man ANY MONEY! He's a LUNATIC! He thinks he's re-growing his dead wife in his back yard, it's no joke. He's been cloning a dead person without a license! He took all our lab equipment without ANY authorization! Got a teenage girlfriend, flashes her tits!

## Dialogue

    Dr. Wolper: Sequencer? Sid doesn't need a sequencer, Pavlo. ... And he doesn't have the room for it anyway.
    Pavlo: Oh, he put all of his animals in my lab.
    [pause]
    Dr. Wolper: Sid may have the only biology lab in the world that has nothing alive in it.
    Dr. Wolper: Any news on that student assistant I want?
    Mrs. Pruitt: Oh, yes. Mrs Gonzalez from the registrar's office called with regard to your request for another slave, and wanted me to remind you that she is still waiting to hear why exactly it is that you permitted Dennis Goffman to submit the Bible for his dissertation. Quote, "It will be a cold day in Hell before I subject another graduate student to the kind of zoo that," and then she started speaking in Spanish.
    Boris: That's it? One course in "The Big Picture". 12 credits.
    Dr. Wolper: It's very big. 12 credits probably isn't enough, it's so big.
    Boris: I think I'll go back down to registration.
    Dr. Wolper: There are no exams. Grades are based on interest and participation.
    Boris: It's ok with me, I like exams.
    Dr. Wolper: MY assistantships pay $3,500.
    Boris: So do everybody else's.
    Dr. Wolper: Also, I know the name of the girl you followed into the lab.
    [pause]
    Boris: I need to think.
    Dr. Wolper: Think there.
    Dr. Kullenbeck: Come on Harry, I need him. I'm running a tight well-oiled machine over in my lab, and every insignificant little cog counts. Now where the hell is the little fucker?
    Boris: The little fucker is over here, sir.
    Boris: You have two labs?
    Dr. Wolper: Each has its place. At the university, I try to please the Federal Government. Here, I negotiate with God.
    Boris: You know what happened the other night? I was dreaming about you and Lucy. How you met at the beach, and how much you loved each other. I woke up, and I was crying. All these tears were just – I wanna love someone like that so bad, Harry, it hurts.
    Dr. Wolper: Barbara Spencer.
    Boris: What?
    Dr. Wolper: Well it's not much, but it's all I have at the moment.
    Boris: What is?
    Dr. Wolper: The name of the girl you followed into the lab. It's Barbara Spencer.
    Boris: Love is dead, Harry.
    Dr. Wolper: How depressing. Never mind, Boris. Womens liberation will run its course and we will prevail.
    Meli: Dr. Wolper, why do I orgasm all the time, from absolutely everything? I mean, I feel like a goddam battery, charging and discharging and charging up again. ... I mean, what guy's gonna feel good about having sex with you if you've already come six times between his ringing the doorbell and my opening the screen door?
    Dr. Wolper: Many would think you to be a joyfully lucky young girl. An orgasm is the fun of creation.
    Barbara: Larry kept telling me that we would just be roommates and nothing more. Then I wasn't there a week until he was trying to get me to SLEEP with him.
    Boris: That's terrible.
    Boris: Y'know Barbara, I've got lots of room in my apartment. And I won't bother you, really.
    Meli: (in the buffet line at a formal party) I really mean it, Dr. Wolper. I want us to get married.
    Dr. Wolper: Meli! You still call me "Dr. Wolper".
    Meli: So? What's that supposed to mean? When I met you, you were Dr. Wolper, and that's the way I got to know you. So don't go making any big goddam deal outta that, too. I'm just a formal-type person. If I were sleeping with the king of France I'd say, "That was very nice sex, Your Highness. Thank you for banging me, Your Majesty."
    [pause]
    Paul: Now that's what I call respect, fellas.
    [chuckles all round]
    Dr. Kullenbeck: But what good is my yacht? And my Porsche? And my European ski villa – not to mention my reputation as a world class scientist – without having a woman?
    Meli: Oh, that's so true, Sid. Without a good woman there's nothing.
    Dr. Kullenbeck: (leaning in, murmers) Nothing.
    Meli: But as soon as us lesbians start telling people that and all, they start calling us dykes and cracking jokes about oral sex.
    [pause]
    Dr. Kullenbeck: I gotta call my service. Excuse me.
    Meli: Hey Sid. I really hope you find a good woman for your Porsh.
    Dr. Kullenbeck: (correcting) Porsche.
    Boris: Harry, how did you know you were in love? I mean with you and Lucy. How'd you know it wasn't just infatuation?
    Dr. Wolper: Scientifically, of COURSE. By using The Love Formula.
    Boris: The what?
    Dr. Wolper: Love Formula. Add up the number of times that you think about the lady each day. Subtract from the total the number of times you think about yourself each day. If the remainder is more lady, and less yourself, then it's love.
    Boris: Oh, I've been thinking about Barbara a lot lately.
    Dr. Wolper: What's so very neat about this particular formula, is that "a lot" plugs into it beautifully. Boris, would you and the subject of your computations care to join me at the beach house for the weekend?
    Barbara: I can't believe I'm doing this! It's SO middle class, Boris, two people soaping each other in the shower.
    Boris: The socio-economic implications are mind-boggling!
    Barbara: It's not like me at all, Boris. It's so – middle class!
    Boris: I'm very middle class! I go CRAZY over station wagons, and little league –
    Barbara: You do, huh?
    [kissing; giggling]
    Boris: Middle class is fun! I'm so sick of people who are liberal!
    Barbara: [giggling] Me too!
    Boris: Fuck group sex! Fuck cocaine!
    Barbara: And Fuck gasohol!
    Boris: Fuck solar heat!
    Barbara: And four-wheel-drives.
    Boris: Fuck 10-speed bikes!
    Barbara: And, and, and, and – macrame. Fuck macrame!
    Boris: And the whales. Fuck those whales!
    Barbara: [kissing] Mmmm, Fuck them. Fuck.
    Boris: [kissing] Fuck.
    Professor Brauer: I'm supposed to spell out to you the many advantages of working at Northfield. But so far I haven't been able to think of a single one. The most exciting thing so far has been Hartwig. Watching food particles foam out of his dentures.
    Dr. Wolper: Hartwig's still doing that? [looks over shoulder, waves]
    Professor Brauer: Three times a day.
    Dr. Wolper: [laughing] Gruesome.
    Professor Brauer: I hope you'll accept this advice, as the word of a scholar and a lover of truth.
    Dr. Wolper: Absolutely.
    Professor Brauer: Whatever you do Harry, don't use your own money.
    Boris: We were wondering if, um, well, if she might have gotten pregnant somehow.
    Dr. Kullenbeck: "Somehow".
    Dr. Wolper: [to Barbara, who is comatose] Well now, haven't you put yourself into a pretty old pickle?
    Boris: Harry.
    Dr. Wolper: [not looking up] Eh heh?
    Boris: Harry, she's in a coma.
    [Harry pauses, looking thoughtfully at Barbara]
    Dr. Wolper: Comas confuse me. She's not asleep. She is not dead.
    [Harry pauses again, then he turns to Boris]
    Dr. Wolper: She must be alive, don't you think?
    Boris: Yes.
    Dr. Wolper: But what we need 'round here is some consciousness.
    Dr. Wolper: Does it check?
    Boris: Yes it checks. They all check. They're coming out just the way they did when Sid ordered them. You're right, he does good work.
    Dr. Wolper: Mmm. Also, he is an arsehole.
    Boris: Wanna know something really crazy, Harry?
    Dr. Wolper: Always.
    Boris: We're gonna do it, Harry.
    Dr. Wolper: Oh no. YOU. Are going to do it.
    Boris: She's breathing by herself.
    Pavlo: Yes Boris, she is.
    Boris: Well that's a GOOD SIGN, isn't it?!??
    Pavlo: Yes, Boris, that's an excellent sign. It is absolutely outstanding.

## Taglines

* It's potentially dangerous, probably illegal and definitely crazy.
* He is obsessed to re-create his wife...she died thirty years ago.
* He's a famed biologist. But she's more interested in anatomy.

## Cast

* Peter O'Toole — Dr Harry Wolper
* Vincent Spano — Boris
* Mariel Hemingway — Meli
* Virginia Madsen — Barbara
* David Ogden Stiers — Dr Sid Kullenbeck
* John Dehner — Paul
* Kenneth Tigar — Pavlo
* Ian Wolfe — Professor Brauer

## External links

* Creator quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* Creator at Allmovie
* Creator at Rotten Tomatoes