The Last Wave (1977)

Richard Chamberlain: David Burton

Photos 

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Quotes 

• David Burton : What did I see?

  Chris Lee : A dream.

  David Burton : What are dreams?

  Chris Lee : Dream like seeing... hearing... talking... the way of knowing things.

  Chris Lee : Like what?

  David Burton : Like if my family's in trouble, from dream, they send me a message.

  Chris Lee : In dreams?

• Rev. Burton : I remember one night, not long after I married your mother, you came to me and told me you were afraid to go to sleep at night. Because, explained, this very serious little boy, when you go to sleep - people come and steal your body.

  David Burton : Did I say what sort of people.

  Rev. Burton : I asked and you said taxi drivers.

  David Burton : Taxi drivers?

  Rev. Burton : Taxi drivers at night stole people's bodies and took them on a long ride to another world and returned them in the morning.

• David Burton : What do you want? Who are you?

  Charlie : Who are you?

  David Burton : What?

  Charlie : Who are you? Who are you? Who are you? Who are you? Who are you? Who are you? Who are you? Who are you? MmmMmmMMMmmmMMMmmmmmm... Are you a fish?

  David Burton : No.

  Charlie : Are you snake? Are you a man? Who are you? Who are you? Who are you? Who are you? Who are you? Who are you? Who are you? Who are you? Are you mukuru?

• Chris Lee : Charlie is an owl. He can fly through the air. He can do many things. Lesson magic. He got the power. But you, I think you may be - mukuru.

  David Burton : What is that?

  Chris Lee : You different tribe... from another world... across the sea... from sunrise.

  David Burton : Mukuru? Mukuru.

• David Burton : We've lost our dreams. Then they come back and we don't know what they mean.

• David Burton : Why is he so interested in my mother's grandfather?

  Chris Lee : He's interested in you.

• Chris Lee : We're nothing but the law we learn from our forefathers.

  David Burton : But, surely men are more important than laws?

  Chris Lee : No. The law is more important than is man.

• David Burton : Why did Billy die?

  Annie Burton : I'll get some coffee

  [exits] 

  Chris Lee : He saw things. He saw things. A thing he shouldn't touch.

  David Burton : What sort of things?

  Chris Lee : Just things.

  David Burton : Could I see them?

  Chris Lee : No.

  David Burton : Why not?

  Chris Lee : Then you must die too.

• David Burton : You're in desperate trouble.

  Chris Lee : No! You in trouble! You!

  David Burton : Why do you say that?

  Chris Lee : You don't know what the dreams are anymore.

• Dr. Whitburn : Aborigines believe in two forms of time. Two parallel streams of activity. One is the daily objective activity to which you and I are confined. And the other is an infinite spiritual cycle called the dreamtime. And more real than reality itself. Whatever happens in the dreamtime establishes the values, symbols and laws of aboriginal society. Some people of unusual spiritual powers have contact with the dreamtime.

  David Burton : How?

  Dr. Whitburn : Through their dreams. Through ceremonies involving sacred objects. Like these stones.

• David Burton : Mukuru. This is the name given to the race of spirits who came from the rising sun, bringing sacred objects with them. Like these stones. This tribe believed the the mukuru expressed themselves thorough people with unusual spiritual power.

  David Burton : You mean they're sometimes human?

  Dr. Whitburn : Yes.

• Dr. Whitburn : A mukuru has incredible premonitory dreams. They usually appear at the end of a cycle when nature has to renew itself. Most primitive cultures see life in cycles. Each cycle ends with an apocalypse of some kind. And then there is a rebirth.

  David Burton : What sort of apocalypse?

  Dr. Whitburn : Oh, usually a natural cataclysm. A freeze. A flood. A big rain.

• David Burton : Why didn't you tell me there were mysteries?

  Rev. Burton : David, my whole life has been about a mystery.

  David Burton : No! You stood in that church and explained them away!

• Chris Lee : Because of your dream and my dream too, I brought you here. But, I broken the law - of my people. Down there. Past the snake. You will found what you're looking for. Go! Now!

  David Burton : Will you wait here for me?

  Chris Lee : No. I'm going back to my people. Back to the dreamtime.

• David Burton : A mukuru. Black rain. Hail. A wave. A wave. Priests knew a wave was coming. A second wave. A calendar. A calendar.