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Good morning, Sophie.
I can't seem to do anything right!
The toast was perfect, too!
- Don't worry, I'm not hungry. - The eggs were just right!
- Would you like a backrub? - Please.
I really wanted to give you a nice surprise, dear.
Guess what? That awful dog was here again.
It barked like it wanted to warn me somehow...
Hey, don't stop...
Do you know who owns it?
Sophie, do you know who owns that dog?
- Tell me about the dog. - I'm taking it home.
H.M.K.?
Who could that be?
Dear Hilde, Sophie just reached the philosophy teacher's house.
I'm sorry to hear you lost your gold cross.
You need to take better care of your belongings.
Love from Dad, who is always close by.
Hi.
Nice dog...
Hello?
Welcome to my humble home.
I hate this. Did you hear that?
Eating scraps, running around on four legs, not getting to talk
just the occasional lump of sugar...
And the wine is sour, too! Did you know
that Chateau de Ciecle is one of the rarest vintages around?
Of course it went bad, it's been kept uncorked.
Hi there, by the way.
Sophie, there's no need to be afraid.
You'll be safe while you're taking the course in philosophy.
Well, you never know what the Major will do...
He's our creator.
- He's the author. - The author?
He writes our story.
Let's take one thing at a time.
Do you know what this is?
- It's a compass. - Oh, so you knew that already.
The compass was essential to the age known as the Renaissance.
The compass enabled explorers to find new continents.
During the Renaissance, philosophers contributed to science.
The word renaissance
means being reborn.
- What was born again? - The ideals of ancient Greece.
Suddenly people were allowed to be curious about things.
They were allowed to think.
What's going on?
This must be the Renaissance according to the Major.
According to the Major?
- Do you know that man? - No.
The course of European history...
is similar to that of human life. The ancient past is like childhood.
The Middle Ages are like the endless days at school.
The Renaissance is like one's 15th birthday
where Europe throws itself into the fray.
It's a time of experimentation and dealing with life's vital issues.
- Has the Major arranged this? - Yes.
- The Renaissance... - The Renaissance.
Stop!
Stop, thief! Stop him!
Stop him!
- Have you heard of Shakespeare? - He wrote plays. Is that him?
They're rehearsing Hamlet. William Shakespeare...
He wrote Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Twelfth Night...
There he is! Stop, thief!
- Where'd he go? - Who?
The thief who took my wallet.
- He's Polish. - Do you speak Polish, too?
No, but...
This is Nicolaus Copernicus.
He claims that the Earth orbits the Sun.
- Doesn't it? - Prior to the Renaissance...
Earth was considered the hub of the universe.
The clergy has decreed that this belief shall continue.
The church is never wrong.
They're worried that the new ideas will change people's view of God.
- But it's the truth. - The church forbids these teachings.
It will take 300 years before Copernicus' theories are accepted.
- 300 years? We have to warn him. - That can't be done.
The past has already been written.
There he is. Leonardo da vinci.
Art, science... he did it all.
He was an architect, a mathematician and an engineer.
- There's something about her smile. - Her name is...
Mona Lisa.
He's Michelangelo, da vinci's greatest competitor.
How does he know when to stop chiseling?
I stop when I reach... the skin itself.
It's you, Sophie.
Johannes Gutenberg...
just discovered the printing process.
It's Gutenberg, Sophie.
Before Gutenberg, all books were written by hand.
He invented types, metal letters that can be arranged.
The printing process helped spread ideas, people began to read more.
And the church no longer had a monopoly on knowledge.
- Francis Bacon once said... - that knowledge is power.
You said that 250 years ago.
Why take my wallet? My money isn't valid for another 400 years.
Look, one of the first banks in history.
Banca Popolare... the People's Bank.
If you'd made a deposit there, you would have earned a lot of interest.
- Who are you? - Dolores Carmencita ponce Leon.
Sophie, this is... Carmencita.
Alberto? Hello...
Coca-Cola.
Coca-Cola!
- I guess I'll go for tea, instead. - Tea...
vasco da Gama's grandson is unloading his ship.
Go take a look, it's exciting.
The first shipment of tea from India has just reached Europe.
Carmencita, I was thinking that we...
Hi.
- Are you a visitor from afar? - That's right.
- I'm Giovanni. - Georg?
And you are...?
- Where have you been? - Giovanni and I...
We have to go, Spinotti is filling the hole in the wall.
- The Renaissance was a great age. - It was strange...
Isn't this yours?
You lost it, didn't you?
- Thank you, Dad. - You called me 'Dad', Hilde.
- Am I Hilde? - Or could it be that...
Hilde is you?
Does that mean that we don't exist? We're not real?
Answer me, Alberto!
There's a difference between imagination and reality, you know.
I met Shakespeare, Gutenberg, Copernicus and Michelangelo.
Hi, Giovanni.
Well...
That is what our curriculum includes, at any rate...
Sophie, where do all your ideas come from?
- She studies philosophy. - I see...
Knowledge is power.
Georg...
- Francis Bacon. - Who said that?
Francis Bacon.
He's a nice guy.
- Georg, of course! - He's kind of cute.
- Are you inviting him to your party? - Yes.
- And your folks too. - Kurt and Tullen Johnsen, why?
So Mother and Alberto won't be the only old folks.
Jorunn... Do you think we exist?
Hello?
- How old is Alberto? - 50.
Oh my gosh, I thought you had found yourself a boyfriend.
- 50 years old? - I told you he's just a friend.
We don't really exist. You know that, don't you?
I guess we're just characters in a story, or something like that.
You can still invite Alberto to your party.
- What's wrong, honey? - What if it's true?
What if we don't exist? What if we are just characters in a story?
Scentio ergo sum... Do you know what that means?
I feel, therefore I am.
Scentio, ergo sum?
You know what?
Hilde wears glasses.
Right... There's the phone, maybe it's Ivar.
Hilde Maller Knag...
- How's the philosophy stuff going? - I'm not sure.
Hi, Knag! Writing again? Sevaldsen and I are off to shoot pool.
- Want to join us? - No, not right now, Berg.
Let's go, Sevaldsen.
Who am I? Do we exist?
Yes... or no.
It depends.
Do you ever feel scared?
- Answer me, Alberto! Do you? - Once upon a time...
There was this Russian brain surgeon...
He and a Russian astronaut were discussing religion...
Yes, I can feel scared.
Anyway, this brain surgeon... The surgeon was a Christian
unlike the astronaut, who said, I've been in space many times
but I've never laid eyes on God or an angel.
And the brain surgeon replied,
I've operated on the brains of many a wise person
but I've yet to see a thought.
Descartes lived in the 17th century. He said something about thoughts...
Where could it be? Here it is, Anatomische's Atlas.
Descartes said Cogito ergo sum.
Cogito ergo sum.
I think, therefore I am.
- How did you know that? - It's Latin.
- Do I have a soul? - Let's check the book.
Let's have a look under s...
- Where is the soul located? - Here, I guess...
Or possibly here.
Descartes held that a distinct borderline existed...
between mind and matter, or body and soul, if you prefer.
- Please take an apple. - Thank you.
Quickly, toss it to me!
- Did your body or soul throw it? - I did...
This issue weighed heavily on Descartes' mind.
He felt there must be a connection between body and soul.
Something that influenced mechanical processes.
- Did he figure it out? - Descartes emphasized reason.
He felt people should question everything.
- He didn't doubt that he existed. - But you do.
- But if I can think, then I exist. - Exactly!
Descartes... No, come here.
He held that body and soul function independently of each other.
The body is like hardware, while the soul is software.
But a computer does not have a soul.
Go on!
- What's your name? - Who is Hilde Maller Knag?
Lillesand. She's the exact same age
Sophie Amundsen, 3 Kloverveien.
Who is Hilde's father?
No...
- Who is Hilde's father? - Hi, Sophie.
- My name is Major Albert Knag. - It's the Major!
- The Major! - He's talking to us.
The author...
How much time do we have?
You know the answer... Until the story ends.
Until the story ends.
As long as he continues to write about us, we're alive.
Until the story ends.
George Berkeley
an Irish Anglican bishop...
who lived from 1685 to 1753. He was here, Sophie.
Did he mean that the table isn't real? That we aren't real?
The world is the way you perceive it.
Things exist only if they can be sensed or perceived.
- The power of the Lord? - Berkeley was a bishop.
He and Thomas Aquinas felt that philosophy and faith are intertwined.
Our perception of time and place
is something that only exists in our minds.
- A week for us... - May be different to the Major.
- Is the Major a kind of God? - Sort of...
- Who is Hilde? - She's an angel.
She's the one God turns to, and the Major is God.
- But then again, maybe he isn't... - What?
Descartes claimed that mankind has a perception of a perfect being
and no humans are perfect.
Then the concept of God must come from some other source.
Since the Major isn't perfect...
he must, in turn, be ruled by a higher power.
The Major is not God.
Hello, Knag. Taking some time off from your writing, I see.
Say, Berg... Could you mail this for me?
- Hilde Maller Knag. - That's my daughter.
Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you...
- 15... I can hardly believe it. - Do you have doubts about it?
Doubts?
Of course not... Not at all.
Some philosophers question everything, you see.
- 15 years, imagine that! - Tempus fugit.
Yes, time does fly.
You remembered something in Latin.
- Why did you quit? - What could I use it for?
- You found the gift, I see. - Sophie's World...
He's writing a book just for me.
I don't see anything.
Do you know why we exist? We're a birthday present
from the Major to his daughter. Happy Birthday!
- That's why we need to run away. - Sophie!
The Major controls what we say and do. It's no use.
- How much is left of the book? - How far along were we?
Berkeley...
who believed that the mind was superior to matter.
You have to go on, Alberto.
We have to trick the Major.
No, no, no... It won't work.
As long as you go on, we exist.
A couple of decades after the death of Berkeley
the French Revolution took place in 1789.
The common people revolted against the king and the upper classes.
They fought for freedom from oppression.
Is this the French Revolution?
Some people had privileges that others paid for.
People were treated differently according to their station in life.
It was a class society, not like the equality we know at home.
- How did it work? - The church was supreme.
The nobles were on the next tier, and they had great privileges.
Who was that? Do you know him?
They paid no taxes, while commoners had very few rights.
They fought to end their oppression and rid society of privileges.
Kings would not be absolute rulers.
- What does that mean? - Freedom, equality and brotherhood.
- That's not philosophy. - Everything is philosophy.
The fruits of the earth belong to everyone
but Earth belongs to no one.
- Who said that? - Rousseau.
He believed that man had certain natural rights.
- Human rights... - Yes, and the people felt the same.
The course of history was changed, all because of an idea.
- Is that Rousseau? - No, Robespierre.
Leader of the revolution and admirer of Rousseau.
- Philosophers were misrepresented. - What's going on?
Instead of democratic methods, violence and terror were employed.
Robespierre put so-called enemies of the people to death.
- Who were these enemies? - See that woman over there?
That's Olympe de Gouges. She criticized the use of violence.
- Is that why they are going to...? - Many people were executed.
They were said to pose a threat to the revolution. What a fate!
1791 Olympe de Gouges wrote a declaration of the rights of women
explaining that power belongs to the people.
But that the people are made up of men and women.
She was the first woman to publicly demand equality of the sexes.
She felt that if women had the right to be guillotined
they should also have the right to speak in public.
She never made those speeches.
Major Knag...
Your telephone has been repaired.
Wisnes, Sevaldsen and I are going to shoot pool.
- Would you like to join us? - No, thanks. I'm kind of busy.
You're busy? Yeah, I can see that.
- Have any kids, Berg? - No, I'm a carefree bachelor.
- What are you writing about, Boss? - The French Revolution.
- And the reason why we're here. - Right...
I see...
Join us! The whole gang will be there.
Major...?
I'll get it!
Hello, Hilde here. Hello...?
- You said Hilde... - I did?
- A slip of the tongue, I guess. - Where have you been?
Oh, no!
June, 1945...
And on October 24th the United Nations was launched.
The principle of Freedom, Equality and Brotherhood
will bring nations together through the efforts of the UN.
The French Revolution was dominated by strong men...
- And women! - What was that?
- And women. - Well, Sophie...
The French Revolution was mainly a male affair.
- Olympe de Gouges. - Olympe de...?
Olympe de Gouges.
- She was beheaded. - Would you like to take over?
- In 1791. - 1791?
I'm the head of the History Department...
If that is of any interest to you all.
I'm the teacher here. You're 15...
He's telling you to shut up, Sophie.
You're not supposed to know more than the teacher.
- Who gave you the floor, Jorunn? - The freedom of expression...
Wasn't that a key theme of the French Revolution?
- I think you should let her finish! - You do, do you, Georg?
Sit down.
I'm starting to get... a bit upset...
about the way you insist on interfering in class.
- Please! - Olympe de Gouges.
She wrote a declaration of the rights of women in 1791.
Leading to women being banned from politics.
Goodbye.
I've gotten to the French Revolution. Poor Olympe de Gouges!
Beheaded over a declaration of women's rights.
Actually, it was more because she criticized Robespierre.
And she defended Louis XVI, which wasn't a smart move.
- Shouldn't you say what you mean? - Yes.
But at times it's better to be silent and stay alive. Remember Socrates.
Dad...
I feel sorry for Sophie, she's so confused.
Honey, she's only... You know...
I'm sorry, I have to go now.
- Take care. - Take care, sweetie pie.
He won't let us go as long as the book isn't finished.
- We'll have to distract him. - How?
We'll...
- Come on, it'll work! - No, Sophie...
- Come on, just do it! - It's cold!
I'm telling you...
I won't do it!
It's ridiculous! Where do you...?
It worked, Alberto!
That's Italian for 'hello'.
- Come on in. - Jacobsen is on sick leave.
Why are you wearing red glasses?
- Who is that red lady? - Hi, Tullen.
- She looks familiar. - I'm busy, can I call you later?
You see things like usual, only everything's red.
The glasses change your perception of reality.
You see your surroundings.
But the glasses affect your perception, the world isn't red.
- Is that philosophy? - Immanuel Kant.
- Cool... Philosophy is cool. - That's right.
Kant said that you can only be sure of your own perception of things.
There's a difference between an object and one's perception of it.
So, I'll never know what color Mom really is.
We'll never know the true nature of any object.
- Not even without glasses? - No.
That's cool...
You've got a visitor... It's Georg.
I wonder what he wants?
Hi there...
- I wanted to give you this. - Thank you.
- Philosophy For Beginners. - Thank you, Giovanni.
- Why do you call me Giovanni? - You remind me of this guy.
From the Renaissance...
He was vasco da Gama's grandson, and had traveled to the Far East.
He told me this joke. The two of you could be twins.
A Chinese man named Chuang dreamed he was a butterfly.
The butterfly had never heard of Chuang, and was happy with his life.
Later, Chuang didn't know if he had dreamed of being a butterfly...
Or if he was a butterfly dreaming about being Chuang.
- Where did you hear that joke? - I don't know, I just knew it.
- Would you like to come in? - Yes. I mean...
Maybe some other time.
- I have to go. See you around! - Yeah, see you.
Bye!
God is dead.
At least according to Friedrich Nietzche.
We have nothing to hold on to in our complicated society.
Nietzche felt we should reassess all values...
So the strong would not be held back by the weak.
- We're weak, we don't even exist. - We have no choice in the matter.
Rubbish, everyone has a choice!
Each individual must make their own choices in life.
Such is the stuff of our existence.
The choice is yours, Sophie.
It's up to you.
- There you go. Who was that? - Soren Kierkegaard, a Dane.
Two o'clock, then.
- Where are we? - In Germany.
Listen... A song from Mozart's opera Don Giovanni.
- It's the age of Romanticism. - Romanticism?
It was an age occupied with nature and the artist as a genius.
Mozart wrote an entire symphony while still a child.
Sophie, it's Goethe!
A writer... He was the finest poet in Europe after Shakespeare.
- Where is he headed? - To his room, to write.
The Sorrows of Young Werther. It will affect an entire generation.
- People even committed suicide. - From reading a book?
Are books that powerful?
Thesis, antithesis and synthesis. That's Hegel.
Our thoughts are dialectic.
Our thoughts are triggered by previous thoughts, do you follow?
These thoughts are in opposition, thus causing tension.
Like when I suggested running away and you said we couldn't.
- Is that what you mean? - Sort of.
But the third thought combines the best aspects of the two.
Let's get to that third thought.
Sure...
Georg? The third thought...
We can use a subordinate character...
We can use a subordinate character to trick the Major.
And I know which one.
Shadow figures...
Cave dwellers...
Come in.
Don't you want to watch Tv?
Aren't you coming? The show's already started.
I'd rather read instead.
I thought we were going to watch it together.
- But they're so tiresome. - What do you mean?
Tv shows, Mom. You always know ahead of time what's going to happen.
It's just a shadow play.
A shadow play?
- A shadow play? - Yeah, the simile of the cave.
- You look a bit tired. - Yes, I do feel tired...
- I think I'll lie down. - That sounds like a good idea.
You can come talk to me later.
No one...
ever knows...
Dear Hilde, I'm looking forward to seeing you.
I'll bring the final chapter of the book with me.
The final chapter?
It's almost done. Love, Dad
I hope to arrive early on Midsummer Eve...
Midsummer Eve!
Is anyone there? Hello?
- Where are you from? I'm Mischa. - My name's Sophie.
- Are you from Georgia? - I'm from Siberia, comrade.
- What made you think of Georgia? - You forgot 'comrade'.
- You remind me of a friend. - From Georgia, comrade?
- You keep saying 'comrade'. - Because all people are equal.
- Why a revolution? - Because people are starving.
The upper classes own everything. The people are oppressed.
Lenin says, Bread to the people, land to the farmers
peace to the country, and power to the Soviets.
- You're so brave! - No.
I'm scared, but if we do nothing, we'll die.
Hegel's theory of dialectic is a cornerstone of Marxism.
Are you joking?
I have to go, Sophie.
There you are! I fell asleep on the couch.
- Where have you been? - In the attic...
What did you do there?
I took part in the Russian Revolution.
So, you took a trip to Russia?
You're dirty... Why, it's gunpowder!
What do you have there? The Communist Manifesto...
I wish Ivar would hurry up and come home.
- Have a nice trip, Major. - Thanks, Berg. Take it easy now.
So, my dear friend Alberto, we have to act now.
The Major is bringing the last chapter tomorrow.
We can pull it off if I can find the key and persuade Georg.
All you have to do is make a speech.
Promise me you won't let me down.
My name is Freud, Sigmund Freud.
The couch... The couch!
Ach, mein Gott... Please lie down on the couch.
Let's talk about your childhood.
I would like to hear about your feelings. Go on, lie down.
I've had very mixed feelings lately.
Have you heard of hypnosis?
Are you comfortable?
- Have you heard of psychoanalysis? - No...
Psychoanalysis...
Psychoanalysis is a method I've developed
to treat people with troubled minds.
- But I'm not troubled. - That may be the case.
But psychoanalysis is also a way
to describe the human mind...
- of ordinary people. - I'm not ordinary.
That's why I'm the right person to help you.
- Are you going to hypnotize me? - Everything you've experienced...
is stored in your subconscious.
- You are not an ordinary girl. - If you only knew...
- Then you have a problem, right? - Right. I do.
And time is running out, I'm running away from a story.
That's difficult, you'll have to leave when the author isn't looking.
- You need to delve into his... - Unconscious mind.
- Distract him. - Of course... Freud.
See you at the party.
- Cheers! What a lovely party. - Happy Birthday, Sophie.
- Happy Birthday. - Thank you, comrade.
- Here, I picked them at the cabin. - They're beautiful!
Dear friends, welcome to Sophie's 15th birthday party.
You're such a big girl now. I remember when Ivar and I met...
- Tempus fugit. - Right... Tempus fugit.
We're throwing a philosophical garden party today
since Sophie is fascinated by the great thinkers.
And that's why I'd like to welcome Antonio...
- Alberto. - Sorry about that.
He's a friend of Sophie's, and he's also a philosopher.
- My pleasure, Mrs Amundsen. - Please, call me Britt.
- I'm Tullen. - She and I are...
As a way of thanking you for letting me borrow your daughter
I'd like to make a brief speech. Sophie and I...
- Oh, hello there, fair Jorunn. - She's our...
- And this must be Jorgen. - How did you know my name?
Alberto knows everything. This is Georg.
Ciao, Giovanni.
Georg... Sorry.
Lately, Sophie and I have...
undertaken an in-depth study of philosophy.
Dating from Ancient Greece to modern times.
We discovered
that we are the figments of a certain major's subconscious mind
of a certain major's imagination.
His name is Albert Knag.
And he tells our story in a book he's writing for his daughter.
Her 15th birthday is also on the 15th.
So the book is a birthday present for his daughter Hilde.
- Take the Johnsen's car. - We are merely entertainment.
- Are you nuts? - It's a matter of life or death.
We aren't real. We do not exist.
- Not real? I'm over 40. - We do not exist!
We're nothing but a framework for philosophical studies.
But that doesn't mean we can't enjoy ourselves.
Eat, drink and be merry! Thank you for listening.
- Tullen! - After him, you moron!
- It's now or never! - We've reached the last page...
It might be dangerous.
No, it's dangerous!
- No, Sophie! - Come on, Alberto!
Look!
The sequence is reversed...
We've seen it all before, only the sequence was reversed.
Come on!
Where are we?
Hilde? Have you seen the white tablecloth?
It's downstairs, on the ironing board.
I'll be right down...
This is it...
This is the room I saw through the mirror. Hilde's room.
Bjerkely... We're at Bjerkely.
Where could it be?
Hilde...
Existentialism?
The key word for Kierkegaard's philosophy is 'existence'.
Only it doesn't mean 'being', since plants and animals are alive, too.
Jean-Paul Sartre, another existentialist
claimed that man is the only being that is conscious of its existence.
He held that physical objects are in themselves while man is for himself.
- Interesting, isn't it? - Who said that?
The phone's ringing.
Is it impossible for us to connect?
The word 'impossible' doesn't belong in a philosopher's vocabulary.
Mother, Dad's here!
Albert!
- I hardly recognized you. - You're quite a storyteller.
And you're quite a woman.
Daddy's home, everything's back to normal.
Isn't that my husband?
He's just an ordinary man. I thought he'd be godlike.
Well, he had enough imagination to create us.
- Where are you going? - I have to find out how it ends.
We're nothing but a framework for philosophical studies.
But that doesn't mean that we can't enjoy ourselves.
Eat, drink and be merry. Thank you for listening.
The end.
The end...?
But it can't just end like that!
- Nothing about Georg and the car... - So, we escaped.
Amazing...
- Is there life out there? - No one knows for sure.
The universe is so immense it's measured in light-years.
Each light-year is nearly ten trillion kilometers.
Ten trillion kilometers!
Ten billion kilometers!
Once, some 15 billion years ago
the heat of the universe was concentrated to one small area.
And this led to an explosion.
Atoms appeared and formed molecules.
And suns were formed, which in turn...
became planets, like the one we're on right now.
That was the Big ***.
- It must have been tremendous! - Definitely sizable...
It feels like someone's here.
Maybe it's Sophie and Alberto, what do you think?
- I sense something. - Impressive!
Why don't you come on in? It's very late.
All right...
What actually exploded all those years ago? Where did it come from?
- That's the big question. - Sophie was asked the same thing.
But Socrates said that the question was more important than the answer.
And her world was created by me.
All the characters we've met, their stories have been written.
- Yes, they have eternal life. - Right, and so have we.
I wonder what happens if we go back?
- Hush! Hear that? - What?
Music...
It's coming from above.
We're here...
- How does it feel to be back? - Great.
But I was thinking about Hilde and her dad.
We're going to outlive them. They're only humans, after all.
While we...
We are ideas, Alberto. Eternal forms.
- We'll live forever. - Ideas... Plato!
You've become a real philosopher.
Some matches, Sophie?