Chapter 4 of 22 · 2'19"
A man walking down the street launches into a full conspiracy theory: the operation is funded by a drug cartel and run by the CIA, scientists are being recruited or killed, and a drug from Guatemala strips people of their memories so they will follow orders.
❝ Monologue · 37 lines They'll Leave Us Here to Fry
On the street, a stranger starts telling a conspiracy story. The secret group in charge will leave Earth before it is destroyed, he says, and the project is funded by a drug cartel with the CIA's help. He warns about missing scientists, a memory drug from Guatemala, and ordinary people turned into perfect employees.
The scene works because the stranger is never invited to speak and never stops. He opens with an image of escape — "They're gonna get boosted off this rock before it melts" — and then builds a whole system on top of it: cartel money, the CIA, missing scientists, a drug that erases long-term memory. The detail that gives the game away is how fond he is of the theory's tidiness: "Make sense? Sure it does." The most unsettling line is also the funniest, "They can follow instructions. Perfect employees," because it describes a workforce with no memory and no self, which is exactly what he fears the world is becoming. Then he says goodbye, offers to watch the street, and wishes the man a nice day, as if they had been talking about the weather.
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
“Oh, yeah. They're gonna get boosted off this rock before it melts.”
Calling Earth this rock and escape getting boosted off nails the swagger of the whole rant.
Informal
“They can follow instructions. Perfect employees.”
Calling the mind-wiped perfect employees lands the dark joke in five flat words.
Informal
“We're gonna be left here to fry.”
One word, fry, turns a climate apocalypse into something grimly funny.
Informal
“but you tell them to do something, and they do it.”
One line turns obedience into a small horror: you say it and they simply do it.
Neutral
This secret group, you know, the group that's in charge of the government - Oh, yeah. They're gonna get boosted off this rock before it melts. And the rest of us, what do they care? We're gonna be left here to fry. By the way, there's something you should know. You see, this entire operation's being funded... by the profits from the Medellín drug cartel. And they're specifically set up by the C.I. A... to handle large sums of money being funneled into this project. Keep it under your hat. [Sighs] The people they need, like scientists. You heard about that? All the missing scientists around the world, and those that are mysteriously dying... that's all part of the recruiting process. I really hope your friend is not, well - Well, they need a lot of lackeys to do the labor though. So they'll be looking for ordinary guys. You know, just like you and me. Yeah, they need those to kind of colonize things. You know, they do a little psycho-surgery on us, a little liquid lobotomy here. Well. And I know this for a fact. They got this drug down in Guatemala in the rain forest. Why do you think the C.I.A.'s down there hacking the hell out of that forest, huh? Make sense? Sure it does. Yeah, this drug takes away your long-term memory... leaves your short-term memory, so there you are. You got people that don't know who they are, where they came from... but you tell them to do something, and they do it. They can follow instructions. Perfect employees. - Sounds like most people I know. - So. They must like children too, because... the statistics of the F.B.I. since 1980... said that 350,000 children are just missing. They disappeared. There are not that many perverts around. You know the worst thing about this, pal? Is that you're in close proximity to all this. You know, I mean, Houston's right down the road. You know, the main headquarters. NASA. Sure, in the main headquarters, around the world...
Up next · 05dawn onThe scene: The Nonvoting Majority ArgumentA secret group funded by a drug cartel and helped by the CIA is taking scientists off the planet. It also uses a memory-erasing drug to turn ordinary people into obedient workers.
He believes the man has a right to know, and he seems unable to stop once he has started. He even offers to wait outside to check whether they were followed.
It is an old idiom meaning to keep something secret. He says it before sharing the details, which makes the warning sound even more like a confession.
According to the man, they are recruited or they mysteriously die. He connects the missing scientists to the same project that needs workers.
The stranger has to go and see a friend. The man wishes him a nice day and says he will stay outside for a while to make sure they were not followed.
