Helen Cutter quotes from Primeval

Helen Cutter

[voice recording] I've seen the future, Philip, and I know our hopes rest on you. You will find a way, you must. The future is in your hands.

Nick

Why do you want me now, after so long?

Helen

I'm human. I want company. I want to share this... incredible gift, but only with you. Nick, I have seen such wonders. Things you wouldn't believe...

Nick

You're asking me to abandon my life. Leave behind everything I know. People are dying back home, and you want me to just run away with you?

Helen

Animals die, Nick. Species die. [Nick scoffs] You know I'm right. One day humanity will disappear just like the dinosaurs, and nature doesn't care; something else will take our place. Nick, just leave all the other stuff behind. Come with me.

Helen

I offer you the key to time. The key to time, Nick. And you turn your back on it. Call yourself a scientist?

Nick

I call myself a human being.

Helen

Presumably there are still laws against kidnapping?

Lester

Hmm. Though officially you're dead. We can't have kidnapped someone who doesn't actually exist, can we?

Helen

You're going to have to trust me. Either that or a radical make-over from our friends back there.

Claudia

Maybe just this once!

Helen

[having snuck up on Stephen] In most eras of the world's history, you'd be dead by now.

Stephen

Helen. Now what the hell are you doing here?

Helen

You know, all this urban living has made humans such lazy animals... secondary hearing, no sense of smell, no worthwhile instincts.

Stephen

Man has no predators. We have nothing to be afraid of except... each other.

Helen

Well that used to be the case; but times are changing, aren't they, Stephen?

Helen

You have a serious creature incursion. A highly-evolved ambush predator. Intelligent, adaptable, and ruthless.

Claudia

If there was a creature on the loose, we'd know about it!

Helen

At least three people have gone missing in the last 48 hours.

Lester

Missing.

Helen

Killed. The creature has a lair nearby. It's taken them for food.

Nick

And how do you know that?

Helen

Because it almost got me too. [pause]

Nick

What is it?

Helen

It has no name.

Nick

Then which era is it from?

Helen

It doesn't come from any era... at least not one that can be identified yet.

Nick

I'm sorry; I don't understand.

Helen

Yes, you do, Nick. You knew it had to happen one day. You've known it ever since you first stepped into the past.

Nick

...The future? Are you saying we're being attacked by a creature from the future?

Nick

It was one step ahead of us all the time. It knew what we were going to do before we did it!

Helen

I warned you it was smart!

Nick

It would be more useful if you could tell us how to catch this thing.

Stephen

What we need is some kind of edge, a weakness in its defences that gives us an advantage, otherwise it's just gonna pick us off one-by-one!

Connor

Dogs. The dogs went crazy before it attacked. What would make them go off like that?

Stephen

Can't be smell. If there was a scent trail, they would have followed it.

Nick

Hearing. They heard something.

Connor

Sound. It's using sound.

Nick

That's why it was able to remain one step ahead of us! It can detect physical movement before it's within visual range!

Connor

And the dogs, they detect a higher frequency, therefore they know when it's nearby!

Ryan

Like echolocation?

Nick

High frequency sound waves, it's like a sonar system. Some animals use it to detect prey.

Stephen

Like a bat. Well, you said there was bat blood in the lion enclosure.

Connor

That's it. This thing must be some kind of...I dunno, super-bat.

Helen

He's right. Three quarters of all mammal species are bats or rats; maybe the future belongs to them.

Helen

We don't have to go back, Nick. The future anomaly must be here somewhere, we can still find it.

Nick

[sarcastic] The future: Helen Cutter's last great frontier.

Stephen

[after learning Helen has lied to him] I so badly wanted to believe you. [to Nick] BUT THAT DOESN'T PUT YOU IN THE RIGHT!

Nick

Stephen, there's a whole army of predators down here! If even one of them makes it above ground level, there's gonna be no one left! Now if you want to help people, we have to do this!

Helen

They're too powerful, Nick! Nothing you can do!

Nick

Well then, you're gonna have to think of something, or else we're all gonna die! Now you brought them here, you know them! [pause]

Helen

The siren...the creatures associate the sound with food. They'll come back to the cage room whenever they hear it.

Nick

And if we can lock them in with the predators, then they'll destroy each other! Come on then!

Nick

WAIT! I can't close the door! Well otherwise they're gonna get back out!

Helen

We can only do that from in there now. The control's on the other side, but whoever does it will be locked in. [as they speak, the creatures are racing towards the room].

Nick

Then one of us has got to go back in. [resigned] I'll do it.

Stephen

You'll never make it out!

Nick

Get out of here. [whispers in Stephen's ear] Just remember Lester's not the enemy.

Helen

[pleadingly] Nick, please!

Nick

[horrified] STEPHEN!

Stephen

Sorry mate, I'm doing this one.

Nick

No, open the door! OPEN IT!

Stephen

[smiling sadly] Can't do it, Nick. Can't take the risk.

Nick

Stephen, open the door!

Stephen

Tell Abby and Connor...to stay out of trouble.

Helen

I'm sorry, Nick, I can't let you go! [pulls out a gun]]

Nick

What the hell are you talking about-!? [sees the gun in her hand]

Helen

You see, nothing's changed! The future is still more important than either of us!

Nick

For God's sake, you really know how to pick your moments, don't you!?

Helen

[tearfully but determined] If you'd seen what I have, you'd understand! I'm sorry, Nick...I wish there was another way!

Nick

You know what, Helen? You're not as smart as I thought you were. [Helen shoots]