Strange makes his way to Nepal and wanders the streets of Kathmandu.
Dr. Strange: Kathmandu, Nepal Excuse me. Kamar-Taj? Do you know where Kamar-Taj is?
Sign: "Himalayan Healing! Find Peace! Find Yourself!"
Strange is noticed and followed by muggers.
Dr. Strange: Kamar-Taj? Kamar-Taj. Okay. Guys, I don't have any money.
Mugger: Your watch.
Dr. Strange: No, please. It's all I have left.
Mugger: Your watch.
Dr. Strange: Alright.
After Strange takes a beating, Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) saves him from the muggers and collects his watch.
Mordo: You're looking for Kamar-Taj?
Mordo takes him to his temple.
Dr. Strange: Really? Are you sure you got the right place? That one looks a little more Kamar-y Taj-y.
Mordo: I once stood in your place. And I, too, was disrespectful. So might I offer you some advice? Forget everything you think you know.
Dr. Strange: Uh . . . alright.
There he meets the Ancient One, who knows all about Strange.
Mordo: The sanctuary of our teacher. The Ancient One.
Dr. Strange: The Ancient One? What's his real name? Right. Forget everything I think I know. I'm sorry. Thank you, Ancient One, for seeing me.
Strange is talking to an Asian in ceremonial garb, not realizing the Ancient One is a bald-head woman who approaches him.
Ancient One: You're very welcome.
Mordo: The Ancient One.
Ancient One: Thank you, Master Mordo. Thank you, Master Hamir. Mr. Strange.
Dr. Strange: Doctor, actually.
Ancient One: Not anymore, surely. Isn't that why you're here? You've undergone many procedures. Seven, right?
Dr. Strange: Yeah. Good tea. Did you heal a man named Pangborn? A paralyzed man.
Ancient One: In a way.
Dr. Strange: You helped him to walk again.
Ancient One: Yes.
Dr. Strange: How do you correct a complete C7-C8 spinal cord injury?
Ancient One: Oh, I didn't correct it. He couldn't walk; I convinced him that he could.
Dr. Strange: You're not suggesting it was psychosomatic?
Ancient One: When you reattach a severed nerve, is it you who heals it back together or the body?
Dr. Strange: It's the cells.
Ancient One: And the cells are only programmed to put themselves together in very specific ways.
Dr. Strange: That's right.
Ancient One: What if I told you that your own body could be convinced to put itself back together in all sorts of ways?
Dr. Strange: You're talking about cellular regeneration. That's bleeding-edge medical tech. Is that why you're working here, without a governing medical board? I mean just how experimental is your treatment?
Ancient One: Quite.
Dr. Strange: So, you figured out a way to reprogram nerve cells to self-heal?
Ancient One: No, Mr. Strange. I know how to reorient the spirit to better heal the body.
Dr. Strange: Spirit to heal the body. Huh. Alright. How do we do that? Where do we start?
The Ancient shows him pictures in a book.
Ancient One: Don't like that map?
Dr. Strange: Oh, no. It's very good. It's just, you know, I've seen it before. In gift shops.
Ancient One: And what about this one?
Dr. Strange: Acupuncture, great.
Ancient One: What about that one?
Dr. Strange: You're showing me an MRI scan? I cannot believe this.
Ancient One: Each of those maps was drawn up by someone who could see in part, but not the whole.
Dr. Strange: I spent my last dollar getting here on a one-way ticket, and you're talking to me about healing through belief?
Ancient One: You're a man who's looking at the world through a keyhole, and you spent your whole life trying to widen that keyhole. To see more, know more. And now, on hearing that it can be widened in ways you can't imagine, you reject the possibility?
Dr. Strange: No, I reject it because I do not believe in fairy tales about chakras, or energy, or the power of belief. There is no such thing as spirit! We are made of matter, and nothing more. We're just another tiny, momentary speck within an indifferent universe.
Ancient One: You think too little of yourself.
Dr. Strange: Oh, you think you see through me, do you? Well, you don't. But I see through you!
The Ancient One forces Strange to experience alternate dimensions.
Dr. Strange: What did you just do to me?
Ancient One: I pushed your astral form out of your physical form.
Dr. Strange: What's in that tea? Psilocybin? LSD?
Ancient One: Just tea. With a little honey.
Dr. Strange: What just happened?
Ancient One: For a moment, you entered the astral dimension. A place where the soul exists apart from the body.
Dr. Strange: Why are you doing this to me?
Ancient One: To show you just how much you don't know. Open your eye!
She touches Strange's forehead and blasts him into a odyssey across dimensions.
Dr. Strange: No! No! Shit! Oh god! Oh god! This isn't real, it isn't real it isn't . . .
Mordo: His heart rate is getting dangerously high.
Ancient One: He looks alright to me. [to Strange] You think you know how the world works? You think that this material universe is all there is? What is real? What mysteries lie beyond the reach of your senses? At the root of existence, mind and matter meet. Thoughts shape reality. This universe is only one of an infinite number. Worlds without end. Some benevolent and life-giving; Others filled with malice and hunger. Dark places, where powers older than time lie... ravenous... and waiting. Who are you in this vast multiverse, Mr. Strange? Have you seen that before in a gift shop?
Dr. Strange: Teach me!
Ancient One: No.
The Ancient One has him booted out. Strange sits on the doorstep of Kamar-Taj, on the verge of tears.
Dr. Strange: No! No, no, no! Open the door! Please!
Ancient One: You think I was wrong to cast him out?
Mordo: Five hours later, he's still at the doorstep. There's a strength to him.
Ancient One: Stubbornness, arrogance, ambition, I've seen it all before.
Mordo: He reminds you of Kaecilius.
Ancient One: I can not lead another gifted student to power, only to lose him to the darkness.
Mordo: You didn't lose me. I wanted the power to defeat my enemies. You gave me the power to defeat my demons. And to live within the natural law.
Ancient One: We never lose our demons, Mordo, we only learn to live above them.
Mordo: Kaecilius still has the stolen pages. If he deciphers them, he could bring ruin upon us all. There may be dark days ahead. Perhaps Kamar-Taj could use a man like Strange.
Dr. Strange: Don't shut me out,! I haven't got anywhere else to go.
After Strange persists for hours to let him in, the door suddenly opens, causing him to fall backwards into the building.
Dr. Strange: Thank you!
Strange is assigned living quarters, Mordo escorts him there.
Mordo: Bed. Rest. Meditate if you can. The Ancient One will send for you.
Dr. Strange: [after Mordo hands him a card] What's this? My mantra?
Mordo: It's the wi-fi password. We're not savages.
Strange begins training. He learns to open gates to jump across worlds.
Ancient One: The language of the mystic arts is as old as civilization. The sorcerers of antiquity called the use of this language "spells." But if that word offends your modern sensibilities, we can call it a "program." The source code that shapes reality. We harness energy drawn from other dimensions of the Multiverse, to cast spells, to conjure shields, and weapons, to make magic.
Dr. Strange: Even if my fingers can do that, my hands would be just waving in the air. How do I get from here to there?
Ancient One: How did you get to reattach severed nerves and put a human spine back together bone by bone?
Dr. Strange: Study and practice. Years of it.
Strange visits Kamar-Taj's library, which is kept by Wong (Benedict Wong).
Wong: Mr. Strange.
Dr. Strange: Stephen, please. And you are?
Wong: Wong.
Dr. Strange: Wong. Just Wong? Like Adele? Or Aristotle. Drake, Bono, Eminem?
Wong: The book of the invisible sun. Astronomia Nova. Codex Imperium. Key of Solomon. You finished all of this?
Dr. Strange: Yup.
Wong: Come with me. This section is for Masters only. But at my discretion, others may use it. We should start with Maxim's Primer. How is your Sanskrit?
Dr. Strange: I'm fluent in Google Translate.
Wong: Read it. Classical Sanskrit.
Dr. Strange: What are those?
Wong: The Ancient One's private collection.
Dr. Strange: So they're forbidden?
Wong: No knowledge in Kamar-Taj is forbidden. Only certain practices. Those books are far too advanced for anyone other than the Sorcerer Supreme.
Dr. Strange: This one's got pages missing.
Wong: That's the book of Cagliostro. The study of time. One of the rituals was stolen by a former Master. A zealot called Kaecilius. Just after he strung up the former librarian, and relieved him of his head. I'm now the guardian of these books. So if a volume from this collection should be stolen again, I'd know it. And you'd be dead before you ever left the compound.
Dr. Strange: What if it's just overdue? You know? Any late fees I should know about? Uh, you know, people used to think that I was funny.
Wong: Did they work for you?
Dr. Strange: Alright. Well, it's been lovely talking to you, thank you for the books, and for the horrifying story, and for the threat upon my life.
Meanwhile, Kaelicius is conducting a ritual with his zealots.
Kaelicius: Now we receive the power to destroy the one who betrayed us. The one who betrays the world.
Strange continues training.
Mordo: Mastery of the sling ring is essential to the mystic arts. They allow us to travel throughout the multiverse. All you need to do is focus. Visualize. See the destination in your mind. Look beyond the world in front of you. Imagine every detail. The clearer the picture, the quicker, and easier, the gateway will come.
And stop.
Ancient One: I'd like a moment alone with Mr. Strange.
Mordo: Of course.
Dr. Strange: My hands.
Ancient One: It's not about your hands.
Dr. Strange: How is this not about my hands?
Ancient One: Master Hamir.
Hamir, who's hand has been amputated, performs a spell.
Ancient One: Thank you, Master Hamir. You cannot beat a river into submission. You have to surrender to its current, and use its power as your own.
Dr. Strange: I control it by surrendering control? That doesn't make any sense.
Ancient One: Not everything does. Not everything has to. Your intellect has taken you far in life. But it will take you no further. Surrender, Stephen.
Silence your ego and your power will rise. Come with me.
The Ancient One transport them to a mountainous freezing surrounding.
Dr. Strange: Wait. Is this . . .
Ancient One: Everest. It's beautiful.
Dr. Strange: Yeah, you're right. Beautiful. It's freezing, but beautiful.
Ancient One: At this temperature, a person can last for 13 minutes before suffering permanent loss of function.
Dr. Strange: Great.
Ancient One: But you will likely go into shock within the first 2 minutes.
Dr. Strange: What?
Ancient One: Surrender, Stephen.
Dr. Strange: No, no! Don't!
Mordo: How's our new recruit?
Ancient One: We shall see. Any second now.
Mordo: No, not again. Maybe I should . . .
A gateway opens in the temple, Strange stumbles to the ground. Later, Strange returns to Kamar-Taj's library.
Wong: Stephen.
Dr. Strange: Wong.
Wong: What do you want, Strange?
Dr. Strange: Books on astral projection.
Wong: You're not ready for that.
Dr. Strange: Try me, Beyonce. Come on. You've heard of her. She's a huge star, right? Do you ever laugh? Oh come on, just give me the book, huh?
Wong: No.
Afterwards, Strange creates gateways to steal the books he desires right under Wong's nose. Later, the Ancient One talks with Strange.
Ancient One: Once, in this room, you begged me to let you learn. Now I'm told you question every lesson, prefering to teach yourself.
Dr. Strange: Once, in this room, you told me to open my eyes. Now I'm being told to blindly accept rules that make no sense.
Ancient One: Like the rule against conjuring a gateway in the library?
Dr. Strange: Wong told on me?
Ancient One: You're advancing quickly with your sorcery skills. You need a safe space to practice your spells. You are now inside the Mirror Dimension. Ever present but undetected. The real world isn't affected by what happens here. We use the Mirror Dimension to train, surveil, and sometimes to contain threats. You don't want to be stuck in here without your sling ring.
Dr. Strange: Hold on. Sorry, what do you mean, threats?
Ancient One: Learning of an infinite multiverse includes learning of infinite dangers. And if I told you everything else that you don't already know, you'd run from here in terror.
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