FADE IN:
EXT. BEAUTIFUL ISLAND BEACH DAY 50,000 B.C.
A slim lanky PRIMITIVE STANLEY GOODWIN crouches naked staring intensely, with deep sunken glacial blue eyes, at a pile of dry leaves. Weird ancient bugs skitter about. Rubbing perpendicular sticks together he succeeds in creating fire outside a driftwood and palm leaf bungalow. Something distracts Stanley from his discovery and he wanders towards the clearing.
STANLEY'S POV Palm trees sway in the gentle breeze on the white sand beach. A small black cloud appears on the horizon, expanding ominously blotting out the orange sun. The sky becomes darker and the surf more violent. WHIR, KA-CHUNK, BUZZ, HUM, and other MACHINE SOUNDS swell drowning out the WIND and bird CHIRPS of the beach.
Stanley stands on the beach awe struck.
EXT. SEA CLIFFS 50,000 B.C.
The storm gathers.
On jagged sea cliffs, wrapped in bear pelt, PRIMITIVE HAROLD WAKEFIELD, bent nose, beard, and creased weathered face; frantically scribbles on the rock slab with limestone He works tight, back to us, arm dominating view.
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. LECTURE HALL FLASHBACKAn arm, clothed in a tweed jacket with leather patches sown on the elbows, creates a tick and writes 50,000 B.C. in chalk along a time line on a blackboard.
HAROLD
This is fifty thousand B.C.
RACK FOCUS to a hundred or so students who sit behind.
PULLING OUT, as Harold turns facing students, to a wide framing the blackboard where he has drawn a long time line with ticks along it aside an intense arrangement of math equations. A sliding ladder connects to the blackboard.
HAROLD (cont’d)
Something rather interesting happened right about here; as we emerged from the caves, at the end of the last ice age. Something was different. We were different. Quite suddenly, we had acquired the ability to use tools, we spoke a common language,
and worshiped Gods as well.
and worshiped Gods as well.
Stanley stares towards the horizon with growing curiosity and horror.
HAROLD (V.O.)
The baffled cave dwellers called out to the heavens, askingwho had bestowed this magnificent gift of cognition upon them.
STANLEY'S POV the sun and moon merge in a solar eclipse.
A woman's hand finds his.
Shocked Stanley turns to see a happy modern day ALLISON at his side.
HAROLD (cont’d)
The theologians were quick to reply, a deity who has thousandsof names all of which are unutterable.
She mouths the words 'I love you.'
INT. STANLEY'S BEDROOM PRESENT night
Restless, a figure shifts in his sleep MUMBLING nonsense.
CLOSER a shaft of light across his face reveals the man to be modern day Stanley; minus the large brow, olive tan, and missing teeth of the primitive version. One word can be heard through the mumbling.
STANLEY
Allison.
INT. LECTURE HALL FLASHBACK
SHOTS OF VARIOUS STUDENTS most of whom are disinterested.
A SLOW MOVE IN as Harold walks down the time line to where he has made more ticks.
HAROLD
Something similar happened here, with the explosion of life late in the Pre-Cambrian era. Also here with the emergence of single celled organisms from simple proteins and amino acids three to four billion years ago, or the creation of the big bang thirteen point four billion years ago. But what provided the spark? Nyes the conditions were there, but why at that particular moment did it occur?. Well, perhaps now, with new discoveries in quantum physics we don’t have to wait for the answer, perhaps we have the power to awaken the Gods.Harold smiles lecherously.
EXT. SEA CLIFFS 50,000 B.C.
A lightning bolt fills frame.
Primitive Harold, on sea cliffs, cowers as the bolt fades behind. He returns to the rock wall he has been working on.
THE ROCK WALL equations in an invented geometric language, crude renderings of fierce prehistoric creatures, and something else much more detailed and refined. Harold steps back from the drawing revealing the machine. The unfathomable diagram of a super conducting super collider. A series of bold parallel lines frame rows of teeth, coils and tubes run out from the sides like tentacles, and exhaust fans resemble a multitude of eyes.
The pupils of Harold’s hazel eyes, sprinkled with green and silver, widen to focus on:
THE WALL a series of lightning flashes illuminates the slate and along with shadow movement causes the chalk drawing to come to life. Eyes glint, tentacles flail, and teeth gnash.
Harold looks on horrified.
MANY VOICES MURMURING is quieted by a LONG SCREECH.
INT. LECTURE HALL FLASHBACK
Nails are drug across the blackboard.
VARIOUS STUDENTS grimace at the sound.
Harold has regained control of the class.
HAROLD
Silence. Now where were we? The key to the puzzle, I believe, lies in unseen forces that act upon our physical world. For instance dark matter accounts for some seventy percent of the known universe.A students lets out a loud AHEM.
HAROLD (cont’d)
And while dark matter holds galaxies together, dark energy, or what Einstein called ‘spooky effect at a distance’, is pushing galaxies apart at an exponential rate.
More loud AHEMS are issued from the seats.
HAROLD (cont’d)
Furthermore, extra-demensional forces have been seen...Harold gets the hint glancing up at the clock.
HAROLD (cont’d)
Nyes, nyes, well I guess that’s time then is it. Where does the time go? Or for that matter, where does it come from? Remember your dissertations are due Friday, I will accept them today for extra credit. Class dismissed.The students pack up and filter out, some dropping off papers on Harold’s desk at the side of the blackboard. Harold erases the timeline and moseys to his desk.
A silhouetted figure stands at the doorway high up in the auditorium.
Harold organizes papers at his desk when he startled by a CHALK WRITING sound. He spins around to the direction of the noise.
A much younger modern day Stanley solves Harold’s complex math equation on the blackboard.
STANLEY
You forget to carry the two.
VIEW FROM BLACK BOARD HIGH UP Harold follows Stanley’s gestures and looks up at the board grinning.
HAROLD
So I have.
HAROLD (cont’d)
My, what a pleasant surprise. What brings around these parts? I thought you moved to the big city.
STANLEY
I have. Came back to visit the farm. Have you been back there?
Not in ages. Wouldn’t be surprised to learn it’s been paved over
to make way for a strip mall by now.
STANLEY
Ha. Nope it’s still there. You’re still teaching I see.
HAROLD
Merely means to an ends. Still with... Oh what’s her-
STANLEY
Allison.
HAROLD
Allison! Right, right, still with-
STANLEY
Yeah, we’re engaged.
HAROLD (O.S.)
Congratulations!
INT. FAMILY WAGON FLASHFORWARD DAY
In the backseat, BABY ANGELA plays with the straps of her car seat.
Allison, in the passenger seat, looks at us impishly.
Stanley, older with more gray hairs and wrinkles, finishes coffee cake while driving.
ALLISON
You’re crumby.
STANLEY
What?! I’m allowed to eat carbs every now and then.
ALLISON
No, you're crumby.
She points. Stanley looks down and brushes off crumbs from pants smiling.
STANLEY
Oh jeez.
His hand lands on the arm rest.
Allison's hand finds Stanley's and squeezes it.
She smiles. Keeping his eyes on the road, Stanley lifts her hand and kisses it.
The baby frees herself from the car seat straps.
Stanley beams with joy. Noticing something in the rear view mirror he turns to see what the baby has done.
STANLEY (cont’d)
Oh dear Angela has-
Allison, staring straight ahead, fills with panic.
ALLISON
Stanley look out!
Stanley slams on the brakes. SCREECH.
FADE TO WHITE:
CRASH SOUND.
FADE IN:
INT. PSYCHIATRIST'S OFFICE FLASHFORWARD DAY
Light shines through a window as the drapes flap in the breeze.
MOVING LOWER Stanley lays on a couch, looking bloated and grayer, SNIFFLING, about to sob.
A tissue is handed to Stanley over his shoulder by a man sitting behind.
RACK FOCUS to a PSYCHIATRIST who leans back in his chair. He looks up thinking of the right words to say. He has a very comforting voice.
PSYCHIATRIST
Remember, time heals all wounds.
INT. LECTURE HALL FLASHBACK
Harold and Stanley stare at each other.
STANLEY
Well, I should probably go, it was good seeing you.
HAROLD
And you as well my friend.
STANLEY
Take care.
Stanley pats Harold’s shoulder and starts to leave.
As he walks up the aisle Harold calls to Stanley.
HAROLD
Say Stanley, I have a project coming up you might be interested in.
Stanley stops, Harold walks up to join him.
STANLEY
Yeah?
HAROLD
Yeah. Real ground breaking stuff.
INT. LABORATORY CONTROL BOOTH FLASHFORWARD DAY
Stanley, older and grayer, enters data into a computer. His mind wanders a moment and he grimaces, overcome with grief. He takes a deep breath, shakes it off, and continues entering data.
MOVING UP the machine, an almost unfathomable mix of industrial equipment, glows past the booth’s glass.
EXT. SEA CLIFFS 50,000 B.C.
The machine drawing’s lifelike dance slows and ends.
Frightened primitive Harold steps back from the rock wall drawing. The muddy ground slips out from under him and he teeters on the edge of the cliff. A lightning bolt strikes to earth directly behind Harold and he cartwheels forward. Eyes open:
HARLOD'S POV a human head shatters against a rock at the cliff ledge and the torso tumbles towards water.
Harold races down the cliff.
EXT. SHORE
The sound of LAPPING WATER. Rocks caked in blood and flesh mark ground zero. Harold arrives at the point of impact. Charred human bodies wash out to sea. Harold pulls one back from the surf. Harold investigates the featureless corpse and culls a wallet from the back pocket. He opens it and finds:
DRIVER'S LICENSE a face peers back with a goofy grin. Only the first name can be read: CARL
HAROLD (V.O.)
This of course brings us to the present.
MATCH CUT TO:
INT. CLUB PURGATORY NIGHT PRESENT
A fat, tired, sticky CARL, still wearing janitor overalls, grimaces, feigning smile, and shakes his head. He's middle aged, Bostonian, and drunk.
CARL
Man, to only be twenty two again... what I'd give to be
twenty two again... I'd give just about...
Carl and ALVIN's drinks rest on a great oak bar. Alvin sips beer under a wool cabbie hat, dribbling some on his aviator coat. He slowly looks up at Carl from behind bomber glasses. A HUMMING beer ad spilling red light at his shoulders.
ALVIN
What, if I said that you could?
CARL
What?
Carl pans over against a cold blue light. Alvin has an Irish accent. The electrical AMBIENCE builds.
ALVIN
What if I said ya could, that you could go back to that age,
or any age ye like for that matter... But... There is one catch,
you cannat be allowed to remember the years between now
and that age. The thrilling heights, the trying lows, the lessons,
all of it; gone... Would ya still want to do it? Would ya still
want to go back to the age of twenty two?
Carl cocks his head like a terrier and thinks for a moment.
CARL
Fucking, yeah.
Alvin takes off his glasses and gives a flash of the eye.
ALVIN
Very good then.
Normalizing the ambience, Alvin SNAPS his fingers right in front of Carl's face.
ALVIN (cont’d)
Shite, I thought that would've worked.
CARL
Jesus Alvin, it's like you wanna spend the rest of your life
in a wheelchair.
ALVIN
Yeah, you’re a tough guy, I heard you took another guy in
the alley behind the bar last night and beat him off, I mean
beat him up.
CARL
Har, har.
Alvin orders pitcher with gesture.
ALVIN
'Nother one Sam! Stack 'em up.
INT. STANLEY'S BEDROOM PRESENT NIGHT
CRASH. Stanley, in bed, BREATHES HEAVY and grinds teeth.
INT. CLUB PURGATORY NIGHT
More and more people pour in as it starts to pick up on a busy Friday night. Laughter, glass clinks, pool balls clacks, and other BAR SOUNDS contribute a steady background noise. Alvin is preoccupied with a petite Asian girl at the other end of the bar.
ALVIN (cont’d)
Nice baps.
CARL
So what do you guys really do in the lab all day?
ALVIN
Well it’s theoretical physics for the most part. Searching
for the Higgs Boson, gluons, neutrinos, that sorta thing.
CARL
What’s that mean? Working on stuff you can’t see?
ALVIN
Kinda.
CARL
Yeesh, I wish I could say I cleaned the floor and have
my supervisor take my word for it.
ALVIN
... How do I explain it?
Carl's attempts to light his cigar with a bic lighter are met with mere sparks. He looks underneath the lighter.
CARL
Chinese can't make a lighter worth shit.
ALVIN
... Yeah... What?
CARL
The Chinese, they can't make a lighter worth a shit.
ALVIN
Worth a, what are you on about, the Chinese invented
gunpowder, ya know, peat salt, they used it in firework
celebrations. Then, white people came along and said,
hey wait a second, we could use this as a fucking weapon.
CARL
Yeah, Chiner, we'll probably have to borrow the money
from ‘um to go to war with 'em.
ALVIN
And they'd do it, a reasonable interest rates, I’d imagine.
CARL
'Fereigners. Ah fuck, there’s a fly in my beer!
A beat and Alvin snaps into action.
ALVIN
Perfect. Okay, you were asking about theoretical physics.
Let’s take this fly...
Alvin takes Carl’s beer, dragging it across table.
CARL
Yeah sure.
ALVIN
The fly only knows this layer of the beer, which incidentally
is yeast shit.
Carl sneers.
ALVIN (cont’d)
Below there’s a whole world operating on different rules of
motion, acceleration, properties and wavelengths of light, etc.
The fly is completely unaware of the deep and complex reality
below, it can only peer down to see a distorted image of
what’s underneath.
Carl is listless. Alvin pokes the fly further into the beer.
ALVIN (cont’d)
When we collide particles we’re finding there’s something missing,
something’s pulling them somewhere, something stronger than gravity.
In quantum physics, often times, we’re looking for what’s not there
more than what’s there; or what should be there but isn’t.
Does that make sense?
CARL
Stop making sense. Don’t think, just drink.
Carl takes back his mug, removes the fly, and downs the beer in one go.
A beat. Someone pulls the plug on the JUKE BOX.
BAR PATRON #1
Hey!
BAR PATRON #2
Watch where yer walkin’ pal!
CARL
Fucking Harold, who does that guy think he is, anyway?
ALVIN
Buck up boyo, at least you still have a job.
INT. WAREHOUSE BREAK ROOM FLASHBACK DAY
Carl microwaves a burrito in the break room. Alvin digs through fridge. DING. The lights dim a moment.
ALVIN (cont’d)
Huh, that's weird.
Heavy FOOTSTEPS signal Harold's approach. It’s been a good decade after Harold’s lecturing days and he’s aged some looking more disheveled. He’s gone bald up top with a feeble comb-over to hide it and his hair jets wildly out at the sides. A few days beard growth dots his sagging jowls. He stands facing Carl and holding something behind his back.
HAROLD
Now Carl, I know what we pay you is somewhat meager.
However, even for minimum wage I still expect you to use
at least one percent of your mental capacity while you're
on the clock. Once you get home then you can switch to
auxiliary power and stare vacantly at the wall, open-mouthed,
until flies begin to breed in it!
CARL
Look Professor what did--
HAROLD
(waving crumpling papers)
Inside the printer, there are two cartridge markers. One that reads
color and the other black. You had a fifty-percent chance of not
bullocksing this up, but I guess that's not good enough odds, even
for you, is it? Now, you tell me, how am I supposed to send reports
to Corporate, when, mind you, we're a billion dollars over-budget,
in purple bloody ink?!
CARL
Okay, I'm sorry--
HAROLD
Sorry?! No, your parents are the ones who should be sorry.
Now bloody fix it you idiot!
INT. CLUB PURGATORY NIGHT
The bar is full, the light lower. Carl and Alvin are noticeably drunker. HICCUPING, Alvin looks surprised when a pitcher is delivered without gesture. SAM, the bartender, runs off to break up a FIGHT. The scene is surreal. People behind fluctuate between hospitality and hostility.
ALVIN
I didn't order... hiccup.
CARL
Gawd, Harold raved at me like I put out the sun.
ALVIN
That'll happen, ya know.
CARL
Look I know I'm a tool sometimes but-
ALVIN
Nah, not you putting out the sun. It'll burn out on its own.
CARL
Really?
ALVIN
Yeah in about five hundred million years.
CARL
Wow, five hundred million... I'd be nothing by then, I'd be
like a speck, like a nutrient speck in the soil, waiting to be
absorbed by some plant, and then harvested, cut up, mixed
in a salad, served in some fancy restaurant, and finally eaten
by some vegetarian bitch who's busy babbling to her girlfriend
about how she feels so much better ever since she stopped
eating meat...
ALVIN
Ha. Disaster ain't got nothing on you Carl.
CARL
You know what's weird how dogs n' cats are always the first
to know disaster's coming. Like in that Tsunami, the waters
receded at first, and what do humans do? They chase out after it.
What's going on? Oh we gotta get ta da bottom ah dis.
Can't just leave well enough alone.
ALVIN
It's like a mission to be the first man to land on the sun. We've got
some pretty thick boots and sunscreen SPF twenty-seven million.
CARL
Then wham! In comes the tidal wave. And the funny thing is,
after the flood, they found all kinds of bodies, human bodies,
but no animals, they had enough sense ta get the fuck out.
ALVIN
Without Doppler radar, no less. Have you seen pictures of
the Galaxy from the Hubble?
CARL
Nu uh, why?
ALVIN
It's a hurricane, it looks like a hurricane, hurricane Milky Way.
Another fight starts up behind the pair, they don't notice.
CARL
An' ta fink somma deese Asian countries like da eat dogs.
Nuff ta wanna make become a vagitarian.
ALVIN
Did ya hear about the vegetarian Venus fly trap?
Ate itself down to the roots.
CARL
Ha! ...What?
Sam rings a BELL.
SAM
Last call!
CARL
Shit, Debbie's gonna kill me.
ALVIN
So what, who cares, it's not like you two are married,
or anything.
CARL
Not yet at least.
ALVIN
You's 'uns are getting married?
CARL
I think it would be the honorable thing to do, after all,
she's pregnant.
ALVIN
Ha. A bun in the oven? You're gonna keep it? Woof,
you a father, that's rich.
CARL
Hey! What? People can change, a hundred and eighty degrees even.
ALVIN
Sometimes three hundred and sixty degrees.
CARL
Yeah... Hey, piss aff, I'll be a good father.
ALVIN
Aye, I'm just fecking with ya. I know ya will.
CARL
Yeah... But it's weird I'm feeling less connected...
ALVIN
To Debbie?
CARL
To everyone... It's weird.
ALVIN
Your box sounds dooone in, I bet ya didn't even see
the notice hanging on the bulletin board. You've been
forgetting to turn off the transfixer, eh?
CARL
Shit.
ALVIN
You forgot to turn it off before ya left, didn't ya boyo?
CARL
Oh…
ALVIN
The notice was all CAPS.
Carl plants face in hands.
CARL
Shit!
ALVIN
And had plenty of exclamation points. It'll be on all weekend.
Alvin glances over at the petite Asian who returns his look with a seductive smile. She runs her fingers through her black hair, presses her breasts against the bar, and waves at him GIGGLING. Alvin is spellbound.
CARL
I paid for the drinks tonight...
ALVIN
Nice baps.
CARL
Be a sweetheart … heh?
ALVIN
Huh?
CARL
Swing by and turn aff the transfixer for me, would ya?
Alvin takes another look at the petite Asian.
She Blows him a kiss.
Alvin air grabs kiss and digs in pocket.
ALVIN
Tell ya what, I'll flip ya for it.
Alvin produces a coin.
CARL
C'mon, you live closer?
ALVIN
Carl, will you please look!
Alvin gestures with head at the end of the bar, Carl follows.
ALVIN (cont’d)
That girl's a treasure, she belongs in a vault, and
she's giving me the eyes! I never get that kinda fluff,
c'mon this is fair. Call it?
CARL
...Fine … heads.
Alvin flips a very distinct coin, like a gold doubloon. It lands, both men look down. Carl closes eyes.
A man, opposite to the girl, TAPS MORRIS CODE S.O.S. with his beer can's tab.
ALVIN
Tails.
CARL
That's bullshit, every time I get it wrong, every, that's
gotta be a forking trick coin. You're sheistin' me, I know it.
Alvin hands Carl the coin, which he inspects, tosses back, and goes to leave SIGHING.
CARL (cont’d)
Every fucking time...
ALVIN
Furkin.
CARL
... What?
ALVIN
Use the word furkin, it sounds like fucking. It's a unit
of measurement; nine imperial gallons. So if someone
asks you if you had a good time you can tell 'em that
you had a furkin good time or one fourth a barrel of fun.
CARL
Thanks for that. Right, well I'm fucking outta here.
ALVIN
Furkin.
CARL
Furkin outta here then.
ALVIN
Cheers.
CARL
Yeah, right, cheers, whatever.
ALVIN
Ya can't take it with you, ya know.
CARL
Yeah, I don't care, It's no big deal. Just a hassle.
ALVIN
No, I mean the beer, ya can't take it with you, outside the bar.
CARL
Meh.
Carl sets beer down and walks off, leaving a picture of Debbie on the bar. Alvin glances back in the direction of the girl.
ALVIN
Where'd she go?
An empty seat. She has disappeared.
EXT. ALLEY NIGHT
A black Lincoln Continental slowly coasts to where three homeless people stand around a trash can fire, one sits on a crate, and sips from a flask. Behind the bums the wall has elaborate graffiti reminiscent of cave drawings.
The passenger side window rolls down. Harold leans over from the driver's seat.
HAROLD
How would you bums like to make a quick buck?
He smiles dementedly, most everything obscured in shadow.
EXT. SUBURBAN STREET NIGHT
Carl drives a primer Grey Chevy Nova towards the warehouse. At the end of a long road a refinery burns gas from a tall skinny pipe in a flare off.
INT. CARL'S CAR NIGHT
Carl stares at the fire and is lost in thought. His head cocks. His gaze intensifies. POP MUSIC on the radio fades out and Robert Johnson's 'CROSSROADS' fades in. Carl glances at the radio.
EXT. STREET NIGHT
A mangy dog wanders into the street and sits in front of Carl's growing headlights.
INT. CARL’S CAR NIGHT
Carl looks up just in time to see the dog in his path. He slams on the BRAKES.
EXT. STREET NIGHT
The dog sits and stares at Carl, inches away from his bumper. The car idles. Radio STATIC hisses.
CARL
Get outta here! Get!
INT. CARL’S CAR NIGHT
Carl HONKS the horn. The dog's indifferent.
CARL (cont’d)
What's wrong with ya pooch?
He throws the car into reverse.
EXT. STREET NIGHT
Backing up Carl goes around the dog. POP MUSIC fades back in.
The dog is scared off by a black cat.
He drives towards the refinery.
The refinery fire ball burns hotter.
EXT. WAREHOUSE ENTRANCE MIDNIGHT
Carl arrives at the ominous entrance, very concrete and modern, like an art Deco prison. He swipes a card and bends down.
RETINA SCANNER verifies his retina in profile.
BOOP. Light washes over Carl from sliding door.
INT. WAREHOUSE ENTRANCE MIDNIGHT
Carl walks down a corridor, rubbing his head in a stupor.
CARL
(mumbling)
Does anyone wanna buy a painted red nose? Real cheap.
Son of a …
INT. WAREHOUSE MIDNIGHT
Entering into the warehouse with Carl, he lifts his head at a HUM coming from the core. The space is huge. Shafts of blue light escape from tiny windows along a dome and silo. Red lights glow in the darkness behind. Pistons, turbines, gears, and pumps churn slowly at the domes base. Behind glass blue metallic Street-light looking structures bounce electricity to each other over an inclined conveyor belt which feeds into a CAT like biological scanning machine. In the center of the warehouse is an L shaped control panel that holds computers, gauges, buttons, etc. Elevated ten feet next to that is a platform and lever.
CARL
Probably get blamed for this too. Who the fuck woulda left the-
In the dark, he trips on a trip wire and knocks over paint cans to much COMMOTION.
INT. THE CORE MIDNIGHT
Electrical currents slither up horizontal coils that line the wall. In the center a pyramid structure of suspended magnets spin erratically.
Harold is standing, his eyes snap open and dart to the side.
INT. WAREHOUSE MIDNIGHT
Carl stands at the control panel. He punches a few buttons and taps a finger, trying to remember the rest of the sequence to deactivate the core.
CARL
Ah what is it? What is it? What is it. System suspend?
System override? Deactivate? Ah... I can just hear Harold now.
(impersonating Harold)
Oh, I'll bet it was a hard one... And I'm an old bastard that's
pissed off because I haven't been laid in eons… Oh my sweet
Wendysaurus Rex how I loved her. I think it was a her.
HAROLD(OS)
Not a bad me.
Carl turns. Harold stands in the shadow of the machine, grinning, holding something behind his back.
CARL
(surprised)
Oh uh Har, er, Professor Wakefield I didn't know you were,
I thought some one had left the uh … what are you doing here?
HAROLD
That's none of your concern.
CARL
Well … what's behind your back?
HAROLD
That. That might be some of your concern.
CARL
What? Did I put in the wrong printer ink again?
HAROLD
(laughing)
Yes, that's it.
CARL
(laughing nervously)
Oh heh, God for a second, I don't know why, I was
really kinda… phew!
HAROLD
Carl… You're fired.
A letter opener emerges from the darkness.
Harold lunges at Carl and plunges the opener into his heart. Carl falls, running backwards, obstructing picture.
Cut to black:
INT. STANLEY'S BEDROOM MIDNIGHT
Stanley wakes from dream violently, catapulting straight up in bed, sweating and GASPING.
INT. CONTROL BOOTH NIGHT
Bloodied Harold sits surrounded by monitors, radars, and gauges. He presses some buttons and binary code starts running across the screen.
An ant walks onto Harold's hand.
HAROLD(V.O.)
I've always liked the ant.
Harold lifts and turns hand watching the ant crawl onto his palm.
HAROLD(V.O.) (cont’d)
Lost amongst a sea of chaos, somehow they make sense
of it, still blissfully unaware of the deeper cosmic reality
and what’s to come.
Harold squeezes a fist appearing to crush the ant. He opens his hand and the ant crawls on unharmed.
HAROLD(V.O.) (cont’d)
Yet always continuing its forward momentum.
They’re perfect little machines.
Harold sets the ant down gently to crawl off his hand and onto the table when he notices the monitor change.
The 0's and 1's are replaced by ATCG. A DNA double helix pops on the screen. A human face appears made up of the molecules.
Cautiously Harold types: WHO ARE YOU?
A beat and the computer types back: I COULD ASK YOU THE SAME QUESTION. TO WHOM AM I SPEAKING WITH PLEASE?
Harold scoots his chair to the desk, takes a deep breath, and types: MY NAME IS HAROLD WAKEFIELD, I AM A HUMAN A SCIENTIST, A CARBON BASED LIFE FORM.
The computer types: ARE YOU?
Harold looks quizzical and types: YES.
The computer responds: IF YOU ARE A CARBON BASED LIFE FORM THEN YOUR BIOLOGICAL ‘FORM’ IS CONTINUALLY BEING REPLENISHED BY NEW CELLS. YOU ARE IN A CONSTANT STATE OF RENEWAL. YES?
Harold types: THIS IS CORRECT.
The computer: THUS HOW DO YOU KNOW WHO OR WHAT YOU ARE?
MOVING IN on a contemplative Harold.
INT. WAREHOUSE PLATFORM NIGHT
A dark figure feeds a body onto the conveyor belt leading to an octagonal entrance for the machine.
EXT. WAREHOUSE
A beam of light blasts through the warehouse roof leaving a small hole. The metal surrounding it warps and contorts slightly.
INT. WAREHOUSE BATHROOM NIGHT
A dirty bathroom baked in florescent light, pipes rusted, filled with steam from running hot water. Harold shaves off a blood caked beard. Almost finished, he cuts himself with the sling blade razor. Quickly blotting it he leans close to the mirror and pulls back the tissue.
Harold finds metal underneath the skin.
The MACHINE SOUND picks up for a moment and Harold looks away from the mirror. When Harold looks back the cut is gone. The beard is gone. He drops the tissue and trembles some.
TITLE CARD: SUNDAY
STANLEY'S EYE; the retina scanner beam makes a sweep. BOOP.
INT. WAREHOUSE DAY
A handsome modern day Stanley, wearing a clean lab coat and wire rim glasses, bursts through large warehouse doors. CAMERA moves in and pivots low at Stanley's right side as he peers first left then right looking stoic while chewing a toothpick. CHURCH BELLS ring outside and birds flutter past the high windows above.
INT. CONTROL BOOTH DAY
The room is a mess. Stanley enters looking for Harold. He notices a long untorn machine print-out. Climbing up the scroll he grows furious, rips it off, and drags it behind him as he glides out.
INT. PLATFORM DAY
Harold sits, dangling his legs off the edge of the elevated platform, with a creepy quivering smile. While clean shaven, his lab coat is smeared with grease stains and flecks of neon powder, made worse by the wiping and cleaning of an ornate brass box he holds in his hands. A beat-up ham RADIO plays 'JOHN HENRY WAS A STEEL DRIVING MAN'.
An ANCHOR comes on the radio.
ANCHOR (V.O.)
The time is five past the hour. Here are the headlines.
Scientists announced plans to renew construction of
the super-collider. Speaking from Zurich today-
Harold turns radio down to MURMUR.
An ANCHOR comes on the radio and hands it over to a REPORTER.
ANCHOR (V.O.) (cont’d)
The time is five past the hour. Riot police have been called in
on demonstrators. Forty six are confirmed dead with dozens,
maybe hundreds more injured in the twenty seventh day of
violence. Jeff Steelman has been covering today’s developments.
We join him now in the nation’s capitol. Jeff?
REPORTER (V.O.)
Phillip, war protestors go home was the message today,
that is if they still have a home. Here’s the scene from earlier-
Harold turns the RADIO down to mere MURMURING. SIRENS, SHOOTING, SCREAMING, and other RIOT SOUNDS are somewhat audible.
OVER HAROLD'S SHOULDER Stanley enters STOMPING holding the print-out above his head.
HAROLD
Ah Stanley, I was just thinking how ironic it would be if
the situation in the Middle East went nuclear. They could
at least preserve and plant the bodies so someone else in
a couple million years would have something to fight over.
Time and pressure... that’s all it is... time and pressure.
STANLEY
These test results prove those were mice remains!
HAROLD
The curious lil' critters shouldn't have been looking for
morsels in my machine.
Harold talks over Stanley, looking down, disinterested in what he has to say. He discovers grooves that mark an opening to the box.
STANLEY
Still does not negate the fact-
HAROLD
It was an accident.
STANLEY
A bio-scan machine should have never done that-
HAROLD
An isolated incident.
STANLEY
never should have incinerated organic matter!
HAROLD
An honest mistake.
STANLEY
There is something wrong with this machine of yours,
something very wrong indeed.
HAROLD
(sneering)
Those mice were not incinerated, trust me.
Stanley closes the gap and stops below Harold.
STANLEY
Harold!
HAROLD
(condescending)
Nyes Stanley?
STANLEY
It’s over. I'm shutting you down.
Harold doesn’t stop, retrieving a thin chisel and ball ping hammer at his side, he gives a quick glance at Stanley.
HAROLD
Would you?
Harold proceeds to wedge and TAP at the box’s opening. Stanley waves the print-out around.
STANLEY
I’ll send this data to corporate along with my findings and conclusion.
HAROLD
We're pretty far along now. I don't think corporate would let that happen.
STANLEY
You’re not following protocol. You’re violating safety codes-
HAROLD
Well how many laws does it take until you know you’re free?
Vapor trails out of the box as Harold DINK’s it open. Stanley swipes the toothpick from his mouth and gestures with it, dropping the print-out.
STANLEY
You’re obscenely over budget.
HAROLD
Obscene is a relative word.
Harold reaches into the box and pulls out one circuit panel after another, inspecting each one until he holds one where a fuse is blackened. Looking closer he sees an ant has melted inside of it. He digs in his labcoat and finds a replacement fuse.
HAROLD (cont’d)
(underbreath)
Beautiful.
Stanley flicks the toothpick and grabs hold of Harold’s leg dangling just above his head. Stanley pulls at Harold in a half-hearted attempt to dethrone him.
STANLEY
You lied to them, you lied to us all!
This isn't just a bio-scanning machine, is it?
Nearly losing the fuse, Harold raises his leg away from Stanley’s stretch. Standing up Harold walks off, disappearing from Stanley’s view. Stanley moves to the other side of the platform.
As he hoists himself to the top of the ladder, Stanley finds Harold wearing magnification goggles that protrude far off his face and narrow at the end. With a small cauterizing device Harold goes to work. Sparks shoot from his hands.
STANLEY (cont’d)
I’ll personally dismantle this beast and sell it for scrap.
Harold reinstalls the circuitry and welds shut the box’s opening with some more ZAPS of the cauterizing device.
HAROLD
And what do you possibly hope to accomplish.
So what if you shut me down. There are other men
working as we speak. They will build bigger and even
more efficient machines, than this one. The technology is there.
If I don't, surely someone else will. It’s only a matter of time.
Stanley stops inches from Harold.
STANLEY
Where’s Carl, Harold?
Harold lifts the goggles to the top of his forehead, and sets the box on a stand next to the radio, which he TURNS OFF with a twist.
HAROLD
… How should I know where that buffoon is?
Probably at home trying to figure out the complex
engineering of his doorknob.
CHUCKLING to himself Harold gestures for Stanley to get out of the way.
STANLEY
The computers have Carl swiping in at two twenty two.
There was only one other person in the building at that time: you!
INT. CONTROL ROOM DAY
Computers spring to life.
INT. WAREHOUSE DAY
Security cameras turn training on the pair.
INT. PLATFORM DAY
Grinning contemptuously Harold attempts to allay Stanley’s fears.
HAROLD
Yes and the computers also recorded him leaving half an hour later.
What is your point Stanley? Look I've told the police everything I can recall.
I simply didn't have the pleasure of bumping into him that night.
Besides, I was informed by the authorities that it took seventy two hours
until a person really qualified as missing, even someone as precious as Carl.
He grabs the box and sidesteps an incredulous Stanley, heading for the ladder. Stanley suspends chase when he makes out the distant HUM of the machine starting up.
STANLEY
(to self)
How?
LADDER, Stanley peers over the platform’s edge to see Harold descending the last few rungs and jumping to the ground.
GROUND, Stanley starts down the ladder as Harold moves towards us in the foreground.
STANLEY (cont’d)
(shouting)
There’s something you didn’t tell them, there’s something
you’re not telling me!
HAROLD
(underbreath)
What would ever make you think that?
Harold walks off, Stanley nears end of ladder in descent.
INT. MACHINE DAY
A pressure needle twitches.
Turbines comes to life and gather momentum CHURNING.
INT. WAREHOUSE DAY
Stanley catches up to Harold, takes hold of his shoulder, and spins him around; behind layers of catwalks, from two structures, frame the pair.
HAROLD
Unhand me!
STANLEY
I don’t give a damn what you told the police, you did something to him!
HAROLD
Ha, you suspect me in foul play. Or maybe in Carl’s place; fool play, is it?
Harold puts box under his armpit and CLAPS for Stanley.
STANLEY
Knock it off Harold!
HAROLD
Ha, nyes. Good show old boy. And now if your honor
would be so kind as to enlighten me, clue me into the
weighing factors in your benevolent judgement.
STANLEY
I just … know. I've had …
Harold stands feet from Stanley. He leans forward.
HAROLD
Dreams!
THE MACHINE, a thick liquid begins to bubble.
INT. SUPER COMPUTER ROOM DAY
Glass doors slide open and Harold walks in followed closely by Stanley who is trying to understand. COOLING FANS start up. Harold methodically makes his way through the towering rows of super computers.
HAROLD
Deja vu, all over again, is it?
STANLEY
So you’ve had these dreams as well?
HAROLD
Ha. No. I no longer dream myself.
STANLEY
What are you saying? What are you telling me?
You don’t sleep? I suspected you’ve been taking
something. You know Harold, without sleep, you'll die!
HAROLD
I find the mind to be much more productive if not
bothered by the petty bickering of the subconscious,
the delusional ravings of the psyche. Besides, I don’t
believe there’s anything else that dreams could tell me.
Ah here it is.
Harold finds the plug and begins following it to its end.
STANLEY
Harold-
HAROLD
Stanley, Why is it that, somehow, eight trillion cells make
us conscious? Hmmm?
AMOEBA, in neon colors, flash on screen for a split second.
HAROLD (cont’d)
Each cell going about their day, performing their essential
function, doing their jobs, blind to the fact that they’re
contributing to a greater consciousness, blissfully oblivious
of their higher purpose. Busy operating in the dark.
Are we any different?
TRAVELING into the white of Harold's eye.
A CELL grows against a white background. Cell division. Cells continue dividing until they crowd the picture, overlapping, and create blackness.
HAROLD(V.O.) (cont’d)
The darkness was there in the beginning and it will be
there in the end. The light struggles against the darkness,
but the darkness always wins. Sometimes it seems the light
only exists to give the darkness purpose.
Stars appear.
FADE TO:
Stars are replaced by the glowing lights of the computer towers in the dark room.
Harold is on his knees wiggling the plug into the box he has been carrying. SNAP. It’s connected. Red lights turn green.
HAROLD
There. That’s the final piece to the puzzle.
Stanley looks on, growing grave.
STANLEY
I’m afraid you’ve gone mad.
Giddy Harold leaps up, pats dust off his trousers, and addresses Stanley.
HAROLD
Have I? Now the question is, have you put it all
together yet? Figured it out old chap?
STANLEY
Figured out what, that there’s something sinister
happening here? That you’ve done something with Carl?
That you’re skating the edge of sanity?
HAROLD
Ha, no, try again.
Harold swiftly walks off. Stanley lingers a moment thinking, suddenly his eyes grow large and he runs off after Harold.
PRESSURE GAUGE needle rises a little.
Harold stands at the long control panel watching the readings impressed. Stanley rounds the corner and takes an accusatory tone.
STANLEY
You’ve been in the core... Haven’t you?
HAROLD
Ha, brilliant.
Harold doesn’t give Stanley his attention, FLICKING switches and twisting knobs.
STANLEY
Harold?!
HAROLD
Nonsense, I’ve done only inspections of it
behind the protective glass.
STANLEY
No you warped bastard, you've been in it!
PRESSURE GAUGE needle rises into the yellow.
Harold turns swiftly to address Stanley who stares intensely.
HAROLD
... So what if I have.
Stanley’s gaze drifts to the core and back to Harold.
STANLEY
The radiation, the electromagnetic pulse,
you'll be dead within a week.
HAROLD
It makes you smarter.
PRESSURE GAUGE needle rises into the orange.
Stanley's hand gesturing is frantic.
STANLEY
Makes you smarter? Have you started shitting blood yet,
because that's the first sign of the radiation poisoning!
Harold enters code into a computer at the console.
HAROLD
I know better than to stand in the core while it's on.
But… if you increase the level to ten times that of its
normal setting and stand behind the protective glass …
would you like me to finish this conversation in fluent Latin?
PRESSURE GAUGE needle approaches the red.
Harold begins speaking Latin; his accent becomes more fluent as he continues. Stanley yells.
HAROLD (cont’d)
(simultaneously)
Omnia mutantur nos et mutamur in illis. Deus vult. Jus divinum. Orbis scientiarum abeunt studia in mores ad captandum.
STANLEY
(simultaneously)
Stop it! Cut it out Harold! Stop it!
Harold stops speaking Latin.
PRESSURE GAUGE needle falls to the border of the yellow/white zone and hovers there.
Harold smiles at the readings and FLICKS switches in the off position. He turns to a deep breathing Stanley.
HAROLD
As I was saying we must progress, we cannot remain stagnant.
If we remain stagnant we will die. You are a man of science,
you know this and yet, yet you deny it.
Harold plunges an index finger into Stanley’s chest and bustles past him, walking towards the core. Stanley follows in a rant.
STANLEY
You knew full well the implications of this machine before the team started. My god, you claimed in reports to corporate that
this, this absurd vision would cure cancer. Then you went on to
say it had the 'good probability' of being able to map out every
cell in the human body; to receive more funding most likely.
Those mice were incinerated before they even approached chamber four.
Harold climbs a thin metal ladder connected to the dome portion of the core. He gets to the top of the ladder and peers down at a huffing Stanley.
HAROLD
Humans have better results.
Stanley shakes head in disbelief and grabs hold of the ladder to steady his nerves.
Bat like shadows streak across the walls behind Stanley emitting a HIGH PITCHED GIGGLE.
Spooked Stanley jumps onto the ladder and races after Harold who’s reached the top.
Harold proceeds along a catwalk and out of frame.
Moving in we meet Stanley as he peers over the platform ledge.
Swinging around to Stanley’s POV, Harold has vanished.
Stanley steadies himself on the catwalk. Looking around, a flash in the distance catches Stanley’s attention and he runs towards it.
THE CORE; a series of rooms separated by glass barricades holding all sorts of electronic equipment. In the center is six hexagonal structures which interlock and flash when they align. Harold rides a dial causing the structure to gain momentum as it spins.
Stanley enters and surveying the situation lumbers to the glass door, BANGING against it.
STANLEY
Harold?! Harold!
Harold saunters over to the glass with a smug expression. Pressing a button, Harold addresses Stanley through the intercom.
HAROLD
Nyes Stanley? What is it now?
STANLEY
What... What are you saying Harold? What do you mean
humans have better results?!
HAROLD
Derelicts, degenerates, bums! Yes, that's what I'm saying.
Stanley looks up grave and shakes his head.
HAROLD (cont’d)
Come now, don’t looked so shocked, they were a burden on society.
And I gave them a purpose. If I found myself to be in such a pathetic state, I think I would gladly give up my body in the name of science and technology.
Stanley has balled his hands into fists and looks up at Harold with piercing eyes, expression a combination of bewilderment and rage.
HAROLD (cont’d)
Don’t looked so shocked.
STANLEY
(growling)
Let me in this room Harold.
HAROLD
Come, come Stanley, we both know I can’t do that.
STANLEY
Harold, open the door.
HAROLD
Perhaps I’ll let you in when you have calmed down.
Now if you’ll excuse me I have work to do.
Harold nods, turns, and briskly walks away. Stanley attempts to break down the barrier; beating it until his knuckles go bloody.
A DROP OF BLOOD lands on the floor.
Frantic, Stanley heaves a metal chair against the glass which breaks a hole just large enough so Stanley can reach through and open the door from the other side. He cuts the inside of his elbow and lets out a YEOWL in pain.
MORE BLOOD drips onto the floor and is absorbed through it.
Shaking off confusion, Stanley strides to where Harold PUNCHES away at buttons. Grabbing ahold of Harold, Stanley spins him around, clenching his collar. Shafts of light from the core dance across his face.
STANLEY
You killed them?! You fucking murderer!
HAROLD
Ha, no. Some initially, most eventually. But specimen number
seventeen. There were very interesting results with specimen
number seventeen. He completely disappeared.
Stanley forces Harold up and onto the control panel. He lands on instrument, inadvertently PRESSING BUTTONS, causing the core to rotate faster, and light beams to oscillate quicker. Harold puts up no fight.
STANLEY
That's because he was incinerated, you sick bastard!
HAROLD
No, no Stanley. I checked, you see. There were no trace
amounts of him on the conveyor belt or inside any of the chambers.
He literally vanished. There wasn’t even any microscopic residue... However in Harold’s case I imagine it would be residon’t.
Stanley leans in close to Harold with the most maniacal grip you could possibly imagine.
STANLEY
He’s still fucking dead.
Harold, rotates head and checks the needles at his face, and looks toward Stanley amused.
HAROLD (CONT’D)
No, I don't think he is. He was converted into energy.
With a firm shove Harold casts off Stanley and stands up.
HAROLD (CONT’D)
See… inside every cell is the blueprint to life. All eight trillion of them.
With a GRUNT Stanley throws a fist which Harold catches in his claw.
HAROLD (CONT’D)
Hypothetically, if the technology were there,
A GRUNT later Stanley throws his other fist and is intercepted in Harold’s other hand. The old man, Harold, exhibits super human strength in holding Stanley.
HAROLD (CONT’D)
I could prick you with a needle and make a whole new one of you.
Harold headbutts Stanley, knocking him to the ground. Harold walks in and looms, his long cascading shadow towering over a dazed Stanley.
HAROLD (CONT’D)
Perhaps, even one a bit more perceptive. In fact most of the cell is empty, nothing more than fluids guarding the immeasurable. Most of the human cell, much like the atom, is empty space. Some call it the desert of the real. The nucleus, the essence of the cell, the essence of life. A single, sub-atomic, particle that when isolated and amplified is pure energy... Is life...
Stanley muzzles up on his elbows BREATHING DEEPLY.
HAROLD (CONT’D)
Once the elusive quark is reproduced it does so on its own, exponentially.
Harold places hands on knees and leans in close to Stanley who’s grown angry.
HAROLD (CONT’D)
Although it's hard to believe he could subject seventeen, or Carl,
got simpler.
Stanley rage turns to horror.
STANLEY
(mumbling)
What? You... You... Monster...
HAROLD
Monsters?! Ha.
Harold starts to walk out of the control booth. Stanley gets up on a knee regaining strength.
STANLEY
Where is he then Harold?
Harold pauses in the doorway, back to Stanley.
HAROLD
The unmanifested realm of pure consciousness. The center of the universe, … maybe nowhere, maybe everywhere.
Harold’s face is still looking forward as Stanley slowly gets up behind.
STANLEY
If you can send him there, what’s stopping something from coming back?
Harold smirks.
HAROLD
... Nothing.
He walks off and out of view. A moment later Stanley gets to his feet and follows after Harold. Once at the doorway Stanley looks around in disbelief.
OVER STANLEY’S SHOULDER Harold has vanished. A RHYTHMIC KNOCKING grows louder and louder.
TRACKING STANLEY staggering out and along the catwalk, descending the stairs, and making it to the front entrance.
EXT. WAREHOUSE DAY
Stanley has correctly identified the source of the KNOCKING as coming from outside. Looking up, Stanley can’t rule out the sound coming from the sky.
HAROLD (V.O.)
(quiet and close)
Why won’t you let them in?
With a GASP Stanley spins around to find no Harold.
HAROLD (V.O.) (cont’d)
(distant)
Come Stanley.
Stanley follows the voice, feet shuffle away. By the front door, against the wall, are Carl’s eyes. There’s a BOOP BOOP sound.
HAROLD (V.O.) (cont’d)
This way.
He arrives at the long chamber of the super conducting super collider and enters after retrieving a flashlight from a box at the entrance.
INT. SUPER COLLIDER TUNNEL DAY
It’s pitch black and a pipe runs down the center with just enough room on either side for someone to move. He wanders some.
HAROLD
(ghostly)
Stanley...
Stanley’s flashlight flickers. He hits it. The flashlight goes dead. A torch appears behind. Stanley panics and run. Moving in on the torch’s flame.
HAROLD (cont’d)
(even more ghostly)
Stanley... this is not our first go around... do you remember the jungle?
EXT. JUNGLE NIGHT 50,000 B.C.
A fire burns. Primitive Stanley warms himself rocking. He gets ready to cook meat. A bush RUSTLES. Stanley stands up and looks around. After more noise he starts to walk away with his food. The noise follows. Stanley walks faster and faster, dropping his food. Something still pursues him and soon he is racing through the jungle. Stanley trips and hits a tree going unconscious.
A masked figure emerges from behind a huge fern.
EXT. SHORE NIGHT 50,000 B.C.
The masked figure drags Stanley into a waiting canoe with one hand, carrying a burning stick with the other. Other canoes wait beyond the surf.
INT. CAVE
Stanley is coming to. He is being carried.
RING OF FIRE In the middle is a pile of skulls that Stanley is tied down to. Outside the ring DRUMS pound and dancing tribesmen CHANT.
The masked figure appears out of darkness. He wears a more elaborate costume that resembles machinery, identifying him as chief. The chief dances up to Stanley, stabbing him ritualistically with a rock blade. The chief removes his mask; it's a grinning Harold.
The torch’s flame grows smaller until it goes out.
INT. WAREHOUSE DAY PRESENT
Low level moving camera capture the pair. Rubber tubes hang like jungle vines. Stanley emerges from the dark finding an exit to the tunnels. His head cocks at a HUMMING sound.
Following the sound he instinctively makes his way to Harold.
MACHINE BOWLS
Bird's eye view of four locomotive sized diesel engines. Harold traipses through the middle. Steam rises shrouding oil derrick type pumps in mist.
Harold is standing on the platform, arms behind his back, next to the lever. Stanley stops half way up the steps, hands resting a few steps above.
STANLEY
You've made a machine, a machine that makes monsters.
A PUMP MOVES Steam shoots out around it. The bulk of the machine that converts energy starts up.
Harold lectures Stanley who grows terrified as he becomes aware of all the machine parts starting up on their own, all around him, one by one.
HAROLD
Monsters, ha. Despite our futile attempts to externalize our true nature with ludicrous symbols like the devil the fact-
STANLEY
(hoarsely)
What, what is this really for?
HAROLD
The fact still persists, man is-
STANLEY
What, what is the true purpose of this machine?
HAROLD
... the monster.
STANLEY
Goddamn it Harold! Harold?! I said what is this, what is this thing...
Smirking, Harold slowly and somberly raises a finger, pointing in the direction of the core. Stanley stops and looks back.
STANLEY (cont’d)
What!
HAROLD
(riled)
Look damn you, look!
Stanley’s eyes grow as big as saucers.
THE CORE A green light glows behind it. Ghostly Stanley walks off the platform to get a better view. Something casts a strange shadow on the wall. Stanley tracks further up to see heavy paneling dismantled off the back and left strewn about on the floor.
STANLEY
You've … you've exposed the core, … there's no way of containing
or predicting the chain reaction. The Electromagnetic pulse, on this frequency, you can't. The ice caps … the air …
Full of dread Stanley looks back at Harold.
STANLEY (cont’d)
The orbit.
Close on Harold raising eyebrows.
HAROLD
Humanity is a failed mutation.
EXT. FIELD NIGHT
The mangy dog from before runs as fast as possible.
The black cat trails the dog.
The black cat passes the dog and runs beyond him.
Both cat and dog race from the twinkling city far behind.
INT. WAREHOUSE NIGHT
MACHINE BOWELS
Traveling into the machine past turning gears, churning turbines, and concentric circles of spinning magnetic discs; we reach a metallic heart which can hardly be made out.
Stanley takes a DEEP BREATH and charges up the platform staircase.
Harold grips the lever firmly and motions for Stanley to stop with his palm. Stanley keeps charging anyways.
HAROLD
I wouldn’t do that if I were you.
Stanley arrives at the top of the staircase.
HAROLD (cont’d)
(barking)
You honestly don’t think I will?!
Stanley stops at the edge of the platform, a long drop below.
HAROLD (cont’d)
Now, where were we? Men must have monsters Stanley.
They must have something driving them, something that keeps
them raging into oblivion; uncharted territories, that is. All great accomplishments, all steps forward, are at the behest of the...
(clears throat)
Bogeyman. You should know that better than most.
Harold cocks his head having gained Stanley’s full attention.
HAROLD (cont’d)
What kept you focused on the project for all those years? What fact
were you refusing to face, what ugly truth were you hiding from? Hmmm?
Shaking, Stanley loses it, taking some steps forward.
STANLEY
You rotten son of a bitch!
Harold caresses the lever.
HAROLD
If you want to be the trigger to humanity’s destruction then so be it!
Stanley stops again 6 feet from Harold.
STANLEY
Now look, Harold, let's talk about this.
HAROLD
There's nothing to talk about. I need not your permission nor
your consent. I do this with or without you.
Stanley searches for words.
STANLEY
You … you can't … it's not right.
Harold gestures with the hand not holding the lever.
HAROLD
Oh yes brilliant. You speak of everything right and good and
true and pure. You with your Goddamn social causes.
Try dying in wars for some!
MACHINE BOWELS
CONVEYOR BELT moves through mist and into darkness.
Harold and Stanley stand in silhouette.
STANLEY
What are you saying?
HAROLD
Don't you know yet? This the best you could send me huh?
STANLEY
Who are you talking to? What is this?
HAROLD
Don't you know who you are? Who I am?
STANLEY
A murderer, a fucking madman, a-
HAROLD
Shut up Stanley! Our economic system was experimenting on those men long before me. And what of you? You were driving technically that makes you a murderer as well...
STANLEY
You, you-
HAROLD
How would you like to be with them again?
Stanley is trembling.
STANLEY
Them? Who?
HAROLD
Don’t play coy… Allison... And Angela, your daughter.
That must have been heart wrenching.
MACHINE BOWELS
The metallic heart can now be clearly seen and begins BEATING rhythmically.
Harold continues in on Stanley.
HAROLD (cont’d)
I understand why your relationship with Allison fell apart after the accident. Why she left you. A dead toddler can be a bit of an elephant
in the room. But it's not your fault, or Allison’s, or even the car manufacturers, for that matter.
Stanley holds back tears.
HAROLD (cont’d)
If it wasn't for the accident, you never would have had the divorce, and then you wouldn’t have channeled all your energies into your work.
Our work Stanley. It all happened for a reason. Sometimes life is marked by the choices not taken. Do you still talk to them as if they’re still there, still in the room? When you’re alone and you’ve had one too many scotches? Are you still haunted by their ghosts? You can be with them again... you can be where they are.
STANLEY
(through grit teeth)
You sick bastard.
Tears stain Stanley’s cheeks.
HAROLD
How would you like to be with them again... On a different plane
of existence? There is much more to reality than just this turgid tale...
STANLEY
You, you go to hell!
Harold’s eyes have gone as black as a shark’s.
HAROLD
Hell? You want a vision of hell?
EXT. WORLD WAR I TRENCH FLASHBACK DAY
All quiet on the western front. A thin fog rests on no-man's land. Slumped against the trench wall WOODY, young fresh faced soldier, pulls a letter from his coat.
THE LETTER is sealed with a lip stick kiss.
Woody, with a dreamy look in his eyes, opens the envelope and unfolds the note inside. After reading some in his head he smacks the note and lets out a LAUGH in a southern drawl.
THE OTHERS crouching around take notice. A soldier shoots Woody a glance while passing a short rationed cigarette to another soldier. On the opposite side a Captain whittles under his helmet.
A giddy Woody can hardly contain himself.
SOLDIER #1
Wot, you get discharged or sumpfink?
WOODY
Nah, it’s from my sweetheart back home, I asked her if she wanted
ta get hitched, and she wrote back, yes, yes, she said yes!
The soldiers smile and one hands Woody the cigarette.
The Captain looks up concerned, revealing it's Harold.
Woody accepts the passed smoke and stands to do a little dance.
HAROLD
The smoke! No three on a midget!
A sniper’s bullet WHIZZES across no-man's land and hits Woody in the head. Blood splatters. He tumbles forward.
The other soldiers are shocked, lingering on Harold as he looks down at Woody.
HAROLD'S POV half of Woody's face is blown off.
Something takes control of Harold. He lets out a PRIMAL YELL, grabs his riffle, and jumps out of the trench.
SOLDIER #1
No, it's suicide!
EXT. NO-MAN’S LAND FLASHBACK DAY
Following Harold across the desolate expanse hand held camera in front. Bullets ZIP by him and machine fire sprays the ground, kicking up dirt. He cuts himself hurdling barbed wire. There's a PHOOT and a mortar shell WHISTLES as it comes down and EXPLODES behind Harold, knocking him ass over head.
Harold gets up, shaken, he stumbles away from his gun, staggering towards the other trench. The enemy BARKS in GERMAN and a mustard gas bomb is SHOT onto the barren landscape. The wind changes and BLOWS the billowing smoke in the opposite direction. Getting shot in the leg doesn't stop him. Hobbling, he makes it to the other trench.
EXT. ENEMY TRENCH FLASHBACK DAY
The enemy soldiers all wear gas masks. Harold grabs the end of a soldier's rifle and beats him with the butt off it. Flipping it around he stabs a few approaching soldiers with the bayonet on the rifle, shoots one dead at a distance. The first soldier he punched rises and Harold seizes him by the throat. Harold rips of his gas mask and looks on horrified.
OVER HAROLD'S SHOULDER under the mask the enemy soldier looks exactly like Harold. The enemy soldier smiles back.
INT. WAREHOUSE DAY
Harold gives a look of bewilderment, Stanley seizes an opportunity confronting Harold on what he perceives to be a weakness.
STANLEY
Yes, certainly there is more to this reality, perhaps there are extra-dimensional forces at work on ours. Or maybe, just maybe this is all just a simulation. What good would pulling the plug then do? What would it prove? Huh? Do you hear me, you...?!
HAROLD
...Preposterous.
Stanley finds his angle of attack.
STANLEY
Is it? Is it so absurd? What do we know about the smallest units of energy and matter? Well? Information is missing, that’s what. And what do we know about enlarging a photograph, a reflection of the world, beyond it’s threshold? Information also goes missing, and the surrounding data fills in the gaps. This, all of this, is nothing more than a simulation. The proof is in the pixilation!
HAROLD
... That’s... Not true.
STANLEY
Ah, but you can’t be sure of that. How can you pretend to trust your instincts? What good are they if you can’t even disprove that basic assumption?
Where else are you misguided? What else are you missing?
What else have you left out of the equation?
HAROLD
Stanley, it’s too late now to-
STANLEY
Or what if the same forces that you wish to suppress or even eliminate;
the worst of men acting on instincts of greed and self-interest have gotten ahold of you, and are now using you in their population control scheme?
HAROLD
That’s just it, by doing this now they will be caught off guard,
out in the open, the bunkers will be left vacant.
Stanley slowly draws closer having Harold on the proverbial ropes.
STANLEY
But you don’t know that. They could be down there now, cozy
and comfortable, waiting for you to act just as they planned.
Harold motions halt to Stanley.
HAROLD
Don’t take another step Stanley.
STANLEY
What gives you the right to decide?
Stanley inches forward almost within arm’s length, Harold gestures again more firmly.
HAROLD
I mean it Stanley don’t take another fucking step.
I haven’t made this decision, it’s already been made.
The pair begin shouting over each other.
STANLEY
Oh god, listen to what you are saying?
HAROLD
God, ha! God invents man and then scared and alone in the caves
man invents God.
STANLEY
For a man who mocks God you’re certainly doing a good job
of portraying one!
HAROLD
Human beings cannot get over this notion of a sky god. We are living
in an age of primordial instincts, a medieval belief system, and technology
we do not understand! The experiment is over.
STANLEY
You don’t think life deserves another chance?! You would deny that?
You don’t think a few more smiles, some more laughter, a kiss, an embrace, another song is acceptable? God is love, damn you! Have you had nothing real in your life?! Huh?! you incomprehensible misfit! What of hope?!
Harold turns away from Stanley for a moment, staring into space.
HAROLD
A meaningless slogan...You know, about a week ago I went into the city
to get a part for the machine, and I saw what a putrid cesspool of despair
it had become. The filth and decay was overwhelming, but not in the neighborhood, in the people. I listened to their eyes and I thought
how much happier they'd be...
Turning back to address Stanley, Harold’s immense primitive mane has returned.
HAROLD (cont’d)
As electrons... I’ll give them their rapture...
Harold places both hands on lever.
STANLEY
Don't pull that lever. Don't pull that Goddamn lever;
you'll make ghosts of us all.
HAROLD
Let's give the bugs a go, shall we?
SERIES OF SHOTS
Back and forth, going closer in until their eyes fill the frame.
HAROLD (cont’d)
(slyly)
Time heals all wounds...
STANLEY
Nooooo!
Stanley lunges at Harold. It’s too late. Harold tugs down on the lever. A CLANK and the MACHINE SOUND becomes fierce. Stanley picks up Harold like a rag doll.
STANLEY (cont’d)
Turn it off Harold!
HAROLD
(smiling)
I can't now, it's already started.
STANLEY
Turn it off or else!
HAROLD
Or else what Stanley? Do what you want with me, this is beyond both of us.
Stanley ROARS, throws Harold to the ground, and runs off.
BOTTOM OF PLATFORM Stanley nearly trips over himself rushing down the stairs, and out of sight. A moment later Harold descends the stairs slow and calm, WHISTLING. He ventures into the foreground and stops shocked. Cocking his head he brings finger to face.
OVER HAROLD’S SHOULDER as he stares at his reflection; an android version of himself. He drags an index finger across his metallic cheek, grinning.
INT. CONTROL ROOM NIGHT
Stanley TYPES madly entering code.
SCREEN 'OPERATION FORBIDDEN' continues to pop up. On another attempt 'HELLO STANLEY' pops up. Confused Stanley looks up to see Harold on the other side of the glass grinning at him. Harold tries door, finding it locked, and presses the intercom button.
HAROLD (O.S.)
Please Stanley, don't you think I would have already thought to lock the sequence.
Stanley ignores Harold and keeps working. Stanley removes an instrument panel and digs through wires.
HAROLD (O.S.) (cont’d)
Now you're thinking if I override the processor bypassing the auxiliary power supply I'll be able to deactivate the sequence... I've already thought of that, I've integrated the components, and made them self-replicating, self-sufficient, one autonomous unit.
Stanley finds the wire cut.
HAROLD (O.S.) (cont’d)
Have it your way. Sleep tight Stanley.
Stanley looks up to see Harold has gone. There's a distant WHISTLING of 'ROCK-A-BYE BABY' which soon grows fainter and then disappears.
Stanley begins COUGHING and covers his mouth with labcoat collar.
VENT in the control room spews foul air.
Stanley GASPS for a breath. He POUNDS his fists against the glass with no result. Desperate he takes a chair and hurls it at the glass, which bounces off. Wobbling, with his last ounce of energy he lets out a PRIMAL YELL in frustration. The glass to the control room shatters into tiny squares.
Climbing out of the booth, he cuts his palms, impervious to the pain.
The MACHINE SOUND grows to grotesque proportions with a slight undertone of JUNGLE SOUNDS, TRIBAL DRUM, AND PRIMAL CHANTING. Running along a catwalk Stanley tosses anything he can onto the conveyor belt below.
There's an IRREGULAR CHURNING as the machine tries to digest the strange entities. In a fit of lucidity he pulls steaming tubes from a bulky, top-heavy, crane structure. In a passing gaze he spies something on the ground.
CARL'S COIN, in walks Stanley, he picks it up off the ground.
Instinctively, and with super human strength, Stanley unscrews large rivets, feverishly, at the structure's base.
A GUN COCKS.
Harold trains a revolver on Stanley.
HAROLD
I wouldn't do that if I were you. Step away Stanley, do the sensible thing, do the right thing.
Stanley carries on with even more ferocity.
STANLEY
Go ahead shoot! A bullet spark might ignite the methane. C'mon!
What are you waiting for?!
HAROLD
I was hoping you would come around. Pity that. Pity.
You've left me with no other choice.
BANG. Stanley twitches. Holding his side he look down dreadfully. There's no blood, lifting his shirt, no bullet hole. Nothing. Turning to Harold.
Harold holds an invisible gun. He throws his hand open, smiling.
HAROLD (cont’d)
(voice cracking)
Now Stanley, let's talk about this.
Stanley rigorously dismantles the machine, unscrewing bolt after bolt in big bold strokes. Harold raves on in desperation.
HAROLD (cont’d)
Think. Just think for a moment.
WIND.
Fade to white:
EXT. FORREST FLASHBACK DAY
An earlier time. KID HAROLD and KID STANLEY lay in the snow, making angels. A downy flake falls. Kid Harold catches a flake on his outstretched tongue.
KID STANLEY
What do you want to be when you grow up Harold?
KID HAROLD
Taller. A big man I guess. What about you?
KID STANLEY
... Happy.
Kid Harold catches another snowflake on his tongue.
KID HAROLD
You know, I think people are like snowflakes.
Kid Stanley muzzles himself up on his elbows.
KID STANLEY
Oh yeah, like snowflakes are all unique, and different, and
no two are alike?
KID HAROLD
...I mean, they're here for awhile, then they melt away, and
they're gone.
KID STANLEY
I guess, but aren't they, I mean, they come back don't they,
after they evaporate, condensation, and the cycles, and all that?
KID HAROLD
I guess Stanley.
Kid Stanley gets up and pulls kid Harold up.
Kid Stanley goes to skip rock but the lake is frozen, it skids across.
KID HAROLD (cont’d)
C’mon, let’s go.
They wander back to their flock of sheep.
INT. WAREHOUSE NIGHT
Stanley has nearly succeed in sawing down the structure and works towards pushing it over the railing and into the machine.
Harold crotches.
HAROLD
Come now Stanley, the universe does not want to destroy man, it has to. It’s tried to be reasonable, as have I. I’ve tried to convince you, tried to make you see. Humanity is in a stage of decline. It’s becoming unstable, dangerous...
To not only this planet... But the universe. This is just one of many occurrences, one of many before, and many more to come. Think! Just think of the absurd statistical coincidence that both Hitler and Einstein existed in the same time and place! We have an opportunity here. If the bugs die off all life goes extinct within fifty years. Human beings, on the other hand, if they perish from this earth, then all life, in fifty years, will flourish... This is not the end of life, not all life. We've been chosen to do this. Stanley? Stanley! Stanley, step away! It's God's work you're destroying now! Stanley you fool, get away from my fucking machine!
Spittle hangs from Harold’s mouth as he rises.
EXT. SHEEP PEN FLASHBACK DAY
Kid Stanley herds sheep into their pen with a stick.
Another stick enters into frame poking young Stanley in the neck.
KID STANLEY
Ow!
A mischievous kid Harold withdraws his stick.
Kid Stanley packs a snowball, half joking, half bent on revenge.
INT. WAREHOUSE NIGHT
With bloody hands Stanley ROARS rocking the unbalanced, top-heavy, structure. He gets very close to toppling the magnificent beast when Harold rams him against the railing, matching his ROAR.
Harold pins Stanley against the railing and then promptly heaves him over it. Stanley grabs hold of Harold's lab coat and takes him with. Along their long descent they brush against equipment roughly, tearing much of it off. Machine parts glitter as they disappear into the darkness.
EXT. FORREST DAY
Moving out from Kid Stanley’s pupil.
Kid Stanley flings a snowball at kid Harold striking him in the ear.
KID HAROLD
Hey!
EXT./INT. MACHINE PRESENT
Stanley's head rests on a conveyor belt tread. He awakens, watches the outside light wane. He crawls away, revealing an incapacitated Harold behind.
Stanley, on all fours, makes it to the ladder. With one arm at first, he snatches hold of a rung. Then with all his might, against the creeping conveyor belt, Stanley manages to throw another hand up onto a higher rung. He hoists his mass from one rung to the next until he's reached the airlock. He opens it with a turn of the wheel and a thrust.
EXT. CHAMBER NIGHT
Stanley nearly climbs out.
INT. CHAMBER NIGHT
Harold's claw of a hand latches onto Stanley's ankle.
EXT. CHAMBER NIGHT
Stanley is tugged back in.
EXT. SHEEP PEN FLASHBACK DAY
Sheep mull around in their pen, BAHHHING.
Kid Stanley and kid Harold sword fight with their sticks.
INT. CHAMBER NIGHT
Harold is on top of Stanley. Stanley holds Harold's arms back as he attempts to plunge them into Stanley's eyes.
HAROLD
Opposable thumbs were developed to jam in the eyes of our fellow man.
They enter into a chamber where the walls scan and map. Infrared waves wash over them like ripple in a pond. The walls flash with white blinding light, an MRI SOUND accompanies.
EXT. FORREST FLASHBACK DAY
Kid Stanley and kid Harold sword fight with their sticks backtracking through the forrest.
KID STANLEY
En guard!
INT. CHAMBER NIGHT
Harold cups Stanley's mouth and pinches his nose.
HAROLD
As I said, there are other men, working on other machines;
machines that will strip the earth of its resources, poison the water,
and steal the air, to be bottled and sold!
Stanley, barely conscious, fumbles finding the screwdriver in Harold's lab coat. He quickly plunges it into Harold's shoulder and twists.
Harold rears back, SCREAMING with a METALLIC TINT. Given the opportunity, Stanley wiggles out from underneath him.
INT. CONTROL ROOM NIGHT
The bio-scan read comes back: a neon image of Stanley jabbing the screwdriver into Harold. TEMP reads 32 F.
EXT. FORREST FLASHBACK DAY
More stick sword fighting. Kid Harold LAUGHS while Kid Stanley's demeanor is stone cold sober, having the upper hand. They push back to the edge of the forrest and enter into a clearing.
EXT. SHEEP PEN FLASHBACK DAY
The gate to the pen swings open.
INT. CHAMBER NIGHT
Like a trout swimming upstream Stanley scrambles up the ramp of the accelerating conveyor belt. Frost forms at the end of Stanley's nose and the color has left his face. A COLD WIND swirls. Behind him, Harold removes screwdriver, turns sharply, and lumbers towards Stanley.
Harold in the foreground stalks the vulnerable Stanley as he crawls up the ramp leading to the previous chamber.
BIO-SCAN on the computer portrays the situation as they approach absolute zero. TEMP: -2 F
INT. CHAMBER NIGHT
In foreground Stanley reaches the top of the ramp. Behind, Harold towers over him.
ALLISON (V.O.)
Look out.
He rolls over as Harold swoops down stabbing the screwdriver into a tread of the conveyor belt.
Stanley wedges a foot underneath Harold's abdomen and kicks him off and away some yards.
Shaking, hypothermia setting in, Stanley gets up, removing the screwdriver from its tread.
EXT. FORREST FLASHBACK DAY
The kids stick fight through the woods.
The sheep, obediently, remain inside the pen and bunch up in the corner farthest away from the open gate, BAHING.
INT. CHAMBER NIGHT
Stanley takes a swipe at Harold with the screwdriver, who dodges his thrusts with remarkable agility. A few swipes later Harold grabs Stanley's arm twisting it behind his back and disarming him of the screwdriver.
HAROLD
You'll have to do better than that Stanley.
Stanley YELLS in pain. BONES BREAK. Harold throws Stanley against the mirrored wall with tremendous force, CRACKING it.
EXT. FROZEN LAKE FLASHBACK DAY
The two stick fight past the forrest and onto a clearing.
The view far away shows them small, in profile, amongst the largeness of the clearing.
KID HAROLD
Okay, okay. You win. Time out.
They stop and catch their BREATH. A moment and Harold takes another stab at Stanley.
KID STANLEY
Hey!
Kid Harold LAUGHS. The ice CRACKS underneath kid Stanley. He looks down then up at Kid Harold, mortified.
INT. CHAMBER NIGHT
Stanley is lobbed into another mirrored wall, shattering it. Harold walks over, scoops him off the conveyor belt, and holds him in the air. Harold seems unaffected by the extreme cold.
HAROLD
You just had to do it the hard way.
He flings Stanley's limp body into the mirrored wall on the other side. CRASH.
EXT. FROZEN LAKE DAY FLASHBACK
More CRACKS; this time underneath Kid Harold's feet.
Kid Harold and Kid Stanley's eyes grow big.
KID STANLEY
Don't move.
Harold takes a step and falls through the ice.
Stanley inches to the hole.
KID STANLEY (cont’d)
Oh god, Harold! Harold?!
INT. CHAMBER NIGHT
Bio-scan reading: -40 F Absolute Zero Achieved.
Stanley numbly gets up. Ice crystals form on everything, including the end of his nose and eyebrows. There's a green glow at the end of the chamber as they approach the core. Harold draws closer.
HAROLD
You don't learn, do you?
Stanley has an idea; he extends his hand like he's holding something. He concentrates closing his eyes.
Harold's smile fades.
When Stanley opens his eyes he's holding the screwdriver.
Harold's maniacal expression turns to curiosity. Behind him the mirror is broken exposing rows of rubber tubes on the other side.
Knife gesturing in foreground, Harold's head tilts in background.
HAROLD (cont’d)
You won't stab me...
Stanley fights the cold and commandeers his nerves.
STANLEY
Yeah, you're right.
He stabs the tube behind Harold, which SPRAYS super freezing air at his face. Harold's SHRIEKS, he is engulfed in a cloud. Harold drops covering his face with hands.
Stanley rushes up the rapidly accelerating conveyor belt in spasms, his body trying to shut down to conserve energy.
Behind Harold's back as he gets up smoothly and walks towards Stanley.
Stanley scrambles, Harold in background.
Harold's face is horribly disfigured, his eyes bleached white.
HAROLD
Where do you think you're going?
Guided by unseen forces Harold advances on Stanley. Harold seizes Stanley's lab coat collar and pulls him back so his ear lines up with Harold's lips.
HAROLD (cont’d)
There's nothing left for you out there. It's only us now.
I want to show you something.
Stanley GASPS and manages to slip out of his lab coat and squirms away.
Harold smiles, discards lab coat, and going to walk finds difficulty.
Harold's foot has become stuck, wedged between treads.
Stanley scales the ramp leading to the previous chamber.
HAROLD (cont’d)
It's not over Stanley. This is not over. Do you hear me Stanley?!
It never ends!
Harold and the green glow grow faint over Stanley's shoulder. Tracking in front of Stanley he reaches the exit hole.
EXT. FROZEN LAKE DAY FLASHBACK
Kid Stanley stares at the hole in the ice on the verge of tears. Nothing. Then suddenly a hand reaches up out of the water. Stanley grabs it to hoist Harold out but instead loses his footing and is pulled in.
View from far away shows the tundra devoid of life.
INT. CHAMBER NIGHT
Half dead Stanley weakly climbs up the ladder and out of the machine through airlock.
ALLISON (V.O.)
Time heals all wounds.
INT. CORE NIGHT
Harold gives a SHRILL METALLIC LAUGH as the conveyor belt reaches the end of the line.
Harold is bucked into the glowing orb and disintegrates.
A MONTAGE OF PAST MOMENTS AS HAROLD IS TRANSFORMED INTO LIGHT MIXED WITH ALTERNATE REALITIES
EXT. WAREHOUSE NIGHT
It's raining very hard and the dogs have stopped barking.
HAROLD (V.O.)
Goodbye Stanley.
The warehouse explodes then implodes demonstrating fusion and fission.
The view from the block shows the comparative massiveness of the event.
A single glinting particle travels into the sky. The particle ascends through the atmosphere and out into space.
EXT. DEEP SPACE
Time elapses and the particle is sucked through a black hole.
EXT. WAREHOUSE NIGHT
The foundation is ablaze. Rubble moves and a tattered Stanley emerges. He stares up intensely, struggling to remain conscious. Light flickers across his barely conscious face.
EXT. BEAUTIFUL ISLAND BEACH SUNSET
Reverse angle with Stanley, back to us, in the foreground. Beyond him the sun slips behind the horizon. Palm trees sway in the gentle BREEZE. Birds CHIRP. Dramatic CLASSICAL SCORE starting calm and turning menacing before ending peaceful over credits.
FADE TO BLACK.
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