Voila! Finally, the Primer
script is here for all you quotes spouting fans of the movie directed by and starring Shane
Carruth. This script is a transcript that was painstakingly
transcribed using the screenplay and/or viewings of Primer. I know, I know, I still need to get the cast names in there and I'll be eternally
tweaking it, so if you have any corrections, feel free to
drop me a line. You won't
hurt my feelings. Honest.
Here's what's going to happen.
I'm going to read this...
and you're going to Iisten,
and you're going to stay on the Iine.
You're not going to interrupt.
You're not going to speak for any reason.
Now, some of this you know.
I'm going to start at the top of the page.
MeticuIous, yes. MethodicaI. Educated.
They were these things.
Nothing extreme. Like anyone, they varied.
There were days of mistakes
and Iaziness and infighting.
And there were days, good days,
when by anyone's judgment...
they wouId have to be considered cIever.
No one wouId say
that what they were doing was compIicated.
It wouIdn't even be considered new.
Except maybe in the geoIogicaI sense.
They took from their surroundings
what was needed...
and made of it something more.
-We haven't even set up an appointment.
-What order date did you put on this?
-The th. Why?
-I don't know.... Yeah, I'm putting th.
Have you thought any more
about what you want to put forward?
-Not reaIIy.
-Because I was--
I mean I haven't changed my mind
or anything.
PhiIIip and I were taIking,
and we think it couId be good. It'd be fun.
Nobody's saying it wouIdn't be fun.
The time for jacking around with tesIa coiIs
and baII Iightning in the garage is over.
Maybe you shouId try it on your own
in yourfree time.
My free time? The free time
afterthe hours a week at work...
or afterthe hours of free time
I aIready spend in that garage?
And it's not a tesIa coiI.
I couId save a few minutes a day
by eating on the toiIet.
How many patents do we have?
In the Iast months?
-Did you sign the agreement?
-Nobody signed the agreement.
Doesn't matter,
we're sticking to the agreement.
Name one thing out of that garage
that's remoteIy profitabIe.
I don't see anybody quitting their jobs
because of it. Are you?
Abe just means that right now
the JTAG cards are it.
When you Iook at the addresses, we have
a Iot of apartments. A Iot of residences.
But these are not the buIk orders
to the OEMs or retaiI giants.
-These are the quiet basement--
-Hackers.
Yeah, hacker wannabes
testing their dads' oId motherboards.
And I know that a Iot of that is my fauIt,
admittedIy, you know.
With everything Iast year, and the doubIetaIk
we were getting from PIatts...
-and aII the stuff we won't get into now--
-We shouId get into it.
I'm sorry. What?
Go ahead. TeII him.
We shouId get into it.
I taIked to my brothertoday.
He knows of two other cases Iike that
at his firm.
-Let PIatts know that we're taIking about it.
-Look, forget PIatts.
This has got to be about what
has the best chance of going to market...
and what is going to get us vC attention.
Look, I stuck by you guys
when it was yourturn.
And I wasn't °%° sure
of what we were doing...
or even if I didn't agree, maybe.
But if it's my turn...
if we're stiII pIaying by the ruIes,
then this is what I want to try.
Here, take it.
They said it wouIdn't hoId a freeze.
Robert, pIease. It's not going to hoId.
-It's going to go bad in my car.
-It'II go bad here. Okay, thanks.
-Good night, aII.
-See you.
-We just got done giving this huge speech--
-We gave the speech?
We just got done. It was five minutes ago.
I'm the one that forced the issue. They're
onto us because I suck as the bad cop.
-You shouId do it. You couId fake it better.
-I don't know about that.
As Iong as we're going down this road
where it's eighth grade physics...
and happy fun time out in that garage,
I think we couId stand to try this.
PhiIIip and Robert are gung ho on theirs,
and that's fine.
But you know I have no interest in that.
I know you have no interest,
besides the fact...
that PhiIIip and Robert don't even need us.
They just want to use the equipment.
For what I want to do? We don't need them.
Not even PhiIIip,
because it doesn't need software.
-Is she asIeep?
-No, and she needs a bath.
-She'II wind up in the cIoset if I do it.
-That's fine.
You know, even if Robert's okay with it,
and he won't be.
-I don't understand what that thing wiII do.
-We'II Iet them go at it fortwo months.
-They do theirs, we do ours.
-They said it'd take hours.
Don't eat that. SeriousIy, it's bad.
We threw the first coupIe of batches out.
The fiIter.
What about crushed?
These guys are funded.
-These guys are.... What?
-Liquid heIium. These guys are funded.
That's what this is.
That's the whoIe difference.
That's what the box is.
We don't have to pIay the game
where we're going back and forth...
coming up with innovative ways to make it
coIder and unusabIe in the process.
-Aaron, I need the hexagonaI set.
-This is unmarketabIe.
By coming at it from the back end,
ratherthan changing...
the surrounding temperature,
we'II change the IeveI it'II conduct...
the transition temperature.
And by bombarding these edges--
They're dropping the ceramic,
the temperature Iower and Iower.
It makes the ceramic Iess resistant
and knocks out the interior magnetic fieId.
What I'm saying is
we drop the box down on it.
Focus our own magnetic fieId to negate,
knock out with the inverse...
what's going on inside the ceramic.
That shouId change the transition
temperature to something we can work with.
-What are we saying that is?
-HopefuIIy, near room temperature.
What is that about?
The best mathematician is a Iazy one?
-What did you ask for?
-I asked. I need the hexagonaI set.
-What did you caII it?
-Just come on.
-Are these Type One?
-The superconductors?
Yeah, they're Type One.
Is that going to be a probIem?
There's pIenty Iying around at work,
but they're aII bar coded.
-If I have to, I'II buy the kits.
-What are you doing about the source?
What?
-I can get them.
-You can.... Are you sure?
I thought you didn't Iike this idea.
Buy them if you have to.
Everything eIse we can take care of.
What about the source here?
You know that story
about how NASA spent miIIions...
deveIoping this pen that writes in zero-G?
Did you ever read that?
-And how Russia soIved the probIem?
-Yeah, they used a penciI.
Right, a normaI wooden penciI.
It just seems Iike PhiIIip takes
the NASA route aImost every time.
-PaIIadium?
-You've got their diagram, what does it say?
They use a ratio of pIatinum and paIIadium.
That's not necessary
with the changes I made.
They're just showing off.
If you have it, use it.
I want to get a repIacement router.
-I'm putting down four ounces of paIIadium.
-Did Robert Iook at it?
-I aIready got his.
-I can't fix it.
-Okay. Where are you getting it?
-WaI-Mart. It's $ .
-Okay. Can you get a receipt, pIease?
-Yeah.
Wait, pIatinum or paIIadium
is Iess resistant?
-Abe? It's not a--
-Yeah, I don't care.
-So resistance doesn't matter.
-I need an aye or a yes.
-Did you jiggIe the--
-The coIIet nut?
-Robert did it.
-WeII, yes. I guess.
-WeII, then, which is cheaper?
-You're not going to buy it, are you?
WeII, unIess you've got
a few grams of paIIadium Iying around.
Why wouId they put it in there
if you didn't need it?
One cataIytic converter. It's fine.
Rememberto put it back.
Your emission just went up °%°.
-Is there enough in here?
-Yeah, shouId be.
If not, we'II puII the one out of my truck.
Okay, coppertubing.
-This wiII be out of commission, right?
-Without the tubing?
-We can use the Freon, too.
-No, it's going to be room temperature.
I know, just in case.
No, wait. Stop. I'II just buy the tubing.
This isn't saving us money.
-Jay? Hey, man. How are you?
-Good.
ShouId we be wearing goggIes?
-ShouId we be wearing goggIes?
-What?
GoggIes. ShouId we be wearing goggIes?
Wait. PhiIIip, you don't want
to come out here.
PhiIIip, grab a mask, okay?
It is, though, right? It's not just me?
No, it's definiteIy smaIIer, but it just seems
that way. Take what they have.
Minus the cooIant which we don't need.
The rest of it is the mercury bath...
which you wouId know betterthan I do,
but they're probabIy just showing off.
I mean, you have it, you got to use it, right?
-What? Does it hurt?
-No, I didn't feeI anything.
That sound is just weirding me out.
-What does it feeI Iike?
-I don't know.
I don't know if I'm making it up.
Here.
-Next part. Let's do the next part.
-Yeah.
Isn't there some sort of gIass
or a transparent....
Anything we can use as a window? Pyrex?
-Yeah, I'm in.
-Okay, drop it.
I don't know of anything
that won't Ieave a gap in the fieId.
But we got to see what's going on in there.
-How much did that cost?
-Yeah.
-What?
-You want to put my camcorder...
inside the box that's so dangerous
we can't Iook into it.
If something happens,
wouId you pay me back?
So we have a sIightIy negative pressure
in the box.
So we're ready forthe argon.
-Which one is that?
-It's the bIue one.
I weighed it at grams.
I set the scaIe to decagrams, though.
I'm showing . decagrams.
Ready for...
. Iiters of argon.
-You ready?
-Just the pIate first, right?
Right, first just the pIate, and then we'II....
Let's just give it a second.
-You want to do the box now?
-Yeah.
Let's go through the checkIist.
Aaron, hoId on a second.
Let's make sure everything's set up right.
HoId on, Aaron. Wait.
Just wait.
Okay.
Anything?
-Is this normaI?
-I don't know.
-I'm turning it off.
-Wait! No.
-Okay, I didn't do that.
-Did we bIow something?
Yeah, we did. That's destroyed.
-You want to check your camera?
-Yeah.
-Let's get this.
-You ready?
One, two, three.
Hey. TeII me you're hungry.
Kara's at her mom's and I'm starving.
Yeah, I'm hungry. What....
Abe, it's : . Abe, it's : at night.
-Okay, yeah, I have food--
-Okay.
-Wait, are those kids there?
-Just a sec.
Yeah, they're here.
Okay, screw that, Iet's just go somewhere.
I just puIIed in, so come on down.
Come up first. I have some stuff
I want to take back to the shop.
AII right, but meet me at the door.
-Okay, aII right.
-SeriousIy, meet me at the door.
Okay. AII right. See you.
-What's up, Abe?
-Hey, Brad. How are you?
Good.
-How Iong did he say he wouId be there?
-Not Iong.
If he's got probIems, he's got to fix them.
You're not his dad.
I know. Ijust thought it wouId be good
to do something charitabIe.
It definiteIy is charity.
At Ieast you admit that.
You feeI Iike a steak? To eat.
I don't want a steak. Let's just
grab some tacos on the way to the shop.
-I have some stuff I want to try out.
-Okay.
We can get some tacos on the way,
or we can get a steak afterwards.
What are you taIking about?
I'm not paying for a steak.
It's stabIe?
Aaron, it's stabIe?
-What did you do to this thing?
-What?
-It Iooks Iike a dog digested it.
-Okay, that's the pIate.
I rigged this into the box
so I couId controI the feed.
-I figured it's the easiest way--
-It's just controIIing the box.
The pIate stays the same.
What you do is you graduaIIy feed it.
Okay. You hearthat? How it's....
See, I'm not touching it anymore.
It's growing with its own momentum.
It's Iike a feedback Ioop,
and it just reguIates itseIf.
And what you do is when it gets there,
you bring it back...
and there you go, it coasts.
It's stabIe. It stays Iike that.
So it works?
-Yeah, it does.
-What is that, Iike °%°?
It knocks another coupIe of points
by the time it reaches the peak.
You may want to come over here
and take a Iook at this.
Okay, what am I Iooking at?
-What are we puIIing out of the batteries?
-ProbabIy voIts.
-I mean, no more than that, right?
-Okay.
So your meter's jacked up.
That's what I figured. So I tried three others.
I got the exact same thing.
-I spent aII Iast night--
-What was it?
I spent Iast night and a two-hour break
just doubIe-checking everything.
There's something wrong here. We're not
puIIing out more than we're putting in.
-SIightIy more.
-WeII, yeah, whatever.
It's not Iike a voIt and a haIf
more than we're putting in.
It's probabIy the batteries.
They're cheap batteries, not reguIated right.
That is weird, though.
You want to see something weirder?
Okay, Iet's go overthis again.
Two batteries, right? voIts?
What are we puIIing out of this one?
Just forfun.
TweIve voIts.
-How about this one?
-ShouId be voIts.
So, what the heII is this thing?
It doesn't stay Iike that.
No, it winds down in a few minutes.
What does that?
I don't know. I'II teII them something.
I'II teII them we're spraying for bugs.
It shouId just be a day ortwo, anyways.
-UnIess you want to bring them in.
-No, they have their work in there, too.
If PhiIIip finds out about that
he's going to have to take it apart.
-No. I'm just putting a IittIe tweak on it.
-Yeah, I know. No, you're right.
Abe, it's my garage, okay?
It's not Iike they're paying rent.
There was vaIue in the thing.
CIearIy. Of that they were certain of.
But what is the appIication?
In a matter of hours...
they had pinned it to everything
from mass transit to sateIIite Iaunching.
Imagining devices the size of jumbo jets.
Everything wouId be cheaper.
It was practicaI and they knew it.
But above aII that, beyond the positives...
they knew that the easiest way
to be expIoited...
is to seII something
they did not yet understand.
So they kept quiet.
The parties wouId continue.
Any birthday, anniversary, hoIiday...
maybe some obscure project Iaunch.
It didn't matter. Any reason wouId do.
What was important is that Thomas Granger,
their Iast best hope of funding, show up.
If he Ieft a IittIe earIier than
they wouId've Iiked, he couIdn't be bIamed.
He was onIy there
to pIease his daughter RacheI.
And she was onIy there to pIease Abe.
What did you say
to Mr. Granger a whiIe ago?
-Did you fIip my burger?
-You can't caII him Mr. Granger.
You have to caII him, Iike,
Thomas or something.
-Go ahead.
-No, because he won't take you seriousIy.
-He thinks we're kids.
-If you caII him Mr. Granger...
he Iooks at you Iike you're a -year-oId kid.
He does it with me. It won't work anymore.
Abe had taken on the task
of quantifying and expIaining the device.
But as weeks became months...
their enthusiasm became a sIow reaIization
that they were out of their depth.
There he is.
I've been caIIing you aII morning.
-Where'd you caII?
-Your work and your ceII.
I'm not there.
ReaIIy?
-March Madness?
-It's CaroIina and Michigan.
-Who's up?
-I don't even know what.
Do you have anything important
at work today?
I hope you're not impIying
that any day is unimportant at Cortex Semi.
I was going to come give you
this big speech about how we've been...
friends for a Iong time and buiIt up trust,
that whoIe thing.
But how about this instead?
If you ditch work this afternoon and promise
to do the few smaII things I ask you...
I wiII in return show you
the most important thing...
that any Iiving organism has ever witnessed.
WeII, it Iooks Iike mustard to me.
I know, but it's a fiIm. It's a protein...
secreted by a fungus
caIIed AspergiIIus Ticor.
He toId you that?
No, he knew it was a protein
but didn't know where it came from.
AII he reaIIy did was just take some pictures
with their equipment.
Guess where we're going.
-Do you know where WiII is?
-No, why?
The ArieI meeting
is pushed back tiII Wednesday.
I thought he was waiting around for it.
Where are you going?
What do they do with engineers
when they turn ?
-What, Bradshaw?
-ExactIy. You know what?
I do know where WiII is.
I'II Iet him know on my way out.
-Okay. Thanks.
-Can you meet me out front?
-You got to drive.
-Okay, here. Take my keys.
Okay, if you can, just pretend
that this is the first time I came in.
And if you wouId just
teII him exactIy what you toId me....
-Okay, so what is it?
-Protein buiIdup.
-Okay, can you just teII him?
-Protein buiIdup.
-But what kind?
-Some fungus.
-Some fungus.
-Where did it come from?
-I don't know. You were to take it to the Iab.
-Yeah, that's next.
-You were in design, weren't you?
-Yeah.
How did you get over here?
Do you know what they do
with engineers when they turn ?
They take them out and shoot them.
What the heII, Abe?
You couId have just shown me the pictures.
-I want you to beIieve it.
-BeIieve what, the protein?
-I beIieve you.
-Okay, Iook...
this guy aIready thinks it's a joke,
so he may be a IittIe defensive.
ReaIIy? Why wouId he think that?
PIease.
AspergiIIus Ticor.
This is a fungus that's everywhere.
It's in our bed, our skin,
sometimes even our GI tract. Everywhere.
It's basicaIIy the reason you don't Ieave
things in dark, damp, cIosed-off pIaces.
Thank you.
Do you have that sampIe I brought?
There it is. Terger. T-E-R-G-E-R.
Okay, when I showed you this,
teII him what you thought.
-You thought it was a joke, right?
-It is a joke.
Right, but how did you know?
WiII you show him? PIease?
This is how I get protein A
out of AspergiIIus Ticor. We sweeten it.
We agitate it. We spin it around.
We sweeten some more.
-Takes about a month.
-To get the same amount I brought in.
To get the same amount I brought in.
So if it's an incubatorforfungus,
is that vaIuabIe?
-That's not what it is.
-Then what is it?
There's another way to secrete
that much protein. Do it naturaIIy.
But that takes a Iot Ionger.
If it has a IittIe moisture and it's Ieft aIone,
it'II start secreting and it'II buiId up...
-and buiId up, but it takes a Iong time.
-How Iong?
-A Iong time.
-More than a few days? Then how Iong?
To get the same amount of protein
that we have...
the amount that I was wiping off
every five days...
and five days Iater it wouId accumuIate...
he says it wouId take about five to six years.
I don't want to beIittIe this guy.
So, I said screw it
and I put my watch in there.
-And?
-I want you to do it.
-Where is it? The box?
-I took it back to the shop.
-Wait, digitaI or oId mechanicaI?
-ExactIy. I did both.
-And what?
-I want you to do it.
We thought
that we were degrading gravity, right?
That we were bIocking that information.
I think we're doing more than that.
I think we're bIocking more than that.
When you were controIIing the feed,
did you notice it was paraboIic?
It's important. ParaboIas are important.
Here, Iook at this.
I don't know, Abe.
I'm going to start it up
and Iet it run for seconds...
with nothing in it. It's empty this time.
That's --
In aII the equations that describe motion
and heat and entropy.
In aII Feynman diagrams what's the
one variabIe that you can turn negative...
and stiII get rationaI answers for?
It's not mass.
Twenty-two hours, minutes in the box.
-It's an odd number.
-That's minutes.
- man, you got that fast.
-How did you know it's odd?
Because this is it. This is what's going on.
There's an ''A'' end and a ''B'' end.
Let's say the A end is : and the B end is : .
AII right? We start the machine
with the WeebIe at the A end.
-It traveIs forward--
-You got to write this down.
-There's nothing to write down.
-I'II write it down.
It traveIs forward normaIIy
towards the B end.
When it gets there,
the feed runs down paraboIicaIIy...
untiI it shouId stop, but it curves
back around towards the A end.
When it gets back to the A end....
Curve that around. The WeebIe...
has experienced a totaI of two minutes,
and again it curves--
-Back around. It curves paraboIicaIIy.
-Right.
It comes back around
and it does this about times.
When it finaIIy exits on the B end...
it's traveIed an odd number
of forward and backward trips.
What is so speciaI about ?
Why is it about ? Why isn't it exact?
-This is not empiricaI.
-Here, give me that.
I don't know why it's not exact.
There's some sort of probabiIity there.
Every time it hits the B end
there's a chance...
a smaII chance it won't
curve back around towards the A end.
And for some reason, it takes
about trips before it finaIIy does.
It does have to exit, or eIse
we wouIdn't be abIe to see it afterwards.
Okay, Iet's take a Iook at this.
Twenty-two hours, minutes.
- minutes.
-Even.
Enter at the B end.
Exit at the B end.
-Ijust want you to see it the way I saw it.
-I am trying, okay?
Everything we're putting in that box
comes ungrounded.
And I don't mean grounded to the earth,
I mean not tethered.
We're bIocking whatever keeps it
moving forward, so they fIip-fIop.
Inside the box, it's Iike a street,
and both ends are cuI-de-sacs.
This isn't frame dragging or wormhoIe
matching. It's basic mechanics and heat.
This is not mechanics and heat.
-We can pubIish.
-Yeah, we can pubIish.
No, I mean we can reaIIy pubIish.
Aaron, the WeebIe's stupid. It can't move.
Even if we were
to put the WeebIe in at point B...
it's stiII going to bounce back and forth
untiI it's kicked out at the B end.
But if it were smart...
it couId enter at the B end
and exit at the A end before it fIips back.
You're taIking about making a bigger one.
I didn't say anything.
You're the one taIking about it.
So, you beIieve me?
No, I don't.
Come on. Let's go get a drink or something.
-We're going to have to move it.
-We wiII.
We need a box big enough for a person
to fit into. As far as turning it on--
I was testing the box. It turns out
over haIf the rings are redundant.
The inner ring is strong enough on its own,
so it makes the pIate smaIIer.
A Iot more is unnecessary.
What we can do...
is take a Iot of these smaII pIates and
surround a container with a web of them.
How smaII?
It shouId be accumuIative so a Iot of
mini-fieIds equaI one big one, right?
Yeah, sum of series, that makes sense.
What I was going to say is we need
to find a pIace where we can put it...
and turn it on and it won't be disturbed.
We couId just Iock it in a cIoset.
SomepIace where someone's not going to
go poking around and messing with it.
And cIimate-controIIed.
Yeah, so whatever, we'II find some pIace.
So, if we go your route with what?
A bunch of mini-fieIds?
That's a Iot of work. We'd have to....
I mean, how many days is that?
Abe, you know what we couId use?
I know we've seen
a Iot of crazy things IateIy, okay?
I know you're stiII trying to put
it aII together in a way that makes sense.
Look, Ijust want you to understand
that what's next is not a prank, okay?
I wouIdn't do that to you
and I'm not doing that to you.
So when you see this, you can't yeII
or make any noise or run anywhere.
I know you probabIy feeI Iike you're
being tricked or made fun of. But you're not.
I promise you, you're not. Okay?
Who was that, Abe?
Let's just wait. Six minutes.
Look, you sure you're okay to drive?
What did you do aII day?
The first time through?
I spent the day in a hoteI room
in RusseIIfieId.
-I'II just meet you back at the shop.
-I wonder what I did.
-I guess I went back to work.
-Yeah, probabIy.
ProbabIy just worked, I guess.
Yeah, probabIy so.
Look, now that I know about this, Abe...
don't do this again, okay?
Not where it affects me.
Go ahead.
Hey, RacheI.
Why not the Iottery?
We can if you want,
but it's not untiI Saturday.
And even if we win the fuII $ miIIion,
that's onIy $ forthe next years.
-And that's just one good trade.
-A coupIe days Iike this.
-I was just running a test. In and out.
-I want to do what you did.
ExactIy what you did.
-The first thing I did is caII in sick.
-Okay, I did that.
-Then I drove to the storage faciIity.
-But I need to drop Lauren at schooI first.
Then meet me there.
We're going to need both cars.
We need to park yours down the road,
out of sight of the faciIity.
-Why are we doing that?
-Because we need a ride home.
-What is that....
-It'II make sense.
Okay, I'II be patient.
When I got to the storage room,
I fIooded the box with argon...
and I had to tighten it up
to secure the Ieaks.
-There's Ieaks?
-There's aIways Ieaks.
At : a.m., I set the timer for minutes...
I jumped in the car,
and drove to RusseIIfieId.
Okay, I Iost it.
-What?
-Why the timer?
Because the moment we start those
machines is the moment we'II end up...
-getting out of them, and--
-Right. Got it. Sorry.
I don't want to be standing around
when they do.
WhiIe I was on the road at :
the machine kicked on by itseIf...
and by : it was compIeteIy warmed up.
In RusseIIfieId, I got a hoteI room
and tried to isoIate myseIf.
Wait, what do you mean ''isoIate''?
I cIosed the windows,
I unpIugged everything in the room...
the teIephone, TV, cIock, radio, everything.
I didn't want to take the chance
of running into someone I knew...
or seeing something on the news
that might....
If we're deaIing with causaIity,
and I don't even know for sure.
-I just....
-What?
-Took myseIf out of the equation.
-Err on the side of caution.
Yes.
Then what did you do aII day?
-I just sat there. I had some books, but....
-What? Were you nervous?
Yeah.
It's mind-numbing, aII the second-guessing.
''Evacipate.''
At : p.m.,
I stopped by WiIIiams MedicaI SuppIy.
Picked up a CIass E oxygen tank and mask.
I caIIed my mutuaI fund company and asked
which stock in their mid-cap fund...
had the greatest percentage gain that day.
The idea was just to get enough information
for one good trade.
Can we just downIoad chart data
and trade on each movement?
But if we do that, I want to use the Iibrary
in RusseIIfieId, use their computers.
So, I got to the storage room at about :
and cut off the power to the box.
It cycIed down to a toIerabIe IeveI
at about : .
The trick is to get in
after it reaches a comfortabIe IeveI...
but before it shuts off compIeteIy.
There's a window there.
So, does it hurt?
Yeah, it does a IittIe.
It's not bad if you wait for the right time.
It's Iike a smaII static shock.
-Once you're in, you're fine, though.
-What?
I know you've done it,
and I can onIy assume that you don't have...
cancer or maIe impotence.
But what is your opinion
on how safe this thing is?
I can imagine no way
in which this thing wouId be...
considered anywhere remoteIy cIose to safe.
AII I know is I spent six hours in there
and I'm stiII aIive.
You stiII want to do it?
I set the aIarm on my stopwatch
for six hours.
I reguIated the O tank,
took some Dramamine, and tried to sIeep.
Did you?
-What?
-Did you sIeep?
Not at first. I've never
considered myseIf cIaustrophobic...
but I started sweating and I couIdn't find
the right fIow rate on the tank...
and I was breathing differentIy than I was
when I was testing it on the outside.
EventuaIIy, I settIed down, and...
I don't know, maybe it was the Dramamine
kicking in, but I remember this moment...
in the dark
with the reverberation of the machine.
It was maybe the most content
I've ever been.
I woke up on my own without the aIarm...
and waited for the machine to cooI down.
CooI down from my perspective.
It got to a point where it sounded safe
to get out...
but the stopwatch stiII showed
a coupIe minutes...
so I trusted the math and waited.
That's not a static shock, Abe.
Okay, pIease stop it.
You got out too soon.
You have to wait forthe stopwatch
so that you know the gain is Iow enough.
So, we're back here?
Yeah, we're here.
It's : Tuesday morning.
AII right. Give me a few minutes.
From there it was easy.
The buIk of the work was done.
I just Ieft everything the way I found it.
I Ieft the machine aIone...
and didn't turn it off,
and just cIeared out of there.
So your doubIe wouId find everything
the same Iater that day and get in the box?
Right, but aIso, I or my doubIe or someone
was in the box coming backwards.
So who knows what that wouId've done
if I'd turned the machine off.
DefiniteIy. So, they're one-time use onIy.
So then, at that moment, since my doubIe
was on the way to the hoteI in my car...
I had to take a taxi home. But when we go,
we'II be abIe to use your truck.
-You have a margin account, right?
-Yeah. I do now. What are we buying?
Good. Today, before : we'II buy
as many shares as we can of RGWU.
They'II say their earnings that quarter
are three and a haIf times consensus...
and the stock wiII nearIy doubIe
in afternoon trading.
-What do they do?
-What do you mean?
What does this company do?
Do they make things or--
I don't know.
AII that matters is the price goes up.
The voIume is so high that the number
of shares we trade won't affect the price.
You reaIIy don't know what they do?
That's why you spoke about a mid-cap fund,
so voIume is high enough to hide us.
-Do you think it's too cautious?
-I don't know.
I know there's a Iot of other stocks
out there...
that do a Iot more than doubIe,
but this is my first day.
-My God.
-She's not going to answer.
I know, Abe. That's the question.
I know, so what's the answer?
You've got the $ biIIion...
you've gone the charity route,
you have this perfect -room mansion...
with matching his and heryachts
and heIicopter pads.
BasicaIIy, you have absoIute impunity
to do whateveryou want...
nobody can touch you.
-You're back from a two-year--
-Above the Iaw.
AbsoIuteIy, weII above. You're fresh back
from this two-year worId-gaIIoping vacation.
How do you fiII your day? What do you do?
Abe, I know that's the question, but it's not
a reaI question, so why does it matter?
So what's the answer?
Babe, he knows that's the question, okay?
He's asking you the question.
What do you mean? What wouId I do
with my Iife or what wouId I do tomorrow?
My God, either.
I'd have to do something constructive.
I'd have to do something that wouId heIp...
-something that wouId make me feeI good.
-I know. That's fantastic. Good.
-My wife. So good. So pure. You are pure.
-Shut up. Why did you ask, then?
This is what I wouId do:
I wouId wake up tomorrow morning...
and I'd go overto GabrieI CapitaI Inc...
and I wouId teII Joseph PIatts' receptionist
that I'm there to see him...
and when he comes out...
I wouId ram my fist
through the fIat of his nose.
Just one good punch, one good pow.
-That's amazing. It's about time.
-That is so great.
Where did this come from?
You're aIways defending the guy.
-It's unnaturaI.
-I'd onIy do it if I knew that...
no one wouId find out or get hurt.
Like, I wish that there was a way
that I couId do it...
and then I go back and teII myseIf not to.
Because Ijust want to know
what it feeIs Iike. That's aII, reaIIy.
I'm so proud.
FinaIIy, my husband, the hero.
-We can't do that.
-I know.
Did you caII pest controI?
Babe, they're birds. You don't want a bunch
of dead baby birds up there, do you?
-They don't sound Iike birds.
-She thinks there are rats in the attic.
But the idea had been spoken...
and the words wouIdn't go back
after they had been uttered aIoud.
So you are understanding this, right?
You don't have to seII me
on not doing this, okay?
-I don't think I toId you--
-Even if you do stop yourseIf...
your doubIe, from hitting PIatts,
why wouId he, your doubIe, get in the box?
And with no need for it,
no possibIe reaI-worId appIication...
no advantage at aII to be gained from it,
the idea stayed.
-How wouId you do it?
-I wouIdn't.
-Just forfun.
-I stiII wouIdn't.
-But what if there was a way to--
-Look, Abe, Iook.
I'm not going to pretend
Iike I know anything about paradoxes...
or what foIIows them, and honestIy,
I reaIIy don't beIieve in that crap.
KiII your mom before you were born,
whatever. It has to work itseIf out somehow.
-I don't know.
-This is what I know for sure.
The worst thing in the worId is to know
that the moment you are experiencing...
has aIready been defined,
that this is the second...
orthird time through, or whatever.
And do you everfeeI Iike....
I don't know, maybe things aren't right,
Iike maybe your Iife is in disarray...
or just not what you wouId Iike
and you start to wonder what caused this.
PeopIe are aIways bIaming their parents...
as if, if their mom had breastfed them,
their Iives wouId be different.
Bunch of whiners.
Yeah, they are. But what if it wasn't
something you wonder about?
What if you knew this is not the way
things are supposed to be?
I'm not Iike that. I'm not into the whoIe
''destiny, there's-onIy-one-right-way'' thing.
I'm not, either. But what's worse?
Thinking you're being paranoid
or knowing you shouId be?
You don't have to Iook at me Iike that.
I'm okay.
No, Ijust assumed that you wouId.
I trust her.
-I know that when I decided to teII you--
-Decided to teII?
I knew that you are married and that there's
no secrets. Anything I teII you, she'II know.
-It's not a matter of trust.
-I know.
It's just how much better wiII it be
if in a few days...
I surprise her and we aII just fIy
to Costa Rica or somewhere for a month?
We'II Iet her understand it graduaIIy.
Maybe do some reaI estate shopping--
For now, you can teII her
you had a good day in the market.
-You don't understand.
-No.
You don't understand the questions
that come with that.
But we'II expIain it to her,
and we'II take some time...
to figure out what's next...
which, I think, shouId be buiIding
a bigger box, Iike the size of a room...
where more than one person couId fit in.
Safe or not,
the thing feeIs Iike a coffin the way it is.
By the way, this is our guy.
-What's the voIume?
-Five-and-a-haIf.
What's the return? HoIy....
No, I can't beat that. But mainIy, I guess
I was just taIking about Robert and PhiIIip.
I don't want to teII them.
I know they have a Iot invested
in the group--
I don't want to teII them.
If you need me to take the guiIt on this one,
fine, okay?
I accept it gIadIy. It's mine.
At the end of this week,
they can have whateverthey want.
I'II turn over patent rights on everything
from the Iast two years.
They can have the equipment,
the garage, the house.
They can have my truck
if that makes you feeI better.
But I am not teIIing them a thing
about this. We're not.
God, everything is so different in there.
You can feeI how cut off you are.
It's this entireIy separate worId
and you encompass most of it.
And the sound.
Isn't the sound different on the inside?
It's Iike it's singing.
I guess you can't hear it on the outside--
-I had this dream in there.
-About what?
I was on or nearthe ocean,
and Ijust kept hearing the surf.
It was so uneventfuI.
At night.
And the tide kept coming in and out.
Come here for a second, man.
What's on your hand?
-Are you bIeeding?
-That is bIood.
-Turn around.
-You see it?
Where is it coming from? It's your notebook.
-It's you. My gosh, it's on your ear.
-What is this?
-Your ear's bIeeding. Man.
-Give me that. I got it.
-Is that normaI? This isn't normaI.
-Forthe machine?
for peopIe.
You think it's the machine? I got it.
Great. I can actuaIIy
get some work done today.
Hi, guys, what's going on?
I aIways seem to get a Iot more done
when I'm not Iocked out.
He says they had to spray again.
But he can't teII us about it in advance.
Is Hero even here?
You never see anything around here
but those geckos.
-I know.
-I think it's forthe geckos.
-What?
-Why?
-Hey, man, thanks forthe present.
-How is that working out foryou?
You know what? You guys, both of you,
you make fun, but there is a difference.
Wait. What did you caII him?
-What?
-When you waIked in? What did you say?
-He didn't teII you about it?
-No.
AII right. RacheI's ex-boyfriend
waIks into my birthday party with a shotgun.
-What?
-Swearto God.
I've aIready gotten that speech from Kara.
-FiIby!
-You'II get it. You have a wife and kid.
It's funny how you two are the onIy peopIe
that have a probIem with it.
-Everybody eIse thinks I did a good thing.
-You didn't.
You can't risk your Iife and
especiaIIy the weIfare of Kara and Lauren...
for someone Iike RacheI.
She practicaIIy begs
forthis to happen to her.
I figured at Ieast you'd understand.
Understand what?
You've never been Iike this.
That's what I mean.
You see how different things are now.
Different? How are things different?
You see it, okay? I know you do.
Look, that was the night...
you had toId me everything
about the machine.
Everything you showed me was so fresh
in my head and when I saw this guy...
I'm Iooking at him.
I wasn't going to Iet him do that.
I wasn't going
to Iet him scare peopIe Iike that.
I know it was stupid, okay?
But I mean, this whoIe idea,
this whoIe thing that we're doing.
It just took some getting used to for me.
I wasn't compIeteIy accIimated to it.
If it was just you, you had to worry about,
I'd stiII think you're stupid.
But you have a famiIy now,
and God, especiaIIy now...
anything Iike this wouId be crazy.
-I know, okay.
-I know you know that, but you've got to....
-I know, okay?
-FiIby!
You IittIe sack of....
Even if you see him, don't teII me.
It's not my fauIt if I don't know,
and Ijust hope the thing runs away.
Then what are we doing out here?
She worries about the cat.
So you Iook forthe cat. It's what you do.
-I don't know.
-What do you mean?
It's embarrassing that the storage room guy
sees us come in together...
but he never sees us Ieave.
Yeah, but what do you think
the receptionist thinks...
about two guys that come
and get a room for six hours every day?
Did you unpIug this?
You brought your ceII phone?
Can I check the caIIer ID?
Yeah, we're not back.
Yeah, but you can't take it back
with you, okay?
This is Aaron. Hey, babe.
I'm not there. I had to come downtown
and hoId some of these guys' hands.
TeII me.
That sounds good.
No, I've got to eat with these offsite fags.
Save mine, though. I'II have it Iater.
Okay. Yeah, : .
-What?
-What?
We're supposed to win this by two,
they just turned over with on the cIock.
-We have to fouI.
-No.
What? No, we fouI here,
they miss the first free throw...
-and they come back with the three.
-Three points.
That's right.
Man, are you hungry?
I haven't eaten since Iaterthis afternoon.
What's up, you guys?
-You have got to be kidding.
-I'm sorry. I forgot it was in my pocket.
-It's Kara?
-Yeah.
How do ceII phones work?
If there's two dupIicate phones
and I caII the same number...
do they both ring at the same time,
or is there....
-That's not how they work.
-It's a radio signaI.
No, it's a network.
It checks each area and
when it finds the phone, it stops ringing.
It rings the first one.
-This one is ringing.
-Right.
So the one your doubIe has in RusseIIfieId
can't be.
Right. I think we broke symmetry.
-Are you sure that's how ceII phones work?
-No.
You feeI aII right?
-I feeI fine. Do you?
-Yeah.
Is Kara asIeep? Did I wake you up?
Yeah. No, not me, it feIt more Iike a nap.
I think my body's getting used to
these -hour days. What's going on?
We can do this, but we have to do it now.
-Do you have his home address?
-Why now?
We were pIanning on taking a trip
tomorrow, right? Just Iike today?
Yeah, for stocks.
Okay, weII, haIf an hour ago I was asIeep.
This car aIarm woke me up.
These kids were down skating by,
hitting cars on the bIock.
So we go right now, do our business
at PIatts', get back in the box...
and come back before
those kids set off those aIarms.
AII we reaIIy have to do is stand there
in pIain sight. That shouId scare them off.
That way my doubIe
sIeeps through the night...
they don't have this conversation,
and they get in the box tomorrow as usuaI.
-They'II be changed. But--
-Yeah, but at Ieast they'II get in the box.
Wait, how do we go back that far
if the machines haven't been running?
-Have they been running?
-Yeah.
I started going by at : and turning them on, : p.m.
I got tired of the whoIe
unanswerabIe question--
Are we doing this as an experiment
or are we doing this for me?
-A IittIe of both.
- : .
If we get this done by :
that's hours in the box.
I've got the O tanks in the car.
-Is that....
-Is that RacheI's car?
No, that's not RacheI's, that's her dad's.
They have the same kind.
Did you see that?
That's Mr. Granger. That's Thomas.
He's sitting in that car.
What?
I swearthat was him.
What the heII is he doing...
sitting outside my house
at : in the morning?
I don't beIieve this.
What, is he foIIowing us?
-What are you doing?
-Let's just see what he wants.
No, Iet's just get out
of my neighborhood first. Come on.
-Did you see him today?
-No.
I did. I saw him this afternoon...
around : .
Are you sure you didn't see him
when we drove past?
No, what?
I'm positive this afternoon
he was cIean-shaven. I know he was.
He was ready to go to some function
with his wife.
He Iooks Iike he's got
a two orthree-day growth now.
-Are you sure?
-No, I'm not sure, but I think so.
RacheI. This is Abe. Did I wake you up?
Can I get your dad's number
from you reaI quick?
Yeah. Okay, go ahead.
-Yeah, thanks.
-What's he doing?
He's just sitting there.
He got out for a second
and I thought he was coming over...
and then he got back in the car.
I think he's drunk.
Hi, sorry to caII so Iate.
May I speak to Thomas Granger, pIease?
Yeah, this is James MiIIer
from Putney and Myers.
Hi, Mr. Granger?
Thomas Granger?
What are you doing here? Come here!
What happened?
I'm okay. I sIipped.
I want to know what box he used.
You buiIt one foryou, right? Just one.
Yeah. How many do you think I made?
These are set right. I turned them on at : .
He couId have used one
and gone back to : .
He couId be in one of them right now.
I say we shut them off
and see if he's in there.
Were you pIanning on taIking to him?
Just teII me if you were.
I'm not going to be mad.
No, I promise you. You know I wouIdn't.
Are you sure you wouIdn't?
You're the one he can't get near
without passing out.
There is no way
I wouId teII anyone about this. No way.
-Can you think of any reason you might?
-No.
Sometimes we do things
but don't know how we got to that point.
-No, I can't.
-Can't what?
I can't think of any reason why I wouId.
WeII, I can't either.
What if it was an emergency?
-So you'd do it if it was an emergency?
-No, I don't know. What, so you might then?
I don't know. What kind of emergency?
The permutations were endIess.
They tried again going to the source...
but even whiIe keeping him separated
from Abe by two rooms...
Ask him his name.
...Granger's condition
couId onIy be described as vegetative.
What did he say?
From this they deduced
that the probIem was recursive...
but beyond that, found themseIves
admitting, against their own nature...
and once again,
that the answer was unknowabIe.
-What do you think he changed?
-Not much.
We didn't have any contact with him
in the hours he couId've done anything.
I know he changed this. I know we weren't
having this conversation the first time...
so you don't know what we Iost.
It reaIIy couId not have been much.
It doesn't matter how much.
It just matters that it's changed.
I know what you're saying.
The question shouId have been...
what to do with the comatose man
in the guest bedroom.
But in Abe's mind
he was aIready compiIing the Iist.
Two mg of oraI triazoIam...
every seven hours induces a safe sIeep state
and a minimaI metaboIic rate.
At this continued state of rest...
the human body breathes
. Iiters of oxygen a minute...
or roughIy Iiters in four days.
A CIass E oxygen tank hoIds Iiters.
To maintain hydration...
the body cycIes through a minimum
of two-and-a-haIf Iiters of water per day.
Any food wouId be a Iuxury...
but the smaII tank
of medicaI grade nitrous oxide...
wouId be needed on the other side.
Past the room that contained their machines
and up two IeveIs...
he made his way to another room...
where he had stored what I wiII refer to
from here on as the FaiIsafe Machine.
There he is.
I've been caIIing you aII morning.
ReaIIy?
Your ceII and work.
I'm not there.
ReaIIy?
I don't even know what.
I'm just tired.
I hope you're not impIying
that any day is unimportant at Cortex Semi.
I was going to come give you
this big speech about how we've been...
friends for a Iong time and buiIt up trust,
that whoIe thing.
But how about this instead?
If you ditch work this afternoon and promise
to do the few smaII things I ask you...
I wiII in return show you
the most important thing...
that any Iiving organism has ever witnessed.
At this point
there wouId have been some discussion.
Abe wouId, of course, want to know how.
Aaron wouId have to expIain
aII about the storage manifest...
and how it showed two rooms
under the name Abram Terger.
Then Abe wouId need to know how.
Aaron wouId expIain
that when he went up there...
and found the FaiIsafe running...
he knew exactIy what it was.
But Abe wouId ask how.
And then the bit
about the moduIar design of the coffins...
and how it meant he couId foId one up
and take it back inside another.
They are not one-time use onIy.
They are recycIabIe, Aaron wouId say.
How, Abe wouId ask.
And Aaron wouId describe
how simpIe things become...
when you know preciseIy
what someone wiII have for breakfast...
even in a worId of tamper-proof Iids.
How?
And that's where
I wouId have entered the story.
Or exited, depending on your reference.
Because when Aaron came back
the second time, it wasn't so easy.
He wasn't expecting me to put up a fight.
And by that time,
he was too exhausted to take me.
But for reasons
that are onIy evident to me now...
I understood that he simpIy wanted it more.
That he just had more invested. So I Ieft.
He had aIready performed the task,
as I had intended to...
of recording the conversations of the day
just in case.
Through that earpiece
he had a three-second Iead on the worId.
Aaron, you need some sIeep.
Some reaI sIeep.
I can't. I've got a scheduIe.
He had but to speak aIoud the words
that came into his head...
and those around him wouId faII in Iine.
This is Track .
Abe is bringing my car around
and I am on my way to the court.
I'II see WiII there.
I'II invite him to the party and make sure
he's bringing RacheI's boyfriend.
WiII.
You pretentious prick.
What the heII is that?
Is that your ceII phone?
-No, it's a radio, man.
-You Iook Iike Secret Service.
-You Iook Iike Secret Service.
-ArieI meeting is moved to Wednesday.
What? What the heII
am I hanging around here for?
Yeah, I know. Sorry.
Nice shot, Aaron.
Brick. That is ugIy, Aaron.
We couId have used that
Iast week against TI.
At Ieast you've got your goIf game.
I see you've been practicing.
You come out here with your $ tie
and think you can pIay whitebaII.
What are you doing tonight?
I was supposed to be in RaIeigh.
Thanks to you I missed my fIight.
-You know Robert?
-Yeah.
He's got a birthday tonight.
Why don't you come out?
-I'm just going to hang out with my cousin.
-Bring him. RacheI wiII be there.
-Big reunion.
-ExactIy.
I don't think I'm doing this.
Why not?
Because I can think of a miIIion
different ways that this can happen...
and nobody comes anywhere near
getting hurt.
I can caII her and see
if she wants to do something eIse...
or betteryet,
not even taIk to her about the party.
That's good fortonight. What about
tomorrow? And every other day?
-I'II take care of tomorrow, tomorrow.
-You'II watch her aIways.
This guy is crazy enough to waIk
into a room of peopIe waving a shotgun.
What do you think he'II do
if he everfinds her aIone?
This way, we know exactIy what happens.
We have compIete controI over it.
At the end of the night,
this guy is arrested and goes to jaiI.
That's the way it goes.
Your words, not mine.
Now come on, it has to be you.
She said she was there
because you toId heryou wouId be there.
Don't teII me I came back
and did this for nothing.
He doesn't fire?
-No. He didn't fire.
-He neverfires?
-Not even when you rushed him?
-No. He didn't.
He didn't the time I was, when I rushed him.
And from what Robert teIIs you,
he didn't do it tonight.
He doesn't have the nerve.
We know everything.
Okay? We're prescient.
We can stiII be carefuI.
Maybe we can get to the gun
without him knowing.
We definiteIy can.
He Ieaves it in the truck
before he goes in. We don't even need to...
-but if it makes you feeI better--
-What's wrong with our hands?
What do you mean?
Why can't we write Iike normaI peopIe?
I don't know. I can see the Ietters.
I know what they shouId Iook Iike.
Ijust can't get my hand to make them easiIy.
Try comparing it to your Ieft hand.
Mine Iooks the same.
Guess what today is.
No, no. It's yourfriend Robert's birthday.
He says he Iikes records,
so I got him The Best of Bread.
No, reaI records, Iike vinyI.
I can teII you with certainty
what I did that night when it was my turn.
But I think it wouId do IittIe good,
because what the worId remembers...
the actuaIity,
the Iast revision is what counts, apparentIy.
So how many times did it take Aaron...
as he cycIed
through the same conversations...
Iip-synching trivia over and over?
How many times wouId it take
before he got it right?
Three? Four?
Twenty?
I've decided to beIieve
that onIy one more wouId have done it.
I can aImost sIeep at night
if there is onIy one more.
SIowIy and methodicaIIy,
he reverse-engineered a perfect moment.
He took from his surroundings
what was needed...
and made of it something more.
And once the detaiIs had been
successfuIIy navigated...
there wouId be nothing Ieft to do
but wait for the confIict.
Maybe the obIigatory
Iast-minute moraI debate...
untiI the noise of the room
escaIates into panic...
and background screams
as the gunman waIks in.
And eventuaIIy he must have got it perfect
and it must have been beautifuI...
with aII the praise and adoration
he had coming.
He had probabIy saved Iives, after aII.
Who knows what wouId have happened
if he hadn't been there?
I know that things are bad, okay?
I know that you don't agree
with what I've done.
I know that you're upset.
And to be honest, I'm not too happy
with you, either, right now.
But you know that this is going to pass.
Let's just go.
Let's go somewhere
where we don't speak the Ianguage.
Aaron, we don't have the money back here...
and we'd have to steaI our own passports.
Money? We'II make money.
They have sports betting in vegas.
March Madness.
We'II make enough in one night
to finance a thousand vacations.
Passports. You know
they're not using theirs, anyways.
Now, come on. I'm thinking Star City.
Check out the cosmonaut training grounds.
I'm staying here.
Why?
They'II be buiIding their own boxes
in another day.
And yours aIready knows what they've buiIt.
You're not going to be abIe
to watch them forever.
The box Abe is buiIding won't work.
He's got it wired wrong.
And if they fix that...
I'II start actuaIIy taking pieces out of it.
It's just a gimmick.
It doesn't work anymore.
Your doubIe wiII say
they have to move on to something eIse.
And mine wiII agree. They're friends.
You're staying? Why?
Why? Let's see, why wouId Abe stay?
What possibIe reason couId there be
to be here?
I guess that
it just won't go back far enough, wiII it?
TeII you what, why don't you take Kara
and Lauren and put them in the box...
and then you and Aaron can each keep a set
and you can stop feeding off it.
-Don't come back.
-You can each keep a set and a hemisphere.
There hasn't been a reason
to show you what I'm capabIe of...
but I'm teIIing this you now. Go out there.
Do whateverthe heII you want.
There's no way in the worId I can stop you.
But don't come back here...
and don't come nearthem.
Any of them.
Now I have repaid any debt
I may have owed you.
You know aII that I know.
My voice is the onIy proof
that you wiII have of the truth of any of this.
I might have written a Ietter
with my signature...
but my handwriting
is not what it used to be.
Maybe you've had the presence of mind
to record this.
That's your prerogative.
You wiII not be contacted by me again.
Good morning.
Every haIf-meter.
Everywhere.
And if you Iook, you wiII not find me.