JOSEF HAJEK   Young physics post-doctoral fellow

BERNADETTE ALLEN   Visiting physics grad student

ROBERT MILLER   Eminent physicist from the Los Alamos era

CERI SHANNON   Physics grad student

BILL OTAMENDI   Physics grad student

CLARA RITCHIE   Dean

DICK SARACINI   High energy physicist

PAUL BROVSKY   Administrator

The SuperConducting SuperCollider

Syracuse University's Physics building/classrooms

Dallas-Fort Worth/Hancock airports

Ritchie's house

Bill and Ceri's house

Hajek's apartment

Upstate Medical Center

A funeral home/A cemetary

A beach house in Rhode Island

BLACK SCREEN

VOICE

It began, as all things did, with light. Slide.

SLIDE LABELLED "TIME ZERO"

A small white dot in the center of the screen.

VOICE

At the beginning of the Universe, this is all there was. An intrusion of energy which created our space and time. Slide.

SLIDE LABELLED "ZERO PLUS EPSILON"

A somewhat larger white dot.

VOICE

Of course, quite rapidly, this energy expanded, and as it did, it lost its initial symmetrical nature, and froze into the particles and forces that we recognize. Slide.

SLIDE LABELLED "NOW"

Superimposed over a backdrop of galaxies, the two families of particles and forces.

VOICE

The goal of our work was to return to that primal energy. To find out what, in its innermost self, the Universe is really made of.

SLOW PULL BACK AND PAN to reveal the screen, and then as the pan continues, a figure standing at a podium, backlit by the projector.

VOICE

Before I talk about our results, I'd like to share with you a bit of our process.

TRACKING BEHIND FIGURE until he just eclipses the projector beam.

VOICE

Next slide, please...

As he turns into profile, and beads of projector light break out around his face, we...

DISSOLVE TO:

WHITE SCREEN

A TITLE CARD FADES IN:

SOONER OR LATER

Title sequence continues

FADE IN:

INT. SUPERCONDUCTING SUPERCOLLIDER(SSC)--AFTERNOON

Right now we can't see anything. But we hear BREATHING and the faint SCRAPING OF TOOLS.

DICK (V.O.)

I can't see what I'm doing. Joe, can you get the flashlight in there?

BCU--COMPLEX DEVICE AND HANDS

As a beam from a pocket flashlight plays somewhat unsteadily over them. The hands belong to DICK SARACINI, whose face we see framed in the access panel. He is in his mid-thirties, with long black hair and a moustache.

HAJEK (V.O.)

Get it?

DICK

Yeah. Take a look.

Dick pulls his arms out of the machine, and Hajek steps into view. He is left-handed, tall, and in his late twenties. His glasses are thick, and have cheap plastic frames. When he smiles, there is a hint of dimples. He pokes the flashlight around the maze of wires and tubing in the device.

HAJEK'S POV--ON DEVICE

The ellipse of light comes to rest on a crayonned skull and crossbones bearing the caption "F.R.E.D." Hajek CLICKS off the light.

HAJEK

Looks good.

INT. SSC EXPERIMENTAL PLATFORM--IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING

ON DICK AND HAJEK

Who are standing on a catwalk next to a big shiny metal tube, about fifteen feet in diameter, that runs through the center of this high-ceilinged, modern laboratory. Dick is screwing the access panel shut on their device, a complex boxlike construction that straddles the tube.

DICK

Let's fire it up.

They walk down a spidery metal ladder and into a control room.

INT.SSC CONTROL ROOM--IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING

TECHNICIANS sit at a row of keyboards built into a wall console full of monitoring equipment.

PROFESSOR BOB MILLER

Turns from the window through which the device is visible and nods a welcome. MILLER is in his late sixties, a short, gaunt man with dull gray hair in a crew cut. The knuckle joints of his fingers are slightly swollen with arthritis.

ON DICK

Who slides into the end chair and begins punching keys on his terminal. Various screens in front of him light up.

DICK

We narrowed the focus down pretty tight. If there's anything there, we'll get a good look at it now.

Dick slips on a headset. Miller folds one arm across his chest and rests the other on it, rubbing his jaw--a characteristic gesture.

DICK

(on headset)

SSC control, this is S.U. at number five. We're set here.

Hajek and Miller are right behind Dick, watching.

DICK

(Cont'd)

Pulse coming in ...ten ...five ...four ...three ...two ...one ...mark...

Nothing seems to happen. A printer in the corner of the room commences a CHATTERING PRINTING NOISE. Dick, Hajek and Miller are all concentrating on a big screen on the console. Scattered points of green light begin to appear on the screen.

CU CONSOLE SCREEN

At first, the spots of light seem to be scattered across the graph, but slowly, a definite concentration emerges, resolving itself into a sharp peak.

DICK

(V.O.)

Coming out in five... four... three... two... and ...okay, gentlemen, that's it.

DICK, HAJEK AND MILLER

The PRINT NOISE STOPS. Dick swivels in his chair to face them.

DICK

It's real.

(slips off headset)

You might as well go ahead and tell Syracuse.

(to technicians)

Okay, let's lock it up.

The technicians begin to CHATTER in the background, as Hajek sits at a terminal and types a few lines. Miller leans over his shoulder.

MILLER

You know what to say.

HAJEK

Sure?

MILLER

We've seen enough.

ON VDT SCREEN

Which reads "From: HajekJ@SSC.arpa To:Otamendi@Sunrise.edu Re: Confirmation run." We watch, and as Hajek types them, the following words appear. "God is dead." Hajek linefeeds down the screen, then types "^Z" When he presses "Return," the screen disappears and we

SMASH CUT TO

EXT. SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY -- DAY

HELICOPTER SHOT ON THE QUAD

Gradually finding three figures scurrying across, carrying packages.

BILL (V.O.)

It was Hajek's idea. We knew we needed something that they could put in the textbooks right next to "Watson I need you," and "One small step for man."

CERI (V.O.)

But a trifle less bullshit.

As the camera moves in we see Bill is a bearded grad student in his mid-twenties. He's carrying grocery packages and talking to CERI SHANNON and BERNADETTE ALLEN. Ceri (pronounced "kerry") is in her early twenties. Bern is in her late twenties, and has a faint British accent.

ON THE GROUP

BILL

We knew what we were gonna say if it didn't go. That was gonna be "The Goddess Lives." It was really just a matter of binary opposition. Mystic union, analytic domination.

SCENE MISSING

INT. PHYSICS BUILDING -- DAY

TRACKING ON BILL

BILL

Just follow me.

They run down a stairway and come out in a dim basement corridor. Pennea pulls out keys and begins fussing with a heavy steel door.

ON BILL AND THE DOOR

There's a radiation symbol on the door, and the hand-lettered sign "The Hot Lab." Above the door is a computer printout that reads, "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."

BERN

How'd you get that key?

BILL

I traded Hajek the Terminal room and the janitor closets.

INT. HOT LAB

Bill swings the door open and turns on the lights. The room is full of heavy equipment, and one wall has a double glass window looking in on another room with robot arms.

ON BERN

Who strolls around, looking at things.

BERN

What's Brovsky doing here? I thought he was over in biophysics.

CERI

(V.O.)

Yeah, really.

ON BILL AND CERI

Bill opens the champagne with a POP, sending the cork skittering among the machinery.

BILL

(filling cups)

To Fred! This is his birthplace, you know? We made the little bugger here.

CERI

(to Bern)

He gets nostalgic about machinery.

BILL

Grant liason. Former Beltway thinktank type. He's been coming around a lot more lately.

CERI

Probably wants to cash in.

BILL

No, I don't think that's it. Bob was telling me some of the bean-counters were concerned about the amount of time we've been at this project. In fact, that they weren't thrilled with our whole theoretical perspective. Well, we're gonna make them EAT it.

INT. HOT LAB--IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING

ON THE GLASS WALL OF THE HOT ROOM

Their faces are reflected in the thick, double-paned lead glass.

BILL

(toasting)

The birthplace of Fred.

CERI

Oh, Jesus.

BERN

Isn't this where we came in?

BILL

No, seriously, can't you see the picture in the textbook? In the chapter on the Hajek-Miller Unified Field Theory.

BERN

(smiling)

I thought it was Miller-Hajek.

BILL

Oh, it is. But by then, Hajek will be the more famous of the two.

CERI

Hey, what about us?

BILL

Us? Grad students? We'll be in a footnote. Maybe. But Hajek?

(leaning on the glass, pressing his faceoh it)

There'll be a picture of him being serious, or riding a bicycle, or something.

A PAUSE. THEY DRINK

CERI

I've convinced this one (indicates Bill) that we'll have to play tennis tomorrow, cuz there's not gonna be any time when they get back...

BILL

So, we were wondering if you'd be interested in picking up Hajek and Miller.

(he stresses the order)

I think they're getting in to Hancock around three.

SCENE MISSING

INT. DALLAS-FORT WORTH AIRPORT -- DAY

30 LINES DELETED

MILLER

Dick, you have an amazingly dark view of human nature.

DICK

I would prefer to think of it as cautiously objective.

INT. BILL AND CERI'S HOUSE--DAY

ON BILL IN LIVING ROOM

Which is also his/Ceri's office. There is a big poster on the wall with an octopus labelled "Achtbein", its tentacles clutching various cards bearing odd symbols. The room is large, simply furnished, with wood mouldings and French doors leading out to a foyer and stairs visible in the background. The computer terminal in the corner seems oddly incongruous. Bill is attempting to fold up a bunch of printout while trying to read it, scanning and folding and cursing softly under his breath. Finally, he tears the whole batch off and carries it over to the large desk by the windows.

BILL

Jesus...

Ceri appears on the stairs in the b.g., with a phone in her hand, wearing a tennis outfit. She MUTTERS something at the phone.

CERI

(shouting down)

One-thirty is the earliest we can get a court. Should we go for it?

BILL

(completely absorbed)

Huh?

CERI

Tennis. One-thirty. Okay?

BILL

Uh...yeah.

She disappears back upstairs.

BILL

(strangely)

Hey Ceri...wait a minute.

Her head reappears, at the phone. She mutters again.

CERI

Bill, what do you want me to tell them. I've got them on the phone...

BILL

(an increasing uncertainty)

I think you should look at this stuff of Hajek's.

CERI

Now?

BILL

Uh...

(a beat, then a change in tone)

Yeah. Now. Okay, hon?

CERI

(puzzled)

Okay.

SCENE MISSING

INT. RITCHIE HOUSE -- DAY

MED. SHOT--MILLER, BERN AND HAJEK IN KITCHEN

An antique kitchen, with formica from the 50's and a low ceiling. The calendar tells us it's February 1997. Miller opens the pantry door and disappears inside. Bern is surveying the room. An orange tabby MEOWS for dinner.

MILLER

Shrödinger got me interested in phenomenology, which got me involved in the notion of actuality and the EPR problem, and, well, this whole thing. I'm getting your dinner, Shrödinger.

BERN

(Indicating cat)

Shröedinger?

MILLER

(from pantry)

Yes.

SCENE MISSING

INT. RITCHIE LIVING ROOM

MILLER

And this is Bernadette Allen, she's also in the Supergravity program. This is my wife Clara.

CLARA

Pleased to meet you.

BERN

Pleased to meet you, Dr. Miller.

CLARA

You can call me Clara. I'll never get him to.

(indicated Hajek)

Maybe you could work on that for me?

(a question)

BERN

Tell you what. I'll try.

CLARA

Great. What are we having? Ah, that '94 you were saving. Tell me everything.

(She's in the kitchen getting a glass)

The gossip around A&S is that it's time to book a flight to Stockholm.

Miller grins and sits back in his chair. Hajek adjusts his glasses and stares at the ceiling.

MILLER

(to Bern)

Clara's the Dean of Arts and Sciences.

BERN

Yes, I recognized her.

CLARA (V.O. from kitchen)

That's right. And this Dean has been getting phone calls from some pretty interesting people about what happened yesterday.

SCENE MISSING

INT. RITCHIE BASEMENT--IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING

ON MACINTOSH SCREEN

Displaying the families of particles on a slide we recognize from the opening.

HAJEK

Right. Well, that's exactly the point. That's why efforts to unify gravity with electromagnetism and the other forces that operate inside the nucleus of the atom haven't been so successful up til now. What we actually created was a meta-theory.

SLIDE DISSOLVES

To reveal a map of the forces and particles as elements in a pyramid, leading up to a large, rotating sphere labelled "Duinon."

HAJEK (Cont'd)

We came up with a theory of Supergravity, which posits one superparticle, which we've called a Duinon, which manifests itself as any of the visible particles depending on which way it's rotating in a complex space.

CLARA

You started off fine, then you lost me.

HAJEK

Uh...

BERN

What I think he's trying to say...

Bern looks at Hajek who nods, "sure, go ahead" to her.

BERN

You could picture the Duinon like a six-sided die. There are six numbers on the die, so the die isn't really a "one" or a "six," but only one side can end up on top when you throw it. So although the die contains six posible alternatives, it manifests itself in one particular possible state. Depending on what number comes up, different things happen. The difficult part of Supergravity is formulating dice with the right numbers. Ones that show up as the right kinds of particles for this universe. That's what we were checking at the collider. And our predictions seem to be pretty good.

CLARA

(chiding Hajek)

Well, now, Josef, that seems pretty simple.

INT. BILL AND CERI'S HOUSE--THAT EVENING

CU ON CERI

Who is in the kitchen frosting a cake, or rather, writing equations on a big rectangular white cake with a squueze tube red frosting. She is referring to a sheet of equations propped up on the toaster. From the other room, we hear LOUD MUSIC [Peter Gabriel's "The Family and the Fishing Net" from "SECURITY"] and the HUBUB OF A NOISY PARTY. Pennea runs in the door, allowing in a BIG BURST OF NOISE, which quiets when the door swings shut. He is wearing a gray sweatshirt imprinted "epochŽ" in Greek letters.

BILL

The Chancellor's here.

CERI

Oh shit.

He peers over her shoulder.

CERI

What do you think?

BILL

Hmm. What did you do to the Lagrangian for quarks?

CERI

Oh, god. I couldn't fit all the hypercharges and isospins, so I ..well...shit...I just compressed it. It seemed reasonable...

BILL

(mock serious)

That creates an interesting distortion of the Gell-Mann color matrix. But I'm not sure it means anything.

CERI

You asshole.

She sprays him with frosting. He pulls her to him and kisses her.

BILL

It's beautiful. Grab it, we gotta go do the Chancellor.

SCENE MISSING

DINING ROOM

ON THE GROUP AT THE CAKE

CERI

Well?

BILL

Congratulations.

CERI

Shut up. I want to hear what he thinks of the cake.

(a sweet smile to Bill)

MILLER

It's beautiful...

HAJEK

Uh...what did you do to the Lagrangian for quarks?

The Physics types burst out in LAUGHTER, Ceri does an exaggerated roll of her eyes and throws her hands up in desperation. Someone TURNS THE MUSIC BACK ON. The Chancellor, not quite sure what's happened, decides to laugh. Bill offers the knife to Miller, who defers to Hajek.

BILL

Go ahead. Cut it up.

HAJEK

Who did the equations?

BILL

Ceri.

HAJEK

(to Ceri)

Thanks. I'd like to talk to you about that.

CERI

It was a mistake.

HAJEK

So were a lot of great ideas.

SCENE MISSING

INT. KITCHEN

TIGHT ON MILLER AND HAJEK

MILLER

Okay, I see...now, ah, what that implies is a different renormalization?

HAJEK

(diffident)

Well, uh, she seems to have removed the infinity from the gauge field by resorting to a representation of the particle...uh, across? ...outside of? time...

MILLER

An interpretation of superliminal negentropy?

HAJEK

A phenomenological intrusion.

MILLER

Well, there may be something there...

SCENE MISSING

FOLLOWING BILL BACK INTO BATHROOM

Someone has set a candle up on the tank over the toilet, and Bill looks at it and smiles.

BCU BILL'S FACE

The MUSIC seems to get LOUDER suddenly, and the background around his head dims a little.

BCU--CANDLEFLAME

Which seems to be throbbing in time to the MUSIC. Subliminal audio effects pop in and out. A TICKING, and what might be a

SUBLIMIN. SHOT--EXPLOSION

Or what might merely be the POPPING sound as the light comes back on, Ceri sticking her head in.

CERI

Hah. Caught you spacing out again.

BILL

(blankly)

Remind me to tell Dick...the secret is neither dark nor light.

CERI

Yeah, I'll do that, buddy. License and registration please.

ON HAJEK AND BERN

Who have gone to the kitchen to get beers out of the refrigerator. Hajek leans on the sink. Bern hands him a bottle. Green sixteen-ounce bottles labelled "Hofstadter Malt Liquor." He smiles and twists off the top, then looks at it.

ECU BOTTLE CAP

HAJEK (V.O.)

Uh...foot..Tee awl egg.. mouth.. fetal egg mouth...TOE..Total egg lips.. Total eclipse.

ON HAJEK

HAJEK (Cont'd)

You have to get used to the code. Sometimes it's foot, sometimes its toe, but that tool thing they always use as an "awl" sound.

BERN

I should have known you'd be the flaky kind that reads the puzzles in bottlecaps. Let me see.

She crowds up next to him to look at the puzzle.

BERN

(exaggerated)

By gosh, yeah. Total eclipse. You sure did get that one.

HAJEK

Yeah, yeah. That's it.

(smile, beat)

You know what the worst one of these was?

She's smiling at him.

HAJEK

You think it's funny, don't you?

BERN

A physicist doing puzzles in beer caps, yeah. A little.

HAJEK

There was this one Bill found two years ago with just two symbols. This ring -- like a thick inner tube, and what looked like a military cot...you know, just a frame with fabric. We couldn't figure it out. I think he still has it. We did that one for about a year. Couldn't get it. The best we could come up with was: "bagel stretcher."

BERN

Bagel stretcher?

HAJEK

I told you, it was tough. Finally, Bill showed it to Dick one night, and Dick took one look at it and said, "Do Not Litter."

BERN

Ah, a litter...

HAJEK

Yeah. It's just an alien way of looking at symbols sometimes that you need for these things.

SCENE MISSING

INT. HAJEK'S APARTMENT -- NIGHT

HAJEK

Believe it or not, I have some wine glasses around here.

FOLLOWING BERN

Who is strolling around behind him, pausing to touch a book here or there. Above his desk is a poster which reads "Entropy Kills" with an asymptotic graph marked off in "Time" and "Degrees Kelvin." She looks from that to him and smiles. A BIG MACINTOSH TOWER is hooked up to a rats nest of wiring including a video player and a two-page monitor. Next to the computer, she finds a bag of dried pineapple.

BERN

Josef?

Hajek pauses in his washing of the dishes. He half turns.

BERN

Are these safe?

HAJEK

(mock serious)

Well, Gee. It's only pineapple. Nothing to be afraid of.

SCENE MISSING

INT. HAJEK's BEDROOM - MORNING

ON "CAMERA OBSCURA" EFFECT ON WALL

The street outside is projected through a narrow slit in the drapes onto the opposite wall. At first we don't recognize what it is...but the SOUNDS OF CARS PASSING coincide with the images. SLOW PULLBACK reveals Hajek in a bathrobe sitting crosslegged, staring at the wall and occasionally making notes on a legal pad in his lap.

ON BERN

Who rolls over, notices Hajek's not there, and wakes up. She looks at him and smiles, is about to speak, then follows his gaze.

BERN

How do you do that?

HAJEK

(Staring at wall)

It's the drapes. Creates a sort of pinhole lens. What they used to call a "Camera Obscura". Or at least, it's the same principle. I didn't do it consciously. I just woke up one morning and realized I was seeing cars go by on my wall.

BERN

It's very strange. It doesn't seem like...

(looking for a word)

...it doesn't seem like it should work.

HAJEK

(nodding, smiling)

Yeah.

BERN

(softly)

Josef...

HAJEK

(Now trying pointedly to concentrate on wall)

Yeah?

BERN

What does this mean?

HAJEK

This?

BERN

Us.

HAJEK

(Turns to her)

Well...

BERN

I mean...

A beat. He stares at her, thinking.

BERN (Cont'd)

I mean...do I still have to take the final?

Hajek begins laughing. Soon they are both hysterical. He reaches for her. We BOOM UP AND OUT.

INT. LECTURE HALL -- DAY

LONG SHOT OF ROOM

Over rows of empty seats. Bill and Ceri are working at the huge sliding chalkboards at the bottom of the sloped auditorium.

TRACK AND BOOM IN

Until we are down, looking over their shoulders. Ceri is HUMMING as she writes.

ON BILL

Who has gradually stopped working and has begun watching over Ceri's shoulder as she writes.

BILL

Ceri...

CERI

(completely absorbed)

Hm?

BILL

Seriously, what are you doing.

CERI

I thought what we were trying to do was work out the transformation between Duinon and a spin three-halves gravitino.

BILL

Yeah, uh, that's what I'm doing. See here?

(He points out a few differences in their work)

I'm working in this...and this metric...

DICK (V.O.)

Can you get me closer?

CAMERA TRACKS FOLLOWING BILL

As he walks over to a video camera set up on a rolling tripod. Next to it is a large screen monitor, on which Dick's face is visible. He is obviously watching the proceedings on a videoconference link. Bill continues talking as he comes around front to readjust the camera.

BILL

And you're talking about massless particles outside of the space-time matrix suddenly acquiring mass...suddenly popping in...you're not even talking about Hajek's theory...

CERI

(Exasperated)

Okay. You're right. What am I doing?

A PAUSE

DICK (V.O.)

Inventing the tachyonic anti-telephone?

CERI

Yeah, right?

SCENE MISSING

INT. CLASSROOM -- IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING

The dozen or so STUDENTS, some of whom we recognize from the party the night before, are suddenly hushed as Hajek strides in, with Brovsky still tailing him and trying to get him to step back out in the hall.

BROVSKY

(attempting sotto voce)

There are three other projects that need accelerator time. All I'm suggesting is that you release the facilities for a while. Write up your results, back off for a while. Pick it up again in the Fall.

HAJEK

We'd have to take Fred completely apart, right?

BROVSKY

They have their own experiments to run...

HAJEK

And publish what we have now? What we have now is nothing.

BROVSKY

You have evidence for a new family of particles...(that's more than enough to justify publication)

HAJEK

Crap. That's crap and you know it. We're talking about the GUT.

BROVSKY

(take to the students)

Wait, will you wait a minute? Just calm down.

HAJEK

You know so much about this shit? Here.

(hands him a textbook)

You teach it.

Hajek storms out, leaving Brovsky standing somewhat sheepish. The students stare at him.

BROVSKY

Uh...Let's just say class is cancelled, okay?

SCENE MISSING

EXT. QUAD--DAY

ON HAJEK

Hajek sits on the steps of Hendricks Chapel, scribbling in a notebook. He watches people hurrying by, late for classes.

PUSH IN TO ECU HAJEK'S FACE

Staring off into space, not really seeing.

SCENE MISSING

INT. MILLER'S OFFICE

BROVSKY

It's not aimed at you...there's a lot of tension over the budget...and we're depending on D.O.D.

MILLER

(struggling with his rubbers)

The neutron lens...

BROVSKY

Among others.

MILLER

Well, we certainly can't compete with that!

(sarcastic)

Can we.

BROVSKY

(even)

I don't know. Not my field.

MILLER

(suddenly suspicious)

What are you saying.

BROVSKY

Look, you know what it really comes down to. We're not children.

MILLER

(pulling on coat)

No. Not anymore.

BROVSKY

Bob, I'm trying to be tactful...

MILLER

Am I hearing what I think I'm hearing?

BROVSKY

Bring me a new proposal. Bring me something that will impress the committee. Something real world.

MILLER

Something...with teeth.

SCENE MISSING

INT. HAJEK'S APARTMENT--NIGHT

The TV Monitor attached to the computer displays random particle events. There is a BLEEP from an answering machine, and CERI'S VOICE comes out of the speaker.

CERI (V.O.)

Josef? Josef? Are you there?

Hajek stumbles out of the bedroom, tugging his bathrobe around him, and grabs the phone.

HAJEK

Yeh, hi, Ceri, I forgot what time it was...

BCU HAJEK

We can't hear what Ceri is saying but Hajek's face, in the light from the TV, becomes a mask of shock and horror.

HAJEK

We'll be right down...

Bern appears at the bedroom door wrapped in a blanket. Hajek hangs up the phone and stares at it.

BERN

Josef? What's the matter?

HAJEK

Uh...you better get dressed. There's been an accident.

INT. TRAUMA CENTER -- NIGHT

ON BILL

Who is propped up in bed. Large dressings cover his chest. An IV drips into one arm, and an oxygen line runs under his nose. One of his eyes is bandaged over.

DR. KEITH (V.O.)

Bill? You feel like saying hello to some people?

PULLBACK TO REVEAL Keith, a young resident with the tell-tale haggard look someone in the middle of a long ER shift. Next to him is Ceri, and behind are Hajek and Bern.

ON CERI

Who is just barely holding it together.

ON BILL

His eye moves but his head doesn't turn, and we notice a traction rig on his neck. There is dried blood blotched around his mouth.

BILL

Ceri...

ON BILL AND CERI

CERI

(she gently takes his hand)

Hi comrade.

HAJEK

How are you doing?

BILL

(a pause)

I'm...fucked up.

Hajek's jaw is twitching but he doesn't say anything. Ceri is crouching by the bed holding his band. A beat.

INT. HAJEK'S APARTMENT -- LATER THAT NIGHT

Hajek sits barefoot, in sweatpants and a t-shirt, staring at the television on which we see the permutations of the virtual particle display. SOFT ROCK MUSIC comes from the speakers. Hajek doesn't seem to be aware. Bern appears at the bedroom door and watches him a moment, concern evident on her face.

HAJEK

(hearing her, without looking)

Hi.

BERN

(Crossing to him)

Hi.

(She comes up behind, puts her arms around him)

What's that?

HAJEK

It's the last reptiles album.

He holds up a videodisc sleeve. There is a graphic of a vibrant blue octahedron and the title, "The Story of Emily and the Time Machine."

HAJEK

Ordinarily, I don't listen to music much, but Bill played this for me.

(He punches keys on the Mac and the image vanishes)

These guys were out there.

BERN

Is that on the videodisc?

HAJEK

It's not just reading it. It sucks the particle data and the image parameters in from the disc. Then it creates particle interactions in real time. It takes half a gig of writable storage and 64 meg of RAM. You see why it didn't sell...

He punches it in again and the image returns. MUSIC BEGINS and we hear the SINGER, FINN SAGART.

SAGART (V.O.)

Looking at a picture of you,

Seeing it at last,

Scanning the event horizon

For traces of the past.

Thief of space,

Bastard of time,

Brought into the world without a face

The child of crime...

MUSIC UNDER, as Hajek freezes the frame.

BERN

(studying)

Those are...wait a minute...that's real.

HAJEK

Yeah. Here...

(indicating screen)

...electron scattering...neutrino interaction...proton decay. Pretty interesting low-probability events.

BERN

You think they knew what they were doing?

HAJEK

I don't see how they couldn't. It's different every time, but they're all good Feynmanns. Bill was ecstatic.

BERN

I'll bet.

HAJEK

It's diffusion. Sooner or later everyone will accept quantum physics as a given. Like the heliocentric model. It gets around.

BERN

But you don't think so, huh?

HAJEK

What makes you say that?

BERN

You wouldn't be sitting out here at four in the morning listening to it.

HAJEK

(smiling)

Probably true. Do you know what happened to these people?

BERN

The reptiles? No. Been a while since they put out an album.

HAJEK

This guy, Sagart, the lead singer, supposedly went insane. He's the guy who wrote all the material. Crashed and burned.

BERN

Hm.

HAJEK

I just don't know. It's like ideas. I create ideas, and then annihilate them. Collide them. Like nature. The ones that survive are the ones we see. Where is the virtual field that provides that energy?

BERN

I'm not sure what you're getting at.

HAJEK

It's strange...this thing with Ceri's cake...we're talking about faster than light communication, about the future affecting the past...about maybe the future controlling the past, altering it, keeping it in line.

BERN

Backward causality?

HAJEK

Almost as if Nature were conspiring to keep its secrets.

BERN

That is a strange notion.

HAJEK

And I'm haunted by a phrase Dr. Miller used last night. "The explosion is impending." What set of quantum events in his brain made him choose just that metaphor?

BERN

Why would nature conspire?

HAJEK

Maybe so that there is nature.

BERN

I know that...it's important for things...to have some meaning, but Josef, maybe it's, well, just happening.

HAJEK

And maybe my future creating this past.

SCENE MISSING

INT. FUNERAL PARLOR--NIGHT

TRACK FOLLOWING DICK as he enters the room, nods, and heads for Clara, at the front, by the casket. Josef and Bern are by her side.

CLARA

Uh...

(she shakes Dick's hand)

I'm sorry...You're Richard?

DICK

Dick Saracini.I'm very sorry, Mrs. Miller, we've lost a wonderful person and a great mind. I had a chance to work with Bob these last four months at the Ring.

CLARA

Thank you, Richard. Bob enjoyed working down there very much, and you folks really accomplished things that will be a real contribution. Thanks for coming.

A clean-cut PRIEST in his early twenties has come up and introduces himself to Clara. Dick, Hajek and Bern fade off to the back of the room as everyone moves up close to the coffin for the prayer service.

PRIEST

In the name of the Father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. We are not here tonight to be sad. We are here tonight for a celebration. For as Jesus Christ put off the mortal body and took on the clothes of glory, so has Robert Miller, who died in Christ, gone to join with him in paradise. In the second letter to the Corinthians, Paul says, "And he saved us from dying, as he will save us again; yes, that is our firm hope in him, that in the future, he will save us again..."

DICK

(exiting)

Excuse me.

HAJEK

(barely hesitating)

Bern?

(she nods)

SCENE MISSING

INT. BILL AND CERI'S BEDROOM--NIGHT

The decor is grad-studenty: Posters on the walls, bookcases overflowing. Ceri is lying in bed, covered with comforters, surrounded by old issues of MAD MAGAZINE. There is a mostly empty bottle of Wild Turkey on the night table, and she holds a glass of it in her hand. When Hajek enters she looks up, balefully drunk.

HAJEK

Uh...you didn't answer, so we let ourselves in. You okay?

CERI

Sorry I didn't get there tonight. I just couldn't take that.

HAJEK

No, that's alright.

He crosses and sits on the edge of the bed, moving some magazines to do so. He picks one up, looks at her.

CERI

They're all Bill's. I think he has every one from the sixties. (pause, rolls drink)

I'm just lying here drinking bourbon and trying to fall asleep. I don't know how long I've been awake.

(she drinks)

Yes I do. And I don't.

HAJEK

Bill's looking a lot better today.

CERI

Yeah.

(She drinks again)

He's looking a lot better...without that fucking rod through his chest.

(she shivers; drinks)

You didn't...I was in class. I felt my ears pop, and the lobby windows blew out. Like a glass waterfall. In slow motion. People screaming. And then...the floor shook. Really shook, like a quake, explosion...I knew...I knew it was down in the lab...And I knew it was bad, killing bad, and I just kept thinking to myself, please, at least let him be alive until I get down there, I just want to see him...I just want to touch him one more time...

(she finishes her glass)

And then I did.

(pours herself another)

None of this fucking stuff is real. What the hell are we doing?

She starts crying. Hajek puts her glass on the nightstand and holds her.

REVERSE ANGLE shows Bern at the door. Hajek holds the sobbing Ceri and frowns to her. A beat.

SCENE MISSING

EXT. NARROW BLACKTOP ROAD - NIGHT

It's totally dark, and we HEAR BREATHING.

HAJEK

Is this really necessary?

BERN

I just want to make sure we weren't followed.

HAJEK

Are you satisfied yet?

BERN

I suppose so.

She opens her car door and light floods out, showing that we're in a small camping cutoff. There is one other car parked there, empty. Bern reaches into the back seat and comes up with a big backpack, which she drags around to Hajek. Then, with a screwdriver, she carefully removes her license plates. Hajek holds a pocket flashlight on the action.

BERN

I doubt if they'll be looking for a few days, but there's no sense making it any easier for them.

She tosses the screwdriver under the front seat and grabs her insurance card from the visor. Hajek stuffs the plates in his backpack and they hike off.

INT. TRAUMA CENTER--NIGHT

TIGHT ON BILL

As he tries to toss and turn. We HEAR DOCTORS in the background.

PUSH IN TO ECU ON BILL'S FACE

EXT. HIGHWAY--NIGHT

As Hajek and Bern trudge into frame. Camera PICKS UP and FOLLOWS THEM.

HAJEK

This wasn't such a bad idea after all.

BERN

Thanks.

HAJEK

And nobody knows about this house?

BERN

No way they could connect it to me...it belongs to a guy I know at the Media Lab.

HAJEK

And you just have the keys?

BERN

Josef...

HAJEK

Yeah...

BERN

Don't ask unless you want to know.

HAJEK

(a beat)

Uh...forget it.

SCENE OMITTED: "BILL'S NIGHTMARE"

EXT. HIGHWAY--NIGHT

ON HAJEK AND BERN

Who look down the road to see a car approaching. It weaves slightly when the lights hit Bern and Hajek. The car coasts to a stop fifty feet further down the road. Bern grabs Hajek and they run toward it. The passenger side window powers down and they are looking in at EDNA GRIFFITHS, a middle-aged woman in a mink coat. Next to her, at the wheel, is FRANK GRIFFITHS, a potbellied, sun-tanned executive.

EDNA

What are you kids doing out here?

BERN

Trying to get to Newport...

FRANK

Well, that's where we're headed!

EDNA

Get in...it's freezing out there.

INT. GRIFFITHS CAR-DRIVING

FRANK

My name's Frank Griffiths.

(extends a hand over the rear seat)

This is my wife Edna.

HAJEK

Hi...

(shaking hands)

My name's...Fritz Capra. This is my wife Kaye.

FRANK

Oh,

(to Edna)

If you see Kaye, be sure to say hello for me.

(They both laugh)

EDNA

Say, would you kids like some wine?

She pulls out a bottle of Paul Masson Chablis and passes it back.

FRANK

We're just coming back from a class reunion. Brown, '63.

EDNA

(confidential whisper)

I was '66.

FRANK

See if they want some lobster.

EDNA

Would you kids like some lobster?

FRANK

Fritz, listen to this. They had eleven hundred lobsters. There were only about two hundred people there...we ate the claws off about twenty of them...figured they wouldn't serve them to anyone else.

Edna hauls lobsters out of her purse and passes them back. She digs bibs out of her pockets and hands them to Bern.

FRANK

So Edna just stuffed them in her purse, and we grabbed a couple of bottles of wine.

EDNA

I was in no shape to argue with him.

FRANK

I must have had...8 scotch and sodas...and I just sat down and said, "Lobster!" and I went "Lllllarghh"...just ate it...I ate two entire lobsters!

EDNA

He used his fingers. He always does.

FRANK

They didn't give us...scissors or anything to cut them up with.

Hajek and Bern are gingerly picking at the lobsters. Hajek offers her the bottle of wine, but she shakes her head. He shrugs and takes a big gulp of it.

EDNA

We've been eating all the way back.

FRANK

I've had the Cruise Control on...I don't even remember stopping...

EDNA

It's a good thing we took your car.

FRANK

Yeah. Ya know, Fritz, she's got a car, but I swear, she only drives it on Sundays to the club, and already, she's starting in on me to put in air conditioning.

EDNA

You've got to start early...

FRANK

That's June...July...August, maybe fifteen Sundays. Six hundred dollars for fifteen Sundays.

EDNA

Don't look at it that way.

FRANK

Eh?

EDNA

Look at it like, what you won't get if I don't get my air conditioning.

FRANK

Ah...Can I be Frank with you?

EDNA

Only if I can be Edna.

They break out into hysterics. Hajek looks at Bern in bafflement and fear. She smiles and snuggles up against him on the seat.

FRANK

Hell. I've never been sure how those things worked. Ya know, Fred?

EDNA

Fritz!

FRANK

Fritz. Those air conditioners that you add on?

HAJEK

Uh...I'm not sure.

BERN

(Smiles at Hajek)

My husband has to take it to the garage to get an oil change.

Edna looks over her shoulder and smiles. Frank chuckles and continues talking, but it begins to FADE OUT as we

FADE TO BLACK

INT. BILL & CERI'S KITCHEN - NIGHT

The light from the suddenly opened refrigerator door spills into the kitchen, revealing Ceri, badly hung over, in a bathrobe. She gets a pitcher of juice out of the fridge, and fills a glass she has in her hand. She opens the freezer and pops some ice cubes into her drink. Just as the freezer door is about to shut, she notices the cake is still in there. She puts the glass of juice on a rack down below, and takes the aluminum foil package out of the top. She begins to unwrap it, and the refrigerator door swings shut cutting off her light. We hear her SCRABBLE at the door, when suddenly the kitchen light SNAPS ON. Her head whips around and we

WHIP PAN AND ZOOM ON BROVSKY AT THE DOOR

On her SCREAM we

SMASH CUT

INT. BEACH HOUSE--MORNING

HAJEK'S POV--ANGLE UP ON A GARISH PLASTER CRUCIFIX

The SCREAM runs over into the scene.

ON HAJEK

Who suddenly sits upright in bed, looking around, totally disoriented. He glances back at the plaster crucifix above him. Gradually, the LOCAL SOUND seeps in. Bern BUSTLING AROUND in the next room, SHOSTAKOVICH playing on the radio.

BERN

Are you up?

HAJEK

(still hearing that scream)

Yeah. Jesus, where am I?

WIDE SHOT

It's a two-room beach house, Hajek is on a bed in the livingroom and Bern now appears from the kitchen beyond with two cups of tea. She kisses Hajek and sits on the bed next to him.

BERN

Careful, it's hot...

HAJEK

I don't even remember getting here.

BERN

I'm not surprised. You were smashed. You finished that whole bottle of wine.

HAJEK

(wincing)

I remember something about that...

BERN

I had a hell of a time getting you to walk up here from the road. You wanted to sleep down on the beach.

HAJEK

Where are we...

BERN

Take a look.

She grabs him, helps him out of bed and leads him over to the window. Down the road running in front of the house, a low wall and beach are visible. Beyond is the blue-green curve of ocean.

BERN

Pirate Cove. It's beautiful in the summer. Unfortunately, it's cold as hell now. We're just lucky there was gas left in the tanks.

HAJEK

Gas?

BERN

Your tea.

ON HAJEK AT WINDOW

HAJEK

It's beautiful.

(remembering)

What about the Griffiths?

BERN

I had them stop up at the end of the beach road. They were just happy to get you out of the car.

HAJEK

Sorry...I guess I was pretty tired...

BERN

Skip it.

She has hopped back into bed and pulled the covers up around her.

HAJEK

Do you think we could look around?

BERN

Forget that. You come here and get my feet warm. I made you breakfast.

HAJEK

(disbelief)

Tea?

BERN

You want lobster, maybe? There's some in your coat pocket...

HAJEK

Forget it.

(smiling)

You win.

SCENE DELETED

EXT. CEMETARY -- DAY

The priest has just concluded his prayers, and the mourners file past the coffin and pitch pink carnations onto the dark, shiny box.

ON CERI

Who holds a carnation. She kneels on the plastic grass and lays the carnation on the lid of the coffin.

ECU CERI'S HAND

Holding a grease pencil. She writes "F.R.E.D." in small, shaky letters on the box.

CU CERI'S FACE

As she stands up, wipes her eyes, sets her shoulders and turns away.

SCENE DELETED

INT. BEACH HOUSE -SEVERAL DAYS LATER

An ancient MACINTOSH PLUS squats on the kitchen table, perched on a HUMMING disk drive. We hear a TOILET FLUSH, and the bathroom door at the far end of the kitchen opens to reveal Hajek. He hasn't shaved in several days, and wears a bulky sweater. He sits at the kitchen table. The screen on the computer promptly blacks out.

HAJEK

Shit!

He realizes that Bern is still sleeping. Grimaces.

BERN (V.O.)

(sleepily)

Wassamatter?

HAJEK

Sorry.

(staring malevolently at the screen)

I'm gonna name this bugger FRED Mark Two.

BERN (V.O.)

(still from bed)

The analog board's loose. Just whack it.

He bangs on the left side, and the image pops back on.

BERN

(shuffling into kitchen)

Good morning...

(kisses him)

God, why did you forget your razor.

HAJEK

How come your friend didn't have any here in his cozy pad?

BERN

Oh, Christ, not again.

She heads into the bathroom. Hajek begins moving data points and rotating a complicated plot with a few clicks and drags of the mouse, absorbed quickly in what he's doing.

BERN (V.O.)

(from bathroom)

How did you ever come up with FRED in the first place?

HAJEK

(Distracted)

Huh?

BERN (V.O.)

(Exasperated sotto voce)

He doesn't need a razor because he has a full masculine beard.

HAJEK

Really?

BERN (V.O.)

(despairing sigh)

I knew that would get your attention.

HAJEK

(at bathroom door)

Does he really? Just give me a...a...a month or two...

He crosses back to the kitchen table and begins mousing data points again. Bern sticks her head out of the bathroom.

BERN

Do you really want to know?

HAJEK

(a pause. He stops. Looks up)

Yeah. Yeah, I do.

BERN

His name's David Stern, this is his family's house, and we go way back. And I will tell you, although it's none of your fucking business, that no, I haven't slept with him. He gave me the keys so I could have a place to stay when I was up at Harvard last summer. Okay?

HAJEK

(finessed)

Uh...yeah.

BERN

Good. How DID you come up with FRED?

HAJEK

Uh...believe it or not, it started as a joke.

BERN

(still pissed)

Why doesn't that surprise me?

HAJEK

Bill and I were always calling it the Fucking Ridiculous Electronic Device, the (spells it) F.R.E.D.. So as a joke, we started marking all reports "FRED Clearance - Eyes Only." The SSC monitor from D.O.D. took us seriously and went nuts trying to find out how to get a FRED clearance. The poor fucker. People would tell him there was no such thing, which of course, only made him more convinced.

BERN (V.O.)

You guys are terrible.

The TOILET FLUSHES. Bern comes out of the bathroom and begins to check the cabinets.

BERN

Time to go shopping.

HAJEK

Is that a good idea?

BERN

We've exhausted our meager stock of groats and lentils.

HAJEK

But...(what if someone recognizes you)

BERN

It's a small town. They know we're here already. If they were going to tell anybody, there would have been a knock on the door by now.

HAJEK

I guess.

BERN

Don't you want to come? I thought you were dying to get out of the house.

HAJEK

(looking up)

Uh...no.

BERN

How's it coming?

A beat, staring at the screen, a complex mathematical surface being redrawn, countour by contour.

HAJEK

Not too well.

BERN

Oh. Okay.

HAJEK

If this thing were any slower...

BERN

(exiting)

Oh, Christ, not the stone knives and bearskins speech. I'm out of here.

REMAINING SCENES DELETED