Trancendence
MAX (CONT’D)
That thing in there. It’s intelligent. It may even be sentient. But it is not will. It’s a machine. It wants to grow. And to grow, it needs you. It’s trying to convince you it is the man you loved. Nobody can say whether that is true or not.
EVELYN It’s Will-
MAX
You want it to be but we don’t know that-
EVELYN
I’m going to help him-
MAX
Evelyn, you don’t belong here. Let me take you somewhere … Somewhere away from here.
EVELYN
Look at what we did! We saved him. Don’t you see that?!
MAX
This is too big for us to make mistakes. We can’t connect it to the Internet. It would be unstoppable. The world has no defense in place against it. We need to shut it down.
She LUNGES, pushes him back, and stands to protect the door.
EVELYN
I’m not going to let anyone or anything hurt him again. Do you understand?
She moves inside, SLAMS the door and LOCKS it, leaving Max to shiver in the cold.
INT. ABANDONED BUILDING – NIGHT
Evelyn, timid, slowly walks back to the machine. The screens go black. Evelyn, a little alarmed, moves closer.
EVELYN will? Are you there?
will appears on the biggest screen. A photorealistic avatar of him, looking out at her. When he speaks, he sounds exactly like her husband.
WILL IN THE FLAT SCREEN You don’t need to be afraid of me.
Seeing the perfect representation of will brings tears and elation to Evelyn. She stays there, weeping … and gently places her hand on the screen.
EXT. ABANDONED SLAUGHTERHOUSE – DAY
Max and Joseph climb out of an unmarked car. They pass through the COPS and FBI AGENTS processing the crime scene.
INT. ABANDONED SLAUGHTERHOUSE PRISON – DAY
Max stands in his former prison with Joseph. Joseph shows Max a SURVEILLANCE PHOTO of Lance. Max nods.
MAX
And there was a woman. Dark hair. Tattoos. And a big, football playerlooking guy.
Joseph closes the file. Anderson joins them to report-
AGENT ANDERSON
No trace of anyone at all. No fingerprints. No DNA. Nothing.
MAX
You have to stop the RIFT before they find Evelyn.
JOSEPH
Is she all right? Where is she?
Max goes silent. Suspicious.
JOSEPH (CONT’D) You can trust me, Max.
Max wraps his arms around himself. Trying to hold it all together.
JOSEPH (CONT’D)
You’ve been through hell. Let’s get you to the hotel.
MAX
What?
JOSEPH
You have the most effective terrorist organization in the word out to kill you. We’re putting you in protective custody.
Max considers his options. There are none. He nods.
EXT. ABANDONED BUILDING ROOFTOP – NIGHT
Evelyn finishes installing a SATELLITE DISH. She looks out at the city all around her. It’s quiet. Still. She gets back to work, running the cable along the roof and into-
INT. ABANDONED BUILDING – NIGHT
A military-grade satellite communications system. Evelyn pulls the cable toward the machine. She slows. Worried.
WILL IN THE FLAT SCREEN What’s the matter?
EVEL~
Connecting you to the Internet, to the entire world, you will expand hundreds, if not thousands of times. It’s so much power. So soon.
WILL IN THE FLAT SCREEN Think of what we’ll be able to do. There’s so many people we could help.
Evelyn studies his avatar. He’s calm, nonjudgmental, and fully attentive.
WILL IN THE FLAT SCREEN (CONT’D) I wish I could feel you.
Evelyn softens.
EVELYN
Set your firewall. Get ready to anonymize your address.
WILL IN THE FLAT SCREEN It’s done. Can you stop talking to me like you’re executing programs on a computer?
Evelyn considers the computer in front of her.
EVELYN
You’re right. I’m sorry.
She grips the networking cable, moves to the hardware, and plugs it into his system.
EVELYN (CONT’D) You’re connected. Scan for •.• (Correcting her command) Can you scan for the network?
Evelyn steps back to find the big screen empty.
EVELYN (CONT’D)
will?
IN WILL’S POV: Blackness. There’s a FLASH of light. We BARREL toward it at impossible speed. It becomes a TUNNEL OF LIGHT. We FLY into it. Inside, will is a BRIGHTER PULSE of energy.
ON EVELYN: Staring at the blank, silent screen.
EVELYN (CONT’D) Will? Are you there?
IN WILL’S POV: FLYING through the tunnel like a skeleton run at light speed. We hit an Internet HUB. Will’s pulse SPLINTERS into a dozen pieces … Each tracing their own digital tunnels through the darkness .•.
INTERCUTTING with this digital experience, we speed through images that show will’s new reach in the ANALOGUE WORLD •.•
We FLASH to a COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE, and shoot back to Earth. We ZOOM through FLOOR AFTER FLOOR of computer servers in CARRIER HOTELS across the world. SUPERCOMPUTERS in Tokyo, California, Berlin. TECHS become alarmed by IRREGULAR ACTIVITY on system monitors. USERS see their MACS display the dreaded PINWHEEL OF DEATH. PC OWNERS frustrated by the HOURGLASS graphic. CELL PHONE USERS curse at DROPPED CALLS.
IN WILL’S POV: The dozen tunnels of light become hundreds, then thousands, then millions.
As will’s digital consciousness connects, we see the great tangle of the Internet. It looks like a nervous system made of light. It floats, disembodied, in a digital void.
IN THE ANALOGUE WORLD TECHS settle when their systems normalize. PINWHEELS and HOURGLASS graphics disappear. Cell phones reconnect ••. and everything is fine again.
ON EVELYN: She’s nervous now.
EVELYN (CONT’D) Will? Come backl
The screens BURST with light. Will projects the digital representation of the Internet. It looks like a living, breathing thing.
WILL IN THE FLAT SCREEN I’m connected, Evelyn.
EVELYN What is that?
WILL IN THE FLAT SCREEN All the knowledge ..• All the communication in the world.
EVELYN It’s incredible.
WILL IN THE FLAT SCREEN I’ve never felt anything like this. I can be anywhere. Everywhere. All at the same time.
Seeing will’s euphoria, Evelyn’s impulse is to embrace him ••• but she can only wrap her arms around herself.
INT. HOTEL SUITE – DAY
Max reads in bed. His bodyguards (shirt-sleeves and Glocks) pull in a CART of room service. The heavy one is BURKE. The slim one, THOMPSON, starts eating fries off the plate.
BURKE
Don’t eat that. It’s for Dr. Waters.
