Trancendence
EWL~
Your work in nanotechnology impressed us, Carla.
Carla’s long-winded response is lost by the ROAR of the 18 WHEELERS, which keep coming. Evelyn nudges the door to her hotel room open, and takes the hardware from Glen and Carla.
EVELYN (CONT’D)
Glen, I left your resume in the car. Your PhD is in-
GLEN
Biosystem science and engineering.
EVELYN
Great. You’re both hired.
Evelyn disappears into the room. The new hires, confused, awkwardly shake hands.
Another semi ROARS past. As it does, we lift above the hotel and watch the vehicle rumble to the construction site. Cranes and construction equipment surround the giant structures of the project and spread into the surrounding desert.
The main facility looks like a giant aircraft hangar. Radiating out are construction sites for ancillary buildings. will’s project is massive.
EXT. RIFT CAMP – NIGHT
Max, Bree and Bob watch newly-recruited RIFT Militants ritualistically throw credit cards, driver’s licenses and passports into a fire.
B~E
The machine is building something in the desert. Something big.
The militants look to Bob for leadership. Bob puffs up.
BOB
We’ll assemble a demolition team. Our best men, and-
BREE
That won’t work anymore. If we can turn the public against it-
BOB
All media is computers. The machine controls it all.
Bree, out of options, faces Max.
BREE
You know the machine. You helped build it. You can stop it.
MAX
You’re overestimating me. I’m a man. I have limitations. The machine has no limitations.
(MO~)
MAX (CONT’D)
It’ll evolve. Grow beyond anything we can comprehend.
As Max continues, we move to-
INT. WILL’S FACILITY – NIGHT
Evelyn, followed by bodyguards, moves through the vast space. Glen, Carla and other SCIENTISTS work in partitioned laboratories. High technology surrounds them.
MAX (V.O.)
As it grows, humans will become irrelevant. The machine will see that 7 billion of us aren’t worth the resources. Controlling us won’t be difficult •..
EXT. WILL’S FACILITY – NIGHT
Evelyn stands in a conference with Martin. All around them, men and heavy machines work at a break-neck pace. Massive floodlights allow 24 hour shifts.
MAX (V.O.)
Our entire lives have been recorded on computers. Where we were born, grew up, went to school. Our medical histories, insurance profiles. Everything we’ve ever bought. Everyone who asked us to be their “friend”. Or “linked” with. Every phone call. Every email.
EXT. BRIGHTWOOD – NIGHT
Evelyn walks through town, stopping to advise the CONSTRUCTION all around her. WORKERS install power-lines, next-generation security cameras, and networking cable.
MAX (v.O.)
Everything we’ve ever read or seen or done is on a database somewhere. The machine has access to it all. That data will be used against us.
Evelyn smiles at it all, heading for the DESERT DREAM HOTEL.
She passes Roger, in his wheelchair, and a few other CITIZENS of the run-down town sitting on folding chairs. They’re watching the spectacle of the desert construction.
She passes a few METH ADDICTS. Thin. Wired. One compulsively pops his jaw. One scratches himself – perhaps in withdrawal.
INT. DESERT DREAM HOTEL ROOM – NIGHT
Evelyn pulls off her hard hat and workwear. A full wall is dedicated to a computer system. Will is active inside of it.
MAX (V.O.)
The machine will reverse-engineer what we will think before we even need to think it.
Evelyn climbs into bed. On the computer screens, will models experiments in GENETICS and HUMAN CLONING. She’s hypnotized.
MAX (V.O.) (CONT’D)
It will be able to determine what we want. What we need, above all else, with all our hearts.
Will’s avatar appears. Evelyn’s eyes soften.
MAX (V.O.) (CONT’D)
The machine will take that thing we need and dangle it in front of us like bait. And we will be so full of awe and hope we will leap to do whatever it asks.
The room darkens, lit only by the glowing computer. Evelyn settles to sleep. She stares at the wedding ring on her hand. She thumbs it absently, with a satisfied smile.
MAX (V.O.) (CONT’D)
We won’t even consider for a moment that we have become its slaves.
EXT. RIFT CAMP – NIGHT
Max sits at the campfire. Bree, Bob and the RIFT Militants listening. They’re scared.
MAX
The world we knew, our world, is gone. The age of mankind is over.
BOB What do we do?
MAX
We prepare. Eventually the machine will make a mistake. We have to be ready when it happens.
The militants stare into the campfire.
MAX (CONT’D)
This place, wild nature, is our only safety. It can’t see us here.
Bree checks her watch. Looks to the stars.
BME
Yes, it can. Find cover. Another spy satellite is about to orbit.
Max, following the others to the trees, looks at the sky.
EXT. LOW ORBIT OVER EARTH
A KEYHOLE Spy SATELLITE arcs over the planet. Watching.
FADE TO BLACK.
INT. EVELYN’S RESIDENCE – DAY
Evelyn sleeps. will stands above her, watching her. We see that he’s IN THE WALLS. The room is covered with an LCD-like substance.
The room brightens, her eyes open. She sits up in the kingsized bed and takes in the room. She stares at will.
Evelyn walks to a wall. As she does-
It becomes transparent, allowing Evelyn to look outside. The morning light angles down at Will’s vastly expanded facility. The buildings are all covered with a silver-blue material.
Will’s avatar steps closer. Gently, he says-
WILL
I’ve made a breakthrough. Let me show you.
Evelyn nods.
EXT. EVELYN’S RESIDENCE – DAY
Evelyn steps out of her new, post-contemporary home. It’s covered in the silver-blue material.
INT. WILL’S FACILITY/MAIN FLOOR – DAY
The vast space is full of otherworldly machines. It bustles with activity. SCIENTISTS and ENGINEERS. Carla and Glen, sipping their morning coffee, watch Evelyn enter a room with a SECURITY DOOR marked RESTRICTED ACCESS.
