Trancendence
She gestures to the far side of the garden. Will moves there.
WILL (CONT’D)
Hello? .•
(To Evelyn) Dead zone.
EVELYN
What about Block Island instead of the Cape?
WILL
I love Block Island. When?
EVELYN Next weekend?
WILL
Make-up classes. Midweek?
EVELYN
Teaching.
She looks up at him, standing there, sipping coffee.
EVELYN (CONT’D)
You’re a sexy professor. I have to be at your lecture. Protect you from the cute coeds. We’re never going on vacation are we?
WILL
We should wait until summer so we can put the rest of it out of our minds. No phones, chargers, wikitweet-face-link-shit, no students.
He wraps his arms around her, puts his cheek close to her ear, and whispers-
WILL (CONT’D)
By the way, there are no cute coeds in the computer science department.
She lifts her arms and holds his head against hers. They stay there, close. The day is bright.
EXT. MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY – DAY
Bree (the baker) and Lance, carrying a KIT BAG, join a press of STUDENTS entering an auditorium.
INT. MIT LECTURE HALL – DAY
Max Waters addresses the packed house. He’s lean. Tailored.
MAX
My name is Max Waters. I’m a neurosurgeon and teach at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.
Lance slips through the door as students settle in.
MAX (CONT’D)
I’ve been friends with today’s speaker since we were roommates freshman year. And while we disagree on ..• pretty much everything …
Evelyn, in the front row, shares a grin with Max. Lance heads up a set of stairs.
MAX (CONT’D)
He’s a brilliant visionary, devoted teacher, and a dear friend. Please welcome the head of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab – Professor Will Caster.
Max leads the APPLAUSE as will takes the stage. As he speaks, a MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATION helps visualize his ideas.
WILL
Computer intelligence doubles roughly every year. Human intelligence is limited by evolution and has remained static for hundreds of thousands of years.
ACOUSTIC PANELS line the ceiling. Lance, in the crawl space above one, opens his kit bag.
WILL (CONT’D)
One day computer intelligence will surpass that of a human. This moment, the birth of a greater-thanhuman technological intelligence,
is what we call the Singularity.
Max, listening in the wings, glances at Evelyn. Evelyn watches will. He is everything to her.
WILL (CONT’D)
This artificial intelligence won’t be limited by biological evolution. It will evolve itself at an exponential pace.
Lance finishes assembling a RIFLE.
WILL (CONT’D)
If this being comes online with the intelligence of two men, in a little more than a year it could have the intellect of four. Then 16. In seven years it could be as intelligent as 4.2 billion. By the end of the decade it would be more intelligent than everyone born in the history of the world.
Lance opens a LEAD BOX containing a single BULLET. He uses a pair of pliers to load it into the rifle.
WILL (CONT’D)
Imagine. All the intelligence of everyone ever born in one entity.
Lance finds Will in the CROSS-HAIRS. Will paces, forcing Lance to inch closer to the edge of the acoustic panel.
WILL (CONT’D)
A partnership with a Strong AI will help us unlock the secrets of the universe. It will help us heal our environment. It may even allow us overcome the greatest threat to biological life … Death.
Max glances at the audience. Freezes. He spots the RIFLE BARREL protruding from the acoustic panel.
WILL (CONT’D)
A self-aware, self-evolving intelligence will improve our lives in ways we can’t even imagine •..
Max RUSHES onto the stage – Lance PULLS THE TRIGGER – the GUNSHOT rings out – as Max tackles him, Will’s shoulder POPS with the bullet – everyone FREEZES …
Lance grimaces at his faulty shot. Bree, in the rear of the auditorium, sits absolutely still.
Someone SCREAMS. CHAOS breaks out. Will grabs his bleeding shoulder. Max drags him offstage. Evelyn scrambles to them.
IN THE AUDITORIUM: Lance is gone. Bree is gone.
EXT. MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY – DAY
TERRIFIED STUDENTS stampede out of the building. Lance and Bree, with backpacks and feigned panic, escape with them.
INT. HOSPITAL ROOM – DAY
Will, bandaged, contemplates a glass vial containing the bullet. Evelyn kisses him. Will looks in her eyes to make sure she knows-
WILL
I’m fine.
She’s not convinced. Max reviews the medical charts.
MAX
Everything looks good. They’re releasing you into my care. That means I’m your doctor. You have to do what I say. No work.
will grabs his smart phone. Starts thumbing it.
I/E. MIT/STATA CENTER – DAY
Joseph, flanked by ANDERSON and other FEDS, moves into the building. They pass rooms of COMPUTER RESEARCH: robotics, system hardware, and theoretical algorithms.
Evelyn, Max and will (arm bandaged and in a sling) speak to POLICE DETECTIVES. Joseph’s men take the cops aside.
EVELYN
Joseph?
She embraces him. Warm.
JOSEPH
Is there somewhere we can talk?
INT. WILL’S OFFICE – DAY
A large, chaotic workspace. Joseph passes GRUESOME CRIME PHOTOS of the recent attacks to Will, Evelyn and Max.
JOSEPH
Over the past 48 hours there’s been a highly coordinated string of attacks. A bomb at Caltech killed Norman Causewell.
(MORE)
JOSEPH (CONT’D)
Dr. Daniels at Princeton was killed. Mike Lacy at the University of Chicago.
Evelyn covers her mouth in shock.
WILL
We know these people .•.
JOSEPH
There were others, all-
