Trancendence

This is what we have. But without your help, without you doing the surgery, we don’t have anything.

MAX

Aside from the certainty of failure, aside from performing criminal medical procedures on a terminally ill man … You won’t be uploading will. At best, you’ll be making a digital approximation of him. It will be a machine that thinks it is will. It will be a lie. Trapped in a box of hardware-

EVELYN

You can’t know that for sure! We have to try. This is our only chance!

Max sits there, shaking his head. She presses with-

EVELYN (CONT’D)

You’re a doctor. You took the Hippocratic Oath. You swore to save life-

MAX

Don’t lecture me on Hippocratic oath 1 The oath says, above all, I must not play at God. A man is more than a machine. A machine might be able to pattern your thought, but it can’t pattern your soul.

WILL Yes. It can.

Max stands there, shaking his head.

MAX

All the intelligence in the world will never amount to a shred of wisdom. This is wrong.

Evelyn takes Max’s hands in her own. will watches Max try to hide how much he cherishes her touch.

EVELYN

Look at will. Look at what they did to him. Then tell me about right and wrong.

Max faces will. He can’t bear it for long.

EVELYN (CONT’D)

If you don’t do the surgery, I’m going to do it myself.

MAX

You’ll be killing him.

EVELYN

I won’t be the only one.

Evelyn’s eyes are steel. Max doesn’t back down.

MAX

You can’t escape what’s happening by turning it into an experiment.

with that, Max walks out. will and Evelyn watch him go.

EXT. BOSTON STREETS – NIGHT

Max runs. The hood of his sweatshirt pulled low. He pushes himself. Faster. Harder. He wipes away the sweat and tears.

INT. WILL AND EVELYN’S LIVING ROOM – NIGHT

Evelyn spoons some of the baby food for will. He swallows. Waits. As his stomach settles, he nods •.. and stares off.

EXT. WILL AND EVELYN’S TOWNHOUSE – NIGHT

Will sits on the stoop. Deep in thought. He looks up as Max arrives. Max climbs the steps, eases himself next to will.

They sit in silence. Max has to help his friend.

INT. STATA CENTER HALLWAY – NIGHT

Joseph hurries to meet Anderson outside the PINN lab.

ANDERSON There’s been a break-in.

JOSEPH

Was anything taken from the lab?

ANDERSON

I wouldn’t even know how to tell.

Joseph pushes through the doors into-

INT. PROJECT PINN, MAIN LAB – NIGHT

Joseph looks relieved to see the PINN hardware intact. But as he opens one of the towers, he pales. He opens more. The crystalline cores are all gone.

JOSEPH

They stole the processing cores.

ANDERSON

The RIFT?

JOSEPH

No.

EXT. WILL AND EVELYN’S TOWNHOUSE – NIGHT

UNMARKED SEDANS fill the street. FEDS move in and out of the building, investigating.

I/E. EVELYN’S SEDAN – NIGHT

Evelyn drives. Max, in the back, keeps an eye out for anyone tailing them. Will sees the REVOLVER in Evelyn’s lap. She pulls the car into a-

INT. PARKING GARAGE – NIGHT

Evelyn and Max help will into an old 4×4 TRUCK. She explains-

EVELYN It’s unregistered.

liE. EVELYN’S TRUCK – NIGHT

Evelyn races the truck up the north-bound freeway. She merges into the left lane. In the REAR VIEW: she watches a car, a few lengths back, merge after her … a tail?

EVELYN

Max?

MAX

I see it.

WILL We’re going north?

EVELYN Just hold on.

Evelyn SPINS the truck off the freeway and into the median, SLAMS the accelerator, and enters the south-bound traffic. Cars HONK and SWERVE to keep from hitting them. Max keeps an eye on the traffic behind them. Nobody follows.

WILL

Evelyn?

EVELYN

We can’t trust anyone.

Will nods. The truck races back toward Boston.

EXT. ABANDONED BUILDING – NIGHT

Evelyn parks. They unload will and the gear.

INT. ABANDONED BUILDING – NIGHT

Evelyn unpacks one of PINN’S modular cores from a duffel bag. She adds it to the others, already connected in a net of fiber optic cables.

Her ad-hoc system looks like a cybernetic spider web, dotted with hardware salvaged from PINN. Flat-screens show diagnostics. A pair of control terminals rest on a table that may have been reclaimed from a dumpster.

Cables run into a hole in the concrete floor where there’s an exposed UTILITY LINE. She’s tapped into Boston’s power grid.

Max and Will have some privacy in a make-shift sterile room. Will’s prepped for surgery. Max loads anesthesia.

MAX

You know this isn’t going to work.

WILL

I have my doubts.

Max, resigned, injects the anesthesia into Will’s drip.

MAX

I want you to count back from ten.

WILL

I know you love her.

MAX