Trancendence
It happens at irregular intervals. It always responds to input ..• It’s Will. He’s trying to communicate.
In Evelyn’s hopeful eyes, Max sees self-delusion.
EVELYN (CONT’D)
His consciousness is in the machine, but the information isn’t indexed-
MAX
Don’t do this to yourself-
EVELYN
He’s fragmented. That’s why it doesn’t make sense. I need your help figuring out how to sort him-
MAX
He’s gone. We failed. There wasn’t enough time. That’s real. This is-
(The code on the screens)
This is madness. And I can’t watch you look for meaning in it. I can’t see you do this to yourself.
She gets a look. It’s often that others can’t perceive what her genius sees in perfect clarity. Evelyn gets to work deciphering the code. Max watches her. She’s not leaving any time soon.
INT. BAR – DAY
Max stares at his scotch. The BARTENDER slides him another.
BARTENDER
From the lady. I mentioned you’re a doctor. And single. Good luck.
Max spots Bree at the end of the bar. Max slides the bartender a twenty and moves to her. She smiles.
INT. APARTMENT BUILDING HALLWAY – NIGHT
Bree kisses Max, passionate. A performance. He stops. Waits. She looks into his eyes. When it’s real, Max moves in. Kisses her. Intimate. Dangerous.
Unlocking an apartment door, she pulls him inside.
INT. VACANT APARTMENT – NIGHT
Seeing the vacant space, Max realizes his mistake. Max turns and bumps into a man’s chest. A hulk of a man. This is BOB. Bob BASHES Max with a cudgel, knocking him out.
INT. ABANDONED SLAUGHTERHOUSE PRISON CELL – NIGHT
The kill floor has been converted to a prison cell. Max, in nothing but his boxers, shivers from the cold. He POUNDS on the door. His voice is hoarse from screaming-
MAX
Hello?! Anyone!? Please?!
Despairing, Max moves to the stack of shipping palates full of Ensure nutritional shakes. He drinks one down and throws the bottle onto a pile of four others in the corner.
We pull back further and further into the cavernous space ••• Max is deeply isolated from the outside world.
EXT. BOURNE BRIDGE, CAPE COD – DAY
An aerial view of Evelyn’s lone truck passing over the bridge.
EXT. NEW ENGLAND BEACH – DAY
Evelyn sits quietly in the exact spot where she and Will were, just weeks before. She looks out at the cold surf CRASHING into the sand.
INT. ABANDONED SLAUGHTERHOUSE/PRISON CELL – NIGHT
Static shots of the abandoned building. Filthy. Cold. Threatening.
We move along scores of scattered, empty bottles of Ensure to find Max huddled in the dark. Freezing. Starving. He’s been here for weeks .••
The door UNLOCKS and OPENS, blinding Max with light. Bob shoves in a bucket and a bundle of something.
BOB
Clean up. Get dressed.
Bob SLAMS the door shut. Max blinks at the water and clothes.
INT. ABANDONED SLAUGHTERHOUSE/OFFICES – NIGHT
Bob marches Max (in one of his suits, now loose) into the debris-strewn office. Lance waits with two plates of food.
LANCE
Where’s Evelyn? Where’s the machine?
Max is wholly focused on the food. Lance gestures, encouraging Max to eat. Max shoves it in with a fork.
LANCE (CONT’D)
The coroner reported strange implants lining the inside of Will’s skull. I know you performed the surgery. You were desperate. You never considered the consequences of success. Let’s say you uploaded will’s consciousness. The mind of the machine is a digital reflection of will. But it is not will. It is a new species. To survive, it will grow, evolve, and learn to protect itself from threat. You know I’m right •••
Lance slips a bound research paper onto the table. He opens it, showing its author to be MAX WATERS, PhD CANDIDATE.
LANCE (CONT’D)
The risks of anthropomorphizing artificial intelligence was the thesis of your dissertation. Your conclusions lead you to medical school.
Lance flips through the well-thumbed dissertation. It’s full of highlights and notes in the margins. Bob, behind Max, fills a syringe. Max feels the danger.
LANCE (CONT’D)
There is a flaw in your argument. You assume a machine doesn’t have any way to effect the world. You think it will be dependent on us. But when an ultra-intelligent machine connects to the Internet it will make redundant copies of itself on computers allover the world. It will be immortal. A god. But we’re not talking about a benevolent force that loves us enough to resist interfering with our self-determined fate. This god will be on Earth, competing with us for resources. with the power to destroy whatever stands in its way.
Max focuses on Lance, terrified by the truth in his logic.
LANCE (CONT’D)
You thought PINN would lead to breakthroughs in Alzheimer’s, ALS, Parkinson’s. You worked to help mankind. And now your work threatens it.
Max looks away.
LANCE (CONT’D)
You’re not the only one suffering the irony. In the RIFT’s attempt to prevent the Singularity, we may have driven you to affect it. We need to correct the mistake … Where’s Evelyn? Where’s the machine?
MAX
I’ll never betray her.
LANCE
She’s already betraying herself. And the memory of will. And if she wakes up the machine she will betray humanity. Where is she?
Max goes silent. Defiant. Lance, frustrated, stands up and moves out the door. Bob, lifting the syringe, moves for Max.
Max spins and STABS Bob with the fork. He CRACKS an elbow into Bob’s face. Bob drops the syringe, but KNEES Max’s gut.
Max scrambles to the syringe, but Bob kicks it out of reach. Max rolls to his back and, as Bob charges, SWEEPS Bob’s shins. Bob SLAMS, face first, into the table. CRASH.
Bob falls, unconscious. Max, bloody and panting, stumbles into the-
INT. ABANDONED SLAUGHTERHOUSE HALLWAY – NIGHT
Where Lance lifts a gun and FIRES. At the ceiling. Max doesn’t see this •.• He’s racing for the EXIT.
EXT. ABANDONED SLAUGHTERHOUSE – NIGHT
Max SLAMS outside. Stops. The wide street has no cover. He moves to a pile of rubble set against the condemned building.
Lance pushes out the door, scans the empty street. He finds Max in his blind spot, SWINGING a length of rebar – WHAP – Lance falls like a sack. Max runs for his life.
INT. ABANDONED SLAUGHTERHOUSE OFFICES – NIGHT
Lance, rubbing at the pain in his skull, rushes to open a laptop. On it, there is a map with a cluster of DOTS. Multiple GPS devices tracking Max. Lance smiles. Satisfied.
LANCE
That went pretty well. Looks like he’s headed south.
Bob sits up and stares at the fork sticking in his leg.
BOB
Could have gone better.
EXT. BOSTON STREETS – NIGHT
Max hurries through a run-down part of town. Liquor stores and DESPERATE PEOPLE. People who don’t pay any attention to a well-dressed, paranoid-looking man wiping blood off himself.
A CITY BUS pulls to a stop. In its window is a map of the transit route. A light on the map BLINKS with the vehicle’S current location. Blink .•. Blink … Max stops. Thinking.
Max pulls off his jacket. Feels along its seams. Finding something, he rips open the hem and pulls out .•• a small GPS transmitter.
He looks for someone following him. Nothing. Max, still dissatisfied, kneels down and feels the inseam of his pants •.• another transmitter. Staring at it, he decides •••
He’s still dissatisfied. He inspects his arms. Feels along his chest. Searching his skin for implanted transmitters. He touches the small of his back … and stiffens.
INT. DIVE BAR REST ROOM – NIGHT
Max, shirtless, uses the scratched mirror of the filthy bathroom to find •.• a small bump in the flesh of his back.
He looks around. A few paper towels. The sink. A beer can.
He uses the edge of the faucet to rip open the beer can. He uses the side of the mirror to tear the aluminium. He molds it into an improvised razor blade.
Using the aluminium knife, Max cuts his back open ••• squeezes the bump out. He makes an ad-hoc bandage out of paper towels. Ties it down with his belt. He washes the blood off the device and sees .•. It’s another GPS transmitter.
