[various vehicle sirens] [horns honking]
- [Smith] Do not dwell in the past,
do not dream of the future.
Concentrate the mind on the present moment.
My name is Smith, welcome to Flatland.
[industrial noises] [bells jingling]
When I first met the devil, his name was Khan.
Mine, say Michael.
The war for the soul of mankindhas raged for 3,000 years.
The battleground today is Shanghai.
I have forced three young Americans
to work for me: JT, a gangbanger,
Mr. Mitchell, a failed mob lawyer,
and Amy Li, a beautiful young woman.
They will ultimately discover the history when present
and past collide, and where one misstep on either side
of the 4th dimension, is fatal.
In the world of Flatland where
nothing is as it appears to be...
My name is Smith, welcome to Flatland.
[dramatic music]
[electric buzzing]
[soft opera singing]
[splashing]
[funky music]
- Someone once told me art was autobiographical.
- All I know is one thing, if art were
personified, it would be like us.
How are you, Victoria? I like this persona.
- What do you think of the others?
- Solomon and Liu, it's been a long time.
- Uriel, help me.
Help me to destroy Smith and all his people.
- That's precisely why I'm here, and I have a plan.
- Good.
Now, where's your other persona, your better half?
[upbeat music]
[upbeat electronic music]
[funky music]
[car engines whirring] [horns honking]
[upbeat funky music]
[opera singing] [funky music]
[honking]
[whistling] [camera snapping]
[mysterious music]
- Good morning!
Do you speak English?
- A little. [camera snaps]
- Well maybe you can tell me something.
I'm fascinated by the Peace Hotel.
Somebody told me that Noel Coward wrote
his famous play Private Lives here.
- He did.
- 1930, right? [zooming whir]
- And he wrote it in four days,
while he had the Chinese Flu. - Ah!
That I didn't know.
[crane creaks]
[camera snaps]
[mysterious tune]
[crane creaks]
[loud crash, thuds]
[mysterious singing]
[motorcycle whines]
[funky music]
JT.
- Making trouble again, huh?
- In the wrong place at the right time.
- You are always in the wrong place at the right time.
- Well, this time it was more. - What?
- There was this gorgeous girl.
- Why does you and a skirt always have to equal trouble?
- This is different.
- How gorgeous, how different?
- Most gorgeous thing I've everseen.
Then she disappeared.
- Ugh, I hate when that happens.
You just say hello and they leave.
- Yep, well I didn't even get todo that,
there was this great big explosion of white light.
- Really?
- I was talking to this old guy over here too,
and then he disappears. - He did too?
You know what's going on, man,
those funny leaves you're smoking are kicking in.
- I'm serious, man. - So is quantum physics.
I don't understand that either.
- I'm telling you, it has something to do with Flatland.
Somebody tried to kill me.
[funky electronic music]
- [Smith] You know the best thing about chess?
- What? - There's no luck.
No one rolls dice, no one dealscards.
It's just your smarts against the other player.
- I always have trouble at the beginning.
- Why? - There's too many choices,
and I don't know where to start?
- It's easy, play the beginning like a book,
play the middle like a magician,
play the end like a machine.
Well that'll get you checkmate in about 10 moves.
- Story of my life. - Chess is a lot like life.
It's a fairytale, a thousand and one mistakes.
To err is human, but in chess you can't afford to be human.
Repetition is a key; same offense,
same defense, repeating moves.
Repetition is a way of learning,
and then someone makes a change.
That's when the real game starts...
Just like in life.
- Why did you make that move, from Smith to Uncle?
- Mitchell is about to come in here,
and he needs me, not my better half.
- Uncle! Hi.
I don't mean to be paranoid, but I think she
was trying to kill me, and I think the old man
had something to do with it as well.
- Good, because they did.
- What?
- Do you know what archangels are?
- Alright well, archangels, they're like...
They're like what, super angels,huh?
- They deliver messages of extreme importance.
And the word angel denotes a function more than a nature.
- Okay. - And they come from
the 8th highest level of celestial hierarchy.
- Well, this one tried to kill me at sea-level.
- Yes. Which is good.
- She's loony tunes my friend, how is that good?
- Because they did not succeed.
- Please. - In their world,
you would be dead. - Well you know what?
I'm gonna kick it here, I'm gonna have a beer.
I hear the dim sum is fabulous.
- There's another thing you should try and understand.
- Like what? - They know you.
And probably very well. - Well that's very nice.
- To know them, you need to look in Flatland.
- And how do I do that?
- You need to look in the past.
Dream, it's the only way. - Well stupid me,
I really should have known, huh?
- You will. And one more thing.
Dreams become waking reality, and that alone
could save your sarcastic ass.
[funky music]
[hip-hop music]
[motorcycle whirs] [thuds]
[upbeat funky music]
[wheels squeal]
- [Crowd] Look out, look out, get out of the way! [gasps]
[motorcycle whirs]
- Son of a bitch.
[vehicles whir] [dramatic music]
I want my bike back, you--
[slow, relaxed music] [light conversation]
- Hey, Amy. - What's up?
- I just saw Uncle. Listen, can you--
- [Amy] Can I what?
- Um [laughs] do you know what an archangel is?
- Yeah, there's Michael, and Lucifer he's an archangel.
- Okay, have you ever seen one?
- Not recently.
- I think one tried to kill me.
- You serious? - I'm completely serious.
You've never seen one, not even in Flatland?
Alright, thanks.
[slow jazz music]
[upbeat funky music] [motorcycle whirs]
[dramatic funky music]
- Man, I know I shouldn't do this.
[funky music]
- Sexually speaking, there are two manifestations.
- A male side and a female side?
- Yeah, they're gender benders,
and they can cause a lot of problems.
- Like what? - Well just think.
If you were suddenly a man and a woman equally,
it might be interesting going into
the locker room for the first time, you know?
Check things out? But how about the bedroom?
- That could be confusing.
- Archangels are very confusing, and very powerful.
- So, why would one be after Mitchell?
- Most likely he clobbered somebody's feelings.
- Emotionally? - Yeah.
They love, they hate, they deceive,
they tell jokes, and they carry around about the
same amount of baggage as we do.
- But she didn't kill him. - Or she wasn't ready.
Maybe her moon wasn't aligned just perfectly with Jupiter.
Hey, maybe she was having a badhair day.
It could be anything. - And that's for sure.
- Flatlands has as many curves as
you see at a party at the Playboy Mansion.
- Have you ever been to any of those parties?
- A couple...
Dozen.
[dramatic funky music]
[motorcycle whirs]
[tires squeal]
[fast dramatic funky music] [thuds]
- You're too pretty to be this damn deadly.
[fast dramatic funky music]
[motorcycle whirs]
[funky music]
[whistling]
[car tires squeal]
[funky electronic music]
[light conversation, laughter]
[upbeat music]
[funky synth music]
[faint conversation]
[children laugh]
[sirens] [upbeat funky music]
[soft choir singing]
[funky music]
- I don't know who you are,
but following me will get you killed.
- What is this?
I just wanna talk to you, okay,
nothing more, just a little talk.
- Okay, so talk. - Why'd you try and kill me?
- I didn't, I saved you.
[Mitchell scoffs] - Save me?
- You don't remember? - No.
My friend told me to look into Flatland,
in order to find out who you are.
And what you want. - Your friend knows a lot.
- So what's your name? - Aurora.
- Goddess of dawn.
[mysterious music]
- Then you'll know who I am.
[strum of harp]
[suspenseful music]
- We were lovers.
How long ago was that? - A long time ago in
this world, a heartbeat in Flatland.
- My friend also told me that when an archangel comes
to this world, they do so to deliver a message.
A very important message.
- That's one of the reasons. - So is it for me, Aurora?
[strum of harp]
[ominous music]
- I gotta go. - Hold on.
I need to know. - You will.
- Aurora. Will I see you again?
- Tonight. Midnight 'til dawn.
[funky music]
- That's when miracles are born.
[upbeat funky music]
- [Uncle] You should do it sometime this century.
- [Mitchell] Do we really have to do this?
- No, but so far you haven't done anything.
You are playing terribly.
- Well, I have a few things on my mind.
- You should still be up for a little multi-tasking.
- I thought she was trying to kill me.
And it turns out to be a whole different ballgame.
- Maybe. - I think she loves me, Uncle.
- People kill people they love all the time.
- I'll be the cynical one.
- Mitchell, you loved her in Flatland.
- Well why can't I love her here?
- You can, but just don't expectrainbows,
and honey on your tongue. - Why not?
- Aurora is here for a reason.
- Yeah, and I think that reasonis me.
- But there is another side to the coin, as there is
another side to her. - Which is?
- A cold-blooded killer, working for her friend Khan
who uses her to seduce and deceive.
- You know, I don't believe you,
and I don't wanna play this gameanymore.
I'm down three major pieces, and this game is history.
- It's still on the table.
You'll see who is history. [funky music]
- [Aurora] I'm very aware of that.
- [Uriel] You don't act like it.
- [Aurora] You know how I feel about him.
- Yes, you love him. - I've always felt that way.
- Love, the worst of the human
frailties, right up there with pride.
- It isn't always like that.
Why can't you ever feel anything?
- I don't suffer that weakness.
- It isn't a weakness, Uriel, it can be so much more.
- Look at yourself, tell me howyou
feel right now. Is that what you want?
You enjoy suffering pains of theheart?
Where's the logic in that?
And what does it get you in theend?
- It's something you don't understand.
- What I understand is what we're going to do:
Kill Smith's warriors in Flatland once and for all.
It's what Khan wants, and is what we're going to do.
Have your fun for tonight, Aurora, and then it will be over.
Look at me.
The boy is just a pawn in a bigger game,
I know you understand that.
And I believe in you. - And I believe in you.
[somber tune] [footsteps]
[low buzzing]
[wind chimes rustle]
[bell rings]
[eerie music]
- Hello Amy Li.
Remember London?
1874?
It was quick, as I recall. - Who are you?
What do you want? - You don't remember?
I'm disappointed. - Uriel.
The archangel. - Excellent.
- Why are you here? - Oh, you know that as well.
Like that last time; to deliver
a message to Mr. Smith from Khan.
- He's not here. - You disappoint me.
He's in Shanghai, and when he knows
that you and the others are dead, my job will be finished.
- You think it's that easy. - It doesn't matter to me.
The end will be the same, no matter what.
[upbeat dramatic music]
[thuds, grunts]
[Amy cries out]
[Amy screams]
- You've learned a few things since the last century.
[thuds, grunts]
And this is how he died. [ominous music]
[thuds]
[upbeat dramatic music]
Very good, Amy Li. Next time.
- What I don't understand is why
they didn't kill the both of you
- He said that was the message,for Smith.
- Maybe he's full of it. It's all about something else.
- No, they've played the same sequence of events before.
- With Mitchell and Aurora? - And you and Uriel.
When an opponent makes the same opening moves twice,
it's time to change your defense.
It's an old chess player's maxim.
[funky synth music]
[Amy grunts]
- You've learned a few things since the last century.
- I know what you mean. - Good.
When they're playing the same moves,
and you know it, their game has ended where it started.
- The docks? - No, he saw her before that.
[dramatic music]
- End game, and it'll be played the way it should.
Without mercy.
- [Victoria] Why didn't you killher?
- [Uriel] I will, but you know what's interesting?
Smith's warriors are better now than they used to be.
- [Victoria] And you're not?
- [Uriel] Of course, but there'sno
harm in a little fun before thekill.
- [Victoria] I'm not interested in fun, Uriel.
- Don't worry, the one called Mitchell has to die first.
- Why?
Oh, I see.
Then the other half of you won't have a problem.
- And she'll be angry.
- I want Smith out of my world forever.
- You'll have it. - For your sake, I hope I do.
[mysterious funky music]
[electric buzzing]
- It's beautiful.
[soft romantic music]
- It's like a jewelry box, full of beautiful gems.
- And me? - You're the most
beautiful gem of them all. [soft romantic music]
- You know, sometimes I wish that time could stop.
- Why?
- I'd stop it now like, would'vestopped it a long time ago.
- But then we would be stuck there, or here?
- Yes. Whatever happened before,
and whatever happens later would just never be.
- Well that's a tough one, I'llhave to figure out that one.
- Sometimes I just think emotions
aren't worth the trouble they bring.
- No, no no. You're wrong.
They aren't, they're worth everyminute.
[soft romantic music] [strum of harp]
[upbeat music] [laughter]
[horn honks]
[upbeat music]
[horn honks]
[strums of harp]
[upbeat music]
[fast upbeat music] [strums of harp]
[mechanical whirring]
[somber music]
[fast upbeat music]
[tires squeal]
[fast upbeat music]
[tires squealing] [honking]
[banging]
Aurora!
Aurora. Remember what you said.
If we could stop time.
- Time is about to stop. For you.
[whooshing] [crashing]
[Mitchell cries out]
- Not in Flatland, Aurora.
That will end it forever.
- For yesterday and tomorrow.
It's just the way it's going tobe.
Kill him.
[chain whirs]
[crashing]
[upbeat dramatic music]
[crashing, smashing]
[upbeat dramatic music] [Aurora yells]
[metallic thud]
- Stop time. [Mitchell breathes heavily]
Aurora, please.
- I can't.
- He's just a pawn, Aurora. [glass shatters]
Now you're a pawn as well. [thuds]
[upbeat dramatic music]
[upbeat funky music]
- You okay? - Yeah, I'm okay.
- Which way'd he go? - He went that way.
[upbeat funky music]
- I tried to tell you. - And I told you.
Human emotions are frailties, they destroy everything.
- I'm not sorry.
- Neither am I.
[dramatic funky music] [whooshing]
[low buzzing]
[footsteps]
[somber music]
[watch ticking quickly]
- Checkmate, Khan.
For now.
You wanna have another game tomorrow?
The next day, and the next, huh?
'Til one of us does stop time?
[mysterious funky music]