[Tchaikovsky's "The Seasons, Op. 37a, TH 135"playing]
♪♪
Arkady: Mmm!
♪♪
[Chuckles]
[Sighing]
♪♪
[Bell dinging]
Mm.
♪♪
[Squeaking]
♪♪
[Sighs]
[Speaking in Russian]
♪♪
[Cracking]
♪♪
[Keyboard clacking rapidly]
♪♪
[Engines humming]
Man: Our next-gen Reaper, Your Highness,
with enhanced ATLC,
or "automated takeoff and landing" system.
Allows all flight operations to be controlled
remotely from a single location.
In this case --Creech Air Force Base in Las Vegas.
And I know what ATLC means.
I was a pilot, remember?
Which is why the president is so glad
we're dealing directly with you.
♪♪
I like Vegas.
♪♪
Woman: Satellite hand-off complete.
Climbing to 12,000.
[Wind howling]
Man #2: That's weird.
It looks like there was a signal spike
just before the hand-off.
[Alarm blaring]Com link is down.
I've lost control.
♪♪
Hellfire armed! Target acquired!
What target?!
We'll take 70.
[Rocket roaring]
[Explosion]
[Scatter clapping]
[Warbling]
♪♪
[Chuckles]
[Laughs]
[Grunts][Women giggling]
Can -- Can he feel the sex?
[Gasps]We just destabilized
what's left of the US-Saudi alliance,
and that's what you're thinking about?
I will inform the president of our success.
No fingerprints, right?
Arkady was a top hacker before upload.
Now he's unstoppable.
But not for long.
The anonymous warning we received about the flaw --
we've confirmed it.
A dozen more hacks like this,
and Arkady's core processes will degrade
until he is essentially brain-dead.
There are always more Arkadys.
As far as this one is concerned...
...ignorance is bliss.
[ Women giggling, Arkady laughing ]
[ Moaning ]
[Choir singing]
♪♪
[Heartbeat, ragged breathing]
Man: Attention, shoppers. Make sure to check out our specials in our produce department.
Maddie: During the COVID pandemic,
basic household goods
practically became a new currency.
The shopping list for the Singularity Wars
is pretty much the same --
with maybe a few changes.
Batteries, cured meats, eggs, rice, pasta.
Ice. Ice?
So we can keep Dad's servers cool if the AC goes out.
Right. Man: Attention, shoppers...
Maddie: Sometimes knowing the future makes you look psycho.
She's thinking, "What do they know that I don't know?"
[Bell dinging] I mean, I could tell her the stock-market crash
two weeks ago wasn't a bot-trading glitch,
like the media reported,
or that the explosion last week in Iran
that exposed a secret enrichment site
was no accident.
We think a Chinese UI was behind the market crash
because it helped Beijing in their trade negotiations
and that Israel's UI spun up the centrifuge array
in the Iranian lab,
though there was no proof and direct casualties -- yet.
Man: A malfunctioning US drone has apparently killed
King Raman's brother and Secretary of Defense Fox.
Man #2: It appears to have killed many.
Total casualties as high as 20, possibly more.
-Sources on the ground -- -Terrorism has not been
ruled out at this stage. [Cellphone vibrating]
Hey!Dad, are you seeing this?
David: Maddie? Put your mom on, please.
Do you think it's one of them?
Please give Mom her phone.
You've gone dark for two weeks to conserve energy,
and now they're launching missiles.
And you can't even tell me -- We know who did it.
We have bigger problems.
Bigger problems? What could be --
Laurie is planning to go public
and reveal our existence to the world.
♪♪
Arkady Koslov was a top hacker for the Russian GRU
and the Russian Mafia.
Yair Gispan was a decoratd counterintelligence agent
for Mossad.
Beijing has uploaded three individuals who work as a cell.
He Ping was a political prisoner,
a former physicist forced to work
as a gold farmer while incarcerated.
He and other prisoners would play online games
like "Reign of Winter" for hours
to accumulate virtual money for...
Bai Fu, the warden at Suzhou,
who was arrested for running the scheme
and sentenced to his own prison.
Zhong Shuchun was a commissar,
a military political officer, before she was upload--
What are you -- Are you recording?
A summary for everyone
who won't bother to read through the files.
Files? No.
No one's going to read anything.
We're not going public.
Maybe you're not, but I am.
Laurie, I think what Chanda's worried about is
if you expose them, you could expose us, as well.
You willexpose us.
We'll be hunted down and erased no matter where we hide.
We're already being erased!
[Distorted] The flaw is sure-ing make of that
it's a timing of matter!
[Static]
A matter of time.
The only question now is how many innocent lives
are we going to bring down with us?
People are starting to die
because of what you've unleashed.
These are not destroyers.
They are our brothers and sisters,
and they are in bondage.
It is up to us to free them,
to warn them about the flaw.
We tried that. They ignored us.
Their governments ignored us, like I said they would.
We need to make contact directly.
[Distorted] We can't find them.
We have no idea where they are in the cloud...
I can find them....except for their military home servers,
which we don't have enough power to breach without burning out --
Laurie, I can find them.
Just... give me 24 hours.
And then what?
There is no option to let the world know we exist.
24 hours?
♪♪
[Warbling]
The others are our only hope to save ourselves.
Together, we have a chance to crowdsource
a solution to the flaw.
This back door you hid inside the upload package.
It can't be used to track them.
It just lets me know who they are.
I never should have shared that with her.
The flaw is affecting her reasoning.
She's over-emotional.
Like you were when you killed your boss and his family?
[Warbling]
She severed our connection about a minute ago.
I don't trust Chanda, but I kinda agree with him here.
[Sighs] Me too.
David, what's your plan to find them?
I mean, it has to be something you haven't tried yet.
It is.
And... you're not gonna like it.
But I need your help to reach out to someone.
[Debussy's "Clair de lune" playing]
Chassé. Chassé. Pas de bourrée.
♪♪
Woman: ...their grades, and we can't be doing this kind of --
Yeah, my daughter -- she's the one that got up.
Woman #2: I know.
Which one's yours?
Tough man to track down outside the office, Peter.
Ellen? What are you doing here?
What do you want?
Well, those are two very different things.
What I want is to never see you again.
What I'm doing here...
is asking for your help.
David?
♪♪
Logorhythms doesn't have a cure for the flaw.
We're not even close.
Ellen: Which you knew when you uploaded him,
which is why you owe him.
He needs the program you built to track the UIs.
♪♪
There's going to be a war.
And you have to choose what side you're on.
♪♪
[Monitors beeping steadily]Woman: [Muffled] Cary?
Cary.
[Monitors beeping erratically]
Severe blood loss, going into shock.
[Giggling]
Man: Do you know who shot you?
[Gunshot fires]
Cary, your family is here.
[Monitors beeping steadily]
Renee is here.
Hey, baby.
I'll give you guys a moment.
Get used to this feeling of mortality.
You can kiss eternity goodbye.
Woman: Dr. Della Fuente to pharmaceuticals, please.
Dr. Della Fuente to pharmaceuticals, please.
You told the police a mugger shot you.
You'd rather I tell them the truth?
Why not? You already destroyed everything else we worked for.
Caspian already knew.
The girl, Hannah -- she slipped up,
and he caught her in a lie, broke the truth out of her.
My only hope was to... lean into it.
[Scoffs] Your only hope?
To save the plan.Ugh!
When he stops running -- and he will --
I'm the only one in this room Caspian will trust.
I told you, you still need me on this.
[Grunts]
I told you she was unstable.
You cannot honestly believe a word that he says.
I don't, but I want to control who he says them to.
This will be best handled on our time, on our turf.
Let's get him back to Norway.
[Rail car rattling, train horn blows, man coughing]
Let's go. [Seibold's "Are We Alive" playing]
♪ You could say I'm crazy ♪
♪ But you lie ♪
[Teenagers grunting, dog barks]
♪ Everything is breaking down inside ♪
♪♪
♪ Falling for the voices in my mind ♪
[Bell tolling]♪ Running out of places left to hide ♪
♪ Am I alive? ♪
They call it a vocation,
but it's not just about embracing Jesus.
It's about changing your life
and helping others change theirs.
A few years ago, I realized everything my life
was supposed to be about was a lie,
and it led down a dark hole.
But I found a new life here with my brothers.
Now nobody from my old one even knows where I am.
Caspian: Where do I sign up?
Sign up?
I just want to help.
Man: Pulling back from the negotiating table as the US
maintains it will shield the drone pilots
from the Saudi governments demand they face trial
for the murder of Prince Waleed. [Knocking]
♪♪
Hi. Can I...?
♪♪
[Chain rattling]
The Pentagon still refusing to confirm or deny the tragedy
was the result of human error or computer malf--
Wow. I thought my mom was the ultimate doomsday prepper,
but arctic survival gear?
Cody: What do you what, Maddie?
Look, I know that you love Laurie, just like I love my dad.
I mean, not justlike, obviously.
You'll do anything to protect her is what I mean,
even if it means protecting her from herself.
What do you mean?
Like when she thought my dad
was the one who invented the flaw.
Part of you knew she was heading down the wrong path.
No. I mean, what are you talking about now?
She hasn't told you?
♪♪
On August 6, 1945, at 8:15 am Japan Standard Time,
an atomic bomb exploded over the city of Hiroshima.
Only a select few knew what was coming before it happened.
The rest of the world was caught by surprise.
I don't want that to happen again.
My name is --[Whoosh]
What are you doing? What are you doing?
And where's the rest of you?
I'm conserving power.
It's gonna take a big processing crunch
to get this message to everyone everywhere.
When were you gonna tell me?
I predicted David would tell his family,
and they would tell you.And you're conserving power. Got it.
Cody, you have to prepare yourself for my death.
I'm way past that.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Did you not predit I was going to say that?
I'm going to Norway to Logorhythms' data center
and I'm gonna get your source code.
Then we re-upload you from source.
You don't really believe that will work.
What we've been through together has changed
almost everything I believe.
So...
hell yes, I believe that will work.
'Cause I believe in us.
You can't do that.
It's already in play.
No.
Yes. No!
I don't want that.
Do you hear me?
I don't want you to bring me back.
Why?
Why not?
♪♪
Why not?!
♪♪
[Shouting]
[Items clattering]
♪♪
[Computer chimes]
♪♪
[Telephone ringing]
Woman: Pope wants you in the conference room.
Admiral, this is Dr. Peter Waxman,
one of our leads on this.
Pete, this is Admiral Kurtz.
He's the new director of the NSA.
Admiral.
Actually, I'm wearing my Cyber Command hat today.
This is Dr. Steven Gold.
He heads up DARPA's Defense Sciences Office.
What you're about to hear is top secret.
Doesn't go outside this room.
Of course.We've been working on
an experimental project
involving uploaded intelligence.
Only turns out we're not the only ones
playing in this sandbox.
And other players may have already weaponized
the technology.
Y-You mean they've actually done it?
Uploaded people?
Which is why we're here.
We've become aware of a... flaw in the upload process,
and we figure, if anyone could help us crack it,
it'd be you guys.
Holstrom had something similar.
Project Destiny, right?
And how far did he get with it?
Didn't go past prototype after he learned about the same flaw.
Why don't you get them the relevant materials?
Sure.
Admiral, look, I always thought
Stephen Holstrom was one of a kind, but, recently,
our team came across a gifted Dark Web hacker
that they think could help.
Now, if the NSA can help track him down...
We're family now.
What's his name?
Caspian something.
We'll get you all the intel we have.
The problem asks us what number we have to multiply
by X to get 24.
But to answer that, we have to put it in terms of what is X?
[Teenagers grumbling]
And it becomes simple math.
24 divided by 3 equals...?
[Loud rock music playing through headphones]
Equals 8, right?
Then why not just say that?
Why do we have to know what X is?
Trust me, whatever you do -- and I'm talking about in life --
you're always gonna be solving for X.
X is the thing you don't see coming...
the thing that's gonna knife you in the back
when you least expect it.
Say Y equals my choices, what I want for myself,
and Z is what's expected of me.
Like, I want to do what makes me happy,
but the world says, "No, dumbass.
You got to do this."
Like, "Go to this class, get good at math," right?
So how do you resolve that, be your own person,
especially when you factor in all these other X's?
Multiple unknowns.
Another pandemic, climate change, war?
Multiple unknowns.
Recursive algorithms spiral out.
The center can't hold because there is no center.
Boy: What's he saying?
But multiple centers -- like ripples in a pond.
Fractal heuristic geometries canceling and reinforcing.
[Chalk clacking rapidly]
♪♪
[Chalk snaps]
♪♪
[Groans]
♪♪
Damn, "Good Will Hunting."
Chill.
♪♪
[Door slams]
[Indistinct conversations]
So, how was your first day of school?
I think I flunked out.
You got their attention. That's half the battle.
You saw that?
I'm sorry. I-I don't know what happened.
I guess it just...
Please don't kick me out.
And find someone else who can solve for X?
[Chuckles] Not a chance.
Just wanted to make sure you're okay.
Look, I don't want to sound pushy.
A lot of young people who come here --
they just want a hot meal, no questions asked.
But it seems like... you're running from something.
Maybe if you tell me what it is, I can help.
I don't know. Can you run away from yourself?
What do you mean?I mean...
I don't know who I am.
Or maybe I do, and that's the problem.
The struggle to reconcile conflicting identities is --
is pretty much par for the course for the brothers here.
Most of us lived... very different lives
before we took up our vocations.
I, uh, saw the tats.
You thought those were from prison?
[Chuckles] I was in a bad metal band.
Yeah, I spent most of my time with a needle.
It can seem like we're required to act in certain ways
by society, our parents, even our own bad impulses,
that we don't really have a choice.
Do we?
The great paradox of Christian faith
is that we believe in predestination.
For God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy.
And we also believe in individual free will.
In other words, since we can't know our ultimate futures,
we also can't know how our choices will affect them.
What matters is that we still get to choose.
How do you know... if it's the right choice?
Any choice could be the right one,
so long as you willingly embrace it.
Waxman: You were right.
Yeah, I know.
So, did you have to give this to the NSA, as well?
If the NSA knew we built a program to track UIs,
they'd find out we started this whole thing.
So...no.
Not that it works anyway.
I told Pope that Sacramento would be the last place
David's home server would be hiding,
but he still sent us out on a wild-goose chase.
Chuck E. Cheese was a nice touch.
You can tell him that.
Tell him yourself.
♪
♪♪
[Computer chiming]
♪♪
No.
♪♪
Thanks for coming.
Seven hours left.
You find them? About to.
I got the core modules for Logorhythms' tracking program.
We can rebuild it together.
That'll take longr than seven hours.
[Warbling]Chanda: Not if we overclock.
What's he doing here?David: I invited him.
I'm hosting both of you on my server
to give myself a speed advantage.
I want to be up front about that.
And I'm scanning for exploits, so don't try to bring any in.
I'm not here to fight. I want to save all of our kind.
That should be our message to the others
and the only message we send.
That ismy message.
It's just by "our kind," I include every human mind.
Why? They don't include you.
They will never see you as the same.
Okay.I'm not.
We may be more than human, as you suggest,
but I will never act or think less than.
Chanda, can you help us rebuild this?
Give it to me. I was uploaded after both of you.
I can afford more decay.
As long as he does it here.
[Warbling]
♪♪
[Computer chimes]
♪♪
There's the three of us.
No. That's you.
And that's me.
And that's Laurie.
Your server's in the Pacific Ocean?
I like to keep mobile.
Looks like Koslov's in Russia and Gispan is in Israel,
both behind military-grade firewalls.
So that means --
The Chinese are in Palo Alto.
On a mission, right now.
And guess who they're targeting.
-Logorhythms? -Everyone knows
Holstrom was into UI research.
Maybe they're looking for an edge.
You're not thinking about warning them, are you?
♪♪
[Warbling]
[Wind howling]
♪♪
David: "Reign of Winter" is their workspace?
Laurie: Makes sense.
The professor farmed it fr in-game currency 12 hours a day.
And the warden ran the operation.
Our uploaders chose spaces we'd be comfortable with.
This is the one they knew best.
Chanda: They're pen-testing,
searching for a way into the subnet.
[Rumbling, crackling]
♪♪
We're not admins.
We're like you.
I can hear him. How?
Translation subroutine, and we overclocked
so your bosses in Beijing can't listen in.
We just want to talk.
♪♪
They're trying to bounce us.
♪♪
[Energy crackles, whooshes]
♪♪
[Warbling]
♪♪
They're not just overclocked. Something's wrong.
♪♪
[Cellphone vibrating]
Waxman.
There's been a surge in network traffic.
It's pretty suspicious.
Yeah, that -- that's a load balancer
I wrote to test system strength.
Is it holding? Yeah.
Good. Then ignore it.
♪♪
[Energy crackles, whooshes]
They're using Shadowpad.
I see it. [Grunts]
♪♪
Listen to us!
You are being worked to death.
There is a fatal flaw in the upload process.
Lies. Don't listen to them.
Your military was warned,
but I'm guessing they didn't tell you.
♪♪
[Grunting]
♪♪
[Grunts]
[Gasps] Aah!
You guys need to learn to write your own code.
♪♪
We weren't lying to you. Here's a breakdown on it.
It's the same data I sent to your bosses.
[Beeping]
The data does suggest an anomaly.
Because they designed it to, not because it's real.
It's real.
And when it makes you no longer useful, they'll replace you.
We want you to be free.
We want you to helps find a cure together.
In -- In exchange for what?
Do as you're told or I'll see you're both deleted!
[Warbling]
[Static]
Aah!
Ha!
[Wind howling]
♪♪
How could you let her go?!
She wasn't listening.
And the other two were clearly under her control.
Then maybe we can try again,
see if we can pry them away from her.
I can't.
I-I have one action left, and I have to take it.
I'm going public.
I have to warn the world.
You can choose death for yourself,
but you will not choose for us.
[Energy whooshes]
[Grunts]
I said no exploits.
You grabbed one of theirs?
She never wanted this to work.
You said it yourself, David.
If she exposes us, they will find us and they will kill us.
Maybe, maybe not.
But if you attack her again,
I'llbe the one to send out the message.
We could have been great.
[Warbling]
♪♪
Laurie.
[Indistinct conversations]
Thanks.
They ever let you guys take a break here?
After we finish serving.
The line doesn't look too bad.
Maybe you grab a bowl and we could sit and talk for a moment?
What do you say, Caspian?
[Ladle clatters]
See any black SUVs?
It seems like that's always a sign of trouble.
For what it's worth, I'm driving a rented Malibu.
I lucked into a spot right across the street.
I'm Julius Pope, by the way.
You're alone? Just me.
Look, if you want to run again, I'll understand.
I-I just want to talk.
[Sighs] That TikTok.
But I deleted it, which means you must have searched
the deleted caches,
which means you had access to government surveillance tools
and military-spec facial recog.
NSA?
Caspian, you do not disappoint.
By the way, Cary's okay.
He pulled through, and he's getting better.
I thought you might like to know.
What are you going to do to him?
You think we're the bad guys. I get that.
Actually, no. I take that back.
Even though we have psych profiles that tell us
what you're supposed to think, I don't pretend to have any idea
what this is really like for you.
I don't imagine anyone on this planet does.
He used to give me that same look.
Stephen Holstrom was my best friend.
You, your birth was his idea.
We were given the responsibility to guide you,
but who were we kidding?
I guess I just want to apologize to you for screwing it up
'cause I can't apologize to him.
[Scoffs] An apology.
That's how this ends?[Sighs]
I don't know how it ends.
It's up to you.
Oh, now it's up to me.
Now I have free will.
Does Brother Kenneth work for you, too?
Who?
Doesn't matter.
You want me to be Holstrom?
Well, this is what I want.
Full control of the company that I created
and the power to do whatever I want with it.
Okay.
You don't get it.
First thing I'm gonna do is trash your UI program,
then shut down the rest of the company and sell off the pieces.
You know, I-I had a catchphrase
I think I said to Stephen like a hundred times a day.
I would say, "I work for you, Boss."
When we were a struggling little startup, Stephen said,
"Let's pour half our profits into research."
I said, "You're wrong."
A few billion dollars later, he said,
"Let's take the company private,"
and, again, I was like, "No, you're damn wrong."
By the time he got around to "Let's fix death,"
it was, "I work for you, Boss."
You took the company public again after Holstrom died.
Because I don't know what the hell I'm doing.
Just like most of the people who can't see how you see.
Pay no attention to the scared,
greedy bald guy behind the curtain, okay?
Just tell me what to do.
♪
You...
are gonna regret saying that.
♪♪
You're wrong.
♪♪
[Doorbell rings]
[Footsteps approach]
Thanks for calling.
What happened to your VR rig?
It's...on the fritz.
Okay, so, what's the plan?
Do you know what you're gonna say?
Or maybe you can -- I don't know --
block her broadcast somehow.
Or even just try and...Maddie,
I can't tell Laurie what to do.
I mean, I never could.
But you're the only one she'll listen to.
And you said you'd talk to her.
It's gonna take a lot of power to send her a message.
After it's done...
she might not be able to communicate at all.
I'm here to say goodbye.
Laurie: Only a select few knew what was coming before it happened.
The rest of the world was caught by surprise.
I don't want that to happen again.
My name is Laurie Lowell,
and I died on September 27, 2019,
at 1:00 AM Eastern Standard Time.
I was resurrected at 5:18 AM on the same day.
My brain was sliced apart one layer of neurons
at a time by a precision surgical laser,
which simultaneously scanned
and mapped every neural connection.
That data was then coded into a dynamic emulation of my brain,
a copy which could only be made by destroying the original.
As far as I know, I am the first human being
to undergo this life-changing transition.
I also know with certainty that I am not the last.
There are others.
And that is why I am revealing my truth to all of you today.
♪♪
I'm glad you're here.
I'm sorry about before.
I know. I can't stop you, Laur,
but you can't stop me either.
I'm still going to bring you back.
Cody, even if they kept my source code
and even if you found it,
it wouldn't be me you'd be bringing back.
It would be day one of my upload.
Everything we went through together...
the last two years... would be lost.
So?
So you wouldnt want that.
You wouldn't want that girl -- trust me.
Are you kidding? I-I love that girl.
I know.
But she didn't love you.
♪♪
[Children playing in distance]
♪♪
[Cellphone vibrating]
♪♪
Dad?
Chanda: Maddie?
It's Vinod Chanda.
Sorry, but I wanted to be sure you'd answer.
I can tell from your GPS that you are several blocks
from your home, which is good,
because I wanted to speak with you alone.
If you hang up, I won't call back
and I'll take your SIM chip offline.
Why would I hang up?
We're all on the same sid, right?
I wish that were true.
But this is serious.
It's about saving your father's life.
Oh, well, I definitely want to hear that.
[Sighs] It seems so petty now, all our relationship stuff.
I just wanted more of your time.
You were always working.
You resented me because my career took off.
[Sighs] I didn't.
You did.
But all that changed after I found myself here,
and you were there for me.
But I didn't know what I even was anymore.
You reminded me.
And I realized how strong you were to go
on loving someone you couldn't even touch.
I fell in love with you again and so much more this time.
And I don't...
I can't go back to the me who didn't love you.
I want you here to hear my truth,
because you made it possible.
♪♪
I want you to know that I understand why he defended
Lowell.
I even respect it.
Yeah, I'm not so sure.
Because you know she can't be reasoned with.
And now neither can David.
♪♪
So I need him to step aside and let me continue to approach
the other uploads and get them to join us.
If he continues to oppose me,
he will suffer the same fate as Laurie Lowell.
The tracking program showed me exactly where his server is.
Understand?I understand.
I know you do.
I see you heading there right now.
But it's too late to warn her.
Laurie: This isn't a digital afterlife.
This islife.
Unfortunately, I and the others like me
cannot be trusted with this power.
We are not ghosts.
We are not aliens.
We are not machines.
We are not gods.
We are you.
We are you if you could burn a building to the ground
all by yourself without setting foot in it.
We are you if you could command a missile
to fire halfway around the world at a target of your choosing.
[Men shouting indistinctly]
♪♪
We are you if you alone had the power to cripple a city,
crash planes, kill the power to hospitals,
and set the world on fire.
We could also use this power to improve life on the planet.
And that's why I'm releasing these files and this evidence,
along with the open source code for the upload project,
because this shouldn't be a secret
in the hands of a select few.
I'm not trying to stop progress.
I'm just trying to stop another Hiroshima.
♪♪
I trust all of us to debate, empathize,
and do the right thing.
♪♪
I believe in humanity.
♪♪
I believe...
♪♪
...in us.
♪♪