♪ Dream ♪
♪ When you're feelin' blue ♪
♪ Dream ♪
♪ That's the thing to do ♪
♪ Dream ♪
Let me in, Daniel.
I'm fine.
- Okay, actually, considering-- - No, no.
Someone who's fine doesn't ignore his best friend
when he calls and calls repeatedly.
- Not after what's happened. - But I'm working.
That's what I do. I can still work, thank Christ.
- I don't need you checking in. - Oh, really?
When you isolate yourself, the people who love you are going to insist on knowing
what the hell is going on. Okay?
Got it?
We love you, all your friends, your family.
What are you doing? Are you working on a script?
- Is that why you're not-- - Yeah.
- So you'll have something to sell. - Oh, fuck you.
Right, I'm just your asshole agent. What, you think I need your business?
But while we're on the fucking subject, you have been offered a bunch of jobs
and I keep covering for you because you never respond.
I care deeply about you, Danny.
- What you've been through-- - What I've been through?
You tell me what it is I've been through
then let's see how you do, okay?
You'd go insane. You'd go mad, you'd never stop fucking screaming.
What I've been through?
This is hell.
Well, then talk to me.
My ten-year-old son vanishes into thin air. Poof.
Who knows... Do you know where the mind goes?
What little I have left?
I don't sleep.
The thoughts of the ditches he could be in,
of the cult that kidnapped or sex trafficked him.
Please. Christ, man. Sex trafficked?
You can't... You cannot assume these--
Do you know how many kids end up in the hands of Bulgarian sex traffickers?
- Have you not seen Taken? - That's a fucking movie!
Everyone is doing everything they can
- to find him. - Everyone? Are they?
The police, the FBI, my ex-wife...
Is Riva doing anything other than narcotizing herself on tranquilizers?
The brilliant private eye has nothing to show for it.
Danny. Please.
We just want you to start coming out into the world again.
Start living life again.
The world is over.
It's over. Out there is just a cardboard cutout of the world
with people reciting lines at my face.
I can't interact with those.
They're not people.
They're empty entities.
This picture I'm writing, that's how I stay in the world.
But I'll never be part of the outside world again.
Well. A movie about a man who loses his son and goes mad?
- Is that really the healthiest project-- - You can leave now.
You can leave now, okay?
Last thing I need to do is justify or explain my feelings or actions to you.
Show yourself the fuck out.
What the fuck?
Hello?
Hello? Anybody here?
Where the fuck am I?
What in the actual fuck?
Big savings means bigger smiles.
Ask a team member today about our Endless Rewards program,
where the savings are measured from ear to ear.
♪ Dream ♪
♪ When you're feelin' blue ♪
I'm dreaming.
I'm lucid dreaming.
♪ Dream ♪
♪ That's the thing to do ♪
♪ Dream ♪
♪ While the smoke rings rise ♪
♪ In the air ♪
♪ You'll find your share ♪
♪ Of memories... ♪
Don't move a muscle. A team member is right around the corner.
Don't move a muscle-- Don't move a muscle--
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. - Don't move a-- Don't move--
- Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck! - Don't-- Don't-- Don't mo--
Don't move a muscle. A team member is right around the corner.
Who's there?
Fuck you. Get out here.
Hey!
Are you okay?
Hey! Who's there?
What are you doing, Daddy?
Roman?
Why are you on the floor?
Roman?
Roman!
Where the fuck have you been, Danny?
I owe you an apology for walking out on you.
Do you know how worried everyone is? You kick me out when I try to help you,
then you disappear for three weeks? Everyone has been sick with worry.
I need to see you right away.
- I've been gone for three weeks? - Yes. Jesus Christ.
Where did you go? What's the matter with you?
I can't talk about it on the phone right now.
Um, could you meet me, please, in an hour at Muse?
Hello, Danny.
Why is she here?
Why are you here, Riva?
Is this... Are you gonna try some kind of intervention?
Sit down. I need to tell you something.
- No, I'm not-- - Roman is dead.
They found him.
The police found him.
Last week, in the woods behind the playground on Latham Street.
Everyone is looking for you.
To tell you. Where...
Where were you?
They found Roman?
Where is he?
The morgue. The Westchester morgue.
He was buried in the ground,
wrapped in a blanket, a red blanket.
Are there any clues? What do...
What do the police say?
They don't have anything.
They're doing tests for DNA and fingerprints.
It's finally real.
It's all real.
I'm not dreaming anymore.
Do you know we invented hell?
We made it.
We manifested it.
Hi, I'm Max. I'll be your server.
So, the specials are very limited. We have crab omelets with chive--
Can you leave us, please?
I... I'm gonna kill whoever did this. I swear to God.
I'm gonna kill them.
You can be in the world one moment and hell the next.
It is right here. It's right next to us.
Danny, sit down.
Please. The funeral.
- We need to talk about arrangements-- - I need a moment, please.
What the fuck?
Hey! Aaron!
Riva!
Aaron!
Hey!
What the fuck?
Hello?
Roman?
Roman, are you here?
No.
No way.
Hey!
You could tell me if you wanted to, all that happened.
No.
You've always had to hide the truth from me.
Your mind does it by itself out of long habit.
But... But you know the truth now.
I'm not hiding anymore.
I'm trying to remember.
Ann.
When did you first steal something?
Please, tell me.
In school,
several times.
When you married me, I insisted that you start with me as a--
And the Oscar goes to
Daniel Hausman-Burger. The Chorus.
Roman?
Dad?
Is that you?
You!
No! Help me!
No. No. No. No.
Dad. ...do better than that.
Dad.
Dad!
Liminal space.
It's the area between here and there.
Here, being reality.
There, being anywhere else.
Now, this in-between area would hypothetically be accessible
from either side.
I know this because I've been there.
So... [sighs] ...yeah.
If you've been watching,
I was never able to capture sound.
I thought I was losing my shit for a while.
Hallucinating till-till I got the footage.
Phones are useless wherever this is, so first attempts were a bust.
Super-8 works okay.
That's what we're looking at here.
Started carrying it around with me, so I'd have it when I slip through.
I'll reiterate, this is not fiction.
This is not some film school class project,
not that you'll believe me.
I have been to this place.
It's not anywhere on earth that I know of.
But it's nonetheless quite real.
Not sure why I am putting this out there.
I know it sounds crazy, but if you know this place,
if anyone has been there,
please, I have theories.
Reach out.
Or don't.
Whatever.
The best I've been able to figure,
what we're experiencing is a form of temporal phasing,
in which one bypasses the normal boundaries of spatial reality.
And in English that means?
Sorry.
I'm a coder. So, I look at video games.
What you see on the screen when you play a game is just a surface,
a veneer that covers up a hugely complex system of inner workings.
But you as a player are firewalled from seeing any of that.
Your hardwiring ensures that all you see is the surface.
So, you think reality, the world is like that veneer.
Exactly. Now, what keeps us tethered to reality?
Same thing.
Our hardwiring. Our senses. What we can see. What we can touch.
The tangible. Yes.
But that's only half of it. - What's the other half?
The social contract.
The rules that exist for being a member of the species.
When a person breaks those rules,
they can disconnect from our collective perception of reality.
The person becomes ontologically challenged.
Free floating.
And then they slip through to the other side.
The other side, well...
There's only one way to get there.
But, yes.
I think they can slip into some
middle area.
Uh, like a kind of purgatory where I'm being sent to pay for my sins?
I-I don't speak that language.
I know science. That's all.
Why does it look like an office or...
My guess: you're still tied to your human faculties.
Whatever this-this liminal...
Whatever this liminal space actually looks like,
you're not wired to be able to actually perceive it.
So, it appears instead as somewhere familiar.
An office. A grocery store.
But only in just enough detail to be tangible.
But it's not.
And you know about this 'cause you've been there. It happened to you.
How?
I ended up there because of a woman.
Charlotte Hansley.
She was a triathlete.
She was also a wife and a mom.
It was 6:49 a.m.
I ran a red light.
I was trying to, um...
click on a link to claim a coupon for dog food.
I wish she had died right then.
Okay.
It's-It's... It's okay.
I... I'm-I'm really, really sorry.
I'm... I'm...
But she didn't. She held on for a couple minutes.
I was the only one there.
So, what? Were you looking at your phone?
Or did she just come out of nowhere?
She was just there.
I hadn't meant to lie.
So she ran the stop sign?
It just came out.
I didn't realize I'd have to tell the same lie every day
for the rest of my life.
That lie became the center of my whole identity.
A good person had died at my hands,
but it wasn't my fault.
I received... [chuckles] ...so much sympathy.
Real sympathy that I was not owed.
And I was removed.
I was still physically there.
I could see everything around me, but I...
I couldn't break through and be a part of it anymore.
Reality was getting farther and farther away,
and then one day...
it was gone.
And I was there.
In that place.
Hello?
What is it exactly you think I've done?
You came to me.
I... I'm not your therapist. I'm not your parole officer.
I'm not gonna ask you what it is.
All I can tell you is,
if you want out of this hell...
you better fix it.
The longer it festers,
the worse this whole thing is gonna get.
For me?
I had to tell the truth.
Face the music.
I'll do it.
I'm so, so sorry.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.
I'll do it.
This is the Westchester County Sheriff's Department.
Daniel Hausman-Burger, step outside with your hands up.
We have you surrounded. I repeat, you are surrounded.
Aaron, what's going on?
Come on, Daniel. You know what's going on. It's over.
I didn't do it, Aaron! I didn't do it!
You fucking monster! You murdered my baby!
Oh, God, my son! You just gotta come out.
Go peacefully, and they're gonna treat you fairly.
I swear, I didn't do it. Daniel, open the door!
You don't have to live with the lie anymore.
I'm not lying!
They have you on video. Open the door!
There was a security cam at the golf course next door.
Why did you do it?
Stay there! Don't move!
Oh, no. Oh, no.
Hey, guys.
- He's back. - Uh-huh. Uh-oh.
He came.
Looks like Daddy's been having playtime too,
even though he told Mommy he was coming straight home.
Well,
Daddy got stuck with the goddamn studio giving him notes.
And then they insisted on drinks,
and Daddy couldn't just walk out on them, now could he?
Well, we got approved for pre-K today.
Great. So, everybody had a big day. Yay.
Here, honey. Here.
What the fuck is wrong with you, Daniel?
Is Hollywood so important to you that you're just...
Are you still even human?
Yes, yes. Oscar winner.
Artist, artist!
Sensitive, brilliant, genius.
But you, oh... The second things get tough in life,
real life, real life interferes...
...with your precious dreams of fame
and Hollywood greatness, you...
Do you think walking out on your family means you are free?
Huh? Huh?
No, Daddy. No. No!
Fuck you, Daniel!
Fuck you!
Hello, Father. You came.
Can you... Can you help me, please?
I... I have to get out of here.
I wanna go home.
But you've only just arrived.
You traveled so far.
No one has ever come this deep before.
Why am I here?
You know why.
They're coming for you, Father.
Time to come clean.
You're a selfish fuck.
Okay, okay, okay. I'll tell everyone.
I'll tell everyone the truth.
I will. I promise.
Just get me out of here, please!
Have you missed me, Daddy?
Of course.
Of course. Every day.
Every day, my son. Every day, my precious boy.
You're lying. I know you are.
Liar.
You just wanna leave me here.
Liar.
It's okay.
You can go if you want to.
All you ever had to do was follow the sign.