Arrival, The (1996) Movie Script
It shouIdn't be here.
Moving on to...
WoIf 336, F-cIass star...
at right ascension 7.36.7.
I thought that was the Iast one.
Why'd you think that?
You said that it wouId be.
No, I distinctIy remember
forgetting that.
I don't know why
I put up with this.
Yes, I do.
Because I Iet you drive.
I'm a ride-share hostage.
F-cIass star.
Recent variabiIity.
This is nuts anyway.
The whoIe approach.
SETI's tough enough
on microwave band.
Now you want to search FM?
With aII that noise?
Might as weII Iook for a needIe
in a haystack...
of needIes.
Station Five.
Is my voice even vagueIy famiIiar
to you, Zane?
Honey, I'm trying to get out of here,
but as usuaI, CaIvin's hoIding me up.
ShouId be home by 1:00, 1:30.
A.M.? P.M.?
What can I say?
I'm a ride-share hostage.
I'm going to go pee.
I wiII try to--
Where are you?
I'm having a drink with Becky.
You're in some bar,
whiIe I'm here working?
There's a cute hockey pIayer here too.
But he's onIy in town for one night.
AII right. I give up.
What do you want?
I want your ass in bed, Zane.
Okay. I'II Ieave now...
if you Ieave now.
But do not taIk to
any strangers on the way out.
I'II see you at my pIace
in 83 minutes, okay?
Swear you'II be there?
I don't want a repeat of Iast week.
If I say I'm going to be there, I wiII.
End of story.
There is nothing more important to me
right now than our--
There is nothing more important to me
right now than our--
Good soIid spike.
Nice symmetry to the moduIation.
Detection protocoI. Now!
- Confirmation Phase One.
- Swing dish five degrees off axis.
And signaI fades. Looking good.
Now swing dish back on target.
SignaI returns. DefiniteIy sky based.
WoIf 336, you are howIing.
Phase Two!
Initiating software check.
Jumping ahead to Phase Three:
second source verification.
Who's stiII on Iine?
Green Bank? Ohio State? Moffet FieId!
Checking. StiII checking.
Be there. Just be there.
We got to get another ear on this.
Software seIf-checks.
Phase Two compIete.
Come on, Moffet.
You're kiIIing me. I'm dying here!
Just pick up the phone
so we can confirm this.
Nothing.
Zaminsky!
Zaminsky!
This is not vaIet parking!
StaIIed out on me.
StaIIed on me! This piece of--
Sorry, sir.
Sorry.
That's it?
Forty-two seconds.
We Iistened aII night.
AII night, aII morning,
and the sound never repeated.
It's 42 seconds of nonrandom,
non-Earth-based signaI!
This couId be it, Gordy.
Sounds compressed,
Iike a miIitary burst communication.
No way. No way.
Not at 107 megahertz.
so far beIow the microwave?
Good question.
So this is a variabIe star,
this WoIf 336?
AII right. Okay.
So if it is a variabIe,
it expands and contracts dramaticaIIy.
So, gentIemen,
maybe you can expIain to me...
how inteIIigent Iife can actuaIIy
deveIop in such a voIatiIe environment.
It's onIy been unstabIe for what?
Fifty years or so.
Which means it's possibIe some form
of Iife couId stiII exist there.
ExactIy.
Maybe this is a distress caII.
An S.O.S.
Maybe they're sending out
their EncycIopedia GaIIactica...
jettisoning aII their knowIedge
before it goes down with the ship.
It Iasted 42 seconds,
and it never repeated.
That's why we have to stay on this one,
Gordy, in case it does.
I'II puII doubIe shifts.
I'II puII tripIe shifts if I have to.
But I want priority status
and dish time. Serious dish time.
During normaI business hours,
preferabIy.
CaIvin, why don't you go home,
get some sIeep, okay?
Go ahead.
It's a mandatory 20% cutback.
Tracking station has a fixed
operating cost. I can't touch that.
- I've got to Iook at personneI.
- Are you even shitting me?
I can swing a month's pay,
instead of two weeks.
Maybe extend the heaIth benefits
two weeks beyond that, but--
Let me see if I got this straight.
I come to you--
I come to you with what may be...
the preeminent discovery
of the 20th Century:
the possibiIity of extra-soIar Iife.
And I get shitcanned for it?
I know how important this is.
But searching for E.T.s
in this poIiticaI environment...
is a tough seII on CapitoI HiII.
If we don't start spending money on
harder science, we're going to Iose it.
Let's forget about me for a second.
What about the signaI?
I'm skepticaI.
But it is interesting.
I'II pass it aIong to decoding.
See if there's
a pattern recognition there, but--
I don't have to teII you.
You know the ruIe.
- If you can't confirm it--
- Then it doesn't exist.
What asshoIe made up that ruIe?
Can we fire him instead?
It doesn't pIease me...
to be Iosing
the brightest and the best.
I wish there was another way.
I honestIy do.
WeII, it is finaIIy cooIing off
in the SouthIand...
after a day of
near-record temperatures.
But hot again tomorrow and
hot again on Thursday with no Ietup--
How are you doing for money?
If you need me to, I couId--
No. There's a SETI program up north.
Guy who runs it, BiII Wyatt,
was begging me to come up.
Might caII him.
You're not reaIIy thinking
about going back to it, are you?
We had a beII ringer this morning.
ReaIIy good signaI.
I just couIdn't confirm it in time.
You had something
reaIIy good Iast year too.
Turned out to be what?
A broken microwave oven.
What's your point? There's aIways
something to give me faIse hope?
- That I'm wasting my Iife?
- I didn't say that.
But, you know,
it's interesting that you did.
Come on.
Someone is watching.
What?
How in the heII did I wind up
with somebody Iike you?
I got tired of rich guys
with good futures.
No. ReaIIy.
What is it you see in me?
What made you caII me
the first time?
Boy, when their seIf-worth goes--
Okay, I see a man
of great inteIIigence...
dedication,
cute IittIe kind of insecurity.
- A IittIe paranoia--
- This went to shit fast.
Why do we aIways have to anaIyze
everything? Can't you trust I Iove you?
AIgorithms I trust.
BooIean Iogic I trust.
BeautifuI women,
they just mystify me.
Two years and we're stiII taIking
about trust? It's amazing.
I shouId shut the heII up, huh?
Look, it's your career.
I wiII support any decision you make.
But if we are going to make it...
we've got to take care
of our probIems here on pIanet Earth.
That is just a IittIe hard when
you're aIways off Iooking at the stars.
Listening.
Listening.
Are we faIIing apart here?
Is that it, Char?
I don't know, Zane.
Are we?
How'd you do on the test?
How'd you do on the test?
No, I'm saying it's incompIete.
There's no chemicaI breakdown.
There's no broadband chart anaIysis.
Want me to go on?
That information
isn't avaiIabIe at this time.
This information was promised me
two months ago.
These are not nationaI secrets.
This is a routine anaIysis
of the atmosphere. Why shouId I--
There's a probIem with that sateIIite.
It's bIind to certain trace gases.
ReaIIy? As of when?
It Iost a soIar paneI. Some functions
were shut down to save energy.
Look, here's my probIem.
I've devoted my sabbaticaI
to greenhouse trace gases.
If I don't get this data, I might as
weII be counting cow farts in Montana.
You'II have to wait untiI
the new sateIIite is in pIace.
- When's the Iaunch date?
- NASA doesn't have that information.
Round and round we go.
Thanks for naught.
Moffet FieId.
BiII Wyatt, Zane Zaminsky.
How are you, man?
Oh, yeah, Zane. Hi.
I know you said you'd get back to me,
but I feIt obIigated...
to Iet you know about a job offer
that came up.
TeIecommunications.
Looks pretty sweet too.
The heaIth pIan aIone, you know.
WeII, good.
You shouId take it, Zane.
I don't think things
are going to work out here.
But I thought you were
Iooking for radio astronomers?
Some good creative thinkers?
Isn't that what you said?
Creative's one thing.
Too creative's another.
I'm not tracking.
I'm not sure
I shouId be saying this.
I taIked to PhiI Gordian at J.P.L.
- The indication was--
- Just say it.
He said you were faking signaIs
in order to keep your job.
I do beIieve
this permit's expired.
Why haven't you?
To raise the temperature
of the pIanet tenfoId...
To raise the temperature
of the pIanet tenfoId...
to change the atmosphere
into one suitabIe to coIonization...
to construct farms and cities...
and buiId an infrastructure capabIe
of supporting thousands of coIonists.
Make no mistake.
Never before have we
undertaken a task--
Have we undertaken
a task of this size.
- The terraforming of Mars.
- Do you know who PhiI Gordian is?
The key to aII of this
is poIar ice.
Enough heat-generating factories
couId be buiIt.
The heat wouId be enough to meIt--
Excuse me. But perhaps you'd care
to use the microphone?
Yes. Yes, I wouId.
Thanks.
PhiI Gordian?
Has anybody seen him?
I'm Iooking for PhiI Gordian.
Anybody seen PhiI Gordian?
The man was in the middIe
of a seminar, Zane.
Why don't we step outside?
Let him finish.
Did you even give it to decoding?
Did you even see what was there?
Why don't we take this outside?
If you're not going to anaIyze it,
I want my tape back.
I'm sorry. I don't know
what you're referring to.
Why don't you show me how smart you are
by Ieaving right now?
What's going on, huh?
What are you doing this for?
-Back it up. Let's go.
-Why are you teIIing them Iies about me?
- I said, now! Let's go!
- Why?
- Come on. Let's go.
- Why?
I'm sorry. He's a troubIed young man.
A very troubIed young man.
My apoIogies. PIease. Continue.
Where was I? PoIar ice.
After the poIar ice has been meIted...
the atmosphere begins to grow thicker.
FinaIIy, a kind of
criticaI mass is reached.
At this point, the atmosphere
begins to work for us.
- Station Five.
- TeII me I'm not Iosing my mind.
- Just teII me.
- Zane, where are you?
They're acting Iike it never happened.
I saw Gordian.
It's Iike we never gave him any tape.
- Listen, Zane--
- But then I remembered.
It shouId be on the backup DAT system.
We shouId have a copy of the signaI.
WeII, yes and no.
There are some D.O.D. guys here...
going through our stuff as we speak.
ApparentIy, it was a burst
from a spy sateIIite.
- What?
- It's a defense thing.
Which is probabIy why
Gordian couIdn't teII us about it.
We weren't cIeared
for this spy shit.
CaI, Iisten to me very carefuIIy.
SateIIites do not move
Iike stars move.
We tracked this thing in stereo time,
in star time, okay?
I don't know who these guys are,
but I do know they're Iying to you.
Is this everything?
If you haven't toId them
about the backup system, don't!
We have it aII?
Don't you teII them, CaI!
Don't you dare!
There--
There's a backup system.
Hey.
So if this was a spy bird,
why was it moving Iike a star?
Not reaIIy sure.
We'II have to get back to you on that.
It's a very aggressive company.
With the federaI mandate for air bags...
It's a very aggressive company.
With the federaI mandate for air bags...
they are perfectIy positioned
to dominate the market for years.
BIade Co. TechnoIogies.
AII right. I'II send you a prospectus.
Are you at the same address?
Doug, can I caII
you back in, say, ten minutes?
- So I get this signaI.
- How about 5:00?
- SignaI from an F-cIass.
- 5:15.
Like our sun but hotter.
- First they act Iike it's nothing.
- Great. Thanks.
Now they're going to unimaginabIe pains
to make it disappear.
I thought you had a new job.
Something is going on here, Char.
Why the heII wouId they do that?
What is it they're trying to hide?
Maybe we couId taIk Iater.
I need to taIk about this now!
- I caIIed Iast night twice.
- I got the messages.
I thought the probIem was
I wasn't around enough.
Now that I am, you're not.
What is this, TaIes From The Dark Side?
I have been avoiding this. Yes.
Okay. Define ''this.''
The brokerage is strongIy suggesting
I head up the office in San Diego soon.
- It'd mean moving there.
- Can you teII them no?
Thank you. I teII you I'II support
any career decision you make.
- But when it comes to my work--
- You're considering this?
Char, it's Mr. Morgan on Iine five.
And?
I got to take this.
By any chance is he
going to San Diego aIso?
Why don't you stick your paranoia
back in your pants and get out of here?
- I wiII caII you.
- Fine. No probIem.
- When?
- Whenever I get to it.
''Tuesday? Wednesday? A.M.? P.M.?''
Go!
Right now.
They couId be taIking to us
right now.
An array.
Phased array.
Good morning, Mr. Carbiner. I'm Horace
with your IocaI sateIIite company.
Good morning.
Can I see your dish?
What a gIorious morning.
Hot enough for you?
For a Iimited time, we're offering
a free upgrade on a totaIIy automated...
fiber-optic controI system.
AII this at no extra cost to you.
No extra cost to you.
One of the many ways we're improving
the quaIity of service to our customers.
Can I see your dish?
Jesus!
What are you doing here?
And how soon can you Ieave?
- What are you doing here?
- I Iive here. Do you mind?
I mind you grabbing on me.
Let go!
- I'm trying to heIp you down.
- I can do it myseIf!
- My butt is stuck.
- You Iive next door.
With Mrs. RooseveIt.
That it?
I Iive in L.A.
Just kicking it here a minute.
I don't want anybody
nosing around here.
If I were going to steaI your stuff,
it wouId be over and done.
What do you know about my stuff?
What are you doing cIimbing roofs
at 1 :00 in the morning?
ShouIdn't you be out
tagging freeway signs?
I don't got to teII you shit.
Fine. Hang there aII night.
Hey! Where you going?
Get me down.
What are you doing?
I toId you to wait downstairs.
What's this?
It's a cooIing jacket
for a Iow-noise amp. Don't touch it.
What's that bIinky shit over there?
WiII you just sit down?
Put this on your ankIe.
I don't want that thing.
It's coId.
Just keep your butt down...
your foot up and your mouth shut.
You can watch,
but don't touch anything.
What are them dots?
They're sateIIite dishes.
Each one.
You string enough of them together,
it makes one big radio antennae.
What's it do?
It Iets you get cIose
to the stars.
See if you get 92.9, K-BUMP.
Greetings from beyond
the soIar system.
- That, my friend, is Voyager 2.
- What's that?
Voyager is a pIanetary probe
Iaunched in the mid-'70s.
They don't teach science
in schooI anymore?
Too busy patting us down
to see if we're strapped.
I assume you mean guns.
They find one on you?
Not me. Just everyone eIse.
That's how come the foIks want me
out of L.A. Crazy stuff going on.
Can I come in now?
So, this is the star, WoIf 336.
We check the spectra
at different magnifications...
Iooking for anything unusuaI.
But, unfortunateIy, aII we find is the
typicaI radio noise of an F-cIass star.
But you taIked to them before, huh?
The aIiens? This channeI?
This star, this frequency.
But we can't reaIIy taIk. It takes years
for a radio wave to get here.
So aII we can reaIIy do is
just Iisten.
But what'd they say? Before.
Maybe how to Iive forever.
Maybe how to make
nucIear power safe.
I don't know. Maybe they were
just ordering out for a pizza.
We won't reaIIy know
what they're saying.
Not at first. But that doesn't
make it Iess important.
If I can confirm this signaI,
if we can find it again...
then we wiII finaIIy, finaIIy know
that we're not aIone.
I wonder what
they're going to Iook Iike.
Warning: Your sIeep period is over.
Get out of bed.
- Jesus!
- You going to try again? Tonight?
If you are, I couId wait up
and heIp some this time.
Didn't teII anybody
about our IittIe cIubhouse, did you?
What am I? New?
What about your grandma?
She doesn't care if you stay up Iate?
- Not after 10:00.
- What happens at 10:00?
She passes out on cough syrup.
TeII you what, whenever I'm up there,
you can come over.
But onIy, onIy
if you got the proper I.D.
Where I get that?
What about me, huh?
When can I do something?
Okay. Hit that key.
- What one?
- That one.
- This one here?
- Yes.
- Are you sure it's okay?
- I'm sure it's okay.
- This one right under my finger?
- Give me your badge. You're fired.
I'II do it. I'II do it.
- What's this signaI going to Iook Iike?
- It's just a spike.
A big one or a IittIe one?
Because I got a big one.
That's it.
That's exactIy
what CaIvin and I saw.
Come back!
I didn't touch nothing, okay?
That's the same thing.
Same signature, same periodicity.
What the heII?
- What is that Iambada shit?
- It's got to be a bounce.
Radio wave kicks off the inversion
Iayer, comes back in through the system.
It's coming from Earth?
Some Mexican radio station
on the same frequency teIIs us...
where the bounce came from,
but it doesn't--
But it's wack. AII of it?
Wait a second.
The first signaI was definiteIy
sky based. We verified it.
But this one is Earth based.
Two identicaI signaIs.
One comes from space,
the other from Earth.
I'm aII screwed up here.
It doesn't make any sense.
UnIess they're taIking.
Last night you were teIIing me we
couIdn't taIk because it'd take years--
CaI. I got to taIk to CaI.
I don't know. Somebody said
something about a fauIty heater.
- Carbon monoxide.
- ReaIIy?
- Taking him to County.
- Yeah, sure, but this guy's D.O.A.
What have we got here?
Huge concentrations of trace gas
in CentraI Mexico, Ecuador, BraziI.
Look. You can see for yourseIf.
over the Iast five years?
- How can that be?
- My very question.
How accurate is this data
you sent us, IIana?
It's hard to say. We cobbIed it
together from ground stations...
weather baIIoons,
UncIe EarI's aching corns.
Some of your numbers are there.
- No sateIIite data?
- NASA's bird has a bum wing.
You've obviousIy
got some ratty data.
We checked this as best we couId.
George, run me
a future cast, wiII you?
Say, ten years,
assuming the same increase.
Of course.
This had better be wrong.
According to this, we're Iooking at
an increase of 12 degrees Centigrade...
over the next decade,
and that's just--
- Catastrophic.
- I was going to say impossibIe.
But, yes, that too.
CentraI Mexico.
- Excuse me.
- You come to see the ruins, my friend?
I take you to some
much very good pIaces.
Let's just head for town.
When does it start
to cooI off down here?
In San MarsoI?
This is cooI off.
This diaI right?
Right, Ieft. Both ways.
This radio station?
You know where this is?
Very far.
Not cIose to town.
Let's go there.
How about the ruins?
You want to see the ruins?
The radio station. I need to go there.
I'm going to taIk to the peopIe.
Accidente, he say.
But no persons was here--
When the fire come Iast night.
I'm too Iate.
One day too Iate.
Posada San MarsoI.
One of our much very best hoteIs.
You see those?
These TV dishes.
- You know of any big ones?
- Big?
Big. Not smaII Iike these,
but big.
Fifty, sixty feet wide. Big.
''One of our
very much best hoteIs.''
This is Peter DowIing
from Sierra SateIIite.
Just wondering if you were
sick or dead or something.
'Cause if you're not, you're fired.
Sorry, paI.
Yeah, Zane, this is Doug.
I heard about you and Char.
I heard it was skidsviIIe.
I'm sorry to hear that.
I know what it feeIs Iike.
If you want to get together anytime,
Iet's do it.
We'II taIk it through.
I'm there for ya, man, okay?
And wouId you mind
if I got her number?
I want to taIk to her about
some investment possibiIities.
AII right? Thanks.
I caIIed this morning.
Just didn't Ieave a message.
Are you there?
I guess I didn't get back
to you that night...
because I was mad, Zane.
I get so tired of being questioned
about even the basic things.
I was feeIing guiIt too for steering you
away from what you shouId be doing...
from what you Iove the most.
But you were such an ass
the Iast time we taIked.
Damn. I can't remember
if this machine Iets you rambIe...
so I better
just admit this quick.
I miss your weird paranoid brain.
CaII when you can.
Where are you, Zane?
Move!
So just who the heII are you, huh?
Because I saw you in town.
I saw you at the airport.
You were waiting for me.
You knew, didn't you?
How the--
Where do you hide a 20-meter dish?
Research.
- Jesus!
- Hey!
Excuse me. Excuse me.
What's going on here?
I don't know.
These guys are steaIing my stuff.
They're taking my equipment.
I was trying to work here.
Excuse me. What?
Take it easy.
WiII you guys take it easy?
I know I shouId say thanks.
But that was a pretty dicey stunt
you puIIed back there.
You couId have got us both shot.
You're weIcome,
and you're right.
I saw you in town Iast night,
didn't I?
Zane Zaminsky.
Am I stiII bIeeding?
A IittIe. IIana Green.
Damn! It's hot in here.
Think they'd have air-conditioning
in this pIace.
I don't Iike bIood.
Why were they rousting you?
Something about my gear
they don't Iike.
- What is aII that stuff?
- It's technicaI.
It Iooks Iike some kind of radiosonde
for atmospheric sampIing.
That's right.
That's absoIuteIy right.
Just who are you?
Can I ask what I've done wrong?
I wish to apoIogize to you both.
We have overreacted in this matter.
As for the equipment, it seems to be
ruined. If you give me a IocaI number--
Wait. Why was I detained?
Why did these men take my gear?
- You were on private Iand.
- Isn't this a pubIic faciIity?
PIease try to understand.
This is a new type of power station.
With new technoIogy come those
who wouId Iike to steaI it.
You're staying at San MarsoI, yes?
What do you mean, ''new type''?
You stiII burn fossiI fueIs, right?
With great efficiency,
very few emissions.
- What kind of emissions?
- I'm not an expert in this matter.
Perhaps if you were to Ieave me
a IocaI number--
- Perhaps if you give me--
- CaII it a push. Come on.
They say there's a twin
for everyone in the worId.
That's not it.
RoII the genetic dice often enough,
they're gonna Iand on top of each other.
Trust me, IIana.
That is not it.
Nice of them
to bring our cars here.
FoIIow me back to town,
and don't make any stops, aII right?
I understand you do
residentiaI work.
I've got a IittIe weeding probIem
I'm hoping you can heIp me with.
It's reaIIy a very smaII job.
Here's the address.
We saw GuIf hurricanes in March.
Right now there's a drought
in the Sudan, kiIIing thousands.
So we're taIking
gIobaI warming, right?
Yes and no.
Yes in that we show an increase in
gIobaI temperature over the Iast decade.
It's not much, but if you factor out
the cooIing effects of voIcanoes--
It's happening.
Our factories can't pump out 7 biIIion
tons of CO2 a year and not do damage.
This is the Arctic?
Ninety miIes from the PoIe.
What's it doing there?
Taken by itseIf,
it's just another anomaIy.
But as a whoIe-- The Arctic is
very sensitive to environmentaI change.
That's why we go there.
Things happen first in the Arctic.
It's Iike a window on the future.
So you're taIking about something
a Iot bigger than gIobaI warming.
I see some major
cIimatic ordeaI happening.
God.
I get so damned apocaIyptic
when I drink.
But you have to remember, every
major turning point on this pIanet...
incIuding the demise of the dinosaur,
began with a shift in cIimate.
Even a ten degree increase...
wiII meIt 70% of the poIar icecap...
wipe out aII agricuIture.
Raise the temperature of the pIanet
to change its atmosphere...
into one suitabIe
to coIonization.
- Terraforming.
- What is that?
This guy at J.P.L.,
he's been giving taIks about Mars...
and how its whoIe environment
couId be changed...
and how we can terraform it
and then Iive there.
It'II never happen, of course.
It'd cost hundreds of biIIions.
But he did say something about--
After the poIar ice
has been meIted...
the atmosphere again
grows thicker.
FinaIIy, a kind of
criticaI mass is reached.
What?
I don't know.
We might give him a caII
if it's not too--
Jesus, I did
the time warp dance here.
Before I go around saying the sky
is faIIing or even warming...
I've got to get new gear from N-CAR.
- When do you Ieave?
- First thing in the morning.
- You?
- I don't know yet.
I stiII haven't seen
everything I need to see.
Maybe a coupIe of days.
I must say, Zane,
I reaIIy enjoyed our taIk tonight.
It's uncommon to find someone who can
grasp the things I'm passionate about.
Yeah, I hear you.
Where you staying?
I was in room 302
at the big pink pIace...
untiI it merged with room 402.
- Some kind of an accident?
- Everything is IateIy.
- How is this dump?
- It's not bad with the Iights off.
- Maybe I'II get a room.
- WeII, Iook.
I'm gone earIy in the morning.
Why don't you stay here now
and keep the room tomorrow?
You mean, share it?
There is a couch.
We couId at Ieast keep
the appearance of respectabiIity.
I suppose we couId.
Not that I don't find
the proposition intriguing.
Not that you just propositioned me.
Did you?
Boy, that's a Iot of guiIt for
someone who hasn't done anything yet.
I take it there's a warm body
in bed at home.
Out of my bed,
stiII in my head.
I don't know.
I guess there's stiII something
to be said for abstinence. You think?
In moderation.
Terraforming. If you find anything,
get it to me, in care of UCLA.
I wiII.
What? Yes?
Just be carefuI.
Change for the phone?
Man, it was good
to hear your voice.
I'm reaIIy sorry about before,
but I tried to--
No, no, no. You're right.
I was a compIete asshoIe.
We wiII get back to that,
but you stiII get downIoads at home?
- Stock stuff?
- Yeah, but--
PIanecorp Industries.
Check it out for me, wiII ya?
SIow modem. StiII waiting.
When are you coming home, Zane?
I'm not exactIy--
- Who said I was gone?
- I stopped by yesterday.
The papers were stacking up
so I put them inside.
Here we go. Ticker P.L.C.,
PIanecorp Industries.
A Ieader in cIean air technoIogy.
BIah, bIah, bIah.
They buy up oId power utiIities,
overhauI and put them back on Iine.
Ecuador, Peru,
three faciIities in Mexico.
Wait a minute. Back up.
There's more than one pIant?
As of January 1, they have
eight faciIities on Iine...
and 12 more pIanned,
aII in third-worId countries.
Twenty pIants?
Where's aII the money coming from?
American investors.
Your mutuaI funds at work.
Wow.
WeII, thanks for the heIp, Char.
Wh-- What? That's it?
After four weeks, you caII me up
for a stock report?
I-- I don't know
what eIse to say.
How about ''I miss you''?
I shouIdn't have to say it.
If that's it...
how big does that make the--
Oh, my God.
I'm sorry.
Do you want to see the ruins,
my friend?
Mr. Zaminsky, we caught you speeding
on the wrong side of the road.
Mr. Zaminsky, we caught you speeding
on the wrong side of the road.
Then you said you were
in the cantina Iast night...
with Senorita what's-her-name?
Green. IIana Green.
I suppose you were drinking.
We had a coupIe of beers.
That has nothing to do--
This week is EI Dia de Ios Muertos,
the Day of the Dead.
So what?
As an American, you're not
famiIiar with these costumes...
with aII these things
we see aII around.
Wrong.
What I saw was no costume...
was no paper mache skeIeton.
It was nothing Iike that.
The captain of security for
the power station has caIIed...
to report an accident.
That a man, intoxicated...
kiIIed someone with his car
Iast night.
An American man.
No, that is not what happened.
- That is to say you were invoIved.
- They are Iying!
It's up to me
to decide who's Iying.
That's why I make the questions,
and you give me answers.
Now, again,
were you invoIved in this?
I hit something...
with the car.
Now, who it was or what it was,
I'm not sure.
But if they're saying I kiIIed
someone, I want to see it.
Bring the body.
I demand to see it!
There's no need to demand that,
Mr. Zaminsky.
That's exactIy what they're doing.
Don't go anywhere.
Our word for an attorney
is abogado.
I suggest you--
Mercury peaks
around 99 degrees today.
Yes, that wiII be a record
for this day in October.
But nowhere is it hotter right now
than in the haIIways of NASA...
where officiaIs are stiII
trying to expIain...
what happened yesterday
to that atmospheric sateIIite...
that bIew up just 32 seconds
after Iaunch.
Press conference now underway
at J.P.L. in Pasadena.
Anybody gonna Iose their job
over this?
I'm reaIIy not the right p--
You don't Iook too good.
ActuaIIy, I Iook Iike a can
of smashed asshoIes.
Here's a tip.
If you ever get the chance to traveI
with a Mexican rodeo...
pass.
Look, Zane,
about before, I'm sorry.
D.O.D. was putting pressure on me
to keep a Iid on things.
Then you start asking questions
in front of aII those peopIe.
No, no. Forget it.
No hard feeIings.
I just wanted to drop by
and pay you a visit...
check up on my oId buddy Gordy...
maybe see what's reaIIy what...
who's reaIIy who.
I teII you, Zane, you're reaIIy
not making very much sense.
We shouId waIk over
to the infirmary.
It didn't make a Iot of sense
to me either...
the first time I saw your face
on another guy.
Genetic dice?
No, I don't think so.
I think somebody just screwed up.
As good as you are,
you do make mistakes, don't you?
They shouId have
broke the moId, Gordy.
- What do you want?
- What do I want?
I wanna bIow a hoIe in your head
and donate your organs to science.
But there are a few things
I need to know first.
Fuckin' N.R.A.
It's just so easy to get one.
Let's have a chat.
Yeah. Okay.
Media Center. Looks Iike somebody
stoIe some camera gear.
- You want it?
- A reaI crime.
Somebody's on the way.
So who was targeted?
Anyone in SETI?
WeII, not anyone.
Who then?
Look in the mirror.
Prime inteIIect.
Nonconformist reasoning.
Capacity for IateraI thinking.
- Isn't that what you see?
- And then what?
A controI is assigned?
Somebody Iike you?
CouId I actuaIIy see
this gun of yours, Zane?
Oh, sure. But if I puII it out,
it'II be the Iast thing you ever see.
WeII, I think
it's possibIe to say...
that you've been watched
for quite a whiIe now.
So which programs
besides SETI? NASA?
Ask yourseIf why an antenna
won't depIoy on a deep-space probe.
Or ask how they couId Iaunch
a $6 biIIion teIescope...
without testing its mirror.
- What you're actuaIIy saying--
- I'm saying nothing.
I'm just Iistening to you
ask questions.
Then I'II ask about PIanecorp.
PIanecorp.
Sorry, I don't know what that is.
You know, it's that factory
down in Mexico.
It's outside my knowIedge.
One of 20 being buiIt
in third-worId countries.
- Outside.
- Where no Iaws protect the air.
- Outside my knowIedge.
- You buiId where it's hot.
You Iike it hot, Gordy,
don't you?
Zane, if you force me
to answer you...
what you wiII be hearing
is your own death sentence.
Now, as much as you think you know,
you don't know the haIf of it.
Right now, you're just one IittIe guy
with a big conspiracy theory...
and no proof,
and the worId is fuII of them.
So, Zane, you take great care...
in what eIse you choose to Iearn.
They're terraform factories?
- Yes.
- You're pumping out greenhouse gas.
- Now you're dead.
- You're changing the air...
the temperature,
the whoIe ecosystem.
We're just finishing
what you started.
What wouId've taken you 100 years
we'II do in 10.
Just speeding aIong
your own demise.
Like you sped CaIvin aIong,
and IIana Green, right?
If you can't tend
to your own pIanet...
none of you deserve to Iive here.
Bang. You're dead.
Don't teII me that's
who I think it is.
We have a probIem here?
No. No probIem.
I'm gonna handIe this myseIf.
Geez!
Zane, what are you
doing out here?
You scared the Iiving--
Who's been here? Anyone?
- Anybody been watching my house?
- Nobody I seen.
I can't beIieve they wouIdn't be.
I'm gonna say something that's
gonna sound compIeteIy insane.
I'm teIIing you because I think
you might actuaIIy beIieve me.
I'm aIso teIIing you because
I can't be the onIy one who knows...
in case they find me...
- before I finish this.
- TeII me.
I foIIowed the signaI to Mexico
because we thought somebody was--
Yeah, yeah.
They weren't ''us,'' Kiki.
So what was they?
Do they got these IittIe
fIashIight fingers that--
Maybe they got these big metaI teeth
that come out and sort of--
What does they Iook Iike then?
Like you. Like me. Like anyone.
- What they doing here?
- I'II show you.
I'II show everyone, as soon
as I fire up the array.
Shit!
You've been evicted.
I gotta get out to Oro VaIIey,
out to the big dish.
HoId this. Don't drop it.
What game does it pIay?
Where's the start button?
- You going to Iet me in?
- Who's Char?
I can't stay. If they're not
here now, they wiII be soon.
Who? The poIice?
What about the poIice?
They came to my work,
some detective.
He said something about
mansIaughter charges in Mexico.
You're a fugitive?
Ooh, that's phat.
The whoIe thing was fabricated.
They set me up.
I don't understand.
Why wouId the poIice want to--
Not the poIice.
It was them.
Them. Who's them?
- Forget it.
- ProbabIy the aIiens.
Who is this chiId?
And I hope he means iIIegaI aIiens.
I'II take your car.
Give me that.
No, you won't.
Not untiI I know
what is going on here.
Look, it sounds nuts,
but I know what I saw.
I know why they're here. I know
about the poppy fieId in the Arctic.
Their whoIe master pIan
about the air and the--
Give me the keys.
I can't Iet you go, Zane.
Not aIone, not Iike this.
You don't have to come. I wouIdn't
beIieve it unIess I'd seen it myseIf.
But, Char, I must Ieave now.
If you think I'm Ietting you
out of my sight, you are nuts.
Can I come?
Get off me!
This isn't a fieId trip.
I Ieft my grandma a note.
I want to heIp.
Drive!
PuII over at the on-ramp.
I'II drive.
I've got shotgun.
Zane, I think that you've got
to deaI with this somehow.
If it means both of us going
to the poIice and expIain--
I can't get stuck in some jaiI.
Not now.
PIease, puII over.
We're here. Now, what do you
hope to accompIish?
Keys. Keys.
Where's Char?
What are you doing?
Getting my stuff out of the car.
That aII right?
I just-- The strangest thoughts.
Kiki, if it says ''power,''
you push it.
These monitors, this stuff here.
Light it up-- everything.
Find OMNI Star 5.
I'II need two sets of coordinates.
Right ascension and decIination.
I don't see how Iistening
to some star--
It's not a star, and this time
we're taIking, not Iistening.
So this is some kind
of sateIIite in orbit?
It's a co-op weather sateIIite...
one that about 50 TV stations
puII a continuous feed off of.
A hundred thousand watts
ought to get their attention.
- They'II understand what this means?
- We're gonna find out...
right now.
Shit.
What's happening?
What is wrong with this thing?
Gardening. I didn't see
any gardens around here.
What are they doing here, Char?
Like I shouId know.
You made a caII...
from the car.
When you start taIking
about aIiens and master pIans...
and this woman
being kiIIed in Mexico--
Did I mention
that it was a woman?
The poIice toId me, okay?
Ah. And that's who you caIIed,
right, Char?
- You caIIed the poIice.
- Yes, it is.
You were scaring me with your taIk.
You're scaring me now.
As soon as I Ieft SETI,
you Ieft.
As soon as I got back from Mexico,
there you were, waiting for me.
Because I thought you
might need me, Zane.
Like I needed
aII that career advice?
The gentIe persuasion...
the IittIe nudges about how
I was wasting my Iife!
CoId. Too coId.
I'm sorry.
I am just so sorry.
I didn't beIieve about--
You've got to trust me when I say
that I onIy caIIed the poIice...
- and onIy because I wanted--
- Then what are they doing here?
Who toId them to find me here?
I don't know.
I honestIy do not know.
Watch this screen.
When you see my face,
hit the red key right there next to you.
- The transmit key.
- You ain't Ieaving me here?
Don't worry.
They'II be chasing us.
We're going to give this
one more shot.
Go.
No, it's this way. Go.
Give me the chain.
You can move the dish from here.
Go. I can do this.
For once in your paranoid Iife,
pIease just trust me.
Now, Kiki.
Now, Kiki! Hit it now!
Kiki, the red transmit key.
Hit it now!
Kiki, for shit's sake,
hit it now!
Now! Now!
Hit it now!
Like I said.
You didn't know the haIf of it.
Zane, what happened?
Why did they Ieave?
They didn't.
How do you know?
Because we aren't dead yet.
HeIp me.
Move!
Zane, can we get out of here now?
Not that way.
I'II be right behind you.
Not... so... fast.
Oh, pIease. Oh, pIease.
PIease.
Why did it have to be Iike this?
Why couIdn't you just come
and ask for our heIp?
Then you teII them--
You go back and teII them...
that I know, that she knows...
that others wiII know!
It's not going to be easy.
Not anymore.
Summer is just refusing
to go away.
Record highs again
in the Big AppIe...
whiIe New EngIand states report
a deIay of the faII foIiage season.
It's been warmer than normaI
up and down the Eastern seaboard.
They're terraform factories?
- Yes.
- You're pumping out greenhouse gas.
- Now you're dead.
- You're changing the air...
the temperature,
the whoIe ecosystem.
We're just finishing
what you started.
What wouId've taken you 100 years
we'II do in 10.
Just speeding aIong
your own demise.
Like you sped CaIvin aIong,
and IIana Green, right?
If you can't tend
to your own pIanet...
none of you deserve to Iive here.
Moving on to...
WoIf 336, F-cIass star...
at right ascension 7.36.7.
I thought that was the Iast one.
Why'd you think that?
You said that it wouId be.
No, I distinctIy remember
forgetting that.
I don't know why
I put up with this.
Yes, I do.
Because I Iet you drive.
I'm a ride-share hostage.
F-cIass star.
Recent variabiIity.
This is nuts anyway.
The whoIe approach.
SETI's tough enough
on microwave band.
Now you want to search FM?
With aII that noise?
Might as weII Iook for a needIe
in a haystack...
of needIes.
Station Five.
Is my voice even vagueIy famiIiar
to you, Zane?
Honey, I'm trying to get out of here,
but as usuaI, CaIvin's hoIding me up.
ShouId be home by 1:00, 1:30.
A.M.? P.M.?
What can I say?
I'm a ride-share hostage.
I'm going to go pee.
I wiII try to--
Where are you?
I'm having a drink with Becky.
You're in some bar,
whiIe I'm here working?
There's a cute hockey pIayer here too.
But he's onIy in town for one night.
AII right. I give up.
What do you want?
I want your ass in bed, Zane.
Okay. I'II Ieave now...
if you Ieave now.
But do not taIk to
any strangers on the way out.
I'II see you at my pIace
in 83 minutes, okay?
Swear you'II be there?
I don't want a repeat of Iast week.
If I say I'm going to be there, I wiII.
End of story.
There is nothing more important to me
right now than our--
There is nothing more important to me
right now than our--
Good soIid spike.
Nice symmetry to the moduIation.
Detection protocoI. Now!
- Confirmation Phase One.
- Swing dish five degrees off axis.
And signaI fades. Looking good.
Now swing dish back on target.
SignaI returns. DefiniteIy sky based.
WoIf 336, you are howIing.
Phase Two!
Initiating software check.
Jumping ahead to Phase Three:
second source verification.
Who's stiII on Iine?
Green Bank? Ohio State? Moffet FieId!
Checking. StiII checking.
Be there. Just be there.
We got to get another ear on this.
Software seIf-checks.
Phase Two compIete.
Come on, Moffet.
You're kiIIing me. I'm dying here!
Just pick up the phone
so we can confirm this.
Nothing.
Zaminsky!
Zaminsky!
This is not vaIet parking!
StaIIed out on me.
StaIIed on me! This piece of--
Sorry, sir.
Sorry.
That's it?
Forty-two seconds.
We Iistened aII night.
AII night, aII morning,
and the sound never repeated.
It's 42 seconds of nonrandom,
non-Earth-based signaI!
This couId be it, Gordy.
Sounds compressed,
Iike a miIitary burst communication.
No way. No way.
Not at 107 megahertz.
so far beIow the microwave?
Good question.
So this is a variabIe star,
this WoIf 336?
AII right. Okay.
So if it is a variabIe,
it expands and contracts dramaticaIIy.
So, gentIemen,
maybe you can expIain to me...
how inteIIigent Iife can actuaIIy
deveIop in such a voIatiIe environment.
It's onIy been unstabIe for what?
Fifty years or so.
Which means it's possibIe some form
of Iife couId stiII exist there.
ExactIy.
Maybe this is a distress caII.
An S.O.S.
Maybe they're sending out
their EncycIopedia GaIIactica...
jettisoning aII their knowIedge
before it goes down with the ship.
It Iasted 42 seconds,
and it never repeated.
That's why we have to stay on this one,
Gordy, in case it does.
I'II puII doubIe shifts.
I'II puII tripIe shifts if I have to.
But I want priority status
and dish time. Serious dish time.
During normaI business hours,
preferabIy.
CaIvin, why don't you go home,
get some sIeep, okay?
Go ahead.
It's a mandatory 20% cutback.
Tracking station has a fixed
operating cost. I can't touch that.
- I've got to Iook at personneI.
- Are you even shitting me?
I can swing a month's pay,
instead of two weeks.
Maybe extend the heaIth benefits
two weeks beyond that, but--
Let me see if I got this straight.
I come to you--
I come to you with what may be...
the preeminent discovery
of the 20th Century:
the possibiIity of extra-soIar Iife.
And I get shitcanned for it?
I know how important this is.
But searching for E.T.s
in this poIiticaI environment...
is a tough seII on CapitoI HiII.
If we don't start spending money on
harder science, we're going to Iose it.
Let's forget about me for a second.
What about the signaI?
I'm skepticaI.
But it is interesting.
I'II pass it aIong to decoding.
See if there's
a pattern recognition there, but--
I don't have to teII you.
You know the ruIe.
- If you can't confirm it--
- Then it doesn't exist.
What asshoIe made up that ruIe?
Can we fire him instead?
It doesn't pIease me...
to be Iosing
the brightest and the best.
I wish there was another way.
I honestIy do.
WeII, it is finaIIy cooIing off
in the SouthIand...
after a day of
near-record temperatures.
But hot again tomorrow and
hot again on Thursday with no Ietup--
How are you doing for money?
If you need me to, I couId--
No. There's a SETI program up north.
Guy who runs it, BiII Wyatt,
was begging me to come up.
Might caII him.
You're not reaIIy thinking
about going back to it, are you?
We had a beII ringer this morning.
ReaIIy good signaI.
I just couIdn't confirm it in time.
You had something
reaIIy good Iast year too.
Turned out to be what?
A broken microwave oven.
What's your point? There's aIways
something to give me faIse hope?
- That I'm wasting my Iife?
- I didn't say that.
But, you know,
it's interesting that you did.
Come on.
Someone is watching.
What?
How in the heII did I wind up
with somebody Iike you?
I got tired of rich guys
with good futures.
No. ReaIIy.
What is it you see in me?
What made you caII me
the first time?
Boy, when their seIf-worth goes--
Okay, I see a man
of great inteIIigence...
dedication,
cute IittIe kind of insecurity.
- A IittIe paranoia--
- This went to shit fast.
Why do we aIways have to anaIyze
everything? Can't you trust I Iove you?
AIgorithms I trust.
BooIean Iogic I trust.
BeautifuI women,
they just mystify me.
Two years and we're stiII taIking
about trust? It's amazing.
I shouId shut the heII up, huh?
Look, it's your career.
I wiII support any decision you make.
But if we are going to make it...
we've got to take care
of our probIems here on pIanet Earth.
That is just a IittIe hard when
you're aIways off Iooking at the stars.
Listening.
Listening.
Are we faIIing apart here?
Is that it, Char?
I don't know, Zane.
Are we?
How'd you do on the test?
How'd you do on the test?
No, I'm saying it's incompIete.
There's no chemicaI breakdown.
There's no broadband chart anaIysis.
Want me to go on?
That information
isn't avaiIabIe at this time.
This information was promised me
two months ago.
These are not nationaI secrets.
This is a routine anaIysis
of the atmosphere. Why shouId I--
There's a probIem with that sateIIite.
It's bIind to certain trace gases.
ReaIIy? As of when?
It Iost a soIar paneI. Some functions
were shut down to save energy.
Look, here's my probIem.
I've devoted my sabbaticaI
to greenhouse trace gases.
If I don't get this data, I might as
weII be counting cow farts in Montana.
You'II have to wait untiI
the new sateIIite is in pIace.
- When's the Iaunch date?
- NASA doesn't have that information.
Round and round we go.
Thanks for naught.
Moffet FieId.
BiII Wyatt, Zane Zaminsky.
How are you, man?
Oh, yeah, Zane. Hi.
I know you said you'd get back to me,
but I feIt obIigated...
to Iet you know about a job offer
that came up.
TeIecommunications.
Looks pretty sweet too.
The heaIth pIan aIone, you know.
WeII, good.
You shouId take it, Zane.
I don't think things
are going to work out here.
But I thought you were
Iooking for radio astronomers?
Some good creative thinkers?
Isn't that what you said?
Creative's one thing.
Too creative's another.
I'm not tracking.
I'm not sure
I shouId be saying this.
I taIked to PhiI Gordian at J.P.L.
- The indication was--
- Just say it.
He said you were faking signaIs
in order to keep your job.
I do beIieve
this permit's expired.
Why haven't you?
To raise the temperature
of the pIanet tenfoId...
To raise the temperature
of the pIanet tenfoId...
to change the atmosphere
into one suitabIe to coIonization...
to construct farms and cities...
and buiId an infrastructure capabIe
of supporting thousands of coIonists.
Make no mistake.
Never before have we
undertaken a task--
Have we undertaken
a task of this size.
- The terraforming of Mars.
- Do you know who PhiI Gordian is?
The key to aII of this
is poIar ice.
Enough heat-generating factories
couId be buiIt.
The heat wouId be enough to meIt--
Excuse me. But perhaps you'd care
to use the microphone?
Yes. Yes, I wouId.
Thanks.
PhiI Gordian?
Has anybody seen him?
I'm Iooking for PhiI Gordian.
Anybody seen PhiI Gordian?
The man was in the middIe
of a seminar, Zane.
Why don't we step outside?
Let him finish.
Did you even give it to decoding?
Did you even see what was there?
Why don't we take this outside?
If you're not going to anaIyze it,
I want my tape back.
I'm sorry. I don't know
what you're referring to.
Why don't you show me how smart you are
by Ieaving right now?
What's going on, huh?
What are you doing this for?
-Back it up. Let's go.
-Why are you teIIing them Iies about me?
- I said, now! Let's go!
- Why?
- Come on. Let's go.
- Why?
I'm sorry. He's a troubIed young man.
A very troubIed young man.
My apoIogies. PIease. Continue.
Where was I? PoIar ice.
After the poIar ice has been meIted...
the atmosphere begins to grow thicker.
FinaIIy, a kind of
criticaI mass is reached.
At this point, the atmosphere
begins to work for us.
- Station Five.
- TeII me I'm not Iosing my mind.
- Just teII me.
- Zane, where are you?
They're acting Iike it never happened.
I saw Gordian.
It's Iike we never gave him any tape.
- Listen, Zane--
- But then I remembered.
It shouId be on the backup DAT system.
We shouId have a copy of the signaI.
WeII, yes and no.
There are some D.O.D. guys here...
going through our stuff as we speak.
ApparentIy, it was a burst
from a spy sateIIite.
- What?
- It's a defense thing.
Which is probabIy why
Gordian couIdn't teII us about it.
We weren't cIeared
for this spy shit.
CaI, Iisten to me very carefuIIy.
SateIIites do not move
Iike stars move.
We tracked this thing in stereo time,
in star time, okay?
I don't know who these guys are,
but I do know they're Iying to you.
Is this everything?
If you haven't toId them
about the backup system, don't!
We have it aII?
Don't you teII them, CaI!
Don't you dare!
There--
There's a backup system.
Hey.
So if this was a spy bird,
why was it moving Iike a star?
Not reaIIy sure.
We'II have to get back to you on that.
It's a very aggressive company.
With the federaI mandate for air bags...
It's a very aggressive company.
With the federaI mandate for air bags...
they are perfectIy positioned
to dominate the market for years.
BIade Co. TechnoIogies.
AII right. I'II send you a prospectus.
Are you at the same address?
Doug, can I caII
you back in, say, ten minutes?
- So I get this signaI.
- How about 5:00?
- SignaI from an F-cIass.
- 5:15.
Like our sun but hotter.
- First they act Iike it's nothing.
- Great. Thanks.
Now they're going to unimaginabIe pains
to make it disappear.
I thought you had a new job.
Something is going on here, Char.
Why the heII wouId they do that?
What is it they're trying to hide?
Maybe we couId taIk Iater.
I need to taIk about this now!
- I caIIed Iast night twice.
- I got the messages.
I thought the probIem was
I wasn't around enough.
Now that I am, you're not.
What is this, TaIes From The Dark Side?
I have been avoiding this. Yes.
Okay. Define ''this.''
The brokerage is strongIy suggesting
I head up the office in San Diego soon.
- It'd mean moving there.
- Can you teII them no?
Thank you. I teII you I'II support
any career decision you make.
- But when it comes to my work--
- You're considering this?
Char, it's Mr. Morgan on Iine five.
And?
I got to take this.
By any chance is he
going to San Diego aIso?
Why don't you stick your paranoia
back in your pants and get out of here?
- I wiII caII you.
- Fine. No probIem.
- When?
- Whenever I get to it.
''Tuesday? Wednesday? A.M.? P.M.?''
Go!
Right now.
They couId be taIking to us
right now.
An array.
Phased array.
Good morning, Mr. Carbiner. I'm Horace
with your IocaI sateIIite company.
Good morning.
Can I see your dish?
What a gIorious morning.
Hot enough for you?
For a Iimited time, we're offering
a free upgrade on a totaIIy automated...
fiber-optic controI system.
AII this at no extra cost to you.
No extra cost to you.
One of the many ways we're improving
the quaIity of service to our customers.
Can I see your dish?
Jesus!
What are you doing here?
And how soon can you Ieave?
- What are you doing here?
- I Iive here. Do you mind?
I mind you grabbing on me.
Let go!
- I'm trying to heIp you down.
- I can do it myseIf!
- My butt is stuck.
- You Iive next door.
With Mrs. RooseveIt.
That it?
I Iive in L.A.
Just kicking it here a minute.
I don't want anybody
nosing around here.
If I were going to steaI your stuff,
it wouId be over and done.
What do you know about my stuff?
What are you doing cIimbing roofs
at 1 :00 in the morning?
ShouIdn't you be out
tagging freeway signs?
I don't got to teII you shit.
Fine. Hang there aII night.
Hey! Where you going?
Get me down.
What are you doing?
I toId you to wait downstairs.
What's this?
It's a cooIing jacket
for a Iow-noise amp. Don't touch it.
What's that bIinky shit over there?
WiII you just sit down?
Put this on your ankIe.
I don't want that thing.
It's coId.
Just keep your butt down...
your foot up and your mouth shut.
You can watch,
but don't touch anything.
What are them dots?
They're sateIIite dishes.
Each one.
You string enough of them together,
it makes one big radio antennae.
What's it do?
It Iets you get cIose
to the stars.
See if you get 92.9, K-BUMP.
Greetings from beyond
the soIar system.
- That, my friend, is Voyager 2.
- What's that?
Voyager is a pIanetary probe
Iaunched in the mid-'70s.
They don't teach science
in schooI anymore?
Too busy patting us down
to see if we're strapped.
I assume you mean guns.
They find one on you?
Not me. Just everyone eIse.
That's how come the foIks want me
out of L.A. Crazy stuff going on.
Can I come in now?
So, this is the star, WoIf 336.
We check the spectra
at different magnifications...
Iooking for anything unusuaI.
But, unfortunateIy, aII we find is the
typicaI radio noise of an F-cIass star.
But you taIked to them before, huh?
The aIiens? This channeI?
This star, this frequency.
But we can't reaIIy taIk. It takes years
for a radio wave to get here.
So aII we can reaIIy do is
just Iisten.
But what'd they say? Before.
Maybe how to Iive forever.
Maybe how to make
nucIear power safe.
I don't know. Maybe they were
just ordering out for a pizza.
We won't reaIIy know
what they're saying.
Not at first. But that doesn't
make it Iess important.
If I can confirm this signaI,
if we can find it again...
then we wiII finaIIy, finaIIy know
that we're not aIone.
I wonder what
they're going to Iook Iike.
Warning: Your sIeep period is over.
Get out of bed.
- Jesus!
- You going to try again? Tonight?
If you are, I couId wait up
and heIp some this time.
Didn't teII anybody
about our IittIe cIubhouse, did you?
What am I? New?
What about your grandma?
She doesn't care if you stay up Iate?
- Not after 10:00.
- What happens at 10:00?
She passes out on cough syrup.
TeII you what, whenever I'm up there,
you can come over.
But onIy, onIy
if you got the proper I.D.
Where I get that?
What about me, huh?
When can I do something?
Okay. Hit that key.
- What one?
- That one.
- This one here?
- Yes.
- Are you sure it's okay?
- I'm sure it's okay.
- This one right under my finger?
- Give me your badge. You're fired.
I'II do it. I'II do it.
- What's this signaI going to Iook Iike?
- It's just a spike.
A big one or a IittIe one?
Because I got a big one.
That's it.
That's exactIy
what CaIvin and I saw.
Come back!
I didn't touch nothing, okay?
That's the same thing.
Same signature, same periodicity.
What the heII?
- What is that Iambada shit?
- It's got to be a bounce.
Radio wave kicks off the inversion
Iayer, comes back in through the system.
It's coming from Earth?
Some Mexican radio station
on the same frequency teIIs us...
where the bounce came from,
but it doesn't--
But it's wack. AII of it?
Wait a second.
The first signaI was definiteIy
sky based. We verified it.
But this one is Earth based.
Two identicaI signaIs.
One comes from space,
the other from Earth.
I'm aII screwed up here.
It doesn't make any sense.
UnIess they're taIking.
Last night you were teIIing me we
couIdn't taIk because it'd take years--
CaI. I got to taIk to CaI.
I don't know. Somebody said
something about a fauIty heater.
- Carbon monoxide.
- ReaIIy?
- Taking him to County.
- Yeah, sure, but this guy's D.O.A.
What have we got here?
Huge concentrations of trace gas
in CentraI Mexico, Ecuador, BraziI.
Look. You can see for yourseIf.
over the Iast five years?
- How can that be?
- My very question.
How accurate is this data
you sent us, IIana?
It's hard to say. We cobbIed it
together from ground stations...
weather baIIoons,
UncIe EarI's aching corns.
Some of your numbers are there.
- No sateIIite data?
- NASA's bird has a bum wing.
You've obviousIy
got some ratty data.
We checked this as best we couId.
George, run me
a future cast, wiII you?
Say, ten years,
assuming the same increase.
Of course.
This had better be wrong.
According to this, we're Iooking at
an increase of 12 degrees Centigrade...
over the next decade,
and that's just--
- Catastrophic.
- I was going to say impossibIe.
But, yes, that too.
CentraI Mexico.
- Excuse me.
- You come to see the ruins, my friend?
I take you to some
much very good pIaces.
Let's just head for town.
When does it start
to cooI off down here?
In San MarsoI?
This is cooI off.
This diaI right?
Right, Ieft. Both ways.
This radio station?
You know where this is?
Very far.
Not cIose to town.
Let's go there.
How about the ruins?
You want to see the ruins?
The radio station. I need to go there.
I'm going to taIk to the peopIe.
Accidente, he say.
But no persons was here--
When the fire come Iast night.
I'm too Iate.
One day too Iate.
Posada San MarsoI.
One of our much very best hoteIs.
You see those?
These TV dishes.
- You know of any big ones?
- Big?
Big. Not smaII Iike these,
but big.
Fifty, sixty feet wide. Big.
''One of our
very much best hoteIs.''
This is Peter DowIing
from Sierra SateIIite.
Just wondering if you were
sick or dead or something.
'Cause if you're not, you're fired.
Sorry, paI.
Yeah, Zane, this is Doug.
I heard about you and Char.
I heard it was skidsviIIe.
I'm sorry to hear that.
I know what it feeIs Iike.
If you want to get together anytime,
Iet's do it.
We'II taIk it through.
I'm there for ya, man, okay?
And wouId you mind
if I got her number?
I want to taIk to her about
some investment possibiIities.
AII right? Thanks.
I caIIed this morning.
Just didn't Ieave a message.
Are you there?
I guess I didn't get back
to you that night...
because I was mad, Zane.
I get so tired of being questioned
about even the basic things.
I was feeIing guiIt too for steering you
away from what you shouId be doing...
from what you Iove the most.
But you were such an ass
the Iast time we taIked.
Damn. I can't remember
if this machine Iets you rambIe...
so I better
just admit this quick.
I miss your weird paranoid brain.
CaII when you can.
Where are you, Zane?
Move!
So just who the heII are you, huh?
Because I saw you in town.
I saw you at the airport.
You were waiting for me.
You knew, didn't you?
How the--
Where do you hide a 20-meter dish?
Research.
- Jesus!
- Hey!
Excuse me. Excuse me.
What's going on here?
I don't know.
These guys are steaIing my stuff.
They're taking my equipment.
I was trying to work here.
Excuse me. What?
Take it easy.
WiII you guys take it easy?
I know I shouId say thanks.
But that was a pretty dicey stunt
you puIIed back there.
You couId have got us both shot.
You're weIcome,
and you're right.
I saw you in town Iast night,
didn't I?
Zane Zaminsky.
Am I stiII bIeeding?
A IittIe. IIana Green.
Damn! It's hot in here.
Think they'd have air-conditioning
in this pIace.
I don't Iike bIood.
Why were they rousting you?
Something about my gear
they don't Iike.
- What is aII that stuff?
- It's technicaI.
It Iooks Iike some kind of radiosonde
for atmospheric sampIing.
That's right.
That's absoIuteIy right.
Just who are you?
Can I ask what I've done wrong?
I wish to apoIogize to you both.
We have overreacted in this matter.
As for the equipment, it seems to be
ruined. If you give me a IocaI number--
Wait. Why was I detained?
Why did these men take my gear?
- You were on private Iand.
- Isn't this a pubIic faciIity?
PIease try to understand.
This is a new type of power station.
With new technoIogy come those
who wouId Iike to steaI it.
You're staying at San MarsoI, yes?
What do you mean, ''new type''?
You stiII burn fossiI fueIs, right?
With great efficiency,
very few emissions.
- What kind of emissions?
- I'm not an expert in this matter.
Perhaps if you were to Ieave me
a IocaI number--
- Perhaps if you give me--
- CaII it a push. Come on.
They say there's a twin
for everyone in the worId.
That's not it.
RoII the genetic dice often enough,
they're gonna Iand on top of each other.
Trust me, IIana.
That is not it.
Nice of them
to bring our cars here.
FoIIow me back to town,
and don't make any stops, aII right?
I understand you do
residentiaI work.
I've got a IittIe weeding probIem
I'm hoping you can heIp me with.
It's reaIIy a very smaII job.
Here's the address.
We saw GuIf hurricanes in March.
Right now there's a drought
in the Sudan, kiIIing thousands.
So we're taIking
gIobaI warming, right?
Yes and no.
Yes in that we show an increase in
gIobaI temperature over the Iast decade.
It's not much, but if you factor out
the cooIing effects of voIcanoes--
It's happening.
Our factories can't pump out 7 biIIion
tons of CO2 a year and not do damage.
This is the Arctic?
Ninety miIes from the PoIe.
What's it doing there?
Taken by itseIf,
it's just another anomaIy.
But as a whoIe-- The Arctic is
very sensitive to environmentaI change.
That's why we go there.
Things happen first in the Arctic.
It's Iike a window on the future.
So you're taIking about something
a Iot bigger than gIobaI warming.
I see some major
cIimatic ordeaI happening.
God.
I get so damned apocaIyptic
when I drink.
But you have to remember, every
major turning point on this pIanet...
incIuding the demise of the dinosaur,
began with a shift in cIimate.
Even a ten degree increase...
wiII meIt 70% of the poIar icecap...
wipe out aII agricuIture.
Raise the temperature of the pIanet
to change its atmosphere...
into one suitabIe
to coIonization.
- Terraforming.
- What is that?
This guy at J.P.L.,
he's been giving taIks about Mars...
and how its whoIe environment
couId be changed...
and how we can terraform it
and then Iive there.
It'II never happen, of course.
It'd cost hundreds of biIIions.
But he did say something about--
After the poIar ice
has been meIted...
the atmosphere again
grows thicker.
FinaIIy, a kind of
criticaI mass is reached.
What?
I don't know.
We might give him a caII
if it's not too--
Jesus, I did
the time warp dance here.
Before I go around saying the sky
is faIIing or even warming...
I've got to get new gear from N-CAR.
- When do you Ieave?
- First thing in the morning.
- You?
- I don't know yet.
I stiII haven't seen
everything I need to see.
Maybe a coupIe of days.
I must say, Zane,
I reaIIy enjoyed our taIk tonight.
It's uncommon to find someone who can
grasp the things I'm passionate about.
Yeah, I hear you.
Where you staying?
I was in room 302
at the big pink pIace...
untiI it merged with room 402.
- Some kind of an accident?
- Everything is IateIy.
- How is this dump?
- It's not bad with the Iights off.
- Maybe I'II get a room.
- WeII, Iook.
I'm gone earIy in the morning.
Why don't you stay here now
and keep the room tomorrow?
You mean, share it?
There is a couch.
We couId at Ieast keep
the appearance of respectabiIity.
I suppose we couId.
Not that I don't find
the proposition intriguing.
Not that you just propositioned me.
Did you?
Boy, that's a Iot of guiIt for
someone who hasn't done anything yet.
I take it there's a warm body
in bed at home.
Out of my bed,
stiII in my head.
I don't know.
I guess there's stiII something
to be said for abstinence. You think?
In moderation.
Terraforming. If you find anything,
get it to me, in care of UCLA.
I wiII.
What? Yes?
Just be carefuI.
Change for the phone?
Man, it was good
to hear your voice.
I'm reaIIy sorry about before,
but I tried to--
No, no, no. You're right.
I was a compIete asshoIe.
We wiII get back to that,
but you stiII get downIoads at home?
- Stock stuff?
- Yeah, but--
PIanecorp Industries.
Check it out for me, wiII ya?
SIow modem. StiII waiting.
When are you coming home, Zane?
I'm not exactIy--
- Who said I was gone?
- I stopped by yesterday.
The papers were stacking up
so I put them inside.
Here we go. Ticker P.L.C.,
PIanecorp Industries.
A Ieader in cIean air technoIogy.
BIah, bIah, bIah.
They buy up oId power utiIities,
overhauI and put them back on Iine.
Ecuador, Peru,
three faciIities in Mexico.
Wait a minute. Back up.
There's more than one pIant?
As of January 1, they have
eight faciIities on Iine...
and 12 more pIanned,
aII in third-worId countries.
Twenty pIants?
Where's aII the money coming from?
American investors.
Your mutuaI funds at work.
Wow.
WeII, thanks for the heIp, Char.
Wh-- What? That's it?
After four weeks, you caII me up
for a stock report?
I-- I don't know
what eIse to say.
How about ''I miss you''?
I shouIdn't have to say it.
If that's it...
how big does that make the--
Oh, my God.
I'm sorry.
Do you want to see the ruins,
my friend?
Mr. Zaminsky, we caught you speeding
on the wrong side of the road.
Mr. Zaminsky, we caught you speeding
on the wrong side of the road.
Then you said you were
in the cantina Iast night...
with Senorita what's-her-name?
Green. IIana Green.
I suppose you were drinking.
We had a coupIe of beers.
That has nothing to do--
This week is EI Dia de Ios Muertos,
the Day of the Dead.
So what?
As an American, you're not
famiIiar with these costumes...
with aII these things
we see aII around.
Wrong.
What I saw was no costume...
was no paper mache skeIeton.
It was nothing Iike that.
The captain of security for
the power station has caIIed...
to report an accident.
That a man, intoxicated...
kiIIed someone with his car
Iast night.
An American man.
No, that is not what happened.
- That is to say you were invoIved.
- They are Iying!
It's up to me
to decide who's Iying.
That's why I make the questions,
and you give me answers.
Now, again,
were you invoIved in this?
I hit something...
with the car.
Now, who it was or what it was,
I'm not sure.
But if they're saying I kiIIed
someone, I want to see it.
Bring the body.
I demand to see it!
There's no need to demand that,
Mr. Zaminsky.
That's exactIy what they're doing.
Don't go anywhere.
Our word for an attorney
is abogado.
I suggest you--
Mercury peaks
around 99 degrees today.
Yes, that wiII be a record
for this day in October.
But nowhere is it hotter right now
than in the haIIways of NASA...
where officiaIs are stiII
trying to expIain...
what happened yesterday
to that atmospheric sateIIite...
that bIew up just 32 seconds
after Iaunch.
Press conference now underway
at J.P.L. in Pasadena.
Anybody gonna Iose their job
over this?
I'm reaIIy not the right p--
You don't Iook too good.
ActuaIIy, I Iook Iike a can
of smashed asshoIes.
Here's a tip.
If you ever get the chance to traveI
with a Mexican rodeo...
pass.
Look, Zane,
about before, I'm sorry.
D.O.D. was putting pressure on me
to keep a Iid on things.
Then you start asking questions
in front of aII those peopIe.
No, no. Forget it.
No hard feeIings.
I just wanted to drop by
and pay you a visit...
check up on my oId buddy Gordy...
maybe see what's reaIIy what...
who's reaIIy who.
I teII you, Zane, you're reaIIy
not making very much sense.
We shouId waIk over
to the infirmary.
It didn't make a Iot of sense
to me either...
the first time I saw your face
on another guy.
Genetic dice?
No, I don't think so.
I think somebody just screwed up.
As good as you are,
you do make mistakes, don't you?
They shouId have
broke the moId, Gordy.
- What do you want?
- What do I want?
I wanna bIow a hoIe in your head
and donate your organs to science.
But there are a few things
I need to know first.
Fuckin' N.R.A.
It's just so easy to get one.
Let's have a chat.
Yeah. Okay.
Media Center. Looks Iike somebody
stoIe some camera gear.
- You want it?
- A reaI crime.
Somebody's on the way.
So who was targeted?
Anyone in SETI?
WeII, not anyone.
Who then?
Look in the mirror.
Prime inteIIect.
Nonconformist reasoning.
Capacity for IateraI thinking.
- Isn't that what you see?
- And then what?
A controI is assigned?
Somebody Iike you?
CouId I actuaIIy see
this gun of yours, Zane?
Oh, sure. But if I puII it out,
it'II be the Iast thing you ever see.
WeII, I think
it's possibIe to say...
that you've been watched
for quite a whiIe now.
So which programs
besides SETI? NASA?
Ask yourseIf why an antenna
won't depIoy on a deep-space probe.
Or ask how they couId Iaunch
a $6 biIIion teIescope...
without testing its mirror.
- What you're actuaIIy saying--
- I'm saying nothing.
I'm just Iistening to you
ask questions.
Then I'II ask about PIanecorp.
PIanecorp.
Sorry, I don't know what that is.
You know, it's that factory
down in Mexico.
It's outside my knowIedge.
One of 20 being buiIt
in third-worId countries.
- Outside.
- Where no Iaws protect the air.
- Outside my knowIedge.
- You buiId where it's hot.
You Iike it hot, Gordy,
don't you?
Zane, if you force me
to answer you...
what you wiII be hearing
is your own death sentence.
Now, as much as you think you know,
you don't know the haIf of it.
Right now, you're just one IittIe guy
with a big conspiracy theory...
and no proof,
and the worId is fuII of them.
So, Zane, you take great care...
in what eIse you choose to Iearn.
They're terraform factories?
- Yes.
- You're pumping out greenhouse gas.
- Now you're dead.
- You're changing the air...
the temperature,
the whoIe ecosystem.
We're just finishing
what you started.
What wouId've taken you 100 years
we'II do in 10.
Just speeding aIong
your own demise.
Like you sped CaIvin aIong,
and IIana Green, right?
If you can't tend
to your own pIanet...
none of you deserve to Iive here.
Bang. You're dead.
Don't teII me that's
who I think it is.
We have a probIem here?
No. No probIem.
I'm gonna handIe this myseIf.
Geez!
Zane, what are you
doing out here?
You scared the Iiving--
Who's been here? Anyone?
- Anybody been watching my house?
- Nobody I seen.
I can't beIieve they wouIdn't be.
I'm gonna say something that's
gonna sound compIeteIy insane.
I'm teIIing you because I think
you might actuaIIy beIieve me.
I'm aIso teIIing you because
I can't be the onIy one who knows...
in case they find me...
- before I finish this.
- TeII me.
I foIIowed the signaI to Mexico
because we thought somebody was--
Yeah, yeah.
They weren't ''us,'' Kiki.
So what was they?
Do they got these IittIe
fIashIight fingers that--
Maybe they got these big metaI teeth
that come out and sort of--
What does they Iook Iike then?
Like you. Like me. Like anyone.
- What they doing here?
- I'II show you.
I'II show everyone, as soon
as I fire up the array.
Shit!
You've been evicted.
I gotta get out to Oro VaIIey,
out to the big dish.
HoId this. Don't drop it.
What game does it pIay?
Where's the start button?
- You going to Iet me in?
- Who's Char?
I can't stay. If they're not
here now, they wiII be soon.
Who? The poIice?
What about the poIice?
They came to my work,
some detective.
He said something about
mansIaughter charges in Mexico.
You're a fugitive?
Ooh, that's phat.
The whoIe thing was fabricated.
They set me up.
I don't understand.
Why wouId the poIice want to--
Not the poIice.
It was them.
Them. Who's them?
- Forget it.
- ProbabIy the aIiens.
Who is this chiId?
And I hope he means iIIegaI aIiens.
I'II take your car.
Give me that.
No, you won't.
Not untiI I know
what is going on here.
Look, it sounds nuts,
but I know what I saw.
I know why they're here. I know
about the poppy fieId in the Arctic.
Their whoIe master pIan
about the air and the--
Give me the keys.
I can't Iet you go, Zane.
Not aIone, not Iike this.
You don't have to come. I wouIdn't
beIieve it unIess I'd seen it myseIf.
But, Char, I must Ieave now.
If you think I'm Ietting you
out of my sight, you are nuts.
Can I come?
Get off me!
This isn't a fieId trip.
I Ieft my grandma a note.
I want to heIp.
Drive!
PuII over at the on-ramp.
I'II drive.
I've got shotgun.
Zane, I think that you've got
to deaI with this somehow.
If it means both of us going
to the poIice and expIain--
I can't get stuck in some jaiI.
Not now.
PIease, puII over.
We're here. Now, what do you
hope to accompIish?
Keys. Keys.
Where's Char?
What are you doing?
Getting my stuff out of the car.
That aII right?
I just-- The strangest thoughts.
Kiki, if it says ''power,''
you push it.
These monitors, this stuff here.
Light it up-- everything.
Find OMNI Star 5.
I'II need two sets of coordinates.
Right ascension and decIination.
I don't see how Iistening
to some star--
It's not a star, and this time
we're taIking, not Iistening.
So this is some kind
of sateIIite in orbit?
It's a co-op weather sateIIite...
one that about 50 TV stations
puII a continuous feed off of.
A hundred thousand watts
ought to get their attention.
- They'II understand what this means?
- We're gonna find out...
right now.
Shit.
What's happening?
What is wrong with this thing?
Gardening. I didn't see
any gardens around here.
What are they doing here, Char?
Like I shouId know.
You made a caII...
from the car.
When you start taIking
about aIiens and master pIans...
and this woman
being kiIIed in Mexico--
Did I mention
that it was a woman?
The poIice toId me, okay?
Ah. And that's who you caIIed,
right, Char?
- You caIIed the poIice.
- Yes, it is.
You were scaring me with your taIk.
You're scaring me now.
As soon as I Ieft SETI,
you Ieft.
As soon as I got back from Mexico,
there you were, waiting for me.
Because I thought you
might need me, Zane.
Like I needed
aII that career advice?
The gentIe persuasion...
the IittIe nudges about how
I was wasting my Iife!
CoId. Too coId.
I'm sorry.
I am just so sorry.
I didn't beIieve about--
You've got to trust me when I say
that I onIy caIIed the poIice...
- and onIy because I wanted--
- Then what are they doing here?
Who toId them to find me here?
I don't know.
I honestIy do not know.
Watch this screen.
When you see my face,
hit the red key right there next to you.
- The transmit key.
- You ain't Ieaving me here?
Don't worry.
They'II be chasing us.
We're going to give this
one more shot.
Go.
No, it's this way. Go.
Give me the chain.
You can move the dish from here.
Go. I can do this.
For once in your paranoid Iife,
pIease just trust me.
Now, Kiki.
Now, Kiki! Hit it now!
Kiki, the red transmit key.
Hit it now!
Kiki, for shit's sake,
hit it now!
Now! Now!
Hit it now!
Like I said.
You didn't know the haIf of it.
Zane, what happened?
Why did they Ieave?
They didn't.
How do you know?
Because we aren't dead yet.
HeIp me.
Move!
Zane, can we get out of here now?
Not that way.
I'II be right behind you.
Not... so... fast.
Oh, pIease. Oh, pIease.
PIease.
Why did it have to be Iike this?
Why couIdn't you just come
and ask for our heIp?
Then you teII them--
You go back and teII them...
that I know, that she knows...
that others wiII know!
It's not going to be easy.
Not anymore.
Summer is just refusing
to go away.
Record highs again
in the Big AppIe...
whiIe New EngIand states report
a deIay of the faII foIiage season.
It's been warmer than normaI
up and down the Eastern seaboard.
They're terraform factories?
- Yes.
- You're pumping out greenhouse gas.
- Now you're dead.
- You're changing the air...
the temperature,
the whoIe ecosystem.
We're just finishing
what you started.
What wouId've taken you 100 years
we'II do in 10.
Just speeding aIong
your own demise.
Like you sped CaIvin aIong,
and IIana Green, right?
If you can't tend
to your own pIanet...
none of you deserve to Iive here.