Behind the Random Denominator (2017) Movie Script
1
[ominous music]
[rain rushes]
[thunder claps]
[soft violin music]
[dramatic music]
[lively orchestral music]
[glass clangs]
[typewriter dings]
[thunder roars]
[match spits]
[soft harp music]
[clock ticks]
[soft harp music]
[thunder roars]
[soft harp music]
[thunder roars]
[soft harp music]
[soft harp music]
[telephone rings]
- [Operator] Merle calling.
[phone buzzes]
Merle calling.
[phone buzzes]
Merle calling.
[thunder roars]
[phone buzzes]
Merle calling.
[telephone rings]
Merle calling.
[phone buzzes]
Merle calling.
[phone buzzes]
[thunder roars]
[screeching]
[thunder roars]
[clock chimes]
[grandfather clock chimes]
[clock chimes]
[phone rings]
Merle calling.
Merle calling.
Merle calling.
[phone buzzes]
Merle calling.
[thunder roars]
Merle calling.
[phone buzzes]
Merle calling.
Merle calling.
[phone buzzes]
- [Merle] Hello?
- Yes, hello.
- [Merle] Where were you?
- Where was I?
I was right here.
- I called a while ago.
- Yeah, I was, I was at the gym.
I was working out.
- Really?
- Really.
- I doubt that very much.
- I'm lifting weights like a mad man here.
As a matter of fact,
I was just about to
lift another 50 pounds.
[man grunts]
Let's make it 100.
- Indeed, you do need to
work out more and drink less.
- What drink?
I haven't had one in weeks.
- What's the time back there?
- Honey, you should by now know
that when you finish your
matinee, it's 11 p.m. over here.
And when you finish your
evening performance,
it's five in the morning and
you shouldn't be angry with me
when I don't pick up when you call
after your evening performance.
- Why are you talking to
me as if I were an idiot?
You know perfectly well
that we are touring
and there are several
times zones in the States.
- Yeah, I've heard of that.
- And there won't be an
evening performance tonight.
LA tour just ended.
- Well, congratulations.
And where to now?
- Now?
A bus to New York.
- Right, what, a bus?
How many miles is that?
- 2,448.
- Blimey.
Well, wouldn't it make more sense to fly?
- No resources.
I'm not in the Bolshoi, am I?
Second rate European trips
are a dime a dozen here.
We shall be taking the bus.
Only the principals fly.
- Can't you do something
about these principals?
I don't know, sort of kill them all?
- We don't kill people in ballet.
The ballet is a graceful,
elegant form of art.
We'd rather put razorblades
in the point shoes of the rivals
or throw some acid in their facial area.
- Sure.
There's no getting your
hands dirty, is there?
Even the ugliest things
must be done nice and neat.
Right, Merle?
- Oy, bitches, keep it down.
And anyways, how's the weather?
- Yeah, let's tittle
tattle about the weather.
The weather is crappy.
There's a bloody storm on for,
I don't know how long,
I can hardly remember the sun.
- [Merle] Keep the shutters closed
or they'll smash the windows
again and flood everything.
- And the fuses blew again.
I was here.
I was at my computer.
I was writing like a bloody Tolstoy
when all of a sudden, boom.
Bloody hell, 100 pages of
solid good writing gone.
Just like that.
- Firstly, you never write
on a computer and secondly,
didn't you just tell me you were in a gym?
- Ah.
- Well, it's really up to you after all.
You can lie down and soak
yourself in liquor for all I care.
I bet haven't shaved
nor changed for a week.
I bet you stuff yourself with sausages.
If I come home and you have
put on some excess pounds,
I've received many offers lately.
- But you would rather
enjoy those excess pounds
to be in our bank accounts, huh?
The little lady wants to dabble in ballet.
It's a hubby's duty to
bring home the bacon.
- You haven't finished
that bloody book of yours
for years on end.
And on the whole, I'm
not interested in money.
- By all means, how can
an artist be interested
in something as common as money?
After all an artist is the very goose
that lays the gold eggs.
Pardon, the swan that
lays the golden eggs.
Even though people keep wondering, Merle,
why these eggs are not but empty shells.
Why they produce nothing
but stillborn chicks.
[thunder roars]
- You know what?
If any sperm could survive
in your liquor circulation,
I could have found something of use.
- Ouch. [man snarls]
Touche.
- Okay, okay.
I don't want to argue.
I'll be off now.
I'll call you from New York.
- Right, stick to your guns.
- And when you go to change
the fuses, take a flashlight
so you don't nose dive again.
- It was no fault of mine.
It was your shoe on the stairs.
- I never left it there.
Anyway, it's your excess
of self-confidence.
Take a lamp, watch your steps
and you might not break your neck.
- Right, back to work then.
- [Merle] All right then.
Ta for now.
- Ta, ta.
- And don't invite
those pointless drinking
pals of yours over.
- Ta, ta.
- As if I didn't know you
are having booze-ups there
while I'm away.
- Look, Merle, reception
isn't the best possible.
No I can hardly hear.
[phone buzzes]
Yeah, right.
[phone buzzes]
Raoul.
- [Operator] Dialing Raoul.
Dialing Raoul.
Dialing Raoul.
[phone rings]
- Yo.
- What's up?
It's 11, and I'm very dim.
The bash needs kick-starting.
- Well, I just started driving.
- Just started?
You're supposed to be here an hour ago.
- Some shit came up.
Have you taken a look out the window?
Are you aware of what's happening outside?
- Well, you're not driving a dork cart.
Isn't that a Jaguar I hear purring?
- The city was totally jammed
and the woods are not much better.
I feel like a cat in a bag.
I can't see shit.
It's a fucking deluge.
I should've taken a boat.
- Well, how much longer?
- I'm in no mood for racing.
Count me about an hour or so.
- Damn, an hour.
Damn, I'm down to my last bottle here.
You did remember to get some, didn't you?
- Why is it that I must
always procure booze for you?
Isn't there a local store
near you or something?
- You're fucking kidding.
It's miles away.
I haven't been out of the house for ages.
- Take your car then.
- I can't.
I'm perpetually plastered.
- Okay, chill.
The bottles are gonna be rolling up.
- Step on it, I'm drying up here.
- Do you want your booze to arrive or not?
If I go any faster,
you're going to be
looking for your bottles
in the middle of the forest.
Bloody hell.
What is a guy doing living
out here in the woods anyway?
- It's a peninsula.
- Surrounded by 100 miles of woodland.
I'm racing against death
here as it is already.
You don't want another vengeful
spirit out there, do you?
- Ha ha, a nice one.
- [Raoul] Well, you keep moaning
about stuff going on there.
- Nothing booze couldn't fix.
[Raoul chuckles]
- We'll be messing with your Ouija board
when we're out there.
Let's see who turns up this time.
- Okay, less talk, more action.
Call me when you're here.
I'll come open the gate for you.
- What do you mean come?
That stuff's remotely operated, isn't it?
- Providing there's power.
- Fuse is blown again?
- Power comes as power goes.
- Go change the fuses.
A lot of fun it's gonna be
sitting out there in the dark.
- You don't hear me complaining.
It's actually rather romantic here.
I've got candles burning.
I've got two hours of battery power left,
and just listen to this.
[music box chimes]
- Oh yeah, a full headbanging session.
You teeny bopper you.
- Yeah, must have music.
- [Raoul] Ah, it's
weak. [breaks squealing]
Oh, fuck, I just about hit something.
- Vintage Raoul.
hitting on ladies even in dark forests.
- [Raoul] Oh no, fucking hell.
It just came blasting from the left.
Fuck.
Oh, my heart nearly stopped.
- Must've been hitchhiking?
- [Raoul] It shot straight
in your direction.
Soon you'll be hearing it
scratching at your door.
- Fail.
- [Raoul] What is?
- You're miserable attempt at scaring me.
Me, a man who has spent his
life in an old timey house
with the spirits of ancestors for company.
- Oh, a house?
We're being so working class now, are we?
Last time I checked,
they refer to those buildings as mansions.
- Life is not about the worldly goods.
- [Raoul] Get rid of that labyrinth
and go get yourself a proper
joint in the city, mate.
- I do have a town apartment.
- With the cash you'd
make from that dungeon,
you'd get yourself a posh cubbyhole.
Anyway.
Wait, something's gone.
Something's wrong on the dashboard.
Wait, I better check it out.
I'll get back to you later.
- What?
Got to drag yourself under the hood now?
- [Raoul] Small chance.
I'd rather call a towing service.
- In that case, you won't be
here before tomorrow evening
and by then you'll discover
me dead of dehydration.
There are only so many hours
a man can survive without drinking.
- [Raoul] You know, urine is sterile.
Try that.
Anyway, I'll give you
a buzz when it's time.
- God speed.
- [Raoul] Cheers.
[rain taps]
[plaster crackles]
[ominous music]
[plaster crackles]
[thunder roars]
[music box chimes]
[man whistles]
[phone rings]
- [Operator] Unknown number calling.
[phone buzzes]
Unknown number calling.
[phone rings]
Unknown number calling.
[thunder roars]
- I'm listening.
What?
- [Caller] Can you hear me?
- Barely.
The coverage ain't the best out here.
- [Agent] Concentrate.
- What?
- [Agent] Concentrate.
- I'm may very well concentrate.
It wouldn't enhance the reception.
- [Agent] Is that better now?
- Somewhat.
- [Agent] At last.
- I'm sorry, I'm not
sure I heard your name.
- [Agent] My name is Agent.
- [Agent] Sorry, I didn't catch.
- [Agent] Agent. [distortion
drowns out Agent].
- Try again.
- Agent. [distortion drowns out Agent]
- Well, I don't know.
Nice to meet you, Agent. [man gurgles]
Well, what can I do for you Agent?
- [Agent] It's about a case.
- Make sense.
- [Agent] An old case.
- And I'm somehow
involved in that old case?
- [Agent] Very much so.
- Sorry, are you aware what time it is?
- [Agent] 11 in the evening.
- And an old case, it requires
that you call me today,
at this hour?
- [Agent] Precisely, specifically today.
- Exciting.
- [Agent] You say that with sarcasm,
but I know that actually you like riddles.
- And how would you
possibly know that, Agent?
- [Agent] I've read your
book and your columns
and solved your five minute
who-dun-its in the magazines.
- All right, Agent.
I do admit, I like them.
- [Agent] Thus, if I may,
I would like to present you with one.
- What, a riddle?
- Yes.
- Is that some kind of a
new investigation method?
- [Agent] Let's say it is.
Or we like to call it a test.
- And if I solve it, is there a prize?
- [Agent] There is, a significant one.
- All right then, Agent, ask away.
- [Agent] To complete the task
you need some paper and pencil.
I would recommend some
paper with printed squares
and a graphite pencil which can be raised.
- Ha ha, that's quite funny.
- [Agent] What is?
- I do happen to have a
notebook with checkered pages
and a pencil with an eraser on my desk.
- [Agent] What a coincidence.
- And now?
- [Agent] Can you see the
number I'm calling from?
- I can.
- [Agent] Would you write
that number on the paper?
Preferably so that the numbers
would fit inside the squares.
- All right.
- Zero, nine, two, six,
one, oh,
nine, one.
Did I get it right?
- [Agent] You did.
- So what's next?
- [Agent] Do you notice something peculiar
when you observe these numbers?
- Do I notice?
Well.
Eight numbers, the area code.
I didn't know this code.
Where are you calling from?
- [Agent] You'll find
out about that later.
- Okay.
Odd, even, or primes.
No, zero to nine.
Well, I don't know.
What should I be like looking
for in the first place?
- [Agent] A system.
- A system meaning what?
It's just a random sequence of numbers.
- [Agent] There is no
such thing as randomness.
- If this is some kind of a
mathematical brain cracker,
I better warn you I'm not good at these.
I might easily make a mistake.
- [Agent] But a mistake is
exactly what we are looking for.
- A mistake.
- [Agent] A mistake to start with.
And then through this mistake, a system.
- Wait a minute.
At 11 in the evening, I'm
not in the shape to solve.
- [Agent] But you know what a mistake is.
- If you're expecting
me to produce a precise,
scientific definition of
mistake, then no, I don't.
Why don't you tell me?
- [Agent] I'm using the term error here
as a synonym for experimental uncertainty.
There are two types of errors,
indeterminate and determinate,
or systematic errors.
The widely used measure of
error is standard deviation.
One commonly distinguishes
between the relative error
and the absolute error.
The absolute error is a
magnitude of a difference
between the exact value
and the approximation.
- Look, look.
My brain went out to lunch
with your first word.
- [Agent] It's really very
simple once you pay attention.
So let me proceed.
The relative error can be
expressed as a fraction
where the numerator is one
and the denominator is the absolute error
divided by the magnitude
of the exact value.
- Of all this ration,
I only grasped the words
numerator and denominator.
- [Agent] These are indeed
the most important ones.
You are the numerator.
- Was that a compliment?
Watching these numbers of yours,
yes I do feel like a numerator.
- [Agent] The numerator is one.
- What?
- [Agent] The numerator is one.
- Well, but are you still
prattling on about your equation?
Look, you really misfiring here.
I've dropped the ball long since.
It's just not my cup of tea.
I do other stuff.
- [Agent] And quite randomly I've learned.
- But I like all things random.
When you say the numerator's one.
I say, why not some other number?
- [Agent] But you are alone.
Are you not?
- Well at the moment I might.
So it's, it's supposed to be some equation
that has me as its character.
- [Agent] Precisely.
- What about the other
thing, the denominator?
What is that?
- [Agent] Let's presume this
time it is a random one.
- A random denominator?
Well, well, could we just
return riddle your proposing?
I'm staring at these numbers
of yours without any clue,
what should I do?
- [Agent] Find something
that isn't random.
- What?
- [Agent] Or to be more precise,
something that is hidden
behind the random denominator.
Something that can reveal a system.
- Like, like some kind of
a mathematical anagram?
- [Agent] Possibly.
- No more clues?
- [Agent] Give it a try.
- Okay, zero, nine, two, six, one, nine.
- [Agent] Think.
- Would I need to use all the numbers?
- [Agent] All numbers must be involved.
- In that case, we are searching
for another eight figure number.
It could be some kind of a code
which can be translated into a word.
- [Agent] That's one option.
- These could be coordinates.
- [Agent] That's warmer.
- Or it could be something much simpler.
- [Agent] Exactly.
- Well, I presume it, it could be.
Wait, wait.
- [Agent] Take your
time, there's no hurry.
- Ha!
Gotcha.
- Nine, six, two, one, oh, nine, one.
It's my number.
- [Agent] Congratulations.
- Well, that's, that's quite queer.
Our numbers seem to be distant cousins.
- [Agent] But this is only the beginning.
- Beginning?
There's, there's more.
- [Agent] Take another
good look at these numbers.
- Well, I presume if I
rearranged them some more,
we could get 100 or so more phone numbers
of random people around the globe,
or I don't know how many combination
that would be possible with the-
- [Agent] Over 3,320.
- Ha! Gosh.
Well, I wouldn't know
anyone's number by heart.
I'd be able to remember my own.
So I'm afraid that concludes the test.
- [Agent] Precisely, your own.
- Well, we figured that out already.
I've had this number for ages.
- [Agent] You're on a right track.
- Well.
Well, I suppose it could be.
- [Agent] And what have you figured out?
- Ha!
That's bizarre, that's really bizarre.
- [Agent] What is?
- I think you're quite aware
which number merged here.
- [Agent] Humor me.
- Two, oh, oh, nine, one, nine, one, six.
- [Agent] Which number is that?
- That's the number of the
first mobile I ever owned
when I was 16, like the
ending of that number.
- [Agent] Extraordinary.
- While I have to admit,
that was quite a peculiar one.
Not perhaps the best.
Mind twists round and countered that.
Yes, a peculiar one.
- [Agent] And yet, the
riddle is still unsolved.
- Well, I can't see any
other way I could look.
- [Agent] Look further.
- What? Further into the past?
I'm quite sure people
didn't use cells back then.
- [Agent] What did they use?
- Desktop phones, but these
only have six digit numbers
in those days.
- [Agent] Plus the area code.
- Who knows what these were like.
I can only remember ours
here being something like 10.
- [Agent] Correct, and could
anyone ever forget the number
of their childhood home?
- Six, two, oh, nine, nine, one.
God.
- [Agent] I congratulate you.
- Ha ha.
How the hell did you know that house?
- [Agent] That's the uncertainty
that reveals the system.
- Yeah, but how can there be a system?
- [Agent] How not?
- Well, I have no idea how
these numbers were distributed
but it must've been random.
And that old desktop number,
we had it even before I was born.
- [Agent] Exactly.
- Now, come again?
Who are you?
- [Agent] I'm an agent.
- Like with the FBI or something,
or a literary agent?
- [Agent] I investigate things, privately.
[man laughs]
- A private eye then.
Well, what's your reward in establishing
that all the phone numbers I ever had
belonged to some strange system?
- [Agent] But this is merely one
of the countless possible systems.
- Look, I'm getting
pretty tired at this game.
I told you these math
puzzles aren't for me.
And the time is.
- [Agent] Yes, I know, 11.
But you're quite accustomed
to the late hours,
to the darkness.
- Oh, I failed to see the connection.
- [Agent] You wouldn't if
you'd look at these numbers
from a different angle.
- What angle?
- [Agent] As you yourself
suggested a while ago.
- That, that, that it
might be code of a sort
or coordinates?
- [Agent] You've cracked it again.
- I should have mentioned
that my knowledge of geography
is even lousier than my knowledge of math.
I can hardly tell the
latitudes from the longitudes.
To be precise, I can't.
- [Agent] These are not space coordinates.
- So what other coordinates can there be?
- [Agent] How many dimensions
are there in our world?
- Well, length, width, height.
- [Agent] Is that all one can measure?
- Measure.
Time.
- [Agent] You've just found the key.
Now, you can open the next door.
- How can these numbers
be used to measure time?
Unless.
- [Agent] Unless.
- Unless these are dates.
Yes, month and days.
- [Agent] Can you bring me an example?
- What?
That would be again a limitless
number of combination?
What was it you said like
40 billion or something.
- [Agent] Oh no, the possibilities here
are much more limited.
- Yes, I can actually see that.
There are 12 months, which
means the first number can be
zero, one, then two.
The day is number one to three.
The years.
Are we discussing the years in the past?
- [Agent] But perhaps
also those yet to come.
- Well, I wouldn't even know where to.
Okay, well, let's try it.
The month is ninth and the day is.
- [Agent] Which day is it?
- The day's 19th.
Two, oh, one, six, oh, nine.
- [Agent] Another coincidence.
- I'm not sure I want to play this game.
- [Agent] But who said
anything about a game?
We are balancing an equation.
- I already told you.
I'm not the one to.
- [Agent] Not a mathematical equation.
The equation of life.
- And I suppose it's solved now?
- [Agent] Perhaps there's more.
Why don't you try and rearrange the dates?
Something significant may come up.
- Look, if you don't tell
me what's that all about,
I'll be hanging up for tonight.
I'm expecting to have
another call any minute now.
- [Agent] 1990.
- What?
- [Agent] 1990.
A year to remember.
Don't tell me nothing comes to mind.
- Not a year I would care to recall.
- [Agent] One, nine, nine, zero.
What remains?
- One, two, oh, six.
- [Agent] What if if we go for December,
the month of Christmas.
If the month is 12.
- Sixth.
- [Agent] Does this particular date
happen to mean anything to you?
- What is this?
Who are you?
- [Agent] I'm merely investigating.
- Every investigation should
have a purpose and a reason.
- [Agent] I'm investigating a death.
- The death of my father?
December 6th, 1990.
That's where all this
was taking us, wasn't it?
- [Agent] Nothing takes us anywhere.
It's merely an uninterrupted
continuous string.
- Yes, perhaps for you.
I am going to disrupt this string.
There's the call I was expecting.
So.
- Listen to me.
- If you're accusing me of anything,
come over with a court
order and arrest me.
Or, if you have anything to
say that makes any sense,
send me an email.
- [Agent] But you don't have electricity.
- How do you?
Besides, it's not as if I'm going
to stay without it forever.
- [Agent] You should be
prepared for anything to happen.
- This is turning really grotesque
and I have no intention
to play around any longer.
And you can keep your prize.
You win.
Goodbye.
For fuck sake.
- [Raoul] What now?
- You know, you couldn't have
called at a better moment.
I had some lunatic
pestering me for a while.
- [Raoul] What lunatic?
- Total bloody mindfuck gamer.
Gave me some freakish puzzles to solve
while cunningly sniffing
into my father's death.
- [Raoul] What?
- I tell you a total freak.
I didn't even understand
if it was a man or a woman.
Told me he was some kind of
an agent or investigator.
Well, pardon me if I very much doubt that.
Fuck, I'm almost out of liquor.
He totally freaked me out.
Are you at the gates?
- Far from it.
Do you have any idea
what's going on outside?
I can't cross the bridge.
- Why?
- There's an oak on it?
- An oak?
- All right, spruce or willow or palm,
whatever it is you have
growing in these backwards.
In a word I was turning onto the bridge
and this trunk is just laying there,
smack down in the middle of the bridge.
- Oh shit.
- Detour it is.
You're gonna have to hang out there
for another 20 minutes or so.
- Oh fuck.
- My word.
I feel like such an idiot.
Your lights are on no
more than 100 feet away.
And I can't do anything about it.
- What lights?
- [Raoul] In the tower.
- What tower?
The power's out.
- Didn't you change the fuses?
- No, this lunatic held me put here.
What do you mean tower?
- What do you mean, what do I mean?
The belfry, turret, minaret.
What else do you want to call it?
You know where we mess with
the Ouija board and stuff?
- Where we?
I have never been there.
Not for years.
It's not since.
Not since the last time we went there.
On the day when, when my
father met his- [screeching]
- We were?
- A fortnight before Christmas.
About 25 years ago.
It was a night almost like this.
Don't you remember?
- Oh, I supposed we were.
We stopped messing with
the Ouija board years ago.
- Why did we go there in the first place?
- How the hell should I know?
You were too chicken to go on your own
so you dragged me along.
You were searching for something, I think.
- It's weird, I don't have
any real memories of that day.
- Figures.
You landed on your head when
you climbed down the stairs.
I had to call an ambulance for you.
You are out cold for half an hour or so.
- And, during that time, Father.
- How were we supposed to know
that he was suffering a heart
attack at that very moment?
If I hadn't called the ambulance for you,
maybe nobody would've discovered
there was something wrong
with your dad.
- Anyway, that wouldn't have mattered.
He was dead by then.
- [Raoul] Well, he wasn't quite yet.
- Yeah, when I finally came to, he was.
Yeah, you had the chance
to bid him goodbye.
Dad considered you nothing short of a son.
- That wasn't much of a goodbye.
He was delusional.
He went on about you not
calling him. [thunder claps]
- What?
- I tell you quite deranged.
- What did he say?
- Oh, he raved something
about you shouldn't call him.
Look, it goes total
gibberish. [thunder claps]
- Why have you never told me that?
- Well, hello?
You went through a year of depression.
I wasn't gonna be the one to tell you
that your father's last
words were to not call him.
- I, I just remembered something.
- Well?
- I seem to have received
another freaky phone call that day.
- From whom?
- I can't recall a thing.
I think that someone called me.
- Like today?
Perhaps the very same guy.
[Raoul chuckles]
- Not funny, but no, it
couldn't have been the same guy.
I seem to recall that there was
something strangely familiar
in that voice.
- [Raoul] And you cannot
recall what he said?
- No, but I presume that's the reason
why we went to a tower in the first place.
- Spooky.
But I tell you the lights
are on in the tower.
- Now stop this nonsense.
[thunder claps]
[light switches click]
The lights are still out.
- [Raoul] Well, you
know, all these stories.
- What stories?
- [Raoul] A man.
A man is alone in an empty dark house.
It's a stormy night,
and then all of a sudden
he begins to get these weird phone calls.
- I received one weird phone call,
not to include the one from Merle.
But her calls are routine.
And yours, it's about
to turn weird as well.
- Give it some time.
So the man has this strange feeling
that someone is watching him.
Watching his every step.
- Yeah, well, you know,
there was a moment.
I had this feeling.
He seemed to know I had a
notebook and a pencil on my desk
and knew that my power is
out, and that I'm alone.
- So there you are.
So the man begins to think
that someone is observing him
with binoculars.
- Well, he'd need to have x-ray eyes
to see anything through this rain.
- Have you at least got
your curtains drawn?
- Yeah.
These were sort of lost by
the Chinese dry cleaners
back in '98.
- That is just as I
thought. [thunder claps]
- What is?
- At one point, the man
can't take it anymore
and he decides to call
the police to establish
where the mysterious phone
calls are coming from.
And right after the last call,
the detective calls back and tells him,
"We've established the
whereabouts of the caller.
The calls are coming
from inside your house."
- I respect you for being
a diehard horror film buff,
but I wish you would update
your collection a bit.
- But how can you tell I'm not right?
That this enigmatic joker,
this Sphinx isn't looming
above you in the tower
or perhaps behind your study door,
or perhaps already in
the very room with you
hiding in a dark corner
where the light of the
candle doesn't reach.
- Hmm, nonsense.
I'm completely alone in
the house. [thunder claps]
[dramatic organ music]
- [Raoul] Good for you.
Okay then, I'll be peeling rubber.
Stay put.
- As if I had any choice.
[clock ticks]
[phone rings]
- [Operator] Unknown number calling.
[phone buzzes]
Unknown number calling.
[phone rings]
- Why do you keep calling?
- [Agent] You had time to think.
- Think about what?
- [Agent] About all the questions
that keep gnawing at you.
Who am I, where am I?
- Who are you? Where are you?
- [Agent] When I told you I
was an investigating agent,
I should've been more specific.
I'm not one who's working for police.
- Well, a scientist then?
- [Agent] And not a scientist,
not in the common sense of the word.
I investigate certain phenomena.
The understanding of which
is still in its infancy.
It will take half a century
before studies in this field
will be officially recognized
by mainstream science.
- While you've lost me.
- [Agent] I'm investigating
the so-called unseen world.
- What? The afterlife?
- [Agent] It'll be more specific
that gray area where reality,
and as you said, afterlife overlap.
- You're a medium, is
that the correct term?
- [Agent] My specific research
involves the vibrational frequency
of space, time and helices.
The ones that intersect with each other
as do ripples, which are
formed on the surface
when you throw two stones into the water.
Have you noticed how both
of these sets of ripples
will continue on their
journey through each other
just as though disputing
the laws of physics.
Or do you know that light is
able to attain information
and when another beam of light
even from a simple household
torch comes in contact with it
the information is passed on.
- In short, all the shenanigans you called
were really about the death of my father
and now you're probably going to tell me,
Father has ordered you to contact me.
- [Agent] Your father's
death was merely one
of a multitude of ripples.
- As far as I understand
mediums offer their services
for money, just like whores.
I don't remember having solicited you
and don't for a moment presume
you'll receive an award
for bringing me reports
from beyond the grave.
- [Agent] True, I'm working
for money, but not for yours.
- You refuse to reveal your identity
as well as your intentions.
And if you don't immediately
tell me who hired you
and where you are, this
conversation is over.
- [Agent] Do you believe someone
can be simultaneously near and far away?
- Ha, precisely the kind unambiguous reply
I was anticipating.
So where is that?
- [Agent] For you, I'm merely
a voice in your own head.
- Yes, but where is your physical body?
The one producing this voice.
- [Agent] You would find
it difficult to grasp.
- Ha! [bottle clangs]
By all means, I find it difficult to grasp
when a person is unable to tell me
where he's physically located.
- [Agent] For you, nowhere.
- Please elaborate on for me.
What makes me so special?
- [Agent] The era you live in.
- Oh yes, finally I've got it.
It's all clear to me now.
You're calling me from a different time,
from a different point
on the fabric of time,
space, bullshit continuum.
So it goes without saying,
you don't physically exist
in what I perceive as reality.
- [Agent] You're correct.
- How could I have been
so slow to grasp it?
Should I perhaps cut back on booze.
You're calling from the realm of the dead.
You disperse this earth 100 years ago.
Or perhaps, you are a talking dinosaur.
- [Agent] Please don't be absurd.
I couldn't be calling from the past.
- Why on earth not?
- [Agent] There were no mobile
connections in the past.
- Goodness gracious, what
infallible logic you've got.
But I don't understand shit.
- [Agent] For you, I'm not yet born.
- And pray for what date
have you arranged your birth?
- [Agent] I plan my birth no
more than you planned yours,
but from your point in time,
it will take place in a couple of years.
- Prove it.
- [Agent] Do I really need to?
- Give me a piece of
tangible evidence right now
and perhaps I shan't disconnect you
and block your number forever.
[ominous music]
[thunder claps]
- [Agent] The signs
were to rushed past him,
deafened him with its voiceless screens,
which were at once menacing and imploring,
tempting and condemning.
These are your words, aren't they?
That you wrote down moments
before the fuses blew
and your wife called from the States.
- I have no idea how you pulled this off,
but I'm pretty convinced it's illegal.
- [Agent] What is?
- To eavesdrop on private conversations
and to monitor someone's private life.
If there are any cameras
hidden on this premise,
I guarantee you a whole
shit load of problems.
- [Agent] There are no cameras.
- How convenient that the lights were on
when I was writing the sentence.
Huh?
How very convenient there's so
many windows and no curtains.
Huh!
What are you?
Crouching up a tree with your binoculars?
Like a wet growl.
- [Agent] I warned you you would
find it difficult to grasp.
- But tell you what.
I just had a brainstorm.
If you're in the future,
seeing and knowing everything,
that's what we'll do.
I shall alter something in this room.
I shall break something which
means that there's something
doesn't exist in the future.
To be more precise, I
decide to break something,
but I won't do so before
you tell me what it is.
Hmm.
- [Agent] Decisions are indecisive.
Only acts influence future.
- Yes, so you could observe these acts
through your hidden cameras.
All right.
Very well then.
Try to worm your way out of this.
Regardless of what kind
of surveillance technology you
have installed in this house,
or whether you have hacked into my phone,
there are places that simply
are out of reach for you,
out of reach of every human eye.
The bottom of a top
drawer is one such place.
Wouldn't you agree?
- [Agent] Let's presume it is.
- Good, and now observe my hand.
This hand will go to the
bottom of a top door,
and in my hand, I shall
have this permanent marker.
You have heard of permanent
markers in the future, right?
They are, well, permanent.
Using this marker, I shall
now write a single word
on the bottom of the drawer.
Get it?
- [Agent] Yes.
- And this lovely vintage desk,
it's still there in the future I presume.
- [Agent] It is.
- Lovely.
Without any cameras to help you this time,
you shall tell me the word
that I'm at this very moment
writing in this drawer.
- [Agent] A rat.
[dramatic music]
- How did you know that?
I haven't myself taken a look at it.
- [Agent] But I have.
- I haven't even opened the drawer yet.
- [Agent] But I have.
- When were you in this room?
- [Agent] I am here as I speak.
- Where?
- [Agent] I'm sitting in your chair.
[suspenseful music]
[chair creaks]
[chair creaks]
[phone buzzes]
- Raoul?
- [Operator] Dialing Raoul.
Dialing Raoul.
Dialing Raoul.
- [Raoul] Yes?
- Raoul, you were right.
- [Raoul] I was right?
- Yes.
He's here.
- [Raoul] He's there?
- Inside the house.
- [Raoul] Inside the house?
- The caller.
- [Raoul] The caller.
- The one we discussed.
- [Raoul] The one we discussed?
- Raoul, why do keep
repeating my every word?
- [Raoul] I keep
repeating your every word?
[Raoul laughs]
[suspenseful music]
[phone beeps]
- [Operator] No radio coverage.
No radio coverage.
- Very well.
Two can play at that game.
[phone buzzes]
Last incoming call.
- [Operator] Dialing last incoming number.
This number is not in use.
Please check the number.
[phone rings]
Unknown number calling.
[phone buzzes]
Unknown number calling.
[phone rings]
Unknown number calling.
[phone rings]
- Sadly, that's not how
our communication works.
I told you, calls can't be placed
from the past to the future.
- So you are watching
my activities after all.
- [Agent] I have a record of
all the calls you have dialed
or received this evening, and
those you are about to place.
Among these there's
one you shouldn't make.
- Hmm? Why not?
- [Agent] When we try to change the past,
we might instead cause disasters.
- What past?
Didn't you say you were from the future?
Let me have a wild guess.
You say you haven't been born yet.
So we're gonna make the year 2019.
The next option would be 2069.
That would mean you were about 50.
- [Agent] I'm 42.
- Yes, and it's either 19th of January or-
- [Agent] 9th of November.
- Neat.
So do I get the prize that I was promised
or is there another level to this game?
- [Agent] Thousands.
It is the key to unlock your whole life.
- These eight numbers.
- [Agent] These are more than
40,000 different combinations,
possibilities and decisions
you have made or left unmade.
- Yes, but how can you be
talking to me from future?
How is it technical conceivable?
- [Agent] You agree that these numbers
which seem to be permanently
attached to each other
they come together in a single point.
- In me.
I am this point.
- [Agent] Now imagine all
the previously revealed dates
doing the same, coming
together in a moment in time.
- You know, very well they are.
- [Agent] Thus a template is formed
that allows for moments to overlap
as when you take 100 punch
cards and pile them up,
there are tens of thousands of tiny holes,
but it is a very small
chance that they will line up
so that you can see through any of them.
Yet, those particular numbers
which have shaped all
your life since your birth
allow this to happen.
But there are very rare moments.
You asked me, "Why today, why so late?"
This is one of those moments.
- If there is even a
grain of truth in this,
I shall now put it to test.
- [Agent] I wouldn't recommend that.
- I'll conduct a test, which neither you
nor I can tamper with.
Whatever technology you have hidden here
with ears and eyes in every
corner and every drawer.
- [Agent] I repeat.
- And if that test proves your point.
Then I can warn myself
not to leave my father,
but to fetch his physician immediately.
I can prevent everything
that happened on that day.
And perhaps, my father will.
And perhaps my father,
will open the door any minute,
alive and well.
[thunder claps]
- [Agent] I wouldn't recommend.
I wouldn't- [phone beeps]
[phone beeps]
- No.
My cell was dropped in a puddle that day.
It was busted.
The tabletop.
[phone beeps]
[phone dials]
- [Martin] Hello?
- Uh, hello.
- [Martin] Yes, hello.
- Now listen carefully, Martin.
You don't know who I am.
And to be honest, I don't
yet know who you are.
Neither of us will know it until
you have solved the riddle.
To be more precise, until
we have solved it together.
- Who is this?
- I'm someone who knows your every secret.
- [Martin] Such as?
- Such as you've just
arrived home with Raoul
from boarding school in Switzerland
to spend your Christmas holiday together.
- Is it Tom?
- Tom who?
Oh yeah.
The, the son of a bitch.
Yeah, little bully who split
my, your lip in the gym.
- Well, who is this then?
- Let's conduct an experiment.
If this is successful,
I shall trust you and you shall trust me.
- Meaning what?
- Let's do it right away.
Once we're both convinced
that there are things
which only two of us can know.
I shall reveal to you a
matter of great importance.
It will change your life forever.
- Let's do what exactly?
[soft music]
- Ha!
The hammer of witches.
- [Martin] Uh, what?
- The old Latin book you have
never understood at word of
because in spite of your best efforts,
you didn't speak a word of Latin.
- I'll learn it.
- No, you won't.
But since the pictures are mighty,
you pinch it from dad's
study each time you and Raoul
mess around the Ouija board
to pester the local spirits.
- How did you know?
- That's what you'll do next.
Tell me a number from one to about 500.
- 268.
- Open that book on that page, 268,
and write a random word there.
- [Martin] What word?
- And the moment you had done so,
close the book and don't show it to anyone
and I shall tell you
what you have written.
- Oh yeah, I rather doubt that.
- You can resist,
but your curiosity will
get the better of you.
So ask Raoul to give
you that ballpoint pen
with switchable colors that
you bought at the station
right before you boarded your train
and use the red tube to
write this random word, hmm,
and the moment you have done
I shall tell you that word
and then you'll know that you can trust me
and I can trust you.
- Okay, I'll do it.
But if this is some kind of a lame joke.
- But what if it isn't?
- Okay, I'll be right back.
Raoul, let's make a
quick visit to the tower.
[door squeaks]
[squeaking]
- 268.
[soft music]
[man laughs]
Rat.
Some things never changed.
[squeaking]
[ominous music]
[people whispering]
[thunder claps]
Hey.
- [Father] Martin.
- Father?
- [Father] I need help.
My pacemaker's failing.
Call the medics.
- I can't.
- [Father] Hang up.
I can't, I can't dial a call.
The line is busy.
- Father.
- [Martin] Where's my son?
- You mustn't excite yourself.
- [Father] Dear God, who are you?
How did you get in the house?
- It's me, Dad.
- [Father] God, how?
My son.
[dramatic music]
[phone rings]
- [Operator] Unknown number calling.
[phone buzzes]
Unknown number calling.
- [Agent] I told you.
You changed nothing.
- It was me who called that day.
- [Agent] Yes.
- I myself sent myself to fetch the book.
I thought it was in my father's study,
but we had left it in the tower.
- [Agent] Yes.
- As I ran out, I left the
receiver off in my room.
And when dad's pacemaker failed,
he was unable to call the medics.
He never wanted to own a cellular.
And on the other line,
he heard a strange man in his son's room.
Dear God, it's me who killed him.
- [Agent] I did advise against it.
- And when I had found the
book and written the word,
we ran down and I stumbled
on the spiral staircase.
I lost consciousness
and Raoul never thought
to check on Dad who was, who
was dying in his study in here.
- [Agent] I'm sorry.
- I wish I would have been
spared this knowledge.
Why did I have to learn this?
How should I keep on living?
- [Agent] There are two options.
One to be as you are,
to write your last sentence
over and over again,
never to move to the next chapter.
To wait for Merle to call at 11,
to wait for Raoul never to arrive,
to listen to the never-ending thunder.
- What are you saying?
- [Agent] When was the last
time things were any different?
When did you last see the sunlight?
When was the last time
Raoul arrived at the gates?
What does Merle look like?
- I don't understand.
I don't want to listen to this.
- [Agent] Is it because it's so late.
- Yes.
Yes, it's, it's nearly.
- [Agent] 11, but when was the last time
it was anything but 11?
- No.
[phone rings]
- [Operator] Merle calling.
[phone buzzes]
Merle calling.
Merle calling.
Merle calling.
- [Merle] Hello?
- Hello.
- [Merle] Where were you?
- Where was I?
I was right here.
- [Merle] I called a while ago.
- I know we, we, we spoke.
- [Merle] Really?
- What do you mean?
- [Merle] I doubt that very much.
- You called me when your matinee ended.
You told me to, to, to work out more
and to, to, to drink less.
- [Merle] Indeed you do
need to work out more
and drink less.
- Are you on your bus to New York?
- [Merle] What's the time back there?
- You're not really
talking to me, are you?
- [Merle] Why are you talking to me
as if I were an idiot?
You know perfectly well
that we are touring.
And there are several
time zones in the States.
- We are not having this conversation.
- [Merle] And there won't be
an evening performance tonight.
LA tour just ended.
- I think it ended a long time ago.
I wonder how many times we've
had this conversation already?
- 2,448.
- But, Merle, this is
the last time, isn't it?
- [Merle] Well, it's
really up to you after all.
- I'm beginning to understand
[ominous music] everything.
- And anyways, how's the weather?
- The weather is crappy.
There's a storm going on
for I don't know how long.
I can barely remember the sun.
And Merle, neither can you.
- [Merle] Okay, okay.
I don't want to argue.
I'll be off now.
I'll call you from New York.
- I have a feeling that's the
one call I will never get.
- [Merle] Oh, and when you
go to change the fuses,
take a flashlight so you
don't nosedive again.
[squeaking]
- I don't seem to be able to recall.
Perhaps I already went.
[soft music]
And.
And changed them?
And.
- All right then, ta for now.
- Ta, ta.
- [Merle] And don't invite
those pointless drinking
pals of yours over.
- Ta, ta.
- As if I didn't know you
are having booze-ups there
while I'm away.
[phone buzzes]
- Raoul.
- [Operator] Dialing Raoul.
- [Raoul] Yo.
- Hi, I wanted to say goodbye, Raoul.
- Well, I just started driving.
- I'm sorry I made you come
over tonight in this weather.
- I'm racing death here as it is.
Do you want another vengeful
spirit haunting you there.
- But you don't have to.
You no longer have to race
down this endless road.
- Have you taken a look out the window?
Are you aware of what's happening outside?
- No.
It appears I haven't
been aware of anything
for almost 50 years.
- [Raoul] Well, you
know all these stories.
- I do now.
- [Raoul] Okay, chill.
The bottles are rolling in mate.
- Goodbye, my friend.
- [Raoul] Cheers.
[soft piano music]
[phone rings]
- [Operator] Unknown number calling.
[phone buzzes]
Unknown number calling.
- Why didn't you tell me right away?
- [Agent] You had to
figure it out on your own.
That is the other of the
two possible options.
I'm not the first one who has
tried to make you see things
for what they are.
- What happened to Merle?
- [Agent] That bus never
made it to New York.
A fatal collision occurred
soon after take off.
- [Reporter] Three dead after tour bus
splits tractor trailer in half.
- Two horrific crashes today,
both involving in buses.
- [Reporter] Multiple fatalities.
- Deadly day on America's highways.
Four people remain in critical condition.
Fatal crash that left three
dead and 13 others injured.
- And Raoul?
- [Agent] I presume he
tried to outrace death,
but one never succeeds.
- It was a single vehicle.
[suspenseful music]
- And
me?
Let me guess.
I did go to change the fuses.
- [Agent] You did.
- So on which stairs did my journey end?
- [Agent] Walked out in fear,
right into the fuse box.
You only needed to touch them.
- And all those voices I've
heard on this endless night?
The crying of an infant, the
creaking of the floorboards,
the feeling that someone is
standing right behind me?
- [Agent] After many
years, there are those
who are trying to live and
be happy in this house.
- If only I wasn't disturbing them.
And I thought I'm being haunted.
Whereas it was they who
hired you to get rid of me.
- [Agent] It happens.
The ghosts can be from the past
as well as from the future.
No one is to be blamed.
Yet only rarely does it
happen that three people
who share such a close connection
and the tragedy happens on the same night
at the very hour.
You were unable to break
this endless circle.
And yet, if you tear yourself free,
the others would finally
dissolve in time as well.
- What do I have to do?
- [Agent] Just blow out the candles.
Let the lights vanish
with the whole world
you have taken for real,
even though you are no longer part of it.
Close your eyes.
No more thoughts.
No memories.
Let go.
Feel that you are the wind
which disperses everywhere at once
carrying along all fear and anxiety
leaving the house free and at peace.
The darkness can make
the faintest of sparks
appear as a blazing light.
It is time to let the
new inhabitants move in
to make the house vibrate
with the frequency of life.
It is time [suspenseful music]
to go home. [suspenseful music]
Lights please.
[rain tapping]
- This house, is it at peace now?
- [Agent] This house is at peace.
[ominous music]
[lively music]
Once the nightly shades are falling
Once I hear the night wind calling
When I approach it far to wake
And why the sense and why forsaken
Moonbeams fading night left here
Of the memories you should beware
That hold you clearly tonight
Might getting your guilty heart
[people humming]
[upbeat music]
[lively music]
[ominous music]
[rain rushes]
[thunder claps]
[soft violin music]
[dramatic music]
[lively orchestral music]
[glass clangs]
[typewriter dings]
[thunder roars]
[match spits]
[soft harp music]
[clock ticks]
[soft harp music]
[thunder roars]
[soft harp music]
[thunder roars]
[soft harp music]
[soft harp music]
[telephone rings]
- [Operator] Merle calling.
[phone buzzes]
Merle calling.
[phone buzzes]
Merle calling.
[thunder roars]
[phone buzzes]
Merle calling.
[telephone rings]
Merle calling.
[phone buzzes]
Merle calling.
[phone buzzes]
[thunder roars]
[screeching]
[thunder roars]
[clock chimes]
[grandfather clock chimes]
[clock chimes]
[phone rings]
Merle calling.
Merle calling.
Merle calling.
[phone buzzes]
Merle calling.
[thunder roars]
Merle calling.
[phone buzzes]
Merle calling.
Merle calling.
[phone buzzes]
- [Merle] Hello?
- Yes, hello.
- [Merle] Where were you?
- Where was I?
I was right here.
- I called a while ago.
- Yeah, I was, I was at the gym.
I was working out.
- Really?
- Really.
- I doubt that very much.
- I'm lifting weights like a mad man here.
As a matter of fact,
I was just about to
lift another 50 pounds.
[man grunts]
Let's make it 100.
- Indeed, you do need to
work out more and drink less.
- What drink?
I haven't had one in weeks.
- What's the time back there?
- Honey, you should by now know
that when you finish your
matinee, it's 11 p.m. over here.
And when you finish your
evening performance,
it's five in the morning and
you shouldn't be angry with me
when I don't pick up when you call
after your evening performance.
- Why are you talking to
me as if I were an idiot?
You know perfectly well
that we are touring
and there are several
times zones in the States.
- Yeah, I've heard of that.
- And there won't be an
evening performance tonight.
LA tour just ended.
- Well, congratulations.
And where to now?
- Now?
A bus to New York.
- Right, what, a bus?
How many miles is that?
- 2,448.
- Blimey.
Well, wouldn't it make more sense to fly?
- No resources.
I'm not in the Bolshoi, am I?
Second rate European trips
are a dime a dozen here.
We shall be taking the bus.
Only the principals fly.
- Can't you do something
about these principals?
I don't know, sort of kill them all?
- We don't kill people in ballet.
The ballet is a graceful,
elegant form of art.
We'd rather put razorblades
in the point shoes of the rivals
or throw some acid in their facial area.
- Sure.
There's no getting your
hands dirty, is there?
Even the ugliest things
must be done nice and neat.
Right, Merle?
- Oy, bitches, keep it down.
And anyways, how's the weather?
- Yeah, let's tittle
tattle about the weather.
The weather is crappy.
There's a bloody storm on for,
I don't know how long,
I can hardly remember the sun.
- [Merle] Keep the shutters closed
or they'll smash the windows
again and flood everything.
- And the fuses blew again.
I was here.
I was at my computer.
I was writing like a bloody Tolstoy
when all of a sudden, boom.
Bloody hell, 100 pages of
solid good writing gone.
Just like that.
- Firstly, you never write
on a computer and secondly,
didn't you just tell me you were in a gym?
- Ah.
- Well, it's really up to you after all.
You can lie down and soak
yourself in liquor for all I care.
I bet haven't shaved
nor changed for a week.
I bet you stuff yourself with sausages.
If I come home and you have
put on some excess pounds,
I've received many offers lately.
- But you would rather
enjoy those excess pounds
to be in our bank accounts, huh?
The little lady wants to dabble in ballet.
It's a hubby's duty to
bring home the bacon.
- You haven't finished
that bloody book of yours
for years on end.
And on the whole, I'm
not interested in money.
- By all means, how can
an artist be interested
in something as common as money?
After all an artist is the very goose
that lays the gold eggs.
Pardon, the swan that
lays the golden eggs.
Even though people keep wondering, Merle,
why these eggs are not but empty shells.
Why they produce nothing
but stillborn chicks.
[thunder roars]
- You know what?
If any sperm could survive
in your liquor circulation,
I could have found something of use.
- Ouch. [man snarls]
Touche.
- Okay, okay.
I don't want to argue.
I'll be off now.
I'll call you from New York.
- Right, stick to your guns.
- And when you go to change
the fuses, take a flashlight
so you don't nose dive again.
- It was no fault of mine.
It was your shoe on the stairs.
- I never left it there.
Anyway, it's your excess
of self-confidence.
Take a lamp, watch your steps
and you might not break your neck.
- Right, back to work then.
- [Merle] All right then.
Ta for now.
- Ta, ta.
- And don't invite
those pointless drinking
pals of yours over.
- Ta, ta.
- As if I didn't know you
are having booze-ups there
while I'm away.
- Look, Merle, reception
isn't the best possible.
No I can hardly hear.
[phone buzzes]
Yeah, right.
[phone buzzes]
Raoul.
- [Operator] Dialing Raoul.
Dialing Raoul.
Dialing Raoul.
[phone rings]
- Yo.
- What's up?
It's 11, and I'm very dim.
The bash needs kick-starting.
- Well, I just started driving.
- Just started?
You're supposed to be here an hour ago.
- Some shit came up.
Have you taken a look out the window?
Are you aware of what's happening outside?
- Well, you're not driving a dork cart.
Isn't that a Jaguar I hear purring?
- The city was totally jammed
and the woods are not much better.
I feel like a cat in a bag.
I can't see shit.
It's a fucking deluge.
I should've taken a boat.
- Well, how much longer?
- I'm in no mood for racing.
Count me about an hour or so.
- Damn, an hour.
Damn, I'm down to my last bottle here.
You did remember to get some, didn't you?
- Why is it that I must
always procure booze for you?
Isn't there a local store
near you or something?
- You're fucking kidding.
It's miles away.
I haven't been out of the house for ages.
- Take your car then.
- I can't.
I'm perpetually plastered.
- Okay, chill.
The bottles are gonna be rolling up.
- Step on it, I'm drying up here.
- Do you want your booze to arrive or not?
If I go any faster,
you're going to be
looking for your bottles
in the middle of the forest.
Bloody hell.
What is a guy doing living
out here in the woods anyway?
- It's a peninsula.
- Surrounded by 100 miles of woodland.
I'm racing against death
here as it is already.
You don't want another vengeful
spirit out there, do you?
- Ha ha, a nice one.
- [Raoul] Well, you keep moaning
about stuff going on there.
- Nothing booze couldn't fix.
[Raoul chuckles]
- We'll be messing with your Ouija board
when we're out there.
Let's see who turns up this time.
- Okay, less talk, more action.
Call me when you're here.
I'll come open the gate for you.
- What do you mean come?
That stuff's remotely operated, isn't it?
- Providing there's power.
- Fuse is blown again?
- Power comes as power goes.
- Go change the fuses.
A lot of fun it's gonna be
sitting out there in the dark.
- You don't hear me complaining.
It's actually rather romantic here.
I've got candles burning.
I've got two hours of battery power left,
and just listen to this.
[music box chimes]
- Oh yeah, a full headbanging session.
You teeny bopper you.
- Yeah, must have music.
- [Raoul] Ah, it's
weak. [breaks squealing]
Oh, fuck, I just about hit something.
- Vintage Raoul.
hitting on ladies even in dark forests.
- [Raoul] Oh no, fucking hell.
It just came blasting from the left.
Fuck.
Oh, my heart nearly stopped.
- Must've been hitchhiking?
- [Raoul] It shot straight
in your direction.
Soon you'll be hearing it
scratching at your door.
- Fail.
- [Raoul] What is?
- You're miserable attempt at scaring me.
Me, a man who has spent his
life in an old timey house
with the spirits of ancestors for company.
- Oh, a house?
We're being so working class now, are we?
Last time I checked,
they refer to those buildings as mansions.
- Life is not about the worldly goods.
- [Raoul] Get rid of that labyrinth
and go get yourself a proper
joint in the city, mate.
- I do have a town apartment.
- With the cash you'd
make from that dungeon,
you'd get yourself a posh cubbyhole.
Anyway.
Wait, something's gone.
Something's wrong on the dashboard.
Wait, I better check it out.
I'll get back to you later.
- What?
Got to drag yourself under the hood now?
- [Raoul] Small chance.
I'd rather call a towing service.
- In that case, you won't be
here before tomorrow evening
and by then you'll discover
me dead of dehydration.
There are only so many hours
a man can survive without drinking.
- [Raoul] You know, urine is sterile.
Try that.
Anyway, I'll give you
a buzz when it's time.
- God speed.
- [Raoul] Cheers.
[rain taps]
[plaster crackles]
[ominous music]
[plaster crackles]
[thunder roars]
[music box chimes]
[man whistles]
[phone rings]
- [Operator] Unknown number calling.
[phone buzzes]
Unknown number calling.
[phone rings]
Unknown number calling.
[thunder roars]
- I'm listening.
What?
- [Caller] Can you hear me?
- Barely.
The coverage ain't the best out here.
- [Agent] Concentrate.
- What?
- [Agent] Concentrate.
- I'm may very well concentrate.
It wouldn't enhance the reception.
- [Agent] Is that better now?
- Somewhat.
- [Agent] At last.
- I'm sorry, I'm not
sure I heard your name.
- [Agent] My name is Agent.
- [Agent] Sorry, I didn't catch.
- [Agent] Agent. [distortion
drowns out Agent].
- Try again.
- Agent. [distortion drowns out Agent]
- Well, I don't know.
Nice to meet you, Agent. [man gurgles]
Well, what can I do for you Agent?
- [Agent] It's about a case.
- Make sense.
- [Agent] An old case.
- And I'm somehow
involved in that old case?
- [Agent] Very much so.
- Sorry, are you aware what time it is?
- [Agent] 11 in the evening.
- And an old case, it requires
that you call me today,
at this hour?
- [Agent] Precisely, specifically today.
- Exciting.
- [Agent] You say that with sarcasm,
but I know that actually you like riddles.
- And how would you
possibly know that, Agent?
- [Agent] I've read your
book and your columns
and solved your five minute
who-dun-its in the magazines.
- All right, Agent.
I do admit, I like them.
- [Agent] Thus, if I may,
I would like to present you with one.
- What, a riddle?
- Yes.
- Is that some kind of a
new investigation method?
- [Agent] Let's say it is.
Or we like to call it a test.
- And if I solve it, is there a prize?
- [Agent] There is, a significant one.
- All right then, Agent, ask away.
- [Agent] To complete the task
you need some paper and pencil.
I would recommend some
paper with printed squares
and a graphite pencil which can be raised.
- Ha ha, that's quite funny.
- [Agent] What is?
- I do happen to have a
notebook with checkered pages
and a pencil with an eraser on my desk.
- [Agent] What a coincidence.
- And now?
- [Agent] Can you see the
number I'm calling from?
- I can.
- [Agent] Would you write
that number on the paper?
Preferably so that the numbers
would fit inside the squares.
- All right.
- Zero, nine, two, six,
one, oh,
nine, one.
Did I get it right?
- [Agent] You did.
- So what's next?
- [Agent] Do you notice something peculiar
when you observe these numbers?
- Do I notice?
Well.
Eight numbers, the area code.
I didn't know this code.
Where are you calling from?
- [Agent] You'll find
out about that later.
- Okay.
Odd, even, or primes.
No, zero to nine.
Well, I don't know.
What should I be like looking
for in the first place?
- [Agent] A system.
- A system meaning what?
It's just a random sequence of numbers.
- [Agent] There is no
such thing as randomness.
- If this is some kind of a
mathematical brain cracker,
I better warn you I'm not good at these.
I might easily make a mistake.
- [Agent] But a mistake is
exactly what we are looking for.
- A mistake.
- [Agent] A mistake to start with.
And then through this mistake, a system.
- Wait a minute.
At 11 in the evening, I'm
not in the shape to solve.
- [Agent] But you know what a mistake is.
- If you're expecting
me to produce a precise,
scientific definition of
mistake, then no, I don't.
Why don't you tell me?
- [Agent] I'm using the term error here
as a synonym for experimental uncertainty.
There are two types of errors,
indeterminate and determinate,
or systematic errors.
The widely used measure of
error is standard deviation.
One commonly distinguishes
between the relative error
and the absolute error.
The absolute error is a
magnitude of a difference
between the exact value
and the approximation.
- Look, look.
My brain went out to lunch
with your first word.
- [Agent] It's really very
simple once you pay attention.
So let me proceed.
The relative error can be
expressed as a fraction
where the numerator is one
and the denominator is the absolute error
divided by the magnitude
of the exact value.
- Of all this ration,
I only grasped the words
numerator and denominator.
- [Agent] These are indeed
the most important ones.
You are the numerator.
- Was that a compliment?
Watching these numbers of yours,
yes I do feel like a numerator.
- [Agent] The numerator is one.
- What?
- [Agent] The numerator is one.
- Well, but are you still
prattling on about your equation?
Look, you really misfiring here.
I've dropped the ball long since.
It's just not my cup of tea.
I do other stuff.
- [Agent] And quite randomly I've learned.
- But I like all things random.
When you say the numerator's one.
I say, why not some other number?
- [Agent] But you are alone.
Are you not?
- Well at the moment I might.
So it's, it's supposed to be some equation
that has me as its character.
- [Agent] Precisely.
- What about the other
thing, the denominator?
What is that?
- [Agent] Let's presume this
time it is a random one.
- A random denominator?
Well, well, could we just
return riddle your proposing?
I'm staring at these numbers
of yours without any clue,
what should I do?
- [Agent] Find something
that isn't random.
- What?
- [Agent] Or to be more precise,
something that is hidden
behind the random denominator.
Something that can reveal a system.
- Like, like some kind of
a mathematical anagram?
- [Agent] Possibly.
- No more clues?
- [Agent] Give it a try.
- Okay, zero, nine, two, six, one, nine.
- [Agent] Think.
- Would I need to use all the numbers?
- [Agent] All numbers must be involved.
- In that case, we are searching
for another eight figure number.
It could be some kind of a code
which can be translated into a word.
- [Agent] That's one option.
- These could be coordinates.
- [Agent] That's warmer.
- Or it could be something much simpler.
- [Agent] Exactly.
- Well, I presume it, it could be.
Wait, wait.
- [Agent] Take your
time, there's no hurry.
- Ha!
Gotcha.
- Nine, six, two, one, oh, nine, one.
It's my number.
- [Agent] Congratulations.
- Well, that's, that's quite queer.
Our numbers seem to be distant cousins.
- [Agent] But this is only the beginning.
- Beginning?
There's, there's more.
- [Agent] Take another
good look at these numbers.
- Well, I presume if I
rearranged them some more,
we could get 100 or so more phone numbers
of random people around the globe,
or I don't know how many combination
that would be possible with the-
- [Agent] Over 3,320.
- Ha! Gosh.
Well, I wouldn't know
anyone's number by heart.
I'd be able to remember my own.
So I'm afraid that concludes the test.
- [Agent] Precisely, your own.
- Well, we figured that out already.
I've had this number for ages.
- [Agent] You're on a right track.
- Well.
Well, I suppose it could be.
- [Agent] And what have you figured out?
- Ha!
That's bizarre, that's really bizarre.
- [Agent] What is?
- I think you're quite aware
which number merged here.
- [Agent] Humor me.
- Two, oh, oh, nine, one, nine, one, six.
- [Agent] Which number is that?
- That's the number of the
first mobile I ever owned
when I was 16, like the
ending of that number.
- [Agent] Extraordinary.
- While I have to admit,
that was quite a peculiar one.
Not perhaps the best.
Mind twists round and countered that.
Yes, a peculiar one.
- [Agent] And yet, the
riddle is still unsolved.
- Well, I can't see any
other way I could look.
- [Agent] Look further.
- What? Further into the past?
I'm quite sure people
didn't use cells back then.
- [Agent] What did they use?
- Desktop phones, but these
only have six digit numbers
in those days.
- [Agent] Plus the area code.
- Who knows what these were like.
I can only remember ours
here being something like 10.
- [Agent] Correct, and could
anyone ever forget the number
of their childhood home?
- Six, two, oh, nine, nine, one.
God.
- [Agent] I congratulate you.
- Ha ha.
How the hell did you know that house?
- [Agent] That's the uncertainty
that reveals the system.
- Yeah, but how can there be a system?
- [Agent] How not?
- Well, I have no idea how
these numbers were distributed
but it must've been random.
And that old desktop number,
we had it even before I was born.
- [Agent] Exactly.
- Now, come again?
Who are you?
- [Agent] I'm an agent.
- Like with the FBI or something,
or a literary agent?
- [Agent] I investigate things, privately.
[man laughs]
- A private eye then.
Well, what's your reward in establishing
that all the phone numbers I ever had
belonged to some strange system?
- [Agent] But this is merely one
of the countless possible systems.
- Look, I'm getting
pretty tired at this game.
I told you these math
puzzles aren't for me.
And the time is.
- [Agent] Yes, I know, 11.
But you're quite accustomed
to the late hours,
to the darkness.
- Oh, I failed to see the connection.
- [Agent] You wouldn't if
you'd look at these numbers
from a different angle.
- What angle?
- [Agent] As you yourself
suggested a while ago.
- That, that, that it
might be code of a sort
or coordinates?
- [Agent] You've cracked it again.
- I should have mentioned
that my knowledge of geography
is even lousier than my knowledge of math.
I can hardly tell the
latitudes from the longitudes.
To be precise, I can't.
- [Agent] These are not space coordinates.
- So what other coordinates can there be?
- [Agent] How many dimensions
are there in our world?
- Well, length, width, height.
- [Agent] Is that all one can measure?
- Measure.
Time.
- [Agent] You've just found the key.
Now, you can open the next door.
- How can these numbers
be used to measure time?
Unless.
- [Agent] Unless.
- Unless these are dates.
Yes, month and days.
- [Agent] Can you bring me an example?
- What?
That would be again a limitless
number of combination?
What was it you said like
40 billion or something.
- [Agent] Oh no, the possibilities here
are much more limited.
- Yes, I can actually see that.
There are 12 months, which
means the first number can be
zero, one, then two.
The day is number one to three.
The years.
Are we discussing the years in the past?
- [Agent] But perhaps
also those yet to come.
- Well, I wouldn't even know where to.
Okay, well, let's try it.
The month is ninth and the day is.
- [Agent] Which day is it?
- The day's 19th.
Two, oh, one, six, oh, nine.
- [Agent] Another coincidence.
- I'm not sure I want to play this game.
- [Agent] But who said
anything about a game?
We are balancing an equation.
- I already told you.
I'm not the one to.
- [Agent] Not a mathematical equation.
The equation of life.
- And I suppose it's solved now?
- [Agent] Perhaps there's more.
Why don't you try and rearrange the dates?
Something significant may come up.
- Look, if you don't tell
me what's that all about,
I'll be hanging up for tonight.
I'm expecting to have
another call any minute now.
- [Agent] 1990.
- What?
- [Agent] 1990.
A year to remember.
Don't tell me nothing comes to mind.
- Not a year I would care to recall.
- [Agent] One, nine, nine, zero.
What remains?
- One, two, oh, six.
- [Agent] What if if we go for December,
the month of Christmas.
If the month is 12.
- Sixth.
- [Agent] Does this particular date
happen to mean anything to you?
- What is this?
Who are you?
- [Agent] I'm merely investigating.
- Every investigation should
have a purpose and a reason.
- [Agent] I'm investigating a death.
- The death of my father?
December 6th, 1990.
That's where all this
was taking us, wasn't it?
- [Agent] Nothing takes us anywhere.
It's merely an uninterrupted
continuous string.
- Yes, perhaps for you.
I am going to disrupt this string.
There's the call I was expecting.
So.
- Listen to me.
- If you're accusing me of anything,
come over with a court
order and arrest me.
Or, if you have anything to
say that makes any sense,
send me an email.
- [Agent] But you don't have electricity.
- How do you?
Besides, it's not as if I'm going
to stay without it forever.
- [Agent] You should be
prepared for anything to happen.
- This is turning really grotesque
and I have no intention
to play around any longer.
And you can keep your prize.
You win.
Goodbye.
For fuck sake.
- [Raoul] What now?
- You know, you couldn't have
called at a better moment.
I had some lunatic
pestering me for a while.
- [Raoul] What lunatic?
- Total bloody mindfuck gamer.
Gave me some freakish puzzles to solve
while cunningly sniffing
into my father's death.
- [Raoul] What?
- I tell you a total freak.
I didn't even understand
if it was a man or a woman.
Told me he was some kind of
an agent or investigator.
Well, pardon me if I very much doubt that.
Fuck, I'm almost out of liquor.
He totally freaked me out.
Are you at the gates?
- Far from it.
Do you have any idea
what's going on outside?
I can't cross the bridge.
- Why?
- There's an oak on it?
- An oak?
- All right, spruce or willow or palm,
whatever it is you have
growing in these backwards.
In a word I was turning onto the bridge
and this trunk is just laying there,
smack down in the middle of the bridge.
- Oh shit.
- Detour it is.
You're gonna have to hang out there
for another 20 minutes or so.
- Oh fuck.
- My word.
I feel like such an idiot.
Your lights are on no
more than 100 feet away.
And I can't do anything about it.
- What lights?
- [Raoul] In the tower.
- What tower?
The power's out.
- Didn't you change the fuses?
- No, this lunatic held me put here.
What do you mean tower?
- What do you mean, what do I mean?
The belfry, turret, minaret.
What else do you want to call it?
You know where we mess with
the Ouija board and stuff?
- Where we?
I have never been there.
Not for years.
It's not since.
Not since the last time we went there.
On the day when, when my
father met his- [screeching]
- We were?
- A fortnight before Christmas.
About 25 years ago.
It was a night almost like this.
Don't you remember?
- Oh, I supposed we were.
We stopped messing with
the Ouija board years ago.
- Why did we go there in the first place?
- How the hell should I know?
You were too chicken to go on your own
so you dragged me along.
You were searching for something, I think.
- It's weird, I don't have
any real memories of that day.
- Figures.
You landed on your head when
you climbed down the stairs.
I had to call an ambulance for you.
You are out cold for half an hour or so.
- And, during that time, Father.
- How were we supposed to know
that he was suffering a heart
attack at that very moment?
If I hadn't called the ambulance for you,
maybe nobody would've discovered
there was something wrong
with your dad.
- Anyway, that wouldn't have mattered.
He was dead by then.
- [Raoul] Well, he wasn't quite yet.
- Yeah, when I finally came to, he was.
Yeah, you had the chance
to bid him goodbye.
Dad considered you nothing short of a son.
- That wasn't much of a goodbye.
He was delusional.
He went on about you not
calling him. [thunder claps]
- What?
- I tell you quite deranged.
- What did he say?
- Oh, he raved something
about you shouldn't call him.
Look, it goes total
gibberish. [thunder claps]
- Why have you never told me that?
- Well, hello?
You went through a year of depression.
I wasn't gonna be the one to tell you
that your father's last
words were to not call him.
- I, I just remembered something.
- Well?
- I seem to have received
another freaky phone call that day.
- From whom?
- I can't recall a thing.
I think that someone called me.
- Like today?
Perhaps the very same guy.
[Raoul chuckles]
- Not funny, but no, it
couldn't have been the same guy.
I seem to recall that there was
something strangely familiar
in that voice.
- [Raoul] And you cannot
recall what he said?
- No, but I presume that's the reason
why we went to a tower in the first place.
- Spooky.
But I tell you the lights
are on in the tower.
- Now stop this nonsense.
[thunder claps]
[light switches click]
The lights are still out.
- [Raoul] Well, you
know, all these stories.
- What stories?
- [Raoul] A man.
A man is alone in an empty dark house.
It's a stormy night,
and then all of a sudden
he begins to get these weird phone calls.
- I received one weird phone call,
not to include the one from Merle.
But her calls are routine.
And yours, it's about
to turn weird as well.
- Give it some time.
So the man has this strange feeling
that someone is watching him.
Watching his every step.
- Yeah, well, you know,
there was a moment.
I had this feeling.
He seemed to know I had a
notebook and a pencil on my desk
and knew that my power is
out, and that I'm alone.
- So there you are.
So the man begins to think
that someone is observing him
with binoculars.
- Well, he'd need to have x-ray eyes
to see anything through this rain.
- Have you at least got
your curtains drawn?
- Yeah.
These were sort of lost by
the Chinese dry cleaners
back in '98.
- That is just as I
thought. [thunder claps]
- What is?
- At one point, the man
can't take it anymore
and he decides to call
the police to establish
where the mysterious phone
calls are coming from.
And right after the last call,
the detective calls back and tells him,
"We've established the
whereabouts of the caller.
The calls are coming
from inside your house."
- I respect you for being
a diehard horror film buff,
but I wish you would update
your collection a bit.
- But how can you tell I'm not right?
That this enigmatic joker,
this Sphinx isn't looming
above you in the tower
or perhaps behind your study door,
or perhaps already in
the very room with you
hiding in a dark corner
where the light of the
candle doesn't reach.
- Hmm, nonsense.
I'm completely alone in
the house. [thunder claps]
[dramatic organ music]
- [Raoul] Good for you.
Okay then, I'll be peeling rubber.
Stay put.
- As if I had any choice.
[clock ticks]
[phone rings]
- [Operator] Unknown number calling.
[phone buzzes]
Unknown number calling.
[phone rings]
- Why do you keep calling?
- [Agent] You had time to think.
- Think about what?
- [Agent] About all the questions
that keep gnawing at you.
Who am I, where am I?
- Who are you? Where are you?
- [Agent] When I told you I
was an investigating agent,
I should've been more specific.
I'm not one who's working for police.
- Well, a scientist then?
- [Agent] And not a scientist,
not in the common sense of the word.
I investigate certain phenomena.
The understanding of which
is still in its infancy.
It will take half a century
before studies in this field
will be officially recognized
by mainstream science.
- While you've lost me.
- [Agent] I'm investigating
the so-called unseen world.
- What? The afterlife?
- [Agent] It'll be more specific
that gray area where reality,
and as you said, afterlife overlap.
- You're a medium, is
that the correct term?
- [Agent] My specific research
involves the vibrational frequency
of space, time and helices.
The ones that intersect with each other
as do ripples, which are
formed on the surface
when you throw two stones into the water.
Have you noticed how both
of these sets of ripples
will continue on their
journey through each other
just as though disputing
the laws of physics.
Or do you know that light is
able to attain information
and when another beam of light
even from a simple household
torch comes in contact with it
the information is passed on.
- In short, all the shenanigans you called
were really about the death of my father
and now you're probably going to tell me,
Father has ordered you to contact me.
- [Agent] Your father's
death was merely one
of a multitude of ripples.
- As far as I understand
mediums offer their services
for money, just like whores.
I don't remember having solicited you
and don't for a moment presume
you'll receive an award
for bringing me reports
from beyond the grave.
- [Agent] True, I'm working
for money, but not for yours.
- You refuse to reveal your identity
as well as your intentions.
And if you don't immediately
tell me who hired you
and where you are, this
conversation is over.
- [Agent] Do you believe someone
can be simultaneously near and far away?
- Ha, precisely the kind unambiguous reply
I was anticipating.
So where is that?
- [Agent] For you, I'm merely
a voice in your own head.
- Yes, but where is your physical body?
The one producing this voice.
- [Agent] You would find
it difficult to grasp.
- Ha! [bottle clangs]
By all means, I find it difficult to grasp
when a person is unable to tell me
where he's physically located.
- [Agent] For you, nowhere.
- Please elaborate on for me.
What makes me so special?
- [Agent] The era you live in.
- Oh yes, finally I've got it.
It's all clear to me now.
You're calling me from a different time,
from a different point
on the fabric of time,
space, bullshit continuum.
So it goes without saying,
you don't physically exist
in what I perceive as reality.
- [Agent] You're correct.
- How could I have been
so slow to grasp it?
Should I perhaps cut back on booze.
You're calling from the realm of the dead.
You disperse this earth 100 years ago.
Or perhaps, you are a talking dinosaur.
- [Agent] Please don't be absurd.
I couldn't be calling from the past.
- Why on earth not?
- [Agent] There were no mobile
connections in the past.
- Goodness gracious, what
infallible logic you've got.
But I don't understand shit.
- [Agent] For you, I'm not yet born.
- And pray for what date
have you arranged your birth?
- [Agent] I plan my birth no
more than you planned yours,
but from your point in time,
it will take place in a couple of years.
- Prove it.
- [Agent] Do I really need to?
- Give me a piece of
tangible evidence right now
and perhaps I shan't disconnect you
and block your number forever.
[ominous music]
[thunder claps]
- [Agent] The signs
were to rushed past him,
deafened him with its voiceless screens,
which were at once menacing and imploring,
tempting and condemning.
These are your words, aren't they?
That you wrote down moments
before the fuses blew
and your wife called from the States.
- I have no idea how you pulled this off,
but I'm pretty convinced it's illegal.
- [Agent] What is?
- To eavesdrop on private conversations
and to monitor someone's private life.
If there are any cameras
hidden on this premise,
I guarantee you a whole
shit load of problems.
- [Agent] There are no cameras.
- How convenient that the lights were on
when I was writing the sentence.
Huh?
How very convenient there's so
many windows and no curtains.
Huh!
What are you?
Crouching up a tree with your binoculars?
Like a wet growl.
- [Agent] I warned you you would
find it difficult to grasp.
- But tell you what.
I just had a brainstorm.
If you're in the future,
seeing and knowing everything,
that's what we'll do.
I shall alter something in this room.
I shall break something which
means that there's something
doesn't exist in the future.
To be more precise, I
decide to break something,
but I won't do so before
you tell me what it is.
Hmm.
- [Agent] Decisions are indecisive.
Only acts influence future.
- Yes, so you could observe these acts
through your hidden cameras.
All right.
Very well then.
Try to worm your way out of this.
Regardless of what kind
of surveillance technology you
have installed in this house,
or whether you have hacked into my phone,
there are places that simply
are out of reach for you,
out of reach of every human eye.
The bottom of a top
drawer is one such place.
Wouldn't you agree?
- [Agent] Let's presume it is.
- Good, and now observe my hand.
This hand will go to the
bottom of a top door,
and in my hand, I shall
have this permanent marker.
You have heard of permanent
markers in the future, right?
They are, well, permanent.
Using this marker, I shall
now write a single word
on the bottom of the drawer.
Get it?
- [Agent] Yes.
- And this lovely vintage desk,
it's still there in the future I presume.
- [Agent] It is.
- Lovely.
Without any cameras to help you this time,
you shall tell me the word
that I'm at this very moment
writing in this drawer.
- [Agent] A rat.
[dramatic music]
- How did you know that?
I haven't myself taken a look at it.
- [Agent] But I have.
- I haven't even opened the drawer yet.
- [Agent] But I have.
- When were you in this room?
- [Agent] I am here as I speak.
- Where?
- [Agent] I'm sitting in your chair.
[suspenseful music]
[chair creaks]
[chair creaks]
[phone buzzes]
- Raoul?
- [Operator] Dialing Raoul.
Dialing Raoul.
Dialing Raoul.
- [Raoul] Yes?
- Raoul, you were right.
- [Raoul] I was right?
- Yes.
He's here.
- [Raoul] He's there?
- Inside the house.
- [Raoul] Inside the house?
- The caller.
- [Raoul] The caller.
- The one we discussed.
- [Raoul] The one we discussed?
- Raoul, why do keep
repeating my every word?
- [Raoul] I keep
repeating your every word?
[Raoul laughs]
[suspenseful music]
[phone beeps]
- [Operator] No radio coverage.
No radio coverage.
- Very well.
Two can play at that game.
[phone buzzes]
Last incoming call.
- [Operator] Dialing last incoming number.
This number is not in use.
Please check the number.
[phone rings]
Unknown number calling.
[phone buzzes]
Unknown number calling.
[phone rings]
Unknown number calling.
[phone rings]
- Sadly, that's not how
our communication works.
I told you, calls can't be placed
from the past to the future.
- So you are watching
my activities after all.
- [Agent] I have a record of
all the calls you have dialed
or received this evening, and
those you are about to place.
Among these there's
one you shouldn't make.
- Hmm? Why not?
- [Agent] When we try to change the past,
we might instead cause disasters.
- What past?
Didn't you say you were from the future?
Let me have a wild guess.
You say you haven't been born yet.
So we're gonna make the year 2019.
The next option would be 2069.
That would mean you were about 50.
- [Agent] I'm 42.
- Yes, and it's either 19th of January or-
- [Agent] 9th of November.
- Neat.
So do I get the prize that I was promised
or is there another level to this game?
- [Agent] Thousands.
It is the key to unlock your whole life.
- These eight numbers.
- [Agent] These are more than
40,000 different combinations,
possibilities and decisions
you have made or left unmade.
- Yes, but how can you be
talking to me from future?
How is it technical conceivable?
- [Agent] You agree that these numbers
which seem to be permanently
attached to each other
they come together in a single point.
- In me.
I am this point.
- [Agent] Now imagine all
the previously revealed dates
doing the same, coming
together in a moment in time.
- You know, very well they are.
- [Agent] Thus a template is formed
that allows for moments to overlap
as when you take 100 punch
cards and pile them up,
there are tens of thousands of tiny holes,
but it is a very small
chance that they will line up
so that you can see through any of them.
Yet, those particular numbers
which have shaped all
your life since your birth
allow this to happen.
But there are very rare moments.
You asked me, "Why today, why so late?"
This is one of those moments.
- If there is even a
grain of truth in this,
I shall now put it to test.
- [Agent] I wouldn't recommend that.
- I'll conduct a test, which neither you
nor I can tamper with.
Whatever technology you have hidden here
with ears and eyes in every
corner and every drawer.
- [Agent] I repeat.
- And if that test proves your point.
Then I can warn myself
not to leave my father,
but to fetch his physician immediately.
I can prevent everything
that happened on that day.
And perhaps, my father will.
And perhaps my father,
will open the door any minute,
alive and well.
[thunder claps]
- [Agent] I wouldn't recommend.
I wouldn't- [phone beeps]
[phone beeps]
- No.
My cell was dropped in a puddle that day.
It was busted.
The tabletop.
[phone beeps]
[phone dials]
- [Martin] Hello?
- Uh, hello.
- [Martin] Yes, hello.
- Now listen carefully, Martin.
You don't know who I am.
And to be honest, I don't
yet know who you are.
Neither of us will know it until
you have solved the riddle.
To be more precise, until
we have solved it together.
- Who is this?
- I'm someone who knows your every secret.
- [Martin] Such as?
- Such as you've just
arrived home with Raoul
from boarding school in Switzerland
to spend your Christmas holiday together.
- Is it Tom?
- Tom who?
Oh yeah.
The, the son of a bitch.
Yeah, little bully who split
my, your lip in the gym.
- Well, who is this then?
- Let's conduct an experiment.
If this is successful,
I shall trust you and you shall trust me.
- Meaning what?
- Let's do it right away.
Once we're both convinced
that there are things
which only two of us can know.
I shall reveal to you a
matter of great importance.
It will change your life forever.
- Let's do what exactly?
[soft music]
- Ha!
The hammer of witches.
- [Martin] Uh, what?
- The old Latin book you have
never understood at word of
because in spite of your best efforts,
you didn't speak a word of Latin.
- I'll learn it.
- No, you won't.
But since the pictures are mighty,
you pinch it from dad's
study each time you and Raoul
mess around the Ouija board
to pester the local spirits.
- How did you know?
- That's what you'll do next.
Tell me a number from one to about 500.
- 268.
- Open that book on that page, 268,
and write a random word there.
- [Martin] What word?
- And the moment you had done so,
close the book and don't show it to anyone
and I shall tell you
what you have written.
- Oh yeah, I rather doubt that.
- You can resist,
but your curiosity will
get the better of you.
So ask Raoul to give
you that ballpoint pen
with switchable colors that
you bought at the station
right before you boarded your train
and use the red tube to
write this random word, hmm,
and the moment you have done
I shall tell you that word
and then you'll know that you can trust me
and I can trust you.
- Okay, I'll do it.
But if this is some kind of a lame joke.
- But what if it isn't?
- Okay, I'll be right back.
Raoul, let's make a
quick visit to the tower.
[door squeaks]
[squeaking]
- 268.
[soft music]
[man laughs]
Rat.
Some things never changed.
[squeaking]
[ominous music]
[people whispering]
[thunder claps]
Hey.
- [Father] Martin.
- Father?
- [Father] I need help.
My pacemaker's failing.
Call the medics.
- I can't.
- [Father] Hang up.
I can't, I can't dial a call.
The line is busy.
- Father.
- [Martin] Where's my son?
- You mustn't excite yourself.
- [Father] Dear God, who are you?
How did you get in the house?
- It's me, Dad.
- [Father] God, how?
My son.
[dramatic music]
[phone rings]
- [Operator] Unknown number calling.
[phone buzzes]
Unknown number calling.
- [Agent] I told you.
You changed nothing.
- It was me who called that day.
- [Agent] Yes.
- I myself sent myself to fetch the book.
I thought it was in my father's study,
but we had left it in the tower.
- [Agent] Yes.
- As I ran out, I left the
receiver off in my room.
And when dad's pacemaker failed,
he was unable to call the medics.
He never wanted to own a cellular.
And on the other line,
he heard a strange man in his son's room.
Dear God, it's me who killed him.
- [Agent] I did advise against it.
- And when I had found the
book and written the word,
we ran down and I stumbled
on the spiral staircase.
I lost consciousness
and Raoul never thought
to check on Dad who was, who
was dying in his study in here.
- [Agent] I'm sorry.
- I wish I would have been
spared this knowledge.
Why did I have to learn this?
How should I keep on living?
- [Agent] There are two options.
One to be as you are,
to write your last sentence
over and over again,
never to move to the next chapter.
To wait for Merle to call at 11,
to wait for Raoul never to arrive,
to listen to the never-ending thunder.
- What are you saying?
- [Agent] When was the last
time things were any different?
When did you last see the sunlight?
When was the last time
Raoul arrived at the gates?
What does Merle look like?
- I don't understand.
I don't want to listen to this.
- [Agent] Is it because it's so late.
- Yes.
Yes, it's, it's nearly.
- [Agent] 11, but when was the last time
it was anything but 11?
- No.
[phone rings]
- [Operator] Merle calling.
[phone buzzes]
Merle calling.
Merle calling.
Merle calling.
- [Merle] Hello?
- Hello.
- [Merle] Where were you?
- Where was I?
I was right here.
- [Merle] I called a while ago.
- I know we, we, we spoke.
- [Merle] Really?
- What do you mean?
- [Merle] I doubt that very much.
- You called me when your matinee ended.
You told me to, to, to work out more
and to, to, to drink less.
- [Merle] Indeed you do
need to work out more
and drink less.
- Are you on your bus to New York?
- [Merle] What's the time back there?
- You're not really
talking to me, are you?
- [Merle] Why are you talking to me
as if I were an idiot?
You know perfectly well
that we are touring.
And there are several
time zones in the States.
- We are not having this conversation.
- [Merle] And there won't be
an evening performance tonight.
LA tour just ended.
- I think it ended a long time ago.
I wonder how many times we've
had this conversation already?
- 2,448.
- But, Merle, this is
the last time, isn't it?
- [Merle] Well, it's
really up to you after all.
- I'm beginning to understand
[ominous music] everything.
- And anyways, how's the weather?
- The weather is crappy.
There's a storm going on
for I don't know how long.
I can barely remember the sun.
And Merle, neither can you.
- [Merle] Okay, okay.
I don't want to argue.
I'll be off now.
I'll call you from New York.
- I have a feeling that's the
one call I will never get.
- [Merle] Oh, and when you
go to change the fuses,
take a flashlight so you
don't nosedive again.
[squeaking]
- I don't seem to be able to recall.
Perhaps I already went.
[soft music]
And.
And changed them?
And.
- All right then, ta for now.
- Ta, ta.
- [Merle] And don't invite
those pointless drinking
pals of yours over.
- Ta, ta.
- As if I didn't know you
are having booze-ups there
while I'm away.
[phone buzzes]
- Raoul.
- [Operator] Dialing Raoul.
- [Raoul] Yo.
- Hi, I wanted to say goodbye, Raoul.
- Well, I just started driving.
- I'm sorry I made you come
over tonight in this weather.
- I'm racing death here as it is.
Do you want another vengeful
spirit haunting you there.
- But you don't have to.
You no longer have to race
down this endless road.
- Have you taken a look out the window?
Are you aware of what's happening outside?
- No.
It appears I haven't
been aware of anything
for almost 50 years.
- [Raoul] Well, you
know all these stories.
- I do now.
- [Raoul] Okay, chill.
The bottles are rolling in mate.
- Goodbye, my friend.
- [Raoul] Cheers.
[soft piano music]
[phone rings]
- [Operator] Unknown number calling.
[phone buzzes]
Unknown number calling.
- Why didn't you tell me right away?
- [Agent] You had to
figure it out on your own.
That is the other of the
two possible options.
I'm not the first one who has
tried to make you see things
for what they are.
- What happened to Merle?
- [Agent] That bus never
made it to New York.
A fatal collision occurred
soon after take off.
- [Reporter] Three dead after tour bus
splits tractor trailer in half.
- Two horrific crashes today,
both involving in buses.
- [Reporter] Multiple fatalities.
- Deadly day on America's highways.
Four people remain in critical condition.
Fatal crash that left three
dead and 13 others injured.
- And Raoul?
- [Agent] I presume he
tried to outrace death,
but one never succeeds.
- It was a single vehicle.
[suspenseful music]
- And
me?
Let me guess.
I did go to change the fuses.
- [Agent] You did.
- So on which stairs did my journey end?
- [Agent] Walked out in fear,
right into the fuse box.
You only needed to touch them.
- And all those voices I've
heard on this endless night?
The crying of an infant, the
creaking of the floorboards,
the feeling that someone is
standing right behind me?
- [Agent] After many
years, there are those
who are trying to live and
be happy in this house.
- If only I wasn't disturbing them.
And I thought I'm being haunted.
Whereas it was they who
hired you to get rid of me.
- [Agent] It happens.
The ghosts can be from the past
as well as from the future.
No one is to be blamed.
Yet only rarely does it
happen that three people
who share such a close connection
and the tragedy happens on the same night
at the very hour.
You were unable to break
this endless circle.
And yet, if you tear yourself free,
the others would finally
dissolve in time as well.
- What do I have to do?
- [Agent] Just blow out the candles.
Let the lights vanish
with the whole world
you have taken for real,
even though you are no longer part of it.
Close your eyes.
No more thoughts.
No memories.
Let go.
Feel that you are the wind
which disperses everywhere at once
carrying along all fear and anxiety
leaving the house free and at peace.
The darkness can make
the faintest of sparks
appear as a blazing light.
It is time to let the
new inhabitants move in
to make the house vibrate
with the frequency of life.
It is time [suspenseful music]
to go home. [suspenseful music]
Lights please.
[rain tapping]
- This house, is it at peace now?
- [Agent] This house is at peace.
[ominous music]
[lively music]
Once the nightly shades are falling
Once I hear the night wind calling
When I approach it far to wake
And why the sense and why forsaken
Moonbeams fading night left here
Of the memories you should beware
That hold you clearly tonight
Might getting your guilty heart
[people humming]
[upbeat music]
[lively music]