UFO (2018) Movie Script
[PLANE ENGINE ROARS]
[]
[INDISTINCT ANNOUNCEMEN OVER PA]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
[MULTIPLE PHONES RINGING]
MAN: Is that a plane?
MAN: What the hell is that?
[STATIC INTERFERENCE RISING]
[BELL TOLLS]
DEREK:
Excuse me, Professor Hendricks?
Why didn't I get credit
for number five?
You didn't write anything.
You missed a trivial solution
x=0 and y=0.
I didn't miss it.
I didn't think it was important.
Find all solutions.
You understand the definition
of "all", Mr. Echevaro?
[CLASS CHUCKLES]
"Sometimes non-trivial solutions
can be found,"
sometimes they can't.
Paradoxically, it is when
"the trivial solution is the only solution
that it's the most important case."
Exactly. This is a
homogenous system of equations
and the important question is whether
there are any non-trivial solutions.
If that's the important question
then why didn't you just ask us
if there are any
non-trivial solutions?
Because I want you to
mathematically find all solutions.
But the most important question is whether
the trivial solution is the only one.
Indeed.
That is the case
with this problem.
So, why is it trivial
if it's so important?
Now, I saw x=0 and y=0 was the only one
so, I didn't waste my time with it,
AKA trivial.
I believe
you're convoluting your words.
I'm not. It's very misleading. The
book even says, "paradoxically."
Sit down.
Anybody else
before I finish up here?
Thank you.
So, in the lab for next time
you should do problems
one through 43.
NATALIE: The GDP
of Assumption Land is 30,000,
the price level is 28,
the money supply is 560,000,
right?
So, if the government decides
to flood the market,
increase the money supply
by a factor of 1.31,
what economic variable
will be affected,
and what will its new value be?
[MUSIC PLAYS IN BACKGROUND]
Why does every problem have to
take place in Assumption Land?
Can't they just say,
like, a real country?
Well, it's easier than saying
"Let's assume," every single time.
You did know that's why
it's called "Assumption Land"?
- LEE: Speaking of flooding the market,
- NATALIE: Hey!
Did you know if everyone stopped
using condoms,
it would actually lower
the rate of STDs?
There would be more people
without STDs doing it.
So, the chances of catching
something would actually be lower.
You do not pay me enough
for this crap.
[LAUGHS]
[PHONE ALERT BEEPS]
[]
[]
Hey, Derek, you want to do
that lab tonight?
Get it over with
before the exam?
- Derek?
- DEREK: Did you hear about this?
"Flight operations at Cincinnati
Northern Kentucky International Airport"
were temporarily suspended this afternoon
after reports of a mysterious aircraft
hovering above the airport.
"Witnesses included route mechanics
and other airport employees."
DEREK:
This article says it looked like
a silver disc the size of a dime
just below the clouds.
Dude, Natalie does not want
to hear about this.
"A United ramp mechanic
who wished to remain anonymous,"
witnessed the aircraft
and saw it depart.
However, he was surprised
to hear radio chatter
between a pilot and ground
control several minutes later
at 3:12 pm
when someone in the tower said,
"'It's still here.'"
People in the tower work with times all
day long, okay? Very specific times.
There's no way that they would
get something like that wrong.
So, the fact that one guy
is saying one thing
and everyone else is saying something
else, it doesn't make any sense.
INTERVIEWER:
How long did you watch it for?
- I ran away. I was scared.
- Why were you scared?
- Because of the noise.
- What did it sound like?
- Like someone was playing the flute.
- Was it very loud?
- MAN: [ON PHONE] What's the case number?
- RW-11-02-04.
Rebecca Watkins, Omega, Georgia.
- Access code?
- Blue-15-EOXC.
What can I do for you, Mr. Ahls?
I'd like to archive
this case file.
Insufficient evidence;
Subject is being released
from surveillance.
It felt like all the air
was running out
and that the plants were going
to die and everything was bad.
MAN: The contents
are being accessed now.
Would you like me
to see who's accessing them?
No, cut it off.
Okay, BLACKBOX-RW-11-02-04
has been archived
and is no longer remotely
accessible at any clearance level.
Is there anything else
I can do for you, Mr. Ahls?
No. Thank you.
[PHONE RINGS]
- Ahls.
- WOMAN: [ON PHONE] We got a call from DHS
about a sighting in sector 6, UTC
negative 4, 39.04319 latitude,
negative 84.65842 longitude,
ground elevation 896,
UAP elevation
approximately 2,800.
It was right over
Cincinnati Airport.
Radio?
WOMAN: We intercepted a signal
across all frequencies.
We're sending you the radar feed
from the time of the sighting.
[]
[INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER]
[JOURNALISTS CLAMORING]
ELLISON: We interviewed
all the witnesses,
and we now believe
it was a small drone...
[CONTINUING INDISTINCTLY]
Roland Junger, Airport Director.
I would have suggested that
you fly directly here...
I hope your, uh, cameras
are up to DHS specs
because I'm going to need the
footage from every single one
in this entire facility.
All terminals, gates, hallways,
stores, employee locker rooms,
baggage claims, runways,
fences, hangars, parking lots.
I'm also going to need
all the tower recordings,
passenger manifests, and my team
is going to need four rooms,
conference rooms preferably.
I don't have four conference
rooms here in the terminal.
You have two, plus the EOC
I will take those
and one of your larger rooms,
and I will tell you which one.
So, you want me to shut
everything down
and start kicking people out of their
offices in the middle of the day?
No, nothing gets shut down.
Everything continues as normal.
There is one other thing though.
The man who is giving
a press conference out front,
we do need to shut him down,
immediately. Thank you.
Thousands of passengers from all over
the world fly through CVG every day,
but what about the ones
from out of this world?
Well earlier today,
airline employees and passengers
claimed they saw
a mysterious object
hovering over the airport
for several minutes
before it shot off into the sky,
cutting a hole in the clouds.
So, what do
four billion light years
of frequent flyer miles get you?
Well, not so fast.
Airport spokesman, Dave Ellison,
held a news conference
to address that incident.
We interviewed
all of the witnesses
and we now believe
that it was a small drone.
Four to five feet in diameter,
that drifted into our airspace.
That's what's gonna happen if Amazon
does this whole drone delivery.
Dropping Kindles
in the middle of the runways.
It wasn't a drone okay.
The descriptions don't match,
the times don't match.
The route mechanic said it was
the size of a...
Of a what?
Dime held at arm's length.
Does that match what was on TV?
What that guy said,
four to five feet?
No way.
I mean, how do you
even calculate that?
You don't know how high it was.
Well, somebody said that it was about
100 to 200 feet below cloud cover.
- How high was cloud cover?
- That's about 3,550?
- No?
- Shut up, Lee!
It was 2,900 feet,
so 27 to 2,800.
So, let's just say 2,750.
Dude, don't you have exams
to study for or something?
Don't you have exams
to study for or something?
- Yes. Yeah.
- That's what I thought. Bye.
So now, how big is a dime?
Seventeen point nine
millimeters.
Seventeen point nine
millimeters.
Now, what's arm's length?
Like...
What is that? Like two feet.
Maybe a bit less. 20 inches?
- Twenty-two inches.
- Oh crap.
I forgot about
Professor Magg's Panel.
It's this weekend.
You know that thing I'm setting
up, helping on the door.
You're still coming, right?
- Derek?
- Yeah.
Well, I'm not going to stay late
because I've got to take the
practice GRE the next morning.
Where's that at?
It's over by Xavier.
It's like a 30-minute walk.
Uh-huh.
- I'll drop you off.
- You don't have a car.
- I'll borrow Lee's.
- Is Lee okay with that?
Well...
Can you make sure?
Because I can't miss this.
- I can't miss this.
- Yeah.
X equals 88. It doesn't match!
X equals 88. He was lying!
The guy on TV was lying.
It's not four to five feet.
It's way bigger.
[PHONE VIBRATING]
- Hello?
- DEREK: Uh, hi. Mr. Ellison?
- Yes.
- I was just wondering
if we could ask some questions
about the sighting at the airport.
- I'm sorry. Who is this?
- My name is Derek Echevaro,
and I got your cellphone number
from the voicemail
at your office.
Who do you work for?
The News Record.
We just had a few questions
we wanted to ask based on eyewitness
accounts, there were things we learned...
I've never heard of The News Record.
Is that out of Ohio?
- Is that based out of Ohio?
- University of Cincinnati.
University? You mean...
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
- [DIAL TONE RINGS]
- [PHONE VIBRATES]
- Yes?
- DEREK: I think we got disconnected.
Do not call this number again.
I just want to know why you thought
it was four to five feet in diameter.
Witness account says it was about the
size of a dime held at arm's length.
Cloud cover was 2,900 feet,
it was about 100 to 200 feet
below that which would make it
88 feet in diameter.
[]
WOMAN: Sir, Whitley is in the
field with a potential witness
and she's claiming
to have heart problems.
There are plenty of other
witnesses they need to talk to.
Call an ambulance
and have them move on.
Paramedics will have to take her to
Edgewood instead of Florence anyway.
Excuse me.
I keep getting calls
from this guy.
He's saying he knows
the aircraft was 88 feet across.
Did you get his name
of this person?
Derek Echevaro.
Thanks, Dave.
AHLS: Did any camera
get a visual on this UAP?
- Pull up Gate A8.
- MAN: Yes sir.
AHLS: No, nothing there.
How about A18?
Do we have a clearer shot
of the south runway?
I'm not seeing anything. How
about the north side perimeter?
MAN: There you go.
AHLS: There's nothing. Let's go
back inside the terminal, A4.
MAN: Yes sir.
AHLS: All right, freeze that.
I want the names
of all those passengers.
Now,
take me to the ticket counter.
Freeze that. Okay, rewind it.
I want all those employees
and anyone else from the ground
in Conference Room A.
JUNGER: I've been told that this
is a federal investigation now.
So, you should know that
if any of you talk to anyone,
your coworkers, your friends,
your family,
including your spouses,
you could be charged
with obstruction of justice.
Where's everyone else?
Why's it just us here?
MAN: Yeah,
why is it just us here?
WOMAN: What's going on?
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
DEREK: They're saying it's a plane now.
Natalie texted me.
Look at this.
[CHUCKLES] Okay.
LEE: "After reviewing
the witness testimony",
federal officials
have come to the conclusion
that the mysterious aircraft
seen over Cincinnati Northern
Kentucky International Airport,
was in fact a Gulfstream IV airplane
with a length of 88 feet...
Eighty-eight feet...
"It matches witness descriptions
and investigators are confident
that the mystery
has been solved."
He's using my math!
He's using what I told him
on the phone to cover it up.
I bet you there is no record
of a Gulfstream IV coming in
or out of the airport that day.
Go to ATCAudioLive.com.
Look up Cincinnati.
Uh...
ATCAudioLive.
- Somebody must've taken it down.
- DEREK: No, it's live streaming.
People listen to that stuff
all day, every day.
Somebody recorded it.
[]
[INDISTINC TRAFFIC NOISES MERGING]
[]
[MECHANICAL HUMMING]
DEREK'S MOTHER:
We'll be out soon, okay?
You'll never be alone.
[CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS]
[INDISTINCT TOWER CHATTER
THROUGH HEADPHONES]
MAN: [ON RECORDING]
United maintenance flight
is just joining alpha from
the international,
what's your number, again?
United maintenance 44.
[]
[INDISTINCT ANNOUNCEMEN OVER PA]
[CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS]
[INDISTINCT ANNOUNCEMEN OVER PA]
[PLANE ENGINE PASSING]
[PHONE RINGING]
Hey.
NATALIE: Hey!
When are we gonna do the lab?
Uh, I don't know.
Today's not so good.
I didn't go to Diff. EQ.
Why not?
Didn't you have an exam?
Where are you?
I'm at Cincinnati Airport.
This terminal is crawling
with federal agents.
Why would they still be here
if they already figured out
what it was?
It is an airport.
How did you get in?
Bought the cheapest ticket
I could find.
Derek!
We need to start the lab today.
I can't get a B
in Hendricks' class.
DEREK: Professor Hendricks?
Hi. Um...
I was just wondering,
it's such a crazy time.
Uh, with my midterms one after the
other, I was just wondering...
If you are asking for
an extension, the answer is no.
Why?
Derek, you are one of the brightest
students I have ever had,
and you are also the most
disruptive and argumentative.
Even when you know other people
are right, you argue your point.
Well, that trivial-non-trivial
stuff is so confusing...
No, it isn't... not for you.
You're on scholarship
from the Akamai Foundation.
Yes, I read my students' files.
And you got that scholarship
because you placed in the Olympiad
which is one of the top
math competitions in the country
and you are failing my class.
Is there something
we need to talk about?
No.
I've been at CVG a long time
and I've never seen
an object like this.
INTERVIEWER: What was it like at
the airport after the sighting?
Chaos, I imagine?
INTERVIEWEE:
It was fairly chaotic.
The government showed up
after about two hours
and there were agents everywhere.
And then they brought us all
into a conference room,
everyone who had seen it.
They didn't tell us
what was going on.
They took away our phones;
They kept us there
for about ten hours.
They didn't let us call home,
didn't let us use the internet.
It was... It was terrifying.
REPORTER: The airline employee
said he heard radio chatter
from pilots
and other airport workers
about the unidentified object.
However,
despite repeated requests,
the FAA has yet to turn over
any transcripts or recordings
from the tower radio that day.
LEE: You really think someone's
gonna have this recording on here?
Is this a... is this part
of that airline forum thing?
It's a chatroom on Tor.
What's Tor?
It's one of the ways to get
into the dark web,
which is where people do things
that are illegal
because it's very hard to trace.
LEE: "Their Plans Against Us"?
Whose plans against us?
It's H.G. Wells'
War of the Worlds.
Hmm, "ATCronnie, Pilot81604,".
You know, these are just a bunch
of people in Yoda outfits
making up fake accounts.
It might not be
the pilot of a 747,
it might be someone who flies
little planes...
Yeah, or it might be someone who was
born on August 16th, 2004, right?
What are the numbers at the end?
81604?
- [DEREK SIGHS]
- Probably 13 years old.
Here we go.
"CincyDawn" says they have them.
LEE: Dawn?
D-A-W-N? Like the name Dawn?
- What's her deal?
- Oh, God.
What? She probably goes to UC.
She's probably not interested.
- Probably real smart...
- Probably 13.
- Right.
- Right.
Why are there so many files?
United, American, these are all
the different frequencies.
Here we go, here's the tower.
PILOT: United 367
preparing for takeoff.
Not sure if you're picking
this up on radar,
but to our left looks like a
stationary drone, some sort of drone.
WOMAN: On the runway?
PILOT: No, south of that.
Down by you guys in the tower;
Altitude maybe 2,700 feet.
Please advise.
[INTERFERENCE]
WOMAN: I'm not seeing anything,
but I'll have a look.
The hell was that noise?
WOMAN: You have eyes on it now?
PILOT: It's not moving,
just hanging out there.
WOMAN: Copy that,
three six seven. Stand by.
- HAL: Anyone else hearing this?
- [INTERFERENCE]
What is it, Hal?
Three six seven, I'm getting confirmation
down here that it's still there.
What'd she say? Did she say Al?
- WOMAN: Copy that, three six seven, standby.
- HAL: Anyone else hearing this?
- [INTERFERENCE]
- WOMAN: What is it, Hal?
LEE: Sounds like "Hal."
I heard an "H."
WOMAN: Three six seven,
- I'm getting confirmation.
- Yeah.
[PHONE DIALING OUT]
- WOMAN: Tower.
- Hi, I'm looking for Hal.
Hal, Al, Hal.
WOMAN: Hal Lapierre?
Yes. Is he on shift right now?
Let me check.
LEE: Good luck with Hal, dude.
I'm going to get you a drink.
Hey, yo, Zach!
Where's that vodka?
[MUTTERING]
Two, three... 523...
Five over...
HAL: Hello? Who's calling?
Sir, you couldn't have seen it.
Who is this?
They said you saw the UFO,
on the radio.
They said that you said
that it was still there.
Are you a reporter?
I can't talk about this.
Why not?
Because I can't, okay.
I'm sorry.
No, no, wait, wait. I understand
that somebody told you
you're not allowed to
talk about it but...
- No, I never said that.
- There's no way
that you could've seen it,
you would've had to been
- looking almost directly up, and.
- It wasn't that...
there's an overhang on the tower
that would've blocked your view,
I know you could get in trouble.
- That's not...
- for talking, but there's no way
you'd have seen it
even if it was there.
I never said I saw it! I...
[LINE DIES]
Mr. Lapierre?
He didn't see it, he heard it.
The static.
Wh... what about it?
That's what he heard.
The interference
is from the UFO.
PILOT: Yeah, it's not moving,
just hanging out there.
WOMAN: Copy that
three six seven, stand by.
[INTERMITTENT INTERFERENCE]
[INTERFERENCE]
[INTERFERENCE]
DEREK: It's a sequence of tones.
Each is one-tenth of a second
represented here by these circles,
and then the dashes are one-tenth
of a second of silence
so in total, it's 2,623 symbols
which comes out
to four minutes and 23 seconds.
And then it started
to repeat itself,
but it stopped.
I have no idea why.
You think
it's some sort of signal?
What's that?
Nine four three three?
Well, I was thinking maybe
it was binary
like a 32-bit computer looks
at chunks of 32, 64 at 64.
I have no idea how to break this
up, but I think that it's a 14-bit
because you've got 14 circles here
at the beginning and at the end.
- Hmm.
- So, if it is 14,
this chunk comes out
to 9,433 okay?
Or you could bring it into
two seven-digit chunks,
one is 73 and one is 89.
- You gonna come over again?
- Do you wanna help figure this out?
No, I have to study.
I don't get anything done
when Lee is around.
Will you at least
take a copy home?
PROFESSOR HENDRICKS: Afternoon.
Non-homogenous systems.
These are systems that might not
have any solutions at all.
- [KNOCKING AT DOOR]
- PROFESSOR HENDRICKS: It's open.
Hi. My name is Natalie,
I'm in your
Linear Algebra class,
and I was wondering
about letters of recommendation.
I only give letters of recommendation
to students who finish with an A,
so I will talk to you at the end
of the semester.
Right, okay.
Sorry if I'm jumping the gun.
Um...
Would it maybe be possible
to get an extension on the lab?
- I already told Derek no.
- Yeah.
He's got a lot
going on right now.
From what I've read, a lot
of the best mathematicians
do their best work in their early
20's; Einstein, Ramanujan...
Riemann, Abel, Galois,
I know the list.
You.
Look,
I've made my contributions.
Now it's your turn,
but you have got to do the lab.
Either get him on board,
or do it yourself.
Okay. Thank you.
[]
[PHONE DIALING OUT]
LEE : Hello, leave a message.
Lee, I've figured it out.
It's dates.
And it's close to 0.007297.
That's the Fine-Structure Constant,
but it's in 14-digit chunks.
I think maybe they're trying
to figure out how smart we are.
Or they're trying to tell us
they're from a planet
that has the same
physical laws as ours.
But they're not from
five billion light years away...
He's already figured it out.
It's the FSC.
Isn't the lead singer like
the main part of the band?
So, it may as well be
a cover band with,
you know, it's like the same
guitarist and everything,
but I just feel like on
a basic level, like,
it's pretty different right?
I mean, I don't know.
[LAUGHING]
Lee, did you get my message?
They're using basic math
as a way to communicate:
1+2=3, 3-2=1.
Okay and the Fine-Structure
Constant is in there.
So maybe they're trying to tell us
they're actually from somewhere nearby
or maybe they're just trying to establish
a common mathematical language
so we can actually decode it.
I mean,
anyone who knows basic math
and physics, knows numbers
like 3.14159 and 0.007297.
Yeah, of course.
What is this 38?
That's binary.
Then there's 2,623 times 2,953.
Okay so 2,623 is the total
number of bits in the signal.
Each one is one-tenth
of a second long.
That comes out
to roughly 774,572 seconds.
So that's almost
exactly nine days, okay.
So, Tuesday,
the day of the sighting,
plus nine days,
that's next Thursday.
That's six days from now.
Okay,
so what's happening Thursday?
Maybe it's coming back.
AHLS: I'm not an astrophysicist
so thank you for coming.
I just want to ask you a few questions
about the Fine-Structure Constant.
I'm told that you could shed some
light on it, how it could be used
as a benchmark
for determining intelligence
or pinpointing
a location in space.
Using the FSC
to determine intelligence
is fairly straightforward,
but using it to pinpoint a
location in space is problematic.
Say the FSC is different
in different parts of space,
which there's essentially
no evidence of.
If the FSC did depend on things
like local density,
and if two places,
way far apart from each other
had the same local density,
they might also have
the same FSC.
And if you gave
that number to someone,
how would they know
which place to go?
But if we had more than one,
couldn't we use them
the same way we use pulsars
to pinpoint locations?
Over a much greater distance,
obviously?
The idea that it's different
in different parts of space
isn't really
the focus of research now.
You know, I have a room full of
scientists who haven't been able
to explain anything to me.
The mystery continues
concerning the object seen
hovering over CVG
this past Tuesday
which the FAA says
is no longer unidentified,
but was actually
a Gulfstream IV airplane.
Reports of more bizarre activity around
the time of the sighting have surfaced,
including widespread disruption
of radio and cellphone signals.
Verizon, AT& and Sprint all confirmed
major service interruptions
in the Ohio and Kentucky area
near the airport, with T-Mobile
being the least affected.
[]
DEREK:
Were you open last Tuesday?
Did you hear about the thing
at the airport?
SHOP OWNER: No, I didn't see,
but I heard about it.
And I think it might have messed
with my cellphone.
I kept getting all this static.
DEREK: Hey!
Were you open last Tuesday?
So, if this was a UFO, right?
- And there were aliens on it...
- Mm-hmm.
What do you think
they would look like?
You mean, do I think they're like
little grey people with big black eyes?
- Yeah.
- Okay. Uh...
Think about this.
I can take these two shakers,
right?
Put them in front of you
and count them. One, two,
- Mm-hmm.
- Because they stay in place,
- right?
- Mm-hmm.
But if I was from
a liquid planet,
and I don't mean a planet
that's just covered in ocean,
but one that is molten
all the way through,
by the time
I put the second one down,
- the first...
- Will burn up!
- [LAUGHS] No, Lee. The first one...
- Or it would be gone.
Well, it could have moved off.
Mm.
You know, I asked
what they would look like.
Well... [SIGHS]
they probably look like...
something so far beyond
what you could possibly imagine.
[PHONE ALERT BEEPS]
"Found something in the signal.
I'll tell you
if you come
to the party tonight."
What party?
It's probably
that Sigma Kai thing.
Is that... is that Natalie?
9,433 is a prime number;
The multiplier
at the end of the signal.
Nine thousand four hundred
and thirty-three times 38.
So, what does that mean?
Well,
a sequence of prime numbers
could mean it came
from an intelligent lifeform,
but one on its own doesn't mean
anything necessarily.
- So, you're going?
- To what?
To the party
that you just agreed to go to.
We're heading over at eight.
[LAUGHING]
You're right, this is stupid.
I'm can't, I'm sorry.
This is first...
LEE: Text me
if you change your mind.
[ENGINE ROARS]
WOMAN: [ON PHONE] Campus Police.
DEREK:
Yeah, hey, I just got home,
and someone has broken
into my apartment, okay.
All my stuff's... oh, shit.
My webcam's on.
There's an executable running
in the System Processes
and my webcam was on.
I didn't turn it on.
[PHONE ALERT BEEPS]
Could you possibly have a virus?
It's not a virus.
It's not behaving like a virus.
Did anyone
physically break in here?
Yeah.
I just have one more question.
Whose is this?
[]
There was an executable running
in the background
and I had no idea what it was.
I tried reformatting
the computer,
but it just showed up again.
It was on Lee's computer too.
LEE: Hello, leave a message.
- I saw something in the activity monitor.
- He's still not answering.
It looks like somebody was...
Had tried to change
the size of...
Twenty-six twenty-three
doesn't have any other divisors
other than 43 and 61, does it?
Those are both prime.
So, if I resize the window
61 by 43...
it's a grid!
All the dots line up!
Why didn't I see this before?
They wanted us to know
that 2,623 meant something,
like the Arecibo Signal.
The signal that Frank Drake
and Carl Sagan
sent out into space
in the '70's, right?
That was
a semi-prime number too.
We have to go. Professor
Magg's panel discussion;
It's today.
Nine four three, three times 38,
Nine four three, three times 22;
What do these two lines mean?
I wonder if they've got anything to
do with the Fine-Structure Constant.
Can anyone explain to me
how this can be used
for determining intelligence?
As well as pinpointing
a location in space?
How come we don't know everything
there is to know about this number?
People?
I guarantee you, if this
was the Manhattan Project
or you all were trying to decode
the Enigma machine,
things would be
a little bit different in here.
So, I'm gonna try to put this in a
little bit of perspective for you.
Ten to the sixteen watts
of energy.
Now, I know you're all familiar
with the Kardashev Scale,
Type I, Type ll,
Type lll civilizations.
Type I is a global civilization
that controls an energy level
roughly equivalent
to all of the solar energy
striking the planet's surface.
Ten to the sixteen
or seventeen watts.
Type ll controls
all the energy from a star
and Type lll is galactic.
Right now,
we are about a Type 0.7.
We are becoming
a global civilization,
but we are not quite there yet.
We control... roughly ten
to the 13 watts of energy.
Now, scientists like you,
have calculated that we might
possibly make the transition
to a Type I in the next
hundred years or so,
if we don't
destroy ourselves first.
We should see evidence of Type I,
Type ll, Type lll civilizations
everywhere in the universe,
if they existed,
but what have we found so far?
Nothing, which makes me think
it's either very rare
or impossible
to make that first step
to becoming a Type I,
but whatever,
or whomever, showed up
at CVG the other day,
traveled huge distances
to get here.
They have a mastery
of space travel that,
well, we can't even
begin to understand.
Chances are they have made
that first step,
maybe even the second.
And we need to find out
how they did it
and learn from that
because I don't know about you,
but...
I'm pretty sure
we can't do it on our own.
NATALIE: It's eight o' clock, have
you tried calling Lee at all?
DEREK: He's going to be fine.
The second you sat down,
you had your computer open
and you were working
on that crap!
I bet you totally forgot
about tomorrow.
You're taking the practice GRE
at 9:00, I'm driving you.
Now will you please just...
will you come with me
because there's something
I want to show you.
Derek, I'm going home.
I didn't sleep at all
last night.
I'm sure Lee didn't either.
What if he gets kicked out
of school?
His Dad's a huge benefactor
at UC.
Okay, now will you come with me?
Please?
[SIGHS]
DEREK: Over here.
Okay, so if this is the distance
between the Sun and the Earth,
how far do you think
the next closest star is?
Proxima Centauri?
Twenty feet?
See, 71?
About twice as far as that,
4.3 miles.
Now, if that's our scale,
how big do you think
the galaxy is?
You'd have to keep walking
in that direction
until you got right back here;
All the way around the world,
and then do that
three more times.
And that's just our galaxy.
There are at least 100 billion
other galaxies out there.
Derek, do you know
why I did that panel today?
Because I live on Earth. And I need
to get in good with Professor Magg
so he'll give me a
recommendation for grad school.
What's your plan?
What are you doing?
'Cause it seems like the only thing
you care about is that signal.
It is the only thing
I care about.
When I was a kid,
I saw something.
I was in the diner
where my Mom used to work...
and I saw these lights outside.
Not like a helicopter light,
or airplane, or whatever.
I mean, they were...
They were moving together.
And it wasn't like
some grainy video
where you can't see anything.
I saw it.
I tried to tell her about it,
but she didn't listen to me.
NATALIE:
What was she supposed to do?
Believe me.
Do something.
- I don't know.
- Put yourself in her shoes.
You know, your kid
starts talking about aliens.
You know what I think?
I think she just didn't care.
Okay, so you have some baggage.
Doesn't give you the right to
treat everyone else like shit.
Hundreds of years go by...
and people make tiny,
little improvements.
And then there's an opportunity
to take a giant leap forward.
Like with relativity,
or going to the moon.
When it's your finals week,
you cut yourself off
from everyone.
You go to the library,
you drink 100 cans of Red Bull.
You don't talk to anyone
for, like, four days,
because you know everything
is riding on it.
This is my finals week.
What are the most important
questions in the world?
"Is there a God?"
"What happens when we die?"
And...
"Are we alone in the universe?"
If anyone answered
any one of those questions,
it would change everything.
NATALIE: We're never as alone
as we think we are.
[DOOR OPENS, CLOSES]
[INDISTINCT NOISE FROM TV]
Hey, we've...
we've been trying to call you.
Phone's dead.
What, did they give you
a fine or what?
Mm-hmm.
You're not going to get
kicked out of school, are you?
Lee, I... I didn't know
that stuff was in there,
but I think someone's monitoring
our computers.
Who?
What the fuck are the police
going to do about it?
Right. I probably
should have called the FBI.
So basically,
I got in trouble for nothing.
We almost figured it out, okay?
If you put it into a grid,
43 by 61,
it makes so much more sense.
And there are
these two lines on it
and I think
they might be coordinates.
- Could I borrow your car?
- No.
Can you drive me
to the airport then?
Oh, man!
I have exams. Don't you?
Tuesday, but Dave Ellison
has to see this.
And then what?
He's just going to crack
and admit to everything?
I don't see how he can deny it.
Can't you take a bus?
The only way I'm going to catch him
is if he's coming in or out of work.
And if I can't get
into the employee lot,
I was going to follow him.
Home?
This is the last time.
I will never ask you
for anything ever again.
[]
[SIGHS]
[]
That's him!
[PHONE ALERT BEEPS]
- LEE: Go, man!
- Yeah.
Before he gets away!
Mr. Ellison?
Did you know that there was a coded
message in the tower recording?
- What?
- In the tower recording.
It sounded like interference,
but it was actually a signal.
I'm sorry. Who are you?
I'm Derek.
We spoke on the phone last week.
Excuse me? Is this the long-term lot?
I think I'm lost.
You held a press conference
at five o' clock that day.
I saw you on TV and you said that
you had interviewed everyone.
Did you do that yourself?
How in depth were they?
Were they five minutes
or two hours or...
- I don't know...
- So, you didn't do it?
- He didn't say any...
- He who?
So, there was only one guy?
And how many people did you interview?
I mean, I know about eight
from the news article and you
could not have started until...
- SECURITY: Is there a problem here?
- 3:30 or 4:00 the earliest.
So if there was one guy, and each
one was about a half-hour long,
and there were
eight eye witnesses,
I don't see how you could've started
a press conference at five.
Is there a problem here?
We spoke to all of them
briefly before...
You said that, "We interviewed
all the witnesses on that day."
- The actual interviews didn't take place...
- But you didn't do them!
Do you know how many threats
the airport gets every day?
If it's not somebody threatening
to blow up a plane,
they're going to bring on
box cutters, hijack it,
gun down people in the terminal,
you name it.
In the middle of all of this,
I have
some maintenance workers say
they saw something hovering
near the runways, but it left,
so we checked surveillance.
There's no indication of it.
- Tower didn't see anything.
- They couldn't have...
So what are we supposed to do?
Issue a no-fly warning
to your aliens?
Try to convince
the Air Force to scramble
just to shoot down something
that we can't find on radar?
Close down the airport
and have people
miss their flights
because of something most
people don't believe exists?
Even if the people in the tower
said they saw...
- They didn't see anything!
- You have eight independent descriptions
- from your own employees...
- Did you see it?
We did
a thorough investigation...
- The interviews were formality!
- We found it was a Gulfstream IV,
- Look at the tower! With overhang.
- Matches what they saw.
- How'd they know?
- What the other people saw.
- How would they even know that?
- Because it's what I told them to say!
I want them out of here.
Natalie, he admitted it.
Dave admitted it was a cover-up.
- Did you hear what I said?
- Yeah.
Are you... Are you mad at me?
What do you need,
Derek? Study notes?
What? No.
Then why are you here?
I came here to tell this
'cause you're not
answering your phone.
Do you understand
how huge this is?
I missed the GRE because of you!
The practice GRE!
Derek, if you had the chance
to redo things
and all the circumstances were the same,
would you still have left me there?
That's what I thought.
Look, what do I have to do
to fix this?
You can't, okay? You had a
choice and you made it.
Natalie?
DEREK'S MOTHER: You'll never be alone.
You know that, right?
[INTERFERENCE]
[MATHEMATICAL MUTTERING,
INTERSPERSED INTERFERENCE]
NATALIE: You think
it's some sort of signal?
[MATHEMATICAL MUTTERING,
INTERSPERSED INTERFERENCE]
[]
Oh, shit!
[KNOCKING RAPIDLY]
[KNOCKING]
[BANGING]
Come on!
[PHONE RINGS]
Hello?
DEREK: Can I talk
to Professor Hendricks, please?
Who is this?
It's Derek.
I'm in one of her classes.
It's Derek.
He says he's a student.
Derek?
How did you get this number?
I know it's late
and I shouldn't be here,
- but I have something...
- Here?
There are numbers you can call
where trained professionals
- are available 24 hours...
- You're the best...
- You're the best mathematician I know!
- To deal with this issue.
This isn't some bullshit
textbook problem, okay?
This is more complicated than
anything you've ever seen before.
And if I'm right, I've got 'til three
o'clock tomorrow to figure it out.
PROFESSOR HENDRICKS:
Where'd this come from?
The tower radio at an airport.
Becca, is everything all right?
Yeah. Go back to bed.
We'll just be a minute.
DEREK: Sorry if I woke you guys.
No, you're not.
You know there was a man
who lived a long time ago,
a brilliant man, an inventor.
He took credit
for other people's work.
He conducted
dangerous experiments
with radiation that cost
his assistant his arms.
He even helped
to create the electric chair,
and he used it to kill somebody
in order to prove
that his competitor's technology
was dangerous.
His name was Thomas Edison.
You strike me
as that kind of person, Derek.
Now don't get me wrong,
I like electricity,
and the world needs
people like that,
but I certainly wouldn't want
to be friends with him.
I'm sorry, could you sit down?
You said this came
from a tower radio?
Yeah.
There was something hovering
over the airport last week.
Yeah, I heard about that.
I think that this is a signal
from that, uh, aircraft.
You know what I've never understood
about you conspiracy theorists?
Say you parked your car in the same
spot every single day outside school.
- I don't have a car.
- Let's just say you did.
And say you parked it in the
same spot every single day.
And then one day, you came out
and your car wasn't there,
and instead,
there was an orange cone.
Would you automatically assume
that your car had turned
into an orange cone?
Or would you assume that...
- Professor...
- it had gotten towed, or
that you'd accidentally
parked in a different spot?
I don't see what that has to do
with anything.
You don't automatically jump
to the most extreme
explanations.
You analyze
the reasonable ones first.
I've done that, obviously!
And nothing that happened
at the airport makes any sense.
At all.
Do you have the tower recording?
PILOT: No, south,
down by you guys in the tower.
Altitude maybe 2700 feet...
[INTERFERENCE]
WOMAN: I'm not seeing anything,
but I'll have a look.
Do you have eyes on it now?
- PILOT: Yeah, it's not moving...
- No.
The signal strengths are
different on different channels.
The strongest is the American
Ground ops, and then the tower,
and then the quietest is United.
Okay. United is 131.075 MHz,
the tower is 360.85,
American is 460.675.
It gets louder
as the frequency gets higher.
Hmm.
The phones.
T-Mobile is 700 to 1700 MHz
and above.
The rest are 800, 850...
Every carrier had interference
except for T-Mobile
for some calls.
So somewhere between 700 and...
thank you...
1700 MHz, it stopped.
Wait, SETI said you should
use 1,420 MHz
when you're sending
a signal, because it has
the same radiation frequency
as neutral hydrogen,
and hydrogen is the most common
element in the universe.
Any intelligent life form
would know that it's special.
So, maybe they broadcast
to all frequencies...
until it built up to 1,420 MHz,
and then they spiked it at 1,420
to draw our attention to it.
What uses 1,400 MHz?
- Wireless telemetry systems.
- Hospitals.
Any hospital even remotely
near the airport
would've gone
completely haywire.
[PHONE DIALING OUT]
- WOMAN: St. Elizabeth.
- Hello, this is Dr., uh, Edison
from the University
of Cincinnati Medical Center.
We were just wondering if you
had recently had any issues
with your wireless
telemetry systems.
Yeah, I think we did actually.
Last week.
We had to send patients
to Edgewood.
DEREK: The only things we don't
know are these two lines.
9,433 times 38
and 9,433 times 22.
Maybe they're landing patterns,
or maybe they're coordinates.
207,526 meters north.
How would they know
what a meter is?
Or a foot, or anything.
Maybe it's not even north
and east.
Maybe it's west and south.
Well, the equations are meant to be
read left to right and bottom to top,
and so it would make sense
that...
the coordinates might be
up and over.
But I think you need
to talk to a physicist
or an astrophysicist.
I could recommend a couple.
What? Professor.
I know you think that if we stare
at that signal long enough,
that something is
going to click,
but you can't force it.
And I am certainly
not the person
who's going to help you
crack it.
I mean, math, science, physics?
It's a young person's game.
Riemann. Galois.
[CHUCKLES]
Einstein.
Eugne Ehrhart was 60
when he got his PhD.
The Ehrhart polynomial?
Yitang Zhang was 57
when he proved that there
were an infinite number
- of consecutive pairs of primes.
- [SCOFFS]
That were separated by less than
70 million.
Two examples.
Schrodinger. Frohlich. Smale.
Okay! Okay.
But I'm telling you...
you can't force it.
And sometimes,
you just get stuck.
I know that look.
Okay.
I'm kicking you out.
We are servants rather than
masters of Mathematics.
So, you're saying I just have
to wait for it to come to me.
Do you know the definition
of "we," Mr. Echevaro?
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
All right, let them through.
- [BUZZER SOUNDS]
- GUARD: Opening up.
- [GATE CREAKS]
- [ALARM BLARES]
[]
AHLS: We need to be collecting every
channel across the state right now.
Afternoon.
[SIGHING]
Chapter four.
Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors.
Now, if we have
a square matrix "A"
that represents
a linear transformation,
then this matrix
times the vector
is equal to a scalar lambda
times the same vector.
Now, the "v"
is called an eigenvector,
and the lambda
is called an eigenvalue,
and these kinds of problems
have...
applications
in all kinds of things,
like structural engineering,
and...
and spin transitions
and neutral hydrogen.
[]
And it has a wavelength
of 21 centimeters.
That would be significant,
wouldn't it?
Derek?
It doesn't matter.
The matrix is double,
or half, or whatever.
Twenty-one centimeters.
Twenty-one centimeters, what?
The frequency of hydrogen.
The spectral line
of neutral hydrogen
has a frequency of 1,420 MHz
and a wavelength
of 21 centimeters.
Two lines, 38 increments east.
And 22 north.
And then you multiply both
by 9,433.
And then by 21 centimeters.
The wavelength is the unit
of the measurement.
It is coordinates.
Lee? Lee?
Uh. I need to use your car.
Please? I've only got
one hour until three.
Go, man.
Go for it.
- Thank you.
- Yeah.
[ENGINE ROARS]
We are servants rather than
masters of Mathematics.
Remember when I told you
that 9,433 was a prime number?
Yes.
PROFESSOR HENDRICKS: That would
be significant, wouldn't it?
Derek?
What do you think
they would look like?
[TIRES SCREECH, ENGINE ROARS]
[TIRES SCREECH]
[STATIC AND INTERFERENCE]
[]
[ENGINES APPROACHING]
[]
[INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER]
MAN: Here's the key, sir.
Will you gentlemen excuse us,
please?
MAN 2: Yes sir.
[DOORS CLOSE]
Let's get those off of you.
The sighting at CVG
wasn't the first.
There were others.
And every time we tried
to establish contact with them
using a variation of
the Arecibo signal, we failed.
They put the fine-structure
constant in their message
to build a common
mathematical language.
Uh...
I didn't know it could be used
for determining intelligence.
In the new signal
we received today,
there are 19 decimal places.
We can only measure it to 12.
And this one is much more complex
than anything we've seen.
The last one was 14-bit,
but this one is 42-bit.
And not only is it laid out
on a grid,
it's three-dimensional.
Which tells us
a couple of things. One...
They're a hell of a lot
smarter than us.
[CHUCKLES]
And two,
when we're trying to find them,
we might be off by a lot.
In their first signal, they sent
two-dimensional coordinates
here on Earth.
In this new signal,
I believe they sent...
Three-dimensional
coordinates in space.
Well, the focus of research now
is not that it changes
throughout the universe,
but that it changes over time.
Okay, so we have to work out a more
accurate way of measuring the FSC.
Which means developing new
technologies, new theories.
And that could take five years
or 500.
Or five months, with your help.
And you do understand
what this means?
We're not alone.
And then there's this story you
may have already heard about.
United Airlines employees who swear
it was something other-worldly
in the skies above Chicago's
O'Hare Airport on November 7th,
but neither the FAA,
nor indeed their own employer,
appears to be
taking them seriously.
Chicago Tribune, interviewing
several people anonymously,
including maintenance workers,
baggage handlers and pilots,
who each have all described
a dark gray, saucer-like object
that hovered low
over Concourse C
of the United Airlines terminal
just before sunset
before shooting off into the sky.
Some say it moved so fast,
it literally punched a hole
in the clouds.
United Airlines claims it had
no record of the sighting,
even though employees say
they filled out reports.
The FAA initially told
the Tribune
that it likewise had
no information on the UFO.
Then, after the newspapers
filed paperwork under
the Freedom of Information Act,
the FAA turned up a call from
the United Airlines supervisor
to the airport control tower
asking whether the object was on-radar.
And now, the agency has concluded
it was, quote,
"weather phenomenon,"
and it considers
this case closed.
[]
[INDISTINCT ANNOUNCEMEN OVER PA]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
[MULTIPLE PHONES RINGING]
MAN: Is that a plane?
MAN: What the hell is that?
[STATIC INTERFERENCE RISING]
[BELL TOLLS]
DEREK:
Excuse me, Professor Hendricks?
Why didn't I get credit
for number five?
You didn't write anything.
You missed a trivial solution
x=0 and y=0.
I didn't miss it.
I didn't think it was important.
Find all solutions.
You understand the definition
of "all", Mr. Echevaro?
[CLASS CHUCKLES]
"Sometimes non-trivial solutions
can be found,"
sometimes they can't.
Paradoxically, it is when
"the trivial solution is the only solution
that it's the most important case."
Exactly. This is a
homogenous system of equations
and the important question is whether
there are any non-trivial solutions.
If that's the important question
then why didn't you just ask us
if there are any
non-trivial solutions?
Because I want you to
mathematically find all solutions.
But the most important question is whether
the trivial solution is the only one.
Indeed.
That is the case
with this problem.
So, why is it trivial
if it's so important?
Now, I saw x=0 and y=0 was the only one
so, I didn't waste my time with it,
AKA trivial.
I believe
you're convoluting your words.
I'm not. It's very misleading. The
book even says, "paradoxically."
Sit down.
Anybody else
before I finish up here?
Thank you.
So, in the lab for next time
you should do problems
one through 43.
NATALIE: The GDP
of Assumption Land is 30,000,
the price level is 28,
the money supply is 560,000,
right?
So, if the government decides
to flood the market,
increase the money supply
by a factor of 1.31,
what economic variable
will be affected,
and what will its new value be?
[MUSIC PLAYS IN BACKGROUND]
Why does every problem have to
take place in Assumption Land?
Can't they just say,
like, a real country?
Well, it's easier than saying
"Let's assume," every single time.
You did know that's why
it's called "Assumption Land"?
- LEE: Speaking of flooding the market,
- NATALIE: Hey!
Did you know if everyone stopped
using condoms,
it would actually lower
the rate of STDs?
There would be more people
without STDs doing it.
So, the chances of catching
something would actually be lower.
You do not pay me enough
for this crap.
[LAUGHS]
[PHONE ALERT BEEPS]
[]
[]
Hey, Derek, you want to do
that lab tonight?
Get it over with
before the exam?
- Derek?
- DEREK: Did you hear about this?
"Flight operations at Cincinnati
Northern Kentucky International Airport"
were temporarily suspended this afternoon
after reports of a mysterious aircraft
hovering above the airport.
"Witnesses included route mechanics
and other airport employees."
DEREK:
This article says it looked like
a silver disc the size of a dime
just below the clouds.
Dude, Natalie does not want
to hear about this.
"A United ramp mechanic
who wished to remain anonymous,"
witnessed the aircraft
and saw it depart.
However, he was surprised
to hear radio chatter
between a pilot and ground
control several minutes later
at 3:12 pm
when someone in the tower said,
"'It's still here.'"
People in the tower work with times all
day long, okay? Very specific times.
There's no way that they would
get something like that wrong.
So, the fact that one guy
is saying one thing
and everyone else is saying something
else, it doesn't make any sense.
INTERVIEWER:
How long did you watch it for?
- I ran away. I was scared.
- Why were you scared?
- Because of the noise.
- What did it sound like?
- Like someone was playing the flute.
- Was it very loud?
- MAN: [ON PHONE] What's the case number?
- RW-11-02-04.
Rebecca Watkins, Omega, Georgia.
- Access code?
- Blue-15-EOXC.
What can I do for you, Mr. Ahls?
I'd like to archive
this case file.
Insufficient evidence;
Subject is being released
from surveillance.
It felt like all the air
was running out
and that the plants were going
to die and everything was bad.
MAN: The contents
are being accessed now.
Would you like me
to see who's accessing them?
No, cut it off.
Okay, BLACKBOX-RW-11-02-04
has been archived
and is no longer remotely
accessible at any clearance level.
Is there anything else
I can do for you, Mr. Ahls?
No. Thank you.
[PHONE RINGS]
- Ahls.
- WOMAN: [ON PHONE] We got a call from DHS
about a sighting in sector 6, UTC
negative 4, 39.04319 latitude,
negative 84.65842 longitude,
ground elevation 896,
UAP elevation
approximately 2,800.
It was right over
Cincinnati Airport.
Radio?
WOMAN: We intercepted a signal
across all frequencies.
We're sending you the radar feed
from the time of the sighting.
[]
[INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER]
[JOURNALISTS CLAMORING]
ELLISON: We interviewed
all the witnesses,
and we now believe
it was a small drone...
[CONTINUING INDISTINCTLY]
Roland Junger, Airport Director.
I would have suggested that
you fly directly here...
I hope your, uh, cameras
are up to DHS specs
because I'm going to need the
footage from every single one
in this entire facility.
All terminals, gates, hallways,
stores, employee locker rooms,
baggage claims, runways,
fences, hangars, parking lots.
I'm also going to need
all the tower recordings,
passenger manifests, and my team
is going to need four rooms,
conference rooms preferably.
I don't have four conference
rooms here in the terminal.
You have two, plus the EOC
I will take those
and one of your larger rooms,
and I will tell you which one.
So, you want me to shut
everything down
and start kicking people out of their
offices in the middle of the day?
No, nothing gets shut down.
Everything continues as normal.
There is one other thing though.
The man who is giving
a press conference out front,
we do need to shut him down,
immediately. Thank you.
Thousands of passengers from all over
the world fly through CVG every day,
but what about the ones
from out of this world?
Well earlier today,
airline employees and passengers
claimed they saw
a mysterious object
hovering over the airport
for several minutes
before it shot off into the sky,
cutting a hole in the clouds.
So, what do
four billion light years
of frequent flyer miles get you?
Well, not so fast.
Airport spokesman, Dave Ellison,
held a news conference
to address that incident.
We interviewed
all of the witnesses
and we now believe
that it was a small drone.
Four to five feet in diameter,
that drifted into our airspace.
That's what's gonna happen if Amazon
does this whole drone delivery.
Dropping Kindles
in the middle of the runways.
It wasn't a drone okay.
The descriptions don't match,
the times don't match.
The route mechanic said it was
the size of a...
Of a what?
Dime held at arm's length.
Does that match what was on TV?
What that guy said,
four to five feet?
No way.
I mean, how do you
even calculate that?
You don't know how high it was.
Well, somebody said that it was about
100 to 200 feet below cloud cover.
- How high was cloud cover?
- That's about 3,550?
- No?
- Shut up, Lee!
It was 2,900 feet,
so 27 to 2,800.
So, let's just say 2,750.
Dude, don't you have exams
to study for or something?
Don't you have exams
to study for or something?
- Yes. Yeah.
- That's what I thought. Bye.
So now, how big is a dime?
Seventeen point nine
millimeters.
Seventeen point nine
millimeters.
Now, what's arm's length?
Like...
What is that? Like two feet.
Maybe a bit less. 20 inches?
- Twenty-two inches.
- Oh crap.
I forgot about
Professor Magg's Panel.
It's this weekend.
You know that thing I'm setting
up, helping on the door.
You're still coming, right?
- Derek?
- Yeah.
Well, I'm not going to stay late
because I've got to take the
practice GRE the next morning.
Where's that at?
It's over by Xavier.
It's like a 30-minute walk.
Uh-huh.
- I'll drop you off.
- You don't have a car.
- I'll borrow Lee's.
- Is Lee okay with that?
Well...
Can you make sure?
Because I can't miss this.
- I can't miss this.
- Yeah.
X equals 88. It doesn't match!
X equals 88. He was lying!
The guy on TV was lying.
It's not four to five feet.
It's way bigger.
[PHONE VIBRATING]
- Hello?
- DEREK: Uh, hi. Mr. Ellison?
- Yes.
- I was just wondering
if we could ask some questions
about the sighting at the airport.
- I'm sorry. Who is this?
- My name is Derek Echevaro,
and I got your cellphone number
from the voicemail
at your office.
Who do you work for?
The News Record.
We just had a few questions
we wanted to ask based on eyewitness
accounts, there were things we learned...
I've never heard of The News Record.
Is that out of Ohio?
- Is that based out of Ohio?
- University of Cincinnati.
University? You mean...
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
- [DIAL TONE RINGS]
- [PHONE VIBRATES]
- Yes?
- DEREK: I think we got disconnected.
Do not call this number again.
I just want to know why you thought
it was four to five feet in diameter.
Witness account says it was about the
size of a dime held at arm's length.
Cloud cover was 2,900 feet,
it was about 100 to 200 feet
below that which would make it
88 feet in diameter.
[]
WOMAN: Sir, Whitley is in the
field with a potential witness
and she's claiming
to have heart problems.
There are plenty of other
witnesses they need to talk to.
Call an ambulance
and have them move on.
Paramedics will have to take her to
Edgewood instead of Florence anyway.
Excuse me.
I keep getting calls
from this guy.
He's saying he knows
the aircraft was 88 feet across.
Did you get his name
of this person?
Derek Echevaro.
Thanks, Dave.
AHLS: Did any camera
get a visual on this UAP?
- Pull up Gate A8.
- MAN: Yes sir.
AHLS: No, nothing there.
How about A18?
Do we have a clearer shot
of the south runway?
I'm not seeing anything. How
about the north side perimeter?
MAN: There you go.
AHLS: There's nothing. Let's go
back inside the terminal, A4.
MAN: Yes sir.
AHLS: All right, freeze that.
I want the names
of all those passengers.
Now,
take me to the ticket counter.
Freeze that. Okay, rewind it.
I want all those employees
and anyone else from the ground
in Conference Room A.
JUNGER: I've been told that this
is a federal investigation now.
So, you should know that
if any of you talk to anyone,
your coworkers, your friends,
your family,
including your spouses,
you could be charged
with obstruction of justice.
Where's everyone else?
Why's it just us here?
MAN: Yeah,
why is it just us here?
WOMAN: What's going on?
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
DEREK: They're saying it's a plane now.
Natalie texted me.
Look at this.
[CHUCKLES] Okay.
LEE: "After reviewing
the witness testimony",
federal officials
have come to the conclusion
that the mysterious aircraft
seen over Cincinnati Northern
Kentucky International Airport,
was in fact a Gulfstream IV airplane
with a length of 88 feet...
Eighty-eight feet...
"It matches witness descriptions
and investigators are confident
that the mystery
has been solved."
He's using my math!
He's using what I told him
on the phone to cover it up.
I bet you there is no record
of a Gulfstream IV coming in
or out of the airport that day.
Go to ATCAudioLive.com.
Look up Cincinnati.
Uh...
ATCAudioLive.
- Somebody must've taken it down.
- DEREK: No, it's live streaming.
People listen to that stuff
all day, every day.
Somebody recorded it.
[]
[INDISTINC TRAFFIC NOISES MERGING]
[]
[MECHANICAL HUMMING]
DEREK'S MOTHER:
We'll be out soon, okay?
You'll never be alone.
[CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS]
[INDISTINCT TOWER CHATTER
THROUGH HEADPHONES]
MAN: [ON RECORDING]
United maintenance flight
is just joining alpha from
the international,
what's your number, again?
United maintenance 44.
[]
[INDISTINCT ANNOUNCEMEN OVER PA]
[CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS]
[INDISTINCT ANNOUNCEMEN OVER PA]
[PLANE ENGINE PASSING]
[PHONE RINGING]
Hey.
NATALIE: Hey!
When are we gonna do the lab?
Uh, I don't know.
Today's not so good.
I didn't go to Diff. EQ.
Why not?
Didn't you have an exam?
Where are you?
I'm at Cincinnati Airport.
This terminal is crawling
with federal agents.
Why would they still be here
if they already figured out
what it was?
It is an airport.
How did you get in?
Bought the cheapest ticket
I could find.
Derek!
We need to start the lab today.
I can't get a B
in Hendricks' class.
DEREK: Professor Hendricks?
Hi. Um...
I was just wondering,
it's such a crazy time.
Uh, with my midterms one after the
other, I was just wondering...
If you are asking for
an extension, the answer is no.
Why?
Derek, you are one of the brightest
students I have ever had,
and you are also the most
disruptive and argumentative.
Even when you know other people
are right, you argue your point.
Well, that trivial-non-trivial
stuff is so confusing...
No, it isn't... not for you.
You're on scholarship
from the Akamai Foundation.
Yes, I read my students' files.
And you got that scholarship
because you placed in the Olympiad
which is one of the top
math competitions in the country
and you are failing my class.
Is there something
we need to talk about?
No.
I've been at CVG a long time
and I've never seen
an object like this.
INTERVIEWER: What was it like at
the airport after the sighting?
Chaos, I imagine?
INTERVIEWEE:
It was fairly chaotic.
The government showed up
after about two hours
and there were agents everywhere.
And then they brought us all
into a conference room,
everyone who had seen it.
They didn't tell us
what was going on.
They took away our phones;
They kept us there
for about ten hours.
They didn't let us call home,
didn't let us use the internet.
It was... It was terrifying.
REPORTER: The airline employee
said he heard radio chatter
from pilots
and other airport workers
about the unidentified object.
However,
despite repeated requests,
the FAA has yet to turn over
any transcripts or recordings
from the tower radio that day.
LEE: You really think someone's
gonna have this recording on here?
Is this a... is this part
of that airline forum thing?
It's a chatroom on Tor.
What's Tor?
It's one of the ways to get
into the dark web,
which is where people do things
that are illegal
because it's very hard to trace.
LEE: "Their Plans Against Us"?
Whose plans against us?
It's H.G. Wells'
War of the Worlds.
Hmm, "ATCronnie, Pilot81604,".
You know, these are just a bunch
of people in Yoda outfits
making up fake accounts.
It might not be
the pilot of a 747,
it might be someone who flies
little planes...
Yeah, or it might be someone who was
born on August 16th, 2004, right?
What are the numbers at the end?
81604?
- [DEREK SIGHS]
- Probably 13 years old.
Here we go.
"CincyDawn" says they have them.
LEE: Dawn?
D-A-W-N? Like the name Dawn?
- What's her deal?
- Oh, God.
What? She probably goes to UC.
She's probably not interested.
- Probably real smart...
- Probably 13.
- Right.
- Right.
Why are there so many files?
United, American, these are all
the different frequencies.
Here we go, here's the tower.
PILOT: United 367
preparing for takeoff.
Not sure if you're picking
this up on radar,
but to our left looks like a
stationary drone, some sort of drone.
WOMAN: On the runway?
PILOT: No, south of that.
Down by you guys in the tower;
Altitude maybe 2,700 feet.
Please advise.
[INTERFERENCE]
WOMAN: I'm not seeing anything,
but I'll have a look.
The hell was that noise?
WOMAN: You have eyes on it now?
PILOT: It's not moving,
just hanging out there.
WOMAN: Copy that,
three six seven. Stand by.
- HAL: Anyone else hearing this?
- [INTERFERENCE]
What is it, Hal?
Three six seven, I'm getting confirmation
down here that it's still there.
What'd she say? Did she say Al?
- WOMAN: Copy that, three six seven, standby.
- HAL: Anyone else hearing this?
- [INTERFERENCE]
- WOMAN: What is it, Hal?
LEE: Sounds like "Hal."
I heard an "H."
WOMAN: Three six seven,
- I'm getting confirmation.
- Yeah.
[PHONE DIALING OUT]
- WOMAN: Tower.
- Hi, I'm looking for Hal.
Hal, Al, Hal.
WOMAN: Hal Lapierre?
Yes. Is he on shift right now?
Let me check.
LEE: Good luck with Hal, dude.
I'm going to get you a drink.
Hey, yo, Zach!
Where's that vodka?
[MUTTERING]
Two, three... 523...
Five over...
HAL: Hello? Who's calling?
Sir, you couldn't have seen it.
Who is this?
They said you saw the UFO,
on the radio.
They said that you said
that it was still there.
Are you a reporter?
I can't talk about this.
Why not?
Because I can't, okay.
I'm sorry.
No, no, wait, wait. I understand
that somebody told you
you're not allowed to
talk about it but...
- No, I never said that.
- There's no way
that you could've seen it,
you would've had to been
- looking almost directly up, and.
- It wasn't that...
there's an overhang on the tower
that would've blocked your view,
I know you could get in trouble.
- That's not...
- for talking, but there's no way
you'd have seen it
even if it was there.
I never said I saw it! I...
[LINE DIES]
Mr. Lapierre?
He didn't see it, he heard it.
The static.
Wh... what about it?
That's what he heard.
The interference
is from the UFO.
PILOT: Yeah, it's not moving,
just hanging out there.
WOMAN: Copy that
three six seven, stand by.
[INTERMITTENT INTERFERENCE]
[INTERFERENCE]
[INTERFERENCE]
DEREK: It's a sequence of tones.
Each is one-tenth of a second
represented here by these circles,
and then the dashes are one-tenth
of a second of silence
so in total, it's 2,623 symbols
which comes out
to four minutes and 23 seconds.
And then it started
to repeat itself,
but it stopped.
I have no idea why.
You think
it's some sort of signal?
What's that?
Nine four three three?
Well, I was thinking maybe
it was binary
like a 32-bit computer looks
at chunks of 32, 64 at 64.
I have no idea how to break this
up, but I think that it's a 14-bit
because you've got 14 circles here
at the beginning and at the end.
- Hmm.
- So, if it is 14,
this chunk comes out
to 9,433 okay?
Or you could bring it into
two seven-digit chunks,
one is 73 and one is 89.
- You gonna come over again?
- Do you wanna help figure this out?
No, I have to study.
I don't get anything done
when Lee is around.
Will you at least
take a copy home?
PROFESSOR HENDRICKS: Afternoon.
Non-homogenous systems.
These are systems that might not
have any solutions at all.
- [KNOCKING AT DOOR]
- PROFESSOR HENDRICKS: It's open.
Hi. My name is Natalie,
I'm in your
Linear Algebra class,
and I was wondering
about letters of recommendation.
I only give letters of recommendation
to students who finish with an A,
so I will talk to you at the end
of the semester.
Right, okay.
Sorry if I'm jumping the gun.
Um...
Would it maybe be possible
to get an extension on the lab?
- I already told Derek no.
- Yeah.
He's got a lot
going on right now.
From what I've read, a lot
of the best mathematicians
do their best work in their early
20's; Einstein, Ramanujan...
Riemann, Abel, Galois,
I know the list.
You.
Look,
I've made my contributions.
Now it's your turn,
but you have got to do the lab.
Either get him on board,
or do it yourself.
Okay. Thank you.
[]
[PHONE DIALING OUT]
LEE : Hello, leave a message.
Lee, I've figured it out.
It's dates.
And it's close to 0.007297.
That's the Fine-Structure Constant,
but it's in 14-digit chunks.
I think maybe they're trying
to figure out how smart we are.
Or they're trying to tell us
they're from a planet
that has the same
physical laws as ours.
But they're not from
five billion light years away...
He's already figured it out.
It's the FSC.
Isn't the lead singer like
the main part of the band?
So, it may as well be
a cover band with,
you know, it's like the same
guitarist and everything,
but I just feel like on
a basic level, like,
it's pretty different right?
I mean, I don't know.
[LAUGHING]
Lee, did you get my message?
They're using basic math
as a way to communicate:
1+2=3, 3-2=1.
Okay and the Fine-Structure
Constant is in there.
So maybe they're trying to tell us
they're actually from somewhere nearby
or maybe they're just trying to establish
a common mathematical language
so we can actually decode it.
I mean,
anyone who knows basic math
and physics, knows numbers
like 3.14159 and 0.007297.
Yeah, of course.
What is this 38?
That's binary.
Then there's 2,623 times 2,953.
Okay so 2,623 is the total
number of bits in the signal.
Each one is one-tenth
of a second long.
That comes out
to roughly 774,572 seconds.
So that's almost
exactly nine days, okay.
So, Tuesday,
the day of the sighting,
plus nine days,
that's next Thursday.
That's six days from now.
Okay,
so what's happening Thursday?
Maybe it's coming back.
AHLS: I'm not an astrophysicist
so thank you for coming.
I just want to ask you a few questions
about the Fine-Structure Constant.
I'm told that you could shed some
light on it, how it could be used
as a benchmark
for determining intelligence
or pinpointing
a location in space.
Using the FSC
to determine intelligence
is fairly straightforward,
but using it to pinpoint a
location in space is problematic.
Say the FSC is different
in different parts of space,
which there's essentially
no evidence of.
If the FSC did depend on things
like local density,
and if two places,
way far apart from each other
had the same local density,
they might also have
the same FSC.
And if you gave
that number to someone,
how would they know
which place to go?
But if we had more than one,
couldn't we use them
the same way we use pulsars
to pinpoint locations?
Over a much greater distance,
obviously?
The idea that it's different
in different parts of space
isn't really
the focus of research now.
You know, I have a room full of
scientists who haven't been able
to explain anything to me.
The mystery continues
concerning the object seen
hovering over CVG
this past Tuesday
which the FAA says
is no longer unidentified,
but was actually
a Gulfstream IV airplane.
Reports of more bizarre activity around
the time of the sighting have surfaced,
including widespread disruption
of radio and cellphone signals.
Verizon, AT& and Sprint all confirmed
major service interruptions
in the Ohio and Kentucky area
near the airport, with T-Mobile
being the least affected.
[]
DEREK:
Were you open last Tuesday?
Did you hear about the thing
at the airport?
SHOP OWNER: No, I didn't see,
but I heard about it.
And I think it might have messed
with my cellphone.
I kept getting all this static.
DEREK: Hey!
Were you open last Tuesday?
So, if this was a UFO, right?
- And there were aliens on it...
- Mm-hmm.
What do you think
they would look like?
You mean, do I think they're like
little grey people with big black eyes?
- Yeah.
- Okay. Uh...
Think about this.
I can take these two shakers,
right?
Put them in front of you
and count them. One, two,
- Mm-hmm.
- Because they stay in place,
- right?
- Mm-hmm.
But if I was from
a liquid planet,
and I don't mean a planet
that's just covered in ocean,
but one that is molten
all the way through,
by the time
I put the second one down,
- the first...
- Will burn up!
- [LAUGHS] No, Lee. The first one...
- Or it would be gone.
Well, it could have moved off.
Mm.
You know, I asked
what they would look like.
Well... [SIGHS]
they probably look like...
something so far beyond
what you could possibly imagine.
[PHONE ALERT BEEPS]
"Found something in the signal.
I'll tell you
if you come
to the party tonight."
What party?
It's probably
that Sigma Kai thing.
Is that... is that Natalie?
9,433 is a prime number;
The multiplier
at the end of the signal.
Nine thousand four hundred
and thirty-three times 38.
So, what does that mean?
Well,
a sequence of prime numbers
could mean it came
from an intelligent lifeform,
but one on its own doesn't mean
anything necessarily.
- So, you're going?
- To what?
To the party
that you just agreed to go to.
We're heading over at eight.
[LAUGHING]
You're right, this is stupid.
I'm can't, I'm sorry.
This is first...
LEE: Text me
if you change your mind.
[ENGINE ROARS]
WOMAN: [ON PHONE] Campus Police.
DEREK:
Yeah, hey, I just got home,
and someone has broken
into my apartment, okay.
All my stuff's... oh, shit.
My webcam's on.
There's an executable running
in the System Processes
and my webcam was on.
I didn't turn it on.
[PHONE ALERT BEEPS]
Could you possibly have a virus?
It's not a virus.
It's not behaving like a virus.
Did anyone
physically break in here?
Yeah.
I just have one more question.
Whose is this?
[]
There was an executable running
in the background
and I had no idea what it was.
I tried reformatting
the computer,
but it just showed up again.
It was on Lee's computer too.
LEE: Hello, leave a message.
- I saw something in the activity monitor.
- He's still not answering.
It looks like somebody was...
Had tried to change
the size of...
Twenty-six twenty-three
doesn't have any other divisors
other than 43 and 61, does it?
Those are both prime.
So, if I resize the window
61 by 43...
it's a grid!
All the dots line up!
Why didn't I see this before?
They wanted us to know
that 2,623 meant something,
like the Arecibo Signal.
The signal that Frank Drake
and Carl Sagan
sent out into space
in the '70's, right?
That was
a semi-prime number too.
We have to go. Professor
Magg's panel discussion;
It's today.
Nine four three, three times 38,
Nine four three, three times 22;
What do these two lines mean?
I wonder if they've got anything to
do with the Fine-Structure Constant.
Can anyone explain to me
how this can be used
for determining intelligence?
As well as pinpointing
a location in space?
How come we don't know everything
there is to know about this number?
People?
I guarantee you, if this
was the Manhattan Project
or you all were trying to decode
the Enigma machine,
things would be
a little bit different in here.
So, I'm gonna try to put this in a
little bit of perspective for you.
Ten to the sixteen watts
of energy.
Now, I know you're all familiar
with the Kardashev Scale,
Type I, Type ll,
Type lll civilizations.
Type I is a global civilization
that controls an energy level
roughly equivalent
to all of the solar energy
striking the planet's surface.
Ten to the sixteen
or seventeen watts.
Type ll controls
all the energy from a star
and Type lll is galactic.
Right now,
we are about a Type 0.7.
We are becoming
a global civilization,
but we are not quite there yet.
We control... roughly ten
to the 13 watts of energy.
Now, scientists like you,
have calculated that we might
possibly make the transition
to a Type I in the next
hundred years or so,
if we don't
destroy ourselves first.
We should see evidence of Type I,
Type ll, Type lll civilizations
everywhere in the universe,
if they existed,
but what have we found so far?
Nothing, which makes me think
it's either very rare
or impossible
to make that first step
to becoming a Type I,
but whatever,
or whomever, showed up
at CVG the other day,
traveled huge distances
to get here.
They have a mastery
of space travel that,
well, we can't even
begin to understand.
Chances are they have made
that first step,
maybe even the second.
And we need to find out
how they did it
and learn from that
because I don't know about you,
but...
I'm pretty sure
we can't do it on our own.
NATALIE: It's eight o' clock, have
you tried calling Lee at all?
DEREK: He's going to be fine.
The second you sat down,
you had your computer open
and you were working
on that crap!
I bet you totally forgot
about tomorrow.
You're taking the practice GRE
at 9:00, I'm driving you.
Now will you please just...
will you come with me
because there's something
I want to show you.
Derek, I'm going home.
I didn't sleep at all
last night.
I'm sure Lee didn't either.
What if he gets kicked out
of school?
His Dad's a huge benefactor
at UC.
Okay, now will you come with me?
Please?
[SIGHS]
DEREK: Over here.
Okay, so if this is the distance
between the Sun and the Earth,
how far do you think
the next closest star is?
Proxima Centauri?
Twenty feet?
See, 71?
About twice as far as that,
4.3 miles.
Now, if that's our scale,
how big do you think
the galaxy is?
You'd have to keep walking
in that direction
until you got right back here;
All the way around the world,
and then do that
three more times.
And that's just our galaxy.
There are at least 100 billion
other galaxies out there.
Derek, do you know
why I did that panel today?
Because I live on Earth. And I need
to get in good with Professor Magg
so he'll give me a
recommendation for grad school.
What's your plan?
What are you doing?
'Cause it seems like the only thing
you care about is that signal.
It is the only thing
I care about.
When I was a kid,
I saw something.
I was in the diner
where my Mom used to work...
and I saw these lights outside.
Not like a helicopter light,
or airplane, or whatever.
I mean, they were...
They were moving together.
And it wasn't like
some grainy video
where you can't see anything.
I saw it.
I tried to tell her about it,
but she didn't listen to me.
NATALIE:
What was she supposed to do?
Believe me.
Do something.
- I don't know.
- Put yourself in her shoes.
You know, your kid
starts talking about aliens.
You know what I think?
I think she just didn't care.
Okay, so you have some baggage.
Doesn't give you the right to
treat everyone else like shit.
Hundreds of years go by...
and people make tiny,
little improvements.
And then there's an opportunity
to take a giant leap forward.
Like with relativity,
or going to the moon.
When it's your finals week,
you cut yourself off
from everyone.
You go to the library,
you drink 100 cans of Red Bull.
You don't talk to anyone
for, like, four days,
because you know everything
is riding on it.
This is my finals week.
What are the most important
questions in the world?
"Is there a God?"
"What happens when we die?"
And...
"Are we alone in the universe?"
If anyone answered
any one of those questions,
it would change everything.
NATALIE: We're never as alone
as we think we are.
[DOOR OPENS, CLOSES]
[INDISTINCT NOISE FROM TV]
Hey, we've...
we've been trying to call you.
Phone's dead.
What, did they give you
a fine or what?
Mm-hmm.
You're not going to get
kicked out of school, are you?
Lee, I... I didn't know
that stuff was in there,
but I think someone's monitoring
our computers.
Who?
What the fuck are the police
going to do about it?
Right. I probably
should have called the FBI.
So basically,
I got in trouble for nothing.
We almost figured it out, okay?
If you put it into a grid,
43 by 61,
it makes so much more sense.
And there are
these two lines on it
and I think
they might be coordinates.
- Could I borrow your car?
- No.
Can you drive me
to the airport then?
Oh, man!
I have exams. Don't you?
Tuesday, but Dave Ellison
has to see this.
And then what?
He's just going to crack
and admit to everything?
I don't see how he can deny it.
Can't you take a bus?
The only way I'm going to catch him
is if he's coming in or out of work.
And if I can't get
into the employee lot,
I was going to follow him.
Home?
This is the last time.
I will never ask you
for anything ever again.
[]
[SIGHS]
[]
That's him!
[PHONE ALERT BEEPS]
- LEE: Go, man!
- Yeah.
Before he gets away!
Mr. Ellison?
Did you know that there was a coded
message in the tower recording?
- What?
- In the tower recording.
It sounded like interference,
but it was actually a signal.
I'm sorry. Who are you?
I'm Derek.
We spoke on the phone last week.
Excuse me? Is this the long-term lot?
I think I'm lost.
You held a press conference
at five o' clock that day.
I saw you on TV and you said that
you had interviewed everyone.
Did you do that yourself?
How in depth were they?
Were they five minutes
or two hours or...
- I don't know...
- So, you didn't do it?
- He didn't say any...
- He who?
So, there was only one guy?
And how many people did you interview?
I mean, I know about eight
from the news article and you
could not have started until...
- SECURITY: Is there a problem here?
- 3:30 or 4:00 the earliest.
So if there was one guy, and each
one was about a half-hour long,
and there were
eight eye witnesses,
I don't see how you could've started
a press conference at five.
Is there a problem here?
We spoke to all of them
briefly before...
You said that, "We interviewed
all the witnesses on that day."
- The actual interviews didn't take place...
- But you didn't do them!
Do you know how many threats
the airport gets every day?
If it's not somebody threatening
to blow up a plane,
they're going to bring on
box cutters, hijack it,
gun down people in the terminal,
you name it.
In the middle of all of this,
I have
some maintenance workers say
they saw something hovering
near the runways, but it left,
so we checked surveillance.
There's no indication of it.
- Tower didn't see anything.
- They couldn't have...
So what are we supposed to do?
Issue a no-fly warning
to your aliens?
Try to convince
the Air Force to scramble
just to shoot down something
that we can't find on radar?
Close down the airport
and have people
miss their flights
because of something most
people don't believe exists?
Even if the people in the tower
said they saw...
- They didn't see anything!
- You have eight independent descriptions
- from your own employees...
- Did you see it?
We did
a thorough investigation...
- The interviews were formality!
- We found it was a Gulfstream IV,
- Look at the tower! With overhang.
- Matches what they saw.
- How'd they know?
- What the other people saw.
- How would they even know that?
- Because it's what I told them to say!
I want them out of here.
Natalie, he admitted it.
Dave admitted it was a cover-up.
- Did you hear what I said?
- Yeah.
Are you... Are you mad at me?
What do you need,
Derek? Study notes?
What? No.
Then why are you here?
I came here to tell this
'cause you're not
answering your phone.
Do you understand
how huge this is?
I missed the GRE because of you!
The practice GRE!
Derek, if you had the chance
to redo things
and all the circumstances were the same,
would you still have left me there?
That's what I thought.
Look, what do I have to do
to fix this?
You can't, okay? You had a
choice and you made it.
Natalie?
DEREK'S MOTHER: You'll never be alone.
You know that, right?
[INTERFERENCE]
[MATHEMATICAL MUTTERING,
INTERSPERSED INTERFERENCE]
NATALIE: You think
it's some sort of signal?
[MATHEMATICAL MUTTERING,
INTERSPERSED INTERFERENCE]
[]
Oh, shit!
[KNOCKING RAPIDLY]
[KNOCKING]
[BANGING]
Come on!
[PHONE RINGS]
Hello?
DEREK: Can I talk
to Professor Hendricks, please?
Who is this?
It's Derek.
I'm in one of her classes.
It's Derek.
He says he's a student.
Derek?
How did you get this number?
I know it's late
and I shouldn't be here,
- but I have something...
- Here?
There are numbers you can call
where trained professionals
- are available 24 hours...
- You're the best...
- You're the best mathematician I know!
- To deal with this issue.
This isn't some bullshit
textbook problem, okay?
This is more complicated than
anything you've ever seen before.
And if I'm right, I've got 'til three
o'clock tomorrow to figure it out.
PROFESSOR HENDRICKS:
Where'd this come from?
The tower radio at an airport.
Becca, is everything all right?
Yeah. Go back to bed.
We'll just be a minute.
DEREK: Sorry if I woke you guys.
No, you're not.
You know there was a man
who lived a long time ago,
a brilliant man, an inventor.
He took credit
for other people's work.
He conducted
dangerous experiments
with radiation that cost
his assistant his arms.
He even helped
to create the electric chair,
and he used it to kill somebody
in order to prove
that his competitor's technology
was dangerous.
His name was Thomas Edison.
You strike me
as that kind of person, Derek.
Now don't get me wrong,
I like electricity,
and the world needs
people like that,
but I certainly wouldn't want
to be friends with him.
I'm sorry, could you sit down?
You said this came
from a tower radio?
Yeah.
There was something hovering
over the airport last week.
Yeah, I heard about that.
I think that this is a signal
from that, uh, aircraft.
You know what I've never understood
about you conspiracy theorists?
Say you parked your car in the same
spot every single day outside school.
- I don't have a car.
- Let's just say you did.
And say you parked it in the
same spot every single day.
And then one day, you came out
and your car wasn't there,
and instead,
there was an orange cone.
Would you automatically assume
that your car had turned
into an orange cone?
Or would you assume that...
- Professor...
- it had gotten towed, or
that you'd accidentally
parked in a different spot?
I don't see what that has to do
with anything.
You don't automatically jump
to the most extreme
explanations.
You analyze
the reasonable ones first.
I've done that, obviously!
And nothing that happened
at the airport makes any sense.
At all.
Do you have the tower recording?
PILOT: No, south,
down by you guys in the tower.
Altitude maybe 2700 feet...
[INTERFERENCE]
WOMAN: I'm not seeing anything,
but I'll have a look.
Do you have eyes on it now?
- PILOT: Yeah, it's not moving...
- No.
The signal strengths are
different on different channels.
The strongest is the American
Ground ops, and then the tower,
and then the quietest is United.
Okay. United is 131.075 MHz,
the tower is 360.85,
American is 460.675.
It gets louder
as the frequency gets higher.
Hmm.
The phones.
T-Mobile is 700 to 1700 MHz
and above.
The rest are 800, 850...
Every carrier had interference
except for T-Mobile
for some calls.
So somewhere between 700 and...
thank you...
1700 MHz, it stopped.
Wait, SETI said you should
use 1,420 MHz
when you're sending
a signal, because it has
the same radiation frequency
as neutral hydrogen,
and hydrogen is the most common
element in the universe.
Any intelligent life form
would know that it's special.
So, maybe they broadcast
to all frequencies...
until it built up to 1,420 MHz,
and then they spiked it at 1,420
to draw our attention to it.
What uses 1,400 MHz?
- Wireless telemetry systems.
- Hospitals.
Any hospital even remotely
near the airport
would've gone
completely haywire.
[PHONE DIALING OUT]
- WOMAN: St. Elizabeth.
- Hello, this is Dr., uh, Edison
from the University
of Cincinnati Medical Center.
We were just wondering if you
had recently had any issues
with your wireless
telemetry systems.
Yeah, I think we did actually.
Last week.
We had to send patients
to Edgewood.
DEREK: The only things we don't
know are these two lines.
9,433 times 38
and 9,433 times 22.
Maybe they're landing patterns,
or maybe they're coordinates.
207,526 meters north.
How would they know
what a meter is?
Or a foot, or anything.
Maybe it's not even north
and east.
Maybe it's west and south.
Well, the equations are meant to be
read left to right and bottom to top,
and so it would make sense
that...
the coordinates might be
up and over.
But I think you need
to talk to a physicist
or an astrophysicist.
I could recommend a couple.
What? Professor.
I know you think that if we stare
at that signal long enough,
that something is
going to click,
but you can't force it.
And I am certainly
not the person
who's going to help you
crack it.
I mean, math, science, physics?
It's a young person's game.
Riemann. Galois.
[CHUCKLES]
Einstein.
Eugne Ehrhart was 60
when he got his PhD.
The Ehrhart polynomial?
Yitang Zhang was 57
when he proved that there
were an infinite number
- of consecutive pairs of primes.
- [SCOFFS]
That were separated by less than
70 million.
Two examples.
Schrodinger. Frohlich. Smale.
Okay! Okay.
But I'm telling you...
you can't force it.
And sometimes,
you just get stuck.
I know that look.
Okay.
I'm kicking you out.
We are servants rather than
masters of Mathematics.
So, you're saying I just have
to wait for it to come to me.
Do you know the definition
of "we," Mr. Echevaro?
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
All right, let them through.
- [BUZZER SOUNDS]
- GUARD: Opening up.
- [GATE CREAKS]
- [ALARM BLARES]
[]
AHLS: We need to be collecting every
channel across the state right now.
Afternoon.
[SIGHING]
Chapter four.
Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors.
Now, if we have
a square matrix "A"
that represents
a linear transformation,
then this matrix
times the vector
is equal to a scalar lambda
times the same vector.
Now, the "v"
is called an eigenvector,
and the lambda
is called an eigenvalue,
and these kinds of problems
have...
applications
in all kinds of things,
like structural engineering,
and...
and spin transitions
and neutral hydrogen.
[]
And it has a wavelength
of 21 centimeters.
That would be significant,
wouldn't it?
Derek?
It doesn't matter.
The matrix is double,
or half, or whatever.
Twenty-one centimeters.
Twenty-one centimeters, what?
The frequency of hydrogen.
The spectral line
of neutral hydrogen
has a frequency of 1,420 MHz
and a wavelength
of 21 centimeters.
Two lines, 38 increments east.
And 22 north.
And then you multiply both
by 9,433.
And then by 21 centimeters.
The wavelength is the unit
of the measurement.
It is coordinates.
Lee? Lee?
Uh. I need to use your car.
Please? I've only got
one hour until three.
Go, man.
Go for it.
- Thank you.
- Yeah.
[ENGINE ROARS]
We are servants rather than
masters of Mathematics.
Remember when I told you
that 9,433 was a prime number?
Yes.
PROFESSOR HENDRICKS: That would
be significant, wouldn't it?
Derek?
What do you think
they would look like?
[TIRES SCREECH, ENGINE ROARS]
[TIRES SCREECH]
[STATIC AND INTERFERENCE]
[]
[ENGINES APPROACHING]
[]
[INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER]
MAN: Here's the key, sir.
Will you gentlemen excuse us,
please?
MAN 2: Yes sir.
[DOORS CLOSE]
Let's get those off of you.
The sighting at CVG
wasn't the first.
There were others.
And every time we tried
to establish contact with them
using a variation of
the Arecibo signal, we failed.
They put the fine-structure
constant in their message
to build a common
mathematical language.
Uh...
I didn't know it could be used
for determining intelligence.
In the new signal
we received today,
there are 19 decimal places.
We can only measure it to 12.
And this one is much more complex
than anything we've seen.
The last one was 14-bit,
but this one is 42-bit.
And not only is it laid out
on a grid,
it's three-dimensional.
Which tells us
a couple of things. One...
They're a hell of a lot
smarter than us.
[CHUCKLES]
And two,
when we're trying to find them,
we might be off by a lot.
In their first signal, they sent
two-dimensional coordinates
here on Earth.
In this new signal,
I believe they sent...
Three-dimensional
coordinates in space.
Well, the focus of research now
is not that it changes
throughout the universe,
but that it changes over time.
Okay, so we have to work out a more
accurate way of measuring the FSC.
Which means developing new
technologies, new theories.
And that could take five years
or 500.
Or five months, with your help.
And you do understand
what this means?
We're not alone.
And then there's this story you
may have already heard about.
United Airlines employees who swear
it was something other-worldly
in the skies above Chicago's
O'Hare Airport on November 7th,
but neither the FAA,
nor indeed their own employer,
appears to be
taking them seriously.
Chicago Tribune, interviewing
several people anonymously,
including maintenance workers,
baggage handlers and pilots,
who each have all described
a dark gray, saucer-like object
that hovered low
over Concourse C
of the United Airlines terminal
just before sunset
before shooting off into the sky.
Some say it moved so fast,
it literally punched a hole
in the clouds.
United Airlines claims it had
no record of the sighting,
even though employees say
they filled out reports.
The FAA initially told
the Tribune
that it likewise had
no information on the UFO.
Then, after the newspapers
filed paperwork under
the Freedom of Information Act,
the FAA turned up a call from
the United Airlines supervisor
to the airport control tower
asking whether the object was on-radar.
And now, the agency has concluded
it was, quote,
"weather phenomenon,"
and it considers
this case closed.