The Lazarus Project (2022) s01e02 Episode Script

George?
- Why's time jumping backwards?
- Because we made it.
We?
We're a top-secret
multinational
organisation dedicated to
preventing and undoing
mass extinction events.
- So, if you use it now
- We wake up yesterday.
Till we go a whole year,
and get to July 1st 2023,
and that becomes
our new checkpoint.
Welcome to The Lazarus Project.
Dennis Rebrov
is on almost every
terror watch list
- in the world.
- He's ex-Lazarus?
One of our
brightest and best.
See you later!
Fluffy Southdown.
- Really?
- Yeah.
What was fluffy then? A dog?
Fluffy was my sister's passive
aggressively named goldfish.
I was allergic to
all the fun pets.
What do you think we did wrong?
Almost everything.
Hey.
- We'll do better next
- Can't do much worse.
It wasn't your fault.
You're just being nice.
I would never intentionally
be nice to you.
By accident, though?
Maybe it won't happen.
It'll happen. Come on.
Best seats in the house.
Gary Apple-yard. It's
my porn star name.
Gary Apple-yard is a
terrible porn star name.
I know.
Gary Apple-yard.
You got Rebrov?
- French police raided the flat
after a tip off from us.
Picked up some of his guys,
and they gave us a
location, the grasses.
That's fantastic.
Yeah, we're moving on him now.
Thought you might like
to be here for it.
Yeah, absolutely.
George?
Have we got any of our
operatives on the raid?
No time. Just the locals.
Great. The most wanted man in
the world is within our grasp,
and we're sending in
Inspector Clouseau.
It's French Special Forces,
I think we'll be all right.
I dated a guy in the
French Special Forces once.
Soul of a poet,
hands of a butcher.
What the hell.
Ma'am. Ma'am.
- Wait, that's
They're getting in position.
This isn't your fault.
Rebrov?
We got him.
She's out of surgery, but
she's still unconscious.
When will she wake up?
It's too early to
say. My advice,
is to go home. Get some rest.
But
She's gonna wake up though,
- right?
- We don't know yet.
Remind me why we're here again.
It's a party.
- It's fun.
- Whose house is this?
My brother's
girlfriend's cousin.
Right, well I don't
really know anyone here.
Please don't be a fucking
Scrooge all night.
I'm in Camden,
drinking wine from
a "World's Best Aunt" mug.
How could I possibly
not be enjoying myself?
What have you got
against Camden?
Or aunts? Hey, what
are you saying?
- Anyway, there's a girl here
- There's a lot of girls here.
A specific girl.
My brother wanted
you to meet her.
Says she's fun, and
smart and beautiful.
So, one can only assume she'll
find a partner who shares
at least one of those
qualities with her,
but if not, apparently
you two should
really hit it off.
This girl got a name?
Uh, Sarah.
- Sarah?
- Yeah.
So, we're gonna try
and track her down
and when we do, you two can
I don't know,
have babies and live happily
ever after and all that shit
Yeah?
George? George?
We're here.
Sorry.
What're you thinking about?
Um,
when me and Sarah met.
Love at first sight?
Yeah, I think so.
How long have you
known each other?
Um,
we met in summer 2018?
- What?
Nothing.
I was on a mission
in summer 2018.
Didn't go well.
Where'd you keep your booze?
I read a study
somewhere that said
you're not meant to
drink after a trauma.
Yeah, that's bullshit.
So there were
versions of my life
that were undone by time loops.
Whole other paths I
took that got reversed.
What happens to all
that? The stuff I forgot?
When you get the jab like I did,
it all comes back in a wave.
Just hits you, suddenly.
For you? Mutants?
It depends.
You might start to
recall fragments slowly,
you might remember
it all at once,
you might never remember it.
Why? You starting to see things?
Yeah, maybe. I don't know.
December 2018
- Did you reset the clock?
- Yeah.
How many times?
A lot.
Yesterday was the checkpoint.
She was okay yesterday.
- She still might be.
- What if she's not?
The world would
be a sadder place.
And I will be there
to get you through it.
When you got Rebrov,
did he say anything?
No.
He's not the talkative type.
Approaching HQ
with Rebrov on board.
You're with NATO?
We're not
officially affiliated.
No?
Well, you cleared
our security checks.
Now you have five
minutes of my time.
What do you want?
Last week, one of
your F-class fighters
was shot down over
the Kazakh region.
- How do you know
- We just know.
It was the Modeen.
It wasn't the Modeen.
I have satellite photos.
Yeah, they're wrong,
it wasn't the Modeen.
It was General Zeva's men.
They want
you to retaliate.
They want you to
fire on the Modeen,
so the Modeen fire on you.
Then they're going to use that
as an excuse to push
into this region.
They're going to tell
you it's to support you,
but it's not.
But that's
And that's going to lead
to a chain of events
that will culminate in NATO
putting ground troops
on your border.
Then, people are going
to start firing missiles,
and trust me on this,
it doesn't get any
better from there.
General Zeva is going to
make a friendly invasion?
And NATO is going to put
troops on the border?
- Yes.
- Why?
Because the Modeen didn't
shoot down your jet.
Diplomacy.
From the French
diplomacie.
Back form, from diplomatique.
Ultimately deriving
from the Latin,
"diploma" meaning
a letter of recommendation
or authority.
The idea being that
someone with some clout,
a bit of something about him,
a bit of fucking chutzpah,
could come along and
sort out a problem
by dint of the fact that people
fucking listened to them.
See, that's our problem.
No one fucking listens to us.
We got a time machine
and no one listens to us.
No one knows we've
got a time machine.
We should tell people
Yeah, that's what we should do.
This guy is going to keep
starting World War Three
if we don't do
something drastic.
So let's do something drastic.
I spoke to Karol.
What did she say?
She was just sad,
more than anything.
When did you speak to her?
Before the checkpoint.
I spoke to Jim.
When?
After.
- Coward.
I'll tell him again.
You really don't need
to come in today.
We just caught the world's most
dangerous terrorist, didn't we?
Didn't sound like
a day I can skip.
It is absolutely a
day you can skip.
I wanna come in.
I need to.
This is just
a standard debrief.
Post-traumatic stress
is common here.
You lived through
something life-changing,
- but technically
- It didn't happen.
It happened.
But it can be disorientating.
Isolating.
You saw The Dane get shot.
Yeah.
Have you thought
about it much since?
Till my girlfriend got
hit by a rubbish truck.
Now that's taking up
most of my headspace.
You heard me die.
- Yeah, but you came back.
- Yes.
Because we turned back time.
Because the bomb went off.
You understand that, don't you?
The only reason we came back
is because of the bomb.
Must be pretty
upsetting for you.
Knowing that your friends would
have just let you stay dead.
Well, that's the deal.
I don't expect anyone
to play God for me.
Why not?
What harm would it have done?
Four babies are
born every second.
That's 250 babies a minute.
15,000 in an hour.
360,000 babies in a day, 2.5
million babies in a week.
If we went back in time to
just over nine months ago,
we change the
course of the world.
How many infants
that are alive today
would never even be conceived?
How much progress would we lose?
I've seen entire social
movements disappear.
World changing events, undone.
So we only do it when
the alternative is worse.
You see the thing is,
even if we did change
time by nine months,
there'll still be four
babies born every second,
they'll just be
different babies.
And we've just
given them a chance.
No one would know,
no one would care.
So we had an agent here,
Janet.
She got pregnant and she
gave birth to a little boy,
just before the checkpoint.
I've never seen
anyone so terrified,
because she knew
You reset time, you go back
to before the conception.
Her baby would be gone.
Well, guess what?
It happened, and
she lost her child.
She got pregnant
again, but of course,
it was a different kid.
That's happened to millions.
Billions of other women
without them even knowing it
Why don't you just
say it, okay, Archie?
You can't turn back time to
stop what happened to Sarah.
General Kasan's being
paid off by them.
He knows the missile strike's
a set-up. He just doesn't care.
So much for diplomacy.
I think diplomacy's
still on the table.
Just not with Kasan around.
That smells disgusting.
It's a local delicacy.
It's like a a boiled
doughnut filled with ham.
Ah, it's all right actually.
Here he comes.
I was thinking, by the way, I
want you to move in with me.
I said, I want
I don't know if I'm ready.
Okay.
I'll think about it.
She's called Sarah.
That's it?
That's all the
information you've got?
That's all I've got.
- Thanks.
- Yeah, good luck!
Do you want to play a game?
It's called wee, poo, cocaine.
It's a guessing game.
I'm actually going in
there to have a cry so
You might want to
rethink the name.
Not enjoying the party?
Um, I'm not very good at them
There's no such thing as
being "good" at parties.
- No?
- No! You're not
You're not getting a
performance review.
Attendance is the only criteria.
Don't let anyone
tell you differently.
Your name's not Sarah,
- by any chance, is it?
- Why?
I'm supposed to find
this girl called Sarah.
Apparently she's perfect for me.
So, you believe in
pre-determinism.
- How do you mean?
- You believe
the one perfect
person is out there
and you merely
have to find them.
Uh, I don't know. I was just
told to find this girl
Well, my name's Hayley.
- Ah.
Ah, sorry .
Your search
continues. Good luck.
Thanks.
You speak to Jim again?
Breaks his heart every time.
- Why don't you just
wait until, you know, we're not
gonna have to go back again?
I don't know.
Penance, maybe. Better
than living a lie.
So, if we stop World
War Three breaking out,
you'll still wanna move in?
Yeah.
Well now there's motivation.
Oh!
Before I forget, there's
a girl called Sarah
and she is
Settle down.
Who changed my song?
Did you change my song?
No.
You're holding a CD.
Right. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, that was me.
Why did you change my song?
Oh, did you put that
on intentionally?
I just, I didn't think anyone
would have put that
on intentionally.
Well, I did.
Yeah, I see that.
- Intentionally.
- Because
- that's your song.
- Yes.
Can I ask you a question?
- Why is that my song?
Yeah.
Um, 'cause it's a good song.
Uh, not objectively, it's not.
There's no such thing as
objective quality in the arts.
Tell that to Beethoven.
You're thinking of
collective subjectivity.
I could tell that to Beethoven
or Shakespeare or Picasso.
They're not intrinsically good,
they just happen to
have a lot of fans.
Collective subjectivity is a
thing you just made up nah?
No. I just don't like
Beethoven very much.
I'm George, by the way.
Sarah.
I'm training to be a teacher.
Oh yeah? Who you teaching?
Children.
They're gonna love
your acerbic bon mots.
Someone has to. What do you do?
One of the
bedrooms is on fire,
everybody needs to get out!
Uh, what?
Someone
dropped a cigarette.
Oh shit, my bag
I'm not kidding, come on!
I-I'll catch you outside, yeah?
- Okay. Yeah.
Come on! Hurry up!
Don't tell me you dropped
a cigarette in there.
It was a joint, actually.
Do you think I should
tell them it was me?
Oh my God! Has
anyone seen my cat?
I really
think you shouldn't.
Do you wanna fuck him up?
What?
The guy that pushed your
missus in front of the truck.
Do you wanna fuck him up?
Get in the car.
I thought you were the sensible,
heavy burden of
responsibility guy.
Yeah. That's me.
So, what's happening now?
Well as I understand it, a
man, albeit accidentally,
pushed your missus
in front of a truck.
That's right.
I'm all for holding the delicate
strands of fate in my hands
and carefully ironing out
the creases of the
fabric of space and time.
Don't get me wrong.
Yeah?
A guy pushed your missus
in front of a truck.
That's all I'm saying.
So?
So, do you want to fuck him up?
- Yes, I do.
- All right, then.
You'll admit a wrong
has been committed.
You'll admit something
bad has happened
for which there
requires retribution.
You'd help me beat up this
guy up for what he did?
I'll fucking headbutt the prick.
But you won't undo it?
Archie gave you the one baby
every four seconds talk, right?
Yeah.
No point having it twice then.
It's four babies
every one second.
Oh God.
That's even worse.
So what, we're just
gonna wait for him
to come to the door
and just punch him?
Unless you think you can
punch through the door.
Which would be
pretty fucking cool.
What's the matter?
It's not gonna
reverse it, is it?
We have very good connections
with law enforcement.
I guarantee you won't
get in trouble
I don't want revenge.
I want it undone.
Revenge is the best
I can offer you.
- There's no point.
- Why not?
'Cause what's done is done.
Yeah.
Yeah.
- Every time we try and have
a conversation
with these people,
they start shooting at us.
So I was thinking you know,
with my place, I'm probably
going to let Karol keep it.
And your flat's pretty small.
So, we should look to get
somewhere new together,
if we're gonna move in.
Now? Really now?
Probably rent for a
few months if you like,
while we look for
somewhere to buy,
- what do you think?
I think we'll have to.
I can't get a mortgage in
principle that quickly.
I mean we could also stay
in a hotel for a bit.
Hotels drive me crazy
- after about a week.
Me too.
You know what we should do?
Hey.
- You ok?
- Um, yeah.
- It's work.
- .
What happened? We
were under cover.
A bullet bounced off
a fire extinguisher.
- Well, that was unlucky.
Yeah.
What happened to you?
I didn't get far.
But I did get an idea.
I'll meet you at the
airport tomorrow.
We've gotta go
back to that shit hole,
hopefully for the last time.
Okay. Ross, listen.
Are you okay?
- Yeah.
I mean,
I died.
Yeah. Try not to do
it again .
Okay.
I
like what we were talking about.
Before I got shot.
Me too, me too.
Jim.
I don't think I
love you anymore.
I know.
I'm sorry.
Rebrov's coming in tonight?
Yes.
He is.
What's his deal?
He's a lunatic.
Nah, it's got to
be more than that.
What happened?
There was a mission.
Let me guess, it went bad.
Wanna go talk to him now?
Hello Rebrov.
- Hello, Shiv.
You look drunk.
I remember you from
Paris. Last one standing.
How is The Dane?
- Angry you shot him.
- He was always sensitive.
George wanted to come and
see what you looked like.
I look like a man
standing in a box.
Disappointed?
They've got you running
missions then, George.
- Paris was my first.
- Oh, you messed that one up.
I don't know about
that. You are here.
He's salty.
Enjoying working with Shiv?
Is he as much fun
as he used to be?
"Chuckles", we used to call him.
Non-stop party
when Shiv's around.
Where's Big Boy?
Who's Big Boy?
The thermo-nuclear
device you detonated
in the centre of a
major European city.
Oh yeah, of course. Say,
should I have a lawyer present?
You don't get
a fucking lawyer.
I know that.
- I used to work here, remember
- Where's the warhead?
See, I actually don't know.
It got delivered to me in Paris,
but then you turned back
time and picked me up so
could be anywhere.
I imagine you'll want to, uh,
interrogate me at
length about it.
Did you know they
do that, George?
Did you know The Lazarus
Project tortures people?
Oh yeah.
Quite the shady little
secret society you've joined.
It was Shiv, in fact,
who was the first of us
to get into all that.
Who was the guy?
Some despot funnelling
money to a rogue state,
who can remember which one?
They all start to look the
fucking same after a while.
Anyway,
Shiv gets him into a room
and starts going at him
with the rag in the mouth
and the jug of water
and the whole circus.
Really went to town on the guy.
That was just the first.
Wes never liked it, but
Wes never stopped it.
If you look closely, George,
you'll notice a distinct lack
of security cameras
in this room.
It's one thing breaking
your moral code,
it's another thing watching
it back on tape, eh, Shiv?
I'm not gonna be
lectured on morals
by a man who's killed hundreds
of thousands of people.
Technically, I've
barely killed anyone.
You always turn back the clock.
Good old Shiv.
Good old Lazarus Project.
Hey, maybe, they'll let you
have a go at me, George.
Maybe you'll get to
pull my fingernails out.
They'll probably all buy you
a round at the bar after.
Do they still do
after-work drinks?
Does Shiv still
sit in the corner
hoping everyone can
see him brooding?
Fucking karaoke. Jesus Christ.
How's Archie, by the
way? I shot her too.
Go fuck yourself.
Marvellous.
You finally got me in
your cell, one-to-one
and "go fuck yourself" is the
best you could come up with.
Real warrior poet
you turned out to be.
You know what they
do here, George?
They sacrifice life
to destroy death.
And it weighs pretty
fucking heavy on them.
This is a waste of time.
Enjoy your box. I left
my booze in the car.
So, the thing is
George, these people,
they wield incredible power,
but they're just people.
They're not divinely chosen.
They're not brighter or
smarter than anyone else.
They're just the kids you
used to sit next to in school.
But they'll happily play
God when it suits them.
What happens in this
place is an affront.
The world has died, George.
A hundred times over.
It wants to die and we
keep cheating it out of it.
Our time was up long ago,
and they're still
refusing to let go.
Is that why you do what you do?
I do what I do
cause there's no one else
to hold them to account.
And because they can't hold
back the inevitable forever.
You okay?
Yeah.
Doesn't matter how far down
the chain of command we go,
the whole government's
corrupt as hell.
What about the
opposition party?
Alexander Puhvel?
The Fascist?
He has some unappealing
views on certain things, yes.
Like Jews, Muslims,
homosexuals, women?
Yeah, you know,
that kind of thing.
That kind of thing.
There isn't a lot
to recommend Puhvel
but I will say this for him.
He hates General Zeva.
So, we get him into power
Prime Minister Osiminov's weak.
That's why he's about to
start World War Three.
You wanna do a little
coup d'e-fucking-tat.
Yes, I do.
And later? When the
Fascists are in charge?
- We'll deal with it.
Somebody will deal with it.
It's not perfect, but
it's what we've got.
The thing about
starting a coup,
is you need to make the
people doing the coup-ing
feel like it was their idea.
I don't think coup-ing is
the verb of coup d'etat
but go on.
Historically,
nothing riles up
a politically extreme opposition
more than a few well-placed
arrests and assassinations.
Fuck. Did someone
just shoot him?
Her name's Sarah?
Yup.
Military officials
have threatened to escalate
I thought coup-ing would
be easier than this.
We'll try again.
Yo. Can I hit that?
You've got to be
careful on that though,
it's Northern super mix.
- It's really strong, yeah.
Hi.
You're welcome.
Coup was quickly
quashed by government forces.
And Prime Minister
She's called Sarah.
She's perfect for me.
- Apparently so.
Let's try again.
There's this girl
you gotta meet.
Jesus Christ.
How many more times?
And this is George.
- Hi!
- Hi!
I'm not sure that
I love you anymore.
Her name's Sarah.
We'll try again.
Jesus fucking Christ!
Again Again.
Every time we
get the opposition party
to rise up against
the government,
the head of the Prime Minister's
private security force
cracks down on them.
Not every time.
- What?
- There was one time they didn't.
When I got shot.
What happened when
I was killed, Ross?
Prime Minister
Osiminov's security chief
died the same day you did.
He slipped on some ice
and fell down the stairs.
It was a freak accident.
And without him leading
the security force
Puhvel got put into
power, like we wanted.
So why did you reset
back to the checkpoint?
You know why.
It was the only way
to bring you back.
I you don't
- You don't ever
- Ever, ever what?
Save your life?
I save your
life every time I can,
because I love you.
That's what you do
when you love someone,
you break rules for them.
- I didn't ask you to do that.
- You didn't have to.
-I'd give my life
for this project.
- You don't have to. Archie.
- I would.
Not while I'm here.
The world needs you, Archie.
Any version of the
future without you in it,
isn't one worth saving.
We go kill the Prime
Minister's security chief,
then we can complete
the mission.
We close the loop. We
all get what we want.
Hey.
I'm George.
Sarah.
- You at that, party?
- Yeah.
Yeah, I think I saw you.
I think I saw you too
Is this your bus stop?
Uh
No.
Do you wanna sit down anyway
- Yeah?
Hmm? Yeah.
Archie.
You know it's the
weirdest thing,
I feel like I've met you before.
Hello?
Okay.
I need to go to the hospital.
I'm sorry, George.
We did everything we could,
but we couldn't save her
We have to try again .
The opposition just took
the Parliament Building
and the TV station.
Our intelligence
shows it worked.
No, Wes, please.
No, Wes please,
no, please, Wes
I'm sorry, Archie.
- Please, Wes, please.
Wes
Please.
- The mission was successful.
Please.
You want
to turn back time?
Yes.
Why?
Because this
version isn't right.
I don't want this version.
I want to change it. I have to.
You want to undo what
has already been done.
That is what we
do here, isn't it?
Do you believe in fate?
I don't know.
I don't care, I
don't fucking care
if there were a 1000 timelines
where we never met
or we split up,
or we lost everything.
We're together now,
that's what I know.
We're supposed to be together,
'cause that's the
version we had.
That's what was real.
I can save her.
So why the fuck wouldn't I?
And are you willing to
burn down everything
to start again?
Yes.