Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (2023) s01e03 Episode Script

[LEE] We can get the hell
out of here right now
and find out what really
happened with your dad.
[ITEM CLICKS, BUZZING]
Now, you got just about 60
seconds to make up your minds.
What's it gonna be?
- [CATE] Wait a minute.
- [LEE] We don't have a minute.
That van in the parking lot?
Thought so.
I'm not going anywhere with you.
Hey, you came to me.
If you don't want to find out
if your own father's alive
or dead, that's your business.
But I do want to find out.
If he's alive, how do we find him?
Where do we even start looking?
We start where his trail ended.
[SCOFFS] Good luck with that.
They searched for his plane for weeks.
That's hundreds of square
miles of, you know, Alaska.
Yeah, then we'll look where they didn't.
Now, this is a niwaki,
which means an entirely
different pruning process.
So, of course, it's, uh
it's quite fascinating.
[RADIO CHATTER]
Look, all I want is for
these Monarch asshats
to leave me out of whatever
crazy shit my dad was into.
You good with that?
- I wanna find my father.
- Me too.
[MAY] Why do you wanna find him?
What's your dog in the hunt?
Hiroshi Randa's more like
a son to me than a nephew.
He's the only family I
ever had. That's my dog.
This is crazy.
Crazier than finding secret
files in your dad's secret safe?
Crazier than a secret brother?
- A secret family?
- [ALARM RINGING]
Ah, they're onto us. Get to the van.
[IN JAPANESE] EMERGENCY OCCURRENCE
PLEASE STAY ALER
- No, this is a rental.
- I don't think you're allowed.
- God, you are your father's son. Come on.
[IN JAPANESE] EMERGENCY OCCURRENCE
PLEASE STAY ALER
[ORDERLIES SHOUTING IN JAPANESE]
- Oh, my God.
When was the last time you drove?
If it floats, flies, or runs
on four wheels, I can handle it.
Foot on the pedal. Press the button.
- Button?
- [MAY] Yes!
Hooah!
[IN JAPANESE] It's Lee Shaw!
They're headed to the south gate!
[ORDERLY] Close the south gate!
[ALARM RINGING]
Stop, stop, stop!
[KENTARO] Watch out,
watch out, watch out!
[TIRES SCREECHING]
You pay for collision?
Uh, yeah.
[KENTARO] What are you
doing? Where are we go
[WHIMPERS]
- [CATE] Watch out!
- [GRUNTS]
[TIRES SQUEALING]
Are you insane?
You never drove with your grandmother.
Hang on.
[CATE SCREAMS]
[IN JAPANESE] He's coming
back! Main entrance!
[TIRES SQUEALING]
[BILLY] I don't like it.
Yeah, well, you haven't
exactly kept that opinion
a state secret, Billy.
We've always maintained
our independence.
Because no one takes us seriously.
Look, if you two wanna keep this
our private little
monster-hunting club,
then fine. We pull the request.
But if you wanna make a difference,
you wanna do some
some serious science,
then we need backing.
[SIGHS]
Can we trust this guy?
As long as we don't make
him look like a jackass.
Okay.
- Okay.
- Yeah.
Welcome to Monarch, General.
Who'd have thought you'd parlay
escort duty into your first command?
And these eggheads are already
starting to grow on you, Shaw.
It's a bit like herding cats, sir,
if cats had Geiger counters and
thought they were smarter than you.
[CHUCKLES]
My colleagues: Dr. Miura, William Randa.
Congratulations on
your promotion, General.
- Well, thank you, miss.
- Of course. And it's Doctor.
Forgive me.
I believe you have
something to show us, Doctor?
What the hell?
Tell me this is some kind of fossil.
[KEIKO] Uh, that would
be a reasonable guess,
but we took this impression
in a muddy field in Indonesia.
Three weeks ago, before
the monsoons filled it in.
How does something this big
walk around without being seen?
Well, I'm leaning towards teleporta
We have a number of
working theories, sir.
[CLEARS THROAT]
This is gonna give me nightmares.
But until you show us what made this,
a footprint's just a hole in the sand.
You couldn't at least
get me a photograph?
Why just settle for a photograph?
What if we had a way to
lure it out of hiding?
All we need is 150 pounds of uranium.
And let me explain that, sir.
That's as much as we dropped on Japan.
[LEE CLEARS THROAT]
What are you playing at here?
General, while I was
researching my doctorate,
I discovered anomalous radiation
trails in the troposphere.
Mm-hmm. And we think that
they may be directly correlated
with the Titan's movements.
You think they're radioactive?
It's less that they emit radiation
than they absorb it, feed on it.
[LEE] I believe that we need to
seize the initiative on this, sir.
Facing them over there is far
better than facing them over here.
- Isn't that what Ike would say?
- President Eisenhower,
our commander in chief,
would say we need every last ounce
of uranium for national security.
With all due respect,
sir, a creature like this,
as big as this,
is an existential threat
to global security.
- Yes. Yes! We got it.
- [SIGHS]
Do you have any idea how huge this is?
- 150 pounds, I'd say.
- [CHUCKLES]
[LEE] Maybe next time, don't
lead with teleportation.
- Oh.
- It's a theory.
[LEE] Yeah, and so is the flat Earth,
but it's not gonna get you
funding from the Pentagon.
We're talking about upending
centuries of accepted science
in evolution, zoology, physics.
You know, it requires open minds.
Yeah, and open eyes, Billy.
You gotta read the room.
This is a voyage of discovery.
So I'm not gonna bite my
tongue just to get support
from a bunch of gun-toting Neanderthals.
We got a lot of work to do.
Okay?
I'll see you guys in the office.
You know how he is.
I do.
If it wasn't for you,
neither of us would be here.
And that is not a theory, that's a fact.
So, you are saying that there is a
place for gun-toting Neanderthals?
[CHUCKLING]
Thank you.
[CHUCKLES]
[SIGHS] He is right, though.
If we hide who we are and
what we're trying to do,
then what's the point
of doing it at all?
[CHUCKLES] We started
out with pencil and paper.
Not much of a leap forward.
I don't know how Billy
kept these journals.
He'd scribble down every
crazy thing he came across
till his pencils were nothing but nubs.
- Dad did that.
- Yeah?
He'd sharpen them with the
penknife that he carried.
Left the shavings everywhere.
Mom got tired of sweeping up after him.
Now, there's something in here Hiroshi
didn't want Monarch to know about.
And my gut says if we find it
before they do, we find him.
Uh, May built something to read
them, but it's back at her place.
Great.
Well, n no, I I actually
I I digitized them already.
You know, save it for a rainy day.
[LEE] Well, all right, egghead.
Need you to look in there
for anything about Alaska.
Okay. Well, mining rudimentary
visual data for key words
isn't exactly a walk in the park.
Can't just google it.
Do you know what Google is?
Well, I wasn't in
solitary confinement, May.
When was Monarch founded?
Uh, late '40s, thereabouts.
Wouldn't that make
you, like, 90 years old?
- What can I say? Good genes, huh?
- [MAY] Hmm.
Oh, wow.
What is all this anyway?
Hopes.
Dreams. Ambitions.
It's what we wanted Monarch to
be before they lost their way.
And look at 'em now. They're
chasing you guys instead of monsters.
Did our dad really work
for them? For Monarch?
It is your family business.
He knew these things existed.
You all knew.
You could've warned
people, tried to stop it.
Hey, that's exactly what
we were trying to do.
But you were there. You saw it.
You really think anything
on earth could've stopped it?
Stopped that?
Then he threw his life away for nothing.
It's not our family business
it's the family curse.
[SHIP HORN BLOWING]
[EXHALES SHARPLY]
You packed the large-format camera?
- Yes, Billy.
- All right.
- And the long lenses? The 500-millimeters?
- Oh, no.
I left it behind with the
seismometer and all the extra film.
That's too bad. So much for the
cover of National Geographic.
[SOLDIERS CHATTERING]
What the hell?
I told you we couldn't
trust that bastard.
Hey, hold on. Let me handle this.
Let me just Let me handle this.
[LEE] General.
General.
Sir, um, this appears to be going
in a direction we didn't discuss.
We discussed you needing a
large quantity of uranium.
Not in bomb form, sir.
Should've been more specific.
You could've told us.
Well, that's not how top-secret
nuclear tests work, son.
I understand, sir.
All they're asking for is a chance
to assess what we're dealing with.
We don't even know
what these things are
They're an existential
threat to global security.
Isn't that right?
Yes, sir.
How many stars do you see there?
- One, sir.
- Mm-hmm.
Which I understand means you
had to go through two or three
four different levels
to get what we asked for.
And the judgment of all those stars
was that if we can lure
this thing out into the open,
we deal with it here.
Now.
Now, monster or no monster, that thing,
that's not going back
to Los Alamos in a crate.
I realize that this is
not what they had in mind,
but it's become bigger than all of us.
You asked for the support
of the United States Army.
This is it.
[BILLY SIGHS]
[MAY] Hey, it's me.
Sorry, it's windy.
I'm I'm on a boat, on a ship.
You know I can't tell you that.
Hey, listen, I, uh
Hey, can you just listen for a second?
Look, I might be coming back soon.
No, I mean it. For real.
If I knew more, I would tell you.
Hey, I gotta go. Yeah, time's up.
That's bad for the environment.
The fish eat the plastic,
and we eat the fish.
I'll make a donation to Greenpeace.
Or you can tell me why you're
ditching your phone in the ocean.
Do you need something?
He wants to go over the game plan.
You really trust that old bastard?
You don't need to stick your
neck out for us any longer,
not if you need to get back.
This is my fault.
- This is my mess.
- Yeah.
Yeah, it is your mess. And
hers. And you dragged me into it.
You cost me my business and my home,
my life, everything
I've built, who I am.
- I didn't know this would happen.
- Yeah, fair enough.
But until we sort out your mess
and I get back what you cost me,
you do not get to tell me what I need.
[LEE] Okay, I greased the
wheels as best I could.
But here's the thing, guys.
We get one eager-beaver border
guard who finds these on us,
and it's game over immediately.
So we need to get rid of these.
No.
You told us the key to
finding my father is in there.
She's got a copy on her laptop.
- They're not holy reli
- I don't care.
Why do I have to do everything you say?
And why are we going to Korea?
My father disappeared in Alaska.
Alaska is that way!
- Do you have any idea what you're doing?
- Well, I got us out of Japan, didn't I?
Onto this ship, no passport,
no Monarch in sight.
Now, there's someone in Pohang we need.
He's an old friend of mine.
He might be the last friend I have left.
[CHUCKLES] But you're right.
Hiroshi is your dad.
And yours.
Now, you two wanna start calling
the shots, you got every right.
So, once we get there
where to?
[ANNOUNCER SPEAKING KOREAN]
- Okay, where's your friend?
- Just trust me, okay?
Wait a minute. We're supposed to
be in line number two. Come on.
We're good.
I think we're supposed
to be in line number two.
Shit.
- [IN KOREAN] Passport.
[IN KOREAN] Passport!
English?
Here's the situation.
I, uh I got my sister's, uh,
adopted grandkids with me, right?
So we're we're on that ship.
And I told 'em, uh, for safekeeping,
we gotta put everything in one backpack.
Backpack, right?
So, anyway, look, we're not terrorists,
and I've never been to North
Korea [CHUCKLES] so
- Hey! Hold on. Hey!
- [CATE] Oh, my God. Please, please!
I have my passport. I have my passport.
[CATE] Couldn't you just let me
contact the American embassy
Aw, no. What, it's gonna
get fined or something?
I'd be 'Cause I'd be more
than happy to pay you guys,
- so you can do whatever you want with it.
- [KENTARO] What's going on?
- [LEE] What do you got to lose?
- [GUARD] My job.
- [CATE] We can't go to prison.
- [KENTARO] Shaw screwed us.
You run the show, don't you?
I just want you to know something.
I will make it worth your while!
We are not for sale.
Well, then you're even
dumber than you look.
- I mean, you [GRUNTS, GROANS]
- [MAY] Shit.
[IN KOREAN] I told you
you would meet some
really stupid people.
I know.
[GRUNTS]
heard of pulling your punches?
- No. [EXCLAIMS] My brother!
- [LEE CHUCKLES]
It's been too long, Du-Ho. [CHUCKLES]
[DU-HO] You look younger
every time. You look good.
[LEE] Not really. But that's
what everybody tells me.
Hey, we gotta get going
before somebody finds him.
- Let's go.
- Let's go!
O, ye of little faith. [SIGHS] Come on.
Asshole.
[GUARD YELLING]
[TIRES SQUEALING]
[SIGHS]
[TIM] Welcome to Japan, ma'am.
Thank you, Tim. I appreciate
any opportunity to visit Japan.
Although I was supposed to be
moving my daughter into her
college dorm this weekend.
[STAMMERS] Congratulations.
But now my ex-husband is
celebrating this milestone with her
because Lee Shaw has decided
to no longer avail himself
of his generous retirement package.
- Ma'am, if I may, I I
- No, you may not.
[IN FRENCH] What did he tell you?
Some valuable data had been
stolen. We needed to retrieve it.
And did he mention that he
had no authorization to run
this rogue escapade of his?
I assumed
plane is being refueled
and will be ready to
leave in 30 minutes.
You'll both be on it.
We can't leave. They
have Bill Randa's files.
Sixty-year-old field notes
and crackpot theories are not
gonna help us avert another G-Day.
Yeah, well, Lee Shaw
seems to think otherwise.
[CLEARS THROAT]
If you really believed
they were so important
[PHONE RINGS]
why not bring it to
Dr. Serizawa or to me?
Why do it alone?
[SPEAKS FRENCH]
[SCOFFS]
Is this about our mission or yours?
[IN FRENCH] This is confirmed?
All of them?
All right, stand by.
Facial recognition AI
flagged him and the others
detained by customs
at the port in Pohang.
Somehow, he managed to slip away though.
You, on that plane in 30.
You, get a tactical team
and get on Shaw's ass.
Whatever you need.
I need my partner.
What if he's right?
Shaw's been on ice for
years. Why make his move now?
If I move quickly, I might be able
to get the jump on Shaw,
but not without him.
No one understands better
what Shaw might be up to,
why these files are so important to him.
Crazy knows crazy.
[LEE] Hey, Du-Ho. Did you
get the gear I asked for?
[DU-HO] Yeah. It's already on board.
[LEE] Bamboo Bomber?
I said a jet, Du-Ho, not an
aluminum coffin with wings.
[LAUGHS] Everything that
could go wrong with her,
- already has.
- [SIGHS] Yeah.
All right. Air Du-Ho, ready
for immediate boarding!
We're going all the
way to Alaska in that?
[MAY] Hmm. Don't think of it as old.
Think of it as vintage.
[INDISTINCT CHATTERING]
[FEEDBACK ON RADIO]
[INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER]
[PETTY OFFICER GROANS]
[SOLDIER] Still nothing
on sonar, General.
How long do you plan on holding?
[BILLY] It's hot enough to
fry the egg on Puckett's face.
If this thing's a no-show,
I think it's safe to say we're
losing the Army's backing.
It's better than watching
them obliterate something
they don't even understand.
[BREATHES DEEPLY]
[ELECTRICITY CRACKLES]
[PETTY OFFICER GASPS]
- [PETTY OFFICER 2] What's that reading?
- What happened?
[PETTY OFFICER] I don't
know, sir. It shorted out.
[GODZILLA GROANS]
[TECHNICIAN] Give me an
update. What's going on?
[SONAR ECHO PINGS]
Attention! Attention! Sonar contact.
[GODZILLA GROANS]
[SOLDIER] Is that a dinosaur?
[BILLY] Is that armor?
What the hell does that
thing need protection from?
Us.
Well, I'll be damned.
Look at that thing haul ass.
How have we never
seen this thing before?
If they go through with
this, how will we ever know?
This is wrong.
General?
General, I think we should
consider standing down, sir.
If we can't learn everything
we can about the enemy
You wait to see what
the enemy is gonna do,
you've already lost, son.
[ROARS]
My God.
You're go for Castle Bravo!
[TECHNICIAN] Attention! Attention!
Transmitting detonation signal
to Castle Bravo in 30 seconds!
Ten, nine, eight, seven, six
- [IN JAPANESE] Let me go! Let me go!
[IN JAPANESE] I have to stop it!
Stop!!
- [IN JAPANESE] Please don't do it!
You can't do this!
Please!
[ROARS]
[CHEERING]
Yeah, it was.
[KEIKO SOBBING]
[SOBBING]
[SOBS] What have we done?
[SOBS]
[KENTARO] Was this
our father's real life?
When he said he was at a
software developers conference,
was he really sneaking across
borders and chasing monsters?
Well, the cowboy days were behind
us by the time Hiroshi came on board.
Monarch was mainly counting
beans and crunching numbers.
"Data-driven," they called it.
[KENTARO] When was the
last time you saw him?
I don't know. Almost 20 years ago.
When I was already a dinosaur.
If you two are looking for some
insight into your situation,
I I got nothing. I mean,
Hiro was just a normal kid.
He didn't torture small animals.
No issues potty training.
[CATE] Classic profile of a sociopath.
"Seemed like a nice guy.
- Who would have suspected?"
- Can you give it a rest?
Took after his mom. I can tell you that.
[GROANS] Went after whatever he wanted,
and he never let
anything get in his way.
- And he never lied to me.
- [SCOFFS]
This is a secret, Cate, not a lie.
It seems like a distinction
without a difference.
Not to me.
I hate to interrupt family therapy,
but, uh, I think I found something.
So I've been searching
up the keyword "Alaska,"
and all that comes up
is missing dogsledders
and "Yukon Yeti" sightings.
But, um, you said "data-driven,"
so I did a numerical
search to see if I got a hit
on the longitude or latitude of Alaska.
[LEE] That's Billy's handwriting there.
Yeah. These are geo-coordinates
from all over the world.
I mean, Mexico, Asian
steppes, North Africa.
And everything on the list is
checked off except for this one.
- [LEE SIGHS]
- [MAY] And when I put it into the map
[LEE] Oh, yeah.
If we knew where your father's airplane
was heading when he disappeared,
I c I could pinpoint this.
It was flight 74-something.
Filed a flight plan from Nome to Barrow.
Nome to Barrow.
Bingo.
[CHUCKLES] I owe you two
a steak dinner for this.
Time to cowboy up, Du-Ho.
- We got a new destination.
- I got it.
What does it mean? Why
was he going to Barrow?
Nah, he was headed to Barrow.
That's not where he was going.
[KEIKO BREATHES SHAKILY]
[BILLY] Keiko?
[FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING]
You okay?
He shouldn't have stopped me. [SHUDDERS]
Yeah, he was being selfish.
What would've happened if he hadn't?
You'd have been fired,
arrested, probably deported.
They would have set
off that bomb anyway.
General called me in
to discuss our funding.
I figured, since we
were going down anyway,
might as well shoot for the moon.
So I gave him a proposal, a
string of Monarch outposts,
extra staff, monitoring
equipment, the works.
He rejected it
said we didn't ask for enough.
[CHUCKLES] They are
giving us a blank check
to find out if there are
more of those out there.
How the hell did you pull that off?
Well, I asked a simple question.
What if the next one doesn't pop
up in the middle of the Pacific?
- What if it's near New York or Washington?
- Well, then we gotta tell the whole world.
You're saying that you want to go public
with the details of a
classified H-bomb explosion?
- Why not?
- Because they electrocuted the Rosenbergs.
What if
Say we find another one
Mm-hmm.
does the general
need to know everything?
I'm sorry, are you suggesting
that I lie to my superior officer?
No. But a lie and a secret
are two different things.
I'm not sure the court-martial tribunal
would see that distinction, Kei.
Do you trust us?
Do you trust her?
[CHUCKLES] Okay.
All that I can tell
him is what you tell me.
And I trust that you will tell
me everything that I need to know.
Are you okay with that?
Are you?
[CHUCKLES]
I'm fine with it.
[CHUCKLING]
- Yeah. Right?
- [CHUCKLES] Okay.
- Yeah. Yeah.
- [LAUGHS] Yeah.
[ALL CHUCKLING]
[DU-HO] It's all okay.
Good morning.
[CATE] Where are we?
US of A. We come to Papa soon.
Not looking forward to reunion?
What is it to you? Are you,
like, another one of his sons?
Sorry. Didn't mean to pry.
I'm sorry.
It's just, I don't know
what I'm more afraid of:
That we don't find Dad, or we do.
Feels like a punch
in the gut either way,
and I don't know how
many more I can take.
Let me tell you a secret.
You don't appreciate life so much
until you're afraid to lose it.
Not so much when you see
other people lose theirs.
[DU-HO SIGHS] I saw many people die.
My father, good friends.
You get out of the bed each
morning, you roll the dice.
Terrible things may happen, but
you shouldn't hide from pain.
Look at you.
Hide under your covers
and never sneak into Korea,
never meet Du-Ho
and never have a chance to tell
your papa to go screw himself.
[LAUGHS]
[PLANE CLATTERS]
- [KENTARO] Whoa, whoa. What was that?
- [DU-HO] Uh, hey, brother.
I think we're getting close.
- [ALARM BLARING]
- [LEE] I think this is the spot.
Whatever Hiro was after,
I think we just found it.
- I'll take it from here, Du-Ho.
- Your airplane.
We're gonna do a little
fancy flying here.
Lock everything down back
there. It's gonna get rough.
- [KENTARO] What?
- No, no, no, no. Wait, wait.
I need you to stay up here. Buckle in.
Whoa, whoa. I mean, why is he flying?
Lee Shaw is the best pilot I know
when flying by seat of the pants.
Great. Now I'm gonna piss mine.
Du-Ho usually keeps something
underneath the seat there,
in case of emergencies.
Yeah, that's it. Unscrew the cap.
Take a shot, a big one. Gonna need it.
It's just water.
Put the cap back on. Put it
right up here where I can see it.
Yeah. Oh! All right.
Now we got an attitude indicator.
Here we go!
- [MAY] Holy shit!
- [CATE WHIMPERS]
[SCREAMS] Oh, my God! Stop!
- [LEE] Come on, baby.
- [CATE WHIMPERS] Shaw! [GASPS]
- [KENTARO] Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
- [LEE] Level out!
There. We can land there.
- This is gonna be rough, guys. Hang on.
- Shit!
What's that down there?
- What? Wait, what?
- [LEE] Hang on to something.
- Here we go!
- [GASPS]
[PANTING, LAUGHING]
[LAUGHING]
Everybody in one piece back there?
Brother, your landings
can use a little work.
Hell of a job, copilot. [SIGHS]
- [LAUGHS]
- [LEE EXHALES]
Oh, no.
I don't need to see him.
It's not him.
His seat belt's unbuckled.
Maybe he got thrown free.
[DU-HO] Oh. Wow.
I'll be a monkey's naked uncle!
[CATE] Oh, my God. Do
you think anyone's there?
So, if everyone died in the
crash, who set all this gear up?
I know that handwriting.
[SIGHS]
Me too.
[CATE] He survived.
He survived.
[GRUNTS]
Huh.
[IN KOREAN] It landed.
Safely.
[GRUNTING, PANTING]
[PANTING]
I taxi the plane. You come quick!
Move!
Go, go, go, go, go, go, go! Let's go!
[GRUNTS]
[RUMBLING]
[PANTS, SNIFFS]
- Come on!
- [GRUNTS] Just get to the plane!
[CATE GASPS]
- [CREATURE ROARS]
- [MAY] Shit.
[SCREAMS, GRUNTS]
[SCREAMS]
[GROANS]
[CATE] Oh, no.
[SHRIEKS]
[LEE] Whoa!
[ROARS]