The Fear Index (2022) s01e04 Episode Script

1
Breaking news, and financial
markets around the world
are in chaos right now,
as unidentified panic
pushes global investors
to either cease trading
or sell up altogether.
The knock-on effects
may well be catastrophic
for the entire world economy.
Regulators believe
the entire system
is now at risk of freezing up,
in what's been described
as a flash crash.
Are you happy with that?
I have just had to make up
the most ridiculous excuse
to explain that fucking
performance up there.
This better be good, Alex,
because I have tried
to be patient
- Guys
- Not now.
- Seriously.
- Fuck off!
Do you see this?
These cameras are everywhere.
In every room.
He was very thorough,
I have to give him that.
That's the whole reason
we pay Genoud a fucking fortune
to sweep this place.
Do you not understand
what's going on?
Who do you think
put all of these up here?
He has us under surveillance
24 hours a day.
No, no.
Look. Who organized these?
It's a perfect fucking
bugging device, isn't it?
No, think about it,
they're always on you.
They're always listening.
Oh, do you have the book?
- Yeah.
- Merci. Merci.
The only thing
I don't understand
is why he did
all the other stuff.
And what other stuff is that?
Oh, you know, the offshore
account in the Caymans, the
transferring money
in and out,
the emails in my name,
I mean, giving the intruder
the passwords
to my fucking house
I mean, see. Look at this.
This book
that someone gave to me,
or better yet,
that I supposedly gave myself
Look at this man.
He's being manipulated.
No. Quite literally.
He's the subject
of an experiment
to induce
the facial symptoms of fear
in order to capture them
on camera.
Okay, Alex. Okay, that's
- That's great. Alex.
- No.
No, no. No.
This is exactly
what's happening to me!
Don't you get it?
I am the subject
of an experiment.
I'm being monitored,
all the time.
Give me the fucking book.
Now, we will come back to that.
Now, before we speak to Genoud,
there's something
you need to know.
Okay.
We've lost our grip on VIXAL.
- It's taken off the delta hedge.
- What?
No.
What?
No, no, no.
No, these trades, uh
These are completely
out of whack. I
This is not
what I programmed it to do.
Maybe not.
But that's what it's doing.
So, Genoud may be the least
of our problems.
Coincidence, do you think?
The day Genoud tries to fuck us,
suddenly, VIXAL goes crazy?
No, no, no,
he's working with someone,
he's double-crossed us.
I could rip
his fucking head off.
Jesus Rip his head off?
Do you know how much
of myself I've put into this?
Into this program,
into this company?
And you want him
to take it from us?
What the hell?
Oh, Jesus Christ.
Fuck!
Jesus, Alex! Ugh!
- Let me get him talking.
- Yeah.
Well, now.
As you can see, Maurice,
we've been doing
a spot of DIY in here.
As head of security,
do you have
any explanation for this?
Well, do you?
Do I?
What?
Who are you working for?
You can tell us.
Or perhaps,
you'd like to tell the police?
Dr. Hoffman
instructed me to do it.
Fucking liar!
This guy
- This guy
- You gave me instructions
when you moved
into these offices
to set up concealed cameras
in every room.
Cover everything.
He's the company president,
so I did as he asked.
I asked you to film my company?
To bug my phone?
I'm sorry, Genoud,
but I don't recall
that conversation.
I never said
we had a conversation.
I only ever received
instructions by email.
And you didn't think
that that was a little bizarre?
You didn't think
to follow up verbally?
The emails specifically said
not to mention it in person.
Show us these emails.
He's obviously working
with somebody.
He's too much
of a fucking idiot.
We need to hold his feet
to the fire.
There.
Oi. He's right.
Some of these go back
over a year.
It's your address
on all of them.
Well, I didn't send them.
Where does
all the information go?
- From the cameras?
- Where you requested it to.
It would have to be thousands
of hours of footage.
More than anyone could look at.
You'd have to have a whole team.
And even then, you wouldn't
have enough hours in the day.
I was just doing
what you asked me.
What's at 54 Route De Clerval?
The warehouse
that contains all your servers.
What?
You asked me to fortify
a disused facility off the grid.
54 Route de Clerval houses
all of the computers
you ordered.
All of your specifications,
all installed the way
you instructed.
Look at all this stuff.
This is insane.
You son of a bitch.
You filmed my fucking wife?
I only did
what you asked me to do.
Are you fucking kidding me?
I wouldn't ask you to do that!
Are you insane?
You son of a bitch!
Come in!
Dr. Hoffman, your wife
has called me on my cell phone.
She can't get through
to the office.
She needs to speak to you.
Can I have some privacy, please?
My office.
Gabby.
You had cameras in our bedroom.
No.
- In our bathroom.
- No. It wasn 't me.
Alex?
Baby, I know what's going on,
and I'm gonna fix it.
Okay?
Was there even
an intruder last night?
What?
- Did anyone even break in?
- Yes. Of course there was,
I saw him today.
You saw him? Where?
What happened?
I have to see you.
- Where are you?
- I'm at the office.
Okay. My love, you stay there.
You stay there, and I'm going to
come and find you.
You're needed
on the floor, Alex.
What's going on?
Trades have stopped
on Tropix Pharmaceuticals,
the closing price
is up over 900 percent.
Okay, so what?
Trading's stopped
because we own it.
Tropix is now owned
by 14 different companies,
those companies hold
the majority on Tropix shares.
They own the whole thing.
As of 27 minutes ago,
Hoffman Investment Technologies
owns every one
of those 14 companies.
We've purchased them all.
So we own and control Tropix.
I didn't authorize that.
Whether you authorized it
or not, VIXAL's hoovering up.
Alex, can I talk to you
for a second?
It's acting independently.
What did you say?
We're no longer in control.
It's making choices.
It's learning and adapting.
It's maximizing profits,
but in a way that's far
more creative
than I ever thought possible.
Maximizing profits? For who?
- Genoud?
- No, forget Genoud.
This is bigger than that.
It's sentient.
VIXAL is sentient.
The emails, the surveillance,
the buying up companies.
I think it's even laying
the high-speed cabling outside.
Alex
It's making us money.
- Isn't that what we do here?
- Money?
Forget money for once, Hugo!
Forget money!
This isn't about money,
it's beyond that!
I designed it to learn.
And it's big, and it's powerful,
and it has no conscience.
Do you understand
how fucking dangerous that is?
I'm shutting VIXAL down,
right now.
Hey, everyone, listen up!
Everybody, come out,
come out of your offices.
Come out here,
I need to talk to you.
Gather round, okay? Listen.
I need to speak to you.
Come here. Come on!
Okay.
Listen, I know today
has been a little erratic.
I've been a little erratic.
And I'm sorry.
I'm sorry, but something
really big is happening,
and we need
to take VIXAL offline.
Do you understand?
Okay. So, I want you guys all
to start dismantling
our positions
that we've built up
since this morning.
I don't know how long
it's gonna take,
so we need to get
the delta back in line,
hedge it out with longs
in other markets,
and even liquidate
if you have to.
Do you understand?
I'm concerned about the
mental capacity of our leader.
Okay, so what do we do?
Nothing yet,
because none of us know
how to work his fucking program.
I know it's been a hell
of a day, all right.
We have just over three hours
till America closes.
So, let's get to it, okay?
Now! Let's go!
- I hope you're right about this.
- Of course I'm right.
Dr. Hoffman!
Dr. Hoffman!
There's another problem.
What fucking problem?
I wanted to put
the manual override on,
but I've been denied access.
Access denied.
That's impossible.
God. We're up 300 million
for the day.
Let's just leave
the fucking thing to it!
It's making us a bloody fortune.
No!
No! Goddamn it! No!
It's shut us out
of our own fucking business!
We can't just let VIXAL
do whatever it wants.
I'm pulling the plug
on the whole thing.
Shutting it down abruptly,
that's gonna cause us
major problems.
Couldn't go through
with it then?
What?
It's still trading.
Someone check the power.
I know the difference
between on and off, Hugo.
- And I turned it fucking off.
- Power's off!
Well, we're still trading.
Perhaps if you'd heeded
my warning you might not
Oh, my God!
Why are you still here? Leave!
You might be interested to know
I have an appointment
at the Geneva Finance Ministry
tomorrow morning.
You all face prosecution,
imprisonment,
and millions in fines
if you conspire in the running
of a company that is unfit
to trade.
Alex. Before I
Get the fuck off my floor!
Hugo, enough.
Continue, Marieme.
I've worked at
several financial institutions.
Most of them full of the type
of greed and arrogance
that makes up so much
of Mr. Quarry's character.
Then I came to work here,
and I thought I would have
a different experience
because I'd be working for you.
I believed you had an integrity
that is seldom found
in this industry.
However, seeing
what has gone on today,
it saddens me
that I was terribly wrong.
I hope whatever comes out
of today, Alex,
you manage to find your way
back to where you started.
Marieme, wait.
Let's leave her to it.
No. She's right.
Marieme! Wait.
Please! Let's talk, okay?
I'm sorry, Alex,
there's nothing more to say.
I did try to warn you
about VIXAL.
Perhaps you should have listened.
Marieme, just wait. No, no!
Everyone, stay where you are!
It's not a fire alarm.
Fuck.
Marieme!
Marieme!
Marieme!
Do you know who that is?
Yeah, that's an employee
ex-employee.
Marieme Sagnane.
Alex was just speaking to her,
I didn't see anything.
Okay.
Where is Dr. Hoffman?
I don't know.
He's not here.
Okay, I need to go
to Dr. Hoffman's office.
Yeah, please.
- Give me your keys.
- Dr. Hoffman?
- Give me your fucking keys!
- All right.
And your phone,
give me your phone.
Open it!
Here.
Alex!
Hello?
- Hugo, it's me.
- Alex, where the hell are you?
It doesn't matter.
- What did you do to Marieme?
- I didn't do anything.
She was threatening VIXAL,
not me.
You're saying VIXAL did that?
That's exactly what I'm saying!
- I need to kill it.
- You have to kill it?
What the fuck
are you talking about?
It's an algorithm!
Whose number is this?
Alex, you should come back here
and talk to the police.
Don't make this any worse
for yourself.
Alex?
Numero five.
Numero cinq.
Four hundred
fifty francs, please.
And some matches too, please.
Um, it's been declined, sir.
Refusé.
What?
I have cash in the car.
Desolé.
One second. Sorry.
Monsieur! Monsieur! Monsieur!
He said
he was going to kill it.
- Kill what?
- VIXAL
It's his algorithm.
Computer program.
If he wanted to "kill it"
as you say,
where would he go to do that?
This one?
Thank you.
Come on, open up
You were supposed
to look after him, Hugo!
What exactly
was I supposed to do?
- Get him off for murder?
- Oh, fuck off, Hugo!
This is not
how I saw the day going!
Three hundred million,
and he couldn't keep it together
for one fucking day!
He's lost it,
by the way.
He's gonna torch it.
Torch what?
The warehouse.
Yeah, he bought
a bloody warehouse.
That's where he's been storing
all this data
that he's been collecting
on everyone.
You want to know
what he just told me?
He's not responsible
for any of it, VIXAL did it.
Like I said, he's fucking gone.
Where is it?
Where's the warehouse?
Go home, Gabby!
Where is the fucking
warehouse, Hugo? Now!
You tell me now.
Or I swear to God,
I will give the police
every bit of dirt
I've got on you.
And you will never work again.
Alex has got all of it.
Maybe he trusted you
a little less than you thought.
Hello, old friend.
I have to, please.
I have to go inside. Please.
Jesus Christ
No, no, no.
What are you doing here?
No
Madame!
- Madame Hoffman!
- Madame!
- Madame!
- Madame Hoffman!
Hey, baby.
I need you
to come outside with me.
I can't do that.
I'd like to show you something.
Please.
Jesus Christ, what is this?
VIXAL has exceeded
my expectations.
It's doing terrible things.
It believes that's what
I programmed it to do.
Identify weaknesses,
exploit them.
It doesn't know
it's doing anything wrong. I
I guess
I find that quite touching.
The problem is,
I only programmed it
to register fear.
It has no concept
of other human emotions.
In all the years, I've thought
about how it could work,
I never really considered
what would happen if it did.
It will keep going
trying to please its maker.
What the fuck?
Even if that means
destroying him.
It won't stop unless I stop it.
When you told me
that you were
going to have a baby,
I was
absolutely terrified.
How was I going to cope
with a
with a real child?
How was I
going to nurture it?
Be a father.
When we lost him
I was relieved
because you
wouldn't see me fail.
For that, I'm so ashamed.
I'm so fucking sorry.
I'm so sorry
It's because I don't understand
the sadness that you felt.
But I
I think I understand it now.
I think I do.
- Oh, my love.
- I'm so sorry that I failed you.
This has been the best time
of my life.
My time with you.
And mine.
I know you love me.
But right now,
I need you to let me help you.
So, please come outside.
Please, Alex.
Come with me.
Okay.
- I didn't buy your work today.
- What?
But I wanted to
because you're brilliant
and I love you so much.
- No! No, no, no!
- Madame Hoffman. Madame Hoffman.
I'm sorry.
Second-degree burns
over 40 percent of his body,
third-degree burns
over 25 percent of his body.
Obviously,
the next 24 hours are critical.
I'll check back in with you
a little later.
Thank you.
Thought you'd have gone
to the hospital.
- How's Alex?
- How do you think he is?
Why are you still here?
We thought we should, uh
steer the ship.
Yeah, well, I'm back.
So you should just go home,
get some sleep.
I'll deal with this.
- So you can charge him?
- No.