The Rig (2023) s01e06 Episode Script

- What's our status?
- Cirein injector is activated.
We're at 30% formation saturation.
- Pressure?
- Pressure climbing.
Up to 4-8-5-0 PSI.
Well within SWP tolerance.
Continue with the test.
- Saturation at 37%.
- Pressure levelling off.
Wait, no. Pressure climbing.
- What did you do?
- I didn't do anything. It's not us.
It's coming from the
formation. It's up to 6,000.
That's over shutdown threshold.
Ignore that call.
We're not playing the margins
here. It'll come down, you watch.
This is madness.
Saturation at 80%.
That's it, beastie. One last roar.
It's going up!
After the explosion, what happened then?
If you deal with me,
I can deal with him.
After the explosion, we
managed to kill the well,
but we'd already lost a lot in the fire.
Then the SBV came in but got too close.
It hit and went down.
It took a lifeboat with it.
- How did you get out?
- We almost didn't, um
He made us stay and wipe
everything about the experiment
on the systems that were still active.
And by that time, there
was only one lifeboat left.
We could've got more, if
we'd had waited, but
as soon as he got on
board, he launched it.
He left people behind?
How many?
The whole way here I was looking at
20 empty seats.
We could have filled every one of them.
You were right about
scrapping this place, Rose,
it's falling apart.
Shut up.
Your turn.
Do you think they all still believe
that you're gonna get them home?
I'm asking the questions.
You're giving the answers.
- I'm sure it must look like that to you.
- We aren't playing here.
You got two of my crew killed.
And a lot more of your own.
I want to know what's happening. Now.
You already know what's
happening. Maximum extraction.
No matter what greenwashing the
marketing department puts out,
that's still Pictor's policy,
just like everyone else.
And that means draining every drop.
So, if there's a leak, we plug it.
If there's a blockage,
we punch through it.
If there's a threat we get rid of it.
But instead, your experiment woke it up.
It's not an experiment,
it's an extermination.
A deliberate one.
This organism, this Ancestor,
if that's what your lot are
calling it, it's spreading.
Ever since Pictor found it,
it's woken up all the
way across the North Sea.
Once it gets into a reservoir,
it converts the oil
back into organic matter
and ruins the whole field.
It's all about the bottom line.
- Why am I not surprised?
- This isn't about money.
This is about survival.
You've seen what it can do
when it gets inside someone.
And the more it spreads,
the stronger it gets.
If we don't stop it now,
this'll just be the start.
And what's the end? You kill it all?
You kill Baz and anyone
else it's infected,
then you and Pictor spin more lies
about what's really happened out here.
We've tried to keep it contained
but if we can't do that,
then yes, we kill it.
Before it does the same to us.
So you're actually the hero. Is that it?
As long as you don't get
too close to the front line.
I'm the guy that makes the hard choices.
And you look really cut up about that.
Hey. Still going then?
He's not actually listening to that guy?
We're trying to get information
from him. Anything that could help.
And what's he trying to get from us?
You could have got
researchers in, scientists.
To study this thing
before you pissed it off.
And they would have shut this field
down even quicker than Rose did.
You've seen what
happens when normal life
gets disrupted for a few days,
and people get angry
and scared and hopeless.
Well, that's what'll
happen on the beach.
- If not now, then soon.
- I've seen people be brave, too.
Risking their lives for others.
And how long do you think that'll last?
That ash is gonna be creeping through
every city on the East coast soon.
Think about what'll happen if
it gets into the people there.
The food, the water.
You, more than anyone,
know that the worst thing that
can happen to a person out here
is losing what they've got back there,
and not being able to
do a damn thing about it.
But this time, we can stop it.
It's strongest here.
If we kill it here,
we can stop the spread.
What about the people in
my crew already infected?
Baz, Fulmer?
There's no version of this
where you get to save everyone.
You have to choose.
Stay here.
- That come up from below?
- Aye.
With the soft sediment samples
during maintenance years ago.
Nice souvenir.
It was going to be a present.
- So did he give you any answers?
- Not the ones we want.
He says the only way to stop the
organism from attacking the land
is to destroy it here
before it gets too strong.
- That's original.
- You really believe all this?
Ancient sea monsters
creeping up from the deep.
I don't have to believe
it. I've seen it.
And trying to kill it
isn't going to work.
Do you have an alternative?
I'm working on it with
Fulmer. We'll find one.
Do it fast.
Coake's right about one thing.
We're running out of time.
Why are you shutting me out?
Think.
You said you heard Baz
speaking to you before you left?
It was in my head, like
like another vision.
Was there anything else that you
saw or felt when you were connected?
What is it?
I just keep thinking about
what Baz said that first night.
"There's a wave coming."
Yes.
Do you think you could connect
with him again? From here?
- And say what?
- Remember quorum sensing?
The way bacteria communicate?
When bacterial colonies
encounter a new species,
they use quorum sensing to decide
whether they should
collaborate or compete.
The glow, the visions, the rings.
What if that's what it's
been doing this whole time?
Trying to decide whether we
should collaborate or compete.
I think I can guess
which way it's leaning.
That's why we need
to change the message.
I didn't know you were an artist.
These are good.
- A bit dark maybe.
- Yeah, well, suits the times.
What did Magnus ask you about?
What happened on the Charlie.
Everything from when Coake arrived.
That guy's got a real death wish.
Like a company kamikaze.
No, I thought that at
first, too, but he's not.
I saw him running from the explosion.
I sat with him in the lifeboat.
He's cold, but he's a survivor.
There's no way he'd be here
if he didn't have a way out.
What was that?
Murch, when you were with Coake,
did he talk about
getting back to the beach?
Oh, he talked. Like
a right little snake.
But did he say anything specific?
What he said got Dunlin killed.
Trust me, if you listen to
him, you're gonna get bit.
There anything left to eat around here?
Yeah. If you make it yourself.
And don't make a mess anywhere.
It's fine. I don't
really feel like eating.
Why do you keep that radio on?
Back in the Cold War, if the threat
of a nuclear attack was imminent,
all our submarines were to dive
to avoid getting hit
in the first strike.
We were to go dark, switch off comms.
Then every day for three days,
we were to surface for one hour
and listen for radio signals.
If we didn't get anything from
command, we were to switch to BBC Radio.
The idea was, if the BBC
was still broadcasting,
then London would still be there,
so we'd know who to
listen for further orders.
And after three days?
If it was all still
static and silence
we were to assume the
worst had already happened.
Mutually assured destruction.
No home to go back to.
Three days.
Time's up.
- Do you think this'll work?
- Only one way to find out.
Okay?
Oh, fuck.
What's happening?
Can you see him?
I know he's there, but
I saw it.
I think the Ancestor
is going to trigger it.
What?
- A new Storegga Slide.
- Oh, Jesus.
Setting off a tsunami like
that would kill thousands.
Hundreds of thousands.
Yeah, and destroy all
of Pictor's injectors.
Like, it knows that's how
they've been trying to poison it.
It's wiping the slate clean.
And we can't even warn anyone.
If there's a way to stop
this, we have got to try.
You mean Coake's plan? Kill it, and Baz?
It won't work.
All this time it's been trying
to figure out if we're the enemy.
Attacking it again is just
gonna confirm that we are.
Collaborate or compete.
Magnus, if the Ancestor
is what I think it is,
a living network threaded
throughout the sea floor,
with hundreds of
millions of years to grow,
it's not just gonna be here.
It could be under every
ocean on the planet.
Every aggressive move we've
made has only made it worse.
If we keep attacking it, it's
just gonna rise up somewhere else
and finish what it's started.
And if we don't, we all die.
What other option is there?
There's still Baz.
If we could go to him, help him,
he's our best hope of
making a stronger connection.
Hope isn't enough.
I don't like it, but if there's
a chance we can stop this,
we've got to at least hear Coake out.
Still nothing.
- What about from the beach?
- It's still all jammed.
I'll go down to the SSCR room
and double check the system there.
Don't get comfortable.
I'd say you should let me go
but where am I gonna go?
Unless you've made a decision?
If we help you
can you stop it without hurting my crew?
Which crew are we talking about?
The ones this side of the link bridge.
- Fulmer included.
- Yes.
I can stop it.
You better not be lying about this.
I'm the one telling you the truth.
We want the same thing.
To stop this and get out
of here as soon as possible.
It won't work, Magnus.
Nothing we've tried has worked so far.
He's the one who's been
studying it the longest.
He's not been studying
it. He's been hunting it.
And the more he pushes
it out of its world,
the more it's driven into ours.
Look, if there's a chance
that we can stop all of this,
then what are we fucking waiting for?
If Baz is still Baz,
there's no way he'd
want what's happened here
to happen back at the beach.
I've seen the Ancestor up close.
It's lived through the worst
this planet can throw at it
and it's always survived.
So if the only idea we've
got is to try and kill it,
that's a fight we're never going to win.
So, what do you suggest?
We need to stop underestimating it.
It's intelligent. We've seen that.
It can make decisions and it
has the ability to communicate.
Right from the start Baz
told us we had to listen.
And we never did.
Which is probably why
it keeps thinking of us
the same way we've been
thinking of it, as a threat.
To be got rid of.
If we're gonna convince
it that we're not,
we need to try and make contact.
You did. With him.
It didn't work.
And your plan has?
If you hadn't started killing it
before you even knew what it was,
this whole thing wouldn't have started.
Are you honestly gonna go
with this hippie horseshit?
Guys like you think
that letting people die
makes you some grand realist.
The only one who can
make the hard choices.
It doesn't. It just means
you're too scared to
admit you're out of ideas.
I am a realist.
That's why the choice isn't hard at all.
You said it yourself, this organism
is complex and it's intelligent.
Whenever two complex,
intelligent species meet,
one of them will eventually
destroy the other.
That is the lesson of history.
- Nature isn't a balance. It's a war.
- That's the horseshit.
Living organisms cooperate
with each other all the time.
Pretending we're prisoners of fate
is just another way
of avoiding the blame.
You and the company caused this
and now you're trying to cover your ass.
If you wanna go after Pictor,
you better remember they own you.
All those NDAs they
make you sign, contracts.
You speak about any of this, if
you're lucky enough to get back,
and Legal will slap you
- Hey!
- with so many injunctions
you won't even be able
to talk to yourself.
You threaten anyone else, and you and me
are going to have more than words.
All he's got is the same plan
that got everyone killed on the Charlie.
It didn't work there
and it won't work here.
Okay, but we can't pin
everyone's lives back at home
on talking to something
that can't even talk!
- It's fucking crazy!
- It can't talk but it can communicate.
That's what it's been
trying to do this whole time.
Magnus, Baz is afraid and alone.
We can't let him die like that.
We've shown it's possible
to make a connection.
We just need to make it stronger.
If we can reach him, we can
reach the Ancestor. I know it.
- He's not going to come to us.
- So we go to him.
Together.
Okay. We try it.
And we bring him back with us.
No one left behind, not this time.
You're gonna wish you listened to me.
If any of us had a wish
we wouldn't be wasting it on you.
Come on.
We're going back over there. For Baz.
I'll stay, if it's all the
same with you, right here.
I didn't exactly cover myself in
glory the last time I was over there.
No, not your finest hour.
But other times, Baz on the
tower, the company, the lies
you were right.
We should have got out of
here the first chance we had.
This isn't what any of us signed up for.
Isn't it?
It's not just them that
die that give their lives.
I used to think we were the steel
holding it all together
even if the rest of
the world never saw it.
But now I know we're the well.
Because, every every trip,
every person that gets chewed
up, every chopper that goes down,
it it just takes a bit
more, and a bit more, and it
until it hollows you out.
And you can't tell them back
home. They don't understand.
Who'd believe all this?
Even before it all got fucked up.
I'm gonna get us back.
- We don't quit on this.
- Back?
No.
This is who I am. This, here.
And even if we do get back, you
can't tell me that this ain't dying.
The miners, the shipbuilders,
the steel workers
they're on the same wheel, Magnus.
The only difference being that when
the wheel's done turning this time,
there won't even be
ruins to remember us by.
Watch Coake.
You had it right before
you even knew him.
Yes, boss.
- Ready?
- Let's go.
Hey, Easter, this isn't working.
You've settled in.
That's what happens when
you trust other people.
You ran to that lifeboat same as me.
Or did I miss you
dragging out the wounded?
Carrying them through the fire?
You cast it off. Not me.
We should have waited.
You were relieved we didn't.
It's okay to admit it.
Self-preservation is human nature.
You've got a way back, haven't you?
- How?
- Come with me.
- Jesus.
- Oh, my God.
He deserved better.
- This is what we're trying to reach?
- This was Coake.
Not only Coake.
It's bigger than him.
It's bigger than all of us.
You and you, out.
Pictor are not as reckless
as you all seem to think.
We knew this thing could fuck up
our comms so we built in a back-up.
A time limit if we got cut off.
There are choppers on
their way here for me now.
And there's room for
you and your friend.
Rescue? But why haven't you told them?
Because we still need to
finish what we started.
Their little missionary
quest isn't going to work,
and now the organism is targeting land.
- Pictor needs to stop it.
- Or cover it up.
Ignorance is bliss.
You don't believe that?
Try taking it away from people,
see how much they thank you.
Get on your console.
The injector equipment's
already set up over there.
Now we've stopped them
messing about with it,
we start it up again,
same as the Charlie.
- Because that went well.
- Do as you're told!
I have no problem leaving people behind.
You all right?
Aye.
But I could think of
better places to be.
Baz?
It's us.
We're here to listen, like you said.
We know what this is
now. We can protect it.
Can you hear us, Baz?
It's too late.
It's shut me out.
- I thought I was helping, but I failed.
- You were helping.
We weren't listening,
that was the problem.
But if we wanna save everyone
we need to make it see
that we're not the enemy.
It's too late, I can't.
It's just too much!
We've got you.
Fuck!
It's gonna be all right.
Yeah.
I've heard that line before.
We've got no idea what's
happening back there.
- Magnus and Rose are trying
- I don't care.
I don't care about Baz.
I don't care about that thing out there.
And I don't care about the world.
I promised Kacey we'd be a family.
- That's my world.
- They'll stop it.
You don't negotiate with nature.
Coake's an arsehole,
don't make him wrong.
- You want to kill it?
- I want to get back to my wife.
The "how" doesn't matter.
- What do you need?
- Either of you seen Harish?
This is crazy, man.
You're not happy blowing up one rig,
now you're gonna blow up another one.
You don't have to agree, you
just need to do what you're told.
But their wells are closed.
Redirect the anti-corrosion
pump into the injector,
and start prepping the system.
I can override the safeties.
What, you're not even gonna
give 'em a chance to get out?
They already had their
chance. They didn't take it.
Unless you want to stay here with them?
How many people do you reckon
we left behind on the Charlie?
What does it matter? It's done.
'Cause a lot would've
died in the explosion.
Then on the other lifeboat.
But there still would
have been a few left.
Like, 10. Maybe even 20.
- Did you know many of them?
- My job isn't about making friends.
Is it about making bodies?
Get it into your head, Pictor's
business is resource management.
We find them, we use
them up, we move on.
That includes human resources.
But you still earned
a rescue helicopter.
Because if I was covering this up,
the guy who knows the most,
he's the last one I'm bringing back.
We don't earn. We're useful
or not. We have value or not.
They're coming for me
because I have value.
Anybody who doesn't gets left
behind. And that includes you.
Good to know where we all stand.
- He's got choppers coming.
- That fucker.
We've got to get up there.
If he hurts Harish, I'm gonna snap him.
We're too late.
Christ, these are getting worse.
- Still think this is a good idea?
- That wasn't us.
That was something else.
- Hutton!
- Open up!
Bit late to find your fight.
- Harish, you all right?
- Yeah, I'm fine. You need to stop him.
Already on it. Hey, step the fuck back!
If you want a home worth
going back to, this is the way.
No, it's not!
This is why it's all as fucked
up as it is. People like you.
You'd literally rather kill
us all than admit you're wrong.
That's how afraid you are!
Try and save them all
and you'll save nothing.
Kinloch Bravo, this is
Rescue 6 and Rescue 7.
We have you in sight. Confirm
safe for final approach.
Or you can come with me.
Rescue, this is Kinloch Bravo
Control. You are safe to approach.
- See you up there.
- I'm gonna break you.
- Give us the key.
- I can fix this.
If your crew wanna get off,
you better go and tell them.
- Coward!
- We have to go after him!
You two go. Me and Easter
will stop the injector.
Yeah.
- What do we do?
- Get on the console.
I'll talk you through it.
Let's go. Come on.
We're getting you out of here.
Rose, we've got what
we came for. Let's go.
No, we haven't.
There's still a chance we
can stop what's happening.
She's right. We have to try.
Look.
A man of your word, is it?
I said I could get you
off. I wasn't lying.
No, you weren't lying. No.
As long as we had, what
was it, a value, yeah?
And you've proved yours.
Don't fuck it up now
for some lost cause.
And what about Dunlin's value,
then, eh? And all the others?
What about them, huh?
It's no good to pay now.
Hutton! Don't do it!
Hutton, if we take him back,
we get justice for everyone!
Dunlin, the Charlie, all of them!
You know what, you
ain't fucking worth it.
We've reset the safeties. He's failed.
Murch's gathering the rest.
Everyone, back from the deck!
First one's coming in.
When we get back, I'll
find a place for you.
I had a place.
It was right here.
All right, all right! Let's
go! It's quitting time!
Look.
- Well, that's new.
- Yeah.
Rose, don't.
All this time we've been
trying to keep it out,
maybe we should be letting it in.
We're listening now.
I'm listening.
We don't have to be a
threat to each other.
The ring is closing.
Extinction.
- Well we can't stay here!
- There's no way it can understand you!
- We've got Baz, we've got go!
- Not yet.
If I can convince it
we're not gonna destroy it
then it has no reason to destroy us.
I just need some time.
Come on! Rose!
- Rose!
- It's too late. Let's go.
- Come on!
- Come on. Let's go!
Baz, hey! Come on! Move!
- Where's Magnus?
- Still on the Prod!
Rose and Fulmer, too!
All right, Murch, Easter, get as
many as you can on the first chopper.
- Okay.
- We'll wait for them
- and get on the second.
- What about him?
Leave him with us.
If Magnus doesn't make
it out, neither does he.
Suits me.
- I'd say it's been a pleasure but
- Get out get moving.
You don't wanna get bumped off this one.
- Go! Go!
- Go.
Let's move. Move!
I got you. I got you.
I could've gotten through.
Move it! This place is coming apart.
Baz?
Baz
It's all connected.
Each part dependent on the others.
That's what it's given me.
That's good. But we've
got to get out of here.
No. No, it needs to be protected.
Or it'll all start again.
It needs to see that we can give, too.
Memory and sacrifice, that's who we are.
I came back for you.
Life
remains in life
as long as we can keep it going.
Magnus!
Are you sure, son?
I won't forget.
I know.
Run!
Right, come on! Let's go!
What about the others?
- You go check. See if you can see them.
- Yeah.
Come on. Get moving.
- Can you see them?
- Not yet!
Get your people on, now!
Just wait! They'll make it.
There's more people coming!
We really need to go, sir!
There! I see them!
They're on the bridge!
Right, everyone else, strapped in!
We're getting out of here!
Oh, my God.
Move it.
They're here.
Come on!
- Time's up, get in!
- Where's Baz?
- It wasn't you. He chose to stay.
- Okay.
The wave! It's gonna hit!
It's heading for the beach.
You said that you were going to stop it!
We tried. We ran out of time.
That's going to kill thousands!
Kacey's still back there.
- Cat! Cat!
- We have to warn them!
Sit down! We're overloaded as it is.
- How long until we get back?
- I said sit down!
This chopper isn't going back.
- What are you talking about?
- I told you.
If you wanted to go home, you
should have listened to me.
Where are we going?