Paradigm Shift: Involution

 

FADE UP:

INT. WEARHOUSE MAIN ROOM - NIGHT

A lanky HIROSHI (20) and a burly JEREMY (20) sit across from each other at a GLASS TABLE, making an exchange.

Hiroshi holds a COMPUTER PART, Jeremy holds MONEY.

JEREMY
I'm absolutely sure. Just pass it over.

HIROSHI
You don't want to... test it first, or anything?

INT. CONTROL ROOM - CONTINUOUS

A GROUP OF YOUTH (ages 20-25) sit lined up in front of MONITORS and COMPUTER SCREENS in a darkened room. Some wear HEADPHONES, other adjust levels on SWITCHBOARDS.

ON THE SCREENS: Jeremy and Hiroshi, at the glass table.

JEREMY
(filtered)
It's a computer part. It's designed for a purpose, and that's what it's going to do. Nothing unpredictable about it.

ROXANNE, who seems to command this eavesdropping operation, exchanges anxious glances with GREGOR. Impatient SOPHIE moves closer to the monitors.

SOPHIE
(whisper)
Come on. Just take it.

ROXANNE
How much time are you going to need, Martin?

MARTIN
(nonchalant)
Just point-two seconds.

INT. WEARHOUSE MAIN ROOM - CONTINUOUS

Jeremy leans in closer, extends the money out again.

JEREMY
I know what I want, man.

HIROSHI
I... might need this part, actually. For something else. At school.
Jeremy loses patience. He SLAMS the money down.

JEREMY
I already BOUGHT it!

He leans over the table, reaching for the computer part with his right hand, and--

INSERT - UNDER THE TABLE
--PLACES HIS LEFT HAND against the GLASS SURFACE.

INT. CONTROL ROOM - CONTINUOUS

Everyone JUMPS, startled.

ROXANNE
Now!

They expertly engage a speedy technical procedure, flipping switches and yelling numbers.

Martin SLAMS on a BIG BUTTON.

INT. WEARHOUSE MAIN ROOM - CONTINUOUS

A quick sparkle of a FLASH spews through the glass from under the table, making Jeremy and Hiroshi squint.

ALL LIGHTS CUT OUT -- leaving the two in darkness.

INT. CONTROL ROOM - CONTINUOUS

INSERT - ON A SCREEN AGAINST BLACK
An electric silver SCAN-LINE slowly beams from bottom to top, leaving in its wake the distorted outline of JEREMY'S PALM PRINT.

GREGOR (O.S.)
Yes! We did it.

ROXANNE (O.S.)
Sophie, start decoding... Gregor...
(trailing away among the other voices)

OPENING SEQUENCE
We travel through the PALM PRINT, past a chamber of wire meshes and technology, pools of informational diagrams, complex biological structures, man-made landscapes, back to underground tubing and a whirlwind burst of sparks ending when--

INT. WEARHOUSE BOILER ROOM - NIGHT

A LIGHTER FLICKS ON.

Hiroshi holds it, trying to illuminate the space around him, the small flame reflecting in his eyes.

JEREMY (O.S.)
Help me find these switches!

HIROSHI
I don't really know this place.

They yell across the room to each other, over the DRONE of the BOILER nearby. Hiroshi goes down the steps of a CATWALK, revealing more of this vast room.

JEREMY
Just find the backup generator lights. Not complicated.

Jeremy swings a flashlight around until he hits a SWITCH and is lit by an overhead pool of light.

HIROSHI
Isn't it dangerous for you to work here?

JEREMY
I don't work here, my dad owns the place. I can do whatever I want.

HIROSHI
I mean, he lets you use that room, right? As your lab?

JEREMY
He doesn't know I use it. Will you hit the switches?

A beam of light switches on, behind Jeremy.

HIROSHI
Your lab is not converting the energy efficiently, I think.

Jeremy and Hiroshi meet up at the bottom of the catwalk.

JEREMY
Listen, man. I spent months setting this up, and I know exactly what I'm doing. You can't just take one look and tell me I did it wrong. It's perfect. Someone told me it's worth millions.

HIROSHI
I'm just suggesting how the power outage happened... Who said it's worth millions?

JEREMY
I'm selling my idea to some important people. Can't tell you anything else though. Copyright reasons.

Jeremy walks toward a panel of MACHINERY, in the midst of which are FLASKS, TEST TUBES, and a COMPUTER. Hiroshi watches from the catwalk above.

HIROSHI
Wow, sounds pretty cool.

Jeremy checks the computer, shaking his head.

JEREMY
I shouldn't be telling you anything. What's your deal anyway? You just steal computer parts from MIT?

HIROSHI
I borrow them.

JEREMY
(re: computer)
Damn this thing. I'm going to have to reboot the system. It better start up by the time they get here.

HIROSHI
They're coming here? Tonight?

JEREMY
Uh, I might need your help with this.

HIROSHI
Let me just get my tools.

Hiroshi places his BAG down on the catwalk and opens it.

INSERT - HIROSHI'S P.O.V.
Jeremy sits down at the computer below. A RED LIGHT turns on in the foreground.

CUT TO:


INT. WEARHOUSE BOILER ROOM - MOMENTS LATER

As Hiroshi descends the staircase towards the computers, Jeremy enters a password and it is accepted.

Hiroshi wanders over to a SIDE DOOR, and UNLATCHES it, without Jeremy seeing.

JEREMY
The computer's fine.

Hiroshi approaches Jeremy's seat from behind. Above the computers there is a LINEAR GRAPH on the wall.

HIROSHI
Nice diagram.

JEREMY
(of course)
Yes.

Jeremy looks at Hiroshi, expecting him to start leaving. Hiroshi EXAMINES the graph more closely.

HIROSHI
It's inaccurate though.

JEREMY
Do you know what you're looking at?

HIROSHI
Yeah, Punctuated Equilibrium - your information is correct but the interpretation is not.

JEREMY
Well it's the most widely accepted theory of evolution. So you can't really say that.

HIROSHI
That's OK. But your point of view here is just... completely mechanistic.
Hiroshi traces his finger along the timeline.

HIROSHI (CONT'D)
You're showing this physical process, and whatever you can't predict, you assume it's random. Are you sure of that?

JEREMY
Yeah, of course, genetic variation is random. And if a new gene shows up that helps the individual survive, it stays and creates a new species.

HIROSHI
Evolution is not about genes. Genes are just a result. Like musical notes.

JEREMY
What are you talking about, man? My whole study is based on genetics, it's the foundation of everything.

HIROSHI
Then you're wasting your time.
Jeremy REDDENS with irritation. He swings around in his seat and quickly TYPES on the computer. He pulls up a window with EQUATIONS and SPIRAL SHAPES.

JEREMY
Just take a look at the way everything fits together - how the hell - I mean there are scientific fields entirely based on the human genome... How else would evolution come about? Don't tell me GOD does it... with his big wand.

HIROSHI
No, I'm just talking about the natural world.

JEREMY
Then look, there's no flaw in my theory, I figured out all these patterns, a way that everything fits together, this entire code that a company executive is willing to buy for seven million dollars, and it's all based on the genetic modeling of speciation through Punctuated Equilibrium.

HIROSHI
(gesticulating)
Well, if you think of the path of evolution as a river, right? It gradually makes its way, conforming to whatever the shape of the land is... like the species adapting to the environment. But there's always the same gravity, acting everywhere on the river, at the same time. So couldn't there be a similar, basic force operating all the time on evolution?

JEREMY
So what if there was?

HIROSHI
Well the river is flowing somewhere. It's not just random. Because gravity is pulling it.

JEREMY
(smirking)
Whatever man. My theory works, and I've considered every proven science available.

HIROSHI
(looking at the screen)
Not really. You haven't considered modern synthesis, general living systems, geobiology. You're coming close to chaos theory but you're not using it fully--

JEREMY
OK that's enough!

Jeremy closes the window, LOGS OFF, and gets up.

JEREMY (CONT'D)
Shouldn't be showing you this stuff anyway.

As they begin to leave the room, Hiroshi glances at the computer, and notes the log-on screen that says PASSWORD REQUEST.


INT. WEARHOUSE MAIN ROOM - NIGHT
Jeremy lounges on a ragged SOFA, away from the glass table, and near a SPEAKER SYSTEM, from which MUSIC plays, lingering atmospherically in the background.

Hiroshi sits on a chair, SLOWLY putting away his tools as he speaks.

HIROSHI
Teilhard de Chardin wrote about this in 1975, he called it the Law of Complexity Consciousness. First, the universe is in a process of expansion, from really small to immense. This is obvious, right? Secondly, it's also in a process of organic involution, that means, from extremely simple life to extremely complex. And thirdly, at the same time, there is an increase of interiorisation in the psyche, or consciousness. So, everything becomes more complex and organized, from material systems, to the potential of the mind, and as a result, society, civilization...

JEREMY
(so what?)
Right.

HIROSHI
Well, you're saying there's no governing order to anything. Everything in the universe emerged out of randomness.

JEREMY
That's just how natural selection works, man. That's why it takes millions of years... All these random elements affecting each other eventually create the most efficient way for life to exist. And now we're even smart enough to create it for ourselves.

HIROSHI
What about the Big Bang? What caused that?

JEREMY
An infinitely dense concentration of mass, gaseous substances...

HIROSHI
No, BEFORE that.

Jeremy rolls his eyes, and grabs a button-up SHIRT from the sofa.

HIROSHI (CONT'D)
People assume that... SOMEHOW there was a big explosion, and SOMEHOW it has continued to expand for billions of years, and SOMEHOW out of that, without any external forces, SOMEHOW extremely complex and intelligent life spontaneously assembled out of nothing.

JEREMY
It doesn't matter how it happened, dude! What's your name again?

HIROSHI
Hiroshi.

JEREMY
Hiroshi, this is how evolution works - there's all this unexplainable chaos, and a whole mess of chemicals, and whatever life can manage to survive is all that matters. Then we take the species that survives, and look at their genes, and say: ÒThis is great, this is what a perfect ameba looks like, or a perfect human being looks like.Ó This is what we can see... Who cares about hypothesizing about involution, or where it all came from, or if it's being pulled by the same force, like a friggin' majestic river of existence?

HIROSHI
But what about this pattern you discovered -- it exactly proves my point!

JEREMY
I think I know what I discovered.

There is a pause. Jeremy begins to change into his clean button-up shirt. His
muscular stature is partly visible.

JEREMY (CONT'D)
By the way, my visitors should be here any minute. So...
(gesturing, "wrap it up")

Hiroshi continues to put away his tools.

HIROSHI
You're surprisingly calm.

JEREMY
There's nothing to worry about, really.

Hiroshi pauses, and STARES at him for a moment. Jeremy is somewhat unsettled by this.

HIROSHI
I know this group at MIT. They're obsessed, looking for this primer for the decodification of the genome. Isn't that basically what you found?

JEREMY
Alot of people are looking for alot of shit.

HIROSHI
But these people are willing to do anything to get it. I don't think you realize the importance of what you found.

JEREMY
So, now you're trying to help me? Warning me about some dorks? How do I know you're not a part of--

HIROSHI
I'm not just talking about dorks, Jeremy. Fifty percent of the school's research laboratories receive funding from the government. They're also really interested in what you found.

JEREMY
You know what, though? Without me, nobody's got anything.
Jeremy sits straight up and leans in closer to Hiroshi.

JEREMY (CONT'D)
My biggest discovery wasn't about the Primer. It was about myself. If you look at my DNA... it has these unique sequences. It synthesizes and clusters in a different way. The derivative equations are perfectly symmetrical. That's how I found all these advanced formulas... See, the Primer is not the thing that's going to bring about the next step in the evolution of the species. I am.

HIROSHI
(quietly at first)
I hear you say this and I... It seems you're getting further and further from what evolution is all about. Sure we have DNA, and matter... but that has never fully explained how human consciousness works. We're not just moving in a line, from one species to the next. Evolution is this continuous, expansive, more and more complex and organized way that EVERYTHING connects - social, psychological, biological, economic - into a single, huge unfolding process, one organic and conscious global unit. How can you do all of this by yourself?

JEREMY
I am just the beginning.

HIROSHI
Change has NEVER come out of static, or idleness. The way we will advance in this world full of destruction will not come from some rich kids sitting on a sofa. There has to be a crisis, and then victory. There has to be a state of chaos in our surroundings, punctuated by a revolutionary exertion of the Free Will, a step forward for all of human reality. Nothing else can create change. There is no other way for us to evolve.

JEREMY
Why... did you come here?
Suddenly, the DOORBELL echoes throughout the room. Hiroshi's bag tips over and his tools SPILL on the floor.

JEREMY (CONT'D)
Oh, crap! I was supposed to be alone.

HIROSHI
Should I hide somewhere...?

JEREMY
Why the hell are you still here?!

HIROSHI
I'll just leave, alright?

JEREMY
You can't go through there! I told them I was the only one that knew! Get in
there!

HIROSHI
My tools!

Jeremy GRABS Hiroshi by the arm and forces him towards a small STORAGE ROOM.

HIROSHI (CONT'D)
Hey, what am I supposed to do? I have to get back!

JEREMY
Get in there and shut up for now. I don't know, I'll figure it out.
Jeremy pushes Hiroshi into the room and SLAMS the door.

HIROSHI
Hey! This is not fair! Let me out!

Hiroshi BANGS heavily on the door. The doorbell RINGS again. Jeremy is flustered, standing in the middle of the room. He turns, hesitates. Hiroshi BANGS, annoyingly.

Jeremy then reaches for the speaker system and INCREASES the volume so that the music is BLASTING now, drowning out Hiroshi's sounds.

INT. WEARHOUSE STORAGE ROOM - CONTINUOUS

Hiroshi bangs on the door a couple of more times.

HIROSHI
Jeremy, let me out! Let me out!

He stops, listens for a second, and DARTS towards the WINDOWN behind him.

INT. WEARHOUSE MAIN ROOM - CONTINUOUS

Jeremy unlocks the front door, leading to the driveway.

EXT. WEARHOUSE BACK LOT - CONTINUOUS

From the EMPTY LOT outside the wearhouse, we see Hiroshi BREAK a small window and crawl out of the storage room.

He sprints around the corner, knowing exactly where he's going, arriving at the side door that leads to the boiler room - the door he unlocked earlier.

I/E. WEARHOUSE FRONT DOOR - CONTINUOUS

Jeremy opens the front door and finds no one there. Only the darkness of the night. His eyes dash around. Down the driveway he sees:

CAR HEADLIGHTS. The engine is on. The car does not move.

Jeremy's fingers curl around a heavy metal pole next to the door.

INT. WEARHOUSE BOILER ROOM - CONTINUOUS

Hiroshi enters through the side door and runs over to the computers. He sees the window that says PASSWORD REQUEST.

Hiroshi runs up and around the CATWALK, to the spot above the computers where he opened his bag earlier. From a corner of the metal structure he pulls out:

A small, digital VIDEO CAMERA.

EXT. DRIVEWAY - CONTINUOUS

Jeremy approaches the car nervously, metal pole in hand. One of the car doors is OPEN, and the driver - an adult in a chauffeur suit - is KNOCKED OUT, forehead against steering wheel.

Jeremy SWINGS around to see something moving in the shadows, a cunning, HOODED FIGURE stealthily climbing on the ROOF of the wear-house.

INT. WEARHOUSE BOILER ROOM - CONTINUOUS

Hiroshi plays back video images on the camera, showing Jeremy from above, typing at the computer.

Hiroshi PAUSES the video. He ZOOMS into the paused image. REWINDS and PLAYS again.

INSERT
Pixelated, choppy images of Jeremy's hands moving swiftly across the keyboard.
BACK TO SCENE

Hiroshi thinks for a moment. He types something in.

ON THE SCREEN: PASSWORD ACCEPTED.

He pulls up the computer program they were looking at earlier, and simultaneously, his e-mail account.

INT. WEARHOUSE MAIN ROOM - CONTINUOUS

Jeremy rushes back into the wearhouse. The blasting music still echoes through the large main hall. He stops at the door, bewildered.

A LIGHT - from a powerful flashlight, beams down from the ceiling onto the glass table.

INT. WEARHOUSE BOILER ROOM - CONTINUOUS

Rapid fire, Hiroshi COPIES a line of code from the program, PASTES it onto his e-mail, and hits SEND.

CUT TO:


INT. CONTROL ROOM - CONTINUOUS

The same team of eavesdropping youth BURSTS into cheers and applause, while looking at their screens.

ALIA
Here's the map.

LARRY
Nice work. OK, Martin, use the same decodification process for the palm diagram. Sophie, can we confirm this sequence?

SOPHIE
It fits perfectly. I'm plotting the graphs, when you receive the new code, Gregor, test the sequence again before you send it.

GREGOR
Is that necessary?

MARTIN
Definitely.

More exchanges of activity and information. Images displayed everywhere, of JEREMY'S PALM PRINT, overlayed with SPIRALS. And while the group is distracted --

ON A SCREEN: The live feed from under the glass table. The powerful FLASHLIGHT beams down on it when suddenly -- it CRASHES into a million pieces as a BODY appears to fall through the glass.

INT. WEARHOUSE MAIN ROOM - CONTINUOUS
Jeremy stares in disbelief at the stealthy HOODED FIGURE that has just crashed into the middle of the room, the glass table shattered underneath him.

The figure stands, turns to the BOILER ROOM DOOR, and begins to run. Jeremy desperately runs in the same direction, they meet half-way and begin to STRUGGLE.

INT. WEARHOUSE BOILER ROOM - CONTINUOUS

Hiroshi gets up from the computer for a moment and runs to the side door, where suddenly there is ANOTHER HOODED FIGURE trying to creep in.

Hiroshi slams the door and latches it.

As the figure struggles with the door, Hiroshi returns to the computer, having received an e-mail response with another code.

He COPIES the line of code, PASTES it onto the program, frantically types a few commands and --

HITS PRINT.

INT. WEARHOUSE MAIN ROOM - CONTINUOUS

Jeremy now BRAWLS with the hooded figure, grasping awkwardly with all his might, reddening with the fury of a damaged ego.

The two struggle against the wall. Jeremy's screams fade into the background of the BLASTING MUSIC.

INT. CONTROL ROOM - CONTINUOUS

The team is now quiet, listening anxiously to the same music, entering distorted through the speakers of the control room.

And Jeremy, gasping and slamming onto the floor. The video feed has been replaced with STATIC.

There is another crash and the sound is lost as well.

INT. WEARHOUSE BOILER ROOM - CONTINUOUS

Hiroshi grabs the fresh code sequence PRINT-OUT as it barely leaves the printer. And with the same movement --

LOGS OUT of the computer, RUSHES up the stairs into the main room --

INT. WEARHOUSE MAIN ROOM - CONTINUOUS

And is surprised to find Jeremy fighting, now ROLLING on the glass-covered floor with the hooded figure on top of him. Hiroshi is stunned for a moment. Then he sees something at the front entrance.

A THIRD HOODED FIGURE appears silhouetted at the doorway.

Hiroshi doesn't know what to do. The blasting music reaches a CLIMAX. The third hooded figure leaves the doorway and APPROACHES Hiroshi, quickly.

From the floor, Jeremy gives Hiroshi one last glance.

Hiroshi runs into a corner of the room, grabs ahold of a FUSE BOX, opens it, and SHUTS OFF ALL THE SWITCHES.

The entire wearhouse is engulfed in DARKNESS.

The music CUTS OFF abruptly.

Flashlights swing from side to side.

We hear RUNNING, we hear Jeremy give one last acrid yelp, and a door slamming, and a CRASH.

EXT. WEARHOUSE BACK LOT - CONTINUOUS

Hiroshi bursts through the same broken window that he escaped from before, and falls out onto the concrete lot.

He runs the opposite direction this time, leading him to a side street, where his bicycle is hidden in the corner.

He mounts his bike, and speeds around the corner.


INT. CONTROL ROOM - NIGHT

The team sits back, stunned. Alia takes off her headphones. Sophie wipes her forehead. Roxanne and Gregor put their papers down.

MARTIN
Wow.

ALIA
I wasn't expecting it to go that far.

ROXANNE
I think it's clear that at least he did what he needed to do, successfully.

LARRY
He actually prevented both of the groups from getting ahold of the Primer, so I would agree.

SOPHIE
What do those freaks call themselves again?

MARTIN
"The Enders"... I heard about them. They think the Primer is going to save them when the world comes to an end... or something.

ALIA
Guys, we're forgetting that the important part about this was Jeremy.

ROXANNE
You're right. We need to make sure that when we find people like Jeremy again, we don't just get our information from them, but we bring them to our side, and protect them. Jeremy could have helped us alot.

GREGOR
It's alright. Hiroshi did what he could.

SOPHIE
That's the other issue. Do we know if Hiroshi's actually going to come back? He still has the second sequence with him. Is he going to share that with us?

MARTIN
We can never be sure with Hiroshi.

ALIA
I think we can just hope that he will.

ROXANNE
Yeah. We all did a good job tonight, we chipped away at this work a little bit more. I personally got a better idea of how it all fits together. Unfortunately we lost one person. And we're not sure if the other person is willing to help us. But we have to trust that he knows what he's doing, that's the thing. There are going to be alot of uncertainties along the way. Just remember that what we're working for is greater than what any of us can understand.

There is a pause, a pensive moment among the group members.

EXT. STREET - DAWN

Hiroshi rides his bike down a hill, into the distance.

FADE OUT.

 

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