Atomization (Part Four)

EXT. CITY STREET-DAY

SANDRA MITCHELL walks down the sidewalk. She approaches a telephone pole with a piece of paper stuck on it. The paper reads:

'Attention, all film enthusiasts! Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a part of your favorite movies? Well, we're offering you the exclusive opportunity to take part in an experiment that may make this dream possible! Come down to the warehouse on 297 Goldman Ave. at 7:20 sharp on Thursday. You can also reach me at 702-5389.'

Sandra gets an interested look on her face, and takes a slip from the bottom of the page.

EXT. WAREHOUSE-DUSK

4 cars pull into the parking spaces in front of the warehouse. Sandra, a man named Alan, a woman named Cassidy, and another man named Logan get out of their individual cars. They shut their doors, and Nathaniel opens the door to the warehouse and steps outside.

NATHANIEL

Welcome, one and all. 4 people, that's great! I thought nobody was going to come. You must really enjoy movies

The four of them agree, and Nathaniel walks up to Sandra.

NATHANIEL

What's your name?

SANDRA

I'm Sandra Mitchell.

Nathaniel nods and walks over to Daniel.

NATHANIEL

Name, please?

ALAN

Uh, I'm Alan.

Nathaniel looks up, distressed.

NATHANIEL

(Sighing)

Of course you are.

Nathaniel forces a small smile and walks over to Cassidy.

NATHANIEL

Your name?

CASSIDY

I'm Cassidy Baker.

Nathaniel walks over to Logan.

NATHANIEL

And yours?

LOGAN

Logan Greene.

Nathaniel steps back from the crowd.

NATHANIEL

Nice to meet you all. I'm Nathaniel Kubrick. Come inside, I'll show you the machine.

The crowd follows Nathaniel up to the door, and he opens it and walks inside. They enter. The inside of the building has been cleaned up. Most of the boxes and pieces of machinery have disappeared, the room has been dusted, the floor and walls have been wiped clean, and lights have been installed.

NATHANIEL

Had to clean up fast before you got here. You should've seen it before. Okay, come along.

Nathaniel walks up to the door leading into the room. He pulls out the key from his pocket, inserts it in the lock, and turns. The door opens, and he signals them to go inside. They see the machine.

LOGAN

What is this?

NATHANIEL

It's what you came here for. This is the MED, or the Movie Embedding Machine.

CASSIDY

What does it do?

NATHANIEL

DVDs are made up of billions of pieces of data. These pieces of data are implanted on the disc and are known as binary code. Now, each piece of binary contains one very, very small fraction of the movie's structure. That one piece of binary may be a pixel that belongs to a tree, whatever. The machine takes out pieces of binary that contain the profile of one character of your choice. Anything that he or she does throughout the movie, all of his or her actions, et cetera. Then it modifies human features, like appearance or vocals, so that they match your own.

ALAN

So that you actually become the character.

NATHANIEL

(Pausing)

Figuratively speaking.

SANDRA

But how does it implant your features onto the character?

NATHANIEL

You step into one of these cylinders, and whoever's operating the computer at the time will identify vital parts of your body, your wrists, heart, head, so on. Then with the touch of a button, it will shoot highly automated DC, or Data-Conversion, beams at these areas of your body. This will take your own body structure, and implant it on the character.

SANDRA

And how does that turn you into a piece of data?

NATHANIEL

I'd explain it, but there's a lot of math that I'd rather not go through again.

LOGAN

Are there any flaws in it?

NATHANIEL

Just one. The MED was built 19 years ago, so it's kind of delicate. You can't really stay in a movie for more than 15 minutes.

ALAN

Then what can you accomplish with it?

NATHANIEL

Let's get a few figures together. Cassidy?

Cassidy looks up from texting on her phone. Nathaniel sighs, and rubs his eyes.

NATHANIEL

How much money do you make per hour in your current job?

CASSIDY

About 3 dollars. Kind of sucks, really.

NATHANIEL

I'm sure. Now that figure of Cassidy's earnings in our mind, I can better explain the usefulness of the MED. One of the perks of this machine is that anything you bring out with you when you're exported from the DVD becomes tangible in the real world. So a bag of cash that contains 20,000 dollars could be... strictly speaking, rather useful. This could bring people out of poverty. You could do amazing things with it. Things that are not within the human boundaries. It could be... it could be a payroll. With a hell of a lot more than three dollars an hour.

SANDRA

But we don't have a whole lot of time to get to these areas. How do you get around that?

NATHANIEL

Simple. We pick out heist films. Banks are usually involved with that. Movies like The Bank Job or Inside Man would be perfect areas to pull off a high-paying mission. Now... are you in, or are you out.

Logan turns around to walk out the door.

NATHANIEL

Logan! Before you walk out that door...

Logan turns around, and Nathaniel walks up to him.

NATHANIEL

Think about a personal share for you, and only you. Thousands of dollars, and no law enforcement to stop you. It would be as easy as pie.

Logan sighs and rubs his eyes.

LOGAN

Fine.

NATHANIEL

That's good. Now...

Nathaniel walks back over to the computer and hits Control + O. All four cylinder doors open.

NATHANIEL

...let's get down to business.