JAMES CAMERON

Written by

Jon Evans ii.

[email protected] FADE IN:

INT. KEVIN’S ROOM - DAY

KEVIN’s eyes open. He sits up in his bed, looks around his cramped room. He’s thirty but looks older, weary, stressed.

INT. KEVIN’S BATHROOM - DAY

He brushes his teeth.

INT. KEVIN’S KITCHEN - DAY

He opens the door to a fridge partitioned into five sections with five names, pours milk on his cereal, sits at a table where his four housemates are eating breakfast. None of them acknowledge the existence of the others.

EXT. KEVIN’S HOUSE - DAY

He emerges from the kind of dilapidated, multi-roommate San Fernando Valley house where the dreams of one’s twenties slowly die, gets into his Hyundai, and drives off.

INT. KEVIN’S OFFICE - DAY

Sits in one of a sea of soul-devouring cubicles, dressed in business casual, staring frustrated at his screen.

EXT. KEVIN’S OFFICE - DAY

Drone workers stream out of an oppressively bland business park to their cars. He is among them. 2.

EXT. STRIP MALL - DAY

Emerges from his Hyundai, approaches the GAME CAFE.

INT. GAME CAFE - DAY

An Internet cafe devoted to video games, its walls covered by anime posters. Kevin nods to the owner, proceeds past the obsessive gamers and geeks hammering away at games in the public room, and enters one of the private rooms in back.

INT. PRIVATE GAME ROOM - DAY

Mostly full of XBoxes. The anime decor here is even more sexual. There’s also a huge poster for a fantasy game called ARTIFACT. RANDY, tall and lean, and TUCKER, morbidly obese, wait within, armed with chips, pretzels, beer, and Coke.

RANDY Kevin! My man!

TUCKER You ready to kick some ass?

KEVIN I guess so.

TUCKER You don’t sound ready.

KEVIN Yeah. Got a lot on my mind. (beat) I’ve been talking to Lisa. We’re going to try to get back together.

RANDY Who? 3.

KEVIN Lisa.

TUCKER Who’s Lisa?

KEVIN ...Right. Very funny. Classy, too.

TUCKER No, seriously, who is she?

KEVIN Enough, OK? Your opinions are clear. Jeez, I thought you liked her.

Tucker and Randy exchange what-the? glances.

RANDY Kevin, we really don’t know who...

KEVIN Enough. We’re trying to get back together. End of discussion.

RANDY ...Well. Good luck with that.

KEVIN Thanks so much.

An awkward silence broken by -

BEAST Gentlemen!

He’s compact, Asian, and full of good cheer.

RANDY AND TUCKER Beast! 4.

BEAST Are you ready to wreak some goddamn havoc?

TUCKER Sir, yes sir!

BEAST Then let’s get goddamn to it!

CUT TO:

EXT. VIDEO GAME AFGHANISTAN - DAY

A box canyon full of Taliban. We shoot some of them, turn, shoot some more, dive for cover, come up behind the wreckage of an ancient Russian tank, shoot again, and again. Across the way our two buddies are doing the same --

INT. PRIVATE GAME ROOM - NIGHT

TUCKER That’s it, hajji! You don’t mess with a Navy SEAL! I know fifty ways to kill you with my bare hands!

RANDY And five more with his dick.

TUCKER That’s right! Eat dick, hajji!

EXT. VIDEO GAME AFGHANISTAN - DAY

The Taliban are down. We hustle down the canyon --

-- which opens up to a valley full of a huge Taliban army. 5.

INT. PRIVATE GAME ROOM - NIGHT

BEAST Whoa.

KEVIN ‘I say we nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.’

The other three give him a weird look.

TUCKER I don’t think there are any nuclear weapons in this game.

KEVIN What are you, Captain Literal?

RANDY They’ve got a tank!

EXT. VIDEO GAME AFGHANISTAN - DAY

An ancient but functional Russian tank rolls towards us.

KEVIN On it.

He switches weapons. A crosshair overlay alights on the tank.

KEVIN (CONT’D) ‘Hasta la vista ... baby.’

He pulls the trigger. The tank explodes. 6.

INT. PRIVATE GAME ROOM - NIGHT

RANDY Since when do you speak Spanish with a bad German accent?

KEVIN Since when do you not speak Terminator?

RANDY What?

KEVIN Terminator 2? ‘Hasta la vista, baby’? You’ve been sniffing too much exhaust at work.

BEAST What’s Terminator 2?

KEVIN ...Excuse me?

TUCKER You mean the game? No, that’s Exterminator 2. I don’t think there’s any Terminator series.

KEVIN Are you high? I mean the movie.

RANDY Sorry, never seen it.

KEVIN Yes you have! Like, twenty times! The four of us snuck in and saw it at least five times when it first came out.

RANDY Uh, no, I don’t remember that at all. Do you guys? 7.

Tucker and Beast shake their heads.

KEVIN ...This is a really dumb joke.

TUCKER You’re the one talking about nukes in Call of Duty, and saying we saw a movie we didn’t. Are you high?

KEVIN Tucker, ‘nuke the site from orbit’ is a quote. From Aliens. The movie. As you well know.

The other three are nonplussed.

BEAST Aliens?

RANDY Let me guess. Some arthouse thing.

TUCKER Dude, not everyone sees all the weird crap you do.

Kevin is genuinely confused.

KEVIN Weird? Arthouse? Hello? James Cameron? Directed five of the biggest movies on all time? Appeared as himself in that season of Entourage we saw last week?

RANDY No, that was Ridley Scott. 8.

KEVIN No, it wasn’t - what is this? You’re three of his biggest fans in the world. What the hell?

TUCKER Sorry, no. Never heard of him.

KEVIN Oh, for God’s sake.

He grabs a nearby keyboard, calls up IMDB.com, types ‘JAMES CAMERON’ into its search box...

‘RESULT: Nothing found.’

Baffled, he types ‘TERMINATOR’, gets the same thing.

KEVIN (CONT’D) What the...

TUCKER Wow. You like some obscure shit, when even IMDB don’t know it.

Kevin gives him a weirded-out look. A little rattled now, he tries ‘THE ABYSS’. Again nothing. ‘TRUE LIES’: nothing.

KEVIN This is a stupid joke.

He searches Wikipedia. Then Google. No James Cameron.

KEVIN (CONT’D) What the hell is this?

TUCKER Maybe you got his name wrong. 9.

KEVIN Did you hack the wi-fi to filter out the real results, or something? For your pathetic little joke?

RANDY Whoa, Kevin, take it down a notch. You’re acting kinda crazy here.

KEVIN I’m acting crazy? (beat) Is this about Lisa? Becase our first date was Avatar?

TUCKER The Last Airbender? Dude, that was one seriously bad movie!

KEVIN No, not...

BEAST Who’s Lisa?

KEVIN That’s it. Seriously. Fuck all of you.

He storms out, leaving them gaping, bewildered.

INT. KEVIN’S OFFICE - DAY

Kevin sits with a phone up against his ear.

KEVIN I’m afraid he said the layout and formatting all need to be completely reworked to meet corporate standards.

He listens a moment, and blanches. 10.

KEVIN (CONT’D) Oh, wow. I’m really sorry to hear that. This must be a tough time. But someone still has to -

He listens a moment again. Winces.

KEVIN (CONT’D) Tell you what. Don’t worry about it. I’ll clean it up myself.

Another moment -

KEVIN (CONT’D) You’re welcome. I’ll find the time somewhere. Uh, my condolences.

He hangs up, sighs heavily, stares blankly at his computer screen. It displays a list of the all-time top box-office hits, headed by THE DARK KNIGHT and THE AVENGERS.

INT. SANDWICH SHOP - DAY

Kevin, in line with the lunch crowd, looks up, and -

KEVIN Lisa!

She’s pretty, accompanied by a another man, and confused.

LISA ...Yeah! Hi!

KEVIN What are you doing here?

LISA Just getting lunch.

KEVIN What a coincidence. 11.

LISA Yeah. This is my boyfriend Matt.

She expects Kevin to introduce himself. Instead -

KEVIN ...Your boyfriend?

LISA Yes. I’m sorry, you look familiar, I know we’ve met, but I can’t remember your name.

KEVIN You know we’ve met? Is this a joke?

LISA Oh! I remember! I’m sorry. We went on a date once, didn’t we?

KEVIN A date? Once?

He stares at her, gobsmacked.

LISA ...Is something wrong?

KEVIN You don’t remember our four-hour conversation two nights ago?

Lisa and Matt’s walls go up; he just got creepy.

LISA I think you have me confused with someone else.

KEVIN Lisa McDonald? Can’t stand your mother’s new boyfriend? (MORE) 12. KEVIN (CONT'D) Spent most of university suffering from depression? Likes peanut butter on California rolls?

LISA What is this?

KEVIN I don’t know. Wait, yes I do. Complete fucking insanity.

Matt steps in front of her, combative.

MATT OK, buddy, you need to walk away now and not come back.

LISA We should go.

MATT Yeah.

They turn to leave. Kevin cuts them off.

KEVIN Wait!

Matt shoves him away, hard.

MATT You come near her again, I will break bones, you understand?

KEVIN One question. Just one. Our first date, what movie did we see?

LISA First? It was our only date. 13.

KEVIN What movie? Please. It’s important.

LISA ...The Blind Side.

Kevin can only stare at her as she walks away.

INT. KEVIN’S OFFICE - DAY

At his computer, wild-eyed, clicking through IMDB.

KEVIN (under his breath) This is insane. Insane, insane, insane. James Cameron. What happened?

He types in ‘PIRANHA II’. No results.

KEVIN (CONT’D) (under his breath) You did something before that...

He remembers. Types in ‘ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK’.

Clicks on ‘VISUAL EFFECTS’ -

- and higlights: ‘Visual Effects - Jim Cameron.’

KEVIN (CONT’D) Jim Cameron...What happened to you?

Suddenly Kevin’s boss looms over him.

KEVIN’S BOSS Kedrosky. I need that forecast document this afternoon.

Kevin looks up at him, and something snaps. 14.

KEVIN That’s not going to happen.

KEVIN’S BOSS ...What?

KEVIN I’m real sorry to ruin your day, but believe it or not, I actually have something important to do right now.

He stands, walks off, leaving his shocked-silent boss behind.

EXT. HARRY HAUSEN’S HOUSE - NIGHT

Kevin approaches this modest house and rings the bell.

It’s answered by a gorilla with Godzilla’s head.

HARRY HAUSEN (behind the mask) You must be the student!

KEVIN I...yes.

HARRY peels off the Godzilla mask, revealing an aged face.

HARRY HAUSEN Come in, my boy, come in.

INT. HARRY HAUSEN’S HOUSE - NIGHT

It’s half a home, half a temple to special effects.

HARRY HAUSEN So how can I help you? Your thesis sounds most intriguing. 15.

KEVIN I mostly wanted to talk to you about Escape From New York.

HARRY HAUSEN Excellent choice. Groundbreaking work on a very modest budget.

KEVIN Yeah. Do you remember who was in charge of that?

HARRY HAUSEN I do. It was Jim, uh... what was his last name? It’s been more than thirty years, you know.

KEVIN Cameron?

HARRY HAUSEN That’s it. Jim Cameron.

KEVIN Whatever happened to him?

HARRY HAUSEN I’ve no idea.

KEVIN That’s too bad. I’d really, really like to talk to him.

HARRY HAUSEN You know, the union might know. He’d be in line for a pension now. I can give you some introductions.

KEVIN Could you? That would be great. 16.

HARRY HAUSEN He was quite a fellow. Abrasive, but so much drive, so much talent. I remember thinking, remember the name, this one’s going places. But he never did.

KEVIN No, I guess not.

EXT. CATALINA ISLAND FERRY - DAY

Kevin stands on the deck of the ferry as it steams out.

EXT. CATALINA ISLAND - DAY

Kevin disembarks on the island, checks the map on his iPhone.

EXT. JAMES CAMERON’S HOUSE - DAY

A decrepit little bungalow. Kevin looks around, amazed, then approaches. The doorbell produces no sound, so he knocks.

No response. He looks through the window in the door. Beyond is a passageway full of Amazon boxes, pizza boxes, battered shoes, and random bits of undersea machinery.

Intrigued, Kevin goes around the house. Looks in the window. To a room that’s one-fifth bedroom, four-fifths workshop. A dozen guns of varying sizes hang on one wall.

And then, a sound all too familiar to a James Cameron fan -

CH-CHACK. A shotgun being racked, inches from Kevin’s head.

JAMES CAMERON I have every legal right to blow your goddamn head off. 17.

He’s nothing like the Cameron Kevin knows. Instead, he’s obese, handicapped, and furious at the world, shaped by thirty years of setback after failure after frustration, carrying a chip the size of the Titanic on his shoulder.

KEVIN I’m sorry. I knocked.

JAMES CAMERON You think that gives you the right to trespass? You are invading my property.

Kevin slowly turns to face him. His eyes widen.

KEVIN You’re James Cameron?

JAMES CAMERON What of it?

KEVIN (without thinking) You’re a gun nut. Of course you’re a gun nut. What happened to you?

For a moment Cameron’s fury is tempered by confusion.

JAMES CAMERON I didn’t feel like answering the door. I don’t know you. You think you have a right to my time?

KEVIN No, sir, I don’t.

JAMES CAMERON Then what are you doing here? 18.

KEVIN I’m a film student researching a thesis. You were the visual effects supervisor for Escape From New York, right?

JAMES CAMERON ...Yeah. That was me.

KEVIN I just wanted to talk to you.

Cameron slowly lowers the shotgun, then reaches for the cane he had concealed in the hedge beside him.

JAMES CAMERON You’ve got ten minutes.

He waddles toward the back door, leaning heavily on his cane.

INT. JAMES CAMERON’S HOUSE - DAY

They sit at a table in his kitchen, which overflows with unwashed dishes and molecular-gastronomy experiments.

KEVIN So. After Escape From New York, what did you do then?

JAMES CAMERON I was in line to direct a movie about killer fish. Instead I died.

KEVIN Excuse me?

JAMES CAMERON For one hundred and thirty-seven seconds. Motorcycle accident. Months before I could walk, nine years to overcome the speech impediment. Turns out no one wants a stuttering gimp to direct their movies. (MORE) 19. JAMES CAMERON (CONT'D) So my shining Hollywood moment passed, and here I am.

KEVIN Here you are. What do you do?

JAMES CAMERON I’ve registered three patents for underwater machinery, published five science-fiction short stories in major markets, divorced two ex-wives, and I work at a dive shop.

KEVIN Do you remember, was there anything odd about that motorcycle accident?

JAMES CAMERON I don’t remember a thing. I was in a coma for a week. (beat) But, yes, since you ask, there was something weird. The car that hit me was totalled, but they never found any driver. He must have been thrown out and just walked away.

KEVIN No kidding.

JAMES CAMERON I’m told it was a lot like that scene in MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE.

KEVIN Which scene?

JAMES CAMERON The end of the motorycle chase. 20.

KEVIN ...I’ve read it five times, I don’t remember any motorcycle chase.

JAMES CAMERON Not the book. The movie.

KEVIN There’s a movie?

Cameron gives him a wary look.

JAMES CAMERON So you’re a film student. Researching a thesis.

KEVIN That’s right.

JAMES CAMERON But you’ve never heard of the movie version of MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE. An instant classic which won seven Oscars, for your information. You’re not taking notes. You’re not even asking me about my movie.

KEVIN I’m...this is just background...

JAMES CAMERON Bullshit. Why are you really here? Private investigator? Sheila’s lawyer send you?

KEVIN No!

Cameron thumps a pistol onto the table.

JAMES CAMERON Let’s see some ID. 21.

Kevin, scared, passes over his driver’s license.

JAMES CAMERON (CONT’D) What is this? This isn’t even a good fake. This is a fake created by someone who has no idea what a real California license looks like.

KEVIN This was a mistake.

JAMES CAMERON You’re goddamn right. I’m calling the cops.

KEVIN No!

JAMES CAMERON ...Interesting. Why not? Who are you? What do you want?

Beat.

KEVIN Did you ever have an idea for a story about a robot who goes back in time to kill a woman whose son defeats the robots in the future?

Cameron stares at him.

JAMES CAMERON Yes. But I never wrote it.

KEVIN This might sound crazy, but I’m from a parallel universe where you never had that accident, and you’re the most famous and most successful director in Hollywood history.

Long beat. 22.

JAMES CAMERON You thought that might sound crazy?

KEVIN It does. I know. But it’s true.

JAMES CAMERON No. What’s true is you’re a crazy person who’s read too much Philip K. Dick. You’re insane, you’re potentially dangerous, and you’re wasting my time. (picks up the gun) Now get out of my home before I exercise my right to self-defence.

KEVIN Please. I need your help.

JAMES CAMERON Get out now. And if you ever come back, I will not hesitate to terminate your miserable existence.

KEVIN That was the title. The Terminator.

It hits home. For a moment Cameron wavers. Then:

JAMES CAMERON Go.

Kevin stands, slowly. Turns. Walks towards the door.

Stops.

KEVIN Can I just say one last thing? Without you shooting me?

JAMES CAMERON It better be the last thing. 23.

Kevin turns back.

KEVIN Look, I know I’m not crazy. Because I am not smart enough or talented enough to invent something as good as my memories of your movies. This isn’t right. You’re not supposed to be like this. You tell stories that reach the whole world. You’re still a total asshole, that part hasn’t changed, but you’re supposed to be a great man. Something has gone deeply wrong. Can’t you feel that? Haven’t you always felt that, ever since the accident?

Cameron chews on that for a beat.

JAMES CAMERON Even if I were to believe your fairytale for so much as a fraction of a second, what difference would it make? Like it or not, here I am.

KEVIN Whatever happened to you, there must be a way to make it unhappen.

JAMES CAMERON These movies you imagine I make. They really mean that much to you?

KEVIN My girlfriend, in my world, or timeline, or whatever, our first date, we went to one of your movies. Avatar. Here, we didn’t, and we never got together.

JAMES CAMERON Avatar. 24.

KEVIN It’s...magical. It’s like science fiction and fantasy all rolled into one. There’s this world...

JAMES CAMERON ...Pandora...

KEVIN Yeah. And aliens, the Na’vi.

JAMES CAMERON This is complete madness. (beat) What is it you want from me?

KEVIN The accident. It started there. Maybe it wasn’t an accident. I want you to come with me to where it happened and - I don’t know. Maybe we’ll find something.

JAMES CAMERON I do not believe a single word you are saying. Not a word. (beat) But you know what? I seem not to have any other pressing engagements tonight, and they say a writer should never turn down a new experience. So what the hell. If we hurry we can make the next ferry.

KEVIN All right.

EXT. SUNSET BOULEVARD - NIGHT

Kevin and Cameron drift along in his Hyundai. Stop at a ramshackle but charming rep-movie theatre; the EPIC.

Its marquee reads: THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE. 25.

KEVIN It’s real.

JAMES CAMERON What is?

KEVIN Man In The High Castle. The movie.

JAMES CAMERON Of course it’s real.

KEVIN A week ago, for me, there was no such movie, and this theatre was showing a retrospective of all your movies. I saw one. Aliens.

JAMES CAMERON I should be flattered. This used to be a palace. I saw Blade Runner here opening night.

KEVIN I saw it here a year ago. The final cut, without that stupid voiceover.

Cameron nods approvingly.

JAMES CAMERON Ridley Scott’s finest hour. But High Castle is probably number two. Maybe third after Gladiator.

KEVIN I guess somehow your career not happening opened up space for it.

JAMES CAMERON Right. 26.

EXT. MULHOLLAND DRIVE - NIGHT

The lights of LA like a sea of fireworks all around them.

JAMES CAMERON Stop. It was here.

The Hyundai’s headlights illuminate a gloomy intersection.

JAMES CAMERON (CONT’D) Apparently they found me under that tree, and the bike everywhere else.

He opens the door violently, grabs his cane, and stomps out like a man on a mission. After a second Kevin follows.

Cameron stares down at the barren patch beneath the tree.

JAMES CAMERON (CONT’D) I’ve only been back here once since. The one-year anniversary. I still needed two canes. Couldn’t speak clearly enough to order a pizza.

Beat.

KEVIN I was in a bad crash once. When I was twelve. My sister died. I was in the hospital for a month. I never went back. I’d drive like five miles out of my way to avoid where it happened.

Cameron nods a gruff understanding.

JAMES CAMERON I respect a good story, and your story would be good if it was true. If I was somehow supposed to be destined to be great. But that’s not real. This was real. 27.

KEVIN Not where I come from.

JAMES CAMERON Fine. Here I am. What happens now?

KEVIN I don’t know. I was hoping we’d find something. Some clue.

JAMES CAMERON Thirty years later? Your story has a good setup, but take it from me, it needs more payoff.

KEVIN I’m sorry. I don’t know.

JAMES CAMERON All right. Well. You tried.

KEVIN This was stupid. I’m sorry. I’ll drive you back to the ferry.

EXT. SUNSET BOULEVARD - NIGHT

They drift past the Epic again, and -

JAMES CAMERON Wait.

KEVIN What?

JAMES CAMERON You’ve seriously never seen Man In The High Castle? 28.

KEVIN Seriously never.

JAMES CAMERON Well, that at least is something crazy we can do something about.

INT. EPIC THEATER - NIGHT

A threadbare lobby decorated with classic posters. Kevin waits as Cameron buys an enormous tub of popcorn, a huge Coke, and a massive packet of licorice.

The theater proper is once-palatial, now-decrepit. They sit. Cameron munches popcorn as the lights dim. Then the screen comes to light, and Kevin’s eyes widen, as music swells...

EXT. EPIC THEATER - NIGHT

They walk slowly back towards the car.

JAMES CAMERON Well?

KEVIN That was fantastic. A totally unfaithful adaptation -

JAMES CAMERON Totally!

KEVIN - but it completely captured the spirit of the book. Amazing.

JAMES CAMERON I was watching you. You’ve really never seen it before, have you. 29.

KEVIN Nope.

JAMES CAMERON What do you do? Do you have a job?

KEVIN Yeah. At BuzzMachine. We create and measure buzz for media properties.

JAMES CAMERON That sounds awful.

KEVIN Pretty much.

JAMES CAMERON You know, for a brief weak moment there, I almost thought your crazy story might be going somewhere.

KEVIN It is. There’s got to be something we can do.

JAMES CAMERON Kevin, you’re not a bad guy, but after you drop me off at the ferry you should leave me alone and never come to see me again.

KEVIN I - what?

JAMES CAMERON What you’re doing, it’s cruel, you understand? I don’t want to hear about what I might have been.

KEVIN We can find a way to fix this. 30.

JAMES CAMERON No. We can’t. Actually, stop here. I’ll find another way home.

KEVIN Look, James -

JAMES CAMERON Stop the goddamn car.

KEVIN All right.

He does so. Cameron gets out and limps away on his cane. This being L.A., he’s the only pedestrian in sight.

Kevin stares after him for a long moment. Then U-turns.

INT. KEVIN’S ROOM - DAY

Fully dressed for work, he sits crosslegged on his bed, hands on his temples, trying to summon the will to face the day.

EXT. JAMES CAMERON’S HOUSE - DAY

Cameron steps out, smartly dressed, for him.

INT. KEVIN’S OFFICE - DAY

Sitting in his cubicle, wincing, as his boss approaches.

EXT. SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION - DAY

A sign outside a hotel says ‘WELCOME SCIENCE FICTION FANS’.

Cameron’s Prius pulls to a stop in a handicapped spot. He emerges and makes his way past two girls posing scantily dressed as anime characters we saw in the game cafe earlier. 31.

INT. KEVIN’S OFFICE - DAY

Slowly, despondently, he cleans out his desk.

INT. SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION - DAY

Cameron and PATRICK, an editor, sit behind a table laden with science fiction anthologies, as fans browse.

JAMES CAMERON So when are you going to buy my underwater-aliens story?

PATRICK When you give it a better ending. It’s a little too deus ex.

JAMES CAMERON Fine. You’re wrong, but fine.

PATRICK So how have you been?

JAMES CAMERON I had a truly strange night last night. Seriously, almost straight out of a Philip K. Dick novel.

PATRICK Who?

JAMES CAMERON Philip K. Dick.

PATRICK Dick. Sorry. I’m not familiar with his work.

JAMES CAMERON What are you talking about? We’ve had long conversations about him. He’s a freaking legend. 32.

The editor shakes his head, bewildered.

JAMES CAMERON (CONT’D) Ubik? A Scanner Darkly? Man In The High Castle? Blade Runner?

PATRICK Sorry. I don’t know any of them.

Long beat as the ramifications hit Cameron.

JAMES CAMERON Holy shit.

He leaps up and departs with surprising alacrity.

EXT. KEVIN’S OFFICE - DAY

Kevin, carrying a cardboard box full of his possessions, is escorted off the premises, his face a picture of despair -

- turning surprised and curious, as Cameron hustles up.

JAMES CAMERON We need to talk.

INT. COFFEE SHOP - DAY

Cameron sits across from Kevin, radiating intensity.

JAMES CAMERON Are you familiar with the work of the author Philip K. Dick?

KEVIN Of course.

JAMES CAMERON Good. So am I. You know who isn’t? Anybody else in the entire world. 33.

KEVIN What?

JAMES CAMERON I stopped by two bookstores. None of his work. Searched the Internet thoroughly. No nothing. No movie adaptations. No references at all except to his very early work, before he became at all successful.

KEVIN We saw the movie version of his most famous book just last night.

JAMES CAMERON Exactly. We did.

It takes Kevin a moment.

KEVIN And a week ago I saw one of your movies at exactly the same place. The Epic Theatre. Holy shit.

JAMES CAMERON That’s what I said.

KEVIN Are you suggesting that, when you see a movie there, then -

JAMES CAMERON No. When you see a movie there.

KEVIN Oh my God. 34.

EXT. EPIC THEATER - DAY

Kevin and Cameron stare up at its marquee, which announces: THE STUNT MAN and MY FAVORITE YEAR.

KEVIN Maybe we shouldn’t be here. We might wipe out Peter O’Toole.

JAMES CAMERON So this is where it all unhappens. Seems harmless enough from outside.

KEVIN What do you want to do? I think they’re closed.

Cameron gives him a scathing look, leads him along the alleyway beside the building to an unmarked door. Kevin is about to knock when Cameron grabs his hand, gives him an even more scathing look.

Kevin nods reluctantly, tries to open it. It’s locked. Kevin turns - and sees the lockpicks gleaming in Cameron’s hand.

KEVIN (CONT’D) You can pick locks? Of course you can pick locks.

Cameron busies himself with the door.

JAMES CAMERON Why of course?

KEVIN In my world you’re known to invent your own movie machinery when the normal stuff isn’t good enough.

JAMES CAMERON Your world is full of incompetent morons, too? How depressing. 35.

The lock pops. The door yawns open to a dim hallway.

INT. EPIC THEATER - DAY

Kevin and Cameron make their way along the dark hall.

KEVIN OK, is it just me, or is this hallway a lot darker and a lot longer than it should be?

JAMES CAMERON It’s not just you.

He has a gun in his hand.

They reach a side door. Look at each other. Kevin sees Cameron’s gun, winces. Cameron reaches out, pushes the door open with his cane, reveal stairs going up and down.

KEVIN Which way?

JAMES CAMERON Down. Into the abyss.

They descend. To another door, and a hallway that stretches beyond it, all lit by a single naked lightbulb. This door looks different, archaic, ornate. And it’s made of -

KEVIN Is that stone?

JAMES CAMERON Open it.

Kevin takes a deep breath. Pulls open the door.

Reveals a very strange sitting room. The walls are so unfinished that they’re almost like a cave. Three VERY OLD WOMEN sit on a ratty couch on one side, watching some kind of huge TV screen on the other. 36.

One woman is busy unknotting enormous tangles of yarn into usable skeins; the next keeps knitting some kind of endless scarf with those skeins; and the one on the far end cuts the scarf into squares with disturbingly old and enormous shears.

All three are incredibly creepy, and all three work almost automatically, their predator’s eyes glued to the TV screen, which we can’t see. But we can hear faint SCREAMS.

Then the stone door SLAMS shut again - and behind it now is NAOMI, a young, wiry woman with a double-barrelled shotgun and a take-no- prisoners expression. She’s in way over her head, but she’s not about to show or admit this to anyone.

NAOMI OK, asshole, drop it.

Cameron hesitates. Naomi racks the shotgun. Kevin stares.

NAOMI (CONT’D) You want to clean your own guts off this floor? Drop it.

Cameron reluctantly drops his gun.

NAOMI (CONT’D) Now kick it over.

He does so. She stoops, grabs it gracefully, and has it tucked in the back of her belt before they can react.

NAOMI (CONT’D) Hands over your heads.

JAMES CAMERON I need my cane.

NAOMI Fuck your cane. You rather fall over or get gutshot?

Cameron releases his cane. He and Kevin acquiesce. 37.

KEVIN Look. We can explain. We actually have a very good reason to be here.

NAOMI Shut your mouth, turn around, and walk upstairs. Slow.

INT. THEATER STAFF ROOM - DAY

A dingy windowless room with a couch, a mini-fridge, and a few chairs, lined with classic movie posters. Cameron manages to collapse onto the couch. Kevin sits on a chair.

Naomi stays at the door, but she seems both more relaxed and profoundly relieved now.

NAOMI Jesus. You fucking morons. You have no idea what you almost just did.

KEVIN We’re really sorry.

JAMES CAMERON What is this place?

NAOMI It’s a theater.

JAMES CAMERON No. What is it really?

Beat.

NAOMI Who are you?

KEVIN I’m Kevin. This is James Cameron. 38.

NAOMI And what’s your ‘very good reason’ - wait. James Cameron?

JAMES CAMERON ...Yeah.

Naomi peers at him carefully.

NAOMI The James Cameron?

Cameron looks at Kevin.

KEVIN Yeah, see, that’s the thing.

INT. THEATER STAFF ROOM - DAY

Naomi sits on a chair, her shotgun half-forgotten beside her, holding Cameron’s cane.

NAOMI You and Philip K. Dick. Jesus, Mary, and Zeus. This is not good.

KEVIN How do you know who they are when no one else does?

NAOMI I work here. Well, I’m really just covering for my folks while they’re away, but things are different here. Blood, shit, and agony, this would have to happen now.

JAMES CAMERON To repeat. What is this place? 39.

NAOMI It’s an old theater.

JAMES CAMERON No, it’s not.

Naomi pulls opens Cameron’s cane, revealing a naked blade; it’s a sword cane. She smiles wanly and sheaths it again.

NAOMI Yes, it really is. I just didn’t say how old. It’s been here in Hollywood a hundred years, but it used to be other places before. Japan. Greece. Babylon. Places stories come from.

KEVIN Did you say Babylon?

JAMES CAMERON Who are those women down there?

NAOMI When you tell a story, you create a new world. Literally. Usually only a few people hear the story, just a little pocket world, disappears like a soap bubble. But someone like you, that’s different. I’m sorry about the circumstances, but sir, it’s an honor to meet you. Your stories are very powerful.

Cameron is, unusually, speechless.

KEVIN So what do we -

Realization hits Naomi hard.

NAOMI Oh my Gods. We need to get you away from here before the matinee. (MORE) 40. NAOMI (CONT'D) Last time you erased Philip K. Dick from living memory. Get up!

EXT. EPIC THEATER - DAY

The three of them hustle along the alley.

KEVIN Where are we going?

NAOMI I don’t know. Away. No, wait. West. The ocean. That should help.

INT. PIER BAR - DAY

Kevin and Naomi sit at a table at the bar at the end of the Santa Monica Pier, surrounded by families of tourists.

NAOMI Just don’t tell him too much about his own movies, OK? It might cause bleedthrough between the timelines, and we don’t want that.

KEVIN Bleedthrough between the timelines. Of course. Anything but that.

NAOMI Just don’t, OK? Sorry. I’m kind of freaking the fuck out here.

KEVIN I thought this was your job.

NAOMI I’m not trained for this yet. I’m just covering for my folks. 41.

KEVIN Where are they?

NAOMI Greece.

KEVIN Can you call them or something?

NAOMI ...It’s not really any part of Greece that you can call.

KEVIN Oh.

NAOMI This would happen to me. Shit. All these braindead tourists here, you have no idea how much I envy them. I never asked for this kind of responsibility, I just got born into it. My family’s been watching over that place for centuries.

KEVIN Wow.

NAOMI And I’m an only child, so it’s my job to provide the next generation and spend my retirement training them. How’s that for pressure?

KEVIN Yeah.

NAOMI Like I’m supposed to find a guy somewhere who’s OK with me being a supernatural watchwoman. (MORE) 42. NAOMI (CONT'D) It’s hard enough dating in LA without five thousand years’ worth of baggage along for the ride, you know?

KEVIN I sort of do.

NAOMI Sorry. I shouldn’t vent. It’s just nice to be able to talk to someone my age about it for once.

CAMERON appears, leaning on his care, carrying a single pint of beer, which he deposits in front of Naomi.

KEVIN Oh - you want a hand with -

JAMES CAMERON No! Stay. I’ve got it.

He turns and limps back towards the bar.

NAOMI He’s a proud man.

KEVIN That’s one way of putting it.

NAOMI What’s another?

KEVIN Living proof that being an asshole is basically genetic.

Naomi chuckles.

KEVIN (CONT’D) So how did all this happen exactly? I didn’t quite get your explanation in the car. 43.

NAOMI Well. What happened is that you somehow got charged up with a bad kind of energy. Consider this beer. Most people are empty glasses. But somehow you got filled up right to the brim. So when you went to see one of his movies -

She smacks her pint glass against an empty water glass, hard enough that some beer flies into it, and shoves them both to the edge of the table.

NAOMI (CONT’D) You jarred him out of what we call the mainline, and you transferred some of the charge to him, too. So now you’re both dangerous.

KEVIN So what can we do?

NAOMI I might know a way to reverse it.

She pours the beer from the water glass back into her pint glass, then pulls it back to her - just as Cameron appears again, and puts another pint in front of Kevin.

JAMES CAMERON Be right back.

NAOMI But the real question is, (points to her glass) how’d you get so charged up with the bad stuff in the first place?

KEVIN I really don’t know. 44.

NAOMI Were you doing any kind of occult research? Any rituals, sacrifices, ouija boards?

KEVIN What? No!

NAOMI Anything particularly weird happen to you before this?

KEVIN Not that I can think of.

NAOMI There’s got be something about you.

KEVIN There really isn’t. I’m just an ordinary guy. My buddy Randy used to joke, you look up ‘ordinary guy’ in the dictionary, you see a picture of Kevin Kedrosky.

Naomi stops mid-sip, then slowly returns the beer to the table with a trembling hand, staring at him dumbfounded.

NAOMI You’re Kevin Kedrosky?

KEVIN Yeah. What does that...

He comes to a halt as he begins to realize.

KEVIN (CONT’D) Oh my God. Who am I?

NAOMI You’re... (beat) (MORE) 45. NAOMI (CONT'D) I can’t tell you. Like you can’t tell him. But you are not ordinary.

KEVIN Really?

Naomi stares at him, starstruck.

NAOMI Wow. Kevin Kedrosky. (beat) ...I’m actually a really big fan.

KEVIN A fan? Of me?

NAOMI This can’t be a coincidence. This didn’t just happen. Somebody did this to you.

KEVIN Who?

NAOMI I have no idea. But I bet they won’t be happy when we start trying to change it back. Shit. This would happen now. I’m so not trained for this. I’m years from being ready.

Cameron finally returns with his own beer, and sits.

JAMES CAMERON So what’d I miss?

EXT. PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL - DAY

A drab fenced-off building with slit windows. The three of them are parked across the street in Kevin’s Hyundai. 46.

JAMES CAMERON You’re saying we have to break in there to rescue Philip K. Dick.

NAOMI He never wrote his books because he was hospitalized young after a psychotic break. We have to take him back to where that happened.

KEVIN Except he died thirty years ago.

NAOMI Not any more.

KEVIN So if we change things back, we’re taking thirty years off his life?

NAOMI Yes, but also restoring his life’s work. Take it from me, don’t worry about all the moral conundrums, they’ll drive you crazy and you never win.

KEVIN Can’t we just get James here back to the mainline?

NAOMI No. We have to reverse the damage in the order it happened.

JAMES CAMERON Fine. So how do we get him out?

Naomi reaches into her purse, pulls out a strange, shining, very old dagger with an S-shaped blade carved with sigils.

KEVIN You want us to break in? 47.

NAOMI No. We’re just going to walk in. You see that security guard?

Inside the building, a bored security guard stares at closed-circuit TV screens.

Naomi pricks her finger with the tip of the dagger.

NAOMI (CONT’D) Suppose last night he was distracted by a fly.

INT. SECURITY GUARD’S HOME

On his couch, watching TV, with a fly buzzing around.

NAOMI (V.O.) Because of the fly, he changed to an unexpected channel and saw an ex- girlfriend on a reality TV show.

The security guard’s eyes widen.

NAOMI (V.O.) Because of that, he got drunk.

The security guard slouches in the couch surrounded by empty cans of beer.

INT. KEVIN’S CAR

NAOMI And because of that, he forgot to lock the building door, and now he really needs a bathroom break.

As she speaks, the guard lurches to his feet and rushes out of sight. Kevin and Cameron gape at her. 48.

NAOMI (CONT’D) With the right training, and a little blood, you can make little tweaks to the mainline, select other possible parallel versions. Nothing big, but it’s pretty useful. Come on, let’s go.

She gets out of the car. Kevin and Cameron exchange disbelieving glances for a moment, then follow.

INT. ASYLUM - DAY

They enter. Naomi takes out her dagger again, ponders, nods.

NAOMI This way.

A pale corridor lined with many doors. Naomi approaches one of the confidently, followed by Cameron and Kevin.

But as she gets there, an ORDERLY appears from down the hall.

ORDERLY Hey! Who are you?

Naomi winces, reaches for the wavy knife.

ORDERLY (CONT’D) What are you -

She pricks her finger again, and he vanishes as neatly as if someone flicked a switch.

KEVIN Whoa.

JAMES CAMERON Did you - erase him? 49.

NAOMI No! Gods, no. He just chose a different route.

KEVIN This just keeps getting crazier...

Naomi opens the door, to reveal -

PHILIP K. DICK, in his mid-eighties, weak and wrinkled, but still crazier than a flock of loons.

PHILIP K. DICK Did the emperor send you?

KEVIN Who?

PHILIP K. DICK Emperor Vespasian. In Rome.

NAOMI Not exactly.

JAMES CAMERON We’re here to take you on a trip.

PHILIP K. DICK Oh, goody. I like trips.

INT. KEVIN’S CAR - DAY

Outside the asylum. The others are already all inside. Kevin opens the door, then looks in at James Cameron and Philip K. Dick sitting in his car. Pauses a moment, weirded out.

NAOMI Something wrong? 50.

KEVIN No. I’ve got James Cameron and Philip K. Dick in my car. What could possibly be wrong?

He gets in, drives off.

EXT. WATTS TOWERS - DAY

The Hyundai parks beside the mystic towers.

PHILIP K. DICK Wait. What are we doing here?

NAOMI Do you remember this place?

PHILIP K. DICK Something bad happened here.

NAOMI Yes. Now it’s time to make things right.

Kevin helps PKD out of the car and towards the towers. Cameron and Naomi hang back. Naomi takes her wavy dagger out, grimaces, steels herself, and draws a thin line of blood across the back of her hand.

Nothing seems to happen.

JAMES CAMERON What happens now?

NAOMI I don’t know.

PHILIP K. DICK I remember this. No. Wait. I remember something different, too.

KEVIN What do you remember? 51.

PHILIP K. DICK God. Everything, I think. But it can’t all be true. Have you ever wondered about all the other lives you might have had?

KEVIN Not until recently.

PHILIP K. DICK There’s too much...

He grabs at his temples, holds his head tightly...

...and then he simply vanishes, suddenly torn from reality.

KEVIN Whoa.

Naomi lays the flat of the blade across the back of her hand. When she removes it, the cut is healed.

NAOMI (to Cameron) Now you.

JAMES CAMERON That was easy.

NAOMI That was the easy part. Now we’ve changed things back, whoever did this to you, they’re going to know. And my guess is they won’t be happy. Come on. We need to hurry.

EXT. LOS ANGELES - DAY

Rain pelts down as the Hyundai winds its way up the Hollywood Hills, towards Mulholland where Cameron’s accident happened. 52.

KEVIN What do you think they might do?

NAOMI No idea. Don’t want to find out.

JAMES CAMERON Maybe they didn’t notice.

As he speaks, light suddenly BLAZES through the rear window behind him. Through all the other windows we see L.A. rain... but the view through the rear window of the car is that of a blistering desert.

NAOMI They noticed.

JAMES CAMERON Goddamn.

The line of demarcation between Los Angeles rain and desert sunshine, as sharp as a knife, creeps slowly forward...

NAOMI Faster!

Kevin steps on it. The light dwindles back, disappears, and they’re fully back in L.A. again.

KEVIN What the hell was that?

NAOMI They’re trying to take us away.

As she unsheaths her wavy dagger, the rear window again begins to blaze with desert light.

JAMES CAMERON Shit. 53.

NAOMI Faster!

Kevin accelerates hard around a switchback -

- but there’s a Humvee stopped right there, hazards flashing -

- they’re going to SMASH right into it -

- he SLAMS on the brakes -

- which causes Naomi to impale her hand with the dagger -

- and he’s too late, they’re going to CRASH -

- but then the desert light swallows them up, and Los Angeles disappears in a BLINDING FLASH -

EXT. HIGH DESERT - DAY

The Hyundai screeches to a halt on a lonely dirt road in the middle of the desert. Nothing but rocks and Joshua trees.

KEVIN Holy fuck. Where are we?

JAMES CAMERON Joshua trees. High desert.

NAOMI Deep shit.

KEVIN Your hand!

Naomi withdraws the dagger from her hand. Amazingly, the wound closes and vanishes even as she does so - but the blade is briefly wet with her blood. Until it somehow drains into the knife, revealing bare metal. 54.

NAOMI I managed to divert us from where they wanted. I hope it’s enough.

KEVIN This is... (doesn’t have the words)

JAMES CAMERON What is that thing?

NAOMI No one knows exactly. It’s older than us.

JAMES CAMERON Meaning ‘us in the car’, or...?

NAOMI No. Humanity.

KEVIN What do we do now?

NAOMI Keep moving, and hope it’s away from them.

JAMES CAMERON Them who?

NAOMI I have no idea, but they sure want us bad. They could have ripped all of reality right open with that little stunt.

KEVIN What does that mean exactly?

NAOMI Just drive.

The Hyundai begins to trundle down the desert road. 55.

EXT. DESERT GAS STATION - DAY

A lonely outpost of civilization surrounded by barren wilderness. Its pimply teenage attendant watches warily as the Hyundai pulls in.

All three of them emerge. Cameron, leaning on his cane, gets ready to fill the tank; Kevin and Naomi enter the station.

INT. DESERT GAS STATION

Kevin browses the dusty snack-food section.

NAOMI Can we get twenty bucks of gas?

Behind her, we see a black van pull in ahead of the Hyundai.

EXT. DESERT GAS STATION

As Cameron sets the nozzle to maximum flow, four large men emerge from the black van. All dressed in long black coats.

The one nearest Cameron slowly turns to face him.

It has very pale skin, a very square jaw, and NO MOUTH.

Cameron stares, dumbstruck, as the GOLEM approaches him and the other three head for the gas station.

INT. DESERT GAS STATION

The pimply kid stares aghast past Naomi at the oncoming mouthless golems. She begins to wonder what he’s looking at -

EXT. DESERT GAS STATION

The golem approaching Cameron reaches into its coat, and draws a SWORD. Its steel glitters in the sun. 56.

Which spurs Cameron into action. Letting go of the pump, he reaches into his own coat, pulls out a gun, FIRES two shots into the golem’s chest and a third right between its eyes.

INT. DESERT GAS STATION

Naomi and Kevin turn to stare just as the other golems pour into the gas station, drawing their own swords.

EXT. DESERT GAS STATION

A little milky-white liquid oozes out of each bullet wound. Then, as Cameron watches, they HEAL OVER. With its free hand the golem reaches out and flicks the ooze from its forehead.

INT. DESERT GAS STATION

There’s a sword at Kevin’s throat, and one at the station attendant’s, before they can do anything.

Naomi backs away from the third golem. Whose sword is aimed at her belt. Where she carries the dagger.

NAOMI Oh, is that what you want?

She backs into the wall behind her.

NAOMI (CONT’D) Come and get it.

The golem hesitates a moment - then steps closer -

- and Naomi LEAPS. A textbook jumping spin kick. The heel of her shoe connects with the golem’s temple, actually lifting it off its feet and into the nearby rack of chocolate bars.

It drops its sword as it falls. She catches it as she lands. 57.

EXT. DESERT GAS STATION

Cameron FIRES twice more, into the golem’s knees. It keeps coming.

INT. DESERT GAS STATION

NAOMI Bullets don’t work!

The second golem moves away from the station attendant and slashes at her. She parries, spins, and cuts it in half.

EXT. DESERT GAS STATION

The golem grabs Cameron’s gun, crumples it like tinfoil, tosses it away. Then grabs him by the scruff of the neck and propels him towards the van.

He collides with the gas pump as he struggles, knocking it free. Gas begins to pour from the open nozzle and pool around the Hyundai and the pumps.

INT. DESERT GAS STATION

The third golem and Naomi swordfight amid the racks. The teenage attendant flees out the back door. Kevin considers doing the same -

- but then he sees a tire iron -

- he grabs it and CLUBS the golem in the back of the head, distracting it long enough for her to impale it. But -

EXT. DESERT GAS STATION

- The van’s back door opens. Six more golems pour out of it. 58.

INT. DESERT GAS STATION

NAOMI Aw, shit.

Kevin starts for the back door -

NAOMI (CONT’D) No, we can’t outrun them! Get to the car!

Kevin swallows, picks up one of the fallen swords.

The six golems approach, swords out.

EXT. DESERT GAS STATION

Cameron is propelled around to the other side of the van. But he’s still clutching his cane -

- and he pulls its outer layer off, revealing the sword beneath, and STABS the golem behind him.

It collapses. He begins to limp-run away from the station.

The van door opens, and there are yet more golems within.

But Cameron turns around, stoops -

- pulls a derringer from a hidden ankle holster -

JAMES CAMERON Run!

INT. DESERT GAS STATION

Naomi sees, understands.

NAOMI Get away from the car! 59.

She and Kevin turn and flee out the back door, as -

EXT. DESERT GAS STATION

Cameron FIRES at the pump surrounded by a puddle of gasoline.

WHAM! The entire station goes up in a huge column of flame.

Cameron drops, and rolls in time to avoid the worst of it.

Naomi grabs Kevin to shield him just as the BLAST knocks them both off their feet. They tumble to the ground together.

A huge column of smoke rises into the sky.

Cameron staggers to his feet.

No sign of the golems in the smoking wreckage.

He sees a car coming down the highway towards them. Limps towards the road, waving excitedly.

EXT. DESERT ROAD

The car stops in front of him. A black sedan with black tinted windows. The driver’s window rolls down -

- and the driver has no mouth.

JAMES CAMERON Aw, no.

Golems emerge and bundle him into the vehicle. He knows he’s beaten, doesn’t much try to resist.

The driver gets out of the car. Looks around.

Sniffs, like a bloodhound. 60.

EXT. DESERT

Naomi and Kevin lie together on the desert ground. She holds the curved knife, its tip deep in the pad of her thumb.

NAOMI Don’t move. I’m shielding us.

After a long moment the driver gets back into the sedan, and it U-turns and disappears into the distance.

EXT. DESERT HIGHWAY - NIGHT

Naomi and Kevin, battered and sooty, stop walking to stick their thumbs out as a pair of headlights approach.

The pickup truck stops beside them, and its driver -

GOOD OL’ BOY Y’all need a ride?

EXT. DESERT MOTEL - NIGHT

Naomi and Kevin stagger up towards motel reception as the pickup disappears down the highway behind them.

KEVIN What were those things?

NAOMI Some kind of what we call golems.

KEVIN You think they’re still after us?

NAOMI We should be hidden from them now. 61.

KEVIN Why didn’t you do that before?

NAOMI I had to wait. This thing - (indicates the dagger) - it’s not safe. You use it too much, too fast, it gets hungry.

KEVIN What will they do to him?

NAOMI Gods know, I don’t. Probably nothing good.

EXT. MALIBU BEACH HOUSE - NIGHT

Sheer luxury. Moonlight over the Pacific. James Cameron sits bemused at the edge of the kidney-shaped pool, still in the torn and sooty clothes he wore at the gas station.

MANNY approaches. Thirtysomething, South Asian, lean, dangerous, all in black. Carrying glasses and a crystal decanter full of -

MANNY I hear you’re a Scotch drinker. 40-year Macallan, special reserve.

He pours. After a moment Cameron sips. Nods.

JAMES CAMERON Who are you?

MANNY I have a proposition for you.

INT. DESERT MOTEL ROOM - NIGHT

Kevin lies on a bed, exhausted. Naomi emerges from the bathroom, dressed only in a towel, carrying the wavy dagger. 62.

NAOMI Aw, man, the only good thing about nearly dying is how amazing it feels afterwards, am I right?

KEVIN I’ll take your word for it.

She sits next to him, puts the dagger on a bedside table. He doesn’t move but is very aware of her near-naked presence.

NAOMI You don’t feel wired and adrenalinized and so intensely alive that even breathing is practically orgasmic?

KEVIN Maybe a little. But mostly tired.

She puts her hand on his neck. He flinches away.

NAOMI It’s OK. Just taking your pulse.

KEVIN What for?

NAOMI To make sure you’re human. (beat) There’s not much there. It’s hard to be sure. Don’t move.

She slips her hand under his shirt, to his heart.

NAOMI (CONT’D) I think so, but all this fabric’s getting in the way. 63.

She peels his shirt off, discards it, lets her fingers trail back down his chest to his heart - where they pause - and then the slide down his torso, to his belt, and beyond...

NAOMI (CONT’D) Oh, yes. Human after all.

KEVIN Um... what are you...

Naomi lets the towel fall free. Straddles him.

NAOMI Enjoying the moment. You should try it.

KEVIN OK.

Later, as they lie tangled in the sheets, Kevin notices the dagger on the table, reaches out to take and examine it.

NAOMI Want to try it?

KEVIN What do you mean?

NAOMI Using it.

KEVIN How?

NAOMI For little things, it’s easy. Try moving your shirt. Close your eyes, prick your finger and imagine that you took it off, not me, and you threw it in the other corner.

Kevin tries to do so. Winces as the tip of the blade penetrates his skin, and blood pearls a moment before the dagger drinks it. But - 64.

KEVIN Nothing happened.

NAOMI Really imagine it. In detail, all the sensations, the way your muscles moved. Try again.

He does, skeptical -

- and suddenly his shirt blurs out of existence in one corner of the room, and into existence in another.

KEVIN Whoa.

NAOMI Yeah. Changing what other people did is hard, changing what you did is pretty easy. Now move it to the door. Imagine you took it off when you came in.

KEVIN How?

NAOMI Just imagine it.

He closes his eye, pricks himself, concentrates - and his shirt teleports across the room to the door. This time, though, it’s bloody.

NAOMI (CONT’D) You’re a natural.

Kevin looks down on a nasty scabbed-over cut on his side. It wasn’t there five minutes ago.

KEVIN I took it off because I needed to see how bad the cut is. But I wasn’t -

He stops, confused. 65.

NAOMI It’s pretty wacky having both sets of memories, isn’t it? Sorry about that. If you’re not specific, the universe chooses the easiest way to make it happen. Sometimes that means the most painful. Give me that back?

He passes the knife to her. She feeds it a little blood - and the shirt blurs back to where it began, and his cut is gone.

NAOMI (CONT’D) There you go. Back where we began.

KEVIN This is crazy.

NAOMI It’s not conducive to sanity, there’s no denying that.

KEVIN So you can just choose the future you want? Like, if you wanted to have gotten pregnant just now...

NAOMI Hello, Daddy! (beat) No. You have to be careful. You change too much too fast, you can rip the fabric of reality, which is seriously bad news. And if I were pregnant, then I’d be a single mom whose day job is saving the world. No thanks.

KEVIN I meant hypothetically. 66.

NAOMI Uh-huh. You and my mom. I’m not even sure I want kids. But she’s like the fate of the planet rests on her getting grandchildren.

KEVIN Well, technically, it actually might, right?

NAOMI Thanks. Not helping.

KEVIN So, theoretically, I could change anything? Like... (beat) I could bring my sister back?

NAOMI What happened to your sister?

KEVIN She died when I was twelve.

Beat.

NAOMI I’m sorry. No. The dead stay dead. This doesn’t change that.

KEVIN Right. So what do we do now?

Naomi lies back and arranges the knife so its blade nestles between her breasts.

NAOMI We sleep, perchance to dream. 67.

EXT. MALIBU BEACH HOUSE - NIGHT

It’s Cameron who’s pouring the scotch now, and he’s far more relaxed, but something he just heard amazes him -

CAMERON Wait - Governor Schwarzenegger? Come on, now you’re shitting me.

MANNY No. And it’s mostly because of you. Don’t underestimate your own power. You’re a great man.

CAMERON So I’m told.

INT. DESERT MOTEL ROOM - DAY

Naomi shakes Kevin awake. She’s already fully dressed.

NAOMI Come on, get dressed.

KEVIN What? Where are we going?

NAOMI I had a dream. You need to go back home. I need to go to Greece.

KEVIN Greece? Your parents?

NAOMI Right. But they’re not exactly in a place that people can just go to. I have to use this.

She picks up the dagger. 68.

NAOMI (CONT’D) It will send me there, but I can’t take it with me. So when I’m gone, you need to take it with you and keep it for me until I get back. Shouldn’t be more than a couple of days, in your frame of reference. Maybe less. You should be hidden from them until then. Understand?

KEVIN I guess so.

NAOMI Normally it would be completely insane to give something like this to someone like you, but I dreamed it very strongly. I think maybe it wants you to have it.

Kevin stares at the dagger.

KEVIN It wants?

NAOMI It’s not your friend. Remember that. If you use it the wrong way, especially if you try to use it on other people, it’s incredibly dangerous, especially to you. So don’t. Just sit tight ‘til I get back. Got it?

KEVIN I, yeah, got it.

Without further preamble Naomi STABS HERSELF IN THE HEART.

KEVIN (CONT’D) No!

She somehow manages a wry smile as she crumples - 69.

NAOMI See you on the flip side. Sorry about your car...

And then she VANISHES, just as Philip K. Dick did, and the bloodless dagger falls and CLANGS on the floor.

Kevin stares at it as if it’s a coiled king cobra.

EXT. DESERT ROAD - DAY

A Greyhound bus hurtles along. Kevin stares out of his window seat at the endless wasteland.

EXT. KEVIN’S HOUSE - NIGHT

Kevin emerges from his taxi, deeply weary.

INT. KEVIN’S APARTMENT - DAY

Kevin wakes up. He fell asleep atop his own bed, fully dressed. For a moment he can believe it was all a dream - until he sees the dagger gleaming on his bedside table.

He sits up slowly. Picks up the dagger. Examines it.

It seems to SHIMMER. Almost as if it’s alive.

He looks into a mirror. Considers.

And then, as if testing its sharpness, and almost as if on autopilot, he pricks his thumb with the dagger’s tip.

Suddenly he has long hair.

Then a shaved head.

A goatee. A moustache. A sleeve tattoo. Facial tattoos. He’s obese. He’s a bodybuilder. He’s wiry and cut. 70.

He’s back to normal, a little breathless.

Another idea hits - the edge of the blade rakes his palm -

INT. A SERIES OF ALTERNATE APARTMENTS - DAY

Suddenly he’s in a different, much nicer, minimalist but professionally decorated apartment, looking not into a mirror but a window beyond which is the skyline of Manhattan. He’s better dressed, too, in an Armani suit.

He gazes out of a huge ranch estate to snow-capped mountains, wearing cowboy boots and a string tie.

The vertiginous view from a penthouse apartment in Dubai, in a buttoned- down business suit.

A tent in an African jungle camp, with elephants in view -

A garret in Paris, with a view on the Eiffel Tower -

A yacht moored before a tropical paradise -

INT. KEVIN’S APARTMENT - DAY

And back to normal, even more unnerved.

He turns from the mirror to his laptop. Launches Facebook. Opens up a small group labelled “Exes.” Six women.

Pauses a moment. And rakes the dagger across his palm -

INT. ANOTHER SERIES OF ALTERNATE LIVES - DAY

He’s in a run-down trailer park with a fat happy woman, surrounded by three excitedly jabbering children, laughing at the television. 71.

He sits in a nice apartment decorated to within an inch of its life, staring guiltily up at LISA as she glares at him angrily, shakes her head wordlessly, and storms out.

He’s holding a squalling baby a few months old, exhausted, in a tiny and dirty basement apartment, while his wife weeps helplessly in the corner.

He’s in a mosquito-infested shipping container in the jungle, frying eggs while his dark-haired wife reads a Peace Corps publication.

He’s sitting on a suburban back porch, looking around nervously, seeing his wife and children are safely upstairs, before pulling a secret stash of vodka from a hiding place.

He and a voluptuous blonde, both dressed only in robes, stand in a room overdecorated in red velvet in which a loud orgy is happening.

INT. KEVIN’S APARTMENT - DAY

He’s back. Breathing hard. Emotional.

He puts the dagger down.

Then, almost reluctantly, he picks it up again and begins to scroll down through his timeline, looking for turning points.

Timeline: “Moved to Los Angeles.”

He cuts himself, and -

EXT. SKID ROW - DAY

He wakes up in a doorway, wrapped in a sleeping bag. There’s something next to him. He picks it up. A used syringe.

INT. KEVIN’S APARTMENT - DAY

Timeline: “Ski trip to Utah!” 72.

INT. HOSPITAL - DAY

He’s quadriplegic, in a wheelchair controlled by his breath and his eye movements. A nurse looks down at him sorrowfully.

INT. KEVIN’S APARTMENT - DAY

Timeline: “Accepted to CUNY!”

EXT. HARVARD YARD - DAY

He strides along with confidence verging on arrogance.

EXT. SHAOLIN TEMPLE - DAY

After a quick and stunningly furious series of kung-fu kata, which impress his master, he rushes to join the other martial-arts monks.

INT. KEVIN’S APARTMENT - DAY

Timeline: “St. David’s High School, Class Of 1999”

He readies the dagger...

...and then puts it down again.

Struck by a thought. A memory. Something important.

He reaches under his bed, pulls out a box of keepsakes, opens it up. Handwritten letters, old photos - he pauses for a moment, on a shot of him and his sister, but keeps going - finds a stack of D&D books, and a folder labelled MANNY AT WORK.

It’s full of talented teen fantasy art. Dragons, knights, spaceships, ray guns... 73.

...and a picture of faceless square-jawed figures in long black coats, wielding swords. Like the golems in the gas station. Exactly like the golems in the gas station.

There’s a picture inside the folder, of two geeky kids smiling awkwardly at the camera, one white, one South Asian.

KEVIN Manny.

EXT. MALIBU BEACH ESTATE - DAY

A taxi pulls up outside a wrought-iron gate wreathed in tall hedges. Kevin steps out, holding a small bundle wrapped in a towel. Approaches the intercom. Pushes a button. A moment later, a woman’s voice answers:

INTERCOM Can I help you?

KEVIN Tell Manny, Kevin Kedrosky’s here to see him.

INTERCOM Kevin who?

Kevin looks up at the security camera.

KEVIN Kedrosky. He’ll want to see me. Guarantee you that.

He unwraps the towel...revealing Naomi’s dagger.

A moment later, the gate pops open.

INTERCOM Go around to the front. 74.

EXT. MALIBU BEACH HOUSE - DAY

Kevin, holding the dagger, walks past a Bentley, a Ferrari, a Bugatti, towards an enormous pillared mansion. Around the mansion along a trail lined with rose bushes. On the other side a manicured lawn stretches from a gargantuan mansion towards the beach, interrupted only by a cross-shaped pool.

Kevin stops near the pool, looks around.

It’s quiet. Too quiet.

KEVIN Anybody home?

A figure detaches itself from shadow in the deck that surrounds the house, and steps forward. Manny. Dressed in a dark robe. Big diamond ring on his middle finger.

MANNY Kevin Kedrosky. Long time no see.

KEVIN Manny Patel. Long time indeed. Fifteen years, what? Of course, that kind of depends on what exactly you think of as a year. I don’t know about you, but my sense of time has kind of expanded lately.

MANNY I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.

KEVIN I’m sure you do. Nice place you got here. Nice house. Nice life.

MANNY Thanks. 75.

KEVIN Why did you do it? Were you just jealous? You wanted whatever I had for yourself? I still don’t even know what that was. But know I’m not supposed to be like this.

MANNY Really. Supposed by who?

KEVIN The universe, I guess.

MANNY Then you can’t have put too much thought into your situation.

KEVIN Enough. I want my life back. My real life.

Behind Kevin, two pairs of hands reach out of the pool, and two GOLEMS boost themselves upwards, dripping wet.

MANNY You still have your life. Now I strongly suggest you give me that thing you’re holding and walk away.

The golems are out of the pool now, looming, ominous. Their shadows fall over Kevin’s shoulder, onto the grass.

He is oddly relaxed.

KEVIN No, actually. I don’t think I will.

The golems reach for him -

- and Kevin EXPLODES INTO ACTION.

He leaps, spins, and knocks one golem back into the pool with a kick much like the one Naomi used in the gas station. 76.

The second swings at him - but he ducks under its punch, rattles one-two- three punches into its midsection, finishes it with a jump-kick that knocks it too back into the water.

The golems float motionless, face-down, defunct.

Kevin turns to face Manny, barely breathing hard.

KEVIN (CONT’D) Did you really think I’d choose a me that didn’t know kung fu?

INT. MALIBU BEACH HOUSE - DAY

Just inside the open doorway, shrouded by shadow, JAMES CAMERON watches intently.

EXT. MALIBU BEACH HOUSE - DAY

Manny sighs heavily.

MANNY The golems are a work in progress. A little slow, true. Especially vulnerable to spinning jump kicks.

He advances onto the lawn. Light on his feet. Confident.

MANNY (CONT’D) But I think you’ll find that I’m not.

KEVIN I think you’ll find you’re about to suffer a sudden attack of agonizing gallstones.

He cuts a finger with the dagger.

Manny stiffens, winces...

...grimaces... 77.

...and the diamond ring on his finger REDDENS into a ruby...

...and he keeps coming, loose and ready again.

MANNY Nice little toy you’ve got there.

KEVIN Same to you. Where’d you get it?

MANNY Scoured the world for a decade, sacrificed everything I ever had, stripped down to bone, spent three years in a Bhutan prison, nearly died. You? Got it from some girl?

KEVIN Yeah, something like that.

MANNY Don’t pretend like you’re the one the universe owes something to.

At that, Kevin ATTACKS -

- and the two of them trade PUNCHES and KICKS for a little while, both almost superhuman, LEAPING and ROLLING and SPINNING, moving with blurring speed, while JAMES CAMERON watches from the doorway -

- until finally they both roll away from a flurry of punches, and a natural break occurs -

KEVIN We were best friends! How could you? Why?

MANNY I never wanted to ruin things for you. That was just a side effect. 78.

KEVIN Of what?

MANNY I had to get my mother back!

That hits Kevin harder than any punch.

KEVIN Your mother died.

MANNY Not any more.

They’re not fighting any more. Just talking.

KEVIN You can’t bring back the dead.

MANNY Says who?

KEVIN Naomi.

MANNY Then she lied. She’s protecting her own. Her family, they’re like the government, they’re the status quo, you have any idea how many people they’ve killed? They’re not trying to help you. They’re just trying to protect themselves and stay on top.

KEVIN Unlike you.

MANNY Exactly like me. Except I was your best friend. I remember when your sister died. We can make that never have happened. We can bring her back. 79.

Kevin hesitates, uncertain.

Then, from the doorway-

JAMES CAMERON Kevin!

Both men turn to look at him.

CAMERON I’ve learned some interesting things from your old friend here. You should come inside, and we should talk.

INT. MALIBU BEACH HOUSE - DAY

The three of them sit at a kidney-shaped table. Manny’s ring is a diamond again.

CAMERON We’re dealing with the stuff of myth here. That ring was the Seal of Solomon. That dagger belonged to Gilgamesh. With them, we have the ability to give life, real life, to the stories we tell. You both need to start thinking much bigger than just bringing someone back from the dead.

Both Manny and Kevin are taken aback by that.

MANNY Bigger how exactly?

CAMERON Look at you. You were given the keys to the multiverse and you used them to resurrect your mother and give yourself a Malibu mansion. That’s pathetic. 80.

MANNY What do you want me to do?

CAMERON Dream a little bigger.

KEVIN Naomi said the more we did, the bigger the chance we would rupture the time stream. I don’t even know what that means, but she wasn’t making that part up, she was genuinely scared.

CAMERON It has to be done carefully. Maybe gradually. It requires someone who knows how to tell stories. Like me.

MANNY It? What do you mean, it?

CAMERON I mean shaping the world the way we see fit. Fixing its problems. Wiping out waste and inefficiency and pollution. Not saving one life, saving a billion. Building a better future, but here’s the trick, one we don’t even have to wait for, one we can bring in right now. We can change everything. You just need to give me the ring and the dagger.

MANNY What?

KEVIN Whoa, wait a minute.

CAMERON You keep saying I’m one of the world’s great storytellers. This is why I’m here. (MORE) 81. CAMERON (CONT'D) Not to tell them on the so-called silver screen. To make them come to life for real. You can’t do it. You’re not storytellers. I am.

KEVIN I think, actually, I am too.

CAMERON Really. You say you want your sister back? In a way that doesn’t cause a rupture? Her coming back to life, you need a story for how that happens, one that doesn’t create paradoxes and contradictions. You need her life to fit in with the world in which she died. How do you do that? What story do you tell?

Kevin doesn’t have an answer.

CAMERON (CONT’D) Right. You don’t know. (to Manny) You think you know, which is how you screwed things up for the two of us in the first place. But I actually know how to do this. This is what I was born for.

And then--

NAOMI This may sound odd, but I’ve really never been a big believer in destiny.

She stands in the corner of the room, wearing dark clothing filigreed with odd symbols, having apparently appeared out of nowhere. There’s...something...behind her. A mist. A shimmer. A rupture in the fabric of spacetime. 82.

MANNY No. You’re a projection. An illusion. This room is protected.

NAOMI It was until you let him walk in here with that dagger.

Manny’s ring begins to redden.

NAOMI (CONT’D) Don’t waste your time. The Ring of Solomon. The continuum is littered with artifacts like this. They land in a timeline and inevitably spin up a web of contradiction around themselves until there’s a rupture and they spin out into another one. Your little ring is more powerful than most, granted, but it’s not like the dagger. Not even close.

KEVIN Last I checked, I had the dagger.

Naomi looks hurt.

NAOMI Really? He sits you down for a ten-minute talk and suddenly you’re on the other side? After everything we went through because of him?

KEVIN I don’t know. He was my best friend. He says we can bring my sister back. You said that was impossible.

NAOMI I said it doesn’t happen. Not that it can’t, it doesn’t. Because it’s always a bad idea. 83.

JAMES CAMERON Not if you do it right.

NAOMI You are talking about things that you don’t understand.

JAMES CAMERON I know that. What you don’t know is that so are you.

KEVIN I want my sister back. I think James can manage that.

NAOMI I’m sorry, but even if he could, we’re not going to find out. It’s too dangerous.

Kevin raises the dagger as if about to cut himself. Hesitates.

NAOMI (CONT’D) You total asshole. Give me the dagger. And you, give me the ring. This is your last and final chance.

KEVIN I’m sorry.

MANNY You must be joking.

NAOMI I look like I’m joking? Our protocol is to explain to people like you that if they don’t stop they will then destroy the entire universe in which they live. Usually it works. When it doesn’t, then we feel very justified in taking extreme measures. 84.

MANNY Like what? And how? He’s got the dagger, I’ve got the ring.

NAOMI You complete morons. How do you think I got here? The dagger’s not a tool, or a weapon. It’s an ally. It doesn’t do what you tell it to do. If you ask nicely, it takes requests. But basically it does what it wants. And guess what, I think it likes me more than you.

At that--

--the dagger suddenly GROWS BARBED STRANDS, like thorny vines, that wrap around and clamp onto Kevin’s hand before he can do anything--

--he SCREAMS as it begins to bleed him--

--and the tip strikes out, stretching forth with eye-blurring speed like a cobra, and SEVERS MANNY’S HAND at the wrist with a single stroke--

--and as Manny gapes in shock at his bloodless stump, already cauterized, it WRAPS AROUND CAMERON’S NECK, like a collar, joining him and Kevin like chain-gang inmates.

All three of them cry out in shock, pain, and dismay.

NAOMI (CONT’D) I was such a big fan of yours. I thought you were awesome. I know you want your sister back. But you can’t just bring back the dead. There are consequences.

Both Manny and Kevin are speechless with shock. But--

JAMES CAMERON You’re afraid. That’s all. You’re afraid of the logical conclusions of the way the multiverse works. You’re afraid of the power you have. (MORE) 85. JAMES CAMERON (CONT'D) But that doesn’t mean it’s always destructive. What you do, it’s like forbidding fire because you’re afraid of it. Or banning electricity.

NAOMI Yeah, whatever. What you do now is softly and silently vanish away. There’s a whole sheaf of timelines tied up with this one now, and now that this one’s rupturing, there’s only one way to detach them. You’re the point at which they connect. (beat) I’m truly sorry about this. I am.

JAMES CAMERON What’s that thing behind you? A portal?

NAOMI My mother.

This stuns Kevin back into speech--

KEVIN Your mother?

NAOMI It’s complicated. Never mind. Doesn’t matter. I have to send you two back now, and in a few subjective days, you, or at least these versions of you, will never have existed. Sorry.

MANNY What about me?

NAOMI You don’t even get that long.

The dagger - which is really now more of a vine, or a shackle - begins to glow. 86.

NAOMI (CONT’D) Soon as we’re out of here, poof! I’m pretty much the only one who will ever remember you. And guess what, I’m gonna try my level best to forget.

It glows brighter, and brighter, like molten gold, like the sun, burning up the screen, until that glow SWALLOWS EVERYTHING, and--

EXT. MULHOLLAND DRIVE - NIGHT

KEVIN and JAMES CAMERON suddenly wink into existence.

They’ve been here before: it’s where Cameron’s motorcycle accident happened...

KEVIN Whoa. We’re back here.

CAMERON ...Are we?

KEVIN ...Right.

He takes his phone out. Looks at it, shakes his head.

KEVIN (CONT’D) Emergency signal only.

They look at each other. Then Cameron grips his cane grimly.

CAMERON Well, it’s a long walk down to civilization.

They start down lonesome Mulholland Drive. 87.

EXT. HOLLYWOOD - NIGHT

Exhausted, they stumble towards a 24-hour diner - but then Kevin sees something, and grabs Cameron’s shoulder -

KEVIN Look!

Cameron raises his bleary eyes to a TV screen...

...and they widen with wonder.

CAMERON Pandora.

KEVIN Avatar. That was a TV ad for Avatar. We’re back. I’m back.

CAMERON Tnen what am I...

KEVIN Good question.

INT. 24-HOUR DINER - NIGHT

A waitress comes to their table, pours them water.

WAITRESS What can I get you?

CAMERON Coffee. And apple pie.

KEVIN Just water.

As she turns away - 88.

CAMERON Wait. A question. Have you ever heard of Kevin Kedrosky?

She looks at him for a moment, flatly - then SMILES.

WAITRESS Yeah. I just love him. I’ve got all his books.

KEVIN He’s a writer? Of books?

WAITRESS You’ve never heard of him? He’s famous! Mostly for his graphic novels. His other stuff is good, but they’re just amazing.

CAMERON Thanks.

She nods, friendlier now, and walks away.

KEVIN Graphic novels. Jesus.

He reaches for his water --

--and his HAND PASSES RIGHT THROUGH IT.

He stares at Cameron, who is just as dumbfounded.

Tries again. This time there’s a disturbance in the water, but his hand still passes right through the glass.

Kevin lifts his hand. It’s wet. And trembling. For a third time, he reaches -- and this time gets the glass.

KEVIN (CONT’D) What the fuck? 89.

CAMERON What she said. “In a few subjective days, you will never have existed.” This isn’t our timeline. We’ll fade away into nothingness. Annihilated.

Kevin drinks deeply. His hand is trembling enough that he spills much of the water.

KEVIN We have to get back.

CAMERON We can’t. Our timeline doesn’t exist any more. In a very real way, it never did.

KEVIN So we’ll never have existed?

CAMERON Every timeline is an interconnected web of stories. We don’t make any sense in the stories here, so we need to be erased. We’re like a virus identified by an immune system. We’ll be edited out. (beat) Unless.

KEVIN Unless what?

CAMERON Unless we get some help.

KEVIN Help? How? From who? Not Naomi. Manny doesn’t even exist any more. Not that Manny. No one’s ever going to believe us.

CAMERON I know two people who will. 90.

Long beat as Kevin absorbs that.

CAMERON (CONT’D) Manny taught me a lot. More than he knew. The closer we are to the other versions of ourselves her, the more improbable we become. That means we’ll have even less time, but it also creates ruptures. Bleedthroughs.

KEVIN Bleedthroughs. Naomi didn’t want that.

CAMERON No. Because they in turn will create certain possibilities. Worlds are sets of stories, and right now we’re not tied to any particular world. That’s a problem, as you see, but it also opens certain possibilities that didn’t exist before. If we can find a story that incorporates us into this world, we might not be erased.

KEVIN A story that incorporates us into this world? Like what?

CAMERON I have some ideas. You will too. You’re a storyteller. But first we have to find ourselves.

KEVIN Where?

Cameron reaches for his own coffee - and his hand passes through it. He starts, alarmed.

CAMERON We don’t have much time. Where do I work? Do you know? 91.

Beat.

KEVIN Yeah. I know.

EXT. LIGHTSTORM ENTERTAINMENT - NIGHT

A dark, jagged building jutting into the sky. The logo looms over Kevin and Cameron as they look up at it.

KEVIN So what exactly is your plan? I don’t think that lock’s going be picked by anyone anytime soon.

The steel gateway is guarded by a state-of-the-art biometric security system. Above it camera lenses gleam.

CAMERON No. Let me -

KEVIN Wait. I’m discorporating. Passing through things. I nearly fell out of that cab. If we time it just right, maybe I can walk right through that gate.

CAMERON Not bad. You are a storyteller. But that’s not what I have in mind.

KEVIN Then what?

CAMERON Let me tell you a story.

KEVIN I’m all ears. 92.

CAMERON In this world, for decades, James Cameron has secretly trying to track down the truth behind the occult secrets and rumors of a legendary artifact of unimaginable power. The Ring of Solomon. And one day not long ago he finally found it.

KEVIN But...?

CAMERON But he doesn’t know how to use it. So he summoned a version of himself...

...His voice trails off.

KEVIN If he can’t use it, how can he summon anything?

CAMERON ...I’m not sure. Give me a minute.

Long beat.

KEVIN He does know how to use it!

Cameron looks up at him.

KEVIN (CONT’D) The problem is, he also knows that if he does anything at all splashy, Naomi and company will come and squash him like a bug before he can master it enough to defend himself.

CAMERON So he does something subtle. 93.

KEVIN Really subtle. Like dropping stones in a puddle in such a pattern that the waves eventually run together into tsunami.

CAMERON Which brings me, this versions of him, to this world. I wasn’t sent here! I was brought!

They stare at each other a moment, adrenalinized by the thrill of creation. But then--

KEVIN So what am I, an irrelevant side effect?

CAMERON A catalyst.

KEVIN Thanks. That’s big of you.

CAMERON It’s my story. Tell your own if you like.

KEVIN I finished it for you! Anyway, it all seems pretty unlikely.

CAMERON But is it less unlikely than the other version? Because if it’s a better story, than it can be real.

He turns and stares expectantly up at the gate.

KEVIN You think... 94.

CAMERON I think he knew I was coming, and now he’s going to let me in.

Kevin turns and stares too.

Nothing happens.

CAMERON (CONT’D) It should work. It should! It’s a better story!

KEVIN Maybe that’s not what matters.

CAMERON It should be the only thing that does.

They stare up at the gate with despair --

--and suddenly HEADLIGHTS light them up from behind.

They turn. Cover their eyes against the blazing light as a sleek and very expensive car pulls up.

Its driver’s window oozes lower.

The driver, his face obscured in shadow, speaks--

OUR JAMES CAMERON I thought you’d come to my house.

Kevin and Cameron approach, slowly, a little awestruck.

KEVIN It’s true.

CAMERON It is now.

The driver reaches out. Opens his hand. Within lies the Ring of Solomon. 95.

OUR JAMES CAMERON You know what to do.

CAMERON I do.

He takes it. Puts it on. Leers with triumph.

KEVIN What now?

CAMERON Now?

He throws his head back and LAUGHS.

CAMERON (CONT’D) Now I’m king of the world!

And the ENTIRE WORLD FLASHES WHITE as Kevin blacks out--

EXT. BANK OF THE WEST - DAY

Kevin comes to next to a dumpster across from what was the Lightstorm building, but now sports a Bank of the West logo and seems much less looming and ominous. A few employees file in; one, a cute blonde girl, turns to look at him curiously.

KEVIN ...did it work?

He bangs the side of the dumpster lightly. His hand does not permeate its steel. He gets up, slowly, dazed and confused.

CUTE BLONDE Hey, are you okay?

KEVIN I think I am. Yeah. Thanks.

She smiles, relieved, and proceeds into the bank. 96.

KEVIN (CONT’D) ...but what happened?

He pulls out his phone. No signal.

KEVIN (CONT’D) God damn it, Verizon. You come from one lousy parallel dimension and you get no service at all.

He checks his wallet; at least he’s got cash.

INT. TAXI - DAY

Kevin in the back of the cab. The driver wears a headset. Traffic is intense. There’s some kind of blockage up ahead.

CAB DRIVER You going up there?

KEVIN Yeah.

CAB DRIVER I don’t think you’re going to make it today. We better turn around.

KEVIN It’s just a few more blocks. I can walk it from here.

CAB DRIVER I don’t think you want to do that. Radio said there’s hunter-killers up ahead.

KEVIN ...there’s what?

CAB DRIVER Hunter-killers. Multiple. And apparently more of them coming in. 97.

KEVIN And what exactly is a--

His mouth falls agape -

--as the answer to his question comes out of a side street and STOMPS ON A CAR just fifty feet ahead of them.

It’s a triceratops. Of sorts. But no real triceratops was ever this big. And this one is wearing ARMOR, some kind of dark shimmering carapace made of flexible metal, and it has a GIANT ROCKET LAUNCHER mounted on each shoulder.

As Kevin stares, aghast, and the denizens of the crushed car scream with pain and terror, the HUNTER-KILLER CYBERTRICERATOPS looks around, as if it was using the car to get a better view of the situation.

Then it lowers its head and CHARGES down the street, in the direction Kevin wanted to go, knocking cars and other obstacles out of its way like a bulldozer.

CAB DRIVER That was too close, man. I’m not insured for those.

KEVIN What the shit was that?

CAB DRIVER Hunter-killer. You never seen one?

Kevin gapes at him, astonished.

The silence is broken by an EXPLOSION in the distance. Flowers of flame leap upwards -- and above them, a huge CYBERNETICALLY ENHANCED PTERODACTYL soars.

CAB DRIVER (CONT’D) A skylord! I ain’t hardly ever seen one of those before. 98.

KEVIN Hardly ever? Jesus Christ. James Cameron. What is he doing?

CAB DRIVER We better go back.

KEVIN I’ll walk from here.

Crowds are rapidly leaving the area he’s approaching, not exactly fleeing but definitely not taking any time to linger, and he walks through them like a salmon forcing his way upstream.

Then the crowd thins out--

--and then four HUNTER-KILLERS ramble back up the street, like giant bulls of Pamplona, and he flattens him against a wall until they pass--

--and then he finally reaches his destination:

EXT. EPIC THEATER - DAY

What’s left of it, anyway. It’s a smoldering pile of rubble; only the twisted remains of its sign are still recognizable.

Another CYBERPTERODACTYL swoops overhead, unleashes another MISSILE the ruins, and a rain of fragments rattles down. The few other remaining onlookers flee, leaving Kevin apparently alone in this suddenly postapocalyptic scene.

He approaches the remains of the sign, touches it gingerly-

NAOMI You’re too late.

She walks out from behind a pile of wreckage, bruised and dirty, blood dripping down the side of her face, stunned and dazed and grief-struck and defeated, but still strong. 99.

NAOMI (CONT’D) Whatever you were thinking of doing, there’s nothing left now.

KEVIN I thought he might come here.

NAOMI Yeah. You were right. He did. He sure did. My folks are gone. I don’t know where. Probably dead? I don’t even know.

KEVIN What about the dagger?

NAOMI He drew it into a chaos vortex.

KEVIN What’s that?

NAOMI It’s a...it doesn’t matter. It’s gone.

KEVIN I thought it was, like, alive and all- powerful.

NAOMI It can’t work by itself. It needs a sapient creature as a catalyst. Now, the way it’s charged, any being from this timeline wields it, it’ll short-circuit right around into a chaos vortex again, come back up in some random place, no use. I could use it, or you I guess, but we can’t track it. And even if we could, I don’t know, Cameron’s doing things with that ring which I was taught were impossible. The old women, they’re gone. Just gone. 100.

KEVIN Where did he?

NAOMI He’s built a castle on Catalina Island. I mean, he’s been building it for years, in this timeline. They’ll all be this timeline soon. He’s drawing them all together. Another few days, they’ll all bleed into one. No multiverse, no diversity of stories, just one story. His. He’ll be like a god.

KEVIN I didn’t mean for this to happen.

NAOMI It’s not your fault. It’s mine. I really fucked up. I guess I’m going to go to Catalina, see what I can do. Probably nothing.

KEVIN Can I come along?

NAOMI Sorry. No.

She turns and walks away.

EXT. WRECKED STREETS - DAY

Kevin shuffles slowly, dejectedly down the street past the ruins of a bookstore. Books have spilled out of its shattered window onto the street.

He suddenly stops. Double-takes at one of the books.

MULTIVERSE by Kevin Kedrosky.

He kneels, looks further. More of his books. TIMELINE JUMPER. METAVERSE. MEGAVERSE. THE MARRIAGE BETWEEN TIMELINES THREE, FOUR, AND FIVE. 101.

He turns one over to see the author photo. Himself.

KEVIN These are my books.

He stands up, holding two of them, thinking hard.

KEVIN (CONT’D) This is what I write about. Multiverses. This is what I do.

He looks down at the books.

KEVIN (CONT’D) I brought me here too.

INT. WRECKED BOOKSTORE - DAY

Kevin on the phone.

KEVIN Hi! Is this the Kevin Kedrosky Fan Club? Listen, I have a strange request - (surprised look) Uh, yes. Yes, this is he. I, uh, I didn’t think you’d recognize my voice. Look, um, I just wanted to know what address you had on file for me.

He grabs a pen, begins to scribble.

KEVIN (CONT’D) And that’s in Venice? Great. Great, thanks very much.

He hangs up. Outside a HUNTER-KILLER marches past. 102.

EXT. VENICE BEACH - DAY

The sun is falling towards the horizon as Kevin makes his way up from the beach into a little passageway, at the end of which is a small house with an ornate wooden door.

He knocks. Nothing. Then he sees the biometric fingerprint lock. Touches it - and the door pops open.

KEVIN Guess who’s home.

He opens. Walks into a small but lovely home, tastefully decorated with international souvenirs.

KEVIN (CONT’D) Hello? It’s...well, it’s kind of hard to explain...

IRENE No need.

She’s beautiful, and European, and grieving.

KEVIN Hi! Um. I’m, uh, I don’t know who you are.

IRENE In a sense, I’m your wife. I’ve been expecting you.

KEVIN Oh. Where...is he?

IRENE He’s dead. Follow me.

He does so, into a bedroom where HIMSELF lies curled up sideways in a fetal position on his bed - with a telltale golden blade poking out of his back. 103.

KEVIN The dagger.

IRENE He called it to him, but he couldn’t take it. Only you can take it. This was the only way to bring it here without it being lost.

KEVIN Why would he...?

IRENE He saw what would happen if Cameron won. In a sense he lived it. With all this time splicing, it’s hard to explain. He knew it had to be stopped. So he created you and brough you here.

KEVIN Created me?

IRENE Created your timeline. Saw that you had the experiences you needed.

KEVIN What experiences?

IRENE It’s so hard for me, that you’re him and yet you’re not.

KEVIN I’m sorry.

IRENE I know you are. You’re a good person. So good that nothing could have changed that.

She touches his cheek. 104.

IRENE (CONT’D) Please. Take it.

Kevin nods. Walks around his own corpse. Reaches down. Pulls forth the dagger.

It shimmers, glows, reshapes itself into a woven golden bracelet wrapped around his forearm.

KEVIN Hey. This is like...

IRENE The video game.

KEVIN Yeah. Artifact.

IRENE It doesn’t exist in this timeline. Or any other. Only in yours.

KEVIN What do you mean?

IRENE Were you good at it?

KEVIN The best. No one would ever play with me.

IRENE Good.

KEVIN Are you saying--I mean, I spent half of my twenties playing that game--

IRENE Yes. You were being trained. Go.

Kevin looks down. Flexes his hand in a particular way. 105.

Levitates two feet off the ground.

KEVIN Whoa.

Irene smiles sadly.

IRENE I wish he could have been here to see this.

KEVIN It’s not me, it knows what it’s doing. I can feel it.

IRENE No. Without you it will lose, again. You need to find how to win.

KEVIN Great. Got any ideas?

IRENE I’m not the storyteller. You are. (beat) Go. And please. Don’t ever back to me. I couldn’t bear it.

Kevin nods, slowly.

Waves a finger, and the window which dominates one wall of the room slides open.

He points towards it--

--and rockets through it.

Out over the ocean, towards Catalina Island. 106.

EXT. CATALINA ISLAND FERRY - DAY

Kevin soars over the ferry, towards the setting sun.

EXT. CATALINA ISLAND - DAY

A squadron of four CYBERPTERODACTYLS come out to meet him.

Kevin raises his arm, slows, stops, hovers mid-air as the great beasts soar towards him.

The missile arrays which they carry come to life - aim -

FIRE. A dozen contrails arrow towards him.

Kevin concentrates as they approach -

- and DEMATERIALIZES. The missiles pass right through him without so much as mussing his hair.

Then he reaches back with his hands, clenches them into fists, and draws them forward -

- and the missiles, as if on strings attached to his fingers, begin to loop around.

The great dinosaur eyes of the cyberpterodactyls widen with fear - they begin to bank and dive, to take evasive action -

- but it’s too late. With four WHOOMS, they’re reduced to showers of bone, flesh, and scales.

Kevin continues. Towards...

EXT. CATALINA ISLAND BALLROOM - DAY

This majestic building is now encrusted with turrets and sensors. Anti- aircraft weaponry spits gunfire and tiny cyberdragons at Kevin as he approaches. But he’s dematerialized; they pass right through him... 107.

...as he passes right through the walls, into the interior.

JAMES CAMERON is there. On a throne made of bone and cybernetic weaponry, a throne that’s really more of a tank with eight scuttling legs and a scorpion tail. On his hand the RING OF SOLOMON glows red as blood.

CAMERON Kevin Kedrosky! So glad you could make it.

KEVIN Somehow I doubt that.

CAMERON No, really. We’ve been through a lot together, haven’t we? And now look at us. Kings of the world. God-emperors of Earth.

KEVIN The trouble is, I don’t really want either of us to be god-emperor of anything.

CAMERON Why not? Haven’t you considered the possibilities here? We don’t have to restrict ourselves to just writing stories any more. Now, whatever we imagine, we can make real. We can remake the world the way it should be.

KEVIN Full of cybernetic dinosaurs?

CAMERON An irrelevant aesthetic detail. I found the golems unimaginative. My point is that we can end suffering, end hatred, drag humanity out of this backwards state it’s been in for so long, and make this a whole planet full of gods! 108.

KEVIN Call me crazy, but I kind of like humans the way they are.

CAMERON That is crazy.

KEVIN Kind of. More than I like all of reality bowing to one guy’s idea of what it should be like. However imaginative he may be. What gives you the right?

CAMERON What gives the eagle the right to fly? Or the lion the right to hunt? This is what we do.

KEVIN No. This is a gross perversion of what we do. And I’m stopping it.

CAMERON I’m very sorry to hear that.

He flexes the hand holding the Ring, and suddenly dust on the floor around Kevin comes to life and slowly begins to spin, as if in the grip of a slow tornado-

KEVIN Oh yes. The old chaos-vortex trick.

He makes a fist out of the hand with the bracelet, and suddenly a BUBBLE OF TRANSLUCENT BLUE ENERGY bursts from him, expands out into the room, washes over Cameron and dissipates into the walls.

KEVIN (CONT’D) I think you’ll find that won’t work here. 109.

CAMERON Don’t you see you’re being used? That thing on your wrist isn’t human. It’s used us like ants for thousands of years, for its own purposes.

KEVIN No. That’s not true. I know what this is now. It’s not from the past. It’s from the future.

Cameron hesitates.

CAMERON The future?

KEVIN It was sent back in time to stop you from doing what you’re doing.

CAMERON This is ridiculous.

KEVIN Is it?

Cameron points at Kevin, and a HUGE BOLT OF RED LIGHTNING rips out from the Ring -

- and Kevin raises his arm, and the bracelet blocks it.

Kevin hurls a BALL OF GOLDEN FLAME back -

- and it’s absorbed into the Ring.

Cameron’s throne scuttles towards Kevin with amazing speed, and its tail lifts up and IMPALES him -

- but he’s dematerialized, and simply steps away. 110.

KEVIN (CONT’D) Look at yourself, Jim. You’ve built dinosaurs armed with heavy weaponry. What’s your next step? Terraforming the Earth? You’ve thought about it, haven’t you?

CAMERON No more than necessary to save it.

KEVIN Don’t you understand? This is Pandora. Who do you think you are, the Na’vi or the humans?

Cameron blinks with understanding.

CAMERON You’re trying to use my own stories against me.

KEVIN That’s what you’re vulnerable to.

CAMERON Then I can use yours.

KEVIN But you’ve never read my work, have you?

Cameron grimaces.

KEVIN (CONT’D) You, though, everyone knows yours. The great James Cameron. Let me tell you a story.

CAMERON You couldn’t tell a good story if the world depended on it. 111.

KEVIN All these worlds you’re bringing together. All these different stories, all these energies. Who can say what might shift from story to reality, or vice versa?

CAMERON You’re not from this world. That makes you vulnerable. When I bring them all together, that bracelet won’t save you. It’s not like the Ring. You’ll sicken and then you’ll die.

Kevin holds up the bracelet.

KEVIN Do you want to know what this really is?

CAMERON I don’t care.

KEVIN You do. You already know, on some level. You wrote a story about it. You always knew it was doom incarnate. For you.

CAMERON Keep talking. It won’t do you any good.

And Kevin FLINGS the bracelet down -

-and when it hits the ground it MELTS, and ripples out all around them, spreading infinitely thin, until the two of them stand on a floor made of beaten gold that was once the bracelet.

For a moment Cameron is alarmed.

Then he realizes that nothing bad has happened, and -

CAMERON (CONT’D) I’m still here. And you just lost your protector. 112.

He points with his ring hand at Kevin.

Who is smiling.

Because all around Cameron, that floor of beaten gold is drawing inwards, melting in reverse - slowly rising up behind James Cameron, into a kind of pillar, one that begins to take shape - as a human -

- as a golden T-1000 from TERMINATOR 2 -

- and he sees what Kevin is looking at and spins to see -

- just as it impales him with an arm which is a sword.

Cameron’s blood spills out over the golden blade.

KEVIN You’re terminated, motherfucker.

And all around them Cameron’s creations begin to wither and decay into dust.

EXT. CATALINA ISLAND FERRY - NIGHT

Kevin rides back towards the mainland.

EXT. CATALINA ISLAND FERRY TERMINAL - NIGHT

Kevin approaches the lead taxi at a taxi stand.

EGYPTIAN TAXI DRIVER Where you going?

Kevin looks at him -- and the world FLASHES WHITE -

SMASH CUT:

That taxi driver, as a younger man, running down a Cairo road, pursued by thugs. Tries to open a door, it’s locked. They catch him, start to beat him. 113.

He’s trapped in a filthy jail cell, staring out through bars.

Finally emerging from jail, heavily bearded, weak, dirty.

Boarding an airplane, still leaning heavily on another man.

In an airport immigration interview, scared and nervous.

Entering his first, empty, tiny, run-down, L.A. apartment.

In a garage, receiving the keys to a taxi.

At the wheel, on the LA freeway.

Waiting at the ferry terminal for Kevin.

-- AND THEN --

--we rewind at ultra-high speed back through those scenes--

-- AND ANOTHER TIMELINE IS SHOWN TO US --

That door is opened. He slips through it, evades the thugs.

He’s on a podium in Tahrir Square, giving a speech to masses.

At the forefront of a crowd breaking into a big building.

Giving an interview on television.

Standing, formally dressed, in a newly formed parliament.

Giving a speech, and receiving parliament’s applause--

EXT. CATALINA ISLAND FERRY TERMINAL - NIGHT

EGYPTIAN TAXI DRIVER My friend, are you all right?

Kevin stares at him for a moment. 114.

KEVIN Yeah. Sure.

EGYPTIAN TAXI DRIVER Where you going?

KEVIN Home.

He gets in.

The taxi starts off.

KEVIN (CONT’D) You Egyptian?

EGYPTIAN TAXI DRIVER How did you guess?

KEVIN Accent, I guess. Why did you come to America?

The driver pauses, shakes his head slowly.

EGYPTIAN TAXI DRIVER Politics. Never get involved in politics. It ruins you.

KEVIN Yeah. I guess sometimes it does.

EXT. SUNSET BOULEVARD - NIGHT

He rides in the taxi through an untouched world. Past the Epic Theatre. It’s showing ALIENS, and -

NAOMI is outside, smoking a cigarette -

KEVIN Wait! Stop for a second! 115.

He rolls down the window.

KEVIN (CONT’D) Naomi!

Curious, she approaches warily.

NAOMI Do I know you?

KEVIN I don’t know. Do you?

NAOMI No. How do you know my name?

KEVIN It’s a long and very strange story. You probably wouldn’t believe it.

NAOMI I’ve believed some pretty strange things in my time.

KEVIN Maybe I’ll come see a movie sometime and tell you.

NAOMI All right. I’m usually here.

KEVIN OK. See you then.

EXT. SAN FERNANDO VALLEY - NIGHT

The taxi rolls through the Valley, to -

EXT. GAME CAFE - NIGHT

Kevin gets out, pays, walks in. 116.

INT. PRIVATE GAME ROOM - NIGHT

Randy, Tucker, and Beast are there. The ARTIFACT poster is not.

KEVIN Hey, guys.

TUCKER Kevin!

SMASH CUT:

A younger Tucker, in military boot camp.

A bloodied Tucker, in uniform, crawling away from a Jeep.

Tucker opening a form that says MEDICAL DISCHARGE.

Tucker with his leg in a cast, playing video games.

Tucker in the Game Cafe.

-- AND THEN --

--we rewind at ultra-high speed back through those scenes--

-- AND ANOTHER TIMELINE IS SHOWN TO US --

Tucker in Afghanistan, helping a wounded comrade escape.

Tucker entering a door that says SPECIAL FORCES RECRUITING.

A bearded Tucker sitting around a map with a passel of seriously tough hombres, making a plan.

Tucker on a helicopter, masked and armed, going somewhere.

KEVIN Tucker.

RANDY Hey man, where you been? 117.

SMASH CUT:

Randy opening an acceptance letter from Caltech as his parents look on proudly.

Randy attending his father in a hospital bed.

Randy’s mother punching numbers into a calculator app and shaking her head sadly as Randy winces, disappointed.

Randy in the Game Cafe.

-- AND THEN --

--we rewind at ultra-high speed back through those scenes--

-- AND ANOTHER TIMELINE IS SHOWN TO US --

Randy walking onto the Caltech campus.

Randy helping to build a robot.

Randy accepting a $10 million term sheet from a team of venture capitalists.

KEVIN Randy. Been a busy week.

BEAST Well, here you are. Are you ready to wreak some goddamn havoc?

SMASH CUT:

Beast showing a pretty Chinese girl Watts Towers.

Beast at LAX, saying goodbye to that weeping girl as she holds her red Chinese passport.

Beast at his computer, chatting with her.

Beast seeing a picture of her on Facebook with another man. 118.

Beast checking his Gmail, and again, and getting no response.

Beast in the Game Cafe.

-- AND THEN --

--we rewind at ultra-high speed back through those scenes--

-- AND ANOTHER TIMELINE IS SHOWN TO US --

Beast at the Chinese consulate, filling out a visa application.

Beast buying an air ticket on Kayak.com.

Beast landing in Shanghai.

Beast meeting her in the Yuyuan Gardens, where they hold each other like they’ll never let go.

KEVIN Beast. You better believe it.

He sits down beside his friends and begins to play.