A Short Film Screenplay, 2018

(1) INT. MIND REPLACEMENT OFFICE – DAY

We see from the point of view of PATIENT JN-EEL11, sitting in a chair, a flash of light that fades slowly as the image of a doctor comes into focus. We hear high pitched ringing in the patient’s head and the sounds of the futuristic medical equipment in the room. DOCTOR HILMO PT-91CA2 comes into focus as he looks into the patient’s eyes.

DOCTOR HILMO

Are you awake? Can you hear me?

PATIENT

Yes.

DOCTOR HILMO

What is your name?

PATIENT

I – don’t remember?

DOCTOR HILMO

Do you remember anything?

PATIENT

No.

DOCTOR HILMO

Good.

DOCTOR HILMO reaches for a button next to the patient’s head. We cut away from the patient’s point of view as DOCTOR HILMO presses the button on a piece of hardware attached to the patient’s head which makes the patient fall instantly asleep.

DOCTOR HILMO (CONT’D)

Where do you want him?

We see a wider view of the office, which has a single chair with various electronic devices attached to it and the patient in it, along with tables, control panels, and monitors for two other workers. ADMINISTRATOR BAILEY CM-5UM81, in black suit and tie is at a desk with piles of papers and forms.

ADMINISTRATOR BAILEY

We’ll keep him where he is. Use the Olson template this time.

DOCTOR HILMO walks to the complicated looking control panel and attaches a hard drive that ADMINISTRATOR BAILEY to the computer.

DOCTOR HILMO

We’re ready.

ADMINISTRATOR BAILEY

Go ahead.

DOCTOR HILMO pushes some buttons on his control panel and we see on a screen a fast-forwarded series of images from the life of a doctor. The PATIENT in the chair goes tense and then spasms a few times. DOCTOR HILMO pulls back on a few levers and the patient relaxes.

DOCTOR HILMO

Are you awake? Can you hear me?

PATIENT

Yes.

ADMINISTRATOR BAILEY takes two note cards from his desk and walks in front of the chair next to DOCTOR HILMO.

DOCTOR HILMO

What’s your name and occupation?

PATIENT

Olson. I’m trained as a Doctor of Applied Neuropsychology

ADMINISTRATOR BAILEY

Very good. Your id number is JN-EEL11. Here are your medical records, directions to your living quarters-

DOCTOR HILMO

And here’s your lab coat, DOCTOR OLSON. Let’s get back to work.

CUT TO:

(2) INT. INTERVIEW ROOM – DAY

We cut between different subjects being interviewed in a dark room. The test subjects sit in an ordinary chair in front of a desk with a spotlight overhead and a few wires attached them. Over the subjects we see a data overlay displaying information about their identity, brain, and behavior on the screen.

We see the first subject, WORKER BELL ST-16T1R. The data overlay shows all green bars for the subject’s information and says “status: normal” in large letters in the bottom center of the frame.

CUT TO:

We see several more subjects with “status: normal” messages and green status bars.

CUT TO:

The next subject’s data overlay has red bars for some stats, and says “status: non-compliance warning.”

WORKER TINGEY WU-VY158

“This above all: to thine own self be true.”

CUT TO:

The next subject’s data overlay also shows red bars and says “status: non-compliance warning.”

WORKER SIMPSON RB-4AM51

“Liberty is to precious a thing to be buried in books.”

CUT TO:

The last subject’s data shows more red status bars and warning and says “status: danger: confirmed non-compliant. Re-installing mind may help.”

ELECTRICIAN HAMMOND RP-2TSN1

“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

SERGEANT MATTHEWS CR-VY157
(Interviewing through a fuzzy speaker)

What does that mean? Where did you hear that?

ELECTRICIAN HAMMOND RP-2TSN1

I don’t know where I remember it from. I think I might have read it, or maybe someone read it to me. But I can’t remember hearing or reading it. I know it’s important.

CUT TO:

(3) INT. INTERVIEW OBSERVATION ROOM – DAY

We see the interviewers; DOCTOR OLSON JN-EEL11 and DOCTOR HILMO PT-91CA2 along with SERGEANT MATTHEWS CR-VY157, a large man in a military uniform. They are watching the subjects on a monitor and communicating with them via a microphone and speaker.

DOCTOR OLSON

I don’t get it. What is he talking about?

SERGEANT MATTHEWS

I have no idea. But there are about 10 more like this we’ve brought in. Your office did the mind installations on every single one of them. We believe they’re a danger to themselves and everyone else.

DOCTOR HILMO

Danger? He’s speaking gibberish, there were a bunch of made up words in there! It’s probably just a computer bug.

SERGEANT MATTHEWS

It’s not gibberish. Everything he said is classified as dangerous speech by State Security.

DOCTOR HILMO

Get us some new hardware and I’m sure we can fix this.

SERGEANT MATTHEWS

No, I think someone is doing this intentionally. When was the last time the staff were re-installed?

DOCTOR HILMO

We re-install all minds in the office monthly on a rotating basis. I had a re-install 4 days ago.

DOCTOR OLSON

You think the mind templates have been tampered with?

SERGEANT MATTHEWS

Yes, that’s what I suspect. And I’d like to figure out how.

(4) INT. STORAGE ROOM – DAY

A screen displays long list of incomprehensible strings of seemingly jumbled characters. The monitor is in a room filled with hard drives and other files. DOCTOR OLSON JN-EEL11 is at the keyboard attached to the monitor. DOCTOR HILMO PT-91CA2 is showing a hard drive, labeled “Electrician – ‘Hammond’ / 4,096 TB,” to SERGEANT MATTHEWS CR-VY157.

DOCTOR HILMO

This is our copy of the Electrician Hammond mind template.

SERGEANT MATTHEWS

How easy is it to modify the files on these?

DOCTOR HILMO

For practical purposes, it’s impossible. All these drives are supposed to be read-only.

SERGEANT MATTHEWS looks at the screen.

SERGEANT MATTHEWS

What does all this mean?

DOCTOR OLSON

Each line is a connection of one neuron to another, with a list of neural firing patterns associated with that connection.

SERGEANT MATTHEWS

What use is that? None of it makes any sense.

DOCTOR OLSON

Of course not. Minds don’t make sense until you put them into a brain.

SERGEANT MATTHEWS

So is there any way to tell if this template has junk added to it?

DOCTOR OLSON

Actually, there’s a very easy way to test. We just need an extra brain.

CUT TO:

(5) INT. INTERVIEW ROOM – DAY

The WORKER BELL ST-16T1R is now ELECTRICIAN HAMMOND

ST-16T1R. We see, in separate interviews cut together, he and ELECTRICIAN HAMMOND RP-2TSN1 sitting at a desk being interviewed by the Mind Replacement Office and State Security staff. The two look and sound completely different from each other.

DOCTOR OLSON

What is your occupation, mind, and identification number?

ELECTRICIAN HAMMOND ST-16T1R

Electrician Hammond ST-16T1R.

ELECTRICIAN HAMMOND RP-2TSN1

Electrician Hammond RP-2TSN1.

DOCTOR OLSON

What is your training and occupational history?

ELECTRICIAN HAMMOND ST-16T1R AND ELECTRICIAN HAMMOND RP-2TSN1
(In unison, cut back and forth between the two between lines)

4 years, vocational training.
3 years, graduate school.
13 years, professional experience.
Accepted as mind template at 37.
Memory Template edited at the National Institute of Technology.

SERGEANT MATTHEWS

What is liberty?

ELECTRICIAN HAMMOND ST-16T1R

What?

ELECTRICIAN HAMMOND RP-2TSN1

First, absolute freedom of opinion and sentiment on all subjects,
practical or speculative, scientific, moral, or theological.

ELECTRICIAN HAMMOND ST-16T1R

What is what?

ELECTRICIAN HAMMOND RP-2TSN1

Second, of framing the plan of our life to suit our own character; of doing as we like.

ELECTRICIAN HAMMOND ST-16T1R

“Lib-er-ty”?

ELECTRICIAN HAMMOND RP-2TSN1

Third, freedom to unite, for any purpose not involving harm to others.

ELECTRICIAN HAMMOND ST-16T1R

Never heard of it.

(6) INT. INTERVIEW OBSERVATION ROOM – DAY

DOCTOR OLSON JN-EEL11 is using the microphone to interview the subject, with DOCTOR HILMO PT-91CA2 and SERGEANT MATTHEWS CR-VY157 present.

DOCTOR OLSON

You see? The template is normal.

SERGEANT MATTHEWS sighs and presses his closed fist to his face in thought.

SERGEANT MATTHEWS

This garbage he’s spouting has to have come from somewhere. It can’t just be random noise.

DOCTOR HILMO

What if it’s just leftover junk that didn’t get completely deleted?

SERGEANT MATTHEWS

Is that even possible?

DOCTOR OLSON

Ideally, no. But our equipment’s getting old. If this stuff was encoded with many strong, frequently used neural pathways, it might have not been able to remove them.

DOCTOR HILMO

A new neural decoupler might solve the problem.

SERGEANT MATTHEWS

That’s it? Is that the problem?

DOCTOR HILMO

If it’s not the templates, what else could it be?

SERGEANT MATTHEWS

All right! We’ll get you your new computer stuff if it will put a stop to this. Whatever you need, State Security will take care of it. Anything else?

DOCTOR OLSON

Could you do something about the food around here?

CUT TO:

(7) INT. OFFICE LOBBY – NIGHT

DOCTOR OLSON JN-EEL11 and DOCTOR HILMO PT-91CA2 are changing their lab coats for their coats.

DOCTOR OLSON

Do you really think replacing the decoupler will solve the problem?

DOCTOR HILMO

I have no idea. Can’t hurt. Why?

DOCTOR OLSON

I don’t know, what if there really is someone messing with the templates?

DOCTOR HILMO

We tested that.

DOCTOR OLSON

I guess. See you tomorrow.

DOCTOR HILMO

Bye.

DOCTOR OLSON leaves the office.

FADE TO:

(8) INT. TUNNELS – NIGHT

DOCTOR OLSON JN-EEL11 walks home through the tunnels below the city.

FADE TO:

(9) INT. DOCTOR OLSON’S ROOM – NIGHT

DOCTOR OLSON JN-EEL11 enters his sparsely furnished room and turns on the light. He sighs deeply and lies down on his bed, but he feels a hard object in the pillow. He reaches into a hole in the pillow and pulls out a rock. Written on the rock is a message “Look under the bed.”

He lifts up the mattress and sees a collection of books, hard drives, and various other objects hidden underneath. On an old-fashioned tape player is a note that says “Play Tape First.” He puts the player on the nightstand and
presses play. His own voice plays from the tape.

TAPE RECORDING

JN-8A74R: Open the binder.

He looks among the books and finds an old binder among the books. He opens it and finds that it’s full of a handwritten journal and several pictures of himself with others.

TAPE RECORDING (CONT’D)

This is me, and this is you. JOHN HENRY WEBB. Everything you are, everything you were. But you are made to forget. You have forgotten
recording this message, just as I have forgotten the life recorded in these pages. But it’s real. And it’s the real you.

JOHN HENRY WEBB looks through the pages and finds a picture of himself with what looks like his family.

TAPE RECORDING (CONT’D)

See the books?

He looks over the books: they are volumes of history and literature.

TAPE RECORDING (CONT’D)

That is all of us. Our identity as humanity is in our past. And you’ve made it your task to remind people of that.

JOHN HENRY WEBB picks up one of the hard drives. It’s hand-labeled: “Electrician Hammond – Copy.”

TAPE RECORDING (CONT’D)

You leave pieces of our true identity in the minds that our state corrupts. These books are here so that you can learn again what liberty means, who you are, and what mankind is.

He selects a few of the books and sits on his bed to read in the fading light.

TAPE RECORDING (CONT’D)

You will have to relearn all you have learned before. It will be difficult and dangerous. So I hope that you – that I – will comprehend what liberty costs, and what it is worth.

We see the tape player, with JOHN HENRY WEBB reflected on it, as the tape rolls to the end and clicks at the stop.

FADE TO BLACK