Based on concepts by Larry and Andy Wachowski, and the
motion picture, “The Matrix”. www.thematrixtwins.com
will be released
on May 3rd, which will contain comics, news,
specials and much more to
support the script.
This screenplay is COPYRIGHTED and any violation
will follow applicable laws.
Copyright 2000.
Dedicated to Vaughn Engel, Daniel Mica, Moni Mica, the
Landen/Adenuga
family, and Matrix fans worldwide.
THE MATRIX: APHEX TWINS
Written
by
Parc Landen
Additional Concepts by
Helmdean Noel
August 08 1999
EXT. BATTLE FIELD
The sky is a sea of green and
black bile, in the
dark clouds, thunder RAGES. The earth is torn,
wounded, and stricken. A replication of wars “no
man’s land”.
Just then the SHRIEK of LIGHT
pierces through the
raging sky, revealing a futuristic
hovercraft. It’s
exhaust shooting out a turbo of
burning white fire.
The craft begins to descend,
slowly. It lands to the
ground and
a door to the side opens like that of an
airplane.
Rushing out are humans, soldiers,
dressed in heavily
armored
futuristic combat suits. Their heads covered
by fighter
pilot like head gear, their mouths covered
by a
snorkel like trunk that attaches to a breathing
apparatus. In their hands, futuristic plasma guns.
A leading human points to a hill
located a few miles
away, the
others nod. Just then the humans combat
suits
release jet pack wings.
The wings release a boost of white
fire as the
humans shoot up into the air.
EXT. HILL SIDE
The human’s hover to the ground,
they begin
walking up hill. The top of hill shoots upward,
blanketing the other side.
A growing
SOUND can be heard, the quiet
SCREAM of a computer reaching
another.
The humans
begin loading their guns.
They continue walking, this time
in slower, cautious
steps. They walk closer and closer, their eyes on
everything.
To the ground,
they find human bones and skulls
scattered
all over the place. A reminder of the
war
of yesteryear.
Closer, closer, closer, closer,
the computer like
scream gets
louder. CLOSER, CLOSER, CLOSER...
BAM!
A group of mechanical animals,
SENTINELS, that
at once look dangerously
beautiful.
The humans
begin firing, comet SURGES of
PLASMA that shoot out into the
air.
Smartly, the sentinels evade every
shot, darting
left and right, gliding like
killer kaleidoscopes.
They ATTACK
with deadly speed, releasing red
laser beams from their whipping
tentacles.
The battle
begins.
One of the
soldiers begins to run away. Just then
a
sentinel
POUNDS on top him, and severs him into
two.
Blood
SPURTS from every direction, human limbs
SWORDED off by their mechanical
enemies.
The fight is over before it
starts.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
Out of the
front window of the hovercraft, a younger
MAN looks
out at the horrific battleground, he wears
a headset. He is NICO.
His face is
hardened in anger.
A MAN’s
voice emits from his headset.
WORM
(MAN) (V.O.)
We
have to get out of here.
INT. BATTLE FIELD
We watch as
the crafts exhaust releases a burst of
white fire,
hovering off the ground. A few feet
later
in blazing
speed, the craft ZOOMS towards the black
sky.
A sentinel notices the craft and
chases after it. It’s
tendrils
whipping in the air, each beautifully coming to
life in
hypnotic movements.
A huge gun located on the side of
the craft shoots
plasma out
like an uzi. The sentinel DARTS left
and
right,
evading the balls of electricity.
Plasma
wraps against metal, as a stream of electricity
surrounds
the sentinel. BOOM! The sentinel explodes
in a raging
blue fire.
The craft releases another boost
of white fire, it
enters the
sea of black bile, disappearing.
INT. NICO’S ROOM - CLOSE UP ON COMPUTER
SCREEN
A flowing
river of data spreads down the screen.
We move
AWAY to find, Nico, staring aimlessly into
the screen.
The door
opens and a MAN walks in, he is CABLE.
Nico
swivels around, facing Cable.
NICO
This
can’t continue. We are
dying
out there.
CABLE
We
need a miracle.
Cable sits
in a dark corner across from Nico.
NICO
The
Oracle.
CABLE
The
Oracle is a myth.
NICO
I
don’t know, but if we want
to
win we have to find him.
Nico gets
up.
NICO
I
am going in.
INT. HOTEL LAFAYETTE
Inside ROOM
708, a room that looks like it hasn’t
been touched for years.
Nico stands
in front of a table, which carries a circle
of old
black phones. He wears a long black
coat and
circular
mirrored sunglasses.
In his hand
he holds a receiver.
NICO
Secure
an exit.
WORM
(V.O.)
Yes,
sir.
He hangs
up.
EXT. HOTEL LAFAYETTE - NIGHT
Nico walks
out of the back entrance of the forgotten
hotel,
located in the heart of urban maggotry.
Waiting
for him in
the putrid darkness is a sporty silver BMW
sedan, it’s
engine muttering in the cold night.
He opens
the back door and enters.
EXT. TEMPLE OF ZION
The silver BMW comes to a halt,
the back door swings
open and
Nico steps out. Heading towards stairs
that
lead to an
elevator.
Next to the
elevator, a MAN sits, dressed in all black,
reading a
newspaper.
Nico nods
at the Man, the Man nods back.
The
elevator door opens and he walks in.
INT. ELEVATOR
The
elevator stops at the seventh floor, the doors
slide open. Walking out into the hall he is approached
by a WOMAN.
PRIESTESS
(WOMAN)
Can
I help you?
Nico takes
off his sunglasses.
NICO
I
am here to see the Oracle.
The
priestess nods.
PRIESTESS
Come
with me.
She leads
Nico towards a door located on the right of
the
hall. She opens the door revealing an
empty room.
PRIESTESS
Wait
here. He will see you soon.
INT. SHRINE
Nico stands
patiently, in the empty room. The walls
are covered
by tarnished wallpaper, the wooden
floor covered by dingy polyester
carpet.
To his
right is an open window.
Across the
street, in another building, in a ROOM,
he sees a beautiful long-haired
WOMAN peacefully
making a bed.
OLD
MAN (V.O.)
Non-believer.
He turns
away from the window to notice an OLD
MAN, sitting, staring at him.
OLD
MAN
Nico. Sit.
He looks
back at the ROOM, the woman has
disappeared and the light of the
ROOM is out. It all
felt like a dream.
Nico
lowers, sitting.
NICO
Are
you? --
OLD
MAN
Yes.
OLD
MAN
Give
me your hand.
Nico puts
out his hand.
The old man
looks at it, examining it as if it were an
insect.
OLD
MAN
You
definitely have something. But
you
have to believe, if you want
anything
to happen.
OLD
MAN
Open
your mouth.
Nico opens
his mouth.
The old man
looks deep down his throat, then sits
back down.
OLD
MAN
First
you have to find yourself,
most
importantly, him.
NICO
Who?
OLD
MAN
Your
other half, Nico.
Nico is
confused.
OLD
MAN
We’ve
run out of time Nico, your
enemies
are drawing closer. Go.
Now. Before it’s too late.
Nico rises
to his feet.
NICO
Good
bye.
The old man
nods.
EXT. HOTEL LAFAYETTE
The silver
BMW pulls up to the back entrance of the
hotel. The back door swings open and Nico walks
out.
INT. HOTEL LAFAYETTE
One of the
phones on the circle of phones begins to
RING. The door opens and Nico walks in.
He picks up
the receiver.
We TURN
towards a window. Outside on a broken
street
light we see the flicker of fluorescent light.
We TURN
around.
Nico has
disappeared.
EXT. MAYFAIR PLAZA - NIGHT
The central
offices of Mayfair Systems, a software
development
company.
INT. OFFICE
The deserted office is almost
devoid of furniture.
There is a
half-damaged wooden table, a chair, and
a computer. The only light in the room comes from
the glowing ray of the computer
screen.
Sitting in
front of the computer is a MAN, dressed
in all
black and wearing a headset. He is RC.
His hands
race over the keyboard.
RC
They
are looking for something.
A voice
emits from RC’s headset.
NICO
(V.O.)
I
thought so.
A swarm of
TV like STATIC spreads through the
screen, freezing the tracing
program.
RC
What’s
happening?
NICO
(V.O.)
It’s
a glitch.
RC
Damn.
NICO
(V.O.)
No
time to wait. Get out.
RC takes
off the headset and then races for the door.
INT. ST. REGIS HOTEL
The lobby
of the hotel is drenched with an
overflowing ambiance of
wealth. Out of an elevator,
AGENT HUNT and AGENT COLE walk
out.
Dressed in
dark suits, sunglasses, and hardwired
always by
Secret Service earpieces in one ear.
It’s
cord
coiling back into their shirt collars.
A nerve
twitches and Agent Hunt stops, touching his
earpiece.
INT. HALL
RC paces
through the hall of the hollow building.
There are
no doors.
RC
Shit.
INT. ST. REGIS HOTEL
Agent Cole
glances over at Hunt.
AGENT
COLE
Mayfair
Plaza.
AGENT
HUNT
Mr.
Xavier.
INT. HALL
RC walks
towards the circular railing, looking over
he sees the
ground floor. The building vertigos
down into a marble chasm.
He takes a
few steps back, preparing himself.
Releasing a small cry then
running, he leaps into
the air, over the railing.
In an
uncanny gracefulness he falls in slow motion,
erasing
gravity from itself.
Seconds later he drops to the ground.
INT. GROUND FLOOR
COP
(O.S.)
Freeze
motherfucker!
We TURN
around to find four armed cops. Guns
thrust before them.
RC smiles.
EXT. ST. REGIS HOTEL - NIGHT
Walking out
of revolving doors are Agent Hunt and
Agent
Cole. AGENT STONE approaches them,
who looks no different than they
do.
AGENT
STONE
The search has already
begun.
AGENT
HUNT
How
many units?
AGENT
STONE
Four.
AGENT
HUNT
That
won’t be enough.
INT. GROUND FLOOR
COP
Don’t
move!
The cops
move cautiously CLOSER. They think they
have got their catch, they have
practiced this a million
and one times, one of them reaches
over until --
The eye
blinks and RC moves, fast, so blindingly fast.
He runs
towards a wall behind him.
He begins
walking on the wall, every step followed by
a trail of bullets
that SHATTER their way into the
marble
wall.
Leaping
off, the cops watch jaw-slacked as he lands
behind
them.
The mind
still dazed, a jaw snapping roundhouse kick
finds it’s way into a cop’s face
. Which sends him flying
in incomparable speed into
another.
In clear
panic, the other two air their guns, fixed
black holes
--
And begin
firing.
Twisting
out of the way, the bullets don’t come close
as RC leaps into the air and gives
another a kick to
his wind pipe.
A rushing
gush of blood shoots out of his mouth,
quenching his scream. He is dead before he knows it.
The last
Cop begins to scream as throwing stars twist
in the air
in edge cutting speed --
His scream
dies as they bury themselves into his
chest.
EXT. ST. REGIS HOTEL - VIEW FROM ROOF
Looking
downwards, on a sidewalk adjacent of
the hotel, we see the three agents
enter a black sedan
with tinted windows. Driving off, they are followed by a
fleet of police cruisers.
EXT. MAYFAIR PLAZA
The glass door
of the main entrance to the skyscraper
opens and
RC walks out.
A CELLULAR
begins to RING.
He pulls
out a small cell phone.
WORM
(V.O.)
Operator.
RC
I
need an exit.
WORM
(V.O.)
I
am looking.
The sound
of keyboard clatter emits from the phone.
WORM
(V.O.)
Got
one. Lexington Square, a
mechanical
store about a mile
away.
RC
Trans?
WORM
(V.O.)
Motorcycle. A block away, its
yours.
RC looks to
his far right.
A block
away he notices, parked, a stylish black
racing motorcycle.
RC
Right. See you on the other
side.
CLICK. Worm is off-line.
INT. BLACK SEDAN
In the
black sedan Agent Cole and Agent Stone sit
in front while Agent Hunt sits
behind.
Cole
touches his earpiece.
AGENT
COLE
He
is moving.
Agent Hunt
looks out the window.
AGENT
HUNT
Lexington
Square.
EXT. STREET
The ROARING
SCREAM of a motor engine can be
heard. Seconds later, RC passes us, tearing down
the street on the motorcycle.
INT. ALLEY
The black
sedan containing the agents turns into a
dark alley, followed by the police
cruisers.
EXT. STREET
A
malfunctioning traffic light keeps an ever growing
number of
cars in traffic. RC turns into the
street,
meeting the
traffic.
The feel of
fear POUNDS his heart. Slowly he turns
around --
To find the black sedan and the
fleet of police cruisers,
waiting,
patiently. The doors of the black sedan
swing
open and
the three agents step out.
RC
Fuck.
RC steps
off the motorcycle. The agents and a
few
cops begin running towards him.
The chase
begins.
Running a few feet before leaping
into the air, RC
lands on top of a car, his
movement clean in execution.
Roof tops
of cars become landing surfaces as RC
jumps from one car top to
another. Gliding in and out
of each movement.
Horns begin
honking as people frantically stick their
heads out
of car windows, yelling, screaming and
swearing.
Behind him
the agents begin firing.
Bullets
pierce through the rear window of a taxi,
creating
spider web like cracks.
The agents
begin leaping from car top to car top.
Surprisingly
their movements hold the same grace as
RC’s, diverging from those of the
cops, which are wild
and graceless.
INT. BUS STOP
A young MAN
waits at a bus stop, he wears
headphones and punk-rock clothing.
An empty
bus pulls up to the bus stop. It’s
doors
slide open
and the Man walks in through the back
door.
EXT. STREET
A COP slips
from the top of a yellow taxi, his face
SMACKING
against the rooftop as a pool of blood
drains from is nose.
INT. BUS STOP
The ROARING
engine of the bus revs up as it’s
exhaust releases a cloud of black
smoke, speeding
down the street.
EXT.
STREET
RC reaches
the front of traffic, he sees his target.
Behind him
the ever present sound of gunshots
continue.
Way behind,
the cops begin to slow down.
RC’s face
remains calm as he centers himself,
zeroing in on the empty street
before him.
ROCKETING of a car top, he levels
into the air.
COP
Sweet
Jeezus.
The jump is
completely inhuman in nature, hanging
in flight. At the same time the world around him
begins to spin as the earth
beneath him flows.
EXT. APPLAINCE STORE
A WOMAN
walks out of an appliance store, her
eyebrows pierced. Her big brown eyes fix on RC.
WOMAN
What
the...
EXT. STREET
The bus
races across the street. Time freezes
as
RC SLAMS like a hammer on a nail
onto the
roof top, bleeding and broken, but
alive. He turns
around to notice the agents
staring at him as the
bus zooms him past a building.
INT. BUS - CLOSE UP ON BOOT
Moments
later, we focus on the boots of the young
Man. The Man begins to SCREAM as --
A swarm of
spreading STATIC wraps over the boot,
then his body. The flowing river of static continues as
the boot morphs into a black
loafer.
We move
AWAY to find Agent Hunt rising to his feet.
Rubber BURNS
and smoke rises, the bus comes to a
SCREECHING
stop. The BUS DRIVER turns around.
BUS
DRIVER
Hey! What are you doing?
We hear
another scream of static and Agent Cole
emerges from the drivers seat.
Hunt looks
up.
AGENT
HUNT
Good-bye
Mr. Xavier.
The two
agents pull out guns and begin firing at the
roof. They stop as we notice blood streaming
through
the bullet
holes.
EXT. STREET
On top of
the bus, RC lays in a pool of blood, dead.
The front
door of the bus slides open, Agent Hunt and
Agent Cole
step out. Agent Stone waits for them in
front of the bus.
AGENT
HUNT
The
next target?
AGENT
STONE
Sector
12.
AGENT
COLE
The
name is Nix.
AGENT
HUNT
We
will need to make contact.
EXT. MAYFAIR PLAZA
Laying on the ground in front of
the glass doors we
notice RC’s
cell phone, flashing with green light.
The line is
ALIVE.
We lower
downwards as we are SUCKED TOWARDS
the earpiece of the cell
phone. CLOSER and CLOSER
until the smooth black plastic
begins to expand. The
LITTLE holes WIDEN as we fall
through one, entering
an absolute darkness.
We begin to
be SUCKED OUTWARDS, drawing AWAY
and AWAY. The LITTLE holes of a receiver begin to
NARROW as we travel out of one.
NICO
We
‘re in.
Drawing
farther AWAY we notice Nico, standing in
the hotel.
He hangs
up.
EXT. TEMPLE OF ZION - NIGHT
Nico and a
WOMAN step out of a sporty silver BMW
sedan, she is dressed in black
leather, her name is
AMP.
Walking
down a few stairs they meet EXODUS,
reading a newspaper, the Man Nico
saw the last time
he paid a visit.
Exodus nods
at Nico.
The
elevator doors slide open and Nico and Amp enter.
INT. HALL
DING! The elevator doors open on the seventh floor
and Nico and Amp walk out.
The
priestess once again approaches them.
PRIESTESS
Hello,
Nico. Follow me.
Nico takes
off his sunglasses, then looks back at Amp.
NICO
Wait
here.
Nico
follows the priestess towards the end of the hall.
INT. SHRINE
Sitting on
the floor, legs crossed, they find a little
BOY, meditating.
NICO
Where
is the Oracle?
PRIESTESS
That’s
him, the last of the
potentials. They were about
to
kill him until Exodus
saved
him. That’s why he is
so
special to us. Now I
hope
you understand why?
NICO
Yes.
The
priestess leaves the room. Nico walks
closer,
just then
the Oracle’s eyes open.
ORACLE
(BOY)
Hello,
Nico.
Nico walks
towards the Oracle, then sits.
ORACLE
You
are here because you
don’t
know who it is.
Nico nods.
ORACLE
Come
with me.
The Oracle
rises, taking hold of Nico’s hand and
guiding him
towards the window.
ORACLE
Look.
Looking
through the window, the ROOM he noticed
before
across the street is dark and empty. It
seems the
ROOM has been plagued by a fire, that
has licked it’s way through the
room, spilling thick
soot all
the way up to the ceiling, leaving traces of
permanent shadow.
ORACLE
Close
your eyes.
Nico’s eyes
shut.
ORACLE
Open
them.
INT. HOSPITAL - DAY
Nico’s eyes
open to find himself in the hallway of
a HOSPITAL, were commotion is
heavy. Through
all the panic, Nico and the Oracle
remain
unnoticed, invisible.
ORACLE
Follow
me.
Nico looks
to his right. He sees a NURSE carting
a tray which carries bloody
dissecting utensils.
Hanging off them are pieces of
bloody human
tissue.
Walking,
they turn into a door marked: “Delivery
Room”.
To the left
of the hall they find a DELIVERY ROOM,
where a
WOMAN is giving birth. Looking through
the window, Nico recognizes the
Woman, the
Woman who was in the ROOM.
She is clearly in pain. DOCTORS and NURSES
nervously try to calm her down,
but the PAIN is
unbearable.
NICO
Who
is she?
ORACLE
Don’t
ask when you already
know.
Nico draws
closer, feeling the cool of the window.
NICO
ANGEL.
Sliding
through Angel’s womb, pinkish in color and
covered in
blood is a BABY.
Nico looks
at the CRYING BABY while a Nurse wraps
a white towel around it, he
recognizes the child.
NICO
That’s
me.
Angel’s
eyes shut as she passes out.
ORACLE
It’s
not over. Now I will show you
your
answer.
The Oracle
and Nico begin walking down the hall, Nico
looks back
at the delivery room. It’s empty.
They walk
into a dimly lit EMERGENCY ROOM, where
SURGEON’S
are busily at work. The room is as
silent as an empty coffin buried a
100 feet below the
EARTH; nuclear silence.
Walking up
closer, behind the surgeons, they see
on the emergency table; lying
down, eyes shut,
ANGEL.
Her abdomen
is cut open, revealing a few of her body
organs.
NICO
This
can’t be real.
ORACLE
Real
is what you make of it.
Suddenly
the crying SCREAM of a BABY can be
heard as a Surgeon pulls out
another baby from
Angel’s womb.
This time
the baby is DARK in color. The face of
the
surgeon’s
cross in disbelief.
The surgeon
looks at the baby in his hands.
SURGEON
Holy
fuckin’ shit!
The Oracle
walks up behind Nico.
ORACLE
That’s
your answer.
Just then a
female VOICE begins to grow from a
distance, each time getting
CLEARER. Waking us
up as if we were in a dream.
AMP
(V.O.)
Nico!
INT. SHRINE
Nico turns
around to find himself in the Shrine.
Amp
stands in
front of the door.
AMP
There
‘re here.
EXT. TEMPLE OF ZION
The black
sedan pulls up in front of the entrance of
the Temple,
followed by a fleet of police cruisers.
The doors
swing open and the three agents step out.
INT. SHRINE
The Oracle
looks at Nico.
ORACLE
You
must go now or you will die.
NICO
What
about you?
ORACLE
Don’t
worry about me, worry
about
yourself. Remember, you
have to
believe.
EXT. TEMPLE OF ZION
A
LIEUTENANT walks up in front of the agents.
LIEUTENANT
Yes,
sir.
Hunt looks
down at the stairs leading to the TEMPLE.
AGENT
HUNT
Follow
the orders you were
given
Lieutenant.
LIEUTENANT
Yes,
sir.
INT. SHRINE
Nico walks
towards the window, looking down below
he sees the cops flooding in
through the back
entrance.
NICO
Let’s
go.
EXT. TEMPLE OF ZION
Agent Stone
starts for the back entrance, while Agent
Hunt and
Agent Cole begin walking down the stairs
that lead to the temple.
INT. SHRINE
Nico and
Amp leave the Shrine, leaving a meditating
Oracle
behind.
EXT. TEMPLE OF ZION
Agent Hunt
and Agent Cole meet Exodus, standing in
the entrance.
EXODUS
Can
I help you?
His words
are met by the cold METAL of bullets as his
body drops
to the ground.
The agents
walk over Exodus, heading for the elevator.
They are
about to enter when --
In a
spreading like form Exodus’s chest begins to
SPLIT
open. Implanted inside his robotic
chest, are
two guns
which stick out like exhaust pipes.
Agent
Hunt’s molars set in frustration.
Exodus
begins to buck left and right as he releases
exploding
bullets that perforate the entrance, bullets
RICHOCETING
and PING-PONGING off the walls.
Bullets
STRIKE into Agent Hunt’s body, plummeting
him to the ground.
Then Agent
Cole begins to fire, but he is no match for
Exodus; the
bullets are everywhere. An array of
bullets
bury
themselves into his body as it jack-knifes back onto
the floor.
A spreading
flash of mercurial light covers the two
agents
bodies, revealing two dead cops.
INT. EMERGENCY EXIT
Looking
downward we watch as the cops climb their
way up the stairs, their
flashlights periscope the area.
INT. BEDROOM
Nico and
Amp walk into a BEDROOM. In the center
of the room lays a shagged rug which covers a metal
panel that leads to an escape
route.
BOOM! Nico fires at the lock and then opens the
panel.
They both
look down into the deep dark space.
EXT. TEMPLE OF ZION
Exodus’s
chest SPREADS inwards, returning back to
place. He turns around to notice --
Agent Hunt
and Agent Cole, standing behind him,
sunglasses and suits intact.
In blurred
speed Agent Hunt attacks Exodus with a
fury of serious blows. Then grabbing him by his shirt
collar and lifting him into the
air with one hand.
AGENT
HUNT
Pathetic.
Agent Hunt
grabs Exodus’s right arm and RIPS it out,
creating a
firework of sparking wires.
INT. EMERGENCY EXIT
Behind the
moving cops, Agent Stone touches his
earpiece, hearing what is going
on.
INT. BEDROOM
Nico jumps
into the darkness, his coat flying open like
the wings
of a manta ray. It seems he might fall
forever
until he
CRASHES through, with an EXPLOSION of
WOOD and GLASS, SLAMMING onto the
floor as a
cloud of dust rises.
INT. STORAGE ROOM
He finds
himself in an old STORAGE ROOM which
contains an electrical generator
that hasn’t run for years.
Seconds
later, DROPPING down like a disconnected
elevator, Amp lands to the ground.
INT. HALL
The
emergency exit door of the 7th floor BURSTS open
and a flood of cops come pouring
in, scouring the area
as they ready themselves on either
side of the hall.
The floor
is empty.
The
ELEVETOR “DINGS” softly, the doors slide open
and Agent Hunt and Agent Cole walk
out.
To the left
of the hall they find Agent Stone marching
towards
them.
AGENT
HUNT
Where
are they?
AGENT
STONE
They
have been lost.
AGENT
HUNT
Find
them.
INT. SEWER
BURSTING
through a wooden door, Nico and Amp
fall onto a sewage tunnel.
Racing
their way down through the man-made river
into the slimy darkness.
INT. BEDROOM
The three
agents walk into the room, finding the
opened metal panel.
Agent Hunt
looks down into the dark space,
disgusted.
Agent Cole
glances at Agent Hunt.
AGENT
COLE
What
do we do?
AGENT
HUNT
Secure
the area. We haven’t
lost
them yet.
INT. SHRINE
Moments
later a BIG COP stands in front of the
window, looking at the ROOM in the
other building
as he gluttonously bites on a jam
donut.
In the ROOM
he sees himself, sitting in front of a
television,
half-naked.
Another COP
walks into the SHRINE.
The Big Cop
blinks his eyes in disbelief.
BIG
COP
Hey
Arnie. Come see this.
The other
Cop walks up behind him, looking at the
ROOM.
COP
What?
The Big Cop
looks at the other Cop, then he looks
back. The ROOM is dark and empty, a dream.
BIG
COP
Nothing.
EXT. TEMPLE OF ZION
Exodus’s
severed body lays on the ground, in front
of the elevator, the wires in his
arms continually
spark on and off.
Suddenly his
CHEST SPLITS open, he is ALIVE.
We draw CLOSER as we notice a tiny
screen
within the intricate wires of his
mechanical chest.
The screen
reads: “Self-destruct”.
EXT. STREET
Outside a
source less wind begins to rise, carrying
the brute force of a miniature
earthquake. Windows
EXPLODE out of their frames as the
earth begins
to SHAKE.
INT. HALL
The two
Cops walk out of the Shrine, heading
down the hall. BOOM!
Below them they hear the
faint sound of an explosion as the
building begins
to RATTLE.
BIG
COP
What
the hell was that!
The door of
the emergency exit of the seventh floor
flies open
and a RAGING river of fire comes flooding
in.
COP
Fuck!
The cops
begin running towards the end of the hall
as the fire continues to SPREAD,
like a SWARM of
locusts, CONSUMING everything in
it’s path. They
both look back as they are
SWALLOWED by the
RAGING fire. The fire continues to SPREAD until it
almost consumes us --
CUT
TO BLACK.
FADE IN ON:
COMPUTER
SCREEN
So close, too close for comfort.
A blinking
cursor throbs in the electrical darkness
like a
beating heart, each time giving off an electric
pulse that
spreads beneath the dark neon glass.
The cursor
beats relentlessly as data slices unto the
screen,
information flashing on in the speed of light.
SCREEN
Trace
program: running.
SCREEN
<DIR: Sector 14 COMM: Search>
The screen
fills with columns of shimmering numbers.
The cursor
races down the electric-green columns as
it searches
through the screen.
At the top
corner numbers fill in, snapping into place.
We begin to
DRAW CLOSER, as the cursor slashes
down, filtering through the data
as it deciphers the
information.
Only a few
more numbers left as more slot into place.
Only one
thin digit left.
The final
number slots into place.
SCREEN
Trace
complete. Search complete.
TDP#: 212-763-2486
We MOVE
CLOSER, the green numbers racing in
an electric frenzy as we PASS
THROUGH the
numbers, entering the world of the
computer screen.
Suddenly
the red neon light of the CLUB MATRIX
sign cuts through the darkness.
EXT. CLUB MATRIX - NIGHT
A yellow
taxi stops in front of the main entrance of
the club and a younger MAN steps
out, his name is
NIX, the net Ranger. A man who knows more about
a computer than a computer does
itself.
INT. CLUB MATRIX
Inside the
club, the air is veiled by a thick smog of
smoke which
blurs the few lights there are.
Everybody
is dressed in black, this is a club for the
hacker
elite.
Dark
figures crowd around each other, grinding to the
heart
throbbing beat of INDUSTRIAL MUSIC.
At the
extreme end of the club, Nix makes his way
through a
door guarded by two big bouncers.
INT. REVEREND’S PLACE
He walks
into an humongous room-like library.
Filled
with ever
growing towers that contain racks of books.
He turns
into a row, walking a while until turning
into a dark
corner.
There he
finds a bald-headed MAN, REVEREND,
sitting in front of a table. He has a thick raspy voice.
REVEREND
Your
late.
Nix ignores
him.
He pulls
out a small plexiglas case which contains
a tiny
disc.
We read the
note on the case as he hands to
Reverend, it reads: “Seven Plagues”
NIX
That’s
the anti-virus.
Reverend
opens a bulging metallic briefcase filled
with neatly
stacked wads of hundred dollar bills.
He pulls
out a wad and hands it to Nix.
NIX
This
never happened.
REVEREND
I
know.
REVEREND
Are
you alright? You look
a
little beat up. Sure you
don’t
want to hang out.
Nix looks
at the table, he sees syringes full of mescaline.
The ROOM
TILTS.
NIX
No. No thanks.
INT. CLUB MATRIX
Nix walks
out of REVEREND’S PLACE into the club,
he melts away as he makes his way
through the
shifting wall of bodies.
INT. REVEREND’S PLACE
It is four a.m. and Reverend is at
his table. In front
of him are two powerbook computers
which are both
connected to cell phones, and a
cocked .45.
On one of the computers he types
in a long access
code sequence. The computer responds.
SCREEN
2-16-99 04:05:12
REC: Del>
Call
origin: 212-734-2451
User
Identified: Arthur Norton
Account Balance: $10,000,000
Status: Active
Reverend
smiles to himself, he’s got a lot of money.
He turns to
the other computer were a custom-made
virus application is running the
“Seven Plagues”
virus. He types in a series of codes after various
sequences, he waits.
The computer responds with shimmering
columns
containing member account balances
from a bank.
REVEREND
Come
to papa.
He types in a few more codes, then
waits.
A beat, the computer responds.
SCREEN
Status: transaction in process
Reverend
looks at the computer containing his
account balance and the figure
begins to increase.
SCREEN
10,000,000…
12,567,890…
12,473,765…
15,887,544…
On the
other computer, the account balances
begin to decrease.
Reverend leans back, sinking into
his chair.
INT. WOMAN’S CUBICLE
The entire floor looks like a
human network,
with labyrinths of cubicles
structured around a
core of elevators.
It’s really late and a WOMAN is
working
overtime, the cubical drone
entering data into a
spreadsheet program.
She is about to type into a field
when a spread of
TV like STATIC swarms the screen,
then the
computer slowly dies.
WOMAN
What
the fuck!
INT. BALCONY - DAY
A humongous balcony located inside
Reverend’s
place.
Looking
half-dead, Reverend and a few others lay
scattered
around. Their bodies and minds filled
with
mescaline.
On a table,
next to a laptop, we find; DOZENS of
empty syringes, trays filled with
rolled up hundred
dollar bills, and neatly cut rows
of cocaine.
Suddenly
the growing DRUM BEAT of BOOT-STEPS
can be heard, POUNDING the
rooftop.
Reverend
wakes, alerting the others.
REVEREND
Wake
up!
A WOMAN is
first to wake, she is CATE. Then a
MAN, he is REX.
CATE
What?
REVEREND
Can’t
you hear it?
They listen
closer as the BOOT-STEPS begin to grow
ominously
louder, closing around them.
REX
Holy
shit.
REVEREND
The
crates.
Moments
later, everyone is arming themselves with
guns taken from metallic crates,
snapping and
cocking.
REX
What
the fuck is this all
about?
Reverend
cocks a gun.
REVEREND
The
virus.
INT. REVEREND’S PLACE
Reverend and the rest of the group
spread out
amongst the towers of books,
waiting.
Rex pulls
out a syringe full of mescaline. He
jams
it into his arm as he pushes down,
he doesn’t want
to die.
REX
Hell
yes.
Reverend
looks up at the glass ceiling, hearing the
staccato
blades of a helicopter.
REVEREND
Here
it comes.
Windows
EXPLODE as heavily armed men come
pouring in, looking more
mechanical than human.
Flashlights
cut their way through the darkness as the
police
force makes their way down the rows of towers.
The group
remains calm, except for Rex, whose eyes
are powder
white. The mescaline is sipping into
him.
A COP walks
down a row, his finger gently wrapping
around the
trigger. He walks until he notices --
Rex,
spasming, jerking left and right as if he were
going
through a seizure.
COP
There
here! There here!
The cops
begin firing. The fight begins.
The group
begins firing. A cacophony of GUN FIRE
rises as
they all exchange bullets that pock-mark
the racks of books.
Reverend
ducks for cover as the RAGING bullets
surround him.
Cate darts
across a row, then turning into an
intersecting
hall, where she crouches to the ground.
A COP walks
out of a row, where he is met by the
muted spit of a silencer. Cate rushes over and grabs
his gun and then SHOOTS to the end
of the hall.
The COPS
continue to PRESS on as the lay waste
to more members of the group,
BULLETS POUNDING
and RIPPING their bodies into
pieces.
Reverend
pulls out two guns and makes his way down
a row, he turns into the hall
where he finds more cops.
He begins
firing, STRAFING, ROUNDS OF AMMO
SPITTING out as he sends cops
flying for cover.
The door
that connects to the club KNIFES open
and flash lighted gas-masked cops
come pouring.
GRENADE
LAUNCHERS fire out metal canisters,
smoke clouding the air. The smoke rises before Cate,
she sees her enemies surrounding
her.
Cate opens
fire but she is only armed with a handgun.
She screams as DOZENS OF GUNS
begin firing at
her, ripping her apart.
Reverend
hears the dying scream and races out of a
row, CHARGING with a FISTFUL OF
RAGING METAL
as bullets pierce their way into
cops chests.
Agent Hunt
walks out of a row, finding a COP lying
in a pool of blood.
AGENT
HUNT
Are
orders that hard to follow?
Reverend
runs out of a row, crosses across a hall and
runs into a
row in front of him.
Agent Hunt
yanks out a gun and begins firing at a
target only
he can see. BOOM! BOOM!
BOOM!
Agent Hunt
and Agent Cole walk out of a row to find --
Reverend
lying in a pool of blood, dead.
Agent Cole
examines the corpse.
AGENT
HUNT
Have
you traced the origin?
AGENT
COLE
Yes,
sector 12.
AGENT
HUNT
Our
next target.
Agent Hunt
walks away.
INT. NIX’S APARTMENT
It is an
apartment filled with spore technology.
Jungle-like
cables wire in and out of everywhere,
wrapping
around legs of a few desks.
We turn
towards a corner in this habitat of technology
to find Nix
asleep on a bed.
The PHONE
RINGS.
Suddenly
his eyes flutter open, the PHONE
CONTINUES TO RING, dragging him
out of his bed,
swallowing him like a black hole.
He answers
it, half-asleep.
NIX
Hello.
A WOMAN is
on the other end, she is MENAGE.
MENAGE
(V.O.)
I
called to warn you Ethan.
Nix wipes
the drowsiness off his face.
NIX
About
what?
She grows
silent for a while.
MENAGE
(V.O.)
The
virus, they caught Reverend
using
it and they wasted him. I
couldn’t
believe it until I saw
it
for my self.
Her words
POUND him, his heart almost bursting.
NIX
What!
MENAGE
(V.O.)
They
traced it and now I think
they
want you. I suggest you
don’t
stay home tonight.
Nix looks
out the window, the rising sun is becoming
blindingly
bright.
NIX
When?
MENAGE
(V.O.)
Early
this morning. Be careful
Ethan,
your the only one we have
left.
NIX
I
know.
CLICK. Ménage is off-line.
EXT. STREET - DAY
The streets
are busy. Cars are moving, people are
moving.
Amongst the
moving crowd of people we notice Nix,
his face hidden beneath a hood.
EXT. CLUB MATRIX
Agent Hunt
stands outside the club, watching Cops
taking out
body bags and loading them into black
vans.
EXT. STREET
Nix sees the body bags and realizes the
seriousness
of the situation. He has just landed in a pit of shit.
EXT. CLUB MATRIX
Agent Hunt
begins heading towards the black sedan
when he stops, looking around he
sees --
EXT. STREET
Nix,
fast-walking his way through people, he is trying
to get
away.
Nix looks
behind him to see Agent Hunt stepping
towards him.
NIX
Damn
it.
He begins
running, like a mad man, barreling through
people.
He stops as
he realizes something --
The agents
are everywhere and nowhere.
He looks to
his right to find Agent Hunt standing in
a crowd of
moving people. Straight ahead he sees
Agent Cole. To his far right he sees Agent Stone
stepping out of a convenience
store.
NIX
Shit!
INT. INTERROGATION ROOM
In a dark
gray room, Nix sits alone at a table.
The door
opens and the agents enter including another
agent,
AGENT WHITE.
Agent Hunt
sits down across from Nix.
AGENT
HUNT
You
are a tough man to keep
track
on Mr. Alexander. One
minute
you are here, the next
minute
you are elsewhere.
Fortunately,
we have been able
to
track you down.
Nix feels
himself melting into his chair.
AGENT
HUNT
You
have been living, quite
an
interesting life Mr. Alexander.
Most of it
spent in computers where
you
go by the netRanger alias
Nix
and infectiously plant
viruses
into corporate networks.
Agent White
hands Hunt several paper-clipped pages.
AGENT
HUNT
If
you think we are going to
allow
this trend to continue,
you
obviously have been
mistaken.
Agent Hunt
flips through several pages that mark the
nuclear
silence.
AGENT
HUNT
We
have come upon your latest
project. The well-endowed and
much
feared “Seven Plagues” virus.
This
is possibly the most dangerous
virus
ever released to date,
and
can only be regarded as an
act
of terrorism on your part
Mr.
Alexander.
He puts the
papers aside.
AGENT
HUNT
I
am going to tell you why you
are
here.
He takes
off his sunglasses; his eyes are crystal blue.
AGENT
HUNT
In
every society each individual
is
expected to live by the rules
that
have been provided by the
governing
body. This insures that
things
will be kept in order and
that
certain individuals do not
get
out of hand. But there are
some
individuals who feel they
are
special, and that is the
category
in which you fall into.
He leans
closer.
AGENT
HUNT
You
are a dangerous man Mr.
Alexander. You infect multi
million
dollar software companies
with
your malicious viruses and
you have
no regard whatsoever
towards
the legal system.
Anarchists
such as yourself
should
be eliminated from
our
societal shores.
He puts his
glasses back on.
AGENT
HUNT
Which
is what, is exactly going
to
happen.
Nix stares
at Agent Hunt.
NIX
This
is bullshit. You have no proof.
Agent Hunt
stands.
AGENT
HUNT
We
don’t need proof Mr. Alexander.
You
are going to remain here for
as
long as it takes. Me and my
colleagues
will surely figure out
something
to do with you.
The agents
leave the room.
FADE
TO BLACK.
FADE IN:
INTERROGATION
ROOM
Several
hours later we find Nix asleep in a corner
of the
room, looking weak and beaten.
The door
opens. Agent White and a few cops walk
in.
Nix tiredly
wakes up.
AGENT
WHITE
Take
him.
EXT. SKYSCRAPER - DAY
Cops lead a
handcuffed Nix out of revolving doors,
forcing his
head down as they muscle him into a dark
van.
A detail of
cars drive off. Led by the black sedan,
the van and
three police cruisers.
INT. HOTEL LAFAYETTE
Nico, Amp,
Cable, GADGET, POOL, MACE &
STITCHES walk out ROOM 708. All dressed in black
and wearing sunglasses.
INT. STAIRWELL
They walk
down the stairwell that winds around an
antique
elevator shaft.
NICO
I
want everyone where they are
supposed
to be. We can’t let
this
one slip by us.
STITCHES, a
younger man in his teens, whispers to
GADGET, a
woman.
STITCHES
Another
mind to jack.
They walk
into the old lobby.
NICO
Pool
and Gadget hold the exit.
Nico looks
at Mace, a MAN.
NICO
Mace
you have got the get away.
MACE
Alrighty.
Pool, a
man, and Gadget stop at the stop at the doors
while the
others walk out.
EXT. HOTEL LAFAYETTE - DAY
Two silver
sporty motorcycles stand parked.
A sporty
BMW sedan emerges from a corrugated roll-up
garage.
A young,
skinny MAN, in his teenage years steps out
of the
BMW. He has spiky blonde hair, many
facial
piercings,
and wears clothing that looks like those
of a TV
repair man. His name is LINK.
LINK
Hey
Nico.
NICO
Thank
you, Link. Get the VU set up.
We
will need it tonight.
LINK
You
got it.
Mace,
Stitches, and Cable step into the BMW while
Nico and
Amp hop onto the motorcycles.
AMP
Are
you sure about this Nico?
NICO
Trust
me.
Engines
SCREAM as rubber BURNS against hot
granite, smoke rising into the
air. Nico and Amp
ZOOM OFF, tearing down the
street. Their coats
billowing in the air like capes.
EXT. STREET
The black
sedan stops at a RED traffic light. The
light turns
GREEN and the black sedan cruises off.
EXT. STREET
Nico and
Amp lead the BMW as they stop at a RED
traffic
light. It turns GREEN. Nico and Amp tear
down the
street while the BMW makes a right into
an
intersecting street.
INT. ALLEY
The BMW
drives into a rotten alley. Cable and
Stitches step out, both carrying
black duffel bags.
They climb their way up onto a
fire escape.
INT. VAN
Through the
darkness, we see Nix lying in a corner.
Looking
more dead than alive.
INT. ROOF -
CLOSE UP ON DUFFEL BAG
A black
duffel bag zips open and Cable pulls out a
BAZOOKA.
INT. ALLEY
Nico and
Amp sit on their motorcycles in a dark alley,
hidden in
the pubescent darkness.
We lock
onto Amp’s sunglasses as we see --
The black
sedan cruising down across the street.
INT. ROOF
Cable and
Stitches lay in front of the rain gutter.
Stitches
peers at the city through a humongous set
of silver
binoculars.
A CELLULAR
begins TO RING.
Cable pulls
out a cell phone.
CABLE
Hello.
NICO
(V.O.)
Can
you see them yet?
Cable looks
down below at the street. A few blocks
away he
sees the black sedan heading towards him.
CABLE
Yes. Five of them.
NICO
We
‘re on our way.
CLICK. Nico is off-line.
INT. ALLEY
Nico and
Amp drive out of the alley.
INT. ROOF
Cable
mounts the BAZOOKA on his right arm.
Below Stitches sees the black
sedan heading ever
closer towards them.
EXT. STREET
Nico and
Amp continue to TEAR down the street,
the scream of engines growing into
a RAGING
SHRILL.
EXT. ROOF
Cable aims
at the black sedan, following it as it
continues
to roll down the street. His thumb
gently
squeezing
down on the bubbly red fire button.
He follows
it until it reaches a few feet away from
the street
below him, and then --
Squeezes on
the FIRE button releasing --
A missile
that cartwheels into space leaving behind
a cloud of
smoke as it rifles towards the black
sedan.
INT. BLACK SEDAN
Agent Hunt
looks out of the window just as --
INT. STREET
The missile
BOLTS through the sedan, lifting it into
air,
BARRELING it into a brick building, turning
into
metallic pulp as a fiery orange cloud rises.
We TURN
towards the end of the street as we see --
Nico and
Amp speeding towards us.
Another
missile showers down, SMACKING the last
car of the detail. Metallic limbs of the police cruiser
wildly
flying into the air.
INT. VAN
The Cops in
front begin to panic as everything
around them seems to either
explode or
somehow be destroyed.
Above them
they hear a boot POUND on the
roof top.
DRIVING
COP
Goddamnit!
The Cop
SLAMS on the accelerator, sending the
van flying forwards and also --
EXT. STREET
Amp who
stands on the rooftop of the van.
Missiles continue to beat down
leaving behind
rising fire balls and whirling
debris.
The van
comes to a SCREECHING halt as --
A missile fires down unto the
ground before it
creating an
humongous crater-sized pot hole.
The blast sends the van WHIRLING
and
TOPPLING over unto its side.
Amp rises
and slaps open the sliding door of the
severed
van. Inside she finds Nix, passed
out.
Reaching
in, she yanks him out, propping him
up onto her shoulder.
They race
over to a half-destroyed manhole
cover. Lifting the metal plate, they enter into the
dark depths of the underground.
EXT. HOTEL LAFAYETTE - NIGHT
An outside
view of the abandoned hotel. The
drenching
rain pours relentlessly.
INT. ROOM 1213
A wide
angle view of the crummy room. Nix
lays asleep on a bed.
The door
opens and Amp walks in, her presence
awakens Nix.
AMP
Hello,
Nix.
NIX
You
are not supposed to know
that.
AMP
That’s
not all I know about you.
NIX
Who
are you?
AMP
My
name is Amp.
Nix rises
from his bed.
AMP
I
have waited for this moment
for
a long time. Matter of fact,
we
all have. Just like we waited
for
him.
NIX
For
who?
AMP
The
answers will come soon. But
we
have to go.
She turns
towards the door.
NIX
How
can I trust you.
AMP
Your
just going to have to.
EXT. HOTEL LAFAYETTE
They walk
out of the old lobby and enter an already
parked silver BMW.
INT. BMW
Nix enters
and notices Nico seating in the back seat
next to
him.
NICO
Hello,
Nix.
NIX
Who
are you?
NICO
I
am Nico.
EXT. HOTEL LAFAYETTE
The car
begins to cruise down the street.
INT. BMW
Nix looks out the window, nightly
urban suitors fill
the rotten
streets.
NIX
Where
are we going?
NICO
Do
you know the question, Nix?
The
question that drives all of us.
Nix stares
into blank space, then looks at Nico,
his throat
arid-dry as the Sahara.
NIX
What
is the Matrix?
NICO
That
question has far more to it
than
you might have ever possibly
imagined,
and tonight you will see
what
we all have seen. What they
didn’t
want you to see.
NIX
I
don’t understand.
NICO
Do
you believe that anything is
possible?
Amp
slightly turns her head.
NIX
I
think so.
She turns
her head back.
NICO
Good,
because what you are
going to
see is going to change
everything. It’s certainly did for
me.
The car
stops in front of an appliance store.
AMP
We
‘re here.
EXT. JOE’S APPLIANCES
Nico, Amp,
and Nix step out of the BMW and enter
the appliance store.
INT. JOE’S APPLIANCES
Machines
clogged with curdling oil lay almost
everywhere,
slaughter house-like tools hang from the
ceiling.
Nix follows
behind, looking around at the cannibalize
gadgetry.
They walk
through a door and down a flight of stairs
that lead
to the basement.
INT. BASEMENT
They
descend into the basement were Link and a few
of his
friends cluster around in front of a door.
LINK
Hey,
captain.
NICO
How
is he?
LINK
He’s
fine. But he’s doesn’t talk
much,
just sits there. Been like
that
for hours now.
Nico turns
to Nix.
NICO
He’s
waiting.
Nix walks
towards the door. Reaching for the door
knob, he
enters --
INT. ORACLE’S CHAMBERS
It’s a dark
room. A light bulb dangles from the
ceiling,
giving the room it’s only source of
light.
In the
center of the room, Nix finds the Oracle,
sitting on
the floor cross-legged.
NIX
Hello.
The Oracle
smiles.
ORACLE
Nix. Come.
Sit.
Nix sits to
the ground.
ORACLE
I
know things have been somewhat
traumatic. I apologize.
Nix nods.
ORACLE
As
you’ve probably been wondering,
why
you? Let me tell you why.
You
are here because you have a
gift. What it is you don’t know,
but
that is why I am here... to
show
you the path. But first let
me
ask, do you have any idea what
the
Matrix is.
Nix’s mind
races in thought then he pauses.
NIX
A
computer program?
ORACLE
Exactly,
but it is not what you
think. Do you want to know what
it
is?
Nix
swallows, then nods.
ORACLE
The
Matrix is a computer program
in
which we are all in, even at this
very
moment. A computer program
that
governs our very lives, a
computer
program that has blinded
you
from the truth that your
reality
is a hoax. It’s the burning
sensation
than stalks your heart,
it
has enslaved your mind and your
world. Servitude, Nix, sounds
impossible
but it isn’t.
NIX
How
is that?
ORACLE
Sooner
or later you are going to
realize
that what we sometimes
consider impossible isn’t
actually
far-fetched. I am about
to
reveal something to you that
will
hopefully show you exactly
what
I mean. Are you ready to
see what I
want to show you?
NIX
Yes.
ORACLE
I
want you to think of this as a
lock
and a key, they both complete
each
other. Without the lock the
key
is useless, without the key the
lock
will remain idle. There is
a
myth out there that all of us who
have
seen the Matrix have come to
hear. It questions the existence
of
the Aphex Twins.
The Oracle
pulls out a string-necklace which has a
YING YANG
pendant.
He hands it
to Nix.
ORACLE
One
represents day, the other,
night. When these two unite, what
was
always rendered impossible
will
become possible. As for now
we
have only found one half, the
other
half still drifts somewhere
in
the Matrix.
Nix feels
the smooth metal of the pendant.
ORACLE
Close
your eyes, Nix.
Nix closes
his eyes.
ORACLE
I
want you to tell me what you
see.
With his
words we drift --
INSIDE UTERO
We are
uncomfortably CLOSE to a reddish brown
substance
that glows in a sea of amniotic fluid.
We begin to be SUCKED away.
We continue
to DRAW FARTHER away, the racing
locomotive
pounding of HEART BEATING growing
ominously
louder, the red substance spreading like
a horizon.
The HEART
BEATS UNCONTROLLABLY FASTER
as we DRAW still farther away,
noticing a CHILD,
alive but unborn. It’s reddish brown skin glowing
ever more in the amber plasma.
We continue
to DRAW AWAY as we notice --
Another CHILD, alive but unborn,
it’s pinkish body
translucent
in the amniotic fluid. Both of them
still wired
by their umbilical cords, the APHEX
TWINS.
INT. ORACLE’S CHAMBERS
Nix’s eyes
open.
NIX
I
am an Aphex Twin.
ORACLE
Unbelievable,
isn’t it. Now
you
know who your other half
is,
don’t you?
Outside, in
the hall, the moving of mechanical
equipment
can be heard.
Nix nods.
ORACLE
I
know it is hard to believe,
but
all I can offer you is the
truth. It is up to you to
accept
it or not. Remember,
I
can only show you the path.
The Oracle
rises to his feet.
ORACLE
Go. Let fate show you the way.
He smiles.
INT. BASEMENT
Nix exits
the Oracle’s chambers, his mind warped in
skepticism. Nico appears in front of him.
NICO
What
you heard, what you saw.
I
heard and I saw. But one thing
still
remains. Are you ready to
see
the Matrix?
NIX
How?
Nico pulls
out a small metallic case. He opens
it.
Inside are
two pills, one blue, and one red.
NICO
You
take the blue pill and this
ends. You continue the
brainwashing
cycle.
Nix stares
at the two pills.
NICO
You
take the red pill and you take
the
journey. The journey I took.
Nix reaches
for the red pill. Opening his mouth he
swallows
it.
Nico takes
off his sunglasses.
NICO
Come
with me.
He leads
Nix towards a room at the end of the hall,
which is
filled with high-tech equipment and glowing
phosphorous
emitting from the racks of monitors.
Amp,
Gadget, Pool and Link look up as they enter.
NICO
Link?
LINK
Give
it a minute.
The others
continue to hook up an intricate system of
hardware,
modules ,and drives.
In the
center of the room sits a chair.
Nix sits as
Gadget gently begins fixing white
electrode
disks to his arms, the back of his neck, and
head.
Gadget
whispers into his ears, her lips close to his
ears.
GADGET
Just
relax.
NIX
What
is this?
A monitor
in front of Link comes to life with a glee a
of
phosphorous blips.
NICO
This
is a virtual unit. It’s
going
to make things feel a
little
weird.
Link walks
up to Nico.
LINK
Okay,
I think he’s all set.
Nix eyes
blink when he notices an old radio, which is
hardwired
to the system sitting in front of him.
The
intestinal
blue and red wires of it’s electrical output
lying close
to his feet.
Pool checks
the racing bauds of phosperescent data
while Gadget monitors Nix’s
electrical vital signs.
A sound
begins to grow silently louder, the rising
sound of STATIC. Nix stares as the radio comes to
life, it’s dial pacing
relentlessly back and forth.
NIX
What
the...
The dial on
the radio passes through the fuzzed
clamors of radio stations then, it
stops when it meets
dead air, the sound of static
fading out.
Nix looks
down at his feet as he notices a stream of
electrical-like
static which looks almost liquid,
streaming
out of the wires and unto his feet.
NIX
Oh-no...
AMP
Easy
Nix, easy.
He begins
breathing heavy as the static swarms
upwards unto him, wrapping over
him like a
smothering leech, creating a
living coat of static.
NIX
No. No.
The static
spreads all over him now, running, tearing
down like
burning candle wax up his arms.
Nico turns
to Amp.
NICO
Worm.
Amp takes
out a cell phone and dials a few numbers.
AMP
Worm,
we will need the signal.
soon.
The
electrical coagulate continues crawling, racing
like a sea
of raging insects. Nix looks down as he
sees his
lower body begins to sort of fade away.
NIX
Jesus.
The static
slithers up his neck and Nix panics ever
more, he
turns his head as it begins wrapping around
his neck,
trying to keep his mouth up.
NIX
It’s
all over...
Nico is
right next to him.
NICO
I
am right here.
GADGET
He’s
loosing it.
NICO
Pool?
Streams of
liquid static roll up unto Nix’s face and
close.
POOL
It’s
coming.
ALARMS on
most of the monitors begin to ERUPT.
Amp is
still on the phone.
AMP
Hold
it, Worm.
POOL
Got
him!
LINK
Bye
bye.
Nix’s body
begins to convulse in agony as he begins
to SCREAM.
AMP
Worm,
Now!
Nix
continues to SCREAM. It’s a deafening
sound,
like the scream of the sentinels
in the battle field.
With his
scream we --
INT. POWER PLANT - CLOSE ON MAN’S BODY
Floating in
womb-red gelatin.
Suddenly
his body begins to spasm, fighting against
the clotting gelatin.
A huge
metal tube plugs into his mouth and down
his throat.
Surreal
hospital-like IV lines connect to his limbs
and genitals.
He begins
to fight and struggle ever harder. Air
bubbles
into the amnion but does not disjoin the
surface.
He presses
up, his hand bulging the surface of the
red cocoon.
He grabs
the large tube at his face, pulling it out,
struggling
to breathe as a hole around his mouth
widens.
Finally
tearing through, he surfaces from the Jell-O
cell,
waiting for his vision to focus.
It is Nix.
He is bald
and naked, his body wrinkled and pruned
by the slick gelatin. He stands in an oval capsule
that is held together by black
alloy.
The IVs in
his arms are plugged into outlets that
seem to be grafted to his flesh.
He reaches
for the back of his head where he finds
an immense coaxial cable plugged
and locked into
the base of his skull.
He tries to
pull it free but it would be easier to
break a
leg.
He moves
towards the edge of the capsule, where
he sees more tube-shaped pods
filled with the red
gelatin,
all connected to the central core.
Pale and
motionless, he sees other human beings
beneath the
surface.
Outspreading
into a circle, there are more. Levels
and levels
above him, the stems containing the
glowing
pods appear to rise forever.
It’s
mind-battering imagery. He feels sick.
The stems
grow into circling towers that stretch
into the
obscure darkness. The PLANT sounds
like a running engine under tens
of feet of concrete
foundation.
INT. CONTROL CENTER
A machine,
insect-like in design, beautifully
constructed
of sturdy alloy that covers it’s polymeric
tech-organic
body; monitors the life activity of the
humans in
the power plant through a humongous
computer screen.
An ALARM on
the screen, begins to ERUPT alerting
the machine. It reaches for the screen with one of it’s
tentacles,
gently pressing the screen the red light
dies out.
INT. POWER PLANT
Nix begins
to react in pain. At the back of his
head
the coaxial
cable lock spins and opens, dislodging
from the base of his skull.
The cable
pulls free and oozing blood and spinal fluid
gushes out
of the interior of his skull. The other
connective
lines snap and whip-snake away as --
The back of
the unit opens and a colossal emptiness,
like an
airplane door opening, sucks the gelatin and
Nix almost
until --
A hand
reaches in and yanks Nix out of the pod.
We
look up and
notice Nico who is harnessed by a coil of
black wire
to a futuristic craft that looks like a
hybrid of a
helicopter and a jet fighter.
NICO
Gotcha.
INT. POWER PLANT - CLOSE ON METAL POD
A metal pod
connects among the many Jell-0 pods
plugged into the central core of
another spiraling tower.
Suddenly
the surface of the metal pod begins to press
inwards as
mechanical body parts socket outwards
every which way. The metal pod transforms into a
living SENTINEL, the animal we saw
in the battle field.
INT. COCKPIT
The cockpit is a miniature center
of high-tech
equipment. Mechanical gadgets come to life with a
musical
glee of blue and green light.
Nico and
Amp sit at the controls while Stitches and
Gadget
mount Nix onto a stretcher harnessed by
black metal.
INT. POWER PLANT
A unit of
five sentinels dart in blazing speed between
the
spiraling towers of the plant. They
shift and
glide in
ever changing mercenary paradigms.
INT. COCKPIT
Nico
presses the “LOAD” button on a computer screen
and a radar-like image of the
sentinel unit appears.
AMP
Sentinels.
INT. POWER PLANT
The craft
takes off just as the sentinels appear from
a dark
corner, they notice the craft and shoot towards
it while
they open and ready their weapons.
The
dogfight begins.
A turbo of
white fire shoots out of the exhaust of the
craft and
it bullets through the plant leading the
sentinels
in hot pursuit.
The craft
missiles left and right in every possible
focus but
can’t evade it’s shadowy mechanical
pursuers.
INT. COCKPIT
Sweat beads
Amp’s forehead as she battles with the
joystick,
swerving the craft left and right.
NICO
Get
us out of here.
INT. POWER PLANT
The craft
shoots upwards, leading the sentinels into
the
enigmatic darkness of the plant.
INT. SEWER MAIN
The craft
races ever faster through the sewer as the
sentinels
begin shooting wads of red hot laser from
their
tentacles. The craft whip-snakes and
enters an
enormous
hole that leads into --
EXT. LOST CITY
An
abandoned and mutilated city, its structures
blackened
and oxidized by the works of war that
raged on for decades without
easing.
INT. COCKPIT
Nico dials
in a few codes on the computer screen.
NICO
EMP.
The screen
responds and he hits the “LOAD” button.
EXT. LOST CITY
A side on
the craft opens like the doors of a train
and a few
fluke missiles fly wildly into space.
A blinding
shock of white light spans a vast radius.
Three
sentinels blink and fall instantly dead, their
cold, metal
corpses, falling to the deep depths then
exploding
in raging blue fire.
The craft
zooms almost invincibly through the decrepit
buildings
of the lost city, rising and descending tens
of feet in almost
nanoseconds.
INT. COCKPIT
Amp directs
the joystick just as the craft violently
begins to
RATTLE; like a phase of an epileptic
seizure. Then like a machine going to sleep, it’s
engine and
electrical circuits seem to die instantly.
Amp’s face
wraps in fear.
AMP
Jesus
no.
NICO
Don’t
panic.
Stitches
races into the cockpit.
STITCHES
Engines
jammed.
Nico
reaches for a glowing red button.
NICO
Backup
generator.
Pressing
the button the computer screen comes to life.
NICO
Hologram.
He dials in
a few codes on the screen, and then hit’s
the “LOAD”
button.
EXT. LOST CITY
The
sentinels see the craft hovering in front of a
building
and they battle-ram towards it. They
are
about to
pounce onto the craft when --
They both
CRASH into a building. For a moment it
seems they
almost RICOCHET off as they ERUPT
into a raging blue fireball.
INT. SEWER MAIN
The craft
approaches the hovercraft we saw in the
battle
field and docks unto a port on the side.
EXT. RESTORATION CHAMBER
We PASS
THROUGH an orange mist of the glass
wall-like membrane, entering --
INT. RESTORATION CHAMBER
The room is
an orange tint made of sleek
architecture, the walls are made
of tinted-brown
plywood. Tall, clear rectangular panels stand
fixed into the walls, the derma of
fluorescent-
orange light burning beneath.
It’s
something of another time, another world.
In the
center of the room Nix lays asleep on a
black
futon, dressed in a black tank top and
black slacks.
We watch as
a wound on his right arm begins
to heal it’s self. Skin racing slowly together,
wrapping over the wound burying
below.
FADE
TO BLACK.
FADE IN ON:
COMPUTER
SCREEN
A dialog
box pops up on a combat training
program. It reads: “Combat Series
1 of 12",
file categories begin flashing on
beneath:
Karate, Taekwondo, Jujitsu, Ken
Po, Kickboxing...
INT. RESTORATION CHAMBER
We follow a
sickly thin cable line descending from
the roof. We MOVE IN as we and the needle in
front of the line plug into the
jack at the back of
Nix’s neck.
Swallowed
into the darkness that becomes --
NIX’S BRAIN
A web work
of connecting and intersecting nerve
cells. Short comet charges of electricity race back
and forth.
We hear the
pounding of keyboard and then like a
tidal wave
of plasma electricity, the nerve cells
twitch and the electricity races
back and forth ever
faster to disturbing NOISES.
INT. RESTORATION CHAMBER - CLOSE ON NIX’S FACE
that begins
to twitch.
CUT
TO BLACK.
With no
sense of time we hang in the darkness,
hearing an
enigma of mixed noises.
The noises
become loudly surreal as we hear a high-
octane
martial arts fight. Then we
unconsciously
whip-snake
to the sound of GUN REPORT, bullets
seemingly
whipping in every direction.
INT. NIX’S ROOM
Nix wakes
from a deep sleep, feeling a lot better, his
hair has
grown almost half-length.
He begins
examining himself. He looks at his arms
and sees the jacks grafted into
his flesh. His fingers
race to his
head where he finds a large outlet at the
base of his
skull.
At the end
of the room there is a small, airplane-like
window. Outside, he sees the sewer racing by.
Amp opens
the door.
NIX
What’s
happening to me? Why is
everything
so different?
AMP
Because
you are in a different
time.
NIX
What?
AMP
The
world you lived in was a lie
Nix.
Nix can’t
seem to comprehend. It’s too much
information
for one to get at one time.
AMP
Come. Let me show you.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
Nix follows
Amp through the ship. He turns to find
a metal
slab grafted into a metal column, it reads:
“Nautilus”.
They walk
down metal stairs that lead to the main
deck.
INT. MAIN DECK
Everyone
except for Nico is there, including a few
that seem
not to have holes in their flesh and head.
AMP
This
is Nico’s ship, the
Nautilus. It’s a destroyer.
Nix sees
the faces that stare at him and they launder
trivial.
AMP
For
the rest of the team you
haven’t
met, that’s Worm, and
Cable. The rest of the people
you
see here are from Zion, the
last
human city.
She guides
him to the Core.
AMP
This
is were all signals are
broadcasted
into the Matrix.
It’s a
center of eerie electronic gadgetry.
Snake pits
of wires
seed to and from high-tech modems,
generators, gargantuan servers,
and flat computer
screens.
At the
technological nucleus, there are ten
exoskeleton
chairs made of poly-amalgam and
suspension harness.
Near the
circling chairs is the command console
and the operator’s terminal where
the network is
monitored.
Amp nods
and Mace helps Nix into one of the chairs.
Nix feels
Mace guiding a coaxial line into the outlet
at the back
of his neck.
MACE
Hold
tight.
There is
PANDEMONIUM as Mace begins to work
the needle in. Nix bucks up and his face constricts
into a glare until a blaring CLICK
fires and his ears
pop.
EXT. CITY STREET - DAY
Nix stands
in an empty city street. He TURNS to
find Amp standing next to him.
AMP
This
is a computer program.
It’s
accessed as part of the
Construct,
from were we can
load
anything we need.
Follow
me.
We follow
as she guides Nix to a bar located across
the street.
INT. BAR
They enter
the empty bar and sit at a booth next to
a window.
Nix looks
around, then runs his hand down the table.
NIX
This
can’t be real.
AMP
You
‘re right, it isn’t. The
same
rules that apply in the
Matrix
apply here as well.
She takes
off her sunglasses.
AMP
The
Matrix was designed for one
thing,
control. Midway through
the
twenty third century another
war
raged on. Us humans, again
found
ourselves fighting against
something
that we created,
artificial
intelligence. Machines,
that
seeded from their ancestral
predecessors.
Outside,
the street becomes busy with moving people
and cars.
AMP
After
the death of the messiah
we
searched for the next chosen
one,
one who would put an end to
the
bloodshed, and defeat the
machines. Our searches went in
vein
and we were forced to make
diplomatic
efforts. Whatever
we
offered the machines was not
good
enough, they wanted their
much
loved source of energy, the
human.
Outside,
the sky turns jaundice.
AMP
We
became divided amongst
ourselves
as some of us feared
the
machines would win again.
Some
of us fled for the machines
in
promise of a better life, and
the
machines filled their minds
with
the dreams of a better
yesterday…
a dreamlike utopia.
We TURN
towards the window, outside,
EXPLOSIONS light up a bloody
battlefield.
Humans dressed in the body armor
we saw before
fight terrifyingly against the
machines.
We MOVE
invincibly past the window as the war
surrounds
us.
AMP
And
just like before, the war raged
on for
decades and destroyed the
little we
had attempted to recover.
The
structures of yesteryear
returned. The Matrix was
reformatted
and rebooted, then
wired
back into our minds, in
order
to maintain us while they fed
on their
convalesced energy source.
We
whip-snake into a green house which contains
ever growing fields.
Enormous
farm-like reapers are harvesting the
crops of the red cocoons, each
containing a glowing
human fetus, it’s soft skull
already growing around
the brain jack.
We PULL
BACK and find ourselves inside the bar.
AMP
Right
now, we are miles below
the
surface, hiding, waiting for
the
return of the chosen one.
But,
that wait is over.
She puts her glasses back on.
AMP
I
know this can be all hard
to
take at once, but it’s the
truth.
Nix gently
nods, his mind assaulted by the images
he just saw.
She smiles.
AMP
Come. Let’s go.
They leave
the booth and exit the bar.
EXT. CITY STREET
Nix exits
first and the street is once again busy.
NICO
Hello,
Nix.
Nix turns
and he finds Nico standing next to him.
He turns back and Amp has
disappeared.
NICO
Walk
with me.
They begin
walking down the street for a while until,
everything
becomes a frozen blur.
NICO
Throughout
the history of the
Matrix,
there has always been
a
man inside who could change
the
Matrix as he saw fit.
They
continue walking.
NICO
You
and I are descendants of
that
man, the messiah.
Nico
stops. Between the blurred people,
there is a
MAN in
front of them, dressed in a long black coat,
he is
frozen in motion.
NICO
We
are descendants of him,
Neo. Sooner or later, just
like
he did, we ‘re going to
have
to fight the machines.
And
free human beings from
slavery.
Nico moves
closer.
NICO
We
are him, and he is us.
We begin to
SPIN, circling around the two men as the
city DISSOLVES away like a curtain
rising, into blank
white space and we are in --
INT. MAIN DECK
Nix’s eyes snap open as Amp
unlocks the cable from
the back of his neck.
Nico comes unglued and approaches
Nix.
NICO
Get
some rest. I can see you
need it.
Nix nods
gently and exits the main deck.
INT.
HOVERCRAFT
There is
never morning; fluorescent light sticks blink,
then flicker on.
INT. NIX’S ROOM
Nix sits
next to the airplane-like window, gazing at
the racing sewer, lost between two
worlds.
The door opens and Amp enters, she
approaches
him, emerging from the congealing
darkness.
AMP
Hard
to let go.
NIX
Yes.
She sits
next to him.
AMP
For
a long time I couldn’t let
go. Everything was so beautiful.
When I was
a kid I would run to
the lake
and throw pebbles in the
pond. I would do that for hours,
alone. Memories I could have
cherished
for a lifetime, just to
find out
that they weren’t real.
She
continues, confessing a bit about herself.
AMP
Sometimes
I find myself thinking
about
that. To be honest with
you, I
can’t let go, and that’s
okay
Nix. We’re all human.
She rises.
AMP
It’s
time for your training. Are
you ready?
NIX
I
guess.
AMP
Good.
INT. MAIN DECK
Nix is
plugged in, hanging in the one of the
exoskeleton chairs.
Worm is at the operator’s
terminal.
Amp sits in a drive chair next to
Nix. She nods to
Worm.
WORM
Okay,
here it goes.
INT. DOJO
They stand in a very sparse
japanese-style dojo.
Surrounding them are
computer-generated drones,
who are frozen in motion.
AMP
This
is part of your combat
training. It’s a computer
program
designed to test
your
technique. Don’t
worry, all
you need has
been
already downloaded --
She points
to her head.
AMP
In
here. There is only one basic
rule…
there is no rule. You
do
whatever you think you are
capable of
doing. The point here
isn’t
thinking, it’s knowing. Free
your mind
and the body will follow.
Nix turns
as the drones come to life and begin
circling around him.
His eyes close, and then open as
he assumes
a fighting stance.
At once the drones launch a
furious attack.
It’s like when Bruce Lee faces the
bad guys in
one mega showdown.
Fist and feet flying, strike from
every corner at
Nix as the drones press their
attack.
But each and every blow is blocked
by minimal
speed.
A blow just misses Nix and he
launches his
attack. We watch as he takes them apart, his
speed increasing as he hurls
himself at all of
them, sending drones flying then
falling to the
ground.
As the drones fall, a spreading
white light wraps
over them and they fade away.
He continues, blows’ growing into
a raging fury
as he screams then sends the last
of the drones
flying away.
The last drone fades away and Nix
cools himself.
AMP
Good. I can see you are no
stranger
to adaptation.
He turns
and Amp is behind him.
AMP
One
thing still remains.
NIX
What’s
that?
AMP
Attack
me.
She assumes
a fighting stance.
Nix assumes a similar stance,
cautiously circling
around Amp as he pauses then
launches an
attack.
The Bruce Lee intensity returns
and Nix heaves
himself at Amp, feet and fist
flying like deadly
weapons --
But every blow and every kick is
blocked by
effortless speed.
INT. MAIN DECK
While the two minds battle in the
programmed
reality, their two bodies appear
relatively tranquil,
balanced in the drive chairs.
Worm monitors their life systems,
seeing that Nix
is uncontrollably and frantically
lit up as contrasting
with the slow and steady rhythm of
Amp.
WORM
Oh
boy.
INT. DOJO
Sweat beads Nix’s forehead, teeth
gnashing, as
he bolts himself at Amp.
AMP
Impressive,
but not good
enough.
She attacks him and it’s like
nothing we have
ever seen before. Her feet and fists are
everywhere, pounding and digging
into Nix.
Nix tries to fight back but he is
no match for Amp.
She strikes, a kick that digs into
Nix’s chest,
sending him flying, then --
Falling.
AMP
You’re
letting me beat you.
Panting and puffing, Nix tries to
catch his breath.
NIX
No…
No…
AMP
You
know none of this is real.
Nix stops panting.
AMP
Set
the mind and body apart.
Find your
inner self and let it
all come
out.
Nix stands,
nodding.
AMP
This
time, no mistakes.
Hit me.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
At various
monitor stations, everyone stares
wide-eyed as another attack
commences.
Stitches and Pool are at a
station.
STITCHES
He’s
almost as fast as Nico.
INT. DOJO
Their fists fly again in pneumatic
speed, blows
rising into unsustainable
heights. Their bodies
are everywhere; air and ground
shed no sign of
difference.
Fire burns hot in Nix’s eyes. His face boils as he
sheds calm and screams.
We watch unbelievably as Nix’s
body becomes
a moving blur, Amp tries to block
but Nix is too
fast.
A roundhouse kick hits Amp and she
flies away,
falling.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
Eyes light up in disbelief. Stitches watches with
amazement.
POOL
No,
he is as fast as Nico.
INT. DOJO
Amp rises.
AMP
You
see what I have been talking
about
Nix. Do you feel better?
NIX
Yeah.
Amp smiles.
AMP
Worm.
They straighten themselves as the
dojo dissolves
away like a curtain rising,
leaving them standing
on the sidewalk of a busy city
street.
AMP
You
have to let it all go, Nix.
Anger,
hate, everything. Don’t
think you
are. Know you are.
The glass
door of the building behind them opens
and Nico steps out.
NICO
Free your mind.
Nico begins walking and suddenly
all the
commotion freezes just like before.
Between the frozen people Nix sees
a COP
surreptitiously leveling a gun at
Nico.
NIX
Nico.
The Cop’s GUN BOOMS as we enter
the liquid
space of --
Bullet-time.
The AIR COOKS with sizzling wads
of lead-like
raging flies as Nico twists and bends
just between
them.
The Cop continues, spiraling gray
balls pock-
marking the blurred commotion like
cardboard
figures.
Nico bends impossibly backwards as
the bullets
tong-twirl past him.
Suddenly
the Cop freezes as Nico levels himself
back up.
NIX
Whoa.
NICO
Anything
is possible, only if
you
believe.
INT. NICO’S ROOM
In Nico’s
room, Nix and Nico sit across from each
other, almost buried in darkness.
NICO
I
know we haven’t talk much about
us, but I
hope to change that. As
you know
we are at war on both
fronts, in
the Matrix and here.
Those men
who kept you captive,
they are
called agents. Really,
they are
computer programs that
can
maneuver in and out of any
hardware
plugged into the system.
NIX
I have
always wandered about
that, but
what do you mean?
NICO
I mean
that anyone who hasn’t
been
unplugged from the system
is
potentially an agent. They are
the
gatekeepers, and also the
core of
the machines weaponry.
Sentient
beings manufactured to
be the
ultimate killing machine.
NIX
Any
weaknesses?
Nico eyes
seem to light up at that question as he
leans closer.
NICO
Yes,
one. At first we thought
they could
be defeated through
man to man
combat but only
found them
to be nowhere and
at many
places in one time. But,
where they
are weak, we are
strong. I suppose you know the
biggest
threat to a computer
system.
NIX
A virus.
NICO
Exactly. For sometime now we
have
searched for a virus that
could
disturb their neuro-kinetics,
which
could ultimately lead to
their
destruction. All attempts to
create and
find one failed until I
came upon
yours.
Nix feels a
bit surprised.
NIX
The
Seven Plagues?
Nico nods.
NICO
This
isn’t going to be easy.
You see
the agents keep an
extensive
library of viruses that
they have
come upon in order
to easily
fight it when next it
shows up
on their system.
NIX
Like an
immune system.
NICO
Yes. We had never seen
them act
so violently to a virus
until
yours showed up. Can
you
possibly replicate it?
NIX
No… I
don’t think so.
Nix pauses
for a while in thought.
NIX
I
hid a copy somewhere.
NICO
Good
hacking, but first, I
want to
show you something.
INT. CORE
Through a
mammoth wormhole the Nautilus
tears down deep towards the
Earth’s core.
Moments later it reaches a huge
titanium
reinforced panel that opens and
leads into --
EXT. CITY OF ZION
There are several immense
greenhouse-like
hubs that glow powder white and a
few
docking pads, all ordered around
one
colossal hub.
INT. CITY OF ZION
Inside
there are ever rising levels of
connecting and intersecting halls
that lead
into various rooms; bedrooms,
conference
rooms…
It’s a hollow structure
constructed around a
gargantuan generator covered by a
greenhouse-like hub that lies deep
below.
Through the translucent hub the
generator
glows a pinkish-red, pumping like
a
mechanical heart, spreading a
vibrating
ooze up the underground city.
Nico and Nix walk out of a mesh wired
elevator, stepping out into a
hall. In a room
behind them, several children are
in merry
and joy.
Nix eyes fill with amazement.
NICO
This
is all we have left Nix. The
last human
city, Zion.
INT. ZION CONTROL CENTER
Nico and
Nix walk into the control center,
every corner is filled with
high-tech
equipment that looks very much
like those
of the Nautilus.
There are several terminals where
operators monitor the immense
network.
Nico leads Nix through the
technological
jungle to a humongous flat screen
that is
grafted into a metal panel.
On the screen, riveting single
file columns
of Matrix data spread downward, it
at once
seems alive as the columns seem to
amalgamate with bizarre equations.
NIX
The
Matrix?
NICO
Yes.
NIX
It’s
all in coding.
NICO
It
makes for good hacking,
especially
when we
broadcast
our signals.
Come, I
have more to show
you.
INT. CROP HUB
Inside one of the smaller hubs,
Nico and Nix
stand in the middle of a plant
field, high-tech
reapers harvest and crop the
plants with a
greenish-blue like substance, it
has a cottage
cheese consistency.
To either side of the field, there
are metal
vents that blow air into the hub.
NICO
As
human beings we owe it
to our
planet to restore what
makes it
so unique… nature.
Nix eyes
twitch when he notices that a rose
next to him has begun to bloom.
NICO
Beautiful,
isn’t it?
Nix can’t seem to speak, but nods.
INT. MEMORIAL HALL
Nico and Nix walk into a dimly lit
cathedral-like
structure. Nico leads Nix to a marble wall filled
with seemingly never ending
columns of names.
A few men pass them; they wear
heavy black
cloaks, and have their faces
hidden beneath
big hoods.
The men nod, Nico and Nix do the
same.
They reach the marble wall where
the names
have been engraved in gold. To every name
there is an accompanying year of
birth and
year of death.
NICO
These
are all the men and
women who
have given their
lives to
the resistance.
Nix holds
his mouth in horror; terror fills
his eyes.
NIX
Jesus!
NICO
You
see Nix, that’s why this
has to end. We can’t afford
to lose
more of our kind. Day
after day
I have seen men
and women
lose their lives
in a
matter seconds, I can’t
stand it
any longer.
A tear
fills Nico’s eyes, and then drops.
FADE
TO BLACK
FADE IN ON:
MESS HALL
Nico, Nix,
and Amp sit at the mess hall,
They are eating mash potatoes and
cornbread.
AMP
I
sent Pool and Gadget in, the
agents
trashed your apartment
Nix.
NIX
I expected
that. Where my
lines ever
tapped?
NICO
Most
likely.
NIX
What about
if where I hid it
is also
trashed.
AMP
The agents
keep viruses
hidden on
their mainframe
computer.
NICO
If where
you hid it is trashed,
we’re
going to have to get it
from them…
we have to.
There is
dead silence for a while.
NIX
I
guess.
Nico rises.
NICO
We
will go in tomorrow. I
will get
everyone on a
12-hour
stand-by.
INT. NIX’S ROOM
Nix is busy
reading from a pile of paper-
clipped computer pages, he reads a
page labeled: “R.S.I. - Residual Self
Image”.
The RINGING OF A PHONE RISES,
BECOMING --
INT. HOTEL LAFAYETTE (MATRIX) - DAY
The room is empty, heavy decrepit
curtains
with scared lace cover
windows. On a table,
an old black PHONE is RINGING.
We begin TURNING, circling around
the
phone as the room fills with
equipment and
the team.
EXT. HOTEL LAFAYETTE (MATRIX) - DAY
They all step out of the old
lobby. There are
three BMW’s parked, Link and his
friends
secure the perimeter.
The sun is burning bright, Nix
squints for he
is the only one without
sunglasses, he feels
a bit relaxed as he takes in some
air.
Link looks at Nix.
LINK
Hello,
wonder boy.
Nix doesn’t say anything.
Nico and Nix get in.
INT. BMW (MATRIX) - DAY
As Nico and Nix get in, they give
each
other a look of doubt.
EXT. APARTMENT BUILDING (MATRIX) - DAY
The BMW’s pull up to an apartment
building,
it’s located in a neighborhood
where every
corner has a pair of eyes.
The team steps out.
INT. STAIRWELL (MATRIX) - DAY
It’s a dark and creepy place; it
looks
almost devoid of occupants.
The team is
walking up the stairs.
INT. HALL (MATRIX) - DAY
They walk
up to APARTMENT 505; the
door is slightly open. Nix pushes gently,
entering.
INT. APARTMENT 505 (MATRIX) -DAY
The apartment is in complete and
utter
shambles. It’s like a raving lunatic paid
it a visit.
They walk in, examining the space.
NIX
Damn.
MACE
If
you ask me, I would say
we are
shit out of luck, hey
wonder
boy.
Nix is
still looking, inspecting the apartment.
INT. BATHROOM (MATRIX) - DAY
Amp walks
in. There are a few bullets holes
that have blasted through plaster
and lathe,
burrowing into the intestines of
the building.
INT. BEDROOM (MATRIX) - DAY
Nico is in the little bedroom, on
a makeshift
desk, a computer has been
punctured with
bullet holes.
NICO
Christ.
INT. KITCHEN (MATRIX) - DAY
Cable and Stitches are in the
kitchen, there
are several bullet holes, more than
those of
the bathroom. Stitches opens several food
cabinets, they are all empty.
STITCHES
Damn
it, I am hungry.
INT. BEDROOM (MATRIX) - DAY
Nix walks in. Nico is looking at a
framed picture of Ménage, she is a
beautiful woman.
NIX
It’s
definitely not here.
Nico drops the frame.
NICO
That’s
for sure.
Nix picks up the frame, looks into
Ménage’s eyes, feels a bit
nostalgic, puts it
back down.
Nico turns, walking out.
NICO
We
‘re going in.
EXT. GOVERNMENT SKYSCRAPER (MATRIX) - DAY
A government building in the heart
of the
city, downtown.
INT. EXECUTIVE SUITE (MATRIX) - DAY
Inside Agent Hunt and Agent White
talk,
they stand in front of an immense
wall-like
window, peering at the city.
Tens of feet below them, the city
is alive
with moving locomotives and
people.
AGENT
HUNT
Control,
it’s what they need.
If we left
them to be they
couldn’t
possibly materialize
the
essence of uniformity.
Someone
has to put things
in order,
and I will tell you it’s
certainly
not them. It’s
something
their yet primitive
cerebral
cortex can’t seem
to
epitomize.
Agent White
snickers.
AGENT
HUNT
They
in themselves are the
cause of
their own
misfortunes. During a few
observations
I have come to
find that
they are to each
other,
very virally contagious.
They
murder each other,
pass
diseases, spread and
multiply,
deprive each other
of certain
enviable properties.
Below them
a black van pulls up and
armed Marines climb out almost
robotically,
inhuman.
Agent Hunt watches this and
smiles.
AGENT
HUNT
This time
we have given them
what they need, the perfect
world. Their own, to speak,
utopia.
AGENT
WHITE
I can’t
understand why they
continually
gradate towards
misery and
suffering.
The door opens. Agent Stone and Agent
Cole enter.
AGENT
COLE
All sectors are
secure.
AGENT
HUNT
Ready
all extermination units.
Agent Cole marches towards the
door.
AGENT
STONE
Alexander
isn’t part of the
hardware
anymore.
Agent Hunt
hides a knotted fist. He is
becoming angry. Agents aren’t supposed
to be angry.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
Most of the team is strapped
in. Nico
nods to Worm as he punches in the
“LOAD” code.
INT. EXECUTIVE SUITE (MATRIX) - DAY
Agent Hunt is still looking down
at the busy
city below, locomotion seemingly
orchestrated by red and green
traffic lights.
AGENT
HUNT
A
marvelous beauty.
EXT. GOVERNMENT SKYSCRAPER (MATRIX) - DAY
A white COMMTEL van pulls up, the
doors
open and Nico, Stitches, and Cable
step out.
They disguise themselves in white
COMMTEL uniforms that resemble
clothing
of TV repairmen.
INT. GOVERNMENT SKYSCRAPER (MATRIX) - DAY
Nico, Stitches, and Cable step in,
they each
carry black duffel bags.
They cut through the lobby and
walk to the
main service desk.
NICO
Yes,
we’re here to fix a reported
computer
glitch.
A plain
clothed cop at the service desk
checks his computer to verify.
COP
Okay.
INT. COMMTEL VAN (MATRIX) - DAY
Inside Link sits in front of a
powerbook
computer, on a custom application
he types
in “Note: computer problem
reported on
9/9/00.”
INT. LOBBY (MATRIX) - DAY
On the screen the cop sees the
note
Link just typed.
COP
You
‘re all set. Take the
elevators
to the 57th floor.
NICO
Thank
you.
INT. TOP FLOOR (MATRIX) - DAY
Two Marines
stand guard in front of a
door, we here the MUTED SPIT of a
silenced gun.
One of them drops with a THUD.
Before the other can react, a
bullet
spits through his head.
Nico, Stitches, and Cable appear.
EXT. GOVERNMENT SKYSCRAPER (MATRIX) - DAY
A dark wind howls.
INT. CONTROL ROOM (MATRIX) - DAY
Stitches is cracking in on the
network
computer.
Nico and Cable have removed their
COMMTEL uniforms and are now
dressed in long, black coats.
Beneath their coats is an arsenal
of
weapons slung from climbing
harness.
Nico is on the phone.
NICO
Are
you getting it?
INT. HOVERCRAFT
On a computer screen, streams of
coding fill in.
WORM
Yes,
sir.
INT. CONTROL ROOM (MATRIX) - DAY
Cable unzips a duffel bag; it’s
filled with
more weapons.
INT. GOVERNMENT SKYSCRPAER (MATRIX) - DAY
In long, black coats, Nix and Pool
push in.
They cut across the lobby, nervous
eyes glancing at them.
Dark glasses, game faces.
Several plainclothes cops try to
stop them.
They are met by continuous FIRE of
an UZI.
From the other end, Marines come
pouring out in single file.
MARINE
Hold
it right there!
Nix and Pool open fire as they
stride to
the side.
The shoot out begins.
Bullets are everywhere, MARBLE
CHUNKS EXPLODING like shrapnel.
Nix emerges from behind a column,
carrying two Uzi’s, FIST PUMPING,
bullets flying out in pneumatic
speed.
Marines fly for cover as Pool
STRAFES,
bullets cart wheeling into the
space.
Before two Marines, Nix jumps into
the
air, bullets too slow to catch him
as --
THWACK! THWACK! He cracks both
of them with a jaw crushing double
kick.
Nix and Pool finish off more
Marines
with deadly ease.
STATIC wraps over one of the last
Marines’ as Agent Stone
emerges.
Yanking out a gun he fires
relentlessly.
Pool is on the run as two bullets
catch
him on the side.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
Blood spits
from Pool’s mouth, his body
thrashing against the harness then
lying
dead still.
AMP
No!
INT. TOP FLOOR (MATRIX) - DAY
Nico, Stitches, and Cable step out
of
the control room and head towards
the
elevators.
INT. LOBBY (MATRIX) - DAY
Nix turns, his face warped in fear
as
he runs towards the exit.
INT. HALL (MATRIX) - DAY
Agent Cole and a few Marines come
around the corner.
Cole marches towards the Executive
Suite as Marines begin posting
themselves an arms length from
each
other on either side of the hall.
INT. EXECUTIVE SUITE (MATRIX) - DAY
Agent Cole strides in.
AGENT
COLE
There
is a problem.
AGENT
WHITE
They
got in.
AGENT
HUNT
Ready the
defense procedures.
A Marine
bursts into the room.
CORPORAL
Sir,
their on the roof!
Agent White
touches his earpiece.
EXT. ROOF (MATRIX) - DAY
On the
roof, Nico, Stitches, and Cable
lay waste to a dozen more marines.
Guns, knives and throwing stars
used
with fine precision.
Agent White and Agent Cole emerge
from the roof access tower.
Stitches turns, screaming as Agent
White begins firing at him,
ripping
him apart.
CABLE
Nico,
help!
It’s too late. Agent Cole unloads,
bullets burying themselves into
Cable’s chest.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
Cable’s body spasms as the
flat-line
ALARM softly cries out from the
life
MONITORS of the two dead men.
EXT. ROOF (MATRIX) - DAY
Nico spins, bullets missing him as
he
runs hard at the edge of the
rooftop.
And jumps. His coat billowing out
behind him like a cape as he
falls.
Nico looks up; Agent White is
standing next to the edge of the
roof,
looking down at him. He looks down;
Agent White is staring up at him.
NICO
Shit!
We enter bullet-time.
Nico pulls out two guns and begins
firing at Agent White below,
cartridges
unloading, bullets floating into
the
SIZZLING air.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Agent White’s
body flies back with a blinding
flash of
mercurial light, hitting the
ground,
revealing a dead Marine.
Nico lands, the concrete pavement
beneath him shattering into deadly
chunks.
EXT. CITY STREET (MATRIX) - DAY
Nix is on the run. Further down the
street Agent Stone is in hot
pursuit.
Nix runs past a traffic warden
that
becomes --
Agent Hunt.
Still running hard he turns into
the
“6” station.
INT. “6” STATION (MATRIX) - DAY
Nix races down the extremely
narrow
escalators, gliding over the
turnstiles,
and onto the platform.
The platform falls into the tracks
and
meets the other platform that lays
about 20 feet away.
Heaving the intensity of the
moment,
a TRAIN has already begun POUNDING
on the metal tracks.
It’s just Nix and the TRAIN now,
he has
to get to the other platform.
Feet still pumping, he leaps into
the air,
gliding for a moment.
The TRAIN cries with a raging fury
as
Nix just passes it, landing on one
knee.
Immediately, he enters a train on
the
next track. The doors close behind
him.
EXT. CITY STREET (MATRIX) - DAY
Nico is on the run, being chased
by
Agent White and Agent Cole.
A policeman sits in his cruiser,
reporting
on the dispatcher when the cruiser
door
is flung open. Nico yanks him out and
hops in.
Further down the street, Agent
White
slows, touching his earpiece.
INT. POLICE CRUISER (MATRIX) - DAY
Nico sends the cruiser tearing
recklessly through traffic,
cutting
between cars in maniacal manner.
INT. SEWER MAIN
Two humongous killing machines,
SKELETONS, lead the Extermination
Unit of Sentinels.
They look like a hybrid of a human
skeleton and an insect. They move
and glide with the same killing
precision of the Sentinels.
They shoot past us like bullets
firing down a barrel.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
From the cockpit an ALARM
sounds.
Amp hurries to the front console,
typing, bringing up the radar of
the
Extermination Unit.
Mace and Gadget follow.
Their faces mask in horror as the
radar lights up.
AMP
Skeletons.
INT. POLICE CRUISER (MATRIX) - DAY
Driving like a Diablo, Nico checks
the mirrors, looks over his
shoulder --
Agent Cole is driving the car
behind
him.
NICO
Fuck! Fuck!
Fuck!
He drives through an intersecting
street when --
EXT. CITY STREET (MATRIX) - DAY
WHAM! An 18-wheeler sends the
cruiser flipping on its side,
deadly
sparks flying as the wheeler digs
the cruiser against the hard
granite
of the street.
INT. POLICE CRUISER (MATRIX) - DAY
Nico pulls himself up near the side
window, his leg smashing through
the
window as it shatters into a dozen
pieces.
EXT. CITY STREET (MATRIX) - DAY
Climbing out through the side
window,
he hops onto the hood of the 18-
wheeler, barely balancing himself,
seeing that Agent White is
driving.
Nico pulls out a gun.
INT. 18-WHEELER (MATRIX) - DAY
Agent White’s body thrashes
against
the seat, blood arcing out with a
sudden flash as bullets pound him
relentlessly.
EXT. CITY STREET (MATRIX) - DAY
Nico dives off the 18-wheeler just
as
it and the cruiser crash into a
building, bulldozing metal and
glass
as they EXPLODE into a fiery
orange
cloud.
INT. “6” TRAIN (MATRIX) - DAY
Nix is pacing back and forth
relentlessly, wild-eyed.
From a short distance, he
sees the train conductor heading
his way.
He turns, knowing what’s about to
happen as the conductor begins to
blister with STATIC, becoming --
Agent Hunt as he passes through
the sliding access door.
Agent Hunt pulls out a gun.
Fingers PUMPING, SHELLS vomited,
twirling up and away, we look
through
the sights and gun smoke at --
Nix blurred with motion.
Until the HAMMER CLICKS against
dead empty metal.
Agent
Hunt’s face rages with anger,
veins bulging with red hot blood.
He attacks, fist flying with furious
speed, pounding on Nix as he
counters, retreating.
A kick sends him staggering off
balance, stunned, a punch digs his
chest, sending him smashing
against
the cart door window.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
Sweat beads Nix’s forehead, almost
pouring off him as he battles in
the
programmed reality.
Gadget is right next to him,
trying in
someway to comfort him with her
words.
GADGET
Hang
in there wonder boy.
Hang in.
INT. “6” TRAIN (MATRIX) - DAY
Nix is caught between two carts of
the
train, riveted steel racing below
him,
struggling he grabs for the top of
the
train, climbing on.
EXT. “6” TRAIN (MATRIX) - DAY
Like tumbleweed Nix bounces and
flies, racing down the top of the
cart
when his feet meet the top edge of
the next cart --
A fulcrum that levers him up.
Struggling to gain his balance he
turns --
Agent Hunt has emerged on top
of the cart, standing at the other
end, his tie whipping in the air.
AGENT
HUNT
Time
to take out the trash.
Two men just about ready to put an
end to each other.
Nix attacks with a brutal series
of
blows, Agent Hunt machine-calm as
he seems to absorb them, finding
an
entrance Nix leaps into air,
delivering
a jaw-crushing round-house.
Hunt’s glasses fly off, swallowed
by
the compounding speed of the train
and into the deep, dark, hollow
tunnel.
Nix smiles.
Agent Hunt attacks, this time in
an
unrelenting fury, fists flying,
pounding
as Nix tries to block.
A single blow catches Nix off
guard
and sends him flying, feet
kicking,
landing between two carts; back to
square one.
Nix is caught between the carts,
trying to get himself untangled as
Agent Hunt emerges above him, a
kick snaps his jaw.
Agent Hunt grabs a hold of him,
lifting, then dragging him like a
rag
doll.
Agent Hunt grabs a hold of Nix’s
neck, forcing his head just over
the
side edge of the train, making him
look at the racing tracks below.
AGENT
HUNT
You
can’t win Mr. Alexander.
The world closes down on Nix as
the
dark tunnel fills with the SOUND
of
METAL grinding against METAL, the
animal cry of a MACHINE, METAL
SCREECHES becoming a singular
consciousness.
Agent Hunt grips Nix tighter as he
leans closer.
AGENT
HUNT
You’re
going to die.
Those words bury into Nix as he
writhes through the pain.
From the corner of his eyes Nix
sees
the next station, as the train
begins to
TURN.
He isn’t ready to die.
NIX
Fuck
you.
He can feel Agent Hunt just about
to
hurl him off when he grabs a hold
of
Hunt’s ankle, pulling him forward
as Agent
Hunt flies back, body still in
mid-air,
Nix hurls Hunt into the air and
off
the train.
Agent Hunt flies wildly, then
crashes
against the concrete and metal
wall of
the tunnel, falling inches from
the
electrified third rail.
Nix is broken and bleeding.
INT. NAGADO STATION (MATRIX) - DAY
The “6” train pulls in, doors
sliding open
as Nix hurries out, his broken ass
gritting
through pain.
INT. “6” TRAIN (MATRIX) - DAY
The train driver has just become
Agent
Hunt.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
On every level above the main
deck, ALARMS erupt with an
almost volcanic fury.
AMP
Time
to go to battle. Send
word to
Zion.
EXT. CITY STREET (MATRIX) - DAY
Nico is on the phone, sprinting
his
ass down the busy city street as
he
dials long distance.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
Worm answers.
WORM
Operator.
NICO
(V.O.)
Get
me a fucking exit, now!
EXT. NAGADO STATION (MATRIX) - DAY
Nix steps out through the
escalators.
Across the street he sees it --
A blinking neon sign reading:
“CELLULAR 24HRS.”
INT. HOVERCRAFT
Hands clicking with thought-speed,
Worm searches for an exit.
EXT. CITY STREET (MATRIX) - DAY
NICO
Hurry
Worm, hurry!
WORM
(V.O.)
Paper
Street. An apartment
building.
Agent White
and Agent Cole are
still in hot pursuit.
WORM (V.O.)
Room
606.
Nico drops the phone and turns
into
an alley.
EXT. CITY STREET (MATRIX) - DAY
Nix hauls ass out of the “CELLULAR
24HRS” store; cell phone in
hand. A store
clerk is chasing behind him,
regarding
him with loathing.
Agent Stone has just turned around
the corner, full in chase.
EXT. NAGADO STATION (MATRIX) - DAY
Agent Hunt has just exited the
NAGADO station.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
Worm answers.
WORM
Operator.
NIX
(V.O.)
…get
me the fuck out of here!
WORM
I
am looking.
A screen flashes with information.
WORM
Howard
and Polk, mechanical
storage
center. Third floor.
EXT. ALLEY (MATRIX) - DAY
Agent White
and Agent Cole, still in full
chase begin FIRING, BULLETS PING-
PONGING, and RICHOCHETING as
Nico leaps onto the fire escape.
INT. SEWER MAIN
The Nautilus opens, metal panels
sliding open, humongous plasma
guns
and cannons taking place as they
load
themselves.
EXT. ALLEY (MATRIX) - DAY
Nico reaches the sixth floor
platform,
cracking the window, jumping into
the
hall.
The doors count backward: 613… 612…
EXT. ALLEY (MATRIX) - DAY
Nix enters a building through a
side
entrance, the agents unloading
cartridges as he bursts into the
building and charges up the
stairs.
EXT. FIRE ESCAPE (MATRIX) - DAY
As Agent Cole climbs the fire
escape,
he seems to go blind for an
instant,
his hand reaching for nothing.
INT. STAIRWELL (MATRIX) - DAY
They same thing has just happened
to Agent Stone.
INT. SEWER MAIN
The two Skeletons suddenly gleam
with red laser, mechanical sockets
rearranging, becoming even more
terrifying --
It seems the two agents have
uploaded
themselves into the skeletons.
The Extermination Unit reaches
close
to the Nautilus as the destroyer
begins
firing red-hot wads and balls of
plasma.
INT. HALL (MATRIX) - DAY
Nico can hear the PHONE RINGING.
608… 607…
From the other end of the hall,
Agent
White steps out of room 601 when
Nico is just about to grab the
handle
of room 606.
Nico is about to enter when --
BOOM!
Nico is hit, shocked, can’t think.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Four bullet holes in his chest,
Nico
staggers on his feet, then drops,
his
hand unwrapping the handle of room
606.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
Nico’s body spasms, everyone hears
it as the life monitors snap
flat-line.
Worm reaches for the screen as if
reaching for Nico.
WORM
No!
Amp is frozen in disbelief.
INT. HALL (MATRIX) - DAY
Nix suddenly stops running,
something
strikes his heart, a growing pain
begins,
splintering him, he knows it --
His other half is dead.
INT. HALL (MATRIX) - DAY
Agent White stands above Nico.
AGENT
WHITE
Pitiful.
Suddenly a blinking shock of white
light blinds us and we --
CUT
TO BLACK
In the darkness, Nico’s voice is
the
only consciousness.
NICO
(V.O.)
Where
am I?
Nico hears
the voice of a MAN.
MAN
(V.O.)
Wake
up, Nico.
NICO
(V.O.)
What?
MAN
(V.O.)
You
can’t be dead, remember --
MAN
(V.O.)
Wake
up. Get up.
The words
echo in the darkness.
INT. HALL (MATRIX) - DAY
Nico’s eyes flutter open.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
The
monitors jump back to life,
Worm and Amp watching in
disbelief.
It has to be a miracle.
WORM
Wow.
AMP
They
are the one.
INT. HALL (MATRIX) - DAY
Nico gets up. Everything around him
shimmers with Matrix coding.
Agent White is at the other end of
the
hall, he turns, staring at Nico as
if he
were looking at cryptography.
INT. HALL (MATRIX) - DAY
Nix’s eyes open, everything around
him shimmers with the Matrix
coding.
NIX
Whoa.
He can hear the PHONE RINGING.
Agent Hunt pulls out his .45,
PUMPING
LEAD, bullets flying like a plane
across
clear blue sky.
The bullets stop within inches of
Nix,
still spinning with deadly
precision.
He looks down upon them and they
all drop, like dead soldiers.
Nix gives Agent Hunt the finger.
INT. HALL (MATRIX) - DAY
Agent White grinds his molars.
AGENT
WHITE
No.
We INTERCUT between the two halls.
Nico and Nix each reach for the
RINGING PHONES.
INT. SEWER MAIN
The two Skeletons are all of what
remains of the Extermination Unit,
their
lasers searing through the metal
flesh
of the Nautilus.
Fluke missiles fly wildly into
space.
A blinding shock of white light
floods
a vast radius around the Nautilus.
Skeletons blink and in an instant
fall
lifeless, dead.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
In the darkness, Nico and Nix’s
eyes
open.
GADGET
Nix?
Nix eyes turn to Gadget and she
falls in
his arms, her eyes filled with
tears.
FADE
TO BLACK
FADE IN:
ON COMPUTER SCREEN
as before. The cursor, a steady throb.
The screen instantly fills with
the trace
program.
The RINGING of A PHONE becoming
louder.
Suddenly we recognize Nico’s
voice.
NICO
(V.O.)
It’s
over, your world is, this
dream world
that you have
become so
proud of. We all
pay the
prices.
We LOCK IN
on the shimmering
columns of numbers.
NICO
(V.O.)
As
from now on, things are
going to
be different, a lot
different.
We PLUNGE
THROUGH the numbers --
NICO
(V.O.)
We
are going to free these
people
from their slavery, their
servitude,
the very thing that
has kept
them from countless
possibilities. We are going to
free them,
from you.
And into
absolute darkness.
EXT. CITY STREET (MATRIX) - DAY
Nico steps out
of a phone booth, wearing
a long black coat and dark
glasses.
Nix steps out of a skyscraper
across
from the phone booth. He too wears a
long black coat and dark glasses.
The two men nod to each other as
they
look around, viewing their world.
We RISE, HIGHER and HIGHER into
the
clear blue sky as the two figures
melt into
the crowd of moving people.
FADE
OUT
THE
END