CONTROLLER: TUA 35 heavy, descend to 3,000 feet.
ROCKWELL: Minneapolis center, this is Trans universal
35 heavy descending to 3,000.
CONTROLLER: Roger, TUA 35 heavy.
CONTROLLER: TUA 35 heavy, could you give me your location?
ROCKWELL: Ron, where the hell are we?
Twenty five miles due south on approach
descending through 5,000 feet.
CONTROLLER: 35, what is your current heading?
What's his problem?
Minneapolis, we are currently heading...
CONTROLLER: TUA 35, turn to heading...
(STATIC)
Say again, Minneapolis.
PILOT: Jesus! Down!
Oh, my God.
Down! Go down!
(CRASH)
My God! We hit 'em! We hit 'em!
Minneapolis, this is TUA 35
declaring an emergency.
We hit another aircraft.
Looked like a 10.
Three and four shutting down.
Cutting fuel to three.
We are going down.
Repeat. Going down.
How much of the wing is gone?
Ron, get back there. See how much I have left.
Right.
(INTENSE MUSIC PLAYING)
(DIGITAL BEEPING)
(BLAST)
(EXPLOSION)
(CRASHES)
(INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING)
(HELICOPTER WHIRRING)
(ENGINE SLOWLY STOPS)
REPORTER 1: There he is.
(ALL TALKING SIMULTANEOUSLY)
REPORTER 2: Can we have a few words with you?
(CONTINUES INDISTINCTLY)
Mr. Smith, I'm Kevin Briley from the Minneapolis office.
Then you're not doing your job.
Round these people up and shove 'em
in a room somewhere.
Make no statement till I get back.
Ashby, tell him what we need.
ASHBY: Right! Come on. Let's move it!
The rest of y'all, let's go.
ASHBY: Move it!
KEVIN: Back up! Back up, people!
MAN: Come on, people. Let's go now. Do it!
(HELICOPTER WHIRRING)
BILL: Where'd the DC-10 go down?
PILOT: Ten miles to the south.
Jerry, Eli, go take a look.
Tom and I will put down here.
(INTENSE MUSIC PLAYING)
(MUSIC CONTINUES)
(WHIRRING GETS LOUDER)
You wanna give me a hand with this?
We'll cut through here in one second.
MAN 1: Bill.
All right. Bill.
MAN 2: Bring the flashlight over here.
We were just going after the flight-data recorder.
You want to do that next? Sure.
I think that the DC-10 site came down a lot harder than this one.
What happened here?
Well, he managed to get it level,
but you might've noticed there's only three engines.
One came down south of here.
So, he lost a lot of wing?
We think so. Yeah.
We've started on the site map.
And the cops have finally stopped moving things around.
Look, Bill, uh... we're being very careful,
but we don't think this is a structural failure.
Know any numbers yet?
Yeah. Yeah, right here.
This one had 354 and 13 crew.
And the 10 had 265 and 11.
(HELICOPTER WHIRRING)
Watch that wing section there!
You already have the cockpit voice recorder?
Yeah, we have it, but it's pretty battered.
They're working on it now.
I want a dub made before you send it on to Washington.
All right. I'll tell them,
but it might not be too good.
ARNOLD: It's a silly rule.
Why should the boys in Washington hear it first?
I got to hear what those poor bastards were up against
after they hit the 10.
I'm sure they did their best.
They always do.
Are you one of Roger's team?
I'm Dr. Arnold Mayer.
I'm the investigator in charge, Bill Smith.
Bill Smith. Yes, I know.
I've read many of your crash reports.
Naturally, I've heard of you, Doctor.
What's your interest here?
You want me to leave?
No. It doesn't matter.
All this just seems pretty far removed from your physics lab.
Maybe scientists should leave the lab more often.
They might learn some things.
Dr. Mayer!
What's an ecology professor doing at a crash site?
Did you know someone on the plane?
Not that I'm aware of.
How did you hear about the crash, sir?
I got a call from a television...
He's the last guy I'd expect to find out here.
Yeah. Actually, he's not.
He's been to several Midwest crashes.
That big one in '79 at O'Hare,
he was all over that one.
I wonder why.
KEANE: I don't think it will win him another Nobel prize.
(HELICOPTER WHIRRING)
Over here! I got it!
There's a whole mob here from Boeing.
And the man from McDonnell Douglas is on the way.
Wes Lake from the FBI is here
and the assistant D.A. from Ramsey County.
BILL: Okay. The usual gang.
Mr. Janz, I'm Bill Smith with the NTSB.
Mr. Smith, my name is Raymond Leacock. I represent Mr. Janz.
Is this a formal deposition? Not yet.
I'm sitting in on this.
Bill, uh, meet Ian Carpenter.
He's with the Air Traffic Controllers Organization.
Mr. Janz, I know this is a hard time for you.
I want to hear what you saw and what your actions were.
We were handling 40 flights, three of us.
Plus the private planes.
The screen was so crowded.
I had a goddamn headache.
I was tired.
35 was coming in from the East.
No, from the West.
And 880 was coming in.
Was that the 747, Don?
(INHALES DEEPLY)
I looked away for a moment...
(SHUDDERS) some other situation.
And when I looked back...
they'd changed places.
Oh...
I told 35 to turn.
They were close, man.
And then the numbers switched...
And you couldn't tell them apart anymore.
MAN 1: And then lock it off!
BILL: Somebody's got these guys working
harder and faster than I've ever seen.
KEANE: Well, that DC-10 was pretty public.
It spread itself over a field not half a mile from the interstate.
Right. They don't want people gawking at their, uh...
What was it they called that crash in Florida?
Involuntary conversion.
I think they made a profit on that one when the insurance paid off.
KEANE: Yeah, well, they sure are busting their asses on this one.
Look at that. They even got the, uh, ticket agents serving coffee.
MAN 2: Mr. Keane, Where does this go?
What do you want to do with this stuff?
Did I tell you you could touch that?
Excuse me. Put that down! Just put that down!
Hey!
How about some coffee?
Hey, wait a minute!
TOM: I think she likes you, Bill.
What did I do?
Could it be your breath?
I thought you always got that reaction.
Gentlemen, they're ready to play the cockpit tapes.
ROCKWELL ON TAPE: Minneapolis, we are currently heading...
CONTROLLER: TUA 35, turn to heading... (STATIC)
ROCKWELL: Say again, Minneapolis.
PILOT: Jesus! Down!
ROCKWELL: Oh, my God.
PILOT: Down! Go down!
(CRASH)
ROCKWELL: My God! We hit 'em! We hit 'em!
Minneapolis, this is TUA 35
declaring an emergency.
We hit another aircraft.
Looked like a 10.
RON: Three and four shutting down.
Cutting fuel to three.
ROCKWELL: We are going down. Repeat. Going down.
PILOT: How much of the wing is gone?
ROCKWELL: Ron, get back there. See how much I have left.
RON: Right.
Would you like some coffee, Mr. Smith?
Damn it! I'm listening...
ROCKWELL: still going down.
Is there any place to land?
(SWITCHES OFF)
(CHUCKLES)
Can you rewind that a little?
(SWITCHES ON)
(TAPE REWINDS)
ROCKWELL: Still going down.
Is there any place to land?
PILOT: I'll check for a field.
ROCKWELL: Just look for a flat place, anything.
We'll be on the ground... RON: They're dead. They're all dead!
ROCKWELL: What's the hell's he talking about?
Sit down, for Christ's sake, Ron!
RON: They're dead, all of them.
(MUFFLED) They're burned up!
ROCKWELL: Jesus! We're going to hit!
Here it comes!
(CRASH)
(SILENCE)
(SWITCHES OFF)
Was that Kennedy shouting?
Yeah. Rockwell couldn't understand him.
Run that last part through again.
(SWITCHES ON)
(TAPE REWINDS)
I'll see if I can clean it up a bit for you.
ROCKWELL: Just look for a flat place, anything.
We'll be on the ground...
RON: They're dead. They're all dead!
ROCKWELL: What's the hell's he talking about?
Sit down, for Christ's sake, Ron!
RON: They're dead, all of them.
RON: They're burned up! ROCKWELL: Jesus.
(STOPS TAPE)
Burned up?
KEANE: They were going to be.
They might as well have been dead already.
Makes me sick.
Yeah, but it doesn't make sense.
You expect him to make sense at a time like that?
No, not like that.
Okay. How about the pilots?
Like they say,
they're the first on the scene of the accident.
But how many crash tapes have you heard?
God. Too many.
But how many times do you hear a man come apart like that?
(EXHALES SHARPLY)
Okay, but it's got to happen sometime.
He goes back there, sees all those people who are gonna die.
It's too much for him.
Obviously, they hadn't burned up yet.
What about if, uh...
Maybe... Maybe there was a fire in the cabin.
Maybe they were burned up already.
KEANE: Sorry, but that won't work.
The fuselage was unaffected by fire until after impact.
He just broke under the strain.
Get me a transcript of that tape.
Roger, set up a press conference for tonight.
Let's go see what the dead have to say about it.
MAN 1: This gymnasium. Is this gym the biggest place they could find?
MAN 2: Bill, I've got something interesting for you.
These are pretty good bodies in here.
Next door, we got stuff from the DC-10,
which is mostly pieces.
Can't be identified.
Next of kin are gonna have to look at personal effects mostly.
Not many faces to show them.
Then the FBI takes over.
We'll be lucky to tag 60% from fingerprints and dental charts.
Not enough hands, not enough heads.
We autopsied a few,
and they died of trauma, dismemberment, burns, the usual.
We got to get some reaper trucks in here and some airtight...
Yeah, they're on their way.
We only got this place for two days.
They got a dance here... The trucks will be here.
Okay. Now here's what I want you to see.
Two kinds of watches, okay:
mechanicals here and digitals here.
Now, these digitals didn't do so good.
Mostly, they're blank.
Heat must've wiped them out.
But we did find this.
Yeah. So what?
Well, so, take a closer look.
TOM: It's going backwards.
This better not be a joke.
It's not.
Somebody had a gag watch.
Well, we thought of that.
Look at this.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(CAMERAS FLASHING)
Good evening.
You all have copies of the prepared statement.
I'm William Smith, investigator in charge.
I'll try to answer your questions, but I warn you,
we don't know much more than is in that statement.
Who wants to go first?
(ALL TALKING SIMULTANEOUSLY)
Sir, there have been rumors of some type of computer error
being the cause of this crash.
Can you confirm this?
That's being looked at. I can't say more at this time.
REPORTER 1: Excuse me. REPORTER 2: Mr. Smith.
When can we talk to the controller
who was handling the planes?
You'll have to take that up with the man's lawyer.
Mr. Smith, you're on record
as issuing a pretty harsh indictment of the FAA
for failing to require anti collision devices
on all commercial and private aircraft,
even though, as you know,
these devices have been available for over a decade.
Would you care to comment?
Dr. Mayer, do you have any idea on what caused this crash?
One of Newton's laws, I suspect,
the one about gravity.
Beyond that, I don't know any more than you do.
Can I have an interview, Doctor?
Gentlemen, please.
I have to get in there and ask some questions of my own.
Would you care to reply to the charge made by Mr. Carpenter?
BILL: No reply at this time. Next question.
Mr. Smith, I'm Dr. Arnold Mayer,
professor of physics at the university.
I remember you. Thank you.
My question has nothing to do with overloaded computers
or negligent air traffic controllers.
BILL: That should be refreshing.
I doubt it.
What unusual facts have you developed so far in your investigation?
I'm not sure I know what you mean.
ARNOLD: Were there any unexplained observations?
Is there any indication that this crash was caused
by something less obvious than a computer overload?
None at all.
Of course, every crash is unique.
Yet they share common factors.
There are things you expect to find and things you don't.
For instance, is there anything
in the cockpit voice recording
that's out of the ordinary?
I can't comment on that. It's confidential.
The relevant portions will be released in a couple of days.
You can listen for yourself.
All right. But is there anything else odd?
Have you found any unusual item in the wreckage,
any discrepancies in the time sequence of the crash?
(COUGHS)
I'm afraid I still don't know what you're driving at.
I can't be more plain without sounding like a fool.
I'm simply looking for the inexplicable.
I usually find it.
Look, somebody made a mistake, and a lot of people died.
In a few days, we should be able
to tell you what went wrong.
There's no mystery about it.
Then I salute you.
I'll read your report with interest.
WOMAN OVER PA SYSTEM: All TUA personnel,
please check with your supervisor for shift changes.
So, is there anything else you need tonight?
I want the salvage team to work through the night.
You got it.
Better keep crew at the hangar, too.
Might as well start getting it all sorted out.
All right. It's done.
Oh, my secretary managed to get you a room at the Marriott.
Tom, you're staying at the Holiday Inn.
(CHUCKLES)
Privilege of rank, I guess.
Why? They got a beauty pageant there tonight...
Aha. Miss I-94.
(CHUCKLES) I hear the bar's pretty wild.
Well, I'm out of here.
Thanks, Roger.
Your people did a great job.
Our usual service.
All right. Well, I'll see you tomorrow.
Yeah.
WOMAN OVER PA SYSTEM: Los Angeles passenger Mr. George Kellerman,
please pick up the white courtesy telephone.
Mr. George Kellerman to the white courtesy telephone please.
I keep running into you.
If you're not running away.
I had to get out of that hangar.
I thought I was gonna be sick.
I guess you get used to it after a while.
(CLANK) Oh! (CHUCKLES)
Excuse me. (CHUCKLES)
Well, we could be stuck here for hours.
Maybe we'd better get acquainted.
I'm Louise Baltimore,
and you're Bill Smith.
How long is it since you slept?
Do I look that bad?
I didn't say bad. Just tired.
It's got to be 30, 35 hours, but who needs sleep?
Listen, maybe we could go have coff...
Some dinner and a few drinks.
That'd be nifty.
Am I moving too fast for you?
I can move fast, too.
Let's go.
You should be careful, picking up strange women.
You never know where it might lead.
Oh.
Taxi!
We could take my car.
What kind of car do you drive?
What kind?
That's mine.
BILL: You smoke too much.
(CLICKS)
I'll quit tomorrow.
Just like that, huh?
(SIGHS) I've heard that story before.
It took me over a year to quit.
You don't believe me?
This is my last cigarette.
Was it that good?
You were the best thing in a thousand years, Bill.
(CHUCKLING) I was, wasn't I?
(BOTH CHUCKLES)
I was stunned.
Why?
It's been so long since I've...
enjoyed myself...
Let alone been swept away.
(EXHALES)
Do you believe in fate?
I will if you will.
I think it was fate that brought us together.
You may be right.
(MOANING)
I want to spend more time with you.
I'd like that.
We'll have all day tomorrow.
We'll have all tomorrow night, anyway.
This job is killing you, Bill.
You need to take a rest.
Take it with me.
The first rule is,
never go to bed with anybody crazier than yourself.
I don't know if you're crazier,
but you're right up there in the top ten
on my weird list, lady.
If you knew me better...
I'd be number one.
(COUGHS)
Yes, I'd like to cancel the 6:30 wake-up.
Yes.
Damn it. They were supposed to call me.
LOUISE: Well, they can't start till you get there.
Bill, you remember we were talking about fate?
Sure I remember.
Maybe that's why they didn't call you.
Are you listening to me?
BILL: I don't get it.
This job is wearing you down.
I know it is.
I can't just walk away from it, Louise.
Why not?
The world's not gonna come to an end if you just walk away.
I haven't had a vacation in six years. I got one coming.
In one week, I'll have this investigation started.
I can hand it over to someone else.
Then I'm gonna take a long look at my life.
Maybe we can go away somewhere together.
Anyway, we've got tonight.
I may not be here tonight.
(MACHINE WHIRRING)
We'll talk about it tonight.
(WHIRRING CONTINUES)
Louise?
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING)
Louise?
Now, as to systems surrounding engine number four,
which was the one sheared off in the collision,
uh, let's consider the fuel feed first.
You'll find that on page 19 of the computer print-out.
(PAGES RUSTLING)
Everybody got that?
On line five, you will see there was a momentary surge
when fuel line number four was severed
along with 25 feet of wing tip.
You'll have a better figure than that by tomorrow...
(TELEPHONE RINGS)
Smith.
Julie, thanks for calling back.
No, it has nothing to do with the investigation.
At the captains control of the tail...
I can't understand it.
She was wearing a T.U. outfit.
That's right. Baltimore, like the city.
First name, Louise.
I guess I made a mistake, then.
Thanks, Julie.
MAN: It looks like the captain had very little control.
Night, fellas. Good night.
(GATE CLOSES)
We're locking up, Mr. Smith.
What's that?
There'll be a guard on that door over there.
Just knock on the glass when you want to go.
I'll do that. Good night.
Hell of a mess, huh?
BILL: One hell of a mess.
Good night.
(SWITCHES OFF LIGHT)
(DIGITAL BEEPING)
(BEEPING CONTINUES)
(BEEPS FASTER)
(BUZZES)
(LOUD BUZZING)
(BURSTS)
(BUZZING CONTINUES)
(BURSTING)
It's Smith, isn't it?
I'm not sure.
Looks like the pictures I saw.
Is he dead?
Stunned.
Goddamn it. Where's the stunner?
There.
He must have been fooling with it.
Is he out?
With our luck, he's probably seeing and hearing everything.
If he is, it's already too late.
(SIGHS) God, what else can go wrong?
Let's get the hell out.
Smith, you're going to be all right.
You don't know me, and I can't tell you who I am,
but you're endangering a project
that's bigger than you can imagine.
Forget about this.
There's gonna be a paradox if you don't.
(GROANS SOFTLY)
You...
WOMAN: Coventry, send the gate.
(GROANING)
LOUISE: My God, you think...
We didn't make those planes crash. I swear it.
(LOUD BUZZING)
MAN OVER PA SYSTEM: Stand by for time travelers arriving through gate.
Gantry "B" operators, prepare for arrival.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING)
We have major problems. What happened?
We got the stunner.
Imagine my relief.
COVENTRY: Louise, I want an explanation.
Our master's voice.
LOUISE: There was a little problem.
Those words will be engraved
in the annals of understatement.
Your mother was a cash register.
And she turned a tidy profit, too.
Louise...
What happened?
MAN OVER PA SYSTEM: All gate operators,
report to decontamination center on shutdown.
Do you see that?
Do you see the red blob on the time line?
That is 1989.
That's where you just went,
and there's the mess you left behind you.
It's a goddamn paradox, Louise.
LOUISE: It's a potential paradox.
You sent me back to get the stunner we lost.
Well, here it is.
What you didn't mention was that Smith was there.
He'd already found it and stunned himself.
And I don't think he was out when we found him.
I think he saw us.
Sir, I have a timequake approaching.
MAN OVER PA SYSTEM: Paradox. Timequake approaching.
Force three.
(ELECTRICAL BUZZING)
A paradox, Louise.
You've changed the past.
You know damn well we can't change the past.
It catches up with us. We change.
Well, we haven't changed much.
We're all still dying, this place still stinks,
and you are still as ugly as ever.
One not much bigger than that could destroy us completely.
Look, you're the one
that's supposed to scan the past.
Why didn't you know Smith was gonna be in that hangar?
And you're supposed to be ready for the unexpected.
You're supposed to be the best.
You and your people get all the best food,
all the best quarters,
all our precious medicine.
Do you realize what it costs to pamper you?
He was there. He was in the dark.
What did you want me to do, kill him?
Oh, you'd like that.
Killing him would create the worst paradox imaginable.
His life affects thousands of other lives
in an endless chain.
And if you break it...
You get a 1,000 years of bad luck,
And none of us is here anymore.
All right.
Let's go find out what happened.
Maybe we can still do something.
All I'm getting is temporal censorship from her jump.
Scan past it.
What does temporal censorship mean?
It means we can't see where we've been or where we're going to.
We can only go back to a specific moment once,
and never to that same moment again.
That's too bad. If we could see where we were...
You'll get used to it, Susan, after you've done a few more missions.
There he is, in the shadow.
Give us rapid scan until he moves.
(GRUNTS)
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
BILL: Louise!
He knows my name.
You probably dropped your calling card.
BILL: Louise!
I didn't mention my name. Neither did anyone else.
How does he know my name?
MAN: He's got the initiator.
(EXHALES SHARPLY)
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
Smith had met me before, hadn't he?
How else would he know your name?
I've never been back to that era.
Do you want me to spell it out for you?
Give it a try, would you.
In Smith's time, he has met you before.
In your time, you've met him only once, in the hangar,
which means you will go back and meet him earlier.
I spoke to him, Sherman.
That was not a good idea.
I didn't like talking to him, Sherman.
I didn't like it at all.
You were not helping him.
What's that supposed to mean?
This seems to be my day for spelling out the obvious.
I suppose I should not complain.
Come on, you old fraud, prep me for the 1963 flight.
WOMAN OVER PA SYSTEM: The '63 mission will proceed to stage one.
The '63 mission will proceed to stage one.
SHERMAN: You did not smoke enough, Louise.
Give it to me straight, doc. I can take it.
No new degeneration.
The levels of complex hydrocarbons in your blood are depressed
due to breathing the primordial atmosphere of the 20th century.
They think their air's awful.
They ain't seen nothin' yet.
Maybe I should replace those kidneys.
Maybe a little kick, get the old blood moving.
Speed kills, my dear.
WOMAN OVER PA SYSTEM: Uniforms and hair for look-alikes
will proceed to stage two.
Uniforms and hair for look-alikes
will proceed to stage two.
Sometimes I think you want me to live forever.
Okay. So, explain it to me.
That's what you were built for.
You don't expect me to know what's going on in my own head, do you?
Hardly.
All right.
On a normal mission,
when you are taking people who are about to die off doomed airplanes,
you do not mind treating them roughly.
All done.
It's because I'm helping them.
Obviously. Without you, those people would be dead,
so you can function without remorse.
But with Smith, it was different.
I don't think I want to hear any more.
How's the little feather head today?
Louise loves you, Orville. Yes, she does.
Polly want a chemical-free Sterilized cracker?
(BIRD CHIRPING)
I should take you to 1963.
You could fly.
Would you like that? Huh?
Would you like that? (CHUCKLES)
You left Smith helpless and confused,
so there was pain in you.
All right. I felt sorry for the bastard.
But I'd have shot him if it would straighten things out.
As Coventry said, you did not have that choice.
What choices do I have?
You say I have to go back because he met me before.
Yes.
What if I don't go back?
What happens to the universe?
You must go back.
Where's my free will?
Did you lose it?
I will look around for it.
This is awful.
You think that's bad? Take a look at this.
We located the 1963 crash while you were away.
It is likely you will go tomorrow.
How are you on the idiom and history?
I know it like the back of my hand.
Who was the U.S. President?
Johnson.
No, wait, uh...
He was assassinated by...
Vito Corleone?
Louise.
(ELECTRICAL BUZZ)
(MACHINE WHIRRING)
ARNOLD: We've talked about quarks and antineutrinos,
but what about people?
It's quite a step from demonstrating
that subatomic particles
can travel backward through time
to saying that people can.
What would be the result of people traveling in time?
For one thing, paradoxes become possible.
Say you build a time machine, go back,
and murder your father when he was ten years old.
That means you were never born.
And if you weren't, how did you build a time machine?
It's the possibility of paradoxes
that make most people rule out
time travel by human beings.
Still, why not?
If you were careful, you could do it.
You would not go back to kill Adolf Hitler,
much as you might like to...
because it would change history.
A time traveler would have to be careful,
but he could do a surprising number of things.
He could observe, for one.
He could find out once and for all
who was on the grassy knoll that day in Dallas.
And he will know what we can only guess at
that we are destroying the planet we live on by complacency.
He will have to live with our legacy
of pollution and acid rain.
Our negligence today is producing a world
in which our children's children will be barren
and the human race heading towards extinction.
He could also take things, providing they wouldn't be missed.
A cup of water from the Pacific Ocean,
a stone from the Grand Canyon.
This may sound pointless,
but sometimes very small differences can be crucial.
The difference between a dead man
and a man who's alive
can be very small.
What about a man who is about to die,
a man no one will ever see alive again?
WOMAN OVER PA SYSTEM: Stage three alert.
All sections, go.
This is the hard part
about looking for time travelers.
They don't want to be found.
You must look for them in places where no one is,
or where there are people
no one will ever see alive again.
MAN OVER PA SYSTEM: All personnel, stand by for departure.
(LOUD BUZZING)
Go!
(UNLOCKS)
(BELL RINGING)
(KNOCKING)
(SCREAMING)
MAN OVER PA SYSTEM: Gate attendants, pick up new arrival.
Pick up new arrival.
(FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING)
CAPTAIN: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
This is your captain speaking.
We are cruising at an altitude of 31,000 feet
at a ground speed of 460 miles per hour.
If you look out the right side through the clouds,
you can see the Finger Lakes.
Our expected time of arrival is on schedule at 4:30.
So sit back and relax
and enjoy the flight.
(BUZZES)
All right. Send the others.
Everything's nice and quiet. Let's keep it that way.
MAN OVER PA SYSTEM: Gantry operators, prepare for arrival.
Extreme radiation danger.
May I get you a pillow, Sir?
Sure.
(BUZZES)
MAN OVER PA SYSTEM: Prepare holding pens for arriving passengers.
(BUZZES)
I'm through up here. What's up?
There's a guy acting funny.
He's watching us too close.
Get up! (WOMAN 1 SCREAMING)
(SCREAMING)
WOMAN 2: Oh, my God!
You're gonna take me to see the captain.
Sir, you can't shoot that.
If you depressurize the cabin, you'll kill us all.
Nobody gets hurt if I see the captain.
(WOMAN 1 WHIMPERING)
(GUNSHOT) (WOMAN 1 SCREAMS)
(WOMAN 1 SCREAMING)
(BREATHING HEAVILY) (THUDS)
You stinking son of a bitch.
(BUZZES)
(GROANS, GRUNTS)
Hey, wake up.
Get in there and cork the crew.
You know the flight plan. Keep it steady.
Riot squad, Martin. Fast and dirty.
This one's falling apart.
(ALARM BEEPING)
(WHIMPERING)
WOMAN 3: Stop telling me it's gonna be all right.
(PASSENGERS CHATTERING INDISTINCTLY)
Did... Did that man shoot her?
Don't worry, honey. It's gonna be all right.
When she fell...
I want you to sleep now.
(BUZZES)
MAN 1 OVER PA SYSTEM: Attention. Attention.
Initiation phase has commenced.
All recovery team personnel, stand by.
MAN 2: '63 flight in force field.
Holding.
All systems to gate.
WOMAN: Ladies and gentlemen, please remain in your seats.
(MACHINE WHIRRING)
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING)
MAN: I don't know what it was.
I don't... didn't feel the plane hit...
I... I don't know.
The door is opening.
Ladies and gentlemen, please move toward the rear exit door.
Would you mind telling me what's going on?
MAN OVER PA SYSTEM: Please step onto the ramp.
Walk quickly to the bottom and follow instructions.
You will be taken to a safe...
Let's get you out of here.
Idiot, that's the survivor.
Buckle him in and come and help me with Susan.
MAN OVER PA SYSTEM: Please step onto the ramp.
Walk quickly to the bottom and follow instructions.
You will be taken to a safety area.
Please step onto the ramp.
Walk quickly to the bottom and follow instructions.
You will be taken to a safety area.
Please step onto the ramp.
MAN: All substitute bodies
will be placed strictly according to the passenger list.
MAN OVER PA SYSTEM: Passengers now in transit.
Prepare to activate holding pen force fields.
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
So, now we know a hijacker caused this crash.
We know there was a survivor.
We know when it crashed.
We just have to duplicate it.
I stopped it.
I stopped the bullet.
You saved us all, kid.
Hang in there. You're gonna be all right.
He must've fired his gun in the cockpit.
Have Djakarta attach a 5-k bomb to the windscreen.
That should duplicate the effect.
I lost it.
What, Susan?
What did you lose?
Stun.
Stunner.
I lost the stunner.
(INTENSE MUSIC PLAYING)
(TICKING)
Look out.
Stop it! Hold the gate!
Stop her!
Baltimore, get out of there! Get out!
No time, Louise! No time!
(LOUD BUZZING)
Louise, there's a bomb!
(EXPLOSION)
(GRUNTING)
(GASPS)
(SHUDDERS)
One of my team was shot.
In the confusion, a stunner was lost.
It was too late to go back and get it.
MAN: You know that preventing a paradox
is more important than individual lives.
Blame is secondary at this point.
The first stunner you lost in 1989
ended up briefly in the possession of Bill Smith.
He knows what it can do.
Then you went back to 1963 and lost another stunner.
The computers estimate it wound up in the possession of Arnold Mayer.
If he learns what it can do,
he might be capable of learning how it works.
The council has decided
to risk another mission to 1989.
You must meet Smith a day before you saw him in the hangar.
You must prevent him from going to that hangar
the night he saw you there.
Since he knew your name when he saw you,
he must have met you previously.
Therefore, you did go back.
Must go back.
It seems I can't get away from you.
I would be a poor personal robot if you could.
I lost a very good girl on that plane, Sherman.
And what was the council's epitaph for her?
"Preventing a paradox is more important"
"than individual lives."
Susan knew that. She accepted it.
I just...
I couldn't leave her.
It is not necessary to destroy your soul in this job, Louise,
but a certain amount of violence will be done to it.
You made the wrong choice.
It is easy for them to make cold choices, Louise.
They are hardly human anymore.
(SIGHS WEARILY)
Am I so different?
We're all dying. They're just a little further along.
You are different.
You have feelings.
They want me to go back again.
You have to go back.
He must be kept out of that hangar.
This isn't a job for me, Sherman.
You want somebody bashed in the head,
I'm your girl.
You will have to learn new methods.
You can do it.
I know you can.
(SIGHS WEARILY)
(SIGHS)
Then let's go do it.
MAN: Standard metal fatigue.
BILL: Somebody's got these guys working harder and faster
than I've ever seen.
KEANE: Well, that DC-10 was pretty public.
It spread itself over a field not half a mile from the interstate.
Right. They don't want people gawking at their...
KEANE: What was it they called that crash in Florida?
MAN 1: Involuntary conversion.
I think they made a profit on that one when the insurance paid off.
KEANE: Well, they sure are busting their asses on this one.
Take this coffee over there, would you?
They even got the ticket agents serving coffee.
Put that down! Just put that down!
MAN 2: What do you want to do with this stuff?
Did I tell you you could touch that? Excuse me.
BILL: Hey.
How about some coffee?
WOMAN: What a long night we have ahead of us.
BILL: Hey, wait a minute.
ROCKWELL: declaring an emergency!
We hit another aircraft!
Looked like a 10.
RON: Three and four shutting down. Cutting fuel to three.
ROCKWELL: We are going down! Repeat. Going down!
PILOT: How much of the wing is gone?
ROCKWELL: Ron, get back there. See how much I have left!
RON: Right.
Would you like some coffee, Mr. Smith?
Damn it! I'm listening...
ROCKWELL: Still going down.
Is there any place to land?
(TAPE PLAYER IS TURNED OFF)
All right, Sherman, he's seen me again.
I think he's interested. What next?
(CLEARS THROAT)
What now, Sherman?
Think of something.
Take him to dinner.
Someplace romantic.
LOUISE: How do I do that?
Pick him up, my dear.
How?
SHERMAN: Drop your hankie. Wiggle your behind.
You're the woman, Louise.
You figure it out.
Just be subtle.
Louise is about as subtle as a lead pipe.
Thanks.
SHERMAN: It should be appropriate to the era
as well as stimulating to the contemporary male.
Sorry about the high heels.
(INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING)
WOMAN OVER PA SYSTEM: Stand by passenger.
D Lawrence, report to Gate 17.
D Lawrence, to Gate 17.
Stand by passenger.
D Lawrence, report to Gate 17.
D Lawrence, to Gate 17.
(CHUCKLES) I keep running into you.
If you're not running away.
I had to get out of that hangar.
I thought I was gonna be sick.
BILL: Guess you get used to it after awhile.
(BEEPING)
(CLANK) Oh!
BILL: Excuse me.
LOUISE: Well, we could be stuck here for hours.
Maybe we'd better get acquainted.
Oh!
Taxi!
We could take my car.
What kind of car do you drive?
What kind?
That's mine.
Why don't you get in?
You got the keys?
Keys?
(BEEPING)
(UNLOCKS)
(CAR STARTS)
(TIRES SCREECH) Whoa!
(ENGINE ACCELERATING)
BILL: The tower clear you for that takeoff?
(ENGINE ROARING)
So, do you know Minneapolis?
Nah. I've only been here... Watch it!
(HORNS HONKING) (TIRES SCREECHING)
A couple of times.
Oh, I know a good place.
Anyplace is fine.
Something wrong?
Just watch... Jesus! (HORN HONKING)
You really drive this thing.
(TIRES SCREECH)
Are we almost there?
Another two minutes at this velocity.
How long you had this car?
Oh, uh... forever.
You must be the luckiest woman in the world.
(HORN HONKING)
MAN: Hey! What are you doing?
(TIRES SCREECH)
(ENGINE STOPS)
MAN: Idiot!
You all right?
I feel like I should kiss the ground.
Wow!
Can't get that anymore.
I'll have another one.
Forget the water.
Can't get it anymore?
It's old, but it's not that old.
Oh, I mean, I can't usually afford...
Are you ready to order now?
(CHUCKLES)
Uh, Bill, would you order for me? I can never decide.
Okay. The sole and a tossed salad and Italian dressing.
That's the first time I've ordered for a girl
since after the senior prom in high school.
Did I act improperly?
No.
No. It's just...
Haven't you ever heard of women's lib?
Suffragette movement, 19th amendment,
Rosie the Riveter, Bra Burning,
Gloria Steinem, E.R.A., Battle of the Sexes.
Who won?
I think it's still being fought.
We might call a truce for tonight.
I'd like that.
"Who won?"
You have a strange sense of humor.
(CHUCKLES)
Sometimes it's like, uh, you grew up in a foreign country.
I did.
I grew up abroad, overseas.
Whereabouts?
France.
I'm from France. My father was posted there.
He was a warrior.
Soldier?
That's right. A soldier.
(SMACKS LIPS) Well, to France, then.
Excuse me. Your table's ready for you now.
(EXCLAIMS)
(CRUNCHING)
That's a real habit you got.
What habit is that?
I've never seen anyone eat and smoke
at the same time.
(CHUCKLES)
(GASPS)
Where did it go?
If you hear someone scream, that's probably where it is.
Louise, you got to quit.
That tobacco's ruining your brain.
(BOTH CHUCKLES)
(LAUGHS)
(LAUGHING)
So you never remarried, and you don't have a girlfriend?
Isn't that a little unusual?
Is it?
I guess so. (CHUCKLES)
I don't know. Sometimes I wish I...
What?
Done things differently, I guess.
The job always came first.
I know what you mean.
That's how I feel about my job.
Really?
But yours doesn't take you away
in the middle of the night
and keep you gone a couple of months.
By the time I got back, my girl had usually gone.
Well, maybe you didn't find the right girl.
Maybe.
Tom says I'm burning out.
Whatever.
I just gave up looking.
Took a lot of cold showers. (CHUCKLES)
You find it difficult to talk about yourself.
That's all I've been doing.
Well, you're right. I can't...
Open up emotionally?
That's it.
I'm no good at...
Expressing yourself?
I couldn't have said it better myself.
What about you?
Why aren't you married?
I can't have any children.
I'm sorry.
But that's not the only reason to get married.
Would be for me.
Bill, I'd like to get out of here, um...
Where are you staying? I can drive you there.
For a minute, I forgot. (CHUCKLES)
I haven't even seen the room yet.
I was going to ask you if it's nice.
Well, you can come up and take a look.
(DOOR UNLOCKS)
(SWITCHES ON)
It is nice.
At least they delivered my luggage.
(SIGHS)
"Compliments of the management."
That's real nice.
That is nice.
(EXHALES SHARPLY)
Would you like an apple?
(SNIFFS)
(CRUNCHES)
(CHUCKLES)
What's so funny?
I don't know.
You just seem to do everything a little different
from everyone else.
Is that bad?
I don't think so.
Let's find out.
(KISSES)
This may not have been such a good idea.
Why not?
You don't find me attractive?
No. It's not that. It's just...
Wait.
Try it again.
Please.
I really want this to work.
I really need this to work.
(LOUISE MOANS)
(ROMANTIC MUSIC PLAYING)
(MOANS)
Let me get the light.
(WHISPERS) The hell with the light.
There's a spare toothbrush in there,
If that's what you're looking for.
(EXHALES)
I thought you were sleeping.
I think I was.
Come here.
You smoke too much.
I'll quit tomorrow.
Just like that, huh?
(EXHALES) I've heard that story before.
Took me over a year to quit.
You don't believe me?
This is my last cigarette.
Damn it! They were supposed to call me.
Well, they can't start till you get there.
(EXHALES)
Bill, you remember we were talking about fate?
Sure I remember.
Maybe that's why they didn't call you.
Are you listening to me?
I don't get it.
This job is wearing you down.
I know it is.
I can't just walk away from it, Louise.
Why not?
The world's not gonna come to an end
if you just walk away.
I haven't had a vacation in six years.
I got one coming.
In one week, I'll have this investigation started,
and I can hand it over to someone else.
Then I'm gonna take a long look at my life.
Maybe we can go away somewhere together.
Anyway, we got tonight.
I may not be here tonight.
(WHISPERS) Stay with me.
I can't.
We'll talk about it tonight.
Sherman, send the gate.
(LOUD BUZZING)
(UNLOCKS)
Louise?
MAN OVER PA SYSTEM: Gate operation terminated.
All controls to zero.
Hmm.
He'll never miss it.
What happened?
Did you stop him?
Sherman, get my uniform.
MAN: Paradox! Timequake approaching!
Force seven.
(LOUD CLATTER)
(GRUNTS)
I have to talk to the council. We don't have much time!
Here's what happened after I left.
Going over every single piece of wreckage in this hangar.
Identify it. Tag it.
You don't know what something is, bring it to me.
What is it we're looking for?
I'll know it when I see it.
We're gonna reassemble the 747 from the ground up.
Bill, are you sure?
That's all. Go to work.
He's forgotten all about what really caused the crash.
Now he's looking for the stunner...
and for me.
We're wasting time, Bill.
You can't learn anything from this.
Rebuild it...
every inch of it.
Day and night. I'll approve the overtime.
(WELDING)
Bill, the boss is on the phone from Washington.
Tell him I'll call him back.
He says get yourself back there or you'll be fired.
Well, that sounds fairly urgent.
You want me to go with you?
I don't think you better be around me.
It might not be good for your career.
He's doing his job badly now.
It had to lead to conflict with his superiors.
BOSS: Bill, I've always backed you
because you were a good investigator.
I let you run with this
even if I couldn't see the reason,
but you've turned up nothing new.
I have to know what you expect to find.
If I knew, I wouldn't have to look so hard for it.
This crash has been crazy from the start...
Like the watches that ran backwards.
You said that wasn't important.
I didn't think so. Now I do.
And the cockpit tape...
The engineers screaming that they're all dead and burned.
Was it computer error or not?
Yeah.
Soon as we get your report saying that,
we can recommend getting the new computers.
That's a big appropriation,
and congress is ready to spend the money.
(SIGHS)
Something happened... in the hangar.
I found something.
I think it knocked me out.
They came and took it from me.
And now they're watching me.
I can feel it.
They can go anywhere...
Look anywhere.
There was this... girl.
(SIGHS WEARILY)
(EXHALES SHARPLY)
Now he'll go see Dr. Mayer.
Dr. Mayer doesn't have the answers,
but he has one of these.
It's the stunner Susan lost in 1963.
Smith has the initiator.
You put them together, and it spells paradox.
(SIGHS)
Come in, Mr. Smith.
Been expecting you.
That's it.
It's all temporal censorship from there.
That means I will go back.
I can still stop the paradox if I leave right now.
The watches, the cockpit voice recording...
that could be important. It's hard to tell.
But you say she didn't know you.
That's right. She said I looked like my pictures.
Then she hadn't met you yet.
I told you, we spent the night together.
It was unforgettable.
You're missing the point.
She finds you in the hangar on the night of the fifth.
She returns to wherever she comes from.
Then, for reasons of her own,
she returns to the fourth and meets you...
For the first time from her point of view.
She's traveling in time.
There has to be another answer.
It's time I showed you something.
I've been working on a puzzle for 25 years.
You may be the missing piece.
That's it! Where'd you get it?
What is it?
It's a weapon of some kind.
MAN OVER PA SYSTEM: All systems green.
Quadrants interlock.
All systems go.
COUNCIL MEMBER: Two minutes. Baltimore, solo, 1989.
Two minutes.
All I want to do is find her.
I don't care about anything else.
Bill, I think you'll see her again.
How do you know so much about her?
Because of this object.
It's very important.
I've run tests on it over the years.
I still don't know what it's made of,
and we can't make one in the 20th century.
Where'd you get it?
In the wreckage of a 707
that crashed in upstate New York in 1963.
I was on that plane.
That can't be. The only survivor was a boy named...
William Collins.
My mother remarried, and I took the name.
This is incredible.
Then you must...
What do you remember?
I don't think about it much.
You must remember something.
I don't remember the crash at all.
Before that...
People were shouting.
Somebody got shot.
They found a gun with one shot fired.
It was a mental patient, a hijacker.
There was this lady.
It was her.
I remember it now.
She told me everything would be all right.
She knew you'd survive.
But what about her?
Why didn't she die in the crash?
She got off some way, but left this behind.
She'll be wanting it back.
After 25 years? In our time.
But in her time, she just lost it yesterday.
This is the key, Bill.
It's something that shouldn't be here.
We're living in her past.
If she changes her past, if creates a paradox,
then her world is destroyed. Oh, yes.
We'll be seeing more of Louise Baltimore.
MAN OVER PA SYSTEM: Laser beams, prepare for countdown.
Time tones intimate at six seconds.
Five, four...
I may not make it back.
You will be back.
All systems green.
COUNCIL MEMBER: Thirty seconds.
Baltimore, solo, 1989.
Thirty seconds.
This came off mine.
(LOUD BUZZING)
You two know too much already,
and I don't have much time,
but I'll try to answer questions.
Dr. Mayer, I'll have to take that.
You take people off planes just before they crash?
We replace what we take with dead bodies.
I'm glad you came back.
(MOANS)
But the relatives identify them.
They identify the wrong people.
We duplicate them, fingerprints, dental records.
We're very good at what we do.
Then you are from the future.
About 1,000 years.
It must be incredible.
It must be horrible.
It's awful.
We're all dying.
We can make the bodies, but we can't make the souls.
We can't have children anymore.
We steal people from the past
to send them somewhere else to start over...
to give them a second chance.
I have to take that stunner back with me, Dr. Mayer.
It could cause a paradox.
I'm going with you.
You can't, Bill.
Haven't you heard anything I've said?
You said you were dying.
So am I.
Bill, the whole race is dying, all of humanity.
We're all gonna die.
What matters is now...
This moment.
I can't take anything with me that'll be missed.
No one's gonna miss me.
The stunner, Dr. Mayer. That's what I came for.
I knew I was right.
No!
(LOUD BUZZING)
(GASPS)
He's dead.
The paradox has happened.
I got to get out of here.
Take me with you.
Sherman, send the gate.
(LOUD BUZZING)
Watch that first step. It's a killer.
(BILL SCREAMS)
MAN OVER PA SYSTEM: Timequake. Force infinity.
Paradox.
Timequake. Force infinity.
Mr. Smith, I presume.
(BLAST)
Come on.
Mayer's work would have changed the course of history.
He wasn't supposed to die for six years.
I tried to stop him. I was too late.
It's all over.
The paradox is here.
If you had left things alone, none of this wouldn't have happened.
I did what I had to do.
COUNCIL MEMBER: Our world is at an end.
All evidence of our existence will be washed away.
We must attempt to send those we have saved
into a distant future that may lie beyond the gate.
Coventry...
Reverse the gate.
Get out!
Get out! Everybody get out!
Go, Louise.
Get him out of here.
(INTENSE MUSIC PLAYING)
Open the holding pens!
Release everyone and send them to the gate. (BLAST)
You will awake now.
Remain calm. Remain calm.
Come on! Come on! Let's go!
(BUZZING) (GASPS, GRUNTS)
(GRUNTING)
(EXPLOSION)
COUNCIL MEMBER: Proceed to the gate as quickly as possible.
Proceed in single file to the main terminal.
Remain calm.
Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid.
No harm will come to you.
Follow directions.
(EXPLOSION) (SCREAMS)
(EXPLOSION)
Walk toward the light and step into the light.
Move along.
Move along! Everything's all right.
Please remain calm.
(SCREAMS) (EXPLOSION)
Single file. Walk into the light.
You'll be all right. Keep moving.
Single file. Walk into the light.
COUNCIL MEMBER: Walk toward the light and step into the light.
(EXPLOSION)
(MAN SCREAMS)
(EXPLOSION)
Our work is done.
I move we adjourn.
Seconded.
(EXPLOSION)
Just keep moving. Walk through the light.
Walk into the light.
(EXPLOSION)
Time to go, Bill.
MAN OVER PA SYSTEM: The gate will be destroyed in two minutes.
What happens when the gate's gone?
Like a nuclear bomb.
Step through, Bill.
Together.
None of us can go.
Only you.
Then I'm not going, either.
Take a chance, Louise.
Go with him.
You are going to have his child.
(LOUD BUZZING)
MAN OVER PA SYSTEM: The gate will be destroyed in one minute.
(LOUD BUZZING)
Sherman, come with us.
There is no place for me where you are going.
Go! Now!
(LOUD BUZZING)
(EXPLOSION)
SHERMAN: This is not the end.
(INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING)
This is not the beginning of the end.
It is the end of the beginning.
(MUSIC CONTINUES)
(MUSIC STOPS)