"Uh-uh, trouble at home." "Yeah, I just got dumped in the form of a spectacularly written 'Dear John' e-mail." "Ahhh... that's life at sea." "Well, sprinkle her in the chili if you want." "Hey, Frye, Grady fix that railing yet?" "He's working on it, Sir." "Oh... hey, that was some nice Ping-Pong action earlier." "Yeah, you're next." "How's the port turbine?" "Up and running, Sir." "And... uh... your bruised ego?" "Uh... repairs are underway." "Hmph, you'll get over her." "And how many, exes do you have, Captain?" "Oh... ho... ho... ho... ho, too many to count." "So I'm learning from the master." "Yeah, as your captain I try to lead by example." "You hear that?" "Yeah." "Engineering, what is it?" "What's going on!" "?" "We don't know, sir..." "You're going to hear a number of alarming things today." "Just try to remember this is only an exercise." "As a contingency analyst, my job is to scare you, and hopefully, prepare you for the worst imaginable catastrophes." "We have to acknowledge the very real possibility of a global pandemic involving a highly-pathogenic SARS-like virus..." "The World Health Organization projects that..." "Ah... for the purpose of this study, we selected St. Louis." "Stage One:" "The long-term post-nuclear radiation effect." "Stage Three:" "Preventing widespread panic." "All right, any questions?" "Hey, Monster." "Hey, handsome." "Come on, Monster, pick a spot." "Molly Anne Caffrey?" "Name's Cavennaugh." "Federal Agent." "One of your plans has been activated." "You're needed in Washington." "You've just become the most important person on the planet." "Dr. Caffrey?" "My name's J.T. Baylock." "I'm..." "Deputy National Security Advisor." "Yes, I know." "I take it you and Toto have been briefed?" "On the ride over." "You wrote this three years ago." "Do you need a few minutes to refresh yourself before we throw you to the wolves?" "No." "I'm good to go." "Okay." "No dogs allowed." "Jim, watch the mutt." "From what I've heard, the Oval Office seems to think you're some kind of genius." "Oh, I don't know about that." "But I have advised them on a few occasions." "Your modesty's refreshing." "Now drop it." "We need you to take control." "I'll do my best." "How many people were brought in on this?" "How many know?" "Defense, Homeland Security, Langley, NASA." "We kept it limited per your protocols." "What about the President?" "Not yet." "Good luck." "Dr. Caffrey, National Security Advisor Andrea Hatten." "It's so nice to see you again, Molly." "Likewise." "Ladies and gentlemen, under Executive Order 221-C," "I'm reminding everyone that what we're about to discuss has been classified Top Secret, no foreign dissemination." "This image was captured by our Cheyenne Mountain facility." "You're looking at the heat bloom of an unidentified object entering Earth's orbit... from deep space... at 2200 hours." "At approximately 2212, the object made a number of course corrections." "Course corrections?" "That's right, Admiral." "We believe it's under extraterrestrial control." "We lost contact with the object at these coordinates." "The Coast Guard has informed us that a Naval vessel in the vicinity has gone silent." "At this point, I'd like to turn the briefing over to Dr. Caffrey a senior analyst at the Blackwood Think Tank." "Dr. Caffrey wrote the protocols we'll be implementing tonight." "Dr. Caffrey." "Thank you." "Some of you may not know what a contingency analyst does." "I deal in worst case scenarios the unthinkable." "And this definitely qualifies." "Now, Threshold was designed as a rapid response measure to a First Contact scenario." "Stage One of the plan calls for an immediate quarantine of the landing site, or possibly crash site." "After the object is effectively secured by a Special Ops Force, the next step calls for the insertion of a Red Team." "Now, their priorities are threefold:" "Confirm the presence of extraterrestrial life- intelligent or otherwise- attempt to communicate with it, and, finally, to determine its intent, whether it poses any possible threat." "And if it does?" "You'll find that on page 45 under the chapter heading 'What to do if we're screwed. '" "So which of the Red Team candidates were you able to get?" "We got your microbiologist, Nigel Fenway." "Perfect, he's an MD with a background in pathology." "Former '60s radical, stubborn as hell." "If we are dealing with alien life, he'll help us figure out how it eats, sleeps and breathes." "Well, next up:" "Lucas Pegg." "Jet Propulsion Laboratories, Pasadena." "Great." "He helped design the jupiter probe..." "If we are dealing with a UFO,... he'll pop the hood, tell us how it works." "Also one of the all-time high jeopardy winners." "Good to know." "Number three on the hit parade:" "Arthur Ramsey." "Expert in linguistics and applied mathematics..." "If our E.T. needs to phone home, he'll translat the call..." "The guy is brilliant." "Well, he's also got quite a... gambling-boozer- stripper problem." "We all have our vices." "Really?" "And what are yours, Dr. Caffrey?" "I only reveal those on a need- to-know basis, Mr. Cavennaugh." "Well, here's your Red Team." "Not exactly Charlie's Angels, are they?" "Let me get this straight." "We could be witness to the greatest moment in human history, and you people want to keep it a secret?" "Damn right." "What if some kind of technology could be reverse-engineered from what we encounter?" "Do we want it falling into the hands of other countries?" "God forbid the government would give the rest of the world the benefit of the doubt." "Here's a thought." "What if they're hostile?" "I mean, even if they're benign, their presence alone could incite worldwide panic." "Look, gentlemen, we don't know what we're dealing with." "And until we do, whatever we discover, stays in this room." "Shh." "Finder's keepers." "Hey, while we're on the subject of aliens," "I don't appreciate being abducted." "How long is this little field trip gonna last?" "Indefinitely." "So what, I'm a prisoner?" "That's not gonna fly." "Hey, can I talk to you in private for a minute?" "Door Number One or Door Number Two?" "Uuh... eh... a-huh..." "I don..." "What are you what are you talking about?" "Door Number One:" "You bring along a slide rule and a smile, and you do what you're asked." "Door Number Two:" "You disappear into an 8x10 cell for the rest of your life playing solitaire, courtesy of the federal government." "You can't do that- that's illegal." "So is subverting national security, my friend." "We're in dark waters here, okay?" "So I'm going to ask you again..." "Door Number One or Two?" "We'll be choppering you out to the freighter with a Navy SEAL escort." "Securing the vessel will be your first priority." "However, we've had a slight complication." "The NSA has informed us that the North Koreans also detected the object." "They've dispatched a Kilo-class submarine to investigate." "How much time will we have out there?" "Five, six hours at best." "What is this?" "War of the Worlds?" "You ladies good to go?" "Probably not, but I'd rather be safe than sorry." "Have we considered how this might look?" "What if they've come bearing gifts?" "Believe me, Lucas, I hope they have." "Ten minutes ago, you were worried about global panic." "I like to worry about things from all angles." "What's that?" "Uh, it's..." "New Testament, First Corinthians." "How are they going to work aliens into their Sunday sermon?" "You making fun of me?" "I'm just saying..." "I don't remember reading,..." "'And on the eighth day, the Lord created Klingons. '" "That's funny." "You know, that's very funny." "What's your problem?" "Where do I begin?" "Is that your father's watch?" "What makes you ask that?" "That's a Tag Heuer Monaco." "Steve McQueen wore one." "If you were a guy back in the '70s, that was a must-have item." "My dad thought so, too." "He still around?" "I don't know." "PILOT 'Uh, Whiskey One, we are approaching naval perimeter. ' ...'Repeat, approaching naval perimeter. '" "MAN Roger that, Whiskey One." "Proceed with caution." "'Naval perimeter has been secured. '" "Listen up, people, we need to secure the entire ship." "Get down below deck, see if you can get the power on line!" "Heads up, gentlemen, one crew member down." "Dr. Caffrey!" "I'm here." "We're clean down here Dr. Caffrey, no pathogens, ...no chemical toxins, no radiological activity." "The crew?" "We've found five of them so far- all dead." "Some of them are pretty deformed." "According to the ship's manifest, there were 13 crew members on board." "Where are the rest of them?" "We don't know." "Get your team ready, you're up." "We're on our way." "eeeeeuuuuuhhhhh!" "eeeeeuuuuuhhhhh!" "We had to tranq him." "His name is Gunneson, First Mate." "All right, um, Mr. Cavennaugh," "I'd like your men to search the ship for any additional life forms." "Freighters like this always have stowaways: rats, roaches, silverfish..." "Capture them alive, if possible." "Dr. Fenway, you're going to have your hands full." "I want a full workup on Gunneson here and those corpses and whatever potential menagerie we find." "May I ask what it is I'm supposed to be looking for?" "If we knew that, we could all go home." "What about the ship's computers?" "There might be a-a log or outgoing e-mails- anything that can tell us what happened." "We'll check it out." "You said you saw some kind of ghost images on the ship's radar equipment." "Yeah, odd patterns, definitely more than just static." "Ramsey, take a look." "Lucas, there's a video camera in the Rec Room." "Let's run it." "Okay." "Call us when he comes to." "Yeah." "Nice try." "Nice try." "Watch the magic." "Oh-ho!" "Oh-ho-oo!" "Who got game?" "!" "Who got game?" "!" "Huh?" "Who got game?" "!" "Who got game?" "!" "All right." "Uh, Lucas, you're the engineer." "Any idea what we're seeing here?" "No obvious means of propulsion, no aerodynamic surfaces." "My God, look at the way it's folding in on itself." "It's almost like we're dealing with some kind of higher dimensional geometry, maybe a Kaluza-Klein Manifold." "English, please." "It means I just soiled my boxers just a little bit." "Come on, come on." "I think we're looking at a four-dimensional object in three-dimensional space." "You see how it keeps morphing?" "Yeah." "I think because we live in a three-dimensional world you see, we're only capable of seeing part of it." "What's it doing?" "What's that sound?" "aaaah!" "Oh, my God." "ah!" "uh!" "Are you guys all right?" "!" "Yeah." "Congratulations, Gentlemen." "We've just accomplished the first task of Threshold:" "Confirmation of extraterrestrial intelligence." "So, you're telling me you've got nothing more than an amateur videotape?" "No, I'm telling you what's on that videotape will keep our scientists busy for decades." "I'm not interested in the future." "I'm interested in now." "Who are they?" "Why are they here?" "Come on, dazzle us with some of your celebrated conjecture." "And you'll have to do it quickly, Molly." "The North Koreans caught some friendly currents." "They're due to arrive a few hours early." "Understood." "J.T., any thoughts?" "Look at all those sorry bastards out there." "They have no idea what just dropped into our lap." "They're driving home, bitching about traffic, thinking about happy hour, just going about their lives... and it could all be over." "We don't know that." "We do our jobs right, they'll never know how close we came." "Molly's going to need someone to run interference for her, J.T." "Mm." "You know how treacherous Washington bureaucracy can be." "She'll be pulling resources from every conceivable government branch." "You reassigning me?" "Temporarily." "Thought I was on track for your job." "Right now, you have the more important one." "He's in a delicate state, probably post-traumatic stress." "I'm not sure you'll get much out of him." "Did you find the captain?" "No, he-he's missing." "So is most of the crew." "Of the people we have been able to find, you're the only survivor." "Good." "And why is that good?" "Because they changed." "We looked at the videotape." "Can you tell us what happened?" "I don't know where it came from." "We heard a sound first." "Then the equipment started acting funny." "It was blinding." "And the sound - like knives being sharpened" "Whoo-hoo." "See that?" "When we came to, it was gone." "Power was on backup." "Then the crew started getting sick... really sick..." "having weird dreams..." "There was nothing I could do." "These boys need help, Captain." "We should call in an airlift." "Captain?" "It was like a forest, but the trees were made of glass." "Sir, why don't we get you down to sick bay?" "In the dream I had... in the forest..." "Sir?" "It was like I was really there." " uhh!" " aah!" "aaayyy!" " uhh!" "aahh!" "ehh!" "And we never saw the captain again." "Never found his body." "After that, everything went to hell." "People trying to kill each other; trying to kill themselves." "I hid in sick bay, but I could still hear the screaming." "And the missing crew members?" "Do you know where they went?" "No." "What about the bodies we found?" "What caused those disfigurements?" "Listen, people weren't the same." "They weren't themselves." "What about you?" "Are you yourself?" "Take it easy, Buddy." "Take it easy." "You okay?" "Yeah." "No, actually, I'm not okay." "I'm completely freaked out." "I'd be worried if you weren't." "Any thoughts on our mystery object?" "You mean that Christmas ornament there?" "Look, designing spacecraft is what I do." "And theoretically, there are only so many ways you can get from one star to another." "Laser-assisted solar sails, fusion engines, interstellar ramjets, antimatter drives." "And I got to tell you... this thing definitely doesn't use any of those." "So what does it do?" "Do you think it was carrying passengers?" "You saw what it was doing, folding in on itself." "Where would they be?" "An unmanned probe, then." "Possibly." "Or a weapon." "Right." "After don't you cut him down and get him to Dr. Fenway." "Takes real commitment to hang yourself." "My boy here was motivated." "Something must've really scared the crap out of him." "You wanted to see me?" "Yeah, I got a little bit of alien voodoo I want to run past you here." "Now, this interference pattern, it appears on every bit of equipment on this ship." "What's causing it?" "We really should go out some time." "What?" "..." "You don't date guys... smarter than you?" "I don't know." "Never met one." "Now, as to what's causing this pattern, remember the bomb they dropped over Hiroshima?" "The explosion was so hard core that it permanently burnt shadows of people onto the walls and sidewalks." "I think we have the electromagnetic equivalent here." "What about the shape itself?" "I've got some ideas but I need to do a Fourier analysis before I really nail it down." "Hold on, guys!" "I want to get some shots before you bag him." "Meticulous." "Details matter." "I think I saw that embroidered on a pillow once." "You know, Caffrey, you didn't have to concoct this whole alien conspiracy theory just to get the two of us alone together." "You're boring me, Ramsey." "You get that, or you need me to embroider it on a pillow for you?" "Ah... ha, I have to amuse myself somehow." "You know, thanks to you, this might be my last job... ever." "You ever consider that" " I mean, did you think about that when you picked our names out of a hat?" "I was having a perfectly deviant life s... uh, huh, uh" "It's not all that unusual." "Post-mortem muscle contractions, neuro- electrical discharges." "Discharge?" "This guy was doing the Macarena." "Look, all I know is h-his eyes were focused." "There was consciousness." "So maybe our definition of dead just changed." "Okay... give me a couple of hours." "I'll see if I can get you some answers" "Any luck?" "I asked our naval escorts to do another sonar sweep, but so far, nothing." "So that thing on tape wasn't tracked leaving by air." "Not underwater..." "Where the hell did it go?" "Nervous?" "You really thrive on this crisis stuff, don't you?" "Is it that obvious?" "Worst case scenarios?" "I mean, what kind of person picks that for a job description?" "The kind of person who lived through one." "You know what, Doc?" "I've been thinking." "Uh-oh." "I don't know if that object was even a spacecraft." "The way it was built, it could never carry passengers." "It must have been sent here for another purpose." "Huh." "Whoa." "Hey, there's a wedding ring on this hand." "They ever find the guy this belonged to?" "Nope." "Doesn't that bother you?" "What bothers me is that we're working our butts off here, and nobody's said Bo Diddley about whether we're being paid for this or not." "I'm not worried about that." "I think we got bigger fish to fry." "Well, you're not carrying three ex-wives on your back, are you?" "You know, Doc..." "This... this is about the science." "This is about the sense of discovery." "Are you kidding me?" "You think people give a flying fart about science?" "The day the Mars Rover landed, what was the top story in the news?" "I don't know." "Britney Spears married in Vegas!" "I don't know." "Given the state of the world today, a little alien intervention might be just what the doctor ordered." "So you're bitter is what you're saying." "Wait, wait..." "What the hell is this?" "Come here, Lucas." "So have you figured out what we're looking at?" "If I give you the wrong answer, are you gonna make me choose a door again?" "It's a fractal pattern." "Fractional geometry, a type of mathematics that crops up in chaos theory." "What does it have to do with our UFO?" "Could be some form of communication." "Math is a language, and like any language, it speaks to us." "This pattern is speaking to me." "What's it saying?" "It's a graphic representation of an equation that describes a DNA molecule." "Here." "Now... our DNA, the DNA of every life-form on Earth, is in the shape of the" " of the double helix." " double helix." "So you actually took more than phys-ed." "Keep going, Ramsey." "Now, if I translate into mathematics what this pattern is describing," "things get a little bit bizarre." "A triple helix." "I can't even imagine what life based on a triple helix would look like." "Well, maybe we're about to find out." "Huh." "Whatever it is, it can't be good for the human race" "Okay, guys, let's think." "We're up against the wall here." "Who are they?" "Why are they here?" "What do they want?" "Doctor, you said you found something unusual?" "Well, that's putting it mildly." "These are normal human blood cells." "This is a sample of blood taken from our survivor." "I found the same structural changes in the corpses and in the rats and roaches, for that matter." "Something evoked frighteningly-rapid cellular change in every living thing on this boat." "It's not unlike the work of a viral agent." "Li-Like cancer, but more directed in its purpose." "Exactly." "The ship's clean - we didn't find any pathogens." "This is what puzzled me, and then I started thinking." "Most of our genetic material is obsolete." "Fact is, we don't know what most of it does, but... what if someone else did?" "What if, wha-what if they figured out a way to manipulate it?" "How?" "With our mystery object?" "With all those lights and sounds?" "Nah, you... you can't hack into someone's DNA with a signal." "Really?" "Used a cell phone lately?" "Brain tumors, chief." "Even watching a second- generation copy made us sick." "Yeh... which reminds me, Doctor, I'm going to have to take blood samples of the three of you, as well." "Ramsey, you said the shape was articulating something." "Well, I'm down with Fenway." "Someone's trying to unzip our DNA strands and reassemble them." "So... w-w-what?" "W" " W we're talking about some kind of bio-forming?" "You've heard of terraforming altering the climate of Mars to make habitable." "Why not do the same thing to people?" "Say you want to colonize another world." "What do you do, send troops, an armada of spaceships?" "Wouldn't it be more efficient if you could simply send information?" "I" " I-If-if you could download a program i- into the indigenous population, and... and turn them into you?" "Uh, okay, hold on, though." "We don't know they're trying to colonize." "This could be their way of saying hello." "Listen, my ridiculously optimistic little friend," "I know how to say 'hello' in over 200 dialects, and this most certainly is not a 'hello. '" "Cavennaugh." "Roger that." "We're evacuating." "I was told we had at least another 90 minutes." "What the hell are you doing?" "!" "The North Koreans are breathing down our necks, so unless you want to stare down a 2,000-ton sub..." "Are you blowing up the ship?" "We can't destroy the only evidence of alien life we've ever had." "Look, you have to make do with what you've got." "We can't afford to let them get their hands on it." "The less they know about what we found out here, the better." "Hey, we got to go." "Come on, Molly." "Hahggg!" "Gunneson, stop!" "Stop!" "Turn around!" "Aahh!" "AAHH!" "Gaahhh!" "uh-hu!" "Gaahh!" "huy!" "aaaahhh!" "oohf!" "uuhh!" "Gunneson!" "Stay back!" "You okay?" "Yeah." "I think it's safe to say we are dealing with a worst-case scenario, so we move on to Phase Two of the Threshold protocols:" "containment and crisis-management." "Now, there's a lot we don't know." "Like where are the missing crew members?" "Where is First Mate Gunneson?" "Sleeping with the fishes, no doubt." "No one could have survived out there, much less made it to shore." "We can assume nothing, Doctor." "The minute we give in to our preconceptions, we're dead." "Which brings us to our object." "Where did it go?" "We're plugged into every surveillance satellite in the hemisphere." "I can tell you this:" "It certainly hasn't left." "If it was here, we would've found it by now." "Not necessarily." "If their technology is based on four... or... or even five dimensional physics, they could come and go, and we'd never even know it." "We have to assume we're dealing with an intelligence so advanced that its capabilities border on the supernatural." "That's comforting." "There's nothing comforting about this." "Look, uh... we don't have time for fear." "We don't have the-the luxury of self-doubt." "We've got to stare into the face of the unknown and make damn sure we don't blink." "Why don't you come back tomorrow afternoon?" "We'll run another round of tests." "So, uh, what is that, a battlefield scar?" "Some'm like that." "Whoever stitched you up should be making shoes for a living" "Let me ask you something." "I understand what I'm doing here... the others..." "What exactly is your job title?" "I mean, who..." "cuts your checks?" "I'm freelance." "I do contract work." "So you're a ghost, huh?" "You're the guy they send in when they can't acknowledge they've sent someone in." "Should we be worried?" "No." "I, uh,... haven't found any cellular damage or mutations." "So we're clean." "Sort of." "I, uh, picked up some unusual activity in your mid to lower frontal lobes, both of you." "Lucas, too." "Are you saying we're sick?" "No, no, no, we're talking brain wave activity." "You see these?" "These are theta waves." "You're all generating far more than the average cognitive model." "You're saying the videotape changed the way we think?" "May be." "Anyway, uh..." "I can't see any reason to keep you here now." "My advice: get some rest." "Even 'ghosts' need sleep, right?" "Hey, don't you ever sleep?" "Can't." "I'm still drowning in satellite telemetry." "I just feel like we missed something." "Oh, drown tomorrow." "Go home." "Y-y-no-you're no good to us fried." "You're still here." "Yeah, well, I don't have a life." "What makes you think I do?" "Huh." "Guess I know who to call when Thanksgiving comes around." "Look, get some rest." "We'll need you back here in eight hours." "Good night." "Come here, mister." "'Stop me!" "'" "'What was in the ship?" "'" "ah-huh!" "Hello?" "It's Cavennaugh." "You okay?" "Yeah." "Why?" "I just had this dream." "I" " I can't explain it, but I saw myself... but it wasn't me." "I know this is going to sound strange, but... it-it... it felt like more than just a dream." "And there-there was this place." "It was like I was really there." "It was... it was like a forest." "It was a-a glass forest." "Molly?" "Yeah." "Sorry, uh..." "I" " I saw it, too." "I was there." "What's happening to us?" "I don't know." "Gunneson!" "Ouch!" "alle!" "ooh!" "aahh!" " errrraah!" " agghhh!" "errrraah!" "eeh!" "gahhh!" "uuhh!" "uh... k you're... uh you're not... yourself!" "We can help you!" "Pleeeezz?" "!" "Su-foe-noe-ruoy" "yaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!" "aahhh!" "aaahhhh!" "oi-va-ah!" "YAH!" "Federal agents." "Federal agents." " What?" " Whoa, whoa." "Orders from Cavennaugh." "We've had your entire team under surveillance." "He-He-Heee's down there!" "Lights!" "Where are they?" "There-there's a switch on-on..." "ah... on the post to the right!" "He's not here." "Well, that's impossible." "We've searched the whole room." "He's not down here." "All right, talk to me." "It was Gunneson." "How is that even possible?" "Are you telling me he swam 80 miles to shore after getting shot four times?" "It's a good question." "It's not like he could have grabbed a life preserver." "We blew up his damn ship." "And how'd he find this house?" "Why come here?" "Look, there's a lot of folks checking this out." "What's our cover story?" "We're saying it was a home invasion, attempted rape." "Oh, yeah, Caffrey's gonna love that." "What about the local police?" "Who's Bigfooting them?" "I already took care of it." "Told them we were FBI." "All right." "Getting your hands dirty, Fenway?" "umm... not that often I get to practice my forensics." "Spend most of my days in a lab chatting with test tubes and cell cultures." "Glamorous life of a pathologist." "Well, I brought you a coffee." "It's okay to set this here?" "Don't spill it." "What have you got?" "Footprints." "I can see that." "We'll run an analysis of the soil, see if we can... backtrack how he got here." "Well, I'm guessing he didn't take a cab." "You old enough to drink coffee?" "Oh. huh-huh, uhh-no thanks." "Never after nine o'clock." "Besides, I'm wired enough as it is." "Anything?" "Plenty." "I'm picking up some weird magnetic anomalies here, which is interesting in itself, but this is really unnerving." "Looks like Gunneson left us a parting gift." "Is it the same pattern you saw on the ship?" "It was on all the electronic displays." "You have any strange dreams last night?" "Beg your pardon?" "As I understand it, Dr. Caffrey and Mr. Cavennaugh both had the same nightmare, saw similar things." "Yeah, I heard that, I heard that." "You watched the same videotape of the UFO they did." "You were the only three." "Figured you might have had the dream, too." "I hardly slept last night." "No dreams." "You sure about that, my friend?" "Yeah, I'm positive." "There's nothing wrong with us, right?" "Dr. Fenway tested our blood." "He said we're not infected." "Our theta-waves are a little off." "It's no big deal." "Let me know what else you find." "You doing all right?" "Thanks." "290 million people in the United States, and he makes his way to your front door." "Why?" "I don't know." "But the more disturbing question is, how did he find me?" "You didn't get one for me?" "I could use a jolt." "Is that my underwear your hands?" "Yes." "Drop it!" "Did Gunneson say anything to you?" "He..." "He was trying, but, his, uh ... his words were all mixed up." "If I'd heard it, I could have helped." "Too bad we don't have a recording." "Actually, we do." "You had my house bugged?" "Just interpreting your plan." "'Safety of the Red Team at all costs,' right?" "uh... k you're... uh you're not... yourself!" "We can help you!" "Pleeeezz?" "!" "Su-foe-noe-ruoy" "Su-foe-noe-ruoy yaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!" "Doesn't make sense to me." "Well, that's because you're not a linguist." "It's word salad." "Expressive aphasia." "Common in stroke victims." "They garble their words, they say things backwards." "God knows what was happening to Gunneson on a neurological level, but I think it might be something similar." "Now, if we play it backwards, we get this." "You're one of us." "You're one of us." "You're one of us." "You're one of us" "The signal from that object affected every living thing on the boat." "If Gunneson made it to shore, chances are, the other crew members survived, as well." "So, we're dealing with a total of seven potential alien infectees." "Got Captain Manning, Lieutenant Novak," "Crewmen Sanford, Sonntag, Park and Pena." "We've got to find them." "Containment is the first priority, per the Threshold Protocols." "We've already begun surveying their homes, family members and friends." "Uh, I'm sorry, but has anyone stopped to think that maybe we should be staking out ourselves?" "I've doubled the watch on all of you." "We're covered." "Like she was covered?" "By the way, what are we gonna tell these guys' families?" "Their sons died at sea." "Oh-ho." "That's gonna go over great when they show up on Mom's doorstep covered in seaweed." "Can we move on now?" "Fire away." "Signal telemetry?" "It's an engineer's middle name." "What about it?" "I need you to break that signal down into its mathematical components." "Uh, look for any pattern or form of communication." "Ramsey, you can help him out." "Now, Fenway, you said the signal was modifying human DNA." "W" " We need more specifics." "Yeah, like, can the process be reversed?" "Can we inoculate ourselves against it?" "If you want me to figure out how this 'bio-forming' works," "I'm gonna need a live specimen." "Then we'll get you one." "And his name is Gunneson." "Whatever else is happening," "I think a part of him genuinely came to me for help." "I..." "I could see it in his eyes." "There's a war going on inside him." "Uh, hey, uh, guys, can I talk to you for a second?" "Uh, I don't know if you're aware of this or not, but I'm supposed to be getting married in six weeks." "We're aware." "Oh, ok-uh-okay, so" "What am I supposed to tell my fiancee?" "I mean, uh, I've been gone for two days." "You're not telling her anything." "We'll take care of it." "What is that supposed to mean?" "As far as I'm concerned, the entire Red Team should be sequestered until this whole mess is over." "Especially after what happened last night." "No, it's counterproductive." "I..." "I already..." "I already covered this in the plan." "If we strip these people of their support systems, they won't be able to function as well." "As long as we're asking our team members to relocate, we need to do the same with any spouses or family members." "You're confident of that?" "Absolutely." "Part of crisis management is looking after the welfare of your team." "Lose sight of that, and we end up with a plan that's gonna fall apart faster than we can make a new one." "Then I guess I'll defer to you." "We're already drafting a cover story for your work here." "We'll see if we can't fold your intended into it, as well." "Much appreciated." "I found traces of sodium, sulfur and calcium in the mud from these boot prints." "That doesn't give us much." "Those elements are found everywhere." "Mm-mmm." "Not in this particular combination." "Spent activated alumina." "It's used to remove arsenic in water treatment facilities." "We've got three possibilities." "Three different water treatment facilities in the metro area." "It's this one, just south of Cape Charles." "How do you know?" "Larkspur." "I..." "I smelled it on him." "The flowers are farm-harvested near the canal but they're everywhere" "All right." "So Gunneson headed to this refinery after he made landfall." "The question is, why?" "Let's grab Ramsey." "If Gunneson's there, we may need a translator." "Can I talk to you a sec?" "Yeah." "Uhm... you know the blood spatter Lucas found in your bathroom?" "The one that congealed into Ramsey's fractal pattern?" "Well, it wasn't Gunneson's." "It was yours." "But... but you said I didn't have any cellular damage." "You don't." "So why in God's name would my blood do that?" "That's a good question." "What happened to this man?" "Apparently, he wasn't too keen on the... alien signal." "It caused a sudden and catastrophic implosion throughout his entire body." "See this thing that looks like a peach pit here?" "That was his heart." "Poor son of a bitch." "How come this didn't happen to all the crewmen?" "I don't know, something... something unique in his DNA or..." "He was found holding a cell phone." "Maybe that was it." "Maybe he was just standing in the wrong place." "And the blood pattern I found on the bathroom floor," "I understand it's Caffrey's?" "That's right." "How worried should we be about that?" "You know, that's a good question." "And again, I don't have the answer." "When I find something... you'll be the first to know." "That's fair enough." "Is there something else I can do for you?" "I need your wallet." "hah... are you mugging me?" "Because I'm a little busy right now." "I want to check everyone's organ donor status." "We already have three members affected by the signal." "No telling what might happen next." "We can't risk anyone from Threshold having their insides spread out among the general population." "Can't this wait?" "I'm afraid not." "While we're on the subject of invading my privacy, would you mind telling me who's been censoring my e-mails?" "Come again?" "I sent two e-mails to my brother in Boston." "From his responses, clearly... he hasn't been getting everything I wrote." "Then I suggest you write shorter letters." "What's that supposed to mean?" "You mentioned you were working with Molly Caffrey, that you were involved with something classified." "sensitive information, my friend." "What are my rights here, exactly?" "You have the full complement of rights guaranteed to every American." "Mm-hmm." "What if I decided to walk outside and go to the store?" "Well, what do you need?" "That's not the point." "Am I free to come and go as I please?" "We'll provide you with anything you need." "All right." "I need a tennis ball, some baby carrots, a number three pencil and a vintage Hohner harmonica 542 Golden Melody... with its original case." "You'll get a new license by the end of the day." "Here, keep it." "Don't you need it?" "Carry two." "Gave me the girl gun." "A revolver's more reliable." "It won't jam like an automatic." "When we have time, I'll take you to the range." "I shot Gunneson four times..." "... didn't even slow him down." "Yeah, well, after what happened on that ship, I had all our ordnance switched to explosives." "Should cause a lot more damage." "Right now, I want you to aim for the ten-spot, the heart." "Okay?" "If your aim was better, you might've put him down for good." "My aim was good enough to save your life." "It's not mine I'm worried about." "Afternoon, sir." "Mind if we ask you a few questions?" "Questions?" "Yeah, we have reason to believe a suspect we're investigating has taken refuge in there." "Factory's closed." "" " Cavennaugh" " We're aware of that." "There's no one here." "All the same, we'd like to take a look." "Copy that." "We're getting warmer." "Couple of the boys found a lifeboat from the Big Horn about a mile up the shoreline." "Great, at least now we know he didn't walk on water." "So when was this facility shut down?" "I don't know." "What did they manufacture here?" "I don't know." "Do you know who was on duty last night?" "No." "Oh, wow, do I feel safe with Ricky Retardo working the case here." "Guys!" "Over here." "He was definitely here." "This is from the boot print we lifted at my house" " Gunneson's" "Look." "The tread pattern's an exact match." "Yea, you've got at least four other sets of prints here, as well." "The other crewmembers." "Well, you don't know that." "Could've been anyone." "Different sizes, maybe, but they're all the same pattern." "I ran Gunneson's impression through the database." "It's a WORX steel-toed boot made by Red Wing." "Now, the Big Horn was a Naval freighter." "These boots are standard issue." "So we're not just dealing with Gunneson anymore." "At least four of them made it to shore." "They definitely didn't meet here by accident." "They're congregating." "Cavennaugh." "'We're in the building just south of you. '" "'Looks like there's some blood here. '" "We're on our way." "'Roger that. '" "That's disgusting." "Isn't it?" "So the big guy in there used to be one of the roaches on the ship?" "Mm-hmm." "I've been watching him mutate for the last 48 hours." "Okay, check out what he does next." "He'll keep doing that all night long, over and over again." "The fractal pattern?" "Part of it, anyway." "You really think we're okay, Doc... me and Dr. Caffrey and Cavennaugh?" "Well, medically, yeah." "I haven't found anything to cause me worry - ...a few spikes in your theta-waves." "Weird stuff, yeah, but not worry kind of stuff." "That theta-wave business, that's not something I can pass on to my fiancee, right?" "Honestly, I have no idea." "Why don't you just keep your mitts off of her till we know what we're doing here?" "Didn't you say you had some kind of theory about the signal?" "Yeah." "Let me show you." "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" "What do you think you're doing?" "It's okay." "There's no audio on this tape." "So?" "So the audio's what we need to be worried about." "I ran the tape through a spectral frequency analysis." "It's what we do with the imaging data we get back from our deep space probes." "The camera picks up more than the human eye can see, anyway." "Here it is in infrared." "Ultraviolet." "As far as I can tell, the visual component is inert." "It's harmless." "J" " Just to be safe, I'd like to explore this further with proper clinical trials." "Okay." "Fair enough." "But here's the point." "I've been dissecting the auditory components from the tape." "And, we struck gold." "See, the signal's miles deep." "It's made up of hundreds of different harmonics... some of them are even beyond our technological ability to measure." "That could be the hyperdimensional characteristics of our UFO could be something else." "But what we need to do is start pulling out and isolating the individual sub-signals..." "like this one." "Or this one." "...see how they affect your average living organism." "Exactly." "Might even tell us how our Average Joe Cockroach managed to Hulk out into Skeletor Roach over there." "Wu... wait a minute, w... w... play that one back again." "Loop it." "Look at these guys!" "The brown ones are getting awfully agitated." "The brown ones are from the ship, right?" "Yeah." "And the white ones are our controls, but they're not affected." "Give yourself a gold star, Mr. Pegg." "Do you have a key for this?" "No." "Shoot it." "Get Down!" "Don't move!" "Stop!" "This is Cavennaugh." "I've lost him." "Make sure the area is secure." "Whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa!" "What in the hell?" "Say hello to our real security guard." "So that guy I was just chasing..." "Yeah, hold on." "It's Sonntag." "One of our missing crewmen." "Son of a bitch shaved." "What?" "Where's Ramsey?" "Ramsey?" "Ramsey." "Hey, Ramsey." "Ramsey." "RAMSEY!" "Ramsey!" "You gave us quite a scare, Ramsey." "Thought you might've been kidnapped or something." "'Otay ebay, oray otnay otay ebay. '" "Come again?" "'To be or not to be' in pig Latin." "Yea, very impressive." "You-ah... finished going AWOL?" "I'm just saying, to 'not be,' heh, that's a big deal." "It's not really my cup of tea." "How'd you find me?" "Oh, we planted a tracking chip on you." "Yea, don't worry, you won't find it." "It's under your skin." "Eh-heh, you like playing Big Brother, don't you?" "Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but, you know,... hah, hah, I'm outta here." "Yeah, we figured as much." "It's okay, though." "We got uh-a replacement for you already lined up." "It turns out you were actually number two on Caffrey's list." "Yeah, number one just became available." "Oh, really?" "Yeah, Andre Novakovitch." "Novakovitch?" "That little math bitch?" "He's all smoke and mirrors." "Isomorphic group therapy." "Monotonic null sequences." "Quadratic reciprocity." "Blah, blah, blabbety-blah." "Come up with something new." "Please." "So, you want back in, then?" "I can't." "When I saw that agent... get shot right in front of me," "I knew I was out." "Hey, he'll live." "He was wearing a vest." "You see a lot of guys die?" "A few." "You get used to that?" "Unfortunately, yes." "See, that's what I'm afraid of." "Pleeeezz?" "!" "Su-foe-noe-ruoy" "Su-foe-noe-ruoy!" "yaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!" "'You're one of us. '" "'You're one of us. '" "Molly?" "'You're one... '" "You all right?" "Yeah, I was just, uh, going over this stuff." "So how's it going?" "Trying to get inside Gunneson's head." "I read his file a dozen times, his service records." "Even his high school transcripts." "Sounds like you're covering all the bases." "Well, we can't find him, and we came face-to-face today with another crewman and he got away, so..." "I" " I think I'm running out of bases to cover, you know?" "You knew this would happen, sooner or later." "What, aliens?" "Your contingency plans." "Viral outbreaks, international monetary collapse." "And, uh, what was the one you wrote in '97?" "Uh, cataclysmic shift in the polar ice caps." "Mmm." "Sounding pretty good right about now." "Reality scaring you a little?" "Little more than a little." "Look, I remember something that someone once said..." "'Focus on the task, not the fear of the task. '" "Heh, heh," " I can't believe you remember that." "You wrote a hell of a thesis." "It was the only 'A' I gave out that year." "Maybe the author should keep her own words in mind." "Brown ones are from the ship." "Each of them shows signs of cellular mutation." "The white ones, on the other hand, are a basic laboratory stock," "They're unaffected by the signal." "We've been dissecting the audio signal from the videotape, experimenting with different harmonic components." "And the one we're about to play for you has produced some interesting results." "Remember, this is only part of the signal, - a sub-harmonic; not enough to cause harm to any of us." "I'll be damned." "How many times have you run this test?" "Dozens." "And everytime it's had the same result?" "Mm-hmm." "Do you think it could have the same effect on an infected human?" "Well, yeah..." "Whoa, whoa." "G-Guys." "Experimenting with rats in a controlled environment is one thing." "We take this out in the open, we could be playing with fire." "We already are." "Listen, before they tested the atomic bomb," "Edward Teller theorized the entire atmosphere may go up in flames." "But they went ahead and tested it, anyway." "Why?" "Because there was a war going on." "Who's to say that's not the case now?" "Look, we've already instituted a nationwide manhunt." "We're staking out all of the crewmen's friend and family." "So far, we've come up with nothing." "So we try something new." "It wouldn't be called risk management if there weren't any risks involved." "I say we make our own RangaTang lure." "They've got these little sonar lures." "I use them when I fish peacock bass out at Lake Okeechobee." "The lures beep imitate the croaking sounds of the bait fish." "We can do the same thing with your signal here, see if we can't snag Gunneson." "Or see if we can't snag all of them." "Hey, you guys seen the van?" "It's pretty tricked out." "It's like top-of-the-line surveillance gear and cool night-vision scopes." "Only the best for Threshold." "Who makes this stuff, anyway?" "So, are we sure about this little plan of yours?" "I mean, aren't we going to be in proximity of the signal?" "It's a sub-harmonic." "We'll be fine." "All right." "I just hope you know what you're doing." "Hey, Nigel?" "Baylock said this is for you." "For me?" "Hmm." "I always wondered what doctors carry in their little black bags." "Dr. Fenway?" "Just some... supplies I requested." "It's been three hours." "What do you think?" "I think humans aren't rats." "Maybe we need more bait." "Lucas?" "Go ahead, Dr. Caffrey." "Let's amp the signal a little more." "'Are you sure about that?" "We really don't know what effects... '" "Just amp the signal." "'Okay." "Stand by. '" "So, I heard you're getting hitched." "That was the plan, anyway." "Well, if you're having second thoughts, you've got the perfect excuse." "Which is what?" "Alien invasion, jackass." "Why are you even still here?" "Aren't you supposed to be making your-ah big getaway?" "Oh, he chickened out." "He couldn't stand the thought of Novakovitch stealing his thunder." "So you really don't know where your father is?" "Whether he's dead or alive?" "So what happened?" "What's the story?" "You didn't read my file?" "I skimmed it." "He disappeared when I was younger." "Want me to try to find him?" "Bet I could." "If you'd asked me that two days ago, I might've said yes." "Now, I don't know." "All the things I thought mattered to me..." "Maybe they matter more." "You got movement in Zone Three." "'Copy that." "Zone Three. '" "'I've got a visual." "Stand by. '" "'Negative, sir." "It's a dog. '" "It's just a dog." "So, three times, huh?" "Down the aisle?" "Yep." "How'd you keep working up the nerve?" "Weren't you worried each one was going to end up like the last one?" "Unfortunately, it didn't occur to me." "Would you ever do it again?" "Given our present circumstances, I suppose anything's possible." "I was worried you were going to talk me out of it." "No, don't worry, Lucas, because I really don't care." "You know, a cynic is an idealist with a broken heart." "Thank you, Dr. Phil." "Hey, Rhonda here just got her boobs done, and they garnered a very enthusiastic round of applause from the audience." "Yay." "Oh, sor... sorry to interrupt your poignant moment there." "'Lucas, you there?" "'" "Yeah, go ahead." "'We're not registering a signal from the transponder... ' '... on the eastern perimeter." "Can you take a look?" "'" "Yeah." "On my way." "Looks okay to me." "Dr. Caffrey?" "Hello?" "We're connected, you and I." "Did you know that?" "All of us are." "We're drawn to each other." "We can't help it." "God created man in His image." "This is no different." "You want to scream for your friends?" "Go ahead." "Scream all you want." "Scream!" "Guys..." "Hey, guys." "Guys!" "Help!" "He's here!" "HELP ME!" "HAAA!" "Bad dream?" "Sorry, no..." "I'm great." "'Great'?" "How do you define that adjective exactly?" "Because you certainly don't look great to me." "Hey, the situation's getting to all of us... some more than others." "Listen, I've got some great sedatives handy, if ya... if you want to take the edge off." "I said I'm fine!" "Ah!" "Caffrey!" "Caffrey!" "It's Gunneson!" "He's got Lucas!" "He's got Lucas!" "Do you see?" "Now?" "I had to come." "We're all connected." "'We've acquired the target. '" "He's on the move." "Remember, we need him alive." "'I've got him in my sight. '" "He's in Zone One." "'Copy that." "Zone One. '" "He's heading for us." "'I've got him in my sight." "'Missed the target." "He's out of my range. '" "What just happened?" "'... target' Zone One, negative on the target." "That's a negative on the target." "Repeat." "It's a negative on the target." "Where is he?" "'zone 3, negative on the target'" "'We have nothing. '" "No, nobody just falls of the radar like that." "That's exactly what happened to me last night." "H" " He disappeared." "Molly, what are you doing?" "He showed up at my house." "He's looking for me." "No...!" "Molly..." "GUNNESON?" "!" "It's Molly!" "I'm right here!" "I wanna talk to you!" "I'm right here!" "Gunneson!" "oomph!" "You don't want to shoot me." "Don't you understand?" "You're one of us." "No." "I'm not." "Now!" "Move in!" "aaaaahhhhh!" "screaming; buzzing; shouting!" "I guess you just weren't feeling the part about capturing a live specimen." " He's alive." " ... ish." "Now we know they're vulnerable." "We got him, that's what's important." "Let's get him back to Threshold and run every test we got." "You doing all right?" "Yeah, I'm just wondering do you think he came here because of the signal or because of us?" "Maybe we were the bait." "Just be glad only one of them showed up." "Uh... if we're still broadcasting, you might want to ixnay on the ignalsay." "Stay down, remain calm, and no one will be hurt." "I told you, I don't know why I'm here." "I went out for a drive and I ended up in this place." "Either charge me with something or let me go!" "Mirandize me, or I'm walkin' right now, pig!" "Excuse me." " What's your name?" " Paul." "Why are you here, Paul?" "Why did you come here?" "I don't know." "Ever catch this many bass when you went fishing?" "No." "Man, let me go!" "We got some righ..." "Man, answer my questions, or someth..." "So." "Doctor Caffrey... anything in those protocols of yours on how we're going to spin this one?" "We gonna have to put all these people into custody?" "Not necessarily." "We've managed to work our way through about 60 of them so far." "We've done buccal-mucosal swabs, various blood panels." "Based on the preliminary DNA sequencing that we've been running," "I'm not detecting any cellular mutations." "No triple-helix." "I don't think these people have been infected." "Then what the hell are they doing here?" " Well..." " Look..." "We were operating under the assumption that a-ah, that our our signal fragment would only draw in our missing crew members, but obviously, it had some sort of effect on the... the general population, as well." "So far, all the people we interviewed came from within a five kilometer radius, so it seems like the signal was localized." "But there's got to be tens of thousands of people living in that area." "Why didn't they all show up?" "Why just these hundred and six?" "Maybe the people who showed up share something in common, some kind of genetic predisposition." "Then you need to find out what that is." "You know, we dodged a bullet, here today." "But we can't let that happen again." "Let's make sure we have a clean bill of health on the rest of them." "Done." "Let's go." "So, what's next in the Threshold playbook?" "Well, I want to keep these people under surveillance." "There's no reason to detain them at this point." "And then I'll see you back at Threshold later tonight." "I've got a date with Gunneson." "What is up with this traffic?" "Arlington's never packed at this time." "And Gunneson said what?" "That they were recreating us in their image." "How do you know it wasn't just a regular nightmare?" "Basic anxiety?" "'Cause I had the same dream you guys did last night." "The one with the trees of glass, and that thing... that creature." "Why didn't you say anything?" "Because I was scared." "I still am." "I mean..." "I know Dr. Fenway said that we're okay, but I just don't feel like myself anymore." "I know you guys know what I'm talking about." "I mean, your blood turned into the fractal pattern." "What does that mean?" "Doesn't it bother you?" "Just a little bit?" "What's happening is bad, really bad!" "I'm not going to lie to you, Lucas." "I" " I'm scared too, we'd be insane not to be." "we're going to stick together... and get through this." "How can you say that, though?" "You don't know what we're fighting." "What's the alternative?" "Give up?" "Pretend that this isn't happening?" "Is that going to make you feel safer?" "Look at me." "We have a plan... and so far, it's working." "We got Gunneson, and we're going to get the rest of them." "Okay?" "We just have to stick to the plan." "Subtitles by ELLE" "Corrected for DVD: awaqeded -addic7ed. com"