"System checks are nominal." "All personnel, please report to your stations." "And if you like long odds, consider when they detonated the first atomic bomb, a couple of manhattan project scientists thought the explosion would ignite the atmosphere and destroy the world." "Except they were wrong." "Dr. Crest." "Isn't that strange?" "I think of this place as a research facility, but you think of it as a casino." "I'm sorry, uh, sir." "I didn't mean any disrespect." "I was just... put me down for 20." "Yes, sir." "What's your pick, sir?" "What do you think?" "Daniel gallagher, please report to observation room 4." "Good morning, dr." "Crest." "Julie." "You two have fun last night?" "Ooh, don't try to deny it." "I throw parties to find out about people." "She's cute." "Women like brains." "Ha." "Maybe that's my problem." "I always thought it was brawn." "You nervous, les?" "No." "Why should i be nervous?" "All we're doing is transporting a bunch of animals a few miles using untried teleportation technology." "Of course, it's going to take the energy of a tactical nuclear warhead to do it." "What were we thinking?" "Yeah." "That's what you always say." "And as soon as we get it open, you have to shut down magnetic confinement immediately or the wormhole will collapse too fast." "And colonel glade doesn't like wasting his nukes." "No, ma'am, he does not." "Did you get my e-mail about the system's integrity?" "Maybe you disagree with me, and that's fine, but i really think that we ought to hash it out." "Yes, mark, i got your e-mail and i responded, but do me a favor, will you, and stop talking at me in that tone of voice like i owe you money." "Like I... do i owe you money?" "Well, you owe me, all right, but it ain't money." "Look, i was just trying to be sensitive about what happened between us." "You know, just keep things professional." "Oh, i see." "And so, last night, was that all about being sensitive and professional?" "What exactly were you doing with julie in that cloak room?" "I can explain about last night." "Oh, let me guess." "You wanted to see where it would take you, hmm?" "Don't bother, mark." "I already heard it." "Begin teleportation sequence." "Teleportation sequence engaged." "Go for computer hand-off." "Controls are now fully automatic." "Initiators online." "Standing by for ignition." "Engaging army sequence." "My key's not working." "Allow me." "Arming sequence engaged." "Standing by to abort." "Teleportation field is stable." "We got 'em!" "Damn it." "Where the hell did we just send them?" "Dr. Crest, the teleportation field." "It's destabilizing." "That shouldn't be possible." "The wormhole's expanding." "Shut it down." "Abort!" "Abort!" "Mark:" "The override isn't working." "It's not responding." "Power emissions are spiking." "Oh, my god." "It's coming toward us." "Shut it down!" "You ok, sir?" "Don't worry, dr." "Crest." "When that bad boy goes off tomorrow, we'll all be a part of history." "History?" "Announcer:" "There is nothing wrong with your television." "Do not attempt to adjust the picture." "We are now controlling the transmission." "We control the horizontal and the vertical." "We can deluge you with a thousand channels or expand one single image to crystal clarity and beyond." "We can shape your vision to anything our imagination can conceive." "For the next hour, we will control all that you see and hear." "you are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the deepest inner mind to..." "We exist in time moving forever forward through the moments of our lives, moments which, once experienced, can never be relived." "Or can they?" "Dr. Crest." "Is everything all right?" "Mark?" "I've just had the strangest feeling i've done all this before." "I must be working too hard." "After tomorrow, you should take a break." "You know, get away from it all, relax on a nice beach with some stimulating company." "Yeah." "I'll think about that." "So will i." "Pressure on you must be awful." "Does it ever scare you?" "How do you mean?" "I'm just a computer jockey, you know." "I've got my list of jobs to do, and i do 'em." "It's easy." "But you... you manipulate the fundamental forces of nature." "Doesn't that scare you?" "No." "No." "It's perfectly safe." "We control the technology." "What if... what if that technology were to fall into the hands of someone less responsible than you?" "Colonel glade would shoot them on the spot." "Would you take care of this, please?" "Absolutely, dr." "Lazar." "Having misgivings, are you, mark?" "Now i've seen everything." "And the coolant system redundants, you checked them as well?" "Uh, the coolant system?" "I'm sorry, dr." "Crest." "I'm not too familiar with that system." "Well, look at it anyway." "Do it now." "Nothing personal, sir, but we're kind of swamped here." "Mark, let them get on with their work." "I want to make sure it's working properly." "What do you think they've been doing?" "Actually, yeah." "There's a bit of scarring on the manifold." "Something's been rubbing against it." "2 seconds to fix." "Cosmetics?" "That's what you're worried about?" "Go ahead." "Fix it." "And, mark, may i talk to you?" "We go in 17 hours, and all of a sudden you don't trust anyone?" "Is it just me, or is the irony getting so thick in here it's hard to breathe?" "Did i twist your arm?" "Did i force you to be part of this?" "No." "No." "You did it the same way you do everything..." "on the sly." "Yeah." "Like you got me to go along with you without telling me where we were going until it was too late for me to turn back." "I gave your energy technology a practical ap." "It already had one..." "the one it was meant for... vaporizing nuclear waste." "Don't you think teleportation has more significance?" "Can you imagine going anywhere on the planet in a blink of an eye?" "You hijacked my work." "I'm sorry if you feel that way." "Look, cleo, we're all in this together." "You know that." "Are we?" "Truly together?" "Really?" "She said that?" "I had no idea she felt so... so strongly." "You rescued her from scientific obscurity." "You did her a favor." "Mind you, getting emotionally involved with her while you did it, that was a... tactical error." "Damn, you took the words right out of my mouth." "You know what we say in the marines?" ""Kill 'em all now!" "Let god sort 'em out."" "Is that it?" "No." "That's airborne." "Grab that bottle of champagne, will you?" "Is that what they say in the marines," ""grab that bottle of champagne"?" "Gather around, everybody." "Mark and i would like to propose a toast." "Does anybody need to be topped off?" "Uh, me, please." "When did i suddenly become monkey butler?" "Thank you." "Thank you." "Great dress." "Thanks." "I just, uh, wanted to remind you what you're missing." "Mark, please, have our years together taught you nothing?" "Hold the neck and the punt." "That way your body heat won't warm the very expensive champagne." "You see, he can be taught." "Oh, really?" "Tomorrow marks the beginning of a truly exciting time for all of us." "In other words, after tomorrow, even a trip to the supermarket will be a blast." "Hear, hear." "Cheers." "Oh, mark, i am so sorry." "Oh, no, no, no, no." "That's ok." "The wet look works for me." "Better put some club soda on it or it will stain." "No, that's ok." "I think i got it." "You know, when champagne dries, it leaves a mark... on the edges." "That..." "that would be tragic." "That's a very nice shirt." "Where'd you buy it?" "Actually, cleo got it for me." "Cleo?" "Maybe it would be better if you just... took the whole thing off." "Did anyone ever tell you you have this effect on people?" "I was just gonna say the same thing about you." "Well, if you're worried about the door, it's locked." "No, it's just that... i feel like we've done this before." "Really?" "Was it good?" "As i recall, it was great." "Maybe we should rethink the selection of animals that we're gonna be using in the experiment." "You know how people..." "how they react to the kinds of things like the goat." "I mean, you know how people reacted to the pony and the sheep and stuff like that?" "I'm afraid..." "You know what i'm saying, cleo?" "System checks are nominal." "All personnel, please report to your stations." "And if you like long odds, consider when they detonated the first atomic bomb, a couple of manhattan project scientists thought the explosion would ignite the atmosphere and destroy the world." "Dr. Crest." "I didn't mean any disrespect, sir." "I was just having a little fun." "Would you... would you like to make a bet, sir?" "Not this time." "This time?" "Sir?" "Good morning, dr." "Crest." "You two have fun last night?" "Yeah, we did." "You're not supposed to confess that easy." "It takes all the fun away." "You look nervous, mark." "Has the fact that we're about to detonate a tactical nuke to transport a bunch of animals finally sunk in?" "You're supposed to say, "what were we thinking?"" "Yeah, i know." "And as soon as we get it open, we have to shut down magnetic confinement immediately or the wormhole will collapse too fast." "And colonel glade doesn't like wasting his nukes." "No, ma'am, he does not." "Cleo, can i talk to you?" "There's something strange going on." "Do me a favor, will you, mark, and stop talking to me in that tone like i owe you money." "Right." "And last night, i was insensitive and unprofessional, all because i wanted to see where it would take me." "That's right." "As a matter of fact, you were." "Begin teleportation sequence." "Man:" "Teleportation sequence engaged." "Go for computer hand-off." "Controls are now fully automatic." "Initiators online." "Standing by for ignition." "Engaging arming sequence." "My key's not working." "Allow me." "Arming sequence engaged." "Standing by to abort." "Teleportation field stable?" "Of course." "It's working perfectly." "Why wouldn't it?" "We got 'em!" "It's gonna destabilize." "What are you talking about?" "The teleportation field." "It's destabilizing, expanding." "That shouldn't be possible!" "We gotta shut it down now!" "Abort!" "Abort!" "It's not responding!" "Power emissions are spiking!" "Oh, my god." "Shut it down!" "No!" "Not again!" "It happened again." "You ok, sir?" "Don't worry, dr." "Crest." "When that bad boy goes off tomorrow, we'll all be a part of history." "Dr. Crest?" "Are you all right?" "No." "I'm sorry, but i hate the beach." "Cleo, we need to talk." "About?" "The fundamental forces of nature." "I'm just beginning to wonder, what if we missed something?" "What if we didn't really consider the consequences of everything we're doing?" "Mark, we've considered everything." "The technology is completely under our control." "But what if it isn't?" "Doesn't that scare you?" "You're beginning to scare me." "Well, fasten your seat belt, because it isn't under our control." "Mark, toss me a crumb, will you?" "What are you talking about?" "We've spawned ourselves a time loop." "A time loop?" "A temporal anomaly." "A one in 10 billion chance, i agree, but an anomaly just the same." "The only anomaly i'm aware of is you." "Humor me." "I'll make it worth your while." "This is 2-d projection of the full phase space." "We thought the contours would look like this... now, the moment after we detonate, the wormhole will expand exponentially, devouring everything in its path." "You know, if anyone else came to you and... and put this chicken scrawl up on the board, you'd rip him a new one." "This is guesswork." "This is all shoddy guesswork." "I have seen us detonate this device twice." "Maybe more, i don't know." "And 16 hours from now, it's gonna happen again, and then again and again and again." "Ok, mark, i'll indulge you." "Let's say, for a moment, that this is possible." "How would someone know if they were actually inside such a loop?" "I don't know." "Hmm." "The transformer." "The transformer." "I ripped out a cable, and it arced when everything happened." "The electromagnetic field it put out must have partially canceled out the effect and let me remember the previous loop." "You're playing me, aren't you?" "This is some kind of bone-headed joke." "Why in hell's name would i make this up?" "Gee, i don't know, mark." "Maybe it's because you like to push buttons just to see what happens when you push them." "Let me tell you something." "This teleporter will not do what we think it will." "It will not be a controlled reaction." "It'll blow through this test site, this building." "That damn thing will take out everything in its path, and i have no idea where it'll stop." "Thousands of lives could be at risk, maybe millions." "You don't mind if i get back to work now, do you?" "Mark." "What are you doing?" "I'm putting a hold on the launch sequence until we get to the bottom of this." "Have you lost your mind?" "What the hell... do we have a problem here?" "Mark is suddenly of the opinion that we do." "Do you know what a time loop is, les?" "No, i don't." "Now, let's take this upstairs." "Now!" "I'm telling you, i know what's gonna happen." "Shame there isn't a racetrack nearby." "We could make a few bucks." "So you know what's going to happen." "How 'bout..." "2 minutes from now?" "Anything interesting?" "I wasn't taking notes, les." "But i do know that in 15 hours... wait a minute." "Right about now, oakridge and rutherford should be checking the teleporter's cooling system." "They better not be." "They're totally unfamiliar with it." "Get them up here." "Joe will tell you that there's scarring on the manifold." "It'll take him 2 minutes to fix it." "Oakridge and rutherford to the briefing room now!" "What the hell are you doing, mark?" "This is the biggest moment of your career, of both our careers." "Why are you trying to blow it?" "That's exactly what i'm trying not to do." "Colonel, you wanted something?" "Tell me about the cooling system." "What'd you see there?" "The, uh... i'm sorry, sir, but we're not that familiar with it." "No, it... it's ok." "They know i told you to look at it." "I'm sorry, dr." "Crest, but what are you talking about?" "When did you ask us to look at the coolant system?" "A few minutes ago!" "I asked you to... oh, gee." "Gee." "Ok." "I didn't do it this time." "I grabbed cleo and talked to her." "Do you want to check the coolant system?" "No." "No, it's fine." "Just... you've got enough on your plates as it is." "Dismissed." "I changed the loop." "I didn't do the same thing this time." "Les, you've gotta believe me." "Regardless of how we get there, once we set this off, there's gonna be a problem." "The wormhole will destabilize and start to consume everything." "Is that possible?" "Yes, it's possible, but it's not likely." "We have so many fail-safes in the system, we could shut it down instantly if we had to." "Except that won't matter once we start the chain of events." "I hate to do this to you, mark." "I don't get what's going on here, but you are clearly not in the right frame of mind to be running this test." "Les, this is my project." "Not anymore." "Corporal, we're running out of time." "You've got to take these over to colonel glade." "He's gotta know that... i brought dr." "Crest some breakfast." "I'm gonna have to check with colonel glade first." "Why?" "It's just food." "Do you want to see it?" "He'll be fine." "Just pepper spray." "Mark, come on, we've got to get out to the test site if there's something wrong with that device." "Arming sequence engaged." "Les!" "Cleo!" "Can you hear me?" "Sir?" "We've got a problem." "I can see that." "Mark, you son of a bitch, what the hell are you doing?" "Look, les, i know what's wrong." "You've gotta abort the test." "The device is gonna malfunction." "Initiating shutdown sequence." "What the hell?" "The system's not responding." "Where's the fail-safes?" "Why aren't they kicking in?" "I don't know." "Damn it, les, stop the countdown!" "Mark, listen to me." "If you don't clear the blast zone right now, you're going to die!" "Rutherford, abort!" "None of the fail-safes are working." "Something's overridden the system." "Les, what the hell is wrong with you?" "Mark, run!" "Oh, god, i hope this works." "It's later." "Dr. Crest, is everything all right?" "Yeah." "Yeah." "I'm just working too hard." "That's all." "Well, maybe after tomorrow, you should... take a break." "Where the hell is mark?" "This party's as much for him as for anyone else." "He was in the briefing room all afternoon working up a lather." "Sorry i'm late." "I had some business to take care of." "What were we thinking?" "Isn't that your usual line?" "Here, hold this a minute, would you?" "Gather around, everybody." "Mark and i would like to propose a toast." "Good boy!" "I see our years together have taught you something." "Can we find a quiet corner to talk in?" "About?" "Hit me." "Tomorrow marks the beginning of a truly exciting time for all of us." "In other words, as of tomorrow... even a trip to the supermarket will be a blast." "Hear, hear." "Cheers." "Mark, i am so sorry." "No." "No." "It's ok." "The wet look works for me." "Maybe it would be better if you just took the whole thing off." "Did anyone ever tell you you have this effect on people?" "I'm sorry." "L... i can't." "I can't do this." "I can't." "Considering our professional background, it's just... no, no." "I'm... i'm sorry." "I, uh, practically attacked you." "We got a security problem." "What do you mean?" "I go to parties to find out about people." "What you're doing here is wrong, morally and otherwise." "You are tampering with the fundamental forces of nature!" "Corporal, get that bitch out of here." "Careful, corporal, she may be packing heat." "Well, pepper spray at least." "Freakin' tree huggers." "That's good work, mark." "I can't imagine that would have had much impact." "This is a completely redundant system." "Well, that's because you got her before she could do any more damage." "Allow me." "Standing by to abort." "Dr. Crest, the teleportation field, it's destabilizing." "The wormhole's expanding!" "Shut it down." "Shut it down!" "What... what are you doing?" "!" "I'm taking you with me this time." "You're what?" "Oh!" "What's happening?" "Come on, mark, we're waiting." "Are you toasting or not?" "Wormholes..." "they're a bitch." "Wormholes?" "They're a bitch." "Cheers." "Mark, this can't be happening." "But it is, and it's even worse than you think." "Will you excuse us for a moment, please?" "Mark?" "Where are you two going?" "Julie's an eco-terrorist." "She's trying to sabotage the test." "Deal with her." "And the loop keeps getting shorter." "First by seconds... and now hours." "Shouldn't the loop be constant?" "That there's a loop at all is an anomaly." "It's like... it's like... it's like a kink in a piece of string." "Time is trying to resume its normal flow." "Like someone pulling on both ends of the string, the kink will get smaller and smaller until there's no chance of averting... disaster." "Do you think we should tell glade?" "I tried." "He put me under house arrest." "Trust me, it happened." "Look, every time we start the test, it goes down exactly the way we say it will until the animals disappear." "And then the wormhole destabilizes and begins to expand way beyond its anticipated radius." "And just as it's about to overtake the..." "lab." "Ha ha!" "We got 'em!" "What?" "What?" "It's les." "It's les." "When we set off the device, we all turned to look at the cages because we were waiting for the animals to appear there." "But each and every time i went through that loop, les was not looking there because he knew they weren't gonna show up!" "I don't understand." "The second time i went through the loop, i found evidence of sabotage... it was julie." "But the last time i went through, i stopped julie, and the device still failed." "Mark, you're losing me." "So... so did julie sabotage the device or not?" "She did, but the last time i went through, i tried to stop the test from happening, but none of the fail-safes worked." "No, that's not possible... unless... unless julie's sabotage didn't matter." "The device had already been compromised." "By who, glade?" "Now, why would he do such a thing?" "Let's say a device like ours was detonated near an enemy." "Like an army division carrying guns inside a tank." "And the wormhole began to fluctuate, like it has been." "The target wouldn't be teleported anywhere." "It would just disappear like the animals, winked completely out of existence." "A temporal displacement bomb." "Like a neutron bomb, only a thousand times more efficient." "And it's my energy technology that's making this all possible." "Because i brought it to les." "You were right, cleo." "We aren't all of us in this together." "Trust me." "You said it." "So les is using our technology as some kind of weapon." "How do we stop him?" "Good question." "In this compromised state, anything we do could set that damn thing off." "I thought i'd find you here." "Thanks for the tip, mark." "Our little julie confessed everything, but just to be safe, i thought i'd post a guard around the device until we ship it out to the test site." "By the way, how'd you find out about julie?" "Cleo tipped me off." "She found... an anomalous code in the launch sequence." "I traced it back to julie's console." "It was the only explanation." "Really?" "That's a pretty significant breach of security." "Why didn't you tell me the moment you found out?" "We weren't sure what it meant." "You questioning our motives, les?" "Excuse us a minute, cleo." "I'm not questioning your motives, mark, but i am concerned." "Call it a hunch." "You know, it's not like either of us are oversupplied with tomorrows." "We need this test to work." "You... you wouldn't believe the heat i'm taking from..." "higher up." "Don't worry, les." "You and me, we're in this together." "Glad to hear it." "We can't lose our nerve, mark, not now." "There's way too much at stake." "I know exactly what's at stake." "Do you play poker, son?" "Afraid not, sir." "Between choir practice and the pistol range, i can hardly find the time." "Heh heh!" "You see, mark and i used to play at least once a week, and i whipped his butt every time." "You see, i could always figure out what his down cards were." "He could never hide what was in his hand... or in his head." "With all due respect, sir, dr." "Crest is... with all due respect... if there's one rat in the barn... there could just as easily be 2." "We've got less than 10 minutes." "What have you been doing?" "Input this." "It's a macro virus that will chow down on the launch sequence." "Hurry." "Where have you been, mark?" "Cleo said you were working on something." "Just some final calculations." "Standing by for ignition." "Engaging arming sequence." "Cleo, any idea what's happening?" "I'm analyzing, but it could take a few." "All right, sit back, les." "Give us some time." "We'll figure this out." "What did you just do?" "This test is far more important than you realize, mark." "I've had you and cleo cut out of the system." "We can't afford any last-minute glitches." "You know what they say in the corps about hesitation?" "This is a d.o.e. Project." "It's under my command!" "It isn't now and it never was." "Corporal." "Sir!" "Escort doctors crest and lazar from the premises immediately." "Cleo, shut the server down!" "Do it now!" "Corporal!" "Yes, sir!" "Cleo!" "Cleo, stay with me!" "Stay with me!" "Colonel glade, the teleportation field, it's destabilizing." "But that... that shouldn't be possible!" "Shut it down!" "Not responding." "Shut it down!" "Dr. Kennedy, line 5." "We're back." "Mark, look at the clock." "The loop, it's collapsing." "All right, you said it yourself." "Now we can't start pulling wires out of the device because the bomb could go off, so i think we should start by focusing on stopping the countdown." "That won't solve the bigger problem." "The bomb will still exist, and les will still try to set it off." "We need to deal with this permanently in the next 2 hours." "2 hours?" "You know we need more time than that." "Mark." "We keep trying to stop the bomb from blowing up, but we can't." "So let's stop trying." "Instead, let's get that damn thing to work the way we designed it to." "Can you run a little interference for me?" "We've lost the video feed." "Joe, any idea what's going on?" "I'm getting error messages." "What just happened to our eyes?" "That's what i'd like to know." "What the hell is wrong with this thing?" "My keyboard just froze." "Mine, too." "Cleo, talk to me." "Looks like there's a bug in the software." "Where is mark, cleo?" "I just saw him in the briefing room running some calculations." "No way." "I was just up there." "Les, i think maybe we should put a hold on this test." "It's not going to happen." "Now i need answers." "What is going on?" "Guys?" "Looks like we've got a software problem somewhere along the line." "Corporal, i want you to personally find dr." "Crest right now." "Yes, sir." "What the hell is that thing?" "Dr. Crest is not on base, sir." "System integrity's been breached." "There's someone at the device." "Mark." "Corporal." "I want you to hold on to dr." "Lazar." "Sir." "If you don't hear from me by the time the countdown gets to 30 seconds... abort." "Damn them, damn them!" "back away from the device, mark." "You've turned this into a weapon, haven't you?" "Ohh." "Come on, mark." "You're not that naive." "You didn't really think this was just about moving animals around, did you?" "It would've been nice if you had shared that with me." "I'm not that naive, either." "You wouldn't have gone along, am i right?" "Please, les, i'm just trying to fix what you've done." "I've just gotta check it." "Oh, you've already fixed it." "In 10 seconds, the test will be aborted." "And if you're unclear on how that's going to impact on us... impact?" "You want impact?" "When that bomb goes off... do you know what you've done to me?" "This test was the difference between moving up and moving out." "There is no tomorrow here, not for me." "The only way there's gonna be a tomorrow for either of us is if i finish fixing that." "How dare you lose your nerve now." "How dare you!" "Les, i'm not lying to you." "You look at that timer." "It's still going!" "The abort supersedes everything." "Who knows what your fiddling around has done to the system?" "I'm surprised the timer's not moving sideways." "If you want to piss away your career, go ahead." "But do not think that you can piss away my career with impunity." "Les, listen to me." "When you did what you did, you destroyed all the fail-safe systems." "That bomb is going off!" "What were we thinking?" "What the... what..." "To be honest, i didn't really know for sure how far the blast would go." "Guess that last wire made all the difference." "It's still possible we could redeem this project." "Heh." "I'm not even sure i want to redeem this science." "It could take the rest of our collective careers to overcome this failure." "I could live with that." "What do you think happened to glade?" "I don't know." "Maybe he's in another dimension... somewhere out of the normal flow of time." "Temporally out of orbit, you might say." "We exist in time moving forever forward through the moments of our lives, moments which once experienced can never be relived... or can they?"