A Promise of Time Travel (2016) - full transcript
A seemingly chance encounter with an estranged childhood friend draws a bookstore clerk into a plot to steal a time machine.
(acoustic piano music)
- Time is an illusion.
We think of past, present, and future
as separate things but they're not.
It's all one.
So when we depart from this
strange world it means nothing.
We may not be here but we're still there.
Just as we were.
- Einstein.
- As well as I can remember.
- What are you gonna do with your life?
You're gonna go to college
get a job, blah blah blah.
But what are you gonna do?
- What that's not enough?
- That's not anything.
- So what are you gonna do?
- Head East.
- Then what?
- Well New York eventually but
it's not the destination
that intrigues me.
- Tell me about John Foster.
We know you were living together.
Tax returns.
- He had tinnitus.
It must have been excruciating for him.
The constant ringing in his ears.
(high pitched ringing)
But he never complained and that was--
- Difficult?
- Endearing.
- God that sounds so stupid.
All those years we were together
and I talk about his tinnitus.
- [Cassie] It's romantic is what it is.
- Romantic?
- You know Kerouac and Steinbeck.
At least I have direction.
- It's literally a direction.
I'll give you that.
- Better directing myself toward
the nearest douche bag with muscles.
- That's...
...mildly unfair.
- Hey you have a type.
- Okay.
- And that type is douche bag.
- I'm gonna do better in college.
- I can't wait to see that.
Tent.
- You could come with me you know.
- East coast, no.
- Not forever, just a trip.
I'll get you back in time for college.
- You take that junky old
Taurus more than a hundred miles
in any direction and it's
gonna be a one way trip.
- So what?
Life's a one way trip.
- Wow, deep.
- You're deep.
- You're scared.
- Hardly.
- You're scared of
change, scared of school,
scared of not being the
smartest person in the room.
- Can't be scared of the impossible.
- You're scared of being alone.
- So come with me.
- [Interviewer] Tell me about the woman.
- The woman?
- The other...
- You know the funny
thing about time travel?
We do it every day.
Our memory takes us into the past.
Our imagination takes us into the future.
You don't need to build a machine.
- But memory, imagination,
they're just an exercise in thought.
You're not really there.
- And you think you're really here?
That's just your mind playing tricks.
- But I am here.
- Sure but you're also there aren't you?
Everywhere you've ever been.
- So come with me.
- [Zelda] And everywhere you'll ever be.
- I have to run out you
okay with locking up?
- Yep.
- Thanks see you tomorrow.
- [Zelda] Goodbye Walter.
- [Cassie] Well hey there stranger.
- [Zelda] Cassie.
- Is a hug out of the question?
- Yeah, no come here.
Oh you finally got a tattoo.
- Got a bunch actually.
These were my first.
They were very meaningful
to 19 year old me.
- So how's New York?
- New York?
- Wasn't that your big plan, head East?
I just always assumed--
- Yeah well truth be told I
made it as far as Las Vegas.
- Seriously?
- I know.
- Las Vegas?
- My car broke down.
By the time I got a new one.
- You'd already found adventure.
- Something like that.
- I told you that Taurus
wouldn't make it 100 miles.
- Well it made it 300 so.
- Where it died in Vegas.
- Womp womp.
- So I'm off the clock if you want a
go for a walk or something.
- How about a drive?
- I'd love to.
Just let me lock up.
(upbeat music)
- So a book store?
- Yeah.
- Sounds thrilling.
Well I hope this isn't
too exciting for you.
Don't worry it's gonna be fun.
- What?
- Just trust me okay.
(suspenseful music)
- [Scientologist] You're back.
- I'm back.
This is the friend I
was telling you about.
- Nice to meet you.
Please come.
(suspenseful music)
I'll be back when it's over
to answer any questions.
- So you didn't come back after 15--
- It's starting.
- [Video] Man. His basic purpose? Survive!
- I wonder what woman's basic purpose is.
- I know it's great, right?
- [Video] But is mere survival
the goal to which we aspire?
- I'll be right back.
- Wait, serious?
- [Video] You must ask yourself.
- Enjoy.
- [Video] Do you want
your life to be good?
Or something greater?
If greatness is something
that can be achieved.
(suspenseful music)
These things are secret to the human mind.
But they do not have to be.
(suspenseful music)
It took courage for man to stop--
(suspenseful music)
You're ready for your life
to me more than merely good.
If you think greatness is
a means to be achieved.
Than perhaps man is ready to begin.
- Let's go.
Wow wow wow wow.
Man, that is a lot to take in.
We're gonna go for a
drive and talk it over.
- I have pamphlets.
(suspenseful music)
- What the hell was that?
- [Cassie] Here.
- What the hell is this?
- Buckle up, I'll show you.
(dramatic music)
I'm home.
- Can I see it?
- Zelda you remember Dave right.
- I suppose you get to read a lot of books
you get to rewrite--
- No but you're wrong.
- No I'm not I know
that I know it's a noun.
- You know that you know it.
- But it matters right?
And I can give you--
- Yeah we had English together.
What are we doing at
Dave Belsky's apartment?
- [Cassie] I'm living here.
- It's good.
- Yeah Dave hired me for a job.
- You're back in LA for a job?
- Well yeah.
What did you think I came
back here just for you?
- Well no but.
- You did.
You totally did.
Oh no no.
- The guidance circuitry it checks
out with my grandfathers notes.
- Would someone please just
tell me why I'm standing
in Dave Belsky's apartment
with a stolen doo dad?
- Not a doo dad.
- Whatever.
- This is the guidance component for--
- Why do we have it?
- My grandfather died a year ago.
When I was going through
his stuff I found this.
What you need to know about my grandpa
was that he was in the psych
ward since before I was born.
So my whole life I thought he was a nut.
But this tells a different story.
If this is true then
in 1960 he was awarded
a research grant from the
Department of Defense.
Sold them the idea of ending
a war before it began.
They were thinking of
the Russians of course.
But grandpa had other ideas.
(dramatic music)
(machine rattling)
(gun firing)
(machine rattling)
(dramatic music)
He kept it a secret of course.
He knew the government would never risk
losing global superiority even if it meant
saving 11 million lives, and he was right.
He had an assistant who betrayed him.
Told the government what
he was planning to do.
When the government found
out they took everything
or so they thought.
Grandpa managed to sneak
the guidance component
out of the lab and hide it away
just before they did the same to him.
But even though the
government has had the machine
for 50 years they haven't been
able to do anything with it
'cause they don't have this.
- A time machine?
- Yeah.
- Your grandfather built a time machine.
- Yes.
- So what that's it?
That's your grandpa's time machine?
- No this is the guidance component.
We still need the battery and
the time travel apparatus.
My grandfather's notes tell
us where to find the battery.
But in order to find the machine
we need a copy of the governments file.
- So what you're going to just
break into a government file room?
- Well one step at a time.
The point is I'm helping Dave
out, Dave's helping me out.
But we could us a third
person so think it over?
Either way it was great seeing you.
- And just drop the mic and leave.
Well at least that hasn't changed.
- So what do you think?
- I think I'm going to call
my boyfriend to pick me up.
And then I'm going to
have a very strong drink.
- No I mean you want to help us?
- Are you kidding?
Are you kidding?
It must have fallen out in her car.
- Your phone?
- Yes Dave my phone.
Cassie.
She's gone, let me use yours.
- My what?
- Your phone.
- I don't have a phone.
- What?
- They can track you everywhere you go.
- They?
- The government.
- Alright you are driving me to Cassie.
- I don't have a car.
- Do you remember me from high school?
- Of course.
Do you remember me?
(babbling)
- I remember that you were a jerk.
- No I wasn't.
That's ridiculous.
- Yeah you really were.
- How?
Does anybody have a dictionary?
- You always had to be right.
- Oh.
Yeah I guess I did.
Well I always liked you.
I mean not like that but you know.
Well maybe a little like that.
Doesn't matter.
- So you burgle and you bartend.
- Actually.
- Don't care doesn't matter.
Left my phone in your car.
(bar music)
(phone buzzing)
- Hello.
- [Zelda] Thanks.
- You okay?
You want a drink?
- Nope.
- Dave?
- Yeah yeah I'll have another.
Thanks.
(bar music)
So you want to hear
how we're gonna get it?
- Get what?
- The file on Project Cuckoo.
- The what?
- It's what the government
codenamed my grandfathers work.
'Cause they thought he was crazy.
Anyhow do you want to hear
how we're gonna get it?
- Sure.
- So Cassie knows this guy back in Vegas.
He's sort of a purveyor
of government files.
- [Zelda] He steals them?
- [Dave] Yeah and sells them.
- There was a time this was my obsession,
my great white whale.
The kid tried to steal it from me once
and I beat him half to death.
So you'll understand my price
and why it's not negotiable.
100,000.
- Gosh Dave get one drink in you
and you're all sorts of gabby.
- I was just--
- You're cut off.
(babbling)
Go.
And you, you're not on
the hook for anything.
If you don't want to be involved.
- I don't, in any of it.
I mean a time machine?
You believe that?
- I believe what Dave pays me to believe.
And until the money
runs out, sure why not?
- Dave is paying you?
- Weekly retainer.
His grandpa left him more
than just a ratty old book.
(horn honking)
- That's me.
- You called for attraction?
- Well you did kind of kidnap me so.
- Hey don't tell your
boyfriend about this okay.
- Right.
- I mean it.
Please.
- Did you have a good time?
- Yeah.
- What'd you do?
- Just
you know
caught up.
- Fun.
- Walter do we have any
books on time travel?
- Fiction or nonfiction?
- There's nonfiction?
- [Walter] Read this.
- [Zelda Voiceover] Time
travel to the future is simple.
It just takes patience.
But if you want to go backward in time
that's a bit more complicated.
Why?
Because you would have
to go faster than light.
Photons can do this easily,
neutrinos can be convinced.
But for anything with mass,
be it a person or a tomato,
traveling faster than light is impossible.
But say you could go back in time.
What would you be able to do?
Well if you want to change
history you're out of luck.
Because time is not held
captive by our perception of it.
We think...
We think of past, present, and future...
as separate things but they're not.
It's all (book thumping)
- Good morning.
Want some eggs?
- Just a coffee if you got it.
- Of course.
- [Zelda] Thanks, see you this afternoon.
- [John] You won't actually,
I'm driving out to Vegas.
- Vegas?
- I'm covering a French food festival.
- I'll be gone through the weekend.
- Should I come out Saturday?
- I'm gonna be pretty busy.
- Okay.
Have a good trip.
- Hi.
- Oh.
Hi.
- I brought you a peace offering.
- Were we at war?
- Look I'm sorry okay
about throwing all that stuff at you.
Truth is I--
- Good morning Zelda here's your oh.
- Walter this is Cassie we
went to high school together.
Cassie this is my boss, Walter.
- Oh please your colleague. (laughing)
(grunts)
Zelda when you get a moment I'd like to
go over some things with you up front.
- [Zelda] Yeah sure I can--
- Oh no no no no take
your time there's no rush.
I'll be up front.
- Oh my God you work for a creeper.
- Stop.
- He is, he totally has a creepy crush.
- Walter's gay.
- Did you see the way he looked at you?
- He's gay.
- Right.
(somber music)
Well you have my offering of peace.
(somber music)
It's not the destination
that intrigues me.
(somber music)
(bar music)
- Hey.
What are you doing here?
- Peace offering.
- I don't normally drink coffee
this close to midnight but.
- Ooh sorry I--
- Zelda I'm kidding.
- Jimberly, this is Zelda.
Zelda this is Jimberly.
- It's just Jim.
- Hi it's nice to--
- Wet hands.
- So this thing with Dave.
If he's paying you--
- Speak of the Devil and he shall appear.
Dave, you want a drink?
- No just a water.
- Come on Dave let me buy you a drink.
It's the least I can do for
the man that's gonna kill Hitler.
- I'm not going to kill Hitler.
- That's right you're not
because you didn't so you won't.
- What?
- Oh yeah I've been reading up.
- What Novikov?
- The self-consistency principle.
- But that's only if we live
in a non branching universe.
- Which is the favored hypothesis.
- No, there's no favored hypothesis.
- Sure there is, you're
branching universe--
- It's the most logical approach.
- The most logical
approach is to look at time
for what it is, a four dimensional entity
that exists outside your
conscious perception.
- No because so called self-consistency
means there's no free will.
- Free will never allowed you to
do something physically impossible.
If you want to be a tomato
the size of the universe
no matter how much you hope
and try it's not gonna happen.
Changing the past is the same thing.
If you do travel back in time,
even though it's in your subjective future
it's in the objective past.
So if you could travel back in time
and if you were determined
to change the past
when it came down to it
you'd either decide not to
or you'd fail.
- You have been reading up.
- Doesn't mean she knows
what she's talking about.
- Just stick a knife in
his heart why don't you?
- What?
- Cassie you mind putting up
the tea party and helping me out?
- Tea party?
- There's a line.
- There's a lime.
- No, a line.
- A lime.
(Jim growls)
(Cassie mocks Jim growling)
(both laughing)
A couple of teenagers up to no good.
You tend to pop out more.
- Yeah a couple of times.
How old were you when that happened?
- 17, 17.
- Everybody sang happy birthday.
- So cool.
That was a good time.
- Are you seeing anyone?
- Oh Lord, how did we circle
around to that subject?
- Is that a yes?
- That's decidedly a no.
- Have you had any companionship?
- Are you asking because
you really want to know?
Or are you just trying to be polite?
- I...
Polite.
- Well I'm not a nun if that's
what you're worried about.
I've had one or two
girlfriends over the years.
Plenty of hookups.
Just nothing long term.
- Do you want that?
- Doesn't everyone?
- Oh I don't know, big bad cat burglar.
Maybe you got other plans.
- Right.
And truth be told I would love to just
work in that bookstore with you.
- Really?
Wouldn't that bore you to death?
- Not if I was the boss man.
I mean creepy crush has got
to be retiring soon right?
- Walter's gay.
- You keep telling yourself that.
- Do you ever think
about that camping trip?
- Sure, probably more than I should.
- I never apologized.
- Are you kidding?
You have nothing to apologize for.
- You're scared of being alone.
- So come with me.
- And spend our whole life running away?
- Not away just toward something else.
- See this is why you
need to go to college,
so you can meet people,
make an actual connection.
- I thought that's what I was doing.
- Not with me with people.
- You are not people?
- Romantic type people.
- Oh, romantic type people.
- You know what I mean, you need too...
- Get laid?
- Well I wouldn't put it like that.
- Oh no you're much to demure
to actually say what you mean.
Which one of us is the one we can't trust?
- What?
- You Might be Giants.
(gagging)
Shut up, they're brilliant.
- Have you heard them sing?
(crickets chirping)
- Don't go.
It was just a kiss.
I won't do it again.
What you're just gonna storm off?
Pitch black, middle of the night.
I'm not coming after you.
- [Zelda] Good.
- Yes well, mistakes were made.
(acoustic piano music)
(phone buzzing)
- Hey there.
- Hey.
How's Vegas?
- Loud.
- Tinnitus bothering you?
- Actually today I'm feeling
pretty good about it.
What are you up to?
- I'm
at a bar.
Just wanted to hear your voice.
- Well I'd like to talk
more but deadline you know.
- Okay, see you Monday.
- Yeah.
(acoustic piano music)
- Okay so this line--
- Dave that was like an hour ago.
- Hey guys got to close up.
- Okay.
I should get home.
- Hang out with Dave for a second.
There's something I want to show you.
- Okay.
- Give me two minutes.
- Cassie.
- Two minutes.
- You really want me to look
at your sketches don't you?
Fine I'll--
- Get down.
- [Jim] And you're gonna mop right?
- [Cassie] Yes I'm going to mop.
- Alright see you tomorrow.
(suspenseful music)
- Let's go.
- [Zelda] What are you?
(suspenseful music)
- Alright come on, come on,
come on, come on, come on.
(suspenseful music)
- Where's Dave?
What the hell are you doing?
- The cameras?
- I switched them off.
Come on.
(suspenseful music)
Got the sledge?
- Here.
- Why does it smell like milk?
- I hid it in the trash.
- What?
- I hid it under the...
(suspenseful music)
50 years ago this was not a bar.
(sledge hammer smashing)
It was my grandfathers lab.
(sledge hammer smashing)
He built a special battery
to power the time machine.
(sledge hammer smashing)
The government took it,
destroyed it probably.
(sledge hammer smashing)
But what they didn't know is
that he built a second one.
(sledge hammer smashing)
And he hid it in the wall.
Smart man my grandpa.
- [Jim] Cassie.
(suspenseful music)
Yo Cassie.
- Jimberly, couldn't get
enough of me could you?
- My phone, I forgot it.
What are you doing up here?
- Looking for the bleach.
- It's down in the mop closet.
- Really?
I looked.
- Right.
Stop screwing around and do your job.
- [Cassie] What about you?
Leaving me here to do the mopping.
- It's your turn to do the mopping.
- Well just show me where
your precious bleach is.
- In the mop closet, where else?
(suspenseful music)
(footsteps approaching)
- He's gone.
- We're on our way.
- Two down one to go.
- Technically two to go but yeah.
Yeah we're on the right track.
Thank you Cassie.
So you guys hanging out tonight or?
Alright.
See you back home.
- Yep.
Listen, I'm sorry I
know you didn't want to
be involved in any of this thievery.
- Yeah no it's fine.
- You kind of had fun didn't you?
- I kind of did.
But I mean it wasn't
like we were stealing--
- No right.
- It was like we were reclaiming.
- Right.
- Do you want to give me a ride?
- God, like we're back in high school.
Come on.
(acoustic piano music)
- This is it.
- Nice.
- I want to do it again.
- [Cassie] Break into your apartment?
- Yes.
- You want to break in
to your own apartment?
- Yes.
- Okay.
- [Zelda] It's that easy?
- No.
I'm just that good.
- Okay I want to try.
- Tension wrench, rake.
- Okay just let me try.
- You really need to understand how--
- Let me try.
(acoustic piano music)
♫ There is a river wide
♫ There is a river
♫ You caught a glimpse of it
♫ Do you remember
♫ There is a place for us
♫ Beneath the raging waters
♫ If we could taste and see
♫ If we could taste and see
- I did it.
I totally did it.
- Yeah only took you 45 minutes.
- [Zelda] Here.
- Oh you can keep them.
- [Zelda] Seriously?
- Yeah, pretty sure those are jinxed.
- You think it's real?
The time machine.
- Are you kidding?
Of course not.
Why?
What would you do if it was?
- Oh I don't know, meet famous people?
Mary Geary, I bet she'd be
fascinating conversation.
And Sylvia Plath, to visit
here the night she died.
- Would you try and stop her?
- Well you can't because--
- Yes, self-consistency blah blah blah.
- Right.
But I could sit with
her, talk if she wanted.
And at the end she wouldn't be alone.
- What about in your own
life, what would you change?
- You can't.
- If you could.
- I don't think I'd want to.
- Really?
You have no regrets?
- I don't think of it like that.
It's more like, well take you and me.
Think of all the misery
you've put me through.
- I've put you through?
- Well you can be a pretty frustrating
person to be friends with.
- Oh can I?
I was not without my own frustrations
by the way which one might argue were
significantly more substantial than yours.
- I mean that I wouldn't
change the bad stuff
if it meant giving up the good stuff.
- Oh there was good stuff in addition to
the pretty frustrating?
- Yes.
- Well let's hear it.
- Oh shall I count the ways?
- Yeah.
- Despite all this you make me smile.
- What that's it?
- Don't be greedy.
What would you change if you could?
- Everything.
I may have overdone it with the wine.
- [Zelda] You think?
- Thanks for letting me crash.
- Of course.
- So Sylvia Plath?
- Yeah, I got into her in college.
- The slime of all my yesterday's
rots in the hollow of my skull.
- The future was lost yesterday.
as a tennis ball at twilight.
- a tennis ball at twilight.
- I feel like we're back in fifth grade.
- I hope not.
I feel like we're on that camping trip.
- Cassie, you know I love you right?
- Do I?
- You should.
- Now?
- Oh yeah sure come in.
The folks upstairs have
requested a blood sample.
Is that okay?
- Do I have a choice?
- [Tech] Hold that.
- So Cassie spent the night?
- Not like that.
- Like what?
- She just slept over.
- Isn't that what I said?
She spent the night.
What happened next?
- Good morning.
You must be Cassie.
- We got a little drunk and
Cassie didn't want to drive home.
- Okay.
- Nothing happened.
- [John] I said okay.
- Cassie.
Where's your car?
Someone stole Cassie's car.
This is ridiculous.
It was one thing with
the bikes but now this?
- [Cassie] Hang up the phone.
- Your car was stolen.
- Z, hang up the phone.
- I think it's time we addressed
the elephant in the room.
- You took her car?
- I moved it, just up the street.
But I did take this.
Or took it back I should say.
You didn't open it.
Why not?
- There was time.
- Can you open it?
Show me.
Safe cracking is a lost art.
I used to do it myself many years ago but
(bat thumping)
not since the tinnitus.
- What's inside?
(suspenseful music)
- How'd you know?
- Flannigan.
Don't take it personally.
He was (bat thuds) under duress.
Side note, you're deal with
him is going to put on hold.
- So you understand my price
and why it's not negotiable.
100,000.
- 100?
- Dave.
- But we don't have that kind of money.
- Of course you don't but
this man does, John Foster.
He carries his bank roll in cash.
You get me his money
I'll give you the file.
(suspenseful music)
- Why him?
- He used to work for me 10, 12 year ago.
Sadly his performance was not exemplary.
I provided a fair severance package but
as the years tick by well
some things we let go and
some things we just don't.
So do we have deal?
- No.
- Yes.
- Well but that's--
- I said yes.
We'll do it.
- Bit unprofessional don't you think?
Picking a peers pocket.
- So that's why you came back,
not for me but for him, for that.
And you.
All these years you been lying to me.
You're not a travel writer.
You're a thief.
- Well thieves and travel writers are
rogues of a certain strength.
I could see Anthony Bourdain as a thief.
- Hey, you have a type.
- Okay.
- And that type is douche bag.
- Oh I'd sit back down if I were you.
We still have things to discuss.
- Nothing involving a baseball bat I hope.
- No.
This.
- You stole it from Flannigan.
- Well I didn't drive all the way to Vegas
just to bop him on the head.
Now, how much is fair?
- For the file?
- No, to buy in.
10?
20?
Let's say 20.
I want to meet Belsky's
grandson, compare notes.
Why don't you bring him
by tomorrow morning?
Great, and bring the
battery and guidance box too
as a show of good faith.
And cheer up trooper.
We're going to make history.
Found you.
I was 18, living on the
street, no food, no money.
I started stealing because I had to.
And turned out I was pretty good at it.
So I kept at it, I got better.
I developed an ear, learned
how to pick locks, crack safes.
But then I had this kind of
life changing experience,
I got a second chance
and I decided to go
straight and it was tough.
I never went to college.
And the kind of job I could get.
But I did what I could.
I made enough.
But then I met you.
And I fell I love with you.
And you fell in love with me.
And suddenly enough wasn't enough.
I wanted to give you more and
the only way I could do that
was to slip back into this other life.
- So it's my fault.
- Well you did want to go to Paris.
Zelda it's a job, just a job.
But if you really want me to stop.
- I want that.
- Then I'll stop.
But it was a little sexy right?
(acoustic piano music)
- [Television] So strollers
are the new fat people.
Laugh it up that's the whole joke alright.
I'm tired of doing all the work.
Must I, must I?
Can I get a little help?
Let's make the connections together right?
There in my way, yes.
(laughing)
(acoustic piano music)
- Coffee?
Do you want to talk about it?
- I really don't.
- There was a girl.
I'd spent half of my life chasing her
and every once in awhile
she's let me catch her.
But it was never right
when we were lovers.
Even when it felt like it was.
If I had it to do over
I'd give up the chase before it started.
Just
let her go.
Want to take the day off?
Go ahead take it off.
- Morning.
Come in, come in.
(suspenseful music)
Project Cuckoo--
- Was the governments name
for my grandfather's machine.
I know.
Insult to injury.
Where is it?
(suspenseful music)
- I tried for many years to make it work.
Of course I couldn't, not without these.
The project was moth balled in 1995
and sent to a storage facility.
- So how do we get it?
If these floor plans are correct
I should be able to find it--
(door opens)
You're home early.
One second.
Zelda wait.
- You said you were done.
- I am.
- That didn't look like done.
- That looked like you sitting around
running some kind of con.
- It's not a con.
- There is no time
machine, it doesn't exist.
- Well then I can't steal it can I?
- Call it off.
- What?
- Go back in there and call it off.
- Zelda.
- Call it off or you and I are done.
- I can't.
- Okay.
Have fun stealing your time machine.
- You know the funny
thing about time travel?
We do it every day.
Our memory takes us into the past.
Our imagination takes us into the future.
You don't need to build a--
- There's my keys.
If you try to come near
me I'll call the police.
- So where are we going?
- Need you to crack a safe.
- Oh is that all?
- It's residential, no
security, no alarms.
- Who's the mark?
- An old friend.
The safe's in his bedroom.
Grab everything that's inside.
- What I can't crack it?
- Well that'd be
disappointing wouldn't it?
(knocking on door)
- John, Cassie, welcome.
- Hello, John?
- Well dinner's nearly ready
but first join me for a coffee.
- It's not decaf is it?
- Do I look like a monster?
Of course it's not decaf.
- Up top.
- Oh lighten up John.
This is quite a singular moment.
We might as well enjoy ourselves.
- So Walter do you know this
dude through Zelda or what?
- Actually the other way around.
John and I go back gosh
how many years now?
- One or two.
- Oh he's just being polite about my age.
- And are you really gay?
Zelda thinks your gay.
I think you're a creeper.
- I have been gay but I prefer women.
Does that make me a creeper?
- Man where did you dig this guy up?
Digging the coffee though.
Could I use your restroom?
(suspenseful music)
- Upstairs on the left,
across from the bedroom.
(suspenseful music)
Is this exciting for you?
This moment now?
- I just want what you promised.
- Is that all you can say?
Aren't you just a little bit tingly?
Standing on the cusp of uncertainty.
- It doesn't feel uncertain.
- It could be.
It could end here if we let it.
Our sins could be expunged.
- It was consenting adults.
- Uninformed consent.
(suspenseful music)
(film beeping)
If you search your thoughts
you know I'm right.
- I know you're old,
and I'm beginning to think you're senile.
- I'm plenty sharp.
But memory that's a tricky thing isn't it?
There was a time when I go back year
by year and remember every detail
as clearly as when it first happened.
And then that went away,
sooner than I thought it would.
Funny thing remembering that
you used to remember more.
Tell me John how clear are your memories?
- Clear enough.
- Well I better set the table.
(suspenseful music)
- Why do you have this?
Is this what you wanted me to steal?
- No.
It was this.
- Tell me Cassie years from now
when you're old and gray
what will you regret?
- This is my entire childhood.
- I'll tell you what I regret.
There was a woman.
I loved her more than life itself,
or at least I thought I did.
The fact is I sought to
possess her, like a thing.
Who did I love more?
Her?
Or myself?
- What do you want with me?
- To spare you regret.
(dramatic music)
(dull thumping)
(music stops)
I had to try.
- No you didn't.
- Please let me keep them.
Please?
(somber music)
- Who is he?
- Walter Markham.
- Who is he really?
- You're a smart girl.
You'll figure it out.
(somber music)
♫ There is a place for us
♫ Beneath the raging water
♫ If we could taste and see
♫ If we could taste and see
- Cassie.
See you tomorrow.
- There's something I need to show you.
(film beeping)
- This is Doctor Hyrum Belsky.
This is my assistant Archie.
This is the first field
test in our laboratory
of the time transference device.
May we begin Archie?
(machine rumbling)
You're fine, you're fine Archie.
(machine rumbling louder)
(electricity crackling)
(helmet explodes)
(rumbling stops)
- So what happened?
- He died is what happened.
This machine, this whole thing.
Dave's grandpa was a loon.
All he built was a device
that explodes peoples heads.
- Maybe.
- What do you mean maybe?
- I don't know.
I never thought any of this was real.
But I was at your bosses house tonight.
- What?
- He had this.
Why did he have this?
I have to help John steal the time machine
because I have to keep him from using it.
- If he uses it he's dead.
- Unless what if he's not?
What if despite all outward appearances
he'll be able to go back
in time, change things?
- Even if he could somehow go back--
- You can't change the past?
- Well you can't.
- Are you willing to bet your whole life
on something you read in a book?
Because if you're wrong
and he can go back in time
what's to stop him from
hitting the delete key
on both of us ending us
before we even began?
- He wouldn't do that.
- But if he could then he could.
Do you get me?
(phone buzzes)
- [John] Hello.
- You're the stealing the
time machine tomorrow.
- I'm going to try.
- I want to come with you.
- Why, did you call the police?
- [Zelda] No.
- Said if I came near you
you'd call the police.
- This is me coming near you.
- Zelda what if we forget
about the time machine?
Forget everything.
What if you and I just go away together?
Just get in the car and go.
If could be like it was.
- No it can't.
- Alright.
Wear sunglasses.
- He agreed?
- He agreed.
- Good.
Then let's get to work.
(upbeat music)
I'm here and you have to
go forward and around.
(upbeat music gets louder)
(overlapping voices)
(acoustic piano music)
- If I could go back and change something
I wouldn't let all those years
go by without seeing you,
without you being a part of my life.
If I could change the
past that's what I'd do.
It was just a kiss.
I shouldn't have...
I'm sorry.
- I really did love you you know?
- I wish I could give you more.
- I wish I didn't need more.
- Well you're about 10 hours early.
- We need to talk.
- Please come in.
- There's some fundamental
things we need to straighten out.
This machine is more and
just my family's legacy.
It's my responsibility.
And as soon as we figure
out exactly how it works
and what it does there needs
to be a serious conversation
about how it should be responsibly used.
- [John] Responsibly?
- That's right.
- Well if your friends have their way
it'll all be a moot point.
Zelda wants to join us on
our excursion tomorrow.
Which can only mean that
Cassie recruited her.
- What do you mean?
- They want to steal it
for themselves, cut us out.
- What, but they---
- Dave.
Relax, we're gonna keep
that from happening.
But first things first.
Let's fix you some coffee.
(dramatic music)
- Brought the hammer.
Just in case.
I can hide it in my coat.
I don't need to see anything.
(acoustic piano music)
- What if we forget
about the time machine?
Forget everything.
- I wouldn't let all those
years go by without seeing you.
- What if you and I just go away together?
- You could come with me you know?
- If I could change the past--
- Just get in the car--
- that's what I'd do.
- and go.
- It's not the destination
that intrigues me.
- It could be like it was.
- I really did love you you know?
(acoustic piano music)
- I didn't bring, I didn't get nervous.
You didn't bring a bar.
Did you bring a bar?
Like a, no probably not.
I should of brought one I have like a box
of blueberry bars in my cabinet but I...
We could stop at Winchell's.
I think there's a Winchell's on the way.
You like Winchell's?
Are you more of like
a, like a local donut?
(suspenseful music)
I like a local donut.
(suspenseful music)
- Listen, listen.
(groaning in pain)
You leave this room and
you'll never be with her.
- This is your fault.
You and Cassie we're gonna cut me out.
- No we were gonna destroy it.
- That's cutting me out.
- So there it is.
I'm you.
I've always been you.
You become me.
And then you become him.
I should have told you before but
I was greedy.
Thought I could change things.
- John's in there right
now he could be using it.
- Here you'll need this.
You can't change the past.
That is still your future.
Still don't believe me?
Then I'll go first.
(suspenseful music)
- John's lied to all of us.
You think he didn't lie to you?
- No John respects me.
He understands me, he.
(electrical buzzing)
- Give me the hammer.
- No I...
(electrical buzzing)
(hammer drops)
- [Cassie] Is this what
you wanted me to steal?
- No.
It was this.
Here you'll need this.
You can't change the past.
That is still your future.
- If I could go back and change something
I wouldn't let all those years
go by without seeing you,
without you being a part of my life.
If I could change the
past that's what I'd do.
I wish I could give you more.
- I wish I didn't need more.
Oh God.
(alarm blaring)
(suspenseful music)
I'll see you again.
- No don't.
- Mr. Belsky.
We'll try again tomorrow.
- This is a release freeing the government
of any indemnity from yesterday's events.
- What?
- This is a nondisclosure agreement.
It includes the contents
of your deposition
to my collogue as well as
additional articles listed herein.
Make sure you read it before you sign it.
And finally these are the terms
of your conditional probation.
You need to return here once a year
for a physical examination.
Any breach of these terms and
we will detain you further.
Do you understand?
- What about the bodies?
- What bodies?
(dramatic music)
We will want to examine the child
assuming the delivery is successful.
- What?
- You didn't know?
It was in your blood work.
- What was?
- You're pregnant Miss Jones.
Congratulations.
- Oh there he is.
Hi Charlie, my name's Walter.
Come on in, come on in please please.
How old is he now?
- Almost two.
- Ah, he's beautiful.
- Thank you.
- I miss you at the bookstore.
Would you ever consider coming back?
Well it's good to see you.
It's been far too long.
- [Zelda] Why did you have this?
- That's not mine.
- Walter.
- What's past is past.
(acoustic piano music)
(car starts)
I'll see you again.
(suspenseful music)
- What's past is past?
(suspenseful music)
No, that's not good enough.
(suspenseful music)
- He told me.
- [Walter] I have many regrets Dave.
Most of them I can do nothing about.
- And I didn't believe him.
- But I wanted you to see this.
You were always a good
friend to me and well
this is the least I can do for you.
- So there it is.
I'm you.
I've always been you.
You become me.
And then you become him.
- I would love to just work
in that bookstore with you.
- [John] Three lifetimes, try
not to be greedy about it.
- He said it wasn't an insult.
It's the name he gave the
machine, Project Cuckoo.
It was descriptive.
- The cuckoo is a bird parasite.
- It finds the nest of another bird.
- Kicks the egg to the ground,
and lays one in it's place.
- To travel back in time you
have to move faster than light.
- Impossible for physical matter.
- My grandfather knew that.
Knew he could never send a body.
But a mind.
- There was a girl.
I'd spent half of my life chasing her.
And every once in awhile
she'd let me catch her.
But it was never right
when we were lovers,
even when it felt like it was.
- But a mind.
Of course it would need somewhere to go.
- Someone, but the brain...
- Is like a computer.
In order to upload all that data
it needs an empty drive.
- So, just like the cuckoo bird
the traveler empties the
nest and takes it's place.
- But what about the infant?
The person who came before?
- There only ever was the traveler.
You can't change the past.
- Zelda for what it's worth I had no.
- [Walter] The traveler empties the nest
and takes it's place.
- [Dave] But what about the infant?
- [Walter] There only
ever was the traveler.
- [John] You can't change the past but--
- [Cassie] But the
future, the future awaits.
(dramatic music)
♫ Watch over our bodies
♫ Watch over
(acoustic piano music)
♫ There is a place for us
♫ Beneath the raging water
♫ If we could taste and see
♫ If we could taste and see
- Time is an illusion.
We think of past, present, and future
as separate things but they're not.
It's all one.
So when we depart from this
strange world it means nothing.
We may not be here but we're still there.
Just as we were.
- Einstein.
- As well as I can remember.
- What are you gonna do with your life?
You're gonna go to college
get a job, blah blah blah.
But what are you gonna do?
- What that's not enough?
- That's not anything.
- So what are you gonna do?
- Head East.
- Then what?
- Well New York eventually but
it's not the destination
that intrigues me.
- Tell me about John Foster.
We know you were living together.
Tax returns.
- He had tinnitus.
It must have been excruciating for him.
The constant ringing in his ears.
(high pitched ringing)
But he never complained and that was--
- Difficult?
- Endearing.
- God that sounds so stupid.
All those years we were together
and I talk about his tinnitus.
- [Cassie] It's romantic is what it is.
- Romantic?
- You know Kerouac and Steinbeck.
At least I have direction.
- It's literally a direction.
I'll give you that.
- Better directing myself toward
the nearest douche bag with muscles.
- That's...
...mildly unfair.
- Hey you have a type.
- Okay.
- And that type is douche bag.
- I'm gonna do better in college.
- I can't wait to see that.
Tent.
- You could come with me you know.
- East coast, no.
- Not forever, just a trip.
I'll get you back in time for college.
- You take that junky old
Taurus more than a hundred miles
in any direction and it's
gonna be a one way trip.
- So what?
Life's a one way trip.
- Wow, deep.
- You're deep.
- You're scared.
- Hardly.
- You're scared of
change, scared of school,
scared of not being the
smartest person in the room.
- Can't be scared of the impossible.
- You're scared of being alone.
- So come with me.
- [Interviewer] Tell me about the woman.
- The woman?
- The other...
- You know the funny
thing about time travel?
We do it every day.
Our memory takes us into the past.
Our imagination takes us into the future.
You don't need to build a machine.
- But memory, imagination,
they're just an exercise in thought.
You're not really there.
- And you think you're really here?
That's just your mind playing tricks.
- But I am here.
- Sure but you're also there aren't you?
Everywhere you've ever been.
- So come with me.
- [Zelda] And everywhere you'll ever be.
- I have to run out you
okay with locking up?
- Yep.
- Thanks see you tomorrow.
- [Zelda] Goodbye Walter.
- [Cassie] Well hey there stranger.
- [Zelda] Cassie.
- Is a hug out of the question?
- Yeah, no come here.
Oh you finally got a tattoo.
- Got a bunch actually.
These were my first.
They were very meaningful
to 19 year old me.
- So how's New York?
- New York?
- Wasn't that your big plan, head East?
I just always assumed--
- Yeah well truth be told I
made it as far as Las Vegas.
- Seriously?
- I know.
- Las Vegas?
- My car broke down.
By the time I got a new one.
- You'd already found adventure.
- Something like that.
- I told you that Taurus
wouldn't make it 100 miles.
- Well it made it 300 so.
- Where it died in Vegas.
- Womp womp.
- So I'm off the clock if you want a
go for a walk or something.
- How about a drive?
- I'd love to.
Just let me lock up.
(upbeat music)
- So a book store?
- Yeah.
- Sounds thrilling.
Well I hope this isn't
too exciting for you.
Don't worry it's gonna be fun.
- What?
- Just trust me okay.
(suspenseful music)
- [Scientologist] You're back.
- I'm back.
This is the friend I
was telling you about.
- Nice to meet you.
Please come.
(suspenseful music)
I'll be back when it's over
to answer any questions.
- So you didn't come back after 15--
- It's starting.
- [Video] Man. His basic purpose? Survive!
- I wonder what woman's basic purpose is.
- I know it's great, right?
- [Video] But is mere survival
the goal to which we aspire?
- I'll be right back.
- Wait, serious?
- [Video] You must ask yourself.
- Enjoy.
- [Video] Do you want
your life to be good?
Or something greater?
If greatness is something
that can be achieved.
(suspenseful music)
These things are secret to the human mind.
But they do not have to be.
(suspenseful music)
It took courage for man to stop--
(suspenseful music)
You're ready for your life
to me more than merely good.
If you think greatness is
a means to be achieved.
Than perhaps man is ready to begin.
- Let's go.
Wow wow wow wow.
Man, that is a lot to take in.
We're gonna go for a
drive and talk it over.
- I have pamphlets.
(suspenseful music)
- What the hell was that?
- [Cassie] Here.
- What the hell is this?
- Buckle up, I'll show you.
(dramatic music)
I'm home.
- Can I see it?
- Zelda you remember Dave right.
- I suppose you get to read a lot of books
you get to rewrite--
- No but you're wrong.
- No I'm not I know
that I know it's a noun.
- You know that you know it.
- But it matters right?
And I can give you--
- Yeah we had English together.
What are we doing at
Dave Belsky's apartment?
- [Cassie] I'm living here.
- It's good.
- Yeah Dave hired me for a job.
- You're back in LA for a job?
- Well yeah.
What did you think I came
back here just for you?
- Well no but.
- You did.
You totally did.
Oh no no.
- The guidance circuitry it checks
out with my grandfathers notes.
- Would someone please just
tell me why I'm standing
in Dave Belsky's apartment
with a stolen doo dad?
- Not a doo dad.
- Whatever.
- This is the guidance component for--
- Why do we have it?
- My grandfather died a year ago.
When I was going through
his stuff I found this.
What you need to know about my grandpa
was that he was in the psych
ward since before I was born.
So my whole life I thought he was a nut.
But this tells a different story.
If this is true then
in 1960 he was awarded
a research grant from the
Department of Defense.
Sold them the idea of ending
a war before it began.
They were thinking of
the Russians of course.
But grandpa had other ideas.
(dramatic music)
(machine rattling)
(gun firing)
(machine rattling)
(dramatic music)
He kept it a secret of course.
He knew the government would never risk
losing global superiority even if it meant
saving 11 million lives, and he was right.
He had an assistant who betrayed him.
Told the government what
he was planning to do.
When the government found
out they took everything
or so they thought.
Grandpa managed to sneak
the guidance component
out of the lab and hide it away
just before they did the same to him.
But even though the
government has had the machine
for 50 years they haven't been
able to do anything with it
'cause they don't have this.
- A time machine?
- Yeah.
- Your grandfather built a time machine.
- Yes.
- So what that's it?
That's your grandpa's time machine?
- No this is the guidance component.
We still need the battery and
the time travel apparatus.
My grandfather's notes tell
us where to find the battery.
But in order to find the machine
we need a copy of the governments file.
- So what you're going to just
break into a government file room?
- Well one step at a time.
The point is I'm helping Dave
out, Dave's helping me out.
But we could us a third
person so think it over?
Either way it was great seeing you.
- And just drop the mic and leave.
Well at least that hasn't changed.
- So what do you think?
- I think I'm going to call
my boyfriend to pick me up.
And then I'm going to
have a very strong drink.
- No I mean you want to help us?
- Are you kidding?
Are you kidding?
It must have fallen out in her car.
- Your phone?
- Yes Dave my phone.
Cassie.
She's gone, let me use yours.
- My what?
- Your phone.
- I don't have a phone.
- What?
- They can track you everywhere you go.
- They?
- The government.
- Alright you are driving me to Cassie.
- I don't have a car.
- Do you remember me from high school?
- Of course.
Do you remember me?
(babbling)
- I remember that you were a jerk.
- No I wasn't.
That's ridiculous.
- Yeah you really were.
- How?
Does anybody have a dictionary?
- You always had to be right.
- Oh.
Yeah I guess I did.
Well I always liked you.
I mean not like that but you know.
Well maybe a little like that.
Doesn't matter.
- So you burgle and you bartend.
- Actually.
- Don't care doesn't matter.
Left my phone in your car.
(bar music)
(phone buzzing)
- Hello.
- [Zelda] Thanks.
- You okay?
You want a drink?
- Nope.
- Dave?
- Yeah yeah I'll have another.
Thanks.
(bar music)
So you want to hear
how we're gonna get it?
- Get what?
- The file on Project Cuckoo.
- The what?
- It's what the government
codenamed my grandfathers work.
'Cause they thought he was crazy.
Anyhow do you want to hear
how we're gonna get it?
- Sure.
- So Cassie knows this guy back in Vegas.
He's sort of a purveyor
of government files.
- [Zelda] He steals them?
- [Dave] Yeah and sells them.
- There was a time this was my obsession,
my great white whale.
The kid tried to steal it from me once
and I beat him half to death.
So you'll understand my price
and why it's not negotiable.
100,000.
- Gosh Dave get one drink in you
and you're all sorts of gabby.
- I was just--
- You're cut off.
(babbling)
Go.
And you, you're not on
the hook for anything.
If you don't want to be involved.
- I don't, in any of it.
I mean a time machine?
You believe that?
- I believe what Dave pays me to believe.
And until the money
runs out, sure why not?
- Dave is paying you?
- Weekly retainer.
His grandpa left him more
than just a ratty old book.
(horn honking)
- That's me.
- You called for attraction?
- Well you did kind of kidnap me so.
- Hey don't tell your
boyfriend about this okay.
- Right.
- I mean it.
Please.
- Did you have a good time?
- Yeah.
- What'd you do?
- Just
you know
caught up.
- Fun.
- Walter do we have any
books on time travel?
- Fiction or nonfiction?
- There's nonfiction?
- [Walter] Read this.
- [Zelda Voiceover] Time
travel to the future is simple.
It just takes patience.
But if you want to go backward in time
that's a bit more complicated.
Why?
Because you would have
to go faster than light.
Photons can do this easily,
neutrinos can be convinced.
But for anything with mass,
be it a person or a tomato,
traveling faster than light is impossible.
But say you could go back in time.
What would you be able to do?
Well if you want to change
history you're out of luck.
Because time is not held
captive by our perception of it.
We think...
We think of past, present, and future...
as separate things but they're not.
It's all (book thumping)
- Good morning.
Want some eggs?
- Just a coffee if you got it.
- Of course.
- [Zelda] Thanks, see you this afternoon.
- [John] You won't actually,
I'm driving out to Vegas.
- Vegas?
- I'm covering a French food festival.
- I'll be gone through the weekend.
- Should I come out Saturday?
- I'm gonna be pretty busy.
- Okay.
Have a good trip.
- Hi.
- Oh.
Hi.
- I brought you a peace offering.
- Were we at war?
- Look I'm sorry okay
about throwing all that stuff at you.
Truth is I--
- Good morning Zelda here's your oh.
- Walter this is Cassie we
went to high school together.
Cassie this is my boss, Walter.
- Oh please your colleague. (laughing)
(grunts)
Zelda when you get a moment I'd like to
go over some things with you up front.
- [Zelda] Yeah sure I can--
- Oh no no no no take
your time there's no rush.
I'll be up front.
- Oh my God you work for a creeper.
- Stop.
- He is, he totally has a creepy crush.
- Walter's gay.
- Did you see the way he looked at you?
- He's gay.
- Right.
(somber music)
Well you have my offering of peace.
(somber music)
It's not the destination
that intrigues me.
(somber music)
(bar music)
- Hey.
What are you doing here?
- Peace offering.
- I don't normally drink coffee
this close to midnight but.
- Ooh sorry I--
- Zelda I'm kidding.
- Jimberly, this is Zelda.
Zelda this is Jimberly.
- It's just Jim.
- Hi it's nice to--
- Wet hands.
- So this thing with Dave.
If he's paying you--
- Speak of the Devil and he shall appear.
Dave, you want a drink?
- No just a water.
- Come on Dave let me buy you a drink.
It's the least I can do for
the man that's gonna kill Hitler.
- I'm not going to kill Hitler.
- That's right you're not
because you didn't so you won't.
- What?
- Oh yeah I've been reading up.
- What Novikov?
- The self-consistency principle.
- But that's only if we live
in a non branching universe.
- Which is the favored hypothesis.
- No, there's no favored hypothesis.
- Sure there is, you're
branching universe--
- It's the most logical approach.
- The most logical
approach is to look at time
for what it is, a four dimensional entity
that exists outside your
conscious perception.
- No because so called self-consistency
means there's no free will.
- Free will never allowed you to
do something physically impossible.
If you want to be a tomato
the size of the universe
no matter how much you hope
and try it's not gonna happen.
Changing the past is the same thing.
If you do travel back in time,
even though it's in your subjective future
it's in the objective past.
So if you could travel back in time
and if you were determined
to change the past
when it came down to it
you'd either decide not to
or you'd fail.
- You have been reading up.
- Doesn't mean she knows
what she's talking about.
- Just stick a knife in
his heart why don't you?
- What?
- Cassie you mind putting up
the tea party and helping me out?
- Tea party?
- There's a line.
- There's a lime.
- No, a line.
- A lime.
(Jim growls)
(Cassie mocks Jim growling)
(both laughing)
A couple of teenagers up to no good.
You tend to pop out more.
- Yeah a couple of times.
How old were you when that happened?
- 17, 17.
- Everybody sang happy birthday.
- So cool.
That was a good time.
- Are you seeing anyone?
- Oh Lord, how did we circle
around to that subject?
- Is that a yes?
- That's decidedly a no.
- Have you had any companionship?
- Are you asking because
you really want to know?
Or are you just trying to be polite?
- I...
Polite.
- Well I'm not a nun if that's
what you're worried about.
I've had one or two
girlfriends over the years.
Plenty of hookups.
Just nothing long term.
- Do you want that?
- Doesn't everyone?
- Oh I don't know, big bad cat burglar.
Maybe you got other plans.
- Right.
And truth be told I would love to just
work in that bookstore with you.
- Really?
Wouldn't that bore you to death?
- Not if I was the boss man.
I mean creepy crush has got
to be retiring soon right?
- Walter's gay.
- You keep telling yourself that.
- Do you ever think
about that camping trip?
- Sure, probably more than I should.
- I never apologized.
- Are you kidding?
You have nothing to apologize for.
- You're scared of being alone.
- So come with me.
- And spend our whole life running away?
- Not away just toward something else.
- See this is why you
need to go to college,
so you can meet people,
make an actual connection.
- I thought that's what I was doing.
- Not with me with people.
- You are not people?
- Romantic type people.
- Oh, romantic type people.
- You know what I mean, you need too...
- Get laid?
- Well I wouldn't put it like that.
- Oh no you're much to demure
to actually say what you mean.
Which one of us is the one we can't trust?
- What?
- You Might be Giants.
(gagging)
Shut up, they're brilliant.
- Have you heard them sing?
(crickets chirping)
- Don't go.
It was just a kiss.
I won't do it again.
What you're just gonna storm off?
Pitch black, middle of the night.
I'm not coming after you.
- [Zelda] Good.
- Yes well, mistakes were made.
(acoustic piano music)
(phone buzzing)
- Hey there.
- Hey.
How's Vegas?
- Loud.
- Tinnitus bothering you?
- Actually today I'm feeling
pretty good about it.
What are you up to?
- I'm
at a bar.
Just wanted to hear your voice.
- Well I'd like to talk
more but deadline you know.
- Okay, see you Monday.
- Yeah.
(acoustic piano music)
- Okay so this line--
- Dave that was like an hour ago.
- Hey guys got to close up.
- Okay.
I should get home.
- Hang out with Dave for a second.
There's something I want to show you.
- Okay.
- Give me two minutes.
- Cassie.
- Two minutes.
- You really want me to look
at your sketches don't you?
Fine I'll--
- Get down.
- [Jim] And you're gonna mop right?
- [Cassie] Yes I'm going to mop.
- Alright see you tomorrow.
(suspenseful music)
- Let's go.
- [Zelda] What are you?
(suspenseful music)
- Alright come on, come on,
come on, come on, come on.
(suspenseful music)
- Where's Dave?
What the hell are you doing?
- The cameras?
- I switched them off.
Come on.
(suspenseful music)
Got the sledge?
- Here.
- Why does it smell like milk?
- I hid it in the trash.
- What?
- I hid it under the...
(suspenseful music)
50 years ago this was not a bar.
(sledge hammer smashing)
It was my grandfathers lab.
(sledge hammer smashing)
He built a special battery
to power the time machine.
(sledge hammer smashing)
The government took it,
destroyed it probably.
(sledge hammer smashing)
But what they didn't know is
that he built a second one.
(sledge hammer smashing)
And he hid it in the wall.
Smart man my grandpa.
- [Jim] Cassie.
(suspenseful music)
Yo Cassie.
- Jimberly, couldn't get
enough of me could you?
- My phone, I forgot it.
What are you doing up here?
- Looking for the bleach.
- It's down in the mop closet.
- Really?
I looked.
- Right.
Stop screwing around and do your job.
- [Cassie] What about you?
Leaving me here to do the mopping.
- It's your turn to do the mopping.
- Well just show me where
your precious bleach is.
- In the mop closet, where else?
(suspenseful music)
(footsteps approaching)
- He's gone.
- We're on our way.
- Two down one to go.
- Technically two to go but yeah.
Yeah we're on the right track.
Thank you Cassie.
So you guys hanging out tonight or?
Alright.
See you back home.
- Yep.
Listen, I'm sorry I
know you didn't want to
be involved in any of this thievery.
- Yeah no it's fine.
- You kind of had fun didn't you?
- I kind of did.
But I mean it wasn't
like we were stealing--
- No right.
- It was like we were reclaiming.
- Right.
- Do you want to give me a ride?
- God, like we're back in high school.
Come on.
(acoustic piano music)
- This is it.
- Nice.
- I want to do it again.
- [Cassie] Break into your apartment?
- Yes.
- You want to break in
to your own apartment?
- Yes.
- Okay.
- [Zelda] It's that easy?
- No.
I'm just that good.
- Okay I want to try.
- Tension wrench, rake.
- Okay just let me try.
- You really need to understand how--
- Let me try.
(acoustic piano music)
♫ There is a river wide
♫ There is a river
♫ You caught a glimpse of it
♫ Do you remember
♫ There is a place for us
♫ Beneath the raging waters
♫ If we could taste and see
♫ If we could taste and see
- I did it.
I totally did it.
- Yeah only took you 45 minutes.
- [Zelda] Here.
- Oh you can keep them.
- [Zelda] Seriously?
- Yeah, pretty sure those are jinxed.
- You think it's real?
The time machine.
- Are you kidding?
Of course not.
Why?
What would you do if it was?
- Oh I don't know, meet famous people?
Mary Geary, I bet she'd be
fascinating conversation.
And Sylvia Plath, to visit
here the night she died.
- Would you try and stop her?
- Well you can't because--
- Yes, self-consistency blah blah blah.
- Right.
But I could sit with
her, talk if she wanted.
And at the end she wouldn't be alone.
- What about in your own
life, what would you change?
- You can't.
- If you could.
- I don't think I'd want to.
- Really?
You have no regrets?
- I don't think of it like that.
It's more like, well take you and me.
Think of all the misery
you've put me through.
- I've put you through?
- Well you can be a pretty frustrating
person to be friends with.
- Oh can I?
I was not without my own frustrations
by the way which one might argue were
significantly more substantial than yours.
- I mean that I wouldn't
change the bad stuff
if it meant giving up the good stuff.
- Oh there was good stuff in addition to
the pretty frustrating?
- Yes.
- Well let's hear it.
- Oh shall I count the ways?
- Yeah.
- Despite all this you make me smile.
- What that's it?
- Don't be greedy.
What would you change if you could?
- Everything.
I may have overdone it with the wine.
- [Zelda] You think?
- Thanks for letting me crash.
- Of course.
- So Sylvia Plath?
- Yeah, I got into her in college.
- The slime of all my yesterday's
rots in the hollow of my skull.
- The future was lost yesterday.
as a tennis ball at twilight.
- a tennis ball at twilight.
- I feel like we're back in fifth grade.
- I hope not.
I feel like we're on that camping trip.
- Cassie, you know I love you right?
- Do I?
- You should.
- Now?
- Oh yeah sure come in.
The folks upstairs have
requested a blood sample.
Is that okay?
- Do I have a choice?
- [Tech] Hold that.
- So Cassie spent the night?
- Not like that.
- Like what?
- She just slept over.
- Isn't that what I said?
She spent the night.
What happened next?
- Good morning.
You must be Cassie.
- We got a little drunk and
Cassie didn't want to drive home.
- Okay.
- Nothing happened.
- [John] I said okay.
- Cassie.
Where's your car?
Someone stole Cassie's car.
This is ridiculous.
It was one thing with
the bikes but now this?
- [Cassie] Hang up the phone.
- Your car was stolen.
- Z, hang up the phone.
- I think it's time we addressed
the elephant in the room.
- You took her car?
- I moved it, just up the street.
But I did take this.
Or took it back I should say.
You didn't open it.
Why not?
- There was time.
- Can you open it?
Show me.
Safe cracking is a lost art.
I used to do it myself many years ago but
(bat thumping)
not since the tinnitus.
- What's inside?
(suspenseful music)
- How'd you know?
- Flannigan.
Don't take it personally.
He was (bat thuds) under duress.
Side note, you're deal with
him is going to put on hold.
- So you understand my price
and why it's not negotiable.
100,000.
- 100?
- Dave.
- But we don't have that kind of money.
- Of course you don't but
this man does, John Foster.
He carries his bank roll in cash.
You get me his money
I'll give you the file.
(suspenseful music)
- Why him?
- He used to work for me 10, 12 year ago.
Sadly his performance was not exemplary.
I provided a fair severance package but
as the years tick by well
some things we let go and
some things we just don't.
So do we have deal?
- No.
- Yes.
- Well but that's--
- I said yes.
We'll do it.
- Bit unprofessional don't you think?
Picking a peers pocket.
- So that's why you came back,
not for me but for him, for that.
And you.
All these years you been lying to me.
You're not a travel writer.
You're a thief.
- Well thieves and travel writers are
rogues of a certain strength.
I could see Anthony Bourdain as a thief.
- Hey, you have a type.
- Okay.
- And that type is douche bag.
- Oh I'd sit back down if I were you.
We still have things to discuss.
- Nothing involving a baseball bat I hope.
- No.
This.
- You stole it from Flannigan.
- Well I didn't drive all the way to Vegas
just to bop him on the head.
Now, how much is fair?
- For the file?
- No, to buy in.
10?
20?
Let's say 20.
I want to meet Belsky's
grandson, compare notes.
Why don't you bring him
by tomorrow morning?
Great, and bring the
battery and guidance box too
as a show of good faith.
And cheer up trooper.
We're going to make history.
Found you.
I was 18, living on the
street, no food, no money.
I started stealing because I had to.
And turned out I was pretty good at it.
So I kept at it, I got better.
I developed an ear, learned
how to pick locks, crack safes.
But then I had this kind of
life changing experience,
I got a second chance
and I decided to go
straight and it was tough.
I never went to college.
And the kind of job I could get.
But I did what I could.
I made enough.
But then I met you.
And I fell I love with you.
And you fell in love with me.
And suddenly enough wasn't enough.
I wanted to give you more and
the only way I could do that
was to slip back into this other life.
- So it's my fault.
- Well you did want to go to Paris.
Zelda it's a job, just a job.
But if you really want me to stop.
- I want that.
- Then I'll stop.
But it was a little sexy right?
(acoustic piano music)
- [Television] So strollers
are the new fat people.
Laugh it up that's the whole joke alright.
I'm tired of doing all the work.
Must I, must I?
Can I get a little help?
Let's make the connections together right?
There in my way, yes.
(laughing)
(acoustic piano music)
- Coffee?
Do you want to talk about it?
- I really don't.
- There was a girl.
I'd spent half of my life chasing her
and every once in awhile
she's let me catch her.
But it was never right
when we were lovers.
Even when it felt like it was.
If I had it to do over
I'd give up the chase before it started.
Just
let her go.
Want to take the day off?
Go ahead take it off.
- Morning.
Come in, come in.
(suspenseful music)
Project Cuckoo--
- Was the governments name
for my grandfather's machine.
I know.
Insult to injury.
Where is it?
(suspenseful music)
- I tried for many years to make it work.
Of course I couldn't, not without these.
The project was moth balled in 1995
and sent to a storage facility.
- So how do we get it?
If these floor plans are correct
I should be able to find it--
(door opens)
You're home early.
One second.
Zelda wait.
- You said you were done.
- I am.
- That didn't look like done.
- That looked like you sitting around
running some kind of con.
- It's not a con.
- There is no time
machine, it doesn't exist.
- Well then I can't steal it can I?
- Call it off.
- What?
- Go back in there and call it off.
- Zelda.
- Call it off or you and I are done.
- I can't.
- Okay.
Have fun stealing your time machine.
- You know the funny
thing about time travel?
We do it every day.
Our memory takes us into the past.
Our imagination takes us into the future.
You don't need to build a--
- There's my keys.
If you try to come near
me I'll call the police.
- So where are we going?
- Need you to crack a safe.
- Oh is that all?
- It's residential, no
security, no alarms.
- Who's the mark?
- An old friend.
The safe's in his bedroom.
Grab everything that's inside.
- What I can't crack it?
- Well that'd be
disappointing wouldn't it?
(knocking on door)
- John, Cassie, welcome.
- Hello, John?
- Well dinner's nearly ready
but first join me for a coffee.
- It's not decaf is it?
- Do I look like a monster?
Of course it's not decaf.
- Up top.
- Oh lighten up John.
This is quite a singular moment.
We might as well enjoy ourselves.
- So Walter do you know this
dude through Zelda or what?
- Actually the other way around.
John and I go back gosh
how many years now?
- One or two.
- Oh he's just being polite about my age.
- And are you really gay?
Zelda thinks your gay.
I think you're a creeper.
- I have been gay but I prefer women.
Does that make me a creeper?
- Man where did you dig this guy up?
Digging the coffee though.
Could I use your restroom?
(suspenseful music)
- Upstairs on the left,
across from the bedroom.
(suspenseful music)
Is this exciting for you?
This moment now?
- I just want what you promised.
- Is that all you can say?
Aren't you just a little bit tingly?
Standing on the cusp of uncertainty.
- It doesn't feel uncertain.
- It could be.
It could end here if we let it.
Our sins could be expunged.
- It was consenting adults.
- Uninformed consent.
(suspenseful music)
(film beeping)
If you search your thoughts
you know I'm right.
- I know you're old,
and I'm beginning to think you're senile.
- I'm plenty sharp.
But memory that's a tricky thing isn't it?
There was a time when I go back year
by year and remember every detail
as clearly as when it first happened.
And then that went away,
sooner than I thought it would.
Funny thing remembering that
you used to remember more.
Tell me John how clear are your memories?
- Clear enough.
- Well I better set the table.
(suspenseful music)
- Why do you have this?
Is this what you wanted me to steal?
- No.
It was this.
- Tell me Cassie years from now
when you're old and gray
what will you regret?
- This is my entire childhood.
- I'll tell you what I regret.
There was a woman.
I loved her more than life itself,
or at least I thought I did.
The fact is I sought to
possess her, like a thing.
Who did I love more?
Her?
Or myself?
- What do you want with me?
- To spare you regret.
(dramatic music)
(dull thumping)
(music stops)
I had to try.
- No you didn't.
- Please let me keep them.
Please?
(somber music)
- Who is he?
- Walter Markham.
- Who is he really?
- You're a smart girl.
You'll figure it out.
(somber music)
♫ There is a place for us
♫ Beneath the raging water
♫ If we could taste and see
♫ If we could taste and see
- Cassie.
See you tomorrow.
- There's something I need to show you.
(film beeping)
- This is Doctor Hyrum Belsky.
This is my assistant Archie.
This is the first field
test in our laboratory
of the time transference device.
May we begin Archie?
(machine rumbling)
You're fine, you're fine Archie.
(machine rumbling louder)
(electricity crackling)
(helmet explodes)
(rumbling stops)
- So what happened?
- He died is what happened.
This machine, this whole thing.
Dave's grandpa was a loon.
All he built was a device
that explodes peoples heads.
- Maybe.
- What do you mean maybe?
- I don't know.
I never thought any of this was real.
But I was at your bosses house tonight.
- What?
- He had this.
Why did he have this?
I have to help John steal the time machine
because I have to keep him from using it.
- If he uses it he's dead.
- Unless what if he's not?
What if despite all outward appearances
he'll be able to go back
in time, change things?
- Even if he could somehow go back--
- You can't change the past?
- Well you can't.
- Are you willing to bet your whole life
on something you read in a book?
Because if you're wrong
and he can go back in time
what's to stop him from
hitting the delete key
on both of us ending us
before we even began?
- He wouldn't do that.
- But if he could then he could.
Do you get me?
(phone buzzes)
- [John] Hello.
- You're the stealing the
time machine tomorrow.
- I'm going to try.
- I want to come with you.
- Why, did you call the police?
- [Zelda] No.
- Said if I came near you
you'd call the police.
- This is me coming near you.
- Zelda what if we forget
about the time machine?
Forget everything.
What if you and I just go away together?
Just get in the car and go.
If could be like it was.
- No it can't.
- Alright.
Wear sunglasses.
- He agreed?
- He agreed.
- Good.
Then let's get to work.
(upbeat music)
I'm here and you have to
go forward and around.
(upbeat music gets louder)
(overlapping voices)
(acoustic piano music)
- If I could go back and change something
I wouldn't let all those years
go by without seeing you,
without you being a part of my life.
If I could change the
past that's what I'd do.
It was just a kiss.
I shouldn't have...
I'm sorry.
- I really did love you you know?
- I wish I could give you more.
- I wish I didn't need more.
- Well you're about 10 hours early.
- We need to talk.
- Please come in.
- There's some fundamental
things we need to straighten out.
This machine is more and
just my family's legacy.
It's my responsibility.
And as soon as we figure
out exactly how it works
and what it does there needs
to be a serious conversation
about how it should be responsibly used.
- [John] Responsibly?
- That's right.
- Well if your friends have their way
it'll all be a moot point.
Zelda wants to join us on
our excursion tomorrow.
Which can only mean that
Cassie recruited her.
- What do you mean?
- They want to steal it
for themselves, cut us out.
- What, but they---
- Dave.
Relax, we're gonna keep
that from happening.
But first things first.
Let's fix you some coffee.
(dramatic music)
- Brought the hammer.
Just in case.
I can hide it in my coat.
I don't need to see anything.
(acoustic piano music)
- What if we forget
about the time machine?
Forget everything.
- I wouldn't let all those
years go by without seeing you.
- What if you and I just go away together?
- You could come with me you know?
- If I could change the past--
- Just get in the car--
- that's what I'd do.
- and go.
- It's not the destination
that intrigues me.
- It could be like it was.
- I really did love you you know?
(acoustic piano music)
- I didn't bring, I didn't get nervous.
You didn't bring a bar.
Did you bring a bar?
Like a, no probably not.
I should of brought one I have like a box
of blueberry bars in my cabinet but I...
We could stop at Winchell's.
I think there's a Winchell's on the way.
You like Winchell's?
Are you more of like
a, like a local donut?
(suspenseful music)
I like a local donut.
(suspenseful music)
- Listen, listen.
(groaning in pain)
You leave this room and
you'll never be with her.
- This is your fault.
You and Cassie we're gonna cut me out.
- No we were gonna destroy it.
- That's cutting me out.
- So there it is.
I'm you.
I've always been you.
You become me.
And then you become him.
I should have told you before but
I was greedy.
Thought I could change things.
- John's in there right
now he could be using it.
- Here you'll need this.
You can't change the past.
That is still your future.
Still don't believe me?
Then I'll go first.
(suspenseful music)
- John's lied to all of us.
You think he didn't lie to you?
- No John respects me.
He understands me, he.
(electrical buzzing)
- Give me the hammer.
- No I...
(electrical buzzing)
(hammer drops)
- [Cassie] Is this what
you wanted me to steal?
- No.
It was this.
Here you'll need this.
You can't change the past.
That is still your future.
- If I could go back and change something
I wouldn't let all those years
go by without seeing you,
without you being a part of my life.
If I could change the
past that's what I'd do.
I wish I could give you more.
- I wish I didn't need more.
Oh God.
(alarm blaring)
(suspenseful music)
I'll see you again.
- No don't.
- Mr. Belsky.
We'll try again tomorrow.
- This is a release freeing the government
of any indemnity from yesterday's events.
- What?
- This is a nondisclosure agreement.
It includes the contents
of your deposition
to my collogue as well as
additional articles listed herein.
Make sure you read it before you sign it.
And finally these are the terms
of your conditional probation.
You need to return here once a year
for a physical examination.
Any breach of these terms and
we will detain you further.
Do you understand?
- What about the bodies?
- What bodies?
(dramatic music)
We will want to examine the child
assuming the delivery is successful.
- What?
- You didn't know?
It was in your blood work.
- What was?
- You're pregnant Miss Jones.
Congratulations.
- Oh there he is.
Hi Charlie, my name's Walter.
Come on in, come on in please please.
How old is he now?
- Almost two.
- Ah, he's beautiful.
- Thank you.
- I miss you at the bookstore.
Would you ever consider coming back?
Well it's good to see you.
It's been far too long.
- [Zelda] Why did you have this?
- That's not mine.
- Walter.
- What's past is past.
(acoustic piano music)
(car starts)
I'll see you again.
(suspenseful music)
- What's past is past?
(suspenseful music)
No, that's not good enough.
(suspenseful music)
- He told me.
- [Walter] I have many regrets Dave.
Most of them I can do nothing about.
- And I didn't believe him.
- But I wanted you to see this.
You were always a good
friend to me and well
this is the least I can do for you.
- So there it is.
I'm you.
I've always been you.
You become me.
And then you become him.
- I would love to just work
in that bookstore with you.
- [John] Three lifetimes, try
not to be greedy about it.
- He said it wasn't an insult.
It's the name he gave the
machine, Project Cuckoo.
It was descriptive.
- The cuckoo is a bird parasite.
- It finds the nest of another bird.
- Kicks the egg to the ground,
and lays one in it's place.
- To travel back in time you
have to move faster than light.
- Impossible for physical matter.
- My grandfather knew that.
Knew he could never send a body.
But a mind.
- There was a girl.
I'd spent half of my life chasing her.
And every once in awhile
she'd let me catch her.
But it was never right
when we were lovers,
even when it felt like it was.
- But a mind.
Of course it would need somewhere to go.
- Someone, but the brain...
- Is like a computer.
In order to upload all that data
it needs an empty drive.
- So, just like the cuckoo bird
the traveler empties the
nest and takes it's place.
- But what about the infant?
The person who came before?
- There only ever was the traveler.
You can't change the past.
- Zelda for what it's worth I had no.
- [Walter] The traveler empties the nest
and takes it's place.
- [Dave] But what about the infant?
- [Walter] There only
ever was the traveler.
- [John] You can't change the past but--
- [Cassie] But the
future, the future awaits.
(dramatic music)
♫ Watch over our bodies
♫ Watch over
(acoustic piano music)
♫ There is a place for us
♫ Beneath the raging water
♫ If we could taste and see
♫ If we could taste and see