I Origins (2014) - full transcript
I Origins begins when graduate student, Ian Gray, is researching the evolution of human eyes with Karen and Kenny, in order to prove that eyes have evolved instead of "appeared" as creationists claim. His fascination with eyes takes him into areas that have profound personal and cultural consequences.
(WIND WHOOSHING)
IAN: Every living person on this planet
has their own unique pair of eyes.
Each their own universe.
(TYPING)
- My name is Dr. Ian Gray.
- (BEEPS)
I'm a father, a husband...
and I'm a scientist.
When I was a child, I realized that...
the camera was designed
exactly like the human eye...
taking in light through a lens,
forming it into images.
I began taking as many pictures
of eyes as I possibly could.
I'd like to tell you the story of
the eyes that changed my world.
Remember these eyes.
Remember all the details in these eyes.
Okay.
It started when I was a 26-year-old
Ph.D. student living in New York.
It was Halloween, eight years ago.
- (MUSIC PLAYING)
- (INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS)
(EXHALES)
You okay?
I'm watching the moon.
Can I take a picture of your eyes?
Why?
It's just something I do.
(DISTANT SIREN WAILING)
Okay.
Yeah?
I've perfected this.
(MANIPULATING CAMERA)
(CAMERA LENS WHIRRING)
- (CAMERA BEEPS)
- (SHUTTER CLICKS)
(CAMERA BEEPS)
(SHUTTER CLICKS)
Hi.
Hi.
Do you know the story
of the Phasianidae?
The... No, what's that?
It's a bird...
that experiences all
of time in one instant.
And she sings the song
of love and anger...
and fear and Joy and
sadness all at once.
All combined into one magnificent sound.
Where are you from?
Another planet.
What's the bird sound like?
It sounds like this. Lean closer.
- (SCREAMS)
- (CHUCKLES)
- It's more like noise.
- (CHUCKLING) Yeah.
And this bird... when she
meets the love of her life...
is both happy and sad.
Happy because she sees that
for him is the beginning...
and sad because she knows
it is already over.
- (MUSIC PLAYING)
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER)
IAN: Hey, hey, do you wanna get a drink?
I don't drink.
IAN: Like, anything?
(DOOR SHUTS)
(UNZIPS)
(MOANS)
(SIGHING)
You're not gonna regret
this in the morning, right?
(DOOR OPENS)
(FOOTSTEPS RECEDING)
(DOOR SHUTS)
WOMAN: (SINGING)
Hold your memory for a moment.
With a blind hand.
Write some stories.
For tomorrow
(TIRES SCREECHING)
AUTOMATED VOICE: Your identity confirmed.
I finished that transcription
factor program.
Last night?
No, this morning.
Because, bitch, I don't play.
Got the input genes and then you
put your transcription factor...
Wait a minute. You stink of vodka.
- I mean, like, bad. Like it smells bad.
- Yeah, I know. I know I reek of vodka.
Stop talking so loud.
(SNIFFS)
Okay, I consolidated all of
your data into one database.
You are welcome.
You're amazing. I hate you.
KENNY: Oh, I love you, that's why I do it.
Oh, hey, you got a new rotating student.
First year.
- IAN: Oh, shi...
- KENNY: Yeah.
IAN: Yeah, yeah.
Have fun babysitting, buddy.
You need gum.
KENNY: You need... to have fun babysitting.
Karen.
Hi, Ian.
Can I...
Follow me.
KAREN: You're attempting to
make colorblind mice see color?
IAN: That's the idea.
But after failed
experiment 352, we'll see.
Why?
Why what?
Do so many experiments fail?
Why are you interested in making
colorblind mice see color?
Oh.
Why not?
How are you testing that they see color?
As the new rotating lab assistant...
your job will be to do very boring,
very repetitive experiments...
be a glorified note-taker...
and not ask me "why" every five minutes.
Okay? Cool.
Commencing experiment 353...
response to photo pigment
protein in Mus musculus.
The control subjects B-Beta...
G Gamma, E-Euphoria...
P...
Psychopannychia.
- I don't know what that means.
- Look it up.
G as in Goodness gracious.
H as in Help me, please.
Z as in Zoolander.
Are the mice muted with the
photo pigment protein?
When we animate the lines...
colorblind mice stare straight.
Whereas...
fingers crossed...
the muted mice sh...
Track the lines with their eyes.
- Holy shit.
- Holy fucking shit.
Is this on the background
of PAX6 overexpression?
You're a first year?
I know, it's surprising I can
put together a sentence.
Sorry, I asked my last three lab
assistants not to come in...
and I'd sign their credits.
Anyway, this is just one step
in a very, very long process.
This is a rough estimation...
but let's just say that the human
eye has 12 working parts, right?
Simplest eye having one.
So, if we can fill in the gaps,
the evolutionary gaps...
using single mutations...
we can map out the most
logical progression...
of the most basic eye...
to the most complex,
fully formed human eye.
KAREN:
I don't understand, why take the time?
We know that it evolved.
It's an assumption, it's not a fact.
When you're no longer a first year,
you'll see how important facts are.
Right.
Each of these animals has an eye
that's best selected
for its environment.
It would be cleaner...
less variables, if you had an origin.
Go on.
You start with one...
to get to 12. But what if you had zero?
A non-seeing organism and built
genetically an eye from scratch...
a zero to 12.
It'd be a perfect proof, unassailable.
Non-seeing organisms don't
have the PAX6 gene.
How do you know?
Has anyone ever checked all of them?
I don't think anyone has
ever checked... all of them.
You've thought of this before?
Why did you look surprised?
Because so have you.
Okay.
- Who were those girls?
- (KENNY SIGHS)
Which girls?
The ones at the Halloween
party in the S&M outfits.
S&M outfits?
I met one of them. Don't know her name.
I don't know her face, but she had
these most amazing eyes. So specific.
Central heterochromia.
Oh, reminds me. Guess what I did?
What?
I figured out an improved
implementation technique...
for Daugman's biometrics algo.
IAN:
You ever feel like when you met someone,
they fill this hole inside of you...
and that when they're gone
you feel that space painfully vacant?
Are you okay, man?
(CHUCKLING)
Yeah, yeah. I'm okay, are you okay?
What did you just say? Did you say...
(STAMMERING)
The way you talked was, like, poetic.
- It was weird.
- (CHUCKLING) Shut the fuck up.
- It was so weird, dude. I can't believe...
- (CLATTERING)
Oh, shit.
This guy is painfully vacant.
Ian, look at him.
He's so painfully vac...
He's so painfully vacant.
- (CHUCKLES)
- Fuck off.
Can I get a pack of
Verdict and a Powerball?
(CASH REGISTER DINGS)
How much is that?
(BEEPING)
$11. 11.
Oh.
(COINS JINGLING)
Lucky elevens.
Thanks.
(TRAIN ENGINE CHUGGING)
(DOOR HISSES)
(DOG BARKING)
(BRAKES SCREECH)
(IAN TYPING)
(PAPER RUSTLING)
(TYPING)
- IAN: Karen.
- Mmm-hmm?
What are you doing?
Five percent of all animals
don't have vision...
and there are 8.7 million species...
So I blasted PAX6 at the database,
but nothing came up.
So I started sequencing by myself.
How many did you sequence?
Twelve.
You've done 12.
So, how many do you have left?
Like, approximately 426,000.
Are you going to write
426,000 names on the window?
I'm going to find it before I
get to the end of the window.
Okay.
KAREN: What are you doing?
I'm not doing anything.
(DOOR OPENS)
(BREATHES HEAVILY)
You know we could be looking
forever and find nothing.
Turning over rocks and
finding nothing is progress.
(TRAIN ENGINE CHUGGING)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(GASPS)
WOMAN: (SINGING)
Burning papers into ashes.
What a season.
How they fly high.
From the ground, oh.
There is yet another fountain.
Flowing over.
As the night falls.
Keep dreaming.
Away.
If you hold onto that past.
Don't you lock yourself inside.
Nothing has been done before.
IAN: So, are you gonna
tell me where you're from?
So many places, I don't know.
Which places?
Mmm...
To make it short,
I was born in Argentina...
and when I was 11, I moved to
France with my grandmother.
And your parents?
Next.
(CUP CLATTERS)
So, what do you do?
Next.
Why did you sleep with me that night?
Poor judgment.
I was lonely for a long time and...
when I saw you that night I...
I had the feeling that I had known you.
Actually, I felt like you knew me.
IAN: What do you mean?
Like we are connected from past lives.
I don't believe in that.
What do you believe in?
I'm a scientist. I believe in data.
- A scientist?
- Mmm-hmm.
What kind of scientist?
Molecular biology.
I'm most fascinated with the eye.
- The eye, the eyes?
- The eyes.
Why the eye?
The eye is the one sticking
point that religious people use
to discredit evolution.
They use it as proof of
an intelligent designer.
- SOFI: Intelligent designer?
- IAN: God.
I'm looking to end the debate
once and for all with...
clear, clean facts.
Data points of every
stage of eye-evolution.
Why are you working so
hard to disprove God?
Disprove? Who proved that God
was there in the first place?
Anyway, let's get some real
data points on you, okay?
Be my guest.
- I prefer talking about myself anyway.
- (CHUCKLES)
Okay.
Um...
- What's your favorite...
- SOFI: Candy? Strawberry Mentos.
IAN: Food?
SOFI: Veggie burritos.
I'm vegetarian, you should know that.
IAN: What's your favorite flower?
SOFI: Dandelions.
IAN: Okay. Why?
SOFI: 'Cause they're free,
wild, and you can't buy them.
IAN: What's your favorite field of study?
SOFI: The stars.
IAN: What's your favorite animal?
SOFI: The white peacock. You ever see one?
IAN: Mmm.
SOFI: There's one in New York.
I'll take you to see it.
IAN: So, you're gonna see me again?
SOFI: Maybe.
You know, in Indian mythology...
the white peacock symbolizes souls
being dispersed throughout the world.
IAN: Did you ever think it just symbolizes
a lack of melanin or
pigment in the cells?
IAN: The control subjects T...
KAREN: T as in Tsunami.
- IAN: G as in...
- KAREN: Gnome.
- P as in...
- Pneumonia.
- M as in...
- Mnemonic.
(LAUGHING)
(LIGHTER CLICKS)
I start to see these elevens, like,
everywhere. Too many elevens.
The amount was so staggering,
so unlikely, that I followed them.
And when I followed them, I found
your eyes, which then led me to you.
Because I found you through your eyes.
So unlikely, like life itself.
I know.
I sent them to you.
Bullshit.
You know you have it.
- Have what?
- But you're scared of it.
I have what?
Okay.
- You live in this room, right?
- Mmm-hmm.
Reality.
You have a bed, you have books, um...
a desk, a chair, lamps.
Logic.
But in this room, you have a door...
to the other side.
See?
Light comes through.
It's open.
Just a tiny bit, but it is open.
You keep trying to close that
door because you're scared.
But you won't always be scared.
What's behind the door?
Besides my dirty laundry.
You have to go in to find out.
You know what I'm talking about.
I have no idea.
You will.
You will.
Mmm!
(GASPS)
You want to move to my place?
- You have a place?
- Mmm-hmm.
Of course.
Can I move in tomorrow?
(CHUCKLES)
(OPERA MUSIC PLAYING)
(DOORBELL BUZZES)
(GRUNTING)
(IAN CLEARS THROAT)
Is this your family?
SOFI: Yes, it's my grandmother.
Such an eccentric beauty.
And...
My parents and me when I was baby.
Um, the white peacock,
but you have met him before. Mmm.
This is a proof of the spirit world.
El Angel de la Resurrección.
What?
It's the name of the statue.
Of the statue in Saint Anne's Cemetery.
- It's in Saint Anne's Cemetery?
- Mmm-hmm.
But look at the eyes.
They're alive.
IAN: It's amazing what you can
do on Photoshop these days.
SOFI: There's no Photoshop!
The eyes appeared just
when she took the picture.
Just...
You're so beautiful.
Let's get more boxes.
(DOOR OPENS)
Nineteen days gestation period.
She is ready.
Fame, science grants...
fortune await you.
If you find that PAX6 gene,
we'll be well on our way to all of that.
Recognition makes me extremely nauseous.
Well, it is important that
people know about the work.
To me, the best thing about
living like a lab rat...
is that sometimes...
really rare times...
you actually discover something.
On the night of a discovery
when you're lying in bed...
you are the only person in the
world that knows it's true.
Can you promise me something?
Promise you something?
- Mmm-hmm.
- What?
- Promise.
- I can't promise if you don't tell me...
Promise first.
- Before you tell me what it is?
- Mmm-hmm.
- I keep my promises.
- (SNIFFS)
Whatever, I won't tell.
Promise.
Okay, I promise.
I want you to burn me.
- Burn you?
- I don't want to rot in a box when I die.
- Oh, you mean like cremate you.
- Mmm...
- Yeah.
- Oh, no. I don't want to be cremated.
Mmm.
This is a big disagreement
I didn't know we had.
(CLEARS THROAT)
Cremation is like obliteration.
I mean, what if in the future,
the scientists...
What if they can reconstitute
ourselves through our DNA?
- I want to be clear with you.
- Mmm.
I don't want that.
You don't want what?
I don't want to be cloning.
(STAMMERING) Cloneed.
- "I don't want to be cloning."
- (LAUGHS) Cloneed!
No, but I'd reconstitute myself first...
then I'd reconstitute you and then
I'd ask you, "Do you wanna be alive?"
And then if you didn't, I'd kill you.
(CHUCKLING)
(BOTH LAUGH)
No, but then we could
be together forever,
like, for real, scientifically.
Reanimated, reconstituted.
(SNIFFS)
You have a hard time letting go.
Don't worry.
We'll find each other again.
(SNIFFS)
I love your smell.
What is it?
I won't tell.
- Come on, tell me.
- Mmm-mmm.
(SNIFFING)
Will you marry me?
CLERK: Next?
Can I help you?
- BOTH: We'd like to get married.
- Do you have your ID's?
- Yeah.
- Yes.
(CLEARS THROAT)
First you have to get your marriage
license, so you have to fill these out.
Okay.
You're gonna have to wait 24 hours
before you can actually get married.
- Twenty-four hours?
- Yeah.
Why?
Well, this way,
you have 24 hours to decide
whether you want to
marry this young man.
But I want to marry him!
In 24 hours.
So, okay. All right.
Yeah, so we can't get married today.
(SIGHS)
Okay.
(CHUCKLES)
(LAUGHS)
This system really kills the
spontaneity factor, hmm?
- We're already married in the spirit world.
- (CELL PHONE BUZZING)
Shit.
Hello?
KAREN: Hi.
Hi.
Hi.
Hi. What's up?
You called like five times.
I did.
Why would I do that?
Why might I call five times?
I don't know.
I was running the electrophoretic drill,
you know, just another Tuesday.
And I started sequencing the
genes of this strange worm...
called Eisenia fetida.
IAN: Go on.
KAREN: And, uh...
I found the PAX6 master switch.
No.
Yeah.
Are you serious right now? Are you fucking
with me? Do you know what this means?
We found an origin species and we can
build an eye from scratch. (CHUCKLES)
Holy sh...
(SIGHS)
Um, does it have the same
amino acid sequence as humans?
I can't even talk right now.
I feel like I'm gonna piss myself.
Can you just come in here?
Okay, I'm coming in right now.
You're amazing.
Bye. Bye, bye, bye.
Who was that?
That was Karen, um, my rotating...
Well, my lab partner.
I have to go into the lab right now.
Do you want to come with me?
On our wedding day?
Well, technically, it's not
our wedding day today.
And we've been married forever
in the spiritual world, right?
Sofi, please come in with me.
It's really important.
Sure.
Yeah?
Mmm. It's fine. Let's go.
IAN: Well, don't be upset about it.
Let's put our rings on.
- I don't want to, it's bad luck.
- I don't believe in luck.
I do believe we've known each
other since forever, though.
Really?
Yeah. You know how?
When the Big Bang happened...
all the atoms in the universe
were all smashed together...
into one little dot
that exploded outward.
So my atoms and your atoms were
certainly together then...
and, who knows, probably smashed
together several times...
in the last 13.7 billion years.
So my atoms have known your atoms...
and they've always known your atoms.
My atoms have always loved your atoms.
- Let's go!
- (CHUCKLES)
(DOOR OPENS)
IAN: Karen.
(EXHALING)
Hi.
- Hey.
- Hi.
This is Sofi. This is Karen.
- Karen, this is Sofi.
- Hi.
She's my wife.
(CHUCKLES)
Welcome, um...
What do you wanna see?
IAN: I wanna see everything.
KAREN: Uh, so, I have this gel.
IAN: And it aligns?
KAREN: The alignment crossed
PAX6 proteins, 98 percent identity.
IAN: Are these the worms?
They can't see anything.
- IAN: Not for long.
- (KAREN CHUCKLES)
(KAREN SIGHS)
(IAN MUMBLING)
You know, um, I should...
I'm gonna go take a shower.
(CHUCKLES)
You've seen it.
- IAN: Shower?
- I should shower, brush my teeth...
- Wait, you're gonna go right now?
- KAREN: Um, yeah.
I'm sure you want to show your
wife around the lab and...
Okay. Are you sure?
Okay, well, uh, this is amazing.
The beginning of something amazing.
It was nice to meet you.
IAN: Amazing stuff, Karen.
- Bye.
- IAN: Bye.
(DOOR OPENS)
(DOOR CLOSES)
What's wrong?
I know something's wrong, so...
You leave me everyday
to torture little worms?
We're not torturing worms, Sofi.
If you're interested,
we're modifying organisms.
In this case, they happen to
be worms that are blind...
and we're modifying them to have vision.
You can make blind worms see?
Kind of.
I mean, we can now, maybe.
You think that's a good idea?
Do you think it's a bad idea?
I think it's dangerous to play God.
Sofi, I believe in proof.
There is no proof that there
is some magical spirit...
uh, that's invisible,
living above us, right on top of us.
How many senses do worms have?
They have two.
Smell and touch.
Why?
So...
they live without any ability to see
or even know about light, right?
The notion of light to
them is unimaginable.
Yeah.
But we humans...
we know that light exists.
All around them...
right on top of them...
they can't sense it.
But with a little mutation,
they do. Right?
Correct.
So...
Doctor Eye...
perhaps some humans,
rare humans...
have mutated to have another sense.
A spirit sense.
And can perceive a world
that is right on top of us...
everywhere.
Just like the light on these worms.
So, you're a mutant.
Mmm-hmm.
And I'm not the only one.
(GLASS SHATTERS)
Ow! Oh...
- Jesus!
- Are you okay?
- I got formaldehyde in my eye.
- Here, let me see.
- Get the splash kit. (GROANING)
- What is it?
- Fuck!
- What is it? Tell me!
(STAMMERING)
It's yellow, it's right over there!
It's yellow! Call Karen!
Fucking call Karen, now!
- Where's the number?
- The number's by the door.
SOFI: By the door.
Got it.
(SIGHS)
We should do this every Friday.
How many fingers am I holding up?
Twelve.
- He's not blind, so that's good.
- (SNIFFS)
- I think you're gonna be fine.
- Are you okay?
Yeah.
Okay.
- Thank you.
- Yeah.
You're gonna feel fine in
12 hours or something.
I'll call tomorrow to check in on him.
- Thank you.
- Yeah, of course.
(SNIFFS)
(DOOR BUZZING)
SOFI: This is funny.
(CHUCKLES)
- IAN: Yeah. It's, um...
- (ELEVATOR RATTLING)
strange.
Find me.
(LOUD THUD)
Whoa.
Whoa, what?
(ELEVATOR CREAKING)
We are in the middle of two floors.
We stopped.
- Hmm?
- Mmm.
We should call the super.
- The super what?
- The super. The superintendant.
The guy that fixes the building.
Can you call him?
I don't know this guy.
I don't have his number.
Of course you don't.
Here.
It's under "Super."
(CHUCKLES)
- What?
- Your phone is dead.
- It's dead?
- Yeah.
(SIGHS)
Oh, come on, relax.
IAN: You're so irresponsible.
Okay.
(CLEARS THROAT)
(SIGHS)
Want me to call Karen?
Don't be a child.
You live in this fairy,
magical, fantasy land.
It's a fucking lie and
you know it's a lie.
That's a lie that you wanna believe,
like a child. Like a child.
(LOUD THUD)
(SOFI SHOUTS)
(SOBS)
Okay.
Okay. Come on.
What's gonna happen?
I'll boost you up.
No. You go first and you pull me up.
- Sofi, come on, go.
- I'm not going first. You go first.
Look at you, you're so scared. Come on.
SOFI: Be careful.
(SIGHS)
IAN: Look how easy that was.
Come on.
Come on, let's go.
Sofia, come on!
Give me your hand.
Give me your hand.
SOFI: Oh.
IAN: Okay, come on.
There you go, you're fine.
(SOFI GROANS)
IAN: Here we go.
(GRUNTS)
Oh.
(PANTS)
(CHUCKLES)
(PANTING)
Sofi?
Sofi?
Sofi?
Sofi?
(SCREAMING)
Ah!
Sofi!
(SCREAMING)
(INAUDIBLE)
(WIND WHOOSHING)
(KNOCKING CONTINUES)
(TRAIN ENGINE CHUGGING)
(CELL PHONE RINGING)
(LINE RINGING)
IAN: Hello?
Can I come over?
No.
Maybe.
What if I bring you something that
I know will take your breath away?
KAREN: It has an eye.
I mean, just light-sensitive cells,
but we did it.
Mutations are holding.
IAN: You did it.
That's the first step in
a really long process.
It's gonna end as a worm in a box if
you don't get your ass back in the lab.
Why don't you eat something?
(SNIFFS)
Fuck.
(SOBS)
REPORTER ON TV: He claims to
have put to rest the notion...
that the eye was made
by an intelligent designer.
Dr. Gray, you made some
mutants in a laboratory...
and now you expect all religious people
to just throw away their beliefs?
Well, I expect them to fight
me every step of the way.
But I do implore them to look
at the evidence and data
we've collected here.
These specimens are practical examples
of every stage of eye development.
- Dr. Ian Gray, uh, thanks for being here.
- IAN: Thanks for having me.
The book is The Complete Eye.
- (ALARM BUZZES)
- All right. (CLEARS THROAT)
How'd I do?
Why do you do that thing with your face?
What?
What thing?
The thing. Where you're like...
- (CHUCKLES)
- You did nothing with your face.
It was good, it was good.
Man, you should have joined
the private sector, Professor.
It's crazy. Iris Biometrics is
exploding all over the world.
I'll take love over money any day.
KENNY: Wow, that's mature of you.
- You think I could really get a job there?
- (BOTH CHUCKLE)
Thank you.
You all right?
WAITRESS: Any more drinks?
Uh, yeah, it's just a smell,
I can't place it.
Maybe it's your perfume?
Any more drinks?
(CHUCKLES) Uh, no, actually,
we'd like to know what your perfume is.
- You don't have to answer that.
- WAITRESS: It's Trésor.
Trésor?
- IAN: It's lovely.
- KENNY: Thank you.
IAN: I'm okay with drink.
- (WHISPERS) It's Trésor.
- It's French.
Are you hitting on the waitress
in front of your pregnant wife?
I don't know if you know this about me,
Kenny, but the gene for jealousy?
- Recessive.
- KENNY: That's good.
I'm going to the dance floor
with my pregnant, lovely wife.
(WHISPERING)
I'm gonna get her number for you.
KENNY: Please, thank you.
I'm so looking forward to
brainwashing this child with you.
(CHUCKLES)
You want to know what I was thinking?
IAN: What?
What if we turn the garage into a lab?
And the baby could be
our first test subject.
That's a great idea.
KAREN: Is there something
ethically wrong with that?
No.
You know what I wanna do?
I think we should leave.
I'm, uh, picking up a prescription
for my wife, Karen Gray.
(WHISPERING)
How about if I sing to you?
KAREN: (SINGING) Beautiful dreamer.
Wake onto me
(TYPING)
Sounds of the rude world.
Heard in the day.
Lulled by the moonlight
Have all passed away
(SHUSHING)
Beautiful dreamer.
Wake onto me.
Starlight and dew drops
are waiting for thee.
IAN: (SINGSONG) Say hello to the camera.
Sofi, come on.
Be nice.
Be nice. Come on, act like a lady.
- Hello.
- Hello.
IAN: Hello.
- I want you.
- I want you more.
Don't stop.
I wanna know what's turning you on.
(STAMMERING)
I never do this.
(SIGHS)
I sometimes think about the
cause and effect of it...
And I think about how,
and I don't feel guilty for this...
but I think about how if I hadn't
called you into the lab that day...
she would maybe still be here
and you would be with her.
Can I tell you something that
makes me feel like a monster?
That day in the elevator...
I thought to myself...
"Am I going to be stuck with
this child the rest of my life?"
And then the next moment she was dead.
We were never gonna be together, Karen.
I just never got closure.
I never got to say goodbye.
Kiss me.
(MONITOR BEEPING)
(COOING)
Iris scanning is a new
identification measure...
taken up by the more
sophisticated hospitals.
We know what Iris scanning is.
We've had it in our lab for a decade.
Well, it's still new
to the general public.
Now, we are not yet legally
required to scan eyes...
but we adopted the technology and
use it with the parents' consent.
I'm fine with it. You, uh...
Scan. Yeah, do the scan.
I dim the lights.
(WOMAN TALKING INDISTINCTLY)
NURSE: The system is non-obtrusive...
and, in all actuality,
is just taking photo of the eyes.
- (COOING)
- There you go.
IAN: Come here, Tobias.
- NURSE: Oh, thank you.
- IAN: You got it?
- (COOING)
- Yes, I got it. Thank you.
What happens then is...
the computer finds a bunch of
points in the crevices of the eye...
Yeah, we understand how it works.
(NURSE GASPS)
Forgive me.
These systems are sort of new.
Can you tell?
Paul Edgar Dairy?
Sounds like a pirate.
If this happens, I'm supposed
to punch in a key and reboot.
(MONITOR BEEPING)
(CLICKING)
NURSE: There we go.
So I'll just put in his info.
What is his name?
I like Paul Edgar Dairy, it's fine.
Tobias George Gray,
after his grandfather.
(TELEPHONE RINGING)
- (BEEPS)
- Hello?
- DR. SIMMONS: Hi, is this Ian Gray?
- (TOBIAS COOING)
- It is.
- My name is Dr. Simmons.
I work in conjunction with Yale
and the Greenwich Hospital...
where you and your
wife gave birth in July.
(STUTTERS)
Yeah? Is everything okay?
Yes. Everything's okay,
please don't be alarmed.
We would however like to run
a few simple tests on Tobias.
His test results may suggest,
although highly unlikely...
the possibility of early autism.
You know I'm a doctor.
What test results?
- The... We've pinpointed, uh...
- Uh...
Uh, can you hold on a moment, please?
Karen, listen to this.
(KISSES)
(BEEPS)
Yeah.
We've pinpointed an array of molecular
compounds that appear in the urine...
of children with autism.
(INHALES SHARPLY)
And Tobias showcased a few of them.
I promise it's unlikely,
but worth checking out...
and we have very simple non-obtrusive
tests and we'll be done in an hour.
IAN: What was your name and affiliation?
Dr. Janet Simmons.
I run a research lab on child autism...
in conjunction with Yale and
the Greenwich Hospital.
IAN: Simmons, you said?
Janet Simmons.
Our clinic is in Stamford,
not too far from there.
It's important to check this soon.
There's no alarming rush,
but we could see him today.
- Okay, thank you. You'll hear from us.
- (BEEPS)
Baby, I love you.
Tobias. Look here, look here.
(TOBIAS COOING)
I'm not sure I understand how
this is testing for autism.
The blood and urine test will
check for molecular compounds.
This test is purely perceptual.
Tracking the child's eye
movements and attractions.
(COOING)
(COOING)
(COOING)
(TOBIAS CRYING)
(CRYING)
- Okay, that's enough. I'm gonna...
- Yeah. The test is over.
OPERATOR: If you are calling
regarding an existing file...
please enter your
seven-digit session number.
(BEEPS)
This Dr. Simmons is up to something.
Child autism my ass.
I keep running through her studies.
What was she doing?
Two images side by side.
IAN: Two images, similar but different.
Tobias would look at one or the other.
Do you remember anything
specific about the images?
Something connected to something?
Something we could look up?
There was a farmhouse.
There was, um...
Dan's Diner in Boise, Idaho.
Whatever that means.
(TYPING)
KAREN: Why, that's a real place.
(AIRPLANE ENGINE ROARING)
(DOOR OPENS)
(SIZZLING)
Hello.
What can I get you?
Um, just a cup of coffee.
Sure thing.
(DISHES CLATTERING)
I'm not from around here.
I was wondering...
is there anything
interesting in town to see?
WOMAN: Not much around these parts.
'Less you, uh, fancy visiting
some cows down at the Dairy farm.
- There's a dairy farm.
- WOMAN: Mmm-hmm.
- WOMAN: That'll be a dollar.
- Oh.
Of course.
Where is the dairy farm located?
Uh, take a left, about two miles
down the road. Can't miss it.
(COW MOOING)
- We'll have them through in a moment.
- Oh. Okay.
- Come on.
- (COWS MOOING)
Is this the dairy farm?
WOMAN: Indeed, it is.
These are milking cows?
WOMAN:
These are meat cows, not milking cows.
I'm Julie Dairy.
This is my family's farm.
Julie Dairy.
Uh, Paul Edgar Dairy.
Are you related to him?
Yes, he's my father.
Is he here?
You're clearly not with
the biography association.
(STAMMERS)
I'm sorry, I don't follow.
Some documentary crew came
through here a few months ago...
wanting to do a story on the
great Paul Edgar Dairy...
- the only black farmer in Boise.
- (DOG BARKING)
They took some pictures.
I liked the story and they
said they'd follow up.
You okay?
How you doing there?
I'm okay.
I'm just, uh, having
a moment of déjà vu.
Can we fetch you some water,
or a cup of tea?
I'd really love to meet
Paul if that was possible.
KAREN: What if we just start at
the beginning and break it down?
- (PILLS RATTLE)
- In the hospital, Tobias' eyes come up
as a match with Paul Edgar Dairy...
which is not correct because
Tobias has blue eyes...
and Paul Edgar Dairy has brown eyes.
Uh, no, Iris biometrics
is not based on color.
It's based on the unique crypts,
furrows and shapes in the texture.
So, maybe Tobias and Paul
have the same Iris pattern.
Statistically impossible.
KAREN: Second data point...
Tobias and Paul have
some kind of connection.
It's not our test, so we don't know.
And the third data point is that...
Paul Edgar Dairy dies
before Tobias is born.
Was conceived.
Was conceived.
Because Tobias was born in July...
and Paul Edgar Dairy
dies in September 2012.
That's ten months.
(STAMMERS) What are you
guys talking about right now?
You guys sound like crazy people.
Okay? What is this
connection referencing?
Doctor...
KAREN: Jan... Dr. Simmons.
IAN: From Yale.
She did this test on Tobias.
KENNY: Dr. Simmons?
From Yale?
She's one of five people who
have access to the eye database.
KENNY: My company owns
a patent on Iris biometrics...
and consolidate all their
data into one database...
and Simmons is one of five
people that have access.
But you have access to it, too.
Sort of.
I can find the Iris code...
run it and see if it's in the system
and then check the IP address...
and check when and where
it was registered.
I can do that.
IAN: How do you do that?
- Look into that.
- (DEVICE BEEPS)
- Okay. Other eye.
- (BEEPS)
- KENNY: All right.
- Okay.
So, I can't get your
name or biographicals...
but I can see that you
are in the system.
Amazing.
- Right.
- Hmm.
- (TYPING)
- And that you were registered
at the lab in 2005 and the same
should be for Karen and myself.
- What are you thinking, Karen?
- Well, check this out.
So, Paul and Tobias have the same
Iris patterns, let's just say.
And there's some sort of connection.
So the next logical step in
our scientific inquiry is...
to find someone that we do know
who's a duplicate in the system.
Like a family member who has died.
- IAN: That's it. We need another match.
- (KENNY SCOFFS)
KENNY:
Guys, this is statistically impossible.
- You're not gonna find anything.
- Can you get a scan from a photo?
It has to be high-res and in focus.
Technically, I can do it.
I have hundreds of high-res
photos of people's eyes.
- KENNY: All right.
- You can scan these.
KENNY: Give me the hard drive.
This is ridiculous.
Who do you want me to run?
Mmm. Run my father,
Tobias George Gray.
He died two years ago.
(TYPING)
He's in the system...
and he's registered at Heathrow, 2006.
That makes sense. He was
traveling there frequently.
Try, um, my uncle, Basil.
(CLICKS)
IAN: Died seven years ago of cancer.
KENNY: All right. Not found.
Try your grandparents.
My grandparents. Bev and Barry.
KENNY: Bev.
She's in the system.
Registered...
at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, 1998.
How many people are in the database?
There's like hundreds of millions.
There's a billion soon.
- IAN: Try my grandparents.
- KENNY: Right there.
KENNY: Judy is in the system.
She's registered at a nursing
home in New Haven in 2009.
And Malcolm?
- KENNY: Malcolm.
- (KAREN SIGHS)
IAN: Not found.
All right, so anybody else?
Sofi.
- Okay, try Sofi.
- KENNY: Okay.
Sofi.
(CLICKS)
She's in the system.
That makes sense. She was probably
scanned when she came through customs.
KENNY: No.
It says that the IP address coordinates
say that she was scanned...
in a community center in Delhi, India.
She must have traveled there.
Three months ago?
- IAN: That doesn't make any sense.
- KENNY: That's not right.
It's an error.
It's only the seventh one we've tried.
I need to get some air.
KENNY: What the fuck is happening?
(SWITCH CLICKS)
Did you put him to bed?
Yeah.
(SHOE THUDS)
You should go to India.
Can't go to India.
Can't or won't?
IAN: India is not Boise, Idaho, Karen.
There is someone there with
Sofi's exact Iris pattern.
The eyes and the brain are connected.
If the cellular structure in the eye
is reoccurring from person to person...
then maybe something in the brain...
carries over as well,
like a neurological link.
Maybe the eye really is some kind of...
- window to the soul.
- Soul, Karen? Soul?
Is my wife really using the word "soul"?
- Like you hold any validity in that?
- Call it whatever you wanna call it.
Dr. Simmons was testing
a memory connection...
between our son and Paul Edgar Dairy.
And it wasn't our test,
but you can go to India...
and you can find this person with
Sofi's eyes and you can do the same.
- IAN: I can't go there.
- It's just India...
Not India!
I can't go there!
I can't go back there!
I can't go back
to that part of my life!
I can't do it!
I gotta just let it go.
The man I married...
I don't think he would
let his own grief,
even if it was overwhelming...
get in the way of what
could potentially be...
the greatest scientific discovery
the world has ever seen.
This is bigger than you.
It's bigger than me.
It's bigger than Sofi.
Then maybe you should go.
I would, but I... I didn't know Sofi.
It's a false positive, you understand?
It's an error. It has to be an error.
It's statistically impossible.
Data point.
If I drop this phone a thousand times,
a million times...
and one time, it doesn't fall...
just once, it hovers in the air.
(CHUCKLES)
That is an error that's
worth looking at.
You're so fucking stubborn.
FEMALE NEWSCASTER: Technology has
barely touched Mira Devi's daily life.
In her hut, muscle, not machines,
gets the chores done.
That is about to change for Mira
and perhaps millions like her.
At this center, her irises are
scanned with biometric devices.
They're uploaded and then
sent to a massive server.
Once this information is processed...
out comes a twelve-digit
number for her and her only.
India's unique identification
program started just a year ago.
If it succeeds, India will become
the first country in the world...
using biometric data for identity
purposes on a national scale.
(MAN TALKING INDISTINCTLY)
(ELEVATOR DINGS)
(ELEVATOR MUSIC PLAYING)
(CLICKS BUTTON)
Oh.
(CLEARS THROAT)
(SIGHS)
First time to India?
It is, actually. Yeah.
Darryl MacKenzie.
Uh, Dr. Ian Gray.
Oh. Doctor. Well.
Two men, both doing good work.
(CHUCKLES)
What do you do?
Well, I'm in sales, but, uh...
Also do The Man's work.
- The Lord's work.
- Oh.
Uh, of course.
(ELEVATOR DINGS)
DARRYL: Good night, Dr. Gray.
IAN: Uh, have a good night.
DARRYL: Hope our paths cross again.
(ELEVATOR STARTS)
(LOCK CLICKS)
(DOOR UNLOCKS)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(CHILDREN CLAMORING)
(PRIYA SPEAKING HINDI)
(PRIYA SPEAKING HINDI)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(DEVICE BEEPS)
- (GIRL SPEAKING HINDI)
- (LAUGHS)
(SPEAKING HINDI)
(CHILDREN SPEAKING HINDI)
IAN: Hello.
Hi. Can I help you?
You seem like the boss of this place.
Boss, no. Circus manager more like it.
I'm Priya Varma, how can I help you?
I'm Dr. Ian Gray.
I'm visiting from America.
I have a very strange request.
Yes?
I'm looking for someone who
was scanned here a while back.
The thing is, I don't have their name.
All I have is a picture of their eyes.
(CHILDREN TALKING)
This is what their eyes look like.
They may not be this exact color.
Uh...
Why are you looking for her?
Is she in some kind of trouble?
Her?
Uh, no. Of course not. She's not
in trouble. She's incredibly special.
You do recognize them?
I do, if it is who I think it is.
But why are you looking for her?
Here's another photo.
Okay, um, this doesn't make sense.
These are her eyes,
but this isn't her face around them.
That's exactly why I'm looking for her.
Salomina.
- IAN: Salomina?
- Yeah.
Sweet girl. Very smart girl.
But I haven't seen her recently.
IAN: When was the last time you saw her?
Uh... A few months ago.
Could you help me find her?
Um...
I could make a donation
to the community center.
I mean, I'm going to make a
donation to the community center.
I don't want to sound crass,
like I'm bribing you...
- but I am kind of bribing you.
- (PRIYA CHUCKLES)
No, of course, I mean, of course any
donation would help the center.
Uh...
IAN: It's very important.
Please.
Okay.
You meet me tomorrow at 12: 00...
at the Okhla market, okay?
(MARKETPLACE BUSTLE)
- (BICYCLE BELL RINGING)
- (ENGINE REVS)
(HONKING)
(HONKING)
(CHILDREN YELLING)
- (CHILDREN TALKING INDISTINCTLY)
- (IAN LAUGHS)
All right.
(STAMMERS)
So you want me to take a photo of you?
(SHUTTER CLICKS)
You wanna see?
IAN: You see?
Okay.
Hello.
(CHILDREN TALKING INDISTINCTLY)
I almost didn't come.
Yeah, I was worried.
What changed your mind?
I, uh, did some research on you.
Uh-oh.
(CHUCKLES)
Come.
- (CHILDREN GREETING)
- (SPEAKING HINDI)
IAN: Hello.
Do all these children eventually
end up at the community center?
Some do, but there are
over one million people...
living in this 30-block radius alone.
PRIYA: According to the registrar,
Salomina and her parents live here.
I'm gonna ask this lady here.
Okay.
(CHILDREN CLAMORING)
(SPEAKING HINDI)
(BOTH SPEAKING HINDI)
What's wrong?
What'd she say?
IAN: She could be living like a stray dog.
She's totally alone.
Her mother's dead, her father's dead.
She knows the address of
the community center...
but Priya said she hasn't
been there in weeks.
There's a million people
living in a ten-block radius.
It's gonna be impossible to find her.
Well, you shouldn't give up.
You flew halfway around the world.
You should keep looking.
At least give it a few days.
I'm gonna go to bed.
Goodnight.
Bye.
(KEYBOARD CLACKS)
(SIGHS)
What am I doing here?
(DISTANT HONKING)
You're mad.
It's a smoke signal.
IAN: Someone she knows will see it.
PRIYA: I'm glad you didn't
put my number up there.
(CELL PHONE RINGING)
Hello?
MAN: Hello.
Hi, yes?
Yeah, my niece has eyes like
the picture board, cash reward.
IAN: Are they just like
the ones in the picture?
Yes, I think so.
Like exactly?
Uh, very much so.
How old is your niece?
Eighteen. My other niece is 15.
Oh. No. Uh, sorry.
(CHUCKLES)
Thank you, no. Sorry. Wrong person.
Bye.
(CELL PHONE RINGING)
(CELL PHONE RINGING)
IAN: Hello?
(WOMAN SPEAKING HINDI)
Do you speak English?
Yes, I do.
I'm sorry, what were you saying?
I have the eyes you took
up the advertisement for.
How old are you?
24.
No, sorry. The person I'm
looking for is much younger.
No, thank you for calling. Sorry.
(CELL PHONE RINGING)
- (PRIYA COUNTING IN HINDI)
- (CHILDREN COUNTING IN HINDI)
Very good!
(SPEAKING HINDI)
- CHILDREN: (CLAPPING) I'm the best.
- PRIYA: I'm the very best.
CHILDREN: I'm the very best.
Very good.
(SPEAKING HINDI)
(MAN YELLING INDISTINCTLY)
PRIYA: Dr. Gray, are you religious?
Am I religious?
I thought you researched me.
I'm not religious.
Why not?
Religion is based on scripture written
by men thousands of years ago.
Those beliefs can't be
changed or challenged.
They're fixed.
In science, great thinkers have
written things very long ago...
but every generation improves upon them.
The words are not holy.
Einstein is a brilliant man,
but he is not our god.
He's one step in the
evolution of knowledge...
but we always continue to step forward.
You know, a scientist once
asked the Dalai Lama...
"What would you do if
something scientific..."
"disproved your religious beliefs?"
And he said after much thought...
"I would look at all the papers"
"and take a look at all the research..."
"and really try to understand things."
"And in the end, if it was clear
that the scientific evidence..."
"disproved my spiritual beliefs..."
"I would change my beliefs."
That's a good answer.
Ian.
What would you do if
something spiritual...
disproved your scientific beliefs?
(TOBIAS COOING ON BABY MONITOR)
(CLICKING)
(CLICKING)
(MARKETPLACE BUSTLE)
(BICYCLE BELL RINGING)
(CHILDREN CLAMORING)
IAN ON PHONE: Hello, love.
The bank called today.
They said $2,000 a day is going to
some sketchy Planet India company.
It's like 20 K already. What's going on?
I put up a billboard.
It know it sounds a bit
extreme, but it's all I could think of.
Ian, it's been weeks.
I think you should come back.
Karen, what happened to turning over
rocks and finding nothing is progress?
I'm down with the big
picture of all this.
I'm the one who wanted you to go.
But failed experiments are
not unknown to us, right?
We regroup, we look for
more matches, we try again.
(CHILDREN CLAMORING)
Please come home.
Do you speak English?
A little.
A little?
Yes.
What's your name?
Salomina.
IAN: Salomina?
Yes.
Salomina, (STUTTERS) I'm Ian.
My name's Ian.
Are you hungry?
Yes.
You are?
Yes.
Come on, let's get you some food.
Come on.
Priya, I found her.
I'm going to the hotel.
Hey!
Meet me there.
Listen, I'll be right there, okay?
(CARS HONKING)
What's your favorite food?
SALOMINA: Strawberry.
Strawberry?
Just strawberry?
What's your favorite color?
Pink, purple, blue and green.
- Pink, purple, blue and green?
- Blue and green.
That's so many.
See my finger?
Can you follow it?
Very good.
Very good. Very good. Very good.
(CAMERA WHIRRING)
(WHIRRING)
(BEEPS)
(SHUTTER CLICKS)
(SHUTTER CLICKS)
(KEYBOARD CLACKING)
You okay?
You comfortable?
- You okay?
- Yes.
(CLICKS)
(COMPUTER CHIMING)
- IAN: Are you there?
- Yeah.
- (CLICKS)
- (COMPUTER CHIMES)
I wanna show you something that
will take your breath away.
Karen, this is Salomina.
Salomina, this is Karen.
I need my lab partner.
Okay. Yeah.
KAREN: I'm ready.
Okay, so, Salomina...
it's a very easy game.
I'm gonna show you three things
and you pick the one
that's your favorite.
- Okay.
- You understand?
- Yes.
- Okay.
Commencing experiment one.
Memory connection between subjects
with identical Iris patterns.
KAREN: Got it.
- IAN: Subject, Salomina.
- (SCRIBBLING)
- S as in...
- Shut the front door.
(CHUCKLES)
- A as in...
- KAREN: Amazing.
I as in...
Love you.
IAN: O...
Open-minded.
M as in...
Maestro.
I as in...
Ian Gray.
N as in...
No way this is true.
A as in...
Afterlife.
Okay.
Let's start. You ready?
- Yes.
- Yes? Okay.
Here we go.
Alpha.
Correct.
Beta, correct.
IAN: Charlie...
correct.
Delta...
incorrect, but it's not a good one.
Echo, incorrect.
Sort of.
Okay.
Foxtrot, incorrect.
Gamma, incorrect.
Howie, incorrect.
India, correct.
Joker, incorrect.
Kimo, incorrect.
Love, correct.
Incorrect.
Incorrect.
Universe, correct.
Vito, incorrect.
Wendy, incorrect.
X-ray, incorrect.
Yoga...
correct.
Okay.
(INHALES SHARPLY)
What's the tally?
44 percent.
Which is, um, a touch above random...
by an unfortunately standard margin.
How do you feel?
IAN: I think numbers don't lie.
I didn't ask what you think,
I asked what you feel.
I feel...
kind of foolish.
I'll see you soon.
Okay.
(LAPTOP CHIMES)
I make bad test?
What?
I made bad test?
No. No, you did fine.
You did perfect.
It's just a stupid test.
(DOOR CLOSES)
(CLICKS BUTTON)
(SALOMINA SPEAKING HINDI)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
Red wine.
And sleeping pills.
Help me get back to your arms
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
Cheap sex.
And sad films.
Help me get back where I belong
I think you're crazy.
Maybe
I think you're crazy.
Maybe.
Stop sending letters.
Letters always get burned.
It's not like the movies.
They fed us on little white lies
I think you're crazy.
Maybe
I think you're crazy.
Maybe
I will see you.
In the next life...
Give me an update on
the archivist images.
We've collected hundreds of
images at high enough resolution.
(CLICKS)
MAN: Just waiting on your approval to scan.
WOMAN: No time like the present.
IAN: Every living person on this planet
has their own unique pair of eyes.
Each their own universe.
(TYPING)
- My name is Dr. Ian Gray.
- (BEEPS)
I'm a father, a husband...
and I'm a scientist.
When I was a child, I realized that...
the camera was designed
exactly like the human eye...
taking in light through a lens,
forming it into images.
I began taking as many pictures
of eyes as I possibly could.
I'd like to tell you the story of
the eyes that changed my world.
Remember these eyes.
Remember all the details in these eyes.
Okay.
It started when I was a 26-year-old
Ph.D. student living in New York.
It was Halloween, eight years ago.
- (MUSIC PLAYING)
- (INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS)
(EXHALES)
You okay?
I'm watching the moon.
Can I take a picture of your eyes?
Why?
It's just something I do.
(DISTANT SIREN WAILING)
Okay.
Yeah?
I've perfected this.
(MANIPULATING CAMERA)
(CAMERA LENS WHIRRING)
- (CAMERA BEEPS)
- (SHUTTER CLICKS)
(CAMERA BEEPS)
(SHUTTER CLICKS)
Hi.
Hi.
Do you know the story
of the Phasianidae?
The... No, what's that?
It's a bird...
that experiences all
of time in one instant.
And she sings the song
of love and anger...
and fear and Joy and
sadness all at once.
All combined into one magnificent sound.
Where are you from?
Another planet.
What's the bird sound like?
It sounds like this. Lean closer.
- (SCREAMS)
- (CHUCKLES)
- It's more like noise.
- (CHUCKLING) Yeah.
And this bird... when she
meets the love of her life...
is both happy and sad.
Happy because she sees that
for him is the beginning...
and sad because she knows
it is already over.
- (MUSIC PLAYING)
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER)
IAN: Hey, hey, do you wanna get a drink?
I don't drink.
IAN: Like, anything?
(DOOR SHUTS)
(UNZIPS)
(MOANS)
(SIGHING)
You're not gonna regret
this in the morning, right?
(DOOR OPENS)
(FOOTSTEPS RECEDING)
(DOOR SHUTS)
WOMAN: (SINGING)
Hold your memory for a moment.
With a blind hand.
Write some stories.
For tomorrow
(TIRES SCREECHING)
AUTOMATED VOICE: Your identity confirmed.
I finished that transcription
factor program.
Last night?
No, this morning.
Because, bitch, I don't play.
Got the input genes and then you
put your transcription factor...
Wait a minute. You stink of vodka.
- I mean, like, bad. Like it smells bad.
- Yeah, I know. I know I reek of vodka.
Stop talking so loud.
(SNIFFS)
Okay, I consolidated all of
your data into one database.
You are welcome.
You're amazing. I hate you.
KENNY: Oh, I love you, that's why I do it.
Oh, hey, you got a new rotating student.
First year.
- IAN: Oh, shi...
- KENNY: Yeah.
IAN: Yeah, yeah.
Have fun babysitting, buddy.
You need gum.
KENNY: You need... to have fun babysitting.
Karen.
Hi, Ian.
Can I...
Follow me.
KAREN: You're attempting to
make colorblind mice see color?
IAN: That's the idea.
But after failed
experiment 352, we'll see.
Why?
Why what?
Do so many experiments fail?
Why are you interested in making
colorblind mice see color?
Oh.
Why not?
How are you testing that they see color?
As the new rotating lab assistant...
your job will be to do very boring,
very repetitive experiments...
be a glorified note-taker...
and not ask me "why" every five minutes.
Okay? Cool.
Commencing experiment 353...
response to photo pigment
protein in Mus musculus.
The control subjects B-Beta...
G Gamma, E-Euphoria...
P...
Psychopannychia.
- I don't know what that means.
- Look it up.
G as in Goodness gracious.
H as in Help me, please.
Z as in Zoolander.
Are the mice muted with the
photo pigment protein?
When we animate the lines...
colorblind mice stare straight.
Whereas...
fingers crossed...
the muted mice sh...
Track the lines with their eyes.
- Holy shit.
- Holy fucking shit.
Is this on the background
of PAX6 overexpression?
You're a first year?
I know, it's surprising I can
put together a sentence.
Sorry, I asked my last three lab
assistants not to come in...
and I'd sign their credits.
Anyway, this is just one step
in a very, very long process.
This is a rough estimation...
but let's just say that the human
eye has 12 working parts, right?
Simplest eye having one.
So, if we can fill in the gaps,
the evolutionary gaps...
using single mutations...
we can map out the most
logical progression...
of the most basic eye...
to the most complex,
fully formed human eye.
KAREN:
I don't understand, why take the time?
We know that it evolved.
It's an assumption, it's not a fact.
When you're no longer a first year,
you'll see how important facts are.
Right.
Each of these animals has an eye
that's best selected
for its environment.
It would be cleaner...
less variables, if you had an origin.
Go on.
You start with one...
to get to 12. But what if you had zero?
A non-seeing organism and built
genetically an eye from scratch...
a zero to 12.
It'd be a perfect proof, unassailable.
Non-seeing organisms don't
have the PAX6 gene.
How do you know?
Has anyone ever checked all of them?
I don't think anyone has
ever checked... all of them.
You've thought of this before?
Why did you look surprised?
Because so have you.
Okay.
- Who were those girls?
- (KENNY SIGHS)
Which girls?
The ones at the Halloween
party in the S&M outfits.
S&M outfits?
I met one of them. Don't know her name.
I don't know her face, but she had
these most amazing eyes. So specific.
Central heterochromia.
Oh, reminds me. Guess what I did?
What?
I figured out an improved
implementation technique...
for Daugman's biometrics algo.
IAN:
You ever feel like when you met someone,
they fill this hole inside of you...
and that when they're gone
you feel that space painfully vacant?
Are you okay, man?
(CHUCKLING)
Yeah, yeah. I'm okay, are you okay?
What did you just say? Did you say...
(STAMMERING)
The way you talked was, like, poetic.
- It was weird.
- (CHUCKLING) Shut the fuck up.
- It was so weird, dude. I can't believe...
- (CLATTERING)
Oh, shit.
This guy is painfully vacant.
Ian, look at him.
He's so painfully vac...
He's so painfully vacant.
- (CHUCKLES)
- Fuck off.
Can I get a pack of
Verdict and a Powerball?
(CASH REGISTER DINGS)
How much is that?
(BEEPING)
$11. 11.
Oh.
(COINS JINGLING)
Lucky elevens.
Thanks.
(TRAIN ENGINE CHUGGING)
(DOOR HISSES)
(DOG BARKING)
(BRAKES SCREECH)
(IAN TYPING)
(PAPER RUSTLING)
(TYPING)
- IAN: Karen.
- Mmm-hmm?
What are you doing?
Five percent of all animals
don't have vision...
and there are 8.7 million species...
So I blasted PAX6 at the database,
but nothing came up.
So I started sequencing by myself.
How many did you sequence?
Twelve.
You've done 12.
So, how many do you have left?
Like, approximately 426,000.
Are you going to write
426,000 names on the window?
I'm going to find it before I
get to the end of the window.
Okay.
KAREN: What are you doing?
I'm not doing anything.
(DOOR OPENS)
(BREATHES HEAVILY)
You know we could be looking
forever and find nothing.
Turning over rocks and
finding nothing is progress.
(TRAIN ENGINE CHUGGING)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(GASPS)
WOMAN: (SINGING)
Burning papers into ashes.
What a season.
How they fly high.
From the ground, oh.
There is yet another fountain.
Flowing over.
As the night falls.
Keep dreaming.
Away.
If you hold onto that past.
Don't you lock yourself inside.
Nothing has been done before.
IAN: So, are you gonna
tell me where you're from?
So many places, I don't know.
Which places?
Mmm...
To make it short,
I was born in Argentina...
and when I was 11, I moved to
France with my grandmother.
And your parents?
Next.
(CUP CLATTERS)
So, what do you do?
Next.
Why did you sleep with me that night?
Poor judgment.
I was lonely for a long time and...
when I saw you that night I...
I had the feeling that I had known you.
Actually, I felt like you knew me.
IAN: What do you mean?
Like we are connected from past lives.
I don't believe in that.
What do you believe in?
I'm a scientist. I believe in data.
- A scientist?
- Mmm-hmm.
What kind of scientist?
Molecular biology.
I'm most fascinated with the eye.
- The eye, the eyes?
- The eyes.
Why the eye?
The eye is the one sticking
point that religious people use
to discredit evolution.
They use it as proof of
an intelligent designer.
- SOFI: Intelligent designer?
- IAN: God.
I'm looking to end the debate
once and for all with...
clear, clean facts.
Data points of every
stage of eye-evolution.
Why are you working so
hard to disprove God?
Disprove? Who proved that God
was there in the first place?
Anyway, let's get some real
data points on you, okay?
Be my guest.
- I prefer talking about myself anyway.
- (CHUCKLES)
Okay.
Um...
- What's your favorite...
- SOFI: Candy? Strawberry Mentos.
IAN: Food?
SOFI: Veggie burritos.
I'm vegetarian, you should know that.
IAN: What's your favorite flower?
SOFI: Dandelions.
IAN: Okay. Why?
SOFI: 'Cause they're free,
wild, and you can't buy them.
IAN: What's your favorite field of study?
SOFI: The stars.
IAN: What's your favorite animal?
SOFI: The white peacock. You ever see one?
IAN: Mmm.
SOFI: There's one in New York.
I'll take you to see it.
IAN: So, you're gonna see me again?
SOFI: Maybe.
You know, in Indian mythology...
the white peacock symbolizes souls
being dispersed throughout the world.
IAN: Did you ever think it just symbolizes
a lack of melanin or
pigment in the cells?
IAN: The control subjects T...
KAREN: T as in Tsunami.
- IAN: G as in...
- KAREN: Gnome.
- P as in...
- Pneumonia.
- M as in...
- Mnemonic.
(LAUGHING)
(LIGHTER CLICKS)
I start to see these elevens, like,
everywhere. Too many elevens.
The amount was so staggering,
so unlikely, that I followed them.
And when I followed them, I found
your eyes, which then led me to you.
Because I found you through your eyes.
So unlikely, like life itself.
I know.
I sent them to you.
Bullshit.
You know you have it.
- Have what?
- But you're scared of it.
I have what?
Okay.
- You live in this room, right?
- Mmm-hmm.
Reality.
You have a bed, you have books, um...
a desk, a chair, lamps.
Logic.
But in this room, you have a door...
to the other side.
See?
Light comes through.
It's open.
Just a tiny bit, but it is open.
You keep trying to close that
door because you're scared.
But you won't always be scared.
What's behind the door?
Besides my dirty laundry.
You have to go in to find out.
You know what I'm talking about.
I have no idea.
You will.
You will.
Mmm!
(GASPS)
You want to move to my place?
- You have a place?
- Mmm-hmm.
Of course.
Can I move in tomorrow?
(CHUCKLES)
(OPERA MUSIC PLAYING)
(DOORBELL BUZZES)
(GRUNTING)
(IAN CLEARS THROAT)
Is this your family?
SOFI: Yes, it's my grandmother.
Such an eccentric beauty.
And...
My parents and me when I was baby.
Um, the white peacock,
but you have met him before. Mmm.
This is a proof of the spirit world.
El Angel de la Resurrección.
What?
It's the name of the statue.
Of the statue in Saint Anne's Cemetery.
- It's in Saint Anne's Cemetery?
- Mmm-hmm.
But look at the eyes.
They're alive.
IAN: It's amazing what you can
do on Photoshop these days.
SOFI: There's no Photoshop!
The eyes appeared just
when she took the picture.
Just...
You're so beautiful.
Let's get more boxes.
(DOOR OPENS)
Nineteen days gestation period.
She is ready.
Fame, science grants...
fortune await you.
If you find that PAX6 gene,
we'll be well on our way to all of that.
Recognition makes me extremely nauseous.
Well, it is important that
people know about the work.
To me, the best thing about
living like a lab rat...
is that sometimes...
really rare times...
you actually discover something.
On the night of a discovery
when you're lying in bed...
you are the only person in the
world that knows it's true.
Can you promise me something?
Promise you something?
- Mmm-hmm.
- What?
- Promise.
- I can't promise if you don't tell me...
Promise first.
- Before you tell me what it is?
- Mmm-hmm.
- I keep my promises.
- (SNIFFS)
Whatever, I won't tell.
Promise.
Okay, I promise.
I want you to burn me.
- Burn you?
- I don't want to rot in a box when I die.
- Oh, you mean like cremate you.
- Mmm...
- Yeah.
- Oh, no. I don't want to be cremated.
Mmm.
This is a big disagreement
I didn't know we had.
(CLEARS THROAT)
Cremation is like obliteration.
I mean, what if in the future,
the scientists...
What if they can reconstitute
ourselves through our DNA?
- I want to be clear with you.
- Mmm.
I don't want that.
You don't want what?
I don't want to be cloning.
(STAMMERING) Cloneed.
- "I don't want to be cloning."
- (LAUGHS) Cloneed!
No, but I'd reconstitute myself first...
then I'd reconstitute you and then
I'd ask you, "Do you wanna be alive?"
And then if you didn't, I'd kill you.
(CHUCKLING)
(BOTH LAUGH)
No, but then we could
be together forever,
like, for real, scientifically.
Reanimated, reconstituted.
(SNIFFS)
You have a hard time letting go.
Don't worry.
We'll find each other again.
(SNIFFS)
I love your smell.
What is it?
I won't tell.
- Come on, tell me.
- Mmm-mmm.
(SNIFFING)
Will you marry me?
CLERK: Next?
Can I help you?
- BOTH: We'd like to get married.
- Do you have your ID's?
- Yeah.
- Yes.
(CLEARS THROAT)
First you have to get your marriage
license, so you have to fill these out.
Okay.
You're gonna have to wait 24 hours
before you can actually get married.
- Twenty-four hours?
- Yeah.
Why?
Well, this way,
you have 24 hours to decide
whether you want to
marry this young man.
But I want to marry him!
In 24 hours.
So, okay. All right.
Yeah, so we can't get married today.
(SIGHS)
Okay.
(CHUCKLES)
(LAUGHS)
This system really kills the
spontaneity factor, hmm?
- We're already married in the spirit world.
- (CELL PHONE BUZZING)
Shit.
Hello?
KAREN: Hi.
Hi.
Hi.
Hi. What's up?
You called like five times.
I did.
Why would I do that?
Why might I call five times?
I don't know.
I was running the electrophoretic drill,
you know, just another Tuesday.
And I started sequencing the
genes of this strange worm...
called Eisenia fetida.
IAN: Go on.
KAREN: And, uh...
I found the PAX6 master switch.
No.
Yeah.
Are you serious right now? Are you fucking
with me? Do you know what this means?
We found an origin species and we can
build an eye from scratch. (CHUCKLES)
Holy sh...
(SIGHS)
Um, does it have the same
amino acid sequence as humans?
I can't even talk right now.
I feel like I'm gonna piss myself.
Can you just come in here?
Okay, I'm coming in right now.
You're amazing.
Bye. Bye, bye, bye.
Who was that?
That was Karen, um, my rotating...
Well, my lab partner.
I have to go into the lab right now.
Do you want to come with me?
On our wedding day?
Well, technically, it's not
our wedding day today.
And we've been married forever
in the spiritual world, right?
Sofi, please come in with me.
It's really important.
Sure.
Yeah?
Mmm. It's fine. Let's go.
IAN: Well, don't be upset about it.
Let's put our rings on.
- I don't want to, it's bad luck.
- I don't believe in luck.
I do believe we've known each
other since forever, though.
Really?
Yeah. You know how?
When the Big Bang happened...
all the atoms in the universe
were all smashed together...
into one little dot
that exploded outward.
So my atoms and your atoms were
certainly together then...
and, who knows, probably smashed
together several times...
in the last 13.7 billion years.
So my atoms have known your atoms...
and they've always known your atoms.
My atoms have always loved your atoms.
- Let's go!
- (CHUCKLES)
(DOOR OPENS)
IAN: Karen.
(EXHALING)
Hi.
- Hey.
- Hi.
This is Sofi. This is Karen.
- Karen, this is Sofi.
- Hi.
She's my wife.
(CHUCKLES)
Welcome, um...
What do you wanna see?
IAN: I wanna see everything.
KAREN: Uh, so, I have this gel.
IAN: And it aligns?
KAREN: The alignment crossed
PAX6 proteins, 98 percent identity.
IAN: Are these the worms?
They can't see anything.
- IAN: Not for long.
- (KAREN CHUCKLES)
(KAREN SIGHS)
(IAN MUMBLING)
You know, um, I should...
I'm gonna go take a shower.
(CHUCKLES)
You've seen it.
- IAN: Shower?
- I should shower, brush my teeth...
- Wait, you're gonna go right now?
- KAREN: Um, yeah.
I'm sure you want to show your
wife around the lab and...
Okay. Are you sure?
Okay, well, uh, this is amazing.
The beginning of something amazing.
It was nice to meet you.
IAN: Amazing stuff, Karen.
- Bye.
- IAN: Bye.
(DOOR OPENS)
(DOOR CLOSES)
What's wrong?
I know something's wrong, so...
You leave me everyday
to torture little worms?
We're not torturing worms, Sofi.
If you're interested,
we're modifying organisms.
In this case, they happen to
be worms that are blind...
and we're modifying them to have vision.
You can make blind worms see?
Kind of.
I mean, we can now, maybe.
You think that's a good idea?
Do you think it's a bad idea?
I think it's dangerous to play God.
Sofi, I believe in proof.
There is no proof that there
is some magical spirit...
uh, that's invisible,
living above us, right on top of us.
How many senses do worms have?
They have two.
Smell and touch.
Why?
So...
they live without any ability to see
or even know about light, right?
The notion of light to
them is unimaginable.
Yeah.
But we humans...
we know that light exists.
All around them...
right on top of them...
they can't sense it.
But with a little mutation,
they do. Right?
Correct.
So...
Doctor Eye...
perhaps some humans,
rare humans...
have mutated to have another sense.
A spirit sense.
And can perceive a world
that is right on top of us...
everywhere.
Just like the light on these worms.
So, you're a mutant.
Mmm-hmm.
And I'm not the only one.
(GLASS SHATTERS)
Ow! Oh...
- Jesus!
- Are you okay?
- I got formaldehyde in my eye.
- Here, let me see.
- Get the splash kit. (GROANING)
- What is it?
- Fuck!
- What is it? Tell me!
(STAMMERING)
It's yellow, it's right over there!
It's yellow! Call Karen!
Fucking call Karen, now!
- Where's the number?
- The number's by the door.
SOFI: By the door.
Got it.
(SIGHS)
We should do this every Friday.
How many fingers am I holding up?
Twelve.
- He's not blind, so that's good.
- (SNIFFS)
- I think you're gonna be fine.
- Are you okay?
Yeah.
Okay.
- Thank you.
- Yeah.
You're gonna feel fine in
12 hours or something.
I'll call tomorrow to check in on him.
- Thank you.
- Yeah, of course.
(SNIFFS)
(DOOR BUZZING)
SOFI: This is funny.
(CHUCKLES)
- IAN: Yeah. It's, um...
- (ELEVATOR RATTLING)
strange.
Find me.
(LOUD THUD)
Whoa.
Whoa, what?
(ELEVATOR CREAKING)
We are in the middle of two floors.
We stopped.
- Hmm?
- Mmm.
We should call the super.
- The super what?
- The super. The superintendant.
The guy that fixes the building.
Can you call him?
I don't know this guy.
I don't have his number.
Of course you don't.
Here.
It's under "Super."
(CHUCKLES)
- What?
- Your phone is dead.
- It's dead?
- Yeah.
(SIGHS)
Oh, come on, relax.
IAN: You're so irresponsible.
Okay.
(CLEARS THROAT)
(SIGHS)
Want me to call Karen?
Don't be a child.
You live in this fairy,
magical, fantasy land.
It's a fucking lie and
you know it's a lie.
That's a lie that you wanna believe,
like a child. Like a child.
(LOUD THUD)
(SOFI SHOUTS)
(SOBS)
Okay.
Okay. Come on.
What's gonna happen?
I'll boost you up.
No. You go first and you pull me up.
- Sofi, come on, go.
- I'm not going first. You go first.
Look at you, you're so scared. Come on.
SOFI: Be careful.
(SIGHS)
IAN: Look how easy that was.
Come on.
Come on, let's go.
Sofia, come on!
Give me your hand.
Give me your hand.
SOFI: Oh.
IAN: Okay, come on.
There you go, you're fine.
(SOFI GROANS)
IAN: Here we go.
(GRUNTS)
Oh.
(PANTS)
(CHUCKLES)
(PANTING)
Sofi?
Sofi?
Sofi?
Sofi?
(SCREAMING)
Ah!
Sofi!
(SCREAMING)
(INAUDIBLE)
(WIND WHOOSHING)
(KNOCKING CONTINUES)
(TRAIN ENGINE CHUGGING)
(CELL PHONE RINGING)
(LINE RINGING)
IAN: Hello?
Can I come over?
No.
Maybe.
What if I bring you something that
I know will take your breath away?
KAREN: It has an eye.
I mean, just light-sensitive cells,
but we did it.
Mutations are holding.
IAN: You did it.
That's the first step in
a really long process.
It's gonna end as a worm in a box if
you don't get your ass back in the lab.
Why don't you eat something?
(SNIFFS)
Fuck.
(SOBS)
REPORTER ON TV: He claims to
have put to rest the notion...
that the eye was made
by an intelligent designer.
Dr. Gray, you made some
mutants in a laboratory...
and now you expect all religious people
to just throw away their beliefs?
Well, I expect them to fight
me every step of the way.
But I do implore them to look
at the evidence and data
we've collected here.
These specimens are practical examples
of every stage of eye development.
- Dr. Ian Gray, uh, thanks for being here.
- IAN: Thanks for having me.
The book is The Complete Eye.
- (ALARM BUZZES)
- All right. (CLEARS THROAT)
How'd I do?
Why do you do that thing with your face?
What?
What thing?
The thing. Where you're like...
- (CHUCKLES)
- You did nothing with your face.
It was good, it was good.
Man, you should have joined
the private sector, Professor.
It's crazy. Iris Biometrics is
exploding all over the world.
I'll take love over money any day.
KENNY: Wow, that's mature of you.
- You think I could really get a job there?
- (BOTH CHUCKLE)
Thank you.
You all right?
WAITRESS: Any more drinks?
Uh, yeah, it's just a smell,
I can't place it.
Maybe it's your perfume?
Any more drinks?
(CHUCKLES) Uh, no, actually,
we'd like to know what your perfume is.
- You don't have to answer that.
- WAITRESS: It's Trésor.
Trésor?
- IAN: It's lovely.
- KENNY: Thank you.
IAN: I'm okay with drink.
- (WHISPERS) It's Trésor.
- It's French.
Are you hitting on the waitress
in front of your pregnant wife?
I don't know if you know this about me,
Kenny, but the gene for jealousy?
- Recessive.
- KENNY: That's good.
I'm going to the dance floor
with my pregnant, lovely wife.
(WHISPERING)
I'm gonna get her number for you.
KENNY: Please, thank you.
I'm so looking forward to
brainwashing this child with you.
(CHUCKLES)
You want to know what I was thinking?
IAN: What?
What if we turn the garage into a lab?
And the baby could be
our first test subject.
That's a great idea.
KAREN: Is there something
ethically wrong with that?
No.
You know what I wanna do?
I think we should leave.
I'm, uh, picking up a prescription
for my wife, Karen Gray.
(WHISPERING)
How about if I sing to you?
KAREN: (SINGING) Beautiful dreamer.
Wake onto me
(TYPING)
Sounds of the rude world.
Heard in the day.
Lulled by the moonlight
Have all passed away
(SHUSHING)
Beautiful dreamer.
Wake onto me.
Starlight and dew drops
are waiting for thee.
IAN: (SINGSONG) Say hello to the camera.
Sofi, come on.
Be nice.
Be nice. Come on, act like a lady.
- Hello.
- Hello.
IAN: Hello.
- I want you.
- I want you more.
Don't stop.
I wanna know what's turning you on.
(STAMMERING)
I never do this.
(SIGHS)
I sometimes think about the
cause and effect of it...
And I think about how,
and I don't feel guilty for this...
but I think about how if I hadn't
called you into the lab that day...
she would maybe still be here
and you would be with her.
Can I tell you something that
makes me feel like a monster?
That day in the elevator...
I thought to myself...
"Am I going to be stuck with
this child the rest of my life?"
And then the next moment she was dead.
We were never gonna be together, Karen.
I just never got closure.
I never got to say goodbye.
Kiss me.
(MONITOR BEEPING)
(COOING)
Iris scanning is a new
identification measure...
taken up by the more
sophisticated hospitals.
We know what Iris scanning is.
We've had it in our lab for a decade.
Well, it's still new
to the general public.
Now, we are not yet legally
required to scan eyes...
but we adopted the technology and
use it with the parents' consent.
I'm fine with it. You, uh...
Scan. Yeah, do the scan.
I dim the lights.
(WOMAN TALKING INDISTINCTLY)
NURSE: The system is non-obtrusive...
and, in all actuality,
is just taking photo of the eyes.
- (COOING)
- There you go.
IAN: Come here, Tobias.
- NURSE: Oh, thank you.
- IAN: You got it?
- (COOING)
- Yes, I got it. Thank you.
What happens then is...
the computer finds a bunch of
points in the crevices of the eye...
Yeah, we understand how it works.
(NURSE GASPS)
Forgive me.
These systems are sort of new.
Can you tell?
Paul Edgar Dairy?
Sounds like a pirate.
If this happens, I'm supposed
to punch in a key and reboot.
(MONITOR BEEPING)
(CLICKING)
NURSE: There we go.
So I'll just put in his info.
What is his name?
I like Paul Edgar Dairy, it's fine.
Tobias George Gray,
after his grandfather.
(TELEPHONE RINGING)
- (BEEPS)
- Hello?
- DR. SIMMONS: Hi, is this Ian Gray?
- (TOBIAS COOING)
- It is.
- My name is Dr. Simmons.
I work in conjunction with Yale
and the Greenwich Hospital...
where you and your
wife gave birth in July.
(STUTTERS)
Yeah? Is everything okay?
Yes. Everything's okay,
please don't be alarmed.
We would however like to run
a few simple tests on Tobias.
His test results may suggest,
although highly unlikely...
the possibility of early autism.
You know I'm a doctor.
What test results?
- The... We've pinpointed, uh...
- Uh...
Uh, can you hold on a moment, please?
Karen, listen to this.
(KISSES)
(BEEPS)
Yeah.
We've pinpointed an array of molecular
compounds that appear in the urine...
of children with autism.
(INHALES SHARPLY)
And Tobias showcased a few of them.
I promise it's unlikely,
but worth checking out...
and we have very simple non-obtrusive
tests and we'll be done in an hour.
IAN: What was your name and affiliation?
Dr. Janet Simmons.
I run a research lab on child autism...
in conjunction with Yale and
the Greenwich Hospital.
IAN: Simmons, you said?
Janet Simmons.
Our clinic is in Stamford,
not too far from there.
It's important to check this soon.
There's no alarming rush,
but we could see him today.
- Okay, thank you. You'll hear from us.
- (BEEPS)
Baby, I love you.
Tobias. Look here, look here.
(TOBIAS COOING)
I'm not sure I understand how
this is testing for autism.
The blood and urine test will
check for molecular compounds.
This test is purely perceptual.
Tracking the child's eye
movements and attractions.
(COOING)
(COOING)
(COOING)
(TOBIAS CRYING)
(CRYING)
- Okay, that's enough. I'm gonna...
- Yeah. The test is over.
OPERATOR: If you are calling
regarding an existing file...
please enter your
seven-digit session number.
(BEEPS)
This Dr. Simmons is up to something.
Child autism my ass.
I keep running through her studies.
What was she doing?
Two images side by side.
IAN: Two images, similar but different.
Tobias would look at one or the other.
Do you remember anything
specific about the images?
Something connected to something?
Something we could look up?
There was a farmhouse.
There was, um...
Dan's Diner in Boise, Idaho.
Whatever that means.
(TYPING)
KAREN: Why, that's a real place.
(AIRPLANE ENGINE ROARING)
(DOOR OPENS)
(SIZZLING)
Hello.
What can I get you?
Um, just a cup of coffee.
Sure thing.
(DISHES CLATTERING)
I'm not from around here.
I was wondering...
is there anything
interesting in town to see?
WOMAN: Not much around these parts.
'Less you, uh, fancy visiting
some cows down at the Dairy farm.
- There's a dairy farm.
- WOMAN: Mmm-hmm.
- WOMAN: That'll be a dollar.
- Oh.
Of course.
Where is the dairy farm located?
Uh, take a left, about two miles
down the road. Can't miss it.
(COW MOOING)
- We'll have them through in a moment.
- Oh. Okay.
- Come on.
- (COWS MOOING)
Is this the dairy farm?
WOMAN: Indeed, it is.
These are milking cows?
WOMAN:
These are meat cows, not milking cows.
I'm Julie Dairy.
This is my family's farm.
Julie Dairy.
Uh, Paul Edgar Dairy.
Are you related to him?
Yes, he's my father.
Is he here?
You're clearly not with
the biography association.
(STAMMERS)
I'm sorry, I don't follow.
Some documentary crew came
through here a few months ago...
wanting to do a story on the
great Paul Edgar Dairy...
- the only black farmer in Boise.
- (DOG BARKING)
They took some pictures.
I liked the story and they
said they'd follow up.
You okay?
How you doing there?
I'm okay.
I'm just, uh, having
a moment of déjà vu.
Can we fetch you some water,
or a cup of tea?
I'd really love to meet
Paul if that was possible.
KAREN: What if we just start at
the beginning and break it down?
- (PILLS RATTLE)
- In the hospital, Tobias' eyes come up
as a match with Paul Edgar Dairy...
which is not correct because
Tobias has blue eyes...
and Paul Edgar Dairy has brown eyes.
Uh, no, Iris biometrics
is not based on color.
It's based on the unique crypts,
furrows and shapes in the texture.
So, maybe Tobias and Paul
have the same Iris pattern.
Statistically impossible.
KAREN: Second data point...
Tobias and Paul have
some kind of connection.
It's not our test, so we don't know.
And the third data point is that...
Paul Edgar Dairy dies
before Tobias is born.
Was conceived.
Was conceived.
Because Tobias was born in July...
and Paul Edgar Dairy
dies in September 2012.
That's ten months.
(STAMMERS) What are you
guys talking about right now?
You guys sound like crazy people.
Okay? What is this
connection referencing?
Doctor...
KAREN: Jan... Dr. Simmons.
IAN: From Yale.
She did this test on Tobias.
KENNY: Dr. Simmons?
From Yale?
She's one of five people who
have access to the eye database.
KENNY: My company owns
a patent on Iris biometrics...
and consolidate all their
data into one database...
and Simmons is one of five
people that have access.
But you have access to it, too.
Sort of.
I can find the Iris code...
run it and see if it's in the system
and then check the IP address...
and check when and where
it was registered.
I can do that.
IAN: How do you do that?
- Look into that.
- (DEVICE BEEPS)
- Okay. Other eye.
- (BEEPS)
- KENNY: All right.
- Okay.
So, I can't get your
name or biographicals...
but I can see that you
are in the system.
Amazing.
- Right.
- Hmm.
- (TYPING)
- And that you were registered
at the lab in 2005 and the same
should be for Karen and myself.
- What are you thinking, Karen?
- Well, check this out.
So, Paul and Tobias have the same
Iris patterns, let's just say.
And there's some sort of connection.
So the next logical step in
our scientific inquiry is...
to find someone that we do know
who's a duplicate in the system.
Like a family member who has died.
- IAN: That's it. We need another match.
- (KENNY SCOFFS)
KENNY:
Guys, this is statistically impossible.
- You're not gonna find anything.
- Can you get a scan from a photo?
It has to be high-res and in focus.
Technically, I can do it.
I have hundreds of high-res
photos of people's eyes.
- KENNY: All right.
- You can scan these.
KENNY: Give me the hard drive.
This is ridiculous.
Who do you want me to run?
Mmm. Run my father,
Tobias George Gray.
He died two years ago.
(TYPING)
He's in the system...
and he's registered at Heathrow, 2006.
That makes sense. He was
traveling there frequently.
Try, um, my uncle, Basil.
(CLICKS)
IAN: Died seven years ago of cancer.
KENNY: All right. Not found.
Try your grandparents.
My grandparents. Bev and Barry.
KENNY: Bev.
She's in the system.
Registered...
at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, 1998.
How many people are in the database?
There's like hundreds of millions.
There's a billion soon.
- IAN: Try my grandparents.
- KENNY: Right there.
KENNY: Judy is in the system.
She's registered at a nursing
home in New Haven in 2009.
And Malcolm?
- KENNY: Malcolm.
- (KAREN SIGHS)
IAN: Not found.
All right, so anybody else?
Sofi.
- Okay, try Sofi.
- KENNY: Okay.
Sofi.
(CLICKS)
She's in the system.
That makes sense. She was probably
scanned when she came through customs.
KENNY: No.
It says that the IP address coordinates
say that she was scanned...
in a community center in Delhi, India.
She must have traveled there.
Three months ago?
- IAN: That doesn't make any sense.
- KENNY: That's not right.
It's an error.
It's only the seventh one we've tried.
I need to get some air.
KENNY: What the fuck is happening?
(SWITCH CLICKS)
Did you put him to bed?
Yeah.
(SHOE THUDS)
You should go to India.
Can't go to India.
Can't or won't?
IAN: India is not Boise, Idaho, Karen.
There is someone there with
Sofi's exact Iris pattern.
The eyes and the brain are connected.
If the cellular structure in the eye
is reoccurring from person to person...
then maybe something in the brain...
carries over as well,
like a neurological link.
Maybe the eye really is some kind of...
- window to the soul.
- Soul, Karen? Soul?
Is my wife really using the word "soul"?
- Like you hold any validity in that?
- Call it whatever you wanna call it.
Dr. Simmons was testing
a memory connection...
between our son and Paul Edgar Dairy.
And it wasn't our test,
but you can go to India...
and you can find this person with
Sofi's eyes and you can do the same.
- IAN: I can't go there.
- It's just India...
Not India!
I can't go there!
I can't go back there!
I can't go back
to that part of my life!
I can't do it!
I gotta just let it go.
The man I married...
I don't think he would
let his own grief,
even if it was overwhelming...
get in the way of what
could potentially be...
the greatest scientific discovery
the world has ever seen.
This is bigger than you.
It's bigger than me.
It's bigger than Sofi.
Then maybe you should go.
I would, but I... I didn't know Sofi.
It's a false positive, you understand?
It's an error. It has to be an error.
It's statistically impossible.
Data point.
If I drop this phone a thousand times,
a million times...
and one time, it doesn't fall...
just once, it hovers in the air.
(CHUCKLES)
That is an error that's
worth looking at.
You're so fucking stubborn.
FEMALE NEWSCASTER: Technology has
barely touched Mira Devi's daily life.
In her hut, muscle, not machines,
gets the chores done.
That is about to change for Mira
and perhaps millions like her.
At this center, her irises are
scanned with biometric devices.
They're uploaded and then
sent to a massive server.
Once this information is processed...
out comes a twelve-digit
number for her and her only.
India's unique identification
program started just a year ago.
If it succeeds, India will become
the first country in the world...
using biometric data for identity
purposes on a national scale.
(MAN TALKING INDISTINCTLY)
(ELEVATOR DINGS)
(ELEVATOR MUSIC PLAYING)
(CLICKS BUTTON)
Oh.
(CLEARS THROAT)
(SIGHS)
First time to India?
It is, actually. Yeah.
Darryl MacKenzie.
Uh, Dr. Ian Gray.
Oh. Doctor. Well.
Two men, both doing good work.
(CHUCKLES)
What do you do?
Well, I'm in sales, but, uh...
Also do The Man's work.
- The Lord's work.
- Oh.
Uh, of course.
(ELEVATOR DINGS)
DARRYL: Good night, Dr. Gray.
IAN: Uh, have a good night.
DARRYL: Hope our paths cross again.
(ELEVATOR STARTS)
(LOCK CLICKS)
(DOOR UNLOCKS)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(CHILDREN CLAMORING)
(PRIYA SPEAKING HINDI)
(PRIYA SPEAKING HINDI)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(DEVICE BEEPS)
- (GIRL SPEAKING HINDI)
- (LAUGHS)
(SPEAKING HINDI)
(CHILDREN SPEAKING HINDI)
IAN: Hello.
Hi. Can I help you?
You seem like the boss of this place.
Boss, no. Circus manager more like it.
I'm Priya Varma, how can I help you?
I'm Dr. Ian Gray.
I'm visiting from America.
I have a very strange request.
Yes?
I'm looking for someone who
was scanned here a while back.
The thing is, I don't have their name.
All I have is a picture of their eyes.
(CHILDREN TALKING)
This is what their eyes look like.
They may not be this exact color.
Uh...
Why are you looking for her?
Is she in some kind of trouble?
Her?
Uh, no. Of course not. She's not
in trouble. She's incredibly special.
You do recognize them?
I do, if it is who I think it is.
But why are you looking for her?
Here's another photo.
Okay, um, this doesn't make sense.
These are her eyes,
but this isn't her face around them.
That's exactly why I'm looking for her.
Salomina.
- IAN: Salomina?
- Yeah.
Sweet girl. Very smart girl.
But I haven't seen her recently.
IAN: When was the last time you saw her?
Uh... A few months ago.
Could you help me find her?
Um...
I could make a donation
to the community center.
I mean, I'm going to make a
donation to the community center.
I don't want to sound crass,
like I'm bribing you...
- but I am kind of bribing you.
- (PRIYA CHUCKLES)
No, of course, I mean, of course any
donation would help the center.
Uh...
IAN: It's very important.
Please.
Okay.
You meet me tomorrow at 12: 00...
at the Okhla market, okay?
(MARKETPLACE BUSTLE)
- (BICYCLE BELL RINGING)
- (ENGINE REVS)
(HONKING)
(HONKING)
(CHILDREN YELLING)
- (CHILDREN TALKING INDISTINCTLY)
- (IAN LAUGHS)
All right.
(STAMMERS)
So you want me to take a photo of you?
(SHUTTER CLICKS)
You wanna see?
IAN: You see?
Okay.
Hello.
(CHILDREN TALKING INDISTINCTLY)
I almost didn't come.
Yeah, I was worried.
What changed your mind?
I, uh, did some research on you.
Uh-oh.
(CHUCKLES)
Come.
- (CHILDREN GREETING)
- (SPEAKING HINDI)
IAN: Hello.
Do all these children eventually
end up at the community center?
Some do, but there are
over one million people...
living in this 30-block radius alone.
PRIYA: According to the registrar,
Salomina and her parents live here.
I'm gonna ask this lady here.
Okay.
(CHILDREN CLAMORING)
(SPEAKING HINDI)
(BOTH SPEAKING HINDI)
What's wrong?
What'd she say?
IAN: She could be living like a stray dog.
She's totally alone.
Her mother's dead, her father's dead.
She knows the address of
the community center...
but Priya said she hasn't
been there in weeks.
There's a million people
living in a ten-block radius.
It's gonna be impossible to find her.
Well, you shouldn't give up.
You flew halfway around the world.
You should keep looking.
At least give it a few days.
I'm gonna go to bed.
Goodnight.
Bye.
(KEYBOARD CLACKS)
(SIGHS)
What am I doing here?
(DISTANT HONKING)
You're mad.
It's a smoke signal.
IAN: Someone she knows will see it.
PRIYA: I'm glad you didn't
put my number up there.
(CELL PHONE RINGING)
Hello?
MAN: Hello.
Hi, yes?
Yeah, my niece has eyes like
the picture board, cash reward.
IAN: Are they just like
the ones in the picture?
Yes, I think so.
Like exactly?
Uh, very much so.
How old is your niece?
Eighteen. My other niece is 15.
Oh. No. Uh, sorry.
(CHUCKLES)
Thank you, no. Sorry. Wrong person.
Bye.
(CELL PHONE RINGING)
(CELL PHONE RINGING)
IAN: Hello?
(WOMAN SPEAKING HINDI)
Do you speak English?
Yes, I do.
I'm sorry, what were you saying?
I have the eyes you took
up the advertisement for.
How old are you?
24.
No, sorry. The person I'm
looking for is much younger.
No, thank you for calling. Sorry.
(CELL PHONE RINGING)
- (PRIYA COUNTING IN HINDI)
- (CHILDREN COUNTING IN HINDI)
Very good!
(SPEAKING HINDI)
- CHILDREN: (CLAPPING) I'm the best.
- PRIYA: I'm the very best.
CHILDREN: I'm the very best.
Very good.
(SPEAKING HINDI)
(MAN YELLING INDISTINCTLY)
PRIYA: Dr. Gray, are you religious?
Am I religious?
I thought you researched me.
I'm not religious.
Why not?
Religion is based on scripture written
by men thousands of years ago.
Those beliefs can't be
changed or challenged.
They're fixed.
In science, great thinkers have
written things very long ago...
but every generation improves upon them.
The words are not holy.
Einstein is a brilliant man,
but he is not our god.
He's one step in the
evolution of knowledge...
but we always continue to step forward.
You know, a scientist once
asked the Dalai Lama...
"What would you do if
something scientific..."
"disproved your religious beliefs?"
And he said after much thought...
"I would look at all the papers"
"and take a look at all the research..."
"and really try to understand things."
"And in the end, if it was clear
that the scientific evidence..."
"disproved my spiritual beliefs..."
"I would change my beliefs."
That's a good answer.
Ian.
What would you do if
something spiritual...
disproved your scientific beliefs?
(TOBIAS COOING ON BABY MONITOR)
(CLICKING)
(CLICKING)
(MARKETPLACE BUSTLE)
(BICYCLE BELL RINGING)
(CHILDREN CLAMORING)
IAN ON PHONE: Hello, love.
The bank called today.
They said $2,000 a day is going to
some sketchy Planet India company.
It's like 20 K already. What's going on?
I put up a billboard.
It know it sounds a bit
extreme, but it's all I could think of.
Ian, it's been weeks.
I think you should come back.
Karen, what happened to turning over
rocks and finding nothing is progress?
I'm down with the big
picture of all this.
I'm the one who wanted you to go.
But failed experiments are
not unknown to us, right?
We regroup, we look for
more matches, we try again.
(CHILDREN CLAMORING)
Please come home.
Do you speak English?
A little.
A little?
Yes.
What's your name?
Salomina.
IAN: Salomina?
Yes.
Salomina, (STUTTERS) I'm Ian.
My name's Ian.
Are you hungry?
Yes.
You are?
Yes.
Come on, let's get you some food.
Come on.
Priya, I found her.
I'm going to the hotel.
Hey!
Meet me there.
Listen, I'll be right there, okay?
(CARS HONKING)
What's your favorite food?
SALOMINA: Strawberry.
Strawberry?
Just strawberry?
What's your favorite color?
Pink, purple, blue and green.
- Pink, purple, blue and green?
- Blue and green.
That's so many.
See my finger?
Can you follow it?
Very good.
Very good. Very good. Very good.
(CAMERA WHIRRING)
(WHIRRING)
(BEEPS)
(SHUTTER CLICKS)
(SHUTTER CLICKS)
(KEYBOARD CLACKING)
You okay?
You comfortable?
- You okay?
- Yes.
(CLICKS)
(COMPUTER CHIMING)
- IAN: Are you there?
- Yeah.
- (CLICKS)
- (COMPUTER CHIMES)
I wanna show you something that
will take your breath away.
Karen, this is Salomina.
Salomina, this is Karen.
I need my lab partner.
Okay. Yeah.
KAREN: I'm ready.
Okay, so, Salomina...
it's a very easy game.
I'm gonna show you three things
and you pick the one
that's your favorite.
- Okay.
- You understand?
- Yes.
- Okay.
Commencing experiment one.
Memory connection between subjects
with identical Iris patterns.
KAREN: Got it.
- IAN: Subject, Salomina.
- (SCRIBBLING)
- S as in...
- Shut the front door.
(CHUCKLES)
- A as in...
- KAREN: Amazing.
I as in...
Love you.
IAN: O...
Open-minded.
M as in...
Maestro.
I as in...
Ian Gray.
N as in...
No way this is true.
A as in...
Afterlife.
Okay.
Let's start. You ready?
- Yes.
- Yes? Okay.
Here we go.
Alpha.
Correct.
Beta, correct.
IAN: Charlie...
correct.
Delta...
incorrect, but it's not a good one.
Echo, incorrect.
Sort of.
Okay.
Foxtrot, incorrect.
Gamma, incorrect.
Howie, incorrect.
India, correct.
Joker, incorrect.
Kimo, incorrect.
Love, correct.
Incorrect.
Incorrect.
Universe, correct.
Vito, incorrect.
Wendy, incorrect.
X-ray, incorrect.
Yoga...
correct.
Okay.
(INHALES SHARPLY)
What's the tally?
44 percent.
Which is, um, a touch above random...
by an unfortunately standard margin.
How do you feel?
IAN: I think numbers don't lie.
I didn't ask what you think,
I asked what you feel.
I feel...
kind of foolish.
I'll see you soon.
Okay.
(LAPTOP CHIMES)
I make bad test?
What?
I made bad test?
No. No, you did fine.
You did perfect.
It's just a stupid test.
(DOOR CLOSES)
(CLICKS BUTTON)
(SALOMINA SPEAKING HINDI)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
Red wine.
And sleeping pills.
Help me get back to your arms
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
Cheap sex.
And sad films.
Help me get back where I belong
I think you're crazy.
Maybe
I think you're crazy.
Maybe.
Stop sending letters.
Letters always get burned.
It's not like the movies.
They fed us on little white lies
I think you're crazy.
Maybe
I think you're crazy.
Maybe
I will see you.
In the next life...
Give me an update on
the archivist images.
We've collected hundreds of
images at high enough resolution.
(CLICKS)
MAN: Just waiting on your approval to scan.
WOMAN: No time like the present.