Original subtitles

Make a big fire tonight, Andy, bro.

I'm feeling chilly.

Whoa, yo!

Sorry, you warm now?

Hi, guys. Sorry I'm late.

My mom keeps paging.

Maybe I should call her and tell her I'm okay.

How you gonna do that? Smoke signals?

Why am I not surprised?

That is exactly what my story's about.

What? Spoiled rich chicks?

No.

Electronic stuff.

Everybody's always using cell phones, laptop computers, electronic notebooks.

And it's not just grown -ups, either.

Kids have pagers, calculators, and games.

She'll call you back.

We can't live without them.

You were so 11.

Well, I don't use anything like that.

Oh, yeah? What about the alarm on that big old watch of yours?

Well, sure, every morning.

Duh, that a computer chip is telling you when to wake up.

Isn't that weird?

If we need computers so bad, and they're getting smarter all the time, does that

mean people are getting dumber?

My story's about a bunch of kids who use computers.

They think they're all pretty smart, but what they don't know is that their

computers are really using them.

Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, I call the story...

Tale of the Virtual Pen.

Any words?

Info gathering.

Deep space probe, satellite, and artificial

intelligence.

Digger. Welcome, Tom. You have reached Digger, the digital information

resource website.

Cool. Barry.

Whoa. You can hear me?

Yes. We read and store information.

All information. No kidding.

Can you read this?

Advanced computer language.

Oh, man.

This is awesome.

Feed me.

Feed what?

Feed me.

It's getting kind of weird.

Come on.

Come on.

Get me out of here.

What's that all about?

I'm so jealous.

They've got the new virtual pen. So what? Just another video game. But it's

Tom says they can hear and understand your voice.

How does Tom know so much? He brought him in. He called them diggers.

Kate, you've got to take away this invention.

They're called pens.

Ha ha.

Too high tech for you?

Oh, shoot. My computer crashed.

Crashed? I must have overloaded the disk.

And in English, that means I input too much information. And forget it. You're

hopeless. Well, my pencil never crashed.

Time to enter the computer age. Let's get us a couple of diggers.

I told you, I don't want a digger.

Come on.

Hey.

Cool, thank you.

Hi, Tom.

Whoa, spending too much time at the computer.

How much do the stickers cost?

They're free.

Wow, thanks.

Where'd you get them?

What's the difference?

Pick it. It's free. No, I don't want anything to do with perfumers.

Okay, no rush.

Did you hear that? Are you going to help me or not? This is so cool.

You want to see something cool?

Whoa, excellent.

That's infinity.

Not a computer in sight.

Just light rays and glass.

Very cool.

Can you see this?

It's very fun, isn't it? Yes, it is.

Oh, you are such a loser.

it is like uploading information to a computer. I don't know what upload means

and I don't care.

Bye bye.

What can I feed you little one?

Feed me.

What do you need little one?

Information.

Information? What button do I press for that?

Begin information upload.

If you combine two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, you get H2O.

Water.

Okay, stupid question.

Why are you reading out loud?

She likes me to read to her.

She? It's a toy.

And could you please stop playing with that thing for five minutes?

You're right.

I've got a ton of work to do.

What is with you?

Huh?

Are you addicted or something?

We have an exam tomorrow.

I'm tired.

I think I'm going to study in the morning.

Whatever. But do me a favor and leave that stupid computer thing alone.

I will.

Could you turn out the light?

Good night.

I'll pick you up in the morning.

Isabel,

wake up.

What?

What do you want?

Progress report, please.

Things are proceeding according to plan.

We have replaced four units, and tomorrow we replace number five.

We're late for school.

Where did you get that?

What? That tattoo on your neck, like Tom.

Oh, last night. Do you like it? No, it's gross.

Well, I like it.

A lot.

Kate, are you alright?

Uh, yeah.

Sorry.

Kate?

I want you to have this.

I told you, I don't want it. But it's a lot of fun. I don't want it!

What is wrong with you?

Nothing.

Can I come to your house to do homework tonight?

Uh, yeah, sure.

We can go after volleyball practice.

I'm not going to practice.

Why not?

Hey, you coming to practice?

Yeah, maybe.

No.

Progress report, please. We have replaced four units and have their data

for uploading.

Proceed.

A fifth unit will be replaced and collected tonight. You have done well,

this is only the beginning. We must... increase the collection rate we are the

first to arrive but with each new collection others will follow in time we

replace every unit on the earth with one of our own and their data will be

uploaded into our stellar network to be dissected and used as we see fit

It was a mouse.

Ready for uploading.

Is the base secure?

Base is secure.

Then I will return control to you until the upload is complete. Prepare to

initiate power grid sequence.

Ready. You have control.

Power grid sequence initiated.

Upload will commence.

Give these diggers to the new units and stay with them until they've been

collected.

I expect Kate to be one of them.

Don't worry.

Tom?

Isabel?

Is that you? Are you guys all right?

Kate, help!

They trapped us in here, Kate.

We're going to get uploaded into their network.

What are they, aliens?

I don't know, but you've got to do something. We're history.

The power.

Pull the power.

Ow! Pull any cable.

must be protecting itself.

What do I do? The computer gave up control.

Maybe you can shut it down.

Are you warped? I've never even touched a computer before.

Kate, get over it.

Okay, what do I do first?

Grab the mouse.

The mouse?

Kate!

Oh, yeah.

Click on the icon at the bottom of the screen and choose shut down.

It says invalid command. Enter security code.

Click on anything.

Keep on getting the same thing. Enter security code.

Try hitting control delete.

Huh? On the keyboard.

Hit both keys at once.

Same thing. Enter security code.

Nothing's working.

desktop into the operating system. You might as well be talking Greek.

Click on the lower left icon, then on the open door that says operating

It worked.

I think.

Okay. Type directory, then enter.

Upload in two and a half minutes.

Shut up.

Kate, type faster.

I can't. I haven't taken typing yet.

Hey, why won't you have practice? Where's Kate?

She didn't show either.

What's with you two?

Done. Hit enter.

I got him. I got him. Delete the preferences file so we can bypass the

code. How do I do that?

Type D -E -L space digger preferences space exit and enter.

Upload in two minutes.

That's good. Hit Control -Delete again.

Warning. Pressing Control -Delete will terminate the application Digger.

Hit it, then hit Shutdown, and you'll kill Digger.

Yes, you did it!

Wait.

What an absence.

It didn't work.

All it did was reboot.

I can't stop it. We're doomed.

Wait. What was that you told me about crashing your computer?

That's it.

We can run everything at once and overload its resources.

Talk to me.

Open each one of these from the desktop icon fast. Start the drawing program.

Open the printer and set a six -color image in high resolution.

Upload in one minute. Start the photo studio. Load a TXL file and start the

scanner. It says low memory. It's working. Open the games file.

Choose advanced puzzles.

Click on the encyclopedia.

Warning, low memory. Close all applications.

Upload in 30 seconds.

Enter and you're out of here.

It's your turn.

Upload in 15 seconds.

Kate, don't look at it!

Gotcha!

Upload in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6,

5, 4, 3, 2,

1.

Commence upload.

What's going on?

She's here. She's here.

What's happening? She's overloading it.

That's a computer crash.

Tom?

Isabel? Oh, man, I killed you guys.

No, you didn't.

Is it you guys?

Yes.

Wait.

No tattoo. It is you. Are you guys okay?

Yeah, I think so.

Kate, you saved us.

And you were totally amazing.

I promise never to teach you about computers again.

Are you kidding? That was awesome. I had no idea computers were so cool.

I want to get my own notebook.

No, a laptop loaded, mega memory. My mom's going to kill me.

My pencil works just fine.

So the next time you play a game on your computer, make sure you know all the

rules. Because if you're not careful, your computer may be playing with you.

Good story.

Perfect timing.

Why does my mother insist on teaching me all the time?

It took me an hour to figure out how to do this.

Always wanted one of these.

You owe me big time.