Original subtitles

Please have your tickets ready for admittance to the examination hall. This

is for doctoral candidates only.

Todman to Seth.

What are you doing here?

Taking my final exam.

But you failed out of the program, Seth. You know that.

Define program.

Define fail.

Let's go somewhere and talk.

I thought we used to be friends. Friends?

Friends don't steal friends' insight and genius.

Friends don't call friends paranoid in front of kangaroo courts.

Is she calling security?

Good, because I've wanted to show them something ever since they threw me off

campus. Seth, Seth, come on. It's over.

Nope. It's not going to be over until I say it's over.

Nobody wanted to listen to me, but now you're going to.

Every way in and out of this building has a trash can.

And every trash can is wired with an explosive device which I have just

You won't get away with that.

Really?

Define cold fusion.

What? I said define cold fusion.

Cold fusion is a release of thermonuclear energies by...

Devices that operate at ordinary room temperatures and pressures.

Such devices are totally impossible.

We've proven that. Really?

I made this one all by myself.

I did it on my kitchen table.

The people who said it was impossible were wrong.

The people who said I wasn't worthy to be a graduate student were wrong.

The people who tried to discredit me were wrong.

And today...

I get to prove that.

Look out the window!

Look out the window!

I am a ball.

In five seconds, I will detonate and kill every living thing within a hundred

yards.

The building is wired.

And if my heart stops or I press this button right here, the device in here

explode with a release of energy one million times greater than the device

just detonated out there.

What do you want?

It's very simple.

I want the five people on this list.

I want to see them brought here by the government and shot dead one at a time.

Five lives.

Or five million lives.

It's your choice.

You've got three hours.

Have a nice day.

There

is

nothing wrong with your television.

Do not attempt to adjust the picture.

We are now controlling the transmission.

We control the horizontal and the vertical. We can delude you with a

channels or expand one single image to crystal clarity and beyond.

We can shape your vision to anything our imagination can conceive.

For the next hour, we will control all that you see and hear.

are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the deepest

mind to the outer limits.

They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

But what of the man who possesses too much knowledge?

This is your art project, Kate. Do you have your painting?

Your mother is. You're joking, Kate. I'm late for work.

What, and I'm not? I got a new patient at 9 o 'clock.

And I have to file a grant proposal by name. But your grant proposal won't know

that you're late. But my client sure will if this whole West Side feeding

program goes up in smoke.

Come on.

No!

You deal with one patient, and that's world -shaking.

But I deal with feeding a couple of hundred young women, and that's what?

Secretarial work?

It's your turn.

Yeah, but then you should have had Kate ready 20 minutes ago. You were standing

here, too.

Sharon, I will lose rapport with this new patient if I am late the first time.

But you're not worried about losing rapport with me.

Okay, fine, I'll take her.

Come on, sweetie, you're coming with me.

Come on, sweetheart.

Let me kiss you.

You really ought to do a little therapy on yourself before you start inflicting

vice on other people. I really think you're overreacting. Second time this

You can't be.

Sharon! Sharon!

Well, written calendar. It can't be twice this week.

Hey, Sharon, look, I owe you an apology.

What?

Oh, uh... Martin, James Martin, Ph .D. Sir, my authentication code is Bravo

221. What is your counter -authentication code?

Uh, yeah, uh, Delta Tango 983.

Sir, this is an alert from the Office of Intelligence, Department of Energy.

The Secretary has declared a nuclear emergency search team mobilization.

You've got to be kidding. On a Friday morning?

Sir, this is...

What? Hello?

Hello?

What do we have?

No life -threatening radio activity from the black light. So we are getting some

readings. I'm in touch with this kid. We've opened a direct line to him, but

won't talk to us.

Here's the list of the people he once brought in.

Dr. Martin, our team negotiator. Has he said anything aside from giving you this

list? Just as he's invented a co -infusion bomb, whatever the hell that

That's a good one.

Gentlemen, I'll tell you exactly what this kid did. He's built a perfectly

ordinary explosive device, contaminated it with radioactive waste to fake a

nuclear blast.

That mean you won't be assuming jurisdiction?

I don't know. We're still going to consider this a nuclear incident. You

your men back and caution them about spreading any wild stories.

Panic could do more harm to this city than that lunatic out there. We all know

what we're up against, okay?

You bet.

See what he's got to say.

Who's this?

This is James Martin.

I'm the DOE nest team negotiator. You sound like a shrink, Martin. I don't

a shrink. I just need someone trained in nuclear technology so they can

understand what I'm going to say. Well, then I'm your guy. I have a joint degree

in physics and psychology.

What's the matter?

You kept looking for answers and couldn't find any? Actually, I trained

the electrical fields of the brain.

But I started doing therapy for clients who couldn't talk to anyone who didn't

have top -secret security clearance, so they made me head shrink the Department

of Energy. Kind of a limited audience, as you can imagine.

Okay, just try to understand this.

I have a cold fusion device wired into a dead man's switch and a timer.

The yield of this device is 50 megatons.

If it detonates, it'll destroy the entire city.

Now, tell me one thing and one thing only. What's that?

Define how you can possibly believe me. Listen, I take this threat very

seriously. Well, then you need to have your head examined because no one has

ever come close to building such a device.

What are they really saying, Martin?

That I faked the blast?

I don't want to offend you, but the truth is, if you really created Cold

why are you doing this?

Why not just claim your Nobel Prize and become fabulously rich?

No. No one's even going to give me the prize out of a Cracker Jack box.

Your team of killers will just lock me up in Area 51 and torture me until I've

told them what I know.

Now, Mr. Dodman, I swear, no one is going to hurt you. This is exactly what

expected, Martin, so I'm going to give you more proof.

No, wait.

If I've offended you, I apologize.

You thought I was going to detonate another blast?

Well, don't get your panties in a bunch.

Just keep your eye on the front door. I'm sending you a sample.

Hit the timer.

And stand back under cover at least five miles.

But you better make it snappy because my countdown timer is spinning like a top.

Put it down.

Put it down slowly.

That's it.

Don't shoot. Please.

Come on.

Come on. Guys, come on. Move the bike.

even big enough to pack a conventional wallet.

It's exactly the sort of paranoid fantasy you'd expect from some stale

engineering student.

I'm not so sure.

Right. So the kid takes a bunch of hostages, makes a nuclear blast.

You don't think he's crazy?

All I'm saying is he's lucid enough to do technical work. He sure as hell

produced a big explosion. Which failed to generate any significant radiation.

Yeah, but isn't that the eerie part?

The thing about cold fusion is, if it really works...

It hardly releases any radiation at all. Except we all know, Martin, that cold

fusion is impossible.

Look, all I know is the first atomic bomb was built more than 50 years ago.

Plenty of time for new developments, don't you think?

Helicopter it out to the test site.

We need to start work on the hostage rescue plan.

No,

no, Hal, listen. I don't think he was lying.

Martin, don't worry.

We're going to show you what a lunatic he is in high eight.

And if he isn't, hey, I'm going to file a patent on this myself and retire.

Okay. He had it rigged.

Clock's counting down.

We're pulling back to the blast shelter. Tell it to incinerate it before it

blows. No, we need the documentation.

Those tunnels can contain a 10 kiloton blast.

Assuming it's not a stick of TNT.

What if it really is a cold fusion bomb?

Hey, bomb room is sealed.

Safety protocols in place.

Ten seconds.

Five.

Four. Three.

Two.

One.

And... Big nothing, huh?

Told you, Martin.

Guy's a wacko.

Nothing on the video.

What's up?

How? How? Team 2. Team 2, respond.

Sir, Vela 3 satellites detected a subsurface detonation of Base 1. It was

megaton range.

They did it.

She really does have cold fusion.

I want to see everyone on his list.

Why are you doing this?

What have I done?

Somebody tell me what the hell is going on here. Sit him down.

You only have more hostages for him?

Are you speaking as my negotiator or a do -good therapist?

It will only inflate his ego and terrorize them needlessly.

Needlessly?

Do you comprehend our options here? You may have a 50 megaton device.

What is the only assured method of disabling something like that? You

it instantly before it can activate.

The only way you can do that is by using a tactical nuclear weapon, which will

kill everyone within several hundred yards, including us. Not you, Jim.

You can call in from anywhere, but some of us have got to stay here. So you tell

me what will happen if we kill the people on this list.

Will he walk out of there, or will he pull the trigger anyway?

I'm still not prepared to answer that question. It will take ten days to

evacuate everybody in this city. Ten days. What do I do?

Will killing the people on this list satisfy him? Will it save the city?

Get him on the line.

Answer my question. I can't, Will.

Now, he went into counseling after he started fighting with his teachers, but

none of his therapists saw the sort of psychotic anger in him.

And I've got to see him face to face.

It's my only shot at understanding him in time.

So wire me and get him on the phone.

Okay, I'll deliver these to the agency.

Mm -hmm.

But I need 20 more copies for the principal donor. Okay.

See you later.

of Energy is denying reports that there is any connection between today's

terrorist bombing at the School of Engineering and the rumors that minutes

major explosion occurred in the department's super -secret research lab

Willow Bridge. In apparent confirmation, independent sources have confirmed that

no significant radiation was released in the explosion at the university, and

the reports a nuclear accident might have occurred there were wrong.

In other news today, the...

Operator 652, I'm sorry, but the number you've called is temporarily out of

service. Please wait.

Connect me to the security office.

Ma 'am, please. I don't know what you're referring to. You and I both know I'm

calling the DOE laboratories at Willow Ridge.

If something's happened, you've got to tell me.

I'm a family member.

Ma 'am, I'm sorry, but I have no information.

Family members are urged to make no rash assumptions or public statements at

this time.

You will be contacted when personnel become available.

This is Mrs. Martin.

I've got to pick Kate up right away.

We need to talk.

You sound depressed, Martin. Maybe you should talk to yourself.

I sure don't think you're going to be much help to me.

I had friends on the team that tested your device.

It, uh, couldn't have malfunctioned.

They didn't follow my instructions, did they? They tried to study it. And they

paid for it with their lives.

So why don't we just call it even, okay?

Everyone.

Everyone knows what an extraordinary discovery you've made.

So why don't you let me inside to make a deal?

I can hear your pain, Martin.

But you've got to think logically.

My rigging the device was an act of mercy.

It prevented anyone else from learning how to build a cold fusion bomb.

The world is still safe.

I can't follow your logic.

I need to talk to you. I'm really worried about you, Martin.

Haven't you noticed your lips are moving? We are talking.

In person.

Trigger's still wired to my heart.

Sneaking a gun or even a wave of righteous anger.

It won't work.

500 people died in that explosion.

You owe me a chance to see you.

Okay.

For a price.

Kill the first person on my list.

You know I can't do that. You could if you respected me.

I've got other ways to kill him, you know. I could just detonate this bomb

now. The blast wave would reach him halfway to Mars. Look, I swear to God,

isn't even here. Too bad.

And the movies, they're always here.

But you want to talk anyway?

Use the distraction to filter in the demolition team. Get them directly under

the building to contain the blast.

Copy that.

Okay, let's do it.

Settle up, guys. Let's move that nuke to the top.

You really want a human sacrifice?

You're right, I am a lousy negotiator. So shoot me instead and talk to my

successor when he flies in, okay?

Deal? You really want to be put out of your misery?

Come through the front door. I'll let you pass the sensors.

When anyone else tries to get near the building, I'll blow this device.

Your life?

Or hers?

Get it over with.

What made you think I wouldn't shoot you?

I didn't.

I just didn't want anyone else to die.

Okay.

You've defined your qualifications.

You've got guts.

Let's talk.

Jackson's officer.

Jackson, where are we? Sir, we've made entry into the tunnel with the nuclear

mine. There could be traps anywhere.

It could take us hours. We don't have hours. If you told the police the truth,

we have less than 60 minutes.

Yes, sir, I understand.

Check ahead, Bess Campbell. We have to be under the lecture hall in 50 minutes.

Aren't you too smart for this?

Is that your best line?

Are you sure you got your degree from a regular college or was it one of those

night school things where life experience counts?

You're right. I didn't express myself well. I haven't all day.

What I meant to say is I don't understand why, when you are so smart,

have chosen to cause so much pain.

Define your logic.

I read in your case files that you lived in a number of foster homes after your

mother died. A lot of people must have caused you a lot of pain. Yeah, then

me feel better. Kill them for me.

When a child is traumatized, they still have choices.

They grow up, some grow up and fight back. They become protectors and try to

save other people from the same pain that they've been through. You meet them

social activist teachers. I'm badly dressed therapist.

Are you a loner, Martin? Don't have a wife to pick out your clothes for you?

Not that I mean to criticize. I mean, some of the very best people at this

school said I dressed like a geek.

You know, the textbooks claim that humor at a time like this usually means

you're screaming inside. That's funny. I thought they said the lack of it meant

that I was stupid or a madman. But fine. Be boring. What about your next type of

victim?

Well, they're the type who...

identify with the abusers, and they become paingivers themselves, which is

inherently illogical, because that's just another form of surrender to the

abusers. It's a thing.

You can't beat them, so you're joining them.

Oh, come on, Martin.

Are you trying to tie me up in logical knots like I would some sort of war game

computer you could crash with a game of tic -tac -toe?

No, I don't have to be that smart.

Just you do, and you are.

You can understand the choices.

The mystery to me is why have you become a victimizer anyway?

Because I want justice.

Do you know what those people on my list did to me?

No, I don't.

Well, then I'll define it for you.

Mr. Walker was my last foster father.

He used to experiment on me, see what sorts of things he could beat me with

without leaving a mark on me.

He drove his wife to suicide last year, if that's what it was.

Then screw him.

Then there's Mr.

Owens, my social worker.

He called me a liar when I asked him for help. It took me to this year to figure

out why.

He was taking kickbacks from the walkers out of my foster care fees.

Let's put him in jail.

Then we have Ms.

Carstairs. She knew I couldn't deal with people very well, but she forced me to

work the front desk of the library anyway.

When I begged her for a transfer to the stack, she fired me. I told her I

wouldn't eat, literally not have food in my mouth, but she barred me from any

work -study job at the school all the same. Pretty cruel, but I'm not sure it

merits the death penalty.

And finally, there's Klaus Wiley, winner of this year's Hastings Award.

He stole my ideas and accused me of plagiarizing him when I submitted my own

paper to the committee.

All unforgivable things to do to someone who's trying to make their way in the

world all alone.

I agree.

Thank you.

Then give me the lie.

Or what?

You'll kill everyone in the city.

Where is the justice in that?

Because they're dead anyway.

I mean, look.

Haven't you ever wondered why there isn't any intelligent life in the

Excuse me? Oh, come on, Martin.

All those years listening to the stars and not a peep out of them?

No, I love Lucy with two -headed green guys playing both Lucy and Ricky.

No radio signals at all.

You know why?

No, I don't. Because they get to this point, right here, where you and I are

today.

And they discover the energy weapon that any child can build.

And then they destroy themselves.

No, I can't accept that, and I don't believe you can either. Ah, you will.

Mother stays over, you will.

I just want justice done for me while there's still time.

Please, don't move.

Motion sensor, pull back to the holding point.

Warning, warning, they are getting back from the car.

Everybody move! Get down! Get down!

Base,

my team is down. My team is down.

But the nuclear device is still intact.

Get him help down there.

They tried to come up the utility tunnel.

Wouldn't you?

Are you wearing a wire?

Yes.

Tell them what I've done.

He just opened a safety guard on what looks like an override detonator,

something that he can hit and set off his bomb immediately.

Jim, the slightest move to use it, you've got to tell us.

Lieutenant Jackson, wait for detonation on my command.

Yes, sir.

I'm on the trigger.

They didn't respect me and they didn't listen to me.

It has nothing to do with respect. It's their job.

Yeah, well, now they got a new job.

Shoot the first person on my list.

Shoot Professor Wiley or I won't wait for that timer. I'll blow this thing

now. Kill Professor Wiley or the whole city blows.

Is Jackson close enough?

Will he vaporize a cold fusion device or detonate it? And tell me you're the

disposal expert.

Good God, General, I have been through simulations before, but not anything

this. Then what do I do? Shoot a man in cold blood? You can't do this. It's

against everything this country stands for.

And I didn't do anything wrong.

He's crazy. Don't you get it?

Shoot him!

General, it's a necessity defense.

Justifiable homicide.

If the lifeboat's going to sink, you can throw people overboard.

If the dam's going to break, you can open the floodgates, even if it drowns

people downstream.

The law isn't that clear. If Jackson is 100 meters out, that nuclear mine may

not work. And I'm not just saying that because it's our lives.

Professor Wiley?

Our nuclear mine blows or his cold fusion device

ignites. It's the same result. You'll die, we'll all die.

Look, you brought me here against my will. I don't have to die except you

brought me here.

I'm sorry.

No, you can't do this!

Did you shoot him?

were never smart enough to take me on we're done talking for years

you sat alone in your bedroom at night dreaming about revenge only now instead

of exhilaration all you're feeling is emptiness what makes you so sure you can

read my mind you know what they say about shrinks the only difference

and our patients is that we have a certificate that says that we're sane

Look who's developing a sense of humor. Maybe that's because I was beaten up

enough in my childhood that I'm sympathizing with where you're coming

You have no clue how I feel.

I know enough to tell you this.

That man dying and you're turning another good man into a murderer doesn't

you feel any better than killing five more. Five million isn't going to make

feel any better either.

Do you know how the first thought of an atomic bomb came into the world?

In 1939, a group of graduate students working with Robert Oppenheimer sketched

design on their classroom blackboard.

And not long after that, another junior guy was thinking about this little

research report from Paris while he was riding along on his commuter train in

Berlin. You see, the French guy had noticed that when they split certain

they got an extra release of neutrons.

And there, amid the screech of steel wheels against steel rails, a light

flickering across his face.

I realized that you could not only base a bomb on that sort of chain reaction,

but you could also breed your own uranium to do it.

Do you, uh... Do you know what I'm saying?

That all those people weren't necessarily special and that it wasn't

on their own experiments?

Exactly. See, when the science is ready, people can't help but make the next

discovery.

The world is going to end very soon, Dr. Martin.

The concepts are so simple.

Even a child can make a cold fusion bomb.

You want to talk about children, Seth?

Well, um... This is a

real child. She only weighs 61 pounds. You could balance the weight of her life

in your hands.

She's never hurt you or...

Anyone that I know of.

But you're going to kill her if you set off your bomb.

Liar. You got your family out of the city hours ago.

They don't know.

It is a procedure.

Once the team's assembled, they...

Took my phone away.

What's her number?

What?

Give me an outside line now. I can't negotiate with liars.

Call his wife now.

Hello?

Who's this?

Sharon Martin.

Are you calling about Jim?

He's okay.

Thank God.

But he wants you to do something, Sharon.

I want you to do something. Is your daughter there?

Yes. Then take her, Sharon.

Take that pretty little child of yours and drive the fastest way out of town.

Who is this?

Just do it, Sharon.

You've got 30 minutes.

That's my act of mercy to you.

Hello?

Sharon, it's me. I'm okay.

You're at the university, aren't you?

That was the bomber, wasn't it?

Is it, Daddy?

It's okay, Sharon.

I'll be all right, I swear to you.

But right now, no matter what, I want you to get Kate in the car, and I want

to cross the Hamilton foothills, put them between you and the city, and never

look back.

Promise me, Sharon.

Just come home in one piece, okay, Jim?

And I'll take Kate to school for the rest of my life.

You bet.

Now go. Go.

I gave you a life, two lives.

Now you owe me one.

What?

Kill the next person on my list.

Kill Mr. Walker.

You can't want it to end this way.

Why won't you give me what I want?

You can't possibly want this.

The only reason someone in your position lets me inside is because you want me

to help stop you.

Oh, you really have lost it. You defined this.

But if you really wanted those people dead...

You would never have come in here and drawn a crack team of commandos around

to try and stop you. I have the power to destroy the city, even the world. I

want respect for that. Well, you could have gotten that by blowing up any old

thing and written a letter to the press.

Think about the logic set.

Reason it through.

They're coming up the tunnel again.

It's their job.

They'll never get here in time.

Now that my hostages are assembled, let's line them up and let's do this.

Or the blood of this city will be on your hands.

It's almost jammed.

We're not going to get it cleared in time.

Jim, you've got to get him to stop that timer.

I am prepared to take another life.

What did they tell you?

Nothing useful.

What did they just tell you?

They offered me another life, didn't they?

Only if you'll stop the timer.

Tell them I won't, Walker.

Tell them yourself.

with a laser beam. You can line it up in the mirror.

What? Fire into the mirror. You can fuse the detonator controller.

Get us the biggest laser they have.

I want him dead!

That's it, isn't it?

You have been telling me more about yourself than you realize. I just

been smart enough to see it.

What? All of this is about fear.

What am I thinking? It's always about fear.

Not anymore.

I hold the power.

No, I'm not talking about the fear that those people out there cause you. I am

talking about the fundamental fear that is reaching down to the center of your

soul right now.

That is the answer to the mystery that I have been trying to solve, your

discovery. It so deeply terrified you that you would rather die than

that fear.

I mean, aren't I right, Seth?

Look inside yourself. Isn't that what you're really feeling?

Come on, move it, move it. Let's get this thing powered.

Jim.

No, no, no. I'm just trying to reflect your truth back to you.

That's why you created this psychodrama.

You don't want the world to end. This is all about fear.

You know, let that bastard out there begging for his life. Let him suffer a

little more with his own terror.

Stop the timer and talk to me. Laser's powered up, sir.

Hit it.

is intriguing.

Define what you mean, but you better talk fast because our time for chit

is almost up.

I can't define it for you, Seth. It just is.

Just look inside yourself. Tell me what you feel.

What if I do feel fear?

What if I wish...

I never saw how to build that thing.

What difference does it make?

It's built.

And someone else will build another one very soon.

If you help us, we can seize control of the materials needed to build it. We can

steer the path of education away from the discovery.

The materials are everywhere.

When science is ready to make a discovery, nothing can stop it.

Almost. Simultaneously, the ideas will occur to lots of people.

Don't let him turn.

Step up the power.

Maybe, maybe not.

But, Hope, this is as intrinsic to the human condition as our thirst for life.

want you to live. I don't care if that's logical or not.

At least we can put the genie back in the bottle.

Phil, forget about the deaths today if you make that deal. The very effort of

trying will help cure your fears.

Admit to yourself what you're feeling.

I am.

Maybe I do feel fear.

We got it.

All right, get that son of a bitch near the window and we'll put him down.

Let's discuss this a little more.

Let me reset the timer.

Just ask Nova. Nova?

What the hell?

Put him down.

What have you done?

Martin's in the way, sir.

I didn't want anyone else to die.

You were behind time.

General, you could still manually activate the detonator.

Move aside, Jim.

So shoot me right through you if they have to. Step away from the window so

you and I will both live. We're going to fire whether you move or not. Now, you

step away or I'll restart it.

On my command.

Ready?

Why can't I convince you? Aim, because we're all dead anyway.

Fire.

You still are.

It's over.

The second switch turns off the fences.

Go, go, go, go.

Help me save the next guy like you.

How did you learn about Cole's infusion? What was the breakthrough concept?

How simple one thing.

they're expecting the wrong answer.

Oh.

There's something wrong.

Everything's great.

But you're going to fail.

I don't think so.

I don't think so at all.

Tom, where are you going?

I got some work to do.

Don't worry.

I'll see you.

I'll see you real soon.

If knowledge is power and power corrupts, how will humankind ever

survive?