Original subtitles

Just got word from the clerk.

We gotta rid of cert.

Cert? Rid of certiary.

It means the Supreme Court's going to listen to our appeal.

Really?

Might show a little more enthusiasm.

I don't understand the procedural hoops we had to go through to get this.

I've been, uh, sentenced to hang, Nikki.

Forgive me if I don't feel like standing up and sharing.

I know.

They think I'm crazy.

You should see the way they look at me.

You should get ready. They're going to move you to another holding facility

right next to the court.

Be honest.

What are my chances?

It's hard to say. There's never been a case like this.

Unless you count fly versus windshield?

Come on, Teresa.

I wouldn't have flogged my staff for the last six months if I didn't think we

had a shot.

What would I do without the patron saint of lost causes? You remember Cassandra,

Greek mythology?

She had the gift of prophecy.

More like a curse.

Apollo gave her the ability to see the future in exchange for her favors. When

she spurned him, he punished her.

Didn't matter what she foresaw.

It fell on deaf ears.

I feel like I'm being punished by the gods.

I've been pulling court watches. They feel we're on the brink of a sea change.

This isn't about a sea change.

This is about waking up and realizing that we're on a collision course with

extinction.

I've seen the future.

I've been there. I know you have.

When they outlawed technology, they paved the way to the final apocalypse.

Keep the faith, all right?

You're going to get through this.

It's not about me. I could give a damn at this point.

But if I go down, so does the whole world.

There is nothing wrong with your television. Do not attempt to adjust the

picture. We are now controlling the transmission.

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

channels or expand one single image to crystal planet A 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.

More about the war and mystery which reaches from the deepest inner

mind to the outer limits.

The outer limits.

Please stand by.

What will become of a world that outlaws the very tools it has always looked to

for solutions?

Oh, Earl.

Come on, you're better than that.

Chief Justice, is you eating in here again? I'll be hell to pay.

I've been reading briefs all morning.

If I don't get some food in me, I'll be gnawing on his gavel.

Where's Hayden?

Supposed to be in fashion in 20 minutes. Oh, boy.

That BLT looks good. Do you mind if I... Damn right I mind. Get your own grub.

Come on, away with you.

Elise, could you check the chief's jelly bean stash?

Not without an executive order.

Can't believe they forgot the pickle spear.

I wonder what the American people would say if they knew the Supreme Court spent

its morning arguing over food.

Sorry I'm late, everyone.

My fool horse threw a shoe.

Oh, for the days when the horse threw a rod. Getting nostalgic for pollution,

are we?

I assume everyone's up to speed on U .S. versus Gibbons.

Tell me something, Hayden. Do you really believe that this woman has time

traveled here from the past?

Well, you read our science advisor's brief.

Well, it's just that our science advisors understand technology.

The way an archaeologist understands how the pyramids were built. Which is to

say, not at all. Oh, come on, Ollie. We have totally authenticated evidence that

this woman was born in 1954.

And if she's 122, I want her beauty secrets.

I'll tell you what I think.

This time traveler, or whatever you want to call her.

Her arrival here is like a gift from the gods. Gives us a chance to steer the

ship of state off its disaster course.

Oh, just what I expected from a bleeding heart.

Or is it a bleeding ulcer?

We overturned the appellate court's decision. We opened the door for the

of science and technology to descend on us all over again.

And this time they won't be content to wipe out 80 % of the Earth's population.

There's not going to be anything left to render an opinion but cockroaches and

tumbleweeds. Why about you, Hayden?

Well, I haven't prejudged this case, if that's what you're asking.

And I suspect, in spite of the rhetoric, neither of the rest of you.

One thing is certain.

The American people will be watching us.

The world will be watching us.

I only hope... God gives us the wisdom to get it right.

Wallace Gannon, Solicitor General.

Top gun in the government's arsenal.

I've been waiting for a landmark case like this ever since this appointment.

There are only five chairs. I thought there were nine justices. Not since 2062

Congress fixed this number.

It's changed seven times since the first court.

Here they come.

All rise, the justices of the United States Supreme Court.

Please be seated.

I don't have to remind anyone in this hallowed courtroom that the case we take

up today has ramifications far beyond the fate of the appellant, Dr. Givens.

For most of this nation's storied past, we worshiped the altar of technology.

Science and innovation promised to ease our burdens, to prolong our lives.

to extend our reach to the stars and beyond.

Then, somehow, the promise was broken.

Our machines got away from us. We saw the war to end all wars.

We saw the new Holocaust.

As we sit here today, the future of the two -decade -old anti -technology codes,

operative not only in this country, but by international agreement throughout

the world.

hangs in the balance.

Whether we maintain our ban on technology or restart that mighty engine

well be determined by our actions today.

We'll begin by hearing from the respondent, the Solicitor General.

Mr. Gannon.

I think that we can all agree that there is nothing commonplace about the

state's case against Dr. Therese Gibbons.

But to say that it is without precedent is to ask me to surrender the

numerous sightings of case law, which we've detailed in our brief, from the

evolving sense of human dignity language in Trot v. Dulles in Gregg v. Georgia

to the ban on human cloning in 2009 in U .S. versus in the bodies.

The defense stipulates that Dr. Givens invented a time -travel device in the

last decade of the 20th century, and she used that invention to convey herself

to wartime, along with a veritable arsenal of electronic devices.

Now, why?

In her own words before the Ninth Circuit Court, quote, I wanted to begin

industrial revolution.

I wanted to rekindle the flame of scientific innovation, and that's

she tried to do.

She was arrested attempting to deliver blueprints and prototypes to anti -code

rebels. You're not saying why.

Please sit down, Dr. Gibbons. You'll have your opportunity to respond.

He's not telling you why I want the world to have technology again. Doctor,

will conduct this proceeding in an orderly fashion.

Not only has Appellant's counsel stipulated to her smuggling be...

prejudicial. We never use the term smuggling.

fine transporting these items into our time and to our country.

The fence also acknowledges that Dr.

Gibbons had already used the time travel machine repeatedly for a darker

purpose.

How did you get in here?

Are you Robert Beck?

What's to know?

Are you Robert Beck?

Yeah.

Yeah, I'm Beck. On September 13th, 1994.

What is it?

You were executed for the willful murder of eight women.

I am here to carry out that just and legal sentence.

I don't understand.

Only one of us have to. Just wait a minute. Wait.

Outer limits.

Please stand by.

The reality is that she employed the device to convey herself to the

past, where, by her own written account, she murdered in cold

blood no less than 17 victims.

I am obliged to remind the Honorable Mr. Gannon that my client was never charged

with murder.

And for good reason. If you'll recall, the Teresa Gibbons who committed those

acts in another time stream saved untold lives by stopping their killers before

they acted.

Your honors, she paid dearly for what she did.

I dreamed

about you for 15 years.

I thought you were ten feet tall.

With horns and fangs.

Oh, damn it, Claire. You just screwed with the wrong guy there. Do you have

idea what you did to me?

You stole my life.

Now, wait.

Now, everyone just calm down.

I don't want to hurt the little girl.

She and I are just going to go for a little walk.

I'll keep her company for a little while. Then I'll let her go.

You are so right.

Nothing matters. Nothing I ever did helped.

Drugs, therapy, killing monsters like you.

Anything would be better than this pain.

All I want is for it to be over. Let me die!

No one should outlive their dreams.

You get down!

So,

you're saying Teresa Gibbons, the woman who committed these murders,

actually died in that confrontation.

That's right.

And the young woman who was rescued, she went on to create her own time travel

device. She's the Teresa Givens you see here today before you.

Mr. Gannon.

Yes? Please, let's just clarify.

You're not alleging that the appellant here committed any of these murders.

If we accept her own definition of time streams and the possibilities they

allow, then yes, one incarnation of Dr. Givens did in fact engage in a murder

spree. In any event, no one can contest the violence -riddled

repercussions of her time travel device.

Now, with the court's permission, and in accord with Rule 32 for the submission

of exhibits, I'd like to present...

that device, along with the very scientific touchstones of the pre

era, the possession and use of which were the foundation of the state's case.

What you see before you, your honors, are nothing less than the detonators of

the next and most certainly final technological holocaust. Mr. Gannon,

A knife can be used as an instrument of homicide, but we don't outlaw cutlery.

Your view that these inventions themselves constitute a palpable threat

matter of some debate. My good friend Justice Wood's comments are duly noted

the record.

Go on, Mr. Gannon. Thank you.

The petitioner's brief contends that the anti -technological codes are in

violation of both the spirit and the letter of the Constitution.

Now, I draw your attention to a phrase from the preamble to that venerable

document which describes its all -embracing purpose to promote the

welfare. These laws in question were designed to protect, to nurture,

to shelter the flickering candle of civilization from the howling winds of

Members of the court, these laws have proven worthy and effective. Our society

has flourished since their implementation.

They have rescued us from spiraling into an unspeakable abyss.

Now I'll reserve the rest of my time for a response to petitioner's counsel.

Thank you, Mr. Gannon. We will now hear from appellate counsel.

Mr. Gannon has just quoted from the stirring language of the Constitution,

if I might, I'd like to quote from that self -same wellspring of democracy.

Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8.

which grants rights to inventors, quote, to promote the progress of science and

the useful arts, unquote.

Even in 1789, nearly three centuries ago, the founders

saw the promise in science and technology.

Is there any aspect of our lives that was not enhanced by the industrial

revolution or the spirit of discovery?

from agriculture to manufacturing to communications.

What about the advances in medical technology that not only dramatically

extended our lifespans, but improved the quality of those lives as well?

Advances in technology that allowed disease organs to be replaced by donor

organs, culminating in the first full -body transplant.

Ready for transfer.

Advances in artificial intelligence and robotics relieved us of tedious and

burdensome tasks.

We produced more goods. We worked less hours.

They gave us more time to enjoy the fruits of our labor, to spend time with

families. Our children were healthier.

Smarter? Happier?

It hardly seems necessary to count these as blessings.

But blessings they were.

I hate to intrude on your speechifying, but there were some conspicuous examples

of scientific innovation.

You omit it. You skip right over the atomic bomb.

Fusion technology, genetic tampering, just to name a few.

I understand, Justice Harbison.

that science and technology would be held responsible for what happened to

world 20 years ago.

But talk about an abyss.

We have become so fearful, so phobic about change, that we are plunging

into a new Dark Ages, and God only knows when we're going to emerge.

If I may, I'd like

to bring my client up to the podium.

The truth is, what she has to say is far more important than anything I could

argue in her defense.

I've always been a very curious person.

I grew up wondering, why is the sky blue?

Why do we dream?

What is artificial intelligence?

And because I had such a natural curiosity,

I gravitated toward science.

The term of choice in those days was nerd.

I don't know what you call them now.

Maybe you've outlawed nerds, too.

When I was a teenager, I came very close to dying.

I was abducted by a psychopath.

He tried to rape me and he certainly would have killed me.

The woman who stopped the assault was none other than me.

It was me, grown up.

It was the woman who first invented time travel.

It was the woman I would become.

And she did much more than save my life.

She changed it forever. I wound up falling in

love with the idea of harnessing

time.

Like, well, much like a poet falls in love with words, a musician falls

in love with his instrument.

Science was my expression.

A way to lose myself.

A way to find myself.

I don't know what I'm trying to say.

You're doing fine, Doctor.

I grew up with a sense of personal destiny.

How powerful a force had to be that brought this machine into existence,

if it happened twice, if it happened in two different time streams.

And that is when I knew that I had to use it to do good.

Exactly.

Did you see it as your mission, Dr. Gibbons?

I didn't know.

That just did. I didn't know. Maybe you could see me as some kind of an explorer

of sorts.

I'd venture into the future.

A few days at a time at first.

Then some months.

Eventually I wound up here.

And my heart broke.

How so?

At first I thought it was something to do with the settings on my computer.

This couldn't possibly be the...

2076, I thought of.

There are no cars, no telephones, no computers, no CAT

scans, no sign of an electronic age, and precious

few signs of anything more advanced than the light bulb.

When I returned back to my own time, I began to think.

What would happen to a world that turned its back on science?

So you traveled deeper into the future?

Yes, I did.

30 more years.

2105.

Can you tell us what you saw, Dr. Gibbons?

It was horrible.

A virus swept over the planet. No part of this world.

was left untouched, and there were no scientific tools to combat it, except

small amounts of serum that the renegade researchers created, and they weren't

enough to stem the tide of death.

You need to get us more supplies.

No, ma 'am, not me.

We're running out of fresh water. We don't have any more food.

I can't help you, ma 'am.

I'm heading back east while I still can.

Family's up there, a wife and two girls.

I know that they're dead.

Figure I should be with them when... Listen, there's

another dozen or so in the town down the interstate.

I gave them the same as I gave you. Maybe you can hook up with them.

So there are others?

Not many. A lot more dead.

It's what your laws are taking us to.

The end of humanity.

This is the real Armageddon, Mr. Chief Justice.

Your so -called new holocaust or thermonuclear war.

That was only a prelude.

Dr. Gibbons, I'm sure you appreciate how difficult it is.

For us to understand the very notion of your venturing back and forth through

time. Yeah, of course.

The very fact that the Dr. Gibbons who went back in time to rescue you as a

teenager, the Dr. Gibbons who was the avenging angel, the very fact that she

changed history proves that history can be altered.

That's my whole point.

We can intervene.

There's still time.

But how do we know that this plague is the result of the course we're on now,

keeping a ban on technology, or whether it's a direct result of changing our

course in this appeal?

I can only say, Justice Harbison, that the world I saw was devoid of

was devoid of the medical help that would have prevented this

virus from sweeping over the planet.

The outer limits.

Please stand by.

Are you familiar with the medical research of Dr. Ledbetter? Yes, he

work in nanotechnology. That's exactly right.

Tiny machines, invisible to the naked eye.

Touted as the panacea in the scientific journals of the day. It seemed nothing

short of a miracle.

Until something went horribly wrong.

Who is it? Steve, let me in.

I've been working on it all night. I know how to deactivate them. We have to

electricity and short them out.

What is it? Have there been more changes?

I've got a much... It's intense pain in the back of my hip. It's kept me up all

night. Let me look.

See anything?

Just two small buttons.

Ah, damn it, that hurts.

Sorry.

They appear to be filled with some kind of fluid.

What is it? They're moving.

What is it?

My God.

There. Eye.

Problem, Dr.

Gibbon. is that the example Justice Parker has raised is just one of many.

You're aware, I'm sure, of the researcher, Dr. Diamond Kress, who

sample of Martian soil back to his home laboratory and unwittingly let loose a

biologic menace.

It took the better part of a decade to eradicate.

Dr. Kress's descent into hell is symptomatic of what happened over and

again in this century.

Scientists attempting to play God.

There is a difference between playing God and aspiring

to fulfill the potential for greatness that God

gave us.

Is that a veiled application for sainthood?

I am no saint.

Nor are any of the pioneers that you mentioned.

Mistakes were made.

The very nature of science is trial and error.

This is how people learn.

This is how people grow.

Unless, of course, it's the last mistake we make.

No one's denying my client's actions violated the letter of the law.

But what we ask you to consider is if the law itself doesn't represent a more

egregious violation.

A desecration of the Constitution and of what's truly just.

What you may or may not know, Dr. Gibbons, is that society radically

after the new Holocaust.

Oh, you mean besides the fact that technology was used as a scapegoat for

society's ills?

That was a big part of it, yes. But there were other profound changes.

A kind of...

involuntary anesthetizing of the human spirit.

Our esteemed political leaders were convinced that not only did we have to

dismantle the electronic age, but we had to change our inner landscape as well.

There was a strong social and political movement to try to put the past behind

us, even before the fallout had claimed its last victim.

The anti -grieving laws were instituted.

It actually became a crime to mourn the death of a loved one.

The anti -grieving laws have since been rescinded, but I think it's instructive

to see that it's not only scientists who went awry when they undertook to

redesign our species.

You talk about the arrogance of science, Justice Harbison.

What about the arrogance of those who would try to remake us in their image?

Before we pass judgment on the petitioner, I ask that we consider where

greatest evil lies.

In making a god of technology?

Or in making gods of ourselves?

who survived the war of 2059 will never forget it. I lost my own two sons.

My daughter lingered for six months before her insides rotted out from

poisoning. Couldn't even give them a proper burial.

They had to be sealed in lead and concrete along with the other detritus

war.

The fact is...

Those laws were created so that we could go on with the business of living and

survive. What made you so certain that climbing back into the darkness was the

answer? Darkness?

Dr. Gibbons, is that how you see it?

I'm inclined to see the light.

The golden light over rolling farmlands where horses and plows till the soil.

The light in the eyes of children who climb trees.

Have we lost something by giving up our machines, Doctor?

No doubt we have.

But look what we've gained.

Our productivity comes from the honest labor of a strong back and calloused

hand.

Families sit around a hearth at night. They don't stare blankly at jittering

electronic images.

They talk to one another.

Human interaction is no longer obsolete.

Life is less complicated. We've gone back to simpler pleasures, simpler

Justice Harbison is right about one thing.

None of us will ever forget what happened in June of 59.

I lost a daughter too, along with my only grandchildren.

The youngest was four, smart as they make them.

He dreamed of being an astronaut.

Of course, even if he had survived, that wouldn't have been possible.

There were no more astronauts, no more space program,

no more computers, no more scientists.

No more dreamers like you.

You play with fire.

You might get burned.

Eliminate fire.

And you might never feel its warmth.

And you might never revel in its illumination.

You take your seat, Dr. Gibbons.

Opposing counsels will now have a chance to sum up.

Chief Justice, Associate Justices, history teaches that no

invention is immune to subversion. The missiles that rocketed

man to Mars also sent ballistic warheads against the cities.

The Internet that promised us the dissemination of information was

used to strip governments of their secrets.

and make them vulnerable to attack.

Now, my distinguished colleague invokes the spirit of invention as if it

were some holy grail, some self -appointed deity that demands that we

ourselves before it. But aren't we wiser than that?

Forgive me for sounding old -fashioned, but what about rearing our children in a

peaceful world? What about a quiet prayer?

at the altar of common sense.

I ponder these highly touted advances of the century.

The genome was deciphered and the secrets of the human brain were

what became of those discoveries?

And I refer you to the cruel realities of entrepreneurs who robbed the

elderly of their knowledge and their skills and then sold them.

Like so many dried goods.

What's that for?

To help make you sleep. And to make you forget.

Why?

Why would I want to... forget?

The most vulnerable in our society stripped of their humanity, their brains

drained of a lifetime of acquired gifts, downloaded and catalogued, and left

like empty huts, warehoused and forgotten.

Is this your idea of a scientific miracle?

If this court overturns Dr. Gibbons' conviction,

It will send a message heard round the world, and the genie will bellow

in thunder, he'll thrash in his bottle, and once more threaten to emerge.

I'm certain, in fact, that we will be driving the last nail into the coffin of

God's greatest experiment.

It will ordain the end of humankind.

I, for one, will not be party to that surrender.

I will fight it with my last breath.

And I implore you to do no less.

With the court's permission, I'd like to give my remaining minutes to the woman

who will live or die by your decision.

When my namesake invented the temporal transporter, she used it to save lives.

And when I followed in her footsteps, I knew that, like her, that I would have

to dedicate this incredible invention to a humanitarian purpose.

Maybe ultimately make the same sacrifice she did.

I've been given a special knowledge because of the unique

circumstances of my journey.

Not to act would have been the same as turning my back on the

citizens of the future, those countless children who depend on

me now.

And I guess they depend on you now.

That's all.

Thank you.

We'll take a 15 -minute recess, then render our decision.

You okay?

I'm scared, Nick.

All that stuff about me not caring about what they do to me.

It's a lie.

A stupid lie.

It's okay to be afraid, Teresa.

You're only human.

I used to dream about the Teresa that rescued me.

It was always the same.

She'd walk in the room, sit on my bed, and watch me.

Sometimes we'd talk.

Sometimes she'd just stroke my hair.

She was so gentle.

So kind.

If... If they let the verdict stand,

What will happen to all of this?

I won't lie to you.

They'll destroy it.

All those years.

All those... Mine.

We haven't lost yet.

There's still hope.

Somebody will find an answer.

There's still plenty of time.

There's 30 years.

They could build another transporter.

They could find a cure. They know that the plague is coming.

There's a way. They'll find a way. There has to be.

You will tell them, won't you? I wasn't crazy.