Original subtitles

[waves crashing]

[upbeat music]

[rock music]

- When we hear that it was based on true events, we just wave our hands,

look bored and react to the found footage films with disgust.

Rarely does it...

- ...and finally the Boston Bruins won

after a shootout against the Philadelphia Flyers.

This is their ninth away victory in a row,

which is a new record for the club.

The Bruins are in good form, their overall balance is 15-1-1.

Vincent Lecavalier scored twice in the Flyers victory

as he celebrates his 400th goal during his...

- And to be honest, I really like plays.

I like them all and, when I saw the first play of my life,

I decided to be an actress right there.

I was 7 maybe and I was extremely mesmerized by them.

And movies as well.

[heavy metal music]

- Yeah, Vincent, you're absolutely right.

If you ask me, I could hardly put it down

and suddenly I realized that it was 3:30 in the morning

and I was just immersed in this magic world.

It's a particularly refreshing idea to create a story

in which I don't look at the perfection of the...

[radio station changes]

- An incredible story unfolded

from the monotonous answer of the well shaven suspect,

dressed up in stolen but nice and clean clothes.

He turned out to be the mysterious hermit robbing the holiday homes.

In 1986 he left his home in Massachusetts, traveled to Maine,

and disappeared into the woods without a trace.

Living in a tent in an impenetrable forest,

he subsisted on food he stole from nearby cabins.

He didn't have a conversation with another human being

for nearly three decades.

[radio station changes]

[rock music]

[music stops]

[leaves rustling]

[door opening]

[door closes]

[chimes]

[sighs]

- Hello, number two, I see you have arrived, are you there?

- Yes I am, I'm here.

- You are Will, if I remember correctly.

- Yes I am. My name is Will.

- This is June from the headquarters.

Actually it doesn't really look like a headquarters.

It's more like a house like yours.

But I'm about fifteen miles away from you.

Anyway, welcome to Lily of the Valley.

- Lily of the Valley.

Not an everyday name if you ask me.

- No, it's not.

And I'm sure you aren't an everyday man either.

- I'm sorry?

- If you can guess how long the job has been vacant

I'll invite you to the raspberry beer in your fridge.

- There are only two minor problems.

I hate flavored beer.

Actually I hate all kinds of beer and

whatever my guess is, the beer in the fridge is already mine now.

- Eh, true.

- I would say it's been vacant for half a year?

- Nah, much longer.

He left a year and a half ago.

- I guess he didn't bear the pressure.

- Yeah, we can say so.

What did you commit?

- What do you mean?

- I glanced through your CV and you were not born here.

If you come here, you're either born here and got rotted to this place,

or you did something and you want to hide from the world.

- Actually I could ask you the same question.

- I asked you first, so tell me.

- I've been traveling for one and a half days

I'm hungry and thirsty, so how about letting us leave each other alone.

- There's some raspberry beer.

- [sighs] Good for me.

- Tomorrow morning, I will tell you the most important things,

but have a good rest and be careful of the mountain lions.

- Mountain lions?

- You haven't seen the inside of the door yet then.

[footsteps]

[grunts]

- Let that be the final word for today.

I need to get some sleep.

I'll call you in half a lifetime again.

[nostalgic music]

- Will.

Wake up, Will.

Will!

- Here I am, here I am.

- I would say good morning, but I think it's too late for that.

- What time is it?

- 10:15 AM.

- Ah, shit!

I'm sorry.

- It happens sometimes.

There was a guy who slept for two days,

but he was really really shit-faced.

- I only drank some tea.

- Oh, by the way, regarding food and drink.

Look outside the door!

- I'll do it.

[leaves rustling]

- The donkey with the pack-saddle comes once a week.

- I'm not sure I get it.

- This is what we call the lorry that carries the food.

If there is anything you need, just put a note on the box

and it will be there next week, and they take the empty box away.

- Pizza is not in the game, is it?

- It could be possible, but by the time you get it

it would probably be more like a Frisbee.

- No problem, I'm not a pizza fan anyway.

[biting apple]

- Are you ready to look around a bit?

Sure!

- There are some window boxes there, put the keys in there.

There's less chance you lose them in the middle of the woods

if you put them there.

[footsteps]

- You said you'll say something about the job.

- That's right.

As I told you it's not a brain surgery.

The county spends a nice sum of money on keeping the jobs,

so we grab the opportunity.

- I feel like I'm sponsored.

- Yes, it's our privilege.

So the main thing is that we must keep peace and order in the forest.

If somebody starts a fire, we must take action.

If anybody does anything illegal, we must take action, too.

- You mean like a thirty-member crew making a porn movie?

[chuckles]

- I'm happy you managed to relax a bit.

- Kind of.

- Rather like repairing a broken bar or barrier

or repair the steps of a lookout tower.

These are small jobs, but nobody wants to die here

because a sign's not fixed or the steps are broken.

- Fair enough.

- So, as I told you...

- Wait a minute.

- What is it?

Will, what's happening?

- As if I was hearing the sound of a chainsaw not very far from here.

- That's weird.

No felling was planned for today.

Wait a second, I'll just go and check.

- I'm not planning to run away.

- I hope so.

[footsteps]

Not for today, not even for this week.

The next felling is planned for next Friday.

- What am I supposed to do now?

- Well, you should walk towards the sound

and check who is stealing the timber.

- This guy has a chainsaw for sure

and what I have is a folded pocket knife.

Chances are not equal I'm afraid.

- I know, it's not really reassuring,

but the headphones have built-in GPS,

so we can help you if you get in trouble.

- You said houses are 10-20 miles from each other here.

- That's right. Help would not be so quick.

- Just to inform you, it was a failed attempt

if you wanted to calm me down.

- But such things do happen, this is part of your job.

Walk there carefully, warn them or send them away, if necessary.

If you feel you are in danger,

tell us and more people will go out with you.

Do you have the alarm gun with you?

- Do I have something like that?

- There is a red box in the house,

I thought it would be the first thing you found.

- The bed attracted me more.

I shouldn't be here.

- So many horror movies start like this.

- Shut up! - [woman chuckles]

- I'm sure he saw you coming and ran away.

Nobody's going to attack you for a few weeks' firewood.

- I haven't really calmed down yet.

- Look around, and if you don't see anybody, you can get off.

- I found the chainsaw.

- And the owner has run away, I guess.

It can happen and will happen again, I'm sure.

[mysterious music]

- There's a bag here, too.

- And I guess you'll look what's inside.

- I'll visit your for some fortune-telling pretty soon.

[woman chuckles]

- I can't wait to meet you.

- Only some...

whiskey.

- The best is to steal timber when you are drunk, didn't you know that?

- I found a drawing in the bag, too.

- If it's a treasure map, give me a little time.

I'll go and we can start searching for it together.

- It's a simple drawing by a child.

Maybe the guy's daughter made it.

- Or a six-year-old was trying to cut down a tree.

- What the fuck?! - What is it?

- A-a-a finger! - What?!

- A finger, a fucking finger dropped on the ground.

Somebody's finger was in the bag!

- Holy shit!

Will!

Will, what the hell is happening?

For fuck's sake Will, answer me!

Will!

- Okay. False alarm.

- What the fuck is happening then,

it's not a finger but an ear or what the fuck, Will?

- It's a flashdrive.

A flashdrive disguised as a human finger.

- Fucking Ebay.

Now is the time when I need to take a shot.

And you should drink the rest of the whiskey, because you deserve it.

- I don't drink.

- Don't mess with me.

- Not a sip for a year and 114 days.

- I guess I wouldn't be able to hold out for fourteen days, huh.

- Sometimes it would be good to forget things, but I hold out.

- I drink another one for that.

- What shall I do with the chainsaw?

- Leave it there.

If it belongs to somebody, they will collect it today.

- And the bag?

- I think you can leave it there, too.

I don't want them coming after us because of the things they lost.

[heavy rock]

- ...and adding the creepy trumpet sound

from Kevin Smith's Red State movie.

In other words, they were all hoaxes.

But the phenomenon itself is no hoax at all.

A skyquake is actually a real event

though it's difficult to distinguish between fakes

videos of unexplained noises

that are of human origin and genuine skyquakes.

But the real examples of this phenomenon

are all described the same way by those who experience them.

A loud boom that sounds like distant cannon fire

and the genuine ones all occur near coastal areas.

There hasn't been a full explanation yet

why certain areas experience periodic skyquakes

but enough evidence exists to suggest...

- Are you still out?

- Yes.

Someone damaged the barrier at stone number sixty-two.

I fixed that and some very clever guy made fire

but he left soon.

- It looks as if being in the woods justified anyone being an asshole.

I wonder how he could light a fire in this weather.

- Yeah.

- At the end of the day, I'd like to thank you for your work today,

and for your courage with the chainsaw murderer.

- I'm here to do my job.

- I think you'll do it well.

- And I hope you're right.

- Most people are fed up after the first day and get off.

- I'm not planning to get off.

A chainsaw murderer and a finger a day are no problem at all.

- It's good to know.

Normally I don't chat so much with people, but now it is...

- If it makes you feel better

I haven't said more than two sentences to anybody

in the last one and a half years.

- I don't know if I should be surprised or sad.

- I didn't say it to crash the party.

- Who was it?

- What do you mean?

- Who did you tell more than two sentences?

- My bank called me to cross-check some data.

- But seriously!

- I'm being serious.

The main reason I started this job

was because I wanted to be alone with my thoughts

and here I may be able to forget things if I want to.

I don't have to pose others and...

find out what I did well and what I screwed up.

- Then I'll spoil your party when I keep speaking in your ears.

- No.

No problem at all.

[howling]

I didn't think it would take so long to get back.

- The forest is about 3000 square kilometers.

Lily of the Valley makes up about a quarter of it.

That means your senses are confused easily,

when it comes to time and distance.

You'll get used to it.

- Luckily I have the map with me.

Although it's not easy to comprehend.

[distant growl]

There is a guy here.

Scared the hell out of me.

- A man?

- Yes.

- Does he have a chainsaw in his hand?

- Funny girl.

No, he doesn't, just a flashlight.

- I'm about to tell you a secret.

- What is it?

- This is a forest with no entrance where we sell tickets.

- Screw you.

- He probably feels the same about you.

If he'd got lost, he would've asked you for help, don't bother about it.

- At least I will sleep well.

- If you can't fall asleep, I will sing something. That might help.

- It's been a long day and you are brilliant

at making me feel it even longer.

- I'm sorry, I'll try to make it shorter.

- Oh, shit! - What's wrong?

- I put the keys under the first windowbox and they're not there now.

- Are you sure you put them there?

- Absolutely, I don't need to remember

too many things in the middle of nowhere!

- Look around. Maybe they just fell down.

[howling]

- I've got them.

They were the one on the right side.

- Great!

- I could swear I didn't put them there.

I could swear on my life.

[baby cooing]

- Will?

Where are you?

Lily needs you.

[footsteps]

- What a beautiful landscape.

- I also love it.

It's like all the bad things stay out of our lives.

- It would be nice if it were so.

- Well, about a half hour ago,

we got a call saying that a person is shooting at bottles,

probably with an air gun.

According to the description

the incident might be between number 54 and 56.

- A single person?

- The caller said he saw one person, he didn't dare to get any closer.

- I should get some hazard bonus.

But at least, it's not a chainsaw.

- I'll speak to my boss.

- Can I ask you a strange question?

- Even two questions.

Go ahead.

- Did you speak to me during the night?

- Sometimes I drink too much, but I usually remember what I do,

so I can definitely say it wasn't me.

Why, did somebody call you?

- I was asleep when she was speaking to me.

Her voice reminded me of my wife.

- And yet you believed it was me?

- Your voices are very similar.

- Really?

- Yes.

- Am I right that she's one of the reasons why you are here?

It's not my business.

I try to mind my own one, and not to dig deep into your life.

- Yes.

Actually, she is the main reason.

- I guessed there is something like that in the background.

- How did you know that?

- Your voice.

It's so sad.

The tone of it is nice, you have a good sense of humor,

but I can always hear it.

Even if it's just a little bit.

- Sara died in a car accident.

- I'm sorry. What happened?

- It happened about three years ago.

I was driving a truck abroad.

I was driving a truck almost all my life,

I made money, I tried to get all the jobs.

I traveled so many miles

that I could have traveled around the globe five times.

[sad music]

She stayed home with our daughter, whom I didn't see often.

She had to do everything.

One day she ran out of the baby formula

and she went down to the shops to buy some.

She was coming home when a...

fuckface

ran over her over the pedestrian crossing.

- My God.

- I hurried home as fast as I could

but it took almost two days to get home.

If I had not accepted that job

and if I had been home on that day...

- Will, you didn't know what would happen.

Nobody knew what would happen.

- The name of the guy who hit her was Thomas Briscoe.

He had a gardening store on the edge of the town.

To be more accurate, people bought seeds, hoes,

or lawnmowers from him and then they could say they knew him.

He was driving at 22 miles over the speed limit

when he caused the accident.

Finally he got away with it quite easily

because his lawyer used my wife's medical records

about her migraine

saying that her illness may have caused the accident

when a sudden pain distracted her and she stepped in front of the car.

- Ah, fuck!

It's a bit embarrassing to speak in this microphone

when I know that I remind you of her.

- It's not your fault.

In a way...

it's even relaxing.

- Nobody has ever told me that before.

- And on the top of that...

- Yes?

- My daughter's name is Lily.

- What were the chances that your new workplace

will bear the name of your daughter

and your quasi-boss will speak to you with your wife's voice?

- Well...

Chances are better of Miley Cyrus

giving me a blowjob along pit row at Daytona

while I watch the cars speed by.

[footsteps]

- According to your GPS coordinates,

you have to see the Castle of Witches.

As I recall, it was built in the 15th century

and in fact, no witch lived there at all.

As far as I know.

It has been devastated spectacularly in the last fifty years.

At one time it was also a wedding venue.

So many idiots drove miles by SUV,

only to get divorced a few years later.

[sighs]

- I can't see things like this every day, that's for sure.

- What is it you see?

- A chapel or a mansion.

At least, the remains.

- That's Lily's hidden place.

- Lily's what?

- We call it like that.

I wonder why it wasn't stolen stone by stone.

- Quite a lot of them remained.

It's scary.

- I haven't seen it for a long time.

It was many years ago when I last went there.

[ominous music]

- It feels as if I had been here before.

- How come?

- I cannot explain.

Perhaps some damn deja vu feeling.

The whole thing is so strange.

Something is not right here.

- What's wrong?

What's wrong, Will?

What do you hear?

- That's the point.

Nothing.

But someone or something is here.

[ominous music continues]

Hey! Wait a minute! Stop!

- What's happening, what do you see?

- A stranger looked at me, didn't say a word then disappeared.

[ominous music]

- Will, I don't want to offend you, but...

- Look, I'm not crazy, I know what I see, and I know what I do, okay?

- Okay, okay, I believe you.

Can you see him anywhere now?

- No.

No, he vanished completely.

- According to the GPS signal, you should be alone there.

- That's reassuring.

- Will, there's no problem here.

Maybe it's a tourist who loves fun,

or somebody just wanted to take a leak, but you interrupted him.

- Fuck you, you come out here!

Sorry.

I didn't want to shout.

- That's all right.

The forest hides many strange things.

- Indeed.

Nobody is shooting with a gun,

so whoever was reported to be here has probably left by now.

- Walk around once more and if you don't see anybody,

you can go home and eat something.

- Okay.

I can do that.

- And how is your Lily?

- She'll start school next year.

- My question might sound strange, but...

- My father-in-law raises her.

After Sara's death, I went through a very difficult period.

And my parents died long ago.

Only her father is alive.

He became her legal guardian.

They moved to Europe.

To the Isle of Man.

And Lily is starting school there.

- I would be crying over the blind map for sure

if I had to spot this Man something.

- It is located between England and Ireland.

We were thinking of moving there with Sara, when Lily is older,

but it seems that my father-in-law stole the idea.

Maybe Sara mentioned it to him, I don't know.

- How do you meet your daughter then?

- We haven't seen each other for a while.

[footsteps thudding]

[suspenseful music]

Unfortunately I wasn't there for her when she really needed me.

When there were the three of us, things went quite well.

I had to work a lot, but we did our best to spend as much time together as possible.

- Sara's death changed everything I guess.

- I was alone with a baby.

The funeral cost a lot of money.

And there are a lot of expenses with a child.

I didn't know what to do with Lily when there were the two of us.

Sara was the perfect mother.

It may sound of cliché, but it was true.

I was good at my job, at least for a while.

- She needs you.

- I think I would confuse her.

She grows up together with his grandfather in a beautiful place.

That island is absolutely fabulous,

much more beautiful than the place where we lived.

I think I would just disrupt everything.

She would not know what's happening, she's too young.

- My sister's daughter is only six

but last week she started a discussion with me about reincarnation.

Age is not everything.

The fact that a child is a child

doesn't mean anything.

- I usually send something to her for her birthday,

for Christmas and for some other holidays.

I send as much money as I can, too.

- None of these can replace you.

- And what about you?

Husband?

Kid, kids?

- I was married once, for two weeks.

- Maybe I shouldn't ask more.

- There's nothing special.

I was twenty, he was forty-two.

He was a manager, smartly dressed and

it's difficult to say no when you are still lazing around

in your childhood room in your parents' house.

[leaves rustling]

He was courting.

I mean I was very much impressed, he treated me very well

and I was such a stupid cunt that I thought it would always be so.

- What happened?

- After the first bigger argument in our marriage,

I was beaten up with a broken nose

with two teeth falling out and I had internal bleeding.

- What the fuck?

- Yeah.

I was saying the same to myself while I was screaming for help.

The next day he went to the office like nothing had happened.

So I packed up and went home.

My mother cried.

My father, he called an ambulance.

And then his friends.

- I hope you didn't let him go away with it.

- All I know is that he wasn't killed

but I never saw him again.

And soon his name was removed from the company's website as well.

It's said that somebody else was living in the house a month later.

Our house.

- It's strange.

- The fact he knocked only two of my teeth out?

- No, of course not.

My wife also came out of an abusive relationship when we met and

I just find the coincidence strange.

- If I finished my time here, my first thing would be to fly after my daughter.

Maybe I wouldn't be here tomorrow.

- Let's finish this now, please.

[leaves rustling]

[ominous music]

I must be someone's way here.

- What's that again?

- Someone left a gift on the door.

Like in a detective story.

The letters are cut out from a newspaper to create a message saying

"I know why you are here".

And the note is full of blood.

- Calm down, Will.

Someone must be joking.

- You know what's interesting?

That this person is the only one

who might actually know why I'm here, so I'd love to meet him

and ask him, because I don't even know what the fuck I'm doing here.

- Will, I have to tell you something.

- Just tell me it cannot be worse than this.

- The guy, who worked there before you came here...

- Jesus Christ, don't tell me he's a fucking murderer!

- No, no, but he didn't actually quit.

- I don't want to pull every sentence out of you.

- One day, he just disappeared.

- Oh, fuck, that's just awesome!

- I'm not exaggerating when I say we combed through the complete forest

we phoned everybody we could, the police also tried to find him, but all in vain.

- And now I am his next target.

- You need to stay calm.

That's the only way you can do this job.

- And what does he look like?

What's his name?

- His name was Chuck Huntington.

But I cannot really say any more about him, I was not connected to him.

- And what does he look like?

- I don't know exactly.

- You didn't even meet him?

- We received his CV, we hired him, he was sent to his place, that's all.

It's not official, but he left out more and more often.

He didn't complete the work he received, or didn't do it at all,

and he did not react to anything after a while.

There were days where he just muttered into the microphone

that he should no longer be allowed to live.

- [sighs] And he picked me as his new target.

- Ah, I shouldn't have told you about that!

Chuck Huntington probably drank himself to death

and his decaying body is waiting to be discovered by a group of tourists.

Nine out of ten people don't take this job.

Usually crazy people, lonely pensioners, divorced or antisocial outcasts come here.

You are the refreshing exception.

Here you can hide all your pain

all your fear, your past, but

sometimes new ones are born and the past doesn't cease to exist here.

Either you run as far as you can, or you take the courage to confront.

- You sound exactly like Sara.

Thank you for being here with me.

- Not at all.

[melancholic music]

- June.

June.

June.

Are you awake?

- I used to have that stupid habit of sleeping at 2 AM, but now I'm giving up.

- Don't be stupid now.

There's someone here.

Maybe it's just my brain playing tricks.

This might be the man with the flashlight again.

- Will.

Go to sleep now and have a rest, okay?

[leaves rustling]

- I swear it's like a Morse code.

And it is repeated.

Do you have a piece of paper and pen?

- Yeah.

- Dot, dash, dot, dot, dot, dot.

- Aha.

- Again, dot, dash, dot, dot.

Dash, dot, dash, dash.

- Got it.

[paper sheets rustling]

[ominous music]

- Can I dictate it?

- Please.

- Dot, dash, dot, dot, dot, dot.

Dot, dash, dot, dot.

Dash, dot, dash, dash.

- Lily.

- Holy shit!

- Okay, it's not a joke anymore.

Someone knows exactly who I am, knows my daughter's name,

and who knows what else he knows about me!

[distant explosion]

- Will, can you hear it?

- Fireworks?

- I don't think so.

Check if you still have the alarm gun.

- Shit, I haven't checked it since then.

Just a second.

I don't have it.

- What do you mean you don't have it?

- What it's meant to be.

That idiot outside is shooting with my gun because there's only the empty box here!

I'll walk towards the sound of shooting.

- Be very careful.

[leaves rustling]

[explosion]

- It's not far from here.

I hear it.

- Okay, keep calm.

Maybe some douchebag came out to use his remaining fireworks.

- I hope so, but he won't get away with it, that's for sure.

- I'm not very well off,

so don't think I'm about to bail you out if the cops take you away.

- You told me everything can be hidden here.

An idiot more or an idiot fewer makes no difference.

- Please be reasonable, old boy.

Why does a lorry driver decide to switch a huge truck

with hundreds of horsepower for birds' singing?

If I understand correctly, you are fed up with everything and everybody

and driving a lorry is not an entry to the social life either.

- [sighs] I am not allowed to drive anymore.

Not only lorries, nothing at all.

- [scoffs] Another secret of the forest.

- After Sara's death I escaped to work

but I think I said that.

- Yeah.

- Though I haven't mentioned

that I spent one day working and one day drinking.

And there was a single day when I did both.

- You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to.

- I haven't talked about it to anybody.

Except the police, of course.

- It must be pretty tough.

- Everything went wrong that day.

Visibility was crap,

it was foggy,

the previous night I drank really a lot

and at that time I could sleep four-five hours on average.

Finally, the truck and all its loads fell into the roadside ditch

but only after a vehicle had turned around its axles three times.

They cut me out of the wreck and I was in a coma for three weeks.

Yeah.

- So that's why all booze is in safety in your presence.

- Let's say I can't afford not to be sober anymore.

- And what happened after that?

- I caused four other cars to crash

but luckily nobody died.

I got a suspended sentence due to what happened to my wife and the circumstances

but my license was permanently revoked

and of course

I was no longer employed.

- I'm very sorry, Will.

- Thanks to my father-in-law I was treated in a special private hospital

until I regained consciousness

and soon I was able to take a closer look at that slope.

[explosion]

Then I fell out with my him, and I dealt less and less with Lily.

It might sound stupid,

but what if somebody does this to you because of the accident?

- I don't think so.

But now I don't really know what I should think.

I'm very close.

- Take care.

- Somebody is camping here!

Why did no one recognize this?

- There was a guy here who lived alone for 14 years

before one of us noticed him from the jeep.

The whole family thought he was dead

and he just said he had got fed up with his wife's bitching.

- I don't think this guy here wanted to hide.

He wanted to be found.

- Or that you find him.

- I'll check the tent.

I've found the gun.

My God.

- What is it?

- Here is a pile of photos about my daughter and my wife.

- But how?

- I don't know!

I have no idea how or where from.

These are photos that only we had.

I doubt my father-in-law got them,

I don't think he has ever seen these pictures.

- Somebody from your past followed you to this place.

- This shithead even has a laptop.

- Do you think it might work?

- The flashdrive.

I have to try it.

- Hey Will.

I hope you get this message, this is Dale.

You never returned any of my phone calls, so I just stopped trying after a while.

You know before I turned on this little gadget

I had all memorized.

But now...

to be honest, I don't know what to tell you.

[sighs] I guess...

Lily's fine.

Lily's fine.

I guess the most important thing to tell you is that

I think she misses you a lot, but she doesn't say.

You know I play with her a lot, you know.

And her drawing is getting better and better.

The other day

she went into the house, we were cutting and picking flowers.

She went into the house and she drew herself.

One of these days

she's gonna be a really talented artist, you know, something like that.

Yeah.

[sobbing]

You know Will, I know this whole thing derailed because...

after Sara's death.

But I think you should know that your daughter is waiting for you.

Every single day.

Look, I'm not--

I don't want to decide for you.

I'm not trying to tell you what to do, I just think you should know.

She's waiting for her father.

You know...

Okay.

Look.

To the world...

you're one of many.

But to her...

you're the whole world.

- Something is wrong for sure.

The tent was full of photos of Lily and Sara

and the flash drive contained a video

where my father-in-law asked me to go back to my daughter.

[scoffs] This is a fucking nightmare.

June!

June, are you there?

June!

[suspenseful music]

June!

[ominous music]

What is going on here?

This can't be.

[leaves rustling]

[tragic music]

- Hey Will.

This is Chuck Huntington.

Your predecessor, if you will.

Maybe it's better I tell you my real name.

Thomas Briscoe.

I had to find a new identity for my life here.

We sometimes say life is unpredictable

and it proves to be true again and again.

I never thought that I would meet you again.

I thought we should avoid meeting face to face.

I see our minds worked the same way.

We both chose to hide from the world.

I had a good time here for a few years

then I ran out of books, thoughts and memories.

But then you arrived.

I'm sorry I scared you to death.

I took your gun, because if we'd met, you would have killed me.

And I would've thought the same if I met the man that killed my wife.

You must know that I am sorry.

I'm sorry about what happened to you.

And I'm even more sorry that your daughter had to live through all this.

You must know that I understand what you finally did

and I forgive you.

Painful as it is and it is

terribly painful.

I'd never have known that ruining the lives of others

is not just a column between two advertisements in a newspaper

if our lives hadn't intersected.

We'll never meet again and it's okay.

We have nothing left to do with one another.

Take care of yourself.

And Lily.

[recording stops playing]

- Chuck Huntington hit my wife with his car.

And I cut the brake pipe of his car on January 19th

the day after his verdict.

So I could take revenge.

But that day

it was his son who used his car

and drifted off the road.

I killed his son.

-Now everything has come to a conclusion.

- It's not a coincidence that I'm here, right?

- Yes.

- This place does not exist.

Is that right?

- Not in the way you think.

- Will I ever get out of here, June?

[video-game sounds]

[silence]

[birds chirping]

[leaves rustling]

[suspenseful music]

[aircraft rumbling]

[phone ringing]

- Hey there, Lily!

It's the big day, huh?

I couldn't sleep a wink at night, to be honest.

But as you asked, I did some more work on the establishing shots

and changed the design of your dad's car.

I hope you like the sound I finally mixed for Chuck Huntington.

Almost fifteen years in the wilderness

and he ended up returning to his hometown

to do this radio interview just before his death.

It's still on the web.

I ended up using it to create his accent, his tone of voice, basically everything.

I think it's pretty good now.

Although I've never had the courage

I've never had the opportunity to admit how much I admire your

determination.

[machines whirring]

And if it doesn't work out today, it'll work out somewhere else.

People must know what happened.

You got this.

This is what we've all been waiting for.

All those years you put in led you to this.

So go get 'em.

And let me know when you have any news.

Bye, Lily.

[machine droning]

[keyboard clicking]

- [computer] Good morning, Lily!

In ten minutes, there is an online meeting with the CEO of Memory Games,

Mr. Harald Torenbeek.

- [Harald] I cannot tell you how happy I am that you devote some of your time to us.

- That's very kind of you.

- Look!

I'm quite sure that I Hear the Trees Whispering will change

how we look at video games and the digital world.

It's...

brave,

pioneering

and moving.

The first simulator based on real memories.

It's fabulous.

- I've spent a lot of time and energy on it, sir.

- In what stage is it now?

- Around 95%.

I haven't decided the ending yet.

The story can go in eighteen directions, depending on the decisions of the player,

But all of them lead to the same outcome.

To the truth I always wanted to know.

The truth about my father.

Around twenty years ago, he made mistakes.

When I learned that, after the accident,

my grandfather scanned my father's memories in at the hospital

using a new procedure,

I knew that that's the only way to find out why it all happened.

The institution stored the samples for twenty years,

and then, as the only relative, I was able to receive them.

I even built a new machine that helps me to amplify my father's memories

to make them easier to put into the game.

- What happened to your father?

- There was a good chance he would never wake up.

But after three weeks he was out of the hospital.

He changed after that.

At first he was still telling me stories, he was playing with me

but these...

faded away.

There were days when he just sat and stared out through the window.

Later I learned that overnight he simply turned himself into the police saying

that he killed the son of the man

who killed my mother.

- You refer to this in the game.

- Ninety percent of the game was written by my father's memories.

When he was young he wanted to be a forester, hence the place for the game.

I made June's voice based on some archived recordings of my mother,

only deepened it a bit.

I wanted to know what happened, so I manipulated the whole thing

to make it seem as real as possible.

- How many times did the outcome of the game turn out like that?

- Every time.

He did it.

- What happened since then?

- He was sentenced to twelve years in prison.

My grandfather traveled across the world a few times to talk to him

until it was my father who finally turned him away forever.

I was hoping that this would end once.

That he would come, knock on my door,

I invite him in and he tells me everything.

But I've never seen him again.

After he was released, he disappeared from the eyes of the world.

- Actually...

you would have liked to have your father back.

Is that right?

- I would like him to know that I forgave him.

With this I can tell the whole world that I understand why he did that.

I've been a game developer all my life, that's the only thing I'm good at.

That world is comfortable for me, I'm terrified of this one,

but the world needs to know that

he's not a bad person and he never was.

[tragic music]

Because he is...

he is my father.

- [Harald] I hope this message will reach many people.

Especially one person.

[birds chirping]

[leaves rustling]

- Hey, Dad.

[melancholic music]

[leaves rustling]