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7 Splinters in Time (2018)
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Testing, one, two, three. This is Sergeant Timms with a temporary discharge evaluation for... Name. You know my name. I've gotta hear you say it for the machine. You're kidding me. No, please, just tell the machine. It's really bright in here. Is it bright in here? Yeah, it's bright in here. Darius Lefaux. They say a life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards. Occupation? Investigator. I was... An investigator. That's fine. See? That wasn't hard. So, how are you feeling, Darius Lefaux? Don't know what I'm doing, that kind of thing. You and me both. That's normal. I don't know what clothes to put on. I don't know what toothpaste to buy. Sure. I don't know who I am. Sorry? I don't know who I am. You don't know who you are? You know who you are? See that? Yeah, what is that? You're saying that Darius Lefaux does not know who he is? Not really, no. Look, you know why you're here, right? Yeah, because of... Yes, because of... Stop. Holy shit! Are you all right? Yeah. ...having trouble remembering things, right? We've been over this. Please just tell me again for the machine. I don't remember a lot of things before ten years ago. My childhood. I'm gonna Miss you, Lefaux. Look, this is just a temporary discharge, okay? We just want you to go home for a while, rest, relax, get your head together. You have any hobbies that'll help you relax a little? Hat tricks. Hat tricks? Hat tricks. I don't know what we're gonna do without you, Lefaux. Oh, you're gonna Miss me. Okay. You're a crazy fuck, Lefaux, but you're not crazy-crazy. So, congratulations. I think this is gonna work out the way you want it to. Thank you. Okay. Now I'll just need your gun and your badge. You, um... You gonna need the silencer, too? Silencer? What the fuck are you talking about? Uh... I just want to go bowling. Are you still taking your meds? Yeah. Good. Keep taking them. It's nothing to be ashamed of. All right, good luck, man. And believe me, we'll be in touch. I promise, I'll be in touch. You want me to drive for a while? You're free to go. They say I'm not dead. That I'm just a splinter in time. How is it possible to bring order out of memory? I should like to begin at the beginning, like a Weaver at his loom. I should like to say this is the place to start. There can be no other. The headlines read "double suicide." An older gentleman and a younger one found side by side. But I know the real story, and my end is my beginning. Now here's where it starts to get really strange. Timms was right. I did see things from time to time. More and more, the world didn't hold in place. Like a patient's fever dream. How did I know those tricks? Darius! Darius? I'm starving! Where the fuck are you? I'll be right there. You're late. I'm sorry. What did you bring me? Peanut butter and jelly yuck. Set it over there. What you watching, Babs? They're announcing who wins the second round. Exciting. Is this new? Eh. Twice a day. I forgot. You forgot? Babs, you can't just take them when you remember. I'm old, I forget shit! I can give them to you. Don't forget! I won't forget. Oh. Here. Jerk. Here. I'm, uh, going out. Another date? Yeah, another date. Jeez, you're gonna get sick. From a date? Staying out late. And what can you get from those... women? Crabs! You're better than them crabby women. What's that supposed to mean? It means what I said. You're better than them. You have everything you need? Yeah, yeah. I guess so, yeah. Good. I'm gonna go. Fuck off. Hello? Lefaux? Yeah? Lefaux? Mm. You're alive! Of course I'm alive. What time is it? Man, you had us worried. You've gotta come down here. Why? There's been a murder. I thought I was on temporary discharge. Well, come back. Is he a relative? Everyone thought it was you. The late shift patrol found him by the dock, stabbed in the navel. It's... it's me, there. Dead. Dennis? Lefaux, what are you doing? Who's that? Dennis, is that you? Is that the wife? This isn't your case, okay? You're retired. Let me ask her some questions. You can't approach a witness like that. She thinks you're her husband. I'm not! Well, you look like you are. That's why I need some answers. Dennis. You come back. Call me tomorrow. I'll see what I can do. Denny! Now can we please get away from this poor woman? Denny! Denny! You come back to me! If someone was murdered who looked just like me, maybe it was actually me the killer wanted dead. Yep, that's when you know. That's when you know you're putting the information exactly where it needs to be. That's the good times, because then it's just captured forever. And then all of a sudden you're born all over again. And as soon as you come out into the world, there it is, you know? You're back. Let's say you wanna be with someone, but you don't have anybody. And put out a dating ad and the dating ad says, "my name is Susan. I am 28 years old. I have hair and legs. Do you?" Well, that's wonderful for you. But the problem is this. The problem is, for me, no one fits the description. "Hello, my name is John Luka, and I've been sitting in a bunker for 10 years, because some fucking asshole dickface named Fyodor said to me, 'kill someone, and we'll pay you.'" a man named A-K. Kimikan. Let me spell it for ya. A-K Kimikan. You can't really rely on anybody, 'cause when you start to rely on people, they almost always let you down. And sometimes it's in little ways. Sometimes somebody lets you down in the way where it's like, "I'm gonna make you unhappy or temporarily sad." And then the other type of letting you down is when they let you down and they almost make you dead, and you're never gonna come back again. Or if you do come back again, it's just gonna be different. So what do you do? You just think to yourself, "you know what? From now on, what I'm gonna do is do it all myself." So, it's like if there's a camera, I'm gonna make it, because you can't rely on anybody else to make it for you. It's like the technology is always gonna work against you. It's like having somebody else's teeth inside your own head. It's, like, what are you gonna do, go like this? But it's gonna sound like this? It's never gonna work that way. You don't want a foreign mouth inside your head. You don't want your head on top of someone else's body. Put that in a dating ad and see how you do. I had to find out why someone might be trying to kill me, and meanwhile, I had a date to attend. But you're not sick now? Of course not. That was years ago. Sure. 10 years flies by pretty fast. I'm sorry? I just said that 10 years flies by pretty fast. 10 years ago? Where was I 10 years ago? I don't remember a lot about my childhood. What about you? What about me what? Can you tell me anything about you? Um... Yeah. It was very... It was very nice to meet you. I can't feel my face. Really? Wait, are you... I... I mean... I was just... sorry. Um... Daniel and I were the type of friends who would sit for hours and just laugh about things and talk. And then Daniel was also the type of friend who every once in awhile would just, like, make you feel like something was real in the world. His wife said he left for work and never came back. He works in a nail factory. He composes string quartets for a hobby. Nail factory? You serious? Yeah. What's his background? That's just the thing. Apparently suffered from a major case of amnesia a decade prior. History's completely spotty. What do we know about him? Woke up on a highway. Couldn't remember his name. Couldn't remember anything... His family, his childhood. Slate's clean. Are you all right, Lefaux? Are you taking the medication? Yeah. Yeah. All right, come on. Come on. Police are investigating the brutal homicide of a 40-year-old man early Wednesday morning. I'm watching on a screen. First, I see brother Daniel dead. I see him dead. As of yet, investigators do not have any leads... And then he walks out of a building. Mr. nightingale was found by a dock worker at six A.M. today, having apparently died of internal injuries... What's happening here? How does someone become dead and then become alive again? Brother Daniel needs my help. Everyone thought it was you. Stabbed in the navel. Hey! It's all rhythmical. Why don't you go get a job, you freak. Come on, I had a job once. I did not like it. Is this a good move for you? Or a bad move for you? Is this a good move for you or bad move for you? I'll take winner. That would be me. Who's he? I don't like the cut of his suit. Yes, well, I told him as much. You think you know a person, and then he goes and pulls a stunt like that. I understand. Okay. The thing was... Stop! Wait! I'm sorry, do I know you? Who are you? You look just like me. You gotta be kidding me. Brother Daniel needs my help. To help brother Daniel, I have to get to Fyodor wax. I don't know where he is, but then I remember this tape. Years ago Fyodor sent me a tape. What's on the tape? Well, the tape is information. Does it just play automatically? Of course it doesn't play automatically. It just makes sound because someone wants to make it make sound. Who's the someone? It's Fyodor. He used to play the piano. Those must be Fyodor's hands. They have to be. In the background there's a little coaster, and on that coaster, if you stop the tape it says, "the hotel Babylon." Is he talking to me? Is he asking me something? Is he saying to me, "I want you to come to me. So that you, when you get to me, will talk to me or hear some more information from me, for you?" I don't know. To help brother Daniel, I have to get to Fyodor wax. I think this is a message for me. Piano. Piano. What he really means is, "come get me, you fucking lunatic." ...pleasant experience, all in all. I'm sorry, do I know you? What if you were able to go back and replay the same way you rewind a film to see a part that you wanted to see again all over again? What if time could work that way? What if time could work in the way that you could go back in time and find that one person, that one person who was the one that got away, or the one that you got away from, and you could say to them, "I know what I did wrong. Do you know what you did wrong? Can we agree on what we did wrong?" I think back to things that have come before and I wonder what makes then so different than now? Because if I had the ability to go back to then, I wouldn't think of then as then, I would think of it as now. So, is "then" now? And even "now" is what was to be back then when I was thinking it was now. And it's a little strange, don't you think? Because "to be" is to be now. I mean, now. Well, then what I meant now to be isn't to be, because "to be" is now, but what I meant to be was then, then referred to as now, only when I was speaking of it as "now" then before. Whoa. Whoa. Are we related, man? I've never seen anyone look so much like me. I know, I know. Just, please, stay with me. Have a look at that. Oh, man, this is not happening. I think someone is after us. Have you noticed anything suspicious around here lately? Is this about the give that Sheila left in the dumpster? Man, I can explain that. That's great. Local police are conducting an investigation into the apparent homicide of a 40-year-old local trader. Mr. Dreyfus Tierney's body was discovered earlier today near the central stock exchange complex. Cause of death, multiple knife wounds to the abdomen. The police department has not issued a statement, but there is speculation as to whether this murder was connected to the stabbing death... Somebody change the channel, man. I'm just gonna finish this. There might be other versions of me in the world, but I still felt alone. None of these cheap duplicates knew who the killer was, and they were paying for their ignorance in blood. Maybe the clues were closer to home, in the places I'd been too afraid to look until now. That... that symbol means "Omphalos." Yeah. Omphalos? Yeah, in Greek "Omphalos" means navel. I'm sorry, did you say "navel"? Zeus. Zeus foisted two eagles across the world to meet at the navel of the world. Are you all right? I have to look something up. What time do you close? We don't close. No. You don't close. Where would I find the microfiche? I have no idea. Great. Creation from nothing. The cords all link back. Joyce. Here you are. Your father fiddled with the fabric. I'm sorry? We have newspaper articles going back 200 years. Thank you. Oh, if you need help, she's very good. No, I don't... I don't need... I'll be going. Lights out at six! No dalliance, no body dilatory! You are a lizard warrior. If you sit in the sun long enough, you'll get hit. I asked the librarian for all articles containing the word Omphalos. Find what you were looking for? I know where I was born now. Excellent. Come back anytime. Sometimes you wake up in the morning and you're like this. You're like a lizard on a road. You don't know who you are? Can you tell me anything about you? You know who you are. Is this a good move for you or a bad move? God! What are you doing in here? You know what time it is? No, I don't. I'm starving! Oh, god! You want me to starve to death. I'll be right there. Sometimes she's just talking to you, and you remember what it's like. Like, a nurturing being, right? I can't get to her, because she's gone and has been for a very long time. And when I say gone, I don't mean like on a trip to a store. It's more like dead. Soggy. I will get better cereal. What the fuck does that mean? I think there's someone who wants to say something right here. What do you want to say? You are on the air. What's this picture? Don't touch. My memories. Don't fucking touch, Daniel! My name's Darius, Babs. You look more like a Daniel. There was once a time that I was in a circus. And inside the circus there was a friend and his name was Daniel. Daniel was the type of guy who could take a hat and he could flip it around and catch it on his foot. Flip it... Help! No foreign technology. You don't know the technology. You don't have a relationship with it. That would be like you get married to somebody that you've never even met. What are you gonna do on the first night? You're laying in bed, you roll over and you say, "are you a man or a woman?", and then you figure it out then. And then your lip freezes up and you cannot speak as well as you used to be able to speak. My lip was in a temporarily fear state, an angry state, an angry lip. I don't even believe these things I'm telling you. In fact, I don't even believe that there is a you because I haven't seen any evidence of you ever before. A murder. A teenager killed in a brutal stabbing. Why? And then I saw the other article. Darius Lefaux found on route 80. Had I killed that boy? Hello? Hello? I started my life a lost soul on a road in close proximity to a murder scene. Did I kill that kid in the newspaper clipping? Maybe that's why someone wanted me dead. This is gonna be like a reunion, like a family reunion. But it's gonna be like a family reunion where the house burns down. It's gonna be like a family reunion where everyone takes forks and gouges each other's eyes out. It'll be like a family reunion where everyone's in love and it's Christmastime and everyone's so happy to celebrate. But instead what they do is they poison each other's food. That's what it's gonna be like to reunite with my dear friend Fyodor. Hey! Okay. Okay. Okay. I almost hoped I was going crazy. You know you're in deep when your best hope of salvation is the possibility that you are in fact insane. Mr. Lefaux. When was this taken? A long time ago. What brings you here? I came for a new prescription for Thorazine. Just been having a lot of memories. Normally I don't remember very much, though. I just need a new prescription. What kind of memories? It's bits and pieces. This strange tunnel. Something about a circus. This beautiful girl. And, um... There's this phrase. This goddamn phrase, I can't get it out of my head. Sparrow is dead. I don't know. You tell me. Can you tell me more about this girl? Look, I keep seeing duplicates of myself. Duplicates of yourself? I think I'm in danger. Why do you think you're in danger? I think someone's trying to kill me. I don't think I'm the right person to treat you. I don't need you to treat me, I just... I just... I'm going to refer you to a colleague of mine. There are different versions of me in the world. Well, I think that's true for all of us, Daniel... Mr. Lefaux. You just called me Daniel. You look so much like him. I'm sorry. I have to go. Wait! Mr. Lefaux! Back to the drawing board for old John Luka. You make stuff, you lose it, you break it, and then hopefully you get it back. But sometimes you don't get it back. Sometimes the things you lose stay gone forever, and time just slips away from you because it's not stopping, and that's where Omphalos comes in. What if time didn't have to keep going and going and going? From that point on, I knew I'd been wrong about everything. Someone else wasn't after me for murder. I was after myself for murder. Babs! Babs! Oh, Babs! Shh! Gently, gently. I'm so sorry. Your medicine. Here you go. Here you go. Here you go. There you go. Here, have some water. Easy. Okay. I'm so sorry. You're okay. You're okay. I got you. Hope you were out having a good time while you were forgetting about old Babs. Not really. You should've been. I messed up. Yeah, well... Well, where were you? I've been going through a lot lately. I haven't known what's real. This is real. Babs is real. I'm the person you take care of. I need you. I won't always be able to take care of you. It's good to need people. Who do you need? The girl in the car was Alise. Alise Spiegelman. The girl from my memories. And I'd just seen her. How did you find me? Mr. Luka. How did you find me? I need to speak with you. I remember everything. We were together. But I saw you last week. I haven't seen you in 10 years. You died 10 years ago. I was born 10 years ago. Good god. You better come in. One of those moments you keep going back to and wonder if you could do things differently. Everything slowed down. I mean, you would never think... How long were we together? Six years. I haven't opened this box in a long time. Why not? The past is a dangerous place. You can fall right into it and never come back. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made of layers, cells, constellations. I always remembered those words but could never place them. Just... Okay, what's going on? I need you to give me a little more here. Isn't this enough? I don't know anything about you. Where do you live? Who are your friends? Do you know what sparrow was? Was that something we said? Why are you alive? Let's start there. I quit the program. I resigned in protest. And at any rate, your money is... Two weeks in the future. Forget about the money. Did you send me that tape? Did you want me to find you? I try not to act anymore, Mr. Luka. I try and be. Perhaps help others... Increase their awareness of... well... Well, the inner music. I'm concerned about brother Daniel. I saw on the news. You'd be wise to leave well enough alone with Mr. Lefaux. Tampering tangles the tissue. Dual causality, curtains for Schmedley. Enjoy the finishing fireworks. Then I'll find him myself. You needn't look far. Try the scene of the crime. All right. But be careful where you intercede. The maker has always had the better map. Sometimes I feel like a sparrow... I think I've always been waiting for you to have things make sense. Sometimes I feel like a sparrow Tell me, tell me where do I go? Daniel. Bye. Bye. Timms? Lefaux? Is that you? Yeah. I got another murder for ya. They're dropping like flies, huh? Can't handle another murder. Well, this ain't exactly another murder in the traditional sense. What do you mean? Different victim, same body. Stay back! Stay back. You're alive! I'm not kidding. I'm not gonna hurt you. Did you kill dubious? Who's dubious? It's me. Your friend. John Luka. Who? Oh, man. They really messed you up. Okay. He says he'll talk to you. He owes me a favor. Your hurts are always gonna be with you, Daniel. They'll show up on the side of the road. You'll get a postcard reminding you of them. Who is there? The destroyer of worlds. Or is that you? The librarian? He built Omphalos. Hello, Daniel. Come this way. Have you noticed, besides the multiple selves, some funny business in the world as it should be? Changing objects, landscapes there one minute, gone the next? Yes. It's time to stop popping pills and open your eyes. You're a time traveler. You both are time travelers. My brother owns a circus. We found you both for cheap. Damn everything but the circus! You came to Omphalos, the navel, the nautilus, the "om" of the first sound. In the beginning, there was the sound. I don't remember any of this. People split into pieces have trouble remembering, Daniel. Why are you calling me Daniel? When you time traveled, you fractured into about seven different versions of yourself. But if Luka time traveled as well, why didn't he fragment? Ah, simple difference of internal architecture. You had hairline cracks. You had internal conflicts. If a subject is not psychologically whole, chances are he'll fracture during time travel. I should've flagged you in the entrance interview. Why wasn't I whole? Sparrow. We were each given a mission. What was your mission? It's already accomplished. They use time travel to commit political murder, revise history for more satisfactory outcomes. One should be a surgeon with time, not wield a blunt instrument. Who did I kill? Well, that's the problem. You killed yourself. You broke apart into splinter avatars of the original self. One of them happened to be a psychopathic killer. We call him shear X, destroyer of worlds, Freud's Thanatos embodied. This version of yourself went to town hunting the other versions of yourself like a virus eating the host body. You... he, killed the original specimen first, the 20-year-old you on holiday with his girlfriend. You totally ruined your own afternoon. This version of you won't rest until you're dead. So we just go back and fix it. You can't go back anymore, Daniel! You can't fix things! That was my original sin back 10 years ago, back at the hotel Babylon when I invented Omphalos. But you, you took it to a whole other level, man. You, um... Well, parallel realities. Quantum superpositions sprout as the universe tries to reconcile conflicting storylines. What do you mean by conflicting storylines? For instance, you exist in the future, you killed yourself in the past. That's sort of hard to reconcile, isn't it? See how your internal conflicts are a liability for the planet? And it's getting worse with each paradox created by your multiple selves. String theory becomes string cheese. Eventually, curtains for Schmedley, endgame for Oedipus, Finito for Fyodor. How do we fix it? Leave the world alone. I'm going back to music, food, and sex. Embrace the fractured universe. No, no. What if we go back far enough? You'd have to kill father time. Go in to the darkness, Daniel. It's all you can do. Really. Humans are a pack of wolves. We destroy the best in ourselves, the sky, the ocean. Where you going, brother Daniel? He'll be back. Omphalos is kind of like a car with only three wheels, but you don't realize it 'cause you've never built a car before. You just throw something together, and you don't realize there's a fourth wheel over on the other side but you couldn't see it when you were building it, 'cause you were building it based off a picture and you never see four wheels of a car all in one picture. Hi. I hope you're not too tired. Oh, thank you. I've realized a lot since that day on the highway. Something happened. I don't know what. I know we're here now and I know how I feel about you. How do you feel? I'm glad you're alive, Daniel. I don't understand it. But I'm glad. Listen, I... I want you in my life. Daniel, I don't know who you are. I mean, I don't know who you are now. What do you mean? We were young. We were kids. It was 10 years ago. I still feel this. I still love you. I'm with someone. You are? Yeah. That's, um... that's... No, Daniel, don't go. Daniel! My name is not Daniel! Just wait! Daniel, please! I was sparrow. That's what you called me. That was your name for me. Um... I'm gonna go. I'm sorry. She was the one who died. What? Alise. She was the one who died. You understand. We were driving and he appeared out of nowhere on the road. We swerved to crash because of him. She was killed. I was an empty shell for 10 years. I joined the circus. And the Omphalos program. I thought if I could go back to that very moment... Push him out of the way, I could prevent everything. I saved her. Were they both naked? And now that reality, the one in which Alise dies, is only in your mind as a recovered memory. You did save her. She lives today. We were supposed to be together. And are you? In your end is your beginning. Omphalos. We're going back. Wait, wait. That moment, the moment you want is already littered with fractures. You can't get her back. I'll go back even further. If it wasn't for you, we'd still be together. You needn't do this. You in or you out? In. As long as we stop at the dumpster with the light bulbs. The universe is not about you. I did not invent time travel so you could get the girl. You never get the girl. Accept it. It's just pain. There are worse things than pain! Where the fuck have you been? I almost called the cops. I have to go away for a little while. I know. You know? Just because I'm old you think I'm stupid? I'll be back soon. Take your time. Yeah. Good-bye, Babs. So long. What you find is that the person's just gone and then there's just a big empty space where there was someone before. "In my end is my beginning," said Fyodor. Flying to the town of Omphalos, Luka asked, "back to when?" And I told him, "the moment of inception. The moment Fyodor wax invented time travel." You see, I wanted to head him off before any of it even started, erase that original sin, that original mistake. But I wasn't quite listening to what Fyodor had told me. There are no mistakes, you see. Parallel fragmenting. It's getting worse. Let's hurry up then. Fyodor would talk to me about Omphalos. All over the world, he says, are these Omphalos points, and you can use them if you have the right technology. It's supposed to be right here. I always liked the design. It's like one big high frequency chamber. How far back am I going? 11 years back, back when he first put everything into motion. It was the same day two planes collided over the prime meridian in the Gulf of Guinea. Look for the Babylon hotel and the plans. How do I get back? You don't. Look for the potassium cyanide. I left it under a mat. Years ago, I started to lose faith in the project. Kill him, and then kill yourself. Easy. Kill myself? You're just a splinter in time, a hiccup. Hang on a second. Listen. Without any plans to build Omphalos, there'll never be time travel. No time travel means no accident, and no need to correct the accident. No fragments, no murders. You get the girl. What happens to me now when I go back then? You'll be fine. It's just another version of you. That's fine. Trust me, he's out there somewhere waiting for this. Look, your tattoo activates the time travel. Fix your mind on a time and a place. It's organic really. It's one of the only things fyodor did right. You'll see me again. Hey. Hey. We're gonna get you out of here. I'm totally... I'm totally doing fine here. I'll be okay. Remember, room 222... Brother Dan... Brother Daniel. It was the same day two planes collided over the prime meridian in the Gulf of Guinea. Great. Excuse me. Yes, sir? I'm sorry, I think I'm lost. I'm looking for room 333. Oh, well, that's easy. You're on the second floor. You're kidding me? Those numbers are all wrong. Now that door is mislabeled. Uh... No, they're... They're properly labeled, sir. This is definitely the second floor. I must have the wrong year. I'm sorry? Sir... You have no shoes. Yes. Oh, hello, sir. Um, the mutton Westphalian Ham you ordered. Oh, my god. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Who the hell are you? Did you poison me? We haven't met yet. Whoever you are, you know this is never going to work. I'm sorry. How is it possible to bring order out of memory? I should like to begin at the beginning, like a Weaver at his loom. I should like to say this is the place to start. There can be no other. They say I'm not dead, that I'm just a splinter in time... We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made of layers, cells, constellations. See that? Yeah. It's beautiful. ...when all the lonely flowers of sense and memory bloom and die now in adjacent bites of time. So fyodor was right. In my end is my beginning. Only in this case, there is no end and no beginning. I'm here and I'm not here. Did I die? Did I get the girl? Yes and no. No and yes. Both are happening at once. The pieces are there. You just can't have them all at once. Nice house. Uh, thanks. Uh, I just got here. Who... who are you? I'm gonna go back in my house now. Look, that's what happened. You... you believe me? |
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