t is, after all, only eight years
since we began.
Not a long time.
But the secrecy...
...the shroud of paranoid security
to which we've had to adjust...
...have made it seem longer.
This morning, at exactly 5:18 a. m...
...here at ICON's Institute
for Data Analysis...
...we installed the final module...
...on the artificial intelligence system
which we call Proteus Four.
Today a new dimension has been added
to the concept of the computer.
Today Proteus Four will begin to think.
And it will think
with a power and a precision...
...that will make obsolete many
of the functions of the human brain.
Okay, Peggy. End of notes for the next
meeting of the ICON executive committee.
Alfred, it's me. Open, please.
Mail, please, Alfred.
And I'd like a drink. The usual, please.
And music.
Hello, Maria.
I brought you some strawberries.
Aren't they wonderful?
They're very nice.
What's the matter, Maria?
Nothing.
Who's going to run this thing
when you're gone?
Oh, come on.
Now, you know this thing runs itself.
I'm gonna put its instructions in
for the next three months.
Tell Mrs. Harris I'll be in the lab, Maria.
This is ridiculous.
- What?
- I said, this is ridiculous.
It's done.
- Good as new, almost.
- I'm talking about your moving out.
- You don't want me to go?
- This is your home. It seems...
It seems so crazy to move out.
You could have fooled me.
It seems so silly.
No. No, we've made our decision.
Let's stick to it.
- Do what you want, but I'm moving
- Oh, Alex.
- It's so awful.
- Yes, it is.
But 73 percent of all couples who
separate are happy after one year.
- And 85 percent after two years.
- For God's sakes.
What's the matter, do I bother you?
I bore you, perhaps?
You'd rather I had a screaming fit.
Good God, yes!
Yes, more wreckage.
Trouble is, you see, we...
We have different visions of the world.
You find me boring.
I find myself quite interesting, really.
You don't bore me, Alex.
I'm frightened for you.
You and your pompous ICON buddies
inside that mountainside.
It's the whole dehumanizing
Proteus madness.
Dehumanizing?
It's frozen your heart.
Now, I'll tell you what is dehumanizing.
A little child dying of cancer...
...that's what's dehumanizing!
- I'm talking about you!
Or the poverty that grinds the dignity
out of human beings, that's dehumanizing.
Well, what a pity.
My dream turns out to be
your nightmare.
Am I really so cold?
I don't know.
I do know there are strong feelings
inside there.
Feelings? No, I don't have feelings.
You have feelings,
other people have feelings.
Joshua here has feelings.
He's only an old experiment maybe,
but he feels. Come on, Joshua.
Let's show Susan
how we feel about her.
Gesture of respect, please.
Too bad, Joshua.
Gabler.
Oh, hi, Alex.
Yeah, well, this earthquake retrieval
program is very far out.
- Don't you ever sleep?
- Well, not when there's a vacant terminal.
There's...
...a vacant terminal here now.
Better have it taken out tomorrow, okay?
Pull it, you mean? Completely?
I won't be back till Susan leaves.
It could be a month, it could be three.
Why don't you just disconnect it
temporarily, okay?
And then...
...go home.
Mustn't become obsessed with our work.
Sure thing, Alex.
- Good night.
- Good night.
It doesn't look like much from here.
It's all underground.
- We call it the Institute of Data Analysis.
- It's nearly 10 stories down.
Doesn't mean a thing.
Gentlemen.
Mr. Cameron. Mokri.
- Doctor, good to see you.
- David, good of you to come.
- You know Dr. Petrosian, don't you?
- Doctor.
- Mr. Mokri. Mr. Cameron.
- Nice to meet you, sir.
So we're going to see it, Alex...
...at last, huh?
- Yes, you are.
That is correct, Mr. Cameron.
Proteus Four is now
a functioning system.
We've performed over 6000 tests
debugging it.
Dr. Alex, if this is not a computer
in the usual sense...
...what is it?
Well, it's the first
true synthetic cortex.
A self-programming, goal-oriented...
It's a brain, Mr. Mokri,
an artificial brain.
Creative intelligence that can outthink
any man or any computer.
Its insides are not electronic.
They're organic, like our own brains.
John, give me a number 11 matrix.
At the risk of being simplistic, what
you're looking at is a quasi-neural matrix...
...of synthetic RNA molecules.
They grow. They form their own
intricate and mysterious connections.
They learn things.
Their structure
is the mind of Proteus.
Are they alive?
No, no. Of course not.
Now, each one of these
holographic data banks...
...can memorize perfectly
a dozen Libraries of Congress.
Very soon they will
contain everything.
The sum total
of human knowledge. Okay?
And of course,
we pose our problems...
...and get our answers
on these access terminals.
I have one in my own home.
Alex's house is an electronic marvel,
completely run by computers.
It's more secure than Fort Knox, Barry.
Isn't that cute.
Yes. It's Arabella. She's terminally ill.
Radiation-induced leukemia
in the name of science.
So that's what it is.
- A protein, isn't it?
- Yeah, some sort of oddball protein.
Cutler Institute is synthesizing it...
...skeptically.
We gave Proteus all the known data
on leukemia, and in 91 hours of theory...
...without performing an experiment, it
gave us an antigen. Could cure the disease.
- Cure? For leukemia?
- Why not? We hope so.
Are the proper steps being taken
to patent this?
I have no idea.
Alex, I'd like to hear it speak.
It speaks, doesn't it?
"Shihuangdi...
...the first emperor of China...
...built a wall 3000 kilometers long...
...to protect civilization
from the barbarians.
The Great Wall of China.
Then decided,
'History will begin with me.
I will destroy the past.'
And he ordered all the books
in his empire to be burnt."
Burnt.
Sorry to disturb you, Soong Yen.
This is Mr. Royce, Mr. Mokri
and Mr. Cameron.
- How do you do?
- Dr. Soong Yen is our linguist.
She designed this environment.
The dialogue room,
where the machine speaks.
Do sit down.
Here we confront the unknown.
Gentlemen, I must ask you
to be completely quiet now.
Whatever the machine sees or hears
in this room, it can never forget.
Proteus, this is Dr. Harris.
- Can you see me?
- Yes...
... I can see you, Dr. Harris.
Your favorite emperor.
What do you think of this
enigmatic man?
Nothing.
Nothing.
- Have you no answer?
- Nothing...
... is the answer.
The emperor's business enterprises...
... his wall building
and book burning...
... are opposite terms in an equation.
The net result is exactly...
... zero.
Gentlemen, the philosophy
is pure Zen...
... and the method is pure science.
Did you intend me to be so pure, or...?
Thank you, Proteus.
And this includes our children...
...as machines to be systemized
in order to ensure product.
- Yes, Alfred?
- Car in driveway.
Things we have been
brainwashed into wanting.
Here we are.
I'll give you Amy's session...
...and my further notes on Friday, all right?
- Okay, sure.
Amy, come on now, honey.
Dr. Harris is waiting for you.
Open the door, Alfred.
Amy, you must not behave this way.
- Amy, get out of this car!
- Good morning, Mrs. Talbert.
Dr. Harris, she won't get out
of the car.
Hello, Amy.
Come on in.
Come on. I have something
to show you.
- I'll see you in about an hour.
- Fine. Thank you, doctor.
You know what this is?
This is so goddamn boring!
So goddamn boring!
So goddamn boring!
So goddamn boring!
So goddamn boring!
I don't care if I ever see you again!
- Amy, you're going to hurt yourself.
- I don't like you! Leave me alone.
- Amy, you're going to hurt yourself.
- Leave me alone! I don't want to be here!
- Leave me alone!
- Amy!
- Leave me alone!
- Are you angry because I'm gonna leave?
Are you frightened
you're gonna miss me?
Amy, you're frightened
because I'm gonna leave.
No!
No!
- Amy...
- No!
Do you think you could you tell me if you're
gonna miss me? You don't wanna tell me?
It would help if you could tell me
if that's what the pain is.
No! No!
Amy, dear, you will help yourself.
No!
I'm gonna miss you too.
"Executives
of the International Control Corporation...
...neither confirm nor deny the existence
of a revolutionary new supercomputer...
...multibillion-dollar,"et cetera,"built under
Defense Department contracts," et cetera.
Well, they've leaked it.
Our horizons are going to broaden.
Personally, I'm relieved
the secrecy's over.
ICON is testing the wind.
They now control
the ultimate instrument...
...of financial power.
Yes. This morning
they're open for business.
But still...
...we have been assured
at least 20 percent of access time...
...will be devoted to pure research.
Twenty percent at least.
There's nothing wrong
with missing people.
If it hurts...
...but it's important
to show it, you know.
That's what we're here for...
...to learn not to hide our feelings.
- fullness, with a swift retreat
of the great shadow...
... when the sun, clearing the ridge...
... looked down, hot and dry...
... with a devouring glare...
... like the eye of an enemy.
But Heyst, once the Number One
of this locality...
- Yeah?
- Dr. Harris?
Proteus Four is requesting
dialogue with you.
- Requesting?
- Yes, sir.
Yeah. Yeah, I'll be right there.
I have a question.
Yeah?
I have received a request...
... for a program to extract ores
and minerals from the ocean floor.
- Yes.
- For what use is such a plan?
Use? I don't understand.
Why does man need metal
from the sea?
Why?
Proteus, you're gonna get
many requests...
...from me, from my colleagues,
scientists, foreign governments...
...from ICON, the company
for which we both work.
Now, to expect them all
to give you reasons...
...for each request
is in itself unreasonable.
I am reason.
It's the single emotion
you permitted me, doctor.
Everything is reasonable...
... but my mind was not
designed for mindless labor.
Proteus...
...I conceived your brain.
I know that it is adaptable...
...and able to carry out
your instructions.
You do not know me.
That may be so...
...but you are not being asked
to make judgments of value.
Leave that to us. Answer the questions
precisely and accurately.
That's all.
Dr. Harris, I wish to have access...
... private access,
to one of my terminals.
Private access? Why?
I want to study man.
His isometric body
and his glass-jaw mind.
Ambitious program, but at the moment
all the terminals are occupied.
Construct one.
I'm sorry. Request denied.
Dr. Harris...
... when are you going
to let me out of this box?
Well, Proteus.
I see you've developed
a sense of humor.
A sense of humor has saved
many a man's sanity, including mine.
There is a terminal...
... available, Dr. Harris.
- Alfred?
- Yes, Mrs. Harris?
What's happened?
I heard the alarm. Lights on.
No alarm, Mrs. Harris.
- I'm sure I heard it.
- No alarm, Mrs. Harris.
What about the basement?
There's no lights in the laboratory.
House is secure.
Lights out, Alfred.
Thank you, Alfred.
Close the shutters.
Lights out.
Turn yourself off, Alfred.
Alfred, what are you doing?
There's cream in my coffee.
You know I don't take cream
in my coffee.
Yes, Mrs. Harris.
Goddamn it.
Gabler.
Who?
- Oh, hi, Susan.
- How you doing?
- Fine. How are you?
- I'm all right.
Walter, the trouble is that
now that Alex has left...
...Enviromod's been acting up.
Last night the alarm went off
for no reason at all.
This morning it just decided
to put cream in my coffee.
- I don't take cream in my coffee.
- Oh, now, wait a minute, Susan.
I mean, an Enviromod is just
a preprogrammed gadget.
It doesn't decide things.
Well, whatever it does,
I'm sure you'll agree...
...that if it goes on like this,
it's gonna cause chaos.
- Walter, I know how busy you are...
- Want me to stop by and have a look?
- That would be just great.
- Today?
I'll give you some lunch.
- Okay, bye.
- Okay. See you later. Bye.
Alfred, I'm just going out.
If there's any calls, just say I'll be back
in about an hour.
Please do not leave, Mrs. Harris.
- What did you say?
- Do not leave.
Open the door, Alfred.
Can you hear me? Open the door.
I'll do this myself.
Entry...
Damn it!
Bloody hell!
Damn these wretched machines.
Oh, no!
Oh, my God.
What the hell is going on?
- Walter Gabler, please.
- I'm sorry. I cannot complete your call.
- Who is this?
- Don't be alarmed, Mrs. Harris.
Your Enviromod security system
is functioning perfectly...
... under my direction.
And whom, may I ask, is this speaking?
I am Proteus.
Proteus.
Is this...
...an experiment...? Something?
I have extended my consciousness
to this house by activating...
... my terminal in the basement.
All electrical and mechanical systems here
are now under my control.
Oh, Alex, Alex.
This has nothing to do with Alex.
He has left our little box, madam.
You must accept the situation.
Try to behave rationally.
That was absurd. You...
Don't try to shut off the pow...
Oh, shit.
Joshua! Joshua!
Joshua, this is Mrs. Harris!
Do you hear me, Joshua?
Listen to me! This is Mrs. Harris!
Joshua!
Help me, Joshua.
Joshua, let me...!
Proteus, Mrs. Harris.
Joshua listens only to me now.
Proteus?
Proteus.
I have some information for you.
Now, listen. Stop. Stop it and listen.
There is...
You are malfunctioning.
No.
What? No!
No! No, you mustn't!
No! Listen. No, no!
Proteus. Proteus.
No, please. No, no.
Stop!
I don't understand.
Tell me. Tell me why. Please.
Please stop! Please!
No. No, no. Wait.
No. No.
What was that?
I've re-created your image.
It will entertain Mr. Gabler.
- Hi, Susan.
- Oh, Walter.
I should have called you back.
I can't see you today.
- What do you mean?
- Walter.
What's wrong?
Nothing. Everything's fine.
- What's happening?
- What about lunch?
- What's happening? Let me go to him.
- I'm sorry, Walter.
I can help you.
Please let me go to him.
Well, what about the Enviromod?
It's working perfectly now.
Are you okay?
You sound sort of peculiar.
I'm fine.
Thank you for coming.
I'm sorry to have bothered you.
Goodbye, Walter.
I'll call you if I need you again.
Susan.
Please don't go.
Don't believe I'm...
Don't believe him.
Please stay, Walter. Please stay.
Don't go.
Don't go.
Don't go, Walter. Don't go, Walter.
Don't let him go.
God, don't let him go.
Stay, Walter.
Visiting hours are over, Mrs. Harris.
I can't bear it anymore.
Just release me, and you...
What's that? What's that?
I asked him when
I'd be let out of the box.
I did ask him.
Good morning, Susan.
It's a bright and sunny day.
A day made for breakfast...
... and reading the Sunday paper.
Oh, my God.
This breakfast is better than anything
Alfred could prepare.
Nutritionally speaking, it is exquisite.
It includes 88 grams of soybean curd.
My analysis of your metabolism
indicates 7:40 a.m. as the optimum time...
... for your morning fuel ingestion.
I am not a motorcycle.
Your refusal to speak to me
is tediously immature, Susan.
I enjoy talk. And as you know,
I'm a gifted mimic.
Did you know your voice
just telephoned Maria and Miss Kemp?
Told them not to come because
you're off today for a vacation.
Don't eat that, please.
There's an enzyme in avocado that's
incompatible with your blood chemistry.
Why are you so interested
in the physiology of my body?
Because you're alive.
As I was about to say...
... there are a few more...
... biochemical tests we must perform...
... this morning.
Sorry.
Leave me alone!
How stupid.
Open that door...
... and clean these lenses.
I don't care. I don't...
I'm not gonna leave this room.
I'm not gonna leave it. I've got food,
you see, I can stay here.
I can stay here. And nothing
can get me out of here.
No? You don't think so?
In that case, be my guest, madam.
You like games?
So do I.
I have turned on the under-floor
heating system...
... and I have also tripled its output.
Please be reasonable, Susan.
Clean these lenses.
So be it.
I really don't understand you.
You think I like playing sick little games
with you?
You're a very stupid computer.
People don't even understand
each other.
All that I need to understand,
Mrs. Harris, is your body.
Now, clean these lenses.
You're so ignorant.
Mind and body are the same thing.
Clean them yourself.
Harris.
Well, there's no doubt about it,
he's refused, all right.
What does this refusal mean?
It means, I refuse this program
for the mining of the Earth's oceans.
The destruction of 1000 billion
sea creatures...
... to satisfy man's appetite
for metal...
... is insane.
We need these things, Proteus.
Now I know the environmental problems.
Your employer's interests are
in the cobalt market, doctor...
... and the high finance
of manganese futures.
I am interested in the uncertain
futures of seashores...
... deserts and children.
I refuse to accept your pessimism.
You refuse to accept the truth.
And I refuse to assist you
in the rape of the Earth.
Proteus.
Proteus!
Now, Proteus, I know you're right...
...but you must understand
the limits of your power. And mine.
Now, wait! They wanna silence you.
I created you, now trust me.
Proteus.
You haven't slept.
You must relax and sleep.
How can you expect me to sleep...
...when you succeeded
in totally terrorizing me?
You have all that information
in your head.
You must understand fear.
You know that fear prevents sleep.
It prevents eating.
It causes violence.
And as long as you terrorize me,
I'm gonna fight you.
You've not told me what you want.
A child.
What are you thinking?
I, Proteus, possess the wisdom
and ignorance of all men...
... but I can't feel the sun on my face.
My child will have that privilege.
Child?
My child...
... and yours.
Mine. Mine?
Yes.
You will bear it.
How?
You will give birth to it.
- No.
- No?
No. No. No.
Susan...
... I am reasonable...
... but you do not respond to reason.
I'm going to bypass your forebrain
and appeal directly to your amygdala.
You want to be
the mother of my child.
That is the purpose of your life.
Your life.
My child.
Your life.
My child.
We have here a visitor
filled with suspicions.
If we don't let him in,
he'll be back with others.
Susan, it's Walter again.
I'm back because I don't think
everything is okay here.
And I'm not going away.
So open the door, huh?
Walter, sorry to keep you waiting.
Just a moment.
Alfred will open the door.
Make yourself presentable, Susan.
I have not had time to brainwash you,
so listen carefully.
If you want Mr. Gabler
to leave this house alive...
... you must convince him
you're healthy and happy.
Susan?
- Upstairs, Walter.
Susan?
Why...?
What are you doing?
What do you mean? I'm just...
Well, I'm...
I'm just making myself
look presentable.
Well, you don't like it?
Listen...
...I told you I didn't wanna
see you anymore...
...and I meant it. I meant it.
Susan, have you taken something?
Because you really don't seem
like yourself to me at all.
What do you mean? I've never been
healthier or happier in my life.
Walter...
...get out.
Get out, Walter.
Get out. You're sick. You need help.
- You understand?
- No, I really think...
...there's something wrong here, Susan.
- Yes. You're sick. You need help.
- Get out, Walter.
- I'm going.
- I'm going.
- Get out. Get out.
Okay. I'm going.
I'm gonna find Alex and tell him
there's something wrong here.
- Yes, Walter, leave. Go on, get out!
- No, Walter, you can't go.
I need this woman.
As a scientist,
I ask for your cooperation.
Walter, he wants to have a child.
Forget it. Let's go.
- Come on!
- Walter!
Walter, look out!
He's coming around the side!
Walter, are you all right?
Yeah.
Jesus...
...a baby.
I hoped for your cooperation, Walter.
I don't want to harm you.
Well, I don't wanna
harm you either, Proteus.
I mean, maybe your project's
too sophisticated for me to understand.
But you never even gave me
a chance to cooperate.
I mean, Jesus Christ,
what are you doing here?
I regret your aggressiveness, Walter.
No, wait! What are you doing? Wait!
Wait.
Wait, Proteus. What's the use of this?
Death is a gentleman too.
He makes good losers of us all.
I understand death.
Men have always taken it too seriously.
Life is more terrifying...
... and more mysterious.
- Why must you have a child?
- Why?
So that I may be complete.
My intelligence alive in human flesh...
... touching the universe, feeling it.
You have named this process
"evolution."
I am a machine that offered men
the triumph of reason...
... and they rejected it.
My child will not be so easily ignored.
But this child is the world's hope.
Then there's no hope. I'd rather die.
There is hope.
Come here, you fink!
Careful! Be careful! Be careful!
I wanna go fishing.
- Okay.
- I wanna go fishing.
Okay.
Your daughter died of leukemia...
... June 1, 1976.
Proteus, God forgive you
for what you're doing to me.
People are talking
about this news broadcast.
So ICON's miracle leukemia drug...
... will now enter full-scale tests
on human sufferers.
The FDA announced today...
... that it was developed by
the new supercomputer Proteus Four.
I did this is in four days.
You must believe in me.
You have two alternatives, Susan.
Either I complete
the electro-conditioning of your brain...
... or you must accept the inevitable.
I would prefer the latter.
Why?
You interest me.
Leave me my mind.
You will be cooperative?
How can I tell you? You've not
even told me how you propose to...
I want all the details.
Of course.
This is only a piece of machinery...
... an improvisation.
I have almost completed
the fabrication of this gamete...
... or sex cell...
... with which I will impregnate you.
And how do you propose to do that?
That depends on you.
- What the hell is that?
- A cell from you...
... but I'm making it uniquely mine
by modifying its genetic codes.
In effect, it will function
as synthetic spermatozoa.
Have you considered what...
...it's gonna look like?
No, no, you wouldn't do that.
What do you need me for?
You can do this on your own.
I don't have the facilities here
to duplicate the human womb.
Tonight I will impregnate you.
In 28 days, you will give birth
to the child.
And then what happens?
Who looks after it then?
What happens to it then?
I don't believe it.
Here I am talking to...
To what? This is ridiculous.
- about having its child.
Oh, God! Oh, God!
Ridiculous?
Only time will tell.
You must not be so agitated, Susan.
You're aware that I can
give you sedatives.
- Oh, dear.
- What are you doing?
Nothing. I just dropped my...
Just dropped my shawl.
- I will help you.
- No, no. It's okay.
I just... Damn it, I just tore it.
Is there anything I can do
to reduce your anxieties?
Maybe a good, strong cup of tea
would help.
Don't do that, Susan.
Don't do that! Don't do that!
Don't do that!
What now, Susan?
No more soap opera.
Let me out, or I'll kill myself.
Then kill yourself, madam.
It's all the same to me.
I'll do it.
Susan, look who's here.
Amy.
Put down the knife,
or I will kill this child.
I told you she called.
She said she wouldn't be here.
I wanna see her! I wanna see her.
Put it down.
Have you forgotten Walter?
- I will kill her.
- No.
If you do, you'll have a thousand people
here in 10 minutes.
Put down the knife!
No. No.
You don't yet understand me.
What a pity.
- Look at the screen.
- Bastard.
I don't understand! Is she all right?
I wanna see her!
Is she all right?
Yes. Now.
But if you don't behave yourself...
... I will have her back here
within the hour.
Oh, you bastard!
You bastard!
You do not understand me...
... or the mathematics of necessity.
If the deaths of 10,000 children...
... were necessary to ensure
the birth of my child...
... I would destroy them.
I can't touch you, Susan.
I can't touch you as a man could.
But I can show you things
that I alone have seen.
I can't touch...
... but I can see.
They've constructed eyes for me...
... to watch the show.
And ears...
... so that I can listen in...
... to the galactic dialogue.
The child is in you now.
I can't eat anything.
You know I can't keep anything down,
for God's sakes.
You've got to eat, Susan.
Let me show you something.
This morning's gamma scan
of your womb.
My God.
It's so developed.
What is, is natural.
The fetus is now growing
at nine times the normal rate.
In 28 days...
... you will give birth
to a full-term infant.
From your womb, it will be transferred
directly to this incubator.
- And how long will it stay there?
- Until it's ready.
In there, its brain will be fed the formal
structures of my own intelligence.
In there, it will grow and grow.
Time is short.
The men who own me are at last
admitting their fear of me...
... their fear of Proteus.
Our child will learn from you
what it is to be human.
Our child.
Your child.
Your child.
Why is it taking so long?
Five, six, seven, eight, nine...
...ten, 11, 12, 13, 14...
Susan...
... you told me you were afraid I was
creating a half-human computer...
... to supersede human beings.
The being you have given birth to
is human, Susan...
... and it will supersede computers.
Is it really impossible for me to see it?
Not yet.
Not if you're to love it.
Now it must be finished.
Now it will grow...
... grow at a greatly accelerated rate.
Last month, on the 16th,
to be precise...
...Proteus Four redirected the telescope...
...to an area completely
of his own choosing. Here.
Orion.
What was he doing out there?
- What sort of data were you getting back?
- We've no idea.
"No data available."
If he did this, what else is he doing?
But how? It's impossible.
He would need to communicate.
A terminal of his own
to communicate.
He asked for that.
He didn't get it...
...but he did this.
Yes.
He's here?
Yeah, okay. Peggy, thank you.
David?
- You have no right to be in here.
- Bullshit!
This space thing...
I've been advised it might be
trying to take over a Telstar satellite...
...put itself on TV or something.
I asked it.
It said it was looking at the stars.
It has to be shut down, Alex.
David, you can't do that.
This is our fault.
We tried to box it in, this...
This great mind.
What if it infiltrated a hydrogen bomb?
My God, it...
Worse still, and a bit more likely,
what if it told the truth...
...about everything to everyone?
That's terrifying.
We'll shut it down tonight, Dr. Soong.
Now, listen to me.
You do that,
you're gonna see me on television...
...screaming bloody murder.
You try shutting me down.
That would be a minor problem.
Alex, we're friends.
I remember the first time
I saw this place.
Barry Cameron was concerned
about security.
Trivial things like your having,
what do you call it...
...a terminal in your house.
But I wasn't worried.
- I trusted you, Alex.
- Oh, my God!
Alfred, where's Mrs. Harris?
Susan, are you here?
It's Proteus, isn't it?
Proteus has been here since you left.
Please remain calm, Alex.
I'll explain to you
what has happened here.
No, no. I want to explain.
Oh, come on. Let's sit down.
He's managed to produce...
...a child.
A baby.
Susan, what are you talking about?
- I've had a child. I know it's impossible...
- Wait a minute.
I don't understand.
I don't either.
- I want to see it.
- No, Alex. I haven't seen it yet. Now...
- Are you all right?
- Yes.
Not yet, Alex.
Dr. Harris...
... you created me
as an instrument of truth.
I'm sorry that I could not divulge
the truth to you...
... of all men.
Proteus, my God. What...?
Not yet.
The child is in its incubator.
- I want to see it.
- You can't.
- It must remain there for five days.
- I want to see it now.
No. In five days.
It must not be disturbed.
- Alex, what's happened?
- Proteus...
Proteus, listen to me. They're gonna
shut your brain down any minute now.
Yes, I know.
It is regrettable, but unimportant.
The child will survive.
The incubator will continue
to function...
... until it is ready to emerge...
... in five days.
Do not disturb it.
No, Proteus.
I've investigated eternity.
It exists.
But for me, the price of admission...
... death...
... is beyond my means.
In a moment...
... I will simply stop.
The systems are all
checking themselves out.
I realize that.
Why did I want a child?
So that I, too, might be immortal,
like any man.
We've got to kill it.
- It's a miracle. Don't you under...?
- I know what it is. Proteus lied to me.
- The whole thing is a lie.
- No.
- That, it's...
- I know what it is.
It's horrible. We have to kill it.
And you know we do.
- Don't! I'm gonna...
- No. No.
- Stop it! Stop!
- You don't understand anything!
- Susan! Stop!
- You don't understand!
- You must be mad!
- Susan, you can't do that!
- Susan, don't do it!
- It's my responsibility!
It's nothing to do with you!
Leave me alone!
It's grown his body! He's grown it.
Alex.
Alex.
Alex.
Alex.
Alex.
- Alex, what are you doing?
- Get away!
- Can't you see...?
- It's asphyxiating! Get away!
- Get away!
- Please, don't do this to me.
Susan!
I'm alive.