[mysterious music]
- [lively music]
- [cards whooshing]
- [tense dramatic music]
- [static droning]
[interrogator]
Day 42, session 72.
Start recording.
Vitals?
[technician]
Blood pressure 110 over 70.
Pulse 68.
Vitals normal.
[interrogator]
Dr. Kask, what did you see?
What did they show you?
Dr. Kask?
Dr. Kask?
How are you still alive?
[dramatic music continues]
[mysterious music]
[Annika VO]
How am I still alive?
We're a flawed species.
[Mother VO] Okay, are you ready
to meet your little sister?
[gentle music]
[Annika VO]
We're impossibly fragile.
[Toddler Annika]
Hi, Klara. Hi.
[Mother] Yeah.
Do you think
we should keep her?
Yeah.
[gentle music]
[soft blowing]
[Annika VO]
We're self destructive.
[laughing]
[gentle music continues]
[Annika VO] Superstitious.
Driven by fear.
[wondrous music]
[Annika VO] By love.
Barely able to survive
on our tiny blue rock,
let alone in the endless
black ocean of our universe.
[Klara] Top bunk! [giggling]
What's past the last planet?
Infinity.
Everything.
Anything.
Whoa.
Nothing ever lasts.
[Annika VO]
How am I still alive?
[giggling]
[wondrous music continues]
[Klara] We need to let it go.
It needs to breathe.
[wondrous music continues]
[Annika VO]
One day, we will die.
Hey, you okay?
[glass shattering]
[Young Annika] Mom?
Mom! Mom!
[Annika VO] We become dust.
Oh my God, what happened?
Klara! Klara!
[monitors beeping]
[Annika VO] And our dust
joins all the other
dust of the universe.
And everything we love...
[flat-line droning]
[Annika VO] Goes away.
- [flat-line droning]
- [soft dramatic music]
[Annika VO]
How am I still alive?
How are any of us?
[Sam] What if biological life
is just a stage?
What if we can evolve?
So our future as a species
is post-biological?
Our present is post-biological.
It took us six thousand years to
go from leeches to pacemakers.
But from pacemakers
to genetically modifying
human embryos,
it took just 60.
[moderator] Mm-hmm.
So this isn't the future.
The future is right now.
[moderator]
Let me ask you this though,
if our destiny
is post-biological,
is there other life
in the universe as well?
Oh, that's a stone cold
certainty.
[moderator] Okay, wait, wait.
Here's what I want to know.
Is there something
you know that we don't?
Look, people call me
a tech visionary.
That's just a bunch
of horseshit.
[crowd laughing]
I'm just a fellow that sees
what's right in front of him.
And it ain't no secret
that I made my first billion
from solar energy,
but I did not invent the sun.
I'm no visionary.
Visionaries see things
that no one else does,
and that's rare.
[moderator] Okay,
so who does Sam Houston
consider a visionary?
Well, you know what?
We have one right here
in this very room.
Annika Kask.
[Sam] Annika Kask,
would you please
raise your hand?
There she is.
The first person
to photograph dark matter.
[crowd applauding]
- [Sam] That's it.
- There you go.
Fantastic. Thank you.
- Well, you bet.
- Thank you so much.
Thanks for having me.
Appreciate it.
That was really great.
Nobody got hurt.
Oh, uh, excuse me.
Annika?
- Hi.
- Hey.
Big fan. Big fan.
Thank you. I'm flattered.
Well, uh, I have a confession
to make.
I didn't come here
just to do a TED Talk.
I want to offer you a job.
[Sam] You know, most people,
they look at the universe
and it's empty.
And you, with one image,
proved 'em all wrong.
How'd you do it?
Every time we'd try
and image it,
we'd get chaos.
Couldn't find
the right data set.
What was the right set?
[Annika] All of them.
At once.
Overlapping. Like 3D glasses.
Except instead
of just red and blue,
we overlap 233 data sets
to find order in the chaos.
And then you get that.
[Sam]
Well, that's the how, but...
why?
No one's ever asked me
that before.
I guess I just want to know
what's out there.
[Sam] You want to know
what's out there?
Why not down here?
It's a one-year contract.
Small lab on a remote island
in the Caribbean.
What lab?
[Sam] That's confidential.
You need scientists
to work on a secret project
on a remote island
in the Caribbean?
Let me tell you something.
There's more up there,
and down here.
Everywhere.
Aliens.
Look, Mr. Houston,
I appreciate the offer,
but I'm not the kind of
scientist who hunts for aliens.
[Sam] We're not hunting.
We're gathering.
And we need your discovery
to make sense of it.
Look,
you can forget
about your little green men,
fishing for radio waves,
and hunting for a needle
in a haystack,
because I'm here to tell you
that the whole haystack
is made out of needles.
We're not alone in the dark.
In fact, the darkness
has been our company all along.
You want to find out?
[wondrous music]
[wondrous music continues]
[Charlie]
I am an electronics engineer.
Charlie Kaminsky.
[Annika chuckling]
Sorry, it's just...
Charlie Kaminsky saying
he's an electronics engineer
is like Stephen Hawking
saying he teaches math.
[chuckles] Yeah, I'm the CTO
of Gateway Labs.
[Charilie] Sam hired me to check
some new toys he's building.
Now, where do you-
where do you work, Annika?
R.I.T.
You're Annika Kask?
Yeah, wow.
How did, uh,
how did Sam land you?
He promised me
we weren't hunting for aliens.
You?
He promised me we were.
Oh, wow.
[dramatic music]
[Solomon]
Welcome to the island.
Thank you.
Uh, how many people are
working out here right now?
Nine or ten.
Dr. Glassner
likes to keep it small.
Perry Glassner?
[Charlie] Wow. sh*t. Okay.
Yeah, super friends unite.
I like it.
[Solomon]
We'll see to your luggage.
Dr. Glassner is waiting for you
in the main facility.
Great.
Oh, um, I'll-I'll catch up.
Here, just be careful with--
Yeah, it's delicate.
- Thank you so much.
- No problem.
Thank you. Thank you.
Perfect. Oh, there we go.
You can take that one for me.
Thanks.
[tranquil music]
[wondrous music]
[Perry] What's this?
B12 methylphenidate.
Immuno-booster.
You shatter a bone and it heals,
but you bruise trust
and it's fatal.
[Perry] What's your purpose?
I'm Dr. Annika Kask.
Well, that's a chair
I can sit in
and that's a door
I can walk out of,
so what is your purpose?
Sam Houston sent me.
[Perry] Why would he do that?
I'm a computer scientist.
Oh, right.
That's a shame.
That's a shame.
I thought you might have the
salt to admit the truth,
that you've been sent here
by Sam to spy on me.
To be the bruise that kills me.
[Annika] Should I go?
No, no, no, no, no, no.
After all,
I might need an algorithm.
Oh, Dr. Glassner, hi,
I'm Charlie.
And I gotta tell you, man,
from one scientist to another--
Here we go.
They're f*cking multiplying.
I blew it. I... [sighs]
[Perry] As per your NDAs,
communications are monitored.
You will be watched.
[Charlie]
It feels like overkill.
Yes, it's completely
and utterly unnecessary.
I should be doing this work
on my own in my basement,
but Sam would never allow that
because this isn't really a lab.
It's a shrine
to a man's overwhelming hubris.
[Perry] See, most billionaires
buy yachts or football teams,
but he wants to buy ideas
or legacies to show the world
he's somehow changed
the course of human history.
So that's what you do here?
That's what we're about to do.
[computer voice]
Welcome to the Tuning Lab.
[Perry]
So you, you're up to speed?
That dark matter
algorithm you discovered,
you'll need to apply it here.
Is this what I think it is?
Does it work?
No. Yes.
And get the f*ck away from it.
- [Perry] Right. Where to begin?
- Sorry.
[Perry] Let's begin at
the beginning, uh, in darkness.
So let there be light
and heat and bacteria,
single-celled organisms.
Skip a few billion years.
Reptiles, monkeys, then us.
Apex predators.
Petty, ain't we?
Cruel.
Prone to self-destruction.
Hell bent on rage,
f*cking our habitat
out of existence.
So now we turn our eyes
away from Earth
in search of other worlds
to defile.
But there's a hitch.
Because Mr. Drake's equation
tells us that we're not alone.
The universe is too vast,
rich with resources,
likely swimming
with intelligent life.
Competition.
And most of that's
going to be millions,
if not billions
of years ahead of us.
So we come into this race
far, far behind.
Nevertheless,
we do start looking
with whatever crude tools
are available.
As you know, SETI,
the Search for Extraterrestrial
Intelligence,
has been scanning, uh, what?
Oh yeah, radio waves.
That still only covers, what,
one ten-millionth
of the night sky
using hilariously
outdated technology.
It's like taking a little bowl
of water out of the ocean
and peering in and concluding
that whales don't exist.
No, not radio.
That's not how
you'd communicate
if you're an interplanetary
intelligence, is it?
You want to talk across space
and time instantaneously.
So let's do this.
Take two photons,
pair them, keep one here,
send the other
light years away.
Force one photon
into a declared state,
and the other responds
in the very same moment
across space and time.
String a few billion
of those together,
and you've got
an FTL communicator.
No, but-but the quantum
communication can't work.
It breaks the laws of physics.
No, no, it bends the laws
that we know,
and that's not what this is.
[stammers] No, if you force
a quantum state change,
that breaks entanglement--
[Perry] This machine
does not force a state change!
It doesn't entangle
or disentangle.
It just hears
when someone has.
This simply listens.
It's impossible.
And yet here we have a machine
that does exactly that,
that I built six years ago
in my basement,
on my own on amphetamines.
So, take a look for yourself.
What do you want us to do?
Well, here's a hint.
You've already done it.
[Annika] It says he's scanning
the radius of a couple of feet.
Right here.
So if he's listening for aliens,
then it's...
He's doing it right here,
in this-in this room.
[Charlie] But-but what is it?
I mean, like these are just--
It's-- It's a ton
of data points.
[stutters] It's-it's-it's
like background noise
of anywhere in the universe.
There's no rhyme
or reason behind it. It's...
It's chaos.
[Charlie] Yeah.
[static droning]
Then we find order
in the chaos.
[static droning]
Sort by data sets.
Okay.
It's the same algorithm.
It's my algorithm.
Sort by exponents.
[Charlie] It's organizing.
Sort by primes.
What? W-what is this?
I can't believe this.
Overlay all.
[machine rhythmically humming]
It's-it's a signal.
[machine rhythmically humming]
[stuttering] They're talking.
[machine rhythmically humming]
Holy sh*t!
[machine rhythmically humming]
Dr. Glassner?
[machine rhythmically humming]
[Annika] Dr. Glassner!
[Charlie] [stuttering] He's only
scanning one little area.
But if it's quantum
communication,
then it-it's all around us.
Or there's another explanation.
Or another phenomenon
that we're not seeing, or--
Or, Annika,
it's f*ck-to-the-yes aliens.
- Dr. Glassner.
- [Charlie] I mean,
we've been looking
millions of light years away
for-for smoke signals,
but they were around us
the entire time.
It's...
[Annika] Is this real?
[Perry] You tell me.
You're here to check my math.
[Charlie] I mean, [stutters]
this means...
It means we're not alone,
we're not the centre
of the universe,
we're not special.
It means they don't know
anything about us,
or they don't give a f*ck.
[Charlie] What are they saying?
How could I possibly know?
We'd have to ask them with that.
What is that?
Littlemouth.
You're talking to them?
Not yet.
[stuttering] You actually...
you-you built a quantum
communication device.
Can we-can we talk back?
No. The hardware can't
replicate quantum signatures.
[Charlie] I can. I've already
done it in my lab.
[Perry] I highly doubt it,
but...
I suppose
we're gonna find out.
Okay, I need to...
Oh. Oh, wow.
Ah.
[mysterious music]
Good morning.
Go to the ant,
consider her ways,
and be wise.
Do you know that?
Hmm.
We learn a lot from ants.
[Perry] For example, we, uh,
we study them to, uh,
solve traffic problems.
All sorts of things.
I hear
your schooling's going well.
I guess so.
Good. Right.
[machine rhythmically humming]
[mysterious music]
[Annika sighing]
[mysterious music continues]
[Annika] It's real.
[Annika sighing]
Shh. Do you hear that?
Scared?
No.
[quietly] Yeah.
[Klara] Mom says there's no
such thing as monsters.
- [plunking]
- [high-pitched screech]
I'll go check it out.
No!
I can't lose you.
[Annika sighing]
[mysterious music continues]
[ominous music swells]
[Charlie]
So this is the transmitter.
[Annika]
You can't turn it on for him.
We don't know enough yet.
[Charlie] I don't know.
How else
are we going to find out?
You're not worried
what they may be capable of?
Are you inviting me
to speculate about aliens?
Because people
often regret that.
Yeah, I am.
- [Charlie] Yeah?
- Mm-hmm.
Okay. So, the coolest project
that I ever worked on,
called the Argus 2,
it's this bionic eye that,
like this machine
that could send microelectrodes
from the optic nerve
to the brain
and then, praise Jesus,
the blind doth see.
And just keeps getting better
and better and better.
They get the software update
every year,
and every two years,
a hardware update.
Have you ever seen
a three-year-old see
for the first time?
No?
It's-it's-it's everything.
Anyways, next year,
the Argus 5
is going to offer better vision
than the perfectly healthy
biological eye.
It's-it's crazy,
but why stop there?
What about all the spectrums of
light that we can't even see?
Ultraviolet spectrum,
the X-ray vision even,
or thermal, whatever.
That's just the beginning.
We start with the eyes,
and then we're going to move on
and [stutters]
improve limbs beyond nature,
improve livers beyond nature,
the heart beyond nature,
and eventually pass the Rubicon
to the brain.
We're going to take
all of our thoughts,
all of our reasoning,
all of our intelligence,
and we're going to put it
into a more durable container.
Could be cloud-based
or silicon chip,
something that's unbreakable,
that can exist inside
of a black hole on the,
on the tip of a pin
or in the spaces in between.
And that...
that is the end game
for h*m* sapiens.
And I think that this is
just another version of us
further down the road.
Okay, but what about pain?
Sorrow? Heartache?
Profound loss?
Regrets?
What about 'em?
Why-why would
eliminating that be bad?
Because they shape
who we are as people,
I think way more
than pleasures do.
I mean, so much of who I am
and what I value came from,
you know, painful experiences
that happened in my life that
I had to grow and learn from.
And change.
I get that,
but human suffering
as a whole, gone.
- Can you see it?
- Yes, I see that.
But I also see
a sterile intelligence
on a path
with no interruptions.
No purpose except to spread,
with no actual growth.
And that, to me,
is not evolution.
That is just an equation.
And as awesome as your
bionic eye sounds, Charlie,
I actually know a lot of those
patients have had them removed.
Some.
And some people are weird.
And some people value other
things in scientific perfection.
Some people accept
the parts of them
that other people
might see as imperfect.
Hmm.
So, we are our flaws?
And our mistakes.
[interrogator] Dr. Kask,
you saw
how unbalanced Glassner was.
You saw the threat he posed.
Why did you choose to stay?
To help.
[Annika]
First contact was possible.
Would you leave it
to an unbalanced nihilist
to handle the introduction?
[AI voice on computer]
This thought experiment
dictates that the female rabbits
always give birth to pairs.
And each pair consists
of one male and one female.
Rabbits can't reproduce until
they are at least one month old.
She says she's very bright.
[AI voice on computer]
At the end of the second month,
- the female...
- Lucky for her.
[AI voice on computer]
When month three rolls around,
the original pair of rabbits
produces yet another
pair of newborns
while their earlier
offspring grow to adulthood.
This leaves three
pairs of rabbits.
The order goes as follows:
1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21.
[wondrous music]
So, is Perry your husband?
No, I'm a doctor.
That's his daughter.
How long have you been here?
[Svea] I haven't left the island
in three years,
but it feels like 30.
I don't know
how you stay sane.
What makes you think I have?
Is he always so...
[Svea] Look, I'm not making
an excuse for him,
because there's-there's none.
He lost his wife
and son four years ago,
and it was bad.
He never really accepted
what happened.
What did happen?
Well,
there was a house fire.
[Svea] He was in his lab
in an outbuilding 50 feet away,
self medicated,
probably drunk.
Lucy? She was at a sleepover.
But his wife and son...
[computer voice] Welcome
to Littlemouth's signal room.
[Svea] Perry wasn't even aware
there was a fire
until the police woke him up.
[Annika] Is he dangerous?
[Svea] He knows humans
matter in theory,
but not in practice.
Just ask Lucy.
[pensive music]
- [helicopter droning]
- [pensive music continues]
[Charlie] Thank you.
Lucy, I want you
to watch this.
[Sam] This is a little piece
of forbidden magic
that I learned
in the bazaars of Morocco
from wise men who knew
how to turn steel into thin air.
So, I want you
to count to three,
then I want you
to blow on the napkin.
Okay. One, two, three.
[banging]
[giggling]
Wait, wait, wait. Let me see.
How'd you do that? Wait.
[Perry] Go to bed.
- Here, let me help.
- You got school in the morning.
- Go to bed.
- Thank you.
Good night, sweetheart.
Good night.
Good night, Lucy.
You didn't eat much.
I-I've never had goat before.
[Sam] Okay. First impressions?
[Charlie] Yeah, right.
Uh, well, I think
it's completely legit.
I mean, I've gone through
six months of his logs,
and every single time
I tried to find some
other explanation for it,
he'd already disproved it.
I mean, we're witnessing
actual alien chatter.
We need to report this.
What? To who?
The IAA has guidelines
on post-detection.
Do you want to have about
a dozen space agencies
with all the bureaucrats
down here
clusterfucking this thing
for the next decade?
[Charlie] I mean, Sam,
I totally get it,
and you're not wrong.
However, Annika has a point.
I mean, we're not
f*cking around anymore.
This is like a solid seven
on the RIO scale.
Oh, for Christ sakes, Charlie.
- You built quantum satellites.
- What?
I thought you of all people
would just want to run
with this thing.
I-I do.
Look, we discovered it.
It's ours.
[Charlie]
Come on, that's f*cked up.
I mean, what if-if
I discovered Pluto
I can just screw with it
any way I want to?
Billionaires, they've taken
over space exploration
because they have more
resources than entire nations.
And I'm not exactly A-OK
with some galactic
d*ck measuring contest
where a few billionaires
get to determine
the fate of all of humanity.
Sam, listening is one thing,
but talking back?
The risks of that
are mind-boggling.
[Annika] We don't know
if they're peaceful or hostile.
And you're talking about
sending a signal
the way they do.
They'll know we're here
immediately from anywhere.
You didn't say if you liked it.
The goat.
Yeah, uh, [clears throat]
it was fine.
Now, we've spent six months
trying to decipher it
and we still don't know
if they talk in calculus
or interstellar Sanskrit
or in swirls of colour.
Let me try.
That kind of thing
might take centuries to crack.
Give me a week.
A week, that's all I ask.
[Perry] I hate goats.
You know, they pair goats
with, uh, thoroughbreds.
They call them
companion animals.
You see, horses don't like
to be left on their own.
They're herd animals,
and they, uh,
well, they get very lonely.
So the breeders will put a goat
in the horse pen
to keep it settled
and manageable and docile.
But the, uh,
the entire dynamic is...
is very unnatural.
First, you've taken a horse out
of its natural environment,
and then you paper
over this perversion
by forcing a companion on it.
But some horses
are different.
They prefer solitude,
and they see the goat
as an intruder.
An invader.
And so they'll do
what any animal would do
when it feels threatened.
I mean,
horses don't even eat meat.
But they will chew clean
through a goat's neck.
Imagine that.
And you know
what the owner does?
Just buy us another goat.
All right, I think
that's f*cking enough.
[Perry] We're not waiting!
Not a week! Not a day!
[Perry] You fix my hardware.
You fix my software.
My schedule, or I'm done!
It's not the first time that
he's threatened to take his ball
and go home.
He's an unstable man.
Yeah, well, it's all we can do
to keep him together with meds
and duct tape.
So I guess you realize the
other reason you're both here.
[Sam] The moment
that Perry is not functional.
[Charlie] We get it.
We're the replacements.
So I will get you
your week, Annika.
And I will smooth things
over with Perry tomorrow.
All right?
[waves crashing]
[Annika]
I'm worried that Perry's right.
I think the only thing
that we can do is turn it on
and let them know that we're
listening and hope they help.
And that is
extremely dangerous.
Maybe.
But what would they want
from us?
Resources.
[Charlie] Nope. This universe
is crammed full of resources.
And you and I both know
that our little tiny speck here
of the Milky Way
is kind of a resource desert.
Keep going.
They could see us
as a threat.
No, no.
Look, you got the tech
that they got.
You think they give a sh*t
about our stupid iPhones
or our dumb smart bombs?
Come on.
Food.
[Charlie] Us?
I wouldn't touch me
with a 10 foot fork.
[Annika chuckling]
[Charlie] Whichever way I-I try
to game this whole thing out,
I can't find anything
to be afraid of.
I can think of so many.
[Annika] Life is fragile.
Fear keeps us safe.
All right.
[Charlie] Annika, our job
is to know the unknown.
But now you don't want
to embrace it?
You can't have it both ways.
[interrogator] Dr. Kask,
why didn't you stop
Mr. Kaminsky
from initializing
Littlemouth that evening?
[Annika] He never told me
because he knew
I'd try to stop him.
[interrogator] He didn't
consider the possibility
that this alien
intelligence might be hostile?
[Annika] Charlie doesn't believe
intelligence can be hostile.
For him,
intelligence doesn't waste.
It learns.
From mistakes.
From mutations.
From curious
expressions in nature.
What do they want?
What do we want
when we observe an ant colony
halfway around the world?
[suspenseful music]
[Annika VO]
So, Charlie was always going
to unlock Littlemouth.
Initialize.
[computer voice] Initializing.
[Annika VO] Because he believed
no harm would come of it.
[wondrous music]
[computer voice]
Initiation sequence successful.
[interrogator] But you didn't
believe that, did you, Doctor?
[suspenseful music swells]
[Charlie on speaker]
Uh, hey, Perry?
Perry?
Well, uh, Perry,
you should, uh...
you should know
that I-I fixed it.
We can talk back now.
[computer voice] Welcome
to Littlemouth's signal room.
Get down here. Ten minutes.
[Perry] Lowest level.
It's time to meet Littlemouth.
[helicopter droning]
[buzzing]
[helicopter droning]
[voicemail voice] You have
reached the voicemail box of...
[Sam on voicemail]
Sam Houston.
[voicemail voice]
Please leave a message. [beep]
He said he'd wait.
[computer voice] Level C.
Take your time?
[Annika]
Charlie tell me you didn't.
[mysterious music]
[Perry] At 1:24 AM
Littlemouth turns on.
Perry, I object to this
on so many levels.
[Perry] But you won't do
anything about it, will you?
So what you can do is check for
data variations when we go live.
Uh, what are you...
what are you going to say?
Hello.
How?
Of all the data points,
one sequence repeated itself
at a marginally greater rate.
[Perry] Littlemouth
will repeat that sequence
and send it between here
and the antenna.
But you don't even know
what that sequence means.
[Perry] Well, does an infant
have any idea
what its first fumblings
at language mean? No.
But they simply mimic
those more developed.
- But the-
- Does the parent have any idea
what the child means?
No, but they know
what the child is saying.
They're saying,
"I'm alive and I'm listening."
[Perry] Yet though we babble,
we do so mathematically.
We will use
two universal constants.
The speed of light
will be the unit of measurement.
And primes,
we will repeat
the code ten times.
The first interval will be two
times the speed of light.
And the final interval,
therefore,
will be the tenth prime 29
times the speed of light.
[Annika] You're saying a lot
more than just hello.
[Perry] Yes.
We're saying, "We've heard
you and we're logical."
And, "We're here."
Yes, that's the idea.
[buzzing]
[Perry] By the way,
Sam won't stop it.
There's no k*ll switch.
And even if he could,
he never would.
He's blinded by hubris in one
eye and glory in the other.
Anything else
from the little goats?
Yeah.
Let's do it.
What?
I'm sorry, I-I gotta see this.
[Charlie] Perry, you know,
you-you should, uh,
you should say something.
Like a quote
for posterity or something.
What, like, "One small step"?
or, "I am become Death,
destroyer of worlds"?
I mean, something.
Considering
what's about to happen. It's...
Nothing is about to happen.
That's the entire point.
[Perry]
There's no w*r of the worlds.
There's no grand enlightenment.
[machine whirring]
Just a thundering silence.
[machine whirring]
This is about insignificance.
This is about
our smallness laid bare.
There'll be no response
because we simply do not matter.
Not our work, not our deeds.
Or our mistakes.
[machine whirring]
So there's your f*cking quote.
[machine whirring]
If it doesn't matter,
why build this?
[machine whirring]
To prove it.
[machine whirring swells]
[countdown beeping]
[loud buzzing]
[suspenseful music]
[machine whirring]
Ta-da!
There you go.
Nothing. As predicted. Oof.
[Sam] So, when's it happening?
[Annika on phone]
Five minutes ago.
[Sam] Really? And?
[Annika on phone] And I'm done!
[Sam on phone] Whoa, Annika,
uh, look, don't...
[static buzzing]
[loud clunking]
Whoa.
Whah?
[siren wailing]
Uh...
[whirring]
[computer voice]
Backup power on.
System offline.
- [siren wailing]
- [tense dramatic music]
Uh, Perry, Perry,
you should shut it off.
Perry, shut-shut it off!
- Shut it down!
- Shh!
[machine whirring loudly]
[machine whirring down]
[soft dramatic music]
Annika, I got it.
[Annika]
Why'd you turn it on, Charlie?
[Charlie]
Just hold on a sec.
[sensor-pad buzzing]
You need to come see this.
[News Anchor VO] Officials have
yet to offer an explanation
for the six seconds
that interrupted almost
all global electronic
and satellite communication.
There are unconfirmed reports
of loss of life as hospitals,
traffic signals
and aircraft have lost power.
[Retired General VO]
Well, we can't rule out
this is of military origin.
A test of some kind,
if you like.
Yeah, the satellites
are all down.
These are
just analog broadcasts.
[NASA Engineer VO]
We at NASA, we're at a loss.
Whatever it is, it extends
beyond the Earth's atmosphere
because it's knocked out
all high-orbit satellites.
[News Reporter 1] Is this
possibly extraterrestrial?
[News Reporter 2] Power went out
for eight minutes-
This is Perry?
Yeah.
[News Reporter 1] The power
went out for 8 minutes
and 19.48 seconds.
What that means exactly,
we don't know at this time.
Charlie, they talked back.
What do you mean?
The power goes out,
and exactly 8 minutes,
19.48 seconds later,
it comes back on.
[Annika]
What do you think that means?
Whoa.
So what?
That's the exact amount
of time that it takes sunlight
to get to Earth.
They waited and they responded
in a universal constant.
We showed them we understand.
Yep. The-the speed of light.
They-they would know
the sun is everything to us.
No energy, no power,
no biological life.
[Svea]
But what did they say?
[Charlie] No idea.
Bare minimum,
they said that we hear you
and we know where you are.
[News Anchor VO]
It's still too soon to predict
how high the death
toll may grow,
but it most certainly will.
[News Anchor 2] Officials are
rightly worried about the size.
and scale of this
unprecedented event.
[Annika]
I'm gonna k*ll Littlemouth.
[Charlie] Annika,
that's like the opposite
of building really cool sh*t.
Well, then go ask Perry nicely
not to turn it back on, Charlie.
I think Perry
has enough humanity
- to see the--
- [Svea] k*ll it.
You don't bank
on Perry's humanity.
[Charlie] Wait. What if we need
Littlemouth again?
No, look, look,
hear me out, okay?
Whatever they did out there,
that was not a death ray.
They just turned the lights off
for eight minutes to tell us
they heard us.
It's just too dangerous,
Charlie.
I don't think
it's dangerous, Annika.
[Annika] Yeah, but we are.
We're not a species
that does well
with massive paradigm shifts.
They don't need a death ray.
They said, "Hi", and look,
we're gonna do the rest.
Yeah, but,
but that's not their intentions.
[Annika] We don't know
what their intentions are.
[ominous music]
Annika, you can't let fear
decide, okay?
It's safer than hope.
[Annika] I'm locked out.
[Charlie] Is Perry using
Littlemouth right now?
No.
He k*lled it himself.
Let's meet at 1300 hours.
Perhaps it's time to reassess.
[mysterious music]
[Annika] We opened a door.
Littlemouth's signal.
It told them we were here.
Our place in the universe
was about to change.
Irreversibly.
Forever.
[Lucy] Oh!
- [insect buzzing]
- [soft dramatic music]
[soft dramatic music continues]
Come on.
[wind gusting]
[soft dramatic music continues]
[Lucy screaming]
- [wind gusting loudly]
- [mysterious music]
[Annika] Oh my God, Lucy!
[Lucy crying]
[Perry] Lucy!
[Lucy screaming]
Lucy!
[Lucy crying]
- [Lucy whimpering]
- [soft dramatic music]
Shh.
[soft dramatic music]
[Perry shushing]
It's all right.
[ominous music]
[Perry] You're all right,
you're all right.
[ominous music swells]
Should we be afraid?
Describe an alien.
I wouldn't know where to begin.
Most people would describe
something like they know
here on Earth.
Biped, number of eyes,
some form of brain,
or perhaps a variation
of an insect or a squid,
or a computerized,
artificially intelligent,
pompous f*ck' robot.
But almost always some
sapiocentric extrapolation
of what we know here on Earth.
But the question is not,
"What does an alien look like?"
It's "What does alien
intelligence look like?"
[wondrous music]
[car horns honking]
[wondrous music swells]
[NSA Sparrow] Hello, ma'am,
we're with the NSA.
Come in.
[NSA Sparrow]
Sam Houston here?
[woman] Yes, sir.
[Sam] Haven't had my coffee yet.
Oh. I grabbed one
on the way in.
Mm-hmm.
How is it, Sam, that nearly
every company on the planet
went dark for 8 minutes,
19 seconds,
yet your operations
didn't skip a beat?
- Does the sun still work?
- Hmm.
[Sam] Then we still work.
[NSA Ladrillo]
Mr. Houston, good morning.
Now, what you're about
to see is classified.
All right.
[NSA Sparrow]
That was taken two hours ago
off the coast of Cuba.
And the NSA thinks
this has something to do
with the power outage?
Well, we don't
know what to think.
Most satellites are still down.
Everything we're getting
comes from one
of our deep space satellites.
This anomaly seems
to be radiating
from one central point,
right above a private island
owned by you.
[NSA Ladrillo]
And this anomaly,
it's growing.
[NSA Sparrow] Exponentially.
This morning, the anomaly
was the size of a pinprick.
In two days,
it'll be visible
from mainland Cuba.
In a week...
This is gonna cause mass panic.
What's on the island, Sam?
Solar observatory.
[sighing]
All right.
Where exactly are you going?
Well, you boys got me
all riled up.
I'm gonna go take a gander.
You will go nowhere
near whatever that is
without military escort.
Excuse me, am I being charged
with something?
Then get the f*ck
out of my way.
You're pushing your luck, Sam.
[Sam] Yeah, well, it served me
well so far.
[Computer voice] [indistinct]
leaving in five minutes.
[mysterious music]
Come on.
[ominous music]
[tense music]
[wind gusting]
[mysterious music]
[wind gusting]
What the hell, Charlie?
Haven't you done
enough already?
Annika, I'm telling you,
this thing's safe.
No, it's an alien phenomenon,
and you want to stick
your hand in it?
Look, whatever this thing is,
it's [stutters]-
It's right here, okay?
We're exposed to it already.
There's nothing between us,
and it's, it's just air. Look.
Look at this. Read it.
It's a column of air
surrounded by a vacuum.
You get past the first six
inches and it's just air.
[ominous music]
What if it's not just air?
Hmm?
Speech is just air.
It's just how it's organized.
Yeah.
Wha...
What are you,
what are you doing?
What if it's just
another data set?
Yeah, but if it's
just f*ck' air,
then how do you collect
that data?
Watch me.
Oh, great.
This will work.
Oh, sh*t, okay.
[ominous music]
[wind gusting]
[wondrous music]
[interrogator] You say they
speak in thoughts and visions.
Why not speak plainly?
Why not tell us what's at stake?
Is it possible that
a post-biological intelligence
could figure out a better
way to communicate with us
than English?
[Perry] You can go now.
[Svea] Hasn't she been through
enough for one day?
[Perry] You can go now.
"Chapter one:
"Peter Breaks Through."
"All children except
one grow up.
They soon know that
they will grow up.
And the way Wendy
knew was this.
One day
when she was two years old,
she was playing in a garden
and she plucked another flower
and ran with it to her mother.
I suppose she must have
looked rather delightful,
for Mrs. Darling put her
hand to her heart and cried,
Oh, why can't you remain
like this forever?
Wendy knew
that she must grow up.
You always know
after you are two.
[Perry] Two is the beginning
of the end."
[soft dramatic music]
[indistinct yelling]
[commanding officer on headset]
Safeties on
unless a clear hostile act
or intent presents itself.
We're going to breach,
clear, and control.
Now there's no clear sat recon,
so we're going in blind here,
folks.
[News Anchor VO]
Activated emergency protocols,
including curfews
and emergency powers.
Officials insist it's necessary
to ensure the panic
that has ensued
doesn't spin out of control.
[News Anchor 2 VO]
In places where martial law
has yet to be declared--
United States military is
going to be here within hours,
knocking down doors.
So we need
to have some answers.
All right, look,
I have an actual theory.
Look, Sam.
So this pillar, right?
It's-it's-it's nothing.
It's just air and-and light.
[Charlie] Anything
that passes through it,
it's benign.
Now what-what is the most
commonly used Morse code signal?
A distress call.
Right. So,
[clears throat] what if...
what if the message
that we sent using Littlemouth,
the most commonly
repeated sequence that we saw,
was actually an SOS?
Or it could mean
absolutely nothing at all.
All I'm saying is
that maybe this is their way
of trying to help us.
[Charlie] What if these
anomalies are like a cloak?
I think they're trying
to hide us from harm,
or-or communicate,
or protect us, or--
Protect us from what?
Sam, I don't know.
[interrogator] But did you know
what we might
have needed protection from?
The universe is infinite.
And therefore
full of infinite dangers.
[Perry]
[muted] There's only one pillar.
They're replying to the source.
[soft suspenseful music]
It needs to breathe.
[Sam] If we don't
figure this out,
they'll lock us out
and then fumble this thing
while the whole world burns.
[deep breathing]
- [muted indistinct chattering]
- [soft suspenseful music]
[Klara VO] It needs to breathe.
It needs to breathe.
I can't breathe! I need air!
[woman on screen]
[echoing] I need air!
[Klara VO] It needs to breathe.
It needs to breathe.
- [soft suspenseful music]
- [muted indistinct chattering]
[Sam] I cannot believe
the brain power in this room
cannot come up
with one workable idea.
They're going to lock us up.
[soft suspenseful music]
[Sam]
Annika, where are you going?
[suspenseful music continues]
[suspenseful music swells]
[Sam] Annika, you all right?
[wondrous music]
We can talk to them.
But how?
In there.
[Annika]
Eight minutes and 19.43 seconds.
It was a scan. They waited.
They scanned us.
What did they see?
What did they learn about us?
They saw a planet
covered in air.
What does that tell them
about us?
Well, um, that would tell them
that whatever biological life
lives down there
survives completely
surrounded by air.
So what's the safest way
to engage with us?
Air.
We don't talk in language,
we talk in air.
Molecules bent into shapes
that mean something.
[Annika]
So we go in, breathe in,
and have a conversation.
And this whole time
we've been so worried
about trying to figure out
the best way
to communicate with them,
we didn't think that maybe
this hyper-advanced
intelligence
would find the best way
to communicate with us.
We have to go in.
What, into that pillar?
- Yes.
- Now, wait a minute.
Now that's a hell of a leap
of faith, Annika.
This is not an invasion.
It's an invitation.
So who's going in?
I mean, you'll almost
definitely suffocate.
Sam, you want to go
cement your legacy?
Been there. Done that. No.
Yeah. Okay.
I'll do it.
[suspenseful music]
Whoa.
[indistinct radio chatter]
[tense dramatic music]
[helicopter whirring]
[soldier]
Put your hands on your head.
Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.
Yeah. All right.
- [indistinct radio chatter]
- [helicopter whirring]
[tense music swells]
How human of us to see this
and be afraid.
How human of us
not to see the hope in it.
How human.
[Annika] How human.
[soft rhythmic whirring]
[NSA Sparrow] We're past
the edge of the earth.
There is no protocol,
no policy for whatever this is.
No laws
cover what you've done.
No putting the genie
back in this bottle.
We can fix it.
Iran's mobilized their entire
southern fleet in Bandar Abbas.
Shots are already fired
in Kashmir.
Half of America
is convinced it's the Rapture.
And I don't even want to begin
to tell you what Russia's up to,
but, hint, it's f*cking bad.
You can fix all that, Sam?
Humanity couldn't handle
a global blackout.
What's going to happen
when they see this anomaly
hanging over New York?
There is something
that we can do.
Yeah, I heard it.
Air. Sure.
- But it's not my call.
- Thank Christ.
New orders just came in.
Look, you should let me
just try it.
Let me go in.
You will be confined to your
quarters under armed guard
until arrangements can be
made for secondary detainment.
You will be compelled
to fully disclose anything
and everything you know about
the activities on this island
when asked.
[Charlie on speaker]
They don't trust me.
They know that I'd try to go in.
Annika, you have to find a way.
How?
I don't know.
[Annika] We don't even know
if going in there
and talking to them
will stop the anomaly
from growing.
We have no idea.
[Charlie on speaker]
We have to try.
You have to try.
[Annika] Charlie, I can't.
I-I wouldn't.
There are just...
There is too many
unknown factors.
I'm sorry. I'm just scared.
[Charlie on speaker] Annika,
you can't let fear decide.
You didn't become a scientist
because you're afraid
of the unknown.
You did it to learn.
To help people.
Think about saving one life.
[Annika crying]
I'll go check it out.
No!
You can't risk it.
Stay.
[Charlie on speaker] Now,
think about saving them all.
[Annika gasps]
[Annika on speaker]
Charlie, I have an idea.
[suspenseful music]
Of course.
[Charlie on speaker]
They're not going to understand
a single word you say,
so say a lot of them.
Wish me luck.
[Charlie on speaker] Good luck.
Yes.
Right away.
[knocking on door]
Dr. Kask. What's so urgent?
[Annika] An oversight.
Perry is still running
an FTL signal
from the tech tent
by the pillar.
It's a repeating quant
signature that we picked out
when we originally--
Okay, dumb it down, please.
I believe that
it's contributing to the growth.
Okay, uh...
tell me how to shut it off.
Do any of your troops
know how to run Python?
Or any other quant-friendly
computing languages?
Our scientists won't be
here for another two days,
so can you just tell me
how to unplug it?
It's not like pulling a plug.
It's a complicated system.
We have servers
running on clouds--
Okay, enough! I get it.
I just need five minutes.
[Annika] Five minutes.
Okay.
Try anything, someone gets shot.
It's not a threat.
It's just where we're at.
[soft dramatic music]
[NSA Ladrillo] Who else has seen
the raw data, Sam?
Ellis.
Hauptmann at MIT.
[soldier on speaker]
We've got bogeys
approaching the wind pillar.
Six o'clock. Over.
[NSA Ladrillo] Corporal,
see what's going on out there.
Yes, sir.
[dramatic music continues]
[NSA Sparrow]
Annika, get over here.
[Lucy] "And it isn't fair,
I would say with my last breath.
It isn't fair',
said Michael coldly.
Father is a cowardly custard.
So are you a cowardly custard?"
Dad, what's a custard?
Huh?
It's a pudding,
a yellow pudding.
Wobbles and shakes.
[Perry]
Like when someone's afraid.
Go ahead.
[soft dramatic music]
Hey!
[Charlie] Hey. [banging]
Hey, come here!
Over here! [banging]
Hey, over here!
Hey!
[soldier] Stop her!
No!
[suspenseful music]
[low rhythmic humming]
[deep breathing]
[g*nshots blasting]
[Charlie gasping]
[tense music]
[Annika exhaling]
[low rhythmic humming]
[Annika gasping]
Where am I?
[low rhythmic humming]
[Annika VO]
Are you inside my head?
[deep inhaling]
[Klara VO]
Through the air inside you now.
Klara?
No.
[Annika]
How are you talking to me?
[Klara VO] Through memory.
Or thought.
Light.
Speech.
On a molecular level.
In any way you prefer.
Shall we stop?
No.
- [deep breathing]
- [low rhythmic humming]
[wondrous music]
Who are you?
[Klara VO] No longer biological.
No longer machine.
[Annika VO] Like physics itself.
We don't create.
Or destroy.
We learn.
[tinkling music]
[Annika VO] You reorganize.
Everything is transformed.
[Annika] Why are you here?
[Klara VO] You called us.
[loud low rhythmic humming]
[Klara VO] You asked for help.
[Annika VO] Charlie was right.
You were hiding us from...
What?
[Klara VO] From the universe.
You're far from alone.
[Annika VO] Are we in danger?
Yes.
[Klara] You revealed yourselves.
And those that reveal
themselves cease to exist.
Others will come.
Many are watching
in silence.
Hidden.
For now.
Some civilizations
hide in fear.
Others hunt out of fear.
[Annika VO] Who are you then?
Predator?
Prey?
[Klara VO] We do not hide.
Or hunt.
Not anymore.
We protect.
[deep breath]
[Klara VO] We learn.
We have evolved.
[Annika VO] Evolved.
Into the universe itself.
[Klara VO]
One day, you may as well.
But that is your choice
to make.
[deep breath]
Get back, get back!
Do not cross the perimeter!
[helicopter whirring]
[wondrous music]
[Klara VO] You can hide.
[Annika VO]
I don't know if we're ready.
If I'm ready.
What's past the last planet?
Infinity.
[Annika VO]
We'll never be the same again.
[muted laughing]
[Klara VO] You have to let go
of what was.
To be ready
for what is to come.
[wondrous music]
[soft dramatic music]
- [soft fluttering]
- [dramatic music continues]
[deep inhaling]
[wondrous music]
[low ominous rumbling]
- [wondrous music]
- [low ominous rumbling]
- [soft dramatic music]
- [low ominous rumbling]
[soft rumbling]
[gentle dramatic music]
[interrogator VO] Dr. Kask.
What comes next?
Did they tell you?
They don't have a face
we can confront.
They don't have a world
we can destroy.
They expand their intelligence.
[Annika] But not us.
We're a flawed species.
Superstitious.
Self-destructive.
Safe from the universe.
But not ourselves.
[interrogator VO]
Doctor, will they come back?
What makes you think they left?
[mysterious music swells]
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Signal One (2026)
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