[Singing in Japanese]
[Howling]
[Children shouting in distance]
[Gasping] Batou!
[Batou] You sure have gotten informal, Lin. Since when do you skip the "Sir"?
[Lin] I haven't forgotten the debt I owe you.
[Batou] "The less one forgets the less one can remember?"
[Lin] Oh, c'mon, Batou... Sir.
[Batou] Now you want to butter me up with "Sir".
[Lin] Please, forgive me, I beg you. I beseech you.
- Know a guy called Kim? - Never heard of him.
Actually, they're a dime a dozen up this way.
I'm just looking for a particular one.
[Lin] We got loyalty even in my line.
"There's loyalty that protects secrets and loyalty that protects the truth. "
You cannot serve both masters, so which loyalty is yours?
[Lin] They say there's no truth without secrets.
[Batou] I'll ask you again, do you know a guy called Kim?
[Lin] Never heard of him. Actually, they're a dime a dozen...
[Batou] "Life and death come and go like marionettes dancing on a table.
Once their strings are cut, they easily crumble. "
He used to be a long-range military scout.
"Unfit as a commander, unfit to be commanded,
fit only to languish by the wayside. "
He bounced around between Special Forces and Electronics,
and got into black market weapons. His reputation turned to shit.
Wound up your garden-variety hacker.
Sounds like quite a story.
Yeah, but no matter how far a jackass travels, it won't come back a horse.
His downfall came when his reach exceeded his grasp.
Let's go.
[Togusa] Batou, the study on the top floor.
I guess we were a little late.
Pro-active firewalls must have zapped him hacking in somewhere.
In any case, doesn't look like he would've been of much use.
"The deceased firmly declines
offerings of fresh or artificial flowers or birds released in his honor. "
[Grunts]
"Sleep not you of the dead. "
Even Confucius says you should never pretend to sleep like a corpse.
I haven't got time for your stupid little jokes, Kim.
[Laughing]
[Kim] Haven't seen you since that landing operation in Nemuro.
[Batou] I'm here on a job.
[Kim] Meaning Locus Solus?
They came late to the robot racket,
but expanded rapidly once they focused on high-end gynoids.
There are whispers of links to politicians, bureaucrats,
even crime syndicates.
Wary of local regulators for these "specialized" mannequins,
they shifted all production to a multi-national factory ship
anchored in international waters.
They turn out some mighty fine dolls.
Fine enough to commit suicide after murdering humans?
[Kim] If that's true, it's pretty unseemly.
[Dishes rattling]
That would mean replicating humans by breathing souls into dolls.
Who'd want to do that?
The definition of a truly beautiful doll
is a living, breathing body devoid of a soul.
"An unyielding corpse, tiptoeing on the brink of collapse. "
Or reduced to a ravaged body with an e-brain... like you.
The human is no match for a doll,
in its form, its elegance in motion, its very being.
The inadequacies of human awareness
become the inadequacies of life's reality.
[Kim] Perfection is possible only for those without consciousness,
or perhaps endowed with infinite consciousness.
In other words, for dolls and for gods.
Shouldn't we get back to business?
[Kim] Actually, there's one more mode of existence
commensurate with dolls and deities.
[Togusa] Animals?
[Kim] Shelley's skylarks are suffused with a profound, instinctive joy.
Joy we humans, driven by self-consciousness, can never know.
For those of us who lust after knowledge,
it is a condition more elusive than godhood.
And this conundrum compelled you to inhabit a doll and play dead?
Is that your reason?
"Without knowing life, how can we know death?"
[Kim] That's what Confucius says.
[Kim] It is a rare human who knows death.
Most meet death unprepared, armed only with ignorant familiarity.
In other words, people die simply because it is inevitable.
[Batou] But death is a precondition of life for a doll.
Kim chose to become a complete cyborg. That was his reason.
He bounced around between Special Forces and Electronics,
and got into black market weapons. His reputation turned to shit.
Wound up your garden-variety hacker.
Sounds like quite a story.
No matter how far a jackass travels, it won't come back a horse.
What's wrong? Lets go.
[Togusa] Batou!
"The deceased hereby proclaims, that on this day of this month,
"I have attained my own celebrated death. "
[Grunts]
[Mechanical gasping]
[Kim] Truly disturbing, isn't it?
I really understand.
The doubt is whether a creature that certainly appears to be alive,
really is.
Alternatively, the doubt that a lifeless object might actually live.
That's why dolls haunt us.
They are modeled on humans.
They are, in fact, nothing but human.
They make us face the terror
of being reduced to simple mechanisms and matter.
In other words, the fear that, fundamentally,
all humans belong to the void.
Enough. Let's get down to business.
[Kim] Further, science, seeking to unlock the secret of life,
brought about this terror.
The notion that nature is calculable
inevitably leads to the conclusion that humans too,
are reducible to basic, mechanical parts.
"The human body is a machine which winds its own springs.
It is the living image of perpetual motion. "
In this age, the twin technologies of robotics and electronic neurology
resurrected the 18th century theory of man as machine.
And now that computers have enabled externalized memory,
humans have pursued self-mechanization aggressively,
to expand the limits of their own functions.
Determined to leave behind Darwinian natural selection,
this human determination to beat evolutionary odds
also reveals the desire to transcend
the very quest for perfection that gave it birth.
The mirage of life equipped with perfect hardware
engendered this nightmare.
"God's everlasting geometry. "
[Clicking]
[Gasping]
[Gunshot]
Here goes!
[Togusa] Batou!
[Aircraft overhead]
[Groaning in pain]
[Screaming]
How do you feel?
How did I...
Looks like a tangle of virtual experience hacked into your e-brain.
Just as luck appears in threes, misfortune also arrives three times.
A gaze averted in discomfort, a realization unspoken, advice unbidden.
Without noticing, we welcome catastrophe.
But our world cannot afford to ignore the first sign, let alone all three.
I told you, Kim, I don't have time for your stupid jokes!
When did you catch on?
[Batou] No one's easier to trick than the trickster.
You may be an electronic warfare specialist,
but you forget my line's intelligence.
And besides... I come complete with a guardian angel.
Try digging up the hall image in your external memory database.
[Batou] Jacob Grimm wrote that by inscribing "aemaeth" upon Golem's brow,
the clay man lived by drawing energy from the word for "truth".
But simply removing "ae" to form "maeth" or "death,"
returned the Golem back to inanimate clay.
That prophecy told me that no truth would be found within these walls.
[Kim] Someone broke through the firewalls I devised?
Preposterous. Who on earth could!
[Batou] Like I told you, my guardian angel.
Game's over, Kim. It's time you started talking...
[gunshot]
That's just a doll.
You don't know when to quit, Kim. I won't fall for another diversion.
Batou, how can you disprove this reality is genuine
or an extension of false illusions generated by virtual signals?
My ghost is whispering to me.
Humans are nothing but the thread from which the dream of life is woven.
If dreams, consciousness, even ghosts are no more than rifts
and warps in the uniform weave of the matrix.
We are both but worthless humans, though we walk very different paths.
Of course, if you don't believe in ghosts,
you'll never know madness or schizophrenia, either.
The little that's left of your body will not rot, Kim,
but continue to function until you meet a suitable death.
[Gasping]
Are we actually back in physical reality?
There is no way to distinguish reminiscence from true memory.
Whatever they are, they can only be analyzed after the fact.
The passage of time itself can't be stored, so it's tough.
And inevitable, now that our e-brains share external memories.
Do your wife and daughter, waiting for you at home, really exist?
Or are you, in reality, still single,
living in some cheap rented room, only dreaming of that family.
Don't you want to verify what actually happened back there?
And if you knew almost from the start, why?
I had to ascertain his motives.
Kim set his trap knowing I'd come calling,
inserting the virtual reality to shake us off.
That's about the gist of it.
Maybe he was the hacker who planted something in my e-brain,
making me dance to his tune and blow away my right arm.
Just as Ishikawa surmised, not many could have pulled that off.
Locus Solus suspects as much.
So you anticipated all of this.
Pretended to fall into his trap, then beat him at his own game...
...that was my plan. But Kim was pretty sophisticated.
I only made it out because of the hallway clue.
The guardian angel you spoke of...
She's gone.
Somewhere beyond that "rift in the uniform weave of the matrix. "
She's definitely alive.
Merging somewhere on the vast net, or with the entire domain.
Though that's not for me.
There are as many paths to proving your existence as there are ghosts.
And you've got your daughter.
I thought Kim knew other paths too,
back when he and I were in the jungle together.
- At least I've figured one thing out. - What's that?
That I'll never cut it as your partner.
Lost your nerve?
No, but to quote you, I've got a daughter to go home to.
That may be, but you'll still need to pay your way out of here.
Don't you have enough?
We can nail Locus Solus with the data from Kim's e-brain.
We can only prove he interfered with an investigation plus the ethics violation.
Besides, our investigation's officially off the record.
So, if we're going to make charges in those gynoid serial murders stick,
- we need material evidence. - And Kim's a dead end.
No, he's not.
His ghost may be beyond reach, but his e-brain's still tied to Locus Solus.
We've got to settle this case before they clean out their operation.
There's an old saying,
"When you're neither right nor wrong, it's time to beat the drums and attack. "
In other words, when dialogue fails, it's time for violence.
Hey, this isn't like barging into some yakuza office!
Then I won't count on your Mateba revolver for cover.
"Birds seek refuge in the heavens, fish dive deep into the sea. "
[Birds crying]
[Batou] I've made contact with the escort.
[Togusa] Roger.
[Man] Diving's risky for a heavy cyborg physique.
It's so deep here, if you sank, we'd never retrieve you.
[Batou] I used to know a cyborg whose hobby was diving.
Don't know what got into her.
[Man] I'm helping out because you're Lin's friend,
but they say no one's come back from that ship alive.
Then I don't know what's got into you.
- [Batou] Exactly. Let's go. - [Man] Hold on!
[Bird cries]
[Typing]
[Togusa] In 12 seconds, we'll trip their sensors.
I'll send two seconds of camouflage signal.
[Batou] Roger.
I've routed this thing into the chief of security's e-brain.
[Togusa] Initiating synchronization.
[Rumbling]
[Breathing]
I'm in. Forward the vessel data.
[Batou] Download complete. Got my vision in your sites?
[Togusa] Recording now. Wouldn't miss my mentor's assault.
You're a real smart ass.
Infiltrator detected, Rebooting security,
Review status of all onboard e-brains,
Scan for matches in memory usage and virus size,
It may be a latent virus, Cross monitor,
Logical contact with the chief's e-brain denied,
Just go ahead and reformat!
Rebooting of level 2 security system complete,
Create a detour, divert the infiltrator,
Rebuild the logic firewall, Load antibodies,
Scanning viruses,
Response team, prepare decoys for ambush,
Deploy all latent viruses along firewalls,
Security wall 014 breached, Error type 280 in security wall 032,
Rebuilding level 1 external security wall,
Fluctuation in enemy's proactive firewall pattern detected,
Transmitting virus,
Pull out, Togusa. You're in danger.
They're onto you. They'll fry your brains!
- [Togusa] Not yet, a little further. - You idiot! Don't be crazy.
[Air hissing, gasping]
[Grunting]
Illegal access at gynoid production area,
Suspect an unconfirmed latent virus attack,
Release all vaccines to thwart,
Too late, all systems activated, Cannot establish logical contact,
Currently loading combat robotics control software,
[loudspeaker] Warning, Abnormality on the THO 7 Line,
Security team, arm and head for the line, I repeat,
[man whimpering]
"Veni sancto spiritus. "
Been a while, Major.
How shall I address you now?
To be precise, it's just a fragment of me downloaded via satellite.
This gynoid's e-brain lacks capacity.
It can only handle the combat robotics control system.
This is the best I can do for facial and vocal expression.
There should be an emergency access terminal 50 meters down this passage.
If we can infiltrate that, we'll take over the whole system.
You haven't changed.
Move out. You're on point. I'll cover the rear.
Just like the old days.
"Who can gaze into the mirror without becoming evil?
A mirror does not reflect evil, but creates it. "
Poetics, now? We're running low on ammo.
"Thus, a mirror bears a glimpse, but not scrutiny. "
[Creaking]
[Batou] Hey, isn't that risky?
[Major] It's just until I shut down the operating system.
Plug into the auxiliary inputs in the floor.
I have to gain system control or this gynoid's nonfunctional.
I'm counting on your 30-caliber arm.
[Batou] My brain can control firing, but I've only got one clip left.
And I have my doubts about going hand-to-hand with them.
Here goes!
Illegal onboard breach of main system,
Onboard? Isolate access point, erect proactive firewall,
Multiple camouflage signals identified, No fluctuation in any terminal,
It may be an outside access, Terminate all external network links,
Physically disengage external inputs,
Emergency control system not responding,
Diffused viruses coalescing, Breach in system area firewalls,
Prepare for system reset, Isolate level 1 data,
Multiple illegal access in core system, Our countermeasures can't keep up,
[silence]
[Major] We're in control. All external links severed.
The ship is totally isolated now.
- We're moving? - We're heading south,
leaving international waters for sovereign territory.
This entire ship will be the material evidence that proves Locus Solus' crime.
They'll come after us.
Before they do, we'll have an escort vessel.
There. It's already done.
And we have the time to examine the Locus Solus technique
that infused dolls with souls.
Haven't you cracked it?
You've got a hunch, too. Right?
It's absolutely silent. They must have sealed it off.
[Major] Ghost dubbing.
In past animal experiments, scientists mass replicated inferior copies,
but had to abandon the practice as it destroyed the original being.
[Batou] But Locus Solus brainwashed girls supplied by the Kojinkai mob,
dubbing their ghosts onto gynoids.
[Batou] It was the ghost that made Locus Solus gynoids so desirable.
[Faint girl's voice] Help me...
Help me...
[whimpering]
You came to help me. Mr. Volkerson promised...
The police would come and rescue me.
I was stage four, but my friend Soana, is already stage five.
She can't hear anything and never answers anymore.
[Major] Volkerson, the murdered inspector revised their ethics code.
Exposed, the yakuza served him up to avenge the crime boss.
But Volkerson was right.
If the robots made trouble, someone would notice.
Someone would come to save us.
[Batou] Didn't he consider the victims?
Not the humans.
What about the dolls endowed with souls?
But... but...
I didn't want to become a doll!
[Girl crying]
[Major] "We weep for the bird's cry, but not for the blood of a fish.
Blessed are those who have voice. "
If the dolls could speak,
no doubt they'd scream, "I didn't want to become human. "
Let me ask you this, do you consider yourself happy?
[Major] A nostalgic value, I suppose. At least I am free of qualms.
"Let one walk alone, committing no sin, with few wishes. "
[Batou] "Like an elephant in the forest. "
[Major] Always remember, Batou...
Whenever you enter the Net, I'll be by your side.
I'm going.
[Panting, barking]
She showed up on that boat, didn't she? Your guardian angel.
[Togusa] Clamming up again, eh? Why? You think I'd report you?
I'll pick you up at 8:00.
I owe you for looking after him.
Why don't you come in?
Hanging out with someone else's family just isn't my thing.
[Little girl] My present, my present!
- [Togusa] I remembered, see? - [Girl shouts]
[Togusa laughs]
[Dog whimpers]
English subtitles: Linda Hoaglund with Judith Aley.