The space shuttle Inspire, returns to earth tonight
after 10 days in orbit,
bearing a very unlikely passenger,
Jacob Worthy,
known for both his bestselling nonfiction
and his audacious personality,
became the first author in space on this mission,
It will be interesting to see how his outsider's take on the experience
meshes with the image conscious space program,
JAKE: As the first author in space,
this the part where I am supposed to get all gooey-eyed
and humble,
Look out at that big blue marble
and wax on and on and wonder about secure blessings
of liberty for generations to come,
Sorry, folks,
But, the account of this experience
isn't going to talk about the tranquil sea of space
or the courage of those landed-god pioneers
who explored the unknown,
It's going to be the unvarnished truth,
MAN: Shuttle Inspire, this is Mission Control,
Once you initiate, the burden will last for two minutes and 50 seconds,
Entry interface will occur 28 minutes later,
Now, that's three minutes before communication blackout,
Roger that, Jim,
Tell Cathy to get those ham hocks simmering,
I got a mean craving for some red beans and rice,
Commander McCarty smells home cooking,
I smell a seven figure advance,
Unfortunately, I may have to shatter some illusions
to get there,
It's a dirty job,
but a hero's work is never done,
Jake, I need you to prepare for re-entry,
Time to buckle up,
Whoopie,
And the Inspire is now in its final descent
over the Kennedy Space Center in Florida
All right, we got way too much soup,
So we'll go to instrument approach,
tactical error and application online,
(BEEPING)
Look, your glide slope's just, uh, too steep,
Pitch it up +8 degrees theta,
Runway zone should be appearing
on the top of your combiner,
Prepare to deploy landing gear,
Roger that,
Air speed 300 knots,
altitude 250 feet,
-(ALARM BEEPING) -Control, I am reading hydraulic system one
pressure not available to release,
Uplock hook,
Deploy pyrotechnic initiator,
Repeat,
Deploy pyrotechnic initiator,
-(ALARM BLARING) -Yeah, it won't deploy, Jim,
It's not budging,
Too steep, Inspire,
-(ALARM BLARING) -Okay, okay, uh, ,,
Ears booming, ,,
But, your nose is under the horizon,
Come on, pull up!
Strut failure, Sparks everywhere,
(INDISTINCT CHATTER ON RADIO)
(GASPS)
(SIRENS WALING)
CONTROL VOICE: There is nothing wrong with your television,
Do not attempt to adjust the picture,
We are now controlling the transmission,
We control the horizontal and the vertical,
We can deluge you with a thousand channels
or expand one single image to crystal clarity
and beyond,
We can shape your vision
to anything our imagination can conceive,
For the next hour,
we will control all that you see and hear,
You are about to experience the awe and mystery
which reaches from the deepest inner mind
to The Outer Limits,
CONTROL VOICE: It is said that those who survive a brush with death,
see the world anew,
But what if that second chance,
became a second life?
Welcome back, Jake,
How you feeling?
Like hell, (GRUNTS)
Where am I?
It's our debriefing center,
outside Seattle,
What happened?
The shuttle exploded when it attempted to land,
Exploded?
That's right,
What about the crew?
I, ,, I'm afraid we lost them,
Everyone?
Afraid so,
How did I get out alive?
We're still trying to sort it out,
You walked out of that fire
but other than being covered with soot,
there were no broken bones, no lacerations, no injuries of any kind
as far as we can tell,
You collapsed shortly after walking away from the wreckage
and you've pretty much been asleep for the last 48 hours,
Nothing short of a miracle, Jake,
Don't talk to me about miracles,
What the hell happened?
AGENT: Well, I am afraid we don't have an easy explanation,
That's why you're here,
So as soon as you're up to it, we would like to begin the debriefing,
De-briefing? What?
Why am I in isolation?
What am I, quarantined?
No, it's just a routine precaution,
Nothing showing up on our preliminary tests,
Well, I have got to get to New York, okay?
My editor is expecting pages,
Well, nobody is going anywhere
until Dr, Bader here certifies that you're safe to go home,
So in the meantime,
we'd like to see about getting some answers,
JAKE: It's been days, When do I get out of here?
AGENT: Just, uh, try to relax, Mr, Worthy,
Oh, yeah!
Yeah, right, I'll relax, What are you people? Crazy?
I don't even have a phone, Even a prisoner gets a phone call,
-So, Jake, -(DR, BADER SIGHS)
Let's talk about the mission,
Do you remember an electrical disturbance
that happened on the second day out?
What?
The blackout,
The instruments went haywire for a couple of minutes, ,,
We lost contact with the shuttle,
(CHUCKLES) Oh, right, Yeah, the uh, ,,
Commander said something about hitting an electromagnetic field,
but I am the last one you ask about whatever the hell that was,
Well, at this point, I am afraid you're the only person
that we can ask,
(GROANING)
God!
Are you all right, Mr, Worthy?
JAKE: Yeah,
It's these migraines, I feel like somebody's
lobbing grenades around inside my skull,
The nurse will give you something for it
as soon as the debriefing is over,
This electrical disturbance
what does that, what does that have to do with
whatever happened to me?
We think that there may have been far more serious damage to the shuttle systems
than we had first anticipated,
The navigational controls,
the landing gear, both malfunctioned on re-entry,
Well, that sure as hell doesn't explain
how I survived a blast like that, does it?
No, it doesn't,
The NSA is expecting me
to report on your preliminary findings by 2200,
What am I supposed to tell them?
A man walks through an inferno hot enough to vaporize exotic alloys
with nothing but dehydration and crushing migraines to show for it,
I cannot offer you a scientific explanation
because there is no scientific explanation,
Couldn't something have happened in the explosion itself,
something that shielded him from its fury?
What are you not telling me?
Jake Worthy was given an exhaustive physical before the mission,
just like the rest of the crew,
Dr, Bader can tell you there was nothing abnormal
about the man that we sent up there,
And now?
There were second and third degree burns
that were observed by the emergency workers on the ambulance,
By the time they got to the ER, they were gone,
The skin was virtually unblemished,
DR, BADER: I'm reluctant to speculate,
but somehow his body's natural healing properties
have, uh, accelerated,
Gentlemen, I don't need to tell you
the potential significance of all this,
If you would just allow us to complete our test
before making any report to the National Security agency,
I can stall them a day,
Maybe two,
But eventually, this is going to the president,
Ah, Mr, Worthy has a visitor,
It's his ex-wife,
I don't think we want him talking to the public just yet,
We can make it clear to Jake
what the perimeters are and we can monitor his conversation,
I suggest it would lessen press speculation
if we allow some limited contact with the outside world,
I'll need approval,
(DOOR OPENS)
ALEXIS: Hello, Jake,
Well, I'll be damned,
How are you, Alexis?
The question is how are you?
Well, I have always been able to walk on water,
I guess, I am just, ,,
,, , expanding my repertoire,
I wasn't even going to watch the landing,
I was afraid that you might say something to the press you'd regret,
Moi?
It was so terrifying,
I sat there and came apart at the seams,
It was like losing Timothy all over again,
Yeah, well,
at least this time God picked on someone his own size,
It wasn't always like this,
When Timothy was alive and I could drag you away from your work,
Yeah, well, it was my work that
put food on our the table, Do you remember?
I never said you weren't a good provider,
No, just a cold unfeeling son of a bitch, right?
I don't believe that for a minute,
Do you want you know what I really think?
I think that if you had let yourself grieve
after we lost Timmy, ,,
I'll tell you what, Alexis, if I want advice
on how and when to grieve, I'll give you a call, okay?
I guess I'll go now,
What is it, Jake?
Headache, I'll get over it,
(GROANING)
You said you were going to teach me how to ride,
(INDISTINCT VOICES)
TIMOTHY: You said you were gonna teach me how to ride,
(LAUGHING)
(INDISTINCT VOICE)
(VOICE ECHOING) Dad, Daddy!
(PANTING)
(EXHALES)
(COMPUTER BEEPING)
(JAKE SIGHS)
Good morning, Jake,
Huh?
I said good morning,
Yesterday you were ravenous, today you haven't touched your breakfast,
That's not true,
I had a banana,
And an entire shaker of salt,
No ill effects?
No,
What about the headaches?
They're getting worse, I hope you got something stronger,
I'll talk to Dr, Bader,
Okay,
Well, that was, uh, quite a creative spurt last night,
I was delirious,
My fingers ran away with me,
So you have no idea what significance
those symbols or those numbers had?
No, Why, do you?
No, it's just that you were very prolific,
It was over 100 pages,
And, uh, ,, What about the drawings?
I was doodling and that's what came out,
When do I get out of this fish bowl?
Listen, Jake, I was wondering
if you would be up to seeing someone?
Is this where you roll out the head shrinkers?
It's Commander McCarty's widow,
Great,
Mr, Worthy, they don't want me to stay very long,
I just wondered
during the mission, if Phil said anything,
anything personal about me or Grady?
To be honest with you, I, uh, ,,
I spent most of my time on my journals,
I was busy writing,
So I don't think your husband and I
exchanged more than half a dozen words,
I see,
Oh,
I don't know maybe if I, ,,
Yeah, he did say something about, um, ,,
,, , your son and what a handsome boy he was,
And he got his looks from you,
You didn't have to make it up,
Excuse me?
Grady was adopted,
Phil never would have said that,
It didn't have to be much, I just wanted something small,
something true, something, ,,
,, , that I could hang on to,
I didn't ask to be the one who survived,
Well, they tell me that it all happened so fast
that he didn't feel any pain,
I am grateful for that anyway,
My son,
our son,
he wants to go up there like Phil,
That's what kids do, they dream,
(VOICE BREAKING) I don't know what to tell him,
I couldn't bear to lose him,
Could you imagine what that would be like?
Yes, I think I can,
As soon as I finish this EEG, I'll give you an injection for those migraines,
I was gonna suggest the guillotine,
(KEYBOARD CLACKING)
You always dress like this for inoculations?
The word around here is you're pretty special
I could have told you that,
(MACHINE BEEPING)
What is it?
Nothing, It's just your brain activity,
I don't think I have seen the needles jump like this before,
Better than being brain dead, I suppose,
(CHUCKLES SLOWLY)
The lump,
I'm sorry?
The small lump on your left breast,
It's a fluid filled cyst,
It's completely benign,
-(GASPS) -(OBJECTS CLATTER)
Years ago, the French government funded research
into what was known as the Pre Aura project,
It applied electromagnetic energy
into the terminal tumors of laboratory animals,
Now, by altering the electrical currents within cells,
there were able to time reverse them back
to an earlier state, to a healthy state,
Of course, that explains his cravings for salt,
And potassium rich food like bananas,
All of it increases the conductivity of his blood,
Something occurred during that brief electromagnetic event
on the second day of the Inspire's mission,
Something that, that altered Jake Worthy's body,
You're telling us that his body uses electrical currents
to heal itself?
Reduced to its essence, yes,
And it may have altered more than his body,
My nurse tells me that he diagnosed a medical condition in her
that she only just confirmed with her doctors,
(GROANING)
(TIMOTHY SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)
I meant to teach you to ride a bike, I swear to God,
DISTORTED VOICE: Daddy,
(ALL LAUGHING)
TIMOTHY: Daddy!
Daddy! Daddy!
(VOICE ECHOING) Daddy!
(MUFFLED) Hey!
Let me out of here!
You hear me?
I can't take it!
I can't take it anymore!
(ALARM BLARING)
I can't see him,
-(JAKE GRUNTING) -(GROANING)
(ELECTRICITY CRACKLING)
You're telling me he survived a hit of 50, 000 volts?
If there is one thing we learnt, General,
is that Jake Worthy appears to be impervious to physical injury,
(DOOR OPENS)
What about his state of mind?
I'm afraid we can't be definitive, General,
We know that if he tries to harm himself
he won't be successful,
for reasons that are all too obvious,
More to the point, is he a threat to the others?
Ask the security guard he knocked unconscious,
(EXHALES)
I warned them about using civilians on these flights,
Who knows what he'll say to the press,
Can you imagine the panic he will create?
(SIGHS)
Now what do we know for certain about this phenomenon
you have documented?
That it defies all reason,
The real problem is that without further tests
we could never fully understand
how he could be altered so profoundly,
I want Worthy found and brought back,
I'll authorize whatever manpower is required,
Just get the man back,
(DOOR OPENS)
JAKE: Sorry to bother you, Mrs, McCarty,
Mr, Worthy? My God, what happened?
May I?
No one can know I am here,
so I'd appreciate it if you didn't call USAS,
CATHARINE: What's this about?
I'm scaring you, I don't mean to,
No, it, ,,
-They must be looking for you, -This will just take a minute,
Um, ,,
I feel like our conversation wasn't finished,
To be honest I was, uh, ,,
I was completely insensitive, I had no right to patronize you,
You asked an honest question
and you deserve an honest answer,
Um, ,,
You're husband told me a story,
The night before the crash,
I put it out of my mind because I was jealous, I was angry,
Really, I was angry
that he had a wife and child to come home to
and all I had was an impatient editor
and a bunch of so called friends,
who loathe me as much as I loathe them,
You don't have to do this,
He told me about the night that, ,,
,, , he told you he was picked for the assignment
and how happy you pretended to be,
even though he knew you were dying inside,
And how brave you were,
And how giving,
And that he was one lucky son, ,,
S-O-B,
(CHUCKLES)
That's all,
Thank you, Mr, Worthy,
You're gonna need some clothes,
You can go through Phil's things,
You'd probably need some cash, ,,
Your husband was a good man, Catharine,
Let's see about those clothes,
Audrey, damn it!
Will you stop worrying about how tough things are for you?
I spent the night on the street, Remember?
Audrey, listen to me,
You're my editor, Listen to me!
If I can get all of this down on paper,
I am going to blow the roof off of the publishing industry,
I am telling you, ,,
No, I can't, ,, (SIGHS)
I can't come to New York, Audrey!
They're all over the place, They're after me!
That's what I'm trying, ,,
Audrey, listen to me,
Something is happening to me, something I don't understand,
I don't know, It's like, uh, ,,
It's like I'm being watched,
it's like I'm being observed, I don't know,
Like I'm being judged, ,,
,, , from the inside, I don't, , ,
Look, I can't explain it,
I know it sounds crazy, but it's happening!
You gotta trust me on this,
No, no, no, no, no,
I will call you,
LANDLORD: Rent's paid by the week,
We don't allow any loud music,
or pets,
or any kind of carrying on,
I just need a quiet place to work,
What was it you said you did?
I'm a writer,
Okay,
Uh, sheets and towels, pillow cases, uh,
kitchen things,
You got pretty much everything you need,
(GROANS)
Are you okay?
Yeah, I'm fine,
(CLOCK TICKING)
What am I doing? Why am I doing this?
Why did I call Catharine McCarty?
(SIGHS)
Why the hell were my wisdom teeth extracted without anesthetic?
I'd apologize to someone for being callous,
That's who I am for God sake!
It's always been that way, Jake Worthy against the unworthy,
the undeserving, the unwashed,
(BREATHS DEEPLY)
What's happening to me?
It's unreal, it's a fever, it's a sickness,
It's a nightmare, That's what it is,
And I am going to wake up,
God help me if I don't,
(SIREN BLARING IN THE DISTANCE)
(JAKE GRUNTS)
(GROANING)
(GRUNTS)
It's not the technology that makes these things go,
it's not the gizmos,
It's the humans, Flawed as they may be,
(ELECTRICITY CRACKLING)
(MACHINES BEEPING)
What the hell is going on?
(CHOKING)
(ECHOING) The instruments are going crazy!
(MACHINES BEEPING)
(BEEPING STOPS)
Okay, we're back online,
JIM: (ECHOING) Give me a full system status,
McCARTY: You, okay, back there, Jake?
Yeah,
A-Okay,
(CHOKING)
(GRUNTS)
(COUGHS)
(DOOR OPENS)
JAKE: Here,
Let me help you with that,
I'm telling you, Audrey,
This thing, it's making me crazy,
I see a kid on a bicycle,
I turn into a blubbering idiot,
I'm helping old ladies with their groceries,
Does that sound like the man you know?
(SIGHS) I can't control my thoughts,
I can't control my actions,
It's turning me inside out,
(SIGHS)
(MAN SHOUTING)
Hey, stop!
MAN: Jake! Jake!
Just me your money!
(WHIMPERING) Don't hurt me!
(GRUNTING)
Please help me,
It's all right, We are going to get you help,
You're going to make it, You hear me?
How did you do that?
We got a lead on our man,
He made a series of calls to his literary agent
from a phone booth in downtown Seattle,
Check in every hotel and flophouse in the vicinity,
General, we've finished running, uh, computer programs
on the electromagnetic event on day two of the mission,
-And? -Well, it didn't show up on the instruments,
but apparently there was a corruption
of the programing's of the onboard computers,
and once the landing routine kicked in,
the air began to compound,
What was it? Some kind of virus?
I don't know, I wouldn't begin to characterize it,
But it just overwhelmed the computers,
And there's ample evidence it may have infected
more than the shuttle's systems,
Dr, Bader believes the transformation of Worthy's body chemistry
may have happened at the very same time,
(SIGHS)
(BEEPING AND WHIRRING)
(CRACKLING)
(GROANING)
ALIEN: It's all right, Jake!
The pain will subside,
(CONTINUES GROANING)
What are you?
A stranger,
Much like you,
(COMPUTER BEEPING)
(CHOKING)
You saved my life,
I was only returning a favor,
I don't understand,
Our ship collided with a meteor,
Our bodies were reduced to electrical impulses,
The others faded into the ether one by one
and I was the last survivor,
I had only hours left when I found your craft,
So you entered my body?
I had no choice,
I would have died without a suitable host,
Why me?
There were six others aboard that craft,
It could have been anyone, You were the nearest vessel,
(CHUCKLES)
I'm going off to deep end,
This isn't happening, You're a figment of my imagination,
I didn't know beings like you were possible either,
So, you entered my body,
you merged with me,
so you could stay alive,
That's right,
But you are not in me now,
No,
So, you don't need me anymore?
The only way I could leave your body
was through the machine we built,
We have a machine, So, you don't need me anymore,
I'll die, Jake,
If it was the machine, I could only exist outside of you for a short while,
I'm not even sure how long I'll live inside of you,
I find, I'm growing weaker by the hour,
Wait a minute,
You're the reason this, ,, This ship crashed,
That electrical disturbance they were talking about, that was you!
I never intended it,
You have to believe me,
Because of you, six people are dead and, ,,
You almost took me as well,
And in weighs upon me more than you could know,
but together we can make amends,
You've already witnessed a miracle, ,,
I hate what you've done, do you understand?
I want my life back,
I wanna be the person I was before you invaded me,
A man who used to care about no one but himself,
I've seen your thoughts,
The anger, the loneliness,
So, that's it,
This guilt, these, ,, These pangs of conscience,
that was made all up, ,,
That's you,
Is that what you believe?
You have no right to take me over!
I'm bleeding,
(GLASS SHATTERS)
-Your powers of healing will disappear, -Good,
I don't wanna be some freak of nature,
You lost your child to cancer, didn't you?
I don't wanna talk about it,
You think about it all the time,
How do you know what I think about?
You don't know anything about me!
Perhaps you're right,
Perhaps I've given you the benefit of the doubt,
Why couldn't I have had the power when it mattered,
when I could save my son's life?
We've both experienced loss, Jake,
My mate,
my child,
both died when that meteor hit our ship,
It was a grief I wish no one else ever has to know,
(MACHINE RATTLING)
(YELLS)
It's overloading! (GROANS)
God Almighty!
-How's he doing? -He's heavily sedated,
Anything turn up on the brain scan?
Yes, and it's quite troubling,
Now, you'll notice the most of the synaptic array reads normal,
That's the blue shades here,
here, here,
And the reddish color?
It's my conclusion Mr, Worthy's neurological engrams
have been hijacked by this, this creature you described,
You're telling us what,
that half his brain
has been taken over by this other being?
Oh, it's more than that,
I believe it's continuing to encroach in every key region,
from the autonomic to motor and the sensory,
to higher cognitive function,
At the rate displacement is occurring,
I would suggest that 72 hours from now,
there'll be no more Jake Worthy,
I can assure you we're not gonna allow things to get that far,
What are you proposing that we do, General?
Find some answers, damn it!
Our best experts have been unable to come up with a reason
for this machine's existence,
We have no idea what the agenda of this creature is!
What we do know, is that it's made the body it's occupied
virtually indestructible!
That's all the more reason to study its incredible properties,
Curing life-threatening diseases, treating injuries,
Don't forget this eerie little sprite of yours
caused a crash that bought down a billion dollar shuttle
and killed most of its crew,
We have no idea what's gonna happen once it gets up ahead of steam,
Worthy will have to be sacrificed so that we can eliminate that threat,
We don't have a whole hell of a lot of choice, do we?
We gotta find a way to reduce the creature in him to dust,
My God! We devote billions in resources,
countless lifetimes of manpower,
in order to look for intelligent life outside our planet,
and what do we do the minute we find it?
We order its destruction!
Look, the MEG gives a pretty good map of the affected areas,
Now, based on that,
I believe that we can selectively target the invading brain activity
with pinpoint radiation,
Now, if my theory is cracked,
we just might be able to rid him of the invader
without irreparable harm,
Theories?
You know what's frightening? Is that nobody can assure me
that we can kill this thing!
But what I do know, is that we've got to try,
(METAL THUDS)
(GASPS)
(SHIVERING)
(SNIFFLES)
ALIEN: Jake,
I'm trapped inside you,
And it's slowly killing both of us,
It's clear now, we can't co-exist,
If you're going to survive this, I've got to die,
He didn't ask for much,
You know, I, ,,
(EXHALES)
He just wanted me to teach about, uh,
how to ride a bike without training wheels,
(SIGHS) I missed his birth because I, ,,
I wouldn't cancel a trip,
Tell me, do I have more of a right to this body than you do?
Listen to me,
We don't have much time,
If you're gonna survive this,
you gotta do exactly as I tell you,
Harold, he's awake, He wants to talk to us,
High intensity meson bombardment to all the, uh, the affected areas,
Well, you should know that, that kind of radiation
holds the risk of serious collateral damage,
Look at me,
It's my only chance,
You have to trust me, it's the only way,
Since when did you become a medical authority, Jake?
Let's just say I was given a crash course,
Why should we believe anything this, this thing communicates to you?
It's benign,
It's more than that, it's good and it's decent,
And it's willing to sacrifice its life to save mine,
We could try a moderate dose of meson radiation,
measure it's effect on the invading engrams and then decide from there,
I won't lie to you, Jake,
if Dr, Bader can't find an effective way to purge this creature,
you are looking at the gravest possible measures,
So I guess I don't have much to lose, do I?
(SIGHS)
Are you ready, Jake?
Hell, yes,
(MECHANICAL WHIRRING)
He's here,
How's he doing?
Jake is doing as well as could be expected,
considering what he's been subjected to,
But even better,
all signs of the invasive brain activity have been eradicated,
You're certain?
Take a look yourself,
Even the moderate dose began to eat away at it, so I went for broke,
The red areas that we determined were the creature's,
are gone completely,
All indications are that the brain, it's back to normal,
Thank God,
The hell we've done the right thing,
I still need one more assurance,
This is gonna hurt, Jake,
God, I hope so,
(JAKE GROANS)
(BREATHES HEAVILY)
No healing, General,
Okay,
But let's give it a few minutes,
It's gone,
I can feel it,
DR, BADER: Oh, my God,
What's wrong?
I just had a scary thought,
What if the electrical activity in the red areas
we assumed were taking over his brain,
were actually Jake's?
What the hell are you saying?
If the creature's synapses were actually in retreat,
then we would have killed off the wrong inhabitant of Jake Worthy's body,
Your father loved you very much, Timothy,
And he missed you,
until the day he died,
Tell me what I have to do,
Buy some time,
I'm dying, Jake,
In two-three days the most,
there won't be a trace of me,
Meson bombardment is the only thing that might bring me back,
But you'll never survive it, Jake,
Never,
I understand,
JAKE: "How do you make up for a life time of mistakes?
"A life of squandered opportunities,
"For once I had to make the right choice,
"to leave behind something that could make a difference,
"That legacy,
"my otherworldly friend,
"that legacy is you,"
CONTROL VOICE: Few of us have the opportunity to truly begin again,
to redress the flaws that tarnish our souls,
But only when we remake ourselves,
can we remake the world,