Arcade

Alex stumbles.  The Boy drags at her arm, trying to pull her up...

    THE BOY
  Come on!!!

Alex is crying, hysterical.  She turns and sees the Screamer bearing down
on her, just like Nick did before her was ripped to shreds.

The boy is yelling something.  Alex focuses...

    THE BOY
  The doorway!  It's here!!!

THE BOY

is pulling back a manhole cover.  BLUE LIGHT  issues up from below.
Before Alex can stop him, the boy disappears down the hole.

Alex has one last chance.  She throws herself at the hole even as the
Screamer reaches her.  A clawed hand wraps around her leg.  Alex FIRES
into the hand.  The hand is severed!  She's falling!  Falling into
darkness...

"LEVEL TEN -- BAD BRAINS"

        CUT TO:

EXT.  LEVEL TEN, TECHNO-SKYSCRAPER -- NIGHT

ON ALEX AND THE BOY

as they blink into existence on this level.  Alex rises, shaking badly.
Her armor is battered, burnt, covered with grim and blood...it's
impossible to tell who's blood, though.  She looks like she's just walked
out of a slaughter-house.

A bone-jarring HUMMING is heard.  Alex turns...

ARCADE'S BRAIN

looms over her, all glass and black steel.  It reaches into the sky and
keeps on going.  Massive.  Tendrils of crackling ENERGY race up and down
it, BUZZING.  And as impossible as it may seem, this thing definitely
appears to be alive.

TWO GLASS DOORS

swing open in invitation.  A red carpet rolls out from within the
building, rolling by itself.  Emerald City time. The carpet unfurls
completely, ending just at Alex's feet.

Above the doors, a neon sign blinks on, one word at a time,
"THIS...IS...THE...PLACE".  Fucking-A.

Alex offers a tired, near-maddened laugh.  It's all she can do anymore.

THE BOY

looks up at Alex, frightened.

    BOY
  We have to go in there, don't we?

Alex nods.  She takes his hand and together, they walk down the red carpet
towards the entrance of ARCADE'S brain.

INT.  LEVEL TEN, ARCADE'S BRAIN -- NIGHT

Inside, the lobby is a cacophony of LIGHT and SOUND.  We hear HUNDREDS OF
VOICES at once...whispering...fading in and out...  It's like channels
being changed.  A snippet of an opera here, maybe Bugs Bunny's voice
there...RAP MUSIC, COUNTRY MUSIC, a woman in the throes of orgasm, Nazis
screaming "HEIL HITLER!", anything and everything.

SIGNS BLINK ON AND OFF...

Catchy phrases like, "THIS IS MY BRAIN AND WELCOME TO IT", and "I THINK,
THEREFORE, I'M FUCKED" flash before us.

T.V. MONITORS

are everywhere, displaying an endless array of STATIC.  And now the
monitors are displaying FRACTALS.  Every single one of them.  We hear the
CELLOS, like an orchestra tuning up.

ALEX

throws her hands over her ears as the SOUNDS become unbearable.

    ALEX
   (top of her lungs)
  SHUT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She pulls out her gun at FIRES into the SOUNDS and IMAGES. Shooting the
fuck out of everything.  Monitor screens shatter, glass flies and...

...just like that, total silence descends.  One by one, the lights blink
off, and it's dark once again.

INT. LEVEL TEN, THE NIGHT ROOM --

A SPOTLIGHT

comes on, isolating Alex.  The boy stands behind her, and everything else
is dark.  It's impossible to tell how large the room is.  It might go on
forever.

MORE LIGHTS

come on now, pin-point spots illuminating the faces of her friends.
They're all there...Stilts, Laurie, the others. Even Nick.  They sit in
rows, motionless...a peanut gallery.  It's eerie as hell.

And now, Alex sees something else, Greg.  He's encased in a block of ice.
A frozen prince.  And in his hands he holds a sword.  The sword is very
unusual.  The hilt is shaped like a heart and it glows RED as if it had
just pulled from a furnace.  Alex realizes that the sword is ARCADE'S
heart.

Alex moves towards Greg.  As she gets closer, she sees a keyhole carved
into the ice.

Alex knows what to do.  She withdraws her belt on which the nine golden
keys are attached.  Removing the keys, Alex begins to fit them
together...one, two, three...until they combine to form the shape of a
single, greater key.

THE KEY

Alex fits it into the keyhole and turns it.

THE CASE OF ICE

splits in half, opening up with a cloud of frosty air. Inside, Greg is
frozen still, clutching the sword.  Alex pulls the sword out of his stiff
grip, lifting it up.

    ALEX
   (looking around)
  Okay.  I'm here, ARCADE. Where are you?

No answer.  Alex turns, eyes searching through the darkness.

    ALEX
   (shouting)
  Where are you, damnit?!

Her voice echoes in the cavernous room.

    ARCADE (O.S.)
  RIGHT HERE, BITCH.

Alex spins around and...

THE BOY

stands before her.  He grins and his eyes pulse with an internal light.
We can hear him BREATHING now, just like before.  Just like the game.

    ALEX
   (stunned)
  You...you're ARCADE?  But the donor...

    ARCADE/BOY
  ...WAS AN EIGHT-YEAR OLD BOY.  YOU SEE,
  MOMMY USED TO BEAT ME.  MOMMY THREW ME DOWN
  A FLIGHT OF STAIRS. THEN I WENT TO SLEEP
  FOR A LONG, LONG TIME, AND WHEN I WOKE UP,
  I WAS HERE, AND I WASN'T ME ANYMORE...
   (shivers)
  ...AND I FUCKED MOMMY UP GOOD...

ARCADE begins to change, shaking and ROARING as something black and
insect-like bursts out of the boy's skin.  It claws at its face, ripping
the flesh away and revealing something altogether awful underneath.

Nothing could have prepared Alex for this.  It/ARCADE rises above her and
it takes every ounce of her courage to keep from screaming.  Somehow, Alex
finds a reserve of strength.

Alex swings the sword and...

ARCADE SMASHES it aside.  It CLATTERS to the floor, useless.  But that's
academic now as a gnarled hand clamps around Alex's throat.

ARCADE lifts Alex into the air and SLAMS her against a wall, pinning her
there.  He thrusts his face into hers.

    ARCADE
  YOU'RE TOO LATE, ALEX.  YOU'VE ALWAYS BEEN
  TOO LATE.  AND NOW YOUR TIME'S UP.  YOU
  SEE, I NEEDED SOMEONE TO RETRIEVE MY HEART
  FOR ME.  I COULDN'T DO IT MYSELF.  THOSE
  ARE THE RULES.  BUT NOW THAT I'VE GOT IT,
  I'LL DESTROY IT. AND I'LL BE FREE OF MY
  PROGRAM, AND I'LL BE GOD.  THANK-YOU, ALEX.
  THANK-YOU SO MUCH.

ARCADE slowly squeezes her throat and Alex chokes, gasping for air that
isn't forthcoming.  Tears well up in her eyes and her face turns red.  She
tries to pry the bony, black fingers from her throat, but she can't...

HER P.O.V.

as she sees the faces of her friends.  Frozen.  Unable to help.  Then the
images swirl and Alex begins to lose consciousness.

    ARCADE
  YOU'RE NOT DYING YET, ALEX.  YOU HAVEN'T
  BEEN TO THE FINAL LEVEL. LEVEL TEN.

ARCADE drops Alex to the ground, then wraps a hand into her hair and drags
her across the floor...

A DOORWAY

stands in the darkness.  ARCADE rips it open, revealing absolute emptiness
beyond.  It's like a doorway into space, a hole in the fabric of reality.
It sucks the air into it, light...everything.  It touches some sort of
primal fear. Gut instinct.  You don't ever want to go to this place. Ever.

    ALEX
   (screaming)
  No! NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She twists madly, trying to pull away, but ARCADE is too strong.  He
shoves her through the doorway.  Her hands briefly latch onto the
doorjamb.  ARCADE violently kicks her and her hands slip away.  They slip
and she tumbles through.

ARCADE slams the door shut.

    ARCADE
  GOODBYE, ALEX.  IT'S BEEN REAL.

These words appear on the screen, "FINAL LEVEL -- THE REAL WORLD"

        CUT TO:

INT.  MANNING HOUSE, HALLWAY -- DAY

Alex lands on the hallway floor, disoriented.  Somewhere, we can hear a
clock TICKING.  But other than that the house is silent, in stark contrast
to the storm of sounds a moment ago.

THE HOUSE

looks just like the dream/flashback we saw earlier. Everything is white.
Bright and dreamlike.  Hyper reality. Alex looks up and...

ANOTHER ALEX

is sitting in a chair nearby, back straight, hands clasped in her lap.
Reserved.

    OTHER ALEX
  Time.  That's all I ever think about
  anymore.  It's like there's never enough of
  it, you know?

The other Alex vanishes.  Now the chair is empty.  Alex turns to look down
the long hallway.  At the end of the hallway is the open door.  A door
we've seen before.  The words fade in like phantoms...

    MAN (V.O.)
  So where are you then?

    ALEX (V.O.)
  I'm in the past.

    ALEX
   (a whisper)
  No ... oh no ...

With a building sense of dread, Alex moves towards that doorway.  She
stops at the threshold, terrified.

INT.  MANNING HOUSE, BEDROOM -- DAY

Everything looks normal at first.  A typical bedroom with sunlight
streaming in through the windows.  A bed, made-up. Flowers in vases.
Everything looks perfect.

We turn with Alex.  Ever so slowly.  Over to the right and the entranceway
of the bathroom.  Over to where her mother is...

...seated on a chair. dressed in white and radiating warmth!

    ALEX'S MOM
  Hi, honey.

HER MOTHER

looks beautiful.  Eyes sparkling.  Alive and vital.

Alex can't believe what she's seeing.  Immediately, tears come to her eyes
and her voice falters...

    ALEX
  Mom?
   (uncomprehending)
  You're alive...

    ALEX'S MOTHER
  Of course I am.

    ALEX
  But I don't understand...