Arcade

    BENZ
  Yeah?  They were handing these out at
  Dante's.  Test marketing it or something.
  Gonna have a demonstration today.

    STILTS
  Cool.

    LAURIE
  Can you say anything but "cool"?

    STILTS
  Of course I can.  I can say all sorts of
  things...

    GREG
   (annoyed)
  Guys...

Benz pulls back the flyer and looks at it again.

    BENZ
  So how 'bout it?

    NICK
  I'm game...
   (to Greg)
  Greg?

Greg turns to Alex.

    GREG
  Come on.  We'll hit Dante's after school,
  try the game out, maybe get some dinner.

    ALEX
  And then keep on driving?

    GREG
  Sure.  Never come back.  Disappear forever.

    LAURIE
   (nodding)
  I could go for that.

Alex laughs.  Laurie took the words right out of her mouth.

        CUT TO:

EXT.  DANTE'S INFERNO -- DAY

The Inferno is a run-down video arcade near the beach, notable because the
games it sports are generally defective and out of date.  Nevertheless,
it's become our group's hang-out.  It has its charms.

A huge mural, chipped and faded with age, adorns the front of the
arcade...something straight out of Hieronymus Bosch. Demons in day-glo.
The yawning mouth of an enormous devil surrounds the entrance.

ALEX AND THE OTHERS

pull up across the street, caravan style.  Greg and Alex are in one
car...an ancient Buick Skylark.  No Honda Accords or VW Rabbits for this
group.

At the moment, there's quite a bit of activity at the Inferno's entrance.
KIDS are clustered around and Slip-Stream employees are passing out Arcade
promo sheets.

THE GROUP

heads for the entrance, plowing their way through the crowd.  Stilts and
Benz have their skateboards, jumping up onto the curb with them, then
popping them up into their arms.

INT.  DANTE'S INFERNO -- DAY

Inside, the Inferno is a mishmash of video games, ancient carnival props
and old horror movie posters.  Dusty, creepy under the right circumstances
and filled with leering faces...  in short, any kid's bedroom taken to a
horrific extreme.  At Dante's Inferno, they've got the latest games side
by side with chestnuts like Pac-Man.

THE GROUP

makes their way inside, joining a cluster of KIDS in the center of The
Inferno.  And there it is...

ARCADE

It looks out of place in the midst of The Inferno.  Shiny black,
high-tech, and almost self-contained, like some sort of space-age vertical
coffin.  Laser-etched graphics on the sides bear the ARCADE logo and the
same strange, frightening face.

Alex and her friends are suitably impressed, most notably, Nick and Benz.

    BENZ
  Check it out...

    STILTS
  Definitely cool.

Nick is silent, letting his eyes explore the machine.  He turns to Greg
and grins.

    NICK
  Super computers, micro-processors... That's
  the future we're looking at.

Another kid, DELOACH, pushes his way to the front of the group.  His
fighting a losing battle against acne.

    DELOACH
   (looking around)
  So how come they're previewing it in this
  shit-hole?

    STILTS
  If you weren't such a dick, you'd know what
  a cool place this was.

    DELOACH
  Gimme a break, they got fucking Space
  Invaders here.  That's shit's for retards.

    STILTS
  So...are you trying to say I'm retarded?
  Is that what you're implying?

    DELOACH
  No, but since I'm standing here, I'm
  noticing that you're an ugly little fuck
  and you're making me sick...

That's it for Stilts.  He launches himself at DeLoach, catching him off
guard and KNOCKING him to the floor.

Nick, Alex, and Greg are on them in a minute, trying to extract the two
from each other.

A LARGE MAN

pushes his way towards them and effortlessly scoops both boys up, wrapping
a beefy hand around the scruffs of their necks.  This is FINSTER, the
proprietor...enormous, bald, and always irritable.

    FINSTER
   (shaking them)
  Cut it out!!!

His face contorts and he spits as he speaks.  Nice guy. Alex steps
forward, always the voice of reason.

    ALEX
  It's okay, Mr. Finster...

    FINSTER
  No it's not.
   (to the boys)
  You guys are shits and I'm throwing you out.

    DELOACH
   (acting tough)
  Your place sucks.  Who gives a shit about
  "ARCADE" anyway?

    VOICE (O.S.)
   (booming, metallic)
  WHAT DID YOU SAY?

Everyone turns.  The voice came from...

ARCADE

It's up and running now.  The inside panel emits an eerie green light.
From speakers inside the compartment we can here BREATHING...the same
breathing we heard earlier. Coming from a machine like this, it's creepy
as hell.

Even Finster is impressed.  He releases the boys and stares at the
machine.

    LAURIE
   (a whisper)
  Jesus...

    ANOTHER VOICE (O.S.)
  Not bad, huh?

A MAN steps out from behind the ARCADE machine.  He grins happily, dressed
to kill, sporting a SLIP-STREAM ID tag. This is DIFFORD, P.R. man for
SLIP-STREAM.

    DIFFORD
  Hi, kids.
   (nods)
  Mr. Finster...

The ARCADE machine continues to breathe, inhale, exhale... The eyes in the
face are glowing now, in unison with the breathing.

Difford draws closer and indicates the machine behind him with a nod.

    DIFFORD
   (smooth as silk)
  We're glad you people could make it, and
  we're anxious to have you try out our new
  product.  We think it's going to be a big
  seller.  But you're the people that make it
  happen.  You're the market share everyone's
  tearing each other apart to get at.  It's
  your opinion that's going to make or break
  us.

    NICK
  So what's so different about Arcade? You
  guys've been talking about it for months.

Difford turns to Nick and salutes him.

    DIFFORD
  A man after my own heart.  Straight to the
  point.
   (to everyone)
  What's different about ARCADE is the way it
  reacts.  It responds like a human does.  It
  learns.  It adapts. Each time you play, it
  changes its strategy.

    NICK
  That's impossible.

    DIFFORD
   (taking the bait)
  Is it?  Why don't you see for your self?

Difford reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out a quarter.  He tosses
it at...

NICK

who snags it out of mid-air and grins.

    GREG
  Go for it, Nick.

Difford steps aside and waves Nick to the machine.  The rest of the kids
crowd around.

ARCADE

isn't just your typical video game.  First of all there are three
screens...front, left, and right...which provide a panoramic view while
playing.  Second, the player wears "data gloves" (which provide an actual
sensation of touch) and stereoscopic goggles which in turn are wired
directly into the machine.  The results give the user the feeling that
he/she has actually entered the video game universe.

Difford thinks he has a hit on his hands, and his excitement shows.

    DIFFORD
   (indicating equipment)
  The CyberGloves are keyed into the game's
  response mechanism.  You'll be able to pick
  things up inside the world...tools, weapons
  ... it'll feel like they're really in your
  hands...

Nick pulls on the gloves, securing them with velcro straps.

    DIFFORD
   (continuing)
  The goggles heighten the experience. When
  we said "Reality will never be the same",
  we weren't kidding.

Difford places the goggles on Nick's face.  Then he points to the control
board, which features two joy-sticks and a large RED BUTTON labeled
"ESCAPE".

    NICK
   (skeptical)
  "Escape"?

    DIFFORD
  In case things get too intense.  It
  automatically freezes the game, gives you a
  breather.  Things can get pretty wild...

    BENZ
   (scoffing)
  Nick won't need it.

    DIFFORD
  You're good, eh?

    NICK
   (grins)
  The best.

Nick winks at Alex and Greg.

    NICK
   (to Difford)
  So what's the scenario?  Am I saving a
  princess?  Fighting Zombies?

    DIFFORD
  It changes.  There are eleven levels. Each
  one is a different layer of the ARCADE
  universe.  The concept is, you're entering
  the video game itself, making your way
  across the circuit board to the logic core
  ... ARCADE's brain.

    NICK
  So how do I start?

    DIFFORD
  The game will guide you.

Nick turns back to the machine and pops the quarter into the coin slot.
He punches the "START" button on the top of one of the joy-sticks.

Immediately the screens come to life.  Darkness with shooting stars of
light racing back and forth.

ON SCREEN

A three-dimensional computer-generated FACE appears out of the darkness,
spinning in from far away and coming to rest.

    ARCADE
  I AM ARCADE.
   (breathing)
  YOU WANT TO PLAY GAMES?  YOU PICKED THE
  WRONG MACHINE.

The crowd of kids is suitably impressed.  Even Alex is amused.
So far, so good.

    ARCADE
  WHAT'S YOUR NAME?

    NICK
  Nick.

    ARCADE
   (almost contemptuous)
  NICK.  KISS REALITY GOODBYE.

SUDDENLY,

A LIGHTBEAM above the video screen illuminates Nick's face.

    LAURIE
   (concerned)
  What's it doing?!

    DIFFORD
  Memorizing Nick's features.  Watch.

ON SCREEN

the face of ARCADE spins away and a computer-generated figure appears,
complete with a pixel-rendered version of Nick's face!

VIDEO NICK

is dressed in futuristic armor with exaggerated CyberGloves and a full
helmet on instead of goggles.  He also wears elbow and knee pads and
carries a thrasher in his hands, sort of a cross between a souped-up
skateboard and the Silver Surfer's board.  It's his means of
transportation.

The screen prints out:  "NICK.  ENTER THE VORTEX".

VIDEO NICK

hops onto the thrasher.  Abruptly the world around him begins to spin, and
Video Nick is shooting a curl, a whirlpool of light...down, down, faster
and faster, until...

BOOM!  Empty space and video Nick is falling towards a circuit grid.  It's
the electronic universe rushing up to meet him...

    ARCADE
  ONE WORD OF ADVICE, NICK.  YOU SPEND TOO
  MUCH TIME IN ONE PLACE, AND I SEND OUT THE
  SCREAMER.  YOU DON'T WANT TO BE AROUND WHEN
  THAT HAPPENS.
   (laughs)
  SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE.

ON SCREEN

Video Nick plummets from the sky like a meteor, slamming into the ground
with an explosion of dust.  The dust clears.

Video Nick is standing on an eerie plain, with strange reed-like plants
dotting the ground and mist coiling around everything.  It looks like
Earth, and yet...it doesn't.