All right, you see the Big Dipper?

Now, keep going up
to those two stars up there

along that same line
that sort of form the handle of the pan.

Uh-huh.

Keep going up.
It's the first star that you see.

- All right, got it.
- That's it.

That's DX3906.

That's not DX3906.

Yeah, it is. The Stars Our Destination
people pointed it out in their telescope.

No. No, that's... that's not it.

It is. As soon as the paperwork came in,

I checked its position
against the IAU designation.

Fuck. Did I get the parallax wrong?

Dude, how the fuck would I know
which one is DX3906?

- You're an arsehole.
- No, no, no.

That's DX3905.

You're a fucking arsehole.

Oh shit.

How far away?

Four hundred and 1.5 light-years.

Think about the light
Jin's star is emitting right now.

I mean, by the time it gets here,
the San-Ti will be here too.

Don't ruin it.

It's actually kinda red.

That's why I picked it.

Visible to the naked eye.

I wanted her to be able
to look into the night sky and say,

"That one is mine."

It feel good doin' something that crazy?

Spending 19 million on--

Nineteen point five.

And yes, it did.

Couldn't think of any better place
to put that money?

Nope.

You know,
you could just tell her it was you.

- I'm not telling her.
- If you did--

- I'm not telling her.
- But you never know.

You're not fuckin' telling her either.

You have to swear someone
to secrecy before--

Promise me you will never tell her.

Whatever, dude.

Will.

Will? Hey. Wake up, bud. Come on. Wake up.

Will? Will!

You're there now, right?
How's he doing?

- He's good.
- Yeah?

Yeah. In fact,
he's better than good.

Hey, Will. Check this out.

Look who it is.
He's as high as Willie Nelson right now.

You're as high as Willie Nelson.

Hey.

Hi, Jin.

Hi, Will.

How you feeling?

"No immediate danger."

That's what the doctor said.

"No immediate danger."

How many people can say that for sure?

- Hey, not me.
- Oh!

- This is a really good room.
- Yeah.

Fuck.

- Look at this.
- No. Don't touch that.

- Wow.
- Look.

- All for me.
- You deserve it.

- 'Kay. Get some rest, okay?
- Yeah.

You get some rest.

All right, buddy.
She's gonna get some rest.

Yeah. So we're gonna hang here
for a while.

We'll probably watch 'Rick and Morty' later.

- Cool.
- So, um...

Uh, come when... come when you can.

- Uh...
- Yeah, I will.

Thanks, Saul.

See ya.

Something came for you.

Fuck me.
Aren't those insanely expensive?

No sign at all who it's from?

- Nope.
- Uh...

Well, you've had
lots of fancy suitors, I'd imagine.

I have.

- But none with that kind of money.

I haven't known anyone
like that since Jack.

Maybe Wade gave it to you.

And why would he do that?

Because he fancies you.

- Oh, come on.
- No, you come on.

Jin, you seem to be in denial
about how weird this is.

This is weird?

This is maybe the 28th weirdest thing
I've seen this month.

Adjust your weirdness horizons.

Some crazy-rich person bought me a star,
or someone's taking the piss.

Almost certainly
someone's taking the piss.

Either way,
I don't have time to worry about it.

This is stupid. No one owns a star.

Well, according to these documents,

you are the legal owner
of star number DX3906.

For many years now,
Dr. Demikhov has been doing good work

keeping things alive
under extreme conditions.

- Uh, Dr. Cheng?
- Mm?

Something to say?

Well...

We were just wondering
if we belong in this meeting.

Traveling 1% of light speed,

how long will it take the Staircase probe
to reach the San-Ti fleet?

Two hundred years.

And what will happen
to the probe's occupant during that time?

- Death.
- See?

You do belong in this meeting.

It's been a long struggle
with many setbacks, but we've done it.

Is it alive?

He's not dead. He's not alive.

He's... somewhere in between.

For a month now.

How long
can he stay that way?

As long as we like.

Kolya's cells have been flushed
with an antifreeze cryoprotectant

and cooled to minus 150 degrees.

Slowed down a thousandfold
but not stopped.

If it works for Kolya,
it will work for a person.

Hello, Kolya.

Mm-hmm.

Say hello, Kolya.

Good boy.

Kolya.

Touch the orange square.

- Ah.

Not yet.

Touch the circle
with four squares inside it.

Good boy, Kolya.

It's a typical side effect.

There it is.

- Our ticket to the end of the world.

The Doomsday Express
just pulled into the station.

You can all queue up behind me.

I thought
this was about the passenger.

- You're going into hibernation?
- As soon as I can.

- Who's gonna run things here?
- I am.

I'm gonna wake up for a week every year,
fix the fuckups, visit Mum,

hire people, fire people, go to Wimbledon,
and then go back under.

For 400 years?

Someone has to welcome them
when they arrive.

Someone has to keep the plan on track.

You could just train someone
to run Staircase.

Staircase is a project, not a plan.

Even you could run that.

There are dozens of people
who could oversee the project.

There's only one person on Earth
can oversee the plan.

On Earth? That's a bit much.

Aristotle thought false humility
was just as bad as arrogance.

Aristotle thought rocks fell down instead
of up because they loved the ground.

Why only you? Why not someone else?

No one else can handle it.

What is this plan, this amazing plan,
that no one else but you can handle?

Only advance.

- I don't know what that means.
- You will when you get there.

The future's not as far as it used to be.

Not for us.

The Staircase probe needs a sail.

It's a nanofiber weave,
not the single strand we've made so far.

It's a lot more complicated.

There's also heat
and stress tolerance to be considered,

and the fibers need to connect
the probe to the sail and...

And you can make it work?

I can make it work, yes.

I'm glad you're here.

You know why I started doing this work?

The people I saw around me,
my mother's family...

I saw what the world did to them.

I wanted to build something for them.

I ended up on the wrong side.

You're not on the wrong side.

Soon, we may be faced with a choice.

Leave or die.

Four hundred years is soon?

It's the blink of an eye.

And without the work we're doing,
there won't be a choice at all.

We're building something for everyone.
We're building them a future.

You believe that?

Don't you?

I want to. And some days,
I think it's possible.

And some days, I think the people getting
fucked over will always get fucked over.

They will always be the last in line.

And none of them will get to sail away.

Will?

Will?

Wilbur?

Will, can you hear me?

Will?

You all right, love?

How'd you know I was here?

The hospital contacted us.

Roxanne is down as your next of kin.

How you feeling?

Well, I'm dying. So, there's that.

It's been a while.

It has. I know.
Um, we feel bad about that.

We do.

You know, Will, my job took us
to Spain and then Dubai.

You didn't much like it abroad?

Well, in the world of digital marketing,
it can get very political very fast.

I mean, it's not about your skills.
It's all about playing the game.

Yeah, it's probably the same
in what you do, Will.

Physics and that.

You were always the smartest one.

That's why Mum and Dad sent you
to public school and uni and more uni.

But you never got where you belonged
because you're not a game player.

I got exactly where I belonged.

I didn't get any further
because I wasn't smart enough.

Well, you were smart enough
to do almost anything.

You could've gone to work in the city.

You could've started your own business.
You were the smartest person we knew.

I didn't get to do physics.

I had to go off
and do waitressing and filing and--

Well...

We want to start a family, Will.

We want to be able to buy a home.

Look, we haven't been
what we should have been to each other.

I know that,
and I take my portion of the blame for it.

What's happened to you is fucking unfair.

And fucking terrible.

But it's happened.

And you said yourself, you're dying.

So we came to... to ask you,
since you don't have anyone--

Who says I don't have anyone?

- Well, do you?
- I might.

- What if I love somebody?
- Well, whoever she is--

Maybe it's a he.

Whatever. I...

I don't care what they are.

If you have someone,
you haven't had them for long.

And we're your family, Will.

Maybe not the best family, but...

here we are.

And whatever Mum left you,

it should go to us.

You're right.

My life didn't amount to much.

I never loved anybody who loved me back.

Whatever Mum left me is yours.

I won't touch a penny of it.

We needed 1,000 bombs for Staircase.

We've got just over 300.
We're not getting any more.

The smallest hibernation rig
I can supply weighs over a ton.

If we want to accelerate the probe
to the required speed,

with the propellant available to us--

The heaviest payload it can carry
is under two kilograms.

That's a very small person.

I would say a person is
the ever-changing pattern

dancing through the neurons
of their brain.

If that exists, the person exists.

We would, however, have to remove
that brain from their skull.

It'll be enough for them
to rebuild the rest.

If they do, we have a man on the inside.

Sorry. Are we talking about
killing someone for this?

And we weren't before?

San-Ti.

Hello out there.

In here.

Wherever your Sophons may be.

You've read Wikipedia.

You know all about Genghis Khan,
QAnon and 'The Tale of Genji'.

and the President of Bolivia
and Bob Seger,

but you don't know
what it feels like to be us.

All that we are is up here.

What's going on up here
and here, that's humanity.

You want to understand us?

You'll need to get your hands or tentacles
or whatever the fuck appendages you have

on the thing itself.

Don't worry. We'll send you someone smart.

You need someone who actually understands
the people who make decisions around here.

Someone who can learn about you.
Someone like the people in this room.

What about it?

I'll go.

- Who are you?
- Edgar.

Don't be a retard, Edgar.
I'm talking about serious people.

What about it, serious people?

Who wants to meet the enemy? Hmm?

Hmm? Course not.

You have too much to lose.
You don't wanna go.

And I wouldn't let you.
You're all too valuable.

But we need someone who knows
about physics, chemistry, rocket science.

Someone who's willing to die.
Likely for nothing.

Which probably means
someone who's dying already.

Any of you know
someone of that description?

It's fucking barbaric.

We need the Staircase Project.

Propulsion, cryogenics, material sciences...

It'll shoot us forward
two generations in all of them,

even if it's a failure.

But we need a reason
for the project to exist,

and the person inside--

The severed fucking head.

The person inside is that reason.

Your friend Will is that reason.

And if they find him, he can learn about
things we wouldn't know otherwise

before they get here and it's too late.

Only advance.

"Only advance"? What kind
of Magic Eight-Ball shit is that?

It doesn't matter what Will learns.
How could he tell anyone about it?

He seems a smart enough fella.

They're listening to everything.

You can't outsmart them.
You can't plot against them.

Maybe he can.

- No, he can't. That's not who he is.
- I'll chat with him anyway.

Who knows what's going on
in that svelte three-pound brain.

Not you. You don't know him.

That's right. Neither do you.
Or the San-Ti.

Only Will Downing
truly knows Will Downing.

What?

I'm thinking of a number
between one and 1,000.

Do you know what it is?

- No.
- That's right. You don't.

Neither do they.

I have to make a call.

You can't force him into it.

He'd be no use to us if I did.

- We're gonna tell him not to do it.
- You do that.

We'll tell him not to do it.
He'll listen to us.

He'll listen to you. You don't need me.

- Of course I need you.
- I can't stay.

I never should have come to work
for that man. For any of these men.

I fucked up. I need to fix it.

I'm leaving.

So long, boss.

It's Wade.

How can I help you, Mr. Wade?

I have a new project that's going
to require everyone's participation.

Everyone.

I want you to spearhead this project
and bring them all into line.

I'm very busy, Mr. Wade.

Yes. These are busy times.

Tell me about your project.

Have you ever heard the term "Wallfacer"?

Ah.

Heart Snatcher, innit?

You're just button-mashing.
Got to learn some combos.

Hmm.

What's up?

What's "The Great Escape"?

It's my business. Mine and Ally's.

It's legit.
We set up a private limited company.

How'd you do that?
Some lawyers take your money?

A guy on YouTube explained it.
Just go on the website.

We're working on a deck.

"A safe future
for your descendants on Mars

or other habitable planets."

And branding concepts
on the next page.

That's, um...

That design's pretty good.

Classy, right?

Uh-huh.

How's someone going to escape
into outer space for 40 quid a month?

It's like a pension account.

Put in money every month,
and that grows and creates more money.

So the next month, there's
an even bigger pile of money growing.

And, you know, do the maths.

- Did you do the maths?
- Working on setting up meetings.

There's a guy named Denys Porlock
who's interested.

He's legit. Look him up. Denys with a Y.

This is impressive, Reg,
that you've done this all on your own.

I'm impressed.

Yeah?

But it is bollocks.

It's not real.

So help me make it real.

I don't know how.

So, this, all of this, is this real?

Because if this is what real is,
I'm not interested.

In any case,
in the new world we're living in,

I'm afraid I can't afford
to wait any longer.

I wanted to tell you in person.
I feel I owe you that.

I appreciate it, Denys. Thank you.

Surely you understand that.
I have no choice in the matter.

We all have choices.

I've never been less happy
about a business decision,

but the potential for future applications...

I'm doing what I have to do.

By all means, finish your tweet.

Just doing what I have to do.

What I should've been doing all along.

- And I'm taking my work with me.

It doesn't belong to you, Auggie.

It doesn't.

It shouldn't, right?

It can make life better
for the people who need it most.

It shouldn't belong to anybody.

It should belong to everybody.

I'm afraid that's not how it works.

It does if I give it to them.

All of our research,
the specs on our equipment,

our work on upscaling and applications,

all on Wikileaks and arXiv
and a dozen other open-source platforms.

You wouldn't.

I just did.

No one can use it.

It belongs to the company,
and our investors will sue them.

Well, they can use clean room design,
separate their designers from your IP,

and cover their asses
against copyright infringement.

I threw in a guide for that too.

It... it won't work.

Worked against IBM.
Worked against Apple. Worked against Sony.

But go ahead. Sue everyone.

Sue all the governments
of the developing world.

That'll make you popular.

Maybe I'll just start with you.

You'll end up in prison.

Well, they better arrest me fast.
My flight leaves in three hours.

So that's your plan
for your life's work? For your life?

Burn it all down and go and get drunk?

It's not for me.

But...

And that's what she got you, huh?

Yeah.

Did she, um... say where she was going?

No.

So it's all real, then?

- Yeah.
- Fuck.

What's it called again,
Stairway to Heaven?

- The Staircase Project. Yeah.

Doesn't sound real.

None of it sounds real.

Big Eye in the Sky calling us all bugs.

It's science fiction.

Mm.

Fairy tales.

- You still have that?
- Of course.

When did I give it to you?

June 10, 2015,
four days after my birthday.

So, uh, who would this Staircase Project
turn me into?

Maybe some kind of
a 'Sleeping Beauty' character?

Anyway, it's simple.

You tell Wade you're not gonna do it.

1% of light speed?

That's almost 2,000 miles per second.

You always worked big.

No, I didn't come up with it.

I just got the math right.

Oh, that's all.

But it would be an amazing accomplishment.

A historic accomplishment.

Yeah.

Yeah, it would.

But you don't have to worry about that
because we're gonna find someone else.

Who else have you got?

We have options.

I know my main qualification
is that I'm dying,

but you can't just send anyone.

So...

who else is there?

I'm afraid that's classified.

And everything else you've told me isn't?

I'm not supposed to talk about it.

You haven't got anyone.

Well, if you don't have a passenger,
it doesn't really work then, does it?

You always worked big.

I couldn't.

I wanted to, but I couldn't.

- I just didn't have the equipment.
- Stop it.

It's all right.
I've made my peace with it.

But now we could both work big.

Not like this.

What?

Why are you staring at me?

I'm not.

I'm seeing you.

Sometimes, when you're really high,
you see people.

Or maybe it's when you're dying.

But I see you.

And I love you.

And it's all right.

Tell me not to do it, and I won't.

It's all right.

It's Dr. Ye.

I know you don't want to see me.

But I need to speak with you.

He's lost.

What do you care? He's a bug.

Vera knew what you did.

She knew you called them here.

It never made sense,
her killing herself over the work.

She must have come across, I don't know,
an email or text or something.

And she started digging.

She always said you were the smartest one.

I tried to hide it from her.

I wanted to protect her, but I couldn't.

She was smart like you.

She figured things out.

You failed her.

I failed more people than anyone ever.

How can you live with it?

I won't have to much longer.

Why weren't you running
your own lab instead of working at Vera's?

I was good at physics,
but I never loved it.

I suppose that's why
I never amounted to much.

In the end,
we all amount to about the same.

Would you like to hear a joke?

So, Einstein dies.

He finds himself in heaven,
and he has his violin.

He's overjoyed. He loves his violin.

More than physics.

Even more than women.

He's excited to find out
how well he can play in heaven.

He imagines he'll be pretty damn good.

So he starts tuning up,
and the angels rush at him.

"What are you doing?" they say.

"I'm getting ready to play."

"Don't do that. God won't like it."

"He's a saxophonist."

So Einstein stops.

He doesn't play, but it's difficult.

He loves music, and there's actually
not much to do in heaven.

And sure enough,
from high above, he hears a saxophone.

It's playing "Take the A Train."
Do you know that one?

Yeah. I mean, I've heard it.

Einstein knows it too. And he thinks,

"I'm going to do it.
I'm going to play with Him."

"We're going to sound great together."

So he starts playing "Take the A Train."

The saxophone stops, and God appears.

He marches over to Einstein
and kicks him in the balls,

which hurts, even in heaven.

Then he smashes
Einstein's beloved violin to bits.

Eternity without music.

Heaven has become hell for Einstein.

And, as he writhes on the ground,
holding his smashed balls,

an angel comes over
and says, "We warned you."

"Never play with God."

"Never play with God"?

You don't like it?

No, it's... it's not that. It's just...

"Never play with God."

Humor is a very personal thing.

Some people understand it,
and some people don't.

Some jokes are so private,
they only make sense to two people.

But jokes are important.

We wouldn't survive without them.

Don't you agree?

I have to go.

Take care, Saul.

I hope my joke
doesn't cause you any trouble.

Well, your test scores are good,
both cognitive and informational.

No surprise there.

One last thing,

a... formality.

A loyalty oath.

We need you to sign it.

"Henceforth, I swear all my endeavors

shall be to affirm
my loyalty to the human race,

now and into perpetuity,
superseding all other loyalties."

"I shall never knowingly perform any act

or divulge any information that might
cause harm to humanity as a whole."

No. I won't sign that.

Why not?

Because I don't feel
any loyalty to the human race.

So why are you doing this?

Well, I'm dying anyway, right?

Who knows?

They might end up being better than us.

Why would I swear loyalty to us

if they could end up being better?

They're invading us.

They're coming to conquer us.
Most likely wipe us out.

So they say.

And you don't want
to help us prevent that?

Jin thinks it's what I should do.

And I trust her.

If you want me to sign
a loyalty oath to her, then I will.

But to humanity?

No.

Thank you for your time, Mr. Downing.

You're perfect for the Staircase Project.

We'll be in touch shortly
regarding next steps.

Hey!

Why's he perfect for the project?
He wouldn't sign the oath.

He's our man because he's not our man.

He really might not be.

I know. He really might not be.

That's why they'll go out of their way
to pick him up.

This year's cicada swarm
in the United States

is expected to number
in the tens of billions--

- Just like a magic cream.
- Really?

Yeah, it works really well
as a moisturizer...

Now, Julia,
if I can get you to slice

some carrots dice-wise like that...

Like this?

Hello, Tatiana.

I heard you were done speaking to us.

They said you let Evans die.

We were done speaking to him.

But we are not done speaking to you.

What... what am I?

I'm nothing.

A bug.

We know exactly what you are.

You are a part of something
much larger than yourself.

You are a part of us.

And we need you.

Cathay Pacific departure to Beijing,

flight number CX252,
is now ready for boarding.

Passengers are requested
to proceed to gate C11.

Hello. I'm Dr. Ye.

Sorry. Do I know you?

I changed my seat
so we could sit together.

I hope you don't mind.

It will be nice
to have someone to talk to.

Yeah. It's a long flight.

So, Mr. Downing, you have to consent
to the procedure five times.

The questions are designed to avoid
the possibility of accidental consent.

Take as much time as you need.

Thank you.

- This place, it's, uh...

It's nice.

Yeah.

Jin, um...

I told her not to come.

I'm off to Cape Canaveral.

The first ICBM launches are on Friday.

There and in Baikonur and Jiuquan.

The Staircase bombs
will be in place in a few weeks,

and we'll be ready to send
our volunteer on his journey.

Exciting days.

I'll leave you to it.

Oh. I keep forgetting to ask...
did you get a chance to thank him?

In person, I mean.

For your star.

Will gave me the star?

Oh, he didn't tell you.

Yeah, he inherited some money.

It's a worthless piece of paper.

Drop your price and resell it,
or you'll be left with nothing.

- It wasn't. It was the King's Arms.
- No, it was the Eagle and Child.

I'm tellin' you. 'Cause that's when...

Listen. You were talking
to that blonde Christian chick,

who was getting ready
to get very unchristian with you,

until you told her that you thought
C.S. Lewis was a shitty writer.

Oh. And she thought it was disrespectful

because we were in the room
where Lewis used to drink with Tolkien.

- Okay, you're right.
- Thank you.

It was the Eagle and Child.

And he was a shitty writer.

Well...

I'm not getting any younger.

Will.

Okay, but... [hesitates] Seriously...

You need to think this through,
what it means.

You're floating in endless, frozen space.

Not alive, and... and not dead.

Maybe for thousands of years.
Maybe forever.

And completely unaware the whole time.

So, basically dead, which is
what I was gonna be soon anyways.

- No, Will, that's...

That's best-case scenario.

'Cause if they find you,
they'll rebuild you.

And maybe... maybe they just...
they turn you into a program,

and they communicate with you
through an interface.

You can't see. You can't...
You can't hear. You can't feel.

Like an isolation tank.
Question goes in, answer comes out.

Whether you like it or not.

They just read your mind.

So they read 'Diary of a Nobody'.

Then they switch me off,
and we're back to dead.

Okay, but... maybe
it's not an isolation tank.

Will, they want to know everything
about what it means to be a human being.

And maybe the only way for them
to do that is to interact with you.

So they bring you back.

They run experiments on you to learn

how we experience things.

- What makes us happy.
- That's starting to sound pretty good.

What makes us unhappy.

What makes us so unhappy
that it could be used against us.

How do we feel exhaustion?

How do we feel fear?

How do we feel pain?

How do we suffer?

How much can we take?

They can do whatever they want to you.

They can push you to the limit
and past it, but you don't get to die.

If you do,
they'll just bring you back again.

And they can do that for a month.

They can do that for a century.
They can do that for 10,000 years.

Saul, why would they do that?

I don't... I don't fuckin' know. I...

We don't know what they are.

And maybe we can't know what they are.

But compared to us,
it's exactly what they told us.

We are bugs.

Bugs don't know why terrible things
happen to them. They're bugs.

Right? Maybe it's an exterminator.
Maybe it's a science class.

Maybe it's just some nasty little kid
that's ripping their legs off for fun.

Don't try to figure it out.

You just stay away from them.

How many was that?

That's four.

The next one is the last one.

Maybe it won't be as bad as all that.

Maybe it would be like, um...
Like I'm a pet to them.

Or maybe I'll be like entertainment.

What do you do for entertainment?

What's your favorite movie?

'The Shining'.

How many people get this opportunity?

To say a proper goodbye to a good friend.

Not many.

I never had many friends.

But thanks to you guys,
always felt like enough.

Will, I'm...
I'm gonna miss you, man.

Good.

If they bring me back, I'll miss you too.

I can walk from here.

If you don't mind,
could I have a few minutes alone?

Yeah, okay.

- Thank you.
- I'll be up there in ten.

Hello, Dr. Ye.

Tatiana.

It's good to see you.

Where's Officer Collins?

Was that his name?

I thought the Lord was done with us.

Not all of us.

I'm sorry you had to come all this way
to do something I was going to do myself.

No.

- You can't.

It'll be horrible, that fall.

It might not even happen right away.

Please.

I can give you something better.

Something gentle.

Something beautiful.

Can we sit for a moment?

Yes, please.

When I was your age, this was some of
the most beautiful country in the world.

It'll all be better
when the Lord gets here.

I'm sure it will.

Did the Lord tell you
why they sent you to me?

Do you know?

Perhaps it's just your time.

You fulfilled your purpose.

Well.

I'm pleased the Lord hasn't forgotten me.

Yes. Me too.

I wanted to see
one more sunset from this place.

Can we watch it together?

I'd like that very much.

You've worked so hard

for so long.

You deserve a rest.

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