KNIGHT RIDER 2010
ACT THREE
FADE IN:
EXT. CEMETARY - DAY
A LONG SHOT. In the distance, a barely discernible quintet of white gloved Army officers FIRE OFF A TWENTY-ONE GUN SALUTE to K.D.'s memory. On the echoes of GUNFIRE -
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. SLEAZY MOTEL - DAY
Slats of sunlight stream in through broken venetian blinds imprisoning Lincoln in bars of light and shadow. Stretched out, shirtless, on a narrow mattress that's seen too many noontime trysts, he clutches a tri-folded AMERICAN FLAG
TIME DISSOLVE:
INT. SLEAZY MOTEL - NIGHT
Pulsing neon light streams into the room, altering the cinder blocked cubicle from chiaroscuro to lurid red, blues and greens. Lincoln is passed out on the yellow faded sheets, surrounded by Beer and liquor bottles, the flag still in his arms.
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. SLEAZY MOTEL - NIGHT - LATER
Lincoln eyes open but don't focus. He rolls heavily to a sitting position. He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. He looks around this cage he's made for himself, his eyes settling on -
THE CRACKED BATHROOM MIRROR
From the short distance, he looks at himself, tired, scared and lost.
CLOSER - THE BATHROOM MIRROR
Lincoln hovers over the filthy sink, splashing cold running water on his face. He studies himself, staring at his reflection without recognition. He hasn't shaved in a couple of days, his hair is greasy, his eyes look drawn and empty.
Exhausted with grief, he falls against the wall and slumps onto the floor. He hugs himself in a futile attempt to ward off the shivering chill of loneliness and despair coursing through his body.
EXT. CYBERNET STRIP - NIGHT
OPEN on the flashing multi-lingual neon signs of the Mobius Strip Joints, Keyboard Clubs and Synapseterias, obscured and distorted by a pelting rain. WIDEN TO -
EXT. K.I.T.T. - NIGHT
Neon bounces off its wet surface as it glides silently through the otherwise empty streets of the Cybernet Strip.
INT. K.I.T.T. - NIGHT
Lincoln's hollow eyes are fixed on the white line, oblivious to the wet blur outside the window, reliving again-and-again the most painful moment of his life. He trembles, silently, uncontrollably, then starts to cry.
ON DASHBOARD DISPLAY SCREEN
A flashing message reads: KNIGHT RIDER VEHICLE A.W.O.L. RETURN TO COMMAND CENTRAL IMMEDIATELY.
BACK TO LINCOLN
Off his tearful despair -
CUT TO:
EXTREME CLOSE UP - CLOWN'S FACE
To paraphrase Lon Chaney, even a clown is terrifying in the right light. His features are painted on a white face in colors echoing the lurid hues of neon. Black tear drops stain his cheeks. His maniacal laughter is nearly drowned out by the sound of a sobbing child.
GRANDFATHER (V.O.)
What's the matter? Why are you crying?
WIDEN TO -
EXT. BACK YARD - DAY
Profoundly upper class. Several dozen kids, restlessly entertained by the Clown, run riot across a well-manicured lawn decorated with balloons, crepe paper streamers and picnic tables, covered with presents and birthday cake.
GRANDFATHER (V.O.)
It's your birthday. It's a clown. Have fun.
The FIVE-YEAR OLD BIRTHDAY BOY, frightened by the clown's demeanor, clutches the leg of his GRANDFATHER, the Lee Ioccoca of Intercrime, as a well-dressed Ilya looks on patiently.
GRANDFATHER
Better enjoy yourself now. The real world's a scary place.
The Grandfather kisses his Grandson on the head then sends him off on his way. The Grandfather turns back to Ilya and picks up their conversation right where they left-off -
GRANDFATHER
Our warehouses are three-quarters empty. The Carpasian's way over the line here.
ILYA
I made cigarettes out big-ticket item. I can handle Sergei.
GRANDFATHER
Two dead Knight Riders, a hijacked truck, a ton of inventory down the toilet.
Several screaming kids race between their legs, playing blind man's bluff.
GRANDFATHER
(sarcastic)
You're doing a terrific job, Ilya. Why didn't you come to me sooner? What am I - the bad guy?
ILYA
Why should you be aggravated, too? The smokeasies are my territory.
The Grandfather fires a flinty look at the Clown.
GRANDFATHER
(re: Clown)
I fly this Bozo out here from Ringling's. What the hell am I paying him for?
ILYA
Getting a Knight Rider car is difficult, but not impossible.
GRANDFATHER
Say you get your hands on the car, what's in it for us?
ILYA
Five year's unlimited supply plus a ceiling on price increases - and he shares the technology.
GRANDFATHER
Sergei's a moral cripple. He doesn't share -
In the BG, the Birthday Boy shoves one of his guests out of the way for a piece of cake. The Grandfather's LAUGH cracks the icy atmosphere.
GRANDFATHER
-- any more than my grandson. But I can take it from a five-year old.
ILYA
We're the only game in town. What's he going to do, sell to these street hoodlums?
GRANDFATHER
And all he wants is the car?
There's a slight flicker in Ilya's eyes before he speaks -
ILYA
And the love of a good woman.
The Grandfather chuckles. Unseen by both men, the Birthday Boy makes a mad dash across the lawn with a plate full of ice cream and cake.
GRANDFATHER
What's done is done.
(to Ilya)
Give the Carpasian what he wants.
Suddenly, looking one direction and running in the other, the Birthday Boy collides with Ilya. The ice cream and cake explode like a vaudevillians crème pie at Ilya's mid-section.
GRANDFATHER
So, how about a piece of cake?
Ilya has no choice but to smile. What the “Godfather” wants, the “Godfather” gets.
EXT. CITY STREETS - NIGHT
Twilight envelops the city as Lincoln drives dangerously fast.
INT. K.I.T.T. - NIGHT
The AWOL message continues TO FLASH on the console screen. A distraught Lincoln keys a button on the dash. Nothing. He pokes at another and another.
LINCOLN
(to K.I.T.T.)
Where in the hell is the music?!
No response.
LINCOLN
Silent treatment, huh?
He lurches over and throws open the glove compartment, searching for a mini-compact disc -
LINCOLN
Fine. I'll play my own.
What Lincoln finds instead are -
K.D.'S RED COMPUTER DISKS
containing her dream data. Beat. He realizes what he has and, unconsciously, presses the disks to his lips.
FLASHBACK
The dorm room at West Point.
K.D.
I was thinking -
He stops.
K.D.
-- about our AI project.
LINCOLN
(interrupting)
I always said it'd be easier to cram the computer's personality into your brain than your personality into the computer. I'm going to look for a new subject with some emotions.
He picks up the disk file and tosses it to her.
K.D.
(grabbing it, but not taking his bait)
You'd let four years of hard work go down the drain?
END OF FLASHBACK
DISSOLVE TO:
SECOND FLASHBACK
In Big Al's Alternate Reality Lounge
LINCOLN
I'm not leaving the Knight Riders. I'm leaving you.
A long awkward silence. The light goes on for K.D.
K.D.
(apologetically)
I admit I stink at expressing my feelings. But you know me better than anyone. You've got four years of my feelings on your damn computer. Do I have to spell it out for you?
LINCOLN
She's a poet and she don't know it.
K.D.
Damn you. At least give me credit for trying.
LINCOLN
The car's finished.
OUT of FLASHBACK
INT. K.I.T.T. - NIGHT
It hits Lincoln in a wave of emotion. He keys a button and -
LINCOLN
K.I.T.T., get me 212-555-555-5531
EXT. DOWNTOWN STREET - NIGHT
K.I.T.T. roars through clouds of steam pouring from manhole covers.
LINCOLN (V.O.)
(into phone)
Ju Ju, it's Lincoln…I need a world-class jammer…Who do you know in Southern California who's as good as I am?
INT. BACK ROOM OF AFTER HOUR'S CLUB - NIGHT - ON BIG-SCREEN MONITOR
K.D., in a flowing red lace gown. A strand of pearls appears out of nowhere, drapes around her neck. She is embraced from behind by Lincoln.
The image begins to break up as if frames are missing - Lincoln kisses her throat and - the screen goes blank.
ODYSSEY (O.S.)
That's not a retrieval problem.
CAMERA PULLS BACK from the display monitor to -
LINCOLN
leaning forward in a chair, eyes riveted on the monitor. A world-class jammer, ODYSSEY VANHOOK, stands over his shoulder. He's two hundred plus pounds, with a two hundred plus IQ, crowned with fluorescent dreadlocks, wearing biker colors.
ODYSSEY
Maybe she erased the data. You know women.
CAMERA PULLS BACK WIDER TO -
K.I.T.T.
parked alongside graffitied walls and high-tech, junk shop clutter. Part garage and part bootleg computer lab.
A constant stream of polyglot digitized megamix new wave power pop wafts in under the door.
ODYSSEY
My fourth wife erased my tax records last time I got audited. Said she was doing me a favor. Then, I find out she's got this other guy on the side, figures San Quentin is cheaper than a divorce.
LINCOLN
(determined)
Full image. Fast-forward.
INCLUDE MONITOR
The contact sheet-like image we saw K.D. erasing in the dorm blend together.
These fragmented pictures are replaced by a continuous single image - like watching a video at fast forward.
LINCOLN
K.D. still had her first report card. She'd never erase anything.
ODYSSEY
(skeptical)
You never really know women, until it's too late.
LINCOLN
We were closing in on a flash point, where the computer would take over and begin to behave like K.D. You can have life inside a computer, Odyssey. Face it, your actual physical media is pretty transient - what's reality anyway?
ODYSSEY
Reality is what you make it. Mine changes daily.
LINCOLN
K.D. wanted to understand life from a computer's perspective. You know what I'm saying?
Odyssey notices something flash by on the monitor -
ODYSSEY
Normal speed.
POV - MONITOR
The video returns to normal speed. For the first time intact, we SEE the images that K.D. didn't erase that night at the Point.
K.D. holds out a hand to Lincoln. He takes it.
BACK TO SCENE
Odyssey watches Lincoln's unconscious reaction as he touches the screen. INTERCUT Lincoln watching with -
K.D.'S DREAMS ON THE SCREEN
Lincoln and K.D., dressed in tuxedo and low-cut evening gown, dance against a nearly ethereal backdrop of stars. As the dance becomes more sensuous, WIDEN TO SEE THEM -
Suspended two feet in the air above a satin-sheeted bed. He turns her in midair and their clothing disappears, leaving them streaked in shadow, tastefully concealing and revealing their nudity. The satin sheets rise from the bed, enveloping and drawing them down as they kiss long and passionately.
LINCOLN
We went body-to-body but never head-to-head.
ODYSSEY
It's real hard for some of us to open up.
LINCOLN
It was my problem, not hers.
TIGHT ON LINCOLN
holding K.D.'s red disks in his hand.
LINCOLN
I couldn't open up to let her near my heart.
He slowly spills the disks like coins on the table.
LINCOLN
I put her soul onto a handful of plastic…I was never man enough to have a real relationship with the genuine article.
ODYSSEY
So, you had a fling with her artificial intelligence. Big deal. I do it all the time.
A moment of silence as Lincoln looks from Odyssey to the disks spilled across the table. Slowly, Lincoln rises to his feet, scooping them back into his hand.
LINCOLN
Her body may be dead -
A look of shock, recognition and awareness stampedes across his face.
LINCOLN
-- but K.D. lives.
Off Odyssey's skeptical look -
MONTAGE - A STROBOSCOPIC MTV SEQUENCE
OPEN on Lincoln's hands. With the precision of a brain surgeon, he delicately crafts a gerry-rigged plug assembly from plastic and scrapped wire.
Lincoln and Odyssey strip heavy-gauge wire into a handful of colored cables, plaiting them together at the ends.
Lincoln slips on a pair of goggles, grabs an acetylene torch and tests the flame. Then, he uses it to attach the plug to a long computer cable.
As Odyssey attaches one end of the cable to his mainframe, Lincoln slides under K.I.T.T.'s chassis.
Under K.I.T.T., Lincoln locates the Knight Microprocessor 2100 and removes its first surface protection plate with the aid of the acetylene torch TO REVEAL a concealed defense mechanism.
Lincoln hands the torch out to Odyssey and switches on the small light attached to his goggles.
Then, with jeweler's tools, he works his way through a series of four electronic defense panels, each one keyed with a complex code to FINALLY REVEAL -
An immaculate plastic cover. Lincoln removes it. Underneath, he finds a half-dozen credit card-sized circuit boards. This is the heart of the Knight Microprocessor 2100.
Odyssey swings under the car with plug and cable. He shoots Lincoln a look that says, “You gotta be crazy to think this will work.” Lincoln sends back a “I'd be crazy if I didn't try” glance, then -
Lincoln delicately inserts the handmade plug into the circuit board and tells Odyssey to power up his computer, slowly.
Odyssey at the computer. He powers it up. Suddenly, all the electricity in the place, including the lights, go out.
Lincoln slides out from under the car.
LINCOLN
I said slowly! Did we lose anything?!
ODYSSEY
Yeah. Five years off my life.
Odyssey's back-up generator kicks in and the light go back on.
ON the monitor as the transfer process starts up. AI data from the disks STROBES and BLURS across the screen, then pulses through the computer cable, transplanting K.D.'s ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE into the very heart and fabric of the car. It is an act of love and an act of resurrection.
While the transfer continues, Lincoln slides behind the wheel of the car where the video display echoes the information on Odyssey's monitor. Hands gripped to the wheel, his concentration focused, he starts the engine.
ON Odyssey as he whips a look at the monitor - the data transfer has slowed to a crawl - then back at the computer.
ODYSSEY
We're running out of memory! Overloading! We're going to lose her!
Lincoln rolls out from behind the wheel and under the car.
Terrified, Odyssey's eyes ping pong from the computer to the monitor and back again. The data transfer locks in FREEZE FRAME MODE.
Under the car - where the plug is melting from the intense heat, Lincoln makes the connection manually, with his hand.
Odyssey's eyes are riveted to the screen. Several long, torturous beats, then the data transfer starts up again.
Under the car, the flesh of Lincoln's hand blisters. He hears -
ODYSSEY (V.O.)
It's okay. We're back in business.
Lincoln slides out from under the car. He smiles as he sees the data once again strobing by on the monitor.
Lincoln sits behind the wheel, turns on the engine for the second time. All the on-board instruments light up, on line. Over the soft murmur of the ordnance, we HEAR -
K.D. (V.O.)
Where's the rest of me?
CUT TO:
EXT. FIELD - DAY
Lincoln sits cross-legged in the tall grass next to the car. The doors are wide open.
NOTE: From this point on, we will refer to the car as K.D.
LINCOLN
How do you feel?
K.D. (V.O.)
Out of it. I feel like I'm not here.
He closes his eyes, steeling himself for the inevitable. A second deep breath and -
LINCOLN
What's the last thing you remember?
K.D. (V.O.)
That fight we had. Then, downloading dreams for the AI project.
LINCOLN
The project worked, K.D.
No response. Beat.
LINCOLN
We created life in a computer.
K.D. (V.O.)
Whose life?
INSERT - K.D.'S DIGITIZED POV
Lincoln turns to look into camera, his image and voice minimally distorted.
LINCOLN
Yours.
(beat)
Your death will haunt me for the rest of my life.
FADE OUT.
END OF ACT THREE
