I, Robot Page #3

SPOONER:

What.s the run-down?

BALDEZ:

Heinrich Hogenmiller, sixty-four

years old. Weapon a small caliber

.22, registered in his name. Looks

like he walked in, locked the door,

and snuffed himself.

12.

Spooner. Cocking his head to look at Hogenmiller.s face.

SPOONER:

I know someone who disagrees with

you.

BALDEZ:

Who?

Spooner. Stands. Pointing down at Hogenmiller.

SPOONER:

Him.

And steps over the body, leaving a confused Baldez.

Stepping deeper, into the lab. Calvin. Following.

SPOONER:

I spoke to a dead man today. Want

to tell me about that?

CALVIN:

Dr. Hogenmiller.s hologram took his

appointments. Attended staff

meetings. He hated corporate life.

The hologram enabled him to focus

on his work. It.s just a device,

Detective.

SPOONER:

A device that called the police.

CALVIN:

The sound of the gunshot would.ve

triggered a 911.

SPOONER:

But the call came directly to me.

CALVIN:

We.re talking about a mechanism

designed by Hogenmiller to say

provocative things. To irritate

and confound his colleagues.

SPOONER:

And that.s what you think it is?

CALVIN:

I.m sorry, but this whole

investigation is the result of a

dead man.s toy messing with your

head.

13.

They pass half a robot, hanging from a hook. Spooner curls

his lip.

him.

Swivels the robot.s head so it.s not looking at

SPOONER:

When.s the last time any of you

actually spoke to Hogenmiller?

mean human to human?

I:

CALVIN:

I couldn.t say.

SPOONER:

Take a guess.

CALVIN:

I don.t guess, Detective. But if

pressed, I would reason it had been

a considerable length of time.

SPOONER:

How well did you know him?

Calvin.

been.

Gently swivels the robot.s head back to where it had

CALVIN:

Not well. But I admired his work

tremendously.

Spooner. Studies her for a beat. Then turns back to the

body. Two CORONERS entering with a high-tech body box.

SPOONER:

I get the whole .mad scientist.

thing. Hogenmiller was past his

prime. Isolated. Eccentric. He

enters a room. Locks the door and

is found minutes later with a

bullet fired through his mouth into

his brain. Everything about this

case says suicide.

CALVIN:

You don.t sound convinced.

The coroners. Start loading the body into the box.

SPOONER:

Even people who live a life of

logic and precision rarely arrange

their deaths so perfectly.

(turning to her)

(MORE)

14.

SPOONER (cont.d)

What all this is missing -- is

personality...

As he starts for the door...

SPOONER:

You have 24 hour surveillance?...

19 INT. METAL HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS 19

...They head out into the hallway. A MECHANICAL DOOR GUARD

rolling into place behind them.

CALVIN:

It.s company policy.

SPOONER:

I want to see the tapes.

Calvin. Hurrying to keep up with him. This is hardly how

she wanted to spend her morning. Calls out into the air...

CALVIN:

Victor!

At the end of the corridor, near the elevator, a BRIGHT

CIRCLE appears. Hovering just in front of the wall. Two

small slits grow into ROUND BLACK EYES...and a thin mouth

expands into an ENORMOUS SMILE.

CALVIN:

Detective, meet Victor. Our

building.s supercomputer. He.s the

checks and balances of U.S.R.

(to Victor)

Victor, Detective Spooner.s heading

up the investigation into the death

of Dr. Hogenmiller.

Victor smiles big. Spooner, furrows his brow.

SPOONER:

You look like a very...happy

computer.

Victor responds in a GENTLE MALE VOICE:

VICTOR:

Thank you. That.s very kind.

CALVIN:

The Detective needs to see our

security tapes.

15.

The elevator doors immediately OPEN. They step inside.

20 INT. ELEVATOR - DAY 20

Spooner and Calvin descend. Victor floats on the wall and

smiles wide. Spooner looks back at it. With a frown.

The elevator stops, the doors open. A ROBOT steps on.

ROBOT:

Good day, Dr. Calvin. Good day,

sir.

Spooner.s jaw. Clenches. Staring at the Robot. It senses

the stare. Turns back to him.

ROBOT:

May I be of service to you, sir?

Spooner. Breaks the stare. Ignoring the Robot. Calvin.

Looks over at him.

CALVIN:

Aren.t you going to answer him?

SPOONER:

I don.t talk to my refrigerator,

either.

Calvin folds her arms.

CALVIN:

I get the distinct feeling you.re

one of those people, Detective.

SPOONER:

What people?

CALVIN:

Those who don.t appreciate the work

we do here at U.S.R.

SPOONER:

You people do what you do. Then

it.s up to the rest of us to make

sense out of the world we wake up

in.

As the elevator doors open on to...

16.

21 INT. ATRIUM LOBBY - CONTINUOUS 21

A soaring lobby. The centerpiece is a five-story STATUE of a

ROBOT, arms outstretched in approximation of Da Vinci.s Study

of Man. Robot workers more numerous than humans. They are

sleeker. Finer. More advanced than those in the outside

world.

Calvin and Spooner head across.

CALVIN:

When this company started we were

manufacturing three robots a week.

Now look at us. Today.s children

will never know a world without

robots.

SPOONER:

The streets are filled with

unemployed humans who aren.t

exactly thrilled with that idea.

CALVIN:

Our robotic systems maintain

factory inventories, regulate

street traffic -- even run the

family home.

SPOONER:

Leaving people to do what, Doctor?

CALVIN:

Leaving people to engage in higher

pursuits that make life worth

living.

SPOONER:

And what happens when something

goes wrong?

CALVIN:

Our system.s never wrong.

As they walk through the crowd, we hear the quiet WHIR of

robot heads as they turn in succession to watch Spooner pass.

22 INT. MAINFRAME - DAY 22

Spooner and Calvin enter the MAINFRAME of U.S. Robotics.

This is the nerve center of the whole operation. Walls lined

with COMPUTERS, SCREENS, and thousands of CONTROLS.

17.

CALVIN:

This is Victor.s home.

VICTOR appears on a wall-sized SCREEN broken up into beehive-

like components.

VICTOR:

I will now play you the last thirty-

two seconds of Dr. Hogenmiller.s

life.

AS WE WATCH THE SCREENS. The elevator opens and DOCTOR

HOGENMILLER steps into the metal corridor. In countless

ANGLES. High, low, close-up, wide. Hogenmiller.s face

composed but tight.

Spooner watches the lab doors open to admit him. Hogenmiller

steps in. The doors slide closed behind him.

Nothing for a few moments. Then a muffled GUNSHOT. Calvin

jumps, startled. That.s it. The cameras, still trained on

the corridor.

SPOONER:

Where.s the tape from inside?

VICTOR:

Dr. Hogenmiller did not permit

cameras to observe him while

working.

CALVIN:

That was only within the last year.

SPOONER:

So we can throw paranoia into the

mix.

(to Victor)

Fast-forward.

A hundred-plus screens all FAST-FORWARD. POLICE OFFICERS

appear and force open the doors. Now TECHNICIANS appear

and rush through in a blur...

CALVIN:

Um. I hate to be a stickler...

On screen, we see Spooner and Calvin enter the lab.

CALVIN:

But don.t killers usually have to

enter and exit the scene of a

crime?

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