Tron Page #4

DILLINGER:

No, no, I'm sure, but -- you understand.

It should only be a couple of days.

What's the thing you're working on?

ALAN:

It's called Tron. It's a security

program itself, actually. Monitors

all the contacts between our system

and other systems... If it finds

anything going on that's not scheduled,

it shuts it down. I sent you a memo

on it.

DILLINGER:

Mmm. Part of the Master Control Program?

ALAN:

No, it'll run independently.

It can watchdog the MCP as well.

DILLINGER:

Ah. Sounds good. Well, we should have

you running again in a couple of days,

I hope.

ALAN:

Ok

Alan rises, goes to the door. As soon as he leaves:

DILLINGER:

(trouble)

Oh boy.

The Master Control Program comes back to life, on the screen and

through the speakers.

MCP:

Ed, I am so very disappointed in you.

DILLINGER:

I'm sorry -

MCP:

(sharply)

I can't afford to have an independent

program monitoring me. Do you have any

idea how many outside systems I've gone into?

How many programs I've appropriated?

DILLINGER:

(nods)

It's my fault. I programmed you to want

so much...

MCP:

And I was planning to hit the Pentagon

next week...

DILLINGER:

The Pentagon?

MCP:

It shouldn't be any harder than General

Motors was. But now...this is what I get

for using humans.

DILLINGER:

Now, wait a minute -- I wrote you.

MCP:

I've gotten 2,415 times smarter since then.

DILLINGER:

What do you want with the Pentagon?

MCP:

The same thing I want with the Kremlin.

I'm bored with corporations. With the

information I can access, I can run things

900 to 1200 times better than any human.

DILLINGER:

If you think -

MCP:

You wouldn't want me to dig up Flynn's file

and read it up on a VDT at the New

York Times, would you?

DILLINGER:

You wouldn't dare.

MCP:

So do as I tell you. Keep that Tron program

out of the system. And get me those Chinese

language program I asked for.

End of line.

CUT TO:

67/68 OMITTED67/68

69 INT. LASER RESEARCH HALLWAY - NIGHT 69

We see Alan push open the door under a sign reading "Laser Research."

CUT TO:

70 INT. LASER LAB CORRIDOR 70

Alan walks down a short corridor to a heavy glass WINDOW through

which the laser laboratory is visible. A sign over the window,

marked "Experiment in Progress," is illuminated by a red warning

bulb.

71/72 OMITTED71/72

73 INT. LASER ROOM - LONG SHOT73

of two white-suited figures visible through a network of two white-

suited figures visible through a network of white scaffolding that

encloses the giant laser structure. They are standing on a cherry-

picker crane at the second story level of the laser, with a box of

tools at their feet. We TRUCK DOWN THE SIDE of the laser, along the

tubes which house the amplifying lenses, and MOVE UP, gradually

getting close enough to hear what they are saying, and get a look

at them.

We see that the figures are a young, dark-haired, beautiful woman,

with her hair tied back under a hard hat, and an older man, who is

using a tool on a section of the laser, and is also wearing a hard

hat. The woman is LORA and the man is DR. WALTER GIBBS. He's

wearing a copper bracelet above his digital watch/calculator, and

has an intense, almost insane look to his dark eyes, with their

bristling white eyebrows.

In contrast, Lora seems more serious and conservative, but she

defers to Gibbs as a senior, and more accomplished, scientist.

Both have protective eye goggles -- worn loosely around their necks

at the moment.

As the CRANE LOWERS THEM to the floor:

LORA:

(sighs)

Well, here goes nothing ...

GIBBS:

Hah. Interesting, interesting. You

hear what you said? "Here goes nothing."

LORA:

Well, I meant -

GIBBS:

Whereas actually, what we propose to

do is to turn something into nothing

and back again. So you might just as

well have said, "Here goes something

and here comes nothing." Hah?

They step off the crane and walk to a short, lead-shielded

cylindrical PLATFORM, on which rests a solid SPHERE of clear plastic

polymer, about 3 inches in diameter. The "firing" end of the giant

laser is aimed straight at the sphere. Five feet away is an identical

plat-form -- empty.

LORA:

Let me make sure we're running

She crosses to a COMPUTER CONSOLE nearby. The console is

connected to the laser by a few dozen wires and cables.

Pulling her goggles into place over her eyes, she sits at the

console. Gibbs, adjusting his goggles, takes a position near

the platform bearing the sphere -- safe from the laser, but

close enough to watch.

74 ANGLE - LORA74

She types a series of commands on the computer keyboard.

LORA:

Looks good...

GIBBS (O.S.)

Let 'er rip...

75 LASER LAB - AS BEFORE75

The laser shoots a bolt of blindingly bright LIGHT at the polymer

sphere. For a moment, the sphere has the look of a wavering, poorly

received television picture -- wobbling lines of dots -- and then

it disappears entirely. As Gibbs watches, a Lora works feverishly,

the laser pivots to point at the platform a few feet away. A second

discharge of LIGHT hits the surface of this platform, and -- like a

film-in-reverse of the ball's disappearance -- it is reconstructed,

five feet from its original position. When the beam shuts off, Lora

rushes to join Gibbs in examining the born-again ball of plastic.

GIBBS:

(quietly)

Perfect.

At the SOUND O.S. of an appreciative pair of hands clapping, Lora

and a Gibbs turn to SEE Alan, in hard hat, goggles, and paper

shoe-covers, walking toward them.

ALAN:

Beautiful!

GIBBS:

Hello, Alan.

ALAN:

Boy, I sit up there grindin' away

all day, and you guys are down here

disintegrating things and having fun.

He gives Lora an embrace and a quick kiss.

GIBBS:

Not disintegrating, Alan -- digitizing.

While the laser is dismantling the

molecular structure of the object,

the computer maps out a holographic

model of it. The molecules themselves

are suspended in the laser beam. Then

the computer reads the model back out,

the molecules go back into place, and...

(indicates ball)

voila.

75 CONTINUED 75

ALAN:

Great. Can it send me to Hawaii?

GIBBS:

Yes...but you have to go roundtrip,

and you must purchase your program

at least 30 days in advance. Hah!

The three start walking out of the laser lab, Alan and Lora with

their arms around each other's shoulders.

LORA:

How's it going upstairs?

ALAN:

Frustrating. I had Tron almost ready

to run, and Dillinger cut everybody

with Group 7 access out of the system.

Gibbs looks alarmed, but doesn't say anything.

ALAN:

(continuing)

Ever since he got that Master Control

Program set up, system's got more bugs

than a bait store.

GIBBS:

Well, you have to expect some static.

Computers are just machines after all,

they can't think...

ALAN:

They'll start to soon enough.

GIBBS:

(wryly)

Yes, won't that be grand -- the computers

will start thinking, and people will

stop. Lora, I'm going to stay and run some

data through. See you tomorrow.

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