Numbers Station, The (2013) Movie Script

4-9-3-1.
4-3-1-9.
0-7-7-4.
7-3-4-1.
7-4-4.
7-5-7-5.
get that?
I got it.
to the radio the other day,
Radio 2, NPR Radio
or something...
Uh-huh.
There's some fucking guy,
scientist or something.
Real sick bastard.
You listening?
Avidly.
Says he measured
out the remains,
the cremated
remains of a dead man.
Measured out the, uh, minerals
left behind, you know?
The iron phosphates, the...
Whatever it is we're made up of.
Says he added it all up
to the cost of $4.40.
You believe that?
Yeah, I guess so.
$4.40.
Burnt down man's worth less
than a fucking Big Mac,
all you can say
is "I guess so"?
Says give this poor bastard
what he's got coming.
Authentic?
Yeah.
Ten minutes.
Start the count.
on the newcomer, Rainer...
Can I get you something?
Two shots. Scotch.
on the game?
Nah, spread's terrible.
Here. One
for the road.
No, thanks. Been
sober for three years.
Interesting career.
You do something long enough.
You close your eyes, you just can't
think of doing something else.
They found your accounts.
Where'd you spend it?
Look, man, I just wanted to start over.
Quit the Agency.
Have your drink.
It could have been anybody
walk through your door.
Yeah. But
it was you.
Go clean up your mess.
Three minutes.
Start the count.
please, God.
Why did you do that?
Why? Why did
you do that?
Why did you do that?
Have you lost
your fucking mind?
She's just a kid.
Jesus Christ.
The fuck, Emerson?
No loose ends.
been out in the field?
It should say
there, in the file.
I want to hear what you say.
A long time.
I didn't know you smoked.
When did you start?
Right after I quit drinking.
Why did you stop drinking?
I was a drunk.
What would you say is
your current disposition?
How do I feel?
How do you feel about the girl?
She asked a very good question.
Which was?
Why?
Well, that's a question
that needs to be asked.
We are not sociopaths.
We're vulnerable to qualms of
conscience like anyone else.
We face these decisions every
day, and we vote up or down.
Like everything else,
it has all been distilled
down to zeros and ones.
They have asked for me to
describe your emotional state
in as detailed
a manner as possible.
To determine whether you are
fit to remain in the field.
I hate that it had
to turn out this way.
Me taking care of the girl,
me taking care of the police.
What you need, what
we're willing to offer,
is a change of pace.
We have a station
for you to look after.
Blackleg Miner.
One of the smaller terminals.
England?
Yeah.
Far the fuck out,
middle of nowhere.
Old American Army base.
Officially it doesn't exist.
Unofficially, it's used to broadcast
numbers to our European field agents.
How long?
Until your head is right.
You'll be babysitting
a broadcaster.
Civilian, right?
Yeah, cryptology specialist.
And one of the very few people who
can process code at this level.
You and another team, alternating shifts.
Three days each.
You keep the station safe,
you keep the code safe.
Whatever it takes.
Okay.
Do the job, Emerson.
I don't wanna look like an ass for
sticking my neck out on this one.
'Cause I've got nothing left, nothing
to keep you from the wolves.
4-5-5.
broadcast come through.
the authorities.
You do that.
Wanna hear my latest theory?
Sure.
We're coordinating troop
movements in Afghanistan.
Long-term
tactical formations.
Yeah.
Illegal missions unsanctioned by the
UN, that's why it's all hush-hush.
It's good, right?
Yeah.
some sort of awful experiment.
Stuff two people in
a box, see how long
it takes for one of
us to kill the other.
Ah, give me something.
We're up two hours
early next shift.
You guys been waiting long?
No, you're good.
Good shift?
Yeah.
Got to catch up on sitting alone
for 70 hours. It was nice.
You know, my contract's up pretty soon.
I was thinking of re-upping.
Nothing else you'd rather do?
No.
I was recruited by a
software company in college.
The kind that
makes apps for phones.
What's wrong?
Pay is no good?
No, it was great, actually.
Obscene, to be honest with you.
Why didn't you do it, then?
I don't know. I don't know, I guess
I just felt like it was silly,
it wasn't really that
important, you know?
I guess I like the idea
of serving my country.
Even if I don't know
exactly what it is I do.
What about you? You never
wanted to do anything else?
There comes a time when you
do a thing long enough,
you can't really
imagine doing
anything else, you know?
So, if I stay here, I'm
stuck with you forever?
Yes. Be careful
what you wish for.
it again, aren't you?
What?
You have that
look that you get.
What look?
You're squinting one eye as if
you're taking aim with a gun.
You're gonna be late.
It's horrifying.
I'm sure you're
great fun at parties.
Seriously, you don't
have to think about
killing everyone
that you ever meet.
I don't.
Okay.
So, just for fun, what would
happen if I wasn't here on Monday?
horrible train accident?
No. Train's here.
I'm just not on it.
It wouldn't be fun.
Come on, what would happen?
I'd have to make a phone call.
You'd have to
make a phone call?
I would make a phone call.
No fun.
Company man.
Hi.
How you doing?
Good.
You should have seen
your face back there.
What?
When I didn't get off
the train right away,
you looked like you were about
to have a heart attack.
How was your weekend?
Good.
I had a great weekend,
thanks for asking.
So you got that text?
Confirming the...
What I already knew.
Yeah, I got it.
Did you get mine?
I was trying to
make a joke about
the White House
Correspondents' dinner,
but my phone spell-checked it into
whorehouse correspondents' dinner.
Spell-checks are
usually pretty accurate.
Right. I'm sure there's
a whorehouse
correspondents'
dinner somewhere.
Somewhere, yeah.
I know, I know, I got it.
No phones inside.
Hey, if it were up to me,
I couldn't care less.
Gone. Done.
Okay?
Should be out by now.
Yeah.
Probably just got
a last-minute broadcast.
What?
Nothing.
One sec.
No... Ah!
I can't hear.
Shh.
Eardrums.
Stay quiet, okay?
Okay.
Stay quiet.
Stay here.
Be quiet, okay?
Katherine.
We're clear.
Are you sure?
We'd know by now if
somebody else were in here.
Whose hand is that?
I don't know.
Can you hear?
Yeah.
If they know the code from before,
they're gonna come back in.
They're gonna use it again.
No, the codes
change every shift.
They could have had David and
Meredith's code but not ours.
Where are they?
Take a deep breath.
We're gonna walk. We're
gonna call for help. Okay?
"Cardiff, Aberdeen, Glasgow,
Belfast, Oxford, Slough."
"Cardiff, Aberdeen, Glasgow,
Belfast, Oxford, Slough."
Blackleg Miner Station.
Go ahead.
The station's been compromised.
Requesting
immediate evacuation.
One moment.
Evac authorized.
ETA?
Four hours. For now, standard protocol.
Secure location. Retire asset.
Repeat.
The code has been compromised.
Retire your broadcaster.
Did you copy that?
Got it.
What? What'd
they say?
Sit tight.
Did you hear that?
They're drilling through.
check the security cameras.
Find out what happened
to David and Meredith.
Shit.
All the cameras are down.
Audio's on a separate file.
Yeah.
Pull it up.
Nothing.
What time was that?
One hour ago.
Earlier.
be a fucking hero?
Go back further.
out a couple of hours
till Emerson gets
here and then I hope...
Tell her to come out right now!
Take a fucking seat!
We know you have to open
the door from the inside.
Can you get her to do that for us?
It'll be a lot easier.
Fuck you.
I need to get inside
the broadcast room.
I need the girl
to open the door.
I need her to take care
of some numbers for me.
Now this is something
only she can do.
And I'm kinda on
a tight schedule.
about the change in schedule.
We got here early.
I know about you and the girl.
We know, okay?
Now we can offer you two a
way out, a way through.
And if you do what we say, if you
help us, we won't have to hurt her.
There's no need for violence.
Violence is what got us all
in this place to begin with.
This is the end of violence for us.
This is a new beginning.
It's a partnership.
And it starts by you getting
her to open that door.
Your leg.
Oh, my God.
I don't even feel anything.
That's usually a bad sign.
You always know
what to say to a girl.
Up.
You have training in this
kind of a thing, right?
What?
Field surgery?
Dressing wounds?
Yeah.
I mean, it's not my area of
expertise but I know a little bit.
Okay.
Is all this blood normal?
Well, you have a piece
of truck in your leg.
No way is a joke gonna make
me feel more comfortable
in your ability to
not kill me right now.
Grit your teeth.
Looks like we
missed the artery.
But it's gonna be okay, right?
You could still bleed out.
Emerson, lie
to a girl, will you?
Bite down. I think
it's starting to hurt.
Bite.
That was bizarre.
Emerson!
Emerson!
Yeah.
I thought you left me.
How long was I out?
Little while. Not long.
We were ambushed.
Yeah.
So, what? What? They wanted
to stop the broadcasts?
You know as much as I do.
Yeah, but we didn't
do anything wrong.
Right? We were ambushed.
Sit back down.
All the audio files are there. We
had nothing to do with it. So...
They can't blame
us for anything.
Why are you looking
at me like that?
We're fine. We were ambushed.
Calm down.
I am calm. But what
are we gonna do next?
Stop walking
around on your leg.
I'm fine. What
do we do next?
Just tell me what we do now.
Mmm-hmm.
We'll have you out of there
in less than two hours.
Has everything been
taken care of at your end?
I can't confirm that.
Is there a problem?
No.
Get it done, immediately.
What?
Two hours.
Ugh, this drilling
is driving me nuts.
I wanna find
David and Meredith.
You sure no one
else could be in here?
What?
Nothing.
I was just thinking they wanted
something in
the broadcast room.
Gotta get over there.
Think they got
what they came for?
Let's find out.
It's pretty standard activity.
Two broadcasts yesterday.
Three last night.
There's gotta be something.
What? What
do you got?
Fifteen broadcasts
this afternoon.
What?
Just 20 minutes apart.
Whoever broke in here didn't
do it to stop the broadcasts.
Well, that's a good
thing, right?
Katherine, when you
send a broadcast
you're sending out these numbers
to the agents in the field
to deliver specific
assignments they cannot
trust to normal
communication lines.
Do you know what that means?
Fifteen broadcasts.
Fifteen assignments.
Unauthorized.
Assassinations, bombings.
Could be anything.
Murders?
Gonna fix it.
Here, what does it say?
Can't read that.
Agents in the field carry, like,
one-time notebooks, like pads.
Each page is a new cypher.
When you broadcast something,
the agent matches
up the first set
of numbers to
the page in the notebook.
Now he knows he's
using this page,
and this page only,
to decode the message.
When he's done,
he destroys the page.
So we send another broadcast
to cancel this one.
Every cypher's
a one-time deal.
Totally random.
Completely impossible
to crack the code
unless you have
the original cypher.
That changes with every shift.
So we need the cypher?
Yes, we need that cypher.
seems like we're here
to hurt you,
to kill you, I assure you,
both of you,
that's the
worst-case scenario.
Must have left
the computer running.
It doesn't scare me.
Shut the fuck up!
Back off!
Please. Let me
rephrase that.
You think someone like me
is afraid of being shot?
Back off!
Meredith. This is
between you and I.
The rest of these guys, they don't matter.
This is just you and me.
And a choice.
You're shaking now.
You're getting angry.
You're letting your emotions get
the better of the situation.
The adrenaline is
really kicking in.
But what I know, the reason
that I'm not shaking
is because this is a choice
not dictated by emotion.
This is logic.
Pure, simple.
My boy over there is rated 4th
in the world on the Glock 30.
You know what that means?
What's it mean?
It means I could
shoot you from Texas.
Now, that's, of course, an
exaggeration but the point stands.
He knows what he's doing.
He's a professional.
And you're you.
You've already dropped the gun.
Because this is a choice within a
very strict set of parameters.
Right now you're in control.
What you don't wanna do
is put him in control.
Don't give him the choice.
That way is death.
That way is the unconditional
end to future choice.
That's it.
Good girl.
I know, I know.
It's always a tough
lesson to learn,
to realize that you don't have
the stomach to do what's needed.
Don't kill her.
But you, on the other hand...
Don't! Please, please.
No! Please, please.
David!
Please!
No!
You'll do exactly what we want.
You'll broadcast my
numbers because now
you know every
choice has a consequence.
Stop it!
Stop it!
Try the other zones.
Who's in the basement?
what's down there.
We're clear.
My God.
He only fired two shots.
Oh, my God, it's David.
he was dead. Bled out.
He knew there was
a gun hidden down here.
You still with me?
Yeah, feel nauseous.
Yeah, well, puke
if you have to.
I haven't puked since college.
Keep talking.
Where did you go?
Brown.
Yeah, how long?
Two years.
Before you dropped out, huh?
They're looking for this.
Mainframe's connected
to the computer.
So whatever's on this...
You said the codes
were impossible to crack.
Unless you have
the original cypher.
But whatever they're looking
for, it's on this, so can you?
Yeah, I'm on it, I'm on it.
Who's this?
Oh, it's the Director of
Clandestine Operations Overseas.
Somebody's boss's boss's boss.
Somebody high up in the company.
Director Atwater.
Director Collins.
Templeman.
Keep going.
Yeah, these are
people being groomed
for top slots in
the corporation.
Go back, go back.
I know that man.
That's my fucking boss.
Fifteen dossiers.
Fifteen broadcasts.
There it is.
If I wanted to cripple the
system in one fell swoop,
these would be
the 15 I'd start with.
You kill these men today,
you won't recognize the world
when you wake up in the morning.
But they've already
sent the broadcasts.
I mean, what the hell
do they want with us?
They wanna kill us. Make sure you
don't cancel the broadcasts.
Grab that.
Let's go.
Here.
That's all the information from
the laptop, in case, uh...
I don't know, in case
we don't get out of here.
Drink that.
"Of course we'll get
out of here, Katherine."
"Don't you worry
about a thing."
You ever get used to it?
Used to what?
Bodies. Dead people.
Seeing them.
No.
They never seem to stay dead.
How's it going over there?
There's stuff on here,
but it's password protected.
I know, but can you open it?
I don't know.
I'm trying.
mayhem hasn't already happened?
We don't.
Good. Just keep working.
Fuck.
Can you just talk to me?
Yeah, what do you
wanna talk about?
Anything. Just regular stuff. Like
what normal people talk about.
Not really my
strong suit, Katherine.
I'll start.
How do you know I
dropped out of college?
Oh, that was just
a lucky guess.
Grabbed my file or something?
You fit a profile.
Of what?
Civilian broadcasters have a certain,
you know, personality trait.
Keep working.
Well, I can't work in silence, so you
might as well just entertain me.
Okay.
A troubled childhood
with an emphasis
on extreme emotional
loss or fatigue.
Death of a parent.
Sometimes sexual abuse.
Lack of a strong authority
figure in adolescence.
Low self-esteem resulting in few
permanent relationships. Defensive.
Rebellious.
Highly intelligent.
Susceptible to being stuck in one
position, environment or occupation
for long periods of time.
Wow... Yeah,
you're terrible at this.
How about your profile?
Indifferent and emotionally
detached from reality.
Inability to communicate
with any other
human being on
the face of this Earth.
Willing to sit silently in one
place for hours at a time.
Make sure that you have a plan to
kill every person that you ever meet.
No. Close.
No, I had a stable childhood
but with an underlying desire to break
free from control or authority.
Restless.
Sense of self-entitlement.
Striking lack of empathy or
compassion for other people.
Bordering between autism...
Stop.
You know, I, um,
didn't always do this.
This is my first
station assignment.
I was on the other
end of the numbers.
Looking at nine million
black-book tax dollars.
Recruited me
straight out of college.
Said it was the best
opportunity I'd ever have.
Told me I'd do special
things, important things.
Well, you're worth more than
what some bureaucrat wrote down
on a piece of
paper 20 years ago.
Hmm...
All they're really talking
about is what's real. Reality.
They know how to use it.
They're good at it.
Why not quit?
Yeah. Yeah.
I knew a guy once, and he
decided he wanted to quit.
He squirreled away money for about
and wanted to
create a new life,
and he survived
about 37 months.
They killed him?
No, I did.
See if you can get
into those files.
Get it off me!
How much longer?
Little while still.
tell her to come out.
Tell her to come out right now!
be a fucking hero?
Get the fuck off me!
how they got in.
I mean, how can
they have gotten
the door code?
It changes every shift.
Unless someone...
They knew the code
and I told Mere...
I told Meredith to lock herself
inside the broadcast room
to broadcast over
the emergency channel.
If anyone's even listening, if
it's even still on the air...
They've cut into all our other
secure lines of communication.
I don't know how. I mean,
who could know that much?
Even the one-way
operator line,
I didn't even think
that was possible.
Wait.
What did he just say?
Even the one-way
operator line,
I didn't even think
that was possible.
into the operator line?
You did speak to someone on the phone.
You spoke to the operator.
Yes.
I swear to God, if you were
pretending to talk to someone...
Katherine, I gave him the code.
He verified the code.
Yeah, but did you verify him?
"Cardiff, Aberdeen, Glasgow,
Belfast, Liverpool, Slough."
Operator.
That wasn't the right code.
What?
What I just called in.
It wasn't the right code.
Tell me you killed the girl
before you figured that out.
What?
Fuck! They got to
the emergency phones.
Just let me think.
No one even knows
we're in trouble, do they?
No, they don't.
There has to be a safety
measure, right? No.
Something or someone?
There's nothing.
Someone who
cancels the broadcast
when something
like this happens.
There's no one.
There has to be
some kind of back-up,
like an emergency back-up...
Something like
this doesn't happen.
Seventy years, the code's
never been breached.
Somebody has to be
out there who can...
Katherine, there's nothing
but the goddamn numbers!
If we do our job, we get out
of here alive. I promise.
for me, I let you live.
No.
We've gone to a lot of trouble
here with these broadcasts.
We can't leave
anything to chance.
We can't let the girl
cancel the broadcasts.
She's the only one
who can undo what's been done.
You understand that,
you're not a fool.
Go fuck yourself.
Look, your bosses won't let her live.
She knows too much.
Either you or me or the
Agency pulls the trigger.
No matter what, she
doesn't make it out alive.
You know a lot
about this business.
What's the problem?
What do you care?
Like you haven't done it
a hundred times before.
We've almost drilled
through your door anyways.
Might as well
save your own life.
What's she worth
to you? She's nobody.
If anyone's even listening,
if it's even
still on the air...
I couldn't take the shot.
I couldn't do it.
How could I do it?
he couldn't take the shot.
No, he couldn't.
What does that mean, Emerson?
What do you think it means?
It means that there are
no other safety measures.
That David was
the safety measure.
Yeah.
Means that you're
the safety measure.
And all this time I thought
you were protecting me.
I knew you looked at me funny. I
knew you fucking looked at me funny.
Liar.
I should have
listened to myself.
Where are you going?
Nowhere! Where
am I gonna go?
I'm stuck here with you. Yeah.
And what have you got, huh?
What have you got outside of this?
Do you have a life?
How could that possibly matter?
What do you mean
"how does it matter"?
It means everything.
What is...
What have you got? You've got nothing
to live for except for this!
Mmm-hmm...
This is all you've got.
You've got your protocol.
You've got your numbers.
You're on the other side
of the fucking numbers.
And you read them and
you take their money.
You think you're not
a part of this, huh?
Do you think you can fuck
around with these people?
What's wrong with you?
What are you doing here?
You're in it.
You asked for it
and you're in it.
Here, locked and loaded.
Safety's off.
It's good to go.
I don't want your fucking gun.
If I was gonna kill you, I would
have done it a long time ago.
exactly what we want.
You'll broadcast my
numbers because now
you know every
choice has a consequence.
You'll do exactly what we want.
You'll broadcast my
numbers because now
you know every
choice has a consequence.
My cell phone.
My cell phone's
in your glove-box.
We can use it to call for help.
Doesn't help much with the guys
waiting outside that door.
Yeah, but there are three
voices on the recording, right?
The one who attacked us, the one
who was dead in the basement.
And one guy who will
watch outside. Maybe.
Yeah.
Lock yourself in.
It's the only secure
room we got left.
Yes, it's done.
Come upstairs. Leave the
door open and drive away.
Welcome to early retirement.
God, Meredith.
Please.
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God, these are them.
Meredith.
Fuck, no!
Okay.
I unlocked the cypher.
I got the cypher.
It was just one... One
more, one more broadcast.
Forget the broadcast.
Ow, oh...
Come here, come here.
It's seven.
It doesn't matter.
Please...
What?
It's 7-4-6-3.
Can you remember?
Everything's all right.
It's all right. It's okay.
Go, go...
Okay.
Can you keep your
pressure on it? Okay.
Did we do it?
I think so.
Will I die?
No, you can live
a long time like this.
I need a doctor.
Can you take the bullet out?
It's a lot different than taking a
piece of scrap out of your leg.
Oh!
Here.
This is gonna take
the pain away for a while.
Wait.
I'm gonna wake up, right?
I've seen four guys get shot in the gut.
Every one of them lived.
Not the bullet. You.
You wouldn't...
What?
You wouldn't do
that to me, would you?
No.
Blackleg Miner.
Under duress.
Please hold.
Blackleg Miner,
what's going on?
Terminal was compromised.
What's your status?
Terminal secure.
I knew you wouldn't let me down.
Numbers secure?
Of course.
That's all that matters.
Yeah.
All assets retired.
She's dead?
Yes.
All right, then.
Get out! Get out of the car!
Hey, don't shoot, don't shoot.
I got money.
I don't want
your fucking money.
Help me get her in the car.
We gotta get
into town. We need to
get to a hospital.
What happened to her?
She's shot?
Shot? Out here? Help me!
Help me get her in.
Okay, come on.
Come on, come on, come on.
What happened?
Is she dead?
She will be if you
don't hurry the fuck up.
I understand that.
I'm not a fool.
You understand that,
you're not a fool.
Who are you working for?
I used to work for the same righteous
pricks who twisted your life.
Now I work for the other side. Just
as twisted but they pay a lot more.
They break us, you know.
Turn us into
these awful things.
Broken pieces.
They push us.
Make us into men we're not.
And then complain
when we no longer function.
They think we should
live like this is normal.
Like this is how we should
behave, how we should think.
And our reward for this life?
We try to run away
and they kill us because
of what they
forced inside our heads.
You think men like
that deserve to live?
They deserve everything
they got coming.
Maybe.
Did you stop the broadcasts?
Yeah.
Why?
Some fleeting virtue in not
being a mass murderer.
I take it you're
not a religious man?
You don't believe
in a guiding light?
No.
You're like me, then.
Floundering in wet shit.
Yeah.
How long do you think
we can go on like this?
Still at this, are we?
So, you told me she was dead.
Look, tell me.
Burnt down,
a man's worth $4.40.
Excuse me?
That's what you said.
When?
In the car.
When all's said and done, you
know, carbon and minerals.
A human being's worth
less than five bucks.
I said that?
Uh-huh.
Well, you know me,
I talk a lot of shit.
But if you say I
said it, then I suppose
I should believe you.
What about it?
Hmm...
We walk.
Both of us.
Well, you might walk but her...
That's impossible.
She knows too much.
She's got the codes. She's got the cypher.
She's compromised.
It's gotta stop.
I'll get you
a prescription for Ativan.
That will stop your
conscience bothering you.
Yeah. Well, take
a look at that.
It's a copy of the broadcasts.
The ones she stopped.
Number 14 might be
of interest. It's you.
She took a bullet for you. Gotta
be worth more than five bucks.
What do you want?
Give me a week.
Ten days.
And I'll find your
bodies at the station?
You'll find enough.
Start the count.
We were never here.