Pomegranate (2026) Movie Script
Your blocks become a glorified asylum.
I had to step over, no fewer than three.
I hesitate to call them people.
One of whom was trying to gnaw
off his own ear.
And that alleyway of yours, well,
two gentlemen,
the size of cargo rigs,
were engaging in... well...
I'm not one to impugn anyone's
recreational preferences.
But it wasn't particularly discreet.
You know, for a man whose livelihood
depends on a certain caliber of clientele,
you run a remarkably unsanitary
operation.
Hello to you, too.
Er, yes. Hello.
So, how's things?
How am I? Well, six hours.
Six hours with Niirocore's finest
synaptists yapping about wetware installs,
not an original thought between
the lot of them.
Absolutely nauseating.
I'm going to collapse from boredom.
I'm telling you now, the
tedium is going to
finish me off long before
the bit-rot does.
Well, can't have that.
Oh, certainly not.
It'd be a damn scandal if I expired here.
Your shop would be swarming with
Niirocore's forensics by sunrise.
I can't imagine they'd look too charitably
upon your, er, inventory.
Ah, you'd be surprised.
Right, yes. What have you got for me?
The chrome kids are raving about
these new spool from...
Sounds wonderful, thread me in.
What? You don't want to hear my pitch?
I'm not some smarmy little mesh dodger
who needs a brochure.
Just give me the damn spool. Please.
Right, of course.
Say what you will about this place.
It's the only appointment I keep
where I don't have to pretend...
You know what old Merrick called it?
As they was haulin' him out the water,
half his legs missing?
What?
Incorrigible.
The Leviathan,
Incorrigible he called it!
Hahahaha.
Articulate bastard!
Aye, laugh it up.
But that beast's
been gorging on every
squirming worm the seas had to offer
since the dawn of time.
Before man ever walked the Earth, Aye!
Before your grandfather
was even a twinkle in his
father's sack.
And it still
hasn't had its fill.
You know what drives
a thing like that?
What, Captain?
I wish I knew!
But today, we slay that beast.
Starboard! Starboard!
Rhododendron!
Rhubarb!
Pomegranate!
Rhododendron?
Oh, come on. I was in the vicinity.
Of what?
Well, they share a phonetic.
There'sa floral quality to...
One's a shrub, sir.
You want an easier safe word?
No, no, no. I'm perfectly capable
of remembering pomegranate.
So, you bailed early there.
I didn't bail.
It's just...
how many fish can a man incarnate
as before the novelty of...
Leviathan.
Leviathans, Krakens, Serpents.
It's hardly a question of size.
It's...
How many heroes can you thrash about
in your jaws before they
all taste the same?
You know, I'll never stop to count.
Just run me another.
Something a bit more...
A bit more...
Oh, you're the professional here.
Just run something better.
Alright. See you on the other side.
No, no, no, no!
No, no!
You ready?
Wait for the fucking signal!
Beloved acolytes of the Eternal Flame!
Wretched and unworthy children
of the God King's grace.
Our Lord has tasted every pleasure
this world dare offer,
yet hungers still!
And so, we have summoned the
most exquisite delights
from the furthest reaches of the kingdom.
Let us pray his divine loins may
yet find cause to stir.
Unleash them!
Pomegranate!
That bad, eh?
I...
I'm not sure how to put it.
Oh yeah, the vizier's a bit shrill,
I'll give you that.
If you sit tight, I can recalibrate
the voice.
Minstrels can use some... No.
His voice was perfectly...
It's not the voice, okay?
The spool's fine.
Tuned to my predilections even.
Remarkably...
Exotic.
The parts were there.
The music, the wine.
But the sum of it, nothing.
Just static.
I'm...
Let's have another go.
Something else.
Anything you the mood for?
You're the expert here.
Enchant me.
All right.
Let's try another angle.
Pomegranate!
Wanna talk about it?
I thrust a bayonet into a
man's aorta once.
During the Cradle Wars.
I could feel his
heartbeat through the handle.
Remarkable sensation, really,
the intimacy of it.
Then I played the other side.
I felt the blade come through
my own ribs.
Felt my lungs fill with something cold
and foreign, and then just black.
I fear it hardly made a dent.
First thing I did upon waking was
drop into a cat sim.
I've loved women in these spools,
spent whole lives with
them, cherished them.
Cherished them.
Sired children,
built homes,
cottages,
farmsteads,
All the quaint, simulacras
of the good life.
You know how these sims are.
And
And there must have been real
love in there, surely.
But
How many hands have I clutched
on their deathbeds?
How many eyes have I gazed into,
swearing my devotion?
My wife.
One wife.
She had the kindest green eyes.
Or were they blue?
I can't recall her name.
Any of them, really.
I watched East Cinder burn to the ground.
I saw the last grove felled in Norova.
Complete desolation.
I've incarnated as warriors,
Peasants,
Romantics,
Damn near every odd creature you
could hope to conjure.
I've lived them all.
Across every eon.
Hundreds of thousands of years of it.
But the massacres...
The extinctions...
The sublime...
None of it registers.
My nerves are gone.
Overwritten.
It's not that I'm
The synaptists insist the
bandwidth is there.
Virtually limitless, they tell me.
With the right augments,
the human mind can absorb centuries of
experience without degradation.
But I think I'm very much qualified
to say by now
that there's a finite amount of
wonder a soul can carry.
A finite capacity for
For awe,
wonder...
And I have most certainly spent it.
I've lived through more than any
soul was meant to carry.
And it has left me
Empty.
Bloated and empty.
Which is
Which is a rather cruel arithmetic,
isn't it?
I've got something.
Not on the menu.
I don't sell this one.
You always have something.
No. Not like this.
And I don't know if it'll work, but
I think it's worth a shot.
On the house.
What is it?
Ain't a brochure for this one.
Alright.
What was that?
A fly. A whole life.
24 hours, give or take.
A fly.
Have you got any?
Here, in the shop.
Got any what?
Flies.
Actual flies.
It's a grimy workshop, mate.
There's all sorts buzzing about.
Good.
Go and fetch me a transfer, rig.
Are you sure?
Substrate migrations are a lot
more permanent than
I know.
Pomegranate won't work this time.
The rig.
Please.
I had to step over, no fewer than three.
I hesitate to call them people.
One of whom was trying to gnaw
off his own ear.
And that alleyway of yours, well,
two gentlemen,
the size of cargo rigs,
were engaging in... well...
I'm not one to impugn anyone's
recreational preferences.
But it wasn't particularly discreet.
You know, for a man whose livelihood
depends on a certain caliber of clientele,
you run a remarkably unsanitary
operation.
Hello to you, too.
Er, yes. Hello.
So, how's things?
How am I? Well, six hours.
Six hours with Niirocore's finest
synaptists yapping about wetware installs,
not an original thought between
the lot of them.
Absolutely nauseating.
I'm going to collapse from boredom.
I'm telling you now, the
tedium is going to
finish me off long before
the bit-rot does.
Well, can't have that.
Oh, certainly not.
It'd be a damn scandal if I expired here.
Your shop would be swarming with
Niirocore's forensics by sunrise.
I can't imagine they'd look too charitably
upon your, er, inventory.
Ah, you'd be surprised.
Right, yes. What have you got for me?
The chrome kids are raving about
these new spool from...
Sounds wonderful, thread me in.
What? You don't want to hear my pitch?
I'm not some smarmy little mesh dodger
who needs a brochure.
Just give me the damn spool. Please.
Right, of course.
Say what you will about this place.
It's the only appointment I keep
where I don't have to pretend...
You know what old Merrick called it?
As they was haulin' him out the water,
half his legs missing?
What?
Incorrigible.
The Leviathan,
Incorrigible he called it!
Hahahaha.
Articulate bastard!
Aye, laugh it up.
But that beast's
been gorging on every
squirming worm the seas had to offer
since the dawn of time.
Before man ever walked the Earth, Aye!
Before your grandfather
was even a twinkle in his
father's sack.
And it still
hasn't had its fill.
You know what drives
a thing like that?
What, Captain?
I wish I knew!
But today, we slay that beast.
Starboard! Starboard!
Rhododendron!
Rhubarb!
Pomegranate!
Rhododendron?
Oh, come on. I was in the vicinity.
Of what?
Well, they share a phonetic.
There'sa floral quality to...
One's a shrub, sir.
You want an easier safe word?
No, no, no. I'm perfectly capable
of remembering pomegranate.
So, you bailed early there.
I didn't bail.
It's just...
how many fish can a man incarnate
as before the novelty of...
Leviathan.
Leviathans, Krakens, Serpents.
It's hardly a question of size.
It's...
How many heroes can you thrash about
in your jaws before they
all taste the same?
You know, I'll never stop to count.
Just run me another.
Something a bit more...
A bit more...
Oh, you're the professional here.
Just run something better.
Alright. See you on the other side.
No, no, no, no!
No, no!
You ready?
Wait for the fucking signal!
Beloved acolytes of the Eternal Flame!
Wretched and unworthy children
of the God King's grace.
Our Lord has tasted every pleasure
this world dare offer,
yet hungers still!
And so, we have summoned the
most exquisite delights
from the furthest reaches of the kingdom.
Let us pray his divine loins may
yet find cause to stir.
Unleash them!
Pomegranate!
That bad, eh?
I...
I'm not sure how to put it.
Oh yeah, the vizier's a bit shrill,
I'll give you that.
If you sit tight, I can recalibrate
the voice.
Minstrels can use some... No.
His voice was perfectly...
It's not the voice, okay?
The spool's fine.
Tuned to my predilections even.
Remarkably...
Exotic.
The parts were there.
The music, the wine.
But the sum of it, nothing.
Just static.
I'm...
Let's have another go.
Something else.
Anything you the mood for?
You're the expert here.
Enchant me.
All right.
Let's try another angle.
Pomegranate!
Wanna talk about it?
I thrust a bayonet into a
man's aorta once.
During the Cradle Wars.
I could feel his
heartbeat through the handle.
Remarkable sensation, really,
the intimacy of it.
Then I played the other side.
I felt the blade come through
my own ribs.
Felt my lungs fill with something cold
and foreign, and then just black.
I fear it hardly made a dent.
First thing I did upon waking was
drop into a cat sim.
I've loved women in these spools,
spent whole lives with
them, cherished them.
Cherished them.
Sired children,
built homes,
cottages,
farmsteads,
All the quaint, simulacras
of the good life.
You know how these sims are.
And
And there must have been real
love in there, surely.
But
How many hands have I clutched
on their deathbeds?
How many eyes have I gazed into,
swearing my devotion?
My wife.
One wife.
She had the kindest green eyes.
Or were they blue?
I can't recall her name.
Any of them, really.
I watched East Cinder burn to the ground.
I saw the last grove felled in Norova.
Complete desolation.
I've incarnated as warriors,
Peasants,
Romantics,
Damn near every odd creature you
could hope to conjure.
I've lived them all.
Across every eon.
Hundreds of thousands of years of it.
But the massacres...
The extinctions...
The sublime...
None of it registers.
My nerves are gone.
Overwritten.
It's not that I'm
The synaptists insist the
bandwidth is there.
Virtually limitless, they tell me.
With the right augments,
the human mind can absorb centuries of
experience without degradation.
But I think I'm very much qualified
to say by now
that there's a finite amount of
wonder a soul can carry.
A finite capacity for
For awe,
wonder...
And I have most certainly spent it.
I've lived through more than any
soul was meant to carry.
And it has left me
Empty.
Bloated and empty.
Which is
Which is a rather cruel arithmetic,
isn't it?
I've got something.
Not on the menu.
I don't sell this one.
You always have something.
No. Not like this.
And I don't know if it'll work, but
I think it's worth a shot.
On the house.
What is it?
Ain't a brochure for this one.
Alright.
What was that?
A fly. A whole life.
24 hours, give or take.
A fly.
Have you got any?
Here, in the shop.
Got any what?
Flies.
Actual flies.
It's a grimy workshop, mate.
There's all sorts buzzing about.
Good.
Go and fetch me a transfer, rig.
Are you sure?
Substrate migrations are a lot
more permanent than
I know.
Pomegranate won't work this time.
The rig.
Please.