Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (2023) s01e09 Episode Script

Axis Mundi

[WHIRRING]
[BILLY] Well, it's, uh
it's a beautiful day.
- [LEE] Yeah.
- [BILLY] Yeah.
[BILLY] I'd say it's, uh
weather's gonna take us to the weekend.
[LEE] Oh, yeah.
[BILLY] So
- Mmm.
- Hey, buddy, cereal. Come on.
I think it's about that time, pal.
Yeah. Yeah, okay. Okay.
Uh, little man, we are off to work.
Okay.
Now, your mimi is gonna be
watching you today.
And, uh, well, me and your uncle Lee,
we'll see you when he
gets back from his trip.
Where's he going?
I'll let your uncle Lee
fill you in on that. Okay?
Come here.
[DOOR OPENS]
[DOOR CLOSES]
You know that it's top secret
army-explorer stuff, right?
Is it dangerous?
Well, we're doing it
for the good of the world.
You know, trying to keep everybody safe.
I guess what we do
is always a little dangerous.
Well, you know all about that, right?
Yeah.
What I can say is that there's
a lot of really smart,
very careful people
working as hard as they can
to make this as safe as it can be.
Are you exploring far away?
That's, um That's
hard to explain, Hiro
but I'll be back really soon.
In fact
my lucky pocketknife.
I know we said we were gonna look into
getting you one when you were older,
so I'm not actually giving
this to you, okay?
But I want you [SIGHS]
I want you to keep it safe for me, okay?
Just until I'm back.
[CHUCKLES]
[BILLY SIGHS]
How'd that go?
He's fine. He's a tough little kid.
- [TECH] Operation Hourglass commencing.
- Yeah.
- [TECH] Personnel, standby.
- Takes after his mother.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
You did good, swab.
She'd be proud. It's a shame
she can't be here to see it.
[CHUCKLES] She'd miss all this.
- Running around, doing nine jobs at once.
- Yeah.
And doing all of them better than
any nine of us could do one.
[CHUCKLES] That woman.
She'd be late accepting
her own Nobel Prize.
[TECH] All stations, system check.
Well, we just have to make
sure that you aren't.
[SOLDIER] Good morning, sir.
Yeah.
[EXHALES SHARPLY]
You don't have to do this.
There's plenty of qualified
candidates we can
Ah, no, no. No, I'm not
gonna ask anybody
to do something that
I wouldn't do myself.
- Well, it could be me.
- [SIGHS]
Hey, did you ever manage
to get that Jeep out of third?
[CHUCKLES] Go to hell.
[CHUCKLES]
Don't mind if I do.
[TECH] All stations,
commence rewind checks.
President is right, gentlemen.
Space is hard.
The moon's a decade away.
Two, if we do it right.
Operation Hourglass is the culmination
of nearly two decades
of Project Monarch's work.
Human discovery and
reconnaissance of the territory
between us and them.
Watch your heads, gentlemen.
A place that will redefine
our understanding of the entire planet
and ensure the health and
welfare of all humanity.
And if we don't get
there first, Senator,
Comrade Khrushchev will.
Na zdorovye.
What you're about to see
is more than just a victory for
American scientific know-how
or our defense.
This mission is a matter of
global security
and the preservation
of mankind, gentlemen.
Please, take a seat.
Well, Kennedy can have outer space
and all the big rocks floating in it.
We're about to plant our flag
in under space.
[TECH] Hourglass is a go. Securing.
Our operating theory, gentlemen,
is that Titans get around underground
in a kind of a
a king-sized rabbit warren.
[SUZUKI] Gamma simulator activated.
Clear the space.
[PUCKETT] And Dr. Suzuki found
a way in, right here in the heartland.
Now, the thing is, the tunnel is
too unstable for us to enter.
The only thing which makes
it passable is a Titan.
- [RADAR BEEPING]
- Doctor, we have positive response.
All stations, Titan lock.
Repeat, we have Titan lock.
As we did on Bikini Atoll,
we lure the Titan with
the promise of a meal.
Titan's coming for our bait.
But, Jesus, that's a big one.
[TECH] 5,000 feet to proximity.
On my mark.
And that promise will be unfulfilled.
Mark.
[AUTOMATED VOICE] Ten, nine
[TECH] Titan at 4,000 feet.
[PUCKETT] But the tunnel
between here and there
stabilizes as they move through it.
[TECH] 3,000 feet.
[BILLY] Terminate gamma simulator.
[PUCKETT] So, rather than unleash
hell in Kansas, we cut bait.
[BILLY] There it goes. It's going home.
And we sneak in behind them,
drafting down in their wake.
[AUTOMATED VOICE] one.
[GRUNTS]
- [ONLOOKERS GASPING]
- [APPLAUSE]
[BILLY] There they go.
Come on. Come on, come on, come on.
[ANTENNAS CREAKING]
[RADIO CHATTER]
[LEE] What the hell is going on
up there? Billy, do you copy?
[YELPS, GRUNTS]
[SPECTATORS CLAMORING]
[TECH] Evacuate the staging ground.
I'll say it again,
evacuate the staging
[LEE] Damn it, Billy, can you hear us?
Billy. Goddamn it. Billy, can you
[TECH] I repeat, evacuate
the staging ground.
[PEOPLE CLAMORING, SHOUTING]
[GRUNTS]
- [LEE] Mayday, mayday. Billy, do you
- [ALARM BLARING]
[LEE] Mayday, mayday
the hourglass is imploding on us.
[BREATHES HEAVILY]
What happened?
What the hell happened?
I don't know. [BREATHES HEAVILY]
[MONITOR BEEPING]
Where Where am I?
[VERDUGO] Tokyo. We had to
airlift you out of Kazakhstan.
- What happened?
- [SIGHS]
Everything at the reactor plant
[STAMMERS] it went terribly wrong.
- What does that mean?
- [TIM] Shaw.
He imploded the rifts
and the whole thing
collapsed down on itself.
[SCREAMING]
[PANTING, GRUNTS]
[GRUNTS, BREATHES HEAVILY]
[CROWD CLAMORING]
[TIM] Then the locals showed up.
I'm lucky I didn't end up
in a Kazakh prison.
[VERDUGO] A lot of good
people didn't make it out.
Shaw
May.
Cate?
I'm sorry.
[BREATHES HEAVILY] Okay.
So where do we start looking for them?
[VERDUGO] Kentaro
they didn't make it.
[STAMMERS] We finish Shaw's work
Lee Shaw died doing what he loved,
pouring gasoline on fires
he doesn't understand.
He augmented a moment of global
crisis for this organization
that we have barely begun dealing with,
and he got your sister
and friend killed doing it.
I'm sorry, Kentaro.
Thank you for your help,
but your time in our world
has come to an end.
[SOBS]
Wait, wait. No, they ca
[STAMMERS] We can They're my family.
There has to be something I can do,
something we can do.
[VERDUGO] There is.
Live.
[CRYING]
[IN JAPANESE] I'm okay.
[GROANING, GRUNTING]
[GRUNTING]
Cate!
Cate!
Cate!
[MUFFLED] Cate!
Cate!
[ELECTRICITY CRACKLING]
[GRUNTS]
- May! All right, all right. Come on.
- Shaw
- We can't stay here.
- Shaw.
We gotta get out of this place.
We gotta move fast.
You gotta hold my hand and move
exactly where I move, okay?
- Okay.
- Now. Come on. Come on.
We gotta avoid the lights.
No. This way, this way. Come on.
- [GRUNTING]
- Come on. Keep moving!
- [MAY PANTING, WHIMPERING]
- [LEE BREATHES HEAVILY]
[MAY GRUNTS]
- [LEE GRUNTING] This way.
- [MAY] Shaw. Shaw.
- Come on, come on.
- [MAY WHIMPERING]
This way.
[BOTH PANTING]
What the hell?
- We're all right.
- What is going on?
We're all right. We made
it across the field.
After a rift closes,
it leaves some kind of
electrical charge or something.
It affects your vision.
It affects the ground.
[STAMMERS] It goes off
like a lethal static shock.
- How do you know that?
- Because I've been down here, May.
On a recon mission. Same
thing happened to my eyes.
[BREATHING HEAVILY] Recon mission?
Where are we?
We're in it, May.
We're in their world. The Titans'.
This is just another
part of their realm.
[BREATHES HEAVILY] How did I get here?
I cleared the space,
and then I hit the timer.
She must have turned around
and come back inside.
Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
She followed me back.
- Whoa. No, no. Listen to me.
- Oh, my God, no.
- No. She started to fall.
- No, I gotta find her.
I caught her. Hey, we fell together.
May, she's down here somewhere.
- [STAMMERS]
- I know that.
Is she alive?
- Did you see her when she
- We're gonna find her, May.
But you gotta do everything
exactly as I say,
and I can keep you safe.
- Do you understand?
- [BREATHES SHAKILY]
- Yeah, I just wanna find Cate.
- We will.
We will. Come on.
[LEE ECHOING] Cate!
[MAY ECHOING] Cate!
[LEE] Cate!
[MAY] Cate!
[SIGHS]
[SIGHS]
[SNIFFLES]
[BUZZER SOUNDS]
[ASSISTANT] Dr. Randa?
General Puckett is here.
"As a result of
the catastrophic loss of life
in the undertaking of
Operation Hourglass
and the inability of Project Monarch
to ascertain the cause
of the catastrophe,
the Department of Defense has ordered
no further funds be allocated
to Project Monarch going forward".
- There's more, but you get the point.
- Hmm.
It's over, Bill.
I'm sorry.
[BILLY SIGHS]
How are we supposed to ascertain
the cause of the catastrophe
- if they're shutting us down?
- Our DOD isn't big on theories
when proving them costs lives.
They really think NASA's
getting to space
without losing some people?
Space they understand.
A network of portals connecting
to a hidden realm of
monsters? It sounds
- Insane.
- In a word.
And without an imminent threat
like our friend on Bikini Atoll
Well, we could just bring one up, right?
Show 'em what a real
catastrophe looks like.
And what then?
Hope it's smaller than Godzilla
and listens to reason?
[SIGHS] I I could've stopped it.
[PUCKETT] I could've stopped it.
"Older men declare war, but it is
youth that must fight and die".
I assure you, it's harder when
you know the youth in question.
He was my friend, too.
I can't let it go, Puck.
I won't.
Now, your boy's already lost a mother.
Now an uncle.
Do not take his father away too.
- We're never gonna find her.
- Come on, May.
- Cate!
- Time isn't on our side.
The longer we're down here,
the longer we're down here.
[SIGHS] What do you mean?
[SIGHS] Well, I'm not a science guy,
so it's, uh, a little
difficult to explain.
- Well, I got time.
- Actually, you don't.
- What are you talking about?
- I told you.
I've been here before
and I made it back.
[MONITOR BEEPING]
Do you know what your name is?
Leland.
Leland Lafayette Shaw III.
- What is your rank and serial number?
- Do you know where you are?
- What happened? What is Project Monarch?
- How did you get here?
- What is Operation Hourglass?
- Do you know where you are?
- [AGENT] What monster were you hunting?
- Get m Get me Bill Randa.
[NURSE, IN JAPANESE]
Shaw's been here a week
and he's still refusing to eat.
It will become a problem soon.
Mmm.
[NURSE] You are wasting
away. You must eat.
bring me a sandwich.
Um
- [GROANS] Thank you.
- Shh.
Though it wouldn't be
much of a hunger strike
if I made any exceptions, would it?
- [NURSE CHUCKLES]
- [MONITOR ALARM BEEPING]
- [SIGHS]
- [LEE, IN JAPANESE] You are very kind.
[NURSE CHUCKLES]
[LEE] I am sorry.
[NURSE] Whatever for?
[SHRIEKS]
Get me Bill Randa!
- [IN JAPANESE] What's going on?
Get me
[SIGHS] Randa.
William J. Randa!
Get me Bill Randa!
- [IN JAPANESE] Security!
- [IN JAPANESE] Security!
[IN JAPANESE] Anyone understand English?
- Get me Bill Randa!
- Let her go.
- Go get me Bill Randa.
I can't. He's dead.
- [BREATHES HEAVILY]
- We are in a Monarch medical facility.
You disappeared during
Operation Hourglass in 1962
twenty years ago.
Uncle Lee.
Huh?
Huh?
Welcome home.
[LEE GRUNTING] No.
No, no.
[GRUNTING] No.
[HIROSHI, IN JAPANESE] Ms. Matsumoto
Dr. Randa.
I came to offer my apologies for today.
[SIGHS]
It looks worse than it is.
In some ways, Shaw is my responsibility.
I have no excuse for allowing
such a thing to happen to you.
[SIGHS]
Shaw was
terrified,
alone,
and in a lot of pain.
Lonely, scared people in pain
can do terrible things.
[BOTH CHUCKLING]
Thank you. [SIGHS]
Are you going to talk to him?
He's my responsibility.
I think I have to.
But you don't want to talk to him.
- [SIGHS]
- Why?
When I was a boy,
he and my father and
my mother promised me
that they'd come back.
I waited and waited,
but they didn't return.
I mourned them and moved on.
Dr. Randa
it would seem like Shaw
has kept his promise.
[DOOR UNLOCKS]
[DOOR OPENS]
Go slow.
Be careful.
I'm fine.
Good, good, good
Sit down.
- [CHUCKLES]
- I'm fine!
Let me move the table. Just a moment.
- Elevate your leg
- Mom!
[SIGHS]
When you're able to move better
maybe you can call the office
I don't want my old job back.
Kentaro
Don't.
If it wasn't the right job,
you can find another
I don't want to talk about work.
What do you want to do?
I should be with Cate.
Why would you say such a horrible thing?
I wanted to stop them.
I should have saved them.
I should have been with them.
I should have done whatever I could.
How can they expect me to go
back to the way things were?
No one expects that, Kentaro.
After that much loss
such grief and pain and despair
going back is not possible.
I'm sorry.
It's not your fault, Mom.
Mm-hmm.
I meant
I'm sorry that you
have to feel this at all.
But Kentaro
You must let yourself feel it.
[SIGHS]
I don't know what to do.
Mmm.
Yes, you do.
But that woman said
When have you ever done
what you've been told?
- [CHUCKLES]
- [CHUCKLES, SNIFFLES]
[CRIES]
Yeah, you're right.
[CHUCKLES]
[HIP-HOP MUSIC PLAYING]
It's a signal!
[TIM] What is a signal?
The gamma burst. Th-The first Okay.
Every time Shaw's
imploded another rift point,
we get more gamma rays
all over the world, right?
Yeah. Big, noisy, chaotic,
and they're getting stronger
Barnes, all 12 of them seem
like they're ready to erupt.
Yes, right, right,
but not the first one.
That signal remained constant.
So I crushed it down so that
I could see all of it, and look.
When you zoom out, there's a pattern.
[STAMMERS] Where
Where is it coming from?
It's a message.
Somebody's sending us a message.
- [MONITOR BEEPING]
- [MACHINERY CLICKS]
[SIGHS]
[BREATHES HEAVILY]
[GROANS]
Is she okay?
She will be.
[GROANS] Good.
They sent you in here
to talk to me, huh?
Think I'll open up to you?
Yes. You don't have to, of course.
Why is Monarch treating
me like I'm a prisoner?
No one's entirely sure if you are safe.
Hmm. Safe?
Not contagious or radioactive
Or a Russian plant.
[CHUCKLES]
- But you don't believe that.
- Of course not.
You're my Uncle Lee.
They just wanna know what
happened to you, and how.
Your survival, your age, defies logic.
And beyond logic
[CHUCKLES] Lies truth.
Some things never change, huh?
Not even at Monarch.
If I tell you the truth, you're
just gonna think I'm crazy.
If you keep it to yourself,
it was all for nothing.
[BEEPING CONTINUES]
[BREATHES HEAVILY]
- [BREATHES HEAVILY]
- [CREW CLAMORING]
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
- [CLAMORING, SHOUTING]
- [ROARS]
We experienced an uncontrolled
flight into terrain.
[GRUNTS, BREATHES HEAVILY]
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
Ben Ben was down on arrival.
So we began planned EVA.
[RADIO STATIC]
While attempting to contact
mission control,
we began our recon of the landing site.
- [MONITOR BEEPING RAPIDLY]
- And then
something happened.
We encountered a massive
unknown terrestrial organism.
I called for immediate evacuation.
[SCREAMS]
Local phenomena made our egress
difficult.
- [SCREECHING]
- [GRUNTING]
[SCREAMS]
And then the next thing I remember
I was here.
They found you in the woods
outside of Higashizumo.
Inside it, there's a shrine.
They said it's the boundary between
the worlds of the living and the dead.
We found a rift in there.
"Mythography".
Your dad would've liked that.
He was right, Hiro.
Bill Randa was right.
What exactly was my father right about?
About everything.
Their world and ours.
Their balance.
[STAMMERS] I think you are confused.
My father was crazy.
After he lost my mother and then you
he lost himself.
Monarch is moving you
to a secure facility
for observation and study.
Study?
It looks and feels like
a retirement home.
I think you'll be comfortable there.
No, wait, wait, wait. You can't
Wait, Hiro Hiro. Stop. Stop.
We can do this together.
We can figure it out.
You and me.
- We can do it.
- "We" are not doing anything.
300,000 years
From the cradle of a civilization
to the moon
We lived with the Titans
until you three.
Some beasts are best left
undisturbed. I'm sorry.
This is your legacy.
This is your family business.
I buried that family in three
empty boxes a long time ago.
The madness that devoured
my childhood [GRUNTS]
Wasn't madness.
Then it was a choice.
Maybe that makes it worse.
[NARRATOR 1] The pregnant macaque
has another reason to visit the onsen:
pain relief.
A long soak in the natural hot spring
is exactly what this
soon-to-be mother needs
after a long day in the Japanese Alps.
Gestation will last about
five and a half months,
with the majority occurring
during the wintertime.
[NARRATOR 2] The beetle's
adventure now begins,
as it searches for sources of pollen,
nectar, or its favorite, the rose.
With distinct marking
[REPORTER] We interrupt this program
to bring you breaking news.
- [CROWD SHOUTING, CLAMORING]
- [GODZILLA ROARING]
[MAY] Oh, my God.
Yeah. Well, now you know.
You lost a lot of years
of your life. [SNIFFLES]
Oh, I don't know. I don't think
I lost years, May. [SNIFFLES]
I mean, if we find some
way to get you home
[SIGHS] and what happened
to me doesn't happen to you,
well, then I'd say it was worth it.
Don't let this get to your head,
but you look good for 90-whatever.
That's what everybody tells me.
- [SIGHS]
- Cate! [ECHOING]
Where is she?
Cate! [SIGHS]
- Cate!
- Cate!
Cate!
Kentaro.
[IN JAPANESE] Well, look who it is.
Back from the dead again?
How are you?
I just came back to Tokyo.
I haven't had time to reach
out to your mother
More important things to do than to check
that we made it out of the desert alive?
We understand.
What are you doing here?
I was just leaving.
You?
Trying to continue my work.
Something went wrong in the desert,
and I need to know why.
Which will be considerably
more difficult
if you avail yourself of my files.
How did you even get in here?
I got the keys from Cate.
What were you two doing
out there in the desert?
How did you find out I was there
We were looking for you, Dad.
We thought you were dead.
I suppose I have a lot
to explain to you both.
How would you even start?
Kentaro
you were never meant
to know about her.
About that part of my life.
Too late.
What do you hope to
accomplish with those?
I want my own answers.
And Monarch won't help anymore,
so I have to figure it out on my own.
It's no wonder you're angry.
I know I've hurt you both.
But
what you're looking
for is not in there.
If I could just talk to you
and your sister, I could
I said it's too late for that!
What is too late?!
[SOBS]
Cate died, Dad.
[SIGHS]
That can't be true.
You're saying that to hurt me.
I hurt you, you're trying
to hurt me back.
Please tell me it's not
Please tell me it's not
[CRIES]
[IN JAPANESE] What have I done?
[CRIES]
If you weren't
a sad, lying, secret little man
who kept running away from her,
Cate never would've
come barging into my life!
[BREATHES SHAKILY]
This is your fault!
[BREATHES SHAKILY, GRUNTS]
[GRUNTS, GROANS]
[GROANS, BREATHING HEAVILY]
[GRUNTS]
[WHIMPERING, PANTING]
[GRUNTING CONTINUES]
[BREATHES SHAKILY, GASPS]
[WHIMPERS]
[BREATHING SHAKILY]
[GROANING]
[WHIMPERING]
[GRUNTS]
[GRUNTS, SQUEALS]
- [WHIMPERING]
- [ROARING]
[GROWLS, SQUEALING]
[PANTING]
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