Interior, grey walls, darkness. The man opens his eyes and looks around at the windowless, featureless room. He sighs.
THE MAN: What is happening?!
He sits up and crawls to one wall, pounds his fist against it.
THE MAN: Let me out of here!! Please, wake me from this nightmare!!! I don’t —
The man stops speaking and perks up, squinting and cocking his head.
In the faint silence, we hear quiet chords on a guitar, a dim pulse. The man turns towards camera and we see he is listening intently, trying to make out…
The music slowly gains in volume, and has a bit of a room reverb on it, sounding as if one were to take a boombox into the sewer. Vocals begin:
“I saw her today at the reception…”
FADE TO BLACK (music continues)
Interior. The Joint Chiefs sit around a table, the President at one end. TV monitors on the walls behind them show active scenes of rioting in some urban area; huge waves crashing in some coastal storm; camouflaged men jumping out of a helicopter and sliding down lines to land in some mall parking lot.
PRESIDENT RENNER: Look. Okay? I just want to know, are we gonna win?! Okay? We got the military, best in the world, okay? We will crush those commies, right? The people want to know —
ADMIRAL AKBAR: Sir, the situation is fluid. Our best game scenarios cannot predict with high confidence the outcome in a number of active theaters across the continental US. We —
RENNER: Speak English! Are. We. Going. To. Win? I swear to God, General, we —
AKBAR: Admiral.
RENNER: What?
AKBAR: I’m an Admiral, Mr. President. Not a General.
RENNER: [glaring with malice] Look, ADMIRAL. The people need to know I have their backs. Okay? This is the biggest — we must come together to fight for our country, ADMIRAL. This is my moment to shine, and we can’t — people are saying, sir, Mr. President… We are afraid, sir, we need leadership, and —
AKBAR: Mr. President. You need to hear about Operation Foxtrot, sir.
RENNER: Please do not interrupt me. I am speaking of this historic moment. Okay? I’m your President! I’m… Foxtrot? What is that?
AKBAR: Sir, Foxtrot is under the purview of the Army’s Homeland Contingency Division. It’s gone live as of yesterday, and we expect will be pivotal in gaining control of the unrest. Sir.
RENNER: [suspicious] I’m listening…
AKBAR: Sir, as we’ve briefed you previously, we… one of our programs under DARPA, at Montauk, has developed capabilities for what they call “temporal insertion,” whereby we can send individuals, well… We can send them back in time, Mr. President. Within a given window, and with certain constraints, we can —
RENNER: Back in time? General, are you telling me… you built a time machine?
AKBAR: Well.. Yes, sir. It’s been in development for, well, some time now. Yesterday we deployed it, sending men back about five years. Men who have been given information and means to… alter… Sir, temporal dynamics can be difficult to explain and to understand. I don’t want to confuse you with descriptions of the operations’ parameters. But we believe using this protocol we can end the unrest before it even started earlier this month. Indeed, before you even assumed the office. Sir.
The President stares at the Admiral in silence, then looks around at the assembled men at the table.
RENNER: You’re saying… You’re saying the Army has sent soldiers into the past? To change what’s already happened? This is absurd!
AKBAR: Yes, Mr. President. Only, the men we’re sending are not military personnel. They are civilians. Sheep-dipped, sir. In fact, they are enemy combatants.
RENNER: What?! I don’t understand, you’re sending back terrorists? What are you saying?!
AKBAR: No, Mr. President. These are military prisoners, civilians who we’ve apprehended under extraordinary rendition powers and, well, re-conditioned —
RENNER: Reconditioned?
AKBAR: Yes, sir. They’ve been, well. Sir, we’ve tortured some folks. To recondition them for use in Operation Foxtrot, these men have been… Think of it like hypnosis, sir. They have had their memories suppressed and been given new priorities and operational information, so that they can serve our country. We pulled them from a pool of dissidents — not terrorists, sir, but enemies of the US, nontheless. These men would be rotting in max security Federal prison. They will not be missed. And since the technology of time travel is, well, new… We would not sacrifice United States Military soldiers in a guaranteed no-return scenario like this, uh… unprecedented…
RENNER: So you’ve sent terrorists back in time? Do do what, exactly?
AKBAR: Enemy combatants. Yes, sir. To prevent certain past events from occurring, and in turn prevent the uprising that is happening now.
RENNER: But… but it is happening.. now. When.. will this operation happen? When do they go back, and when will… now.. be… How can they change what’s already happening?
AKBAR: Sir, the men are being prepared now at a black site, and will be sent back within days. At which time they will arrive five years in our current past, give or take a few months, and will be assigned to infiltrate organizations, including the Army, media outlets, and an ad-hoc militia group called The Patriot Front. They will then —
RENNER: Sorry, did you say these men are going to infiltrate the Army? Isn’t the Army the ones sending them in the first place?
AKBAR: That is correct sir. Because the Army as of five years ago is not yet aware of the operation and because the temporal disruption technology is of course classified, it’s necessary to liason with .. previous Army officials using more.. clandestine means.
RENNER: What?
AKBAR: The men will join the Army sir, in the past. As well as positions in media outlets and The Patriot Front. From there they will coordinate a counter-insurgency with the Joint Chiefs who will have had been briefed in future operations… Sir… As I said, the dynamics of time travel are tricky to explain.
RENNER: But you’re saying, soon, because they will change the past, our present will no longer be… what’s going to happen?
AKBAR: [muttering] I’m kind of curious about that myself, actually.
RENNER: What was that?
AKBAR: Sir, according to the program’s lead scientists, we will experience a sort of… they call it a tunneling effect. We will wake up one morning with altered memories and a new scenario on the ground. They say the awareness of this shift is transient, like waking from a dream. At the end of the day, we will likely not remember our previous history. It will be.. like the unrest never happened.
RENNER: Jesus Christ and Mary on toast. That’s .. that’s crazy talk, General. That is absolutely the craziest nonsense I have ever heard, and let me tell you, I’ve heard a lot of crazy nonsense. I —
A woman in grey dress jacket and skirt enters the room and brings a Diet Coke to the President.
RENNER: Oh, thank you, Darling. [He takes a sip.]
AKBAR: Yes, Mr. President. Agreed, Foxtrot is out there. It’s time travel. It’s … yes, it’s crazy. But the Director assures us, it is no fantasy, and it will work.
RENNER: God save us all. [Slurps Diet Coke from the can loudly.]
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