CALIGARI 2050

In the year 2050, the machinations of a corrupt government and a city’s financial/political leaders create the power of population mind control. But one of the inhabitants of New city is still seemingly acting under his own control and is killing the evil backers of Sigmark Industries...one by one. What or who, is causing the somnambulist, Caesar, to stalk the night in search of his next victim?

Caligari 2050 is Caliber’s take on the German silent film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Set in an industrial film noir future, Caligari 2050 is a story of dreams and death…of images and love…of a voice crying from the machines.

It may be the future.

PROLOGUE-2040

Dr. Seth Sigmark is looking over the shoulder of Dora Gelhart as she is analyzing data in a computer. She says she found a potential. Image scans read and Sigmark is excited. After all this time, they found the one. Asking for a location, the scene changes…

Inside a large room, construction workers are finishing up a series of tunnels. Conrad Ceasar is completing some wiring. Donald Dermot comes up to him and asks for the diagram. Caesar tells him that he can’t give the information out. Explains that each person only knows what they’re supposed to know. Donald gets angry and the others side with Bob as they complain about all the secrecy. They don’t even know what they’re building. Caesar says he doesn’t know either, none of them know and they’re not supposed to. Donald yells that it’s easy for Caesar as he has nobody but Donald has a wife, family, and friends and yet he can’t say anything about the new metropolis they’re all working on. Caesar just turns away and informs Donald that perhaps he should tell his family to change the subject.

Suddenly, lights flash. Walls come closing down as the tunnels seal. The men are trapped in a small room. The lights go out. Donald lights a welding torch for some light and wonders what is going on. Caesar speaks up. He just says the work must be finished. When asked to explain, Caesar says nothing but Donald has figured it out. Everything was so secret that they couldn’t let the workers live…that way no one would know anything. Much like the Master builders of the pyramids were entombed inside so they couldn’t reveal secrets. Donald brings the light towards Caesar’s face and asks how long he has known this. Caesar replies…about one minute. He is surprised he didn’t think of it before. Now what? Caesar responds again. Just wait. Until what. Until we suffocate and die. The light slowly burns out, casting into darkness.

 

Ten Years Later

NEW CITY…a planned community built from the ground up to house over a million people. It was to be the showcase of the world when it opened ten years ago but has fallen into quick disarray. Thousands and thousands of unskilled laborers who had built the city and lived in the temporary quarters decided to stay in New City to take advantage of the expected growth. But the gambling casinos had failed. The expected tourism revenue never developed. Foreign corporations that were relied on for continuing the infra-structure of the city left because of economic crisis in their own countries. Government leaders fought incessantly with the developers and the financiers and New City quickly ground to a halt. Strikes, labor disputes, corruption, and a fear of programmed existence tore at the fabric of society and New City soon became divided into the haves and the have-nots.

Tavis Hanlin, working late in his office. He is assisted by Jane Planchett who is doing her best to refute his sexual advances. The delicate balance of keeping a job against sexual harassment. Hanlin retaliates by deciding that he needs more files for her to dig up. The late night will get even longer. Hanlin hears his computer beep and sees a message has scrolled across it. "The Time is Now". Hanlin doesn’t understand as he talks to the computer. Time for what? The screen reads "death". Hanlin scoffs and wonders who. He smirks as he turns away from the now blank screen. But the beep summons him again and he is shocked when he reads the wording on the screen "yours". Trying to turn it off, he is shocked when he sees that it won’t turn off. When a shadow falls over the computer from behind, he barely has a chance to turn around before screaming. Blood splatters on the screen. As Jane is returning to the office, she just glimpses a shadow turning down the hallway. A figure all dressed in black. She yells out that no one is supposed to be here and follows. But when she turns the corner. No one is there. She goes back and discovers the body of Hanlin, her scream ending the scene.

Sigmark Industries, developers of New City. Dr. Sigmark comes into a meeting with the city’s officials who are not happy at all with the way of the city. Sigmark promises that the new changes to the computer system will soon show the benefits. He reveals the Wave Simulator which has been operational and will induce thoughts and feelings into the general populace. Examples are show on how it works. The city is laced with cameras through out the city which are actually inducers as well. Pink Noise spill out to incite agitation or sooth traffic jams. Sigmark tells them that he can get everything under control if the group gives him more time. But time and patience are running out on Sigmark.

The police have virtually everything under surveillance so although crimes are committed, the criminals are rapidly caught, tried, and sentenced. Most crimes are recorded and lengthy trials are a thing of the past. So, the murder of Hanlin comes as quite a surprise especially when the police review the cameras. Mysteriously, the cameras have been blocked out on any movement near or around Hanlin.

As the story unfolds, more is revealed regarding the Sigmark Corporation’s "mind control" aspects of New City and two more of the organizational board members are murdered. It is obvious that it is a deliberate plan carried out against the board…but by who?

Jane is called to the police station to meet with Detective Sam Jarvis. Jarvis wants to know if Jane can remember anything at all about the man she caught a glimpse of but she doesn’t. He feels it is real important and asks if she is up to watching something that isn’t nice. She agrees, anything to help. She wants to be helpful and strong even though inside, she’s screaming to get out. Jarvis starts to show a hi-tech video. He explains that Hanlin had a camera set up which was outside of the computer system that laces through the entire system. When Jane asks why, Jarvis says that she’ll see.

The video runs. It shows Hanlin’s large couch across from his desk. We see him undressing a woman who Jane identifies as an assistant. Obviously, Hanlin had filmed his amorous exploits. Jarvis speeds up through it and we see the shot of when Jane resisted Hanlin. Speed up again. There are glimpses on a shadow and then only portions shown of the mysterious killer of Hanlin. Jane agrees that it was the same person she saw but she didn’t see much more than that. Jarvis asks if she would be willing to undergo a recall and explains the hypnotic procedure and she agrees.

He sets her up under a recaller machine which is like a box that the viewer looks into. Flashing lights expound at her before settling down to twinkles that begin to rotate. Jane’s memory comes back and she starts to recite what she saw. The shadowy figure, all dressed in black skirting through the hall. But what happened so fast in real life is slowed and the figure had turned ever so briefly towards her. She sees his face. Although she doesn’t recognize him, it is the face of Conrad Caesar.

Jane is working through a computer system to identify the killer. The computer graphics are set up to pare down her specifications for all possible matches. Tiredly, she continues to go through them until finally one stops her. She reads the name of Caesar and excitedly tells Jarvis. Jarvis types in the profile name and frowns. He thanks Jane and says that he appreciates her help. She is of course confused as she is led out and Jarvis explains to another detective that the person she chose has been dead for ten years.

Plot outlines to be covered

It is revealed that the main frame computer which monitors and exerts control over the million plus citizens via the Sigmark Industries has incorporated some of the thought processes of the humans and has established a sense of self-identity.

Conrad Caesar did not die. Sigmark had found the file on Caesar and recognized the thought patterns obtained during testing were on the special alpha wave that could be tapped into by the computer. Essentially, he was suitable to have his mind downloaded into the computer so that’s why he was trapped with the others, so that he could be taken. The other men were exterminated except for Donald who was allowed to be visected by the computer so that it would have a complete understanding of the human anatomy. In other words, Donald was taken apart and put back together by the computer.

Jane wonders why the police ignored her suspect and she digs into the case herself. Having access to the computer systems, she finds the image of Caesar and finds out that he died in an "accident", but she was sure it was him. She feeds the various parameters into the system and searches the city’s images for the mysterious man. She finds him. He is an unemployed drifter living in a seedy hotel on the poor side of town (the former temporary homes of the unskilled laborers). It is a section of the city called Taps (acronym for Temporary and Assisted-living projects). She wonders how she can always see him coming home but never leaving and he is never shown at night. She decides to get more information about him. She doesn’t go to Jarvis because he doesn’t believe her.

Caesar lives a relatively normal life during the day. He is a drifter that can’t hold a job as he is always tired. He sleeps most of the day. No family, no friends, nobody in the world that even knows he’s alive for the most part…except for Jane. Caesar sees the mysterious woman who seems to be following him and can’t imagine why.

Jarvis gets reports of Jane hiding out in the Taps area. He goes through different recordings and monitors her goings on and is curious.

Caesar finally confronts Jane. She, of course, won’t reveal what she knows (that he’s a killer) but she talks with him about his past. Although he has kept the name, he doesn’t remember anything about the past. As they talk more, he tells her about the weird dreams that take him into dark areas that he doesn’t recognize.

More killings as the Sigmark Corporation is near panic. Each time, the victim is somehow contacted via computer. No one has really seen the killer although another person has caught a glimpse. Again, the figure mysteriously disappeared.

Jane is in Caesar’s room. They have an odd relationship but she isn’t scared of him anymore and in fact, feels pity for him. Caesar seems like a very confused person who has very little going for him. Yet, she has a gun with her. Caesar is lying on his bed while Jane is reading in the chair. She is reading a novel to him after they had a talk of how "quaint" reading was. Jane starts to drift off to sleep, cautious even with the gun, although Caesar is already asleep.

Jarvis investigates more of the killings of the Sigmark Corporation. None of it makes sense. And the corporate heads of Sigmark definitely have something to hide.

Jane and Caesar have established a relationship with each other and begin to finally trust each other, although Jane realizes that Caesar has some terrible secret he is hiding.

One night, Jane wakes up with a start. Caesar is gone. She runs out into the street and finds herself in a nightlife she didn’t know existed. Protected by her daily existence, she was totally unawares of what life was like out in the Tap. She is nearly assaulted when she spies Caesar coming down the street. He is in a trance and she pursues him. She follows him into a building and watches as he presses a button on a wall within an old deserted bar. (some elaborate pressing…maybe two spots simultaneously to prevent accidental pressing). The wall slides open and he enters. She follows him, pressing all over the wall until it finally opens.

She enters and as she goes along, she finds out that there is maze work of tunnels and secret passageways that interconnect through out the city. That is how come Caesar can move around with nobody seeing him. She can hear his steps and she continues following. The tunnels are elaborate…simple yet complex with mazelike stairways and ramps. She follows him as he leaves the secret passageways and enters the sewer and power grids under the city. Leaky, gas hissing, dark, musty…she is terrified to continue but even more terrified not to.

She loses him only to see a light flash from an opening door. She enters and finds herself inside the Sigmark Corporation. She follows Caesar only to see him, still in a trancelike state, kill one of the board members.

Trying to hide, Caesar comes across her. He starts towards her but something inside stops him. He fights himself before falling unconscious.

Jane figures out that Caesar is somehow tied up with the computer. His past is revealed as he was hooked up to the computer so that it could understand the human race and develop pathways similar to humans. However, the machine took over Caesar’s mind and the two became one. Caesar has become a mental tool of the computer and Jane and Caesar discover that the computer is trying to kill all the members of the Sigmark Corporation to cover all the traces of this man/machine alliance.

However, when the computer tried to get Caesar to go after Jane, he rebelled internally. Now the computer needs to have him dead as well. Donald, the man that was reconstructed by the computer is sent after Caesar. Equipped with an odd assortment of weapons, it becomes a mad dash through the city as Donald chased Caesar and Jane through the tunnels, the sewers, the power grids and more.

Caesar continually tries to fight off the computer’s manipulations and then discovers that he can hook himself up to the computer itself because they run on the same internal energies. He tries to deprogram the computer but Donald comes in for the attack. Mortally wounding Caesar, Donald is about to deliver the killing blow when Jane comforts the dying Caesar. Jane expresses her love for Caesar and Caesar finds his human self responding.

The computer has this new process…the emotion of love and compassion. It can’t understand it. Everything in the city goes haywire as the computer attempts to search all aspects of this strange occurrence. Donald virtually explodes from the extended energies of the computer.

The computer is almost shut down when it asks a simple question of "what is love?".