Stone Lantern

This script is based on characters from the movie, The Matrix by the Wachowski Brothers. This script takes place just after the first movie, and before the sequels.

ACT I

Scene 1

INT. Zion Prison - - Day

Neo goes into the Zion prison where Cypher is kept. Cypher is held in a standard jail cell built into the rock walls of the city. He wears bandages over different parts of his body and he has trouble breathing at times. Half of his face is burned.

Neo

You killed my friends.

Cypher

Yes. I am a killer. I am aware that I am a killer. Do you not think I am being sufficiently punished for my crimes against you?

(Gestures at his condition and surroundings.)

Neo

You killed YOUR friends. Everyone who trusted you is dead now, by your hand. And you did it so you could eat steak?

Cypher

Oh. The “Why” question. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. No, Neo. I did not do it so that I could eat steak. I did it so that I could enjoy steak.

Neo

You could enjoy steak in the staging program whenever you had wanted.

Cypher

No! The only way to enjoy it is to eat it when I know I am getting away from you. Or to eat it when I can’t remember you. When I can’t remember any of it.

Neo

You hated the life that much? You were a hero. You freed people from their forced ignorance.

Cypher

Yeah, I freed them. Woke them up and set them free. But at what cost? How many people do we kill when we try to free one person. Do you ever question that?

Neo

Every single one of them can become an agent at any moment. We fight to stay alive.

Cypher

Screw your eyes wide shut bullshit! Don’t feed me the god damned propaganda, I know it all by heart. Every single person we wake up is one more soldier in our army and damn the cost in innocent lives. Every one of you bastards I kill is a hundred lives I save.

Neo

Then why didn’t you do it sooner?

Cypher

I was waiting for you.

(Pause)

Yeah, that’s right. I was waiting for The One. Oh man, everyone spoke about you so highly. Back before they met you of course. “The One will take care of this. The One will fix everything.” We were all waiting around for Jesus and I prayed it was true. I actually got down on my knees and prayed to a God I never believed in that the little hacker we had our eye on was the son of God. Our saviour. Well, you were, weren’t you? You just weren’t the saviour I was looking for. Someone to come in and put an end to the killing of innocents. Someone to explain to Morpheus that what he is doing is not just wrong, but evil. You sure as hell weren’t The One I was looking for. You weren’t even the saviour of the people here who still consider you The One. Have you made their world a better place? What have you done, so far? You’ve started a war. No, the only ones who consider you a saviour are the generals back in Zion. To them you are the Super Recruitment Officer. No, I didn’t do it sooner because I was waiting to find out if you were the son of God or the biggest mass murderer in history. Guess which one you turned out to be.

Neo

Shut up!

Cypher

I could of left sooner, but I refused to leave until I had killed you. Maybe, if I do enough good before I die, I won’t go to hell for all the evil I have done.

Neo

Every single person we fight is a potential agent! We have to fight or die!

Cypher

If your choices are kill everyone in sight or die, which choice do you make? Which choice is the right one? You made your choice, didn’t you? I was like you once. I mean I wasn’t “The One”, but I was a hero wannabe. Out there doing my part to damn the man and save the world. But, along came the best day of my life and ruined everything. Morpheus and I were fighting back to back against wave after wave of agents. There were so many agents. Oh man, there was no way we should have survived that. They just kept coming and we kept putting them down. We were untouchable. I knew I was gonna die, but I didn’t care because it was so perfect. I was gonna die fighting back to back with my hero.

(Pause)

But I noticed we were in a schoolyard. A god damned schoolyard. Where the hell were all those agents we were killing coming from, I wonder? They were the kids, damn it! I know I’m going to hell and Morpheus sent me there, but maybe I can do enough good before I die that God might forgive me a little bit. Any little bit would help and killing you would have been more than a little bit.

NEO

I am not evil.

CYPHER

No. You’re the saviour who fights computer agents of the machine. And, for every agent you kill, one human being gets flushed out of their comfortable pod and into the sewers. You’re a hero. You’re my hero.

NEO

Shut up!

CYPHER

You’re The One! Neo, save me! Save me! You’re The One!

NEO

Shut up!

(Neo runs out.)

CYPHER

He’s the one! Stop him, officer! He’s the one!

ONE ACT

In a hospital. A man is waking up slowly while someone else attends him.

ATTENDANT

Easy now. Easy. Take it slow at first. You’ve been out for a while.

MAN

(sits up)

uhnn…

ATTENDANT

That’s good. Easy though. Nice and easy.

MAN

Am I in a hospital?

ATTENDANT

Sure are. You’ve been in a coma since your accident.

MAN

What accident?

ATTENDANT

I don’t know. Our records don’t go back that far.

MAN

How long have I been out!?

ATTENDANT

Eighty-seven years. Yeah, that’s gotta freak you out a bit. Easy now. Easy. Don’t worry. Your family left a trust fund to pay for your health care. It did rather well for a while there, but it finally ran out. Then, as soon as we took you off the machines, you woke up. Well, I must be going.

MAN

No, wait! Eighty-seven years. I don’t feel eighty-seven years older.

ATTENDANT

Well, you look it. We’ve improved medical practice dramatically since your day though. We no longer worry about little things like actual health and focus on perceived health instead.

MAN

Perceived health? You mean I’m not actually healthy? That’s a good thing?

ATTENDANT

You look like crap, but you feel great. Would you rather it be the other way around?

MAN

But I’m actually still really sick? I just think I feel good. How is that improved medical practice?

ATTENDANT

Well, for one thing we wouldn’t pay to have someone kept alive and unconscious for eighty-seven years. Waste of money. You might drop dead tomorrow, but you’ll feel great when you go.

MAN

But I want to live as long as possible.

ATTENDANT

Really? Even if you were sick? Or hurt? Or unconscious? Well, your dream came true. How does it feel?

MAN

Awful.

ATTENDANT

Then we screwed up somewhere because you should feel great.  Nurse!

MAN

No. No. I’m good. I’m just shocked by all of this. Tell me. What has changed since I’ve been out? What is that thing? Some teleportation gizmo that whisks you away at the speed of thought?

ATTENDANT

No. It’s my watch.

MAN

Oh. It looked fancy. Like it did more than tell time.

ATTENDANT

Huhn? It doesn’t tell time. Why would I need that? This is a watch. It lets me peer into the heart of the fifth dimension and watch the souls of the damned as they wander aimlessly for eternity searching for a redemption they will never find.

MAN

Oh. I see. huh. So, if you can see souls then you have proven that God exists?

ATTENDANT

Ohhhhhh. There’s something that’s changed. Yeah. About sixty years ago God came back and started walking among us again.

MAN

What! God is back?

ATTENDANT

Was back. He left again. He came back because belief in him was pretty much non-existent in your day.

MAN

I believed in God!

ATTENDANT

So, you’re calling him a liar?

MAN

No! I’m just saying that I believed in Him. I knew he existed and I worshipped Him.

ATTENDANT

Did you go to temple?

MAN

Yes!

ATTENDANT

Did you live by the word of God?

MAN

What? yeah-

ATTENDANT

Careful. God pays attention now. He pays very close attention.

MAN

Well, I’m not sure if I lived by the word of God all the time.

ATTENDANT

That’s what I thought. Did you judge others? Were you superior to them? Vain? See, God came back sixty years ago to perform some miracles and kick-start religion again because of the almost believers like you.

MAN

Huhn. What kind of miracles? One time deals, like water to wine or the constant reminder miracle like the rainbow?

ATTENDANT

One time stuff. When He first came down He sort of went around the public media circuit letting everyone know who He was and getting the message out. Non-believers kept shooting Him though. Finally, He just turned the lot of them into vampires. Eternally denied death and forced to feed on the blood of the living to stave off the pain of undeath.

MAN

Wow.

ATTENDANT

Yeah. You don’t go anywhere at night now without a blood pack to give them or else you’re gonna get bit.  Each year around Christmas there’s a big blood drive to sort of help them along. It’s a pretty terrible existence. No one will hire them.

MAN

Should you really be helping them?

ATTENDANT

Should you really be judging them?

MAN

So, that was the miracle?

ATTENDANT

Not the only miracle. He also healed the sick.

MAN

Oh? Who got healed?

ATTENDANT

Everyone. Everyone who was sick was suddenly better. It didn’t last long of course as people kept smoking and new babies were born and stuff. But it really gave us a chance to organize our hospitals.

MAN

Wait. God came back and healed everyone who was sick, but left me in a coma for another sixty-seven years? You must be lying.

ATTENDANT

Nope. God issued a big press release before he did it. He also explained why he wasn’t going to help certain people. In your case, you didn’t qualify because your condition was voluntary.

MAN

I didn’t volunteer for this!

ATTENDANT

Your family chose for you. They had the legal right and chose to put their faith in medicine rather than God’s will.

MAN

But that’s not fair. Surely God would understand that I couldn’t decide for myself.

ATTENDANT

They had power of attorney and God respects that. “In Heaven as it is on Earth.”

MAN

You’re misquoting that.

ATTENDANT

I got it from a guy who heard it from God. Where did you get your information?

MAN

The bible.

ATTENDANT

Your bible? Seventh hand information at best. Here’s something that will mess with your head. When God presented himself, the devil did too. Satan has been pretty busy wheeling and dealing since then.

MAN

If God is back, who would be so stupid as to make a deal with the devil?

ATTENDANT

Well, if you want to get really wrecked on a Friday night, he’s the guy to call, if you know what I mean. You haven’t had sex till you’ve had a succubus. They shape change! And it’s not the pretty that you want. Oh, you think you want pretty, but you wait until you are going hard and she turns into a four hundred pound maggot and you are so high you love it. Then you’ll always want maggot meat.

MAN

Stop! Oh God stop! How can you do that if you know God is watching? You’re going to hell!

ATTENDANT

No, I’m not.

MAN

After all that? You must be!

ATTENDANT

I’m not. I’m not going to hell because God still talks to people regularly. He talks to lots of people. Important people. People who will make a difference in his grand plan.

MAN

You have special privileges? You can commit these depravities because God talks directly to you?

ATTENDANT

No. I can commit these depravities- that’s a good word, by the way, I can commit these depravities because God has never spoken to me. God has proven Himself all-powerful and all-knowing. He is omni-present and omniscient. He could have a close, personal, relationship with each and every one of us if he chose. He has that relationship with many people. He has at least had a conversation with a great many more. Yet, there are a number of us that he just never talks to. Why is that, do you suppose?

MAN

Because you are the walking damned. You are too disgusting and too far gone for him to bother with.

ATTENDANT

Holy crap! This is like talking to a museum. Tell me. Do you realize you are changing the bible to suit your argument? Do you think God would turn his back on me because I am “too far gone”? Did he do that to anyone else? Or did he, in fact invite those exact people into his company and wash their feet and stuff?

MAN

I don’t know. I don’t understand this.

ATTENDANT

If I was a bad person, then He would come to me and teach me. I’m not a bad person. I’m also not so great that I will matter in the grand plan. Not even a little bit. I am insignificant. I am beneath his concern and I will not be judged. When the time comes, I’ll just walk on into Heaven. Won’t even have to wait in line.

MAN

So, you can just go commit any sin you want now? No matter what?

ATTENDANT

Of course not. In the course of my lifetime, I’m not going to commit any sin so great that it tips the balance at all. If I was going to do that, He would have shown up to talk to me about it. Since he has never shown up, I know that I’m just going to be an exceptionally average guy.

MAN

So God has turned his back on you?

ATTENDANT

No. It just means that the sum of my life with the lives of a great number of other people will balance out to a number that God finds acceptable. Because of that, it works out better for everyone.

MAN

Except that you know God has never thought about you. At all.

ATTENDANT

There is that, yes.

MAN

Then I pity you.

ATTENDANT

You guys just truly refused to ever learn, didn’t you. Are you suddenly superior to me?

MAN

I- no.

ATTENDANT

You’re a liar. You feel yourself superior to me, don’t you? God won’t talk to me. So, therefore, I am beneath you. You are assuming a privilege that is God’s alone.

MAN

I can’t help it. You are beneath God’s notice.

ATTENDANT

Has He spoken to you yet?

MAN

No, but that doesn’t mean He won’t!

ATTENDANT

No. It doesn’t. I have some questions for you, though. Would you say I will have factored largely into your life?

MAN

What?

ATTENDANT

Have I affected you in a way that you will remember for the rest of your life? Will the choices you make in the future be affected by the conversation we have had today? Will you remember me for the rest of your life?

MAN

I…shit.

ATTENDANT

Yeah. Now your getting it. If I matter that much in your life then we can presume that while I haven’t had  a close relationship with God, I would have had at least one visit with him prior to this conversation. To prep me. In fact, I knew when I arrived that if we had a long and memorable conversation, it would mean that you were insignificant as well.

MAN

Then why did you talk to me so long!?

ATTENDANT

I tried to leave. You called me back!

MAN

I didn’t know. You shouldn’t have stayed because I didn’t know the rules.

ATTENDANT

Well, I’m sorry. I’m not used to people who don’t know the rules. Everyone else knows the rules.

(pause)

I am sorry. I screwed that one up for you and I’m sorry.

MAN

No. It’s not your fault. You didn’t make me insignificant. You just pointed it out to me.

ATTENDANT

Well, I am sorry. Now that you know, though, it opens you up to a lot of freedoms.

MAN

I guess.

ATTENDANT

Let me make it up to you. How would you like to commit some depravities with me and a sexy armadillo on Friday night?

MAN

I…yeah, I guess.