annex.0@gmx.com
02-15-2008, 04:47 AM
HACKSAW
Contents
• 1 Plot synopsis
• 2 Back Story - HACKSAW
• 3 Back Story - THEM
• 4 Back Story - THE S.T.A.C
• 5 Storylines
• 6 External links
Plot synopsis
=============
HACKSAW, young female hacker has uncovered all government secrets is
on the run from the authorities who are out to silence her. She is
sending a series of messages to the world to release the secrets
before the government agencies find her.
Back Story - HACKSAW
===================
HACKSAW Transmits
Tasha, 21, science buff, uber geek and latterly fashion model. Born
and raised in Sydney along with her younger brother Stephen by
academic parents Clary and Catherine. Childhood achievements
• 1994 - Best Junior Showjumper
• 1997 - Winner, National Spelling Bee. Scholarship Carter College.
• 1997 – MVP inter-school Soccer Championship
• 1998 – Principal performer, Hybrid Youth Experimental Dance Theatre
• 1999 – Junior Dan, blue belt, Bujinkan ninjutsu
• 1999 – Winner, Rzorback Challenge, MountainBk.com
• 2000 – $2,000 winner, Sheingzu Science Prize
• 2001 – Best of Show, Savoury Scones, Blue Ribbon - Face Painting
• 2001 – “The Puppet Masters or How the Web Was Won” – a self-created
puppet show.
A happy upbringing until the disintegration of her parent’s marriage
when her mother developed early-onset Alzheimers. Catherine was placed
in care and regretfully/thankfully passed away when Tasha was 18.
Clary had been a psychological mess for the prior 8 months and skipped
out before the funeral and has never been heard of again. Tasha has
cared for Stephen since he was 16 as well as exploring her explosion
as a technological wunderkind, a foreseer and creator of innovation.
Her simple (child's play) web-software designs became cornerstone
achievements and secured her financial success even at this early age.
But Tasha’s real spark ignited when she found an outlet forher
inquisitive energy and intelligence amongst the elite hacker
community. Blessed with ‘camera-loves-her’ good looks and a strong
personality she was soon sidetracked by the talent agencies offering
paying gigs that lead to international invitations. Stephen had grown
up quick and was calling the shots in his own life, so, on more a
devil-may-care whim than a career choice; Tasha accepted the incessant
contract invitations and left Stephen for Paris, Milan, Tokyo and New
York. Tasha’s life quickly became hectic, constantly in demand, fun
but frantic. Even so, her first love remained her fascination and
connection with the hacker world. Her status as grand master of her
clan a title she was competitive enough to maintain. She was of course
aware of the constant risks but the thrill of breaking down and owning
the Digital Machine is an addictive elixir. But when Tasha’s l33t
taskforce access a deep-cover computer facility they break the window
into an unknown world and discover a viper’s nest of deep
conspiracies, cover-ups, other-worldly threats and inhuman acts of
terror. Their hacking is detected and they quickly find themselves
running from forces they could never have imagine existed. Forces
known only as THEM that put all of their lives in jeopardy and end in
death for most of the crew. Tasha’s brother was oneof her crew who
made the fatal mistake of believing he would not be discovered, that
he was untraceable. Only when it was too late did he realise what a
miscalculation he had made. As her friends and family disappear
Tasha’s resolve is cemented. With the ever-present danger of detection
looming like a shadow Tasha makes the only decision left to her. She
must champion the cause of free will and the right to be informed and
expose her foe and their secret installation called The Stack. The
Stack is a storage facility located beneath the desolate wasteland of
a nuclear weapons testing ground, a vast computer core holding
everyone on the planet’s information, everyone’s secrets. Her first
campaign of this digital war must be to reveal The Stack’s complex
encrypted secrets to an innocent world, a world that’s been asleep and
needs to be woken. Secrets so astounding that when the world is woken
the change will be irreversible, viral. Tasha holes up in apay-by-
the-hour dive hotel she remembers from an heroin-chic photo shoot to
develop her strategy. She prepares for a life that is not of her
choosing but one that she’s determined to fulfil. A week creating
false but wearable personas; creating ways of living in the world that
will keep her one step ahead of THEM. Her life never seemedso real,
so focused. Tasha Rose is gone, she is now “Hacksaw”. Hacksaw takes
the risk and catches a bus to Canada, then, using her own passport for
the last time, catches a flight to Cuba. She charms her way aboard a
container vessel bound for Sydney. Why Sydney? It’s where she knows,
where she feels safe. As the container ship enters Sydney Harbour on a
moonlit night she dives overboard and comes ashore. Over the next
week she finds a safe place in an inner-city warehouse and sets up all
the hardware she’ll need to access The Stack, create a secure signal
for transmission and install security surveillance. She nicknames this
core the CRAYFISH. Her incognito modus operandi is as a bicycle
courier, ordering and delivering on behalf of fictional companies. A
busy week but she’s had plenty of time to develop this plan on the
ship journey. Her plan is that this safe place will house the master
core and will only be accessed by remote and that she’ll stay on the
move for the safety of the core. Things are going to plan, she
believes her enemy hasn’t detected her nor have locals noticed her.
Truly underground and feeling in control, she collates a dossier of
information hacked from The Stack. Partly as test transmission,
partly as announcement, Hacksaw repeatedly sends out several 10-second
sms and mms messages to millions of random recipients world wide
stating “Hacksaw. Now we’re watching THEM. Countdown to livesignal …”
She does not detect any signal capture or attempts at interception and
so believes that the sub-network she has set up is secure. But
regardless, as a failsafe, she sets up a mirror, a sham transmission
station with the plan to start that transmission source first and
monitor it during her actual broadcast - a red herring to gauge her
enemy’s tactical response and to give her some escape time if needed..
She will never underestimate THEM again nor forget what they are
capable of. Hacksaw is the director, but a new system a self-aware
intelligent programme written by Hacksaw is the packet editor. Every
live shot seen by Hacksaw’s audience will be from a camera source
controlled by Hacksaw – laptop camera, handy cam, mobile phone,
captured security camera footage, 24/7 web cameras etc.. Stock footage
played by Hacksaw will be sourced from The Stack. At the start and end
of each mobisode bandwidth interference imagery will signify carrier
leeching – Robin-Hooding pay-per-view bandwidth to capture
transmission. Her broadcasts will always be battling disruption and
reacquisition of signal.
Back Story - THEM
=================
THEM
Born from the perceived need by the US Government to control a no-
questions-asked elite killing force, the first recruits into this
secret force were drafted from POW’s rescued at the end of the Korean
War. These subjects, already mentally unstable, were deemedperfect
for the inhuman experimentation they were about to endure; an
experiment that would backfire terribly in the following decades.
Known only as RECALL ONE this Top Secret study set out to implant in
the subjects’ minds a false outcome to the Korean conflict and
indoctrinate a different world, a world reality that would only be
visible to them. They were brainwashed to believe they were engaged in
a clandestine, unseen war. To purge and reformat the subjects took
almost a year but the outcome was deemed a resounding success. These
drones performed perfectly and their fanatical belief that anyone
could be an enemy of the state was absolute. They lived for their
orders and a chance to fight. Insulated from the outside world these
new drones were fed a constant diet of manufactured propaganda.
Allowed to interact only with each other and their handlers the
intensity of their belief structure became obsessive. When sent out
for missions there behaviour was faultless, they could calmly interact
with the public secure in the fact that they believed they were the
only ones who knew the real truth. Their targets would never know they
were coming and after a mission the drones’ memory of their role would
be wiped away. They would revert to a safe state of control.
Throughout the 50s and 60s their numbers slowly increased to evolve
into a secret army called THEM. THEM contained three types of
operatives; Handlers, Drones and Sleepers. Handlers would recruit,
indoctrinate and manipulate subjects; Drones were the proven
workforce, the soldier assassins (several notable assassinations have
never been traced back to them) and Sleepers, who were now part of the
community living a normal life oblivious to the secrets locked away
inside their brains until triggered. But when one of THEM starts to
suspect his indoctrination and glimpses a hidden agenda inside the
orders he’s been given, he incites a chain reaction, a viral
revolution amongst other THEM members. These disaffected align to a
new fanatical belief; that inside everything they know lays
conspiracy. They coup and create a breakaway faction. The now rogue
THEM start to amass information on everyone and everything in the
world via clandestine control of the underground packet switching
network known as ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network).
Entirely unknown to the outside world due to their extraordinary
training in the covert arts the new THEM quickly grow in numbers and
power. They insert a sleeper in the Government, a Special Liaison
officer answerable to no one. The Special Projects Construction Bill
is passed inside the masking bureaucracy of a paper flood and a
monitoring station is built underground, surrounded by 60ft of
concrete and steel. A monitor screen and loud speaker surrounded by
lexan encased in a circular steel vault encircled by THEM Drones
accessible only by the sleeper agent (Special Liaison) through a
secure door labeled ANNEX ZERO underneath the most secure building on
the planet, the Pentagon. No government knows directly of the
existence of THEM, only of the consequences of their power, a power
that has been proven must be feared and respected at all costs. THEM
are now the hidden leaders of the planet, a military sect answerable
to no one, a collective of fanatical protectors of the world’s secrets
and power and to all intents and purposes they don’t exist. But
inside THEM their dark secret is unraveling. Years of brainwashing are
taking its toll and a new thought process is evolving inside a few of
THEM, a thought process ignited by a rouge hacker sharing her secrets
to the outside world. This seed of free thought, this leak must be
stopped at all costs.
Back Story - THE S.T.A.C
========================
THE S.T.A.C
[THE S.T.A.C (Subterranean. Tactical. Analysis. Core)]
The STAC is a gigantic storage facility located beneath the desolate
wasteland of a nuclear weapons testing ground, a vast labyrinth which
at its centre contains a massive computer core holding the planet’s
information, everyone’s secrets. Hacksaw’s mission, the first campaign
of her digital war, must be to reveal The STAC’s complex encrypted
secrets to a naive world.
Storylines
==========
Episode 1 Hacksaw is in direct communication with the penulitmate
hacker located high in the building adjacent to hers and is feeding
him Intel on approaching soldiers which we see via security cams. She
pleads for him to get out but he knows it’s too late “Get the signal
out! Tell everyone about the STAC”. Hacksaw spins to see the adjacent
buildings floor explode out into a fireball “NO!” Werealize the
preceding sequence was pre-recorded when Hacksaw appears on screen
stating she doesn’t have much time, she is the last of her kind and
that they will now stop at nothing to prevent her exposing their
secrets to the world. As the signal degrades Hacksaw appears one last
time to state “This is Hacksaw, now we are watching them!”
Episode 2 From a skyscraper rooftop Hacksaw sets up a red herring
transmission station to gauge her enemy’s response time (she
guesstimates 2 mins). She then reveals, a secret underground computer
core known only as The STAC, the incredible library of conspiracy’s
and cover-ups it contains and the little she knows about its fanatical
protectors who will do anything and everything to stop her sharing
it’s revelations weekly. By the time Hacksaw makes it to thestreet
below she looks up to see her pursuers encircling the buildings
rooftop in Blackhawk choppers. She makes her escape.
Episode 3 As Hacksaw races to the airport she reveals another
conspiracy hacked from The STAC. For centuries hidden beneath the
Vatican is the most unholy of sites; a giant vault filled with the
worlds possessed. And now it’s full. Outside the airport Hacksaw sees
herself in a sniper’s sights, the laser target clearly locked on her
forehead, she is staring down the barrel of an unseen gun. A bus
enters frame and a bang is heard. Did Hacksaw survive?
Episode 4 Hacksaw still on the run reveals another conspiracy from her
files. Top-secret NASA footage of the Mars Rover –Time lapsefilm
reveals unknown shadows falling over the Rover but each time the on-
board camera spins around only strange marks in the sand can be seen
but no evidence of what caused them. What the hell is it? Then The
Mars Orbiter circling the planet, captures some footage of the Rover
and under extreme magnification something can be seen in the pixelated
image, emerging from under the sand behind it. It looks human, infact
it looks like an astronaut . Hacksaw reveals that this footage is only
a week old and signs off.
Episode 5 Hacksaw reveals more classified footage from The STAC. Black
and white documentary footage from the end of WWII of an underground
v2 missile factory near the blockhouse in France, the contents of
which would have changed the outcome of the war. Inside this factory,
hidden in an anteroom, lays an Atlas intercontinental ballistic
missile with the letters U.S.A clearly visible along it’s length. One
of the techs in the room is clearly overheard saying “The plans say
Vandenburg Air Force base and they’re dated 1967, that’s 20 years in
the future!” As this discovery is documented on film, the missile
suddenly disappears into a frenetic lightning Time Storm. Hacksaw
states that the true conspiracy of this film is that not only was a
missile from the future was there in 1945 but that no one knows why
and who brought it there and then made it disappear Somebody is toying
with history.
Episode 6 City Streets night Hacksaw on the run describes that for the
first time a mysterious someone from outside her controllable Network,
is feeding her THEM intelligence transmissions. She patches through
the hacked THEM intelligence footage so her audience can see. The
broadcast starts with black-clad soldiers ransacking Hacksaw’s hotel
room, her clothes on the bed, dinner tray on the bedside table and
scrawled on the mirror in lipstick, PWNED! The Soldiers who are
watching the broadcast live realise it’s their own footage being
transmitted. Hacksaw taunts, “Come and get me.” Hacksaw eludes her
pursuers by exposing the fallable floors in their training.
Episode 7 Filming with a night vision camera whilst hiding at night in
a forest Hacksaw reveals the existence of ghosts with this weeks
captured footage from The STAC. A team of scientists investigating an
abandoned asylum with infa red cameras interview a co-operative ghost
who was once a patient. Suddenly the tables are turned and they are
set upon by the insane spirits that inhabit the most haunted place on
earth. Cut back to Hacksaw who this time whispers her sign off line.
Episode 8 Hacksaw filming herself using a handy cam inside an
aeroplane bathroom. The plane is hit by extreme turbulence. The
engines howl. Hacksaw introduces this weeks story hacked from The
STAC, which illuminates the existence of aliens far more real than the
American cold war paranoia from the 50’s. An investigation into a
downed Blackbird SR71 spy plane in North Korea will turn into a fierce
battle as a troop of soldiers flee for their lives from dark alien
creatures. Back to extreme turbulence in an airline toilet. Hacksaw
states that what we’ve just witnessed is just the tip of a much darker
iceberg. “This is Hacksaw. Now we’re watching THEM.”
Episode 9 Hacksaw walks the City streets as she delivers this
Episode’s story. A Top Secret North Korean film. North Korean
voiceover and text documenting the creation of an human/alien hybrid
army. The aliens killed in the fight in the forest in the North Korean
forest seen in an earlier transmission and their victims have been
taken by North Korean secret police to a subterranean hospital on a
military base where geneticists have successfully cloned up a
controllable human hybrid. They’re creating a super lethal army.
Episode 10 Hacksaw, hiding inside a nightclub, describes that her
pursuers are tightening the net, but in the past few days she has been
in direct communication with a shadowy informant. She verbally cuts to
a package that includes conversations she’s had with this figure, and
vision of what little she can see inside the camouflaged noise and
electronic voice of this well-connected but untraceable informant..
How can they know so much about her and the STAC? Can Hacksaw trust
him, her, whatever? Or is this an elaborate trap? With the noise
inside and out flooding her mind Hacksaw sign-offs .
Episode 11 Hacksaw reveals the secret footage of Apollo 18 the only
mission to never have been made public. As seen from inside the LEM we
descend to the surface of the moon. Mission control, with a skeleton
crew and the astronaut’s voices can be clearly heard. Everything is
going to plan then a giant hanger door splits open on the moon’s
surface revealing a technological world beneath. Panic ensues and then
Static… Hacksaw signs off.....nothing more to add to what wehave
seen.
Episode 12 Hacksaw has started direct communication with someone who
says they are with THEM and that they no longer believe. Believe in
what? They show her an internal security report to gain her trust that
shows just how much intel they have amassed about her, from a
surveillance folder located in The STAC. This is just one of billions
of folders relating to every human on the planet. What they know about
you all is frightening, your privacy is a thing of the past. The STAC
is much bigger than Hacksaw ever imagined. The informant then shows
her autopsy photos of her dead Hacker Clan and states that they
personally were in charge of accessing and the elimination of this
threat. Only now does this informant understand the importance of
Hacksaw’s message. But this language is abrupt and clouded in secrets.
The mystery figure says there is a much greater conspiracy that
Hacksaw needs to know.
Episode 13 Underground car park Hacksaw has received no new
communication from her mystery informant in fact all activity at The
STAC seems to have stopped. As Hacksaw is transmitting all power goes
out and screeching tyres can be heard as a van pulls up and out rush a
squad of THEM soldiers screaming “Get down on the ground NOW!” They
surround Hacksaw and have her pinned down there muzzle torches dance
over her trapped body. One soldier lefts her head by her hair to say,
“Do you know how much trouble you’ve caused LITTLE GIRL”.
Episode 14 The transmission starts with static and the super HACKSAW
SIGNAL OFFLINE replaced by SIGNAL CAPTURE. …SOURCE UNKNOWN. …SHUTDOWN
YES / NO NO is mysteriously clicked and an image from security cameras
reveal a clearly panicked HACKSAW inside a dark room strapped to a
vertical surgical gurney. Multiple cameras, and a cacophony of voices
surround her, she is covered in sensors and IV drips. Strangely they
only ask her simple questions about herself “Did you have a happy
upbringing, what is your favourite colour?” etc.. The questions tumble
over each other with no obvious point, or reason, slowly wearing her
down. Hacksaw pleads for them to stop then in unison they ask, “Why
are you doing this?” The medical gurney is then lowered to a
horizontal position. From above we see her head thrashing back and
forth wildly until a surgical gloved hand grabs her chin to restrain
her, her eyes widen as a bite block is forced between her teeth.
Stroboscopic lighting ignites.
Episode 15 Escape Action episode. Again,the transmission starts with
static and the super HACKSAW SIGNAL OFFLINE replaced by SIGNAL
CAPTURE. …SOURCE UNKNOWN. …SHUTDOWN YES / NO. NO is pressed. From
inside the depravation cell a dazed Hacksaw can hear the echoes of
shouting and gunfire. Security cameras record her cowering tightly on
the floor in a foetal position then she slowly stands and takes up a
defiant stance. The door is breached to her cell and a THEM soldier
enters to drag her out. After a short struggle down corridor the
soldier draws a gun and places it against her head to subdue her. They
exit that security cameras field of vision. A blinding white light
floods frame as an emergency siren wails. A voice shouts “RUN” as,
Hacksaw gets hurled through a security door and into the outside
world. An external security camera picks her up running as fast as her
dazed body can deep into the forest beyond.
Episode16 Static is broken by images from a flying surveillance drone.
We see an unconscious Hacksaw lying in her underwear in a clearing by
a forest. Medical information races past frame, heart rate, body
temperature etc, something is monitoring her. The image degrades to a
flashing super ACTIVATE CEREBAL IMPLANT REC 1. This super is replaced
by another…ONLINE. In a series of image flashes and vignettes we see
Hacksaws journey, including the various conspiracies revealed from The
STAC, leading up to new subliminal images of an ethereal cell
suspended in space inside a cavernous room. Then an unknown face
appears under strobing text that reads HACK ANNEX ZERO. From the
security drone we see Hacksaw physically affected by this invasion on
her brain then in a start Hacksaw wakes up. Her first words are
“what’s ANNEX ZERO”.
Episode 17 In a dingy Truck stop bathroom dressed in a cheap summer
dress, Hacksaw transmits via a mobile phone while recording herself
looking into a mirror. She explains that it has taken two days just to
find a road and still she can’t comprehend the recent past. “Why did
they let me go?”. The transmission is interrupted by images flashing
in Hacksaw’s brain. In the mirror we see this transference physically
affect her. “What is happening to me?” As she splashes water on her
face and eyeballs the cameras she states “Show stored packet”. A top-
level internal CIA film showcasing the contents of a hidden hanger,
containing captured U.F.O”s, not just one but many. Narration explains
the circumstances of capture and ends on revealing a tiny engine with
the extraordinary statement – “If connected, this infinite,
inexhaustible engine could power the planet for ever.” Finishes with
Hacksaw leaning into the mirror to deliver her signature sign-off.
Episode 18 Inside static we see the image of ‘the unknown man’ that
has appeared in her mind previously. The static clears to reveal
Hacksaw filming herself walking the streets in the rain. “I’ve
discovered this man is called the Special liaison officer, liaison for
and to what? I’m sure he’s one of THEM but I am still investigating
now that some of The STAC is back on line. As soon as I know who he
and why he is important so will you” The next stored packet abruptly
starts. Black & white film lit by torches from the 40’s of a secret
anteroom in the great pyramid of Cheops showing the original plans for
the construction of the pyramid in hieroglyphics. These highly complex
and detailed diagrams clearly reveal the original architects had help
from the future Again this footage proves that history has been
tampered with,,,but by who and why is the real conspiracy.
Episode 19 Hacksaw seen via web cams slides between terminals insidea
vast server room as she multitasks across systems in an attempt to
hack Annex Zero this hack is the hardest she’s ever attempted. She has
discovered about the origins of THEM, the terrible emotional abuse of
their sordid past, how much control they have amassed on the planet
and the fact that anyone anywhere could be a sleeper agent just
waiting to be activated into one of THEM. Then she discovers ‘live’
where Annex Zero is, and in a sequence of shots revealed by satellite
imagery we see it is buried under the center of the most secure
building on the planet the Pentagon. She sermises that while the STAC
is the core that contains everything, this must be the Network hub
through which all information passes. While this is an extraordinary
discovery there must be a still a larger reason that Annex Zero has
been placed in her subconscious. As her signal is traced and honed in
on she says ‘I’m in!” it goes to black.
Episode 20 Hacksaw’s eyes appear through static in a series of shots.
She informs us that she received this packet from her mystery
informant. The film reveals, via headcam, somebody walking around
showing the inner workings of The STAC The enormity of this
underground facility is revealed in detail for the first time from the
surgical suites and operations rooms to the legions of troops based
there. But the real horror lies inside the STAC’s central core. As
data storage plates are removed the true inner workings of the stack
are revealed. Sectioned living human brain tissue. Over loudspeakers
the announcement of a Security breach in section 1 of the main core
complex puts an abrupt end to the transmission. Hacksaw signs off…now
we know what THEM do with people they don’t need.
Episode 21 Hacksaws brain transmits images of a Cell suspended in air.
Her unknown informer says THEM are in the midst of revolution, the
STAC is in lockdown all external lines are being severed and that she
must expose the danger of the Cell, before all is lost and everything
becomes secret again. What is the Cell? He tells her that her mind
already knows and so will she when she get’s final access to Annex
Zero. She shows us inside the enormity of the security surrounding
Annex Zero and explains why she has been told to hack it …it can geta
signal to every communication device everywhere on the planet at the
same time. Leading up clearly and decisivele to a payoff.
Episode 22 Hacksaw is in an elevator she’s been told to get out of the
building fast when suddenly the lift stops and is plunged into
darkness. The image switches to infa red, a clearly distressed Hacksaw
trapped, scans through the building security cameras. THEM soldiers
appear to be everywhere, on everyfloor. She sees a group approach a
lift exterior and the power starts up again. She’s descending into
their waiting arms, ding the door begins to open soldiers weapons
drawn ready to fire. Out of shot gunfire is heard and the soldiers
fall to the ground revealing a soldier removing her helmet “I’m the
mystery voice in your head that’s been helping with your signal.
“C’mon” together they run. (As seen via security cam) BANG! a final
shot from one of THEM takes out her informer. Hacksaw cradles this
informer for her last words as seen through her discarded helmet cam.
“Use Annex zero you must tell them about the Cell…” Hacksaw looks
directly at the helmet cam and with that the image degrades with the
super OPERATIVE DECEASED.
Episode23 ANNEX ZERO… ONLINE. Reveals a clean image of Hacksaw as she
uses Annex Zero to broadcast everywhere on every system across the
globe the secret of the Creation Cell, the fact that it is one half of
the original cell that created the universe and that it was buried
here16 thousand years ago to protect it, (Protect it from what?) but
now because of THEM scientists probing inside it, its active and
sending out a signal they cant understand but know is dire for if it
combines with its other half everything we know and understand will
cease to exist.
ON A COMPUTER SCREEN. HACKSAW logo.
The screen breaks up with distorted static and text, a digital jigsaw
of images.
Text appears - SIGNAL SEARCHING
INT. SKYSCRAPER 34th FLOOR - NIGHT
Finally the broken images form a concise picture. A YOUNG WOMAN glares
down the screen, an undisclosed city of lights glitter behind her. She
yells, static overshadowing her voice, until-
One sentence becomes clear…
HACKSAW
(degraded audio)
C… Car… Carter… They’re closing in!
CUT TO:
Scrambled vision, audio. Signal finding strength –
Text Appears: SIGNAL LOCK.
- revealing CARTER, sweat drenched, anxious, breathless. He wears a
military style headpiece with camera and microphone, talks into his
laptop’s webcam.
Behind him, office cubicles.
CARTER
Get me the hell outta here!
CUT TO:
Hacksaw, pounding at her laptop keys. Intense concentration.
HACKSAW (VO)
Hold tight, I’m searching…
CUT TO:
SECURITY FOOTAGE, MULTIPLE ANGLES. BLACK CLAD SOLDIERS, guns poised,
storm the office tower stairwell.
HACKSAW (VO)
They’re everywhere. Twenty-sixth
floor and climbing.
CUT TO:
CARTER. He looks up to the floor number – 34.
CARTER
Which way?!
CUT TO:
A 3D Wire Image of the office skyscraper. Carter, stationary on floor
34, shown as a green dot. Black Clad Soldiers, racing up all four exit
staircases, shown as red.
HACKSAW (VO)
Thermals show all four exits covered.
CUT TO:
HACKSAW, searching her screen with determination. Finally she sees a
way…
HACKSAW (VO)
Take the elevator shaft! Free and clear!
CUT TO:
CARTER
Show me out…
Carter slams his laptop shut.
HEADPIECE POV. He bolts down the office hall.
HACKSAW (VO)
Left at the end …
CUT TO:
SECURITY FOOTAGE, MULTIPLE ANGLES. Black Clad Soldiers continue to
storm upward.
SFX: Intercepted radio transmission from the soldiers.
RADIO TRANSMISSION
Alpha 7, 28… Clear!
Bravo 5, 28… Clear!
Copy all units. Aerial support on route…
BACK TO:
Carter, racing past cubicles…
HACKSAW (VO)
Second right…
…turning into a hall.
CUT TO:
HACKSAW. Perspiring, adrenaline pumping, she works her laptop like a
seasoned pro.
HACKSAW
Right again and you’re there
sweetheart…
CUT TO:
SECURITY FOOTAGE, MULTIPLE ANGLES. Black Clad Soldiers still rising.
RADIO TRANSMISSION
Aerial support is on approach…
Cease at 30…
Copy that…
CUT TO:
CARTER, racing through the office hall. He takes a hard right.
CUT TO:
SECURITY FOOTAGE, MULTIPLE ANGLES. The Black Clad Soldiers suddenly
stop dead at level thirty. Guns raised, they don’t take another step..
CUT TO:
Tracker dots on Hacksaws screen. The red dots, the soldiers, stop
rising.
CUT TO:
HACKSAW. She stops typing. Her eyes widen…
HACKSAW
They’ve stopped.
CARTER (VO)
Where?
HACKSAW
Thirtieth floor.
CUT TO:
HEADPIECE POV. Carter reaches the elevator. He try’s to pry its door
open. Useless. He hits the button, looks to its floor number. It
starts climbing from level 10.
CUT TO:
HACKSAW.
RADIO TRANSMISSION
Aerial support on target…
Weapons hot…
Sudden realization slams across her face.
HACKSAW
Take the shaft Carter. Now!
CUT TO:
HEADPIECE POV. Carter try’s to pry open the elevator doors but they
won’t budge. He looks t the elevator numbers - 16… 17…
He turns to his laptop, opening.
RADIO TRANSMISSION
Green to go Black 7…
Copy that. Firing…
Fox 2 away…
(SFX: rocket thundering)
HACKSAW
Carter. Take the shaft!
WEBCAM POV. Resolve washes over him…
CARTER
No time…
He begins to type.
CARTER (cont.)
Log onto the server, there’s an
encrypted packet. You must get the
signal out, tell everyone about the STAC.
It’s up to you now Hacksaw and
whatever you do - don’t forget
Tunguska.
CUT TO:
HACKSAW. Fear washed over her, she’s powerless.
SFX: Woosh!
She spins to the window. A missile flies past and-
Hacksaw slams her hands on the window, grasping -
HACKSAW
Carter!!!
CUT TO:
SECURITY FOOTAGE. The entire top floor of the office tower blows up!
BACK TO:
HACKSAW. The window blows out in front of her, shattering, throwing
her to the ground.
The fireball overexposes the frame. Flash to white then –
Static.
Vertical lines scan across screen.
Hacksaw’s eyes appear. Tired but determined.
HACKSAW
They killed fourteen of us…
CUT TO:
Autopsy photo's flash on screen of dead hackers.
Text reads : DECEASED.
HACKSAW (VO)
Fourteen of my friends. I’m the last
of the informed. Hunted by an agency
that doesn’t… shouldn’t exist.
BACK TO:
Hacksaw, multiple shots – eyes, lips…
HACKSAW
We hacked their mainframe, stole their
secrets. Now, they want them back.
CUT TO:
Half an image downloads on screen, the other half distorted,
destroyed.
HACKSAW (VO)
All I have is what Carter sent me -
The image is somewhat organic; diamond like, with many surfaced
angles, inside it contains what looks to be static…
HACKSAW (VO)
A corrupted image. Garbled data. And
his final words. Tunguska.
BACK TO:
HACKSAW, again - flashing grabs of her eyes, her lips…
HACKSAW
I won’t let THEM win. They’re
going to pay. Every last one. But I
need your help. I’ll leech another transmission in seven days when I
know
more.
Hacksaw’s face, full frame now…
HACKSAW
Watch for my signal. Knowledge is
our power. And the ultimate power
is truth.
Vision degrades, static.
Text on screen: SIGNAL LOST.
ON A COMPUTER SCREEN. Standard Episode Opener.
Text appears: SIGNAL LOCK. Hacksaw’s eyes appear.
HACKSAW
Are you listening?
EXT. WAREHOUSE ROOFTOP – NIGHT
Hacksaw speaks into a wide-angle webcam attached to her laptop.
HACKSAW
They’ve been hot on my heels.
All week. Like a pack of
wolves. Tonight I find out what
makes THEM tick.
Hacksaw presses a button on her laptop.
ON THE COMPUTER SCREEN: SIGNAL BROADCASTING.
HACKSAW (CONT.)
They’ll trace the signal,-
CUT TO:
MULTIPLE SECURITY CAMERA FOOTAGE.
Quick shots of the warehouse rooftop. Hacksaw stands next to a
computer set up smack bang in middle.
HACKSAW (VO)
- I give them three minutes till
they pounce -
CUT TO:
HACKSAW, staring into the webcam.
HACKSAW
- which gives me two to get out.
She spins around -
CUT TO:
SECURITY CAMERA FOOTAGE.
Hacksaw races across the rooftop, bursting through the exit door.
CUT TO:
INT. STAIRWELL - NIGHT
Down the stairs she flees, addressing her mobile phone camera.
HACKSAW
Listen closely. The mainframe we
hacked. They call it The STAC.
Vertical lines scan across screen, igniting hidden code which shudders
to life as text: THE STAC.
HACKSAW (VO)
It’s a machine.
Vertical lines scan across screen, revealing two BLACK CLAD SOLDIER
from a SECURITY CAMERA POV. A security station scans their heads,
green lasers revealing serial numbers imprinted on their skulls.
HACKSAW (VO)
‘Supercomputer’ doesn’t do it
justice. This thing is alive.
Growing.
Text On Screen: IDENT CONFIRMED.
The security camera PULLS OUT to reveal an open caged elevator. The
doors open and the soldiers step in. The elevator descends.
HACKSAW (VO)
It holds answers to all the
worlds secrets. Conspiracy’s.
Cover-up’s. A machine of truth-
The security camera continues to PULL OUT, further and further, to
reveal a ginormous structure. A machine made of metal and glass,
rotating, undulating, somewhat like a crank shaft of a car. Air-
conditioning units spin, keeping it cool, while steam rises from its
joints and gaps.
It is an Orwellian nightmare.
CUT TO:
INT. STAIRWELL - NIGHT
Hacksaw races down those stairs, two, three at a time…
HACKSAW (VO)
-protected by an agency of liars.
THEM – a rogue agency,-
CUT TO:
INT. ELEVATOR
ELEVATOR SECURITY CAMERA POV.
THEM soldiers continue to descend… Level 19… Level 20…
HACKSAW (VO)
-fanatical guardians that will do
anything to protect their secrets.
The elevator stops, shuddering. The doors open.
CUT TO:
THEM SOLDIERS HELMET CAM
They exit the elevator, looking around. This machine, it’s like a
skyscraper… only built underground.
They approach an archway that opens out into a mirrored chamber, which
extends into the distance. In the middle of the chamber, what looks
something like a 600ft diamond geode. Lightning and static explodes
within it. There is power here, unimaginable power -
CUT TO:
INT. STAIRWELL - NIGHT
Hacksaw races down the last of the stairs.
HACKSAW
Whatever that is, it’s the tip
of the iceberg. What they’ve
kept from us. Their well of
secrets. But it’s just the
beginning.
She burst out the exit door -
EXT. ALLEYWAY – NIGHT
- slowing into the alleyway.
HACKSAW
I’ll do everything I can
to get their secrets out.
SFX: A Helicopter bursts overhead.
MOBILE PHONE CAMERA POV. Hacksaw films a HELICOPTER as it tears across
the sky approaching the warehouse rooftop.
HACKSAW (VO)
Well well… The boys are already
here.
CUT TO:
MULTIPLE SECURITY CAMERA FOOTAGE.
Black Clad Soldiers drop from the helicopter onto the warehouse
rooftop.
HACKSAW (VO)
Two minutes twenty two seconds.
Impressive.
CUT TO:
HACKSAW continuing down the dark, dank alleyway.
HACKSAW
It’s time for rebellion, we
can’t let THEM win.
CUT TO:
MULTIPLE SECURITY CAMERA FOOTAGE.
Black Clad Soldiers, guns at the ready, sweep the rooftop.
HACKSAW (VO)
I’m going to tear every secret
out of their STAC.
The soldiers, in perfect formation, close in on the computer set up in
the middle.
CUT TO:
HACKSAW.
HACKSAW
Broadcast the truth of all their
lies. Watch for my signal. And
listen. The more we know, the less
power they have.
CUT TO:
MULTIPLE SECURITY CAMERA FOOTAGE.
The soldiers reach the computer. They stop only feet away, guns
poised at the screen.
On the screen…
HACKSAW
Now I know how you move,
how you attack. This is
Hacksaw. Now we’re watching
THEM.
The computer screen flicks from Hacksaw to the security footage of the
soldiers on the rooftop. One of the soldiers breaks from formation,
ferocious, kicking the screen. It flies across the floor.
The others turn to the security cameras and let fire-
Static.
Text on screen: SIGNAL LOST
ON A COMPUTER SCREEN. Standard Episode Opener.
Text Appears – SIGNAL SEARCHING
HACKSAW
(broken audio)
I… I have to…keep moving…
Broken scrambled images.
TEXT: SIGNAL LOCKED.
INT. REAR TAXI SEAT – NIGHT
INTERCUT with TAXI SECURITY CAMERA and Hacksaw’s LAPTOP WEBCAM.
Hacksaw looks worn, beaten, but there’s a determined fire still
burning in her eyes.
HACKSAW
They don’t chase me anymore.
They wait. They know where
I’ve been. Where I’m going. I’ve
nowhere left to hide here. It’s
my time to move on.
CUT TO:
Vertical lines scan across screen, lighting hidden code which shudders
into life as text: US CLASSIFIED. TOP SECRET. SERIAL: 2264.
HACKSAW
I’ve dug deeper into the STAC.
More text appears: GERMANY, 1945
HACKSAW (VO)
If this is what they control,
they have more power than I
imagined.
Flash frames of stock footage; a German MILITARY BASE. The entrance to
an UNDERGROUND CAVERN.
HACKSAW (VO)
In 1945 Hitler planned a blitz. A
relentless rocket attack on England
and Europe.
CUT TO:
A MILITARY FILM. Black and white. The camera approaches the entrance
to the underground cavern, stepping into darkness…
HACKSAW (VO)
It would have changed the course of
the war.
FROM BLACK the camera enters an enormous V2 ROCKET FACTORY.
Rockets. Lined up one after another as far as the eye can see. The
Cameraman describes the scene as he sees it through the lens -
CAMERAMAN (VO)
Chamber roughly 2000 feet long…
Antechambers along both sides…
Railway tracks transport rockets to
launch pads… Scale of production…
Enormous. There’s… Thousands of
rockets here…
CUT TO:
HACKSAW.
HACKSAW (VO)
The Allies invaded before the
onslaught could begin. They found
this facility. And something else…
CUT TO:
MILITARY VIDEO CAMERA FOOTAGE.
The camera pans down a huge V2 Rocket.
MILITARY OFFICER (OS)
You. With the camera. Over here.
The camera pans to a line of high-ranking MILITARY OFFICIALS talking
quietly amongst themselves outside an entrance to another room. The
camera approaches, the officials turning away as it passes to obscure
their faces.
The camera enters a GIANT CHAMBER. A massive, polished, STEEL ROCKET
lies on its side on a cradle. The rocket is different to the V2’s,
larger, modern. The letters ‘U.S.A’ are emblazoned along itsside.
The camera films the rocket. The Officials in the room studying it,
photograph it, pour over blueprints.
We hear off-screen-
MILITARY OFFICIALS (OS)
It’s called an ‘Atlas’…
These plans say Vanderberg Air
Force Base…
It’s dated 1967!
Suddenly, commotion. Yelling, screams -
The camera spins around to reveal a BLACK-CLAD SOLDIER sprinting into
the chamber. He’s unarmed, except for a device in his hand. Like a
trigger to a bomb.
The Military Officials stand, perplexed, staring at this black
creature racing across the floor when -
He reaches the rocket, hand touching. He presses the trigger device –
And in a flash of electricity he disappears!
Silence fills the room. The sound of static. Suddenly, arcing bolts of
electricity fill the air, surround the rocket. A thunderous noise
cracks and everyone turns on their heels, running for dear life from
the chamber.
The Cameraman remains, filming the electrical storm. It builds and
flares and surges around the rocket, until finally a blinding flash of
white…
Vision returns. Papers float to the floor. Residual static activity
outlines where the rocket used to be. Because now, it’s gone. Silence,
then –
A sound, like turbines spinning, faster and faster, louder until-
A sonic wave explodes, knocking the Cameraman over and shattering the
camera lens!
BLACK. A LOGO APPEARS.
CUT TO:
INT. TAXI - NIGHT
Hacksaw.
HACKSAW
It’s THEM. They’re trying to toy with
history. But they can’t control it.
Yet.
Vertical lines scan across screen. The logo appears again.
HACKSAW (VO)
The logo. I’ve seen something
like it before.
A second image appears on screen, next to the first. It’s Carter’s
image, half corrupted, but it looks remarkably similar to the logo.
HACKSAW (VO)
Carter’s image. They're interconnected
but I don’t know how. I need somewhere
safe… safer… to find out. I can’t
keep running, I need time to look.
Hacksaw glances out the passenger window, checking her surroundings.
HACKSAW
Pull over.
She throws the Driver some cash, exiting.
EXT. BUSY STREET - NIGHT
The door slams behind her, Hacksaw walks to the curbside talking into
her mobile phone camera.
HACKSAW
The signal's dying, I'll be in
touch. I'm skipping the country.
Found a safer haven to hack deeper
into the STAC. If these are
interconnected, there’s more....
HACKSAW crosses the street.
HACKSAW (CONT'D)
Now you know what I’m up against.
We’re up against. I think we’re
at the brink of a war, one we
have no choice but to fight.
This is Hacksaw, now we’re
watching -
Signal interference. The vision switches from Hacksaw to that of a
sniper's scope at a distance. The rifle lens snap-changes from wide to
an extreme close-up of Hacksaw's face.
Hacksaw looks up. She's staring down the barrel of an unseen gun.
Traffic races past her, flashing past frame.
Gunshot.
HACKSAW logo.
Static.
Creator Daniel Burns. (tundraproductions@hotmail.com)
Contents
• 1 Plot synopsis
• 2 Back Story - HACKSAW
• 3 Back Story - THEM
• 4 Back Story - THE S.T.A.C
• 5 Storylines
• 6 External links
Plot synopsis
=============
HACKSAW, young female hacker has uncovered all government secrets is
on the run from the authorities who are out to silence her. She is
sending a series of messages to the world to release the secrets
before the government agencies find her.
Back Story - HACKSAW
===================
HACKSAW Transmits
Tasha, 21, science buff, uber geek and latterly fashion model. Born
and raised in Sydney along with her younger brother Stephen by
academic parents Clary and Catherine. Childhood achievements
• 1994 - Best Junior Showjumper
• 1997 - Winner, National Spelling Bee. Scholarship Carter College.
• 1997 – MVP inter-school Soccer Championship
• 1998 – Principal performer, Hybrid Youth Experimental Dance Theatre
• 1999 – Junior Dan, blue belt, Bujinkan ninjutsu
• 1999 – Winner, Rzorback Challenge, MountainBk.com
• 2000 – $2,000 winner, Sheingzu Science Prize
• 2001 – Best of Show, Savoury Scones, Blue Ribbon - Face Painting
• 2001 – “The Puppet Masters or How the Web Was Won” – a self-created
puppet show.
A happy upbringing until the disintegration of her parent’s marriage
when her mother developed early-onset Alzheimers. Catherine was placed
in care and regretfully/thankfully passed away when Tasha was 18.
Clary had been a psychological mess for the prior 8 months and skipped
out before the funeral and has never been heard of again. Tasha has
cared for Stephen since he was 16 as well as exploring her explosion
as a technological wunderkind, a foreseer and creator of innovation.
Her simple (child's play) web-software designs became cornerstone
achievements and secured her financial success even at this early age.
But Tasha’s real spark ignited when she found an outlet forher
inquisitive energy and intelligence amongst the elite hacker
community. Blessed with ‘camera-loves-her’ good looks and a strong
personality she was soon sidetracked by the talent agencies offering
paying gigs that lead to international invitations. Stephen had grown
up quick and was calling the shots in his own life, so, on more a
devil-may-care whim than a career choice; Tasha accepted the incessant
contract invitations and left Stephen for Paris, Milan, Tokyo and New
York. Tasha’s life quickly became hectic, constantly in demand, fun
but frantic. Even so, her first love remained her fascination and
connection with the hacker world. Her status as grand master of her
clan a title she was competitive enough to maintain. She was of course
aware of the constant risks but the thrill of breaking down and owning
the Digital Machine is an addictive elixir. But when Tasha’s l33t
taskforce access a deep-cover computer facility they break the window
into an unknown world and discover a viper’s nest of deep
conspiracies, cover-ups, other-worldly threats and inhuman acts of
terror. Their hacking is detected and they quickly find themselves
running from forces they could never have imagine existed. Forces
known only as THEM that put all of their lives in jeopardy and end in
death for most of the crew. Tasha’s brother was oneof her crew who
made the fatal mistake of believing he would not be discovered, that
he was untraceable. Only when it was too late did he realise what a
miscalculation he had made. As her friends and family disappear
Tasha’s resolve is cemented. With the ever-present danger of detection
looming like a shadow Tasha makes the only decision left to her. She
must champion the cause of free will and the right to be informed and
expose her foe and their secret installation called The Stack. The
Stack is a storage facility located beneath the desolate wasteland of
a nuclear weapons testing ground, a vast computer core holding
everyone on the planet’s information, everyone’s secrets. Her first
campaign of this digital war must be to reveal The Stack’s complex
encrypted secrets to an innocent world, a world that’s been asleep and
needs to be woken. Secrets so astounding that when the world is woken
the change will be irreversible, viral. Tasha holes up in apay-by-
the-hour dive hotel she remembers from an heroin-chic photo shoot to
develop her strategy. She prepares for a life that is not of her
choosing but one that she’s determined to fulfil. A week creating
false but wearable personas; creating ways of living in the world that
will keep her one step ahead of THEM. Her life never seemedso real,
so focused. Tasha Rose is gone, she is now “Hacksaw”. Hacksaw takes
the risk and catches a bus to Canada, then, using her own passport for
the last time, catches a flight to Cuba. She charms her way aboard a
container vessel bound for Sydney. Why Sydney? It’s where she knows,
where she feels safe. As the container ship enters Sydney Harbour on a
moonlit night she dives overboard and comes ashore. Over the next
week she finds a safe place in an inner-city warehouse and sets up all
the hardware she’ll need to access The Stack, create a secure signal
for transmission and install security surveillance. She nicknames this
core the CRAYFISH. Her incognito modus operandi is as a bicycle
courier, ordering and delivering on behalf of fictional companies. A
busy week but she’s had plenty of time to develop this plan on the
ship journey. Her plan is that this safe place will house the master
core and will only be accessed by remote and that she’ll stay on the
move for the safety of the core. Things are going to plan, she
believes her enemy hasn’t detected her nor have locals noticed her.
Truly underground and feeling in control, she collates a dossier of
information hacked from The Stack. Partly as test transmission,
partly as announcement, Hacksaw repeatedly sends out several 10-second
sms and mms messages to millions of random recipients world wide
stating “Hacksaw. Now we’re watching THEM. Countdown to livesignal …”
She does not detect any signal capture or attempts at interception and
so believes that the sub-network she has set up is secure. But
regardless, as a failsafe, she sets up a mirror, a sham transmission
station with the plan to start that transmission source first and
monitor it during her actual broadcast - a red herring to gauge her
enemy’s tactical response and to give her some escape time if needed..
She will never underestimate THEM again nor forget what they are
capable of. Hacksaw is the director, but a new system a self-aware
intelligent programme written by Hacksaw is the packet editor. Every
live shot seen by Hacksaw’s audience will be from a camera source
controlled by Hacksaw – laptop camera, handy cam, mobile phone,
captured security camera footage, 24/7 web cameras etc.. Stock footage
played by Hacksaw will be sourced from The Stack. At the start and end
of each mobisode bandwidth interference imagery will signify carrier
leeching – Robin-Hooding pay-per-view bandwidth to capture
transmission. Her broadcasts will always be battling disruption and
reacquisition of signal.
Back Story - THEM
=================
THEM
Born from the perceived need by the US Government to control a no-
questions-asked elite killing force, the first recruits into this
secret force were drafted from POW’s rescued at the end of the Korean
War. These subjects, already mentally unstable, were deemedperfect
for the inhuman experimentation they were about to endure; an
experiment that would backfire terribly in the following decades.
Known only as RECALL ONE this Top Secret study set out to implant in
the subjects’ minds a false outcome to the Korean conflict and
indoctrinate a different world, a world reality that would only be
visible to them. They were brainwashed to believe they were engaged in
a clandestine, unseen war. To purge and reformat the subjects took
almost a year but the outcome was deemed a resounding success. These
drones performed perfectly and their fanatical belief that anyone
could be an enemy of the state was absolute. They lived for their
orders and a chance to fight. Insulated from the outside world these
new drones were fed a constant diet of manufactured propaganda.
Allowed to interact only with each other and their handlers the
intensity of their belief structure became obsessive. When sent out
for missions there behaviour was faultless, they could calmly interact
with the public secure in the fact that they believed they were the
only ones who knew the real truth. Their targets would never know they
were coming and after a mission the drones’ memory of their role would
be wiped away. They would revert to a safe state of control.
Throughout the 50s and 60s their numbers slowly increased to evolve
into a secret army called THEM. THEM contained three types of
operatives; Handlers, Drones and Sleepers. Handlers would recruit,
indoctrinate and manipulate subjects; Drones were the proven
workforce, the soldier assassins (several notable assassinations have
never been traced back to them) and Sleepers, who were now part of the
community living a normal life oblivious to the secrets locked away
inside their brains until triggered. But when one of THEM starts to
suspect his indoctrination and glimpses a hidden agenda inside the
orders he’s been given, he incites a chain reaction, a viral
revolution amongst other THEM members. These disaffected align to a
new fanatical belief; that inside everything they know lays
conspiracy. They coup and create a breakaway faction. The now rogue
THEM start to amass information on everyone and everything in the
world via clandestine control of the underground packet switching
network known as ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network).
Entirely unknown to the outside world due to their extraordinary
training in the covert arts the new THEM quickly grow in numbers and
power. They insert a sleeper in the Government, a Special Liaison
officer answerable to no one. The Special Projects Construction Bill
is passed inside the masking bureaucracy of a paper flood and a
monitoring station is built underground, surrounded by 60ft of
concrete and steel. A monitor screen and loud speaker surrounded by
lexan encased in a circular steel vault encircled by THEM Drones
accessible only by the sleeper agent (Special Liaison) through a
secure door labeled ANNEX ZERO underneath the most secure building on
the planet, the Pentagon. No government knows directly of the
existence of THEM, only of the consequences of their power, a power
that has been proven must be feared and respected at all costs. THEM
are now the hidden leaders of the planet, a military sect answerable
to no one, a collective of fanatical protectors of the world’s secrets
and power and to all intents and purposes they don’t exist. But
inside THEM their dark secret is unraveling. Years of brainwashing are
taking its toll and a new thought process is evolving inside a few of
THEM, a thought process ignited by a rouge hacker sharing her secrets
to the outside world. This seed of free thought, this leak must be
stopped at all costs.
Back Story - THE S.T.A.C
========================
THE S.T.A.C
[THE S.T.A.C (Subterranean. Tactical. Analysis. Core)]
The STAC is a gigantic storage facility located beneath the desolate
wasteland of a nuclear weapons testing ground, a vast labyrinth which
at its centre contains a massive computer core holding the planet’s
information, everyone’s secrets. Hacksaw’s mission, the first campaign
of her digital war, must be to reveal The STAC’s complex encrypted
secrets to a naive world.
Storylines
==========
Episode 1 Hacksaw is in direct communication with the penulitmate
hacker located high in the building adjacent to hers and is feeding
him Intel on approaching soldiers which we see via security cams. She
pleads for him to get out but he knows it’s too late “Get the signal
out! Tell everyone about the STAC”. Hacksaw spins to see the adjacent
buildings floor explode out into a fireball “NO!” Werealize the
preceding sequence was pre-recorded when Hacksaw appears on screen
stating she doesn’t have much time, she is the last of her kind and
that they will now stop at nothing to prevent her exposing their
secrets to the world. As the signal degrades Hacksaw appears one last
time to state “This is Hacksaw, now we are watching them!”
Episode 2 From a skyscraper rooftop Hacksaw sets up a red herring
transmission station to gauge her enemy’s response time (she
guesstimates 2 mins). She then reveals, a secret underground computer
core known only as The STAC, the incredible library of conspiracy’s
and cover-ups it contains and the little she knows about its fanatical
protectors who will do anything and everything to stop her sharing
it’s revelations weekly. By the time Hacksaw makes it to thestreet
below she looks up to see her pursuers encircling the buildings
rooftop in Blackhawk choppers. She makes her escape.
Episode 3 As Hacksaw races to the airport she reveals another
conspiracy hacked from The STAC. For centuries hidden beneath the
Vatican is the most unholy of sites; a giant vault filled with the
worlds possessed. And now it’s full. Outside the airport Hacksaw sees
herself in a sniper’s sights, the laser target clearly locked on her
forehead, she is staring down the barrel of an unseen gun. A bus
enters frame and a bang is heard. Did Hacksaw survive?
Episode 4 Hacksaw still on the run reveals another conspiracy from her
files. Top-secret NASA footage of the Mars Rover –Time lapsefilm
reveals unknown shadows falling over the Rover but each time the on-
board camera spins around only strange marks in the sand can be seen
but no evidence of what caused them. What the hell is it? Then The
Mars Orbiter circling the planet, captures some footage of the Rover
and under extreme magnification something can be seen in the pixelated
image, emerging from under the sand behind it. It looks human, infact
it looks like an astronaut . Hacksaw reveals that this footage is only
a week old and signs off.
Episode 5 Hacksaw reveals more classified footage from The STAC. Black
and white documentary footage from the end of WWII of an underground
v2 missile factory near the blockhouse in France, the contents of
which would have changed the outcome of the war. Inside this factory,
hidden in an anteroom, lays an Atlas intercontinental ballistic
missile with the letters U.S.A clearly visible along it’s length. One
of the techs in the room is clearly overheard saying “The plans say
Vandenburg Air Force base and they’re dated 1967, that’s 20 years in
the future!” As this discovery is documented on film, the missile
suddenly disappears into a frenetic lightning Time Storm. Hacksaw
states that the true conspiracy of this film is that not only was a
missile from the future was there in 1945 but that no one knows why
and who brought it there and then made it disappear Somebody is toying
with history.
Episode 6 City Streets night Hacksaw on the run describes that for the
first time a mysterious someone from outside her controllable Network,
is feeding her THEM intelligence transmissions. She patches through
the hacked THEM intelligence footage so her audience can see. The
broadcast starts with black-clad soldiers ransacking Hacksaw’s hotel
room, her clothes on the bed, dinner tray on the bedside table and
scrawled on the mirror in lipstick, PWNED! The Soldiers who are
watching the broadcast live realise it’s their own footage being
transmitted. Hacksaw taunts, “Come and get me.” Hacksaw eludes her
pursuers by exposing the fallable floors in their training.
Episode 7 Filming with a night vision camera whilst hiding at night in
a forest Hacksaw reveals the existence of ghosts with this weeks
captured footage from The STAC. A team of scientists investigating an
abandoned asylum with infa red cameras interview a co-operative ghost
who was once a patient. Suddenly the tables are turned and they are
set upon by the insane spirits that inhabit the most haunted place on
earth. Cut back to Hacksaw who this time whispers her sign off line.
Episode 8 Hacksaw filming herself using a handy cam inside an
aeroplane bathroom. The plane is hit by extreme turbulence. The
engines howl. Hacksaw introduces this weeks story hacked from The
STAC, which illuminates the existence of aliens far more real than the
American cold war paranoia from the 50’s. An investigation into a
downed Blackbird SR71 spy plane in North Korea will turn into a fierce
battle as a troop of soldiers flee for their lives from dark alien
creatures. Back to extreme turbulence in an airline toilet. Hacksaw
states that what we’ve just witnessed is just the tip of a much darker
iceberg. “This is Hacksaw. Now we’re watching THEM.”
Episode 9 Hacksaw walks the City streets as she delivers this
Episode’s story. A Top Secret North Korean film. North Korean
voiceover and text documenting the creation of an human/alien hybrid
army. The aliens killed in the fight in the forest in the North Korean
forest seen in an earlier transmission and their victims have been
taken by North Korean secret police to a subterranean hospital on a
military base where geneticists have successfully cloned up a
controllable human hybrid. They’re creating a super lethal army.
Episode 10 Hacksaw, hiding inside a nightclub, describes that her
pursuers are tightening the net, but in the past few days she has been
in direct communication with a shadowy informant. She verbally cuts to
a package that includes conversations she’s had with this figure, and
vision of what little she can see inside the camouflaged noise and
electronic voice of this well-connected but untraceable informant..
How can they know so much about her and the STAC? Can Hacksaw trust
him, her, whatever? Or is this an elaborate trap? With the noise
inside and out flooding her mind Hacksaw sign-offs .
Episode 11 Hacksaw reveals the secret footage of Apollo 18 the only
mission to never have been made public. As seen from inside the LEM we
descend to the surface of the moon. Mission control, with a skeleton
crew and the astronaut’s voices can be clearly heard. Everything is
going to plan then a giant hanger door splits open on the moon’s
surface revealing a technological world beneath. Panic ensues and then
Static… Hacksaw signs off.....nothing more to add to what wehave
seen.
Episode 12 Hacksaw has started direct communication with someone who
says they are with THEM and that they no longer believe. Believe in
what? They show her an internal security report to gain her trust that
shows just how much intel they have amassed about her, from a
surveillance folder located in The STAC. This is just one of billions
of folders relating to every human on the planet. What they know about
you all is frightening, your privacy is a thing of the past. The STAC
is much bigger than Hacksaw ever imagined. The informant then shows
her autopsy photos of her dead Hacker Clan and states that they
personally were in charge of accessing and the elimination of this
threat. Only now does this informant understand the importance of
Hacksaw’s message. But this language is abrupt and clouded in secrets.
The mystery figure says there is a much greater conspiracy that
Hacksaw needs to know.
Episode 13 Underground car park Hacksaw has received no new
communication from her mystery informant in fact all activity at The
STAC seems to have stopped. As Hacksaw is transmitting all power goes
out and screeching tyres can be heard as a van pulls up and out rush a
squad of THEM soldiers screaming “Get down on the ground NOW!” They
surround Hacksaw and have her pinned down there muzzle torches dance
over her trapped body. One soldier lefts her head by her hair to say,
“Do you know how much trouble you’ve caused LITTLE GIRL”.
Episode 14 The transmission starts with static and the super HACKSAW
SIGNAL OFFLINE replaced by SIGNAL CAPTURE. …SOURCE UNKNOWN. …SHUTDOWN
YES / NO NO is mysteriously clicked and an image from security cameras
reveal a clearly panicked HACKSAW inside a dark room strapped to a
vertical surgical gurney. Multiple cameras, and a cacophony of voices
surround her, she is covered in sensors and IV drips. Strangely they
only ask her simple questions about herself “Did you have a happy
upbringing, what is your favourite colour?” etc.. The questions tumble
over each other with no obvious point, or reason, slowly wearing her
down. Hacksaw pleads for them to stop then in unison they ask, “Why
are you doing this?” The medical gurney is then lowered to a
horizontal position. From above we see her head thrashing back and
forth wildly until a surgical gloved hand grabs her chin to restrain
her, her eyes widen as a bite block is forced between her teeth.
Stroboscopic lighting ignites.
Episode 15 Escape Action episode. Again,the transmission starts with
static and the super HACKSAW SIGNAL OFFLINE replaced by SIGNAL
CAPTURE. …SOURCE UNKNOWN. …SHUTDOWN YES / NO. NO is pressed. From
inside the depravation cell a dazed Hacksaw can hear the echoes of
shouting and gunfire. Security cameras record her cowering tightly on
the floor in a foetal position then she slowly stands and takes up a
defiant stance. The door is breached to her cell and a THEM soldier
enters to drag her out. After a short struggle down corridor the
soldier draws a gun and places it against her head to subdue her. They
exit that security cameras field of vision. A blinding white light
floods frame as an emergency siren wails. A voice shouts “RUN” as,
Hacksaw gets hurled through a security door and into the outside
world. An external security camera picks her up running as fast as her
dazed body can deep into the forest beyond.
Episode16 Static is broken by images from a flying surveillance drone.
We see an unconscious Hacksaw lying in her underwear in a clearing by
a forest. Medical information races past frame, heart rate, body
temperature etc, something is monitoring her. The image degrades to a
flashing super ACTIVATE CEREBAL IMPLANT REC 1. This super is replaced
by another…ONLINE. In a series of image flashes and vignettes we see
Hacksaws journey, including the various conspiracies revealed from The
STAC, leading up to new subliminal images of an ethereal cell
suspended in space inside a cavernous room. Then an unknown face
appears under strobing text that reads HACK ANNEX ZERO. From the
security drone we see Hacksaw physically affected by this invasion on
her brain then in a start Hacksaw wakes up. Her first words are
“what’s ANNEX ZERO”.
Episode 17 In a dingy Truck stop bathroom dressed in a cheap summer
dress, Hacksaw transmits via a mobile phone while recording herself
looking into a mirror. She explains that it has taken two days just to
find a road and still she can’t comprehend the recent past. “Why did
they let me go?”. The transmission is interrupted by images flashing
in Hacksaw’s brain. In the mirror we see this transference physically
affect her. “What is happening to me?” As she splashes water on her
face and eyeballs the cameras she states “Show stored packet”. A top-
level internal CIA film showcasing the contents of a hidden hanger,
containing captured U.F.O”s, not just one but many. Narration explains
the circumstances of capture and ends on revealing a tiny engine with
the extraordinary statement – “If connected, this infinite,
inexhaustible engine could power the planet for ever.” Finishes with
Hacksaw leaning into the mirror to deliver her signature sign-off.
Episode 18 Inside static we see the image of ‘the unknown man’ that
has appeared in her mind previously. The static clears to reveal
Hacksaw filming herself walking the streets in the rain. “I’ve
discovered this man is called the Special liaison officer, liaison for
and to what? I’m sure he’s one of THEM but I am still investigating
now that some of The STAC is back on line. As soon as I know who he
and why he is important so will you” The next stored packet abruptly
starts. Black & white film lit by torches from the 40’s of a secret
anteroom in the great pyramid of Cheops showing the original plans for
the construction of the pyramid in hieroglyphics. These highly complex
and detailed diagrams clearly reveal the original architects had help
from the future Again this footage proves that history has been
tampered with,,,but by who and why is the real conspiracy.
Episode 19 Hacksaw seen via web cams slides between terminals insidea
vast server room as she multitasks across systems in an attempt to
hack Annex Zero this hack is the hardest she’s ever attempted. She has
discovered about the origins of THEM, the terrible emotional abuse of
their sordid past, how much control they have amassed on the planet
and the fact that anyone anywhere could be a sleeper agent just
waiting to be activated into one of THEM. Then she discovers ‘live’
where Annex Zero is, and in a sequence of shots revealed by satellite
imagery we see it is buried under the center of the most secure
building on the planet the Pentagon. She sermises that while the STAC
is the core that contains everything, this must be the Network hub
through which all information passes. While this is an extraordinary
discovery there must be a still a larger reason that Annex Zero has
been placed in her subconscious. As her signal is traced and honed in
on she says ‘I’m in!” it goes to black.
Episode 20 Hacksaw’s eyes appear through static in a series of shots.
She informs us that she received this packet from her mystery
informant. The film reveals, via headcam, somebody walking around
showing the inner workings of The STAC The enormity of this
underground facility is revealed in detail for the first time from the
surgical suites and operations rooms to the legions of troops based
there. But the real horror lies inside the STAC’s central core. As
data storage plates are removed the true inner workings of the stack
are revealed. Sectioned living human brain tissue. Over loudspeakers
the announcement of a Security breach in section 1 of the main core
complex puts an abrupt end to the transmission. Hacksaw signs off…now
we know what THEM do with people they don’t need.
Episode 21 Hacksaws brain transmits images of a Cell suspended in air.
Her unknown informer says THEM are in the midst of revolution, the
STAC is in lockdown all external lines are being severed and that she
must expose the danger of the Cell, before all is lost and everything
becomes secret again. What is the Cell? He tells her that her mind
already knows and so will she when she get’s final access to Annex
Zero. She shows us inside the enormity of the security surrounding
Annex Zero and explains why she has been told to hack it …it can geta
signal to every communication device everywhere on the planet at the
same time. Leading up clearly and decisivele to a payoff.
Episode 22 Hacksaw is in an elevator she’s been told to get out of the
building fast when suddenly the lift stops and is plunged into
darkness. The image switches to infa red, a clearly distressed Hacksaw
trapped, scans through the building security cameras. THEM soldiers
appear to be everywhere, on everyfloor. She sees a group approach a
lift exterior and the power starts up again. She’s descending into
their waiting arms, ding the door begins to open soldiers weapons
drawn ready to fire. Out of shot gunfire is heard and the soldiers
fall to the ground revealing a soldier removing her helmet “I’m the
mystery voice in your head that’s been helping with your signal.
“C’mon” together they run. (As seen via security cam) BANG! a final
shot from one of THEM takes out her informer. Hacksaw cradles this
informer for her last words as seen through her discarded helmet cam.
“Use Annex zero you must tell them about the Cell…” Hacksaw looks
directly at the helmet cam and with that the image degrades with the
super OPERATIVE DECEASED.
Episode23 ANNEX ZERO… ONLINE. Reveals a clean image of Hacksaw as she
uses Annex Zero to broadcast everywhere on every system across the
globe the secret of the Creation Cell, the fact that it is one half of
the original cell that created the universe and that it was buried
here16 thousand years ago to protect it, (Protect it from what?) but
now because of THEM scientists probing inside it, its active and
sending out a signal they cant understand but know is dire for if it
combines with its other half everything we know and understand will
cease to exist.
ON A COMPUTER SCREEN. HACKSAW logo.
The screen breaks up with distorted static and text, a digital jigsaw
of images.
Text appears - SIGNAL SEARCHING
INT. SKYSCRAPER 34th FLOOR - NIGHT
Finally the broken images form a concise picture. A YOUNG WOMAN glares
down the screen, an undisclosed city of lights glitter behind her. She
yells, static overshadowing her voice, until-
One sentence becomes clear…
HACKSAW
(degraded audio)
C… Car… Carter… They’re closing in!
CUT TO:
Scrambled vision, audio. Signal finding strength –
Text Appears: SIGNAL LOCK.
- revealing CARTER, sweat drenched, anxious, breathless. He wears a
military style headpiece with camera and microphone, talks into his
laptop’s webcam.
Behind him, office cubicles.
CARTER
Get me the hell outta here!
CUT TO:
Hacksaw, pounding at her laptop keys. Intense concentration.
HACKSAW (VO)
Hold tight, I’m searching…
CUT TO:
SECURITY FOOTAGE, MULTIPLE ANGLES. BLACK CLAD SOLDIERS, guns poised,
storm the office tower stairwell.
HACKSAW (VO)
They’re everywhere. Twenty-sixth
floor and climbing.
CUT TO:
CARTER. He looks up to the floor number – 34.
CARTER
Which way?!
CUT TO:
A 3D Wire Image of the office skyscraper. Carter, stationary on floor
34, shown as a green dot. Black Clad Soldiers, racing up all four exit
staircases, shown as red.
HACKSAW (VO)
Thermals show all four exits covered.
CUT TO:
HACKSAW, searching her screen with determination. Finally she sees a
way…
HACKSAW (VO)
Take the elevator shaft! Free and clear!
CUT TO:
CARTER
Show me out…
Carter slams his laptop shut.
HEADPIECE POV. He bolts down the office hall.
HACKSAW (VO)
Left at the end …
CUT TO:
SECURITY FOOTAGE, MULTIPLE ANGLES. Black Clad Soldiers continue to
storm upward.
SFX: Intercepted radio transmission from the soldiers.
RADIO TRANSMISSION
Alpha 7, 28… Clear!
Bravo 5, 28… Clear!
Copy all units. Aerial support on route…
BACK TO:
Carter, racing past cubicles…
HACKSAW (VO)
Second right…
…turning into a hall.
CUT TO:
HACKSAW. Perspiring, adrenaline pumping, she works her laptop like a
seasoned pro.
HACKSAW
Right again and you’re there
sweetheart…
CUT TO:
SECURITY FOOTAGE, MULTIPLE ANGLES. Black Clad Soldiers still rising.
RADIO TRANSMISSION
Aerial support is on approach…
Cease at 30…
Copy that…
CUT TO:
CARTER, racing through the office hall. He takes a hard right.
CUT TO:
SECURITY FOOTAGE, MULTIPLE ANGLES. The Black Clad Soldiers suddenly
stop dead at level thirty. Guns raised, they don’t take another step..
CUT TO:
Tracker dots on Hacksaws screen. The red dots, the soldiers, stop
rising.
CUT TO:
HACKSAW. She stops typing. Her eyes widen…
HACKSAW
They’ve stopped.
CARTER (VO)
Where?
HACKSAW
Thirtieth floor.
CUT TO:
HEADPIECE POV. Carter reaches the elevator. He try’s to pry its door
open. Useless. He hits the button, looks to its floor number. It
starts climbing from level 10.
CUT TO:
HACKSAW.
RADIO TRANSMISSION
Aerial support on target…
Weapons hot…
Sudden realization slams across her face.
HACKSAW
Take the shaft Carter. Now!
CUT TO:
HEADPIECE POV. Carter try’s to pry open the elevator doors but they
won’t budge. He looks t the elevator numbers - 16… 17…
He turns to his laptop, opening.
RADIO TRANSMISSION
Green to go Black 7…
Copy that. Firing…
Fox 2 away…
(SFX: rocket thundering)
HACKSAW
Carter. Take the shaft!
WEBCAM POV. Resolve washes over him…
CARTER
No time…
He begins to type.
CARTER (cont.)
Log onto the server, there’s an
encrypted packet. You must get the
signal out, tell everyone about the STAC.
It’s up to you now Hacksaw and
whatever you do - don’t forget
Tunguska.
CUT TO:
HACKSAW. Fear washed over her, she’s powerless.
SFX: Woosh!
She spins to the window. A missile flies past and-
Hacksaw slams her hands on the window, grasping -
HACKSAW
Carter!!!
CUT TO:
SECURITY FOOTAGE. The entire top floor of the office tower blows up!
BACK TO:
HACKSAW. The window blows out in front of her, shattering, throwing
her to the ground.
The fireball overexposes the frame. Flash to white then –
Static.
Vertical lines scan across screen.
Hacksaw’s eyes appear. Tired but determined.
HACKSAW
They killed fourteen of us…
CUT TO:
Autopsy photo's flash on screen of dead hackers.
Text reads : DECEASED.
HACKSAW (VO)
Fourteen of my friends. I’m the last
of the informed. Hunted by an agency
that doesn’t… shouldn’t exist.
BACK TO:
Hacksaw, multiple shots – eyes, lips…
HACKSAW
We hacked their mainframe, stole their
secrets. Now, they want them back.
CUT TO:
Half an image downloads on screen, the other half distorted,
destroyed.
HACKSAW (VO)
All I have is what Carter sent me -
The image is somewhat organic; diamond like, with many surfaced
angles, inside it contains what looks to be static…
HACKSAW (VO)
A corrupted image. Garbled data. And
his final words. Tunguska.
BACK TO:
HACKSAW, again - flashing grabs of her eyes, her lips…
HACKSAW
I won’t let THEM win. They’re
going to pay. Every last one. But I
need your help. I’ll leech another transmission in seven days when I
know
more.
Hacksaw’s face, full frame now…
HACKSAW
Watch for my signal. Knowledge is
our power. And the ultimate power
is truth.
Vision degrades, static.
Text on screen: SIGNAL LOST.
ON A COMPUTER SCREEN. Standard Episode Opener.
Text appears: SIGNAL LOCK. Hacksaw’s eyes appear.
HACKSAW
Are you listening?
EXT. WAREHOUSE ROOFTOP – NIGHT
Hacksaw speaks into a wide-angle webcam attached to her laptop.
HACKSAW
They’ve been hot on my heels.
All week. Like a pack of
wolves. Tonight I find out what
makes THEM tick.
Hacksaw presses a button on her laptop.
ON THE COMPUTER SCREEN: SIGNAL BROADCASTING.
HACKSAW (CONT.)
They’ll trace the signal,-
CUT TO:
MULTIPLE SECURITY CAMERA FOOTAGE.
Quick shots of the warehouse rooftop. Hacksaw stands next to a
computer set up smack bang in middle.
HACKSAW (VO)
- I give them three minutes till
they pounce -
CUT TO:
HACKSAW, staring into the webcam.
HACKSAW
- which gives me two to get out.
She spins around -
CUT TO:
SECURITY CAMERA FOOTAGE.
Hacksaw races across the rooftop, bursting through the exit door.
CUT TO:
INT. STAIRWELL - NIGHT
Down the stairs she flees, addressing her mobile phone camera.
HACKSAW
Listen closely. The mainframe we
hacked. They call it The STAC.
Vertical lines scan across screen, igniting hidden code which shudders
to life as text: THE STAC.
HACKSAW (VO)
It’s a machine.
Vertical lines scan across screen, revealing two BLACK CLAD SOLDIER
from a SECURITY CAMERA POV. A security station scans their heads,
green lasers revealing serial numbers imprinted on their skulls.
HACKSAW (VO)
‘Supercomputer’ doesn’t do it
justice. This thing is alive.
Growing.
Text On Screen: IDENT CONFIRMED.
The security camera PULLS OUT to reveal an open caged elevator. The
doors open and the soldiers step in. The elevator descends.
HACKSAW (VO)
It holds answers to all the
worlds secrets. Conspiracy’s.
Cover-up’s. A machine of truth-
The security camera continues to PULL OUT, further and further, to
reveal a ginormous structure. A machine made of metal and glass,
rotating, undulating, somewhat like a crank shaft of a car. Air-
conditioning units spin, keeping it cool, while steam rises from its
joints and gaps.
It is an Orwellian nightmare.
CUT TO:
INT. STAIRWELL - NIGHT
Hacksaw races down those stairs, two, three at a time…
HACKSAW (VO)
-protected by an agency of liars.
THEM – a rogue agency,-
CUT TO:
INT. ELEVATOR
ELEVATOR SECURITY CAMERA POV.
THEM soldiers continue to descend… Level 19… Level 20…
HACKSAW (VO)
-fanatical guardians that will do
anything to protect their secrets.
The elevator stops, shuddering. The doors open.
CUT TO:
THEM SOLDIERS HELMET CAM
They exit the elevator, looking around. This machine, it’s like a
skyscraper… only built underground.
They approach an archway that opens out into a mirrored chamber, which
extends into the distance. In the middle of the chamber, what looks
something like a 600ft diamond geode. Lightning and static explodes
within it. There is power here, unimaginable power -
CUT TO:
INT. STAIRWELL - NIGHT
Hacksaw races down the last of the stairs.
HACKSAW
Whatever that is, it’s the tip
of the iceberg. What they’ve
kept from us. Their well of
secrets. But it’s just the
beginning.
She burst out the exit door -
EXT. ALLEYWAY – NIGHT
- slowing into the alleyway.
HACKSAW
I’ll do everything I can
to get their secrets out.
SFX: A Helicopter bursts overhead.
MOBILE PHONE CAMERA POV. Hacksaw films a HELICOPTER as it tears across
the sky approaching the warehouse rooftop.
HACKSAW (VO)
Well well… The boys are already
here.
CUT TO:
MULTIPLE SECURITY CAMERA FOOTAGE.
Black Clad Soldiers drop from the helicopter onto the warehouse
rooftop.
HACKSAW (VO)
Two minutes twenty two seconds.
Impressive.
CUT TO:
HACKSAW continuing down the dark, dank alleyway.
HACKSAW
It’s time for rebellion, we
can’t let THEM win.
CUT TO:
MULTIPLE SECURITY CAMERA FOOTAGE.
Black Clad Soldiers, guns at the ready, sweep the rooftop.
HACKSAW (VO)
I’m going to tear every secret
out of their STAC.
The soldiers, in perfect formation, close in on the computer set up in
the middle.
CUT TO:
HACKSAW.
HACKSAW
Broadcast the truth of all their
lies. Watch for my signal. And
listen. The more we know, the less
power they have.
CUT TO:
MULTIPLE SECURITY CAMERA FOOTAGE.
The soldiers reach the computer. They stop only feet away, guns
poised at the screen.
On the screen…
HACKSAW
Now I know how you move,
how you attack. This is
Hacksaw. Now we’re watching
THEM.
The computer screen flicks from Hacksaw to the security footage of the
soldiers on the rooftop. One of the soldiers breaks from formation,
ferocious, kicking the screen. It flies across the floor.
The others turn to the security cameras and let fire-
Static.
Text on screen: SIGNAL LOST
ON A COMPUTER SCREEN. Standard Episode Opener.
Text Appears – SIGNAL SEARCHING
HACKSAW
(broken audio)
I… I have to…keep moving…
Broken scrambled images.
TEXT: SIGNAL LOCKED.
INT. REAR TAXI SEAT – NIGHT
INTERCUT with TAXI SECURITY CAMERA and Hacksaw’s LAPTOP WEBCAM.
Hacksaw looks worn, beaten, but there’s a determined fire still
burning in her eyes.
HACKSAW
They don’t chase me anymore.
They wait. They know where
I’ve been. Where I’m going. I’ve
nowhere left to hide here. It’s
my time to move on.
CUT TO:
Vertical lines scan across screen, lighting hidden code which shudders
into life as text: US CLASSIFIED. TOP SECRET. SERIAL: 2264.
HACKSAW
I’ve dug deeper into the STAC.
More text appears: GERMANY, 1945
HACKSAW (VO)
If this is what they control,
they have more power than I
imagined.
Flash frames of stock footage; a German MILITARY BASE. The entrance to
an UNDERGROUND CAVERN.
HACKSAW (VO)
In 1945 Hitler planned a blitz. A
relentless rocket attack on England
and Europe.
CUT TO:
A MILITARY FILM. Black and white. The camera approaches the entrance
to the underground cavern, stepping into darkness…
HACKSAW (VO)
It would have changed the course of
the war.
FROM BLACK the camera enters an enormous V2 ROCKET FACTORY.
Rockets. Lined up one after another as far as the eye can see. The
Cameraman describes the scene as he sees it through the lens -
CAMERAMAN (VO)
Chamber roughly 2000 feet long…
Antechambers along both sides…
Railway tracks transport rockets to
launch pads… Scale of production…
Enormous. There’s… Thousands of
rockets here…
CUT TO:
HACKSAW.
HACKSAW (VO)
The Allies invaded before the
onslaught could begin. They found
this facility. And something else…
CUT TO:
MILITARY VIDEO CAMERA FOOTAGE.
The camera pans down a huge V2 Rocket.
MILITARY OFFICER (OS)
You. With the camera. Over here.
The camera pans to a line of high-ranking MILITARY OFFICIALS talking
quietly amongst themselves outside an entrance to another room. The
camera approaches, the officials turning away as it passes to obscure
their faces.
The camera enters a GIANT CHAMBER. A massive, polished, STEEL ROCKET
lies on its side on a cradle. The rocket is different to the V2’s,
larger, modern. The letters ‘U.S.A’ are emblazoned along itsside.
The camera films the rocket. The Officials in the room studying it,
photograph it, pour over blueprints.
We hear off-screen-
MILITARY OFFICIALS (OS)
It’s called an ‘Atlas’…
These plans say Vanderberg Air
Force Base…
It’s dated 1967!
Suddenly, commotion. Yelling, screams -
The camera spins around to reveal a BLACK-CLAD SOLDIER sprinting into
the chamber. He’s unarmed, except for a device in his hand. Like a
trigger to a bomb.
The Military Officials stand, perplexed, staring at this black
creature racing across the floor when -
He reaches the rocket, hand touching. He presses the trigger device –
And in a flash of electricity he disappears!
Silence fills the room. The sound of static. Suddenly, arcing bolts of
electricity fill the air, surround the rocket. A thunderous noise
cracks and everyone turns on their heels, running for dear life from
the chamber.
The Cameraman remains, filming the electrical storm. It builds and
flares and surges around the rocket, until finally a blinding flash of
white…
Vision returns. Papers float to the floor. Residual static activity
outlines where the rocket used to be. Because now, it’s gone. Silence,
then –
A sound, like turbines spinning, faster and faster, louder until-
A sonic wave explodes, knocking the Cameraman over and shattering the
camera lens!
BLACK. A LOGO APPEARS.
CUT TO:
INT. TAXI - NIGHT
Hacksaw.
HACKSAW
It’s THEM. They’re trying to toy with
history. But they can’t control it.
Yet.
Vertical lines scan across screen. The logo appears again.
HACKSAW (VO)
The logo. I’ve seen something
like it before.
A second image appears on screen, next to the first. It’s Carter’s
image, half corrupted, but it looks remarkably similar to the logo.
HACKSAW (VO)
Carter’s image. They're interconnected
but I don’t know how. I need somewhere
safe… safer… to find out. I can’t
keep running, I need time to look.
Hacksaw glances out the passenger window, checking her surroundings.
HACKSAW
Pull over.
She throws the Driver some cash, exiting.
EXT. BUSY STREET - NIGHT
The door slams behind her, Hacksaw walks to the curbside talking into
her mobile phone camera.
HACKSAW
The signal's dying, I'll be in
touch. I'm skipping the country.
Found a safer haven to hack deeper
into the STAC. If these are
interconnected, there’s more....
HACKSAW crosses the street.
HACKSAW (CONT'D)
Now you know what I’m up against.
We’re up against. I think we’re
at the brink of a war, one we
have no choice but to fight.
This is Hacksaw, now we’re
watching -
Signal interference. The vision switches from Hacksaw to that of a
sniper's scope at a distance. The rifle lens snap-changes from wide to
an extreme close-up of Hacksaw's face.
Hacksaw looks up. She's staring down the barrel of an unseen gun.
Traffic races past her, flashing past frame.
Gunshot.
HACKSAW logo.
Static.
Creator Daniel Burns. (tundraproductions@hotmail.com)