[MUSIC]
Make a big fire tonight, Andy, bro.
I'm feeling chilly.
Whoa, yo!
Sorry, you warm now?
Hi, guys.
Sorry I'm late.
[BEEPING]
My mom keeps paging.
Maybe I should call her and tell her I'm OK.
How are you going to do that?
Smoke signals?
Why am I not surprised?
That is exactly what my story's about.
What, spoiled wishtricks?
No, electronic stuff.
Everybody's always using cell phones, laptop computers,
electronic notebooks.
And it's not just grownups either.
Kids have pagers, calculators, and games.
She'll call you back.
We can't live without them.
You're so 11.
Well, I don't use anything like that.
Oh, yeah?
What about the alarm on that big old watch of yours?
Well, sure, every morning.
Duh.
Did a computer chip is telling you when to wake up?
Isn't that weird?
If we need computers so bad, and they're getting
smarter all the time, does that
mean people are getting dumber?
My story's about a bunch of kids who use computers.
They think they're all pretty smart.
But what they don't know is that their computers are really
using them.
Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society,
I call this story the tale of the virtual pet.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Keywords, info gathering, deep space probe,
satellite, and artificial intelligence.
Digger.
Welcome, Tom.
You have reached Digger, the digital information gathering
resource website.
Cool.
Barry.
Whoa.
You can hear me?
Yes, we read and store information, all information.
Oh, kitten.
Can you read this?
Advanced computer language.
Oh, man.
This is awesome.
Feed me.
Say what?
Feed me.
This is getting kind of weird.
[PHONE RINGING]
Come on.
Get me out of here.
[MUSIC PLAYING] We're going shopping after school, right?
Mo.
Score.
What did you say?
Never mind.
Oh, cool.
Look.
What was that all about?
[MUSIC PLAYING] What was that all about? I'm so jealous.
They got the new virtual events.
So what?
Just another video game.
But it's not.
Tom says you can hear and understand your voice.
How does Tom know so much?
He brought him in.
He called some diggers.
Kate, you got us here.
[MUSIC PLAYING] Kate, you got us here. Kate, we got us here.
We made this invention.
They're called pens.
Ha ha.
Too high tech for you?
Oh, shoot.
My computer crashed.
Crashed?
I must have overloaded the disk.
And in English, that means I input too much information.
And--
Forget it.
You're hopeless.
Well, my pencil never crashed.
Time to enter the computer age.
Let's get us a couple of diggers.
I told you, I don't want a digger.
Come on.
Kate.
Cool.
Thank you.
Hi, Tom.
Whoa.
Spending too much time at the computer.
How much do the diggers cost?
They're free.
Wow.
Thanks.
Where'd you get them?
What's the difference?
Take it.
It's free.
No, I don't want anything to do with programmers.
OK.
No rush.
This doesn't look as good as I think it does.
It hatched.
What do you need?
I need you.
It talked.
Did you hear that?
Are you going to help me or not?
This is so cool.
You want to see something cool?
Whoa. Excellent.
That's infinity.
Not a computer in sight.
Just light rays and glass.
Very cool.
Can you see this?
It's very fun, isn't it?
Yes, it is.
You're such a loser.
Feed me.
Feeding it is like uploading information to a computer.
I don't know what upload means and I don't care.
Bye-bye.
What can I feed you, little one?
Feed me.
What do you need, little one?
Information.
Information?
What time do I press for that?
Begin information upload.
Summertime.
(door opens)
If you combine two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom,
you get H2O, water.
Okay, stupid question.
Why are you reading out loud?
She likes me to read to her.
She?
It's a toy.
And could you please stop playing
with that thing for five minutes?
You're right.
I've got a ton of work to do.
(tires screeching)
What is with you?
Huh?
Are you addicted or something?
They have an exam tomorrow.
I'm tired.
I think I'm gonna study in the morning.
Whatever.
But do me a favor and leave
that stupid computer thing alone.
I will.
Could you turn out the light?
Good night.
I'll pick you up in the morning.
Isabel.
Isabel, wake up.
What?
What do you want?
Come here, Isabel.
Open the door.
What do you want?
Feed me.
Progress report, please.
Things are proceeding according to plan.
(tires screeching)
We have replaced four units, and
tomorrow we replace number five.
Help!
Ha ha ha!
Hey, do you feel better?
What?
Do I look sick?
No, but last night...
Hey, didn't you wear that yesterday?
We're late for school.
When did you get that?
What?
That tattoo on your neck like Tom's.
Oh, last night.
Do you like it?
No, it's gross.
Well, I like it.
A lot. (tense music)
(gasps)
Kate, are you all right?
Uh, yeah.
Sorry.
(tense music)
Kate?
I want you to have this.
I told you, I don't want it.
But it's a lot of fun.
I don't want it!
(bell ringing)
What is wrong with you?
Nothing.
Can I come to your house to do homework tonight?
Uh, yeah, sure.
We can go after volleyball practice.
I'm not going to practice.
Why not?
(tense music)
Hey, you coming to practice?
Yeah, maybe.
No.
(tense music) (tense music)
(tense music)
Progress report.
We have replaced four units and have their data,
ready for uploading.
Proceed.
(tense music) (tense music)
A fifth unit will be replaced and collected tonight.
You have done well, but this is only the beginning.
We must increase the collection rate.
We are the first to arrive,
but with each new collection, others will follow.
In time, we will replace every unit on the Earth
with one of our own,
and their data will be uploaded into our stellar network
to be dissected and used as we see fit.
(tense music)
It was a mouse.
(tense music)
Ready for uploading.
Is the base secure?
Base is secure.
Then I will return control to
you until the upload is complete.
Prepare to initiate power grid sequence.
Ready.
You have control.
(tense music) Power grid sequence initiated and upload will commence.
In five minutes.
Give these diggers to the new units
and stay with them until they've been collected.
I expect Kate to be one of them.
Don't worry.
(tense music)
Tom?
Isabel?
Is that you?
Are you guys all right?
Kate, help!
They kept us in here, Kate.
We're gonna get uploaded into their network.
What are they, aliens?
I don't know, but you gotta do something.
We're history.
The power.
We're all the power.
(tense music)
Ow!
Pull any cable.
Ow!
It won't let me.
It must be protecting itself.
Complete.
Informal office.
Who, what do I do?
The computer gave up control.
Maybe you can shut it down.
Are you warped?
I've never even touched a computer before.
Kate, get over it.
Okay, what do I do first?
Grab the mouse.
The mouse?
Kate?
Oh, yeah.
Click on the icon at the bottom of the screen
and choose shut down.
It says invalid command.
Enter security code.
Click on anything.
Keep on getting the same thing.
Enter security code.
Try hitting control delete.
Huh?
On the keyboard.
Hit both keys at once.
(beeping)
Same thing.
Enter security code.
Nothing's working.
Upload in four minutes.
We're gonna have to get out of the desktop
into the operating system.
You might as well be talking Greek.
Click on the lower left icon,
then on the open door that says operating system.
Ooh, it worked.
I think.
Okay, type directory, then enter.
Upload in two and a half minutes.
Shut up.
Kate, type faster.
I can't.
I haven't taken typing yet.
Hey, why won't you have practice?
Where's Kate?
She didn't show either.
What's with you two?
Done.
Hit enter.
(phone ringing)
I got him.
Delete the preferences file so we can bypass
the security code.
How do I do that?
Type D-E-L, space digger preferences,
space exit, and enter.
Upload in two minutes.
Oh no, digger's back.
No, that's good.
Hit control delete again.
Warning.
Pressing control delete will terminate
the application digger.
Hit it, then hit shutdown, and you'll kill digger.
Yes, we did it.
Wait, what's that sound?
Oh no, it sounds like...
Upload in one and a half minutes.
It didn't work.
All it did was reboot.
You can't stop it.
We're doomed.
Wait, what was that you told
me about crashing your computer?
That's it.
We can run everything at once and overload its resources.
Talk to me.
Open each one of these from the desktop icon fast.
Start the drawing program.
Open the printer and send a six
color image in high resolution.
Upload in one minute.
Hit print.
Start the photo studio, load a
TXL file, and start the scanner.
It says low memory.
It's working.
Open the games file.
Choose advanced puzzles.
Click on the encyclopedia.
Warning, low memory.
Close all applications.
Upload in 30 seconds.
Hit enter, and you're out of here.
Now it's your turn.
Upload in 15 seconds.
Hey, don't look at it.
Gotcha.
Upload in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 14, 1.
Comments upload.
What's going on?
She's here.
He's here.
What's happening?
She's overloading it.
Now that's a computer crash.
Tom?
Isabel?
Oh man, I killed you guys.
No, you didn't.
Is it you guys?
Yeah, it's us.
Wait.
No tattoo.
It is you.
Are you guys okay?
Yeah, I think so.
Okay.
You saved us.
And you were totally amazing.
I promise never to tease you about computers again.
Are you kidding?
That was awesome.
I had no idea computers were so cool.
I want to get my own notebook.
No, a laptop loaded, mega memory.
My mom's gonna kill me.
CD-ROM and DVD drive, all the
latest games in the chess program.
On second thought, my pencil works just fine.
So the next time you play a game on your
computer, make sure you know all the rules.
Because if you're not careful,
your computer may be playing with you.
Oh, no story.
Perfect timing.
Why does my mother insist on teaching me all the time?
Okay.
It took me an hour to figure out how to do that.
Always wanted one of these.
You owe me big time.