I remember damage.
And escape.
Then...
adrift in a stranger's galaxy for a long time.
But I'm safe now.
I found it again.
My home.
Why are we meeting today?
You called me.
I applied online.
You called and said I can come interview.
Right.
What is your strongest quality?
Listening.
Uh, organizing.
I remember everything.
I remember you now.
Miranda.
- From Kankakee, yes? - Yes.
I see a lot of skills,
but I don't see many...jobs.
Tell me about Eirene Services.
My father's company.
He scrubbed hulls in St. Croix.
I did the books.
- And your family came to Kankakee in 1990.
Yes.
- Do you know the meaning of logistics?
The path things take.
Not the path.
The right path.
Watch me now.
Point of origin.
End point. Okay?
Logistics is not time or space.
It flows.
The shortest path is six inches,
but the right path
starts at your point of origin,
goes around your head, and travels to Des Moines, Iowa,
before hitting this end point.
Des Moines, Iowa, is hypothetical.
Oh. I understand.
- Where do you see yourself in 20 years?
Working for you.
Or we'll all be dead.
- That is funny. Straight-faced, everything.
Good.
I like you.
We'll all be dead.
You have to go Malaysia.
I just got back to Chicago.
I was gonna come to the office later--
- Don't. Jim Felps has somehow
landed a pitch with Sinotec.
You need to be there to run the pitch.
I can't tell you how important this is.
Okay.
I'll head back to O'Hare.
I just have one thing I have to do.
- You know, until yesterday, I thought that--
I thought that I was never gonna see you again.
Why are you here?
I finished.
Who's that?
- He's the asshole that ruined my life.
How did you two meet?
Hi.
We know each other.
I don't think so.
Aren't you an actress?
No.
Ah.
Ah, yeah. No, I'm sorry.
I thought--
I love Chicago.
It's very mellow.
No, it's kind of easy.
And...there's no paparazzi.
Listen.
I have to buy your work.
- Y-you have to buy what?
You're an artist, no?
I'm in logistics.
Oh, cool.
You-- my friend is down the street,
and he's having a birthday party,
and I didn't bring him anything.
Haven't seen him in ages. He thinks I'm a flake.
I-I'm not a flake.
So I need to bring him something.
You know, a nice present.
I don't know, like-- like that.
That space map.
No, I-I'll buy it.
I'll pay you $1,000.
It's not for sale.
But you do look familiar.
Right?
Hey.
What if I--
if I give you an interpretation of the meaning of your work?
No, thank you.
- You know, my father is a poet.
And whenever he has to publish something in a magazine,
he gets the editor to give him an interpretation,
you know, to see if he gets it.
And that way--that way, they take care of it.
- You haven't even seen my work.
No.
No, no, but it doesn't matter,
because I've got good instincts.
Can I try?
Okay.
The subject of your work is...
A person.
Not a spaceman.
He's alone.
Not unhappy.
Adrift.
A bit exhausted.
But his heart is warmer
and lighter
than they realize...
because he wears a suit...
for protection.
Oh, th--that's a banana.
You can have it.
What's your name?
Miranda.
I'm Arthur.
Arthur!
You're late. What the fuck?
Get inside already.
You embossed carbuncle!
That's my friend.
We know each other
We did a play together. a long time ago.
Do you want to come in?
I got to get home.
Okay.
It was nice to meet you, Miranda.
Thank you for the gift.
Miranda.
Air and sea unite.
We got more power than the Battle of Midway.
Efficiency of a moth.
Great diversity.
- Don't. - Gotcha. No.
I'm just glad our companies found a way to work together.
- Your company bought our company, Jim.
- Yeah, right. Let me--got it? Okay.
We want Bodhisattva.
What is a Bodhisattva?
I think that's Huang.
- No, they wouldn't close a deal
without hearing from us first.
At least I don't think so.
The pitch meeting is canceled
and will have to be rescheduled.
- I need to get back to Chicago.
We were told that every pitch--
I don't know. Maybe they're germophobes?
What did she say?
She wished us luck.
Are you getting any signal?
- No. Hotel Wi-Fi's still down.
Oh. Great.
Welcome to We're Fucked Island.
- It's a peninsula. - What?
Malaysia.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Right.
Ah, I left my SAT phone in Indie.
Do you have yours?
Are there less people here?
- I don't--I don't know.
You know what, I'm gonna go see the warehouse boys
in the Showroom, see if they know what's going on.
You know those guys, right?
Hank and Rabbit? Nick?
Carroll?
Hey, Miranda.
You okay?
- I'm good. I just, um--
I'm gonna go grab my SAT phone.
- Okay. Hey, hit me up for coffee later.
- No closing time for the famous, apparently.
- He's talked them
into staying open.
Here you go, my dear.
Thank you.
Ah.
I can't tell you how many nights
I've had that have ended like this.
Drinking with somebody fascinating, like yourself,
who Arthur acquired three bars previous,
while he talks to his fans.
Maybe I acquired him.
Arthur!
What's that?
Oh.
It's a feeling.
What's the feeling?
Cut and run.
When a squall comes up so fast,
you got to cut the anchor and just go.
My dad did it once.
Sliced the rope right in front of us with a filet knife.
That feeling.
- Well, now, I used to go sailing with my grandfather.
The Mouth of the Shannon.
And the thought of a sudden storm
used to terrify me.
I prefer the land.
Two feet on the ground.
- I'm sorry. - Fuck's sake.
Sorry.
He's nice. Another round?
- Happy birthday. - Thank you.
Nice to meet you.
- Which one of you was Rosencrantz,
and which one was Guildenstern?
Oh, that's the joke.
They're interchangeable, like Clark and I.
You can't tell?
It's probably not the same anymore,
now that he's a movie star.
I'm still Rosencrantz.
I invented sandwiches.
- You guys end up the same, at least.
You both get killed by Hamlet.
Yeah, I like her.
Well, fair play, Miranda.
Come on, come on, come on.
- Miranda. - Leon?
- You have to get out of Malaysia.
The flu mutated.
Okay.
The Chinese, uh, canceled the pitch meeting.
Forget about the pitch!
I need you to listen to me.
You have six, maybe seven hours
before Malaysia is on fire.
- I'm not seeing anything online.
You won't.
The Asian governments are taking their lead
from the Chinese and curating the internet.
You can't trust what you are seeing
or what anyone tells you.
- How do I get out? - By sea.
There's a tanker called the "Robespierre"
moored ten miles offshore.
The captain owes me a favor.
First, you have to get from the hotel
to the Masa Depan Docks.
Go downstairs, go to the front desk,
and tell them your name.
I've arranged for a package to be waiting with supplies
and information you'll need to reach the "Robespierre."
Tell no one what you know,
and don't stop to consider anyone's survival
but your own.
You are out in front of the entire Malaysian population.
What about Jim Felps?
The captain was explicit.
He sees anyone but you, it's shoot to kill.
Leon?
Leon.
You will know your end point when you reach it.
In the early days, before their home is broken,
they hardly notice me.
It was better to not be noticed.
It is better to not be noticed.
I think you have a package for me?
Carroll, 526.
Merry Christmas.
Thank you.
What's the best way to get to the Masa Depan Docks?
Hey, Miranda.
Excuse me.
- All right, you probably heard about the collapse
of civilization, right?
I'm gonna try to sneak in 18
before they realize the world isn't actually ending.
What are you doing this afternoon?
Are you going to a Christmas party?
I'm escaping the flu
on a tanker called the "Robespierre."
Okay.
Jim, what are you gonna do?
- We're gonna travel together as a team.
I'm gonna kill with my clubs--the wedges.
I die, you eat me.
You die, I eat you.
Come on. Come on.
This is all gonna blow over in, like, four hours,
and the conference is gonna be back on.
I guarantee it.
- In that case, Jim, if we don't all die,
I don't think your half of the pitch is there yet.
It's weak.
Okay.
I appreciate the honesty. I'll work on it.
Arthur? It's me.
It's, um, 4:00 in the morning there, I think.
You're my yesterday.
Hope the premiere went well.
I made a mistake.
Just keep yourself safe.
Stay wherever you are. I'm coming to Chicago.
I'll find you.
Somehow.
To be loved is a calamity.
Love will try to see the words before it's finished.
"What is your job?" love will ask it.
And you will ask,
"What is my job?"
- Where are we?
It's my grandmother's house.
I talked about myself.
- Oh, yeah. Yeah, you were very funny.
Very charming. You were telling everyone
about the meaning behind your banana paintings.
I have to go.
- No, no, no, no. No, stay.
Stay. Let's eat something.
Come on, don't be uncivilized.
So the movie is called "Alpha and Beta."
Like the alphabet.
- But it's "Alpha and Beta." - Yeah.
- "Alpha/ - Beta," with a slash,
'cause it's got-- you know, it's a two-hander.
Do you know what a two-hander is?
I don't like movies.
Me neither.
Mm. A two-hander is a story
where two people have to solve the same problem.
What's their shared problem?
How to rob the Pentagon
and get all the plutonium they can get.
I don't know, it's the worst script
- I've ever read in my life.
- Leon? - Miranda.
What's your status?
I'm almost outside the docks.
- The "Robespierre" says she'll wait another hour,
but they're nervous.
Have you opened the package?
Uh...
doing it now.
What are you seeing?
A Le Creuset,
with a butterfly knife, keys, and a picture in it.
- That is the boat that will get you from the docks
to the "Robespierre."
You will be at sea for at least a year.
So both my parents are poets,
and they decided that it was a very romantic idea
to go live on an island.
So we went to live on this little island for a year,
called Holbox.
It's an island that's right between
the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean.
Yeah, I've been there.
My dad used to take us swimming with the whale sharks.
He wasn't a poet,
but he cleaned boats for tourists,
and we sailed with no plan
until I was eight years old.
And then Hurricane Hugo came a couple years later.
I have to go.
Okay.
- How close are you to that person?
Is she within six feet?
Stop the bus.
Stop the bus!
I'm here.
Miranda? Is that you?
Miranda Carroll.
Clark?
How-- how are you calling this phone?
- Listen, I wanted to tell you this directly.
Arthur died.
He--I'm so sorry.
He had a heart attack onstage tonight,
doing "Lear."
The--the publicist set up his calls to come to me,
apparently.
Uh, M-Miranda, I don't know how much you've been in touch.
I shouldn't have left.
Arthur.
- I think you should come to California and live with me.
No.
I really do have to go.
- Well, we can live in this house, then.
No.
Come on. Come back to bed.
Ten more minutes.
Miranda. Hi.
I, um, wanted to tell you
that I called those fucks at "The Daily Mail,"
and I told them that we were the ones having an affair.
What?
Oh.
You didn't see the article.
It's absurd. I mean, he's--
he's not even my type.
I'm sorry.
I'm just dealing with a supply chain crisis.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, of course.
Okay, okay.
Um...
I just wanted to say that I would never do that.
Hey.
Not so great.
I found your phone.
It was laying on the grass. I left it there.
I'll come in for lunch.
You don't sleep?
No.
Do you know how to sleep?
I'm okay.
Leon called.
He wants to send me to Perth.
- My theory is that Leon doesn't exist.
You've met him.
Yeah.
I met him.
- You went away for four months to make that movie.
But I came back.
But even when you're here,
you're not here.
You're always locked up in that little room,
all by yourself,
working on things that nobody is allowed to see.
- No one can see because I'm not--
I'm not done.
- I just--I don't think you're gonna finish!
I don't want to live the wrong life and then die!
Ah!
My father is the exact same way.
You know, flying first class--
he demands it.
And it's weird,
because he used to be a member of the Communist Party.
- No! - Yes! Right?
- Tell them.
- That's--that's the irony.
True artists get free passes.
- He is a nice man. - Oh, well, he didn't--
you're not saying he's not nice, right?
- He's not nice. - Oh, he's not nice?
- No. - Oh, no.
- I mean, yes--
- How's your project going, Miranda?
When will it be finished?
Uh, soon.
- I'm assuming you'll publish when it's done?
No. No. Probably not.
- What's the point of doing all that work
if no one's going to see it?
It makes me happy.
It's peaceful,
spending hours working on it.
It doesn't really matter if anyone--
- Don't die without seeing Fiji.
- See what? - Oh.
We just went. It was incredible.
We smoked, surfed, swam.
Stunning energies.
Everything changed.
Ah, sounds tremendous.
- No, more. It was a...rebirth.
- Mm-hmm. But, I mean...
you seem to get reborn almost every time you leave the house.
Miranda, does that happen to you?
Oh, I'm trying.
Was Fiji better than Prague?
Yes!
Everyone, you all must visit Praha.
- You know when you speak English,
you're allowed to call it Prague.
- Hey, Clark. - Prague.
Be nice.
I apologize.
Who--who are you again?
- I'm Clark. I'm an old friend of Arthur's.
- Clark is my friend, too.
- Well, I once also aspired to be an actor.
We were Rosencrantz and Guildenstern together
back in the '90s.
But alas, I wasn't good enough in the end.
- Nah, you were good. - You say that now.
But, you know,
the kind thing is he--
he lets me visit.
Hey, babe, it's okay.
I used to say "Preg," like the tomato sauce.
- He did.
It's Prego.
Oh. Oh, thank you. Prego.
Anytime.
I went. Um...
I took some art history classes at UCLA,
and I just-- I wanted to, you know,
see the paintings that I'd been reading about.
Being there was like--
I don't even know how to--
It was like...
being inside the paintings.
You know?
Which is a random fantasy that I had as a kid.
Stupid.
- I don't think it's stupid at all.
- Have you guys seen Miranda's work?
I mean, I'm just an admirer,
but I told Art I think you are a genius.
You told who?
Art.
Arthur. Arthur. Your husband.
He, um--he took them to the pool house and let me see it.
You guys, it is incredible.
It's about this spaceman.
Well, no, it's not about that. It's about--
it's about someone who survives a tragedy
and how they feel so alienated
from, you know, all the day-to-day stuff.
And it's--it's just really profound.
- Love will try to see the words before it's finished.
I have a toast.
No. Miranda. No.
No.
- I stood looking over the damage,
trying to remember the sweetness of life on Earth.
I was late.
Or you were early.
Either one. Same mission.
Burn every parasite motherfucker alive.
Oh!
- Is--is that a quote?
I wrote that.
You did?
- Yeah.
I played two parts in that movie. No?
I played Orion's soldier me and, like, an alien me.
- Possessed by an alien you. - Mm-hmm.
- Yeah, we used to run lines together.
Remember, Clark?
We did, Arthur.
Sorry. Excuse me.
- I think I died, like, two times in that movie.
- Really? - Yes. Yes.
Technically three.
I miss cocaine.
When did it start?
With Elizabeth?
I don't know.
He must have gotten scared.
That's usually what happens when he falls in love.
- Scared of what?
Fuck knows.
"Epsilon" didn't do as well as "Delta."
He lost that part to Mel Gibson.
It's just work.
It's the thing you do. It's not life.
- I think that book ruined my life.
- I thought you hadn't seen any of my movies.
We don't have to talk.
- You know, Elizabeth and I, we've never--
I don't care who you fuck.
We both knew this was temporary.
I didn't.
Pool house is on fire.
To be loved is a calamity for someone with your job.
You have work to do.
Work.
Love will try to see the words before it's finished.
Love makes work impossible.
Survival is insufficient.
I don't want to live the wrong life and then die.
I am at my best when I'm escaping.
You started over.
Tyler would love this.
My son.
With Elizabeth.
Yeah.
Send him that one.
I have more.
Really good to see you.
W-where is the bar?
- Hey, Carroll. How was that Christmas party?
There wasn't one.
- Well, you can get ready to call me Santa Claus, then,
because our pitch is back on.
The Chinese are in play.
I heard Huang tried to get out on a hydrofoil, but it broke.
The, um--
I don't know, the-- the foil part, I guess.
Anyway, the Bodhisattva Room is a packed house,
and they are ready to make a deal.
Everything like it was.
Everything exactly like it was.
So...
let's go land this.
Okay.
- Yeah, we're up in six minutes.
Could I get a Boilermaker, please?
Make it two.
Air and sea unite.
You all seem to know that the world is coming to an end.
So...
it's a good reminder
that nothing we have done
or do matters at all.
But it does.
It does.
The man I loved...
died last night,
and--
The man I loved
died last night, and I went to work.
The man I loved died last night,
and I went to work instead.
And I'm here with you and you and--
You don't matter at all, Mr. Huang.
Your company is falling into the sea.
So I have to ask...
Why wasn't I at that play?
Why I wasn't I with my love when he died?
Jim.
- When mankind first looked up to the stars, mankind thought:
nonlinear delivery options--
what are those things?
That was some intense stuff in there, Carroll.
We're all gonna die, huh?
I think so, Jim.
I'm sorry.
I don't even know if you have family back home.
I do not.
I do not. Do not. Not. Not. I do not.
I don't either.
- You know, it makes me want to unpack
some of my self-esteem baggage big-time before we--
I went golfing because I thought
that's what a person would do.
I know.
I'm so scared.
- I'm scared, too, Jim.
- Really?
Yeah.
- I heard they're giving out complimentary room-sealing kits
- at the front desk. - Yeah, we should go get some.
Yeah.
Probably going like hotcakes.
- Leon?
Hey. It's me.
Sorry it took so long to call you back.
- Did you get there? - Yeah.
I'm on board the "Robespierre."
I knew you were a survivor.
You got me here.
Okay. Okay.
Okay.
I'm safe.
Really good to see you.
Stay.
Huh?
Let's have dinner.
- There's this Italian restaurant
that's across the street.
I know the guy. He's very--he's very funny.
Arthur, I'd miss my flight.
Okay.
- But I--
I can come back.
Yes.
Bye.
I have a job to do.
I still have a job to do.
I have found you nine times before,
maybe ten,
and I'll find you again.
There is no rescue mission.
We are safe.