Hello, Tyler.
We premiere in three days.
Midsummer.
We've decided on the atrium for the wagons in case of rain.
Clark seems...
okay with the Symphony being here.
I don't think you ever saw me this excited.
You saw me as the bad guy.
Shitty German soaps.
Ah, I wish you were here.
[soft piano music]
Hm.
♪ ♪
[sighs]
See you tomorrow.
[somber instrumental music]
♪ ♪
"Station Eleven" was printed
at Zalinski's Print and Copy Stop
in Chicago, Illinois on November 28, 2020.
- Only five... - What's your source on that?
Miranda telling Arthur.
Only five copies were published.
- It is the story-- - Self-published?
[gasps, pants]
[birds chirping]
[murmurs] Okay.
[moody music]
♪ ♪
[burps] Ah.
Oh.
[dark music]
♪ ♪
[horse neighs]
Hey, Luli.
- You named your horse Luli? - Uhk!
[bird caws]
- I led her for three days while you were draped over her.
I didn't know what to call her.
That's my book.
I know.
It's been a while.
What happened?
- You killed all those bandanas.
But... [sighs]
they got you with that dirty chemistry, Kolokol-1.
People say their poison makes you see ghosts.
What'd you dream about?
The First Hundred.
[moody music]
♪ ♪
Cody died.
I saw.
I'm sorry.
You guys were together a long time.
There's no before.
- Where are the rest of the Undersea?
- Close. They'll come if I light the torch.
Why are you helping me?
- "You're going to die, and I can't stop it."
"Isn't it that everyone?"
I burned my copy when I left here.
I remember the words pretty good.
Not everything, but most of it.
Forgot some parts.
- Why are you so sure the people who live here
aren't gonna recognize you?
They don't wanna remember me.
They think I'm dead.
♪ ♪
- Is someone coming up behind me right now?
Yep.
- Do we let him? - You tell me.
- [gun cocks] - Hands up.
Who are you?
- We're from the Traveling Symphony.
We're just actors.
- I don't think I've ever said this out loud...
[pastoral flute music]
But I have always felt like a failure.
Every room I've walked into, I felt hated.
And I know it's wrong and I know it's not true,
but...I feel it.
I feel it,
and I accept it.
Hello all.
Clark again.
Hm?
- Hi. - Say hi, kids.
all: Hi, Mr. Thompson
- The object from the museum this week is a karaoke machine.
Now, kids just like yourselves would get bored
looking for fun on Friday night.
Eh? And, um...
["All Star" by Smash Mouth plays]
You can pick any song you want
and perform it for your friends.
- The Traveling Symphony can do that.
[kids giggle]
No, well, not like this.
- Yes. - Ms. Colton, is it true
you used to be an actor?
Uh, yes, I was.
[music stops] And guess who else was?
- Mr. Thompson. - Mm-hmm.
And a very good actor
and also a violinist.
When is the play?
Premiere is midsummer's eve,
and the workshop with the actors will be the next day.
- As long as they clear quarantine protocol.
We can't let the sick enter our community.
Huh? We can't risk infection!
[music plays loudly] If anybody is interested
in the karaoke machine... [music stops]
It'll be in the museum.
- Okay, kids. Miles is on his way
for electrical engineering class.
[indistinct announcement on PA]
- Clark. - Midsummer's eve.
Why can't you just say June the 21st?
Fuck's sake, Clark.
Nobody's sick out there anymore.
Why do you have to scare children?
It actually keeps them calm.
- [laughing] It doesn't keep them calm.
- [walkie-talkie beeps] - Walking them in now.
- What's that? - Nothing.
Miles found a couple of people in the woods past the fence.
- What? - They're just more actors,
and we're bringing them to quarantine right now.
- No, you're not. That sounds like a con.
It's also not how we do things.
- Clark, it is a different time.
- You heard those kids-- - This is not what we agreed.
I let you get what you want with this theater troupe,
but I will not allow it to become a distraction
that puts our people in danger.
- Our people want to open the doors.
Give me!
Miles? [static]
- Miles! - Clark?
- Bring them straight to the tower.
I'll interrogate them myself.
[classical music]
- You're a crazy old man. - Uh-huh.
♪ ♪
Alex, I'm coming down.
I have something I think you might like.
- Okay. We're still rehearsing.
We have questions about The Mousetrap.
- Severn City Airport is honored to welcome
the Traveling Symphony for a summer solstice performance
of "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare.
[classical music playing]
♪ ♪
[door opens and closes]
- Hello. Come.
Um...
I'm Clark Thompson.
Welcome to the Museum of Civilization.
- I'm Kirsten from the Traveling Symphony.
- Ah. Kirsten.
- Mm-hmm. - Welcome.
Welcome, welcome. And now,
let me look at you, my God.
Real, professional actors.
[chuckles]
Kirsten. Now yes,
now I know your story.
Scary stuff.
Got separated at the golf course.
Pingtree, is it? We don't get out much.
And then the bombing.
- It was really, really scary, yeah.
- Thank God you found us. - Yeah.
We're just so glad you're okay.
Your, um... your troupe is doing well.
- Mm. - A few days into quarantine.
We quarantine here.
It's part of our success,
along with the isolated woods, the, um,
electric fences-- ah.
- And the cameras. - [chuckles]
- I told her these woods were dangerous.
And who are you?
[uneasy music]
♪ ♪
Lonagan.
- "What hath you done with the body, dear Lord?"
[uneasy music continues]
♪ ♪
- "Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis kin."
[chuckles]
Yeah, everybody knows "Hamlet" though.
- Yeah, but it's just so good, you know?
Reading it, it's like being inside a different world.
I don't know, stupid probably.
I don't think it's stupid.
These identity verifications are usually so tedious,
but this one is a delight.
Real actors, Miles, huh?
I think they could just do a scene.
Sometimes we have visitors.
They lie to try to get in, so we, uh,
check them out.
- Smart. - So, one scene.
Whatever you like.
Then we'll know you are who you say you are.
- The old one with the spaceship.
[eerie off-key music]
♪ ♪
What happened?
We made it to orbit.
You were in regenerostasis for 12 1/2 days.
You never sleep that long.
[grunts]
I'm still woozy.
Is that Earth?
Not anymore.
It was.
Did you watch my helmet's video feed?
- Yes. From your accident?
I didn't realize the gyroscope is fucked.
♪ ♪
- [mug slams] - Ah!
Ah!
[music intensifies]
♪ ♪
I stood looking over the damage,
trying to remember the sweetness of life on Earth...
But I couldn't remember.
Do you know what I remember?
You...
As a child.
From before.
- We don't even know if it's like it was before.
There is no before.
No after.
Only now.
I don't buy it.
The past is safe.
Everything else...changes.
[sweeping dramatic music]
♪ ♪
Wow!
Wow.
Wow, bravo, bravo.
Bravo!
- [whispering] Clark!
My friend. Ah, it's so good to see you!
- [laughs] - Hello.
Ahh.
Wh-- what?
I mean, you saw the rehearsal, right?
- Yeah. - How brutal was it?
- No, it's fine. It's fine.
- Fine. Yeah.
- [chuckles] - No, I mean, it's--
it's a solid production.
- Ah. - It's shaping up
to be something incredible.
How-- how far out are you again?
Three weeks.
- Well, you're in the shit then.
- Yeah. [laughs]
It means a lot to me for you to come.
You know Tyler is arriving tomorrow?
- [knock on door] - Oh, really?
- Yeah. Come in.
Kiki. Come.
Come, come, come. Say hi to my friend, Clark.
Hello.
- I'm Kirsten. Young Goneril.
- Ah, yes. - Kiki's my understudy.
- Ah. - Yeah.
She knows the whole play.
Really?
- Good night. - Good night.
- "My eldest born, speak first."
"Sir, I do love you more
than words can wield the matter."
- [chuckling] Wow. - [murmurs], eh?
Till tomorrow, okay?
Make magic... both: Every time.
- Tanya, the kid wrangler, says that her life is sad.
But you can't tell, right?
No.
- Do you remember that bar out by the Pancake House?
- From the night we met Miranda?
Yeah, of course-- my birthday.
- I gave you a banana. You have it?
- I do. - Yeah.
Come on, let's go there.
- I--I've been sober nine years.
You know that.
[Lisa Loeb's "Stay (I Missed You)"]
Yeah.
- You fucker. F--
I called you when I did the 12 steps.
- Of course. No, of course, of course.
You forget everything, mate.
♪ You say ♪
♪ I only hear what I want to ♪
♪ ♪
♪ You say ♪
♪ I talk so all the time ♪
♪ So ♪
♪ And I thought what I felt was simple ♪
♪ And I thought that I don't belong ♪
♪ And now that I am leaving ♪
♪ Now I know that I did something wrong ♪
♪ 'Cause I miss you ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah, I miss you ♪
S!
- Hi! - [squealing, laughing]
- Kirsten! - Oh, my God, no way!
- Oh, my God. - Hey, she came back!
[swelling classical music]
[laughter and chatter]
Oh, it's so good to see you.
[chatter continues]
♪ ♪
Hey, Vlad!
- I'm good, I'm safe. - She's back!
- [laughing] - [growls]
- I knew it. I knew it.
[sighs]
Where's Sarah?
- Uh... - What?
Sarah had a heart attack.
But, uh, you know, they say she's gonna recover.
They-- they have a facility here.
- She's fine. - Okay,
has anybody seen her?
- No. - No?
- No. They won't let us.
You guys.
Look around. That's--
that's barbed wire, okay?
We're locked up.
- It's kind of nice though, you know?
- We're safe. - Less travel.
- Okay. Just someone--
someone just say the plan.
To get Sarah.
We can't stay.
We--we-- you guys, it's not safe.
- Yes, it is. - No, Alex, it's not.
They're excited for us.
They've never seen a play.
- Oh, they've never seen a play?
- Never. We have to do the play.
- What did you say? - I said that we--
Well, you know, we made a commitment and...
Elizabeth's been directing us.
We direct ourselves.
- Why would we leave the nicest place we've ever been?
- Because they're holding Sarah hostage.
- No, they saved her. She would've died.
And quarantine it's--it's-- it's just what they do here.
- Okay! - Elizabeth said
that if we stay here,
then she'll give us houses.
And-- and look, we've got bathrooms.
- What they said was we could stay for the winter
until Sarah recovers.
And is that what you want?
- I haven't had a sewing machine, ever.
- Elizabeth got me one. - Right, yeah.
- Sorry, who the fuck is Elizabeth?
Elizabeth Colton.
- She was a movie star from before?
Yes, I know who she was.
- Hey, wasn't she married to Arthur Leander?
[cryptic music]
♪ ♪
Oh.
Holy fucking shit.
[grunting]
- Cut down those reeds and the trees
and, uh, open the doors.
Bring in the light.
- I just watched them do a scene.
- And? How were they?
Well, they're real.
- How was the man? - Uh...
he was more summer stock.
Kirsten, she's the star.
- Yes, that's what Alexandra said.
Yes. It's been so long
I forgot how powerful it can be.
- Mm. - Stage doesn't matter.
Costumes. Ha.
It's a problem.
- What is? - I listened to you.
And I agreed. I wanted the Traveling Symphony
to come to try something new,
and I'm admitting the museum isn't doing the job anymore.
But I assumed they'd be terrible or just lighter.
- It's fucking "Hamlet," Clark. - Yes.
And I've been reading it again for the read-a-long at school.
I never noticed how insolent Hamlet is
to the power structures.
The man insults the king.
Claudius kills his father.
- Yes, but he had his reasons. - [scoffs]
- Nobody ever tells the story from that point of view.
- Oh! - But Hamlet,
imagine if our teenagers felt that anger that clearly?
- Mm. - And it's--
it's--it's like heroin.
- Hm. What are you saying, Clark?
- I'm withdrawing my vote. They can't perform.
- You can't do that. Not now.
- Obviously, they can't be allowed to leave.
We'll have to keep them in custody.
They know how to get here. They could bring back others.
[dramatic organ music]
- Sweep better. - Ignore him.
Be honest about your anger.
We have work to do.
No, it's simple.
Hello, Sam, you fuck, did you slip Bill information
which you fucking overheard at the July session
regarding a crisis at the meeting without telling me?
Well, is the assistant on? Good!
Yeah. Go fuck yourself!
Uh-huh. All right, now you try it.
I--it's--sorry, it's confrontation therapy.
I'm a CEO whisperer.
- Uh, Mr. Leander told me you two used to party.
- I got eight balls. - Eh,
oh no, we're good, thanks.
Um...
eh, thank you for the food.
No, no--ex--excellent, Jack, excellent.
Nobody believes this,
but it's true.
Chicago--best food.
- [chuckles] [phone vibrates]
Come on, Arthur. Rome?
Mexico City?
It's Tim. Jeez.
He's almost as optimistic as you are.
- Tim? Who's Tim?
- [phone vibrates] - Tim, he's, uh--
I met him years ago.
We dated on and off, and then we moved in this year.
He's been good for me.
I'm happy for you.
You should have brought him over then.
- Been so long I thought maybe just us this time.
- Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
I heard you shouting before.
- Is everything okay? - Yeah, no, it's just work.
I'm a CEO whisperer.
Really a lot of CEOs these days are kind of the sensitive types
so they have to learn the alpha moves.
[laughs]
You were a violin player in a punk band when we met.
Yeah, your point?
Who cares about alpha moves?
The only thing you could do was to show people how you felt.
- I'm aware I've changed-- - And I respect that
so much more, Clark.
More than this whole chest-bumping macho attitude,
you know, like, why--
What about nice people?
Or quiet people? Or even better,
people who don't even think like that at all?
People who only make things for their own private reasons.
[chuckles]
Arthur, you like those people
because you dominate them from the start.
What does that mean?
- They don't push back against you
because you're a movie star.
Oh, come on, you're aware of that, yeah?
What, you think it's because they love you or--
or they're scared of you, but it's actually
because they don't care about you.
- Man! - Yeah.
- You're sounding like the paranoid old members
of the party that my father used to hang out with.
- What, fucking communists? - Yeah!
- No, I'm just saying people in the business world
are more honest.
- Oh, Clark, no! - Yes!
- No. - And I prefer it,
because nobody's pretending why they're there.
- Aye, no, come on, no. - What?
What? I'm not saying I respect
or like these Ruling Elite motherfuckers.
And I'm not saying I--
I don't love what we used to do.
Dressing up, telling stories, making magic.
'Cause that's what matters.
Making things.
Miranda knew that.
Always.
Yeah.
- And I don't mean making things
as in an art piece or music for the elites.
No, I mean, making things.
And in order for that something to be transcendent,
to hold up, it has to be great.
Hm.
So that's what you think you're doing with "Lear," huh?
Yeah? Making something great?
- No, I just think-- - Miranda didn't care
if what she was doing was great.
She didn't care if anyone ever even read it.
She had to do what she was doing.
- You didn't even know Miranda. - Miranda was my friend too!
And I lost her because you needed more attention.
Fucking Chicago.
- Clark? - Sorry.
I liked her.
"I'm at my best when I'm escaping."
She said those exact words to me by the pool that night
after she realized you were fucking your costar.
But I wasn't.
Everyone said. They all assumed.
But in the end? I didn't.
Miranda left me.
And she burned down my pool house.
She was tied to a boulder...
and getting pulled to the bottom of the sea.
And you?
You were sad she didn't like your heist movie.
Do you know what I really thought
watching you today on stage?
You're great.
You don't deserve to be, because you haven't earned it,
and you shouldn't be that great but...
you are.
And I'm not jealous.
I don't want to be you. I don't wanna be great.
I just miss...
friendships.
Yeah, me too.
[ethereal music]
- [whispering] Elizabeth.
There's something about him.
I--I felt it when I caught them out there.
I--I-- I can't shake it.
- You look like you've seen a ghost.
- But Elizabeth, I got to tell you something.
Clark doesn't know, but I had him locked up, Lonagan.
- Where is he? - Mountebanc has him locked up.
- You should go see him. - Why?
- Just go see him. - Miles, what?
You don't actually think it's Tyler?
Elizabeth, please.
My son is dead.
I--
I'll--I'll deal with it after the play.
[sighs] We have a lot going on.
[monitors beeping, oxygen hissing]
["Beautiful Dreamer" played on ukulele]
- Probably time to let her people visit.
After the play.
♪ ♪
That scene today was good.
- I'm changing my mind on the theater.
Elizabeth said.
- I ran into her. - Oh.
[plucking "Ave Maria" on ukulele]
♪ ♪
Do people like me anymore?
People love you.
People know you saved them.
On with it.
["Ave Maria" continues]
♪ ♪
- You built something great here.
You guided us through an impossible time.
- Then why do I feel so terrible?
Morning.
[door closes]
Morning.
It's afternoon.
- Yeah? Is there coffee?
- I think you should go, man. Now.
- Oh. You're trying to get rid of me
before Tyler gets here.
You know, I thought it would've been nice
to get to know the boy finally.
But you abandoned me.
I feel fucking sorry for Tyler having you as a father.
Eh,
sorry.
- It's fine. Come in, Clark.
Come say hi.
- I--I didn't realize you were already here.
We landed at noon.
Tyler,
say hi to your Uncle Clark.
He had what's called a "bender" last night.
Nice to meet you, Tyler.
He's my uncle?
- Well, he and your dad used to be friends.
No, we're friends.
We still are.
- And now it's a different time.
What's different?
[grumbles]
We're old as shit.
[end notes of "Ave Maria']
[unidentified thwapping]
[birds cawing]
[someone snores]
[tense music]
♪ ♪
[rope whirs]
- [knife unsheathes] - Ah!
Oh.
I found your friend.
I used to use the jetways to get around.
You can get anywhere in the airport.
I guess there is a Before.
- Come on. Your friend's back here.
[dark music]
♪ ♪
You're almost there.
[whispering] Just go that way.
You'll see a light.
- What are you doing? - Something else.
I'll meet you back at the jetway.
I'll wait. Go.
- Sarah! Sarah.
Sarah.
[monitors beeping, oxygen hissing]
Sarah, hi.
I'm gonna get you out of here, okay?
I just have to-- to find a way around.
- [muffled] Why are you in the ceiling?
- Huh? - Why--
why are you in the ceiling?
- They're holding you to get the troupe to perform.
This place, it's not safe.
We have to go.
So where would I go?
With us.
19 times around the lake,
and I thought I was gonna make it 20 but...
my bones is cold.
- But...I mean, you'll heal.
My heart's broken.
Go.
Say goodbye.
You got to get better at that.
And don't--don't...
tell them that I'm dead until after.
[melancholy music]
After what?
The play.
The play's the thing.
[tearfully] Okay.
♪ ♪
Nothing's gone.
Nothing's ever gone.
I saw her.
Thank you.
Okay.
The jetway that takes you back to the quarantine is that way.
This one leads outside.
Look, I told you,
no one leaves this place alive.
The Before--
it's coming back.
I won't let it.
Goodbye.
[door thudding]
[grunts]
[soft dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[grunts]
[soft thud]
Outside of the fence.
Elizabeth...
are you still awake?
[insects chirp]
[bird coos]
[moody music]
♪ ♪
- [Zippo flicks] - Of course he took credit.
Clark used to take over with his lies.
Who are they?
- All the people who died out there.
Gitchegumee Air, Flight 452.
They landed the same day as us.
A few hours later.
They didn't let them off though.
They were sick.
We were inside.
Nice and safe.
- [over walkie-talkie] But it's time
for Tyler and Elizabeth to go.
So you ran away.
And you let everyone believe that you died.
And when you were alone...
You thought about "Station Eleven."
- What happened to you in the First Hundred?
I was in Chicago.
I was lucky for a kid.
I had a grownup who cared about me.
Right before the Flu, I was in a play...
With Arthur Leander.
I knew him.
[eerie music]
I loved him, actually.
He was kind to me.
He talked about his son a lot.
We were supposed to meet at the premiere.
But then, uh,
they were late.
♪ ♪
Arthur gave me "Station Eleven."
And when I read it,
it didn't matter that the world was ending.
Because it was the world.
Tyler...
You didn't come back here for that.
Then why did I come back?
Because they didn't die.
They're all still alive.
You left.
- I remember being locked up for trying to help someone.
I remember that they failed.
I remember damage...
Then escape...
Then adrift...
in a stranger's galaxy for a long, long time.
But I'm safe now.
I found it again.
There is a Before.
It was just awful.
I release you from the Undersea.
[Bill Callahan's "One Fine Morning"]
♪ ♪
♪ One fine morning ♪
♪ I'm gonna ride out ♪
♪ Yeah, one fine morning ♪
♪ I'm gonna ride out ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Just me and the skeleton...♪
- "So I stood looking over the damage."
"I was late.
You were early."
♪ In a country kind of ♪
♪ Silence ♪
♪ ♪
♪ We're gonna ride out ♪
♪ In a country ♪
♪ Silence ♪
- Fuck. Ah, fuck.
[pants] Fuck.
♪ Yeah, one fine morning ♪
Yeah, it's all coming back to me now.
My apocalypse.
[eerie offkey notes]
♪ ♪
♪ The curtain rose ♪
[mouthing]
♪ And burned ♪
♪ In the morning sun ♪
♪ Yeah, the curtain rose ♪
♪ And burned ♪
[device beeping]
♪ In the morning sun ♪
- Tyler? - ♪ And the mountain ♪
♪ ♪
♪ And the mountain ♪
♪ Bowed down ♪
♪ In the morning sun ♪
My apocalypse.
♪ ♪
Say something.
- What's happening? - Fuck you!
Clark.
- This is all your fault! You brought it back!
You brought everything back!
Tyler?
Tyler.
Thank God you're alive.
I don't know you or you.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
Fuck you.
You could have spared your mother 20 years of pain!
- Clark, stop talking. - No.
Why have you come back? Why do this to her?
I'm not doing this to her.
[music swells]
♪ ♪
[device beeps]
- [explosion booms] - [gasps]
[explosions continue booming]
No!
[a cappella version of Schubert's "Ave Maria"]
No! The museum!
No!
[birds caw]
♪ ♪
♪ Ave ♪
♪ Maria...♪
I'll take care of him.
- He came back. - He came back.
♪ Maria gratia plena...♪
Okay, so what does happen?
- The story ends before you find out.
- Hold on. What's your argument?
Not what they think. Not what the author thought.
- What do you think? - Are you mad at me?
- No. You're just not done.
♪ Ave dominus ♪
♪ Dominus tecum ♪
♪ Benedicta tu ♪
♪ In mulieribus ♪
♪ Et bene ♪
♪ Dictus ♪
♪ Et benedictus ♪
♪ Fructus ventris ♪
♪ Ventris tui ♪
♪ Jesus ♪
♪ Ave ♪
♪ Maria ♪
[chorus harmonizing]
♪ Do do do do do ♪
♪ Do ♪