Movie Movie Podcast

Welp. Another week and I have nothing for this weeks #FMF. So…. here’s another title I have written down in an old notebook:

The Computer Whisperer

Let’s make this quick because this idea does’t deserve much space…(Spoiler: it’s so fucking long still)

Gale, played by Rhona Mitra, is a single mom working the night shift at the hospital. Her 12 year old son, Daren, played by Jared Gilman, is a loner and a nerd. He’s built his own computer and he is on it all the time. When Gale is leaving for work Daren is working on his computer. At the end of her shift, Jared will be asleep at the keyboard.

We see this happen a few times, until one day Daren’s computer starts to bug out. The system won’t load correctly, something smells weird when they turn it on, it sounds like an old CD player would when it couldn’t read the disc, there is a blue screen at the start up IF it made it that far. Daren tries but cannot fix it.

One weekend Gale and Daren head to the local Techland to bring the computer in for repair. The owner, Jerry, played by Robert Redford (or if he’s not available Hank Azaria) doesn’t know what to do with this highly custom machine but recommends they wait for Peter, played by Oscar Isaac, who is the best of the best.

So they do. Peter’s methods are a little more unconventional. He talks to the machine, opens it up and asks it questions and then responds back as though the computer had talked to him. He’ll run things in terminal on a black screen with green text because that’s how it needs to look now a days, and will sit and stare at the computer typing seemingly gibberish. There is some kind of time passing montage, Daren and Gale look worried, Peter is sweating working hard trying to fix everything. In the end of course he does. Peter compliments Daren on his handiwork at building the computer, Daren asks Peter to teach him how he was able to fix it all. Peter tells him that it took him a long time to learn everything he did. Gale goes to pay and Peter tells her there is no charge and it was a joy to work on such a unique system. Gale then invites Peter over for dinner. Peter accepts.

Over the next few months Gale, Daren and Peter all become very close to one another. Peter is teaching Daren about computers, and Gale couldn’t be happier for her son. She has become enamored with Peter and doesn’t know what she would do without him. When she comes in from the late shift Daren is still there asleep at the keyboard and Peter is sleeping on the couch.

Then one day Gale comes home from work and Peter, Daren and Daren’s computer are gone. Gale calls the school but they say that Daren’s father called up and said that he wouldn’t be coming in today because of a doctors appointment. Gale calls the neighbors asks if they had seen anything, but no one has any idea what has happened. She calls the cops who start a search immediately. They go to Techland but it looks decimated and ransacked. The owner, Jerry, is dead on the floor along with a number of other employees and customers.

Gun shots soar through the air hitting a number of officers. The ones remaining fire back blindly. More shots are fired. When the shots have seised the officers ask if Peter is there, if Daren is alright, if anyone is there. The only thing they hear are old modem noises. SWAT teams and such try to flank the store, but somehow every entrance is covered and there is no way to penetrate the defenses of the store. The officers try to communicate again and Peter answers them.

“How do you like my set up?”
“Do you have the boy, Peter?”
“I built it all myself.”
“Daren, Peter. Where is Daren?”
“Daren? He’s doing great. He’s here with me right now. Say hi to everyone, Daren.”
“Hello, Officer! Hi mom! I can see you. You should probably stay out of the store if you want to live.”
“Peter let the boy go.”
“I’m not the one keeping him here. He wants to be here. I am protecting him from you.”
“You said you wouldn’t let these creeps come after me, Peter.”
“They aren’t, don’t worry. They could never get close enough.”
“Daren what do you want?”
“I don’t want anything. I’ve got all I need here.”
They keep him talking and more officers start to enter the store. As they make there way through the debris they come to where all fo the chatter is coming from. It’s Daren’s computer.

“Oh you didn’t think I’d let young Daren see all of this horrid violence, did you? That kind of thing could rot a child’s mind.”

: Menacing laugh :

We then cut to a car with both Daren and Peter, who have a cell phone open and are talking into it continuing on the conversation. The car is full of computer parts they ripped off from the store during their rampage.

“We’re both doing fine, in case you wanted to know.”

Gale starts to scream, “What are you doing with my son!? Where are you taking him? You sick fuck, we let you into our lives and this is what you do to us?”

“Hey, Gale, listen, it’s not you. It’s me. Really. I wanted this to work, but you just weren’t around enough. You were going to be a part of this, Daren and I have been talking about this for a while now. When was the last time you actually asked him how his day was? Or what he learned in school? Actually, don’t answer that. Just think about it for a while. A long while. Don’t worry. We’ll be back. Don’t call me, we’ll call you.” The phone hangs up.

Daren and Peter drive off, the police clean up and Gale cries on the sidewalk.

The moral of the story is: don’t trust people who talk to computers, no matter how nice they seem, because they are probably fucking insane.

(Just so everyone knows this originally ended with Peter walking out of the back with his hands raised allowing Daren to shoot and kill Gale, The End, Smiley Face but that ending didn’t make any sense either)

I really need to start thinking about these before hand…