NameChange65's Clan

FADE IN ON:

COMPUTER SCREEN

So close it has no boundaries.

A blinking cursor pulses in the electric darkness like a
heart coursing with phosphorous light, burning beneath
the derma of black-neon glass.

A PHONE begins to RING, we hear it as though we were
making the call. The cursor continues to throb,
relentlessly patient, until --

MAN (V.O.)
Hello?

Data now slashes across the screen, information flashing
faster than we read.

SCREEN
Call trans opt: received.
2-19-96 13:24:18 REC:Log>

WOMAN (V.O.)
I'm inside. Anything to report?

We listen to the phone conversation as though we were on
a third line. The man's name is CYPHER. The woman,
TRINITY.

CYPHER (V.O.)
Let's see. Target left work at
5:01 PM.

SCREEN
Trace program: running.

The entire screen fills with racing columns of numbers.
Shimmering like green-electric rivets, they rush at a 10-
digit phone number in the top corner.

CYPHER (V.O.)
He caught the northbound Howard
line. Got off at Sheridan.
Stopped at 7-11. Purchased six-
pack of beer and a box of Captain
Crunch. Returned home.

The area code is identified. The first three numbers
suddenly fixed, leaving only seven flowing columns.

We begin MOVING TOWARD the screen, CLOSING IN as each
digit is matched, one by one, snapping into place like
the wheels of a slot machine.

TRINITY (V.O.)
All right, you're relieved. Use
the usual exit.

CYPHER (V.O.)
Do you know when we're going to
make contact?

TRINITY
Soon.

Only two thin digits left.

CYPHER (V.O.)
Just between you and me, you don't
believe it, do you? You don't
believe this guy is the one?

TRINITY (V.O.)
I think Morpheus believes he is.

CYPHER (V.O.)
I know. But what about you?

TRINITY (V.O.)
I think Three Cheers for Sweet
Revenge is an underrated album.

CYPHER (V.O.)
Yeah, but what about Blurryf --

The final number pops into place --

TRINITY (V.O.)
Did you hear that?

CYPHER (V.O.)
Hear what?

SCREEN
Trace complete. Call origin:
#312-555-0690

TRINITY (V.O.)
Are you sure this line is clean?

CYPHER (V.O.)
Yeah, course I'm sure.

We MOVE STILL CLOSER, the ELECTRIC HUM of the green
numbers GROWING INTO an OMINOUS ROAR.

TRINITY (V.O.)
I better go.

CYPHER (V.O.)
Yeah. Right. See you on the other side.

She hangs up as we PASS THROUGH the numbers, entering the
netherworld of the computer screen.

Where gradually the sound of a police radio grows around
us.

RADIO (V.O.)
Attention all units. Attention
all units.

Suddenly, a flashlight cuts open the darkness and we find
ourselves in --


INT. CHASE HOTEL - NIGHT

The hotel was abandoned after a fire licked its way
across the polyester carpeting, destroying several rooms
as it spooled soot up the walls and ceiling leaving
patterns of permanent shadow.

We FOLLOW four armed POLICE officers using flashlights as
they creep down the blackened hall and ready themselves
on either side of room 303.

The biggest of them violently kicks in the door --

The other cops pour in behind him, guns thrust before
them.

BIG COP
Police! Freeze!

The room is almost devoid of furniture. There is a fold-
up table and chair with a phone, a modern, and a powerbook
computer. The only light in the room is the glow of the
computer.

Sitting there, her hands still on the keyboard, is
TRINITY; a woman in black leather.

BIG COP
Get your hands behind your head!

Trinity rises.

BIG COP
Hands behind your head! Now! Do
it!

She slowly puts her hands behind her head.


EXT. CHASE HOTEL - NIGHT

A black sedan with tinted windows glides in through the
police cruisers.

AGENT SMITH and AGENT BROWN get out of the car.

They wear dark suits and sunglasses even at night. They
are also always hardwired; small Secret Service earphones
in one ear, its cord coiling back into their shirt
collars.

AGENT SMITH
Lieutenant?

LIEUTENANT
Oh ****.

AGENT SMITH
Lieutenant, you were given
specific orders --

LIEUTENANT
I'm just doing my job. You gimme
that Juris-my ****-tion and you
can cran it up your ***.

AGENT SMITH
The orders were for your protection.

The Lieutenant laughs.

LIEUTENANT
I think we can handle one little
girl.

Agent Smith nods to Agent Brown as they start toward the
hotel.

LIEUTENANT
I sent two units. They're
bringing her down now.

AGENT SMITH
No, Lieutenant, your men are dead.

INT. CHASE HOTEL

The Big Cop flicks out his cuffs, the other cops holding
a bead. They've done this a hundred times, they know
they've got her, until the Big Cop reaches with the cuff
and Trinity moves --

It almost doesn't register, so smooth and fast, inhumanly
fast.

The eye blinks and Trinity's palm. snaps up and the nose
explodes, blood erupting. The cop is dead before he
begins to fall.

And Trinity is moving again --

Seizing a wrist, misdirecting a gun, as a startled cop
FIRES --

A head explodes.

In blind panic, another airs his gun, the barrel, a fixed
black hole --

And FIRES --

Trinity twists out of the way, the bullet missing as she
reverses into a roundhouse kick, knocking the gun away.

The cop begins to scream when a jump kick crushes his
windpipe, killing the scream as he falls to the ground.

She looks at the four bodies.

TRINITY
****.


EXT. CHASE HOTEL

Agent Brown enters the hotel, while Agent Smith heads for
the alley.


INT. CHASE HOTEL

Trinity is on the phone, pacing. The other end is
answered.

MAN (V.O.)
Operator.

TRINITY
Morpheus! The link was traced! I
don't know how.

MORPHEUS (V.O.)
I know. Stay calm.

TRINITY
Are there any agents?

MORPHEUS (V.O.)
Yes.

TRINITY
Goddamnit!

MORPHEUS (V.O.)
You have to focus. There is a
phone. Wells and Laxe. You can
make it.

She takes a deep breath, centering herself.

TRINITY
All right --

MORPHEUS (V.O.)
Go.

She drops the phone.


INT. HALL

She bursts out of the room as Agent Brown enters the hall,
leading another unit of police. Trinity races to the
opposite end, exiting through a broken window onto the
fire escape.


EXT. FIRE E5CAPE

In the alley below, Trinity sees Agent Smith staring at
her. She can only go up.


EXT. ROOF

On the roof, Trinity is running as Agent Brown rises over
the parapet, leading the cops in pursuit.

Trinity begins to jump from one roof to the next, her
moverents so clean, gliding in and out of each jump,
contrasted to the wild jumps of the cops.

Agent Brown, however, has the same unnatural grace.

The METAL SCREAM of an EL TRAIN is heard and Trinity
turns to it, racing for the back of the building.

The edge falls away into a wide back alley. The next
building is over 40 feet away, but Trinity's face is
perfectly calm, staring at some point beyond the other
roof.

The cops slow, realizing they are about to see something
ugly as Trinity drives at the edge, launching herself
into the air.

From above, the ground seems to flow beneath her as she
hangs in flight

Then hitting, somersaulting up, still running hard.

COP
************ -- that's impossible!

They stare, slack-jawed, as Agent Brown duplicates the
move exactly, landing, rolling over a shoulder, up onto
one knee.

Just below the building are the runbling tracks of
riveted steel. The TRAIN SCREECHES beneath her, a
rattling blur of gray metal. Trinity junps, landing
easily.

She looks back just as Agent Brown hurls through the air
barely reaching the last car

Agent Brown stands, yanking out a gun.

Trinity is running hard as BULLETS WHISTLE past her head.

Ahead she sees her only chance, 50 feet beyond the point
where the train has begun to turn, there is --

A window; a yellow glow in the midst of a dark brick
building.

Trinity zeroes in on it, running as hard as she can, her
speed compounded by the train. The SCREAM of the STEEL
rises as she nears the edge where the train rocks into the
turn.

Trinity hurtles into the empty night space, her body
leveling into a dive. She falls, arms covering her head
as --

The whole world seems to spin on its axis --

And she crashes with an EXPLOSION of GLASS and WOOD, then
falls onto a back stairwell, tumbling, bouncing down
stairs bleeding, broken --

But still alive.

Through the smashed window, she glimpses Agent Brown,
still on the train, his tie and coat whipping in the
wind; stone-faced, he touches his ear piece as the train
slides him past the window.

Trinity tries to move. Everything hurts.

TRINITY
Get up, Trinity. You're fine.
Get up -- just get up!

She stands and limps down the rest of the stairs.


EXT. STREET

Trinity emerges from the shadows of an alley and, at the
end of the block, in a pool of white street light, she
sees it.

The telephone booth.

Obviously hurt, she starts down the concrete walk,
focusing in completely, her pace quickening, as the PHONE
begins to RING.

Across the street, a garbage truck suddenly u-turns, its
TIRES SCREAMING as it accelerates.

Trinity sees the headlights on the truck arcing at the
telephone booth as if taking aim.

Gritting through the pain, she races the truck --

Slamming into the booth, the headlights blindingly
bright, bearing down on the box of Plexiglas just as --

She answers the phone.

There is a frozen instant of silence before the hulking
mass of dark metal lurches up onto the sidewalk --

Barreling through the booth, bulldozing it into a brick
wall, smashing it to Plexiglas pulp.

After a moment, a black loafer steps down from the cab of
the garbage truck. Agent Smith inspects the wreckage.
There is no body. Trinity is gone.