(Wind whistling)
- (Bryan): How long does it take
to drive from Kansas to New York?
- (Vincent): Uh, 2 days?
- You wanna do this in 16 milliseconds?
- Yeah, but round trip.
- You know, we're talking about a lot of money here, Vincent.
- I know.
. Why me?
Why didn't you go to Eva Torres?
- Eva Torres?
Eva Torres uses human beings like disposable assets.
And I heard that you once bought 200 tower cranes
for $1 million a pop
after a 15-minute interview with some guy
who was desperate for cash.
Is that right?
- They were worth a million, but I got 'em for 500.
- Well, whatever it is,
it tells me you're a man of your word,
and I have a lot of respect for that, sir.
- These numbers are good.
And I am very tempted.
It's nuts, but I am very tempted.
- But?
- Why should I trust you
to build this fiber tunnel?
- You don't need to trust me!
This is like buying a time machine.
It's like getting the winning lottery numbers
at the stock market even before they're drawn.
- No.
- What?
- Why should I trust you?
(Boat horn blaring)
(Chuckling)
- All right.
Uh, this is gonna sound stupid,
but, uh, all right, whatever.
Um...
When I was 18, I worked as a plumber's assistant,
you know, to pay for school.
And my boss takes me to this basement in Queens.
I mean, I could smell the fungus.
And he asked me to unscrew this, like, 100-pound steel pipe.
You know, he's sipping coffee in the corner of the room
while he asked me to unscrew this massive thing by myself,
you know, for minimum wage, OK?
And the pipe comes loose.
It hits me in the head, and I'm knocked unconscious.
I swear to God, all right? And...
(Chuckling)
I 0P9" my eyes.
And hovering above me is this shadow, OK,
and it's, like, this weird man.
And he's saying...
He says: "The line.
"The line. Don't let go of the line."
OK, then I get slapped in the face,
and that's just my dumb boss, you know, over me.
But that message is, like, imprinted in my brain.
- That's a good story, Vincent.
- Mm-hmm.
- A little over the top.
- Yeah.
- But it's good.
- Thank you.
But I just know
that until I build this one quintessential line,
I'm not gonna know the answer.
- What answer?
- What's at the end of the line.
- (Man): The Wall Street panic, in my opinion, is over.
It had to come.
Stock speculation had become crazy.
- (Woman): There have been dozens of stock-market crashes
since the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
Although most brokers tend to have a short memory,
it was bound to happen again.
Last week, after Standard & Poor's downgraded
America's credit rating from AAA to AA+,
the markets plunged across the planet
from the US to the Middle East, all the way to Asia.
The speed of transactions has become
such an important variable in the market economy,
that faster algorithms can make millions
in a matter of milliseconds
or can crash entire markets
by triggering mass defensive responses
from automated computer systems.
According to Marks, the word on the street
is that millions are now calculated in milliseconds.
The ripple effect was felt all over the world...
(Woman continues talking, indistinct)
(Alert beeping)
- Oh, shit!
(Beepiflg)
- Hey!
- You don't lock your station,
you don't own your station!
- Fuck off! - It's too late!
I owed you that one.
- What the fuck did you do?
I'm gonna fuck you up!
(Alert beeping)
(Bells jingling)
- Mark!
- Hey, how are you?
- Hi! Come on. How you doing?
- Good, you?
- Vincent. My cousin, Anton.
- Hi. - Nice to meet you.
- You OK? Did you eat? Are you hungry?
- No, I'm fine. Thank you.
- So, did you bring the NDA?
- It is probably the longest document I've ever seen.
- Sorry about that.
- I never had to sign one before.
- No? - No.
- Let's see. Uh, you did here.
(Chuckling)
Uh, all right, looks good.
So, I spoke to Greg, who said you're great
and that you could handle any kind of shit that hits de fan.
- Oh, thank you. Yeah, we saw some funny stuff, Greg and I.
So, what is this tunnel project about?
- Right, so, OK, we want to dig a 4-inch fiber tunnel
from the Kansas Electronic Exchange Data Centre
to the New York Stock Exchange servers,
which are in New Jersey.
- Kansas to New Jersey, that's like...
- Yes, it is a straight, 1,000-mile long,
4"-wide fiber tunnel
that has to pierce right through the Appalachians.
- Wow! And can I ask what the purpose of that line is?
- Our purpose is to get the stock market quotes
in 16 milliseconds,
which is one millisecond faster than everybody.
It's gonna be very fast,
and it's gonna make us all very successful.
- When you say straight,
how straight are we talking about here?
- From the KAX to the New York Stock Exchange.
Whatever's in the way, we dig through.
It's got to be a totally straight line.
- Swamps? - Straight.
- Rivers? - Straight.
- Mountains?
- Straight.
- Straight, straight, straight.
Did you bring what we discussed?
(signing)
- Wow! Yeah, I did.
So, this is 390 miles,
the line I did from Los Angeles to San Francisco.
I ran 16 crews for 6 months.
Prior to that, 6 months analyzing the soil,
securing the real estate.
So, from the start to finish, about a year.
And we delivered 15 days ahead of schedule on this project.
- Good for you! - Thank you.
I did everything, digging, piping,
the soil, real estate and telecom crew.
- My cousin Anton here has a little test.
I was hoping you wouldn't mind looking at it.
- Sure!
- All right, let's say you wanna dig a tunnel
from Stockholm to Madrid.
You wanna run fiber through it. - Yeah.
How many regenerators do you need to put up on that line?
Taking refraction into account, obviously.
- Of course.
(signing)
- You OK?
- Yeah.
Do I have to take in consideration
the curvature of the Earth,
or can I dig straight, hub, straight, hub, outside,
in sort of like an octagon?
Now, if you're using really powerful machines,
which cost more money,
you can dig straight,
come out for airless often
so you'll have a straighter line.
And, roughly, we're talking a difference between,
let's say, a 1,800 miles and 2,000 miles.
- We're not putting anything online, OK?
This project is very secret, OK?
I'm gonna be there every step of the way.
I wanna be on site for meetings, plannings, interviews.
Whatever it is, I'm there, OK? No middle man.
Our employer cannot find out about this.
I can't stress that enough.
- What about real estate contracts?
- About 90% percent will be taken care of by me and my team,
and, well, you can handle the rest.
- Are you sure? 'Cause we're talking about, like, forests...
- Yeah. - ...mud, dirt, swamps.
And, like, thousands of contracts.
- I am very sure. I am very aware, yes.
- You know, I have to say you guys might be crazy,
but I am very excited.
It's a really interesting project.
- Yeah, just think of it
as David walking onto the floor of the stock exchange,
taking out the biggest sfingshoteven
and bringing Goliath down to his fucking knees.
- David and Goliath?
- Yeah.
- I like that. - Good.
- We're David?
- Yeah!
Yeah, we're David.
(I Woman singing in Russian on stereo J')
(Man speaking Russian)
(Doorbell ringing)
(Woman speaking Russian)
- Katia!
(Laughing)
(Gasping)
- Hi, Dad! How are you?
- Good!
- Hi! _Yo!
- Hey! - How's it going?
Well, it's been 9 years.
To you, Pop.
You were the classiest plumber in New York,
maybe the Tri-State area.
(Guests chuckling) Um, you were tough on me, but it made me stronger.
(Speaking Russian)
Yes, please, let's eat!
What you wanna do before you do any kind of tiling
is you strip the pipes,
and you get some 3/4" copper in there.
- Change everything for 3--
- No, no, no, you don't change everything,
just the main line to the upper floor, that's it.
Don't worry about the basement.
- Hey, Dad, why is the light outside the window blue
and the light inside the lamp yellow?
- Well, because the light waves from the lamp are slower
than the light waves from the window,
and slower light waves go from yellow to orange to red,
and faster light waves go from blue to violet.
(Clinking on glass) - Why is that?
- Olena! I didn't get my song today!
- Oh, she's right! - Uncle Vinnie!
- You didn't give grandma her song!
- Uncle Vinnie!
- Yes, OK. Thank you.
- Uncle Vinnie!
- It's me. It's me.
(Family chuckling)
Hi!
(I Singing opera in Russian J')
U' Woman singing opera in Russian Xi
(Electronics beeping)
(Telephone ringing)
- Yep!
- (Woman): Miss Torres would like to see you.
- What? Just me or...
- You and the team.
- OK.
Eva wants to see us.
(Servers whirring and beeping)
(Telephones ringing)
- Please take a seat.
- Thanks.
- They're here.
(signing)
- (Eva): Well, you tell him that he had his chance.
If he doesn't deliver what we paid him to deliver,
he can talk to our lawyers.
And you better get your shit together!
Gotta go! Bye!
Let's hear it!
What do you have for me?
- We're still working on the microwave towers.
- Yeah, we're not working on microwave towers.
- You are not. I am.
- It's pointless. - Why is it pointless?
- We're years away from getting
the right pulse-shaping algorithms.
By the time we do, laser towers will have made us obsolete.
- Jenny? - He's right.
Short term, I think the crew should put effort into
getting a fiber deal between Harrisburg and Allentown
so they can skip the detour to Philadelphia
and save half a millisecond.
- I completely disagree. We should work on the towers.
If we get them to work, we'll roundtrip Kansas-New York
in less than 14 milliseconds.
- It's a waste of time.
- I know one thing that is a waste of time, that's your neutrino-messaging project.
- Oh, really, is it? - Really.
- What do you know about neutrino messaging?
Enlighten me! - I know it's bullshit!
Yeah, developing a neutrino- messaging protective shield
will cost at least $2 billion.
' Fuck You! ' Guys!
I'm wasting my time listening to this bitching!
- He doesn't know what he's talking about.
- Jenny, find me a dedicated dark fiber line
between Harrisburg and Allentown.
You work on the microwave thing on your own,
and please prove him wrong.
What are you doing here?
You're wasting time. Go!
Not you! Not you, Anton.
Close the door, please.
- What is it?
- I don't know. You tell me.
Something's not right.
I know you. Where are your ideas?
Where's that brilliant mind that you're so proud of?
- I'm--I'm working on neutrino messaging--
- Oh, no, no, no!
You don't get to hide
behind this gimmicky neutrino-messaging bullshit!
You are here to have moments of pure inspiration.
And right now, you're not even here.
Come on, why don't you tell me what's wrong?
- (Vincent): Yeah, OK, but did it seem like she was...
like she's suspecting something?
- Yeah. Yeah, maybe. - Fuck!
- I think she might suspect that I'm up to something.
And they're moving forward with the microwave towers.
- They're still doing the microwave thing?
- Yeah.
- OK, but how long before that's, like, viable?
- Uh, 3 years. Tops, tops.
- OK, all right, 3 years. So that's OK.
You just stay focused, OK? We get in, we make our money.
In, like, in a year or two,
we get the hell out just in time.
We get you your country home on a hill, OK?
- Yeah. - Ooh!
All right, I'm heading back to Kansas.
Wish me luck! - OK!
- All right, see you Monday, dude!
- Yeah! Bye!
(Grunting)
(Clattering)
(Exhaling sharply)
(Banging)
(Scoffing)
(Drill whirring)
- Hey! You're gonna wake the girls up.
What the fuck are you doing?
- Oh, I'm just installing a backup system for our computers.
- With a drill?
- Yeah, it's for the wires to come out the back.
- Are you OK, Anton? - What do you mean?
- I mean you're doing weird things
in the middle of the night.
- I'll--I'll be done in 15 minutes.
- No, come to bed now!
- Give me 10 minutes.
I--I'll drill quietly. - Five.
If you're not in bed in five, you're sleeping on the couch.
- OK, five.
(Drill whirring)
(Grunting)
- The Kansas servers are...
right there.
Very first landowner.
- Yeah.
- One of 10,000.
Good morning, sir!
Are you the owner of this fine house?
- What's this about?
- A business opportunity regarding the property.
- How can I help you?
- My name's Mark Vega. This is my partner.
We work for Cobalt Fiber Tech. We're a networking company.
We'd like to expand our operations to this area.
You are owner of this house, correct? - Yeah.
- Fantastic! I've got some really good news--
- Vega? Where are you from? - I'm from New Jersey, sir.
- Originally.
- I'm Hispanic. Where are you from, sir?
- America. - Where are you from originally?
- OK! Vincent Zaleski. I'm American.
We're looking to stretch our lines of communication.
I'm in charge of figuring out who'd sell us a stretch of land.
- I ain't selling my land. - Of course not!
We're looking for access to a thin strip of your land
to spread our line.
A very, very thin strip. - How thin?
- Well, it's about this wide for the length of your property.
We would start at about,
uh, well, start about here,
and it would go underground really deep, like, 10 feet,
all the way under your land
to about that, like, pole over there.
- You wanna buy a 12" strip off of my property?
- Well, under your property. And it's just to put a line in.
We'd bring a horizontal drilling machine.
It would sit right on that street--
I think it would impress the neighbors--
and drill underneath your lot the entire way, nothing broken,
nothing torn out.
It would be completely invisible.
We could even do, like, a lease if you want,
like, a 10-year lease.
It's basically like free money.
- Ain't no free money, my friend. Money is money.
- That's very true, sir. That's very true.
- You got all this written down somewhere?
- Yes, I do!
Do!
- (Eva): Anybody that can do this right
is already working for me.
I have been recruiting them and training them for years.
That's why we're the fastest.
- Can you run it all by me one more time, please?
- Sure!
So, there's this vast universe
with all these orders flying around.
We identify the big buyers,
then we figure out what are they buying and at what price.
We use our speed to jump over them
all the way to the front of the line.
- Hi! Hi, we have these notes for Miss Torres.
If you can give those to her...
If you could you just sign this,
confirming you've received them...
- What you do sounds like what a scalper does.
- What we do is nanosecond financial engineering.
It's light years away from scalping and much sexier.
- How do we get into
your nanosecond financial engineering?
- It's been a pleasure working with you.
Come on!
- What kind of clients-- - You know what?
I am going to have to step out for a second.
But, Jenny, take it over. - Um, so...
- What was that?
- I don't know.
(Jenny talking, indistinct)
- All right, tell me your dream, buddy.
- Country home on a hill, small road, hummingbirds.
- All right, say it again.
- Country home on a hill, small road, hummingbirds.
(Car honking)
- Just keep moving. You're doing the right thing.
- (Eva): Hey! Hey! Hey!
- Oh, shit! - What are you doing?
Wait! What is this?
- That's our resignation.
Thank you for our employment.
- Are you kidding me?
- No, I'm not. Let's go.
- Because I don't know where you think you're going,
but you're going empty-handed.
You realize that, right?
All the information, the data,
research, obviously, my codes, they stay here.
- Your codes? Sorry, they're his codes.
- His codes? You're delusional!
- You're delusional!
- Everything in that head, it's ours!
- It's his. This is a free country.
- That part of his brain belongs to us!
- No, free country!
- Do you even know why you're doing this?
Because I know that this stupid idea cannot possibly be yours.
- OK, you got the letters. It's done, we're out.
- I even hired you this despicable pedazo de mierda
so you could have a pet.
- Oh! - I need bigger challenges.
- Why?
- I'm sick of just patching things up
and fixing small, tedious problems on your line.
It's a shitty design in the first place.
- Yeah, it's a shitty design. - Is this some kind of tantrum?
- We are on to bigger and better things.
- I don't understand! - Thank you, shitty design!
- I know that we can
just break the walls of perception together!
- What the hell does that mean? Come on, let's go!
- Anton! Anton! - That's fucking creepy! Let's go.
- You're about to cross a very thin line,
and you will regret it.
- Ugh!
- I'll give you one second to snap out of it.
Come back to me.
Eres un pendejo, Vincent!
- Oh! Thanks for everything!
(I Stand Up by Lee Fields J')
N' Stand up Let's get it right a“
♪ Stand up... a'
Yo! Amy!
- Hey! How'd it go?
- Amazing!
I signed 11 miles of houses
from the Kansas servers heading towards Independence.
- Awesome! - Yeah.
- What's this?
- All landowners from Arrow Rock to Martinsburg.
- You signed everybody?
- Yeah, baby.
- Beautiful, brother!
♪ I'm talking to you, people a'
♪ All over the world a'
♪ Don't let them tell you I'
♪ That you weren't heard a'
♪ They're trying to show us X
♪ Who's in the right I'
You will recognize that a breach...
♪ They're trying to tell us who we should fight a'
♪ Hey, stand up a'
All right, please sign here.
♪ Let's get it right I'
♪ Oh, stand up I
♪ Let's keep it tight a'
a' Everybody, come on Stand up S
♪ They're lying to us I'
♪ Trying to keep us down I
♪ Telling us all kinds of things a'
♪ Makes your head spin around a'
♪ So, brothers and sisters a'
♪ We lost our way a'
(Rumbling)
IHey.“
♪ All of you guys a'
♪ Get down, get down a'
♪ Get down to it by the minute N
Hi, Bryan. How are you?
- Ah!
- I brought you our secret weapon.
- Great! Good to see you, Vincent!
- It's great to see you. Here's my cousin.
Finally, you guys are meeting. - Nice to meet you.
- Two of my favorite people in the same room.
- Let's get down to it. - Absolutely!
- Take it from the top. - This is the state of affairs.
We have deals with 54 crews, working on the line.
We have land deals with about 95% of the--
Anton? You wanna come be part of the meeting?
We have land deals with 95% of the people we need to sign with.
And we have headquarters
here, here, here and here.
And this is where I'll be most of the time.
This is protected forest. There's no roads.
There's no construction allowed.
Basically, we got rivers to cross, swamps, you name it.
- What's this dotted line?
- This is actually our problem area.
This is the Appalachians, a big national park.
It's a granite mountain
that we have to find a way to dig through.
It's protected by the State. There's no roads.
- Well, how much time are we losing
to go around the mountain?
- Anton, take them through how long
this whole thing's gonna take.
- Yeah. - OK, great.
- Uh, so, Kansas City to Indiana,
just north of Minneapolis,
is 2.3 milliseconds.
Indianapolis to the Appalachians is 2.5.
Then, um, Appalachians to the New York Stock Exchange is 4.3.
If we go around the mountain in 3.2,
if we go totally straight,
and then plus 0.5 for processing.
So, for the round trip,
it's 19.2 if we go around the mountains
and 17 if we..
- No, it's 16! It's not 17.
- It's 17 for-- - Anton, what? No!
- Vinnie, you said 16, not 17. - I know.
- 17 is useless. - I know.
- There's probably dozens of market makers
that'll be under 17 in year or two.
Listen to me.
There is no way that we can go public
with 17 milliseconds.
- He means we're at 17 with our beta software.
- No, this is-- - Please don't scare our friends to death.
We'll get it down to 16
when he strips the code, which he will do.
You're right, we have to go straight through.
We can't go around. We're losing too much speed.
- You scared the shit out of us. - Did I?
- Yeah. - I'm sorry about that.
- How are you getting through the mountain?
- Two things need to get done.
We need government clearance to get our crew in,
and we need to find a way to bring our gear in.
- Clearance is easy. - Is it? Wow!
Well, if it's easy for you, it's good for us. Thank you.
- Give me a couple days. I'll get on it.
- Yes, that's great! OK!
Fantastic! - All right.
- Well, we will be on our way.
I will say I'm really enjoying working with you guys,
and I think this is actually a lot of fun.
And if you'll excuse us,
we have a tunnel to dig from New York to Kansas.
Mr. Simon, we never really... but we should!
- You go to Kansas now, Dorothy! - It's Anton.
- All right. Let's go, Anton.
- Anton. All right.
- How am I supposed to design a software
that's a millisecond faster
when I already tore everything I could off the code?
- I don't know, maybe you just need
to take your time and relax.
- It's not about time, Vinnie!
- OK, all right.
- It cannot be done!
- All right, man!
- You're not listening to me! - OK, OK!
Listen to me! Listen to me, though!
You need to find a millisecond, OK, or we do not have a purpose.
Our whole project becomes useless. Do you want that?
Uh, we are Delta. It's Terminal 5.
- Do you really need me in Pennsylvania?
Isn't it better if I stay here? - No.
- I could focus more if-- - Absolutely not.
I need you by my side, OK? You can focus there, all right?
And when you're at the airport, please just try to relax, OK?
Can you do that?
(Overhead bin clicking)
- (Whispering): It's fucking hot in here!
Excuse me! - Yeah?
- Can I get some water, please?
- Yeah, sure thing.
- Vincent! Vincent!
- Yeah, what?
- There's no life vest under my seat.
- There's no life vest under my seat? - No.
- What do you need a life vest for? We're flying to Pittsburgh.
- In case we crash in water.
- We're not flying over water.
We're flying across Pennsylvania.
- There could be a river, a lake.
- We're not crashing into a river.
- You don't know that.
- Here you go. - Thank you.
- Everything's OK?
- Sorry, he's fine.
He's just a little scared of flying.
- I'm just a little scared of flying.
- Yeah. OK, just try to relax.
- Yeah.
- It's all all right.
- Oh, it is. - OK.
- That's very helpful. Thank you.
- Mm-hmm! OK!
- Thank you. - OK.
Could you please just try to fall asleep maybe?
Just close your eyes, maybe try to fall asleep, OK?
All right, then when you wake up, we'll be there.
- Ladies and gentleman, this is your captain speaking.
I would like to welcome you
on board this flight to Pittsburgh.
(signing)
Flight duration is around 2 hours.
We're expecting some heavy turbulence during take-off...
- NO! NO! NO!
(Woman screaming, baby crying)
- Whoa, whoa, whoa!
- STOP THE PLANE!
- Yes, I do, OK? Just wait for us there.
We will be there soon.
No, nothing happened.
We had a little, uh...
We had a little Anton moment on the plane.
We're fine now, OK? All right.
Don't worry about it, buddy.
(I Carmenita by Devendra Banhart J')
TI.“
(I Carmenita on car stereo J')
(Cell phone vibrating)
- Yeah?
- They're heading somewhere between Pittsburgh and Kansas.
- That's the KAX.
- What?
- Kansas Electronic Exchange.
Find out exactly where they're staying and get back to me.
- YEP-
TI.“
(Swallowing)
- You OK? - Hmm?
- Yeah. Where are we?
- We're in Pennsylvania.
- (Anton): What kind of challenges
do you face in your line of work?
- Challenges?
- What's the worst that can happen?
- Like the worst worst thing that can happen?
Hmm, I'd say positive shit.
(Chuckling)
- Positive shit? What's that?
- All right, I got to do this job.
I got to get these pipes going from municipal
to these gentrified McMansions,
about 30-35 of them in a gated community,
so I can get them water, 'right?
- Yeah.
- They're located way lower than municipal,
so to get them fresh water, no problem,
'cause the water's taken from the town
down the hill to their houses.
Gravity does its job.
But after these rich folks eat their caviar
and drink their wine,
they've got to piss and shit like everybody else.
So you got to get them a 24/7 pump
that pushes this doo-doo back up the pipes,
back up the hill. where everybody else lives.
That pump is called a positive shit machine.
- Really? - Yeah. You following?
- Yeah. Not complicated.
- So, the sun is rising,
we're covering great ground, we're digging,
and then suddenly... - What?
- Boom!
A fucking earthquake!
And, suddenly, there's a smell
like we just entered Dante's hell.
And it's the pressurized doo-doo in the tubes busted.
- Oh, God! - And it's fucking gushing!
It's coming out like oil
from the earth's asshole non-stop.
Five inches of pure fucking shit!
- That's disgusting.
- And the central pump feels the pressure,
so it thinks it needs to keep pushing harder and harder.
- Why didn't you turn it off?
- Can't turn it off. Only municipal has access to the water system,
and it's 5:00 a.m., and nobody's home.
So, I'm looking at this gated community
literally drowning in its own shit.
- The gatekeeper comes over. He's got a few missing teeth.
This old man puts his hand on my shoulder, and he says:
"You know, Mark, I've worked for rich folks my whole life,
"but deep down, I always knew they were full of shit!"
- That's funny.
- Positive shit.
- Also, that was a long story.
(Mark and Vincent laughing)
(Birds chirping)
(Crows cawing)
- All right, guys. I'll see ya later.
I'll see you in a bit! Bye! - Yeah.
- Hey! Look at this!
The, uh, presidential suite!
Look, they delivered your gear.
Isn't that nice?
And you got a desk there to do your, uh, your coding.
And...
Look at that view! Wow! That's incredible!
So you can contemplate nature while you do your coding.
- There's 3 phones.
- All right, well, I will see you at dinner.
Take your key.
And please work on that millisecond.
All right, brother? I know you can do it.
- Yeah. - OK!
(Door closing)
(signing)
(Grunting)
- I think I found something for the mountain.
- What'd you find?
- A friend of mine who owns a couple of choppers
says we can strap a drilling rig to a Sikorsky S-61 helicopter.
- A Sikorsky helicopter? What is that?
- That's basically a gigantic motherfucking helicopter.
It can lift up to 20,000 pounds.
- Oh!
- The only thing is we still need
to get air-traffic authorization
to land it at the bottom of the mountains.
(Camera beeping and clicking)
That's the thing. It's $80,000 a day.
- A day?
- Yes. That includes fuel and flight time.
- Fuck! Wow! Ooh!
- What's wrong? - No, nothing.
I think they gave me yesterday's fish.
- Two more things, Vinnie.
We need air-traffic authorization
to land it at the bottom of the mountain,
and we still haven't figured a way
to land it around here somewhere.
- What?
- Not "around here," OK? Not "around here."
Not around here. Not around here.
Not in Washika.
We got to be precise, all right? Here, on the line.
- I mean, it looks like they're building a straight fiber line
between KAX and the New York Stock Exchange.
- I know, Jenny. I am looking at it.
And I can't believe I didn't see it coming,
I mean, it was right there in front of my face!
(signing)
I need you to make the microwave towers work.
Get me the pulse-shaping algorithms yesterday.
- I already told you we can't.
- Oh yes, we can.
We're gonna do a round trip, Kansas-New York City,
in 15 milliseconds or less.
- Eva, I just don't see how you want us to do this.
- Give me the pulse shaping or give me your resignation.
Jenny, start looking for other quants.
I am going to start building those towers tomorrow!
- How are you? - Good! How are you?
- Welcome! - Thank you so much!
- So nice to have you. - Nice to meet you.
- This is Ophelia Troller. Vincent Zaleski.
- Hi! - Hi, Mr. Zaleski.
- Vincent, please. Nice to meet you.
- Here's what you need to know for now.
We're digging a fiber tunnel in this area.
There's a long stretch of land
that's protected by National Parks.
We heard that you're the best,
and we're looking for someone to drill
under that land in one single stretch.
OK, we're talking about, like, 15 miles.
- So, you guys want 15 miles of horizontal drilling in one go?
- Mm-hmm. - Why no connection points?
- It's all protected wild forest. There's no access roads.
There's no way to get permission to build one.
- You have any idea what kind of machine
it takes to do this kind of a job?
I'm talking shipped from the other side of the planet.
So that's hundreds of thousands of dollars
just to get that machine here.
- Exactly. - Yeah.
(Woman on com system, indistinct)
- (Man): Yeah, good to go.
(Groaning)
(Telephone beeping)
(Line ringing)
- (Mark): Hello?
- Hi, it's me. Yeah, my stomach is killing me.
Uh, I think I need to see a doctor.
- What's wrong?
- Probably just something I ate.
- Meet me downstairs.
- Yeah, thanks. Oh, Mark?
- Yeah?
- Don't tell Anton.
- Sure.
(Groaning)
(Electronics whirring)
(I Woman singing opera in foreign language J')
(Keyboard clicking)
(Beepiflg)
TI.“
- Mr. Zaleski.
. Yes?
There's no easy way to say this.
- Say what?
(Sniffling)
- Hey!
- Yo! What they say?
- Oh, nothing! I'm good!
- They kept you in there for 6 hours for nothing?
What, are they stupid?
- I know, sorry.
They just had to run some tests, but I'm good.
- Are you sure, man? You still look a little pale.
- Yeah, I'm good! Come on, let's go.
- You have stomach cancer.
You have to undergo treatment immediately. I'm sorry.
- Can I get a second opinion?
- You can, but with the X-rays and the endoscopy and the MRI,
it's pretty clear.
I'm really sorry.
- Is that why I've been having these nightmares?
- Nightmares?
- Yes, I've been having these very strange nightmares.
Is it because of the cancer?
- I don't know.
- This old man is chasing me.
- I don't think it's related.
- I don't know if he's trying to kill me
or if he's trying to save me from something.
- Mr. Zaleski, please. I'm not a psychiatrist.
- It's related, isn't it?
- I'm sorry, I can't help you.
I don't have the training.
- How long do I have?
- You can live a mostly productive life
for the next year or two,
like 90% of our patients under your condition.
- And then what?
- One out of two patients with your level of advancement
live beyond 5 years.
It's not a death sentence,
but it's very serious.
And with the right treatment,
you could be 100% cured in a couple of years.
TI.“
- ls there any way the treatment can wait for a couple months?
I'm just in the middle of something very important.
A lot of people are counting on me,
and I just can't fail them.
- No, it can't.
It would seriously put your life at risk.
(Birds chirping)
(Crow cawing)
(Drill rumbling)
(Sensor beeping steadily)
(Thunder rumbling)
- All right, this one is yours.
Thank you so much. - Thank you.
- It's great to meet you, and we'll be in touch, OK?
(Whirring)
(Beepiflg)
(signing)
- (Masha): You OK? I mean, we haven't heard from you.
- (Anton): Yeah, I'm fine.
A little tired.
- Well, how's work? - It's all right.
- Look, I hope you're not just eating crap out there.
You're gonna end up with diabetes.
Anton.
- No, I'm not.
(Muttering indistinctly)
- Here talk to your daughter. She misses you.
Katia!
- Who is it?
- It's your father.
- Hi, Dad!
- Hi, Katia.
- What are you doing?
- Ah, just working.
- OK, I got a new book. It's about atoms.
- Yeah?
- Do you know how much empty space
there is in a hydrogen atom?
- (Whispering); How many?
- Tell me.
- 99.99996%.
If the atom were the size of the Empire State Building,
the proton and its centre would be about the size of a bee.
All the rest is emptiness!
Pretty crazy, huh?
- Yeah, that's pretty crazy.
- What's up, Ray?
- Good. How you doing?
- Good. - All right!
- You know Vincent?
- Hi! How are you?
- Mr. Zaleski! Good, thank you. Here!
- Where are the cliffs?
- Uh, that way.
Please put these on.
Why do we need such a straight line?
Why can't we go around the mountain?
- Come on, Ray, no questions. It's in your contract.
- Contract! What's a contract around here?
Just a piece of paper to wipe your ass with.
- Hello, Anton.
- What are you doing here?
You probably think I came here to remind you
that you cannot use my codes.
- Pfft! Well, I don't care about the codes.
- Of course you don't.
- They're archaic.
' Hmm!
- Well, I just came here to tell you a story.
Have you heard of Vladimir Smirnov?
- No.
- He rewrote some code for the McMinster Fund 8 years ago.
He gave them a 10- or 12-millisecond edge
on the network.
One day, he decided to leave the firm,
and he took a couple of lines of code with him.
Nothing special, just generic code.
But McMinster didn't like it.
So they threw the FBI on Smirnov.
They claimed that he was a threat to national security,
that he had stolen some codes from them,
that he was capable of crashing the markets.
He has been in jail for the last 8 years.
Vladimir didn't do anything wrong.
But it just goes to show you
that someone can make your life hell if they decide to.
How old will your daughters be in 8 years, Anton?
(signing)
Eight years is a long time.
I cared for you, and you betrayed me.
Now you have to pay,
and I'm gonna make it painful.
(Breathing shallowly)
(Man on walkie-talkie, indistinct)
(Saw buzzing)
(Breathing heavily)
(Helicopter whirring)
- Yeah?
- Whoa, whoa! Hey, hey! Stop the car!
- Yeah, let me call you back.
- Fuck! Hey! Hey!
Come back here, you bitch!
Yeah, you! HeY! Asshole!
Oh, you think you have power over us?
Oh, you think you own us?
Hey, come down, you piece of shit!
- What the fuck?
What is she doing here?
- Hey!
- Hey, you OK?
- Yeah.
- I just saw Torres' helicopter fly out here.
- Oh, really? - Yeah, really. Did you see her?
Hey, look at me! Did you see her?
Hey! - Yeah, yeah, I saw her.
- You saw her?
- Yeah, I just, I didn't... - What?
- I didn't tell you 'cause I didn't wanna upset you.
- You're not upsetting me. What did she say to you?
- Nah, just some...
- What did she say to you?
- Just some stupid story.
- Some story? OK, look at me. Did she threaten you?
- I'm not scared of her.
- You don't have to be. - No.
- She didn't lay a hand on you?
Did she? - No.
- Did she tell you what she was doing?
Hey! OK, just look at me when I'm--
What did she say to you?
- STOP! STOP! - OK.
- I'm doing everything I can
to find that millisecond,
so stop interrupting me!
I can't focus!
- OK.
- I can't think! - OK, I'm not--
- OK?
Leave me alone! - OK.
- Leave me alone!
- OK, OK!
- Get out of here!
- All right, all right!
I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
(Breathing heavily)
- There it is, right on schedule,
the first of your 34 towers.
Kansas Electronic Exchange, New York Stock Exchange.
18 towers that way, 15 towers that way.
- Where are they digging?
- Vinnie and Anton's guys are
right at the bottom of that cliff.
That little patch with less trees there
in the forest facing the cliff,
that's the digging.
They have over 50 crews, 12 in Pennsylvania.
- Shit!
Get me back to New York.
- What the hell?
- What are they doing? They--They're packing up!
Wait! Stop the car. Stop the car!
Hey! Hey! Hey! Yo!
Hey! What--what do you think you're doing?
- We're leaving.
- You can't do that. That's a breach of contract!
- Of course we can. It's expensive, but we can!
We owe you $30,000. You get a check by Monday.
Excuse me. - Why are you doing this?
- We got a better contract. More pay for much less work.
- So, you're just leaving?
- Look, I got bills to pay, OK?
- He has bills to pay!
- It's just business. Nothing personal.
- Who gave you the contract? Who was it?
- I signed a non-disclosure agreement.
- It's Eva Torres, isn't it? It's Eva Torres, say it!
If you told her anything about our project...
- Vinnie, calm down!
- ...I will personally fuck you up!
- Careful what you wish for! - OK! Fuck you!
- Have I ever mistreated you?
I paid you to the moon and back! Why the fuck are you doing this?
You think she's trying to build her own line?
- No, we're way too ahead of the game for them.
They're trying to screw us.
- What do you want me to do with his contract?
- Give this contract to somebody else,
and figure out if they stole any more of our crews.
Listen to me, double their wages if you have to,
but keep them working!
- All right.
(I Folk on stereo J')
- Thank you.
- What are you working on?
- Oh, I can't really talk about it.
- Mm-hmm.
Is that 'cause you're a spy who works for the CIA?
- No.
No, it's because Vincent says everyone has to sign an NDA.
So I can't talk about it.
- Hmm! Who's Vincent?
Is that your boss at the CIA, because you're a spy?
- I don't work for the CIA.
- Yeah, right! I have some friends in the KGB.
I'll go back there, call them, tell 'em you're here.
- That's ridiculous!
- Come on, tell me!
Please?
- Do you have a pen?
- "I, Barbara Lehman,
"swear not to divulge any information
"related to Anton Zaleski's professional activities."
(Laughing)
You know this is never gonna hold up in court, right?
- Oh, it will.
Well, I'm here to make digital information travel faster
between the Kansas Electronic Exchange
and the New York Stock Exchange.
- OK.
- Let's say you're an investor in Kansas,
and I'm a trader also in Kansas,
and you wanna buy...
Uh, I don't know, what do you wanna buy?
- Um, what do I wanna buy?
I would like to buy...
a lemon company in, um,
I don't know, Zimbabwe.
- So you wanna buy shares in a lemon company in Zimbabwe.
- Right.
- Let's say you wanna buy 1,000 shares
at a maximum price of $10.
- All right, let's do that.
- OK, so you put this request in the system,
and a bunch of traders can now offer selling prices
for the lemon company in Zimbabwe.
But the thing is, if all traders use the same system
and have the same information,
how do you beat the others?
By having the fastest line.
Once I know how much you're willing to pay,
I outrun the other traders from Kansas to New York.
I buy shares that sell for less than $10.
I race back and sell them to you for $10.
So, right now, all this happens
in about in about 17 milliseconds.
Soon it'll be 16.
- But what's 16 milliseconds?
- It's one single flap of a hummingbird's wing.
- OK, but then what happens?
- Well, that's it. That's the whole thing.
I've just made 1,000 times one cent, so I've made 10 bucks.
- You're doing all of this for 10 bucks?
- Well, I do 200,000 transactions like this
every day.
That's 200,000 times $10 times 252.
That's roughly $500 million a year.
- That's a lot of money.
- It's like time travel.
- Yeah!
But what about the farmers?
- What about' em?
- The lemon farmers in Zimbabwe, what do they get out of this?
- The lemon farmers aren't relevant.
- How can they be irrelevant? They're growing the lemons.
- They're not an important variable in the system.
Mathematically, for our business plan, they're irrelevant.
- I guess I wouldn't wanna be one of those farmers in Zimbabwe
who's mathematically irrelevant to your business plan.
(Chuckling)
OK, I'm sorry.
I'll shut up and I'll get back to work.
- No, no, no. It's...
It's an interesting problem.
It raises a lot of epistemological questions.
- See ya, spy!
(Cars honking in distance)
- What is it?
- It's a thesis.
23-year-old kid out of NYU.
I think he figured out the pulse shaping.
- You did this?
- Uh, yeah, I guess.
- You can make the pulsing work?
- Yeah, I mean, it's theoretical,
but, yeah, I don't see why it wouldn't work.
- Follow me.
I knew you were out there.
You know when you get this sensation
that there is someone that is supposed to be in your life,
but they just can't quite find their way in?
What did you think about Jenny'?
- She's all right, I guess.
- She's brilliant.
They all are. I only hire the best.
I think you're gonna feel at home with us.
I'm gonna start you at $150000 a year.
Is it all right?
- Thank you!
I mean, this seems like a really stimulating environment
to be working in--
- However, if you can make the pulse shaping work
for our towers before the end of the month,
I'm gonna give you a bonus of $300,000.
I'm going to take such good care of you
as long as you prove to be who I think you are.
And as long as you're loyal.
(Birds chirping and squawking)
- OK, so this is the area.
Now, you, of course, wanna get
the biggest, most expensive digger on the planet.
You want to dig along the forest and then under the river, right?
- Uh-huh.
- You said they'd never let you dig
an access road through the National Park.
Probably right, but you're thinking
this is the only way to get there.
- Yeah, it is. - No, it's not.
Look, you have 9 little rivers here.
OK, if I give you 4 mini-diggers,
I put them on rafts and rack 'em along the rivers
and have them all working at the same time,
pretty sure that, for half your budget,
I can get the job done 4 times as fast.
- On the phone you said twice as fast, not four times.
- Yeah, well, you know, Murphy's law.
I'm a pessimist.
- I wanna come on the raft.
- Well, I hope you brought your winter jacket,
'cause it just snowed up there.
- Yeah, my father would've liked it here.
My parents were born in Russia.
Yeah, they moved here in the '60s,
moved into a tiny apartment with 10 other Russian families.
Two weeks after he got here,
these police came, knocked on his door,
threw him in the back of the car,
thought we was a spy, which he wasn't.
They interrogated him for, like, 4 weeks or something.
He never saw the light of the day.
- That's insane! - Yeah!
My mother said he became like a totally different person.
He became, like, angry.
Yeah, and I was born a few years later, so lucky!
Yeah.
He always told me the same thing.
He said: "Whatever you do,
"make sure you own your freedom."
- Own your freedom?
Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of freedom?
- Yeah, maybe.
And he was always trying to,
like, scare me or something into being, like...
I don't know, like, successful.
- So, you think you're doing this to prove your father wrong?
- Wrong about what?
- About being successful.
It's a pretty crazy project you got going here.
- It's just--it's just something I need to do.
- We're here.
(Man on walkie-talkie, indistinct)
(Equipment chugging)
(Sniffling)
- That's incredible!
That's amazing! - Yeah?
- Yeah, thanks. - Yeah, no problem.
Listen, I have a bunch of work
that I still have to finish up here,
but Pete'll take you back.
He's waiting for you on the other side.
- OK. - All right?
- Thank you.
- And, uh, I hope you make it.
(Woman on walkie-talkie, indistinct)
(Groaning softly)
(Groaning)
(Knocking on door)
- No housekeeping!
(Banging on door)
(signing)
- (Vincent): Anton!
Anton, it's me. Open up.
Yo, Anton!
Yeah, I'm coming.
- Hi!
- Hi! Thanks.
Oh!
All right, so, good news.
We got 600 miles of the line completed,
and the helicopter flies to the cliffs today, which is good.
How about you?
How are you doing? Where are we at?
- I only cut a 10th of a millisecond off.
- A 10th of a millisecond, that's not bad!
That's a start! It's a good start!
Oh!
You OK? Hey!
Come on! Dude, what's going on?
- Well, the system's missing some variables.
- OK. Well, whatever it is, we can fix it.
We'll fix it.
- There's granularity issues.
- Well, what is that? I don't know what that is.
- The lemon farmers.
The core economic units don't have enough resources.
- OK.
- It's all gonna collapse in about 50 years,
unless we get the algos to factor in the lemons.
- OK, you know what?
- There's bugs in the system.
- You and me are going on a little road trip, all right?
Gonna get your mind off coding for a few hours or a few days.
- I got to finish this.
- Hey! I'm not asking, buddy.
Come on, let's go see the helicopter!
Change your clothes. We'll get you some fresh air.
Anton!
(Clicking tongue)
- Um, I have a question
regarding a fiber connector, model 2MMTR5547.
- (Woman): OK, what's the question?
- ls the dissipation index accurate,
or could there be slight variations in the speed loss?
- No, sir, I don't think there is anything significant there.
- ls there any tolerance, like even 0.1%?
- The numbers you have are in optimal conditions.
If there was some difference,
I'd say it was the other way around.
You might get slightly less performance than that.
- Well, that's pretty stupid.
- Excuse me, sir?
- Hey! Hey, do you feel that?
- Flat tire.
- Shit! Are you serious?
- Yeah.
(Birds chirping)
- An hour?
All right, all right. Just please hurry.
(Frogs ribbiting)
Hey!
You think when this is over,
I could take your kids out,
um, like, for ice cream or something?
- Yeah, they'd really like that.
- Yeah?
- Yeah.
- I guess I would like to.
- Yeah, anytime.
(Grunting)
Vincent!
- Yeah.
What is it?
- It's a frog.
- That's cute. Yeah, it's good.
- OK. Oh!
Go in the water. There, that's better.
- It's OK?
- He's fine. It's just a... Yeah.
- You know, pretty soon,
when you got your country home on the hill,
you could just hang out and do shit like this all the time.
(Grunts)
- It's not really about the home.
It's about people leaving me alone.
Most people are morons.
- Yeah?
- I just wanna get a place somewhere quiet,
where I can work on my codes,
type some algos...
- Mm-hmm.
- ...hang out with Masha and the girls and you.
We can go swim in a lake and watch the sunset.
Whatever the people do in the country.
(Grunting)
- Not bad!
- That was three!
- Yeah. Oh!
- Ah!
- Hey! Yo, yo!
- HEY!
- All right, let's go.
(I I Feel Just Like a Child by Devendra Barnhart J')
- OK, guys, hurry! Put these on!
- Hey! - How's it going?
- Sorry about that.
- No worries. Put the helmet.
Here, goggles first and then helmet.
II Well, I feel just like a child ♪
(Men talking, indistinct)
♪ Yeah, I feel just like a child a'
Whoo!
OK!
♪ Well, I feel just like a child... a'
Whoo!
- (Vincent): Holy shit!
♪ From a womb to my tomb I guess I'll always be a child a'
- Stand clear for delivery.
Stand back. Watch out for that ledge.
♪ Well, some people try and treat me like a man X
- Whoo!
♪ Some people try and treat me like a man I'
- Hold on!
♪ Well, I guess they just don't understand a'
Good, good! All right, all right!
♪ Yeah, some people try and treat me like a man E
♪ They think I know shit F
Keep it coming!
♪ But that's just it I'
♪ I'm a child a'
(Vehicle beeping)
♪ Don't you stop till the tears run dry X
♪ See I was born 4'
Back it up, back it up!
♪ Thinking all under the sky E
♪ They didn't belong to a couple old wise guys X
♪ From sucking on my mama's breast a'
♪ To when they lay my soul to rest a'
♪ I'm a child N
Watch it! Good! Looks good!
- Toss me that torque wrench!
(Drill clanking)
- Tommy, keep the water coming!
Keep the water coming!
'lam!
(Drill screeching)
- Hey! Turn it off! - Whoa, whoa!
- Shut it down! Shut it down!
(Crew clamoring)
Hey! Hey! Stop it! Stop it!
- All right!
- Back up, come on!
- Shit! - Ray! What happened?
- It's the rock.
Broke the drill bit. - How did that happen?
- Sounds like a dyke probably hit a vein.
We need a carbide head.
We have to get it from Norway.
It'll cost 60 grand. - You got it.
- It's gonna take us way longer to do this.
- Whatever it is, you have to find
a way through that mountain.
Don't tell me that it'll cost more, because I have no more.
- Take it easy! I couldn't predict this.
This is part of the game! It's full of surprises.
- Read your contract. Surprises are on your side.
- That's bullshit! - Calm down!
- I don't know what to say.
It's on paper. You're responsible.
- We're busting our asses! I don't need this!
- What happened? Why didn't they use the carbide to begin with?
- Don't get in his face!
- I thought you were ahead of the game!
- We are! We hit a vein!
These things happen. Relax! We'll solve it.
- Stop telling me that. I'm relaxed.
Not with the money I'm paying. Where's Anton?
- Anton's up there. Get some rest.
- What are you doing up there?
Come on! Let's go! Let's go!
- Just get some rest, OK? - All right.
- I'm serious! - You too.
Uh, there have been a couple of delays.
The drilling in the mountain
has been a pain in the ass, literally.
- Does that change our calendar?
Are we still gonna be able to use the line next month?
- At this point, I'm--I'm not sure about that.
(signing)
- You know, sometimes I wonder, Vinnie.
Do you really know what you're doing?
(Chuckling)
I mean, you asked us to invest in this crazy project of yours,
and then it's been nothing but surprises since the beginning.
- No, there hasn't. There's been one surprise.
- I think you might be in over your head.
I think we might be in over our heads.
- Jesus! Bryan, I'm on top of everything.
It's just been a little harder in that one spot, that's all.
- It's a lot of money we're about to send you.
- Yeah, thank you, Mr. Simon. I know that.
- Are you being 100% honest with us?
(signing)
- All right, like, I'm not gonna bullshit you, OK?
The line might not be 100% operational
in the next month, OK?
But I think that once we can prove our line is the fastest,
the amount of money that people will be willing to spend
to get access to our line
will skyrocket to the stratosphere in a microsecond.
Personally, I wanna be there when it happens.
But I can't go forward without the next payment, all right?
I got a drill that costs $80,000 a day.
I got a fucking Sikorsky that's 70 feet long
hovering above a cliff in Pennsylvania.
- One question. - What?
- Are we getting our money's worth?
Or are you trying to screw us
and give yourself a big departure bonus
when the shit hits the fan?
- Jesus, Bryan!
You think I buried 500 miles of fiber
from Kansas to Indianapolis
as, what, a favor to the Earth, OK?
(Chuckling)
The line is halfway done. It's more that halfway done.
The line is gonna be very fucking fast,
and you're gonna be very fucking rich, OK?
I promise. No asshole bonuses.
- Don't fuck us, Vinnie. I trust you.
(Vinnie stammering)
- I didn't spend the last 2 years doing this
so I can just walk away!
I'm doing this as if it were the last thing
that I do in my life, OK?
But I--l cannot go forward without the next payment.
- All right, Vinnie. All right.
(signing)
What's the amount?
(Keyboard clicking)
- $15,500,000.
- Check it!
- Thank you.
(Door buzzing and chimes tinkling)
- Hi!
- How can I help you?
- Yeah, I just wanted to know are all of your services legit?
- Yeah, of course.
- So this is all, like, legal.
I could just get a normal massage?
- Yes, sir.
Would you like a therapeutic massage
or a relaxation massage?
- Um, therapeutic.
- Thirty minutes or an hour?
- Thirty.
(Breathing shallowly)
(Crying)
Oh shit!
- (Mark): Where the hell are you, man?
- I'm in the car on my way back to the hotel. What's up?
- There's land that does not belong to us.
- Wait, what? - We're digging on the lot, a chunk of the land--
- I thought we had the papers. You said it was clear.
- The railroad guy said they don't own it.
- Who? - You need to get here now...
- Yeah, whatever, I'll meet you there in the morning.
- Hurry up, please. - Yeah.
Fuck!
(signing)
(Grunting)
- (Whispering): Stupid millisecond!
Think you can beat me?
Yeah! I'm gonna beat you.
Beat you! That's what you get.
That's what you get, motherfucker!
(Telephone ringing)
Hello?
- (Masha): Oh, good, you're alive!
- Oh! Hi!
- Why haven't you called?
It's been a week, Anton.
Tell me what's wrong.
- Nothing!
(Masha sighing)
- This line's hurting you.
Don't you see that it's hurting you?
Why does Vinnie still need you to be there?
Look, the kids miss you. I miss you.
- I got to go.
- Why can't you just work from here?
- I got to go. I'll call you right back.
- Babe? - I'm sorry.
- Anton! Anton!
(Crow cawing)
(Man shouting in distance)
(Dog barking)
- Good! Good! Good!
- What's up, Vinnie? - Yo!
You know what? Wait for me here.
(Groaning softly)
- (Man): Wonderful! Well played!
(Rooster crowing)
- Hi! Good afternoon! Hello!
- Good day to you, sir.
Are you with that man?
- Uh, yes, that's my partner.
My name is Vincent Zaleski. I work for Cobalt Fiber Tech.
We were wondering if you were the owner of this property.
- Yes, we all are. We already talked to your partner.
- Right, and first of all, I should apologize,
because I wasn't there, but I suspect
he may have been a little rude when he approached you.
Yeah, so, we want to expand our operations to this area
and bring in all sorts of new
and exciting opportunities to this community.
We'd like to bring in a high-speed fiber network.
We'd like to could buy a very narrow strip of land,
not more than one foot wide.
We'd come in for a week or two and install it.
We'd hide our tube underground and leave.
It wouldn't leave a trace,
and we'd compensate you for your troubles.
- We're not interested, thank you.
But I'm sure our neighbors will be.
You should go and talk to them.
- Mm-hmm. - Sorry.
- We would be willing to offer you $230,000
for this right of way.
(Chickens clucking)
(Horse neighing)
- $230,000 is a lot of money.
I'm sure our neighbors will be very interested.
Was that all you came to talk about?
- Sir, I just want to make sure that you completely understand.
This line would be hidden 6 feet underground.
No one would ever see it.
We would come in, we would take 2 weeks to install it,
and leave you with a check for $230,000.
That much money can go a long way
to preserving your heritage, your traditions.
- That's exactly what I understood,
and I said we're not interested.
We live simple lives, Mr. Zaleski,
at the service of God.
High speed is not our priority,
and money can be a source of conflict.
- Right, well, do you think maybe
you could do a group vote on this?
- Please don't make this difficult.
- Look, sir, all I'm trying to do
is to help bring prosperity to this community,
to make things better for you.
- We don't believe that
making things faster makes things better.
- Mm-hmm.
- We believe that all this new technology
makes us more distant and isolated.
That's why we do not want to have
your high-speed tube under our land.
- So, what do we do now?
- I don't understand.
- How do we find common ground?
- We don't, Mr. Zaleski.
We will never find common ground.
This is the Lord's ground.
There's nothing common about it.
We are here to take care of it at his service.
- Mm-hmm.
- I'm sorry. You have a nice day.
- Don't be stupid, sir. - Vincent, come on.
- We're done. - I'm sorry.
- You're making a very big mistake. Have a good day!
- (Mark): All right. Thank you!
I think I have an idea, Vincent.
(Dog barking)
- (Man on radio): A historical landmark was made yesterday
when an Austrian skydiver broke the supersonic barrier
as he dived 39 km to the ground...
(Man on radio, indistinct)
...landing safely in the southwest of the United States.
His pathway through the Earth's atmosphere
took 7 years to plan...
(Cell beeping)
Early in the morning,
the man patiently went up in the air in a helium balloon,
preparing to jump..-
(Line ringing)
- Hi, this is Peter from sales.
- Hey, I need some information on Optical Regenerator JBT145SX.
- Yeah, how can I help you?
- Right, so it says "rated at 10,000 meters".
But what kind of tolerance did you implement?
- Uh, I don't know.
- Ballpark?
- Uh, ballpark, I think our regenerators have
around a 10% or 15% tolerance.
Depends on what fiber you're using.
- Did you say 15%? 1-5?
- Yeah.
- So, if I have a 178 regenerators on a line,
and I could do some sort of, uh, like a selection process
and only use the ones that cover the entire 115%,
I could then space them out to one every 10.35 km.
And that way, I would--I would only need 154?
- Yeah, I guess.
It'd be risky and expensive to test, but why not?
- Are you aware
that each regenerator makes the line lose 0.02 milliseconds?
24 regenerators, round trip, that's a millisecond faster.
- Is that a fact?
- It is a fact. Thank you.
(I Do It by the Beastie Boys ♪
One millisecond faster!
Who is the motherfucking champion?
N Like The Blackbyrds I'm gonna do it fluid a'
♪ I'm building rhymes like buildings r
♪ Like a Stonehenge druid J
♪ Yeah, Glendale Boulevard Ah, boulevard I'
♪ Glendale Boulevard That's where I'm at I'
♪ It's where I'm at Where I live I'
♪ Check it, check it out 'Cause my head is like a sieve r
♪ And, yo, we turn it out N'
- Mr. Zileski!
- Mr. Zileski, stop!
- Are you Anton Zileski?
Are you Anton Zileski?
- Yeah.
- My name is Santana Lopez, FBI.
You're under arrest for committing stock-market fraud
by using proprietary co--
Mr. Zaleski!
(Panting)
(Grunting)
- Hey, hey, hey!
- Hey!
Take it easy! Take it easy!
(Grunting)
Come on!
(Grunting)
- No! No! No!
Excessive force! Excessive force!
- As I was saying, you are under arrest
for committing stock-market fraud.
You have the right to remain silent when questioned.
Anything you say or do may be used against you...
(Drill rumbling)
(Whirring loudly)
- No! Stop now!
You cannot dig under our land!
This is God's land!
- Yeah.
- Leave now or I'll call the police!
- All right, sir, it seems like,
deep down under, it's not your land.
- Of course it is!
- The state legislation allows prospectors
to dig at depth under 100 feet
as long as the diggings are for
the collective wellbeing of the people
and the long-term prosperity of the States.
Now, our lawyers argue that given the fact
that we're speeding data transfer
in this whole fucking area,
our line is for the collective wellbeing of the people.
- This place does not belong to you.
You can't put your things here.
- Look down. You see this ground here?
We bought this lot. So it's our land.
We can do whatever we want on it.
Here's the good news for you.
I'm gonna dig 100 feet down across your land.
You're not gonna even feel that we're there.
And then back up again.
- He can't do this! It's our land!
- As long as there's oil or gas under there,
according to the State,
it belongs to anybody below 100 feet.
You understand? Grab this.
Get your people out of here, or I'll call the fucking cops!
Beat it!
- Most programmers have lines like these in their computers.
- Well, it's not what your previous employer says.
See, she says: "These lines of code
"shorten the transaction time by 2 microseconds.
"Using them outside of the employee's duties
"is a serious breach of contract."
Um, "Miss Torres also judges that the previous employee
"should be prosecuted under the criminal code
"as his actions threaten this country's economic stability
"and therefore should be considered
"a threat to national security."
- A threat to national security?
(Groaning softly)
(Cell ringing)
- Yeah.
- Hey, Vinnie, it's me.
- Anton! Hey! Where--where are you?
- I'm--I'm in jail.
- What?
- Yeah, the FBI threw me on the ground and handcuffed me.
- Those motherfuckers!
- They said I could get 10 years.
Can you come and get me?
- I'm so sorry. I should've been there.
You did not do anything wrong!
This is Torres. I am so sorry!
This is all my fault,
but I'm going to get you out of there.
Don't do anything until the lawyers get there.
I will take care of it.
I swear to God,
when we get you out of there,
Torres will wish she was never born.
- Yeah, yeah, OK.
- Listen to me! Don't do anything.
- Bye. - Anton? Do you hear me?
Amy! Amy! Hey!
Listen, the FBI is on Anton. He's in jail.
- In jail? Why? - I don't know.
Get our lawyers on this right away.
We have to go down there.
- Vinnie! - Yeah?
- Ray says we need to go to the cliff right now.
- You handle it. I got to go.
- We got to go to the cliff right now. Get in the car!
- OK, OK. Amy, you call the lawyers still.
I will be back in 2 hours to pick up Anton.
Be ready to leave! - OK!
- Ray! What the hell is this?
- It was already there when I got here.
- Eleven milliseconds.
New York-Kansas.
- What's our time, Vinnie?
What's our time, Vincent?
- Take me up there, Mark.
Take me up there.
- Why?
(signing)
I don't even know--
(Horn blaring)
I don't know if there are any roads up there! Do you?
Dude, I don't even know how to get up there.
Are you OK? You don't look good.
Are you OK?
(signing)
- OK, line is up.
Market opens in 10 seconds.
Market is open.
(Beepiflg)
- It works. We're the fastest.
- It's fucking working!
- Holy shit!
- Look at that!
(Traders clamoring)
- We just made half a million dollars in 5 seconds.
TI.“
- Bryan! Bryan! We've got a problem.
- What do you mean?
- A guy I know from BR Cranes says
they've been putting up cell towers
for the last couple of weeks.
Kansas to New York. Says it's for Eva Torres.
- Why the fuck is she putting up cell towers?
- I don't know. - Well, find out!
(Engine revving)
- Fuck!
Fuck, man! We're stuck!
We're going back!
- No, no, no! I need to go up there.
- Vinnie! - Yeah?
- I'm taking you back. - No, get me up there!
- SHUT UP! ALRIGHT! YOU TOOK IT TOO FAR!
- Shut the fuck up and get me up there!
- No! I'm not taking any orders from you!
We're going back right now!
You wanna go up there, huh?
To do what?
(Mark grunting)
(Panting)
Vincent! Vincent!
VINCENT!
- (Whispering): I am gonna cut you the fuck down.
- Vinnie!
- I am gonna cut you...
- Vincent! What are you doing?
- ...the fuck down. - Vinnie!
- I am gonna cut you the fuck down.
- Vincent!
- I am gonna cut you...
- What are doing, buddy?
- ...the fuck down.
- Hey! Give me the chainsaw.
What are you doing? What are you doing?
Hey, calm down!
- He's up there, Mark.
- Who's up there?
- Goliath.
- Vincent, calm down, OK?
- We have to get him down, OK? - Who?
- I'm not gonna hurt anybody. We have to get him down.
- You're acting crazy. Calm down.
- I have to get up there.
I am stuffing your mattress with money!
You will help me up there and tear down that tower!
- Give me the fucking chainsaw!
- No! - Give it to me!
- Vinnie, give me the chainsaw!
(Chainsaw droning)
All right! What the fuck are you doing, man?
What the fuck are you doing, Vinnie?
Put it down! Put the fucking chainsaw down!
- I'm gonna cut you the fuck down.
I'm gonna cut you.
I am gonna tear you down and...
- Vinnie!
(Droning stops)
Vinnie!
(Clock ticking)
(Clearing throat)
- Hi!
- What did you get yourself into, Anton?
- Well, I didn't do anything illegal.
- You didn't do nothing illegal? - No.
- Then Why'd they arrest you?
You must've done something wrong.
Why'd you do this? Hmm?
- Hmm, Vinnie asked me...
- Vinnie?
Vinnie?
(Crow cawing)
- (Vincent): I'm coming, Anton. I'm coming, buddy.
I'm gonna get you out.
I'm gonna get you out of there.
Hmm?
- You're safe. Everything's OK.
(Siren wailing)
(Heart monitor beeping)
Shhh...
It's good, it's good! Relax! Relax, Vinnie!
Vinnie, just breathe. Just breathe.
We're in an ambulance on the way to the hospital.
OK, you passed out.
Just relax. Everything's fine.
- Where's my phone?
- I've got your phone. Don't worry, OK?
- Give it to me. - Why?
- Give me the phone.
- Come on, take it easy.
- Mark, give me the phone.
- All right.
Here.
- Yeah, thanks.
(signing)
- Can you un-strap my arms, please?
(Siren wailing)
Yes, I'll--I'll hold.
- Vinnie, please put it down.
- Shhh! I'm holding.
- Put it down. - Shhh!
- Hello, Mr. Zaleski?
- Ah, Mr. Gerbash!
I'm just on my way to a meeting. Sorry.
I wanted to call before I close a deal.
- What can I do for you?
- I have potential investors
who are eager to get in on the action.
They want a guarantee covering them
against the competition.
- How do you mean? - They're being silly.
But they want some kind of coverage
that secures their investment until we finish the line,
something that protects them in case somebody else
comes up with a faster line before us,
something for the next month.
- I could design a hybrid commercial risk insurance.
I don't see how someone can come up
with a faster line in the next month.
- Mm-hmm.
- And I heard you're about to do
New York-Kansas in 16 milliseconds?
- Yes, that's true. - That's amazing!
- Mm-hmm!
- I can't hear you quite well.
- I'm going through a tunnel right now.
What would a rate on an insurance like that be?
- Something like 2 or 3 cents on the dollar.
- 2 or 3 cents on the dollar, that's great, isn't it?
- Sir, give me your phone. - Five minutes.
- Are you there? - I'm still here.
Cover expenses at 200% for the next month, to cover our fees.
- I'll confirm the rate when I get it.
- Oh, that's great.
- You got 10 seconds to hang up.
- I'm going to my meeting. I'll call in 3 hours.
Send all the paperwork over to my office
to have this done by the end of the day.
- That's enough.
- I'm losing the signal. Thank you!
I just made a deal that, if the company goes down,
an insurance company pays us loads of money.
- Get some rest.
- I invested 3 cents on a dollar
in case somebody builds a faster line next month.
Since I know there's a faster line,
I know I'll get a dollar for each of those 3 cents.
You know what kind of return that represents?
- I don't know, a lot? - Yeah, a 2,300% return.
For betting on my own failure.
I know I'm gonna fail, guaranteed.
- I'm happy for you. You get better, OK?
- Yeah. There is something else I need you to do for me, Mark.
- What?
- You got to get Anton out of jail.
I don't care how much it costs.
You just got to get him out of there.
It's my fault. I should be in there.
- I promise. I'll get him out of jail.
I'll finish the line. Don't worry.
I got it. Just get back on your feet, OK?
- You're gonna get him out? - I swear.
(Line ringing)
(High-pitched tone)
(Electronics beeping)
- Wow! Wow! What the fuck?
- We're almost 20 milliseconds down right now!
- Jenny! We're losing millions! We're all 20 milliseconds down.
- What? What?
- The whole network's down 20 milliseconds.
We're wondering what happened!
- Well, I don't know! What did you just do?
- All of a sudden, we dropped by 20!
(Employees clamoring)
(Computers beeping)
- Eva! Eva!
We have a problem.
Our line is 20 milliseconds slow!
- What do you mean, 20 milliseconds slow?
- It's a perfect, constant, 20-millisecond delay.
It's not arbitrary. It's a sharp chunk.
Somebody rigged our network.
(Shouting indistinctly)
- Hello, Anton.
- You're late!
20 milliseconds late.
- Funny! That was an interesting move.
- Yeah, well, it could be worse.
I only slowed you down by 20.
- You think we're stupid, huh? You think we won't find it.
- Of course you'll find it,
if you put your mind to it,
your quant's minds.
Shouldn't take a genius like Elias more than 5-6 months.
- Don't fuck with me, Anton.
Give me back my milliseconds, or I'll put Vincent in jail too.
- I could slow you down by 80.
80 milliseconds, that's pretty late in the game.
- What do you want?
- Drop the charges.
And stay away from Vincent.
- You are so fucking boring!
It's like there's a part of your brain
that operates like a genius,
and then there's another one that is handicapped.
And this is why you needed me.
This is why we were so good together.
I'll drop the charges,
and I will stay away from your cousin Vinnie.
But don't you think that you're better than me,
because we are the same-- - Dial 212-555-01--
- What?
- Dial 212-555-0114.
When you hear a beep, dial 3.
- That's it?
- Yeah, that's it.
- You could've made billions.
- It's all fake, Eva.
- Hi, Bryan.
- You're being punished for what you did?
- I tried to fix it.
I really did.
I had the commercial risk insurance.
Gerbash was handling it,
but we got it in too late.
- You screwed us.
And now, because I trusted you,
I might lose my company.
- I'm really sorry.
(Birds chirping)
- (Mark): All right, sexy man. You ready for this?
- Hmm, I'm ready!
- Three, two, one.
Wow!
- 15.73 milliseconds. Shit!
- We did it, buddy!
- Yeah, we did it.
- Isn't that amazing?
- We're obsolete, but we did it.
(Mark chuckling)
- Well, you know, sometimes they say:
"It's not the destination.
' Hmm!
- "It's the people we meet
"and the lessons we learn."
(Approaching footsteps)
- Hey! Come here!
Thanks!
Hey, honey! Come here! Hey!
- Hey, Vinnie. - Hi!
- How are you?
- I'm good, I'm good! I'm great, yeah.
- Girls, let's go out and let your daddy with his cousin, OK?
- When I feel better, we're gonna go out for some ice cream.
Triple scoops. No, quadruple scoops!
Your daddy's paying-
We'll get the tallest
ice-cream cones in the world.
We'll need Popsicle sticks
just to hold them together.
- OK. - OK!
- Should we go find the coloring pens?
You wanna color? - OK!
- OK.
- We lost it all. Insurance won't pay.
(Thunder rumbling)
- It doesn't matter.
(Chuckling)
- What's this?
- Oh, it's just some ideas for neutrino messaging.
- Neutrino messaging?
- Yeah, we shoot neutrinos
that are set up to carry information,
purchase orders, for example...
- Mm-hmm.
- ...through the Earth's crust.
So we don't lose time going around the globe,
because we go straight through it with a particle accelerator.
The neutrino, those little fuckers,
they don't slow down for shit!
Rock, concrete, nothing.
We can get to New York
in something like 9 milliseconds.
And we would beat the game, Vinnie.
New York-London, London-Tokyo.
We would own Wall Street.
- But what do we do when we own Wall Street?
- We burn it to the ground,
and bring all the lemon farmers,
roast marshmallows by the fire.
(Chuckling)
- I like that.
(Chuckling)
You just got to take me somewhere first.
- All right.
- Wait! I think that's him!
(Horse whinnying)
- What are you doing here?
- The line, it won't bother you anymore.
- I can't hear you!
(Thunder rumbling)
- Vinnie!
Vinnie, get back in the car!
Vinnie!
(Horse whinnying)
Fuck!
(Speaking Pennsylvania German)
- Ah!
(Grunting)
- You OK? - Yeah.
- Do you need anything?
(Grunting)
- You're sick?
- Oh!
(Panting)
- Why did you come back here?
- I wanted to tell you that, last week,
I took out the portion of the tunnel that's under you.
You don't have to worry about the world
going faster and faster under your feet.
It's out of there.
(Thunder rumbling)
(Horse neighing)
Thank you. Thank you, sir.
- Wait here until the rain stops falling.
(Horse snorting, whinnying)
(Grunting)
(Thunder rumbling)
- You know, sometimes I wonder,
if all the time that was given to me was, like...
like, 16 milliseconds...
and I had no past memory...
I had nothing carved into my mind
before those 16 milliseconds...
and the only thing...
that was left imprinted in my brain...
were the images and the smells and the feelings
of those 16 milliseconds...
how do you think I would process that?
- I don't know!
- Hmm...
- I think your life would feel exactly as long
as someone who lived for 100 years.
(Chuckling)
(Thunder rumbling)
(Chuckling softly)
(Chuckling)
(I A Wonderful Seed by Hope Sandoval and The Warm Inventions J')
N' Well, the waves took a'
♪ Miss Sylvia, too lovely a'
♪ And gave her a'
♪ The life that no one could save 4'
♪ A sweet blessing to and from S'
♪ In the middle of the ocean's flow a“
♪ Well, she reached a bounty I'
♪ A wonderful seed 4'
♪ Someone's little things I
♪ That she'd need I'
♪ Stoned, closed a'
♪ But always abound r
♪ The devil that she was a'
♪ She made herself found I'
♪ Her faith, so sweet A'
♪ A sweetness of her a'
♪ Always to think of a'
♪ Someone else above her r
♪ That some tide a'
♪ The devil made his way a'
♪ But then the bash of the sea came h'