[Outside Montrose Hill State Penitentiary]
REPORTER: Six am is the appointed time of death as laid down by the state of Kentucky. Oswald Danes faces his last moments on this earth. Members of the public have gathered outside the Montrose Hill State Penitentiary, but the planned protests against the death sentence have failed to appear, which isn't surprising given the nature of the offense. A former schoolteacher convicted in 2006 of the rape and murder of twelve year old Susie Cabina, Danes will be remembered for his infamous line of defence. Upon his arrest, he told the police, she should've run faster.
[Execution room]
(A guard pulls back the curtains between the condemned man and the witnesses gathered to watch him die.)
COLE: The condemned is permitted to make a final statement. Do you have anything to say?
(Danes looks at Susie's mother, then shakes his head. The bed tilts back to horizontal and Guard Cole leaves the room. An anonymous person triggers the series of liquids that course into Dane's veins to kill him. He jerks and twitches, tearing off the arm support. Guards rush in and one draws the curtains again.)
[CIA Analysts Office / Car]
(In an office devoted to computer monitoring.)
ESTHER: Did you ever hear of Torchwood?
(She is talking to an African American man who is driving in heavy rain.)
REX: Never mind that. Guess what I just heard. You know Steve Reynolds? Well, it turns out his wife is sick. She has like leukemia or something like that. Whatever it is, it sounded long term.
ESTHER: It's British. The Torchwood Institute.
REX: Hello? Are you listening? You see, if Steve's got to come home that leaves a space in Venezuela, and I spent eighteen months working out the Maracaibo routes, so it's mine. I get promoted!
ESTHER: Congratulations.
REX: Thank you.
ESTHER: And Steve's only been married six months.
REX: What do you want from me, you know? It's a tragedy.
ESTHER: All the same, this thing might be worth following. It just got sent down. The word Torchwood has been emailed to every single East coast section chief completely bypassing security. Just one word. Torchwood.
NOAH: Following up this Torchwood incident, wondering if you can access the EU files.
(Another CIA operative is talking to another person on her headset.)
CHARLOTTE: No, no, no, it's not, it's not Touchwood, it's Torchwood. T O R C H W
REX: So what is Torchwood anyway?
ESTHER: I've looked it up. It's some pretty freaky stuff. I'll send it to you now.
REX: It sounds more intelligence, not clandestine.
NOAH: Are you getting this?
(The screens are starting to display static.)
REX: And if it's got the title Institute, that means that it's been officially sanctioned by the UK government, which we all know is a big hassle because that administration is like kindergarten.
ESTHER: It's gone. It just got wiped, like a virus. It just vanished.
REX: Okay. I guess that's that. Now go ask around about Steve's wife. Get a proper diagnosis. We need a timeline on this. And pass that Torchwood thing on to somebody else. It has absolutely nothing to do with me.
(The truck ahead of Rex brakes suddenly. Its load of steel pipes shoot off the back and through his windscreen, impaling him in his seat.)
ESTHER: Rex? Rex?
[Bedroom]
(Gwen Cooper Williams awakes with a start.)
RHYS: You okay?
GWEN: Yeah. Yeah. Don't know. Just, bad dream.
RHYS: What about?
GWEN: Oh. Oh, what do you think. Torchwood.
[Emergency clinic]
PARAMEDIC: His pulse is fast and weak. Systolic BP of seventy. Beats me how he's still alive.
VERA: Rex, my name is Doctor Juarez, okay? We're taking you straight into surgery. Do you understand?
ESTHER: Is he okay? His name is Rex Matheson.
VERA: You family?
ESTHER: No, I'm just a colleague. We work in the same
VERA: It's family only. He's the second one tonight. DOAs who just won't die.
PARAMEDIC: We had a jumper this afternoon. Twenty two floors, everything pulverised. Pneumothorax both sides, but she wouldn't die. Same thing. Just wouldn't die.
[Welsh Farm]
(A black helicopter flies over the remote farmhouse where Gwen and Rhys are living. Rhys is working in their vegetable garden.)
RHYS: Don't be so suspicious.
GWEN: What they flying past for?
RHYS: Because they can. This is God's own country, that's all. Just looking. Now stop it.
(It is 8 am. Gwen goes inside to feed their child.)
[Farmhouse]
GWEN: So went outside all on my own. It was midnight, not a sound to be heard. And I looked up and a woman came out of the sky. Oh, shining she was, like moonlight. Her eyes white, blazing white. And then she started to sing like a thousand choirs. One woman with a thousand voices and it was beautiful.
RHYS: That's enough, don't you think?
GWEN: Who's being paranoid now?
RHYS: You promised me you'd keep her away from this stuff.
GWEN: Yeah, well, be fair. She's too young. She thinks it all sounds like a fairy tale.
RHYS: It was a nightmare, Gwen. Your life back then was a living nightmare, love.
(Knock, knock, knock.)
RHYS: There's someone at the door.
GWEN: Shush.
RHYS: What do we do?
GWEN: Shush.
RHYS: You and
(More knocks. They get weapons from their extensive armoury. Gwen answers the door to a pair of middle-aged hikers.)
MAN: Ah, hello.
WOMAN: Sorry.
MAN: I hope we're not disturbing you. Just wondering, if we're going back to the village, is it quicker to cut back across to the beach or would we get cut off at this time of the day? Better to ask, I thought, just in case.
WOMAN: We have got proper shoes. We can get across nice and quickly.
GWEN: It's private property. I'm busy.
(She shuts the door on them, and they leave.)
RHYS: Get off my land.
GWEN: Shush. I could have shot them.
RHYS: Hey, hey. We're safe, sweetheart. No one knows we're here. All that stuff's long since gone. No more Torchwood, right?
GWEN: Yeah. Okay.
RHYS: It's gone. Forgotten, eh?
GWEN: Yeah, all right. Sorry. Okay.
RHYS: Come here.
[Hospital]
(Washington DC, 3 am. Esther is in a waiting room when Vera comes by.)
VERA: Popular man, Rex Matheson. We've had three different station chiefs on the phone. No sign of his family?
ESTHER: We only have a number for his father. I left a message, but no one's called back. Is he?
VERA: No. No, he made it. He's alive.
ESTHER: God! Er, thank you. I. The paramedics, they said he didn't stand a chance.
VERA: Well, looks like someone changed the rules. Miracles got easy. It's not only Rex who's still alive. So is everyone else.
ESTHER: Sorry, I don't get you.
VERA: It started last night.
(They get coffee from a machines.)
VERA: First I knew, they called up from the morgue. They were laughing. They said, what's happening up there? You on strike? Turns out no one had died. Twenty four hours since this hospital had a death. Not one. Not from old age, not from injury, not from sickness, all day long.
ESTHER: Just a coincidence, I suppose.
VERA: That's what I said, yeah. Then I was on a call to Saint Jude's in Chicago. And they said, well, here's a funny thing. Past twenty four hours, we've registered no deaths, not one. So I called my ex-husband. He's at Cedarbrook. Same story. All day, no deaths. I tried London. I have this friend at the Royal Free Hospital. I called her. She said, Oh, that's weird. It's the same thing over here. Twenty four hours, no one's died. What do you think of that, hmm? One lucky day.
AWM REPORTER: The survival of Oswald Danes turns out to be the first incident in a much bigger story breaking live this morning.
MALE ANCHOR: When the Kentucky Medical Authority made a chance comment that it hadn't recorded a single death over twenty four hours
SENIOR MALE ANCHOR: Seventeen more authorities immediately reported the same thing. The story exploded on social network sites.
(Spanish language reporter.)
AWM REPORTER: Miracle trending as the number one topic. From Maine to California, the story is the same.
MALE ANCHOR: For the past thirty six hours
ALL: No fatalities have been reported.
REPORTER: No one has died.
MALE ANCHOR 2: Not one person in the United States
MALE ANCHOR: Not a single death.
ALL: Miracle Day.
SENIOR MALE ANCHOR: Miracle Day. That's what's being called.
MALE ANCHOR: Miracle Day.
[Montrose Hill State Penitentiary visiting room]
PETERSSEN: Mister Danes, I'm Alexander Peterssen representing the governor's office.
DANES: What, I don't get a personal visit?
PETERSSEN: I'm afraid not, given the circumstances. But the governor's office would like to offer its condolences without an admission of liability for any physical distress caused by events beyond its control.
DANES: Condolences? He can't just say sorry?
PETERSSEN: You have to respect his position. You're a convicted pedophile, sir, and a convicted murderer. By your own admission, you took the life of a twelve year old girl, so the governor's apology is always gonna be within certain limits.
DANES: When are you gonna let me go?
PETERSSEN: Well, I don't think that's possible.
DANES: I've served my sentence.
PETERSSEN: Granted, the execution was flawed, but that doesn't defer the sentence. With respect, you don't reprieve a man you failed to hang because the rope snapped.
DANES: Indeed. And with respect, that particular aphorism applies only for an execution which has failed.
PETERSSEN: And that's you.
DANES: On the contrary, I would maintain, and my lawyers would maintain, my sentence was carried out successfully. Nothing went wrong absolutely nothing. The fact that life and the laws of life on this Earth have changed is hardly my fault.
PETERSSEN: Society is full of out there laws, Mister Danes. Nonetheless, they still apply.
DANES: That's right, Mister Peterssen. And when considering the persistence of the law, then the Eighth Amendment clearly forbids the application of cruel and unusual punishment, such as mine, alongside the Fifth Amendment and I quote, nor shall any person be subject for the same offence twice. The Founding Fathers practically had me in mind when they wrote the Constitution. Don't you think though? Don't you think? Because I can guarantee, Mister Peterssen, that when I talk of lawyers, I mean the team who will be suing the governor and I mean the governor himself. Not his office, but the actual man. They will be suing him for wrongful imprisonment. And I promise you that they will sue his ass to high heaven till angels sing songs of him in their laments. Is that clear?
PETERSSEN: Perfectly.
DANES: Then go tell him, because with every passing second that's a million dollars more. Mister Peterssen, thank you. Thank you very much.
[CIA Analysts Office]
CHARLOTTE: Hey. Heard about Rex. Is he okay?
ESTHER: Yeah. Thought it was a miracle, turns out it's everyone. Did you get any more on that Torchwood thing?
CHARLOTTE: No, it's been shut down. Orders of Brian Friedkin? Goes through his office only. Case closed.
ESTHER: But what was it? Because the way those files disappeared
CHARLOTTE: The world changed overnight, yeah? Some old British thing is not on the top of the list.
ESTHER: Torchwood. If that wasn't a virus, it's got to be some sort of malware.
NOAH: It's like nothing I've ever seen. The word Torchwood is vanished. It's been eradicated. If you search for Torchwood, you get no results. Nothing gets no results.
ESTHER: Then there's got to be something on paper.
NOAH: The shelves are bare. It's all gone to Friedkin. I asked Yvonne. Ahem. She said it was classified under the 456 regulations. She said you want to stay away.
ESTHER: Why?
NOAH: They all died. So the story goes. Anyone that worked for Torchwood was killed in action. And they died young.
[Hospital room]
NURSE: Seen the TV? It's not just you.
(He flicks through the multitude of news reports and vox pop.)
TV: This goes beyond America. It's worldwide. You've got the same reports from Europe, from Asia, from Africa. Every death is different. You can't suspend death like it's a fixed concept. This goes against the fundamental rules of life on Earth. They shot him! They shot my brother like bam, bam, bam, but you know, he's still alive and his heart's still going. He reached out.
WNKW: Whether it's a disease or an experiment or a project gone wrong, it's obvious we're the victims now. We're the lab rats.
ANGRY NURSE [on TV]: These people are dead. That's what they are. Dead people sitting up in bed. They terrify me. I'm not touching them. I'm sorry, but they should be corpses. That's what they are, living corpses.
(Rex pulls out his tubes and the nurse runs in. Later, when he has calmed down -)
VERA: The metal missed the spine, but the pericardium was lacerated and a coronary artery was crushed and thrombosed. That's the one in your leg. I had to transplant a section of vein from your thigh.
REX: But how did I survive?
VERA: I don't know. But even when your heart stopped beating, the process continued. The process of life, the viability of the flesh, the transfer of oxygen. It just didn't stop.
REX: But do I get better? Do I heal? Or do I just hurt for the rest of my life? Because if this thing keeps going, the rest of my life is forever, right?
VERA: Rex, now listen to me. Because you might want to take something under consideration. That maybe you were lucky. You should've died last night, but when this thing happened, the miracle, it gave me time to fix you. Without the miracle, you'd be dead.
REX: It's like someone cast a spell over the whole world. But what happens when it stops, huh? What happens to me then? Do I die?
[Farmhouse]
RHYS: Oh, you are so cheating.
GWEN: Cheating? How can I cheat painting a wall? Only a man could turn this into a competition.
RHYS: You just went whoosh.
GWEN: Well, look, whoosh.
RHYS: With one stroke. That's hardly a coat.
(A mobile phone rings. They have a signal in the middle of nowhere?)
GWEN: Oh, bollocks. Oh bollocks, bollocks.
(She goes to get it from the drawer.)
RHYS: It might be nothing.
GWEN: There's only one reason why that phone could ring. Look, where have you put it? Where have you put it?
RHYS: It's in here, it's in here.
(Gwen finds and answers it.)
GWEN: What is it? What is happened?
[Cardiff]
ANDY: This is Sergeant Davison with a phone-in report of one suspect, male, in the vicinity of Saint Helen's Hospital, Cardiff City. Suggest rendezvous at oh two hundred hours in the agreed position.
[Farmhouse]
GWEN: It's my dad. He's in hospital. Er, I've got to see him. I'm sorry, Rhys. We've got to go back.
[CIA Archive]
ARCHIVIST: Friedkin's office took all the Torchwood files, cleared us out.
ESTHER: I know. He sent me the double check. Because files get left behind, and especially if there's a hard copy inside an associated pile. That sort of thing always gets missed. Just need to check on all the associations.
ARCHIVIST: Okay.
ESTHER: Not sure where to begin.
ARCHIVIST: Better find out then.
ESTHER: Right. Okay. Thanks.
(So Esther searches the stacks, up ladders and on her hands and knees. Finally she finds a partially redacted one that references the 456 files as XR-ed under the JF3238 designation.)
ESTHER: 456. 456. 456. 456!
(Bingo! Newspaper cuttings about Children Of Earth, files and photographs of the Torchwood team. She looks up to see a shadowy figure in a long coat.)
JACK: Come with me.
(She runs. The Archivist is still at his desk, his chest covered in blood.)
JACK: Down!
(Esther ducks. Jack shoots the man with the machine gun in the neck.)
ESTHER: Oh, my God. Is he gonna die?
JACK: Don't worry about it. No one dies these days.
ASSASSIN: You want to bet?
(Jack rips open the man's flak jacket to reveal lots of packs of C4 explosive. They jump out of a window just as the bomb goes off, and land in the ornamental fountain outside the building.)
JACK: Whoa. Anyway, Captain Jack Harkness. Nice to meet you.
[Outside the CIA Archive]
(They watch the fire department arrive to deal with the fire. Jack brings Esther a bottle of water.)
JACK: Here you go.
ESTHER: That man
JACK: He was after me, not you.
ESTHER: Why? Why would he want you dead?
JACK: On the very day that no one's dying? Wish I knew. And what got you so involved?
ESTHER: I'm not even authorized for this, but this friend of mine, I was telling him about Torchwood and he crashed his car while I was talking to him. And I can't help but thinking that it's all my fault.
JACK: I know the feeling.
ESTHER: So what is Torchwood?
JACK: Torchwood no longer exists.
ESTHER: Then what was it? Because there were photos in that file of a man who looked just like you, but it said 1939, then 1925. Is he your father?
JACK: I suppose it must be.
ESTHER: Are you all right?
JACK: Yeah. I hurt my arm.
ESTHER: Considering what we just went through, I would say that was a miracle.
JACK: Yeah, another one. The Torchwood Institute was set up by the British royal family in 1879 to defend the realm of Great Britain by investigating the unusual, the strange and the alien.
ESTHER: I'm kind of guessing alien doesn't mean foreign.
JACK: Alien as in extraterrestrial.
ESTHER: Oh, my God.
JACK: This whole situation worldwide, that's exactly the kind of thing we used to investigate.
ESTHER: Torchwood, they said that people died, but there was that other photo. Gwen Cooper. There was no date of death.
JACK: She's still alive. The last one left. And I'm gonna keep her safe, which means making sure that the Institute stays dead and buried.
ESTHER: So that first email last night, the one that just said Torchwood?
(Esther takes a drink of water.)
JACK: Wasn't me. God knows who it was. But that was enough to call me back, and I got to work releasing the malware, destroying hard copies, removing all traces of the word, using Retcon. What's Retcon?
ESTHER: What's Retcon?
JACK: It's a smart drug. Selective amnesia.
ESTHER: No.
JACK: You won't remember a thing.
(Jack catches Esther as she passes out.)
JACK: Nice to meet you, Esther.
[Hospital room / Corridor]
WVBS: The fire at the CIA archive is now under control
(Rex is on his phone to Vera in another part of the hospital.)
REX: An explosion right at our doorstep. It's a gift. Now take a look at the victims. Are they dead or not?
VERA: You're not the first to think of it, Mister Matheson. Now, you can stop running the case from a hospital bed.
REX: Wait, wait, wait, what are you talking about? Who else is there?
VERA: I really can't talk.
REX: Who else is onto this?
VERA: I'll check the Ringmain.
REX: The what? Hello?
(Jack is in a dark suit. He meets Vera and they are escorted by men with lots of gold braid on their uniforms.)
JACK: FBI.
[Hospital room]
REX: Hey, my man, what the hell is the Ringmain?
MALE NURSE: It's the internal cameras. Security system, that's all.
(Rex makes another call. Reaching over for his laptop hurts. )
REX: Yeah. Yeah, this is Rex Matheson with the CIA. Put me on with your chief of security. Yeah, right now.
[Mortuary]
(Vera and Jack enter.)
SANTINI: Session begins supervised by attending surgeon Professor Victor Louis Santini and witnesses to be listed in the hospital register. The purpose of this enquiry is to determine. Well, as you'll see, following the explosion at the CIA archive
[Hospital room]
REX: Got it.
(Rex logs into Ringmain using Admin123. He watches the autopsy.)
[Mortuary]
SANTINI: One of the victims has been
(The pieces under the white sheet groan.)
SANTINI: Yes, I think we can. I'm sorry. They brought me in as an expert, but I don't know what the hell this is.
(The assistants remove the sheet. The humanoid remains are bits of bone and muscle, all burnt and flayed.)
SANTINI: We think this man was right at the centre of the blast, and yet he's still alive. Clearly, the skin is burnt. He's not indestructible, just undying. Everliving. We're going to need a new vocabulary. But we're getting the same results from all over the world.
VERA: Is that actual consciousness? It seems like he's still aware.
JACK: Excuse me, I was wondering. Owen Harper, FBI. But what if you detach the head? I mean, would he stay alive without his head?
SANTINI: I suggest we find out.
VERA: Excuse me. you can't do that. I mean you literally can't. This man is not dead. He's our patient.
SANTINI: Your comments have been noted, Doctor Juarez. Now, shall we begin?
(Professor Santini begins to cut the bits that are connecting the skull to the torso. After a few moments, the eyes open.)
VERA: Oh my God.
SANTINI: Don't tell me this is a virus or evolution or whatever. This is deliberate intervention. I mean, all of us have been changed by design.
VERA: But how? Who could do this?
SANTINI: Well, who's got the technology? Simple answer. No one on this Earth.
[Cardiff]
(Rhys and Gwen park their car by a shrine in front of the hospital. People are lighting candles.)
GWEN: What the hell?
ANDY: Long time no see.
GWEN: Oh, my God. Hey.
ANDY: And you, big lunk. Daddy Day Care. Look at her. So your father had a mild heart attack on Saturday night and then a second on the Sunday, and that was quite bad, to be honest. But he's stable now. He's out of ICU. Funny thing is, if you're gonna get sick, he didn't half choose the right day.
GWEN: What do you mean?
ANDY: Look at them. They're all gathering around the hospitals like they're the new churches. I'm not kidding. We've had doctors being worshipped since Miracle Day.
GWEN: What's Miracle Day?
ANDY: Are you kidding me? Haven't you heard?
GWEN: Heard what?
ANDY: Come on. It started two nights ago. People stopped dying. They still get hurt, sick, they just won't die.
[Cardiff hospital room]
(Gwen's mother is sitting with her father.)
MARY: Oh, you silly girl. I said stay away.
GWEN: How could I do that, Mam?
MARY: What if someone sees you? It's not safe. You told me. What if someone's watching?
(Rhys carries their daughter in.)
MARY: Oh, look at her. Come here. Oh, good God, she's enormous.
RHYS: That's your grandma, remember?
MARY: How could she? Never sees me, does she? Not since the day she was born. Oh, hey, come see your granddad.
GWEN: Hi, Dad. Hey. It's me. Hello.
GERAINT: You shouldn't have.
GWEN: Well, there we are, then. Tough. And you can stop all this nonsense, okay? I want you up and out this bed, lazy old thing.
GERAINT: Ah, there she is. Princess.
MARY: Look at her though. She's huge.
GWEN: She's perfectly normal, Mam.
MARY: I thought you were being frugal. What are you feeding her, lard?
GWEN: Yes, Mam. I'm feeding her lard. Keep telling her that, and by the time she's thirteen, she'll have a complete psychological complex.
RHYS: Stop it now, you two.
MARY: Sorry.
GWEN: It's okay.
MARY: What do you think it is, Gwen? What happened to us? This never-ending life, what is it?
GERAINT: Should I be dead, sweetheart?
GWEN: I don't know, Dad.
GERAINT: It's the sort of thing your lot used to tackle.
GWEN: Yeah, but Torchwood's gone, Dad. There's no one else left on Earth. Just me, okay? And I'm sorry, because I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do, Dad.
[Nurse's station]
(Jack returns to his hiding place in Washington DC. He climbs a fire escape into an abandoned building and cooks his meal on a small stove. He calls up BBC News on a laptop. Headline, the Death of Death. Gwen and Andy are looking at the same report.)
GWEN: It's all over the world the world. Look. Look at this. Somalia has stopped fighting.
ANDY: Warfare is even worse when the bodies refuse to die. But take a look at North Korea. Huh, spoiling for a fight. They've got a lot of soldiers who think they're immortal.
GWEN: But this miracle, it's specifically human. I mean, it's got to be. This website says if insects stopped dying, we'd be overrun within forty eight hours flat. And that hasn't happened. So this thing is being targeted at us.
ANDY: Have a look-see. Budge over. I've missed all this.
GWEN: I haven't.
ANDY: It's quiet without you.
GWEN: Oh, tush.
ANDY: Here we go, look. Planet Earth. On average, three hundred thousand people die every day. So if they stop dying, that's an extra what, million people in just over three days. Add to that five hundred thousand people born every day.
GWEN: That's another million every two days plus the first million. Bloody hell.
ANDY: That's the fastest population boom in history.
GWEN: We're gonna run out of room.
ANDY: We'll run out of food first. A guy on the telly was saying we've got four months like this. Just four months, and then that's it, society just collapses. Everyone fighting each other for food, like animals.
RHYS: Oi, what are you two doing?
ANDY: I was just asking for some advice.
RHYS: Yeah, don't you start. Gwen?
GWEN: Yes?
RHYS: No more investigations. You promised. We're here to see your Dad. That's it, yeah?
GWEN: Do you want to come and have a look? Come on, bright eyes, follow me.
[Hospital basement]
(There are beds in the tiny corridors.)
GWEN: Look, intensive care overflow. They've got twelve beds with seventeen patients already. What's gonna happen tomorrow? And the day after that? And the day after that? And the day
RHYS: Listen, now. Every time you investigate something, you end up in danger, Gwen.
GWEN: Because I can help.
RHYS: Don't you dare.
GWEN: So you just
RHYS: I said don't you dare! Have you got that? Don't you bloody dare, Gwen! See, the thing is, right, if you think Miracle Day is like a Torchwood case, others are going to think the same, aren't they? They're gonna come looking for you with guns like they did the old days.
GWEN: I suppose, yeah.
RHYS: We shouldn't even be in the city. There are cameras everywhere, man. And it's different now. You've got a daughter, and you can't go putting her into danger. That is why we live in the back of beyond, to keep her safe. We've got to go back.
GWEN: My dad is sick.
RHYS: Oh, think about it! People aren't dying. He's gonna survive.
GWEN: Shush, now. Shush.
RHYS: Think about Anwen. Maybe our daughter's going to live forever.
GWEN: Don't, okay? Don't make her part of this this thing, okay? Don't. Do you think she could?
RHYS: Possible, yeah. See, maybe you should let this happen for once.
GWEN: Let's go home.
RHYS: Yes.
GWEN: Let's go home.
[Esther's apartment]
(Esther wakes up fully clothed, lying on her bed. She gets up and checks why her side is hurting. There is a massive bruise on her torso from the fall.)
ESTHER: What the hell?
(Jack is also sporting bruises and cuts on his arm from broken glass. He hasn't healed.)
[CIA Analysts Office]
TV: The search or suspects continues after last night's massive explosion at the CIA archives
CHARLOTTE: Nice for some, having the morning off?
ESTHER: Yeah, I, er had things to do. Missed all this.
NOAH: You owe me. Yasmin works in Friedkin's office. She got me the last remaining copy of the Torchwood file. Now you can take me to dinner.
(Esther takes the big file and puts it in her desk drawer. Her phone rings.)
ESTHER: Esther Drummond. Hello.
[Hospital room / CIA Analysts Office]
REX: Is there a database correlating mortality rates from every single hospital in the world?
ESTHER: Are you on your cell phone? Because you're not allowed to be using it.
REX: And is anyone talking to morticians? Because, I mean, they've got to be the first to notice, right?
ESTHER: There's nothing. There's no news. The whole thing, it's kind of intangible. How do you investigate something not happening? And all that Torchwood stuff that's gone up to Friedkin.
REX: Oh, yeah? So what's Torchwood got to do with it?
ESTHER: I don't know. It's sort of connected, isn't it?
REX: No. No, it's not. It's a completely different case.
ESTHER: Sure. Of course it is.
REX: Then why'd you mention it?
ESTHER: Don't know. I suppose it just happened at the same time?
REX: So what is Torchwood, anyway?
ESTHER: Er, some kind of British intervention agency. Closed down. Used to specialise in 456 cases and above.
REX: So that first email with Torchwood, you know, the security breach, when did that come through?
ESTHER: Sunday night, twenty two thirty six.
REX: Twenty two thirty six, huh?
ESTHER: Yep.
REX: Twenty two thirty six. Twenty two thirty six was the last reported death. The last death on planet Earth.
ESTHER: Well, that's disputable. They said that the last death was on Monday.
REX: No, no, no. Monday in Shanghai. At eleven thirty six. Washington DC is thirteen hours behind at twenty two thirty six. Both those things happened at the same time. Don't you see? You were right. It's all connected. Torchwood's the key to this whole thing.
(Rex tries to get dressed.)
NURSE: Rex, I've warned you. You're gonna kill yourself!
REX: I can't. That's the point.
(Later, Rex is dressed and on his way out.)
REX: All right, so give me those names again.
ESTHER: Captain Jack Harkness and Gwen Cooper. Zero information on him and no sightings of Cooper for the last twelve months. It's like she's gone underground.
(Rex borrows a crutch and downs some painkillers.)
REX: Yeah, that's them.
ESTHER: The case details have been censored by UNIT Headquarters. This file's got referrals going all the way to Geneva and above. It's way beyond top secret.
REX: Yeah, yeah, yeah. CIA. Move out of my way.
(He takes another bottle of painkillers.)
DOCTOR: You can't take them.
VERA: Rex, what do you think you're doing?
REX: Sorry, Doc, I'm too busy.
VERA: You are in no condition to leave.
(He snatches a wheelchair.)
REX: Oh, I'm not just leaving. I'm flying all the way to the United Kingdom. Esther, book me a flight.
(He wheels himself outside the hospital.)
REX: Hey, CIA. I'm taking that cab. Move the hell out of the way. Move! Now, make sure you get a hold of supplies, because I'm gonna need a requisition fifteen.
ESTHER: What do you need that for?
REX: You do know what a requisition fifteen is, right?
ESTHER: Of course I do. It's clearance to take a handgun on a plane.
REX: Well then, I'm taking a handgun on a plane. Now book that flight.
[CIA Analysts Office / Airport]
(Rex's housekeeper meets him with his passport.)
ESTHER: Okay, your flight departs at oh two hundred hours, but your requisition has been refused.
ROSITA: Tengo tu pasaporte.
REX: If requisitions won't move, then get me a handgun from UK security.
ESTHER: How am I supposed to do that?
REX: Shush! Get me the gun. Rosita, Rosita, here. I don't know when I'm coming back, all right? I don't want you letting your husband into my house. You got that? No husbando. No husbando.
(Rex leaves Rosita holding the hospital crutch.)
[Aeroplane / Esther's apartment]
ANNOUNCEMENT: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to your flight to London Heathrow.
REX: All right, now concentrate. The life of Gwen Cooper. What do we know?
ESTHER: Ex-police. It says that she joined the Torchwood Institute in October 2006.
REX: All right, now hold on, hold on. Go through her police records. Find out everyone she worked with, everyone she trained with.
ATTENDANT: I'm sorry, sir. I have to ask you to turn your phone off now.
REX: CIA, and I'm sick. Gwen Cooper. Find out everything.
ESTHER: I can't get into the database. I'll need your password.
(A hand takes Rex's phone and turns it off.)
ESTHER: Rex!
[Heathrow Airport / Esther's apartment]
(9 am. A policeman lets Rex out of a back door. He has his phone back.)
REX: Hi. So where the hell was I? Right. The password's Madrid 66211. That's Madrid with a capital M. Now go through that list and scan through their records using a level one filter. You should highlight anything with a red flag or a caution pertaining to Homeland Security.
(He collects a gun from a police officer.)
ESTHER: I've got one positive response. Police Sergeant Andrew Davison, Cardiff resident. There's a note in his file says he was Gwen Cooper's unofficial liaison. I can access his private calls.
[Car / Esther's apartment]
ESTHER: I've got to filter this through Whitehall.
(Another bottle of painkillers is finished.)
REX: How long's it gonna take?
ESTHER: Any minute now.
REX: And what the hell is this bridge? The Severn Bridge?
ESTHER: It connects England to Wales.
REX: What, you mean Wales is separate? It's like the British equivalent of New Jersey.
ESTHER: Hold on, hold on. I think I've got something. Sergeant Davison made one call on Tuesday at seventeen oh eight to a number that's on the UK Hickman register. That's a list of cell numbers allocated to witness protection schemes.
REX: That's it then, we've got her.
ESTHER: I can request that through MI5.
(Rex arrives at the toll booths. If he has just crossed over, then he has not used the Severn Bridge but the M4 Second Severn Crossing. Tut. Details are important.)
REX: Now what is this? Wait a minute, I've got to pay for this bridge? Goddamn Wales.
ESTHER: I've traced the handset. Sending you the coordinates now. It's at fifty one degrees thirty four north, four degrees seventeen west.
REX: I got it.
[Welsh Farm]
(Rex and Gwen point guns at each other.)
REX: CIA!
GWEN: Yeah? So what?
(Rex collapses.)
KCNU: Extraordinary scenes in Kentucky as the governor's office releases Oswald Danes on parole. The charity Freedom and Liberty has employed a force majeure ruling to define Danes' survival as an act of God, with liability now on the state to prove otherwise.
[Farmhouse]
(Rex is tied to a radiator with thin rope. One of his chest wounds has been bleeding again.)
GWEN: Right, we're off. We're gonna get a good head start and phone you an ambulance. Don't follow us. Don't even try. We just want to be left alone, okay?
(Rex easily gets free.)
GWEN: Hold it right there, mate. So much for tying him up.
RHYS: I've never tied up a person.
GWEN: Men are good at knots. How many times have you told me that?
RHYS: Yeah, at Christmas.
REX: Hey! Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. I had a pole through my chest. I was dead, then I wasn't. I had to pay for this Bridge and now I want to know what the hell is going on, all right? Because I was dead and now I'm not. And if that has anything to do with Torchwood or you or anyone, then I need.
(A helicopter is hovering, looking through a window.)
REX: You know, it would really help if could hear myself think. What the hell is he doing?
RHYS: It's a tourist thing.
GWEN: No. No, I don't think it is. Oh, sweetheart.
(A man fires a bazooka from the helicopter. It goes through the window, through the house and impacts on the slope behind them.)
GWEN: Get back!
(Gwen shoots their would-be assassin whilst holding Anwen in her arms, and the helicopter flies off.)
GWEN: Get in the car. Come on!
(They are strafed as they run. Jack shoot a machinegun at the helicopter from his open top Land Rover 90.)
JACK: Can't leave you alone for a minute.
REX: It's you.
(Rex recalls when his phone was taken off him on the aeroplane.)
REX [memory]: Gwen Cooper. Find out everything.
JACK [memory]: She said to turn off the phone.
JACK: Never annoy me again. Now get in.
[Land Rover]
(The helicopter chases them along the long, smooth beach. Pendine Sands?)
JACK: Duck!
RHYS: Jack, for God's sake, there's a kid here!
JACK: I got a present for you in the back.
RHYS: Give her to me, Gwen, the baby.
JACK: You there, CIA, do something useful.
REX: Wales is insane. Get down!
(Rex fires the machinegun at the helicopter. Then Jack comes to a halt and Gwen hefts their bazooka onto her shoulder.)
REX: Who the hell are you people?
GWEN: Torchwood.
(She fires. They have to duck as the burning helicopter passes overhead before crashing into the sand.)
[Roald Dahl Plass]
(10 pm)
GWEN: Right, so that's sorted. Rhys, take Anwen to my mother's and keep her safe and sound. Jack, if you've got access to any weapons, what else have we got? I've still got the old Eye 5s, but everything else is gone.
RHYS: I knew it though. Didn't I say? First sign of trouble, you go running off with Captain Jack Bollocks.
GWEN: What choice have I got? I mean, they rebuilt to the tower, now we're rebuilding Torchwood. Isn't that right, Jack? You even listening to me?
JACK: I cut my arm.
GWEN: Okay. Can't help but thinking there's more important things to be worrying about here.
JACK: No. I cut my arm. Look at it. It's not healing.
GWEN: Do you mean
JACK: I'm staying hurt.
GWEN: Oh, my God.
JACK: I know.
GWEN: Seriously, though.
RHYS: It's only a cut.
GWEN: But it's Jack. Don't you see? The whole world becomes immortal
JACK: And I mortal. I don't mend. I'm normal again. I'm plain old human.
REX: You're what?
JACK: Doesn't concern you.
REX: You talk some crazy shit, you know that?
GWEN: You should get that seen to.
REX: Yeah, any minute now. Ah, here comes my ride.
(Sirens approach. They try to run but get cut off by armed police.)
GWEN: Andy, you can't do this.
ANDY: Orders from above. I'm sorry. He's in charge.
JACK: Since when?
RHYS: He can't arrest us. He's American.
REX: I hate to bust up your sweet little tea party, but this isn't an arrest. This is a rendition. And on behalf of the CIA, under the 456 amendments to US code 3184, I'm extraditing this so-called Torchwood team to the United States of America. Now, get me out of here. Take me home.
Source : https://www.chakoteya.net/Torchwood/401.htm
