Hey.
Colonel, give us the room, please.
Four years retired yet two salutes?
- Shows respect. - Have a seat.
Do you know who I am?
No.
Well, if you were to guess.
Judging by your age, appearance,
and how a Marine colonel just followed your order without a yip,
I'd guess you're some kind of high-level spook.
Your father and grandfather served?
Yes.
As an elite sniper, you have 113 confirmed kills
and an additional 81 probable kills.
Are those numbers accurate?
No.
- Are the actual numbers fewer or greater? - Greater.
As a veteran, how many private contractors have you worked for?
Eleven.
But you also still work for the Marine Corps on occasion?
Anytime they call.
And are you presently under any private or military contract?
No.
You're an extremely rare talent, Levi.
Why not?
In June, some corporate shrink told me that I was unfit for a mission,
but I'm sure you already know that.
So why are you asking me?
Do you think you're fit for service?
Doesn't matter what I think.
So, do you presently have a girlfriend?
Anyone special?
Someone who couldn't live without you?
- No. - Why not?
Just not how it goes for me.
How about meds, illegal drugs, alcohol?
No drugs.
But if I time it right,
three and a half ounces of booze right before I go to bed helps with the dreams.
Have you tried Nitrazepam or Prazosin?
Have you ever killed someone at long range?
Pills affect my accuracy.
Levi, you could have contested the psych test and seen another doctor.
Why didn't you?
I had no reason to.
You had no reason?
There's not a lot of reasons for me right now.
What if I gave you a reason?
Hey, Daddy.
To music.
My Little Lion...
How are you?
You know.
Better now I see you.
There is a rumor you were photographed in Belarus.
A drone.
Is that possible?
Moscow cannot risk having a direct link to the oligarch's death.
He had four children.
Give it to me.
Give me your shame.
The Belarusian made himself rich trading in white phosphorus bombs and land mines.
How many children's legs were lost?
How many little faces were forever burnt by those transactions?
You give the shame to me...
And you move forward.
It's not so easy anymore.
I don't sleep.
Sometimes for days.
Stay with me for a week or two.
And we'll make a stew. It would be good for both of us.
I can't.
Rabinovich has ordered me to a briefing first thing tomorrow morning in Moscow.
To hell with Rabinovich, and to hell with Moscow.
You're not Russian, you're Lithuanian.
He says I'll be going dark for at least a year.
Perhaps more.
Hey.
Did you go to the doctor I arranged for you?
The specialist?
- Yes, I did. - And?
There's nothing to be done.
Look at me, I'm a wretch.
Cancer eats me from the inside out.
Liver, pancreas.
Death will be a welcome change.
And what if I'm not back?
You'll be alone, and I won't even know when it happens.
An easy solution.
I've already decided.
February 14th, Valentine's Day.
What are you talking about?
I'm going to do it myself.
Assuming I'm not already dead, of course.
Dad.
- Dad, you're not... - It's my life to take.
I will be ready to finally rest here next to your mother.
So, wherever you are, you light a candle for me,
you look at the Hunter in the night sky, then you'll know.
Come on now, Little Lion.
Let's have our beer,
play a song,
and say a proper goodbye.
Place your left hand on the pad.
Put your watch, your smart phone, and your ID in the case.
It just tells time.
In three minutes, we reach the edge of the no-fly zone.
That's as far as we can take you.
From the drop, you'll have another 38 klicks north on foot.
You're expected by 1600 hours tomorrow.
Open it on the ground.
Where are we?
I'm not authorized to answer that.
At long last, my sweet prince has come.
Punctual even. Spot on time. What a guy.
Jasper D. Drake, Royal Marines Commandos. Just call me JD.
Levi Kane, former US Marine, scout sniper.
Mercenary?
Private contractor.
So, what did they tell you about this mission?
Not a damn thing.
They gave me an unmarked topo map.
I don't even know what country I'm in.
I've been here an entire year and I have no idea where I am.
It's messed up, right?
But that is just the tippity-top of the iceberg.
Man, am I glad to see you.
Not a lot of contact, huh?
You're the first person I've spoken to face-to-face in a year.
You're all alone out here?
And my tour rotation officially ends at midnight.
- So I'm the relief? - Affirmative.
Look, we'll get a drink and I'll explain everything.
There she is.
West Tower Observation Post.
Your home away from home for the next 365 days.
Completely self-sufficient, solar with a generator backup, rain system,
wild game is plentiful, and there's a garden right there.
Everything you need.
What's that on the other side?
That is East Tower.
Contact with the other side is strictly forbidden,
which is irrelevant given the land mines and lethal tactical barriers
to the north and south of the Gorge.
Can't get to the other side anyway.
In practical terms, East Tower is not an issue.
They do their thing. You do yours.
I did see movement over that side earlier this morning.
Think they just completed their annual rotation too.
Theoretically, the job's simple.
You're not the principal line of defense.
You're more like a highly skilled maintenance man.
Every day, you walk the western rim.
There are automatic Phalanx gun turrets every 600 meters or so.
You restock the ammo in the auto gun,
check the containment fence, cloakers and suspended mines.
There's an armory in the bunker outside. Weapons, tools, replacement ammo, mines.
Whatever you need.
Radio check every 30 days.
What's a cloaker?
Cloaker is a type of satellite transmitter.
There's one every kilometer or so along the rim,
each with its own power and backup power source.
- What do they do? - They cloak.
They send a false signal to all the satellites
that pass overhead on a given day.
They're designed to render the Gorge invisible to spy satellites,
but they also work with shit like Google Earth.
There is no outside communication here.
No cell, no sat, no nothing.
In case of an emergency, there's a panic button
on the dedicated shortwave radio you use for monthly radio checks.
Button triggers a signal, which lets them know that...
Let's who know?
The powers that be, mate.
Whoever.
Did you spy the old air-raid sirens atop the tower?
If, somehow, all the cloakers fail at once or if the Gorge is ever overrun,
their automated system executes something called a Straydog protocol.
Straydog protocol.
- What is that? - No idea.
But if you hear those air-raid sirens, you run like hell.
Copy that.
Look, here's the deal.
This place is old.
I'm talking end of the Second World War, early Cold War shit.
And it's secret.
Way back then, an agreement was made,
and a coalition formed to keep it a secret.
So, now, every year, a new representative from one of the western nations
patrols the western rim and someone on the other side patrols the eastern rim.
They're your counterpart.
You're telling me leaders from the East and West
have been secretly working together for the last 75 years?
No. I'm telling you there have been nine Soviet Russian heads of state
and 13 US presidents since the coalitions were formed.
And not one of them has known about the Gorge.
Give that a spin.
Potato vodka. The still is in the armory.
That's good.
The recipe's been passed down for decades. So please don't mess it up.
Listen, I'm sorry, man. But I just feel like I'm missing something.
So apart from keeping this place a secret, what's the mission?
I need to keep people from going in the Gorge?
No.
You need to stop what's in the Gorge from coming out.
A year ago, I was in your boots and my predecessor gave me the exact same speech.
And what did I think of him?
- That he's completely full of shit. - Exactly.
But trust me, keep your eyes on the central Gorge walls.
They're the most scalable.
Sensor miniguns further north and south should take care of the rest.
Scale wh... Take care of what?
What the hell is that?
That is what we call the Hollow Men.
Nobody knows exactly what they are.
I don't even know why they're called that.
- It's the name of a T.S. Eliot poem. - I don't know anything about that.
All I know is that someone who had our job called them that a long time ago
and the name stuck.
What I can tell you is in the late 1940s,
they sent three entire battalions,
2,400 men on horseback, into the Gorge to clean it out.
Not a single man returned.
After that, they shifted to a purely containment strategy.
- How do you know all this? - Same way you do.
We're all briefed by our predecessor.
- Okay, so this could be one... - A decades-long game of telephone.
Yeah.
JD, what do you think's really going on here?
Well, the theory I think summarizes the situation most succinctly
is the Gorge is the door to hell and we're standing guard at the gate.
- Take care of yourself. - Good luck, man.
Man, am I happy to see you.
Right on, brother!
I need you to quickly confirm your identity.
Jasper D. Drake. Countersign: blue arrow.
Thank you for your service.
Rotation complete.
Copy that.
This is West Tower performing radio check.
Do you copy?
I repeat, this is West Tower performing radio check.
Do you copy? Over.
Authentication code?
Alpha, Bravo, nine, seven, Omega.
- Enemy contact? - Negative.
Cloaker status?
Green.
Procedure is complete.
30 days until next radio check.
- Wait, I have a question that... - Procedure is complete.
Robert Frost.
"If you're lonely when you're alone, you're in bad company.
Sartre.
Jasper 'JD' Drake."
"Everything is a dangerous drug except reality, which is unendurable.
Connolly. Captain Getty Frederick. 1986."
"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.
T.S. Eliot.
Captain Bradford Shaw. 1947."
Oh, shit.
May you have a very long life
We wish you
A very
Long life
Hurray, hurray, hurray
"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."
What are you doing?
Shit.
Oh, my, my, my.
Good evening, Drasa.
Even though I'm not supposed to be here.
Good evening, Levi.
And we're cloaked, so who's watching?
I made rabbit pie.
Do you like rabbit pie?
I intend to.
What's that you're growing?
I brought you flowers.
'Course you did.
Thank you.
You're staring.
Sorry. It's...
Yes?
There's a lot more green in your eyes than I was expecting.
You smell.
Terribly.
I know.
I underestimated the cable sag.
I had to do the back half by hand.
Yeah. I don't think I can allow you to come in smelling this way.
Why don't you go wash up quick at the bathhouse?
I'll set out some fresh clothes from my predecessors outside the door.
Yukon? Siberia? Remote Scandinavia, maybe?
I don't know. They sedated me on the flight.
- I'm not sure how long I was out. - Same.
It's somewhere in the far northern hemisphere though.
I know that much.
How can you be so sure about that?
The seasons.
It was early fall when I left the States.
It was still fall when I arrived.
Military?
Marines.
Former.
What's the longest kill shot you've ever made?
Don't say that you don't know.
Every top-shelf sniper knows the distance of every ticket
they've ever punched, so come on.
3,241 meters.
Thirty-two hun...
A kill shot?
Yeah.
That would put you in...
Top five in the world.
Did you make that impossible shot in Yemen, May of last year?
I did not participate in,
nor do I have any knowledge of, any operation in Yemen in May of last year.
Rumor was it was windy, 25 knots east to west, with gusts of 40.
That would have been a very, very good shot.
3,800 meters.
World record.
I'd kiss the ring of whoever made that shot.
Too bad it wasn't you.
What?
I've been staring at this gorge every day for the last six months.
And I gotta say, the view is much better over here.
You know what I keep thinking about, night after night,
while I sit over there on that platform?
How you're gonna get in my pants?
Well, after that.
Yes, after that, sorry.
Please, tell me. What have you been thinking about?
What's the truth about this place?
What's the truth about those Hollow Men down in the Gorge?
You know,
a long time ago, before I was born,
my father was KGB.
And years later, when I was a child, he would say to me...
"Drasa, my Little Lion, you don't want to know the truth.
It's better if you don't know."
And I would bitch and whine, and say, "Why, Daddy?
Why don't I want to know the truth?"
What did he say?
He would say,
"Because too much truth puts sadness in your heart
and madness in your mind."
I don't know.
In my experience, it's hiding the truth that does that.
And when did you learn that?
First time I pulled the trigger.
Will you tell me about it?
It was just outside of Belize,
and I was on a fishing boat two klicks away.
I've had the same recurring nightmare about it ever since.
Who have you told this to?
Just you.
Why did you choose this profession?
Hunting was just a part of my homeschooling growing up in Oregon,
and my dad, he was the best instructor I ever had.
He loved it.
He made me love it.
Love what exactly?
The art of the perfect shot.
Yeah.
Do you still love it?
Not like I did.
I can't compartmentalize the way I used to.
My father always heard my secrets.
I didn't have to bury them.
You bury enough secrets, the graveyard runs out of room.
You dragged your mattress up the stairs and made your bed here.
For tactical reasons.
I did the same thing.
Did you lie to me, Levi?
About what?
Being a terrible dancer.
Maybe a little bit.
There.
Those three close together.
Orion's Belt.
I see it.
He told me to look at the Hunter on Valentine's Day
knowing that he had ended it.
I'm sorry.
What do you do when the sadness overwhelms you?
Sometimes I'll read a poem.
Maybe try and write one.
You write poetry?
Almost every day.
Seriously?
I even took a class.
Wednesday nights, 4:00 to 7:00 p.m., at Mesa Community College.
Well, are you talented?
No, I'm terrible.
Sure. Like you're a terrible dancer?
Yeah.
Will you write me a terrible poem?
Maybe I already have.
Recite it for me.
- Absolutely not. - Oh, come on.
No chance in hell.
- At least tell me the title? - No.
Well, then I don't believe you.
You haven't written a terrible poem for me, have you?
I have.
But I just started it.
Then tell me the title.
- It's a working title. - Tell me the working title.
"She Collapsed the Night."
It's that bad?
I love it.
Shit. I love it.
No, you have to tell me.
- Come on. Please. Please. - There's no...
That's not happening.
Did you like the rabbit pie?
No.
I fucking loved the rabbit pie.
No!
Levi!
Don't touch it. It's some kind of adhesive.
Okay.
You came for me.
Like you wouldn't do the same.
- What is this place? - I don't know.
Please tell me you brought an auto ascender.
Of course I did.
Let's head to the east wall and find the cable.
Drasa.
- You good? - Yeah.
What do you think they wanted?
Given how emaciated they are, my guess is that to them we're food.
One of them rode off.
Yeah, I saw that.
No.
- What? - The auto ascender.
Must have fallen out in the river, and it's 500 meters to the top.
We're stuck here.
We follow the river south.
Has to drain out of the Gorge somewhere.
It's a military uniform.
Old military. First Airborne American.
I saw British SAS and a Soviet Spetsnaz back there.
Postwar.
All these uniforms are from the 1940s.
Cavalry on horseback.
They're the lost battalions.
They should be long dead, Levi.
We should keep moving.
"This is the way the world ends.
Not with a bang but a whimper."
It's from the T.S. Eliot poem about people stuck in a world between life and death.
It's called "The Hollow Men."
The Hollow Men.
Yeah.
This damage looks seismic.
Earthquake maybe.
Cyanide.
They chose to do it themselves.
What's worse than death?
This place is evil.
Making a hole!
Shit. They're everywhere. We're too exposed.
The Gorge wall.
Levi.
We get boxed in, we're screwed.
We're screwed anyway.
Barricade.
Levi.
It's a backup generator.
Propane remains stable indefinitely, so...
It is July 12th or 13th, 1946.
Our community here was formed
as part of a top secret coalition of nations from both East and West.
During the last years of World War II,
while Robert Oppenheimer and his Los Alamos community
developed the atom bomb,
we were developing similarly destructive biochemical missiles.
Six days ago, an 8.1 earthquake struck this location,
severely compromising the integrity of our facility.
Our duty here is no longer about research, but containment.
We are working around the clock
to ensure this toxin doesn't escape the Gorge.
Exposure to the biochemical contaminant
has literally merged the genetic DNA of the biological entities
in our gorge environment.
Human DNA has merged with plants, animals and even insects.
Some people are more resistant to contamination than others,
especially if exposure is limited to hours instead of days.
If infected, mutations will begin to appear within five days.
They will present themselves physically, like this.
Our strategic forethought in choosing this isolated location
is the only factor that may possibly save the rest of humankind
from the fate that we have sealed for ourselves.
I'm so sorry.
May God have mercy on our souls.
Sounds like we could be fine if our exposure is limited to hours.
Well, let's find a way out quick then.
What?
Maybe a way out.
That's not from the 1940s.
Late 2000s.
Why not just send in a bomber squadron?
Erase this whole mess and call it a day.
"Darklake." Paramilitary.
They haven't bombed the Gorge
because they're still studying what's in it.
We're not working for the military.
They used all this to set up their research drones.
Darklake is a huge corporation specializing in genetic research.
Their drones are collecting hybrid DNA samples.
They're building super soldiers.
That's the mother of all secrets.
Young soldiers and scientists studied like suffering lab rats.
Private defense contractors have been researching
genetic soldier enhancement for decades,
and everything down here is genetically brand-new.
We're here to protect their secrets.
Before we head out, I need to say something to you.
Let me guess.
It's your poem?
No, it's not my poem.
If something happens, and we don't make it out of here,
and this is the way the world ends, for us anyway,
to me it was worth it
because I got to know you.
It wasn't easy,
getting to know each other.
No, it wasn't.
You ready for this?
We go strong.
My gear pack. I left it here. It has all the ammo in it.
These things can think tactically.
They're playing with us.
They know we can't see a thing.
Let's make it mutual.
Drasa!
I'm going to cut what's left of your ugly face off.
Are you okay?
- I'm okay. I'm okay. - Yeah.
"B. Shaw."
Bradford.
He was the first soldier in the West Tower.
He named the Hollow Men.
Levi.
Where are we?
We're in a chemical missile facility.
I came down a missile silo.
They're the only way out.
The earthquake damaged the missiles, and they started leaking.
The contaminant is in the fog.
I know how we're getting out of here.
These old jeeps have powerful winches.
It'll work just like an auto ascender.
Head to the eastern wall.
The zip line should be close.
There. That's it.
I'm out.
Levi.
Levi!
Toolbox.
No!
The propane!
Cut the rope.
Levi.
It was so surreal down there.
Like a waking nightmare.
That's as close to hell as I ever want to get.
We'll need to quarantine.
Five days.
What if we're infected?
I'll do what's necessary.
Same.
I have radio check tomorrow.
Same.
I don't know how I'm supposed to get back across.
There's a C19 grappling gun in the back.
That should do it.
Well, I guess the Russians stock a better armory.
They also make better vodka.
Here.
To making it out alive.
Do you know why I even got this job?
Because of that impossible shot you made in Yemen?
No, I wasn't lying about that.
I didn't make that shot.
I know.
I know exactly who made that shot.
Why did you get the job?
They chose me because I was expendable.
Expendable?
No attachments.
No one to miss me if I disappeared.
Nothing to live for except the next mission.
But now it's all flipped.
And I have everything to live for.
We could run.
I know a place in France, and we could be safe there.
For as long as we want.
Drasa, I want to leave with you more than anything in the world.
But what about this place?
What about the next pair of soldiers that they bring in here,
and inherit their secrets, and their lies?
And every Hollow Man is a contaminant.
So if one of them gets out...
We need to destroy the Gorge.
Remember, mutations will appear within five days.
So, if we make it to day six, we're in the clear.
- But if not... - If not, we're dead.
But if we're clear, we meet up next week.
We go strong.
- Yes? - Always.
- Lis... - Don't say good-bye.
I don't want to hear you say that.
I wasn't going to say good-bye.
Okay. And what were you gonna say?
That I love you.
This is West Tower performing radio check. Do you copy?
I repeat, this is West Tower performing radio check.
Do you copy? Over.
Authentication code?
Delta, Theta, four, one, Omega.
Stand by.
Levi? Do you know who this is?
Yes.
Our research drone computer system was activated.
Did you go into the Gorge?
Negative. But I did see one of your drones fly out of here.
Seems like you're not a spook after all.
The private sector is where
the most important scientific progress happens these days.
Do you know what kind of work I do here?
I'm assuming the kind that pays well.
Let's just say the primary aim of our research
is to make American ground forces unbeatable
against any foreign army in the world.
I'm sure you can appreciate what we could do with a military like that.
Absolutely.
Levi, have you noticed any movement from your eastern counterpart?
Negative.
Because if it wasn't you that activated our computer system in the Gorge,
I have to assume that it was your eastern counterpart.
There are, after all, only the two of you there.
You are to neutralize your counterpart.
Immediately.
Do you understand?
Consider it done.
Copy that. Thank you, Levi.
Commander, Levi Kane is compromised.
Gather your team. We'll leave in the morning.
You're coming with us, ma'am?
He's my mistake.
I'll kill him myself if I have to.
Run!
There's no sign of Levi Kane anywhere in the tower
or on the surrounding compound.
What if he decided to run?
Raise the quadcopters.
There's no sign of the counterpart either.
If Levi didn't keep his post, why believe that he would have killed her?
Split them up.
Drone protocol, quadcopters, verification...
Commander, what's that on the wall?
"Three things cannot be long hidden:
the sun, the moon and the truth.
Buddha.
Levi Kane."
What the hell was that?
The cloakers. He's rigged the cloakers.
The Gorge is exposed.
Straydog.
We have two minutes.
Prepare for immediate takeoff.
Get us airborne. Now!
Forget altitude! We need distance!
Fast!
Hello, Drasa.
Hello, Levi. You're late.
Sorry. I got injured at my old job.
Well, if you're looking for a new one, the kitchen's hiring.
Got any special skills?
I'm a pretty good shot.
How good?
Last one was 3,900 meters.
Had to beat my record.
I had to get back to you.