(I "Till Then" by The Mills Brothers)
(locks door)
(typewriter clatters)
Nervous?
You can tell?
You can go in now. Mr Tolson's expecting you.
Thanks.
This is the body of Dr Daniel Carew, found in New Mexico two days ago.
Dr Carew was a physicist engaged in an experiment critical to victory in this war.
- What sort of an experiment, sir? - I can only tell you
we can't afford to lose another scientist.
"It must end."
This isn't just a murder, Agent Lanyard.
We're counting on you to be our eyes and
ears, to do the right thing. You understand?
Yes, I think I do, sir.
You'll fly by military transport to Santa Fe.
A car will be waiting for you there.
President Truman, Director Hoover and I are all confident
you can bring this matter to a swift and confidential conclusion.
Who's my contact at the New Mexico field office?
No. No, no.
My card.
With my private number.
Report only to me.
(I “Till Then“)
Are you gonna dance to that or bag it as evidence?
"Till Then". The Mills Brothers. Ever heard of 'em?
Let's wrap this up. The guy obviously offed himself.
Hollis.
What is with the attitude? The guy was an agent.
50 years ago. That's reason to be here? A lot
of old agents wound up eatin' their own guns.
Ness. Melvin Purvis, the guy who got Dillinger.
Hey, take a look at this.
Private number.
- Clyde Tolson? - Hoover's boyfriend.
Vicious rumours, Hollis. Never proven.
I saw a picture of them at Mardi Gras once.
It was proof enough for me.
You wanna at least check out that guest register from the front desk?
We are wasting our time here, Hollis.
They said he had no family. No friends.
I don't know about friends, but take a look at this.
Just yesterday.
Peter Watts.
It was a ritualistic suicide. Period music, clothing.
Personal mementos. FBI issue weapon.
They make you return your weapon when you
leave the Bureau now. Obviously a good idea.
Do you have any idea who this girl is?
There's photographs, all ancient. We're not gonna track everybody down.
This may be an old photograph, but this could have been written yesterday.
"It must end." The guy killed himself. It's a suicide note.
Maybe.
Be honest. What really interests you is Peter
Watts' name in the guest register, right?
- The rest of this stuff... - Agent Lanyard's case files.
Guy had a short, chequered career until...
1945.
He was sent to Los Alamos by Clyde Tolson himself.
It's Agent Lanyard's last case. He goes to Los
Alamos, investigates the murder of a scientist
and then resigns from the Bureau the second he gets back. Does that make sense?
Halt!
Slowly roll down your window. State your name.
Lanyard. FBI.
I'm expected.
Sir.
Welcome to Los Alamos.
Let me make this clear. You will not interfere with the scientists.
You will not ask them about the project, or mention the Gadget.
You will refer to them by badge numbers, not ask their names or backgrounds.
I already have their names and their backgrounds.
And authorisation running up to President Truman to investigate as I see fit.
I'll be starting with Dr Alexander, badge number 633, the man who found the body.
And I won't be needing an escort.
Driver.
These guys are all half-crazy, but Alexander takes the cake.
Have yourself a nice chat.
Dr Alexander?
Hello? Anybody home?
'Warren Km“ .“
Some gadget, huh?
My first G-man.
Aside from the ones who tap my phone and read my mail.
Agent Lanyard. I'm looking into the death of Dr Carew.
Am I a suspect? Is that why you're ransacking my office?
- I understand you found the body. - I did.
Then you know his bones were broken. Not just fractured, but shattered.
This isn't necessary.
Whoever did this is capable of violence, evil.
We're all capable, Mr Lanyard.
Each of us, to a man.
We must be, or we couldn't have created this.
Who's Warren Kroll, Doctor?
- (child) Papa. Papa. - Oh.
Agent Lanyard, allow me to introduce a real secret weapon. Lily Unser.
- She helps me with everything. - Ma'am.
And...
my daughter Natalie.
I'm sorry. I didn't know you had company. She wanted a book before bed.
Mr Lanyard was just leaving.
Right.
(T Olson) I knew General Groves in prep school.
He was a bully then, and he's a bully now.
- I trust you didn't tell him? - No, sir.
Two days before the murder, Warren Kroll was arrested in Santa Fe for assault.
So what's he say?
I haven't talked to him, sir. He's just a name.
Alexander's nanny, um... Lily Unser, posted bail for Kroll.
But I found out that she withdrew $2,000 out of Alexander's account.
- It just reeks of blackmail or espionage. - Espionage?
I have to wonder about this nanny. How many
domestics withdraw their employer's dough?
You're doing a fine job, Agent Lanyard. Keep at it. Go get this Kroll.
But don't overreach yourself. Believe me, we know who the spies are.
Something else. A little girl's involved, Alexander's daughter...
(hangs up)
Sir?
The report just ends. No solution to the case. No conclusions drawn.
Maybe Lanyard was just sloppy.
No. His other cases were detailed, meticulous.
Then he turns this one in half-completed, and resigns.
This has to mean something.
May he rest in peace. Amen.
What are you doin' here, Agent Hollis?
Investigating a death. You?
- Paying my respects to an old friend. - Really?
You only visited once the whole time he was in the retirement home.
And he killed himself the very next day.
Frank says the death is tied to the Group.
Frank says everything is tied to the Group.
We found this on his last report.
He was a Group member, wasn't he?
He was nothing more than a good FBI agent.
What's the connection? The Group, the FBI?
A lot of us are former agents.
There's more to it, though, isn't there? You said once we'd talk.
What we have here, Agent Hollis, is a very lonely old man.
Why don't you leave it at that?
A scientist Lanyard interviewed in Los Alamos, his last case, a Dr Alexander.
What happened to him?
He's supposed to have defected to Russia with enough plutonium to make two bombs.
You can look it up.
Watts was right. According to this, Alexander defected to Russia.
He's not mentioned in the Venona documents.
The Russians say he wasn't theirs.
He made requests for fissionable materials.
He was a theoretical physicist. What did he need it for?
I don't know. But this last batch was never accounted for.
- Do you think he passed it to Kroll? - I don't even know who Kroll is.
He wasn't on any military list, and he wasn't
at Los Alamos in any official capacity.
- It's as if he never even existed. - No plutonium. No Kroll.
(Baldwin) No case.
Autopsy report on Lanyard. Poor bastard
killed himself, like I thought. Case closed.
- There's more to it. - Good luck, because Lanyard's not talking.
Lily Unser.
She bailed Warren Kroll out of jail in Santa Fe using Alexander's bank account.
Like Lanyard said, kind of a cosy relationship for a nanny.
It's still suicide, Hollis.
- That's a lot of information on a nanny. - Maybe she was more than just a nanny.
She's listed here as his assistant in Los Alamos.
Now it looks like she's in the nut file. Writes to the president.
Threats?
Advice.
The president needs advice. Now more than ever.
Ms Unser, we're interested in Warren Kroll.
It's important. Warren Kroll, the man you bailed out of jail in Santa Fe.
While you were working for Dr Alexander.
That was a very long time ago.
Kroll was a suspect in a murder being investigated by an FBI agent.
A Michael Lanyard.
Do you remember Mr Lanyard?
Very handsome man.
He killed himself last week.
Oh, God.
We believe his death is connected with a murder he was investigating in 1945.
Prime suspect was Warren Kroll.
- Do you know where he went? - He didn't go anywhere.
How do you know?
Warren Km“ is dead.
The dotty old woman was an act. When she heard Lanyard died, she was clear.
She confirmed that Km“ existed.
She said he died, that he didn't go anywhere.
He's buried at Los Alamos.
Not under his name. I already checked that.
Los Alamos was filled with nameless people.
You checked your name and became a number.
People lived and died and were born with no names.
They gave you your name back after the war. Kroll wouldn't have.
Anonymous death certificates from 1945. All the names are filled in except that one.
Do you think that's Km“?
Still keeping the world from tipping off its axis?
Michael Lanyard killed himself.
Yeah.
Were you coming to tell me?
- No. I don't think so. - I didn't come here to argue.
What, then? To warn me?
It's very dangerous, Lily, what you do.
Who you talk to.
Maybe if you talked more to Frank Black, he'd still be in the Group.
Yeah.
Well... I'm workin' on that.
Too slowly.
50 years ago, with the future of the world in the balance, we were five steps ahead.
Now the Group only looks back.
On 50 years of peace.
They are gone. Don't you understand?
I don't appreciate this. We have taken care of you. I have.
- You've shut me up. - This is a very important time right now.
For all of us.
Have you forgotten what the Group could be?
Peter.
You, of all people.
You might wanna brace yourself. State of decay is hard to predict.
- You gotta remember this is wartime. - The Second World War. I've heard of it.
What I'm ea yin' is, a pine box is all you got.
It wasn't unknown to wrap 'em in a blanket.
Unless this Kroll guy was a big deal.
Suspect. Suspect in a murder investigation.
- (man) Hey, we hit somethin'! - Hold it!
It's lead.
God, that's hot.
Kept the microbes at bay, though.
You ever seen one so well preserved?
Convulsive body posture is consistent with radiation poisoning.
Obviously on a disastrous scale.
Could you turn him so we can see the face, please?
That's Dr Alexander.
Alexander?
What happened to whatshisname? Km“?
According to military records, no scientist died at Los Alamos after the murder.
(Frank) It's definitely him.
Why would the military bury Alexander as a John Doe?
- Maybe the military didn't. - Well, who then? The FBI?
Millennium Group?
All I know is he never left Los Alamos. Where's the daughter?
What happened to the daughter?
She must be in Russia. Her father defected, you know.
He died in Les Alamos and was buried there.
- You found him. - Dead of massive radiation poisoning.
Face, arms, hands.
It wasn't an accident, was it?
(559715)
July16, 1945.
The Trinity test.
The first atomic explosion.
It wasn't until then that the scientists actually realised what they had done.
Some, like Edward Teller and Carew, they were overjoyed.
They immediately began imagining bigger bombs.
And Dr Alexander?
Maybe because he had a child...
he understood better than the others just what they had done.
What had they done?
They took the Apocalypse out of God's hands and put it in their own.
They created the end of the world.
Here.
In our minds.
They even put that terrifying clock on the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
The countdown. Four minutes to midnight. Two minutes to midnight.
Ticktock, ticktock.
The one advantage, being my age,
is that I knew what it was like
before this thing was hanging over us.
So did Michael Lanyard.
He lived with it for 50 years.
That's not why he killed himself.
"It must end."
His last words. The same words written in blood at the murder scene in 1945.
Why did Lanyard write those words on the picture of the little girl?
- I wouldn't know. - You owe...
I don't owe you anything!
You owe him.
You owe Michael Lanyard.
Oh...
He didn't leave Los Alamos.
He was ordered off the base, but he stayed.
Why?
Because I asked him to.
Because he was concerned about Natalie.
For her safety.
And because he was an honourable man.
He's here. Kroll.
It must end!
Go. Get outta here.
Go. Now!
Take it to my daughter.
I've written...
pages inside.
Get it to her, so she'll know.
Know what?
We made a horrible... miscalculation.
Torn apart what must be whole.
Promise me.
Of course.
Promise me you'll keep her safe.
Promise.
It's all my fault.
I did what they asked.
What who asked, Lily?
You took her away.
Where?
(I “Till Then“)
(Lanyard) Lily! Lily!
Lily! Lily. Lily.
Stop this car. Stop it. Natalie!
Natalie. Natalie.
Lily, stop the car. Lily, stop!
Natalie!
(Frank) Scientists had been labouring for years. And then this.
The first atomic explosion. For better or worse, they'd exceeded their expectations.
Dr Alexander was affected by this.
He wondered how good men, good minds, had created something so obviously evil.
The question obsessed him, haunted him.
He started doing experiments with plutonium,
trying to split off the evil he felt inside him.
So he was a nut.
No, he wanted to do with himself what he had done to the atom - split it in half.
- He split off Kroll. - What does that mean? "Split off"?
Km“ and Nexantler were the same person. But Km“ committed the murder.
- That's some theory. - It's not a theory.
This is Alexander's last will and testament.
A doll?
It's a letter to his daughter, trying to explain his mistakes.
Warning her not to take the same path he'd taken.
"It must end."
Lanyard committed suicide before he could give her that.
So, where's the girl now?
Lily's not saying.
Not a clue.
Lanyard was thinking about the girl when he pulled the trigger.
Remembering something about a promise he failed to keep.
This is what he was watching before he died.
Hey, Baby Face Nelson. Take the boy out of the Bureau, huh?
(reporter) Critics say this woman has a secret laboratory in Mexico.
Growing organs? Or playing God?
- This research is illegal in the States. - It's legal here.
Who's funding it? Not the US government.
They say you're creating monsters.
You're not suggesting that's her? How would the old guy recognise her?
The last time he saw her, she was four years old.
After all these years, this is what he saw.
He tried to contact her.
I know how to reach her.
I'm glad you finally called.
We've got a lot to talk about.
- No, just one thing. - OK.
- The Group's been all over this. - No, not the Group.
Some version of it. That's what scared Lanyard off in 1945, isn't it?
- Did they threaten him? - They asked him to join.
To make him complicitous in what happened to the little girl.
I know what that invitation means.
She does secret biological research now.
Not that secret. Everybody seems to know.
Yeah.
She grew up to make the same mistake her father did.
- You call it a mistake. - He did.
It's the same mistake he prayed she'd never make. Playing God.
Without divine wisdom.
Her father's experiments weren't a total failure, Frank.
They opened up some... possibilities.
To deal with an evil that can consume us. His tools were deficient, not his intent.
Group propaganda.
Fathers and daughters.
She has his gift.
Does she even know what her father did?
She never had a choice.
That's why Lanyard was so horrified when he found out what Natalie had become.
There were other avenues to her than the Group.
It's from her father. He gave his life trying to tell her that.
Lanyard did, too.
What?
You want me to deliver it?
Unless you're afraid of the truth.
He's in a meeting. You can't go in there.
I'm sorry, sir.
What's she doing here?
Clarifying some of the events you described.
Is she why you rejected my report?
We felt the nature of Dr Alexander's experiments
should be kept inside a small group.
Where's Natalie? She's four years old. What did you do with her?
- She'll be well taken care of. - By whom? Her?
No. Lily has other tasks facing her.
She just accepted an offer to join our group.
And I'm hoping you'll do the same.
What group? What are you talking about?
He's saying there's a bigger picture.
Director Hoover, sir.
There are things the FBI cannot do.
The group can.
With all due respect, sir, I joined the Bureau to uphold the law.
So did we all.
Then why did you remove pages from my report?
Bigger picture, Agent Lanyard. Bigger picture.
You kidnapped a four-year-old girl. There is no bigger picture.
You'll have my resignation on your desk in the morning.
I'll find that little girl.
I know what you people did.
I'll find her.
Your group idea got me thinking.
Kekulé, another mad scientist,
had an illuminating dream of snakes biting their own tails.
The next day he discovered the benzene ring.
An ancient symbol for our ancient group.
I didn't know you could draw.
Too bad about Agent Lanyard. He was a good man.
Tap his phone.
(man) A rocky beginning.
Hoover and Tolson had the right idea, though.
Recruit the best and hope for the best.
You didn't tell him, did you?
He suspects.
Which, with Frank, is as good as knowing.
You blame yourself for what happened to him, don't you?
He was my candidate.
I recruited him at his time of need and...
the Group smothered him with angels and devils and Armageddon.
Don't give up.
These things have a way of returning.
So, where's this doll?
You told me once that the Group...
didn't choose its members, that the members chose the Group.
Doesn't she deserve the same opportunity?
She's never known any other life.
Her work is critical. Nothing can jeopardise it.
Are we afraid of the truth?
Whose truth, Peter?
This is no time to question your faith.
Now... what about the other matter?
Already done.
(I “Till Then“)
Visiontext Subtitles: Simon Campbell
(child) I made this!
ENGLISH - SDH