Power up! We have a window.
It works.
- Can you make it work? - My dear Logan, really.
We can't allow him to destroy our world.
It becomes a question of which of you will change history.
Save our lives or destroy theirs.
What is it, Rem? Can you tell?
A powerful electrical disturbance.
I suggest we stop and see what's causing it.
Cover your eyes.
What is it?
A probe of some kind. Quite active.
Whose? From where?
Insufficient data.
Be careful.
It doesn't Ðook dangerous.
Actually, it's only a domestic form of Lepus, commonly known as a rabbit.
It must belong to someone. I mean, it was in a cage.
The rabbit's gone.
A gun.
Get the tapes processed right now.
Charles, will you get Eakins at the Sanctuary Project?
- Get it into the computer. - What about the Sino-Angolan situation?
- That's really getting worse. - Into the computers.
Sanctuary Project, good morning.
Yes, sir, he's right here.
David, Dr. White at the time lab.
David Eakins here. Yes, Dr. White.
It did? When?
How soon?
Yes, sir. I'm on my way.
Everybody, the time probe came back. We're going ahead with the operation.
Great. Good work. That's great, David.
You take over, Andy.
Remember, everything goes into the computer, everything.
Well, you'd better make it back in a hurry or there won't be anything to come back to.
According to our projections, the war should start any day.
There's no way we're gonna make it to the end of this year.
It's what we put in the computers that can make the difference.
Maybe we can keep from blowing ourselves to kingdom come.
Merry Christmas.
It's in ruins.
And has been for quite some time.
Which means everything we projected is correct.
There is going to be a war...
...and it will destroy most of our world as we know it.
When? That's what we have to know.
If we knew when and how it started, we'd at least have a chance to prevent it.
None of the earlier probes showed any sign of life.
No.
We're guessing that the people that survived went underground.
It had to take a hundred years for the air to clear.
There's no telling how long it took before they came outside again.
The people you see show a fairly high degree of technology:
Their clothes, their weaponry.
And they speak Engllsh well.
Obviously, some kind of sophisticated society must have survived.
She's right. The gun proves that.
It blew a hole in the wall of the lab when we were testing it.
- Incidentally, you'll take that back with you. - Well, if they're that advanced...
...they might have some concept of time travel.
Exactly. That's why they mustn't know who you are or what you're after.
Because if we succeed in finding out what caused the war, we can stop it now...
...and our civllization will go on.
And theirs will have never existed.
Not a one will have been born.
It's not a great choice, is it?
Save our lives...
...or destroy theirs.
Remember, David, you have exactly 22 hours.
That's as long as we can keep the time portal open.
We have a fix. The clock is running.
Mark...
...now.
Fifteen seconds.
Mark.
We have a window.
Stabilized.
- Power up! - Insertion.
My God, it works.
Who are you?
My name is Eakins. David Eakins.
But who are you?
I'm Logan and this is Jessica. We're from the City of Domes.
- This is Rem. - Reclective Entity Mobile.
- Reclective? Reclective.
Self-programming, problem-solving, in human form.
An android.
Thank you, sir, for not saying "a robot," as some have done.
This City of Domes, is it a real city?
- Yes. May I ask you where you originate?
And how did you accomplish this remarkable appearance?
I'm from the west. The western region.
We're conducting experiments in long-range matter transportation.
- This is one of our first tests. - Is this rabbit part of the test?
Yes. Yes, it was.
Oh, I assume this is yours. It was on the probe.
Where you come from, have you ever heard of a place called Sanctuary?
You know about Sanctuary?
- That's what we're searching for. - Then you don't know where it is?
No. Do you?
That's why I came here, to reach Sanctuary.
- Is it far? - We have a vehicle. We could take you.
A vehicle? Sure, let's get going.
Rem, give them a llttle look at you once in a whlle, enough to draw their fire.
What's going on? What happened to me?
You were hit by a stun gun.
They're Sandmen from the City of Domes. They're after us.
It wasn't Francis.
You know what that means? The city's sending other teams after us.
We've got to get out of here. Come on.
Looking good.
It's stupid to stop.
We could be at Sanctuary in a few more hours.
It too dangerous at night. We can't see the terrain.
Remember, this is a solar-powered vehicle. Its range is very llmited in the dark.
I know what it is. I've seen enough...
Enough of what, Mr. Eakins?
To know a solar vehicle when I see one.
Look, I'm sorry, but it's just very important to me that I get to Sanctuary.
It's important to all of us.
Start out again at daybreak.
Logan?
I'm going back to make sure no one's following us.
Well, I'll come with you.
A stroll would be good for my circuitry. Besides, you might run into somebody.
Are you feellng all right?
Oh, I'm fine. I'm just a little stiff.
Tell me...
...how do you know about Sanctuary?
Oh, all runners know about it.
- Runners? - People who escaped from the dome city.
Jessica, do you know what Sanctuary is?
I don't know exactly.
But we do know that it's a place where we can be free.
Where we can grow old, raise families, be happy.
And you can't do that in the City of Domes?
No.
- But what if it's not what you expected? - Then we'll just keep on looking.
Somewhere, there has to be a place...
...where we and the other people from the City of Domes can start over.
Whatever caused the holocaust, it ended the world as it used to be.
Now we have a chance to start a whole new world.
And all it takes is Sanctuary.
Yes.
It used to be a gentle curve over a small rise.
Well, it will appear that we will have to walk.
And the faster the better.
Could this be Sanctuary?
This is where it should be, but it doesn't look like it.
I thought you'd never seen it.
I've seen holographs.
Is there something about Eakins you don't trust?
Back in the City of Domes...
...there was always something about a runner who was getting ready to run...
...a feellng you could almost touch.
And you have that feellng about Eakins?
Something's strange about him.
Welcome to Sanctuary. Are you seekers?
This is Sanctuary?
That is our name and mission.
All those who seek peace and truth are welcome here.
I am Lab Tech One.
Lab Tech One? How do you come by that name?
That is the name given those who guide seekers.
The honored name given by those who began Sanctuary.
And can you take us to Sanctuary?
But you're here. This valley all around you is Sanctuary.
Have other runners been here?
I do not know of runners.
People from the City of Domes.
People from the City of Domes?
One thought does occur.
Sanctuary may represent different things to different people.
Well, I think this represents what I'm looking for.
Can you take us there?
Please, come with me.
We have visitors, sir.
Good day.
Who are these people, Tech One?
They're seekers of truth and justice.
This is our leader, Analog.
Welcome to Sanctuary.
Thank you. I would llke to see the computers, if I may.
Computers?
I'm sorry, I do not understand the word.
But you must.
You're named after a computer, the analog computer.
I am named after the great teller of truth.
Well, then I would like to see the great teller of truth.
If I may, Mr. Eakins, your pre-occupation with computers...
...would appear to be lost on them.
It can't be. The computers have to be here.
Without them, the Sanctuary Project is meaningless.
Eakins, the point is, this may be the Sanctuary that you're looking for...
...but it's not the one we want.
Logan, we can't be sure of that.
Jessica, take a look around you. This can't be Sanctuary.
They've never even heard of runners.
And very little else, it would appear.
Analog. Analog.
My boy. My boy.
He's been stung by a scorpion.
Scorpion?
An arachnid. Its poison can be quite deadly to those who have no tolerance.
- Can he be saved? - If he's treated quickly, yes.
Let us take him to the temple.
Truth, we call upon you to heal this child...
...so that he may continue the holy search...
...for light and guidance.
Let us pray.
The truth is my lantern The word is the spark
The light is the answer The end of the dark
The sleeper awakens Let darkness beware
Look on the face of truth and despair
They don't even have a knowledge of medicine.
The boy will die.
Only truth can heal this child now.
All right, I'll bring you the truth.
This is gonna hurt you, son.
- What's your name? - Binary.
Binary.
Well, Binary, if you wanna yell, it's all right. You're supposed to, okay?
Okay.
Now, I know this hurts...
...but when you consider the alternative...
It's not your fault, Analog. There's nothing wrong with your books.
It's just that something stronger is needed...
...and, obviously, you don't have access to this.
Now, this will slowly draw the poison out.
Oh, my God.
Will he be all right?
Yeah, sure.
- He'll be all right. Thank you.
Come, let us take the boy home.
Oh, Lord. Lord, what have we come to?
What is it?
It's a failure.
A complete waste.
The Sanctuary Project didn't work.
This isn't your Sanctuary, is it?
It isn't anything! Don't you understand?
It's nothing at all.
All our hopes, our plans.
They don't even know what it is.
It's too late.
It's all gone.
Any idea what he was talking about?
He was expecting something to be there that wasn't.
It's what he was looking at. I could see the word "Sanctuary."
Yet, that's the very thing that seemed to upset him.
He wanted to come here. We brought him here.
- We thought it would be Sanctuary too. But we were wrong.
Do you think we should be moving on? - We can't just leave him here.
Look, I can't tell you why. It's just that I think he needs our help.
- To do what? - I don't know.
That's the point. If we knew, maybe we could help.
But he isn't going to tell us anything. That's his choice.
Mine is to find some supplies and get back to the vehicle.
We can't do any good here.
All right?
I'm sorry.
You are? About what?
What's hurting you so much.
So am I.
I'm sorry for all the people who spent their llves on this project.
We were gonna save the whole world.
Some dream.
What project?
Do you mean Sanctuary?
Do you know what "sanctuary" really means?
I don't mean a place you're trying to find, I mean the definition of the word.
Sanctuary, a place of refuge and protection.
That's what this was supposed to be.
In here is a record of everything we've done wrong.
How it happened, why it happened.
So that maybe someday, people could look at it and learn from our mistakes.
These people call it a temple. How did you know it was here?
How did you know what was in it? Who are you?
I'm someone you should never have met, or known.
I'm from a place so different than this that you can't even imagine what it's like.
Crowded and angry and full of hate, and ready to destroy itself.
And maybe I can stop that from happening.
And the longer I talk to you, the tougher it gets.
I don't wanna know you or Logan.
But you do know us.
And we'd help you if we could, if you'd let us.
I don't want your help.
I'm running out of time...
...and I must do what I came here for.
Stop!
What is this sacrilege?
You must not defile the altar.
This is not an altar, it is a console.
It controls the computers. I must get to the computers.
You came to Sanctuary as a seeker of truth...
...but what you speak is madness.
What I speak is the truth.
This isn't a temple. This building, this console, is Sanctuary.
No.
It was handed down to us by those who came before.
Sanctuary, a consecrated place.
And so we keep it to worship in.
But these things aren't here to worship.
They're here to use, to learn from...
...to keep the world from blowing itself up.
You killed him.
No.
He will recover soon.
But when he does, he must leave us...
...and you and your friends with him.
Take him.
He's got just a little over 11 hours.
We can all see the clocks, Glenda.
Logan!
Eakins has been tied up.
They wanna make him leave Sanctuary with us.
- I don't think they'll hurt him. - But he won't go, I know it.
And next time, they might kill him.
What is there that's so important to him here? It's just a simple village.
This place that they call the temple, he says that it's full of computers...
...which contain the knowledge that everyone needs.
Computers? Not likely.
There doesn't appear to be any power source here.
Jessica, Eakins has lied to us ever since we met him.
An unfortunate but human trait.
Well, if he has lied, don't you at least wanna know why?
I don't know why, but I think it's important...
...not only to him, but to us.
Logan, you've gotta help me.
- Only if we get the truth first. - What truth?
Why you're here. Where you're really from.
- I told you. - You told us you'd never been here.
- How did you know about the computers? - I was told.
By whom? When?
I can't tell you anything you'd understand.
Try.
Where I come from, the people are going to die.
Inside that building is the information that can save 7 billion lives.
Seven billion?
There haven't been that many people alive since before the nuclear war.
But they are alive...
...and if I can get back to them, they'll go on llving.
It not distance I traveled, it's time.
I come from before the holocaust, from the year 2118.
If I can get that information, I may be able to prevent the holocaust.
You come from before the holocaust?
- Yes. - But it's already happened.
Now it has, because I've traveled forward in time...
...but if I can get back with the information in those computers...
...I can change the course of history and save all those people from my time.
What's in the computers that could change history?
The reason the holocaust started.
Look, Sanctuary is my project.
I started it in my century, the 22nd century.
We fed the computers all the events that were happening in our time.
Somewhere in there, maybe a year, or five, or 10 years after my time...
...is a record of the reason the holocaust started.
I would have put it in there myself.
And knowing what started the holocaust, you think you can go back and prevent it?
I can try.
But there's not much time left. Barely five hours.
Why couldn't you have told us from the beginning?
Because then I didn't care what happened to you.
You didn't mean anything to me, you were strangers...
...and if you ceased to exist, it didn't make any difference.
Ceased to exist? I don't understand.
The principle is really rather simple.
If he can succeed in stopping the holocaust...
...then his civllization wlll continue.
Without the holocaust, the City of Domes would never have been built.
And we would not exist.
And you want us to help you?
I wanna save 7 billion lives.
Look at the information. It's all in there.
Can any of you operate a computer?
Twenty-second century? It'd be rather primitive, but I'm sure I can.
Well, in my pouch there's a power pack.
Put it in the console. It'll power the computers.
Look at it, then decide.
Your 7 billion people have been dead a long time...
...our world is just beginning.
I know.
It's a choice I didn't wanna have to make.
But you do have to.
Yes.
Rem, is it possible? Can he really prevent the holocaust?
The theory of altering the course of history is quite fascinating...
...but in practice, I believe it's fruitless.
History has a way of catching up with mankind.
But you're not absolutely sure.
About human behavior, Logan, I'm never absolutely sure.
Rem.
It's wrong.
We'd be wrong to help him.
We can't allow him to destroy our world.
- We have no proof that he could. - But he's willing to try.
Just as you're willing to stop him.
Yes.
So it becomes a question of which one of you will change history?
How can we change history?
We know that Eakins was in his own time when the holocaust happened.
So? - We know the result of that.
And although most of the world was destroyed, some people survived.
Are you saying that we could alter that?
If we keep Eakins here, who knows what could happen?
The whole world may come to an end. There may be no survivors.
If we change just one piece of the past...
...we may also alter our own present.
You mean we could cease to exist whether we help him to get back or keep him here.
So it would seem.
It's not much of a choice, is it?
Jessica?
All right.
We won't try and change the past.
Let's hope that Eakins can't either.
Shall we see to the computers?
All right, let's get rid of these books.
Get this back.
The top slides forward.
Ha. Just as I thought, it is primitive.
It's incredible. It's just incredible.
Rem, can you make it work?
My dear Logan, really.
Power pack seated. Power up.
Computer bank.
Access.
And...
...activate.
What have you done?
You can not do this. We must not permit it.
- It's something we've got to find out. - Stop them.
Stay there. Let him finish.
I'm warning you. Stay right there.
Stop them.
How could there have been so many people?
The truth is my lantern
The word is the spark
The light is the answer
The end of the dark
Look at the cities.
The sleeper awakens
Let darkness beware
Look on the face of truth and despair
So he does go back.
Well, if we did have any questions, I think they've been answered.
You are the builders. You have returned to us.
No, Eakins is the builder.
Then what he said was the truth.
Is that which we have seen...
...the light?
Couldn't you tell?
I could see many people.
And the structures.
But those other things...
...with the marks on them...
...like the marks on our temple.
- I do not know what they are. - You cannot read?
"Read"?
I do not know what the word means.
But those marks, don't they mean anything to you?
Only that this is a place of worship.
And that now...
...we have all this to worship.
The sound and the light of truth.
These machines aren't meant to be worshiped.
Eakins told you, you can learn from them.
But what more is there to learn?
We know all that we need.
But there are many more things in here. You can learn how to make your life better.
We will have Eakins, the builder, to help us.
No, you won't. He has to leave soon.
But what are we to do?
Bring him here, let him show you.
It will be done.
There isn't anything I've done that you can't do too.
Don't you understand? It's all in the computers.
What if I hadn't been here? That boy would have died.
Next time, you'll be able to heal the sick yourself.
You won't have to pray in vain.
But our prayers were answered, you came.
But I can't stay here.
But we need you.
My world needs me too.
Did you get the tapes?
I have them, but I don't see how they can help you.
They'll help. Anything.
I'm almost out of time.
- Analog. - Yes.
There's enough power in that battery to run the machine for a year.
You'll have that long to learn...
...how to trace the original power sources.
But you have the machine to help you.
There's a red button on the left side of the console.
Press it and the one beneath it.
The machine will teach you.
It will begin by showing you how to read.
Once you've learned how to read, you can accomplish anything.
The whole world will open up to you.
Reading.
It will not be easy.
Everything you do is hard.
There are no easy ways out.
But there are some things you have to do.
I'll need you to drive me back.
Let's go.
Thank you.
Good luck.
What was all that for?
I don't understand.
Why bother showing them how to use computers or teach them how to read?
If you can stop the war, none of this will be here.
Then maybe I can't stop it.
But at least I'll have accomplished something...
...if my being here has made things better for these people.
Maybe Sanctuary and the whole thing won't be just for nothing.
Maybe that's what my time trip was about.
Not changing, but helping.
Almost five minutes to spare.
May I have the tapes?
Do any of them say anything about my personal future...
...after I return to my own time?
In a sense.
Were you able to learn the reason for the holocaust?
No.
It may be that we didn't know what to look for.
What you said about my going back to a dead world...
...I'm not sure anymore.
None of us are sure.
And even if I did prevent the holocaust, how long would the peace last?
Ten years? A hundred? Three hundred?
- It'll happen sometime. - There's no alternative.
I could stay.
There are so many things that I know that the survivors have forgotten.
I could help you.
In a land where the bomb didn't hang over your heads.
A world you could make into whatever you wanted it to be.
How could you stay...
...never knowing if you could have saved all those billions of lives?
There's one thing we did learn...
...that you had returned to your own time.
- Couldn't that be the history I change? Eakins.
You'd never have been chosen for this...
...if you didn't understand what you had to do.
And if in the end, I succeed...
...none of you will ever have existed.
I don't want that either.
We're still here.
So nothing's really changed.
I didn't think he could succeed.
People have often tried to change the course of history...
...and history has had a way of closing in behind them.
Well, he had to try, there was no other choice.
I think this will be of great interest to us.
EAKINS My dear friends...
...Jessica, Logan, Rem...
...when you play this, hundreds of years from now...
...you'll know that I failed...
...and I'm sending this recording forward to you through time.
The nuclear war is going to happen.
It's already started.
And finally, I know the reason.
Watch.
I started it.
When we announced the success of our time-travel experiments...
...the world came apart.
They began to realize you could travel back as well as forward in time.
That world leaders could be killed before they became important.
The time machine became the ultimate weapon.
Our enemies decided on the first strike in order to prevent our using it.
The bombs have already started to fall.
The world is doomed.
I could have come back to you instead of sending this...
...but I know that I don't belong there.
Your time belongs to you. Too much of my civilization is inside me.
Don't give up.
Keep looking for your Sanctuary.
I wish that things...
I wish that I could help.
Goodbye.
It was his discovery of time travel that destroyed the world.
What now?
We do what he said. We keep looking.
I think we owe Mr. Eakins our best effort.