The Protagonist shakes his head. Barbara reaches forward – BARBARA (CONT'D) How about now? – One of the rounds FLIES UP INTO HER HAND, FALLING IN REVERSE.
The Protagonist is taken aback. Barbara holds the round towards him so he can inspect it – BARBARA (CONT'D) It’s inverted – its entropy runs backwards. So, to our eyes, its movement is reversed. We think it’s a type of inverse radiation, triggered by nuclear fission.
PROTAGONIST:
You didn’t make it?
BARBARA:
We don’t know how. Yet.
PROTAGONIST:
So where’d it come from?
BARBARA:
Someone’s manufacturing them in the future. They’re streaming back at us.
Barbara places the round on the table, in front of a CAMERA.
Try it.
BARBARA (CONT'D) He puts on a glove – moves his hand over it, nothing.
BARBARA (CONT'D) You have to have dropped it.
The Protagonist reaches out again – it LEAPS UP INTO HIS HAND.
PROTAGONIST:
How can it move before I touch it?
She cues up the recording of what he just did –
BARBARA:
From your point of view you caught it, but from the bullet’s point of view... She plays it BACKWARDS – BARBARA (CONT'D) ...you dropped it.
ON THE SCREEN:
the round FALLS from his hand.
PROTAGONIST:
But cause has to come before effect.
BARBARA:
No. That’s just how we see time.
She PULLS the round towards herself using one finger – the round follows her finger as if MAGNETIZED...
PROTAGONIST:
What about free will?
BARBARA:
That bullet wouldn’t have moved if you hadn’t put your hand there.
Either way we run the tape, you made it happen.
She LAUNCHES it up into her other hand – BARBARA (CONT'D) Don’t try to understand it. Feel it.
Barbara PLAYS with the round in increasingly IMPROBABLE, BEAUTIFUL MOVEMENTS... The round SHOOTS AWAY FROM HER – the Protagonist CATCHES IT...
PROTAGONIST:
Instinct. Got it.
Barbara smiles, swaps him the round for the pistol. She then places a TRAY COVERED IN SHELL CASINGS beside him.