Home > Halt and Catch Fire

Ten of Swords

Ross: Everybody needs a friend, even an old tree.

Okay, now, take our liner brush.

Paint thinner.

Want to thin it down.

Thin some brown down, very, very thin.

Very thin. A lot of paint thinner.

Let's put a little arm or two.

Maybe this old tree don't have any leaves. [Mumbles]

Maybe he's already retired for the -- for the year.

[Telephone ringing] [Sighs]

[Ringing continues]

[Exhales sharply]

[Telephone beeps] Hello?

Joanie: Hey, it's me.

Hey. What's going on?

I-Is everything okay?

Can I just tell you something?

Uh, yeah, o-of course you can.

[Exhales sharply]

Okay, so there's this German guy in the hostel named Otto.

Oh, yeah? Is he cute?

Anyway... he was telling me about this ancient temple ruin.

Actually, he was going on and on about it at 3:30 in the morning while I was trying to sleep and I wanted to bash his head in with my "Lonely Planet" guide.

But it sounded kind of awesome.

This, uh -- the temple ruin?

Yeah, it was burned to the ground by raiders like 100 years ago.

I asked Otto if I could go with him, and he said yes.

This place was wild, empty.

It was a major shrine city.

Okay, anyway, Aat, our guide, he brought us to this tree, and it had this -- this sandstone head of the Buddha in it.

And the roots of the tree had completely grown around it and covered everything except its face.

And...

Aat had us get on our -- our hands and our knees as we got closer to it because you can't look down at the Buddha.

You have to be respectful, so we crawled up to it, and, um, I reached out and I-I touched the roots, and Aat put his forehead to the ground... so we did, too.

And it's not like we were worshipping the Buddha or the statue, you know?

It was, like... more of the tree... for what it was doing, and... burned stones and grass.

♪♪

Anyway, it, um, started to rain.

And when I put my forehead to the mud,

I thought about Dad...

[Sighs]

...like he was still with me,

Just in, like, a different way.

♪♪

Oh, honey, that's beautiful.

♪♪

It's pretty cool.

[Chuckles]

♪♪

I think maybe you and I were actually pretty similar, and maybe that's why we fight all the time, you know?

[Chuckles]

Yeah, yeah.

I do. [Phone beeping]

Oh, shit, my calling card is running out.

I love you, Mom! Bye! [Receiver clicks]

[Chuckles]

[Phone beeps] Ross: There.

Shoot, I think with that,

we about have a finished painting.

Good luck.

Good luck, Mikey. Thanks, Joe.

Yeah. Thanks, Joe.

Thank you.

No, really.

Comet was...a miracle.

Wish we could've done it longer.

You made the right call.

Like you said, it would've been a bummer to sit around here and watch the world swallow us up.

Thanks.

♪♪

I like this place.

♪♪

I know it doesn't feel like it now, but this is the start of something.

♪♪

[Sighs heavily]

♪♪

[Birds chirping]

[Indistinct conversations on TV]

Mmm.

-But now... -Yeah! Now!

Woman: Oh, my goodness. I have get ready fast.

[Both laugh]

[Bell rings]

Mm. Oh.

I'm sorry, are you -- are you open?

Mmm. Mmm. Mmm.

[Muffled] Wait.

[Clears throat]

Osiris!

Turn down the tube, babe.

Well, sit down.

Denise: Please, have a seat.

Okay, so it's gonna be, uh, $20 for a palm reading and $30 for palm and cards.

Um...

Thank you.

May I see your palm, please?

Oh, yikes, I'm sorry.

Mm, but your salsa line looks pretty good, huh?

[Napkins rustling]

Mm. Sorry.

Long life line.

Oh, um... broken here and there.

Lot of challenges.

Changes.

Challenges and changes, huh?

Shocking.

What's that?

Mm.

Test for stubbornness.

Hmm. Sharp head line.

Smart.

Successful.

Little...selfish maybe?

Heart line seems to say... some love.

Some loss.

Come on, Denise, enough softballs.

Why'd you come in here today?

Destiny.

Dessert now?

Dessert? You just scarfed down those nachos!

[Laughs]

How many? Two.

Just two?

Okay. Have fun.

That -- That's my grandson, Osiris.

Thanks for your time.

Wait, don't you want your card reading?

You paid for it.

Would you please put your right hand on the deck?

[Sighs]

Hmm.

Okay. Thank you.

[Cards shuffling]

Past.

Present.

Future.

What does that mean?

Well, you know, they really mean whatever you want them to mean.

Well, you know,... destruction.

Destruction? Yeah.

Commonly.

Agony, indecision, misery.

[Chuckling] Christ.

[Laughs]

So I lose again?

Okay, great.

No. Not necessarily.

Because, you see, this golden horizon behind the storm clouds, that could be something.

Can I keep this? Sure.

I sell packs for another $20.

[Birds chirping]

[Car engine revs in distance]

[Tires screech]

Man: Jesus! You okay?

[Tires squeal]

Joe MacMillan?

Dale: And like that, we're getting killed in the PC business.

Who'd have guessed, right? Joe: Me.

[Chuckles]

[Sighs] Of course.

Besides you.

[Uncle Tupelo's "New Madrid" plays in background]

Can I just say, Joe, it's been a kick watching you carve a path all these years.

Always on the bleeding edge.

I mean, way out there.

Just, more than a few of us really grew to trust your finger in the air.

♪ Mr. Browning has a prediction ♪

♪♪

Have the leaves changed yet?

What? Back east.

Oh, uh, yeah.

Just started.

Gorgeous.

All right, better get to SFO.

They got us flying business class now.

Believe it?

No, please, I got it.

♪♪

Can't wait to see what you do next, Joe.

♪ Walk with me to the fountain ♪

♪♪

♪ And hold ♪

♪ Onto my arm ♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Beck's "Beercan" plays]

♪ Alcohol on my hands ♪

♪ I got plans to ditch myself and get outside ♪

♪ Dancing women throwing plates ♪

♪ Decapitating their laughing dates ♪

♪ Swirling chickens caught in flight ♪

♪ Out of focus, much too bright ♪

♪ Coming down, shiny teeth ♪

♪ Game shows suckers trying to bleed ♪

♪ But I got a drug and I got the bug ♪ Impressed?

♪ And I got something better than love ♪ When will we move in?

-[Laughs] Right now. -Donna is on speed dial.

I think we're gonna have you guys set up here.

♪ How you like me now? ♪ Okay, great.

♪ Pretty good ♪ Thank you so much for having us.

♪ Going on, feeling strong ♪ I'm so excited to be here.

Don't thank me.

♪ I quit my job blowing leaves ♪

♪ Telephone bills up my sleeves ♪

♪ Choking like a one man dust bowl ♪ Man: Yes.

♪ Freedom rock slime ball, talking in code ♪

♪ We went down ♪

♪ Lit up the shack ♪

♪ Grab me a beer out of the sack ♪

♪ Everybody bent over twice ♪ Okay, so we've got this here.

♪ Painting the walls, throwing some dice ♪ Man: That's so common.

♪ Leaping up into the air ♪ There's, like, buttons on the side.

♪ Getting juiced up beyond belief ♪ No, no, no, John.

No, I'm gonna -- No, I'm telling you, you got to --

I'm trying to do that. Uh, that was John.

Let me try. No, no, I want to --

Let me just try it. Let me at least try.

♪ And they were singing like this ♪ Look, look, look.

♪ Winos throwing Frisbees at the sun ♪

♪ Put my soul between a bun ♪

♪ Now I'm hungry, now I'm drunk ♪ Where you guys going? We got tacos.

♪ Now I'm running like a flaming pig ♪ Taco time, you guys!

Come and get 'em.

♪ Oh, yeah ♪ Good.

♪ Scraping off the attitude ♪ Oh, wow, what is this? What are we looking at?

♪ Old man eating all my food ♪

♪ Don't be kind, don't be rude ♪ So, this is one tenth of 1% of one little gene, but this...

♪ Just shake your boots and let it all get loose ♪

♪ Oh, yeah ♪

♪ My goodness ♪

♪♪

[Inhaling sharply]

[Coughs]

Are you all right?

Oh, yeah.

That nasal gel you gave me on the plane, it feels like a slug crawled into my nose and took a dump.

Well, you'll thank me when you don't get sick.

How will I thank you for something that doesn't happen?

It would be neat to hear you thank somebody for something.

[Scoffs]

Two months abroad with top investors, and we've got nothing to show for it.

Yeah, well, it's tough for the work to translate once we got north of Oslo.

Well, the point was to get you in good with some real European players. Players?

My God, I couldn't tell you what any of those people did save for go out to dinner at fancy restaurants and name drop.

How much did this trip even cost?

Well, it's my money, and I'm spending it to help you bring your ideas to fruition.

Okay. But if you're just gonna sit there and cut everyone down like some sardonic asshole -- I'm sorry.

I didn't perform well enough for you.

I'm not your monkey.

Look, I know that you're still dealing with some personal issues.

Or...maybe... you're just losing interest because now's the part of the process you actually have to do some work and not just bullshit about the possibilities.

Can you pull over here?

Cameron. [Car door opens]

Cameron!

[Car door slams]

Bosworth: How did you even get home?

Cameron: Oh, just walked a mile to the McDonald's, used their phone to call a cab, cab cost $200.

You should've called me at home.

I love me some McDonald's -- them little apple pies.

Mmm-mmm-mmm.

Delis-cous.

So, have you talked since?

Two weeks. Just radio silence. Oh, no.

So I think that's done. [Chuckles] Yeah.

You know, there's this thing in CompSci I remember -- recursion.

Where a specific function calls upon itself repeatedly within a program.

So in order to solve the big problem, it uses the same small problem over and over as the solution to increasingly complex issues.

And that, my friend, is how my software runs.

[Chuckles]

Sorry about Joe, by the way.

Thanks.

I actually still have some stuff of his to give back, but I just can't bear the thought of seeing him right now, you know?

Can I tell you something?

Yeah?

You got a lot of love in you.

More than anybody I ever met.

It's bursting out of you.

You're taking the world in these -- in these big gulps, and you can't help but to let yourself get drowned in it.

Overwhelms you, makes you live like you're ready to explode at any minute.

They don't see it.

I do.

It's a burden you carry.

[Sighs]

You don't think I'm just running away again?

[Scoffs]

Oh, I -- you might be.

I'm thinking about Florida.

Florida? What the hell's in Florida?

They got alligators and that dadgum Epcot Center?

What?

My mom.

Ah.

Man, I'm just tired of saying goodbye, you know?

Recursion.

Exactly.

Maybe you ought to have yourself a heart attack.

Yeah? Yeah, yeah.

[Chuckling] Sure. [Sighs]

You know, when I went down,

I did everything I could to stay in the ring.

Fought like hell.

Had this mantra in my head.

"Just stay in it, stay in it, stay in it."

But I was losing.

I knew at that moment if I didn't give up, that guy's gonna kill me.

[Sighs]

I...

[Sighs]

I got nothing left to give up.

Oh...

I know it's -- If you stay, it's hard.

If you leave, it's hard. It's all hard.

It's --

♪♪

Sometimes it's not even about what you want.

It's about what it wants for you.

All you can do is... listen and see if you can hear what it's saying.

It's saying goodbye.

[Sighs]

But, yeah, hit the road, then.

[Sighs heavily]

[Chuckles]

I don't want to say goodbye to you.

Well, hell, sweetheart, it better not be forever.

♪♪

[Sighs]

I fully expect you to come back and shake me all up again.

♪♪

Don't let me get old.

[Chuckles]

♪♪

[Knocks on door]

You my 11:30?

No.

Have a look around.

[Footsteps in distance, indistinct conversations]

♪♪

Nancy: [In distance] Vaulted ceilings, crown molding, great neighborhood.

♪♪

What happened to the previous tenant?

Not sure, but this has been on the market something like 15 days now.

♪♪

♪♪

[Tapping]

Are you sure it's okay out there?

Donna: Oh, uh, yeah.

I mean, they'll go around. Okay.

[Rattles]

So, I'm, uh, your last stop, huh?

You are.

I went by Joe's this morning.

He's totally gone. [Chuckles]

Yeah, I didn't, uh -- the real estate agent told me it'd been empty for weeks.

He didn't...

I'm sorry, I guess I just thought he would call.

Oh, God, Joe.

Yeah, he, uh, came by here and said he was leaving and that he'd be in touch.

Uh, Haley got a letter from him a couple days ago.

A letter?

Wow, well, I guess we're both fond of rash departures.

Oh, hey, um, could you just bring me one more of those, and I think we'll be fine. Donna, sorry,

I'm gonna finish this. I didn't...[scoffs]

...mean to just burst in on you and the thing you're doing.

No. No, no, no. Please, it's not...

Donna: [Sighs]

Hey, why don't you stay for this thing tonight?

I think you might really dig it. Yeah?

Think I'm a little below dress code. Oh, come on.

You can just borrow something of mine.

No, thank you. I really appreciate it.

I just -- I wanted to be in Carson City come nightfall, so...

Yeah, no, that makes sense, I guess. Man: Sorry.

Hey.

Aah! God. Oh. Sorry.

I am sorry. No, no, it's fine.

It's hardwood.

Hey, look, I --

I wish we could've hung out more these last couple months.

Yeah, I know. Me too.

It's just work has been crazy, and...

Well, you know, probably we'll end up seeing each other more now that I'm gone, 'cause I'll come into town, and we'll really make a point of it.

Yeah, and you'll be back seeing Alexa, I'm sure, and... No.

[Chuckles] That's, uh -- That's dead.

Oh, I'm sorry.

You know, some things just aren't the right fit.

Hey, Mom.

Hi. Hey.

Uh, this is my boyfriend, Kevin.

'Sup?

Oh.

Haley, uh, Cameron is moving, I guess.

What?

Yeah, I, uh -- I'm going on a road trip, and we'll see, uh, where I -- I end up.

Haley: Cool. So everyone's leaving now.

Bye, I guess.

Uh... Sorry, uh --

Boyfriend? Yeah.

[Door closes]

You okay with the door closed? Oh, yeah, completely.

She just works on her computer, and he does the hackey sack.

That sounds right.

You know, I get the sense that she doesn't even really like him.

Yeah.

Oh, she's doing these college-level C++ classes.

It's one night a week at Foothill, and she's been just killing herself over this project, but she loves it.

Can you believe it?

I can believe it.

Okay, I'm gonna go, uh, and throw this tomato out.

Oh, God, I'm sorry I didn't take that.

No, here, the trash is...

Where? Hey, I'm...

[Scoffs]

Drive safe, okay?

I'm, uh -- I'm gonna miss you.

[Sighs]

[Chuckles]

Donna, this is --

[Haley screams]

Donna: Haley?

What happened?

Haley: I can't open the work file.

I keep trying to open it, and it says "Drive not ready."

Ugh, did you hit it with your sack?

What? Hackey, Kev.

Uh, no, I've just been chilling here.

That's my semester project!

-Okay. -Hang on.

All right, try it again.

[Computer beeping]

It's the same error message.

Yeah, the platter's not spinning.

[Screams] I hate these stupid things!

Breathe. Kevin, do you have any money?

I've got 20 bucks from delivering

Thanksgiving turkeys to old people.

Okay, great, could you do me a favor and just take her to a movie or something?

No, I have to do this. I know.

"Star Trek: Generations" is out.

Okay, fine.

Okay.

[Chuckles] Stop.

Donna: Oh, yeah.

Yeah, the head's stuck to the platter.

If I can get it off and parked, we'll have to check the data.

Well, as long as it boots,

I can go through the contents.

Sorry about this. I know you wanted to get driving.

No. No, [Scoffs]

It's not like I'm desperate to see Carson City.

[Chuckles]

[Sighs]

[Squeaks]

Oy, that didn't sound pretty.

But, hey, there we go.

Oh, God, I got to go get ready.

Can you keep going with this?

Yeah, yeah.

[Keyboard clacking]

How's it going in here?

-Jesus. -What?

No, you just -- you... you just do that so well.

[Laughs] Oh. Hey, yeah.

One of the benefits of throwing a fancy cocktail thing.

So?

Well, the file's damaged.

I'm trying to figure out if I can get a side way in to recover the data.

Well, I hope we can save some of it.

So, what, do you just kick it?

Hmm?

Yeah, you just -- just kick it to yourself.

How do you win?

You just -- just use your knees and stuff.

I don't get it.

You know it really pisses me off, that Joe would just leave like that.

Things fell apart, yeah, but for him to just up and...

Whatever.

It didn't work.

Nothing here did, so...

[Sighs]

And I'm sorry that I didn't tell you

I was leaving sooner.

I just [sighs] --

I just wanted to make a decision and not have somebody talk me out of it.

Hey, if it's what you want to do, it's what you want to do.

[Keyboard clacking]

Yeah, man.

If you do what you always did, you're gonna get what you always got.

If the elevator's broken, take the stairs.

It works if you work it.

Unless it's more and more of what doesn't work.

Meetings?

[Sighs] Oh...

A few.

You?

My mom.

I might see her on this trip.

That's good.

Cameron: [Scoffs] Man, this might be toast.

Donna: You did copy the file before you converted it to rich text, right?

Yeah, but I skipped RTF and went straight to the hex editor.

Rebuild the header, too, and check the permissions.

Even if there's version control?

You want to recover data or you want to make a 15-year-old cry again?

[Chuckles] Okay.

[Keyboard clacking]

Hey.

What if we worked together again?

Um...

What do you, um -- Do you have an idea?

No, the idea can come later.

That's not what's important.

I'm sorry.

That, um -- Oh, God, yeah.

That -- I -- No. No, no, no, no, no.

No, no, no. Please, forget I said it. I'm sorry.

I -- I don't know what I was thinking.

Cameron.

Sorry.

♪♪

[Sighs]

♪♪

Uh...

I'm gonna go check on the caterers.

I'll be back.

Okay, yeah, I'll keep working on this.

♪♪

[Sighs]

[Door closes]

♪♪

[Neil Young's "Harvest Moon" plays in background] Diane: So, imagine there are five of us crammed into this rented Land Rover, and Kimberly already has morning sickness. Oh.

And the Irish roads are built for,

I don't know, horse-drawn carriages.

John --

John stops and takes a picture of every shamrock we see.

Every (no audio) shamrock.

[Laughs]

[Sighs]

And more importantly, what you have done with the firm over the past three months...

Mm. ...wow.

Thank you.

That really means a lot.

♪ Just like children sleepin' ♪

♪ We could dream this night away ♪ Cameron's here.

I thought she'd be halfway across the country by now.

Yeah, me too. That was the plan.

But she, um...

She just floated the idea of working with me again just out of nowhere.

With one foot out the door and the rest of her life packed in a silver tube?

♪♪

Yeah, well, that is her gift.

Thinking of impossible things.

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ We know where the music's playin' ♪

[Sighs]

[In distance] ♪ Let's go out and feel the night ♪

Any luck?

Okay.

How was the movie?

It was weird.

Kirk was stuck in this, like, frozen time ribbon thing and he was repeatedly living the happiest part of his life for decades.

And then Picard comes and he's like,

"Dude, get out of the ribbon. You got to help me."

And so Kirk is like, "Sure," and he does, and he, like, immediately dies.

Picard's a jerk. [Chuckles]

Where's the Kevinator?

Mm...

He's probably wolfing down all the tuna tartare like a dumb barracuda.

[Sighs]

♪ When we were strangers ♪

♪ I watched you from afar ♪

Did Joe write you a letter?

Yeah. Why?

Um, it was just to me.

Yeah, you're right. Sorry.

Did you love him?

[Sighs]

Yeah.

I did.

♪♪

Um, I'll just, like -- I'll just summarize.

♪♪

Uh...

He said he, like, needs to start over, and that he didn't air the Comet commercial because, you know, um...

He talked about UNC putting their radio station on the Internet.

[Chuckles]

What?

Oh, it's an inside joke. You wouldn't get it.

Yeah.

Um, he said that my dad was proud of me and that if he was ever in town, he'd come and see us.

Um...

And he said not to forget him, even when I'm running all of Silicon Valley.

♪♪

He's joking again.

♪♪

Yeah, Armonk, where is that?

♪♪

Um, it's where he's from.

It's where, uh, IBM is.

Mm.

♪♪

[Sighs]

Hey, I'm sorry that we couldn't recover your data.

It's fine.

Like what Joe said.

What's that?

Fresh start.

[Inhales sharply]

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Well...

Come find me in the time ribbon.

I will.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Yes, good. [Laughs]

If you'll excuse me one second.

I'm just gonna --

[Indistinct conversations]

Uh, thank you.

Um, I just, uh --

I wanted to thank you guys for coming out tonight.

[Chuckles]

"You guys."

See what we're up against?

[Laughter]

When I graduated from Berkeley in '75 with a degree in computer science, nobody batted an eye.

That's probably because back then, coders were like secretaries and engineers, meaning little solder soldiers on the assembly lines, were kind of invisible.

And we're used to that.

But somewhere along the line, these jobs became important.

And don't get me wrong,

I'm happy to hang out with "you guys" any time and eat good food, but I hope that by the time my daughters are my age that they don't have to have gatherings like this anymore to remind themselves that they're actually here.

I've been in tech for 18 years.

I've won.

And I've lost.

I am a woman who voted her female partner out of her own company, the company she founded.

I am a woman who lost a marriage to, among other things, this line of work.

I can't sleep at night sometimes worrying if I'm seeing my kids enough or if I've been there enough for them or if it's already too late.

But...

...I've done things.

That always comes with a price, but I did them.

One of the many things I've learned is that no matter what you do, somebody is around the next corner with a better version of it, and if that person is a man, it might not even be better.

It just might get more attention.

And sometimes, that person is you.

The you that's never satisfied with what you just did because you're obsessed with whatever is next.

The one constant is this.

It's you, it's us.

The project gets us to the people.

♪♪

Because it's people that got me where I am, people like Diane Gould.

People like my husband and my first partner, Gordon Clark.

People like my last and best partner, Cameron Howe.

♪♪

And for all the rest of you,

I hope that tonight can be the beginning of something, something so that even if we see each other across the corporate battle lines one day, that you will know that I am rooting for you.

I can't help but not.

Because I am a partner by trade and a mother and a sister by design.

And I am --

I am so proud to be on this journey with you.

[Applause]

[Exhales sharply]

Aah!

Donna: Oh, my God!

Oh!

No, this is good.

Now everyone knows you were the crazy one.

Oh, good.

Well, I'm glad I could be of some service.

Donna: [Chuckles]

So...

About working together.

[Sighs] I'm sorry.

It was a terrible idea.

I shouldn't have brought it up.

I can't tell you what it means to me that you asked.

I think in some ways, I... probably have been waiting for years to hear that.

I meant it.

I know.

Of course, it is also the surest way to screw up what we do have now.

What do we have now?

We're friends.

Maybe we should try that for a while.

[Sighs]

You falling in that pool was probably the funniest thing

I've ever seen in my entire life.

[Chuckles]

Hey, where's Kevin?

I dumped him.

Oh, that's -- I'm sor-- Are you okay?

Yeah.

You know, sometimes I think maybe --

Haley's gay?

Yep. Yeah.

[Both chuckle]

Oh, these girls, they're just...amazing.

Hey, what's happening with the old Mutiny building?

I mean, I can't believe they spent all this money redecorating and didn't even change the stupid lock.

Donna: Whoa, carpet. Yeah.

And look at all this glass.

Yeah, this was Comet.

Uh, okay, so Gordon was in your office.

Oh, of course.

And Joe was in mine.

Um, oh.

Gordon rewired the ethernet so it patched down through the ceiling, which was really genius.

[Laughs]

What?

You remember when, uh, Lev and Yo-Yo took the fish tank full of sea monkeys and they moved it over by the fridge? Oh, yeah, and Carl reached over it trying to get to the Better Cheddars and he spilled it all over himself.

Yeah, and he ruined his pants.

He ruined his pants. So he had to strip them off, and he was wearing -- what was that?

He was wearing that thing. It was like a jock strap.

No, no, no, it was bikini briefs.

Oh, my God. It was like a French cut.

[Both laugh]

[Both sigh]

Didn't he sit, like, right here?

No, Carl, he was over here by Wonderboy.

Cameron: Oh.

Hey, whatever happened to Annabelle?

The mannequin?

Yeah.

Um, [chuckles]

Well...

Bodie took mushrooms and immolated her on the roof during a lunar eclipse.

[Laughs]

Those guys.

You know Bodie has four kids now, right?

Get out.

Yes.

And, uh, oh, Wonderboy teaches at NYU, but he teaches, like, video art.

Oh, cool.

What about Carl?

Porn.

Oh, of course, 'cause the mustache.

No, he -- he hosts it on a website and he charges.

[Laughs] He has a huge house out in Arcadia or somewhere.

Yeah.

What would it be?

If we were to do it all over again?

I'm out of ideas.

Okay, then, how would we run it?

Well... we'd call it, um --

I don't know.

Phoenix.

Oh, I like it.

[Chuckles]

Equal equity.

Co-founders.

Equal say in everything. Mm-hmm.

And we'd just grow at our own pace this time.

Like, really enjoy the ride.

What if we did 24 months of pure R&D?

Just focus on ideas way outside the box.

Yeah.

You remember our first week at Phoenix?

Just you, me, and that one guy we hired out of Cal Poly.

I remember our Series A.

And then we went public.

Right.

We had to start making some hard decisions, maybe a partnership with a bigger company, and we had to sacrifice some of the culture.

Yeah, but it worked for a while.

But eventually we had to let some people go, streamline some things.

And still we kept losing ground.

We started arguing about the direction of the company.

I strategized a safe play to keep things afloat.

And I dug my heels in.

We fought about it.

But it didn't destroy us this time.

No.

But still, we were at an impasse.

And then soon enough, the decision got made for us.

[Sighs]

And we walked away friends.

♪♪

Hey.

♪♪

It was a pleasure working with you at Phoenix.

♪♪

I loved every minute of it.

♪♪

[Sighs]

[Sighs]

♪♪

[Drawer closes]

[Tape player clicks]

Gordon: 8, 7, 6, 5,

4, 3, 2, 1.

Now, how we doing?

Close your eyes.

Does anything feel weird?

'Cause that's what this is.

Feeling weird is --

is how you know you're still here.

♪♪

All right, now, when was the last time you ate?

Because all a human needs is food, water, and rest.

You got to remind yourself

that you're just 160 pounds of goo

in the middle of a very big universe.

So whatever's burning you up right now,

just know that it'll fade.

Every problem feels big in the moment,

but, Gordon, you know better.

So...focus on just being being.

And then try to look up from your computer

every once in a while.

♪♪

I want to try and see you as much as I can, but I should be through Tallahassee in the next couple weeks, so... you know, I thought I could, uh, come by.

Yeah.

Okay, well, then I'll see you then.

Yeah, I will, Mom.

Okay.

[Sighs]

[Indistinct conversations]

[Sighs]

[Sighs]

Donna: Did you get her? Yeah.

Good. Yeah.

So, it's a busy week for you?

Oh, yeah, sort of.

We got a 3-D imaging company presenting at COMDEX, so, you know, it's just COMDEX.

Yeah.

Oh, COMDEX.

[Both chuckle]

Okay, well, let's do it.

What you tried to do 24 hours ago.

I'm glad I got waylaid.

Yeah, me, too.

Hey, I'll get breakfast.

Oh, no, no. Give me that.

No, no, no. Let's split it.

You're unemployed. Save your money.

Fair enough.

Meet you outside.

Thank you. [Sighs]

[Door bells ring]

[Keys clack]

[Cash register opens]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Donna: Cameron.

What is it?

♪♪

I have an idea.

[Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill" plays]

[Engine revs]

♪ Climbing up on Solsbury Hill ♪

♪ I could see the city light ♪

♪ Wind was blowing, time stood still ♪ [Engine shuts off]

♪ Eagle flew out of the night ♪

♪ He was something to observe ♪

♪ Came in close, I heard a voice ♪

♪ Standing stretching every nerve ♪

♪ Had to listen, had no choice ♪

♪ I did not believe the information ♪

♪ Just had to trust imagination ♪

♪ My heart going boom, boom, boom ♪

♪ "Son," he said ♪

♪ "Grab your things I've come to take you home" ♪

♪♪

♪ Yeah, back home ♪

♪♪

♪ To keep in silence I resigned ♪

♪ My friends would think I was a nut ♪

♪ Turning water into wine ♪

♪ Open doors would soon be shut ♪

♪ So I went from day to day ♪

♪ Thought my life was in a rut ♪

♪ Till I thought of what I'd say ♪

♪ Which connection I should cut ♪

♪ I was feeling part of the scenery ♪

♪ I walked right out of the machinery ♪

[School bell rings]

♪ My heart going boom, boom, boom ♪

♪ "Hey" he said ♪

♪ "Grab your things I've come to take you home" ♪

♪♪

♪ Yeah, back home ♪

♪♪

♪ When illusion spin her net ♪

♪ I'm never where I want to be ♪

♪ And liberty, she pirouette ♪

♪ When I think that I am free ♪

♪ Watched by empty silhouettes ♪

♪ Who close their eyes but still can see ♪

♪ No one taught them etiquette ♪

♪ I will show another me ♪

♪ Today I don't need a replacement ♪

♪ I'll tell them what the smile on my face meant ♪

♪ My heart going boom, boom, boom ♪

Let me start by asking a question.

♪ I said ♪

♪ "You can keep my things, they've come to take me home" ♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪