Act 2: Zero
09 Rational Youth – I Want To See The Light (1982, Canada) JACK
Someone left the lights out on the ground
And the people that were there were never found
10:15 flight to Madrapour
Soaring off into the night forever more
And the dreams we were dreaming
Have all flickered and died
Before they close that curtain
I want to see the light
In a dream the truth is overheard
That our destination's only just a word
He who so desires is free to go
But the gesture would be worthless even so
All your well-formed opinions
Are just holes in the night
Before they pull that trigger
I want to see the light
Someone bring my medicine, I'm ill
The machine is ready waiting for the kill
Powers below have analyzed my fate
Memo / update / final / subject / terminate
But I feel only nothing
I with silence abide
Before they push that button
I want to see the light
Jack explains to Susan what he has learned: that their world is a computer simulation of a nuclear war. They have all lived through multiple cycles; some are starting to preserve memories between cycles.
Something strange has happened to the Simulation, though, as it seems to have glitched and frozen.
Rational Youth again, because of course.
10 Blue Peter – Radio Silence (1980, Canada) SKYWATCH
There's a light miles below
I hear the roar, time stands still
Across the night, above the moon
Over the hills with time to kill
Radio silence takes us home
Radio silence, static tone
There's a voice behind my headset
Behind a face I've never seen
And miles below the night is young
Atop the wings there is a gun
Radio silence takes us home
Radio silence, static tone
Higher than heaven, time stands still
Higher than cities with time to kill
Rising higher than all the planets
On travelling lights, the engines fight
And city shelter, hideout below
There's no tomorrow beyond that door
Radio silence takes us home
Radio silence, that static tone
Higher than heaven, time stands still
Higher than cities with time to kill
SKYWATCH is still a friendly Artificial Intelligence.
Jack and Susan travel through broken fragments of the simulation, flash-frozen scenes of nuclear battlegrounds.
Oh man when did I hear this one? Sometime in the 80s, on cassette, I’m sure. The detuned riff gets me every time. Another Canadian band, also because of course.
11 Kraftwerk – Radioactivity (1975, Germany) SYSTEM
Radioactivity
Is in the air for you and me
Radioactivity
Discovered by Madame Curie
Radioactivity
Tune into the melody
Radioactivity
Is in the air for you and me
SYSTEM does not love them, nor does it hate them. But it is not a friendly Artificial Intelligence.
Susan and Jack find their way to a nuclear explosion frozen in the first moments of detonation. There, in the heart of the fire, is a flaw in the simulation where they can crash through into ‘backstage’.
I suspect this song is the root of the ‘detuned keyboard’ riff that’s a key musical theme here, and which haunted so many of the anti-nuclear songs of the early 1980s. Took a few years for Kraftwerk to propagate across the English Channel I guess.
12 New Musik – All You Need Is Love (Non Beatles) (1982, England) SKYWATCH
For peace on earth
Man has to show
He's not afraid
He don't let go
But when the light
No longer shines
When darkness comes
He'll realise
That all you need is love
All you need is love
And if all you need is love
Why don't you do it?
We said, Ok
We understand
When backs were turned
We made plans
So when the wind
Begins to burn
When it's too late
We'll realise
That all you need is love
All you need is love
And if all you need is love
Why don't you do it?
We chose our sides
It had to be
We are our own
Enemy
And when we clash
When fire meets ice
When worlds collide
We'll realise
That all you need is love
All you need is love
And if all you need is love
Why don't you do it?
Susan and Jack encounter SKYWATCH, which is indeed a friendly AI.
SKYWATCH offers them a chance to escape. The Simulation is attuned to their brain waves; it advises that they can override its programming if they focus their minds. But they have to really mean it.
There is some resignation in SKYWATCH’s tone. It seems that it has asked this question many times before.
New Musik’s ‘Warped’ album had both this and a straightforward cover of the Beatles original but this one is it to me.
13 Modern English – After The Snow (1982, England) JACK
The rhythm of the rain gives an upbeat on the windowpane
Like an angel crying from the sky
I can see its beauty after the snow
I can see its beauty after the snow
The temperature's dropping rapidly
Normal service will shortly be resumed
I can see its beauty after the snow
I can see its beauty
After the snow has gone away
After the snow
I stood and watched the dark sky rise
With glaring sunlight in my eyes
I thought of home and time gone by
And laughed aloud at the crimson sky
After the snow
After the snow
After the snow
After the snow
After the snow there's something born
After the snow there's something born
Susan and Jack’s mind-link succeeds. They seem to really like each other. Have they met before?
The Simulation begins to dissolve in snow.
SKYWATCH has sacrificed itself to cripple SYSTEM’s capability enough for Susan and Jack to escape.
Just bury me under a bunch of synth arpeggios.
14 Missing Persons – Destination Unknown (1982, USA) SUSAN
Life is so strange
when you don't know
How can you say
where you're going to?
You can't be sure
of any situation
Something could change
and then you won't know
You ask yourself:
Where do we go from here?
It seems so unclear
Just as far beyond as I can see
I still don't know what this all means to me
You tell yourself:
I have nowhere to go
I don't know what to do
And I don't even know the time of day
I guess it doesn't matter anyway
Life is so strange (destination unknown)
when you don't know (your destination)
something could change (it's unknown)
and then you won't know (destination unknown)
You ask yourself:
When will my time come?
Has it all been said and done?
I know that I will leave when it's my time to go
Until then I'll carry on with what I know
Life is so strange
Jack and Susan wake from immersion pods in a medical centre in an Astradyne Orbital research lab. Their memories are wiped but SKYWATCH before its destruction has left a breadcrumb trail to allow them to escape.
There are other mindwiped research subjects here too. Susan and Jack decide to call them the Novas. Everyone feels like newly born people.
Terry and Dale Bozzio have done a whole bunch of stuff since the 80s but I think it’s just this one Missing Persons song for me. Something absolutely haunting about it.
15 Ultravox – Astradyne (1980, England) SYSTEM
Instrumental
Susan, Jack and the Novas escape the complex.
Of course there was going to be Ultravox, you knew that, but surprisingly little as it turns out.
16 Max Carl – Come And Follow Me (end titles from ‘Short Circuit’) (1986, USA) JACK and SUSAN
Feels like I came alive just yesterday
Feels like I'm always gonna feel this way
Hearts have been set in motion
Worlds have been turned around
When you've been lost you know when you've been found
Easy to hide and live your life apart
Easy to find new ways to kill the heart
Now I've been through some changes
Laughter as well as pain
Now I can dance in sunshine or in rain
Come and follow me
To wherever the light breaks through
Come and follow me
And you're gonna be dancing too
In your eyes I see
You're alive as me
So whenever I'm lost then I can follow you
Too many people throw it all away
Can't seem to take another empty day
The trick is to keep believing
The trick is to simply see
Just how great the gift of life can be
Susan and Jack contemplate their future, suddenly wide open and full of possibility.
You’ve watched Short Circuit, right? Of course you have. It’s basically WarGames 2. Very little seems to have changed on the military robotics front since 1986. You could drop an iRobot Packbot in place of No. 5 and you wouldn’t notice the difference.