Part of the Cosmos

1. FADE IN

2. 
   

3. Act 1

4. 
   

5. EXT. SILVERSTRAND BAY - 17:15

6. 
   

7. The sky is heavy. The sea is restless. PETER, wearing a simple pair of swimming trunks, stands at the water's edge. He gazes not at the water, but at the distant hills across the bay.

8. 
   

9. PETER (V.O.): I know that shade of grey. That's the rain getting ready.

10. 
    

11. He wades in with a sense of purpose. He swims with a rhythmic crawl, heading for the line of orange safety buoys that mark the swimming area.

12. 
    

13. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Raindrops keep falling on my head.

14. 
    

15. He reaches the first buoy. He grabs and looks at the rain, splatting against the water's surface. He looks up.

17. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I only worry about possible lightning and its electricity.

18. 
    

19. He looks at his body, submerged in the conductive saltwater.

20. 
    

21. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I'm just an old man, vulnerable, in a vast and powerful world.

22. 
    

23. Later, after doing several butterfly strokes, he stumbles out of the water.

24. 
    

25. Act 2

26. 
    

27. INT. LIVING ROOM - 18:45

28. 
    

29. Peter scrolls Facebook on his phone and stops on a post.

30. 
    

31. PETER (V.O.): Hmm... it's about the quantum case of a massless universe.

32. 
    

33. He reads on, his brow furrowed with concentration.

34. 
    

35. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): The subatomic particles that make up my body...are probably just massless waves?

36. 
    

37. Pausing.

38. 
    

39. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): The feeling of "me", of solid flash and bone...is just the laws of physics playing out?

40. 
    

41. He continues scrolling. Another post.

42. 
    

43. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Consciousness...can link up with the universe. Like a radio picking a signal.

44. 
    

45. He leans back, a distant look in his eyes.

46. 
    

47. FLASHBACK

48. 
    

49. INT. NT HEUNG YEE KUK SEC SCHOOL - DAY (1972)

50. 
    

51. Classroom. Peter (18), he stares at his literary work with the title: Part of the Cosmos.

52. 
    

53. PETER (V.O.): It's about human relationships. I think the teacher would think that I'm exaggerating and I'm pretentious.

54. 
    

55. RETURN TO PRESENT

56. 
    

57. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): But now, it seems there's...scientific support for that feeling.

58. 
    

59. Recalling.

60. 
    

61. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): In 1976, Lond U admitted me to read my BA in Philosophy as an external student. There's an option paper on "Philosophy of Mind". I didn't choose it.

62. 
    

63. Pausing.

64. 
    

65. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I didn't want to speculate. I thought...I might never develop a system of thought that's truly valid.

66. 
    

67. He looks at the screen again.

68. 
    

69. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): And now...the advance of science has provided answers that used to be in the domain of philosophy.

70. 
    

71. He looks at this body.

72. 
    

73. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): All my life...I thought I was a collection of atoms, a biological machine. Now I read that I'm ultimately made of massless waves of quantum probability.

74. 
    

75. Pausing.

76. 
    

77. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): So what am I?

78. 
    

79. He looks out of the window.

80. 
    

81. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I'm small, a small figure in a small flat in a vast world.

82. 
    

83. Pausing.

84. 
    

85. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I think...about the billions of years it took for the universe to be ready for me. And the billions of years it will go on without me. Am I important?

86. 
    

87. Pausing.

88. 
    

89. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): The hills, the sea, the universe...they don't care. They've no meaning.

90. 
    

91. Pausing.

92. 
    

93. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I'm witnessing the cosmos. I'm part of it. Even my fear of lightning is just a tiny, localised law of physics.

94. 
    

95. Pausing.

96. 
    

97. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): But if I'm witnessing it, then who is the "I" that's doing the witnessing? Science can describe the process, but it can't tell me why my terror of lightning is so real.

98. 
    

99. Pausing.

100. 
     

101. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Or why I still feel that hope, that feeling of being "Part of the Cosmos," even when I know I'm insignificant.

102. 
     

103. Act 3

104. 
     

105. INT. BEDROOM -22:00

106. 
     

107. Peter uploads an image to a draft on his laptop. It shows the calm, overcast sky and distant horizon mirroring the cosmic feeling of looking into a vast space, with buoys and floating platforms acting like orientation points similar to stars.

108. 
     

109. PETER (V.O.): The rain falling on Silverstrand Bay is the same rain that fell on the dinosaurs. I'm just the latest thing to feel it and wonder about it.

110. 
     

111. Thinking.

112. 
     

113. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): What is the meaning of my existence? The universe has no answer. But the universe also never asked the question. I did. That's the difference. That's what makes the universe into cosmos.

114. 
     

115. Reflecting.

116. 
     

117. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): We are massless waves that dream of solid ground. We're insignificant stardust that asks why it shines. We're part of the cosmos-not because the universe needs us, but because we're the part that needs to understand. And that's a philosophical issue.

118. 
     

119. The END

120. 
     

121. FADE OUT