ETXR

[TECHNO MUSIC PLAYING OVER SPEAKERS]

[MUSIC CONTINUES PLAYING AND CROWD CHEERING]

Ever since I was a kid,

I felt like I was being watched.

Hidden cameras recording my life.

And I'd lie awake at night and think,

"Who's watching me?

What makes me so special?"

Now it's a transparent society.

We're all bugged 24/7

in everything we do,

watched and measured,

counted and stored.

Data becomes metadata,

and all our lives are digitized.

So I embrace it.

I am The Bug.

I'm always listening, recording,

mixing, remixing.

I'm a sound collector, sonic manipulator.

My music comes from the world around me.

Noises are my instruments.

The Bug is bugged. My cameras are always on,

antennas up, ready to receive.

And still I wonder,

who's watching me?

And why?

Are you ready for this?

It's Bix the Bug!

Go! Go!

I am The Bug.

Transmission in 10...

Nine, eight,

seven, six, five,

four, three, two,

one.

Hey, hey. Great show tonight, B.

Bet we had over a hundred people out there.

Yeah, at the most.

Oh, come on, man.

I mean, it's growing.

We got the helmet, website, spy cams.

Something's missing, Danny.

The Bug is bugged, but nobody cares.

Maybe you need a new sound.

What's that supposed to mean?

I don't know, man. Mix it up a little bit,

try to go mainstream. No compromising the music.

Look, I'm trying to do something different.

Well, here's something different, okay? We're broke.

We got a stack of bills like the Leaning Tower of Pisa

over our heads.

I don't wanna leave living in the RV.

Fuck it, man, at least we got tonight, right?

We might as well party while we can.

By the way, that dude came by again.

What?

Yeah, that guy who's, like, stalking you. Curtis Garret.

Garret? I thought you got rid of that guy.

I did, but he came back.

He said he needs to talk to you. It's very important.

Just hear him out. He's harmless.

Sure. I mean, invite him to the party. I don't care.

Here's the guy, Bix. Say hello.

Hey.

Matthew Laughlin.

Long time.

Do you remember me? Curtis Garret.

Um...

I was in your class at MIT a few years back.

Professor Hanson's Robotics Computing.

I dropped that a long time ago, though.

And the name is Bix now.

Yeah. No, I know.

I mean, I know that you dropped out.

It doesn't matter. Um...

Actually, is there someplace that we could talk in private?

Yeah, dude, you're looking at it.

Do you remember Hanson's research

involving the Teslascope?

Um...

Sure. Maybe.

The Hyperdimensional Oscillator.

It's real, Matthew.

I--I have a prototype that I built.

It works.

Yo.

You're still here?

Um...I have the scope all set up.

It's outside in my truck.

Will you listen?

You are a persistent little fucker, aren't you?

Come on, it's time to go, bro. Party's over.

Look, Matthew.

I promise you, I'm not crazy, okay?

I'm not delusional.

You might understand these signals I'm receiving.

They're just radio intercepts, man.

You're hearing voices, my friend.

No, not voices. No language, sounds.

Noises.

Very unique harmonic electronic noises.

What, you mean like music?

Yeah, musical in tone, definitely.

Possibly a code. I don't know.

See, I'm not... I'm not a musician.

I'm not an artist.

That's why I came to you.

Look, will you just listen?

So you built this yourself?

Well, using Tesla's original schematics, yes.

Wait, so let me get this straight.

This thing talks to outer space, huh, buddy?

Nikola Tesla claimed

that it could make contact with extraterrestrial worlds.

Right. You do remember.

Extraterrestrials, like aliens? Ha, ha.

"E.T. phone home."

Extraterrestrial means not of this Earth.

We're not talking about flying saucers or green men.

We're talking about unprecedented contact

with non-human intelligence

from beyond our concept of space and time.

That's really cool. Which end do I stick my dick in?

Does he need to be here?

He's just fucking with you. Go on.

Okay.

Well, the device, it functions on a quantum level.

I mean, the smallest scale imaginable,

but it still needs a high-energy power source.

Look, don't get too close,

because when the transmission comes through,

the energy exchange is quite intense

and things do get kind of hot.

How can I help?

Well, I need you to listen

to all the transmissions I've received,

help me put the pieces together,

you know, crack the code.

Code?

Yeah, I think that it's a message.

Whatever's on the other end,

it's something or someone that we've never heard from before.

"It's like radio for speaking to God."

I don't like you.

Would you come talk?

Would you play along, you douche?

This guy is clearly cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.

I don't wanna get ball cancer

from this thing, whatever the fuck it is.

You obviously did not hear what I just heard.

I heard something raw, okay? It sounds like fucking noise.

It is noise. But guess what? That's the business we're in.

Just follow my lead.

This has structure.

Exactly. Exactly.

There's clearly some form of communication going on.

It's almost-- It's hypnotic, yes?

You know, some sort of, like, resonant telepathy.

I mean, the spoken word is limited,

but vibrations, harmonics,

I mean, that is communication, like, on a primal level.

You came to the right MIT dropout,

because this is what Bix the Bug does.

Check this out.

[TECHNO MUSIC PLAYING OVER SPEAKERS]

Yeah, um, but why are you--?

Why are you adding a drum beat and all those extra effects?

I didn't come here to make techno music. I came here--

Hey, hey, pal.

That's what my boy does. He makes music.

That was fucking killer, bro.

Okay, yeah, it was killer, but I don't need a DJ.

Hey, excuse me, you gotta-- Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Ryan Seacrest is a fucking DJ.

Bix the Bug is an artist.

I don't need to dance to this. I need to crack it.

Look, you came to me,

and I can help you, but it's obviously incomplete.

It's incomplete?

What, you can't feel it?

Yeah, yeah. Obviously something's missing.

I mean, it's got no oomph.

It's incomplete.

Think about it like a song.

We have maybe half the stems here,

so what we need is more tracks.

More transmissions.

A song?

I don't know. Look, dude.

I got a mad genius here giving you gold.

I mean, you give us, what, two, three days?

A week.

A week, and he will crack this puppy.