Blending in.
You have no idea what it's like, always blending in.
You forget who you are.
Eventually, you start to forget who you ever were.
They push you and push you further into the margins.
Treat you like dirt, take away your manhood.
Make you small.
Somebody had to do something about it.
I hear you, Hollis, I really do. He used you.
Took advantage of your work and cut you loose. It's a terrible thing.
But I got people to answer to.
They're talking about kicking down doors.
Look, since I don't think either one of us wanna go down that road just yet...
help me buy time. Send out the employees.
No. No. That won't work.
Let me finish. The deal is I get the bystanders, you keep Ken Lydecker.
He's the only one you really want anyway.
You'll still have leverage and I'll have something to show my bosses.
We'll all get to live a little while longer.
All right. Everybody but Lydecker, out.
Let's go. Move.
This way. This way. Keep moving. This way.
- Hey, buddy, we alone yet? - Shut up, I'm...
I'll take that for a yes.
Excuse me.
- Are you Ken Lydecker? - Yeah.
Well, if you're out here, who's that inside?
Where's Lydecker?
Just give it a minute. You'll figure it out.
I've seen you. You've been around here.
You're the auditor.
Not really.
Listen, never make threats. You wanna do something, don't talk about it.
- Do it. - What?
Lydecker. Been sending him threats. Got him planning, got his guard up.
Now look where you are.
Threats just make things messier. No more threats. Just action.
You just committed suicide for that snake.
That rat. Do you realize that?
First, I don't think you can be both of those things at the same time.
Second, you're a salesman. You got fired.
Not like he had you working a chain gang.
He took out eight years of my life.
Left me with nothing. No severance. No savings.
I mean, he broke me. And he deserves to die for it.
- No, he doesn't. - He does.
No, he doesn't.
Nobody deserves to die, and after seeing your behavior this afternoon...
I think Lydecker deserves a medal for putting up with you.
- What are you doing? - I'm gonna take the gun.
- Guns are not for messing around. - You think I'm messing around?
We've been here for six and a half hours. I'm tired. I missed lunch. Enough already.
Are you crazy?
Am I crazy?
I'm assuming that was a rhetorical question.
You don't wanna go out like this, do you?
No.
So I'm gonna go outside.
And I'm gonna get as close to Lydecker as I can.
And then I'm gonna finish what I started.
And you can stand there and say whatever you want.
That I'm about to do a terrible thing. That I can still get out of this.
But it's not gonna change anything. This is still gonna happen.
Hollis, what did I tell you?
No threats.
Hello, Carmine.
So how's your buddy today?
Happy to be home.
Morning, Winston. Checking up on me?
Why, did something happen?
Could care less about you.
Who's been feeding that beast the whole time you've been laid up?
I don't know. Figured he finally got a hold of the mailman. Just been eating him.
- Lydecker sent payment. - This? Oh.
So...
Whiskey?
It's not whiskey.
It's a 25-year-old bottle of Takagi. That's $900 a pop.
When I suggested we keep transactions quiet by bartering instead of cash...
I assumed you knew I meant bartering for things of significant value.
That stuff's not easy to come by.
Hold onto it for 10 years, it'll be worth 10 times as much.
- Oh, so it's an investment. - Exactly.
A guy blows up the building he's in, you don't think him a long-term investor.
We're still having this conversation? Really?
It was the only way to stop the guy from killing Lydecker and bystanders.
Yeah, so you've said.
However, what I'm trying to figure out is how the whole thing even got that far.
Why not challenge him at the outset?
The guy didn't arm the vest until late in the game.
Why not disarm him cleanly beforehand?
So I let it get that far because I thought it'd be fun?
I don't know. So why don't you tell me?
Why don't you just ask me what you wanna ask me?
Are you slipping?
I waited because I felt Lydecker was in no immediate danger.
Do you think I would've pulled the trigger if I didn't know there was a bearing wall?
If I didn't know that homemade fuse...
was gonna have at least a three-second delay?
- Where you headed? - To see Peale. He's got a referral for us.
- I can come. - Ha, ha. No, no, you can't. No.
You can't, because the shop's closed and it stays closed until you recover.
No discussion.
Thanks for worrying.
But there's nothing to worry about.
It was about a week ago.
I get in the car to go to work and it won't start.
Two hours later, I'm at the dealership...
and the mechanic comes out with this look on his face.
He says, "Good news is your battery's dead."
Bad news is he found 8 ounces of Primasheet 2000 under the hood.
Plastic explosive.
I don't know why anyone would want me dead.
I've never gotten threats. Don't have enemies.
I don't know what this is. That's why I need your help.
The police refused to grant protection?
You know the deal with the department.
Captain gave me two men, no overtime.
Given the situation, it ain't hardly enough.
The situation? What situation?
Tell him what you do.
I work for McNamara Engineering.
I run the design team for the Monterey Line.
California bullet train?
The lady's responsible for the most expensive public works project...
in U.S. history.
The last thing McNamara needs is controversy surrounding the project.
But I'm not here for the company. I'm here because she's my wife.
With the train's maiden voyage coming up tomorrow...
you can understand why we wanna keep this information private.
If you can help end this faster and safer than the police can...
you're the men we want.
All right, well, um, we're not taking any new clients on at the moment.
- I can refer you to another security... - No.
No, I was told that you provide a unique service.
- That you're the people that I need. - Why me?
You can flush this person out, yes?
Get him to reveal himself and take him out.
I work with a cover. Blend in to the background.
Let you appear vulnerable so the threat reveals itself.
And then eliminate the threat.
I don't wanna live my life in fear.
Whoever's behind this shouldn't have that kind of power over me.
How fast does this train go?
Safe cruising speed is about 200 miles per hour.
Would I get to ride on it?
I assume so.
Okay. I'm in.
Let's go over the cover again. Who am I?
You're Tony Graham, my new translator.
Good. What happened to your old translator?
The company provided one to deal with our Tokyo financiers...
but she made too many mistakes, so I hired my own.
While we're on the subject, you are fluent in Japanese, right?
Guess we'll find out, won't we?
Mr. Saito congratulates you on a well-deserved celebration.
He's honored to be invited.
Thank you. I'm so glad you could be here.
- What? - They're our biggest investors.
What did you just say?
He wanted to know how I recognized his dialect was Satsuma-ben.
My grandfather was stationed in Tokyo.
After the war, they had a steward from a village on the island of Kyushu.
My grandfather sponsored him when he came to the U.S. for college.
Became a friend of the family. He taught me Japanese.
Wow, that's... Is that true?
No.
Do you really think whoever's after me is gonna be on this train?
Three hours in a confined space with no escape, no apparent security.
This is where he makes his next move.
Then why are you letting me on it?
Because there's no escape for him either.
When he moves, I'll be standing right next to you.
In three hours, one way or the other, this thing is going to be over.
When my father started this company...
I doubt he'd have thought the state of California could ever accomplish this.
But in three hours, we'll be in L.A.
Nothing will ever be the same again and it's all because of you.
So here's to you.
- Cheers. - Cheers.
Cheers.
Don't sweat what everybody says. You'll enjoy working for her.
- What does everybody say? - That she's miserable to work for.
That if you're not smart as she is, you must be incompetent.
That mistakes should be punishable by death.
So it isn't true?
No, it's true. Ha, ha.
If she's so difficult, why does anyone put up with working with her?
The truth?
James.
He protects her. From everybody.
Even McNamara.
Yeah, speak of the devil.
I was, uh, just telling Tony how everybody hates you, except for me.
Tom was James' best man. He introduced us.
He's McNamara's general counsel.
You'll have to excuse me.
Our undersecretary for mass transit insists...
on bugging me about the tab for today.
- So, what was the tab for all this? - All in? About 80 billion.
How much of this came out of my taxes?
About 62 billion.
Even I wanna kill you just a little bit right now.
Well, it sounds like she's got enemies.
Line forms to the left.
If there aren't at least 10 people that want her dead, I'd be amazed.
Pull the call logs on this phone.
Out of curiosity, does she know you're on her phone?
No, I swiped it to see if she's talking to anybody interesting.
I don't wanna go 12 rounds with her on it.
And see if you can find Guerrero. Let's bring him in on this.
Oh, yeah, sure. Why not?
Whoa, wait a minute, now. You're not serious, are you?
No one handles corporate crap like he does.
Oh, do you really think you can trust that animal?
Sure. As long as we pay him on time.
Get a load of this. I'm watching a guy that won't stop shifting his coat.
She thinks I'm flirting with her.
Anyway, pull the call logs.
I'll keep trying to figure out how she got herself in this mess.
- Let me know when you find Guerrero. - Oh, yeah.
You the guy digging around South Trust Bank?
Asking questions and making trouble?
- You're employees of the bank? - You could say that.
Well, I'm sorry, but your employer's involved...
with some pretty shady loans with his directors' families.
My friends need to know just how shady if they're gonna make their case.
So afraid we're at an impasse.
We're at a what?
Impasse. It means we disagree without prospect of resolution.
We came here to explain it to you, but you don't seem to be getting it.
Maybe the three of us can take a walk back to the alley.
We can explain it a little better.
So there's no impasse.
I gotta warn you guys.
If this gets violent...
I'm gonna fight back.
You think you're gonna fight back?
All right. Maybe fight back's a little misleading, you know?
I'll take the beating. That's all you amateurs are cleared to do.
One night, I'll break into your houses and kill each of you in your sleep.
Probably start with you, Alfredo.
Steven here can have a few extra days with Marla and the girls. It's only fair.
How do you know my name?
Your employer keeps sensitive information on a drive he thinks is secure.
It isn't.
Shall we?
This is Guerrero.
- Funny, my phone has the same ring. - Yeah, go ahead.
Guerrero is in.
But listen, I went through her call logs. I found something interesting.
Strange, don't you think, that we both have the same...?
Wait a second. That is my phone.
- Okay, let me know what you find. - You stole my phone.
Do you know a Times reporter named Mark Hoffer?
He covers the project. He'd call me for a background or a quote. Why?
His name's not in your contact list...
but his number shows up as incoming a dozen times. Mostly unreturned.
Well, I'm bad at returning calls.
I haven't spoken to him in almost a year. What difference does it make?
Hello?
We've never met, but I think you know who I am.
My name's Bill Arnold.
I think you know what I've been saying about you in Sacramento.
But now that I see what you've created, now that it's real...
I think the first thing I need to say to you is I'm sorry.
Evidently, you were worth every penny.
Excuse me, we were having a conversation.
- Wait a minute... - You sit down. Keep your mouth shut.
- What's going on? - The ice in your glass is cubed.
And no one else's are.
- Oh, my gosh. - What happened?
Is he all right?
We need a doctor. Is there a doctor here?
We need a doctor.
I rigged the door downstairs.
That ought to give us a warning in case somebody comes looking for you.
This was the plan. Flush him out, get him to commit.
Look at me.
You trust me?
So, what do we do now?
Well, he's irritated. He's gotta come to us.
We let him make that mistake.
Oh! Son of a bitch.
I need information on a guy that works in your office.
- You couldn't use the phone? - Where is the fun in that?
It's been a rough day. Let's just cut to the chase.
- Who's the guy? - Mark Hoffer. Sacramento desk.
Is that supposed to be a joke?
Was it funny?
You saying you don't know?
Yep.
When?
No such thing as a coincidence.
Okay, keep digging.
Mark Hoffer was killed this morning.
With a car bomb. Same explosive...
- as the one used in your car. - Oh, my God.
There has to be some sort of connection here. Now, what is it?
Uh, about a year ago...
he wrote a piece exposing corner-cutting within the project.
Hoffer got this information from an anonymous source within the company.
Any chance that anonymous source is sitting at the table with me right now?
The cost-cutting was jeopardizing safety measures.
I kept telling them that a train this big and this fast had to be flawless...
but they stopped listening to me.
I had to do something.
After that, McNamara got scared. He gave me everything I wanted.
- What else aren't you telling me? - Nothing.
I don't buy it. People who get in trouble are usually holding something back.
Either it's pride or they're embarrassed or they're stupid.
So which one are you?
- You telling me I deserve this? - Nobody deserves this.
People have secrets and secrets are dangerous.
So, what are you keeping from me?
- Do you hear that? - Hear what?
- The brakes. They're squealing. - So?
This isn't a trolley car.
If the brakes are squealing, something's wrong.
- So much for the flawless train. - It is flawless.
Get down.
Tom? Let him go.
Let him go.
- What is going on back here? - It's all right.
It's all right? Bill's hanging on by a thread.
It's a coin toss whether he makes it to L.A. alive.
And then this guy drags you back here?
He didn't drag me back here.
- Who are...? Wait a minute. - It's complicated, but I'm okay.
Why'd you pull those emergency brake handles in the last car?
What are you talking about?
Tom, just go back downstairs.
If anybody asks if you saw Stephanie, say no.
Stephanie, I'm your friend. You can trust me.
Go.
Hey, dude.
Breaking and entering is a crime, you know.
It's good to see you too. It's been a while.
Not long enough. What are you doing in my office?
What are you doing on my computer?
I'm checking out the contents of Mark Hoffer's hard drive.
There's not much here. It's mostly personal.
Do I wanna know how you came about it?
Editor at the paper owes me.
A gas company hired a guy to hassle him over a story he was working.
Got nasty. I got him out of it.
- How? - I decided to stop hassling him.
Listen, you. Don't get comfortable here.
Because as soon as this case is done, you're gone.
You've spent too much of your life in an office, Winston.
Look at you. It's made you weak.
Yeah.
No surprise, I think McNamara management...
- might be involved in this. - That's good news.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking.
All right, cool. I'll, uh, go pay him a visit.
Well, how is that good news?
Companies like this aren't built to off people. Tends to get sloppy.
Someone talks, the wrong guy's listening. Word's all over the street.
Wait. Who are you going to see?
The wrong guy.
I hate him.
If Tom is worried about these brake handles, we might have a problem.
The killer thinks you identified him, right?
He's afraid he's caught. He wants to get off the train.
He pulls one emergency brake. It doesn't work, so he pulls them all.
That's what we want. He's panicking. He's getting closer to making a mistake.
- He did. I think he blew out our brakes. - Come again?
The emergency brake system is complicated.
Brakes combined with a magnetic system that's controlled by the computer.
The emergency brakes in unfinished cars aren't tied into the computer yet.
When our guy kept engaging the discs, it overwhelmed the safeties.
- What are you saying? - It's like going on the freeway...
with your foot on the gas and emergency brake on.
If we engage them again, they're gonna explode.
I'm sorry, did you say explode?
Yeah. It gets worse.
There's a curve in the R-2 tunnel about 70 miles ahead.
We need the brakes to slow down or we'll derail.
If we do hit the brakes and they blow up...
they'll take the wheels with them. Then we'll derail.
- Seventy miles? That's like 20 minutes. - Less.
We need to warn everyone up front or a lot of people are going to die.
Get ready to move.
You should call up front, let them know what's going on.
How did you...?
- Where's your phone? - How did you...?
A vest?
You wore a vest? Where's my vest?
I'm your vest.
Where's your phone?
Back there.
What about the intercom? Don't tell me, it's not hooked up yet.
How you doing?
- Haven't seen you for a while. - Haven't been looking for you.
Answer for everything. That's why I stopped finding work for you.
Need to know if you've heard of any work...
put on the street by McNamara Engineering.
Not to the best of our recollection.
- Are you sure? - Hang on, I'll check again.
Yeah, I'm sure.
What do you care for anyway?
You wanna know if there's open work, but don't wanna take it?
What, are you window-shopping?
I see. You've gone over to the other side.
You're fighting the good fight, making the world safe for democracy...
like your friend, Chance.
A word of advice.
Give it up.
Maybe it works for him, but not for somebody like you.
Just making life hard on yourself, friend.
Yeah.
Companies have secrets. Husbands hate wives.
Brothers envy brothers.
What did you just say?
You want me to write it down for you?
No, I got it.
That's the...
Shh. What's the matter with you?
If he hears us, we're gonna be dodging bullets.
That's the grate to the next car.
You can just unscrew it.
We're running out of time. Hurry.
Hi. Excuse me.
In less than 10 minutes, there's a good chance that this train is going to crash.
I suggest that we get off it.
I told you. I'm the interpreter.
- We need to get off. - Off the train? You sound crazy.
What are you talking about?
We're gonna engage the brakes to take the R-2 tunnel curve.
The discs are overheated.
Once we engage them, the discs are gonna explode.
This train will go into the tunnel. It's not gonna come out.
All right, uh, let's everyone take a breath here.
This train is perfectly safe.
- Its brakes are perfectly safe. - Listen to me.
Stephanie, we're only 18 miles out.
The brakes engaged a few minutes ago.
Now, look. You disappear, you come back here, you're making a scene.
- You're getting everybody upset. What...? - Shh.
Shut down the brakes. Shut them down.
There's a name for the kind of train this just turned into.
- How did this happen? - I'll explain after we get off the train.
We're going 220 miles per hour. No one is gonna get off of this train.
Rear brake assist. There's a supplemental braking system in the rear car.
It's too weak to slow the train at this speed.
But if we separate the car, we can slow it down before it hits the curve.
Okay. Okay, let's get moving. Everyone to the back of the train.
- What happened back there? - He eliminated the threat.
- Did you recognize him? - There's not much left of him.
But enough to dig into who hired him.
Well, look who found the front door.
Still got the call logs from the client's cell phone?
- Yeah. - Good.
Read me back the incoming calls from Mark Hoffer.
I don't work for you.
The dates and times, please.
Um, "August 20, 12:53 p.m."
April 24, 7:31 p.m.
- February 25, 2:50... "What is this?" - Get Chance on the phone.
The system isn't online.
- We'll cut the hydraulics manually. - Is there time?
Once I disconnect the hoses, cars won't
separate until the rear car hits its brakes.
- Why don't you let somebody do that? - I know the guts of this thing better.
It's okay. I'll be okay. Go.
Go.
I'm sorry.
For what?
All this. I figure somebody should say it.
At least I know what I'll be doing Monday morning.
What's that?
Building the damn thing all over again.
Is everyone on board? Is everybody here?
Yeah, everyone's here. Hit the brakes.
I'm down to the last connection here. Ready?
- I thought you said these don't lock. - They don't.
No.
- How much time? - Two minutes to the tunnel.
Maybe we can strap ourselves in, hope the cars hold together.
Will they?
We're gonna die, aren't we?
At this speed, the wake turbulence passing off the train...
- will run just north of level, right? - Excuse me?
The wake, the turbulence, the wind coming off the back.
Yeah, there'd be a bit of an updraft.
- About 160, 170 degrees? - Roughly. How did you know that?
Lucky guess.
Cut two of those seatbelts as close to the seat as you can.
Wait a minute.
No, no, no.
- What are you afraid of? - Dying.
It's not gonna happen.
Come on, this'll be fun.
- This isn't gonna work. - I'm open to suggestions.
Here, put this on.
Exhale. Hard.
I can't believe it's over.
It's not exactly over.
Be kind of nice to find out who's behind all this, don't you think?
Well, at least it's over for a little bit, right?
We'd like to thank you for everything.
But I think after all this, it might be nice to go home, be alone tonight.
Just the two of us.
Okay.
Thank you.
Hello.
I finished looking at the expense reports...
- of a reporter, Mark Hoffer. - Who is this?
They include a number of expenses at a hotel in Laguna.
These stays coincided with phone calls placed by him to Stephanie's cell phone.
When did you find out your wife was sleeping with Mark Hoffer?
Forgot your tie.
I had a hunch it wasn't the assassin...
who tried to stop the train and escape. It just didn't fit.
It was you, wasn't it?
Once your guy missed with the ice...
you figured things might be getting a little bit out of control.
You were afraid that if I caught him, he'd finger you.
Everybody on the train would know that you hired him to kill your wife.
It was you?
Because of me and Mark?
It was over. It had been over for a year. I hadn't even talked to him.
- I know. - Then why now?
We were better this whole last year. We've been better.
It was the money.
If he'd done this last year, you don't finish the train. No bonus.
This way, he gets the money.
You were wrong.
Maybe I did deserve what was coming to me.
I'm responsible for this.
You risked your life for me and I lied to you about who I was.
Everybody does that.
I don't care what anybody says. Sometimes it's a lot easier.
You did something you regret.
We're hard-wired to do things we regret.
Ain't gonna change. It's nothing to be afraid of.
And it's certainly not a reason to die.
I don't even know what I owe you.
Can you at least tell me your name?
Christopher Chance.
Is that true?
And don't you dare count it.
- See you, Chance. - Later.
Well, I told him his services were no longer needed.
Why is that funny?
Oh, he'll be back.
Oh.
Hey, listen, um...
What do you say you take some time off now?
What are you worried about? What's different about now...
than anything else I've done?
Don't start about how I'm losing it. You sound like an idiot.
Well, fine. I did think that at first, that you were losing focus.
- I haven't lost focus. - No, I believe you.
I do, and now I'm really worried.
I ask myself, "Why would he just continue to do this?
Put himself in situations where he ends up in front of one gun after another?
What is it? Is it the rush? Or some kind of weird penance?"
And then it hit me.
Maybe he keeps putting himself in front of that gun...
because he hopes that one day he'll get what he really deserves...
and the gun'll finally go off.
Go ahead, tell me I'm wrong.
Tell me you're planning on being around for a while.
- What the hell are they doing? - I don't know. Open up that bag there.
- Whiskey? - It's not whiskey.
Really? Because it looks like a bottle of Japanese whiskey to me.
I hired you to protect me from those people.
Your plan is to have a smoke and a drink?
There was a day I'd have felt bad opening a bottle like this.
But I'm learning to live in the now. It might taste better in 10 years.
It might be worth more. But what if I'm not around to find out?
What the hell are you doing?
Ah.
You're really missing something here.
Smooth. Good finish.
You'd never even know this stuff burns like jet fuel.
Man, are you crazy?
Let's find out.