On a planet Ghaljeandere there is a large city called Ksensus. The city itself is styled in gothic architecture and is covered by darkness most of the time.
Jack Calbot is a cynical, corrupt cop who no longer believes in helping the general public and echanges sensitive information in exchange for favors and money from both small-time criminals and the biggest criminal in the city, Jean-Pierre Lullard.
While doing business with Lullard, he takes on a mistress, a Cat-Sith (a race of human-like aliens with cat features, such as a pair of cat ears and a tail) slave and stripper by the name of Via Asante, who is a rather fiesty woman who wears a shock collar for nasty behavior in the past.

The two have several scenes together where they bond and talk about their lives and regrets, with Jack sharing that his biggest regret was never becoming a father. Via shares her regret of never contacting her younger brother Gerard, who was supporting their mother.

As election for the Ghaljeanderian Planetary Parliament is taking place, Lullard meets with politician Quentin Algiers, a racist who supports Cat-Sith slavery, who comes to the crime boss with a request: to send a Cat-Sith slave to assassinate both of his main political adversary John Harbor, who is trying to get elected in order to pass a policy that would allow Cat-Sith not only to vote, but to have representitives on the parliment. Algiers tell Lullard that the evidence of the assassination plot has to lead to another pro-slavery politician and if Lullard can achieve all of that, Algiers would make sure the crimial would be untouchable.
Lullard agrees to the request without hessitation.

The two are unaware that under their table was a recorder that has been recording the entire conversation, put by an undercover cop by the name of Winona de Ambrous, who had been acting as a waitress in Lullard's establishment.
As she picks the recording device, she is spotted by Via, who slips by her and takes the recorder. However she is noticed by the undercover cop.

Via later meets with Jack and begs him to help her stop the plot, as she is a heavy supporter of the idea of Cat-Sith getting the right to vote. Jack, however, is apathetic towards her pleas, so she tells him that she is pregnant with his child, causing him reluctantly accept aiding her.

Not wishing to botch the operation or risking anyone stealing her thunder, Winona goes to Lullard and tells him that she saw Via taking something from under the table after his meeting with Algiers and says she "believes" that it looked like those recorders cops use. This angers Lullard, who believes that Jack is trying to screw him over. He calls Kelvin Baudelaire, a corrupt detective under his thumb, ordering him to destroy Calbot's reputation, capture him and kill him. He also asks his primary enforcer, Alberto Contannilli, to kill Jack and Via in case Baudelaire fails. Though unknown to the two of them, Winona is listening to the conversation behind the wall.

Jack and as the cops show up to his department, at first confusd but when they try to arrest him for several offenses, he struggles and escapes alongside Via, now fugitives from the law.

Jack and Via arrive at a workshop of a man known as Vintege, a mechanic and the leader of a small-time gang of hijackers who owns a favor to Calbot for turning a blind eye multiple times. There Vintage manages to remove Via's shock collar, but the mechanic is horrified to learn that it doubles as a tracking device, kicking the two fugitives out. Not long after, Contannilli arrives with two other men and kill Vintege when they figure that he doesn't know where the two went.

The fugitives arrive in a rundown Cat-Sith neighborhood, laying low while hiding with Via's mother and brother. While there, Calbot sees the downtrodden situation of the Cat-Sith as he spends several scenes with the Asante family, as well as seeing and stopping several drunkards from attacking a group of boys, who complain that nobody cares about "A bunch of fuckin' dead cats".
Seeing all of this makes Calbot try and double down on his cynical beliefs, but Via and her mother try to convince him that there are people that do care and are trying their best to change the situation around the empire, one situation at a time.

Gerard, who has been reconnecting with Via, reveals to her that he has been ordered to go on a suicide mission in order to protect his mother, at which point she figures out that he's the intended assassin. She tries to dissuade him, but he refuses to listen, saying that they have no real worth in the eyes of the people who enslaved them, so his life has no worth and he storms out, leaving to perform his job.

At same time, Winona arrives at Baudelaire's apartment and tries to find any evidence to connect him to Lullard in order to get him fired and incarcerated as well as furthering her career. She takes a while, but manages to find something before leaving. She tells her superior, Captain Lambert, about what she found on her car's intercom. The captain tells her to go after him and to arrest Calbot as well.

Right as the two fugitives go out to try and chase after Gerard, the police and Bauldelaire arrive and start a lengthy car chase, in the middle of which Contannilli and his two men join the chase. Eventually there is a chain reaction of car crashes, and a firefight erupts between all groups. While Bauldelaire escapes the carnage as Jack, Via, Contannilli and his men gun down several officers.

When one of Contannilli's men flanks Jack, Via takes the hit for him as he shoots the man dead. As Jack holds onto Via, he sees that she is mortally wounded. She admits that she lied to him about the pregnancy but insisted that she was in-love with him and begs him to stop her brother before dying in his arms.

Distraught and in anguish, Jack is easily incapacitated by Bauldelaire and put in the back of the detective's truck, while the enforcer returns with his remaining underling to Lullard.

Calbot wakes up in an unknown location outside the city, where Bauldelaire has tied him up to a tree and is aiming a gun at him with one hand while holding the recorded tape in the other. He mocks about their shared history in the police force and how they both ended up being pretty similar, all the while mocking and taunting his captive about his own accomplishments in comparison to Jack's relatively boring career.
He tells Jack that he plans to blackmail Lullard for the tape in order to gain more importance in with the higher ups of the city after the "Filthy street cat" kills Harbor.

When Jack says that he always thought Bauldelaire to be better than that and tries to convince him that perhaps they're right about the world being unjust, but that he is at least refuses to be selfish anymore and at least die trying to improve things for the people that they had sworn to protect as officers of the law.

Bauldelaire laughs in his face and tells him that being selfish is the only way to survive and as he prepares to kill him, Winona shows up, saying that she heard everything and recorded it, holding a "KP-03"* pistol aimed at the corrupt detective. Bauldelaire asks who she is and how she found him. She reveals her identity and explains that his car had a tracker, then orders him to surrender. He refuses, insults her and aims his gun at her at her, but she shoots him first, killing the detective by blowing off his head with a kinetic blast.

After recovering from the knockback, the undercover agent releases Jack, who asks her if she's going to arrest him, to which replies: "Not yet. If I allow anyone to die tonight because I put my ambitions first, then what type of officer would I end up being?".

Together the two officers go to the city hall, where the debate between the poloticians is going to take place.

The act starts with both Quentin Algiers and John Harbor as they enter the city hall. Throughout the interaction with both the crowd and each other, we can see that Harbor is pompous and impatient, but also genuinly caring about the suffering that is caused by slavery and is critical of several current policies of the Ghaljeanderian Parliament on taxation and punishment. In contrast to him, Algiers is patient and good at putting up fake acts, but is extremely racist towards Cat-Sith to the point of repulsion, is obsessed with money and sees the current policies as the natural order of things.

During the interactions with the politicians, we see Algiers interacting with Lullard, who reassures him that everything is going as planned, while we also see Gerard hiding in the shadows with a short sword.

When Algiers starts his speech to rally up supporters for the elections, Jack and Winona arrive to city hall and enter through the back entrance, where they meet with Captain Lambert. When she and several officers try to arrest Jack, Winona stops them and plays the recording of Algiers and Lullard. When Harbor starts his speech, Jack barely spots Gerard and goes to stop him before he acts.

The assassin notices Calbot and starts to flee, which gets Contanilli's attention as he sends his man after them. After a quick chase around the building, the two fight briefly, only for Gerard to overwhelm Calbot, who informs him that Via is dead. Hearing this causes Gerard to despair as he tries to stab himself to death, he is stopped by the cop, who helps him calm down right as Contannilli's man arrives by jumping on Calbot and attempting to strangle him, only for Gerard to stab the henchman in the heart, killing him.

As Harbor finishes his speech, Lullard is confused and angry, only to be handcuffed by Winona, who snuck up on him. However, she is quickly stunned by an elbow strike from Contannilli, who escapes alongside his boss as quickly as possible out of city hall. In the parking lot they encounter Jack and Gerard, both slightly exhausted but ready to stop them. An enraged Lullard throws profanities at the two and blames them for ruining everything, but is shot in the back of the head in the middle of his rant by Contannilli.

The enforcer explains that his boss was done and that he was never really loyal to the man and planned on eventually taking over his business anyway. He offers promises of wealth and protection from the law to both men, but Jack refuses, saying that he would rather die than repeat his past mistakes. As the police encircles them, all three men are arrested.

In the next scene there is a tv broadcast montage covering the events of the evening, such as the arrests of Algiers, Contannilli, Gerard and Jack, as well as the deaths of Lullard and Via, with the police accrediting Winona for the arrests.

Winona sits in front of a thick, metal door with a closed window. She explains that the men are most likely to spend at least a decade each in prison for their crimes, with all possibly getting the death sentence for killing over a dozen cops and for Gerard being a Cat-Sith who murdered a human. She also informs that Harbor and his party are going to get a lot more votes in the election because of Algiers' arrest. The door she is sitting in front of is the door to Jack's cell, where he is lying silently on his bed and listening.

She tells him that after the whole event has helped her see beyond her own ambitions, if only slightly. She promises that she'll try her best not to end up like him or Bauldelaire, but become more of a selfless servant of the people.

Hearing this makes Jack laugh as he wishes her the best of luck. After she leaves, he continues to lie on the bed, crying as he remembers Via's last words to him.

Jack Calbot: A corrupt cop (early-40s) who gets extra cash and favors with criminals by turning the other cheeck. He is selfish and would only do things if it benefits him. However, he is not completely heartless as throughout the film he learns to become more selfless.

Via Asante: A Cat-Sith slave (early-30s) who works as a stripper for Jean-Pierre Lullard and is Jack Calbot's mistress/unofficial girlfriend. She is someone who is willing do risk herself to help others and loves her family and people despite not being in touch with her family for years.

Gerard Asante: A cat-Sith slave (mid-to-late-20s) who works as an assassin for Jean-Pierre Lullard. He is sent to openly kill politician John Harbor, and he is willing to sacrifice his own life, believing it has no value to anyone. Much like his older sister, he loves his family.

Winona de Ambrous: An undercover officer at Lullard's club (mid-to-late 20s) who discover the plot to assassinate John Harbor. She is increadibly ambitious and selfish to the point that she is willing to throw Via Asante under the bus in order to keep her cover and her investigation. By the end of the second act she starts trying to be less selfish after witnessing Calbot and Bauldelaire's conversation.

Jean-Pierre Lullard: The biggest crime boss in Ksensus, Jean-Pierre Lullard (late 50s) is a man who has complete control over prostitution in the city thanks to his large amount of slaves, while also possessing several money-laundring rackets across the city. He is ruthless and hot tempered, but jovial when he wants to be.

Alberto Contennilli: Lullard's right hand man and primary enforcer (late 30s), Contennilli is a skilled and ruthless man, but pragmatic and clean in the execution of his work. He is very intimidating and mostly silent.

Quentin Algiers: A racist politician (mid 60s), he requests from Lullard to assassinate his primary opposition John Harbor. He is obviously corrupt and his authority scares even Lullard.

Kelvin Bauldelaire: A corrupt police detective under Lullard's thumb (early 40s), he joined the police force at the same time as Jack Calbot, though he had more success and the two dislike one another. He is just as bad as Jack in the beginning of the movie.

Jack Harbor: A politician that is in the center of the assassination plot (late 30s), he is a firm believer in giving rights to Cat-Sith slaves and in changing unfair laws. He is pompous, impatient but generally caring and genuine about his beliefs.

Captain Lambert: Winona de Ambrous's superior (early 50s), he is a rather stern, rough around the edges kind of guy who hates corrupt cops, but is willing to listen to reason.

Mrs. Asante: Via and Gerard's mother (early 60s) she is a kind, optimistic and selfless woman who wants her children to do the best for others. She is also incredibly naive and highly religious, as the gods were still awake when she was a small child.

Vintage: A mechanic and car hijacker, he is very jumpy and talks a lot. Has paid off Jack multiple times over the years. He also has a robotic left arm.

Contannilli's Henchmen: Two guys who work under Contanilli.

*While the story itself is self contained to one city, both Ksensus and Ghaljeandere are part of a greater setting with much more sci-fi and fantasy elements in play. There is a scene with Mrs. Asante where she talks about the miracles that the gods did before entering their slumber. That s mostly exposition to the wider setting's fantasy elements.

*KP-03 pistol (or the Kinetic Punch 03) is a hand cannon that shoots focused blasts of kinetic energy instead of bullets, which can blow a person's head off with ease. However it also has incredible blowback.

*I imagined the city to look like a sci-fi metropolis in a very bad shape, with the Cat-Sith nieghborhood buildings looking better than shacks of metal and wood.

*I also imagined most characters speaking in French, especially in scenes with Jean-Pierre Lullard. Contannilli, however, communicates with his men only in Italian.

In the first round of the show, the six teams must attempt to cross a narrow swimming pool known as "the moat" in a prescribed manner (For example; to swing out to a rope net in the middle of the moat, climb it, and then swim to the other side, or perhaps they have to move through specific steps and not fall, etc.,). All six teams must attempt to get both members across according to the rules and push a button on a pedestal to ring a gong. The first four teams to cross the moat and ring their gongs advance to the second round.

The four remaining teams will stand on the topmost of four levels of the Steps of Knowledge. Olmec will begin the round by telling the remaining teams the episode's legend of the featured artifact, which becomes the theme for the remainder of the episode. The legend is centered on an artifact which the winning team will search for in the final round. At the end of the legend, Olmec tells the teams the room in which the artifact can be found. After finishing, he asks the teams a series of questions to test their memory. Each multiple-choice question has three possible answers. A team attempting to answer signaled by stomping on a button on their step, causing the front of the step to illuminate. A team who answers correctly moves down to the next level. If a team answers incorrectly, or runs out of time, then the other teams are given a chance to answer. The first two teams to answer three questions correctly and reach the bottom level advance to the next round.

The temple games have the two remaining teams competing in three physical challenges to earn Pendants of Life which the winning team will use in the final round. Several different types of temple games will be featured, with the episode's legend serving as a theme for each. Most temple games will last for a maximum of 60 seconds bwhile others are untimed. After each challenge, the winning team will receive some portion of a protective Pendant of Life. The first two challenges, pitting single members from each team against one another, are worth one half of a pendant, while the final challenge, involving both contestants on both teams, will be worth a full pendant. If a temple game ends in a tie, then teams receive the pendant value of that game.

The team that earns the most pendants by the end of three temple games wins the right to enter the temple. In the event that the two teams earn the same number of pendants after the three temple games, the teams will play a tiebreaker question to determine who advances to the temple.

In the final round, the winning team will attempt to retrieve the episode's artifact and bring it back out of the temple within a three-minute time limit. The team will designate one member to enter the temple first; said team member will carry one of the team's full pendants. The other team member will hold the remaining pendant, half pendant, or no pendant at all and stand by to enter if the first team member is taken out of the temple by a temple guard. Before starting, Olmec will explain the rooms in the temple and the necessary tasks in each room.

The temple will consist of twelve rooms, each with a specific theme (e.g., the Throne Room, the King's Storeroom, the Observatory, the Shrine of the Silver Monkey, the Heart Room, etc.). The rooms are connected to adjacent rooms by doorways, although some doors are locked, blocking a contestant's progress into the adjacent room; the pattern of locked and unlocked doors will change from episode to episode depending both on the temple layout and the artifact's location. The unlocked doors will be closed at the start of the round, but they could be opened by completing a specific task or puzzle within each room. Three other designated rooms will hold temple guards (spotters in Lavish Mayan sentinel costumes). If the winning team has exactly 1+1⁄2 pendants, the remaining half pendant will also placed in a room for the contestant with the half pendant to collect to make a full pendant. The extra half pendant, if needed, will either be hanging on the wall near a door or placed inside an object in a room (e.g., hidden inside a pot in the King's Storeroom).

A contestant who encounters a temple guard will be forced to give up a full pendant in order to continue. However, if the first contestant is caught without a pendant in his or her possession, he or she will be taken out of the temple and the second contestant will enter. In either case, the temple guard who captures the contestant will be out of play, and will no longer appear. When the second contestant enters, any doors that the first contestant opened will remain open. If the second contestant is caught without a full pendant, the run ends immediately.

If either contestant grabs the artifact, all remaining temple guards will vanish and all locked doors in the temple will instantly open, allowing the contestant to escape unhindered.

The movie starts with the opening credits and a voiceover from some unknown world's Amanda Mallory complaining about a citywide blackout and calling for her son.

NIGHTTIME

An amateur VHS recording fades into view, on it a young adult, Quinn "VHS" Mallory of the same unknown world tapes a diary entry documenting the results of his latest scientific experiment in his basement. The room is littered in sci-fi tech. The room is also dark from the blackout- but Quinn is too excited to care. His mom calls for him again from the background, he finishes his sentence in a whisper, before cutting off the recording.


THE NEXT MORNING

We finally get to see WORLD PRIME, the camera pans across this Quinn Mallory's bedroom- a messy room with odd bits and bobs, like a baseball, posters.. but hints of intelligence tucked away like a physics book left open on the floor, opened electronics on the desk.

The pan ends at the bed where Quinn Mallory sleeps in the same clothes he wore yesterday.. The radio turns on, and Quinn wakes up.

Heading downstairs, the young adult has a discussion with his mother over breakfast, something that Quinn eats quickly as he has things to do. Over this discussion we learn that Quinn's father had passed away some years ago from a car accident. Quinn's messy attitude is brought up by his mother, who notes that he slept in his clothes again, and the two joke about how the only rooms not clean are the two rooms that Quinn uses; his bedroom, and the basement- where "it would take years to get rid of that junk."

Cut to the basement. An opened metal ball lays on a desk, it's a probe- like the Voyager Golden Records, detailing how to read its contents. A pile of home recording tapes lay in a pile inside the ball, where they came from, and another pile by the tv. They're dated by month and year. Whoever made these did so a good few years back. Nothing else can be seen.

Quinn has been watching the tapes in the order that they were recorded. He plays in the next one and sits down, watching it with great interest. On the recording, "VHS" Mallory excitedly admits that while he failed in creating an antigravity device, he stumbled upon something else. Pushing a few buttons, a tear in reality appears within a glass capsule. The tape cuts to a few days later, "VHS" Mallory sends a probe through. He hypothesises that this tear is a gateway into another reality and wants to visit.

It's not outright stated yet, but this isn't the Mallory from WORLD PRIME. Keen watchers may figure this out, but if not it is addressed later.

WORLD PRIME's Quinn Mallory is torn away from the recording once his mother reminds him that he has lectures today.

We see an old picture of the WORLD PRIME Mallory Family; Quinn, His Mother, and his Father.

Quinn leaves by his front gate, it squeaks.

LATER THAT DAY

Quinn parks his car outside of a park, the only place where he doesn't have to pay. He cuts through the park to his lessons, here Quinn passes a homeless man preaching about the virtues of Communism. We see a statue in the park too, one of some American, famous for doing something American. Probably a horrible person but that was forgotten over time so the public could idolise his capitalist virtues.

Professor Maximilian Arturo is giving a lecture on some smart-sounding physics mumbo jumbo. Dissatisfied with the lack of work ethic from his students, some who don't care for the class and others that don't understand what they're being taught. He asks a question to the class but no one can or wants to answer. This frustrates him. Arturo believes he is wasted in this institution.

Quinn Mallory is absentmindedly doodling the outline of the portal in his notebook instead of listening. Arturo criticises him for not listening. Arturo turns his back on the class to write the answer to his own question on the blackboard. While he isn't looking, Quinn's seat neighbour, hippie and friend, Conrad Bennish leans over and whispers the answer to Quinn before Aruto has completed his explanation. Quinn chuckles. Conrad is the smartest in the class, but hates Arturo with a passion, and refuses to properly engage with the class. Arturo thinks Conrad is an idiot because he hasn't seen what he is capable of.

Quinn, Conrad Bennish and other friends leave class. Excluding Conrad the others make fun of the Professor, but Conrad begrudgingly admits that the Professor should deserve more than he has, that he read his work and he should be a Nobel Laureate. This wasn't in the syllabus, Conrad calls it some light reading on the side.

AFTER SCHOOL

We cut to DOPPLER Computer Superstore, where Quinn and a crush of his, Wade Welles work as salespeople.

Wade, being a lot savvier than their boss, promotes to a customer that they return in a few weeks when they have a new product in store, rather than buying a worse option now. Seeing Quinn enter she quickly ends her discussion and heads to him. This is their routine to make the hours go faster at work, they banter and make small talk and never really do anything significant besides making plans to do things outside of work. They do that here, Wade snagged two season baseball tickets for them both, they made plans a bit ago to see tonight's game. He wants to stay home and see more of the tapes, but Quinn still promises to pick her up and enjoy himself.

Wade is shown to be more savvy than their boss Michael Hurley, when he comes over to criticise Quinn for being late, and Wade for losing a deal. Both salespeople defend each other. Quinn was at a lecture, and Wade's customers will return in a few days and spend more money than they would have if they bought something now.

AFTER WORK
Quinn returns home, the front gate squeaks.

Quinn heads down to the basement and powers it on. Panning shot of a mad scientist lair that looks an awful lot like what we saw on the VHS tapes, only more rudimentary and cobbled together.

Since we haven't properly seen the basement before, it isn't obvious if this is the same day, it could be weeks in the future since the last time scene, maybe months, maybe hours. This should give the viewer the sense that maybe Quinn's been working on this room for a while.

Quinn looks at the wall of blackboards. Over time he's written down all he could find and understand from the VHS recordings, from design schematics for the bulky glass capsule machine, to equations.

He's having trouble with one particular equation, even with the help from the tapes he's been lost for months. Without it, he doesn't know the proper energy output and frequency needed to stabilise the gateway. But that's something that'll be explained later on to the viewer.

We see him make a few mistakes with numbers, realise what he did, and changes them. Quinn is impatient and because of that, with big calculations, he's prone to make a few mistakes when it's done in his head.

He watches another tape recording, here "VHS" Mallory is discussing how anything sent through doesn't return, so he has developed a timing-returning device. When it is sent through with the object, it leaves an anchor in our world and can force the transported object back into its original universe when the timer ends. This is shown to be working in a demonstration with a basketball.

Irritated that he hasn't figured out the equation after so long, he decides to do it tomorrow with the tried and true method of putting random numbers into the machine and seeing what works the best.

Before this he films his own tape recording, explaining what he is about to do, why he has to do it and if it goes wrong he also makes a personal message out to his mom.

THE NEXT DAY

It goes wrong.

Instead of a basketball, WORLD PRIME Quinn uses a football with the timer-returning device. The timer is a big, bulky brick. He sets the timer for 3 hours. A gateway appears and pulls the football through but it destabilises. A ripple spreads from the mouth across the basement and catches Quinn in it. Screen whites out intermittently with visuals of inside the wormhole.

Fading back in we see Quinn right where we left him, the football and timer are still in the glass capsule. Finally using his head, he thinks that's enough messing without the proper equations. From the stairs, we hear his Mom reminding him of his baseball match with Wade later on.

Dejected he drives to the match. The front gate doesn't squeak but he doesn't notice. Over the radio, the misogynistic radio DJ seems to be talking only about politics. He doesn't even mention women besides a passing remark about Marlynin Monroe's noteworthy contributions to politics.. That's a bit odd... It's a green light at a crossroads, Quinn swerves to dodge a bunch of reckless drivers that pull out in front of him. Stupid drivers, don't they know that green means stop? Wait. Hold on a sec.

The DJ brings up stranger and stranger things as Quinn keeps on driving. He stops at a red light. There's honking behind him, Quinn finally uses his rearview mirror as drivers shout at him for stopping... Those aren't his eyes in the mirror.. Oh god, who's face is that? That isn't Quinn Mallory. This isn't his body.

The mirror reflects a different actor, and as Quinn freaks out we cut back to him, only he's been replaced by this other actor.

This isn't the body Quinn Mallory that we know, this is the Quinn Mallory of another world, that looks different, looks older.

He speeds back home, freaking out but trying to remember that green means stop, red means go.

He notices the gate doesn't squeak this time. He checks again, still, it doesn't squeak. His mother and gardener leave the house and Quinn runs up to meet them. They're heading off for their date?!? They're older, his mother is pregnant. Jake? But he's their gardener for crying out loud!

A new voice calls his name from behind. He turns and sees a woman. She came to pick him up. It's Wade Welles. A different face, a different actor, older like Quinn too. She's come to pick him up for the baseball game.

Quinn is still freaking out, but we cut to the basement where we see the football and the timer. It reaches zero and begins to beep. We cut back to outside, Quinn has an out-of-body experience where we see from his point of view. A portal appears behind him, and he is ripped out of this duplicate Quinn's body and through the gateway while the others watch on in surprise.

He's back in his world now, in his real body. He's in his bedroom now. He runs to the basement. The football and timer appear in the chamber too. He sees the timer, he sees how it ran out and gets excited. He realises he was in another world.

He runs out excitedly, greeting his mum, and his not-stepdad gardener. Happy they aren't together. The gate squeaks as he leaves for his next class, he missed the last one while he was on the other earth.

AT CLASS
He gets to class and apologises for being late. He's cut off by the Professor. Arturo refuses to be in the same room as him, and leaves.

Quinn's friends talk about what happened, thinking Quinn remembers. He had mocked the Professor, calling him a pompous windbag, a useless old man. When the hell did he do that?

AT WORK
At work, Wade asks why Quinn showed up. He was fired? Hell, he insulted Hurley to his face, right in front of customers.. Quinn says that wasn't him and Wade jokingly says "I guess that kiss meant nothing now?". Mistakingly thinking that he kissed Hurley, Quinn almost gags, but when he finds out that it was Wade he kissed.. He can't believe it. I mean, they're just buds. It'd be weird, right? No way. Wade walks off, she's not interested in going to that baseball game tonight. Maybe some other time.

AT HOME
We see Quinn's Mother something around the house, on television we see a commercial for Ross J. Kelly, the TV Attorney. The commercial is stupid, and Kelly promises that he will "FIGHT. FOR. YOU" 🫵

Heading back down to his basement Quinn tries to figure out what the hell happened. His best bet? The energy field messed with his brain, causing him to halucina- He looks at the blackboard. Someone finished the equation he's been stuck on.

A man walks out from the shadows and Quinn turns around. It's not a stranger, we've seen this face before. Quinn was this face once. It's the older Quinn Mallory whose body was taken over. Quinn "Alternate" Mallory had solved the equation ages ago.

"Alternate" Mallory lays out an exposition dump in a conversation with Prime Quinn, the gists are.
"Alternate" Mallory talks about some of the worlds he's been to, the biggest highlight is an earth with no pollution, no crime, no hate, and everyone is happy. No one was afraid. "Alternate" Mallory didn't have the REOPEN technology back then and is sliding to rediscover that earth so he can settle there with his family. He's obsessed with finding it. That's why he slides.

This explains why Alternate Mallory still lives at home with his Mom, he's disregarded his life there to rediscover this perfect world.

Either way, Alternate Mallory has set his timer to a good few weeks from now. He came here to improve Prime Quinn's sliding technology in the hopes that with more sliders, the chance one of them finds a world with better-sliding technology than his increases. He hopes this better tech could be used to control where to slide, and that he could go back to that perfect world.

That seems to be some kind of canon event for Slider Quinn Mallorys, they all just copy from each other and other people. Alternate Mallory wants to find other people with better tech, Both Quinns copied the sliders from VHS Mallory- and who knows if he really came up with the idea himself.

Quinn Mallory isn't as smart as he thinks he is.

THE NEXT FEW WEEKS

Over the next few weeks, the Alternate Mallory lives in the basement since there's nothing there but Prime Quinn's tech so his mom doesn't check down there.

Over a montage, we see the two working on the technology, and we learn bits and pieces of this Alternate Mallory, like how he is dating Wade. That explains a few things.

Still, it's frustrating for Alternate Mallory to use the outdated technology from this world- trying to make workarounds to properly miniaturise the Slider technology and merge it with the timer-returner device. In the end, two bulky, but portable sliders are made. The first is a prototype. It is the size of a 1970s portable computer. Slow, heavy and clunky.

The second slider is in the shell of a Casio CQ-1 pocket calculator, with tech babble added to the sides, like a mechanical timer on the back, and a light on the side that the portal 'shoots' out of.

Even with Alternate Mallory's help, these soldiers are nothing like his own, which is sleek and carries enough charge for months of slides. The batteries on Prime Earth are nowhere near as good, and every few slides Quinn will need to recharge it somehow. It charges virtually instantly it but take a ridiculous amount of power, usually draining an entire city block.

While not happy, Alternate Mallory is satisfied with his work by the time he needs to return home. He wishes the younger, Prime Quinn luck- but warns him that because of the rudimentary technology, he should not slide before the timer ends, or who knows what might happen.

Before he leaves, the two take a commemorative photo together, which Quinn will keep in his wallet for its sentimental, and groundbreaking value.

Alternate Mallory Slides back to his home dimension.

LATER
Wade and Professor Arturo knock on Quinn's front door and are invited inside by his mother. Quinn invited them both so he could take them on a slide, but neither of them know it yet.

Alternate Mallory suggested Prime Quinn invite Wade on the next slide, he has an attachment to the woman in his own world, he realises this Quinn has feelings for this Wade too, and wants to help push it along. Wade thinks they're going to tonight's baseball game.

Inviting Professor Arturo wasn't Alternate Mallory's idea. He hates the old mate with a passion and shoots Prime Quinn down any time the boy mentions his name- but Prime Quinn isn't the entirely same person, he still trusts the professor and wants to make up for what his Alternate did in his body all those weeks ago. So he invited him too under the pretence of apologising.

ELSEWHERE
We cut to a music manager's office, dancing to a recording of Rembrant "Cryingman" Brown on vinyl player. The sleeve of the vinyl is in focus and we see what the Cryingman looks like. We cut to the office bathroom, a slightly older Rembrandt Brown shouts out to turn it off, he doesn't need to hear his old stuff just before his comeback.

This is a down-on-his-luck artist, he used to be famous but that was a long time ago. Now? He thinks has a chance to get back on top after all these years. His manager shoots him down, he's singing the national anthem at a baseball game, not singing for the queen. But it's still something to the old Cryingman.

THE BASEMENT
Wade and Arturo arrive in the basement. Arturo sees the solved equation on the board, in fact, he sees all the theoretical slider technology on the walls- back when Quinn was only working with the VHS tapes.

After everything Quinn's been through, that seems like child's play now. He shows them the second slider, it beeps and lights flicker.

ELSEWHERE
Singing, Rembrandt gets in his car and heads off to his basketball game.

THE BASEMENT
Arturo is amazed at what he's been told about sliding. He doesn't really believe it.

Quinn opens up a portal.

The Professor shuts up.

ELSEWHERE
Rembrandt Brown, still singing, is still driving along.

THE BASEMENT
Arturo wants to study the portal, but the two young adults egg him on to follow them through the portal. They set the timer for a few hours and walk through.

Here we see the first of many problems this slider has. Alternate Mallory only did the calculations for TWO sliders; Prime Quinn and Prime Wade. But now there's Arturo. Not wanting a repeat of last time, Quinn does some mental maths to estimate how much power he'd need for the additional person. Like before with the equation, he gets some numbers wrong. He puts in too much power. Thanks to Alternate Mallory's work on it, the slider won't open an unstable gateway. With Alternate Mallory's solved equation the sider calculates the proper frequency and other such scientific things of the portal- so all that happens is the portal is a lot bigger than Quinn intended.

It extends outside of the basement, outside of the house, and pulls in Rembrant Brown who's passing by on the road.

WORLD 3: THE ICE WORLD
Rembrandt Brown crashes into a snow wall.

Inside the basement Quinn, Wade and the Professor look about the cold and dark basement. It is empty, the wind outside can be heard.

Upstairs is no better, the house is abandoned, covered in snow.

Quinn finds a picture on the floor, the same picture that in his world shows him, his mother and his father- in this world also has a dog, and a sister.

Heading outside they find Rembrandt and huddle in his car for warmth.

Arturo suggests why this world is in some kind of ice age, Rembrandt is introduced to sliding, which lets us reexplain some of the more confusing aspects of it for viewers that didn't get it the first time around. Quinn shows the group the photo of him and "Alternate" Mallory.

They have four hours left on the timer, but they're freezing. The Cryingman demands to be sent back right this instant- but Quinn repeats what he was told by "Alternate" Mallory. A storm can be heard outside and Rembrandt looks out.

It's an upside-down twister. Coming straight for them.

Realising if they don't return now, they'll die. Quinn decides to disregard Alternate Mallory's warning. They jump through a new portal, abandoning Rembrandt's car which is buried in the snow.

THE PARK
The Sliders find themselves in the park. It's green and sunny and there's no snow in sight. The portal closes.

Rembrandt runs off to a cab, eager to get to the baseball game in time. Before running off he tells Quinn to explain what happened to his car to the insurance company.

Wade, thinking she might have died in the other world, heads off to call her family.

Quinn and the Professor happily stroll through the park, they wonder why they ended up here and not outside Quinn's house- which is where they portaled from. They figure that must be what happens when they slide back before the timer ends. They realise it also drained the slider, it needs to be recharged. Arturo suggests not to slide before the timer ends again, in case the next time they portal to a different location it's at the bottom of the sea, or over a ravine.

Then they see the park statue. It's changed.

Now it shows Vladimir Lenin.

The two men look at each other.

WADE
Cut to Wade at a public payphone. The Operator is advertising for some odd services, a membership that lets you call the "homeland" for only a few rubles per minute, and other things. The Operator asks for Wade's telephone permit, Wade is even more confused. The Operator pauses and seems to recognise Wade's voice. The Operator asks for her identification, Wade runs off and we see the outside of the phone booth- instead of AT&T we see "The People's Telephone and Telegraph" or PT&T. The call is traced and the authorities are alerted.

REMBRANDT
In the cab Rembrandt asks the driver, a Russian named Pavel, to go faster up. The driver retorts in Russian, the Cryingman complains to himself that immigrants should know the language when they go to that country.

Checking to see if he's late, Rembrandt asks the driver to put on the radio to the baseball game. When the Russian anthem plays the driver salutes. Rembrandt doesn't recognise the song, he looks at other drivers and sees them saluting also.

PROFESSOR AND QUINN
The two are still in the park, the homeless communist from before is now a U.S. senator candidate and is hosting a speech in the park. There is fervent support for him, and the crowd applauds when he condemns the American Underground Rebellion.

Wade meets up with the two men, they all know this isn't their world.

NIGHT
REMBRANDT
The cab arrives at the stadium and asks for cash, clueless the Cryingman gives over a green US Dollar.

Panicking, Pavel runs out of the cab, to the security checkpoint at the stadium car park. He shows the guard the money, and Rembrandt is arrested.

THE OTHERS
Walking through the streets at night, the secret police watch everyone's moves. No one knows who to trust, and even looking at someone wrong can lead to patrolling Russian guards to arrest you. They discuss what could have happened to create a world like this, one thing is clear, the Soviet Union is running the US of A. Their best theory is that the Soviet Union, through its proxy states, had won the Korean War. Being cut off economically, this means the USA gradually collapsed before being taken over.

REMBRANDT
In an unmarked, dark warehouse, seated under an old light- Rembrandt is interrogated by a member of the secret police. This warehouse is filled with many others in his exact position, tied to a chair, surrounded by darkness while a man circles them- the only light being an old bulb above their chair that barely illuminates the hairs on their face.

Rembrandt pleads. He doesn't know anything about this American Underground, but he used their money. The green US Dollar was destroyed long ago, replaced by red bills. The Underground use the old bill to show that they're members of the group..
The interrogator demands to know who Rembrandt is, because a man by that name died years ago. This is clearly an Underground member using the dead man's name as an alias.

Rembrandt spills everything, that he's from another earth, that he's a slider.. but who would believe that.

The interrogator leans into the light. His face now visible. He promises, if the Cryingman just tells them the truth.. he promises "I. WILL. FIGHT. FOR. YOU" 🫵

Rembrandt asks him to say that again.

Rembrandt recognises the saying. He knows who this man is.

Ross J. Kelly

The interrogator steps back, shocked. His face is hidden in the darkness once again.

The Cryingman laughs as he recounts some of the crazy, insane cases he's seen in some of the Ross J. Kelly commercials.

Standing guard, the interrogator's superior beckons Kelly to him. How was he found out? None of what he said was accurate, but his name was, and his profession was. Some kind of subterfuge performance?

They decide that he must be disposed of as quickly as possible. He is sent to the people's court.

THE OTHERS
On the street, the three watch the secret police drive up and arrest civilians left, right and centre. Everyone here is a nervous wreck, not knowing if or when the government will take them.

The secret police are onto them, they've been tracking them since Wade's phone call earlier. Nervous, the three plan out some way to escape, but they don't need to do anything. A van screeches to a halt and men and women jump out, out of windows the barrels of guns can be seen.

Shots are fired. The three duck and run for cover while shootouts start between the assailants and the guards. One of the more nimble attackers reaches the three, he eases their panic and tells them to come with him if they want to live. Even if they don't want to, his friends arrive.

The three are now stuck, sandwiched between a squad of people that are all masked and armed to the teeth. Still, they take the three to safety. But where? Straight to the West Coast, American Underground's Base hidden deep underground. But why? Because Wade Welles, one of two commanders of the West Coast cell of the American Underground, has been seen wandering the surface. They think this Wade is their commander.

The American Underground is packed with most of the extras from PRIME EARTH and WORLD 2- here in this world, they are rebels.

The three are taken to the leader of this cell, it's Commander Quinn "Mallory" Mallory- not the usual one. This is the same actor as Quinn "Alternate" Mallory. Here, this Quinn forwent academia for the American Revolution. Here, he's a real action hero. He might not be a scientific genius, but he's definitely a combat one.

Commander "Mallory" kissed Wade, thinking she is of this world. Again, it's another world where they are a couple. Wade is confused and doesn't recognise "Mallory"- why would she, Wade never saw Quinn "Alternate" Mallory. To her, this looks like some stranger- until Quinn explains it to her.

Commander "Mallory" welcomes them to the revolution.

The Professor and Prime Quinn have been imprisoned overnight. Offscreen they explained their situation to the rebels. They thought they were safe but they guess that service only extended to Wade.

Commander "Mallory" wants to see them. He believes their story now, having spent the night with Wade he recognises that she isn't the same person- how he found that out is left to the viewer, but Prime Quinn assumes the worst. But it's okay, says Wade, because they're just buds. right?

The Underground apologise for how they imprisoned the two men of the three, explaining that in this world- Arturo runs a Uni-turned-Federal-Penitentiary for political prisoners. They believe that Commander Wade is being held here.

To Wade's annoyance, the two men show relatively little interest in this- Though Quinn still feels guilty, both men decide they just want the technology they need to repair the Slider and leave.

Even after recharging it a bit at the Underground's base, the device still doesn't have enough power to slide safely. The Underground has to converse power and can't provide what they need to slide. And what electricity there is in this world, most of it is hoarded by the wealthy upper class scattered around the country while the middle and lower class make do with what little trickles through the public electricity services.

With not enough power, what portal they could make would be unstable, and have unknown effects like with Quinn's body-swapping adventure.

Private Michael Hurley is watching prime time on the television set. It's in black and white. This new world has slightly less advanced technology than our world. Wade walks up to watch with him. At first, it is a music video, full of Soviet propaganda about reporting suspicious activity- and how capitalism is evil.

Private Hurley switches stations. Now it shows shows a phone-in programme, telling civilians to call in and pledge their support for the People's Television. Or else.

Private Hurley switches stations again. It is a live recording of a courtroom, edited to look and feel like a reality show.

Rembrandt's case appears on screen, a tv narrator explains the Cryingman's crime to viewers, and to the real-life viewers this helps inform people if they were confused during the interrogation.

Wade calls the Professor and Quinn over, they watch Rembrandt claim on public television to be from another world, that he travelled here by accident and just wants to go home.

The judge sentences him to life imprisonment.

LATER
After learning that their companion will be held in the same prison as Commander Wade- Quinn and Wade appeal to the Revolutionaries and the Professor to stage a raid there.

While Quinn can look the other way when someone he doesn't know is harmed, he can't do the same with someone he knows- even if it was only really for an hour or so.

In the end, it's because they have an identical-looking Arturo on their side that the Underground agree to the raid- Hoping they can sneak in if the Professor poses as his Warden double.

LATER
The Professor is far from trusting this plan, but with everyone else onboard he is coerced. He leaves the base dressed in his double's uniform, and the Underground dressed as Soviet soldiers.

The Professor is worried that his double will be there, the Underground reassures him that Warden Arturo always works overtime at the local government- apparently, he is trying to get into office.

Commander "Mallory" hands Prime Quinn a gun, stating that if they are discovered, run. And not to be afraid of shooting anyone they come across.

Commander "Mallory" and the disguised Underground members pack into some Soviet army trucks. Quinn, Wade and the Professor pack into a luxury car that the Underground commandeered for this raid.

LATER
WARDEN ARTURO'S PRISON
Outside the prison, the cars are halted by the security outpost. The guard appears surprised at Warden Arturo's appearance but the Professor plays it off as a military exercise and demands that no one be informed of their arrival. Still, insisting on keeping to protocol and asks the Professor to submit to a genetic scan. This is the Warden's own policy in fact.

While it's a tense moment, the scanner can't tell the difference between the two Arturos, and the Underground are let through.

Before the toll bar is raised though, still acting as the Warden, Arturo demands to know the guard's name so that he may be rewarded for keeping protocol. But Warden Arturo hand-picked him personally, every guard here was picked personally by him too. Arturo plays it off and they pass through. The camera keeps on the guard, as he returns to his outpost, picks up a phone, and reports to the real Warden Arturo that a duplicate of his has entered the prison. Not only that but that he came with an army.

They know about the Sliders, and they know that they're coming.


It's a mess as soon as they move. The dark walls of the prison are illuminated by spotlights from every rooftop, every tower of the prison. Alarms blare and soldiers pop out from behind cement blockades. The smarter witted of the Underground scamper from their trucks, but the slower ones, and the three sliders that haven't seen a real war, barely have time to react. A mortar is fired and a truck behind them explodes.

Now the three, and the resistance, kick into gear. Shots ring out from both sides. Commander "Mallory" runs up and pulls Wade and Quinn from their automobile. The Professor ducks under bullets and follows with them, the four now using the car as cover.

Mallory is quick to take charge and issues orders to his men, characters we've seen in other dimensions. They obey but some are shot down.

The fighting is tough, there are too many Soviets. Mallory issues a retreat for his men but neither he, the sliders, nor a small portion of his men can retreat in time before the Soviets surround them. Some men are seen capturing and kidnapping the outpost guard on their escape.

Thinking on his feet, Mallory decided to press on with the few men he has, there's no chance of them escaping from where they are now but perhaps from another side of the prison, or if they grab the real Warden as a hostage.

The group struggle to the side of the prison, the other side of the wall has some kind of government waiting room. It's not a room any prisoners would reach, and so it has proper windows, not bars. They smash those and crawl in between the gunfire, but Aruto is too large to fit. Panicking but still in command of his senses, he tells the group to press on while he hunkers down outside, to see if he can't run while the guards are chasing the group inside. He looks to Quinn and Wade and wishes them luck if he runs out of his own, and gives them his blessing to slide without him if they need to.

Pressing on to the cells, the Underground avoid the guards where they can but in a cramped space of a prison that's rather difficult- but they have grenades to break through the locked doors, and some of the weaker walls. That last one really helps them avoid fights.

They reach the prison cells and find....

Soldiers for sure, but Commander Wade and the Cryingman aren't there.

Most prisoners of war were members of the Underground, or sympathisers, and join them. Others stay or flee. But from the prisoners, they learn that the two were taken to the labs in another section of the prison, next to Warden Arturo's office. Wade's appearance confuses a lot of them, but there's no time to explain. The guards are here.

They make a break for the lab, and inside they find Warden Arturo wearing a coloured sash to identify him from his doppelganger, several guards, Commander Wade and Rembrandt all surrounded by strange old tech, some look old, some look modern. Still, it's recognisable, this is slider technology built with what was available from this world.

It's now clear what has happened. Rembrandt's public admittance of the technology, while reaching Warden Arturo's notice, did little to make him believe it.. It was only after sightings of Commander Wade out in public reached him too, knowing full well that the real Commander was locked up here, did the Warden even think to consider the possibility.

Requesting that Rembrandt be imprisoned in his facility, and knowing that he had a doppelganger of one slider already. He made sure to inform the prison guards that there may be some kind of infiltration.

In the meantime, he interrogated the Cryingman about everything he knew about 'sliding' as the man called it. Learning of his duplicate after the prisoner recognised his captor's face. That's where the made sash comes in, to identify him from the Professor.

With their being a double of the Underground commander, there was always a chance they would attack- but he never suspected there would be a double of him.

A probe lies in the room, a metal ball like the one on Earth Prime, but it's been torn apart. All its technological advancements are being used to create the technology required to slide.

But still, the tech isn't advanced enough. And the Soviets don't have their own Quinn Mallory either. They might have cracked it someday, but that isn't today.

It's piles of non-functioning slider tech.

Both sides take cover behind the piles, each big enough to protect several people. A squirmish occurs, the Soviets are trying to drag this out until reinforcements arrive while the Underground want to finish this fight before that happens.

Mallory thinks quickly and has two soldiers blow up the passageway leading to the laboratory while the others lay down cover fire. They're successful, but now both the Soviets and the Underground are trapped inside with one another.

The shootout continues to a standoff, Warden Arturo demanding a ceasefire. He knows of these sliders and demands they either give him their device or develop another for the Union. As Rembrandt had left the park before the group had discussed their timer running out of power, he didn't know- and by extension, neither does Warden Arturo...

EPILOGUE

Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo walk to Quinn's house. They wonder if this is their home.

Quinn tries the gate.

It doesn't squeak.

Dejected, the four walk offscreen and slide. The camera keeps on the house.

The camera pans slowly towards the house, to the kitchen window. Amanda Mallory is seen crying, comforted by her cousins, and the police stand by waiting to take a report of the missing person.

Jake the gardener can be seen coming in from the backyard, in his hand is a can of oil. With everything that's gone on, he stepped up and fixed everything he's put off around the house.

Sliders

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World Residents