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Part Three-The Return |
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After a riotous outdoor celebration, as Kris is fleeing a BBC helicopter crew and a pack of paparazzi,
he seeks refuge deep within the manor.
But upon arrival, he is confronted by a completely unhinged Farnsworth, who bursts into the lobby firing a pistol. Kris dives to the floor in time and fortunately was not hit. When he finally risks getting up, he finds the butler has vanished. Kris thinks this might have been yet another hallucination. But, if so, he has no idea what triggered it. Returning to his room, Kris next encounters Lord Dennis Rollinsby, who uses a magical remote controller to transport the two of them to Stockholm, where Rollinsby and Kris stun the gathering by materializing before their very eyes. Kris witnesses the first posthumous award in Nobel history honoring his deceased uncle. Rollinsby, who was once presumed dead, accepts the Physics prize for his startling advances in teleportation, as evidenced by the living proof he and Kris have brought to the ceremony. But upon his return to the manor, Kris wonders if this too was a hallucination or a dream. Or perhaps an elaborate theme-park attraction Lord Hanover had commissioned. Which turns out to be the case. Christopher shows up, spies the controller on Kris's desk and persuades Kris to let him try it out. This time, though, there's no doubt that this scene is real, not a hallucination, but the holograhic images it generates are so mesmerizing it almost seems like one. The controller's green orb lights up and the dividing wall between the two cottages disappears and the roof above the rooms, retracts revealing a magical forest and a starlit sky. Kris and Christopher step inside and find themselves in the midst of a lively Alice in Wonderland tea party, with many of Alice's friends and foes in attendance. Christopher and Alice quickly fall in puppy love as they dash off hand in hand to play with the boy's new puppy Artie. Then, reality intrudes -- Kris receives an urgent phonecall and is summoned to the lab. There, astonishingly, stairing at a monitor is a very-much-alive Lord Hanover, who informs Kris he's not who he thinks he is at the moment and that Kris was never in England at all. All this time, he discloses shockingly, Kris has been testing a futuristic scenario that he's written for a Japanese theme park called Camelot. This man claims he's a professional actor, as are all of the manor servants who comprised the cast for Kris's adventure, which was filmed from behind the scenes and is now being made into a feature-length movie. Stuart Arthur, the actor's real name, and Kris are joined by the director, the composer and several of the set designers and graphic artists for the production. They explain that potent, memory altering drugs were previously administered so that Kris could temporarily forget who he is and enter a new mindset that allowed him to play the game unaware of its pseudo reality and his creator role in it. Unforseen, however, in Kris's case at least, was a potent side effect of these chemicals: they somehow expanded his consciousness so that often he was in direct contact with the collective unconscious whose voices he frequently hears. Kris is also informed that the company he works for, imagine21, is currently being ravaged by internal strife. Two Japanese marketing managers, in cahoots with Farnswworth in real life, are trying to wreck the project and do Kris in. Kris later learns that throughout the entire scenario the butler was secretly spiking his tea with mescaline, lacing his snacks with window pane, and adding wild mushrooms plucked from the manor grounds to the meals he was served -- all in hopes they were poisonous or detrimental in other ways. But in fact, those concoctions had delivered precisely opposite effects: they had heightened Kris's mental faculties and psychic abilities. Eventually, Kris's true memories return, as Kris and his colleagues turn the tables on the opposition and drive them temporarily bonkers with a series of brilliantly executed theme-park illusions. To celebrate the success of this full dress rehearsal, a huge cast party is held, where characters from the scenario rave over the experiences they all had. But on the way back to his quarters, Kris is again accosted by the crazed butler, only this time it's no hallucination; it's frightenly real. Farnsworth,is enraged because the Camelot president has just terminated his employment. He removes a pistol from his vest, aims it at Kris but accidentally drops it. The gun discharges in all directions enabling Kris to make a run for it. All ends well, however, when the Japanese national police arrive and apprehend Farnsworth and spirit him away. The next day, the full production is approved by the Camelot chairman. Kris learns that Farnsworth's visa had been revoked and he has already been deported. Kris is rewarded with a promotion that will enable him going forward to assemble his own marketing team and control all aspects of scenario production at Camelot. He also is told that the chairman had learned of Farnsworth's murderous intent in advance and so ordered his "secret ninjas" to break into the actor's quarters and fill his pistol with blanks. Reportedly, he did this to see "how far Farnsworth would go." It also meant that Kris and the others were never in any mortal danger. Kris's deep satisfaction at the outcome is increased from remembering, now that his authentic mindset has been restored, that Stuart, the actor who played Lord Hanover, is, in fact, his real uncle in real life, a British stage actor who many years ago had moved to Japan to team up with his nephew and start a new life. (End) |
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