Original subtitles

NARRATOR: In the city of Betaville, in the near future,

the technology we developed confronts us.

The science we created seduces us.

But will our dreams of tomorrow be turned into a nightmare?

Welcome to Paradox.

[music playing]

Be careful what you wish for.

Nothing is impossible anymore.

When Cleo Slauson finds out her husband is cheating on her,

she gets the courage to try something completely different,

not to start seeing someone new but to become someone new.

Biotechnology has advanced to the point where

a woman can become a man nearly overnight,

and a man can become a woman.

But what happens to the war of the sexes

when each side can become the other?

Technology may give us more choices,

but do more choices necessarily give us more answers?

[gentle music]

JULES: Probably won't be around this afternoon.

You know how these client lunches can be.

It's all right.

Faith wanted to get together for lunch anyway.

I haven't seen her since she and Bob separated.

Ladies dishing session.

Well, we talk to each other if that's what you mean.

Just kidding.

Give her my regards.

CAR: Now arriving South Moore Street.

Thank you.

Continuing to Betaville sector in the southern district

in 10 seconds.

[indistinct conversations]

[gentle music]

FAITH: Cleo!

Faith. CLEO: Hi.

FAITH: Hi.

How are you?

CLEO: Surviving.

FAITH: This is my friend Nora.

CLEO: Nice to meet you.

NORA: Hi.

You all right?

What?

You're pale as a ghost.

Look at your hands.

I just saw Jules with a woman.

And it wasn't for business.- What?

Outside just now.

I thought he was coming to surprise me.

Aww, Cleo.

They were all over each other.

They're like dogs.

I'm amazed they can ever control themselves.

They have their litany about us, too.

Make a nest, hatch some kids, tie a noose around their necks.

What, you're on their side, now?

CLEO: No, she's right.

Once you stop talking, the litanies are all you have left.

That's all I have.

FAITH: So who stopped talking?

If I ask him, he'll tell me that women

can't understand how men feel.

What when they start obsessing about 18-year-old girls.

He can't understand how women feel any better.

He could have told me anything.

Total disclosure is a pipe dream, Cleo.

Truth ends up gnawing at you because deep down,

we just don't share it.

You saying the same excitement that brings you together

can't help but pull you apart?

You saying it's hopeless?

[scoffs] People can never bust out of the game no matter

how sick they got of it--

until now.

What are you talking about?

Changers.

What do you think?

You know some?

Well, don't you?

Not exactly a mainstream crowd.

It's catching on more than you think.

How do you know who is and who isn't?

FAITH: Come on!

No.

What's the big deal?

I've known you three years!

What are you going to like me any less

because I used to be a man.

What-- I thought all you guys lived on Van

Cleef Street or something and thought

us one sexers were retro scum.

We're not all alike anymore than anybody else is.

I have Changer friends and have one sexer friends.

But I only tell the one sexers when I think one of them

gets anxious in a way I recognize.

You're a little off base this time.

NORA: We've reached a place in our evolution

where it's time for this.

FAITH: Oh, what-- what's that, the party platform?

People are realizing men and women

just don't make sense anymore.

Listen to what we're just talking about.

But we're still people.

I mean I can't believe you have to do something like this just

to be able to talk to each other.

The whole thing takes three or four days,

and you can change back just as fast.

What possible harm could there be in trying?

I'm Dr. Charles.

Uh, I'm not actually here to have any work done.

I just wanted to find out what was involved--

the cost, things like that.

Well, if you'll just follow me to one of the consulting rooms,

I can give you a demonstration that I'm sure

will answer all of your questions.

There's no charge.

Please, come right this way.

Call me, Marion spelled with an O this month.

[chuckles]

Stand in front of the wall mirror for me would you.

Look, I know it's hard to take that first step.

It was hard for me and this is what I do for a living.

There.

Not really a mirror at all is it?

[laughs] Why so skinny?

I mean if you're trying to sell me,

this is definitely the wrong approach.

[laughs] Not at all.

The computer simulates a comparable male.

You're more slight than the average female.

You have more slender frame, but we can easily adjust it.

There.

Better?

Can you make the eyes blue?

Not a problem.

See we simply make some basic chromosomal adjustments,

accelerate the change on a cellular level,

and in a few days, you are what you see.

After all, that's what happens in the womb when the fetus

becomes male or female.

Of course, we can adjust this new body as

easily as we do the vid image.

What about my mind?

You're still you just from a different angle.

Am I right in thinking that you're married?

Please, I've been doing this for a very long time.

Why do you ask?

There's a 10-minute procedure.

It costs very little, and sometimes it

turns out to be just the thing to test the waters.

I told you I'm not here to have any work done.

It's just a chest reduction, a little

of the old androgynous look.

If you don't like it, we'll change it right back.

Look, I know it might sound superficial,

but in the context of considering such a change,

it can carry quite a punch.

Interested?

CLEO: Hi.

How was the client lunch?

As good as it gets talking about synth fur

design for three hours.

You must be exhausted.

I made the sale.

That's all it's about, maybe you should think

about doing something else.

It's just a phase.

Don't I get a kiss?

Oh, yeah.

Long day.

I better take a shower.

What's your hurry?

What?

Cleo, what the hell is going on?

Well, what does it look like?

And don't be so shocked.

I thought you'd like it.

You didn't even ask me?

What?

What I should do with my body?

It's not permanent anyway, unless you like it.

What do you mean?

It's not surgery.

I had it done at a Changer clinic

while you were at your business lunch.

What?

I thought you'd like it.

Something new.

And younger looking.

What were you doing at a Changer clinic?

Asking about changing.

What else?

Well, this is sure as hell the first I've heard of it.

Well, you haven't been doing much asking lately, Jules.

It was an impulse, and I acted on it

just like you acted on yours.

What the hell is that supposed to mean?

What do you think?

I have work to do.

I saw you today, Jules.

I saw you outside the restaurant.

What the hell were you doing there?

Trying to have lunch.

She the one who talks your ear off about synth fur?

I guess we both have new physical interests.

You want to become a man because I'm having an affair?

No, I want to become a man because I am sick of this.

Of what?

Of us carrying on because we don't

know anything better to do.

Pretending that we're close when we're a million miles apart.

Watching you kiss someone else when you won't even touch me.

Would you dare share anything of your real self with me?

You think your true feelings would hurt me,

but it's hiding them that hurts the most.

I won't see her anymore.

If I were a man, you'd talk to me.

JULES: That is not a solution.

Well, people never had this choice before.

What do we have to lose by trying?

Who we are, Cleo.

What we have to lose is who we are.

I'm going to go out.

Don't wait up.

[music plays]

[interposing voices]

What are trying to prove?

You want to be a man, go change for real.

I should go.

Wait a minute.

No, you're right.

I don't know what I was thinking.

Desperation makes you do all kinds of things.

I've been there.

I guess I thought because you were born female that I could--

You're making a big assumption aren't you?

You mean--

Good guess.

What you thought you could take your aggressions out on me?

That's not what changing's about.

What it is about then?

It's hard to explain.

Do you still feel like a woman inside?

No.

We change there, too, but not into some overbearing jerk.

You become something else.

What?

Nobody can answer that but you.

Look for me if you come back.

Playback.

Cleo, I need to get away for a little while.

You know I love you but--

DR. CHARLES: You're going to feel a tingling sensation

and then get drowsy and start to fall asleep.

And then when you wake up, it will all be finished.

It's that simple.

You mean until I wake up.

Just remember how easily you can change back again.

Of course, what changes on the inside

may not be quite so reversible.

I don't think I'd be here if it were.

You know I didn't think this was a casual diversion for you.

Is it for some people?

Well, some men want to be possessed for a week.

Some women what to indiscriminately possess.

Others, well, like yourself, want

to truly understand what it is their partners

feel and experience.

No one winds up with what they expected.

Now, are you ready to begin?

After that speech--

Hell, what have I got to lose?

Start counting backwards for me slowly from 10.

Eight, seven--

Keep counting.

Six, five--

DR. CHARLES: Easy, easy.

You're not quite ready to wrestle yet.

Are you comfortable?

Just nod if you can't talk.

What day is it?

It's Friday.

Four days.

Yes.

And, um, am I a--

Well, are you?

JULES: It gets old no matter how good it is, no matter how

much you still care for them.

That's what they don't understand.

Right.

When you start looking around, what you see grabs you but it--

but you don't do anything because you're not a pig.

But it gnaws at you, wanting what

you don't have year after year.

And what started out having nothing

to do with the woman you're with suddenly

has everything to do with her.

Because she's the reason you're starving yourself.

As all of that food goes by.

Think about it.

When was the last time you got any action

telling a woman the truth?

When we tell them we want what they want.

How'd you like it if they took us up on it?

You're right.

We don't like that very much either.

Actually did what we do.

We expect them to stand by us through anything.

Guess that's biology, too.

Yeah.

What are we going to do about it?

If I had the answer to that, I wouldn't be tending bar.

WOMAN: Bartender, a little something over here.

Coming right up.

What the hell do you think you're doing?

Looking for you.

JULES: Take a walk.

I just want to talk to you.

Oh, yeah, what over a few beer with vapes?

Maybe go down to a feely bar later and pick up some broads.

You worried girlfriend's going to show up?

She won't know who I am.

I want you to get out of here.

What you just said to the bartender before,

here's your chance to help me understand.

Jules, please.

Please.

[music playing]

You make an attractive man.

[laughs]

Rough night?

I was just brawling in a bar with my husband.

Ah, flexing your newfound muscles.

Never knew how strange this would be.

Knowing what a man knows, feeling

what a woman is going to say.

Now you know what men go through.

Yeah, right.

I walked up to him and--

[sighs] he was just--

Repulsed.

Yes.

Typical response.

Don't let it get you down.

We all go through it to one degree or another.

Just give him some time to sort things out, a little room.

Look, I just happen to be with someone I think you know.

Since she was raised a male, she might have something

useful to say on the subject.

Don't be so shocked.

Changer world's still pretty small after all.

I can see that.

Join us?

OK.

Well.

Long way from girls' lunch.

[chuckles] Does Faith know?

She'll die.

I'm surprised you went through with it so quickly.

On the brink of a decision I didn't know existed.

Very sane.

NORA: You just didn't know the language for it.

What are calling yourself?

Leo.

Keeps it simple.

You're lucky.

My name was James.

Leo just had his first run in with his husband.

Oh.

Not too crazy about the equipment change.

Just wish he would, you know, hadn't been so angry about it.

Two quivering identities on the line.

Takes years of people telling you to act

to make them quiver like that.

It's the big test.

That's what we're breaking out of, Leo,

not to be men and women, just human.

[chuckles] Forget about that now and come and dance with me.

I was watching.

You try out that new body of yours for something other

than torturing yourself.

[heavy panting]

[grunts] [laughs]

What about Jules?

He hasn't been here in days.

Not bad for a novice.

[laughs]

[moans]

Did you like it?

Thought it was the same.

And some different.

Just a little more localized.

[laughs]

What am I telling you for?

Well, there's things to be said for either way.

Although--

Just now that felt pretty hard to beat.

[moans]

What's the matter?

Nothing.

Oh, come on.

Don't go getting all strong and silent on me already.

Not that this wasn't nice and everything, it's--

I just didn't change for the sex.

Well, of course, not.

Does that mean you can't enjoy it?

I'm sorry.

I just--

I did this out of love for my husband, the connection we had,

and lost.

Now, here I am in this room, and I miss him.

Well, you're not the kind of person who can just walk away.

I can tell.

Look, I-- I changed out of love for my wife.

But she changed with me, Leo.

Where is she now?

It became too confining for us to be more than friends.

I did this to make Jules and me stronger, not obsolete.

But he's done nothing to understand you.

Do you see his refusal as a sign of hope?

Oh, my god.

It's Jules.

Wait here.

Jules, what are you doing here?

This is my house.

Jules, who's that?

I'm Leo, a friend of Jules, just visiting from out of town.

Oh, you scared me.

I thought for a minute you might be his wife.

Just the robe.

She's on a trip.

NORA: Leo.

Who is it?

It's Jules.

Come say hello.

Hi, Jules. I'm Nora.

[clears throat]

Janice.

Hi.

I just came to pick up some of my things.

At this hour?

I didn't think you'd have company.

Oh, but you see we're wide awake.

You're not disturbing us.

[clears throat]

Why don't we all go for breakfast since we're all up.

Oh! Could we, Jules.

Please I'm starved.

What do you want to start packing this stuff for anyway

so early.

You're so obsessed with this.

Would you tell him to relax.

BOTH LEO AND NORA: Relax, Jules.

NORA: Come on.

It'll just take us a second to get dressed.

It'll be fun.

Unless you want to go dressed like that.

[giggles]

JANICE: So how come Jules never mentioned you to me before?

He didn't even say you were staying at the house.

LEO: Actually, we know each other through his wife.

She and I are close friends.

It's always so awkward when people separate.

Friends don't know where their loyalties should lie.

Yes, it's difficult.

People think that their spouse's friends are going

to take sides against them.

Are you speaking from personal experience?

I've just been the friend.

And did you take sides?

No.

I thought my friend and her husband

were being equally ridiculous.

What about you?

I thought I would, but I didn't.

I realized that even though I had known Cleo longer,

I felt just as close with Jules.

That's nice.

You're a good friend.

Too bad marriage can't be like that.

Then again, neither can slavery.

Is that how you really feel about it?

It's just obsolete, a vestigial like your appendix

or your tonsils.

As an institution or as a promise?

Excuse me.

I'll be right back.

Actually, I'll join you.

Ladies.

That was clever.

Wasn't meant to be.

She's nice.

She's really nice.

You think so?

Yeah.

Very straightforward and contemporary.

Must you?

I've seen it before, Jules, and I have to go, too.

This is interesting.

I think most men overrate size.

Yeah?

Doesn't really make a big difference you know

unless it's really extreme.

Right. Of course.

I always thought you were just about right.

So what do you think of Nora?

Looks out for your interest a little too much,

don't you think?

She know who I am?

Um hmm.

She wanted us all to come for breakfast.

What's that game?

Nora's just being magnanimous so I'll come to my senses

and realize what a jerk you are.

Nora wants you.

I'm getting that idea.

She a Changer, too?

Oh, yeah.

So you've been staying at Janice's lately?

No, no, uh, hotel near the office.

Oh.

Janice-- one minute she's talking about how

obsolete marriage is and the next

she wants a commitment from me.

What kind of a commitment?

I don't know what the hell she's talking about.

Impression is she probably doesn't either.

Jules, all I ever wanted was to be

able to talk to you like this, about all

the hesitation, about what you should and shouldn't say.

You had to change your body for that?

Would we be having this conversation

if I was your girlfriend?

Maybe I couldn't understand before.

Now I can.

I miss Cleo.

Jules, I am Cleo.

Look at me.

I haven't gone anywhere.

Don't you realize that I would do anything for you?

Come home, Jules.

I want to, Cleo.

Purchase accepted.

Shall we?

Still going to get your things?

Uh, I'll do it tomorrow.

Coming over now?

I've got some work to do.

I'll call you later. - OK.

I need to get some sleep.

Oh, OK.

Um, you can ride home with Jules and Janice.

Right on their way.

I'm sorry.

I'm exhausted.

Call me if you want to talk.

I will.

Bye, Jules.

Right.

Cleo?

My god.

I didn't ask you to come down here so you could gawk at me.

I'll just take it in stride that my best friend

from college is a man now.

Come on.

Let's go sit down.

Nora told me she'd seen you.

Yeah.

What else did she say?

That you went to bed with her.

How was she?

Come on.

Oh, you won't talk to me now that you're a guy?

Why couldn't she keep it to herself?

She was up her world by talking about it.

That's what it is isn't it?

There's always some scene.

Oh, sounds like you're not exactly thrilled with that.

It's just not all I am.

Well, what exactly are you, Cleo?

Let's start with that.

When I caught Jules, you told me that I'd

find a way to be understanding.

I really outdid myself this time.

I understood him so well, I'll probably never see him again.

What happened?

We were talking about what was going on with us,

about the women we were with.

I mean really talking.

Like two guys?

Yeah.

And then all of a sudden--

You got to close?

We almost kissed.

Wow.

[laughs]

Well, jilted wife couldn't have a scene like that 50 years ago.

I'll tell you that.

Not without major surgery.- No, listen.

Listen to me.

It's like I always saw male and female as, you know,

fighting it out in people's minds.

One would win, the other would lose.

But they're starting to become one person inside of me.

I can't tell them apart anymore.

So what's the problem?

You just told me you feel whole.

I do.

But what does that make Jules?

I want him with me in this.

I did this so I could get closer to him.

I now know that I would do anything for that.

But I'm not the same.

Even if I change back to what I looked like before, I still--

I still won't be the same.

And neither could we be.

You can wait for him to catch up, can't you?

Maybe he'll surprise you.

Do you really believe that?

All you can do is show him what's possible.

And if he doesn't buy it?

You will still be who you are.

[music playing]

Leo isn't here.

What makes you think he would be?

You heard him brush me off.

What, you you're the only reason he comes here?

Tell me.

The truth.

Have you never wondered what it would be like to receive.

No.

Does that mean there's something wrong with me?

It means you'd better start.

The only way to win Cleo back is to have a sex change.

It didn't seem to work so well for you.

What do you think is gonna happen to you if you're

Leo's woman for a while?

Disintegration?

Wake up.

It's the 21st century.

Stop.

Bramsen Design.

Good afternoon.

Jules Slauson please.

I'm sorry.

Mr. Slauson has left the firm.

Since when.

This week, sir.

Can I direct your call to another designer?

Do you know how I can get in touch with him?

I'm afraid I can't give you that information, sir.

But I'm his wi--

Never mind.

CAR: Now arriving South Moore Street.

Thank you.

Are you sure everything's going to be exactly the same?

Physically I mean?

[sighs]

JULES: I just want to find out what's involved--

the costs, things like that.

DR. CHARLES: Well, if you'll just follow me

to one of the consulting rooms, I

can give you a demonstration that I'm sure will

answer all of your questions.

Relax.

There's no charge.

Please.

Come this way.

JULES: Wait a minute.

DR. CHARLES: Come on, Mr. Slauson,

nothing is going to happen to you unless you want it to.

Jules?

I guess everything isn't going to be the same after all.

Is it?

Cleo Slauson believed that by experiencing life as a man,

she could balance the scales, even the score.

But once she saw things with a man's eyes,

she grew closer to Jules than she ever had before.

She discovered that in the end, love

isn't about how many options you have

but how well you can share them.

Welcome to Paradox.