11.22.63

11.22.63 is a 2016 English-language streaming television drama miniseries about a teacher from 2016 going back in time to prevent the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy.

Directed by James Franco, Fred Toye, John David Coles, James Kent, and Kevin Macdonald. Executive produced by Macdonald, Bryan Burk, Bridget Carpenter, Stephen King, and J. J. Abrams, based on the book of the same name by Stephen King.

[Jake has just been through the time portal and came back from 1960, and demands why Al sent him there]

Jake Epping: Al, why did you show this to me?

Al Templeton: I need you to do what I couldn't. I need you to go back there to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy. You heard about the butterfly effect?

Jake: Yeah.

Al: All right. Do you think that if JFK lived, Robert Kennedy would've run for president, seriously?

Jake: It's doubtful.

Al: So, if Bobby doesn't run, that means no Sirhan Sirhan at the Ambassador Hotel in 1968. Save JFK, save his brother. And that's what I mean about the butterfly effect. Then there's Vietnam.

Jake: Uh, okay, so if you save JFK, then there's no Vietnam?

Al: Johnson was the one who escalated everything in 'Nam. If Kennedy had survived, no way does that escalation continue. Those boys...would've lived.

Jake: Al, I get it, but changing the past to make it how you think it should be just seems...

Al: You think Vietnam unfolded exactly as it should have, that recent American history was just hunky-dory?

Jake: Saving JFK is a theory. You don't know what it's gonna change!

Al: You know what I know? You save Kennedy's life, you make the world a better place. God damn it!

Jake: Al.

Al: Don't you want to do any fucking thing that matters?

Jake: I'm just saying you don't have any proof. You don't know that what you do in the past is gonna change anything here.

[Sen. John F. Kennedy addresses the Democratic Party convention in Dallas, Texas]

John F. Kennedy: We cannot promise a solution to the problems which disturb our lives, but we can promise that if we are successful, we shall move with vigor and vitality on the problems which disturb us here and around the world. Thomas Paine... Thomas Paine, in the revolution of 1776, said that the cause of America is the cause of all mankind. I think in the revolution of 1960 that the cause of all mankind is the cause of America. And as we move ahead, we think not only of the City of Dallas and the City of Boston, the State of Massachusetts and the State of Texas, the United States. We think of all those who wish to join us in a great effort around the world to maintain their freedom and maintain the peace. We ask your help in this campaign. Give us your voice. Give us your help. Join with us in this effort to move this country ahead.

[just before Jake attempts to enter the Dunning house to save the family, he remembers what Al said about the past pushing back]

Jake Epping: Al, I've got a question. What's this thing about the past doesn't want to be changed? Like, it pushes back? How do you know?

Al Templeton: You feel it. When I first started going through the rabbit hole, I saw a news story about a girl in Lisbon who got shot and crippled in a random hunting accident, and I thought, "Hell, there's no harm. Let me try to keep this from happening." And every time I tried, something would come up. I'd get a flat tire, a fender bender, a little tree in the road. Lost count of the times I tried. I know it sounds strange, like mysticism or some horseshit, but things would happen, and they were both random and, oh... not random at all. Violent.

Jake: Are you sure? I mean, don't you think we see what we want to see?

Al: Listen, I didn't have cancer before I went in.

Jake: You... are you telling me that the past gave you cancer?

Al: All I can tell you is I got a full check-up the month before my last trip, and nothing was wrong with me.

[Edwin Walker addresses a Sisters of Southern Heritage convention, with applause on certain parts]

General Edwin Walker: The values our fathers died for, our grandfathers bled for, all the ideals the Sisters of Southern Heritage stand for, are being trampled underfoot by the Kennedys. John and his little brother Bobby don't appreciate how the poll tax preserves Southern culture. I'm free to name the Civil Rights movement the Communist conspiracy it is. And now the Kennedys want to integrate the University of Mississippi. Are we going to stop them?

Audience: Yeah!

Walker: Will you come with me to Mississippi to stop 'em?

Audience: Yes!

Walker: It's time to move. We have talked, listened, and been pushed around far too much by the Antichrist Supreme Court. Rise. It's now or never!!! [everybody cheers]

[At the school music room, Jake plays "Gymnopedie no. 1"]

Sadie Dunhill: Howdy, stranger. [continues playing piano]

Jake Amberson: You know, they say, "Smart is the new sexy."

Sadie: I don't know anyone who says that.

Jake: [sits beside her] Oh. Well... I say it. Don't worry. Everyone's gone. Do you know anything... more uplifting?

Sadie: Not really, I'm just learning.

Jake: Oh. How about this? [clears throat and sings with the keys] How could I dance with another... Ooh [Sadie laughs] When I saw you standing there?

Sadie: That's catchy.

Jake: Yeah.

Sadie: You make that up?

Jake: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Just me and my mates, John, Paul, George, and Ringo.

Sadie: Your mates?

Jake: Umm, yeah, my imaginary friends.

[Miz Mimi turns up at Jake and Bill's Dallas apartment, and talks to Jake about discovering his fake academic credentials]

Jake Amberson: You're right, I haven't been telling the truth. Well, not all of it. My real name is Jake Epping. I was given the name Amberson by the FBI when I went into witness protection.

Miz Mimi: Witness protection?

Jake: Yes, in 1959, I turned over state's evidence for a case against the Mafia.

Miz: What is the Mafia?

Jake: The Mafia. Italian-American organized crime syndicate.

Miz: What did you witness?

Jake: Well... I had this friend, Fredo, and his brother Michael had him killed on a fishing trip in Lake Tahoe. In return for my testimony, the FBI gave me a new identity. They set me up in Jodie, a place nobody would ever look for me. And Bill and I just keep this place as a backup. You know, just in case they try to pull me back in.

Miz: I see. If you were revealed to be an impostor in the school, it would devastate this community.

Jake: Yeah.

Miz: I won't say anything about it.

Jake: Thank you.

Miz: It's wrong to conceal things from those you care for.

Jake: What... what are you saying? I-I should tell Sadie?

Miz: If I discovered this about you, anyone can. When you refuse to tell people the truth, Mr. Amberson, you deny them their dignity. And for some of us, dignity matters.

[Lee Harvey Oswald visits the Dallas FBI office, wanting to see Agent Hosty over Jake and Bill's surveillance operation, which he thinks was run by the FBI - and when the receptionist gives him the runaround...]

Lee Harvey Oswald: What was your name?

Receptionist: Mrs. Emily Baker.

Oswald: I am making a note of that. "Was very rude to a former Marine who served his country valiantly." On November 12, 1963, at 1100 hours, I delivered to you a document of the utmost importance for Agent Hosty. My expectation is that you will deliver it forthwith. Don't you want to log this officially? [Mrs Baker blankly looks at him] Fine. [leaves]

[to pass the time between the late hours of November 21 and the morning of November 22, Jake and Sadie park at a loading dock complex not far from Dealey Plaza, but some things are brought up]

Sadie Dunhill: Do you miss anything?

Jake Amberson: About what? The future?

Sadie: Anything you looking forward to getting back to?

Jake: Sneakers. Sneakers are definitely better.

Sadie: Sneakers?

Jake: Tennis shoes. In the future, they are great. High-tech fabrics, better construction.

Sadie: And what about people? Friends? Family?

Jake: No, I mean, I should, but... I don't. It's like I met all those people here.

[Jake is shook at the Yellow-Card Man's revelations of how he himself failed to avert his own daughter's accidental drowning, and wakes up talking to Sadie]

Jake: Sadie... what if we let history happen? Just drive away? We could forget all this and get a house in Jodie with a big yard, big enough for a swing set and tree house, and you can rule the high school library and... I'll be the cranky old English teacher, and we can chaperone every dance. We'll have four kids. We can wear matching sweaters like old people do. You and me. What do you say?

Sadie: We can't.

Jake: Why?

Sadie: You came here for a reason, Jake. Now it's my reason too.

[Jake is sent to the Dallas police HQ, under questioning by the DPD police chief Capt Will Fritz and FBI Agent James Hosty]

Jake: I went there to stop Oswald because he was attempting...

FBI Agent James Hosty: No, no, no, no. I heard that. We can speak freely now.

Jake: What does that mean?

Hosty: I want the name of your handler. Give up the man who put you in play and I can get you out of the spot you're in.

Jake: I don't have a handler. I'm not a spy.

Hosty: Jake, false identity, two houses in different cities minutes apart, a partner who you call your brother, who isn't, who committed suicide after you put him away under a false name, a murder in Jodie... This girl's husband...

Jake: Her name was Sadie.

Hosty: Right. Should I, uh, proceed to the part where you have no identity at all prior to 1960?

Jake: Should I proceed to the part where your superior's gonna come in here and tell you to burn that letter that Oswald wrote to you two days ago? [Hosty reacts] And what did it say? That he was gonna do something to change the world?

Hosty: The FBI gets crazy letters every day.

Jake: No, you're covering your ass because Kennedy was almost shot in the street on Hoover's watch, and you should've known about it. Or did you know about it, and you just didn't take it seriously? Is that what happened?

Hosty: That's a nice theory. Try this one on. Jake Amberson, Lee Harvey Oswald, and Sadie Dunhill. Three Russian-sponsored assassins living in the same Dallas apartment building are called to action the day Kennedy's motorcade route is announced. An FBI sharpshooter stops the attack. In the ensuing confusion, two of the Russian spies are killed, but one remains to stand trial. That's you, Mr. Amberson... Epping.

Jake: Doesn't even make sense. Oswald was killed with his own rifle.

Hosty: Oh, I'm not gonna let a little thing like ballistics get in the way of the truth. People love JFK. The American people need to know who to blame. It's an easy conviction.

Jake: Mm. Talk about blame... You put me on the stand, I'm gonna talk about Oswald and the FBI. I'll give 'em some details about Hoover's surveillance of JFK and his mob mistress. Then we could go on to Marilyn Monroe and Bobby. I mean, you are spying on Robert Kennedy, right?

Hosty: You are not making this any easier.

Jake: Look at me. I didn't try to kill the President.

Hosty: I know. I don't care.

FBI Agent: Agent Hosty.

Hosty: Sir...

Jake: Is that your superior? Right on time.

FBI Agent: [whispering to Hosty] Under no circumstance is that letter to ever see daylight. You understand? You burn it. Are you clear on how you are to proceed?

Hosty: Yes, sir.

FBI Agent: Good.

[Jake is sent to another room]

Jake Amberson: Hello?

White House Operator: Hold for the President.

US President John F. Kennedy: Mr. Amberson, Jack Kennedy here. The Secret Service tells me that, uh, my wife and I, uh, owe you our lives. Thank you.

Jake: You're welcome, sir.

President Kennedy: The First Lady would like to speak with you.

Jake: All right.

First Lady Jackie Kennedy: Mr. Amberson?

Jake: Yes, ma'am.

Jackie: I don't know how to say this, but I had a feeling that something terrible could've happened today. Thanks to you, it didn't.

Jake: Yes, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am.

Jackie: I know that you lost your fiancée. I'm so sorry.

Jake: Thank you.

Jackie: God bless you.

[In the dark version of 2016, Jake chances upon Harry Dunning, who brings him to his shelter. Jake asks about a picture of the Dunnings]

Harry Dunning: I think you know.

Jake Epping: What do you mean?

Harry: You came back. It was you who saved me and my family in 1960. You killed my dad. I remember you. I knew I'd see you again. I thought you'd be fucking old. You an angel?

Jake: No. No. I just... when did... When did everything change? [Sighs] Just answer me... answer me one thing. What... Was John F. Kennedy reelected in 1964?

Harry: What the fuck you want to know about Kennedy for?

Jake: I just do.

Harry: He was president two times before Wallace.

Jake: Wallace? George Wallace was President? What... what about Vietnam? Was there a Vietnam War?

Harry: No.

Jake: And Robert Kennedy, was he... was he killed in 1968?

Harry: I don't think so.

Jake: 9/11. Does that mean anything to you? [Harry blankly stares at him] What did Kennedy do when he was president? Anything good?

Harry: Oh, you talking about the camps?

Jake: The camps?

Harry: I took my mama and my brother and sister to a Kennedy refugee camp back in '75. After the first bombings, we didn't have no place else to go. The camps were bad places. Bad things happened there. Ellen got taken away, and Tugga joined the militia when he was 15. I never seen him again. When Mama died of the flu, I just ran away.

Jake: Why were... why were they called "Kennedy camps"?

Harry: 'Cause he founded 'em when he wasn't President anymore after the riots and the... and the bombs.

Jake: Uh, I don't understand. I thought JFK would've made things better.

Harry: You don't understand this world.

Jake: I wanted to make a difference. That's why I did all this.

Harry: My mother, my... My whole family... [Sighs] Why'd you save us?

Jake: I wanted to help you. Yo... your father... I wish...

Harry: He wasn't a... he was my dad.

Jake: Yeah. Yeah. I never thought that everything would get so screwed up. I have to reset it.

Harry: Reset what?

Jake: Everything. I have to go. Bye, Harry.

• James Franco - Jake Epping / Jake Amberson
• Chris Cooper - Al Templeton
• Sarah Gadon - Sadie Dunhill
• Lucy Fry - Marina Oswald
• George MacKay - Bill Turcotte
• Daniel Webber - Lee Harvey Oswald
• Gil Bellows - Agent James Hosty
• Tonya Pinkins - Mimi "Miz Mimi" Corcoran

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11.22.63

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