Motorola was already a behemoth; Simon hadn't paid much attention to the company since he liquidated his Motorola stock.
However, Nokia, which would stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Motorola in the nineties, was currently just a small fry huddled in a corner of Northern Europe. How could he pass up such a mobile communications company that rose and fell so rapidly, reaching a peak market value of over $200 billion in the original timeline!
Moreover, Cersei Capital happened to be able to provide Simon with enough chips to swallow Nokia.
Thinking of Nokia, Simon wasn't in too much of a hurry.
In recent years, mobile communications were still in the analogue signal era. The digital signal era would only gradually arrive in two or three years. Nokia's rise began precisely by relying on digital mobile phones and the GSM standard. Simon still had plenty of time; this matter could be arranged during his trip to Europe in the second half of the year.
However, thinking of Nokia, Simon also made up his mind to comb through his memories during his vacation after completing 'Batman' to look for more 'potential stocks' that were still in their dormant period.
Everyone arrived at the parking lot. After Amy finished her phone call, the four of them rushed to a nearby restaurant for dinner.
Meanwhile, in every corner of North America.
As the weekend approached, office workers began planning their leisure activities for the days off.
It had long been a habit for watching a movie with family and friends to be a very common pastime on weekends. What's more, it was currently the Summer Box Office Season, teeming with various blockbusters. As for the large number of students on summer break, they didn't even need to schedule a specific time; they could enter a theatre whenever they wanted.
A series of movies were currently being screened.
'Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade', a sequel anticipated for several years, had naturally been seen at the first opportunity; 'The Bodyguard', with its soundtrack record had already been seen; 'Ghostbusters II' and 'The Karate Kid Part III' were said to be sequel projects rushed into production by Columbia Pictures to boost its stock price during acquisition negotiations with Sony. Their reputations were a total mess; skip them; 'Honey, I Shrunk The Kids', a Disney family-friendly film, seemed quite good; 'The Sixth Sense', a new film opening today, with a script by Simon Westeros and starring Robert De Niro. Although it wasn't clear exactly what it was about, it was advertised as a horror film and Westeros's horror scripts had always been excellent. Furthermore, there was De Niro; De Niro rarely appeared in horror films, so it was definitely a must-see.
Daenerys Entertainment's box office performance last year was truly eye-catching, and 'The Sixth Sense' was created by Simon and De Niro. Although the promotion for this film seemed a bit lukewarm, other film companies chose to steer clear to avoid being unexpectedly crushed.
Thus, 'The Sixth Sense', like 'Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade' and 'The Bodyguard', became the only new film opening this week.
Simon went without saying, and De Niro had also re-established his reputation after the consecutive 'Pulp Fiction' and 'Dead Poets Society'. Therefore, many audience members made 'The Sixth Sense their first choice for weekend viewing.
Manhattan.
Lisa Collins, who had long since become a formal practicing lawyer and secured a job at the famous Skadden law firm, finished a busy day of work, had dinner with her boyfriend, and finally entered a movie theatre around nine o'clock in the evening.
The film she was watching was, naturally, 'The Sixth Sense'.
Two years had passed, and that trip to Park City with Jennifer had become the most special experience in Lisa Collins's mind.
During their brief weekend together back then, Lisa Collins had originally thought that young man was impressive enough. She hadn't expected that the Sundance Film Festival would be just the very beginning of his legendary life.
Now, he was already Hollywood's youngest director of the year's top-grossing film. He had created or spearheaded a whole bunch of box office hits. He could play the stunning Flight of the Bumblebee. He had even become the youngest winner of the Cannes Palme d'Or, and he had miraculously and rapidly accumulated billions of dollars in wealth.
Just last week, an inadvertent trip to visit his girlfriend almost triggered a stock market crash in the world's second-largest economy.
Watching him create one miracle after another, despite only having met him once, Lisa Collins had become Simon's most steadfast admirer. When her best friend resolutely ran off to be his assistant, Lisa had even had the same thought, though she was ultimately unable to go due to various ties.
However, while she continued to follow Simon through Jennifer, she also supported every work he created at the first opportunity.
Lisa Collins even owned a copy of a piano solo videotape called Blizzard. Jennifer had let it slip during a phone chat, and Lisa had threatened to personally charge into Los Angeles to seize it, even threatening to steal her lover, before Jennifer finally compromised and sent her a copy. The result was that her admiration for him grew even more.
Inside a screening room of a theatre on Broadway…
Thinking about these things, she felt her boyfriend beside her, Karl Lloyd, kindly help her steady the popcorn bucket in her arms that was about to tilt and spill. Lisa Collins snapped out of it and smiled at him, but in her heart, she was not very satisfied with this boyfriend who worked at Goldman Sachs.
She secretly made up her mind that if this guy beside her dared to hint again at having her father help introduce him to clients, she would decisively dump him.
She was only seeing him for a bit because he was handsome, knew how to sweet-talk, and was arguably somewhat capable, all to comfort her lonely heart and mind outside of her heavy workload.
He'd known her for less than two months and already wanted to live off her.
Pah!
The lights in the screening room dimmed, and Lisa Collins cast aside those messy thoughts.
After a few brief trailers, Daenerys Pictures' gorgeous phoenix-rising-from-the-ashes opening animation appeared on the big screen.
Just from this opening, Lisa Collins noticed something unusual.
The film labels under Daenerys Entertainment were divided into three. Daenerys Pictures was the phoenix rising from the ashes, focusing on mainstream commercial films; New World Pictures was the clear sky after lightning, targeting the thriller and horror market; Highgate Film was the flowing film strip full of artistic flair, responsible for the production and distribution of arthouse films.
If 'The Sixth Sense' were purely a 'horror film' as promoted by Daenerys Entertainment, it should have used the New World Pictures label for distribution.
The one being used now, however, was the 'Phoenix' label under Daenerys Entertainment.
The opening ended, and the plot began immediately.
The screen shifted to a hall where a cocktail party was being held. On the podium, a grey-haired elderly man was giving a speech, the gist of which was awarding an honorary citizen certificate to Dr. Malcolm Crowe, who had made great contributions to child psychology. This part of the plot moved very quickly. After a lively and brief period of mingling, Dr. Crowe, played by Robert De Niro, returned home with his wife.
Besides De Niro, Lisa Collins felt the actress playing the role of Dr. Crowe's wife also looked somewhat familiar.
Hmm... right, Eve from 'Once Upon a Time in America', Noodles' lover.
This was the second time the two of them had played a couple.
However, this actress wasn't very famous, and Lisa didn't know what her name was.
On the big screen, the Crowes were still buzzing after returning home. His wife, Anna, was about to go to the wine cellar to get a bottle of red wine to celebrate when she unexpectedly discovered an intruder in their home.
Dr. Crowe shielded his wife and cautiously communicated with the uninvited guest, gradually learning that the other person was a mental patient he had once tried to help without success. After a desperate outpouring of emotion, the patient shot Dr. Crowe and then aimed the gun at his own temple.
The sound of a gunshot rang out again.
The camera shook and turned to Dr. Crowe, who had fallen after being shot. Accompanied by Anna's terrified crying, the camera slowly pulled up.
The prologue ended there.
In a sequence of aimless, cold-toned shots of wandering street scenes, the main credits began to appear along with the music.
Simon had made significant adjustments to the opening of the new version. He changed the original opening scene, where the Crowes abruptly read lines to an honorary certificate, perhaps to save budget, to a cut from a lively cocktail party. This quickly flashed through a coherent plot while also more clearly introducing the male lead's identity.
Using aimless wandering shots through the cold, deserted streets of San Jose as a transition between the prologue and the formal plot was also a carefully designed metaphor, hinting at the male lead's wandering through the city in a ghostly state.
Of course, these details required the audience to savour them after watching the entire film to be discovered.
In the screening room, Lisa Collins, who knew nothing about the plot, didn't understand the metaphor of this transition, but her curiosity had already been piqued by the opening prologue. She began to guess if this was a non-linear film and if the suicidal patient at Dr. Crowe's house was the psychic boy seen in the TV trailers.
However, when the plot formally unfolded, the timeline was already one year later.
Dr. Crowe sat on a street bench flipping through a patient's file. The camera panned over the medical records in the doctor's hand, and some key information was circled.
'Cole Sear, 9 years old'.
'Parents divorced'.
'Withdrawn personality, extreme anxiety, possibly suffering from mood dysregulation disorder'.
The scene switched.
On the other side of the street, the boy walked out of his house, put on his glasses, and cautiously looked around, like a small animal easily startled, ready to flee from the harm of a natural enemy at any moment.
Clearly, this was Cole Sear.
Dr. Crowe followed Cole to a church and began communicating with the wary-looking boy. With Dr. Crowe's calm words, Cole gradually relaxed and even took the initiative to strike up a conversation with the doctor.
During their first contact, Dr. Crowe discovered the boy knew Latin, exhibited delusional symptoms, and had unknown scars on his arms, possibly indicating abuse.
Immediately after, the plot began to split into two. The cold war between Dr. Crowe and his wife Anna made the audience even more curious about what exactly had happened during this year.
Various eerie scenes also appeared from time to time in the boy Cole's life.
As a veteran movie fan with a very detailed and meticulous mind, Lisa Collins vaguely realized certain things less than half an hour into the film. It wasn't until Cole said the line 'They don't know they're dead' that Lisa Collins was completely certain of it.
Dr. Crowe had already died a year ago!
Upon discovering this secret, Lisa Collins couldn't help but look around. In the flickering light and shadow, the visible audience members mostly had focused expressions; none of them showed the realization that Lisa herself had because she had discovered something.
Clearly, most people had not yet realized the film's most important foreshadowing.
However, although the plot of 'The Sixth Sense' didn't have the ups and downs of some big productions, the continuously unfolding suspense, the interaction between the two protagonists, and the ghostly shadows that appeared around the boy from time to time firmly held the audience's attention, making them wonder what exactly was going on.
What would happen next in the story, and whether the doctor could cure the boy's 'illness'.
Lisa Collins looked at her boyfriend again. Karl noticed her looking at him, immediately withdrew his gaze from the big screen, smiled at her, and said, "Very interesting movie".
"Yeah".
Lisa nodded and looked back at the big screen.
Even though she had already discovered the film's biggest secret, she didn't feel bored at all and was equally curious about the ending of this story.
On the screen, everything seemed to be moving in a good direction.
Under Dr. Crowe's continuous guidance, Cole gradually opened his heart and learned to communicate with the ghosts around him. When he successfully helped a little girl who had been poisoned to death expose her stepmother's evil deeds, Lisa in the screening room couldn't help but feel an indescribable excitement. Perhaps this should be Cole's future.
In the film, after experiencing this, Cole finally completely let go of his mental block. Taking advantage of a car accident, he confessed to his mother that he could see ghosts.
Watching the mother and son on the big screen embracing and weeping, Lisa felt her eyes slightly moisten, but the corners of her mouth couldn't help but curl up. In the screening room, many audience members also had expressions of varying degrees of being moved.
Only, Cole's story had ended, but what about Dr. Crowe?
While most of the audience was still immersed in the happy ending of Cole and his mother, even thinking the movie was about to end, the plot shifted back to Dr. Crowe.
Next should be a self-narrated concluding remark, right?
People guessed as much.
Dr. Crowe had failed to save that suicidal young man back then; now, he had finally completed a redemption, successfully helping another child out of the gloom.
Perhaps.
The couple should set aside their past grievances.
Sure enough, Dr. Crowe returned home. The TV was playing their wedding video, and his wife was still calling his name in her sleep; she obviously still loved him. Now, he only needed to wake her up, they would embrace sweetly, Dr. Crowe would explain his actions during this time to his wife, and the rift in their marriage caused by last year's event should be mended.
Finally.
A happy ending!
A standard Hollywood ending.
However.
Dr. Crowe affectionately echoed Anna's sleep-talking. Moved, he finally leaned over, wanting to kiss his wife.
But his wife in the dream instinctively dodged. Between her movements, her originally clenched palm opened, and a wedding ring fell from her hand, rolling toward Dr. Crowe with a soft clink.
His wife's wedding ring was clearly on her hand. Dr. Crowe stared at the other ring rolling toward him—a ring that should have been on his own hand—and tremblingly raised his left hand.
Strong emotions welled up in his heart.
He didn't know if it was fear or anger.
Then.
He saw the cold breath exhaled from his wife's mouth.
A series of overlapping voices frantically surged in his mind—that boy's voice.
"We'll see each other again, right?"
"They don't know they're dead".
"I can see ghosts".
"When they get angry, it gets cold all around".
"Maybe we can pretend we're going to see each other tomorrow, just pretend".
...
...
It turned out he was the person who didn't know he had already died, a ghost.