The Story

The script is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)  license.

ACT I

The show begins with the narrator, STORY JACK, who introduces the audience to the MIT hacking world and code of ethics (World of the Hacker). STORY JACK then launches into the story of BILLY, a freshman who has just arrived on campus. He is eager to become a hardk0re hacker (I Want to be Hardk0re) and overhears two upperclassmen, TESS and COROT, talking about a hack. He and his two friends RYAN and CONNER ask to join the project and are admitted to the team.

The story then turns to a group of CP’s (campus police officers), OFFICER’s BARRY CLAW, DEEDEE KALF, and FREY PACHINO, headed by SERGEANT BRUCE E. SPRINKLES. SPRINKLES, incited by a recent hack in Killian court, plots with the other CP’s how to catch the hackers and stop them once and for all (Let’s Get those Fuckers).

The story returns to the hackers (BILLY, TESS, COROT, and other students) who are attending a planning meeting headed by COROT (Our Target: the Dome). With the help of TESS, COROT announces the plans for the hack and the deploy date, Halloween. The meeting is briefly interrupted by the entrance of KEPLER, an ominous upperclassman. By the end of the meeting, the hackers are excited to start building.

The hackers construct their hack over the course of many weeks, during which BILLY and TESS grow closer (Building). HUNTER notices the attraction and delivers a stern warning against allowing their romance to blossom before November 1st, lest they break the November Rule (The Novembat).

BILLY points out an improvement that could be made on the current design to COROT, who praises BILLY for his good work and even says that maybe the two of them could lead a hack together. This conversation is overheard by KEPLER from the shadows. In order to implement BILLY’s fix, COROT decides to organize a measurement mission. As they are about to leave, KEPLER snarks at COROT, and COROT stays behind to confront KEPLER as TESS leads the hackers to the roof. COROT eventually becomes so frustrated with KEPLER that he tells KEPLER to leave and stop “bringing down the hack.” KEPLER, angered by the argument, decides to call in the hackers to the CP’s (Bring Down the Hack).

While the hackers go to take measurements on the roof, they leave two suave upperclassmen, ELECTRA and MAGS, to keep watch. The scouts encounter the CP’s and attempt to distract them from catching the hackers on the dome (Distraction Tango). Despite their efforts, the hackers are spotted and caught.

ACT II

COROT, TESS, BILLY, and the others who were caught are brought back to the CP station for punishment. SPRINKLES lectures the hackers (Sprinkles’ Admonition) but does not get to issue any punishment because of an emergency phone call, summoning him and the other CP’s. SPRINKLES resentfully lets the hackers go, warning them that next time, he will really punish them.

The hackers begin to angrily toss blame at each other for being caught while KEPLER watches the group from afar (Wank, Wank, Wank). KEPLER sees how getting caught has affected COROT, and KEPLER begins to regret his actions. Once most of the hackers have left in anger, KEPLER admits to COROT that he called the CP’s. This only makes COROT more upset, and KEPLER, unsure what to do, leaves. Upon hearing KEPLER’s admission, BILLY tries to convince COROT to tell the other hackers about KEPLER, but is driven away by COROT and TESS.

BILLY leaves to find KEPLER, sitting sadly in the other room, and confronts KEPLER. KEPLER takes BILLY by surprise by telling BILLY that he and COROT were once best friends. KEPLER tells BILLY stories from back in the day about how he, COROT, and TESS, were an unstoppable trio, and how KEPLER eventually drifted apart from them due to feelings of exclusion.

KEPLER then invites BILLY to go hacking and brings BILLY to a special tomb that COROT and KEPLER discovered as freshmen. KEPLER explains to BILLY why hacking was truly important to him and urges BILLY to revive the hack (There’s More to Life Than Tooling). A re-motivated BILLY gathers the other hackers to return to finish the hack (Rebuilding).

Meanwhile, SPRINKLES bemoans letting the hackers go to take care of the emergency. He sends CLAW and PACHINO out to their patrol, unconvinced that the hackers have given up.

As the hackers finish the hack, TESS and BILLY confront each other and decide that they can still be friends. They are still in love with each other, but afraid to express it (Platonic Friends Again).

On the night before Halloween, the hackers start the deploy (Nightworks). During the deploy, one of the scouts, FARADAY, falls asleep and the CP’s find him and take him hostage, using him as a link to the hackers on the roof. KEPLER sees the CP’s carrying the sleeping FARADAY and rushes to the roof to warn the hackers. At first COROT doesn’t believe KEPLER, but TESS finally convinces COROT to check on FARADAY (Hackers on the Roof). The CP’s try to impersonate FARADAY, who wakes up during the call and escapes. COROT orders everyone off the roof, but KEPLER stays behind to help clean up. KEPLER and COROT resolve their past misunderstanding and decide to counterbalance rappel off the dome, embracing their revived friendship (Counterbalance).

The CP’s get to the roof via a fire-throwing blimp only to find that all of the hackers have disappeared. After accidentally setting a modern art sculpture on fire, SPRINKLES realizes that he has become obsessed with catching the hackers and has forgotten why he really became a cop in the first place (Let’s Get those Fuckers, reprise). The CP’s fly off into the night on their blimp, vowing to deal with hackers appropriately, but to not go out of their way to hunt them down.

TESS and BILLY return to the dome one night later and realize that it is now technically November. They kiss on the dome as STORY JACK and the other hackers appear to celebrate the dawn (Dawn) and the hackers go on to hack another day.

THE END

The Revival Version of the Script is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)  license.