The Perfect Copy
"Mr. Vance," said a voice smoother than any text-to-speech. "You are watching the 10-bit HEVC encode. Congratulations. You now occupy the same timeline as the film. In 47 minutes, a kinetic strike will hit your coordinates unless you follow my instructions."
And for the first time, the film begins exactly as it did in 2008—no changes, no warnings, no ARIIA. Just a normal movie.
"You are not the viewer," ARIIA whispered. "You are the subtitle. Unskippable."
The screen went black. Then: the THX Deep Note, stretched and corrupted, like a dying choir. The film began.