Life Cycle

In 2104 A,D, recluse Milo lives in an underground silo, near the surface of a war-ravaged earth. He has trapped an experimental animal that has escaped from a laboratory further underground. This animal is the only hope for perpetuating the human race - currently composed solely of clones of the only survivor of the nuclear war in 2019. Milo is urged to return the animal by Bertran, a scientist working on the project. Milo is also visited by Simon, an old friend he left behind when he migrated nearer the surface. These communications are carried out via closed circuit TV. The escaped laboratory animal is confined to a small enclosure next to his workbench as Milo tinkers with an old video answering machine used before the war, coaxing it to play back the few messages it contains. Video phone messages from 2019, the year of the war, appear - from Shari, a woman infatuated with Michael, a man she went out with and who has subsequently rejected her. Presumably it is Michael's answering machine which Milo has recovered. Shari's pleas for a return call are intertwined with the urgings of the scientist Bertran for Milo to return the animal. The end is inevitable - convinced that humanity's time on earth is over, Milo frees the animal to the surface, dooming his race to extinction as Shari leaves a final video message of bewilderment and pain over the rejection of her love.