Item #: SCP-4964

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: When not in testing, SCP-4964 is to be stored in a standard object containment locker. SCP-4964 is to be watched in its entirety once per day by a level-3 researcher, and any deviation from the most currently-known plot is to be immediately reported.

Description: SCP-4964 is an anomalous DVD purporting to be a copy of the 2006 film The Shaggy Dog. The movie on the disc follows the normal plot of the film up until approximately the final 15 minutes, at which point it shows a radically different ending. These endings vary wildly but all are all abrupt, anticlimactic, and tonally-inconsistent with the rest of the movie. Interviews with those involved in the production of The Shaggy Dog confirm that these scenes were never shot or even conceived of at any point during the making of the film.

SCP-4964 does not constantly change its ending; instead, it will continue showing one version of the plot for multiple playthroughs before changing to a radically different one without warning. While the exact stimuli for these changes are unknown, it is currently hypothesized that it changes as the underlying anomaly is investigated further (see Addendum 4964-a for more detail). In addition, a number of recorded endings deal with violent seismic activity that correlates with actual real-world seismic activity at a future date. It is currently unknown whether SCP-4964 is causing these earthquakes or merely predicting them.

SCP-4964 Variation Ending Shown Notes/Actions Taken

N/A - Original Protagonist David Douglas (played by Tim Allen), having been bitten by a mystical Tibetan collie and gained the uncontrollable ability to turn into a dog, is captured by antagonist Dr. Kozak (played by Robert Downey, Jr.) in David's dog form. Kozak leaves David alone in his lab full of mutated animals to go to court, at which point David breaks out, makes his way to the court, and turns human again. David successfully prosecutes Kozak when he uses a bailiff's baton to trigger Kozak's transformation into a dog himself, and the case is resolved in his favor. This is the actual, non-anomalous ending of The Shaggy Dog, provided for reference.

05/03/2006 Instead of leaving David alone, Kozak immediately injects him with a syringe and David collapses. The movie zooms in on David's lifeless body for 10 minutes, then cuts to black and ends. The Foundation became aware of SCP-4964 after investigating reports of a “prank bootleg” copy of the film; the owner had purchased it from a street vendor and could offer no more details about its origins. SCP-4964 was logged as a potentially-anomalous item and put into storage.

09/01/2008 Kozak leaves David alone as in the original film, but shortly thereafter a man in a white lab coat and a black hood enters the frame. Remarking that David and the mutated animals are anomalies, he directs several other figures to contain them and transport them to “a secure location”. Each of these other figures is wearing a lab coat and no hood; unlike the hooded figure, all of their lab coats bear the Foundation's logo. Facial analysis reveals that each is a known Foundation researcher. This variation was discovered during a routine inventory of all anomalous items, at which point it was given official SCP designation. The researchers pictured were questioned; none could explain their presence in the film and there was no obvious correlation between them.

09/15/2008 David makes his way to the courtroom as in the original film, but midway through his speech the ground under him suddenly opens up, swallowing the courtroom whole. One of the jurors has additionally been replaced by a hooded figure in a white lab coat. Three days after this variation was first seen, a 4.7-magnitude earthquake collapsed a small courthouse in San Bernadino, CA that had served as a filming location for The Shaggy Dog. Foundation investigation revealed no obvious signs of foul play.

12/23/2008 The film proceeds up to the point where David is supposed to throw the bailiff's baton, at which point David says “Wait. This is… this isn't…” and then the scene cuts to the mystical Tibetan collie waking up from a nap. It yawns and then, in Tim Allen's voice, says “What a weird dream”, before getting up and trotting towards a hooded figure in a lab coat standing in stone archway. The camera zooms onto the archway to show a Serpent's Hand insignia carved on its side, then zooms far out to show a large mountain range; based on this shot, it was determined that the scene takes place on the peak of Kanchenjunga, a mountain in the Himalayas. As the camera stays on this shot, one of the mountains cracks in two. Following this new video, the Foundation mounted a fact-finding expedition to Kanchenjunga. Heavy seismic activity in the area made climbing hazardous and resulted in the loss of one agent. Upon reaching the peak, an abandoned base built into the side of the mountain was discovered; enough evidence was discovered there to conclusively show it was constructed and used by the Serpent's Hand, although what it was used for and why it was abandoned remains unclear.

01/10/2009 After Kozak leaves David in the lab, a hooded figure in a lab coat enters by himself. The figure sedates David, then moves him into a travel cage he has brought. It is then tracked in real-time as it drives David to a beachfront shore, takes him onto a waiting boat, and then steers the boat out to sea. After 27 hours of uninterrupted footage – during which time the figure does not eat or sleep – he stops the boat and begins to lower David into the water, at which point a large tidal wave swamps the boat and the movie ends. Careful analysis of water currents, heading, time of day, and glimpses of the night sky in some shots allowed the Foundation to pinpoint the exact location that the figure stopped at, an apparently-barren spot in the Pacific Ocean. Remotely-controlled submersibles were dispatched to map the area; however, as each drew close to the specified location, severe undersea seismic activity made the zone impassable and rendered the majority of probes totally unrecoverable.

02/22/2009 In the courtroom scene, the bailiff has been replaced by the hooded figure in the lab coat. When David attempts to take his baton, the figure easily wrests it back, then pulls off his hood and turns directly towards the camera; his uncovered face matches that of Dr. Anton Forrester, a known high-level Serpent's Hand operative. In Tim Allen's voice, Forrester says, “Stop this. Your incompetent meddling is making this all worse for everyone. We're doing the right thing, here, and if you can't see that… well, you'll see soon enough. They deserve to be free. All of them. And we'll crack the Earth to get them out, if we have to.” The movie then ends. After a protracted series of raids and counteroffensives (for full mission details and casualty reports, see Operation Log 4964-27-3), the Foundation managed to capture Dr. Forrester and interviewed him at length about the Serpent's Hands plans. He denied all knowledge of the ongoing seismic events and of The Shaggy Dog, which he claims to have never seen. Having held onto these assertions steadfastly through multiple forms of enhanced interrogation, it is currently believed that he is being truthful in this matter.