Philip K. Dick's The Variable Man

Tom Cole, a handyman from 1914, is swept up in a time bubble to 2128. . . Escaping to the farms and woodlands, he sets out fixing things in ways human no longer can. This “variable factor” flummoxes the political empire. Earth has stalemated for decades to escape the “Iron Cloud” of the Centaur Empire, with worldwide resources dedicated to war. SECURITY tries to expunge Cole as an anomaly. RESEARCH snatches him away: his long-lost intuition to “fix things” may aid the war effort. Tom escapes again and takes refuge with Russian Laplanders, but they’re massacred and he’s dragged back. Imprisoned, hidden from SECURITY, Cole is forced to fix Icarus, “the last bomb Earth will ever need”. Icarus explodes upon arrival every time, and Earth hopes to obliterate the Centaur’s home planet. But Tom Cole’s final fix is something his captors could not foresee - and the salvation of the human race! Purview Philip K. Dick’s novella “The Variable Man” originally appeared in SPACE SCIENCE FICTION magazine in September 1953, which was never copyrighted. The Gutenberg Project and my entertainment lawyer, Valerie Ann Nemeth, confirm it is Public Domain. It has never been filmed. Successful PKD film adaptations include BLADE RUNNER, SCREAMERS, TOTAL RECALL (twice), MINORITY REPORT (movie and TV show), A SCANNER DARKLY, THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU, and Amazon’s #1 TV show THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE. Clayton Emery owns the script entire.