With great regret, | am forced to abandon primary 
containment efforts on SCP-1755, effective immediately. 
Revised containment protocols have been devised, and 
will be implemented as soon as is practicable. As many 
of you may be aware, we badly misjudged the nature 
and threat of SCP-1755. What we thought was a worm 
that infested cotton clothes has also proven itself a 
serious, perhaps existential threat to the global cotton 
crop. 


It is unlikely that the Foundation is at fault in this affair. 
SCP-1755 had probably spread beyond the limits of 
containment before any events occurred to attract our 
attention. Considering how rapidly SCP-1755 


proliferates, and how difficult it is to detect, no action 
could have prevented its rise to a global cotton plant 
epidemic. Nevertheless, an internal audit of Site 40 will 
be carried out to verify that this is not the result of 
Foundation mismanagement. 


Security has failed. Containment has failed, and was 
likely never established in the first place. This leaves 
protection. The greatest threat to normalcy posed by 
SCP-1755 lies not in its anomalous nature, but in the 
threat it poses to the global textiles industry. To protect 
the cotton crop, the Foundation will provide research 
support to major organizations, civilian and 
governmental, working to develop a way to rein in 
SCP-1755. 


This is not the first time a breach of this magnitude has 
occurred, and it will not be the last. We are fortunate in 
that SCP-1755 is not anomalous in what it does, but 
rather in that it exists at all. A simple cover story should 
therefore suffice to prevent public knowledge of the 
supernatural. 


In time, no doubt SCP-1755 will be brought to heel, and 
this incident will fade into the past. We must study what 
went wrong, so that we may be more prepared should 

the next total breach occur with something more clearly 
paranormal. We will learn, we will prepare, we will hold. 


—O5-2 


Addendum 1755-102: On 5/17/15, two graduate students at the 
University of Sheffield turned themselves in to British authorities, 
claiming to have information about the SCP-1755 outbreak. The 
students, David Lister and George Freeman, were then remanded to 
Foundation custody on request. 


Addendum 1755-110: Excerpt from an interview with David Lister 
regarding the creation and purpose of SCP-1755. 


Dr. Chao: So you say you had no idea the worms would 


jump to affect cotton plants? 

David Lister: That's right. Not saying we shouldn’t have 
seen this coming, but no, this sort of outbreak was not 
what we had in mind. 

Dr. Chao: What did you have in mind, then? You 
fabricated these things, then spread them on your 
campus. What was the idea? 

David Lister: Ah, it’s mildly embarrassing, actually. We 
did it as a prank. 

Dr. Chao: You mean the way affected clothing rots after 
a few weeks? 

David Lister: No, actually. That was another unintended 
side-effect. Have you all noticed the sound thing? The 
thing where the worms break their coherence if exposed 
to, uh, 450 kilohertz? 

Dr. Chao: | think so, yes. 

David Lister: Yeah. So the idea was to spread it around 
campus, build a device that produced the frequency, 
then if a pretty girl walked past, turn it on. 

Dr. Chao: What? 

David Lister: You know, a nudifier. 


« SCP-1754 | SCP-1755 | SCP-1756 » 


SCP-1756: At the Movies 


Item #: SCP-1756 
Object Class: Safe 


Special Containment Procedures: SCP-1756 is to be kept in a 
locked safe in the Audiovisual Wing of Site 73. A television, 
compatible remote control, and compatible cables and power 
adapter are to be provided in Room 346 for testing by researchers 
Level 2 and higher. All playbacks produced by SCP-1756 are to be 
filmed and archived for future analysis. A complete video archive of 
Siskel and Ebert At the Movies, and its predecessor programs, is to 
be maintained on site for comparison of SCP-1756 recordings to 
existing episodes. Testing involving SCP objects in optical disc 
format or any other Foundation-produced recordings shall require 
approval from the site director. 


Description: SCP-1756 is a Panasonic RV31K Region 1 DVD 
player manufactured in 1999, serial number [REDACTED]. 
SCP-1756 is externally identical to all other DVD players of its model 
and production date. Internal examination indicates that SCP-1756 
has undergone aftermarket modification to allow it to play non- 
Region 1 DVDs; attempts to replicate SCP-1756's anomalous 
properties by similarly modifying standard DVD players of the same 
type have been unsuccessful. SCP-1756 is capable of accepting 
and producing its primary effect with all 12 cm optical discs 
regardless of format or region coding, including DVD, HD-DVD, Blu- 
Ray, CD-ROM and DVD-ROM, music CDs, and proprietary optical 
disc formats used in video game consoles. 


SCP-1756's anomalous properties manifest when it is powered on 
and connected to a television, and an optical disc is inserted into the 
disc tray and played. Instead of playing the video or audio content 
encoded on the disc, the television will display a recording, from 
6-11 minutes in length, appearing to be a segment from the 
American television program Siskel and Ebert At the Movies. In all 


documented cases the recording resembles the format of the 
original television show, in which Chicago-based film critics Gene 
Siskel and Roger Ebert discuss and debate movies currently in 
theatrical release and offer their individual opinions about whether 
the film is worth seeing with a "thumbs-up" or "thumbs-down" 
gesture. Examination of the recordings indicates that the set seen 
therein is identical to the set used by the television series during the 
1992-1996 seasons, and that Siskel and Ebert appear to be 
approximately the same age as they were during the same time 
period. 


When the disc inserted is a motion picture that was reviewed on the 
original series, the content of the review will be identical to the 
original review featured on the program. When the content of the 
disc is a movie not featured or released after Siskel and Ebert's 
deaths in 1999 and 2013, respectively, is a visual recording other 
than a theatrically-released motion picture (e.g. television shows, 
news broadcasts, amateur films or home movies, video games, 
etc.), or is not a visual recording at all, an original recording will be 
produced in which Siskel and Ebert review the material as if it were 
a theatrically-released motion picture. In these reviews, the critics 
will speak in a manner similar to the tone affected by the critics on 
the original series, with Siskel often critiquing individual aspects of 
the content (such as animation, acting, sound quality, etc.) and 
Ebert analyzing the content from a more emotional, collective 
perspective. 


+ Show SCP-1756 Experiment Log 


Experiment 1756-1 

Date: / /20 

Content of Disc: The Crying Game (1992) 

Summary of Recording: Identical in content to original 
series review. 


Experiment 1756-3 

Date: / /20 

Content of Disc: Blade Runner (1982) (Director's Cut 
version, 1992) 

Summary of Recording: Similar in content to the 
original series review, except that neither Siskel nor 


Ebert make any mention of the narration by Harrison 
Ford, which was featured in the original theatrical release 
and omitted from the Director's Cut. 


Experiment 1756-7 

Date: / /20 

Content of Disc: Brokeback Mountain (2005) 

Summary of Recording: The film receives praise from 
both critics, with Ebert's comments largely resembling his 
published 2005 review of the film and Siskel making note 
of director Ang Lee's cinematography and declaring that 
star Heath Ledger has "a long and promising career 
ahead of him". Both critics give the film a thumbs-up. 


Experiment 1756-17 

Date: / /20 

Content of Disc: A 1999 episode of At the Movies in 
which Ebert paid tribute to Gene Siskel following his 
death that year, including footage from Siskel's memorial 
service. 

Summary of Recording: While expressing confusion at 
why the program received a theatrical release, both 
critics respond favorably, with Siskel describing it as "a 
somber and bittersweet reminder of one's own mortality" 
and Ebert humbly praising his own work as executive 
producer. Both critics agree that the body of Siskel, as 
seen lying in repose during the memorial service, "plays 
the part better than Lorry Goldman."2 Both critics give 
the film a thumbs-up. 


Experiment 1756-21 

Date: / /20 

Content of Disc: Mass Effect (video game, 2007) 
Summary of Recording: The game receives a mixed 
review, as the critics spend much of the segment arguing 
about various points and questioning whether they 
watched the same movie. Siskel states that the 
protagonist, Commander Shepard (who he identifies as 
being played by Mark Meer), gives a wooden delivery of 
his lines and behaves more like a Boy Scout or comic 


book superhero than a starship captain, while Ebert 
describes Shepard, played by Jennifer Hale, as "a take- 
no-prisoners feminist action hero in the tradition of 
Sigourney Weaver", and cites her taboo romance with a 
feminine alien from a monogendered species as a bold 
move for a mainstream sci-fi flick. The critics agree that 
supporting actor Raphael Sbarge (who Ebert identifies 
as having co-starred with Hale in "one of the dozens of 
Star Wars prequels to hit the big screen in recent years") 
plays fundamentally the same character as in his 
previous role, but describe his sacrifice near the end of 
Act 2 as one of the film's better moments. Siskel notes 
that the film is planned to be the first installment of a 
trilogy and expresses hope that Meer will grow into the 
role. Siskel gives a thumbs-down, Ebert gives a thumbs- 


up. 


Experiment 1756-28 

Date: / /20 

Content of Disc: Twelve hours of live ABC News 
coverage of the September 11th, 2001 attacks on the 
World Trade Center and Pentagon, beginning with the 
initial interruption of scheduled programming and ending 
with President George W. Bush's "War on Terror" 
nationwide address 

Summary of Recording: Both critics praise the 
verisimilitude of the film's special effects, describing it as 
one of the best faux-documentaries since Orson Welles’ 
War of the Worlds (1938) and marveling at the number of 
on-air news personnel playing themselves, with Siskel 
finding the choice to cast Texas governor George W. 
Bush as the president both interesting and unusual. 
Ebert praises Osama bin Laden, who he describes as 
the director of the film, for his "bold critique of America's 
national defenses and satirical outlook at foreign 
Opinions of our country", though he questions his 
decision to insert himself into the film as a prime suspect 
in organizing the attacks. Both critics give a thumbs-up. 


Experiment 1756-36 


Date: / /20 

Content of Disc: Frampton Comes Alive!, Disc One 
(Music aloum, 1976 (CD Deluxe edition, 2001)) 
Summary of Recording: Ebert describes the aloum as 
one of his favorites of all time and states that he greatly 
enjoyed the opportunity to listen to it in digital THX audio, 
though he is disappointed by the fact that the 
presentation ends halfway through the aloum and hopes 
a theatrical release of the second half is pending. Siskel, 
in contrast, is disappointed by the lack of any concert 
footage or other visual accompaniment to the music, and 
states that he could listen to music in the dark at home if 
he desired to rather than spending money to do so at the 
theater. Siskel gives a thumbs-down, Ebert gives a 
thumbs-up. 


Experiment 1756-38 

Date: / /20 

Content of Disc: Classics of Literature, a 1997 Windows 
CD-ROM containing the text of 130 public domain novels 
Summary of Recording: Both critics praise the ability to 
hear some of the greatest novels of all time narrated by 
their original authors, with Siskel describing author John 
Milton's narration of Paradise Lost as particularly moving 
and Ebert finding Victor Hugo's recitation of Les 
Miserables excellent but questioning his choice to read it 
in English rather than his native French. Both critics 
question the running time of the film at approximately 
1600 hours; while Ebert calls it a great value for the 
admission price, he claims that he spent several 
thousand dollars on concessions during the screening 
and apologizes to the audience for the 12-week hiatus 
that At the Movies took while he and Siskel were 
attending the screening. Both critics give a thumbs- 
down, agreeing that, if broken into smaller installments, 
the film would be more enjoyable. 


Experiment 1756-41 
Date: / /20 
Content of Disc: A recording of Murder on the Orient 


Express (1974) as affected by SCP-1989 

Summary of Recording: Ebert introduces the segment 
as part of a recurring series on the works of 
[REDACTED], which he describes as "an artistic 
collective that's been taking the film world by storm". 
Ebert praises the cinematic device of showing the altered 
film on a TV screen being filmed by another camera, and 
the digital manipulation of the original film footage to 
present the onscreen actors responding to the inversion 
of their world. Siskel praises the technical execution of 
the movie but finds it unoriginal and derivative of the 
group's earlier work, and compares it unfavorably to 
previous films by the group such as Man Being Eaten By 
No Shark, Sad Man (which he describes as being a 7- 
hour-long continuous shot of an atomic bomb sitting on a 
pedestal), and Cheese. Siskel gives a thumbs-down, 
Ebert gives a thumbs-up. 


Footnotes 

1. A syndicated weekly television program aired in the US from 1986 
to 1999, as acontinuation of previous programs featuring Siskel and 
Ebert beginning in 1975 

2. Actor who appeared inGodzilla(1998) playing "Gene", a character 
intended by director Roland Emmerich as a parody of Siskel in 
retribution for his negative review oflndependence Day(1996) 


« SCP-1755 | SCP-1756 | SCP-1757 » 


SCP-1757: Recorded Curio 


Item #: SCP-1757 
Object Class: Safe 


Special Containment Procedures: SCP-1757 is to be kept ina 
locked storage container within the Site-17 audio/visual department, 
with keypad combination in possession of Research Director. Under 
no circumstances are researchers to be allowed to view SCP-1757; 
if it must be played for any reason, class D personnel (preferably 
those with some level of mental retardation) are to be employed. 


Description: SCP-1757 is a Sony VHS tape of average make, 
containing 96 minutes and 12 seconds of footage. The tape shows 
average wear for an item of its age (circa 15 years)', and contains a 
label onto which the words "Just Curious" have been written with a 
blue felt pen. Note that the anomalous properties of the specimen 
are restricted to the tape itself. Copies of the tape show nothing but 
static. 


When viewed on any device capable of playing the tape, SCP-1757 
contains footage of a man, filmed against a white wall and looking 
directly at the camera. As long as the viewer finds no interest in the 
tape or the film whatsover, no anomalous properties manifest and 
the whole of the film consists of this imagery. The likelihood of 
anomalities is further decreased if multiple people are viewing it 
simultaneously, unless all share a strong feeling of curiosity towards 
the film. The man is an average build with light brown hair and no 
other notable characteristics aside from heavy black eyeliner on his 
eyes. There is no audio on the film except for a soft background 
hum. 


If the viewer takes interest or intensely ponders SCP-1757, its origin, 
its contents, or the person appearing in its contents while viewing 
the film, it begins deviating from the norm. The person on the 
footage (hereafter referred to as SCP-1757-A) appears to take an