He kicks off, rolls out the loading dock, and into the Burbank night—where the pavement is rough, the stakes are real, and there’s no restart button.

The final leg: . The EMB pier. He has 850,000 points. He needs 150,000 more. The pier is crowded with digital skaters who don’t move. He weaves through them, landing a Kickflip Underflip (THPS4 special trick) into a Noseblunt Slide on the famous blue ledge. 920,000. He reverts to manual, ollies over a homeless man’s shopping cart, and lands a Perfect 360 Christ Air. 980,000.

“Okay,” he mutters. “That’s not nothing.”

The screen explodes into static. The Ghost of Tony Hawk appears one last time, but it’s not a ghost anymore. It’s a full-color, high-definition Tony, circa 2002, wearing a khaki jacket and a wry smile.