The Twilight Zone (1959) s02e26 Episode Script

You're traveling through another dimension a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination.
That's the signpost up ahead.
Your next stop, the twilight zone.
Here they come.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, have you reached a verdict? We have, your honor.
And what is the verdict? Your honor, we find the defendant, adam grant, guilty of murder in the first degree.
The defendant will rise.
The defendant will rise! Adam.
Adam grant, you have been tried by a jury of your peers, and found guilty.
Do you have anything you wish to say before sentence is passed? Very well.
It is the sentence of this court that for the brutal and despicable crime of murder in the first degree you shall be put to death by means of electrocution.
No! Not again! I won't die again! You can't make me die again! Oh, god, please, please, please tell them, mr.
District attorney, that this isn't real.
Make 'em understand they're only a dream i'm having! You fools! You kill me, you'll die! You believe me, make him believe me! Tell the district attorney he's prosecuted himself and everybody in this building and everybody in the world! Tell him, mr.
Carson, before it's too late! Tell him! Tell him! Adam grant, a nondescript kind of man found guilty of murder and sentenced to the electric chair.
Like every other criminal caught in the wheels of justice, he's scared right down to the marrow of his bones.
But it isn't prison that scares him- the long silent nights of waiting, the slow walk to the little room or even death itself.
It's something else that holds adam grant in the hot, sweaty grip of fear.
Something worse than any punishment this world has to offer.
Something found only in the twilight zone.
Coley! Lay off of that thing, will ya? I'm sorry, grant.
I didn't know i was bothering anybody.
It's all right, coley.
It's my fault.
I i got you out of a bad movie i saw once, just like everything else in this corny dream.
Grant! Let me give you some advice.
Don't think about it.
You think about it, you'll crack up like phillips there.
Listen to him.
Mother, i'm sorry.
Don't let them hurt me, mother.
Don't let them hurt me.
Phillips! Shut your face! A month ago, he was a human being.
Now what is he? An animal, a thing.
Why? Because he couldn't stop thinking about it.
I know it.
It's it's just different with me.
You mean you want to die? No.
Well, it ain't different with you.
So don't kid yourself.
Sometimes i wonder, too, what it's going to be like.
I'll tell you what it's like.
You walk out of your cell, pass two gray doors, It's painted green.
There's a guard that opens the door for you, and you go into a room.
It's tan.
It's all tan.
There's nothing in it except one chair.
It's like a chair you used to sit in when you were a kid.
It's hard and solid.
Ah, cut it out, cut it out.
They strap your arms and legs.
Then they attach the electrodes.
It's funny.
They always feel cold to the touch at first.
Aw, grant, you talk like you been through it already.
Then they drop the mask.
It's musty.
It smells like an old sofa.
And then you wait every muscle tense, straining.
Any second, any second then you can almost hear it.
They pull the switch.
Madame.
I am a poor lost traveler seeking food and lodging for the night.
You're loaded.
Hank, i've just been insulted by your wife.
She's says i'm loaded.
Well, aren't you? That has nothing to do with it.
Hey, hey, take it easy.
That's my best gin.
Dear friends, when i die i don't want to see any full bottles around.
That's not funny.
It wasn't meant to be.
It was meant to be a comment on the short, unhappy life of paul carson.
Come drink and be merry, for tomorrow oh, shut up, paul.
Sorry.
Well, only a few more hours.
I knew it.
I knew it the minute you walked in.
We're not nervous enough.
Oh, no, we have to listen to the great city editor with his news behind the news.
If i'm not welcome here, then i shall go elsewhere and breathe my last oh, never mind.
I've had enough of this wake anyway.
Good night, dear.
What about dinner? Lost my appetite.
Oh, the steak can come out in five minutes.
Hank.
Now, don't start it.
I've got to start it.
I'm not upset or disturbed or nervous anymore.
I'm scared.
That's ridiculous.
I know it is, i know it is, but that doesn't help.
Do you mean to say you believe that crazy story? God, help me, hank, but i do.
At least, i believe it's possible.
Well, why not? Can we prove he's wrong? Maybe not, but that's a poor reason for believing in anything.
I can't prove that the world isn't going to end.
But it isn't.
This guy killed a man in cold blood, and he's going to pay for it.
Those are the facts.
Anything else is speculation, fantasy.
Are you sure? Yes, i'm sure.
Then what are you so steamed up about? I i'll tell you why.
Because a little part of you believes, too.
Just a little, tiny part of henry ritchie says "maybe this grant is right.
Maybe this is all a dream.
" The thought has occurred to you, hasn't it? Hank, haven't you ever stopped and said, "this couldn't be real.
"I couldn't be the district attorney.
"I couldn't have a lovely wife like carol "and a lovely home, money in the bank, not in any real world.
" Haven't you, hank? Well, of course.
Everyone has.
If you're a success, you're bound to think it's a dream.
If not, you think it's a nightmare.
This only proves that grant is human.
He can't believe what's happening to him so he tries to convince himself that it isn't, not really.
Yeah, that's what i thought too at first.
But hank, i been talking to this kid a lot lately, and he makes sense.
Go down and see for yourself.
Don't take my word for it.
It wouldn't do any good.
You only listened to him once.
That was enough.
Hank, for my sake, please, go and see him.
Let him tell you.
Please, hank.
It's pointless but thanks.
Jiggs.
Jiggs! Yeah? What time is it? Why, you got a date somewhere? No, i'm just expecting someone.
The governor, right? With a nice fat pardon in his fist.
No, it's the district attorney.
He usually comes around about 9:00.
Oh, you don't say? The d.
a.
Himself, huh? Yeah, yeah, the d.
a.
Himself.
You got a great sense of humor, pal.
Wait a minute.
There's something else that doesn't work- the watch.
Yeah, how is that? Prisoners about to be executed aren't allowed to wear watches because of the glass.
You see, he's right on time, huh, jiggs? Ten minutes, mr.
Ritchie.
All right.
You can leave us alone.
Hello, grant.
Hello, mr.
Ritchie.
You don't seem surprised to see me.
I'm not- you always come.
I mean, the district attorney always comes.
It isn't always you.
Grant.
Yes? I take it you're sticking to this dream story of yours.
That's right.
It can't possibly do you any good now.
You realize i should, after all this time every night, i explain.
Every night, it's the same.
All right, explain again.
Well, it's very simple.
When i die, you die, and everybody in this world dies because this world does not exist.
It's a dream of mine.
It's a nightmare.
Can't you understand that? No, grant, i can't understand that.
Not because it's a new idea.
I can't understand it or accept it because it doesn't make any kind of logical sense.
But it does.
It's the only thing that does make logical sense.
Take you, for instance.
You think you'd be visiting a man that was just about to be executed in real life? Of course not.
They wouldn't allow you in here.
Or you take me.
You don't know any more about me than you did when this thing started- i'm a stranger.
There are a hundred vagrants in every town without names, without histories.
Stop that! We know you're mentally sound.
And i don't think you're deliberately lying to me.
I'm going to destroy that story of yours, grant, now once and for all.
You say that all this is a dream, and that when you're electrocuted you wake up, and when you wake up, we all disappear, right? That's right.
What about our parents and our parents' parents and everybody who never even heard of you? What about them, mr.
Ritchie? A dream builds its own world, mr.
Ritchie.
It's complete.
With a past, and, as long as you stay asleep, a future.
What about us then when we sleep and dream? Or is that when you're up and around? You only sleep and dream because i dream you that way.
All right, now answer me this.
You're scared now- why? Why are you scared? You've got to wake up sometime even if you're electrocuted.
So why don't you just sit back and enjoy it? Enjoy it.
Let me tell you something.
Mr.
Ritchie, how soundly do you sleep? What's that got? You dream, don't you? Certainly, sometimes.
Haven't you ever been hurt in one of those dreams? Fallen out of a window or been drowned or tortured? You have! Don't you remember how real it had seemed? Remember how you woke up screaming? Well, let me ask you something, mr.
Ritchie.
How do you like to wake up screaming every night? That's what i do.
Because i dream the same dream night after night after night! It's this one! It changes a little bit.
The people get twisted around, but it's the same dream.
You've got to believe me! I can't go on dying! I can't go on dying! I can't, i can't i'm telling the truth, mr.
Ritchie! Please, let me live and i'll keep you alive.
I'll dream you every night just like this.
Wait a minute! I'll prove it to you.
You wife, she has a steak cooking for you.
Go home, look in the oven.
It'll be something else.
Please! Well? What's wrong, hank? That's a roast.
What about it? Hank, what about it? Grant.
Huh? Did i wake you up? No.
What's funny? Nothing's funny.
Well, you was laughing.
I heard ya.
Hey, grant, listen, i been thinking about what you said, about this all being a dream and all.
Well, now, maybe it won't work, but if you told that story to the governor, he might let you out on a psycho.
He wouldn't believe me.
You don't believe me, do you, jiggs? Oh, that's got nothing to do with it.
If you think it's true, see, why, then you got a loose cog somewhere, and they don't burn guys with loose cogs.
What if i proved it to you? How? Well, jiggs, don't you think that all of this is just just a little bit too much the way it should be? I don't get you.
Well, i mean it's so pat.
I got tried and sentenced the same day.
It doesn't work like that.
But you see that's the way that i saw it in my mind and so that's the way it is.
Or you take this place here- you and coley and his harmonica, or phillips and his mother.
It's like a movie.
Real death houses aren't like that.
But you see, i've never been in a real death house so that's that's my impression of it.
Man, you've really flipped.
I don't know what you're talking about.
Well, the brothers grimm, as i live what are you doing up? I'm not up.
I'm down, just like you and your funny friend here.
Have they? That's another thing.
Why does this always happen around midnight? Because that's when it happens.
Yeah, but why? You tell me why.
According to grant, he doesn't know anything about these matters except what he sees in the movies.
In the movies, it always happens at midnight.
Because movies are technically accurate.
That's strange, too, come to think of it.
Then don't come to think of it.
Hey, screws, you're wasting your time.
You can't kill him.
You want to know why? I'll tell you why.
Because you're nothing but dreams.
Dreams! You hear that, screws? Is there anything you wish to say in these few moments remaining to you, my son? No.
Then let us pray.
There's no need.
There's always a need for prayer, my son.
Only in the real world, father, not in a nightmare.
You feel detached from reality? I not only feel it- i am detached.
I wonder where i've seen you, where your face came from.
It's familiar.
Almost every time it just about comes to me.
We've never met.
Oh, yes yes, we have.
Father beamon.
Of course, father beamon from over at spring hill.
No wonder i didn't recognize you.
You died when i was ten years old.
Oh, everybody came to your funeral.
My name is beamon but yes, and then a young priest came and took your place that was carson.
You know, i'm using him for the editor.
Be still, my son.
But what about ritchie, the district attorney? He must have been a schoolteacher of mine.
Maybe he was a friend of dad's.
Hey, grant, they can't do this to you.
You're home in bed, asleep.
Remember? Grant! Grant! It's time to wake up, boy.
Wake up! Wake up! You could at least get a stay of execution.
I know you can do that.
What good would it do? We'd simply have to go through the whole thing all over again.
Maybe not, look, hank.
Forget all about that dream stuff.
Whether that's true or not, it doesn't matter.
What matters is the kid believes it.
That means he's got a case.
The psychiatrist the psychiatrist made a mistake.
It wouldn't be the first time.
Get a week's stay.
We'll throw in another team.
No.
Why not? Because we might be wrong? Well, maybe we are, but maybe we're not, and in my book, that's reasonable doubt.
Hank, that kid is sick in the head.
Are you going to send a mental incompetent to the chair? I regret this, paul.
I'll regret this as long as i live.
Hello.
This is henry ritchie.
I want to speak to the governor.
Right away.
Well, i don't care.
This is an emergency.
Wake him up.
Hurry.
Having trouble putting this through.
He's yes, this is henry ritchie.
Governor, i don't have time to explain, but i want you to grant a stay of execution in the case of adam grant.
He's calling now.
Here they come.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, have you reached a verdict? We have, your honor.
And what is the verdict? Your honor, we find the defendant, adam grant, guilty of murder in the first degree.
The defendant will rise.
Adam.
We know that a dream can be real.
But who ever thought that reality could be a dream? We exist, of course, but how, in what way? As we believe, as flesh and blood human beings, or are we simply parts of someone's feverish, complicated nightmare? Think about it, and then ask yourself do you live here, in this country, in this world, or do you live instead in the twilight zone? Rod serling, creator ofthe twilight zone, will tell you about next week's story after this word from our alternate sponsor.
And now, mr.
Serling.
Next week, the very considerable talents of mr.
Shelley berman are utilized to bring you another in our weekly excursions into the never-never land of the wild, the woolly and the wondrous.
He plays the part of a little man who yearns for the serenity of a world without people, and as it happens, he gets his wish- to walk an uninhabited earth and face the consequences.
Our story is called "the mind and the matter.
" I hope we see you then.
Now this isn't just a word from the sponsor, it's simply a very good suggestion.
It stands for real refreshment.
Before we meet again, try oasis for the softest taste of all.
Be sure and watchgunsmoke, starring james arness, saturday nights over most of these same stations.