The Twilight Zone (1959) s03e17 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.
Your next stop, the twilight zone.
She's all set, mr.
Radin.
How about the sound system? You check that out? She's all ready to go.
I don't know where you got your sound effects but you'd swear a bomb was exploding.
I mean a big bomb.
That's precisely the way it's supposed to sound.
That about do it, mr.
Radin? That about does it.
You got quite a setup here.
This part of the illusion too? No, this room is not an illusion.
I venture to guess that it's the best designed bomb shelter on the face of the earth- who knows? The hydrogen bomb is not an illusion.
But tonight it's for gags, huh? Something of the sort.
A practical joke, let's say.
You can say that again.
When they start those sound effects and that stuff on the screen you'd swear the world was getting blasted.
That's the idea.
I have three guests coming this evening; rather special guests.
You did this to fool three of your friends? Must be kind of special friends.
They are; they are, indeed- very special friends.
What you have just looked at takes place 300 feet underground, beneath the basement of a new york city skyscraper.
It's owned and lived in by one paul radin.
Mr.
Radin is rich, eccentric and single-minded- how rich, we can already perceive.
How eccentric and single-minded, we shall see in a moment, because all of you have just entered the twilight zone.
Good evening, friends.
Just step across the hall to the door straight ahead of you.
Please come in, if you will.
Sit down, make yourselves comfortable.
Please sit down.
How good of you to come.
Colonel hawthorne, mr.
Hughes, mrs.
Langsford.
It's radin, isn't it? Aren't you paul radin? You have an excellent memory, reverend.
And you, colonel, do you recognize me? I believe i do.
Served under me once, didn't you, radin? I did indeed, second lieutenant, infantry regiment under your command, africa, 1942.
I recall it vaguely.
I seem to recall something else too.
It's not surprising it doesn't flood back to you.
You had a few thousand men under you.
I was only one.
But then again, you didn't court-martial all of them.
That distinction you reserved for me.
Ah, yes, i do recall.
You refused to lead an assault on a hill; refused in the face of a direct order.
The delay cost us almost a company of men.
That was your contention to the court-martial board, and so i was stripped of rank, dishonorably discharged.
You were fortunate, mr.
Radin.
Were i to have dictated the sentence i would have had you shot.
I'm sure you would have, colonel.
I'm sure you would have.
But what a wretched host i am to neglect the lady present.
Mrs.
Langsford.
Do you recall who i am? Of course, i do, paul.
I taught you in high school.
I don't forget my students.
Oh, sometimes the names and the faces get confused but if i prod my memory i usually can connect a name and a face- and, in your case, a character.
You flunked me, mrs.
Langsford; dressed me down before an entire class; called me names, humiliated me.
Well, let me say again, how good of you to come.
I'm delighted you accepted the invitation.
Invitation? The request that i come here was an ultimatum.
Your chauffeur said it was a matter of life and death.
Well, yes, yes, indeed.
That's the way it was broached to me.
I was having my dinner and my wife mary went to answer the door, and when she came back, she had such a strange expression on her face.
Ah, mr.
Hughes, you've never ceased to be a bit on the wordy side, now, have you? It's odd, really, how changeless we remain over the years.
But then again, i suppose certain lifetime habits are not easily put aside.
Paul, perhaps you'd be good enough to tell us why we've been asked to come here.
I'd be delighted to.
But first, can i get you something? A highball, perhaps or a cup of coffee? Reverend, how do you take your coffee? Habits, mrs.
Langsford- the incredible persistence of habits.
You call me paul, as if i were still sitting in the front row in your classroom.
But what about you, mrs.
Langsford? A nice cup of tea? Thank you, no.
Oh? How about you, colonel- a tot of rum, perhaps? I would appreciate if you made your point and let us leave.
You've obviously called us here for something and i would welcome hearing whatever it is.
How staunchly military, colonel.
Drive, drive, drive! Get up against that objective and wipe it out.
Red flag in the map and troops out of the sun.
The nerves of steel and a concrete head.
That will be all, radin! Colonel, you are no longer in command.
I'm in command here and what i command is your attention.
I called you three here for a very specific purpose.
I want to settle three old scores but will do it in chronology.
My dear old schoolmarm shall begin- that staunch and intrepid educator that looks so out of place without her severe spectacles covering severe eyes looking out of a severe face and possessing that vast prerogative that comes from the school board, and the vast courage that comes with pitting all her wits and instinct and knowledge against captive children.
Are you finished, paul? My dear schoolmarm, i've hardly begun.
Well, then, may i make an observation? Just a comment on how incredible this whole thing is that a man like you, a millionaire three times over, an important man who walks with kings and heads of state and industrial tycoons- that such a man should have a mind so tiny that it could brood over a high school incident of 20 years ago and let it fester inside you as you seem to have done.
I have never liked humiliation, whether it happened 20 years ago or in the past ten minutes.
Humiliation? All right, paul, let's talk about humiliation.
Let's talk about your humiliation.
Mr.
Radin was caught cheating in an examination.
Not a crime, of course, but perhaps a bit indicative of the character of the person who does it.
And when he was accused of this act, this cocoon- soon to become tycoon- tried to plant his crib sheets on an innocent student.
How right you are, mr.
Radin, that i stood you up on your feet and in front of the entire class i told you exactly what you were.
But no room was there then, mrs.
Langsford, for a moment of compassion, for an iota of sympathy for a poor, frightened, desperate boy.
Mr.
Radin, i've dealt with frightened and desperate children all my life.
And it may surprise you to know that i've lent them more of sympathy and of compassion than i have lent them of knowledge.
But neither sympathy nor compassion can be handed out wholesale, like cheap bubble gum.
The recipient must be worthy of them and you never were.
You were a devious, dishonest troublemaker.
And in spite of all your millions, it's my guess you are still devious, you are still dishonest.
And i've no doubt, even now, you're a troublemaker.
You haven't changed, mrs.
Langsford.
Mr.
Radin, obviously many years have passed between now and the time you felt you'd suffered indignities at our hands, but what's to be gained by a great deal can be gained, reverend.
A very great deal.
You, for example, accused me of a lack of character, put a scandal over my head, destroyed my reputation.
Yes, i remember.
A girl, mr.
Radin, a girl you drove to suicide.
Because even at that early stage you were not a man who held honor in very high regard.
You can go to the devil, reverend! Radin! And you, too, colonel.
Tonight, my friends, you will all go to the devil, and that is not a figure of speech! Do you know why i built this room down here? Those walls are 18 inches concrete with reinforced steel.
And around them, six inches of lead.
I have my own generator system, my own air system.
Yes, and out there, beyond that door, a storeroom the size of a warehouse.
You understand logistics, colonel.
Does it occur toyouwhy i should have gone to all this trouble and expense? To begin a vigil, my friends.
The long wait and the countdown.
Yes.
I have walked with kings and tycoons, as you perceive, mrs.
Langsford.
I have walked with them, and i have listened to them.
I keep abreast of the times, and usually well ahead of them.
I know things that are going to happen.
I pay for the service.
i received a most interesting bit of news, something that perhaps only six men in the world know of the world is coming to an end this evening, ladies and gentlemen.
At 11:45, there will be no more city, no more country.
At 30 minutes after midnight, there will be no more world.
They are going to bomb us, and we are going to bomb them.
By dawn, there will be nothing left but rubble and bodies.
And in a few moments it will all begin.
You'll be hearing sirens very shortly- that's the red alert.
That means their missiles are on their way.
Ours will follow soon after.
And you are to survive, mr.
Radin? Is that the idea? I am to survive, mr.
Hughes.
I am 300 feet underground.
And what about you, reverend? Do you wish to survive? Do the rest of you wish to survive? Or am i to be the only pallbearer? This is your civil defense announcer.
Repeating, the air defense command has just declared a take-cover signal.
This is not a practice warning, not a drill.
An attack by enemy forces is expected at any moment.
You must seek the nearest shelter immediately.
If you are in your home, go to your prepared shelter or to the basement.
If you have no shelter or basement, go toward the center of the house, to the first room or hall that will put as many walls as possible between you and the outside of the house.
Take your radio with you.
If you are in any other type of building, go to the basement or lowest floor and get as close to the center of the building as possible.
leave your shelter until told it is safe to do so.
This is not a test.
This is a real take-cover comments? Perhaps a little military sophistry now, colonel.
A quote from general grant.
Or you, reverend, something enriching from the gospel.
Such silence, mrs.
Langsford? Nothing in that vast repertoire, that pilgrim's progress mind of yours, to handle the situation? A mental eraser to wipe out reality? I've got to get to my wife.
By all means, reverend, get to your wife.
Hold hands and die together.
You turn my stomach, mr.
Hughes.
"Get to your wife.
" That's not what's on your mind.
What's on your mind is what's on the colonel's mind and the schoolmarm's mind.
Your precious hide, your sanctified flesh.
That's what preoccupies you at the moment.
If i'm to die tonight i want to be with someone i love.
"Somebody i love" how theatrical! But more burlesque than legitimate.
Have the decency, reverend, to depart this earth with just a fragment of the truth in your mouth.
Tell me to my face that you're so scared, so miserably frightened, that you'd sell your wife by the pound if it meant your own survival.
If those were the last words i spoke before i died, they would also be the worst falsehood i ever uttered on earth.
Now, will you open this door? Will you let me leave now? How did you know, radin? How could you possibly have known? What difference does it make? If he'll let us leave now perhaps we can reach our homes before it happens.
My dear friends, shall we drop the pretenses now? Shall we, all of us now, tell the truth? I told you how this room was constructed- steel, concrete and lead.
It may be the only place on earth where you can survive.
Now, what is this nonsense about going back to your homes? Do you mean to say that you would walk out of here and die when by simply sitting here you could live? Are we to understand, mr.
Radin, that you will permit us this luxury? You will allow us to stay? Of course, colonel.
As a matter of fact, it's precisely why i've asked you to come.
Each of you in his own way has tried to destroy me.
But i'll not repay the compliment.
That is to say, i will not require an eye for an eye, nothing as primitive or as naked as that.
What is your price, mr.
Radin? I'd be interested.
The colonel would be interested.
I presume the reverend and the schoolmarm would be interested.
I submit, dear friends, you're not just interested.
It's probably the only thing in god's earth that has any meaning left at all.
But the price, colonel you will beg my pardon, you will ask my forgiveness, and, if need be, will get down on your hands and knees to perform the function.
"Pretty please with sugar on it.
" How's that? Speak up, teacher.
"Pretty please with sugar on it.
" It's what children say to exact a favor.
I don't want your favor, mr.
Radin! Let me out of here! If i'm to spend my last quarter hour on earth i'd rather spend it with a stray cat or alone in central park or in a city full of strangers whose names i'll never know.
The door, radin.
Will you open the door now? Open up, radin.
You're too blind or you're too stupid, because none of you seem to understand.
All you have to do- literally, all you have to do- is to say a sentence.
Just a string of silly, stupid words.
Like a command, colonel, or like a lesson, teacher, or like a prayer, reverend.
All you have to say is you're sorry.
All right, you want to die, fine.
But you'll be back inside five minutes.
There's the elevator! Take it! Take the farce to its conclusion.
Go up into the street and see the panic and the frenzy and the horror.
And then come back down here to your salvation.
Or you can watch it all down here on that screen.
You can see it all happen, the whole thing.
Watch the world being shoveled into a grave.
It's your last chance.
It's your last chance, i mean it.
Tell me, reverend, is life so stinking cheap that you can throw it down a drain? Life is very dear, mr.
Radin, infinitely valuable.
But there are other things that come even higher.
Honor is one of them- perhaps the most expensive of them all.
Amen.
Try not to get too lonely, mr.
Radin.
Use mirrors.
They may help.
Put them all around the room.
Then you'll have the company of a world full of radins.
It'll be a fantasy, of course, but then your whole life has been a fantasy, a parade of illusions- illusions about what people have done to you, illusions about what justice is, illusions about what is the dignity of even the lowest of us.
A fantasy, mr.
Radin, and now you can have it all to yourself.
No, it's not true, it's not a fantasy.
No, it's not a fantasy! This is your civil defense announcer.
Our military authorities have just ordered a take-cover alert.
Attack by enemy forces is imminent.
Take cover immediately.
If you are in your car driving away from your city, continue.
Keep on driving.
Do not stop.
When movement is no longer possible, seek the best available refuge.
That's enough! If you are outdoors on foot, hurry to the nearest shelter that's quite enough! Anybody? Anybody.
Please somebody hey, mac, mac.
Had a little bit too much? Hey, mac.
I didn't want it this way.
Let me take you home, mac.
I didn't want it this way.
No, somebody, please.
Mac? Anybody, won't somebody listen to me? Go on now, move along.
Move along, please.
There isn't a thing here to worry about.
Move along, please! Please, move along, please, please.
It's okay now.
You're gonna be all right.
We're going to help you.
Isn't there anybody left? Nobody? You're gonna be all right.
Nobody! Now, go on, break it up.
There isn't a thing here to see.
Go on, go on.
Nobody.
Nobody oh, god god mr.
Paul radin, a dealer in fantasy who sits in the rubble of his own making and imagines that he's the last man on earth, doomed to a perdition of unutterable loneliness because a practical joke has turned into a nightmare.
Mr.
Paul radin, pallbearer at a funeral that he manufactured himself in the twilight zone.
Rod serling, creator ofthe twilight zone, will tell you about next week's story after this message.
And now, mr.
Serling.
Next week, through the good offices of mr.
Charles beaumont, we take a walk in some dead man's shoes.
It's the story of a hobo who takes some shoes off a recently-deceased hoodlum, and then discovers that if the shoe fits, you have to wear it.
And in this case, you have to do as the shoes do- go where they tell you to and then perform some services above and beyond the norm.
I hope we see you next week for "dead man's shoes.
" Seat belts can reduce serious injury by one-third.
Does your family have the security of seat belts?