The Twilight Zone (1959) s01e36 Episode Script
A World of His Own
What I'm about to divulge to you can't leave this room.
We have lost contact with Gemini.
Gemini.
The new energy program.
I didn't know it was so far along.
That's right.
Clean.
Efficient.
A single device could power the Eastern seaboard for the next 2,000 years.
We've got a research team holed up at an old Alaskan listening post working in secret.
At last contact, they were close to done.
Damn close.
Then a week ago, satellite, land-line--all dead.
Now Dr.
Hobbes from Princeton says you're the best young physicist to come out of that school since Feynman.
Is that right? Well, sir, I learned fairly early on not to question Dr.
Hobbes, but, uh I like to think I'm capable.
Well, you better be.
We're counting on you to get your arms around this Gemini thing.
You and you alone.
You want me to work on Gemini? I want you to get yourself to Alaska and get this program back on course.
And son, watch your ass.
Places like that, well it's not just the cold that kills you.
Hello?Hello! Meet Dr.
Paul Thorsen man of reason.
A man used to solving problems others deem impossible.
He's about to find himself tested at a forgotten outpost in a frozen wasteland somewhere deep inside the Twilight Zone.
Hello? I know you're in there! You thought I wouldn't find you?! Now open the door before I break it down! Shut up.
Shut up! Would you shut the hell up?! Who the hell are you? Orders and credentials.
I'm just going to show them to you.
Look on, uh, the bottom of page 3.
You'll see Admiral Munro's signature.
The coffee stain, that's--that's mine.
OK? Want to clue me in as to what all the gunfire is about? Shh.
He's in there, all right.
Right now.
He says he finished it.
He's gonna test it.
Test it? Test--test--test what? Gemini.
That crazy bastard in there he messes with it, we're all dead.
You, me the whole freakin' world.
You're traveling to another dimension.
A dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind.
A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are only that of the imagination.
You're entering Don't you get it, man? The Gemini's a bomb.
I'm talking blinding-flash, screaming-silhouettes- burned-to-the-freakin'- pavement style bomb.
Look, I don't know what's going on here but I can tell you one thing: Gemini is not a bomb.
What? I'll never get through this door? Well, just keep watching, 'cause here I come.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Who are you talking to? Who's behind the door? I'm coming in there, Chandler and nothing's going to stop me.
Nobody gave me a file on anybody named Chandler.
And when I get my hands on you I'm going to make you pay for what you did to the others.
There's no listing of a "Chandler" in this log, either.
You're gonna pay! Corporal, Corporal! Calm down! You're supposed to be a marine, remember? Right.
Right.
The few, the proud, the calm.
Yes, sir.
That's me, sir.
All right.
So while you're calm why don't you tell me who this Chandler guy is? Dr.
Chandler.
The guy who thought up Gemini.
Well, he went nuts.
We gotta stop him.
OK.
What about the rest of the research team? There's supposed to be What happened to them? Everybody left Well, almost everyone, anyway.
Why don't you tell 'em, Chandler? Tell 'em how you did it how you made 'em run out into the snow into the cold.
It's got to be That's right.
He killed 'em.
He killed 'em all and he's gonna pay! Dammit! Corporal, I've got the combination! Oh.
Right.
OK.
Somebody changed the sequence.
Now why don't you tell me why you're really here, Doctor? It's Chandler, isn't it? Chandler sent for you to help him to help him come and set off Gemini.
Look, even if you're right even if Gemini's a weapon-- It's not a weapon, it's the weapon.
The one that's gonna end it all.
OK, even if that's true, just think for a minute.
I'm not your problem.
I may be the only one here who can shut the damn thing down.
And if I'm lying you're pretty much screwed either way.
Now, first things first.
You said almost everyone ran away so who's left, besides you and Chandler? Uh, Morgan, I think.
Skiles.
OK, I'm going to need to talk to them.
What about Chandler? Juststay here and guard the door.
All right? I'll be back as quick as I can.
Good idea, sir.
And, Gordon, take it easy, all right? Yes, sir! Huh, sir! You son of a bitch! I'm coming in! I'm coming in there! Dr.
Morgan, right? I thought I made it perfectly clear I did not want to be disturbed.
The name's Thorsen.
Dr.
Paul Thorsen, from Washington.
I'm actually here to help.
You can't help me.
No one can.
Doctor, I need you to tell me what's happening here.
Where is everyone? And why does Corporal Gordon think that Gemini's some sort of a doomsday device? Gemini doesn't exist not until I'm through with my work here.
My work is the key.
The analysis, you understand? The math.
It's beautiful, isn't it? Elegant.
Pythagoras would have understood it.
He would have called it "The music of the spheres.
" Ah, yes.
"There is geometry in the humming of the strings and music in the spacing of the spheres.
" Space and time.
The complex super-string connections that define our reality.
And Gemini, tapping the energy source-- Something's wrong.
The Riemann Tensor equations have to balance and I can't make them balance.
Maybe I can.
Wait a second.
This This--this-- this can't be right.
What is it? This equation.
You're talking about a sudden massive release of energy.
Powerful enough to earn the envy of the stars.
Oh, yeah, but if a reaction of that magnitude can't be controlled or contained then it's completely useless, unless it's Unless it's a bomb.
Corporal Gordon said someone named Chandler had Gemini locked in the secure lab and was threatening to set it off.
Please.
Gemini isn't finished until I say it is.
Don't flatter yourself.
I don't care what you think.
I'm not through with the math.
Who are you talking to? Dr.
Chandler.
He never lets me work in peace.
In fact, he's talking about you right now.
So, uh, so what's he saying? Why don't you ask him yourself.
I'm busy.
Listen, I'd love to talk to Chandler face to face so I'll need the combination to the secure lab.
Then ask Commander Skiles.
He has it.
Would you please leave? The C.
O.
? He's still here? In the Communications room.
Communications room.
Thank you, Doctor.
Good idea.
There's so much work.
So much work.
Perfect.
No signal.
Come on in.
Ah, Commander Skiles.
I know.
You're here to kill me.
Kill you? Why-- why would you think that l-- Let's not kid ourselves.
I was the one in charge here.
I'm the one who lost control of things.
All those people out there dead in the snow It's on my head.
I'm not--I'm not here to kill you.
I just need the combination to the secure lab.
Maybe you should ask Dr.
Chandler.
Chandler! Right.
You know, I got a theory about Chandler.
Would you like to hear that? Sure.
Can't wait.
He's not here.
He doesn't exist.
He's--he's some sort of a mass delusion.
You're going to give him a complex talking like that.
Great.
That's great.
You hear him, too.
Not me.
And you know why? I keep the volume turned up so loud I can't hear him.
Uhh! Why don't you grab a seat and watch me beat my high score? No, I've got a better idea.
I'm going to call Admiral Munro.
Tell him to send in a psych team.
I got to get you people out of here.
Forget it, Doc.
None of the com equipment works.
External.
Internal.
None of it.
Completely cut off up here.
Shows you what I know.
Thorsen.
Hello, Paul.
Dr.
Chandler here.
You wanted to talk to me.
Well, here I am.
Let's talk about you and the end of the world.
You need to leave this place, Paul.
Forget it ever existed.
You listen to me.
I don't know who you are or what you've done to these people but you're not going to do it to me.
You can't get away from me that easy.
Nice trick.
There's no trick.
You and I are simply having a conversation.
A conversation.
It's exactly what you did to everyone else.
You made them think they were hearing voices in their head until they couldn't take it anymore.
You drove them insane! I did no such thing.
I didn't have to.
They're not the first scientists to go mad from the moral implications of their own work.
Oppenheimer never struggled with the idea that he was helping to unlock the power of the atom.
He struggled with the idea that he was building a weapon that had the power to end war by ending all life on earth.
Well, it didn't, Doctor.
Oppenheimer created a spark.
Gemini is the fire.
-Run away, Paul.
-I'm not running! You hear him, too, don't you? I told you.
We're all dead meat.
How are we hearing him? Directed acoustics? Maybe a parabolic mike? long string? Beats me, sir.
Where is that coming from? Where the hell is he?! Uhh! There's got to be a rational explanation for all of this! Uhh! There's always an explanation.
A rational, observable explanation.
That's why I became a physicist to explain things, solve problems answer questions make the world a better place.
If we don't get inside that room there ain't gonna be a world.
You're wasting your time, Paul.
We'll see.
Let's go.
The equations, they're not finished yet.
They have to balance.
She can't help you.
Then why do you sound so nervous? You hear him now, too, don't you? Yeah.
Lucky me.
Hey, you're just in time.
I made the bonus level.
Commander, I need you to come with me.
He's given up, Paul.
I suggest you do the same.
Listen to me, Commander.
We've got to get into the secure room.
No.
Forget it.
Can't be done.
You're wasting your time, Paul.
Commander! Game over.
Your whole life you've relied on your intellect but it's failing you now and you can't stand that, can you? You know nothing about me.
I know everything about you.
Well, then you know I've never met a problem that I couldn't solve.
This isn't a puzzle you can defeat with logic.
No such thing.
I know what you're thinking-- that Chandler's too smart He's--he's-- he's too dangerous that we can't stop him.
But I say we can.
I say we will.
And it all starts right now with us figuring out a way past that secure door.
I say we blow it open.
Mix some field expedient plastique maybe save a little.
Let Chandler eat it as an afternoon snack.
Why? Gemini isn't even finished yet.
We have more important work in front of us.
More breakthroughs to make.
There's so much work.
You shot my game for this? This is what always happens.
Look at them, Doctor.
They're insane.
What does that make you? What? There's 4 of us and only one of you, pal.
Of course.
Of course I checked the gravitational constant You're right.
What's the point? I'll fail.
You'll win.
Like always.
Can't seem to whip this, Chandler.
What's Chandler saying to you right now? That we're toast if we open that door.
And I'll bet he's telling you you screwed up your equations.
If I had a little more time I could rework the entire problem.
And you Let me guess: He's saying there's nothing you can do to stop him.
Don't you get it? He's telling each one of us something different.
He's telling us whatever he thinks we need to hear to keep us from getting through that door.
Unless Chandler really is just a mass delusion and this door is open I just can't get through it because I think I can't.
I knew it all along.
Thorsen, you son of a bitch! You are working with Chandler! He'll kill us! Did you see that? He wasn't real.
Maybe none of you are real.
None of this is real.
Finally.
Hello, Paul.
None of this is real, is it? You're real.
So is Gemini but you already knew that.
After all, Gemini is your invention.
That's impossible.
I was I was sent here to help.
No, Paul, you and I both know that's not true.
Gemini is your baby.
You helped create it.
And once your realized what you created you couldn't handle it.
Your mind shattered.
No.
What are you going to do, kill me Iike you killed all the others? I didn't kill anyone.
They weren't real.
Of course they were.
They were all parts of you.
Gordon was your paranoia.
Dr.
Morgan was your brain manifesting insecurity.
And your depression became Commander Skiles.
All stopping you from finishing Gemini.
See? Now you're remembering it all, aren't you? It's all coming back to you.
You can see it all clear in the equations.
Clear as day.
That's what broke you.
I never meant for it to be a weapon.
That's the problem with humans and our inventions.
Eventually, they all become weapons.
But we can stop it, Paul.
We can protect the universe.
How? By making absolutely certain that you never finish Gemini.
You really are crazy.
It's a sacrifice you have to make.
I have a career.
I have a life.
I won't.
You've always wanted to help humanity.
Here's your chance.
No.
Do it, Paul, it's the only way.
Either you end it or Gemini ends us all.
-No.
-Do it.
Do it.
Do it.
Take the bullet.
After you.
Admiral Munro this is Seal Team 6.
The objective is secure.
Give me the sit-rep.
Short version.
It's bad.
It's real bad, sir.
and the bodies we found of everyone who worked in the main lab.
-Thorsen? -Over here.
Looks like he cracked up, killed everybody and then put the gun to his own heart.
And Gemini? Every computer in the network has been wiped, sir.
Gemini's guts are all over the place.
Thorsen must have torn it all apart before he gave himself a.
9 millimeter coronary bypass.
Pack it up, son, and bring it home.
Bring it all home.
We'll find someone who can get Gemini back on track.
There's always someone.
The border between sanity and insanity is sometimes marked not by our reason but by fear: Fear of ourselves and our own capacity for destruction.
An empirical observation recorded and filed by Dr.
Paul Thorsen in the Twilight Zone.
We have lost contact with Gemini.
Gemini.
The new energy program.
I didn't know it was so far along.
That's right.
Clean.
Efficient.
A single device could power the Eastern seaboard for the next 2,000 years.
We've got a research team holed up at an old Alaskan listening post working in secret.
At last contact, they were close to done.
Damn close.
Then a week ago, satellite, land-line--all dead.
Now Dr.
Hobbes from Princeton says you're the best young physicist to come out of that school since Feynman.
Is that right? Well, sir, I learned fairly early on not to question Dr.
Hobbes, but, uh I like to think I'm capable.
Well, you better be.
We're counting on you to get your arms around this Gemini thing.
You and you alone.
You want me to work on Gemini? I want you to get yourself to Alaska and get this program back on course.
And son, watch your ass.
Places like that, well it's not just the cold that kills you.
Hello?Hello! Meet Dr.
Paul Thorsen man of reason.
A man used to solving problems others deem impossible.
He's about to find himself tested at a forgotten outpost in a frozen wasteland somewhere deep inside the Twilight Zone.
Hello? I know you're in there! You thought I wouldn't find you?! Now open the door before I break it down! Shut up.
Shut up! Would you shut the hell up?! Who the hell are you? Orders and credentials.
I'm just going to show them to you.
Look on, uh, the bottom of page 3.
You'll see Admiral Munro's signature.
The coffee stain, that's--that's mine.
OK? Want to clue me in as to what all the gunfire is about? Shh.
He's in there, all right.
Right now.
He says he finished it.
He's gonna test it.
Test it? Test--test--test what? Gemini.
That crazy bastard in there he messes with it, we're all dead.
You, me the whole freakin' world.
You're traveling to another dimension.
A dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind.
A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are only that of the imagination.
You're entering Don't you get it, man? The Gemini's a bomb.
I'm talking blinding-flash, screaming-silhouettes- burned-to-the-freakin'- pavement style bomb.
Look, I don't know what's going on here but I can tell you one thing: Gemini is not a bomb.
What? I'll never get through this door? Well, just keep watching, 'cause here I come.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Who are you talking to? Who's behind the door? I'm coming in there, Chandler and nothing's going to stop me.
Nobody gave me a file on anybody named Chandler.
And when I get my hands on you I'm going to make you pay for what you did to the others.
There's no listing of a "Chandler" in this log, either.
You're gonna pay! Corporal, Corporal! Calm down! You're supposed to be a marine, remember? Right.
Right.
The few, the proud, the calm.
Yes, sir.
That's me, sir.
All right.
So while you're calm why don't you tell me who this Chandler guy is? Dr.
Chandler.
The guy who thought up Gemini.
Well, he went nuts.
We gotta stop him.
OK.
What about the rest of the research team? There's supposed to be What happened to them? Everybody left Well, almost everyone, anyway.
Why don't you tell 'em, Chandler? Tell 'em how you did it how you made 'em run out into the snow into the cold.
It's got to be That's right.
He killed 'em.
He killed 'em all and he's gonna pay! Dammit! Corporal, I've got the combination! Oh.
Right.
OK.
Somebody changed the sequence.
Now why don't you tell me why you're really here, Doctor? It's Chandler, isn't it? Chandler sent for you to help him to help him come and set off Gemini.
Look, even if you're right even if Gemini's a weapon-- It's not a weapon, it's the weapon.
The one that's gonna end it all.
OK, even if that's true, just think for a minute.
I'm not your problem.
I may be the only one here who can shut the damn thing down.
And if I'm lying you're pretty much screwed either way.
Now, first things first.
You said almost everyone ran away so who's left, besides you and Chandler? Uh, Morgan, I think.
Skiles.
OK, I'm going to need to talk to them.
What about Chandler? Juststay here and guard the door.
All right? I'll be back as quick as I can.
Good idea, sir.
And, Gordon, take it easy, all right? Yes, sir! Huh, sir! You son of a bitch! I'm coming in! I'm coming in there! Dr.
Morgan, right? I thought I made it perfectly clear I did not want to be disturbed.
The name's Thorsen.
Dr.
Paul Thorsen, from Washington.
I'm actually here to help.
You can't help me.
No one can.
Doctor, I need you to tell me what's happening here.
Where is everyone? And why does Corporal Gordon think that Gemini's some sort of a doomsday device? Gemini doesn't exist not until I'm through with my work here.
My work is the key.
The analysis, you understand? The math.
It's beautiful, isn't it? Elegant.
Pythagoras would have understood it.
He would have called it "The music of the spheres.
" Ah, yes.
"There is geometry in the humming of the strings and music in the spacing of the spheres.
" Space and time.
The complex super-string connections that define our reality.
And Gemini, tapping the energy source-- Something's wrong.
The Riemann Tensor equations have to balance and I can't make them balance.
Maybe I can.
Wait a second.
This This--this-- this can't be right.
What is it? This equation.
You're talking about a sudden massive release of energy.
Powerful enough to earn the envy of the stars.
Oh, yeah, but if a reaction of that magnitude can't be controlled or contained then it's completely useless, unless it's Unless it's a bomb.
Corporal Gordon said someone named Chandler had Gemini locked in the secure lab and was threatening to set it off.
Please.
Gemini isn't finished until I say it is.
Don't flatter yourself.
I don't care what you think.
I'm not through with the math.
Who are you talking to? Dr.
Chandler.
He never lets me work in peace.
In fact, he's talking about you right now.
So, uh, so what's he saying? Why don't you ask him yourself.
I'm busy.
Listen, I'd love to talk to Chandler face to face so I'll need the combination to the secure lab.
Then ask Commander Skiles.
He has it.
Would you please leave? The C.
O.
? He's still here? In the Communications room.
Communications room.
Thank you, Doctor.
Good idea.
There's so much work.
So much work.
Perfect.
No signal.
Come on in.
Ah, Commander Skiles.
I know.
You're here to kill me.
Kill you? Why-- why would you think that l-- Let's not kid ourselves.
I was the one in charge here.
I'm the one who lost control of things.
All those people out there dead in the snow It's on my head.
I'm not--I'm not here to kill you.
I just need the combination to the secure lab.
Maybe you should ask Dr.
Chandler.
Chandler! Right.
You know, I got a theory about Chandler.
Would you like to hear that? Sure.
Can't wait.
He's not here.
He doesn't exist.
He's--he's some sort of a mass delusion.
You're going to give him a complex talking like that.
Great.
That's great.
You hear him, too.
Not me.
And you know why? I keep the volume turned up so loud I can't hear him.
Uhh! Why don't you grab a seat and watch me beat my high score? No, I've got a better idea.
I'm going to call Admiral Munro.
Tell him to send in a psych team.
I got to get you people out of here.
Forget it, Doc.
None of the com equipment works.
External.
Internal.
None of it.
Completely cut off up here.
Shows you what I know.
Thorsen.
Hello, Paul.
Dr.
Chandler here.
You wanted to talk to me.
Well, here I am.
Let's talk about you and the end of the world.
You need to leave this place, Paul.
Forget it ever existed.
You listen to me.
I don't know who you are or what you've done to these people but you're not going to do it to me.
You can't get away from me that easy.
Nice trick.
There's no trick.
You and I are simply having a conversation.
A conversation.
It's exactly what you did to everyone else.
You made them think they were hearing voices in their head until they couldn't take it anymore.
You drove them insane! I did no such thing.
I didn't have to.
They're not the first scientists to go mad from the moral implications of their own work.
Oppenheimer never struggled with the idea that he was helping to unlock the power of the atom.
He struggled with the idea that he was building a weapon that had the power to end war by ending all life on earth.
Well, it didn't, Doctor.
Oppenheimer created a spark.
Gemini is the fire.
-Run away, Paul.
-I'm not running! You hear him, too, don't you? I told you.
We're all dead meat.
How are we hearing him? Directed acoustics? Maybe a parabolic mike? long string? Beats me, sir.
Where is that coming from? Where the hell is he?! Uhh! There's got to be a rational explanation for all of this! Uhh! There's always an explanation.
A rational, observable explanation.
That's why I became a physicist to explain things, solve problems answer questions make the world a better place.
If we don't get inside that room there ain't gonna be a world.
You're wasting your time, Paul.
We'll see.
Let's go.
The equations, they're not finished yet.
They have to balance.
She can't help you.
Then why do you sound so nervous? You hear him now, too, don't you? Yeah.
Lucky me.
Hey, you're just in time.
I made the bonus level.
Commander, I need you to come with me.
He's given up, Paul.
I suggest you do the same.
Listen to me, Commander.
We've got to get into the secure room.
No.
Forget it.
Can't be done.
You're wasting your time, Paul.
Commander! Game over.
Your whole life you've relied on your intellect but it's failing you now and you can't stand that, can you? You know nothing about me.
I know everything about you.
Well, then you know I've never met a problem that I couldn't solve.
This isn't a puzzle you can defeat with logic.
No such thing.
I know what you're thinking-- that Chandler's too smart He's--he's-- he's too dangerous that we can't stop him.
But I say we can.
I say we will.
And it all starts right now with us figuring out a way past that secure door.
I say we blow it open.
Mix some field expedient plastique maybe save a little.
Let Chandler eat it as an afternoon snack.
Why? Gemini isn't even finished yet.
We have more important work in front of us.
More breakthroughs to make.
There's so much work.
You shot my game for this? This is what always happens.
Look at them, Doctor.
They're insane.
What does that make you? What? There's 4 of us and only one of you, pal.
Of course.
Of course I checked the gravitational constant You're right.
What's the point? I'll fail.
You'll win.
Like always.
Can't seem to whip this, Chandler.
What's Chandler saying to you right now? That we're toast if we open that door.
And I'll bet he's telling you you screwed up your equations.
If I had a little more time I could rework the entire problem.
And you Let me guess: He's saying there's nothing you can do to stop him.
Don't you get it? He's telling each one of us something different.
He's telling us whatever he thinks we need to hear to keep us from getting through that door.
Unless Chandler really is just a mass delusion and this door is open I just can't get through it because I think I can't.
I knew it all along.
Thorsen, you son of a bitch! You are working with Chandler! He'll kill us! Did you see that? He wasn't real.
Maybe none of you are real.
None of this is real.
Finally.
Hello, Paul.
None of this is real, is it? You're real.
So is Gemini but you already knew that.
After all, Gemini is your invention.
That's impossible.
I was I was sent here to help.
No, Paul, you and I both know that's not true.
Gemini is your baby.
You helped create it.
And once your realized what you created you couldn't handle it.
Your mind shattered.
No.
What are you going to do, kill me Iike you killed all the others? I didn't kill anyone.
They weren't real.
Of course they were.
They were all parts of you.
Gordon was your paranoia.
Dr.
Morgan was your brain manifesting insecurity.
And your depression became Commander Skiles.
All stopping you from finishing Gemini.
See? Now you're remembering it all, aren't you? It's all coming back to you.
You can see it all clear in the equations.
Clear as day.
That's what broke you.
I never meant for it to be a weapon.
That's the problem with humans and our inventions.
Eventually, they all become weapons.
But we can stop it, Paul.
We can protect the universe.
How? By making absolutely certain that you never finish Gemini.
You really are crazy.
It's a sacrifice you have to make.
I have a career.
I have a life.
I won't.
You've always wanted to help humanity.
Here's your chance.
No.
Do it, Paul, it's the only way.
Either you end it or Gemini ends us all.
-No.
-Do it.
Do it.
Do it.
Take the bullet.
After you.
Admiral Munro this is Seal Team 6.
The objective is secure.
Give me the sit-rep.
Short version.
It's bad.
It's real bad, sir.
and the bodies we found of everyone who worked in the main lab.
-Thorsen? -Over here.
Looks like he cracked up, killed everybody and then put the gun to his own heart.
And Gemini? Every computer in the network has been wiped, sir.
Gemini's guts are all over the place.
Thorsen must have torn it all apart before he gave himself a.
9 millimeter coronary bypass.
Pack it up, son, and bring it home.
Bring it all home.
We'll find someone who can get Gemini back on track.
There's always someone.
The border between sanity and insanity is sometimes marked not by our reason but by fear: Fear of ourselves and our own capacity for destruction.
An empirical observation recorded and filed by Dr.
Paul Thorsen in the Twilight Zone.