Get everybody out!
Get out! Everybody, get out!
Stay.
Seat yourselves.
We must not lose another precious moment.
Tell them.
Please...
I don't know what this is,
but I'm afraid it's real.
I'll explain later, when you're capable
of listening to explanations.
Do not be afraid.
You have nothing to lose but your lives.
Stand by for countdown and launch.
10...
9...
8...
7...
6...
5...
4...
3...
2...
1.
There is nothing wrong
with your television set.
Do not attempt to adjust the picture.
We are controlling transmission.
We will control the horizontal.
We will control the vertical.
We can change the focus to a soft blur
or sharpen it to crystal clarity.
For the next hour, sit quietly,
and we will control all that you see and hear.
You are about to participate in a great adventure.
You are about to experience the awe and mystery
which reaches from the inner minds to...
The outer limits.
When fear is too terrible,
when reality is too agonizing,
we seek escape in manufactured danger,
in the thrills and pleasures of pretending
in the amusement parks of our unamusing world.
Here in frantic pretending,
man finds escape and temporary peace
and goes home tired enough
to sleep a short, deep sleep.
But what happens here when night comes?
When pretending ends and reality begins?
And now in your vis-a-screen,
you can see the Milky Way,
a giant system of stars, planets,
and clouds of dust and gas
which measure 100,000 light-years in diameter.
Our sun is one of the stars in the Milky Way,
rotating with it like...
Some chair on a great Ferris wheel.
Does life exist somewhere other than this Earth?
There are a billion stars in the Milky Way
giving light and heat to its many planets,
and the possibility of discovering other beings
is no longer fantasy.
Perhaps they will be
even more intelligent than we are.
Perhaps... perhaps we can learn from them
not only the secret of our origin, but...
How to keep from destroying ourselves.
And now we reverse rockets,
and we're homeward bound
on a true course to the Joyland space port.
You positively mystify me.
Why?
Oh, philosophizing
about life on other planets
for the benefit of one small boy.
Well, maybe young people are the only ones
who really listen and understand.
You can't reach a closed mind.
Anyway,
I get tired of making the same old speech.
You know, you don't belong here.
No, I'm serious.
I mean, who works in amusement parks?
Drifters, ex-carnies,
and students during summer vacation.
And lovely artists.
Oh, yes,
artists who can't sell their paintings.
But I prefer this to waiting tables.
Well, I belong wherever I happen to be.
I am a drifter.
We are reentering the Earth's atmosphere now.
Stand by for retrorockets.
And there go the retrorockets.
Breaking procedure has reduced our speed
from a maximum 24,900 miles per hour
to suborbital velocity.
Stand by for changeover and landing.
What are you drifting from?
You know, you have the occupational disease
of all undiscovered artists...
A, um...
A hyperactive imagination
snooping. Ha ha.
Well, a man who reads
Kant's Critique of pure reason
does not belong where artists
who can't sell their paintings belong.
Or did I imagine you reading that...
And in the original German?
Well, I'm a compulsive reader.
It might be interesting
to snoop into your life one of these days.
Well, you can start
the minute we get back to Earth if you like.
I'm free for lunch.
And there's California on the lower screen.
Now Los Angeles county and Joyland.
We're coming in!
And it's a perfect landing.
On behalf of Captian Crowell and myself,
thank you for joining us on our trip into space.
We hope that you've enjoyed yourself
and that you'll be traveling with us soon again.
I know a little enchilada stand
next door to a, uh, roller coaster.
Now, if we walk fast...
Well, that doesn't sound too seductive.
I accept.
Hey, what is it?
I feel as if something's wrong.
How?
As if we were being watched.
From, uh...
Somewhere out there?
From somewhere close.
From everywhere.
Now, that's impossible.
There aren't enough people in this whole park
to watch us from everywhere.
Maybe that's it.
An amusement park shouldn't be as empty
as this one always is.
It wouldn't be if the management
knew anything about management.
Well, um...
Shouldn't we strike while the enchiladas are hot?
Dave, I asked what you're drifting from.
I'd like to change that.
What are you drifting toward?
Well, we were going to have lunch
so, um, I could snoop into your life.
Are you looking for a wife or a girlfriend?
I know what's watching you, Mara.
You do?
Mm-hmm. The eyes of your conscience.
Oh. Then I'm not in any real danger.
My conscience and I understand each other.
The final facets of conversion
have been completed.
Achievement accomplished
without noticeable modifications.
Humans still see ship as amusement-park ride.
Human subjects meeting required specifications
have been psycho-organized into area
and will enter ship according to plan.
Will recontact Imperia
when ship is beyond Earth's atmosphere.
R.J.
Of all the cheating, miserable contraptions.
R.J., it's only a dime.
Ah!
Help yourself, Sonny boy.
R.J., please.
We came here for a good time.
I'm having all the fun in the world
I mean to tell you!
Aah!
Don't be frightened.
I'm as human as you are.
You've taken jobs you didn't want to take, haven't you?
Well, I wouldn't take one that would degrade me.
Does the job degrade the man,
or is it perhaps the other way around?
These are complimentary.
Tickets for the space ride.
I didn't ask to go on any space ride.
I don't even know what I'm doing
in this so-called amusement park.
Perhaps you were compelled to come here
by some sleeping need for unreality.
An escape from reality is usually costly.
This one is free.
Please take these.
Thank you.
Thank you very kindly, mister.
May you enjoy the journey.
It... it was nice of him to pick us.
Probably nobody wants to go on that ride.
I do.
Well, supposing I don't.
I'm sorry, Sue Ann.
It's all right.
I don't mean to be sharp with you all the time.
Well, one of these days,
I'll make it up to you.
One of these days...
You know, there's plenty of opportunity
out here, Sue Ann, for a man like me.
If I could just find that one little door
and get my foot into it...
It'll have to be a big door, R.J.
You got awful big feet, you know?
Most big men do.
Come on, lady, before I get too busy to notice you.
Let's go have a look at that universe.
Buddy, maybe we ought to go now.
Uh, the luncheon's in his honor, Denise.
He can keep them all waiting.
The luncheon's for the whole team.
Oh, well, yeah, sure.
But, uh, you are the whole team, buddy.
We'll get there in plenty of time.
How about taking these back, huh?
Oh, yeah.
And...
Buy us some more rides.
Oh, no, no, no.
This is my treat this time, huh?
Buddy, you've been acting strange all day.
Well, a football hero
is supposed to be normal, uncomplicated,
and transparent as glass.
And, uh, putty in a pretty girl's hands.
Do you love me?
I'm wearing your pin.
Yeah, a football hero's pin.
What if I weren't a hero?
Aaaaah!
Forgive me for frightening the young lady.
I saw she was falling.
I, uh...
I forgot about the costume.
But as long as I'm here...
Free. A free ride
through the endless freedom of the universe.
No, Buddy.
We're late enough as it is.
Perhaps too late, in which case,
the universe may be just the place to go
and start over.
The young lady will take your tickets.
I hope you enjoy your journey.
Let's wait inside. We'll give them to her there.
Welcome aboard.
Good afternoon.
This is your space stewardess
Miss Matthews speaking.
Your tour officer is Captian Crowell.
He'll explain, in authentic space-age ease,
the wondrous sights you'll see
if you keep your eyes on the vis-a-screen.
We wish you a pleasant journey
and request that all passengers
fasten their seat belts.
Did you hear that sound?
From the radio unit upstairs,
a kind of, uh... Voice.
You said my conscience was watching me.
Maybe yours is talking to you.
Maybe.
Ladies and gentlemen,
welcome aboard our space flight.
Our ship is a single-stage vehicle
using nuclear power rather than chemical propellants
utilized in multi-staged rockets.
Our escape velocity will be 15,000 miles an hour,
and we'll be traveling in a figure-eight orbit
that will take us around the moon.
In just a few moments, after our equipment check,
we'll be ready to blast off.
Stand by for countdown and launch.
Aaaah!
They put on a very realistic show.
I'm gravely sorry.
I did not intend to reveal myself
until you needed me.
Horror is a luxury
the desperate cannot afford.
Sit down, Miss Matthews.
Fasten your belt.
Would you be good enough to fasten your seat belt?
What's going on around here, huh?
There are rules in space flight.
Not this kind of space flight.
Oh, R.J., do as he says.
No.
Tell me, why did you come aboard?
You gave me a free ticket.
How can you enjoy the things you get free
if you won't pretend they're real?
Maybe I don't like to pretend.
Perhaps you don't, but you do it.
You do it incessantly, doesn't he?
Listen, now...
Look at this, Mr. Beasley.
Now he's trying to hypnotize me.
It's too late to allow you to leave.
Neither can I allow
your frail body to be bashed to death
against the sides of this craft.
I can disintegrate you, however.
You can?
And leave not a trace of you for anyone to mourn.
Fasten your belt, R.J., and pretend
what all the rest of us are pretending for a change.
Aaaaah!
Get everybody out!
Get out! Everybody, get out!
Stay.
Stay. Fasten yourselves in or you'll be killed.
Seat yourselves.
We must not lose another precious moment.
Tell them.
Please...
I don't know what this is,
but I'm afraid it's real.
I'll explain later, when you're capable
of listening to explanations.
Do not be afraid.
You have nothing to lose but your lives.
Stand by for countdown and launch.
10... 9... 8...
7... 6... 5...
4... 3... 2...
1.
Sue Ann, I'm scared.
I'm scared, Sue Ann.
Are we... Where are we?!
We're in space.
I don't like this,
and I don't stand for anything I don't like.
Nothing's fun when it's this real,
nothing in life.
You call it fun when we actually passed out?!
You call it fun when we actually
got scared there for a minute?!
Well, I don't call it fun,
and I'm not stayin'!
Don't. You can't leave!
Do you want to kill us all?
Look. Look!
Those are the stars...
Above you, beneath you, all about you.
We're in space.
Now, believe it. It's real.
Why? Why is it real?
Dave.
Come sit down.
He said he'd come down later and explain.
Mara...
I bid you welcome...
To the universe.
No!
No! It's a mask. It isn't real!
It's a mask. Take it off.
It's a fake. Take it off!
Aaah!
I want to go home.
Shh.
Please let me go home.
All right. Everything's all right.
Aah. shh.
We should have gone to the luncheon.
You were supposed to be there.
This would never have happened.
I'd be safe.
Why did we have to come here?!
Why didn't we just...
Come on.
Is this all there is to it?
Somebody pushes a button, and we just go sailing
into the universe? Is that it?
Well, don't we do anything about it?
You're... you're real swell
at pretending to be a Captain, Captain.
You speak that space age-ese like a native, don't you?
Yes, sir. You, Captain, sure pretend good.
Oh, excuse me. You sure pretend well.
My dear old dad is a Captain, too, sir.
You ought to see him pretend.
Oh, we... we just call it pretending.
Its real name is hypocrisy.
It means...
I know what it means.
I know all your words and how you use them.
Oh.
We've got an intellectual
on the team, fellas.
Are we gonna let him
take the fun out of our game,
or are we gonna splatter him
all over the field?
Splatter him!
Kill him!
Kill him for real!
Come on, help me, Tommy.
No. come on!
No. I saw what he did to you.
Come on, we'll get him together.
Teamwork, Tommy. no!
You get him yourself.
Or can't you do anything all by yourself
except take bribes, huh?
What are you talkin' about,
Tommy, old friend?
What you and I both know
and the whole world will find out.
My own private slave gonna tell 'em,
my loyal, faithful gopher
gonna turn fink on me?
The problem is you threw the game, buddy.
That's finkship of the highest.
Buddy.
Oh, it would have been some luncheon, Denise,
everyone makin' him out to be the big hero. Big hero.
And him sitting there, a bigger hypocrite
than his brass star papa!
I'd hate you, Tommy,
but you can't hate someone
you never liked.
You meant something to me, buddy.
Shut up!
You meant something to a lot of people.
Shut up. Shut up!
Aaaah!
To me, to every member of my race,
the dark aridness of the universe
was once an endless, laneless thoroughfare,
unrestricted and harmless.
In some fanciful flight of evolution,
we Imperions, like the birds of your own world,
were given the freedom to soar above our destinies.
And, like the men of your world,
we chose to discard
a greater part of that freedom...
To confine ourselves to a single star,
a planet we call Imperia.
In some of us,
the soaring freedom still lives
and must be employed to distract disaster
from the rest of us.
In our solar system,
there is an asteroid called Tythra.
Its atmosphere is similar to that of Earth,
and it is a threat to us.
However, properly colonized,
its course can be redirected
and controlled.
You've abducted us for that purpose.
The choices were not as random
as it might seem.
I've been here a long time.
I've studied the human specimen.
So many long to soar.
Great expenditures are directed
toward the leaving of Earth.
Yet in all the minds I've probed,
I found not one genuine desire
for total freedom.
None of you, it seems,
truly wants to leave this troubled star.
And so, regretfully, abduction became necessary.
I chose those of you
who would have the least regret,
who would leave the least behind,
and who would have the most to gain
by a new chance in a new, undistorted world.
I think you've made a disastrous mistake.
You need scientists, not discontented...
dreamers.
One scientist should be enough,
Dr. Crowell.
When do you estimate the asteroid
will hit Imperia?
In your time scale, 82 years.
Not a second sooner or later.
That isn't enough time.
That's hardly a minute.
No, it would not be
if we used only the technology
familiar to you.
But we have a 4-century advance
upon the scientists of Earth.
A mind of genius, such as yours,
should be able to absorb a 4-century advance within...
7.4 years...
Uh, assuming such a mind wanted to absorb.
You stopped wanting to exploit that genius,
Dr. Crowell.
You did not stop wanting to expand it
for good and noble purpose.
Sometimes I wonder.
They offered me prizes and honors
and even moderate riches.
And all I had to do
was to let them stand over my shoulder
and make suggestions.
I didn't want that. I...
I wanted to go off somewhere alone
and unravel the mysteries I preferred.
The ones that mystify the heart, not...
Not the defense department.
I didn't know there was anything on Earth
worth defending.
I'm giving you your chance to defend all of Earth,
everything and everyone on it.
I'm giving that chance to all of you.
Why me? Why us?!
What do your troubles got to do with me?
My troubles?
The troubles of the universe are universal, Mr. Beasley.
So is its capriciousness.
You've seen the game called billiards.
The universe invented it.
An asteroid strikes Imperia.
It's knocked out of its own solar system.
It, in turn, collides with another planet.
And the game cannot be fixed.
If it's going to collide with Earth,
it will collide with Earth,
and it is going to collide with Earth.
I wonder what it's like to...
Play a game that can't be fixed.
Maybe we're lucky, Denise.
Lucky?!
To get another chance.
I don't need another chance.
How do you know what I'm leaving behind
and what I'm not leaving behind?
I had everything a girl would want.
What did you want?
The admiration of men.
The envy of women.
Are those lovely goals,
or are they just the hungers of the heart,
incapable of an honest feeling
for another human being?
I've been in love.
I was even pinned to Buddy.
Would you shout this to the world
when it learned that he accepted a bribe
to lose a game?
Would you love the cheat as you did the hero?
All of you... What have you to lose?
Does one of you have something real and tangible to lose?
Something worthwhile?
Mr. Beasley, will you mourn the loss
of your shallow, impossible dream of success?
Will you be sorry to stop wearing out your shoes
and your wife's soul
in the search of a nonexistent rainbow?
And you, Miss Matthews.
Will you miss the loneliness,
the guilt, the regret,
over a love affair that ended
because it had no moral right to start?
And Dr. Crowell...
I leave nothing behind...
Except disillusionment in my fellow man
and hopelessness in myself.
Well...
maybe we could all use another chance.
I know I could.
Come then.
We'll begin to plan the future.
Everyone's future.
Are you all right?
I think there's something
in the first aid kit. I'll get it.
Can I help, Denise?
Leave me alone.
If you love me, you'll find some way
to stop this awful nightmare.
Nightmares end when you stop dreaming.
Take me home, Buddy.
I don't care what you've done.
I understand.
I still love you.
Just please take me home.
I don't know how.
Captian Crowell does.
He could take us back to Earth.
What can we do?
None of us can fly this.
What about Crowell?
The Imperian said he was the only one
who could understand their machinery.
It doesn't mean he can pilot
a spaceship, though.
He looks like he wants to go.
That's what they counted on.
Give him a chance to be a hero...
Boss us slaves around.
They knew that he'd bite.
They needed him.
But they missed one thing.
Take away Crowell,
and the rest of us
wouldn't be a bit of use to them.
He's the scientist,
and if something happened to him...
Like what?
Like what happened to your friend.
It's difficult for me to understand
human beings.
You're doing fairly well.
You're willing to go, aren't you,
even though you may resent being abducted?
Well, life is one big abduction.
Yes, uh, I'm willing to go.
The logic behind human thought
evades me.
Or the lack of it?
Throughout your history,
men have volunteered readily
to fight and die to preserve a nation
and its people,
yet when the whole planet
faces destruction,
those people down there...
It's hard for human beings...
To do something about tomorrow's catastrophes,
let alone one that's 82 years off.
Then you accept our calculations?
Oh, yes.
I thought I was the most
cynical person on Earth.
I believe if this collision
were going to happen tomorrow
or next year or the next,
half the population of the Earth
would volunteer to go anywhere
in the universe to prevent it.
Logic doesn't get in the way
when there's no time to be logical.
You, also, have shown no reluctance
to come to Tythra.
Maybe it's the company
I've been keeping lately.
Aaah!
Everybody all right?
You OK?
No one was hurt?
Not yet.
You don't suppose there's any chance
you might talk him into taking us
back to Earth?
Well, uh...
I... I couldn't, even if I wanted to.
We're going?
We're really going?!
Uh... that's right.
No, young lady.
The answer is no.
R.J...
Put that away, Mr. Beasley.
Killing you is the only solution
to our problem.
Killing?
They can't use us without you.
We'd never survive anyplace
without some big brain to lord it over us,
so you've got to be killed.
Aaah!
Help him, please!
Help Mr. Beasley.
Aah! Buddy, get him!
It's not deep.
How could I be so wrong about people?
This wasn't a punishment.
It wasn't a sentence.
It was a second chance.
Well, some of us don't believe
in second chances...
And the rest of us don't want them.
Take them back.
They can't be of any use to you.
I hope I can.
How does it feel
to know what you're drifting toward, Dave?
Well, a little like it felt
when that shower of meteors passed.
We were holding onto each other.
Are you sure this is what you really want?
No.
When you take them back,
ask for volunteers,
or I'm sure we'll start off again
with a whole shipload full
of illogical human beings.
And eventually others will join us,
others who will come willingly.
I believe I can trust in that.
I'll reverse our course.
We now return control of your television set to you.
Until next week, at this same time,
when the control voice will take you to...