You feel yourself being pulled, don't you?
What's... happening?
Does he look frightened
to you, Ethel?
He looks perfectly pitiful.
I think it's just awful.
Awful, awful, awful.
Help me.
Somebody, help me.
You can't fight it, Drifter.
I tried when my time came. We all did.
It's useless.
You can't outwit that thing.
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 mind to...
Hey.
Hey!
Are you hurt?
Hmm?
Shh. Shh!
S-s-s-s...
Save your strength, old buddy.
I'll get some help.
Shh.
Shh... shh.
Oh...
Anybody here?
Anybody home?
Is there anybody here? I need help!
Miss?
Excuse me, miss?
I didn't mean to scare you.
Hey, just a minute!
I found an old man lying in the road.
I came for help.
You saw an old man?
Yes.
Lying in the road.
Is that his watch you're holding?
Uh, I think so.
I found it in the brush.
Uh...
He needs attention.
I'm afraid you've come to the wrong place,
young man.
Nonsense.
Nonsense, nonsense, nonsense.
The watch and the old man
obviously have no connection,
none whatsoever.
Was he...
Very old?
Now, listen, I came here for help.
If you people don't want to help,
that's perfectly all right, but may I
at least use the phone to call the nearest hospital?
There is no phone in this house,
and that's that.
But I don't understand you people.
There's an old man lying in the road.
Oh, you'll understand us, young man, by and by,
won't he Randall?
Ethel.
Was he...
Very old?
Yes. He was the oldest man I ever saw.
It proves nothing, Miss Patton,
nothing at all.
It was probably someone else he found, not Dr. Ames.
Does it matter who it is?
Who are you, young man?
You must have some unique knowledge,
some special skill.
Uh...
My name's Florida Patton.
I'm an actress.
You're not very nice.
I don't feel very nice.
I feel as if I'm having a bad dream.
There you are, Miss Patton.
A bad dream.
He didn't see an old man at all.
Rubbish.
Miss Patton,
I'm going out to help the old man.
He's gone by now.
Gone?
Yes.
You're very kind to want to help.
Did you really want to help him?
Yes, I did.
I'm sorry that your kindness
will not be repaid in kind.
Wait a minute.
This is your picture, isn't it?
Yes.
And it belongs to him...
The old man I found out on the road?
If I may, I'd like to have that.
What makes you so sure he's dead by now?
He's been dead for a long time.
Tell him, Randall.
You're the head of this house now.
I will tell him nothing
until I know precisely who he is.
Somebody better tell me.
What's your name?
Drifter.
You have that look about you,
the look of a thing in movement.
Not flight.
Slow movement.
But constant.
Randall, tell the Drifter,
and tell him at once.
It's inhuman to send him up there
without some sense of the horror.
Stop it!
We can't.
You can't.
Try.
You feel yourself being pulled, don't you?
Against your will?
What's... happening?
Don't be overly alarmed, young man.
He isn't afraid,
are you, Drifter?
Does he look frightened
to you, Ethel?
He looks perfectly pitiful.
I think it's just awful.
Awful, awful, awful.
Help me.
Somebody, help me.
You can't fight it, Drifter.
I tried when my time came. We all did.
It's useless.
You can't outwit that thing.
Mwa ha ha ha ha ha ha!
You feel fear.
You feel anger as well.
Where am I?
What are you?
You are in the control center
of my searching, self universe.
I am your host.
Can you give me the answer?
Answer?
The missing vector, the unknown statistic,
the factor that will balance the equation.
Do you know what an equation is?
Close your eyes.
When you open them, your fear
will be temporarily anesthetized.
You will converse with me calmly.
An equation
is a mathematical expression
asserting the equality of 2 quantities...
Correct?
Like 2 plus 2 equals 4.
Yes.
Would you agree that the race thought...
The mental drives of your species...
Could be analyzed,
separated into its components,
and described as a series
of mathematical symbols?
Then you will agree that
such a mathematical expression is equal
to the ultimate destiny of your species.
Watch closely, the walls of my thought.
You will see the answer computed
from its component factors.
First, the positive factors...
The instinct to survive,
procreation...
Work...
Faith...
Art...
Art could be man's destiny...
If there were no negative factors
in the equation.
But there are.
Destruction.
Fear.
Hopelessness.
Hate.
There is the answer to the equation...
Total destruction of this planet earth.
You left something out,
if that's the answer to the equation.
Yes, there is a missing quantity.
The equation does not balance.
That missing quantity may be in your experience.
I will search your mind for it.
No.
You intend to resist?
I don't know why.
At least I have to try to resist it.
What is this emotion you are transmitting?
I have not encountered it till now.
Everyone I've ever known has called it "Defiance."
What do you think of our jailer?
Have I lost my mind?
You've lost it, Drifter.
That thing upstairs is dissecting it.
Did you... Submit to it?
I don't know.
I don't think so.
You will.
You'll be wooed up there again and again.
You'll come to look forward to those sessions,
as my analyst used to wish I'd look forward to mine.
Imagine having your most hidden thoughts catalogued,
absorbed into that monstrous calculator.
We've fought it, like cornered cats.
You won't leave here, young man.
None of us will ever leave here,
not until our host finds what he's looking for.
He won't.
At which time, we will be dispossessed,
turned out, bag and baggage.
And it will be right-now time
and not way-back-then time.
Ha ha ha ha!
Ha ha heh heh heh!
My husband thinks that you and I
and this fine actress
are figments of his imagination.
He expects to wake up one day
and find himself right back where we were
when this grisly dream started.
It's the only sane explanation.
We've been in this house since 1928.
No dream could last that long.
He doesn't want to leave this house.
You should try to curb your imagination, Ethel.
The young man will realize that you're spiritually ill.
I'm on my way to New York
to attend a board meeting of my firm.
I'm an investment broker, you see.
He's going east to answer charges of fraud.
Misconduct. When will you learn the difference?
Self-deception.
And miss silent movies here,
is moving east to do a talking play.
Been here since 1935.
And a star since 1925.
When talking pictures came in,
my studio said my voice was difficult to record.
Ah-ha... studio politics, naturally.
They did me a favor
when they allowed me to break my contract.
The legitimate stage is the only temple
for a legitimate actress.
Ahh...
I can't wait...
To step out... onto that stage.
Why don't you start
by stepping out the front door?
It's time I did.
You're a prisoner.
We're all prisoners.
I came into this house through a door.
The thing upstairs has undreamed your door.
I saw windows outside.
Somebody was looking at me from behind a curtain.
The windows have been undreamed, too.
It controls your dreams now, Drifter,
and mine...
And theirs.
Not mine. I'm wide awake
and loving every moment of it.
Ethel, if you persist...
Rubbish. You need me to punish you, Randall.
You sensitive and defiant Drifters
are all sweet musicians at heart, aren't you?
Come and accompany me, please.
Please, Mrs. Lattimer, you'll damage it.
Stop it. You can't play a note, and you know it.
There's a note.
There's another.
Oh, no, now.
Oh, no.
Mrs. Lattimer.
I think I'll go to my room now.
Pleasant dreams within dreams, everyone.
Randall.
Excuse me.
You enjoy this, don't you?
All of you.
Except you.
How long have you been here?
I don't know.
You can't be much more than 18 now.
I'm not.
Are we dreaming all this?
I looked at your picture in the watch case...
And I heard a pain in my heart.
It was the sweetest hurt in all the world.
Is that when the dream began?
It is a dream, isn't it?
Does it matter?
I can't submit to being trapped...
Awake or dreaming.
If I can get myself into this madhouse,
I can get myself out.
Interesting architecture, isn't it?
Hallways that go nowhere.
Doors that open into empty rooms.
How many did you count?
You followed me. I saw you. Why?
Why?!
Did you wanna watch the mouse
run through the maze?
Is that how you get your enjoyment?
I just didn't want you to be alone
when you finally gave up.
Ah.
Oh.
You wanted me to kiss you, you know.
No.
What's your name?
Teresa Ames.
What's yours, please?
Wade Norton.
But they call you Drifter.
That's because I drift.
Do you wanna leave here?
This moment?
Yes.
I'll show you a door.
Go and open that gate and leave.
Do I make you uncomfortable, Teresa?
I'm usually called simply Tess.
Oh, no. Not simply.
Your name should never be spoken simply...
With simplicity and Serenity,
but never with simpleness.
Am I funny, Tess?
You play with words...
But I admire you for it.
Don't. Words are weapons.
You wouldn't admire me
if I were playing with an atom bomb.
You'd be afraid of me.
An atom bomb?
Oh. You remember those
old-fashioned little firecrackers?
Where do you drift to?
I don't. I drift from.
From then. From where?
Never interrogate the wind.
Can you leave here with me, now?
No.
Oh.
You're going to leave, though, aren't you?
No.
You must.
I must?
Hurry!
Go now, before it's too late.
Once he dissects you, you'll never wanna go.
Yes. Yes, it is in you.
I don't understand it yet, but I know it's there.
Come close. Let me dissect it.
Let me absorb it. Bring it here.
Bring your brain here.
No!
No! Don't do that to him!
Ah!
It hurts.
Hope hurts.
My head. Inside.
It hurts inside.
If I were a creature of your species,
I would feel compassion.
Let me go.
No.
Yes.
You have projected
a new factor into the equation.
It is still unclear, however.
Please. It hurts too much.
All your feelings are becoming unclear.
Does pain do that?
Oblivion.
You feel hatred. I recognize it
from my exploration of the others,
but it's new to you, isn't it?
Will I be caged here now...
Like Tess? Like the others?
Forever?
They are not caged.
For each, there is a door to freedom.
All they have to do is find it.
Each knows where his door is.
They don't try to leave then?
Do you play bridge, Drifter?
3-handed's a crushing bore.
Why are you all pretending
that you're trapped in this place?
Each one of you knows a way out.
Who gave you
that stunning piece of misinformation?
It was telling the truth.
You've been mocked, Mr. Norton.
I believe I warned you
that the creature would use
all sorts of hellish little torments.
Do you know a way out?
There is no way out.
Don't you suppose we've searched and searched?
You're interrupting our game, young man.
From the moment I stepped into this madhouse,
you've been needling the others,
making noises like you know the truth.
Well, now, let's have it.
Does each of us know of a door?
Are we deliberately remaining here
complaining, fighting,
and clawing at each other's souls?
Why should you care?
You're not one of us. You're above us.
You're a special and gifted dreamer
chasing a rainbow no one else believes in
much less sees.
The reason you drift,
there's nothing heavy in your noble heart
to anchor it in reality.
But you're scared, young man.
You begin to suspect you, don't you?
You're not so sure you won't just
plunk yourself right down here
and dream a life...
And live a dream.
How do you like that, my small-eyed swindler?
Dream a life and live a dream.
You never did get to make that talkie,
did you, Miss Silent Screen?
I'm a star.
Audiences hear stars with their souls,
not with their ears.
Why don't you leave?
A wife's duty
is to share her husband's life sentence.
And if you can tear him down
to match your secret image of yourself,
so much the better.
Shut up, Randall,
or I'll be nice to you.
I, on the other hand, require niceness.
I wither without it. Be nice to me...
Or else get outta here!
Tess...
Go with me?
You can go.
It's too late.
It won't let you go now.
Why can't I leave?
This force I feel from you,
it must be understood, even if only
to be discarded as inconsequential.
That may take you forever.
I have more time than forever.
I don't.
Tess and I don't.
What are you feeling now?
Why don't you probe my brain again
and find out for yourself?
Wait! I caught a glimpse of it
just before your hatred erupted.
Hatred canceled it out.
I must ponder this carefully, quietly.
Please return
to the room below, Mr. Norton.
I cannot be distracted at this moment.
Certainly not by so disruptive an emotion
as hope.
Is that what I was feeling?
I didn't know I had hope.
I thought I only had illusions.
Where's Tess?
I had to do that.
Blame it on my madcap heart.
My madcap heart was the title
of my first bad picture.
Did you think I was being sincere
there for a moment?
Tess!
You're cold.
Yes.
Will you escape with me?
Would you try?
No, I can't.
I don't believe that of you.
I believe it of the others,
but not of you.
It's more true of me.
Listen. The silence.
It isn't watching.
You can escape, Wade. Hurry.
Alone? yes, yes!
Why?
I can't go out there with you.
I can't go beyond that gate.
This is as far as I can go without...
Being afraid.
Tell me what you're afraid of.
Tell me.
Death.
That man you found in the road...
That old, old man...
He was my father.
The moment he stepped outside that gate...
His years caught up with him.
He became the 120-year-old man
he really was.
He was already dead...
Already dust before he left.
But here, inside this dreamy nothingness,
he at least seemed to be living...
Just as I seem to be living.
No, you're alive.
No, Tess. I know you're alive.
Out there, my years are waiting for me.
Don't let it happen to you, Wade.
Save yourself
while your life can still be lived.
While it's real. While you're real.
Why did you stay till it was too late?
My father was a resigner.
He saw this as a way
of resigning from the human race.
He asked me to stay with him,
and I stayed because he needed me.
You must have hated him for asking you that.
No, I didn't. I... I was taught never to hate.
Go now, Wade. Forget about me.
How can I?
I'm an illusion.
They're so easy to lose.
I want to lose them.
I want to believe...
In you.
I want to love you.
I'll stay with you. Here. Forever.
I can't let you do that.
There's nothing you can do or say
to drive me out.
Oh, yes, there is.
There is.
No, Tess!
Tess, come back!
Tess?
There's nothing for me out there either, Tess.
Yes, Mr. Norton.
There is nothing out there
now that you have it inside yourself.
Something. What? What is it?
The single factor I was searching for.
The one note in the human symphony
that will forever make impossible
man's final self-destruction.
Go out of this dream, Mr. Norton.
Close your eyes to illusion.
The real factor is out there.
Love is out there.
You will take it out there with you
when you go.
Ah. Aah!
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...