Come on.
The food.
Fall!
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...
There was a moment in time
when those who were brilliant and powerful
also were playful.
And when they took recess
from their exhausting and magnificent strides
toward glory,
they replenished their darker passions
with fun and games.
On the planet Earth,
such pastimes have been civilized
and drained of all but their last few drops of blood.
9 of Diamonds. Possible.
8 of Clubs.
9 of Clubs.
3. Deuce's bet.
Bet 5.
Call.
I'll see that.
8s and Deuces.
Possible flush.
Pair of Treys.
Pair of Ladies.
Pair of Aces for the dealer.
2 pair bet.
I'll bet 50.
I'll pass.
Out.
I call.
I'm in.
Down the river.
That Ace came off the bottom.
Citizens of Anderra,
the game will soon begin.
I have selected the male half
of a human team
from the planet Earth.
Welcome to Anderra, Mr. Benson.
Never turn your back on the enemy,
Mr. Benson.
I thought you'd have learned
that grisly fact by now.
Am I dead?
You have been electro-ported
to a planet called Anderra.
It is a million, million light-years away
from your own.
I'm beginning to sense that my judgment
has once again been proved infallible.
I could have selected
any one of you down there.
Many of you
are practiced jungle fighters,
and most of you
are in a perpetual state of panic.
I'll build a female of you.
May I ask you a question, Mr. Benson?
You didn't answer mine.
You are not dead.
Strange, yours is the only race
whose members ask first if they are dead.
Are all of you that preoccupied with death?
It's the only game you can't win.
Why did you decide to go back into the room
where the murder occurred?
I thought you were looking
for a means of escape.
What am I doin' here?
Why did you go back into that room?
'Cause if the cops found me there,
they'd... they'd know I...
They'd believe you must be innocent.
Very wise move, Mr. Benson.
Excuse me.
I believe the moment has come
to select your teammate.
Yes. I believe Miss Laura Hanley
will do... Nicely.
Aaaah!
Where am I?
Welcome to Anderra, Miss Hanley.
Is it a dream?
It's a game, Miss Hanley.
A wonderful, rather terrible game,
sanctioned by the state of Anderra, of course.
I will explain.
You will serve each other well in this game.
She is still relatively trusting
and will reap the rewards of faith.
You, Mr. Benson, are the net result
of all the spoiling things in your world.
The rewards of evil are yours
even if you yourself are not evil.
You said you'd explain.
When civilized creatures have conquered
all that they believe to be worth conquering,
then one conquest remains.
One elusive conquest. Pleasure.
Here on Anderra, we are finished with warring
and plundering is done.
Our citizens enjoy self-respect, peace,
and affluence.
But a high order of civilization
does not lift the low order of passion,
and so such passions must be both appeased
and controlled.
We do this by providing the citizens
with an unbroken succession of...
Fun and games.
Passionate games.
We have selected 2 teams,
each consisting of 2 players,
a male and a female.
You, of course,
represent the planet Earth.
Your opponents come from the unnamed planet
in the Caligo galaxy
of which you've no doubt never heard.
I will show them to you.
You will meet in the "Arena,"
which is a small, unpleasant planet
that orbits Anderra.
It is somewhat similar to Earth,
which will give you a slight advantage.
But then your opponents
are not as advanced as you,
which will give them
an even more important advantage.
Why?
Why do you do this?
Like the man said, Miss Hanley, for kicks.
Ain't you ever paid to see a couple of guys
batter each other to death?
No.
Mr. Benson makes a pertinent point.
I suppose it is
a vaguely valid analogy.
No, it isn't.
Men aren't forced to step into the ring.
Oh, they ain't, huh?
No, not by a high order of civilization.
You won't be forced to participate
in this game, Miss Hanley,
nor will Mr. Benson.
The choice is yours.
Of course, if you refuse,
your opponents will win by default.
Win what?
Their lives.
The lives of everyone else
on their planet...
Which is what you will lose.
Only us?
Only me and...
You and him...
And everyone else on your planet.
When?
If you refuse to play the game,
I will electro-port you back to Earth,
both of you.
Our games committee will then select
a moment at which,
for the enjoyment of our citizens,
the planet Earth
will be exterminated.
Quick?
In your reading of time,
the entire display will take, uh,
approximately 5 years.
For us, it will be as a firecracker
in a black summer sky.
You know, I may be wrong,
but I read you to be one of those
"Save Humanity" types.
Do you?
So I'm just gonna say good-bye, Miss... Uh...
Miss... uh... Miss, uh...
What's your name again?
Laura.
Miss Hanley, and let the coach here
electro-port you some other playmate.
Against the rules.
If one of you returns to Earth,
both of you return.
5 years. Long enough to enjoy
just about all there is in the world to enjoy.
Like raising a child?
I don't think I'd enjoy that.
My parents always said I...
Was a whole lot of trouble.
Send me back.
You won't change your mind?
No. try to.
At least try to.
You want to face those monsters
in The Arena?
You... you want to die on some unpleasant planet
you never even heard of? What for?
What do you owe the human race?
Nothing.
Except my own humanity.
Look, I'm not gonna change my mind.
Now send us back.
To a possible murder charge?
You are the prime suspect
in that act of violence, you know.
The victim saw to that, Mr. Benson.
Send me back!
No. He'll change his mind.
I will send you both back...
To that exact moment
when your frame of mind
made me choose you.
Perhaps he will change his mind,
Miss Hanley.
I'll give him the length
of one of his days to do so.
If he ever consciously wishes
he were facing this game
instead of a more terrifying one
on Earth,
and if you still believe
you are willing to fight for your race,
you will both find yourselves
right here.
Oh, uh, just a minute.
Oh, um, I heard footsteps, uh, before I heard the sirens
and... and the whistles, I mean,
and... and they ran right down the hall
toward the fire escape.
Keep your door locked, Miss.
Oh, I always do.
Why'd you do that?
Don't you remember?
Laura?
You... it really happened? I didn't dream it?
I was there.
I could have dreamed of you.
I dreamed of strange girls before.
Strangers never dream the same dream.
You can sleep there. Perhaps by morning...
I'll change my mind?
To be willing to be your... Your... playmate up there?
Ha.
Whew.
Please, Mike, change your mind.
We can win. I know we can win.
I feel it inside me.
I feel it.
A girl once said that to me.
A nice girl. Like you're nice.
She had that same kind of feeling...
Right before I went into the ring
and took the bloodiest beatin'
in fight history.
I almost died, but I fought it.
I kept picturing them dumping me
into some tight grave,
and I fought it.
I can't stand tight places.
I got some kind of a phobia.
Aren't prison cells pretty tight places?
I keep fightin'.
You do not wish to win by default,
do you?
That is the charm of the primitive:
"No Spectator, He."
I believe Mr. Benson
will change his mind.
I'm convinced that you will have
the battle you're longing for.
"I don't know why,
"but I feel it inside me.
I feel it."
Like raising a child?
Tell us what you're dreaming, Mrs. Hanley.
It's about Mr. Hanley, isn't it?
No. I can't stay with you,
the way you are.
I can't be married to a... a child.
I want to be your wife, Arthur.
Your wife, not your...
Mom!
Ha ha ha ha. "Mom."
Who is it?
Laura.
Please let me in, Mike.
I had a hard time finding you.
Well, gee, it breaks me up inside.
Mike, listen, he gave you 24 hours to change your mind.
Most of those hours are used up.
See the morning paper?
Yes.
They spell my name right?
There used to be this one sportswriter.
He always spelled my name wrong.
I mean, it ain't easy to spell Benson wrong.
The day I quit the ring, he spelled it right.
Why did you quit?
Want a cigarette?
No, thanks.
Half the time, I nearly got killed.
I lost my cockiness.
That's another word for courage,
isn't it?
Might as well be.
Fighter can't fight without one or the other.
Maybe you haven't lost it, Mike.
Maybe what you need is one... one more fight.
A really life-and-death fight to show you that...
You're one of life's little cheerleaders.
What made you call me that?
Last night before I went to sleep,
I... I kept thinking about what happened to us,
about that dream that turned out
to be real as a nightmare.
I kept... I kept wondering why did he pick you?
I mean, I can understand why he picked me.
I'm a born jungle-type.
You know, and I'm... I'm selfish enough
and I'm scared enough to go out there
and give the audience a lot of laughs
and maybe a few surprises,
but you...
Why did he pick you to be my partner?
But then I figured it out.
You did?
He had you pegged right.
You're the cheerleader type.
Every guy oughta have one.
I mean, how can a guy quit
or even stop to cry or to bleed
when there's a pretty girl on the sidelines
jumpin' up and down, yelling' at you
like... like she knows you're a bum,
but she thinks she can make a hero out of you?
Mike...
You want to know what us fighters
think about you cheerleaders?
We think you scream from the sidelines
because you're scared of getting in The Arena
and scream from the kicks and the blows.
We think you make us feel guilty
so you can go on feelin' innocent.
Man, it really must be nice
not to have to get in there and lose.
When the team loses, the cheerleader loses, too.
Yeah, but it doesn't hurt the same way.
You can always get another guy
to cheer for.
Me? Win or lose, I'm stuck with me.
Benson?
I'd like to talk to you.
Will you open the door?
The fire escape's covered, Benson.
I can't.
I spent an hour in a cage...
And I died, I just died.
I died. I died.
Benson! Open up!
I'd rather be any place than a cage, please.
You will recall my saying
that if you ever consciously wished
you were facing this game
instead of the more terrifying one on Earth,
you would find yourselves right here.
Ha ha ha ha.
Your opponents are already on the planet
we call "The Arena."
They're waiting.
Good luck, Miss Hanley, Mr. Benson.
May the best team win.
As I told you,
the unpleasant planet we call "The Arena"
is somewhat similar to the planet Earth.
I should amend, of course,
Earth as it was more than a million years ago.
Since you are natural creatures of Earth,
you will have certain atmospheric advantages
over your opponents, however.
For example, you require constant oxygen.
They come from a planet where oxygen is supplied
only intermittently
and could be burdened by the overdose
they will receive in "The Arena."
But your opponents do have their advantages.
You'll see they are truly primitive.
They know nothing of modern weaponry.
They have not yet conceived explosives
of any of your madman mechanical magics
you on Earth so deeply depend upon.
They have to be invented.
Laura...
Did you tell the police about me?
No.
Yeah, well, somebody did.
The man who was shot.
I told you I'd seen the morning papers.
I thought you said he was dead.
He died on the way to the hospital.
Before he died, he named you
as his murderer.
Ohh. Whew.
For a lousy 10,000 bucks.
I was supposed to throw a fight once.
When the time come, I couldn't.
My basic decency cost him $10,000.
He said he'd make me pay for it
some way.
Don't you believe that?
Yes.
Mike... mike, will we win?
I wonder where they are.
Huh, Mike, will we? Win?
By a knockout.
No, Mr. Benson.
A knockout will not suffice.
The fight must be to the death.
Can I just strangle them,
or do you have to see blood?
Or is it all right
if I don't even touch them?
If I just get close enough
to use this, huh?!
Fire it, Mr. Benson.
No, Mike. No, don't waste the bull...
No bullets will be wasted, Miss Hanley.
Go on, Mr. Benson. Fire it.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha.
The rules of the game, Mr. Benson,
advantages must be evenly distributed,
and since your opponents are not yet blessed
with modern weaponry,
I simply couldn't allow your gun to be of any use to you.
However, it was a bit unfair of me
to allow you to make your position known.
I suggest you move on as quickly as possible.
Come on.
The food.
Fall!
Wait here.
No. We shouldn't separate, not even for a moment.
Stay here.
That does something to the odds.
We shouldn't stay here.
One of us could have an accident.
Maybe it was.
Do you think he killed her?
She could have fallen while they were
crossing that thing.
I don't think so.
Well, why would he kill her?
Wouldn't he know that it would
do something to the odds?
Sure, he knows.
I think I do, too, now.
He said the food would last for 3 days
or 6 days.
3 days if 2 of us ate it.
6 days if one of us had it all to himself.
The odds are in his favor.
He doesn't even have to fight us now.
He just digs in and waits someplace for us
to eat ourselves to death.
No, thank you.
You know, something strange just hit me.
It might...
It might have to happen.
Just might have to happen.
What?
I might have to die up here.
That never occur to you before?
Yes, yes, but...
Very distantly.
As if only my mind were thinking it.
Now I'm thinking it all over.
My...
My hands and my eyes.
All through me.
The cheerleader
needs a cheerleader.
Mike, you couldn't kill me, could you?
I doubt it.
But you don't like me.
If I went around killing everybody
I didn't like...
I'm serious!
So you're serious.
What do you want me to say?
I don't like you?
All right, I don't like your type.
No. I was a type on Earth.
Here, I'm something personal.
What do you want?
He killed her.
And?
And he'll outlast you.
All right, so he's got
twice as much food as we do,
but we can stretch this into 6 days,
can't we? Huh?
Half today, half tomorrow.
Ha ha ha ha ha.
Half a loaf a day is not enough.
I told you it was absolutely vital.
You can't survive on half its properties.
Did you think that we wouldn't have
taken into account the human capacity for self-denial?
Mike.
Shut up.
Why are you so afraid?
Of what? I'm afraid of a lot of things.
You chose this
or spending...
Maybe spending a few hours in a prison cell.
Why?
Something happened to me when I was a kid.
Scarred me for life.
Must have.
Or else you wouldn't talk about it
in that tone of voice.
Oh, so you're a psychiatrist, too, huh?
As well as being a cheerleader
and a Missionary and a Saver of Humanity?
I'm a lot of things.
That's why I like you.
If there's one thing I can't stand,
it's a girl who's not a lot of things.
What happened to you when you were a kid?
I went to the zoo.
When the teacher's back was turned or something,
one of the other kids
punched me right in the face.
He knocked me out.
When I came to, the first thing I saw was bars.
They were just playing, you see.
They dragged me into this empty cage...
Locked me in there.
Only they didn't lock me in...
But I felt locked in.
I didn't even taste the blood in my mouth. I...
I only tasted the terror boiling in my stomach
and I tried to yell.
I tried... I tried to yell for my mom, but I couldn't.
And I tried to see if anybody was around,
if anybody was around to get me out of that cage.
Then I heard the voice of the teacher.
She was mad. She was yelling.
She was yelling at 'em. She said, "get in there."
She said, "get in there and get him out."
So they did. They... they got me out.
But you know what I think sometimes?
I think they never got me out.
Ha ha ha ha ha.
Oh, this is very amusing.
You see what she did, citizens?
She couldn't get him to kill her,
so she's run off and left him
with her share of the food.
She'll starve herself so that he...
Watch closely, citizens.
It's going to get even more amusing.
Laura?!
Laura?
Laura?!
Oh, I can't let you kill her just yet.
She hasn't begun to suffer.
Miss Hanley, wasn't it our understanding
that you and Mr. Benson were a team?
You've run away again, haven't you?
Why have you run away from him, Miss Hanley?
So that he can eat all the food?
So that he can do all the fighting?
Your heart is a bottomless box of virtuous motives,
isn't it?
Whatever you do, you do for someone else's good,
don't you?
Your husband didn't want you to mother him, Miss Hanley.
He wanted you to help him.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
It hurts to admit that you're afraid
you can't help someone, doesn't it?
Yes, it hurts.
It hurts.
I could help you get back to Mr. Benson,
but it wouldn't be fair, would it?
People have to help themselves,
don't they, Miss Hanley?
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
All right. Go ahead.
Mike?
Mike?!
Mike. Mike.
Mike, help.
Help me.
Mike.
Mom!
Laura?!
Kill him!
Don't let him win!
You'll fall!
No!
I can hold on!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
I'm sorry, Mike.
I knew you'd fall...
And you knew it, too, didn't you?
Oh, Mike.
He can't hear you.
Who won?
You're still alive, aren't you?
Don't throw me any garlands.
Your Victor is in there.
I couldn't have killed that thing
if Mike hadn't looked at me the way he did.
Well, what's the difference who saves the human race?
The dull fact is...
It's been saved.
It does matter.
When someone dies, it must matter.
He isn't dead.
His opponent died first.
Survivors need survive only a split moment
to be considered survivors.
Rule of the game,
which incidentally, is ended now, Mrs. Hanley.
Mike's back on Earth,
and if the police catch him,
he'll probably wish he were dead.
They'll catch him...
But they won't hold him.
They know the dying man
was merely having his fun and games.
Our fun is over. Will you forgive me if...
Wait.
Will I have to remember all this?
Only those memories which might be helpful to you
and perhaps to your marriage.
Forgive me if I seem abrupt,
but I really must get busy.
It isn't easy to keep devising new Fun and Games.
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...