The great unknown,
limitless heavens crowded with sparking mysteries,
challenging man's curiosity.
But the heavens are not oceans.
Man cannot push a boat into its currents.
And set sail for the next horizon.
The heavens are the mystery only science can solve.
As it penetrates the unknown.
Sir, would you be seated, please?
Capt. Branson? All passengers aboard.
Thank you miss O'Hara, you can close up now.
Yes, sir.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is capt. Harvey Branson,
commander of space transport, Weblow One.
Welcome aboard.
Estimated time of arrival,
Planet Antheon, 0735 their time.
261 days, 10 hours, 51 minutes from blastoff.
I wish you a very pleasant journey.
Please fasten your seatbelts.
There is nothing wrong with your television set.
Do not attempt to adjust the picture.
We are controlling transmission.
For the next hour,
we will control all that you see and hear.
You are about to experience the awe and mystery.
Which reaches from the inner mind to...
Wow!
Just like the real thing!
Couldn't be more frightened if it were real.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is capt. Branson again.
You are now traveling at a speed of 25,000 miles per hour.
You will not hear the rockets again.
Till we fire the retro rockets for the Antheon landing.
You have been listening to the voice of the future.
When interplanetary space flights will be as commonplace.
As flights from New York to Los Angeles.
This is a final briefing,
a summation of everything you already know.
Try to believe it.
Even though you know there is no planetary station.
That the spacecraft in which you are now sitting.
Is a design for the space transport of the future.
And that the space through which you will fly.
Is the length of a tunnel built over desert sands.
You have been invited to make this first experimental flight.
Because of your special professions.
Through you.
We will determine whether or not.
People untrained in space flight.
Can survive the physical and psychological stress.
Of long confinement in close quarters,
completely detached from earth.
Good luck.
Capt. Branson, take over.
You may unfasten your seatbelts.
I now call your attention to the glass panel.
To the right of the control cabin door.
It is the emergency alarm, sometimes called the panic button.
From now on, it will be your only contact with project control.
Should you use it,
this flight will be immediately aborted, that is cancelled,
and you will all, regardless of who pressed the button or why,
be replaced by other passengers, disqualifying yourselves.
For passage on the space transport.
That will make the first actual flight to Antheon.
Thank you.
Miss O'Hara will open the bar for a bon voyage drink.
Miss O'Hara?
Hey, what do you know? They got a bar, too.
Nobody told me about that!
Yeah, that's one hardship I'll survive.
Keith Ellis, Washington times.
Alicia Hendrix, hello.
Oh, the anthropologist. yes.
I'm absolutely delighted.
I've read all your books, Dr. Hendrix.
I've read most of your columns.
Well, that ought to give us enough to discuss,
to keep arguing for months to come.
Joe Dix, construction engineer.
Bridges, highways, radar stations...
You name it, Joe Dix will build it.
The tougher the better.
We better get up to this bar. My father always said
"you gotta milk the cow before she runs dry."
Just wanted to make sure they survived the blastoff.
Something special?
Oh, yes.
I've been, for 10 years...
The drink, first.
I'm Henry Craif.
The ecologist?
I can't tell you how happy I am to meet you.
There are a thousand questions
I want to ask you about environmental controls.
Now, for example...
Uh, later, mister...
Lint, Michael Lint.
You wouldn't know me, professor. Uh, botanist, agronomist,
a latecomer to photosynthesis.
Now then,
this is Alicia Hendrix.
Michael Lint.
Dr. Matthew James?
Yes?
I'm Keith Ellis, I don't usually intrude on people,
but, uh, under the circumstances...
Yes.
We're stuck with each other like blind dates,
as my youngest daughter would probably say.
We have a long way to go.
Yes.
I'm... I'm sorry. I... I... I was thinking of my family.
Drink probably would do me some good.
Dr. James, Dr. Hendrix.
hello.
Professor Craif.
Professor. hello.
Mr. Lint.
And Mr. Dix. Joe Dix.
How do you do, Mr. Dix?
To Antheon.
May we each find what we're looking for.
Amen.
My plants!
Mr. Dix, are you all right?
Yeah, I'm OK.
Professor Craif?
Yes, I'm fine.
Well, trick number one.
It's certainly realistic.
I must admit it scared me.
Me, too.
Man is imaginative,
he reacts to the unexpected.
Spoken like an anthropologist.
I call him a living organism
that reacts automatically
to any environmental change
in a desperate effort to survive.
Spoken like an ecologist.
Yeah, well, speaking like a plain old construction man,
I call that a waste of good champagne.
Ladies and gentlemen,
we've just passed through a mass of micrometeorites.
Sorry, I didn't have a chance to warn you.
For your information, we will be passing the planet Mercury.
Mercury's day is exactly equal to its year, 88 days.
So one side of the planet is always in sunlight,
the other always in darkness.
We will be passing on the dark side.
Who cares?
I'd call it useful information if he'd tell us
where there's another bottle of champagne.
Well, we have another bottle, sir.
Well, get it out, what are you waiting for?
It's to be saved for the end of the trip.
Well, that's a long way off.
And not too certain.
I think we'll make it.
Atta girl!
And when we do, I'm going to throw a real winger.
And when Joe Dix throws a party, baby,
the booze flows like the dam is broke.
No limit to the bill, no questions asked.
Break open that bottle, cutie.
We'll start celebrating right now.
Uh...
Can I give you a hand?
No, thank you, Mr. Dix.
You know, you scientists constantly amaze me.
You're always in the wildest places,
living the most hair-raising adventures,
and yet you go about as though you were in your own library.
We're like you, Mr. Ellis.
We must see for ourselves.
Do you sometimes see something you'd rather not?
Yes.
Sometimes, the truth is hard to take.
I guess you newspaper guys don't worry too much about the truth.
Oh, we get used to it.
Except when it concerns people,
politicians, and parasites.
Why are you taking the time to make this trip?
To make a million, maybe a billion bucks.
On Antheon?
Well, it figures, I mean, uh...
I mean, that's the wide open spaces, ain't it?
The wilderness?
All right.
First, you guys do your explorin',
then comes a smart businessman.
Picks up the land, builds the cities,
the airports, the railroads... Who knows what?
That's me. I'm first there,
nobody stops me from taking what I want.
A planet pioneer.
What if there are, um,
Indians?
They go.
You can't let savages stop the progress of civilization.
Right.
Where's the panic button?
Ain't nobody gonna press that.
How can you be so sure?
Look, nobody's gonna push that button
unless they blow their top, right?
Nobody's gonna blow their top unless they're scared.
All right, now everybody listen to me.
This whole deal, for real, is just like a movie, see?
Now, you take the hero.
Everybody's out to kill him.
The bad guys, the floods, blizzards.
Even in those kooky horror pictures,
the most awful looking monsters.
They're all after his blood, or something, see?
But is the hero scared? No. Why?
Because he knows it ain't for real.
All right, in this movie, we're the heroes.
Me and you.
We know it ain't real.
What have we got to be scared of, right?
Pop that cork, baby.
I'm gonna make a toast to all of us heroes.
Tricksters! Tricks!
I've had enough of this kid's stuff.
Don't let it get you down, Dix.
Remember, you're a hero.
Listen, nobody roughs me up
more than once and gets away with it.
I'm gonna talk to that captain what's-his-name?
I'm sorry, sir.
No one's allowed in there.
Look, baby, I can read,
but my name is Joe Dix,
and signs don't impress me.
How do you open this?
I'm capt. Branson.
Yeah, I was just looking for you.
Why?
Look, this ship ain't going anywhere.
Why does it need a pilot?
Because we're in flight,
even though simulated.
You don't fool me for a minute.
I know what your job is.
You just sit up there and push all the buttons
and make all those kooky things happen,
like that last little brannigan.
Is that what you wanted to see me about?
Yeah, and...
Something else.
Look, I'm a businessman.
I wanna make this trip,
the whole 261 days.
Now, you lay off the tricks,
I'll make it worth your while.
You say it, I'll pay it. How 'bout it?
I have nothing to say to you, Mr. Dix.
I have no control over what happens
to this space transport.
My problem is to keep it flying,
no matter what happens.
So what's in it for you?
If this trip is a success,
I'll be on the first space transport to Antheon,
as astropilot.
I want that, maybe more than you want those millions.
But money won't buy the courage you need
to finish this flight.
One hint, captain, one small hint.
Out of your own experience,
what do you think is the greatest danger in space flight,
especially for untrained people like us?
The greatest danger...
I don't know, there are so many.
Maybe the worst are the ones
that we make for ourselves,
by seeing things that don't exist
except in our own imaginations.
Oh, what an act!
How did he put it?
"The worst dangers
are the ones we make for ourselves."
A very sensitive man.
I don't wonder,
after all these years of adapting
to so many artificial environments.
The guy's a phony,
that's what I say.
The joker that's supposed to raise
all the goose pimples.
You guys are forgetting
that this whole trip to nowhere is rigged.
I...
What is that?
For lunch today,
you are having porchettini al gir'arrosto.
In English.
Baby pig barbequed on a spit.
Oh, delightful.
Fantastic.
Oh, what's that?
Due to space restrictions,
our food is highly concentrated,
providing sufficient nourishment,
but little gustatory pleasure.
Researchers indicated that extraneous sensory events
such as the suggestion
of various foods and cooking odors
will alleviate the monotony
resulting from the constant and necessary consumption.
Miss O'Hara, are you telling us
that the porchettini is in that spray can?
Yes, sir.
Then what's in the tube?
Beef extract, vegetable extract,
all kinds of vitamins and minerals,
all highly concentrated.
No seasoning.
None at all.
You are advised to concentrate
on the smell of the food rather than the taste.
We have a magnificent selection of odors,
such as braised wild duck grand-mere,
coq de bruyere au vin Rouge,
kidneys bourguignon,
barbecued spare ribs...
Oh, stop. You're killing me.
May I help you?
They say it's more amusing
if you make different designs.
Now, I know what it feels like
to be a starving artist.
Oh, miss O'Hara, could you give me
just a little more gravy?
Right in the face, please?
Mmm, just a touch too much garlic.
The space manual warned
about the dangers of isolation,
confinement,
reduced sensory input,
boredom, depression.
Didn't mention snoring.
1,
2,
3...
I'm a woman.
More woman than scientist.
Try as I will,
I can't forget it.
I'm getting old.
I'm wasting more...
A few years left to me on this trip.
More of the last few years...
They were my life, my world.
What did I do wrong?
Why couldn't I save them?
Why did my world die in my hands?
I must...
A million.
5 million.
10 million.
Man, it won't ever stop.
I'll be first there.
Nobody better get in my way.
Not them scientists,
anybody or anything else.
I'm going to own that planet.
Let go of me. Get off of me.
Get off of me.
Dix, take it easy.
Somebody get this thing off of me.
Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!
Everybody, take... easy, easy...
Stop it! What's going on here?
Somebody tried to kill me.
No.
One of you.
Which one of you tried to kill me?
Why should one of us want to kill you, Mr. Dix?
Perhaps to stop his infernal snoring.
I don't snore. I never snored in my life!
There's your enemy, Mr. Dix.
You must be out of your mind.
You were fighting with it when we came in.
That's a lie. Somebody threw it over my head
and tried to choke me.
Look, doc,
take a look, it still burns
where somebody put a rope, or something, around it.
Take a look!
What is it?
Does it still burn?
No. It stopped, just like that.
What was that?
No.
You probably had a nightmare
and dreamed you were choking.
That was no nightmare.
There were marks on my throat, weren't there?
Well, come on, weren't there?
Well, yes, there... there were, but they're gone.
It was obviously psychosomatic.
Ah, you stay out of this!
Try to understand, Dix.
You had a nightmare.
It was so vivid that it left marks
on your neck for a few seconds.
You, too. All of you, don't tell me what happened.
You're all against me anyhow.
Mr. Dix!
I ain't good enough for you.
You think I'm some kind of a bum
without a fancy education.
You also snore too much.
Look!
All right, I snore.
Is that a reason for somebody to murder me?
I tell you somebody tried to murder me!
Don't be afraid, Mr. Dix.
You said it yourself.
It isn't real.
Is there something I can do for you, Mr. Dix?
Just believe me.
Dr. James?
May I...
May I come in, please?
Dr. Hendrix.
Please, uh...
I just want to sit here for a few minutes.
I feel, uh,
uneasy.
A sedative?
No, no, no.
Just a hand to hold. I, uh...
I know that sounds infantile but...
Fear does that to one.
Especially a woman.
Doctor, you're...
You're much too mature a woman
to need someone to hold your hand.
You'll go to sleep much faster if you have a sedative.
No, thank you. I'll, uh...
I'll try to manage without it, doctor.
Well, whatever you wish.
Good night.
Is this your idea of a joke?
A joke?
You... you put this in my bed, didn't you?
What is it?
It's my daughter's doll.
I've never seen it before.
You're lying.
No, I don't even know that you have a daughter.
What maniac put this doll in my bed?
I said what maniac put this doll in my bed?
It's psychosomatic, doc.
Forget it, man. Go to bed.
You'd die
just to spite me, wouldn't you?
You ungrateful monsters.
Well, I'm beginning to hate you
as much as you hate me.
But I won't let you die.
We've come this far,
we'll go all the way.
She was, uh...
She was holding this when she died.
Yes.
You've already told us. Many times.
My wife and my daughter together. I...
I tried to save them, but...
I... I didn't know how.
I'm sure you did everything you could.
Well, I thought so.
But...
I've come to believe that it was
my ignorance that killed them.
I must warn you against depression.
It's caused mostly by the isolation,
the monotony.
We're coming into dangerous times now.
Professor,
there's...
There's something you must believe.
I didn't bring this aboard with me.
Professor,
how did it get on my bed?
I don't know.
You do see this, professor?
You're not just kidding me to keep me from going insane?
I see it, doctor.
But I can't explain it.
But I like it like that.
You're not alone on this ship.
Yeah, you name me one person...
We're talking about 2 different things...
No, we're not... We're talking about the same...
Now, let go of my wrist.
You don't touch that phonograph.
I said let go of my wrist.
You want me to break it?
You belong in a jungle, you ape!
Save it, gentlemen.
You might, uh,
want to fight over me.
It ain't possible.
What are you made up for?
A retired lady anthropologist.
Do they all finish this way?
Depends.
On what?
On what it depends on.
Everything depends on something, especially a woman.
A woman depends on a man.
And I'm a woman without a man,
for as long as I can remember.
So, therefore...
I've nothing to depend on except myself.
It's not right.
Oh!
I am a woman.
Alicia,
is for woman.
Hendrix,
is for anthropologist.
So I have decided to become Alicia.
Look at me, Dr. James.
Every other man
is looking at me.
Call miss O'Hara.
You'd never have guessed it,
but I'm really quite worth looking at.
Why are you looking at that doll?
You're too old to be looking at dolls.
Dolls are for children.
Let me have it!
He has reason for loving that doll, Alicia.
Just as you have reasons for wanting to be a woman.
But I don't know how.
I must...
Find out before it's too late.
I never thought of it until just now,
sitting here with
nothing to do.
Nothing.
I'm strong,
I'm trained,
a disciplined mind...
I must
work to forget the children I've never had.
You come to my cabin for a rest.
You're very pretty, Maggie,
but you're cold as a robot.
I'm much more woman than you.
Yes, miss Hendrix.
The dame's sick.
No sicker than the rest of us.
Speak for yourself, genius.
Genius?
You're in all the newspapers, ain't you?
Nobody's supposed to think until you tell them how.
Don't envy me, Dix.
I never built a house.
You build a house,
you got something you can be proud of.
Well, words don't build anything, they...
Just hang in the air for a minute,
until some other words come along
and push them out of the way... They...
Then some other words,
pushing other words...
And, and more and more and...
No.
What's happened?
Help me get him to the bed.
Dead.
His face...
He must have seen something...
Something terrible.
The panic button.
Nobody pushes that button!
Dix! Dix!
Ugh!
I'm the hero, see?
You people are out to drive me into the ground.
You want to kill me.
I'm not scared, see?
Because I know it's not real.
It's not real!
So,
nobody touches that button,
nobody.
Not as long as I'm alive.
I'll kill you.
Dix, be reasonable.
We must get out of here.
We're caught in something beyond...
Get away from the panic button, Mr. Dix.
No!
I don't want to kill you.
That's the only way you're going to get to it.
We'll all die if we don't get out of here.
Oh, in god's name, what kind of madman
planned this insane experiment?
Oh, no, not madmen.
Scientists. Men of experience, reputation.
Sadists and murderers.
No. No, they didn't expect death.
They didn't know about this horror.
Look, look, I'll show you what was planned.
Everything.
This is a remote control unit,
and with it I can...
Show me.
Turn on the lights!
Dix, what are you doing?
Now we play it my way.
Move over there.
Now, how come you knew about all this?
I was one of those who planned this experiment.
I came along to control it.
Then what are you scared of?
The things that have happened
that we hadn't planned on.
What things?
The doll.
I got choked first,
did you plan that?
No, no, but it might have been a... a nightmare.
What else?
The oxygen failure.
It's happened before.
It's too dangerous for untrained people.
And Lint? What about Lint?
We're scientists.
We don't believe in monsters.
Even now?
Why do you suppose
I want to press the panic button.
I don't know anymore.
I'm trapped by something beyond my knowledge,
even my understanding.
Who is it that's attacking us?
Perhaps we're attacking them.
Perhaps they're only defending themselves against us.
I'm with you, professor.
I don't believe in monsters.
I say you rigged this whole thing for reasons of your own.
I think maybe you got paid off by somebody
waiting with the 2nd gang.
You're a sick man.
But it is rigged, ain't it?
There's a whole mess of buttons
he ain't pushed yet.
How do I know this ain't another trick?
We are finished with tricks, Mr. Dix.
We have come to the moment of reality.
Who?
What are you?
I come from planet Antheon.
Are you always like that?
I am whatever I wish to be seen as, by you.
It's some kind of a monster.
You make your own monsters, Mr. Dix.
That's why we have no more Patience with you.
Why did you wait so long?
We are not of the planet earth.
We do not enjoy killing.
We kill only when there is no other solution.
I'm a newspaper man.
I deal in fact, not fantasy.
Now fantasy has become fact.
I don't know how to write this story.
Begin with the fact of 6 people.
Who thought only of themselves.
I got a right to make a buck!
By trying to destroy.
Whatever stands in your way.
Are we strong enough to destroy you?
You are children who still believe in monsters.
Are you alive?
Alive or not,
Dr. James, you do not know.
You are a frightened man reaching for a panic button,
as you did when your family died.
I don't believe it.
We made this ugly thing.
To fit the limits of your own imaginations.
Was it you who told me I was getting old?
You told it to yourself.
I was only reading your deepest thoughts.
The rest was your own doing.
You see, we are a simple people.
Give us half a chance,
and we'll destroy ourselves.
Why do you want to do it for us?
Because you'll destroy us, too, if we let you.
You do not know us.
We have never hurt you,
and yet you come to attack, to conquer.
We will not allow this.
What if we came to you as friends?
Ready to build instead of destroy.
To share knowledge for knowledge, love for love.
Would you welcome us then?
If such a time ever comes.
Then let us go back to where we came from.
So we can learn what we must learn.
My plants are all dead.
10 years of work, wasted.
I thought you said he was dead.
He was according to my definitions.
We've gone beyond your definitions.
Beyond the definitions any of us have ever known before.
Will you please explain?
Later, when we get back where we belong.
Meanwhile, your plants are dead,
and you have no reason for continuing this trip.
Press the panic button.
You sure?
Press the panic button, Mr. Lint.
No. I got a billion dollars riding on this trip!
Nobody...
Panic button pressed.
Passengers returned.
One side always in the sunlight.
The other always in darkness.
The known and the unknown.
Frightening to each other only when they are both unknown.
And misunderstood.
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...
The outer limits.