Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime,
Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator...
and vanished.
He awoke to find himself trapped in the past,
facing mirror images that were not his own...
and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better.
His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time,
who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear.
And so, Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life,
striving to put right what once went wrong...
and hoping each time that his next leap...
will be the leap home.
How's it lookin'?
Here it comes. Get ready.
Come on! Ah!
Okay, you're clear!
Which way? Which way? Which way? Which way? Oh, boy.
What the hell you mean, you don't know where we are?
Well... You said you grew up around here.
I did? You... You lied to me, didn't you?
No. L... No, I didn't lie to ya. I mean, I don't think I lied to ya.
What you mean, you don't think? I mean... I mean, no.
No. What?
Damn that dog's nose!
No. No. No.
Look. Look. We can't outrun their noses.
We have to.
You can't hear 'em? They gettin' closer.
Maybe we should just give ourselves up. Say what?
The only way we goin' back to that camp now is in a pine box.
Come on. Come on.
What? No. No. Yes, yes, yes!
Mr. Dog can't smell us now. Yeah, I know,
but he can see us and our footprints.
Come here.
Come on.
Uh, I ain't goin' in there.
I ain't goin' in there! It's either in there... It's either in there or in a pine box.
Now, come on. Come on. No. I don't wanna go in there!
I can't stand small spaces! Let me go! Let me go!
It's too small for me! It's just for a little bit. Now, just take it easy. Take it easy, Boone.
Shh, shh. Easy, easy. They're almost here. Shut up.
Come on, Demon. Come on, boy.
Hey, boss. He's pickin' up skunk.
Here, boy. Come here.
Good boy. We'll find them boys before they get themselves hurt.
What you got, boy?
- Lord, how can they smell anything for that skunk? - - He's killing the scent.
Let's move on.
I've had about... enough ofTalawaga County as I ever wanna see.
Oh, you always been claustrophobic?
I got too big a body for tiny places...
is what my mama always said.
Outside is where I got to be.
Anyplace else...
I can't go back.
Gee, Sam, it kind of looks like you're dressed up for hard times.
This is the latest thing in prison escapes.
Yeah. Well, it's more like a chain gang.
Thank you, Dr. Watson. Nothing to it.
You're in 1956, November 2.
Your name is Chance Terrence Cole,
and you're a local, small-time pet...
"Petty." Oh. Petty thief.
You're a local petty thief, and you passed some bad checks. You're doin' nine months...
in Ta... Ta... "Tawawawa."
Talawa... Talawaga. What?
- Talawaga. - Talawawa County Prison road gang. Whatever it is.
And I'm really innocent, right? And I'm here to prove that this guy's not guilty, right?
- No. Not exactly. - No?
Ziggy checked the police files, and you've got a rap sheet.
- What about him? - Uh, Jasper Boone is his name.
He's doin', uh, 15 big ones for armed robbery and attempted murder...
in a town called Langston.
He hit a jewelry store not long ago.
- Wonderful. - Ziggy's still workin' on this...
and tryin' to find out why you're here, so I'll go check with him.
As soon as I hear something, I'll come right away and let you know.
- Thanks, Al. - You know, it's funny.
What? If I wasn't a hologram, I could swear I could smell skunk.
My daddy was a colored farmer from North Carolina.
My mama was a Muskogee. Indian?
Pureblood. Come on.
She and Pops...
died when I was still little.
A kerosene heater blew up, so I went off...
went off to live with my grandmama, my mama's mama.
Whoa!
- Breakfast? - I'm not real hungry right now.
Me neither.
You know,
it was hard on the reservation...
being osonko, half-breed.
But out here, they ain't got no rules, no honor.
They chain you up, take away your hope, your spirit.
Well, that's what happens when you break the law.
I didn't break... I didn't break any law.
I didn't do anything! Okay, okay, okay. Okay.
I left home to find work.
I'm on the bus, so I get off at town...
'cause I don't like being cooped up in there too long.
I walk into the store. It has some pretty jewelry, so I just look.
Then I hear yellin', and I hear a gunshot.
Suddenly I'm pushed to the ground, and somebody accused me...
of shootin' and robbin' the man that owned the store.
I ain't never robbed nobody in my life, Cole! And nobody believed me!
Nobody listened!
And then they locked me in.
I was born outside. I was raised outside.
And for two months now, they had me...
chained up and shut in.
But not anymore.
Not anymore. That's why you escaped?
It was either that...
or die.
We gotta find a way to get out of these things.
Look for a saw, a hammer or anything, right?
Okay. Wait a second.
How about this? Perfect.
All we need i... is this.
Give me the ax.
Put your hand up.
Okay. Do mine. Come on.
Yeah. Oh.
Next stop, Louisiana!
You can't let him go, Sam.
He says he didn't do it. Are you tellin' me he did?
Yeah, I know, but, see, Ziggy says there's a 98.6% chance that he's innocent.
Even while Boone's been in prison, there's been some guy robbing jewelry stores...
using the same M.O., exactly the same one every time.
And there's been five robberies.
- So the real robber's still on the outside? - You got it.
- Come on, Cole. Come on. - Yeah.
And an innocent guy's gonna spend the next 15 years on a Mississippi chain gang? Actually, no.
Then he gets cleared? No. Not exactly.
In about five minutes, he runs out of this barn...
and gets shot trying to escape.
Was the real robber ever caught? Uh, negative.
All right. Look. You gotta find out who the real guy is, all right?
Then get me the information so I can get it to the people who can do something about it.
Yeah, and if I had blonde hair and I could sing, I'd be Madonna.
Time to be goin'. Come on. No, no. Wait a second. Wait a second.
I'm not so sure that's a good idea. I ain't waitin' in here till dark.
That's another seven or eight hours. Hey, Sam.
Ziggy says there's gonna be another robbery tonight in Kerrville.
Good. No, it ain't. I can't take it in here much longer.
You guys have gotta hide out or go back.
What are our chances? We ain't got no chance unless we move!
All right. All right. Listen to me. Just...
Your chances are less than 50-50, and they're goin'down.
See if you can get rid of the dogs. I'll find someplace to hide.
Okay. Okay. I'm gone.
Hey, doggie, doggie, doggie! Name that chicken flavor. Right this way!
What those dogs up to? Maybe they backtracked.
They must've seen a rabbit or something!
Come on, Cole!
Wait a second. Wait a second. Listen to me. Listen to me.
I think we should stay in here and just hide for a while. All right? What? And wait for winter?
No. No. I got a bad feelin' about this, Boone. I don't know what it is. I can't... You got a bad feelin'?
Yes. How you think you gonna be feelin' if you wind up in a cockfight, huh?
Boy, if I'd have known I had to do this much running,
I would've worn my cross-training shoes.
What happened to you, huh? Yesterday you couldn't wait to get out.
You kept tellin' me how if you had to spend another year... Another year?
- Yeah. You was gonna go crazy. - Wait a minute. Ziggy says you're only supposed to be here for nine months.
Here it is. You got a nine-month sentence...
starting on July 3, 1954.
I've been in here two years? I can't take it, Cole!
I can't! Now, two months is more than I can stand!
If you wanna go back, give yourself up, go on. I won't stop you.
But if you think that I'm goin'back...
Damn! Damn!
Sam, he's goin' out! He's goin' out!
Come on, Sam.
Boone. They're gonna kill you. I'm gonna die in there anyway.
No. No, Boone. Listen to me, Boone. Boone!
Oh! What? What happened?
Sam... Oh, good.
Take that stick, bonk him on the head. Now!
What you doin', man?
Just tryin' to save your life.
With a club? No. With my foot.
Oh, good. Now, do something. Stick him in there. Yeah, yeah.
Where are you gonna go? Oh, good. Get in with him. Good. Good.
Now, keep quiet. Oh.
Here comes one of the goons, Sam. He's got a shotgun.
Quiet in there.
They're not here, you little worm.
Mr. Monroe, leave that boy alone.
You'll have to excuse Mr. Monroe here. He's a little cranky. He's been up all night.
All right, Sam. That's great. Now, the rest is gonna be a cakewalk.
I'm gonna go back and see if I can spot the robber. Take it easy, will you?
You boys sure are rough on jewelry. Fortunately we can fix that.
Oh, boy.
I'm real disappointed in you, Cole.
I expected you to set an example...
for the young'uns... like Boone here.
Guess I got a little carried away.
Take care of it. Yes, sir.
Them the boys that run off?
Well, you could say they took an unplanned vacation.
Well, I guess they're back in school now.
See ya tomorrow, Cool. See ya around, Jake.
I swear I won't run again, boss.
- I swear on my mama's grave. - Cole, you been here the longest.
You get to call it. Call it.
Tails.
- Tails it is. - No!
Sorry, Boone. No! Come on, boy.
I swear I won't run again! Just don't throw me in there!
Hey, I ain't doin' nothin' to ya, Boonie boy. Your partner here's the one who called it.
- If anybody's to blame, he is. - Cole. Cole. Don't do this to me, Cole. Please.
Mr. Cooley, sir, I'll do the cockfights.
- Anything. Cole? - You can't put him in there. He's got claustrophobia.
You can't... Watch your hands, boy.
Cole! Get in there and stay. Come on.
Cole!
Please.
Sorry, but I got something else in mind for you, boy.
Each time Boone howled, my stomach sank a little lower.
For him, the pit was truly hell.
And his only hope for deliverance was Al.
"For each ecstatic instant, we must in anguish pay...
"in keen and quivering ratio...
to the ecstasy."
I doubt that Emily Dickinson had that in mind when she wrote that.
Yeah. I doubt she did either.
You and Boone made me look bad today, boy.
- Please don't do it again, or I'll kill ya. - You're killin' him now.
Maybe you got more spunk than you should. Maybe you shouldjust...
take these barrels back to where you got 'em.
Night.
Geez, Sam. What are they giving you to eat here? Roadkill?
Did you find him, Al?
- Who? - The guy. Did you find the guy?
The guy? Oh, yeah. The guy. Yeah. I found the guy.
He's a tall guy. He's got dark hair.
And get this: He puts makeup on his face to make him look like he's a black guy.
Yeah. His name is Jake Wiles,
and he works for his family's grocery outfit.
He drives a truck. Jake Wiles?
Wiles. Yeah. Wait a second. He was here today.
He made a delivery here today.
He was here today?
What are you do... Where are you going, Sam?
To tell Boone.
Boone?
Boone? Boone?
- I'm gonna kill you. - Boone, let him go!
Boone, listen to me. I can get ya out of here...
and not just the pit.
I can get ya out... out of prison.
I know who did the robbery.
- You're lying. - Sam, tell him more! Give him the facts! Tell him about the guy in the truck!
Let him go, Boone! His name is Jake Wiles. He drives the grocery truck.
He makes himself up to look black... to look black.
How's that gonna get me free, huh?
We'll tell the police.
What if they don't believe us?
Then I'll help ya escape.
Look out, Sam!
I don't think that'd be such a good idea, boy.
Throw him in the pit. Yes, sir. Fun time, boys.
"Throw him in the pit'"?
It stinks in there, boy.
Don't put him in there. Hey!
- Nighty night. - Nighty night, ya slimes! Scum!
- Mr. Cooley boss! - Let us out ofhere!
Cooley! Boss Cooley!
Boss Cooley!
Sam, you okay? How you feel?
Not so good, huh? I don't blame ya.
Come on! Out of the way!
Boone, what do you want?
Boone, no! No, Boone!
Boone!
- Boone! - He's gonna kill that guy!
Come on, Boone.
Get on back, boy. Get out of it.
Can't remember when one ol' boy caused so much trouble. He's crazy.
He tried to kill me! I don't belong here, Warden.
Tell 'em.
Tell 'em you robbed that store and shot that man in Langston.
I didn't shoot nobody! I don't know what you're talkin' about!
You're making some mighty serious accusations here, Boone.
You got anything like proof? I don't believe this. You gonna listen to him?
Well, do you?
This must be Warden Elias. He's the closest thing to a cop you're gonna find here.
He robbed a store in Kerrville last night, the same way he did in Langston.
Or at least that's what I heard he was gonna do.
Warden, I don't think you should listen... Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh.
And how would you know that?
If you don't believe me, why don't you just talk to the sheriff in Kerrville? Ask him.
That's about enough sass out of you, boy.
What a slime.
Put 'em both on the road crew with the rest of'em.
I want that pipe out at Bellemeade Crossin' laid and finished by the weekend.
Yes, sir.
Move it on out. Come on!
I got Ziggy workin' on a bunch of scenarios.
We gotta find a way for you to get the truth to the right people.
In the meantime, you and Boone have gotta... I know what we gotta do.
We gotta escape. You wanna sit around and run scenarios?
You figure out how we're gonna get outta here, all right?
All right, all right, all right.
Talkin' to yourself again, boy? I'm startin' to worry about you, boy. Come on.
Tell me, Boone. You talkin' to the man in the moon last night?
Is that what all that howlin' was about?
He the one that told you that crazy story about Jake? Hmm?
Yeah. Twenty years is a long time in prison, Boone,
especially this here one.
His sentence is only for 15 years.
His sentence was 15 years, boy, just like yours was nine months.
You bastard.
I hear a discouragin'word, maybe another year in here'll help teach you some better manners.
- How long you think you can get away with this? - You know, I had you figured...
for a much smarter man than this, Cole.
See, this here prison road farm's a long way from court.
'Bout as far away from a court as you ever gonna get, boy.
Out here, nobody knows what's goin' on.
Nobody cares.
Well, unless we sprout wings, we gonna die here now.
There's always a way. Just need a little help. That's all.
You talkin' about Al? I heard you talkin' to him last night.
Just talkin' to myself. Uh-uh. Folks talk different when they talkin' to themselves.
You was talkin' to somebody, except they weren't there.
- Al's kind of a friend of mine. - He's the one told you about Jake.
Yep. Matter of fact, he did.
And only you can see him.
Me and... sometimes little kids and animals too.
You think Al likes snow? I don't remember. I don't think I ever asked him.
I wanna see me some mountains, some of them big ol' ones.
The Rockies. Now, that sounds like mountains, don't it? Yes, it does.
And some of those big ol' trees.
Redwoods. Redwoods.
Maybe find me someplace with a lot of space,
not too many people around, you know, settle down.
You and Al could come visit.
- That'd be nice. I'd like that. - You two boys in love?
I'm gonna kill him if he put me back in that hole.
I can't take it, Cole. I can't.
Hold still. All right. Get 'em fed and get 'em to bed.
You men feed 'em, put 'em down. Let's go. Move it.
Come on.
I hate to tell you this, but Ziggy's got nothing new. Nada. Zilch.
Great. Great. Thanks. You talkin' to Al?
Yeah. Can he hear me?
No.
Ask him if he'll come and visit.
Visit where? Somewhere where there's mountains and snow and trees and...
Sure. Why not? Sure. He'll come and visit you.
- Oh, good. - But first, we've gotta concentrate on getting you out of here.
Now, Ziggy has one idea... It's a pretty good idea.
What it is, you have to predict Jake's next robbery,
and that way, everything you say'll have more credibility,
and maybe this Warden Elias will believe you. Okay.
When's it gonna happen?
When? When's it gonna happen? The next robbery?
You want a when? Al.
Eight months. Oh. Oh.
- What did he say? - He said that Jake Wiles is the key,
but it's just gonna take a little longer than we thought.
Couldn't this wait till mornin'? Annabelle thinks I'm sneakin' out with some gal, leavin' this time of night.
How'd that boy and Boone find out about that jewelry store?
And what about last night in Kerrville?
Hell. I don't know. I had so much of that black crap...
on my face that day in Langston, I didn't recognize me.
Ain't no way Boone could have.
What about last night? Now, you talked to somebody, didn't you, boy?
No. I... I ain't told nobody nothin', Cooley.
Why, that'd be real stupid. Yeah, that would.
If that boy knows about you, then he just might know about me.
I... I swear, Cooley, I ain't told nobody nothin'.
You get rid of that stuff from Kerrville? M-Most of it.
I still got a couple of rings and earrings left. Four thousand is the best they give me for it.
Yeah, well, I'm thinkin' maybe we'd better back off a little...
till things kind of settle down.
That's a good idea, Cooley. I been meaning to talk to you about backin' off...
j-just for a little while.
Where are you taking the boys today, Cooley?
We're gonna finish up that pipe at Bellemeade Crossing.
Swing by the Marion County turnoff before you head over there.
They got a stuck truck loaded with peanut oil.
I promised I'd get the boys to dig her out.
B.P., we're a week behind on that Bellemeade trench.
We ain't got time for no peanut truck.
That crossing's been there a long time, Cooley. It ain't goin' nowhere.
Or do you have some information to the contrary? No, sir.
Then get to it!
All right. Move it out!
Move it, damn it! Takin' too much time!
Sam, Ziggy says that your best bet is to try and bribe someone to get the information outside.
With what? With what?
Yeah. With what?
Uh, we're workin' on that. We're workin' on that "with what." Hold it! Hold it! Hold it!
What? Damn it. It's diggin' in deeper.
We're gonna have to build up under where that other tire's spinnin'.
Hey, Cole, find me a log or a rock or somethin' to put under that tire. No!
Well, I ain't gonna let him out of my sight, Cooley!
I said no, damn it! All right. Okay. All right.
Cole, come on back here right now.
Son of a...
Hey! Hey, it's Jake Wiles down here! Someone's shot him all to hell!
Hey, Boone, get back here, boy. I'll throw you in the pit, Boone.
- I told you to get back here. When I talk, you better listen. - I'll kill you!
No! Boone! Get off him! Come on!
Boy, you just earned yourself another trip to the pit.
I ain't never goin' in that pit again!
Well, it's either that or a cockfight with your friend Cole here.
- I'll take the fight. - You got it.
All right.
Sam, a "cockfight" is Southern prison slang...
for a fight between two prisoners... to the death.
Come on. Get up, boy. Come on.
Put 'em in separate trucks.
Go on the radio, call the sheriff and tell him to get on over here with the coroner.
Let's go. Let's go. Sam, I don't get it.
I mean, it doesn't fit... What's this goon lookin' at?
Jake was supposed to rob four more jewelry stores.
- He's gonna have a little trouble doin' it right now. - Hey, Cooley, look at this!
There's gotta be a couple thousand dollars here. I'll be damned if the grocery business...
isn't something I oughta look into!
Put that on back and let the sheriff find it.
Well, I guess that rules out robbery.
Which leaves only 999 other motives. That's true.
I gotta fight that guy to the death. I mean, he's quicker than greased lightning.
- You saw at the barn, I was lucky 'cause he wasn't... - Don't worry.
Don't worry, Sam. I'll figure something out somehow.
Jake's murder was never solved, but somehow you changed history, and Jake got killed.
I know that, Al. Look, what we don't...
What?
Most murder victims are killed by people that they know, right?
Uh, right. Right?
Who would have the best reason to kill Jake?
Ooh! Does he have any ex-wives? A partner.
A partner who doesn't trust Jake anymore.
A partner who's afraid that Jake is gonna expose him.
Oh, a partner who got scared yesterday when a certain inmate said...
that he knew about the robbery that happened the other night.
I'll put my money on goon-meister there.
I agree. Only the way things have been going, I don't think we're gonna be able to nail him.
We're gonna have to escape.
We're all gonna do that. That's right. It's time to have some fun now.
Move it along! Get 'em, Cooley!
Come on! Let's move it along and have some fun tonight, boys!
It's party time! Come on! Move it out!
Bring 'em in.
All right. Hold your arms out.
- You right-handed, Boone? - Yeah.
Well, this'll even it up,
keep you two lovebirds happy.
Now, if y'all ain't never...
seen no cockfight, here's the rules.
Number one: Ain't no helpin'the contestants.
Sam, Ziggy still doesn't have a line on how you escape. The best we could think of...
is you gotta think of some kind of distraction.
- The chains don't come off till one of these boys is dead. - - Yeah.
- Yeah. - Y'all got any final last words?
Is that what you said to Jake before you shot him?
Too bad you ain't gonna live long enough to regret that, boy.
- Give 'em the chains. Get 'em ready. - Come on!
Oh, I don't like this. I don't like this.
Quiet!
I ain't goin' back in there.
All right! Go get 'em, boys! Get in and fight!
Boone... Boone, this is our chance to escape. Do you hear me?
Cooley's not gonna let you live even if ya kill me.
He's afraid you're gonna connect him with Wiles.
He's a flake candy-ass!
Your only chance is to trust me. When I say "go," get ready to go.
No! No!
Moccasin!
Damn it to hell.
Monroe! Monroe! Get over here!
Spread out. We gotta find 'em.
Let's head for the trucks. Yeah.
Let's get up to that truck, Boone.
Come on.
No, no, no, no. Wait, wait, wait. Any minute now, they're gonna know we're here.
Sam, that was incredible. You made Houdini look like a piker.
Wait a second. Wait a second. Get the gas cap. Take it off.
Here. Good, good, good.
Perfect! Incredible idea!
Go!
Holy damnation! Monroe!
Monroe, the truck! Over there!
Get the dogs!
Over there.
Over here.
Here, dogs! Dog food right this way!
Well, well, well.
Get on over here. I said, get on over here.
You boys make my job real easy.
Two dangerous escaped prisoners heading for the state line.
- I might even end up with a commendation out of it. - Least we won't get shot in the back like Jake.
Loose lips sink ships.
I just don't know what he'd be doin' tellin' ya what he's doin'.
- He didn't. - What do you mean?
Hey. Hey, you stupid mutt, over here!
Sam, he smashed his head down there.
- He's dead. - Yeah. Better him than us.
Al, how far to the state line?
Uh... Uh, 20 miles. Go straight upstream.
Come on. We got some traveling to do.
Let's go.
Sam, this is it right here. The Louisiana state line right at the top of the hill.
Ziggy says all Boone has to do is get out of the state, and he's home free. This is it.
Louisiana's on the other side of that hill. We made it.
Which way you headed? I don't know.
Me neither.
Thanks.
Anytime. Get goin'. Go on.
You take care!
What's gonna happen to him, Al?
He disappears into the fabric of society,
but in three years, a man fitting his description is spotted in Washington state...
working for the forestry service.
In the mountains with the big trees. Yeah. Mmm.
And you disappear too... I mean, Cole disappears too.
In fact, after a couple of years, they give up lookin' for either one of you.
Oh, you'll be interested in this. Work Prison Number 11 is shut down...
three months after you guys escape.
Hey! Hey.
Tell Al good-bye for me.
He can hear ya.
Thanks, Al.
Bye, Sam.
Quantum leaping through time, I've leapt into an electric chair,
gunfights and a variety ofhandcuffs.
It looks like I finally raided a cushy time.
Thank you.
No. Thank you.
Good morning, tiger. Good morning.
Oh, no, no. You gotta stop doing that.
You want me to stop? No. Yes, please.
Mom? My God, Mom.
What would Dad say?
Oh, boy.