The Outer Limits (1995–2002): Season 1, Episode 19 - If These Walls Could Talk - full transcript

Did you hear that?

- Hear what?
- That sound.

- Oh, you mean like somebody moaning?
- Yeah.

That was me.

Derek!

- I heard it again.
- Heard what?

A voice.
There's someone else here.

Look, maybe we should just go
to the ridge like you said before.

- You wanna go now?
- No. No.

I'm just gonna take a look
around real quick, okay?

See if we're alone.



Well, I'm sure as hell alone.

Help us.

- Save us.
- Somebody here?

- Help us.
- Hello?

Help us.

Help.

Help us.

- Nadia!
- Derek?

Damn it.

Derek, this is totally immature.

I'm taking off.

I'm serious.

You!

- You!
- Oh, my God!



- You!
- Oh, my God!

There is nothing wrong
with your television.

Do not attempt
to adjust the picture.

We are now controlling
the transmission.

We control the horizontal...

and the vertical.

We can deluge you
with a thousand channels...

or expand one single image
to crystal clarity...

and beyond.

We can shape your vision...

to anything
our imagination can conceive.

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 deepest inner mind to...

The Outer Limits.

Ghosts, haunted houses-

Many maintain that
such concepts have no place...

in our computerized
20th-century reality.

But until man conquers death,
one inevitable question...

will always linger within
the recesses of the human mind:

What lies beyond?

...expert on supernatural
phenomena or ghosts?

No, not at all.

I'm just an average person
who thinks that there's more...

than what we experience
with our five senses.

I think people
should be made aware of that.

But you have to admit it's a lot harder
for people nowadays to believe in ghosts.

- After all, it is the 1990s.
- I don't ask that people believe.

What I ask is that they simply keep
their minds open to the possibility.

The evidence
will take care of the rest.

Well, we thought it might be fun to share
that evidence with my second guest.

He's a physicist-turned-debunker
and the author of the book...

Psychic Phenomena:
A Rational Perspective.

Please welcome
Mr. Leviticus Mitchell.

Mr. Mitchell,
now why this calling?

Why a debunker?

Well, I became aware of the harm
that irrational beliefs do to people.

I wanted to do something about it, and
I guess I got bored sitting in the lab.

Why don't we run the video that
Lynda took ofher alleged ghost...

and let you do a little
on-the-fly debunking for us?

Yes? You.
What are you doing here?

- The image was taken approximately 11:15.
- Hey, what are you doing?

- It was a flare in the lens.
- A flare in the lens?

Don't you need a light source
for that to happen?

Too busy admiring
your performance?

I was just transcribing the interview
for an upcoming book.

I'm really gonna have to
ask you to leave.

Look, you have a standing
offer of $5,000...

for anyone that can prove
the existence of the supernatural.

- Is that right?
- Yes. Yes, I do.

But do you have any idea how many people
have made a play for that money?

How many people have offered you
the 5,000, Mr. Mitchell?

...anything else but a ghost, since ghosts
don't fit in your framework.

No, my only framework is science,
and I apply the rigors of science to all-

Why are you so sure
that your son is dead?

Most parents of missing children
believe their kids are alive somewhere.

I keep hearing his voice.

What do you mean? When?

The first time was in that house-

the same one from the video I took.

It's been deserted for years.

I'd heard that Derek used to go there
a lot to be by himself.

After Derek disappeared,
the police had the house checked out.

They didn't find anything.

They think Derek ran away from home,
but I know better.

Anyway, I didn't have anywhere else
to look, so I went to the house.

Go on.

I was walking through the place
when I started to hear a sound.

I thought it was the wind, you know...

a tree brushing up against the wall.

But the sound became
louder and clearer.

It was Derek's voice,
and he was calling for me.

So I ran through the house
to find him, but he wasn't there.

Just his voice.
And, God, his voice.

He sounded like he was dying...

like he was being killed
inside that house.

Ms. Tillman, when the mind
undergoes the type of stress...

that's associated
with the loss of a loved one...

it can manufacture illusions.

Yeah, "so real they can seem
like supernatural entities."

I read your latest book!

Why don't you tell me
exactly what it is that you want.

I want you to go
to the house with me.

Why?

Because I believe that my son's spirit
is somehow trapped in that house.

- Oh, look-
- You're the only one left I can count on.

If I'm right,
I want to know that.

And if I'm crazy,
I want to know that too.

I need you.

Abrams, the original owner of the house,
disappeared about six years ago.

- Disappeared?
- Yeah.

Took folks a few weeks to figure it out,
since he didn't come out much anyway.

According to the papers,
hejust left everything behind.

Hasn't been heard from since.

Well, it sure looks haunted.

You know how to pick 'em.
I'll give you that much.

Come on.
I'll show you where it was.

It was about here that I heard it.

- About what time?
- About now. Why?

Well, the Southern Pacific line
runs not too far from here.

According to their time
schedule, the freights pass-

It wasn't a train.
I know what a train sounds like.

Listen. Listen.

That's what I heard.

- Have you ever heard of Occam's razor?
- No.

The axiom states that the simplest
theory is usually the correct one.

Take my advice. Lynda, if you want
to find out what happened to your son-

Listen.

That's called a draft!

You get those in drafty houses.

The so-called Fort Wayne
poltergeist back in '81 -

it turned out to be
an open window in the attic.

Mom! Help me!

Please help!

Help!

I'll need a couple of hours...
to get some equipment.

- You're that psychic, aren't you?
- No, I'm not a psychic.

No, wait a sec. That's right.
I saw you on TVwith that Mrs. Tillman.

I'm sure as hell glad someone
finally put her in her place.

So what brings you here?

Well, Mrs. Tillman has hired me
to help locate her son.

- Come again?
- It's a long story.

Is there anything that you
can tell me about Derek Tillman?

Nothing you probably
don't already know.

We haven't found him, and we've
got a pretty good hunch he's okay.

Why is that?

Well, one week before
Derek was reported missing...

he and his mom had
the mother of all arguments.

She slapped him pretty hard.

Over what?

- She didn't tell you?
- No.

Mrs. Tillman didn't like who
her boy was seeing at the time-

a young girl who disappeared
about the same time as Derek.

Nadia Torrance.
Nothing but trouble.

We think
they took off together.

- Where are the girl's parents?
- In Los Angeles.

But they could give a hoot in hell
about their daughter's whereabouts.

And if I were you, I'd take
the same attitude, Mr. Mitchell.

There's very little you can do here.

- You what?
- I went to the police.

Background research.

It's the same thing that psychics do
to get info on their clients for readings.

Well?

We did have a fight.

Was it about the girl?

Yeah.

She was a screwed-up kid,
and I didn't want Derek seeing her.

- You want a drink?
- Oh, thanks.

Anyway, she was doing drugs...

and she tried to get
Derek into them too.

So after the fight with your son...

that's when Derek disappeared
along with Nadia.

Yes.

And you still believe that
Derek's spirit is here in this house?

I guess you can just call it
a matter of faith.

Faith? Faith.

Faith is just another way
of saying there's no proof.

- You always been such a nonbeliever?
- Believe so.

Mm-mm.
That's not what I understand.

After your wife died, you visited
a few psychics yourself.

Background research.

What I don't know is why
you became a skeptic.

It was during a séance.

I caught the medium
faking my wife's voice.

Oh, she really had me going.

She called me Levi.
My wife never called me Levi.

She hated the name.
She always called me Mitchell.

I saw it all just for what it was.

Just a stage show
cooked up for people...

who can't face the reality of death.

Mom!

Mom!

Please, please help!

Get me out of here!

Help!

Get me out!

Mom! Help!

What happened?

I found you lying on the floor, out cold.
You've been sleeping ever since.

Too much to drink, I think.

- You didn't see it.
- See what?

It was Derek.

- Oh, God, Mitchell, he was in the walls.
- In the walls?

The wall changed into him...
like he was part of the house.

I checked my instruments.

There was some seismic activity,
but it could have been a passing truck.

You got a real thing
about transportation, don't you?

Everything's either trains or trucks.

Take it easy. Take it easy.
Are you okay?

Derek's spirit is in this house...

and I think it's trying to tell me
something, like what happened to him.

All right, I'm gonna clear
this up once and for all.

It happened around here.

Well, I see the wall.
I see a big wall.

All right, Mitchell,
you've made your point.

- I don't know what it proves.
- We won't know what it proves until l-

- Wait a second.
- What? What is it?

I have to narrow the beam width.

Oh.

- There's something here.
- What?

Well, with this resolution,
it's hard to tell...

but I'd swear it was a door.

Well, I'll be damned.

An autoclave, a rectifier...

a centrifuge...

diffusion pump, desiccator-

This is a laboratory.

- What?
- What is this?

Well, that's obviously
the center of attention.

It's mildly radioactive.
No more than 12 millirems.

You see the micro-impact scoring?

Could be a meteorite.
Where did you find this?

I'll fill you in later.

But right now, how about running
some tests for me, Jennifer?

- Anything for a former professor.
- I knew I could count on you.

Okay, give me a Liebig.
Put it through a Duboscq too.

And if there's any anorthosite,
you might want to try some polarization.

- Okay.
- Lynda.

Hey, just be happy
you gave me an "A."

What exactly are we looking for?

Anything we might have missed.

You love to drink, don't you?

Believe it or not, there are some things
about me that are none of your business.

When I drink, I don't dream.

When I don't dream, the next day
is usually a pretty good one.

Wait a minute.

This must be
Abrams's diary. Bingo.

It says here that Abrams worked
for Genedyne Biochemical...

and that Genedyne was closed
for an indeterminate reason by the EPA.

- Abrams was under investigation.
- Wonder why.

- Well, it doesn't say.
- Any clues in there?

"I will attempt to introduce
a longer stacking element...

a biphenyl instead of a naphthalene...

to induce autocatalytic reaction."

It'll never make the New York Times
best-sellers list.

That it won't.

So how come
you never remarried?

- Hmm?
- Never mind.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's just
that none of this makes any sense.

- Not everything makes sense.
- Well, I don't accept that.

Maybe that's why it's so hard
for you to believe in anything.

Everything has to have
a reason, a formula.

- Everything does have a formula.
- What about love?

Hormonal secretions that stimulate
certain sensory regions of the brain.

Boy, I bet your wife loved to hear that
over a candlelight dinner.

- We never had any candlelight dinners.
- Why am I not surprised?

Well, it wasn't because of me.

Carrie just wasn't into
fancy occasions.

What happened to her, Mitchell?
No, you don't have to tell me.

It was a car accident.

Kid going too fast
through a stoplight.

I'm sorry.

Help! Someone!

Help!

- Help!
- Help us!

- Help me!
- No! No! No!

- Mitchell!
- Please try and help us!

- Do you see it?
- This can't be happening.

- Please! Please!
- Help us get out!

Help us!

Party's over.
This area is now off limits.

I want that report
on my desk right now!

Think it's dark enough?

- The lamp broke.
- I'm disappointed, Mitchell.

You of all people should be able to
come up with something better than this.

- The tape's not important.
- She's right. I know what I saw.

So what are you saying?
The Abrams house is haunted?

There's something there.
There's a presence.

- A presence?
- It's dangerous and should be sealed off.

The Abrams house is being sealed off.
But not because of any ghosts.

The Abrams house
is now a crime scene.

Do you recognize these,
Mrs. Tillman?

They look like Derek's.

- We think they are.
- Where did you get them?

There are consciousnesses
within consciousnesses.

Gigantic, all-encompassing scheme.!
We're nothing, you know?

We'rejust servants.
Servants of the twilight.

The house is God.

And you better not
go messin'with the Lord.

Why, it's not a vengeance thing
I'm talking about here.

God is coming,
but he's not angry.

He's hungry. Hungry likeJesus
after 40 days in the desert.

There's your presence, Mitchell.

We ran him in this afternoon
for urinating in public.

Claims he spent the night
in the Abrams house.

Claims Derek Tillman
and Nadia Torrance are dead...

and buried in the Abrams house.

We found your son's glasses on him.

Don't know if we can charge him
with anything yet though.

He could've just found 'em.
But we can't take any chances.

We're gonna start digging
in the basement.

You should go home, Mrs. Tillman.
We'll call you if we find anything.

If you're taking advantage
of that woman for a book...

or God knows what,
I'll come down on you hard.

We both know it ain't a book
you're after, is it, Mitchell?

Go to hell.

Don't believe in hell
any more than you do.

- Mitchell, this isn't over.
- Oh, it is for me.

- We both saw it.
- There was never any evidence.

- We just saw what we wanted to see.
- No, you didn't want to!

That's just it.
I wanted to believe.

All this time,
I just wanted to believe.

Why is that such a crime?

Because I threw away
everything that I worked for!

- Mitchell, we weren't drunk!
- Why don't you just face it!

It wasn't real!
Your boy is gone!

He ran away,
and he ran away from you!

I know Derek,
and there has to be more!

- Oh, I'm sorry.
- Damn it! There has to be more!

I'm sorry.
I shouldn't have said that.

Wait a minute. I know what it is
to lose someone that you love...

and to want them back
so hard that it hurts.

And you don't deserve
to be talked to like that. I'm sorry.

What's wrong?

You're right.
You're right.

I haven't gone on with my life.
I haven't let go of her.

- It's time you did, Mitchell.
- I know.

But she's still real to me.

I guess I really do believe in ghosts,
because I've got one of my own.

I'm sorry. I still have some things
I've got to work out here.

- Are you gonna be okay?
- Yeah.

I'll bring you your money.

I don't want your money.
I won't take your money.

Good-bye, Mitchell.

- Hello?
- Hi. Mitchell?

- Can you come down here right away?
- Yeah, sure. Why?

I really think you need to see this.

- Okay.
- Okay. Bye.

So you were right.
It is a meteorite.

What was Abrams doing
with a meteorite in his house?

He was interested
in what was in the meteorite.

- What was that?
- An enzyme.

- Enzyme?
- One that doesn't come from Earth.

Unless we're willing
to reinvent biochemistry.

What am I looking at?

Okay, keep your eye
on the beaker.

- What the hell-
- My words exactly.

I'd just placed the enzyme in the beaker
when I got called away for about an hour.

- When I came back, it was like this.
- What is that?

What happened
to that rubber stopper?

It's still a rubber stopper.
It just happens to be alive.

- Alive?
- Well, in theory.

I mean, it's a system capable of
metabolizing, excreting and breathing...

and it's responsive
to external stimuli.

So the enzyme reorganizes
inanimate matter...

into animate matter.

- And it's self-replicating.
- Yeah. That's about it.

The replication rate
is astronomical.

And, lucky for us, it seems to have
a problem with glass.

Enzyme must have lay dormant in
the meteorite until I set off the alarm.

Abrams woke it up too.

EPA must've got wind of what
Genedyne was doing and shut them down.

But Abrams kept working on the project
at home, but it got away from him.

- What do you mean?
- I mean a part of Abrams's house-

It's just like that rubber stopper.
It's been infected by the enzyme.

If that enzyme
is out in the real world...

there's no reason it couldn't keep
spreading as long as it had enough to eat.

Then we've gotta find
some way to neutralize it.

Two cc's chlorobenzene.

Not only is it alive, it is
determined to stay that way.

If it's alive, it can die.

We've tried everything but the kitchen
sink. And if we had one, I'd try that too.

There's got to be something
that this thing can't swallow.

Maybe there isn't, Mitchell.

No. Whatever
is in the Abrams house...

it didn't get me or Lynda or Luther...

and there's gotta be some reason.

Some reason
that we didn't get killed.

What are you doing?

I'm gonna make a fool of myself
for the second time today.

Now, let me get this straight.
You're saying the house isn't haunted?

- It doesn't matter what it is.
- Then why get my men out?

Because whatever Abrams
was working on...

it has infected a part of the house,
and that is dangerous to people.

Mitchell, you were better off
with your ghost story.

I don't care if you believe me or not.
Let me see Luther.

- Luther's back on the street.
- On the street?

I didn't have enough
to hold him with.

But if my men dig up something,
we'll get him back.

It's not like we don't know
exactly where he goes.

- Probably out getting drunk.
- Was Luther drunk when you found him?

Are you kidding? Luther's been
drunk since the day he was born.

Okay. Why alcohol?

Because Lynda, Luther and I
had one thing in common.

- What?
- We'd all been drinking.

Roth here.

It's Lynda Tillman.
Have you found anything?

No, we haven't found
anything yet, Mrs. Tillman.

- I'm gonna go over to the house.
- That's a very bad idea, Mrs. Tillman.

- When a person comes out of the ground-
- I don't care.

I should be there
if they find Derek.

Thanks, Warren.

Thanks.

What the hell was that?

Warren?

Mike?

I'm gettin' the hell out of here.

You may be alien,
but you can't hold your liquor.

Is anybody here?

Oh, my God.

It's me, Mom.

Don't be afraid.

There's no need to be afraid.

It's okay here.
It's really okay.

It's warm and peaceful.

I knew you'd come back
to me, Derek.

I just knew you would.

Get away from him.
Lynda, that's not Derek.

It's the house!

Good God!

Oh, my God!

Oh, my God.
Oh, my God!

Oh, my God.

Well, that's everything.

- Shall we go?
- Do you really think it's over?

I don't know.
We may never know.

I guess it's just a matter of faith.

Just a matter of faith.

What lies beyond?

For each of us, the answer awaits
at the end oflife's journey.

Until then, we must live
with the ghosts...

that dwell
not in some musty basement...

but within the recesses
of the human soul.