The Outer Limits (1963–1965): Season 1, Episode 14 - The Zanti Misfits - full transcript
The perfectionist rulers of the planet Zanti have solved the problem of what to do with their non desirable citizens...they are incapable of executing their own species so they have exiled them to the planet Earth. At a Top Secret Military base in the ghost town of Morgue, California a small group of Air Force officers and guards is awaiting the landing of the Zanti penal ship. They are informed that the Zanti regard their privacy and told to leave the ship alone. The military is prepared to comply until a car with a runaway wife and a three time loser named Ben Garth crash through the barricades and breaks down in the desert near the Zanti ship.
Do not betray us.
Our privacy
must be maintained.
Total destruction
to anyone who invades it.
Total destruction
to anyone who invades it.
Don't worry.
If anyone goes
anywhere near
that ship when it
lands, it'll be over
somebody's
dead body.
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...
Throughout history,
compassionate minds
have pondered
this dark and disturbing
question...
What is society to do
with those members
who are
a threat to society?
Those malcontents
and misfits whose behavior
undermines and destroys
the foundations
of civilization.
Different ages have found
different answers.
Misfits have been
burned, branded,
and banished.
Today, on this
planet earth,
the criminal is incarcerated
in humane institutions,
or he is executed.
Other planets use
other methods.
This is the story
of how the perfectionist
rulers of the planet Zanti
attempted
to solve the problem
of the Zanti misfits.
No, thanks, I'll,
uh, I'll keep it.
History has been
recorded in some
pretty morbid
places, Major,
but when a historian
named Grave
find himself
in a ghost town
called Morgue...
You see it?
I thought I did.
Probably just
a silver desert bird.
You don't think
they'll land
in broad daylight,
do you?
Why not?
They have no reason
to be afraid of us.
I wish we could feel
the same about them.
Ordinarily, I don't
ask you space people
such questions,
Major,
but I wonder why
we're allowing
this to happen.
We weren't given
any choice, Professor.
We were told when
the penal ship would land,
we were instructed
to keep out of its way.
No interference or else.
Or else what?
Did they say?
They assured us they didn't
want to attack.
They wanted this to be
"a non-hostile sequence,"
as they put it,
but they didn't hesitate
to let us understand
that they would attack,
totally and devastatingly.
I wonder
what they're like.
From our viewpoint,
Professor,
they're either
superhuman or subhuman.
Or nonhuman.
I'm having
your car parked
in the stable behind
the building, sir.
The General
is waiting for you,
Professor Graves.
Anything on
the screen over there?
No, nothing yet.
I'll be at my desk
if you want anything.
I'll put this on yours.
Steven!
Well, you're
24 hours late.
I know. I would've
been here 2 days ago.
I was all briefed
and ready
to leave Washington
when, uh...
Some 5-star
personality decided
maybe this invasion
ought to be covered
by a commissioned
officer.
Ahh.
I told him commissioned
officers make history,
musty young
Professors record it.
You're a new kind of
war correspondent,
aren't you, Steve?
Uh, space age style.
Thanks.
Ah, I don't want this.
Come on, I'll show you
your desk.
OK.
And this is the new style
battlefield here.
It's all automated.
Not quite as messy
as the old style,
but, of course,
computers don't bleed.
This is
the radar section here.
Have you had contact
with the Zantis yet?
Not yet, but we know
they're in
our atmosphere.
Gentlemen?
May I have your
attention, please?
I want you
to take a look
at Professor
Steven Grave,
this country's
official historian
of interplanetary
events.
Did I get
that title right?
Uh, which means that
he'll be observing
everything
and everyone,
asking all sorts of
nontechnical questions,
writing down everything
that he sees and hears
and thinks.
The space agency
picked him,
S.A.C. OK'd him,
Congress ratified
him,
tax payers pay him,
and I like him.
So if he gets
into you hair,
try not to
brush him out.
That's all, thanks.
Welcome
to the sweatbox.
Thanks.
Over here,
Steve.
Try this on
for size here.
Same old
machine.
Hey, you're
a sentimentalist, Steve.
I thought
you were gonna be
a carbon copy
of your father.
My father was
a much more a devout
sentimentalist
than I'll ever be.
What do you think
made him
such a great
war correspondent?
But even he'd find
it pretty difficult
to be sentimental
about war
when your enemy can
come out of the sky,
looking like
something
out of a nightmare.
Now, wait a minute, Steve.
As far as we know,
the inhabitants
of the planet Zanti
are not our enemy.
They're not
our friends.
According to the history
I've studied,
friends don't coerce
one another.
You've read
the transcripts
of the Zanti government's
first contact with us.
Would you call it
coercion?
Yes. The kind
that makes me
want to grab a rifle
and fight
for my country.
Grabbing a rifle is
a thing of the past, Steve.
War with another planet?
That's a different
brand of war all together.
A psychiatric
committee analyzed
those transcriptions,
Steve.
According to their
findings, the Zantis are
a discipline-oriented
society.
They're perfectionists,
and apparently, they're just
as unwilling to start
a total war with us
as we are with them,
even though
they know they'd win.
You really believe that
all they want us to do
is let them use our
planet as a place
of exile for their
criminals and misfits?
That's what they said.
And you believe them?
Well, they claim
to be incapable
of executing
their own species.
Now, if you can't destroy
a criminal, Steve,
you gotta stash him
away someplace
where he can't
do you any harm.
But why on some
other planet?
We have prisons
and institutions,
even islands.
We don't send them
off to another world.
No, we don't, Major,
but then, we haven't
perfected
interplanetary travel
yet, have we?
Come on, I'll take
you on a tour
of the battlefield.
This is us,
Morgue, California.
Any danger of tourists
bouncing in?
Morgue never has been
a tourist spot.
Anyway, here, here,
here, here, here,
and here are
our patrol spots,
making
a complete circle,
a periphery...
Surrounding the area
in which we're allowing
the Zantis
to come down in.
The sentries are armed.
They have orders to kill.
That means that we're
determined to keep strays
from stumbling into
the Zanti area,
accidentally
or otherwise.
It also means that
we're determined to keep
the Zantis inside
this circle.
Suppose they decide
not to land
where we've, uh...
Offered to
let them land.
A missile base here.
If that penal ship
is more
than 10 degrees
off target,
we destroy it.
We're also equipped
to destroy it
after its landed
if necessary.
General Hart.
Communications
established, sir.
This is General
Maximillian R. Hart
of the strategic
air command
of the United States
of America,
of the planet earth.
Come in, please.
Cut them in, Sergeant.
Zanti penal ship,
come in, please.
They couldn't have
landed already, could they?
No, sir, our screen
would show it,
unless they found
a way to beat it.
Zanti penal ship,
this is General
Maximillian R. Hart
of the strategic
air command.
I'm the same man
who concluded negotiations
with your
government commander
on our time pattern
described as S.E. 6-6-0.
We have cleared the area
guaranteed you on that date.
You may expect to land
without interference
and without incident.
I repeat, it is safe
for you to land.
Please communicate.
Translate.
This is first regent
of penal ship one.
We are ready to land
in designated area.
We have reason to suspect
your good faith.
Landing area surrounded.
Weapons threateningly
angled.
We have no other way
of keeping the area
open for you.
Our roads
and deserts are
Generally open
to all men.
The sentries
are there
only to guarantee
your privacy.
We shall land.
Do not betray us.
Our privacy must be
maintained.
Total destruction
to anyone
who invades it.
Total destruction
to anyone who invades it.
Don't worry.
If anyone goes
anywhere near that
ship when it lands,
it'll be over
somebody's dead body.
You can see it if you're
interested, Professor.
I wonder if we'll
get to see one of them.
Perhaps more than one.
If they're anything
at all like earthmen,
they aren't going
to like being cooped up
in a prison ship
any more than we like
being locked up
behind bars.
I believe they'll
try to break free.
The Zanti commander
guaranteed
maximum control
of the prisoners.
They'll be guarded.
Every prison guarantees
maximum control
of its prisoners,
yet men break out.
Excuse me, General.
Yes?
They've spotted
something on the radar.
It's inside
the periphery.
They think
its an automobile.
I'm gonna
tell you something.
You're not gonna
believe it,
but I'm gonna go ahead
and tell it anyway.
I would never kill
a reasonable man.
Heh! Open
the windows, Ben.
You smell bad
when you lie.
Wait a second.
Sweetheart, the guard
was not a reasonable man.
He insisted
that we turn back.
Maybe it was
his job to do so.
Lisa, we can
never turn back,
not you and me.
A runaway wife
and a 3-time loser
must always go forward.
Heh heh heh!
You know, my husband
said to me,
he said, "why do you
want to go away"
with him?
He's a psychopath
"and he's not
beautiful."
And I told him...
I told him I wanted
to go away
with you because...
Because you weren't
sane and safe
and secure.
I told him I was
sick to the teeth
with... with sanity
and... and safety
and security.
I like bad adventure
better.
Always have.
I need it.
I know it'll
destroy me someday,
but I need it.
Do anything
about the car, Ben?
Heh heh heh!
No, the car wants water
and we're in the desert.
Heh heh heh!
Now, pick up the money.
Pick up the money.
Lisa, there's no place
to go out there.
I'm going home.
Maybe...
Facing up to what
I've done...
Will be the... the baddest
adventure of my life.
Lisa...
Come here.
Come here.
Now pick up
the money.
Now.
You know that you can
never go home, Lisa.
Your husband would
make you tell
this whole story
to the police,
and then the police would
lock me up... Forever.
Hmph.
People die in the desert.
Establish a red alert
at the missile base.
It's patrol 9, General.
Corporal Delano,
stuck by
a moving vehicle.
Killed?
Yes.
Which way was
the vehicle going?
Into the Zanti
landing area.
That explains it.
The Zantis won't
communicate with us again.
They listen,
but they don't respond.
Have they landed?
They've landed.
What do you
suppose that is?
Huh?
The person or persons
in your landing area
are unauthorized.
I assure you
that their presence
there is an accident.
They ran down and killed
one of our sentries
and probably drove on
out of fear.
Please come in.
I repeat, person or persons
in your landing area
are unauthorized.
We will send in
a party after them.
They are accidents.
We will remove them with
no inconvenience to you.
Do not suspect us.
We've kept
to our agreement.
We have not
double-crossed you.
There is no need for you
to even consider
retaliating.
Believe that.
Please, believe that.
Translate.
Total destruction
to anyone who
invades our privacy.
Oh, no...
Get off me.
G- get off me.
Get off me.
Get off me!
Get off me!
No!
Help me! Please!
Please!
No!
With your mid-afternoon news!
Well, all of Southern
California seems
to have sighted
another UFO
in today's sunny,
smogless skies.
The official response is,
of course,
the usual statement
in these cases.
Nobody knows what it is.
At any rate,
the space agency officials
contacted by this station
said they didn't
see anything,
and neither did the police
or any of the military bases
scattered here abouts.
In other words,
nobody saw it
but the great
uninformed public.
So until somebody comes
up with a photograph
or some home movies of it,
today's unidentified
flying object
will have to be filed away
with all the UFOs
of the past.
Unless you've got
a picture of it?
No, sir. I cannot
advise you to recommend
or consider going
into that area, sir.
Whoever got in there has
already blown their faith
in us sky high.
If we go in after it,
they could construe it
as an offensive measure.
It would only serve
to deepen their suspicions
and further weaken
our relationship.
I realize that, sir,
but we don't even know
if the man's still alive.
They may have
destroyed him instantly.
In which case, we'd be
accomplishing nothing,
and touching off
heaven knows what!
But, sir, I simply do not
want to start anything.
With the Zantis.
Yes, sir. We're keeping
the channel open, sir.
If they decide to
re-establish communication,
we're ready.
15 minutes?!
Yes, sir.
If they do not communicate
within the 1/4 hour, sir.
God help us.
15 minutes is
not a long time.
In our conception
of time.
For them it could be
long enough
to conquer a world.
When a country allows
itself to be coerced,
it has to suffer
the consequences.
So far, the only
real consequence
is uncertainty.
I've always felt
that was one
of the worse things
a country could suffer.
Ben.
Ben!
B...
Ben?
Ben!
Ben!
If they retaliate...
It means death
and suffering.
Broken bodies
and broken hearts.
I can't let
everybody break.
May I make
a suggestion?
Yes, if you can.
An emissary.
Tell them you're
sending in one man
alone and unarmed,
fully informed and prepared
to discuss the situation
with him personally.
Tell him your emissary
will arrive
in an open vehicle.
Will advance when and only
if instructed to do so.
They may decide
to keep silent
even after hearing that,
but they'll know
what your intentions are.
Will we know theirs?
If they keep silent,
will we know whether or not
they'll let
my emissary approach?
No. You'll have
to take a risk there.
I'll have to take the risk?
What about
the man I send?
You and I.
You make the decision.
I go.
You?
I've studied history
for years, Max,
even before anyone
said I had to.
Big moments,
small moments,
some so insignificant
they barely got recorded.
But it isn't
like being there.
It isn't.
And I'm always
conscious of it.
Always aware
that the clean edge
of participation
is missing.
I'd give anything
to be there just once.
Alive and awake.
I supposed you'd like
to have been at Hiroshima?
If I could have helped.
I'll tell the patrols.
They'll let you through.
Ben!
Ben!
Ben?
Ben?
Ben? Ben.
B- Ben.
Ohh!
Ben.
Ben!
Aah!
He will be unarmed
and will await
your permission
to advance.
He will wait one hour.
If he does not receive
your permission,
he will return to our base.
Permit this man to approach.
It is vital
to our own security
that we know your precise
mood and intentions,
just as it is vital to you
that you know ours.
I send this man
with reluctance
and trepidation,
but I also send him
with hope.
Uhh... uhh... uhh!
Uhh! Uhh!
Aah!
Aah!
Aah!
I cannot see your ship.
I will not try to.
I will await
your signal to advance.
I am in radio contact
with General Hart.
If you tell him
I may advance,
he will inform me.
I will wait for one hour
and then go.
I will wait for one hour
and then go.
The Regent has gone after her.
Our opportunity is now.
Let us take freedom!
Her?
Aah!
Grave, here. Over.
Have you seen the car?
Nothing.
We think there's
a woman out there.
A woman?
Shall I look around?
No!
No?
You'd better
come back, Steve.
Come back?
The prisoners are
going to make a break.
We're going to have
to destruct the ship.
Clear the area!
Did you hear me, Steve?
Yes, I heard you.
Get out of there.
A woman?
Over here!
Come here!
Wait! Over here!
Come here!
I want to help you!
Uhh!
I want to help you!
You can't stay here!
Where are you?!
Where are you?!
We're going
to destroy this entire area!
You have to get out!
Let me take you out!
No one will hurt you!
No one ever has.
Except myself.
Ben...
I'm not afraid to die.
No, you...
You go away.
This is one mistake
I want to deal with alone.
Go!
Don't.
It's all botched
up now, isn't it?
I...
I... I tore
all the seams apart...
To see what
held them together.
And... and then I couldn't
get 'em back together again.
I...
I did that with a...
With a rag doll.
I've...
Done it with my own life.
And now here I am...
All torn apart...
By my own hand.
Mine own executioner.
Come on.
Come on.
General Hart.
Steve?
The Zanti ship has
just taken off.
Yes, we know.
I had to kill
one of them.
You killed one?!
It was
about to attack.
Did they tell you
where the ship is going?
No. No communication.
We're coming back.
Make it fast, Steve.
We may have
to destruct that ship.
War or no war.
Roger.
Shall I get the chief
on the red line?
Do you know
where that ship
is going, Major?
All I know is
they may be getting
out of missile range.
Or maybe they're
going back
to their own planet.
Back to their own planet?
Why would they want
to do that?
They can be free here!
Destruct that ship,
General.
Advise the chief
to destruct that ship!
General, it's coming
in our direction
and it's coming close.
It's too late,
General.
It's too close
to destruct.
We'll all be blown
to eternity with it.
Are we deaf?
Do we just stand
here and wait
for the missile
to drop on us?
A missile won't
be necessary.
Hey, wait a minute!
Wait a minute!
Flame throwers
ought to do it.
Hand grenades.
Anything.
We have some
of that stuff
out in the stables.
If we can get out
the back way...
Open it!
Get it off me!
Get it off me!
Kill it!
Stop it!
Aah!
Aah!
You, you, you, go out
the back way! Come on!
Let's go!
the rest of you, come on!
Aah!
Well, we've done it.
We've let loose
the dogs of war.
I wonder how
they'll destroy us?
This is the commander
of the government
of the planet Zanti.
I speak to you from Zanti.
You have destroyed
the misfits.
We will not retaliate.
We never intended to.
We knew that you
could not live
with such aliens
in your midst.
It was always our intention
that you destroy them
and their guards,
who were of the same
spoiled persuasion.
We chose your planet
for that purpose.
We are incapable
of executing
our own species,
but you are not.
You are practiced
executioners.
We thank you.
Practiced
executioners.
Throughout history,
various societies have
tried various methods
of exterminating
those members
who have proven
their inability
or unwillingness
to live sanely
amongst their fellow men.
The Zantis tried
merely one more method,
neither better nor worse
than all the others.
Neither more human
or less human
than all the others.
Perhaps merely non-human.
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...
Our privacy
must be maintained.
Total destruction
to anyone who invades it.
Total destruction
to anyone who invades it.
Don't worry.
If anyone goes
anywhere near
that ship when it
lands, it'll be over
somebody's
dead body.
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...
Throughout history,
compassionate minds
have pondered
this dark and disturbing
question...
What is society to do
with those members
who are
a threat to society?
Those malcontents
and misfits whose behavior
undermines and destroys
the foundations
of civilization.
Different ages have found
different answers.
Misfits have been
burned, branded,
and banished.
Today, on this
planet earth,
the criminal is incarcerated
in humane institutions,
or he is executed.
Other planets use
other methods.
This is the story
of how the perfectionist
rulers of the planet Zanti
attempted
to solve the problem
of the Zanti misfits.
No, thanks, I'll,
uh, I'll keep it.
History has been
recorded in some
pretty morbid
places, Major,
but when a historian
named Grave
find himself
in a ghost town
called Morgue...
You see it?
I thought I did.
Probably just
a silver desert bird.
You don't think
they'll land
in broad daylight,
do you?
Why not?
They have no reason
to be afraid of us.
I wish we could feel
the same about them.
Ordinarily, I don't
ask you space people
such questions,
Major,
but I wonder why
we're allowing
this to happen.
We weren't given
any choice, Professor.
We were told when
the penal ship would land,
we were instructed
to keep out of its way.
No interference or else.
Or else what?
Did they say?
They assured us they didn't
want to attack.
They wanted this to be
"a non-hostile sequence,"
as they put it,
but they didn't hesitate
to let us understand
that they would attack,
totally and devastatingly.
I wonder
what they're like.
From our viewpoint,
Professor,
they're either
superhuman or subhuman.
Or nonhuman.
I'm having
your car parked
in the stable behind
the building, sir.
The General
is waiting for you,
Professor Graves.
Anything on
the screen over there?
No, nothing yet.
I'll be at my desk
if you want anything.
I'll put this on yours.
Steven!
Well, you're
24 hours late.
I know. I would've
been here 2 days ago.
I was all briefed
and ready
to leave Washington
when, uh...
Some 5-star
personality decided
maybe this invasion
ought to be covered
by a commissioned
officer.
Ahh.
I told him commissioned
officers make history,
musty young
Professors record it.
You're a new kind of
war correspondent,
aren't you, Steve?
Uh, space age style.
Thanks.
Ah, I don't want this.
Come on, I'll show you
your desk.
OK.
And this is the new style
battlefield here.
It's all automated.
Not quite as messy
as the old style,
but, of course,
computers don't bleed.
This is
the radar section here.
Have you had contact
with the Zantis yet?
Not yet, but we know
they're in
our atmosphere.
Gentlemen?
May I have your
attention, please?
I want you
to take a look
at Professor
Steven Grave,
this country's
official historian
of interplanetary
events.
Did I get
that title right?
Uh, which means that
he'll be observing
everything
and everyone,
asking all sorts of
nontechnical questions,
writing down everything
that he sees and hears
and thinks.
The space agency
picked him,
S.A.C. OK'd him,
Congress ratified
him,
tax payers pay him,
and I like him.
So if he gets
into you hair,
try not to
brush him out.
That's all, thanks.
Welcome
to the sweatbox.
Thanks.
Over here,
Steve.
Try this on
for size here.
Same old
machine.
Hey, you're
a sentimentalist, Steve.
I thought
you were gonna be
a carbon copy
of your father.
My father was
a much more a devout
sentimentalist
than I'll ever be.
What do you think
made him
such a great
war correspondent?
But even he'd find
it pretty difficult
to be sentimental
about war
when your enemy can
come out of the sky,
looking like
something
out of a nightmare.
Now, wait a minute, Steve.
As far as we know,
the inhabitants
of the planet Zanti
are not our enemy.
They're not
our friends.
According to the history
I've studied,
friends don't coerce
one another.
You've read
the transcripts
of the Zanti government's
first contact with us.
Would you call it
coercion?
Yes. The kind
that makes me
want to grab a rifle
and fight
for my country.
Grabbing a rifle is
a thing of the past, Steve.
War with another planet?
That's a different
brand of war all together.
A psychiatric
committee analyzed
those transcriptions,
Steve.
According to their
findings, the Zantis are
a discipline-oriented
society.
They're perfectionists,
and apparently, they're just
as unwilling to start
a total war with us
as we are with them,
even though
they know they'd win.
You really believe that
all they want us to do
is let them use our
planet as a place
of exile for their
criminals and misfits?
That's what they said.
And you believe them?
Well, they claim
to be incapable
of executing
their own species.
Now, if you can't destroy
a criminal, Steve,
you gotta stash him
away someplace
where he can't
do you any harm.
But why on some
other planet?
We have prisons
and institutions,
even islands.
We don't send them
off to another world.
No, we don't, Major,
but then, we haven't
perfected
interplanetary travel
yet, have we?
Come on, I'll take
you on a tour
of the battlefield.
This is us,
Morgue, California.
Any danger of tourists
bouncing in?
Morgue never has been
a tourist spot.
Anyway, here, here,
here, here, here,
and here are
our patrol spots,
making
a complete circle,
a periphery...
Surrounding the area
in which we're allowing
the Zantis
to come down in.
The sentries are armed.
They have orders to kill.
That means that we're
determined to keep strays
from stumbling into
the Zanti area,
accidentally
or otherwise.
It also means that
we're determined to keep
the Zantis inside
this circle.
Suppose they decide
not to land
where we've, uh...
Offered to
let them land.
A missile base here.
If that penal ship
is more
than 10 degrees
off target,
we destroy it.
We're also equipped
to destroy it
after its landed
if necessary.
General Hart.
Communications
established, sir.
This is General
Maximillian R. Hart
of the strategic
air command
of the United States
of America,
of the planet earth.
Come in, please.
Cut them in, Sergeant.
Zanti penal ship,
come in, please.
They couldn't have
landed already, could they?
No, sir, our screen
would show it,
unless they found
a way to beat it.
Zanti penal ship,
this is General
Maximillian R. Hart
of the strategic
air command.
I'm the same man
who concluded negotiations
with your
government commander
on our time pattern
described as S.E. 6-6-0.
We have cleared the area
guaranteed you on that date.
You may expect to land
without interference
and without incident.
I repeat, it is safe
for you to land.
Please communicate.
Translate.
This is first regent
of penal ship one.
We are ready to land
in designated area.
We have reason to suspect
your good faith.
Landing area surrounded.
Weapons threateningly
angled.
We have no other way
of keeping the area
open for you.
Our roads
and deserts are
Generally open
to all men.
The sentries
are there
only to guarantee
your privacy.
We shall land.
Do not betray us.
Our privacy must be
maintained.
Total destruction
to anyone
who invades it.
Total destruction
to anyone who invades it.
Don't worry.
If anyone goes
anywhere near that
ship when it lands,
it'll be over
somebody's dead body.
You can see it if you're
interested, Professor.
I wonder if we'll
get to see one of them.
Perhaps more than one.
If they're anything
at all like earthmen,
they aren't going
to like being cooped up
in a prison ship
any more than we like
being locked up
behind bars.
I believe they'll
try to break free.
The Zanti commander
guaranteed
maximum control
of the prisoners.
They'll be guarded.
Every prison guarantees
maximum control
of its prisoners,
yet men break out.
Excuse me, General.
Yes?
They've spotted
something on the radar.
It's inside
the periphery.
They think
its an automobile.
I'm gonna
tell you something.
You're not gonna
believe it,
but I'm gonna go ahead
and tell it anyway.
I would never kill
a reasonable man.
Heh! Open
the windows, Ben.
You smell bad
when you lie.
Wait a second.
Sweetheart, the guard
was not a reasonable man.
He insisted
that we turn back.
Maybe it was
his job to do so.
Lisa, we can
never turn back,
not you and me.
A runaway wife
and a 3-time loser
must always go forward.
Heh heh heh!
You know, my husband
said to me,
he said, "why do you
want to go away"
with him?
He's a psychopath
"and he's not
beautiful."
And I told him...
I told him I wanted
to go away
with you because...
Because you weren't
sane and safe
and secure.
I told him I was
sick to the teeth
with... with sanity
and... and safety
and security.
I like bad adventure
better.
Always have.
I need it.
I know it'll
destroy me someday,
but I need it.
Do anything
about the car, Ben?
Heh heh heh!
No, the car wants water
and we're in the desert.
Heh heh heh!
Now, pick up the money.
Pick up the money.
Lisa, there's no place
to go out there.
I'm going home.
Maybe...
Facing up to what
I've done...
Will be the... the baddest
adventure of my life.
Lisa...
Come here.
Come here.
Now pick up
the money.
Now.
You know that you can
never go home, Lisa.
Your husband would
make you tell
this whole story
to the police,
and then the police would
lock me up... Forever.
Hmph.
People die in the desert.
Establish a red alert
at the missile base.
It's patrol 9, General.
Corporal Delano,
stuck by
a moving vehicle.
Killed?
Yes.
Which way was
the vehicle going?
Into the Zanti
landing area.
That explains it.
The Zantis won't
communicate with us again.
They listen,
but they don't respond.
Have they landed?
They've landed.
What do you
suppose that is?
Huh?
The person or persons
in your landing area
are unauthorized.
I assure you
that their presence
there is an accident.
They ran down and killed
one of our sentries
and probably drove on
out of fear.
Please come in.
I repeat, person or persons
in your landing area
are unauthorized.
We will send in
a party after them.
They are accidents.
We will remove them with
no inconvenience to you.
Do not suspect us.
We've kept
to our agreement.
We have not
double-crossed you.
There is no need for you
to even consider
retaliating.
Believe that.
Please, believe that.
Translate.
Total destruction
to anyone who
invades our privacy.
Oh, no...
Get off me.
G- get off me.
Get off me.
Get off me!
Get off me!
No!
Help me! Please!
Please!
No!
With your mid-afternoon news!
Well, all of Southern
California seems
to have sighted
another UFO
in today's sunny,
smogless skies.
The official response is,
of course,
the usual statement
in these cases.
Nobody knows what it is.
At any rate,
the space agency officials
contacted by this station
said they didn't
see anything,
and neither did the police
or any of the military bases
scattered here abouts.
In other words,
nobody saw it
but the great
uninformed public.
So until somebody comes
up with a photograph
or some home movies of it,
today's unidentified
flying object
will have to be filed away
with all the UFOs
of the past.
Unless you've got
a picture of it?
No, sir. I cannot
advise you to recommend
or consider going
into that area, sir.
Whoever got in there has
already blown their faith
in us sky high.
If we go in after it,
they could construe it
as an offensive measure.
It would only serve
to deepen their suspicions
and further weaken
our relationship.
I realize that, sir,
but we don't even know
if the man's still alive.
They may have
destroyed him instantly.
In which case, we'd be
accomplishing nothing,
and touching off
heaven knows what!
But, sir, I simply do not
want to start anything.
With the Zantis.
Yes, sir. We're keeping
the channel open, sir.
If they decide to
re-establish communication,
we're ready.
15 minutes?!
Yes, sir.
If they do not communicate
within the 1/4 hour, sir.
God help us.
15 minutes is
not a long time.
In our conception
of time.
For them it could be
long enough
to conquer a world.
When a country allows
itself to be coerced,
it has to suffer
the consequences.
So far, the only
real consequence
is uncertainty.
I've always felt
that was one
of the worse things
a country could suffer.
Ben.
Ben!
B...
Ben?
Ben!
Ben!
If they retaliate...
It means death
and suffering.
Broken bodies
and broken hearts.
I can't let
everybody break.
May I make
a suggestion?
Yes, if you can.
An emissary.
Tell them you're
sending in one man
alone and unarmed,
fully informed and prepared
to discuss the situation
with him personally.
Tell him your emissary
will arrive
in an open vehicle.
Will advance when and only
if instructed to do so.
They may decide
to keep silent
even after hearing that,
but they'll know
what your intentions are.
Will we know theirs?
If they keep silent,
will we know whether or not
they'll let
my emissary approach?
No. You'll have
to take a risk there.
I'll have to take the risk?
What about
the man I send?
You and I.
You make the decision.
I go.
You?
I've studied history
for years, Max,
even before anyone
said I had to.
Big moments,
small moments,
some so insignificant
they barely got recorded.
But it isn't
like being there.
It isn't.
And I'm always
conscious of it.
Always aware
that the clean edge
of participation
is missing.
I'd give anything
to be there just once.
Alive and awake.
I supposed you'd like
to have been at Hiroshima?
If I could have helped.
I'll tell the patrols.
They'll let you through.
Ben!
Ben!
Ben?
Ben?
Ben? Ben.
B- Ben.
Ohh!
Ben.
Ben!
Aah!
He will be unarmed
and will await
your permission
to advance.
He will wait one hour.
If he does not receive
your permission,
he will return to our base.
Permit this man to approach.
It is vital
to our own security
that we know your precise
mood and intentions,
just as it is vital to you
that you know ours.
I send this man
with reluctance
and trepidation,
but I also send him
with hope.
Uhh... uhh... uhh!
Uhh! Uhh!
Aah!
Aah!
Aah!
I cannot see your ship.
I will not try to.
I will await
your signal to advance.
I am in radio contact
with General Hart.
If you tell him
I may advance,
he will inform me.
I will wait for one hour
and then go.
I will wait for one hour
and then go.
The Regent has gone after her.
Our opportunity is now.
Let us take freedom!
Her?
Aah!
Grave, here. Over.
Have you seen the car?
Nothing.
We think there's
a woman out there.
A woman?
Shall I look around?
No!
No?
You'd better
come back, Steve.
Come back?
The prisoners are
going to make a break.
We're going to have
to destruct the ship.
Clear the area!
Did you hear me, Steve?
Yes, I heard you.
Get out of there.
A woman?
Over here!
Come here!
Wait! Over here!
Come here!
I want to help you!
Uhh!
I want to help you!
You can't stay here!
Where are you?!
Where are you?!
We're going
to destroy this entire area!
You have to get out!
Let me take you out!
No one will hurt you!
No one ever has.
Except myself.
Ben...
I'm not afraid to die.
No, you...
You go away.
This is one mistake
I want to deal with alone.
Go!
Don't.
It's all botched
up now, isn't it?
I...
I... I tore
all the seams apart...
To see what
held them together.
And... and then I couldn't
get 'em back together again.
I...
I did that with a...
With a rag doll.
I've...
Done it with my own life.
And now here I am...
All torn apart...
By my own hand.
Mine own executioner.
Come on.
Come on.
General Hart.
Steve?
The Zanti ship has
just taken off.
Yes, we know.
I had to kill
one of them.
You killed one?!
It was
about to attack.
Did they tell you
where the ship is going?
No. No communication.
We're coming back.
Make it fast, Steve.
We may have
to destruct that ship.
War or no war.
Roger.
Shall I get the chief
on the red line?
Do you know
where that ship
is going, Major?
All I know is
they may be getting
out of missile range.
Or maybe they're
going back
to their own planet.
Back to their own planet?
Why would they want
to do that?
They can be free here!
Destruct that ship,
General.
Advise the chief
to destruct that ship!
General, it's coming
in our direction
and it's coming close.
It's too late,
General.
It's too close
to destruct.
We'll all be blown
to eternity with it.
Are we deaf?
Do we just stand
here and wait
for the missile
to drop on us?
A missile won't
be necessary.
Hey, wait a minute!
Wait a minute!
Flame throwers
ought to do it.
Hand grenades.
Anything.
We have some
of that stuff
out in the stables.
If we can get out
the back way...
Open it!
Get it off me!
Get it off me!
Kill it!
Stop it!
Aah!
Aah!
You, you, you, go out
the back way! Come on!
Let's go!
the rest of you, come on!
Aah!
Well, we've done it.
We've let loose
the dogs of war.
I wonder how
they'll destroy us?
This is the commander
of the government
of the planet Zanti.
I speak to you from Zanti.
You have destroyed
the misfits.
We will not retaliate.
We never intended to.
We knew that you
could not live
with such aliens
in your midst.
It was always our intention
that you destroy them
and their guards,
who were of the same
spoiled persuasion.
We chose your planet
for that purpose.
We are incapable
of executing
our own species,
but you are not.
You are practiced
executioners.
We thank you.
Practiced
executioners.
Throughout history,
various societies have
tried various methods
of exterminating
those members
who have proven
their inability
or unwillingness
to live sanely
amongst their fellow men.
The Zantis tried
merely one more method,
neither better nor worse
than all the others.
Neither more human
or less human
than all the others.
Perhaps merely non-human.
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...