The Outer Limits (1963–1965): Season 1, Episode 15 - The Mice - full transcript

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...

In dreams, some of us
walk the stars.

In dreams, some of us ride
the whelming brine of space,

where every port
is a shining one,

and none
are beyond our reach.

Some of us, in dreams,

cannot reach beyond the walls
of our own little sleep.

Goldsmith, Hadden,
Rivera here, sir.

Let them come in.

Wait outside, please.

This man is
an astrophysicist.

He needs somebody
for an experiment.

And he has
the government's permission

to pick a volunteer
out of the inmates



in any prison
in the United States.

6 men have already
turned him down.

Talk to them.

We need a man
who will allow us

to break him up into
electrical particles

and transmit him
into space

at a speed greater
than that of light.

That's it, simply.
It's called teleportation.

When he gets
to where he's going,

he'll be reassembled.

If he survives
the experience,

he comes back
to earth the same way.

He gets put back
together again?

Yes.

The same
as he was before?

Well, it's worked
with inanimate objects.

And it's worked with mice.

Well,
it ought to work with a man.

All right, Hadden.

He's entitled
to his bitterness, Warden.

And he's right.

You men are being asked
to volunteer.

Now, you don't have to
if you don't want to.

There'll be
no special privileges

or rewards for it.

It'll be taken
into consideration

by the parole board
when they review,

but that's all.

Now, if you're
not interested,

just say so.

The transmission will have
to be effected

at a precise hour...
Tomorrow at 3 P.M.

It's quite a distance
from here

to the point
of transmission,

at the center,

so I can't give you

too much time
to think about it.

We'd have
to leave right away.

You said, uh,

when he gets
where he's going.

Where's he going?

To another planet.

Are you interested?

Mm-mmm.

What planet?

Would it make
a difference?

Take them out.

Tell mom I won't
be home tonight.

Uh, is it true,
Dr. Harrison?

Is what true?

That, uh, convicted murderers
have no heart?

Mr. Rivera has
the steadiest heartbeat

I've ever listened to...

And the loudest.
Go and listen.

Oh, no, no, no.

Hearts are of no interest
to scientists.

He just sits there
reading?

His tests show
he's in perfect health,

so he has nothing
to worry about.

Anybody got
a cigarette?

Oh, yeah. Sure.

You can put
your shirt on now.

Thanks.

I guess
I ought to tell you,

I've changed my mind.

Why?

One day I was real hungry.
I was just a kid.

So I yelled to the old lady,

"Hey, go buy me
something to eat!"

She said, "there's no money,
I bought lots with the money."

I said, "lots of what?"

Lots in the cemetery,

6 of them for the 12 kids,
like bunk beds.

So when I die,

I gotta go get
buried in my lot.

My belly paid for it.

Hi.

I'm Chino.

Richardson.
Robert Richardson.

All right, Rivera.

You've had your
little excursion

into the country.
It's over now.

I didn't think you'd
go through with it.

We'll send you back.
Come on.

I was kidding.

None of this has really
sunk in yet, has it?

Or are you just
completely devoid

of conscience and concern?

Conscience...
Who needs one?

The whole world's
my conscience.

And what are you
so concerned about? Me?

I didn't make you volunteer.

So I volunteered.

So that lets you
treat me like

something in a bottle?

Well, maybe
you'd like to

get into
that contraption.

Maybe you'd like to have

your soul splattered
all over space.

No, I wouldn't.

And I don't
particularly

like the idea

of it happening
to yours, either.

You think I've got a soul?

I think so.

I'm not just
one of your mice.

You take it out of a cage.
You see if it lives or dies.

You put it back.

No. You're not
just one of my mice.

Well, then, if I'm a man,
treat me like a man.

You examine me,
take my blood.

It's, "take off your shirt.
Put on your shirt."

Cough. Breathe."

Is that how you
treat a man?

Is that how men
work together?

You treat him like that?

Forget it.
I just remembered.

Mice don't complain.

I had to have some
positive reports

on some of those tests.

I didn't want
to bore you

with the background
until I was certain

you were perfect
enough to go.

Trouble with me,
I'm too perfect.

We were experimenting
with the motion of sound.

We made contact
with the Planet Kromo.

Our computers rearranged
the mosaic of their language.

And we understood that
they wished to understand ours.

We fed them a mathematical
compilation of English science,

and they learned it
immediately,

indicating
that the Kromoites

have a cerebral
consumption velocity

equal or close
to the speed of light.

After that, we couldn't
get them to communicate

in anything but English.

We sense no hostility,

and our psychiatric division

found none in their analysis
of the Kromoite communications.

So, when they proposed
a meeting,

we had no reason
to feel anything but...

Well, the way most men feel

when they're
about to experience

a significant adventure.

Only nobody
wanted to be first.

They wanted to be visited

by a major member
of the human race,

and to have an equivalent
member of theirs visit us.

Neither of us wanted to risk
losing such a person.

So, up go the mice.

No, the mice wouldn't have
proved enough to risk.

I mean me, uh,
whoever they're sending.

A man can think of himself

as making a contribution
to humanity.

A mouse can't.

Why don't you try
thinking like a man?

So I'm making
a contribution.

Do I have to make it
on an empty stomach?

I'll have some lunch
brought in for you.

No restaurant?

You'll have to
stay in here, Chino.

Until you go.

That's my getaway car!

What time do I go?

3 P.M.

Right after
their man arrives.

Good afternoon, gentlemen.

Will you step over
this way, please?

Our scientists and
technicians have constructed

this teleportation agency

according to
instructions and formuli

given to us
by the government of Kromo.

A genuine explanation
of its principles

would be time-consuming
and extremely unenlightening

for any but
the painfully initiated.

What you will witness,
simply, is this.

On the planet Kromo,
which is 10 light-years away,

an experimental animal,

in this case,
a member of their race,

will enter
a similar machine.

He will be transmitted

as television images
are transmitted,

and will arrive here
for reassembly.

No matter will be lost,

and no atomic disintegration
will occur.

Immediately upon arrival and
reassembly of the Kromoite,

our experimental...

Our subject will enter
this booth,

and by the same process,
arrive on Kromo.

As sure as God made
little green apples.

Mr. Rivera is the gentleman

who has volunteered
to leave from this end.

Transmission from Kromo

will begin in
approximately 3 minutes.

Gentlemen, if you will move
to that area,

and do not approach the T.A.
during operation.

Excuse me, gentlemen.
Excuse me.

Are you getting
established yet?

Transmission point, Kromo.

Subject stable.

Sequence commences.
Initiate systems.

Initiate systems.

Transmission point, earth.

Systems initiated.

Transmit.

Transmission accomplished.

Richardson!

Back! I said back!

No! Don't!

No! Don't!

Hey! Hey!

Is anybody else
in here?

Hi.

Hello.

I can't eat
this stuff.

Is there anything
else

to eat
around here?

Well, you had cream of tomato
soup yesterday.

Jellied Madrilene,
the day before.

And rich, pure glucose
the day before that.

Intravenously, of course.

Meat. A man needs meat.

He needs his doctor's
authorization

to get it, first.

Well, they gonna give me
meat up there?

They don't have any.

They don't have any food
at all on Kromo.

Sounds like
my old lady's icebox.

What do they eat?

Nothing.

Well, how do
they keep alive?

The way a plant does,
through photosynthesis.

Photo...

I better bring

a couple of hero
sandwiches with me.

Supplies will be teleported
the moment we know

your transmission
has been a success.

It'll be successful.

If a thing like that
monster can make it,

so can I.

Well, I wonder if you'll
look like a monster to them?

Everybody looks like
a monster to somebody.

It's Dr. Kellander.

Just a moment.

Hello, Julie.

Kelly. I thought you
forgot about me, Kelly.

No, I stayed away
deliberately.

I wanted to give you
a chance to think.

I don't like to think
when I'm this sick.

My thoughts turn green,
you know?

You were hit hard, Chino.

Every window
in this building

is screened with
an electric force field.

It's impossible to break.

If it's cut off inadvertently
at the power plant,

a very loud alarm

sounds all over
this entire center,

inside and out.

You must have had
a lot of fun

keeping it a big fat
secret from me.

I didn't think
you'd try to escape.

Neither did I.

No? I think you
had it in mind

the minute you walked out
of the Warden's office.

That's probably the only reason
why you volunteered.

Come to think of it,
you're right.

What's the matter
with you, Chino?

Are you a psychopathic liar?

Do you know
when you're lying

and when you're
telling the truth?

What's the difference
if I know?

What's important
is if you know.

Yes?

It's, uh,
Richardson.

Dr. Kellander...

There's something here
you ought to know about.

Just a minute.

Maybe tomorrow
I'll feel good enough

to take some sun
outside.

No, Rivera.

You let that monster
walk around

free as a cockroach.

Can't I get
a little sun?

No, the juxtaposition phase
between earth and Kromo

will pass by 6 P.M. tonight.

You go by that time,
or you don't go at all.

Go back to prison

to finish out
your life sentence.

Maybe that's
where you belong.

Get up and get dressed,
Rivera.

And be ready.

I guess there's
nowhere to go but up.

You ever see a smear
like that before?

I never have.
What is it?

It's this.

And it's alive.

It's alive.

Have you isolated
any of its properties?

As many as I could.
All alien.

Where did it come from?

Well, I found
a few droppings of it

in the corridor

just, uh, 2 days ago.

Today I found what appears
to be its source.

It's the lake.

Our lake?
Here on the grounds?

Mm-hmm. I think
it's gestating

just below the surface
of the water.

It's washed up like scum
all along the bank.

What's the chemistry
unit doing about it?

First thing we did was
try to find a way to kill it.

That sounded awfully
cold-blooded, didn't it?

Well, anyway, we did
find a way to kill it.

It's a compound of several
common insecticides.

And I'm going
down to the lake

to test its efficacy

right at the stuff's
origin point.

Aah!

A disease
that walks like a man

and strikes and kills.

And for no reason.

He could have
knocked him out

and let it go at that.

He didn't have to
drown him.

Kelly.

The security engineer
examined the force field

in the infirmary window.

The field
wasn't cut off there.

Now, Chino couldn't
have cut it off anyplace else.

He was locked
in the infirmary.

He picked the door lock
and got out.

Must have escaped
through some other window.

His shoe was found right
outside the infirmary window.

He wasn't wearing it
when he was caught.

He must have
gone out that way.

And that's what he insists.

And you believe him?

Well, it's the way
he insists...

Without really insisting.

The same way he denies
killing Dr. Richardson.

Yes?

It's Dr. Kellander.

I didn't kill him.

You've killed before,
Rivera.

That man I knew.
I knew what he was like.

And I knew what he was
doing to my sister.

I warned him to stop,
a lot of times,

but he didn't stop.

Since he didn't mind killing
her little by little,

I didn't mind killing him
all at once.

That's why I got life.

And that's why
I don't rate parole.

"No remorse,"
they call it.

But your man
I didn't know.

I don't kill strangers.

You make it
sound believable.

But then
you have that talent.

I didn't kill him.

You were escaping.

I was dreaming.

I was back in the ring.

I heard the bell and
I came out fighting...

For my life.
It's reflex.

All my life I've been
fighting for my life.

I just can't get it
through my head

that some guys were born
to just lie down and die.

I guess I never will.

I'm gonna keep
trying to escape...

Even up to the last minute
when I'm in that machine

and somebody's finger

is that much away
from the blast button,

I'm gonna keep
trying to escape.

I want free, understand?

I don't want
to go back to prison.

Free! I want!

Maybe you weren't
meant to be free...

On this earth.

Maybe you'll find freedom
in some other world.

You'll do
anything to get me

to make the trip,
won't you?

I like you for that.

But I don't like the idea of
me settling down up there.

I've been out with
some dogs in my time,

but if those yo-yos
up there come from

the same neighborhood
as that garbage eater

that they sent down here...

This is the only ring
that I want to fight in!

If you fight like a man
instead of a fighter,

you might win sometime.

Volunteering to do something
useful is fighting like a man.

Walking into
that machine in there

with your head up
and your hands open,

instead of being balled
into permanent fists

is fighting like a man.

Remember what
the Warden said?

The parole board takes into
consideration these things.

You know why
you're so dumb?

You don't see it's a waste
of time to send me up now.

Why, Rivera?

That machine
worked for one mouse,

it's gonna work for another.

You don't want to waste
your time with mice,

send up a man!

The fact that success
was achieved

by the form of life
on Kromo doesn't mean

that it will hold for
the form of life on earth.

The experiment
is only half-completed.

We transmit you
sharply at 4:00.

I wish I didn't have
to be there at 4:00.

He might need some of
that compassion, Julie.

Compassion?

That's just a word people
use when they're ashamed of

feeling plain, old-fashioned,
uncivilized pity.

Well, I feel pity, Kelly.

He'd hate it.

Wouldn't you?

Transmission point Kromo.

Ready to receive transmission.

Transmission point earth.

Subject stable.
Initiate systems.

Help!

Oh! Aah!

Please! I know
what the orders are!

You ring through anyway!

Aah!

Oh!

What is it?
What's wrong?

Get that bell
fixed, quick!

Stay here!

How is he?

I can't find anything
wrong with him.

He's sleeping now.

It's probably shock.

Something went wrong
with everything.

We even lost the ability
to communicate with them.

It's never
happened before.

The instructions they
gave us were flawless.

We could talk
to them as easily

as we could make
a local phone call.

It tried to kill me.

It must have killed
Dr. Richardson.

It broke the force field

and started to climb
into the infirmary.

I thought the alarm

had something to do
with the T.A. Failure.

A short-circuit
or something.

Oh!

Here, sit down, Julie.

I... I went for a walk...

To be alone
and... and to scold myself

for pitying somebody just
because I understood him.

And I saw it...
By the lake.

You remember when Chino
got hurt escaping?

And we told them up there
that there'd be a delay,

and they were so
understanding and told us

not to transmit him
until we wanted to.

And you asked them
if... if they wanted us to...

Send their man back...

And they told us, "no,
let him stay here a while."

Let him explore."

I remember
their saying that.

Can you go on, Julie?

Well...

Well, it was
by the lake...

Throwing something in...

And then...

Then...

Then it began to eat.

Kelly, it looked like
it was eating.

No mouth,
but it kept consuming.

The stuff that
Richardson found.

I wondered why Chino
called it a garbage eater.

They told us they lived
through photosynthesis.

They lied, Kelly.

What's security's
extension?

276.

Johnson? Kellander.

Put out your full squad.

Cover the grounds.
Especially the lake area.

And all the buildings
in the center.

I want the Kromoite.

Bring him here.
This is urgent!

If it puts up a fight,
throw a net over it.

But do not kill it.

You all right, Julie?

Yeah.

Whatever that stuff is,

the Kromoite didn't want
Richardson to destroy it.

I'll be in administration.

I think we'd better keep
the Washington line open.

Is Dr. Kellander there yet?

Williams.
I have to speak to him.

I'll hold.

Aah!

Oh, doctor, could you get
over here right away?

I picked up an alien
beep transmission.

I thought it might have

something to do
with the breakdown.

It could be urgent.
It sounds it.

Aah!

The lab! Stop him!

Hey! Aah!

Unh!

Julie, get some help!

Hurry! Break it in!

No, Chino! Don't shoot!
Don't kill it!

Just holding him
for you, Kelly.

Couldn't let him
escape, could I?

He's a killer.

Transmission point Kromo.

The Kromoite prisoner
must be returned to us.

We have failed.

No further attempts
upon earth will be made.

Initiate transmission.

Prisoner is most eminent
scientist of planet Kromo.

Vital to Kromo's survival.

You have deceived us!

Your scientist
is a murderer.

What in heaven's name
was your purpose?

Kromo soil no longer yields.

Seeking overtake planet

for production of
Kromo staff of life.

You should have asked.

Remember what
the Warden said, Chino?

The parole board
takes into consideration

these contributions.

If I don't bleed
to death first.

All you had to do
was to ask.

Hunger frightens and hurts

and it has many faces...

And every man must sometime
face the terror of one of them.

Wouldn't it seem that a misery
known and understood by all men

would lead man,
not to deception and murder,

but to faith and hope
and love.

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...