The Ray Bradbury Theater (1985–1992): Season 3, Episode 4 - The Wind - full transcript
Meteorologist John Colt travels to the Valley of the Winds in Tibet and finds the place where the winds gather to plan their destruction. When the winds realize he knows too much, they come after him in his home and seek to absorb him and add their voice to those of all the others they have killed.
[music playing]
RAY BRADBURY: People ask,
where do you get your ideas?
Well, right here.
All this is mine.
I'll never starve here.
I'm Ray Bradbury, and this is--
Clocks, hour
glasses, barometers,
who has not lain on his back and
wondered where the weather was
born, and how it traveled,
and why along the way
it sometimes ate people alive?
And then again, late
nights, doesn't the wind
outside your house
scratch at your screen,
like a cat needing to be fed?
And what then?
Do you let the wind in?
And what happens if you do?
[barking]
[whistling wind]
Yes, you're here.
Hello, Herb?
HERB (ON PHONE):
John, how are you?
Is Susan there?
Yes.
Yeah, she is.
Why?
JOHN (ON PHONE): Damn it.
What's up?
Are you all right?
[whistling wind]
Are you still there?
Herb?
Could you come over here please?
Just for a few minutes?
I'm sorry.
Ann and Keith are here.
Bridge party.
[whistling wind]
Oh, sure, sure.
Just forget it.
HERB (ON PHONE):
You sound lousy.
Why don't you come here?
Oh, no, no.
I wouldn't want to bring my
troubles over to your place.
I might get you hurt.
Hurt?
Herb!
JOHN (ON PHONE):
I'll call you back.
I'm sorry.
[whistling wind]
[barking]
No one can hear me.
[barking]
[whistling wind]
No!
[whistling wind]
[whistling wind]
My god.
It's like a great,
big, shuffling hound.
It's trying to smell me out.
This tape's for you,
Herb, if you find it.
Herb, you know I've
studied the wind,
recorded its violence
all of my working life.
The great storm here in New
Zealand in '68, Hurricane Hina
in the Fijis, right up
until the most recent,
Gilbert, in the Caribbean.
Massive devastation.
I've followed the
weather everywhere.
And now, it's following me.
He's been studying storms
and hurricanes all his life.
And now he's
flipped and thinks--
That's unfair.
Herbert meant it.
John Colt is strange.
I mean, out of all the
people in New Zealand,
why did he have to
latch on to you?
It wants once inside me, Herb.
It wants my mind, my
brain, my psychic force.
It wants my intellect, Herb!
Colt and I were
here for over a year.
Fellow scientists?
Yeah.
We became very good friends.
He's quite brilliant, you know?
He's been through a lot.
Yes, because he's
gone looking for it.
In Tibet, I climbed
up into the mountains
to the Valley of
the Winds, the place
where the winds gather and
plan their destruction.
It was a vast, evil mountain.
Hard, bony rock,
blasphemy to touch.
I touched it.
I climbed 7,000 feet to see
what I should never have seen.
It was terrifying.
Not one wind.
but hundreds.
I hid in a cave,
hearing, seeing.
I had seen too much.
[whistling wind]
No!
You found my work!
Get out of my house!
Get out!
Get!
Clear out!
Out, get out!
[chuckling]
[phone ringing]
[whistling wind]
Where are you now?
Up.
There it is.
[phone ringing]
Wait!
Wait.
Wait.
Wait.
Yes?
HERB (ON PHONE):
John, what's going on?
I've called you twice.
Oh, what isn't?
Herb, you really
should come over.
For God's sake,
you sound terrible.
JOHN (ON PHONE): No, no.
I'm all right.
The house is fine.
The doors are bolted.
Bolted?
Against what?
JOHN (ON PHONE): You
wouldn't believe.
Try me!
Are you playing
cards with friends?
Let me hear.
What?
Just hold the phone
out so I can hear!
Now, please do it!
God.
There.
SUSAN (ON PHONE):
I'll get some lemons.
We're not doing
so well, partner.
Sorry.
That's lovely.
Drop everything
and come over here.
[chuckling]
JOHN (ON PHONE):
Drop everything?
Sure, sure.
[barking]
What's the weather
like over there?
What's the weather
like outside?
ANN: This is none.
It really is a beautiful
night over here, John.
[whistling wind]
Right.
It doesn't want you, just me.
Do you ever collect
butterflies, Herb?
Well, just like
we collect things,
this thing goes around the
world, collecting people.
It's come to get me.
Did you ever listen
to a storm, Herb?
All those funeral voices,
those terrible, terrible voices
crying out for themselves?
Those are the
voices of the people
that it has found and consumed.
You're crazy.
Yes, go ahead.
Think that.
Think that.
Think anything you want.
Just walk away and
leave the phone.
So long!
[whistling wind]
All right, come on.
Do your worst!
[thunder cracks]
[chuckling]
It's the second
power cut in a month.
Never mind.
Coffee by candlelight's
rather nice.
[chuckling]
Life sure is funny.
It's a lonely thing,
even for married people.
You can be in someone's arms and
feel a million miles from them.
We sit here on our
self-assured butt bones,
and not many miles away
in his lonely house,
surrounded by night God
knows what, one of the finest
men who ever lived--
Herb!
SUSAN (ON PHONE): Back on.
Oh well, back to the game, then.
And let's concentrate.
Hello, Herb?
Herb?
Herb!
SUSAN (ON PHONE): Bye, John.
No, don't hang up!
Please, don't hang up!
No!
[whistling wind]
Stop, it, stop it, stop it!
What on earth is
happening to me?
[whistling wind]
No!
No, no!
[phone ringing]
[chuckling]
Oh no.
Want me alive, don't you?
You wanna get inside me,
make me a part of you.
Oh no, no, no, no.
[chuckling]
Oh no.
Oh.
[chuckling]
[door rattling]
Yes?
Who--
[whistling wind]
I could have sworn
I heard someone.
[chuckling]
I'd know that laugh anywhere.
John?
John, what is this?
Come on out!
John?
[chuckling]
[theme music]
RAY BRADBURY: People ask,
where do you get your ideas?
Well, right here.
All this is mine.
I'll never starve here.
I'm Ray Bradbury, and this is--
Clocks, hour
glasses, barometers,
who has not lain on his back and
wondered where the weather was
born, and how it traveled,
and why along the way
it sometimes ate people alive?
And then again, late
nights, doesn't the wind
outside your house
scratch at your screen,
like a cat needing to be fed?
And what then?
Do you let the wind in?
And what happens if you do?
[barking]
[whistling wind]
Yes, you're here.
Hello, Herb?
HERB (ON PHONE):
John, how are you?
Is Susan there?
Yes.
Yeah, she is.
Why?
JOHN (ON PHONE): Damn it.
What's up?
Are you all right?
[whistling wind]
Are you still there?
Herb?
Could you come over here please?
Just for a few minutes?
I'm sorry.
Ann and Keith are here.
Bridge party.
[whistling wind]
Oh, sure, sure.
Just forget it.
HERB (ON PHONE):
You sound lousy.
Why don't you come here?
Oh, no, no.
I wouldn't want to bring my
troubles over to your place.
I might get you hurt.
Hurt?
Herb!
JOHN (ON PHONE):
I'll call you back.
I'm sorry.
[whistling wind]
[barking]
No one can hear me.
[barking]
[whistling wind]
No!
[whistling wind]
[whistling wind]
My god.
It's like a great,
big, shuffling hound.
It's trying to smell me out.
This tape's for you,
Herb, if you find it.
Herb, you know I've
studied the wind,
recorded its violence
all of my working life.
The great storm here in New
Zealand in '68, Hurricane Hina
in the Fijis, right up
until the most recent,
Gilbert, in the Caribbean.
Massive devastation.
I've followed the
weather everywhere.
And now, it's following me.
He's been studying storms
and hurricanes all his life.
And now he's
flipped and thinks--
That's unfair.
Herbert meant it.
John Colt is strange.
I mean, out of all the
people in New Zealand,
why did he have to
latch on to you?
It wants once inside me, Herb.
It wants my mind, my
brain, my psychic force.
It wants my intellect, Herb!
Colt and I were
here for over a year.
Fellow scientists?
Yeah.
We became very good friends.
He's quite brilliant, you know?
He's been through a lot.
Yes, because he's
gone looking for it.
In Tibet, I climbed
up into the mountains
to the Valley of
the Winds, the place
where the winds gather and
plan their destruction.
It was a vast, evil mountain.
Hard, bony rock,
blasphemy to touch.
I touched it.
I climbed 7,000 feet to see
what I should never have seen.
It was terrifying.
Not one wind.
but hundreds.
I hid in a cave,
hearing, seeing.
I had seen too much.
[whistling wind]
No!
You found my work!
Get out of my house!
Get out!
Get!
Clear out!
Out, get out!
[chuckling]
[phone ringing]
[whistling wind]
Where are you now?
Up.
There it is.
[phone ringing]
Wait!
Wait.
Wait.
Wait.
Yes?
HERB (ON PHONE):
John, what's going on?
I've called you twice.
Oh, what isn't?
Herb, you really
should come over.
For God's sake,
you sound terrible.
JOHN (ON PHONE): No, no.
I'm all right.
The house is fine.
The doors are bolted.
Bolted?
Against what?
JOHN (ON PHONE): You
wouldn't believe.
Try me!
Are you playing
cards with friends?
Let me hear.
What?
Just hold the phone
out so I can hear!
Now, please do it!
God.
There.
SUSAN (ON PHONE):
I'll get some lemons.
We're not doing
so well, partner.
Sorry.
That's lovely.
Drop everything
and come over here.
[chuckling]
JOHN (ON PHONE):
Drop everything?
Sure, sure.
[barking]
What's the weather
like over there?
What's the weather
like outside?
ANN: This is none.
It really is a beautiful
night over here, John.
[whistling wind]
Right.
It doesn't want you, just me.
Do you ever collect
butterflies, Herb?
Well, just like
we collect things,
this thing goes around the
world, collecting people.
It's come to get me.
Did you ever listen
to a storm, Herb?
All those funeral voices,
those terrible, terrible voices
crying out for themselves?
Those are the
voices of the people
that it has found and consumed.
You're crazy.
Yes, go ahead.
Think that.
Think that.
Think anything you want.
Just walk away and
leave the phone.
So long!
[whistling wind]
All right, come on.
Do your worst!
[thunder cracks]
[chuckling]
It's the second
power cut in a month.
Never mind.
Coffee by candlelight's
rather nice.
[chuckling]
Life sure is funny.
It's a lonely thing,
even for married people.
You can be in someone's arms and
feel a million miles from them.
We sit here on our
self-assured butt bones,
and not many miles away
in his lonely house,
surrounded by night God
knows what, one of the finest
men who ever lived--
Herb!
SUSAN (ON PHONE): Back on.
Oh well, back to the game, then.
And let's concentrate.
Hello, Herb?
Herb?
Herb!
SUSAN (ON PHONE): Bye, John.
No, don't hang up!
Please, don't hang up!
No!
[whistling wind]
Stop, it, stop it, stop it!
What on earth is
happening to me?
[whistling wind]
No!
No, no!
[phone ringing]
[chuckling]
Oh no.
Want me alive, don't you?
You wanna get inside me,
make me a part of you.
Oh no, no, no, no.
[chuckling]
Oh no.
Oh.
[chuckling]
[door rattling]
Yes?
Who--
[whistling wind]
I could have sworn
I heard someone.
[chuckling]
I'd know that laugh anywhere.
John?
John, what is this?
Come on out!
John?
[chuckling]
[theme music]