( man) ln the not-distant future, the sound of man will inv*de those unknown depths of space which, as yet, we cannot even imagine.
ln his own world, there are no places beyond the reach of his voice.
His neighbour is no longer just next door, but anywhere at the end of a wire, and it all began when prehistoric man discovered the art of communication .
- Fill it up, sir? -No, just directions.
Let me have a look at the map.
Now, Wild Canyon Road That's a good address! Our friends will be dying to visit.
The realtor said it should be ten miles beyond Mitchellville That would put it around here.
- Unless they roll it up for the night.
- (car horn) (whistles) - Where did she come from? - That side road up ahead.
That's our road! Must bo why t hey ca t Wild Ca nyo n (sttartts eng ne) Oh! Are you all right? l'm sorry.
How the devil did that rock get there? - Maybe it's always been there.
- The pick-up got by.
Perhaps they put it there to keep people out.
Listen .
What do you hear? (silence) -Nothing.
- That's right, not one sound.
- lt is kind of lonesome here.
- Oh, no, we're not alone.
- There's something here.
- Come on .
Let me take a look at that rock.
Andy! - ( moans) - Oh, honey Are you all right? Take it easy.
Take it easy.
Don 't Stupid me! - l hurt my ankle.
- lt'll be all right.
Now, take it easy.
Now, stop.
You're all right.
- (whimpers) - Shh ( man) There is nothing wrong with your television set.
Do not attempt to adjust the picture.
We are controlling transmission .
For the next hour, we will control all you see and hear.
You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to The Outer Limits.
- How is your ankle? - l don 't think l can walk on it.
- The car won 't start.
- From hitting that boulder? l don 't know.
l don 't think l could carry you up there anyhow.
- l'm afraid we're stuck here.
- Oh, Andy what are we going to do? Well Here.
The first thing l'm gonna do is get you someplace more comfortable.
This is comfortable.
Oh! Oh, it's so empty.
Well, there must be a farmhouse around here somewhere.
n a cathedra , yo u w hisper , boca u se to ra se yo u r vo ce wo u d be sacn cge Here l don 't know l think if l shouted, the sound would die.
Andy Andy, maybe there are birds singing, only nobody can hear them.
lf there were birds, you'd hear them.
- Then where are they? - l don 't know.
l'm an engineer, not an ornithologist.
-No wind - ( Andy) Hasn 't been any wind all day.
- Then what's moving that tumbleweed? - Hmm? lt just takes a breath of air to roll those things.
- Andy, they're following us.
- Will you cut it out? - l've got to get outta here and see -No! Don 't! Don 't leave me! Please! - Stop this! Be logical now! - What's logical about that? lt will be dark in an hour.
lf l don 't get help, we'll spend the night here.
Please.
Please Here.
Take these.
We get back to town and l'll give up the idea of living on a farm, honey.
OK? (screams) Andy! Andy! Andy! - (sobs) - Shh lt's all right.
- That thing, it tried to - lt's all right.
Sit down .
- lt tried to att*ck me, Andy! - lt's just your nerves.
lt's all right.
Look, l won 't leave you alone.
l'll stay here.
l'll build a fire.
Maybe somebody will see it and come to the rescue.
Fire.
Fire.
They hate it! That's why it att*cked me, to keep me from striking that match.
- See them flinch? They're afraid, afraid of fire.
- They'll run and hide now.
- And look, they're all around us.
- They won 't come any closer.
As long as the fire lasts.
- They're only tumbleweeds.
- And when it burns out, they'll att*ck.
- lt's as simple as that.
- There's plenty of firewood.
- Out there.
We can 't reach it.
We're trapped.
- Oh, don 't you believe it.
- Watch now.
- Andy Andy! - Andy! Wait! Andy! - What is it? - Don 't leave me! - Look, l'm just going after some wood.
You won 't get back in .
- They'll close that opening and l'll be alone.
- Look, will you stop this nonsense? These are just weeds, brush and thistle, saltwort.
They're not alive.
Look, they've already closed up the opening.
Something's moving them.
- What do you think it is? - l don 't know.
lt's a force.
- l felt it on the road.
Don 't you remember? - Yes, l remember.
l don 't know where it's coming from, but l feel it.
The rock in the road, the tumbleweed First, they tried to drive us out.
Now they won 't let us go.
- How's your ankle? - (sighs) l've almost forgotten about it.
- lf you could walk, we might make it to the car.
-No.
lt's too late now.
The fire's almost out.
Pretty soon , they'll swarm all over us.
Look, l'll have it blazing in a second.
These things burn like paper.
(screams) There's another one! Andy! Andy! lt was like an octopus! There was strength in it! That doesn 't make sense.
- l could feel its power.
- Where did that energy come from? - How can you animate a dead weed? - Oh! - Hand me another burning branch.
- That's the last one.
The fire's almost gone out.
- ( man) ls anybody there? - Hello! Where are you? Hurry up! - Just outside.
l can see you .
- We're having a little trouble.
Can you help us? - Don 't touch the weeds.
They're dangerous.
- l know.
We can 't get through them.
- We could burn through if we had some wood.
- They don 't burn like regular tumbleweeds.
l know, but they burn .
Try to find some dry branches.
Oh, Andy Andy, he isn 't going to help.
He's going away.
- Why would he do that? - There's something strange about him.
- Didn 't you hear the way he talked? - Shh.
Hello.
We're sure glad to see you .
My name's Andy Thorne.
This is my wife.
Name's Lamont.
l've got a farm down the canyon .
Used to be a farm anyway.
- The weeds are there too? - Worse than any locust.
l got a farm down the canyon .
- Yeah.
You already said that.
- Did l tell you there's nothing left? Nothing that's any good.
You'd better come along with me.
There's no place else to go.
Wait a minute.
l don 't understand.
lf these weeds caused all this damage, why did you stay? Curiosity.
They didn 't act like natural tumbleweeds, so l watched them, but l stayed too long.
Now do yo u u ndersta nd? Yeu ca n't keave ? You , me, your missus Nobody ca n leave There just isn 't any way of getting out.
Come on .
Looking back, it seems it all happened the night that thing landed in the canyon .
- Two weeks ago as near as l can figure.
- What was it? l don 't know.
Meteor maybe.
l saw a blinding light come down , like a thunderbolt, then a crash.
- Didn 't you go out to investigate? - l walked down the canyon the next day.
-Nothing there, not even a hole in the ground.
- Was that when things started happening? Well, that's that's what l think now.
l didn 't pay any attention to it at first.
lt seems there's more tumbleweeds around than usual, but that's all.
Then they started getting bigger, about the time my wife started missing chickens.
- You don 't mean that they? - Maybe.
lt didn 't occur to me at the time.
Figured it was a fox, but a fox couldn 't have made off with a sow.
Didn 't you talk it over with your neighbours? No other farms in ten miles of here.
Anyway, they wouldn 't believe me.
l didn 't believe it myself till the milk cows disappeared.
- Oh, now, come on ! - Mr Lamont, where is Martha now? She wanted to leave.
Kept after me to go.
Then , last week, after the cows disappeared, she went away.
l hope she got out of the canyon .
lt's a miracle you held on to your sanity.
- Did those things ever att*ck you? - Only the time l tried to leave.
Since then , l've been staying inside till l saw your fire.
- (rustling) - Listen .
Oh! Every night, they scratch at the door, trying to get in .
- What about the telephone? - Went dead a week ago.
Then the electricity went off.
Martha used cooking gas, so l've been able to cook.
- You said you tried to get out of here once.
- Blocked the road.
Tried going up the side of the canyon .
They dragged me down .
Well, why didn 't you try burning your way out? l thought about it at one time.
Then l seen what they could do.
- l figured nothing would work.
- At least we know fire will do it.
- We'll make torches.
You lead us out.
- Worth a try, after your ankle gets better.
- We'll have to run .
- l'll be all right in the morning.
l'll fix you up a place to sleep.
- What a horror! - Yes, if you believe all that.
- What? - l believe that man 's lying.
l don 't understand you .
- Out there, you were absolutely petrified.
- Well, in here, l'm pretty shaky.
- But that man is not telling the truth.
- About what? - He said Martha left a week ago, didn 't he? - Yeah, about a week ago.
- l think she left hours ago in that pick-up truck.
- How do you arrive at that conclusion ? Oh, Andy, look around.
Everything is so neat.
Most men are terrible housekeepers.
- lf she'd been gone a week, it would be a mess.
- Some farmers may be good housekeepers.
lf he is a farmer.
Listen to this.
''Seventh day.
The Lord rested after Creation , but here, there is no rest.
'' ''Now l am certain there is a malignant intelligence behind the weeds.
'' ''No, not behind them, in them.
Where it comes from or what it wants, l cannot fathom.
'' ''Perhaps if l could reason clearly l might understand, but my grip on sanity weakens by the day.
'' An educated man wrote those lines, Andy, not a backwoods hillbilly.
Andy, we've just got to leave here tonight, while he's asleep.
Shh Here he comes.
- You can take Martha's room.
- Where will you sleep, Mr Lamont? Right here.
- Feel better? - Thank you .
Fine.
Huh? (sighs) We gotta figure this out logically.
l know it defies logic, but it's all we've got to work with.
l didn 't say anything.
Number one, something entered this canyon two weeks ago and we've got no idea what it is.
Lamont thinks it's pure mind, pure intelligence, no physical properties at all.
But those tumbleweeds lt hitched a ride on them because they're mobile.
Number two, it motivates these weeds, but only within their natural limitations.
- lt makes them roll.
- And att*ck.
No.
Well, in a sense.
They did entangle themselves around our hands and our feet, they showed unusual strength, but otherwise, they acted just like tumbleweeds.
- Our own fear supplied the rest.
-Number three, the way they burn .
Well, any dry weed will burn .
These explode.
That could be because of that induction of that pure force.
Lamont's still awake, unless he fell asleep with the light on .
Andy, please let's get out of here right now.
l wanna go.
lf he tries to stop us - Why would he do that? - l don 't know.
But l know he's part of this.
He accepted it, didn 't he? - Yeah, he's really cracking up.
- Maybe he sold his soul to the devil, or whatever that thing is.
Otherwise, he could have left.
He admitted that, didn 't he? Well, why didn 't he go? Andy? Come here.
l can 't see any weeds! - They're gone.
- What? - The weeds are gone.
- Andy, listen , listen Frogs croaking.
That's the first natural sound we've heard since we've been in this canyon .
- Yeah.
- Do you suppose that could mean Maybo we ro free ? Maybo t' s gono away Come on .
- Lamont? - He's gone.
He wouldn 't take off without us.
Lamont? Lamont! - Hello! - Andy Andy, he's made some more notes.
''The long night has almost vanished.
The waiting will soon be over.
'' ''l sense this without knowing why.
What feeble candle of comprehension informs me?'' ''All my other faculties are flickering out one by one.
'' ''When l am truly dispossessed, what use, then , the empty shell?'' ''How will it serve them? Who is out there?'' ''Does no one hear me? l yield'' He stopped in the middle of a line.
That doesn 't sound like anybody who ran away.
That's what l want to do.
l want to run to a world l understand! Please! Come on .
- Andy, l'm frightened.
- What? The frogs.
l never heard so many in my life.
(croaking) - This way.
- There must be thousands of them.
- Stop! Don 't go any further! - Lamont? - Go back! Go back! -No.
We're leaving.
You can come or not.
You can 't get through.
Go back to the house.
Hurry! - He's trying to scare us.
- Look, l (screams) - (sobs) - lt's all right.
lt's all right.
We're safe.
We're safe.
Shh They can 't get in .
You're safe.
- Thousands of them! - lt's a plague! lt gets so dry they go mad.
-No! lt's that thing.
lt's entered the frogs.
- Oh, no - Yes, it has! lt's entered the frogs! - There's some reasonable explanation ! That's why the tumbleweed disappeared, Andy.
lt had a better carrier.
lt's entered the frogs! We're never going to get out of here! Shh.
Sit down .
Sit down .
Stay here.
We'll get out.
l'll figure out a way.
Don 't you worry.
l think l ought to help Lamont.
(screams) Andy! Look! k*ll it, Andy! k*ll it! No.
l want to find out what makes it go.
You stay there.
Maybe it's like l said: they're frantic for water.
- lt acted just like acid.
- Why, Andy? Why? For the same reason those weeds exploded when we lit them.
Whatever this force is, it can 't live with fire or water.
- l think l'm going out of my mind! -No.
Take it easy.
- (wails) - Look.
Look.
Maybe we've found a way out.
We'll drive them back with water.
They can 't stand water.
We'll come through.
- We'll drive them back with fire and water.
-No! No! l'm not going out there! -No, not now.
When it gets light.
-No! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never - Then we'd better pray for rain .
- ( Lamont Let me in ! Open the door! Saw the weeds move away.
Went out to see if we could get out.
Then the frogs came.
Thousands of them! Thousands of mad frogs! (giggles and sobs maniacally) Mr Lamont, feel any better this morning? ( Karen) Andy! Andy! Mr Lamont, where's Andy? l'm in here, honey.
l'll be right out.
- Are you all right? - Leave him alone.
He's not here any more.
- What's that? - He used it for spraying insecticides.
- l wanna fill it with water.
- Oh Are they still out there? - Just dead ones.
- And the tumbleweed? A couple went by, moved by the wind.
Things look pretty good out there.
Nothing moving.
Everything's quiet.
But we're not taking any chances.
l've got a blowtorch back there.
- With that and water, we can go anywhere.
- What about him? We can 't leave him and we can 't carry him.
Mr Lamont? Mr Lamont? We're going to try to get out of here.
Do you think you could walk? Let me give you a hand.
Let me get you to your feet.
Up! Oh, that's good.
That's fine.
Yeah, that's great.
You're doing fine, Mr Lamont.
- Don 't let him lag behind.
- He'll be all right.
He'll snap out of it.
- We'll get him to a doctor.
- (screams) Look out! - Lamont? - He's dead.
(screams) Andy! Andy, it's him, isn 't it, Andy? - We'd better get to the farm, for a while.
- You mean forever, don 't you? No.
There's an answer.
lt isn 't just fire and water.
What do you want? lf you're intelligent, act like it! What do you want? - Andy, please come! Come on .
- lt thinks and it reasons.
Why doesn 't it try to communicate instead of playing tricks? At least act logical! (screams) No! No! lt's all right.
Listen to this.
This is a valuable notebook.
l think l found his error.
Listen to this.
''l am certain that there is a malignant intelligence in the weeds.
'' - l think that's wrong.
l don 't think it is malignant.
- (thud) Anything that's that powerful, anything that destroys cows and chickens No, no.
The livestock disappeared.
We really don 't know what happened.
l think this thing, this intelligence, whatever you want to call it, came here from somewhere so far out in space that it could never make it physically, so here it is on this strange, perhaps hostile planet, pure mind, trying to find a means of communicating with some alien form of life.
Us.
- Well, l don 't want to communicate with it.
- We'd better or we're going to rot here.
- Why didn 't it communicate with Lamont? - lt did, but he didn 't understand.
Listen , the human mind it works with electrical impulses.
Now, this thing, whatever it is, to travel so far, must be a current of tremendous voltage (thud) That's what happened to his lights, his telephone, an overload.
And that's what happened to our car, and that's what happened to Lamont.
You see, his mind was gradually being pushed aside by this this force.
- lt needed a human carrier.
- (thud) Unfortunately, he resisted.
- So it k*lled him.
-No.
l think that was an accident.
lt was keeping him here till it could take occupancy.
(clunk clatter) - What is that? - l don 't know.
Another rock, l guess.
No, it's it's coming for us.
- Then we'd better try to communicate.
- How? How? - Andy, listen - (footsteps on gravel) Footsteps! - Somebody's coming to help us! - lt would never let anybody else in the canyon .
Maybo Maybe the force is gone.
Yes, that's it.
- (footsteps approach) - That's it, Andy, the (footsteps on wood) (creaking) ( key rattling in the lock) Mr Lamont Thank heaven .
We thought We thought you were dead.
Andy Andy - He he isn 't breathing! -No.
He's ln the name of heaven ! - What is it? - He's still dead.
Oh! Oh, Andy.
lt was a bad dream, wasn 't it? Oh! Oh, we're still here! - Lamont? - He's in the kitchen .
He can 't be dead! He's as dead as those tumbleweeds.
The muscles move and the joints function , but that's all.
Otherwise, he's just a zombie.
What good can a dead body be to that thing? Not very much.
l don 't think that it really understands.
Maybe it can 't conceive of death.
What a tragedy.
Finally, it gets a human carrier and still it can 't communicate.
- What's it doing now? -Nothing.
Lamont is just still at the table.
- The notebook.
- What? Lamont's notebook.
Why not? lf it can activate Lamont's muscles .
.
maybe Lamont can write for it.
l'm gonna find out.
Yeu want to come ? No Yes! l don 't want to be left alone here.
- Andy, must you do this? - Yes.
Don 't you understand? lf Lamont can write, it can tell us secrets we can 't imagine.
Help me up.
Get me the pen and the notebook.
Andy Oh, that's it! - That's it.
That's it.
-No, l can 't - Shh! - l can 't watch.
These are just symbols.
l can 't read these.
This is not Lamont's writing.
He's transcribing it into its language.
Oh l was hoping he'd translate the thoughts into his own terms.
He would do if he were alive! Come on , write.
Write enough symbols so we can establish a pattern .
There'll always be somebody to decode.
Come on , write! Write! - What did it? - Oh, nothing.
Just some meaningless symbols.
About four lines of them.
Did you notice how mechanically the body moved? Rigor mortis had set in .
The muscles responded, but just barely.
The arm couldn 't write.
- What about the symbols? - There's not enough of them.
There's no way to learn the key.
Just not enough of them.
What do you suppose it is doing now? Well, it's probably making an estimate of the situation .
lt must realise its carrier can communicate with its own species.
But even if you could make contact, it couldn 't understand you .
The language.
Thought has no language.
We think in pictures and sensations.
Then we translate these ideas into our own words and sentences.
Now, suppose this this thing has a concept and it wants to put it into a living brain .
.
mine.
l get the thought, but then wouldn 't l translate all these ideas, this thought, into my own words, into my own language? lf you let it enter, how do you know it will ever go, and if it does go, leave you mindless, soulless, like like That's a gamble we have to take.
We're prisoners.
lt can do what it wants with us.
Our only chance is to make contact, to reach an understanding.
ook o u t, A ndy! What you're asking for is my blessing, and if l don 't give it, you'll blame me.
Oh, no.
l won 't blame you .
All right.
l dissent, but l'll try to help you in every way l can .
That's my girl.
You ready? All you have to do is write down anything l say.
- Lamont.
- Oh, l've moved him.
Come on .
Now, these are the questions.
You may think of others to ask, but at least ask those.
lunderstand.
Now, then Lamont resisted.
His mind fought against invasion .
l've got to leave my mind a blank, induce a self-hypnosis.
Leave plenty of room for it to enter.
- Turn up the lamp.
- But we're almost out of fuel now.
Andy And don 't speak.
Don 't even move.
My mind will My mind will My mind will (screams) (groans) This this this long journey This bitter storm this chaos .
.
this flux surrounded by beings There is life here! There is life here, but what form? How does it communicate? We call out, but no one hears! - l can hear you .
- Why does no one answer? - Listen to me.
l have questions to ask.
- We know the solitude of infinity is abolished.
That is our triumph.
Consciousness does exist on this strange pebble in the drift of space - .
.
but its nature is a mystery.
- Whoever you are, listen to me, please! Perhaps voyagers of some future millennia will reach here - .
.
and find no evidence of our visit.
- Oh, wait! l hear you ! There is one possibility left.
Perhaps this this consciousness which we sense here .
.
needs time to develop .
.
to evolve, and in some thousands of years will waken to an awareness, a racial memory of our being here.
This is the only flag .
.
we can plant as we depart.
(screams) Andy! Andy, no! Go away and leave him alone! Andy, come back.
Andy, come back! Andy, come back to me! (sobs) Andy come back to me.
(breathes heavily) The lights are on .
lt's gone! lt's gone! - lt didn 't work - Yes, darling, yes, it did.
Look.
l took it down .
Part of it anyway.
The only thing is it couldn 't hear me.
(phone rings) Hello? Yes.
Yes, the phone has been out of order.
No, everything's all right now.
Yes.
Thank you .
Nothing just nothing.
But, Andy, those are its words! You don 't talk like that.
lt did communicate.
Where are the answers? ''Who are you? Where do you come from?'' Anybody with six drinks in him could write this kind of junk.
-Now it's gone.
- Andy, darling You know, it just gave up.
There's no other explanation .
Even after taking over my brain , it couldn 't communicate.
lt was as if it could send but it couldn 't receive.
- So it just went back? - l wonder where it came from.
We'll never know, not now.
You know, the tragedy of all this is nobody will ever believe us.
But, Andy, we have Lamont's notebook.
Ramblings of a deranged mind, meaningless symbols nobody can decipher.
- People will walk away from us.
- Oh, Andy, l'm sorry.
l tried.
l tried.
Come on .
Let's see if we can get the car started.
You know, we're only 30 miles from home.
l wonder how many millions of light years it has to travel.
( man) And the light shineth in the darkness and the darkness comprehended it not.
The sound of man probes the dimensionless range of space, seeking an answer.
But if it comes, will he hear? Will he listen ? Will he comprehend?