(coughs) (thuds) (cries out ( man ) 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 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 The Outer Limits.
( man ) The planet Luminos.
A minor planet, sultry and simmering.
lncapacitated.
Earth's scientists have concluded that there could be no life on Luminos.
lt is too close to its own sun and its inhabitants would be victimised by their own blighting atmosphere.
But there is life on Luminos, life that should resemble ours, but doesn 't.
Desperate life, suffering a great and terrible need.
The Luminoids have begun to search the universe in an effort to gratify that need.
They seek a planet on which life is healthy, vibrant, strong and mobile.
They need such people to do their work, to labour and sl*ve for them, to manufacture their splendoured dreams.
The Luminoids need slaves.
They have chosen the planet off which their slaves will be abducted.
Not too many at first.
Aneighbourhoodful, perhaps.
Aneighbourhood like mine.
Or yours.
Those who will be abducted sleep in dreamy ignorance, unaware that they are about to become the subjects of a grotesque experiment.
(whistle fizzing ) A feasibility study.
(prolonged whistle ) (bell tolls) (whooshing ) What's the catastrophe this morning? Ralph, is fallout anything like rain ? - lt's raining? -No.
No, it's not raining.
But it's doing something.
l'll bet it's radioactive.
And there's an uncanny noise.
No wonder you're so insecure.
Pretzels? For breakfast? - l'm going down to the office.
- You haven 't even had breakfast! l'm eating a pretzel.
Do you have to give in to this thing on Sundays? - What thing? - This success compulsion .
Really, Ralph Stop saying ''Really, Ralph''.
lt sounds like ''mealy mouth''.
You could at least have a normal breakfast.
Really, Ralph.
(whooshing ) - Morning, Doc.
- Good morning.
- You wanna diagnose this weather? - And there's something wrong with my car.
Maybo yo u ro o u t o f gas No Simon we didn 't say goodbye.
l'll be gone when you get back.
Look, Doc, l'm driving downtown .
l'll drop you .
Thank you , Mr Cashman .
l'm going to church.
Ralph! Ralph, come and eat.
(banging ) - Good morning, Doctor.
- Morning, Mrs Cashman .
The doc's car won 't start.
Look under the hood, Rhea.
She's one of those housewives who can fix anything.
- Really, Ralph.
- Go take a look.
- And get out of this rain or whatever it is.
- l'll see you later.
(car starts ) Ooh really, Ralph! We've been next-door neighbours for over a year.
But we're not next-door friends yet.
Excuse me? Never mind.
l wish we were friends, so l could ask you what's breaking you up.
How did you know my wife and l were separating? l didn 't.
l meant breaking you up inside.
lt's just an expression .
- Gee, you've been married how long? - A year and a week.
Long enough to find out we made an honest mistake.
- The worst kind.
- She thinks our marriage is the beginning of her mental and spiritual deterioration .
Her words.
My father used to say, ''Ralphie, marry a dumb girl or marry a smart girl, but .
.
keep away from the intelligent ones.
'' There's your church.
- Thanks for the lift, Mr Cashman .
- Ralph.
Now that we know each othe r (bell tolls) Thank you .
(screeching ) (tyres squeal) (whooshing ) (coughs) (thuds) (cries out ( metallic twittering ) l haven 't been able to get a taxi.
The phone is out of order.
( metallic twittering ) Didn 't you believe me? Please don 't go, Andrea.
How would you do it? How would you adjust to such an immoral relationship? - lmmoral? - Living with someone you don 't love.
- Loving with someone you don 't love.
- But we're married.
- Marriage is no substitute for love.
- l'm disappointed, that's all.
And angry.
Maybe just a little frightened.
But, Andrea, l still love you .
No, not if you can 't let me have some part of my life to live my own way.
Simon , love isn 't supposed to weaken but it should make you understand another person 's heartbeat, even if the rhythm is different from yours.
l can 't live according to your prescriptions.
l can 't! No matter how benevolent or secure you'd make it, it's sl*very.
lt's a kind of sl*very.
(whooshing ) Rhea.
Rhea! Rhea! (engine turns over) Andrea, wait.
This morning l couldn 't start it.
Must have been cold.
lt's all right now.
Andrea l'm not trying to deprive you of your rights.
l just don 't want you wandering around the world with your camera, worrying about everybody else when l need you here at home with some of that crusader instinct working on our marriage.
Marriage has become insignificant in this troubled world.
Maybe that's one reason the world is in such trouble.
l thought marrying you would be the greatest adventure, but it isn 't.
lt's a dead-end world, walled in by curtains that don 't even get dirty.
Why can 't l go on being part of everything? l wanna care about making the world a better place.
Why is that wrong? But it isn 't wrong.
l work here, in one hospital.
- 20 hours a day.
- l want the other four with you .
l don 't want you running errands for some newspaper.
- They should get someone who has time.
- All l have is time.
Darling, when you have a child l don 't want to just have a child.
l wanna plan for it.
l wanna be ready for it.
l wanna try to better the world l'm bringing it into.
(woman screams) ( Ralph ) Don 't touch me.
Call the hospital.
( metallic twittering ) Ralph? - ls that my Ralph? - Don 't touch him! What's the matter? We're not on Earth.
( metallic twittering ) That's the sound l've been getting all morning.
- Shall l try one of the other neighbours? - Yes, perhaps you'd better.
He disappeared.
lt's impossible.
lt has to be.
- Where's? - She says he disappeared.
- Did you see where he went? - Yes.
- Well, where? - Thin air.
(gasps) No! Let me go to him! - Please, Mrs Cashman ! - Let me go! lt wasn 't your husband.
l saw it.
lt wasn 't even a man .
Get the car.
We'll take him to the hospital.
And you stay here.
(childish male voice ) Don 't come in ! l'll go away if you will.
Do you need help? ls it Mr Cashman ? - Ralph? -No.
Please go away.
Stay there.
l'm a doctor.
Are you hurt? No.
Yes.
Being afraid hurts.
What are you afraid of? l came through the shield.
l'll be punished if l spoil .
.
the experiment.
Stay out! Well, can 't l come in and just talk to you? - l'd like to hear about that experiment.
-No.
You wouldn 't understand, anyway.
Doctors are good at understanding children .
l'm not a child! l'm 1 6.
l'm almost an old man .
Please, can l come in ? l promise l - Your kind doesn 't keep promises.
- My kind? Doctors? All of you .
You're untrustworthy.
Below normal intelligence, undependable and generally inferior, except physically.
lt isn 't manly to hide your face when you're trying to give someone an inferiority complex.
- Please, come out.
- l will.
l'll go back where l came from.
But l can 't let any of you see me.
You're not supposed to.
All right.
l'll go and tell the others to go indoors.
Go indoors, quickly.
Just go.
At once! Drive a few yards and wait.
Keep the motor running.
(car starts ) Take me back.
Or l'll touch you .
No, Andrea! No! Andrea, no! Andrea! Andrea? God help us.
(screams) ( muffled chattering laughing ) Stop.
Stop.
Stop! Stop! (chattering stops) Do you know where you are? Nowhere on Earth.
You are on the hot, greedy planet which we call Luminos.
lt sweats just outside your admirable galaxy.
How did we get here? - Teleportation .
- Teleportation ? As your television cameras transmit images, so ours, refined and advanced, of course, transmit brute matter.
While you and your neighbours slept, we borrowed six city blocks of Earth, disassembling the atoms there, reassembling them here.
We did not intend that you become aware of our experiment until it was concluded.
Experiments are best conducted upon the blithely ignorant.
What kind of experiment? Watch.
We shall exhibit the full extent of our physical mobility.
We do not begin life as we end it.
Luminoid children at birth are as yours: sweet, golden nuggets in the palm of fate's hand.
But the hot organism is in the genes.
And soon , all too soon , while still in the cock-a-hoop dawn of their maturity, the eruptions begin .
And all Luminoids celebrate their majority in places like this.
- Like this? - Contemplative Energy Plants.
We elders sit here, doomed, immobile .
.
unable to do anything but think, and there is our compensation .
Since no single fraction of life energy is wasted on meaningless movement, all energy, all the mad, monstrous force of it, is made available to the mind.
Can you comprehend the scope and skill of minds that are never drained, never dulled, minds like nuclear birds soaring to the most splendid dreamings of the universe? l cannot conceive of such minds sanctioning the abduction of innocent people.
Nothing is so modifiable as morality.
Until recently, our youngsters produced the end products of our dreams.
But now they rebel and we are helpless and there is so much work to do.
We're here to do your work? We are studying the feasibility of it.
lf your small test group survives this sultry clime.
- You've already failed.
My neighbour - He was a lesson to us.
We were only trying to keep him from betraying everything prematurely.
We saw that contagion does occur when one of us touches one of you .
l doubt if there will be much of that.
Barring any other built-in infeasibles, we will soon abduct the rest of you , all of you .
All of the brutes that plough that brutal star called Earth.
- We can rebel too.
- You? Vain , flesh men who love their bodies above all else that nature gave them? No Ye u w oboy At the thr*at of our touch, you will obey.
And you will be happy.
Your life here will be comfortable and secure.
You will be free to worship and love and think as haphazardly as usual.
What if some of us do become infected even if we aren 't touched? Then you won 't be able to work.
You will be as we are.
We shall consider the project infeasible and turn our minds and instruments on other lively planets.
Go now.
A guide will show you the way through the fog.
Tell your neighbours to feel no fears .
.
and dream no dreams of escape, for there is no escape.
Go.
Please, where is my wife? She will be returned to you quite soon .
- Where is she? - Go.
- Where is my wife? - Take him back! (weeping ) Andrea Andrea.
Stay away, Simon .
They said this would fade soon .
- What is it? - A gas.
A sterilising gas.
The boy didn 't touch me but we were so close in that car, we breathed the same air.
They thought l should be sterilised as a precautionary measure.
- lt seems to be fading.
- Oh, yes.
lt's gone.
They use it to control the growth of their population .
Oh, my poor darling.
l wanted our children to inherit a better Earth but .
.
now there won 't be any children .
And no Earth.
Not even a bad one to bring children into.
No Earth? lf we survive here, they'll take every capable, able-bodied human being alive.
Perhaps even the old and the useless.
They need millions of us as labourers, to work for them, to manufacture their dreams.
We can 't let them abduct the whole human race! - What can we do, Simon ? - Do? Nothing! There's nothing that you or l can do.
Not just you and l.
Everybody.
All of us together might think of something.
There's only one advantage we have over them: mobility.
- But there's nowhere we can run ! -Not run .
Fight.
Resist.
Forgive me, Andrea.
Forgive you? Why? For trying to put out that spirit in you .
l just didn 't understand.
Simon , l'm awake.
l'm afraid there's no way we can fight them, Andrea.
No.
l love you .
l didn 't wanna leave you .
l gave you no choice.
That's the whole, bright mystique of life, isn 't it? Choice.
Maybe that's what the soul is.
Choice.
- Can we live with the loss of it? - Perhaps.
But l think it would be better to die trying to win it back.
Six blocks, he said.
l'll go from door to door.
l'll explain .
lf anyone still needs explanations.
We'll meet somewhere, all of us.
We'll work something out.
Where shall we meet? - What's the matter? -Nothing.
- What's the matter? - Suddenly l feel bad.
Frightened.
Suddenly it's hitting me.
Now, l'll be all right.
You go on .
)oor to doo r - Will you come with me? - l'll meet you .
The church? The church.
(door closes) Oh (gasps) (whooshing ) (bell tolls) Rhea! Rhea! Rhea! (subdued chatter) (bell tolls) Where's Rhea? Where's Rhea? Don 't worry.
She'll be here.
No! We close our doors to no one.
No.
l don 't believe you .
Let me go.
Rhea! Let me go! Let me go! Rhea! Please believe me.
They don 't intend to harm us.
Not physically.
They want us strong and well.
They need our strength.
Our Father who art in heaven , hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven .
Give us this day our daily bread.
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation , - but deliver us from evil.
- (all) Amen .
(pounding on door) ( murmuring ) Open the door.
Please! lt's my wife! (pounding ) Father, be careful.
(gasping ) (sobs) This man , who does nothing and still strikes fear in your hearts .
.
he's your neighbour.
His name is Ralph Cashman .
( muttering ) Ralph.
Don 't touch me.
- Andrea.
-No, don 't come closer! Oh, my Just Just from being in the car with that boy? Just from breathing the same air? Yes.
Tell them not to go through the fog.
lt's safe here.
The air's safe here.
- ls it? - Mr Cashman and l We'll go back to them.
No.
No, we may need your help.
- We will need your help.
- We can 't help you .
l don 't even think you can help yourselves.
Perhaps not.
But maybe we can help the others.
Back on Earth.
There is no escape for us.
Not for us.
We need not suffer the same fate as Ralph Cashman , not so ong as we stay n o u r h omes and never wander more than six blocks in any direction .
But we will never go back to the world we've been stolen from.
Understand that.
Never.
lt's a lonely feeling, isn 't it? But we won 't be lonely very long.
Soon the entire Earth's population will be teleported to this place.
We will live in labour camps.
We will toil and sweat and die in controlled areas.
Some of us may become infected.
Contagion can occur even when we breathe the same air in a confined space.
But enough of us will survive to make their project feasible.
Out of the whole world of us, enough will survive.
lf we survive.
We are their guinea pigs, but we are human guinea pigs, which gives us some choice in this experiment.
Human choice.
We can choose to make their enslavement of our Earth infeasible.
We can choose not to escape infection .
We can deliberately become what they are.
My wife has already been infected.
l'm going to take her hand.
Will someone take mine? (bell tolls) ( man ) Do not enter upon or cross this area.
Do not touch or remove possibly radioactive dirt or rocks.
lf you have any knowledge concerning this disappearance, please contact your nearest police department.
lt could have happened to any neighbourhood.
Had those who lived in this one been less human , less brave, it would have happened to all the neighbourhoods of the Earth.
Feasibility study ended.
Abduction of human race infeasible.
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 .