Original subtitles

The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence

but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.

Yeah, the cradle rocks, and I think you'll agree, so does Vladimir Nabokov.

Every time he sets pen to paper.

But whether old Vlad's description of the human condition is born of hope or

dire pessimism is the question.

is the question we will come back to when I return from my leave.

Now, before you go, no doubt a lot of you have heard the rumors circulating

around campus about my upcoming operation, and I figured I'd better set

record straight.

The next time I see you, I may actually see you.

Dear sweet Molly Bloom here may be out of a job.

I know that sounds kind of crazy, but...

I volunteered to be a guinea pig in a medical procedure that I and my doctors

hope will allow me to feed for the first time since my childhood accident.

I'd give you the hard science, but there's a reason I teach the humanities.

What I can tell you is that it involves a combination of an implant of some

state -of -the -art microelectronics.

and the use of a sophisticated drug, get this, that could only be manufactured

in the zero gravity of outer space.

So if anyone asks you what the hell good all those space shuttle missions are

for, you can tell them they may have just made a miracle possible.

You're looking at areas V1 and 17 of the occipital lobe.

better known as the primary visual cortex.

By removing the damaged portion of the necrotic area I'm pointing to and

replacing it with our neuroprosthesis, we expect to fully restore the patient's

visual circuitry.

Syringe.

I'll now be injecting the cerebral sheath with the same iridium suspension,

which has been part of the patient's pre -surgery drug therapy for the last

seven days.

Ready for the implant now?

Patrick?

How are you feeling?

Like I parted my hair with a jackhammer.

We've cut down on the painkillers until we can assess the results of the

surgery. Does that mean you're going to take the bandages off now?

Before we do that, I want to introduce you to Dr. Louise Burrows, the

psychologist I was telling you about.

You're still convinced I'm going to need therapy?

No.

Regardless of the results, you will be facing a period of adjustment.

Hi, Patrick. It's a pleasure to finally meet you.

Are you as attractive as you sound, Dr. Burrows?

Let's hope you'll be able to answer that question yourself, Patrick.

Okay.

Oh, my God.

There's light. I can sense light, Doctor.

That's wonderful, Patrick.

Just now, just take it easy.

Oh, my God, there's light.

Oh, I can see your face.

I can see your faces.

Oh, it's incredible.

It's incredible.

Thank you, Doctor.

Thank you.

What is it, Doctor?

What is that?

Oh, my God!

Who are you?

There is nothing wrong with your television.

Do not attempt to adjust the picture.

We are now controlling the transmission.

We control the horizontal.

and the vertical. We can deluge you with a thousand channels or expand one

single image to crystal clarity.

And beyond, we can shape your vision to anything our imagination can

conceive.

For the next hour, we will control all that you see and hear.

reaches from the deepest inner mind to the outer limits.

The outer limit.

Please stand by.

It is said that what we behold with our eyes is merely the surface of reality.

But if we could see beneath that facade, what would lie within?

Come in.

Louise, I was hoping with you. I tell you... Remember, you promised no more

jokes about a sight for sore eyes.

I'll try to restrain myself.

Thank you.

Have you talked to Dr. Lennox? Yes.

And? Well, he can't really keep you in the hospital against your will.

Although it is his strong preference.

And I did manage to convince him that what you experienced is not likely to

recur. So what happens now? I...

Get remanded to the custody of my personal shrink?

No, Patrick. I'm only here when you need me. Just like Molly.

Louise, do you still think it was all a hallucination?

This was the first use of your eyesight in almost 20 years.

And they tell me your brain's visual cortex is actually being retrained.

It was so damn real.

Yeah.

Tell me again, what did she look like?

Red eyes.

Red hair.

Red... Her skin, it was so pale.

Strange, almost like a ghost.

Is that what you think you saw then, a ghost?

You just got finished with a perfectly plausible explanation.

Okay.

When you were a child, when your vision was still intact...

Did you ever see anything like this woman?

You mean like the boogeyman?

Give it any name you like.

I had fantasies and phobias, you know, like any kid.

Such as?

Well, I remember lying in my bed, staring at the half -open closet door.

I swear, the door started to move.

It doesn't mean we're crazy when we see something that's not there.

I think I'm ready to face the world.

You don't mind if I accompany you, do you?

Twist my arm.

The tree, the sky, everything is so beautiful.

So they tell me you lost your sight in an accident when you were, what, seven?

Going blind was the least of it.

I lost my parents in the same accident.

I'm sorry.

It's a single -engine plane crash.

We were on our way to Alaska.

Wanted me to see the Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights.

My father was at the controls when we lost power over Fort Yukon in the Arctic

Circle.

So who raised you?

My aunt, my mother's sister.

She never let me wallow in self -pity, you know?

If it wasn't for her, I don't think I would have gone on to college or

She died of cancer a little over a year ago.

Well, that certainly puts things in perspective.

How do you mean?

Just those kinds of losses. The emotional trauma can affect us in ways

well, sometimes unpredictable.

That psychoanalyze for this guy is a whack job.

I'm not here to make judgments.

I thought that's exactly it.

What is it?

What do you see?

Patrick, talk to me.

It's a girl. You didn't see a girl right there.

No headaches or dizzy spells?

No.

Any discomfort associated with shifting focus from near to far?

No. Any halos around objects?

I don't think so, no.

Artifacts?

I'm sorry?

Oh, um, spots of light or dark that seem to float over your field of view.

Not really, no.

Well, everything looks good. Very good.

No evidence of rejection, no brain swelling.

Except for the restricted peripheral vision, Patrick, you're doing better

we could have ever hoped for.

So there's nothing abnormal?

Physically, I don't see anything anomalous. Why?

Is it something that you're experiencing that doesn't feel normal? No, I just...

You know, when the bandages first came off.

Oh.

You experienced anything like that again?

No.

No, no, no. Dr. Burroughs explained how that was just a figment of my

imagination.

Vivid as hell from the sound of it. It was.

I am going to give you another injection of the iridium suspension.

part of the process yeah well patrick

you're going to have to hope that your body becomes

acclimated to the side effects because without the drug the

bridge to your neural prostate would quickly disintegrate like i said best

feeling in the world

You didn't say anything to Dr. Lennox?

I did, actually.

He pretended he hadn't heard a thing.

Maybe he wanted you to volunteer it. Why are you all playing games with me?

No one's playing games with you, Patrick. I think Dr. Lennox just feels

best dealt with in a therapeutic realm.

Can you go back there?

Do you remember what you saw?

He's trying to talk to me.

I can't hear her, but I can make out what she's saying.

She's crying for help.

Over and over and over and over.

Would you like to help her?

I'm not a child, Louise. I know what you're driving at.

Which is?

Wish fulfillment, unconscious cravings. I've created an imaginary girl to

fulfill some...

Somebody twisted me.

We do that routinely in our dreams, Patrick. I wasn't dreaming. Both times,

wasn't dreaming. You were there.

But why would my mind fantasize something so terrifying?

Patrick, listen to me.

For 20 years, you were blind. You lived in a world that was cloaked in darkness.

And then, as sudden as turning on a switch, your senses are flooded with

assaulted with images. How can it not be overwhelming?

When does it stop?

I don't have to remind you that...

Without the iridium we supplied, your experiment would have had no chance of

succeeding.

I would like to be able to report your continued cooperation to my superiors.

It would be a shame to have as precious a gift as your patience snatched away.

and happening?

You're not real.

You're not real. You're not real. You can't be.

I'm not dreaming, am I?

Here. It's beautiful.

You said you wanted me to help you.

How can I help you?

You're not alive, are you? You're some...

No, Kira, wait. Please, Kira.

Kira, don't go.

Will I see you again?

Just tell me that.

The Outer Limits.

Please stand by.

All right.

Take it at face value, then. This girl is... Kira.

She has a name. She told me her name.

Okay. She appears to you and no one else.

She can't be heard, so she communicates by writing in the air.

And she tells you she's from where?

Another planet?

Another world.

I never should have said anything.

Your mother had red hair, didn't she?

Who told you that?

I read about it in the story of the accident.

She looks nothing like my mother, Louise.

And please, stop twisting everything that I say.

I am just trying to make sense of it. For God's sakes, Patrick, I'm not going

be able to help you if you don't meet me halfway.

Patrick. Patrick.

Is it happening?

Here. Here.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I thought you were someone else.

I'm sorry.

It's all right.

Leave me alone, okay?

Get the hell away from me.

All right.

I wasn't dreaming. Both times, I wasn't dreaming. You were

there. Why would my mind fantasize something so terrifying?

Patrick, listen to me.

Where did you get that tape?

Ah, Louise.

I never recorded that session.

And if I had, it would have been for my own use.

You were told from the moment you came in how important this experiment was.

I feel like I've already betrayed Patrick's trust.

He opened up to me with the understanding that would be strictly

Louise, please try to understand that your participation in this is just one

part of a much larger picture.

Well, if you expect me to... to continue to participate.

I won't have you spying on me or my patient. With all due respect, I won't

you letting in the ground rules.

Now, if you choose to withdraw from this project, there is no shortage of mental

health professionals who would jump at the chance. I have a connection to this

young man. There is no way I'm walking.

I mean, after all, this is the kind of case that could make one's career.

Or am I reading between the lines?

Besides, he's not just your patient.

He's our patient, too.

And something of a milestone.

He's a human being, Joseph. And a very troubled one. He insists on going back

the classroom, but he's not ready. He's clearly delusional. And if he

deteriorates any further, I'm concerned it might develop into a serious

psychosis. If, in fact, the symptoms that he's exhibiting truly are signs of

psychosis at all.

Joseph, I have the strongest feeling I haven't been as thoroughly briefed on

this case as I could have been.

You know as much as you need to know for the moment. No, that is not good

enough. I want to know what the hell is going on here, and I want to know now.

Louise, have a seat.

Please.

You know the iridium that has been an integral part of Patrick's post

therapy? The synaptic stimulant, the one that's helped drug victims.

There's compelling scientific evidence that it doesn't just enhance the brain's

receptivity, but it enhances perception, heightens the senses, even in

faculties sometimes referred to as extrasensory.

What are you trying to tell me? That what Patrick is experiencing, it just

be real.

Aside from their immeasurable genius, what Virginia Woolf, William Faulkner,

James Joyce all had in common was their use of a literary technique that we've

come to know as stream of consciousness, in which the characters' thoughts,

their actions, their emotions, all have an associative pattern rather than...

It's a stream of consciousness.

Right. Where the characters, their thoughts, their...

The Outer Limits.

Please stand by.

Is everything okay?

If I had a trophy room, I'd probably hang a picture of your brain scan in it.

You are the real life six million dollar man.

I better warn my insurance company.

So is that it for today?

Not yet. I'm going to be giving you another injection.

As a matter of fact, I'd like you to come in every day this week for a

treatment. Every day?

Doctor, I don't know if my body can handle that.

You don't want to backslide now, do you? Of course not.

It's just... The drug wreaks havoc on my system, Doctor. I can't eat for hours

afterwards. The headaches are unbearable.

Something's wrong, isn't it?

No, nothing is wrong. I don't believe you.

Patrick, you are living proof that the treatment is a success.

It's the drug, isn't it?

It's the iridium that's allowing me to see her.

See who?

I know Louise has told you everything. This is crazy. Why won't you tell me the

truth? He's right. We should.

It's time you were told the truth.

Oh.

Mr. Borden, I didn't know that you were observing.

What truth?

I wasn't aware there was more than one.

Who are you?

Forgive me.

Dwight Borden.

I work with British Intelligence and the National Security Agency.

National Security?

The iridium drug that was produced on the shuttle.

Mr. Borden's agency made it possible.

Rarer than a flawless diamond.

And far more costly.

It wasn't developed for your procedure per se.

You might say that it's used in your case as one of those... unexpected

byproducts of scientific research.

What was it produced for?

Actually, Mr. Tarlow, may I call you Patrick?

Patrick, eight years ago, a small group of scientists within the government

discovered that a drug originally developed for stroke victims had some

extraordinary properties. It allowed certain subjects to perceive faint but

consistent signs of what we could only call a non -visible life form.

Now, we surmised that if we refined the drug and found the right purpose, we

could track these signals, amplify them, that he or she might become a receiver

of sorts.

A receiver?

We tried it on hundreds of volunteers and a dozen studies, but we never got

further than trace evidence.

Until now.

Patrick, these visions you've been experiencing, we believe...

They are the first corroborative proof of the life form I'm talking about.

It's too bizarre.

You are that human receiver, Patrick.

Are you all right?

I can hear you.

That's what I'd hoped.

What was that? What was that thing? What did you do to me?

It's something I salvaged from my craft.

I can only use it in limited areas like this one.

Magnetic nodes or current growth.

I had hoped it would break down the rest of the remaining barriers.

But you're still visible only to me.

I can really feel your hand.

It's been so long since I felt another touch.

I don't know how long it's been.

We

were

warned about coming too close to the magnetic field of your planet.

But my father wanted a better look.

I was the only survivor of five.

It was almost seven years ago.

I was orphaned in a craft that crashed, too.

It was just a single -engine plane.

For all these years, I've wandered your planet, seeing everything, but unable to

be seen.

I know you.

I still don't understand how you found me, how you knew.

The system, the substance that was created in space.

The iridium truck.

As soon as it was returned to Earth, I found myself drawn to it.

Drawn to the people who were treated by it.

I was scared, though.

I'd seen so much cruelty here.

So much darkness and suffering.

But when it was used on you, it was so intense.

It became irresistible.

Like a moth to flame.

Why do you say that?

Because... I could pose a danger to you.

I don't understand.

The people who created it, they know about you. They used the iridium before

even saw you to somehow detect your presence.

And the worst, worst of it is, now they think they have a way to reach you.

Through you.

Can't go back to being alone.

You have no idea what it's been like.

I have no one to talk to.

Share my feelings, my thoughts.

The outer

limit.

Please stand by.

It's still so hard to fathom.

We need your help, Louise. We want him to bring the alien to us.

How can you be so certain that this energy phenomenon is an alien or a life

at all, for that matter?

We've heard them communicate.

Now, of course, all we hear is his side of the conversation, but... They speak?

Yes, it's a recent development.

They were up half the night, talking, laughing.

Center exchange is even tactile.

It's quite astonishing, really.

You bugged his apartment.

Louise, the scientist in you has got to realize the importance of what we've

stumbled upon here.

Oh, I do, but... Louise, it seems Patrick trusts you.

We want you to assure him that we mean this being no harm. On the contrary, we

want to learn all we can from her.

Eventually, we might be able to return the favor.

Our telemetry might be used to signal her world. We know she wants that.

I just don't know.

Louise, Patrick's psychological state depends on his being able to help this

creature.

You thwart that, and he may never recover.

I don't know, Louise.

Bringing Kira to meet them scares the hell out of me.

What's scary is making the scientific discovery of the century and not being

able to share it with the rest of the world.

And you really believe, I mean, you really believe that Borden is willing to

help her make contact with her home planet?

All they want is to be able to ask her questions and you'd serve as

You're in love with her, aren't you?

You must really think I'm crazy now.

On the contrary.

It's enough to make a cynic believe it.

What's all this?

Some instrumentation measuring devices.

She is with you, yes?

She's right here.

Would you direct her to take that feed?

She can hear you. She can understand everything you say.

Kira?

Please.

Ask her where she comes from.

Beyond your reach.

Could she be a little more specific?

You would call it a neutron star.

How is that possible?

The temperatures are unthinkable.

Only by your measure.

What are the coordinates of the...

Something's wrong.

Something very wrong.

He's not comfortable giving that information.

Tell her we've been to a lot of trouble on her behalf.

Patrick, please.

I want to go.

We're not doing this right now. We're leaving.

Do you really think that we would do anything to harm her?

This is a strong magnetic field, nothing more. She can't pass through it.

Once she's over her conditioners, we'll switch it off. We'll debrief her. You

can both go. That's a promise.

If she's still alive, turn it off now!

Gordon, maybe he's right.

I want you to consider where your allegiance lies, Patrick.

With the scientists who gave you back your sight? Or with an introvert whose

agenda you don't really know?

No. When she is ready to talk to us, we will be ready to listen.

She's not the enemy. We're the enemy!

my fault.

I never should have brought you here.

I need you of your kind.

Fear what you don't know.

We don't have any choice. You know, you have to tell them everything.

You know better than that, Patrick.

I'm a trophy now. They'll never let me go.

How much time do we have?

I don't know.

Hours, maybe less.

Kira.

Kira.

Kira, no.

Kira, you can't. Kira.

No. No, Kira. You can't. Kira.

You need help.

I have to talk to you.

Just for a moment.

Patrick, I swear I knew nothing of Borden's plan.

I'm as appalled as you are.

You expect me to believe that? It's the God's truth.

All right.

All right, you told me. Now go.

I wanted to leave you with this.

What is this?

It's the remaining stores of iridium suspension.

It's all that's standing between you and total blindness.

I thought you struck a deal with the devil.

Patrick.

As long as there's iridium pumping through my veins, they figure they've

perfect bait to lure Kira back.

They knew about her before you gained your eyesight.

She was only a shadow.

She was a whisper in the void.

She was free.

Goodbye Patrick

You're

up

I didn't think I'd see you again.

You're the only thing I have in this world.

The only thing that matters.

I thought going home mattered.

It's never going to happen.

The only people who can help me are so ignorant they'll wind up killing me

first. That's why I'm doing this.

Patrick, please.

The Iridium is the only thing preventing you from being consigned to darkness.

It's also the only thing that's guaranteeing your doom.

As long as there's a link between us.

They can track you. They can hunt you down and imprison you like they did

before.

I made that mistake once, and I'm not going to let it happen again.

You'd rather lose your mind than to see something so wondrous, so beautiful,

picked at and prodded by their damn machine.

We have no right.

I knew I'd be followed. There isn't a time.

Wait!

Stop!

Stop!

You

have

no idea.

John. In closing, for those of you who've expressed concern about my

I refer you to Victor Hugo's Les Miserables.

Possessing love, he is not deprived of light.

A love, moreover, that is wholly pure.

There can be no blindness where there is discernment.

See you next time.

Of all the gifts his maker has bestowed upon man, none is more precious than his

ability to love another.