Original subtitles

MALE NARRATOR: This is a story not yet told.

It begins on a warm evening some years hence.

When high on a mountain top in southern California,

a giant telescope searches the heavens

for the secrets there contained.

MITCHELL: You can't see it with the naked eye,

but the micrometer shows it clearly.

There's no question of the change in altitude.

Dr. Mitchell.

Hello, Chris.

Linda. LINDA: Hello, Doctor.

Sorry to have kept you waiting.

They certainly tuck you in up here.

Wouldn't even let us into the viewing room.

They've classified the sky top secret now.

Uh, Lewis.

Ask Feldner to develop these as quickly as possible.

Yes, sir.

Oh, uh, Boulting? This is Chris Cronyn, Mrs. Cronyn.

My assistant, Dr. Boulting.

Hello. How do you do? Hello.

How do you do? It's nice meeting you.

Come in.

I hope you don't mind my tagging along.

Oh, not in the least.

We're very happy to have you.

May I take your coat?

You know, I expected you to be older.

You are the radio man?

Mmm. If you think of yourself as the guy with the spyglass.

I really walked right into that.

I didn't mean it quite as it sounded.

But do you seriously believe

that you've established contact with Mars?

Well, you take pictures of it, why shouldn't I talk to it?

Boulting. Yes.

There's no question. They have diminished in size.

There's no knowing what tonight's pictures may show.

We may learn more about Mars in the next few minutes.

So that's the baby in person.

LINDA: It's so clear it's unbelievable.

MITCHELL: This is the first picture. We took it a week ago tonight.

See, here are the indentations I told you about.

They couldn't be plainer.

And all going from north to south.

LINDA: What are they?

CHRIS: Canals, what else? Traversing the entire planet.

LINDA: And these big shadows, here and here?

BOULTING: Now you know how New York or Chicago would look

if photographed from Mars.

CHRIS: Look at those mountains at the pole.

They must be as high as the Rockies.

How do you tell they're mountains?

They have to be. What else would throw such deep shadows?

Dr. Mitchell, what puzzles me is

that you've had the giant telescope for years.

Why are you just getting these pictures now?

Mars' journey around the sun is an elliptical curve.

Let me show you.

It's now at Perihelion, about 35 million miles from Earth

instead of the usual 63.

Now what's this one?

Same angle, same exposure, five nights ago.

See any difference?

Um, should I?

Well, what have you got?

I don't know. I can't believe it.

Well.

LINDA: The mountains are gone, and the poles are level.

You can't wipe out mountains taller than the Rockies in the space of a week.

Boulting, uh, look at the canals.

LINDA: They're different. Now they reflect light like mirrors.

Water reflects light.

Well, so does any other...

Are you saying you think those pole formations are ice?

And that in a week,

these Martians have melted icecaps thousands of feet high

and used the water to irrigate the planet?

Isn't that what the picture says?

But that's impossible.

There's no way to... Well, there has to be.

Why, they've done it.

If we could just once ask them how.

I thought you'd already established contact.

Oh, it's Mars I'm getting my signal from right enough,

but how do I give that signal meaning?

How do I find a means of communication?

Come on, Lin. Let's get going. There's still time to send a signal.

You're going to broadcast tonight?

After seeing these? What do you think?

One man who takes pictures,

another who believes he can talk over 35 million miles.

It's like having a grandstand seat for the creation of the world.

Or its death.

CHRIS: Where are you going, Lin?

LINDA: I just want to have a look at the kids, Chris.

LINDA: Everything looks peaceful.

Hi, Son.

We'll be over at the lab. Don't stay up too late.

Chris.

Hmm?

Don't send a message tonight.

What's got into you, Linda?

Ever since you saw those pictures, you've...

Fear, Chris. Always-eating fear.

The whole world's scared.

Why shouldn't I be?

Every woman in the world, we all live in fear.

It's become our natural state.

Fear our sons will have to fight another war.

Or fear they'll face worse.

We've lived on the edge of a volcano all our lives.

One day it has to boil over.

Me talking to Mars won't affect Vesuvius, Lin.

Chris.

How can you be so sure?

Don't you understand?

Science has made the volcano we're sitting on.

Nobel invented dynamite to ease man's life.

It's eased a good many into annihilation.

Einstein split the atom to create energy.

Is terror energy?

Well, that's rubbish, Lin.

Scientifically, we've advanced further in the past 60 years

than we have in the previous 2000.

Radio, television, automobile, aeroplane,

atomic fission, jet propulsion.

And now, well, you,

you saw those pictures tonight and heard what Mitchell said.

If we can once talk to Mars,

we may be talking to brains as far ahead of ours as ours are ahead of monkeys.

In one moment, we may be able to leap ahead another 2000 years.

And you'll have done it.

You'll be the next to advance science

and maybe us right into oblivion!

Linda.

I'm sorry, Chris.

But when I saw those pictures tonight,

it all seemed too imminent.

Well, sure it's imminent.

It's what we've worked for, isn't it?

Why we built this lab, assembled the transmitter.

It's why we've worked together all these years.

They've been good years, Chris.

Well, they've been great years.

What do you want me to do now?

Get a crummy research job in some plant?

Maybe in 20 years, get a paper published in some scientific magazine?

Now, when we're on the verge of accomplishing everything we've worked for?

All right, Chris.

I'm ready.

What do I say?

That if I thought anything we're doing could boomerang

against you or the kids, I'd blow up the whole works?

You know that. But it can't hurt anyone.

Whatever's been done we've done together, Linda.

Well,

I don't believe harm can come from anything

those hands have had a part in, that's all.

All right, Chris. Let's go.

Who am I to stand in the way of science?

Turn it on.

CALDER: What do you want?

How did you get here?

How did you track me down?

Get out!

ARJENIAN: Stop acting like a fool.

Get out of here!

I told you not to follow me.

You were supposed to keep in touch with me by short wave.

The seal isn't even broken.

I had nothing to report.

What are you doing here?

Answer me!

You said you would establish contact with Mars.

That was your commitment.

I am trying.

We are not paying you to try, Mr. Calder.

We expect results.

And you might have had results,

if you had done as I asked.

Conduct your experiments at our laboratories at Berezovo,

where we could have supplied you with skilled assistants.

Instead of which you buried yourself here in the Andes. Alone.

No one to assist you.

You mean, no one to watch over me.

Thank you.

I've had one taste of jail.

I don't know why you complain.

We extricated you. We helped you.

We want scientists of your caliber, Mr. Calder.

We treat them well

when they serve us.

Serve?

Are you talking to me?

I don't owe you anything.

You owe us your freedom.

It was the Americans who threw you into jail

and our men who helped you to escape.

Not to mention all this equipment which you have piled up.

This was an investment. Now we demand an accounting.

I am not a bookkeeper.

We don't make investments with no returns.

You know our policy.

Are you trying to frighten me?

We had an agreement.

It is my responsibility to see that it is carried out.

You're threatening me with extermination, huh?

Is that the policy you refer to?

You find the idea amusing.

Highly.

You won't harm me.

You need me. You think they have humbled me, huh?

Bringing me, Franz Calder,

to this.

Cringing, hiding.

Just another rat in his hole.

But all this won't last.

The rat will come out,

and then the world will listen.

You want a report?

I'll give you one.

You can tell your masters that I have failed in my experiments.

I've not been able to establish contact with Mars.

Their money has been wasted.

It is not a report they will appreciate.

Still they won't exterminate me.

Of that I wouldn't be too sure.

Because you can also tell them that the Americans,

who stole my valve,

have succeeded.

They have established contact with the red planet.

Wait outside.

Are you serious?

Newspapers will tell you as much in a few days.

It's not in the American character to keep silent about success.

But that's incredible. That they should actually...

Why? You expected it from me?

But you said that your equipment was the best in the world,

that no one could duplicate your developments.

I forgot the seven years start the American had on me.

Seven years, while I was in jail.

Seven years.

Ah, don't let's start that again.

What shall I report?

What can you report?

That the Americans also want the secrets of a wiser civilization,

so that they can turn them into new methods of destruction?

How do you know all this?

Because I'm the one other person with the hydrogen valve.

I alone can pick up their signals

and the replies.

Then you can give us the questions they put to Mars and the answers they receive.

Yes, exactly.

And that's why I can laugh at your threats.

Do you still want to kill me?

Oh, don't talk like that. Nobody is threatening you.

You're invaluable to us.

It's not who gets the information first,

but who first puts it to use.

Oh, my dear friend,

you must let me send you a less monotonous diet.

My diet is already taken care of.

I did not spend all your money on equipment.

Is there anything else you need?

Yes. One thing.

Let's drink to it.

By all means, my dear fellow.

What is it?

Your absence.

Thank you very much, Comrade.

Considerate of you leading us to his lair.

Clever of you, tracking him down

all on the strength of a single phrase.

BORODIN: He thought himself so clever

with his "You can find me only through finding Christ."

You dropped your bunny rabbit.

What was that outburst?

He woke up and couldn't find his rabbit.

Thanks. I guess I'd better get the, uh...

Here's your carbona.

Oh.

How'd you know we'd need this?

Did you two ever start a project and not need it?

She's pretty smart, huh?

Hey, Mom, I got a T.L. for you.

I could use one.

Remember when the parents came to visit our class?

One of my grimmest memories.

All of the fellas decided that you were the youngest looking mother there.

Isn't that nice?

Boy, you should have seen those other crows.

Oh, that did it.

Now clean away this mess and get started...

On your homework. Right.

Gosh, I've only got my math to do.

And you know I don't want to fuss over that.

Well, before you pin any medals on yourself,

an extra hour on history wouldn't hurt.

At that, you're no genius.

Well, you can't have everything.

Oh, heavens, who's coming?

Probably Mitchell to find out if Mars had anything intelligible to say.

I'll get it.

Is Mr. Cronyn in?

CHRIS: I'm Cronyn.

I'm Bill Carey.

This is no time to barge in on you like this,

but your reports didn't reach my desk until this morning

and I flew right out.

My reports brought you out?

Oh, we grasp at any straw to get out of Washington for 24 hours.

Please come in, Admiral.

Thank you. I'm Linda Cronyn.

How do you do, Ms. Cronyn? Oh, forgive the mess,

but all major mechanical projects

seem to get started in the living room.

This is our son, Stuart.

Hiya, fella.

Sit down, Admiral.

Get some more ice, will you, Son?

CHRIS: Stuart.

You will have a drink, won't you?

Well, at this hour, I can't claim the sun's not over the yardarm.

Are you the Admiral Carey who broke the Japanese code?

My one claim to fame.

But confidentially, it wasn't a very good code.

Come on, Stu.

Ah, you don't know how glad I am to see you.

We didn't know if you'd even bother with our show here.

Rose to it like a marlin.

But what beats me, if you are getting messages from Mars,

how've you kept it out of the papers?

We're not getting any messages. Not yet.

Darn close to it, if your reports stand up.

Oh, if we ever do get messages,

understandable ones, that is,

they'll be given out.

Four years of Navy gave me my belly full of hush-hush.

I can understand that.

But so far, all we're getting are repetitions of our own signals

coming back at us.

Now these answers you get...

LINDA: Please sit down.

These answers you get,

couldn't they be your own signals bouncing off

some object in outer space, some other planet?

Booming back at you? I'm no authority on electronics, but...

CHRIS: I am.

No. This is no bounce back.

As I told you, we transform sound into light,

and the speed of light is 186,000 miles a second.

So you divide the distance to Mars by the speed of light

and you get the length of time it takes our light waves to reach Mars.

Double that and you get the time it takes our messages to come back.

Now that could all be mechanical.

But they don't come back in that exact number of minutes.

It never takes less time. Always more.

20 seconds, 40 seconds, sometimes as much as a minute and a half.

Sometimes, like tonight, for instance, we get no answer.

An echo will always sound.

But sometimes, the human brain sleeps.

But why always the same signal back?

Why never anything you can hang on to?

Well, because I'm too stupid to give them a lead.

That's why I yelled for help.

Well, this is no picnic you've asked me on.

You don't even know what language they speak, if any.

It's like working out a system of communication with golliwogs.

How the devil to find a point of contact?

How about pi?

That's hardly the way to offer it, Stu.

And by the size of that slice, I doubt if there's anything left.

I mean pi.

CHRIS: Now what are you talking about?

Well, if we're getting answers,

they have to have a transmitter as powerful as ours.

Go on. What are you driving at?

Well, they can't build anything like that

unless they know how to make a wheel. That means a circle.

And you can't make a circle without knowing the ratio

of the diameter to the circumference. Pi.

I still don't understand what that has to do with...

Your son's ahead of you, Cronyn.

What is pi?

3.1416, as I remember.

Roughly. That's it. Roughly.

Actually it's 3.1415926 and so on. An infinite number of decimals.

Well, so what? We broadcast 3.1416 to Mars and what can they answer?

Nothing.

But they must be trying as hard to talk to you

as you're straining to talk to them.

All we're looking for is an opening. So,

you don't broadcast 3.1416.

You broadcast 3.1415.

And if they understand, they continue the equation.

CAREY: Right.

Where did you get that idea, Son?

Biting into this.

Come on, let's get over to the lab and try it on right now.

Aren't you coming?

Oh, don't mind me. I'm just the babysitter around here.

If this comes off, I'll wake you when we come in.

What makes you think I'll be asleep?

3,1,4,

1,5.

3,1,4,

1,5.

3,1,4,

1,5.

Shut it off.

What do we do now?

Well, the blasted waiting's always the worst part.

How long?

3 minutes, 8 seconds each way.

6 minutes, 16 seconds all told.

Plus the time it takes them to answer, if they answer.

You know, this is going to be the longest 6 and a quarter minutes I ever spent.

You light that pipe, Admiral.

And if Chris' hydrogen doesn't blow you up, he will.

Always the danger of a leak and no way of telling it.

Hydrogen is odorless.

I told you I was no authority on electronics.

What's the hydrogen for?

Well, hydrogen sufficiently pressurized can be brought down to a temperature

of about 451 degrees below zero.

Nobody knows why,

but sound waves can be picked up at that temperature

that would be otherwise completely inaudible.

Now certain minerals also have incredible acoustic properties.

Quartz, for instance.

That's what this valve is made of.

And we warp it with the pressurized hydrogen.

It gives us the energy for a power transmission a thousand times greater

than any sound transmitter ever conceived.

There it is, the red planet, Mars.

For over 2000 years, the symbol for war.

And we dare to fly in the face of providence

and try to bring it closer to us.

Sometimes my wife is less than enthusiastic about this project.

I'm sorry.

Darling.

If nothing happens tonight, don't be too disappointed.

It's got to happen.

It's just got to happen!

We've waited so blasted long.

I know. But if it doesn't...

Poor Linda with all her silly fears.

You hope it doesn't happen, really?

You know what beats me?

I just can't believe

that you people really assembled all this yourselves.

No, we got a slight assist from the Carnegie Foundation.

You realize if this comes off, by this time tomorrow,

you'll be the most famous man in the world?

Funny. None of the credit's mine.

Actually it all belongs to a German scientist.

A criminal. A brilliant criminal

with nothing but hate in his heart.

Who do you mean?

Did you ever hear of Franz Calder?

Calder? Calder?

Do you remember the famous quotation,

"The human being is the best guinea pig"?

High Voltage Experiments on the Human Nervous System.

The Nazi criminal.

He invented the valve.

And I found the blueprints at Nuremberg.

It's taken us all the years since then

to build a transmitter capable of spanning the enormous distance,

and we've been broadcasting for eight months.

First without success, and now...

For the last three weeks...

...we've been getting answers.

Well, you're not going to give Calder any of the credit.

Why not? It's his valve.

The devil is entitled to his due.

Two minutes to go.

I wonder what kind of a world we're opening the door on.

CHRIS: You'd wonder even more

if you saw the pictures of Mars that we saw last night.

Icecaps, thousands of feet high,

melted away in a few days.

Well, those people must use atomic power as we use water.

If we had that power,

why, the largest liner would cross the ocean

on the energy contained in one lump of coal.

Hmm-mmm?

Then what would happen to the people who own and work coal mines?

Well, what happened to the people

who owned or worked on canals when the railroad started?

Still, Mr. Calder will have had his effect on the world.

CAREY: Wonder where he is now.

Where are all good scientists we don't hear of?

In Russia, I suppose.

Ten seconds to go.

Switch off the lights, will you, darling?

3, 1,

4, 1,

5.

3, 1,

4, 1,

5.

3, 1,

4, 1,

5.

Our own signal back. The same blasted story.

Chris, look!

9!

2.

6.

Linda, we've done it.

Dear Lord,

don't make us sorry.

CALDER: So far, Cronyn is sticking to the establishment

of mathematical and chemical formulas.

Very ingenious.

They were able to frame a few questions.

ARJENIAN: I read all that in the papers. What about you?

Have you contacted Mars yourself?

You are a fool, Arjenian.

If I can read their messages, they can read mine.

Why should I let them know that they have competition? Huh?

And so, what only two weeks ago,

was a secluded laboratory in the San Diego mountains

has become the new center of the world.

Scientists, code experts, newsmen,

all concentrated on only one thing.

The first concrete word from Mars.

MAN 1: Ladies and gentlemen, step right up closer.

I want to introduce you to the keyhole of Mars.

Now I have the only authentic genuine picture of the planet Mars.

What a thrill.

What a thing to take home to those people.

MAN 2: Read all about it, folks.

The most amazing story ever told on a picture postcard.

Take 'em home, folks. The planet Mars.

They're educational and constructive.

Hi, Mr. Cronyn. Been to town?

Yeah, just down to see how the press camp's coming along.

They've got to put up two more buildings.

Stuart wanted to see Admiral Carey and his staff at work.

And so the weeks of preparatory work are over.

Communication with Mars is now a reality.

GRAY: Tonight has brought us the first real information

about life on that distant planet.

They were asked the average life span on Mars.

Their answer, 300 Earth years.

300 years?

I hope not your mother.

Pensions for 235 years.

Who's going to pay them?

The future of the livestock industry is at stake.

Is the government going to continue to support the price of potatoes?

Just a minute! How about the price of wheat?

GRAY: The hysteria which has greeted the Martians' claims

has become a national peril.

All this after the release of only three messages.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I cannot too strongly stress the necessity for calmness.

Do not allow yourself to be emotionally disturbed by those messages.

Arjenian.

This time you'd better get your masters on the phone.

Cronyn's just received a message from Mars that's a sensation.

The Martians have now announced that for the past three centuries

they haven't used coal, oil, electricity,

any form of power on which we rely.

Theirs has all been provided by cosmic energy,

through which they have made hundreds of elements fissionable.

If this is true, no miner in America,

no miner in the world will have a job.

Our interests are identical.

We owners represent an investment of $5 billion.

It took Mars to make you recognize that identity of interest.

Well, the oil men are in the same boat with us.

Then let them bail it out.

Oil is no concern of ours.

MAN 1: That guy's the cause of it all!

MAN 2: We'll send you to Mars.

What are you going to do about getting our jobs back?

What do we get out of this?

POLICEMAN: This business keeps up,

you'll need the Army to help you.

Quick, get going!

STUART: Hi, Dad.

You're just in time for the news.

I've had enough news for one day.

NEWSREADER: Meanwhile this morning,

every American bank had long lines of depositors,

waiting to withdraw their funds.

Owing to the difference in time, the latest bulletin from Mars

had created its effect on Europe

before we Americans had finished our breakfasts.

In London, the Prime Minister called a special meeting of the cabinet

at Number 10 Downing Street.

But this did not prevent pandemonium on the London Stock Exchange.

The value of British industrials has decreased nearly ten billion pounds

in the last two weeks.

In Paris, the third government in two weeks

failed of a vote of confidence,

and President Roman, hopeless of forming a fourth government,

suspended the constitution

and called upon the Army to establish martial law.

This, however, did not prevent wide disorders

in Lyons, Marseilles, and other French cities.

Meanwhile in Rome, the Holy Father urged a policy of patience and of faith.

Turn that blasted thing off.

It's just on another minute, Dad.

But in Milan and Genoa, there was widespread rioting.

Turn it off, I said!

They got to hand it to you, Pop.

When you blow the lid off, you really blow it off.

Boy, that crowd out there's mad enough...

I thought I told you to stay out of the street.

I just wanted to take a look.

Haven't you anything better to do than lollygag around

where you haven't any business?

There's enough work for you to do around here.

I did the whole lawn this afternoon.

And left the mower where everybody could stumble over it as usual.

LINDA: Trick or treat.

Tricks or treat.

What's he made up for?

It's Halloween, remember?

When children like to go out and play trick or treat.

That is, children who can get out of the house do.

And little boys who can't, they still like the fun of getting dressed up.

You look scrumptious, Son.

See, bottle tops? Trick or treat?

Next year we'll go trick or treat.

Yeah. How'll that be?

On your way, boys. And hands washed.

Stu, will you see that he's polished up?

Oh, Mom, again?

Please. Be a good boy.

I'll be in in a minute, dear.

I'm sorry, Lin.

You don't have to take it out on the kids, Chris.

Is that what I'm doing?

I'm sorry.

Where are you going?

The lab.

Carey's ordered some new gadget installed.

STUART: Mom, come here quick.

Roger's splashing water all over.

Hurry.

How is it going?

Oh, evenin', sir.

Quite an installation you're getting here.

What is it?

That's the latest thing.

We've only installed one other like it. That was in the Pentagon.

It's an improvement on the cathode ray oscillograph.

As soon as we get it wired up, then we're putting it outside in a cement vault.

It will take down your messages right off the transmitter

and records them on film.

Go ahead. Light it.

Huh?

Be interesting to see if the place really would blow up.

BURDETTE: You'll recall, Mr. Secretary,

that the Joint Chief's advised immediate control

when the first message was received.

I recall quite well, General.

I also recall that the President overruled us.

Yes?

MAN: Admiral Carey, sir.

Have him come in.

Mr. Secretary, General Burdette.

Hello, Bill.

Sit down, Carey. Sit down.

SPARKS: Have you decoded any other messages?

No, sir.

We've been sweating over a batch for nearly a week now,

but no success.

SPARKS: Thank heaven for that.

We are closing down that decoding room up in California.

But messages are still coming in, sir.

They'll be microwaved here as fast as they come in.

And they're not getting outside this building.

Your whole staff is coming back today.

Nothing is to be released to the public.

Nothing. Do you understand, gentlemen?

Nothing.

Is there anything else, sir?

Our economic system a shambles,

industrial production shot to blazes,

our entire civilization collapsing about our heads like a house of cards,

and the whole Western world going down with us.

This Cronyn has done more to smash the democratic world in the last four weeks

than the Russians have been able to do in 11 years.

I can hear the laughter in Moscow now.

No, Admiral, no.

There is nothing more.

Calling 2-BLM. Calling 2-BLM.

BORODIN: 2-BLM here. Go ahead.

Where is Arjenian? Where is Arjenian?

You will call him on another wavelength.

9434 kilocycles. Broadcast band E. Use scrambler number five.

The call number is 9 K-BLM.

Your call will be relayed. He is waiting for you.

Calling 9 K-BLM. Calling 9 K-BLM.

Go ahead, Calder, this is Arjenian.

Are you all right?

Don't worry about me. How about you?

How are you, Arjenian? Huh?

Ah, that's foolish of you to go where those monsters can lay hands on you.

Shut up, you fool.

ARJENIAN: Are there any more messages?

Mars seems to have run out of messages for the moment.

What are the Americans asking, Calder? If you can tell us that.

As nearly as I can understand,

they want to know how the Martians,

if they use cosmic power for everything,

are kept from blowing each other to bits.

Send us the messages, as soon as you get them.

There must be no slip-ups. Is that understood?

Haven't you got your money's worth yet?

Is this dog, Calder, reliable?

In English.

If I want him to understand me, I'll speak Russian.

Why didn't you insist on him coming here to work?

I couldn't insist. He would have destroyed his valve.

He is a mad man. A lunatic.

The world is full of lunatics.

They want to start a war now. Now, when there is no need.

Stalin did not dare precipitate one

because he could not defeat the free economy of the West.

Now their economy is shattered.

The strength of the Western world fades like a dream in the night.

Their civilization perishes.

Lenin dreamt of the world in his hands.

Stalin tried to get it in his.

Our Premier will succeed.

We will build our new world on the ruins of the West.

Dr. Stokes.

Yes?

Yours is identical with Robert's translation.

It can't mean anything else.

How do you explain it?

I don't even try.

All the other messages deal with such abstruse scientific data

that we can't make any headway.

Then out of the blue, this.

Why, it... It's...

It's inspiring, Admiral, if nothing else.

Get me the Secretary of Defense.

He's at the White House, sir.

Prepare a memorandum to him.

Aye, aye, sir.

Eyes only. Eyes only.

We can't risk the Russians decoding those messages.

I certainly don't want war.

But Moscow, Leningrad,

every nerve center in the Soviet Union must be wiped out.

I cannot fly in the face of 180 years of American history.

I cannot start a war.

A month from now we may not have the strength to fight one.

The Russians may have in their hands the power to...

No.

This country will not launch a war.

Mr. President...

You still know my first name, George.

We have served a great many years together.

And there's never been a day

when I couldn't happily go along with any decision of yours.

But I have a responsibility to this country, too,

and I can't stand by and see it destroyed.

Our difference is that I don't believe it can be destroyed

by 13 slips of paper covered with obscure symbols.

The Japanese empire was destroyed

by a slip of paper covered with obscure symbols,

once those symbols were translated into power.

Excuse me, sir.

PRESIDENT: Yes?

You said to interrupt the minute they arrived, sir.

Oh, yes, have them come in, please.

Won't you come in, please?

How do you do, Mrs. Cronyn?

How do you do, Mr. President?

Mr. Cronyn. Mr. President.

PRESIDENT: It was very good of you to come.

I am only sorry you didn't bring your boy with you.

I wanted to meet the culprit who started this whole business.

Oh, uh,

Mr. And Mrs. Cronyn, Secretary of Defense, Mr. Sparks.

How do you do? Mrs. Cronyn.

Mr. Sparks. Mr. Cronyn.

And General Burdette.

General Burdette. Hello.

Won't you sit down, please?

I am not gonna drag this out, Cronyn.

I am afraid I've got to break your heart.

You made a pretty fair start on that, Mr. President,

when you pulled Carey back to Washington,

clamped this censorship on us.

Have any further messages been decoded?

Or aren't we allowed to know?

There have been no further decodings.

And now there will be no further messages to decode.

You must shut down your transmitter.

Shut it down? You're not serious?

I have got to clamp the lid on this business.

Stop these communications.

Well, I suppose that lies within your power, Mr. President.

You can declare a national emergency.

I don't have to declare it.

It's here and not merely national.

You have shattered the economy of the civilized world.

I am not interested in economics, Mr. Secretary.

Who makes or who loses money doesn't seem as important to me

as the chance to advance civilization 1,000 years in one jump.

Our job isn't the advancement of civilization.

It's to preserve the country handed down to us.

If we believed that,

every scientist from Franklin to Edison would have been suppressed.

Gentlemen, gentlemen.

I am sorry, Mr. President.

If you order it, sir, of course I'll have to shut my transmitter down.

But I'll never do it of my own volition.

Even though it threatens national security?

Does it threaten national security to know

that man can look forward to a longer life span?

That he has at his disposal the power to eliminate 90% of the world's work?

We've learnt that from the four messages we've decoded.

There are 13 others that we haven't translated.

SPARKS: Plus the one we received today.

So long as they are not decoded, they can't threaten anything.

I said that we haven't translated.

Carey released the bulletin on, uh, cosmic power at 11:22 p.m.,

Pacific Coast time, the night of the 27th.

The same bulletin was released in Moscow at 9:30 am.

the morning of the 28th.

Well, what of it?

We broadcast everything on the Voice of America anyway.

But there's an 11 hour differential between Moscow and San Diego, Cronyn.

9:30 am. in Moscow is 52 minutes earlier

than 11:22 the night before in San Diego.

You mean, the Russians are intercepting and decoding?

Well, is any other explanation possible?

Calder. Who?

The man who invented the hydrogen valve.

It's the very heart of the transmitter.

Now you see how important it is

to stop your communications with this other planet?

I see now why they can't be stopped.

What do you mean?

If Calder can pick up our messages,

he can also pick up messages of his own.

We may stop but he won't.

And then our national security really is threatened.

Yes?

For the Secretary, Mr. President. Eyes only.

It's a note from Admiral Carey.

They have decoded another message today.

Uh, Carey's outside now, Mr. President.

Have him come in, please.

Admiral Carey.

Come in, Admiral. Come in.

You'll forgive me, Mr. President,

but the Secretary left orders that, uh, no matter where he...

Have you got another message?

Yes, we've got one.

Oh, may I, sir?

I think he's entitled to that.

Well, this is nonsense. It's impossible.

What is it, Cronyn?

Well, you remember, sir, we asked them, how with their free use of cosmic energy,

they were prevented from blowing each other off the face of the map.

If they have an answer to that, I'll welcome it.

Well, according to this,

they submitted the question to their supreme leader.

You say "spiritual", Bill?

I am not sure it shouldn't be something even stronger.

"God-like" was Dr. Stokes' translation.

What is the message, Chris?

"You have been given knowledge and have used it for destruction."

"Seven lifetimes ago you were told to love goodness and hate evil."

"Why have you denied the truth?"

The sermon on the mount, on Mars.

Don't talk nonsense, Linda.

"Love goodness and hate evil."

What else would you call it?

Well, I...

I don't understand it.

I don't either, Chris.

But I am glad we installed the oscillograph,

because once the messages are recorded on film,

no one can accuse us of garbling them.

Well, Mr. President, I said I'd never voluntarily suppress a message.

But I was wrong. This one can't go out.

Why not?

Well, it doesn't make sense. It's not scientific.

Maybe it's the one scientific truth we've forgotten.

You mean you take this message seriously?

We took the others seriously, didn't we?

If we were right to release one message,

we must release this, too.

Mr. President, you know the panic those other messages have caused?

Loose a wave of religious hysteria on top of it

and every crackpot and his brother will be lecturing on street corners.

Mr. President, you're worried about national security.

Is there one word in that message that threatens our security

or anyone else's?

"And solution, there was none"

"Save in the rule of Christ alone."

My father was very fond of Emerson.

May I see that message, please?

You are not going to release it?

Your arguments in defense of scientific freedom have convinced me.

This time Cronyn is right, Mr. President.

We can't hitch our wagon to that star.

We've switched stars, Mr. Secretary.

Now, we're following the star of Bethlehem.

That message is to be broadcast all over the world

in all languages

exactly as decoded.

Yes, yes, Calder, I heard you.

But what does it mean?

CALDER: Why ask me?

I am an expert on electronics, not religious movements.

Are there any other messages?

Questions by the thousands,

there are no answers.

Bother the questions. Let us know when they answer.

GRAY: I know I am not alone

in being struck by the phrase with which the message begins.

"Seven lifetimes ago" are the words.

But we know that the Martian's life is 300 years.

So, seven lifetimes is about 2,100 years,

or as near as one could ask to the era in which the carpenter of Nazareth

went forth to preach his message.

Is it only coincidence that the message he broadcast 2,000 years ago

should again be broadcast from the supreme being on Mars?

If so,

then how explain that this authority

should know what we on earth were told

20 centuries ago?

Or is it possible that the man of Nazareth

and the man of Mars are the same?

Get them curlers out of your hair.

What for?

We are goin' to church. That's what for.

Do you feel all right?

Now, look, don't argue with me. Get the curlers out of your hair.

Let's get dressed and get out of here. I...

This ain't no time to take chances.

PRESIDENT: It has brought hope when we had lost all hope.

It has brought light into a world of darkness.

All over the world,

regardless of their religious beliefs,

men have found a new faith

by which to live.

No, not a new faith.

But an old one many of us had allowed ourselves to lose.

A faith that is universal in men of all faiths.

For, while to us the words from Mars

seem the very essence of the Christian doctrine,

let us not forget

that they are also the essence of all other religions.

Christian, Mohammedan, Jewish, Buddhist.

All are heeding the call to prayer,

kneeling humbly in a search for divine guidance.

I pray particularly

that behind the Iron Curtain,

where our eyes are not permitted to see,

men will open their hearts

to the message of peace

and the promise that their rulers have so long denied them.

Today's message reads,

"Ye have denied God's word"

"and worshipped false Gods."

"Thy torment"

"is the price of thine own sin."

These messages are spreading all over the country.

Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, and no one knows how.

Villages that have never even seen a radio suddenly erupt.

CALDER: Have you heard the latest message?

Is there another?

The Americans released it an hour ago.

He who follows the tyrant's banner

shall wear the tyrants chains.

He who carries God's banner shall know everlasting life.

Do you expect me to tell them that?

What you tell them is no concern of mine.

ARJENIAN: Hello, Calder, are you there?

Calder, are you there?

Come in, Calder.

He doesn't answer.

Comrade General, I would not suggest...

Suggest what?

These uprisings, is it possible that...

It is possible

that another mass transplantation of population may be necessary.

We had fostered a famine 30 years ago.

We shall foster another.

Let 20 or 30 millions of these sheep die

and see how long their religious faith lives.

But if the messages continue?

We had found a religious revival necessary

to get them to fight the Germans.

We will have another and they will fight the West.

Are you sure the valve's working?

Oh, I've checked it a dozen times.

There must be some reason for their silence up there.

Well, there can be a thousand.

We've got two atmospheres to get through.

Ours may be clear and theirs may be impenetrable,

or maybe their transmitter is out of whack.

Maybe the operator's got the measles

or maybe he's finished his allotted 300 years or maybe...

Or maybe they've said everything they have to say.

Maybe the rest is up to us.

Calling 2 B-7XK.

He won't answer. Come on.

There is no need for me in there.

You can have the honor of telling the Premier

that your communications have bogged down.

I don't want to answer his questions.

Talk English, you fool.

Anything is preferable to that atrocious accent.

I am sorry, Comrade Premier, perhaps if I tried again.

Has the Patriarch arrived yet?

Call the airport.

Well?

There is no answer.

Comrade Premier, if I may suggest,

the transmitter, we could contact the airport with it.

Hurry.

We are trying.

ARJENIAN: Look!

ARJENIAN: The lights are still on out there.

ARJENIAN: Singing.

It was one of the favorite anthems of the cathedrals.

That will silence their hymns.

What do these superstitious peasants think

they can accomplish against our guns?

Hello.

Yes, Dr. Mitchell.

No, she and Stuart went to town. Haven't got back yet.

The baby had the sniffles and I...

What? Are you serious?

Well, yes, yes, right away.

What's that?

Come on, Son.

MAN ON TV: The first program ever to be televised

to the Western world from Russia.

Ladies and gentlemen, the British ambassador to Moscow.

And I have been appointed to speak

for my fellow members of the diplomatic corps.

In days to come, thousands of volumes

will be written about the miracle of these last 12 days.

The miracle of a nation finding its soul.

As the messages from Mars spread throughout the country,

the heart of the Russian people began to swell with an old faith.

And spontaneous demonstrations of that faith took place.

From the churches, they moved on the jails.

The fortresses.

And here in Moscow,

the arrival yesterday, of the Patriarch

of the Russian Orthodox Church

provided the tinder that burned down the Soviet edifice.

Thousands of the residents of this city are now dead.

They died in the creation of a new government

with the Patriarch as it's provisional head.

As the new leader of a new Russia,

he will speak to you himself.

This morning, our armies

in occupation of other lands

have been recalled to our own soil.

We have thrown off our chain

of 40 years of bondage.

We now free our neighbors of theirs.

This is the first act of our new government.

The second is the reopening of our churches

so that our people may worship God

in freedom and in accord with their own conscience.

The bells of those churches

now speak for us.

They speak only what is in our hearts.

The prayer that all men

can henceforth live in peace.

I wish you were a little older, Son.

I wish you could remember this.

Now I have to go again.

You play with this.

Oh, we're famous people, Son. Your mother and I.

Names in the papers, decorations, scientific awards.

You know what's really important? You.

You're our immortality, you and your brother.

The kids you'll have and the lives you'll lead.

You're the blessed generation.

Chris, have you heard the news?

Mitchell called me. I couldn't believe it.

I heard it on the car radio.

Chris, you should see that crowd.

You should see their faces. Hmm.

And I didn't want the religious messages released.

Dad, the Russians are on the radio.

Sufferin' cowl.

Santa Claus.

STUART: Maybe you've reformed the Russians, Pop,

but not young hopeful.

Lin.

Yes?

Suppose it's over? Communications, I mean.

Suppose, suppose we never make it again.

There's nothing wrong with the transmitter.

Atmospheric conditions won't explain it, either.

No matter how bad they are, we'd pick up something.

Would it really matter?

We talk of their older civilization and what have they given us?

Nothing we couldn't have had all along.

Prayers were given us long before wireless.

CALDER: Good evening, Mr. Cronyn.

Who are you?

How did you get in here?

My credentials.

The hydrogen valve. Hmm.

The original specifications.

Where did you get these?

I drew them.

Calder? Franz Calder?

Where have you come from?

This afternoon you parked your station wagon in front of the post office.

Didn't look in the back when you drove home.

Neither did the guards that surround your place.

This is the most stupendous joke I've ever heard.

We thought you were in Russia,

and here you were in this country all the time.

Only since yesterday, Mr. Cronyn.

It wasn't exactly a triumphant entry.

Mr. Cronyn, did you ever have to crawl through the mud

beneath a barbed wire fence?

Hide like a hunted animal

to avoid the border inspectors?

In heaven's name, why?

Why?

I developed a dislike of jails.

Jail? Are you out of your mind, man?

Have you heard nothing of what's happened in the world?

In spite of your record, there'd have been an open door

for the inventor of the hydrogen valve.

Which you stole.

Well, don't talk nonsense.

Your specifications became government property.

Anyone had a right to use them.

That's a matter of opinion.

LINDA: Don't worry, Mr. Calder.

Chris has given you credit for everything that belongs to you.

Every scientific journal has given you full credit.

If you'll forgive me, where I have been,

the latest scientific journals were not at hand.

I lived in a hut at 11,000 feet in the Andes.

An avalanche finished it.

But I dug myself out.

Nine days ago.

CHRIS: Well, I am glad you got out anyway.

We're just about to broadcast.

You might be interested in...

You're right. It'll amuse me.

All set, Lin?

Yes.

It's a shame you didn't get a chance to carry on your work yourself.

In a small way, I did.

You built a transmitter?

Naturally.

Then you might have picked up Mars?

I tried. I never succeeded.

All right, Lin. Shut it off.

With your knowledge and the valve, you should have succeeded.

Unless of course, atmospherics played tricks at that altitude.

On some people, Mr. Cronyn.

You won't mind if I take off my coat, huh?

Yes, uh,

on some people.

What do you mean by that?

Of course, I only got out with what I had in my pockets,

but I think, uh, this would interest you.

Our messages, and the replies, all of them.

The ones that weren't decoded, too.

Then you did pick up Mars?

No.

How else could you get these?

When did you hear from Mars last? Nine days ago, wasn't it?

A little after 8:00.

Now you figure the difference in time

and you'll find

it was about half an hour before my set was smashed.

I don't believe it.

How slow you were in thinking up that pi formula.

CALDER: And the creation of a vocabulary.

Aren't you grateful that I made it so easy for you?

Here you were, the whole mobilized science of the world behind you.

And there was I, alone, giving you answers.

You sent the messages? The whole thing was a fraud.

That credit I will share with you.

Why? What were you after?

Shall we say, uh, amusement?

You thought you had created a new Earth,

and I destroy it.

A new heaven,

and that I shall destroy

once my story is told.

You can't do it!

You can see the possibilities for entertainment, huh?

Listen to me, Mr. Calder.

I've two children over there in that house

and I am just one of millions,

millions of women, that for the first time

know their children are secure.

You can't destroy that!

Paradise lost, Mrs. Cronyn. Paradise lost.

That's my present to the world.

He's lying, Linda.

Those messages were from Mars.

They came from outside the atmosphere.

You take me for an amateur, huh?

I shot my signals up to hit the heavy side layer.

They deflected down at any angle.

Naturally, they seemed to come from outside the atmosphere.

No.

Once I detected your signals, the rest was easy.

I could accomplish much more

making you believe I was Mars

than ever getting Mars myself.

Chris. What is it?

He did not send the religious messages.

Of course I didn't. You know that.

What do you mean?

Here are his messages.

The very first few as we received them.

But when we asked how they kept themselves

from blowing each other to bits,

his answer was "One tribe must hold the power."

It had nothing to do with the sermon on the mount.

It was the prophet talking to us.

The prophet?

Clever of you to create him.

You played right into my hands.

I smashed your economic system with a power panic.

But that still left my friends in Moscow. I had to smash them, too.

From my hut, I could see the statue of Christ.

I never thought of using him against them. Thank you for that idea.

They must have been desperate.

Who?

Carey, Sparks, all of them.

They must have done this in Washington.

Darling, you were there.

You spoke with Sparks and the President.

Did you think they were playacting?

I don't know, I don't know.

Ah, who did it was immaterial.

When I saw the effect on Moscow,

I knew you had created my weapon for me.

That's why I let you raise the world up.

With all that muck right up to the sky,

so I can dash it down to hell when I tell my story.

You can't do it, Calder.

Who's to stop me?

God?

He had his chance nine days ago.

If I hadn't dug myself out,

you'd have gotten away with your fraud.

It was no fraud.

You'd have won.

It was no fraud.

You don't expect me to believe those messages were not faked.

We expect you to believe the truth.

Just the way the rest of the world believes.

Just the way we believe.

But here is my proof.

There've been no messages since my transmitter was shattered.

How will you explain that to the world, Mr. Cronyn?

Sermon on the mount.

Peace on Earth.

No, Mrs. Cronyn,

you are not dealing with a superstitious peasant.

If those first messages were fake, the last were, too.

The world will believe me

just as your husband believed me.

And then you will all be at each other's throats again.

All of you!

And I'll have done it.

"Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven."

My favorite poem, Mrs. Cronyn.

"The unconquerable will,"

"and study of revenge,"

"immortal hate,"

"and courage never to submit or yield."

That's my God, Mrs. Cronyn.

Satan.

Lucifer's my hero.

God beat him.

But I'll have beaten God.

And nothing will convince you?

Nothing.

It's 8:26 according to your clock.

I sent a telegram in your name,

inviting the press to be here at 8:30.

You've only to wait a few minutes before they hear my story.

Why didn't you tell it right away?

Why did you come here to torture us?

Suppose someone had stolen the fruits of your genius,

wouldn't you want to see them humbled in the dust?

Perhaps. It doesn't matter.

Linda,

you go back to the house.

Do you remember what you said to me the night of the first message?

Nothing I was connected with could produce evil.

It won't, Chris.

We'll finish it together.

I want you with the boys.

It will only take a minute.

Is that what you really want?

I love you, darling.

You do think me a fool.

You think I'll let you walk out of here

to call those private guards of yours?

What's the matter, man? Cheer up.

The reporters will be here in a few minutes.

You like publicity, don't you?

Two minutes before they get here.

Give me a cigarette, Chris.

I can't go through with it, Lin. Not now.

The boys are safe. This is their chance.

Give me the cigarette.

Funny, in all the years, I've never seen you smoke.

You are not going to smoke in here.

God gave us free will, Mr. Calder.

It's what distinguishes us from the animals.

We can choose between good and evil.

But if we choose evil now,

that's the end of the human story.

I can't let you do it. Stay where you are!

It's a simple problem, isn't it, Mr. Calder?

To let you tell your story

and risk setting mankind at each other's throats again.

Or see that you keep silent and save mankind.

CALDER: The valve!

Give me alight.

Don't! Don't!

The room's alive with hydrogen.

A spark now would...

CALDER: Stop. Stop. You wouldn't kill your wife.

Chris, look.

Now will you believe?

Your set's destroyed,

but there's a message coming in.

There's your proof.

CALDER: No, not now.

They won't beat me now.

PRESIDENT: We do not know and never shall

what caused the destruction of that laboratory in California.

We only know that Chris and Linda Cronyn are gone.

And that in our time there'll be no more messages

from Mars.

For God, in his infinite wisdom,

has decreed

that the revelations which came through them,

his servants,

were sufficient to fulfill his purpose.

At the very moment, when they were snatched up in that chariot of fire

into the bosom of truth everlasting,

a final message was being received.

Only the first few words of that message were recorded

before the explosion cut it short.

Those words were,

"Ye have done well, my good..."

The rest is silence.

Silence.

No.

No, for as I speak, the bells of a million churches

in every far corner of the earth...

...ring out in salutation to the earth's new day of hope.

The voices of the joyful

rise in a thousand hymns.

Hymns not of grief,

but of thanksgiving.

And mankind,

kneeling in gratitude for its redemption,

prays for the spirit of this man and this woman.

Of them, as of no mortals before them,

it maybe said

the whole earth is their sepulcher.

And so the message does not remain unfinished.

The miracle we have beheld has cleansed our souls

and wiped the scales from our eyes.

With a new vision given us,

we, who are left,

can complete that message.

Ye have done well,

good and faithful servants.

Enter ye,

into the joy of your Lord.

Thy monument is a world of peace.

You're lucky, boys.

You are their sons.