Original subtitles

Mars Echo One.

Photoreconnaissance is now complete at wide orbit.

Snaps from this altitude have been recorded.

We are now ready to enter a tighter orbit.

We will resume normal transmission upon execution of the orbital run.

Due to static interference in the Martian atmosphere, we will be unable to

maintain transmission.

We're standing by the switchover to camera transmitter at 0900.

In 2 minutes and 14 seconds, we will enter our tighter orbit.

All systems are go.

Stand by for switchover.

Oh, 900.

Oh, and incidentally, gang, Happy New Year.

Standing by.

Oh, and, uh, Happy New Year.

Toot -toot.

Toot -toot -toot -toot.

Toot -toot. Toot -toot. Toot -toot. Toot -toot.

Toot -toot.

Toot -toot. Toot -toot. Toot -toot. Toot -toot. Toot

-toot. Toot -toot.

Wiper camera systems, check run.

Camera scope down.

Wide angle.

Full scan camera systems, all go.

Functioning, three -second sequence intervals.

Be sure to correlate your cameras, Dorothy. We don't want any overlap.

Correlation complete and corrected.

Narrow angle partial scan systems all go.

Functioning on two second intervals.

Red plant.

Give me a reading on reception, Charlie. I'm changing over to telephoto system.

Stand by to switch over all recorder instrumentation.

View screen reception 100.

Standing by to activate image stabilizer circuit.

Recorder input.

Computers.

Tapes all go.

Switch on.

Stand by.

We are entering preorbital trajectory.

small pitch.

Stabilizer retro is correcting.

We're corrected. Activate the camera system.

Picking up. some sort of pulpitting light.

is negative.

Heavy static interference.

Negative. I'm getting the same interference here.

Collision alarm.

Emergency procedure. Quick.

The scanner shows that we're... We're approaching something of monstrous size.

And fast.

Turn up the Scanner, get a distance reading on it.

It's up to maximum magnification now.

Whatever it is, it's changing its size.

These meters are having convulsions. Nothing I do will correct it.

Magnetic.

We're on a direct course with whatever it is.

We're due to connect with it any second.

We had to go to Mars.

We couldn't go to the moon like everybody else.

We've got to pull up.

Activate all operable rocket systems.

All dead.

The rockets are inoperable except for the emergency unit.

We're going down.

Mayday. Mayday. This is Mars Probe 1.

Mayday.

We may have a chance. Quick, Charlie. Get us in the main stage.

Doc, you better track it in case we have to follow it down.

Main stage, get it.

Tracking it.

She's going down.

There.

Mark.

Desert region.

No use, Steve.

We're going down.

Mayday. Mayday. This is Mars Probe 1.

Mayday. Our pressure suit's quick.

The hull may rupture on impact.

The gyros are gone. We're rolling over.

Come on, move. I'm switching over to automatic guidance control.

There's a little power left in the batteries. I've got them on recharge

The transmitter works.

We could send a call for help.

Remember, we blew transmission with Echo One before we went into tighter orbit.

True. We have no way of knowing if our last Mayday call was even received.

It probably wasn't.

That storm up there played havoc with our equipment.

What's to stop us from trying a Mayday call now?

Nothing, technically.

We can give our exact position and wait until help comes.

If it comes.

What do you mean, if? If anyone hears it, that's what I mean.

Like Steve said, we blew transmission up there and we've no way of knowing if a

transmission is heard.

There's another choice, though. What's that?

After the batteries recharge, it's a one -shot deal.

The radio.

Or open the outside hatch and take our chances out there.

And outside?

You think we stand any chance at all? Personally, I think that's better than

sitting here not knowing if help is coming. You don't even know what's out

there. Now, wait a minute, you two.

Charlie's got a good point there, so take it easy.

Doc, what's your opinion?

Yeah, Doc, how about it? Can we stay alive out there?

Before making any rash decisions, I think we should evaluate where we are

what we're going to do.

Well, one thing in our favor is our map and a fair idea of where the main stage

tracks. We may be stranded, but we're still alive.

There's enough fortified liquid in our nutrient reserve to last us two, maybe

three weeks if we stretch it out.

What about the oxygen?

It's not so good.

The cabin tanks crack like eggshells when we hit.

We've got about a 90 -hour supply in our suit tanks.

90 hours?

That's less than four days.

Well, Doc, think we can make it?

We're here.

On the edge of the polar cap, near this main canal.

Three weeks should be more than enough time if we go by raft to the desert

region.

And what do we do if we're out there, when our tanks hit zero?

Listen, after spending nine months on this ship, I'd be willing to step

and crack the intake valve on my helmet just to feel solid ground under my feet,

regardless of the consequences.

That's it.

What?

Well, crack the intake valve on our helmet. Oh, yeah.

And drop dead.

No, I'm serious.

The Martian atmosphere contains oxygen. It's too thin to sustain life, but it's

still oxygen, right?

Basically, yes.

All right.

Say we keep our suit pressure below the level of atmospheric pressure on Mars.

Then we crack the valve and allow the Martian atmosphere to seep into our

supplementing it with oxygen from our own suit tanks.

An oxygen booster.

Exactly. Will it work?

Sure it'll work. No reason why it shouldn't.

Is there?

It's settled then. Looks like we're in for a little unofficial exploration.

Never mind that official business. Let's get out of here before she explodes.

Grab what you can. Hurry.

What are we going to do now?

We'll have to run for it.

Close your face plate.

Activate your oxygen supply.

To the north of our wreckage, we can see the endless ice fields of the Martian

polar cap.

South of us, lost somewhere in the vastness of this alien world, the main

and our only hope of survival.

What do you think, Doc?

Should we keep the bank?

Well, even though we haven't seen any signs of life, I think we should stay

from the shore, at least during the night.

Doc, how far is it to where the main stage came down?

The canal should carry us to the hill.

Then we'll have to make our way on foot to the desert area. It should be near

there. How long will that take?

Well, tonight, part of tomorrow on the canal.

If we make good time, we should reach the hills by evening.

This should keep us from drifting apart during the night.

We'd better be going then.

We don't know how much daylight we have left.

How far would you guess it to be?

That main stage can't be far away now.

Roughly a four -day trip. We'll be cutting it close.

Maybe too close.

We've barely enough oxygen for four days.

We shouldn't require as much oxygen now that we're not exerting ourselves.

We can cut down the mixture while we are asleep.

The current will keep us in midstream. Maybe one of us ought to keep awake.

Might be better at that. I'll take the first watch.

Think you can catch a little sleep?

I don't much care for sleeping out here.

I'll take over when you're tired. Just wake me up.

The cold mists of the Martian night bring an end to our first day on this

desolate world.

Our oxygen supply is already a quarter gone.

A short while before sunset, Charlie picked up a weak signal echoing over the

curve of the Martian horizon.

If this signal is from our main stage, and if Doc's map is correct, we may

our destination in time.

I cannot escape the feeling of being watched by some unseen intelligence and

that perhaps our final destination will not be of our own choosing.

Try and fit them off while we get back to the deep of water.

The mist thickens and seals us from the danger we have just escaped.

But now, what new danger hides from us in the fog?

For the water now swirls around us, and somewhere ahead, we can hear it beating

against the walls of stone.

most impossible.

Building up on my visor. These rocks are as sharp as razors. We've had it if one

of them punctures the raft.

Time we try out our oxygen booster.

Seems to work okay.

We must have entered it through the fog.

Subterranean canal.

I pure hope it leads us in the right direction when we come to the surface

again.

I've never seen anything so beautiful.

It's so quiet.

Kind of eerie.

Gives me the creeps.

It doesn't look like we can get out of here either.

We'll just have to ride it out.

We've been in here five hours now, and no sign of a way out.

I'm not sure, but it seems to be getting lighter in here.

I noticed that too. It's so hotter.

It is lighter.

I thought at first we were just getting accustomed to the dark.

We must be going deeper underground.

That would explain the heat. Then why is it getting lighter?

Luminescent. Mineral deposits in the cavern won't.

After everything we've seen so far, I'm afraid of where we'll end up next.

No wonder we felt hot. That steam.

That sound.

There's trouble ahead.

Fall.

There's something worse.

I'm convinced there are balls ahead.

There's another sound.

Can't quite make it out.

Doesn't sound the same.

There's your other sound, Steve.

What do we do

now?

We have to find some way out of this.

The rafts won't hold up long in this.

Feel the size of the raft.

We've got to get out of here before they explode.

Quick, Val.

Quick. We'll keep them from blowing up this way, but the seams will give pretty

soon.

Those balls are close, Steve.

We've got to get to shore soon. No, Doc. I'm looking for... That's it.

There. See?

Come on, Charlie.

Let's get these rafts over there.

I'm with you. We're lucky the current's not too strong yet.

it wouldn't have lasted much longer anyway.

Wonder how far in this goes.

I don't know, but we'll soon find out.

What are you looking at, Doc?

This rock formation.

Something familiar about it. I can't place it.

Ah, come on. Rocks rock.

Let's get a move on.

We have wandered in these caves for what now seems to be days, always with a

feeling that we are doubling back upon our own footsteps.

And again, that strange feeling even here that some alien intelligence still

watches us.

Steve, you don't suppose this just doubles back the way we came, do you?

I don't know.

It sure sounds like it.

Well, I hope not.

That'd mean we're really stuck.

No sense in doubling back.

We know it's back there.

We may as well... We didn't double back. Look up ahead.

Maybe. Let's go.

It must be outside.

I should have known we'd find this.

How could any of us know what we'd find here?

That rock formation that was puzzling me? It was volcanic.

Any amateur rock town would have recognized it.

Isn't there any place on this planet that isn't a death trap?

Where do we go from here?

Looks like the path is the only way down.

Can't go back.

So down we go.

Straight from the frying pan into the fire.

Watch your step.

That step's hot.

You'll be fried like a piece of bacon.

We have no choice now but to press forward through this inferno, for it is

impossible to return to the caves, for they lead nowhere.

Here, at least, there may be some means of escape, for these trapped volcanic

vapors must vent somewhere to the surface.

Does that look like a cave to you? Sure looks like it. The only thing is, how

far back does it go?

Well, I'm going up there to find out.

Stay here with the others. No, Steve. I'll go.

Uh -uh. This is my job. I am responsible.

He made it clear in there. He's got to make it back out.

Do you suppose something's happened?

He's all right.

He's waving at us to come. Let's go.

You think you can get any kind of a bearing force, Charlie?

My map certainly didn't show anything like this.

Which way now?

That way, if we can get through this.

Gabe goes in quite a way, telling how far, or if it's all like this.

We all made it this far. Let's see if there's a way out of this inferno.

I almost wish this weren't the right direction.

We may as well go as far as we can.

Nowhere else to stay on solid ground.

Steve?

What is it?

It must lead outside.

We better get out fast.

The volcano might erupt. Let's move.

On what we now believe to be the morning of the fourth day, we have emerged from

the fiery depths of the Martian underworld.

How long we have been wandering there we can only guess.

Is it that the eternal darkness of the caverns that endlessly doubled back upon

themselves has destroyed our sense of time?

Our watches are useless, for they have refused to run since we cracked on the

surface of this planet.

Their hands frozen.

as if time were forbidden upon this world.

Of this we are certain, for every day of our journey, our original oxygen supply

diminishes by a quarter.

And now, with our map lost in the caves below, and only a faint distant signal

to follow, the needle on our oxygen tanks marks the beginning of what could

our last day on Mars.

It is quite obvious now.

that if we do not find our main stage before nightfall, it will be simply our

last day.

arid Martian desert stretches around us like an endless ocean of sand.

To the west, more than a day's journey away, we can see what appears to be a

strange dome of light pulsating on the horizon.

Could it be the work of some alien intelligence or a weird phenomena of

planet?

Senseless to wonder now as our oxygen supplies drain.

and we are running on the last of our reserve.

At noon, Charlie's directional finder became silent.

The signal we've been following in the hopes of reaching our main stage died,

and with it, perhaps our last chance of survival on this planet.

Stronger than ever now is the feeling of alien forces surrounding us.

Crummy desert.

Every dune looked exactly like the last.

Like a crummy... Cut it.

Cut the chair.

You're wasting oxygen.

What oxygen?

He's right, Steve. It's almost gone.

Fifteen minutes at the most.

I had hoped that... Listen.

A signal.

The main stage.

How's that for timing, huh? Thought there'd be no tomorrow.

All right.

Let's not just stand around.

Let's go home.

What we had thought to be the main stage has turned out to be a time -corroded

relic from an earlier chapter of the exploration of Mars.

Just enough power left in its batteries to transmit a useless signal.

Charlie, stop it. Now, Charlie.

It's so funny.

Ironically funny, don't you see?

The Mars scout.

We sent it here two years ago to see if man could live on Mars.

An unmanned biological laboratory to tell us whether or not

we could survive the elements.

That was so funny.

We have to travel millions of miles and find it.

Just to prove we can't survive.

Easy, Charlie.

Stop it. And they can't even send a message back for us.

Charlie, stop it. Now, Charlie.

It's living on while we...

He

broke one of the fuel lines.

There's still liquid oxygen in the tank.

I've got to cap it off before it all escapes.

I feel... sort of silly about...

Well... Forget it.

Looks like you might have saved the day, Charlie.

That's for sure.

If there's oxygen in any quantum...

We're in luck.

Almost a fourth of the original oxygen left.

It's like a care package from home.

A fourth?

Why, that should be enough to last us all for four or five days. That's the

least. The end doesn't seem so bad.

At least when it's not right now, we've got to work fast.

It'll be night soon. And if we don't want to freeze to death, we'd better get

what oxygen we can and find cover for the night.

That's a tall order.

There's nothing but sand dunes for miles around.

We can take shelter by the Mars scout.

He'll give us some protection from the wind.

That's it.

Got it.

We can fill the suit tanks from this.

Beautiful, isn't it?

In its own alien way.

I guess it is.

And so still and quiet.

There's a breeze starting up.

Feel it? Mm -hmm.

It makes the sands look so dreamlike.

It's another world, all right.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

Let's hope it's not.

Looks like a storm, Roy.

We'd better join the others and take cover.

Looks like a big one coming up.

What was that you said?

Dream life?

Perhaps I should have said nightmare.

The storm is building in intensity.

Our limited air supply.

I'd sure hate to get snowed in here.

I hope the lightning doesn't get worse.

It may hit the scout.

Let's hope it blows itself out by morning.

It's better.

Darn sand, it gets into everything.

The batteries are running down and the signal.

It's so faint I can't make it out.

Are you sure it's a signal? Not just static interference?

No, it's a signal.

But it keeps on fading.

I think I've found something.

What is it, Steve?

What did you find?

I'm not sure what it is.

The storm must have uncovered it during the night.

And there's a lot more of it still covered by the sand.

Wonder what it could be.

Let's clear away some more.

Sure can't tell now.

Stone. We farm a definite pattern.

You're right.

They're too symmetric to have been formed by nature.

If not by nature, how?

Some form of intelligence was at work here.

You mean somebody built it?

I'm positive.

But who?

You mean there's life on this planet?

Who can say?

This is more in the nature of an archaeological discovery than life

How's that?

These ruins are ancient.

Perhaps buried beneath the sand for millions of years.

Similar to Troy on our own planet.

That's right. For all we know, we're standing atop what was a great

civilization.

There's more. Look up there.

Looks like some ancient travel route.

A golden road.

Yeah, but what does it lead to? That's what I'd like to know.

You see what I see?

All setting light.

That's what I saw through the camera just before.

The last directional reading. Where was it from? It's coming from... from within

the city.

A mysterious red dome surrounds the city.

Its appearance as alien as the city itself.

Our main stage.

So this is it.

No doubt about it. Look at this reading.

Yes, but is it ours?

There's only one way to find out. We've come this far.

Might as well go the rest of the way.

Looks like a long hike.

Well, I hope the long hike leads us to something.

We're on the right track.

That's our signal, okay? I'm sure of it.

Great. If we maintain a steady pace, we should be able to reach the plateau by

early afternoon.

Looks like we've come to the end of the road.

In a way, it's beautiful.

And from appearance, incredibly old.

Do you suppose it could still be inhabited?

I doubt it. It looks too deserted.

Deserted? I'm not so sure.

Something stopped the signal.

Well, there's only one way to find out. I'm with you.

Phew, it's musty but breathable.

Yes, and lucky for us, it's enough to sustain human life.

From the looks of the cobwebs, nobody's been in here for a long, long time.

Nobody but the spiders, or whatever passes for spiders around here.

Looks like they were cremated alive.

Apparently. Whoever they were, they've been there for a long time.

You better be careful. You don't know what that alien thing is.

Looks like they were trying to cut through the wall here.

It's a cutting torch of some kind.

I think I'll keep it.

Might come in handy.

All right, I'll leave it here.

Come on, let's search this place and get it over with. This place gives me the

shivers.

There's a definite change in the architecture ever since we passed that

column. You mean all these columns?

This must have been a real jazzy place in its time. Besides the change in the

architecture, I've noticed these passageways all seem to lead in the same

direction, no matter which ones we take.

Almost as if at least some central area.

Perhaps even that over here.

What do you make of this?

These aren't columns after all.

Some kind of crystal -white container.

Whatever was in there must have been valuable.

Looks like they used a blowtorch to get at it.

Find anything, Steve?

Nothing but this funny red dust.

The intelligence that erected these containers meant for them to last an

eternity.

And their contents.

You got my curiosity up, Doc.

Let's see what we find in some of these others.

Hey, there's something in here, all right.

What do you see?

I can't tell for sure. Give me a hand.

I can't make it out. Can you?

Just iron luck.

Looks like it's covered up completely.

it is, I'm glad it's dead.

We've passed thousands of these containers.

There must be an entire civilization entombed here.

Beings that were capable of developing an intelligence far beyond their own

cranial capacity.

Judging from the artificial encasement of the brain, they must have undergone

thousands of years of mental evolution in one lifetime. Almost unbelievable.

A race such as theirs.

I don't think it sees it.

It's looking right at me.

I don't think it is, Charlie.

I think somehow it senses our presence.

Explore it.

They mean us no harm.

No harm?

You saw what they do to intruders here.

You don't understand.

It's as if they were trying to communicate, to tell us something.

Tell us what?

I'm not sure I understand.

Their thoughts are many, vague, as though an image was

half -formed.

Of a meeting place where many minds are gathering.

They want us there now.

But where?

It must be in there.

Help me out.

I'm not going in.

We know you want to communicate with us, but your language is foreign to us.

I only

understand a part of what you say.

An evolution.

What evolution?

What manner of life are you?

I see perplexity among you.

As long as your minds are troubled with questions about our nature, we

cannot determine your purpose upon our world.

I am a composite being, a manifestation of the many minds

that are the last inhabitants of this...

the last city upon this world.

We are the end of the evolution of a race so old its age has no equivalent

in your concepts of time.

Be it enough for you to know our race has witnessed during the span of

our evolution the birth and death of sons and the world is untold.

But enough.

Now we must seek the satisfaction of our own curiosity.

From where do you come?

And what is your purpose here?

We are from the planet Earth.

Earth?

Earth, you say?

The green world somewhat from ours?

At one time we theorized it would evolve into life.

And so it has.

But continue.

What is it that you seek?

We came here on a scientific expedition to map and study the surface of this

planet. There have been others here before you.

But we were the first manned space probe sent here.

Do not laugh at yourself by believing yours to be the only intelligent life in

the universe.

There are other worlds teeming with life.

with vessels that voided across the golden space.

Those others of whom I spoke did not come here in search of knowledge.

Their motive was greed.

Their purpose, plunder.

They were dealt with as intruders.

We had no intentions of landing on your planet.

In fact, we weren't even equipped to land.

Am I to believe disaster befell your mission?

Then I must inquire into the nature of this disaster.

And it is your vessel that you seek here within our city.

But continue.

How did you discover the way?

We picked up a faint signal, and believing it to be our main stage,

It led us to the Golden Road.

What you seek is not here.

The signal that you receive is a warning.

Had you been able to decipher its meaning, you would not have come here.

However, the golden road that led you here is all that remains of a vast

network that linked our vanished empire upon this world.

Now our palaces have become one, and you are destined to share our fate.

For as long as we remain imprisoned upon this world,

So shall you remain.

You don't understand.

All we need is to locate our main stage and send a message back for help.

Now why should you want to stop us?

It is you who do not understand.

For we can neither hinder nor help you.

We have been incapable of physical action for ages.

Our existence is confined within a dimension of time of our own creation.

You are right in assuming we do not understand.

You speak of an undecipherable warning.

A warning from what?

A fate of imprisonment?

While you are incapable of physical action?

Imprisoned by what?

This dimension of time?

During the span of our evolution, our race built an empire so great, its

outermost reaches extended to the perimeter of the galaxy.

Our fleets sailed the galactic seas and gathered the riches from many worlds.

Wandering, we gathered the greatest of all treasures, knowledge.

Ours was the greatest empire the galactic civilizations had ever

We were the masters of the stars.

But as space is vast, time is long.

Races grow old, civilizations wither, and empires crumble.

The stars slip through our fingers.

been the conquerors of a thousand worlds gathered here.

Our empire followed them.

Our glory gone.

All that remained of our capes were the mysteries we had gathered in our

wonders.

There was an irony in our twilight.

All too soon we would return to mindless dust, leaving these mysteries behind.

Time was insensitive to our greatness.

The end of our evolution drew near.

Weary, we made one last effort.

We inquired into the very nature of the fabric of time itself.

Time, from creation to now, turns toward all the

yesterdays almost as strongly as the unborn tomorrows that stretch to all

eternity.

We struck a balance between these two great universal forces.

The past and the future.

It was then that we impaled time upon Nexus.

We were in the conquerors of a thousand worlds and followed.

Rose again to conquer death and pluck our city out of time.

Within these halls.

There was an eternal stillness.

And in that stillness we pondered upon all the mysteries we had gathered from

the vastness of the universe.

And pondering we followed.

We had committed a grievous error.

That transmission upon time was contrary to the laws of the universe.

there can be no life without birth.

So, life itself is meaningless without

death.

Upon unraveling the last mystery of the universe, this we learned,

that there exists a promise of something very strange and very great.

A promise beckoning to us from beyond the rim of the universe.

Thus our transgression kept us in prisons upon this world and kept

us from our destiny.

It's hard to believe that a race as great as yours cannot free itself from a

prison of their own creation.

If you stop time, why can't you start it again?

Time can be set in motion again.

Free to continue toward the endless future and we toward our destiny.

But it requires an act of physical strength of which we are incapable.

Yours will be the task.

But how?

We have no knowledge of how you stop time.

Therefore, how can we start it again?

I cannot hold this manifestation much longer.

The process involved would not be understandable to a race as young as

where there time left to me to explain.

Our city was plucked out of time.

Yours is the task.

To replace the sphere within the mechanism.

Wait! Don't leave!

This mechanism!

What is it?

You will know it.

For it is the symbol of time, universal to all races.

That must be the sphere.

But what mechanism is it part of?

Who cares?

Now, look, let's not get sidetracked. We haven't got time to get involved with

somebody else's problems.

Well, maybe it is our problem.

What do you mean? This has nothing to do with us.

Let's not waste our time on riddles, too.

Now, they've been here a long time.

And so will we if we don't find that main stage.

Look, the main stage is lost.

Let's face it.

We've been chasing wild signals everywhere.

Now let's give Doc the benefit of the doubt.

I still don't understand how it's going to do us any good.

Well, maybe not, but we won't know unless we try.

This must be it.

Now all we have to do is find the mechanism in which it fits.

A city plucked from time.

That does it.

I hope this is it. There's no place else to look.

If it is, it'll solve a lot of mysteries.

Just as long as we don't end up like they did.

A symbol of time.

Universal to all races.

Mechanism of time.

It's so close, and yet just beyond our reach.

I can reach it.

Steve?

Give me a hand.

The city.

Done, done.

Time has been set in motion again.

Freed to continue toward the endless future.

And we toward our destiny. Do not gaze upon time too long.

For as you do, your own destiny awaits you at the end of the golden road.

The past and present are coming together.

We've got to get out while the cement still exists.

Get the gun.

This is Mars Echo One.

Over.

Mars Probe One, will you please acknowledge you are two minutes overdue

your transmission.

Please acknowledge.

Please acknowledge.

This we learn.

As without birth, there can be no life.

So without death, life itself is meaningless.

For without death...