Original subtitles

In the not-distant future,

the sound of man will invade those unknown depths of space.

Which, as yet, we cannot even imagine.

In his own world, there are no places left beyond the reach of his voice.

His neighbor is no longer just next door,

but anywhere at the end of a wire.

And it all began when prehistoric man discovered.

The art of communication.

Fill it up, sir?

No, just directions. Let me have a look at the map, here.

Now, now, now, wild canyon road...

Oh, that's a good address.

Our friends will be dying to come out and visit us.

The realtor said it should be about 10 miles beyond Mitchellville.

Well, that'll put it right about here.

Unless they roll it up for the night.

Phew!

Where'd she come from?

That side road up ahead there.

That's our road.

Must be why they call it wild canyon.

Oh! Ow!

Are you all right? I'm sorry.

How the devil did that rock get there?

Maybe it's always been there.

No, the pickup got by.

Perhaps they put it there to keep people out. Listen...

What do you hear?

Nothing.

That's right. Not one sound.

It is kind of lonesome here.

Oh, no, we're not alone.

There's something here.

Come on now, will you?

Let me take a look at that rock.

Andy!

Oh, honey.

Are you all right?

Take it easy, take it easy, don't...

Oh, stupid me!

I hurt my ankle.

Oh, it'll be all right.

Take it easy, take it easy. Now stop, now stop, you're all right.

My god!

Shh!

There's nothing wrong with your television set.

Do not attempt to adjust the picture.

We are controlling transmission.

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

You are about to experience the awe and mystery.

Which reaches from the inner mind to...

The outer limits.

How does the ankle feel?

Isn't better. Honey, I don't think I'm gonna be able to walk on it.

Don't try.

The car won't start.

From hitting that Boulder?

I don't know, it won't turn over.

I don't think I could carry you back up there, anyhow.

I'm afraid we're stuck here.

Oh, Andy!

What are we gonna do?

Well, here.

First thing I'm gonna do is

try to get you some place that's a little more comfortable.

This is comfortable.

Ooh!

Phew!

So empty.

What?

Must be a farmhouse around here somewhere.

In a cathedral you whisper,

because to raise your voice would be sacrilege.

Here...

I don't know...

I think if I shouted, the sound would die.

Andy!

Andy, maybe there are birds singing, only nobody can hear them.

If there were birds around, you'd hear 'em, all right.

Then where are they?

I don't know.

I'm an engineer, not an ornithologist.

No wind.

Hasn't been any wind all day.

Then what's moving that tumbleweed?

Hmm?

Oh!

Just takes a breath of air to roll those things along.

Andy, they're following us.

Now, would you cut it out?

Look, I'm gonna get out of here and see if I can't...

No, don't! Don't leave me, Andy!

Please don't leave me alone here!

Be logical now!

What's logical about that?

It's gonna be dark in an hour.

If I don't get some help, we're gonna spend the night right here.

Please.

Please.

Here take these.

We'll get back to town

and I'll give up the idea of living on a farm, honey. OK?

Andy!

Andy!

That thing...

That thing, it tried to...

It's all right, I got it.

Please sit down. Please, just...

It tried to attack me, Andy.

It's just your nerves. Take it easy. It's all right.

Look, I won't leave you alone.

No, I'll stay here. I'll build a fire.

Maybe somebody will see it and come to the rescue, huh?

Fire, fire, they hate it.

That's why it attacked me. To keep me from striking that match.

You see them flinch? They're afraid... afraid of fire.

Yeah, yeah, they'll all run away and hide now.

Andy, look, they're all around us.

They won't come any closer.

As long as the fire lasts.

Well, you know they're only tumbleweeds.

And when it burns out, they'll attack.

It's as simple as that.

There's plenty of firewood out there.

Out there, yes.

We can't reach it, we're trapped.

Aw!

Don't you believe it.

Watch now.

Andy!

Andy!

Andy, wait!

Andy!

What is it?

Don't leave me.

Look, I'm just going after some wood.

Don't you see what's going to happen, Andy?

You won't get back in again. They'll close that opening.

And then I'll be left all alone here, Andy.

Look, will you stop this nonsense?

These are just weeds. Russian thistle, saltwort...

They're not alive!

Look, Andy, they've already closed up the opening.

Something's moving them.

What do you think it is?

I don't know.

But it's a force.

I told you I felt it up on the road, I told you so. Don't you remember, Andy?

Yes, yes, I remember.

I don't know where it's coming from.

But I feel it.

The rock on the road,

the tumbleweed.

First they tried to drive us out, and now they won't let us go at all.

How's your ankle?

I've almost forgotten about it.

Well, I thought if you could walk on it,

we might make it back up to the car.

No, it's too late now.

The fire's almost out.

Pretty soon they'll swarm all over us.

Look, I'll have it blazing in a second here now.

These things burn like paper.

No!

No, there's another one!

Andy!

It was just like an octopus. There was living strength in it.

That doesn't make sense.

I could... I could feel the power it gave off.

Where did all that energy come from?

How can you animate a dead weed?

Oh!

Hand me another burning branch.

That's the last one.

Andy, the fire's almost gone out.

Is anybody there?

Hello!

Where are you? Hurry up!

Just outside.

I can see you.

Yeah, we're having a little trouble here. Can you help us?

Don't touch the weeds. They're dangerous.

Yes, I know, we can't get through them.

We could burn our way through if we had some dry wood.

They don't burn like regular tumbleweeds.

I know, but they burn, that's all that matters.

See if you can find us some dry branches.

Oh, Andy!

Andy, he isn't going to help us. Look, he's going away.

No, no, please, why would he do a thing like that?

There's something strange about him, Andy.

Didn't you hear the way he talked?

Shh!

Well, hello! We're sure glad to see you.

My name's Andy Thorne. This is my wife, Mrs. Thorne.

The name is Lamont. I got a farm down the canyon.

Used to be a farm, anyway.

You... you mean the weeds are there, too?

Worse than any locust.

I got a farm down the canyon.

Yeah, you... you already said that.

Did I tell you there's nothing left?

Nothing that's any good.

You'd better come along with me.

There's no place else to go.

W-w-wait a minute.

Uh...

Something I don't understand.

If these weeds caused all this damage, why did you stay?

Curiosity.

They didn't act like natural tumbleweeds.

So I watched them.

But I stayed too long.

Now do you understand?

You mean, now you can't leave?

You, me, your missus,

nobody can leave.

There just isn't any way of gettin' out.

Lookin' back, it seems it all happened

the night that thing landed in the canyon.

About 2 weeks ago, as near as I can figure now.

What was it?

I don't know, a meteor, maybe.

I saw a blindin' light come down

like a thunderbolt and then it crashed.

Didn't you go out to investigate?

Oh, I walked down to the end of the canyon next day.

Nothin' there, not even a hole in the ground.

Was that when all those weird things started happening?

Well, that's...

That's what I think now.

I didn't pay any particular attention to it at first.

Seemed there's more tumbleweeds around than usual.

But that's all.

Then they started to gettin' bigger.

About the time my wife started missin' some chickens.

You don't mean that they, uh...

Maybe.

Didn't occur to me at the time.

Figured it was a fox.

But a fox couldn't have made off with a full-grown sow.

Well, didn't you report it? Did you talk it over with your neighbors?

Aren't no other farms within 10 miles of here.

Anyway, they wouldn't believe me.

I didn't believe it myself

till the milk cows disappeared.

Oh, now, come on...

Mr. Lamont,

where is Martha, now?

She wanted to leave.

Kept after me to go.

Then last week, after the cows disappeared,

she went away.

I like to think she got out of the canyon.

It's a miracle you've held on to your sanity.

Did those things ever try to attack you?

Only the time I tried to leave.

Since then, I've been a-stayin' inside,

till I saw your fire.

Listen...

Oh!

Every night, they scratch at the door tryin' to get in.

What about the telephone?

Went dead a week ago.

Then the electricity went off.

Martha used cooking gas, so I've been able to fix a meal.

You said you tried to get out of here once.

Blocked the road.

Tried goin' up the side of the canyon.

They dragged me down.

Well, why didn't you try burning your way out?

I thought about it at one time.

Then I seen what they could do,

figured nothing was goin' to work.

At least we know fire will do it.

We'll make some torches, you lead us out.

Worth a try, I guess.

After your ankle gets better.

We'll have to run.

I'll be all right in the morning.

I'll... I'll fix you up a place to sleep.

What a horror!

Yes, if you believe all that.

What?

I believe that man's lying.

I don't understand you.

Out there, you were absolutely petrified.

Well, in here, I'm pretty shaky, if you want to know.

But it doesn't change the fact that

that man is not telling the truth.

About what?

He said Martha left over a week ago, didn't he?

Yeah, about a week ago.

I believe she left not more than a few hours ago,

in that pickup truck.

How do you arrive at that conclusion?

Oh, Andy, look around. Everything is so neat.

Most men are terrible housekeepers.

If Martha had been gone over a week, this place would be a mess.

Well, some farmers are probably very good housekeepers.

If he is a farmer.

Listen to this,

"7th day, the lord rested after creation

"but here there is no rest.

"Now I'm certain there is a malignant intelligence behind the weeds.

"No, not behind them, in them.

"Where it comes from or what it wants, I cannot fathom.

"Perhaps if I could reason clearly,

"I might understand,

but my grip on sanity grows weaker by the day."

Now, an educated man wrote those lines, Andy,

not a backwoods hillbilly.

Andy, we've just got to leave here tonight, while he's asleep.

Shh!

Here he comes.

You can take Martha's room.

Where will you sleep, Mr. Lamont?

Right here.

Feel better?

Thank you.

Fine.

Huh?

We gotta figure this thing out logically.

I know we're faced with something that defies logic,

but it's all we got to work with.

I... I didn't say anything.

Something entered this canyon 2 weeks ago.

Now we've got no concept of what it is.

Lamont thinks it's a form of pure mind, pure intelligence,

no physical properties at all.

But those tumbleweeds...

This intelligence hitchhiked a ride on them because they're mobile.

And number 2:

It motivates these weeds, but only within their natural limitations.

It makes them roll.

And attack.

No.

Well, in a sense.

They did entangle themselves around our hands and our feet.

They showed unusual strength.

But otherwise they acted just like tumbleweeds.

Our own fear supplied the rest.

The way they burn.

Well, any dry weed will burn. These explode.

But that could be because of that induction of that pure force.

Lamont's still awake.

Unless he fell asleep with the light on.

Andy, please.

Please, Andy. Let's get out of here, right now.

I want to go, and if he tries to stop us...

Why would he try to do that?

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

But I do know he's part of this. He accepted it, didn't he?

Yeah, he's really cracking up.

Maybe he sold his soul to the devil,

or whatever that thing is.

Otherwise he could have left. He admitted that, didn't he?

Well then, why didn't he go?

Andy!

Come here.

I can't see any weeds.

They're gone!

What?

The weeds are gone!

Andy, listen, listen.

Frogs croaking.

Andy, that's the first natural sound we've heard

since we've been in this awful canyon.

Yeah.

Do you suppose that could mean...

Maybe.

We're free?

Maybe it's gone away.

Come on!

Lamont?

He's gone!

He wouldn't take off without us.

Lamont!

Lamont!

Hello?

Andy!

Andy, he's made some more notes.

"The long night is almost vanished."

"The waiting will soon be over."

"I sense this without knowing why."

"What feeble candle of comprehension informs me?"

"All my other faculties are flickering out, one by one."

"When I am truly dispossessed,

"what use then, the empty shell?

"How will it serve them?

"Who is out there? Does no one hear me?

I yield..."

He stopped in the middle of a line.

Well, that doesn't sound like anybody who ran away.

Oh, Andy, that's what I want to do.

I want to run and run until I get to a world I can understand.

Andy, please!

Come on.

Andy, I'm frightened.

What? The frogs.

Listen, I've never heard so many frogs in all my life.

This way.

There must be thousands of them, Andy.

Stop! Don't go any further!

Lamont!

Go back! Go back!

No, we're leaving.

You can come with us or not.

You can't get through. Go back to the house! Hurry!

He's trying to scare us.

Oh, I...

Oh! Oh!

It's all right! It's all right!

We're safe! We're safe!

Shh, they can't get in! They can't get in!

There were thousands, thousands of them!

It's a plague.

It sometimes happens. It gets so dry, they go mad for water.

No! No, that isn't it. It's that thing.

That thing's entered the frogs.

Oh, no, no.

There's some reasonable explanation.

That's... that's why the tumbleweed disappeared.

That's the reason. It had a better carrier.

It's entered the frogs, don't you see?

Andy, we're never gonna get out of here alive, I know!

Sit down, sit down, stay here.

We'll get out of here.

We'll figure out a way, don't worry.

I think I ought to go out and help Lamont.

Ahhh!

Andy, look! Oh!

Kill him, Andy! Kill him!

No, I want to find out what makes it go.

You stay there.

Oh!

Maybe it's like I said, they're frantic for water.

Oh.

It acted just like acid.

Why, Andy?

Why?

For the same reason those weeds exploded when we lit them.

Whatever this force is,

it can't live with fire or water.

Oh.

I think I'm going out of my mind.

No, no, no, no, take it easy.

No, no, shh.

Maybe we've found a way out.

We'll drive 'em back with water.

They can't stand water.

So we're all right and we'll come through.

We'll drive them back with fire and water.

No, no, no, I'm not gonna go out there, I'm not going out there.

No, not now, not now. When it gets light.

No, never, never!

Shh.

Never, never, never.

Then we'd better pray for rain.

Let me in!

Open the door!

I saw the weeds move away.

Went out to see if we could get out.

Then the frogs came. Thousands of them!

Thousands of mad frogs!

Mr. Lamont?

Feel any better this morning?

Andy! Andy!

Mr. Lamont, where's Andy?

I'm in here, honey.

I'll be right out.

Are you all right?

Oh, leave him alone, he's not here, anymore.

What's that?

They use it for spraying insecticides.

I want to fill it with water.

Are they still out there?

Just dead ones.

And the tumbleweed?

A couple of them went by, moved by the wind.

Things look pretty good out there.

Nothing moving.

Everything's quiet.

But we're not taking any chances.

I got a blowtorch back there.

With that and a couple of gallons of water, we can go anywhere.

What about him?

Oh, we can't leave him here and we can't carry him.

Mr. Lamont.

Mr. Lamont.

We're gonna try to get out of here.

Do you think you could walk?

Let me give you a hand. Let me get you to your feet.

Up.

Oh, that's good.

That's fine.

Yeah, that's great.

You're doing fine, Mr. Lamont.

Don't let him lag behind.

Honestly, Andy, he's going to be all right.

I think once we get him out of here, he'll snap out of it.

We'll get him to a doctor.

Look out!

Lamont?

He's dead.

Andy!

Andy, it's the end, isn't it, Andy?

We'd better get back to the farm, for a little while anyway.

Meaning forever... you mean forever, don't you?

No, no, there's always an answer.

This is just fire and water.

What do you want?

If you're intelligent, act like it!

Where are you from? What do you want?

Andy, please come.

It thinks and it reasons.

Why doesn't it try to communicate with us

instead of playing a lot of stupid tricks?

At least act logical!

No!

It's all right. Listen to this.

You know, this is a very valuable notebook.

He's a sharp observer,

but I think I found his error.

Now, listen to this.

"I am certain

that there is a malignant intelligence in the weeds."

Now, I think that's wrong.

I don't believe it was malignant.

Anything that's that powerful,

anything that destroys cows and... and chickens...

No, no! The livestock disappeared,

we really don't know what happened.

Now, I think that this thing,

this intelligence... whatever you wanna call it... came here from somewhere...

So many light years out in space

that it could never make it physically.

Now, here it is in this strange,

and perhaps hostile, planet.

Pure mind,

trying to find a means of communicating with some alien form of life.

Us!

Oh, I don't want us to communicate with it.

Well, we'd better or we're going to rot here.

Why didn't it communicate with Lamont?

It did.

But he didn't understand.

Listen, the human mind,

it works with electrical impulses.

Now, this thing, whatever it is, to travel so far,

must be a current of such tremendous voltage...

That's what happened to his lights, his telephone... an overload!

And that's what happened to our car! The battery.

And that's what happened to Lamont.

You see, his mind was gradually being pushed aside

by this... this force.

It needed a human carrier.

Unfortunately, he resisted.

And so it killed him.

No, no, I think that was an accident.

I think it was just trying to keep him here. You know, to take occupancy.

What is that?

I don't know. Another rock, I guess.

No, it's...

It's coming for us.

Then we'd better try to communicate.

Oh, how?

How?

Andy, listen...

Footsteps.

Oh.

Somebody... somebody's coming to help us, Andy.

Oh, no, no, it would never let anybody else in the canyon.

Maybe...

Maybe the force is gone.

Yes, that's it.

That's it, Andy, the...

Mr. Lamont.

Thank heaven, we thought...

We thought you were dead.

Andy.

Andy, he... He isn't breathing.

No.

He...

In the name of heaven, what is it?

He's still dead.

Oh, Andy, it was... It was a bad dream, wasn't it?

Oh!

Oh, we're still here!

Lamont?

He's in the kitchen.

He can't be dead.

He's as dead as those tumbleweeds.

The muscles move and the joints function, but that's all.

Otherwise, he's just a zombie.

Ooh.

What good can a dead body be to that... that thing?

Not very much.

I don't think that... that it really understands.

Maybe it can't conceive of death.

What a tragedy.

Finally it gets a human carrier

and still it can't communicate.

What's it doing now?

Nothing.

Lamont is just still at the table.

The notebook!

What?

Lamont's notebook.

Why not?

If it can activate Lamont’s muscles,

maybe Lamont can write for it.

I'm gonna find out.

You want to come?

No!

Yes, I... I don't want to be left alone here.

Andy, must you do this?

Yes, don't you understand?

If Lamont can write,

it can tell us secrets we can't even imagine.

Help me up.

Get me the pen and the notebook.

Andy.

Oh, that's it!

That's it.

That's it.

No, I can't, I...

Shh. I can't watch.

These are just symbols.

I can't read these. This is not Lamont’s writing.

He's transcribing it into its language.

Oh.

I was hoping he'd translate

the thoughts into his own terms.

He would, though, if he were alive.

Come on, write.

Write enough symbols so that we can establish a pattern. Come on.

There'll always be somebody to decode. Come on, write, write!

What did it...

Oh, nothing, nothing, nothing.

Just some meaningless symbols. About 4 lines of them.

Did you notice how stiff and mechanically the body moved?

Rigor mortis had set in.

The muscles responded but just barely. The arm couldn't write.

What about the symbols?

There's not enough of them. They don't repeat.

There's no way to learn the key.

Just not enough of 'em.

What do you suppose it is doing now?

Well, it's probably making an estimate of the situation.

It must realize by now that it's got a carrier that can communicate

with members of its own species.

But even if you could make contact,

it couldn't understand you.

The language.

Thought has no language.

We think in pictures and sensations.

And then we translate these ideas

into our own words and sentences.

Now,

suppose, this... this thing, has a concept,

and it wants to put it into a living brain,

mine.

I get the thought,

but then, wouldn't I translate all these ideas, this thought,

into my own words,

into my own language?

If you do let it enter,

what guarantee do you have that it will ever go?

And if does go,

leave you...

Mindless, soulless, like... like...

That's the gamble we have to take.

We're prisoners here. It can do anything it wants with us.

I think our only chance is to make contact,

to reach an understanding.

Look out, Andy!

What you're asking for is my blessing, isn't it?

And... and if I don't give it to you, you'll blame me, won't you?

Oh, no, no, I won't blame you.

All right. I dissent.

But I'll try. I will, I'll try to help you in every way...

That's my girl.

You ready?

Now, all you have to do

is to write down anything I say. Everything...

Lamont.

Oh, I've moved him, come on.

Now, these are the questions.

You may think of others to ask, depending on what I say.

But at least ask those.

I understand.

Now, then.

Lamont resisted, his mind just fought against invasion.

I've got to make my mind a blank.

Induce a kind of a self-hypnosis.

Leave plenty of room for it to enter.

Turn up the lamp.

But we're... almost out of fuel now. Andy...

And don't speak.

Don't even move.

Oh, oh...

This...

This long journey...

This very stone,

th-this chaos, this flux

surrounded my being.

There is life here.

There is life here,

but what form... How does it communicate?

We call out but no one hears!

I can hear you.

Why does no one answer?

Listen to me.

I have questions to ask.

We know now

that the solitude of infinity is abolished.

That is our triumph.

Consciousness does exist

on this strange pebble in the drift of space.

But its nature is a mystery.

Whoever you are, listen to me, please!

Perhaps,

voyagers of some future millennia

will reach here

and find no evidence of our visit.

Oh, wait, I hear you!

There's one possibility left.

Perhaps this...

This consciousness, which we sense here,

needs time to develop,

to evolve.

And in some thousands of years

will awaken to an awareness,

a racial memory

of our being here.

This is the only flag

we can plant

as we depart.

Ahhh!

Andy, Andy, no!

Go away and leave him alone.

Andy, come back. Andy, come back.

Andy, come back to me.

Andy,

come back to me.

The lights are on.

It's gone.

It's gone.

Oh, it didn't work.

Oh, yes, darling, yes, it did.

Look, look, I took it down. Part of it, anyway.

The only thing is it couldn't hear me.

Hello? Yes.

Yes, the phone has been out of order.

No, everything is all right now.

Yes, thank you.

Nothing, just nothing.

But, Andy, those are its words.

You don't talk like that. It did communicate.

Where are the answers? "Who are you?

Where do you come from? What's the energy involved?"

Anybody with 6 drinks in them could write this kind of junk.

Now it's gone...

And done.

You know, it just gave up.

There's no other explanation.

Even after it took over my brain, it still couldn't communicate.

It was as if it could send,

but it couldn't receive.

So it just went back.

I wonder where it came from.

We'll never know. Not now.

You know,

the tragedy of all this is

nobody will ever believe us.

But, Andy, we have Lamont’s notebook.

Oh.

Ramblings of a deranged mind.

Meaningless symbols nobody can decipher.

People will walk away from us.

Oh, Andy, I'm sorry, I tried, I tried, it's just...

Come on.

See if we can get the car started.

You know,

we're only 30 miles from home.

I wonder how many millions of light years it has to travel.

And the light shineth in the darkness.

And the darkness comprehended it not.

The sound of man probes the dimensionless.

Range of space, seeking an answer.

But if it comes,

will he hear?

Will he listen?

Will he comprehend?

We now return control of your television set to you.

Until next week at this same time,

when the control voice will take you to,

The Outer Limits.