[Eerie music]
(Male narrator) There is a fifth dimension
beyond tha t which is known to man.
It is a dimension as vastas space
and as timeless as infinity.
It is the middle ground between lightand shadow,
between science and s upers ti tion.
And it lies between the pit of man's fears
and the summit of his knowledge.
This is the dimension of ima Gina tion.
It is an area which we call the twilightzone.
Maple street, u. S.A. La te summer.
A tree-lined little world of front-porch gliders, barbecues,
the la ughter of children, and the bell ofan ice-cream vendor.
A t the sound of the roar and the flash of light,
it will be precisel y 6:43 p. M. On maple street.
[Strange whirring]
What was that, a meteor?
Yeah, that's what it looked like.
I didn't hear any crash though, did you?
No, I didn't hear anything except a roar.
Steve, what was that?
I guess it was a meteor, honey. It came awful close, didn't it?
Too close for my money. Much too close.
(Narrator) This is maple street on a la te sa turda yafternoon.
Maple street in the last calm and reflective moment
before the monsters came.
Operator. Operator!
Operator!
Steve, the power's off. I had the soup on the stove
and the stove just stopped working.
Is your phone all right? I can't get anybody on mine.
(Man) Our electric! Ty isn't good. Is the power off?
(Woman) Our radio's gone dead.
I'll cut across the backyard.
See if the power is still on on floral street.
Doesn't make sense.
Why should the power go off all of a sudden and the phone line?
Maybe some kind of an electrical storm or something.
Now, that don't seem likely.
The sky's as blue as anything. Not a cloud, no lightning, no thunder.
How could it be a storm?
Can't get a thing on the radio. Not even on the portable.
Why don't we go downtown and check with the police?
They'll probably think we're crazy or something.
A little power failure and everybody gets flustered and everything.
It isn't justa power failure, Charlie.
If it were, we'd still be able to get a broadcast on the portable.
I'll take a run downtown. Maybe I can get it straightened out.
[Engine won't turn over]
I don't understand it. It was working fine before.
Are you out of gas?
I just filled it up.
Well, what does it mean?
It's as if everything stopped.
Maybe we'd better walk downtown.
Well, let's both go, Charlie.
Yeah.
Mr. Brand, you better not.
Why not?
They don't want you to.
Who doesn't want us to?
Them.
Them?
Who are them?
Whoever was in that thing that came by overhead.
Whoever was in the thing that came over. I don't think they want us to leave here.
What do you mean, Tommy? What are you talking about?
They don't want us to leave. That's why they shut everything off.
What makes you say that? Where did you get that idea?
Isn't that the craziest thing you've heard?
It's always that way in every story I've ever read
about a ship landing from outer space.
From outer space, yet? Sal, you better take him upstairs, put him to bed.
He's been reading too many comic books or seeing too many movies.
Tommy, you stop that kind of talk. Come on, let's go.
Go ahead, Tommy. We'll be right back and then you'll see.
It wasn't a ship. It was a meteor or something.
Likely as not, that's the cause of the power failure and all the rest of it.
Meteors can do crazy things like, like sun spots.
Sure that's the kind of thing, like sun spots.
They raise Cain with radio reception all over the world.
This thing being so close, there's no telling the sort of stuff it can do.
You go ahead, Steve. You and Charlie go into town,
see if that isn't what's causing it all.
Mr. Brand?
Mr. Brand, please don't leave here.
You might not even be able to get to town.
It was that way in the story. Nobody could leave.
Nobod y excep t...
Except who?
Except the people they'd sent down ahead of them.
They looked just like humans. And it wasn't until the ship landed that...
Tommy, please, son. Honey, don't talk like that.
It's the craziest thing I've ever heard of. The kid tells a comic book plot
and we stand here listening.
Wait a minute. Wait a minute.
Go ahead, Tommy. What kind of a story was it?
What about the people they sent ahead?
That was the way they prepared things for the landing.
They sent four people. A mother and a father and two kids
who looked just like humans, but they weren't.
Well, I guess what we need to do is run a check of the neighborhood
and find out which ones of us are really human.
There's no use standing around making bum jokes about it.
Wonder if floral street's got the same kind of deal we have.
Where's Pete Van horn? Has he come back, yet?
[Car trying to start]
(Woman) Does your car start, les?
No dice.
[Tries again]
Well, I don't know what's wrong.
Nothing seems to be working.
Can't even get the car started.
[Car engine starts]
Car started somehow.
He got his car started.
How come his car just up and started like that?
All by itself.
He wasn't anywhere near it. It just started by itself.
He never did come out to look at that thing that flew overhead.
He wasn't even interested.
He always was an oddball.
Him and his whole family. Real oddball.
Now, why didn't he come out with the rest of us to look?
What do you say we go ask him?
(Brand) Wait a minute.
Wait a minute!
Now, let's not be a mob.
I just don't understand it.
I tried to start it. It wouldn't start.
You saw me. All of you saw me.
[Engine cuts out]
I don't understand.
I swear I just don't understand. What's happening?
Well, maybe you better tell us. There's nothing working on this street.
Nothing. No lights, no power, no radio.
Nothing except one car. Yours.
How do you figure it started, les?
How do you explain that?
Wait a minute, now. Just keep your distance. All of you.
Okay, so I've got a car that starts by itself.
Well, it's a freak thing, I admit it.
What's it make me, a criminal or something?
I don't know why it starts, it just does.
What's this all about, Steve?
We're ona monster kick, les.
Seems the general impression now holds that maybe there's a family
that isn't what we think they are.
Monsters from outer space or something different than us.
Fifth columnists from the vast beyond.
Now, do you know anybody that might fit that description around here on maple street?
This is a gag or something?
What is this? A practical joke or something?
[Car engine starts]
That's supposed to incriminate me, huh?
The car starts and stops and that really does it, huh?
Reall y does it?
Well, I don't understand it any more than any of you do.
Look, you all know me. We've lived here for five years, right in this house.
We aren't any different from you. Any different at all.
The whole thing is just...
Really, the whole thing is just weird.
Well, if that's the case, les Goodman, then explain why you...
Explain what?
Let's just forget it.
Wait a minute. Let her talk. Go ahead, explain what?
Well, sometimes I stay up late at night
and a couple of times...
Well, a couple of times I've come out on my porch
and I've seen les Goodman here
in the wee hours of the morning
standing in his yard just looking up at the sky.
That's right. Just, just looking up at the sky
as though he were waiting for something.
As though he were looking for something.
You know, really this is for laughs.
You know what I'm guilty of?
I'm guilty of insomnia.
Now, what's the penalty for that?
Well, you heard what I said. I said it was insomnia.
I said it was insomnia!
You scared, frightened rabbits, you.
You're sick people, do you know that?
You're sick people, all of you.
And you don't even know what you're starting here because let me tell you,
let me tell you, you're starting something here that...
That's what you should be frightened of.
As god is my witness, you're letting something begin here that's...
That's a nightmare.
It just doesn't seem right keeping a watch on them.
They're our neighbors.
We've known the goodmans ever since they came here. We've been good friends.
Look, that don't prove a thing.
Any guy who'd spend his time looking up at the sky early in the morning,
there's something wrong with that kind of a person.
Something that ain't legitimate.
Under normal circumstances let it go by, but these aren't normal circumstances.
Look at that street.
Nothing but candles.
It's like going back into the dark ages or something.
Stay right where you are, Steve. We don't wantany trouble.
But this time, anyone who sets foot on my porch, that's what he's gonna get. Trouble.
Look, les, I'm...
I've already explained to you people.
I don't sleep very well at night sometimes,
so I get up, I go out, I take a walk, I look up at the sky,
I look at the stars.
That's exactly what he does.
This whole thing is some kind of madness.
That's exactly what it is, Mrs. Goodman. Some kind of madness.
(Charlie) You best wa toh who you're seen with, Steve,
till we get this all straightened out. You ain't above suspicion yourself.
Or you, Charlie. Or any of us it seems from age eight on up.
What I wanna know is what are we gonna do.
Just stay around here all night?
There's nothing else we can do.
One of them'll tip their hand. They got to.
There's something you can do, Charlie. You can go inside and keep your mouth shut.
You can quit sitting there like a self-appointed hanging judge
and just climb into bed and forget it.
You sound pretty anxious to have that happen, Steve.
I guess we oughtta keep an eye on you, too.
Yeah, I think maybe everything might as well come out now.
Your wife's been doing a little talking, Steve,
about some of the odd things you've been doing.
Yeah?
Well, go ahead, Don. Tell us what she said.
Go ahead. What's my wife said? Let's get it all out.
Let's pick out every idiosyncrasy
of every man, woman and child on this whole street.
And then we might as well set up some kind of a kangaroo court.
Now, how about a firing squad at dawn, Charlie, to get rid of all the suspects?
Narrow them down for you. Make it easier. Huh? Right, Don?
Well, there's no need getting so upset, Steve. It's just that...
Myra's talked about how there's been plenty of nights
you spent hours down in your basement
working on some kind of radio or something.
Well, none of us ha ve ever seen tha t radio.
Go ahead, Steve.
What kind of radio set you working on?
I never seen it. Neither has anyone else.
Who talks to you on that radio set, and who do you talk to?
Well, I'm surprised at you, Charlie.
How come you're so dense all of a sudden?
Who do I talk to? I talk to monsters from outer space.
I talk to three-headed green men who fly over here in what look like meteors.
Please, Steve, please.
It's just a-a ham radio set, that's all.
I bought the book for him myself.
It's just a ham radio set.
A lot of people have them. I'll show it to you. It's down in the basement.
No. No, we won't show them anything.
If they wanna look inside our house, let them get a search warrant.
Look, buddy, you can't afford to...
Charlie, don't you tell me what I can afford.
And stop telling me who's dangerous and who isn't,
and who's safe and who's a menace.
And you with him, too, all of you.
You're all standing out here all set to crucify somebody.
You're all set to find a scapegoat.
You're all desperate to point some kind of a finger at a neighbor.
Well, believe me, friends, the only thing that's gonna happen
is that we're gonna eat each other up alive.
[Footsteps approaching]
I t's the monster. I t's the monster.
Here, we may need this.
What, a shotgun? Will somebody think? What good is a shotgun?
No more talk, Steve. You're gonna talk us right into a grave.
You'd let whatever's out there walk right over us with you.
Well, some of us won't.
[Gunshot]
[Dog barking]
It's Pete Van horn.
Pete Van horn.
Well, he was just going over to the next block to see if the power was on.
Charlie, you killed him.
He's dead.
I didn't know who he was.
I most certainly didn't know who he was.
Well, he came out of the darkness.
How was I supposed to know who he was?
Steve? You know why I shot him.
How was I supposed to know he wasn't a monster or something?
I was only trying to protect my home.
I didn't know it was somebody we knew.
I didn't know.
Look! Charlie?
Charlie, the lights just went on in your house.
Why did the lights go on in your house?
What about it, Charlie? How come you're the only one with lights now?
That's what I'd like to know. You were so quick to kill, Charlie.
And so quick to tell us who we had to look out for.
Maybe you had to kill. Maybe Pete was trying to tell us something.
Maybe Pete learned something and came back to tell us
who it was amongst us we had to look out for.
No, no, it's nothing of the sort.
I didn't know the lights were on. I swear I didn't.
Somebody's pulling a gag or something.
A gag? A gag? Charlie, there's a man lying dead in the street
and you killed him. Does that look like a gag to you?
Look. Look, I swear it isn't me!
I swear it isn't! I know who it is!
I know who the monster is!
I know who it is that doesn't belong among us!
I swear I know who it is!
All right, Charlie, let's hear it.
What are you waiting for?
Come on, Charlie, come on.
Who is it, Charlie? Tell us!
It's the kid! It's Tommy! He's the one!
Well, that's not true.
It isn't so.
He's a little boy.
It was this kid who knew what was going to happen.
He was the one who knew.
How did he know? How could he have known?
(Man) Ma ybe tomm y's an alien.
What's the matter with you people? Now stop!
(Woman) How did you know?
[All yelling at once]
(Man) Don't let him get to the house.
( Woman ) You're right, I t's him.
It isn't the kid. It's Bob Weaver's house.
It isn't Bob Weaver's place. It's Don's house.
It's the Williams' house.
It's the kid, I tell you.
It's Charlie, he's the one.
Stop!
[Screaming]
It's Steve!
Stop it!
Fools!
[Gunshots]
[Screaming]
[Gunshots]
[Glass breaking]
(Man) Understand the procedure now?
Just stop a few of their machines
and radios and telephones and lawn mowers.
Throw them into darkness for a few hours
and then sit back and watch the pattern.
And this pattern is always the same?
With few variations.
They pick the most dangerous enemy they can find,
and it's themselves.
All we need do is sit back and watch.
Then I take it this place, this maple street is not unique.
By no means. Their world is full of maple streets
and we'll go from one to the other and let them destroy themselves.
One to the other. One to the other.
(Narrator) The tools of oonouest do not ne oessa ril y oome
with bombs and expl osions and fall out.
There are weapons tha t are simpl y thoughts, a ttitudes, prejudices,
to be found onl y in the minds of men.
For the record, prejudices can kill
and suspicion can destroy.
And a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoa t
has a fallout all of its own
for the children and the children yet unborn.
And the pity of it is tha t these things cannot be confined
to the twil igh t zone.
(Male presenter) Rod serl ing, the orea Tor oftwilight zone
will tell you about next week's storyafter this word from our al terna te sponsor.
And noi/I/, Mr. Serl/ng.
Next week Mr. Richard Matheson lends us his fine writing talents
when we bring you a unique and most arresting story of a movie actor
who finds himself on that thin line between what is real and what is a dream.
Mr. Howard duff stars in world of difference,
which I think you'll discover is a television play of difference, too.
That's next week. A journey into the twilight zone.
Thank you and good night.
[Eerie music]
(Male presenter) Be sure to see the fun-filled fa mil y life
of one of america's grea test entertainers, the Danny Thomas show.
Monda y nights over most of these sta tions.
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