[Eerie music]
(Narrator) You're tra vel/ng through another dimension.
A dimension not onl y of sightand sound, but of mind.
A journey into a wondrous land
whose boundaries are tha t of ima Gina t/on. Tha t's the signpost up ahead.
Your next stop, the twilight zone.
[Groans]
How long is this going to take?
Like I told you, nobody stocks fuel pumps around town.
I'll have to send into Dayton for it.
How long will that take?
Oh, three, four hours.
Better figure on four, to play safe.
Four hours?
Crazy.
Let's get some lunch.
Lunch? We can homestead.
[Sighs]
June, croon, honeymoon.
Quiet.
Don't think I should phone the office again, huh?
You'll lose that promotion
if you keep pestering them.
I'm going to lose it anyway.
I thought I married a man with confidence.
Who is the best man for the job?
Me, but...
But?
But Thompson has seniority.
Aw! Doesn't mean a thing.
Little miss sunshine.
That's me.
Bread and butter.
Yes, dear.
Just trying to save your life.
Shall we?
Let's have some music, Don.
Great.
[Slow dance music plays]
I thought we came in here to eat.
Yes, we did.
Shall we sit here?
Well, what have we got here?
"The mystic seer."
The what?
Let's try it, shall we?
Have you got a penny, honey?
I think so.
What'll we ask it?
I don't know.
I got it.
What?
Does anything exciting ever happen around here?
(Don) [Suspense music] "It is quite possible."
(Narrator) The hand bel ongs 70 Mr. Don s. Carter,
male member of a honeymoon team
en routeaoross the Ohio countryside to New York City.
In one moment, they will be subjected
to a gift most humans never receive in a lifetime.
For one penny, they'll be able to look into the future.
The time is now, the place is a little diner in ridgeview, Ohio,
and what this young couple doesn't realize
is that this town happens to lie
on the outskirts of the tw/I/ghtzone.
(Waiter) H 0 wd y.
Howdy.
What'll it be?
I think I'll have a tomato and lettuce on whole wheat
and some iced coffee, please.
I'll have the same.
I've got some very good
chicken-fried steak out there.
No, thank you.
You finished with that?
Yes.
Oh!
Good, hm?
Great. He must have siphoned it out of a swamp.
What are you doing?
Getting some pennies.
What are you going to ask it now?
What else?
(Don) Am I going to be promo Ted, for Pete's sake.
Hey, look.
(Pat) Wha t?
(Don) "It has been decided in your fa vor."
Ah! You see, your worries are over.
I think I'll phone.
Honey.
Well, I was going to anyway. Wasn't I?
(Don) Hell o, opera Tor?
Give me main 7-8-9-9-7
In Saint Louis, please.
Tha t's right.
[Coin drops info slot]
(Don) How much?
75 cents?
Honey, you got another quarter on you?
Is this call necessary?
Here you are, operator.
[Phone dings]
Hello.
Connect me with Mr. Welden's secretary, please.
Keep your fingers crossed.
I'm doing it up here.
Hello.
Hello, pauline?
It's Don.
Fine. Fine. And you?
What's the secret word, pauline?
I did?
I made it.
Thank you, pauline.
Yes, we'll send you a postcard from New York.
As soon as we arrive.
Good-bye, and same to you.
Good-bye.
I made it.
Oh, darling, I'm so proud of you.
(Don) You're now looking at the world's youngest office manager.
And I'm happy to say I told you so.
And so has he.
Yeah? Well, I told you first.
I think we ought to celebrate.
Here's a dime for the jukebox.
Some success music.
Or "the triumphal march."
Don't know that I can find it here.
[Big-band swing music plays]
(Pat) Crazy.
Thank you.
(Waiter) You ain't going to like this
as much as you would that chicken-fried steak.
We'll bear up.
Office manager.
I think it's wonderful.
Let's ask him something else.
He really came through on that one.
Mmm. Why don't you ask him why he didn't warn us
that the wholewheat bread is stale?
(Don) "Does he/she I o ve me?"
I know the answer to that one, huh?
"Will I become rich?" I know that one, too.
I'll be the world's first millionaire accountant.
Office manager.
Right.
(Don) Is it reall y gonna be four hours before we get out of here?
"You may never know." What does that mean?
Who knows?
(Don) He does.
(Pat) Mm-hm.
But it'll cost you another penny.
I'm an office manager now.
What do you mean, "we may never know"?
No, that's not a "yes" or "no" question.
You mean something will keep us from knowing?
(Don) Something will happen to us?
"If you move soon." [Chuckles]
What does that mean?
Well, he's a mystic.
What do you expect?
[Coin o/inks]
Oh, I can see I'm going to have to be
the frugal one in our family.
Just one more.
You mean, if we're not supposed to move,
we're supposed to stay here?
Just one question per penny, please.
"That makes a good deal of sense."
How long should...
No, uh,
(Don) Should we stay here
until 2:30?
[Pushes ie ver]
"Try again."
Should we stay in here until 3:00?
"There's no question about it."
Don, let's take a look around the town, hm?
Every answer seems to fit.
(Pat) You're jok/ng, aren't you?
I mean...
Don, no more.
(Don) If we don't sta y in here until 3:00,
something bad will happen to us?
Oh, Don, for heaven's sakes.
Read it.
"Do you dare risk finding out?"
Don, let's go.
Well, I haven't finished my sandwich yet.
Don't you want some ice cream?
Can we go now?
Don't you want something cold to drink?
Please, let's go.
(Don) All right.
Say, can I have my check?
You don't need a check.
I know what you had.
Two sandwiches, 80 cents,
iced coffee, $1.10, two ice creams, $1.60,
with three cents tax.
Here. Keep the change.
Well, thanks. Come on back, now.
Hot, hot, hot.
Yeah.
Maybe it won't take them four hours
to fix the car. You think?
Maybe.
Don, you didn't really want
to stay in there, did you?
Honest?
Well, why was it so specific?
Specific? Sweetie.
"If you move soon."
"That makes a good deal of sense."
"Try again." "There's no question about it."
"You may never know." "Do you dare risk finding out?"
Don, It's just a napk/n holder
in a little cafe in ridgeview, Ohio.
Oh, / know, I know.
All right, what about my promotion, then?
Didn't it tell me, "it has been decided in your favor"?
Isn't tha t...?
Oh, forget it.
I suppose I'm just being stupid.
No, you're not.
You're just...
Don't sa y/t.
Superstitious.
It's like you married an alcoholic, isn't it?
Only, instead of bottles in the chandelier,
it's rabbits' feet
and four-leaf cl 0 vers
in my pockets, /n the car...
And,
and you're all mine.
What are you doing?
What?
You keep looking around as if...
Do I?
You are worried.
You're worried about that...
Oh, Don, iwonder when you act like this.
I'm sorry. I'm not trying to upset you.
I know you're not.
Doesn't change the facts, though.
What facts?
Six straight answers.
Don, please!
Stop treating me like a retarded child.
I didn't make those answers up.
Walt, Don.
We can make it.
[Horn blaring, tires squealing]
[Car driving off]
[Passersb y exo/aiming]
[Suspense music]
You all right?
Quite a moment.
If you hadn't pulled me
out of the way of that car,
one squashed honeymooner. [Chuckles]
Come on.
Well, where are we going now?
Oh, we're not going back to that...
Why not?
All right, I admit it was a strange coincidence.
If it was a coincidence,
what are you worrying about us going back, then?
I'm not.
So stop worrying.
Just the same, you will admit that,
for a coincidence, it was pretty far-fetched.
Maybe.
Well, someone's sitting in front
of our mystic seer.
Don?
Why don't you try this one,
or one of the others?
I'm sure that...
Don?
What?
Look at me.
Well, you really don't think that that...
That gizmo can foretell the future, do you?
It foretold ours.
How? How did it?
(Waiter) Well, backalready. What will you ha ve?
Honey?
(Pat) Iced coffee, please.
And how about you?
The same.
Um, all right, how?
When that car almost hit us, it was 3:00...
Exactly when that machine said.
Don, you said 3:00, not the machine.
You decided to sit in here
as long as we did. You.
Oh, this is ridiculous.
Can't you see that you made up all the details,
and all that that... That thing did
was give back generalities?
What are you getting so upset about?
You. That you even consider the possibility...
Will you listen?
Excuse me.
Yes?
Can you give me some pennies?
Oh, sure. How many?
Ten.
(Don) Thank yo u.
(Don) Comeon.
Yes, sir.
Did you know about the car almost h/tt/ng us?
"What do you think?"
Will we reach New York all right now?
"Your chances are good."
Very precise.
Honey, what do you expect?
A slip should come out and say
"hiya, donsy and patsy, so how's by you?"
(Waiter) Excuse me.
I never said these slips
were made for us personally.
I heard!
Don.
Don't you realize that,
you could get the same kind of answers
from any one of these machines in here?
Tryand see.
The same kind, maybe, but not the same answers.
[Coin drops in]
Will it still take four hours
before the car is ready?
Hey.
"It has already been taken care of."
Swell.
Let's go, then.
(Man) M/s ter.
Your car's ready. Got a lucky break.
Found a fuel pump right here in town.
Last one they had, too. F/gured you'd be walk/ng around
before you f/nall y came to the garage,
so I come looking for you.
Thank you. We appreciate it.
We'll be right over.
Okey-doke.
Coincidence?
Yes.
All right, then you ask it some questions.
Or are you afra/d to?
All right.
Will we reach Columbus by tomorrow?
We're not going through col...
"If that's what you really want."
[Drops coin]
Will I ever be married?
[Cranks ie ver]
"The answer to tha t ls ob v/ous."
It's not possible to foretell the future, is it?
"That's up to you to find out."
[Drops coin]
(Pat) You're justa stupid piece of junk, aren't you?
"It all depends upon your point of view."
I don't want to stay here anymore, Don.
Even if it's true?
Especially if it's true.
What are you talking about?
I think you are afraid of it.
Not of it.
Of what, then?
Don't you know?
(Don) Are we al wa ys going to live in Saint Louis?
Are we going to live in the east?
(Don) Are we going to live in the west?
(Don) Are we going to live in this country?
Don.
Don!
What?
Let's go.
Are you just going to stay here?
I don't know!
Oh, sweetheart, listen to me.
Please, if you love me, just listen to me.
No, you listen to me.
This machine is predicting our future.
Do you think I could just walk away from it?
I'm not talking about that machine anymore,
I'm talking about you.
Are you just going to sit here
and let that...
That thing run your life?
Run my life?
Isn't that exactly what you're letting it do?
Don, it made you call the office before.
It made you stay here instead of leave.
It made you afraid to walk down the street.
And now it's telling you
where you're going to live.
Why, it's as if every superstitious feeling you ever had
is wrapped up in that one machine.
It doesn't matter
whether it can foretell the future.
What matters is whether you believe more in luck
and in fortune than you do in yourself.
Well, you can decide your own life.
You have a mind...
A wonderful mind.
Don't destroy it trying to justify
that cheap, penny fortune machine to yourself.
Pat.
We can have a wonderful life together
if we make it wonderful ourselves.
Pat.
[Sighs]
I don't want to know what's going to happen.
I want us to make it happen together.
Don't cry, darling, don't cry.
[Crying]
Is there something wrong?
No, no, no, it's all right.
Don't cry.
We'll go, we'll go.
You're right. I'm a jerk.
No, you're not. You're wonderful.
Yes, yes, I am.
I'm the world's biggest jerk.
Come on, let's go get our car.
Yes, that's right.
Let's go get our car and,
we'll drive out of this town
[loudly] And go where we want to go
anytime we please.
Oh, Don, I love you.
I love you, too, baby.
You keep the change.
(Waiter) Thanks!
Come on ba ck, no w.
[Coins clatter]
Go ahead.
Can we ask some more questions now?
Do you think we might leave ridgeview today?
[Moans]
Is there any way out? Any way at all?
(Narrator) Coun terba la nce in the little to wn of Ridge vie w, Ohio.
Two people permanentl y ensla ved
by the tyranny of fear and superst/t/on,
fac/ng the future with a kind of helpless dread.
Two others fac/ng the future with confidence
ha v/ng escaped one of the darker places
of the twilight zone.
(Male presenter, off) Be sure and see the col ga te-palmolive company's
new comedyshow my sister Eileen.
Wednesda y n/ght on many of these same sta t/ons.
- - (male presenter, off) Don't let romance fade, fade, fade a way,
- - [accordion playing]
- - (Male presenter, off) And the prefect coffee on the modern scene,
Sanka coffee. Aroma, fla vor. But not caffe/ne.