Original subtitles

[swing music playing]

[announcer] This is Vaughn Hornsby

wishing you a happy new year

and helping you say goodbye to 1949.

Good riddance.

Trevor, I didn't hear you come in.

Why the long face?

[Theresa] It's New Year's Eve.

Yeah, another year gone by,

and we're stuck in the same rut.

Hardly justifies a celebration.

[Theresa] We're doing okay.

There are lot of families getting by on a lot less than we have--

For God's sake Theresa, aren't you tired of just getting by?

We can't even afford a bottle of champagne for tonight.

We're still living in your parents' old house.

So what? I love it here.

Even if we were rich,

I still wouldn't want to move.

[sighs] I don't want to argue about it.

Besides, I have a good feeling about the new year.

I'm glad one of us does.

[Trevor] To hell with our damn budget.

I'm going to the store to buy some champagne.

[door closing]

[tires screeching]

[crashing]

[bird calling]

[plane passing overhead]

Uh, my car went off the road last night.

Can you take me to Indian Grove?

-Passing right by, hop in. -Oh, thanks.

Uh, Trevor McPhee. I really appreciate this.

Ray Carter and it's my pleasure.

-[Ray] Just uh, don't sit on my books. -Oh, sorry.

Zantarg the Invincible, Master of Time and Space?

It's better reading than you think.

It's based on scientific concepts.

We're only a few years away from understanding.

It's real cutting edge stuff.

I see.

Oh, well, uh, thanks for the lift.

[Ray] Hey, no problem.

Sure you don't want to borrow Zantarg?

[Trevor chuckles] No, thanks.

[tooting horn]

Theresa? You home?

My, uh, my key didn't work.

Where have you been?

Oh, I had a car accident.

Uh, I was going to the store remember?

Yes, I remember.

I've thought about it every day of every year you've been gone.

All ten years!

Damn you, Trevor!

[control voice] There is nothing wrong with your television.

Do not attempt to adjust the picture.

We are now controlling the transmission.

We control the horizontal and the vertical.

We can deluge you with a thousand channels

or expand one single image to crystal clarity

and beyond.

We can shape your vision

to anything our imagination can conceive.

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 deepest inner mind

to The Outer Limits.

Our lives follow a long and winding path through time.

But what happens if we're forced off

the course of our own destiny?

Theresa, come back here!

What is going on?

When did you redecorate?

I don't understand.

Well, that makes two of us, doesn't it?

I don't understand how you have the nerve to come back here.

Did she leave you?

Is that it?

She? I don't know what you're talking about.

Oh, come on Trevor, I'm not the same naive teenager you walked out on.

I loved you,

and I trusted you.

Theresa, I swear to God there is no other woman.

And, and, and whatever's going on,

I, I didn't leave you. You've got to listen to me.

Or what?

You'll walk out on me again?

[scoffs] No great loss.

I've done well enough alone.

Do you know...

Do you even care that I sat here all that night...

waiting.

I thought, "he must have just run into the guys,

"maybe gone for a drink."

But then the next morning when you didn't, didn't come back,

I, I had to go through this sheer hell of wondering

whether you were hurt or dead.

I'm sorry,

but...

1959?

It...it can't be.

It's just...it's not possible.

It's not possible that I could be gone that long

and, and not remember any of it.

Are you saying that

you don't know where you've been?

No, it...it's a blank.

A complete blank.

How could that be?

[sighs in exasperation]

Well, I was driving along Poplar Ridge road,

and...and there was this, this bright light,

and, and the car went off the side of the road,

and then I hit my head.

Look, I, I can't explain all this,

but look, I'm still wearing the same clothes.

Then what happened to you?

I don't know. [sighs in exasperation]

Maybe the accident gave me amnesia.

For ten years, Trevor?

[sighs]

Dr. Golden,

it's very important that I, well, that we know

whether amnesia could last that long.

I understand, Theresa.

I'd say your disappearance has actually improved your health,

but I'm not sure it's amnesia.

Why can't I remember any of it?

I'm sorry, Trevor, but I just don't have an answer for you.

So...what do I do now?

Go home.

Hopefully uh, familiar surroundings will uh, help jog your memory,

Help you recall some of the things that happened

in the intervening years.

♪ If you've got leaving on your mind ♪

Thank you.

So, um...what now?

It's up to you.

I need to know that you'll be here for me.

That, that this amnesia business isn't just some excuse you made up.

What do I have to do to convince you? Look at me.

Ten years has turned me into a stranger around here.

You, you're the only thing I have left.

The only constant thing I can hold onto.

I love you, Theresa. You're my wife.

Or you were. I...

[Ray] Mr. McPhee.

How are you feeling?

Oh, hey.

I'm, uh, I'm okay.

Thanks for asking.

Ray here picked me up on Poplar Ridge,

dropped me off at the house.

He was sure in a hurry to get home.

I can see why.

Well, I, uh, hope to see you again.

Yeah...yeah.

So, uh...

where do we go from here?

We go home, Trevor.

We go home.

What do you see?

Lights...so many lights.

So many more people.

God, I've missed so much.

There's plenty of time to catch up.

[otherworldly gasping]

[splashes]

[gasps]

Hello?

[echoing] Hello? Hello?

[distant howling]

Where the hell am I?

[screams] Let me out of here!

[echo] Let me out of here!

[echoing] Let me out of here!

Theresa?

You're back.

Who's he?

It's your father.

[Trevor] But how can that be?

I, I just came back to you yesterday.

We just, we just went to bed last night.

You gotta be kidding, Trevor. It was a decade ago.

Mark is nine years old now.

Mark.

[Theresa] The last time we were together,

the morning when I woke up, you were gone again.

You pulled another one of your vanishing acts.

Where did I go?

-Only you know that. -But, I don't know.

[Ray] Hey.

Cool it, man You're scaring the boy.

[scoffs] What the hell are you doing here?

I live here now.

Come on, Mark.

What are you saying, Theresa?

Ray and I were married three years ago.

Married? How? Why? I...

You even have to ask, Trevor?

I was a single mother, heading towards 40,

and you were nowhere to be found.

Was I supposed to wait for you to come back, if you did come back?

What did you expect from me?

I expected you to be there for me. We took a vow.

Please don't throw that at me.

In 20 years, you were here once.

That isn't a marriage.

And it isn't a family and Mark needed a family.

Ray has been able to provide what you haven't.

I think you should leave, McPhee.

[scoffs] This is my house!

That, that's my wife you're holding!

Not anymore.

[sighs]

Wait.

[Theresa] This is impossible.

Ray, look at this.

He hasn't aged.

I can't... I can't believe this.

We've got to tell someone about this.

Maybe one of your colleagues at the university or the paper.

[Ray] Are you crazy? They'll think we're on to something.

They'll laugh us right out of town.

I'm getting out of here.

No! Wait! Trevor!

Wait, Trevor, where are you going to go?

Trevor, wait.

[sirens wailing]

[crowd chanting] Stop the war!

End it now!

Stop the war!

End it now!

[Man] Crazy kids.

Stop the war!

End it now!

Stop the war!

End it now!

Stop the war! End it now!

Stop the war! End it now!

Stop the war! End it now!

Please stop the war! End it now!

Stop the war! End it now!

Stop the war! End it now!

Stop the war!

Doctor, Dr. Golden? Dr. Golden?

What do you want?

I have to talk to you.

Look, I haven't got time. My son died over there.

And he was your age, young man. You should be joining us.

Don't you recognize me?

No. Should I?

I'm Trevor McPhee.

That's impossible. McPhee's a middle-aged man by now.

We haven't seen him around for years.

Look, I know this sounds crazy but I swear to you, it's who I am.

Okay, remember New Year's Day, 1960?

My wife and I came to see you.

I'd just been in a car accident.

And I thought I had some kind of amnesia.

Well, it happened again. Even I know it's not amnesia.

But something is causing this. Something is responsible for these blackouts I'm having.

Every time that I, that I have one, I...

I bounce ahead in time.

Ah...moving back and forth in time, are we?

What are you on, son? LSD? Mescaline? Peyote?

No, I'm not on anything.

My advice to you is to clean yourself up.

Get off drugs. You'll live longer.

No...please.

[crowd] End it now!

Stop the war!

No more war! End it now!

Stop the war! End it now!

Stop the war! End it.

-What you want, man? -Whiskey, straight.

[psychedelic rock playing]

Ahh.

[pinball machine chiming]

Man, you look like you just got orders to ship off to the Nam.

What?

Nam.

Vietnam.

A little Southeast Asian country

that our government has decided to turn into a graveyard.

I couldn't even begin to tell you why we're doing it, man.

What do you want?

Just want to talk.

Look... I know you're pissed at us.

Maybe I'd feel the same if I were in your shoes.

We want to help you with whatever it is you're going through.

-I don't want your help. -Then, what are you gonna do?

Aside from Theresa and me, I doubt there's a person

in this town who'd believe that you are who you say you are.

You son of a bitch.

As far as I'm concerned you stole my wife and child.

So you can take your condescending attitude somewhere else.

-[slams hands on bar] -[bartender] Break it up.

I didn't steal anybody, McPhee.

I fell in love with Theresa.

How lonely did she have to be before she could get on with her life?

Would you think about Mark?

I treat that kid like he's my own son.

But you're his father.

It's not too late to start acting like one,

and you think about that.

Wait.

What can you do?

Well, for starters, I can try and find out what's causing your blackouts.

I'm a psychologist now.

This isn't all in my mind. It's not.

I know that. I know that.

I can't explain why you're not aging,

but there's a possibility that it's a physical manifestation

of what's going on in your mind.

-Oh, I tried- -The mind is a wild place to explore, man.

It can do anything.

It can project itself through time and space.

Oh, you get that from one of your comic books?

We're talking about the fringes of science, here.

And I'm your best bet for help.

Now, let me check you out, man.

Let me inside your head.

-What is it? -Uh... I don't know.

I don't know. It's... it was my stomach.

I'm gonna be sick.

[retching]

[gasping]

[screaming]

[monster moaning]

[creature screeches]

[splashing]

[creature gasping]

[gasps]

[snorting]

[snorting]

Hey, man, was that you I heard yelling there?

Yelling? What was I saying?

Now, how the hell would I know?

But it sounded like you were in a whole other world, you know.

Like you had a head full of snow, man.

You know what I mean? [sniffing]

Must be some rough stuff, eh? [sniffs]

You know what I mean? [chuckles]

[disco music playing]

Dad!

Dad, this is me, Mark.

We've been waiting for your return.

-What year is this? -1980.

Mom's here too... Somewhere.

Let me help you.

Stay away from me.

No one can help me.

No one. You understand?

Because none of this and none of you are real.

This is not happening!

[siren wailing]

Hey, buddy,

spare some change for a hungry guy.

[indistinct talking]

[thunder rumbling]

[car honking]

Mark found me as, as soon as he saw you.

We've been waiting, you know.

Every ten years,

like clockwork, you come home.

I don't have a home.

Yes, you do.

That's why we're here.

No.

Everything I had is long gone.

I, I don't even know who I am anymore.

Whatever's taken control of my mind

has taken everything that I ever cared about.

I'm still here.

And, and Mark.

And Ray still wants to help.

We're 30 years out of sync.

That doesn't make a difference.

Come back with me, with us.

Come back to your family.

For how long?

Whenever I fall asleep or wander off by myself,

I could be gone again.

That's just a chance we'll have to take.

Looks like it's just you and me.

We're all that stayed the same.

Uh, dad?

Mom thought you'd like something to read.

Help you catch up.

So, um...

your mother tells me that uh, you're going to college.

Yeah, uh, second year, sciences.

Well, that's good.

That's good, that's uh, really good.

Um, you like sports? You, you play any ball?

Yeah, a little, uh, first base.

Oh, me too.

-Yeah, I was a big Yankees fan. -[chuckles]

Yeah, well, they took the pennant in '78.

No kidding? [chuckles]

Yeah, my dad took me to see 'em in '41.

Just before he died.

It was a world series game,

and DiMaggio was on a streak like you wouldn't believe.

Yeah, we had a great time.

Just me and him.

I wish that I'd been around for you, Mark.

Watched you grow up.

Uh, [clears throat] well, it's, it's okay, Dad.

I mean, I know it's not your fault.

All the same, I miss it.

Yeah, they uh, they beat the Dodgers in five.

[chuckles] Uh, the Brooklyn Dodgers?

Do you know another team by that name?

[chuckles] Well, uh, [clears throat] you know, Dad,

this might come as a bit of a shock,

but uh, they moved to L.A.

Los Angeles?

Yeah, and the Giants,

uh, they went to San Francisco.

And Hank Aaron, he beat

Babe Ruth's home run record.

-Hank Aaron? -Yeah.

[Trevor] Beat Babe Ruth? Get out of here.

[Mark] Yeah, it's true.

You look like hell, Trevor.

Yeah, but a full day later, and I'm still here.

My expertise is only in astral projection.

Mind over matter stuff.

The best I can tell,

sleep deprivation aside,

you're as fit as you were when Golden examined you.

Physiologically, you're still 25.

But how can that be?

Theoretically, the only way

is if time for you has slowed down

relative to everyone else,

causing you to age at a much slower pace.

That's crazy.

Not unless you went through a wormhole.

A what?

A wormhole.

A passage through the space-time continuum.

It allows a person to cross vast distances in space.

Therefore they'd age at a much slower pace than the world they left behind.

Well, has anybody ever found one of these things?

No, but we have to keep an open mind here, Trevor.

We're dealing with the unknown.

So there's nothing physically wrong?

No, your vitals are fine.

X-rays show nothing more than an extra rib

which you probably had since birth.

Neurological came back clean.

But, uh, what about these dreams I've been having?

What about the hallucination I had in the bathroom?

-At the bar? What-- -There's a possibility

that your subconscious mind is trying to tell us something.

A cavern can represent a passage out for some

inner turmoil that your waking mind suppresses.

What we need to do is examine your transition phase

between your waking state and your blackout state.

You want me to go to sleep.

It's the only way.

I can go on a little bit longer.

No, you can't Trevor. Look at yourself.

You're running on fear and drugs.

-You can't keep this up. -I have to!

I know it's difficult.

[shouts] Difficult!

Another ten years could have gone by when I come back.

Do you have any idea what it's like to be constantly out of touch with the world,

to be unable to connect with, with anything or anybody?

I'm finally coming to grips with this.

I'm, I'm finally getting to know my son.

And until we find an answer, it's only a temporary reprieve.

Is this really necessary?

It is if we want to find the solution.

Whatever it is that flicks this switch in his brain,

it'll leave fingerprints.

What if I walk out the door while your backs are turned?

Well, we'll be keeping a close eye on you.

Just in case we fall asleep on the job, I've got a backup.

I'll be filming this all on Super 8.

Anything your body does will be captured right here.

We're all set.

I'm just gonna go and get some coffee.

And Theresa will keep you company.

Thanks.

[door closing]

Why is he doing this for me?

He isn't. He's doing it for himself.

He actually believes

that you're the living proof of his way-out theories.

I think, he read too many comic books, as a kid.

As a kid? [chuckles] He still reads them.

I swear, half of his research is based on Zantarg the Invincible.

And why are you helping me?

Thirty years separates us. Why do you still care?

Do you remember what you said to me

last time you were here about our vows?

Something I couldn't hold you to,

considering the circumstances.

I know, but uh, it did remind me of the fact

that we had some very good years together.

And we loved each other.

And...

we had a son.

I could never completely abandon you.

I'm lucky.

Yeah, well, you should just get some sleep.

[Theresa] It's time to relax.

There's still time to...

[computer processing]

Trevor.

Trevor! Trevor, wake up!

Wake up!

[gasping]

[creature shrieking]

[screaming]

It didn't happen.

[exclaiming in relief] It didn't happen! [laughs]

[Theresa] Yes, it did.

It's January 1990.

But this time we've got it on film.

Where's Ray?

I'm... sorry to tell you, Trevor, but uh,

Ray passed away. Lung cancer.

A couple of years ago.

I'm sorry.

So am I.

He was a good husband.

I miss him.

But, um, he left you something.

Come on. Get dressed.

Dad, glad you're back.

So am I.

Maybe I'll stay a little longer this time.

You'd better sit down, Trevor.

Because you are not going to believe

what I saw ten years ago.

[screaming]

Hello, Trevor.

[Ray] You have made me a very happy man.

[Ray coughs]

You have proven all my crazy theories.

I believe

you are a master of time and space.

After seeing that, I almost believe him.

-Just listen to him. -So where do you go?

What wondrous things have you seen?

That's the missing piece of the puzzle.

Unfortunately, it's unlikely

that I will be here when you return.

So I leave it to Theresa to help you remember it.

And it only seemed fitting

that it end where it began.

Just you and her.

What was he proposing?

That I access your subconscious.

How?

Through hypnotic regression,

so that I can speak to your sleeping mind.

You, you know how to do that?

Mom went back to school as a mature student.

She's already working on her doctorate in psychology.

What do you think is going to happen?

Well, I have no idea.

But I hope that you'll tell us where you've been going

and perhaps, more importantly, why.

I don't know about this. What, what if you can't bring me back?

Trevor, I'm 60 years old.

Next time you return, I may not be here.

You've got to trust me.

[thundering]

It's New Year's Eve 1949, Trevor.

You're driving down Poplar Ridge Road.

Do you remember?

Uh, a light.

[stuttering] A brilliant white light.

And it's coming straight at me. And I can't see!

And then what happened, Trevor? What happened next?

[deep voice] He...

was brought to us.

Who are you?

[deep voice] A visitor.

From, from where?

[deep voice] Far away.

A world of machinery that searches

the cosmos for other forms of life,

and transports it using wormholes.

Wormholes?

Ray talked about wormholes.

They distort time.

[deep voice] We use them

to bring hosts to our world

to join with.

We can only experience

other worlds

through the sense organs of a host.

We enter a being

and then travel back to its world,

Returning to our own at intervals

to share our discoveries.

You're a parasite.

[deep voice] A symbiote.

Why haven't you made your presence known to us before this?

[deep voice] We are a psychic race,

able to communicate only through our host's

subconscious mind.

So you're physically inside of him now?

[deep voice] I am the extra rib

your husband found.

You must know that you're destroying his sanity.

You're hurting him.

[deep voice] How?

Every time you transport him back and forth to your world,

he gets further and further out of sync with our time.

For everyday he's gone, ten years pass here.

[deep voice] I don't understand.

Does your species have a history?

-[deep voice] History? -Yes, a progression through time

where everything that comes before

is joined to what comes after.

[deep voice] I don't understand before or after.

Our species

Has only being and non-being.

That's the difference. Can't you see that?

History is built on everything

each one of us does in our lives.

To be removed from that process is damaging to us.

[deep voice] I understand

Your perception of time is different.

The injury was unintentional.

So you'll separate from him now?

[deep voice] Yes.

No!

Not again! Not like this.

[screaming]

[gasps]

[birds squawking]

[cars passing by]

Oh, Trevor, I was worried sick!

Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

You're...you're young again.

What? Where have you been?

[sighs] They must have used a wormhole to send me back.

You've been drinking.

Oh, no! No, not a drop.

I just realized you were right.

It's going to be a good year.

[control voice] Life is, at best, an uncertain path.

Perhaps we should be grateful with what we have,

for even these riches may disappear along the way.