Original subtitles

Night comes too soon on the battlefield.

For some men it comes permanently,

their eyes never open to the light of day.

But for this man, fighting this war,

there is never total darkness.

The spidery beams of light in the sky.

Are the descendents of the modern laser beam,

heat rays that sear through tungsten steel and flesh.

As though they were cheesecloth.

And this soldier must go against those weapons.

His name is Quarlo,

and he is a foot soldier,

the ultimate infantryman.

Trained from birth by the state,

he has never known love,

or closeness,

or warmth.

He is geared for only one purpose:

To kill the enemy.

And the enemy waits for him.

Find your enemy.

Attack.

Kill.

Attack.

Kill.

Attack.

Kill.

Kill.

Kill.

Kill.

There is nothing wrong with your television set.

Do not attempt to adjust the picture.

We are controlling transmission.

We will control the horizontal.

We will control the vertical.

We can change the focus to a soft blur,

or sharpen it to crystal clarity.

For the next hour, sit quietly.

And we will control all that you see and hear.

You are about to participate in a great adventure.

You are about to experience the awe and mystery.

Which reaches from the inner mind to...

The outer limits.

He's killed him! He's killed him!

Kill!

Kill!

Kill!

Kill!

Time is fluid,

the waters of forever close,

and passage may not be completed.

The present and the future are, for a moment, united.

And the enemy...

Half today, half tomorrow...

Is locked between.

Find the enemy.

Find the enemy.

Attack!

Attack!

Attack!

Mr. Tanner?

I'm Tom Kagan.

I was sent over by the local office of the bureau.

I'm a philologist.

A philologist?

Yes, that's right.

A language expert.

I read your report.

It seems that the man is talking some

strange sort of dialect.

They decided that I was the man to unravel it for you.

You've gotta be kidding.

Right? You're putting me on, huh?

Now, just what does that mean?

I'll tell you what that means, friend.

Any moment now, something is going to be arriving

that is guaranteed to stand your hair on end.

It took 6 beefy men to put him into the 2 straitjackets

he's wearing, and they send down a philologist.

Well, I do know a little karate.

Oh, say, Kagan, you're a real knee-slapper.

I guess I didn't make my report strong enough, huh?

No, I don't think you did.

What makes him takeoff like that?

It's the elevator.

You'd better have them shut it off.

What for?

Sharp sounds drive him wild.

Apparently, his hearing is on a much more sensitive threshold than ours.

You know that helmet you showed me?

It had built-in sound baffles to deaden outside noises.

So, we'll give him back the helmet.

No, I wouldn't do that if I were you.

What harm could it do?

Well, that's the point.

I don't know.

Well...

I'm glad to see you have some doubts.

Here, want a stick of gum?

Thanks.

You know, those scars...

They're radiation burns, I'd say, but,

then, you can't tell. That's outside my field.

Radiation, all right.

Medical institute had him for 5 days.

But it's outside their field, too.

Whatever caused those burns,

we haven't seen anything like it around here.

Oh, he's shouting something!

Hit that switch.

All right, cut it.

It's the same speech, over and over.

It's all he ever says.

There is something familiar about it, but I...

Can't place the idiom.

Well, have you been able to make anything out of the tapes?

No, random sounds, mostly.

Anger, frenzy...

A few word groupings that I can't decide from...

No, taking tapes of his mumblings doesn't help me.

I've got to go down in there with him.

Oh, now,

wait just a second, friend.

Have you lost your mind?

That's not just some ordinary psycho down there,

that's the most dangerous piece of equipment I've ever seen.

He'll take you and tear along the dotted line.

That man is something that we have never seen before.

He's from somewhere or...

Somewhen that's completely outside our knowledge.

He's a walking challenge!

He's a walking bomb!

Do I get the permission?

Not a chance.

Well, can I...

Try to persuade you, logically?

Uh...

Uh...

Kagan.

Kagan.

You?

Ka-gan.

Kagan.

You?

Oh, come on, man, confounded...

Ka-

gan.

Kagan.

You?

Name's Quarlo...

Klobrigny.

Prite!

R-m-e-n-t-n-d-o.

Well...

Brother,

you can say that again.

Name's Quarlo Klobrigny. Prite.

R-m-e-n-t-n-d-o.

Name's Quarlo Klobrigny. Prite.

R-m-e-n-t-n-d-o.

Name's Quarlo Klobrigny. Prite.

R-m-e-n-t-n-d-o.

Well?

Well, what?

7 days, and you ask me, "well, what?"

He's a soldier.

Any more late bulletins?

I spent 3 years in the rangers, Kagan.

I know a soldier when I see one.

No, I mean, he is really a soldier.

There's nothing about him that's not a soldier.

He's the perfect, ultimate infantryman.

I don't think he knows anything else.

What makes you think that?

You know that gibberish he's been spelling?

Which is?

It's English.

English?

Aw, c'mon, Kagan.

The guy's obviously a foreigner of some kind.

That's the wrong word. Not "foreigner."

Try "alien."

Alien?

From another planet?

Now, wait a minute.

You're rushing me.

The department wants facts.

They've got men lined up, just waiting for a crack at him.

Sociologists, philosophers,

physicists.

They feel you've had him long enough.

All right,

you tell them not to press me!

You tell them I'm just beginning to break through.

But he has to trust me implicitly first.

Just one slip and we lose the whole game.

Hey, hey, hey...

Take it easy, Tom.

Well...

I guess I'm just bushed.

It's like trying to hold on to fog.

One moment you think you've got it, then the next moment it's gone.

That's a very strange and peculiar item

we have down there,

but it is not a stupid one.

OK,

I'll do the best I can to run interference for you.

Oh, thanks.

I just wish you could give me something.

All right, I'll give you something.

Do you want to know what he's saying

over and over again, without change?

He's saying, "my name"

"is Quarlo Klobrigny."

"Private."

"R-m-e-n-t-n-d-o."

His name, his rank,

and his serial letters.

Name's Quarlo Klobrigny. Prite.

R-m-e-n-t-n-d-o.

All right, here.

"Dog."

D-o-g.

"Dog."

C'mon, Quarlo, you know it.

You know you know it. "Dog"!

"Dog." Quarlo, stop playing dumb.

"Dog!" "dog!"

I give up.

Dog is a dog.

Dog, dog, dog, dog, dog, dog, dog, dog, dog, dog!

You do know, Quarlo, don't you?

You know.

You understand everything I've been saying and doing.

Maybe not in my words, or yours, but you know.

And still, you won't give me an inch, will you? Will you?

Who you are, where you come from.

What do you want, Quarlo?

You want me to tell you who I am? Who we are?

How could they have thought you were a dumb brute?

You're quicker than I'd be in your place, soldier.

Quarlo. Private.

R-m-e-n-t-n-d-o.

Dog. Dog, dog, dog, dog, dog, dog, dog!

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. A, B, C, D, E, F, G.

Dog, a-Kagan, dog!

Dog, a-Kagan!

Dog, a-Kagan! Dog, a-Kagan! Dog, a-Kagan!

Paul... Tom.

This weapon is incredible.

It has no power source. None at all.

It's inexhaustible.

I could fire it steadily for a month,

and it's power wouldn't decrease by one kilowatt.

Look, this is all that's left of a 4-foot square, solid steel bulkhead.

You know, we took this thing apart,

we disassembled every piece,

and it has only 3 moving parts in it.

We even tried leaving out a half a dozen pieces,

and it still works.

Now, we don't know how. We haven't the slightest idea.

Please, Paul. Now, what's so important?

I broke through this morning.

I think we talked.

You think you talked?

He's from the future, Paul.

But how?

Well, he doesn't really know.

In his time, they fight their wars with beams of force.

Laser lights. Now, somehow, he got caught between 2 of them,

and the next thing he knew...

He was here, in the present.

No, correction.

He was here, in the past. His past, our present.

Did he tell you all this?

Only fragments of it.

I had to piece it together

and then draw my own conclusions from most of it.

He was evidently attacking someone he keeps calling,

"the enemy."

In capital letters.

Then it is English he's speaking?

No, not really. Not exactly.

It's... it's what I thought... It's gutter English,

vastly speeded up,

and filled with slang of his time.

Well, how did he get all that out of there?

I wasn't exactly certain that he was from this planet, so...

See, this is our galaxy,

these stars here.

This is our sun.

Light, up above.

Now, here, 1,2,3.

3rd from the sun,

is the earth.

Here.

Here. The earth. Here.

Us, this dot.

Now, Quarlo,

which one is yours? Which star? Which planet?

No, that's...

That's the earth.

I told you.

Which one is yours?

Look...

Earth.

Now...

You. You draw.

No, no. No.

Point.

This is our galaxy.

And yet, it wasn't exactly our galaxy.

That is, not the way it is today.

I took that drawing to a friend of mine at the naval observatory.

It took him hours to plot it correctly.

Well, what was it?

The position the stars of our galaxy will be in...

1800 years from now.

Have a... Have a piece of gum.

Love.

Love.

Good.

Hate.

Hate.

Hate, bad.

Love.

Love.

Why do you peep me this?

I want you to know. I want you to understand.

I grasp.

You! You are the drum-dumb.

Send me home aways, now! Don't you know there's a war on?

I... I can't send you home. I don't know how.

Nobody knows how.

Your... your home doesn't exist yet.

Love, hate, love, hate. Fret it!

You can't forget it.

Fret it!

Think-speak'll pull me.

I don't understand.

Think-speak! Think-speak!

C.O.! C.O.! C.O.!

Fret it!

Ah, Quarlo...

Don't never touch me!

Don't never touch me!

Don't never touch me!

Don't touch him!

Ahh.

How does it feel to be dribbled like a basketball?

It was my fault.

It was literally the first time

that anybody had ever touched him in his life.

5 weeks, eh?

And what have you got to show for it?

Nothing but a set of staved-in ribs,

and one beautiful headache

from having your skull bounced off a wall.

I taught him to speak our language.

Not so, as I've noticed. Every 3rd word is gibberish.

It is not gibberish.

It's common usage from his time.

And did you ever stop to think... ow!

How valuable even those clues are in our future?

You tell your superiors that...

Given enough time, I'll establish

absolute communication for them.

Well, that's it.

You do us both a favor,

try not to let him bounce you around like a ping-pong ball.

We've gotta requisition tape, and that's a nuisance.

Tom, we can't let you back in there with him.

Just look at his eyes,

their hate.

You can see he's born to be a killer.

Yes, that's the point.

He was born to be a killer,

he was trained to be a killer,

and if he hadn't found his way into our time,

he'd die a killer.

But, Paul...

He doesn't hate.

He doesn't understand hate,

or love, or compassion.

And it's not your job to teach him what they mean.

They want you to decipher his language!

And I'm not able to do that under these conditions!

Paul, I... I want you to release him.

I mean it.

I want you to release him to me.

I want him to live in my house, for a time,

under absolutely normal conditions.

Your house? Oh, no. Come on.

He hasn't done anything to justify his being

penned up like a criminal.

The old newsman only fainted.

Quarlo was simply defending himself

in a strange situation when he fired at the police car.

We can't turn him loose,

ready to go off at any moment.

I tell you, he can adapt.

He's quick. He can fit in!

Tom, this is lunacy!

It's no more lunacy than what they're trying to do.

Now, I warn you,

he'll fight you,

he'll close up like a clam.

It's not my decision to make.

I mean, the bureau is getting static.

A top secret like that is too hot to leave lying around.

They want him boxed-in permanently.

Paul,

let me have him, just for one month.

One more month, that's all I'm asking.

Now, I'm sure...

He'll show so much progress during that time

that they'll be forced to reconsider.

Just one month, Paul. Please.

What about your family?

How are they gonna like the idea

of a potential killer in the same house with them?

Well, I've...

I've already talked with them.

And?

Well,

Abby isn't sure, but she's willing to go along,

and both the kids are fascinated.

I think that soldier is playing you for a sucker, Tom.

He's a crafty, dangerous animal,

and he's got you working for him.

Don't forget, even in the future,

a captured prisoner of war's first obligation is to escape.

But you'll do it.

Oh, I'll talk to the chief,

but that's all I guarantee.

Ah, that's good.

Here.

Have a stick of gum?

You're going home with me now, Quarlo.

I don't peep.

Uh...

Home.

It's... it's a...

It's a place to live.

It's a house...

Uh, a place where you can rest and...

Nobody will ever lock you in.

Barracks? C.O.?

No. No barracks, no commanding officer,

no other troops,

no war...

Nothing but freedom.

I told you about freedom.

You'll be close to people, now, Quarlo.

See my wife, my daughter,

my son, and me.

I don't grasp.

Well, you'll...

You'll... you'll have to see.

That's the world out there, Quarlo.

You'll have to put this on.

Why?

Well, they know nothing about you.

They want to keep you secret.

Secret.

You understand?

I peep.

You wouldn't hurt me, would you?

Like when I touched you the other time?

You are not enemy.

Yes, but could I be enemy?

You are not enemy.

Find the enemy.

Find the enemy.

Kill.

Kill.

Kill.

Come on, Quarlo. Come on in.

Quarlo, this is my wife, Abby.

Uh, my daughter, Toni,

and Lauren is...

Is...

C.O.,

Quarlo Klobrigny, prite.

R-m-e-n-t-n-d-o, reporting.

Cat.

Remember the book?

What did you want from that cat, Quarlo?

Nothing same.

No, cats are different where you come from?

Different.

C.O. prowler think-speak.

I...

I don't understand, the... the commanding officer

uses cats?

On patrol.

Troopers' cats tied together by think-speak.

Cats do prowl, spot the enemy.

Troopers jump.

Oh.

I think what he means is that

somehow, by some...

Some agency that we don't even suspect,

wars in the future are fought with men and animals.

Cats are used for reconnaissance.

And by telepathy, they relay their messages.

And... and he thought he could get in touch with his commanding officer

by talking through MacBeth.

Yeah. Well, makes sense, doesn't it?

Just think what a patrol prowler a silent cat would make.

No, Quarlo, it isn't that way here.

MacBeth is just a cat.

Nothing's here like war zone.

Well, we'll try to make things pleasant for you here, Quarlo.

N-n-no, no.

It's all right, Quarlo.

Why does she touch you?

There is enemy and not enemy.

Which is she?

Wife.

Uh...

Family unit.

Female C.O.

Uh, mother,

like your mother.

Mother?

My mother?

You do have a mother, don't you?

Klobrigny...

Creche hatchery 5-5-9.

I am the state. The state is all.

Yes. Uh...

Lauren,

why don't you show Quarlo to his room?

Come on.

Creche?

Creche is a day nursery.

It's a foundling hospital.

He is a product of artificial birth.

He has no real parents.

He was born and raised in a hatchery,

just like an egg.

And that about the state?

"The state is all."

His mother, his father, everything.

How pathetic.

Tom,

can we help him?

He seems so lost and confused,

and you said yourself he's capable of...

Anything.

Abby, I know we can help him.

But...

Are you sure, Tom?

Toni...

And Lauren upstairs with him, alone?

I know.

I know it's a... It's a terrible risk,

but we can help him and we must.

On the 5th day, conversation began to improve.

Subject gave information that his world

is divided into 2 warring camps,

with children raised from birth on special war islands

devoted to nothing but training.

The society is rigidly structured into classes.

Migrant workers at the lowest level,

and what the subject calls "the purple," or ruling body, at the top.

Hey, dad. Yeah?

Can't I tell the kids about Quarlo?

Listen, young man,

you so much as mention his name and I will stop your allowance.

Quarlo is strictly top-secret, understand?

I peep. Grand.

'Morning, dad.

'Morning, honey.

Quarlo has never seen one of the purple.

He talks about them as though they were mystical.

Get out!

I'll do no such thing!

I live here, too, you know, and be-besides, you're blocking the coffee pot.

Wh-what were you doing?

Eh...

Drinking water.

Come on, I saw you.

Eh, uh, you...

You rot food. Waste.

That's just the garbage.

Troopers some nights need food.

There's no supply.

It's not right. Rot, waste.

What do you want from me?

What do I want from you?

Find the enemy. Find the enemy.

Find the enemy.

Find the enemy.

Kill.

Kill.

Kill.

Tanner speaking.

Oh, Paul, I was wondering if...

Now look, Tom, stop chewing my ear, will ya?

I haven't any control over what they're doing.

But you didn't fight them.

I did fight them, if you must know.

I spent 2 weeks batting my brains against the wall,

while you were out there playing a-b-cs with king Kong.

It won't work, Paul.

It's taken almost constant contact

for him to accept me as "not enemy."

Now, you throw him in with a bunch of scholars, and he'll tense up on you.

You've got to...

Got, got, got... I don't gotta do anything.

But pick up that big, ugly piece of furniture

and take him where my bosses tell me to take him.

But, he... he's at ease, here.

He's under control.

What do you mean he's under control? You mean, he hasn't run amuck yet.

Ah, wait a minute.

Yeah?

Oh, no.

The car there?

Right away.

He was under control, right?

Have you checked under his bed lately?

Well, but... Uh, what?

The bomb has finally exploded.

He broke into that gun shop on Essex Boulevard.

He's armed now,

and that ends this discussion.

Sgt. Berry, sir. Are you Mr. Tanner, from the bureau?

Right. What's the story here?

Well, he broke in through the front window.

We've got 6 cars parked out there, so he can't escape that way.

He would have to come out through the alleyway here, then?

Already tried it, sir.

Went right through that steel door like it wasn't there.

That's when my men opened fire and he ducked back inside.

Is he armed now?

Yes, sir.

He's got a big 30-aught-6 Swedish hunting rifle.

From the way he was packing it, I'm sure he knows how to use it.

OK, we're going to have to flush him out.

Tear gas, sir?

No, I think noise will do it.

I'll tell you when,

and you start up the sirens of all the cars at once.

Then we'll send in a group from front and rear, and catch him in between.

Right.

Now listen, Paul...

No. Don't even ask. The answer's no before you start.

You are not empowered to kill him,

and that's what you're gonna have to do if you attack him.

I'll get the authority, then.

Oh, don't be foolish. By the time you get through to the bureau,

I could have him out of there.

He trusts me. At least he'll listen to me.

Listening to you has brought this all about, Tom. Now, I've had it!

Paul, he doesn't know.

He's in a strange land. He doesn't know anything except his gun, any gun.

Yeah, and he's got one now.

If only I'd taken him in when I wanted to.

That's just it. He's afraid of you.

He's afraid of everybody except me. To him,

you are "the enemy."

You want to make him a prisoner. Don't you understand?

All right, Tom.

Good.

One more time,

I'll sit and watch one more time.

But, whatever happens,

it's all finished tonight.

Quarlo.

It's Kagan.

I wanna talk to you.

Quarlo!

I'm not enemy.

Don't attack.

Quarlo,

why did you do this?

You tell me, you talk to me.

Trooper needs a gun.

Oh, I see.

Well, now,

will you come home with me?

Can I take you back?

I'll kill you.

Then they'll have to kill you, Quarlo.

Troopers die.

Yes, but there's no need for it.

It is my way, the only way I know.

Stay away from me!

No, Quarlo.

I'm coming in.

I'll kill you!

Mrs. Kagan? This is Paul Tanner.

Now, listen carefully. I haven't time to repeat.

Quarlo broke into a gun shop tonight,

and Tom managed to talk him out of the shop,

and they're on their way back to your house now. But he's armed.

He refused to leave the shop unless he could keep the gun.

Here? They're coming here?

Now, listen,

they'll be there in a few minutes.

When they get there,

Tom is going to try and talk the gun away from Quarlo.

When he does, the moment Tom gets the gun,

you take the phone off the hook.

Off the hook? But I don't...

I've got the line jammed open.

The moment you take it off the hook, we'll know that Tom has the gun.

No other calls can get through.

We're only 2 minutes away.

Any closer and the soldier might suspect.

We'll move in and grab him the moment you take the phone off the hook.

I hear a car.

Toni, Lauren,

come here, quick. Right now.

Lauren, quickly! Toni!

Come on! Come on!

Don't risk being seen. Out the back door, right now!

Right now, out the back.

Stop!

Abby, kids... what are you doing up at this time of night?

Tom...

Let them go.

Let them go in the kitchen. Please?

Don't.

Don't frighten them, Quarlo.

Mixed peeping.

I don't grasp all that's happening.

They want to call the enemy.

Stop. You'll all stop.

Give me the gun, Quarlo.

Trooper never gives up a gun.

That's another time and another place.

You can't do it that way here.

We're trying to help you.

We want to keep them from hurting you.

But first you'll have to give me that gun.

I'll kill you.

Oh, come on, Quarlo, don't be drum-dumb.

You know dad isn't your enemy.

You wouldn't kill him.

I...

I don't...

You... you give me the gun, Quarlo.

I promise you, nothing will happen.

I'll put it where you can get it anytime you want it.

You shouldn't have run away like that, Quarlo.

It helps them.

Help who?

Oh, some people that want to have

you moved to another place.

I was sure I could have persuaded them

to leave you here, but now...

Who? What people?

Well, some men who make our decisions for the rest of us,

because we let them.

C.O.?

Something like that.

They've decided that they want to ask you questions.

P.O.W.

I peeped that would happen.

I knew you troops would jump.

No, it's not a prisoner of war camp.

Nothing like that.

It's a... it's a...

Liar!

It wasn't my idea! I tried to keep them from doing it.

But these people...

Where I come from, it's true, it's right. No 2 ways.

Only us and them, the enemy.

We know who they are. They know us.

No, it's better here, Quarlo.

If you could only understand. If you could only grasp...

In my world, we don't grasp

these love-hate all of them.

We never know, so we don't want.

You are not enemy, so I stay here.

The others,

ones who put hands on me.

You!

C.O.

From the darkest of all pits,

the soul of man,

come the darkest questions.

Did the soldier finally come to care.

For those he protected?

Or was it just his instinct to kill?

Questions from the dark pit,

but no answers,

for answers lie in the future.

Is it a future in which men are machines.

Born to kill?

Or is there time for us?

Time.

All the time in the world.

But is that enough?

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.