Original subtitles

North Atlantic at 20,000 feet must make for pretty dull pictures.

Want some coffee?

No, thank you. I want to get some pictures of this tundra here for the kids in my class.

You're the only person I know who could turn an O.S.I. mission into a field trip.

Hey, this happens to be... Take this.

One of the neatest parts about working for you guys

is that I get to see some of the most fascinating country in the world.

I wouldn't call Grand Thule Island exactly fascinating.

Well, fascination happens to be in the eye of the schoolteacher, my dear.

How long are we going to be here? Whoa!

Just long enough to refuel, then on to London to pick up the equipment.

You think Rudy sent us in a big enough plane?

Well, it'll be wall to wall with top secret bio-medical gear on the way home.

Really? Uh-huh.

Well, in that case, I think I better stretch my legs while I have the space.

Dr. Marchetti, would you care to walk to the, uh, lake or up to the cockpit?

You got it.

Looks like they've got a little weather building to the Southeast, Skipper.

Well, we should be clear of it, no sweat. Raise Grand Thule again.

Roger.

Grand Thule, this is Charlie 2-6-3...

Hi. Hi.

Presently descending through 1-4-0, over.

AIR CONTROLLER: Roger, Charlie 2-6-3.

We show you 40 miles out at 1-4-0 altitude.

You are cleared for standard descent and direct approach.

There is no other air traffic nearby.

We don't really get too much business here. Over.

Roger, Grand Thule.

What is on Grand Thule?

Oh, darn little. It used to be an Air Corps Base during World War Two.

You have heard of that war, I presume.

I read about it in my history books.

Oh, you're cute, Jaime.

Anyway, most of it is deactivated now, lots of planes and mothballs.

We use it for a refuel and repair stop.

Doesn't the Department of Agriculture

have some sort of Biological Research facility there?

Yeah, I think so. I think they're trying to grow something on the tundra.

I wish them lots of luck.

Grand Thule, this is Charlie 2-6-3,

requesting landing instructions. Over.

AIR CONTROLLER: Roger, 2-6-3.

You are cleared for landing on...

Grand Thule,

repeat active runway. Over.

AIR CONTROLLER: The active runway is North One,

and your wind is... Wind is from...

What's wrong with him?

I don't know. AIR CONTROLLER: Wind is from...

Grand Thule, say again

your wind directions. Over.

Try the guard channel.

Grand Thule, this is 2-6-3. Do you copy? Over.

What's going on down there?

Good question.

(CLEARING THROAT) Do you think it's safe to land?

Well, the way I see it, we've got no choice.

We either land right now or 300 miles further out in the ocean.

Oh, well why don't we land here?

COLTER: Hello, Grand Thule. - This is Charlie 2-6-3.

Do you read me? Over.

Oh, there's gotta be some simple explanation.

Maybe our radio's on the fritz.

You two strap yourselves in. I'll take her down.

ANDREWS: Hmm. - Where's the ground crew?

ROBERTS: There's not a soul in sight.

ANDREWS: I don't understand it.

Where is everybody?

Do you hear anything?

No.

Michael, where are all the people?

Hello?

Hello?

Hello?

Hello?

When you said this place was deactivated you weren't kidding.

Must be somebody here.

I'll call the tower. The Controller must still be here.

(THUD)

Easy, Jaime. It just boiled over when somebody left it idling too long.

They should've turned off the engine before they left it.

ANDREWS: Well, we'll get to the bottom of this.

(PHONE RINGING)

No answer.

I don't understand it.

They should have 40 or more people stationed here.

(HIGH PITCHED SQUEALING)

Michael, I hear something.

What?

Well, it's just like a whistling sound.

Yeah, I hear it too, now.

I don't think anybody's coming for dinner tonight.

I checked the BOQ. Somebody left the shower running, but...

Nobody was there?

That's right.

That's cute.

It's at times like this it's kind of nice being a girl,

because I can admit to being very scared.

Well, I'll match goosebumps with you about now.

Look, let's split up.

You check the hangars with Major Andrews and the Sergeant.

I'll search the other quarters with Captain Colter.

We'll all work our way back to here. All right?

ANDREWS: Hello?

Is anybody there?

You two take this one.

I'll check the next one.

Now sing out if you see anybody.

Loud and clear, sir.

Probably be more like a piercing scream, though.

(GRUNTING)

We'll have to find another way in.

Well, try again. Come on, I'll help you.

(BIONIC POWERS ACTIVATING)

There. I got it that time.

You check over there, I'll check this side.

Uh...

(LIGHT GROAN)

Sergeant, I don't see anything.

Do you?

Sarge... Sergeant?

Sergeant?

Sergeant?

Sergeant?

Sergeant?

Sergeant, where are you?

Sergeant, where are you?

(SCREAMING)

Hold it, Jaime. Are you all right?

We went into that hangar and the Sergeant, he just disappeared.

What?

Let's go take a look.

Sergeant?

Roberts?

Sergeant!

Roberts!

(LIGHT GROAN)

Major?

Major?

Jaime?

Oh, Michael!

Michael, they disappeared. Both of them!

I thought I heard movement in the garage area.

I told Captain Colter to go ahead and cut them off.

He's gone too.

Well, if you don't mind, I'd rather let's not separate again. All right?

I was about to suggest the same thing.

Let's try the Agricultural Research Station.

Okay. As long as we're together, I don't care.

Incredible research facilities.

What is that?

An isolation chamber, probably to simulate various environmental conditions...

No, no, no, no, no. I mean that.

What is that?

I don't know. Looks like a meteorite.

Oh, Michael, I... I don't know what's going on here,

but more and more this looks like a problem for Oscar, not us.

I think you're right.

Let's try to find the radio room.

Okay.

Michael.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

There's somebody in there.

(BIONIC POWERS ACTIVATING)

MAN ON RADIO: traffic for ILS runway 2-6,

Michael, I'm scared. What's happening?

I wish I knew, Jaime.

Come in, Grand Thule. This is Oscar Goldman of the O.S.I. calling Grand Thule.

Have Jaime SOMMERS and Dr. Michael Marchetti... That's Oscar!

Arrived there safely?

Grand Thule, do you read me?

Hello, Oscar. This is Jaime. Can you hear me?

This is Oscar Goldman calling Grand Thule Island. Do you copy, Grand Thule?

Michael, what...

I've turned the transmission to full-gain.

I've eliminated the static. There's nothing more I can do. Try again.

Hello. Oscar! This is Jaime. Can you hear me? We really need help.

Now... Hello? Grand Thule Island, do you copy?

This is Oscar Goldman of the O.S.I. Do you read me?

Oscar, can you... This is Jaime talking. Can you hear me?

Can you turn these here a little bit more?

Hey, he's not gonna hear you, Jaime. Well, we've gotta try.

We can't do anything. Jaime?

We're not gonna make contact.

Well, we've gotta try something, Michael.

We will try something.

Okay, Michael, what do you think?

Come on. It can't be any worse than what my imagination is doing.

Some influence is isolating this island from outside communication.

What exactly comes under the heading of influence?

Who knows? Sunspots.

Solar flares, atmospheric interference.

Oh, come on, Michael. That doesn't account for people disappearing.

I don't know.

People don't disappear. They've got to be here someplace.

(FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING)

MICHAEL: Let's check the desk. Maybe there's something written down.

MICHAEL: Doctor Boylin. He must be the head of Research here.

I don't see anything unusual, Michael.

Keep looking. There must be some clue to what they were doing when this started.

One thing scientists have in common is we keep notes.

Well, we usually keep notes.

Hey, Michael, here's a tape. It's dated today. This is a tape, isn't it?

Yes, it is. Let's rewind it and take a look.

(TAPE REWINDING)

15:43. That's 3:43.

That's about an hour before we landed.

JAIME: Everybody looks normal. - What they're doing?

Looks like they're unloading something.

MAN: They're coming back with it now.

JAIME: Whose voice is that?

Probably Doctor Boylin's.

Arthur said it was buried about ten feet into the permafrost.

They ran into it taking core samplings on Sector 14.

Carbon dating the core samplings of adjacent rocks

indicate it landed here about point seven million years ago

and has been covered by the tundra and the permafrost since then.

Get a closer shot, Jim, huh?

Sylvia... Sylvia, step over a little, huh?

This meteorite appears to be quite similar to most other meteorite specimens

I've ever seen, with one important difference.

We've noticed something, which is very curious and unusual.

We can't explain the charred residue on some of the pitted surfaces.

My first guess indicates some sort of space dust,

probably charred by friction during the heat of entry

and then freezing after landing here in the tundra.

Let's get on with it.

(TAPE FAST-FORWARDING)

BOYLIN: Incredible! It is alive!

Alive?

Rudimentary, impossible, in fact, but alive!

Switch the image to the projector.

It's apparently a crystalline compound with some unknown form of animate properties.

Increase to 30 factor.

Amazing!

The structure violates all generic laws of life as we know them.

Increase to 65 factor.

The pulsation rate is accelerating! What was the previous time gap?

WOMAN: Three minutes forty seconds between the first and second pulse.

The third came at three twenty-five seconds,

the fourth at three minutes ten seconds.

All right. Run all environmental factors on the computer.

I want to know what triggered that first impulse

and what conditions caused the acceleration.

It's growing.

And we've found the constant. It's heat.

The first impulse came at 75 degrees Fahrenheit.

Each increase of one degree has accelerated the impulses by 15 seconds.

It seems possible that further increases in temperature

might accelerate the activity to some incubation level.

Isolate the chamber and give me some more heat in there.

WOMAN: Increasing heat in the isolation chamber.

Seventy-six.

Seventy-eight.

Eighty.

Shut... Shut off...

Shut off the heat!

Michael!

The recording did stop at that point.

Why?

I don't know.

Seventy-two degrees.

The Isolation chamber must be hooked back into this room.

The temperature is below the activity level.

Michael, I don't understand what happened.

Do you think that the stuff on the meteorite did something?

I don't know.

It's possible, I guess.

I've never seen any life form that looked like those crystals.

JAIME: So does it think?

I think we can assume that its intelligence level is at the lowest end of the scale.

Probably nothing more than the most elementary instinct for self-preservation.

Well, how does that affect people?

I don't know.

Let's run the tapes again from the top.

(WHOOSHING)

Michael, somebody turned on the heat.

MICHAEL: And it's growing again.

Jaime! Get out of here!

Michael. Jaime!

Michael! Jaime!

(GROANING)

Michael.

Michael?

Michael!

Michael!

(SCREAMING)

Michael!

(BIONIC POWERS ACTIVATING)

Oh, Major Andrews. Uh...

Major Andrews, it's Jaime SOMMERS.

Sergeant! Sergeant Roberts, you know who I am.

(BIONIC POWERS ACTIVATING)

(FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING)

(BIONIC POWERS ACTIVATING)

Who are you?

Laure. Laure Boylin.

Dr. Boylin's daughter?

Where is your father?

I don't... I don't know.

(STAMMERING) Everything was okay and... Then all of a sudden...

I don't...

Listen... Come on, take it easy.

It's gonna be all right.

Looks like we're both in this together, you know.

Personally, I am glad to have someone with me now. I don't know about you.

(BANGING)

We're gonna have to find someplace safe,

where we can figure out why this hasn't affected you or me.

Now where can we go? I don't know. They're everywhere.

Well, we're gonna have to get away from this door.

It's the only way out!

(BIONIC POWERS ACTIVATING)

But how...

I'll tell you later. Right now we've got to get out of here.

Now, where do you live?

On Officer's Row.

Okay, show me?

Oh, come on now. We've gotta get going.

Look, I know they're scary, but they don't move too fast.

I don't think I see them. Come on.

Look!

Oh, well...

Let's get to that car. Come on.

No!

Laure!

Laure! Help me!

(SCREAMING)

Laure!

Laure, help me!

Laure!

Laure!

Laure!

(BIONIC POWERS ACTIVATING)

What do you suppose it is we have in common

that makes us more immune than others?

Well, am I glad...

Come on in.

It's okay. This is where I live.

Oh, they must have turned the generators off.

I know where some candles are.

I heard the engines running at the power station.

Laure, when all this happened, were you with your father?

Because whatever happened back on that field, it didn't affect you.

Why would you be more immune than I am?

There, that's better.

You know in all that craziness I forgot to ask your name.

It's Jaime SOMMERS.

SOMMERS?

Jaime SOMMERS.

Why didn't you come back and get me on that field?

What did I say to you?

I don't know. Why don't you know what I said?

I didn't hear you.

Can you hear me at all?

No. Do you read lips?

Yes. I... I had an accident about four years ago, and I lost my hearing.

Oh, thank God!

Listen, I'm sorry if I scared you,

but you have scared me half to death, yourself.

You know, I fell down on that field when you were getting in the car,

and I called you and you didn't come back and get me.

I have been talking to you all the way up the walkway.

I've been asking you questions since we've been in the house,

and you haven't said a word to me about what I've been asking you.

And you scared me.

I'm sorry I didn't tell.

What we have in common is a hearing problem.

You, too?

Yes. I have the granddaddy of all hearing aids, though it's implanted inside.

You can't see it.

Then what happened back there on the field with my father

and the others has something to do with sound?

Yeah, it must.

And my bionic unit must filter the sound or something,

so I don't get a full dose.

And I... I don't get anything at all.

Right.

Well, at least now, we've got something to go on.

Maybe we can figure some way to fight it. I don't know.

Hi, again.

(BANGING ON DOOR)

(SCREAMING)

(BIONIC POWERS ACTIVATING)

Laure, help me block the door!

There's too many of them, Laure!

Daddy.

Daddy.

Laure, come on. It's my father!

(BIONIC POWERS ACTIVATING)

Got to stop.

Okay. Sit down a minute.

It's okay, it's okay. I think we're all right.

Little scared myself.

But what happened to my father and the others?

You said we could fight it but what is it?

I don't know, Laure.

They've been affected by some kind of a new life form.

They came from space on that meteorite that your father found.

It's got a crystalline structure,

and it must give off some kind of a sound impulse.

Like some kind of crystal radio in reverse?

Yeah.

(STAMMERING)

Shh! Wait a minute.

(FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING)

Jaime.

Jaime?

Michael?

Michael?

Michael, where have you been?

You've got to let me help you, Jaime.

It doesn't want to hurt you.

Join us, Jaime. Jaime?

No, Laure!

Michael, please trust me as much as I've always trusted you.

Can you tell me about it? Can you tell me what's happened to you?

I want to help you, Jaime.

Michael, you're saying my name like it was just a word.

It's Jaime, remember? I'm your friend.

Michael, it's Jaime.

Jaime.

That's right. Fight it. Come on, fight it, Michael. You can do it.

Jaime.

Your bionic hearing.

Let me disconnect it so you can join us.

Michael, why do you want me to join you?

Otherwise, you're an infecting agent,

a foreign body.

You threaten its safety.

What is it, Michael?

Tell me what it is. Try to remember.

Now, you told me that it was a very basic life form.

I don't...

It only wants to live, Jaime.

(HIGH PITCHED SQUEALING)

It only wants to live, Jaime.

Michael. Michael, it is living.

And it's growing. We saw that in the Lab.

Now other people are gonna come here and they're gonna try to see what's going on.

It's going to take over their minds, too.

Good. We have to protect it,

to take it away.

You what? No, Michael! You can't... You can't... You can't do that, Michael.

Can you tell me how to destroy it, Michael?

No!

Jaime, there's more of them coming.

(SCREAMING)

Michael, I don't want to hurt you.

Run, Jaime!

Run!

It's too strong!

Come back.

Running won't do you any good.

You can't get away.

Come back, Jaime.

Let me help you.

There's no sign of anyone yet.

What are you thinking?

Well, I was just trying to figure...

I was just trying to figure it out.

Now, Michael said that this influence just wants to live,

and I saw how its activity increased with heat.

So it must have been dormant in the cold of space,

and then it came down here and landed in the permafrost.

If these people reflect its thinking,

that's why they fear the cold.

That's why they dress so heavily.

Right.

Which means we could probably fight it with cold.

But your friend said that they were gonna take it somewhere, but where?

Somewhere warm?

Of course, somewhere warm.

Oh, Laure, do you know what would happen if they did?

I mean, that thing would just grow like wildfire.

We can't let them do that. I mean, I've got to do something.

Uh...

Uh, Laure, I think it'd be better if you came with me. All right?

Come on.

What are you doing? I have to go in here, Laure.

No. The Land Rover that picked up the meteorite is in there.

The two men that were with you were affected when they got near it.

That's right.

You know, some of those crystals must've fallen off in it.

Okay. Look, would you do me a favor, then?

Would you go in and see if you can find me a set of those earphones they wear

when the jet engines go off?

Okay?

Oh, no!

Oh, Laure. Come on, come on!

Laure, we were right.

They're out here right now preparing that plane for take-off.

Uh, I don't know.

They used to use liquid nitrogen for soil research, but not anymore.

Well, come on, think of something.

There's got to be something here.

I know. The fire engine, liquid C02, when there's crashes.

Okay. Where's the Fire Department?

Over there. Behind the Tower.

Let's go.

Oh!

Okay. I'm gonna have to move awfully fast from here on out,

and I think you're just gonna slow me down,

so I want you to go back in there and I want you to hide.

Go on. Go on.

Be careful.

(BIONIC POWERS ACTIVATING)

(BIONIC POWERS ACTIVATING)

(ENGINE STARTING)

(BIONIC POWERS ACTIVATING)

Michael.

Michael, it's...

(BIONIC POWERS ACTIVATING)

(GROANING)

(SCREAMING)

Jaime!

What in the world?

Jaime?

Jaime? Oh, Michael.

Oh, Michael.

Hello, Grand Thule. This is Oscar Goldman.

Do you read me? Over.

CONTROLLER: Roger, Mister Goldman. We read you. Over.

OSCAR: Is everything back to normal now? Over.

CONTROLLER: Yes, sir, and we're glad of it.

Everybody's okay. There were no permanent effects.

Miss SOMMERS and the others are waiting for you in the research station. Over.

OSCAR: No one was hurt? - CONTROLLER: No, sir.

We were sure lucky.

Minus 121 degrees.

And let's keep it that way.

(ALL LAUGHING)

Our studies of it will be handled very carefully.

How did it actually work?

Well, very simply, it seemed to be a basic life form

which infected by ultrasonic communication.

Which correspond to the alpha waves in the human mind.

Its signals blocked all our thoughts

except the basic instinct to help it survive.

It's fascinating.

Fascinating? After all you've been through? Fascinating? That's all?

Well, okay, Oscar, I admit it.

It is the most bizarre experience I have ever had in my life,

but I must admit that the thought of a completely new life form...

I mean, I love it! And where would it come from?

That's something to think about, isn't it?

Did it come from our own solar system? From beyond?

Well, wherever it came from, I'll tell you one thing.

I never want to see another snowsuit.

(ALL LAUGHING)