The Old Man in the Cave
"The Old Man in the Cave" | |
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The Twilight Zone episode | |
Episode no. | Season 5 Episode 7 |
Directed by | Alan Crosland, Jr. |
Teleplay by | Rod Serling |
Based on | a short story "The Old Man" by Henry Slesar |
Featured music | Stock; most cues from "And When the Sky Was Opened" by Leonard Rosenman |
Production code | 2603 |
Original air date | November 8, 1963 |
Guest appearances | |
James Coburn: French John Anderson: Goldsmith Josie Lloyd John Craven John Marley: Jason | |
"The Old Man in the Cave" is a half-hour episode of the original version of The Twilight Zone. It is set in a post-apocalyptic 1974, ten years after a nuclear holocaust in the United States. The episode is a cautionary tale about humanity's greed and the danger of questioning one's faith in forces greater than oneself.
Opening narration
What you're looking at is a legacy that man left to himself. A decade previous he pushed his buttons and a nightmarish moment later woke up to find that he had set the clock back a thousand years. His engines, his medicines, his science were buried in a mass tomb, covered over by the biggest gravedigger of them all—a bomb. And this is the earth 10 years later, a fragment of what was once a whole, a remnant of what was once a race. The year is 1974 and this is The Twilight Zone.
Plot
In a sparsely populated town in 1974, ten years after a
Shortly thereafter, three soldiers led by Major French enter the town and clash with Goldsmith as they try to establish their authority. The soldiers may or may not be representatives of the
A clash of wills ensues and, frustrated by Goldsmith's quiet and steadfast refusal to bend, French tries to dispel the townspeople's strange beliefs about the seemingly infallible old man in the cave and take control of the area. French tempts the townspeople with some of the food Goldsmith claimed was contaminated and many throw caution to the wind and partake. Everyone except Goldsmith eventually consumes the food and drink and Goldsmith falls into disfavor among the townspeople. After being bullied and threatened with his life, Goldsmith finally opens the cave door and it is ultimately revealed that in reality, the townsfolk have been using information from a computer the whole time. French rallies the townspeople into a frothing frenzy into destroying the machine, after which French leads the people into celebrating their newfound freedom from this "tyranny." However, as Goldsmith had insisted, the "old man" was correct; without an authority figure to tell them which foods are safe, the entire human population of the town (including French and the soldiers) die—except for the lone survivor, Goldsmith, who somberly walks out of the now dead town.
Closing narration
Mr. Goldsmith, survivor. An eyewitness to man's imperfection. An observer of the very human trait of greed. And a chronicler of the last chapter—the one reading "suicide". Not a prediction of what is to be, just a projection of what could be. This has been The Twilight Zone.
Cast
- James Coburn as French
- John Anderson as Goldsmith
- Josie Lloyd as Evie, townswoman who says, "We already took chances. The old man told us not to plant on the north acreage."
- John Craven as townsman who asks, "Been to the cave, Jason?"
- John Marley as Jason
- Uncredited (in order of appearance):
- Natalie Masters as townswoman who asks,"Did you see Goldsmith? Did he talk to the old man?"
- Don Wilbanks as Furman, one of the three soldiers with Major French, "That last part, put it on top... No trouble."
This was the last of John Anderson's four appearances on the original series. The first was as Angel Gabriel in "A Passage for Trumpet" (May 1960), the second was as the airplane captain in "The Odyssey of Flight 33" (February 1961) and the third was as Deitrich, the businessman with a conscience, who is bankrupted by the ruthless tycoon Feathersmith in "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville" (April 1963). The other cast member who appeared in more than one episode was John Marley who played the superintendent of the old-age home in "Kick the Can" (February 1962).
Episode notes
In the
Film critic
References
- DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-136-0
- Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9703310-9-0
Notes
- ^ Warren, Jason. "Twilight Zone: 'Time Enough at Last'". Scifilm — TV Files. Retrieved 20 July 2006.
- ^ Barr, Valerie (8 January 1999). "Movies Involving Computers (or raising interesting issues for a computer ethics course)". Retrieved 30 July 2006.
- ^ Blass, Laurie & Elder, Pam. "LESSON PLAN". Twilight Zone: Cable in the Classroom. Archived from the original on 26 March 2007. Retrieved 30 July 2006.
- ^ Sarris, Andrew. Rod Serling: Viewed From Beyond the Twilight Zone. Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone Magazine, March–April 1985, p. 45
External links
- "The Old Man in the Cave" at IMDb