Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective

The Man with the Power

4th episode of the 1st season of The Outer Limits From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Remove ads

"The Man with the Power" is an episode of the original The Outer Limits television show. It first aired on October 7, 1963, during the first season.

Quick Facts "", Episode no. ...
Remove ads

Introduction

An experiment endows a college professor with powerful telekinetic abilities, which his subconscious mind uses to destroy his enemies, including his employer, Dean Radcliffe.

Opening narration

In the course of centuries, Man has devoured the Earth itself. The Machine Age has dried up the seas of oil. Industry has consumed the heartlands of coal. The Atomic Age has plundered the rare elements — uranium, cobalt, plutonium — leaving behind worthless deposits of lead and ashes. Starvation is at hand. Only here, in the void of space, is there a new source of atomic power. Above us, in the debris of the solar system, in the meteorites and asteroids, are the materials needed to drive the reactors. Yet in their distant, silent orbits, these chunks of matter are beyond the reach of man, beyond the reach of human hands, but not beyond the reach of human minds. Driving along a country road in an ordinary car is a modest man: Harold J. Finley, quiet and profound…

Remove ads

Plot

Harold J. Finley, an unassuming college professor, develops a device that, once implanted in the brain, can manipulate objects through mental control of forces and energy that surround us. Although disregarded as talentless by his family and coworkers, Finley makes an impact with a U.S. space agency in the hopes that he can assist them in retrieving unreachable, space-bound, element-laden asteroids. However, as the professor becomes more familiar with his device, he learns that his subconscious mind has been taking involuntary revenge on those who demean him, including his harping wife, whom he almost kills. As his invention is scheduled to be implanted into the brain of an ambitious astronaut with questionable motives, Finley becomes alarmed, and is determined to stop the procedure. He enters the operating theater just as the surgeon is preparing to implant the device, and destroys him and the head of the asteroid project, along with himself.

Closing narration

Deep beyond the kindest, gentlest soul may lurk violent thoughts, deadly wishes. Someday Man will learn to cope with the monsters of the mind. Then, and only then, when the human mind is truly in control of itself, can we begin to utilize the great and hidden powers of the universe.

Cast

  • Donald Pleasence  as Harold J. Finley
  • Priscilla Morrill  as Vera Finley
  • Edward Platt  as Dean Radcliffe
  • Fred Beir  as Steve Crandon
  • Frank Maxwell  as Dr. Keenan
  • John Marley  as Dr. Sigmund Hindeman
  • Paul Lambert  as Dr. Henschell
  • Paul Kent  as Detective
  • Ann Loos  as Emily Radcliffe
  • James McCallion  as Dr. Tremaine
  • Harry Ellerbe  as Finley's Doctor
  • Jane Barclay  as Nurse
  • Pat O'Hara  as Surgeon
  • Saul Gross  as 1st Tree Pruner
  • Fred Crane  as 2nd Tree Pruner
Remove ads
Loading related searches...

Wikiwand - on

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.

Remove ads