The Twilight Zone (TV Series)

The Old Man in the Cave (1963)

John Anderson: Goldsmith

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Quotes 

• Goldsmith : When we talked about the ways that men could die, we forgot the chief method of execution. We forgot faithlessness, Major French. Maybe you're not to blame. Maybe if it weren't you, it would have been someone else. Maybe this has to be the destiny of man. I wonder if that's true. I wonder. I guess I'll never know. I guess I'll never know.

• Major French : Where is this old man that keeps you on a diet? When does he come out?

  Goldsmith : He never comes out. He stays in the cave.

  Major French : Well, I'm not surprised, Mr Goldsmith. I'm not surprised at all. You see, off Lake Erie we've got a pack of wierdies up there that bay at the moon once a week. And then around what used to be Chicago, man, we've got a real swinging cult goin' there. They've built themselves a statue made out of fissionable lead. This is their "diety". What do we have here? We have an invisible old man in a cave.

• Goldsmith : I don't think you understand, Major. We don't recognize your authority here. We've had transients pass through on occasion, but they didn't stay. Like you, they represented themselves as "authorities," but we discovered they carried their headquarters with them. They represented no one but themselves.

• Major French : Now, I don't think any of you are going to die of radioactivity. I think if you're going to kick off, you're going to kick off either from malnutrition, or from being conned to death.

  Goldsmith : If that's true, Major, at least it'll be a painless death.