The Gift (The Twilight Zone)

"The Gift"
The Twilight Zone episode
Scene from "The Gift"
Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 97
Directed by	Allen H. Miner
Written by	Rod Serling (Based on his original script "I Shot an Arrow Into the Air".)
Featured music	Laurindo Almeida
Production code	4830
Original air date	April 27, 1962
Guest stars
Geoffrey Horne: Williams Nico Minardos: Doctor Edmund Vargas: Pedro Cliff Osmond: Manuelo Paul Mazursky: Officer Vladimir Sokoloff: Guitarist (Ignacio) Vito Scotti: Rudolpho Carmen D'Antonio: Woman #1 Henry Corden: Sanchez Lea Marmer: Woman #2 Joe Perry: Man #1 David Fresco: Man #2
Episode chronology
← Previous "The Trade-Ins" Next → "The Dummy"
List of Twilight Zone episodes

"The Gift" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.

Plot

A humanoid alien crash-lands outside a mountain village just across the Texas-Mexico border. He accidentally kills a police officer and is wounded by another. When he reaches a village bar, he collapses. A sympathetic doctor operates on him, removing two bullets from his chest.

The alien (who refers to himself as "Mr. Williams") becomes friends with Pedro, an orphan whose job is to clean the bar. Pedro receives a gift from Williams, who tells Pedro that he will explain it later.

Meanwhile, the bartender notifies the army about Williams' location. Williams attempts to escape, but soldiers and villagers corner him. He tells Pedro to show the gift, but it is taken from him and set on fire, and Williams is shot and killed. The doctor picks up the remains of the gift from the fire. He reads it aloud: "Greetings to the people of Earth: We come.... in peace. We bring you this gift. The following chemical formula is.... a vaccine against all forms of cancer..."

The rest is burned away. As the doctor states, "We have not just killed a man; we have killed a dream."

References

• DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1593931360
• Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0970331090
• Zicree, Marc Scott. The Twilight Zone Companion, Bantam Books, 1982. ISBN 0-553-01416-1

External links

• "The Gift" at the Internet Movie Database
• Full video of the episode at CBS.com