I of Newton
| "I of Newton" |
|---|
"I of Newton" is the second segment of the twelfth episode from the first season (1985–86) of the television series The Twilight Zone.
Plot
A professor named Sam, trying to figure out a difficult math problem, angrily yells out, "I'd sell my soul to get this thing right!" A demon instantly appears. The demon announces that Sam's math problem "was the phonetic equivalent of a demonic invocation", and intends to steal his soul, which would be sold to bidders from other worlds.
There is a catch, though. Sam is allowed to ask three questions in regard to the Devil's powers, and then pose either a question or a task; if the demon cannot answer said question or perform said task, Sam's soul is spared. Sam asks, "Really?", which the demon counts as a question.
Sam's next question is more carefully planned. He asks if there are any physical limitations to the demon's powers; the demon gleefully replies in the negative, claiming that he is able to travel faster than the speed of light or make two electrons occupy the same quantum state.
The third question forms a corollary to the second. Sam queries if there is any place from which the demon cannot find his way back. The demon, with malicious joy, informs Sam that he can move through galaxies in a microsecond, and even go to "Berlin if the Nazis had won the war", or Rome had Alexander the Great "lived to a ripe old age".
The demon, confident of his victory, demands that Sam pose his final question or task. Sam, armed with his new knowledge, calmly provides the impossible task: "Get lost." Defeated, the demon screams and melts away, leaving only his sunglasses. Sam picks them up and throws them away, turning back to his problem with a rueful smile on his face, noting out loud, "Well, that guy wasn't any help at all."
Closing narration
Another of our continuing tips on what to do if the Devil shows up on your doorstep. A public service announcement from the Twilight Zone.
Notes
The teleplay was based on a short story by Joe Haldeman which first appeared in the June, 1970 issue of Fantastic Stories magazine (Volume 19, no. 5). In the original short story, the exclamation that is tacked onto a string of math gibberish to summon the demon is "no, goddammit", possibly censored for television. The demon plans not to sell Sam's soul but to eat it, proclaiming "Unfortunately the loss of your soul will drop your intelligence to that of a vegetable—I am also a vegetarian". When the demon has been banished, Sam ends up playing with the Fermat's Theorem disproof fragment the demon left behind and thinking about summoning the demon and tricking him again. The final sentence is an Aesop-style after-the-fact "moral of the story" about swearing and suggested that if there was a devil, there must also be a god ..."watching his language".
A boom mic is briefly visible at the top of the screen in the scene where the devil is telling Sam about selling his soul to the big chains.