The Twilight Zone: The Cold Equations

[Tydusis1]

NO! Not the medkit! You fools!

That's some fine acting and story, though. Deep thoughts, man...

[SSat155]

Being stupid in the future is REALLY hard :)

[Roughneck8]

Haha a gypsy stowaway in space.

[liketheuniverse11]

Pffft! Kinda stupid episode.

[powerpooch]

she shld just sacrifice.

[MrRicardoSpears]

This was SUCH a good episode! It was up there with the original Twilight Zone episodes. The young actress was also really good. She really made me believe that she was there in that situation.

[JamieeTheGreat]

In the future all stowaways will dress like Blossom.

[DianeMaria100]

I've read the original story and if I remember correctly, there was not only a problem with the extra weight, but also with the limited amount of oxygen, just enough for only one person.

[CoffeeCanKill]

Why didn't he just drift to his mission? That would of saved fuel.

[iSostos]

deactivate artificial gravity and there is no weight..

[MrMovieoreo2]

you know they could have placed a sign saying "limited weight only allowed stowaways will jettisoned into space without exception" as well on the side or on any entrances she could have used

[ricogoldstar]

She's a good actress. But that chair weighs more than her, and you're telling me there is no escape pod? What about a space suit, all astronauts have a space suit as standard equipment. He could have turned off the ARTIFICAIL GRAVITY of the ship, duh, that might have helped if they were weightless. She shoulda stripped naked too, yeah that would help...giggitty.

[jhangirk]

I want to return to the 80s!

[jajacob410]

In the future there are no dentists and all chicks have crooked teeth

[MattFoleyMotivation]

I would have ejected her before she could even tell me her name. Is that wrong? :p

[007bondspy]

@MattFoleyMotivation WOULD YOU NOT HAVE GIVEN HER ONE FIRST ?

[MattFoleyMotivation]

@007bondspy Actually, yeah, that would be mandatory. I like to have sex with all my women before I eject them out of my spaceship. That's just me. Now, is that wrong? :p

[collegeman1988]

This short Twilight Zone episode was way better than the Sci-Fi channel movie version, where the acting was terrible.

[gorrie31]

I remember this episode from all those years ago and its still very emotional

[bagelfish11]

Possibly one of the saddest episodes in the series...

[dakotacole69]

@stikowsky i thought i was the only person who thought of that. Haha

[tikletik]

I would have just thrown her off the damn ship as soon as possible. Man, how much whining...

[nihlusvakarian]

@collegeman1988

All the oxygen in that ship would be nowhere near enough to balance the weight. I could take all the air in a room and compress it into a glass jar. Having space for air isn't a problem. The problem with Apollo 13 was they were leaking oxygen.

[Cannsanity]

Yet another reason I hate math.

[thespectra]

@Cannsanity ITS MATHS , FUCKING YANK .

[victrolajake]

@thespectra Please watch your use of language. Thank You.

[wtfsaywat]

I read the book whiles listening to the inception soundtrack and it was too fucking intense

[collegeman1988]

This version of The Cold Equations is significantly better than the Sci-Fi channel movie that came out, which had absolutely no drama to it, and the pilot got in trouble for rescuing the teenage girl stowaway and ditching the medical supplies. The only thing that doesn't seem plausible about this story is the girl's weight as being an issue. Something like oxygen WOULD be an issue as spaceships only can carry a limited supply. This is something the Apollo 13 astronauts faced as a problem.

[stikowsky]

both of them could have amputated their legs, that shluld have been about 25kg

[stikowsky]

well guys, that's called *drama*...

[knifelunatic]

I'm so glad the producers didn't' chicken out and make a "they lived happily ever after " ending. I'm glad he flushed the bitch.

[drinkyourtea]

@knifelunatic well it was her fault for not thinking of the consequences of her actions

[boblkl]

is this how the story ends in the book

[wtfsaywat]

@boblkl yep:(

[boblkl]

i would have killed her



[brucepowers1944]

To hear the best version of this story try old time radio. I believe it was on X Minus One or a similar radio show from the early 50s. It is on the web.

[stopbeingpolite]

as far-fetched and absurd the details of this story may be realistically and mathematically, it is still a very emotional and sad episode

[ShadowBlasko]

Many people have commented on the chair, walls, etc, seem to be missing a crucial point. This episode is based directly from the short story "The Cold Equations" in which there were no options. No extra weight. Period.

You are arguing over a difference in visualizing a prop set. A stage. Not the decisions of the pilot or company.

To use what you see in the background as an focal point for an argument on the storyline is moot. It was already written. Years before this was filmed.

[angelface22322]

@ShadowBlasko

These are the type of people who would argue about the storyline of the Titanic, or even the sequence of events at Pearl Harbour.

LOL! Why not this instead of that.

Why didn't she take the trouble to find out more about the ship's mission?

It's only a movie with no interactive alternate ending.

Maybe Walt Disney picks up on this and makes a version with several alternate endings.

.

[stopthesoftkill]

wouldnt it have been more effective to remove that large heavy chair.

[Marinaontheisland]

the people who keep saying "they should have got rid of more dead weight" keep missing the point that there was no dead weight.

The story made it more clear that these emergency ships were really the equivalent of inflatable rafts in space. They were emergency vehicles with no extra stuff on board and minimal structural re-enforcement.

So people saying "why didn't he just throw out ------?" are wrong because there was nothing else to throw out.

[Sardrellas2]

Uh huh... So they're selling that the guy can't just get rid of his chair, the un-unnecessary walls, doors, and other stuff that isn't needed to survive the landing? Im pretty sure a 1-person spacecraft is so heavy that if you get 110lbs (the girl) and get rid of at least 50lbs, that makes the stowaway 50 additional pounds. With space travel, they should add extra fuel just because it is more dangerous

I read the short story and felt something, but after this, there was no emotion, bad acting!

[rayhs1984]

she should have stowed away with a can of fuel.

[plm3d]

She should have went on a diet.

[darbone]

how much did that CHAIR weigh? These new episodes are not thought out very well, and the dialogue could use some work.

[Marinaontheisland]

@darbone thats what i was thinking, but maybe it was roo securely fastened to remove in the hour or so they had left.

[calebj1304]

IT'S NOT THE COLD EQUATIONS OF SPACE THAT HAVE HER JETTISON'D (SP?) IT'S THE RULES AND REGULATIONS OF THE SHIP'S CREATORS. Suck it, sci-fi

[IAMCARL]

It's a really good story, but I'm sure there are other things they could have gotten rid of. The chairs, interior doors, clothes, food, hair, that labyrinth of metal between the cockpit and the cargo bay, the speak 'n' spell, anything.

[davidfgutierrez]

Thank you for uploading!

[FlarginAttack]

Worst acting evar.

[knomperino]

@FlarginAttack worst spelling ever

[PSNGunsofFreedom]

Why are we talking about politics in a video of a Twlight Zone episode based on a scifi classic??

Really people.

[Schoolgirl325]

It's so sad! I actually cried watching this!

[knowallcity]

Hmm.only a white person would agree to be jettisoned. Must be that stiff upper lip thing!

[motorheadanthrax]

not as good as the actual short-story...

[jarikatrelea]

@motorheadanthrax agreed!



[henz430]

this beats reading the damn story

[ubervation]

She should have jettisoned her clothes!

[theovermindliveth]

wait... so they're in space, right? Correct me if I'm wrong, but in space, nothing has any weight, right? According to my understanding of the laws of physics, with nothing in the way, a space-borne object would continue in a trajectory path, regardless of weight or mass, at a speed equal to its acceleration, yes? In effect, you'd only need fuel to get on and off the ground, or to change direction, or to brake. So why does it matter how much the ship weighs, so long as they're in space?

[DemocracyDefender]

@theovermindliveth

In the short story if I remember correctly it didnt really matter in space. But due to the forces of gravity on reentry her weight would double and hence burn out the rest of the fuel a few thousand feet above the ground

[DrSamba1]

@theovermindliveth Actually, in space, things do still have weight. Look at it this way:

F = G m1m2/r^2 where F is the force of gravity, G is the gravitational constant, m1 and m2 are the first and second mass (e.g. earth and you), and r is the distance between the centers of mass. Normally r is the radius of the earth, or 4000 miles. In low earth orbit that's maybe 4250 miles. 4000^2 is not much less than 4250^2. What makes you feel weightless is the orbital velocity.

[DrSamba1]

@theovermindliveth You can experience the same "weightlessness" in the Vomit Comet, and that's only a few miles above the earth's surface, simply by following a parabolic free-fall path. That's how astronauts are trained to experience weightlessness in the first place. The weightlessness in orbit is due to the forward motion at orbital velocity, but if you were in low earth orbit and suddenly stopped moving forward, you would drop into earth's atmosphere like a stone.

[DrSamba1]

@theovermindliveth As far as the story is concerned, as the ship descends, all of its mass is being acted upon by the planet's gravity, and the fuel burn is to slow it down against gravity. The more mass, the more fuel will be required to slow down the ship. The *physics* of the story is actually correct, but as was pointed out, the *engineering* is terrible, because they allowed almost zero margin of error.

[TheMidnightskies]

Dude, i read this in English class last year, its definitely not an easy choice.. Gosh..

[HappyHooker83]

His mind was on poussaaayyy!

[Nanoforge1]

The Outer Limits episode Think Like A Dinosaur echoed this ethical conundrum

[Nanoforge1]

Space age alloys. In the scifi channel version they explained it pretty much that most of the space vehicle was lightweight alloys all pre-measured and accounted for.

[ihavesexforhappymeal]

As a huge fan of TOur of Duty, TZm and this story, I put off watching this for a long time.

I wish I would have kept not watching, the acting was horrible.

[RepublicConstitution]

It is very obvious this episode is really about an individual making a selfish, thoughtless decision and then living with the consequences of the bad decision. Furthermore, it is about self-sacrifice for the greater good. This is best phrased as, "The good of the many outweigh the good of the few" or one in this instance. That is the way governments make decisions many times...subverting the individual to the whole and eliminating any possible individual threat.

[RepublicConstitution]

Fools who rant about capitalism simply do not have any understanding of capitalism. They trust Big Government, yet Big Government only engages in warfare (which is nothing less than mass murder) and buries the populace in unrepayable debt. Wake up lefties. "Capitalism" has nothing to do with a silly episode of twilight zone despite the whining rants of Big Government boot licking lefties.

[BajaBlack45]

PaulYorkandBabyV - I agree about the atrocities of utilitarianism of our current day and the things you gave for examples. You left the main and most frightful one out though... abortion.

[HappyHooker83]

@BajaBlack45 Asshole, you are talking about people's lives, the lives of that womyn who has to bear that excruciating pain of a fetus for nine months in her. I will break it down for you like this: It is about whether the fetus is a person or not. A person is what separates us from all living things. Roaches are living things after all. Now, what makes a person a person is viability. Now, fetuses don't have consciousness until one month after birth. Now, there was a case in India where a man

[HappyHooker83]

@BajaBlack45 was found to have a nonviable twin inside of him, like a tumor, but with it's own brain, etc. Now, viability is the ability to live independent physically of that person. Now, the thing, that invader was removed and killed. I bring up viability in the abortion case because unless that fetus can live independently of that womyn, IT IS NOT A PERSON AND KILLING IT IS NO DIFFERENT THAN KILLING A COCKROACH.

[DrSamba1]

@BajaBlack45 Yeah, more anti-abortion nonsense. Because babies only matter until the moment they are born. Then just throw them to the wolves.

[PaulYorkandBabyVegan]

There are defenders of the necessity of the utilitarian approach on this page. However watch this episode of Have Gun Will Travel to get a 20 minute lesson in why it is murder and that it is avoidable. There is always a way out of such situations, if imagination is used. Of course in this story The Cold Equations it has been written to suggest no way out. But in real life there is. Here is the Youtube link: watch?v=4ckqUjsq-E4

[PaulYorkandBabyVegan]

This philosophy, utilitarianism, is used to excuse all sorts of evil things in our society, from war to unregulated capitalism. I like the TZ but this story is morally callous, quite the opposite of the original TZ, which had a strong moral lesson in many episodes.

[PaulYorkandBabyVegan]

This is based on a short story that tried to prove that the philosophy called utilitarianism is correct. But it is not. This is an awful story and proves nothing except the lack of compassion and imagination of the people running the show. They could have discarded some dead weight on the ship. And now they have lost their humanity. If I had been the pilot I would have rather thrown myself out than kill a young girl like that. So stupid.

[mannequin0909]

@PaulYorkandBabyVegan He said that she couldn't pilot the ship herself. It had to be a pilot. And who would administer the medicine if he was dead? And I read the short story myself a long time ago, and I still find this episode moving and filled with depth.

[wander099]

@PaulYorkandBabyVegan, They attempted to find another way. There was not enough dead weight on the ship to avert a crash caused by her excess weight. A trained pilot was required to fly the ship, so he could not have traded his life for hers. You condemn jettisoning her as immoral, but her death was a foregone conclusion. Inaction would have killed them both and the sick people depending on medicine arriving. In this case, numbers are appropriate as no one is being sacrificed.

[LeeVing88]

Its "Sarge" from Tour of Duty

[onecrazybff]

Thankyu for putting this on here!! i may just pass my final in english tomorrow :)

[Parrotguy1999]

Given that the mass of a ship is so critical... why are there not adequate precautions taken to prevent stowaways in the first place? Security around the ship and a simple pre-launch search would have prevented the whole thing. It's not "the cold equations" that killed her, it's incompetence or negligence on the part of the ship's crew.

[OzzyPatriot]

@Parrotguy1999 Dam right! The TSA would have irradiated and seen her cute naked body, full-frontal, or groped her sweet ass and private parts before she ever had the chance infringe on this American pilot's right to fly!

Thank God for the reality of the TSA, keeping all Americans freedoms, no matter how many innocents get molested! *sob sob.

[campbpar]

@Parrotguy1999 Like how you reigned it back to reality. That and he should've banged her first.

[Nanoforge1]

@Parrotguy1999 That is what many critics of this story have said throughout the years. How can a society faced with space-borne dangers not have an margin of error built in to their flight programs?

[DrSamba1]

@Parrotguy1999 Maybe because stowaways are very uncommon? You could also ask why they didn't search the 9/11 hijackers for box cutters.

[Parrotguy1999]

@DrSamba1 Exactly. Negligence in both cases.

[DrSamba1]

@Parrotguy1999 You could call it negligence, or you could simply say it happens so infrequently that no one would think it would ever really happen. You simply can't foresee all contingencies. Surely we've all heard the urban legend about the woman who put her dog in the microwave oven, but it is simply that--an urban legend. Now if someone actually were to do that, in this day and age, would we blame the microwave oven maker for negligence, or blame the pet owner for outright stupidity?

[Parrotguy1999]

@DrSamba1 I say there is no difference between the two. It's their job to foresee things like that; if they don't, they are negligent. And incidentally, I don't recall if it's made clear in this version but in the original story it's clear that this has happened often enough that there are laws governing the situation which allow him to do what he did. Clearly it IS foreseeable.

[electricbumblebee]

@Parrotguy1999 oh, so thats how it ends, thanks for ruining for us, you jerk

[tikletik]

@Parrotguy1999 It's a story.

The important thing is the concept of hard choices. A ship has a fire and the captain has to choose between sacrificing a few men or the entire ship. You are in the middle of nowhere with 5 days before reaching civilization and enough food for one, not two people.

[Parrotguy1999]

@tikletik Yes, I get that. But the story is making a point, and I don't think the point is valid. Take your examples - you can only save part of the crew from the fire? Then abandon ship and save them all! You only have food for one? Your fault for not taking more food! People die in such situations because of a lack of preparedness or foresight, it's not enough to simply shrug and say "it's just the equations of life".

[CandysAllMediaReview]

Really sad!!

[zybeco]

How did that door not weigh as much as she did?

[VicShowZ9]

@zybeco Lightweight , future, space metal?

My question is: if he had a gun that could cut and tools then why not dump the communication system, the secondary communication system he spoke to the woman on, the whole chair (there didn't seem to be a seatbelt so I'm guessing the ride is gentle), and all of their clothing? Hell, I didn't see a toilet in that airlock either. He couldn't hold it until after landing?

[DrSamba1]

@zybeco Ultra-lightweight materials. You can build a car frame out of carbon fiber and lift the side with one hand. Presumably by this time, they will have even stronger, lighter materials, especially where fuel is rationed so strictly.

[animewatcher76]

One of the better episodes of The 80's Twilight Zone series. It's very sad. I'm glad it wasn't me who had to pull that switch.