Two decent astronauts and a Crazy Survivalist.
Rod Serling: Her name is the Arrow One. She represents four and a half years of planning, preparation and training, and a thousand years of science and mathematics and the projected dreams and hopes of not only a nation, but a world. She is the first manned aircraft into space. And this is the countdown, the last five seconds before man shot an arrow into the air.
Air date: January 15, 1960
Manned space flight Arrow One crash lands on what its crew believe to be an uncharted asteroid. Only four of the crew survive, one of whom (Hudak) is barely alive. After Hudak dies, the three remaining men, Corey (Dewey Martin), Donlin (Edward Binns), and Pierson (Ted Otis), decide to trek into the barren desert to see if there is anything that might improve their chances of survival out there. When Corey and Donlin reconvene, it would seem that Pierson is dead and Corey filched his water supply from his dead body. Donlin, the commanding officer, forces Corey at gunpoint to lead him to Pierson's body.
They find Pierson, barely alive, who uses his last bit of strength to draw a primitive diagram in the sand. Corey then kills Donlin and sets out by himself, confident that he will survive longer now that he has all of the water. Scaling a hill, Corey eventually sees a sign for Reno, Nevada, as well as telephone poles, which were what Pierson attempted to draw before he died. Realizing that he and the others had never left Earth at all and that he killed his partners for nothing, Corey breaks down weeping and begging for forgiveness.
Notable for being the only episode, possibly of anything, based off an idea given at a party. Serling recounted in an interview how a friend had approached him and said, "What if a bunch of astronauts crash on what they think is another planet but it's really the desert outside Las Vegas?" As Serling put it, "I paid him $500 on the spot. But it never happened again."
I Shot a Trope Into the Air:
- All for Nothing: The astronauts never left Earth, so Corey killed his crewmates for nothing.
- Almost Dead Guy
- Hudak, who was seriously wounded in the crash, is on death's door by the time the episode begins.
- Corey and Donlin find Pierson dying of a fatal head wound. He uses the very last of his strength to draw a symbol in the sand before he dies.
- Artistic License – Space: After launching from Earth, Arrow One goes off course and ends up on the surface of an unknown celestial object. Even though the object has Earth's standard gravity, a breathable atmosphere and a sun that appears to be the same size in the sky as it is on Earth, the astronauts somehow conclude that they've landed on an asteroid. This is impossible, and the astronauts should have known it: in order for the object to be an asteroid, it would have to be the size of the Earth, and certainly would have been already seen by astronomers.
- Chromosome Casting: This episode has an all-male cast.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Corey's betrayals, meant for him to survive in the unknown.
- Cold Equation: Corey murders his colleagues to save himself, but he breaks down when he realizes none of it was necessary.
- Complete-the-Quote Title: The unsaid part is, "It fell to Earth, I know not where", similar to what happens to the astronauts.
- Downer Ending: Corey killed his surviving crewmates to keep all the remaining water for himself, only to discover the crew was stranded in the Nevada Desert the whole time. Corey breaks down weeping and begs his former partners to forgive him. It gets worse when you realize Corey may face future criminal charges for his actions...
- Earth All Along: The "asteroid" the crew is stranded on was actually the Nevada Desert on Earth.
- Establishing Character Moment: Not long after the intro, Corey asks how much water they have. When he hears that they have about five gallons, he then asks "Why waste it?" when Donlin and Pierson are giving some to the badly injured Hudak.
- Foreshadowing:
- Pearson draws something on the sand before he dies. It turns out to be a telephone pole.
- Both Pierson and Donlin notices that the sun appears to be the same size as on Earth.
- During the mid-episode monologue, Rod Serling suggests that if Corey were to stop moving, the reality of his actions will consume him. Sure enough, when he does stop moving...
- I Did What I Had to Do: Corey gives this excuse, before The Reveal.
- Jerkass: Even Rod Serling himself can't help but give a rare mid-episode monologue about the depths Corey has gone to just to live.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: Donlin, when he learns Corey attempted to kill Pierson.Colonel Donlin: You killed Pierson, didn't you, Corey? You killed 'im! You're demented, Corey! You're out of your mind! You already killed once! You already-
- Laughing Mad: Corey, when he discovers the truth. His laughter gradually turns to crying.
- Literary Allusion Title: To Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "The Arrow and the Song":I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;… - My God, What Have I Done?: Corey, after The Reveal.
- No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Played for Drama. Donlin exposits that Arrow One was the only one of her kind, and it took four and a half years to build. He grimly remarks that if help does come, they're going to have to build another one first.
- Not So Remote: The trio think they're on an asteroid. They're actually somewhere in the Nevada desert, 97 miles from Reno.
- Not Where They Thought: Played for Drama and tragedy. A manned space flight crash-lands on what the crew believe to be an unknown asteroid. Corey, desperate to survive, kills the others and takes all their water. Then he learns that they've been on Earth all along — specifically, the Nevada desert, just outside Reno.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: While Corey is traversing the mountainous terrain all by himself, Rod Serling himself starts maliciously mocking the character, letting his words drip with venomous disgust as he sarcastically encourages him to keep moving. Normally, Serling's narration is impartial and expository, but Corey is apparently such a despicable human being that he can't hold his vitriol against him.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: After Corey winds up being the last astronaut of the crew standing, and he starts making his way through the desert, Rod Serling more or less breaks character, and starts chewing him out:Rod Serling: (voiceover) Now, you make tracks, Mr. Corey. You move out and up like some kind of ghostly billyclub was tapping at your ankles and telling you that it was later than you'd think. You scrabble up rock hills and feel hot sand underneath your feet and every now and then, take a look over your shoulder at a giant sun suspended in a dead and motionless sky... like an unblinking eye that probes at the back of your head in a prolonged accusation. Mr. Corey, last remaining member of a doomed crew, keep moving. Make tracks, Mr. Corey. Push up and push out, because if you stop... if you stop, maybe sanity will get you by the throat. Maybe realization will pry open your mind and the horror you left down in the sand will seep in. Yeah, Mr. Corey, yeah, you better keep moving. That's the order of the moment: keep moving.
- Shut Up, Kirk!: Corey is having none of Donlin's speech and shoots him dead mid-sentence.
- Title Drop: After the Arrow One is lost, Langford says, "I shot an arrow into the air, it landed I know not where..."
- Too Stupid To Live: Donlin has the men dig graves for their dead crewmates in the scorching desert heat, ignores the obvious mental breakdown of the survivors crew, abandons the gun he was holding on a suspected murderer (Corey), and then tries to verbally berate a man holding him at gunpoint.
- Villain Has a Point: 97 miles to Reno in the Nevada heat, which can top one-hundred degrees Fahrenheit at night, may very well have been too far for three men with limited water. However, cars can be seen driving by in the distance.
- Some of Corey's minor acts (like questioning giving water to a dying man when their supplies are so limited) are potentially justified given the situation he thinks he's in. However, nothing justifies his sensless murder of his partners.
- Villainous Breakdown: The episode ends with Corey suffering one after finding out he killed his partners for nothing.
- Villainous BSoD: Corey does not take the fact he killed his crewmates for nothing well at all, as well as facing possible discipline in the future for his actions. He lowers his head down into his arms and cries as the episode ends.
- Wham Line: "We never left the Earth."
- Wham Shot: After Corey climbs over a cliff, he throws his gun down, screams Pierson's name and starts laughing. The camera pans over the empty desert to reveal... a road, telephone poles, and a sign for Reno, Nevada.
- What You Are in the Dark: Under the belief he's stranded on a desert asteroid with little to no water, Corey proves to be a desperate man who will do anything for the sake of survival, even if it means killing his crewmates. This sinks in for him when he learns they were still on Earth.
Rod Serling: Practical joke perpetrated by Mother Nature and a combination of improbable events. Practical joke wearing the trappings of nightmare, of terror, and desperation. Small human drama played out in a desert ninety-seven miles from Reno, Nevada, U.S.A., continent of North America, the Earth and, of course...the Twilight Zone.
