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YMMV trope should not be on the main page. Also, as pointed out elsewhere, the people have disobeyed Mr. Goldsmith before, and seen teh consequences, and have done just fine under him, so them destroying the computer completely is ridiculous. Being lied to doesn't justify being stupid.
Deleted line(s) 30 (click to see context) :
* StrawmanHasAPoint: The destructive anger the townspeople express towards Mr. Goldsmith and his computer is more understandable than intended considering that Mr. Goldsmith lied about the source of his information, and also no real alternatives are offered as far as food sources go. No wonder Major French could win the people over.
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* RabbleRouser: French is the one who leads the rest of the survivors into [[LivingIsMoreThanSurviving living large]] and disobey Goldsmith's orders. Being played by James Coburn, with manly charisma oozing like radioactive fallout, helps him.
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Changed line(s) 21 (click to see context) from:
* DownerEnding: Everyone but Mr. Goldsmith dies after they didn't listen to him. Even worse, the computer is destroyed so now there's no way to know what food is and isn't toxic.
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* DownerEnding: Everyone but Mr. Goldsmith dies after they didn't listen to him. Even worse, the computer is destroyed so now there's no way to know what food is and isn't toxic.toxic, and Mr. Goldsmith is most likely to die from starvation due to lack of food.
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[[quoteright:345:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tz_the_old_man_in_the_cave.jpeg]]
Changed line(s) 5,8 (click to see context) from:
Ten years after a nuclear war took out most of the human race, a town relies on the mysterious Old Man in the Cave to tell them what food is or isn't safe to eat. Some military men from out of town arrive and begin spreading mistrust of the Old Man; a distinctly adversarial relationship develops between Major French (Creator/JamesCoburn), the chief military officer, and Mr. Goldsmith (Creator/JohnAnderson), the town's mayor. Eventually, French cracks some of the "tainted" food open, eats it, and doesn't immediately die; the townspeople have begun to turn against Goldsmith by now, and they demand to see the Old Man. Under threat of his life, Goldsmith allows them into the cave, where they find that the Old Man is a computer. Enraged at the deception, the townsfolk destroy the computer and return home to eat more of the "tainted" goods...
The next morning, the townsfolk and soldiers are all dead of radiation poisoning, as the food really was tainted. Goldsmith, the only survivor, sadly turns to leave the town.
The next morning, the townsfolk and soldiers are all dead of radiation poisoning, as the food really was tainted. Goldsmith, the only survivor, sadly turns to leave the town.
to:
Ten years after a nuclear war that took out most of the human race, a town relies on the mysterious Old Man in the Cave to tell them what food is or isn't safe to eat. Some When some military men from out of town arrive and begin spreading mistrust of the Old Man; Man, a distinctly adversarial relationship develops between Major French (Creator/JamesCoburn), the chief military officer, and Mr. Goldsmith (Creator/JohnAnderson), the town's mayor. Eventually, French cracks some of the "tainted" food open, eats it, and doesn't immediately die; the townspeople have begun to turn against Goldsmith by now, and they demand to see the Old Man. Under threat of for his life, Goldsmith allows them into the cave, where they find that the Old Man is actually a computer. Enraged at the this deception, the townsfolk destroy the computer and return home to eat more of the "tainted" goods...
The next morning, the townsfolk and soldiers are all deadof from radiation poisoning, as the food really was tainted. Goldsmith, the only survivor, sadly turns to leave the town.
The next morning, the townsfolk and soldiers are all dead
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Changed line(s) 3,4 (click to see context) from:
10 years after a nuclear war took out most of the human race, a town relies on the mysterious Old Man in the Cave to tell them what food is or isn't safe to eat. Some military men from out of town arrive and begin spreading mistrust of the Old Man; a distinctly adversarial relationship develops between Major French (Creator/JamesCoburn), the chief military officer, and Mr. Goldsmith (John Anderson), the town's mayor. Eventually, French cracks some of the "tainted" food open, eats it, and doesn't immediately die; the townspeople have begun to turn against Goldsmith by now, and they demand to see the Old Man. Under threat of his life, Goldsmith allows them into the cave, where they find that the Old Man is a computer. Enraged at the deception, the townsfolk destroy the computer and return home to eat more of the "tainted" goods...
to:
Ten years after a nuclear war took out most of the human race, a town relies on the mysterious Old Man in the Cave to tell them what food is or isn't safe to eat. Some military men from out of town arrive and begin spreading mistrust of the Old Man; a distinctly adversarial relationship develops between Major French (Creator/JamesCoburn), the chief military officer, and Mr. Goldsmith
Deleted line(s) 7,8 (click to see context) :
->'''Creator/RodSerling:''' Mr Goldsmith, survivor. An eyewitness to man's imperfection, an observer of the very human trait of greed, and a chronicler of the last chapter -- the one reading "Suicide". Not a prediction of what is to be, just a projection of what could be. This has been the Twilight Zone.
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->'''Creator/RodSerling:''' Mr Goldsmith, survivor. An eyewitness to man's imperfection, an observer of the very human trait of greed, and a chronicler of the last chapter – the one reading "Suicide". Not a prediction of what is to be, just a projection of what could be. This has been the Twilight Zone.
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Added DiffLines:
->'''Creator/RodSerling:''' What you're looking at is a legacy that man left to himself. A decade previous, he pushed his buttons and, a nightmarish moment later, woke up to find that he had set the clock back a thousand years. His engines, his medicines, his science were buried in a mass tomb, covered over by the biggest gravedigger of them all: a bomb. And this is the Earth ten years later, a fragment of what was once a home, a remnant of what was once a race. The year is 1974, and this is the Twilight Zone.
10 years after a nuclear war took out most of the human race, a town relies on the mysterious Old Man in the Cave to tell them what food is or isn't safe to eat. Some military men from out of town arrive and begin spreading mistrust of the Old Man; a distinctly adversarial relationship develops between Major French (Creator/JamesCoburn), the chief military officer, and Mr. Goldsmith (John Anderson), the town's mayor. Eventually, French cracks some of the "tainted" food open, eats it, and doesn't immediately die; the townspeople have begun to turn against Goldsmith by now, and they demand to see the Old Man. Under threat of his life, Goldsmith allows them into the cave, where they find that the Old Man is a computer. Enraged at the deception, the townsfolk destroy the computer and return home to eat more of the "tainted" goods...
The next morning, the townsfolk and soldiers are all dead of radiation poisoning, as the food really was tainted. Goldsmith, the only survivor, sadly turns to leave the town.
->'''Creator/RodSerling:''' Mr Goldsmith, survivor. An eyewitness to man's imperfection, an observer of the very human trait of greed, and a chronicler of the last chapter -- the one reading "Suicide". Not a prediction of what is to be, just a projection of what could be. This has been the Twilight Zone.
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!!The Old Tropes in the Cave:
* AdaptationDeviation: In the short story "The Old Man" by Henry Slesar, the war that destroyed civilization took place several generations earlier and scouting missions have determined that the residents of the Village are the last surviving humans on Earth. As such, humanity is rendered extinct very soon after the computer is destroyed. In the television adaptation, the war occurred only ten years earlier and there are numerous isolated pockets of humanity left in the United States.
* AdaptedOut: In "The Old Man", the Village is run by the Governors. They are omitted from the television adaptation, in which Mr. Goldsmith is the settlement's leader.
* AfterTheEnd: The setting is post-nuclear war, with few survivors in even fewer towns remaining. The town in focus here is one of the largest around, according to the roving soldiers, with several dozen residents.
* AmbiguousSituation: It isn't clear if the computer is meant to be an outright BenevolentAI or just an Expositron9000 of some sort. Mr. Goldsmith does say that it has "All the compassion that's left on this Earth," but he may be speaking metaphorically.
* AnAesop: About the importance of faith (in the sense of trusting those who've already proven themselves), giving the episode the feel of a post-apocalypse retelling of the Golden Calf.
* ApocalypseAnarchy: This episode deconstructs LivingIsMoreThanSurviving by having Mr. Goldsmith's group devolving into this for the sake of "living" and destroying the thing that has kept them alive for so long (and would have kept them alive for far longer) just because they don't want to follow it anymore.
* CargoCult: Major French tells Mr. Goldsmith that there is a cult in what used to be UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} that worships a statue made of fissionable lead as its god.
* DepopulationBomb: According to Major French, between Buffalo, New York and Atlanta, Georgia, there are maybe 500 people alive -- and this is a decade after the war.
* DownerEnding: Everyone but Mr. Goldsmith dies after they didn't listen to him. Even worse, the computer is destroyed so now there's no way to know what food is and isn't toxic.
* LivingIsMoreThanSurviving: An example where this trope is used negatively, even a possible deconstruction; one of the townsfolk, in response to Goldsmith's protests that following the Old Man's instructions has kept them alive all this time, retorts that he wants to ''live'', not just survive. He and every other person in the area except Goldsmith die by the end of the episode.
* KnightTemplar: The soldiers that arrive and lead the destruction of the "Old Man".
* NoBikesInTheApocalypse: The residents of the Village use dilapidated cars drawn by horses.
* OnlySaneMan: Mr. Goldsmith. He's the sole man amongst the survivors that understands destroying the only thing that can check what is and isn't irradiated will kill them all in short notice.
* PollutedWasteland: In the aftermath of the nuclear war, large parts of Earth are contaminated with radiation. The Old Man tells Mr. Goldsmith that the Village should not plant tomatoes. When they ignored this advice, the tomatoes that grew looked like rotten watermelons because of the radiation. Jason also mentions freak carrots.
* TheReveal: The "Old Man" is a computer.
* SoleSurvivor: Mr. Goldsmith, who didn't eat the radiation-contaminated food, is the only person who survives the episode.
* StrawmanHasAPoint: The destructive anger the townspeople express towards Mr. Goldsmith and his computer is more understandable than intended considering that Mr. Goldsmith lied about the source of his information, and also no real alternatives are offered as far as food sources go. No wonder Major French could win the people over.
* TooDumbToLive: The townspeople eating food that could very well be poisoned just because they think there's a possibility it might not be, because they are fed up with eking out a day-by-day existence and want to live for once. And in doing so, [[DownerEnding they become one of the few times in media history]] that LivingIsMoreThanSurviving is [[DeconstructedTrope seen as a stupid thing to do]].
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: This episode takes place in a PollutedWasteland in 1974.
* WorldWarIII: A nuclear war devastated Earth in 1964.
* YouAreAlreadyDead: The people who eat the contaminated food. Even before anyone dies, Goldsmith calls French and his men killers.
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10 years after a nuclear war took out most of the human race, a town relies on the mysterious Old Man in the Cave to tell them what food is or isn't safe to eat. Some military men from out of town arrive and begin spreading mistrust of the Old Man; a distinctly adversarial relationship develops between Major French (Creator/JamesCoburn), the chief military officer, and Mr. Goldsmith (John Anderson), the town's mayor. Eventually, French cracks some of the "tainted" food open, eats it, and doesn't immediately die; the townspeople have begun to turn against Goldsmith by now, and they demand to see the Old Man. Under threat of his life, Goldsmith allows them into the cave, where they find that the Old Man is a computer. Enraged at the deception, the townsfolk destroy the computer and return home to eat more of the "tainted" goods...
The next morning, the townsfolk and soldiers are all dead of radiation poisoning, as the food really was tainted. Goldsmith, the only survivor, sadly turns to leave the town.
->'''Creator/RodSerling:''' Mr Goldsmith, survivor. An eyewitness to man's imperfection, an observer of the very human trait of greed, and a chronicler of the last chapter -- the one reading "Suicide". Not a prediction of what is to be, just a projection of what could be. This has been the Twilight Zone.
----
!!The Old Tropes in the Cave:
* AdaptationDeviation: In the short story "The Old Man" by Henry Slesar, the war that destroyed civilization took place several generations earlier and scouting missions have determined that the residents of the Village are the last surviving humans on Earth. As such, humanity is rendered extinct very soon after the computer is destroyed. In the television adaptation, the war occurred only ten years earlier and there are numerous isolated pockets of humanity left in the United States.
* AdaptedOut: In "The Old Man", the Village is run by the Governors. They are omitted from the television adaptation, in which Mr. Goldsmith is the settlement's leader.
* AfterTheEnd: The setting is post-nuclear war, with few survivors in even fewer towns remaining. The town in focus here is one of the largest around, according to the roving soldiers, with several dozen residents.
* AmbiguousSituation: It isn't clear if the computer is meant to be an outright BenevolentAI or just an Expositron9000 of some sort. Mr. Goldsmith does say that it has "All the compassion that's left on this Earth," but he may be speaking metaphorically.
* AnAesop: About the importance of faith (in the sense of trusting those who've already proven themselves), giving the episode the feel of a post-apocalypse retelling of the Golden Calf.
* ApocalypseAnarchy: This episode deconstructs LivingIsMoreThanSurviving by having Mr. Goldsmith's group devolving into this for the sake of "living" and destroying the thing that has kept them alive for so long (and would have kept them alive for far longer) just because they don't want to follow it anymore.
* CargoCult: Major French tells Mr. Goldsmith that there is a cult in what used to be UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} that worships a statue made of fissionable lead as its god.
* DepopulationBomb: According to Major French, between Buffalo, New York and Atlanta, Georgia, there are maybe 500 people alive -- and this is a decade after the war.
* DownerEnding: Everyone but Mr. Goldsmith dies after they didn't listen to him. Even worse, the computer is destroyed so now there's no way to know what food is and isn't toxic.
* LivingIsMoreThanSurviving: An example where this trope is used negatively, even a possible deconstruction; one of the townsfolk, in response to Goldsmith's protests that following the Old Man's instructions has kept them alive all this time, retorts that he wants to ''live'', not just survive. He and every other person in the area except Goldsmith die by the end of the episode.
* KnightTemplar: The soldiers that arrive and lead the destruction of the "Old Man".
* NoBikesInTheApocalypse: The residents of the Village use dilapidated cars drawn by horses.
* OnlySaneMan: Mr. Goldsmith. He's the sole man amongst the survivors that understands destroying the only thing that can check what is and isn't irradiated will kill them all in short notice.
* PollutedWasteland: In the aftermath of the nuclear war, large parts of Earth are contaminated with radiation. The Old Man tells Mr. Goldsmith that the Village should not plant tomatoes. When they ignored this advice, the tomatoes that grew looked like rotten watermelons because of the radiation. Jason also mentions freak carrots.
* TheReveal: The "Old Man" is a computer.
* SoleSurvivor: Mr. Goldsmith, who didn't eat the radiation-contaminated food, is the only person who survives the episode.
* StrawmanHasAPoint: The destructive anger the townspeople express towards Mr. Goldsmith and his computer is more understandable than intended considering that Mr. Goldsmith lied about the source of his information, and also no real alternatives are offered as far as food sources go. No wonder Major French could win the people over.
* TooDumbToLive: The townspeople eating food that could very well be poisoned just because they think there's a possibility it might not be, because they are fed up with eking out a day-by-day existence and want to live for once. And in doing so, [[DownerEnding they become one of the few times in media history]] that LivingIsMoreThanSurviving is [[DeconstructedTrope seen as a stupid thing to do]].
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: This episode takes place in a PollutedWasteland in 1974.
* WorldWarIII: A nuclear war devastated Earth in 1964.
* YouAreAlreadyDead: The people who eat the contaminated food. Even before anyone dies, Goldsmith calls French and his men killers.
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