The Twilight Zone (TV Series) The Rip Van Winkle Caper (1961) User Reviews

All About The Gold

[AaronCapenBanner · 7/10 · 27 October 2014]

Simon Oakland, Oscar Beregi, Lew Gallow, and John Mitchum play four thieves who have successfully made off with 1 Million dollars worth of gold bullion, and one of them has invented four suspended animation capsules for them to hide in for about a hundred years, where they will no longer be wanted men(So they think). The plan works, and they do wake up a century in the future, but one of them has died in an accident, and the other three learn that there is no honor among thieves... Entertaining episode despite some glaring plot holes and oddities(like why they didn't get rich from selling the suspended animation technology itself!) Still, a good cast makes a big difference.

Excellent use of foreshadowing

[Danimal-7 · 7/10 · 29 February 2008]

This enjoyable little yarn is classic Twilight Zone. What I enjoy most about it is the dialogue and its use of foreshadowing.

"That's the going rate today, Mr. Farwell. It may change tomorrow; I haven't checked the market." This is a beautiful little piece of double irony, intended ironically by the speaker but also unwittingly reflecting the real problem he doesn't know about. By itself, it makes the whole third act worthwhile. Even if you've already figured out what's coming, as I had, you don't expect one of the characters to pronounce his own sentence.

The only thing I would change would be Farwell's murder of De Cruz, because it partly spares De Cruz the consequences of his own actions. Every one of those gold bars weighs a good fifteen or twenty pounds. By extorting gold from Farwell, De Cruz is adding to his own burden and reducing his chance of survival. Leaving Farwell to die of thirst when he runs out of gold to buy water with, only to have De Cruz collapse because he's carrying twice his share and has sold half his water - now that would have been a true character-is-destiny moment.

47 years till they wake up by my watch.

[darrenpearce111 · 7/10 · 21 January 2014]

Enjoyable caper that wont send you to sleep. Farwell (Oscar Beregi) is a scientific and criminal genius who leads of gang of four men in a bullion robbery. His masterstroke is putting himself and the gang into suspended animation for one hundred years after the heist so as to enjoy their wealth without fearing the long arm of the law.

A very pleasing tale from Rod Serling. There's a kind of cynical and eccentric nature about the gang of crooks, a little bit like in the classic British comedy 'The Lady Killers'. This lot don't trust each other but are ultimately equally stupid. I could guess the twist before the end but not right away. Nice story development, once again in Death Valley also the filming location for 'The Lonely' and 'I Shot An Arrow In The Air'.

Economics 101

[dougdoepke · 23 June 2006]

Mastermind Beregui leads three other crooks in gold bullion heist, planning to come back 100 years hence through use of suspended animation.

Interesting episode with several nice twists. Still and all, why would anyone risk life and limb in a gold bullion heist when he's got a blueprint for suspended animation that's easily worth millions. Oh well, this is the twilight zone. Episode benefits from Death Valley locations and expert make-up that makes mastermind Beregui's face almost crack open with thirst. Futuristic car lends authenticity to time passage; however more imagination should have gone into the futuristic humans. They look too much like suburbanites from the 1960's. Even so, it's an entertaining half-hour with a nice slice of economic wisdom included.

A solid and good representative episode

[thatsweetbird · 9/10 · 13 December 2018]

I was just doing a review of the show in general And listed in it my dozen favorite episodes. I did not include this one, But it was close. This to me is an episode that like some others falls just just outside that elite group. It's a very fine episode. The plot is good, intriguing, suspenseful, a good science fiction idea. The characters-Really just two-Are interesting ones. I want to know what happens to them, and Their interaction is very watchable. The cast as usual is taken from the best that was available, quality "character" actors when not outright stars. Key to the show is the ending twist, And this one does not disappoint. I'd have no problem including this one in my second dozen best episodes of the series :)

Ironic Tale of Greed

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 25 June 2018]

In 1961, a group of four experts steal US$ 1 million in golden bars and bring the treasure to a cave in the desert. Their plan is to go into suspended animation in capsules for one century and awake rich and free. When they awake, they learn the real value of the gold.

"The Rip Van Winkle Caper" is an episode of "The Twilight Zone" with an ironic tale of greed. The plot has many flaws, such as a man that develops such technology would have no need of steeling. Or how the capsule and the truck batteries kept loaded for one hundred years. Or how the fuel of the truck has not deteriorated a century later. De Cruz could have brought as many gold as he wanted. Why the need of exploring his accomplice? Anyway, the story is highly entertaining with a witty and tragic conclusion. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Um Assalto para o Futuro" ("A Heist for the Future")

The stuff dreams are made of

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 26 March 2019]

Oscar Beregi is the mastermind of a gold heist and Simon Oakland, John Mitchum, and Lew Gallo are the henchman. Beregi is a scientist and the others are your average crooks. They heist a truck carrying a large gold shipment and drive it to a deep cave in Death Valley.

It's Beregi's idea to put the four of them in these chambers of suspended animation and stay there for 100 years. The heat certainly off by that time and they can live like kings. At least that's the theory.

When they wake up and one doesn't, a malfunction Death Valley looks pretty much the same. Deserts never do change much on their own. Did the three left really pull this off.

A nice episode and what a cosmic joke is played on them all.

Well, we all know how the best laid plans tend to pan out

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 13 October 2017]

A trio of criminals and their scientist accomplice put themselves in suspended animation for one hundred years after stealing a fortune in gold.

Director Jus Addiss keeps the gripping story moving along at a brisk pace as well as ably crafts a stark gritty tone. The excellent acting by the top-rate cast keeps this show humming: Oscar Beregi Jr. as shrewd mastermind Farwell, Simon Oakland as the ruthless and avaricious De Cruz, Lew Gallo as the weaselly Brooks, and John Mitchum as the dim-witted Erbie. Rod Serling's clever script neatly explores how greed and the lack of honor amongst these thieves proves to be their undoing plus offers a deliciously ironic twist at the end which once again proves that crime just doesn't pay. A worthy episode.

The Twilight Zone - The Rip Van Winkle Caper

[Scarecrow-88 · 7/10 · 27 July 2018]

Death Valley gets the nod again as four thieves, carrying quite a cache of gold bars, hide away their loot in a hidden cave with a stone door that pulls open using a rope. Inside the cave are four sleep chambers with the ability of suspended animation, provided to the thieves so they can awaken years later when the authorities would have abandoned their search for the gold. Farwell (Beregi, who would later lend his best performance on this show as an evil Nazi returning to the "museum of torture", in "Deaths-Head Revisited") has concocted this unique plan, with his knowledge in gases, chemistry and physics coming in handy, while his cohorts, De Cruz (Simon Oakland, much stressed news editor of "Kolchak, the Night Stalker"), Brooks (Lew Gallo), and Herbie (John Mitchum) get the benefits of the sleep machine so they can later partake (supposedly) in the riches of the gold once they awaken. But will the gold still have the same worth in a hundred years as it does in 1961?

Once again, the scorching sun beating down in the desert, no honor among criminals (in this case, thieves), the desire for water and its price when desperately needed, and the consequences of greed and avarice feature significantly in another episode of The Twilight Zone. Oakland is particularly loathsome, eyeing to have all the gold if possible, exploiting his canteen of water as Beregi hobbles behind sweating, huffing and puffing, and clinging to whatever energies the gold's value provide. Oakland seizes upon a back turned to run over Gallo while his attentions are elsewhere with a car before leaping out of the car while it careens off a cliff...Oakland smile, happy with himself, considering Gallo's death caused by a "car wreck". Unfortunately for Mitchum, his chamber was "disturbed" by a cavernous rock that smashed the glass, leaving him dead, just skeletal remains!

Serling's narration gives the viewer each of the four's skill-set and why they each functioned so well in the heist, experts in weapons, demolition, and mechanics. While Farwell is the mastermind and brains of the heist and later suspended animation, he aligned himself with De Cruz, much to his detriment. As sometimes happens, when there is something precious and desirable (whether it be monetary or necessary for survival) typically one among a gang takes the initiative to "dwindle the numbers" in his favor. I guess viewers / fans might see parallels to "I Shot an Arrow Into the Air", as there are casualties involved when the selfish think only about their own welfare. That the gold is worthless in 2061 is the big twist, clever and ironic as intended, and all four crooks perished for absolutely nothing. Beregi is actually not the monstrous among these thieves, more of a genius who allowed greed to overtake good sense. Oakland is from the get-go a cretin, never to be trusted, always concerned only for his own situation. Gallo and Mitchum are minor bit players disposed of by the plot rather quickly in favor of seeing Oakland and Beregi trekking under the hot sun, water in exchange for gold bars, eventually leaving one dead while another collapses from thirst/starvation just as he encounters assistance. The future-car being from "Forbidden Planet" is a cool addition (that movie was a prop outlet for The Twilight Zone!), as the husband and wife consider how this "poor dead soul" ended up out in the desert on his own. I never felt they could use Death Valley enough...it is just an outstanding location, the perfect bleak backdrop to tell stories of survival and peril. But the story is honestly quite simple and not all that particularly distinctive. But the direction gets the most out of the use of greed as a motivational device that destroys those wanting to be rich, rich, rich.

A very good episode with a nice twist at the end

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 9 September 2007]

The best episodes of THE TWILIGHT ZONE are the ones that have a wonderful and unexpected twist at the end. This one, then, is one of the best because it has one of those perfect endings that make you love the show.

A group of crooks heist a huge shipment of gold--making them immensely wealthy. However, the gang's leader is smart--so smart that he has devised a way to get away with it. They will go into suspended animation until they are no longer wanted and they can spend the loot any way they wish. Unfortunately, instead of waking up just after the statute of limitations is up, they end up many years in the future and their transportation out of this desert cave is useless, so they are forced to trek to civilization with the treasure. Along the way, greed sets in and the group is reduced again and again by murder and dehydration until it's evident that even the "brains" of the operation is destined to die of thirst.

Was it really cost-effective, plus how long will things really last?

[cpotato1010 · 7/10 · 18 December 2018]

For a quick 25-minute morality play, it was not that bad, as long as you did not look too deep at the situation.

They stole $1 Million in gold bullion. Assuming $35/troy oz, that is about 2040 pounds. The standard bar of gold is 12.4Kg, or 27.28 pounds, so their haul is about 75 bars of gold. The inverse is that each bar is worth about $13,333 at the time they stole them.

Easily moved in one motor vehicle, but rather difficult to move it all on one's back.

So here is where reality begins to rear its ugly head.

Assuming you are the two remaining crooks, how much are you going to walk through the desert with?

Then there are the questions: 1) they stole $1 Million.

How much did it cost to make the knockout gas, and the suspended animation chambers? It costs money to steal that much money, and get away with it.

2) You plan to "sleep" for 100 years.

Has anybody really looked at what various materials look like after 100 years?

You might want to consider an older vehicle with NO solid-state electronics. While tubes might survive, the capacitors in the radio probably would not.

Would the various bearings, such as the wheel bearings and the starter bearings still work, or would the metal pieces stick together after that long of a time? Not to mention the engine bearings and rings.

Note, there are ways to do long-term storage of a vehicle, but it usually requires partial disassembly and special preservatives.

Any natural rubber would be long gone, but the tires might survive if the truck was on blocks. They likely would still need to be inflated, as most/all of the air would have leaked out. I still would not want to drive very far or fast on them.

As for batteries, I think lead-acid might survive, but would need to be recharged. I think they had solar cells that could be used, if they had a charger that survived.

3) water storage

No plastic, but glass or stainless steel containers. I bought two 2.5Gal in the standard #2 HDPE plastic jugs as an "emergency" supply. They did not last five years before the water had leaked out.

And then why the rush to leave once they woke up?

And leave during the day? They had to have know approximately where they were, and how far to what hopefully was a still-existing road. No maps (acid-free paper, of course)?

Fortunately, the episode is short enough and paced well enough that you don't consider questions like these while watching it.

Economics 101 indeed...

[cephyn · 8/10 · 17 January 2008]

The above poster displays a fundamental misunderstanding about the value of gold and how inflation works. Gold has a static "value" - you invest in gold during times of inflation because when you cash back out, that gold will have the same amount of buying power it started with. It's the dollar that loses value, not the gold.

The plan in the episode is sound. The million dollars worth of gold would have bought the criminals roughly the same amount of stuff in 2061 as it would have in 1961.

It is of course still a plot hole in that suspended animation technology would be worth far more than $1M of gold, but it's a TV show, one that has a specific story and point to it, like all Twilight Zones had. It's simply a plot device.

"One hundred years gentlemen, we shall walk the Earth again"

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 30 April 2010]

If I were a betting man, I'd bet against this episode of The Twilight Zone. Back in 1961, gold went for thirty five dollars an ounce; today it closed at around eleven hundred eighty. Fifty more years, who knows? But the safe bet is that nothing that exists fifty years from now will resemble anything that's around today with the pace of technology on the one hand, and the burgeoning debt problems of countries all around the world on the other, including our own. The Rip Van Winkle of 2010 wouldn't need a hundred years to cash in, but might not want to wake up in a future devastated by today's turbulent economies.

For the principals of this story, the one that made it to the end (and the one who almost did), I ponder which finale was more ironic, the one shown here, or that of Bogart in " The Treasure of the Sierra Madre", who's ill fortune was simply borne away on the wind. Unintended consequences are always at the center of man's most brilliant plans.

Speaking of which, how is it that a truck sitting idly in a Death Valley cave manages to start up after a hundred years? Even if the gas didn't evaporate. I know the Sixties were a simpler time, but I think Serling should have given that some thought. Yes I know, too much to consider for a twenty five minute show, but reliance on that kind of suspension of disbelief was a hallmark of the series.

So what was more remarkable than the twist ending here? How about Rod Serling hawking Oasis cigarettes during the commercial break. It was the first time in sixty episodes that he personally plugged a product, but even with his endorsement, the brand didn't last long. In fact, I don't even remember it.

Ridiculous and silly

[whatch-17931 · 4/10 · 15 January 2021]

These guys stage a quite elaborate theft, yet barely made any preparations for after their snooze. Their plan requires quite a lot of trust, yet they clearly don't trust each other whatsoever even before the nap.

Are criminals stupid greedy backstabbers? Plenty are, no doubt, but it just isn't credible here. What they actually pulled off requires organized crime level abilities.

All That Glitters Is Not Water.

[rmax304823 · 27 February 2013]

Four miscreants rob a train of millions of dollars worth of gold bullion, but how to spend it? It's hot stuff. Fortunately, the group's leader, Oscar Beregi, has worked out a plan. They simply drive into the desert and put themselves into a state of hibernation for a hundred years. When they emerge, in 2061, the heist will have been long forgotten.

Of course things go wrong. One of the men dies accidentally during the hundred years. Simon Oakland, the greediest and least thoughtful of the remaining three, runs over one of the others. Now only Beregi and Oakland are left to pack their knapsacks full of stone-heavy gold and set off along a desert road, hoping to find a town.

Beregi runs out of water. Oakland, all evil grins, offers to sell him a drink of water for one bar of gold, later raised to two bars. The deranged Beregi beans Oakland and makes off with the little bit of gold he's still able to carry.

He's finally spotted by a tourist couple and with his dying breath offers them a bar of real gold to drive him to town. Ironically, in the preceding hundred years, the alchemists have found a way to manufacture gold and it is now as cheap as plastic.

Nobody can be as villainous as Simon Oakland at his best. Even when he plays an ordinary role, he comes across as bossy. And Beregi is just as good an actor, although in his career he was largely constrained to the tube. Happily, make up didn't squirt oil all over everyone, as they did in "The Lonely", in order to suggest perspiration. You don't really sweat in the desert because of the low vapor pressure. I drove though this filming location, Death Valley, in the middle of summer with a guy who drank beer after beer and never urinated. He didn't have to. He sweated it out and it evaporated at once.

the reality of the gold

[lazur-2 · 10/10 · 19 May 2011]

In answer to the reviewer who questioned the wisdom of taking a "mere" million dollars of gold through time: The price of gold averaged $35.25 per ounce in 1961. On May 18, 2011, (today, one-half the one hundred years in the story), it's valued at $1492.60 per ounce, over forty-two and a third times as much: That million dollars of gold would now be worth $42,343,262,40. Too bad they couldn't sleep for fifty years instead of one hundred. Inflation across the board has been 6.5472. Thus the gold will purchase 6.647 times in 2011 what it would in 1961, $6,647,384.84 in purchasing power as these men would understand it. Let's put aside the twist ending in the story: The reality is inflation will only get worse, and gold will only get higher. If the next fifty years repeat the first fifty, this gold will have *fourteen*! times the purchasing power that it had in 1961,(and that was already plenty).

Conceptive episode on The Twilight Zone's trademark!!!

[elo-equipamentos · 8/10 · 14 March 2020]

Seemingly at first sight this episode sound silly or contradictory, nevertheless it was part of Rod Serling's basis concept of The Twilight Zone, it's a fictional offer, after a successful gold robbery a quartet of thieves hidden in a cave all Gold's bars, leading by the genius Farewell (Oscar Berege) who planned the whole operation, to avoid to be arrest in that time, they will be preserved in a sort of sealed boxes by some kind of gas on suspended animation for next hundred years, in the future they'll wake up completely forgot by the men's law, just three survives along the century, but the world evolved surprising, what a arty story, it's has a strong The Twilight Zone's trademark, deliver the unknown, the unnatural, the unthinkable, how much weird is better, it gives us a wings to "beyond of imagination" (That is the Brazilian's name of this series), fantastic!!

Resume:

First watch: 2020 / How many: 1 / DVD / Rating: 8.25

It Just Doesn't Wash

[Hitchcoc · 6/10 · 19 November 2008]

Considering the accomplishments of the principle character, this is so idiotic. Three idiots and a scientist grab a million dollars in gold bullion and decide to take it forward in time. One of them has developed a means of putting them in suspended animation. Of course, because they are all idiots, they do the most base, stupid things imaginable, including wrecking the truck that will be used to transport the gold. Just like the guys in Von Stroheim's "Greed," the two survivors end up in a grab fest for the little water they have taken with them. These guys don't think five minutes ahead, considering they have gone a hundred years into the future. Did I mention they are a pack of idiots?

WAKE ME UP ONLY IF YOU FIND PARADISE!!!

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 19 September 2023]

This fascinating story was directed by Justus Addiss, who also did work for Alfred Hitchcock's tv show. He brought out some strong performanaces here, and with good reason.

This one is REALLY over the top, a Rod Serling classic, all about four guys with stars in their eyes who think they can fool father time by sleeping away a hundred years with gold they had stolen!

Veteran bad guy Oscar Beregi plays a crude scientist of sorts and mastermind of the scheme, who has developed coffin-like, airtight boxes in which all four men will rest in for the next hundred years --and in a Death Valley, California desert cave? Their mission: to escape from any possible prosecution and live rich and happy ever after.

It's an amazing tale, though you have to admit there are some what if's at play. One of the most striking, if not realistic scenes is when they do wake up, one man is discovered dead and a skeleton. His case hit and smashed open by a falling rock. That bit may have inspired a similar scene from PLANET OF THE APES.

Thank you to one reviewer who commented that the truck they used to haul all the gold would be totally inoperable after a century -- at the very least the tires would have rotted away.

Good support from Simon Oakland, the most greediest of the bunch. And that's all we will tell you. Wait for the REAL END. A one of a kind adventure that gets you thinking.... the genius behind Rod Serling.

It would have been a fun gag if the cost of a shake, burger and fries in a 100 years would be $1,000!

A must for all of us dreamers, and the rest who enjoy a solid dose of dark comedy. SEASON 2 EPISODE 24 remastered dvd box set.

RIDICULOUS!

[vgingerspice · 7/10 · 17 February 2021]

Near the end of the movie the one jerk is getting more gold for water from the old guy. If he wanted more gold, why didn't he take more in the first place since he had room for more??? The whole thing is ridiculous!

Opportunity Knocks

[1Wishbone · 8/10 · 18 February 2024]

This is one of my favorite Twilight Zones because of the thought of jumping ahead 100 years is a wonderful daydream. However, there are silly plot holes as others have mentioned, but it still makes for a fun 30 minutes. It's clear these guys don't trust each other, and how did the genius leader get mixed up with the other three losers? So - here's what I would have done. If I were one of the four people involved at the beginning, the instructions were to count to ten and then press the button to release the sleeping gas. I would be the only one NOT to press my button. Then wait ten minutes or so, and then jump out of my box. Now I have all the gold, the truck, and goodbye to those other three dopes.

Fun but flawed.

[BA_Harrison · 6/10 · 11 March 2022]

Instead of crossing the expanse of time by supernatural means, as is so often the case in The Twilight Zone, four men - Farwell, Brooks, De Cruz and Erbie - escape the present by placing themselves in suspended animation in a cave in the desert for one hundred years, after which they intend to make the most of their ill-gotten gains: stolen gold bullion worth one million dollars.

Of the four, only three survive their century asleep, Erbie's sleep chamber crushed by a falling rock, and on waking, greed gets the most of De Cruz (Simon Oakland), who kills Brooks, and swindles mastermind Farwell out of his share in exchange for water during their long walk to civilisation. Farwell, pushed to the brink, eventually smashes De Cruz over the head with a gold bar, and staggers down the road where he collapses from dehydration. Dying from thirst, Farwell offers his last bar of gold to a passing stranger in exchange for water, but dies shortly after.

In this episode's twist, it is revealed that in the year 2061, gold is practically worthless, mankind having found a way to manufacture the metal, which makes the four men's hard work and sacrifice meaningless.

Despite this wonderfully ironic ending, there's a few too many plot holes and just a little too much stupidity on display from the criminals for it to be wholly satisfying: as others have pointed out, why not make a fortune selling the suspended animation technology instead of pulling off a heist? Just how heavy would a knapsack of gold be? Would a van remain operational after 100 years standing still? As for Farwell, supposedly the brains of the outfit, leaving his water canteen behind while walking through a desert... he deserves everything he gets.

5.5/10, rounded up to 6 for the futuristic car at the end - just think... a mere thirty-nine years from now and you could be driving one just like it (I expect I will have shuffled off by then).

Awesome concept, elaboration could have been better

[Coventry · 6/10 · 10 July 2019]

The one thing what makes "The Twilight Zone" so brilliant is simultaneously the one cause of my own personal frustration. I'm talking about the diversity and ingenuity of all stories throughout five magnificent seasons. So many TZ episodes have terrific basic premises, and occasionally I'm even confronted with the fact that this series already covered the ideas and topics that I was also hoping to process into screenplays myself. For you see, I am an amateur writer (absolutely nothing fancy) and one of the plots that I started writing down on a piece of paper deals with a gang of Belgian bank robbers freezing themselves immediately after a big heist in the mid-1980's, and awakening again 25 years later only to come to the conclusion that the currency of Belgian Francs has been replaced with Euros. I vaguely heard of Irving's Rip Van Winkle before, but never read it, and I swear never knew about the existence of this episode of "The Twilight Zone".

But, whatever, those things happen. More importantly, and relevantly, is that "The Rip Van Winkle Caper" is a masterful TZ episode in terms of originality, but the further elaboration is rather lacking. Particularly the first 10 minutes are amazingly compelling, with eerie tensions between four macho criminals and the reluctance of one of them to be put to sleep for an entire century. The plan of mastermind Farwell is nevertheless carried out and three men (not four) rise again in - what they believe - is the year 2061 with bars of god for a 1961 value of $1, 000,000.

This is where the scenario goes downhill and becomes very implausible. For starters, the Death Valley location. I can understand they chose a remote resting place for their one-hundred years of sleep, ... but Death Valley? When they awake, they seem surprised that Death Valley is still a godforsaken desert and that the surroundings didn't turn into some sort of futuristic city. Moreover, Death Valley again? This must already be the third or fourth episodes in the series revolving on the inescapability and slim survival changes of this area. Driven by greed, the remaining survivors then take the utmost stupidest decisions, like destroying their truck and walk across the heat with heavy gold in their backpacks. So many potentially great plots could have spawned from this premise, but for some reason the script only centers on the non-survivable trek through Death Valley. You don't need to set your story 100 years in the future for this. Then, finally, I can't fathom why the character of Farwell is the last one standing. Obviously, De Cruz was the vilest man of the foursome, and also the one who was most obsessed with the gold.

One of the worst written and acted episodes of the entire series

[aviblack · 3/10 · 19 December 2017]

Rod Serling wrote some beautiful, compelling stories; he could also write stilted dialogue around premises that were sadly pathetic. Unfortunately, this episode falls into the latter category. A bit of dialogue: "How is it going to work?" "Don't you know?", followed by a didactic explanation of the suspension process, which you could figure out visually by yourself in five seconds. Another: "How long will we be under, Doctor?" "I don't know, it could be five years, could be 100"; then they wake up and he knows it's exactly 2061. They emerge from their plastic bins without any hair or fingernail growth; it's only after one of the guys asks "how could that be?" that the brilliant physicist/chemist thinks a bit and, in an "aha" moment, figures out that their bodily functions must have been suspended -- really? He only figures this out AFTER applying the "can't fail" system he developed? Come on, Rod, give us a break. You were a great producer, but you made history when you left the story writing to Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont, George Clayton Johnson, Earl Hamner Jr... those are the ones who wrote the really great and memorable episodes!

On the off chance you're in a position to try this at home...

[frannywentzel · 19 July 2011]

Here's a short list of things to consider...

1 - find out what the statute of limitations is on the crime of ruffieing an entire train and robbing it of the gold its transporting.

2 - also find out the statute of limitations for boofing that sleeping beauty in the club car - you know you're going to want to...

3 - set your suspended animation machine for maybe a year or two after said limit

4 - ask yourself - do you really need glass on the top of your suspended animation machine?

5 - look up at the ceiling whilst pondering

6 - ask yourself if a motor vehicle would be operable in the time you plan to wake. A motor vehicle that needs oil, gas, coolant and air-filled tyres that's been sitting in a hot desert cave?

7 - pack hand trucks - with solid tyres - for everybody and an extra for just in case

8 - on second thought pack some mountain bikes - why schlep all that gold when you can pack a bar each, cycle to the nearest town and get yourself a chrome-plated hover-truck from The Future

9 - pack plenty of bottled water - I think Apollonaris was one of the brands you could get in 1961.

10 - on the off-chance some nimrod finds a way to manufacture gold... steal some silver and/or platinum and if you see some gemstones, you might as well load up on them. Vintage currency should have a market in the future. Even that American-made transistor radio that sleeping beauty was listening to could fetch a boodle on eBay nowadays if you think to take out the batteries... What you've never heard of eBay Mister 1961? Oh right...

If everything you swiped is now worthless, don't lose heart. You'll still clean up once people find out YOU INVENTED A WORKING SUSPENDED ANIMATION MACHINE.

What? They have those now? Ahh crap. Oh, just write a book about your exploits and go on the holographic talk show and interstellar-lecture circuit.