- [Al has just told Sam that he has to fly an experimental aircraft in order to leap]
- Sam: There's got to be another way.
- Al: The next one's only got a 52% chance of working.
- Sam: I'll take it!
- Al: It requires you to be at ground zero during an atomic detonation.
- [Sam frowns]
- Al: You asked.
- Sam: What else have you got?
- Al: This isn't a shopping list, you know.
- [consults handlink]
- Al: The odds drop into the low teens after that. Your best shot is freezing the brain until all electrical activity has ceased.
- Sam: That's called *death*.
- Al: I never said it would be easy. You want a sure thing? I got it for you. You don't do anything, you just live. Barring accidental death or a fatal disease, you'll be back in forty years. That's your safest option.
- Sam: And Tom Stratton?
- Al: He'll go on living forward from where he's at now. Technically, he could end up the oldest man alive.
- Sam: Well, what about Peg and Mikey? I don't want to hurt them, but I can't go on pretending I'm Tom.
- Al: Hey, they were going to lose him on Monday anyway. Of course, if you bust Mach 3 and survive, they could have him around for another thirty or forty years.
- Sam: I can't fly!
- Al: I'll be your co-pilot.
- Sam: You're a hologram.
- Al: I'm also an ex-astronaut. The hardest part about flying is taking off and landing. The B-50 does the first part of that for you. After that, you just fire a couple of rockets, hang onto the stick and ka-za-zoom! Mach 3.
- Sam: And the second part?
- Al: Landing?
- [shakes head]
- Al: You could *never* land the X-2, not even with my help. So, you don't.
- Sam: I eject.
- Al: [nods] X-2 does a crash and burn. You float back to earth on a pillow silk. The moment you touch down, you leap forward, Tom leaps back and the broad and I are gone to Las Vegas!
- Sam: It could work.
- Al: Of course it will work.
- Sam: A minute ago, you said it was crap.
- Al: That was before I thought it out.
- [On why they could not retrieve Sam from the past]
- Sam: Ziggy's theory is really - it's a load of crap. You have to believe that God or time or something was just waiting for your quantum leap to correct a mistake.
- Sam: A mistake in time?
- Al: Something that happened in the life of Cpt. Tom Stratton in '56 since he's the one you bounce out. Once that's put right, you'll snap back like a pimp's suspenders.
- Sam: Once what's put right?
- Al: Tom Stratton was killed trying to break Mach 3 in the X-2. If Ziggy's right, all you have to do is break Mach 3 and live.
- [Sam walks away]
- Al: We're making preparations for Tina's birthday party and she wants me to pop out of the cake. You'll never believe what she wants me not to wear.
- Sam: Where the hell were you?
- Al: I was at the Laker game. It went into overtime.
- Sam: A ball game? I nearly died because you were at a ball game?
- Al: It wasn't just a ball game. It was a play-off game. At the party later, I met this dish named Martha.
- Sam: I guess I can thank God you didn't spend the night with this Martha.
- Al: Well, I did.