Spur of the Moment
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| “Spur of the Moment” | |||||||
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| The Twilight Zone episode | |||||||
 The older Anne screams for her younger self. |
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| Episode no. | Season 5 Episode 141 |
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| Written by | Richard Matheson | ||||||
| Directed by | Elliot Silverstein | ||||||
| Guest stars | Diana Hyland : Anne Henderson Robert J. Hogan : Robert Blake Philip Ober : Mr. Henderson Marsha Hunt : Mrs. Henderson Roger Davis : David Mitchell |
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| Featured music | Rene Garriguenc | ||||||
| Production no. | 2608 | ||||||
| Original airdate | February 21, 1964 | ||||||
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| List of Twilight Zone episodes | |||||||
"Spur of the Moment" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.
Contents |
[edit] Opening narration
| “ | This is the face of terror: Anne Marie Henderson, eighteen years of age, her young existence suddenly marred by a savage and wholly unanticipated pursuit by a strange, nightmarish figure of a woman in black, who has appeared as if from nowhere and now at driving gallop chases the terrified girl across the countryside, as if she means to ride her down and kill her--and then suddenly and inexplicably stops, to watch in malignant silence as her prey takes flight. Miss Henderson has no idea whatever as to the motive for this pursuit. Soon enough, she will be given the solution to this twofold mystery, but in a manner far beyond her present capacity to understand, a manner enigmatically bizarre in terms of time and space--which is to say, an answer from the Twilight Zone. | ” |
[edit] Synopsis
A young woman, Anne, is engaged to be married to a nice young investment broker, whom her father likes, while rebellious David Mitchell is trying to get her to elope with him. One day while horseback riding, she sees a terrifying woman dressed in black on horseback, who begins yelling at her to stop. The woman in black gallops toward her at full speed, and the young woman flees in terror, escaping her pursuer. Just before she is to be wed, the young woman is met by the no-good Mitchell, who convinces her to elope.
Twenty-five years later, Mitchell has driven the ranch Anne's father left her into bankruptcy and her to alcoholism. Anne has a fight with her husband and goes horseback riding, where she sees herself as a young woman on a horse. She now realizes that she was the terrifying woman in black who had frantically chased her younger self in the hope of warning her not to make the mistake of eloping with Mitchell. Anne is her own "ghostly double" from the future seeking to warn herself.
When the older Anne goes horseback riding, she repeatedly sees herself as a youngster and gives chase, but can never catch up, and thus can never change her past.
[edit] Closing narration
| “ | This is the face of terror: Anne Marie Mitchell, forty-three years of age, her desolate existence once more afflicted by the hope of altering her past mistake--a hope which is, unfortunately, doomed to disappointment. For warnings from the future to the past must be taken in the past; today may change tomorrow, but once today is gone tomorrow can only look back in sorrow that the warning was ignored. Said warning as of now stamped 'not accepted' and stored away in the dead file in the recording office of the Twilight Zone. | ” |
