The Trade-Ins

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“The Trade-Ins”

The Twilight Zone episode

Scene from "The Trade-Ins"

Episode no.

Season 3
Episode 96

Written by

Rod Serling

Directed by

Elliot Silverstein

Guest stars

Joseph Schildkraut : John Holt
Alma Platt : Marie Holt
Noah Keen : Mr. Vance
Theodore Marcuse : Farraday
Edson Stroll : Young John Holt
Terence de Marney : Gambler #1
Billy Vincent : Gambler #2

Production no.

4831

Original airdate

April 13, 1962

Episode chronology
← Previous	Next →
"Hocus-Pocus and Frisby"	"The Gift"

List of Twilight Zone episodes

"The Trade-Ins" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.

1 Opening narration
2 Synopsis
3 Closing narration
4 The Twilight Zone Links
5 External links

[edit] Opening narration

“

Mr. and Mrs. John Holt, aging people who slowly and with trembling fingers turn the last pages of a book of life and hope against logic and the preordained that some magic printing press will add to this book another limited edition. But these two senior citizens happen to live in a time of the future where nothing is impossible, even the trading of old bodies for new. Mr. and Mrs. John Holt, in their twilight years--who are about to find that there happens to be a zone with the same name.

”

[edit] Synopsis

An elderly couple realize they haven't much time, so they decide to visit a medical center specializing in a new technology: body swapping. The center representative tells them that most couples have been happy with the quality of the swap, but nevertheless if they change their mind afterwards, the company offers a return clause as the swap procedure can be reversed. The couple decides to trade their bodies in for new, young ones. To their dismay, the swap will cost $10,000 for both, and they have only half that. The old man attempts to earn the rest of the money in a high-stakes poker game. The soft-hearted dealer, seeing the old man put all his money on one hand, secretly folds his winning hand to allow him to take his money back. Finally, the old man goes ahead and has himself changed, intending to use his young body to earn the money for his wife. In the end, they realize they can't wait the necessary time for the young Mr. Holt to earn the money for Mrs. Holt's procedure, and would rather be old together, than for one of them to be young and the other old. He opts for the return clause.

[edit] Closing narration

“

From Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet: 'Love gives not but itself and takes not from itself, love possesses not nor would it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love.' Not a lesson, just a reminder, from all the sentimentalists in the Twilight Zone.

”