"He's Alive" | |||
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The Twilight Zone episode | |||
Dennis Hopper in He's Alive |
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Episode no. | Season 4 Episode 106 |
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Directed by | Stuart Rosenberg | ||
Written by | Rod Serling | ||
Production code | 4856 | ||
Original air date | January 24, 1963 | ||
Guest stars | |||
Dennis Hopper (Peter Vollmer) |
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Episode chronology | |||
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List of Twilight Zone episodes |
"He's Alive" is a fourth-season episode of The Twilight Zone. It tells of an American neo-Nazi who is inspired by the ghost of Adolf Hitler. A personal passion of Rod Serling, it concludes that figures such as Hitler will always be alive so long as prejudice and ignorance persist.
Peter Vollmer (Dennis Hopper), the leader of a small and struggling Nazi group, is visited by a shadowy figure who teaches him how to enthrall a crowd. The figure also instructs Vollmer to arrange the death of one of his followers, Nick, thereby creating a martyr to rally everyone around. Following the figure's instructions and assistance, Vollmer is considerably more successful and his group's following grows. However, the elderly Jewish man Vollmer lives with, Ernst Ganz (Ludwig Donath), spent nine years in Dachau and strongly disapproves of Vollmer's politics. Ernst disrupts a rally, accusing Vollmer of being "nothing but a cheap copy" of Adolf Hitler. After the failed rally, responding to the shadowy man's accusation that Vollmer has the instincts of a rabbit, Vollmer demands to know who his mysterious benefactor is.
The man in the shadows reveals himself to be Adolf Hitler and he orders Peter to kill Ernst, which he does. Hitler congratulates him for this and asks him how it felt. Peter replies that he felt immortal. Hitler's thundering response: "Mr. Vollmer! We ARE immortal!" Suddenly, police arrive to arrest Peter for his connection with Nick's death; he is shot while fleeing the scene. Peter stares at his bullet wound, astonished by the pain...and by the sight of his own blood. He addresses the police: "There's something very wrong here...Don't you understand that I'm made out of steel!?"
Hitler leaves the dying Vollmer, off to look for another worthy candidate.