"The Jeopardy Room" is episode 149 of the

American television Television is one of the major mass media outlets in the United States. , household ownership of television sets in the country is 96.7%, with approximately 114,200,000 American households owning at least one television set as of August 2013. ...

anthology series ''

The Twilight Zone ''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dystopian fiction, suspense, horror, sup ...

'', which originally aired on April 17, 1964, on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

. It is one of the few ''Twilight Zone'' episodes to feature no supernatural or sci-fi elements.

Opening narration

Plot

Major Ivan Kuchenko, an escaped political prisoner who is attempting to

defect A defect is a physical, functional, or aesthetic attribute of a product or service that exhibits that the product or service failed to meet one of the desired specifications. Defect, defects or defected may also refer to: Examples * Angular defec ...

, is trapped inside a hotel room in an unnamed, politically neutral country. Commissar Vassiloff, a

hitman Contract killing is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or persons. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of payment, monetary or otherwise. Either party may ...

, and Boris, his assistant, are watching Kuchenko from a room across the street. Vassiloff, who considers himself an artist, has an elaborate plan for Kuchenko's assassination. After Vassiloff tricks Kuchenko into drinking a sleeping drug, Kuchenko awakes to find a taped recording from Vassiloff in which he explains that he has

booby-trapped A booby trap is a device or setup that is intended to kill, harm or surprise a human or another animal. It is triggered by the presence or actions of the victim and sometimes has some form of bait designed to lure the victim towards it. The trap m ...

an object in the room. If Kuchenko finds and disarms the object within three hours, he will be allowed to live; if he tries to leave the room before then or turn out the lights, he will be shot by Boris, an expert sniper. Vassiloff tells Boris he has hidden a lethal bomb in the telephone, but it will be triggered only by picking up an incoming call. Thus, when Kuchenko picks up the phone without it ringing, nothing happens. Kuchenko grows increasingly nervous and desperate as the ordeal continues, even begging Vassiloff to shoot him at one point. With ten minutes of time left, Vassiloff places a call to Kuchenko's room. Kuchenko puts his hand on the receiver, but hesitates. When Vassiloff tries to call him a second time, Kuchenko bolts out of the hotel room, narrowly escaping a spray of bullets from Boris. Later, Vassiloff and Boris enter the room to dispose of evidence. The telephone rings, and Boris and Vassiloff are both killed after Boris unthinkingly answers it. On the other end of the line is Ivan Kuchenko, calling from a phone booth at the airport. The operator tells him she is unable to reach his party, but Kuchenko states, "It’s alright, operator. I... I have reached them.” He then leaves to board a plane flying to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, as Vassiloff and Boris are shown lying dead amidst the rubble of Kuchenko's room.

Closing narration

Cast

Martin Landau Martin James Landau (; June 20, 1928 – July 15, 2017) was an American actor, acting coach, producer, and editorial cartoonist. His career began in the 1950s, with early film appearances including a supporting role in Alfred Hitchcock's ''North ...

as Major Ivan Kuchenko *John Van Dreelan as Commissar Vassiloff *Bob Kelljan (credited Robert Kelljan) as Boris * Rod Serling as Narrator/himself

References

*DeVoe, Bill. (2008). ''Trivia from The Twilight Zone''. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. *Grams, Martin. (2008). ''The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic''. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. *Zicree, Marc Scott: ''The Twilight Zone Companion''. Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition)

External links