Episode no. Season 2
Episode 24 Written by Rod Serling Original air date April 21, 1961 | Directed by Justus Addiss Production code 173-3655 | |
"The Rip Van Winkle Caper" is episode 60 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on April 21, 1961 on CBS.
Contents
Plot
To escape the law after stealing $1 million worth of gold bricks (equal to $8.0 million today) from a train on its way from Fort Knox to Los Angeles, a band of four gold thieves, led by scientist-mastermind Farwell, hide in a secret cave in Death Valley, California. Farwell has designed suspended animation chambers and set them for approximately 100 years, figuring that, by 2061, the gold will no longer be "hot" and they can sell it on the white market without arousing suspicion.
When they wake up, all that remains of Erbie is his skeleton, his suspended animation chamber having been cracked by a falling rock. Brooks demands that DeCruz drive the getaway car. DeCruz kills Brooks by running him over with the getaway truck, then purposely drives the truck into a ravine. Farwell and DeCruz must walk through the desert in the summer heat, carrying as much gold as they can on their backs.
Farwell loses his canteen, and DeCruz offers him a sip of water from his canteen, for the price of one gold bar. When the fee goes up to two bars, Farwell strikes DeCruz with a gold brick, killing him. Farwell continues to a highway, gradually discarding gold bars as their weight becomes increasingly burdensome. Finally, weak and dehydrated, he collapses. Farwell offers his last gold bar to a man in a futuristic car that has driven up, in exchange for water and a ride to the nearest town; but he dies a few moments later.
The man, named George, gets back into his car to report Farwell's death to the police. He remarks to his wife about the oddity of Farwell offering him a gold bar, since a method for manufacturing gold was discovered decades ago, making it virtually worthless.