Episode
The Twilight Zone: Profile in Silver / Button, Button
Overview
A researcher from the future, a descendent of President John F. Kennedy goes back in time to witness his ancestor's death, and inadvertently changes history by saving the President. The researcher accidentally gives away the fact that he is from the future, as Kennedy is "pursued" by a series of hurricanes. A mysterious man offers a couple a bizarre deal: if they will push a button on a box that will kill one person they don't know, they will get a million dollars. After some contemplation, the couple goes ahead and pushes the button. The man tells them that they will indeed get the money. And somewhere, sometime, another couple will get the same box, and the same offer...
Details
- Series
- The Twilight Zone
- Season
- Season 1
- Episode
- Episode 20
- Air date
- 1986-03-07
- Runtime
- 49 min
Episode context
Profile in Silver / Button, Button is Episode 20 in Season 1 of The Twilight Zone. It aired on 1986-03-07. The runtime is 49 min.
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Episode 19: The Leprechaun-Artist / Dead Run
Vacationing in the United States, an Irish leprechaun is caught by three boys. To be freed, he must grant them three wishes.
An out-of-work trucker takes on a bizarre job upon the recommendation of a friend: deliveryman of souls to Hell. He soon begins to realize that Hell is essentially out of control, running on momentum, and that the current regime is way too harsh. Resolved, he decides to begin choosing which among the supposed "damned" should try to make their way to Heaven.
Episode 21: Need to Know / Red Snow
On a little town people started going crazy. Edward Sayers is sent by the senator to investigate. He makes the usual tests but doesn't find anything. He traces it to one person with a very special secret...
A KGB investigator is sent to Siberia to investigate the deaths of communist party officials. Later, he discovers that Stalin's exiles are alive and well. He also discovers dead people drained of blood.
More episodes from this season
Episode 18: Gramma / Personal Demons / Cold Reading
A young boy is left to care for his old, scary grandmother. He finally confronts his fears and steps up to her, finding that she has no pulse. Then Gramma reaches out and grabs him...
A screenwriter is having writer's block when strange impish creatures start haunting him. Sadly, only he can see them.
An actor arrives at a radio station to perform a radio play. An old voodoo stick is accidentally activated and the play becomes more real that anything anyone expected.
Episode 22: Take My Life...Please! / Devil's Alphabet / The Library
A mainstream comedian is killed by the one from whom he stole his work from. When he comes to, he is in one strange stage show, but there is something extremely wrong...
A college group holds their "Devil's Alphabet" meeting every year. When one of them dies, all the rest expect foul play.
Landing a new job at a private library a girl is warned never to look at the books. Taking a peek she learns that there's a book for everyone alive. When a neighbor pesters her, she rewrites his biography.
Episode 17: Welcome to Winfield / Quarantine
The grim reaper arrives at a hospital to take possession of a dying man. The man's wife rescues him and takes him to the western town of Winfield where residents have been living for hundreds of years. Apparently, the reaper has failed to collect those living there.
A man is awakened after several hundred years of cryogenic sleep. He finds a world where psychic powers abound. The people there want him to complete a mission that only he can accomplish.
Episode 23: Shadow Play / Grace Note
A condemned man, Adam Grant, insists that everything and everyone around him is a dream: one that he can't wake up from. He claims that every time he is executed, he fails to wake up and must relive the whole thing again. His attorney is originally skeptical, but Grant knows all of the "lines" and can predict things that will happen miles away. His attorney tries to get a stay of execution, but is just too late: Grant is "executed" and wakes up at his trial once more. The players have changed roles, but otherwise everything is the same as he must relive the same events over...and over...and over.
An opera singer is having a hard time. Her sister is at the hospital dying. Her sick sister leaves a gift: a glimpse into the future when the singer is a world-famous star.
Episode 16: The Elevator / To See the Invisible Man / Tooth and Consequences
Two twenty-something brothers go to their father's laboratory to steal his fathers' growth serum research and sell for their own profit. They find a web-like material, which tastes great. They find large plants. Some plants have increased in size more than others.
For the crime of emotional coldness, Mitchell Chaplin is condemned to social invisibility. For one year he will be branded with an irremovable brand that everyone knows means they must totally ignore him. At first, Chaplin is thrilled at the prospects.
A depressed dentist, Myron Mandel, is visited by the Tooth Fairy, who grants him the wish to be incredibly popular and loved. The wish is granted in full force, and soon Mandel can't handle the endless stream of visitors singing his praises.
Episode 24: A Day in Beaumont / The Last Defender of Camelot
In the 1950s a flying saucer crashes on Earth. The crash is seen by a couple. They run into town, but no one believes them.
"The Last Defender of Camelot" takes place in 1986 in London and, eventually, Cornwall. An extension of the story by Sir Thomas Mallory, a mid-50's man is drawn toward Cornwall with a sense of urgency. He is jumped by 3 young men, who are thrown aside like playthings. The old man forces one of the younger ones to take him to the boss. The boss is a late-30's woman, who reveals herself as Morgana. Lancelot is quested by her to see Merlin, who is asleep in a cave in Cornwall. Lancelot finds Merlin awakened. Merlin has different plans to resurrect a new king. What does the world's oldest magician have up his sleeve? Who can save mankind? Perhaps the Last Defender of Camelot?
Episode 15: Monsters! / A Small Talent for War / A Matter of Minutes
A young boy becomes fascinated with the new neighbor next door. The neighbor, Mr. Bendictson, warns him that he cannot stay long, as he is a vampire! The boy is still intrigued, but soon finds out the truth.
An alien ship arrives at the UN and the alien representative declares his disappointment at Earth's progress. The UN ambassadors plead for 24 hours to resolve their differences. In 24 hours the ambassadors manage to arrange world peace and nuclear disarmament. When the alien returns the ambassadors realize they have misunderstood him entirely.
A young married couple discovers that their home is being remodeled by blue-clad workers who are workers of time that build and move objects from one time period to another.
Episode 14: Still Life / The Little People of Killany Woods / The Misfortune Cookie
Finding an old trunk, a couple realizes that it has a false bottom containing a 70-year-old film from the Amazon.
An old Irishman has often been called a fool for his stories about Leprechauns. He catches the leader of "The Little People" and gets greedy.
A young man has had his heart broken recently. At a Chinese restaurant, he reads a fortune about finding new love and it comes true. His life seems perfect until he becomes greedy with his good luck. He only wants to read the fortune cookies. The old Chinese owner advises him of the bad luck of not finishing his meal before reading his fortune.
Episode 13: Night of the Meek / But Can She Type? / The Star
A drunken storefront Santa is terminally depressed by the many children who go gift less and starving during Christmas. He is fired from his job at a department store when he shows up late, and subsequently finds a bag that he can pull any present anyone wants from it.
An overworked, underpaid, and under appreciated secretary uses a Xerox machine and wakes up in a parallel reality where no one has heard of her. In this reality, however, secretaries are a revered, rare commodity.
Onboard a spaceship an astrophysicist and a priest learn they have discovered a planet long dead and a transmitter emitting a signal for eons. They discover that the planet holds the last remains of a civilization, which died when their star went supernova.
Episode 12: Her Pilgrim Soul / I of Newton
Two scientists named Kevin and Daniel are experimenting with a holographic device. One day they are confronted with a fetus in their machine. Growing, it becomes a woman whose life story fascinates and allures Kevin. A frazzled mathematics professor accidentally summons a demon who will let him riddle to get free of the contract he accidentally invoked. The professor, Sam, has three questions to find a task the demon can't accomplish, or a question he can't answer, then challenge him after the questions are answered. The demon appears omnipotent, but Sam gives the demon a simple command: "Get lost." The demon is banished and Sam goes back to work.