Cold Fusion

Cold Fusion is the 36th episode of the 2002-2003 revival of The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on March 4th of 2003.

Opening narration

Meet Doctor Paul Thorson. A man of reason. A man used to solving problems others deem impossible. He's about to find himself tested. At a forgotten outpost. In a frozen wasteland somewhere deep... inside the Twilight Zone.

Plot

Physicist Paul Thorson (Sean Patrick Flanery) is sent to an Alaskan research facility to gather information on an energy project named Gemini after all contact with the facility is lost. When he arrives at the outpost he discovers two soldiers and a researcher who all seem to have their own agendas. One soldier repeatedly shoots at a door and bangs on it with an ax in an attempt to get inside and get to a man he calls Chandler. The soldier shooting at the door claims that Gemini is not in fact an energy project, but a bomb capable of destroying humanity. Dr. Thorson then encounters a female scientist working in a lab who claims that Gemini is in fact not finished, as she is working on putting the finishing touches on the bomb by solving mathematical equations in the lab. She claims she can hear Chandler talking to her, even though the physicist cannot. Thorson then encounters a second soldier playing video games in an office. The soldier says that he really doesn't care what is going on in the facility, and that he merely wishes to play his game.

As time goes by, Thorson begins to question what is real and what is not, and eventually comes to the conclusion that the other three people at the outpost are merely figments of his imagination. He then begins to shoot all three of them, and as they succumb to his bullets and appear to die they turn into clouds of dust and disappear. He then enters the locked room where Chandler (Ian McShane) is. Dr. Thorson soon discovers that the three other people at the research facility he shot, as well as Chandler, are indeed parts of his imagination and represent his different personality traits. His trait which takes the form of Chandler tells him that Gemini is in fact a weapon, and is actually the most powerful nuclear weapon to ever be constructed. If detonated it would likely eradicate all life on earth. Not wanting this to ever happen, the physicist then kills Chandler, who was a mirage, thus killing himself, and eliminating the chance of the weapon being completed by Thorson.

Admiral Munro sends SEAL Team Six to secure the base. They find Thorson dead and the computer files wiped. The team commander (Aaron Pearl) determines that Thorson killed everyone else and finally killed himself. Munro tells his men to bring the research back and they will find someone else to complete the project as "there's always someone."

Closing narration

The border between sanity and insanity is sometimes marked not by our reason but by fear. Fear of ourselves and our own capacity for destruction. An empirical observation recorded and filed by Dr. Paul Thorson in the Twilight Zone.

Cast

• Sean Patrick Flanery as Paul Thorson
• Keith Hamilton Cobb as Commander Skyles
• Ian McShane as Dr. Chandler
• Gordon Michael Woolvett as Corporal Gordon
• Nancy Sorel as Morgan
• Aaron Pearl as SEAL team commander
• Scott Hylands as Admiral Munro

Trivia

Themes present in the story such as fear of the unknown, isolation and the fact that the episode takes place at an Arctic outpost share the same plot themes as 1983 horror classic The Thing.