This is an old twilight zone episode. A women is given a box with one button on it and told to press it is she wants the money, but someone she doesn’t even know will die.
She decides the push the button, and then someone comes to collect the button device, saying that it will now be reset and taken to someone else now for the same challenge. Some random person on earth. Implying that she will be the next to die if the button gets pushed.
Frankly not a bad system. Slowly cleanses the selfish from the earth.
I’m an 80s kid but I skipped the old Twilight episodes … so I’m trying to darnest to catch up on them and I’m learning how awesome the ideas were even if the presentation is dated.
Just a random segue …
I sound naive but I didn’t realize that Rod Sterling wanted to tell stories about social issues – racism and stuff but the networks wouldn’t let him. If he wanted to tell a story about an alien or an invader then the networks would let it pass through. So it was a way for him to tell harder stories to the general public.
I think that’s a lot of sci-fi like Invasion of the Body Snatcher and such but I just never thought about it deeply enough.
There’s the treehouse of horror episode by the Simpsons where Bart is omnipotent and I knew it was based on something but I only recently learned it from: “It’s a Good Life” which is a book and a Twilight Zone episode. I only watched the parody up until this year and I just thought it was a fun concept. Then I watched the original and a breakdown and it was a take on totalitarian regimes.
Yes it was clear that someone somewhere in the world “who you don’t even know” would die. The characters have a debate:
“Maybe it’ll be just some Chinese peasant.”
“What if it’s someone’s newborn baby!”
More than anything I’m shocked at the casual dismissal of the Chinese peasant. WTF?
Anyway at the very end of the show the same guy who brought them this dilemma comes to collect the device and he very pointedly uses the same language to say “now it will go to someone new that you don’t even know.”
Yes, that somewhere in the world, someone she doesnt know will die.
When Mr. Steward returns to collect the button box after the button is pressed, the lady asks what happens to the box next. She is told it will go to someone else with the same offer, with assurances that the new recipient will not know who she is. As the previous commenter said, the wording deeply implies she would be the certain “someone” targeted by the next button press.
But what would happen if she didn’t press it? Would the button be offered to someone else again? In that case, she would be targeted regardless of her choice.
If there are no other rules, you break the cycle. That’s incredibility dark because who knows how long this has been going on with no one refusing the offer.
“Would you push a button for money”, on its own, is barely a dilemma. If you’ve been given no good reason not to press it then you don’t have a reason not to press it. I’d be curious to see this Twilight Zone episode because, if it really is presented that way to her, then it’s not her morals that are comprimised and instead that of whoever distributed that button.
She’s told that someone on earth would die and she doesn’t know them. The twist is that while it’s implied that it’s a random person, it’s revealed at the end that it’s the last person to press the button.
$200,000 - which if you consider that it was 1980s money, makes Mr. Beast’s $10,000 look very small.
By “originally meant to” I think you are referring to the short story it was based on ending that way.
A despondent Norma asks the stranger why her husband was the one who was killed. The stranger replies, “Do you really think you knew your husband?”
strongly disapproved of the Twilight Zone version, especially the new ending
Frankly I find the twilight zone ending more chilling and suspenseful. The “do you think you really knew your husband” line is kinda sad trombone.
Yeah, I really liked the line in the Twilight Zone when she asked who it would b given to next, “I can assure you it will be offered to someone whom you don’t know.” Pretty chilling IYAM
I’m assuming the device gets passed on regardless if the button is pressed. If that’s the case, does it have any correlation to selfishness getting punished? Me living or dying has to do with the NEXT person being selfish, not whether I was selfish or not. Unless I’m missing something
I believe the idea is that if you push the button, it goes on to someone else. If they DON’T push the button, they get skipped. It goes to someone else besides them. And so on, until SOMEONE does push the button. And at that point, the last person who pushed the button gets iced.
And so in that way, every person who pushes the button inevitably gets killed, removing selfish people from the world while morally upright people get passed over.
This isn’t detailed in the episode, it’s just my mind filling in between the lines.
This is an old twilight zone episode. A women is given a box with one button on it and told to press it is she wants the money, but someone she doesn’t even know will die.
She decides the push the button, and then someone comes to collect the button device, saying that it will now be reset and taken to someone else now for the same challenge. Some random person on earth. Implying that she will be the next to die if the button gets pushed.
Frankly not a bad system. Slowly cleanses the selfish from the earth.
deleted by creator
I’m an 80s kid but I skipped the old Twilight episodes … so I’m trying to darnest to catch up on them and I’m learning how awesome the ideas were even if the presentation is dated.
Just a random segue …
I sound naive but I didn’t realize that Rod Sterling wanted to tell stories about social issues – racism and stuff but the networks wouldn’t let him. If he wanted to tell a story about an alien or an invader then the networks would let it pass through. So it was a way for him to tell harder stories to the general public.
I think that’s a lot of sci-fi like Invasion of the Body Snatcher and such but I just never thought about it deeply enough.
There’s the treehouse of horror episode by the Simpsons where Bart is omnipotent and I knew it was based on something but I only recently learned it from: “It’s a Good Life” which is a book and a Twilight Zone episode. I only watched the parody up until this year and I just thought it was a fun concept. Then I watched the original and a breakdown and it was a take on totalitarian regimes.
Yeah some of them are little moral parables and some are just setups for a thrill/shock twist.
This “button” episode was actually from the 80s reboot of TZ, not the Rod Serling original.
Was the lady told what would happen if she pressed the button?
Yes it was clear that someone somewhere in the world “who you don’t even know” would die. The characters have a debate:
“Maybe it’ll be just some Chinese peasant.”
“What if it’s someone’s newborn baby!”
More than anything I’m shocked at the casual dismissal of the Chinese peasant. WTF?
Anyway at the very end of the show the same guy who brought them this dilemma comes to collect the device and he very pointedly uses the same language to say “now it will go to someone new that you don’t even know.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Button,_Button_(The_Twilight_Zone)
Yes, that somewhere in the world, someone she doesnt know will die.
When Mr. Steward returns to collect the button box after the button is pressed, the lady asks what happens to the box next. She is told it will go to someone else with the same offer, with assurances that the new recipient will not know who she is. As the previous commenter said, the wording deeply implies she would be the certain “someone” targeted by the next button press.
But what would happen if she didn’t press it? Would the button be offered to someone else again? In that case, she would be targeted regardless of her choice.
That’s not revealed, but I would think it just targets the last person who pushed the button. If you don’t, you succeed the test and get skipped. .
If there are no other rules, you break the cycle. That’s incredibility dark because who knows how long this has been going on with no one refusing the offer.
The dilemma is “would you push a button for money” not “would you push a button knowing what it did for money”
“Would you push a button for money”, on its own, is barely a dilemma. If you’ve been given no good reason not to press it then you don’t have a reason not to press it. I’d be curious to see this Twilight Zone episode because, if it really is presented that way to her, then it’s not her morals that are comprimised and instead that of whoever distributed that button.
She’s told that someone on earth would die and she doesn’t know them. The twist is that while it’s implied that it’s a random person, it’s revealed at the end that it’s the last person to press the button.
Some people are actually paid to press buttons.
So, yes?
There’s this cool new thing where you can search for stuff on the Internet. You should check it out. To answer your question, yes - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Button,_Button_(The_Twilight_Zone)
Heaven forbid I try to have a conversation
There’s this cool thing called linking, too.
She got $20,000 if I’m not mistaken. In '80s money.
Also it was originally meant to kill her husband. They changed it for the show.
$200,000 - which if you consider that it was 1980s money, makes Mr. Beast’s $10,000 look very small.
By “originally meant to” I think you are referring to the short story it was based on ending that way.
Frankly I find the twilight zone ending more chilling and suspenseful. The “do you think you really knew your husband” line is kinda sad trombone.
Yeah, I really liked the line in the Twilight Zone when she asked who it would b given to next, “I can assure you it will be offered to someone whom you don’t know.” Pretty chilling IYAM
I’m assuming the device gets passed on regardless if the button is pressed. If that’s the case, does it have any correlation to selfishness getting punished? Me living or dying has to do with the NEXT person being selfish, not whether I was selfish or not. Unless I’m missing something
I believe the idea is that if you push the button, it goes on to someone else. If they DON’T push the button, they get skipped. It goes to someone else besides them. And so on, until SOMEONE does push the button. And at that point, the last person who pushed the button gets iced.
And so in that way, every person who pushes the button inevitably gets killed, removing selfish people from the world while morally upright people get passed over.
This isn’t detailed in the episode, it’s just my mind filling in between the lines.
Ok that makes way more sense.