A Game of Pool (The Twilight Zone, 1985)

"A Game of Pool" is the fifty-fifth episode and the twentieth episode of the third season (1988–89) of the revived television series The Twilight Zone. It is a remake of the original series 1961 episode of the same name.

Opening narration[]

Jesse Cardiff, pool shark, the best on Randolph Street, who will soon learn that trying to be the best at anything carries its own special risk in or out... of the Twilight Zone.

Plot[]

The owner of a pool hall collects the billiard balls during closing time. As some of the customers leave a couple of guys give the owner a hassle over letting Jesse Cardiff stay. Jesse, who one of the men said "thinks he's the next Fats Brown," slams a double shot on the pool table. Instead of enjoying completing such a difficult shot Jesse complains about being compared to Fats Brown. He offhandedly remarks that if he were alive and in the room he'd show Fats Brown that he could beat him. He turns around to see a portly gentleman sitting in the bar and he says, "At your service."

Fats Brown tells Jesse that he called for him and he did not come on his own. Stuttering and nervous Jesse tries to explain that he didn't really mean it, as he doubts his ability. Fats dresses him down and tells him he's not nearly as good as he claims to be. Jesse gets brazen and says he can beat him, but first they must decide what the stakes will be. Money means nothing to Fats since he's already dead and then reminds Jesse that he said he'd give anything to play with Fats, so he suggests the stakes of the game to be as high as possible for Jesse - his life. If Jesse wins, he can claim that he beat Fats Brown but if Jesse loses he will die. Jesse hesitates but then accepts.

They begin to play but both men are extremely competitive, revealing that the match is fairly even. When Jesse gets excited over sinking a tricky shot and Fats is unmoved, Jesse loses his temper lamenting that no one has ever given him his due. The match gets to be nearly even, then Jesse pulls ahead but Fats is unconcerned and blows Jesse away in the next game. At the end of the game, Jesse needs to only make one shot to win. As he begins to line up his shot, Fats begins to tell him that there is more to life than the pool hall. Jesse retorts that you do not become the best at what you do by sitting around. Fats agrees but he still had a life outside the pool hall and thinks that Jesse is rotting away. Jesse claims that Fats is trying to break his concentration, and when Fats shoots his final shot and misses Jesse gets excited. Jesse must simply sink his last shot ... but he misses.

Fats lines up his shot and sinks it in the pocket, only to look up intensely at Jesse, who is shaking with fear. Fats takes his cue chalk out of his pocket and sets it down. Jesse questions him about the life or death stakes, and Fats laughs. He tells Jesse that he will die in obscurity as all second-raters do in the end. If he had beaten Fats he would've lived forever. Fats says that Jesse's good but not good enough and as Fats disappears Jesse screams that he can do better, that he will practice more, and that he will eventually win.

Closing narration[]

Lives of great men all remind us we can make our lives sublime and, departing, leave behind us footprints on the sands of time, on the Earth as we know it and...in the Twilight Zone.

Alternate ending[]

This episode was written by Johnson for the original Twilight Zone series. That 1961 version, starring Jack Klugman and Jonathan Winters, featured an ending where Jesse wins and is bound to take up Fats's mantle as the greatest pool player in history. The ending used here was the original ending as intended by writer George Clayton Johnson.

References[]

• Zicree, Marc Scott: The Twilight Zone Companion. Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition)

External links[]

• "A Game of Pool" at IMDb