TMS "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street"

As they stand there, fearful, apprehensive, mothers clutching children, men standing in front of wives.

Sally (in a whisper, sensing the antagonism of the crowd)

And stop telling me who's dangerous and who isn't and who's safe and who's a menace. (he turns to the group and shouts)

He stands there defiantly close to them.

A little power failure and right away we get all flustered and everything.

Let's pick out every idiosyncrasy of every single man, woman, and child on the street.

Now I suppose that's supposed to incriminate me!

I'm guilty of insomnia.

In this brief fraction of a moment they take the first step toward performing a metamorphosis that changes people from a group into a mob.

Likely as not-- (he turns to the group, now trying to weight his words with an optimism he obviously doesn't feel but is desperately trying to instill in himself as well as the others)

As the CAMERA begins a SLOW PAN across the heavens--

There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices - to be found only in the minds of men.

Maple Street in the last calm and reflective moment...before the monsters came!

At the sound of the roar and the flash of light it will be precisely 6:43 P.M. on Maple Street.

You're standing here all set to crucify - all set to find a scapegoat - all desperate to point some kind of a finger at a neighbor!

It turns over sluggishly and then just stops dead.

For the record, prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy and a thoughtless frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all its own for the children...and the children yet unborn.

The man who's been polishing his car and now he stands there transfixed, staring upwards.

At this moment one of the little boys, Tommy, looks up to listen to a sound of a tremendous screeching roar from overhead.