Ruthless millionaire, Paul Radin, invites three people to the bomb shelter that he has built. One is a high school teacher Mrs. Langford, who failed him; the second is Colonel Hawthorne, who had him court-martialed; and the third is Rev. Hughes, who made a public scandal out of a woman who committed suicide over him. Radin (with the aid of sound effects and fake radio messages) convinces the trio that an apocalyptic nuclear war will occur in just moments. He offers them refuge in the shelter if they do one thing: apologize for their actions. All refuse, valuing honor above life, and exit. Suddenly, the sound of a bomb detonation shakes Radin's shelter. He takes the elevator to the surface and sees that a nuclear war really has occurred, and the world is in ruins. This twist ending is given another twist, however, when we learn that Radin, devastated by his hoax's failure, has lost his mind and is only imagining that the world has ended.
"[closing narration] Mr. Paul Radin, a dealer in fantasy, who sits in the rubble of his own making and imagines that he's the last man on Earth, doomed to a perdition of unutterable loneliness because a practical joke has turned into a nightmare. Mr. Paul Radin, pallbearer at a funeral that he manufactured himself in the Twilight Zone."
Ruthless millionaire, Paul Radin, invites three people to the bomb shelter that he has built. One is a high school teacher Mrs. Langford, who failed him; the second is Colonel Hawthorne, who had him court-martialed; and the third is Rev. Hughes, who made a public scandal out of a woman who committed suicide over him. Radin (with the aid of sound effects and fake radio messages) convinces the trio that an apocalyptic nuclear war will occur in just moments. He offers them refuge in the shelter if they do one thing: apologize for their actions. All refuse, valuing honor above life, and exit. Suddenly, the sound of a bomb detonation shakes Radin's shelter. He takes the elevator to the surface and sees that a nuclear war really has occurred, and the world is in ruins. This twist ending is given another twist, however, when we learn that Radin, devastated by his hoax's failure, has lost his mind and is only imagining that the world has ended.
