The Gun (The Outer Limits)

"The Gun"
The Outer Limits episode
Episode no.	Season 6 Episode 109
Directed by	Jeff Woolnough
Written by	Sam Egan
Original air date	28 January 2000
Guest actors
Stacy Keach Nancy Sorel John de Lancie Christian Bocher Eric Schneider Devin Douglas Drewitz

"The Gun" is an episode of The Outer Limits television show. It first aired on 28 January 2000, during the sixth season.

Introduction

A man is looking for a gun and is offered one by a man that does not question his motives. When the gun's first used it fuses itself with its owner.

Opening narration

From muskets to six-guns to assault weapons, the pages of our history run red with blood. But which came first, the violent impulse or the weapon which answers its call?

Plot

Getting out of prison after his serving years for spousal abuse, Matthew Logan first stops at a gunshow and buys a strange handgun from a mysterious stranger named Donald Finley.

Matthew uses the gun to shoot to death his wife, Sandra. But when he pulls the trigger, the weapon instantly and painfully attaches itself to his hand and arm, transforming his body into a killing machine...

Sandra's father, Cord, armed with one of the guns, and Matthew have a show-down. Cord wins, seriously wounding Matthew, but when his daughter and grandson arrive, he can't bring himself to finish Matthew off and the mutation he's experiencing reverses and he is able to drop the gun. Unwilling to go back to prison, Matthew shoots himself through the heart, killing himself. As Finlay takes the guns and leaves, Cord chases him down, demanding an explanation: Finlay reveals that he is an alien who is looking for soldiers for a war his species is fighting. Some species has their natural revulsion against killing override the mutation, but Matthew was perfect for him. While Cord was a failure, he's sure there's more people out there like Matthew for him to use and he teleports away. Finlay is later seen offering a gun to another person.

Closing narration

The path to our own destruction may lie less in the weapons we conceive, than the violence in our hearts.

Cast

• Stacy Keach as Cord van Owen
• Nancy Sorel as Dana van Owen
• Christian Bocher as Matthew Logan
• Eric Schneider
• Devin Douglas Drewitz as Ty Logan
• Stephen Dimopoulos
• John de Lancie as Donald Finley
• Bob Dawson as Sheriff Clay
• Linnea Sharples as Sandra Logan
• Brock Johnson as Nate Jackson
• Greg Anderson as Dealer
• Christina Jastrzembska as Karen Miller
• Nels Lennarson as Deputy
• Marcel Maillard as Pastor Wickham

External links

• Episode on Hulu
• "The Gun" at IMDb