STEVEN SPIELBERG PRESENTS TAKEN: BEYOND THE SKY {MINI-SERIES PREMIERE} (TV)
Summary
The premiere episode in this ten-part mini-series which charts the members of three families over a half-century as their lives are changed by close encounters with aliens.
The program opens in the skies over Germany's Ruhr region in 1944 as American and German fighter jets fire at each other. Captain Russell Keys suddenly notices otherworldly lights surrounding his plane, allowing him to be distracted. As Germans shoot Russell's plane and leave him mortally wounded, the lights make his jet disappear. Almost a year later, Russell returns to his hometown of Bement, Illinois, and has a joyful reunion with his sweetheart, Kate, and father, Wilfred. Alone in bed that night, Russell recalls the lights, and struggles with his memories.
Two years later, Captain Owen Crawford shows members of the 509th bomb group in Roswell, New Mexico, the Enola Gay. Colonel Thomas Campbell interrupts to tell Owen about new sightings of mysterious lights in the area. Later, the reports are deemed flights of fantasy by Owen's adjutant, Howard Bowen. Flirting with the colonel's daughter, Anne, Owen makes a date with her, blowing off his lover, Sue, in the process. That night on the highway, Sue sees lights herself, which crash near her stalled car. While walking through the wreckage, she picks up a metal object, not realizing that an alien is watching from a nearby tree.
The following morning, the colonel and Owen go to the nearby Foster Ranch, where they see remnants from the crash. Thomas maintains that the spaceship must have been Russian. Later, Sue tracks down Owen and tries to give him the metal object. However, Owen has his subordinate, Marty Erickson, tells Sue that he's been called away. Just then, a Boy Scout leader and his two charges insist on taking Owen to the site of a crashed flying saucer. Owen is amazed when their report proves true, then enters the ship. Upon exiting, Owen is a changed man. Later, when Thomas subsequently tells him that the situation must be kept quiet, Owen says the witnesses have been "handled." Owen also notes that while four alien corpses were found, the spaceship had five seats.
Back in Bement, Russell tells his friend Bill Toland how he's having trouble sleeping, despite his seemingly happy life with wife Kate and their newborn son, Jesse. Later, Russell admits to Kate that he has no memory of the three days between his plane being shot and waking up in a French field. That night, Russell awakes from a nightmare with markings on his arm, making him think that someone assaulted him. When he boards up the house and loads a gun, Kate fears that her husband has gone crazy.
In Lubbock, Texas, diner owner Tyler tells waitress Sally Clarke that she can leave work early to see off her traveling salesman husband, Fred. After Fred departs, Sally investigates a noise in her barn, which turns out to be a handsome drifter named John. Bringing him inside, Sally tells her children, Becky and Tom, that John will be staying until he's in better health. The next morning, John tells Sally that she is a lonely woman in a loveless marriage, which she doesn't deny. She also notices that his behavior isn't exactly human.
At the Fort Worth Army airfield base, the colonel tells reporters that the spaceship's debris is man-made. Later, at the Wright Field Power Plant laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, the colonel helps experts identify the craft's remnants. Suddenly, the group is called to an adjoining room as Dr. Goldin appears in a trance, reciting Hebrew as one of the aliens crawls around him in the room. Two days later in Bement, Russell tells Kate of his latest discovery: that eight of the nine men serving under him on his ill-fated plane are now dead, and the ninth, Lou Johnson, is in the hospital and not expected to recover.
In Roswell, Owen tries and fails to get Captain Bishop to reveal secrets about Thomas's handling of the saucer site. Trying another tack, Owen seduces Anne and asks for her hand in marriage. Elsewhere, Thomas is told by Dr. Goldin that the alien got inside his mind. Within an hour, Dr. Goldin is lured back to the alien's chamber. Later, officials find the corpses of both the alien and Dr. Goldin. In Greene County, Ohio, Owen tricks Dr. Helms into telling him what happened with Dr. Goldin. Owen is nonplussed to also hear that aliens can change into human form.
In Texas, John makes Becky levitate, as Tom watches with suspicion. That night at dinner, John tells Sally and the children that he'll soon move on. At the army hospital in Fort Bliss, Texas, Russell visits Lou. Though near death, Lou recalls being abducted and medically tested and probed by aliens, and says that Russell shot many of them with his machine-gun. Back in Roswell, Owen briefs Howard and Marty on the developments, stating that Thomas is "an idiot" and that he intends to take over the spaceship project. Howard and Marty are told to search adjacent states for aliens in human form, leading them to Becky and Tom's classroom with a tale of seeking "a deserter from the Roswell army base." Meanwhile, John declares his feelings for Sally and consummates their love. When John later finds the kids searching his room, he tells them that they can't interfere with his plans. Soldiers head to Sally's farm after Becky and Tom go to the sheriff. Sally tells John that she knows he's an alien, but still loves him. As he leaves, the children and soldiers observe lights in the sky. Sally then tells Owen that John has "gone home."
In El Paso, Russell finally recalls the details of his alien abduction. Back in Roswell, Sue confronts Owen and gives him the alien object, after which he passionately kisses her. Later, at Sue's trailer, Owen surprises Sue and savagely kills her. A month later, Owen marries Anne as a subdued Thomas watches. That night, Owen blackmails Thomas into promoting him to major, stating that he'll go public with the object Sue found if he doesn't get his way. At the diner, Tyler is concerned about Sally, who realizes that she's pregnant with John's child. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: SciFi
- DATE: December 2, 2002 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:29:32
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:91405
- GENRE: Drama, fantasy/science fiction
- SUBJECT HEADING: She Made It Collection (Bonnie Hammer); Drama, fantasy/science fiction
- SERIES RUN: SciFi - TV, 2002
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Leslie Bohem … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Steven Spielberg … Executive Producer
- Joe M. Aguilar … Co-Executive Producer
- Steve Beers … Co-Executive Producer
- Darryl Frank … Co-Executive Producer
- Richard Heus … Producer
- James Lima … Co-Producer
- Julie Herlocker … Co-Producer
- John Lima … Visual Effects Producer
- Tobe Hooper … Director
- Laura Karpman … Music by
- Julie Benz … Cast, Kate Keys
- Steve Burton … Cast, Russell Keys
- Eric Close … Cast, John
- Catherine Dent … Cast, Sally Clarke
- Dakota Fanning … Cast, Allie Keys
- Jason Gray-Stanford … Cast, Howard Bowen
- Joel Gretsch … Cast, Owen Crawford
- John Hawkes … Cast, Marty Erickson
- Tina Holmes … Cast, Anne Campbell
- Michael Moriarty … Cast, Thomas Campbell
- Stacy Grant … Cast, Sue
- Stephen E. Miller … Cast, Boy Scout's Father
- Rob LaBelle … Cast, Dr. Goldin
- Ian Tracey … Cast, Bill Walker
- Andrew Johnson … Cast, Dr. Helms
- Ryan Robbins … Cast, Lou Johnson
- Jason Grayhm … Cast, William Toland
- Fred Keating … Cast, Tyler
- Fred Henderson … Cast, Wilfred Keys
- Colleen Winton … Cast, Beth Keys
- Esther Purves-Smith … Cast, Nun #1
- Karen Austin … Cast, Nun # 2
- Bob Frazer … Cast, Captain Bishop
- Glynis Davies … Cast, Teacher
- Kevin G. Schmidt … Cast, Young Tom Clarke
- Shauna Kain … Cast, Young Becky Clarke
- Danny McKinnon … Cast, Theodore
- Alexander Pollock … Cast, Edward Watkins, Jr.
- Alf Humphreys … Cast, Fred Clarke
- Chad Faust … Cast, Top Gunner
- Richard Stroh … Cast, 1947 German Sergeant/Hunter
- John Stewart … Cast, Farmer