Fall Out (The Prisoner)
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| The Prisoner episode | |
|---|---|
| “Fall Out” | |
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 17 |
| Guest star(s) | Number Two: Leo McKern Number Forty-Eight: Alexis Kanner President: Kenneth Griffith |
| Writer(s) | Patrick McGoohan |
| Director | Patrick McGoohan |
| Production no. | |
| Original airdate | February 4, 1968 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "Once Upon A Time" | "N/A" |
"Fall Out" is the title of the controversial seventeenth and final episode of the British science fiction-allegorical series, The Prisoner, starring Patrick McGoohan as Number Six. It originally aired in the UK on ITV on February 4, 1968 and was first broadcast in the United States on CBS in the summer of 1968.
"Fall Out" generated controversy when it was originally aired because the last third of the episode was designed to be very obscure, have no dialogue, and be open to interpretation. So many viewers called ITV to complain about the ending that the switchboard was literally blown. It also forced Patrick McGoohan to go into hiding for a period of time because he was hounded at his own home by baffled viewers demanding explanations.
This episode omits the usual long opening and instead shows a recap of the last episode, "Once Upon A Time". It also is the only episode in the series in which Portmeirion is given a specific credit in the opening titles.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
Continuing from the previous episode, Number Six is led to "meet Number One" by The Controller (Peter Swanwick). On the way, he is given his regular clothes back, and then is led down a large corridor filled with juke boxes playing the Beatles' song, "All You Need Is Love".
Through a door marked "Well Come", he enters into a large chamber where there is a semi-circular seating area filled with masked people and a presiding judge in the centre (the credits actually refer to this character as "The President" but he is never referred to on screen by any name or title, although he does wear the traditional powdered wig worn by judges in British courts). Military police are posted all around the chamber. Dominating the room is a tall, cylindrical structure with a mechanical "eye" built into it, marked with the single large numeral "1". The Controller dons a mask and presents Number Six to the judge before disappearing into the assembly.
The assembly members wear masks and robes to hide their identity. The assembly represents those who are in control of the system. Placards in front of each member include Activists, Welfare, Pacifists, Reactionists, Identification, Defectors, Therapy, Nationalists, Anarchists, Recreation, Youngsters, Education, and Entertainment. Other placards are visible in the background but are difficult to make out.
The judge begins the proceedings by making a speech saying that they are all gathered here in a state of democratic crisis and that Number Six has survived the ultimate test and therefore should no longer be called by a number. Instead, the judge orders him to be hereafter referred to as "Sir". The judge then apologizes to Number Six, explaining that "the transfer of ultimate power" requires some tedious ceremony. This begins when a young man, Number 48, is brought in to be lectured by the judge about the follies of youth and how rebellions are pointless. In reply, No. 48 starts singing the spiritual song "Dem Bones" and leaps dementedly around the chamber. He is found guilty of starting a revolt and is forced into the basement of the chamber.
The seemingly dead Number Two is then brought in and resurrected, a process which also gives him a haircut and a shave. At first he seems surprised to be alive again, but becomes somewhat ungrateful especially when the judge refuses to reveal how his resurrection was accomplished. After getting into a staring contest with the mechanical eye, Number Two is also forced into the basement with Number 48. (As he descends, Number Two becomes the only character in the series to break the fourth wall when he turns to the camera and says, "Be seeing you", though he could be addressing a guard or even Number Six, instead.)
The judge then makes a speech about Number Six, saying that he is a "revolutionary of different calibre" and that "he has revolted, resisted, fought, destroyed resistance, overcome coercion, the right to be person, some one or individual."
After being given a large sum of money in travellers cheques, his passport, the keys to his London home and his car, and a purse of petty cash, Number Six is invited to make an address. But his attempts are drowned out by the multitude's inane chanting of the word "I" and he is seen having a near-emotional breakdown as he tries to make his message heard.
The judge then invites Number Six to meet Number One. He descends into the basement, past the imprisoned Number 2 and 48 (one laughing hysterically, the other still singing), and goes up a circular metal staircase. At the top, he enters a control room full of globes and sees a masked, hooded figure wearing the "Number One" badge, who is watching surveillance footage of Number Six (actually scenes from earlier episodes). He pulls Number One's mask off to reveal the face of a chimpanzee. Underneath this second mask, he sees his own face!
Number Six chases Number One around the room until Number One climbs up a ladder to a hatch in the ceiling. As Number One closes the hatch, we see Number Six's face again on him, laughing maniacally. Number Six then returns to the control room, which he quickly deduces is the control centre of some sort of rocket or missile. He starts the rocket to begin its launch sequence. This causes panic in the judge's chamber and a mass evacuation of the entire Village starts.
Number Six returns to where Number Two and 48 are imprisoned, knocks out the guards, and releases them. With the help of The Butler (Angelo Muscat), they return to the upper chamber where a gun battle breaks out. (For the first and only time in the series, Number Six is shown shooting people, as "All You Need is Love" plays on the soundtrack.) The four of them eventually escape in the cage-cum-mobile home seen in "Once Upon A Time", which is now on the back of a lorry, and drive through an underground tunnel. Meanwhile, The Village is evacuated as the rocket launches to parts unknown.
The four rebels find themselves on the A20 headed for London (contradicting earlier episodes that suggested The Village was located elsewhere in Europe). Number 48 gets off the lorry to hitchhike. The remaining three drive to the Palace of Westminster where Number Two gets off. A passing policeman then stops to talk to Number Six. As Number Six talks to the policeman, both men are shown from a distance in a long shot, and all that is heard over the soundtrack is the song "Dem Bones".
Number Six, with The Butler following him, returns to his home. After Number Six gets into his car and drives away, The Butler walks up to the door which opens by itself (just like the doors in The Village, including the same sound effect). When it closes, the Number 1 is visible on the door. Number Two is then shown in a suit walking to the Peers' entrance to the Palace of Westminster. Finally, after a clap of thunder, we see Number Six driving in his car exactly as we see him during the first few seconds of the opening title sequence.
[edit] Additional guest cast
- Supervisor: Peter Swanwick
- Delegate: Michael Miller
[edit] Interpretation
McGoohan has explained the meaning of the episode, which in fact contains the meaning of the whole series; that we are prisoners of ourselves - this particular point being represented by Number 1, when the masks were removed, being Number 6. McGoohan asserts we choose to limit our own actions ("I won't" is exactly the same as "I can't") and many choices are made for us; this was partially represented by the Penny Farthing symbol of The Village, which referred to the ongoing march of technology and development, something which none of us - no-one at all - has actually sat down and decided whether or not this is really what we want to be doing, or if we're coping with it, and so on. Finally, in the end of the episode, Number Six, having freed himself from The Village, in fact ends up going back to his old flat, the same place and ways as before - in other words, even after obtaining that freedom, he's in fact back to the very same prison he was in before.
A suggested rationalization of the series and its culmination is that The Village is an institution of the British government that functions to determine whether or not those who know military secrets and seek to return to civilian life are susceptible to giving up that information under interrogatory pressure. After Number Six endures the breadth of tortures, psychological ploys, chemically-induced states and questioning techniques that The Village administration has at its disposal and divulges close to nothing of what he knows, The Village's administration allows him to go free, lauding him for the principles of individualism and personal liberty that equipped him to withstand all manner of interrogation methods.
[edit] Trivia
- Leo McKern's hair is trimmed much shorter in this final episode than in "Once Upon a Time" (and his beard is absent entirely) because he took part in another film during the long interval (about a year) between the two episodes' shoots. The show accommodated this by showing McKern's face covered in shaving cream and getting barbered before he is revived.
- According to the book The Prisoner by Robert Fairclough, McGoohan was informed that production was cancelled on the series immediately following filming of the preceding episode "The Girl Who Was Death" and was given only a week to write a finale to conclude the storyline started in "Once Upon a Time" which had been filmed a year earlier. In order to save time and cut costs, "Fall Out" reused several sets from "Girl", most notably the rocket control room. Two guest actors from the episode, Kenneth Griffith and Alexis Kanner, were also recruited to play different characters in "Fall Out" (this was in fact Kanner's third appearance on the series in only a few weeks as he previously played a Village minion in "Living in Harmony"). According to Fairclough, McGoohan was so pressed for time that Griffith was asked to write his own dialogue.
- Patrick McGoohan receives no on-screen acting credit in this episode. The episode lacks any formal opening credits, and at the end, after the onscreen credits for Kanner, McKern, and Muscat, McGoohan's credit reads, simply, "Prisoner". He is, however, credited as the episode's writer and director, and receives his usual executive producer credit at the end.
- McGoohan has very little dialogue in this final episode, save for brief exchanges with the Judge and Number 48, his unintelligible speech at the podium (only the words "I feel..." can be heard, the rest being drowned out by the "jury"), and a few slogans heard in the archive footage.
- With the death of Kenneth Griffith (The President of the Assembly) on June 25, 2006, Patrick McGoohan (Number Six) is the only one of the five main stars of this episode who is still alive.
