Customer Reviews

The Outer Limits: Zanti Misfits [VHS]

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
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Sleazy thug Bruce Dern seems to drive right out of a old black & white crime flick into a 1950's alien invasion story. This odd (and wonderful) combination plays well right up until the bullet-blazing climax, which is intense enough to impress even jaded modern audiences. Maybe not the best episode of The Outer Limits (see Demon With a Glass Hand for that), but one of the most memorable.

Of all the episodes of "The Outer Limits" that I saw in my youth, this one contained some of the most genuinely terrifying alien monsters ever shown on TV, an amazing thing considering their tiny size. The Zantis really creeped me out; I still hate them. The ending confrontation between humans and aliens has a terrific punch, much more personal and visceral than the end confrontation in "Independence Day," but this episode also contains one of the coldest condemnations of humanity ever delivered through science fiction, in its last few seconds. I recoiled from the message even as some of what was said rang true. (The only equal to this effect came in the last few seconds of the "Twilight Zone" episode, "The Lonely," which was barbaric and brutal.) A must-see film.

Despite the absurdity of the bug-eyed giant ants with a semi-human face, this is one of the best episodes of science fiction on television. The authorities on the planet Zanti contact the Earth leadership, and the message is an ultimatum. Receive and intern a collection of Zanti exiles that are a danger to their society. Given no choice in the matter, the Earthlings prepare a ghost town in the southwestern United States called Morgue. The ship arrives and it is very small. Two human criminal malcontents, a man and a woman, break the quarantine area and encounter the ship. The man is killed and the woman is pursued. A historian consultant to the military forces controlling the area goes to the ship and rescues the woman. The creatures then attack the military forces controlling the town and after a battle, all of the Zanti exiles are killed.
The general in command is then deeply concerned that this will launch an interstellar war that will lead to widespread destruction on Earth. However, that is not the case, the deaths of the Zanti malcontents are what the Zanti leadership had planned all along. Their society had long given up the policy of executing criminals and sociopaths, so they looked for another solution. After studying humans they realized that humans were often willing to execute others of their species and that it would not take a great deal of time before the humans killed the Zanti exiles.
Like so many of the best examples of science fiction, this one deals with a fundamental philosophical problem. How does a society remove those dangerous to it in a manner that does not violate their core beliefs? The Zanti's found an interesting solution that is similar to the exile strategy employed several times on Earth. Of course the solution does not paint the human race in a very flattering light.

This is one of the definitive episodes in the series, written by Joseph Stefano and brilliantly directed by Leonard Horn, who also did the fable-like The Man Who Was Never Born. It is notable for the locations used - Ghost Town Street (complete with tumble weed), a stock Western set on the MGM lot, and the Vasquez Rocks formations of Los Angeles - and for the zanti misfits themselves. The creatures are ant-like, move like spiders, buzz like flies, and have humanoid faces. They were filmed in stop-motion animation and when they stage an attack, the sequence is edited swiftly so that we are never allowed to see the reality of the special effect, though Horn gets a laugh when one of them sneaks up someone's trousers. The misfits have been brought to earth by the zanti's in exile, but as the prisoners are able to escape from the spaceship so easily, the fact that the zanti's have another agenda becomes clear to us, but not the earthlings at the command post. The aliens speak in an accented stilted english via a translating computer, which sounds like the dwarf-speak of David Lynch's Twin Peaks when we hear the zanti language version first. Although the zanti spaceship in flight has the misfortune to resemble a contraceptive and when it lands on top of the command post, it sits at an angle, Horn does provide us with an evocative reverse shot of the 2 white-trash criminals who have intruded into the tract of desert provided for the zanti's. Ben (Bruce Dern) is seen through a crevice by Lisa (Olive Deering) and we get her point of view then what she sees. Composer Dominic Frontiere also gives us some romantic chase music when Lisa is being pursued by a zanti, though Horn has to fight to not make the way Deering runs funny. She plays the helpless female with the usual falling down I-can't-go-on act. Dern is all teeth and snarls in an underwritten role but Deering gets a ludicrous existential monologue and overacts, with lots of arm to the face gestures. The zanti's also have a blood-curdling scream when one is killed. The conclusion is as hokey as the explaination in Psycho, but anything after that breathless attack would be an anti-climax. Stefano's aim to explore the morality of th death penalty may be hard to take seriously in this context, but if one forgets such pretension, this episode is a lot of fun.

The inhabitants of the planet Zanti have a foolproof means of dealing with their hardened criminals: just ship them to another planet and let that planet deal with him. Of course, the planet in question is Earth and you know how WE deal with the natives.

"The Zanti Misfits" is one of the most intense of the series' two-year run. An inspired touch is the Zanti convicts: ants with human faces. While the episode reuses the same models (due to a tight budget, no doubt), it still holds the tension from the first sight of the inhabitants of the prison ship until the last all-out battle with the U.S. military.

Michael Tolan, Robert Sampson, Olive Deering, and a young Bruce Dern bring realism to their respective roles of the human characters involved in the Zanti government's machinations.

Nothing like "The Outer Limits" has been seen on television since. One can be grateful that "the video revolution" enables a new audience to discover this landmark program.

People are alike, all over the universe. We meet another planet, they're technologically superior to us, and what do they want us for? To house their society's misfits. And gee, we have so many of our own. On-the-lam small-time crook Bruce Dern, for instance, who breaches the top-secret military cordon protecting the extraterrestrial landing site/prison zone. Their criminals are no better than our own. And they're even more xenophobic, and demanding of their privacy. Before you can say "jailbreak," all kinds of zany hijinks ensue at our friendly neighborhood military base.

Great Stefano script, some of the most memorable effects on the series (or in television history, for that matter), and unquestionably among the most disturbing alien monsters ever to grace the tube. The performances are fabulous, especially Dern, as he is agonizingly assaulted by terrifying UFO occupants, and his moll Olive Deering, who is besieged in her car and chased across the desert by one.

The episode is not without flaws, but they are unimportant. Many of the non-stop-motion aliens, seen crawling down the wall, for instance, are plainly static wooden figures being lowered on a string, and the logic of a woman fleeing from a creature a fraction of her own size that she could easily smash with a rock (if it even reached her) is obviously faulty, on the face of it.

But damn, this one is hot. The best scenes, ironically enough, are not even the gripping action sequences, but the creepy communications by the aliens in their own consonantal language before they are even seen. Dern's death scene will definitely make your skin crawl.

The Zanti misfits has always been my favorite episode of the classic Outer Limits TV series, the Zanti seem to be everywhere, crawling on Olive Deering's windshield, swarming over soldiers, scuttering down walls and even climbing up an unfortunate soldier's pant leg, all the while grinning and doing a very good job of looking menacing, despite their diminutive size. I liked how the show brought out how narrow our views are with the soldier who stated "From our point of view their either super-human or sub-human', not considering the fact they might be NON-HUMAN. Few TV shows deal with people's human-centered ideas, thats why so many aliens on television and movies are almost identical to human beings. I also enjoyed the end, we humans are, as they pointed put "Practiced executioners", and if we kill our own species, how can we ever hope to live with anything truly differant in our midst? A truly thought provoking episode, and well worth the price, a must have for serious sci-fi fans.

one of my all time favorite episodes of the outer limits, the plot? what a great idea, take all your misfits of society, your criminals,rapists,murderers,child molesters, etc and Banish them to another planet, let them deal with the problem. one problem. what alien race would tolerate another's misfits? great episode, great animation with the alien bugs. nasty critters.great performances by Bruce Dern, and others in this classic. a must see.

...Actually, I DON'T own this. It's too scary.

For me, the Outer Limits reboot(while there were many fine stories)didn't have one memorable monster; for those you need the classic series...and this is one that stands out. Yes, the Zanti Misfits are tiny; yes, they could easily be killed. But this ep gave me nightmares when I first saw it, and today, it STILL does. If you've got a strong stomach and can sleep like a rock, strap in.

The rulers of the planet Zanti are unable to justify executing their most vicious criminals, and ask Earth to provide a place of exile for them, with the U.S. Army as jailers. The little ship lands, its live cargo emerges...and unfortunately, a young hoodlum and his milf moll stumble onto the area.

A young Bruce Dern(his repeated "GET OFF ME!" as one of the misfits--in closeup, augh--crawls up his arm is unforgettable)leads an excellent cast, winding the tension until a slam-bang battle in a deserted town, ending with a chilling(and logical) indictment of human nature. Great show, great ep...watch it with the lights on...but without me, okay?

The inhabitants of planet Zanti have sent some of their exiles to Planet Earth, because they don't believe in executions. There has been a specific land allotted for the Zanti exiles to land, making sure that no one else can enter the area. However, when a couple who are on the run break through the gates and enter the area, the Zanti misfits are somehow let loose and go after the human race. It is now up to a group of men, secretly operating from a ghost town (and in communication with the other planet) to stop the aliens before they spread and destroy everyone.

This episode had a lot of potential. It really makes you think how harmful the human race can be, where we kill our own species to such a level that even other planets are aware of. However, I wasn't too thrilled with it. Sure, the special effects were a little cheesy, but that wasn't what bothered me (since this show is from the 60s and it is understood that the crew did the best with what they had). What bothered me was the twist in the end of the episode. It seemed more like a let down after watching 50 minutes of the episode. If the Zanti sent their exiles to be destroyed by humans, why did they ask the humans to go through all the trouble to give them their space in the mountains? If the 2 fugitives hadn't accidentally been in that area, would the humans have just continued to leave the Zanti ship remain without doing anything, letting the exiles roam free in the land? It doesn't make sense.

Anyway, coming to the cast, I think everyone acted really well. Michael Tolan acted well as Steven Grave, the historian of interplanetary events. Bruce Dern and Olive Deering played their role convincingly as Ben and Lisa, the unfortunate couple who arrive at the site.

To quote Vic Perrin (the Control Voice): Throughout history, various societies have tried various methods of exterminating those members who have proven their inability or unwillingness to live sanely amongst their fellow men. The Zantis tried merely one more method, neither better nor worse than all the others; neither more human nor less human than all the others...perhaps merely non-human.