Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime,
Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator...
and vanished.
He awoke to find himself trapped in the past,
facing mirror images that were not his own...
and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better.
His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time,
who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear.
And so, Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life,
striving to put right what once went wrong...
and hoping each time that his next leap...
will be the leap home.
I answered you in Russian.
You spoke to me in Russian and-- and I answered you.
It's not a game, Marina.
Marina, am I speaking English or Russian?
I mean, right now I'm speaking English, right?
But now--
I'm sorry.
You talk Russian. You talk English.
- So do you. - No.
Yes, you do. You're speaking English right now.
- One, two words. - That's three.
And " You talk English. You talk Russian." That's four more, seven.
- And "no" is eight. - You funny, Alik.
"You funny"-- eight, nine, ten.
How many more words do you know?
- No, in English. - Yes,
no, hello, goodbye,
capitalists exploit the working class.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a second.
- Where did you learn that? - You.
Me?
Oh, of course, me.
I guess your English is a lot better than my Russian.
I am not a child! Don't speak to me like I am!
I'm sorry, Marina.
I don't know why I did that.
Oh, my God.
What's happened to me?
Who have I leaped into?
Funny thing about bullets, huh? You can't call them back.
You don't want to call that one back. It's a V-bull.
Looks like you're gonna qualify expert.
Who would have believed it of an air wing grunt.
Here.
You gonna make love to it or load it?
- Wow. - Wow?
If I caught my thumb in it, that would have really hurt.
Just shoot.
- Now what's the problem? - How far is that?
- Yeah.
You know damn well how far it is. It's 500 yards.
- Are you messin' with me, Private? - No, sir.
And don't call me "sir"! I ain't no frigging officer.
Now... shoot.
Hey, man, I love you too.
Hey, Gunny West told me you were a loudmouthed ass.
But I never thought anyone would be dumb enough to mess with me.
I'm sorry--
I'm sorry, Sergeant, I--
Russian? You speaking to me in Russian?
It's just a little slip of the tongue.
See I'm, uh, I'm studying Russian and-and-and some-sometimes it comes out.
You know what I'm studying? Huh?
The Three Stooges?
You have one more round. Shoot!
I was a pretty good shot on the farm.
Bagged my share of squirrels with a .22 and deer with a .30-06.
But that was long ago and not at 500 yards.
Did you take a deep breath?
What are you trying to do, kill me?
Now what?
You startled me! What are you doing?
I thought you heard the chamber door open and knew I was here.
You blaming me for jerking one off?
No, not you.
I don't see nobody else standing here.
Yeah well, he does.
Maggie's drawers.
Maggie's drawers, that's a euphemism for that rag they're waving there.
- It means you missed the target. - Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk.
218. That's too bad.
If you hadn't jerked off that last round, you would have made expert.
Sharpshooter is not bad, Sam.
- Sign at the bottom, Oswald. - Oswald?
That's your name, ain't it?
He's right, Sam. You've leaped into Lee Harvey Oswald.
Just a word of advice, Private.
You wanna ship home with all the body parts you came here with... zip your lip.
Aye, aye, Sergeant Beaner.
See you on liberty, Oswald.
Sam, are you out of your mind?
You can't talk to anybody like that, much less a marine sergeant.
- I know, Al. I know. - Cease fire! Cease fire!
Then why'd you do it? I didn't.
Excuse me. I heard you!
You heard the words came out of my mouth, but I didn't say 'em.
- You're scaring me, Sam. - Well, you're not alone.
Maybe-- Maybe this has something to do with leaping twice into the same person.
- What twice? - I leaped into Oswald in '63.
At least that's what the newspapers I was holding said it was, March of '63.
Well, how'd you know you were Oswald?
Marina was taking my picture.
You know that famous picture with the rifle and the-and the newspapers.
That photograph is a fake.
Yeah. Oswald's face is superimposed on somebody else's body to frame him.
But Marina took it.
How do you know she was Marina?
I called her Marina and- and she called me... Alik.
Well, there you see? You weren't Oswald.
All we have to do is ask Ziggy to trace the name Alik to anyone...
working at the C.I.A. or the F.B...
What?
Alik was the name Oswald used in Russia.
And, uh, that's the name Marina used to call him.
But that doesn't mean she's the one that took the picture,
and it doesn't mean that you were Oswald.
- I was Oswald. - How can you be so sure?
- I can feel him in me. - In you?
You know how there's always a little residual...
of the other person left behind in a leap?
You know, like a little of their knowledge or their personality...
or maybe even a little bit of their soul?
Oswald didn't leave a little anything in you, Sam.
When you leap into someone, you're still Dr. Sam Beckett,
with your personality, your knowledge and you--
Where'd you learn to fieldstrip an M-1?
I didn't.
I'm him, Al. I'm Lee Harvey Oswald.
No, you're not him!
Then how do you explain this, hmm?
All right. So you can fieldstrip an M-1. Big deal.
Thousands of kids learn to do that in boot camp.
- Yeah? - Yeah.
Well, I didn't go to boot camp.
All right. So you got a little Lee Harvey Oswald in you. You can handle that.
What if I got a lot of Lee Harvey Oswald in me? Huh? I mean think about that.
Do you remember the leap when lightning struck us and we switched places?
Yeah. Yeah, I think so.
And I got some of your libido, right?
Yeah. And you still behaved like a prude.
What else was I supposed to do? I was a hologram.
Well, it never stopped me.
If you could handle my sex drive,
you can certainly handle a few of Lee Harvey Oswald's loose neurons.
Well, what if I can't handle it? Huh? I mean, what--
what if I assassinate the president?
You're not gonna assassinate the president. This is '57.
That doesn't happen for another six years.
Fifteen minutes ago it was six years from now.
And who's to say that's not gonna happen again...
in November with me at the Texas School Book Depository?
Good God, Al.
If that happened, I could stop the assassination.
If Oswald really was the assassin.
What do you mean if Oswald was really the assassin?
Well, there's a lot of people think that he was set up.
Set up?
- By whom? - Could have been anybody.
Could've been the F.B.I., Secret Service, uh, C.I.A.,
the military, the Mafia, defense contractors, John Birchers.
You name it. They all had something to gain from Kennedy's death.
Al, we're talking about murdering the president of the United States.
Don't you remember all the conspiracy books and the movies?
No. But I do remember that day in November like it was yesterday.
I was 10, and my dad was teaching me how to drive the tractor
in the field behind the house.
All of a sudden, Mom came out yelling at us.
She ran up right to the fence and she was yelling
and we thought it was because what we were doing.
But then she told us that the president had just been shot.
Al, if I leaped into Oswald to uncover a conspiracy, why didn't I stay in '63?
Maybe because it started here at Atsugi.
- Atsugi? - Japan.
This doesn't look like Japan.
Sam, military bases look the same the world over.
But you go out that gate, and you'll see it's Japan.
There's no doubt about it. It's very beautiful. It's serene.
And there's a lot of beautiful geishas.
Okay, Al.
Chip and I, uh, libertied once at a place called The Inn of the Black Pearl.
Uh-huh.
And we would soak in these wood hot tubs with four naked--
You were saying that Atsugi is where the conspiracy started?
Uh, yeah. Well, the K.G.B. probably contacted Oswald somewhere around here.
Wait. You didn't mention the Russians. They were behind the assassination?
That's one theory.
Another one is that Oswald was just pretending to be with the K.G.B.
He was really with the C.I.A. or the F.B.I.
Wait. Wait. Wait. Why was the K.G.B. even interested in Oswald?
Are you kidding? Oswald was a radar operator with Macs-1.
He knew all the frequencies, all the codes, the intercept procedures.
He knew about Race Car.
Race Car, this is Coffee Mill. Squawk Two. Over.
- Uh-oh. - See? See what I'm saying?
That wasn't me, Al. That was Oswald.
D-D-Don't worry about it.
I don't even-- Where did that come from? That was Oswald.
- Don't worry it. - H-H-How did I know that?
You can handle it.
To tell you the truth, I'm not worried about it.
It's just that I don't know who's controlling who.
I mean, am I controlling Oswald or is he controlling me?
- Sam, listen to me. Wait a second. - That's the scary part.
We're going to uncover this conspiracy and change what happened in Dallas.
I feel it in my bones.
All you have to do-- All you have to do is hang in there.
I prayed Al was right. At least part of me did.
Hidell, Alex James.
Private first class.
Serial number: 1522597.
Hidell? You're saying your name is Hidell?
What are you, hard of hearing?
What's that?
Uh, it's a tape recorder. New model.
You won't need it. I've already told you...
everything I'm obliged to tell you under the rules of the Geneva Convention.
Well, you're obliged to tell the truth.
1653230. That's your real serial number isn't it, Private Oswald?
That's no tape recorder.
So we both lied.
Who's Alex Hidell?
Oswald, Lee Harvey. Private first class.
Serial number: 1653230.
You're not a prisoner of war.
All members of the proletariat are prisoners in the class struggle.
I thought you were a member of the Marine Corps.
My status as a marine does not alter my membership...
in the exploited and oppressed class into which I was born.
- I was joking. - I was not!
Take it easy, kid. I'm on your side.
- Then I'm free to leave? - Uh, no. Not exactly.
Then I'm a prisoner.
Okay. All right. You're a prisoner of the proletariat and--
I'm a prisoner of the bourgeois and a member of the proletariat.
You don't know your Marx, do you?
After six years in the Hanoi Hilton, I tend to repress it.
Where?
That's where I was held as a prisoner of war...
and where they didn't give a damn about the Geneva Convention.
Now were you ever approached by a foreign agent in Japan?
That depends.
Hmm. Are you a foreign agent, Al?
That's your name, isn't it? Al.
How-How did I know your name?
You're part of an experiment.
A new way of communicating through the mesons and neurons of the mind.
You messed with my mind?
What else have you messed with?
This is Race Car. Over.
Race Car, this is Coffee Mill. Read you five by five. Over.
Coffee Mill, Race Car.
Starting my descent for home and having a little trouble with my TACAN.
Can you give me a steer? Over.
Yeah, Race Car. Squawk two and ident.
Race Car, Squawking two and identifying.
Yeah, Race Car, this is Coffee Mill. I have you a 180 nautical miles out.
I have you bearing 2-niner-0 relative.
It was eerie. I was doing Oswald's job as if I'd been trained for it,
even beginning to enjoy myself,
until I realized that I was bound to slip up sooner or later.
I can't find his altitude.
Uh, Race Car, say your angels. Over.
This is Race Car. I am uh...
somewhere above angels 20 and descending.
Somewhere above? He's gotta be way above.
I'm reading everything from angels 4-5 and I still don't have him.
We don't need Race Car's altitude to give him a steer, Briggs.
Aye, aye, sir.
Attention unidentified aircraft. You are entering a restricted zone.
Do you copy? Over.
- What's he doing? - Uh, Ozzie Rabbit.
Um, right here. Yeah.
You're-You're supposed to write that so that we can read it too, Bugs. Okay?
This is no time for games, Oswald.
Backwards. Sam, you've got to write everything backwards.
He's weird.
What's so damn funny?
- Sam! - What's the problem, Oswald?
- Hey. - Nothing.
Sir! Nothing, sir!
- Geez. - Sorry, sir.
Al, you got to get me out of here fast.
I can't control Oswald's emotions anymore.
I can see that.
If it'll make you feel any better, he's taking on a little bit of you.
Well, it does not make me feel better at all!
- Calm down! - Oswald, is your mike out?
No. No, it's fine, sir.
- Better let me do the talking. - I always do.
Oh, I got him! He just popped up on my scope descending through angels 4-5.
Uh, Race Car, this is Coffee Mill.
Turn right to a heading of 0-6-5 and squawk one, over.
Race Car. 0-6-5. Squawking one, over.
Uh, Lieutenant, uh, based on Race Car's rate of descent since his initial call,
he had to have been up around angels 9-0.
That's almost 30,000 feet above the world record.
You miscalculated, Briggs.
I don't think so, sir.
I figured out his rate of descent and I-and I clocked him from his first--
You miscalculated, Briggs.
- Yes, sir. - Listen up, people.
We're not here to calculate how high, how fast or how far Race Car can fly.
All that is top secret and not to be discussed, even among yourselves.
- Do you read me? - Five-by-five, sir.
Al.
Flagcheck Leader, stand by to hand off to Tokyo Main.
Race Car's a U-2, isn't it?
You heard the lieutenant. We're not supposed to discuss that.
What am I going to do, tell the Russians? Well, that's what we're here to find out.
Ziggy says if the K.G.B. makes contact...
it's gonna be in Yamato at a bar where Oswald hangs out called Negashaia.
- Negashaia. - And--
What? Uh, interesting.
Lee-san!
Where you been?
Your mama-san missed you.
Cried many tears on my pillow.
I really missed you, Lee-san.
I really missed you too.
You ichiban liar man.
But I love it. Why you stay away from Negashaia?
Uh, you know, uh, duty and--
Pillow talk says Macs-1's marines up to something hush-hush.
- Pillow talk? - Sex.
They also say Macs-1's marines go to sea soon.
Maybe, uh, Philippines or maybe Indonesia.
Is this true?
Why would you want to know?
Oh. Macs-1's marines are my friends-o.
You leave Atsugi, many broken hearts-o.
I have to send my girls back to the farms.
So you're only interested in the welfare of your girls?
Why else?
- You think poor Joda is a spy? - Are you?
Well,
I do almost anything for money.
Even with a little Lee Harvey Oswald in me,
I... wasn't prepared for this.
Not prepared at all.
Hey, marine, you buy me drink. I show you a good time.
- I ichiban mama-san. - No. No, thanks.
I know special tricks, no?
Hey!
It's all right.
Look out. Cat fight. Cat fight.
Why did you let her touch you?
Mariska, it's my fault.
I was going to scratch her eyes out, but I just did my nails.
Hey! Come on! Let 'em fight, Bugs!
Get out of there, Ozzie Rabbit!
You stay away from my guy! You stay! Go away! Out!
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Hey, let a marine who appreciates a woman buy you a drink, huh?
Yeah!
- You promise no more trouble? - No trouble.
I got me ichiban marine.
Come on, come on. Sit, sit.
- I'm sorry about that. - I don't believe you.
As my Uncle Duchin says...
I used to, uh, speak some Russian.
But I don't seem to remember very much right now.
All you have to remember is...
- I love you. - I love you too, Lee.
How do you say "Oh, boy" in Russian?
Talk some more Russian to me.
Sometimes I think Russian is the only reason you come to see me.
That can't be true.
I think so.
There's plenty of other girls here who make love to you.
But only Mariska can make love to you in Russian.
Tell you stories in Russian.
- You do tell wonderful stories. - Uncle Duchin taught me.
He's the best storyteller in all of Minsk. Wait till you meet him.
He'll fill your stomach with vodka and your head with tales of his youth.
- I can't wait. When? - When we go to Russia.
If you still want to go to Russia.
I've always wanted to go to Russia.
It's the worker's paradise.
As long as you aren't half oriental.
Do you think it's better in America?
Lee.
I know that you were unhappy in America,
but it would be different there with me.
I-I could make you very happy.
My mother slaved for the capitalists her whole life and all she got was nothing.
Nothing!
You are the only marine who says America is a bad place.
What other marines do you talk to?
- Just the ones who buy me drink. - What else do they buy?
- Huh? - Nothing!
- Huh? - Nothing! Just drink.
Lee, it's my job.
You're my only boyfriend.
Sam, you'll never believe wh-what...
Looks like my libido finally kicked in. Sam?
Please, Lee, I won't talk about going to America again.
- I believe you. - We go to Russia.
- We go to Siberia. - I believe you.
- Anyplace you want. - What's goin' on, Sam?
Right now, you just have to excuse me. I need to go to the bathroom.
Kenji!
Sam, what's going on?
I'm losing it, Al. That's what's going on.
Yeah, I already did.
I spent half of my first tour like that.
I can't control him.
Hey, don't worry. He's-He's too drunk to give you any problem.
- Not him. - Huh?
Oswald.
He's-He's taking over my mind.
Well, that's impossible. He-He can't take over your mind.
I'm reacting like him. I'm-I'm talking like him. I'm thinking like him.
I don't know where he stops and I start, Al.
And how I treated Mariska out there was sickening.
What'd you do?
I treated her like dirt, and she threw herself at me.
Oh! Works every time.
Hey, well, no, I mean, it-it shouldn't work. It shouldn't work.
And-And any man would be ashamed of treating a woman like that.
Her name's Mariska?
She's part Russian, I think.
Oh. Hey, she could be the K.G.B. agent.
I don't think so.
She's just-- She's teaching Oswald Russian, you know,
and-and sleeping with him.
Oh, you're sleeping with her?
No, I'm not sleeping with her. Oswald is sleeping with her.
Well, what's the difference?
I just met her, okay? I'm not sleeping with her.
I don't know her. I just met her, okay?
Don't get so touchy.
I want to make sure you're prepared in case you have to sleep with her.
I'm not like you. I don't have to sleep with every woman that I meet just because--
because she's there.
But you may have to sleep with her to prove...
or disprove whether or not she's an agent.
What?
Look, female spies have been doing this since Mata Hari
to find out military secrets. They sleep with--
Yeah, except I don't know any military secrets.
Well, you don't know what you don't know.
Al, if you were in the K.G.B.,
would you hire anyone...
as conspicuous as Mariska to be your agent.
Maybe that's what they're counting on.
That our guys would think she's such an obvious choice
that they wouldn't pick her and then they do.
Mariska is no agent, Al.
Oswald is just interested in anything or anyone Russian.
- How do you know? - How do I--
Because I've been spouting his words like a trained parrot, okay?
I've been doing his job.
I mean, I know him better than his own mother does.
I even know what motivates him. Look at this.
Oh, that's The Communist Manifesto.
Yeah. Yeah. I found this in my locker-- in Oswald's locker. Right?
It's dog-eared. It's-It's underlined. See that?
I mean, this is his religion. This is his Bible.
His-His mecca is Moscow and his Muhammad is Marx.
I don't ever want to be that cold again.
A piece of shrapnel tore--
Well, well.
What's a bait fish like you...
doing in a shark's bar?
Huh?
You guys know who this is?
This marine is more famous than Chesty Puller.
This is Private First Class Lee Harvey Oswald.
Otherwise known as Ozzie Rabbit.
Sam, you'd better get out of here right now.
Sarge, I don't want any trouble.
So, uh, you guys go ahead and have a good time.
No, not so quick, Bugs.
Would you deprive Sergeants Wojowski and Miller...
of the honor of shaking the hand of the man...
whose bravery in the face of the enemy...
is sung about from the halls of Negashaia...
to the shores of Atsugi
- The enemy? - Sam.
That's right, Bugs.
Me.
Uh, Sam, Ziggy's, uh, spitting out all kinds of new data here.
Maybe we missed something, or, uh, maybe you're changing history.
- Is this why I'm here? - Yeah.
So I can teach you a lesson.
The only thing you can teach me is how to play drop the soap in the shower.
Sam! What do you-- You wanna get killed?
Ziggy's predicting that this Lopez will knock the hell out of Oswald!
I'm not Oswald.
You're not?
No.
Then who the hell are you?
Huh?
You're about to find out.
Hey! Hey! I got him!
Let him go!
If I can't whip this wimp, I'll enlist in the Waves.
Watch out for the left.
- And watch out for the right. - Thanks a lot.
- De nada. - No fighting! No fighting!
Against the rules!
If I wasn't so drunk, I'd swear that was Ozzie Rabbit fightin' that gorilla.
- Well, that is Ozzie Rabbit! - No way.
Hit 'em, Ozzie!
Shore patrol! Hey!
Right to the belly! You gotta go downstairs! That hurts!
Yeah!
Ho!
He's kickboxing! Can he do that?
Well, I didn't hear nobody say nothin' about no rules, man!
Oh, no! No! Foul! Foul!
That's my buddy. He's in Macs-1 with me.
Oh, you radar operator too?
You want me to hold him for you?
Lee!
Kenji! Kenji!
Come on, Ozzie! Come on!
Come on! Get up!
Get up! Get up!
I'm ready for my lesson, Sarge.
Huh?
Lee, come on. Come on, Lee.
- Get out of here! - Hey, come on. It's over, Oswald.
It's not over till I get my lesson.
Sam, put down that gun.
We'll grab a drink, we'll go upstairs, take our women up there--
Back off!
- Sam, listen to me! - I'm waiting.
Teach me my damn lesson.
- Come on, Sarge. - Gooshie, I can't get through to him!
Tell Ziggy I've got to have a way to get through to him!
You're kidding.
Uh-Uh, Sam,
Sam, what are the four, uh,
fundamental forces of interactions in quantum physics?
Come on, Sergeant.
What are the four fundamental forces of interactions
in quantum physics, Sam?
Yeah, yeah. Sam, the four fundamental forces of interactions
in-in quantum physics?
Gravitation, electromagnetism,
the strong and weak nuclear forces.
What's the Pauli exclusion principle?
No two fermions can occupy a given quantum state at the same time.
Neither can two human souls.
Can you help me?
I used to be stationed here. I'm looking for a couple of my buddies.
I'm sort of new here myself.
You got a company roster or maybe the duty list?
Uh, let me see.
I'm still him.
Uh, Sam, you're still Oswald,
- I know. - Only you're no longer in Atsugi.
Uh, you're stationed at, uh, Macs-9 in Tustin, California.
It's 1959.
Why do I keep leaping into Lee Harvey Oswald?
Well, Ziggy still insists that it's to uncover a conspiracy.
Stop what happened in Dallas.
- Sam, is Oswald still in-- - I don't know. I don't know.
Why did I leap out of Japan?
Well, there's some data indicating that originally Oswald killed Sergeant Lopez.
And I was there to stop that?
Well, Lopez saved the lives of 17 marines at Khe Sanh,
and he was given the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously.
I gotta find the duty roster.
- Duty roster. - Yeah.
Oh, here-duty roster.
- Here you go. - Thanks.
Do you often read The Daily Worker?
It's the only newspaper that tells the truth.
- The truth? - How the United States...
oppresses the proletariat of the world with its military might.
He's back.
- You sound like a communist. - I know. I know.
- But you're not? - I'm not what I sometimes sound like.
- Oh, good. That's better, Sam. - But if I were, I'd be a Marxist.
If you're a Marxist, what the hell are you doing the in the Marine Corps?
I don't know.
We are all ears, Mr. Oswald.
- We're waiting. - Waiting?
- Yes, for your knowledge. - My knowledge. Right.
When you told our consulate in Helsinki that you wanted to defect, you said...
"I am willing to share all knowledge I acquired during my service...
"in the United States Marine Corps.
"I do this to repudiate my former country...
"and to demonstrate my loyalty to the Soviet Union."
My name is Lee Harvey Oswald.
In the Marine Corps,
My M.O.S: 6741,
aviation electronics operator.
My first duty assignment was with Macs-1 in Atsugi, Japan.
I arrived there on September the 12th, 1957.