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It was a dark and stormy night... A man is sitting at a typewriter, blindfolded, and arguing with an unknown person. The man becomes upset, and threatens to remove the blindfold. As he begins to take it off, lighting hits the house, and the man is thrown backwards. |
| Austin and Mickey drive to the man's house. Mickey is reading the last chapter of a science fiction novel. Austin interrupts her, noting that there are lightning rods lining the roof of the house. The maid lets Austin and Mickey into the house, and shows them to the dining room. |
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Waiting for them in the dining room is a striking, flirtatious redhead named Tish. The man, a science fiction writer named Truman Smith, enters the room, and brusquely tells everyone to sit down. When Mickey tries to sit in the chair next to Truman, he yells at her. Tish, his wife, tells Austin that that particular chair is reserved for Truman's "special friend", and that they always set it. |
| Truman tells Austin that he has written over four hundred science fiction novels, making him the most prolific sci-fi author. When Mickey tells Truman that she liked his latest novel, (the book she was reading in the car), Truman tells her that women are too emotional to appreciate science fiction. Austin demands to know why Truman called him. |
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Truman tells them that he has encountered an intelligent, alien life-form whose spaceship crashed in Montana. The alien, Pretzel 14, is a four or five hundred year old entity charged with electromagnetic energy; he has quadraphonic hearing, radar eyes, and is psychic. Pretzel is responsible for the lightning rods and the piles of sand that are scattered all over the house. Truman called Austin because he wants Austin's help capturing Pretzel. |
| Austin dismisses Truman's claims. Truman begs Austin to help him, because Pretzel tried to kill him the night before. Austin and Mickey leave the house, but Mickey tries to persuade Austin to stay. When Austin asks Mickey why she cares about someone who was so rude to her, Mickey says that Truman's behavior is just a front, and that he's obviously very scared. |
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A scream from the house gets Austin and Mickey's attention, and they run back into the dining room. A glowing orb shooting lightning bolts has pinned Truman under the table. It destroys part of the room, shatters a window, and flies away. |
| Truman admits that Pretzel is trying to kill him because Pretzel is the actual author of all the novels, not Truman. They were working on the last, greatest novel when Pretzel went mad and became convinced that Truman was trying to cheat him. Austin maintains that Pretzel was just lightning, but Mickey argues that they didn't see any lightning when they were outside. She decides that she and Austin will stay. |
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The next day, Mickey wanders into Truman's study. Truman enters, determined to finish the book without Pretzel's help. He tells Mickey that the last book is a novelization of Pretzel's life on Earth, and at the end, the Pretzel character kills the Truman character. Truman kicks Mickey out of the study. |
| Mickey looks for Austin, who has been exploring the underside of the house. Austin places thermal sensors around the house in an attempt to prove that Pretzel doesn't exist. Mickey asks Austin if he would ever lead his children to believe in Santa Claus. Austin says no. When Mickey says he would be robbing them of a childhood joy, Austin says that he did fine without Santa Claus. By the time Austin was six years old, he had disproved the existence of Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Boogieman, and the Tooth Fairty. Instead of believing in them, he spent five years building an incredibly detailed castle in his head. |
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The sensors go off, indicating that the farthest room in the north wing is extremely hot. Austin tells Mickey to wait while he investigates, even though Mickey is eager to meet Pretzel. When Austin gets to the room, he discovers Tish lying under a heat lamp, working on her tan. After telling Austin that she has "experienced" Pretzel, Tish tries to kiss him, but Mickey interrupts them. |
| The lights in the house go out suddenly, and they hear Truman scream. The glowing orb has returned, and is attacking Truman. After it leaves, Austin tells Mickey that it wasn't lightning, it was alive. "My God," Austin says, "he really exists." |
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Austin thinks that the only reason Pretzel hasn't killed Truman is because Pretzel doesn't want to endanger the only copy of the manuscript. Austin tells Mickey to take the Smiths and Helga and leave, but Mickey refuses to leave Austin. Truman also refuses to leave, and says that he is going to help Pretzel finish the novel. Tish and Helga decide to leave. |
| Austin tries to rig a chair so that when Pretzel sits on it, the energy will be drained out of him, but Truman objects, saying he doesn't want Pretzel to be hurt. Austin reluctantly agrees. Tish and Helga come back because the roads were washed out. A drunk Tish passes out, and Austin carries her back to her room, where Tish wakes up and kisses him. |
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The lights go out again, and Austin goes to examine an electrical panel. He is electrocuted, and is knocked unconscious. Mickey leaves Truman to search for Austin, and finds him lying on the floor. Truman sees Pretzel for the first time, right before he is killed. |
| Austin believes that Pretzel is unable to touch the manuscript without damaging it, and that he still needs a human to help him finish it. He plans to wait for Pretzel to enter the room, this time rigging the chair to drain Pretzel's energy. Mickey argues that Pretzel already tried to kill Austin, and she volunteers to be the typist. Despite his reluctance, Austin agrees to let Mickey help Pretzel. |
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While they wait for Pretzel, Mickey asks Austin if there were any kings and queens who lived in his castle. Austin tells her that there weren't any people like that, because as soon as he was finished building it, he laid seige to it. It took one hundred thousand barbarians three years before they managed to dig a tunnel under the north wall. He didn't want anyone to get hurt during the seige. Mickey asks him why he does stuff like that. "Preparation," he says, "for days like this." |
| The lights in the house go out, and Mickey puts on the blindfold. Austin rushes to the study, but the doors are welded shut when he gets there. Mickey tells Pretzel that she doesn't want to hurt him, she just wants to help him finish his manuscript. When Austin is finally able to enter, Mickey is all alone. While Austin examines the chair, Mickey picks up a letter from Helium Lightning Rod Company, warning Truman that a lightning rod grounded in the configuration Truman has set up could result in ball lightning. Austin realizes that "Pretzel" is actually ball lightning, and the sand and lightning rods were merely a part of Truman's imagination. |
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Austin tells Mickey, Tish, and Helga that when Truman was killed, the murderess, who is one of them, took a "picture" of herself. Truman's polarized sunglasses acted as the film, and the light source was the electric cord touching the side of Truman's head. Austin accuses Tish of murdering Truman, saying that she was planning to divorce Truman after he finished his last novel, and gain custody of it as alimony. When Truman wouldn't finish the book, she decided to kill him and use a ghost-writer to finish it. The lights go out again, and Austin tells everyone to watch the wall. "Pretzel" appears, and an image of Tish is projected onto the wall, prompting her to confess to the murder. |
| Before they leave, Austin explains that Helga's watering of the plants triggered Pretzel's appearances. He also reveals that the image of Tish was an old slide he had found. He had just used the theatrics to force Tish to confess. Mickey tells him that she made a discovery of her own. She realized that when Austin's parents took him to see Santa Claus, Austin was so scared of him that he cried. She says Austin must have been out to get Santa after that. Austin's reaction makes it clear that Mickey was right. As they leave the house, Austin playfully holds the door open for an imaginary person named Harvey. |
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