The Outer Limits (1995) S04E16 - Final Exam
S04E16 Final Exam
Episode Overview
Dr. John Martin (Brett Cullen), a negotiator for the Department of Energy Nuclear Response Team, is urgently summoned when a troubled grad student takes hostages at a university. The student, Seth Todtman (Peter Stebbings), claims he has created a cold-fusion bomb and threatens to detonate it, endangering millions, unless the government eliminates five individuals from his list. Initially, Martin's team views Todtman as just a delusional individual, but their perspective shifts dramatically when a sample device he provides detonates with devastating power, destroying a DOE team and their secret facility. With time running out, Martin confronts Todtman directly, seeking to grasp his motivations for targeting those he blames: abusive foster parents, corrupt professors, and a callous librarian, while the military scrambles to devise a plan to neutralize the bomb.