In The Zone (The Outer Limits) - Plot

Plot

With its deadly lasers and hand-to-hand battles, 'The Octal' is a combat sport for a new generation of athletes — but Tanner Brooks is no longer a young man. Although he's promised his wife Jessica that this will be his final tournament, Tanner is desperate to go out a winner. Dr. Michael Chen has a way to make that happen. Through an experimental treatment that taps the power of the human nervous system, Chen accelerates Tanner's reflexes and perceptions. To Tanner, everything in the Octal begins to move in slow motion ... and Tanner quickly becomes unbeatable. However, there are side effects: Jessica notices that Tanner is tired, haggard and his hair is going gray. But, when Tanner's body begins to blur and fade out of existence, Tanner and Jessica must choose between one last moment of glory ... their love for each other ... and oblivion.

Dr. Chen saw the effects and stopped the treatments. He told Tanner and Jessica that the effects would fade in time. However, Tanner decided to have one more treatment and caused his entire body to shift into an entirely different time zone.

Dr. Chen figured out how to use the chamber to absorb the energy and get Tanner back. So, Jessica used the treatment on herself to get into the time zone and get him back. Jessica is successful, but the procedure to remove the effects seems set to fail, as the mass of synthetic nerve matter Dr. Chen uses as an element of the treatment is insufficient to absorb the energy from Tanner. To provide additional absorbent Dr. Chen immerses his hands in the tank with the nerve matter, and disappears, his own body now presumably permanently sped up to the point of being imperceptible to normal humans.

A cured but aged Tanner and Jessica look at the "explanation" Dr. Chen left to them - his driver's license, which shows that he should have been only thirty years old. They realize he had tested the procedure on himself, causing his body to speed up and age faster.