| The Tenth Level | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Drama |
| Written by | George Bellak |
| Directed by | Charles S. Dubin |
| Starring | William Shatner Ossie Davis Lynn Carlin Estelle Parsons Stephen Macht Lindsay Crouse John Travolta |
| Music by | Charles Gross |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | Bob Markell |
| Producer | Tony Masucci |
| Production locations | CBS Broadcast Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York |
| Editors | George Hartman Henry Weiland |
| Running time | 94 min |
| Production company | CBS |
| Budget | $300,000[1] |
| Original release | |
| Network | CBS |
| Release | August 26, 1976 |
| Infobox instructions (only shown in preview) | |
The Tenth Level is a 1976 American made-for-television drama film movie starring William Shatner. Inspired by the Stanley Milgram obedience research, this TV movie chronicles a psychology professor's study to determine why people, such as the Nazis, were willing to "just follow orders" and do horrible things to others. Professor Stephen Turner (Shatner) leads students to believe that they are applying increasingly painful electric shocks to other subjects when they fail to perform a task correctly, and is alarmed to see how much pain the students can be convinced to inflict "in the name of science".
In the movie dramatization there were actually 25 levels of increasing voltage and pain. However, the so-called tenth level was significant in that it was always the first time in which the actual test subject heard the other (false) test subject cry out in pain.
It was the TV debuts of Stephen Macht and Lindsay Crouse, and John Travolta has an uncredited part as a student.