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Twilight Zone: The Movie

Twilight Zone: The Movie is a 1983 American science fiction anthology film produced by Steven Spielberg and John Landis. Based on Rod Serling's 1959–1964 television series of the same name, the film features four stories directed by Landis, Spielberg, Joe Dante, and George Miller.[3] Landis' segment is an original story created for the film, while the segments by Spielberg, Dante, and Miller are remakes of episodes from the original series. The film's cast includes Dan Aykroyd, Albert Brooks, Scatman Crothers, John Lithgow, Vic Morrow, and Kathleen Quinlan. Original series cast members Burgess Meredith, Patricia Barry, Peter Brocco, Murray Matheson, Kevin McCarthy, Bill Mumy, and William Schallert also appear in the film, with Meredith assuming Serling's role as narrator.

Twilight Zone: The Movie

  • John Landis
  • George Clayton Johnson
  • Jerome Bixby
  • Richard Matheson

  • Steven Spielberg
  • John Landis

  • June 24, 1983 (1983-06-24)

101 minutes[1]

United States

  • English
  • French
  • German
  • Vietnamese

$10 million

$42 million[2]

The film's production achieved notoriety when Morrow and two illegally hired child actors were killed in a helicopter crash during the filming of Landis's segment.[4] The deaths led to several years of legal action; although no individuals were found to be criminally liable, new procedures and safety standards were imposed in the filmmaking industry.[5] Upon release, the film received mixed reviews, with praise directed at Dante and Miller's segments, but criticism towards the segments by Landis and Spielberg. Despite the controversy and mixed reception, it was a commercial success, grossing $42 million on a $10 million budget.

Plot[edit]

Prologue[edit]

This segment was written and directed by John Landis. Two men are in a car driving along a country road late at night. The conversation turns to what episodes of The Twilight Zone they found most scary. The passenger then asks, "Do you want to see something really scary?" and says to pull over. He transforms into a monster and devours the driver as the opening sequence begins.


Cast

Novelization[edit]

Robert Bloch wrote the book adaptation of Twilight Zone: The Movie. Bloch's order of segments does not match the order in the film itself, as he was given the original screenplay to work with, in which "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" was the second segment, and "Kick the Can" was the fourth. The movie's prologue is missing in the novelization. Bloch claimed that no one told him the anthology had a wraparound sequence. Bloch also said that in the six weeks he was given to write the book, he only saw a screening of two of the segments; he had to hurriedly change the ending of the first segment, after the helicopter accident that occurred during filming.[29] As originally written, the first segment would have ended as it did in the original screenplay (Connor finds redemption by saving two Vietnamese children whose village is being destroyed by the Air Cavalry). The finished book reflects how the first segment ends in the final cut of the film.

Giulia D'Agnolo Vallan (March 4, 2008). John Landis (Illustrated eddition ed.). M Press.  978-1595820419.

ISBN

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at the TCM Movie Database

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at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films

Twilight Zone: The Movie