Greg Stillson

Greg Stillson is a fictional character and the primary antagonist in Stephen King's 1979 novel The Dead Zone. Played by Golden Globe-winner Martin Sheen in the film adaptation and Sean Patrick Flanery in the USA Network television series, Stillson is a rising politician and future U.S. President whose rise to power will eventually bring on Armageddon.

Novel biography

Stillson is originally from Oklahoma, the son of an abusive oil field worker. He is introduced at the beginning of the novel as a travelling Bible salesman in 1955. During a stop at a house in rural Iowa, Stillson is attacked by the absent homeowners' dog and, enraged, sprays ammonia in the animal's eyes before beating it to death. As he drives away, Stillson comes to the blind realization that he is destined for greatness. It is revealed later that Stillson held a series of odd occupations in the years following this incident, among them being a successful rainmaker.

Stillson moves to the fictional New Hampshire town of Ridgeway in 1971, where he is eventually elected mayor. He blackmails biker gang leader Sonny Elliman into becoming his hired thug. He also develops a reputation in Ridgeway for his ability to "straighten out" delinquent teenagers, utilizing a clandestine process that often involves physical and emotional torture. In 1976, Stillson campaigns for the U.S. House of Representatives as an independent, gaining national attention for his unconventional behavior during rallies; he often dons a construction helmet and makes bizarre campaign promises. Meanwhile, Stillson's security detail, led by Elliman and his fellow bikers, are implicated in several beatings involving rally attendees.

During a rally in the fictional town of Trimbull, New Hampshire, Stillson shake hands with psychic Johnny Smith. The physical contact causes Smith to see a vision of Stillson as president of the United States many years into the future and then has a sense of complete desolation. As he eventually relates in a letter to his father, Smith believes that President Stillson will worsen an international conflict and start a full-scale nuclear war.

Stillson is elected to Congress, and proves so popular during his first term that he wins his next election in a landslide. Smith, with the terrible knowledge of Stillson's future deeds, contemplates assassinating the congressman. He eventually leaves New Hampshire and finds a public works job in Phoenix, Arizona. However, after being diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor, Smith realizes he has precious little time to deal with Stillson.

Smith arrives in Jackson, New Hampshire, which is to host a town hall meeting featuring Stillson. Posing as a news photographer, Smith finds a decent sniper's nest in the town hall's second floor gallery, with a clear view of the podium. However, when the rally starts, Smith misses Stillson several times when he opens fire. Stillson grabs a nearby child and uses him as a human shield. Smith then hesitates, and is subsequently shot and mortally wounded.

Smith's efforts are not in vain, however; a news photographer he had met earlier took a picture of Stillson cowering behind the child, and escapes from Stillson's bodyguards. Smith touches Stillson again when they meet the final time, discovering that he has changed the future and that Stillson will never come to power. With this knowledge, Smith dies content. It is implied that Stillson's political career ends in disgrace after the damning photo of him holding the child against Smith's fire is published.

In the film, it is shown that Stillson commits suicide in the wake of the scandal. However, this is not evident in the novel.

Role in the TV series

Stillson's backstory is established in flashbacks during Season One, in which his con artist father, James, uses him as a ploy and accomplice in his various petty crimes and get-rich-quick schemes. Stillson encounters Johnny Smith when they are both nine years old; Smith suffers a vague vision and passes out upon meeting him. Later, Stillson — by then the mayor of Cleaves Mills, Maine — passes Smith's car accident on his way to the office of Charlie Richardson, where he and Elliman threaten to throw him out of a fifth story window for leaking stories about Stillson to the press. As Smith wakes from his coma, Stillson is sworn in as a member of the Maine House of Representatives.

In Season Two, Stillson runs for Maine's 2nd congressional district seat, running a platform of strong morality. However, behind the scenes, Stillson manipulates a young campaign volunteer into sleeping with him. He visits a disaster site to make a speech, only to have all the reporters abandon him when they spot Smith, who had saved hundreds of lives by foreseeing the event. Stillson becomes aware of Smith's investigations into his background. He meets with Smith and offers to give him connections after he is elected — but only if he stops digging around. Smith helps Stillson's rival, Harrison Fisher, best him in a debate. Smarting from the defeat, Stillson vents his hatred for Smith; Elliman warns and assaults the psychic. After scandal forces Fisher from the race, Stillson meets with Smith, asking to "join forces" with him to put their combined resources behind the campaign. Smith declines the offer.

In Season Three, Stillson hires a student filmmaker named Rachel Caldwell to make a documentary about the campaign. The two form a romantic relationship. Stillson's assistant, Jake Truax, demonstrates a voting machine that will steal votes for Stillson in the election. Rachel walks in, but does not see anything incriminating. She later goes missing. Stillson lies to Sheriff Bannerman about his "strictly professional" relationship with her, and devotes his campaign's resources into finding Rachel. He is confronted by Smith, who voices his suspicions of Stillson's involvement. When Rachel is found murdered and Smith is arrested for the crime, Stillson gives Elliman photographs of Smith's "Armageddon Board" with instructions to distribute them to the press to discredit Smith. However, Smith is eventually exonerated, and resumes his investigation into the murder.

Stillson and his cadre decide to "borrow a trick from our friends in Florida" by discounting voters' names that are even remotely similar to convicted felons. Stillson is "elected" in the election. During the victory party, Stillson walks in on Sarah searching his office. He attempts to seduce her, promising political power by his side. His sexual advances are cut off when an aide bursts into the office, giving Sarah an opportunity to escape. Later, Stillson throws his support behind a crime bill being renamed "Rachel's Law". Stillson is visited by Rebecca and Smith over "Rachel's Law", and asks that Rebecca attend the bill-signing ceremony in Washington D.C. Rebecca declines the offer. Smith shakes hands with Stillson, but collapses from the resulting vision. Stillson phones for paramedics.

Stillson learns that Smith is due to undergo brain surgery that may destroy his psychic ability, thus eliminating him as a threat to his career. Later, Stillson is visited by Rebecca, who has now decided to attend the ceremony. James warns his son not to "make the same mistake [he] made with her sister", and orders Elliman to place wiretaps in Rebecca's apartment. Smith escapes the hospital and finds Elliman's wiretaps in Rebecca's apartment. Elliman tries to clear out the equipment, but is caught by Bannerman. On the morning of the signing, Stillson and Rebecca are hustled to his suite when Smith is spotted nearby. Stillson attempts to seduce Rebecca, but she tries to kill him. Smith bursts into the suite and stops her, revealing that James killed Rachel. When James admits to the deed, his son strangles him in a fit of rage.

In Season Four, Stillson authorizes House Appropriations subsidies to fund the biomedical Portland Chemical firm in Maine, whose research would in turn provide soft money for Stillson's re-election campaign; Stillson meets with representative Judith Peck to discuss their mutually beneficial agendas. Stillson and Malcolm Janus — a newly-hired and calculating advisor replacing Truax — also discuss the work of Portland Chemical engineer Dr. Alex Connors, a former student of Smith's. Stillson visits Connors, learning that he and Smith has a falling-out over his current work. Stillson tells Janus that Smith must be kept out of Connors' research in order to maintain Portland Chemical's funds for the campaign. Stillson later runs into Smith, who offers to avoid Stillson if he lets go of Connors and his work. Stillson seems to agree, but then orders Connors kidnapped.

Over the next several months, Stillson and Miranda Ellis, the daughter of Maine senator Harlan Ellis, become romantically involved. One night, an inebriated Stillson confesses to Miranda about murdering James. When the couple sail her family's private yacht, Miranda goes missing. Desperate, he turns to Smith for help. The psychic reluctantly agrees, but swears to bring Stillson down if he is involved. Smith and Stillson's joint investigation turn up no leads, and they determine Miranda to be dead. Later, Janus tells Stillson that Miranda is alive and gives him her whereabouts; Stillson admits to telling Miranda the truth about James' death. Stillson holds a press conference to announce Miranda's safe return, and publicly proposes to her; she accepts. Smith also attends, and Stillson makes a point of thanking him in front of the cameras for his role in Miranda's rescue.

As Stillson goes over wedding details with Miranda and Harlan, he learns that Patrick Kelley, one of his rivals in Congress, has been invited to the ceremony. He also learns that Miranda has been seeing a doctor for a heart condition. Stillson meets with Kelley to discuss an intelligence leak to a newspaper, as Kelley is the committee chairman for Homeland Security. Stillson tries to threaten Kelley with the leak, but is rebuffed. Later, Janus shows him photographs of Miranda at Smith's residence. Enraged, Stillson orders Janus to "handle the situation", leaving the method up to his advisor.

At the wedding, Kelly is harangued by reporters over the intelligence leak. However, as Stillson waits at the altar, Miranda collapses and stops breathing. Stillson comes to her side as she dies. Later, during a congressional recess, Smith confronts Stillson over the deaths of James and Miranda. Stillson is instructed by Janus to join Vice President Eric Danbury on a hunting expedition. During the trip, Stillson witnesses Danbury's assassination. He returns fire in the direction of the assassin, and is publicly credited with taking down the triggerman. He is appointed vice president upon Danbury's death.

When Reverend Purdy decides to give the speech instead, Janus forces him to acquese after blocking Faith Heritage's satellite feed. Stillson tries to convince Purdy otherwise, but Purdy expresses "serious concerns about the people behind" Stillson's career. Stillson also visits the Winterfest game, run by Sarah Bannerman, and wins a panda bear, promising to take J.J. for a flight on Air Force Two — or Air Force One, should he win the Presidency.

A few days later, Stillson attends the wake of Penobscot County Sheriff Walter T. Bannerman, along with Sarah and J.J. Bannerman, Bruce Lewis, Johnny Smith, and Reverend Purdy. Stillson laments the loss of Sheriff Bannerman, but agrees with Smith that "certainly no one's going to miss Malcolm Janus". When Smith shakes hands with Stillson on this occasion, he receives a vision of the future again of Washington D.C., but this time without armageddon.

In episode "Re-Entry," Stillson shows up at Smith's house to ask for his help to use his psychic powers to help three stranded astronauts in an orbiting Space Shuttle whom are marooned in space. Despite Smith wary about trusting Stillson, he helps get the astronauts back safely and Stillson, surprisingly, does not have any agenda to the plot for he tells Smith that he is a changed man in the wake of Janus' death.

A little later in episode "Drift", Stillson arrives back again in Penaboscot County to visit Sarah whom is having relationship trouble with Smith whom she learned that he has a vision about Walt's death and kept it from her. Stillson speaks at J.J.'s school about Green Peace and saving the environment as his new change in political strategy which wins him admiration from both Sarah and J.J.

In episode "Exile", Sarah visits Stillson in Washington, where he is holding a fund raiser for police veterans, and he further charms her with his admiration for her late husband and offers to look into what Walt Bannerman was involved with prior to his death. Eventually, Smith discovers Sarah's interest in Stillson and tries to persuade her not to get involved with him.

In the final episode of the series, "Denouement", Johnny Smith learns more about Stillson when he finds his father, Herb Smith, though to be long dead, and learns that Stillson in fact had taken the late Janus' place in the Corporation for a Better American Society and has orchestrated nearly everything that has been going on. While still charming Sarah and J.J., Stillson asks them to move with him to Washington. When Sarah refuses, Stillson becomes violent and knocks J.J. to the floor of her house. Upon hitting his head, both J.J., as well as Johnny at another location, have a vision of the nuclear apocalypse again. Sarah angrily tells Stillson to leave and he dejectedly returns to Washington. However, J.J. keeps his vision of the nuclear apocalypse to himself.

Other Stephen King works

The robot Nigel the Butler mentions Stillson and his campaign motto in The Dark Tower.

References

• Episode 1x13 -- Destiny
• Episode 2x01 -- Valley of the Shadow
• Episode 2x06 -- Scars
• Episode 2x10 -- Dead Men Tell Tales
• Episode 3x01 -- Finding Rachel, Part 1
• Episode 3x02 -- Finding Rachel, Part 2
• Episode 3x12 -- Tipping Point, Part 1
• Episode 4x01 -- Broken Circle, Part 2
• Episode 4x08 -- Vanguard
• Episode 4x11 -- Saved
• Episode 5x01 -- Forbidden Fruit
• Episode 5x08 -- Vortex
• Episode 5x11 -- the Hunting Party
• Episode 6x01 -- Heritage
• Episode 6x03 -- Re-Entry
• Episode 6x10 -- Drift
• Episode 6x11 -- Exile
• Episode 6x13 -- Denouement

External links

• Greg Stillson at the Internet Movie Database