The Hitch-Hiker (The Twilight Zone)
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| "The Hitch-Hiker" | |||
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| The Twilight Zone episode | |||
 Leonard Strong as the Hitch-Hiker |
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| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 16 |
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| Directed by | Alvin Ganzer | ||
| Written by | Rod Serling (story by Lucille Fletcher, adapted from her radio play) | ||
| Featured music | Stock, featuring Bernard Herrmann's score for the original radio version of "The Hitch-Hiker") | ||
| Production code | 173-3612 | ||
| Original air date | January 22, 1960 | ||
| Guest stars | |||
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Inger Stevens: Nan Adams |
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| List of Twilight Zone episodes | |||
"The Hitch-Hiker" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The story begins with Nan Adams, whose vehicle gets a flat tire on a cross-country road trip from New York City to Los Angeles. A mechanic puts a spare tire on her car and directs her to the nearest town to fix it properly. Just before she leaves, Nan notices a strange-looking man hitchhiking. Unnerved, she drives away quickly. As she continues her trip, Nan sees the same hitchhiker thumbing for a ride at several other points on her journey. She becomes increasingly frightened of him, and when she is stuck on a railroad crossing and nearly hit by a train, she becomes convinced that the hitchhiker is trying to kill her. She continues to drive, becoming more and more afraid, stopping only when necessary; but every time she does, the same hitchhiker is there.
When she ends up stranded in New Mexico, she meets a sailor on his way back to San Diego from leave. Eager for protection from the hitchhiker she's been seeing, she offers to drive the sailor to San Diego herself. However, she is still paranoid about the hitchhiker, and when she sees him on the road she tries to run him over. The sailor, who can't see him, begins to fear for her sanity and leaves her. In Arizona, Nan stops to call her mother. The woman who answers the phone, Mrs. Whitney, says that Mrs. Adams is in the hospital; she had a nervous breakdown after finding out that her daughter, Nan, was killed in an auto accident in Pennsylvania six days ago, when the car she was driving blew a tire and overturned. At this point, Nan realizes the truth: the hitchhiker is not a man who wants her to die, but is rather the personification of death, patiently and persistently waiting for her to realize that she has been dead all along.
Nan returns to the car and sees the hitchhiker sitting in the back seat through the reflection of the vanity mirror on the visor. "I believe you're going...my way?" he inquires, almost friendly. As Nan accepts her fate, Rod Serling narrates the final lines.
[edit] Episode notes
In the original story by Lucille Fletcher, the character of Nan was a man named Ronald. The radio play was presented on the Orson Welles Show (1941), Philip Morris Playhouse (1942), Suspense (1942), and Mercury Summer Theater (1946). All of these radio productions starred Orson Welles as Ronald Adams.
Serling named his character "Nan", after one of his daughters.
Nan's car is a 1959 Mercury Montclair whose inside rear-view mirror and front door vent panes have been removed.
[edit] References
[edit] Further readings
- DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-136-0
- Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9703310-9-0
[edit] External links
- "The Hitch-Hiker" at the Internet Movie Database
- Suspense: The Hitchhiker
- Full video of the episode at CBS.com
