Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
| "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" |
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"Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" is a 1963 episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone, based on the short story of the same name by Richard Matheson.
Plot
Bob Wilson (William Shatner) is a salesman on an airplane who notices a gremlin on the wing of the plane during mid-flight. Bob tries to alert his wife and the flight crew to the gremlin's presence, but every time someone else looks out of the window, the gremlin leaps out of view, so nobody believes Bob's seemingly outlandish claim; his credibility is further marred by the fact that this is his first flight since his nervous breakdown six months earlier, which also occurred on a plane. Bob realizes that his wife is starting to think he needs to go back to the sanitarium, but his bigger concern is that, if nothing is done about the gremlin, it will damage the plane and cause it to crash; in fact, the gremlin has already started to tinker with the wiring under one of the wing flaps.
After repeated attempts to warn the crew, Bob grows desperate, steals a sleeping policeman's revolver, and opens the window marked "Auxiliary Exit" to shoot the gremlin, succeeding despite the fact that he is nearly blown out of the plane himself. Once the plane has landed, Bob is whisked away in a straitjacket, as everyone believes that he has gone insane; however, the narrator informs the viewers that Bob's stay will be short-lived, and the final shot reveals why: The gremlin has left evidence of Bob's story, in the form of the damaged wing.
Remake
The episode was remade in 1983, as a segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie. Unlike Bob Wilson, whose credibility was compromised by a recent nervous break-down in the 1963 version, John Valentine, played by John Lithgow, suffers from severe aviatophobia, again giving the flight crew added reason to disbelieve his wild claims.
The story begins with flight attendants attempting to coax Mr. Valentine from the lavatory as he tries to recover from what seems to be a panic attack. He is repeatedly assured by the flight attendants that everything is going to be all right, but his nerves and antics disturb the surrounding passengers.
As Mr. Valentine takes his seat, he notices a hideous gremlin on the wing of the plane and begins to spiral into severe panic. He watches as the creature wreaks havoc on the wing, damaging the plane's engine, losing more control each time he sees it do something new. Valentine finally snaps, grabs a handgun from another passenger, a police officer, shoots out the window (causing a breach in the pressurized cabin), and begins firing at the creature. This only serves to catch the attention of the gremlin, who rushes up to Valentine and promptly destroys the gun. After a tense moment, in which they notice that the plane is landing, the gremlin grabs Valentine's face, then simply scolds him by wagging its finger in a "no, no" manner. The creature leaps into the sky as the airplane begins to make an emergency landing. On the ground, as a straitjacketed Valentine is carried off in an ambulance, the police, crew and passengers begin to discuss the incident, writing off Valentine as insane. The aircraft maintenance crew soon arrives, however, and everyone gathers to examine the massive amounts of unexplained damage (including claw marks) to the plane's engines.
In other media
Parts of this episode's plot have been repeated and parodied several times in popular culture, including television shows, films, radio, and music. For example, the "Treehouse of Horror IV" episode of The Simpsons features a segment called "Terror at 5½ Feet". It takes place on a school bus rather than an airplane, and puts Bart Simpson in the role of Bob Wilson. A subcompact car, the AMC Gremlin, driving alongside the bus, confuses the issue. At the end Bart is taken away by an ambulance, but then sees the real gremlin outside the ambulance with the head of Ned Flanders.[1]
In an episode of Muppets Tonight, Miss Piggy sees a gremlin outside on the wing of her plane, and pleads for help. William Shatner appears next to her and comments that he's been complaining about the same guy for years.
John Lithgow's sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun made a couple of references to "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet". In season one, episode 12 of 3rd Rock from the Sun, an angst-ridden Dick Solomon (Lithgow's character) is on a plane with Mary and he parodies his character in the film with a comment about something being on the wing, albeit before the flight takes off. In season four episode 23, the Solomons' superior (played by Shatner) arrives at the airport and says "It was a horrible flight! There was a man on the wing of the plane!"; Dick responds, "That happened to me, too!"
A Saturday Night Live sketch parodying the story features the gremlin doing a series of comical stunts, such as exercising and hanging out with Pearl Jam, and ends with the gremlin actually having been a locked out passenger.
In a Season 5 episode of 30 Rock ("Double-Edged Sword"), Liz Lemon is sitting in an airplane seat and suddenly exclaims "There's someone on the wing!" She then realizes it is a maintenance worker, and they are still on the ground.
It is also parodied by Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls when Carrey's character is flying in a plane as he looks out the window and exclaims "There's someone on the wing....some...thing".
It was also parodied in the movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, when Steve sees evil gummy bears ripping apart the wing of the plane.
Season 2 of The Bernie Mac Show referenced it in the "Tryptophan-tasy" episode. Bernie Mac falls ill due to an improperly cooked turkey and has a series of nightmares involving the kids of which he has guardianship. One of these dreams pays homage to "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" with Bernie and his television wife, Wanda, sitting in first class headed to Hawaii for a Thanksgiving without the kids. The gremlin is played by Vanessa, the eldest child. She is damaging the wing because Bernie refused to give her money to go to the mall. Bernie saves the day by climbing out onto the wing and throwing his money clip off the plane, which the gremlin follows to the ground.
The cartoon Johnny Bravo featured a similar take on the story in the episode, "The Man Who Cried Clown", with Johnny in the role of Bob Wilson (though he sees a clown instead of a gremlin). When he tries to tell his seatmate, the man turns out to be William Shatner, who responds "Oh no you don't, I'm not falling for that again!" After Johnny gets rid of the clown, the pilot tells him it was part of their "duo-clowny-wing balance system" and forces Johnny to replace him.
The Halloween special, "Tiny Toons Night Ghoulery", featured a segment parodying the story, with Plucky Duck in the role of Bob Wilson. The gremlin is played by the same character that appeared with Bugs Bunny in the 1943 Merrie Melodie cartoon "Falling Hare".
Its theme, of a concerned airline passenger having unique knowledge of an imminent danger; taking drastic action to eliminate it; then being regarded as insane, is comparable to No Highway in the Sky. An additional similarity to the 1983 movie is that the character of John Lithgow, like that of James Stewart in Highway, is described as an engineering expert.
"Nightmare At 20,000 Feet" is also the title of a song made by the Stourbridge UK Grebo band Pop Will Eat Itself featured on the album Cure for Sanity, released in 1990. The song refers to the Twilight Zone episode and the song's video features clips of it. The track was inspired by lead singer Clint Mansell's fear of flying.
In Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Alex believes he sees a gremlin on the wing of an old busted up plane heading for New York, but it turns out to be Mort. Mort then waves to him, but falls off the plane.
In the Futurama episode "I Dated a Robot", the story is referenced in a television show the characters are watching called The Scary Door. The Scary Door is itself a parody of The Twilight Zone.
In the animated TV show Total Drama World Tour episode TDWT Aftermath I, Owen sees Ezekiel on the wing of the plane, and he disappears before anyone else can see him.
Reception
Richard Matheson, in The Twilight Zone Magazine, called this episode one of his favorite episodes of The Twilight Zone, praising Richard Donner's direction and William Shatner's performance, though criticizing the appearance of the monster, comparing it to a "surly teddy bear."[verification needed]
Keith McDuffee of TV Squad listed the gremlin as the ninth scariest television character.[2]
References
- ^ Richmond, Ray (1997). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family. Harper Collins Publishers. pp. 124–125. ISBN 0-00-638898-1.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ McDuffee, Keith (24 October 2008). "All-time scariest TV characters". TV Squad. Retrieved 13 March 2012.
Sources
- Zicree, Marc Scott: The Twilight Zone Companion. Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition)
- 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