July 13, 2023-number 123

Spoilers

“Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”

We have finally arrived at an episode that is arguably the most iconic, most well known episode of The Twilight Zone of all-time.

“Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” starred William Shatner and featured the fate of a man who had just recovered from a nervous breakdown and who was the only person to be able to see a gremlin on the wing of the airplane that he and his wife were flying upon.

“Portrait of a frightened man: Mr. Robert Wilson, thirty-seven, husband, father and salesman on sick leave. Mr. Wilson has just been discharged from a sanatorium where he spent the last six months recovering from a nervous breakdown, the onset of which took place on an evening not dissimilar to this one, on an airliner very much like the one in which Mr. Wilson is about to be flown home—the difference being that, on that evening half a year ago, Mr. Wilson’s flight was terminated by the onslaught of his mental breakdown. Tonight, he’s traveling all the way to his appointed destination, which, contrary to Mr. Wilson’s plan, happens to be in the darkest corner of the Twilight Zone.”

The set up is brilliant as Mr. Wilson certainly seems to be losing his mind. The fact that he had six months before had already suffered a nervous breakdown centered around an airplane makes everyone doubt what he was claiming. Clearly he was acting like a raving lunatic.

William Shatner knocked this out of the park. His continued descent into a crazed panic, though not insanity, was awesome to watch and the frustration of the gremlin disappearing every time he tried to get someone else to see it was as unbalancing for the audience as it was for him.

The way that Shatner played this made the audience wonder exactly whether or not he was actually seeing something or if it was all in his head. When he wound up stealing the gun and shooting the gremlin by leaning out the emergency window was truly nuts. Shatner showed that he was a damn good shot too considering.

The only drawback is that the gremlin did not look very good. It was comical in appearance, obviously a man in a big furry outfit. Of course, this was 1964 and you have to be understanding about what they were capable of at the time.

I also loved how the damage to the airplane was shown at the very end, proving that Mr. Wilson was not crazy and that he actually had seen the gremlin on the wing of this airplane. Even more, his crazy efforts with the stolen gun potentially saved the entire plane and everybody on it.

Richard Donner, who would be the director of Superman: The Movie, The Goonies, Lethal Weapon, directed this episode. Donner would go ahead and direct five total episodes of The Twilight Zone in season five.

I had seen this episode when I was younger, but this time, I truly appreciated the excellent work done by everybody involved. Sure, the gremlin was not the most frightening looking creature I have ever seen, but the anxiety it created was real. There is a reason this is considered one of the greatest episodes of the show and is remembered decades later.

Of course, it is…