The Dead Zone (film)

Infobox Film | name = The Dead Zone

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caption = Theatrical poster
director = David Cronenberg
producer = Debra Hill
writer = Novel:
Stephen King
Screenplay:
Jeffrey Boam
starring = Christopher Walken
Brooke Adams
Tom Skerritt
Martin Sheen
music = Michael Kamen
cinematography = Mark Irwin
editing = Ronald Sanders
distributor = Paramount Pictures (USA)
Dino De Laurentiis Productions (non-USA)
released = October 21, 1983 (U.S.)
runtime = 103 min.
language = English
budget = $10,000,000
gross = $20,766,616 Domestic
imdb_id = 0085407
amg_id = 1:12729
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"The Dead Zone" is a 1983 science fiction-thriller film based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. Directed by David Cronenberg, the film stars Christopher Walken, Tom Skerritt, Martin Sheen, Herbert Lom, Brooke Adams, Anthony Zerbe and Colleen Dewhurst. The plot revolves around a schoolteacher, Johnny Smith (Walken), who awakens from a coma to find he has psychic powers.

Plot

Johnny Smith (Walken) is a young New England schoolteacher in love with his colleague Sarah (Adams) when he is involved in a serious car accident that sends him into a coma. He awakes under the care of neurologist Dr. Weizak (Lom) and counts himself fortunate when he notes no casts, bandages or visible signs of injuries on his body. However, the awakening turns rude when he is told that five years have passed since he last knew consciousness: his girlfriend has long since married and had a child.

Johnny's transition back to life is made rougher when he discovers that he has the ability to learn a person's secrets (past, present, future) through making physical contact with the person. This ability, however, leaves him an outcast in his hometown despite helping the citizens.

After reluctantly using his ability to help a local sheriff (Skerritt) solve a series of brutal murders, Johnny attempts to resume his profession, as a private tutor. However, his ability continues to haunt him, especially when he foresees that when one of his students will drown in a frozen lake while playing hockey with his friends. He tried to warn the wealthy father (Zerbe), but he angrily doesn't believe Johnny (or presumably thinking Johnny caused the dark futures with his mind after touching someone) and fires him in a way to protect his son. The student, however, survived while his other friends drown leaving the father filled with guilt for not beliving and doubting Johnny. Then, a rising local political star, Greg Stillson (Sheen), will someday be elected President of the United States, with disastrous consequences - in John's vision, Stillson starts a nuclear holocaust, presumably destroying all of civilization. What makes things worse for Johnny is that Sarah and her husband Walt are volunteer workers for Stillson's campaign.

Johnny decides to avert this possible future by shooting Stillson at a meeting. He misses and winds up mortally wounded, but he has nonetheless accomplished his mission. During the shooting, the terrified Stillson grabbed Sarah's baby (she and her baby had been invited to sit on the podium with Stillson) to use as a human shield. A photographer covering the meeting got a picture of this cowardly act and ran out before Stillson's security could stop him. Stillson goes to the dying Johnny, demanding to know who sent him. Johnny touches Stillson, and receives one final vision -- that of a haggard Stillson, ruined as a result of the scandal, commiting suicide. "You're finished," he tells the politician, before dying in Sarah's arms.

ee also

* "The Dead Zone (TV series)", a television series also based on the novel.

External links

*
* " [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dead_zone/ The Dead Zone] " at Rotten Tomatoes