Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)

Directors:

Joe Dante
John Landis
(more)

Writers:

Rod Serling (television series The Twilight Zone)
John Landis (prologue)
(more)

Release Date:

24 June 1983 (USA)

Genre:

Fantasy | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

You're travelling through another dimension. A dimension, not only of sight and sound, but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. Next stop, the Twilight Zone!

Plot:

Four horror/sci-fi segments directed by four famous directors which are their own versions of classic stories from Rod Serling's landmark television series.

Plot Keywords:

Remake | Airplane | Retirement Home | Nazi | 1960s

Awards:

2 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Dan Aykroyd	...	Passenger / Ambulance Driver (Prologue / Segment #4)
Albert Brooks	...	Car Driver (Prologue)
Vic Morrow	...	Bill Connor (Segment #1)
Doug McGrath	...	Larry (Segment #1)
Charles Hallahan	...	Ray (Segment #1)
Rainer Peets	...	German Officer (Segment #1) (as Remus Peets)
Kai Wulff	...	German Officer (Segment #1)
Sue Dugan	...	Waitress No. 1 (Segment #1)
Debby Porter	...	Waitress No. 2 (Segment #1)
Steven Williams	...	Bar Patron (Segment #1)
Annette Claudier	...	French Monther (Segment #1)
Joseph Hieu	...	Vietnamese (Segment #1)
Al Leong	...	Vietnamese (Segment #1)
Stephen Bishop	...	Charming G.I. (Segment #1)
Thomas Byrd	...	G.I. (Segment #1)
Vincent J. Isaac	...	G.I. (Segment #1)
Bill Taylor	...	G.I. (Segment #1) (as William B. Taylor)
William S. Taylor	...	G.I. (Segment #1)
Domingo Ambriz	...	G.I. (Segment #1)
Eddy Donno	...	K.K.K. (Segment #1)
Michael Milgrom	...	K.K.K. (Segment #1)
John Larroquette	...	K.K.K. (Segment #1)
Norbert Weisser	...	Soldier No. 1 (Segment #1)
Scatman Crothers	...	Mr. Bloom (Segment #2)
Bill Quinn	...	Mr. Leo Conroy (Segment#2)
Martin Garner	...	Mr. Weinstein (Segment #2)
Selma Diamond	...	Mrs. Weinstein (Segment #2)
Helen Shaw	...	Mrs. Dempsey (Segment #2)
Murray Matheson	...	Mr. Agee (Segment #2)
Peter Brocco	...	Mr. Mute (Segment #2)
Priscilla Pointer	...	Miss Cox (Segment #2)
Scott Nemes	...	Young Mr. Weinstein (Segment #2)
Tanya Fenmore	...	Young Mrs. Weinstein (Segment #2)
Evan Richards	...	Young Mr. Agee (Segment #2)
Laura Mooney	...	Young Mrs. Dempsey (Segment #2)
Christopher Eisenmann	...	Young Mr. Mute (Segment #2)
Richard Swingler	...	Mr. Gray Panther (Segment #2)
Alan Haufrect	...	Mr. Conroy's Son (Segment #2)
Cheryl Socher	...	Mr. Conroy's Daughter-in-Law (Segment #2)
Elsa Raven	...	Nurse No. 2 (Segment #2)
Kathleen Quinlan	...	Helen Foley(School Teacher)(Segment#3)
Jeremy Licht	...	Anthony (Segment #3)
Kevin McCarthy	...	Uncle Walt (Segment #3)
Patricia Barry	...	Mother (Segment #3)
William Schallert	...	Father (Segment #3)
Nancy Cartwright	...	Ethel (Segment #3)
Dick Miller	...	Walter Paisley(Diner Owner)(Segment#3)
Cherie Currie	...	Sara (Segment #3)
Bill Mumy	...	Tim (Segment #3)
Jeffrey Bannister	...	Charlie(Diner Patron)(Segment#3)
John Lithgow	...	John Valentine (Segment #4)
Abbe Lane	...	Sr. Stewardess (Segment #4)
Donna Dixon	...	Jr. Stewardess (Segment #4)
John Dennis Johnston	...	Co-Pilot (Segment #4)
Larry Cedar	...	Creature (Segment #4)
Charles Knapp	...	Sky Marshal (Segment #4)
Byron McFarland	...	Pilot Announcement (Segment #4)
Christina Nigra	...	Little Girl (Segment #4)
Lana Schwab	...	Mother (Segment #4) (as Lonna Schwab)
Margaret Wheeler	...	Old Woman (Segment #4)
Eduard Franz	...	Old Man (Segment #4)
Margaret Fitzgerald	...	Young Girl (Segment #4)
Jeffrey Weissman	...	Young Man (Segment #4)
Jeffrey Lampert	...	Mechanic No. 1 (Segment #4)
Frank Toth	...	Mechanic No. 2 (Segment #4)
Carol Serling	...	Passenger (Segment #4)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Burgess Meredith	...	Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
Rod Serling	...	Narrator (end of Segment #4) (voice) (archive footage) (uncredited)
Carol Vogel	...	(uncredited)
Tom Willett	...	K.K.K. (Segment #1) (uncredited)

Directed by
Joe Dante		(segment 3)
John Landis		(prologue & segment 1)
George Miller		(segment 4)
Steven Spielberg		(segment 2)

Writing credits
Rod Serling		(television series The Twilight Zone)
John Landis		(prologue)
John Landis		(segment 1)
George Clayton Johnson		(segment 2) screenplay "Kick the Can" and
Richard Matheson		(segment 2) and
Melissa Mathison		(segment 2) (as Josh Rogan)
Jerome Bixby		(segment 3) story "It's a Good Life" and
Richard Matheson		(segment 3)
Richard Matheson		(segment 4) short story "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" and
Richard Matheson		(segment 4) screenplay "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"
Robert Garland		uncredited

Produced by
Jon Davison	....	associate producer (segment 4)
Michael Finnell	....	associate producer (segment 3)
George Folsey Jr.	....	associate producer: prologue and segment 1
Kathleen Kennedy	....	associate producer (segment 2)
John Landis	....	producer
Frank Marshall	....	executive producer
Steven Spielberg	....	producer
Jon Davison	....	producer (segment 3) (uncredited)
Michael Finnell	....	producer (segment 3) (uncredited)
Kathleen Kennedy	....	producer (segment 2) (uncredited)

Original Music by
Jerry Goldsmith

Cinematography by
Allen Daviau		(segments 2, 4)
John Hora		(segment 3)
Stevan Larner		(prologue and segment 1)

Film Editing by
Malcolm Campbell		(prologue and segment 1)
Tina Hirsch		(segment 3)
Michael Kahn		(segment 2)
Howard E. Smith		(segment 4) (as Howard Smith)

Casting by
Marci Liroff

Production Design by
James D. Bissell

Art Direction by
Richard Tom Sawyer		(segment 1) (as Richard Sawyer)
James H. Spencer		(segment 4)

Set Decoration by
Jackie Carr		(segment 2) (segment 3) (segment 4)
Barbara Krieger		(segment 1)

Costume Design by
Deborah Nadoolman		(segment 1)
Deborah Lynn Scott

Makeup Department
Rob Bottin	....	special makeup effects artist (segment 3)
Rob Bottin	....	special makeup effects designer (segment 3)
John M. Elliott Jr.	....	makeup artist (segments 2-4) (as John Elliott)
Michael McCracken	....	special makeup effects artist (segment 4)
Craig Reardon	....	special makeup effects artist: segments 1-4
Bob Westmoreland	....	makeup artist (segment 1) (as Robert Westmoreland)
Michael Shawn McCracken	....	special makeup effects assistant (segment 4) (uncredited)
Margaret Prentice	....	special makeup effects cosmetic painter: Rob Bottin crew (segment 3 ) (uncredited)

Production Management
Dan Allingham	....	unit production manager (segment 1)
Dennis E. Jones	....	unit production manager (segments 2-4)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Daniel Attias	....	second assistant director (segment 2, 3 & 4) (as Dan Attias)
Elie Cohn	....	first assistant director (segment 1)
Andy House	....	second assistant director (segment 1) (as Alan Smithee)
Pat Kehoe	....	first assistant director (segment 2, 3 & 4)
Alan Smithee	....	second assistant director (segment 1) (really Anderson G. House)

Art Department
Henry Alvarez	....	sculptor
John Alvin	....	poster artist
Larry Clark Bird	....	property master
Gregory Pickrell	....	set designer
William James Teegarden	....	set designer (Segment 2, 3 & 4) (as William J. Teegarden)
Mike Villarino	....	propmaker
Frank White	....	labor foreman
Daniel Turk	....	carpenter (uncredited)

Sound Department
Thomas Causey	....	production sound mixer (Segment 2, 3 & 4) (as Tommy Causey)
Carl Fischer	....	boom operator (prologue & segment 1)
Richard Bryce Goodman	....	sound mixer (prologue and segment 1)
William B. Kaplan	....	production sound mixer (Segment 1) (as Bill Kaplan)
Gregg Landaker	....	sound re-recording mixer
Steve Maslow	....	sound re-recording mixer
Philip Rogers	....	sound recordist
David E. Stone	....	sound editor
Bill Varney	....	sound re-recording mixer
David Lewis Yewdall	....	supervising sound editor (as David Yewdall)
Donald C. Rogers	....	technical director of sound (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Rob Bottin	....	monster effects (segment 3)
James Camomile	....	special effects
Gene Grigg	....	special effects assistant (segments 2-4)
Kevin Pike	....	special effects supervisor (segments 4)
Paul Stewart	....	special effects supervisor (segment 1)
Ed Verreaux	....	monster effects (segment 4)
Jerry D. Williams	....	special effects
Michael Wood	....	special effects supervisor (Segments 2, 3 & 4) (as Mike Wood)
Beverly Hoffman	....	eye designer: titles (uncredited)

Visual Effects by
David Allen	....	visual effects (segment 4) (as David Allan)
Jim Danforth	....	visual effects (segment 4)
Rocco Gioffre	....	matte artist (segment 3)
Peter Kuran	....	visual effects (segment 4)
Jim Danforth	....	effects photography (uncredited)
Jim Danforth	....	matte artist (uncredited)
Sari Gennis	....	effects animator: titles (uncredited)
Eric Guaglione	....	matte photography: DQI (uncredited)
Gregory Jein	....	model builder: titles (uncredited)
Kevin Kutchaver	....	animator: VCE (uncredited)
Ed Manning	....	animator: VCE (uncredited)
Hal Miles	....	titles producer and director (uncredited)
Mark Sullivan	....	matte artist (segment 4) (uncredited)
Bruce Woodside	....	animator: VCE (uncredited)
Hoyt Yeatman	....	matte photographer: DQI (uncredited)

Stunts
Eurlyne Epper	....	stunt double
Gene Hartline	....	stunts
Terry James	....	stunt double: Jon Lithgow
Gary McLarty	....	stunt coordinator
Thomas Byrd	....	stunts (uncredited)
Eddy Donno	....	stunts (uncredited)
Joseph Hieu	....	stunts (uncredited)
Al Leong	....	stunts (uncredited)
Gary McLarty	....	stunts (uncredited)
Debby Porter	....	stunts (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Dale Alexander	....	key grip
Jamie Anderson	....	camera operator (segment 3)
Richard Benda	....	first assistant camera (prologue and segment 1)
Garrett Brown	....	Steadicam operator (segments 2-4)
John J. Connor	....	camera operator (segment 1)
Rick Fee	....	assistant camera (as Richard Fee)
Mark Ludwig	....	second assistant camera (prologue and segment 1)
Steve Lydecker	....	camera operator (segment 1)
John C. Moulds	....	first assistant camera
Bob Munoz	....	best boy grip
Louis Niemeyer	....	first assistant camera
Lee Redmond	....	assistant camera
Arnold L. Rich	....	camera operator (Segment 1) (as Arnold Rich)
Randall Robinson	....	first assistant camera: helicopter unit
Alex Rodriguez	....	lighting technician
Roger L. Smith	....	camera operator: helicopter unit (segment 1) (as Roger Smith)
John Toll	....	camera operator (segments 2-4)
Michael Hofstein	....	additional camera operator (segment 3) (uncredited)
Emmanuel Vouniozos	....	on-set technician (uncredited)

Animation Department
Sam Cornell	....	cartoon researcher (segment 3)
Sally Cruikshank	....	cartoon supervisor (segment 3)
Mark Kausler	....	cartoon researcher (segment 3)

Editorial Department
Donah Bassett	....	negative cutter

Music Department
Bruce Botnick	....	recording mixer
Robert Fernandez	....	music scoring mixer
Kenneth Hall	....	music editor
James Newton Howard	....	song producer
Arthur Morton	....	orchestrator
Tommy Tedesco	....	musician: guitar (uncredited)

Transportation Department
Frank Khoury	....	transportation (uncredited)

Other crew
Peter Donen	....	titles
David R. Lawson	....	medic
Mark Peterson	....	titles
Carol Serling	....	project consultant
Kathleen Switzer	....	assistant to: Mr. Spielberg
Dorcey Wingo	....	helicopter pilot

Production Companies

• Warner Bros.

Distributors

• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1986) (USA) (TV) (broadcast premiere)
• Warner Bros. (1984) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Warner Bros. (1983) (USA) (theatrical)
• Warner-Columbia Film (1984) (France) (theatrical)
• Warner-Columbia Films (1983) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Argentina Video Home (198?) (Argentina) (VHS)
• Fazer Musiikki Oy/Fazer Video (19??) (Finland) (VHS)
• V8 (2003) (Netherlands) (TV)
• Warner Home Video (2007) (Germany) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2007) (Finland) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (1985) (Japan) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (1984) (USA) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Vídeo (Brazil) (VHS)
• Yleisradio (YLE) (1995) (Finland) (TV)

Special Effects

• Dream Quest Images (matte paintings) (segment 3) (as Dreamquest Images, Inc.)
• Visual Concept Engineering (VCE) (visual effects) (segment 4)
• Effects Associates (visual effects) (segment 4)
• Bo Gehring Associates (computer animation: titles) (uncredited)

Other Companies

• Cinema Research  titles
• Dolby Laboratories  sound post-production
• Lip-Shtick  post-production dialogue
• Novocom Inc.  titles
• Van der Veer Photo Effects  additional optical effects (segment 4) (uncredited)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

101 min | UK:97 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French | German | Vietnamese

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Australia:PG | Finland:K-12 | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:PG (certificate #27045) | West Germany:16 | Argentina:16 | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Iceland:14 | France:Unrated | Singapore:PG | New Zealand:PG | Netherlands:12 | South Africa:10V | UK:12 (re-rating) (2009) | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:13

Filming Locations:

Canyon Country, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros.

Trivia:

John Landis' segment "Time Out" was originally entitled "The Bigot", a story he claimed would retain political and social commentary of the best Twilight Zone episodes from the original series.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: In the prologue, a technician's hand can be seen out the passenger window of the car.

Quotes:

Ambulance Driver:So, you had a pretty big scare up there, huh?
John Valentine:[chuckles embarrassingly] Oh yeah!
Ambulance Driver:[smiles] You wanna see something really scary?

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Visionado obligado: Secuestrados (#1.11)" (2011)

Soundtrack:

PURPLE HAZE

Very good

An affectionate homage to the old TV series. Three old episodes were updated and a new one was written. It's also narrated by Burgess Meredith who starred in quite a few of the original TV series episodes.

It starts off with a quick little prologue with Albert Brooks and Dan Aykroyd. It's quick, funny and provides a nice little jolt.

The first segment was newly written for the movie. It involves a bitter and racist man (Vic Morrow) getting a taste of his own medicine. This episode is clouded by the three deaths it caused--Morrow was decapitated by a helicopter blade and two Vitenamese children were crushed. John Landis (who directed this) was found not guilty in the deaths. As it stands this isn't very good. It's simplistic and heavy-handed--like a bad Zone episode.

The second one is directed by Steven Spielberg. It involves an old man (Scatman Crothers) gently bringing to life the old people at a retirement home. I'll be the first to admit that this is way too syrupy--but I have a fondness for it. The acting is good, it has a great music score and, I admit, it leaves me a little misty-eyed.

The third is directed by Joe Dante. It's a remake about a little boy who can make all of his wishes come true. It's well-directed with some truly incredible special effects and a good performance by Kathleen Quinlan. But it's seriously damaged by a silly happy ending (the original didn't have that). Billy Mumy (the star of the original) has a bit part and Dante regular Dick Miller shows up as Walter Paisley.

The fourth is the best. It's directed by George Miller and is a remake of the William Shatner episode where he spots a gremlin tearing apart the plane he's flying on. The gremlin in the original looked pretty ridiculous--like a teddy bear. Here John Lithgow plays the passenger and the gremlin is more than a little scary-looking. This segment moves and has a few great jolts. Also Carol Serling (Rod Serling's wife I believe) has a bit part.

All in all an enjoyable film. I liked it when I saw it in a theatre in 1983 and it still holds up today. I give it an 8.