The Midnight Sun 

When the Earth falls out of orbit, two women try to cope with increasingly oppressive heat in a nearly abandoned city.

Director:

Anton Leader

Writers:

Rod Serling, Rod Serling (created by)

Stars:

Lois Nettleton, Betty Garde, Tom Reese

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
Lois Nettleton	...	Norma
Betty Garde	...	Mrs. Bronson
Tom Reese	...	Intruder
Jason Wingreen	...	Mr. Shuster
Juney Ellis	...	Mrs. Shuster (as June Ellis)
William Keene	...	Doctor

Storyline

In a world that is getting ever nearer to the sun, people are trying to find ways to deal with the extreme heat. Most people have gone north with Norma and Mrs. Bronson the only two people left in their apartment building. There is little or no infrastructure remaining and water is one commodity that is very much in demand. They panic when an intruder breaks into Norma's apartment and holds them, at least for a few moments, at gunpoint. All is not as it seems however.

---

Plot Keywords:

heat | thirst | end of the world | disaster film | orbit | 

---

Genres:

Drama | Fantasy | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

---

Did You Know?

Trivia

Mrs. Bronson says the painting reminds her of the tallest waterfall in Ithaca, New York - probably Taughannock Falls in Taughannock State Park, 11 miles north of Ithaca, where Rod Serling lived and where he taught at Ithaca College for several years.

---

Goofs

The Earth moving closer to the sun would raise the temperature, but it wouldn't create a "midnight sun". That would require a change in rotation - either stopping it or drastically changing the axis.

---

Quotes

Radio Announcer: [Feeling a moment of morbid honesty while reporting the current worldwide situation] Ladies and gentlemen, tomorrow you can fry eggs on sidewalks, heat up soup in the ocean and get help from wandering maniacs, if you choose.

---

Connections

Edited into Medium: Still Life (2005)

User Reviews

Twilight Zone's Midnight Sun: What's Old is New Again

"Midnight Sun" really does capture some of our deepest imagined fears. We rely unthinkingly on the stability of our natural environment. When that stability is challenged at the deepest levels, a profound and primitive fear wells up within us, taking us into the realm of nightmare.

The great irony of this episode is that those who purport to "warn" us of global warming are tapping into that same fear. It is tempting to think it is a deliberate trick, designed to accomplish a political rather than an altruistic objective. People act irrationally when motivated by fear, as the episode, and life experience, demonstrates. But the most amazing irony is that, just as in the episode, we may well awaken from the illusion of global warming just in time to see our civilization seized by a new ice age. As with the episode, the Sun is the culprit, for its now prolonged failure to produce sunspots, thus giving us colder winters and cooler summers, and more turbulent weather due to sharper contrasts of warm and cold air colliding on a jet stream running further south.

Rod Serling is not to be blamed for his failure to predict this in these exact terms. As far as I know, he never claimed to be a prophet. But the manner in which the more general sense of this episode has been fulfilled by recent events is stunning. One can only hope that at the end of the day, we will learn one of Mr. Serling's most profound lessons: If you would live a life without regret, do not be governed by your fears. Fears are the stuff of nightmares, but the awakened must live by reason and by faith.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 November 1961 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cayuga Productions, CBS Television Network

Technical Specs

Runtime:

25 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1