History Film / TwilightZoneTheMovie

# "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E3NightmareAt20000Feet Nightmare at 20,000 Feet]]"[=/=]Epilogue: "Even Scarier" (Directed by Creator/GeorgeMiller): A man who is scared of flying finds out that the plane he is in is being sabotaged by a gremlin.

# "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E86KickTheCan Kick the Can]]" (Directed by Creator/StevenSpielberg): A mysterious man arrives at a retirement home and shows its inhabitants how to be young again.

# "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E123NightmareAt20000Feet Nightmare at 20,000 Feet]]"[=/=]Epilogue: "Even Scarier" (Directed by Creator/GeorgeMiller): A man who is scared of flying finds out that the plane he is in is being sabotaged by a gremlin.

** Creator/BurgessMeredith, who starred in four episodes of the series, including the all-time classic "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E8TimeEnoughAtLast Time Enough at Last]]", is the {{Narrator}} of the film.

* MythologyGag: The segment references many episodes of the series and the characters involved debate if "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E124AKindOfAStopwatch A Kind of a Stopwatch]]" was a ''Zone'' or an ''[[Series/TheOuterLimits1963 Outer Limits]]''.[[note]]It was a ''Twilight Zone'' episode.[[/note]]

* AdaptationDeviation: In the [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E86KickTheCan original episode]], it is Charles Whitley, a long-time resident of the Sunnyvale Rest Home, who suggests playing the game of Kick the Can that makes him and the other residents (bar Ben Conroy) young again. All of the formerly elderly people choose to remain young. In the film, the newly arrived resident Mr. Bloom takes the place of Charles. After being children for only a short time, all of the residents except for Mr. Agee ask to become old again. Mrs. Dempsey is upset that she will live out her life without ever meeting her beloved husband Jack. Mrs. Weinstein does not want to go through the pain of losing loved ones all over again. Mr. Mute does not want to have to go through school all over again. Mr. Agee, on the other hand, looks forward to youthful sex, so he stays.

* AdaptationDeviation: This segment is only loosely adapted from the short story by Jerome Bixby. In the short story, Anthony uses his immense powers to terrorize the residents of his hometown Peaksville, UsefulNotes/{{Ohio}} and no one is able to exercise any control over him. In the film, Anthony's victims are limited to his real family and the people whom he has forced to act as his new family. Helen Foley recognizes that he needs guidance and offers to be his teacher so that he can find new uses for his powers. The segment ends with the two of them driving off together happily, giving it a [[AdaptationalAlternateEnding happy ending]] which was not present in either the short story or the [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E73ItsAGoodLife original episode]].

* MythologyGag: Helen tells Walter Paisley that she is going to [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E30AStopAtWilloughby Willoughby]] and that she is from [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E5WalkingDistance Homewood]]. Walter tells her that it looks like she missed a turnoff at [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS4E116OfLateIThinkOfCliffordville Cliffordville]].

** Helen Foley is named after Creator/RodSerling's favorite teacher. She shares her name with the protagonist of "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E29NightmareAsAChild Nightmare as a Child]]".

* AdaptedOut: A variation. In the film, John Valentine is traveling alone, like his counterpart Arthur Wilson in the short story by Creator/RichardMatheson. However, Bob Wilson, the protagonist of the [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E123NightmareAt20000Feet original episode]], was traveling with his wife Julia.

* BondOneLiner: PlayedForDrama: After wishing Ethel into the cartoon, [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath which causes her to be eaten by a monster]], Anthony reacts rather callously:

* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: Ethel is eaten by a monster after Anthony transports her into a cartoon. As Anthony says, "Th-th-th-th-that's all, Ethel."

** Mr. Mute is played by Peter Brocco as an elderly man and by Christopher Eisenmann as a child.

* AmbiguousEnding: John Valentine's fate is ultimately left unresolved. At a promotional event for his autobiography John Lithgow commented that in response to the ambulance driver's question "Do you want to see something scary?" he would simply have replied "No" whereupon the driver would have simply shrugged and driven him to the hospital.

# "Time Out" (Directed by Creator/JohnLandis): A bigot is taught a fantastic lesson as he finds himself traveling through time and hunted down for being a minority (a Jew in UsefulNotes/NaziGermany, a black man living in the DeepSouth during the 1950s, and a Vietnamese man during UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar)

* ColorMeBlack: Bill finds himself placed in the fates of various oppressed minorities, first a Jew being chased by the SS in occupied France, then a black man hunted by the UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan in the 1950s, next a North Vietnamese man facing American troops and ultimately as a German Jew sent off to a concentration camp.

* OneCharacterMultipleLives: Connor is shuttled back and forth in time to live lives as a Jew, a black man, and a Vietnamese person, during the worst times to be part of their minorities respectively.

* ShoutOut: Oe of the [=GIs=] who are lost during UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar says they [[FriendlyFire accidently shot]] [[TheNeidermeyer Lieutenant Neidermeyer]], a reference to Landis' earlier film ''Film/AnimalHouse''.

* ShoutOut: The [=GIs=] who are lost during UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar argue if they should have [[FriendlyFire fragged]] [[TheNeidermeyer Neidermeyer]], a reference to Landis' earlier film ''Film/AnimalHouse''.

This film became infamous for a ghastly accident that took the life of Creator/VicMorrow and two child actors named My-Ca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen. The script for "Time Out" called for a scene in which Morrow's character is supposed to be carrying two Vietnamese children across a river to safety during an American bombing raid in Vietnam. Director John Landis was shooting late at night, violating child labor laws, and ignoring the helicopter pilot's concerns about flying so close to the ground and so close to explosive detonations. The cameras rolled anyway, and the explosive charges meant to simulate bombs caused the helicopter to crash, crushing one child under its landing skid and causing the rotor to decapitate Morrow and the other child. Landis was later tried and acquitted on charges of involuntary manslaughter. The 2020 documentary series ''Cursed Films'' shows the actual, uncensored footage of the incident and its direct aftermath.

* HateCrimesAreASpecialKindOfEvil: Bill spouts racist and anti-Semitic comments at a bar before he is set on a journey through the Twilight Zone where he is confronted by numerous racist groups at different points in history, each of whom see him as the object of their hatred, such as the KKK seeing him as a black man, or a group of Nazis seeing him as a Jewish man. The story ends with him being put on a train bound for a concentration camp, the extreme end point of the very comments he was making in a bar. [[note]] In the original draft of the story, he would have been redeemed, saving two Vietnamese children from a group of soldiers and learning the value of all life. Unfortunately, a tragic accident on the set took the life of the main actor for the segment,Vic Morrow, as well as the two young children who were to feature in the scene, Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen, necessitating the Downer Ending for the segment where the man is not given a chance to redeem himself.[[/note]]

** Bill Mumy, who played the creepy omnipotent boy Anthony Fremont in the original episode "It's a Good Life", plays a diner patron named Tim in this film's adaptation. He sarcastically tells his friend Chris that it was "real good" that he attacked Anthony.
** William Schallert, Kevin [=McCarthy=], and Murray Matheson all had parts in the original series and also appear in the movie.

* AmbiguousEnding: John Valentine's fate is ultimately left unresolved [[at a promotional event for his autobiography John Lithgow commented that in response to the ambulance driver's question "Do you want to see something scary?" he would simply have replied "No" whereupon the driver would have simply shrugged and driven him to the hospital]]

* AmbiguousEnding: John Valentine's fate is ultimately left unresolved [[at a promotional event for his autobiography John Lithgow commented that in response to the ambulance driver's question "Do you want to see something scary?" he would simply have replied "No" whereupon the driver would have simply shrugged and driven him to the hospital.]]

* AmbiguousEnding: John Valentine's fate is ultimately left unresolved [[at a promotional event for his autobiography John Lithgow commented that in response to the ambulance driver's question "Do you want to see something scary?" he would simply have replied "No" whereupon the driver would have simply shrugged and driven him to the hospital]].

* BookEnds: The ambulance that John is placed in is driven by [[spoiler:the hitchhiker from the prologue, who pops in "Midnight Special", asks him [[HereWeGoAgain if he "wants to see something really scary"]]]].

* LargeHam: It's Creator/John Lithgow channelling Creator/William Shatner. 'Nuff said.

* LargeHam: John Lithgow channelling William Shatner. 'Nuff said.

** William Schallert, Kevin McCarthy, and Murray Matheson all had parts in the original series and also appear in the movie.

* AbortedArc: In the original intended ending, Bill manages to redeem himself by rescuing two Vietnamese children, who time jump with him, not back to 1982/83, but back to Nazi Occupied France. The Kids are then taken by the Nazis to be executed, while Bill is put on a train bound for a Concentration Camp, making it a CruelTwistEnding. However, due to the [[invoked]][[FatalMethodActing death of Vic Morrow]] and the two child actors, all scenes featuring the children were cut and Bill's cruel twist ending turned into a deserving one.

* HateCrimesAreASpecialKindOfEvil: An example that draws the conclusion that casual racism is not far removed from an actual hate crime. One of the segments has a man spouting racist and anti-Semitic comments at a bar, before he is set on a journey through the Twilight Zone where he is confronted by numerous racist groups at different points in history, each of whom see him as the object of their hatred, such as the KKK seeing him as a black man, or a group of Nazis seeing him as a Jewish man. The story ends with him being put on a train bound for a concentration camp, the extreme end point of the very comments he was making in a bar. [[note]] In the original draft of the story, he would have been redeemed, saving two Vietnamese children from a group of soldiers and learning the value of all life. Unfortunately, a tragic accident on the set took the life of the main actor for the segment,Vic Morrow, as well as the two young children who were to feature in the scene, Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen, necessitating the Downer Ending for the segment where the man is not given a chance to redeem himself.[[/note]]

* AbortedArc: In the original intended ending, Bill manages to redeem himself by rescuing two Vietnamese children, who time jump with him, not back to 1982/83, but back to Nazi Occupied France. The Kids are then taken by the Nazis to be executed, while Bill is put on a train bound for a Concentration Camp, making it a cruel twist. However, due to the [[invoked]][[FatalMethodActing death of Vic Morrow]] and the two child actors, all scenes featuring the children were cut and Bill's cruel twist ending turned into a deserving one.

* AbortedArc: [[invoked]][[FatalMethodActing Vic Morrow's death]] changed the segment's ending from "protagonist goes back to his time learning his lesson" into [[DownerEnding "protagonist goes back to the 1940s and is sent to a concentration camp"]].

* AssholeVictim: In the original intended ending, Bill manages to redeem himself by rescuing two Vietnamese children, who time jump with him, not back to 1982/83, but back to Nazi Occupied France. The Kids are then taken by the Nazis to be executed, while Bill is put on a train bound for a Concentration Camp, making it a cruel twist. However, due to the accident that killed Morrow and the two child actors, all scenes featuring the children were cut and Bill's cruel twist ending turned into a deserving one.

* VillainProtagonist: Bill, since his supposed development to stop being a racist was cut out.

* NobleBigot: Bill's a bigot, but once he's hunted by the UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan in the 1950s, [[EvenEvilHasStandards even Bill called out the KKK]] YoureInsane.

* WHAMShot: "So, you had a big scare up there, huh?" See BookEnds.

* BookEnds: The ambulance that John is placed in is driven by the hitchhiker from the prologue, who pops in "Midnight Special", asks him [[HereWeGoAgain if he "wants to see something really scary"]].