Nightmare at 20,000 Feet

Air date: October 11, 1963
Bob Wilson (William Shatner) is a salesman who is traveling with his wife Julia (Christine White) on an airplane; his first trip since a nervous breakdown on a similar plane six months prior. As he stares out his window on a stormy night, he appears to spot a gremlin on the wing of the plane. But every time someone else looks out the window, the gremlin always leaps out of view, so nobody believes his seemingly outlandish claims. Bob realizes that even Julia is starting to think that he needs to go back to the sanitarium, but after he sees the gremlin peeling back the metal on the wing and wrecking the circuitry, he realizes that if nothing is done, it will cause the plane to crash. A flight attendant tries to give Bob some sleeping pills, but he fakes swallowing them so he can stay awake and do something about the gremlin. Ultimately, he steals a sleeping policeman's revolver and opens the window marked "Auxiliary Exit" to shoot the gremlin, succeeding in killing it despite the fact that he and the other passengers and crew are nearly blown out of the plane themselves. Once the plane has landed, Bob is whisked away in a straitjacket and loaded in an ambulance headed for the asylum. He's not particularly upset though, as he managed to save everyone's lives in the process. The final shot reveals evidence that his claims were right all along: the damage done to the plane's engine nacelle, yet to be discovered by mechanics.
Adapted from Richard Matheson's short story of the same name, and later remade as the fourth and final segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie.
Tropes:
- Adaptation Name Change:
- The protagonist's name was Arthur Wilson in the short story, while it's Bob Wilson here.
- In Twilight Zone: The Movie, his name is changed to John Valentine.
- Adaptational Backstory Change:
- In the short story by Richard Matheson, Arthur is extremely apprehensive about flying, but no specific reason is given as to why. In the episode, Bob suffered a nervous breakdown on a plane six months earlier. He also derives the gremlin's name from something "...they called them during the war," and with his age stated as 37 in 1963 (the year of the airing), he's potentially old enough to have been in either WWII or the Korean War.
- In the Twilight Zone: The Movie adaptation, John Valentine suffers from a rather mundane fear of flying, with no apparent evidence of mental anguish or past trauma.
- Ambiguous Innocence: In the episode, the gremlin never shows any evil intentions, and all its actions seemed to be motivated by simple curiosity.
- Big Bad: The gremlin, who tries wrecking the plane out of genuine curiosity of how it works (original episode) or For the Evulz (the movie).
- Bittersweet Ending: Although Bob is getting sent back to the asylum after that stunt he pulled, he still stopped the gremlin from sabotaging the plane. Julia is supportive and comforting towards him as he's carted off with grace. What's more, it's implied that his claim might soon be validated once the mechanics discover the damage on the wing.
- Bookends: The episode starts with Bob getting on the plane fresh out of the asylum, and it ends with him getting wheeled off of it in a straitjacket, headed back to the asylum.
- Canon Foreigner: Julia doesn't appear in the short story, or in the Twilight Zone: The Movie adaptation.
- Chekhov's Gun: At the start of the episode, the second Bob sits down, he sees that his seat is right next to the Auxiliary Exit window. It's played off as ironic that such a nervous man would be seated next to the emergency window, but it becomes important for the climax, when Bob breaks it to kill the gremlin.
- Cigarette of Anxiety: As soon as he takes his seat, Bob starts to light a cigarette to calm his nerves. However, Julia reminds him that he can't smoke until the plane has taken off.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Bob is initially relieved when the flight engineer says that they're aware of the gremlin and just want to avoid panicking the passengers. His mood turns incredulous when he realizes that the guy is just humoring him.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Fortunately for Bob, Serling's ending narration implies that the damage the gremlin did to the plane will be discovered, meaning that he'll be vindicated.
- Episode on a Plane: The entire episode takes place on the plane that Bob and the gremlin are boarding.
- For the Evulz: As opposed to the episode's gremlin, who has a case of Ambiguous Innocence, the film's gremlin shows sadistic glee at bringing down the plane.
- Gender Flip: At the time the episode was made, a character who had recently been through something like a mental breakdown would've been female by default.
- Griping About Gremlins: This episode is the Trope Codifier, as Bob sees one on the wing of his plane as it's attacking one of the engines, but can't get anyone else, including his wife Julia, to see it and believe him.
- Hidden Harasser: Bob can see a gremlin trying to sabotage the plane he's traveling in from his window seat, but it hides whenever anyone else looks out there. At the end, he ends up being dragged off to a mental asylum, but it's implied that the damage to the plane might vindicate him.
- Improbable Aiming Skills:
- Bob manages to hit the gremlin with the slumbering policeman's revolver while hanging outside the plane in the middle of a storm.
- The trope is averted in the film version, where Arthur tries to shoot the gremlin, but misses every shot, resulting in the creature eating the gun and flying away.
- It Was Here, I Swear!: Bob calls for the flight attendant the first time he sees the gremlin, but when she comes, there's nothing on the wing. Bob has to sheepishly ask for a glass of water instead.
- It Was a Dark and Stormy Night: The plane Bob and Julia are flying on travels through a heavy storm, which is when the gremlin makes its move.
- Jump Scare: The iconic scene in which Bob pulls the curtain back to reveal the gremlin's face pressed against the window, along with a Scare Chord.
- Karma Houdini: While the episode has the gremlin successfully getting killed thanks to Bob's intervention, the film version has the beast eating Arthur's gun and flying away, avoiding its death and its consequences for sabotaging the place.
- Large Ham: When you have William Shatner playing the main character, what else can you get?
- Look Ma, No Plane!: Having strapped himself into his seat to avoid being blown out, Bob opens the auxiliary exit and shoots the gremlin with a gun that he stole from a sleeping police officer.
- Mistaken for Insane: Bob sees a bulky, furry gremlin on the wing trying to destroy the engine. When he tries to tell the flight crew and the other passengers, including his wife, they all think he's losing his mind. It doesn't help that he's just been discharged from a mental asylum after suffering a nervous breakdown on a plane.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Bob alludes to the trope early on, as his breakdown meant being away from his family for six months, leaving Julia to make ends meet and raise the kids by herself. He's ashamed of himself for leaving her with all that responsibility and the pressure that goes with it.
- Named by the Adaptation: In the short story, the stewardess is not given a name. In the episode, her name is Betty Crosby.
- Not-So-Imaginary Friend. In this case, a Not-So-Imaginary Enemy. In the final scene, it is revealed that the gremlin was real all along, as one of the plane's engines has been badly damaged in the closing shot.
- Oh, Crap!: Bob is definitely not in any way reacting well to the sight of a gremlin on the wing of the plane, but he's especially shocked on seeing it tampering with the engine, to the point where his jaw drop has a little bit of a smile to it, as if he doesn't even know how else to react to such a perilous situation that only he's aware of.
- Only Sane Man: Bob's the only person to see the gremlin, and he can't get anyone else to believe him.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When being taken away in a straitjacket, Bob is as calm as can be, a stark contrast from all the stress and turmoil he suffered on the plane. Aside from the sheer relief of surviving his ordeal, his "for now" when talking about being the only one who knows what really happened suggests that he fully expects to be vindicated in the near future. Given the episode shows off the very real damage the gremlin made on the plane at the very end, this will be happening sooner than he thinks.
- Real After All: The gremlin is thought to be a figment of Bob's fractured mind, but the closing shot reveals the damage it did to the plane's engine, meaning that Bob will most likely be vindicated when said damage is discovered.
- The Remake:
- This episode was remade as the last segment for Twilight Zone: The Movie, with John Lithgow as Bob (renamed "John Valentine") and a far scarier-looking gremlin. This was lampshaded on an episode of 3rd Rock from the Sun that guest starred William Shatner, with the latter's character claiming that he saw something on the wing of the plane during his flight and Lithgow's character exclaiming "The same thing happened to me!".
- It also got a
Spiritual Adaptation in the 2019 series starring Adam Scott, with the title "Nightmare at 30,000 Feet".
- Tempting Fate: Before the plane takes off, Bob is a bundle of nerves, remarking that it doesn't matter where he sits and that he's not acting cured.
- Wham Shot: The episode ends with Bob being taken back to the sanitarium, but the camera pans down to the plane's wing to reveal the badly-damaged engine that the gremlin screwed around with.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Bob knows that he's in a supernatural story with a creature thought not to be real threatening to kill everyone on the plane. Unfortunately, everyone else thinks that his story is that of a man who already had one nervous breakdown and is suffering a relapse, and they react according to that instead. His increasingly panicked warnings about the gremlin lead the flight crew to either humor him or try to sneak him some sleeping pills.
- You Have to Believe Me!: Bob's increasingly desperate attempts to get Julia and the others on board to look out the window and see the gremlin lead to this, and his stunt with the window ultimately lands him back in the asylum.
