The Dead Zone (21 October 1983)
directed by David Cronenberg
starring Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Tom Skerritt, Herbert Lom, Anthony Zerbe, Colleen Dewhurst, Martin Sheen, Nicholas Campbell
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MPAA rating: Studio: Dino De Laurentiis Productions, Lorimar Film Entertainment, Paramount Pictures Script: Jeffrey Boam Based on the book by: Stephen King Music: Michael Kamen Running time: 103 minutes Suggested retail price: $$14.98 (US) Tags: car accidents; Drama; novel adaptation; political candidates; psychic abilities; rifles; Thriller Tactical strength: [6/10]
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Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken), local high-school teacher, has a car accident, falls into a coma, and wakes up five years later. To his surprise, he also now has psychic abilities: when he touches a person, he can sometimes get a vision of a possible event in the future. Johnny finds out early that he doesn't necessarily see the future, but just a possible version of the future, which gives him a chance to effect changes. For example, Johnny touches his nurse's arm, and he sees the nurse's daughter caught in a house fire. He warns the nurse; she rushes home and saves the daughter.
Johnny doesn't like having the premonitions: "They make me feel like I'm dying." So Johnny moves to a new town and leads a relatively reclusive life as a private tutor and trying to avoid having any premonitions by avoiding all unnecessary human contact.. Until . . . at one of his student's homes he happens to meet Greg Stillson (Martin Sheen), candidate for senator. When Johnny shakes Stillson's hand, Johnny gets a premonition that if Stillson gets elected, he will eventually become president and start a nuclear holocaust. At first Johnny doesn't want to do anything, but after getting the with-great-power-comes-great-responsibility lecture from his father, Johnny makes up his mind what he must do -- assassinate Stillson.
The Dead Zone brings up the question of personal responsibility under unusual circumstances. If you can see the future and know you can effect the outcome, do you have any responsibility toward those outcomes. At first, Johnny doesn't recognize any responsibility in conjunction with his new abilities. Obviously Johnny comes to the conclusion that he should take action, but he clearly avoided such contacts with people. In his delay, Johnny might have prevented numerous tragic situations, and perhaps his ultimate demise punishes him for these neglected opportunities -- opportunities that the television series seems to address and rectify by prolonging Johnny's life and actions toward Stillson.
Christopher Walken does a good job at demonstrating Johnny's range of concerns about his abilities, and other actors like Tom Skerritt as the local sheriff do a good job at filling in the characters surrounding Johnny's post-accident life. As a Stephen King adaptation, I'd have to say this one does an excellent job of creating a believable world where you can accept the characters as people and believe in the character's strange abilities.
