Main Cast: Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Tom Skerritt, Herbert Lom, Anthony Zerbe
Release Year: 1983
Country: US
Run Time: 104 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Christopher Walken plays a schoolteacher, Johnny Smith, who awakens from a five-year coma. He discovers that he has acquired the ability to foretell a person's future simply by touching his or her hand. After seeing several examples, Smith's doctor (Herbert Lom) becomes convinced that Smith can not only predict the future, but also has the power to change it. This ability is given its severest test when Smith shakes the hand of ruthless political candidate Greg Stillson (Martin Sheen) -- and suddenly has a flash-forward to a nuclear holocaust. The Dead Zone is not only one of the best-ever Stephen King adaptations, but also one of the most consistently successful (and least gory) efforts of director David Cronenberg. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
David Cronenberg's adaptation of Stephen King's novel The Dead Zone succeeds in fusing the distinct vision of two very different approaches to horror. Where King's books succeed at revealing the horrific and mysterious in a seemingly ordinary world (The Green Mile, Christine, It), Cronenberg has always been intrigued by the fragility of the human body. The movie version of The Dead Zone triumphantly coalesces these two themes into a highly emotional and simultaneously chilling tale. In Christopher Walken, the filmmakers found an ideal actor to dramatize these two themes. Walken's Johnny Smith (a most ordinary name for this most ordinary man) is a decent, quiet English teacher who wants nothing more than to be with his fiancée, Sarah (Brooke Adams). When his powers emerge after a horrific car accident, Johnny still wishes to be ordinary. However, each time he touches someone and sees the future his body reacts violently. As more and more people want to utilize his strange powers, Johnny's body grows weaker and weaker. While Cronenberg has used makeup to effectively show bodily degeneration in other films (The Brood, They Came From Within, The Fly), here he allows Walken to show the physical exhaustion in how he carries himself and in his interaction with the other characters. By the time Johnny takes heroic action, the audience feels both the triumph of so average a man making such a noble decision, and the physical deterioration that makes that decision a little easier. Fine performances by Tom Skerritt, Herbert Lom, and Martin Sheen help to keep this supernatural tale grounded in an authentic reality. The Dead Zone is very much greater than the sum of its already impressive parts. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
Colleen Dewhurst - Henrietta Dodd; Martin Sheen - Greg Stillson; Nicholas Campbell - Frank Dodd; Sean Sullivan - Herb Smith; Jackie Burroughs - Vera Smith; Geza Kovacs - Sonny Elliman; Roberta Weiss - Alma Frechette; Simon Craig - Chris Stuart; Deirdre Bowen; Les Carlson - Brenner; Wee Willie Davis - Ambulance Driver; Peter Dvorsky - Dardis; Ramon Estevez - Teenage Boy with Camera; Barry Flatman - Walter Bracknell; Chapelle Jaffe - Nurse; Jack Messinger - Therapist; Ken Pogue - Vice President; Helene Udy - Weizaks Mother; Claude Rae - Reporter; Jim Bearden - Deputy #1; Jane Jenkins; Janet Hirshenson; Wally Bondarenko - Reporter; Roger Dunn - Reporter; William Copeland - Secretary of State
Credit
Barbara Dunphy - Art Director, Jeffrey Chernov - Associate Producer, Deirdre Bowen - Casting, Janet Hirshenson - Casting, Olga Dimitrov - Costume Designer, John Board - First Assistant Director, David Cronenberg - Director, Ronald Sanders - Editor, Michael Kamen - Composer (Music Score), Shonagh Jabour - Makeup, Carol Spier - Production Designer, Mark Irwin - Cinematographer, John M. Eckert - Production Manager, Debra Hill - Producer, David Coatsworth - Set Designer, Jon G. Belyeu - Special Effects, Steve Maslow - Sound/Sound Designer, Bryan Day - Sound/Sound Designer, David Rigby - Stunts, Shane Cardwell - Stunts, Peter Cox - Stunts, Carey Loftin - Stunts, Dwayne McLean - Stunts, Jerome Tiberghien - Stunts, Greg Walker - Stunts, Richard Warlock - Stunts, Loren Jones - Stunts, Carey Loftin - Stunts Coordinator, Dick Warlock - Stunts Coordinator, Jeffrey Boam - Screenwriter, David Cronenberg - Screenwriter, Peter Lauterman - Properties Master, Stephen King - Book Author
Johnny Smith (Walken) is a young New England schoolteacher in love with his colleague Sarah (Adams) when he is involved in a serious car accident that sends him into a coma. He awakes under the care of neurologist Dr. Weizak (Lom) and counts himself fortunate when he notes no casts, bandages or visible signs of injuries on his body. However, the awakening turns rude when he is told that five years have passed since he last knew consciousness: his girlfriend has long since married and had a child. Johnny's transition back to life is made rougher when he discovers that he has the ability to learn a person's secrets (past, present, future) through making physical contact with the person. This ability, however, leaves him an outcast in his hometown despite helping the citizens. Later Johnny discovers through a handshake that US Senatorial Candidate, Greg Stillson (Sheen) will later become President of the United States, and through the handshake sees Stillson ordering a nuclear strike against Russia, thus presumably bringing on a nuclear holocaust. Johnny feels it to be his duty to assassinate Stillson and attempts to do so at a rally in a church. Johnny attempts to shoot Stillson but misses and is soon shot by Stillson's security detail. However, after Johnny's first shot Stillson grabs Sarah's baby and holds him up in the air to shield himself. This act is heavily photographed and becomes instant political suicide. As Johnny is shot and falls from the balcony, he is confronted by an angered Stillson. Johnny grabs him and foresees Stillson looking at a Newsweek magazine with the picture of him shielding himself with Sarah's baby and then proceeds to shoot and kill himself. Johnny then says to Stillson "It's over." A now satisfied Johnny then dies with Sarah by his side.
Background and history
The film was shot in the Greater Toronto Area and Regional Municipality of Niagara of Cronenberg's native Ontario, Canada where some temporary props and structures built for the film are still in place, such as the gazebo which still stands in the small town of Niagara-On-The-Lake, where most of the in-town shots were filmed. The so called Screaming Tunnel, located in nearby Niagara Falls, Ontario, was also utilized as the backdrop for one scene. According to a David Cronenberg interview on the DVD, The Dead Zone was filmed during a relentless deep freeze in Southern Ontario which lasted for weeks, creating an authentic atmosphere of subzero temperature and hard icy snow packed surfaces, which made for great natural shooting locations in spite of it being almost too cold for cast and crew to tolerate at times. Canada's Wonderland (Canada's premier amusement park, formerly owned by Taft Broadcasting, and Dead Zone film distributor Paramount) which is 30 km north of Toronto's city limits was also used as a filming location.
