The 20 Best Twilight Zone Twist Endings (#11-#15)

The Twilight Zone is a series known for its twist endings and it's safe to say that many of the show’s most well-known episodes are at least partially recalled due to a twist in the tale. Within the show’s output are several truly memorable and effective twist endings. We’ve narrowed these down to 20 and ranked them in order of effectiveness. We will unveil them in groups of 5 over the next four days. Let us know your favorite twist ending on the series. Please note that we have not considered episode 142, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," in this list as it was not an original production of the series.  

-JP

Here’s a look at #s 15-11.

15. “Escape Clause,” season one, episode 6

          Written by Rod Serling

The story: Hypochondriac Walter Bedeker makes a deal with the Devil that he will live forever and be impervious to harm in exchange for his soul.

The twist: After the accidental death of his wife, Bedeker pleads guilty to murder in the hope of experiencing the thrill of the electric chair. His attorney gets him “off” with life in prison.

Note: “Escape Clause” is truly an episode which functions solely for its snap ending, which is a good one. The episode has little to recommend it beyond the twist ending, as it is highly derivative and staged in the most pedestrian manner.

          Read our full review here. 

14.  “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street,” season one, episode 22

          Written by Rod Serling

The story: Neighbors on a quiet street turn upon one another in an ugly display of paranoid persecution when the electricity fails and their machines inexplicably break down.

The twist: Alien invaders have found that a unique way to conquer mankind is to take away their machines and cast them into darkness.

Note: Although the twist ending is a memorable one, it is not technically a twist ending at all, when one considers that the boy was correct in telling the adults that aliens had landed and were interfering with their homes. One wonders whether the episode had been even more effective if no cause for the interference were revealed. As it is, the science fictional ending placed on Serling’s devastating comment on the hidden ugliness of mankind seems forced and unnecessary.

Read our full review here.

13. “The Hitch-Hiker,” season one, episode 16

         Written by Rod Serling, based on the radio play by              Lucille Fletcher

The story: A young woman is pursued by a hitchhiker after getting into an accident on the highway.

The twist: The young woman did not survive the accident and the hitchhiker is there to shepherd her into the afterlife.

Note: Serling changed little in adapting Lucille Fletcher’s famous radio play to the series besides the gender of the main character. Fletcher’s radio play was originally written for Orson Welles. Though Fletcher’s story was not the first to utilize the trope that the main character is in actuality dead, it is a twist which has been utilized endlessly since. Notable examples include the 1962 film Carnival of Souls, William F. Nolan’s 1967 story “The Party,” and the 1999 film The Sixth Sense.

Read our full review here.

12. “Where is Everybody?” season one, episode 1

          Written by Rod Serling

The story: A young man with amnesia finds himself in a seemingly deserted town but cannot escape the feeling of being watched.

The twist: The man’s experience of the town is an hallucination brought about by isolation within a solitary chamber designed to emulate a trip through space.

Note: The story that sold the series remains an engaging and exceptionally staged psychological horror story. Earl Holliman turns in a great performance as the young man and the twist ending, however unbelievable, grounds the happenings in a realistic setting, something thought necessary to sell the series to the network executives and the corporate sponsors.

Read our full review here. 

11. “People Are Alike All Over,” season one, episode 25

Written by Rod Serling, story by Paul W. Fairman

The story: An astronaut named Conrad, the survivor of a crash landing on Mars, is treated kindly by the seemingly civilized inhabitants of the red planet.

The twist: Conrad is housed in a disguised prison, to be displayed as an animal in a zoo.

Note: Another episode which functions solely for its twist ending, “People Are Alike All Over” has some other interesting aspects, most notably the unabashedly science fictional production design. Roddy McDowall is also enjoyable in his only appearance on the series. The episode is based on Paul W. Fairman’s short story, “Brothers Beyond the Void,” originally published in the March, 1952 issue of Fantastic Adventures.

Read our full review here. 

"People Are Alike All Over"

Conrad (Roddy McDowall) and Marcusson (Paul Comi) contemplate the spacecraft that will take them to Mars

“People Are Alike All Over”

Season One, Episode 25

Original Air Date: March 25, 1960

                                                        

Cast:

Samuel Conrad: Roddy McDowall

Warren Marcusson: Paul Comi

Teenya: Susan Oliver

Martian #1: Byron Morrow

Martian #2: Vic Perrin

Martian #3: Vernon Gray

Crew:

Writer: Rod Serling (based on “Brothers Beyond the Void” by Paul W. Fairman).

Director: Mitchell Leisen

Producer: Buck Houghton
Production Manager: Ralph W. Nelson

Director of Photography: George T. Clemens
Art Direction: George W. Davis and William Ferrari
Set Decoration: Rudy Butler and Henry Grace
Assistant Director: Edward Denault
Casting: Mildred Gusse
Editor: Fred Maguire
Sound: Franklin Milton and Philip Mitchell

Music: stock

And Now, Mr. Serling:
“Next week an excursion to Mars with Roddy McDowall and Paul Comi, two men trying to prove a point—a simple proposition that men are alike all over.  And on Mars they discover that this is just whistling in the dark.  People are not alike and next week on The Twilight Zone you’ll see why.  I hope you’ll be with us.  Thank you and good night.”

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:
“You’re looking at a species of flimsy little two-legged animals with extremely small heads whose name is ‘man.’ Warren Marcusson, age thirty-five. Samuel A. Conrad, age thirty-one. They’re taking a highway into space, man unshackling himself and sending his tiny, groping fingers into the unknown. Their destination is Mars, and in just a moment we’ll land there with them.”

Summary: 

          Samuel Conrad and Warren Marcusson stand outside the gates of a cement lot that houses the most advanced spacecraft ever assembled.  In less than three hours it will become their home. The two men have been chosen to pilot mankind’s maiden voyage to the planet Mars. Looking up at the towering space vessel, Conrad confesses his apprehensions to Marcusson. He is afraid of what they might encounter on Mars. Marcusson reassures him that even on Mars there is bound to be creatures who feel sympathy and compassion because the laws of nature suggest that creatures are alike everywhere. Marcusson’s optimistic outlook seems to cheer him up.

                Some time later. After a mechanical malfunction, Conrad and Marcusson crash-land on the surface of Mars. Conrad appears to be uninjured but Marcusson has a broken leg. Nevertheless, he suggests they open the door of their ship and take a look around.  Conrad tells Marcusson that he is hurt too badly to go exploring and that he should rest. Marcusson calls his bluff and Conrad confesses that he is too frightened to go outside. Marcusson pleads with him to open the door and let him out but before Conrad gets a chance to do so Marcusson dies of internal injuries.  With no alternative Conrad opens the door and steps outside, a pistol clutched in his hand.

                To his amazement he sees a crowd of people, human beings, gathered around the ship. What amazes him even more is that they speak his language and invite him to their city. He follows them into their city where they have constructed an exact replica of what a home on Earth would look like. Conrad decides that he likes the Martians, especially a female named Teenya who has been particularly kind to him. The Martians tell him to make himself at home and they will be back soon to check on him.

                A few hours later Conrad is mixing himself a drink when he notices that there are no windows anywhere in the house. He tries all of the doors but discovers, to his horror, that they are locked. He is trapped. He begins pounding on the walls with his fists, demanding to know why he has been locked in. Suddenly, one of the walls begins to lift slowly from the ground, revealing a row of steel bars on the other side. There is a crowd of people gathered around his house, staring at him. He notices a sign on the other side of the bars that reads:  EARTH CREATURE IN HIS NATURAL HABITAT. 

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:
“Species of animal brought back alive. Interesting similarity physical characteristics to human beings in head, trunk, arms, legs, hands, feet. Very tiny undeveloped brain. Comes from primitive planet named Earth. Calls himself Samuel Conrad. And he will remain here in the cage with the running water and the electricity and the central heat, as long as he lives. Samuel Conrad has found The Twilight Zone.”

Commentary:

Original magazine illustration by Leo Summers

                “People Are Alike All Over” is Rod Serling’s adaptation of Paul W. Fairman’s story “Brothers Beyond the Void.”  This episode has become highly recognizable among fans of the show due mainly to its memorable twist ending. It’s an enjoyable episode but one that does not merit many additional viewings simply because it functions almost exclusively for the surprise at the end. However, Serling must have been fully aware of the dramatic shock value of this story because, according to Martin Grams in his book, The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic, Serling purchased Fairman’s story for $2,500, making it the most expensive story purchased during the first season and one of the most expensive of the entire series. It’s no surprise that the cynicism of this story would have appealed to Serling. It shares a temperament with “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” and many of Serling's other stories in that it paints a fairly optimistic image of society and then juxtaposes it with one that is incredibly harsh and unappealing. The basic tone and premise of the episode was already present in Fairman’s version and Serling remains relatively faithful in his adaptation. The only major difference is that Fairman’s version sees only one man (Marcuson) sent to Mars while his friend (Conrad) remains on Earth.

                This episode marks Fairman’s only contribution to The Twilight Zone. He was quite prolific during his writing career and for a brief period enjoyed some notoriety as an editor. Early in his career Fairman befriended mystery and fantasy author Howard Browne. At the time Browne was editor of Mammoth Mystery, Fantastic Adventures and Amazing Stories, all owned by Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. Browne published many of Fairman’s early stories including “Brothers Beyond the Void,” which first appeared in the March, 1952 issue of Fantastic Adventures. That same month, Fairman was hired by James L. Quinn to be the first editor of Quinn’s science fiction magazine If, but he was fired after only four issues due to disappointing sales figures (it should be noted that while he was at If, Fairman published Charles Beaumont’s story “The Beautiful People,” which Beaumont's friend John Tomerlin later adapted into the fifth season episode “Number 12 Looks Just Like You”). After Browne left Ziff-Davis in 1956, Fairman took over his position as editor of Amazing Stories and its sister publication, Fantastic (sort of a digest version of Fantastic Adventures, which ended in 1953). While at the helm of these publications, his regular contributors included Harlon Ellison, Robert Silverberg, Robert Bloch, Henry Slesar, and many others who were or would become giants of speculative fiction. He held this dual editor position until the end of 1958 when he left Ziff-Davis to become an editor at Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. After leaving EQMM in 1963, he continued to write full time, publishing under his own name and under the pseudonym Ivar Jorgensen.  He ghost-wrote novels for Lester Del Rey and Ellery Queen and saw his stories, “Deadly City” and “The Cosmic Flame,” adapted for the cult films Target Earth (1954) and Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957), respectively.  Among his many novels are Copper Town (1954), Rest in Agony (1961), Ten From Infinity (1963) and I, the Machine (1968).

                In many ways “People Are Alike All Over” holds a significant place in popular culture because it can be considered a precursor to Planet of the Apes (1968). In addition to the fact that it stars Roddy McDowall, who would play various roles throughout the Planet of the Apes series, this episode mirrors the classic sci-fi film in both theme and structure. Both stories see man, who is often thought of as the universally supreme being, in a reverse role of being a caged animal instead of its keeper. It’s quite likely that Serling had this episode, as well as the earlier season one episode “I Shot An Arrow Into the Air,” in mind when he wrote the initial screenplay for Planet of the Apes. 

         Along with Ed Wynn, Jack Klugman and Vera Miles, Roddy McDowall was one of the biggest name performers to appear during the first season, and many viewers at the time would have tuned in to this episode specifically for him. He had a knack for playing socially awkward characters and his performance here as the likeable but incredibly naive Sam Conrad is quite enjoyable. McDowall made a name for himself in the early 1940s as a child actor in John Ford’s How Green Was My Valley (1941) and the family classics My Friend Flicka (1943) and Lassie Come Home (1943). Over the next decade or so he managed to make the rare transition from child star to successful adult actor, and enjoyed a prominent career in film, television and Broadway, appearing in both the stage and film versions of Orson Welles’s Macbeth (1948), opposite Boris Karloff in the Playhouse 90 adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1958), and in the acclaimed Broadway productions of No Time for Sergeants (1955) and Camelot (1960). The same year that he appeared on The Twilight Zone, McDowall won a Tony Award for his performance in The Fighting Cock and an Emmy for the Sunday Showcase drama “Not Without Honor.” In 1968 he undertook the role of Cornelius in the first Planet of the Apes film and would be associated with the franchise for the rest of his career, appearing in four of the five Apes films and also in the short lived 1974 television spinoff which aired on CBS. In addition to Planet of the Apes and The Twilight Zone, McDowell worked with Serling again in "The Cemetery," the opening segment of the pilot film for Serling's Night Gallery.  His other notable film appearances include The Longest Day (1962), Cleopatra (1963, for which he was rumored to have been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor but was disqualified due to an error on the part of Twentieth Century Fox), The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Richard Matheson’s The Legend of Hell House (1973), and Fright Night (1985). He died of lung cancer in 1998 at the age of seventy.

While I admit that "People Are Alike All Over" is not one of my favorite offerings from season one, I would not call it a terrible episode. It deserves at least a viewing or two if for no other reason than to appreciate its place in the lexicon of speculative fiction.

Grade: C

Notes: 



--Paul W. Fairman’s story “Brothers Beyond the Void” first appeared in the March, 1952 issue of Fantastic Adventures. It was reprinted in Twilight Zone: the Original Stories (Avon, 1985; MJF, 1997).

--“People Are Alike All Over” was adapted into a Twilight Zone Radio Drama starring Blair Underwood.

--Director Mitchell Leisen’s career in Hollywood stretches back to the era of silent films, beginning as an art director in many of Cecile B. DeMille early productions. He began directing his own films in 1933 and throughout the 1930s and 40s was a highly sought-after presence in the motion picture industry. Among his numerous credits are the films Midnight (1939), Hold Back the Dawn (1941) and The Mating Season (1951). He also directed the first season Twilight Zone episodes “The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine” and “Escape Clause.”
--Roddy McDowall also appeared in the pilot film of Rod Serling's Night Gallery. In 1993, McDowall recorded a reading of Rod Serling's prose adaptation of "The Odyssey of Flight 33" for Harper Audio.
--Susan Oliver also appeared in an episode of Rod Serling's Night Gallery titled "The Tune in Dan's Cafe."
--Byron Morrow also appeared in the pilot film for Rod Serling's Night Gallery.
--Vic Perron is well-known among science fiction fans and was the control voice which greeted viewers on The Outer Limits.

--Paul Comi also appeared in “The Odyssey of Flight Thirty-three” and “The Parallel.”

--Brian Durant