The Twilight Zone: Nightmare At 30,000 Feet - 7 Big Changes To The Original

7. The Remake Ignores The Shaming Side Of Fear

The original protagonists of Nightmare At 20,000 Feet, are ashamed of their reactions to the gremlin. In Matheson's original short story, Arthur Wilson hides from the judgmental gaze of a teenage passenger as he imagines how his wife and sons might feel to see him in his frightened state. In the 1963 Twilight Zone episode, Bob is already dealing with the shame of a past psychotic break. He worries that his fear has become a burden to his wife, and the gremlin only deepens that concern. Both characters bring this shame on themselves by worrying they'll appear crazy or stupid.

In the 1983 remake for Twilight Zone: The Movie, John Lithgow portrays passenger John Valentine as suffering from these same internal concerns. He is also, however, publicly shamed by a little girl. "You used to be a normal person," she tells him, as if echoing his own thoughts.

The 2019 remake is a different story. Justin aggressively tries to push his fear onto the other passengers and flight crew, yet almost never bothers to provide evidence for anything he says. After one passenger refuses to listen to the podcast because he thinks sharing headphones can spread lice, Justin doesn't try to share his evidence with anybody else until he's detained by an air marshal.

Either Justin is so ashamed of one man refusing to share his headphones that he's stopped trying altogether, or he's simply a narcissist who expects others to take his word on faith. Jordan Peele's ending narration, which describes Justin as "an investigative reporter unwilling to investigate himself," suggests the latter.