8. The Dead Zone (1983)
In a small town in Maine, Johnny is in love with Sarah. He drives home is a terrible storm, suffers a dreadful accident and is put into a coma. Johnny wakes up five years later and discovers Sarah has married and had a child. He also discovers he has psychic powers that occur when he touches someone. He touches a nurse and sees her little girl trapped in a fire. When this is checked out it is proven to be true. When the news of his powers spread, Johnny eventually agrees to help detectives in a murder case. He knows that the Deputy Sheriff did the deed and the deputy commits suicide. Johnny is also shot by the deputy's mother. He goes into bitter isolation until he is coaxed by a wealthy man called Roger to tutor his son Chris. Johnny and Chris get on, but Johnny has a vision about a child falling through the ice of a pond. He tells Roger, but he dismisses it. Luckily Chris dodged the incident but two children were killed in an icy pond. Through shaking presidential candidate Greg Stillson's hand, Johnny foresees that this man will call a nuclear strike on Russia if he is elected and this will provoke the apocalypse. Johnny determines that for the sake of humanity, he must assassinate this man. Will he succeed in saving mankind? Directed by Canadian Horror Film God - David Cronenberg - The Dead Zone is a thrilling movie featuring a solid cast - including Christopher Walken (as the film's hero Johnny), Herbert Lom (as Johnny's doctor) and Martin Sheen (as the potential nuclear war igniting president). Christopher Walken - as Johnny - is a likeable character and we feel very sorry for the obvious agony his gifts give him. Cronenberg managed to weed out a lot of unnecessary characters and events from King's book to make it a more taut tale of suspense. It could actually be a Stephen King adaptation that is better than the book it was based on. Cronenberg and Walken work together to make Johnny a great hero. He has all of the pain of the world on his shoulders but struggles to do what is right when the fate of the world is resting on his hands. An unlikely hero, but a beautifully depicted one. Definitely a King adaptation that deserves more love than it gets.