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

All three gremlin-centered versions of the story involve the main character trying (and failing) to relax by using cigarettes and prescription pills. This need for escapism is given a slightly different explanation in each version, but it all comes down to mental illness.

In the 1961 short story, Arthur is a depressed man who carries a gun in case he ever decides to commit suicide. Shatner's 1963 character is afraid of having a psychotic episode, having suffered a mental breakdown once before. Lithgow's character is simply afraid to fly. Their fears all pertain to future possibilities, and they try to combat this fear by anesthetizing themselves in the present.

Like the others, Justin struggles with a disturbed mind. In this case, however, his problem is rooted in the past rather than the future. As revealed during a phone call with his wife, Justin suffers PTSD after an assignment in Yemen. When he finds the MP3 player with its strange podcast, his new focus on preventing future tragedy becomes an escapist distraction from past trauma. With this new anxiety about the immediate future acting as a paradoxical emotional crutch, he doesn't need to numb himself with outside substances.

Even Joe Beaumont, whose repeated alcohol consumption serves to ease his own painful memories, eventually lets the mystery of Flight 1015 become his escape. As he takes over the flight controls, he tells Justin that this is the only true way to escape the burdens of his past. The central conflict of Nightmare At 30,000 Feet may appear to be centered on fighting the future, but the real story is about running toward it. It's about running forward to avoid looking backward.