That is still my favorite episode of Twilight Zone. Burgess' other episode where he is deemed obsolete and sentenced to death is also a really good one.
My favorite plot twist took place at the end of the episode “I shot an arrow into the air”. A group of astronauts crash land on a planet and, over time, they begin to lose it and begin killing each other. The last survivor discovers that they crash landed not on some barren planet, but just outside Reno. They’ve been on earth the entire time and killed each other for nothing.
The episode where the passenger on the cruise ship has a terrible feeling that something awful is going to happen to the ship, only to find out he was the German U-Boat captain that ordered the sinking of the cruise ship, and ended up having to relive the experience forever, was very unsettling.
oh that would be sad, but i could see the anger and rage that would make some people want to inflict that on others until they finally learned the lesson of how precious life was and nothing was comparable, including other peoples lives.
There's a movie, "Between Two Worlds", I think you'd enjoy... 1944, synopsis: "Passengers on an ocean liner can't recall how they got on board or where they are going yet, oddly enough, it soon becomes apparent that they all have something in common."
@@jeffreymontgomery7516 Yes that is one of my favorite movies.. it has a lot of stars in it.. Paul Muni... Sydney Greenstreet.. Paul Henreid.... and many others/.. I love that movie.. I love the surprise towards the very end..... when we learn that the little old woman is Paul Muni's mother but he doesn't know it... and they get to spend an eternity together..as she wanted...
I always loved the twist in the episode "A Nice Place to Visit". Valentine: "I don't belong in heaven, see. I want to go to the other place." Fats: "Heaven? Whatever gave you the idea you're in heaven Mr. Valentine? This IS the other place."
Yes. That one is one I never forgot. Hell isn't just brimstone. His version of Hell is where he gets everything he wants, but he will never be happy. And his realization that he's talking to the Devil and not an angel in heaven is chilling.
There’s an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents that left me shook. A woman is assaulted and tells her husband. So they go driving around town looking for the guy. She says “that’s him!” So the husband follows the guy with a crowbar and kills him. As they’re driving away, after a little bit, she points to another guy and says “that’s him!” The look on the husband’s face 💀
The midnight sun is one of my favorite twists. It's essentially a woman's fever dream of living in a world where the sun won't set. In reality she's in a world where the sun won't shine and it's extremely cold.
That's a great episode. I like the episode where this woman and man wake up and they have no idea where they are. They board a train and end up in a house with plastic items, things that don't work. Long story short they're basically in a doll house on a planet where they are the play toys and some ginormous humanoid girl uses them as entertainment in her "dollhouse"
sounds like someone went to one of the poles and got inspiration. thats basically what happens if you to to scandinavia. you either get the midnight sun or nearly forever dark depending on the season.
One of my favorites involves a woman who is home alone in a small cabin/shack. She starts hearing noises and nervously investigates. She never really speaks and when the source of the intrusion finally becomes apparent, we find out it is a tiny US spaceship investigating a new planet and the woman we have been cheering for all episode is giant (compared to the humans) who smashes the earthlings to bits because she is terrified and not really out of malice.
My fav is the episode that takes place in prison. One inmate gets to know someone that works the cemetary and after hearing how the whole thing works he devises a plan to wait for another burial, that (I believe) only happen at night, sneak in and hide in the coffin and after a while the guy who works the burials would come back and unbury him and his escape would be perfect. The only problem was that he didnt check who he was sharing the cofin with before he let himself get buried with in it, it was the guy who was supposed to get him back out. I will never forget that episode and the horror of realizing he just buried urself alive.
I remember reading a similar story about a woman in prison who makes a deal with an old man to get her out of prison… Only to be buried with the old man because he died.
I remember an episode of twilight zone when a librarian was the only survivor of a disaster and he was so happy as he was alone in a library with all these books to read but then he steps on his eyeglasses and smashes them.The look on his face....
That one saddened me as a kid, but I brightened up and told the parents, "If that happened to me, I'm near sighted. I'd be able to read the books without glasses." Still, it was a powerful episode, especially for those of us who grew up during the Cold War.
My dad and i used to love watching twilight zone together. I remember his favorite was the woman being terrorized by a tiny ufo with the end twist being that the ufo was actually an American ship and she was a giant alien. For some reason that one scared him so bad it still gives him shudders. For me the one that had the most impact on me is a suburban neighborhood turning on each other when they think a nuke is going to be dropped on them, only for the threat they heard on the radio to be a test or false alarm. Thats when my dad told me that that episode wasn't really fictional and was in fact something he witnessed around constantly growing up during the cold war. Told me a more chilling story where he woke up in the middle of the night as a child to overhear his parents arguing over whether it would be better to wake him and his siblings up or let them die in their sleep during the cuban missile crisis
First one is “The Invaders.” Second one is “The Shelter.” The first one is unique in that there is no dialog after Serling’s intro until the very end. The second one was based on a real life event where people misunderstood a radio drama show of Orson Welles’s “War of the Worlds” to be a real life alien invasion.
Yes! Agnes Moorhead did such a great job! I think the only dialog was at the end when the last survivor transmits a radio call as he tries to take off the ship.
Rod Serling was waaaaaaaaaaaay ahead of his time. That movie ticket in the pocket at the end? That took another twist from 0 to 100 to 0 again to 1000. Have fun out there in the Twilight Zone, Rod!
Rod Serling also had the advantage of having access to a bajillion highly talented writers from pulp/SF magazines looking to make a buck in the (relatively new) TV industry. Star Trek was similarly blessed.
WAAAAAAAAAAY ahead of his time. Employing African Americans(the first being - Ivan Nathaniel Dixon III (April 6, 1931 - March 16, 2008) = as an over the age washed up boxer), Asian Americans(George Takei) when it wasnt the popular thing to do!
@@danbongard3226He had the nearly forgotten Charles Beaumont as a writer. I found his collections of short stories in a used bookstore, what a find! In my opinion, the best horror writer of the 1960s.
My favorite episode is the woman who’s in the hospital and she surrounded by doctors and nurses and they’re telling her that they’re going to try to fix her disfigured face but it’s so hideously deformed that they don’t know if they’re going to be able to. This goes on for most of the episode until you’re convinced that she must’ve gotten into a horrible accident or something and she is maimed beyond comprehension. They can barely even stand to look at her! At the end of it, they show her face and she is an extremely beautiful human being and they are all (relatively) hideous space aliens. If you feel judged, make sure you know who’s doing the judging!
Eye Of The Beholder is the episode. I might be wrong, haven't seen it in a while, but I think they are not aliens, it was "just" an alternate, dystopian world.
My favourite twilight-zone episode: a young heiress isn't sure if she ought to marry her fiance, takes out her horse and finds herself being chased by an unclear other rider... several times she barely escapes, and is so scared, she needs a man to protect her so marries the fiance... only to then switch to the roder who followed her and it turns out it's HER... twenty years later, desperatelytrying to stop herself from marrying that man.
@@paulleckner8235 That was Night Call. The ending was sad because she told him to leave her alone before she knew who it was. Richard Matheson's original ending was more chilling where the dead man says I'll be right over.
@@billding7073 Very right. Also, George Clayton Johnson wrote 4 episodes: "Kick the Can," A Game of Pool," "Nothing in the Dark," and "A Penny for Your Thoughts"
Black mirror actually did an episode using this same concept where a character was trapped in a horror video game simulation which turned out to be a hallucination of his own design. Contains similar themes ab the human cost of technological development
"It's a COOKBOOK"👽 Also, anybody else remember the Christmas episode about the professor who was forced into retirement and has a dream where he's in his classroom and sees all of his previous students? Not a scary episode at all, but it's so wholesome because all of the young men thank and applaud the old man for everything he taught them. One of them even reminds him that, shortly before dying in battle during ww2, he remembered the professor's wise words.
@@creech54 Glad to see that someone else remembered that the professor was indeed played by the late Donald Pleasance. I'm sure you already know this, but he later played Dr. Loomis in the original "Halloween," and he did a masterful job of it at that.
I know the feeling. I remember on a few occasions watching an episode and then running to the closest adult to explain everything that happened. 🤣 Guess that means not much has changed.
Please turn this into a series talking about just the twilight zone episodes. Soooo many episodes changed my whole life, and I wish more people remember this show
My favorite twist is from The Game. I got grounded for a week for missing my curfew by 15 minutes so I could see this movie with friends and it was absolutely worth it. It is on the short list of movies I wish I could see again for the first time.
Ahh yes! That was my favorite movie for awhile when I was much younger. Man, I'd wanna watch it again but I feel like half of the experience is lost without the surprise of the twist.
The Game has an odd backstory. Originally, Jodie Foster was supposed to be in the film.She was suppose to be Michael Douglas's characters sister.But the studio at the last minute,choose Sean Penn.Jodie Foster sued the studio/production company and won.
My favorite plot twist came from Season 05, with "Stop Over in a Quiet Town." A couple wakes up after a wild night of partying, and everything around them appears to be set dressing and stage props...
I'm pretty sure I had never seen it until a month ago, or it's been so long I forgot. But it's definitely one of the most memorable of the series. And from the comments it's a favorite. Also I've really enjoyed quite a few of your shorts.
@@dresinss that was the first episode i watched from the twilight zone it was the only one available on youtube at the time when i was looking where to watch the series
I think my favorite twist has to be the classic twist with the Hitchhiker episode. The episode starts off with her being thankful after almost getting hit, throughout the episode you start to forget that was even a plot point, and then at the end it’s revealed she died at the very beginning the whole time, and the Hitchhiker was some form of death coming for her. It’s one of the first shows to utilize this trope, and it does it in a really unique way.
I noticed that the mirror earlier in the diner was absolutely, unnaturally, completely 100% clear. I was even going "never seen a mirror that clear before" but it makes sense once he runs into the other mirror later, so we are all fooled by it since the clarity/invisibility of the mirrors in his reality was established in that earlier bit.
IMO, "Eye of the Beholder" is not only the greatest twist in TV history, but arguably the greatest episode of anything that ever aired on TV. There's a wealth of social and political commentary crammed into that episode.
@@Yatukih_001pretty sure it’s from the sequel series to the twilight zone called the night gallery. A man is invited to take shelter from the rain by an old man with a large mansion. The man hears screaming coming from the basement of the house begging to be let free. Turns out the man screaming in the basement was satan and he tricks the man into setting him free which causes world war 2. The old man reveals that he had made the same mistake as the young man years prior which led to him hunting down satan and locking him away. The cycle repeats itself with a young man locking up satan after some global catastrophe. A young man wonders into the mansion to meet the last guy who has grown old and Satan is set free.
Honestly, when they were talking about how no human could survive an extended lack of human contact, and along with the scene where he's almost closed into a jail cell before running out so frantically, I thought the TRUE reveal was going to be that the soldiers were part of his delusion too and it'd be revealed he was in solitary confinement. I'm horrified we still use that practice in prisons, so I would've been excited by an anti-solitary message. Maybe that's too much to ask from a show made in the 60's
Hard to say what my favorite plot twist of all time is. But I can say that the twist in The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street is definitely high on the list and is my personal favorite Twilight Zone episode. More than the twist though was Serling's closing narration. That final line, every time I hear it, I feel a great chill go up my spine and my eyes start to water as he says those words with such disenchantment and sorrow. "And the pity of it is ... that these things cannot be confined to The Twilight Zone."
@@kimjames6028 I'm guessing that she was also introduced to The Lottery by Shirley Jackson at around that same time, lol. As much as school was a veritable hell for me, it introduced me to Jackson alongside concepts of horror I was still too young to fully comprehend at the time.
I love how so many twists come from the Twilight Zone and even further back, from the stories in written words they used as inspiration for the episodes.
Mostly from Weird Tales Magazine and Takes From The Crypt. Going back further still the works of Ambrose Bierce. Especially The Damned Thing and The Outlaw.
Out of all the episodes of the Twilight Zone, this is still my absolute favorite. The simple nature of its twist is played so well because of its dedication to the lonely setting. The scariest part is not just the lack of people, but the evidence that there WERE people there, like the cigar. And it’s not just people, there aren’t any animals, no dogs or birds or anything. To me the most shocking scene is the long drawn out quiet parts like the 360 spin in the phone booth. Modern day they’d probably have a bird or something slam into the glass for a cheap jump-scare. But no, just sheer, dead silence. My favorite version of the episode is the pilot broadcast with the different narrator.
Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, and Alfred Hitckcock Presents are all so insanely important to fiction today. I love the way Black Mirror covered this one.
"Number 12 Looks Just Like You" and "The Lonely" have to be my favorite episodes for concept and twist. Number 12 is about a society that surgically alters everyone to eliminate disease, mental disorders, and slow aging when they turn 19. They only have a set number of options for how their body looks afterwards. Marilyn, an 18 year old woman, does not want the surgery and no one else understands why. The Lonely is about a convict who is sentenced to 50 years in isolation on an asteroid. The captain of the cargo ship that brings his supplies has been trying to bring him things to occupy his time, and eventually he brings a robot to help with the loneliness. Of course it just so happens to be a born sexy yesterday woman, but I only warn this far because of course The Twilight Zone just does it different. Personally the ending always makes me tear up and no amount of rewatches has stopped that. I cannot stress enough that these episodes are re-watchable, but if you've never heard of them then you need to see them without spoilers once. Both of them play off a pretty typical Sci-Fi for a post-Twilight Zone world, but once you get half way through there's plenty to keep you hooked to the end.
Number 12 reminds me of a YA series I read as a kid called "The Uglies." Everyone is born as an Ugly, but when you get old enough (I think it was 16 or something like that?) you get to get your surgeries and implants and become a Pretty. Pretties were physically perfect but utterly uniform. Then there were the Specials. People who weren't just perfected, but upgraded. Super-strength and reflexes, amazing agility, natural combat instincts. We follow a girl who goes through all three (she's, of course, the Divergent/Mockingbird/Savior lmfao). It was a really good series though.
I think this also proves that nobody has to die in a horror film for it to be genuinly scary. The episode is still very unsettling even if it had a "good" ending.
I think one of my favorite TZ twists is The Midnight Sun. I love how it deflates the tension for exactly 2 seconds before ratcheting it to the same level 180 in the other direction.
My favorite in Twilight Zone is "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" It's just so masterfully done, and it was written by a Civil War Veteran (Ambrose Bierce) especially as it was originally a french short film that was bought and re-edited for The Twilight Zone.
I normally don’t watch “talking head” UA-cam channels, but I LOVE the OG Twilight Zone and I really liked your presentation. So much, in fact, that I did something I rarely do and subscribed after just one video. I hope you’ve got more of these planned because this was great to watch, and you have an awesome delivery too. You don’t try to be funny or sarcastic, instead staying purely in the realm of objectivity. I really appreciate that for an analysis video. Great job!
i think its common knowledge that "its a cook book" is the best twilight zone twist. Not mine personally but i hear it a lot. My father wrote for the show back then I'm a big ol' fan :D
That's awesome. It's a good one for sure, but my favorite has always been Perchance To Dream from season 1. But you are right a ton of people do love that episode, can't blame them it's a good one. What episodes did your dad right? If you don't mind me asking.
The ending to _The Platform_ stuck with me. There was one oldie that terrified me as a kid. I can’t remember if it was Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits. Where there’s a disfiguring virus in town passed on by touch. Ultimately the people in the town decide that there’s no escaping it so they decide as a group to make contact and finally touch each other (I can’t remember why) knowing their fate. That ending scared the pants off me. Keep doing this as a series.
It's an OL called "A Feasibility Study". Aliens transport a whole neighborhood to their planet to see if the people will make suitable slaves. If you touch the aliens, you catch their disease. So, in order to save everyone on earth, the people infect themselves to show the aliens that earth people will not be made slaves.
The Outer Limits, 'A Feasibility Study.' The people were abducted by aliens suffering from this immobilizing disease and wanted humans as slave labor. The people chose to voluntarily infect themselves rather than be enslaved and rendered the alien's study infeasible.
Even before the twists, it such a rock solid premise: what is a kid to do, if his single parent come home one day and suddenly starts talking like they're crazy?
Burgess Meredith breaking his glasses in 'Time Enough At Last' (s01e08) is the best Twilight Zone twist. It is as elegantly simple as it is emotionally devastating. Of course, unlike this episode, it examines those who would rejoice in being alone.
Some of my favorite Twilight Zone Twists are "5 Characters in Search of an Exit" and "The Hitch Hiker." There are so many good twists and so many good episodes in general of that show.
Not really known for a twist ending, but the episode where the kid can wish people away to the cornfield has some of the best atmosphere in any Twilight Zone episodes in my opinion. The fear the people around him show being subjected to the whims of a child who can flip on a dime is for me, a top 5 episode out of the entire series.
The comments of this video are really making me think that I ought to find and watch the original Twilight Zone series, because aside from a few episodes here and there, I've never actually seen it.
The Hitch-Hiker episode. By far the most beautiful, elegant and seamless twist, imho. With equally excellent end, "I believe you're going...my way?", and closing narration: "Nan Adams, age twenty-seven. She was driving to California; to Los Angeles. She didn't make it. There was a detour... through the Twilight Zone." As for films, probably the twist in 3th act of All The Boys Love Mandy Lane. It's not that much of a surprise (which doesn't mean it was predictable, at least to me), but the consistency with the story and the ending part of the movie, perfect fit.
A Stop At Willoughby , is my favorite TZ twist . My all time favorite plot twist was The 6th Sense . I honestly didn't see it coming 🤔 I was in a crowded movie theater and all of us just gasped and went silent . When the lights went up , some people were crying , other's looked baffled , yet we were all mostly silent . Until we hit the parking lot . It was a great shared experience .
I didn't see the twist coming in "The Sixth Sense" either, even though I felt it was very strange that a clinical psychologist had so much free time on weekdays to hang out with one kid -- like he didn't have any other patients...
the mirror moment was so good - thinking back on it, him talking to the mirror only to later run into a mirror is a interesting development, he hurt HIMSELF the one thing that he felt comfortable with, which goes to his mind messing with him - seeing it in full, its perfectly shot, audience doesn't realize how close we are to him or the mirror til its too later a perfect series start episode
A lot of people have already mentioned my top twists in twilight zone and in other shows/movies in general. I’ll add this one to the list. Predestination - apparently not everyone’s cup of tea but I thought Ethan Hawkes performance was great and the story was enthralling. Twist was amazing in my opinion. Also, I want you to know that you have completely changed my perception of this episode because you noticed that clock detail. I never realized all the events had occurred within one minute. Thanks for giving me a new thing to love about this classic
For what its worth, i dont think it means that. If he broke the clock then any amount if time could have passed since. It also looks to be repeatedly broken.
This is clearly where Black Mirror got its inspiration from, specifically the episodes White Bear, White Christmas, and Playtest. Really cool video, great work.
The enhanced ending with the movie ticket would have been a real mind-blower. While you were narrating it, I was reacting like"ohh wow!" Rod Serling should have stood pat on the ending he wanted. But then, going against the producers might not be such a good idea.
I remember one time when I was younger my parents put me on “lockdown” for the summer, I wasn’t allowed to leave my room, have dinner with the family, or read books, watch tv, listen to music or speak to anyone aside from asking to use to bathroom. I can definitely relate to desire to talk to anyone, even bugs, just for the smallest bit of stimulation. It’s not just intense loneliness but a boredom that will you cause you to just create really elaborate scenarios in your mind and there is nothing and no one pull you out of them.
I've had Identity and The Game on my list for a while now. And will get around to them soon. The Others keeps getting recommended to me but I'm 90% sure I haven't seen it. And 100% that I haven't been able to find it anywhere.
Rod Serling and the guy that writes most of the Black Mirror episodes... I have SO much respect for those two. How the hell does one continuously come up with all these interesting and relatively brief self contained stories and subjects with twists and everything again and again and again?
Best twist forsure the fact that u think it's a good ending for a second since she wakes up and it was all a dream to then find out she's in the same horrific situation only its the inverse.
"Time enough at last." until his glasses fall of a break and he's on the steps of a library wher he could read to his hearts content, and he's the human on earth.
Oldboy's ending was such an insane twist, like there's some hints, but I just didn't expect it, I was too focused on Dae Su's revenge that it caught me so off guard that it's one of my favorite movies.
25:38 "There's time enough at last" Saw that one as a kid, and as an avid reader, it's my idea of Purgatory! Please make this a series; i absolutely adore it when people look thru older media for gems!
Shutter Island strangely enough had that ambious Rod's Twilight Zone vibe. The intrigue , the layers o questions of reality and our perceptikns and notions of it. The sense of redignstion that follows the only piece of certainty and self-agency he has. Even then there's still potiental for more questiions.
@@PolterGibbst yeah watched that one too brother very impressive analysis and take . One of my recent favourites. Tell me do you write fiction yourself ? If not you should really give it a go. I'm in the very early stages of a treatment for my own anthology of Morality Horror Called - Tales of Rot and Ruin. Where the host narrator - The ghoulish Mr. Marley ( yes Jacob - Dickens ) bound and chained now to chair and desk with an inkpot, a quill and log book for company he serves his sentence of penitence as The Ledger of The Limbo Landfill where all Rotten Souls go to Errode in Eternal Entropy.
@@PolterGibbst I'm gonna go watch that, because I'm intrigued, but... Well, I'm just gonna state outright beforehand that I feel like that's not going to work and kinda ruins the point of the movie. What motivation would they have to even do that? But, I'll watch with an open mind. I'm always interested in new takes, and this video was great. lol
@@bronsoncarder2491 luckily all of it is laid out in the movie itself. There is just a lot of weird stuff going on constantly throughout the film that will make you have to give it another watch with a new perspective.
Another great analysis Polter! To answer your question on twists, I think the twist that messed me up a little bit when i first seen it when i was younger was Sleepaway Camp. If you know you know, but if you havent seen it, you should! God bless brother!
@@davidgoodliff4486 Even if you figured out the first twist, there was also a twist at the end. After reconciling what he had done, he immediately forgets and goes back into playing detective. Then we learn that he has gone through this acceptance thing multiple times just to revert back.
This is my absolute favourite episode of the Twilight Zone 😊 I love the atmosphere and idea of suddenly finding yourself in a deserted town but you can't shake the feeling that someone is watching you and moving things around when you aren't looking It creates such an uneasy sense of the uncanny and paranoia The After Hours is another favourite and one which I genuinely believe would work as its own self-contained TV show
It's an absolutely incredible episode. I remember recommending the episode without any spoilers to someone, and they refused to take my horror recommendations seriously afterwards. The only reason they really gave was that it was too old.
That's the reason I've been worried about doing this series since a lot of people have never given it a try. But I figured with the premise of the video it would get new people to consider the series. Plus I've wanted to cover the Twilight Zone for years. And what's the point of making videos if I don't make the ones I want to.
Never even heard of Pandorum, so I will add it to my watchlist right now. The others are great, especially Shutter Island. Crazy they were trying to make him believe he was crazy all along, and that it almost worked... (This is a reference to my Shutter Island video)
@PolterGibbst I caught that one, was probably the first video I saw by you. I hope you enjoy Pandorum!(I'm sure I'll find out at some point) definitely go in blind!
After major cancer surgery i had dreams that were so extended that i knew i was there and could interact with the people within it, it was so real that when i woke from it i didn't know which place was reality, my partner being there with me at times said that i was speaking to nobody who was there, so she would shuffle herchair to the direction i was speaking so that other patients and there visitors thought we were talking to each other, i sometimes wonder if i died and am now living in a different reality because many things had changed after my experience. Maybe i am now in the twighlight zone!!!
I remember watching this episode with my grandmother back when I was around 10. The way the tension built with every scene and how the actor managed to convey his increasing paranoia and insanity really got to me, it’s always stuck with me and I’m glad to see I’m not alone.
This is, for me, a good episode. It doesn't make my top 10 in general, and doesn't make my top 10 for the twists, but it's well worth watching. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend Inside Number 9, a British dark comedy anthology show that features some of the best twist endings in TV history. It's 9 seasons, but there are only 48 episodes across those seasons, so it can be binged in a week. However, not all of the episodes are horror or horror adjacent; some are straight up comedy, others drama or mystery, one is a sports story, another centered on a panel voting on acting awards. If you want the best horror or horror adjacent episodes with top notch twists, I highly recommend these: 12 Days of Christine Tom and Gerri Sardines Cold Comfort Once Removed The Last Weekend The Devil of Christmas Mr. King Wise Owl
It's really not even a twist; a twist implies that the audience wasn't expecting some grand reveal at the end-- during this entire episode the audience is automatically expecting a grand reveal.
Hey brother, This was my first time viewing one of your videos and i want to say i really appreciate your presentation of the content. You stay to the point, make interesting interjections, and have clever asides with facts about the episode (the rod serling in the phone booth story, for example) Looking forward to more great content.
My favorite twist of all time is a movie called "No Way Out"(1987). Second is a movie called "Shattered"(1991). My 2 favorite Richard Matteson stories are "The Night Stalker"(1972) & "Somewhere in Time"(1980).
I love the timing of this video. Twilight zone came on one of the streaming services and I watched the very first episode just last week so this is a great breakdown. Have a great episode. Good job.
I actually really love these 20-40 min videos more. Long enough, but not so long I gotta break it into a couple weeks. Not saying I don't like your more long form stuff, but its nice seeing you tackle smaller slices of tv shows.
Good to hear. I wanted to do some shorter videos before I put myself in a corner of everyone only expecting long breakdowns. Plus these allow me to get more videos out while I work on the big projects.
I think that’s the one I was talking about. The beautiful human being who’s being judged as ugly and in need of restorative facial surgery, but the doctors and nurses are all aliens or monsters.
“Will the Real Martian Stand Up?” and “To Serve Man” among my favorites Twilight Zone episodes. “The Sixth Sense” is my pick for greatest twist in any medium.
I finally (for myself) figured out the twist on the twist in Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up. There are clues throughout the episode (beginning in the first seconds) but you can take the episode title by itself. Lies were told all throughout it but who was standing at the counter and who was sitting, at the end, hmm. Besides, Martians are usually depicted in other books as having three eyes or in the 1953 War of the Worlds with a three section eye. A long running series that I believe Rod used was To Tell the Truth. Lies were the basis of it. Oh, it’s a loved episode except for the ending of all the deaths. What if they didn’t die? Another lie from… the Venusian. The bus was Cayuga Bus Lines. Cayuga was Serling’s production company for TTZ. He named it after a lake in upper NY where he had a waterfront house. Besides the lake being named for an Indian tribe, a rare breed of duck was also there named Cayuga. In WW2, Rod was in the Pacific theater and would have known about an amphibious truck troop transport called a DUKW, called a duck (!). So, I believe that the bus floated and the people lived. Bad ending turned good. Another clue was in the beginning where the cops look at the distant bus and joke that it could float. Clues on the cafe signs (Buffalo), prices, etc. When is someone charged 14 times for a refill? The not-a-Martian being a Magician (lies, misdirection, sleight of hand are part of the rules). But again, it was the cook who was standing at the end. 🤣 Written of course by Rod Serling.
Good review mate! I'd love to see a whole series on these episodes. Everyone does the "classics" the top 10's, but knowing the details like the phone booth thing and where that came from.... I would enjoy that mightily, my brother.
I don't know if you'd call it a twist as opposed to just an unsettling ending, but the ending of Screamers when the reflection of the teddy bear sits up and stares at you through the the cockpit window has never left me even 25 years after seeing it
@@oxymoron02what? 😂😂 do you know what a twist is? A twist is an explanation that you didn’t see coming. There’s no way you were watching this for the first time in the 60s and thinking “oh yeah he’s just a dude in an isolation container”. That’s like saying the sixth sense wasn’t a twist. Just explanation
Richard Matheson wrote I Am Legend on which The Last Man on Earth was based. He actually did write the screenplay for TLMoE, but was so bothered by the entire experience in dealing with that movie that he had his name taken off the credits. In any event, this episode aired in 1959, 5 years before TLMoE came out. So, no, The Last Man On Earth books in the episode had nothing to do with Richard Matheson or the TLMoE movie.
I love how well these older shows got restored, they look wonderful. Favorite twist would be in ""Beyond the Aquila rift" episode of Love, Death, And robots.
The craziest twist in all of Twilight Zone, at least to me, is "Five Characters in Search of an Exit". I yelled "HOLY SHIT" at a show/movie and my parents got mad at me.
13:45 that shot of him running into the mirror is awesome. Great summary. You should do more videos about twilight zone episodes. It's a fantastic show that so many other shows have copied over the years.
the greatest twist in all of horror was when Reiner and Bertholdt revealed to Eren Jaeger in the year 850 that they were in fact the Armored and Colossal titans, respectively.
(Breaks glasses)
"It's not fair. It's just not fair."
That is still my favorite episode of Twilight Zone. Burgess' other episode where he is deemed obsolete and sentenced to death is also a really good one.
Universe: Who cares, it's still funny to me!
Humanity recreates the War in Heaven.
"There was Time now!"
Don't do that. Just enjoy them.
"Well at least I can still read the large print books"
My favorite plot twist took place at the end of the episode “I shot an arrow into the air”. A group of astronauts crash land on a planet and, over time, they begin to lose it and begin killing each other. The last survivor discovers that they crash landed not on some barren planet, but just outside Reno. They’ve been on earth the entire time and killed each other for nothing.
That was a good one!
Same thing happened to me
Mine was when Roddy McDowell found out he was a zoo specimen.
That one is one of my favorites. Way better than this episodes. Especially in regards to twists that make sense.
Serling stole this for his original screenplay for the ending of Planet of the Apes.
You should turn this into a series analyzing old Twilight Zone episodes. I really enjoyed this video.
this!!!
YES PLEASE
agreed
Twilight zone was one of my favorite shows from childhood, I’d definitely love a series analyzing them ❤
for realll
The episode where the passenger on the cruise ship has a terrible feeling that something awful is going to happen to the ship, only to find out he was the German U-Boat captain that ordered the sinking of the cruise ship, and ended up having to relive the experience forever, was very unsettling.
oh that would be sad, but i could see the anger and rage that would make some people want to inflict that on others until they finally learned the lesson of how precious life was and nothing was comparable, including other peoples lives.
Ooof that one was haunting made my stomach turn in a bad good way
There's a movie, "Between Two Worlds", I think you'd enjoy... 1944, synopsis: "Passengers on an ocean liner can't recall how they got on board or where they are going yet, oddly enough, it soon becomes apparent that they all have something in common."
@@jeffreymontgomery7516
Yes that is one of my favorite movies.. it has a lot of stars in it..
Paul Muni... Sydney Greenstreet.. Paul Henreid.... and many others/..
I love that movie.. I love the surprise towards the very end..... when we learn that the little old woman is Paul Muni's mother but he doesn't know it... and they get to spend an eternity together..as she wanted...
Germans are always war criminals.
I always loved the twist in the episode "A Nice Place to Visit".
Valentine: "I don't belong in heaven, see. I want to go to the other place."
Fats: "Heaven? Whatever gave you the idea you're in heaven Mr. Valentine? This IS the other place."
I think about this all the time lol
Mr. PIp!
That was a good twist
Yes. That one is one I never forgot. Hell isn't just brimstone. His version of Hell is where he gets everything he wants, but he will never be happy. And his realization that he's talking to the Devil and not an angel in heaven is chilling.
There’s an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents that left me shook. A woman is assaulted and tells her husband. So they go driving around town looking for the guy. She says “that’s him!” So the husband follows the guy with a crowbar and kills him. As they’re driving away, after a little bit, she points to another guy and says “that’s him!” The look on the husband’s face 💀
I remember this!
the scene where he runs down the staircase into a mirror is one of the best uses of cinematography i have ever seen!
Logically it made no sense though.
@@reignman30but it does, he was going insane, later on he trips on a bike right in front of him
I actually flinched back from my screen 😂
Yeah. I wonder who directed that.
Agreed.
The midnight sun is one of my favorite twists. It's essentially a woman's fever dream of living in a world where the sun won't set. In reality she's in a world where the sun won't shine and it's extremely cold.
That's a great episode. I like the episode where this woman and man wake up and they have no idea where they are. They board a train and end up in a house with plastic items, things that don't work.
Long story short they're basically in a doll house on a planet where they are the play toys and some ginormous humanoid girl uses them as entertainment in her "dollhouse"
sounds like someone went to one of the poles and got inspiration. thats basically what happens if you to to scandinavia. you either get the midnight sun or nearly forever dark depending on the season.
Yes, I remember that episode. It's getting colder because the Earth's orbit has changed and it is moving farther away from the Sun.
@@JasonRule-1 Yes that's correct.
Yes! I immediately thought about this one. One of my favorites.
One of my favorites involves a woman who is home alone in a small cabin/shack. She starts hearing noises and nervously investigates. She never really speaks and when the source of the intrusion finally becomes apparent, we find out it is a tiny US spaceship investigating a new planet and the woman we have been cheering for all episode is giant (compared to the humans) who smashes the earthlings to bits because she is terrified and not really out of malice.
My fav is the episode that takes place in prison. One inmate gets to know someone that works the cemetary and after hearing how the whole thing works he devises a plan to wait for another burial, that (I believe) only happen at night, sneak in and hide in the coffin and after a while the guy who works the burials would come back and unbury him and his escape would be perfect. The only problem was that he didnt check who he was sharing the cofin with before he let himself get buried with in it, it was the guy who was supposed to get him back out. I will never forget that episode and the horror of realizing he just buried urself alive.
Fuck that. Geez
I remember reading a similar story about a woman in prison who makes a deal with an old man to get her out of prison… Only to be buried with the old man because he died.
I remember an episode of twilight zone when a librarian was the only survivor of a disaster and he was so happy as he was alone in a library with all these books to read but then he steps on his eyeglasses and smashes them.The look on his face....
Time enough at last. Starting burgeouss Meredith
Soooooo tragic
That's the next episode I will be doing for the series. Definitely one of the most memorable.
yeah, that's a good'un. Starring the OG penguin himself!
That one saddened me as a kid, but I brightened up and told the parents, "If that happened to me, I'm near sighted. I'd be able to read the books without glasses." Still, it was a powerful episode, especially for those of us who grew up during the Cold War.
My dad and i used to love watching twilight zone together. I remember his favorite was the woman being terrorized by a tiny ufo with the end twist being that the ufo was actually an American ship and she was a giant alien. For some reason that one scared him so bad it still gives him shudders.
For me the one that had the most impact on me is a suburban neighborhood turning on each other when they think a nuke is going to be dropped on them, only for the threat they heard on the radio to be a test or false alarm. Thats when my dad told me that that episode wasn't really fictional and was in fact something he witnessed around constantly growing up during the cold war. Told me a more chilling story where he woke up in the middle of the night as a child to overhear his parents arguing over whether it would be better to wake him and his siblings up or let them die in their sleep during the cuban missile crisis
My favorite was tiny aliens. Boring is episode, great twist. Bam! Happens all at once, ooooooh shit!
JFC 😳
First one is “The Invaders.” Second one is “The Shelter.” The first one is unique in that there is no dialog after Serling’s intro until the very end. The second one was based on a real life event where people misunderstood a radio drama show of Orson Welles’s “War of the Worlds” to be a real life alien invasion.
Yes! Agnes Moorhead did such a great job!
I think the only dialog was at the end when the last survivor transmits a radio call as he tries to take off the ship.
Been there
Rod Serling was waaaaaaaaaaaay ahead of his time. That movie ticket in the pocket at the end? That took another twist from 0 to 100 to 0 again to 1000.
Have fun out there in the Twilight Zone, Rod!
Rod Serling also had the advantage of having access to a bajillion highly talented writers from pulp/SF magazines looking to make a buck in the (relatively new) TV industry. Star Trek was similarly blessed.
WAAAAAAAAAAY ahead of his time. Employing African Americans(the first being - Ivan Nathaniel Dixon III (April 6, 1931 - March 16, 2008) = as an over the age washed up boxer), Asian Americans(George Takei) when it wasnt the popular thing to do!
@@danbongard3226 Rod Serling wrote or co-wrote 92 of the 156 episodes of The Twilight Zone.
@@danbongard3226He had the nearly forgotten Charles Beaumont as a writer. I found his collections of short stories in a used bookstore, what a find! In my opinion, the best horror writer of the 1960s.
The theater ticket in the pocket was actually used in the episode 'Back There' with Russel Johnson.
My favorite episode is the woman who’s in the hospital and she surrounded by doctors and nurses and they’re telling her that they’re going to try to fix her disfigured face but it’s so hideously deformed that they don’t know if they’re going to be able to. This goes on for most of the episode until you’re convinced that she must’ve gotten into a horrible accident or something and she is maimed beyond comprehension. They can barely even stand to look at her!
At the end of it, they show her face and she is an extremely beautiful human being and they are all (relatively) hideous space aliens.
If you feel judged, make sure you know who’s doing the judging!
That was a good one.
And that actress may look familiar, since it was Donna Douglas, who played Ellie May Clampett in the Beverly Hillbillies.
Eye Of The Beholder is the episode. I might be wrong, haven't seen it in a while, but I think they are not aliens, it was "just" an alternate, dystopian world.
They had pig faces
Yes,a-GREAT-episode,watched it as a kid and it scared the pants off of me. LOL. At the end the normal faced people took her to their world/place.
My favourite twilight-zone episode: a young heiress isn't sure if she ought to marry her fiance, takes out her horse and finds herself being chased by an unclear other rider... several times she barely escapes, and is so scared, she needs a man to protect her so marries the fiance... only to then switch to the roder who followed her and it turns out it's HER... twenty years later, desperatelytrying to stop herself from marrying that man.
It shocked me too!
That one and the parapalegic woman who got a phone call in the middle of the night and tells him to stop calling! It's her dead fiance!
That was the episode Spur of the Moment.
@@paulleckner8235 That was Night Call. The ending was sad because she told him to leave her alone before she knew who it was. Richard Matheson's original ending was more chilling where the dead man says I'll be right over.
Holy crap I never saw that episode and that just sent chills up my spine. One of those awesome closed loop twists like Predestination.
It's amazing that something filmed over six decades ago is soo much better than most, if not all, of the tv shows today.
There is simply no substitute for great writing, and TZ had quite a lot of that.
Ah shut up
It's about the quality of the writing. Richard Matheson 14, Charles Beaumont 22, Earl Hamner 8, and with most episodes at 92 Rod Serling
@@billding7073 Very right.
Also, George Clayton Johnson wrote 4 episodes: "Kick the Can," A Game of Pool," "Nothing in the Dark," and "A Penny for Your Thoughts"
Black mirror actually did an episode using this same concept where a character was trapped in a horror video game simulation which turned out to be a hallucination of his own design. Contains similar themes ab the human cost of technological development
"It's a COOKBOOK"👽
Also, anybody else remember the Christmas episode about the professor who was forced into retirement and has a dream where he's in his classroom and sees all of his previous students? Not a scary episode at all, but it's so wholesome because all of the young men thank and applaud the old man for everything he taught them. One of them even reminds him that, shortly before dying in battle during ww2, he remembered the professor's wise words.
“Changing of the Guard” It’s a very heartwarming episode. There is another one called “The Trade Ins” that is also wholesome.
Plot twist: ´Its a cook book! NONONONONO, IT ISN´T THAT COOK BOOK........ITS THAT OTHER COOK BOOK´.
@@josephbrown9685 Wonderful performance by Donald Pleasence.
@@creech54 Glad to see that someone else remembered that the professor was indeed played by the late Donald Pleasance.
I'm sure you already know this, but he later played Dr. Loomis in the original "Halloween," and he did a masterful job of it at that.
@@Gunners_Mate_Guns Also memorable as the forger in "The Great Escape".
Watching this episode for the first time as a 11 year old boy absolutely melted my brain I'm not gonna lie
I know the feeling. I remember on a few occasions watching an episode and then running to the closest adult to explain everything that happened. 🤣
Guess that means not much has changed.
I did not expect to see my favorite UA-camr under this video 🤕
@@Antisocial_Knightz The King was kind enough to grace us with his presence.
Please turn this into a series talking about just the twilight zone episodes. Soooo many episodes changed my whole life, and I wish more people remember this show
My favorite twist is from The Game. I got grounded for a week for missing my curfew by 15 minutes so I could see this movie with friends and it was absolutely worth it. It is on the short list of movies I wish I could see again for the first time.
😂 wow, but I get it. The Game has been on my list for a long time now to cover. Such a great movie that will fit this series perfectly.
Ahh yes! That was my favorite movie for awhile when I was much younger. Man, I'd wanna watch it again but I feel like half of the experience is lost without the surprise of the twist.
@@npc5zKinda like 6th sense for me.
The Game has an odd backstory. Originally, Jodie Foster was supposed to be in the film.She was suppose to be Michael Douglas's characters sister.But the studio at the last minute,choose Sean Penn.Jodie Foster sued the studio/production company and won.
Lol, yes!! That's my one, "if you could rewatch from scratch anything or read anytime for the first time," choice.
My favorite plot twist came from Season 05, with "Stop Over in a Quiet Town." A couple wakes up after a wild night of partying, and everything around them appears to be set dressing and stage props...
I think the to serve man twist is insanely good that even with modern eyes i didnt see coming
I'm pretty sure I had never seen it until a month ago, or it's been so long I forgot. But it's definitely one of the most memorable of the series. And from the comments it's a favorite.
Also I've really enjoyed quite a few of your shorts.
How did I forget that one? I still like tiny aliens but that was definitely top 5.
Hannibal Lecter meets Gordon Ramsay?
@@PolterGibbst im looking forward to watch more of this series and i loved your breakdown of the thing🙌
@@dresinss that was the first episode i watched from the twilight zone it was the only one available on youtube at the time when i was looking where to watch the series
RIP Earl Holliman who passed 11-25-24 at the age of 96.
I think my favorite twist has to be the classic twist with the Hitchhiker episode. The episode starts off with her being thankful after almost getting hit, throughout the episode you start to forget that was even a plot point, and then at the end it’s revealed she died at the very beginning the whole time, and the Hitchhiker was some form of death coming for her. It’s one of the first shows to utilize this trope, and it does it in a really unique way.
I like how he is kind of nice about the while thing. He doesnt really mean to frighten or discomfort her.
I love Rod's Voice, cant imagine anyone else narrating.
The shot of him running into the mirror is brilliant
I noticed that the mirror earlier in the diner was absolutely, unnaturally, completely 100% clear. I was even going "never seen a mirror that clear before" but it makes sense once he runs into the other mirror later, so we are all fooled by it since the clarity/invisibility of the mirrors in his reality was established in that earlier bit.
Through the Looking Glass? 🤔
IMO, "Eye of the Beholder" is not only the greatest twist in TV history, but arguably the greatest episode of anything that ever aired on TV. There's a wealth of social and political commentary crammed into that episode.
Ellie Mae Clampett.
But I would say it's 'horror'.
And Burgess Meredith was excellent as a milquetoast!!!!!!
@@ChrisP-zj5jq True!
It's a cookbook!
The Howling Man being the devil the whole time is by far my favorite twist
What movie or TV show are you referring to? Is it also a Twilight episode? Thanks for sharing your information!!
@@Yatukih_001it’s an episode of the twilight zone called “the howling man”
@@Yatukih_001 The reveal is done really well also. Check it out.
@@Yatukih_001pretty sure it’s from the sequel series to the twilight zone called the night gallery. A man is invited to take shelter from the rain by an old man with a large mansion. The man hears screaming coming from the basement of the house begging to be let free. Turns out the man screaming in the basement was satan and he tricks the man into setting him free which causes world war 2. The old man reveals that he had made the same mistake as the young man years prior which led to him hunting down satan and locking him away. The cycle repeats itself with a young man locking up satan after some global catastrophe. A young man wonders into the mansion to meet the last guy who has grown old and Satan is set free.
That scene of him walking past the pillars and changing into the devil is such a beautiful piece of cinematography
Honestly, when they were talking about how no human could survive an extended lack of human contact, and along with the scene where he's almost closed into a jail cell before running out so frantically, I thought the TRUE reveal was going to be that the soldiers were part of his delusion too and it'd be revealed he was in solitary confinement.
I'm horrified we still use that practice in prisons, so I would've been excited by an anti-solitary message. Maybe that's too much to ask from a show made in the 60's
Hard to say what my favorite plot twist of all time is. But I can say that the twist in The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street is definitely high on the list and is my personal favorite Twilight Zone episode. More than the twist though was Serling's closing narration. That final line, every time I hear it, I feel a great chill go up my spine and my eyes start to water as he says those words with such disenchantment and sorrow.
"And the pity of it is ... that these things cannot be confined to The Twilight Zone."
that was the first one i watched. we read the script of it during English class.
My daughter watched this episode in school and she was hooked on the show afterwards
OMG i read it in school too
@themoocow7718 Yeah we watched this one in English class ages ago. Loved every second of it
@@kimjames6028 I'm guessing that she was also introduced to The Lottery by Shirley Jackson at around that same time, lol. As much as school was a veritable hell for me, it introduced me to Jackson alongside concepts of horror I was still too young to fully comprehend at the time.
I love how so many twists come from the Twilight Zone and even further back, from the stories in written words they used as inspiration for the episodes.
Mostly from Weird Tales Magazine and Takes From The Crypt. Going back further still the works of Ambrose Bierce. Especially The Damned Thing and The Outlaw.
So many shows and movies still use these core ideas.
It’s scary how some of the episodes “predicts” the future (our present)
Out of all the episodes of the Twilight Zone, this is still my absolute favorite. The simple nature of its twist is played so well because of its dedication to the lonely setting. The scariest part is not just the lack of people, but the evidence that there WERE people there, like the cigar. And it’s not just people, there aren’t any animals, no dogs or birds or anything. To me the most shocking scene is the long drawn out quiet parts like the 360 spin in the phone booth. Modern day they’d probably have a bird or something slam into the glass for a cheap jump-scare. But no, just sheer, dead silence. My favorite version of the episode is the pilot broadcast with the different narrator.
I love that scene, too
It really emphasises the complete isolation and paranoia that there could actually be people there hiding and watching him
“To serve man” is one of the greatest TZ episodes - both a twist and a jump scare!
Yes. And I had read the short story.
I dont remember the jump scare.
Thanks for the recommendation! It was very funny and enjoyable
The third planet from the SUN, we're going to a planet called EARTH.😊
Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, and Alfred Hitckcock Presents are all so insanely important to fiction today. I love the way Black Mirror covered this one.
Night Gallery (also Rod Serling) and One Step Beyond were some good ones too.
"Number 12 Looks Just Like You" and "The Lonely" have to be my favorite episodes for concept and twist. Number 12 is about a society that surgically alters everyone to eliminate disease, mental disorders, and slow aging when they turn 19. They only have a set number of options for how their body looks afterwards. Marilyn, an 18 year old woman, does not want the surgery and no one else understands why. The Lonely is about a convict who is sentenced to 50 years in isolation on an asteroid. The captain of the cargo ship that brings his supplies has been trying to bring him things to occupy his time, and eventually he brings a robot to help with the loneliness. Of course it just so happens to be a born sexy yesterday woman, but I only warn this far because of course The Twilight Zone just does it different. Personally the ending always makes me tear up and no amount of rewatches has stopped that.
I cannot stress enough that these episodes are re-watchable, but if you've never heard of them then you need to see them without spoilers once. Both of them play off a pretty typical Sci-Fi for a post-Twilight Zone world, but once you get half way through there's plenty to keep you hooked to the end.
Number 12 reminds me of a YA series I read as a kid called "The Uglies."
Everyone is born as an Ugly, but when you get old enough (I think it was 16 or something like that?) you get to get your surgeries and implants and become a Pretty. Pretties were physically perfect but utterly uniform.
Then there were the Specials. People who weren't just perfected, but upgraded. Super-strength and reflexes, amazing agility, natural combat instincts.
We follow a girl who goes through all three (she's, of course, the Divergent/Mockingbird/Savior lmfao). It was a really good series though.
I think this also proves that nobody has to die in a horror film for it to be genuinly scary. The episode is still very unsettling even if it had a "good" ending.
I think one of my favorite TZ twists is The Midnight Sun. I love how it deflates the tension for exactly 2 seconds before ratcheting it to the same level 180 in the other direction.
That one did not have that effect on me.
I love cold weather, and hate hot weather.
My favorite in Twilight Zone is "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" It's just so masterfully done, and it was written by a Civil War Veteran (Ambrose Bierce) especially as it was originally a french short film that was bought and re-edited for The Twilight Zone.
the music freaked me out so much as a kid
That was a really sad one….
Oh yeah! I love that one too!
That was actually an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, not The Twilight Zone. It had some great twist-ending episodes too.
@@kristenthomas-mcgill7829 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Occurrence_at_Owl_Creek_Bridge_(film)
I think my favorite Twilight Zone episode is still "The Old Man in the Cave." It doesn't seem to get a lot of love, but it's always stuck with me.
SAME.
I thought about this all the time during covid 😞
One of my favorites as well.
The old man was actually a computer
I normally don’t watch “talking head” UA-cam channels, but I LOVE the OG Twilight Zone and I really liked your presentation. So much, in fact, that I did something I rarely do and subscribed after just one video. I hope you’ve got more of these planned because this was great to watch, and you have an awesome delivery too. You don’t try to be funny or sarcastic, instead staying purely in the realm of objectivity. I really appreciate that for an analysis video. Great job!
Nice, I've already got the next 4 Twilight zone episodes planned out to cover. Recording the next this weekend.
@@PolterGibbstcan’t wait!
i think its common knowledge that "its a cook book" is the best twilight zone twist. Not mine personally but i hear it a lot. My father wrote for the show back then I'm a big ol' fan :D
That's awesome. It's a good one for sure, but my favorite has always been Perchance To Dream from season 1.
But you are right a ton of people do love that episode, can't blame them it's a good one.
What episodes did your dad right? If you don't mind me asking.
@@PolterGibbst”Perchance to Dream” is among the creepiest episodes in the series along with with “The New Exhibit” and “The Hitchhiker.”
"To Serve Man"
The ending to _The Platform_ stuck with me.
There was one oldie that terrified me as a kid. I can’t remember if it was Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits. Where there’s a disfiguring virus in town passed on by touch. Ultimately the people in the town decide that there’s no escaping it so they decide as a group to make contact and finally touch each other (I can’t remember why) knowing their fate. That ending scared the pants off me.
Keep doing this as a series.
That episode sounds intriguing but I can’t find it anywhere
It's an OL called "A Feasibility Study". Aliens transport a whole neighborhood to their planet to see if the people will make suitable slaves. If you touch the aliens, you catch their disease. So, in order to save everyone on earth, the people infect themselves to show the aliens that earth people will not be made slaves.
What episode is that?
@@Invader.Xim. It's an OL episode called "A Feasibility Study".
The Outer Limits, 'A Feasibility Study.' The people were abducted by aliens suffering from this immobilizing disease and wanted humans as slave labor. The people chose to voluntarily infect themselves rather than be enslaved and rendered the alien's study infeasible.
Frailty is my personal favorite horror twist. It’s multiple twists really.
It's so good. I've got a plan to make it a part of this series of videos.
Somebody needs to share it, too good to leave it in the past.
Even before the twists, it such a rock solid premise: what is a kid to do, if his single parent come home one day and suddenly starts talking like they're crazy?
This movie is HIGHLY under rated, and now I need to go watch it, again
Love it
Incredible movie.
I love the twist in Psycho that the mother was dead they did such a great job of making you question who was doing the killing
Burgess Meredith breaking his glasses in 'Time Enough At Last' (s01e08) is the best Twilight Zone twist. It is as elegantly simple as it is emotionally devastating. Of course, unlike this episode, it examines those who would rejoice in being alone.
Some of my favorite Twilight Zone Twists are "5 Characters in Search of an Exit" and "The Hitch Hiker." There are so many good twists and so many good episodes in general of that show.
5 Characters, definitely one of my favorite episodes, with a truly impossible to predict twist.
In my mind, this is where the actor that later was in the Star Trek episode The Doomsday Machine was taken to. William Windom. A cornfield of sorts. 😉
Weren't they actually toys?
Not really known for a twist ending, but the episode where the kid can wish people away to the cornfield has some of the best atmosphere in any Twilight Zone episodes in my opinion. The fear the people around him show being subjected to the whims of a child who can flip on a dime is for me, a top 5 episode out of the entire series.
That one was something else.
That story is super creepy. 😮
The comments of this video are really making me think that I ought to find and watch the original Twilight Zone series, because aside from a few episodes here and there, I've never actually seen it.
You should, it's a excellent series.
It's genius, way ahead of it's time, while simultaneously fitting right into it's time period
You're in for a treat. Start with "The Obsolete Man" and "Time Enough at Last" both episodes with Burgess Meredith.😊
Well worth it.
When these shows came on TV back then, you sat down and watched without hesitation!
Same with Night Gallery.
The Hitch-Hiker episode. By far the most beautiful, elegant and seamless twist, imho. With equally excellent end, "I believe you're going...my way?", and closing narration: "Nan Adams, age twenty-seven. She was driving to California; to Los Angeles. She didn't make it. There was a detour... through the Twilight Zone."
As for films, probably the twist in 3th act of All The Boys Love Mandy Lane. It's not that much of a surprise (which doesn't mean it was predictable, at least to me), but the consistency with the story and the ending part of the movie, perfect fit.
A Stop At Willoughby , is my favorite TZ twist . My all time favorite plot twist was The 6th Sense . I honestly didn't see it coming 🤔 I was in a crowded movie theater and all of us just gasped and went silent . When the lights went up , some people were crying , other's looked baffled , yet we were all mostly silent . Until we hit the parking lot . It was a great shared experience .
I didn't see the twist coming in "The Sixth Sense" either, even though I felt it was very strange that a clinical psychologist had so much free time on weekdays to hang out with one kid -- like he didn't have any other patients...
the mirror moment was so good
- thinking back on it, him talking to the mirror only to later run into a mirror is a interesting development, he hurt HIMSELF the one thing that he felt comfortable with, which goes to his mind messing with him
- seeing it in full, its perfectly shot, audience doesn't realize how close we are to him or the mirror til its too later
a perfect series start episode
A lot of people have already mentioned my top twists in twilight zone and in other shows/movies in general. I’ll add this one to the list. Predestination - apparently not everyone’s cup of tea but I thought Ethan Hawkes performance was great and the story was enthralling. Twist was amazing in my opinion.
Also, I want you to know that you have completely changed my perception of this episode because you noticed that clock detail. I never realized all the events had occurred within one minute. Thanks for giving me a new thing to love about this classic
For what its worth, i dont think it means that. If he broke the clock then any amount if time could have passed since.
It also looks to be repeatedly broken.
This is clearly where Black Mirror got its inspiration from, specifically the episodes White Bear, White Christmas, and Playtest. Really cool video, great work.
The enhanced ending with the movie ticket would have been a real mind-blower. While you were narrating it, I was reacting like"ohh wow!"
Rod Serling should have stood pat on the ending he wanted. But then, going against the producers might not be such a good idea.
I remember one time when I was younger my parents put me on “lockdown” for the summer, I wasn’t allowed to leave my room, have dinner with the family, or read books, watch tv, listen to music or speak to anyone aside from asking to use to bathroom. I can definitely relate to desire to talk to anyone, even bugs, just for the smallest bit of stimulation. It’s not just intense loneliness but a boredom that will you cause you to just create really elaborate scenarios in your mind and there is nothing and no one pull you out of them.
Jesus! I'm sorry as hell that happened to you dude.
Please tell me you're not in contact with them, that's horrible.
Wtf??
What did you do? Kill the neighbor? Sheesh.
@@nerdjournal I had a playboy magazine lol
My favorite twist and episode altogether is “Perchance to dream”. Always freaked me out lol.
LETS GO! That's my favorite one too. I'll be covering pretty soon.
@ Please do! Love the breakdowns!
Primal Fear, Identity, Memento, Scream ('96), The Others, The Game, The Devil's Backbone...
I've had Identity and The Game on my list for a while now. And will get around to them soon.
The Others keeps getting recommended to me but I'm 90% sure I haven't seen it. And 100% that I haven't been able to find it anywhere.
@@PolterGibbst
The Others isn’t streaming anywhere, that I can see, but Amazon and Apple have it for Rent or Buy.
OH man, The Others! I bring that movie up alot and no one ever knows it. It sticks with me.
Rod Serling and the guy that writes most of the Black Mirror episodes... I have SO much respect for those two. How the hell does one continuously come up with all these interesting and relatively brief self contained stories and subjects with twists and everything again and again and again?
So glad you included Triangle in your examples. That's the most unique and underrated horror plot.
Incredible movie
"Stopover in Quiet Town" has always been my favorite. Awesome twist.
dude, the midnight sun stuck with me for years, for me it was THE plot twist!
Best twist forsure the fact that u think it's a good ending for a second since she wakes up and it was all a dream to then find out she's in the same horrific situation only its the inverse.
The Bella Thorne movie? What twist was there ?
@@toptiertech7291 the twilight zone episode
@@toptiertech7291 twilight zone has an episode titled the same
Yes, I love this one!
Tbh, i think "To Serve Man" is the best twist and is super underrated
It definitely seems to be a fan favorite here in the comments. Which is awesome, it's such a fun twist. I'll cover it soon I'm sure.
@@PolterGibbst I had already read the story before seeing the episode, and it was still freaky.
"Time enough at last." until his glasses fall of a break and he's on the steps of a library wher he could read to his hearts content, and he's the human on earth.
Oldboy's ending was such an insane twist, like there's some hints, but I just didn't expect it, I was too focused on Dae Su's revenge that it caught me so off guard that it's one of my favorite movies.
25:38
"There's time enough at last"
Saw that one as a kid, and as an avid reader, it's my idea of Purgatory!
Please make this a series; i absolutely adore it when people look thru older media for gems!
Same here!
Shutter Island strangely enough had that ambious Rod's Twilight Zone vibe. The intrigue , the layers o questions of reality and our perceptikns and notions of it. The sense of redignstion that follows the only piece of certainty and self-agency he has. Even then there's still potiental for more questiions.
My biggest video is on Shutter Island explaining it from the point that he really is Deputy Marshall Teddy Daniels.
@@PolterGibbst yeah watched that one too brother very impressive analysis and take . One of my recent favourites. Tell me do you write fiction yourself ? If not you should really give it a go. I'm in the very early stages of a treatment for my own anthology of Morality Horror
Called - Tales of Rot and Ruin. Where the host narrator - The ghoulish Mr. Marley ( yes Jacob - Dickens ) bound and chained now to chair and desk with an inkpot, a quill and log book for company he serves his sentence of penitence as The Ledger of The Limbo Landfill where all Rotten Souls go to Errode in Eternal Entropy.
@@PolterGibbst I'm gonna go watch that, because I'm intrigued, but...
Well, I'm just gonna state outright beforehand that I feel like that's not going to work and kinda ruins the point of the movie. What motivation would they have to even do that?
But, I'll watch with an open mind. I'm always interested in new takes, and this video was great. lol
@@bronsoncarder2491 luckily all of it is laid out in the movie itself. There is just a lot of weird stuff going on constantly throughout the film that will make you have to give it another watch with a new perspective.
Another great analysis Polter!
To answer your question on twists, I think the twist that messed me up a little bit when i first seen it when i was younger was Sleepaway Camp. If you know you know, but if you havent seen it, you should!
God bless brother!
😂 I almost put a clip in when talking about memorable twist. Definitely not one you forget.
The Shutter Island twists messed me up the most. Especially the one right at the end.
Sleep away camp is messed up and just creepy
But Shutter Island didn't HAVE a twist! I had that solved in the first 5 minutes. There was no other possible explanation surely??
@@davidgoodliff4486 Even if you figured out the first twist, there was also a twist at the end. After reconciling what he had done, he immediately forgets and goes back into playing detective. Then we learn that he has gone through this acceptance thing multiple times just to revert back.
I never told you this was Heaven, Mr. Valentine.
Yea, now the "You didn't qualify for the other place." line makes a lot more sense,
This is my absolute favourite episode of the Twilight Zone 😊
I love the atmosphere and idea of suddenly finding yourself in a deserted town but you can't shake the feeling that someone is watching you and moving things around when you aren't looking
It creates such an uneasy sense of the uncanny and paranoia
The After Hours is another favourite and one which I genuinely believe would work as its own self-contained TV show
It's an absolutely incredible episode.
I remember recommending the episode without any spoilers to someone, and they refused to take my horror recommendations seriously afterwards. The only reason they really gave was that it was too old.
That's the reason I've been worried about doing this series since a lot of people have never given it a try. But I figured with the premise of the video it would get new people to consider the series.
Plus I've wanted to cover the Twilight Zone for years. And what's the point of making videos if I don't make the ones I want to.
We did get a version of the happy place. Solent Green and Logan's Run, both were culling old people.
1. Pandorum
2. High Tension
3. Secret Window
4. Shutter Island
Best twists I've seen
Never even heard of Pandorum, so I will add it to my watchlist right now.
The others are great, especially Shutter Island. Crazy they were trying to make him believe he was crazy all along, and that it almost worked... (This is a reference to my Shutter Island video)
@PolterGibbst I caught that one, was probably the first video I saw by you. I hope you enjoy Pandorum!(I'm sure I'll find out at some point) definitely go in blind!
Dark City
Shutter Island was terrifying.
@@SamuelBlack84 Now there's an underrated sci-fi film, really well done but I would suggest skipping the first few minutes.
After major cancer surgery i had dreams that were so extended that i knew i was there and could interact with the people within it, it was so real that when i woke from it i didn't know which place was reality, my partner being there with me at times said that i was speaking to nobody who was there, so she would shuffle herchair to the direction i was speaking so that other patients and there visitors thought we were talking to each other, i sometimes wonder if i died and am now living in a different reality because many things had changed after my experience. Maybe i am now in the twighlight zone!!!
I remember watching this episode with my grandmother back when I was around 10. The way the tension built with every scene and how the actor managed to convey his increasing paranoia and insanity really got to me, it’s always stuck with me and I’m glad to see I’m not alone.
I think my favorite twist in the Twilight Zone was in The Midnight Sun. It was executed beautifully.
That's a great episode, but the twist was actually unnecessary. The story was good enough without it.
I've always found the music in that episode to be absolutely haunting. It makes the mood so eerie.
This is, for me, a good episode. It doesn't make my top 10 in general, and doesn't make my top 10 for the twists, but it's well worth watching.
If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend Inside Number 9, a British dark comedy anthology show that features some of the best twist endings in TV history. It's 9 seasons, but there are only 48 episodes across those seasons, so it can be binged in a week. However, not all of the episodes are horror or horror adjacent; some are straight up comedy, others drama or mystery, one is a sports story, another centered on a panel voting on acting awards.
If you want the best horror or horror adjacent episodes with top notch twists, I highly recommend these:
12 Days of Christine
Tom and Gerri
Sardines
Cold Comfort
Once Removed
The Last Weekend
The Devil of Christmas
Mr. King
Wise Owl
It's really not even a twist; a twist implies that the audience wasn't expecting some grand reveal at the end-- during this entire episode the audience is automatically expecting a grand reveal.
Yessss! Also Riddle of the Sphinx, Once Removed, Private View and Tempting Fate!!
Hey brother,
This was my first time viewing one of your videos and i want to say i really appreciate your presentation of the content.
You stay to the point, make interesting interjections, and have clever asides with facts about the episode (the rod serling in the phone booth story, for example)
Looking forward to more great content.
Same, really enjoyable stuff.
My favorite twist of all time is a movie called "No Way Out"(1987). Second is a movie called "Shattered"(1991). My 2 favorite Richard Matteson stories are "The Night Stalker"(1972) & "Somewhere in Time"(1980).
I love the timing of this video. Twilight zone came on one of the streaming services and I watched the very first episode just last week so this is a great breakdown. Have a great episode. Good job.
The acting felt very Bruce Campbell which I liked. He’d be great in a remake.
I actually really love these 20-40 min videos more. Long enough, but not so long I gotta break it into a couple weeks. Not saying I don't like your more long form stuff, but its nice seeing you tackle smaller slices of tv shows.
Good to hear. I wanted to do some shorter videos before I put myself in a corner of everyone only expecting long breakdowns.
Plus these allow me to get more videos out while I work on the big projects.
The Hitchhiker one stuck with me and Eye of the beholder has the most simple but beautiful message of any story in time
I think that’s the one I was talking about. The beautiful human being who’s being judged as ugly and in need of restorative facial surgery, but the doctors and nurses are all aliens or monsters.
@@LeahIsHereNow it was a society of primate-looking humans i believe
The Twilight Zone is amazing, you should do more of these.
“Will the Real Martian Stand Up?” and “To Serve Man” among my favorites Twilight Zone episodes.
“The Sixth Sense” is my pick for greatest twist in any medium.
"The Sixth Sense" borrowed its twist ending from Philip K. Dick's novel "Ubik." 🫨
I finally (for myself) figured out the twist on the twist in Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up. There are clues throughout the episode (beginning in the first seconds) but you can take the episode title by itself. Lies were told all throughout it but who was standing at the counter and who was sitting, at the end, hmm. Besides, Martians are usually depicted in other books as having three eyes or in the 1953 War of the Worlds with a three section eye. A long running series that I believe Rod used was To Tell the Truth. Lies were the basis of it. Oh, it’s a loved episode except for the ending of all the deaths. What if they didn’t die? Another lie from… the Venusian. The bus was Cayuga Bus Lines. Cayuga was Serling’s production company for TTZ. He named it after a lake in upper NY where he had a waterfront house. Besides the lake being named for an Indian tribe, a rare breed of duck was also there named Cayuga. In WW2, Rod was in the Pacific theater and would have known about an amphibious truck troop transport called a DUKW, called a duck (!). So, I believe that the bus floated and the people lived. Bad ending turned good. Another clue was in the beginning where the cops look at the distant bus and joke that it could float. Clues on the cafe signs (Buffalo), prices, etc. When is someone charged 14 times for a refill? The not-a-Martian being a Magician (lies, misdirection, sleight of hand are part of the rules). But again, it was the cook who was standing at the end. 🤣 Written of course by Rod Serling.
@@AriesMoneychanger More likely that "he/she was dead all the time" trope is borrowed from The Hitch-Hiker episode of the Twilight Zone.
The sixth sense twist will always have a special place in my heart, it may not be the best but it’s definitely iconic
Good review mate! I'd love to see a whole series on these episodes. Everyone does the "classics" the top 10's, but knowing the details like the phone booth thing and where that came from.... I would enjoy that mightily, my brother.
I plan on doing many more of these. I'll hit the highest rated episodes, all of my favorites, and all of the forgotten episodes no one talks about.
"To Serve Man" - our first encounter with supposedly friendly aliens - definitely has a chilling twist.
One of my favorite twists - A nice place to visit. - " This IS the OTHER PLACE.."
I don't know if you'd call it a twist as opposed to just an unsettling ending, but the ending of Screamers when the reflection of the teddy bear sits up and stares at you through the the cockpit window has never left me even 25 years after seeing it
Yeah it's not a twist at all, it's just an explanation.
@@oxymoron02what? 😂😂 do you know what a twist is? A twist is an explanation that you didn’t see coming. There’s no way you were watching this for the first time in the 60s and thinking “oh yeah he’s just a dude in an isolation container”. That’s like saying the sixth sense wasn’t a twist. Just explanation
Yeah, that was good. Personally, my 2 favorite twists outside the twilight zone are the book "I am legend" and "Bridge to Terebithia"
Richard Matheson wrote I Am Legend on which The Last Man on Earth was based. He actually did write the screenplay for TLMoE, but was so bothered by the entire experience in dealing with that movie that he had his name taken off the credits.
In any event, this episode aired in 1959, 5 years before TLMoE came out.
So, no, The Last Man On Earth books in the episode had nothing to do with Richard Matheson or the TLMoE movie.
I was looking for this comment. glad it's here.
“Spur of the Moment “ has one of the best TZ twists. But the overall best episode is “Nick of Time” if you ask me.
nobody EVER says Nick of Time, that's my favorite too!!
I love how well these older shows got restored, they look wonderful.
Favorite twist would be in ""Beyond the Aquila rift" episode of Love, Death, And robots.
The craziest twist in all of Twilight Zone, at least to me, is "Five Characters in Search of an Exit".
I yelled "HOLY SHIT" at a show/movie and my parents got mad at me.
When I first saw this episode I thought he found his way into a nuke testing town
Im very excited about this idea of comparing twist endings
13:45 that shot of him running into the mirror is awesome.
Great summary. You should do more videos about twilight zone episodes. It's a fantastic show that so many other shows have copied over the years.
"To Serve Man"
"Time Enough at Last"
"Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?"
Rod Serling is legend.
Got all of these on my list, and I just covered "Time Enough At Last" in the last episode of this series.
the greatest twist in all of horror was when Reiner and Bertholdt revealed to Eren Jaeger in the year 850 that they were in fact the Armored and Colossal titans, respectively.
I just saw this on my feed, and thought ok, I'll try it. I already know I'm going to love this channel 🙂
I just wished I started covering the Twilight Zone years ago. 😂