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Helen Conroy Laura Hirsch Biography & Facts

Twilight Zone: The Movie is a 1983 American science fiction anthology film produced by Steven Spielberg and John Landis. Based on Rod Serling's 1959–1964 television series of the same name, the film features four stories directed by Landis, Spielberg, Joe Dante, and George Miller. Landis' segment is an original story created for the film, while the segments by Spielberg, Dante, and Miller are remakes of episodes from the original series. The film's cast includes Dan Aykroyd, Albert Brooks, Scatman Crothers, John Lithgow, Vic Morrow, and Kathleen Quinlan. Original series cast members Burgess Meredith, Patricia Barry, Peter Brocco, Murray Matheson, Kevin McCarthy, Bill Mumy, and William Schallert also appear in the film, with Meredith assuming Serling's role as narrator. The film's production achieved notoriety when Morrow and two illegally hired child actors were killed in a helicopter crash during the filming of Landis's segment. The deaths led to several years of legal action; although no individuals were found to be criminally liable, new procedures and safety standards were imposed in the filmmaking industry. Upon release, the film received mixed reviews, with praise directed at Dante and Miller's segments, but criticism towards the segments by Landis and Spielberg. Despite the controversy and mixed reception, it was a commercial success, grossing $42 million on a $10 million budget. Plot Prologue This segment was written and directed by John Landis. Two men are in a car driving along a country road late at night. The conversation turns to what episodes of The Twilight Zone they found most scary. The passenger then asks, "Do you want to see something really scary?" and says to pull over. He transforms into a monster and devours the driver as the opening sequence begins. Cast Albert Brooks as the Driver Dan Aykroyd as the Passenger Segment one The first segment, "Time Out", is a partial reworking, but not a full remake, of the episode "Back There", involving a man who exits a club after a conversation about the feasibility of time travel to change the past, only to find that he has been transported to the past. The premise of that story from there, however, is mashed up with the morality tale of another classic episode "A Quality of Mercy", in which an overly impetuous lieutenant finds himself suddenly having swapped places with the enemy for a lesson on empathy. This segment was also written and directed by John Landis. Bill Connor is an outspoken bigot who is bitter after being passed over for a promotion at work in favor of his Jewish co-worker Goldman. Drinking in a bar after work with his friends Larry and Ray, Bill utters prejudiced remarks and slurs towards Jews, blacks, and East Asians, blaming them for America's problems. A black man sitting nearby asks him to stop. After ranting some more and declaring himself better than the minorities, Bill angrily storms out of the bar and finds himself in Nazi-occupied France during World War II. A pair of S.S. officers patrolling the streets spot and interrogate him, believing him to be a Jewish man. Bill cannot answer satisfactorily since he does not speak German. A chase around the city ensues, in which Bill is shot in his left arm by one of the German officers. Bill attempts to hide in an apartment, but the French woman quickly betrays him by shouting a warning to the German soldiers. Bill climbs out on a ledge of the building, where he finds himself trapped while the two German officers take pot shots at him standing along the narrow ledge. He falls from the ledge and lands on soft earth ground, now in rural Alabama during the 1950s, where a group of Ku Klux Klan members see him as a black man whom they are about to lynch. Bill, scared and confused, vehemently tries to tell them that he is white, but to no avail. After kicking one KKK member against the burning cross and setting him on fire, Bill breaks free and tries to escape (while still hampered by his bullet wound). He dives into a nearby pond and resurfaces in a jungle of Vietnam during the Vietnam War, being fired at by American soldiers who see him as a member of the Viet Cong. One of the soldiers throws a grenade at Bill. Instead of killing him, the grenade launches him into occupied France again. There he is captured by the S.S. officers and put into an enclosed railroad freight car, along with Jewish prisoners bound for a concentration camp. Bill sees the bar with his friends standing outside, looking for him. He screams for help, but they cannot see or hear him or the train as it pulls away. Cast Segment two The second segment is a remake of the episode "Kick the Can". This segment was directed by Steven Spielberg, from a screenplay by George Clayton Johnson, Richard Matheson, and Melissa Mathison (credited as Josh Rogan), and a story by Johnson. An old man named Mr. Bloom has just moved into Sunnyvale Retirement Home. He listens to the other elders reminisce about the joys they experienced in their youth. Bloom insists that being elderly should not, and need not, prevent them from enjoying life. He invites them to join him, later that night, for a game of kick the can. All agree; however, a grumpy man named Leo Conroy who is fairly skeptical in his outlook on life objects to this, saying that they cannot engage in physical activity because they are all elderly and not children anymore. While Mr. Conroy sleeps, Mr. Bloom gathers the rest of the residents outside and plays the game, during which they are transformed into childhood versions of themselves. They are ecstatic to be young again, engaging in activities they enjoyed long ago, but their thoughts soon turn to practical matters such as where they will spend the night, since they will no longer be welcomed in the retirement home, and their families will not recognize them. They ask to be their true age again, and Mr. Bloom grants their wish, satisfied that, as with himself, their minds will remain young. Leo Conroy wakes up and notices that one resident, Mr. Agee, has opted to remain young. Conroy asks for Agee to take him along, but Agee tells him that such is impossible. Conroy finally realizes that he does not have to stop enjoying life because of his old age. The next morning, Mr. Bloom finds Conroy happily kicking a can around the yard; Bloom breaks the fourth wall to assure the audience that "He'll get it." Bloom then departs from Sunnyvale for another retirement home, in order to spread his good-natured magic among other senior citizens. Cast Segment three The third segment is a remake of the episode "It's a Good Life". This segment was directed by Joe Dante, from a screenplay by Richard Matheson, based on the short story by Jerome Bixby. Mild-mannered school teacher Helen Foley, traveling to a new job, visits a rural bar for directions. While talking to the owner, she witnesses a young boy, Anthony, being harassed by a local trying to watch a boxing match. Helen comes to the boy.... Discover the Helen Conroy Laura Hirsch popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Helen Conroy Laura Hirsch books.