The original “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” comes with an impressive pedigree. Genre legend Richard Matheson, who also wrote the original sci-fi classics “The Incredible Shrinking Man” and “I Am Legend,” adapted his own short story for television and future “Superman” and “The Goonies” director Richard Donner was behind the camera. The episode starred William Shatner, three years before the debut of “Star Trek,” which would make him a household name.
Shatner plays Robert Wilson, who is flying home with his wife after being institutionalized following a nervous breakdown. He’s not specifically afraid of flying, just anxious in general. As soon as he sees the man on the wing of the plane and sees how people respond to his admittedly-strange proclamation, he becomes self-conscious and paranoid that people aren’t taking him seriously, or just humoring him.
The genius of the story is two-fold. On one hand, the constant frustration Wilson feels when nobody can see what he sees is borderline comical. The “Looney Tunes” short “One Froggy Evening” (1955) has a similar premise, where a man acquires a frog that sings showtunes but whenever he shows anyone else, the frog refuses to perform. This gradually drives him mad and ruins his life. The audience knows he’s not insane, but nobody else does, and it’s painful to watch.
But unlike Michigan J. Frog, the man Wilson sees on the wing of the plan isn’t benign. This entity is going to crash the airplane, so instead of being funny it’s maddening to Wilson and the audience as well. We know he is telling the truth, and we can sympathize with the passengers and flight crew for not believing him, but their “rationality” is going to get them all killed. It’s a perfect panic attack of a premise; simultaneously logical and illogical, sane and insane.
