If you have an affinity for anthology television, grew up watching the Syfy channel, or if you
like memes, chances are you’ve heard of The Twilight Zone.
It’s one of my personal favorite shows for many reasons.
The biggest of them being the sense of curiosity each episode left you with.
Rod Serling and his team of writers brought the human experience and examined it through
a filter where the strange and unusual can happen- and each thought-provoking piece was
neatly wrapped in a quality-produced half-hour short film.
As a kid, these forays into the unknown realm known simply as The Twilight Zone, would often
leave me awake in bed.
If not for the moral-examining concepts introduced in some episodes, for the sheer haunting notions
left in the wake of others.
Case and point, Nightmare At 20,000 Feet.
It’s a story of a man who grapples between his own waning sanity and an insidious threat
to both himself, and to those around him.
So in today’s episode of Darkology, I’d like to revisit this story and explore what
it is about Nightmare At 20,000 Feet that is so haunting.
Nightmare At 20,000 Feet is based on a story of the same name, written by Richard Matheson,
who also wrote 15 other scripts for The Twilight Zone and is perhaps best known for I Am Legend.
In Nightmare, we meet Bob Wilson, the protagonist of our story.
Right off the bat he appears stressed as he and his wife, Julia, are boarding a plane
homebound.
Noticing his seat is positioned next to the emergency escape latch, Julia wonders if it’s
a good idea to sit there.
Bob brushes it off casually.
His “what's the difference where I sit” attitude shows a pessimistic exterior.
So what are we able to gather from this interaction alone?
Well, we know that Bob is for one reason or another, afraid.
We can infer that he’s coming home from some sort of mental rehabilitation somewhere
out-of-state.
And we know that he’s anxious about being on the plane.
But why would Bob be afraid of an airplane?
A fear of flying or aviophobia can be an indirect combination of various other disorders.
These include claustrophobia: a fear of being restricted, confined or unable to escape,
as well as acrophobia: the anxiety or dread of being at a great height.
Add to this, the anxiety and fear that characterizes agoraphobia: the idea that if one were to
have a panic attack 20,000 feet in the air- there would be nowhere to escape to in the
small confines of the plane.
Nowhere to run from this perceived ‘unsafe’ environment.
And a scene caused by this would no doubt be embarrassing.
Where is the safe bubble one could go to hide their shame in private?
And then of course, there’s always the threat of the plane crashing, motion sickness, as
well as hijacking.
Statistics tell us that riding in a car is far more life-risking than riding in a plane-
but it’s hard to deny the paralyzing idea of not-being-in-control while trapped in a
tube full of strangers.
As they prepare to take off, there are allusions to what Bob calls his “teensy weensy breakdown”-
but what exactly is a nervous or mental breakdown?
A pseudo-medical term, it’s not something you’d commonly see a definition for in modern
scientific literature or the DSM-5.
That said, ask any average person and they’ll tell you it’s when a person stops functioning
on a day-to-day basis due to an overwhelming wave of stress.
It can manifest as depression, anxiety, or dissociation in someone who beforehand might’ve
been able to live typically.
Wikipedia lists it as temporary and closely tied to psychological burnout, severe overwork,
sleep deprivation, and similar stressful situations that can overwhelm an otherwise mentally sound
individual.
With all that considered, is there really such thing as “a teensy weensy mental breakdown”?
Is this just Bob’s attempt at comforting his wife?
Or is he trying to throw attention off of himself- lighten the severity in an effort
to protect his ego?
Serling’s opening monologue reveals that Bob’s mental breakdown 6 months ago took
place in the exact same environment- a plane, which resulted in the cancellation of that
flight.
He's literally just left the sanitarium.
It does beg the question: why would Bob opt to take a plane back home now- in a thunderstorm
no less?
If Bob is a recovering patient, who just had a breakdown because of flying- why didn’t
they drive?
His behavior thus far does tell us that he wants to show people his “can-do” attitude.
Perhaps it was his idea to take a plane home to prove to his wife that he's better.
Is this his way of trying to conquer his fear?
Did he perhaps purposely choose a stormy night to prove his own sanity?
Bob refers to himself as a coward.
Perhaps he feels a sense of guilt for not being available as a father, a husband, and
an employee- all to do with what he’s likely perceived as an insignificant, stupid, and
embarrassing reason.
(He mentions his “over-tension and over-anxiety due to under-confidence.”
What is Bob trying to do by telling himself this?
Is he trying to psyche himself out with affirmations of his own self-awareness- his potential revelations
from therapy?)
As the ego has to do with the self- a fragile ego might be connected to damages in an individual’s
self-esteem, self-importance, self-worth, self-respect, and self-confidence.
It’s possible that Bob’s sense of his own personal identity in relation to others
has been tainted with the stigma of his condition.
But I’d argue that Bob isn’t kicking himself by admitting he has a problem- he’s simply
accepting an objective fact, which is that he experiences anxiety while being on a plane.
One of the ways to overcome an anxiety is to know what it is.
By identifying it, one can then begin to understand it and make strides towards overcoming it.
Though when it comes to agoraphobia- an anxiety disorder that can encompass a wide variety
of situations particularly in public- an uncontrolled environment, things can get a bit more abstract.
To better understand how this all works- we need to look at the parts of the brain at
play when a threat is detected.
The amygdala activates an instinctive bodily response to danger- also known as the fight
or flight response, instinctive meaning we don’t necessarily have conscious control
for when it reacts.
This is what is thought to activate the increased heart-rate, sweating, and alertness while
we’re scared.
Furthermore- it’s thought to work in tandem with the hippocampus, where we store our memories-
so that we can make an association to how we felt the first time, if we ever encounter
the threat again.
(As a side note: this isn’t to suggest that the amygdala and hippocampus are the only
parts at play with fear, nor are they the brain’s proposed fear center; they have
other functions associated with them as well.
Rather, this is to suggest that they are merely parts of one aspect of the sensation we’ve
collectively come to know as fear- perhaps the unconscious bit.
The reality is, there’s still much to be learned about how fear works and for now,
we can only objectively say that these parts of the brain have been observed to be highly
active when a subject is exposed to potential threats.
I could go on about this, but I think that’s for another video.)
Going back to the point- It’s theorized that this fight-or-flight reaction works in
tandem with a part of the brain responsible for what might be the conscious aspect of
fear.
But again- why doesn’t Bob just drive home if he’s afraid of flying?
The desire to become a stronger, more mentally-sound person is primarily what I believe drives
Bob to change.
And I think this has much to do with how getting better would ultimately allow him to be a
better husband and father.
Ultimately, keeping up a confident facade isn’t so much about his own sense of pride,
as it is protecting his family.
The difficulty with cognitive therapy here is that it isn’t always easy to consciously
override our physiological reactions.
In Bob’s case- his mental breakdown was presumably the result of the exact situation
he is putting himself in now- the various anxieties associated with air travel.
Was 6 months enough time to prepare him for this situation?
Andy Field a professor of quantitative methods at Sussex University who researches the development
of fear and anxiety, stresses the importance of gradually facing fears.
Too much exposure might result in the opposite-desired result- making them worse.
And considering Bob’s case, the events that unfold on this particular night don’t pose
well for a recovering mental patient.
Have you ever thought you saw something too strange to be real?
Not long after they’ve taken off, Bob sees something peculiar from his window seat.
A mysterious figure on the wing of the plane is walking towards him from the stormy distance.
It’s one of those moments many of us have had, where we glimpse something too odd to
be real that we need to take another look to be sure.
When we casually see something in the far distance that doesn’t really make sense,
only to do a double-take and see that it's vanished.
Pareidolia is a psychological phenomenon where the mind perceives familiar patterns where
there are none.
This is often the case in environments with heavy and multiple patterns in light and shadow.
Or in the case of Bob Wilson, a thunderstorm.
After he causes a mini-scene, he starts to look concerned and confused- panicked.
Am I losing my mind?
Let’s take a moment to explore the concept of a person deemed as “crazy” by society
actually seeing something abnormal.
It must be a horrible feeling to feel misunderstood in moments like these.
This is the modern literary conflict known as man vs. society, where our protagonist
feels that nobody understands what they are going through.
This is what can be seen externally.
If by association to this, we look internally, we have two more types of conflict.
The first is man vs. self.
Bob Wilson is put in a position where he must overcome his own nature or make a choice between
logic, and emotion.
Furthermore, in the context of our story, what does this moral dilemma do for one’s
own waning sanity?
Many of the characters in Lovecraftian lore, one of Serling’s influences for example,
go through this type of conflict, one which blurs the lines between sanity and insanity:
the proposed man vs. reality.
Bob takes sleeping pills in an effort to peacefully move past this ordeal.
But do drugs really alleviate an anxious person’s worries?
Or do they complicate them- making it harder to think?
After Julia goes back to sleep, Bob for a moment, tries to sleep as well- but it's clear
the spectacle has not left his mind and won’t let him.
(How many times have we had this happen to us?
Why does this happen to us?)
He's clearly on the fence about pulling back the curtain, because on some level, he knows
what will happen if he speaks out again, but at the same time he can't help himself.
Curiosity gets the best of him.
In doing so, is he trying to serve his ego and prove that there’s nothing out there?
Or is he just trying to survive because they might be in danger?
See, on one level, you have this mental battle with his rehabilitation and proving that he's
not a mental case.
But on another front, you have this threat to everyone on the plane and an obligation
as a bystander to take action.
Bob’s predicament is choosing which is more important to him.
Bob immediately looks away and desperately tells himself it isn't there.
He doesn't want to deal with the hard decision- the classic “is this really happening or
am I just mad?”
In this case, it’s difficult to decide which is more terrifying.
The thought that you’re going mad and this horrific sight can’t be seen by anyone else
because it’s something your mind is showing you exclusively.
Or the thought that what you’re seeing is actually happening.
Has my mind betrayed me- or is there really a monster outside my window?
In this moment, Bob might be experiencing cognitive dissonance: the mental discomfort
one experiences when made to decide between conflicting ideas, beliefs, or values.
Bob tries to wake up Julia and the gremlin stays and stares at him as his wife continues
to sleep- almost as if to troll him.
It also makes you wonder, is this something he saw on his breakdown 6 months ago?
This is a bit of a nutso theory but this is The Twilight Zone we’re talking about: what
if Bob’s fear is so great, that it manifests itself into reality- and in a way, the gremlin
represents that fear.
In this situation, both him being insane and the gremlin being real could both be true.
It’s a bit off-base, but I just thought it would be worthy to at least entertain the
idea.
At this point, a flight attendant checks in on him and though visibly bothered, his response
is to casually ask: “Are we going into a storm?”
We know he's not stupid.
He knows the answer to that.
But here, we see another attempt to cover his ass again because he's starting to bring
unwanted attention to himself and his ego.
Shortly thereafter in an almost disconnected voice he turns to Julia, “Would you please
wake up honey.”
It is a bit bizarre that his wife won't wake up.
She took a sleeping pill but they aren’t horse tranquilizers.
It’s almost as if she’s pretending that she doesn’t hear him.
And it's right around this point, that the gremlin reappears.
This scene puts a surreal, dream-like, nightmarish tone on the whole thing- a fittingly titled
episode.
It’s as if the monster outside can read your mind, and sense your anxiety.
It would've been much easier to cope if even one other person could attest.
Bob’s all alone in this terrifying spectacle- man vs. society, self, and reality.
Does he believe that if he tells everyone about what he thinks he sees, people will
see it too and believe him?
In this case, does it matter?
What would you do if you saw a creature meddling with the wing and no one else could?
Could you just standby and watch?
“Julia, there's a man out there”
The scene is so painful to watch because we've seen what Bob has seen and know too that out
of context, like in the perspective of his wife and everyone on the plane, he does sound
crazy.
Bob starts to feel patronized from Julia’s facial expression.
Despite her never saying it, he can see it in her eyes- she doesn’t believe him.
He denies insanity.
Who wouldn't?
This is what is so haunting about Nightmare At 20,000 Feet.
It's the notion that you might experience something horrific and otherworldly, and feel
trapped both physically and mentally, grappling with your own sanity, attempting to appeal
to others to stay grounded in reality, only for them to misunderstand you.
A perpetual state of terror and confusion.
This dissonance all boils down to a decision in an intense climax of fight or flight.
But before I say too much, I’ll leave the rest of the episode and its contents to your
own viewing.
(I could go on and summarize the rest of the story here, but there’s nothing quite like
watching the real thing)
Nightmare At 20,000 feet is largely regarded as one of the best episodes of The Twilight
Zone- and for good reason.
This episode features aspects of sanity, fear, paranoia, perceived schizophrenia, denial,
and the ego.
Outside of psychology and into actual superstition, it features the appearance of a gremlin- creatures
fabled to be the explanation behind why objects will go missing and turn up in random places.
It also features a then-young William Shatner in a solid performance displaying the character
of Bob Wilson.
It is an episode that I highly recommend watching for both new and old fans of the anthology.
So, I'm curious- what would you have done if you were in Bob’s shoes?
Let me know in the comments below.
That just about wraps it up for this video.
So until next time, thanks for watching.