The Dead Zone

The Dead Zone (1983)

Timing: 1:43 (103 min)

7/10
1571

7.154/10
19164

7.2/10
84000

All about film

Video 4

Photo 53

Actors and characters

Release date

1983-10-21

Country

Canada, United States

Production

Dino De Laurentiis Company, Lorimar Film Entertainment

Genre

Thriller, Horror, Science Fiction

Budget

$10 000 000

Revenue

$20 766 616

Website

Director

David Cronenberg

Actors

Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Tom Skerritt, Herbert Lom, Anthony Zerbe, Colleen Dewhurst, Martin Sheen, Nicholas Campbell, Sean Sullivan, Jackie Burroughs
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Debra Hill, Dino De Laurentiis

Operator

Mark Irwin

Composer

Michael Kamen

Artist

Dan Davis

Audition

Janet Hirshenson, Jane Jenkins, Deirdre Bowen

Editing

Ronald Sanders
All team (126)

• David Cronenberg initially chose Hal Holbrook for the role of Sheriff George Bannerman. However, producer Dino De Laurentiis rejected his candidacy because he had never heard of the actor.
• In an episode of Johnny Smith's first vision among the toys standing on a shelf in the girl's room, a doll depicting the famous little Alien from Steven Spielberg's iconic film *E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial* (1982) happened to appear completely by chance. The filmmakers did not have the rights to use the Alien's image, and Universal Pictures threatened them with a lawsuit. As a result, the episode had to be reshot entirely.
• The shot in which Johnny Smith sees himself lying in a burning bedroom was filmed without the use of composite shots: actor Christopher Walken was actually in the middle of a real fire.
• The "sweat" on Johnny Smith's face in the burning bedroom episode was actually a special fire-retardant chemical that pyrotechnicians sprayed on actor Christopher Walken to protect him during filming. No one expected the chemical to create such an excellent sweat effect, which significantly enhanced the drama of the episode.
• To make Johnny Smith's shudders during the visions look natural, that is, sudden, director David Cronenberg, standing next to the camera, fired a "Magnum-357" at the appropriate moments, loaded, of course, with blanks. This was an original idea from actor Christopher Walken.
• A stuntman was seriously injured during the filming of the flashback episode of World War II when a firecracker exploded at his feet.
• The poem that Johnny Smith recites at the very beginning of the film is the finale of Edgar Allan Poe's legendary poem "The Raven".
• Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken) assigns his students to read Washington Irving's novel "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Much later, Christopher Walken played the Hessian Horseman in Tim Burton's film "Sleepy Hollow" (1999) – a loose film adaptation of Washington Irving's novel.
• Sheriff George Bannerman (Tom Skerritt) is also a character in Stephen King's novel "Cujo," a film adaptation of which was released in 1983.
• In the episode depicting a vision of the beginning of a nuclear war, President Greg Stillson, in his country residence at Camp David, threatens his military advisor that if he does not place his hand on the launch control screen, Stillson will cut it off and place it there himself. An earlier version of the script featured a more violent episode: Stillson shot the advisor and placed his dead hand on the screen.
• In the final episode, when Sarah is crying while embracing the dying Johnny, we hear her stop crying for a few seconds to say to Johnny, "I love you." However, we do not see her mouth as she says these words – this is because, in the original script, these words of Sarah’s were not included, and her voice was dubbed in only during sound editing. This was done to make the film's finale more impactful.
• In the episode of Johnny Smith's first vision, among the toys on the shelf in the girl's room, a doll depicting the famous little Alien from Steven Spielberg's iconic film 'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial' (1982) accidentally appeared. The filmmakers did not have the rights to use the image of the Alien, and Universal Pictures threatened them with a lawsuit. As a result, the episode had to be completely reshot.
• The "sweat" on Johnny Smith's face in the flaming bedroom episode was actually a special fire-retardant chemical that pyrotechnicians sprayed on actor Christopher Walken to protect him during filming. No one expected the chemical to create such an excellent sweat effect, which significantly enhanced the drama of the episode.
• To make Johnny Smith's shudders during the visions appear natural, that is, sudden, director David Cronenberg, standing next to the camera, fired a "Magnum-357" loaded with blanks at the appropriate moments. This was an original idea by actor Christopher Walken.
• The poem that Johnny Smith reads at the very beginning of the film is the finale of Edgar Allan Poe's legendary poem "The Raven".
• Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken) assigns his students to read Washington Irving's novel "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Much later, Christopher Walken played the Hessian Horseman in Tim Burton's "Sleepy Hollow" (1999) – a loose film adaptation of Washington Irving's novel.
• Sheriff George Bannerman (Tom Skerritt) is also a character in Stephen King's novel "Cujo," a film adaptation of which was released in 1983.
• In the final episode, as Sarah cries while embracing the dying Johnny, we hear her briefly stop crying to tell Johnny, “I love you.” But we don’t see her mouth as she says these words—this is because the original script didn't include these lines from Sarah, and her voice was dubbed in during post-production. This was done to make the film's finale more impactful.