I Shot an Arrow into the Air
Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox television episode "I Shot an Arrow into the Air" is the fifteenth episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.
Plot
[edit]A crewed space flight with eight astronauts crash lands on what they believe to be an unknown asteroid, with an area of desert and jagged mountains. Only four of the crew survive the crash: the commanding officer Donlin, crewmen Corey and Pierson, and a crewman named Hudak who is badly injured and barely alive, and the chances of rescue or survival are bleak. After they bury the dead men, Donlin and Pierson concern themselves with taking care of Hudak, but Corey, who is only concerned with saving himself, declares that sharing their limited supply of water with Hudak will reduce the chances of survival for the rest of them. This sets Corey at odds with both Pierson and Donlin, who insist that they will care for Hudak and share their water with him for as long as he does survive. Hudak dies a short time later; after they bury him, Donlin has Corey and Pierson trek out into the barren desert to see if there is anything that might improve their chances of survival.
Six hours later, Corey returns alone, claiming not to know where Pierson went. Donlin calls Corey out on having more water in his canteen now than he had when he left, and demands to know where Pierson is. Corey claims that he found Pierson dead and took his water. Not believing this account, Donlin wants to see for himself and forces Corey at gunpoint to lead him to Pierson's body. When they reach the spot Corey claims to have found Pierson, the body is not there, nor is there any evidence that backs Corey's claim, leaving Donlin more dubious. They later find Pierson near the edge of a mountain, alive but severely wounded. Donlin drops the gun and rushes to Pierson, who wordlessly gestures that he climbed the mountain and saw something. With his last bit of strength, Pierson draws a primitive diagram in the sand with his finger (two parallel lines intersected by a perpendicular line), and then dies. Meanwhile, Corey grabs the dropped gun, and confesses that he attacked Pierson earlier. He then shoots and kills Donlin and sets out alone, confident that he will survive longer now that he has all of the water for himself.
Corey climbs a mountain and sees a sign for Reno, along with telephone poles, which was what Pierson had attempted to draw before he died. Realizing that they had in fact never left Earth and that he had killed his partners for nothing, Corey breaks down weeping and begging his deceased crewmates for forgiveness.
Production
[edit]Madelon Champion came up with the idea for the story and Rod Serling purchased it for $500 (Template:Inflation).Template:Sfn Champion told Serling "What would happen if three guys landed on what they thought was an asteroid and it turned out to be outside of Las Vegas?" This was the only time that Serling accepted an episode proposal that was made by somebody who approached him in public.Template:Sfn
The title was derived from a line in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem The Arrow and the Song.Template:Sfn Before the pilot of The Twilight Zone, Serling wrote an hour-long pilot entitled I Shot an Arrow Into the Air, unrelated to Champion's idea, which was about an intelligent boy who was shunned by other children because his father died when his home-made rocket ship exploded. He befriends a wounded alien and helps him return to his home planet; the boy grows up to be an astronaut and reunites with the alien. Elements of the script were reworked into The Gift.Template:Sfn
Stuart Rosenberg directed the episode and George T. Clemens was the director of photography. Filming was done in October.Template:Sfn This was the second episode of The Twilight Zone to be filmed in Death Valley, The Lonely being the first.Template:Sfn
The ending twist that the characters were on Earth the entire time was noted to be similar to the twist in Planet of the Apes, which was written by Serling.Template:Sfn
References
[edit]Works cited
[edit]Further reading
[edit]- Full video of the episode at CBS.com
- DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. Template:ISBN
- Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. Template:ISBN