Would you push the button? Part 1

Part 2 contains my impressions of Richard Kelly’s new film, The Box.  Below, in Part 1, I recount my childhood memories of seeing the Twilight Zone episode Button, Button, whose original short story is the basis for The Box.  This was written prior to seeing the new film.

When I was a kid, my younger brother and I were babysat a lot because my parents often had conflicting work schedules and because as young parents in their mid twenties, they also enjoyed going out without the kids every once in a while.  Lucky for my parents, we had a lot of friendly, trustworthy neighbors that could look after us.  And lucky for them, my brother and I loved watching movies and TV, which made us very easy to look after.  Two of these neighbors were an elderly couple that lived four or five houses down from us.  Honestly, there isn’t much that I remember about them; not even their names.  But, I do remember that whenever I would go over, after my brother was put to bed, we would watch The Twilight Zone.

Not the original series, but the 1985 revival.  To my recollection, I never watched a single episode of that show when I was at home.  I don’t think it’s because my parents didn’t want me watching it, but rather because they had different TV watching habits than our neighbors and Twilight Zone wasn’t a part of their schedule.  Although I enjoyed watching TZ, it’s not a show that I anticipated viewing every week.  In a way, I think I just didn’t “get” the show.  Every episode had a different story performed by different actors and so I never knew what to expect from week to week.  It was different from the format of everything else that I watched — like Knight Rider and MacGyver — that had the same formulaic plot structure every episode.  So, even though I wasn’t a huge fan, somehow a lasting impression was made.  However, it wasn’t immediately apparent.  Years later, when I was a teenager first starting to write, trying to figure out what stories I wanted to tell and how I wanted to tell them, there were elements from some of those Twilight Zone episodes — episodes that I hadn’t seen since those first childhood viewings — that were still creeping around my brain and that eventually oozed out onto the page.

Two episodes in particular were firmly planted in my mind.  One of those is The Toys of Caliban, whose influence on my love of horror and gore is profound.  Even though there is only one brief moment of gore in the episode, over time, my young mind exaggerated it and expanded it and transformed it into something even more grotesque.  But what’s noteworthy about the gore in that episode is that it’s not there for gore’s sake: it’s an integral part of the story.  Now, as much as I would like to go on about The Toys of Caliban — perhaps I will dedicate a post to it another time — the purpose of this post is to highlight the other episode that left it’s mark on me.

On March 7th, 1986, 7 days before my 7th birthday (7-7-7 — weird!) — which probably also coincided with the beginning of the March Break — I watched a Twilight Zone episode titled Button, Button.  When it comes to remembering television shows from my youth, I typically only remember bits and pieces of episodes.  Usually just the cool parts.  Like this episode of Knight Rider: A couple scavenging on a beach with a metal detector find KARR (KITT’s nemesis) buried under the sand.  Somehow he’s revived and by the end of the episode he’s trying to destroy KITT with a laser that’s been installed on his hood.  Then, they both “power boost” towards each other and KITT destroys KARR.  It was an awesome episode, but I don’t remember the details at all.  For Button, Button on the other hand, I remember every detail.  Now, I could tell you what the episode is about, or you could simply watch it for yourself.  If you feel you don’t have the time (come on, it’s less than 20 minutes long!), and don’t mind spoilers, you can read a plot synopsis here.

Button, Button – Part 1

Button, Button – Part 2

I think the reason why this episode has always stood out in my mind is because it was the first time I became truly aware that a story could have a twist ending.  I’m sure that I had seen other TV shows and movies that did this, but it never struck me how effective it could be as a form of entertainment.  I was also aware that it was a morality tale.  At the time, such stories were always present in cartoons, after school specials and movies of the week, but I hadn’t seen anything with such a diabolical ending.  These characters were going to die, but you had the sense that their fate was the punchline to a joke.  That the people who made the episode were grinning from ear to ear, proud that they had pushed these characters over the edge of reason.  And, something in me thought that the whole thing was just really cool.  And clearly, other people thought it was cool too, such as Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko) who has turned this concept into a major motion picture titled The Box.

Actually, to be more precise, The Box is based on the same short story that the Twilight Zone episode is based on, Richard Matheson‘s Button, Button.  I love Matheson’s work, most notably I Am Legend, which doesn’t quite resemble the film adaptation from a few years ago (for a better version of that story on film, check out The Last Man on Earth with Vincent Price; wiki, trailer).  He also wrote the script — based on his own short story — for Steven Spielberg’s first feature film, and a favorite of mine, Duel (wiki, trailer).  But, I’ve never read Button, Button.  Based on what’s posted at Wikipedia the story has a different ending from the episode, which Matheson didn’t like:

In the original short story, the plot is resolved differently. Norma presses the button, and receives the money — after her husband dies in a train incident where Arthur is pushed onto the tracks (the money was the no-fault insurance settlement, which is $50,000 instead of the $200,000 in the Twilight Zone episode). A despondent Norma asks the stranger why her husband was the one who was killed. The stranger replies that Norma never really knew her husband.

Matheson strongly disapproved of the Twilight Zone version, especially the new ending, and used his pseudonym Logan Swanson for the teleplay.

Even though I haven’t actually read the story, I like that ending.  I like both endings.  They make different statements.  The episode is a meditation on the social conscience and our feelings of sympathy towards those we do not know, living in circumstances we know nothing about.  The original story explores this as well, but takes it further and declares that we are essentially all strangers to each other — and therefore we are all the same.  In the episode, it’s not quite clear if they will both die, or if only the wife will die, but one way or the other, the consequence is that the person who pushed the button will perish when the next person pushes the button.  But in the story, the character who pushes the button gets to live and the person who is closest to her dies.  The wife is then forced to spend the rest of her life reflecting on the consequences of her decision to push the button.  Somehow, that punishment seems more severe than in the ending of the episode.

It’ll be interesting to see which ending Richard Kelly decides to use for his film, that of the short story or the episode.  Or, perhaps he came up with his own ending.  It certainly seems like a possibility once you take a look at the trailer.

The Box Trailer

Now, you need to add a lot to a story like this in order to expand it into a feature film, but there are some truly bizarre images in this trailer that I don’t know what to make of.  I enjoy watching trailers and trying to figure out what the plot of the movie will be, especially when there’s other material that you can reference in order to make your prediction.  Trying to figure out if the writer or director will make the same choices you would based on the same material is a good creative exercise.  But there’s a lot to be baffled over in this trailer.  Could the whole story somehow add up to some sort of alien conspiracy?  It’s a possibility when you consider some of the weird stuff they’ve posted on the official website.

I am a huge fan of Kelly’s Donnie Darko (but haven’t seen Southland Tales), so I’m willing to let him lead me wherever he wants to take me.  Especially since he’s made an exceptional choice in hiring Arcade Fire to compose the score for the film.  My completely biased opinion says that this will be one of the greatest movie scores of all time.  If you’ve visited the film’s website, then you’ve heard a bit of that score already.  If you haven’t gone to the website, here’s a sample:

Arcade Fire Score

The first time I heard Arcade Fire’s Funeral I had the impression that I was listening to the music from the greatest film never made.  And, as their music evolved with Neon Bible, the idea that they could compose a great film score was further cemented.  Especially after hearing the final track on the album, My Body Is a Cage.  I’m not alone on this.  If you do a search for the song on YouTube, you’ll find all kinds of videos that are comprised of movie clips accompanied by this song.  There are some good ones and some bad ones.  It would seem that this one that uses clips from Once Upon a Time in the West is quite popular, but apprently it contains spoilers.  And since I’ve never seen the film and assume that some of you haven’t either, I’m posting this one with clips from Nosferatu instead:

My Body Is a Cage – Nosferatu

Damn, that song gives me chills every time.  Knowing what I know about the box and the consequences of pushing the button, I don’t think I could do it.  Except, if in exchange, I was promised the opportunity to become a member of Arcade Fire.  That would be tempting.  Very, very tempting.