The Last Flight (The Twilight Zone)
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| “The Last Flight” | |||||||
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| The Twilight Zone episode | |||||||
 Scene from "The Last Flight" |
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| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 18 |
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| Written by | Richard Matheson | ||||||
| Directed by | William Claxton | ||||||
| Guest stars | Kenneth Haigh : Flight Lt. Decker Simon Scott : Major Wilson Alexander Scourby : General Harper Robert Warwick : Air Vice Marshal Alexander Mackaye Harry Raybould : Corporal Jerry Catron : Guard Jack Perkins : Mechanic Paul Baxley : Jeep driver |
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| Production no. | 173-3607 | ||||||
| Original airdate | February 5, 1960 | ||||||
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| List of Twilight Zone episodes | |||||||
"The Last Flight" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
[edit] Opening narration
| “ | Witness Flight Lieutenant William Terrance Decker, Royal Flying Corps, returning from a patrol somewhere over France. The year is 1917. The problem is that the Lieutenant is hopelessly lost. Lieutenant Decker will soon discover that a man can be lost not only in terms of maps and miles, but also in time— and time, in this case, can be measured in eternities. | ” |
[edit] Main story
A British World War I fighter pilot (Decker) lands his Nieuport biplane on a 1959 American airbase after flying through a strange cloud. He is immediately taken into custody and questioned. After some prodding, he recounts how he was on patrol with his friend Alexander Mackaye, who was set upon by seven German aircraft. Instead of staying to help, Decker fled into the clouds, leaving him to die. He learns that Mackaye survived and went on to become a great hero in World War II, saving many lives in the Blitz. In fact, Air Vice-Marshal Mackaye is on his way to inspect the base.
Decker can't see how Mackaye could have survived the dogfight, until one of his interrogators suggests he got help. Since there were no other friendly fighters in the sector, Decker figures that it had to have been him who saved Mackaye, so he escapes to his plane and flies back through the cloud. Later, when Mackaye arrives, he is stunned when he is shown Decker's identification card. He reveals Decker did in fact save his life—at the cost of his own.
[edit] Closing narration
| “ | Dialogue from a play, Hamlet to Horatio: 'There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.' Dialogue from a play written long before men took to the sky. There are more things in heaven and earth, and in the sky, than perhaps can be dreamt of. And somewhere in between heaven, the sky, the earth, lies the Twilight Zone. | ” |
[edit] Trivia
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- Filmed on location at Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino, California.
- The vintage 1918 Nieuport biplane was both owned and flown by Frank Gifford Tallman, and had previously appeared in many World War I motion pictures.
