Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Adam Scott, Chris Diamantopoulos, Dan Carlin, Katie Findlay, Nicholas Lea, China Shavers, J. Cameron Barnett, Jordan Peele, Nabil Ayoub, Hana Kinani, Greg Zach, Vladimir Ruzich, Alexander Mandra, Demelza Randall, Emanuel Mokhtari, Arkie Kandola, Tarun Keram, Tim Howe, Brea St. James.
There is no way you can improve upon the classic or even stand shoulders with the influential. This maxim has proved been time and time again, and yet as with everything in life, occasionally the persistence of change means a piece of art can be, if not improved upon, at least given a facelift and become more in keeping with the times and far removed from its initial idea.
Based upon the classic and much-admired The Twilight Zone story starring William Shatner in his pre Star Trek days, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet is a tale to which has seen arguably the most adaptions, and as part of Jordan Peele’s time at the helm of the revamped series, becomes more convincing in its detail, less encumbered by the ideas of gremlins and the fear on the mind caused by the mythical, and instead offers the viewer of Nightmare at 30,000 Feet insight into how alarm and anxiety are built up by knowing what the future already understands.
Instead of a gremlin tearing at the mind of a recently released from hospital individual, the Jordan Peele updated one inserts itself into the psyche by showing the means of downfall as being one of a warning, a podcast found in which the narrator tells the strange tale of Northern Goldstar Airlines flight 1015 and in particular the strange man at the centre of it all, the journalist Justin Sanderson.
It is the question we are continually faced with which sits at the heart of the tale, if we knew the future, if we had insight into how a terrible tragedy was going to play out, would we stop it, even if it meant that the likelihood of our own damnation was then proved to be of our own making, the bootstrap paradox in effect.
To take on a classic tale and give it a sense of reason in the modern age does not always bode well, but Nightmare at 30,000 Feet is driven by instinct and our own paranoia about life in the recesses of our mind, the signals we look for when we wish to feel safe in our own present and the fear of the mystery of which lays beyond.
The Twilight Zone never fails to fuel the imagination and in this modern remake, what comes across in full colour and effect is just how much such a programme has shaped the imagination of those caught up in its original thinking, and how it is still incredibly relevant today.
Ian D. Hall