Twilight Zone: The Movie - Plot - Third Segment ("It's A Good Life")

Third Segment ("It's A Good Life")

Portrait of a woman in transit: Helen Foley, age 27. Occupation: schoolteacher. Up until now, the pattern of her life has been one of unrelenting sameness, waiting for something different to happen. Helen Foley doesn't know it yet, but her waiting has just ended.

The third segment, a remake of the episode "It's a Good Life," was directed by Joe Dante. Its opening narration is borrowed, in part, from "Night Call."

Mild-mannered Helen Foley (Kathleen Quinlan), traveling to a new job, visits a rural bar for directions. While talking to the owner (Dick Miller), she witnesses Anthony, a young boy (Jeremy Licht) playing an arcade game, who is being blamed by a pair of locals (one of whom portrayed Anthony in the original episode, Bill Mumy) for "accidentally" causing interference on the TV by slapping the side of the game machine. When one of the men pushes Anthony away from the game and pulls the plug, Helen comes to the boy's defense, but Anthony runs out of the restaurant. As Helen leaves, she backs into the boy with her car in the parking lot, damaging his bicycle. Helen offers Anthony a ride home.

They eventually arrive at Anthony's house, which is an immense home in the country. When Helen arrives, she meets Anthony's family: Uncle Walt (Kevin McCarthy, who starred in "Long Live Walter Jameson"); sister Ethel (Nancy Cartwright); and Anthony and Ethel's mother (Patricia Barry, who starred in "I Dream of Genie" and "The Chaser") and father (William Schallert, who played a role in "Mr. Bevis"). Anthony's family seems overly welcoming, but Helen at first dismisses this. Anthony starts to show Helen around the house (while the family rifles through Helen's purse and coat); there is a television set in every room showing cartoons. She loses Anthony and comes to the room of another sister, Sara (Cherie Currie). Helen calls out to the girl, who is in a wheelchair and watching a television displaying cartoons, and gets no response. Anthony appears and explains that Sara had been in an accident; Helen isn't able to see that the girl has no mouth.

After the tour, Anthony announces that it is time for dinner, which consists of Anthony's favorite foods: including ice cream, candy apples, and hamburgers topped with peanut butter. Confused at first at how the family eats, Helen thinks that this is a birthday dinner for Anthony. Ethel complains at the prospect of another birthday; Anthony glares at her, and her plate flies out of her hands onto the ground. Helen hurredly attempts to leave, but Anthony urges Helen to stay and see Uncle Walt's "hat trick". Helen is stunned to see that a top hat has suddenly appeared on top of the television set. Uncle Walt is very nervous about what could be in the hat, but he pulls an ordinary rabbit out of it. The family members are relieved, but Anthony insists on more, and a large, cartoonish rabbit springs from the hat. Helen screams, and Anthony orders it to go away. As she attempts to flee, she falls and spills the contents of her purse, and Anthony finds a note slipped in from one of the Fremonts stating "Help us! Anthony is a monster!" When the family points the finger at Ethel, Anthony wills her into the television set; there she is eaten by a large, dragon-like cartoon character.

Helen attempts to escape only to have the door open up to a human eye. She closes it quickly only to see Anthony at the top of the stairs pleading her to stay. She then is led back into the room to see Anthony have a demonic cartoon that continuously contorted into various grotesque. After Helen demands the creature to disappear, in a fit of irritation, Anthony makes the entire house disappear instantly, and his family with it, leaving himself and Helen literally nowhere. Anthony explains that, since they were not happy living with him anymore, he sent them all back where they came from, including both his sisters. Now, at last, Anthony realizes the horrific loneliness that comes with being omnipotent. For once, he expresses the tremendous insecurity and pain that seethes within him instead of burying it.

Helen offers to be Anthony's teacher, and also his student; together, she says, they can find uses for his power that even he never dreamed of. Having been confronted with the true end results of his reign of terror, Anthony welcomes Helen's offer and makes her car reappear. Both ride off toward her new home and job, surrounded by bright meadows filled with flowers.