THE DEAD ZONE

Here’s a question that bounces around in my head: is Christopher Walken most famous for being somebody everybody does an impression of? People do impressions of Robert DeNiro but Robert DeNiro is an incredible actor and a movie star from a bunch of classic films that people still regularly rewatch. As far as I can tell, Walken is a supporting actor with a funny voice who has done a bunch of cameos, the Cowbell sketch and played a Bond villain.

The Dead Zone is Walken’s biggest hit where he is the star and this movie did not do very well at all. This is not a slight on Christopher Walken, it is simply curiousity. Was it that early 90s run of playing a bad guy in Batman Returns, Wayne’s World 2 and sticking a watch up his ass in Pulp Fiction that propelled Christopher Walken to being “Christopher Walken”?

The Dead Zone is a David Cronenberg movie based on a Stephen King novel where Walken plays a dude named Johnny who wakes up from a coma with an ability to see the future of the people he touches. Martin Sheen plays Greg Stillson, a man running for President and when Johnny shakes his hand he sees a vision of a horrific future when Stillson wins and orders a nuclear strike. Johnny decides he needs to kill him to stop this from happening. Although I like to pretend that the vision he had was of Martin Sheen playing the President in The West Wing and Johnny just hates Aaron Sorkin that much that he had to stop it from ever coming true.

Where would I fit into The Dead Zone? Once people find out about Johnny’s psychic ability word starts to spread. I’m sure word would spread all the way to Australia and I’d hear of this guy with a weird speaking pattern who can see people’s destinies and just have to meet that guy. There are a few things about the future that I have some questions about and I think Johnny is just the man to answer them.