Where Is Everybody? (The Twilight Zone) (1959) A man in a blue jumpsuit (Earl Holliman) walks down a lonely road. He hears music coming out of a cafe up the road. He enters to find a jukebox playing, but no one up front. He begins shouting to the back, expecting someone to be there, but gets no answer. Frustrated, he goes in the back and finds it abandoned. He searches out back and finds nothing but trash. He goes back into the kitchen to find coffee still hot on the stove, along with some pies and sausage. He pours himself a cup and searches his pocket, finding some money. He shouts that he can pay for his meal, then notes the currency is American. He concludes he is American as well, and admits he doesn't know who he is. He continues to shout for someone, and eventually begins singing to himself to end the silence. Concluding no one is there, he pays for his meal and leaves, heading towards a town.
In the town the streets are empty, no people. He searches the buildings, again, empty. He eventually spots a car with a woman in it and yells for her. He explains that he doesn't know who he is, or even remembers waking up this morning, just that he suddenly found himself walking on the road. He asks the woman if she knows a doctor, but when he opens the car the woman turns out to be a mannequin. He laughs at this slightly until he hears a phone ring in a phone booth. He rushes to answer it, desperately yelling for an answer, but none comes. He calls the operator, but it is merely a recording. He still begs to it, demanding to know where he is. Frustrated, he hangs up. He checks the phone book but finds no clues. He tries exiting the booth, only to find it locked. He angrily beats at the door, demanding someone let him out, but no help comes. Eventually, he gets it open.
He searches the police station, once again finding no one. He starts to feel like he's being watched. He finds a still lit cigar burning in the ashtray, which only heightens his suspicions. He checks the prison cells and finds water still dripping in the sink, along with ready-to-go shaving supplies. He tells himself to wake up, and when the cell door begins to close, goes running through the neighborhood, screaming "Where is everybody?"
He continues to wander the town, still failing to find anyone. He eventually goes into a drugstore, where he decides to serve himself a sundae. He talks to himself in the mirror, believing himself to be dreaming. He even quotes A Christmas Carol, specifically Scrooge's denials to Jacob Marley. He searches the store and notes the detail, finding a shelf of books for sale, each titled "The Last Man On Earth". He once again rushes into the street, begging for someone to answer him.
Night falls, and the man, having amused himself by playing Tic-Tac-Toe in the dirt, is surprised when the city's lights come on. He notices a movie theater playing a war movie, Battle Hymn. Investigating, he sees the movie's poster, and is suddenly struck with remembrance: he's in the Air Force. Happily, he runs inside, shouting this revelation, but finds no one. Sighing, he sits down, concluding that a bomb must have dropped, but quickly finds the flaws in his logic.
Suddenly the movie starts. He quickly goes up to the projection booth, shouting for someone, but finds it empty. He runs through the theater, and ends up running into a mirror, knocking himself down. Now half-mad, he runs through the town, desperately looking for someone. Seeing an eye in a sign for an optometrist, he panics further, believing himself to be watched. He eventually collapses in front of a walk button, pressing it repeatedly and begging for help.
The scene then cuts to a group of men in uniform, hearing the man's pleas. They are watching him inside a small box, and he is really pressing a panic button. After a few moments, they clock him, and the leader orders his release. The colonel releases him with care, then reports to his superior that he was in the box for 484 hours and six minutes. When the press then arrives for a statement, the colonel tells them that the man is actually an astronaut named Mike Ferris, and he was locked in a sensory deprivation chamber to see how a man would react to the three weeks of isolation during a trip to the moon; the town was a product of his deluded mind. As Mike is carried out on a stretcher, he looks at the moon and promises to be there soon.
OPAL (2020) "We see you, Opal. Your troubles are miles away. We see you, Opal. And in our eyes you'll stay…"
OPAL is a 2020 stop-motion animated short created by Jack Stauber for Adult Swim as one of their "smalls".
It follows the story of a young girl who (while seemingly living happily with her loving family) is haunted by the crying in her next-door neighbor's attic window, feeling lured toward it, and what ensues when she finally sneaks in and reaches it…
Spoilers below cut. Or, in video below.
Lonely Films Final
Where Is Everybody? (The Twilight Zone) (1959)
OPAL (2020)
