Unfortunately for Johnny Smith, his fiancé Sarah Bracknell, played by Brooke Adams, moves on after Smith’s accident and uncertain future. That the evil and cowardice displayed by King’s fictional candidate ends the candidate’s political career made perfect sense back then. With Nixon’s high crimes and misdemeanors fresh in the consciousness of a post-Vietnam America still in the middle of the Cold War, King’s ethos and cause/effect resonated with his audience. The King novel’s movie adaptation came out a few years later in 1983. King published The Dead Zone the same year Apocalypse Now was released, 1979 ( Apocalypse Now is a contemporized retelling of another relevantly named novel, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad). As it turns out, his powers allow him to take steps to change, and hopefully improve, the futures he sees. When he awakens from the coma five years later, he possesses an array of psychic powers, including precognition about people he physically touches or who touch him. In it, Christopher Walkin plays school teacher Johnny Smith who is rendered comatose in an auto accident after heading home from his fiancé’s place on a rainy night. I can’t explain my affinity for The Dead Zone over the seemingly hundreds of other Stephen King novels I’ve read. Self-Portrait, Oil on Canvas, 24" x 48", Richard J Van Wagoner, Circa 1962, Courtesy of Van Wagoner Family Trust**
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