Shatterday
| "Shatterday" | |
|---|---|
| The New Twilight Zone episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 1a |
| Directed by | Wes Craven |
| Written by |
Alan Brennert (Based on the short story by Harlan Ellison) |
| Original air date | September 27, 1985 |
| Guest appearance(s) | |
|
Bruce Willis : Peter Jay Novins |
|
Bruce Willis : Peter Jay Novins
Dan Gilvezan : Bartender
Murukh : Woman at Bank
John Carlyle : Clerk
Seth Isler : Alter Ego
"Shatterday" is the first segment of the premiere episode of the first season (1985–86) of the television series The Twilight Zone.
Day 1: Someday
Peter Jay Novins sits in a bar. Intending to call someone else, he accidentally dials his own home phone number, and the phone is answered...by Peter Jay Novins. Peter speaks to the man on the other end of the line, initially thinking that it is a joke, but eventually hanging up the phone in shock. Flustered, he heads out of the bar, goes to a phone booth on the street, calls his house and gets Novins again. Stunned, he begins to believe that the man he is speaking to is his own alter ego. He thinks about heading over to his apartment, but the man on the phone warns him against it. Peter asks if the two of them could just lead normal lives; the man on the other end tells him that Peter's life is terrible, and that he is going to change it. Peter threatens the man on the phone.
Day 2: Duesday
The next day, Peter cashes out his bank account, calls the grocery store and insults them to ensure that his alter ego cannot get any food delivered, and then calls his apartment again to gloat. The man on the other end tells him that Peter is too late because the man used the $200 that was stashed away to buy enough groceries to hold him for a long time. The alter ego tells Peter that what explains the whole situation was perhaps the result of something that happened in the Jack London novel, The Star Rover. The character used an astral projection to get out of his body. He figures that Peter is just a piece of him that wandered off while he was sleeping, that he is the real Peter. Peter, however, thinks that it's possible that when he went to a friend's lab and a picture was taken of his "aura" and somehow, it "stole" something from him, like a piece of himself that is now the alter ego in his apartment. The man also tells Peter his estranged mother phoned to try to patch things up, and that the man has invited her to live with him. Angry at the prospect of his alter ego stealing his mother, Peter hangs up.
Day 3: Woundsday
During a storm, a sick Peter stares into his apartment from the street. From a pay phone, he calls his alter ego and says he wants to work things out. The alter ego says that the more deserving of them should take over the entire life, and that he turned down an unethical advertising job that Peter had previously accepted. When Peter asks why the alter ego is doing this to him, he says that Peter did this to himself.
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Wikipedia