The Burning Man (The Twilight Zone)

"The Burning Man" is the second segment of the eighth episode from the first season (1985–86) of the television series The Twilight Zone. It is based on Ray Bradbury's short story "The Burning Man", first published in his collection Long After Midnight.

Plot

On a hot summer day, a woman and her nephew are driving along a dusty, country road. The story takes place in Kansas in 1936 based on the tag on the car. They soon come upon an old man in raggedy clothes who hails them to stop. They do stop and he hops in and says to just go, because someone is after him. When they ask who, he says the sun.

The old man starts talking of the seventeen-year locusts coming and other wild theories about people and...evil. Specifically genetic evil, people who are born evil. When they stop to fix a flat tire, the old man continues telling the boy his strange theories, but the aunt is starting to tire of it. She apparently thinks the heat has gotten to him. When she can't take anymore, the aunt stops the car and throws the old man out. They try to laugh it off and head for a lake, where they stop and enjoy the day.

Soon, the boy starts to worry about the evil the old man was talking about when all of a sudden, they come upon a boy in a bright white suit. He claims he was at a picnic and got separated and then lost. They pick him up and take off. Soon it becomes dark and suddenly the boy in the white suit leans forward and says something to the aunt. The car comes to a stop and dies. The aunt and nephew look back at the boy. Smiling, the boy in the white suit says "Have you ever wondered if there was such a thing as genetic evil in the world?"

From a long shot, the headlights of the car go dark.

See also

• List of The Twilight Zone episodes

External links

• "The Burning Man" at the Internet Movie Database
• "The Burning Man" at TV.com