'The Twilight Zone's 10 Most Disturbing Endings, Ranked

'The Twilight Zone's 10 Most Disturbing Endings, Ranked Anthony Fremont (Billy Mumy) looking out the window in 'The Twilight Zone's "It's A Good Life"Image via CBS By  J.S. Gornael Published 34 minutes ago J.S. Gornael has a BA in English with a Creative Writing Emphasis in Poetry and an MFA in Fiction. He has taken workshops in poetry, fiction, and non-fiction (though mostly the second). Half-cinephile, half-bookworm, he is both a TV/Movie List Writer for Collider and a book review editor for IndieReader. He occasionally writes reviews himself, and looks forward to finally getting several novels out of his head and onto paper (published or not). His favorite movie is Apocalypse Now, and, for those who care, his favorite version of it is 2019's Apocalypse Now: Final Cut. Though he gave up trying to watch every episode of The Simpsons when he reached season 10, he still loves writing about it. Other shows he would like to write about more range from House to Avatar: The Last Airbender.  Sign in to your Collider account follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap

Created by Rod Serling, the original version of The Twilight Zone understood the importance of a good ending. Over the course of five seasons, this prized anthology series captured the imagination of millions. When we're pulled into these stories, they can be so memorable that it doesn't quite feel like we completely left the fifth dimension after the episode has finished—a mark of brilliance. And while there are some episodes that are surprisingly wholesome and leave viewers feeling warm inside (such as "The Night of the Meek"), other episodes leave a much darker impression. With the right concluding scene, a scary story can be made truly disturbing.

Some of the most hair-raising episodes don't necessarily have menacing final scenes. Take "The Masks," for instance, whose grisly plot twist is followed by a short scene in which a man's face is shown to be unaffected by the mask he wore—demonstrating a rather peaceful death. By contrast, the following episodes end with a final shot that's meant to frighten their audience. Most of these are rightfully considered classics, and they don't all fit into the sci-fi or fantasy genres (though most of them do). Out of the more than 150 episodes from the original series' run, the entries below arguably have the creepiest final moments of all.

10 "I Shot an Arrow into the Air"

Season 1, Episode 15

A closeup of a hand drawing something in dry soil in The Twilight Zone's I Shot an Arrow into the Air.Image via CBS

After a spaceship crash lands in the middle of nowhere, the astronauts who survived the crash assume that they're on an asteroid not far from Earth. Given their limited supply of water and the fact that it took years for their spacecraft to be built, the chances of their survival appear slim. The number of remaining astronauts quickly goes from four to two, down to Mr. Corey (Dewey Martin) and Colonel Donlin (Edward Binns), but not before Pierson (Ted Otis) tries to draw something on the ground. As we later discover, Pierson was trying to draw telephone poles.

Mr. Corey eventually realizes this, but only after killing the colonel and finally reaching a road that shows they crashed-landed in Nevada. Written by Rod Serling himself, this episode's twist is very similar to the one in Planet of the Apes (an early draft of which was also written by Serling). This episode doesn't have the same level of shock as the film, of course, but it's still pretty harrowing. Imagine Corey's position, who can only survive by returning to a society that will discover the other bodies and probably determine him a murderer. What to do?

9 "People Are Alike All Over"

Season 1, Episode 25

An astronaut talks to someone with others in white nearby in The Twilight Zone's People Are Alike All Over.Image via CBS

Season 1's "People Are Alike All Over" has one of the show's greatest twists. When Sam Conrad (Roddy McDowall) reluctantly opens the door to his crashed spaceship, he discovers Martians who look and sound just like people on Earth. There are a few differences, but this looks like a society he could be a part of. They even built a house for him! The only problem is that he's unable to leave; there are no windows, and the doors don't open from the inside.

In the final sequence, one of the walls is removed to show that this house acts as a cage. He's just an animal in a zoo, for the Martians to watch from a short distance. The shock that these people were more or less just as bad as he originally feared works well with Sam's arc. Moreover, having to live the rest of your life as a caged animal for the entertainment of others is quite the unsettling prospect.

8 "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?"

Season 2, Episode 28

Barney Phillips behind a diner counter in The Twilight Zone's Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up.Image via CBS

"Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?" is easily one of the most famous stories in The Twilight Zone. There's a spaceship that landed near a diner, and footsteps lead straight to the establishment. Two officers try to figure out who the alien is, along with the rest of the audience. Everyone in the joint has to stay right where they are while they try and sort this out, making this a mystery that's hard to resist. As one might expect from the series' typically competent storytelling, the alien isn't obvious.

It can definitely weird you out when the man reveals that he has more than two arms. But there is another twist: there is another alien from a different planet. What are the odds? While this does feel like an unnecessary contrivance, that man's third eye nevertheless lingers in the viewer's memory long after the episode's over. The unsettling effect of this conclusion gets enhanced by how these two are the only ones left in the café, where no one is around to see them but each other.

7 "The Silence"

Season 2, Episode 25

A man looks sternly at an older man in The Twilight Zone episode The Silence.Image via CBS

Speaking of being constantly monitored by someone who thinks he's better than you, "The Silence" is about a man named Archie (Franchot Tone) who wagers the garrulous Jamie (Liam Sullivan) that he wouldn't be able to go a year without speaking. There's $500,000 on the line, and Jamie takes that bet. So Archie has the younger man locked in a room in their men's club, where apparently someone is constantly watching and listening to make sure Jamie is following the instructions.

But Jamie made it so that he couldn't lose: before the year of silence was set to begin, the man had his vocal cords severed. This is especially surprising because of how the twist is prepared. Jamie has won, but still he doesn't speak. Archie informs him that he actually doesn't have any money to pay him. Silence. Jamie has to write down what happened, which Archie reads aloud to the others. It's a turn that perfectly fits both characters: a wasted year and much more, showing that The Twilight Zone need not delve into speculative fiction to leave viewers as speechless as Archie.

6 "Five Characters in Search of an Exit"

Season 3, Episode 14

A ballerina, clown, bagpipe player and scamp in Five Character In Search of an Exit in The Twilight ZoneImage vis CBS

What do you get when a ballerina (Susan Harrison), a clown (Murray Matheson), a bagpiper (Clark Allen), a homeless man (Kelton Garwood), and an army major (William Windom) are trapped in a room together? One of the original series' greatest episodes, that's what! None of them knows how they wound up here, and only the new guy hasn't lost hope of escaping. There is no door, no window—only the tolling of a distant bell and intimidatingly high walls. They can't all get out, but—with help from the others—one of them can.

The Major is able to climb over the wall, but what he discovers on the other side is not freedom. As everyone waits for him to describe what he sees, he falls over. Cut to a shot of a woman ringing a bell to collect toy donations for an orphanage. We see a doll is on the ground, the Major, who is put back in the donation bucket with the other toys. Bizarre, creepy, tragic. One can only hope that these characters' capacity for sentience is confined to this bucket.

5 "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street"

Season 1, Episode 22

Burt Metcalfe standing next to Claude Akins while both of them are looking up in The Twilight Zone episode The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street.Image via CBS

"The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" has one of the best lessons learned in The Twilight Zone, delivered in a way that leaves the viewer uneasy to say the least. The power has gone out in the neighborhood, which quickly leaves everyone on the block to suspect each other of being responsible (and, by extension, an alien). This happens over the course of just one day, which is an alarmingly short amount of time for everyone to turn on each other so violently.

That's perturbing enough as it is. Even worse, though, is when we're shown that aliens have indeed been behind this power outage. One of them explains to the other that all they need to do is knock out the power somewhere, at which point the humans will simply eliminate each other. The method here shows just how effortless this invasion's strategy is, suggesting that humanity will surely be defeated by these superior lifeforms. Of course, this message of humanity's self-destruction just rings true—shaking the viewer to the core.

4 "The Dummy"

Season 3, Episode 33

Cliff Robertson sits on stage with a ventriloquist dummy on his lap in The Twilight Zone episode The Dummy.Image via CBS

Season 3's "The Dummy" messes with your head, making you wonder whether ventriloquist Jerry (Cliff Robertson) is crazy or actually being tormented by his dummy, Willie. Well, the final scene makes it as clear as day: the latter, and it's definitely not a happy ending. Jerry and Willie wind up switching places, with Jerry as the doll and Willie as the ventriloquist controlling him.

This is a scary concept executed so well that it's elevated to a level of horror that few episodes in the anthology series can rival. The Twilight Zone doesn't bother with make-up, simply hiring another actor (George Murdock) to portray the human version of Willie. Meanwhile, Jerry's doll looks enough like him for their swap to be completely convincing. The sinister smile on Willie's face is the stuff of nightmares, and it's one hell of a final shot.

3 "The Invaders"

Season 2, Episode 15

Agnes Moorehead sitting on the floor looking up in The Twilight Zone episode The Invaders.Image via CBS

"The Invaders" is a battle: one woman (Agnes Moorehead) versus a few tiny aliens. The woman wins, but not as quickly as you might think. The aliens have special weapons, whereas the woman has much less sophisticated technology. No matter, she was able to withstand the firepower of those guns, while the aliens' spacecraft couldn't handle getting destroyed by her axe. To the viewer's shock, however, the final seconds of the episode reveal that the woman we've been watching all this time is actually the one who's not human. What we assumed were aliens actually astronauts from Earth.

The twist in the ending is perfectly set up by the rest of the episode. Since the story is told from the woman's perspective, the audience doesn't see her as this hulking giant who's trying to kill a few men. On the contrary, we sympathize with this lonely "person" who suddenly has to fend off creatures who've shown up at her rustic home for reasons she doesn't even understand. So, once the audience learns the truth, they suddenly imagine the horror of this scenario from the people they should have been rooting for this entire time.

2 "Living Doll"

Season 5, Episode 6

Tracy Stratford holding up a doll and smiling happily in The Twilight Zone episode Living Doll.Image via CBS

Talky Tina, voiced by June Foray, is by far one of the most compelling villains in the series. She is a doll whose owner is so sweet that we can't help but take her side when her stepfather (Telly Savalas) gives her and his wife a hard time over its price. Now, does throwing a lonely girl's doll away mean that you should be sentenced to death? Probably not, no, but Talky Tina shows absolutely zero mercy towards this guy. She eventually kills him by placing herself on the staircase in such a way that he trips over her and plummets down the stairs.

Pretty hardcore, but Talky Tina's not done. When his frightened wife Annabelle (Mary La Roche) discovers his body, she picks up the doll at the same time. The doll speaks, "My name is Talky Tina," and opens her eyes, "and you'd better be nice to me." Annabelle drops the doll in terror, which is displayed in slow motion—a fantastic move, as it emphasizes just how disturbing this is to hear from such an innocent-seeming doll. For these reasons and more, this final scene is tough to shake off.

1 "It's a Good Life"

Season 3, Episode 8

A family in a living room smiling, looking at a young boy in The Twilight Zone episode It's a Good Life.Image via CBS

Almost everyone in "It's a Good Life" is, in fact, not having a good life. An evil child named Anthony (Billy Mumy) has the power to read minds, kill, teleport others, change the weather, etc. This boy is one of the most fascinating characters in the show's history, and not in any positive way whatsoever. Using only his mind, he single-handedly wiped out everyone on the planet but for the people in this town, located in what used to be Ohio.

No more context is really needed here; this reign of terror has got to end. In the end, however, the boy is still alive and well. His power is maintained, and all the surrounding adults still have to act as if everything he does is good. Even the new snowfall, which will promptly destroy half the town's crops. In other words, this nightmare—and the torturous game of pretend that goes with it—continues. It's petrifying, it's unbearably frustrating, and it's The Twilight Zone at its best.

Like Follow Followed The Twilight Zone TV-14 Mystery Drama Science Fiction Supernatural Release Date 1959 - 1964 Network CBS Showrunner Rod Serling Directors John Brahm, Buzz Kulik, Douglas Heyes, Lamont Johnson, Richard L. Bare, James Sheldon, Richard Donner, Don Medford, Montgomery Pittman, Abner Biberman, Alan Crosland, Jr., Alvin Ganzer, Elliot Silverstein, Jack Smight, Joseph M. Newman, Ted Post, William Claxton, Jus Addiss, Mitchell Leisen, Perry Lafferty, Robert Florey, Robert Parrish, Ron Winston, Stuart Rosenberg

Cast

See All

• Rod Serling Self - Host
• Robert McCord Waiter

Writers Charles Beaumont, Richard Matheson, Earl Hamner, Jr., George Clayton Johnson, Jerry Sohl, Henry Slesar, Martin Goldsmith, Anthony Wilson, Bernard C. Schoenfeld, Bill Idelson, E. Jack Neuman, Jerome Bixby, Jerry McNeely, John Collier, John Furia, Jr., John Tomerlin, Lucille Fletcher, Ray Bradbury, Reginald Rose, Sam Rolfe, Adele T. Strassfield Genres Mystery, Drama, Science Fiction, Supernatural Main Genre Sci-Fi Seasons 5 Producers Herbert Hirschman, William Froug, Buck Houghton, Bert Granet, Marcel Ichac Creator(s) Rod Serling Story By rod serling Streaming Service(s) Paramount Plus Executive Producer(s) Rod Serling Powered by Expand Collapse

• TV
• The Twilight Zone
• Rod Serling

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