The Last Flight

Once again, I didn't realize I had already written for an episode of Twilight Zone, having put myself through the writing process and then noticing a review already on my IMDb account.

Classic early TZ time travel episode from the great Richard Matheson holds your attention due to its emergence of the past landing in the present, with events affecting time frames. A WWI British pilot from 1917, during the Blitz, inexplicably lands in 1959 at a US Air Force base in France, not quite understanding exactly how. Lt Decker (Kenneth Haigh), later admitting he is a coward who left his pilot partner, “Ole Leadbottom”, to battle surrounding German planes, is considered by those on the base—General George Harper (Alexander Scourby) and Major Wilson (Simon Scott)—questioning him as having flipped his lid. What they will soon learn, once Decker decides he must return from whence he came and make sure his pilot comrade receives the assistance he deserves, is that as inconceivable as a travel in time might be, there could very well be truth to it all… Great closing scene involving Robert Warwick as the aged Leadbottom, Alexander Mackaye, as Harper and Wilson provide him with possessions collected by Decker that offer proof that they indeed met him. Also neat is how the biplane lands, quite of its time and clashing with the modern 1959 planes on the US base. The piercing eyes of Haigh, gathering his thoughts and collecting his bearings, trying to come to terms with where he’s at, and the performance which reads like an open book all the differing emotions from the actor is especially memorable. Haigh looking out from the window into the sky, remarking about another pilot who vanished similarly, taking the whole gnarly situation in as he reflects on the “vacuum” that seemed to consume him before landing in 1959 is damned effective…Haigh delivers one hell of a performance. Scourby and Scott ably back him up, too, as officers having a hard time (obviously so!) wrapping their head around all of this, but eventually accepting the fact that Decker was indeed from another time and all that happens leant itself to Mackaye’s survival. To me, this is what TZ is all about. Just plain well made, well written, and well acted. A TZ must-see.  How Decker evaluates the information about Mackaye, sees the errors of his cowardice, takes it upon himself to defy being held for questioning, and his heroism afterward resulting from all he processes is pure Twilight Zone…it offers a second chance if one is willing to take it.