The Hitch Hiker (radio play)
Encyclopedia
Plot
The story concerns Ronald Adams, a man travelling cross-country from New York City to Los Angeles. On his way out of New York, Adams narrowly avoids hitting a hitch-hiker with his car; at several points along his journey, Adams repeatedly sees the same hitch-hiker, despite the fact that, logically, there is no possible way the mysterious man could always somehow get ahead of him.Adams begins to feel terrified by the unexplained appearances of the man, and the terror eventually drives Adams mad; his narration explains that he has grown determined to intentionally run the mysterious man down the next time he sees him. This ruins the potential friendship Adams strikes up with another hitch-hiker, a female with whom Adams briefly flirts, before she gets spooked by Adams's increasing obsession with the mysterious man. Oddly, the woman, just before getting out of the car, insists that she was unable to see the man Adams is afraid of.
Finally, Adams decides to try to get help, and he phones his home, from a gas station in the middle of the New Mexico desert. The phone conversation at first confuses Adams, as a friend of his mother's answers, and claims that Mrs. Adams is in the hospital due nervous breakdown by her son's death Ronald Adams's death. Adams learns that he has died in a car accident, back when he first spotted the hitch-hiker, when he had swerved to avoid hitting him, when he actually fell off the bridge trying to swerve. The mysterious hitch-hiker, Adams realizes, was not a malevolent figure, but rather a friendly angel of death sent to guide Adams to the other side
Afterlife
The afterlife is the belief that a part of, or essence of, or soul of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity, survives the death of the body of this world and this lifetime, by natural or supernatural means, in contrast to the belief in eternal...
.
As the radio play ends, Adams expresses both his determination to find the hitch-hiker again, and his concern that he has been unable to do so, ever since his call home.
Adaptations
The story has been adapted for the radio programs Philip Morris Playhouse (1942), SuspenseSuspense (radio program)
-Production background:One of the premier drama programs of the Golden Age of Radio, was subtitled "radio's outstanding theater of thrills" and focused on suspense thriller-type scripts, usually featuring leading Hollywood actors of the era...
(1942), and Mercury Summer Theater
Mercury Theatre
The Mercury Theatre was a theatre company founded in New York City in 1937 by Orson Welles and John Houseman. After a string of live theatrical productions, in 1938 the Mercury Theatre progressed into their best-known period as The Mercury Theatre on the Air, a radio series that included one of the...
(1946). All three radio productions starred Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
as Ronald Adams. (1946). Welles has expressed an opinion that Fletcher's "The Hitch Hiker" and "Sorry, Wrong Number" were the two best suspense plays ever written for the medium of radio.
In 1960, Rod Serling
Rod Serling
Rodman Edward "Rod" Serling was an American screenwriter, novelist, television producer, and narrator best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his science fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone. Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen and helped form...
adapted the story into an episode of his television anthology series The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...
. Serling's version
The Hitch-Hiker (The Twilight Zone)
"The Hitch-Hiker" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.-Synopsis:The story begins with Nan Adams, whose vehicle gets a flat tire on a cross-country road trip from New York City to Los Angeles. A mechanic puts a spare tire on her car and directs her to the...
makes a few notable changes to the story, providing a more positive ending, and changing the gender of the driver to a female ("Nan Adams," named after one of Serling's daughters).
In 2004, Mind City Productions adapted the Mercury Theater version of the radio play into an animated short film, adding animation directed by Michael Anthony Jackson to the original recording of the Mercury radio production. This was intended to be the first in a series of animated adaptations of Mercury radio productions, although to date, this remains the only entry in the series.
In 2011, a short film adaptation of "Hitchhiker" was produced and directed by Lawrence Anthony.