In the movie adaptation starring Walken, a "dead zone" is a blind spot that only appears in precognitive visions, representing that the future can be altered.
In 1953, Johnny Smith is six years old when he suffers a head injury and immediately has a psychic vision of the near future, an event he barely even remembers as an adult.
As an adult in 1971, Johnny Smith is an English teacher living in Cleaves Mills, nearby the fictional town of Castle Rock in Maine.
When Johnny touches certain people or objects, he now sometimes experiences psychic visions relating to them, revealing either hidden truths about their past, dangers in their future, or situations happening in the present that are connected to them.
Initially hoping to use his powers to help others, such as warning a woman that her kitchen is on fire, Johnny eventually denies their existence and is relieved when a tabloid reporter, with whom he refused to co-operate, decides to label him a fraud.
Johnny then reluctantly uses his power again when Sheriff George Bannerman seeks assistance in tracking the Castle Rock Strangler, a serial killer.
Johnny fails and is fatally wounded by Stillson's security detail, but not before the politician is photographed attempting to use a nearby child as a human shield.
Driven to action by visions of death and crime, Johnny repeatedly uses his power to aid Sheriff Bannerman, and the two develop a grudging respect for each other.
Unlike his novel and movie counterparts, Johnny is able to increasingly accept his powers over time and become more comfortable with their use, though he still dislikes public attention and resents strangers believing he can solve all their problems.
[3] In the season two episode "The Hunt", Johnny learns the U.S. government employs other psychics to help with counter-terrorist operations; he aids them for a short time.
Johnny's quest to stop "armageddon" becomes the ongoing subplot of the series during his other adventures, and he later shares his vision of the future and his fear of Stillson with Bruce.
In the season two finale "Vision," Johnny learns he can sometimes communicate with Christopher Wey, a man who will become a "dead zone" psychic in the future when he wakes up from a coma after the apocalypse has happened.
Eventually, Wey works alongside future versions of Johnny and JJ who are hoping to change their reality by sending messages into the past.
This alternate timeline resembles the canon of the novel and movie, showing Johnny as a suspicious and unsocial loner who attempts to publicly assassinate Stillson.