Based on Rod Serling's 1959–1964 television series of the same name, the film features four stories directed by Landis, Spielberg, Joe Dante, and George Miller.

The film's cast includes Dan Aykroyd, Albert Brooks, Scatman Crothers, John Lithgow, Vic Morrow, and Kathleen Quinlan.

[4] The deaths led to several years of legal action; although no individuals were found to be criminally liable, new procedures and safety standards were imposed in the filmmaking industry.

The premise of the story from there, however, is mashed up with the morality tale of another classic episode "A Quality of Mercy", in which an overly impetuous lieutenant finds himself suddenly having swapped places with the enemy, an experience which teaches him a lesson about empathy.

Bill Connor is an outspoken bigot who is bitter after being passed over for a promotion at work in favor of his Jewish co-worker Goldman.

Drinking in a bar after work with his friends Larry and Ray, Bill utters prejudiced remarks and slurs towards Jews, Blacks, and East Asians, blaming them for America's problems.

After ranting some more and declaring himself better than the minorities, Bill angrily storms out of the bar and finds himself in Nazi-occupied France during World War II.

He falls from the ledge and lands on soft ground, now in rural Alabama during the 1950s, where a group of Ku Klux Klan members see him as a Black man whom they are about to lynch.

After kicking one KKK member against the burning cross and setting him on fire, Bill breaks free and tries to escape (while still hampered by his bullet wound).

There he is captured by the SS officers and put into an enclosed railroad freight car, along with Jewish prisoners bound for a concentration camp.

All agree; however, a grumpy man named Leo Conroy who is fairly skeptical in his outlook on life objects to this, saying that they cannot engage in physical activity because they are all elderly and not children anymore.

They are ecstatic to be young again, engaging in activities they enjoyed long ago, but their thoughts soon turn to practical matters such as where they will spend the night, since they will no longer be welcomed in the retirement home, and their families will not recognize them.

Anthony announces that it is time for dinner, which consists of ice cream, candy apples, potato chips, and hamburgers topped with peanut butter.

Satisfied that she will never "abandon" him, and having at last foreseen the true end results of his reign of terror, Anthony welcomes Helen's offer and magically brings back her car.

Valentine finally snaps and attempts to break the window with an oxygen canister, but is wrestled to the ground by another passenger, a sky marshal.

Valentine then takes the marshal's revolver, shoots out the window (causing a breach in the pressurized cabin), and begins firing at the gremlin.

However, the aircraft maintenance crew arrives and finds the damage to the plane's engines complete with claw marks, while a delirious and incoherent Valentine is wrapped up in a straitjacket and carried off in an ambulance.

The prologue scene with Aykroyd and Brooks (a nod to the supernatural-based comedy skits featured in later episodes of Serling's post-TZ anthology TV series, Night Gallery) was shot before the Vic Morrow helicopter accident.

Co-director George Miller was so repulsed by the entire scenario, he abandoned post-production of his segment without announcement, leaving Joe Dante to supervise editing.

[10] The two explosions caused the low-flying helicopter to spin out of control and crash land on top of Morrow and the two children as they were crossing a small pond away from the village mock-up.

All three were killed instantly; Morrow and Le were decapitated by the helicopter's top rotor blades, while Chen was crushed to death by one of the struts.

[12] When asked how the film changed from its initial conception after the accident, Landis replied, "The intercutting between the actions of the KKK and American GIs and the Vietcong and the Nazis became more and more frenetic as [Bill] tried to protect the children.

Landis, Folsey, production manager Dan Allingham, pilot Dorcey Wingo and explosives specialist Paul Stewart were tried and acquitted on charges of manslaughter in a nine-month trial in 1986 and 1987.

[14] As a result of the accident, second assistant director Andy House had his name removed from the credits and replaced with the pseudonym Alan Smithee.

"[24] Colin Greenland reviewed Twilight Zone: The Movie for Imagine magazine, and stated that "Macabre stuff, but not really very impressive as modern fantastic cinema from four of its grand masters.

The critical consensus reads, "The Twilight Zone: The Movie suffers from the typical anthology-film highs and lows; thankfully, the former outnumber the latter.

[28] Joe Dante, director of the third segment and later Gremlins, reflected, "George and I benefited, because the other two episodes weren’t all that compelling and we got a lot of press, and it put us both on the map.

[2] Having cost $10 million to make, it was not the enormous hit which executives were looking for, but it was still a financial success and it helped stir enough interest for CBS to give the go-ahead to the 1980s TV version of The Twilight Zone.

The promotional song from this movie, "Nights Are Forever", written by Jerry Goldsmith with lyricist John Bettis, and sung by Jennifer Warnes, is heard briefly during the jukebox scene in the opening segment with Vic Morrow.

The film opens with the song "Midnight Special" by Creedence Clearwater Revival being played on the cassette tape in Albert Brooks’ car as he and Dan Aykroyd sing along.