The Twilight Zone Sunrise (2002–2003) Online

I've watched about 25 episodes of "Twilight Zone" (the 2002 version) so far, in random order, and this one is the best I've seen so far. It's an incredibly powerful and thought-provoking little drama played out in a compact 20 minutes. In the best tradition of the original "Twilight Zone", it uses fantasy as a vehicle to explore the deepest philosophical questions, in this case about the value of human life, the nature of sacrifice, and the limits of friendship. It's amazing how real the characters felt, and how casually the actors brought them to life in such a short amount of time. The classic ambiguous ending is the icing on the cake. If I see an episode superior to this one I'll report it, but it's doubtful. *** out of 4.

****SPOILERS**** While on a treasure hunt for Aztec gold in the mountains of New Mexico a group of collage students unearth this strange box that's been buried in a cave with strange lettering and symbols carved into it. Tinkering around with the box it's discovered in a hidden compartment this jar of human blood that hasn't hardened or turned to dust for over 500 years! As you would have expected one of the klutzy collage students Amber, Sarah Carter, accidentally spills the blood on the ground when fooling around with the jar. That sets off a number of events in the world where the sun disappears from the heavens and the temperature starts to drop dramatically.

It's became apparent that the blood being spilled is what caused the darkness as well as global cooling to accrue and to bring things back to normal there has to be an genuine Aztec human blood sacrifice preformed to refill the jar with blood and thus that's the cost of being one life to be taken-Aztec style- in the saving of billions of outers. And as luck or hard luck would have it it's Amber, by drawing straws, who's the one chosen to make the ultimate scarface! The problem is will it, Amber's death, bring the sun back or not or if in killing her will not be a act of saving the human race but an act of cold blooded murder!

****SPOILERS**** Opting to do Amber in to save the world the results do or don't seemed to justify what her fellow collage students did. The sun does majestically pops up in the sky but was it Amber being killed or just some strange and unexpected eclipse that caused it to disappear. It's Amber's friends who now have to live the rest of their lives in not really knowing if what they did, in killing Amber, save the world or condemned them as murderers, in the world that they are to inhabit after their long gone, for all eternity!

This is an incredibly disturbing episode. Five college student bumble their way into big trouble, as their messing with an Aztec artifact causes the sun to disappear in the sky. Of course, there are all kinds of implications, mainly, the severe temperature drop that affects the entire earth. The problem is that the petroglyphs say that a human sacrifice is necessary to bring back the sun. What do they do. It's the age old story of a group needling to figure who it's going to be. These young actors do a good job with their roles.

This is an incredibly suspenseful, taut and tense Twilight Zone episode, from the 2003 revival hosted by Forrest Whitaker. If you're nostalgic about the original ones featuring a gray flanneled suit man wistfully yearning for his childhood by the side of a merry-go-round, then turn away. If you're desiring an episode where a lost astronaut screams to the sky "Why/Where/What am I???!!!" only to realize he's on the outskirts of Vegas, then this isn't for you. No way.

Sunrise (which isn't a sequel to Rising Sun, the movie which constructively pondered US-Japanese relations) has a chilling and gory ending. I was hoping there would be a twist somewhere but not really.