Moral dilemma poll

[Y_Diner]

Go watch Oppenheimer.

 

[onomatopoeia]

I know the author of the original short story didn't like this version of the ending, but I prefer it.

Correct!

from wikipedia: "Button, Button" was first published in Playboy, June 1970. The story was republished as part of a collection of Matheson's short stories.

In the original short story, the plot is resolved differently. Norma presses the button, and receives the money—after her husband dies in a train incident, where he is pushed onto the tracks. The money is the no-fault insurance settlement, which is $50,000 instead of the $200,000 in the Twilight Zone episode. A despondent Norma asks the stranger why her husband was the one who was killed. The stranger replies, "Do you really think you knew your husband?"

Matheson strongly disapproved of the Twilight Zone version, especially the new ending, and used his pseudonym Logan Swanson for the teleplay.

Usually when a filmed version of a written work differs significantly from the original text, both versions are not written by the same author.

I agree with you that the The Twilight Zone ending is better.

 

[stinkynuts]

Thanks for explaining the original ending.

I agree. The twilight one is much better. First, in the original, the twist is that she may not have really "known" her husband. That is a weak twist. I think that when the stranger tells her that the person is someone she doesn't know, the obvious interpretation is the literal one, not the figurative one. To say that the real meaning was the she may not have figuratively "known" her husband and therefore eligible to be killed reduces the plot to a silly difference in semantics.

Second, in the twilight version, the endining is much more creepy and ominous. The dark twist is that the next person who gets the button will be a "complete stranger" to the couple, and they will face the same moral dilemma. The real possibility that they press the button and kill the couple brings home the reality of the decision that the couple made. They are now on the other side, and I think the realization of what they just did and what they now face really hits hard.

 

[onomatopoeia]

Thanks for explaining the original ending.

I agree. The twilight one is much better. First, in the original, the twist is that she may not have really "known" her husband. That is a weak twist. I think that when the stranger tells her that the person is someone she doesn't know, the obvious interpretation is the literal one, not the figurative one.

Second, in the twilight version, the endining is much more creepy and ominous. The dark twist is that the next person who gets the button will be a "complete stranger" to the couple, and they will face the same moral dilemma. The real possibility that they press the button and kill the couple brings home the reality that the couple made. They are now on the other side, and I think the realization of what they just did and what they now face really hits hard.

$50K was a lot of money in 1970, and the buying power of $200K in 1986 was much more than what it is now.

For arguements' sake, however, we'll stick with the $50K tax free amount. I wonder how many guys on TERB would rather have that than their wife, at this point in their life.

 

[anon1]

So far just under 20% would accept $10k if it mean someone died. I'm not going to judge these people, I don't know their circumstances. Everyone has a price applies to me, as I already indicated I'd most like accept the deal for $100 million.

Now We’re Just Haggling Over the Price

Now We’re Just Haggling Over the Price – Quote Investigator®

quoteinvestigator.com

 

[IM469]

Of course i said No. With my luck I would bend over to pick up the $ 10K and look up to see a piano about to fall on my head.

 

[globalthinker]

Never.