Battleground (Stephen King)
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'Battleground' is a horror story by Stephen King published in 'Night Shift' collection. It has now also been converted to a teleplay by Richard Christian Matheson for the television series Nightmares & Dreamscapes.
Renshaw is a professional killer who returns from his assassination of a toy-maker to find a package waiting for him at his hotel. The package contains a G.I. Joe Vietnam Footlocker, sent to him by the mother of the toy-maker he had recently killed. When he opens the package he finds that the toy soldiers are alive with working copies (albeit miniature) of weapons, jeeps, and helicopters. To Renshaw's surprise the tiny soldiers begin to attack him. At one point, the toy soldiers even offer him the chance to surrender. Renshaw does not and is then attacked with more force. Renshaw plots to attack the soldiers with a Molotov cocktail constructed from a bottle of lighter fluid, but when he throws it the whole apartment explodes, killing him. As the dust settles from the explosion, it is revealed that in the box was a one-time special including extra military units including surface-to-air missiles and one scale-model thermonuclear weapon.
The Show
This Stephen King story, penned by Richard Christian Matheson for television, was used as the first episode on the TNT show Nightmares and Dreamscapes. It's original airdate was scheduled for Wednesday July 12, 2006. Directed by David Cronenberg and Starring William Hurt as Renshaw the assassin. There is no dialouge in the entire show.
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