Nightmares & Dreamscapes Trivia Quiz

Answer: Toy soldiers

After killing the owner of a toy company, assassin Renshaw, played by William Hurt, receives a package of toy soldiers in the mail. They come to life and attack him with miniature guns and bombs, which are no less effective than the real things. It's implied that the dead man's mother sent the toys to get revenge on the hitman.

Answer: An alternate dimension

The two get an invitation to go to dinner with one of his old friends. A cabbie warns them not to go to Crouch End, but they don't listen. They see strange beings and hear unusual noises while being drawn into a different world. The wife is able to escape, but her husband gets sucked into the alternate plane. Remarks from a few townspeople at the end imply that they're used to people going missing at Crouch End.

Answer: The death of his son

William H. Macy plays both the fictional detective Umney and the author who created him, Landry. The drowning death of his son drives Landry to want to swap places with his detective character, thinking that it would be much better to live in the world he constructed. Macy was nominated for an Emmy for this episode. He lost to Robert Duvall, who won for "Broken Trail".

Answer: It causes Alzheimer's

This was my favorite episode of the series. Ron Livingston plays Howard, a filmmaker whose brother Bobby (Henry Thomas) is a genius who figures out how to stop violence: by spreading a certain chemical throughout the world. For a few years, peace reigns as the chemical cuts down aggressive feelings. However, Bobby then discovers that the chemical also causes Alzheimer's, and soon afterwards, death, as people forget how to take care of themselves. Howard narrates the story on camera after most of humanity has died. His condition deteriorates throughout the episode as he succumbs to a heavy dose of the chemical.

In the short story, Howard writes about the end of humanity in a journal, whose entries become less grammatical as the story goes on.

Answer: A painting

Author Richard Kinnell (Tom Berenger) buys a creepy-looking painting from a yard sale. The painting constantly changes to predict dire events, including the death of the woman who sold the painting. Kinnell tries to ditch the painting, but it follows him home...

Answer: An amusement park

This episode contains no fantasy or science fiction elements. A man just released from prison tries to find four pieces of a map leading to a treasure. His wife figures out the map and finds the money in a "Pirates of the Caribbean" knock-off ride called "Buccaneers of the Caribbean". (Personally, I thought that her discovering the map's meaning by seeing a cereal box was silly.)

Answer: A snakebite

He is bitten by a snake while golfing. His pulse is so low that the doctors at the hospital can't detect it and think he's dead. The man narrates his thoughts as he is about to be cut open. Truly a nightmare scenario.

Answer: Rock

A couple, lost on the road, end up in a town called Rock and Roll Heaven, where dead rock icons live on. They soon discover that they can't leave and at the end of the episode are forced to attend a rock concert with others who also got lost. It's implied that the concerts are played every night and that the couple will be trapped there forever.

While the husband seems to be happy with the arrangement, his wife finds the situation horrific.

Answer: Battleground

There are occasional grunts and screams from the characters, but no words. One scene shows a newscast, but instead of hearing it, we see the newscaster's words in subtitles on the TV screen. I thought it was a creative approach to the story. It also somewhat justifies the fact that no one comes investigating the sounds of the bombs and guns going off upstairs: sound doesn't seem to exist as much in this world.

Answer: Stephen King

The full title of the series is "Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King". Only five of the episodes in the series were based on stories from the book "Nightmares & Dreamscapes". The three others were taken from the King books "Night Shift" and "Everything's Eventual". "The End of the Whole Mess" also appears in the multi-author anthology "Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse".