Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King/The End of the Whole Mess

The End of the Whole Mess
Episode 4
Airdate	July 19, 2006
Written by	Lawrence D. Cohen
Directed by	Mikael Salomon
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Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King

The End of the Whole Mess is the fourth episode of Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King. Howard Fornoy is a documentary film maker making his final piece about his genius little brother Bobby whose invention had unintended side effects.

Starring: Ron Livingston (Howard Fornoy), Henry Thomas (Robert Fornoy)

Co-Stars: Tyler Coppin (Richard Fornoy), Rebecca Gibney (India Fornoy), Andy Anderson (Duke Rogers), Rarmian Newton (Bobby Fornoy (7, 9, 10)), Jye O'Toole (Howie Fornoy (12 years)), Nick Mulkearns (Bobby Fornoy (5 years old)), Bo Jerkic (Howie Fornoy (5, 7 years old)), Jake Stone (Bobby Fornoy (2–3 years old)), Matthew Lombardo (Bobby Fornoy (11 months)), Nicholas Bell (World Health Officer), Justina Noble (CNN Street Reporter), Kirsty Lee (Moderator), Greg Saunders (Dr. Banyard)

Plot Overview

Howard Fornoy is a documentary film maker telling how everything ended. His younger brother had a high level of intelligence growing up. He created art, wrote, and used computers from an early age. Howard is making the documentary because he had just killed his brother using "the cummulative" which Bobby invented.

Bobby had different hobbies which he would become obsessed with in phases of his life, like physics and archaeology. Later in his life he became introspective about the way things were. This gave him the idea that would become his life's passion. After this they didn't see a lot from Bobby for several years, until he showed up at Howard's apartment five years later. He had invented a type of water that was supposed to correct the aggressive nature of mankind.

Howard was skeptical about the idea and felt that it might lead to unintended side effects, but agreed to help out nonetheless. Bobby wanted to seed his invention, which he called La Plata water, in a volcano that was soon going to erupt. They needed Howard to help raise the millions that was needed to fund the project. He was able to do so and they seeded the volcano with his La Plata water. The experiment went as a success and enemies throughout the world made peace.

Bobby became famous for his invention, but there were side effects as Howard had predicted. People started getting Alzheimers because the potency of the water increased over time. This created a worldwide panic but because of the water there were still no wars. Bobby showed up at Howard's towards the end and asked Howard to give him a shot of highly concentrated La Plata water which killed him. He then gave himself the same shot and started doing the documentary about how things came to be the way they were.

Notes

• The episode takes liberties from the original story, which was written pre-9/11 and instead features the threat of nuclear war as a turning point in Bobby's life. In addition the part of Howard was originally to be a writer, instead of a documentary film maker.

Trivia

The Show

• Goof (Facts): There never was a version of WordStar for the C64.

Mrs. Fornoy: And so we got him a—a—
Mr. Fornoy: … a Commodore 64 with WordStar for Christmas.

Reviews

• Overall Grade: C- with 1 review
• Review Breakdown: A+: 0 A: 0 A-: 0 B+: 0 B: 0 B-: 0 C+: 0 C: 0 C-: 1 D: 0 F: 0
• C-: Like most of the stories in this anthology series, this episode is a watered down adaptation of the short story; one which attempts to achieve relevance by updating the technology used and the subject matter. It is largely unsuccessful. For one, there is never a real reason given why this so-called cure was necessary. Bobby laments about how bad things are, but aside from not being true, it's not even presented as being any worse in the show as it is here in real life. The episode fails to create any dread. It is not the so-called overaggression of men that ultimately does in everyone, but a mad scientist. What exactly am I supposed to be frightened by here? --MateoP 10:30, 23 July 2006 (EDT)