In Stephen King's The Dead Zone, Johnny Smith is the protagonist who gains psychic abilities. King’s 1979 science-fiction thriller follows Johnny, a schoolteacher in Maine who falls into a coma after a car accident. He awakens nearly five years later with severe neurological damage, but also with an unusual ability to experience visions when touching people or objects.
His visions can reveal hidden events from the past, dangers in the future, or information about people he encounters. The novel explains the “dead zone” as the permanently damaged part of Johnny’s brain, while other dormant areas become unusually active. That explanation differs from later screen adaptations, especially the television series, which uses the term differently.
Johnny is sometimes confused with Greg Stillson, the ambitious politician whose future he sees, or with Sarah, Johnny’s former girlfriend. Neither character has his psychic powers. Johnny Smith is also the character’s full name; “Johnny” is the familiar form used throughout the story.