In “The Dead Zone,” Johnny Smith tries to stop the politician Greg Stillson.
Stephen King’s 1979 science-fiction thriller follows Johnny Smith after he awakens from a coma lasting nearly five years. A neurological injury leaves him with clairvoyant and precognitive abilities, often triggered by touching people or objects. When Johnny touches Stillson, he sees a terrifying future in which Stillson becomes president and causes a global nuclear catastrophe.
Stillson is not presented as a conventional statesman. He begins as a volatile, ambitious businessman and local politician, then wins a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives as an independent. Johnny’s moral crisis resembles the classic question of whether someone should kill a dangerous future dictator before he gains power.
Readers sometimes confuse the character with real American presidents because the novel connects his political rise to national and international events. Stillson is fictional, however, and Greg Stillson is the canonical name in the novel. Johnny ultimately attempts to assassinate him at a political rally, but the plan fails in a way that still destroys Stillson’s political future.