The Trunk (The Twilight Zone)

"The Trunk" is the forty-ninth episode and the fourteenth episode of the third season (1988–89) of the television series The Twilight Zone.

Opening narration[]

It's been said that all good things come to those who wait. This is Willy Gardner, a man whose lifetime of waiting is about to end. Willy Gardner, a man with limited space, limited horizons, and limited contact with humanity. People float in and out of his life like flotsam and jetsam washing up on the beach. But the law of salvage is about to change all that. Today, Willy is about to find something very valuable on his particular beach...in the Twilight Zone.

Plot[]

Willy Gardner, an amiable man, operates a run-down hotel called the Winchester. One day, as he makes his rounds rousing the guests at noon for check-out time, he comes across an open door to room 303. In the room, Willy finds a trunk which he opens and finds empty. He makes an off-handed remark about wishing he had a nickel for every time he found a piece of luggage someone left behind. He closes it and attempts to move it but it has become too heavy. Willy opens it again to find the trunk filled with nickels.

Willy, excited with his find, makes another wish. This time, he wishes for a mug of root beer just like when he was a kid. He realizes that he doesn't really need money when he can wish for anything he wants out of the trunk. Soon, his little apartment in the back of the hotel is the epitome of bad taste as Willy has decorated it and himself in a white tuxedo. Willy has a party and invites some of his longtime guests and a local girl on whom he has a crush and is trying to impress. Even when he runs into a nice elderly lady guest he slips her a bottle of champagne—another gift of the trunk. One of the local girl's (Candy) hoodlum friends Danny happens to notice where Willy went to get his stash of liquor.

When Danny comes back into the party, he motions to the girl to get Willy outside. Outside, they talk and Willy begins to realize that Candy is just trying to get money out of him. He tells her he wants someone who really loves him and will marry him. Willy realizes it's not her and as they return to the party Willy starts feeling generous and begins giving away his things. His guests take all of his possessions and leave. Willy realizes those things mean nothing if he doesn't have someone to share it with. While cleaning up after the party, Willy is attacked by Danny and his hoodlum friends who are trying to find how he got all those possessions. Willy gets away and runs upstairs to the room with the trunk. Going inside the trunk, the hoodlums follow him but he is nowhere to be found - not even in the trunk. The hoodlums run off as the police sirens are heard in the distance. Willy, however, thinks he is safe and attempts to get out but realizes he's locked in the trunk.

Later, the trunk is sitting in the living room of a girl who has apparently just moved into her apartment. She receives a phone call from her mother and they talk about her finding a man. The girl off-offhandedly says "I wish." All the while she is talking, the girl is trying to pry open the trunk apparently not knowing what's inside. She manages to get it open and out pops Willy Gardner, who is now clean-cut and well-dressed.

Closing narration[]

Willy Gardner, a simple man who discovered in a steamer trunk the difference between possessions and real wealth. Once adrift in a sea of humanity, he's finally found a safe harbor, in a port of call...known as the Twilight Zone.

External links[]

• "The Trunk" at IMDb