Abrams borrows from the best: ‘Twilight Zone’

Sharp-eyed and knowledgeable moviegoers are likely to pick up on something in J.J. Abrams’ film “Super 8” that most of the rest of us will miss: the “Twilight Zone” reference.

In one scene, characters talk about “Operation Walking Distance.” That’s a reference to one of Abrams’ favorite “Twilight Zone” episodes, “Walking Distance, ” which was first broadcast on Oct. 30, 1959. It stars Gig Young, an Oscar winner 10 years later for “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” Young plays a man, pressured by life, who gets off a train and meets his younger self.

I didn’t catch the reference. Instead, I read about it in an article that referred to an Abrams interview. I wonder, really, how many viewers actually have caught it?

Below : The middle section of “Walking Distance.”