YEAR: 1979
DIRECTOR: Tobe Hooper
PINBALL MODEL(S): Jacks Open (1977, Gottlieb) & Big Brave (1974, Gottlieb)
GAME LOCATION: Diner
NOTES: The three consecutive shots that feature pinball in this (still ridiculously terrifying) Stephen King adaptation are not merely incidental, but actually serve a pair of useful functions. The first shot (not pictured) is of a hand releasing the plunger on the Big Brave pin, cutting to the table action on the Jacks Open playfield, and lastly to a follow shot that surveys the space of the diner. When paired with the preceding shot of the hero staring at the haunted mansion on the hill from the diner window, we realize that the plunger shot launches us (pun intended) into a new act of the story; presumably following a commercial break.
The playfield shot—as with many such shots in cinema—is coded to promote a sense of seemingly chaotic action, with a player doing their best to manipulate this action in their favor. So too does the film's hero effort to resist the negative forces at work within the narrative.
Lastly, the presence of pinball within the diner serves to imbue a sense of the cultural normalcy of this space. The central conflict of the film involves an invading (foreign) evil—one that seeks to destroy an otherwise idyllic New England town; thus alluding to a broader cultural vulnerability and the disruption of small-town America's tendency toward isolationism.
