Zero Hour story
Children are enlisted by invaders with a game that will help conquer the Earth. Directed by: Don McBrearty. Story by: Ray Bradbury.
12 total · 2 choice · 4 major · 6 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| attack from outer space | choice | A point of the story is to speculate about the shape an alien invasion might take. At the titular "zero hour" aliens were going to invade and, along with impressionable young children, destroy all adult humans. |
| child's point of view | choice | A point of the story is to hypothesize that children disagree with the tyrannical ways of adults, to such an extent that they would willingly cooperate with invading aliens in order to wipe out all the adult humans. |
| childhood imaginary friend | major | It seemed as if Mink had an imaginary friend, named Drill, throughout most of the story. It turned out that Drill was real, and a space alien to boot. |
| human childhood | major | Children were running around playing games, or so it seemed. |
| mother and daughter | major | Mary initially dismissed her young daughter Mink's talk of an imminent alien invasion. |
| what if I told the truth and nobody would believe me | major | Mink explained everything to her mom but wasn't believed, and so the alien invasion went ahead. |
| creative writing | minor | In the introduction, Ray Bradbury shared with the viewer the wellsprings of creativity that inspire his writing. |
| father and daughter | minor | Mink's father said goodbye to her as he drove off to work in his yellow sports car. |
| husband and wife | minor | Mary and Henry cowered in a storage room as the alien invasion got going. |
| peace on Earth | minor | A news anchor gave an update about the goings on at the World Peace Conference. The viewer is left to presume that war was a thing of the past in this near future world. |