"Battleground" is a

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

short story by American writer

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror novels and has also explored other genres, among them Thriller (genre), suspense, crime fiction, crime, scienc ...

, first published in the September 1972 issue of ''

Cavalier The term ''Cavalier'' () was first used by Roundheads as a term of abuse for the wealthier royalist supporters of Charles I of England and his son Charles II of England, Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum (England), Int ...

'' magazine, and later collected in King's 1978 collection ''

Night Shift The shift plan, rota or roster (esp. British) is the central component of a schedule (workplace), shift schedule in shift work. The schedule includes considerations of shift overlap, shift change times and alignment with the clock, vacation, train ...

''.

Plot summary

Renshaw is a professional hit-man, who returns from his assassination of a toy-maker to find a package delivered to his

penthouse apartment A penthouse is an apartment or unit traditionally on the highest floor of an apartment building, condominium, hotel, or tower. Penthouses are typically differentiated from other apartments by luxury features. The term 'penthouse' originally re ...

in the

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose. The Association of Bay Area Governments ...

. The package contains a ''

G.I. Joe ''G.I. Joe'' is an American media franchise and a line of action figures owned and produced by the toy company Hasbro. The initial product offering represented four of the branches of the U.S. armed forces with the Action Soldier ( U.S. Army), A ...

'' Vietnam footlocker, sent to him by the mother of the toy-maker he had recently killed. When he opens the package, he finds that the toy soldiers are alive with working copies (albeit miniature) of weapons, jeeps, and

helicopters A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attribu ...

. To Renshaw's surprise, the tiny soldiers begin to attack him. Despite his training and experience as a hitman, Renshaw finds himself outnumbered and outgunned, and he cedes control of the living room to the toy soldiers, taking cover in the bathroom. As the soldiers establish a base camp on his dining table, they unveil more and more military hardware, ranging from shoulder-launched rockets to military attack helicopters. The soldiers pass a piece of paper under the door, demanding his surrender, but Renshaw writes "NUTS" on the paper and sends it back, prompting a barrage of rocket fire which destroys most of the door. Renshaw eventually plots to destroy the soldiers with a

Molotov cocktail A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see '') is a hand-thrown incendiary weapon consisting of a frangible container filled with flammable substances and equipped with a Fuse (explosives), fuse (typically a glass bottle filled wit ...

constructed from a bottle of lighter fluid, but before the cocktail detonates, a massive blast destroys the entire apartment. Outside in a park below, a couple finds Renshaw's bloody shirt, and the other contents of the footlocker are revealed, including one made-to-scale

thermonuclear weapon A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H-bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a lowe ...

Film and TV adaptations

"Battleground" was converted to a teleplay by

Richard Christian Matheson Richard Christian Matheson (born October 14, 1953) is an American writer of horror fiction and screenplays, the son of fiction writer and screenwriter Richard Matheson. He is the author of over 100 short stories of psychological horror and magi ...

for the television series '' Nightmares & Dreamscapes.'' Originally airing on Wednesday July 12, 2006, the episode was directed by

Brian Henson Brian David Henson (born November 3, 1963) is an American puppeteer, filmmaker, and the chairman of The Jim Henson Company. He is the son of puppeteers Jim and Jane Henson. Early life Henson was born on November 3, 1963 in New York City, th ...

and starred William Hurt as Renshaw the assassin. There is no dialogue in the entire episode. The episode featured a longer ending than the short story, in which Renshaw is attacked again and makes it out of the penthouse for a final showdown in the elevator shaft with an angry plastic commando (played by an uncredited

Bill Barretta William Barretta is an American puppeteer, producer, writer, director, and actor, best known for his involvement with the Muppets. Barretta performs the Muppet characters Pepe the King Prawn, Bobo the Bear and Johnny Fiama, he also inherited t ...

). Renshaw defeats the final commando, only to find it has armed a

that then explodes and kills him. The story was also made into an animated short film, ''Srazhenie'' ( - meaning "Battle"; see External Links below) by the Soviet Kievnauchfilm studio in 1986, directed by Mikhail Titov. A similar concept was used in the 1981 anthology series ''

Darkroom A darkroom is used to process photographic film, make Photographic printing, prints and carry out other associated tasks. It is a room that can be made completely dark to allow the processing of light-sensitive photographic materials, including ...

.'' The segment, titled "The Siege of 31 August," involved a Vietnam Vet turned farmer that discovers the army men he purchased for his son have come to life.

References

External links

"Battleground" at StephenKing.com
*
Soviet cartoon adaptation
{{Stephen King Short stories by Stephen King 1972 short stories Fantasy short stories Horror short stories Short stories about sentient toys Works originally published in Cavalier (magazine) Short stories adapted into films Short stories set in California

Plot summary

Film and TV adaptations

See also

References

External links