Beachworld
Beachworld is a short science fiction story by Stephen King, first published in Weird Tales in 1984, and collected in King's 1985 collection Skeleton Crew.[1]
| Beachworld | |
|---|---|
| by Stephen King | |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Horror, Science fiction, Short story |
| Published in | Weird Tales (1st release), Skeleton Crew |
| Publication type | Magazine |
| Media type | Print (Periodical) |
| Publication date | 1984 |
Plot summary
Beachworld is set at an unspecified time in the distant future. Among the few clues to the date is the passing reference that the last of the Beach Boys had died eight thousand years previously.
The catastrophic crash-landing of a Federation spacecraft on an uncharted planet made up entirely of sand leaves one crewman, Grimes, dead while Rand and Shapiro survive. Rand stares out over the sand dunes as both men associate the endless rolling dunes with a beach. Rand becomes hypnotized by the dunes and refuses to move from the very spot he's standing on or drink water. Shapiro also feels drawn to the dunes but, unlike Rand, finds this hypnosis frightening and is relieved to go inside their ship where the dunes are out of sight. At one point he sees, or imagines, how the unnamed world once hosted civilized intelligent life, but over time the cities, bodies of water, and ultimately everything on the planet was overtaken and buried by the sand.
When a trader spacecraft arrives in response to Shapiro's beacon, the crew initially treat Shapiro's account with skepticism, but start to believe him after Rand fights them off, drawing strength from his eroded sanity. The captain of the trading ship sends out a sturdy android to force Rand to leave, but the android quickly jams and breaks down as sand gets into it, and sand rises up to stop a tranquilizer dart a crewman fires at Rand. As the black glass burned into the sand by the ship's thrusters on landing steadily crumbles, the captain finally heeds Shapiro's frantic demands to leave, and the ship lifts off, narrowly managing to reach escape velocity as a giant hand-shaped wave of sand tries to bring it down. Rand, left alone, stares up at the ship as it disappears, and then begins to pile handfuls of sand into his mouth.
Adaptations
A live action version of Beachworld was released in 2015.
A Dollar Baby version of Beachworld from OneNinth & Pointed Pictures premiered online in 2021 as part of the Stephen King Rules Dollar Baby Film Festival.[2]
References
- Wiater, etc; Stanley Wiater; Christopher Golden; Hank Wagner (2006). The Complete Stephen King Universe: A Guide to the Worlds of Stephen King. Macmillan. p. 479. ISBN 0-312-32490-1.
- Haysom, Sam. "25 Stephen King short films are being shown at this virtual festival. Some have never been released". Mashable. Retrieved 2021-04-27.
External links
- Beachworld title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
