3. Nightmare at 20,000 Feet

While traveling by airplane on a dark stormy night, Robert Wilson sees a gremlin on the wing outside his window. He tries to alert his wife Julia and the stewardess, but every time they look out the window, the gremlin hides, so Robert's claim seems crazy. Robert admits the oddness of his being the only one to see the gremlin. His credibility is further undermined by this being his first flight since suffering a nervous breakdown six months earlier, which also occurred on an aircraft. Robert realizes that his wife is starting to think he needs to go back to the sanitarium, but his more immediate concern is the gremlin tinkering with the engines, which could cause the aircraft to crash.

In response to his repeated attempts to raise an alarm, the flight engineer comes out to evaluate the situation and the stewardess gives Robert a sedative, which he pretends to take but spits out. Robert then takes a sleeping police officer 's revolver, straps himself in, and opens an emergency exit window by which he is sitting. Fighting against the wind and rain, he shoots repeatedly at the gremlin, who is struck and falls off the wing.

Once the airplane has landed, Robert is whisked away on a gurney and in a straitjacket. He tells his wife that only he really knows what happened during the flight. In the final scene, the camera cranes up and tracks back to reveal damage to one of the aircraft's engines, as yet unnoticed by anyone.