Rod Serling’s opening narration describes Peaceful Valley as “the capital of the Twilight Zone,” which explains the surreal, disorienting nature of the reality that Phillip experiences after getting lost in the town. When his dog Rollie chases a cat, the poor creature disappears after a resident uses a strange device on it, but soon re-materializes after some time. Upon encountering a string of strange events, Phillip decides to leave the town but ends up running into an invisible wall that causes his car to crash, killing his dog in the process. (The dog is brought back to life again with the strange device, don’t worry.)
Lafferty talked about the mechanics of filming this sequence, where identical cars (1959 Chevrolet Impala convertibles) were used to create the illusion of a collision with the help of well-timed cuts:
“The critical portion of the sequence was achieved by putting a one-inch chain around the back axle and running it with about twenty feet of slack, to a steady nearby tree where it was tied off. By framing a portion of the road, a stunt man drove the car into the frame of the camera and, when the slack was used up, was slammed against the steering wheel.”
Nelson, who played Phillip, was put inside one car going at a normal speed for a quick cut, while a stunt double played out the collision part of the sequence, which ended with a close-up of the wreckage. Unfortunately, the stunt professional went a little bit too hard at the steering wheel while driving at low speed, leading to injuries that landed him in the hospital. Thankfully, no one else was gravely injured during filming, and the sequence was promptly wrapped up without a hitch.