The Tommyknockers is a 1987 horror novel by Stephen King. While maintaining a horror style, the novel is more of an excursion into the realm of science fiction for King, as the residents of the Maine town of Haven gradually fall under the influence of a mysterious object buried in the woods.

The original 1987 hardcover edition was issued with dust jackets in three different states. The most common ones are with the author's name in gold (pictured on the right) or red lettering. The more rare state of the dust jacket features the author's name in silver lettering and pale blue light shining from under the door, as opposed to green as in the other two variants.

Plot summary[link]

While walking in the woods near the small town of Haven, Maine, Roberta (Bobbi) Anderson, a writer of Wild West-based fiction, stumbles upon a metal object which turns out to be a protrusion of a long-buried alien spacecraft. Once exposed, the spacecraft begins releasing an invisible, odorless gas into the atmosphere which gradually transforms people into beings similar to the aliens who populated the spacecraft. It also provides them with a limited form of genius which makes them very inventive, but does not provide any philosophical or ethical insight, instead provoking psychotic violence (on the part of people like Becka Paulson, who kills her adulterous husband by fatally rewiring the TV, killing herself in the process) and the disappearance of a young boy, David Brown, whose older brother Hilly teleports him to another planet referred to as Altair 4 by the Havenites.

The book's central protagonist is a poet and friend of Bobbi Anderson, named James Eric Gardner, who goes by the nickname "Gard". He is a fundamentally decent person with left-leaning, liberal sensibilities who is apparently immune to the ship's effects because of a steel plate in his head, a souvenir of a teenage skiing accident. Unfortunately, Gard is also an alcoholic, prone to binges which result in violent outbursts followed by lengthy blackouts. His relationship with Bobbi deteriorates as the novel progresses. She is almost totally overcome by the euphoria of "becoming" one with the spacecraft, but Gard increasingly sees her health worsen and her sanity disappear. The novel is filled with metaphors for the stranglehold of substance abuse, which King himself was experiencing at the time, as well as for the dangers of nuclear power and radioactive fallout (as evidenced by the physical transformations of the townspeople, which resemble the effects of radiation exposure), of unchecked technological advancement, and of the corrupting influence of power. Government agencies are uniformly portrayed as corrupt and totalitarian throughout the book, and Bobbi and Gard themselves are led into thinking that they can use the ship's "power" as a weapon to thwart the authorities' nefarious designs.

Seeing the transformation of the townspeople worsen, the torture and manipulation of Bobbi's dog Peter, and people being killed or worse when they pry too deeply into the strange events, Gardner eventually manipulates Bobbi into allowing him into the ship. After he sees that Bobbi is not entirely his old friend and lover, he gives her one more chance before he finally kills her with the same gun that Monster Dugan had almost killed her with in her back field previously. However, just before she dies, Bobbi sends a telepathic APB and all the townspeople show up at her place very quickly. Meanwhile, Gard accidentally (by dropping the gun) shoots himself in the ankle. In exchange for using the "new and improved" computers and what little "becoming" he underwent to save David Brown, Ev Hillman helps him escape into the woods (which soon catches fire from one of the Tommyknockers' "toys") at which point Gardner enters the ship, activates it, and with the last of his life telepathically launches it into space, resulting in the eventual deaths of nearly all of the changed townspeople but preventing the possibly disastrous consequences of the ship's influence spreading to the outside world. Very shortly after (in the epilogue) members from the FBI, CIA, and "The Shop" invade Haven and take as many of the Havenites as possible (they kill nearly a quarter of the survivors) and a few of the devices created by the altered people of Haven.

In the last pages, David Brown is discovered in Hilly Brown's hospital room, safe and sound.

The book takes its title from an old children's rhyme:

Late last night and the night before,

Tommyknockers, Tommyknockers, knocking at the door.

I want to go out, don't know if I can,

'Cause I'm so afraid of the Tommyknocker man.

King himself wrote the second verse; and claims to have heard the first verse when he was a child.

Influences[link]

In his autobiography, On Writing, King attributes the basic premise to the short story "The Colour Out of Space" by H. P. Lovecraft. It also draws fairly obvious parallels with the classic 1956 movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the 1959 novelette The Big Front Yard by Clifford Simak. King wrote the book during a period of acknowledged substance abuse, and has written that he realized later on that the novel was a metaphor for that addiction.

The writer and critic Kim Newman has cited another influence on the novel, saying that in it King had "more or less rewritten Quatermass and the Pit,"^[1] a 1950s BBC television science-fiction serial involving the excavation of a long-buried alien spacecraft, and the growing influence of the dormant machine on surrounding human beings. This influence was also picked up on in The Times newspaper's review of the book on its release.^[2]

Miniseries[link]

A TV miniseries based on the novel was shown in 1993 on ABC starring Jimmy Smits as Jim Gardner and Marg Helgenberger as Bobbi Anderson. The film differs from the novel by stating the aliens return to life by sucking life out of the Haven residents, instead of the Haven residents slowly transforming into aliens.

Footnotes[link]

v t e Works of Stephen King Novels Carrie (1974) 'Salem's Lot (1975) The Shining (1977) The Stand (1978) The Dead Zone (1979) Firestarter (1980) Cujo (1981) Christine (1983) Pet Sematary (1983) Cycle of the Werewolf (1983) The Talisman (1984; with Peter Straub) It (1986) The Eyes of the Dragon (1987) Misery (1987) The Tommyknockers (1987) The Dark Half (1989) Needful Things (1991) Gerald's Game (1992) Dolores Claiborne (1992) Insomnia (1994) Rose Madder (1995) The Green Mile (1996) Desperation (1996) Bag of Bones (1998) The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (1999) Dreamcatcher (2001) Black House (2001; with Peter Straub) From a Buick 8 (2002) The Colorado Kid (2005) Cell (2006) Lisey's Story (2006) Duma Key (2008) Under the Dome (2009) Blockade Billy (2010) 11/22/63 (2011) Doctor Sleep (2013) Joyland (2013) The Dark Tower series The Gunslinger (1982) The Drawing of the Three (1987) The Waste Lands (1991) Wizard and Glass (1997) Wolves of the Calla (2003) Song of Susannah (2004) The Dark Tower (2004) The Wind Through the Keyhole (2012) Richard Bachman novels Rage (1977) The Long Walk (1979) Roadwork (1981) The Running Man (1982) Thinner (1984) The Bachman Books (1985) The Regulators (1996) Blaze (2007) Short fiction collections Night Shift (1978) Different Seasons (1982) Skeleton Crew (1985) Four Past Midnight (1990) Nightmares & Dreamscapes (1993) Hearts in Atlantis (1999) Everything's Eventual (2002) Just After Sunset (2008) Full Dark, No Stars (2010) Non-fiction Danse Macabre (1981) Nightmares in the Sky (1988) On Writing (2000) Secret Windows (2000) Faithful (2004; with Stewart O'Nan) E-books Riding the Bullet (2000) The Plant (2000; unfinished) Ur (2009) Mile 81 (2011) Screenplays Creepshow (1982) Cat's Eye (1985) Silver Bullet (1985) Maximum Overdrive (1986; also director) Pet Sematary (1989) Sleepwalkers (1992) Cell (2012) Teleplays Sorry, Right Number (1988) Golden Years (1991) The Stand (1994) The Shining (1997) "Chinga" (1998; with Chris Carter) Storm of the Century (1999) Rose Red (2002) Kingdom Hospital (2004) Desperation (2006) Collaborations with musicians Michael Jackson's Ghosts (1997; with Michael Jackson) Black Ribbons (2010; with Shooter Jennings) Ghost Brothers of Darkland County (2012; with John Mellencamp) Graphic novels Creepshow (1982) The Dark Tower (2007-Present) The Stand (2008-2012) The Talisman (2009-2010) American Vampire (2010) N. (2010) Road Rage (2012) Related articles Unpublished and uncollected works by Stephen King Media based on Stephen King works Books about Stephen King Tabitha King Naomi King Joe Hill Owen King Peter Straub Rock Bottom Remainders Dollar Baby Jerusalem's Lot Castle Rock, Maine Derry, Maine The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red Book:Stephen King

Traci Lords
Traci Lords, Beverly Hills, California on February 25, 2011
Born	Nora Louise Kuzma[1] (1968-05-07) May 7, 1968 (age 44) Steubenville, Ohio, U.S.
Other names	Kristie Elizabeth Nussman, Traci Elizabeth Lords, Tracy Lords, Nora Kuzma, Tracie Lords, director known as Cheech Bogardt
Ethnicity	Caucasian
Height	5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
Weight	115 lb (52 kg; 8.2 st)
Spouse	Jeff Lee (2002-present) 1 child Ryan Granger (1999-2000) (divorced) Brook Yeaton (1990-1996) (divorced)
No. of adult films	107 as actress, 2 as director (per IAFD)
Website
http://www.tracilords.com/

Traci Lords (born Nora Louise Kuzma^[1] on May 7, 1968), also known as Traci Elizabeth Lords and Tracy Lords, is an American film actress, producer, film director, writer and singer. She first achieved notoriety for her underage appearances in pornographic videos and Penthouse magazine (she was 16 years old in her first movie),^[2] later becoming a successful television and B-movie actress.

Early life[link]

Nora Louise Kuzma was born in Steubenville, Ohio to Louis and Patricia Kuzma (née Briceland). Her stage name is said to be a tribute to Katharine Hepburn's character Tracy Lord from The Philadelphia Story or from the first name of her high school best friend Traci and the last name of her favorite actor from Hawaii Five-O, Jack Lord. She was raped at the age of ten.^[3] At 12, she fled from her abusive alcoholic father to Lawndale, California, with her mother and three sisters. Her mother's new boyfriend, Roger, was a cocaine dealer who molested her.^[4] In 1983, she began attending Redondo Union High School.

Porn career[link]

At the age of 15, Nora had dropped out of school and was living with her mother's ex-boyfriend, Roger. Posing as her stepfather, he helped her respond to classified ads requesting models. Using a false driver's license ID provided by Roger that stated she was 20 rather than 15,^[5] she started in the porn industry with Jim South at the World Modeling Agency in Sherman Oaks, under the name Kristie Elizabeth Nussman.^[4]

Shortly after, Nora (now calling herself Traci Lords) was modeling for widely distributed adult magazines, most notably Penthouse, in the same September 1984 issue that exposed Miss America 1984, Vanessa Williams. She quickly ventured into adult movies. Her first movie was What Gets Me Hot!, followed by Those Young Girls and Talk Dirty To Me Part III, all made in the first half of 1984. By the time she was 18, she had appeared in 100 adult films; however, Lords argued in her autobiography that about 80 of those films were composed from leftover and re-edited footage from 21 of her original films.^[6]

In late May 1986, authorities discovered she had been underage while making pornographic movies and arrested her, as well as the owners of her movie agency and X-Citement Video, Inc. (See United States v. X-Citement Video.) The ensuing prosecution against the agencies cost the pornographic film and distribution industry millions of dollars, as they were obliged by law to remove hundreds of thousands of her videotapes, films and magazines from store shelves to avoid the risk of prosecution for trafficking in child pornography. (The legality varies with countries. For example, while it is illegal in France to produce a pornographic film involving an actor under 18, the film remains legal.^[7])

In her book, Lords suggested hypocrisy on the part of the movie producers and the news media, arguing the porn industry actually got richer from the publicity of the scandal, even as they complained of losing money after destroying her illegal movies. Lords felt she was also exploited by the reporters, who used censored stills from her unlawful films. Lords herself was never charged with a crime. Instead, the agents and producers who accepted her false IDs were charged, and people affiliated with the films in question experienced legal troubles for years.

Lords received a salary for her appearances in X-rated movies. According to her autobiography, she received $35,000 as total salary for all of those movies, including the $5,000 for her appearance in Penthouse.

For her last few porn films, she and her boyfriend formed the Traci Lords Company, where he co-produced and directed the movies. Lords received a smaller salary, but also received part of the rights of these movies.

Only one of these adult porn films, Traci, I Love You, was videotaped and produced in Paris, France just after her 18th birthday, making it the only one legally available in the United States. (However, in non-US jurisdictions where the age restriction on pornography is lower, as well as over the Internet, her earlier films continue to be distributed.) While most of her pre-18 films were removed permanently from distribution in the United States, several were simply re-edited to remove Lords' scenes entirely (such as "Kinky Business" and "New Wave Hookers"), or in a few cases, had new footage shot with a different actress playing her part (as in "Talk Dirty to Me Part III", where her character was essential to the storyline).

Several months after her arrest in early 1987, Lords sold her rights to Traci, I Love You for $100,000. This action led to claims that Lords herself had tipped off the authorities to gain immunity from prosecution, while profiting from the movie.^[6] Lords denies this notion in her autobiography, and claims she was reluctant to sell the rights, since at that time she was trying to become a mainstream actress, and wanted no older movies still available. Also, she wrote that she knew nothing of people's real names or who produced which film, and did not provide such information to the FBI. The FBI agents "appeared annoyed" when she could not provide the information they wanted. She said the agents claimed to have monitored her for three years.^[6]

Government prosecutors declared Lords was a victim of a manipulative industry, maintaining she was drugged and made to do non-consensual acts. But industry insiders, like Ron Jeremy, Ginger Lynn and Tom Byron, say they never saw her use drugs, and insist that she was always fully aware of her actions. One of her co-workers from that time, Christy Canyon, has gone so far as to say about Lords' autobiography: "I think her book could have been fabulous, except that she was lying throughout the whole thing."^[8]

While Lords decries the pornographic film industry, she continues to use the stage name she gave herself as a minor, and ultimately made it her legal name. She wrote, "I chose to stop running from it. Instead, I won it, legally changing my name to Traci Elizabeth Lords. That's who I was, and that's who I was going to be."^[6] Lords stated she is not trying to deny her past, telling Oprah Winfrey: "I found you can run, but you cannot hide."^[9]

Post-porn career[link]

This section's references may not meet Wikipedia's guidelines for reliable sources. Please help by checking whether the references meet the criteria for reliable sources. (August 2011)

Lords moved into mainstream films, and has appeared in several movies. At 18, Lords began studying method acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute,^[10] and soon after, starred in a remake of Roger Corman's film Not of This Earth.^[11] Then in 1990, she appeared in John Waters' Cry-Baby, playing the role of Wanda Woodward. Other movies on her resume include Blade, Tommyknockers, Black Mask 2: City of Masks, and Chump Change. The last won her a Best Actress Award at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. She has also made cameo appearances in Serial Mom, Nowhere and Virtuosity, and Panic Button in 2007 (made for TV).

In addition to movies, Lords has also made many appearances in TV shows, including Wiseguy in the episode "Date With an Angel", Married... with Children, MacGyver, Highlander: The Series, Tales from the Crypt, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Gilmore Girls, and Will & Grace among others, along with recurring roles in Profiler, Melrose Place, and Roseanne. She made her musical debut on the Manic Street Preachers' U.K. Top 40 hit "Little Baby Nothing",^[12] singing a duet with singer James Dean Bradfield, but did not appear in the music video. She appeared in the music videos of other performers and groups. In 1995, Lords made her solo debut, in collaboration with Juno Reactor and Jesus Jones' Mike Edwards, called 1000 Fires. The Juno Reactor-produced first single "Control" reached #2 on the Billboard Dance Charts.^[13] The song "Control" was featured in the 1995 movie adaptation of the game Mortal Kombat, where it was played as an instrumental.

Lords returned to the music scene in 2004 with a new, independently produced recording, the double A-side "Sunshine."

In 2003, she published her autobiography, Traci Lords: Underneath It All (ISBN 0-06-050820-5), which made the New York Times bestseller list. In December 2003, Lords wrote and directed a short film with Fox Searchlab entitled Sweet Pea, released and shown at film festivals in 2005. The film is loosely inspired by an experience recounted in her autobiography, and involves a teenage girl who finds herself overcome with doubt after being raped by her boyfriend.

Lords made recent major theatrical appearances in Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008) and I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell. Lords' character in the former is loosely based on herself, but she refused to appear nude. She also starred in the 2009 low-budget science fiction film Princess of Mars.

Personal life[link]

In October 2007 at age 39, Lords gave birth to a son, Joseph Gunnar, her first child with her husband of five years, Jeff Lee.^[14]

Acting credits[link]

Film[link]

• Excision (2012)
• Here & Now (2010) - Diane
• Au Pair, Kansas (2010) - Helen
• Princess of Mars (2009) - Dejah Thoris
• I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell (2009) - Connie
• Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008) - Bubbles
• The Chosen One (2007)
• Crazy Eights (2006) – Gina Conte
• Novel Romance (2005) – Max
• Frostbite (2005) – Naomi Bucks
• Home (2003) – Lorna
• Black Mask 2: City of Masks (2002) – Chameleon
• You're Killing Me... (aka: The Killing Club) (2001) – Laura Engles
• Chump Change (2001) (as Traci Elizabeth Lords) – Sam
• Certain Guys (2000) – Kathleen
• Epicenter (2000) (as Traci Elizabeth Lords) – Amanda Foster
• Extramarital (1999) – Elizabeth
• Me and Will (1999) – Waitress
• Stir (1998) – Kelly Bekins
• Blade (1998) – Racquel
• Boogie Boy (1998) – Shonda Lee Bragg
• Nowhere (1997) – Valley Chick #1
• Blood Money (1997) – Wendy Monroe
• Underworld (1996) – Anna
• Virtuosity (1995) – Media Zone Singer
• Skinner (1995) – Heidi
• Your Studio and You (1995) - Herself
• Ice (1994) – Ellen Reed
• Serial Mom (1994) – Carl's Date
• Plughead Rewired: Circuitry Man II (1994) – Norma
• Desperate Crimes (1993) – Laura
• Intent to Kill (1992) – Vickie Stewart
• Laser Moon (1992) – Barbara Fleck
• The Nutt House (1992) – Miss Tress
• Raw Nerve (1991) – Gina Clayton
• A Time to Die (1991) – Jackie
• Shock 'Em Dead (1991) – Lindsay Roberts
• Cry-Baby (1990) – Wanda Woodward
• Fast Food (1989) – Dixie Love
• Not of This Earth (1988) – Nadine Story

Television[link]

• Celebrity Ghost Stories (2009)
• Head Case (2007)
• Panic Button (2007)
• Andy Barker, P.I. (2007) – Loretta Crispin
• Celebrity Paranormal Project (2006) (as herself)
• Gilmore Girls (2003) (as Traci Elizabeth Lords) – Natalie Zimmermann
• Deathlands (2003) – Lady Rachel Cawdor
• They Shoot Divas, Don't They? (2002) (as Traci Elizabeth Lords) – Mira
• First Wave (2000–01) (as Traci Elizabeth Lords) – Jordan Radcliffe
• Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (1 episode, 1999)
• D.R.E.A.M. Team (1999) (as Traci Elizabeth Lords) – Lena Brant
• Profiler (1997–1998) – Sharon Lesher
• Nash Bridges (1997) – as Sean Collins
• Dead Man's Island (1996) – Miranda Prescott
• As Good as Dead (1995) – Nicole Grace
• Melrose Place (1995) – Rikki
• Dragstrip Girl (1994) – Blanche
• Roseanne (1994) – Stacy
• Bandit: Bandit's Silver Angel (1994) – Angel Austin
• Highlander: The Series (1993) – Greta
• Tales from the Crypt (1993) — Emma Conway
• The Tommyknockers (1993) – Nancy Voss
• Murder in High Places (1991) – Diane
• Married... with Children (1991: Season 6, Episode 11) – Vanessa Van Pelt; (1989: Season 4, Episode 4) – T.C.
• MacGyver Jenny (1 episode, 1990)
• Wiseguy (1 episode, 1989:Season 1, Episode 22) - "Date With An Angel"

Video games[link]

• True Crime: New York City (2005) – Cassandra Hartz
• Ground Control II: Operation Exodus (2004) – Dr. Alice McNeil
• Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2004) – Pestilence
• Defender (2002) – Commander Kyoto

Music[link]

• "Last Drag" (2011) (single) #4 Billboard Dance/Club Play Chart
• "Come Alive" (2007) (single)
• "You Burn Inside Me" (2005 - used for Duprey Cosmetics commercial)- directed by Mike Ruiz, produced by Jeff Beasley.
• "Walking in L.A." (2004) (single) The music video was directed by fashion photographer Mike Ruiz, and produced by Jeff Beasley for CAYA FILMWORKS. It first premiered on an episode of "Oprah" during her interview with Traci Lords.
• "Sunshine" (2004) (single)
• 1000 Fires (1995) (CD)
• "Fallen Angel" (1995 Paul Oakenfold) (CD single and vinyl LP) #11 Billboard Dance/Club Play Chart
• "Control (Juno Reactor Instrumental)" - used for Reptile's theme in Mortal Kombat.
• "Control" (1994) (CD single) #2 Billboard Dance/Club Play Chart
• Acid Eaters (1993 Ramones album) (background vocals on "Somebody to Love")
• Generation Terrorists (1992 Manic Street Preachers album) (vocals on "Little Baby Nothing" - UK Charts # 29 )