High Strung 1992

Thane Furrows [Steve Oedekerk] spends a day cooped up in his apartment in an unnamed Texas location, venting about a stream of irritations and turning over oddball ideas about life, death, and society. He rails against everyday nuisances—flies that land in his breakfast cereal, popsicles that frustrate him, junk mail, his boss’s wife, his upstairs neighbor, smoking, and the never-ending intrusion of salespeople. He also indulges in offbeat musings about morality, even wondering whether humans could be eaten and whether it makes sense to keep pets.

He clings to a set of unusual philosophies. He imagines children’s books that would be instructive for the good of society, including How to Start the Family Car (in case “someone chokes on a chicken bone” and “there are no adults around”) and Bye Bye Grandma, a work he believes would help children acclimate themselves to death. He refuses to keep pets, warning they would “turn on you” in a future food shortage, and instead preserves a cardboard cutout of a dog named Pete.

Several minor annoyances pile up throughout the day: a fly lands on his cereal at breakfast, and he ends up eating it; Ray, Fred Willard the Insurance Salesman, appears at the door; Thane pretends to be interested and, after promising to take out several policies, slams the door in Ray’s face with the words

I’d rather be dead

; an automated survey about carpet cleaning calls repeatedly; his boss’s wife Melanie [Denise Crosby] comes by to fetch a manuscript he was writing, and he ultimately tells her off. After the fly incident, Thane experiences a wave of unsettling visions whenever he closes his eyes, glimpsing a menacing face. He also receives a flood of messages—phone calls and mail—about “eight o’clock,” a motif that gnaws at him throughout the day.

His only apparent friend is Al [Thomas F. Wilson], who drops by in the afternoon. They share a bowl of cereal, and Al attempts to nudge Thane away from cynicism. Thane resists the sunny optimism of people like Al, yet there seems to be a flicker of warmth in their exchange, especially as Melanie’s visit stirs Thane in new ways. Later that night, Thane loses an arm-wrestling match to his noisy upstairs neighbor, who then claims the right to blast metal music whenever he wishes. Thane responds by cutting the neighbor’s power to restore a fragile sense of peace.

After a day of “messing around,” a knock at the door at the dreaded eight o’clock brings a limousine to his curb. In the car sits a limo driver, Mark Roberts, who reveals himself to be Death. Death tells Thane that he has met his quota of saying

I wish I were dead

and must die. Thane protests the absurdity of the rule, but Death, unmoved, returns him to his body. Thane awakens with a frightened Al standing over him, trying to rouse him. The two of them eventually head out for a meal, though Thane clings to the breakfast cereal habit and remains wary of embracing every new change life may offer.

The story pauses for a brief epilogue after the credits: Death stops the limo in a dark space and looks toward the heavens. He admits that he could not tolerate Thane and chose to return him to life, but adds that he is never coming back for Thane, hinting at a strange possibility that Thane has somehow entered a form of immortality.

This quiet, darkly comic day story is powered by a stubborn man’s stubborn questions about existence, responsibility, and what it means to live when the world seems designed to irritate him at every turn. The performances—anchored by Thane Furrows’s relentless, wry introspection and Death’s calm, inexorable presence—create a strange balance between humor and unease, inviting viewers to consider whether fear, cynicism, or curiosity ultimately shapes a person’s destiny.