Before Johnny can fire again, he is shot by Stillson's bodyguard. Johnny touches Stillson's hand and foresees that, after the photograph is published, Stillson's career ends and he commits suicide, thus averting the nuclear attack. Johnny lies dying as Sarah embraces him and tells him that she loves him.

King considered The Dead Zone a new beginning to his career, saying that the books that came out after The Stand were “different books than what went before.” On an obvious level they were different because King was no longer with Doubleday, and because these books were tightly focused on a small number of characters ( ...