Director Daniel Thron

The Last Rung on the Ladder (1987) is a short film that is based on Stephen King’s story of the same name, which was first published in his 1978 collection Night Shift. The film follows Larry, who is devastated to discover that his estranged sister has taken her own life. He reflects on a significant memory from their childhood when they were playing in their family’s barn. Without their parents’ supervision, they engage in a forbidden game of taking turns climbing an old and unsafe ladder to the top and leaping into a haystack. On Larry’s final turn, ...