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Phoners
Phoners are people turned into violent killers by a signal carried on mobile phones in Stephen King's 2006 novel. They move from attacking everyone in sight to flocking and acting as a single telepathic mind. The novel follows an artist searching for his young son after the signal hits Boston.1
- fire
- explosives
- winter cold (expected to kill those without shelter)
When did it first appear?
2006Released 2006
What the sources say
At first they attack anyone in sight1
Later they gather in flocks, for example on a football pitch, and switch off together overnight1
A flock behaves as a single mind and develops psychic powers, including the power to compel people to kill themselves1
A character theorises that later phoners received a corrupted version of the signal, like a computer worm1
Filmed in 2016 with John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson; King rewrote the ending for the screenplay1
Sources
Every fact on this page comes from these sources, written in our own words. Spotted a mistake? Tell us at [email protected].
Same era: 2000 to 2009
Zombies of World War Z (novel)World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (2006)
InferiHarry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005)
Solanum zombies (The Zombie Survival Guide)The Zombie Survival Guide (2003)
Zombies of Pride and Prejudice and ZombiesPride and Prejudice and Zombies (2009)
Blackwing undead (Death Troopers)Death Troopers (2009)
The grown-ups of The EnemyThe Enemy (2009)