Stephen King's The Mist

[Hector]

***SPOILERS***

Did anyone notice the mom and her two kids in the end with the army tanks?

That's the very same woman who asked for help in finding her children in the grocery store...and everyone refused...even the hero (Thomas Jane). So perhaps that's why he was "rewarded" by such horror in the end.

[Hector]

>The ending of this one didn't make a whole lot of sense

That was the debate before:

Stephen King's The Mist - Mego Talk

Don C.

Thanks...I missed that thread.

Fallensaviour points out the woman/kids scenario too.

[Hector]

How does the film ending differ from the novella?

[ctc]

>wouldn't you have waited until the LAST POSSIBLE SECOND to do what he did?

I think; in his mind, he did. Like I said in the other post; there was no reason to think they weren't dead as soon as they opened the door.

>perhaps that's why he was "rewarded" by such horror in the end

That's kinda what I thought. Same with him giving up, and having to live with what he'd done. It felt like the old (unedited) Grimm rhymes; horrid endings meant to serve as warnings.

Don C.

[spamn]

How does the film ending differ from the novella?

It's been awhile since I've read it, but in the book:

The ending reveals that they are currently in a rest stop along a highway, having driven south and not gotten out of the mist. They tried to get back to his house to check for his wife, but a tree had fallen across the road. He tries to imagine that she's alive and inside it, but his last memory of her is doing gardening out in the yard as the fog approached. There's no stations on the radio, and the truck is parked outside almost or completely out of gas, and the guy is contemplating filling up and continuing on, but he's pretty sure the Mist has expanded to cover the whole world.

Still fairly bleak and hopeless, but without explicitly showing anyone's fate.

[spamn]

I can definitely understand that. However, if that was you, and considering how important at least one of the final people were to him, wouldn't you have waited until the LAST POSSIBLE SECOND to do what he did? I guess that is easy for me to say as I know what happens next and would not in that situation. However, I still think I would have waited a little longer.

I don't think there's a right answer to this. I probably would have waited. But I can understand why some wouldn't.

[Megospidey]

It's been awhile since I've read it, but in the book:

The ending reveals that they are currently in a rest stop along a highway, having driven south and not gotten out of the mist. They tried to get back to his house to check for his wife, but a tree had fallen across the road. He tries to imagine that she's alive and inside it, but his last memory of her is doing gardening out in the yard as the fog approached. There's no stations on the radio, and the truck is parked outside almost or completely out of gas, and the guy is contemplating filling up and continuing on, but he's pretty sure the Mist has expanded to cover the whole world.

Still fairly bleak and hopeless, but without explicitly showing anyone's fate.

you're right..that's basically how it ends.

[lepage]

The ending was losuy IMO because I am one of thos people who believe that there is ALWAYS hope! In this film, there was no singing fat lady.

[samurainoir]

It falls within the parameters of every good zombie or "spam in a can" style horror movie where the diverse group of protagonists have to hole-up against an external threat. At the end of the day, the horrors perpetuated on each other in the name of survival can be much more disturbing than the supernatural/monster threat outside.

[Merlyn1976]

I loved the ending...

[Hector]

It's been awhile since I've read it, but in the book:

The ending reveals that they are currently in a rest stop along a highway, having driven south and not gotten out of the mist. They tried to get back to his house to check for his wife, but a tree had fallen across the road. He tries to imagine that she's alive and inside it, but his last memory of her is doing gardening out in the yard as the fog approached. There's no stations on the radio, and the truck is parked outside almost or completely out of gas, and the guy is contemplating filling up and continuing on, but he's pretty sure the Mist has expanded to cover the whole world.

Still fairly bleak and hopeless, but without explicitly showing anyone's fate.

Thanks!

[Hector]

The ending was losuy IMO because I am one of thos people who believe that there is ALWAYS hope! In this film, there was no singing fat lady.

Yes there was...the army arrived burning the creatures into oblivion...and that woman who no one wanted to help at the grocery store to help her find here kids...survived...alongside her children.

So yes...the fat lady does make an appearance...

[Brazoo]

POSSIBLE SPOILERS:



Darabont talks a lot about the ending on the DVD commentary. I believe it was one of the reasons the budget was constrained - the studio didn't think it was a commercially viable ending. It's been a while, so I could easily be remembering the story a little wrong.

I think we usually see fairly eye-to-eye with movies, but I wasn't too crazy about this one.

I thought the concept was great, but I think the special effect scenes took away from the psychological effect for me. I think it might have been more effective if I'd actually seen less of the creatures overall - the paranoia of not knowing what was in the mist was more intense than seeing giant CG mosquitos, for example. The ending was surprising, but it wasn't as emotionally effective for me, for whatever reason. Thomas Jane was good and all, but there was never a moment where I felt his character was written as anything more than a prop.

[ctc]

>Thomas Jane was good and all, but there was never a moment where I felt his character was written as anything more than a prop.

That's kind of a universal horror movie problem though; the characters really are just there as targets. No matter how well you set them up you're gonna be seeing them a their worst, as their world is turned upside down.... so there's not too much room for development. (Especially in two hours.)

Don C.

[CrimsonGhost]

I like the short story and there was a radio play style book on tape that I had when I was in high school that I still love. I really liked the movie but that ending is such a downer!! I don't need a happy ending, but it was really depressing. I feel the same about The Wrestler: great movie, but an emotional bummer.

Now I want to get the DVD to hear the commentary.