I Thought Long and Hard About This Title

I am mad about a movie ending. I know that's an odd way to start out this random post, but it's true. I just finished watching the movie, "The Mist". Being a fan of the original short story written by Stephen King I was hoping the movie would be a faithful adaption and for the most part it was. Except the end. The end made me legitimately (and yes I just looked up how to spell that word, it's a tricky one) mad. I don't mean, "throw couches around, yell like king kong while punching walls" mad. But just upset, yeah, that is a better word, upset. I will now go on and tell why I was mad at this ending and you have been warned...I am going to spoil the movie so if you don't want the movie to be spoiled for you, don't read the rest of this post. There, you have been warned.

Alright so first off I should say a little something about Stephen King. I have read a few of his books and have enjoyed them. I realize that the content in his books are not usually "appropriate", but I can't deny a good story when I read it. Is Stephen King for everyone? Heck no. Is he a talented writer who I have enjoyed reading? Heck yes. Have I read all his books? Nope I have not. So can I recommend all of his books? No I can not do that either. What I can do is give you my thoughts on this movie and while doing that give my thoughts on parts of Stephen King's writings. So that is about it...I am going to go ahead and talk about the premise of the book and then the movie. Once again, spoilers ahead (in case you couldn't tell by the whole premise of this post being about the ending of the movie).

Here is the basic plot line for the short story, "The Mist" (honestly I have not read this book for about 3 years so I may have forgotten parts, but the movie helped refresh my memory, so bear with me if you can). Anyway, it starts off in Bridgetown, Maine where a huge thunderstorm takes place and does a tremendous amount of damage to the town. We then zero in on the main character of this story, David Drayton (who is an artist if you were curious). Well David takes his son and his neighbor into town for materials to repair damage done to his house and such. Anyway he arrives at the Supermarket which is packed with people because of the recent storm and everybody is flippin out, because that's what people do when wind causes trees to fall through their houses. Or at least people who have to pay for the damage. I am guessing kids wouldn't freak out as much as they would enjoy climbing the tree that is now in their kitchen. But I am getting off topic and should get back on track. Back to David now. He is in the supermarket when a huge mist covers the whole town of Bridgetown, Maine. This mist contains creatures that they can't really see but know are there because whenever anyone tries to escape or go to their car they are promptly eaten, usually accompanied with a certain amount of cuss words. What a nice side dish for those creatures. Plus later on they see the creatures for a few break into the Supermarket. Basically that is the premise of the short story, or horror novella as some sophisticated people call it.

[Here I took a break and looked up what a novella was and found out that it's usually between 17,500 - 40,000 words, an example of this would be "The Old Man And The Sea" by Ernest Hemingway. Which is an interesting book by the way. So I guess a little longer then a short story, but for the purpose of not trying to sound to fancy or sophisticated I am going to keep calling it a short story. Besides I read it in Stephen Kings collection of short stories, "Skeleton Crew" picture here...

...yup, that is a monkey with cymbals. I distinctly remember liking that short story because it had a creepy monkey, but hoping what that monkey did in the story never happened to me. But that is not the point right now, different topic altogether. This is really long bracketed statement. I completely got off topic. Oh well, back to the point of this]

Yes well anyway, like I was trying to say before I so rudely interrupted myself, the premise of the story. Basically these people are trapped in the Supermarket and must survive. It is really interesting how Stephen goes into how people would actually act in this situation. The depravity of man is really shown with the factions that are formed. There is even a religious crazy women who rants and raves about how the creatures and the mist is a punishment from God and the fulfillment of Revelation. She got really annoying in the book and movie because of how far off she was from the actual truth that the Bible talks about. Needless to say, halfway through the book and movie I wanted to punch her. I know, not very nice, but she just grated on the nerves. I am sure there is some sorta statement Stephen was trying to make with this.

Now to talk about the movie a little bit. I actually was greatly impressed with how well the movie stayed in line with the book. Which is probably one of the reasons I was so disappointed with the ending. In the book it ends with David, his son, and a few other characters escaping to David's car and driving down the highway slowly, with barely any visibility in the mist. Eventually they find a place to stay for the night and David hears a garbled and static filled message on the radio with only the words, "Hartford" so they head to this city in hopes that it is a refuge. That is how the short story ends. I know, not much closure, but that's what makes it kinda cool. They head off into the mist toward an unknown fate. Survivors, going on to survive more. Good stuff in my opinion. But here is where I get upset, the ending of the movie. As I said before the movie was doing a great job of staying faithful to the book. I was impressed! See how impressed I was? I used an exclamation point. Which means something fo sho. In the movie it ends with David and Co. driving down the highway when they suddenly run out of gas. I should point out that there are five people in the car. David, his son, some chick, and an elderly couple (a pretty rough and tough couple if I do say so myself). Now, they have run out of gas and are just sitting there on the highway with the mist all around them. They can hear the creatures milling about but cannot see them, which is a scary thought. Now when these creatures kill, they do it slowly and painfully. Why would I tell you guys this? Well...in the car is a gun. Need I say more? The problem is the gun has only four bullets. So in a terrible turn of events everyone in the car chooses suicide over dying slowly to these creatures. So David shoots all four people in the car (including his own son who did not actually choose suicide but was asleep) but is now out of bullets. See what has happened here? David is a hero for shooting them and putting them out of their misery of a future slow death by creatures. So David gets out of the car and walks into the mist. But wait! Suddenly the army rolls up and saves the day. What. The. Heck. I didn't even know what to say when this happened. Seriously? Basically David killed everyone in the car, including his own son, for nothing. The army came in and saved the day. First of all that just seems like a huge cop-out for the story. Oh look, the army is suddenly here to save the day. How conveniently timed! Plus the whole thing of him having to shoot his own son. Just dark. Which don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good "dark" story (which seems like a contradiction) but it's true. I have enjoyed many dark stories and movies for what they are. Stories and movies. But this ending just seemed completely pointless to me when the ending of the book was much better. Much better!

Anyways that is my rant for the day. I am sorry to have put you through this. I could wrap this up by putting something about Jesus and how he is a much better ending or something like that. But I think I'll just leave it at this for now. If you peeps like this kind of thing maybe I'll talk about a book or a movie more often but it depends I suppose. Depends on what? No clue, just depends. Maybe I'll talk about something a little more uplifting next time. Like Ted Dekker or Frank Peretti. Who knows.


So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, adieu adieu, adieu, to yieu and yieu and yieu.




Shout out to first person who tells me what that goodbye is from.