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Thursday, November 13, 2008

The Mist




The Mist (also known as Stephen King's The Mist), is a 2007 American horror film based on the 1980 novella of the same name by Stephen King. The film is written and directed by Frank Darabont, who had previously adapted Stephen King's work and had been interested in adapting The Mist for the big screen since the 1980s.

With an ensemble cast including Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Toby Jones and Andre Braugher, Darabont began filming The Mist in Shreveport, Louisiana in February 2007. The director revised the ending of the film to be darker than the novella's ending, a change to which Stephen King was amicable. Unique creature designs were also sought to differ from creatures in past films. The Mist was commercially released in the United States and Canada on November 21, 2007.

Following a violent thunderstorm, a small town community comes under vicious attack from creatures prowling in a thick and unnatural mist. Local rumors point to an experiment called “The Arrowhead Project” conducted at a nearby military base, but questions as to the origins of the deadly vapor are secondary to the group's overall chances for survival. Retreating to a local supermarket, the survivors face off against each other while attempting to take a united stand against an enemy they cannot even see.[3][4]

After a massive thunderstorm, commercial artist David Drayton (Thomas Jane) and his wife Stephanie (Kelly Collins Lintz) witness the advance of an unusual mist from across the lake bordering their property. More immediately concerned with cleaning up in the aftermath of the storm, David and neighbor Brent Norton (Andre Braugher), along with David's five-year-old son Billy (Nathan Gamble), go to the local grocery store which, like the rest of the community, was left without power. While at the store, an increasing amount of police activity in the streets draws the attention of the patrons, culminating with Dan Miller (Jeffrey DeMunn) running to the store with a bloody nose warning of something dangerous in the oncoming mist. Seeing the mist roll over the parking lot and hearing the scream of a man who ventures outside, the store patrons heed Miller's advice and seal themselves within the store, which is soon violently shaken, as if by an earthquake. With visibility reduced to near-zero outside and uncertainty surrounding the fate of the man heard screaming before, a siege mentality takes hold. Unable to convince anyone to escort her back home to her children whom she left alone, a mother of two (Melissa McBride) departs into the mist by herself.

As confusion sets in, the deeply religious Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden) suspects the onset of Armageddon as others search for a different answer. While trying to find a blanket for his son, David hears something pushing against the door of the loading dock. He is unable to convince local mechanics Myron (David Jensen) and Jim (William Sadler) of what he witnessed, and they, and bag-boy Norm (Chris Owen), open the loading-bay door in an attempt to repair the ailing generator. A set of otherworldly tentacles lined with claws grip Norm, dragging him away before the loading-bay door is closed again. Now aware of the deadly properties of the mist and the danger it poses to everyone in the store, David and assistant manager Ollie Weeks (Toby Jones) try, and fail, to convince Norton and other skeptical patrons not to go outside. They tie a clothesline around the waist of a man who agrees to retrieve a shotgun from Cornell's (Buck Taylor) car, so that they can measure how far he is able to go. The clothesline goes taut, is pulled out, and when pulled back drags the man's severed lower body into view, convincing the rest of the store's patrons of the danger outside.

The patrons prepare to defend themselves by making torches. New creatures appear from the mist at nightfall; enormous flying insects perch on the store windows, and pterodactyl-like animals with two pairs of wings pluck them off, eventually breaking one of the windows and allowing the creatures in. Two people die in the ensuing attack, and another is badly burned. During the attack, one of the insects lands on Mrs. Carmody, then flies away instead of delivering a fatal sting. Viewing this as validation of her beliefs, Carmody begins quickly gaining followers among the distraught patrons in the belief that the world is ending and a human sacrifice is needed to save them from the wrath of God. After Amanda Dumfries (Laurie Holden), who has been looking after Billy, discovers a friend who committed suicide by overdose, Billy makes his father promise that he will not let the monsters catch him. Aware of the growing danger Carmody poses to the group, David turns to thoughts of escape. To test the idea of safely reaching his car, he and a group of volunteers try to retrieve medical supplies for the burn victim from the pharmacy next door, but are attacked by spider-like creatures which claim the lives of two of the volunteers. Seeing the failed expedition, Carmody's following grows stronger, with a visibly shaken Jim becoming one of her most vocal followers.

Billy, who had begged his father not to go out and leave him behind, makes him promise that from now on they will stay together. With the discovery that two soldiers from the Arrowhead Project committed suicide during the expedition's absence, the remaining soldier, Wayne Jessup (Samuel Witwer), reveals that the project, an attempt to look into dimensions, was the origin of the mist. At Carmody's command, her enraged followers stab the young soldier several times in the stomach and throw him outside, where he is quickly killed by an enormous, mantis-like creature. Preparing to leave, David and his group are intercepted by Mrs. Carmody, who demands that Billy and Amanda are to be sacrificed. As the crowd advances to grab Billy and Amanda, Ollie Weeks shoots Carmody dead. The group then proceeds out the front door. Ollie, Myron, and Cornell are killed in the ensuing escape and Bud Brown (Robert Treveiler) runs back to the store in panic, but Amanda, David, Billy, Dan and Irene (Frances Sternhagen) make it safely to the car.

Driving through the mist, David returns home to find his wife has fallen victim to the spider-like creatures. Heartbroken, he drives the group south, witnessing the destruction left in the wake of the mist and encountering a tentacled beast towering hundreds of feet high. Eventually, they run out of gas without finding any other survivors. While Billy is sleeping, the four adults accept their fate, deciding that there is no point in going any further. With four bullets left in the gun and five people in the car, David shoots Amanda, Dan, Irene, and his son, Billy, to spare them a more violent death by the creatures. Sobbing, he attempts to shoot himself with the now-empty gun before exiting the vehicle to let the creatures in the mist take him. He hears what sounds like a creature moving toward him, but instead turns out to be a self-propelled gun, followed by a long column of other military vehicles and disembarked soldiers in NBC suits. As the mist parts, several trucks filled with survivors pass David, among them the mother whom nobody from the store would escort and her two children. David realizes in horror that he had been driving away from help the whole time and falls to his knees screaming whilst two soldiers watch in confusion.


Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mist_(film)

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