I missed "The Mist" (ha) in the theaters when it came out and I'm kinda glad I did. Last night I watched what was can be assumed was Frank Darabont's directors cut, which was redone entirely in black and white. It was great!! In Darabont's intro into the film he expressed how much he wanted to release "The Mist" in B&W but infortunately the studio did not. So now through the miracle of DVD he did.
Not just taking the film and laying a B&W filter over it, Darabont went back in and recalibrated every scene, shot by shot to insure it was the truest B&W representation possible. I am so glad I did not see the color version in the theater, this other version just feels right. The creatures, I was told previously, looked really bad because the CG was sub par I suppose. In the B&W version the creatures actually belong in the scenes. The lack of color actually allowed them to blend in better with their real life co-stars. Speaking of stars, Thomas Jane did a great job IMHO. So did everyone else. Marcia Gay Harden will make you want to rip her eyeballs from their sockets. And without giving anything away...the ending will piss you off in the most unbelievable way imaginable, but in a good "I can't believe this movie did that to me" way!
The Mist ranks right up there with Shawshank and Green Mile in it's emotional content and I highly recommend it!
While the Mist is pretty good, we both dislike the ending here so much that I doubt it'll get many rewatches.
Give the Mist another shot in Black and White. It really feels like something from the 50's.
The ending was great. It left me in awe! I loved this film and wish other director's would have the guts to pull an ending like this off.
I've heard a lot of good stuff about this movie, so I went ahead and picked up the deluxe version with both versions on it. I really liked it, although the ending was tough to watch. It is a very good film, but as others have said, I probably couldn't watch it again for some time.
My wife said that if we watch it again, she'd rather skip the ending completely.
Note she even said IF... the ending bothers her more then me, but when we develop attachments to characters in a story, it's a pretty hard pill to swallow when they are dealt with like that.
I'm kind of surprised they didn't do audience screenings, and change the ending.
(Of course I Am Legend's original ending really sucked as well, and most people agree the new alternate ending is much better story resolution.)
The Mist did have the original ending of the book in it. It was when the drive off into the mist after escaping the supermarket. It ended just like the Birds ..Unknown.
Darbont added the deaths at the end himself .. WHY ? The book's ending is soooo much better.
Best..
tom
Well, I'm glad I didn't post spoilers....
Anyway, that's exactly what we were thinking of doing next rewatch.. just stop the movie after they drive off into the mist.
I'm kinda surprised King would let them do a major change to the ending like that.
I'll say this much; it was a bold move for Darbont to use that ending. I would have preferred the orignal story ending, but I guess he had his reasons for doing it the way he did. Maybe the DVD extras have some info on that? I'll have to check it out when I get some time.
I haven't seen The Mist, but I know enough about the ending that you should stop reading now if you don't want spoilers.
It seems to me that Darabont's ending was influenced by Bradbury's The Illustrated Man as much as King's was influenced by The Birds. Perhaps Darabont was trying to make a point about facing the future instead of running from hardship.
Yes, the film is FULL of political and/or social references and I am sure that the ending was meant to make another such statement, I'm just not 100% sure what the statement is.
Always keep 5 bullets?
The ending is tragic, making this a genuine horror movie to me. How many times do the heroes overcome unimagnable odds to save the day? Well, here's one less to keep track of. If monsters really did roam the Earth, I suspect endings like this one would be much more common than the usual Hollywood feel-goods.
QuoteI'm kinda surprised King would let them do a major change to the ending like that.
Stephen King loves that ending and said if he would have thought of it himself that's how the book would have ended too.
Ah, well.. too dark for my tastes.
I prefer my monster movies with some upbeat ending of sorts.. most of the older classics are like that.
Remember THE THING and THE BODYSNATCHERS? Bleak would be putting it mildly. PLANET OF THE APES, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, THE GRUDGE, EVIL DEAD, and plenty of other movies have endings that result in very bad things happening to everyone involved. True, few are quite as bad as THE MIST without going post-apocalyptic, but I find it harder to be scared when I know everything's gonna be alright and the good guys wil ultimately be victorious everytime.
Just my opinion, naturally.
I guess I just draw the line at blowing your own kid's brains out.
Point taken.
The ending didn't suit my tastes either. It seemed kind of shallow and more like a publicity ploy more than anything else. And as bleak as things looked it didn't really seem consistent with the character's actions and motivations up to that point. They were willing to kill to take a chance at escape and leave the supermarket, but when faced with the obstacle of being out of gas they just decided to pack it in and commit suicide. And after the Koolaid speech earlier too. I thought it was the weakest part of the movie by far. The shock factor blinds the audience to it's serious shortcomings. But watch it again and I'm sure you'll agree.
As for what the movie had to say, well really the ending is the final statement on everything that comes before. And with this ending all it says is life is worth nothing, perseverance is a waste of time and ultimately fighting for what you feel is important will only cause you failure and pain. Humanity inevitably will always make the wrong choices.
I think the original ending is far superior story telling.
I took the ending as more of a cautionary warning that we shouldn't give up, even when things look like they are at their worst. We recognize that this was the main character's mistake, and it ties in with the "koolaid/suicide" thing earlier in the film. The main character gave up, instead of remembering that "the darkest hour is just before dawn."
Initially, I was shocked and put off by the ending, but as I put some distance on it and reflect a little, I can really see it as more of a "don't give up - things will get better" message. Maybe that's where the director was coming from on it, I don't know.
I suppose it could be reasonably be taken that way too. For me it just doesn't work when you figure they had a partially full tank of gas in the Land Rover which means they were driving for perhaps 6, 8 hours tops before they ran out. I don't see how a despair so great that suicide is a viable option after what they went through only hours before especially when not facing imminent and/or immediate death (nothing attacked the vehicle once they were inside it). It took a very solid movie and inserted impractical weakness at it's most critical point IMO.
As for the directors' message? Well I actually doubt he had one here other than wanting a dark ending with a pointless death scene. I say this because he did state that Romero's NOTLD was his inspiration and a huge influence. I think he just wanted to mimic that surprise/pointless death ending as a creative choice and really it had little to do with the story. And it plays out that way too. A great story and this awkward ending that doesn't hold up under scrutiny like it was just stapled on.
That's my take anyway