Giles

so it's just a color adjustment and not actually different footage - correct?

DonnachaOne

Correct. No new footage but the film has been color-timed differently.

ceeece

I really liked the B/W version a lot. It felt more tense and claustrophobic. Even though the mist kinda blended in to the gray tones. I still think the ending is out of character for David Drayton. He spent ALL that time trying to survive. I just don't think he would do what he did so suddenly. Ending doesn't fit. On repeat viewings I'm going to stop it where the novella ended.

baracine

In the middle of nowhere?

Here is the ending from the novella. Drayton, his son, Amanda and Mrs. Reppler have stopped at a deserted Howard Johnson. The fog is still on and the bugs keep bumping on the windows of the restaurant. There is gas to go another 90 miles. David has fiddled with a battery-operated ham radio and thinks he might have heard the word "Hartford" at the very end of the AM band. He doesn't tell the others yet. David has written the story and left it on the counter, presumably for somebody else to find.

I've always wondered if the other word was "dope"...

On the page before, the narrator writes:

How right he was! (Actually, King's non-conclusive ending is exactly like the one for Hitchcock's The Birds (1963), which was fine but shouldn't have been repeated, if you ask me.)

ceeece

Well, it's been awhile since I read it. I do remember them driving under the tree-like leg. I've listened to the dramatized audio version several times too so that might have something to do with the ending I remember.

macnorton

At first I thought the exact same thing. I look at it like this, yes he did spend all that time trying to survive because in a general sense, there was a chance to survive. Now he is out in the middle of nowhere, knowing full well what fate awaits himself and his passengers. So what is left to do. Make them suffer? Or end it quickly? It is that ultimate decision that a man has to make. I thought it was a nice touch.

Giles

in the novella does the character of Brent Norton (Andre Braugher) have a

jmj713

The novella does hint at the film ending somewhat near its end.

Cardiac161

Doesn't the novella also state a different ending as well? Not too sure but I read it somewhere that the book has a compared to the movie.

baracine

Exactly the same. Except Norton is not Black, of course. And someone in Norton's party - not the biker, there is no biker - agrees to have a rope tied around his waist after Norton has refused. The rope comes out bloody and cut off. There is no severed body, only the cry of some prehistoric beast in the mist™.

baracine

How about reading post #179 above?

baracine

No, it doesn't. But the important thing is that King approved of the film's ending and even congratulated Darabont about it. I also like

The film also contains an important moral for our times not found in the novella and that is:

jmj713

It does. Pulling Skeleton Crew off the shelf. Page 128 of the original hardcover, quote (beware SPOILERS! probably): "I checked the gun and then put it into the glove compartment. Ollie had reloaded it after the expedition to the drugstore. The rest of the shells had disappeared with him, but that was all right. He had fired at Mrs. Carmody, he had fired once at the clawed thing, and the gun had discharged once when it hit the ground. There were four of us in the Scout, but if push came right down to shove, I'd find some other way out for myself."

xage

I just loved how the folks who did the subtitles (close caption) of the film... stating that... "Monster Rumblings from the distance"

Only to find out that those were

At the ending sequence...

Julie Walker

baracine

I stand corrected. The thought occurs to David Drayton just after he retrieves Ollie's bloody gun from the pavement while dodging a giant spider and just before he fumbles in his pocket in a panic for the keys to get the car started while his passengers are all screaming hysterically for him to get going - a rather hectic time for both the narrator and the reader to be entertaining such long term considerations, not to mention advanced mathematics. IMHO, it's the kind of out-of-the-blue pulp fiction macho posturing that doesn't work/doesn't register in the novella. (Page 123 of the 1989 paperback edition of Dark Forces)

Panda Phil

Maybe, but even the strongest person can only take so much. Plus he did promise his son he wouldn't let the monsters get him.

Just a nitpick, but you shouldn't put it all on him. Three of the others obviously agreed with him.

Daytripper

Sorry, don't have time to read through nearly 200 posts....but, is the black and white version on the same disc as the color one?

DeputyDave

No, on the 2nd disc of the SE.

ceeece

True. Plus I guess there's no telling what they saw on their journey through the Mist.

Daytripper

Hmmm. It doesn't show that on the bonus disc at Netflix.

Paul Arnette

This is a tad off-topic, so my apologies in advance. One of the reasons I decided to purchase The Mist vs rent it was that I still thought The Weinstein Co. had an exclusive rental agreement with Blockbuster. I now see that this is available to rent from Netflix, so does that agreement no longer exist?

The good news is that I enjoyed this movie immensely.

tylergfoster

Blockbuster deal applies only to brick and mortar stores. Netflix can purchase retail copies of The Mist and then rent them out. Although it is interesting to note that Weinstein always has that message: "This copy is intended for sale only".

Paul Arnette

I see. Thanks for the clarification.

CertifiedTHX

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