Movies - TV
The Mist's Most Brutal Detail Wasn't Even In The Script
By DEBOPRIYAA DUTTA
Spoiler Warning!
This story contains spoilers for
"The Mist."
While some horror movies conclude with the protagonist(s) surviving, others end with a brutal twist of fate that haunts you even after the credits have rolled. Frank Darabont's adaptation of Stephen King's novella "The Mist" is an excellent example of the latter, as this monster movie has an exceptionally chilling ending.
Leaving "The Mist" on such a hopeless, anguished note for David Drayton (Thomas Jane) is certainly a bold move by Darabont as a mere 60-second delay separated David from a lifetime of trauma. While Darabont always intended to depart from the novella's ending and deliver something heart-wrenching, the most brutal detail in that scene was not even in the original script.
Jeffrey DeMunn, who played Dan Miller, revealed that it was his impromptu idea to have David watch a truck filled with survivors pass by only to notice that the woman who ran into the mist at the beginning of the ordeal had managed to save her two children. Darabont confirmed this by saying that DeMunn's idea was "a brilliant grace note" which highlights that survival is a gamble, as "sometimes, s*** is random."