For the 15th anniversary of “The Mist,” /Film spoke with the cast and crew, including director Frank Darabont and actor Andre Braugher. They reflected on how Darabont’s original opening would’ve immediately immersed audiences into what caused the mist, but was omitted due to budgetary and storytelling reasons.

The townsfolk of Bridgton, Maine, spend a good portion of their time speculating on what lies in the mist that besieges them, and what its origins are. It’s revealed that a military base's shady experiments opened an interdimensional portal and allowed for unfathomable abominations to enter.

Darabont's opening would have pre-empted that moment, as Braugher pointed out to him. The actor told /Film: "I said, [...] 'If you know that the army did it, then that means that everyone in the storefront who's speculating about its cause, we already know that they're wrong. [...] You can actually gain a day, and I think make a better movie, by not filming that rather than filming.”'

Perhaps this scrapped opening is for the best, as it may have looked too similar to today’s sci-fi property, “Stranger Things.” Darabont added, “The truth is, I didn't have the money to do it. I didn't have the three days to shoot. I had $18 million [...] and about [...] 34 days to shoot. [...] You have to pick your battles."