The Mist Rant

Spoilers Ahoy…

… seriously, I’m about to ruin the ending of The Mist, both the novella and the film, so if you don’t want to know what happens, turn back (or keep scrolling now)…

… last warning…

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Main character David Drayton (Thomas Jane) has spent the majority of the film doing whatever it takes to save his son from the Lovecraftian, many-tentacled beasties hiding in The Mist and the wackos he finds himself trapped with. He refuses to quit, and he doesn’t give up. He won’t let his son perish, no matter what. Even if you aren’t a parent, this element felt real and relatable. Who wouldn’t fight to the end to save their child, even if it’s the end of the world?

So, after Drayton, his son, and a couple others escape from the grocery store where the bulk of the movie’s action takes place, they find themselves out of gas and surrounded by the mist. They listen to (what they think is) the rumbling of Chuthulu’s minions hidden in the mist. They all stoically agree to eat a bullet, sparing themselves from the horror beyond the car. Only one problem: there are four people and three bullets.

The tension mounts as we cut outside the car and the whole time I’m thinking, no way in hell he’s about to do what I thin… BLAM! BLAM!… BLAM!

ARE YOUFREAKIN’ KIDDING ME!!!

So, let me get this straight. We just spent 120-plus minutes invested in a story where the protagonist’s main motivation was saving his son, and I’m supposed to believe that he’d actually do this? Hell, even in King’s novella, it turns out the main character’s been writing the story down and leaving it for any future survivors to find as he, his son, and a few others struggle to survive. Sure, they’re low on gas and there’s even a suggestion that suicide’s an option, but come the hell on!

But what makes this “I’ll kill my son so they can’t” crap so frustrating is that moments later as the rumbling gets louder and Jane waits outside the car for the big, bad, demonic octopus to take him away… a tank goes rolling by.

WHAT?!?

At this point, I really wanted to dropkick my cathode ray squawk box through the wall. It’s the F’N military. Get it? How ironic? He killed his son FOR… ABSOLUTELY… NO… REASON… AT… ALL! It was pointless. Like saving Newt in Aliens (if you’ve seen Alien 3, you know what I mean).

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