The Mist (2007)

• Add

Plot Summary  
 
The morning after a violent storm, commercial artist David Drayton and his wife Stephanie survey the damage done to their lakeside home. David’s studio has been destroyed by a fallen tree, leaving one side of their home exposed to the elements. Additionally, the Drayton’s neighbor's tree has fallen and leveled their boat house.
 
David and Stephanie note a strange mist descending over the lake. Despite living on the lake for years, neither David nor Stephanie has ever since a similar mist before. David dismisses the mist as nothing out of the ordinary.
 
David goes to his neighbor, Brent Norton, to trade insurance information. Despite existing bad blood between the two men, the two men mourn the destruction of Brent’s Mercedes by a fallen tree. Brent asks David if he can have a ride into town to stock up on supplies.
 
David and his eight-year-old son, Billy leave Stephanie behind to begin cleaning up the storm damage and drive into town with Brent to get supplies from a local grocery store. On the way to the store, the David and company see a number of emergency and military vehicles pass by them at high speed. This inspires Brent to ask David about a mysterious military installation in town called the “Arrowhead Project.” David dismisses the rumors.
 
With the town out of power, a large number of people have descended upon the Food Barn grocery store. David and Billy shop for

supplies while talking to a number of the locals.
 
Suddenly, the town fire whistle goes off, attracting the attention of the people in the store. Without warning a thick, dense mist envelops the town. Just as the mist descends, local man, Dan Miller runs into the store with a bloody nose, warning of danger in the mist. The store is then shaken by tremors. While the majority of the people in the store are sceptical of Dan’s claims, they are clearly disturbed by the strange goings on.  
 
Town kook and religious fanatic, Mrs. Carmody, believes that the mist and tremors signal the coming of a biblical apocalypse.
 
While looking for a blanket for his son in the back room of the store, David hears something pushing against the loading dock doors. Local mechanics Myron and Jim, and bag-boys Norm and Ollie enter the back room to see what David is doing. They note that the store’s generator is in need of repairs. Against David’s warnings, Myron, Jim and Norm decide that one of them should go outside to repair the generator.
 

As they raise the loading dock door, a set of spiked tentacles grasp Norm. Despite Ollie and David’s courageous efforts to save Norm, the tentacles drag him away to his death. Moments before the tentacles slide under the closing door, David manages to hack off the tip of one of them.
 
David, Ollie, Myron, and Jim leave the back room, shaken by what they’ve just witnessed. Meanwhile, Brent has convinced a group of followers to be sceptical of the dangers of the mist. He believes that they should leave the store and look for help. When David attempts to convince him otherwise, Brent believes that he is being made the target of an elaborate joke.
 
As Brent and his followers prepare to leave the store, one patron offers to leave the store and retrieve a shotgun from a car. In order to see how far the survivors can go into the mist, they tie a clothesline around the waist the patron. David holds the clothesline as Brent and his followers leave the store. At first everything seems to be going well. Suddenly, the clothesline is pulled out of David’s at high speed before going slack. As David reels the line back in, he and the people of the store see that it is attached to the severed torso of the man to which it was tied.
 
Night falls. Monstrous creatures, including enormous flying insects and pterodactyl-like animals, are attracted to the light given off by the store. Eventually these creatures break into the store and a melee ensues. Two people die in the attack and another man is severely burned. During the attack, one of the insects lands on Mrs. Carmody and does not sting her. She interprets this as validating her beliefs. She then uses this event to gain followers. She preaches to these people that the sins of man have angered God and He can only be appeased through expiation.
 
David organizes a group to leave the store to retrieve medicine from a next-door pharmacy in order to care for the burned man. David

and the volunteers enter the pharmacy and notice that it is covered in spider-like webs. They discover a military MP who has been cocooned. He is covered in boils and is rambling with apologies for what he has done. His body then drops to the floor and spider-like creatures burst forth. Two of the volunteers are killed by the spider creatures, and David and the rest of the survivors barely make it back to the safety of the Food Barn.
 
David returns to find that despite obtaining the needed medicine, the burn victim has died. Exhausted from recent evens, David passes out in a dead sleep. David wakes up several hours later and finds that Mrs. Carmody has gained even more followers and now has influence over the majority of the people in the store.
 
Mrs. Carmody and her followers discover that two soldiers from the Arrowhead Project have committed suicide in the store. Carmody and her followers force the remaining soldier, Private Wayne Jessup, to reveal that the Arrowhead Project, which is rumored to be an attempt to look into other dimensions, is likely the origin of the mist. Carmody commands her followers to make Jessup a human

sacrifice to appease God. Her followers stab him and throw him out of the store where he is eaten by a monstrous mantis-like creature.
 
This event convinces David that he must leave the store. He, and a number of his friends, prepare to escape Carmody and her mad followers. As they attempt to leave the store in the morning, they are confronted by Carmody and her followers. She commands that David’s son be sacrificed. Ollie prevents the sacrifice by shooting Carmody dead. David and his friends rush out into the mist and attempt to find his car. Several of David’s friends split from the group and are killed by the creatures.
 
David, Billy, Amanda, Dan, and Irene make it to the safety of the car and drive away in hope of finding help. David drives home in hope of saving his wife. Sadly, when he arrives home he sees his wife Stephanie cocooned in the spider-creature’s webs. Heartbroken, David continues to drive south. While driving they see fantastical and terrifying sights (this includes a giant betentacled monster).

 
After driving for hours, the car runs out of gas. With no gas, and no hope of escape the survivors contemplate suicide. With four bullets left in the gun and five survivors, David decides that he will kill his passengers, saving them from the monsters. David shoots his son and fellow survivors. Blinded by grief David runs into the mist, wanting to die. He screams for the creatures to kill him, but nothing happens.
 
A noise approaches. It signals something even for horrifying than the creature – rescue. A military convoy arrives, killing the monsters and rescuing survivors. Realizing what he has done, David falls to his knees, screaming in agony.