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The Mist
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The Mist (1980) (edit title/settings)

by Stephen King (Author) (edit contributors)

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Fear changes everything. After a mysterious mist envelops a small New England town, a group of locals trapped in a supermarket must battle a siege of otherworldly creatures ...and the fears that threaten to tear them apart. Stephen King's sinister imagination and the astonishing 3-D sound... read more

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Summary edit see section history

The morning after a violent thunderstorm, a thick unnatural mist quickly spreads across the small town of Bridgton, Maine, reducing visibility to near-zero and concealing numerous species of bizarre creatures which viciously attack anyone and anything that ventures out into the open.

The... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

The morning after a violent thunderstorm, a thick unnatural mist quickly spreads across the small town of Bridgton, Maine, reducing visibility to near-zero and concealing numerous species of bizarre creatures which viciously attack anyone and anything that ventures out into the open.

The bulk of the story details the plight of a large group of people who become trapped while shopping in the town supermarket, among them a commercial artist named David Drayton (the protagonist and narrator), David's young son Billy, and their estranged neighbor Brenton Norton, who accompanied them into town after his car was smashed by a tree. Amongst others trapped in the market are a young woman named Amanda Dumfries and two soldiers from a nearby military installation, home to what is apocryphally referred to as "The Arrowhead Project"; the soldiers' eventual joint suicide lends some credence to the theory of this Project being the source of the disaster.

Soon after the mist comes, something plugs the store generator's exhaust vent. When a young bag boy named Norm steps outside to fix the problem, he is pulled into the mist by a swarm of tentacles. David and Ollie Weeks, the store's assistant manager, witness Norm's death and try to convince the remaining survivors of the danger lurking outside. Norton and a small group of others (dubbed "The Flat Earth Society" by David) refuse to believe, and accusing David of lying, they venture out into the mist to seek help, where they are killed by a huge, unseen creature. This, along with a deadly incursion into the store by a pterosaur-like creature and a disastrous expedition to the pharmacy next door, lead to paranoia and panic consuming the remaining survivors. This spiraling breakdown leads to the rise to power of a religious zealot named Mrs. Carmody, who convinces the majority of the remaining survivors that these events fulfill the biblical prophecy of the end times, and that a human sacrifice must be made to save them from the wrath of God.

David and Ollie attempt to lead their remaining allies in a covert exit from the market, but are stopped by Mrs. Carmody, who orders her followers to seize her chosen victims: Billy and Amanda. Ollie shoots Mrs. Carmody in the stomach with a revolver found in Amanda's purse, killing her, causing her congregation to break up. En route to David's car, Ollie in turn is cut in two by the claw of a very large creature looking similar to a giant lobster or crab. David, Billy, Amanda, and an elderly, yet tough, school teacher Hilda Reppler reach the car and leave Bridgton, driving south for hours through a mist-shrouded, monster-filled New England. After finding refuge for the night, David listens to a radio, and through the overwhelming static possibly hears a single word broadcast, "Hartford". With that one shred of hope, he prepares to drive on into an uncertain future.

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  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • There are things of such darkness and horror—just, I suppose, as there are things of such great beauty—that they will not fit through the puny human doors of perception.
    Highlighted by 16 Kindle customers
  • You know what talent is? The curse of expectation. As a kid you have to deal with that, beat it somehow.
    Highlighted by 16 Kindle customers
  • The perception of a child who has not yet learned to protect itself by developing the tunnel vision that keeps out ninety percent of the universe. Children see everything their eyes happen upon, hear everything in their ears’ range. But if life is the rise of consciousness (as a crewel-work sampler my wife made in high school proclaims), then it is also the reduction of input.
    Highlighted by 15 Kindle customers
  • When rationality begins to break down, the circuits of the human brain can overload. Axons grow bright and feverish. Hallucinations turn real: the quicksilver puddle at the point where perspective makes parallel lines seem to intersect is really there; the dead walk and talk; a rose begins to sing.
    Highlighted by 14 Kindle customers
  • Old trees have always reminded me of the Ents in Tolkien’s wonderful Rings saga, only Ents that have gone bad. Old trees want to hurt you. It doesn’t matter if you’re snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, or just taking a walk in the woods. Old trees want to hurt you, and I think they’d kill you if they could.
    Highlighted by 12 Kindle customers
  • The horrors of the Inquisition are nothing compared to the fates your mind can imagine for your loved ones.
    Highlighted by 11 Kindle customers
  • Maybe you can tell me—why should the silencing of that childish, demanding voice seem so much like dying?
    Highlighted by 9 Kindle customers
  • That was old Bill Giosti’s theory about the so-called Black Spring: the Arrowhead Project. In the western part of Shaymore, not far from where the town borders on Stoneham, there was a small government preserve surrounded with wire. There were sentries and closed-circuit television cameras and God knew what else. Or so I had heard; I’d never actually seen it, although the Old Shaymore Road runs along the eastern side of the government land for a mile or so.
    Highlighted by 8 Kindle customers
  • I dozed in and out, then jerked awake more fully around three. Amanda had shifted into a sort of fetal position, her knees pulled up toward her chest, hands clasped between her thighs. She seemed to be sleeping deeply. Her sweatshirt had pulled up slightly on one side, showing clean white skin. I looked at it and began to get an extremely useless and uncomfortable erection.
    Highlighted by 6 Kindle customers
  • oiseau de mort whose prehistoric wingspan darkened the
    Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers
Show all 13 quotes from this book

First Sentence edit see section history

This is what happened.

Table of Contents edit see section history

I. The Coming of the Storm.

II. After the Storm. Norton. A Trip to Town.

III. The Coming of the Mist.

IV. Storage Area. Problems with the Generators. What Happened to the Bag-Boy.

V. An Argument with Norton. A Discussion Near the Beer Cooler. Verification.

VI. Further Discussion. Mrs. Carmody. Fortifications. What Happened to the Flat-Earth Society.

VII. The First Night.

VIII. What Happened to the Soldiers. With Amanda. A Conversation with Dan Miller.

IX. The Expedition to the Pharmacy.

X. The Spell of Mrs. Carmody. The Second Night in the Market. The Final Confrontation.

XI. The End.

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Stephen King (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Signet
Country: Add the country of publication.
Publication Date: 1980
ISBN: 0451223292
Page Count: 240

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