the mists

[jbt]

posto vecina nema acc na imdb-u, evo posta od tamo

by epaminndas (Thu Dec 20 2007 17:10:17)
UPDATED Thu Dec 20 2007 17:21:22
I remember reading King’s novelette twelve years ago as vividly as I remember the subsequent nightmares that were to populate my following nights (to those who might be laughing right now and mouthing “wimp”, I was about 13 and tended to be overimaginative): to me “The Mist” was and still is one of SK’s very best works.

One might discuss endlessly the movie’s ending and its inherent merits as compared to the novelette. I, for example, clearly prefer King’s original ending with its dispiriting, hopeless tones to the movie’s final display of military might: Hollywood’s recurrent message since Predator, ID4 and Starship Troopers seems to be that nothing – NOTHING in this universe at least – matches the efficiency of the US military. “The Mist” for that matter only adds a spectacular extra-dimensional fauna to the long list of alien organisms who should have spent more time reading some of Westpoint’s classics in order to avoid getting their asses kicked.

What does work in the movie though, just as well as it did in the novelette, is the awe and bewilderment in front of the radically alien ecosystem described by King in sketchy terms, but yet, with incredible relevance. I think the most frightening element in The Mist is the way this alien ecosystem suddenly takes over our own, changing our familiar landscape into a merciless white blur of screaming terror and replacing the indigenous food chain with a nightmarish cohort of merciless predators. THAT made me wet my bed – oh wait I was 13 - I meant with sweat of course.

Details about the infamous ArrowHead project are sketchy at best: some dimensional “window”, a doom-like portal of some sort, opened onto another dimension, possibly to an alternate earth, to an infinite number of them, or to a different universe altogether: as one of the soldiers in the supermarket put it, “rumours, we all hear rumours”. As for the Mist itself, its nature and function are never clearly explained, except that it distorts sounds and prevents visibility. Being curious and all, I can’t help but to attempt a more accurate description of just “what” is actually out there.

Someone on this forum claimed the Mist is required by the various aliens to survive, but I beg to disagree. There is no proof to that statement, and the various flying creatures, (both ‘dragonflies’ and ‘pterodactyls’) seem to adapt fairly easily to the lack of it when they manage to fly into the supermarket. It is clear moreover that the Mist itself poses no short term danger to humans, nor does it induce any physical discomfort: it pretty much behaves chemically like water vapor, appearing slightly heavier than air (as seen in the beginning when slowly drifting downhill and across the town). It seems fair to assume that the Mist is chemically neutral and to a fair extend similar to the air we breathe: nitrogen and oxygen with a much higher proportion of water vapor, possibly saturated with an inorganic salt: a composition roughly similar to the earth’s atmosphere during the Silurian period, or in less technical terms, to a Swedish sauna (minus the blond chicks).

It is thus likely that the Mist is simply the normal atmospheric configuration of whatever world the arrowhead project opened a portal into. The Mist’s relatively fast expansion across the lake first, then across the country, can best be explained by a pressure differential between the two worlds, assuming of course the alien domain is not an alternate universe based on different laws of physics. This assumption seems plausible, since the various xenomorphs depicted in the movie tend to behave like stable material compounds, albeit a bit aggressive, and show no sign of either nuclear disintegration or molecular instability. One exception is of course the severed tentacle in the loading area, which quickly decomposes after death; this, however, could simply be the result of rapid oxidation, and / or an indication of a very high proportion of intracellular water, consistent with a sea-based life form. It is worthy to note that the dead dragonflies and pterodactyl, on the other hand, mostly retained their chemical integrity even after being smashed, crushed, and repeatedly bashed with a broomstick.

Clearly, the aliens are extremely evolved organisms. First they are highly differentiated, ranging from a fist-sized flyer to a mountain-tall juggernaut. Second they make use of extremely advanced predatory techniques, including acid webs, instant poison (although the popping head cutie might simply have died of severe anaphylactic shock), mobile tentacles equipped with mouthpieces (and probably the required pre-digestive tract that goes with it). Third, they show complex reproductive cycles, as seen with the “spiders” which seem to require a protein-rich host during gestation. And fourth, they exhibit a complete food chain structure, with preys and predators. All this is strongly indicative of a highly evolved ecosystem with abundant energy sources, varied environments, and a complex set of ecological interdependencies. It also pretty much discards the alien 'bio-engineered army' hypothetis. Among the life forms we didn’t see must be viruses and bacteria (or their equivalent), plants, fungi, etc. Let's hope Uncle Sam has a plan for those too (i bet he does), or we might have a sequel coming.

They also seem to be carbon-based. They breathe oxygen, and their fast metabolism (which borders on the frantic when one considers the speed of reproduction of those spiders) implies highly efficient oxygen transport mechanisms, something only compatible with carbon-based enzymes and amino acids. It is fair to assume that they also require water as a solvent and various metallic compounds for their cellular machinery and ion-transfer processes. In other words, they are very earth-like. They show no grossly incomprehensible biological process, no features unknown in nature (claws, teeth, poisons, acid compounds are all common in the animal kingdom) and no physically unexplainable abilities. In many ways, the less earthlike creature in the movie remains, hands down, Mrs. Carmody.

Which brings me to this conclusion: those alien life forms do not come from another world, nor do they come from another universe. Instead they are very likely from Earth, Earth as it would be if the Silurian period had never ended. This hot, moist Earth would have known no ice ages, no comet impacts. It would have remained a heaven for insects and mollusks, a highly nutritive, ferociously competitive swamp for which evolution would have equipped those species with adequate means of defense and attack. Not a friendly place for bipedal mammals, including members of the NRA. In all likelihood, the Arrowhead portal leads to a parallel Earth whose climatic evolution happened slightly differently, a bit like the fictional planet described in Al Gore’s movie.

One thing still puzzles me though, something hard to explain in evolutionary terms. The insanely gigantic hexapod seen near the end defies what we know of the structural limits of biological entities. Clearly an animal this size must have some sort of heat sinking system in order not to die from the effects its own internal temperature (the famous Haldane principle). It also cannot be simply a giant insect, for its oxygen consumption must require a massive vascular pump and a centralized circulatory system. It could be, I guess, some kind of mobile colony, the rough equivalent of an aircraft carrier: thousands of individual creatures would constantly feed it with pre-metabolized nutrients (like that slightly overconfident biker’s upper body for example), as the numerous mobile tentacles covering the beast seem to indicate. One thing is sure though: that big mofo will make a fine target for any even remotely competent M-1 Abrams gunman. Yuck.

Yes I have just seen the movie. And yes I am drunk.

[SAMSUILUNOV OTAC]

Dakle, šta dodati ovome, a da zvuči imalo pametno? :scratch:
Misli! :x

Što bi rekao Silent Bob u Clerks 2 - I got nothing.

Kao zagriženom kingovcu, film mi je predobar. Odlična atmosfera, efekti sasvim dobri i što je najvažnije, likovi su realistični.
Kraj filma... Pročitao sam tu Kingovu novelu i ostao sam zatečen krajem filma jer se razlikuju.

SPOJLER (prednji)!

Ne sjećam se kad sam vidio ovako brutalan kraj nekog filma. Nakon onolikih muka koje je prošao (čovjek vidi svoju mrtvu ženu i mora ubiti četvoro ljudi uključujući i svoje dijete), shvati da je pričekao nekoliko minuta, svi bi bili spašeni. Mislim da ću razmišljati o ovome nekoliko narednih dana.

KRAJ SPOJLERA.

Spominju se nekakvi sikveli na ovom forumu. Pljujem na sikvele! Ovaj film ne smije imati sikvel. Osim ako ga King ne napiše.

[writer16]

je li mi itko može reći kako novela završava? u čemu se toliko razlikuje od filma? da ako ne želi spoilati, da mi barem pošalje na PM? please knjigu ne mogu nigdje nabavati i i iskreno nemam vremena za čitanje baš sad u vrijeme ispitnih rokova....

[niniane]

POgledala upravo - oduševljena sam, iako mi je malo mučno...

A kraj je apsolutno fenomenalan. Psihološki gledano, sve ima smisla, pa tako i to. Mislim da bih se i ja radije ubila u takvoj situaciji - a ja se jako bojim smrti pa to ipak nešto govori :zubo:

I mene zanima kako završava knjiga... Samsung, ako nećeš postati ovdje, daj pls na pm...

Inače, čuh da je King, kad je vidio ovaj kraj u filmu, rekao da je takav kraj trebao napisati u knjizi.

[SAMSUILUNOV OTAC]

Želiš da ti to otkrijem? Mislim, nešto si spominjala da si počela iščitavati Kinga, pa ne znam da li da ti spojlam tu priču jer je jako dobra. Naći ćeš ju u zbirci Skeleton Crew.

Evo, spojlat ću ti ju indirektno, pa ako ne želiš znati, preskoči ovo napisano sitnim slovima: :angel:
Ako si pročitala njegov roman Cell, iliti Mobitel po naški, kraj Mista je takvog karaktera.

Eto. Ako želiš detaljno, samo reci.

[niniane]

Želim :P
Ponekad volim biti spojlana, posebno onda kad mi nešto ovako jako zagolica znatiželju

[SAMSUILUNOV OTAC]

Dobro. Kingov kraj je zapravo otvoren. Likovi koji su uspjeli pobjeći iz trgovine i otići u auto, nastavljaju se voziti kroz maglu, ne znajući gdje će i da li će uopće izaći iz nje. Nema nikakvih tenkova koji spašavaju stvar, niti su Ameri prikazani kao svemogući. Niti se međusobno ubijaju, to me najviše šokiralo u filmu.

[niniane]

Mmm, filmski kraj je definitivno bolji i dojmljiviji

[niniane]

mrzim vas koji ste nahvalili ovaj film, mrzim kinga, mrzim scenarista, glumce, kostimografe, best boya i key gripa, mrzim producente, mrzim vas sve.

idem gledat zubić vilu da dođem sebi

Mi smo nakon Magle morali pogledati The Simpsons: The movie da se malo dobijemo