FILM · 2007 · USA
The Mist
26 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (26)
- #001
Stephen King says he was genuinely frightened by this adaptation of his novel. Frank Darabont described it as the happiest moment of his career.
- #002
Frank Darabont agreed to make the film with Dimension Films only on the condition that they would not change the ending of the screenplay no matter what. They agreed.
- #003
While preparing his first feature film, Dark Country (2009), Thomas Jane was a constant and welcome presence in the editing room in order to learn the craft.
- #004
This is Frank Darabont's third film adapted from a Stephen King work. The other two are The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and The Green Mile (1999).
- #005
In an action scene in the film, a man crashes into a revolving book rack in the supermarket. If you look carefully, you can clearly see that every book on the rack was written by Stephen King.
- #006
The idea for the source novel came to Stephen King while he was at a Maine market. When he noticed the front window was made of flat glass, he wondered what would happen if giant bugs flew into it.
- #007
The flamethrower at the end was built by the effects department from parts purchased at Home Depot, which terrified Frank Darabont on every level.
- #008
According to Cinefex magazine, Frank Darabont initially did not plan to include the giant six-legged creature that walks over the car, despite it being one of the most popular scenes in the novella. Several CafeFX special effects technicians convinced him to put it in the film.
- #009
The earthquake scene included a surprise: they played a recording of a "huge earthquake rumble" through large bass speakers without warning the cast beforehand. "Everybody jumped."
- #010
At the end of the film, when the rescue truck carrying Melissa McBride passes by David (Thomas Jane), Frank Darabont had actually wanted a second truck to pass by David. It would have been filled with various people from the market, including many of the former followers of Jim (William Sadler), Bud (Robert C. Treveiler), Mr. Mackey (Ron Clinton Smith) and Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden), showing that they had been safely rescued from the store and making David realize that he and his group should never have left the market in the first place. Unfortunately, most of the extras and other actors had already left because their roles were finished, so Darabont had to set the idea aside.
- #011
Initially, David (Thomas Jane) and his group were supposed to pass by the shrouded, dried-out body of the Woman with Children (Melissa McBride) as they walked away from the market. However, Melissa McBride's performance in the scene where she leaves the market was so praised that it was decided both to keep her character alive and to have her ultimately brought back completely unharmed with her children.
- #012
After working with him on this film, Frank Darabont wanted Thomas Jane to play Rick Grimes in The Walking Dead (2010).
- #013
Frank Darabont had actually written an opening scene showing that the military scientist mentioned by Private Jessup (Sam Witwer) had accidentally opened the dimensional portal that let the creatures and the mist into our world. At dinner, Andre Braugher questioned Darabont as to whether the scene was necessary. After thinking about it for a week, Darabont was persuaded to set the scene aside, leaving the nature of the mist more ambiguous.
- #014
Initially a producer offered Frank Darabont 30 million dollars to make this film, but with an annoying caveat: Darabont would have to change the ending he had personally imagined and nurtured for 20 years. In the end he went to producer Bob Weinstein and made the film for half the money, though after losing his directing fee.
- #015
(At the 59th minute) The window impacts were achieved by throwing baseballs at the glass and then digitally removing them and/or hiding them inside the flying creature attacking the store.
- #016
To help save time due to the tight schedule, the producers and director Frank Darabont hired The Shield (2002) camera crew to shoot the film. This camera crew was able to move quickly because of the intense TV production schedule. There was an "A" unit and a "B" unit, which shortened the production time.
- #017
Director Frank Darabont initially wanted the film to be shown in black and white. The two-disc DVD/Blu-ray release includes Darabont's black-and-white version on the second disc.
- #018
The original Stephen King novel also inspired the video game Half-Life (1998), in which scientists at a top-secret military base experiment with interdimensional portals and open the floodgates to hostile inhabitants.
- #019
Despite its Maine setting, the entire film was shot in Louisiana and Texas. What pleased Frank Darabont was that Stephen King could not distinguish it from Maine while watching the film.
- #020
In the opening scene of the film, David (Thomas Jane) is painting in his room. The painting he is working on is a design of Roland the gunslinger, a Clint Eastwood-like character living in a Middle-earth-like world, from Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. Another design in the room is a poster for John Carpenter's The Thing (1982). Carpenter also wrote and directed The Fog (1980), which shares obvious themes with The Mist, as well as Christine (1983), adapted from a Stephen King novel.
- #021
The Dark Tower poster David Drayton is working on was actually made by artist Drew Struzan, known for film posters such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, The Thing (1982), Blade Runner (1982) and others. All the posters in the studio at the beginning of the film were made by Struzan, as was the film's own poster.
- #022
Amanda's (Laurie Holden) bag contains an empty six-shot revolver and two full speedloaders. That means twelve rounds of ammunition for the gun. Over the course of the film, the gun is fired exactly twelve times before its ammunition runs out.
- #023
Norm (Chris Owen) wears a T-shirt from WKIT Radio in Bangor, Maine. It is one of three radio stations owned by Stephen King. The artwork on the T-shirt is by Glenn Chadbourne, a Maine artist who has produced artwork for many of Stephen King's novels and collections.
- #024
It was Jeffrey DeMunn's idea that Melissa McBride's character returns to the refugee truck at the end with the children and the other survivors.
- #025
Frank Darabont felt the novella's ending (the survivors set off into the mist hoping to reach safety) was too open-ended for a film, but contrary to the belief that he created the new ending himself, the inspiration is right there in Stephen King's story. In the story, David (Thomas Jane) thinks to himself that if things get worse, there will be three bullets in the gun and four people in the truck. King never has them act on this, but Darabont does. "If we're going to make a horror film based on a Stephen King story, let's take Steve's most terrifying, harshest and darkest thought and follow it to its logical conclusion."
- #026
The film was completed in only eight weeks. Director Frank Darabont said: "I've never prepped a movie in less than five months."
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