Quite right the military is involved with the monsters.

The military was to blame for the Big Bad in this movie too via the portals.
The 3 soldiers in the grocery store are shown to be not only inept at leading or even trying to help secure the store, but cowards (even suicide). Some people have said 1 soldier had too much make up on and that he looked like a drag queen. The last soldier from the store we see does nothing but cry like a little girl before he's killed.
Nevertheless, the ending (not written by King) does imply the military is victorious or at least not weak and inept at fighting the creatures.

It's a funny ending guys. Not laugh out loud, but funny nevertheless. Most of the time the military is to blame for the Big Bad then inept and incapable of dealing with the Big Bad. King does this in his writing and it's a common theme in other works as well (See George Romero). So in this movie what happens? The military is actually capable of dealing with the Danger and is doing so capably. Only our plucky band of survivors were working on the other plane. Ha! It's an O'Henry ending.

It was the opposite of lazy- you clearly don't understand writing

i just wish the movie had shown all the grocers killing each other before the credits started rolling. because none of them deserved to live

The ENDING to this movie was the laziest script writing I have ever seen in a movie. Even though I have seen some stupid horror movies created to meet the demand of entertaining certain age demographics.. because movie makers sometimes put profit before the words originality and creativity while making a movie.
The Thomas Jane character is looking into the mist in that is surrounding the vehicle and he is hearing noises that are from the military that are coming towards him.. I didn't feel fear in this scene that was bringing this movie to its conclusion.
I'm ex military and I knew what the sounds were. So the movie makers falsely in my opinion amped up the fear factor for no reason and this man shoots the characters in the car, and then he see's the military coming down the road from the mist afterwards.

Don't buy it as there was zero lead up to the message there. As someone else pointed out it was this other writer's solution to SK's less than spectacular ending, and I found it psychologically cheap and depressing and more infuriating than inspirational. I was yelling at my phone to the idiot for not thinking things through rather than going 'oooh, so that's where the movie was going' Who would have suspected such a tragedy other than a twisted minded writer. But still very creative. Needs a warning tho like an S rating for 'sick' or 'psychpathic' cuz I don't like movies like before I wanna smile for a few hours at least after watching the movie.

The ending is didactic. Meaning, it has a very explicit message it wants to impart to the viewer.
Nope.

When I saw it the audience sat in stunned silence. Undeniably powerful whether you liked it or not

Well, that's certainly one way of looking at it. I saw this in the theatre when it was released, and the ending had about 85% of the audience shouting out 'No!', 'WTF?' and 'Did he just kill his son? The hell?' then breaking out into annoyed laughter when the military appeared.
The ending really did not play well on release, and on a rewatch it still doesn't play well for me as a viewer. I greatly prefer the 'Hitchcock ending' of the novella which is many ways more terrifying, being ambiguous.

"It's better not to know so much about what things mean." David Lynch

I disagree The ending was about choices. The whole film, we are led to believe that the Thomas Jane character is one who we are confident is always doing the right thing, but in reality, he was just as much a screwup as anyone else, even moreso, in many cases.
Like, how he didn't allow the burn victim to kill himself, instead choosing to lead the group to an ill-fated mission to the pharmacy next door where more people died, to get supplies, and in the long run, the burn victim dies anyway, in a way more angonizing way than would've been necessary.
He chose not to help that lady make her way home at the beginning to help her daughter, when in the longrun, its revealed had he gone with her, he might've saved his own family too, not to mention helping the lady.
He also got the soldier killed by extracting information in front of William Sadler's character who grabbed him and they sacrificed.
If the movie has a 'message' its this Make wise choices. Don't let your ego trick yourself into believing you always know what you're doing. The safest way isn't always the best way.

I hated the ending because they didn't wait to do what they did, if they would have waited until they were in immediate danger then okay. I was happy to see Marcia Gay Harden's character get what was coming to her though lol.

No, dummy. Most people recognized the ending for what it was- shocking and unforgettable and depressing. Quite brilliant in that you will never forget it

pathetic child? are you talking about yourself?

IT never fails..there is ALWAYS some pathetic child (in this case, Stinger911 that thinks the reason why they like some dumb movie or ending is because they are SMARTER than the masses who hated it
Sorry, but we understood it just fine. You are not a superior movie watcher than those of us who hated the ending. IT is a stupid ending, plain and simple. Extremely unrealistic and it WAS put in simply to be a downer ending. Thomas Jane's character was portrayed throughout the whole movie as someone who would not give up. So to have him kill everyone WAYYYYY before he had to was nothing but a bad plot device.
If they wanted a downer ending that was MUCH better and more realistic, simply have it end with the gunshots. Then the WHOLE world would have been doomed.

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I agree and it also means when something goes wrong in experimentation its consequences effect in mysterious ways

What have you read, two books?

Joker is 100% correct about the ending of the novella.
It was, and remains, the worst ending of any story in the history of literature.
And it was the reason I have not read anything by King since 'The Mist' was published.
The Mist was a well-written, very enjoyable story.
The way King choose to end it was an insult to his readers.
And you know who seems to agree with me? Frank Darabont.

It's a very short story. There's no military in the ending

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j, thanks for the info. I would read up on it but I have too much crap to do for school. In the novel, is there information on how the military extinguished the mist creatures? Did anybody go out in a blaze of glory? I imagine there was a chapter of battle. I am cool with the film as is, it's just the ending kills me. Npi.

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