10 Movies That Pissed Audiences Off The RIGHT WAY
8. The Military Arrives...Two Minutes Too Late - The Mist
Frank Darabont's adaptation of Stephen King's sci-fi horror novella culminates with one of the most soul-shattering endings to any movie, well, ever, and one that pissed its fair share of viewers off - if clearly by design.
Protagonist David Drayton (Thomas Jane), his son and a few fellow survivors have spent the entire movie escaping a fleet of grotesque, spider-like inter-dimensional aliens, and are driving through the mist when they come across a gigantic, Lovecraftian beast, after which they run out of gas.
The message seems clear - there's no hope and no chance of survival, so the adults enter into a suicide pact to avoid a painful death at the hands of the alien monsters. Moments later, David shoots his own son and also the three other survivors.
With no bullet left for himself, a distraught David then walks into the mist, waiting to be devoured by the approaching creatures...only for the mist to recede and the U.S. Army to emerge, revealing that humanity has regained the upper hand and the alien threat is being taken care of.
If that's not devastating enough, David also has to watch as survivors are shepherded past him, including a woman (Melissa McBride) who, seemingly foolishly, left the supermarket earlier in the movie, but has now been rescued along with her children.
It's about as much of a "f**k you" ending as a film can muster up, and yet, it's an absolutely sublime downer. Had David just waited two minutes longer, his son and friends would still be alive.
It's an ending that invites plenty of anger, especially from more casual-skewing audiences expecting a slightly cheerier human triumph.
But even King himself agrees that it's a superior ending to his source material - which basically just ends - and offers up a uniquely effed-up twist on the typical victory over alien invaders.
It might leave you fuming on a first viewing, but once you've let it sit for a while, it's easier to appreciate just how brilliant it is.