The Fog of Human Nature: Film Criticism and Cultural Reflection of "The Fog"

Maiya 2021-11-11 08:01:14

Note: The original text of this article was first published on my blog on March 30, 2008. Because the original blog was blocked, it can only be reposted. The current address of this article: http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_6707d64e0100h50s.html. There are reprints of this article on the Internet, all from my original blog. Hereby explain. The film "The Mist" of the same name directed by Frank Darabon, who once directed "The Redemption of Shawshank" and adapted from the novel of the famous horror novelist Stephen King (from the collection of novels "The Cursed Hand") is actually in 2008 The best movie I have ever seen. I was first attracted by it only because it was adapted from a novel by Stephen King. I used to see the movies "The Shining" and "1408 Phantom and Furious Room" which were also adapted from his novels, and I felt that they were really rare masterpieces. Then there is the plot introduction of "The Mist". A small town is suddenly shrouded in a thick fog of unknown origin. There seems to be something mysterious in the fog. A group of people are trapped in a supermarket, and a volunteer is tied to a body. The rope went out, and finally the rope broke. There were blood stains but people did not know where they were going... It was full of Stephen King's suspense, and everything attracted me to walk into this foggy town. After watching the movie, it turns out that this movie has received so much attention and controversy. "The Mist" is not a sci-fi film that is popular, highly anticipated, or won with a large number of special effects shots. Its controversy is temporarily limited to a niche range, but the content of the controversy is very worthy of consideration. In addition, the "overhead" of many audiences about this film is also imaginative and interesting, and at the same time it reflects cultural differences and reflections. At the beginning of the movie, the hero David painted a scene in his studio. From the following plot, we can learn that he is a painter who specializes in making movie posters for Hollywood. Some people think that the few paintings placed in front of the painter at that time are symbolic and are "eggs" left by the director. From the four paintings closest to David, it is clear that there is a gleaming head of the person on the left hand side of the painting. It is the poster of the movie "Strange Shape", also known as "Mutated Type III". A suspenseful film about science fiction. But "Strange Shape" is a 1982 movie. Today with such advanced information technology, it is obvious that there is no need for a painter to redraw the poster for such a movie. Because the information is everywhere, this poster has its own. Symbolic meaning. "Strange Form" is about a team of Antarctic scientific expedition rescued a dog that was being chased by a group of Norwegians, and later discovered that the dog was possessed by something "something" (alien creature), it ( He? She? It?) began to control other dogs to attack the members of the scientific expedition, and even began to control people. The problem is that the team members do not know who is being controlled, which aroused suspicion. The poster of "Strange Forms" appeared at the beginning of the film, and its profound significance is that from the perspective of the controller (the alien creatures in "Strange Forms"), it is likely to imply that Mrs. Carmody, the leader of the cult, was later caught by the audience. The woman who is habitually called "the goddess", because she, like the alien creatures in "Strange Forms", can control people's spirits (although the means are different). In addition, the English name of "Strange Shape" is "The Thing". I think if it is directly translated, it should be translated into "thing". This also implies the existence of those monsters in "The Mist" because of the people in the two movies. They don’t know anything about the monsters that appeared, and they don’t know what they are, and when David said to go out of the supermarket to the drugstore in "The Mist", his son cried and asked him not to go, saying that there were "Things" in the fog. And also said two things, this should be an echo of the previous "Strange Shape" poster. The painting facing David, that is, the painting he is finishing, looks like a western cowboy with a gun, plus several other paintings. In fact, they are the covers of novels published by Stephen King. In the movie, it seems that David was at odds with the neighboring black lawyer Norton and had a lawsuit. When David drove Norton to the town, they saw US military vehicles (two batches each, two Hummers in each batch). Assault vehicles and 2 military trucks) headed to the direction of the fog-on the mountain, David said that the US military was studying the missile defense system here. This may very well be an irony of the missile defense system. Because the emergence of the US NMD (National Missile Defense System) and TMD (Theater Missile Defense System) actually broke the strategic balance between nuclear powers. Exercised restraint. Once these missile defense systems are successfully developed, the result can only be to cause other countries that oppose the United States to target more missiles at the United States. In order to study another space, scientists of the US military caused fog and monsters to appear, leading to the destruction of this small town. Does the missile defense system bring more safety or more danger to the United States? Someone once asked, why don’t people trapped in the supermarket call out for help? This is simply a question that can only be asked without watching the movie seriously. When David and Norton arrived in the town, David had already said that there was no signal on the mobile phone and the wired telephone could not be connected. The opening of the film has already learned that there had been a storm the night before, and many trees more than ten meters high were blown down, but this was only an individual. On their way to the town, they could see a lot of intact wooden telephone poles, which were not damaged. Vehicles with maintenance power passed through to repair power instead of repairing the phone. We all know that the power outage at home does not affect the phone. Moreover, the fact that the mobile phone has no signal is also very questionable. Even if there is no storm that damages the wooden poles, can the signal tower of metal materials be destroyed so easily? If it is said that the fog that diffuses from "another space" can affect communication (the fog can affect electromagnetic waves to a certain extent), but the fog did not cover the entire town at that time. Therefore, I think it is very likely that the US military and government have discovered that the accident in another space has expanded, knowing that it is temporarily unable to solve and avoid the disaster, so they adopted special measures to cut off or interfere with the civilian communication line! The purpose is to prevent the spread of everything that happens here! And when it’s dark in the movie, the street lights are on, which shows that there is nothing wrong with the town’s power system, and it’s not because there is no electricity that the phone cannot be made. The people in the supermarket first heard the screaming sirens, which was very similar to the plot in the movie "Silent Hill", and there were also fog-like air. The biggest effect of this alarm sound is actually to cause people to panic. What happened? war? accident? natural disaster? Do not know at all! The most frightening thing is that you know the existence of a threat but you don't know what it is. The alarm arouses people's alertness, but it brings fear and confusion about the unknown. There is no explanation for the next big explosion. It may be an accident caused by a monster, such as an explosion at a gas station, or it may be a bombing of the fog source by a US aircraft or missile, or even a "hole" for studying alien space. The explosion caused by the expansive tear, what is the cause of this huge shock, is not explained in the movie, and there is actually no need to know the specific reason for it. Because this huge explosion is a huge thrust after people have fallen into fear and confusion, its task is to make the people in the supermarket fully realize that what is happening is very serious, and let the old man with nosebleed say " The threat of "Things in the Mist" really impacted people's hearts. It was from here that the people in the supermarket began to be pushed into despair and madness step by step. And this huge explosion also caused the goddess to learn from the Bible. It is found in the Old Testament that the doomsday judgment is coming to provide a basis. From the conflict between David and the supermarket worker in the basement, people’s anxiety began to be brought to the front desk. The cashier with eyes, later the sharpshooter, told David that in this frightened and anxious environment, the workers They all try to calm down. Whenever there is something to do, they all hope to do well, just emotional. Not only here, all the way to the back, this shameless, short stature clerk has always been the calmest one in the crowd. Looking at it now, the evaluation of "The Mist" is often extremely contradictory. On the one hand, some people think that this is really a profoundly good film, and on the other hand, some people think that this is a bad film. In fact, from the perspective of a culturally diverse world, it is impossible to have a movie that everyone thinks is good, not to mention that many people say that a certain movie is not good, just because many people around them also say the same. The public is in culture. The above is probably blind. People who say "The Mist" is not good say it is not good because in the end, David killed everyone in the car. Just when he had collapsed, the rescued American army came. The fate is so bizarre. This ending made many people feel very uncomfortable and aggrieved to say that "The Mist" is a "bad film". In fact, for this reason, the audience who said "The Mist" is a bad film, it happened to be in the hands of the director. That is to say, let the audience have such a deep feeling at the end, and they feel so heartbroken that they can't criticize the director. This is what The most exciting effect the movie needs to achieve. For example, when you watch the TV series "Returning the Pearl," characters like Little Swallow, Ziwei, and Golden Lock are originally beautiful, and they play positive characters, so it's easy to attract people's likes. But I think that the most successful performer in the TV series "Han Zhu Ge Ge" should be the mother Rong, because she really acted out the feeling of a sinister and evil person. It is said that she used a needle to pierce the crape myrtle to annoy an old lady. A heart attack is the climax of acting. What's more, someone watched Li Xuejian's appearance of Song Jiang in "Water Margin" when he was recruited, and he actually smashed the TV. I'm afraid that when people judge who is the best actor in "Han Zhu Ge Ge", they would definitely not think of Li Mingqi who played Rong Rong, but actors are not such bad people. It is easy to play good people, but it is easy to play a bad person. Let the audience hate so much, this is the realm of performance. The same is true of "The Mist". It makes people feel very regretful, resentful, and scold the director and screenwriter for such an arrangement. Then this film has achieved the greatest success. It can be said that more than half of the excitement of "The Mist" is at this end. Otherwise, if the audience just wants to see a lot of monsters cannibalizing scenes and lacks understanding of the connotation of everything that happens in the supermarket, then it can move people. There is only the end. What exactly does this movie want to express? If you really want to ask this question, then I think it may only be the director Frank Darabon, and even the original author of the novel Stephen. Jin Cai is qualified to say, but what's interesting is that many directors and writers just don't explain the meaning of their works or even refuse to explain the meaning. Then the rest can only be interpreted by the audience. Some people say that this movie is a criticism of religion, or that religion is the theme of the movie. In fact, as long as we have a thorough analysis and a certain understanding of religion, we will know it. This is simply a misunderstanding of religion and movies. Religion is not what the movie wants to say, but it is just a cover. Here, religion has a huge premise, that is, human nature. Human nature and destiny are the most important content to be expressed in these two films. At the beginning of the movie, it was hinted that David and Norton had personal conflicts and lawsuits, but because David took Norton along the way to the town and behaved very friendly, the relationship between the two people has become a lot easier. Norton said thank you to David. David's son asked if you and Norton had become friends. When faced with a child's simple question, David didn't know how to answer and became hesitant. At this time, I really can’t help but think of the sentence that Marx summarized. The relationship between people is fundamentally a relationship of interest. The changes in the relationship between David and Norton here are only changes with changes in interests, no matter the words. No amount of cover-ups and expressions can conceal the fact that people are pursuing interests, because people are human beings, and they all have human nature. The most concentrated and most obvious expression of humanity in the entire movie is shown in the dialogue between the group of people headed by David when they conspired to escape in the basement. David What is said is correct. The reason why human beings are civilized and seem to be "human in nature" is because everything works normally. Once order is lost and collapsed, everything will return to its original state. At that time, humans cannot be called humans, and the animal nature of humans will be vividly expressed. The glasses brother said directly, as a species (species), the nature of human beings is crazy, otherwise, why do human beings need politics and belief? Here I don’t want to argue with Marx whether the nature of human beings is natural or social. The reason why people have social attributes is because if people use natural attributes as the standard, then everyone cannot survive. Therefore, order should be established. The so-called end result of everyone being selfish can only be to achieve that everyone is not selfish or reasonably selfish in order to survive. But when the order no longer exists, the surroundings are dark, there is no direction, there is danger everywhere, or the "mist" everywhere, any other individual may kill you in order to satisfy their own survival, every other People are enemies. This sounds cruel, and maybe some people don't want to believe it, as the blond Amanda said, "Human nature is good." But this is the most essential manifestation of mankind's survival when facing threats. Religion has become an appendage of human nature in "The Mist" and has deviated from the original intention of religion. Anyone who knows a little about Christianity also knows that what Christianity preaches is not how to treat people as sacrifices, but how to get rid of collective fanaticism. Is this a problem of religion or of people? Thoughts such as the Doomsday Judgment are just more focused on the fundamental principles of the Catholic Church, a branch of Christianity, but why forget that Christianity also promotes tolerance and love? Does Christianity teach people to be as sensational as the goddess or use offensive language like "shut up" when preaching doctrines? Obviously not. And we can take a look at some of the performance of the goddess before and after. She prayed in the toilet and said that she hoped that God would let her be the person to guide everyone. She said that the people in the supermarket were not all sinful enough to be sent to hell, which showed that at least she was not malicious at this time, and she was crying. This shows that this person is actually very fragile and lonely. In the dialogue of the movie, it can be understood that this goddess is famously "abnormal" in the town. It is very likely that for this reason, people in the town usually discriminate against her in their daily interactions with her, which also caused her. The loneliness, the fanatical belief in God to find spiritual sustenance, and the appearance of revenge on everyone, finally this kind of long-term emotional suppression broke out in a special environment. When Amanda asked Carmody in the toilet if he needed a friend to confide in, Carmody's answer turned out to be that if such a friend is needed, he would rather pull a bunch of shit. Such a bad attitude towards a friendly act is not tolerance, love, or friendliness, so Carmody can't say how to believe in Christianity at all. When these fanatical believers killed the soldier, the goddess had a very surprised expression, which meant that she did not expect to kill anyone, nor did she expect the effect of killing people. This is completely a tragedy caused by a group of people who are worried about their own death by killing people to vent their panic. However, under this extreme situation and bloody stimulation, the goddess actually said that soldiers were sacrifices. This also shows that the rumors of the goddess and the fanaticism of the believers are a relationship that promotes each other and supports each other. . People’s madness is not only the responsibility of the goddess, but believers who believe in her are also responsible (so we can know that those who believe that any country that initiates aggression is only the will of the ruler and that the people are innocent or the Cultural Revolution is only the mistake of a few leaders. It is ridiculous to say that the people are not wrong). Religion has been turned into a cult in this situation, and Christianity has become a fanaticism. In this case, many religions The essential characteristics have been lost. The spiritual goal pursued by Christianity is based on the premise of "truth", but when the goddess was preaching his thoughts, she just raised an old man's hand and asked if you saw "God" today. Handsome face"? The old man raised his hand hesitantly in the eager and encouraging eyes of the "believers" around him, followed by a round of applause. This is not "true" anymore. In fact, whether it is a goddess, an old man or other believers, they know that this old man has not seen anything. They are all lying to themselves. The problem is that under the chaos and panic everywhere, everyone has been lost. With reason, they would rather lie to themselves and convince themselves that this is true, in order to encourage themselves to believe that they can live. Therefore, religion has deviated from the track of religion step by step under the abduction of human nature, and has become the victim of fear, blindness, impulsiveness, and madness after people lose their goals in the "fog." As a result, unreasonable people have seen it. "The Mist" will later come to the conclusion that religion should be despised-such a conclusion is actually similar to the cult promoted by the goddess. Christianity did have extreme behaviors such as burning "witches" to death in some ignorant times in the Middle Ages, but it would never "sacrifice" or use a little boy as a sacrifice. This is simply some of the characteristics of primitive religion. At the same time, the part of the movie that is connected with religion also shows a lot of reflections based on religion. For example, when the goddess criticized the soldier, she talked about how many military base scientists and science "offended" gods, such as landing on the moon, dividing stem cells, cloning, and so on. There are crazy attitudes here, such as criticizing humans landing on the moon, because this directly refutes the view that "God is in the sky" to some extent (Of course, this cannot be understood in this way. God is a spiritual existence in religion, but directly Criticizing certain religious views based on ignorance), but criticizing human cloning technology still has a certain ethical reflection significance, and most fundamentally, the reason why those monsters and fog appear is precisely because of the research of scientists. Caused. This somewhat puts forward the moral and ethical prerequisites for the scientific development of mankind. What is the bottom line of scientific development? What principles should be followed? On the contrary, this is something that science and technology cannot solve. It must be grasped by philosophy, ethics, and religion. The development of nuclear technology makes mankind a happier life and the destruction of mankind is only one step away. This is exactly what mankind should reflect on the development of technology. It's just that the problems raised by science in the movie will eventually need to be solved by science (the weapon of the US military). When David's group was about to rush out of the supermarket and was blocked by the goddess, the goddess said that they also demanded the "same privileges" (in fact, they demanded equality), and the "value", "human rights" and "lifestyle" of the believers. "Laughing, so damn it. On the other hand, when the United States uses its own values ​​and human rights as standards to interfere and invade other countries around the world, isn't it very similar to this goddess? In fact, this is also a kind of self-reflection on American and even Western culture. This unique form of self-reflection is also a unique culture of Westerners. There are also audiences who believe that the movie "The Fog" is a warning to people not to give up hope at any time. The reason for this conclusion is that not long after David killed the person in the car, the rescued US army was already there. Arrived, if David and the people in the car insist on a bit more, there will be a happy ending. If the ending of "The Mist" is designed like this, the audience may feel much relieved after watching the movie, but it is a pity for the movie itself. The audience came to the conclusion that “continue to persist is victory”. In fact, it feels a little bit painful to stand and speak because the audience is watching a movie outside of the movie, and the audience is not placed in the environment of the movie plot, and the audience is also We all know the result of the rescue by the U.S. military in the end. However, the characters in the movie did not know that there would be such a result. The occlusion of their information made them ignorant of the world. There are also lines in the movie saying that this fog may have covered the entire United States and even The whole world, and the continuous stories in the movies are also gradually destroying people's hope and confidence, making people have to believe that they have nowhere to escape. As people say, is the group of David still mentally fragile in the end? Let me ask, if you put you in the environment where the characters in the movie are, there is a thick fog around you, and the visibility is less than 5 meters. In the fog, there are monsters that cannibalize and completely lose contact with the outside world. , I don’t know what happened, and the people around you may kill you at any time. What would you do? In the movie, there is already an older lady who took medicine and committed suicide because he could not stand such a stimulus. I am afraid that David and the others who don’t wait for a while are really put in such an environment, no stronger than that lady. Bar! All these horrible processes happen gradually, one after another, which makes people despair step by step. First, the alarm raised people’s vigilance, and then the nosebleeds of the old people who came running and shouting "something in the fog" made people understand that an accident might threaten their lives, and a big explosion would directly affect people. A message such as "this matter is beyond my ability" is instilled in the concept. The tentacles of young workers captured by the basement actually only caused an effect among a small group of people. Even those who came to see the remains of the tentacles only indirectly felt the presence of danger. The first time that really destroyed the confidence of all the people in the supermarket was a brawny man-the man who dared to stab the remains of his tentacle with a stick in the basement, and asked to tie his body with a rope to get out the gun. It can be said that as far as the individual in the supermarket is concerned, no one is stronger than him. This brawny man is confident that he can get things back because of his lack of intuitive understanding of the monsters outside. He also relies on his own strength and power to want to go out. Check it out. When Brother Glasses gave him the knife to cut the rope, the strong man took out a large dagger also showed that this person is usually a sturdy person. And if such a powerful person is also killed, then any individual in the supermarket will be even more unable to fight those monsters. And the filming of this scene is really wonderful, because none of the shots captured what happened to the strong man and how he was killed. The speed and state of the movement of a rope and the blood on the rope were shocking. People The change of emotions and concepts of the audience depends entirely on a rope rather than a bloody scene, giving the audience unlimited imagination. Such horror is the real horror! The look of David's group of people being frightened after returning from the pharmacy also pushed people into chaos once again. Because except for the people who went out, the other people in the supermarket didn't know what they saw and what happened. And the last one that directly pushed David and the people in the car into despair was the biggest monster. If a small monster can kill a monster by fighting with it, then the 5 people in the car can do nothing about this ultimate monster. Although this monster did not attack them, it conveyed the message that it is very likely that all places in the world may have been shrouded in heavy fog, and even such a huge creature appeared, then it is very likely that the whole world They have been ruled by these monsters, wherever they flee, the earth has formed an ecosystem dominated by these monsters. When this monster walks, the huge vibration becomes the last straw that crushes the camel and directly contributes to the car. Of people choose the end of suicide. Therefore, the final choice of David's group has nothing to do with whether they continue to insist on whether there is hope. Persistence is victory and it is not the connotation of the film. If "The Mist" only wants to express such a theme, then "The Mist" is really vulgar. For a group of people who have a fundamental lack of understanding of the outside world, David's group is already very strong. Just like they said after the car ran out of gas, no one can say that they were unsuccessful. Such a line is actually for It dispels the audience's belief that it is wrong for them not to continue. Just like in the Yanzhaomen incident, in addition to those fans who are mentally disabled, many people who have an objective attitude to evaluate these stars are not all chaotics, but just because they have sex, they yell at them for being impure. People themselves are not necessarily noble, so anyone who thinks that David's group is not strong enough may not have the courage of them, and choose to go out to find hope in the general scene of the end of the world. The reason why "The Mist" chose such a dramatic ending is to express another theme of the film, destiny. In such an environment, David’s choice to kill the people in the car and even his own children is probably the best choice, because he is the only one who has witnessed all the monsters, especially the black man parasitized by spiders in the drugstore. The gendarme and the spider who was struck by his axe but fled with the axe (not even the axe was killed!), the shock this brought him was beyond words. Instead of letting your children be caught by spiders to parasitize small spiders, and then watching those spiders emerge from your children and eat your own children but you are powerless, it is better not to let your children suffer such pain. So suicide is no alternative. But destiny is precisely this impermanence. Just after everything is over, the U.S. military comes. Sometimes we have to lament the insignificance of people and the impermanence of the world. Destiny is teased for no reason. God opened up with David. A huge joke, only David’s desperate howling, the sad and sad female vocals of the movie’s background music and the sound of the chariot driving past-if you insist on listening to the sound of the subtitles, you will find that there is no paragraph behind. Any music, some are just the sounds of vehicles driving and helicopters flying by. The only thing worth thinking about is that the director arranged that there were 5 people in the final car and only 4 bullets were left, and 6 bullets from the revolver had already hit the goddess. But if there are only 3 rounds, what should they do? What if there are only 2 rounds or 1 round? ... ... .. ... In the audience's debate on this film, there seem to be many unanswered questions. In fact, as long as the plot and the basic logic are analyzed, these questions are not difficult to answer: 1. The resoluteness that appears in the opening of the movie The woman who wants to go home to save her child, why didn't she die? Why was she saved by the US army? Why is she not eaten by walking into the fog? If someone insists on asking this question, I think the best answer is that everything is arranged by the director or even the original novel. The reason for this arrangement is to highlight the theme of fate, not because of how this woman persists. How great is the belief or maternal love, etc. (Some people also associate this with the paragraph that David does not allow the goddess to use his children as sacrifices, and there is no basis for the connection between "The Mist" and "Silent Hill"). Those who pursued hope finally went into despair, but those who were thought to be killed by monsters survived. This is a bizarre fate. It is not difficult to understand that she was not killed by the monster. When she walked into the fog, the fog had just enveloped the town, and it was likely that there were not many monsters inside. If this woman is killed by a monster, then the prerequisite must be that she met the monster or the monster discovered her, and after all, there is a possibility that she herself walked home without meeting any monster without knowing it. , Even on the battlefield where artillery and bullets are denser than the monsters in the movie, it is possible for people to survive, and the ability of those monsters to find their prey does not seem to be very good (this point will be analyzed later). This woman cursed everyone to go to hell before she walked out of the supermarket. In fact, this is a bit too much, because from the situation at the time, going out of the supermarket is indeed an unwise behavior. After all, no one knows whether she will get lucky. No one dares to risk this life to experiment, not to mention David himself has children to take care of. 2. How was the black lawyer and the man who walked out with him? Survived? Or was it rescued by the US army? This point is not directly explained in the movie, but this does not mean that we cannot analyze it. The black lawyer and the people who went out with it might have been eaten by the monster. There was the brawny man who was going to take the gun with the black lawyer. There were few people. In order to keep in touch in the fog, the distance between people would not be very far. So now that the brawny man was killed by the monster, go. The black lawyers who were together are probably also doomed. Even if the black lawyers were lucky enough to not encounter the monster, they can still find through their lines that the lawyers and their group are going to "visit the town center", and there is a dense crowd, which is probably the monster's predation center. No black lawyers were found on the U.S. military vehicle that drove at the end. The fate of a black lawyer was probably ruined in his career, because he refused to believe in the existence of monsters, and even believed that the blood stains in the basement were bull blood sprinkled by David, and the remains of the tentacles were "rubber snakes", which is obviously similar. Certain logical relationships in the law, for example, as long as it is impossible to prove that David cheated, it is possible that the evidence is false, but as the goddess and brother glasses said, there is no court here. 3. How are the people in the supermarket? what happened? Was it finally rescued by the US army? This movie didn't directly explain it either. When David's group of people drove away, from the lens of the car lights shining into the supermarket, it was found that the expressions on the faces of the believers who lost the gods in the supermarket were very complex, surprised, apprehensive, envious and even dumbfounded. It is very likely that they will continue to stay in the supermarket like this in the future, then it is very likely that they will be rescued by the US army in the end, or they may fall into collective madness, tore each other, and even put them into the monster or walk out of the supermarket and be killed by the monster. It is possible to collectively fall into despair and commit suicide collectively. But not as many viewers thought, they were saved by the U.S. military at the end of the film. People who have this idea are because they think that the US military's convoy came from behind David's car, which is the direction of the town, so the people in the supermarket have been rescued. This kind of thinking is basically a "single-strand" thinking, because David drove out, the road can not always be straight, and no one knows after turning a few turns, so the direction of the rear of the car at that time was not the root of the small town. Can't be sure. In addition to the controversy over the plot, it seems that many viewers are still very keen to discuss the various monsters in the film and the technical issues about the foggy world. Although this has no practical significance, even the original novel may not give anything. Conclusion, but this is a manifestation of human imagination. In fact, as long as we analyze it in depth, we can find out that many disputes can be resolved and an unreasonable conclusion can be drawn. Regarding the fog: The existence of fog plays an important role in the plot in the movie, that is, it shows the existence of "another space", where the fog reaches is the spread of the different space. Otherwise, the movie cannot express to the audience how the other space spreads. These fogs are likely to be a climatic feature that has permeated the alien space for a long time. As for the effect of artistic pursuit, the existence of fog is to achieve the effect of making people fear the "unknown". Because there is something invisible behind the fog, and often people know the existence of horror, but the period before the image of horror appears is the most horrible. When disaster strikes, if there is no fog and the street is replaced by monsters chasing people to kill, then it will be an out-and-out commercial film, and it will not achieve the artistic effect, or even the later film. Everything expressed—changes and hysteria caused by a group of people being forced to stay in a confined space, as well as the profound expression of human nature. Without the fog, people can see whether there are monsters, and they dare to escape from the supermarket. Therefore, the fog is the key to all the logic of this movie. From the perspective of people's fear, the fog is more important than the monster in the fog. Moreover, the existence of fog makes the movie do not have to work hard on the details of the monster's appearance, just make a rough outline, which not only maintains the mystery of some monsters, maintains the horror effect, but also reduces the cost of the movie with less The money to achieve a more terrifying artistic effect, why not do it? It can be seen from the density of the fog that it seems that the fog can change with the needs of the plot. For example, when David opens the door in the basement, the visibility of the fog outside can reach 0, and sometimes the visibility can reach a few meters at night. When looking at the locusts with a lamp, it seems that they can reach more than ten meters. From the perspective of the relationship between fog and monsters, it seems that there is no relationship between monsters and fog, and there is no reason why monsters will not go where there is no fog, because there is no fog in the supermarket, but some monsters still fly in. At the end When part of the fog dissipated, there were shots of locusts flying in areas where there was no fog, and I didn't see them all flying away as the fog receded. But monsters are likely to habitually move with the movement of the fog, which can hide themselves and facilitate predation. Judging from the view that a place with fog is the spread of another space, it seems that another space is nothing special except for the heavy fog. The fog itself has no other characteristics besides affecting people’s eyesight, and the fog itself cannot harm people. , Air can breathe, light can also spread, metals and weapons can be used normally, and the effect of gravity also exists, which is no different from the space where people are. Therefore, it can be seen that basically this space The laws of physics and chemistry that can be established can also be established in different dimensions, and it is definitely not like the sensational analysis of some audiences. Even the laws of physics in this space are not suitable for different dimensions. About monsters: The monsters in the fog are all from different dimensions. From the perspective of the monsters shown in the movie, the creatures in the different dimensions have not evolved to a more advanced level. Basically, they stay in insects. , Arthropods, and mollusks, the most advanced are just flying reptiles, without birds and mammals. It can not be considered that there are only these kinds of creatures in the alien space, but at least they are still representative. They can be basically divided into these types according to their size levels: 1. Poisonous locusts: The reason why they are called locusts is that only locusts are relatively close to them among known animals, but locusts do not have poisonous needles on their tails. Some people think it is a mosquito, but the needle-shaped mouthparts of mosquitoes grow on the mouth instead of on the tail. At the end of the film, it can be seen that the US military uses flamethrowers to burn things similar to their eggs, but the real locusts do not lay their eggs on the trees instead of in the soil. Judging from its characteristics of stinging people and not eating people, this animal may feed on plants, but it has instinctive attacks on other creatures. That beautiful female clerk was stung by a poisonous needle because of her struggle. Some people say that the locust landed on the left side of her face and what was swollen later was a bruise on the right side. In fact, I didn't watch the movie carefully. The locust landed on her right but the tail stretched to the left. The reason why the locusts did not attack the goddess was only because the goddess did not move at the time. The locusts felt that they were not dangerous and did not need to attack, but this made the goddess believe that they were God’s chosen people, and the poisonous locusts looked like locusts. It is similar to the statement about the end of the world in the Book of Revelation in the Bible. Judging from the characteristics that light can attract these locusts, the poisonous locusts are not very different from other insects on the earth. They have strong phototaxis, and judging from the predation of the carnivorous flying dragon, it should be in the foggy world. In a relatively low position in the chain. Judging from the fact that the locusts fly into the supermarket are only individual individuals, the behavior of this creature is basically based on the instinct of the creature without any organization. 2. Carnivorous Wyvern: A flying reptile with wings like bats and likes to prey on poisonous locusts. But judging from its body size and the size of its wings, if this creature exists, it is likely to be unable to fly because its body is too large and its lower limbs are too thick. It can attack and eat people, but it is basically a low-level pursuit of food. For example, the carnivorous dragon that just flew into the supermarket did not attack humans in the first place. 3. Parasitic spider: Like a poisonous locust, it has a human-like face, which is different from a real spider. The real spider does not lay eggs in the prey to hatch in a parasitic way. The largest individual is similar to a human being. It is very aggressive and has a lot of netting. It can shoot out from the abdomen the spider silk with strong adhesion and a certain degree of corrosion (normal clothes are known to be unable to resist), but the range is limited and easy Dodge. Young children are aggressive in finding food as soon as they are born. In the misty world, it is likely to prey on highly poisonous locusts, and it has a mutual predation relationship with the carnivorous flying dragon. 4. Human-shaped giant prawn: It has a head similar to a human, but the specific features are not clear. Some people say that it is a crab or a praying mantis, which makes sense, but generally crabs do not have a long and narrow shape, and mantises generally do not have claws. The speed of movement is slow, the sense of smell is more sensitive to blood, and the prey will be picked up and killed from a low place. The strong man who went out to take the gun was probably killed by it (from the perspective of the rope, the rope was raised later) . Judging from its moving speed, it may be difficult to prey on poisonous locusts or carnivorous flying dragons. If it really hits it, it may eat, but I think it is more likely to prey on parasitic spiders in the misty world. Some people say that the soldiers who eat the soldiers and the glasses brothers are not the same kind of monsters, because one is bigger than the other, which is unfounded. No one said that these things are all the same size, and they are not just one. The eyesight of this thing, including the eyesight of all these monsters, may be poor. For example, after Brother Glasses was eaten by the humanoid giant prawn, the humanoid giant prawn turned around and left. It seemed that he hadn’t looked at the nearby heroes. The same. After David entered the drugstore, they were attacked by spiders because they made loud noises. So it seems that although the fog hides the monster, it also affects the monster's vision or the perception of these things to the outside world itself is not very good. These monsters also seem to lack interest in the things in the confined space. Whether it is a spider that has abandoned the person in the car or the giant shrimp that has never tried to enter the supermarket, they basically act according to the most primitive instincts of low-level creatures and can eat. Just eat, and don't kill what you can't eat, just to find other prey instead. This also shows that although these monsters are terrible and bloodthirsty, they have no brains. 5. Giant octopus: In the movie, this guy didn't show his whole body, but just gave some shots of his arms and legs. These tentacles are also very different from the real octopus. They look very similar to the monsters in the movie "Extreme Cold". Because the real octopus does not have a mouth and spines on its arms and legs. This monster does not seem to have to live in the water for a long time like a real octopus, and can hunt on land. Judging from the characteristics of octopus preying on shrimps and crabs, it is very likely to prey on humanoid giant prawns and parasitic spiders. For locusts and flying dragons, they may also eat them if they can catch them. There is no explanation why the cut off tentacles will turn into water. It is just a setting to achieve a bizarre effect, and in this way, there is no evidence to show to others, and it can lead to lawyers not believing them. The plot of taking people away. 6. Six-legged behemoth: Judging from the number of legs, this is an insect, but the body is too large, and its height is likely to be the same as that of the brachiosaurus on the earth, the super giant dragon. But the height of the hexapod is not the height of the head but the height of the entire body. Some people think it is the tentacle monster at the beginning of the article, because it has many tentacles on its back. But I think this is unreasonable, because when the six-legged monster walks up, there is a huge vibration, and the actor did not hear anything moving before he noticed something hit the door. This is enough to say that the tentacles are not on the hexapod behemoth, and the tentacles on the hexapod behemoth are more hairy than tentacles. Moreover, it is difficult for such a tall animal to prey on the ground like an octopus, which does not conform to the habits and physiological structure of living creatures. Even if this thing can prey, it still eats slow-moving animals like giant octopuses or giant humanoid shrimps. Some people say that it seems that it is likely to eat plants, this is also possible, because now it seems that all creatures that can grow up on land eat plants, if the hexapod beasts eat meat, they really don’t know how to eat it. How many things can be full. Moreover, there was obvious vibration when it walked, and the prey could perceive it from a long distance and then ran away. This monster doesn't seem to have a good ability to perceive the outside world, and has no reaction to the hero's car at all. The bird-like things flying around it are, I think, the carnivorous flying dragon, which preys on some parasites. From the perspective of people fighting with monsters, whether it is an axe, a sharpened wooden spear, a pistol bullet, a fire ignited by flammable agents, or a fire ignited by gasoline, they are all lethal to these monsters, that is, all mechanical energy. , Physical energy, chemical energy weapons can produce due killing effects on monsters. How terrible these monsters are, if people lack effective tools, weapons and observation systems, the monsters’ aggressiveness and fog’s concealment advantages are lost. Compared with the monsters in other movies, these monsters are much less threatening. They are not as intelligent as "Alien", nor do they have the unified command of cerebrum like the monsters in "Star Wars", let alone with them. There are viruses or bacteria that can spread everywhere like in "Resident Evil" (from the contact between the stinged female shop assistant and the soldier, it can be seen that it is toxic but not contagious). What the monsters in "The Mist" do only rely on the most basic physical instincts. They have no organization, and there is no coordination, tactics and ideas to attack an enemy in a unified way. Although many types of them have strong quantitative advantages, But because of the lack of organization, this quantitative advantage is meaningless. For example, when the army is killing certain monsters, as long as other surrounding monsters do not perceive your presence, they will not attack you. These characteristics of these monsters have been shown in the movie. When attacked by objects stronger than themselves, the instinct of these monsters is to counterattack or flee for their lives, rather than acting under unified command. For example, in the end of the film, the US military used flamethrower to kill locusts. The locusts all fled, and they did not attack the US military at all. The US military beside those flamethrowers also didn't seem to care about these flying locusts. For those locusts with large numbers and small bodies, the best way is to set up a light source somewhere at night, and then use the phototaxis of these insects to concentrate a considerable number before they are bombarded with firepower. There are also places where a large number of locusts are concentrated. More flying dragons and spiders may be concentrated, so it is easier to eliminate them. Similarly, monsters such as giant prawns can also be trapped and killed by scented bait. Although the spider’s venomous thread is corrosive, it has not been seen to have any corrosive effect on metal. So it seems that the 20 human-sized parasitic spiders are not 20 in the 15th century. The whole body, including the face, is protected by plate armor. Opponents of soldiers equipped with swords, spears or crossbows (the biggest obstacle when facing these monsters is the fear of monsters rather than the lethality of power or tools). The biggest advantage of these parasitic spiders is that they are concealed and move in small spaces. These places can be directly handed over to the flamethrower. , Or just blow up these places with explosives. And they are even more powerless against tanks and armored combat vehicles. Perhaps small spiders can get in, but only if it knows that it is a tank and collectively knows how to drill, but we have already said that these animals are still in the instinctive stage. Besides, the flamethrowers around the tank will not allow the spider to approach the tank so easily. Those carnivorous flying dragons, as long as they have guns, especially high-rate machine guns, there is nothing they can't deal with. Two rounds of ordinary pistol shells can destroy one, so do you know what the effect will be if you switch to a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun? As for those giant prawns, octopuses, and hexapod behemoths, they are even more easy to deal with. They are directly targeted by various guns, and these things move very slowly, the targets are huge, and they are easy to be found and easy to be destroyed. From the rocket launcher, From artillery to aircraft, humans can simply change them in various ways. They are almost invincible to humans without tools, but human armies with advanced tools are also invincible to these monsters. Heavy fog has an impact on human sight at most, but it has no interference for radar, GPS positioning, infrared night vision and thermal imaging cameras. For military firepower, as long as the monster can be seen, it will be eliminated. not a problem. The idea that the hexapod beast can withstand human tank shells is even more whimsical. It is simply the idea of ​​ignorance of human military technology. If the hexapod wants to withstand such a bombardment according to the power of the 120mm armor-piercing shell of the US M1A2 main battle tank, then the density of its body shell is likely to exceed depleted uranium and any common metal, then look at its volume, for this The final conclusion is probably that the hexapod beast can’t walk at all. Because of the influence of gravity, this monster will always have to live on the ground. Interestingly, it seems that the most powerful monsters are not as threatening as those spiders. So as long as the fog does not spread to the entire world and completely destroy the existing ecosystem, it is not very difficult for humans to solve these monsters. At the end of the film, it can be seen that as the US military convoy advances, the fog is gradually dissipating. From this point of view, it seems that the scope of fog diffusion is quite limited, and the reason for this effect is not explained in the movie. It may be because of physical reasons unknown to humans that one space cannot spread to another space for a long time or occupy another space completely, and it will automatically stop or recycle when it reaches a certain range. It may also be that the US military has found a solution to the problem or eliminated the fog. The instrument can make another space retreat, disperse the fog, and even close the connection between the two spaces from the source. The so-called flamethrower heat The argument that the amount of fog is dispelled is too "sci-fi", because if this method is successful, then people can disperse the fog by making a lot of fire in the fog. An important reason for the existence of these monsters is actually in contrast to the irrational believers in the supermarket. One side is a cannibalistic monster, and the other is the same crazy human beings, and both sides have to put people to death. Both are based on the nature of animals. Action, then what is the difference between humans and animals or monsters? And these monsters basically have a human-like face. Isn't this a suggestion that humans are equal to monsters? It should also be noted that the first thing that broke through the fog at the end of the film was not a tank. It was an American M108 self-propelled artillery, but the artillery itself had been modified with the 155mm gun of the M109 Aberdeen self-propelled artillery (very The National Guard may have recovered and modified it from the U.S. Army). In the back shots, based on the body and telephoto shots of the partially driven vehicles, it can be judged that there should be an American M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle and an M1A2 Abrams main battle tank. It’s just a bit strange to let the self-propelled artillery take the lead. It’s probably the reason why the M108 self-propelled artillery bombarded the hexapod. Because the elevation angle of the M108 self-propelled artillery is very high, it is estimated that there is no need for long-range shooting here. It's done. Finally, many viewers like this kind of overhead, that is, what would happen if such a thing happened in China? Some people joked that these monsters would be wiped out if they met Chinese urban management. Others said that if this happened in Guangdong, China, then these monsters would most likely be eaten by the Cantonese who could eat everything! Or if these monsters are declared to have aphrodisiac effect, then these animals will soon be driven out by people and turned into food, and the country will have to enact laws to classify them as endangered animals. In fact, this is the result of the "Chinese characteristics" culture. But it is very possible that if it happens in China, then no one believes what god the goddess said, the end of the world, because the pursuit of a transcendent spiritual world has never been an element of Chinese traditional culture. China Human pragmatism has successfully offset religion and successfully transformed it into superstition. In addition, it is difficult for the people in the supermarket to form several organized and led groups, and it will inevitably be chaos and scattered sand. "specialty of China"... ... In fact, "The Mist" has always been permeated with the characteristics of Western culture. Who said "The Mist" is anti-religious? Then after the young workers are dragged away by the giant octopus, isn’t the hero constantly talking about God and Jesus (although it happened in China, the hero is absolutely impossible to talk about Marx or the Three Represents Harmonious Society)? When one of David’s group described the cult preached by the goddess, why did she say that the things she said were like Castro? Westerners really don't forget to oppose communism everywhere. And this movie at least shows the American gun culture, the only gun has become their most effective weapon against monsters. Many countries, including China, often give pointers to cases where the United States allows the possession of firearms, but they do not know that it is stipulated by the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. The right of American citizens to wear firearms is not interfered and the government becomes a dictatorship. The government uses guns to oppose the government. The possession of guns is a culture in the United States. No matter how much harm it causes, it at least resists a greater harm at any time-the existence of tyranny and dictatorship. Moreover, the ending is more permeated with the tragic plot of Western culture since ancient Greece. People who have read the book of Professor Zhao Lin from the Department of Philosophy of Wuhan University will easily understand that "The Mist" ends in tragedy and laments the impermanence of fate, which is similar to that of ancient Greece. The spirit of is really in line with it. And why is it that when another space is opened, it must be a monster? How do you know that there is not a group of cute rabbits but a group of eating spiders in another space? Maybe the first thing the rabbits wiped out was all the vegetables! Because Westerners have a deep-rooted sense of crisis in their consciousness, that they often like to imagine some enemies out. Western culture is full of curiosity and fear of the unknown. From a certain angle, David's group of people escaped from the supermarket just like the Puritans who were persecuted by the European Catholic Church, and then boarded a long-distance car (boat?) to find hope (America?). Some people also ask, why can’t China produce such a good movie? That's because movies with such endings are basically impossible to pass censorship, and how can China shoot the government and the army to create such a space and monsters to harm the people? How can such a movie be made? And even if there is such an accident, how can the People's Army delay it so long to come to rescue? Therefore, these two-hour movies can only be shot for one hour of monster cannibalism, and then there is one hour left to praise the great achievements of the party, the government, and the people’s army and the superiority of a socialist harmonious society. Perhaps Western movies will really reflect on human nature, and think about how human nature should be in the face of the fog, but China will never Let’s reflect, because the human nature of the Chinese has been suppressed, so there is no need to reflect, although it is not necessary to reflect, but China is distorted by the fog, not only human nature, but also Chinese culture. And Chinese movies... ———I really don’t want to talk to you anymore. The black man who was parasitized by ink is actually a gendarme rather than a black lawyer. Was it the military police or a black lawyer? I really don't want to do anything wrong with your ink marks. And I don't know where so many people are so confident, and they are ashamed to let others go back and see who it is. I’ll take a screenshot to tell you, who the hell is—

Alright, all the spectators who clung to "the black man parasitized by the spider in the pharmacy is a black lawyer", now understand whether he is a black lawyer or a military policeman? Pay attention to the armband on the arm of the black military police. The white word "MP" on the black background means the military police. In the screenshot, I have circled it in red, can you see it? In the drugstore, did the black man parasitized by the spider see my armband marked with a red circle? Finally fell to the ground, the body of the little spider gushing out, can you see the armband marked with a red circle clearly? Still that black lawyer, black lawyer, lawyer, broccoli, lawyer! I really don't want to talk to you about this bit of trouble, don't you just want to be parasited by black lawyers? You hope, that is it? The pattern is broken~

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Extended Reading
  • Mae 2022-03-21 09:01:33

    The fog of human heart

  • Caitlyn 2022-03-20 09:01:28

    The ending is so heartbreaking. A lot of human nature discussed earlier is not amazing, and the three views of this film are very positive.

The Mist quotes

  • Brent Norton: [trying to start up chainsaw] Motherfucker! Aw, shit! Motherfucker! Cocksucker!

  • Mrs. Carmody: We have Judas in our midst!