The morning after a violent thunderstorm, a thick unnatural mist rapidly spreads across the small town of Bridgton, Maine, reducing visibility to near-zero and concealing numerous species of bizarre creatures which viciously attack any human who ventures out into the open. The source of the fog and its inhabitants is never revealed, but strong allusions are made to an interdimensional rift caused by something known second-hand to the townsfolk as "The Arrowhead Project", long rumored to be conducted at a nearby top-secret military facility.

The bulk of the story details the plight of a large group of people who become trapped while shopping in the town supermarket, among them a commercial artist named David Drayton (the story's narrator), Drayton's young son Billy, and their annoying neighbor Brenton Norton. Also trapped in the market are a young woman named Amanda Dumfries and two soldiers from The Arrowhead Project; the soldiers' joint suicide lends some credence to the theory of the Project being the source of the disaster. Along with the horrifying physical threat outside, of which Norton is an early victim, the story also explores the rapid psychological breakdown of the terrified people inside the market. This breakdown allows for the rise to power of a religious zealot named Mrs. Carmody, who eventually convinces a majority fraction of the survivors that these events fulfill the biblical prophecy of the end times, and that a human sacrifice must be made to clear away the Mist: Billy and Amanda are the chosen victims. As the mob surges forward at her command, Mrs. Carmody is shot by Ollie Weeks, an employee of the market and one of the few survivors who has remained relatively sane. Drayton, Billy, Amanda, and one other survivor then escape to Drayton's car and leave Bridgton. Learning that the Mist has spread ahead of them across all of Maine, they prepare to drive on into an uncertain future.

a classic ghost story that takes place in a Northern California fishing town called Antonio Bay (real location Inverness, California and Pt. Reyes lighthouse). The town is about to celebrate its centennial when mysterious events, including the gruesome murders of a fisherman and two young ladies, accompany a strange, glowing fog that spreads over land and sea. The local priest, Father Malone, discovers the diary of his grandfather (who was also the town's priest), which contains a dark secret unknown to the town's current inhabitants.

The diary reveals that, in 1880, six of the founders of Antonio Bay (including Malone's grandfather) deliberately sunk and plundered the Elizabeth Dane, a clipper ship owned by Blake, a wealthy man with leprosy who wanted to establish a colony near Antonio Bay. The six conspirators lit a fire on the beach near treacherous rocks, and the crew of the clipper, deceived by the false beacon, crashed into the rocks. Everyone aboard the ship perished. The six conspirators were motivated both by greed and by disgust at the notion of having a leper colony nearby. Antonio Bay and its church were then founded with the gold plundered from the ship.

The mysterious fog contains the vengeful ghosts of Blake and the clipper's crew, who have come back on the hundredth anniversary of the shipwreck and the founding of the town to take the lives of six people (symbolic substitutes for the six conspirators).

It looks like a bad rip off of THE FOG.

According to King in the Notes section in Skeleton Crew, the inspiration for The Mist came from a real life experience shortly before he began work on the story. While there were no strange creatures, a storm much like the one in the story occurred where King lived at the time. After the storm ended, he went to a local supermarket with his son the following day. While looking for hot dog buns, King imagined a huge prehistoric bird flapping around in the store. By the time the two were in line to pay for their purchases, King had the basis for his story: survivors trapped in a supermarket surrounded by unknown creatures.

While experiencing the atypical spring weather which precedes the massive thunderstorm at the start of the story, some characters make reference to the real-life Great Blizzard of 1888, which devastated much of the northeastern United States.

It doesn't sound that the premise can sustain 90 minutes.

The mist is 2 hrs and 10 Min, And I'm pretty sure it will sustain every one of those minutes

My point exactly. How long can they be trapped in a supermarket?

My point exactly. How long can they be trapped in a supermarket?

My point exactly. How long can they be trapped in a supermarket?