Frank Darabont actually edited out a few alternate endings for The Mist - and none of them worked [Exclusive]

"The Mist" ends with a dejected David Drayton unloading four bullets into the four passengers in his car, including his own son Billy, just when all hope seems lost and a suicide pact is their last recourse to escape the Lovecraftian monsters in the mist. Seeing this shock of a framed ending from a child's perspective would certainly have twisted the knife, but as it stands, "The Mist" still delivers what we've called a "punch of an ending." As the fifth passenger, Drayton gets out of his car and sees the cavalry arriving with tanks and gas masks.

Another character played by 'The Walking Dead' alum, Melissa McBride, reappears with her son in the back of a military transport, and we realize that when she stepped out into the mist to rescue her son earlier in the film, she is not dead. For her, all hope was not lost, which only underscores the utter madness and resounding finality of Drayton's decision (the latest in a long line of bad ones) to give up hope.

For some in the audience, this ending might have landed like a slap in the face, but that's not necessarily a bad thing in this case. "The Mist" is a film that shakes the viewer and refuses to let them be complacent or walk away without contemplating the purpose of it all. Frank Darabont opted for the bold choice instead of the safe choice. As Denise M. Huth says, it was "the ending the story had to have".