Stephen King recap: the story so far

No. 01 · 1976 · Film

Carrie recap

Carrie (1976) follows Carrie White, a shy, bullied teenager in Chamberlain, Maine, who discovers she can move objects with her mind. Brian De Palma directs Sissy Spacek as Carrie and Piper Laurie as her mother Margaret, a religious fanatic who calls her daughter's first period a sin. When Carrie panics over that period in the school showers, her classmates pelt her with tampons, and gym teacher Miss Collins (Betty Buckley) punishes the girls. Sue Snell (Amy Irving) feels guilty and asks her boyfriend Tommy Ross (William Katt) to take Carrie to the prom. Chris Hargensen (Nancy Allen), banned from the dance, plots revenge with her boyfriend Billy Nolan (John Travolta), and they rig the vote so Carrie and Tommy are crowned king and queen. As Carrie stands on stage, happy for the first time, a bucket of pig's blood pours over her, and the falling bucket knocks Tommy out.

How Carrie ends

Carrie ends with the town in flames and a nightmare. Carrie seals the gym and kills nearly everyone inside with fire and the sprinklers, then flips Chris and Billy's car as they try to run her down. At home Margaret stabs her in the back, and Carrie kills her by driving kitchen knives into her body, pinning her like a saint. The house collapses on them both. Sue, the only survivor, later lays flowers at the burnt plot and a bloody hand bursts from the ground to grab her, before she wakes screaming in her mother's arms.

Post-credits scenes

No. Carrie has no mid- or post-credits scene; the grave scene comes before the credits.

No. 02 · 1979 · Series

Salem's Lot recap

Salem's Lot (1979) is a two-part CBS miniseries in which writer Ben Mears returns to Jerusalem's Lot, Maine, as a vampire moves into the old Marsten House. Tobe Hooper directs David Soul as Ben, who plans to write about the house that scared him as a child. Antique dealer Richard Straker (James Mason) has bought the house and opens a shop in town with an unseen partner, Kurt Barlow (Reggie Nalder), a bald, blue-skinned vampire who does not speak. Children start to vanish, and the dead begin rising and floating at windows to be let in. Ben falls for Susan Norton (Bonnie Bedelia) and gathers allies: horror-obsessed teenager Mark Petrie (Lance Kerwin), teacher Jason Burke (Lew Ayres) and Dr. Bill Norton (Ed Flanders). One by one the townspeople turn, and Susan is taken.

How Salem's Lot ends

Salem's Lot ends with Ben staking Susan in Guatemala. In the second part, Ben and Mark break into the Marsten House cellar, Straker dies, and Ben drives a stake into Barlow's heart in his coffin before the house burns. The pair flee the infested town. In the framing scenes, set later, Susan finds Ben in Central America as a vampire, and he kills her, knowing the Lot's vampires will keep coming after them.

No. 03 · 1980 · Film

The Shining recap

The Shining (1980) follows Jack Torrance, a failed writer who takes the winter caretaker job at the snowbound Overlook Hotel in Colorado with his wife and son. Stanley Kubrick directs Jack Nicholson as Jack, Shelley Duvall as Wendy and Danny Lloyd as Danny, a boy with psychic visions he says come from "Tony", a voice in his mouth. Head chef Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers) recognises the gift, calls it the shining, and warns Danny to stay away from Room 237. As the hotel empties, Jack's writing stalls and he drinks with a ghostly bartender, Lloyd, and talks with Delbert Grady, a former caretaker who killed his family. Danny is attacked in Room 237. Wendy discovers Jack's manuscript is hundreds of pages of one sentence: "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy". Jack sabotages the radio and the snowcat, and Danny sends a psychic call for help to Hallorann in Florida.

How The Shining ends

The Shining ends with Jack frozen to death in the hedge maze. Jack breaks through the bathroom door with an axe, and Hallorann arrives only to be killed by him. Danny leads his father into the maze, backtracks in his own footprints and escapes with Wendy in Hallorann's snowcat. The final shot shows Jack in a 1921 Fourth of July ball photograph on the hotel wall. In the novel, the hotel's boiler explodes and destroys the Overlook, and Hallorann survives; King has long disliked Kubrick's changes.

Post-credits scenes

No. The Shining has no mid- or post-credits scene.

No. 04 · 1982 · Film

Creepshow recap

Creepshow (1982) is an anthology of five horror tales framed by a boy whose father throws away his horror comic. George A. Romero directs from a script by Stephen King. In "Father's Day", a murdered patriarch rises from the grave for the cake he never got. In "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill", King plays a farmer who touches a meteor and is overrun by fast-growing plant life. In "Something to Tide You Over", Richard Vickers (Leslie Nielsen) buries his wife's lover (Ted Danson) up to his neck on a beach at low tide. In "The Crate", professor Henry Northrup (Hal Holbrook) uses a creature found under a university stairwell to get rid of his wife Wilma (Adrienne Barbeau). In "They're Creeping Up on You", germ-phobic tycoon Upson Pratt (E.G. Marshall) is invaded by cockroaches in his sealed apartment. In the wraparound, young Billy (Joe King) is sent to his room after his father (Tom Atkins) throws away his comic.

How Creepshow ends

Creepshow ends with Billy getting revenge on his father. The next morning, garbagemen find the thrown-out comic and notice the ad for a voodoo doll has already been ordered. Inside the house, Billy jabs pins into the doll while his father clutches his neck in agony, paying for the slap and the thrown-away comic. The film closes on the comic book pages, styled like the panels that link every segment.

Post-credits scenes

No. Creepshow has no mid- or post-credits scene.

No. 05 · 1983 · Film

Christine recap

Christine (1983) follows Arnie Cunningham, a bullied teenage nerd who buys a rusted 1958 Plymouth Fury that seems to have a will of its own. John Carpenter directs Keith Gordon as Arnie and John Stockwell as his best friend Dennis Guilder. Arnie restores the car at Will Darnell's (Robert Prosky) garage, and as Christine comes back to life, so does Arnie's confidence: he wins Leigh Cabot (Alexandra Paul) and becomes cold, arrogant and obsessed with the car. When school bully Buddy Repperton and his gang smash Christine up, the car repairs itself and hunts them down one by one, running Buddy down on a burning highway. Detective Rudy Junkins (Harry Dean Stanton) suspects Arnie but cannot prove anything. Leigh nearly chokes to death inside the car, and Christine kills Darnell. Dennis and Leigh realise Arnie is lost to the car.

How Christine ends

Christine ends with the car crushed into a cube. Dennis and Leigh lure Christine into Darnell's garage and Dennis rams it with a bulldozer. Arnie is thrown through the windshield and killed by a shard of glass. They flatten Christine, which keeps trying to rebuild itself, and it is sent to a scrapyard. In the final shot, as Leigh looks on, part of the crushed grille twitches.

Post-credits scenes

No. Christine has no mid- or post-credits scene.

No. 06 · 1983 · Film

The Dead Zone recap

The Dead Zone (1983) follows Johnny Smith, a schoolteacher who wakes from a five-year coma able to see a person's past and future by touching them. David Cronenberg directs Christopher Walken as Johnny. His fiancee Sarah Bracknell (Brooke Adams) has married someone else, and Johnny's visions make him a reluctant celebrity. Sheriff George Bannerman (Tom Skerritt) asks for help with the Castle Rock strangler, and Johnny's vision reveals the killer is Frank Dodd, Bannerman's own deputy, who kills himself before he can be arrested. Johnny retreats into tutoring, and saves a pupil from drowning by foreseeing a pond accident. At a campaign event he shakes hands with Greg Stillson (Martin Sheen), a populist Senate candidate, and sees Stillson becoming president and launching a nuclear war. His doctor Sam Weizak (Herbert Lom) tells him he would have killed Hitler if given the chance.

How The Dead Zone ends

The Dead Zone ends with Johnny dying after he tries to shoot Stillson. Johnny fires at a rally from a balcony and misses, and Stillson grabs Sarah's baby as a shield. A photographer captures the moment, and Johnny is shot by a guard. Touching the dying Johnny, Stillson is shown a vision of his career destroyed by the photograph and his own suicide. Knowing the future has changed, Johnny dies in Sarah's arms.

Post-credits scenes

No. The Dead Zone has no mid- or post-credits scene.

No. 07 · 1983 · Film

Cujo recap

Cujo (1983) traps a mother and her young son in a broken-down car outside a remote farm, held hostage by a rabid St. Bernard. Lewis Teague directs Dee Wallace as Donna Trenton and Danny Pintauro as her son Tad. Cujo, the gentle dog of mechanic Joe Camber (Ed Lauter), is bitten by a rabid bat while chasing a rabbit. Donna's marriage to Vic (Daniel Hugh Kelly) is strained by her affair with Steve Kemp, and Vic leaves on a business trip after learning of it. Donna drives her failing Ford Pinto to the Camber farm outside Castle Rock for repairs, not knowing Cujo has already killed Joe and his neighbour and that Joe's wife and son are away. The car dies in the yard, and Cujo attacks. For days in the summer heat, Donna and Tad are trapped as Tad becomes dehydrated, and a sheriff's deputy who comes looking is killed.

How Cujo ends

Cujo ends with Donna killing the dog and saving Tad. Donna fights Cujo with a baseball bat, then shoots him with the deputy's gun when he attacks again. She carries the unconscious Tad into the house and revives him, and Vic arrives as she holds her son, the family back together after days of searching. In the novel, Tad dies of dehydration and heatstroke before help comes.

Post-credits scenes

No. Cujo has no mid- or post-credits scene.

No. 08 · 1984 · Film

Children of the Corn recap

Children of the Corn (1984) strands a young couple in Gatlin, Nebraska, a farm town where the children have murdered every adult in the name of a corn god. Fritz Kiersch directs Peter Horton as Burt, a newly qualified doctor, and Linda Hamilton as his girlfriend Vicky. On their way to Seattle, they hit a boy who has already had his throat cut while running from the corn. Seeking help, they find Gatlin deserted. Three years earlier, a boy preacher named Isaac (John Franklin) led the children to kill the adults and worship He Who Walks Behind the Rows, and every child must give themselves to the god at 19. His enforcer Malachai (Courtney Gains) captures Vicky to crucify her in the corn. Burt is helped by two children who reject the cult, Job (Robby Kiger) and his sister Sarah (Anne Marie McEvoy), who draws visions of what is coming.

How Children of the Corn ends

Children of the Corn ends with the cornfield burning. Malachai turns on Isaac and offers him as a sacrifice instead, and Isaac is taken by the god, returning possessed to kill Malachai. Burt rescues Vicky, then floods the field's irrigation system with gasoline and set it alight, destroying the creature. Burt, Vicky, Job and Sarah leave the ruined town together, the two children now in the couple's care.

Post-credits scenes

No. Children of the Corn has no mid- or post-credits scene.

No. 09 · 1984 · Film

Firestarter recap

Firestarter (1984) follows Charlie McGee, an eight-year-old who can start fires with her mind, on the run with her father from a secret government agency. Mark L. Lester directs Drew Barrymore as Charlie and David Keith as her father Andy, who can push people's minds. Andy and his wife Vicky gained their powers in a college experiment run by The Shop, which killed Vicky and now wants Charlie. Captain Hollister (Martin Sheen) sends John Rainbird (George C. Scott), a scarred assassin, after them. Father and daughter shelter with a farming couple, the Manders, but Charlie's fire wrecks the farm when agents attack. The Shop captures them and keeps them apart at its base in Virginia. Rainbird poses as a kind orderly to win Charlie's trust and coax her into tests, intending to kill her when the studies are done.

How Firestarter ends

Firestarter ends with Charlie destroying the Shop's compound. As father and daughter are reunited in the stables, Rainbird shoots Andy, and Charlie kills Rainbird and burns the base to the ground. Andy dies telling her to make sure no one can do this again. Charlie returns to the Manders farm and later walks into the New York Times to tell her story.

Post-credits scenes

No. Firestarter has no mid- or post-credits scene.

No. 10 · 1986 · Film

Stand by Me recap

Stand by Me (1986) follows four 12-year-old boys from Castle Rock who hike along the railway tracks in 1959 to find the body of a missing boy. Rob Reiner directs, with Richard Dreyfuss narrating as the adult Gordie Lachance, now a writer who has just read of an old friend's death. Young Gordie (Wil Wheaton), grieving a brother his parents favoured, sets out with Chris Chambers (River Phoenix), a smart boy written off for his family's reputation, hot-tempered Teddy Duchamp (Corey Feldman) and nervous Vern Tessio (Jerry O'Connell), who overheard where the body of Ray Brower lies. Along the way they outrun a junkyard dog, escape a train on a trestle, pull leeches off themselves in a swamp and tell stories by the campfire. Chris urges Gordie to keep writing. Teenage hoodlum Ace Merrill (Kiefer Sutherland) and his gang head for the body too.

How Stand by Me ends

Stand by Me ends with the boys finding Ray Brower and walking home. Ace's gang arrives to claim the body, and Chris and Gordie face them down with a gun. The boys report the body anonymously and go their separate ways. The adult Gordie says Teddy and Vern drifted off, while Chris became a lawyer and was stabbed to death trying to break up a fight. Gordie finishes writing the story and goes out to play with his son.

Post-credits scenes

No. Stand by Me has no mid- or post-credits scene.

No. 11 · 1987 · Film

The Running Man recap

The Running Man (1987) is set in a 2017 police state where a convicted man must survive armed killers on a deadly TV game show. Paul Michael Glaser directs Arnold Schwarzenegger as Ben Richards, a police helicopter pilot framed as the "Butcher of Bakersfield" after he refused to fire on food rioters. After breaking out of a labour camp, he is caught by Amber Mendez (Maria Conchita Alonso) and handed to host Damon Killian (Richard Dawson), who puts him on The Running Man. Richards and two fellow escapees are fired into a ruined zone of Los Angeles to face celebrity "stalkers" such as Subzero, Buzzsaw, Dynamo and Fireball, while Captain Freedom (Jesse Ventura) watches. Amber, who learns the Bakersfield footage was faked, is sent in after him. Richards kills the stalkers one by one, and the network fakes his death on air.

How The Running Man ends

The Running Man ends with Killian killed by his own show. The resistance seizes the network's uplink and broadcasts the real Bakersfield footage. Richards fights his way into the studio and straps Killian into a rocket sled that fires him into a billboard, where he explodes. The audience cheers, and Richards and Amber kiss. The novel ends very differently, with Richards flying a hijacked plane into the network's skyscraper.

Post-credits scenes

No. The Running Man has no mid- or post-credits scene.

No. 12 · 1989 · Film

Pet Sematary recap

Pet Sematary (1989) follows the Creed family, who move to rural Ludlow, Maine, beside a highway and near a burial ground that brings the dead back wrong. Mary Lambert directs from King's own script, with Dale Midkiff as doctor Louis Creed, Denise Crosby as his wife Rachel and Fred Gwynne as elderly neighbour Jud Crandall. When the daughter Ellie's cat Church is killed on the road, Jud leads Louis past the children's pet cemetery to an old Mi'kmaq burial ground, and Church returns, foul and violent. The ghost of Victor Pascow, a student who died in Louis's care, warns him against the place. Rachel is haunted by her sister Zelda, who died of spinal meningitis. Then their toddler Gage (Miko Hughes) is killed by a truck, and Jud tells the story of Timmy Baterman, a boy who came back as a monster. Louis digs up his son anyway.

How Pet Sematary ends

Pet Sematary ends with Rachel returning from the dead. Gage comes back, kills Jud and then his mother with a scalpel. Louis kills Gage and Church with morphine and burns the Crandall house. Despite everything, he carries Rachel's body to the burial ground. She walks back into the house, bloodied, and as they kiss she reaches for a knife; the screen cuts to black on Louis's scream.

Post-credits scenes

No. Pet Sematary has no mid- or post-credits scene; the Ramones song plays over the credits.

No. 13 · 1990 · Film

Misery recap

Misery (1990) follows novelist Paul Sheldon, who wakes after a car crash in the remote farmhouse of Annie Wilkes, his self-described number one fan. Rob Reiner directs James Caan as Paul and Kathy Bates as Annie, a former nurse who pulled him from the snow outside Sidewinder, Colorado. Paul has just finished a serious novel and killed off Misery Chastain, the heroine of his bestselling romances. Annie forces him to burn the new manuscript, and when she reads that Misery dies, she flies into a rage, keeps him prisoner and makes him write Misery back to life. Paul secretly explores the house on his crippled legs and finds Annie's scrapbook of her killings, including babies at the hospital where she worked. Annie catches on and breaks his ankles with a sledgehammer. Local sheriff Buster (Richard Farnsworth) keeps investigating Paul's disappearance and comes to the farm.

How Misery ends

Misery ends with Paul killing Annie. She shoots Buster, and Paul pretends to finish the new book, then sets the manuscript alight. In the fight that follows he hits her with the typewriter and finally kills her with her cast-iron pig doorstop. Eighteen months later, walking with a cane, Paul meets his agent in a restaurant and sees a waitress who looks like Annie. In the novel, Annie cuts off Paul's foot with an axe instead of hobbling him.

Post-credits scenes

No. Misery has no mid- or post-credits scene.

No. 14 · 1990 · Series

It recap

It (1990) is a two-part ABC miniseries about seven friends in Derry, Maine, who fight a shape-shifting clown as children in 1960 and again as adults in 1990. Tommy Lee Wallace directs, with Tim Curry as Pennywise the Dancing Clown. In 1960, Bill Denbrough's little brother Georgie is killed by Pennywise in a storm drain, and Bill and six other outcasts, the Losers Club, are each terrorised by the creature in the shape of their worst fears while dodging the bully Henry Bowers. They wound It in the sewers and swear to return if it ever comes back. Thirty years later, Mike Hanlon (Tim Reid), the only one who stayed in Derry, calls the others home when children start dying again. Bill (Richard Thomas), Ben Hanscom (John Ritter), Beverly Marsh (Annette O'Toole), Richie Tozier (Harry Anderson), Eddie Kaspbrak (Dennis Christopher) and Stan Uris (Richard Masur) have forgotten almost everything. Stan kills himself rather than return, and Henry escapes from an asylum to hunt the others.

How It ends

It ends, in its second part, with the Losers killing the creature in its lair beneath Derry. Its true form is a giant spider-like monster. Eddie is killed, and the others tear out its heart. Afterwards Ben and Beverly marry, and Bill rides his old bike Silver with his catatonic wife Audra on the back until she wakes. Mike stays behind as Derry's librarian, and their memories of each other begin to fade.

No. 15 · 1993 · Film

Needful Things recap

Needful Things (1993) brings a mysterious antiques dealer to Castle Rock, Maine, whose shop sells each customer the one thing they most want. Fraser C. Heston directs Max von Sydow as Leland Gaunt and Ed Harris as Sheriff Alan Pangborn. Gaunt asks a small price plus a "prank" on a neighbour, and he chooses the pranks to set old grudges alight. A boy, Brian Rusk, smears mud on Wilma Jerzyck's sheets; Wilma blames the fragile Nettie Cobb (Amanda Plummer), and the two women kill each other. Town selectman Danforth "Buster" Keeton (J.T. Walsh), a gambler embezzling public money, sinks into paranoia and kills his wife. Gaunt gives Polly Chalmers (Bonnie Bedelia), Alan's fiancee, a charm that eases her arthritis and turns her against Alan. The church is bombed, and the town erupts in a riot.

How Needful Things ends

Needful Things ends with Gaunt walking away from the ruins of his shop. Alan stops the riot and shows the townspeople how Gaunt played them against each other. Buster comes out wired with explosives; Alan almost talks him down, but Gaunt taunts him, and Buster pushes Gaunt through the shop window, setting off the bomb. Gaunt steps out of the wreckage unharmed, says it was not his best work, tells Alan and Polly he will see their grandson in 2053, and drives away.

Post-credits scenes

No. Needful Things has no mid- or post-credits scene.

No. 16 · 1994 · Film

The Shawshank Redemption recap

The Shawshank Redemption (1994) follows banker Andy Dufresne, sentenced to life in Maine's Shawshank State Prison in 1947 for murdering his wife and her lover. Frank Darabont directs Tim Robbins as Andy and Morgan Freeman as Ellis "Red" Redding, who narrates and can get anything smuggled inside. Andy survives beatings by the Sisters, earns favour with brutal guard captain Byron Hadley (Clancy Brown) by advising him on tax, and becomes the private accountant of Warden Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton), laundering his kickbacks. He builds up the prison library and asks Red for a rock hammer and a poster of Rita Hayworth. Elderly inmate Brooks Hatlen (James Whitmore) is paroled after 50 years and hangs himself on the outside. Young inmate Tommy Williams (Gil Bellows) knows who really killed Andy's wife, but Norton has him shot to keep Andy working for him. Andy tells Red about Zihuatanejo, a town on the Pacific coast.

How The Shawshank Redemption ends

The Shawshank Redemption ends with Andy and Red reunited on a Mexican beach. Andy escapes through a tunnel hidden behind his poster, crawls through a sewer pipe and walks out free, then withdraws Norton's laundered money under a false identity and sends evidence to the press. Hadley is arrested and Norton shoots himself. Red is paroled, finds the money Andy buried for him in Buxton, and breaks parole to join him in Zihuatanejo. The novella ends with Red on the bus, only hoping.

Post-credits scenes

No. The Shawshank Redemption has no mid- or post-credits scene.

No. 17 · 1994 · Series

The Stand recap

The Stand (1994) is a four-part ABC miniseries in which a weaponised flu wipes out most of humanity and the survivors split between good and evil. Mick Garris directs from King's own script. A soldier escapes a military lab in California, spreading the superflu nicknamed Captain Trips across the country. Stu Redman (Gary Sinise), a Texan who seems immune, escapes government quarantine; pregnant college student Frannie Goldsmith (Molly Ringwald) survives in Maine with Harold Lauder (Corin Nemec), who loves her; and deaf mute Nick Andros (Rob Lowe), rock singer Larry Underwood (Adam Storke) and the mentally impaired Tom Cullen (Bill Fagerbakke) make their own way. All of them dream of two figures: Mother Abagail (Ruby Dee), a 108-year-old woman in Nebraska, and Randall Flagg (Jamey Sheridan), a demonic man who draws the wicked to Las Vegas. The good gather in Boulder, Colorado, while Flagg recruits Lloyd Henreid (Miguel Ferrer) and the pyromaniac Trashcan Man (Matt Frewer). Harold and Nadine Cross (Laura San Giacomo) plant a bomb that kills Nick and others.

How The Stand ends

The Stand ends, in part four, with the Hand of God destroying Las Vegas. Mother Abagail sends Stu, Larry, Glen Bateman (Ray Walston) and Ralph Brentner to walk to Vegas; Stu breaks his leg and stays behind. Glen is shot, and Larry and Ralph are brought before a crowd for execution when Trashcan Man arrives with a nuclear warhead. A glowing hand sets it off, killing everyone, and Flagg vanishes. Tom finds Stu and brings him home, Frannie's baby survives the flu, and the couple return to Maine.

No. 18 · 1995 · Film

Dolores Claiborne recap

Dolores Claiborne (1995) follows a Maine housekeeper accused of killing her rich employer, years after she was suspected of killing her husband. Taylor Hackford directs Kathy Bates as Dolores and Jennifer Jason Leigh as her estranged daughter Selena St. George, a New York journalist. On Little Tall Island, Dolores is found standing over the body of Vera Donovan (Judy Parfitt) at the foot of the stairs, holding a rolling pin. Detective John Mackey (Christopher Plummer), who failed to convict her for the 1975 death of her husband Joe (David Strathairn), sets out to finish the job. Selena comes home doubtful of her mother's innocence. Flashbacks show Joe as a violent drunk who stole Dolores's savings for Selena's education. When Dolores learned he was molesting Selena, Vera told her about her own husband's fatal "accident", and on the day of a solar eclipse Dolores led Joe to an old well.

How Dolores Claiborne ends

Dolores Claiborne ends with Mackey dropping the case and mother and daughter reconciled. Dolores lets Joe fall into the well during the eclipse, and he dies there. She explains that Vera threw herself down the stairs and begged to be put out of her misery. At the inquest, Selena recovers her repressed memory of Joe's abuse and argues that Mackey has no admissible evidence and a personal vendetta. Mackey gives up, and the two women part warmly at the ferry before Selena returns to New York.

Post-credits scenes

No. Dolores Claiborne has no mid- or post-credits scene.

No. 19 · 1999 · Film

The Green Mile recap

The Green Mile (1999) follows the death row guards of a Louisiana prison in 1935 and a gentle giant condemned for murdering two little girls. Frank Darabont directs Tom Hanks as block supervisor Paul Edgecomb and Michael Clarke Duncan as John Coffey. In a nursing home, the elderly Paul tells the story to a friend. Paul and his guards, including Brutus "Brutal" Howell (David Morse), run the cell block called the Green Mile with decency, except for the cruel, well-connected Percy Wetmore (Doug Hutchison). Coffey heals Paul's bladder infection with a touch and brings back to life the pet mouse Mr. Jingles, owned by inmate Eduard Delacroix (Michael Jeter). Percy sabotages Delacroix's execution so he dies in agony. The guards smuggle Coffey out to cure the brain tumour of Melinda Moores, the warden's wife. Coffey passes the illness into Percy, who shoots the psychotic inmate "Wild Bill" Wharton (Sam Rockwell), and Paul learns through Coffey that Wharton killed the girls.

How The Green Mile ends

The Green Mile ends with Coffey executed by choice and Paul still alive in his old age. Coffey tells Paul he is tired of the world's pain and asks to go ahead; before he dies he watches his first film, Top Hat. Paul reveals he is 108 years old, given long life by Coffey's touch, and has outlived his wife and everyone he knew. Mr. Jingles is still alive too. Paul wonders how long his own green mile will be.

Post-credits scenes

No. The Green Mile has no mid- or post-credits scene.

No. 20 · 2003 · Film

Dreamcatcher recap

Dreamcatcher (2003) follows four lifelong friends from Derry who share telepathy and meet an alien invasion on a hunting trip in the Maine woods. Lawrence Kasdan directs from a script he wrote with William Goldman. Psychiatrist Henry Devlin (Thomas Jane), Gary "Jonesy" Jones (Damian Lewis), Pete Moore (Timothy Olyphant) and Joe "Beaver" Clarendon (Jason Lee) owe their gift, "the line", to Douglas "Duddits" Cavell (Donnie Wahlberg), a boy with Down syndrome they saved from bullies as children. At their cabin they take in a sick stranger, Rick McCarthy, who is carrying a parasite that bursts out and kills Beaver. Jonesy is taken over by an alien called Mr. Gray, who keeps him locked in a warehouse of memories in his own mind. The army, led by Colonel Abraham Curtis (Morgan Freeman), quarantines the area and destroys the crashed ship. Henry escapes Curtis's camp with Lieutenant Owen Underhill (Tom Sizemore) and fetches the dying Duddits.

How Dreamcatcher ends

Dreamcatcher ends with Duddits sacrificing himself to destroy Mr. Gray. Mr. Gray, in Jonesy's body, heads for the Quabbin Reservoir to infect Boston's water. Curtis, relieved of command, attacks by helicopter; Underhill shoots him down and dies of his wounds. In the pump house, Duddits reveals his own alien nature, and he and Mr. Gray destroy each other. Jonesy, free again, crushes the last parasite before it reaches the water.

Post-credits scenes

No. Dreamcatcher has no mid- or post-credits scene.

No. 21 · 2007 · Film

1408 recap

1408 (2007) locks a sceptical author of ghost guidebooks in a New York hotel room that has killed everyone who stayed more than an hour. Mikael Hafstrom directs John Cusack as Mike Enslin, a writer who debunks haunted places and is still grieving his young daughter Katie. He receives an anonymous postcard warning him not to enter room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel. Manager Gerald Olin (Samuel L. Jackson) tries to talk him out of it, describing 56 deaths, and offers him expensive cognac. Inside, the clock radio starts a countdown from 60 minutes and the room turns on him: windows slam, the temperature swings, ghosts of earlier victims jump from the window, and the walls bleed. Mike sees Katie, then watches her crumble to dust. Trying to escape, he climbs onto the ledge and finds no other windows on the building. He seems to wake on a California beach after a surfing accident, only to discover he never left the room.

How 1408 ends

1408 ends, in the theatrical cut, with Mike burning the room and surviving. He makes a Molotov cocktail from Olin's cognac and sets 1408 on fire, and firefighters drag him out. Later, his wife Lily hears Katie's voice on his tape recorder from the room. In the director's cut, Mike dies in the fire and his ghost remains in the burnt room.

Post-credits scenes

No. 1408 has no mid- or post-credits scene.

No. 22 · 2007 · Film

The Mist recap

The Mist (2007) traps a small Maine town's shoppers inside a supermarket as a thick mist full of monsters rolls in. Frank Darabont directs Thomas Jane as David Drayton, an artist who goes to the store in Bridgton with his young son Billy (Nathan Gamble) and his neighbour Brent Norton (Andre Braugher) after a storm. A bleeding man runs in screaming that something in the mist took his friend. Tentacles drag off a bag boy at the loading dock, and insects and flying creatures break through the windows. Norton leads a group out into the mist and they are never seen again. Inside, religious zealot Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden) convinces more and more frightened shoppers that God is punishing them, and her followers demand a sacrifice. A soldier reveals that the military's Arrowhead Project opened a door to another dimension, and the crowd feeds him to the creatures. Assistant manager Ollie Weeks (Toby Jones) shoots Carmody, and David leads a small group to his car.

How The Mist ends

The Mist ends with David killing his son and the others, only for the mist to lift moments later. They drive until the gas runs out, surrounded by enormous creatures. With four bullets for five people, David shoots Billy, Amanda Dunfrey and the two others, then steps out to die. Tanks and soldiers emerge from the clearing mist, carrying survivors, including the woman who left the store early. The novella ends ambiguously, with David still driving south in the mist.

Post-credits scenes

No. The Mist has no mid- or post-credits scene.

No. 23 · 2016 · Series

11.22.63 recap

11.22.63 (2016) is an eight-episode Hulu miniseries in which an English teacher travels back to 1960 through a diner closet to stop the Kennedy assassination. Bridget Carpenter develops it, with J.J. Abrams among the producers. Divorced Maine teacher Jake Epping (James Franco) is recruited by diner owner Al Templeton (Chris Cooper), who is dying of cancer and has spent years trying the mission himself. Every trip lands at the same moment in 1960 and every return resets the past. Taking the name Jake Amberson, Jake learns that the past pushes back when someone tries to change it. He picks up a young sidekick, Bill Turcotte (George MacKay), and settles in Texas to watch Lee Harvey Oswald (Daniel Webber) and his wife Marina (Lucy Fry), while trying to establish whether Oswald acted alone. Working as a teacher in Jodie, he falls in love with librarian Sadie Dunhill (Sarah Gadon), whose violent ex-husband threatens them.

How 11.22.63 ends

11.22.63 ends, in the finale "The Day in Question", with Jake saving Kennedy and giving up Sadie. Jake stops Oswald at the Book Depository, but Sadie is shot in the struggle and dies. Back in 2016, he finds a ruined, war-torn world, so he returns to 1960 to reset everything, and this time stays away from Sadie to keep her safe. Back in the present, he looks her up and finds her, aged 80, honoured by her town; they share a dance.

No. 24 · 2017 · Film

The Dark Tower recap

The Dark Tower (2017) sends a New York boy into Mid-World, where the last Gunslinger hunts a sorcerer bent on toppling the tower that holds up the universe. Nikolaj Arcel directs Tom Taylor as Jake Chambers, Idris Elba as Roland Deschain and Matthew McConaughey as Walter Padick, the Man in Black. Jake has visions of the Tower, Roland and Walter, and his mother and therapist think he is ill. Walter abducts children with strong psychic gifts, the shine, and uses their minds to fire beams at the Tower, which keeps out the darkness beyond. Jake escapes Walter's agents, finds a portal in an abandoned house in Brooklyn and steps into Mid-World. Roland, who wants only revenge for his father's death at Walter's hands, takes him to a village of seers. When the two return to New York to hunt Walter, Walter kills Jake's mother and takes the boy to his base, Devar-Toi.

How The Dark Tower ends

The Dark Tower ends with Roland killing Walter and saving the Tower. Roland fights his way into Devar-Toi as Jake is strapped into Walter's machine. Walter deflects his bullets, but Roland ricochets a shot around him and kills him, then shuts the machine down. Back in New York, Roland asks Jake to come with him, and the two return to Mid-World together.

Post-credits scenes

No. The Dark Tower has no mid- or post-credits scene.

No. 25 · 2017 · Film

Gerald's Game recap

Gerald's Game (2017) leaves a woman handcuffed to a bed in a remote lake house after her husband dies of a heart attack during a sex game. Mike Flanagan directs for Netflix, with Carla Gugino as Jessie Burlingame and Bruce Greenwood as Gerald. The couple go away to save their marriage, and Gerald, taking Viagra, cuffs Jessie to the bedposts. When she refuses his rape fantasy, they argue and he collapses dead. Alone, thirsty and unable to reach the keys, Jessie hallucinates Gerald and a bolder version of herself, who taunt and coach her. A stray dog feeds on Gerald's body. At night a tall, deformed figure she calls the Moonlight Man (Carel Struycken) stands in the corner of the room. Jessie is forced to relive a buried memory: during a solar eclipse when she was 12, her father Tom (Henry Thomas) sexually abused her and made her keep the secret.

How Gerald's Game ends

Gerald's Game ends with Jessie free and facing the Moonlight Man in court. She cuts her wrist on a broken glass and pulls her hand through the cuff, stripping the skin, then drives away and crashes, and is rescued. Months later she writes to her younger self. The Moonlight Man was Raymond Andrew Joubert, a real serial killer and grave robber. At his sentencing she faces him and tells him he is so much smaller than she remembered.

Post-credits scenes

No. Gerald's Game has no mid- or post-credits scene.

No. 26 · 2017 · Series

Mr. Mercedes recap

Mr. Mercedes (2017) is a crime series about a retired detective chasing the man who drove a stolen Mercedes into a crowd of job seekers. It ran for three seasons and 30 episodes on AT&T's Audience network from 2017 to 2019, adapting King's Bill Hodges trilogy. Brendan Gleeson plays Bill Hodges, a retired Ohio detective who never solved the massacre. The killer, Brady Hartsfield (Harry Treadaway), an ice cream van driver and computer repairman who lives with his alcoholic mother Deborah (Kelly Lynch), starts taunting Hodges online and pushes him towards suicide. Hodges teams up with his young neighbour Jerome Robinson (Jharrel Jerome) and Holly Gibney (Justine Lupe), a gifted, anxious woman with an exceptional memory. Season 1 ends with Brady planning an attack on a concert and left in a coma. Season 2 finds Brady given an experimental drug in hospital by Dr. Felix Babineau (Jack Huston) and waking with the power to control minds. Season 3 follows Morris Bellamy (Gabriel Ebert), who kills reclusive author John Rothstein for his unpublished notebooks, and teenager Pete Saubers (Rarmian Newton), who finds them.

How Mr. Mercedes ends

Mr. Mercedes ends, in its third-season finale, with Morris Bellamy dead in a fire and Hodges at peace. Hodges confronts Bellamy over Rothstein's notebooks, and Bellamy dies in the blaze. Lou Linklatter takes Brady's old ice cream job, and Hodges, his family and friends settle into a calmer life. The Audience network shut down in 2020 without a fourth season being ordered.

No. 27 · 2017 · Film

It recap

It (2017) follows seven bullied kids in Derry, Maine, in the summer of 1989 as a shape-shifting clown preys on the town's children. Andy Muschietti directs Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise and Jaeden Lieberher as Bill Denbrough, whose little brother Georgie vanished down a storm drain the previous October. Bill refuses to accept that Georgie is dead. With Richie Tozier (Finn Wolfhard), Eddie Kaspbrak (Jack Dylan Grazer) and Stan Uris (Wyatt Oleff), and new friends Ben Hanscom (Jeremy Ray Taylor), Beverly Marsh (Sophia Lillis) and Mike Hanlon (Chosen Jacobs), he forms the Losers Club. Each of them is stalked by It in the shape of their worst fear, while the bully Henry Bowers (Nicholas Hamilton) torments them. Ben's research shows children disappear in Derry roughly every 27 years. A trip into the house on Neibolt Street ends with Eddie's arm broken and the group split. When Pennywise takes Beverly, the others go down the well into the sewers after her.

How It ends

It ends with the Losers beating Pennywise and swearing a blood oath. In the cistern, Bill faces a false Georgie and shoots It, and together the friends beat Pennywise until it falls into the depths to hibernate. Beverly is freed from the deadlights, and Henry, who killed his father, falls down the well. The Losers cut their palms and promise to return if It ever comes back. Beverly kisses Bill before leaving town. The title card then reads "It Chapter One".

Post-credits scenes

No. It has no mid- or post-credits scene.

No. 28 · 2018 · Series

Castle Rock recap

Castle Rock (2018) is a Hulu anthology series set in King's fictional Maine town, running two seasons of 10 episodes each from 2018 to 2019. Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason created it, with J.J. Abrams and King among the producers. In season 1, death-row lawyer Henry Deaver (Andre Holland) is called home when a pale young man known only as The Kid (Bill Skarsgard) is found locked in a cage beneath Shawshank Penitentiary and says Henry's name. Henry's mother Ruth (Sissy Spacek) is losing her memory, retired sheriff Alan Pangborn (Scott Glenn) lives with her, and childhood neighbour Molly Strand (Melanie Lynskey) has a psychic link to Henry. Henry vanished in the woods as a boy in the winter his adoptive father died, and The Kid may have come from somewhere else entirely. Season 2 follows a young Annie Wilkes (Lizzy Caplan), the nurse from Misery, and her daughter Joy (Elsie Fisher), stranded in town after a car accident, alongside Ace Merrill (Paul Sparks), his uncle Pop Merrill (Tim Robbins) and a Somali community led by Abdi Howlwadaag (Barkhad Abdi). The show threads in Shawshank, Jerusalem's Lot, Jackie Torrance (Jane Levy), a niece of The Shining's Jack, and other King references.

How Castle Rock ends

Castle Rock ends with Annie Wilkes alone with a hallucination of her daughter. In the season 1 finale, "Romans", Henry decides The Kid is evil and locks him back in the abandoned Shawshank. In season 2, Ace returns from the dead as host of a 17th-century cult leader from Jerusalem's Lot, and the town is nearly lost. Annie drowns Joy, believing her possessed, and in the final scene sits in a bookshop with the Joy she imagines, waiting for a signing by author Paul Sheldon. Hulu cancelled the show in 2020.

No. 29 · 2019 · Film

It Chapter Two recap

It Chapter Two (2019) brings the Losers Club back to Derry as adults in 2016, 27 years after they first fought Pennywise. Andy Muschietti directs, with Bill Skarsgard returning as the clown. Mike Hanlon (Isaiah Mustafa), the only one who stayed in Derry, calls the others when Pennywise kills again. Bill Denbrough (James McAvoy) is now a novelist, Beverly Marsh (Jessica Chastain) is married to an abusive man, Richie Tozier (Bill Hader) is a comedian, Eddie Kaspbrak (James Ransone) is a risk analyst, and Ben Hanscom (Jay Ryan) is a successful architect. Stan Uris (Andy Bean) kills himself rather than face It. The others have forgotten most of their childhood until they return. Mike has learned of the Ritual of Chud, a native rite to trap It, and each Loser must find a personal token from their past, reliving memories of the summer of 1989. Henry Bowers escapes from an asylum to kill them.

How It Chapter Two ends

It Chapter Two ends with Pennywise dead and the Losers moving on. In the cavern beneath Neibolt Street the ritual fails. Eddie is impaled saving Richie, and the others shrink It by mocking it, then tear out and crush its heart. Eddie dies, and the house collapses on his body. Each friend reads a letter Stan sent before his death, Ben and Beverly are together, Bill writes again, and Richie recarves his and Eddie's initials on the Kissing Bridge.

Post-credits scenes

No. It Chapter Two has no mid- or post-credits scene.

No. 30 · 2019 · Film

Doctor Sleep recap

Doctor Sleep (2019) follows Danny Torrance, the boy from The Shining, now a troubled alcoholic adult who must protect a girl with a powerful shine. Mike Flanagan directs Ewan McGregor as Dan, Kyliegh Curran as Abra Stone and Rebecca Ferguson as Rose the Hat. Dan drifts to a small New Hampshire town, gets sober with help from Billy Freeman (Cliff Curtis) and works at a hospice, where he uses his gift to comfort the dying, earning the nickname Doctor Sleep. The ghost of Dick Hallorann (Carl Lumbly) advises him. Abra senses a murder of a boy by the True Knot, a group of near-immortal travellers led by Rose who torture psychic children to feed on their "steam". She reaches out to Dan, and Rose learns about Abra and wants her. Dan and Abra ambush the Knot in the woods, but Billy is killed and Rose escapes. Dan decides to take Abra to the place where his own power is strongest: the Overlook.

How Doctor Sleep ends

Doctor Sleep ends with Dan dying as the Overlook burns. At the abandoned hotel, Dan wakes its ghosts, and they devour Rose. The hotel tries to possess Dan as it did his father, and he overrides the boiler and dies in the blaze while Abra escapes. Later his ghost visits Abra. In the novel, the Overlook is already gone, Dan survives, and the climax takes place at the campground on its site.

Post-credits scenes

No. Doctor Sleep has no mid- or post-credits scene.

No. 31 · 2019 · Film

Pet Sematary recap

Pet Sematary (2019) retells the Creed family's move to Ludlow, Maine, but this time it is the daughter, not the son, who dies and comes back. Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer direct Jason Clarke as Louis Creed, Amy Seimetz as his wife Rachel and John Lithgow as neighbour Jud Crandall. Children in animal masks hold a procession through the woods to the pet cemetery behind the house. When the cat Church is killed, Jud shows Louis a burial ground beyond it, and the cat returns aggressive. Rachel is haunted by her sister Zelda, who died of spinal meningitis when Rachel was a child. At Ellie's (Jete Laurence) ninth birthday party, a tanker truck hits her as she saves her toddler brother Gage. Louis buries her in the cursed ground, and Ellie comes home cold and changed, aware of her own death.

How Pet Sematary ends

Pet Sematary ends with the whole family undead except Gage. Ellie kills Jud and stabs Rachel, then buries her mother in the ground. Louis tries to end it, but the returned Rachel stabs him, and he is buried there too. Louis rises, and the three walk towards the car where Gage is locked in, as Ellie unlocks the door. The film's switch from Gage to Ellie is its biggest change from both the novel and the 1989 film.

Post-credits scenes

No. Pet Sematary has no mid- or post-credits scene.

No. 32 · 2020 · Series

The Outsider recap

The Outsider (2020) is a 10-episode HBO miniseries about a child murder pinned on a man who seems to have been in two places at once. Richard Price created it from King's 2018 novel. In Cherokee City, Georgia, Detective Ralph Anderson (Ben Mendelsohn), still grieving his son, publicly arrests Little League coach Terry Maitland (Jason Bateman) for the killing of a boy, Frankie Peterson, based on DNA and eyewitnesses. Terry has video proving he was at a conference in another city at the time. He is shot dead outside court, leaving his wife Glory (Julianne Nicholson) to fight for his name. Private investigator Holly Gibney (Cynthia Erivo), a brilliant woman with a remarkable memory, traces similar cases across the country and concludes a shape-shifting entity copies innocent people, kills children and feeds on the grief. Ralph resists the idea as the deaths mount. The search leads to a cave in Texas. Holly is the same character King wrote for the Mr. Mercedes books, though this series does not follow on from that show.

How The Outsider ends

The Outsider ends, in the finale "Must/Can't", with the entity killed in the cave. Claude Bolton (Paddy Considine), whose face the entity had begun to take, shoots it, the cave collapses and impales it, and Ralph crushes its head with a rock. Back home, the survivors agree on a story, and Terry is cleared at a press conference. In a mid-credits scene, Holly is shown with the same scratch the entity gave its other victims.

No. 33 · 2020 · Series

The Stand recap

The Stand (2020) is a nine-episode CBS All Access miniseries that retells the end of the world from the superflu and the battle between Boulder and Las Vegas. Josh Boone and Benjamin Cavell developed it, and it ran from December 2020 to February 2021. Unlike the 1994 version, it starts after the plague and moves back and forth in time. In the free zone of Boulder, Colorado, Stu Redman (James Marsden), Frannie Goldsmith (Odessa Young), Larry Underwood (Jovan Adepo), Nick Andros (Henry Zaga), Glen Bateman (Greg Kinnear) and the simple Tom Cullen (Brad William Henke) rebuild society under the guidance of Mother Abagail (Whoopi Goldberg). Harold Lauder (Owen Teague), bitter at losing Frannie to Stu, and Nadine Cross (Amber Heard) are drawn to Randall Flagg (Alexander Skarsgard), who rules a decadent Las Vegas with Lloyd Henreid (Nat Wolff). Flashbacks show how each survivor got there. Harold and Nadine bomb a meeting, killing Nick, and Abagail sends Stu, Larry, Glen and Ray Brentner (Irene Bedard) west to face Flagg.

How The Stand ends

The Stand ends, in the finale "The Circle Closes", with Stu and Frannie home in Maine and Flagg reborn. After the Hand of God destroys Las Vegas, Stu returns to Boulder with Tom, and Frannie gives birth to a daughter, Abagail; the babies born in Boulder prove immune. The couple go home to Maine. Flagg, now calling himself Russell Faraday, finds himself among a primitive tribe and begins to gain power again. King wrote this coda, which is new to the screen.

No. 34 · 2023 · Film

Pet Sematary: Bloodlines recap

Pet Sematary: Bloodlines (2023) is a prequel set in Ludlow, Maine, in 1969, showing how a young Jud Crandall first learned the secret of the burial ground. Lindsey Anderson Beer directs in her debut, for Paramount+. Jud (Jackson White) is about to leave for the Peace Corps with his girlfriend Norma (Natalie Alyn Lind) when the Baterman family dog attacks them and bites Norma. Bill Baterman (David Duchovny) has buried his son Timmy (Jack Mulhern), who died in Vietnam, in the cursed ground, and Timmy has come back as a killer. Jud's childhood friends Manny Rivers (Forrest Goodluck) and his sister Donna (Isabella Star LaBlanc) are pulled in, and Jud learns his father Dan (Henry Thomas) is part of a group of townspeople who have kept the secret for generations. The story goes back to the colonial settler Ludlow, who was buried there and returned as a monster. Timmy begins killing the town's leaders and raising others.

How Pet Sematary: Bloodlines ends

Pet Sematary: Bloodlines ends with Timmy destroyed and Jud staying in Ludlow to guard the secret. Timmy kills Officer Washburn (Pam Grier), the mayor, the sheriff and his own father, and the undead Donna kills Dan before Manny shoots her. Timmy tries to drown Jud in the swamp, but Manny fires a flare into his head, killing him for good. Norma escapes her grave. Jud and Norma stay with Jud's mother to keep up Dan's work, and Manny leaves town.

No. 35 · 2024 · Film

Salem's Lot recap

Salem's Lot (2024) retells King's vampire novel: a writer returns to Jerusalem's Lot, Maine, in 1975 as an ancient vampire takes over the town. Gary Dauberman writes and directs, released on Max, with Lewis Pullman as Ben Mears. Ben, a novelist who spent part of his childhood in the town, comes back to write about it and falls for local artist Susan Norton (Makenzie Leigh). Antiques dealer Richard Straker (Alexander Ward) opens a shop and takes delivery of a crate for his partner, Kurt Barlow (Pilou Asbaek), who stays hidden in the Marsten House. Young Ralphie Glick disappears, his brother Danny dies, and the dead start rising and calling at windows. Ben gathers allies: schoolteacher Matthew Burke (Bill Camp), Dr. Marjorie Cody (Alfre Woodard), Father Callahan (John Benjamin Hickey) and Mark Petrie (Jordan Preston Carter), a boy who knows his monster lore. Barlow shakes Callahan's faith and kills him, and most of the town turns.

How Salem's Lot ends

Salem's Lot ends with Barlow staked and Ben and Mark driving away from a dead town. The town's vampires hide in their cars at the drive-in theater, and the survivors turn the daylight against them. Barlow stalks Mark in a basement, and Ben drives a stake through his mouth. Susan has been turned, and Ben kills her. In the novel, Ben and Mark flee and must return to the Lot later to fight what remains, a more open ending than the film's.

No. 36 · 2025 · Film

The Monkey recap

The Monkey (2025) follows twin brothers haunted by a wind-up toy monkey that causes a random, gruesome death every time its drum is played. Osgood Perkins writes and directs, with Theo James playing both adult twins, Hal and Bill Shelburn. In 1999 their father, a pilot (Adam Scott), tries to return the monkey to an antiques shop and vanishes after a chain of deadly accidents. The boys (Christian Convery) find it among his things, and their babysitter is killed at a restaurant that night. Hal, bullied by Bill, winds it hoping it will kill his brother, but instead their mother Lois (Tatiana Maslany) dies of an aneurysm. The brothers throw the monkey down a well and move to Maine to live with their aunt and uncle, but it returns, and their uncle is trampled to death. Twenty-five years later, Hal, estranged from his son Petey (Colin O'Brien), learns from Bill that their aunt has died and the monkey is back, with a string of freak deaths in town.

How The Monkey ends

The Monkey ends with Bill killed and Hal and Petey vowing never to wind the toy again. Bill has been using the monkey for revenge, and a local named Ricky kidnaps Petey to get it, but Ricky is killed by wasps. Bill tries to make the monkey kill Hal, but it drums out of control and destroys much of the town. The brothers make peace, and then a bowling ball bearing Lois's name decapitates Bill. Hal and Petey watch a pale rider on a horse pass by, then go dancing, which Lois loved.

No. 37 · 2025 · Film

The Life of Chuck recap

The Life of Chuck (2025) tells the life of an ordinary accountant, Charles "Chuck" Krantz, backwards in three acts, starting with the end of the world. Mike Flanagan writes and directs Tom Hiddleston as Chuck, with Nick Offerman narrating. In the last act, schoolteacher Marty Anderson (Chiwetel Ejiofor) watches disasters spread, the internet fail and billboards appear thanking Chuck for 39 great years; he reconnects with his ex-wife Felicia (Karen Gillan) as the stars go out, while Chuck, 39, dies of a brain tumour in hospital. The middle act shows Chuck nine months earlier, stopping on a city street to dance to the drumming of busker Taylor Franck, joined by Janice Halliday (Annalise Basso), a stranger who has just been dumped. The first act shows Chuck as a boy orphaned in a car crash and raised by his grandparents: Sarah (Mia Sara), who teaches him to dance, and Albie (Mark Hamill), a grieving drinker who forbids him to enter the cupola at the top of their house.

How The Life of Chuck ends

The Life of Chuck ends where Chuck's life began, with the boy choosing to live fully. Albie, who once saw a vision in the cupola of someone about to die, steers Chuck towards accounting. After Albie's death, the teenage Chuck finally climbs into the cupola and sees a vision of his dying adult self. He dismisses it, resolves to make the most of his time and repeats the Walt Whitman line his teacher explained to him: he contains multitudes.

No. 38 · 2025 · Series

The Institute recap

The Institute (2025) is an MGM+ series about a teenage prodigy abducted to a secret Maine facility that experiments on psychic children. Season 1 ran for eight episodes from July to August 2025, with Jack Bender directing the final two. Luke Ellis (Joe Freeman) wakes in a copy of his own bedroom after intruders take him from his home and meets other abducted children, including Kalisha (Simone Miller), Nicky (Fionn Laird), George and the young telepath Avery Dixon. Director Ms. Sigsby (Mary-Louise Parker), security chief Stackhouse (Julian Richings) and Dr. Hendricks (Robert Joy) inject the children and test them, and those who "graduate" go to Back Half and are never seen again. In the nearby town, Tim Jamieson (Ben Barnes), an ex-cop with a troubled past, takes a job and grows close to deputy Wendy Gullickson (Hannah Galway). Helped by housekeeper Maureen, who later takes her own life, Luke escapes through a rotten fence and across the river, where he meets Tim. The pair outwit an Institute agent posing as a journalist and set out to expose the place, while Luke's friends in Back Half are used as weapons.

How The Institute ends

The Institute ends its first season, in the finale "Fight", with the facility destroyed and Avery dead. Wendy arrests Sigsby, and Stackhouse locks down the Institute and plans to gas the children. Linked minds wake the Back Half children, the connection spreads to children at other Institutes, and the building starts to tear itself apart. Stackhouse falls through the floor, and Avery stays behind to hold the link. Luke, Kalisha, Nicky and George escape with Tim and Wendy. A man on the phone orders a clean-up, and Sigsby, free again, hitchhikes away with Maureen's flash drive. Season 2 premieres on November 8, 2026.

No. 39 · 2025 · Film

The Long Walk recap

The Long Walk (2025) follows 50 teenage boys in an annual walking contest where anyone who slows below pace three times is shot. Francis Lawrence directs Cooper Hoffman as Ray Garraty from Maine and David Jonsson as Pete McVries. In an alternate America ruled by a military regime and sunk in depression, the Major (Mark Hamill) runs the walk to inspire patriotism, offering a large cash prize and one wish. Ray joins despite his mother Ginnie's (Judy Greer) pleading and forms a pact with Pete, Art Baker (Tut Nyuot), Hank Olson (Ben Wang) and Collie Parker (Joshua Odjick). Curly is the first to die, from a cramp. Gary Barkovitch (Charlie Plummer) taunts another walker into his death, then later kills himself. Olson becomes delirious and is shot, Parker grabs a soldier's rifle and dies, Baker collapses with internal bleeding, and Billy Stebbins (Garrett Wareing) reveals he is one of the Major's sons before he dies.

How The Long Walk ends

The Long Walk ends with Pete as the winner and the Major shot. Ray and Pete are the last two; Ray sees his mother as they pass through Freeport, and Pete saves him from a soldier. In the final town Pete sits down, and Ray lifts him and urges him on, then stops walking himself and is shot by the Major. Pete uses his wish to ask for a soldier's rifle, kills the Major and walks off down an empty street. In the novel, Garraty wins after McVries and Stebbins die and keeps walking towards a dark figure ahead.

No. 40 · 2025 · Film

The Running Man recap

The Running Man (2025) re-adapts King's novel: a desperate father joins a game show where hunters chase him through the real world. Edgar Wright directs Glen Powell as Ben Richards, a blacklisted labourer who needs money for his sick daughter's medicine. Producer Dan Killian (Josh Brolin) of the all-powerful Network offers his family protection and money, and Ben enters The Running Man: three runners have 30 days to survive the Network's hunters, led by Evan McCone (Lee Pace), for a billion-dollar prize. Bobby T (Colman Domingo) hosts. Ben becomes the show's most popular runner as he is chased from New York to Boston and Maine, helped by rebels including Elton Parrakis (Michael Cera) and Molie (William H. Macy), several of whom are killed. The Network airs a deepfake of him, and he takes a wealthy hostage, Amelia Williams (Emilia Jones), who at first believes the Network's lies.

How The Running Man ends

The Running Man ends with Ben surviving and the public turning on the Network. On a plane, Ben kills the hunters disguised as crew and then McCone, a former runner who took Killian's deal. The Network shoots the plane down, but Ben is ejected and survives. A rebel releases the black box with Ben's real conversations with Killian, sparking an uprising. Ben is reunited with his family, whose deaths Killian faked, and when Killian takes over hosting the next season and a riot breaks out, Ben shoots him. In the novel, Richards dies flying a plane into the Network's tower.

Post-credits scenes

No. The Running Man has no post-credits scene; pages from Elton's fanzine appear during the credits.

No. 41 · 2025 · Series

It: Welcome to Derry recap

It: Welcome to Derry (2025) is an HBO prequel to the It films, set in Derry, Maine, in 1962, when a family arrives just as a boy disappears. Season 1 has eight episodes, premiering on October 26, 2025, developed by Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti and Jason Fuchs, with Bill Skarsgard returning as Pennywise. Air Force Major Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo) is posted to the town's base with his wife Charlotte (Taylour Paige) and son Will (Blake Cameron James). Lilly Bainbridge (Clara Stack), dismissed as unstable, and Ronnie Grogan (Amanda Christine), whose projectionist father Hank (Stephen Rider) is blamed for the missing children, team up with Will and his friend Rich Santos (Arian Cartaya) to find the truth. Lieutenant General Francis Shaw (James Remar) wants to capture the entity as a weapon and uses a young airman with the shine, Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk), the cook of The Shining, to find it. They learn It is held in check by ancient pillars, and that Ingrid Kersh (Madeleine Stowe) has ties to Pennywise. Leroy is the grandfather of the films' Mike Hanlon.

How It: Welcome to Derry ends

It: Welcome to Derry ends its first season, in the finale "Winter Fire", with It caged again and Shaw dead. Police chief Clint Bowers leads a mob that burns the Black Spot club, and Rich dies protecting Marge Truman. Pennywise takes Will and hypnotises the children, but they place a dagger that seals the entity. Ronnie leaves Derry with Hank after kissing Will, Hallorann goes off to work as a hotel chef, and Ingrid is institutionalised, where years later she meets Beverly Marsh. HBO renewed the show in August 2026; season 2 is set in 1935.

No. 42 · 2026 · Series

Carrie recap

Carrie (2026) is an eight-episode Prime Video series that reimagines King's first novel for a modern school of livestreams, fake accounts and shooter drills. Mike Flanagan created and runs it; it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was released on October 7, 2026. Carrie White (Summer H. Howell) has spent her life hidden at home with her protective mother Margaret (Samantha Sloyan) and enters public high school for the first time after her father Ralph dies. She is open and trusting, and Margaret is loving rather than cruel. When Carrie gets her first period, classmates livestream her panic, and her telekinesis surfaces. Chris Hargensen (Alison Thornton) runs a fake Instagram account, "Carrie Red", to humiliate her, while Sue Snell (Siena Agudong) befriends her and Rita Desjardin (Amber Midthunder), the gym teacher, tries to help. Emaline (Thalia Dudek), a new girl, guides Carrie's powers, but may not be what she seems. A cult led by Adelaide (Kate Siegel), which believes in a sisterhood of telekinetic women called the Others, watches Carrie, and Emaline's mother Amanda West (Katee Sackhoff) hunts such women.

How Carrie ends

Carrie ends, in the finale "AP Physics", with Carrie driving away with Emaline. After Chris and Billy Nolan pour pig's blood on Carrie and Tommy Ross at the prom, Emaline, an astral projector, takes over Carrie's body, kills many people including principal Henry Grayle and Desjardin, and sets the school on fire. Chris and Billy die, and Chamberlain is wrecked. Amanda urges Margaret to kill Carrie; Adelaide kills Margaret. Emaline will not say where they are going, and Carrie smiles.