First, the unknown will bring the ultimate fear.
I participated in a swimming team when I was a child. Although the water is very good, the thing that made my scalp numb the most was swimming in an unfamiliar reservoir or lake. I always felt that there would be monsters or undercurrents under the calm water. Although there are many sources of fear, the fear that can lead to despair is often the loss of control over the unknown. No matter how terrible things are, once you know the bottom line: nothing more than pain and death, the sense of fear can be limited, and it is not easy to exceed the range that people can bear. And the imagination of the upcoming unknown torture: it is the most likely to collapse.
The crowd trapped in the supermarket fell into a huge panic from the beginning, because they suddenly found that what they thought was an ordinary natural disaster turned into an unknown disaster: military vehicles, alarms, and the army on guard created an atmosphere of suspense, while A thick fog quickly covered the outside world, the answer was unknown, and terror penetrated from the unknown fog... The injured people told in horror, the screams not far away were just the tip of the iceberg of fear.
At this point in the scene, the layout of the screenwriter and director has been successfully completed, a sufficiently extreme stage environment has been set up, and the test of human nature will appear.
The monster itself is not important. In the face of the fear brought by the monster, the individual's reaction and the differentiation of the crowd are the themes that the film wants to explore. Unfortunately, unlike novels, movies can give the image of monsters to the imagination of readers. The figurative depiction of monster tentacles in the movie is one of the failures. It makes people feel that apart from being a little disgusting, it is not very scary, but it weakens the previous impression. A terrifying atmosphere shrouded in mist.
Second, how to deal with fear? 1. Anger 2. Negative escape 3. Active survival.
Let's see how a group of people in the supermarket reacted to their fears:
First, the distrust of others and the disgust of the chaotic scene ignited his anger. He took a few people out of the supermarket despite everyone's dissuasion. into the fog...
Anger is the most common stress response in people. In the face of sudden threats, anger can stimulate people's huge potential (see the Hulk transformation!), attack the enemy or protect themselves. The power of anger can even suppress fear and make people dare to challenge any threat - this is also the most deadly problem of anger: if you lose your calm thinking, you will be unable to rationally judge the strength of the enemy and yourself, and whether you will be victorious in a rash attack or hit a stone with an egg. , entirely by chance. So true bravery is not the bravery after being provoked, but the bravery that still dares to challenge a strong enemy after calmly analyzing the situation.
This time, the "Brave" was out of luck: within a minute of walking into the fog, the screams and struggling stumps once again shocked the people left behind in the supermarket.
The frightened crowd mostly began to choose another way: resignation, or praying to the gods for forgiveness and protection. When people do not believe in themselves, they must find a belief that they can rely on: God or the incarnation of God. As a result, the middle-aged woman who babbled about came into being, claiming that this was all a punishment from the Lord, and that only a devout follower could obtain redemption. A mediocre woman who is usually regarded as a mentally ill woman, played the role of God's spokesperson in times of crisis, and she quickly attracted 70-80% of the people to become her believers. How common are obedience and attachment. And when this blind obedience is maliciously used by spiritual leaders: the power of the "mob" is also extremely terrifying.
Fortunately, an inconspicuous little person stepped forward and shot the leader of the goddess who fell into madness and incited the masses to kill, and finally resolved a man-made tragedy. Otherwise, before the monsters outside attacked, I am afraid that people inside the supermarket Almost killed each other.
Finally, as a positive image that must exist in the movie, the actor leads a small group of people to make a really brave choice: rush out of the supermarket and actively look for a chance to survive. After being frightened and fighting all the way, the five surviving people fled into the car. However, in the fog, there was no way to argue, and until the oil was exhausted, he could not rush out of the fog - just at this moment, the footsteps of monsters shaking the earth were heard not far away.
The heroic hero finally broke down at this moment: thinking of the tragic deaths of those people before, and the promise to his son: no matter what, the monster will not take him. He made the only dignified choice: shoot himself. But fate played a little joke: 5 people in the car only had 4 bullets. So he bravely left his fear of facing monsters to himself, shot and killed four other people, including his son, and then got out of the car and waited to die... This time, fate's joke is big: the fog gradually dissipated, and the welcome It was not a monster that came, but an army of human search and rescue.
We also finally see the author's intention: he does not want to judge what kind of reaction people are reasonable in the face of fear, but tells you: fear, escape, fight - no matter what you choose, the outcome will be influenced by chance .
God loves the game of dice the most, and the only thing man can hold on is to never give up hope of survival.
Third, "hope may be the most beautiful thing in the world", and despair is destruction.
In "The Shawshank Redemption", the author relayed through Reid's mouth the belief that supported Andy's ultimate freedom: "Hope, perhaps the most beautiful thing in the world."
In this "Mist", the seemingly diametrically opposite tragic ending actually expresses the author's same philosophy: never despair, until the last moment of life! Otherwise, even for a second, you could miss salvation.
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