Huh, just writing that title makes me feel uncomfortable. Oh well, here we are. The climax of this 6-hour long session of pleasure and joy. My head is killing me, but this needs to end. Fortunately, Randall Flagg will be here for all of your needs and even sing to us. How wonderful.
We are coming off of the tremendous loss of Nick, Mother Abigail, Susan Stern, and a host of other people who we never truly got to know. But Frannie is alive and as annoying as ever. Randall Flagg is on the verge of making Vegas the fantastic city that it once was. Boulder has lost all of its leadership. It is funny that Vegas is supposedly the bad place, but is it? I never really considered it that bad. Here in the US, we have had shitty leadership for 20 years, but it doesn’t make this a bad place, right? I just gave you something to ponder.
Alright, I just ate some lasagna. I have my trusty box of Count Chocula in my hand and the gleam in my eye. Let’s finish this one Mortal Kombat style.
For your reading pleasure, here are the links to the blogs for all 4 parts of this mini-series.
Part 1 “The Plague”
Part 2: “The Dreams”
Part 3 “The Betrayal”
Part 4 “The Stand”
Start Part 4 of Mini-series
September 10 in Annabella, Utah
Harold and Nadine are riding their motorcycles. Harold hears a crow and suddenly sees Randall in front of him. Harold loses control of his bike and goes flying off the road and goes quite the distance. Not a good start for Harold. Stu suddenly freaks out and spills his coffee. Glen asks him if he’s alright. Stu knows something happened to Harold. Back to Harold, he is asking Nadine to help him. She reminds him that they are damned. He says that she can’t just leave him with broken ribs and a bad leg, but she sees the crow. She knows better. She leaves and goes riding through this world.
September 11 in the Targhee Pass in Idaho
We see the crow observing the Judge in his truck. The Judge pulls off on the side of the road. He sees a man crucified on a billboard with a crown of needles. It’s one of the better visuals in the whole series. There’s a sign around the man’s neck that says “drug addict”. We see two men playing Gin, and they get a message from Lloyd on the CB. Lloyd reminds them not to leave a mark on “him”. A woman is yelling for Lloyd to return to her. There is Dayna laying in a nice bed in a nice black nightie. Teenage Kent loved to see her. Adult Kent concurs, he simply isn’t pausing the scene to ogle her.
The Judge has entered Copperfield, Idaho, and drives past the 2 dudes who were playing cards. There is a bull out on the street. The guy reminds him to get The Judge in the guts and not to harm the head. The Judge puls over and the driver gets out of his truck with a gun, Judge grabs his gun. This guy’s name is Dave Roberts. He talks, the other guy shows his gun, the Judge calls him a bastard and Dave shoots the Judge. But the other guy got a little trigger happy. Oh, The Judge is still alive but gets mowed down. The crow is there. Flagg shows up and beats the hell out of Terry. Thank you, closed captioning. I’m sad to see The Judge go out, but he went out like a gangsta. It took two men to take him out.
Lloyd receives contact from Randall who is pissed off. Randall knows who the other spy is, and reveals it to be Dayna. Lloyd brings a posse with him, including Julie, to wake her spying ass up. Dayna threatens Lloyd and makes sure to let him know that she faked it every time and Julie thinks that is the funniest shit. Dayna in her bra and panties….nice. Dayna comes out fully dressed and with a spring-loaded knife on her wrist. Lloyd brings her to Randall.
Now, this room is very sweet that Randall is in. Randall comes off very nice and charming. He asks her to sit down. Randall asks her who the third spy may be. Every time Randall sees the spy, all he sees is the moon. M-O-O-N spells moon. Flagg wants to send Dayna back with her things and let her group know that he means no harm. But she asks what Trash is doing at Indian Springs. Dayna, you are fucking this up. He reveals that Mother Abigail is dead and Dayna doesn’t believe her. Randall gets up and says that’s it. Well, there is one more thing. He asks who the moon man is and she denies any knowledge. She isn’t a great actress. He gets physical and she attacks him with the knife. But now she is holding a banana. He then shows himself as a demon. She breaks some glass and drops herself throat first on the jagged glass. Randall, you blew it.
Tom is looking at the moon and remembers to return when the moon is full. Julie is wandering outside as Tom goes past her. Ohhh, she’s gonna tell someone about that.
Back to Harold. He looks like shit. He’s had a bad day. He crawls to his bag and gets a pen and pad of paper out and writes “I’m sorry. I was misled.” He grabs a gun and kills himself. Stu knows that Harold is now dead. Stu can taste the gun oil. Nadine’s bike is out of gas, so time to do some serious walking.
At Indian Springs, Trash is hearing voices from his past mocking him. Trash freaks out and takes a 4 wheeler out for a ride in the craziest way possible. A guy seems him but Trash takes off. He set a bomb at the place and kills the man. Trash is sorry. I forgive him.
Nadine is still walking. She can hear Randall talking to her, guiding her. Vegas is only 55 miles away. At night she finds a fire and Randall appears from it. He looks dapper in his Canadian tuxedo. They make out. his hair game is on point. He picks up and lays her on a sleeping bag, maybe there’s an inflatable mattress. Jesus, she has some nice tits and he is giving it to her. She says no, she says that it is too late. The moon turns blood red. The next day, Randall is driving her and singing “Baby Can You Dig Your Man?”. SO happy at this moment.
September 13, Stu and friends are now in San Rafael Swell, Utah. Glen talks about how Abby wanted them emptied out to take in one last good thing, perhaps their last thing.
Randall and Nadine show up in Vegas and Nadine looks fucked up and her hair is practically white and she has this scared glazed-over look to her. Julie is telling Lloyd to make sure that she gets credit for the information about Tom. Lloyd and his men haven’t been able to track down Trash yet, but when he does return, Randall wants him put away mercifully. Flagg has a certain kinship for Tash. Julie implores Lloyd to tell Flagg and he intimidates Julie. Lloyd tries to tell him about what Julie saw, but he dismisses them and talks about how Nadine is crazy for him. She tells them all that this is hell.
Randall is singing to Nadine some more, and this is most definitely my second favorite scene of the film. It’s only like 15 seconds long, but the singing and everything is fantastic. Lloyd knocks and interrupts. Randall wants to introduce his wife to Lloyd. Nadine is pregnant. Flagg makes a joke about the surgeon general dying. He wants the 4 men from Boulder to be captured by Barry and 12 good men. Lloyd asks if he should have more crosses made, but Randall wants something more inventive. Randall asks about whatever Julie was upset about. Lloyd reveals the info about Tom. Randall is furious, the drinks are boiling and he transforms to his demon form and assaults Lloyd. Flagg is superfly pissed. Thi sis the silliest tantrum ever. So poorly done. Randall comes down. Flagg is so funny with Nadine. He wants 100 men to go out and try to find Tom. Lloyd inquires about Trash. Flagg wants it to be quick and painless. Nadine has wandered to the balcony during the conversation. She tells Randall about how he is losing control and people are losing faith. She says when the 4 men arrive, his time will end and she will be watching from Hell with his baby in her arms. She jumps and goes splat. RF isn’t happy. No backing out now.
September 17 at the Prufrock Nuclear Storage Facility #3, that’s right, number 3, we find Trash. He finds something that will give him “the big fire”. Bumpty, bumpty. Well, Trash has a big missile now.
Some dude tells Lloyd that some of his crew are cutting loose and heading to South America. Lloyd can’t give up though because he’s loyal. At the Nevada – Utah border at night, there’s a group of guys camping, and that includes Richie. They are out looking for Tom. Rich talks about heading to Mexico. Tom makes a noise, but who wants to go searching in the dark?
September 18 in Ax, Utah, the 4 men are still walking. They come to a portion of the road that is washed away due to flash flooding. It is a steep incline. But they have to get across. Kojak is the first to go and then Glen. This looks far more fun than it probably was. I would’ve fell on my ass. They talk about being lucky and Ralph talks about how it felt like one false step and the embankment would get loose. Stu volunteers to go up first.
This here is my favorite scene of the whole thing. It shouldn’t be, but it is. Stu is climbing and he is doing good. He gets a little cocky. Well, the dirt gets loose and BOOM down goes Stu. Such a great fall. Stu, the sting you feeling right now, that’s pride fucking with you, boy. The fall, you really need to see it. Stu has ruined his leg, it is very broke or fractured. Glen comes back with some cans of Coke and some arthritis pills. Larry wants to go with Ralph to get a stretcher and get Stu out of there, but Stu ain’t having it. Also, it’d be next to impossible to get him out of there on a stretcher given the steepness of the embankment. Mother Abigail did say that one of them would fall along the way. Larry si freaking out at how easily people are accepting this prophecy. This is probably Larry’s best acting. Adam Stork as Larry is stellar throughout. Glen gives Stu the rest of his pills and tells him that 3 or 4 would probably be fatal. They say their goodbyes. Glen calls for Kojak. Kojak is gonna stay with Stu. I truly loved the story with Stu and Kojak in the book and I hope the remake does it justice. It really was a cool thing about Kojak helping Stu, quintessentially. And now this scene is just sad as the 3 men walk away knowing the impending doom that Stu faces, and he knows their impending doom, as well.
On September 21 in Kanosh, Utah, the men are still walking. Kojak is fetching wood for the fire. We see that they have killed a rabbit, as well. And Stu is coughing and sounds very sick and figures that he’s gonna die of the flu after all. He misses Frannie but is feeding Kojak well.
The 3 men see a roadblock up ahead. They will fear no evil. Barry tells the men to hold their fire. Barry asks where Stu is and they explain his accident. Burlson, who is Barry’s first deputy asks for their social security numbers. Ridiculous. Ralph gets some lines, finally. The guys laugh. Larry keeps mouthing off. Barry puts him in his place. He says that he worked at the Santa Monica P.D. for 22 years. Currently, Vegas has no addicts. He asks if their people can say the same. Doubt it. Glen runs his mouth so Barry backhands him. Larry makes a Rodney Kind humanitarian award joke that feels so dated. Just like a lot of the outfits. They load the men into the vehicles.
At the Clark County Jail in Vegas, Glen talks to a cockroach. Randall stomps the roach. Glen says that he isn’t half the boogeyman that he was led to believe. Randall asks Glen about his arthritis. He offers to cure Glen of his arthritis. Randall says that he has decided to let Glen and his friends go. All Glen has to do is ask, while on his knees. Glen laughs hysterically at Randall. Randall tells Lloyd to shoot Glen. Lloyd doesn’t really want to shoot him. Glen suggests that he shoots Flagg. Lloyd tells Glen that Randall has told him more truth than anyone else in his whole life and he shoots Glen repeatedly. Ralph and Larry hold hands in mourning. Then they pray.
I just want to note, they should have done more with Ralph. Think about how important his role is now. Think about how little we know about him. Yes, this is Larry’s redemption arc, but Ralph could have had a story that helped flesh him out more. I hope that they address that in the remake.
In the dreamworld, we see Abby talking to Stu about the pale horse. She tells him to wake up. On-screen, it says Pale Horse, Pale Rider, as if that is a location. Kojak is keeping watch over Stu. Stu decides that he needs to get up somehow. Kojak is pumped. Stu begins a long and grueling crawl. I call bullshit, but suddenly Tom shows up and offers Stu his hand. Tom pulls Stu up onto the road. Tom says that Nick told Tom to double back for Stu. Stu is very sick, laws yes. Tom wants to get Stu inside, but he says not yet, that there’s gotta be something important happening.
In Vegas, Larry asks Barry why they had to kill Glen, and Barry claims that Glen tried to escape. These are facts. Ralph could have been played by Dusty Rhodes, just saying. Rat-Man is happy. The whole group is out in Vegas and they are excited. Rat-Man breaks Larry’s guitar and proclaims disco to be dead. The crowd is trying to get at Larry and Ralph. Julie spits in Larry’s face. They are cuffing Larry and Ralph to these large metal horseshoes. The cuffs get drawn in tighter. Larry talks some shit. Randall decrees their punishments. He blames them for what happened at Indian Springs, and they are to die by dismemberment. Shiiiiit. Randall says that it is everybody’s duty to witness this unless they have small children.
Whitney Horgan steps up and tells the crowd that they need to stop this and Randall isn’t pleased with him. Randall tells him that he should have run off when he had his chance, he wouldn’t want to keep a jellyfish-like him around anyway. Randallacasts a ball of electricity toward Whitney and his lips become sealed. It was very strange.
Trash is driving into Vegas. The crowd sees him and he is so sunburned. Bumpty bumpty bum. Julie causes a raucous declaring that he has a bomb, even though he clearly has a missile. Lloyd tries to talk to Trash. His skin has melted in places and he has the A-bomb. People start walking away and Randall is pissed. He tells Lloyd to kill Trash. And here we go. The electrical ball rises from Whitney and floats in the air toward Trash and takes the form of a hand and Mother Abigail is talking about God’s will. The hand of god grabs the missile. Randall is in demon form. Trash continues to say “My Life for you.” Mother Abigail tells Larry and Brent to come on home and they did a good job. Randall takes the form of a crow and flies off as the bomb detonates. Stu and Tom see it and Stu talks about the pale ride and death. Tom is confused. Stu proclaims that to be the end of Vegas and Flagg. Tom is sad and holds Ralph’s hat in his hands.
September 23 in Ax, Utah, Stu is in the driver seat of a car and Tom is about to start pushing it. The car gets rolling and Tom hops in and off they ride. They end up at the Green River Lodge, which is where Larry wanted to go after Stu’s fall. Oh, that is storytelling at its finest.
Tom is making PB&J for Stu, but Stu can’t really eat. Stu is so damn sick. Tom eats the sandwich instead. Where’s Kojak? Tom then sees Nick, and Nick is talking to him. Nick tells Tom what to do to help Stu. Tom then gives Stu some pills. Stu asks Tom how he knew to get the pills and he explains.
November 2 and Tom is outside sobbing. There’s Kojak, and Stu is up and walking. He’s got a little old man Rick Grimes to him. I’m convinced TWD stole that from The Stand. Tom is crying because he can’t remember what Nick looked like. Time to head home. They even got the little snow vehicle, just like they did in the SHining.
November 15 at the Boulder Free Zone, which is clearly free of boulders, Teddy and another guy are keeping watch outside. But then they see the little tractor. They draw their guns and they wonder if it could be Stu. They see Kojak and now. It was Teddy and Bobby. Stu says that they are frozen and asks Teddy to take him to see Frannie. Teddy pauses. Teddy tells him that the baby has come early and it has the flu. Ugh, there’s stupid ass sleeping in her hospital bed. She wakes up to see Stu looking all dapper. Frannie talks about the babies possibly being immune. The doctor comes to say hi to Stu and Frannie immediately assumes that the baby is dead. The fuck? Why is that your natural inclination? He didn’t come in looking sad, he looked happy to see Stu. She is just the worst! The baby is going to live and be fine.
We see the baby and her name is Abagail Goldsmith. She was born on November 15, the same day as a couple of friends of mine. Good date. There is Joe and Lucy. Lucy is pregnant. Stu tries to talk about Larry but Lucy talks about how they were able to make their stand at the end, and it was Larry’s baby. Frannie somehow makes it about herself instead of giving Lucy her moment. Tom consoles Lucy. Then we see Mother Abigail’s flooding head like some Star Wars shit. Then suddenly we are shown a happy face of the Judge, and Susan, there’s Dayna, Glen, Ralph, Nick, and of course, Larry. Stu wonders if it is possible for people to change. Oh, look at Stu’s cane. Does that look familiar to anybody? Andre Linoge says hi.
End part 4 and the mini-series
Woooo, I’m finally finished. This has absolutely been the most difficult blog to do. I’m glad that I did it, but now I can simply enjoy this film without having to write down my thoughts.
I’ve often thought that this was the worst of the 4 parts, and that is typical of most Stephen King stories and films. The ending is never as good as the beginning, right? Well, there are exceptions. Carrie and The Shining are good examples. Still, this went to its logical conclusion and yet the showdown in Vegas was so cheesy. It was better in the book than on screen. They did what they could. I am not faulting Mick on this one. Sometimes book ideas are difficult to translate for the screen, but there are too many jackasses that can’t grasp it. They’ve never done it, have no idea how to do it, but think that it is just easy to accomplish. IDIOTS!
Larry really got to shine here, but this was most definitely the Randall Flagg episode. As much as I love Randall Flagg, I have named many video game characters after him, sometimes the special effects weren’t where they needed to be. That this been made in the ’80s, it honestly may have looked better. I am genuinely curious about how they approach certain scenes in the remake.
Some stuff felt cheesy, like the hand of God, but then you step back and consider the actual story being told and that makes perfect sense. Tom somehow finding Stu makes perfect sense. Flagg losing control over Nadine and Dayna, for that matter, that I didn’t get. You would think that he could have prevented Nadine’s death considering what he did to Whitney, right? That has always bothered me.
Some of Larry and Ralph’s lines at the end felt forced and not natural. It is almost like different character’s words are coming out of their mouths. Larry has always been a smartass, but at times, he lost that and I get that circumstances turned dire, but it felt inconsistent. For such a long story, remaining consistent is a huge task. So I am not complaining but just making observations. Frannie was the least valuable character and brought everybody down with her if they shared screen time with her. I loved how the Judge was portrayed here. Dayna, I get it, but I think they could have improved her character slightly. Lloyd sold me in every scene that he was in. Props to that man.
I could go on and on, but I have written so much at this point. It’s time to give this a rating and end this. I have a lot of positives here. Not only was this fun when it came out, but it also inspired me to start reading again. It was the first book that I had read in years independently, at the time. This film introduced me to some of my favorite actors. There’s a lot to love here.
The negatives are there. The special effects often looked pretty lousy. That is a flaw of the time when they made this and probably the budget. It happens and it doesn’t sink the film, but there are times that you may wince a little or have a good laugh. The biggest negative for me was the character of Frannie. I shouldn’t completely hate a character that isn’t meant to be hated. In the book, I didn’t hate her. Here, I did. Was it Molly’s fault, the writer’s fault, the director’s fault, or some combination? I don’t truly know. But her performance here was bad, fucking terrible. I can hate Commodus in Gladiator because he’s meant to be that awful. This simply isn’t the case and she really does drag down far too many scenes.
I think a fair rating is to go with a 7.0. That is probably higher than most would give, but lower than I want to give it. I was considering as high as a 7.5 and as low as 6.5. The positives outweigh the negatives and seeing all of these cool talents in one mini-series was very special at the time, and still is today.
Final Rating; 7.0
If you sat down and read through all 4 parts, I certainly appreciate your time. I know that I wrote a lot. Moving forward, I will be writing less in my reviews. This was so special to me that I felt it required running commentary. Laws yes.
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