Most of the time Stephen King doesn't seem to know how to end his books. It's as if he writes and writes and then gets tired of it. I think the novellas and short stories often make better movies. I was surprised how well the book ended, and so I was disappointed with the movie. I am not a purist. I prefer the movie of The Shining by Kubrick to the book, and they are very different animals.
The nice thing about the ending in the book is that things were open-ended. There's a balance between the stupidity of the people (the ignorant and the willful ignorant) and the stupidity of our government scientists who have created the mess in the first place.
What the screenwriters did was to show the government fighting back and winning the war on terror. Who is punished in the end? Those stupid people who weren't patient for the government to save us. Subtext, anyone?
The nice thing about the ending in the book is that things were open-ended. There's a balance between the stupidity of the people (the ignorant and the willful ignorant) and the stupidity of our government scientists who have created the mess in the first place.
What the screenwriters did was to show the government fighting back and winning the war on terror. Who is punished in the end? Those stupid people who weren't patient for the government to save us. Subtext, anyone?