A violent overnight storm tears down trees and knocks out power across David Drayton's lakeside community.

David drives his son Billy and neighbor Brent Norton to the Bridgton supermarket for emergency post-storm supplies.

A panicked man bursts into the supermarket warning that the mist rolling into town has already taken someone.

The mist engulfs the store exterior and cuts visibility to zero, trapping the crowd inside.

Bag boy Norm volunteers to unblock the generator exhaust and is seized by giant tentacles that drag him into the mist.

Brent leads a group of non-believers out of the store; the clothesline tied to them returns shredded and soaked in blood.

Insect-like and bird-like creatures attack the store overnight, killing one man before being driven off.

David's scouting group reaches the pharmacy and is overwhelmed by dog-sized spiders; only three of them make it back alive.

Ollie leads David to the storeroom to show him that both army recruits have hanged themselves.

David and Ollie plan an early-morning escape and quietly gather a small group of willing allies.

Mrs. Carmody's followers block the group's exit and demand that Billy and Amanda be offered as blood sacrifices.

Ollie shoots Mrs. Carmody and the escape group flees through the parking lot as creatures attack from the mist.

David, Billy, Amanda, and Mrs. Reppler reach the car; Ollie and others are killed in the parking lot.

David drives to his house but finds the road blocked by a fallen tree and forces himself to accept that Steff is likely dead.

David hears the faint word 'Hartford' on a service station radio and clings to it as a last reason to keep driving.

A brutal overnight storm traps David Drayton and his neighbors without power, forcing him to make a supply run to Bridgton with his son Billy and neighbor Brent Norton. An inexplicable mist rolls into town and seals the supermarket crowd inside, and a young bag boy named Norm is killed by tentacles while unblocking the generator exhaust. As the group struggles to survive creature attacks and internal division, religious fanatic Mrs. Carmody accumulates dangerous influence inside the store. David and Ollie devise an escape plan, but Mrs. Carmody's followers block their exit and demand sacrifices until Ollie shoots her. David drives south into an endless mist with his son and two survivors, finding no civilization and clinging to a faint signal on the radio as a reason to keep going.

The core survival story from storm to desperate escape.

David and Steff shelter in the basement with Billy as the violent storm rages through the night.

David surveys the wreckage the next morning and finds that a neighbor's fallen tree has crushed his boathouse.

Brent Norton apologizes for the damaged boathouse and accepts David's offer to drive him into Bridgton.

Billy spots two young soldiers in military fatigues standing quietly in line inside the supermarket.

Mrs. Carmody tells the nervous crowd that she senses death outside as the mist approaches the store windows.

A woman exits the supermarket to search for her children and disappears silently into the mist.

Over four hours, the trapped shoppers split into those who believe David's story and a skeptical faction he calls the Flat-Earthers.

Survivors barricade the store windows with fertilizer bags and arm themselves with mops, tennis rackets, and bug spray.

Billy asks David directly about Steff and the police, and David admits he has no answers.

Amanda comforts a frightened Billy after the overnight creature attack, drawing David closer to her.

Dan Miller privately tells David the group cannot stay and proposes the pharmacy next door as a first test of escape.

Billy is frightened by David's plan to scout the pharmacy but reluctantly accepts his father's reassurance.

David scoops up Ollie's gun from the parking lot asphalt after Ollie is killed, noting three bullets remain.

David's group drives for hours along abandoned roads south of Bridgton and finds no living person anywhere.

David writes a complete account of the four days and leaves the pages on the service station counter for anyone who might find them.

Before the mist even reaches town, small signs of unease accumulate around David as the storm's aftermath unsettles the community and strains relationships. Inside the supermarket, the crowd's fragile unity begins breaking apart as fear drives people toward alcohol, denial, and religious fervor. Secondary characters like Amanda, Dan Miller, and Mrs. Turman play crucial supporting roles in keeping David's group functional amid the chaos. The failed pharmacy run and the growing threat of Mrs. Carmody push David toward a desperate escape plan, and the harrowing dash through the parking lot claims Ollie's life. Alone at a service station while the others sleep, David documents everything that happened so the world might one day understand what occurred in Bridgton.

The supporting moments that shape the crisis and the escape.

David notices the mist moving unnaturally against the wind across the lake and feels a deep, inexplicable unease.

David tries to call Steff from a payphone in Bridgton but discovers the line is completely dead.

A blood-nosed man staggers into the supermarket warning of screaming and unexplained disappearances out in the mist.

David hears frightening, inexplicable sounds from outside while investigating the storeroom alone in the dark.

The closing bay door severs one of the tentacles, leaving the twitching limb writhing on the storeroom floor.

Store manager Bud Brown examines the severed tentacle and acknowledges the group faces a problem of serious magnitude.

Ollie challenges Brent to walk outside and prove there is no danger; Brent blusters and refuses to go.

Mrs. Carmody calls publicly for a blood sacrifice for the first time, and an angry man slaps her to silence her.

Amanda reveals she is carrying a pistol, and Ollie accepts responsibility for the weapon as the group's only trained marksman.

David and Amanda have a brief, passionless affair in the locked office, each privately thinking of their absent partner.

Myron LaFleur abandons the skeptics and joins Mrs. Carmody's congregation, signaling how much her influence has grown.

Amanda silences Mrs. Carmody by hitting her with a can of peas just before the pharmacy scouting party steps outside.

David realizes during the pharmacy disaster that the mist creatures track their prey by scent.

Mrs. Carmody dies cursing David and his companions, her fanaticism completely unbroken even as she collapses.

David sits alone in the service station while the others sleep, confronting the radio's silence and the darkness beyond the glass.

Even before the mist reaches town, small but charged moments reveal the fragility of the world David thinks he knows — a dead payphone, an unnaturally moving fog, strange sounds in a dark storeroom. Each revelation inside the supermarket tightens the trap: a severed tentacle confirms the danger, hidden suicides reveal a military connection, and Mrs. Carmody's escalating demands expose how quickly community can collapse into fanaticism. A brief, passionless affair with Amanda shows how grief and desperation erode the norms David clings to. By the time the escape finally comes, the story's turning points have stripped away almost everything — safety, hope, and the last illusion that the old world might still be intact somewhere beyond the mist.