- A deadly man-made virus, "Captain Trips", ravages the world's population. A number of survivors, immune to the virus, gather in Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A.
- When the "Captain Trips" flu epidemic wipes out more than 99% of the population, the remaining few immune to the disease, including Stu Redman, Frannie Goldsmith, and Harold Lauder, set out in search of other survivors, all the while, experiencing visions of the nurturing Mother Abagail and the menacing figure of The Dark Man.—Anonymous
- Boulder, Colorado
Men in hazmat suits enter a church filled with corpses. One of them, Harold Lauder, starts to throw up and runs outside to get clear. Another man, Norris, comes over and tells Harold that there's no shame. He points out that seven billion people are dead in the world, and Harold tells Norris that he just needs a minute.
Later, Harold finds a man, Teddy Weizak, searching a movie for DVDs. Teddy says that the world will always need entertainment, and plans to open up a drive-in once the power is up. Harold sees a magazine with a cover photo of Tom Cruise, and stares at it.
That night, Norris congratulates team of men on how they put away 30,000 "units", and it was dirty work. He says that it's the most important work in the job, but says he'll respect any man who quits. However, Norris needs to know immediately so he can find a replacement for them. Everyone says that they're coming back, and Norris says that it's good and invites them to have a drink with him.
Ogunquit, Maine: five months earlier
Harold peers through his neighbors' fence and sees Frannie Goldsmith come out to her backyard to check on her father. He's working the garden and coughing, and Frannie brings him some water. Her father says that he's feeling a little better, and Frannie tells him that nobody showed up at her friend Amy's bridal shower. Everyone has what he has. Mr. Goldsmith breaks into a coughing spasms, and says that he should take a nap. Frannie wants to talk to him about something, but says that it can wait.
As Frannie and her father go in, two bullies grab Harold and knock him down. As one of them says that a teacher found Harold's manifesto and read it in front of the whole class, and that got Harold suspended, Harold kicks free, jumps on his bike, and rides off. Harold wipes out when he brakes to avoid a crow pecking at a dead skunk's body. The crow flies off, and the bullies tell him that if they catch Harold back in the neighborhood, they'll beat him.
Once the bullies leave, one of them sneezing, Harold goes to the nearby boardwalk. Many of the people are sneezing and coughing, He drags his damaged bike home, and brushing past the decorations for his sister Amy 's bridal shower. Harold checks the mail looking for a particular envelope: it's a rejection letter from a publisher, and Harold checks on his mother. She's in bed sick, and says that she's feeling horrible. Her husband is on his way home and isn't feeling well, either. Harold says that he's feeling fine. His mother tells him to clean up from the unattended party, and sees his bruises. Harold says that he fell off his bike, but his mother doesn't believe him.
Harold puts the rejection letter on a nail on his bedroom wall, where the rest of his rejection letters are hanging. He takes his laptop out of his backpack and discovers that it's broke from the fall earlier. Harold screams in frustration and throws it down, and his mother yells at him to shut up.
In the bathroom, Harold tends to his injuries and listens to a radio host talking about how the CDC has quarantined Arnette, TX. He goes back to his room and masturbates to a photo of Frannie at the beach.
US Army Research Facility: Kileen, TX
Stu Redman sits in a sealed room, and looks at the guinea pigs in a glass tank in the room with him. Dr. Jim Ellis comes in, dismisses the soldier guarding Stu, and Stu points out that they've kept him there for three days in captivity. Ellis knows that Stu is refusing to cooperate with any further tests until someone answers his questions, and Ellis asks him what he wants to know.
When Stu asks why he isn't wearing a protective mask like the guard, Ellis tells him that it appears Stu isn't contagious. The guinea pigs have been breathing the same air as Stu for 70 hours, and have shown no signs of illness. He explains that Stu doesn't have the virus that the soldier he encountered, Charles Campion, had.
Arnette, TX
Stu is at a gas station drinking with his friends. Campion comes up on the gas station, weaving in his car. Stu tells the owner, Hap, to turn off his pumps. Hap sees Campion's car coming, and everyone runs away as the car slams into the punks.
Kileen:
Ellis refuses to say if Campion was military. Stu was in the military but retired when his knee was injured. The doctor isn't at liberty to discuss Stu's friends that he came in with, and confirms that Stu's wife died in a car accident. Ellis offers his condolences, but Stu demands answers about his friends. The doctor says that they all had what Campion had, and one of their daughters is alive but the rest and their families are dead.
The doctor says that they're trying to recreate Campion's route and determine how many people he had contact with. Ellis asks what Campion said.
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Stu and the others check Campion, who is at the driver's wheel of his car convulsing. They get Campion out, and Campion asks how his wife and son are.
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Ellis confirms that the others are all dead.
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Campion's family is in the back of the car, and Campion tells Stu that his base was sealed off. Hap calls the ambulance but warns that it's 10 minutes away.
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Stu knows that Campion came from California, and wonders how many places he stopped at before he reached Arnette. Ellis says that everyone who comes in contact with Captain Trips becomes infected: everyone but Stu. They need to take as much blood as they can from Stu without killing him, to determine why he's immune. Stu tells Ellis to do what he's got to do.
Ellis brings a blood tech in, and she sneezes but dismisses it as allergies.
Harold rides to the boardwalk and finds everyone dead. He goes to the Goldsmith house and sees Frannie digging a grave for her father in the backyard. Harold walks back and yells a greeting, acting like he didn't see Frannie. Frannie calls to Harold, and he looks over the fence and says that it's good to see her.
Once Harold comes through the gate, Frannie says that she's burying her father. He mentions that her brother died, and says that his family died and he took them to the funeral home. Frannie figures the people in authority will eventually show up, but Harold figures they created the virus. He offers to help her bury her father, and Frannie snaps at him and tells him to go home. Harold says that no one is coming and leaves.
Frannie goes into her house and eats.
Harold rides through town looking for anyone else alive. There isn't anyone.
Frannie goes to her father's bedroom, and looks at his corpse lying on his bed. She pins his service medals on his shirt, puts his dog tags around her own neck, and says that she loves him. Frannie looks at a photo of their family years ago, when her brother was still alive and wraps her father in a blanket.
Harold goes into a store to get groceries. When he comes out he sees a crashed police car. He opens the door and the officer at the wheel falls out, long dead. Harold throws up at the stench, then holds his breath and takes the officer's gun. He points it down the street, contemplating it, and sees an old typewriter in an antique store the police car crashed into.
Frannie drags her father's body down the stairs.
The President gives a statement that the virus isn't fatal, and there's no truth to the rumors that the virus was engineered by the U.S. government. He coughs and then insists that the government has never engaged in the manufacture of outlawed viruses. After burying her father, Frannie watches the President on the TV.
The power goes out, and Frannie dozes off. She dreams of walking through a cornfield with a child running between the stalks, laughing. Frannie comes to a clearing with a doll lying in the center. Mother Abagail Freemantle appears and greets Frannie by name, introduces herself. She tells Frannie to come see her at Hemingford Home, Colorado.
Frannie wakes up and hears Harold down the street at his house, typing.
Ellis goes to wake up Stu and tells him that they're moving him to a secure CDC facility in Vermont. He finally tells Stu that their facility is compromises, and a nurse tested positive for Captain Trips. Ellis and the soldiers take Stu to SUV, where a man Ellis identifies as Dr. Cobb is waiting. Ellis gets in with Stu and they drive out.
Cobb tells Stu to put on a blackout hood, and to wear it until they're inside the new facility. When Stu asks more questions, Cobb tells him they don't need his cooperation and he should just let them do their jobs. Stu asks what their jobs are, and Cobb says that his job is to keep Stu safe and cooperative. Stu puts the hood on
Harold brushes his teeth and listens to the radio host talking about roadblocks and hospital shutdowns. The host is coughing, and shoots himself rather than die of the virus. Once Harold is done, he combs his hair, and rehearses his speech to convince Frannie to come with him. Harold then packs supplies, including the gun, on one of two motorcycles in his garage.
At the new facility, Stu plays solitaire cards and Ellis says that they're deep underground. General Starkey commands the facility, but Ellis hasn't seen him. Ellis advises Stu not to antagonize Cobb, then leaves to meet with WHO by teleconference. As Ellis goes, he coughs and Stu notices.
Harold drives to the Goldsmith house and goes up to the front door and knocks. Frannie doesn't answer, and Harold breaks in. Flies have gathered on the pie Frannie was eating a few days ago. Going upstairs and calling Frannie's name, Harold knocks on her bathroom door. When Frannie doesn't answer, Harold kicks the door down and finds pills scattered on the counter. Frannie is lying in the tube, the water running, and Harold drags her out and induces vomiting.
Later, Harold tends to Frannie in the living room. She wonders if he was spying on her, and Harold says that he came there to show her his plan and see if she wanted to come with him. Frannie says that she doesn't want to be there anymore, and Harold reminds her of how she stuck the nail in his bedroom wall five years ago. She doesn't remember, and says that she was Amy's friend. Frannie babysit Harold, and she remembers nailing his first rejection letter to his wall and told him not to give up. Harold says that he's put every letter on the nail, and never given up.
Harold points out that they're the only ones left in town, and figures the fatality rate is over 99%. They can't afford to lose a single person for the future, and Frannie asks to hear Harold's plan. He takes it out and figures that if the CDC is still there, they can go there and help them test their immunity. Frannie admits that it's a smart idea, and Harold sits closer to her. After a moment she puts her head on his shoulder.
Stu sleep on the floor of his room, and wakes up when he hears a baby crying. The arboretum outside his room has turned into a cornfield, and the crying is coming from there. Stu goes into the cornfield and walks between the rows. Running, he comes to a clearing with a wolf in it: a wolf with glowing red eyes. It growls at Stu... and he wakes up from his dream.
Ellis comes in, clearly sick, and tells Stu that Cobb has Captain Trips as well. Everyone has it, and they haven't been able to confirm any reports of immunes like Stu. Ellis gags and spits up mucus, and says that he's considered killing himself rather than letting the virus doing it. Stu wonders what they're going to do with him, and Ellis tells him that Starkey sealed off his office.
Starkey watches the room on the surveillance equipment, and Stu asks Ellis how he can get out. All Ellis can do is hand Stu a scalpel he was considering using to kill himself, and wishes he could offer Stu something better. The doctor is overcome by a coughing fit, and Stu gets him to the bed. Ellis admits he hoped he'd come up with the vaccine and become a celebrity.
Cobb comes in, coughing and holding a revolver. He laughs hysterically at the thought of Ellis saying goodbye to Stu, and tells Ellis to get out. When Ellis tries to stop him, Cobb shoots him. Stu cuts Cobb's throat with the scalpel, and the door opens and Starkey tells Stu over the loudspeaker to come to his office.
Stu takes Cobb's gun, closes Ellis' eyes, and goes to Starkey. Scientists are dead in the hallways, and Starkey open an elevator for Stu and tells him to leave the gun. Stu does so and the elevator takes him up to Starkey's office. Monitors show the outside world, with thousands of dead people and hazmatted teams securing some bodies.
Starkey tells Stu that they're the last man standing, and he's holding a gun in his hand. The general says that Cobb wasn't one of his men, and doesn't know whose command Cobb was under. Starkey's last contact with the outside was two days ago, and Starkey figures Cobb was following a list of contingencies. The general tells Stu that he has no orders concerning him, and contemplates a book his daughter gave him for his birthday. He learned four days ago that she was dead, and he opened the book of Yates' poetry and can't put it down.
The general says that he was proud of his soldiers, and they maintained discipline longer than the predictive models told them to expect. Starkey admits that they gamed the apocalypse, maintaining continuity for the national government. The general gives Stu a key card so he can get out once they're done, and tells Stu to tell anyone who asks that he stood his post until the end.
Starkey reads Yates' poem about things falling apart, then wishes luck to Stu and shoots himself with his own gun. Stu then runs out past the sealed labs filled with corpses of the scientists, and out into the sunlight.
In town, Harold spray-paints a message on the grocery store's outside wall saying that they're going to Atlanta. He puts on his helmet and get on his motorcycle, and looks expectantly at Frannie. She puts on her helmet as well and they ride out of town.
The Present
Norris' teams bury the "units". Later at his home, Harold types his manifesto of how the world must change for the good of him, and he is on a great adventure. Afterworld, he goes out jogging past the houses that are marked with a yellow X to indicate there are dead inside.
Harold stops Teddy from accidentally falling into the mass grave, and Teddy hugs Harold in gratitude. Walking away, Harold considers jettisoning the hate and accept what now is. Norris congratulates him on the good job as Harold gets on his bike, and Harold considers giving up the past since no one there knows of what he was. But he refuses rather than murder himself.
That night, Harold dreams of a canyon filled with neon signs of strippers. The wolf sits there and looks at him, A spotlight comes on, shining on Harold, and follows him as he walks to the wolf. It turns to face its master, and Randall Flagg steps out of the shadows and offers Harold a glow black stone... and Harold realizes that in the west, he can be a prince rather than just Harold Lauder.
Harold wakes up from where he has dozed off next to his typewriter, goes to his bathroom mirror, and poses the "star" smile that Cruise was displaying on the magazine cover,
Later, Harold walks through the streets of Boulder and finds Stu and Frannie, Frannie several months pregnant. Harold greets them with a broad smile. Frannie invites Harold over to dinner, and Harold agrees. He shakes Stu's hand and watches as the couple leave. Later, Harold goes home and type about how his greatest pleasure will be to kill Stu and maybe Frannie as well.
The Past
Campion gets a call about elevated readings. A scientist from the lab Campion is monitoring pounds on the observation window. The woman, Dr. Biswas, removes her helmet and dies choking on her own mucus. Campion triggers the facility lockdown but gets out before a jammed door closes... unaware that Flagg jammed the door.
Running to his base home, Campion wakes up his wife Sally and tells her that they have to go. They get their baby son and leave.
Flagg walks down the highway. Campion sees Flagg by the side of the road, his thumb out, and keeps driving. In the back seat, Flagg looks at the baby and smiles.
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What is the broadcast (satellite or terrestrial TV) release date of The End (2020) in Japan?
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