Alternate Endings to Under The Dome (Spoiler Alert)

Cafe Society
1

I agree with the popular assessment that Stephen King is, if not exactly a top-shelf writer, certainly a compelling master story teller. And, while his plot weaving and character building may be second to none, his plot resolutions—endings—often fall a bit flat. Under The Dome, in my opinion, is a very engaging story with an ending that is only moderately disappointing. Let’s give Mr. King a hand by suggesting alternate endings for his consideration, for inclusion in future editions. I’ll go first…

(Spoiler Alert! Read no further if you haven’t completed Under The Dome):

While developing the “ants-under-the-magnifying-glass” analogy, King touched upon a subset of this common childhood custom of cruelty (one, I’m not proud to say, I too engaged in as a wee lad, with too much time on my hands): placing a population of both red and black ants together in a jar, perhaps shaking it to create even more stress, then viewing the carnage that transpires. I’d like King to have stressed that premise over the simpler “burning a colony of ants” theme. In both scenarios, the advanced observer, at least before enlightenment, shows a complete lack of sympathy or even empathy toward the “tiny lives” of his less complex prisoners. However, the “red and black ant” scenario correlates better with the two divergent groups developed in Dome: Big Jim’s band of exploitative power mongers (i.e. aggressive red ants) vs. Barbie’s band of non-aggressive all-for-one, one-for-all-ers (i.e. passive black ants).

This red vs. black/cruel observer theme could have been carried all the way to the end. Instead of the young alien observer, enlightened by Julia’s begging for her life, lifting the dome straight and completely off of the town, it should have been only slightly tilted up on the side closest to where the repentant “black ants” were huddled at the periphery (Ollie Dinsmore and Private Ames would also need to be nearer this opening). Perhaps more of the belligerent “red ants” could have survived the poisonous conflagration and joined Big Jim in the shelter, only to emerge an mass after one of them checks topside and feels the relief of a clean, oxygen-rich breeze blowing from the crack. On their long trek into the refreshing wind, toward freedom, Big Jim explains to his troops the exonerating “spin” they must describe to the outside world. Then, just as they reach the threshold to freedom which Barbie et al crossed hours ago, the dome crashes back down again—closing their escape route permanently and thrashing them about violently in the resulting shock wave. In closing, the unrepentant detainees see a vision of the leatherheaded youth shaking his head slowly.

…alternately, Big Jim could be the lone surviving “red ant” left under the dome, his comeuppance fate being that he remain, from this point forward, a big fish in an empty pond…the Emperor of Emptiness…

Comments?

Your turn: Let’s hear some other alternate endings to Under The Dome, or any other Stephen King story, for that matter.

2

I thought your idea of an alternate ending was very clever. I like the idea of the red vs black ants and the comparison of them to the townsfolk of Chester’s Mill. My one complaint with the ant reference is that King only pointed out the comparison in the last 100 pages of the book. This should have been pressed on subtlety such as the “we all support the team” references made I don’t even know how many times throughout the book. Also I like the idea of having Big Jim become the emperor of emptiness, that is a good line. Having recently finished the book and had time to mull it over, I would have liked to see Big Jim get much worse than what he got. I think his character was one of the most hated and unlikable characters I have ever come across. I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see how he would finally meet his demise. I almost freaked out when I thought King was gonna kill him off by a mere heart attack. Being haunted by the ghosts of the people who killed him was pretty cool, but I would have liked to see a confrontation with him and Barbie. A possible (yet stolen) ending from Night of the Living Dead would be cool where The Dome would be lifted and all the military rushes into Chester’s Mill to search for survivors and who other than Barbie and Maybe Lt. Cox stumbles upon the fallout shelter and kills the surviving Rennie… I will add more later I have to go.

3

Moving on from my original post, When Big Jim is found he would stumble out of the shelter asking for help and begging and pleading to Barbie or Lt. Cox only to have one of them put a bullet in his head, turn around and tell the other Military “nothing here, no survivors”.

Another cool way to end it would have been to make it very grim. For example, maybe you never really find out what caused the dome and only were given speculations? also maybe the Dome never was lifted until it was actually too late and everyone died…of course after Big Jim got what he deserved. I basically would have liked to see the Vader File be used, Big Jim become outed, and the whole angry mob (which Big Jim insighted initially) turns against him and stones him to death or something…just some quick suggestions while I am sitting here at work.

4

I like your red and black ant analogy more than the magnifying glass analogy - its more complex and satisfying than King’s version.

I also really like the emperor of emptiness ending and think that would be far more poetic than his actual fate in the book. I really enjoyed reading this book but felt let down by the ending. I too thought that Big Jim was one of the most loathsome characters concocted and was dissatisfied with his demise - it didn’t seem much worse than what had happened to many of the likable characters! On that note all the good guys dying right at the end was a real downer - they were characters that I liked and in the end all we got was “oh, so and so has died now, oh there goes that guy too”. It made me feel I wasted a whole bunch of time empathizing with these characters early on. I could definitely have done with less of that death.

5

The red/black analogy is interesting, but not as universal as burning an ant under a magnifying glass (something that I think we all tried at least once).

And personally, I think Big Jim’s death was plenty horrifying. The poisoned air poisoning his mind so he become’s convinced that the dead walk. And he is alone, in the dark, the leader of nothing, and a mighty large and tasty snack for the satan’s undead army.

6

The whole, “Child aliens tormenting people like people torment ants” angle was incredibly hackneyed and trite, and the only ending that would have satisfied me would have been one that didn’t involve those alien children at all.

The whole notion that aliens would have children, and those children would be so like us that they’d engage in the same kind of torment AND turn out to have the same kind of conscience about it in the end, and that they had same kind of group dynamics as human children… just beggared belief. It was a stupid premise. I almost threw the book across the room when we got to the big ‘reveal’.

That book was so flawed in so many ways that I don’t think much could save it. The characters were unbelievable, none of what they did rang true, the physics of it were stupid (not just the bubble, but the big explosion, etc).

Back to the ending - if you need a better one, I would have suggested some kind of pre-invasion test by a hostile species, or an alien laboratory setup with the bubble being used to isolate the test group from the control group outside the bubble, or something like that.

If you wanted a grim ending, how about flipping it around? The people are in the bubble, thinking they’re the doomed ones, when suddenly everything outside the bubble starts getting hotter or more toxic or something, and everyone dies. The bubble collapses, and the people inside find out they’re the last people left on the planet. And the aliens have a use for them…

7

This is exactly how I thought it was going to end. So, at least on that front, King surprised me with the ending he ended up with.