The Stand is a post-apocalyptic horror/fantasy novel by American author Stephen King. It expands upon the scenario of his earlier short story, "Night Surf". The novel was originally published in 1978 and was later re-released in 1990 as The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition; King restored some text originally cut for brevity, added and revised sections, changed the setting of the story from 1980 (which in turn was changed to 1985 for the original paperback release in 1980) to 1990, and updated a few pop culture references accordingly. The Stand was nominated for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1979, and was adapted into both a television miniseries for ABC and a graphic novel published by Marvel Comics.^[1][2]

The book is dedicated to King's wife, Tabitha: "For Tabby: This dark chest of wonders."

Plot summary [link]

"Captain Trips" [link]

The novel is divided into three parts, or books. The first is titled "Captain Trips" and takes place over nineteen days, with the escape and spread of a human-made superflu (influenza) virus known formally as "Project Blue", but most commonly as "Captain Trips". The virus is developed at a U.S. Army base, where it is accidentally released. While the base tries to shut down before any infected person can escape, a security malfunction allows a guard and his family to sneak out. Unfortunately, they are already infected, and set off a pandemic that kills an estimated 99.4% of the world's human population, as well as that of domesticated animals, such as horses and dogs.

Through the perspectives of the multiple principal characters, and also from an omniscient third-party perspective, the narrative outlines the total breakdown and destruction of society through widespread violence, the failure of martial law to contain the outbreak, and eventually the death of virtually the entire population. The human toll is also dealt with, as the few survivors must care for their families and friends, dealing with confusion and grief as their loved ones succumb to the flu.

The expanded edition opens with a prologue titled "The Circle Opens" that offers greater detail into the circumstances surrounding the development of the virus and the security breach that allowed its escape from the secret laboratory compound where it was created.

"On the Border" [link]

Intertwining cross-country odysseys are undertaken by a small number of survivors in three parties, which are drawn together by both circumstances and their shared dreams of a 108-year-old woman from Hemingford Home, Nebraska^[3], whom they see as a refuge and a representation of good in the struggle of good versus evil. This woman, Abagail Freemantle, or "Mother Abagail", becomes the spiritual leader for the survivors. Mother Abagail directs them to Boulder, Colorado, where they struggle to re-establish a democratic society.

Meanwhile, another group of survivors are drawn to Las Vegas, Nevada by Randall Flagg, an evil being with supernatural powers; he exists in the story to represent the opposite influence of Mother Abagail. Flagg’s governance is brutally tyrannical, using crucifixion, dismemberment and other forms of torture to quell dissent. Flagg's group is able to quickly reorganize their society, restore power to Las Vegas, and rebuild the city with the many technical professionals who have migrated there. Flagg's group launches a weapons program, searching the country for suitable arms.

In Boulder, the democratic society of the "Free Zone" is beset with problems: Mother Abagail, feeling that she has become prideful due to her pleasure at being a public figure, disappears into the wilderness on a journey of spiritual reconciliation. Meanwhile, one of the survivors builds a dynamite bomb in response to feelings of disconnection and unrequited love, while another survivor crudely rigs it to destroy the Free Zone's leadership. Shortly before the explosion, Mother Abigail returns, much to the relief of the survivors.

"The Stand" [link]

The stage is now set for the final confrontation as the two camps become aware of one another, and each recognizes the other as a threat to its survival, leading to the "stand" of good against evil. There is no pitched battle, however. Instead, at Mother Abagail's dying behest, the four surviving members of the Boulder governing committee set off on foot towards Las Vegas on an expedition to confront Randall Flagg. One breaks his leg en route and drops out. He encourages the others to leave without him, telling them that God will provide for him. The remaining three soon encounter Flagg's men, who take them prisoner. When one rejects an opportunity to be spared if he kneels and begs Flagg for his life, he is shot on Flagg's order by one of his men. Flagg gathers his entire collective to witness the execution of the other two, but before it can take place, an insane follower of Flagg arrives with a nuclear warhead and a giant glowing hand—"The Hand of God"—detonates the bomb, destroying Las Vegas, Flagg's followers and the two remaining prisoners.

The inhabitants of Boulder anxiously anticipate the birth of the first post-plague baby. Although the baby falls ill with the superflu, he is able to fight it off. The original edition of the novel ends with the baby's parents questioning whether the human race can learn from its mistakes. The answer, given in the last line, is ambiguous: "I don’t know."

The expanded edition follows this with a brief coda called "The Circle Closes", which leaves a darker impression and fits in with King’s ongoing "wheel of ka" theme. Randall Flagg, using the alias "Russell Faraday", wakes up on a beach somewhere in the South Pacific, having escaped the atomic blast in Vegas by using his dark magic (although Flagg does not remember how he got to the beach or what his real name is, and it is suggested that he does not even remember the events in America), and begins recruiting adherents among a preliterate, dark-skinned people, who worship him as some sort of god.

Characters [link]

Background [link]

In his non-fiction book Danse Macabre, Stephen King writes about the origins of The Stand at some length. One source was Patty Hearst's case. The original idea was to create a novel about the episode because "it seemed that only a novel might really succeed in explaining all the contradictions".

The author also mentions George R. Stewart's novel Earth Abides, which describes the odyssey of one of the last human survivors after the population is decimated by a plague, as one of the main inspirations:

With my Patty Hearst book, I never found the right way in . . . and during that entire six-week period, something else was nagging very quietly at the back of my mind. It was a news story I had read about an accidental CBW spill in Utah. (. . . ) This article called up memories of a novel called Earth Abides, by George R. Stewart.

(. . .) and one day while sitting at my typewriter, (. . . ) I wrote—just to write something: The world comes to an end but everybody in the SLA is somehow immune. Snake bit them. I looked at that for a while and then typed: No more gas shortages. That was sort of cheerful, in a horrible sort of way. ^[4]

The Stand was also planned by King as an epic The Lord of the Rings-type story in a contemporary American setting:

For a long time—ten years, at least—I had wanted to write a fantasy epic like The Lord of the Rings, only with an American setting. I just couldn't figure out how to do it. Then . . . after my wife and kids and I moved to Boulder, Colorado, I saw a 60 Minutes segment on CBW (chemical-biological warfare). I never forgot the gruesome footage of the test mice shuddering, convulsing, and dying, all in twenty seconds or less. That got me remembering a chemical spill in Utah, that killed a bunch of sheep (these were canisters on their way to some burial ground; they fell off the truck and ruptured). I remembered a news reporter saying, 'If the winds had been blowing the other way, there was Salt Lake City.' This incident later served as the basis of a movie called Rage, starring George C. Scott, but before it was released, I was deep into The Stand, finally writing my American fantasy epic, set in a plague-decimated USA. Only instead of a hobbit, my hero was a Texan named Stu Redman, and instead of a Dark Lord, my villain was a ruthless drifter and supernatural madman named Randall Flagg. The land of Mordor ('where the shadows lie,' according to Tolkien) was played by Las Vegas. ^[5]

King nearly abandoned The Stand due to writers' block.^[6] Eventually, he reached the conclusion that the heroes were becoming too complacent, and were beginning to repeat all the same mistakes of their old society. In an attempt to resolve this, he added the part of the storyline where Harold and Nadine construct a bomb which explodes in a Free Zone committee meeting, killing Nick Andros, Chad Norris, and Susan Stern. Later, Mother Abagail explains on her deathbed that God permitted the bombing because He was dissatisfied with the heroes’ focus on petty politics, and not on the ultimate quest of destroying Flagg. When telling this story, King sardonically observed that the bomb saved the book, and that he only had to kill half of the core cast in order to do this.

[edit] The Complete & Uncut Edition

In 1990, a new unabridged edition of The Stand was published, billed as "The Complete & Uncut Edition". Published in hardcover by Doubleday in May 1990, this became the longest book in Stephen King's oeuvre at 1152 pages. When the novel was originally published in 1978, Doubleday believed the readers would be averse to such a long book, and The Stand would be a bigger seller if it was much shorter, and Stephen King cut approximately 400 pages (around 150,000 words) from the original manuscript. This edition reinstates the deleted pages, as well as updates the setting from the 1980s to the 1990s. This new edition features a new preface by Stephen King, and illustrations by Bernie Wrightson. Additionally, Doubleday published a deluxe edition of The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition, limited to 1,250 numbered copies and 52 lettered copies. This edition, known as the "Coffin Box" edition due to the book being housed in a wooden case, was signed by Stephen King and Bernie Wrightson. ^[7][8][9]

Adaptations [link]

Live-action [link]

A movie adaptation of The Stand was in development hell for 10 years. During the '80s Stephen King had planned a theatrical film, with George A. Romero directing and himself writing, not trusting somebody else with the project. However writing a workable screenplay proved difficult, due to the novel's length. King talked about adapting it for television but was informed that the television networks did not "want to see the end of the world, particularly in prime time." Eventually King allowed screenwriter Rospo Pallenberg, who was a fan of The Stand, to write his own adaptation on the novel. Pallenberg's script would clock the film in at close to three hours while still staying true to the novel. Everyone liked the script; however, just as it was about to finally come together, Warner Brothers backed out of the project.^[10]

ABC eventually offered Stephen King the chance to make The Stand into a 8-hour miniseries for television. King wrote a new screenplay (toned down for television). The miniseries was broadcast in 1994, directed by Mick Garris and starring such actors as Gary Sinise, Molly Ringwald, Rob Lowe, Miguel Ferrer, Laura San Giacomo, Ossie Davis, Shawnee Smith and Ed Harris.

In January 2011, it was announced that Warner Bros. and CBS Films will be developing a feature length film adaptation of The Stand.^[11] There is currently no official release date. In July 2011 it was reported that the film may be a trilogy, and that David Yates is considering directing.^[12] On August 10, Warner Bros. has finalized the deal for Yates and Harry Potter screenwriter Steve Kloves to re-team for a multi-movie version of The Stand.^[13] However, in October 2011, it was reported that both Yates and Kloves had left the project due to Yates feeling the project would work better as a miniseries and that actor/director Ben Affleck was Warner Bros. new choice for the project.^[14]

Comics [link]

Marvel Comics adapted The Stand into a series of six, five issue comic book miniseries.^[1] The series was written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and illustrated by Mike Perkins. Colorist Laura Martin, letterer Chris Eliopoulos and cover artist Lee Bermejo were also on the staff. The first issue of The Stand: Captain Trips was released on September 10, 2008.^[15]

Music [link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2012)

Progressive rock band Shadow Circus has created a series of songs about the main events in The Stand, and in whole the tracks come to a full 33-minute progressive rock epic titled "Project Blue". The tracks can be found on their latest CD Whispers and Screams and the track listing can be found in the audio portion of their website.^[16]

A more concise nod to The Stand has been recorded as the title track on the album Among The Living by Anthrax, a thrash/speed metal band whose love of King's work has been well documented.^{[citation needed]}

A soundtrack to the mini-series was released at the same time of the ABC special four night broadcast. It contains the instrumental guitar music and orchestrations of "Snuffy" Walden and other artists.

In 1983, the alternative rock band The Alarm released the song, "The Stand," with lyrics directly inspired by the novel. The lyrics follow the travels of Randall Flagg, in much the same way The Rolling Stones had "Sympathy For The Devil."

See also [link]

• Earth Abides, an early post-apocalyptic novel which inspired King.
• The Dark Tower series. The concept of the villain Flagg as an extradimensional evil or Antichrist figure, capable of appearing in multiple later works of fiction by King, was introduced in The Stand.
• The Lord of the Rings, the epic fantasy trilogy that also inspired King. He said he wanted to recreate this with "an American setting."
• Swan Song, a later work of post-apocalyptic fiction by Robert R. McCammon.

References [link]

External links [link]

• The Stand Summary page for publications of this title at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Bookpoi - How to identify first edition copies of The Stand by Stephen King.

v t e Works of Stephen King Novels Carrie (1974) 'Salem's Lot (1975) The Shining (1977) The Stand (1978) The Dead Zone (1979) Firestarter (1980) Cujo (1981) Christine (1983) Pet Sematary (1983) Cycle of the Werewolf (1983) The Talisman (1984; with Peter Straub) It (1986) The Eyes of the Dragon (1987) Misery (1987) The Tommyknockers (1987) The Dark Half (1989) Needful Things (1991) Gerald's Game (1992) Dolores Claiborne (1992) Insomnia (1994) Rose Madder (1995) The Green Mile (1996) Desperation (1996) Bag of Bones (1998) The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (1999) Dreamcatcher (2001) Black House (2001; with Peter Straub) From a Buick 8 (2002) The Colorado Kid (2005) Cell (2006) Lisey's Story (2006) Duma Key (2008) Under the Dome (2009) Blockade Billy (2010) 11/22/63 (2011) Doctor Sleep (2013) Joyland (2013) The Dark Tower series The Gunslinger (1982) The Drawing of the Three (1987) The Waste Lands (1991) Wizard and Glass (1997) Wolves of the Calla (2003) Song of Susannah (2004) The Dark Tower (2004) The Wind Through the Keyhole (2012) Richard Bachman novels Rage (1977) The Long Walk (1979) Roadwork (1981) The Running Man (1982) Thinner (1984) The Bachman Books (1985) The Regulators (1996) Blaze (2007) Short fiction collections Night Shift (1978) Different Seasons (1982) Skeleton Crew (1985) Four Past Midnight (1990) Nightmares & Dreamscapes (1993) Hearts in Atlantis (1999) Everything's Eventual (2002) Just After Sunset (2008) Full Dark, No Stars (2010) Non-fiction Danse Macabre (1981) Nightmares in the Sky (1988) On Writing (2000) Secret Windows (2000) Faithful (2004; with Stewart O'Nan) E-books Riding the Bullet (2000) The Plant (2000; unfinished) Ur (2009) Mile 81 (2011) Screenplays Creepshow (1982) Cat's Eye (1985) Silver Bullet (1985) Maximum Overdrive (1986; also director) Pet Sematary (1989) Sleepwalkers (1992) Cell (2012) Teleplays Sorry, Right Number (1988) Golden Years (1991) The Stand (1994) The Shining (1997) "Chinga" (1998; with Chris Carter) Storm of the Century (1999) Rose Red (2002) Kingdom Hospital (2004) Desperation (2006) Collaborations with musicians Michael Jackson's Ghosts (1997; with Michael Jackson) Black Ribbons (2010; with Shooter Jennings) Ghost Brothers of Darkland County (2012; with John Mellencamp) Graphic novels Creepshow (1982) The Dark Tower (2007-Present) The Stand (2008-2012) The Talisman (2009-2010) American Vampire (2010) N. (2010) Road Rage (2012) Related articles Unpublished and uncollected works by Stephen King Media based on Stephen King works Books about Stephen King Tabitha King Naomi King Joe Hill Owen King Peter Straub Rock Bottom Remainders Dollar Baby Jerusalem's Lot Castle Rock, Maine Derry, Maine The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red Book:Stephen King