The Worst Endings To Stephen King Stories

What Happens: When a mystery pulse blasts out across the world and turns everyone using a cell phone into a zombie (AKA "phoners"), the surviving "normies" set out to turn their loved ones back into regular human beings. Along the way, protagonist Clay Riddell tries to find his son in the increasingly chilling Northeast. 

Cell ends with Clay finding his son after playing a part in blowing up a field full of phoners. His son's brain is fried due to a "dirty" pulse that went through his brain, and Clay suspects that another pulse will set him back to normal... hopefully?

The Problem: There's nothing worse than an ending that feels like it should read: The End...? Some audiences love that kind of mystery, but it's unlikely that King will ever revisit this story, which can make reading a novel of this size feel like wasted effort if you're not totally locked in.

But Maybe: It's hard to fault Cell's ending for being bad when the whole novel is incredibly pulpy. Cell's climax has all of the hallmarks of King's worst endings - an explosion that happens out of nowhere and a vague ending that hints at more to come (of which there won't be). That being said, King's pulpy writing is incredibly fun to read, and as much of a drag as that this ending is, it's a wild ride to get there.

What Happens: When the small Maine town of Chester's Mill is covered with an invisible semi-permeable dome, the townspeople understandably grow agitated and afraid. People turn against one another and their worst traits come out in the name of conspiratorial thought. People are disemboweled, they're gassed and tortured, and all of that happens against the backdrop of one looming question: Who did this? 

When multiple people from Chester's Mill touch a strange object left in the town, they're inundated with visions of alien creatures that they refer to as "leatherheads." As toxic fumes fill the dome, asphyxiating the people inside, the cynical editor of the local newspaper reaches out to the aliens and asks them to remove the dome. Her request works and all is well. 

The Problem:  So much of this book is an engrossing look at a post-9/11 world, but to just end things with teenage aliens removing the dome is such an eye-rolling ending that it undoes all of the nuance that comes before.

But Maybe: Under the Dome is King's most political work. Written at the height of the Iraq War and the tail end of the second Bush administration, it explores what it means to be a community when the people in that small world have vastly different opinions. He also tackles the ecological destruction of the planet with as light of a touch as he can.

What Happens: Something strange is happening in the small town of Haven, ME. After a strange ship in the middle of the woods emits a noxious gas, the town's inhabitants turn into geniuses with no real knowledge of the things they're creating. On top of that, their bodies begin to break down and mutate as they transform into something inhuman. The climax of the book reveals the ship to be of alien origin.

Poet James Gardener enters the ship and telepathically lifts it into outer space, killing everyone in town who was affected. Then to put a hat on the hat, government agents swarm the town and remove the devices created by the people of Haven before offing a quarter of the survivors.

The Problem: It's not just that the ending of The Tommyknockers is bad. There's just way too much going on in this book. It's almost like King is pretending to be someone else who's writing a King-esque novel.

But Maybe: When the man himself doesn't care for the book, it's hard to defend the ending. There's a lot of interesting stuff in The Tommyknockers, it's just that it's surrounded by a lot of unnecessarry side stories that lead to nowhere.

What Happens: When four friends with a telepathic link go on a hunting trip, they end up in the middle of a parasitic alien invasion. At the same time, a crazed Army colonel is doing whatever he can to burn the aliens out along with everyone that gets in his way. After getting help from an intellectually challenged acquaintance with psychic abilities, the surviving friends are able to slow down the aliens, but the day is finally saved when Henry Devlin blows up a bus holding the last of the alien presence on Earth.

The Problem: More often than not, when King needs to bring an end to his story, he does so with a literal bang. Firestarter, The Stand, The Shining, Cell, Dreamcatcher, Needful Things, and Desperation all climax with some kind of explosion (not to mention the explosions that happen in the middle of books like It and Under the Dome). Ending a story with an explosion isn't necessarily bad, but it is kind of lazy.

But Maybe: Dreamcatcher was the first novel that King wrote after he was hit by an automobile in 1999. He admits that he was medicating heavily with OxyContin when he wrote the novel and that it played a major part in the woozy nature of the prose. In light of the circumstances, King should be cut some slack for this ending.

What Happens: Interweaving the past and the present, It tells the story of the children of Derry, ME, and how they grow up with the terror of a fear-eating creature named Pennywise lurking all around them. Pennywise doesn't just maim and kill, it destroys the town of Derry from the inside out and leaves a smudge on the soul of everyone with whom it comes into contact. 

The structure of It purposefully intertwines the past and present, so when Pennywise is defeated it basically happens twice, but that's not the problem.

In 1958, the kids who defeat the evil entity decide to perform the "Ritual of Chüd" to maintain their bond. For those of you who don't speak Lovecraft, that means that the six male members of the Loser's Club all have intercourse with the one female member, Beverly. The scene is written with the detail that King is known for, and it's off-putting to say the least. In 1985, no one makes it in a sewer, but a woman who was left catatonic after peeping at Pennywise's "deadlights" is brought back to the land of the living by getting a ride on Silver, Bill Denbrough's trusty bike.

The Problem: By the time the end of the book comes around, it feels so good to see the Losers finally defeat Pennywise, but the sex scene is always going to feel weird. The bike thing just feels a little too easy. Waking up a comatose side character with a miracle bike ride is iffy writing, but that sex scene is so odd that it's hard to imagine those pages making it through the editing process today.

But Maybe: It shows why King is one of the most beloved authors of the 20th century regardless of the genre. He weaves a tale that incorporates interdimensional shapeshifting creatures into a Bradbury-esque story about the dangers of nostalgia and the pain of getting older and growing up. This immense novel shows King putting everything he loves into one story, and that includes the magic of the perfect bike and a weird preteen orgy.

What Happens: Charlie McGee is a telekinetic girl who's been on the run with her father from the government agents at "Lot 6" for most of her life. By the end of the story, she and her father are trapped in a barn owned by the government agency. After witnessing her father's death, she uses her telekinetic abilities to blow up the barn and the government trucks outside the barn, and then she sets the surviving government agents on fire. She then travels to New York City to speak with Rolling Stone so they can get the word out about the government's secret operations.

The Problem: Charlie's decision to go to Rolling Stone to tell her story is just so cringe. This is a character who can literally set people on fire and she decides to go to a music mag to see if they can do anything for her.

But Maybe: No matter how minor Firestarter is in King's oeuvre, it's only grown more influential thanks to Netflix's Stranger Things. It's a pulpy novel, but that's what's so fun about it. It's just hard not to wince at the thought of one of the most powerful beings on the planet going to the ultimate boomer magazine for help.