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The Stand (miniseries)

1994 Miniseries based on the Stephen King novel of the same name

The Stand is a television miniseries, first broadcast in 1994, based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King, who also wrote the teleplay. It was directed by Mick Garris.

The miniseries version takes place in four parts, grouping four major themes of the original story. "The Plague" describes a lethal engineered flu that devastates the U.S. population, leaving only a smattering of people around the country. "The Dreams" explores these survivors' attempts to regroup, led by mysterious, opposing dreams of an old woman in Nebraska and a terrifying man in the West. "The Betrayal" shows the tentative rebuilding of civilization in Colorado, interrupted by a tragic betrayal. "The Stand" follows four of the survivors as they journey to make their stand against Randall Flagg, author King's archetypal man of evil.

Part I: The Plague

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Major Len Carsleigh: We found him; we located Campion. He crash-landed on a one-stoplight town in East Texas.
Lieutenant General William "Billy" Starkey: He made it halfway across the country. How'd he do that?
MAJ Carsleigh: I don't know. But the important thing is, right now, we got a shot at containing this.
LTG Starkey: Is he dead or alive?
MAJ Carsleigh: He's dead.
LTG Starkey: Denninger says this thing has a communicability rate of over 99%. You understand what that means? Any chance of containing this went by the window when Campion bought his first takeout burger.
MAJ Carsleigh: We can't think that way, Billy.
LTG Starkey: Yeah, you're right. Of course you are. What about the rest of his family?
MAJ Carsleigh: They're dead, sir. Contact with the townspeople was minimal.
LTG Starkey: That doesn't matter. We're gonna have to shut that town down, lock it up, dig a moat around it.
MAJ Carsleigh: That operation's already on the launching pad, sir.
LTG Starkey: What kinda coverage you come up with?
MAJ Carsleigh: Anthrax. New strain.
LTG Starkey: [Laughs grimly] Yeah, it's a new one, all right! It's real new! It's very good at its job, too! Too good.
MAJ Carsleigh: Well, it's bad, General, but it could be worse.
LTG Starkey: Ha! How's that? What's the name of this town?
MAJ Carsleigh: Arnette. Arnette, Texas.
Dr. Herbert Denninger: Mr. Stuart Redman, Dr. Herbert Denninger. Would you mind accompanying us, please?
Stu Redman: Hey. You wanna take your hand off my arm, hoss?
Dr. Herbert Denninger: [To the soldier accompanying him] He was one of the men who had direct contact with Campion; put him in the truck. If he resists-
Stu Redman: I ain't gonna resist. Country don't mean dumb.
MAJ Carsleigh: We have a rather large problem in Wyoming, sir.
LTG Starkey: What large problem is that, Len?
MAJ Carsleigh: News team got out of Pine Bluff with some potentially damaging video tapes, sir.
LTG Starkey: Flu victims, body dumps?
MAJ Carsleigh: Little of both. And our ops, I'm told.
LTG Starkey: Well, we can't have that. Showing footage like that would not be in the national interest!
MAJ Carsleigh: Absolutely not, sir.
LTG Starkey: Well, do we know where these news people, these rabble rousers are now?
MAJ Carsleigh: Yes, sir, we do.
LTG Starkey: Get that video tape, Len. By any means necessary. Make it a priority.
MAJ Carsleigh: Yes, sir.
[When Stu stops cooperating with the Vermont CDC staff, Dr. Denninger enters in his isolation suit to talk to him.]
Dr. Denninger: Patty Greer says you've given her… quite a bit of trouble. She's quite upset.
Stu Redman: Well, that makes two of us. Being hijacked by a bunch of government sons of bitches in spacesuits does that to me every time. So, if you don't wanna see how quick I can rip a hole in that thing 'fore you can get outta here, you better give me a little information.
Nick Andros: Who are you, ma'am?
Mother Abagail: Abagail Freemantle. But folks 'round these parts just call me Mother Abagail. I'm a hundred and six years old, and I still make my own bread!
[Sheriff Baker and Dr. Soames see the beaten Nick Andros emerge from his cell.]
Sheriff Baker: When I was a boy, we caught ourselves a mountain lion back up in the hills. We shot it, 'n' dragged it back to town. What was left of that critter when we got home was the sorriest lookin' sight I've ever seen. You the second sorriest, boy.
[An isolation-suited Dr. Dietz enters Stu's room with a small animal cage.]
Dr. Dietz: I'd like you to meet a friend of mine. Meet Geraldo.
Stu Redman: Geraldo, huh?
Dr. Dietz: Um-hmm. Now, the virus your fellow townspeople contracted passes easily from human to guinea pig, and vice-versa, presumably. But Geraldo has been breathing your air, via convector, for the last three days. And Geraldo is fine and frisky, as you see. I'd call that rather comforting, wouldn't you?
Stu Redman: I see you're not taking any chances.
Dr. Dietz: That's not in my contract. However, it does appear there is absolutely nothing wrong with you, Mr. Redman. Or, may I call you "Stu"?
Stu Redman: Just don't call me Geraldo.
. . .
Dr. Dietz: All right, now, you listen up! I'm not responsible for you being here, or for the dead people in your home town. Neither is Denninger, or the nurses who come in to take your blood pressure.
Stu Redman: Then who is?
Dr. Dietz: No one. Everyone. God. Who knows?
. . .
[Stu starts coughing, causing Dietz et al. to scramble to leave the room.]
Stu Redman: Dietz! Calm down. I was just faking.
Dr. Dietz: Why… why would you do a thing like that?
Stu Redman: You talk about this thing in here like you were outside of it. I just wanted you to get a little taste of what it's like on the inside. How'd you like it?
Dr. Dietz: You stupid son of a bitch!
Stu Redman: Get the hell out. [Dietz and his men start to leave] Don't forget your damn guinea pig!
[Later, after the hospital is shown to be deserted and its staff killed by the plague, a dying Dietz returns to Stu's room with a pistol]
Dr. Dietz: Just think, Stu. All of those tests we ran on you, and we never found a single immunity vector. Not one! What makes you so special? Have you been touched by God?
Stu Redman: [Warily] Where's your buddy, Denninger?
Dr. Dietz: He's dead. They're all dead. Everyone except me, and thee.
Stu Redman: And you're here to take care of me, is that it?
Dr. Dietz: Hole in one! [Goes into a coughing fit]
Stu Redman: Why?
Dr. Dietz: Why? Because I've decided a piece of chicken-fried crap like you doesn't deserve to live. Not with so many good men dying.
Stu Redman: Those "good men" caused this mess!
[On the phone, Larry talks to Arlene, his bartender friend in L.A.]
Larry Underwood: Listen, I'm gonna try and get the, uh… the afternoon flight back, so… you put on your sexiest number, I'm gonna take ya out to dinner, then I'll take ya out dancing… then maybe I'll just take ya.
[Larry walks along a New York City street. In the background, a robed man slowly approaches, ringing a bell.]
Monster Shouter: Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead! Bring out your—
[Suddenly the robed man lunges at Larry, grabbing his shirt and talking straight into his face.]
Monster Shouter: He's coming for you, Larry. The Man With No Face!
[Two men are boozing it up, cruising in their convertible down a remote Arizona highway.]
Poke: Ya know what time it is?
Lloyd Henreid: What time is it?
Poke: Time to make a cash withdrawal!
Lloyd Henreid: I heard that!
Poke: And if anybody — I mean anybody — says anything, or does anything to stop us…
[Lloyd talks into the barrel of Poke's gun.]
Lloyd Henreid: We gonna Pokerize 'em!
Poke: Dead right! Damn straight!
LTG Starkey: "Things fall apart. The center does not hold." [A] man named Yeats said that. I didn't understand that poem in college, Len. But I… must be getting smarter in my old age, because I understand it now. And one other line from that poem: "What rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?" I think that beast might be on its way, Len.
[Later, with all Army operations and the United States overall falling apart, Major Carsleigh hears a gunshot while working outside Starkey's office. The General has shot himself, pinning a paper to his uniform that says "GUILTY".]
Major Len Carsleigh: You were right, Billy... the center didn't hold. It didn't...
[Rae Flowers continues her radio talk show as the military invades the building.]
Rae Flowers: Tell ya what, Portland — it looks like the Marines have landed, and they don't look too happy.
[Frannie and her flu-ridden father are listening in horror.]
Frannie Goldsmith: This is a joke! Right? I mean, this has gotta be a joke!
Peter Goldsmith: I don't think so, Frannie. I really don't think so.
Rae Flowers: Hi, there. You're on the air.
Caller: Rae, you all right?
Rae Flowers: Well, to tell you the truth, honey, it doesn't look too good for the kid right now. Several soldiers have just broken into the studio. They— they're fully armed, and they're… they're dressed in some kind of protective clothing. They're wearing… they're wearing respirators on their faces.
[The soldiers break into Rae's studio.]
Soldier: Shut it down!
Rae Flowers: Hey, Bluto! You ever hear of a little number called freedom of speech?! Bill of Rights?! Any of that ring a bell? [to her audience] Folks, I've just been ordered by my uninvited Fascist guests to shut down, and I've refused. I think—
[Sounds of gunfire over the radio, then silence.]
Frannie Goldsmith: Oh my God, what's happening?!
Peter Goldsmith: I don't know, Frannie... I don't know.
[At night, on a desert highway, a tall, long-haired man in jeans spies a deer.]
Randall Flagg: Rub-a-dub-dub…
[He makes a gun-firing motion with his hand, light flashes, and the deer falls dead.]
Randall Flagg: … thanks for the grub.
[The robed Monster Shouter passes down the road ringing a bell, continuing his chanted warning]
The Monster Shouter: Bring out your dead! The Dark Man cometh! Bring out your dead! The Dark Man cometh! Bring out your --
[He sees Randall Flagg and stops still in his tracks, utterly terrified]
The Monster Shouter: ...the Dark Man...he is here!
[Flagg zaps him dead]

Part II: The Dreams

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[Settling down to a rare steak dinner in the city, Larry and Nadine duck when they hear a gunshot.]
Nadine Cross: Oh, I think I lost my appetite.
Larry Underwood: We gotta get outta here.
Nadine Cross: I beg your pardon?
Larry Underwood: I mean, we gotta get outta the city. I mean, it's not just the odds of getting shot. You have any idea what it's going to smell like in two weeks? Five million people rotting in the July sun!
Nadine Cross: Ohhh-kay.
[Nadine pulls out a bottle of pills, but Larry stops her from taking any.]
Larry Underwood: What is that?!
Nadine Cross: Vitamin C.
Larry Underwood: Yeah, I'm sorry. It's none of my business.
Nadine Cross: Apology accepted...mostly because I think you're right. The Big Apple is baked.
[Repeated lines.]
Trashcan Man: Bump-dee-bump! My life for you!
[Abagail Freemantle talks to God as she works around Hemingford Home.]
Mother Abagail: I hear ya, Lord, and I'm in the way o' doin' your will… but I don't much like it!
. . .
Mother Abagail: Oh, I'll do what you say, Lord — don't I always? But even your own Son prayed that the cup be taken from his lips, and I'm… prayin' the same thing. Heh heh. Probably… get about the same answer, too! [laughs]
[The Walkin' Dude visits Lloyd in his prison cell.]
Lloyd Henreid: Can you let me outta here, mister? I'll do anything you want.
Randall Flagg: You poor guy. You look like ka-ka! [giggles] Tell me something, Lloyd—
Lloyd Henreid: How do you know my name?
Randall Flagg: Lucky guess. How'd you stay alive so long?
Lloyd Henreid: I saw it coming down, and I saved up some food, that's how.
[Flagg points to Lloyd's cot, and the mattress pulls itself up, revealing a partially-eaten rat.]
Randall Flagg: Brer Rat, how'd he taste?
Lloyd Henreid: [snivelling] Poke should be here, not me! Everything was Poke's idea!
Randall Flagg: And you got stuck with nothin' to eat but Rat Tartar.
. . .
Randall Flagg: Oh! I never even introduced myself, did I? Pleased to meet you, Lloyd. Hope you guess my name.
Lloyd Henreid: Huh?
Randall Flagg: Oh, uh… nothing. Just a little classical reference.
⇒ "Pleased to meet you / Hope you guess my name" are two lines from the chorus of The Rolling Stones' song "Sympathy for the Devil".


Again, this is not Nadine, but Rita.

[Larry and Nadine argue over her refusal to enter the Lincoln Tunnel.]
Larry Underwood: And you've had plenty of those, thank you very much!
Nadine Cross: Hey! Give that back!
Larry Underwood: No, ma'am. I'm not gonna stand here in the middle of five million dead people, and watch you commit suicide!
. . .
[After he throws away her pills, Nadine storms off.]
Larry Underwood: Where're you going?
Nadine Cross: Going to the George Washington Bridge! By myself!
Larry Underwood: Pfft. I don't need this prima donna act… Missy! I really don't! You have fun… getting raped and murdered back on 7th Avenue! Sweetheart!
[Stu happily pets Glen Bateman's dog, Kojak.]
Stu Redman: He's the first dog I've seen in, uh… well, since the third week of June.
Glen Bateman: Yeah. Superflu took most of the dogs… right along with their idiot masters. Most unfair.
[Nadine dreams of the Dark Man.]
Nadine Cross: So… cold! No! He's warm, not you!
Randall Flagg: But I'm the one you belong to, Nadine. You are the Promised One.
Nadine Cross: [petulantly] Why me? Who promised?
[Nick, meeting Tom Cullen, applauds his mannequin displays posed to replace the missing townspeople.]
Tom Cullen: Thanks. Decoration is my hobby. M-O-O-N, that spells "hobby".
. . .
[While Nick is stymied trying to explain to an illiterate Tom that he's mute, Tom stares for a moment, then brightens.]
Tom Cullen: I got it, Mister! I got it! You're just like old Albion Packalot's hired man! Tom Cullen knows what that is! M-O-O-O-N, that spells "deaf and dumb"!
. . .
[Tom frets to Nick about how everyone "up and went to Kansas City".]
Tom Cullen: Everybody's… always talkin' about what a dull town this is, since the roller rink went bust. And there's just the drive-in theater out on Route 61, and… all they show is them diddly-daddly pictures, and they're all rated "X". M-O-O-N, that spells "X".
[Tom excitedly hops on the bicycle that Nick brought him.]
Tom Cullen: All right, I'm ready! Laws, yes! M-O-O-N, that spells "ready"!
[The two of them start out for Hemingford Home.]
Tom Cullen: Woo-hoo! M-O-O-N, that spells "Nebraska"!
[Nick and Tom meet up with spoiled-brat Julie Lawry.]
Julie Lawry: You're name's Tom, right?
Tom Cullen: Tom Cullen. M-O-O-N, that spells "Tom Cullen".
[On a Midwest highway, Ralph Bretner drives his pickup truck up alongside Tom and Nick on their bicycles.]
Ralph Bretner: Name's Ralph Bretner.
Tom Cullen: I'm Tom Cullen. M-O-O-N, that spells "Tom Cullen". I don't know his name, 'cause I can't read it. Sure wish I did, though — laws, yes.
[Nick hands Ralph a hastily scribbled note.]
Ralph Bretner: Your friend's name here is "Nick Andros". M-O-O-N, I-I guess that spells "Nick". [laughs]

And now this isn't Lucy, but Nadine.

[Larry is surprised by a woman travelling with a feral boy.]
Lucy Swan: I'm so pleased to meet you.
Larry Underwood: Yeah, same here, believe me. [to the boy] How ya doin', son?
[The boy pulls out a knife and nearly slashes Larry before the woman pulls him back.]
Larry Underwood: Whoa!
Lucy Swan: Put that away.
Larry Underwood: Nice kid! Has he had his rabies shots yet?
Lucy Swan: I'm sorry, I'm sorry. He's–he's been… traumatized.
Larry Underwood: Haven't we all.
[Mother Abagail talks to Ralph and Nick about what God has told her. Ralph reads Nick's response.]
Ralph Bretner: Uh, Nick says that… he says he don't believe in God.
[Mother Abagail laughs.]
Mother Abagail: God bless ya, Nick! But it don't matter! He believes in you.
[On the outskirts of Boulder, Colorado, little Gina calls Tom over.]
Tom Cullen: What is it, Gina?
Gina McCone: A parade! Come on up and look!
[He stands on the truck bed and hoists Gina up to see further.]
Tom Cullen: Gosh, it is!
[Below them, a pack of motorcycles leads a caravan of other vehicles approaching.]
Tom Cullen: M-O-O-N, that spells parade.

Part III: The Betrayal

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Lloyd Henreid: Flagg wants to see you.
Trashcan Man: [whispering intensely] My life for him. Yes. My life for him!
[The Rat Man turns to Lloyd, whispering.]
Rat Man: Dude's crazy.
Lloyd Henreid: Like we're not?
[Nadine has another dream about Flagg.]
Nadine Cross: I'm here. I came to you.
Randall Flagg: The bride cometh to the bridegroom as a flame to the wick of a lamp.
Nadine Cross: Is that the Bible?
Randall Flagg: Hmm, Danielle Steel, I think.
[Glen, Larry, Stu, and Ralph talk about the imminent restarting of the Boulder power station.]
Glen Bateman: The plague took the people, but it couldn't take the gadgets, could it? No, they're all still out there. Everything from electric can openers to cobalt bombs, just waiting for someone to come along and pick 'em up. And the scavenger hunt… starts today.
Ralph Bretner: Ah, hell, Professor. What's wrong with puttin' the rocks back in people's scotch?
Glen Bateman: It's the old way. And the old way was a death trip.
Stu Redman: That's a little heavy, don'tcha think?
Glen Bateman: Do you? There's an old woman down there who might tell ya different, East Texas. If she'd talk about this end of it at all, that is.
Stu Redman: What's the problem?
Glen Bateman: I don't know if there is one. But I know I'm very concerned about the way things are going. She wants a mass meeting. Except she says it's really God who wants the meeting. We say, "Fine. You're fine, Mother. God's fine, too." And then we go right back to tinkering with the power station, trying to recreate the world that damn near choked the human race to death. What's wrong with this picture?
[Nadine, her back turned to Mother Abagail, is next in the new arrivals' greeting line.]
Mother Abagail: [Sharply] Who's this woman who comes?!
[Nadine turns to look at the old woman.]
Randall Flagg: [in Nadine's mind] Go to her!
Nadine Cross: My name is Nadine Cross.
Mother Abagail: [Warily] Mayhap it is, and mayhap it ain't!
Nadine Cross: I'm from New York.
Mother Abagail: Mayhap you are…
Nadine Cross: [muttering] Mayhap I ain't.
[She looks up.]
Nadine Cross: I won't keep you long.
[She slowly climbs the steps toward Abagail.]
Nadine Cross: You look so tired. Of course, anyone your age is bound to tire easily, isn't that so?
[She holds out her hand, but Joe rushes past her to hug Mother Abagail.]
Mother Abagail: Hello, Joe, what'd'ya know? [laughs]
[The new Boulder Free Zone Committee meets to discuss Mother Abagail's unexpected departure and their own next move.]
Ralph Bretner: Flagg is our business right now. And we'll have to trust Mother Abagail… to her God.
Glen Bateman: Our friend in the cowboy boots and jean jacket isn't gonna just sit over there on his side of the Rockies playing mumblety-peg, you know.
[At a barbecue, the Committee discusses plans to send spies to scope out Flagg's activities in Vegas.]
Larry Underwood: Well… we haven't been elected one whole day yet, and already we've managed to, uh, reinvent the CIA. Who needs Monday Night Football?
. . .
Larry Underwood: Oh my God, I'm a politician. This isn't Colorado, it's Hell!
. . .
Larry Underwood: I can't believe we're doin' this!
Stu Redman: Hey, if you didn't wanna get your hands dirty, you shoulda stayed off the Committee in the first place! We're probably sendin' people off to get killed!
Larry Underwood: Yeah?
Stu Redman: Yeah, that's right! Makin' decisions like that is what bein' in charge is all about! Either grow up and do it, or get out!
[Everyone stares at Larry in silence.]
Larry Underwood: You're awful cute when you get angry, Stu.
[The Committee hypnotizes Tom to prepare him to be a scout, but find that he's surprisingly aware while under.]
Frannie Goldsmith: Are you the same Tom that Nick met in Oklahoma?
Tom Cullen: Yes. No. I'm God's Tom.
. . .
Stu Redman: Look. And then you come back here to Boulder, when the moon is full. Do you understand?
Tom Cullen: Yes! M-O-O-N… spells moon.
[Tom Cullen is now working at Indian Springs AFB, where his coworkers call him "Moose".]
Barry Dorgan: And get the toolkit outta the cab and take it into the hangar office.
Tom Cullen: You bet! M-O-O-N, that spells "toolkit"!
[Harold is working on explosives in his basement, listening to "Boogie Fever". Nadine tries to get his attention by killing the music.]
Harold Lauder: What the hell are you doing? Don't screw with my disco, Nadine!
Nadine Cross: Is everything all right?
Harold Lauder: No.
[He holds up three sticks of dynamite, taped together and fused.]
Harold Lauder: If I had dropped this, you would be washing my guts out of your pretty white hair for the next two weeks.
Nadine Cross: I'm sorry.
Harold Lauder: Let me make a suggestion, my little disco queen. Take a walk.
Nadine Cross: Take a walk?
Harold Lauder: Yes! A walk. Because, you see, I have no idea how old this stuff is. I do know that old dynamite sweats pure nitroglycerin. So, take a walk, and, if you hear a very loud bang, that will probably be me going to that great disco inferno in the sky. Make like a library, and book.
[After Nadine conceals the bomb in Frannie's closet, she returns to Harold.]
Harold Lauder: Nadine?
Nadine Cross: What?
Harold Lauder: We're damned.
Nadine Cross: Yes. I know.
[As Nick frantically digs through Frannie's closet, and the Committee rushes to leave the house…]
Nadine Cross: Do it, Harold! Do it!
[After being blown violently across the yard by the explosion, Frannie and the rest of the main cast is talking to Mother Abagail.]
Mother Abagail: You're not to go. Only these four: Stuart, Ralph, Larry, and Glen. You'll abide—
Frannie Goldsmith: No, Stuart's not going anywhere! He's gonna stay with me when I have my baby! Neither one of us is going to have any more to do with your killer god!
Mother Abagail: The Devil's imp has called his bride to put her with child. Will he let your child live, little girl?
[Frannie collapses, sobbing.]
Mother Abagail: Father, mother, wife, husband. Set against them… the Prince o' High Places! I have sinned in pride! So have you all! That's passed now. It's time now… to give over your will… to the will o' God. It's time to make your stand.
[Mother Abagail's last (living) words.]
Mother Abagail: You… your four men… are to go west… to take no food or water, but to go this very day in the clothes you now wear. You are to go on foot. I'm in the way of knowin' one will fall by the way, but I don't know which it will be. I'm in the way of knowin' the others will be taken before this Flagg, who isn't a man, but a creature from beyond the world. I don't know… if you will defeat him. I only know… God wants you to go, and with God's help, you will stand, and be true.
Frannie Goldsmith: And what if we say no?!
Stu Redman: Frannie, come on—
Frannie Goldsmith: What?!
Stu Redman: Come on, shhh.
Mother Abagail: Your will is as free as that of Eve in the Garden, child. "Go where ye list" has always been God's way, but… this is what God wants of you. Be true! Stand.

Part IV: The Stand

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Lloyd Henreid: And remember what I told you — don't mark him!
Dave Roberts: Right! I mean, copy!
. . .
Lloyd Henreid: [to himself] If black powder were brains, that guy couldn't blow his nose.
[Dayna, her cover blown, gets an undesired audience with Flagg.]
Dayna Jurgens: What happened to the chairs?
Randall Flagg: Oh, I had them taken out. [laughs] Liars sit in chairs, you know? Truth tellers just sort of… hunker down.
. . .
[Flagg tells Dayna about his problems psychically seeing who the third spy is.]
Randall Flagg: But every time I try to see this third spy… all I can see… is the Moon. "M-O-O-N, that spells moon."
. . .
[Flagg mentions Mother Abagail's death in passing.]
Dayna Jurgens: Mother Abagail is not dead.
Randall Flagg: Oh… I'm afraid she is.
Dayna Jurgens: I don't believe it.
Randall Flagg: She died in a coma… without saying a word.
[Tom, still safely undercover, spies the full moon at night.]
Tom Cullen: When the Moon is full. M-O-O-N… spells "moon".
[After Stu realizes that Harold is dead…]
Stu Redman: May God have mercy on his poor excuse for a soul.
[Nadine finally meets Flagg, physically, in the desert.]
Nadine Cross: I waited so long.
Randall Flagg: The waiting's over.
Glen Bateman: Yeah, there's a perfectly good reason for this little stroll, you know. And Mother Abagail knew it when she sent us out the way she did, with just the clothes on our backs. Our bellies are empty, and, more importantly, our heads are empty.
Ralph Brentner: Hell — mine was pretty empty to begin with.
[They all laugh.]
Glen Bateman: Yeah, well, I'm serious. We're out here in the middle of the Great American Nowhere, minus all the baggage we used to carry every place we went. She wanted us cleaned out. Empty. Ready to be filled up again by some new thing. Maybe a great thing. Almost certainly the last thing.
[Briefly coming out of her silent stupor, Nadine grins at Lloyd and company.]
Nadine Cross: We… are… dead… and… this… is… Hell!
[Lloyd finally informs Flagg about spy Tom Cullen, only to find himself being throttled against the wall.]
Randall Flagg: You let me go upstairs without telling me?! I could pop your neck like a tick!
[Nadine slowly edges up onto the balcony ledge as she tells Flagg how his plans are coming apart.]
Nadine Cross: They're coming for you, you know. The old woman sent them before she died.
Randall Flagg: Get your ass back in here.
Nadine Cross: Everything you've made here is falling apart. They're saying a simple retarded boy outwitted Randall Flagg. They're saying Judge Farris got away from your man in Idaho.
Randall Flagg: He's as dead as Judas Iscariot.
Nadine Cross: They're asking questions about Dayna, too. It's all slipping through your fingers. And they're whispering, Randy. I can see them, leaving their posts in the dead of night, and your eye can't see them. And when they come here — Stu… and Ralph… and Glen… and La— when they get here, your time will end, and I'll be watching. I'll be watching from Hell, with your baby in my arms!
[Larry objects to leaving Stu behind.]
Larry Underwood: This is no game, Stu.
Glen Bateman: Stu's right, Larry. Mother Abagail said one of us would fall by the way.
Larry Underwood: W-what does that mean? Huh? What are you saying? You're a college professor, for god sakes!
Glen Bateman: Not anymore. In case you hadn't noticed, Larry, school is out.
Larry Underwood: Look, I thought he was your friend!
Glen Bateman: Of course he's my friend. But that doesn't matter now.
Ralph Brentner: It's God's plan—
Larry Underwood: Shut up about God! I'm sick of hearing about God!
Stu Redman: This whole trip was based on the idea that Mother Abagail knew what she was talkin' about.
Ralph Brentner: That's right.
Larry Underwood: It's not right. It's not right! This isn't God's will, or God's plan! It's a washout! And you got a broken leg, Stu, and I'm not gonna leave you here!
. . .
Stu Redman: When we came on this trip, we put our lives in the hands of Mother Abagail's God. Now, that hasn't changed. If he wants me to eat, he'll send food. If he wants me to drink… he'll send rain. It's his business. Yours… is to go against Flagg! Now, you've got to do that, and you've got to go without me!
Larry Underwood: [choking back tears] Man… do you know how crazy that sounds? Do you know how totally damn crazy that sounds?!
[Glen hands Stu his pain pills.]
Glen Bateman: More than three or four would probably be fatal. Do you know that?
Stu Redman: Yeah, I suppose so.
[Barry Dorgan, his clipboard-wielding deputy Burlson, and a pack of armed guards stop the Boulder trio on the road.]
Barry Dorgan: By virtue of the power vested in me, smartass, you're under arrest.
Ralph Brentner: In whose name?
Barry Dorgan: You know who I speak for.
Ralph Brentner: Then why don't you say it?
[Dead silence.]
Ralph Brentner: Well, I'll say it for ya. Calls himself Randall Flagg, but who he really is, is an apostate of Hell. Now, you got that in your little clipboard there, Mr. Burlson?
Paul Burlson: I wonder if you men might give me your Social Security numbers?
[Larry, Ralph, and Glen look at each other and burst out laughing.]
. . .
[Larry holds up his hands when the thugs start waving their guns.]
Larry Underwood: Relax! You don't need those. That's why we came here. We got a message for your little tin god.
Barry Dorgan: Tin god? Tin god. Man, that's funny. I spent 22 years on the Santa Monica P.D., and I know what happens when guys like you end up runnin' the show. We haven't got a single addict in Vegas. Can your people say the same?
Glen Bateman: Mr. Dorgan, even a man of your apparently limited intelligence should be able to see that your experiences with a few battered babies and drug abusers doesn't justify your embrace of a monster!
[Dorgan smacks Glen across the face, knocking him down.]
Larry Underwood: Oh, that's great. Very good! You get the Rodney King Humanitarian Award for the day, pal.
[One of the thugs jams a rifle butt into Larry's stomach.]
Glen Bateman: It's almost over for them now, Larry. Can you feel it?
[In his cell in Las Vegas, Glen muses on a cockroach skittering around the prison floor.]
Glen Bateman: You're quite a piece of work, Mr. Cockroach. We could take a lesson from you, especially in light of recent events. I have an idea that… I'll be gone, come this time tomorrow. But you'll still be trucking, won't you? Running your little roach errands.
[Suddenly a boot stomps on the roach. Pan up to reveal a grinning Flagg.]
Randall Flagg: That's a wrap on the roach.
. . .
Randall Flagg: Actually, uh… I've decided to let you go.
Glen Bateman: Really? Marvelous. Of course, I couldn't go without my friends.
Randall Flagg: Oh, of course not! No, you'll all go together. Tomorrow morning. Tonight, if you prefer. And, uh… once again, all you have to do is ask. Only… for a favor of this magnitude… I really think you ought to do it on your knees.
[Bateman bursts out in tremendous laughter.]
Randall Flagg: Stop it. Stop laughing at me!
Glen Bateman: Sorry! It's just that… it's just that we made such… such a business of you, and it turns out you're nothing more than another cockroach, scurrying around, running little roach errands! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Randall Flagg: Shoot him.
Lloyd Henreid: What?
Randall Flagg: You heard me!
[Lloyd pulls out his gun, then looks back at Flagg.]
Randall Flagg: SHOOT HIM, YOU IDIOT! SHOOT HIM!
Lloyd Henreid: He's an old man.
[Flagg starts to move toward Lloyd, who casually fires into the bars without effect.]
Randall Flagg: Can't you do anything RIGHT?! HE'S STANDING RIGHT IN FRONT O' YA!
Glen Bateman: If you really feel you must shoot somebody, Mr. Henreid, I suggest Flagg. His world is crumbling, and we both know it. I think we also both know he can do a lot of damage on his way down. You could change that.
Randall Flagg: Well, shoot one of us, anyway.
. . .
[Lloyd finally puts several shots into Glen, point-blank. Glen falls, then turns back toward Lloyd.]
Glen Bateman: It's all right, Mr. Henreid. You don't know any better.
[As Dorgan oversees the chaining of Ralph and Larry to crossed metal bars…]
Larry Underwood: Tell me something, chief! They teach you this one in Santa Monica P.D.?
[As Lloyd tries to deal with Trashcan Man and his nuclear missile, Flagg's energy bolt suddenly rises from the two bodies and begins to transform.]
Mother Abagail: [voiceover] The promise has been kept as God has willed it. Amen.
Ralph Brentner: Larry! Do you see it?
Larry Underwood: The Hand of God!
. . .
[As the Hand wraps itself around the missile…]
Mother Abagail: [voiceover] You done good, boys. Come on home.
[From their vantage point above the washout, Stu and Tom see the nuclear explosion on the horizon.]
Stu Redman: "I saw a pale horse, and a pale rider upon it. The name of the horse was Pestilence. The name of the rider was Death."
Tom Cullen: What was it, Stu?
Stu Redman: It's the end of Las Vegas, Tommy. And the end of Randall Flagg… if God is good.
[Tom is trying to nurse Stu back to health.]
Tom Cullen: This'll make you feel better, Stu! It's peanut butter and jelly! M-O-O-N, that spells "peanut butter and jelly"!
[After seeing Frannie's baby, Stu turns to Larry's widow, Lucy.]
Stu Redman: Lucy… Larry—
Lucy Swan: N-no, I know. I know what happened. I'm… sure that when the end came, they, um… met it on their feet. And that's what they were sent out there to do, wasn't it? To stand?
Stu Redman: I reckon it was.
Lucy Swan: He's gone… but I'll have his baby. Maybe… it's not all I wanted, or all I dreamed of having… but it'll have to be enough.

Cast

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See also

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  Encyclopedic article on The Stand (miniseries) on Wikipedia

Works by 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) · The Plant (2000; unfinished) · 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) · 11/22/63 (2011) ·
  Joyland (2013) · Doctor Sleep (2013) · Mr. Mercedes (2014) · Revival (2014) · Finders Keepers (2015) · End of Watch (2016)  
  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 books     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) · The Bazaar of Bad Dreams (2015)  
  Non‑fiction     Danse Macabre (1981) · Nightmares in the Sky (1988) · On Writing (2000) · Secret Windows (2000) · Faithful (2004; with Stewart O'Nan)  
  Screenplays     Creepshow (1982) · Cat's Eye (1985) · Silver Bullet (1985) · Maximum Overdrive (1986; also director) · Pet Sematary (1989) · Sleepwalkers (1992) · A Good Marriage
  (2014) · Cell (2015; with Adam Alleca)  
  Teleplays     "Sorry, Right Number" (1987) · 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) · "Heads Will Roll" (2014)  
  Comics     Creepshow (1982) · Heroes for Hope (1985) · The Secretary of Dreams (2006) · The Dark Tower (2007–) · The Stand (2008–2012) · The Talisman (2009–2010) ·
  American Vampire (2010) · N. (2010) · Road Rage (2012) · The Dark Man (2013)  
  Musical collaborations     Michael Jackson's Ghosts (1997; with Michael Jackson) · Black Ribbons (2010; with Shooter Jennings) · Ghost Brothers of Darkland County (2012; with John
  Mellencamp)  
  Anthologies edited     The Best American Short Stories 2007 (2007; with Heidi Pitlor)  
  See also     Last words in the works of Stephen King · {{Media based on Stephen King works}}  
Adaptations of works by Stephen King
  Films     The Shining (1980) · Cujo (1983) · The Dead Zone (1983) · Christine (1983) · Cat's Eye (1985) · Silver Bullet (1985) · Stand by Me (1986) · The Running Man (1987) · Tales from the
  Darkside: The Movie (1990) · Graveyard Shift (1990) · Misery (1990) · The Lawnmower Man (1992) · Sleepwalkers (1992) · The Dark Half (1993) · Needful Things (1993) · The
  Shawshank Redemption (1994) · Dolores Claiborne (1995) · Thinner (1996) · The Night Flier (1997) · Apt Pupil (1998) · The Green Mile (1999) · Hearts in Atlantis (2001) · Dreamcatcher 
  (2003) · Secret Window (2004) · Riding the Bullet (2004) · 1408 (2007) · The Mist (2007) · Dolan's Cadillac (2009) · A Good Marriage (2014) · Cell (2016) · It (2017) · It Chapter Two (2019)  
  Carrie     Carrie (1976) · The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999) · Carrie (2002) · Carrie (2013)  
  Creepshow     Creepshow (1982) · Creepshow 2 (1987) · Creepshow 3 (2006)  
  Children of the Corn     Children of the Corn (1984) · The Final Sacrifice (1993) · Urban Harvest (1995) · The Gathering (1996) · Fields of Terror (1998) · Isaac's Return (1999) ·
  Revelation (2001) · Children of the Corn (2009) · Genesis (2011)  
  Firestarter     Firestarter (1984) · Rekindled (2002)  
  Trucks     Maximum Overdrive (1986) · Trucks (1997)  
  Pet Sematary     Pet Sematary (1989) · Pet Sematary Two (1992) · Pet Sematary (2019)  
  The Mangler     The Mangler (1995) · The Mangler 2 (2001) · *The Mangler Reborn (2005)  
  Television     Episodes     "Gramma" (1986) · "Sorry, Right Number" (1987) · "The Revelations of Becka Paulson" (1997)  
  Series     Golden Years (1991) · The Dead Zone (2002–07) · Kingdom Hospital (2004) · Haven (2010–present) · Under the Dome (2013–15) · 11.22.63 (2016)  
  Films or miniseries     It (1990) · The Tommyknockers (1993) · The Stand (1994) · The Langoliers (1995) · The Shining (1997) · Quicksilver Highway (1997) · Storm of the Century
  (1999) · Stephen King's Desperation (2006) · Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King (2006) · Bag of Bones (2011) · Big Driver (2014)  
  Salem's Lot     Salem's Lot (1979) · A Return to Salem's Lot (1987) · Salem's Lot (2004)  
  Sometimes They Come Back     Sometimes They Come Back (1991) · Sometimes They Come Back... Again (1996) · Sometimes They Come Back... for More
  (1998)  
  Rose Red     Rose Red (2002) · The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer (2003)  
  See also     {{Stephen King}}  
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