5 hidden references to the dark tower in other Stephen King movies

Stephen King’s wide fantasy series fans “The Dark Tower” have been quite rough offered in terms of screen modifications, with only the (extremely subpar) film 2017 trying to tell Roland Deschain’s story, Roland Deschain, and his epic tour towards the title tower. Now it seems that it might really be Adjust streaming courtesy of Mike Flanaganwho directed Great taking King’s stories with “Doctor Sleep” and “Gerald’s Game,” with elements overruled by the king himselfwhich is a kind of dream is realized.

Because “The Dark Tower” links a great deal of King’s work on the printed page, there are some pretty big references to the “dark tower” novels in other King adaptations, giving fans a little hope over the years that we might sometime meet Roland, his Roland, his lackAnd maybe even Blaine the train, that pain. Let’s look at five of the biggest references to the “The Dark Tower” world in other Stephen King (and a small series) movies, from the pretty obvious ones to the slightly more unclear.

In Frank Darabont’s film adaptation in 2007 of King’s novel “The Mist,” We see the main character of the film, David Drayton (Thomas Jane), working on an impressive painting during the opening scenes. His studio has several lovely paintings in it, including the cover to John Carpenter’s 1982 “The Thing” and Art film for Guillermo Del Toro’s 2006 “Pan’s Labyrinth,” and in the background there is a painting of a young person holding a red balloon (directing the king’s nightmarical novel in the king’s novel “). shoot guns and stand in front of a large metal door, with the dark tower in the furthest background (the silly The paintings artist we see in this scene is a legendary Drew Struzan poster artist, incidentally). But how would David know Roland?

In the “Dark Tower” books, King presents the idea of “thin,” or locations where reality clouds a bit and people and items from different worlds can appear in others. The small town in Maine may be where “The Mist” occurs close to thin, or David may be someone who can take advantage of those reality through similar powers to Danny Torrance (and others) in “The Shining.” It is also entirely possible that Darabont wants to give the works of other king. Whatever the cause, the art is extremely cool and is a fun moment in one otherwise Total Film Bummer.

There are quite a few “dark tower” links between the King’s novel “The Shining” and its sequel, “Doctor Sleep,” including Haunted Overlook Hotel which has 19 stages of its lobby to the second floor – notable because 19 is a cosmic number associated with “The Dark Tower.” Since writer and director Mike Flanagan is a huge fan of ” Bus Line being called “Tet Transit,” After the Tet Corporation of “Dark Tower.” The industrial complex in which Bradley is also buried is also owned by the bad lamerk industries of “Dark Tower” as well, and we can see posters for performances of identity alternately of the dandelo “dark tower” monster in the background of a single scene, but one line overrides them all in directing the king’s most epic work.

The connection comes on the largest screen between “Doctor Sleep” and “The Dark Tower” when the Spirit of Dick Hallorann (Carl Lumbly) speaks aloud, saying “KA is a wheel.” This is a direct line of the novels, which explains one of the great driving forces in King Multiverse: KA. KA is similar to the force of “Star Wars,” in over -simplic terms, as it ties everything together and pushes time forward. KA is Destiny, just as “Ka-Tet” is a group of heroes bound by Destiny. (In the novel “Doctor Sleep”, Danny refers to the group he assembles to stop the actual knot -like vampire like ka-tet.) Flanagan has said he could Include some of the characters from “Doctor Sleep” In his “Dark Tower” series, the path has already been set for that to happen.

Stephen King has a fairly intense connection between Mike Flanagan’s kindness, and that is his absolutely harrowing excitement film “Gerald’s Game.” While the novel and the movie for “Gerald’s Game” have a direct connection to Dolores Claiborne’s King “novel,” because the two women can talk to each other through some kind of telepathy (is the shining? Is it something more like “The Dead Zone?” King? Sure, it’s pretty nasty Jessie (Carla Gugino) De-Vaneg’s Skin Her Own In order to escape from handcuffsBut something told by Gerald (Bruce Greenwood) could be even worse, psychologically.

Flanagan himself drew attention to the connection in Interview with /movie Back in 2017, saying:

“There is a very critical goal for ‘The Dark Tower’ that happens towards the end of the film in a line that Bruce Greenwood says to Carla,” Everything serves the beam. “That was one I really wanted to make sure we got there just because I was a ‘dark tower’ fanatic.”

But what does “everything serves the beam” mean? In “The Dark Tower,” it means that all the universe and timelines are connected, and each serves the same larger goal. Although that may not seem too daunting, it also means that the supernatural elements are not just “Gerald’s Game” in her mind, and there is a very real mystical danger in all universe.

So if “everything serves the beam” and all the time lines are connected, does that mean that all Stephen King Worlds is connected? Some fans think so, but there are a whole bunch of clear links that you haven’t really gone to look for new ones. One of the biggest bath in each of King Lore is Randall Flagg, the antagonist of his apocalyptic novel to the epic “The Stand,” which serves as a pretty great stand-up for the Antichrist. Played by Jamey Sheridan in the 1994 Miniseries and by Alexander Skarsgård in the 2020 limited series, Flagg is a truly dreadful villain that has a great deal of charm despite looking like all human beings. In “The Dark Tower,” however, he is the Walkin ‘Dude/The Man in Black/Walter, one of several antagonist who works under an even more dreaded villain, King Crimson.

Flagg has many faces and even Appears in the king “The Shawshank Redemption,” Making it one of the few characters woven throughout the man’s stories instead of being loosely linked by them. “The Stand” is one of King’s best works, and as “The Dark Tower,” the adjustments have not lived up to the source material yet (even if Flanagan is a die-hard fan of 1994 miniseries). He is not the only monster that links King’s works, however, as a much more memorable villain has his own contacts with “The Dark Tower.”

There is one big film Stephen King/connection “The Dark Tower” (not counting the “The Dark Tower” movie from 2017, of course), although this is not as directly as any of the above. Remember Dandelo, the shape change that appears on posters like an Easter egg in “Doctor Sleep”? Dandelo has the same type of extraterrestrial monster, which exists in the scary form of Penywise The Dancing Clown in King’s novel in 1986 “IT” and its two on -screen modifications. He has, played by Tim Curry in Miniseries 1990 and Bill Skarsgård in the 2017 and 2019 “IT” and “IT Chapter Two, films,” a real form closer to a huge space spider, just like Dandelo. They are of the same place and so they are both in the beam service, linking “it” and “The Dark Tower.”

King has said it is possible that Flagg and it really is one thingAlthough it is likely to mean that they are only parts of the bad one and not really a single entity. Look, it is far from the most wonderful theory out in terms of King’s work or even Pennywise, as some fans have speculated that Mary Poppins (Yes, the nanny fly with the umbrella of the Disney movies) actually the same kind of being as it is and dandelo. Now that Wild. We may have new fun Easter eggs when the Flanagan series eventually appears on Prime Video, but for the time being we have these delicious links with our tide over.