The Complete Stephen King Universe

by Stanley Wiater

  • Bobby saw a classic Western film called The Regulators, which King invented for the novel of the same name, written under his pseudonym, Richard Bachman. The fact that this fictional film exists in both Bachman’s work and that of King further unifies their universes.

  • Ted Brautigan is a big proponent of reading, but his choice of books to recommend to Bobby is interesting. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies (1954) is a favorite of King’s, and the source of the name of his fictional town Castle Rock. Another, Clifford D. Simak’s Ring Around the Sun (1952), may well have influenced King’s idea of a multiverse.

  • At the same time that Carol Gerber and Pete Riley were attending the University of Maine at Orono, Bill Denbrough of the novel It was also on campus as a student.

  • The red eye that indicates the low men’s fealty to the Crimson King brings to mind the eye of the evil wizard Sauron of The Lord of the Rings fame.

  12

  THE STAND

  (1978)

  Though it almost exists as a separate universe unto itself, The Stand’s (1978) connections to the Dark Tower series, in particular the presence of Randall Flagg in that book and the series, are strong enough that the novel occupies a significant division of the Dark Tower universe.

  The Stand is one in a long line of classic apocalyptic novels. Those that came before it include such seminal tales as Robert Merle’s Malevil (1972), Nevil Shute’s On the Beach (1957), and Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend (1954). However, while The Stand is certainly not the first postapocalyptic novel, it is, without a doubt, the one that all subsequent works in that subgenre will be measured by.

  That is a literal statement. The Stand, one of King’s most popular works, which was translated into a four-night miniseries on the ABC network in 1994, is also a novel whose shocking events are ingrained in the consciousness of readers around the world. Particularly, it should be noted, in America, where even those who have never read the book or seen its television counterpart are likely to be familiar with its basic concepts.

  One of the things that sets The Stand apart, that makes it the touchstone for such tales, is a King trademark: Americana. Both the original (published in 1978) and the revised, expanded version (published in 1989) are richly layered with pop culture references. But more than merely reaching readers on that level, the book tells an epic story of good and evil while communicating an intimate familiarity with American lives.

  Frannie Goldsmith is a young woman pregnant by her unsupportive boyfriend. Harold Lauder is the bitter outcast whose love for her is spurned. Nick Andros is a deaf-mute whose handicap brings out both the best and worst in people. Stu Redman is the quiet man, the classic Western hero type. Larry Underwood is a drug-and-drink-ravaged rock artist whose shot at stardom falls short.

  They’re characters we understand. This is one of the elements that King does best. And it’s a good deal of what makes this entry the ultimate postapocalyptic tale. That, and the horror, of course. The fear. The hope. The knowledge that in the end, we can choose to help or to hurt. It’s all in our hands.

  In addition to all of that, however, The Stand has a very vital place in the Stephen King Universe. It has its beginnings in a short story called “Night Surf,” which was originally published in the men’s magazine Cavalier in August 1974. This tale features the first references to a “superflu” in King’s work, and actually uses the name “Captain Trips” for the illness, a nickname that recurs in The Stand. It isn’t clear that the two exist in the same branch of King’s universe—that they are in continuity with each other—but since there is no mention of a year in the short story, it isn’t unreasonable to presume as much.

  The novel is perhaps most important to the Stephen King Universe in that it introduces the demonic Randall Flagg for the first time. Flagg would later reappear in various forms in Eyes of the Dragon (1987) and Hearts in Atlantis (1999). In Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass (1997), the hero, Roland, and his friends cross over from their dimension into the reality in which the events of The Stand take place—or a world strikingly similar to it—while on their quest.

  But let us reflect upon the novel for its own sake, rather than its relationship to the Stephen King Universe at large. The popularity of The Stand among the author’s legions of fans cannot be overlooked. Many consider it the greatest of his early works. While there are likely many reasons for this, some of which have already been touched upon, another is this: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, but the parts themselves are extraordinarily memorable. Some of the characters and scenes that linger in the mind include: Frannie dreaming about the coat hanger. Tom Cullen. Nick Andros. Mother Abagail. The Trashcan Man. Flagg and poor, deluded Nadine in the desert. The sacrifice of the story’s heroes in the end. Lloyd in prison. And, oh, the Lincoln Tunnel, of course, one of the most harrowing bits of prose ever written.

  Finally, any examination of The Stand would be incomplete without comment on its religious content. There are two things that seem certain about the Stephen King Universe upon the conclusion of this novel. First, that hope and faith and good will can triumph over evil. Second, and quite insidiously, that until the final battle is fought at the very end of all things, evil will always find its way back to test, tempt, and terrorize us again.

  THE STAND: PRIMARY SUBJECTS

  STUART REDMAN: One warm day in Arnette, Texas, Stu is standing around drinking beer and jawing with some of his close friends at Hapscomb’s Texaco station when a car crashes into the station. The driver of the car, Charles Campion, is infected with the superflu, as were his wife and daughter, who have already died. Campion expires shortly thereafter, but not without passing “Captain Trips”—the nickname for the disease, likely taken from the nickname of Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia—on to those at the station. Stu turns out to be immune—as .6% of the population is—and after escaping from a plague center in Stovington, Vermont, he hits the road. He is inspired by dreams of an old woman named Mother Abagail, and frightened by nightmares about Flagg, “the walkin’ dude.”

  Stu proves himself to be an easygoing yet heroic man. He becomes a leader among the survivors of the plague, and is among those who go to Las Vegas to confront Flagg and his followers. Stu is the only survivor of that trip. In the end, after Flagg’s defeat, he and Frannie Goldsmith—another survivor of the plague who is now his wife—return to her native Maine with her son.

  ACE HIGH: One of Flagg’s most trusted men, he is part of the inner circle in Las Vegas, along with Lloyd Henreid. He dies in a nuclear explosion in the gaming capital.

  RANDALL FLAG (a.k.a. Ahaz, Anubis, Astaroth, Ramsey Forrest, Richard Frye, Nyarlahotep, R’yelah, Russell Faraday, Seti, “The walkin’ dude”): Who can really say what Flagg is? A demon, or something quite like it, most certainly. He has been known by an infinite number of names, and sowed the seed of evil across multiple dimensions.

  He is watching carefully as the world dies, as 99.4% of the human population is killed off by the superflu, and he does his best to take advantage. He manipulates the survivors and sends them dreams guiding them to him, and he gathers all those who would heed him and follow him in Las Vegas. There he hopes to start a new human race, a breed of people with darkness in their hearts, who will bow to him as he demands.

  He is a tempter, a liar, a killer, and a maker of ultimate mischief. He is the rot of civilization. He is entropy itself, bringing all things to their eventual destruction. But he is not all-powerful. Like all evil, he believes too much in the extent of his own power, and can be tricked. And in the end, he must answer to a higher power, as he does in Las Vegas. He is about to execute Glen Bateman, Larry Underwood, and Ralph Brentner when the Trashcan Man arrives with a nuclear warhead scrounged from a nearby U.S. military site. The Hand of God reaches down from the sky and detonates the warhead.

  Flagg is thwarted. But not destroyed, never that. Shortly thereafter, he finds himself on a beautiful, tropical shore, with a band of mystified natives w
hom he terrified into becoming his acolytes.

  But that is just one tiny shard of Flagg’s fascinating story.

  NICK ANDROS: In his travels after the plague has begun, deaf-mute Nick Andros drifts into Shoyo, Arkansas. There he is beaten up by the locals and then befriended by the sheriff, a man named John Baker. When Baker and the rest of Shoyo are eliminated by the superflu, Nick moves on and eventually meets Tom Cullen, a retarded man who is also immune, and whose dreams of Mother Abagail are quite similar to Nick’s own. When they finally meet, Nick quickly becomes a favorite of Mother Abagail’s, but is killed by a bomb designed by the traitorous Harold Lauder. Later, however, Nick’s ghost appears to Tom Cullen, guiding Tom in the proper care for the gravely ill Stu Redman. It is not known whether Nick’s spirit is still able to manifest itself.

  GLEN BATEMAN: A retirement-aged sociology professor from Woodsville Community College, Glen finds himself immune to the superflu. He adopts his dead neighbor’s dog, which he rechristens Kojak, when it appears the canine is also a rare survivor of his species. Glen travels with Stu Redman for a while before they all end up in Boulder, Colorado. Along with Ralph Brentner and Larry Underwood, Glen is one of those whose perseverance and sacrifice helps to thwart Flagg’s plans. Glen dies in a Las Vegas prison cell, shot to death by Lloyd Henreid.

  RALPH BRENTNER: Like Stu Redman in many ways, Ralph is a good and simple man, with a quiet strength others seem to gravitate toward. After the flu epidemic hits, he drives his truck on a quest to find Mother Abagail, an elderly woman many of the survivors have been dreaming about. Eventually, he picks up Nick Andros and Tom Cullen. In the end, Ralph is among those chosen few whom Mother Abagail instructs to go to Las Vegas and face Flagg. He dies in the nuclear explosion that destroys the city. In Boulder, a large monumental rock is named in his honor.

  CHARLES CAMPION: Campion works on the supersecret “Project Blue” at a top-secret U.S. biological testing site in California. When the superflu germ leaks from its containment unit, Campion and his family are the only ones to survive. However, they quickly fall ill. By the time Campion crashes his car at Hapscomb’s Texaco station in Arnette, Texas, his wife and daughter are dead, and he lives only hours thereafter.

  NADINE CROSS: A truly tragic figure, Nadine hooks up with Larry Underwood on the road, and likely because of her attraction to him, chooses Boulder—where Mother Abagail’s followers have gathered—as a destination over Las Vegas, where Randall Flagg has set up shop. When her feelings for Larry are not reciprocated, Nadine, seduced by dreams of Flagg, conspires with Harold Lauder to plant a bomb meant to take out Boulder’s leading citizens, then heads into the desert with him to become the dark man’s “bride.”

  Although impregnated by Flagg, Nadine eventually rejects him, goading him into killing her by hurling her from the roof of his Las Vegas dwelling.

  TOM CULLEN: A retarded man Nick Andros meets on the road, Tom eventually helps to save Stu Redman’s life, aided by Nick’s spirit. Tom Cullen is presumed to still be residing in Boulder as part of the Free Zone.

  TRASHCAN MAN: Donald Merwin Elbert, better known as the Trashcan Man, was taunted and beaten up as a child, and grew up to become a very twisted individual obsessed with setting fires. His dreams of the walkin’ dude offer promises of fires beyond his imagination. While on his trek to Las Vegas, he travels for a time with “the Kid,” a savage killer who is apparently the reincarnation of 1950s mass murderer Charles Starkweather. The Trashcan Man becomes progressively more insane, to the point where, believing Flagg would be grateful, he snatches a nuclear warhead from a military base and brings it back to Las Vegas, where it promptly explodes, eliminating everyone there (except Flagg, of course).

  MOTHER ABAGAIL: Abagail Freemantle, the daughter of a slave, is more than a century old when the world as she’s known it comes to an end. More than likely, she is the oldest woman alive when travelers who have been dreaming about her begin to appear on her doorstep in Hemingford Home, Nebraska. Mother Abagail herself has been gifted with special knowledge, certain prescience, both about the people who come to her and the evil they will face. As the focal point for good among the survivors of the world and Flagg’s “opposite number,” she becomes a reluctant leader until she dies peacefully.

  FRANNIE GOLDSMITH: Frannie grew up in Ogunquit, Maine, an idyllic beach community. Her life, however, has been less than idyllic. Still a teenager, she finds herself pregnant by her boyfriend, who abandons her upon discovering her condition. Faced with the specter of a child she dares not tell her parents about or an abortion she doesn’t want, she has the decision taken from her by the arrival of the superflu and the death of nearly everyone around her. It is a cruel irony that the only other survivor in Ogunquit is a neighbor of Frannie’s named Harold Lauder, a malcontented misfit who has always lusted after her. The two set off together and end up traveling (against Harold’s wishes) with Stu Redman, with whom Frannie falls in love. They later marry, and Stu becomes the stepfather to Fran’s son. They settle in Maine after the final battle against Flagg has been won.

  LLOYD HENREID: A two-bit criminal, Lloyd and his partner, Poke Freeman, hold up a grocery store not long before the superflu attacks. Poke is killed by the store owner, but Lloyd ends up in prison, where he is when the flu takes its toll. To survive, Lloyd is forced to eat not only rats, but bits of the corpse in the next cell. Flagg rescues him from that hellish existence and makes Lloyd one of his most trusted men. Lloyd is killed when Las Vegas goes nuclear.

  HAROLD LAUDER: Harold grew up overweight, acne-stricken, sweaty, and lonely in Ogunquit, Maine. His whole life, he’s had a crush on Fran Goldsmith. What luck for him, then, that she is the only other survivor of Captain Trips in his hometown. At least, that’s what Harold thinks. However, when they begin to travel together and meet up with Stu Redman, Harold soon realizes that even if he were to be the last man on Earth, Frannie would never love him. He’s always been a bit devious, but he becomes increasingly bitter and spiteful over time. Though Harold has never been trustworthy, Fran’s love for Stu may well be the final straw for him. He constructs the bomb that kills Nick Andros, and then flees to join Flagg. On his way to Las Vegas, however, he falls prey to a distraction engineered by Flagg and crashes his motorcycle in a ravine. Badly injured in the accident, he eventually commits suicide rather than die a slow, painful death.

  THE KID: In 1957, nineteen-year-old Charles Starkweather shot his fourteen-year-old girlfriend’s parents and choked her baby sister to death. The two of them then escaped, with Starkweather stealing the car of a farmer whom he killed with a shotgun. Before he was done, ten people were murdered. The National Guard was called in, and eventually, after a high-speed chase, Starkweather was caught and later executed in the electric chair.

  At some later date, Starkweather is reincarnated as “the Kid,” a sadistically evil young man with a taste for classic cars and Elvis Presley. He meets the Trashcan Man on the road, but unlike so many others, the Kid has an evil that is not tainted by any trace of good. So dark is the Kid that he doesn’t want to join Flagg, he wants Flagg’s job. Which, of course, profoundly upsets the dark man. After the Kid tortures the Trashcan Man, Flagg sends a pack of wolves after him, and the Kid is eventually killed.

  However, since he had been reincarnated once, it is not unreasonable to suspect that Starkweather may return to plague the world again.

  LARRY UNDERWOOD: Larry has lived in the fast lane. Sex and drugs and rock ’n’ roll nearly destroyed him. His one major hit as a musician, “Baby Can You Dig Your Man,” is likely also to be his last. Reeling, and trying to stay off drugs, Larry returns to New York City to visit his mother. He is there when Captain Trips hit. In escaping the corpse-filled city, Larry undergoes a harrowing journey through a lightless Lincoln Tunnel. Though he has a very low opinion of his self-worth, Larry finds himself a very prominent citizen of the Free Zone, and is one of those who travels to Las Vegas to face Flagg, and dies in the nuclear explosion there.

&n
bsp; THE FREE ZONE: The name Boulder, Colorado, and its surrounding environs is given by the survivors of the superflu who settle there.

  HEMINGFORD HOME, NEBRASKA: The small town where Mother Abagail lived her entire life before the outbreak of Captain Trips.

  CAPTAIN TRIPS: A nickname for the superflu created in an American military research facility and accidentally released into the general populace. It kills 99.4% of the world’s population.

  THE STAND: ADAPTATIONS

  After years in which King went through draft after draft of screenplay versions of The Stand, the epic finally came to life on the small screen in an eight-hour ABC network miniseries (May 8, 9, 11, and 12, 1994). It was one of the most ambitious such miniseries projects ever attempted, with more than one hundred speaking parts and a reported budget of nearly thirty million dollars. Written by King and directed by Mick Garris (with whom the author has collaborated on several other occasions), the film boasted a stellar cast of veteran movie and television actors.

  That cast included Gary Sinise as Stu Redman; Molly Ringwald as Fran Goldsmith; Jamey Sheridan as Randall Flagg; Laura San Giacomo as Nadine Cross; Ruby Dee as Mother Abagail; Ray Walston as Glen Bateman; Matt Frewer as the Trashcan Man; Rob Lowe as Nick Andros; and King himself in a small role as Teddy Weizak.