''Cell'' is a 2006
apocalyptic horror novel
Horror is a genre of fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, or disgust. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror, which is in the realm of speculative fiction. Literary historian J. ...
by American author
Stephen King. The story follows a
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...
artist struggling to reunite with his young son after a mysterious signal broadcast over the global cell phone network turns the majority of his fellow humans into mindless vicious animals.
Plot
Clayton Riddell, a struggling artist from
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...
, has just landed a
graphic novel
A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...
deal in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
when "The Pulse", a signal sent out over the global cell phone network, suddenly turns every cell phone user into mindless
zombie
A zombie ( Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in w ...
-like killers. Clay is standing in
Boston Common
The Boston Common (also known as the Common) is a public park in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest city park in the United States. Boston Common consists of of land bounded by Tremont Street (139 Tremont St.), Park Street, Beac ...
when the Pulse hits, causing chaos to erupt around him near an ice cream truck. Civilization crumbles as the "phoners" attack each other and anyone in view.
Amidst the chaos, Clay is thrown together with middle-aged Thomas McCourt and fifteen-year-old Alice Maxwell; the trio escapes to Tom's suburban home as Boston burns. The next day, they learn the "phoners" have begun foraging for food and banding together. Clay is still determined to return to Maine and reunite with his young son, Johnny. Having no better alternatives, Tom and Alice come with him. They trek north by night across a devastated
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...
, having fleeting encounters with other survivors and catching disturbing hints about the activities of the phoners, who still attack non-phoners on sight.
Crossing into
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...
, they arrive at the Gaiten Academy, a
prep school with one remaining teacher, Headmaster Charles Ardai, and one surviving pupil, Jordan. The pair show the newcomers where the local phoner flock goes at night: they pack themselves into the Academy's soccer field and "switch off" until morning. It is clear the phoners have become a
hive mind and are developing psychic abilities. The five survivors decide they must destroy the flock and, using two
propane tankers, they succeed in doing so.
Clay tries to get everyone to flee the scene, but the others refuse to abandon the elderly Ardai. That night, all of the survivors share the same horrific dream: each dreamer sees himself in a stadium, surrounded by phoners, as a disheveled man wearing a
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
hooded sweatshirt approaches, bringing their death. Waking, the heroes share their frightening dream experiences and dub him "the Raggedy Man". A new flock surrounds their residence, and the "normies" face the flock's metaphorical spokesman: the man in the Harvard
hoodie
A hoodie (in some cases spelled hoody and alternatively known as a hooded sweatshirt) is a sweatshirt with a hood. Hoodies with zippers usually include two pockets on the lower front, one on either side of the zipper, while "pullover" hoodie ...
. The flock kills other normals in reprisal and orders the protagonists to head north to a spot in Maine called "Kashwak". To stop their main objection, the flock psychically compels Ardai to commit suicide. Clay and the others bury him and travel north, as Clay is still determined to go home.
En route, they learn that as "flock-killers," they have been psychically marked as untouchables, to be shunned by other normies. Following a petty squabble on the road, Alice is killed by a loutish pair of normies. The group buries her and arrives in Clay's hometown of Kent Pond, where they discover notes from Johnny which tell them Clay's estranged wife Sharon was turned into a phoner, but their son survived for several days, before he and the other normies were prompted by the phoners to head to the supposedly cell phone-free Kashwak. Clay has another nightmare which reveals that once there, the normie refugees were all exposed to the Pulse. He remains intent on finding his son, but after meeting another group of flock-killers, Tom and Jordan decide to avoid the ceremonial executions the phoners have planned. Before separating, the group discovers that Alice's murderers were psychically compelled into a gruesome suicide act for touching an untouchable.
Clay sets off alone, but the others soon reappear driving a small
school bus; the phoners have used their ever-increasing psychic powers to force them to rejoin him. One of the flock-killers, construction worker Ray Huizenga, surreptitiously gives Clay a cell phone and a phone number, telling him to use them when the time is right; Ray then commits suicide. The group arrives at Kashwak, the site of a half-assembled
county fair
An agricultural show is a public event exhibiting the equipment, animals, sports and recreation associated with agriculture and animal husbandry. The largest comprise a livestock show (a judged event or display in which breeding stock is exhibit ...
, where increasing numbers of phoners are beginning to behave erratically and break out of the flock. Jordan theorizes that a computer program caused the Pulse and that, while it is still broadcasting into the battery-powered cell phone network, it has become corrupted with a
computer worm that has infected the newer phoners with a mutated Pulse. Nevertheless, an entire army of phoners is waiting for them and Clay notices Sharon is among them. The phoners lock the group in the fair's exhibition hall for the night; tomorrow is the ceremonial execution to be psychically broadcast to all phoners and remaining normies in the world.
As Clay awaits their morning execution, he sees Ray's unspoken plan: Ray had filled the rear of the bus with explosives, wired a phone-triggered
detonator to them and killed himself to prevent the phoners from telepathically discovering the explosives. The group breaks a window for Jordan to squeeze through and he drives the vehicle into the midst of the inert phoners. Thanks to a jury-rigged cell phone patch set up by the pre-Pulse fair workers, Clay is able to detonate the bomb and wipe out the Raggedy Man and his flock.
The majority of the group heads into
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, to let the approaching winter wipe out the region's unprotected and leaderless phoners. Clay heads south, seeking his son. He finds Johnny, who received a "corrupted" Pulse; he wandered away from Kashwak and seems to almost recognize his father. However, Johnny is an erratic shadow of his former self and so, following another theory of Jordan's, Clay decides to give Johnny another blast from the Pulse, hoping the increasingly corrupted signal will cancel itself out and reset his son's brain. The book ends with Clay dialing and placing the cell phone to Johnny's ear.
Characters
*Clayton Riddell: a graphic artist separated from his family in Boston as the Pulse destroys civilization. Clay heads north with a group of survivors and tries to find his son, Johnny, and estranged wife, Sharon.
*Thomas McCourt: a middle-aged man from
Malden; Tom teams up with Clay in the initial chaos created by the Pulse. With Clay and Alice, he travels to his home in Malden. Then, they move on north where they meet others. He remains with the group until after Kashwak, when he survives and leaves Clay along with Jordan, Denise and Dan.
*Alice Maxwell: a 15-year-old girl; Alice teams up with Clay and Tom to head north. She forces her anxiety and trauma into an abandoned child's
Nike
Nike often refers to:
* Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory
* Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment
Nike may also refer to:
People
* Nike (name), a surname and feminine give ...
shoe which helps her cope with the atrocities committed by the phoners. Alice remains an important part of the group who continue to take inspiration from her even after her death.
*Jordan: a 12-year-old-boy studying at Gaiten Academy, a prep school that was devastated by the Pulse; Jordan faithfully remains with the headmaster, Charles Ardai, until they destroy the flock at the school and Ardai is driven to suicide by the phoners. Jordan remains with Clay's group and provides the intellectual theory and comparison of the effects of the Pulse to that of a worm in a computer.
*Charles Ardai: the headmaster of Jordan's prep school; Ardai is a father figure to Jordan and cares for the group. They manage to destroy a flock of phoners, but then Ardai is telepathically forced to commit suicide.
*Dan Hartwick: a survivor and head of another flock-killing group; a former professor, Dan is intelligent and joins Clay's group as they head to Kashwak. He ultimately survives and leaves Clay with Jordan, Denise and Tom.
*Denise Link: a pregnant survivor and part of Dan's flock-killing group; Denise joins the group with Dan and Ray and ultimately survives with them. She is described by Clay as a strong-willed woman and leaves with Tom, Jordan and Dan after Kashwak.
*Ray Huizenga: a construction worker who specialized in explosives; Ray was part of Dan's group of flock-killers along with Denise, but has a plan regarding Kashwak. He gives Clay vague instructions about the plan before committing suicide with a pistol in order to mask his plans from the phoners. This ultimately saves the entire group.
*The Raggedy Man/President of Harvard: the main
antagonist of the book; he wears a torn red Harvard hoodie. He is killed by the bomb at Kashwak.
*"Pixie Light": a teenage girl spotted by Clay in Boston and dubbed Pixie Light because of her haircut and hair color, this girl was one of the first victims of the Pulse and attacked another phoner seconds after listening to the Pulse on her cell phone. Pixie Light tore out the phoner's neck with her teeth and was knocked unconscious by Clay before she could do any more harm and was left on the streets of Boston.
*"Pixie Dark": a teenage girl spotted by Clay in Boston who was named for reasons similar to Pixie Light; Pixie Dark was Pixie Light's friend and only heard a small dose of the Pulse via Pixie Light's cell phone. Instead of going completely crazy like her friend, Pixie Dark's brain was erased by the Pulse and she lost her mind, running off into Boston shouting "Who am I?" over and over. She is referenced several times throughout the book by Clay.
*Gunner and Harold: a pair of young men encountered by Clay's group not long after they depart Gaiten; mouthy and rude (particularly toward Alice), they believe that Kashwak will be a safe haven for "normies". Following their brutal reciprocation to a threat made to them by Clay, Gunner and Harold are summarily punished for daring to touch an untouchable.
*Other minor characters are briefly mentioned or seen throughout the book, primarily either as "normies" ("Plump Bible-toting Lady", Roscoe Handt) or phoners ("Power Suit Woman", Judy Scottoni).
eBay auction
A role in the story was offered to the winner of a charity
auction
An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition ex ...
for the
First Amendment Project, sponsored by
eBay
eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became ...
:
Other authors like
Peter Straub
Peter may refer to:
People
* List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Peter (given name)
** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church
* Peter (surname), a sur ...
also participated in the online auction, selling roles in their upcoming books. The King auction ran between September 8 and 18, 2005 and the winner, a
Ft. Lauderdale woman named Pam Alexander, paid $25,100 (equivalent to $ in ). Ms. Alexander gave the honor as a gift to her brother Ray Huizenga; his name was given to one of the zombie-slaughtering "flock-killers" in the story, a construction worker who specializes in explosives, but then later commits suicide in order to aid the "flock-killers" escape.
Reception
The book generally received positive reviews from critics. ''
Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...
'' described it as "a glib, technophobic but compelling look at the end of civilization" and full of "jaunty and witty" sociological observations. Stephen King scholar
Bev Vincent
Bev Vincent is an essayist and a literary critic, he also is the author of ''The Road to the Dark Tower'' and ''The Stephen King Illustrated Companion.''
Selected bibliography
*''The Road to the Dark Tower'' (2005, Cemetery Dance Publications
...
said "It's a dark, gritty, pessimistic novel in many ways and stands in stark contrast to the fundamental optimism of ''
The Stand
''The Stand'' is a post-apocalyptic dark fantasy novel written by American author Stephen King and first published in 1978 by Doubleday. The plot centers on a deadly pandemic of weaponized influenza and its aftermath, in which the few survivin ...
''".
Film adaptation
On March 8, 2006, website
Ain't It Cool News
Ain't It Cool News (AICN) is an entertainment news website founded by Harry Knowles and run by his sister Dannie Knowles since September 2017, dedicated to news, rumors, and reviews of upcoming and current films, television, and comic book pro ...
announced that
Dimension Films had bought the film rights to the book and would produce a film to be directed by
Eli Roth
Eli Raphael Roth (born April 18, 1972) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. As a director and producer, he is most closely associated with the horror genre, having directed the films '' Cabin Fever'' (2003) and ''Hoste ...
(''
Hostel'', ''
Cabin Fever
Cabin fever is the distressing claustrophobic irritability or restlessness experienced when a person, or group, is stuck at an isolated location or in confined quarters for an extended time. A person may be referred to as stir-crazy, derived from ...
'') for a 2009 release.
Said Roth about his approach to the film:
On June 15, 2007, Eli Roth posted in his MySpace blog that he would not be directing ''Cell'' "anytime soon", as he planned to spend the rest of the year writing other projects. On July 10, 2009, he dropped out of the project, saying:
On November 11, 2009, Stephen King announced at a book signing in Dundalk, Maryland that he had finished a screenplay. He stated that he had complaints with the ending of the book and it was redone for the screenplay.
On October 31, 2012, it was announced that actor
John Cusack
John Paul Cusack (; born June 28, 1966)(28 June 1996)Today's birthdays ''Santa Cruz Sentinel'', ("Actors John Cusack is 30") is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and political activist. He is a son of filmmaker Dick Cusack, and his ol ...
would play the lead role of Clayton Riddell. On November 5, 2013, it was reported that
Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel Leroy Jackson (born December 21, 1948) is an American actor and producer. One of the most widely recognized actors of his generation, the films in which he has appeared have collectively grossed over $27 billion worldwide, making him ...
had signed on to play Tom McCourt. Both actors previously starred in ''
1408
Year 1408 ( MCDVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
January–December
* February 19 – Battle of Bramham Moor: A royalist army defeats the last remnants o ...
'', a 2007 film adaption of Stephen King’s short story
of the same name.
The film was released on June 10, 2016 to
video on demand
Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of ...
, prior to a
limited release scheduled for July 8, 2016.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cell (Novel)
2006 American novels
Novels by Stephen King
Novels set in Boston
Novels set in Maine
Novels set in New Hampshire
American zombie novels
American novels adapted into films
Science fiction horror novels
Apocalyptic novels
Works about mobile phones
American novels adapted into television shows