Sign in to your ScreenRant account
Custom Image by SR Image Editor
1408 has four alternate endings, all of which bring a unique spin to Mike Enslin's storyline, and each 1408 ending explained a different resolution for Mike. Based on a Stephen King short story, 1408 focuses on horror author Mike Enslin, who visits haunted places, hoping to capture the paranormal and write a book about them. To his dismay, none of the so-called haunted rentals give him concrete proof of the existence of the supernatural. However, one day, Mike receives a postcard that warns him not to visit The Dolphin's room no. 1408.
Out of sheer curiosity, Mike decides to visit the hotel and is surprised that the hotel's manager, Gerald Olin, tries to convince him to stay out of the room. Mike refuses to comply with the hotel manager's requests and even threatens to press legal charges to acquire the room's key. Everything initially seems fine after he enters the room, but the longer he stays there, the more he finds himself living in a loop of literal and metaphorical hell. The four endings show how things end for Mike.
1408's Theatrical Ending Explained
Mike Gets A Happy Ending
In 1408's theatrical ending, Mike burns the room down and survives after firefighters rescue him. With what follows, Mike even fixes his relationship with his wife and reconciles with her. As Mike goes through his possessions retrieved from the burnt-down room, he finds his mini-cassette recorder, which he used to recite his experience.
Related
1408: The Creepy True Story That Inspired The Movie
What’s more terrifying than a horror movie? A horror movie based on a true story so here's the creepy real-life haunting that inspired 1408.
To his surprise, Mike hears Katie's voice on the recorder, confirming that everything he experienced in the room is real. His wife, too, hears the recording and starts believing everything he claims to have experienced in the room.
1408's Alternate Ending Explained
Mike's Wife Is Removed From This Ending
In an alternate version of a similar ending, only Mike reacts to hearing his daughter's voice on the recorder, while his wife does not acknowledge it. This changes a couple of things concerning the ending. It shows that Mike's wife didn't hear or understand that what happened to him was real. This means they can't reconcile their loss together and the knowledge that their daughter's memory is real. It also discounts some of the experience since it only shows him hearing it, and it could be all in his head.
1408's Director's Cut Ending Explained
Mike Dies But Reunites With His Daughter
The ending in 1408's director's cut significantly differs from the one that made it to the theaters. According to reports, director Mikael Håfström changed the movie's ending before releasing it in theaters because the test audiences were unsatisfied with it. In this ending, Mike dies in the fire in the room before firefighters can rescue him. In the closing scene, Olin tries to give the box of Mike's possessions to Lily after Mike's funeral, but she refuses to take it.
With what follows, Mike grabs the little girl's hand and walks away, hinting that he reunited with his daughter after death.
Moments later, when Olin scuffles through Mike's belongings, he finds the tape recorder and hears Katie's voice on it. This is when he notices a girl walking on the grass in the cemetery before Mike's burnt apparition appears in the car's backseat. With what follows, Mike grabs the little girl's hand and walks away, hinting that he reunited with his daughter after death. In the closing scene, Mike looks around the room while smoking a cigarette. When his daughter calls out for him, he disappears behind the front door, suggesting he defeated the room.
1408's Fourth Ending Explained
Mike Dies With No Happy Ending
The fourth ending is more somber than all the others. Mike also dies in the fire in this one, and his ghost is never seen again. After meeting Lily, his publisher, Sam, reads the story from Mike's manuscript, which describes his experience in the room. In this ending's closing scene, the film replays a quote from a previous scene where Mike's father appears in the room and warns him: "As you are, I was. As I am, you will be."
Director Mikael Håfström said he reshot the 1408 ending because audiences thought it was too depressing (via Far Out Magazine ).
This ending highlights that, despite his best efforts to change, Mike followed in his father's footsteps and never turned his life around, which likely kept him trapped in room 1408 forever like other troubled souls.
The Circles Of Hell In 1408 Explained
Mike Died Earlier & Started His Decent To Hell
Even though it looks like Mike experiences a random set of terrors during his stay in 1408, several visual cues and story beats in the movie suggest he is experiencing the nine circles of hell. Mike's backstory reveals that after tragically losing his daughter to cancer, he struggled to hold on to his faith. Flashbacks depict how his relationship with his wife deteriorated after his daughter's death because his wife told her stories about heaven instead of encouraging her to fight her disease. These conflicts with his wife ultimately led to him moving away from her.
In an early scene in the movie, Mike nearly drowns while surfing before a surfer saves him. Although 1408 portrays that Mike merely had a brush with doom, Mike actually died, marking his foray into the first circle of hell: limbo. Subsequently, Mike ends up in The Dolphin Hotel and checks himself into room 1408, where he descends deeper into hell. Every time the clock resets and the Carpenters' song "We've Only Just Begun" starts playing, Mike experiences the punishments from a new circle in the inferno. Each new circle reflects a sin he committed after his daughter's death.
Related
Every Stephen King Movie Ranked, From Worst To Best
Stephen King is one of the most adapted authors of all time, and the bestselling horror writer has over 50 movies released to his name.
From being condemned to lie in vile slush for his gluttonous alcoholism to experiencing extreme temperatures in the room for his rejection of faith, Mike faces it all during his stay in 1408. After his journey through Hell, Mike, like Dante, ascends to Mount Purgatory, where he finally seeks redemption. Following his cathartic journey through hell, Mike becomes a changed man and, for once, starts living selflessly.
Although the room incessantly coerces him into ending his own life, Mike resists the urge to take another selfish decision and, instead, sets the room on fire to prevent it from luring his wife. With this, Mike successfully redeems himself and, in the theatrical ending, finds himself in a metaphorical heaven on Earth. In the closing scene, his daughter's voice in the recorder reminds him to hold on to his newfound faith.
How Many People Died In 1408
56 People Died In Room 1408
Before visiting the central hotel, Mike researched the room's history and calculated the number of people who might have died in The Dolphin's room 1408. However, once he arrives at the hotel, manager Olin reveals that the number is far higher than he thought. He tells him that in the past 95 years, 56 people have died in room 1408. Since many deaths in the room were from natural causes, they remained unreported by mainstream media outlets.
1408's Ending Explains Why Mike Writes Horror
His Daughter's Death Made Him Dismiss God
1408's redemptive ending explains that Mike became a horror writer because, after his daughter's death, he could not help but dismiss the existence of god. His sense of faith crumbled, which made him adopt a nihilistic perspective toward the world around him. After leaving his wife, who taught their daughter to be faithful before her death, Mike made it his life's mission to prove that god does not exist.
Towards the end of 1408 , Mike decides to quit writing altogether because his faith is restored
His skepticism ultimately made him a vulnerable target for room 1408. Towards the end of 1408, Mike decides to quit writing altogether because his faith is restored, and he has no reason to denounce the supernatural or god.
How Is 1408 Different From The Original Stephen King Story
The Ending Is Totally Different
Compared to the Stephen King short story, 1408's narrative is more nuanced in the sense that it ties everything from Mike's past traumas to his passion for writing with the room. The Stephen King short story, on the other hand, solely relies on instilling the fear of the unknown in a reader by describing the strange projections and apparitions the room presents to Mike. Even the short story's ending is significantly different from the movie's theatrical conclusion.
While Mike gets out of the room as a changed man in the 1408 movie's ending and later hears his dead daughter's voice on the recorder, his agent hears weird noises on the same tape in the original short story's closing scene.
Which 1408 Ending Is The Best
All But One Gives Mike A Happy Ending
The four different 1408 endings offer a different outlook on Mike's fate, and the preference for one over the other depends on a person's belief in whether Mike deserves a happy ending or not. Of the endings, the one that offers Mike no chance at any happy ending is likely the worst of the four. Mike dying, but never receiving any final resolution — good or bad — leaves the movie convoluted and confusing. Showing Mike going to hell, which likely happened in that ending, would have given at least closure.
The one where he lives, and he and his wife listen to his daughter's voice on the tape, shows the best ending for Mike.
However, the other three endings offer Mike somewhat of a positive ending. The one where he lives, and he and his wife listen to his daughter's voice on the tape, shows the best ending for Mike. He knows his daughter was there, and his wife understands, too, saving their marriage. The one where she doesn't hear it offers a more confusing ending, and it is easy to see why the director chose the one with Mike and his wife both coming to an understanding.
The best ending is the alternate ending, in which Mike dies but reunites with his daughter in the afterlife. As a dark and disturbing horror movie, most fans are used to endings that are not happy but at least have a satisfying conclusion. In Drag Me To Hell, the protagonist ends up sucked into Hell, which works since audiences see it happen. The downer 1408 ending didn't even show that. The only one with Mike dying but moving on to the afterlife saw him with his daughter. That makes it a sad ending but with a real conclusion.
How 1408's Ending Was Received
Fans Remain Split Over Which Ending Was Better
Stephen King's 1408 is not one of the author's more talked-about adaptations, but it has built a loyal following among fans of supernatural ghost movies. The film has a Certified Fresh rating of 79% on Rotten Tomatoes and a lower 61% rating, many of the votes going to the movie's theatrical version and that specific ending. One example of a Rotten Tomatoes user unsure about that ending wrote, "The movie will have you questioning what's real or not, but the ending will leave you with more questions than answers."
However, when looking at the different endings the home video release revealed, it is better to look at the Reddit threads where people discussed the differences. In one thread where the OP had no idea there were different endings, one commenter called IHadFunOnce mentioned the theatrical ending was changed on the home video, which they didn't like:
"I hate it because I REALLY loved the ending where he survives. The look on his face when he is letting his wife here the recording of everything that happened is priceless."
Redditor roverandrover6 disagrees, writing, "I much prefer the one where Enslin dies in the fire. Given <that scare> with the brick wall, I can never trust any happy ending to this story." Finally, silk_dilk liked different aspects of both endings of 1408: "They're both great endings in their own right. But the survival ending is the best for the overall story. I mean, to some extent, being selfless in taking the room down was the pinnacle of becoming a better person and redeeming the demons he put on others."
1408 follows a man who debunks paranormal phenomena, as he checks into the infamous room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel. His skepticism is put to the test when he encounters real horror within its walls.
Director Mikael Håfström
Release Date June 22, 2007
Distributor(s) Paramount Pictures , The Weinstein Company , Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , Dimension Films
Runtime 112 Minutes
:quality(85):upscale()/2023/09/21/802/n/1922729/d9a11ce9650c8850437280.00070284_.jpg)
:quality(85):upscale()/2024/10/30/955/n/42301552/28e49c1e6722ab5b973b38.46745005_.jpg)
English (US) ·