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* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: It's really, ''really'' obviously a product of the 2000s. The cell phones central to the plot are all depicted as 2000s-era flip phones, and there's no mention of social media (which would almost certainly come up in a story involving cell phones written later).
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All those who use their cellphone are instantly devolved into rabid, mindless creatures that kill everyone and everything around them, using whatever means necessary to inflict damage. The "Phoners", as they're called, kill billions within seconds.
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* TheStinger: We hear the Pulse again after the movie's credits have ended.
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Clay not Ray.
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* [[spoiler:DownerEnding]]: Movie version, [[spoiler:Ray's plan ultimately failed and he becomes yet another zombie at Kashwak]].
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* [[spoiler:DownerEnding]]: Movie version, [[spoiler:Ray's [[spoiler:Clay's plan ultimately failed and he becomes yet another zombie at Kashwak]].
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* [[spoiler:DownerEnding]]: Movie version.
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* [[spoiler:DownerEnding]]: Movie version.version, [[spoiler:Ray's plan ultimately failed and he becomes yet another zombie at Kashwak]].
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* [[spoiler:HopeSpot]]: The movie ending.
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* [[spoiler:HopeSpot]]: The movie ending.ending, [[spoiler:it seemed as if Ray's plan worked and he is finally reunited with his son, only to turn out to be just an imagination as he is now a zombie at Kashwak]].
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** In the film [[spoiler: Ray]] blew himself up with a homemade bomb he's been wearing.
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* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: After Clay & Co [[spoiler:blow up a mass of sleeping Phoners, they are declared "untouchables" and made to report for a ceremonial execution by the appointed head of phoners, a man in a Harvard hoodie.]] If anyone else harms one of them [[spoiler: they're made to suffer a fate worse than death. Then death]].
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* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: After Clay & Co [[spoiler:blow up a mass of sleeping Phoners, they are declared "untouchables" and made to report for a ceremonial execution by the appointed head of phoners, Phoners, a man in a Harvard hoodie.]] If anyone else harms one of them [[spoiler: they're made to suffer a fate worse than death. Then death]].
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* PsychicPowers: [[spoiler:The Phoners eventually develop these, a few days after being Pulsed. They communicate through telepathy, telekinesis, and the ability to levitate so that that they can get over cars stalled on the roads]].
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* PsychicPowers: [[spoiler:The Phoners eventually develop these, a few days after being Pulsed. They communicate through telepathy, telekinesis, have telekinesis and the ability to levitate so that that they can get over cars stalled on the roads]].
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* ZombieInfectee: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]]. Evolved Phoners have been "infecting" non-Phoners by placing signs directing desperate survivors to no-coverage areas, and infect them with a corrupt version of the Signal. [[spoiler:Clay finds his son in such a state, but at the point the boy was infected, the Signal was corrupt enough to render the victim relatively harmless. It's possible they can be reverted with another dose of The Signal; which is what Clay prepares to test as the book ends.]]
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* ZombieInfectee: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]]. Evolved Phoners have been "infecting" non-Phoners by placing signs directing desperate survivors to no-coverage areas, and infect them with a corrupt version of the Signal. [[spoiler:Clay finds his son in such a state, but at the point the boy was infected, the Signal was corrupt enough to render the victim relatively harmless. It's possible they can be reverted with another dose of The Signal; the Signal, which is what Clay prepares to test as the book ends.]]
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* BuryYourGays: [[spoiler:Averted as Tom survives.]]
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%%* PreserveYourGays: [[spoiler:Tom survives.]] --ZCE
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* [[spoiler:DownerEnding]]: Movie version.
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* [[spoiler:HopeSpot]]: The movie ending.
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* FateWorseThanDeath: More like [[IncrediblyLamePun fate worse than death, then death.]] The two thugs who [[spoiler:killed Alice are forced to crucify each other, fully aware of what they're doing, for violating the Phoners' demand to not touch an "untouchable".]]
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* FateWorseThanDeath: More like [[IncrediblyLamePun fate worse than death, then death.]] '''then''' death. The two thugs who [[spoiler:killed Alice are forced to crucify each other, fully aware of what they're doing, for violating the Phoners' demand to not touch an "untouchable".]]"untouchable"]].
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** There are a lot of references to the work of George A. Romero, and he is directly acknowledged in Stephen King's note at the beginning of the book.
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** There are a lot of references to the work of George A. Romero, Creator/GeorgeARomero, and he is directly acknowledged in Stephen King's note at the beginning of the book.
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* LaughingMad: Alice is able to hold herself together until the group reaches Tom's house, then has a hysterical breakdown. [[spoiler:She recovers.]] She does it again when the [[spoiler: group kills their first flock.]]
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* LaughingMad: Alice is able to hold herself together until the group reaches Tom's house, then has a hysterical breakdown. [[spoiler:She recovers.]] She does it again when the [[spoiler: group kills their first flock.]]flock]], although given her involvement and the fact that she seems exuberant, the latter incident is closer to the AxeCrazy than hysterical end of the Laughing Mad spectrum.
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** One of the two responses victims have to the Pulse. Some become intensely violent toward themselves instead of others, and suicide in the easiest available way (since the opening of the story is set in Boston, this usually involves jumping off of high buildings). For obvious reasons, these Phoners are only present for the first few hours after the initial event.
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How To Create A Works Page explicitly says "No bolding is used for work titles."
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'''''Cell''''' was written by Creator/StephenKing and published in 2006. It was going to be made into a movie, but after wallowing in DevelopmentHell (possibly because of the bomb that was ''Film/OneMissedCall''), and almost taking the form of a TV miniseries starring Creator/JohnCusack and Creator/SamuelLJackson, both of whom had previously worked together on the adaptation of ''Film/FourteenOhEight'', it was postponed. A film was finally released in August 2016, with Cusack and Jackson still playing lead roles.
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film released
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'''''Cell''''' was written by Creator/StephenKing and published in 2006. It was going to be made into a movie, but after wallowing in DevelopmentHell (possibly because of the bomb that was ''Film/OneMissedCall''), and almost taking the form of a TV miniseries starring Creator/JohnCusack and Creator/SamuelLJackson, both of whom had previously worked together on the adaptation of ''Film/FourteenOhEight'', it was postponed. Now, the book has gone back to a film form, with Cusack and Jackson still attached.
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'''''Cell''''' was written by Creator/StephenKing and published in 2006. It was going to be made into a movie, but after wallowing in DevelopmentHell (possibly because of the bomb that was ''Film/OneMissedCall''), and almost taking the form of a TV miniseries starring Creator/JohnCusack and Creator/SamuelLJackson, both of whom had previously worked together on the adaptation of ''Film/FourteenOhEight'', it was postponed. Now, the book has gone back to a A film form, was finally released in August 2016, with Cusack and Jackson still attached.playing lead roles.
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* DecoyProtagonist: A rare in-universe example. [[spoiler:Though the reader follows Clay, it's outright stated that he himself regards Alice as the group's leader, moral centre, and likely FinalGirl. She dies halfway through the story.]]
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* InfantImmortality: {{Averted}}, unsurprisingly considering the author. [[spoiler:Alice is a teenager but very much seen as a vulnerable child rather than a fellow adult by Clay and Tom, despite her capability, and is the only one of the main group to die. Clay's son is a long-gone zombie when they find him at the end, though Clay at least has some hope that he can be cured.]]
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* HaveIMentionedIAmGay: Tom's sexuality is explicitly brought up near the beginning, but never actually impacts on the story, except to demonstrate that you can be CampGay and BadassGay at the same time.
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'''''Cell''''' was written by Creator/StephenKing and published in 2006. It was going to be made into a movie, but after wallowing in DevelopmentHell (possibly because of the bomb that was ''Film/OneMissedCall''), and almost taking the form of a TV miniseries starring Creator/JohnCusack and Creator/SamuelLJackson, both of whom had previously worked together on the adaptation of ''Film/FourteenOhEight'', the book has gone back to a film form, with Cusack and Jackson still attached.
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'''''Cell''''' was written by Creator/StephenKing and published in 2006. It was going to be made into a movie, but after wallowing in DevelopmentHell (possibly because of the bomb that was ''Film/OneMissedCall''), and almost taking the form of a TV miniseries starring Creator/JohnCusack and Creator/SamuelLJackson, both of whom had previously worked together on the adaptation of ''Film/FourteenOhEight'', it was postponed. Now, the book has gone back to a film form, with Cusack and Jackson still attached.
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'''''Cell''''' was written by Creator/StephenKing and published in 2006. It was going to be made into a movie, but after wallowing in DevelopmentHell (possibly because of the bomb that was ''Film/OneMissedCall''), plans are now revolving around a potential TV miniseries, starring Creator/JohnCusack and Creator/SamuelLJackson, both of whom had previously worked together on the adaptation of ''Film/FourteenOhEight''.
to:
'''''Cell''''' was written by Creator/StephenKing and published in 2006. It was going to be made into a movie, but after wallowing in DevelopmentHell (possibly because of the bomb that was ''Film/OneMissedCall''), plans are now revolving around and almost taking the form of a potential TV miniseries, miniseries starring Creator/JohnCusack and Creator/SamuelLJackson, both of whom had previously worked together on the adaptation of ''Film/FourteenOhEight''.''Film/FourteenOhEight'', the book has gone back to a film form, with Cusack and Jackson still attached.
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* AuthorTract: A fat HolierThanThou bible-thumper (one of King's [[TheMist more favored sorts of target]]) accosts the original group as they flee Boston. Clay punches her and Tom gives her a speech.
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* AuthorTract: AuthorTract:
** A fat HolierThanThou bible-thumper (one of King's[[TheMist more favored sorts of target]]) target) accosts the original group as they flee Boston. Clay punches her and Tom gives her a speech.
** A fat HolierThanThou bible-thumper (one of King's
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Misuse. It\'s Genre Savvy, not just \"savvy\".
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* GenreSavvy: The main characters all did their homework in the field of common sense. They don't take stupid, unnecessary risks or put their necks on the line. [[spoiler:Too bad [[WrongGenreSavvy the game changes]] completely halfway through the book...]]
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* AuthorTract: A fat HolierThanThou bible-thumper accosts the original group as they flee Boston. Clay punches her and Tom gives her a speech.
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* AuthorTract: A fat HolierThanThou bible-thumper (one of King's [[TheMist more favored sorts of target]]) accosts the original group as they flee Boston. Clay punches her and Tom gives her a speech.
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** HolierThanThou bible-thumper, you say? King enjoys [[TheMist taking potshots in that general direction]].
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** HolierThanThou bible-thumper, you say? King enjoys [[TheMist taking potshots in that general direction]].
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* LaResistance: Lampshaded when the protagonists wonder at what point LesCollaborateurs will outnumber them, making them simple outlaws. Or insane.
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* VichyEarth: Lampshaded when the protagonists wonder at what point LesCollaborateurs will outnumber them, making them simple outlaws. Or insane.
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* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: After Clay & Co [[spoiler:blow up a mass of sleeping Phoners, they are declared "untouchables" and made to report for a ceremonial execution by the appointed head of phoners, a man in a Harvard hoodie.]]
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* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: After Clay & Co [[spoiler:blow up a mass of sleeping Phoners, they are declared "untouchables" and made to report for a ceremonial execution by the appointed head of phoners, a man in a Harvard hoodie.]]]] If anyone else harms one of them [[spoiler: they're made to suffer a fate worse than death. Then death]].
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When the Pulse hits, struggling artist Clay is in Boston, having just landed a lucrative deal for his graphic novel. Fleeing the burning city with new friends Tom and Alice, he hopes to return home to Maine to find out what became of his estranged wife and their young son. En route, the surviving Phoners begin displaying (even more) alarming changes in behavior..
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When the Pulse hits, struggling artist Clay is in Boston, having just landed a lucrative deal for his graphic novel. Fleeing the burning city with new friends Tom and Alice, he hopes to return home to Maine to find out what became of his estranged wife and their young son. En route, the surviving Phoners begin displaying (even more) alarming changes in behavior..
behavior...
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* {{Foreshadowing}}: Clay, Tom, and Jordan have a dream about one of the phone-crazies holding a hand up to them and calling them insane. Alice doesn't have that dream. [[spoiler:[[KillTheCutie Then you find out why.]]]]
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* {{Foreshadowing}}: Clay, Tom, and Jordan have a dream about being gathered before a massive crowd of Phoners, being declared one of the phone-crazies holding by one as "insane" by a hand up to them and calling them insane.Phoner. Alice doesn't have that dream. [[spoiler:[[KillTheCutie Then you find out why.]]]]
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* HumanityIsInsane: Discussed - Clay theorizes the phone didn't drive the humans insane - it simply wiped everything out, and the psychos everywhere are simply base humans doing human things. Like stabbing everything. Another character puts it simply:
-->"We didn't survive as a species because we were the toughest, or the smartest. We survived because we were the most murderous, craziest fuckers in the jungle."
-->"We didn't survive as a species because we were the toughest, or the smartest. We survived because we were the most murderous, craziest fuckers in the jungle."
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'''''Cell''''' was written by Creator/StephenKing and published in 2006. It was going to be made into a movie, but after wallowing in DevelopmentHell (possibly because of the bomb that was ''Film/OneMissedCall''), plans are now revolving around a potential TV miniseries.
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'''''Cell''''' was written by Creator/StephenKing and published in 2006. It was going to be made into a movie, but after wallowing in DevelopmentHell (possibly because of the bomb that was ''Film/OneMissedCall''), plans are now revolving around a potential TV miniseries.miniseries, starring Creator/JohnCusack and Creator/SamuelLJackson, both of whom had previously worked together on the adaptation of ''Film/FourteenOhEight''.
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** The whole premise of the book was partly born out of King's personal aversion to cell phones. The author's bio in the book ends with this simple sentence: "He does not own a cell phone."
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Moving to Namespace.
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[[quoteright:200:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cellf_649.jpg]]
God's in His heaven, the stock market's riding high, and the world goes on uncaring.
That is, until the Pulse strikes.
All those who use their cellphone are instantly devolved into rabid, mindless creatures that kill everyone and everything around them, using whatever means necessary to inflict damage. The "Phoners", as they're called, kill billions within seconds.
When the Pulse hits, struggling artist Clay is in Boston, having just landed a lucrative deal for his graphic novel. Fleeing the burning city with new friends Tom and Alice, he hopes to return home to Maine to find out what became of his estranged wife and their young son. En route, the surviving Phoners begin displaying (even more) alarming changes in behavior..
'''''Cell''''' was written by Creator/StephenKing and published in 2006. It was going to be made into a movie, but after wallowing in DevelopmentHell (possibly because of the bomb that was ''Film/OneMissedCall''), plans are now revolving around a potential TV miniseries.
----
!!''Cell'' provides examples of the following tropes:
* NinetyPercentOfYourBrain: After the initial blast of crazy wiped out the higher reasoning of anyone talking on their cell phones at the time of the disaster [[spoiler: the Phoners who survive the chaos begin to regain some of their abilities, along with some [[PsychicPowers entirely new ones]]]]. The characters develop a theory in-Universe that they are using parts of their brains which had been dormant before.
* AllPsychologyIsFreudian: The Phoners and their violence.
* {{Angrish}}: After going insane, the Phoners speak in a guttural, angry, growling language. A more perfect example comes from later Phoners, [[spoiler:who speak a corrupted, angry variety of English]].
* ArcWords: "Insane", "KASHAWAK = NO-FO", and "DON'T TOUCH!" for the latter half of the book.
* AuthorTract: A fat HolierThanThou bible-thumper accosts the original group as they flee Boston. Clay punches her and Tom gives her a speech.
* BrownNote: The Pulse, which drives anyone who hears it insane.
* BuryYourGays: [[spoiler:Averted as Tom survives.]]
* CoolCar: There are people who go out of their way to pick up the coolest deserted cars they can and drive them short distances. Clay finds the aftermath of such a race: [[spoiler:disemboweled after crashing his Lambo.]]
* CoolOldGuy: The Academy head. Tom, later on.
* CrazySurvivalist: Tom's neighbor, who has a house full of guns, illegal cop-killer ammo, and supplies, but isn't home when he needs them most.
* DrivenToSuicide
** [[spoiler:The hotel clerk]] kills himself after Clay, Alice, and Tom leave. Clay goes back and finds that he has hung himself.
** The wife of Tom's survivalist neighbor also kills herself after being forced to kill her daughter. Another victim of the Pulse is found to have died from swallowing jagged shards of glass.
* DyingAsYourself: [[spoiler:Ray killing himself.]]
* {{Eagleland}}: Invoked when Clay, Tom, and Alice break into a redneck home. It contains a gun vault complete with a very illegal machine gun and ammo. Which prove to [[spoiler:''not'' be examples of ChekhovsGun.]]
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The Raggedy Man[=/=]The President of Harvard.
* EyeScream: [[spoiler:How the Head dies: he's psychically forced to scrawl ten different variants of the word "insane" in other languages, then is forced to stab himself through the eyeball -- repeatedly -- until his pen hits his brain.]]
* FateWorseThanDeath: More like [[IncrediblyLamePun fate worse than death, then death.]] The two thugs who [[spoiler:killed Alice are forced to crucify each other, fully aware of what they're doing, for violating the Phoners' demand to not touch an "untouchable".]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Clay, Tom, and Jordan have a dream about one of the phone-crazies holding a hand up to them and calling them insane. Alice doesn't have that dream. [[spoiler:[[KillTheCutie Then you find out why.]]]]
* FromBadToWorse: The book starts off with a traditional zombie apocalypse. Then, slowly, things begin to change for the worse. The zombies [[spoiler:begin to develop a Hive Mind, with different Flocks popping up wherever there are a lot of them]]. Eventually, they become the dominant species on Earth. Then, [[spoiler:things start to get worse for them]], after an odd turn of events which basically ends with a [[spoiler:human computer virus]].
* GeniusBruiser: Subverted with the President of Harvard. The apparent leader of a large group of Phoners [[spoiler:is really just the (figurative) spokesman for their HiveMind. He isn't any more intelligent than any of the other zombies]], except for speaking Latin.
* GenreSavvy: The main characters all did their homework in the field of common sense. They don't take stupid, unnecessary risks or put their necks on the line. [[spoiler:Too bad [[WrongGenreSavvy the game changes]] completely halfway through the book...]]
* TheHeartless: The Phoners are people who have had all but their negative emotions and desires stripped away.
* HiveMind: [[spoiler:The Phoners develop flocking behavior, acquiring a telepathic group consciousness. They eventually start trying to change other humans]].
* HomoeroticSubtext: Clay shares some with his FireForgedFriend Tom, who's gay.
* IdentityAmnesia: A minor character near the beginning of the book receives an indirect dose of the Pulse from her friend's cell phone conversation, which is still enough to make her forget who she is, where she is, or that she shouldn't run into lampposts.
* KillTheCutie: [[spoiler:Alice, of course.]]
* LaughingMad: Alice is able to hold herself together until the group reaches Tom's house, then has a hysterical breakdown. [[spoiler:She recovers.]] She does it again when the [[spoiler: group kills their first flock.]]
* LawOfInverseRecoil: After [[spoiler:Alice is fatally injured by hit-and-run hooligans]]. Another character had picked up an AKS-47 assault rifle from a gun enthusiast's house, but when he fires "Sir Speedy" it empties most of the rounds into the air.
* LudicrousGibs: [[spoiler:When Clay activates the rigged bus, it sends body parts raining on them. It also makes sure the Raggedy Man is ''really'' dead -- his empty hoodie, with a hole where the heart should be, lands on top of a ride's ticket booth.]]
* NoEnding: [[spoiler:When Clay finds Johnny, he tries to fix him by giving him a second dose of the Pulse. The book ends just as he puts the phone to his son's ear. Lampshaded by King in his afterword, in which he thinks it wouldn't be right to fully show the effects.]]
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: The protagonists try to give first aid to a couple of thugs who've crashed their car. It doesn't end well.
* NotUsingTheZWord: Phoners. Of course, they're not ''really'' zombies. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by the main characters actually discussing the fact that they're not calling them zombies.
* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: After Clay & Co [[spoiler:blow up a mass of sleeping Phoners, they are declared "untouchables" and made to report for a ceremonial execution by the appointed head of phoners, a man in a Harvard hoodie.]]
* PsychicPowers: [[spoiler:The Phoners eventually develop these, a few days after being Pulsed. They communicate through telepathy, telekinesis, and the ability to levitate so that that they can get over cars stalled on the roads]].
* LaResistance: Lampshaded when the protagonists wonder at what point LesCollaborateurs will outnumber them, making them simple outlaws. Or insane.
* SchrodingersGun: When the main characters decide to stay at Tom's house early in the book, Alice finds a boombox sitting in the closet. They debate turning it on to see if they can pick up any radio stations, even though there is a risk of the Pulse being on the radio waves, too. [[spoiler:In the end, neither they nor the reader ever find out what would have happened if they had decided to go through with it]].
* ShoutOut
** There are a lot of references to the work of George A. Romero, and he is directly acknowledged in Stephen King's note at the beginning of the book.
** Additionally, Clay's graphic novel contains a character called "The Dark Wanderer", whose initials are R.D., and a wizard called Flack. {{Does This Remind You of|Anything}} [[Franchise/TheDarkTower Anything?]]
* SlasherSmile: The President of Harvard is ''always'' smiling an unsettling grin. [[spoiler:The protagonists even imagine he died smiling that smile of his, finding one piece of his Harvard sweater to read [[EvilLaugh HAR]].]]
* SpearCarrier: Several characters, as the protagonists travel to Maine, literally pass in the night and exchange tidbits of info, such as New Hampshire closing its borders and some changes in Phoner behavior.
* StrawmanPolitical: The crazy old lady who the group runs into leaving Boston.
* SupernaturalPhone: The phones turned everyone into zombies.
* TechnicallyLivingZombie: The Phoners, but only in the beginning.
* TeensAreMonsters: Averted with Alice who is scared, timid, and kind. [[spoiler:Then some teenagers, who had harassed the group earlier, smack her with a brick, damaging her face and hemorrhaging her brain]]. Same goes for Jordan.
* TitleDrop: Near the end of the book, when [[spoiler:the Clay and the other Flock killers are imprisoned at the Northern Counties Expo]], Clay passes the time by "drawing" comics in his mind. The one he works on is called ''Cell''.
* TooDumbToLive: When Clay separates from the group, he observes a Corvette and another CoolCar racing on the wreck-cluttered highway. [[spoiler:Needless to say, one of the cars crashes, disemboweling its occupant spectacularly.]]
* TheUnreveal: The cause of the Pulse. The most likely explanation the protagonists come up with is a terrorist attack GoneHorriblyRight.
* VoiceOfTheLegion: The Raggedy Man [[spoiler:is the representative of a large flock]], and is able to use other people as his voice (since he is unable to speak on his own). He does this with almost all of the main characters at one point or another, including with Alice, [[spoiler:while she is dying on the side of road after being attacked by Gunner]].
* ZombieGait: The Phoners don't use a classic zombie shuffle until the first hive-minds are made.
* ZombieApocalypse: On a '''massive''' scale.
* ZombieInfectee: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]]. Evolved Phoners have been "infecting" non-Phoners by placing signs directing desperate survivors to no-coverage areas, and infect them with a corrupt version of the Signal. [[spoiler:Clay finds his son in such a state, but at the point the boy was infected, the Signal was corrupt enough to render the victim relatively harmless. It's possible they can be reverted with another dose of The Signal; which is what Clay prepares to test as the book ends.]]
----
God's in His heaven, the stock market's riding high, and the world goes on uncaring.
That is, until the Pulse strikes.
All those who use their cellphone are instantly devolved into rabid, mindless creatures that kill everyone and everything around them, using whatever means necessary to inflict damage. The "Phoners", as they're called, kill billions within seconds.
When the Pulse hits, struggling artist Clay is in Boston, having just landed a lucrative deal for his graphic novel. Fleeing the burning city with new friends Tom and Alice, he hopes to return home to Maine to find out what became of his estranged wife and their young son. En route, the surviving Phoners begin displaying (even more) alarming changes in behavior..
'''''Cell''''' was written by Creator/StephenKing and published in 2006. It was going to be made into a movie, but after wallowing in DevelopmentHell (possibly because of the bomb that was ''Film/OneMissedCall''), plans are now revolving around a potential TV miniseries.
----
!!''Cell'' provides examples of the following tropes:
* NinetyPercentOfYourBrain: After the initial blast of crazy wiped out the higher reasoning of anyone talking on their cell phones at the time of the disaster [[spoiler: the Phoners who survive the chaos begin to regain some of their abilities, along with some [[PsychicPowers entirely new ones]]]]. The characters develop a theory in-Universe that they are using parts of their brains which had been dormant before.
* AllPsychologyIsFreudian: The Phoners and their violence.
* {{Angrish}}: After going insane, the Phoners speak in a guttural, angry, growling language. A more perfect example comes from later Phoners, [[spoiler:who speak a corrupted, angry variety of English]].
* ArcWords: "Insane", "KASHAWAK = NO-FO", and "DON'T TOUCH!" for the latter half of the book.
* AuthorTract: A fat HolierThanThou bible-thumper accosts the original group as they flee Boston. Clay punches her and Tom gives her a speech.
* BrownNote: The Pulse, which drives anyone who hears it insane.
* BuryYourGays: [[spoiler:Averted as Tom survives.]]
* CoolCar: There are people who go out of their way to pick up the coolest deserted cars they can and drive them short distances. Clay finds the aftermath of such a race: [[spoiler:disemboweled after crashing his Lambo.]]
* CoolOldGuy: The Academy head. Tom, later on.
* CrazySurvivalist: Tom's neighbor, who has a house full of guns, illegal cop-killer ammo, and supplies, but isn't home when he needs them most.
* DrivenToSuicide
** [[spoiler:The hotel clerk]] kills himself after Clay, Alice, and Tom leave. Clay goes back and finds that he has hung himself.
** The wife of Tom's survivalist neighbor also kills herself after being forced to kill her daughter. Another victim of the Pulse is found to have died from swallowing jagged shards of glass.
* DyingAsYourself: [[spoiler:Ray killing himself.]]
* {{Eagleland}}: Invoked when Clay, Tom, and Alice break into a redneck home. It contains a gun vault complete with a very illegal machine gun and ammo. Which prove to [[spoiler:''not'' be examples of ChekhovsGun.]]
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The Raggedy Man[=/=]The President of Harvard.
* EyeScream: [[spoiler:How the Head dies: he's psychically forced to scrawl ten different variants of the word "insane" in other languages, then is forced to stab himself through the eyeball -- repeatedly -- until his pen hits his brain.]]
* FateWorseThanDeath: More like [[IncrediblyLamePun fate worse than death, then death.]] The two thugs who [[spoiler:killed Alice are forced to crucify each other, fully aware of what they're doing, for violating the Phoners' demand to not touch an "untouchable".]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Clay, Tom, and Jordan have a dream about one of the phone-crazies holding a hand up to them and calling them insane. Alice doesn't have that dream. [[spoiler:[[KillTheCutie Then you find out why.]]]]
* FromBadToWorse: The book starts off with a traditional zombie apocalypse. Then, slowly, things begin to change for the worse. The zombies [[spoiler:begin to develop a Hive Mind, with different Flocks popping up wherever there are a lot of them]]. Eventually, they become the dominant species on Earth. Then, [[spoiler:things start to get worse for them]], after an odd turn of events which basically ends with a [[spoiler:human computer virus]].
* GeniusBruiser: Subverted with the President of Harvard. The apparent leader of a large group of Phoners [[spoiler:is really just the (figurative) spokesman for their HiveMind. He isn't any more intelligent than any of the other zombies]], except for speaking Latin.
* GenreSavvy: The main characters all did their homework in the field of common sense. They don't take stupid, unnecessary risks or put their necks on the line. [[spoiler:Too bad [[WrongGenreSavvy the game changes]] completely halfway through the book...]]
* TheHeartless: The Phoners are people who have had all but their negative emotions and desires stripped away.
* HiveMind: [[spoiler:The Phoners develop flocking behavior, acquiring a telepathic group consciousness. They eventually start trying to change other humans]].
* HomoeroticSubtext: Clay shares some with his FireForgedFriend Tom, who's gay.
* IdentityAmnesia: A minor character near the beginning of the book receives an indirect dose of the Pulse from her friend's cell phone conversation, which is still enough to make her forget who she is, where she is, or that she shouldn't run into lampposts.
* KillTheCutie: [[spoiler:Alice, of course.]]
* LaughingMad: Alice is able to hold herself together until the group reaches Tom's house, then has a hysterical breakdown. [[spoiler:She recovers.]] She does it again when the [[spoiler: group kills their first flock.]]
* LawOfInverseRecoil: After [[spoiler:Alice is fatally injured by hit-and-run hooligans]]. Another character had picked up an AKS-47 assault rifle from a gun enthusiast's house, but when he fires "Sir Speedy" it empties most of the rounds into the air.
* LudicrousGibs: [[spoiler:When Clay activates the rigged bus, it sends body parts raining on them. It also makes sure the Raggedy Man is ''really'' dead -- his empty hoodie, with a hole where the heart should be, lands on top of a ride's ticket booth.]]
* NoEnding: [[spoiler:When Clay finds Johnny, he tries to fix him by giving him a second dose of the Pulse. The book ends just as he puts the phone to his son's ear. Lampshaded by King in his afterword, in which he thinks it wouldn't be right to fully show the effects.]]
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: The protagonists try to give first aid to a couple of thugs who've crashed their car. It doesn't end well.
* NotUsingTheZWord: Phoners. Of course, they're not ''really'' zombies. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by the main characters actually discussing the fact that they're not calling them zombies.
* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: After Clay & Co [[spoiler:blow up a mass of sleeping Phoners, they are declared "untouchables" and made to report for a ceremonial execution by the appointed head of phoners, a man in a Harvard hoodie.]]
* PsychicPowers: [[spoiler:The Phoners eventually develop these, a few days after being Pulsed. They communicate through telepathy, telekinesis, and the ability to levitate so that that they can get over cars stalled on the roads]].
* LaResistance: Lampshaded when the protagonists wonder at what point LesCollaborateurs will outnumber them, making them simple outlaws. Or insane.
* SchrodingersGun: When the main characters decide to stay at Tom's house early in the book, Alice finds a boombox sitting in the closet. They debate turning it on to see if they can pick up any radio stations, even though there is a risk of the Pulse being on the radio waves, too. [[spoiler:In the end, neither they nor the reader ever find out what would have happened if they had decided to go through with it]].
* ShoutOut
** There are a lot of references to the work of George A. Romero, and he is directly acknowledged in Stephen King's note at the beginning of the book.
** Additionally, Clay's graphic novel contains a character called "The Dark Wanderer", whose initials are R.D., and a wizard called Flack. {{Does This Remind You of|Anything}} [[Franchise/TheDarkTower Anything?]]
* SlasherSmile: The President of Harvard is ''always'' smiling an unsettling grin. [[spoiler:The protagonists even imagine he died smiling that smile of his, finding one piece of his Harvard sweater to read [[EvilLaugh HAR]].]]
* SpearCarrier: Several characters, as the protagonists travel to Maine, literally pass in the night and exchange tidbits of info, such as New Hampshire closing its borders and some changes in Phoner behavior.
* StrawmanPolitical: The crazy old lady who the group runs into leaving Boston.
* SupernaturalPhone: The phones turned everyone into zombies.
* TechnicallyLivingZombie: The Phoners, but only in the beginning.
* TeensAreMonsters: Averted with Alice who is scared, timid, and kind. [[spoiler:Then some teenagers, who had harassed the group earlier, smack her with a brick, damaging her face and hemorrhaging her brain]]. Same goes for Jordan.
* TitleDrop: Near the end of the book, when [[spoiler:the Clay and the other Flock killers are imprisoned at the Northern Counties Expo]], Clay passes the time by "drawing" comics in his mind. The one he works on is called ''Cell''.
* TooDumbToLive: When Clay separates from the group, he observes a Corvette and another CoolCar racing on the wreck-cluttered highway. [[spoiler:Needless to say, one of the cars crashes, disemboweling its occupant spectacularly.]]
* TheUnreveal: The cause of the Pulse. The most likely explanation the protagonists come up with is a terrorist attack GoneHorriblyRight.
* VoiceOfTheLegion: The Raggedy Man [[spoiler:is the representative of a large flock]], and is able to use other people as his voice (since he is unable to speak on his own). He does this with almost all of the main characters at one point or another, including with Alice, [[spoiler:while she is dying on the side of road after being attacked by Gunner]].
* ZombieGait: The Phoners don't use a classic zombie shuffle until the first hive-minds are made.
* ZombieApocalypse: On a '''massive''' scale.
* ZombieInfectee: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]]. Evolved Phoners have been "infecting" non-Phoners by placing signs directing desperate survivors to no-coverage areas, and infect them with a corrupt version of the Signal. [[spoiler:Clay finds his son in such a state, but at the point the boy was infected, the Signal was corrupt enough to render the victim relatively harmless. It's possible they can be reverted with another dose of The Signal; which is what Clay prepares to test as the book ends.]]
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