History Main / UnderTheDome

* ItGotWorse: All thanks to Big Jim Rennie.

* CensorshipBySpelling: Carolyn does it with the word "dope" in front of Alice andf Aidan, but it doesn't work:

*** To put it in perspective: Chester's Mill had a population around two thousand when the dome dropped. [[spoiler:There are ''25'' survivors all in all.]]

** Averted with the younger teen trio of Joe, Benny and Ronnie.

* {{Hypocrite}]: Big Jim, big time.

** Possibly with Lester Coggins who hears the vopice of God. However since what the voice prophesies actually happens [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundone possibly it's the real thing]].

** Possibly with Lester Coggins who hears the vopice of God. However since what the voice prophesies actually happens [[MaybeMagicalMaybeMundone possibly it's the real thing]].

* EverybodysDeadDave: While it doesn't rack up the body-count of some of King's apocalyptic stories, the book [[spoiler: wipes out the entire town's population, plus all the passengers on a jumbo jet]].

* FoxNewsLiberal: Julia Shumway is described as a Republican, although she drives a hybrid car, attends the liberal church, and never expresses any sort of conservative opinion. Dale Barbara often says things like, "Are you sure you're a Republican?", usually after she says something implying that she doesn't blindly follow Big Jim's authority, which seems to be the book's main qualification for a Republican. Which would just be a sign of Barbie's own personal biases, except that she never once responds to him with a coherent reason why she ''is'' one. It's clear some politics is slipping in on King's part.

* HappilyMarried: Rusty and Linda Everett.

After a rural Maine town finds itself suddenly enclosed inside a mysterious and almost impenetrable barrier, a [[CompleteMonster power-hungry selectman]] launches plans to take over the town while others try to avoid his wrath and find out what created the barrier. Looked at as an allegory, it comes off as unsubtle, with hints of DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything, but taken as a straight story, is surprisingly fast-paced and touching given the LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters it has to handle.

* ManipulativeBastard: Big Jim. If you're not getting the pattern yet, he is ''not'' a nice guy. About five days into the Dome ordeal he has [[spoiler:instigated a riot, framed one of the few men who could save the town for murder, burnt down the newspaper offices and effectively turned the whole town into a police state.]] He'd be a MagnificentBastard if he weren't so [[CompleteMonster utterly vile]].

* CosmicHorror: The Dome is [[spoiler: a toy for spiritual alien kids, who are playing with us like we play with ants.]]

''Under the Dome'' is a 2009 novel written by StephenKing.

* TheFundamentalist: Lester Coggins, pastor of the Christ the Holy Redeemer church. When you consider other characters like this in StephenKing novels (like Mrs. Carmody of ''TheMist'' or Margaret White of ''{{Carrie}}''), you might think he'd end up being a problem for the more reasonable inhabitants of Chester's Mill. [[spoiler: He turns out to be a RedHerring, though, as he gets killed by Big Jim less than a third of the way through the book, when he tells Jim he feels that he must confess to the congregation that they've been running a meth lab.]]

** Don't forget a sequel to ''{{Lost}}'' (which is very clever).

A cable miniseries adaptation is currently in the works, with King and StevenSpielberg as producers.

* {{Almost out of Oxygen}}: [[spoiler:A giant fire is consuming the entire town and, ]]due to the fact that there is very little oxygen intake into the dome, it becomes very hard to breathe.
* AnyoneCanDie: on the cusp of baring Big Jim's machinations to the town, [[spoiler:the dearly-departed police chief's wife]] is summarily choked to death by Big Jim himself. [[spoiler:Andrea Grinnell]] is gunned down in a town meeting. Most jarring, perhaps, is the gradual erosion of the Dinsmore family due to various and sundry Dome-related maladies: by accidental suicide, quite purposeful suicide, and another quite purposeful suicide; the remaining son survives. Barely..

** Barbie himself has shades of this, as it's revealed in flashbacks that he [[spoiler:participated in the brutal beating and killing of a random innocent Iraqi in retailiation for a squadmate's death by IED]].

* [[ChekhovsGunman Chekhov's Gunman]]: [[spoiler: Sam Verdreaux, the town drunk. At the end of the story, Sam comes up with up with the plan to get Barbie and Julie to the dome-generating box, sacrificing his life to do so.]]

* {{Dropped a Bridge on Him}}: Many of the characters who die, [[spoiler:including Andrea Grinnell.]]

* FatBastard: Big Jim Rennie.

* GodzillaThreshold: The government does everything in its power to free the town of Chester's Mill from its predicament. This includes firing a cruise missile at the invisible dome surrounding the town, then a second missile when the first one fails, using specially modified acid which can melt through two miles of bedrock, despite the possibility that it could set the dome on fire, and then attempting to use a 'pencil nuke', only to have it melt down and kill fifteen people before it could be used. The government continues trying to build a second pencil nuke, but by that point, things are so bad they finally decide they don't have time.
* {{Good Feels Good}}: Junior of all people experiences this, when he rescues the Appleton children. As a consequence, [[spoiler:protecting them even becomes his final goal in life (after killing Barbie and his dad, that is) - although by the time he decides on this, he's gone [[AxCrazy completely mad]] and the safest place for the children would be as far away from Junior as possible.]]

* HaveYouToldAnyoneElse: The number of times the plot relies on the only character that knows something confronting the perpetrator without a backup plan or weapon is staggering.

* KidsAreCruel: [[spoiler: Turns out this is the only reason behind the EldritchAbomination's actions.]]

* NextSundayAD: A specific date is never given, but it probably takes place during President Obama's second term as one car is described as having a faded ''Yes we STILL can'' bumper sticker on it. At one time, Carter reads about the 2012 BMW in ''Car and Driver''. Also, there's free long-range Wi-Fi ([=WiMAX=]?) in rural Maine.

* StrawmanPolitical - Big Jim Rennie is powerfully conservative in many ways, and also the main villain.

* TeensAreMonsters - Most of the teenage (or close-to-teenage) characters in the book are sociopaths. [[spoiler: The worst ones are Frankie [=DeLesseps=], Melvin Searles, Carter Thibodeau, Junior Rennie, and Georgia Roux. Junior kills Angie [=McCain=] and Dodee Sanders, and makes the corpses his [[{{Squick}} "girlfriends"]]. Frankie, Melvin, and Carter take turns having their way with Sammy Bushey, and Georgia is essentially their rape cheerleader. Carter also molests Linda Everett late in the book, and threatens to rape her in front of her daughters.]]

** Also the ''multitude'' of people who underestimate Big Jim, over and over.
* TotallyRadical: Subverted. A early scene shows a teenager using some bizarre slang, at one point even ''saying'' "totally rad". The adult in the scene tries to reciprocate. The scene's end shows that the teen was mocking the adult's attempts to imitate him, and the teens speak normally for the book's remainder.

* FourLinesAllWaiting: YourMileageMayVary. A) There are like, [[HypocriticalHumour 10 lines minimum]]? B) Due to good writing and better editing, the pace manages to be breakneck for over 1000 pages.

** Even with the list, names [[BeyondTheImpossible keep popping out of nowhere]] and [[spoiler: several people on the list die within the first ten chapters]].

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler: Big Jim Rennie. After Phil/Chef blows the stored propane, Jim and Carter Thibodeau retreat to the fallout shelter to avoid the ensuing firestorm. Carter eventually decides to kill Rennie because of Rennie's ungrateful behavior (and because he feels that he'll live longer if Big Jim isn't alive to breathe his share of the air in the shelter), but he makes the mistake of turning off the lights and Rennie kills him. However, this leaves Big Jim alone in the shelter, and he's unable to get the propane tank changed on his own. In desperation he stupidly makes his way to the exit of the fallout shelter, opens the door, and chokes on the smoky, oxygen-starved air. And of course, it's only through Big Jim Rennie's actions that the town is in its current state in the first place.]]

** And the kids who attacked Julia when she was a kid.

** His so-called "refusal to swear" is more than a little hypocritical, considering all he does is swap swear words with less offensive varieties; such as calling a woman he doesn't like a "rhymes-with-witch." The only difference between what he does and swearing is letter substitution.

* TakeThat - Georgia Roux snarks on Sammy for being an avid reader of NoraRoberts and StephenieMeyer (authors that King ''[[{{Hatedom}} really hates]]'' and says that ''HarryPotter'' rules (King loves the series). However, this is halfway to TakeThatMe, because Georgia Roux is clearly not a nice person.

* PetTheDog - Junior has exactly one decent moment, when he rescues two children separated from their mother.
** It's especially jarring as it happens mere moments after he and one of his cronies physically and verbally assault two people they practically dragged naked out of bed.

* {{Friend to Psychos}}: Big Jim is this to his son Junior.
* FridgeLogic: Big Jim wants to convince the population Barbie is an insane serial killer and necrophile ''and'' the mastermind of a government conspiracy. It's too bad we never get to hear him try to explain exactly why this is supposed to make sense. . .
** Although given the psychological state of the town at the time, he probably wouldn't have needed to make much sense.

* HoYay: [[spoiler: Andy Sanders and Chef Bushey share a kiss in their final moments, before they blow up the drug factory and themselves.]]

* NextSundayAD - A specific date is never given, but it probably takes place during President Obama's second term as one car is described as having a faded ''Yes we STILL can'' bumper sticker on it. At one time, Carter reads about the 2012 BMW in ''Car and Driver''. Also, there's free long-range Wi-Fi ([=WiMAX=]?) in rural Maine.

* WhoNamesTheirKidDude: Little Walter Bushey, named after a blues musician. Yes, "Little" is officially the part of his name.

*** To put it in perspective: Chester's Mill had a population around two thousand when the dome dropped. [[spoiler:There are ''25''survivors all in all.]]

* MurderSuicide: [[spoiler:Sammy]] kills [[Frankie and Georgia]] before turning the gun on herself.