Amanda Dunfrey: I just want you to know that it's okay... being scared. And, well, if you need a friend, someone to talk too.
Mrs. Carmody: I have a friend. God, up above. I talk to him everyday. Don't you condescend me.
Amanda Dunfrey: I'm sorry?
Mrs. Carmody: Not ever. You don't mock me.
Amanda Dunfrey: That's not what I was doing.
Mrs. Carmody: I'll tell you what. The day I need a friend like you, I'll just have myself a little squat and shit one out.
Ollie: We gotta discuss how we're going to stop that thing from getting in here.
Myron: What do you mean getting in? We shut the loading door.
Ollie: Yeah, but the entire front of the store is plate glass.
Jim Grondin: We got you now, you sorry son of a bitch.
Stephanie Drayton: How did you two always manage to make me laugh?
David Drayton: You have incredibly low standards.
Stephanie Drayton: Mhm.
Ollie: As a species we're fundamentally insane. Put more than two of us in a room, we pick sides and start dreaming up reasons to kill one another. Why do you think we invented politics and religion?
Irene: You'd think educating children would be more of a priority in this country but you'd be wrong. Governments got better things to spend our money on, like corporate hand outs and building bombs.
David Drayton: Sure there's no way I can talk you out of this?
Brent Norton: David, there's nothing out there. Nothing in the mist.
David Drayton: What if you're wrong?
Brent Norton: Then, I guess... the joke will be on me afterall.
Ollie: Those of you who aren't local should know that Mrs. Carmody is known in town for being unstable.
Biker: No shit. What was your first clue?
Irene: We had damage at the school, wouldn't you know. That's what we get for not fixing that roof when we should've. But with funds being cut every year... You'd think educating children would be more of a priority in this country. But you'd be wrong. Government's got better things to spend our money on. Like corporate handouts, and building bonds.
Ollie: We have to tell them. The people in the market. We have to stop them from going outside.
David Drayton: They won't believe us.
Ollie: They have to.
David Drayton: I'm not sure I believe it, and I was here. What we saw was impossible. You know that, don't you? What do we say? How do we... convince them? Ollie, what the hell were those tentacles even attached to?
Amanda Dunfrey: You don't have much faith in humanity, do you?
Dan Miller: Ahhh! None whatsoever.
Biker: Hey, crazy lady, I believe in God, too. I just don't think he's the bloodthirsty asshole you make him out to be.
Mrs. Carmody: Well, you take that up with the Devil when you run into him. You just chat it over at your leisure.
David Drayton: What do you know about this mist?
Wayne Jessup: I don't know, man, I've got nothing to do with it.
David Drayton: That's not what the MP said in the pharmacy before the spiders came out of his skin.
Answer: The film is contemporary, as was the original story. Neither was meant to be set in a specific time period other than "now." The reason for the many older vehicles is that the film takes place in a small town. Notice that none of the older vehicles is in new condition. The presence of cell phones and modern products and clothing in the store indicate it is set in the present.