Figuring out 1408?
I've been going over 1408 in my mind ever since watching the thing. I've probably turned it into a much better movie than it deserves to be (I left the theater disappointed with the film). Is 1408 anything more than a guy thrown into a room that makes scary noises? It could be. Here's what I've been thinking:
The room itself isn't evil. The room merely gives everyone who stays inside it the chance to face their demons. We know that Mike's father was abusive and the room shows Mike his dad and his dad says something like, "What you are, I was, what I am you will be." He's warning Mike that if he keeps going down this path of irresponsibility and cynicism, he is doomed to turn into the same jerk as his father.
The room then shows Mike his daughter. It's clear he didn't handle her death well, if at all, essentially acting as though it didn't happen. The room then gives him another chance to hold his daughter. To remember her as she was. And then it takes her away from him again, this time in hopes that he will finally face up to the death and move on without that gigantic fucking chip on his shoulder that he's been carrying since she was taken from him the first time.
We know Mike needed that, as he tells Samuel L. Jackson that he'd love nothing more than to find a ghost and to know there is something more than the life he is living. He wants to know there's an afterlife. The room shows him this afterlife.
The room gives him an hour to grow up. Like it says in Shawshank Redemption, "Get busy livin, or get busy dyin'." Obviously more people slept in that room than the ones who died there. The people who slept in that room and lived chose to confront their pasts and move on. The ones who couldn't chose to die. Mike chose to face his fears and move on. He "defeated" the room, thereby defeating the weaknesses he had that prevented him from living up to his full potential.
Again at the end of the movie Sam Jackson confirms this by saying he did a good job. I think he knew what Mike was getting himself into and didn't think that someone as cynical as Mike would ever get out of that room alive. But he did and that's why Jackson complemented him.
Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter anyway. The movie still pretty much sucked.
--Alex Sandell
The room itself isn't evil. The room merely gives everyone who stays inside it the chance to face their demons. We know that Mike's father was abusive and the room shows Mike his dad and his dad says something like, "What you are, I was, what I am you will be." He's warning Mike that if he keeps going down this path of irresponsibility and cynicism, he is doomed to turn into the same jerk as his father.
The room then shows Mike his daughter. It's clear he didn't handle her death well, if at all, essentially acting as though it didn't happen. The room then gives him another chance to hold his daughter. To remember her as she was. And then it takes her away from him again, this time in hopes that he will finally face up to the death and move on without that gigantic fucking chip on his shoulder that he's been carrying since she was taken from him the first time.
We know Mike needed that, as he tells Samuel L. Jackson that he'd love nothing more than to find a ghost and to know there is something more than the life he is living. He wants to know there's an afterlife. The room shows him this afterlife.
The room gives him an hour to grow up. Like it says in Shawshank Redemption, "Get busy livin, or get busy dyin'." Obviously more people slept in that room than the ones who died there. The people who slept in that room and lived chose to confront their pasts and move on. The ones who couldn't chose to die. Mike chose to face his fears and move on. He "defeated" the room, thereby defeating the weaknesses he had that prevented him from living up to his full potential.
Again at the end of the movie Sam Jackson confirms this by saying he did a good job. I think he knew what Mike was getting himself into and didn't think that someone as cynical as Mike would ever get out of that room alive. But he did and that's why Jackson complemented him.
Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter anyway. The movie still pretty much sucked.
--Alex Sandell
Labels: 1408, explaining 1408, Samuel L. Jackson, Stephen King, theories
24 Comments:
Interesting theory but I don't think the movie was that deep. Thanks for making it a better movie though. Now I don't feel quite as robbed as I did. The other thing that made it worth price of admission was John Cusack's performance. What did you think of that?
Good performance.
I think the way this movie breaks down is like this:
Olin is God (or an agent thereof)
The room is evil and kills people by showing them their demons and worst fears over and over until they off themselves.
Enslin has a TON of baggage he takes with him everywhere he goes.
- He attempts to hold on to his past (he still surfs)
- He had an abusive father (the book he wrote)
- He is estranged from his wife, but doesn't truly want to be (the convo on the laptop)
- His daughter died painfully after a long bout with illness
- He has no faith to speak of (he wants confirmation of an afterlife)
Sometimes something evil can be used for the purposes of good. As such, Olin (after going through all the theatrics with Enslin, thus making Enslin dead sure he wants to go into the room) allows Mike to go into 1408 and face his demons/fears.
Initally, Mike tries over and over to escape the room, to no avail. This culminates in him calling his wife on the laptop to come help him (the room allowed this because it always wants more victims). After Mike goes through everything the room can throw at him (his dad, the ghosts, freezing him, allowing him to think he's escaped and finally throwing Katy's death in his face), he realizes that he's been a prisoner of his demons and fears and finds the strength to break free of their hold over him (shown by Olin showing up in the fridge and making Mike reaffirm to himself that he wants to live well). He then realizes what will happen if his wife comes into the room and tries to stop her. The laptop "malfunctions" and invites her to come up, then smiles evilly at Mike. Mike ultimately realizes that in order to save his wife, he must make the ultimate sacrifice and destroy himself AND the room, which he does through fire (even if he doesn't destroy the room, he at least prevents her from ever getting inside it.) At that point, when Mike becomes willing to trade his life for hers (sound like any prominent religious figures you know of?), the room's power over him is broken, and the firemen rescue him.
Olin congratulates him on being the first to face his demons and escape the power of the room, and allows him to keep the tape recorder with Katy's voice. Mike's reminder of what he learned in the room and his proof that there is, in fact, an afterlife to look forward to.
If you've never had the opportunity to read any Stephen King, do so, and you will quickly see that redemption through suffering is a repeated motif in King's books.
Excellent analysis jfreak.
I don't think 1408 sucked at all. Firstly, Cusack is excellent, and at certain points in the film I found my emotions mirroring his own (proven by our similar facial expressions!).
On a 'deeper' level, I find the movie very thought provoking. Consider for a moment the possibility that Cusack's character, at the end of the film, has NOT escaped 1408. He is doomed to the grimmest eternal occurence of all, at the whim of some evil force.
But I think jfreak's interpretation is correct. Most obviously, because towards the end of the film, for example when Cusack's wife is heading to the hotel, he is not in shot. This suggests that the events are 'really' happening, not just in Cusack/1408's world.
Seems the room put him through Hell but in the end gave him what he craved: evidence of the afterlife. I personally think that is actually a very worthy thing to desire (although becoming a paranormal investigator is perhaps a stupid way of going about it). However, where to place Samuel L Jackson I'm not sure. I mean... he is a real guy who runs a real hotel, yes? Hm, maybe the world the film is set in kind of breaks down once Cusack gets his proof, but the film is already over then so it hardly matters.
Also I think this film is a great inspiration to us to hold on to our sanity no matter what outrages life throws in our face. We should never lose sight of the idea that maybe there is a point to it all, despite how horrific it can all seem sometimes.
Great film. And yes, I just got home from the cinema. :D
this movie is about more than just an evil hotel room-his demons are killing him, his exsistence is nothing more than a living hell and the room (aka:Satan) is slapping all this in his face. It is provoking him and his fears with his past and lack of faith to just end his misery; to kill himself. It wants to drive him over the edge to kill himself so the evil /satan can win. Katy would be stuck in that hell and not being able to pass through to the afterlife because her dad was selfish and couldn't let her go. He beats hell though by letting go believing, fighting for life , and bringing God back into his spirit by risking his own life to save another.
I don't know, I just saw the movie, and I have a theory, doesn't anyone belive that at the end of the movie, the wife actually goes in the room? I mean, it could just be that the last scenes are the "trip" of the wife in the bedroom, that's why at the end Mike gives her the same look the "evil Mike" gives in the laptop..
I just watched it, and found it to be a jumble of schticky jack-in-the-box bits mixed with some efforts at slower soul-numbing despair a la Blair Witch, and never seemed to find a happy medium, instead collapsing into an Elm Street-esque tangent with frost filled rooms and flooding seawater.
And I didn't get the sense there were any metaphors in play or any other kind of meshing element like a background or whatever; it's fine to eschew the typical bad-things-happened-here backdrop if you have something else that works better, but they didn't.
this is 1 of the best film's ive seen
First of all I agree with most of everyone's interpretation. There are some things I still dont understand. First of all jfreak, Mike doesn't get out of the room at the end, the last scene is at his funeral. That brings me to the conclusion that he could never get out, so the only thing the room did was make him face his demons and then die? I think maybe he faced his demons but that wasn't the room's objective. Also, if the room wanted to make everyone face their demons because they had a shitty life, that makes the 52 deaths in that room about people who had shitty lives? The room even offers you the chance to kill yourself easily, the "express chek out" as the clerk on the phone said. What I don't understand is that when Olin said no one lasts more than an hour, and then he lived the whole hour and the voice on the phone said that he could chose to live that hour over and over again. That leads me to believe that the time in the room isn't the same as the outside. However, the fact that Lilian took about 15 minutes from the moment the "fake" Mike told her to come to his rescue, leads me to believe that the time is the same. How can that be? If what Olin said was true, that people don't last more than an hour, and time does restart in the room, that means that Mike just got into the room and then set it on fire in a couple of minutes?
Other than that, I found the movie great. However I just can't believe everything we see is random stuff, there has to be an explenation to the things we see, like maybe the ten plagues or maybe a strange interpretation of the 12 steps to recovery of an addiction?
One other thing I didn't understand, who sent the postcard about 1408 to Mike?
To Anonymous who said the film was not deep.... I laugh at your silly comment. Yes I agree the screenwriters had nothing in mind and wrote the script mindlessly, his daughter, and the room, and his experience in it, and his transformation are all superficial and mean nothing too deep... again I laugh at you and hope you never watch another movie besides Transformers ever again.
Just watched it again last night. I've often wondered if there's more too it than just a guy in haunted room etc. One theory I've mulled over from time to time: Any thoughts on whether or not the cognac given to him by the hotel manager is spiked with some type of powerfull halucinogen in it? Watch the movie again closely, you'll see that every time it starts to get really "freaky" is just after he takes a big gulp of the cognac. Maybe there's nothing going on in the room at all and he's just hallucinating
the entire thing.
Man am I late responding to this..but similar to the above, I took it to be that the room(as hinted by enslin on his voice recorder) takes people into the circles of hell where they either face their demons and come out alive or die in the process.
I watched the book ending.Here's my take.
Jackson is some sort of collector/reaper/gatekeeper.
The whole floor is a portal to the seven 7 rings of Hell.
Like dante's inferno Mike had to face his demons or stay in hell.
By facing his demons he would find peace,heal and escape the room.
By submitting to his demons while in Hell,he makes a choice to remain there.
His Demons: His resentment for his father.His indifference for his Wife.His lack of faith.His failure to accept his daughter's death.His guilt that his smoking caused her death.
The room showing him his demons is the process of going through the 7 rings.
The only way he can escape is by defeating his demons thereby becoming a new man.A man who wants to believe in God,Protect his wife,Forgive his dad,Accept his daughter's death.He manages to do all except let go of his daughter and thus cements his place in hell believing he will be with his daughter.
Jackson collects the souls and thus cannot step foot on the floor/portal or he'll be stuck there himself.
He lies about the natural deaths,the monthly cleanups,electronic devices not being able to work and to get Mike to want it more but he also warns and begs Mike numerous times to reconscider.So as not to break the rules of collecting.
Point in facts:
When he opens the bible it's blank(Lack of faith).
The Latin made is seen shortly before the rotting food is seen(suggesting she's dead and hasnt cleaned that floor).
Jackson new everything about Mike.(probably sent him the postcard)
Mike wanted to be with his daughter more than heal so he had to go the way she did(by fire)
Jackson gave Mike what he needed to ensure he wouldnt survice(a drink as old as the hotel)
I like to think that mike drowned in the surfing accident.
and that the first phase of his afterlife
was to experience what he had been looking so desperately for while alive
think about it, up until the accident he had been all over looking for a real haunted ground, with no success what so ever. then mere hours after he (wakes up) from the surfing accident he receives the postcard from the dolphin
from that point forward mike gets to experience everything that he had been so motivated to discover.
like i said, i think he died when he was knocked out in the middle of the ocean, if you remember he was not rescued, he washed up, people dont get knocked out and then magically drift back to land, they drown. so he dies, and the afterlife being kind, gives him a little taste of that which he desired so badly.
a genuine haunted hotel room, where the rules of the living no longer apply
10 skulls for the dolphin :)
Of all the personal hell movies, this is the most obvious one, constantly making,you know he is in hell, talking about the circles of hell, the steps of hell, the paintings in the room, and still you idiots think the room was real?
You thubk this,movie is shit because you didnt event get the point, read stephen king short first, maybe then you will understand. Of course there is much to it.
I would like to know if the room itself was wanting him to burn it down that would explain the whole making it hot showing the bricks that says burn me alive and the phone melting all asking that the main character will just end the Demon's existence so it shall finally be free
I found the movie very illuminating. The film showed that life happens, and it is how we meet life that the film ‘1408’ speaks about in a strong presentation. Cusack's character lived in attachment and a clinging state demonstrated by not being able to deal with the death of his beloved daughter (society as a whole feels afraid of death). From that point on Cusack spiraled downward, in pretense with life and unable to live, so he lived an imitation of life. The room is a container to experience the dark night of the soul; to realize that what is not entirely experienced at the moment and left undone, creates a real energy that is not seen but felt, likened to the pink elephant in the room.
So ingrained in the pattern of denial, avoidance, and fear Cusack cannot get out of the loop that he has created. The room is neutral and reflects back all experiences that have not been met in his life. Cusack relived olde patterns the first hour and the second hour he made a DIFFERENT choice. One that was unselfish and served the whole. That moment is all that mattered, and in essence freed him from all the choices he made through fear.
I feel that all life is borne to complete what was unfinished in a past life including this life. To see patterns that we grew up with within family dynamics, friends, and society. Every moment in life is about choices. To choose is a tremendous power, and Cusack summoned the strength and courage to LET Go and trust. To live in fear in not a life well lived, and the film gifts that gold to the audience.
Everyone who watched the film walked away from a movie like this with what they needed, as all of the humanity views life through their own perceptions. I found the film inspirational and creatively crafted. It is easy, too easy to coast through life and follow the masses. Observing the ideal of what society and television portray life to be, and supposed to look like by never living below the surface of the mirror; Cusack chose to numb himself emotionally to feel safe.
Cusack argued about what life presented him which fueled resentment and bitterness. Cusack did not realize that the choices he made in life created those circumstances. At any moment Cusack could have dealt with what he avoided. The film was a dramatic presentation of living a life believing that there is no cause and effect of thought, words or actions. Moreover, that is the golden jewel in the movie.
To use the senses at a higher level of refinement, to learn and grow and to ultimately let go of olde patterns no longer needed like training wheels on a bicycle; Cusack became the champion and hero of HIS life by transcending the narcissistic patterns he had adopted and living whatever time he had left wholeheartedly. What if all conditions are contained in the mind and the meaning of life is to have Awareness that all conditions are contained in the mind? Then Cusack met those conditions, and the ego was so exhausted that the deeper aspect of his character was in the driver's seat, and that refined part made his final decision. In the end, Cusack chose Love over fear and his attention to love and unselfishness gave him the clarity to want to be and become a higher expression of himself. Cusack's decision may not have been easy, but it was simple. I saw Cusack do what is right versus what is easy, and that takes guts…!!!
I enjoyed reading the above responses ~ Thank you ~ Starina
Just watched this movie which I thought began brilliant, went a bit hmmm in the middle but redeemed itself towards the end. What I took from it..
The moment were Mike's agent suggests going back to New York could be difficult triggered some deeply suppressed feelings Mike has never dealt with and a real prospect that he may have to begin mourning a death he has yet to accept. Unable to process such pain his mind simply checks out and his subconscious takes over, interpreting Mike's parting words to his agent as an instruction, "a quick in and out, that way nobody gets hurt" (the 60 minute deadline)
The room represents the personal hell mike is living in, made all the more believable to an 'awake' Mike with the very familiar surroundings he sees day in day out, a hotel room. Had he been a Pilot he may of been trapped in the cabin of a plane, or a Nurse in a hospital ward.
Mike already knew Olin would not want to give him the room, hence the Lawyer on the loudspeaker call confirming his legal position.
Eventually, after he has defeated every inner demon the room could find, Mike reaches his inevitable final challenge, accepting the death of his daughter and allowing himself to grieve. He faces it head on and allows himself to remember her how she was, awakening all the senses and feelings that came with that, her voice, her smell, her touch, (portrayed beautifully in a heart wrenching scene were Mike holds onto Katy for the final time). She begs him to stay with her and he promises he and her Mother will.
This is the moment he realises the selfishness of what he is doing, of what he has done. He knows that until he lets go, Katy too is trapped in this room (his hell/her limbo). With his first selfless act he let's her go.
He knows (believes) his wife will die if he doesn't prevent her from entering the room and since he can't seem to escape it, he'll have to destroy it, even if that means killing himself as well (his comment to himself "i have lived selfishly but i will not die selfishly" or words to that effect).
With a second selfless act, he sets fire to the room
Now free from a prison of his own bitterness, anger, guilt, regret and selfishness, he is back in our reality. The room is just a room again, and the firemen break through the door.
Olin congratulating him was as simple as someone saying "ya got me" or "you proved me wrong, good on ya".
By using it's built-in firewall the brain is able to prevent a person reliving his past traumas by suppressing any memory of the event. In some cases the reverse can also be effective.
That Mike is hearing Katy's voice on the recording shows just how fragile his mental state still is which is confirmed in That he believes his wife can also hear her (if she even is there with him).
if he is to hold onto his faith and the belief that he will see Katy again some day, this affirmation from his wife is a memory he needs to be real.
I think what we are seeing in the final scene is Mike's firewall in action.
I watched it last night. It brought evil into my Home. Soon As it ended my Dog started talking in tounge. I recorded it.
Nah. Its simple he dies at the the beginning and fights his darkness and light in infinity
I think the room is just his alcoholism.
What are your interpretations of the alternate endings (there are 3 endings). And which ending do you think is best?
I think Im interpreting what isnt there but thats what makes these kind of movies so great
* when goes under water at the start and ends up on the beach .
I think at that point of the movie he is still under water and what we see inside his mind.
He searches places that are haunted and he is haunted by his loss.
The Dolphin hotel...Dolphins are something that live in water .
and when a woman gives birth, her water breaks. ironic he is dying and drowning in something that gives birth,as his wife gave birth to their lost daughter.
SAm Jackson i believe is his conscience ,warning him to return to life ..
but he ignores it ..
and warned by those who went there before.
each died by something that haunted them .
when he ends up on the beach again and thinks its over ..
then the hotel crew is there. i think that was him regretting his choice to not return to life ,but instead to keep investigating the dead ,because part of him is dead.
then when they destroy the post office ,he realizes you cant return once you cross a line
the post office is a way to communicate with people and thats where he sends his manuscripts,gets his info on haunts.. now he sees a part of himself and what he has become and cant run from it ..
and shows how others ghosts (where part of them died) can haunt him and his ghost will haunt someone .. but he ends it with the opposite of water which is fire and water cant put it out ..
he stops the cycle ..
realizing his actions would have effected others and drug them down with him but he ended that ..
his ex mourns his loss ,but in reality he was now free..
if you factor in the alt ending where he lives .. then you can see where part of him died and she bought him back.but hearing the girls voice shows its something cherished but not a haunt any more ,they have moved on ..
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home