Mr foundflix man, I don’t really comment on RUclips vids and Ik ur not gonna see this but I just wanna say I’m really grateful for ur vids. Your channel is so chill, helpful for when I don’t wanna watch the whole movie or don’t understand parts of it, and your voice is so relaxing to listen to (like I’m at a campfire listening to stories and because I’m so use to hearing it over the years I’ve been subscribed to ur channel) I hope for more years of watching your channel
I love campfires. The smell gets into your hair and reminds you of the fun you had upon waking (usually a tad hungover lol). Have a great night internet stranger ❤
The film has several of it's own kind of "subliminal intrusions" that pop up in dialogue and scenes; things like James getting uncomfortable when asked what he does for fun (only stating he likes cameras), Alice's dialogue about Stalking and how it makes her feel in control and powerful, repeated allusions to young girls, Spying and Voyeurism, Phone Tapping, Surveillance; digging into people's private lives and past, James attending those meetings but never discussing anything and just watching others; those with mental issues being fascinated/obsessed with tech and the Phreaking culture, analog tech in general, multiple characters with mental issues like the group of kids that did the first Sal-E hijack, and just the entire Hannah memory/video itself: it's highly revealing - Notice how James seems to be running after her? Chasing her? She's never turned to him, and when she does, she turns into Sal-e in his memories: an idealized object, essentially (as much as I loathe the framing as it's usually used); I don't think James was ever married to her or even knew her. He was stalking her, murdered her, and took her wedding ring. He obsessed over her, even having videos of her Ballet performances. He likely was a telephone operator, in line with his dialogue with Alice about what she "learned" on the Tapes. That puts the "Stop filming me" line in the Final Tape he has of her in a *completely* different context: she sounds like she's half-heartedly laughing because she's nervous and doesn't know James. It's also why he's so reluctant to give the specific Tape Player to the Chester guy and discuss the tape with him at all, basically shutting him out entirely any time he asks: it's the ONLY memory and evidence he has of them together, and its revealing of his true nature and what he did, which is what causes him the delusions when viewing it and trying to remember it: he needs the tape player to ever be able to experience that, but *he desperately doesn't want to remember the end and what he did.* At the end of the film, he has everything in his trunk as well, though to him and the viewer it's "circumstance": a mask, even likely the knives used in the tapes. Notice the mask is damaged and shows signs of attempted repair throughout the various tapes: James has been "fixing" it, the way he "Fixed all of them". It's *HIS OWN* story he's been "discovering", and filled the blanks in himself, about Sal-E and Hannah and it all in the first place based on the in-universe actual Doc Chronos hijack. When he forces the confession out of the Stranger on the farm at the end, it's entirely a story of his creation, which is why the guy is terrifyingly confused and why James says "you'll understand" when asked why he's doing this and if he'll stop if he just reads James's message. Furthermore, it's clear he's wearing Hannah's jacket; if he wasn't there when she disappeared, how would he have it, or think/know she was wearing it in his memories of running through the field? It's because he took it after chasing her down. Think about all of the equipment he has in his apartment before the movie even starts; why would he have it all? Just because his job is to watch for Signal Intrusions? It doesn't add up and paints a picture of James as a neurotic, obsessive individual who gets a weird pleasure from immersing himself in his voyeuristic world, surrounded by his tapes and equipment, obsessing over them. Essentially, I believe James is either one of the original Kids who participated in the Sal-E hijacks, or, influenced by them so greatly, projected a kind of copycat mentality onto them, taking inspiration from them for his sick actions and an excuse in the form of the hijacks, allowing him his delusions of innocence. What's happening in the later Tapes (everything but the original 1987 Sal-E hijacking tape) is meant to be evocative of the violence James has done to these women and how he views his actions in the context of being "someone else". It might be reaching, but with the director being the age they are, I wouldn't doubt if there's some Silent Hill 2 inspiration going on there.
I actually think the ending is the answer to Hannah’s disappearance. He’s trying to come up with a scenario that makes him the hero, where I kinda think that he killed her. The fact that it’s clearly Hannah walking into the road at first but changes to a nonhuman being when they actually collide is him trying to avoid responsibility. That’s just my theory.
He does also literally say that he can't remember ANYTHING from before which to me tells that during the entire movie he's having some kind of break from reality
unreliable protaganists are so good when done right. constantly making you question even the most mundane scenes, making you think back on previous ones and wonder if they really happened or not. very interesting
This is a pretty sad look at a lot of real people in life today; they want answers but sometimes reject the truth because it's not what they expected or wanted to hear. Reality is stranger than fiction they say, but the fiction some people create for reality can be terrifying.
Problem is, both sides disagree on which aspect is true and which is conspiracy. One side has evidence, the other side just believes really really hard.
I think you're right with everything there at the end, Alice is a figment of James' mind trying to conjure up his wife to in a way help him along, and all the things she says is trying to help him come back to reality and give him the truth of what has happened. But as you said he doesn't want to believe he was responsible in any way shape or form for Hannah's death. So when Alice was saying that the investigation was over, that was essentially his wife saying "You have your answers, from me and all these people you have talked to, now come back to reality and stop chasing a pipe dream" But when he wouldn't listen she disappeared because that was her giving James his final warning before he fully descends into madness. James was warned time and time again through the movie, but each time rejected the warnings for his own reality where he is the hero and could never be the villain.
I feel this shows that he does regret what happened And hates himself for it But he's also despirate to find another person to blame He doesn't like being one of the reasons she died And so tries to connect things in his madness to a broadcast intrupting creep
@@Michael-rw8zv the name Alice as well as Alice in Wonderland in generalare hideously overused for "edgy" psychological works. EVERYBODY wants to reinvent American McGee's Alice in Wonderland and be treated like they were original for doing so, when even American barely was.
The underage girl thing makes sense for James also since he over heard the two men talking about a 16 year old girl. I also believe he imagined the whole antique show scenario or he killed the guy during his break down
What I love about this film is that it DOES give enough evidence for the audience to form its own conclusions but there in lies the trap. It really captures what makes films such a compelling media as it puts you exactly in the main protagonist shoes. So many hints and clues and revelations that go into such varying directions, that they all at the same time hold value but that means that non of them do. Also 30 minute video and not a single reference to the eerie "I Feel Fantastic" video. Shocked when inspiration included not that but Small Wonder.
I like the psychological mindfuckery that the entire movie delves in, but I personally really dislike endings that are left open like this, it's left for us to theorize whether he just lost his sanity from all his cope or what?
Yep that’s the whole point. I enjoy it because I can decide how the movie truly ended. And you can decide how the movie truly ended. It’s fun to theorize. Not every door needs to be closed.
@Neotones what is so mysterious about someone watching every video on a channel they like? Lots of the same people are in every comment section here, including myself so what the hell are you talking about? A script for what? You're f**kin weird. And not the good kind of weird that makes someone more attractive either. Has your parents made sure you aren't stashing weapons and guns in your room? Lol
Why don't you change that effed up name? "guy without a mustache".... it sounds so weird in a bad way...or you can't change it because so many people know you under that pseudonym?
this whole movie gives a lot of “what happens outside of Analog Horror ARGs” kind of vibes. Like people who dig very deep into Analog Horror ARGs like Gemini Home Entertainment, Local58, The Mandela Catalogue, and more. It’s interesting as hell and I love this movie, even with the left out ending.
It definitely partly reads as a cautionary tale of the dangers of making people believe something evil and dangerous is happening in reality, even Alternate Reality, because someone may come by that can't tell the difference. It's especially resonant as the creators of a lot of old creepy RUclips accounts supposedly run by spooky hackers and internet serial killers come out and said it was all just to fuck with people and make them spooked (Anyone remember MEATSLEEP?) I love a good freaky internet scare, but thank God no one became convinced one of those channels were responsible for a real disappearance, stalking and tracking them down to "bring justice" like James. If you're an aspiring ARG or Webseries creator, it definitely makes you think twice about emphasizing too hard on the Reality part of Alternate Reality Games. It reminds me of that old man who made that creepy video called "HAPPY ANNIVERSARY" on the date of a woman's disappearance, where he just stares and laughs at the camera. Everyone thought he had to be responsible, but when someone tracked him down (A journalist, not a psycho vigilante thank god), he was just a mentally ill old man who had no connection to the case. Search 112 Dirtbag.
What if the Michael character was actually a kid and James just saw him as an adult because he's so far gone at that point. It'd explain Michael's behavior and mentioning his dad.
I think Michael was legitimately mentally disabled and was used by the actual perpetrator(s) to do things. Seeing as he was extremely confident after he was reassured, he could've acted the same when a bad person asked him to do something
Between the main character being named James, the story being filtered through his Perseption, the wife "surrogate" that meets him and looks a whole lot like his dead wife who he is searching for, and that dead wife having a very vague death that James may or may not be involved in This movie Silent Hill 2'd us.
@@lmeza1983please tell me you know wtf he’s saying at 6:57 what the fuck does he want us to look up “obvious take on the real eyes from all under” ?????
I actually sought out and watched this before watching the video, because it is literally one of my weird, obscure fears. I remember obsessing over and being terrified of the Max Headroom Incident as a kid. Many things in this film are references to not only real world BSIs but ARGs as well. The statement "I fixed them" immediately drew me to a character known as "iliketofix" from the Wyoming Incident ARG. This movie was like, tailor made for people like me.
Makes sense since they confirmed it was mixed of Internet creepy pastas and real life signal hijackings. Specifically the one they mentioned was Tara the android (aka I feel fantastic)
I think Nora at one point offered him a way out he could've just gone out with her and let all that stuff go but he just could not let go even when offered an off ramp.
Whenever my mental health gets bad I find myself watching multiple Explained videos on this channel......fantastic distraction and this channel has been extremely helpful in that sense.....keep up the good content!
😂 I remembered the second I saw the thumbnail. It was unnerving the 1st time, but when I learned the maker was into electronics and robotics, I thought it was admirable. It's almost like the prototype to Hatsune Miku and other vocaloids.
The way I see it James made this whole thing up. The tapes was his escape to blame it on someone else. He doesn't wanna be held responsible for his wife's death.
if a lot of the side characters are just figments of his imagination, then maybe the guy the antique seller was talking to about a 16 yr old girl was a really quick throw away line to tie james to alice's background story? idk movies like this never add anything that isnt of meaning. that conversation was way too blasé. EDIT: this also explains the side eye of disappointment Alice had when James first sees her face at the antique shop right before the encounter. Also why he was super awkward and uncomfortable when she asked him what he likes to do/hobbies. For all we know the Michael's house was his old pedophile hangout and Michael was actually a little kid that James thought was an adult due to his mental health decline. That would explain why Michael kept asking for his dad like a kid.
My reading of it was that he was having thoughts in that moment of kidnapping or paying for a sixteen year old girl because that's what he's into, but recognises that it's wrong, so he puts that internal monologue on two external figures so that he doesn't have to claim ownership of those ideas and can pretend like he's overhearing them instead.
6:13 The show they call "Don Chronos" is actually "Dark Shadows" (Christopher Pennock as Cyrus Longworth, in the "Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde" adaptation storyline) Episode 987, to be precise.
I was so confused by even your explanation of this movie I had to watch your video twice. I think I lean toward a lot of what happens is all delusions and created by his mind. He can't deal with his grief, loss and not knowing that he's chasing a white rabbit, losing the original question, losing himself.
Maybe he only rented the basement and that was his upstairs neighbors, therefore it really wasn't anything to worry about? My brother rented a basement to live in like that before so that's why that's my first theory with that
It sounded like rolling, not unlike what you hear at a bowling alley so....no idea? wheelchair bound person? kid with a ball? secret government operation moving equipment? lol
i think it’s a metaphor for james mental state becoming even more unraveled, since hearing footsteps/creaks/random sounds is a sign of Schizophrenia or getting more delusional
It was scene identical to the zodiac killer when they go to basement and guy hears someone is upstairs almost like there were two killers. Identical scene
Im not so sure about this movie. To me the main intrusion villian reminds me a lot of old creepy youtube videos that used to float around. For example, videos like "I feel fantastic" is what immediately struck me when I saw the villain. Another thing it reminds me of is characters by Shaye st John. I'm not sure if the director was inspired by these things but after watching this movie I can't help but feel the design of the characters are a little TOO inspired in my opinion
So from what I figure after reading the comments and watching the movie and my own thoughts 1. The disappearances and the hijacks aren't connected in anyway. They're just coincidence's that our protag desperately tries to connect in a way that makes sense. But there's no real evidence behind any of it 2. Hannah wasn't his wife, she was just some woman he stalked and ended up killing one way or another. The ending showed him clearly running her over so that might have been how he did it. Protag mentions that the funeral was a closed casket since they never found her body but also shows her wearing a jacket that our Protag is seen wearing. 3.Alice isn't real, it's just his mind trying to tell him that he got the answers he wanted. He's just too grief stricken and unwell to listen to "her". It's why he gets frustrated and angry when he tries to confront people and they respond back with anger and confusion, because they either told him what they knew or don't know anything at all but none of that is good for him since he wants "closure". 4. Protag definitely made some of the tapes or had a hand in it. One of the tapes had his "wifes" ballet in it but since Public Access doesn't archive anything and this is a recording of his "wife" it could only be his doing. The third tape was all him 5. The man he met underground and the schizo man likely weren't real people either. The underground man was cryptic about everything and the schizo man never gave any answers that made sense and might have been a representation of his mental state deteriorating 6. The guy he ends up killing around the end was just some person who had no idea what was going on. It's why he never really confesses to anything and keeps asking what's going on and denying everything else 7. What the basement man told him was the truth but because it wasn't what Protag wanted to hear (Because it had nothing to do with the murders) he instead insisted he was lying and even thought that the basement man kept saying 3 tapes. The phone still being there might have been for a long dedicated joke on the hijackers end. The basement man said that he was finally a part of something and that his childhood kinda sucked so he's likely just holding onto something for the memories in a similar way our Protag holds onto the only 2 tapes he has of Hannah TLDR; Protag is a stalker/murderer, maybe even a potential serial killer that is too unwell to cope with the fact he killed the one woman he seemed to be very invested in so he tries to connect the dots on two events that just so happened to occur around the same time so he can get some "closure" and not have to admit he's a murderer
I watched the premier of this film at the Imax in London and spoke to the director. He said that one of the other main inspirations of this film was the 'I feel Fantastic' videos.
So I really think your right when you say that the main character has basically lost his mind and a majority of the story is very altered. Like how the main character basically starts in a place of being stable and trying to come to terms with the loss of his wife. However the moment the possibility of an explanation for the "disappearance" shows up he splits into 2 different personalities or sides of belief. (Much like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde) TLDR: Main character was a pedo and kidnapper who had a house with his wife Hanna until she found out or finally came to terms about his (Mr Hyde) crazy side where he kept girls in cages. So she killed herself and he mentally broke, then trying to run away from his past life and self trying to become a new person in the city (Dr Jekyll). But the tapes created the perfect escape for him to not blame himself anymore for the suicide. Met up with his old contact who he knew from pedo times to get info. Kept following this nice trail of evidence he found so he fell deeper and deeper into his own delusion until he fully embraced it becoming who he was before again (Mr Hyde). Followed it to the point where he actually figured it out but it has a bad resolution for him meaning he still had to deal with him being responsible. So he created a villain from a kid that he kidnapped (I think it was a neighbor kid that just happened to show up wanting to explore an abandoned house) made a set to make it easier for his mind to think of this kid as an adult. Then murdered the kid going about his new life as a full on Mr Hyde murderer who can not even be responsible for anything especially not his wife's death, he does such as running over a girl and possibly maiming her bad so bad she is falling apart but not his fault since the girl was just a robot. There is a reason behind what I think through all the scenes but that is a shit ton to type out so if you are really curious why I think this let me know.
@@cannibalbunnygirl So in my theory Alice is 100% a figment of his imagination a delusion he created to try and rid himself of guilt. That he has held onto for years since his wife's death. While the FBI guy is real at least at the beginning the first 3 sessions are real just altered in how it exactly happened. Everything after that involves him is a delusion to further this idea that he is not at fault for the death of his wife.
My biggest problem with this movie? The husband is worried his memory of his wife’s face is fading, yes-yes I know this was set back when camcorders were a thing but are you seriously telling me they were married after being together for however long ... and yet he doesn’t have a single goddamned picture of her face? This was my biggest problem with The Wolf Children: Ame and Yuki too 😤😤😤 Thanks for another great video FoundFlix and go hug your animal friends folks 💙🐱💙
I literally watched the movie after I saw your new video posted. I thought Alice was, like, in cahoots with Michael, him being the "underage girl" guy who she didn't actually leave and checking in with him, resulting in the phone calls. Wild movie, thank you for info from the commentary. It seemed so fishy, the FBI investigating but not being able to find this clearly-labeled farm. The ragged guy who's been searching for years and killed himself over the whole thing who thinks he found something but what could it have even been.
Well the last tape with the mailbox was only shown on public access of a fairly niche ballet performance. Only James would have a vested interest in watching it as she was his wife. We hear that public access doesn't archive their shows so it's a one in a million shot that anyone would be recording it.
A lot of these incursion videos must’ve been inspired by the ‘I Feel Fantastic’ videos on RUclips. Same creepy robots, masks, and ominous room. Pretty fun to see modern references in a movie like this.
I just realised this while listening to your outro but I think that unfortunately the thing of the main character liking underage girls is real. When he visits the antiques shop he overhears a deal including a sixteen year old girl. That conversation has no barring on the story except I guess to give a reason why it's a crime scene later but it's quite a coincidence that this guy who has jumbled thoughts and memories just so happens to overhear a conversation about implied paedophilia while there are also questions of whether he himself is a paedophile. My take is that that conversation didn't happen, and his mind was just wandering off into perverse sexual stimulation and he was thinking of buying or kidnapping a sixteen year old girl, but knew that it was wrong so he puts that internal dialogue onto two external figures so that he doesn't have to claim ownership of those ideas.
Great video as always, would love to see you do an Ending Explained for 'Number 23' with Jim Carrey It was a trippy movie that I really liked and enjoyed personally
I can't believe how poorly received that movie was when it came out. It even broke records for wining razzies I believe. I actually LOVED it! One of my many favorites that have been rejected by critics and audiences or failed in box office. It's a great thriller and the main character actually gets his just desserts, which I feel doesn't happen often in those stories.
@@iamV10010 It was poorly received because it is a bad, shallow film, about a conspiracy theory that is so old and debunked, it was a terrible film made for young teenagers who think that there is "something" in that "mysterious" number...it deserved every Razzie nomination.
@@cannibalbunnygirl It didn't what? Get a Razzie? How am I pretentious? By saying my opinion? Sorry that I don't share your opinion, but then again most people agree. If you are trying to defend something try to use more words and arguments, not just to attack the person who said his opinion.
Oh, nice. I haven't thought of BBS boards in a long time. Had a lot of fun on those. Some of the games we could play were pretty good: Red Dragon and even a massive multiplayer AD&D game Neverwinter Nights Gold Edition.
We still have to remember the fact that a LOT of the stuff in the film took place in James' delusional mind. So we still don't know what was real and what wasn't. For all we know, the whole murder investigations might not have been a thing at all.
Glad to see you have sponsors now and don’t know how they work but I would prefer them at the start/ beginning if possible, the best part of the videos has always been the straight through movie narrative.
It looks like the sally sparks character is also based on those videos of the robot lady. I don’t know what she’s called but she’s like a blonde mannequin with a robot voice and people tried to say it was a serial killer who made her.
I just want to say you used the word modulate for the signal he's actually using demodulation throughout the course of the movie because he's trying to actively recover the carrier signal frequency. He may have tested some things with modulation but ultimately his end goal is to demodulate. I'm sorry just had to say it since I just took a communication theory course to finish bachelor's in electrical engineering.
I have to say that I really enjoyed this movie. As a huge horror movie fan, I’ve been wanting to see a horror movie that is not just the same thing regurgitated. This was very original. I’m so glad that I got to see it.
It just occurred to me that Hannah couldn't have been a third victim associated with the broadcast intrusion because the other girls went missing the day *before* the intrusion, while Hannah disappeared the day *after* the intrusion.
I don't think that's the case. At 3:02, the tattoo on his arm reads 11-22-96, and at 9:19, he writes the date of the broadcast as 11-23-96, so she went missing the day before, just like the others.
Yeah nothing gets the blood going like a bat shit crazy conspiracy theory. And one involving controlling the air waves. Communications so very important.
The concept of this movie sounds really interesting an with the whole max headroom signal hi jacking in it got me even more interested! I always found that strange an really fascinating at the same time!
I am so glad you broke this movie down for me because honestly, i would not have sat thru 2 hours of it. It goes in to many circles and too much dialogue. Not to mention the ending is left open, leaving me even more confused. Thank you Found flixs!
I think youre right on the money about the boyfriend in her story being him processing his own behavior. In fact i actually think our main character might be the one that hurts women. His disconnected fantasies surround kidnapping of young women, his fantasy avatar of his wife talks about a young girl in his room. I think he may have been responsible for those disappearances and either his wife found out and killed herself, or that he made her disappear, the last act has a very different tone when you imagine this is his way of subconsciously protecting himself by creating a confession from the "real killer" because he doesnt want to accept that he keeps killing women like disposable tools, like machines or tapes to be played.
1:41 His job was actually transferring tv broadcast archives from VHS to DVD formats. 2:52 He actually didn't want to let it go I would assume from sentimental value. He has the technology available at least at his work that he would be able to view/transfer the tapes contents to DVD or at least VHS. 9:14 It is actually the day after his wife's accident/disappearance. 12:56 Access to the complete unredacted FBI file on the case, as Dr. Lithgow told him it was unlikely he would get it from a freedom of information act request to them. 15:50 The hand wasn't glowing. It as just the light shining on a hand covered in white latex, like what was used in the videos to cover the supposed victims hands. 17:19 He was actually looking at the razor blade in his hands, not at his feet. 18:50 His P.O. Box not address 32:15 He has actually been wearing that jacket since he drove to the farm. You plainly see its red color and the ballerina logo on the back when he steps out of the car at the farm.
My interpretation was that the subliminal messages in the intrusions (that the professor had warned James about) had planted false ideas in James’s mind. I was surprised that wasn’t more of a plot point, I thought it was a really interesting idea.
Yeah everyone goes to the James is crazy theory rather than James is suggestible and is being messed with. Which is my theory. It's like shutter island all over again
@@cannibalbunnygirl Precisely. "Hes crazy" does not fully explain who called the Storage Facility owner, and I don't buy "He only imagined it." On another note, the film has several of it's own kind of "subliminal intrusions" that pop up in dialogue and images that are almost priming the viewer; things like repeated allusions to underage girls, James getting uncomfortable when asked what he does for fun (only stating he likes cameras), Alice's dialogue about Stalking and how it makes her feel in control and powerful, Spying and Voyeurism, Surveillance, digging into people's private lives and past, James attending those meetings but never discussing anything and just watching others; those with mental issues being fascinated/obsessed with tech and the Phreaking culture, analog tech in general, borderline autistics, and just the entire Hannah memory/video itself is highly revealing - Notice how James almost seems to be chasing her? She's never turned to him, and when she does, she turns into Sal-e in his memories: an idealized object, essentially (as much as I loathe the framing as it's usually used); I don't think James was ever married to her or even knew her. He was stalking her, murdered her, and took her wedding ring. He obsessed over her, even having videos of her Ballet performances. He likely was a telephone operator That puts the "Stop filming me" line in the Final Tape he has of her in a *completely* different context. It's also why he's so reluctant and hesitant to give the specific Tape Player to the Chester guy and discuss the tape with him at all, basically shutting him out entirely any time he asks. When you think about it, at the end of the film, he has everything in his trunk as well: a mask, even likely the knives used in the tapes. It's his story he's been given and filled the blanks in about Sal-E in the first place based on the actual Doc Chronos hijack; when he forces the confession out of the Stranger at the end, it's entirely his creation and idea, which is why the guy is terrifyingly confused and why James says "you'll understand" when asked why he's doing this and if he'll stop if he just reads James's message.
@@cannibalbunnygirl It’s not really like Shutter Island. On shutter island he was already mentally blocking out what happened to his wife. They put on a big show to try and save him one last time. They did the act because he got violent whenever they told him the truth
@@toptiertech7291 I'm talking about the alternative interpretation of shutter island where teddy is not insane and they're testing MK Uktra/psy ops on him.
This is my first time commenting on here but bro you literally carried my entire quarantine, I would watch ur vids in-between classes and during classes. Never quit bro
I feel like this movie got inspiration by that RUclips video called “I feel fantastic” and rumors say that it was one of the victims of murder saying that they are fine or something .
Gotta say, I'm glad Harry Shum has gotten more lead roles lately. I think he's a great actor sans his Glee era. I'm looking forward to watching this movie! I'm a sucker for the unreliable narrator/main character trope lol
in his defense, everyone who was in glee fucking sucked, so that has to be a director problem. like kristen stewart being painted as a bad actress but she actually played bella like she acts in the books (I’ve never read them but other people have explained it better) a bad director will make or break an actor’s career
Is this movie kinda along the same idea as Momento? Where his memory is going towards the truth while also running away from it? All the indecipherable clues there to get in the way of facing whatever actually happened because it's painful
I think he is his own boss, he has a split personality and communicates with himself through post it notes. The boss persona being his rational side, the one we see is lost in his delusions of finding what happened to his missing 'wife', I also noticed the woman at the start is wearing gym clothes, instead of his wife it could be one of the missing girls he might be the 'Benjamin' that Alice talks about, Alice being a manifestation of the victim from the beginning of the film, he may never have had a wife at all. The ending he definitely kills a real woman with his car but unable to deal with his actions he sees her as a robot not a real person hence the screaming. Writing this I noticed that not having any real answers the viewer becomes a conspiracy theorist themselves, it can be interpreted in so many ways without getting any real answers just like the experience of the protagonist.
I was wondering why he didn't see the very striking resemblance of Alice and Hannah, but then Hannah was an object to him, anyway. It seems like she was the one that he actually loved (or believed he did), and her death is what broke his mind all the way, causing his amnesia. Hannah found out about his serial killing and secret taping set, and he had to kill her (maybe?). Alice conveniently fed him clues because they were locked away in his mind all along. He was the killer and the one who made the tapes. I haven't watched the movie, but I am definitely going to do so soon.
A man looking for his missing wife he may have had a hand in why he is missing but can't confront that truth, so a supernatual situation consumes him until he can face himself and let go. I do like Silent Hill when done well.
The Dr. Who choice is clearly a reference to the Max Headroom broadcast interrupt that happened during an episode of Dr. Who! As for the jittery movement and mask? A reference to an old viral video called I Feel Fantastic.
I’m pretty sure James killed Hannah because she found out he was keeping under age girls in cages in his house. He seems to be really good at subduing people and putting them in cages so that’s what I’m guessing. But hey, that’s just me being like James trying to form a plot.
Why is everyone convinced he's a paedophile?! literally nothing in this movie suggests or implies paedophila except for a 2 second thing Alice says. All the victims are adult women so why is there this recurrent paedo thing? am I missing subtle clues or something?
I agree on him killing Hannah and all but mb he accidentally killed her or drove her to suicide? Idk I also think Alice is completely a figment of his mind and of Hannah basically trying to warn him several times and bring him back to reality, so when he refuses to accept the answer he was given by the end she disappears as if she gave a final warning.
I believe it too..... What i noticed is that james in last scenes wears the same red jacket like Hannah in his memories which james told that she mysteriously disappeared
This is just something I noticed and might not be true but seeing James falling deeper and deeper into his rabbit hole, it made me wonder if 'Alice' was a subtle nod to Alice in Wonderland except that its Alice herself who enables and leads James into conspiracy wonderland. Plus the fact that Hannah and Alice are played by the same actress, I thought it was an interesting take. Hannah or the answers behind her disappearance is what James has been looking for this whole time but when Alice appears before him, he doesn't recognize her. To me, this is like he's disregarding the reality that is presented to him and chooses to follow his delusion, which is why Alice disappears after they get their supposed answers from Steve (the owner of the storage unit). Steve's answers were not what James wanted to hear so he looked elsewhere.
I feel like this one cribs really hard from like, 'Censor' and a few other movies that are all fairly recent. Feels like film producers these days do anything they can to catch on to a fad or style, and then a whole bunch of movies get all jumbled together in my memory 'cause they're not really unique enough to be memorable on their own.
The fact that the girls and the robot are meant to look similar reminds me a lot of the 'I feel fantastic' video on RUclips, as well as the theory behind it. If you don’t know about that video it’s basically a robot like the one in the movie just singing I feel fantastic in a robotic voice and other various lines that are very unsettling, and it’s theorized that the person who made it actually murdered a woman and dressed the robot in her clothing and made it repeat the last sentences she said before they murdered her, then buried her in a forest. I was seriously getting those vibes and was expecting the person behind the broadcasts to have murdered these girls and dressed the robots up as them. I felt very uncomfortable the whole time.
This channel has gone from ending explained to movie explained frame by frame 🤣🤣🤣 and you know what? I'm here for it!! I get to watch a movie knowing whether it's good or not. Or just know a whole lot of movie plots without wasting 2hrs or my time😏😏 Thanks found Flix!!!!
Roanoke Gaming has been doing something similar, summarizing the movie first and then explaining the biology/whatever else and I don't see why not, it's longer and more in-depth videos
That Sall-E thing gave me vibes of that creepy youtube video, 'I feel fantastic,' I think is what it's called. Also, I do fully believe that this movie is told from the perspective of an unreliable narrator, because he wants something else to be the truth about his wife's disappearance, rather than what the truth actually was/is. Kind of like that woman whose daughter committed murder and she still keeps asking for evidence that that proves her daughter killed; there's a massive collection of evidence, but since she doesn't want to believe her daughter is a killer, she continues to insist that the police have no proof that her daughter killed. I believe it was a case on Killer Women.
I like to think the Sally robots are real but most people see them as human. The “they’re everywhere” guy is what gave me the idea that maybe the intrusions is someone revealing that these things exist and is enabling others a way to see the truth. Like the antique guy knows and gives info to psychos of Sally’s to attack because they aren’t human but you wouldn’t know that unless you could see them.
The fact that James and 'the killer' are wearing the exact same colours during their confrontation made me decide he was actually confronting and burying a part of himself. Edit: implying it was him that killed his wife.
@Foundflix still around? Wow, been a while since i started ending explained / movie recaps and thought you stopped posting! Got were I am partly to your channel, so happy to still seeing you around :)
Mr foundflix man, I don’t really comment on RUclips vids and Ik ur not gonna see this but I just wanna say I’m really grateful for ur vids. Your channel is so chill, helpful for when I don’t wanna watch the whole movie or don’t understand parts of it, and your voice is so relaxing to listen to (like I’m at a campfire listening to stories and because I’m so use to hearing it over the years I’ve been subscribed to ur channel) I hope for more years of watching your channel
Can we pin this comment for the wholesomeness?
Hate comments like this it’s all a pity party want some attention go touch grass
@@Mr.Goldkush what?
I love campfires. The smell gets into your hair and reminds you of the fun you had upon waking (usually a tad hungover lol). Have a great night internet stranger ❤
He's the channel for watching horror movies without the full runtime or getting scared.
The film has several of it's own kind of "subliminal intrusions" that pop up in dialogue and scenes; things like James getting uncomfortable when asked what he does for fun (only stating he likes cameras), Alice's dialogue about Stalking and how it makes her feel in control and powerful, repeated allusions to young girls, Spying and Voyeurism, Phone Tapping, Surveillance; digging into people's private lives and past, James attending those meetings but never discussing anything and just watching others; those with mental issues being fascinated/obsessed with tech and the Phreaking culture, analog tech in general, multiple characters with mental issues like the group of kids that did the first Sal-E hijack, and just the entire Hannah memory/video itself: it's highly revealing -
Notice how James seems to be running after her? Chasing her?
She's never turned to him, and when she does, she turns into Sal-e in his memories: an idealized object, essentially (as much as I loathe the framing as it's usually used); I don't think James was ever married to her or even knew her. He was stalking her, murdered her, and took her wedding ring. He obsessed over her, even having videos of her Ballet performances. He likely was a telephone operator, in line with his dialogue with Alice about what she "learned" on the Tapes.
That puts the "Stop filming me" line in the Final Tape he has of her in a *completely* different context: she sounds like she's half-heartedly laughing because she's nervous and doesn't know James.
It's also why he's so reluctant to give the specific Tape Player to the Chester guy and discuss the tape with him at all, basically shutting him out entirely any time he asks: it's the ONLY memory and evidence he has of them together, and its revealing of his true nature and what he did, which is what causes him the delusions when viewing it and trying to remember it: he needs the tape player to ever be able to experience that, but *he desperately doesn't want to remember the end and what he did.*
At the end of the film, he has everything in his trunk as well, though to him and the viewer it's "circumstance": a mask, even likely the knives used in the tapes. Notice the mask is damaged and shows signs of attempted repair throughout the various tapes: James has been "fixing" it, the way he "Fixed all of them".
It's *HIS OWN* story he's been "discovering", and filled the blanks in himself, about Sal-E and Hannah and it all in the first place based on the in-universe actual Doc Chronos hijack.
When he forces the confession out of the Stranger on the farm at the end, it's entirely a story of his creation, which is why the guy is terrifyingly confused and why James says "you'll understand" when asked why he's doing this and if he'll stop if he just reads James's message.
Furthermore, it's clear he's wearing Hannah's jacket; if he wasn't there when she disappeared, how would he have it, or think/know she was wearing it in his memories of running through the field? It's because he took it after chasing her down.
Think about all of the equipment he has in his apartment before the movie even starts; why would he have it all?
Just because his job is to watch for Signal Intrusions?
It doesn't add up and paints a picture of James as a neurotic, obsessive individual who gets a weird pleasure from immersing himself in his voyeuristic world, surrounded by his tapes and equipment, obsessing over them.
Essentially, I believe James is either one of the original Kids who participated in the Sal-E hijacks, or, influenced by them so greatly, projected a kind of copycat mentality onto them, taking inspiration from them for his sick actions and an excuse in the form of the hijacks, allowing him his delusions of innocence.
What's happening in the later Tapes (everything but the original 1987 Sal-E hijacking tape) is meant to be evocative of the violence James has done to these women and how he views his actions in the context of being "someone else".
It might be reaching, but with the director being the age they are, I wouldn't doubt if there's some Silent Hill 2 inspiration going on there.
nice analysis, I rly like it
You really went all in on this explanation! That’s a darn good viewpoint and extremely interesting and entertaining. Sweet job on this analysis.
amazing analysis!!!
I was thinking the same thing about SH2 lol
Deserves a like.
I actually think the ending is the answer to Hannah’s disappearance. He’s trying to come up with a scenario that makes him the hero, where I kinda think that he killed her. The fact that it’s clearly Hannah walking into the road at first but changes to a nonhuman being when they actually collide is him trying to avoid responsibility. That’s just my theory.
That's what I think too
He does also literally say that he can't remember ANYTHING from before which to me tells that during the entire movie he's having some kind of break from reality
Kinda like Censor huh?
My impression
It's a good one, and is good as any.
The ”I Feel Fantastic” inspiration feels like something that needs to be mentioned in a video like this
I was just thinking about that
Right? I was thinking the exact same thing. I wonder if the film's directors drew inspiration from it.
I was looking to see if anyone else was going to point that out.
I was waiting for it and kinda bummed there was no mention.
yup i thought of exactly that
unreliable protaganists are so good when done right. constantly making you question even the most mundane scenes, making you think back on previous ones and wonder if they really happened or not. very interesting
Basically anything except a dream or variant of a dream is a good place to start.
Can make the stories/movies feel more relatable. We all understand the mundane.
So basically you are saying… unreliable protagonists are tight!
It is good if its rarely done. It’s dumb when too many movies do it cause why does anything matter if its not real anyway
@@accidentalgenius8252 exactly, when done badly it could easily ruin a movie
This is a pretty sad look at a lot of real people in life today; they want answers but sometimes reject the truth because it's not what they expected or wanted to hear. Reality is stranger than fiction they say, but the fiction some people create for reality can be terrifying.
ok youtube comment section
Well said. This is seen everywhere.
Problem is, both sides disagree on which aspect is true and which is conspiracy. One side has evidence, the other side just believes really really hard.
Not a random RUclips comment being this deep
@@danielled8665 true. Flat earthers for example don't have evidence for a flat earth but it's solely based on miss trust
I think you're right with everything there at the end, Alice is a figment of James' mind trying to conjure up his wife to in a way help him along, and all the things she says is trying to help him come back to reality and give him the truth of what has happened. But as you said he doesn't want to believe he was responsible in any way shape or form for Hannah's death. So when Alice was saying that the investigation was over, that was essentially his wife saying "You have your answers, from me and all these people you have talked to, now come back to reality and stop chasing a pipe dream" But when he wouldn't listen she disappeared because that was her giving James his final warning before he fully descends into madness. James was warned time and time again through the movie, but each time rejected the warnings for his own reality where he is the hero and could never be the villain.
No one is named "Alice" accidentally in a story like this.
@@tyrant-den884 could you elaborate on this?
@@Michael-rw8zv Alice famously fell down the rabbit hole into a fantasy world, and this movie is all about James falling down a rabbit hole
I feel this shows that he does regret what happened
And hates himself for it
But he's also despirate to find another person to blame
He doesn't like being one of the reasons she died
And so tries to connect things in his madness to a broadcast intrupting creep
@@Michael-rw8zv the name Alice as well as Alice in Wonderland in generalare hideously overused for "edgy" psychological works.
EVERYBODY wants to reinvent American McGee's Alice in Wonderland and be treated like they were original for doing so, when even American barely was.
The underage girl thing makes sense for James also since he over heard the two men talking about a 16 year old girl. I also believe he imagined the whole antique show scenario or he killed the guy during his break down
Wow, that would explain the crime scene tape on the antique shop door for sure.
What I love about this film is that it DOES give enough evidence for the audience to form its own conclusions but there in lies the trap. It really captures what makes films such a compelling media as it puts you exactly in the main protagonist shoes. So many hints and clues and revelations that go into such varying directions, that they all at the same time hold value but that means that non of them do.
Also 30 minute video and not a single reference to the eerie "I Feel Fantastic" video. Shocked when inspiration included not that but Small Wonder.
I like the psychological mindfuckery that the entire movie delves in, but I personally really dislike endings that are left open like this, it's left for us to theorize whether he just lost his sanity from all his cope or what?
Yep that’s the whole point. I enjoy it because I can decide how the movie truly ended. And you can decide how the movie truly ended. It’s fun to theorize. Not every door needs to be closed.
@Neotones what is so mysterious about someone watching every video on a channel they like? Lots of the same people are in every comment section here, including myself so what the hell are you talking about? A script for what? You're f**kin weird. And not the good kind of weird that makes someone more attractive either. Has your parents made sure you aren't stashing weapons and guns in your room? Lol
Why don't you change that effed up name? "guy without a mustache".... it sounds so weird in a bad way...or you can't change it because so many people know you under that pseudonym?
@@randyb.k.4018 If I wanted to write my own ending, I wouldn't watch someone elses work.
You are literally a commentary on almost every different RUclipsr that I personally watch. I don't have a problem with it!
this whole movie gives a lot of “what happens outside of Analog Horror ARGs” kind of vibes. Like people who dig very deep into Analog Horror ARGs like Gemini Home Entertainment, Local58, The Mandela Catalogue, and more. It’s interesting as hell and I love this movie, even with the left out ending.
It definitely partly reads as a cautionary tale of the dangers of making people believe something evil and dangerous is happening in reality, even Alternate Reality, because someone may come by that can't tell the difference.
It's especially resonant as the creators of a lot of old creepy RUclips accounts supposedly run by spooky hackers and internet serial killers come out and said it was all just to fuck with people and make them spooked (Anyone remember MEATSLEEP?)
I love a good freaky internet scare, but thank God no one became convinced one of those channels were responsible for a real disappearance, stalking and tracking them down to "bring justice" like James.
If you're an aspiring ARG or Webseries creator, it definitely makes you think twice about emphasizing too hard on the Reality part of Alternate Reality Games.
It reminds me of that old man who made that creepy video called "HAPPY ANNIVERSARY" on the date of a woman's disappearance, where he just stares and laughs at the camera. Everyone thought he had to be responsible, but when someone tracked him down (A journalist, not a psycho vigilante thank god), he was just a mentally ill old man who had no connection to the case. Search 112 Dirtbag.
Those things are not the beginning of this phenomenon by a long shot
Gemini home entertainment 4sho😨🌕🎑🫎
What if the Michael character was actually a kid and James just saw him as an adult because he's so far gone at that point. It'd explain Michael's behavior and mentioning his dad.
Yikes. Like it was just a random kid at home by himself, and this guy storms in and locks him up.
I think Michael was legitimately mentally disabled and was used by the actual perpetrator(s) to do things. Seeing as he was extremely confident after he was reassured, he could've acted the same when a bad person asked him to do something
Good imagination
Yikes. That'd be more f'd up.
Holy shit
Between the main character being named James, the story being filtered through his Perseption, the wife "surrogate" that meets him and looks a whole lot like his dead wife who he is searching for, and that dead wife having a very vague death that James may or may not be involved in
This movie Silent Hill 2'd us.
I noticed that too, also the scene when the movie begins and the computer messages it resembles the matrix, Tom's decent into the rabbit hole.
@@lmeza1983please tell me you know wtf he’s saying at 6:57 what the fuck does he want us to look up “obvious take on the real eyes from all under” ?????
0:37 What the clips of the masked person strongly reminds me of is the video of that robot saying "I feel fantastic".
Yeah!!! The background at 6:20 looks similar to the one in that video too
I actually sought out and watched this before watching the video, because it is literally one of my weird, obscure fears. I remember obsessing over and being terrified of the Max Headroom Incident as a kid. Many things in this film are references to not only real world BSIs but ARGs as well. The statement "I fixed them" immediately drew me to a character known as "iliketofix" from the Wyoming Incident ARG. This movie was like, tailor made for people like me.
Makes sense since they confirmed it was mixed of Internet creepy pastas and real life signal hijackings. Specifically the one they mentioned was Tara the android (aka I feel fantastic)
I think Nora at one point offered him a way out he could've just gone out with her and let all that stuff go but he just could not let go even when offered an off ramp.
Whenever my mental health gets bad I find myself watching multiple Explained videos on this channel......fantastic distraction and this channel has been extremely helpful in that sense.....keep up the good content!
The intrusions are so cryptic and ominous, it's really cool to see them
Now watch the video it's based on, "I feel fantastic" by Tara the Android.
😂 I remembered the second I saw the thumbnail. It was unnerving the 1st time, but when I learned the maker was into electronics and robotics, I thought it was admirable. It's almost like the prototype to Hatsune Miku and other vocaloids.
The way I see it James made this whole thing up. The tapes was his escape to blame it on someone else. He doesn't wanna be held responsible for his wife's death.
if a lot of the side characters are just figments of his imagination, then maybe the guy the antique seller was talking to about a 16 yr old girl was a really quick throw away line to tie james to alice's background story? idk movies like this never add anything that isnt of meaning. that conversation was way too blasé.
EDIT: this also explains the side eye of disappointment Alice had when James first sees her face at the antique shop right before the encounter. Also why he was super awkward and uncomfortable when she asked him what he likes to do/hobbies.
For all we know the Michael's house was his old pedophile hangout and Michael was actually a little kid that James thought was an adult due to his mental health decline. That would explain why Michael kept asking for his dad like a kid.
My reading of it was that he was having thoughts in that moment of kidnapping or paying for a sixteen year old girl because that's what he's into, but recognises that it's wrong, so he puts that internal monologue on two external figures so that he doesn't have to claim ownership of those ideas and can pretend like he's overhearing them instead.
@@hyvsan9425 did you not watch the video? Why reply to this comment just to say you don't like the premise of the movie?
@@hyvsan9425 Only boring to boring people. Some of us love psychological horror
6:13 The show they call "Don Chronos" is actually "Dark Shadows" (Christopher Pennock as Cyrus Longworth, in the "Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde" adaptation storyline)
Episode 987, to be precise.
Neat I didn’t know that
So they repurposed that to make a fake Dr Who? cool
Love your breakdowns - subscribed longtime ago and am happy to see your channel grow! Congratulations!
Ok attention seeker we get it your one of many people who enjoy his content 😏
@@DensilGrant lol. We all have our moments.
His internal organs and stuff?
Makes me think of Memento. Grieving husband with questions can’t accept answers that don’t give him closure so creates closure by implicating Teddy.
I was so confused by even your explanation of this movie I had to watch your video twice. I think I lean toward a lot of what happens is all delusions and created by his mind. He can't deal with his grief, loss and not knowing that he's chasing a white rabbit, losing the original question, losing himself.
my biggest question after watching this film was: what was the rattling upstairs when they were all in the basement?
Idk nothing ig. The way I see it the whole thing was about being curious about the wrong things
Maybe he only rented the basement and that was his upstairs neighbors, therefore it really wasn't anything to worry about?
My brother rented a basement to live in like that before so that's why that's my first theory with that
It sounded like rolling, not unlike what you hear at a bowling alley so....no idea? wheelchair bound person? kid with a ball? secret government operation moving equipment? lol
i think it’s a metaphor for james mental state becoming even more unraveled, since hearing footsteps/creaks/random sounds is a sign of Schizophrenia or getting more delusional
It was scene identical to the zodiac killer when they go to basement and guy hears someone is upstairs almost like there were two killers. Identical scene
Im not so sure about this movie. To me the main intrusion villian reminds me a lot of old creepy youtube videos that used to float around. For example, videos like "I feel fantastic" is what immediately struck me when I saw the villain. Another thing it reminds me of is characters by Shaye st John. I'm not sure if the director was inspired by these things but after watching this movie I can't help but feel the design of the characters are a little TOO inspired in my opinion
That is definetly inspired by the i feel fantastic robot
I thought of that video immediately when I saw that scene!
Agreed!
6:17 even looks kinda like the house in the "I feel fantastic" video.
Never got how people even found that video scary, it was just stupid
I think this might be the first time that your explanation didn't make me less scared of a movie 😱😰 that mask, man......... nope nope nope!
the wild west days of the internet are truly fascinating, and I wish more media explored it.
So from what I figure after reading the comments and watching the movie and my own thoughts
1. The disappearances and the hijacks aren't connected in anyway. They're just coincidence's that our protag desperately tries to connect in a way that makes sense. But there's no real evidence behind any of it
2. Hannah wasn't his wife, she was just some woman he stalked and ended up killing one way or another. The ending showed him clearly running her over so that might have been how he did it. Protag mentions that the funeral was a closed casket since they never found her body but also shows her wearing a jacket that our Protag is seen wearing.
3.Alice isn't real, it's just his mind trying to tell him that he got the answers he wanted. He's just too grief stricken and unwell to listen to "her". It's why he gets frustrated and angry when he tries to confront people and they respond back with anger and confusion, because they either told him what they knew or don't know anything at all but none of that is good for him since he wants "closure".
4. Protag definitely made some of the tapes or had a hand in it. One of the tapes had his "wifes" ballet in it but since Public Access doesn't archive anything and this is a recording of his "wife" it could only be his doing. The third tape was all him
5. The man he met underground and the schizo man likely weren't real people either. The underground man was cryptic about everything and the schizo man never gave any answers that made sense and might have been a representation of his mental state deteriorating
6. The guy he ends up killing around the end was just some person who had no idea what was going on. It's why he never really confesses to anything and keeps asking what's going on and denying everything else
7. What the basement man told him was the truth but because it wasn't what Protag wanted to hear (Because it had nothing to do with the murders) he instead insisted he was lying and even thought that the basement man kept saying 3 tapes. The phone still being there might have been for a long dedicated joke on the hijackers end. The basement man said that he was finally a part of something and that his childhood kinda sucked so he's likely just holding onto something for the memories in a similar way our Protag holds onto the only 2 tapes he has of Hannah
TLDR; Protag is a stalker/murderer, maybe even a potential serial killer that is too unwell to cope with the fact he killed the one woman he seemed to be very invested in so he tries to connect the dots on two events that just so happened to occur around the same time so he can get some "closure" and not have to admit he's a murderer
wrong
I watched the premier of this film at the Imax in London and spoke to the director. He said that one of the other main inspirations of this film was the 'I feel Fantastic' videos.
Been watching you for ages FoundFlix. Always entertaining and easy to listen to. Love from the UK
So I really think your right when you say that the main character has basically lost his mind and a majority of the story is very altered.
Like how the main character basically starts in a place of being stable and trying to come to terms with the loss of his wife. However the moment the possibility of an explanation for the "disappearance" shows up he splits into 2 different personalities or sides of belief. (Much like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde)
TLDR: Main character was a pedo and kidnapper who had a house with his wife Hanna until she found out or finally came to terms about his (Mr Hyde) crazy side where he kept girls in cages. So she killed herself and he mentally broke, then trying to run away from his past life and self trying to become a new person in the city (Dr Jekyll). But the tapes created the perfect escape for him to not blame himself anymore for the suicide. Met up with his old contact who he knew from pedo times to get info. Kept following this nice trail of evidence he found so he fell deeper and deeper into his own delusion until he fully embraced it becoming who he was before again (Mr Hyde). Followed it to the point where he actually figured it out but it has a bad resolution for him meaning he still had to deal with him being responsible. So he created a villain from a kid that he kidnapped (I think it was a neighbor kid that just happened to show up wanting to explore an abandoned house) made a set to make it easier for his mind to think of this kid as an adult. Then murdered the kid going about his new life as a full on Mr Hyde murderer who can not even be responsible for anything especially not his wife's death, he does such as running over a girl and possibly maiming her bad so bad she is falling apart but not his fault since the girl was just a robot.
There is a reason behind what I think through all the scenes but that is a shit ton to type out so if you are really curious why I think this let me know.
I would love to know why you think this tbh
@@thatsonyou6093 I would love to explain my thought process is there any part specifically or just all of it.
Can you please elaborate on the neighbor kid theory in the abandoned house?
@@MerMer3D Interesting....so Alice and the FBI guy in your theory are who?
@@cannibalbunnygirl So in my theory Alice is 100% a figment of his imagination a delusion he created to try and rid himself of guilt. That he has held onto for years since his wife's death.
While the FBI guy is real at least at the beginning the first 3 sessions are real just altered in how it exactly happened. Everything after that involves him is a delusion to further this idea that he is not at fault for the death of his wife.
My biggest problem with this movie? The husband is worried his memory of his wife’s face is fading, yes-yes I know this was set back when camcorders were a thing but are you seriously telling me they were married after being together for however long ... and yet he doesn’t have a single goddamned picture of her face? This was my biggest problem with The Wolf Children: Ame and Yuki too 😤😤😤
Thanks for another great video FoundFlix and go hug your animal friends folks 💙🐱💙
I literally watched the movie after I saw your new video posted. I thought Alice was, like, in cahoots with Michael, him being the "underage girl" guy who she didn't actually leave and checking in with him, resulting in the phone calls. Wild movie, thank you for info from the commentary. It seemed so fishy, the FBI investigating but not being able to find this clearly-labeled farm. The ragged guy who's been searching for years and killed himself over the whole thing who thinks he found something but what could it have even been.
Well the last tape with the mailbox was only shown on public access of a fairly niche ballet performance. Only James would have a vested interest in watching it as she was his wife. We hear that public access doesn't archive their shows so it's a one in a million shot that anyone would be recording it.
Im programmed to tune in every Sunday night like clockwork, I love these videos! I'll never stop binging old ones too
A lot of these incursion videos must’ve been inspired by the ‘I Feel Fantastic’ videos on RUclips. Same creepy robots, masks, and ominous room. Pretty fun to see modern references in a movie like this.
It was. The directed said so himself
Please do The innocence. Looks like an interesting folklore movie. Hopefully that’s not it’s main thing
It’s unrelated to the theme of the movie but I really like seeing more Asian American leads in horror movies
"Larva stages of the internet we know today" is the best thing I've heard all day.
I just realised this while listening to your outro but I think that unfortunately the thing of the main character liking underage girls is real.
When he visits the antiques shop he overhears a deal including a sixteen year old girl. That conversation has no barring on the story except I guess to give a reason why it's a crime scene later but it's quite a coincidence that this guy who has jumbled thoughts and memories just so happens to overhear a conversation about implied paedophilia while there are also questions of whether he himself is a paedophile. My take is that that conversation didn't happen, and his mind was just wandering off into perverse sexual stimulation and he was thinking of buying or kidnapping a sixteen year old girl, but knew that it was wrong so he puts that internal dialogue onto two external figures so that he doesn't have to claim ownership of those ideas.
I remember when you had only a hundred thousand subscribers now look how much you've grown! Great job man glad to see it happening for you
Great video as always, would love to see you do an Ending Explained for 'Number 23' with Jim Carrey
It was a trippy movie that I really liked and enjoyed personally
Plz do this plz plz plz even though I feel I know what happened it’s a good movie though
I can't believe how poorly received that movie was when it came out. It even broke records for wining razzies I believe. I actually LOVED it! One of my many favorites that have been rejected by critics and audiences or failed in box office. It's a great thriller and the main character actually gets his just desserts, which I feel doesn't happen often in those stories.
@@iamV10010 It was poorly received because it is a bad, shallow film, about a conspiracy theory that is so old and debunked, it was a terrible film made for young teenagers who think that there is "something" in that "mysterious" number...it deserved every Razzie nomination.
@@ozymandiasnullifidian5590 No it didn't and stop being pretentious.
@@cannibalbunnygirl It didn't what? Get a Razzie? How am I pretentious? By saying my opinion? Sorry that I don't share your opinion, but then again most people agree. If you are trying to defend something try to use more words and arguments, not just to attack the person who said his opinion.
Oh, nice. I haven't thought of BBS boards in a long time. Had a lot of fun on those. Some of the games we could play were pretty good: Red Dragon and even a massive multiplayer AD&D game Neverwinter Nights Gold Edition.
Someone really loved the "I Feel Fantastic" video
I love it how the FBI couldn't do anything in years, then mr/ms protagonist just go "oh look a reflection, and Morse, and I tracked the phone".
We still have to remember the fact that a LOT of the stuff in the film took place in James' delusional mind. So we still don't know what was real and what wasn't. For all we know, the whole murder investigations might not have been a thing at all.
Anyone else notice the house / mannequin at 6:20 looks near-identical to the “I Feel Fantastic” video from like 15 years ago?
Yeah, the writers said that was a huge influence
Glad to see you have sponsors now and don’t know how they work but I would prefer them at the start/ beginning if possible, the best part of the videos has always been the straight through movie narrative.
It looks like the sally sparks character is also based on those videos of the robot lady. I don’t know what she’s called but she’s like a blonde mannequin with a robot voice and people tried to say it was a serial killer who made her.
The "I feel fantastic" videos
Tara the android! I thought the exact same thing!
These videos light up my day each week, appreciate you!
I just want to say you used the word modulate for the signal he's actually using demodulation throughout the course of the movie because he's trying to actively recover the carrier signal frequency. He may have tested some things with modulation but ultimately his end goal is to demodulate. I'm sorry just had to say it since I just took a communication theory course to finish bachelor's in electrical engineering.
Well that's actually fascinating and may come in handy. RUclips commemts ends up teaching me more than school ever did lol
I have to say that I really enjoyed this movie. As a huge horror movie fan, I’ve been wanting to see a horror movie that is not just the same thing regurgitated. This was very original. I’m so glad that I got to see it.
It just occurred to me that Hannah couldn't have been a third victim associated with the broadcast intrusion because the other girls went missing the day *before* the intrusion, while Hannah disappeared the day *after* the intrusion.
I don't think that's the case. At 3:02, the tattoo on his arm reads 11-22-96, and at 9:19, he writes the date of the broadcast as 11-23-96, so she went missing the day before, just like the others.
Way to be completely wrong.
I think he killed his wife and is just searching for another to blame cause he's lost it from the guilt or something
With all the sadness lately (in my life and in the news/globally), your videos are such a reprieve!
Mi.
I hope it gets better!
Hang in there Rachel! You got this :))
You should start a podcast.
I feel you. When you get a good moment, just wallow in it.
Yeah nothing gets the blood going like a bat shit crazy conspiracy theory. And one involving controlling the air waves. Communications so very important.
You know he's doing well when he gets two sponsorships in a video
They came out of nowhere. I found the contrast between the dark story and a cheery “Hello fresh!” funny tough
The concept of this movie sounds really interesting an with the whole max headroom signal hi jacking in it got me even more interested!
I always found that strange an really fascinating at the same time!
I am so glad you broke this movie down for me because honestly, i would not have sat thru 2 hours of it. It goes in to many circles and too much dialogue. Not to mention the ending is left open, leaving me even more confused. Thank you Found flixs!
It's not that confusing if you take the time to think about it. SO MANY parts of the film are filled with symbolism.
@@Emma88178 i said i was confused. Not we. If you liked it and understood good for you.
@@Emma88178 can you explain please? I noticed a lot of red and white symbolism but I'm not smart enough to put it together
I think youre right on the money about the boyfriend in her story being him processing his own behavior. In fact i actually think our main character might be the one that hurts women. His disconnected fantasies surround kidnapping of young women, his fantasy avatar of his wife talks about a young girl in his room. I think he may have been responsible for those disappearances and either his wife found out and killed herself, or that he made her disappear, the last act has a very different tone when you imagine this is his way of subconsciously protecting himself by creating a confession from the "real killer" because he doesnt want to accept that he keeps killing women like disposable tools, like machines or tapes to be played.
1:41 His job was actually transferring tv broadcast archives from VHS to DVD formats.
2:52 He actually didn't want to let it go I would assume from sentimental value. He has the technology available at least at his work that he would be able to view/transfer the tapes contents to DVD or at least VHS.
9:14 It is actually the day after his wife's accident/disappearance.
12:56 Access to the complete unredacted FBI file on the case, as Dr. Lithgow told him it was unlikely he would get it from a freedom of information act request to them.
15:50 The hand wasn't glowing. It as just the light shining on a hand covered in white latex, like what was used in the videos to cover the supposed victims hands.
17:19 He was actually looking at the razor blade in his hands, not at his feet.
18:50 His P.O. Box not address
32:15 He has actually been wearing that jacket since he drove to the farm. You plainly see its red color and the ballerina logo on the back when he steps out of the car at the farm.
also the coat is Hannah's as it has a ballerina on it and is too small for him.
My interpretation was that the subliminal messages in the intrusions (that the professor had warned James about) had planted false ideas in James’s mind. I was surprised that wasn’t more of a plot point, I thought it was a really interesting idea.
Yeah everyone goes to the James is crazy theory rather than James is suggestible and is being messed with. Which is my theory. It's like shutter island all over again
@@cannibalbunnygirl Precisely. "Hes crazy" does not fully explain who called the Storage Facility owner, and I don't buy "He only imagined it."
On another note, the film has several of it's own kind of "subliminal intrusions" that pop up in dialogue and images that are almost priming the viewer; things like repeated allusions to underage girls, James getting uncomfortable when asked what he does for fun (only stating he likes cameras), Alice's dialogue about Stalking and how it makes her feel in control and powerful, Spying and Voyeurism, Surveillance, digging into people's private lives and past, James attending those meetings but never discussing anything and just watching others; those with mental issues being fascinated/obsessed with tech and the Phreaking culture, analog tech in general, borderline autistics, and just the entire Hannah memory/video itself is highly revealing -
Notice how James almost seems to be chasing her? She's never turned to him, and when she does, she turns into Sal-e in his memories: an idealized object, essentially (as much as I loathe the framing as it's usually used); I don't think James was ever married to her or even knew her. He was stalking her, murdered her, and took her wedding ring. He obsessed over her, even having videos of her Ballet performances. He likely was a telephone operator
That puts the "Stop filming me" line in the Final Tape he has of her in a *completely* different context. It's also why he's so reluctant and hesitant to give the specific Tape Player to the Chester guy and discuss the tape with him at all, basically shutting him out entirely any time he asks.
When you think about it, at the end of the film, he has everything in his trunk as well: a mask, even likely the knives used in the tapes. It's his story he's been given and filled the blanks in about Sal-E in the first place based on the actual Doc Chronos hijack; when he forces the confession out of the Stranger at the end, it's entirely his creation and idea, which is why the guy is terrifyingly confused and why James says "you'll understand" when asked why he's doing this and if he'll stop if he just reads James's message.
@@cannibalbunnygirl It’s not really like Shutter Island. On shutter island he was already mentally blocking out what happened to his wife. They put on a big show to try and save him one last time. They did the act because he got violent whenever they told him the truth
@@toptiertech7291 I'm talking about the alternative interpretation of shutter island where teddy is not insane and they're testing MK Uktra/psy ops on him.
@@cannibalbunnygirl you mean a completely irrelevant theory that has nothing to do with the movie?
The longer your videos are, the happier I am.
she said something similar to me ;)
@@acrj-alfasaus4825 she likes your long videos? Weird.
This is my first time commenting on here but bro you literally carried my entire quarantine, I would watch ur vids in-between classes and during classes. Never quit bro
11:39 Fires him but gives him a farewell present, what a legend
I feel like this movie got inspiration by that RUclips video called “I feel fantastic” and rumors say that it was one of the victims of murder saying that they are fine or something .
Gotta say, I'm glad Harry Shum has gotten more lead roles lately. I think he's a great actor sans his Glee era. I'm looking forward to watching this movie! I'm a sucker for the unreliable narrator/main character trope lol
in his defense, everyone who was in glee fucking sucked, so that has to be a director problem. like kristen stewart being painted as a bad actress but she actually played bella like she acts in the books (I’ve never read them but other people have explained it better) a bad director will make or break an actor’s career
*This film was close to being a masterpiece*
This director is one to watch.
The footage of the masked person around 6:20 has the same creepy vibe as the “I feel fantastic” robot videos that are floating around on here.
Is this movie kinda along the same idea as Momento? Where his memory is going towards the truth while also running away from it? All the indecipherable clues there to get in the way of facing whatever actually happened because it's painful
I think he is his own boss, he has a split personality and communicates with himself through post it notes. The boss persona being his rational side, the one we see is lost in his delusions of finding what happened to his missing 'wife', I also noticed the woman at the start is wearing gym clothes, instead of his wife it could be one of the missing girls he might be the 'Benjamin' that Alice talks about, Alice being a manifestation of the victim from the beginning of the film, he may never have had a wife at all. The ending he definitely kills a real woman with his car but unable to deal with his actions he sees her as a robot not a real person hence the screaming. Writing this I noticed that not having any real answers the viewer becomes a conspiracy theorist themselves, it can be interpreted in so many ways without getting any real answers just like the experience of the protagonist.
When you break it down like this, it reminds me a heck of a lot of the game Silent Hill 2.
“The person is gone”
5:44
She wasn’t fast enough to make the disappear act
I'm listening to the audio while cleaning up and I thought the sponsorship part was the end of the video and thought "wow that really was abrupt"
I was wondering why he didn't see the very striking resemblance of Alice and Hannah, but then Hannah was an object to him, anyway. It seems like she was the one that he actually loved (or believed he did), and her death is what broke his mind all the way, causing his amnesia. Hannah found out about his serial killing and secret taping set, and he had to kill her (maybe?). Alice conveniently fed him clues because they were locked away in his mind all along. He was the killer and the one who made the tapes. I haven't watched the movie, but I am definitely going to do so soon.
man this movie totally surprised me. turned out way better than expected.
A man looking for his missing wife he may have had a hand in why he is missing but can't confront that truth, so a supernatual situation consumes him until he can face himself and let go. I do like Silent Hill when done well.
The Dr. Who choice is clearly a reference to the Max Headroom broadcast interrupt that happened during an episode of Dr. Who!
As for the jittery movement and mask? A reference to an old viral video called I Feel Fantastic.
I’m pretty sure James killed Hannah because she found out he was keeping under age girls in cages in his house. He seems to be really good at subduing people and putting them in cages so that’s what I’m guessing. But hey, that’s just me being like James trying to form a plot.
Why is everyone convinced he's a paedophile?! literally nothing in this movie suggests or implies paedophila except for a 2 second thing Alice says. All the victims are adult women so why is there this recurrent paedo thing? am I missing subtle clues or something?
I agree on him killing Hannah and all but mb he accidentally killed her or drove her to suicide? Idk I also think Alice is completely a figment of his mind and of Hannah basically trying to warn him several times and bring him back to reality, so when he refuses to accept the answer he was given by the end she disappears as if she gave a final warning.
I believe it too..... What i noticed is that james in last scenes wears the same red jacket like Hannah in his memories which james told that she mysteriously disappeared
This is just something I noticed and might not be true but seeing James falling deeper and deeper into his rabbit hole, it made me wonder if 'Alice' was a subtle nod to Alice in Wonderland except that its Alice herself who enables and leads James into conspiracy wonderland. Plus the fact that Hannah and Alice are played by the same actress, I thought it was an interesting take. Hannah or the answers behind her disappearance is what James has been looking for this whole time but when Alice appears before him, he doesn't recognize her. To me, this is like he's disregarding the reality that is presented to him and chooses to follow his delusion, which is why Alice disappears after they get their supposed answers from Steve (the owner of the storage unit). Steve's answers were not what James wanted to hear so he looked elsewhere.
I feel like this one cribs really hard from like, 'Censor' and a few other movies that are all fairly recent. Feels like film producers these days do anything they can to catch on to a fad or style, and then a whole bunch of movies get all jumbled together in my memory 'cause they're not really unique enough to be memorable on their own.
My guy been working 💪🏾💪🏾 pumping out videos for us to enjoy we appreciate you
Never clicked on a notification so fast
Me neither 😂
Samesies! 😁
I also feel like Sal-es design is based off of the “I feel fantastic” video. That’s definitely what I thought!
The fact that the girls and the robot are meant to look similar reminds me a lot of the 'I feel fantastic' video on RUclips, as well as the theory behind it.
If you don’t know about that video it’s basically a robot like the one in the movie just singing I feel fantastic in a robotic voice and other various lines that are very unsettling, and it’s theorized that the person who made it actually murdered a woman and dressed the robot in her clothing and made it repeat the last sentences she said before they murdered her, then buried her in a forest.
I was seriously getting those vibes and was expecting the person behind the broadcasts to have murdered these girls and dressed the robots up as them.
I felt very uncomfortable the whole time.
@5:40 by the person is gone, did you mean walked behind the van going left? You can see them walking with their backpack lol.
This channel has gone from ending explained to movie explained frame by frame 🤣🤣🤣 and you know what? I'm here for it!! I get to watch a movie knowing whether it's good or not. Or just know a whole lot of movie plots without wasting 2hrs or my time😏😏
Thanks found Flix!!!!
Roanoke Gaming has been doing something similar, summarizing the movie first and then explaining the biology/whatever else and I don't see why not, it's longer and more in-depth videos
This, like all of your videos was great!
Also! Are you going to cover 'Men' when it comes out on the 24th?? Would love that!! ❤️
Thanks for taking the time to make this video. The way you break down a movie is second to none.
That Sall-E thing gave me vibes of that creepy youtube video, 'I feel fantastic,' I think is what it's called.
Also, I do fully believe that this movie is told from the perspective of an unreliable narrator, because he wants something else to be the truth about his wife's disappearance, rather than what the truth actually was/is. Kind of like that woman whose daughter committed murder and she still keeps asking for evidence that that proves her daughter killed; there's a massive collection of evidence, but since she doesn't want to believe her daughter is a killer, she continues to insist that the police have no proof that her daughter killed.
I believe it was a case on Killer Women.
going on a tangent, i liked how this movie had an asian protagonist that is just a 'protagonist' with no asian agenda built in. It is refreshing.
This movie looks really good. Based on max headroom and the I Feel Fantastic. I may need to check it out
0:37 looks like a shot for shot recreation of "I feel Fantastic", nice
I like to think the Sally robots are real but most people see them as human. The “they’re everywhere” guy is what gave me the idea that maybe the intrusions is someone revealing that these things exist and is enabling others a way to see the truth. Like the antique guy knows and gives info to psychos of Sally’s to attack because they aren’t human but you wouldn’t know that unless you could see them.
Our boy with the ad reads! Finally.
The movie has a very strong premise you can tell right away that they really wanted to play around with the idea of deception
Real "I Feel Fantastic" crossed with Shaye St. John vibes on the video with the "android."
The fact that James and 'the killer' are wearing the exact same colours during their confrontation made me decide he was actually confronting and burying a part of himself.
Edit: implying it was him that killed his wife.
!!!!
@Foundflix still around? Wow, been a while since i started ending explained / movie recaps and thought you stopped posting! Got were I am partly to your channel, so happy to still seeing you around :)
"Hello fresh" could be a Horror movie about a killer who feeds his victims the flesh of his previous victims . Delivers anywhere at any time.
Tho I'd call it "fresh meat"
6:17 that looks like a reference to the "I feel fantastic" video.
I’m noticing a bunch of typos in the movie’s scenes and that makes me wonder if we’ll get some cryptic message if we get all the letters