K-Pax **POSSIBLE SPOILER**

[tm37]

Just watched it

I enjoyed it BUT we had an arguement on weither he was an alien or not.

I think he was just inhabiting Robert porters body.

Your thoughts.

 

[Czar]

yes most likely,

it seems that the "alien" needs a host and can only travel with one host, thats why he said he could only take one with him, so the alien just switched hosts and took the nutter away.


well.. maybe

 

[tm37]

<< yes most likely,

it seems that the "alien" needs a host and can only travel with one host, thats why he said he could only take one with him, so the alien just switched hosts and took the nutter away.


well.. maybe >>



Oh Yeah SO MANY UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

I even watched the alternate ending hoping PERHAPS they would show more but they didn't

Still a good Flick IMHO!

 

[Czar]

alternative endings? how here they?

 

[tm37]

<< alternative endings? how here they? >>



Just One basically they removed the meating w/ Bridge's son and added him getting a telescope and looking for K-Pax

 

[Czar]

what a horrible ending that must have been, I think it was fine how it is, so many unanswered questions like you said

 

[kuk]

Bahhh ... just by looking at the title you spoiled it for me ...
Put up "K-pax question ... read inside (WARNING: Possible spoiler)"

Kuk

 

[tm37]

<< Bahhh ... just by looking at the title you spoiled it for me ...
Put up "K-pax question ... read inside (WARNING: Possible spoiler)"

Kuk >>



SORRY forgot the ATOT movie rules!

 

[DrMoreau]

I really enjoyed this movie. The beauty of it is that they don't attempt to answer or resolve that question.

Is he an alien or just a mental patient?

There is no right or wrong answer to this.

It's left for the viewer to decide. And no matter what you choose to believe neither answer is wrong. So there's no need to argue over it. Great art is not to be didactic nor should the artist explain what he meant by it; great art has ample room for viewer intrepretation. It means whatever you think it should mean; whatever emotion it invoked in you is exactly what that piece was made to do for you, whether the artist had intentions for this or not.

 

[Renob]

Its was easy to tell that he Was an alien, based only on the info he new about his planet that he gave the the Astrophysices guys.

It would of been imposible for him to know otherwise.

 

[DrMoreau]

<< Its was easy to tell that he Was an alien, based only on the info he new about his planet that he gave the the Astrophysices guys.

It would of been imposible for him to know otherwise. >>



A good argument to support the "Alien" interpretation. But if you subscribe to the "Mental Patient" interpretation you could argue that he was both an amature astronomer and a savant which made it possible for him to piece together the facts about the orbits of planets in the constellation Lyra.

The Astrophysicist already knew most of what he told them, and what he told them matched up with what they knew. Except for one fact, something about a binary star, that the Astrophysicist still hadn't worked out. Prot (Robert) gave them the answer to thier problem. Someone else would have probably figured it out sooner or later, but since Robert was a savant he was able to figure it out sooner.

So you see, no matter what interpretation you subscribe to you can find enough facts from the movie to support your interpretation! That's what makes this movie so great!

 

[GermyBoy]

Definately. How else would he know about that star system?

 

[Hossenfeffer]

<< A good argument to support the "Alien" interpretation. But if you subscribe to the "Mental Patient" interpretation you could argue that he was both an amature astronomer and a savant which made it possible for him to piece together the facts about the orbits of planets in the constellation Lyra. >>

So what about the camera "conveniently" fuzzing out? I won't take coincidence on that one.

 

[Xenon14]

<A good argument to support the "Alien" interpretation. But if you subscribe to the "Mental Patient" interpretation you could argue that he was both an amature astronomer and a savant which made it possible for him to piece together the facts about the orbits of planets in the constellation Lyra. >

Being a Savant has nothing to do with knowing the alignment of planets. It's like saying that a Savant knows exactly how many Oranges grow in Florida because he's an amateur farmer and a savant, but never has been to Florida to count those oranges. The alignment of the planets can only be described mathematically (as the alien did), but it couldn't be pieced together mathematically as those astronomers said themselves... they didn't have enough data and most of their (scientists') orbits were based off of primitive visuals from telescopes.

 

[DrMoreau]

<< So what about the camera "conveniently" fuzzing out? I won't take coincidence on that one. >>



ouch, you almost had me there, but I still think my theory of multiple interpretations on the movie K-PAX still holds. But first, just in case it isn't clear, I'm not arguing that he wasn't an alien, I'm only trying to demonstrate that there are enough supporting facts from the movie to back up either interpretation. Neither interpretation is less credible than the other.

Possible explanation for the security camera blacking out from the "Mental Patient" interpretation:

Prot (Robert) proclaimed in advance that he would be leaving on July 27th at 5:51am. Why 5:51am? Why not 10:05am or 11:59pm? He said this after having been a resident at the mental hospital long enough to have observed that at that time of the year the sun rose at 5:51am and filled his room with bright morning sunlight. When that moment arrived they showed him stepping into that light, an action that goes along with his claim that he travels using the enormous power of light.

So if he could have had the cleverness to stage his departure at such a time that would have supported his claims of being a light-traveling alien, then it stands to reason that that very same cleverness was also used to manipulate all the other variables surrounding this staged event. This would include the security camera focused on his room. He was an extremely intelligent man who went to great lengths to be what Mark called, "the most convincing delusional he had ever met".

 

[CStroman]

If he was just a mental patient, how did he appear from nowhere in the airport?

 

[DrMoreau]

<< If he was just a mental patient, how did he appear from nowhere in the airport? >>



There were only two witness to his supposed appearance from nowhere: the panhandler (internal witness) and us as film viewers (external witness). If you were inclinded to believe that he was only a mental patient, it wouldn't be hard to claim this panhandler as not being a credible witness and camera manipulation/film editing as discrediting the viewer as a witness.

It was a crowded train station so it wouldn't be too far of a stretch to claim that the panhandler had looked at that spot and saw no one there, then looked away and back only for a spit second to see that someone now occupied that spot. It was a matter of perspective which is never reliable anyway and could have been further impeded by the fact that he was wearing sunglasses.

 

[Pliablemoose]

What about his ability to see in the ultraviolet range?

 

[VTrider]

Yeah, what pliablemoose said! Yeah, whadda bout the UV thing?

(hehe, this is good)

-VTrider

 

[DrMoreau]

<< What about his ability to see in the ultraviolet range? >>



This is the one part that I had a hard time thinking of a convincing enough explanation if you were to take the Mental Patient stance.

Possibile Explanation(?): Photosensitivity is not an unheard of phenomena. I'm very sensitive to light myself and prefer dark rooms to bright light and I even had to get heavily tinted perscription glasses so I wouldn't be blinded while outdoors. Robert obviously suffered from an extreme case of this, and perhaps his ability to see within the ultraviolet range was an abnormal phenomena brought on by either the trauma of his family being killed or a head trauma when he jumped into the river and tried to drown himself. Or maybe a combination of the two.

I know that's not very convincing, but the human brain is still a vast mystery and humans have been known to do abnormal things in abnormal situations or after having suffered some kind of brain injury. Things which seem pretty outlandish but which are later understood with scientific explanation. For example, a woman having superhuman strength to lift a car off her husband after he became trapped beneath it while changing a tire. Seems impossible but we now know that the rush of adrenaline made it possible for her to lift it just enough to let him crawl out; something she could have never done under normal conditions.

I wouldn't be surprised to find that more reasearch might offer an even better explaination. I'm not trying to convince anyone that he wasn't an alien. This seems to be the general consensus. For myself I too like to think he was an alien, but at the same time I like the notion that all this was a brilliantly orchestrated delusion extending from his psychosis brought on by the traumatic event of his family being murdered. I think I'm more fascinated by the excellent job of the writer and director to present a story in which either stance could be true.

Most stories end with a nicely packaged ending which leaves the viewer/reader without any doubt about its conclusion. This one, however, could be either way. If you choose to believe he was an alien, then you are requried to use what is known as "the suspension of disbelief" in order to believe in an alien being from the planet K-PAX since our current real-world knowledge provides no evidence that alien beings exist. If you choose to believe he was just a mental patient, then you do not have to suspend disbelief to accept something outside of our current knowledge, but you are forced to accept facts only as they are presented with speculation being your only recourse towards solving the mystery.

Ingenious writing indeed! The movie was based on a book. I think I'm going to track down the book and read it.

 

[Xenon14]

DrMoreau,

May you please respond to my previous post.

 

[b0mbrman]

I think he was an alien...

 

[DrMoreau]

<< DrMoreau,

May you please respond to my previous post. >>



oh sorry....

Well I don't think I'm capable of offering a better explanation as I don't know much about astronomy, plus I'm a bit fuzzy as to exactly what he did. Watching a movie things sometimes go by you so fast you don't get the chance to understand it fully. That's why I want to read the book.

Nevertheless, as I said in my last post I think the writer did not present it in such a way that makes it conclusive that he was an alien. I believe the intention was to present the subject matter in such a way that it could be interpreted either way. But if you want to take the stance of Mental Patient you have no other recourse then to use speculation to back up your interpretation. The depth of your knowledge in certain subjects, such as astronomy or physiology would make you better equiped to explain certain parts of the movie like the planets or the UV thing. Which means I'm not the one to convince anybody that he wasn't an alien since I lack the knowledge requried to do it convincingly.

Besides, I'm not trying to convince anyone he wasn't an alien. I just wanted to demonstrate the possibility of either stance being a credible conclusion. People should believe whatever they want to believe when interpreting a work of art. Some movies are more open to interpretation than others, and this is one of those movies.