MovieChat Forums > Lost Highway (1997) Discussion > Scripted scenes not in the film

Scripted scenes not in the film

posted 4 years ago by Drooch (5333)
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The screenplay has some interesting extra content that perhaps sheds more light on what the hell this film is about.

There’s a recurring creepy motif whereby Pete will be invisible to those close to him. At one point his parents are giggling from down the hallway, he opens the door of his room to see them but they can’t see him and he can’t see them.

On several occasions his girlfriend Sheila stares in his direction but can’t see him. At one point she’s waiting for him on the steps to his house and can’t see him entering the driveway, she looks down the street to where he would have been a few seconds earlier and screams ‘with total horror’, ‘HE’S WITH SOMEONE!!’ (I suspect it’s the Mystery Man)

During Pete’s phone call with Mr Eddy and The Mystery Man, the latter is simply referred to as ‘Voice’, so it’s possible that it wasn’t intended to be MM delivering the dialogue about ‘the Far East’ at the script stage.

Ed and Al, the cops from the earlier Fred storyline, are the cops who keep following Pete. In the film it’s two different cops.

There’s an extra videotape at the start before the one that captures Fred murdering Renee. In it, Fred is squatting by the bed next to a sleeping Renee and scowls at the camera, this unnerves Renee and concerns the police, but Fred suggests there’s nothing to worry about.

There are extra scenes with Andy and a couple of prostitutes but they don’t seem terribly important.

The final difference that really stood out was that at the very end Fred’s head contorts while he screams, but there’s no indication that it’s ‘electric’, casting doubt on the popular belief that Fred is fried in the electric chair in real life at the end. The suggestion is that he’s transforming into yet another personality as the Lost Highway rolls on and on.

There are many other extra bits but those stood out, I read the screenplay here: https://www.slideshare.net/xavierpoicon/screenplay-lost-highway-david-lynch

Let me know your thoughts.

[–] Fandango (534) 4 years ago

Thank you for the interesting information. Lynch's films always have a lot of hidden meaning. I find the rough analysis below to be a fairly concise deconstruction.

Much like in Mulholland Drive, the very beginning scene in Lost Highway is the catalyst for the entire film, as Fred questions where his wife was. If in Mulholland Drive the film could be divided into the dream portion and the reality portion, then in Lost Highway, the film can be partitioned into reality and into Fred's paranoid mind.

Reality

Fred suspects that his wife, Renee, is having an affair. The focus of his suspicion is Andy, as he notices him at party socializing with Renee. At this point, it is likely that Fred had been questioning Renee's fidelity, and was attempting to piece together who it could possibly be. After he sees Andy rather intimate and close with Renee, he makes the executive decision to confront and, perhaps, even kill him. He gets into an altercation with Andy, intentionally or accidentally murdering him. When he follows Renee, he realizes that she was sleeping with Laurent, and decides to murder her as well. He is sent to prison, and is later executed for his crimes.

Fred's subconscious interspersed with reality through the lens of an unreliable narrator

When the detectives show up to Fred's house, he states that he doesn't like cameras, preferring to remember things the way they were in his head. This lets the audience know that what they see is not to be taken for truth. The mystery man is Fred's inner darkness, or demonic side. He shows up when he suspects Andy is sleeping with his wife, marking the decision Fred made to kill him. Pete is Fred's alternate ego. He is who Fred dreams of being (potent, works with hands, sexually dominant). The incoherent and disorderly scenes are symbolic of Fred's mind, which is filled with paranoia or schizophrenia. The mystery man, with the camera, is shining a light to Fred's actions. The reason Fred doesn't like cameras is because they break his illusion, and are the reason he is in prison, and subsequently dies.

[–] Drooch (5333) 4 years ago

I like that summary, and the distinction it makes between Mulholland and LH, dream and psychosis.

I’m certain Fred kills Renee, I’m increasingly convinced he previously killed Laurent (the opening scene could be the morning after he did so, or at least paid someone else to, and the intercom message is confirmation of the act), but I’m not convinced he killed Andy, I suspect that was just a wish fulfilment portion of his ‘psychogenic fugue’.

I have a feeling that Lynch reads books by Jung and Freud, then wonders how he can visualise various psychological defence mechanisms. The MM is some form of displacement, Fred reimagining his darkest impulses as an external demonic figure.

[–] Fandango (534) 4 years ago

Good points.

There is evidence to suggest that Fred already knew that Renee was cheating on him. Before he goes to the club to play, Renee says that she'll just stay home that night. He then asks her, with a rather smug smile, what she'll do, and she responds with, "just read." This is a very interesting point, because there are absolutely no books in the house, and her attire doesn't seem like something you would wear at home if you're just staying in to read a book.

Of course, there is also an interesting point about a reference to dreams. After Fred is given the medicine from the physician at the prison, we see him falling asleep. This could mark the beginning of the dream-like portion of the film.

I do recall reading that David Lynch was partially inspired by the OJ Simpson trials, so there may be some reference to fugue states. It could be that Fred was in such a state, which is why he couldn't remember anything.

[–] Drooch (5333) 4 years ago

OJ was definitely an inspiration for Lynch, specifically how he could butcher his lover and then go about normal life and ‘play golf’ having done something so heinous.

Fred suspects Renee’s infidelity from the start, and this is bolstered by a memory of her leaving the club with Andy while Fred’s playing on stage. Whether she’s actually been unfaithful is another matter.

I think the story works better if Renee is his only kill, which is why it drives him into his fugue state (Lynch has also said the phrase ‘psychogenic fugue’ was influential)

There was a poster called scottt-purcell on this board in the imdb days who made a damn good case for there being no such state, and that Lost Highway is a sci-fi film about someone literally transitioning to a new body, with the MM being a ferrier of souls. It was an epic thread that went on for months, with him batting away the hoards of naysayers with surprisingly good rationalisations. He didn’t convince me but he was able to tie up some of the more confusing aspects of the film, especially after Pete returns to Fred’s body.

Good point on the sleeping pill possibly initiating Fred’s fantasy. Any thoughts on what the quivering fleshy duct is that we’re sucked into during Fred’s transition?

[–] Fandango (534) 4 years ago

I think the story works better if Renee is his only kill, which is why it drives him into his fugue state (Lynch has also said the phrase ‘psychogenic fugue’ was influential)

The scene where Fred hears on the intercom that Dick Laurent is dead is reifying that Fred himself, killed Dick. At the party, after meeting the mystery man, Fred asks Andy who he was. Andy responds by saying he is Dick Laurent's friend. Fred then says, "isn't Dick Laurent dead?" This is interesting as Andy appears confused. If Dick is Andy's friend, and Andy appears genuinely surprised by this revelation, then it would mean that Fred's knowledge would mean he was somehow involved. The scene where we see Fred himself at the intercom saying that Dick Laurent is dead is the attempt at bringing him back to objective world, implying he was involved in Dick's murder. In some ways, this parallels Louis Boner from Mulholland Drive attempting to bring Diane back to reality when she knocks on her door and tells her about Camilla.

There was a poster called scottt-purcell on this board in the imdb days who made a damn good case for there being no such state, and that Lost Highway is a sci-fi film about someone literally transitioning to a new body, with the MM being a ferrier of souls.

It's unfortunate that the IMDB boards are no longer around. There was such a wealth of knowledge over the decades that accumulated on various movie sub-forums. The theory by Scott is interesting. In the Abrahamic religions, there are messengers sent down in the form of vessels carrying the message of God down to the temporal. With this in mind, we can view the mystery man as a vessel, delivering the objective truth to Fred. The tapes are messages from the spiritual realm, the ultimate objective truth.

In Greek mythology, Cerberus was a black dog that guarded the entrance to the underworld, and also served as a guide between the temporal and the spiritual realms. It's possible to view the mystery man as the devil, claiming Fred's soul after committing a cardinal sin, barring him entry from Heaven, instead guiding him into/through Hell. When the mystery man says that he does not enter uninvited, this means that Fred has willingly given into the temptation of the temporal, eschewing morality for the sake of his own selfishness (i.e., "you'll never have me," meaning that if Fred can't have her, no one can.).

Good point on the sleeping pill possibly initiating Fred’s fantasy. Any thoughts on what the quivering fleshy duct is that we’re sucked into during Fred’s transition?

I personally believe that scene illustrates the transition into the state of Pete, the blur between two dispositions (Fred and Pete).

[–] Drooch (5333) 4 years ago

I’m coming around to the idea that Fred murdered Laurent before he kills Renee, but I kinda preferred the notion that we were watching Fred take his first steps to becoming a killer with all the build up to Renee’s death. I guess OJ killed his ex-wife and her lover so maybe Lynch maps that onto this.

Also, MM says to Fred ‘We’ve met before haven’t we... At your house, don’t you remember?’ Perhaps MM paid a few visits to Fred before he killed Laurent, but Fred doesn’t remember, as usual.

What do you think the relationship is between Laurent and Mystery Man? Andy says they’re friends, they appear to be in tandem telephoning Pete to intimidate him, and Laurent seems to be talking to MM when he says ‘We really know how to out-ugly them sumbitches, don’t we?’... but that’s seconds before MM puts a bullet in his head 🤷🏻‍♂️

The fleshy duct appears during the transition but I wondered if it was supposed to be a body part, perhaps a throat, or linked to the wound in Pete’s head.

[–] Fandango (534) 4 years ago

I like to think that the OJ inspiration is only one part of the story, and certainly not the entire premise. Lynch said that intercom voice was something that actually happened to him in real life as well. Someone ringed his intercom and told him that Dick Laurent was dead. David Lynch's neighbor was also named David, so he believes he went to his house by accident, as when he went outside to see who was there, no one was there.

If we are to view the mystery man as a metaphor of a demon or the devil, then I believe his presence is merely allegorical. Dick Laurent is not presented as a good person, in the conventional sense. His association with the mystery man may be symbolic of his spiritual emptiness. He lives in the world of hedonism absent morality (i.e., sleeping with Fred's wife). The subtext behind them being friends is indicating that Laurent is 'friends' with that temporal pleasure offered by Lucifer.

Of course that interpretation brings up an issue, because if the mystery man is only a metaphor, then how is Andy able to see him? It could be that the mystery man is at the party as a representation of hedonism, which is why he is at the party with half-naked girls, alcohol, etc.

Before Fred transitions into the Pete sequence, Fred asks the guard for an aspirin because of his head. In the script it was referenced as swollen, under pressure. I believe that much like how Pete serves as an escapist form of stress release for Fred, the wound is symbolic of that pressure release. The pressure from Fred's torment is released as the embodiment in subconscious form as Pete, and the wound/hole is the picture manifestation of this released anguish.

[–] Drooch (5333) 4 years ago

I think the Mystery Man is kind of like the bum in Mulholland Drive, he represents the dark truth, which is why he wields a video camera (Fred hates them because objective reality punctures his delusions).

But yeah, it’s weird that Andy can also see him and believes him to be a friend of Dick Laurent. Perhaps that’s Fred’s memory distorting reality, turning the MM into a real person who associates with other morally dubious men.

It’s been said that the whole film is a patchwork of Fred’s distorted memories, objective reality, and Fred’s fantasies, we never venture outside his twisted mind.

[–] Fandango (534) 4 years ago

That would certainly make more sense. We know that Fred's mind is not to be trusted fully, so perhaps everything that isn't on camera is Fred's perception of reality, and the objective truth (camera) is the true reality.

[–] Drooch (5333) 4 years ago

What do you think the significance is of Fred’s dream, in which he seems to attack a screaming Renee, but says ‘it wasn’t you - it looked like you’, and which seems to ‘predict’ Renee’s later dialogue - ‘Fred? Where are you?’

Also, why do you think Mystery Man’s face appears over Renee’s silhouetted face?

[–] Fandango (534) 4 years ago

This will require two separate posts as space is unfortunately limited.

If we view the film from the perspective of Fred's mind, there are some interesting observations we can make. For starters, note how Renee's attire is always provocative. She never appears in comfortable clothing, even when at home (heels, dress, make-up). These details are important, and they hint at the idea that everything we see, including Fred's house (minimalism, missing furniture), is a skewed perception of reality; it isn't real, or at least not entirely.

We can view it as Fred's dissociative fugue.

Fred is deficient or incomplete. What the audience sees is as unreliable as his mind. He perseverates on a single instance, idea, and scenario revolving Renee's infidelity. Note the fermata tattoo on Fred's hand (meaning to pause or hold). Much like the highway at night, which is dark and paints only one single and skewed perception, Fred's mind only paints one single and skewed perception of Renee.

Fred is unwilling or unable to paint a comprehensive picture of the situation at hand, the possible reason for Renee's infidelity caused by his impotence and aloof nature, an inability to fulfill his wife's needs, on an emotional and physical level. Despite this, he envisions Renee as a sexual object, something to "possess" (reference to "you'll never have me."). Note the scene when Renee is washing her face, even after she is done, she still has her make-up done. This is telling us that what we're seeing is not reality, it is Fred's reality—subverted, deficient, and incomplete.

The mystery man transposed over Renee's body symbolizes Fred's perception of Renee. She is evil, demonic, and bad, fully deserving of her fate upon Fred's hands by virtue of her infidelity. She has failed her role as an object belonging to Fred, and as Fred sees her as something he possesses, he justifies her death as objective (reference to OJ Simpson and the objective/subjective juxtaposition). The mystery man shines the light into the objective reality of a person. He shows Fred that she is an adulteress, and much how his presence at the party cemented Fred's decision to kill her, his face over Renee's body symbolized, in Fred's mind, Renee's evil/dark nature. The femme fatale, embodied as Alice, is merely the complete manifestation of this reality for Fred, only with Fred/Pete as the victim.

[–] Fandango (534) 4 years ago

Since we know that Fred’s mind lacks the objective element, what we see are only half truths, much like an incomplete piece of music. Fred recalls his nightmare to Renee, and just as he awakens, he turns to Renee, seeing his nightmare play out. On first notice the audience may dismiss this as a dream with no meaning, or perhaps a testament to Fred’s delusion. What is important, however, is that Fred’s dream, which is manifested with Renee’s body transposed with the mystery man’s face, reinforces the idea of multiple personalities.

As we see the mystery man’s face over Renee, we understand that we are dealing with an individual (Fred), who is incomplete, stuck on a note, lost in confusion, and the source of his confusion is the existence of multiple personalities (Pete, Mystery Man). Fred is unable to distinguish between reality and his derangement.

The Lost Highway is a metaphor for Fred’s dark mind. He wanders in his house (an extension of his mind), disappearing into the darkness, forgetting about who he is. The highway goes on and on, in the same dark fashion, similar to his mind.

There is no illumination on the highway, only the headlights (each personality leading to nowhere), no exits, no stops, only one path towards endless derangement culminating in Fred’s death, or perhaps transition into yet another personality.

[–] Drooch (5333) 4 years ago

When the MM says ‘we’ve met before haven’t we - at your house, don’t you remember?’ he must be referring to this moment (I previously wondered if he meant a prelude to killing Dick Laurent but I’m doubting that now). In fact, the script describes it as ‘a face Fred has never seen before’.

I’m not sure the face is shining a light on Renee’s infidelity, I suspect she hasn’t actually been unfaithful, Fred is just clinically paranoid, but I do think it represents Fred’s murderous ambitions - which frighten him.

When Fred says ‘I had a dream about you last night. It wasn’t you - it looked like you’ do you think this is Fred trying to justify murdering her, by convincing himself that something other and evil has posessed his wife?

Why do you think the film features a dream sequence at all?

How is it that Fred’s dream predicts Renee saying ‘Fred? Fred where are you?’ down the darkened hallway?

[–] Fandango (534) 4 years ago

When the MM says ‘we’ve met before haven’t we - at your house, don’t you remember?’ he must be referring to this moment (I previously wondered if he meant a prelude to killing Dick Laurent but I’m doubting that now). In fact, the script describes it as ‘a face Fred has never seen before’.

It's possible that the mystery man is the "evil" Fred saw instead of Renee that justified his action. I don't believe it's meant to be taken literally. I believe the "evil" that is embodied in the mystery man is purely symbolic (infidelity, hedonism, pleasure, ownership).

What is interesting with that scene is Fred's inability to recollect the mystery man at the party.

I’m not sure the face is shining a light on Renee’s infidelity, I suspect she hasn’t actually been unfaithful, Fred is just clinically paranoid, but I do think it represents Fred’s murderous ambitions - which frighten him.

It's possible Renee never cheated on Fred. I'm certainly not discounting the possibility.

When Fred says ‘I had a dream about you last night. It wasn’t you - it looked like you’ do you think this is Fred trying to justify murdering her, by convincing himself that something other and evil has possessed his wife?

That is certainly possible, especially if we consider that Fred sees the mystery man's face on Renee shortly thereafter.

Why do you think the film features a dream sequence at all?

I believe the video tapes show objective reality. Everything else is either Fred's subconscious (Fred scenes) or delusion (Pete scenes). The dream sequence is merely the delusion or fantasy.

How is it that Fred’s dream predicts Renee saying ‘Fred? Fred where are you?’ down the darkened hallway?

This scene lets the audience know that Fred is lost, both in reality, and in fantasy. He is stuck in the dark, narrow perception of his deranged subconscious.

[–] Fandango (534) 4 years ago

The viewing of the third tape is preceded by Madison’s slow walk down
a dark hall in his home. He encounters his own image, but it is not clear if
he is gazing at himself in a mirror or has located another “Fred” within the
home. In either case, the divisive effects of his obsessions are made manifest.
Standing at the edge of the same dark hallway, Renee asks, “Fred, where are
you?” Her voice is small and unacknowledged, but within this philosophical
context, her question echoes the film’s primary concern. The subsequent
image is a pair of shadows ghosting across a bedroom wall. Madison appears
from out of the dark hallway. The tape he removes from an envelope
conducts the same slow pan of the home before entering, as before, but this
recording leads to Madison in the bedroom kneeling over the bloody body
of Renee on the floor. The grainy black-and-white imagery of the taped
scene is intercut with color shots of the same scene, blending the strange,
dual perceptions. Even though Madison does not remember the act, he is
sentenced to die in the electric chair. By showing only the aftermath of the
murder, and not the act itself, Lynch distances the audience from Madison.
The intended effect is a detachment of the audience, similar to the detachment
Madison is experiencing from his own existence.

The Philosophy of David Lynch

This notion aligns with much of what we see in the film. Renee is shown as a single image (always dressed up, always with make-up, always a sexual object). The scene where Alice and Pete are on the phone, note how we only see Alice's lips. This once again lets the audience see that Fred only sees Renee in one way. She is a sexual object that he cannot possess, and this inability to "own" her, to fulfill her, is what leads him to killing her.

The mystery man's symbolic appearance indicates the presence of the "objective" evil that Fred has done. He is shining a light into his inner darkness, the darkness he has lost himself in. The lost highway, a symbol of this path towards the dark.

It is likely that Renee was dead before the film began, meaning that what we see is this dissociative fugue state, where Fred creates a fantasy, a single instance of Renee as a sexual deviant/object.

He is lost in his mind and the highway is the pathway in his brain that leads him towards this incomplete darkness. The unfurnished house is again symbolic of this incomplete state; the inability to formulate a coherent structure, or the whole.

So again, the audience only sees Fred's subconscious or altered reality. He is an unreliable narrator. The only thing we know for certain is that Fred's wife is dead, as evidenced by the video camera.

I would argue that it doesn't necessarily matter if Fred dies in the end, or is merely transitioning into a different state. All that matters is that Fred is still lost. He is driving towards the wrong path (evil).

[–] Drooch (5333) 4 years ago

I agree that Fred killing his wife and being sentenced to death is the only thing we know for certain.

The film nevertheless creates another few itches that need scratching. Did he also kill Laurent? Andy? Was Renee involved in porn and was she actually ever unfaithful?

This content must exist for a reason, and not just to confound. Lynch likes to leave ‘room to dream’ but he’s always very deliberate in his choices.

[–] motorcycledriveb (303) 4 years ago

Interesting that the script does include the #26 on the door where Alice is cheating on Pete, in his vision when he's going upstairs after he accidentally kills Andy. I wasn't sure if 26 was a small detail thought of while on set/production, but here it is in the script.

What is the significance of 26? The number of the Jewish God: YHWH. Hebrew Gematria is about adding up letters to yield a numerical value. In Hebrew, YHWH adds up to 26. If you count up the genealogies as well in Genesis and Exodus, Moses is in the 26th generation of creation, counting from Adam.

A theme in the Torah is about women who secretly go against their husbands, who stray away. Numbers 5 includes a ritual for an adulterous woman, in which she must drink bitter water and suffer a curse, for going against her husband.

[–] Fandango (534) 4 years ago

Yahwehism is aligned with materialism, control, and the concern over heredity. It is Luciferic in its appeal towards emotion as opposed to reason (anti-logos). We can view the mystery man—symbolic of Lucifer/Satan—as an extension of this appeal toward the material and spiritually vacuous. He embodies Crossing the Rubicon, the critical moment where Fred makes the executive decision to appeal to his mass emotion, his feeling of inadequacy, and loss of control through negative sublimation.

In the film, Fred is unable to control his wife, and as he exists absent any form of spirituality, he views the temporal as the objective truth. We hear Alice tell Pete, "you'll never have me." Since Fred is unable to keep Renee, his overt attachment to the physical leads him to killing her, so that no one else can have her either. Her murder can be seen as the ultimate act of greed and narcissism.

This form of corporeal attachment leaves Fred on the lowest rung of the hierarchy comprised, in order, of reason, soul, body. Fred's inability to see the truth is a testament to his existence belonging exclusively to the temporal. Fred can be seen as Godless and anti-logos.

[–] motorcycledriveb (303) 4 years ago

You sound exactly like an old friend of mine. I looked at your other posts on here, and I don't think you're him. But you sound remarkably like him. Maybe you are a doppelganger of him. This is what I like to see. Excellently worded, thank you.

[–] Rusty (548) 10 months ago

I actually get freaked out reading that Shiela scene:

EXT. DAYTON HOUSE - NIGHT

Pete drives up and parks his Camaro in the driveway. When he
gets out of the car, he sees Sheila standing by the front
step. She is looking in his direction, but doesn't seem to
see him. She SUDDENLY turns and looks up the street - she
YELLS.

SHEILA
(total horror)
THERE'S SOMEONE WITH HIM!!

As she yells, she starts to look around wildly - then her
eyes follow the path the Camaro took into the driveway - then
the path Pete took to where he has been standing all this
time. Her eyes find Pete and she stands by the front step.

PETE
(frightened)
Sheila?

She heads toward him.

PETE
Sheila, what is it?... What are you doin'
here?

SHEILA
You've been fucking somebody else haven't
you?

The rest is as we see in the film but I’d love to have seen the intro bit with ‘THERE’S SOMEONE WITH HIM!’ It’s so off-kilter, unnerving and mysterious, fresh out of a nightmare. As is the weird motif of Pete not being seen by people, or existing a few seconds in the future, like he’s out-of-sync with ‘reality’.