The dad makes no sense


So, his dad walks into this 100% controlled set with nothing but scripted, trained actors, and NO one knows that there's an EXTRA amidst their coreographed performance?

Think about a stage, where some bum just randomly walks in just as the play is about to start. Wouldn't someone yell "CUT!" and shoo that bum off the stage?

How does his dad wander into the place that's the main focus of the show, where Truman is about to walk through without ANYONE noticing? Wouldn't one of the other actors realize this man is not part of their that day's performance routine? Wouldn't the directors realize there's an extra man on set?

What about security, that's so good at keeping these 'surprise people' out, at least put some kind of resistance to some old guy just wandering anywhere he wants?

How did he get in there, how did he get through security, isn't the whole system so delicate that the security has to be really tight for the show to work? If it's THAT loose, anyone could just have wandered in and told Truman the truth without anyone stopping them, ruining the whole thing INSTANTLY, right?

So what the heck kind of sense does it make that this 'dad' can just wander around without ANYONE noticing, ANYONE stopping him, ANYONE knowing he's not part of the actor group? Actors usually know each other, they know not only their own roles, but each other's roles, so they can react appropriately. How would it ever be possible for someone that's not part of the production to just WANDER IN and not be noticed by absolutely ANYONE?!

Not that this is the only thing that makes no sense, the WORST part is how much information they FREELY GIVE Truman, that he ABSOLUTELY doesn't need to know.

For example..

- There IS an 'outside world', like Florida, Fiji, etc.
- That there are stars, constellations, and at what point they are at the sky, what their names are, conveniently LABELED, too
(I mean, even if you UNNECESSARILY do all this work to make 'stars appear' (Truman does NOT need to know about the existence of stars, let alone that they have names, let alone what names they have, let alone naming every lamp accurately, and so on)

Sidenote: Lamps don't fall like that, because they are usually at least DOUBLE-attached, exactly to PREVENT them from ever being able to fall onto the stage and potentially killing or injuring the actors. They are not attached with some simple mechanism, it's done VERY thoroughly and even if one method fails, the other (s) keep the lamp from falling! But I guess the MOVIE HAS TO HAPPEN..

Then there are the ridiculous 'goofs', like AFTER finding out that Truman finds out about the 'loop' the cars, actors, etc. are doing (as if they couldn't just improvise 'walking about' anyway), THEY STILL KEEP REPEATING THE LOOP! (But again, the MOVIE has to happen)..

Then the stupidity about forcing him to 'fall in love' with a specified woman instead of LETTING him naturally fall for the other one - also, if this fish-eyed woman he actually fell for, has such a problem with the show, why did she agree to be in the show and dupe him in the first place? You can't make her a moral and immoral character at the same time.

There are so many movies with grand ideas, very interesting thought experiments and so on, but every single one, so far, have been ruined by things that absolutely make no sense, and only exist SO THAT THE MOVIE CAN HAPPEN, and this is one of the worst examples of that.

If the 'controllers' had ANY sense, intelligence, or proper, actual preparation for something like this, Truman could NEVER know anything he doesn't need to know, and he wouldn't KNOW to want to get out, because he wouldn't know that there IS an 'out'. It would be much tighter controlled than North Korea, and it's only ONE individual instead of however many live there.

Not to mention how easily hypnosis could be used if he ever even came close to finding out there's something to find out.

If this movie was logical, the lamp would not have fallen, and it would not have any label about Sirius, LET ALONE THE LATIN NAME (WHY would that be written there, WHO needs to potentially expose Truman to this much information?!), Truman would NOT be able to tell his friend where Fiji is, he wouldn't even know he's on a planet, or that planets exist, or that they are round, or that .. you see what I am saying? Truman would be 100% clueless about almost everything that makes this movie happen.

But then the movie couldn't happen, of course.. all I am asking that there could be a more logical, intelligent and more sensible way for this kind of movie to happen. This takes as many hollyweird-typical shortcuts, plotholes and conveniences that it makes your mind spin.

They go to enormous lengths to introduce a water phobia in Truman, but they don't REFRAIN from labeling an INCORRECTLY attached, UNNECESSARY lamp..? Yeah, that makes sense. NOT!

In any case, pretty much the whole movie makes no sense, but especially that dad-scene.

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My god you're an idiot.

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This is the perfect summary for him.

He doesn't understand that fictional movies are not for him.

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It doesn't matter why the dad appeared conspicuously like that because the creator dude in his command tower wanted credit for their reunion later while not giving reason. You just have to assume the guy is an intelligence archetype. See, the world being a stage, having a set designer and cast and the reality hinging on Everyone and One. In your analysis of this picture, comprehensive as you get, you fail to recognize this type of experiment, as you say, invoked on the grand scale of things, is indisputably allegorical, existential, philosophical and poetical.

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Transcendental, that's the big word right...

P.S. yes, the OP argument dissipates readily into humorous questioning upon treating the outsiders as a responsible party of whom ought to know something that's noticeably internal,
but it can parody itself- question: do you think the stance taken in the movie, that hypnosis *wouldn't * change someone's mind, is actually closer to the truth than hypnosis seriously being used to do so? I haven't studied the subject enough but doubt hypnosis really avails to as much.

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Yes there are some things that don't make a whole lot of sense in order for Truman to start questioning his world, but they aren't exactly plot holes because it's not as if they couldn't happen. People can break onto sets, it happens, just as you can get actors who are unhappy with what the show they're on is doing or how it's run. There are examples of both in real life.

In terms of the dad, perhaps they had always intended to bring him back into the show in the near future, which allowed his getting onto the actual set easier? Who knows? The film obviously has to exaggerate the realism a bit for the sake of Truman's eventual escape.

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I thought maybe he applied for a role as a homeless person but changed his appearance sufficiently that nobody recognized him? It's a bit far fetched but there's probably about twenty or so years between the drowning and that scene (assuming Truman is 30 something)

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I waver between thinking that you actually post sincerely and that you are a sort of dryly humorous clever troll.

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Either a troll as you say, or else someone who's so hopelessly literal that he can't understand fiction, metaphor, allegory, social commentary, satire, etc. There are people like that, after all.

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