Questions... lots


The movie is really quite exceptional, but it's one of those films that every time I watch it... the same questions seem to arise.


1) Anne keeps referring to "that day her mother went mad" which sort of tells the audience she knows that they're all dead... but, she's just as shocked as Nicholas and her mother at the end of the film when the Old Lady asks them about Grace murdering them. She even insists "we're not dead" with the other two. But, she obviously remembers something, as she told her father "everything," as Charles says to Grace. Grace discusses the situation with Charles as if she also knows something happened, but they don't disclose what. What is it that they think happened, since they don't seem to realize that they're dead?


2) How long has Grace lived in this house exactly? I mean, she obviously never bothered to check out the graves or the names on them. If she had, she'd known something was up with Mrs. Mills, Lydia, and Mr. Tuttle. Not to mention, she stumbles upon the book of the dead hidden away in a room as if she'd never seen it before. You'd think that she'd have found the book earlier if they'd lived in the house for many years.


3) How long have Grace and the children been dead? Anne mentions to Mrs. Mills that the servants left and then "Mummy went mad," and Grace mentions that the servants left a week ago. Does this mean that the servants leaving her alone had pushed Grace over the edge, causing her to kill her kids and herself, and that they've only been dead for a week when Mrs. Mills shows up?


4) Have Mrs. Mills and the others been there the whole time, and Grace and the children can only now see them because they're also dead? Mrs. Mills and the others had died many years earlier, maybe they never left. Maybe once they knew Grace was dead... they pretended to just show up as "housekeepers" to try and ease her into the situation. Mrs. Mills even tells Grace at the end of the film that "there will be other intruders, sometimes we'll sense them, sometimes we won't." This indicates that they've been at the house since their deaths.


5) Does Grace's husband know he's dead? I know that this has been asked before, but I can never tell. I get the impression that he's "doomed," for lack of a better word, to stay on the battle ground where he died... only coming back long enough to say goodbye now that his family is also dead. Or, perhaps it's a cycle his spirit is trapped in, and he continues to make the trip from the battlefield back to his home... and the family can finally see him now that they're dead.

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I'll give you my take.

1. No, Anne didn't know they were dead, or that her mother killed them. What she does know is what she said, Mommy went mad and attacked them, but she didn't know that her mother did in fact kill them.

2. It wasn't mentioned how long they lived in the house? It was a large house and large estate, so she could easily miss things, such as the book of the dead. True, you would think she would have seen the graves, but it fit in with the story line, that she didn't.

3. Their ghosts appeared right after Grace killed her children, and then herself. As far as the servants, a more likely explanation is that because they were now dead, they couldn't see the servants any more.

4. Maybe you're right and the servants were there the whole time? It seemed when they showed up at the door, that Mrs. Mills was able to realize that Grace didn't know she was dead.

5. Good question? When Anne told her father about Grace attacking them, did he know that Grace in fact killed her children? I lean towards him knowing, but it's not perfectly clear to me.

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Thank you for the input. You obviously put a lot of thought into these ideas, which I appreciate.

It really is a great film. It definitely tends to leave a few things open to interpretation, and your interpretation of question 3 makes much more sense than mine.

Number 5 seems to be the one that truly stumps everyone, but I do agree with you in that I definitely lean more toward him knowing that he's dead. As far as Charles knowing for sure that Grace had been the one to kill the children and herself... I'm not entirely sure. Perhaps when Anne told him of the attack he put two and two together and figured it out? I really don't know.

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You do know when it happened. She tells the new servants that the other servant upped and vanished the week before. If we assume that time moves similary in her world (and it very way may not), then she's been living in the new version of the house for a week. However, I have a feeling time didn't move the same way as a lot happened in that "week" (meeting Victor, having a seance - most people dismiss supernatural happenings until they can no longer deny them).

http://www.auplod.com/u/dalpuo430da.png

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For 3) I understood from reading the plot at wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Others_(2001_film) that after Grace died her servants left of course since she's dead. Then Grace woke up (movie starts with her screaming) and she thought what just happened (her killing...) was a nightmare.

She killed them because she was depressed alone with her husband never arriving. Then right away after she woke up thinking she had a nightmare (which in fact was not a nightmare but reality) the 3 dead new servants came to her, instantly.

4) I think yes they kept living there, probably it was a shock to them when they realized Gracy doesn't know she's dead. Then they tried to help her. They knew she's dead because they could see her.

5) The movie doesn't say anything I think about that, it's up to you... it's only suggested that he's dead too that's why after all they can see him.

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Thank you for your input. I appreciate it, helped to clear things up even more so.

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Great answers! I love this movie, and now that October is almost upon us, I need to watch it again. I think even Turner Classic Movies will be showing it this month!

I've always figured that Grace and the kids have been dead for a couple of months. Enough for the house to be sold, and a new family to move in. But that part isn't really made that clear, obviously, because otherwise we'd be in on the twist.

And even though I know what happens, I still find myself drawn to this film, and love to watch it *knowing* the secret, to see if I can find clues throughout that the family is already dead.

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for #5, the way i like to see it, is he makes the trip back and forth to the battlefield, because he doesn't want to move on with out knowing his family made it through. think of it like this, if you died on a battlefield and the last thing you wanted to see were your family again, wouldn't you make the trip as a ghost to check in on them. and at the same time, why would you cross over if you knew they weren't on the other side?
so yes and no, on his way towards the house, he can't even think about anything but seeing them. when there he questions everything, and wonders if he's dead. so he goes back to see his own body.
maybe seeing his ghost is what made the mom cross the line of killing herself and the kids so she was alive for the father the first time he came back, and thats what confuses him.
saw it not too long ago, but now i'm wondering again

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[deleted]

SOLVED: The husband dies on his way to the battlefront in the woods as he is confronted by the Nazis (Remember Nicole Kidman saying they are surrounded. And this is probably what motivated her to kill self/children instead of facing the enemies brutality). He is left wandering there on that path as a spirit after his death till the spirit of Grace finds him and brings him home. He is still clueless about his death but it traumatized by the events that caused his death (Just like Anne). He perhaps thinks that the enemy left him for dead but he survived. When he returns home he hear the story from his daughter about the abuse, he takes the decision to leave his wife (since she has gone mad)/family to fight for the bigger cause i.e, the war.

Thats my interpretation and seems to align with the movie storyline.

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