He was a master psychopathic manipulator. You can see it at the end when Robert discreetly smiles when Powell is just figuring out how he managed to heal other patients and so on.
Most likely he himself also killed his family, and masterfully crafted to deceit the whole scenario.
so how did he know the orbits of the Kpax system?
shareLike in real life examples, psychopaths tend to focus very hard and meticulously on particular tasks. In Robert's case it was the whole circumstance of "playing the system and/or fooling the system". It was something he most likely enjoyed, and wanted to see whether he succeeds in this deception. So he studied very hard the Lyra constellation, astrophysics overall, and just managed to develop a likely realistic outcome of it.
sharelike they said in the movie, this was not about study or smarts, it was about information that was simply not available. The chances of getting it right by guessing are astronomical, if you can endure the pun.
shareWhile it's left open to "interpretation" (which is the new norm these days in Hollywood), i'm sure Gene Brewer actually thought him as a very smart psychopath playing the system. It would make sense, to convey the idea as prot actually lived (because most of the signs point to it), while in reality it was just a "sick" game.
I also take into account Gene's previous work with the DNA replication and everything. It seems logical to craft this twisted story.
Yes:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0272152/board/nest/260907370
..*.. TxMike ..*..
Yes what? The majority of viewers think he was meant to be K-PAXian. While i think Gene Brewer still didn't originally. And to me many subtle hints, together with interpreting the author's background and his approach on medical science, makes him a very talented psychopath.
shareNope. Disagree totally.
..*.. TxMike ..*..
And that's your right. Like i said, the majority think he was prot, and it's how the movie *wants* you to think. It's the easy interpretation ending. While i still think he was meant to be a human. :)
share...it's how the movie *wants* you to think.
Yes, because that is the story, the movie doesn't not try to deceive us. Just like, in other movies, Superman is really from Krypton, Batman is really Bruce Wayne, E.T. really is an extraterrestial.
Any alert, intelligent viewing of "K-Pax" leads to the realization that Prot really is an alien from an advanced civilization.
..*.. TxMike ..*..
Again, let's agree to disagree.
And no, this movie deceives us. Kevin Spacey himself said the ending meant for the viewers to come up with their own ending without any definitive right answer when he gave an interview on K-PAX to William Keck back in 2001.
I respect Spacey, he is a fine actor and a smart man, but just because he played the lead role doesn't mean he understands the story better than observant viewers. I could accept the ambiguousness if the scene in the planetarium had been excluded, but it is in there and the ONLY way a character could explain the obscure star system and the orbits of the planets, and do it in the professorial way he did it, is if he really is who he says he is, Prot from K-Pax. Once we accept that then the other interactions make perfect sense.
Any other interpretation is just inventing implausible scenarios to be a contrarian. I can do that too ... every good movie is just a dream of some minor character, nothing we see ever actually happened. That fits well with what you are trying to do with the movie 'K-Pax.'
TxMike
LoL. Yeah, the actor who plays the character. Plays the character whom we're supposed to derive whether he's prot or not.
Do not worry, i'm sure Spacey knew exactly who he was playing, and how one thing should be interpreted or not. :)
So that smile at the end explains away all of the other evidence that he is the alien he maintains throughout the film? Couldn't the smile simply be an acknowledgment that Prot's life long friend Robert Porter has enjoyed sharing his body with his friend and watching all of the wonderful things he's done for people while staying on Earth? Couldn't Robert be happy that Bess is starting a new life somewhere?
Because the evidence is pretty stacked against Prot being simply human. He is able to explain complex astrophysics, he can detect ultra violet light, he seemingly appears from nowhere at the start of the movie, he leaves for a few days without a trace, and when he is put under hypnosis he still maintains that he's an alien. Also, after he's gone on the beam of light, no one recognizes the man that comes out of the room as Robert Porter.
All the studying in the world won't allow you to see things that humans cannot see. So it's quite a stretch to believe that he's a master manipulator who has trained himself to do things most humans cannot.
Calm down, it is clear to any logical viewing of the movie that Prot is exactly how he represents himself, the OP either isn't very observant or is just trolling.
..*.. TxMike ..*..
Ah, the typical "trolling" just had to come out. :) And i thought i made it clear from the beginning and throughout the posts that "it's in my opinion".
I understand sometimes it's hard to stay calm when hearing others' opinions. But that would be legitimate if someone said the Earth is flat, the Earth is 6000 years old, or any other such nonsense. And unfortuantely there are still millions of people buying it even today.
But trying to say that prot is an alien for a fact is just stretching it. Again, in my opinion he is a master psychopath.
I just watched the movie and I have to say I see exactly what you're trying to say here and I agree about how there isn't a fact and your opinion makes complete sense to me.
The distinction here is there is overwhelming proof to the alien possibility, but the movie seems intent on it not being definitive proof. It's as though it all but seals the final nail, but then goes out of its way to be indirect in what you're led to believe about Bess and the entire concept of possession never even being mentioned by the movie. To me the way it ended stood out similarly to how it started and came across fairly obvious with how much whimsy it had suggesting the super natural.
There is without a doubt more evidence Prot was a real alien, as evidence becomes introduced and never has explanations that definitively disprove it. Instead the movie takes you on a twist to discovering Robert. There is then much less convincing evidence that Robert is crazy or tricking everyone with how he acts in hypnosis, the hint dropped about how he was always very smart, and importantly how Robert resented working at a Butcher's and yet it was Prot that mentioned the fruit alone being worth his visit. In a sense you can see these discoveries as purposefully misleading coincidences towards the alien argument that isn't disproven yet. But then why only at this point does the lesser evidence have to be misleading?
I'm not even so sure myself, or that it's supposed to be whatever the audience thinks it is. Rather I see the journey the movie puts you on. It's really more intent on that twist, and essentially trying to seal the whole overall whimsical tone by suggesting, heavily suggesting, that the twist was a fake out. The movie seemed very preoccupied with its tone and all that xylophone music lol. I actually highly suspect anyone insisting on any obvious facts is giving the movie more credit as a sci fi than it really was dealing with compared to the drama. And so if I had to pick a side I'd agree with your opinion because it fits the style of the movie much better.