MovieChat Forums > Secret Window (2004) Discussion > 3 interpretations of this story

3 interpretations of this story

posted 9 years ago by sbattey
5 replies | jump to latest

In the special features, the director says that the movie begins when we enter the mirror of "Mort's mind" and concludes when the camera exits through the same mirror, each of which serving as bookends to what's happening in Mort's mind and reality existing on either end. So...

1. Mort, during one of his naps, dreamed the entire film and woke up to kill Amy as she arrived.

2. Mort, isolated in his cabin after the split, wrote the story we were watching as "Secret Window" which later appears in his short story collection, but it never really happened.

3. Mort, his pysche cracked by the split, imagined that Shooter was real, killed his own dog, killed the two men and finally killed his wife and lover.

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] zeke2353 8 years ago

Having watched the movie again last night, number 3 seems logical. However, when the sheriff confronts Mort at the end and says "I know what you did, and sooner or later we're going to find those bodies," or something like that, Mort knowingly smiles the bodies won't be found. How would he know that if he doesn't remember what Shooter did or does?

[–] edonovan2 8 years ago

I didn't think Mort "knowingly smiled" at the sheriff's words. I dob't think he really knew or recalled what he did. I got the impression that, as is repeated several times when he "rewrote the ending," "one day he would forget what happened" or words to that effect.

[–] lakeshahouser 8 years ago

By the end of the movie Mort has already remembered how Shooter was created and that he himself is Shooter..(Shooter is a product of his imagination mixed with his emotions about divorce. He was created during a market sale (that's where he brought the hat and created the accent)
So ofcourse when the cop states he knows that he's done "Shooter via Mort" smiles and eats the corn. Remember Shooter wanted him to rewrite the ending so his wife can be buried outside of the secret window- the original ending left his wife alive.

[–] TheFatDruidofNacyl 7 years ago

I got the impression that by the time he confronts the wife that Mort's personality died and Shooter's personality was the only one left.

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