What's with the numbers? ***SPOILERS***
After posting a comment on another thread discussing Mackenzie = The driver, I just noticed that there's a lot of funny things going on with numbers in this movie.
Jack Starks: 12/25/1964 - 01/01/1993 (should be 12/31/1992 because his body was found a day later)
Rudy Mackenzie: 06/12/1952 - 02/11/2004
2004 - 1952 = 52 (5+2 = 7, see below)
2004 - 1964 = 40 In 2004, Jack would have been the age of Mackenzie in 1992
And what's all about the 7?
If we assume you jump 15 years forward when you're in the jacket and Mackenzie's theory is correct (Driver = younger Mackenzie), then Mackenzie jumped from year 1992 - 15 = 1977 (there are details that support that Dr Becker might have been treating Mackenzie back in the 70's).
Dr Lorenson/Babak's news article is dated 1999, 7 years after 1992 (extra bonus: exact date is June, 13th... one day after Mackenzie's birthday).
Jack was locked inside drawer 7 (no tag number on the door, but you can know it from the other drawers' numbers).
Ted Casey sodomized a 7 years old girl.
When all patients are gathered in the same room (when Mackenzie talks about the Organization for the Organized), there are 7 "board" members sitting: Dr Hopkins, Dr Lorenson, Priest, a woman, a man (benefactors?), Dr Beckett and a man (staff member?).
Just at the end of the scene, we're shown a diagram on a wall with 7 arrows.
When Dr Lorenson uses ECT on Babak, the discharge lasts EXACTLY 7 seconds.
Jack's first time travel is on Christas Eve (December 24th) and he dies on December, 31th (again, the body is found one day later), 31 - 24 = 7
Either way, if we use the official date of death, Jack's birthday is on December, 25th. So according to the grave dates he lived 28 years and 7 days.
Jean's car license plate: CWX 3456 (...7)
Young Mackenzie's(?) car plate: RPL (7...) 8912
Jackie's first car: JKL 2134 (odd number, almost as 3456, JKL is a bit off too)
Dr Lorenson's car: FLD 0567
Jackie's second car: HML (7...) 8952 (hey, another 52!)
All of this supports the theory of the near-death experience after being shot in Iraq ("all the movie is a dream"). Jack's mind was creating everything, which would explain all the coincidences and odd details. It's like when you dream, the brain reuses its stored information, and builds elements that are coherent or "easy". Why would the brain create complex random car plate numbers in a dream, when it can simply use "3456"? Why use complex names when you can use "Jack", "Jackie" and "Jean" (and then reuse some of that information for a car plate -JK-).
Or maybe in a near-death experience, when the brain is shutting down, its last "sparks" of bright intelligence are represented in the most basic form of expression: numbers and mathematics.
Anyway, a couple of extra details (besides the large amount that have been discussed in other threads) to sustain that theory:
1. The third time they put Jack in the morgue drawer, Nurse Harding is wearing a "Desert Storm" badge (wtf?)
2. At the end, when they are in Jackie's car and all fades to a bright light, during all the scene there's something hanging from the rear view mirror that can hardly go unnoticed: a Dreamcatcher. Not very subtle, is it?