Figuring out 1408?
I've been going over 1408 in my mind ever since watching the thing. I've probably turned it into a much better movie than it deserves to be (I left the theater disappointed with the film). Is 1408 anything more than a guy thrown into a room that makes scary noises? It could be. Here's what I've been thinking:
The room itself isn't evil. The room merely gives everyone who stays inside it the chance to face their demons. We know that Mike's father was abusive and the room shows Mike his dad and his dad says something like, "What you are, I was, what I am you will be." He's warning Mike that if he keeps going down this path of irresponsibility and cynicism, he is doomed to turn into the same jerk as his father.
The room then shows Mike his daughter. It's clear he didn't handle her death well, if at all, essentially acting as though it didn't happen. The room then gives him another chance to hold his daughter. To remember her as she was. And then it takes her away from him again, this time in hopes that he will finally face up to the death and move on without that gigantic fucking chip on his shoulder that he's been carrying since she was taken from him the first time.
We know Mike needed that, as he tells Samuel L. Jackson that he'd love nothing more than to find a ghost and to know there is something more than the life he is living. He wants to know there's an afterlife. The room shows him this afterlife.
The room gives him an hour to grow up. Like it says in Shawshank Redemption, "Get busy livin, or get busy dyin'." Obviously more people slept in that room than the ones who died there. The people who slept in that room and lived chose to confront their pasts and move on. The ones who couldn't chose to die. Mike chose to face his fears and move on. He "defeated" the room, thereby defeating the weaknesses he had that prevented him from living up to his full potential.
Again at the end of the movie Sam Jackson confirms this by saying he did a good job. I think he knew what Mike was getting himself into and didn't think that someone as cynical as Mike would ever get out of that room alive. But he did and that's why Jackson complemented him.
Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter anyway. The movie still pretty much sucked.
--Alex Sandell
The room itself isn't evil. The room merely gives everyone who stays inside it the chance to face their demons. We know that Mike's father was abusive and the room shows Mike his dad and his dad says something like, "What you are, I was, what I am you will be." He's warning Mike that if he keeps going down this path of irresponsibility and cynicism, he is doomed to turn into the same jerk as his father.
The room then shows Mike his daughter. It's clear he didn't handle her death well, if at all, essentially acting as though it didn't happen. The room then gives him another chance to hold his daughter. To remember her as she was. And then it takes her away from him again, this time in hopes that he will finally face up to the death and move on without that gigantic fucking chip on his shoulder that he's been carrying since she was taken from him the first time.
We know Mike needed that, as he tells Samuel L. Jackson that he'd love nothing more than to find a ghost and to know there is something more than the life he is living. He wants to know there's an afterlife. The room shows him this afterlife.
The room gives him an hour to grow up. Like it says in Shawshank Redemption, "Get busy livin, or get busy dyin'." Obviously more people slept in that room than the ones who died there. The people who slept in that room and lived chose to confront their pasts and move on. The ones who couldn't chose to die. Mike chose to face his fears and move on. He "defeated" the room, thereby defeating the weaknesses he had that prevented him from living up to his full potential.
Again at the end of the movie Sam Jackson confirms this by saying he did a good job. I think he knew what Mike was getting himself into and didn't think that someone as cynical as Mike would ever get out of that room alive. But he did and that's why Jackson complemented him.
Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter anyway. The movie still pretty much sucked.
--Alex Sandell
Labels: 1408, explaining 1408, Samuel L. Jackson, Stephen King, theories
