Ok, so we see that he spent the whole night playing an orgasm on a loop. I imagine a night of a thousand Os would leave you feeling like a million bucks, or just very tired, but Hal says it did more, that is wasn't just sexual. "I am more than I was before." he said. What do you think he meant?
shareMichael went past death and came back.
Hal went past sex and came
...back. ;-)
cute, but seriously, any ideas?
shareThe way I read it was that it became more than just a physical experience, because not only was he feeling her physical sensations as well as his own, but her emotional sensations as well. They literally had become one.
"There's nothing worse than having an itch you can never scratch."
Gotta disagree with most of you. The result of the experience damaged his brain and what he said about being more, was a delusion - a symptom of the damage.
Too much, too soon, too long, too strong, too many,
to fix.
An orgasm being the most intense physical experience you can have, and one that nature designed you to have for only seconds at a time has been described as touching heaven. Perhaps by playing an orgasm on an endless loop Hal actually crossed some spiritual boundary and found some meaning in life that was unknown to him before.
If nothing else, I am sure a 10 hour orgasm would leave you with an afterglow like London city lit up for Christmas! :-)
I wouldn't say that is entirely true - an orgasm being the most intense physical experience. Some people would say serious trauma, child bearing, etc. are much more physically intense.
shareYeah fair point, I would also agree that having your legs chopped off by a train would be very traumatic and change a person. But what your talking about is trauma through pain. An orgasm on the other hand is completely the opposite experience to a pain. It is a place where the physical and spiritual aspects of an individual meet but only for a brief moment. Hal's prolonged experience in this state - I believe - allowed him to perceive a depth to our own existence that most of us can never see because we are never given the time.
Padwanna.
I was merely pointing out the omega to your alpha. Pain can be just as physically intense as pleasure. But I would say the resultant effects from pain are far more withstanding due to the effects on the brain. Having your legs chopped off would probably be much more memorable than an orgasm, despite how intense. Perhaps a true hell or purgatory for Hal would be the repetition of an physically-hurtful experience. Also, you have to wonder why the expression on someone's face who is having an orgasm looks very similar to that of someone experiencing pain. Food for thought.
share[deleted]
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Actually I think this is what happened.
When we hit climax - there is a rush of endomorphines into the brain, something like a natural high.
What happened to Hal was that his brain became 'wired' to trigger an epileptic type fit where he would experience organism buth without the physical results (erection, ejeculation, etc).
He became 'addicted' to the machine, and without it his body could not keep up with the production and release of endomorphines. Very much like a heroin addict. He was hooked on climax.
If you study the reposne of Pavlo's dog - salvalting at the sound of a bell - you can realise how a pleasuable sensation - like eating - can trigger other responses - like salavating or drooling..
What they would be doing for Hal would be to try and de-program his brain, and try and cure the epileptic like triggering effect.
Hope this gives some insight. Oh - and Hal feeling better was just the result of the endomorhines. When his body could no-longer produce them or that the receptors for the chemicals became saturated - he would have one hell of a crash.
Take Care
Marc
Walk Quietly throughthis Earth
Leave nothing but Smiles and Pawprints
What happened to Hal is that he now has some of Gordy in him.
It says so in the script notes, which I have a copy of.
i think y'all are missin the point...
he woulda died hooked up to that machine...
there's this famous psychology rat experiment... they stick a probe into the rat's brain, directly into its pleasure center... the probe is attached by wire to a bar which the rat can press... when it presses the bar, a small electrical charge is applied to the probe which stimulates the pleasure center
not unlike being able to have an orgasm by hitting a button... that's all... just hit a button and bam! instant orgasm...
now here's the kicker... the rat will keep pressing the bar over and over and over and over and over and over... you get the idea... just like Hal and his loop...
and the rat will keep doing this, even to the point of not eating...
over and over and over and over...
and it will die from starvation before it stops pressing that bar
Hal was fried
he was becoming a basket case...
his brain woulda shut down, and he woulda just dribbled away
and he woulda died with a big smile on his face
from the movie you can see his next stage woulda been convulsions and epileptic fits... his brain was blissing out, shutting down
i guess you _can_ have too much of a good thing =\
"
i guess you _can_ have too much of a good thing =\ "
Well said
well, an orgasm is also a chemical reaction...
how cocaine euphoria works is by creating a kind of "feedback loop" in your pleasure center, it closes it off and doesn't allow the chemicals to stop creating the reaction (until it wears off after a few minutes)...over long periods the pleasure center can be "burnt up" and it's hard for the addict to feel
morphine also works on brain chemistry, it's a substance which replaces the body's own endorphines and also releases them alot more efficiently (which is why it is so powerful)... what happens with addiction is that the body stops producing it naturally, so you end up actually needing the drug since your body no longer produces it... causing physical pain and an actual inability to have certain normal emotional responses (if I remember correctly) due to the body's lack of producing the normal amounts of daily endorphines...
but I digress...
my point is that the repeated use of such a device to constantly orgasm would burn up the brains chemicals, possibly causing neurological damage over long periods of time (or even short intense times possibly)..
it'd certainly cause dehydration and heart troubles since it's a very intense physical experience, sort of like running a marathon I'd think...
alot can be discussed about all these points I've brought up and I haven't totally thought it out as this is just off the top of my head but one thing that definitely might occur is "burn out" or "desensitization" wouldn't you think? that the sensation would lose it's intensity eventually due to the hosts brain breaking down as it uses up it's natural supply of the chemicals it uses?
I dunno, just a thought... I just really doubt he'd come out of it feeling like a champ... perhaps under controlled short term conditions (like minutes, not hours) it would but after a prolonged session like he had?? ugh, I don't think I'd want that, lol.. .tho of course, like every other guy, I'm intrigued at the day long orgasm, lol....
"from the movie you can see his next stage woulda been convulsions and epileptic fits... his brain was blissing out, shutting down
i guess you _can_ have too much of a good thing =\ "
This was my take on it as well.
I would be curious as to whether he would ever want/need sex/orgasms again. Perhaps he burned out the part of his brain that links the biological urge to reproduce with the plesure center (the part that has us ALL addicted to orgasms), and has found new meaning to life, above and beyond "getting laid".
"I am more than I was before."
Tom Head
[email protected]
http://www.h3adlin3.com/
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I think he meant that he had received not just the feelings of the sexual act, but also had been imbued with the feelings of the younger man, making him feel younger and stronger. It wasn't just the sex, he had experienced what the younger guy was feeling during the sex.
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I happen to have a copy of the script, Rev 9-21-81 by Bob Stitzel. The subtext in that scene reveals some detail that didn't translate to the screen. It says:
191. INT. - BAROMETRIC PRESSURE CHAMBER
Subtext: Hal towels himself off. Sweat pours from his body. When Hal talks, he sounds curiously like Gordy.
HAL (seeing Michael) Wanna jog a few laps?
Subtext: Hal's face suddenly contorts with some kind of rush.
Subtext: Hal shakes it off.
HAL (talking more like Hal) I'm fine.
So from this, I take Hal's meaning that he is "more" in the sense that he is somewhat now Gordy too. Then when Hal starts to shake, his eyes roll back in his head and the EEG machine goes nuts, is when Hal changes from Gordy back into Hal.
Personally I dont pick up on this on the screen, but the subtext in the script sheds some light on it.
HAL
Something happened to me. It
wasn't just a sexual fantasy...
It was a feeling I got...It was
really - cosmic.
Subtext: Michael is becoming more interested. Hal certainly has gone
through some kind of real transformation.
Cleon, I hope this answers your question.
Athanks for this info. I e watches this. Obie so many times over the past, gasp, thirty years and always wondered what was meant. Lillian, acknowledges with a nod that Hal is somehow, more, but more what was never clear. I couldn't imagine how she would be able to know he was more, that it was something she could measure perhaps? It didn't make sense to me. Years ago, I even wondered if his penis had become longer somehow, since it was the only thing I could think of that connected all the dots- his sexual experience, her being able to verify it, and his saying he was now more. But that seemed to be such a stupid idea for a supposedly intelligent film. My most recent thoughts were that his brainwaves were different now, measurably changed and that was how Lillian was able to confirm it. So I'm sort of correct, after all. I miss movies like this, when every point isn't laid out and spelled for the audience in capital letters, I like a movie that lets us wonder and think a bit.
shareThe same thing that happened to Chris Brace the son of Walken and Wood. All of the things that are left unexplained and the lack of follow through can't all be blamed on Wood's untimely death. The script suffers from ADD. The movie changes tone, focus and direction every 15 minutes or so.
share