was just a shared dream. Perhaps a prophetic one that evil is gaining power, but a dream none-the-less. Not a warning from some future scientist. It seems like there's been much discussion on this board about it coming from the future, but I don't think so. And I think Brian's dream at the end is just a nightmare - it shows him having two nightmares in a row about his dead girlfriend.
Just my two cents. I've seen this movie a million times, it's one of my favorites. I'm actually kind of surprised that other viewers have taken it to be more than a dream (not it shouldn't be open to interpretation, it's just always seemed clear to me). I mean, they're scientists trying to explain the actuality of the supernatural based on theoretical physics (both Greek to me, lol).
I always found the transmission sequences to be the most terrifying parts of the movie. And I do consider them transmissions or communications rather than dreams. Satan is warning them that he controls the church, and finally, that he has Catherine.
It is a message transmited from the year 1999 by Brian himself.
Here's the cool thing: he inspired himself to do so. By sending the message from the future, and directing it to that one building, Brian knew his past self would pick it up during sleep and figure how it works. A paradox indeed, but a cool one nevertheless
Funny how you come up with exactly the same conclusion as Donald Pleasance's character (who explains that everyone who comes in to contact with it will share the same dream).
If it really were a transmission from the future using tachyons (which their equipment detected!) aimed at where the planet would have been in space in the past, then shouldn't every person on the planet have the dream?
There's no way for the transmission to only be received inside the church near the canister.
If it were really just a shared dream, how's it possible for them to dream the same thing? Was it put into their minds by the green ooze? If so, then why did their equipment still detect tachyons? Did the ooze send out the tachyons, too?
Why would the Prince of Darkness try to warn them so it could be stopped?!
It had to be a real transmission from the future and the reason why only the people near the goop received it is: your friendly neighborhood plot hole.
A tachyon is a sub-atomic particle. Which means that, like any particle-based transmission, it can be focused into a beam and aimed at a specific point much like a laser. And, much like a laser, you can focus the beam as tight as a needle(or smaller) or wide enough to totally encompass, say, a church(or larger) depending on need. It definitely wouldn't transmit like radio waves which is omnidirectional from point of origin. Even then, anything broadcast using tachyons would likely be received much the same way radio waves are(such as anyone with a receiver can listen to the broadcast of a powerful enough radio station as long as the receiver is tuned to the same broadcasting frequency even though, technically, there is only one source).
Also, we had a discussion in a deleted thread were we came to the conclusion that Brian is the most likely person to have sent the transmission...not Anti-God. The logic being that, once Catherine makes her sacrifice, Brian is the only one who would feel the need to try and reopen a portal to Limbo(to save her) and the knowledge to do so as he's a theoretical physicist, has access to the book with all those nifty Jesus equations proving the science behind what happened and knows where and when to aim the transmission(at the location of the canister prior to Catherine's sacrifice and at his house after). Of course, this is based on the assumption that the Dream received by Brian at the end film is an authentic one only slightly changed due to Catherine altering the timeline by sacrificing herself.
So anyway, no, this isn't a plot hole as it is internally consistent with the rules/logic presented in the rest of the film.
that Brian is the most likely person to have sent the transmission...not Anti-God.
How would anti-god even be a possibility? That's absurd! The whole point of sending the transmissions is to stop satan and his father anti-god, thus for them to send transmissions to defeat themselves would be insane. No way would they do it.
reply share