MovieChat Forums > The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) Discussion > What's with the title?

What's with the title?

posted 18 years ago by RodFtLaud
9 replies | jump to latest

The movie pretty cool, but I didn't get what the movie title has to do with anything.

"Hot sun, cool breeze, white horse on the sea, and a big shot of vitamin B in me!"

[–] sharane_alvarez 18 years ago

I'm 14, and I saw this movie last night. I didn't get the title either but I think I know what it means now. I think they are trying to say that Bill Pullman's character is the "Rainbow" and that crazy guy (I forget his name) is the "Serpent."

[–] smythe17 18 years ago

You're wrong. The serpent is supposed to represent the earth and the rainbow represents Heaven. When they say "the serpent and the rainbow" you're supposed to think of it as being what is in between. I'm guessing that the in between is the zombification part of the film.

[–] sharane_alvarez 18 years ago

Really? Well that makes sense too. Thanks, I wasn't sure what I was talking about anyway. I've only seen it once and I'm only 14.

[–] moondog548 18 years ago

I just watched the movie and the very first thing on screen is just a text blurb explaining exactly that.

/I bring you Sooth/
http://soothunleashed.blogspot.com/

[–] sharane_alvarez 18 years ago

So that's what they are talking about...oh. Thanks a bunch then! :D

[–] johncabutt 18 years ago

The title is also taken from a non-fiction book by Wade Davis, based on his experiences investigating zombification in Haiti.

[–] Jack the Ripper1888 17 years ago

when they put bill pullman on the pan am plane back to america there's a rainbow across from where he is sitting =]

[–] coyotewomanwaits 17 years ago

Being a student of comparative religions and of Vodou (the religion, not the Hollywood), the Serpent is the protective father-spirit (or loa/lwa), Damballah. The Rainbow is his wife, Ayida-Wedo. I don't remember exactly why Wade Davis chose the pair as the title of his book - maybe to distance it from something like "The Truth About Zombies" or maybe to make it more reader-friendly than "A Treatise on Ethnobotanical Substances and the Treatment of Catatonic Schizophrenia in Haiti".

Bring me the priest. - Jean Baptiste Emanuel Zorg

[–] RodFtLaud 17 years ago

Wow. thanks.

"Hot sun, cool breeze, white horse on the sea, and a big shot of vitamin B in me!"