how do all the stories connect?

[deleted]

There are no connections to the stories besides the obvious. They all take place in a cab at the same exact moment. I think the overall meaning of Night on Earth is to realize that all stories happen in one place; Earth. The movie begins in a warm L.A. setting showing Beverly Hills and other spoils of a successfull life like a big house, nice luggage, etc. The movie ends in a snowy and cold Helsinki with a feeling of hopelessness and sorrow. The stories, all unconnected happen on one Earth.

Here are 3 of the "connections" that I found between the 5 stories:
-------------------------------------------------

1) Almost all of the stories contain a theme related to "blindness":

- Story 1 = The passenger/casting agent admits suffering from "Night Blindness."

- Story 2 = Helmutt (the cabbie) is helpless and unable to find his own way without being led by somebody else (Yo-Yo), much like a blind person

- Story 3 = The driver is considered "blind" by his first passengers (they use a play on words to refer to his nationality as an Ivorian by saying "Y voir rein," which is French for "He sees nothing there"). In addition, at the end, he crashes into another motorists, who also asks "Are you blind?". More obviously, though, the second passenger we see is physically blind. This adds to the irony of this story, since the word "blind" can take on many meanings; it can be interpreted as (1) a physical handicap, (2) a reference to the cabbies inability to drive well, or (3) a term to explain the ignorance of the taxi driver, who is "blind" to the true abilities and limitations of his sightless passenger. This brings up the question, "Who is more 'blind' in the story, and more importantly, who is more handicapped by their 'blindness'?"

- Story 4 = After taking off his dark sunglasses at the request of the "Bishop," the Gino (the cabbie) says, "I feel like a blind man who's miraculously recovered his sight!"

- Story 5 = I couldn't find any obvious or subtle reference to blindness in this one, but I'll keep looking (you never know)...
--------------------------------------------------------

2) In each story, a main character makes an invalid assumption that influences the direction of the plot:

- Story 1 = Veronica (the passenger) assumes (and says) that "everybody wants to be a movie star," which prompts her to question Corky's (the cabbie's) motives for choosing to remain a cab driver.

- Story 2 = Yo-Yo (the passenger) continuously assumes that he and his foreign cab driver, Helmutt, couldn't possibly have anything in common. However, as the story unfolds, so do the subtle similarities between the charaters (in spite of their different cultural backgrounds). Initially, Helmutt (the cabbie) points out that they "...have the same hat," to which Yo-Yo replies (and repeats several times), "Naw, mine is different." However, even Rosie Perez's character Angela also makes note of the similarity later in the story.

Secondly, when the characters discuss their names, it becomes evident that while each of their names are "normal" within their own environments ("Helmutt" is an accepted name in Germany, while "Yo-Yo" is acceptable in Brooklyn), each of their names carries an alternate meaning when viewed under the lens of a different culture. Therefore, in spite Yo-Yo's initial assumption, the two characters do share these minor similarities.

- Story 3 = The cabbie assumes several things about his physically blind passenger (i.e. assuming that she cannot enjoy sex, movies, or food; that she cannot detect the ethnicity of others; that she is unaware of her surroundings, etc.), all of which she proves wrong throughout the course of the ride.

- Story 4 = Gino (the cabbie) repeatedly assumes that his passenger is a Catholic Bishop (a fact which the passenger consistently denies). His assumption prompts Gino to confess all of his sordid sins while in the taxi.

- Story 5 = The 2 passengers speaking to Mika (the cabbie) assume that nobody could have possibly experienced as much pain and misfortune in life as their friend Aki (who lost his job, his wife, and his home all in one day). Once the driver tells the tale of losing his only child, the passengers quickly abandon their assumption and nearly forget about their friend's misfortune.
--------------------------------------------------------

3) Each of the stories involves one or more character(s) smoking in the taxi (except for Story 2 in New York City, where coincidentally, smoking in taxis has been illegal for years).

[deleted]