Was Michelle the original wolf that bit Jack? (SPOILERS!)

OK first of all you put way more thought and analysis into this film than those who wrote and directed it...so that there is something.

I don't think I did, no. I think this is part of the problem, for some reason you seem to be assuming that the makers of this film, including Mike Nichols who is one of the more respected of Hollywood directors, didn't really bother to pay attention to what he put in the film. I don't believe that.

when they showed michelle at the end as a wolf, the first thing that popped into most peoples head would be, oh she is the wolf from the beginning that bit him and she knew all along.

I completely disagree. I had seen this film many times before coming to this board, and that never occurred to me. Why would people think this? One big reason not to think it is that the film makes it clear through the discussion with the native American doctor that once you turn fully into a wolf it is permanent and you do not turn back. If Pfeiffer was the wolf at the beginning, she could not have been a human character during the film. Say it was Pfeiffer's father's character who had the wolf eyes at the end, and not her. Would you then be saying that it was in fact him who was the original wolf? Because that makes about as much sense.

Allthe points you made is just her playing it along to hide that she was a wolf.

I'm sorry but this just does not stand up. She is scared and confused by what is going on. She is like that even when she is on her own and there is no one to fool (and why would she be trying to fool Nicholson anyway? If she was turning him into a wolf like her why not just tell him?). She is able to ride a horse during the movie. Jack can't go anywhere near a horse without it kicking off. At the end both Nicholson's character and Spader's transform because it's a full moon. Nicholson even has an amulet to help him stop transforming, but even that is only partially effective. Pfeiffer does not begin to change at all. Why is she scared, even when there is no one to trick? How come she can be around and even ride horses without them reacting? Why does she not change with the full moon? Because she's not a wolf.

What else what the director be trying to convey to the audience, what message, would it be by showing her as a wolf at the very end? by holding that revalation out until the very end what other reason could there be than letting the audience know that she was teh original wolf?

You see, he's not "holding the revelation out until the end". There's no revelation to be made until the end because she's not a wolf till then. She's infected at some point during the film. If she was a wolf before then she would have changed at the full moon. The plot of the end of the film is that Nicholson's character has been consumed by the wolf and he has changed permanently. The film makes it clear that when you turn full wolf, it's permanent, you do not turn back. The twist is that this love affair that he's started with Pfeiffer is not necessarily over as she is now turning into a wolf as well. However, she is obviously some way behind him as she is only just starting to experience the symptoms that he experienced shortly after being infected. Conclusion? She has been infected more recently than him.

not another one was ever in the film.

There are numerous other wolves in Vermont. After Nicholson gets bitten he looks into the darkness beside the road. He sees dozens of pairs of eyes and hurries back to his car. The wolf that bit him at the beginning is part of a pack.

see how clear i make it by showing you michelle is a werewolf? so obiviously an entirely different unknown werewolf must have been the one who bit jack at the beginning, get it?

I'm sorry, but you don't make it clear at all. Like everyone else who believes this theory you rely on speculation ("who's to say she wasn't in Vermont that night?"), misreadings of the film ("why hold the revelation back till the end?" "not another one was ever in the film") and ignoring what we are told (once turned fully you cannot turn back, and a person infected by the wolf alarms horses to the point where you cannot approach them, let alone ride them). If it was the directors intention to imply that Pfeiffer was a wolf all along, mistakes like these would be unforgivable. Nichols is not some film-school amateur. At this point he'd been making movies for 30 years. He's hardly going to make such enormous continuity errors. If he wanted to imply she was the original wolf there are numerous ways he could have done so, including not stating in the film that once you turn fully you cannot turn back. As he does not take any of these opportunities to imply it I have to conclude that he is not trying to imply it.

If you can identify a single piece of evidence from the film's narrative that suggests Pfeiffer's character is a wolf at any point before the final scene then I would like to hear it. I just don't see anything at all that points to that interpretation. Literally nothing whatsoever. The only reason to think it is that she is starting to become a wolf at the end. But I think the film makes it abundantly clear that this is the beginning of an irreversible process.






"Reality is the new fiction they say, truth is truer these days, truth is man-made"

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