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In the Mouth of Madness....with John Trent?

posted 14 years ago by Brenapp
50 replies | jump to latest

At the end of the movie, Trent goes into the theatre that's showing the movie of Cain's book, and the sign outside advertises is as starring John Trent. Now I realise that the insanity plague was sweeping the whole world at this point and civilization was on the verge of total collapse, but surely someone who knew Trent and who wasn't insane would have seen this advertisement and gone "What the *beep* How the hell did John get his name on THIS?!?! What the hell's going on?!" Dr Wren, the guy who sees Trent in the asylum, is quite aware of the Sutter Cain madness that's causing so much chaos, wouldn't he be aware of the existence of the movie and know that the man he's speaking to also APPEARS AS HIMSELF IN THE MOVIE???

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] kurthowe 10 years ago

Think of it this way...everything that happens, does so because that is what is in the book. Trent is just a character in the book, like everyone else in his "reality". He may believe that he can do whatever he wants and has free will, but he really can't. Everything he says, does, and thinks are a certain way because that is the character.

Now tell me...if a character in a book believed itself to be self-aware and found out the truth, how SHOULD they react to this realization that they are just a character? They can't do anything that isn't in the book already. End of the last page = end of their Universe.

"Starring John Trent" - of course, the scene is in the book...and that is how it is described there.

Any and all plot holes or inconsistencies can be explained away in such a manner - if something doesn't make sense, it's because it doesn't make sense in the book.

[–] Oceans300 8 years ago

My impression was that everything up until Trent kills the book fan with the ax was simply part of the book. Technically none of it can be verified until that point; I took John Trent's entire existence being due to the Old Ones' and Sutter Cane's power being unleashed and his despair at the end being due to realizing he was only a character brought to life.