MovieChat Forums > The Others (2001) Discussion > Interactions with physical objects

Interactions with physical objects

posted 10 years ago by AndyNonimous
12 replies | jump to latest

Nicole Kidman's character is always carrying oil lamps around, and the shotgun. As well, as closing/opening doors & curtains. She closes and locks the piano fingerboard and keys.
"The others" (the new family and the medium) apparently witness her opening and closing doors and the curtains (though not her apparition). Also yanking covers off of furniture in that one room. As well as closing up the piano. Which, presumably the father, then re-opens. Who also has an apparent door "battle" with Grace.
So did the new family/medium witness oil lamps and a shotgun floating around and moving in and out of rooms? What about the children's books and toys?

Or is the just the kind of plot hole viewers aren't supposed to wonder about in these movies?

[–] psdhart 10 years ago

Which, presumably the father, then re-opens. Who also has an apparent door "battle" with Grace.
So did the new family/medium witness oil lamps and a shotgun floating around and moving in and out of rooms? What about the children's books and toys?

they must have, I think that is why the curtains had gone, the living family must have taken them down

also would they have seen a shotgun float then fire?

[–] Mehki_Girl 10 years ago

I think its more of sensing these things depending on the individual's psychic ability. Some people will see it, some not. Sometimes the worlds collided or touched sometimes not. The daughter sensed the living more that the others, while Victor sense them more than the rest of his family. So, no, I don't think people saw things floating about, but, yes, sometimes one world opening a door, opened it in another. Playing piano in one world was sometimes heard in another. The servant tells the mother this at one point - sometimes she would sense the others but for the most part she would "live" in her world and the others in theirs.

http://www.auplod.com/u/dalpuo430da.png

[–] lpt0127 9 years ago

So did the new family/medium witness oil lamps and a shotgun floating around and moving in and out of rooms? What about the children's books and toys?

hard to say.. we never saw anything from their POV as that would have spoiled the twist.. but remember the seance.. as Anne was throwing papers up in the air, everyone around the table saw those same papers levitate on their own.. so there was at least one instance.

Welcome to the El Flamingo, Jeffrey!
Don't piss in the pool, Jeffrey.

[–] Ushers_Passing 9 years ago

The papers were things that were actually in the house. I would imagine that after the murder/suicide that the evidence (rifle) would have been taken from the house and their existence was solely in the world of grace and the rest

[–] shushkka 9 years ago

I would imagine that after the murder/suicide that the evidence (rifle) would have been taken from the house and their existence was solely in the world of grace and the rest

I agree.

[–] AmyJolamb 9 years ago

I've always wished they'd do a second movie from Victor and his parents point of view.

[–] kobrakai1 9 years ago

The lamps and things only existed in the ghost world. Whereas the piano and the doors exist in both worlds.
The papers exist in the living world but grace could interact with them because the medium summoned her during the seance

[–] matt-akers 9 years ago

I agree with Kobrakai1. The way I think of it, there's not a single "set" of physical objects (eg lamps, curtains, pianos etc) that both the living and the dead can move and interact with. There are 2 entirely separate realms with both objects and people in each. But every so often, the realms mesh together and objects and people can exist in both - though things which live or once lived may be invisible or at least hard to perceive to those from the opposite realm. That way of looking at it seems consistent with how things appear in the movie.

[–] Burgershmurger (1461) 5 years ago

It's definitely a plot hole.

[–] [email protected] (6243) 5 years ago

It may be a plot hole, but I tend to think that Grace's ability to manipulate the physical world was just in her mind.

Remember in The Sixth Sense, Cole says that ghosts don't know they are dead. They think they are actually interacting with the real world.

I don't doubt that some things were moved by Grace. But I doubt everything she thought she was "doing" actually happened.

But I have no real experience. I've never been a ghost myself.

[–] Mulletor (537) 3 years ago

"But I have no real experience. I've never been a ghost myself."

That sounds like something a ghost would say.

[–] Burk48917 (11508) 3 years ago

It's not, because those rules are not firmly established in this movie, one way or another. The ghosts perception of whats there doesn't necessarily transfer to the living world. A ghosts clothes aren't a part of their former corporeal form, but those aren't always floating around bodiless either.