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Dark City (1998)
In co-writer/director Alex Proyas' visually-stunning,
labyrinthine and visionary sci-fi neo-noir - the bewildering and imaginative
tale effectively twisted unreal reality. Proyas' own visionary story,
a version of Plato's Allegory of the Cave, was adapted into a screenplay
by Lem Dobbs and David S. Goyer. The challenge to the viewer was to
extrapolate from various random clues presented in order to form a
comprehensive explanation of the entire mysterious premise and bizarre
puzzle underlying the "Dark City."
In part, the dystopian literally "dark city" was
similar to a huge space station or satellite in space. It was revealed
to be a full-sized alien creation (or simulacrum) created by a huge
imaging machine. An entire race of dying, pale, parasitic aliens, known
as Strangers who were facing extinction, had left their own planet
en masse (due to their hive mind or collective consciousness) and with
their superior powers had formed the immense and dark human city to
run their experiments and try to save themselves. Several thousand
abducted humans, presumably from Earth, had been transplanted into
the "dark city" as residents, but the humans remained unaware of
their true identities after having their memories regularly implanted
and changed at midnight. Only one "mad" doctor had been allowed to aid
the mysterious aliens. The trench-coated Strangers, who disguised themselves
in human cadavers-corpses and were nocturnal due to their sensitivity
to light, had deliberately tilted the city away from the Sun with their
psychokinetic powers, and kept everyone in perpetual darkness.
The film's main tagline enigmatically described the plot:
"They built the city to see what makes us tick.
Last night one of us went off."
One amnesiac human individual, who had lost any sense
of his own true identity, awoke to find himself in a typical noirish
situation - he was a wanted murder suspect, pursued by a weary detective
gumshoe. The story commenced with the man's odyssey through the mysterious,
shadowy and dark metropolis as a fugitive, to clear himself of crimes
he didn't commit, and to literally find himself. He noticed how he
had somehow acquired the same psychokinetic powers (known as 'tuning')
as those possessed by the ominous and creepy Strangers who were
searching for him, and that he was able to use those powers to his
advantage against them. He attempted to save and remake the world (based
on childhood memories) and "fix" the
darkness of the "city."
[Note: The film's theme of a disoriented man on the
run for a crime he didn't commit, who retained recollections of the
existence of his home town of "Shell
Beach" - the film's MacGuffin - were both features of many Hitchcockian
films. The film's main motifs were spirals and mazes.]
The expressionistic fantasy-mystery film (with stunning
special effects, art/set design and an imaginative script) was a box-office
failure - on a budget of $27 million, it only made $14.4 million (domestic)
and $27.2 million (worldwide). Nonetheless, it has since become a highly-respected
cult-classic. It was influenced by many elements, including German
expressionism (Nosferatu (1922), Metropolis (1927), and M
(1931), etc.), gumshoe detective film noirs in the 1940s (i.e., The
Maltese Falcon (1941), and some Kafka-esque qualities as well. It foreshadowed a film that
was released shortly afterwards, The Matrix
(1999), and undoubtedly influenced Inception (2010).
- the opening of the theatrical version (wisely removed
in the Director's Cut version) contained a voice-over narration (revealing
major spoilers!) delivered by Dr. Schreber, an expert psychiatrist
who had been forcibly conscripted to aid the aliens in their experiments
on humans in the "dark city" after the extra-terrestrials
had escaped from their own dying world; the psychologist's memories
had been erased, but he still retained his mind skills, identity
and powers, unlike the other inhabitants of the city, as he aided
the aliens to carry out their insidious objectives.
"First, there was darkness. Then came Strangers.
They were a race as old as time itself. They had mastered the
ultimate technology -- the ability to alter physical reality
by will alone. They called this ability "Tuning." But
they were dying. Their civilization was in decline, and so they
abandoned their world, seeking a cure for their own mortality.
Their endless journey brought them to a small, blue world in
the farthest corner of the galaxy. Our world. Here, they thought
they had finally found what they had been searching for. My name
is Dr. Daniel Poe Schreber. I am just a man. I help the Strangers
conduct their experiments. I have betrayed my own kind."
- the story commenced by navigating downward into a
noirish cityscape reminiscent of the 1940s and 1950s; it introduced
the principal character John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) - a test subject
with memory problems; he awoke naked in a bathtub (filled with murky
or clouded water) in a strange hotel, with a splotch of blood above his nose
- he was unsteady on his feet on the slippery green-tiled
floor, made worse by the shadows cast from a swinging single unshielded
light-bulb fixture; he noticed blood droplets on his face before
quickly dressing; as he left the bathroom, he accidentally bumped
into a small goldfish bowl and it smashed onto the floor in pieces;
to save the fish's survival, he carefully picked up the floundering
fish and placed it in the bathtub water - now miraculously clear
(and a safe environment for the fish to survive) due to changes Murdoch
unconsciously made to the water without his knowledge
- [Note: there were metaphoric parallels to be drawn between the trapped unnatural
life of the goldfish in a bowl, and the lives of the inhabitants
in the controlled environment of "Dark City."]
- in a suitcase (with the initials K.H.) filled with
clothes, he also found a colorful postcard: "Greetings from Shell Beach";
Murdoch had his first of many frequent flashes and fragments of childhood
memories, of being with his family in a coastal town named Shell
Beach; his sole quest in life became to discover this missing past
- he received a frantic phone call just after midnight
from Dr. Daniel Schreber (Kiefer Sutherland) speaking from a phone
booth, with the film's first lines of dialogue, spoken with breathless
gasps and pauses; Murdoch was essentially told about his dilemma
regarding his total amnesia, caused by his premature awakening in
the middle of the night during a memory-swapping, "tuning" event;
somehow, an experimental process had been interrupted and Murdoch
now had no memories at all: ("You are confused, aren't you?
Frightened. That's all right. I can help you...I am a doctor. Now,
you must listen to me. You have lost your memory. There was an experiment.
Something went wrong. Your memory was erased. Do you understand me?");
with aborted and erased memories, Murdoch was rightfully confused;
Schreber urged him to flee immediately into the dark city from those
in pursuit: ("Just listen. There
are people coming for you even as we speak. You must not let them
find you. You must leave now"); Dr. Schreber warned that Murdoch
was now being pursued as a wanted man and accused of committing a
series of brutal crimes
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Murdered Call Girl Discovered in Murdoch's
Room - With Mysterious Spiral-Shaped Stab Wounds From a Bloody
Knife
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- as he struggled to make sense of the call, Murdoch
stumbled around his hotel room and noticed a
ritualistically-murdered, half-naked and mutilated call-girl on
the floor with spiral-shaped stab wounds, and a bloody knife; Murdoch
went on the run from his hotel room (# 614) down the stairs, as he
turned and noticed a group of three pale, bald,
malevolent trenchcoat-wearing, wide brim-hatted Strangers emerging
from the elevator; he successfully evaded and escaped their notice
- it was just on the stroke of midnight, and in the
downstairs lobby, Murdoch observed a number of comatose (or unconscious)
individuals seated around and in a phone booth; suddenly everyone
revived at the chime of a clock bell, including the desk-clerk manager
(Ritchie Singer) who warned Murdoch that he had overstayed his three
week visit, and needed to pay up: ("You only paid for 3 weeks
and they was up 10 minutes ago") [Note: The significance of
Room 614 - John 6:14 referred to the appearance of a miracle-worker
or "Prophet"]; Murdoch fled from the hotel
Hotel's Desk Manager-Clerk (Ritchie Singer) - Warning
Murdoch About Paying Up
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Murdoch to Desk Clerk: "I've been here 3 weeks?"
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Hotel Guest Register Showing Murdoch's Name
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- when the desk clerk entered Murdoch's room, he was
confronted by a group of trench-coated individuals with special powers
(telepathy and telekinesis), demanding to know Murdoch's location;
when he answered that Murdoch left 5 minutes earlier, the Strangers
put the desk clerk to "sleep"
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sultry nightclub chanteuse and the film's femme fatale
Emma Murdoch (Jennifer Connelly, dubbed for singing by Anita Kelsey)
was introduced performing the song "Sway" - a popular Dean Martin song in the
mid-1950s: ("When marimba rhythms start to play Dance with me Make me sway Like a lazy
ocean hugs the shore Hold me close Sway me more Like
a flower bending in the breeze Bend with me Sway with ease
When we dance you have a way with me Stay with me Sway
with me"); after her number, she was summoned to speak to her "husband's
doctor" - Dr. Daniel Schreber - who had left his business card
- Murdoch's estranged/separated wife Emma met with "her
husband's doctor" in his office - a hunched over, slightly-crippled psychiatrist Dr. Schreber
with stunted speech and a deformed right eye; there was the implication that
Murdoch was like the rat in Schreber's crude, experimental desktop-sized maze
model [Note: the circular rat maze was a metaphoric microcosm of the "Dark City" itself]
- she had never heard
mention of the doctor's name, although Schreber explained how John
had been a frequent patient "grappling with feelings of betrayal stemming from your marital
difficulties"; it was claimed that three weeks earlier, John
had angrily packed up a suitcase and separated from her due to their "marital
difficulties" and feelings of "betrayal"; apparently, after she had told
him that she had an affair, he abruptly broke up with her and stormed out of their apartment
- Schreber diagnosed that John was suffering from delusions,
complete memory loss, and a psychotic break and could potentially be violent; he was "searching for
himself" and that Schreber must now be "the first one to reach him"
World-Weary Police Inspector Frank Bumstead (William Hurt)
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Assistant Cop Husselbeck (Mitchell Butel)
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- after leaving his hotel, Murdoch was pursued and tracked
in the nightmarish, retro 40s-style futuristic city underworld (that
was perpetually dark and at nighttime, due to the angled "dark
city") by both the police and the Strangers
- world-weary and pensive Police Inspector Frank Bumstead
(William Hurt) was called upon to investigate the hotel room crime
scene (with a murdered call girl, now the 6th in a series); at the front
desk of Murdoch's hotel, he questioned a different clerk - black
man (Edward Grant), and was ushered to Room 614 where he met talkative
assistant cop Husselbeck (Mitchell Butel); Bumstead
had apparently replaced his conspiracy-theorist colleague Detective
Eddie Walenski (Colin Friels) who had become insanely paranoid and
unbalanced (the "heebie-jeebies") and had been removed
from the serial killer case - and was to be committed to an institution
- meanwhile, the disoriented Murdoch entered an all-night
Automat diner where he attempted to retrieve his left-behind wallet
that he had earlier been notified about; he noticed a smiling and friendly,
cool blonde hooker named May (Melissa George) at the Automat's entrance; to
his own surprise, through his own psycho-kinetic mental strength, Murdoch
was able to snap open the locked automat door to retrieve his wallet
inside; the hooker befriended Murdoch and led him
away from two inquisitive and suspicious beat cops (Alan Cinis and Bill
Highfield) inside the Automat, and took him to her upstairs apartment
Entrance to Automat
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Cool Blonde Hooker May (Melissa George)
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Murdoch's Wallet in One of the Compartments
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Snapping Open the Automat's Door With His Wallet
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Two Suspicious Cops
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May's Rescue of John Murdoch
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- at the hotel crime scene, Det. Bumstead followed
the spiral stab wound pattern on the corpse: ("Round and round she
goes. Where she stops? Nobody knows") - it was the 6th hooker homicide;
Bumstead was also puzzled: "What kind of killer do you think stops
to save a dying fish?"; the Chief Inspector remarked: "This killer's
been running circles around us, thanks to Walenski" - another circle
reference; suddenly, the insane Detective Walenski barged into the
hotel room shouting out a conspiracy theory: "They're
watching us!...There's no way out!...God, can'quo;t you see?!" Walenski was apprehended;
shortly later, Det. Bumstead entered the Detective's office, and
saw it littered with papers
- Emma arrived in the same police department to file
a "missing persons" report on her husband to whom she had
been married for four years, but now had walked out on her; in Det.
Bumstead's office, she described her relation to Murdoch, as she
nervously touched her wedding ring
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The Names of the Six Previous Serial Killer
Homicide Victims - Each With Similar Spiraling Stab Wound Patterns
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- she was upset and immediately left the office after
learning that her husband was a possible murder suspect for "all
of them" - all of the detective's six recent homicide cases - shown to her in
a list on a typed piece of paper
- meanwhile, as May stripped down naked
in her apartment, Murdoch perused through his retrieved wallet to find
a picture of his wife Emma and his Driver's License ID (that confirmed
his name); he told May that his name was appropriately "John," and
creepily asked: "What you do seems kind of dangerous right now. I
mean, how do you know I'm not the killer?";
she answered: "You don’t seem like the killer type"; after
he caught a quick glimpse of May's young daughter with a stuffed teddy
bear, he abruptly left without having a sexual encounter with her
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Murdoch With Prostitute May: "What
you do seems kind of dangerous right now. I mean, how do you know
I'm not the killer?"
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- Murdoch fled to search out
the Shell Beach in the postcard found in his suitcase; as he stood
before a rusting, creaky billboard, beckoning "Come
to Shell Beach - The Water is Fine" with a bathing beauty's
waving right arm, he pulled a wad of newspaper clippings from his
coat pocket about the serial killer at large: ("KILLER STRIKES AGAIN!")
- at the same time, he was approached by the
black-coated Strangers from the hotel who condemned him for his "unpleasant
nature"; one of them named Mr. Hand (Richard O'Brien) tried
the command: "Sleep now!", but discovered that it was
ineffective; Murdoch had inexplicably
acquired their power to "tune"; as they pulled out knives
to attack, he weakened the floorboards underneath them and sent some
of them to their deaths in the billboard's series of pulleys, gears,
and ropes beneath the wooden platform; Mr. Quick's (Frederick Miragliotta)
skull-cap was sliced off by the waving arm of the Shell Beach billboard
- the most vulnerable part of the alien structure, and he quickly
died (with spindly parasites emerging from his brain)
- afterwards, in the underground world where they lived,
the malevolent alien beings with a collective hive consciousness
who were known as Strangers assembled for a group meeting; they
were alerted to the danger that Murdoch posed for them ("This
man is dangerous. It is said he is able to tune") during their
group-hive meeting; one of the lead Strangers explained their dilemma to the group - Murdoch
had become an anomaly after he inadvertently awakened during one midnight
'tuning' imprinting procedure, and since then, he was struggling and
at a loss to understand who he was: ("On occasion the imprinting
does not take. They behave erratically when they awaken. We find them
wandering like lost children"); Mr. Book (Ian Richardson) issued orders to seize Murdoch: "We
can know nothing until we possess him....We must have this man"
The Strangers (With a Collective Hive Consciousness)
in an Underground Meeting - They Were
Averse to Moisture and Light
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Mr. Hand (Richard O'Brien) - Commander in the Field
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Mr. Book (Ian Richardson) - The Hive-Group Leader
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- [Note: The Strangers resembled the vampirish
Count Orlok in F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922), or
the Cenobites in the Hellraiser series. The Strangers were
part of an endangered and dying race of fiendish alien parasites
who had abandoned their own world to seek a cure for their own mortality. The Strangers had been
using their telekinetic "tuning" powers to secretly control
the city; the 'dark city' was revealed to be
an experiment set up by the endangered aliens to alter reality in their
determination to understand the nature of the human soul by manipulatively
treating humans as guinea pigs or experimental rats; they transplanted
false memories each night into the inhabitants of the city;
the aliens later were found to be inhabiting (or wearing human corpses)
to disguise themselves; through their experiments and their group
or "hive" minds, they were attempting to discover insights that would help their race
survive; during their mass "tunings," they would stop time
(at midnight) - when subjects were made to go comatose (or unconscious);
they could then completely alter and transform reality.]
- off-screen, after leaving Det. Bumstead's office,
he offered to drive her home to her apartment; as they pulled up,
she asked: "Do you really think my husband could be capable of committing
those murders?"; once she entered, John surprised Emma inside, but avowed
that he was there only because he found the keys in his pocket: ("I
assume I live here"), and he didn't know her: "You supposed to be my wife?"; she was
shocked: "You really - don't know who I am, do you?"; he
admitted that he was living a "nightmare"; she
urged him to see his psychiatrist Dr. Schreber, although he asked:
"Why was I seeing a doctor?"; she informed him: "I had
an affair. You were angry at me"; Murdoch DID know that he was
a suspect for six previous homicidal ritualistic murders of streetwalkers
and was on the run, but professed he was the "wrong" man: "Maybe
I have lost my mind, but whoever I am, I'm still me and I'm
not a killer"; she vowed that she believed him
- in the hallway, gun-wielding
Inspector Bumstead stopped Murdoch, who vainly tried to flee, and
then explained how he was being pursued by a group of men, but
then gave up: "Who's gonna listen to a madman?" before he was able to flee down a
tall stairway (due to Emma's help and his own 'tuning' ability to
create a doorway and then block his exit)
- Murdoch escaped in a cab with a driver (Justin Monjo) who had a glass Shell
Beach snow-globe souvenir on his dashboard, and although he claimed
that he had spent his honeymoon there, he struggled with providing
directions to get there
- during Murdoch's flight, he dropped Dr. Schreber's
business card - it led Det. Bumstead to briefly speak to the doctor;
after their visit, the puzzled Bumstead summarized that he didn't
regard Murdoch as a viable suspect: "I've met quite a
few murderers in the course of my work. Murdoch doesn't strike
me as one"; Bumstead did suspect, however, that the shady Schreber
was concealing information from him
- in a local men's bath/spa, Dr. Schreber,
the Strangers' human helper, was confronted by a threatening Mr.
Hand, carrying Schreber's syringe found in Murdoch's hotel room;
the Stranger revealed how he and his kind hated moisture: ("You
know uncomfortable we find all this moisture")
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Dr. Schreber Nervously Confessing to Mr. Hand in
the Men's Spa That He Had Fouled Up Murdoch's Imprinting
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- Schreber nervously confessed that he hadn't
reported in as usual, and had fouled up Murdoch's
imprinting, resulting in his loss of most of his memories; while injecting
or imprinting him with the memories of a serial killer, Murdoch had
inadvertently woken up and interrupted their midnight take-over process,
knocked the syringe from his hand, and had strangely acquired the
Strangers' own superpower ability to "tune" (alter
reality at will): "I tried to imprint him, but he woke up, he
knocked the syringe right out of my hand. I tried to stop him but he
was too fast"; Schreber was ordered to produce another complete
template of Murdoch's original memory imprint for their nefarious purposes,
and promised that he would be contacted again after the scheduled midnight 'tuning'
- meanwhile, Inspector Bumstead visited at the house
of his crazed colleague Inspector Walenski and his frail and worried
wife Kate (Maureen O'Shaughnessy); Walenski had gone completely insane,
spending his time writing on his walls and ceiling, and discovering
the truth about things - about how he was truly unable to get out
of the city, and that the Strangers were creating, unraveling and
destroying his memories and identities: ("I've just been spending
time on the subway, riding in circles. Thinking in circles. There's
no way out"); as with Murdoch, he revealed that
he didn't know his wife: ("I don't know who she is. I
don't know who any of us are"); he had also realized that all
of his past memories were completely unreal, and Bumstead's current
case didn't even exist: ("But
the more I try to think back, the more it all starts to unravel. None
of it seems real. It's like I've just been dreaming this life, and
when I finally wake up, I'll be somebody else. Somebody totally different!...There
is no case. There never was! It's all just a big joke! It's a joke!");
he had figured out that all of the humans in the city were regularly
being implanted with false memories
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Walenski to Bumstead: "It's all just a big joke! It's a joke!"
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- Murdoch had listened
to Schreber's conversation with Mr. Hand in the men's spa, and learned
that Schreber had been conspiring with the Strangers to switch memories
and identities each midnight; thus, the Strangers were searching
for Murdoch because he had disruptively acquired their extraordinary
powers; Murdoch was trailing Schreber and watched as the doctor used
his own 'tuning' ability to create a doorway through a brick wall
leading to the Strangers' lair
- in the next sequence, the Strangers were shown working and living underground to
manufacture items that bolstered their illusions of a past that didn't
exist; on an assembly line, the aliens were told by an announcer: "Tonight's
requirements are 12 family photo albums, 9 personal diaries, 17 love
letters, assorted childhood photographs, 26 wallets, ID's and
social security cards"; Dr. Schreber assisted in concocting various
test tubes of ingredients for imprint injections, and smelled one of
them: "What is it? The recollections of a great lover? A catalog of conquests?...A touch of
unhappy childhood...A dash of teenage rebellion....a tragic death in the family"
- and then, during an intense interrogation of Schreber
in the Strangers' lair, Mr. Book was upset that the doctor had failed
them and had set Murdoch loose to disrupt their plans; Schreber tried
to deflect blame and explain how Murdoch might be the evolutionary
answer to their search: "Maybe
he's a step up the evolutionary ladder. A-A freak of nature. He's
adapting to survive. What do you expect?"
- Schreber speculated about the reason why the Strangers had taken over the
dark city; due to the fact that they had only collective memories
and a hive-mentality, they were desperately questing for
the secrets of humanity (with its unique human identities and individualities)
that they believed existed within the individual human soul;
most of all, they were hoping that they could assimilate those qualities
for themselves through their imprinting experiments: "Weren't
you looking for the human soul? That's the purpose of your little zoo, isn't it? That's why
you keep changing people and things around every night"
- as midnight approached, the hour at which time was
stopped and imprinting occurred (signaled by a clock's chiming),
the hive gathered together, to see to it that the memories and identities
of the city's inhabitants were properly reprogrammed and changed;
all signs of human life went unconscious or comatose just before
the mass "tuning" transformations
occurred; by the aliens' will alone, they could also change the
physical layout and landscape of the city, by literally melting buildings
and replacing them with new emerging structures
The Underworld's Gigantic Machine
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The Collective Hive-Consciousness
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The Strangers Assembling Together at Midnight
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The Mass 'Tuning' Event - Time For Imprinting and Altering Reality
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Mr. Book Supervising and Ordering: "Let the tuning
commence!"
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Changes in the Physical Layout of the Dark City
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- Murdoch was awake and unaffected by the changes at
midnight, but was unable to awaken anyone else, including a lifeless
couple sleeping in their vehicle ("Wake up!"); he watched as the
miraculous metamorphoses took place
- he observed as Schreber
oversaw the transformation of one lower-class, impoverished tenement-building
couple, Jeremy and Sylvia Goodwin (Terry Bader and Rosie Traynor)
and their children Jane and little Matthew (Naomi van der Velden
and Eliot Paton), who were instantly converted into high-class rich
snobs overnight as a result of Dr. Schreber's meddlings and injections
from a syringe; their modest dining table (seen in an overhead view)
was newly-lengthened and upgraded under a chandelier: (Schreber's
commentary: "The rich get richer. Probably have maid's quarters before the night is
through")
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Murdoch Watched as Dr. Schreber Upgraded
the Social Class Identity of a Middle-Class Couple With Imprinting
Syringe Injections
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- outdoors once the doctor finished his social engineering
task, Murdoch loudly and angrily confronted the sniveling Dr. Schreber,
asking: "What is happening here? Why is everyone asleep?...Why can't I remember
anything? What have you done to me?...I want some answers now! Who
are they? Why are they trying to kill me? Answer me!"; as Murdoch
grabbed Schreber's coat lapels and demanded answers, his "tuning" power
kicked in, and Schreber was repelled several yards backwards onto
his back; Schreber marveled at Murdoch's power: "You have their
power. You can make things happen by will alone. They call it tuning.
That is how they make the buildings change. Just now you acted out
of self-defense. A reflex"
Murdoch Confronting Dr. Schreber: "Why are they
trying to kill me?" |
Dr. Schreber's Stunned Reaction to Being Repelled
Backwards by Murdoch: "You have their power"
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- the ingratiating Dr. Schreber offered
to kow-tow to Murdoch: "But I can teach you to control
your power consciously. Let me help you,
John. Together we can stop them. We can take the city back";
as Murdoch fled with the approach of the Strangers, the tuning event
ended and the progress of time returned - everyone reawakened and life went back to normal
- at her nightclub gig, Emma sang "The Night Has
1000 Eyes," as Inspector Bumstead stared at her from a distance
in the bar area: ("'Cause the night Has a thousand eyes And
a thousand eyes Can't tell, but see If you are true to me So remember
When you tell those little white lies That the night has a thousand
eyes A thousand eyes")
- during the Strangers' evaluation of the previous night's
'tuning,' Mr. Book learned that the process was rendered incomplete
on Avenue M of the city due to "a lack of control" - attributed
to Murdoch's "opposing
influence on the machines"; Mr. Book surmised: "He's
becoming like us. So we must become like him"; Mr. Hand took
a sacrificial risk and volunteered to be injected with Murdoch's
original memory imprint (as the Strangers' "only option"),
to help predict Murdoch's location and track
him down: ("Everywhere he goes, everyone he seeks out will be
known to us. And as he follows the clues, so shall we follow the memories");
Mr. Hand experienced a rush of Murdoch's memories
going back to his childhood - known as "The life and times of John
Murdoch, Volume 2" - memories that even Murdoch did not possess!
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A Rush of Murdoch's Original But Lost Childhood Memories
into Mr. Hand's Memory, Who Afterwards Remarked: "I have John Murdoch
in mind"
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- other flashes of induced memories extended toward
the present when Murdoch fell in love with Emma, but also included
a bloody encounter with a prostitute; Mr. Hand creepily noted
to Mr. Book: "I
have John Murdoch in mind"
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More Recent Memories with Murdoch Replayed (Including
the Induced Memory of Murdering Prostitute May)
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- Murdoch read the back of the colorful Shell Beach
postcard from his suitcase: "Johnny - I
found this postcard among your mother's things. Brings back
memories, doesn't it? Stop by sometime. We'll see if
we can't hook ourselves another mermaid. Love to Emma. Karl";
Karl Harris (with K.H. initials on the suitcase) was John's uncle
who raised the orphaned boy after a destructive beach house-fire;
Murdoch proceeded to a phone booth and its phone directory to look
up Karl Harris, and found his listing on Avenue C
- at a news-stand, Murdoch asked for directions and noticed that the newspaper
stand vendor (Ritchie Singer), who claimed he was a 25 year employee
there, was the same individual who demanded John's overdue payment
at the hotel desk in the film's opening - it was clear evidence of
the tampering with identities by the Strangers' during tuning events;
Murdoch was directed by the vendor to the subway
- meanwhile in their pursuit of Murdoch, the Strangers
led by the terminally-decaying Mr. Hand visited prostitute May and
threatened her: "We're looking for John Murdoch"; when it appeared
to be a dead-end (she had no idea where Murdoch had gone), Mr. Hand
suggested a better strategy to find Murdoch: ("If I
were Murdoch, I would remember how my wife had hurt
me by sleeping with another man"); in his Murdoch memory bank, Mr.
Hand experienced a flash-view of Emma being unfaithful with someone
else; to retaliate, the Strangers decided that they could murder May and then pin her killing
and mutilation on Murdoch to hurt Emma - he pulled out his knife
to kill her (off-screen)
- at the same time, Murdoch was on a Blue Line subway
car, where he noticed that "Shell Beach" was pictured on
a map on the coast, and was at the end of the Green Line on the Met-Rail
subway system; but after he changed trains to the Green Line, he
frustratingly couldn't find any way to reach his destination;
he noticed that the Express Line to Shell Beach avoided stopping
at the connecting Green Line station
- a disheveled bum at the station, actually ex-cop Detective Walenski, offered his interpretation
of what was happening to the "dark city" - similar to what
had happened to Murdoch: "There’s no way out, you know?
You can’t get out of the city. Believe me, I’ve tried....They
steal people's memories, you know? Then they swap them around between
us. I've seen them do it. Back and forth, back and forth, till no
one knows who they are anymore....Once in a while, one of us wakes
up while they're changing things. It's not supposed to happen, but
it does. It happened to me. They'll come looking for you, Murdoch,
just like they'll come looking for me. But that's OK. I figured a
way out" - and then he suicidally
threw himself in front of one of the trains
- Mr. Hand had decided he would stalk after Emma; he found her seated by a
canal waterway (where coincidentally John and Emma had first met); he
hinted that he was an alien who didn't have his own individual memories,
and was looking for "something different, something better":
("Imagine a life alien to yours in which your memories were not
your own but those shared by every other of your kind. Imagine the torment
of such an existence, no experiences to call your own"); Mr. Hand
was beginning to show a personal fascination with Emma, and manipulatively
used some of Murdoch's own words and memories as a young boy about a
lit-up ferry ("like a floating birthday cake") to entice
her to believe in him
- Murdoch arrived at Avenue C - the location of his long-lost
uncle Karl Harris (John Bluthal), who lived in an aquarium known as Neptune's Kingdom
- at the same time, outside the Automat, Emma (while
searching for her lost husband) was irresistibly prompted
and drawn to climb the stairs to prostitute May's apartment where
earlier, Murdoch had been enticed by her; inside, she encountered
Det. Bumstead, who was tailing after her; both discovered May's
dead and mutilated body (with spiral designs); in their discussion,
she claimed John had told her that he had come there to test himself
(about whether he had murderous instincts); now, she was unsure about
everything; the two found May's young daughter hiding under a bed,
with a drawing confirming that the Strangers, not Murdoch, had stabbed
her mother to death
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Prostitute May's Murder - Witnessed by Her Young
Daughter
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- simultaneously, Murdoch broke into the locked and
gated aquarium entrance and located Karl living inside, who was defending
himself with a shotgun; together they viewed a slideshow of pictures
taken at Murdoch's supposed boyhood home at Shell Beach where he
grew up with his family; as it was with Walenski, Karl admitted that
he could not remember how to navigate to Shell Beach; the slides
were a replay of many of the images that had been transferred into
Mr. Hand's memory; John learned that his parents had died in a beach
house-fire and that afterwards, Karl took care of him as an orphaned
young boy; however, Murdoch distrusted the pictures and called them
falsified memories ("all lies"); a tell-tale burn-scar on his arm in one of the pictures
did not truly exist presently; he believed that everything about
Shell Beach and other images had solely been planted in his mind
by the aliens
- afterwards, as Inspector Bumstead was taking Emma
back to her place, she noticed a decorative accordion in his car's
back seat, but he couldn't recall when his recently-deceased mother
had gifted it to him: ("I keep it with me to remind me of her....It's
a funny thing, though. I can't remember when she gave it to me. How
do you think I could forget a thing like that?");
Emma asked the film's most pointed question about the past:
"What's happening, Inspector?"; he answered: "I'm
not sure I know anymore"
- shortly later, as Karl was showing Murdoch his old
room when they lived together, Murdoch wondered where the day had
gone - it was still dark and nighttime:
("How can it be night already? What happened to the day? How’d
I miss it?"); as Murdoch looked around
the room and found his childhood Guidebook he had created years earlier
about Shell Beach (strangely with only blank pages), Karl was secretly
phoning Emma who had just arrived back at her house after being driven
there by the Inspector; Karl shared information on John's location
and his peculiar delusional behavior: ("He's here, he's acting
mighty peculiar"); Emma admitted she would be there soon to
pick him up: "I know, he's not himself. Keep him there and I'll
be right over"; the call also alerted both Det. Bumstead and
Mr. Hand to Murdoch's location
- at that very moment, midnight struck again and the
"tuning" process commenced; Murdoch found the ominous Strangers
now attempting to capture him; to avoid them, he raced across rooftops
while pursued by the group of Strangers as buildings and landscapes
were emerging and changing around them; Mr. Hand appeared in front
of him and cautioned him: "Mr. Murdoch, you've been the
cause of much distress"; Murdoch punched out Hand, stole his
knife, and threatened Hand at knife-point to explain himself
- the
Stranger told Murdoch to quit evading them since they already had the
upper hand, and had been creating false memories for decades: "There's no need for this. There's
no escape. The city's ours. We made it"; he explained
their motivation to change the city each night: "We fashioned this
city on stolen memories, different eras, different pasts
all rolled into one. Each night, we revise it, refine it, in
order to learn....about you, Mr. Murdoch, you and your fellow
inhabitants, what makes you human....We need to be like you"; Mr.
Hand revealed that he knew all of Murdoch's falsified personal memories:
("I remember that which you do not, what you've
been missing. The ocean, yes, running along the waves as
a child, meeting Emma at the river. That first kiss
that followed"), and then grotesquely added: "We use
your dead as vessels"
- the unpredictable growth of a new roof under them
separated the two of them, and Murdoch was forced to catch his fall
by grabbing onto a fire escape railing; he watched as one Stranger
was crushed between two moving buildings; Murdoch
fled through a EXIT doorway leading to nowhere, and found himself
clinging by his fingers from the edge of the building;
he was ultimately able to evade the Strangers and save his life when
the 'tuning' event ended; when cornered, Inspector Bumstead came
to Murdoch's rescue by pulling up in his vehicle, and as they sped
off, Murdoch gratefully hugged Emma in the front seat
- back
at police headquarters, Murdoch was grilled by Bumstead about his confused
state and his many alibis and confusions:
"I have this jigsaw puzzle in front of my face and every time I try
to rearrange the pieces, it still doesn't make any
sense"; Murdoch had no answers for why Bumstead had in his possession
a copy of Murdoch's childhood Guidebook to Shell Beach (this time
with colored pages); Murdoch decided to ask two crucial questions
of his own: (1) "You heard of a place called Shell Beach?...You know
how to get there?", but Bumstead couldn't remember its location,
and (2) "When was the last time you remember seeing it [daylight]?";
Murdoch mentioned how it seemed like the nights never seemed to end
in the city: " I don't think the sun even exists in this place"
- Murdoch
had realized that the Strangers were controlling everything, and that
his two concerns were problems for everyone: "It's not just me. It's all of us. They're
doing something to all of us"; Bumstead was troubled: "There has to
be an explanation"; Murdoch also demonstrated his telekinetic
powers by floating his Shell Beach guidebook in the air
- in
a conversation with Emma through a plate-glass window, Murdoch told
her that her memory of having an affair was only a manufactured, lab-crafted
fake memory implanted in her: ("You didn't do it...I don't believe it ever happened");
he even went so far as to question whether
they were really husband and wife: "What if we never knew each other
before now?" and that all of their memories might never have happened;
after Emma vowed that she loved him: "I love you, John. You can’t
fake something like that," John used his "tuning" powers
to shatter the window dividing them, and they kissed to show their
love for each other
- by the time the pursuing Strangers
arrived at the police station and put everyone to sleep (plus murdered
the police chief), Murdoch and Bumstead had already left; the two kidnapped
Dr. Schreber at the local spa, and forced him at gunpoint to take
them to Shell Beach; on their quest to the beach while rowing a boat
on the canal, Dr. Schreber reiterated to them the voice-over quote
(in the theatrical version) that opened the film - with further already-established
details about how John had been given the memories of a "serial killer"
as an experiment:
"First there was darkness. Then came the Strangers.
They abducted us and brought us here. This city, everyone in
it is their experiment. They mix and match our memories as they see fit, trying
to divine what makes us unique. One day, a man might be an inspector.
The next, someone entirely different. When they want to study a
murderer for instance, they simply imprint one of their citizens with a new personality, arrange
a family for him, friends, an entire history, even a lost
wallet. Then they observe the results. Will a man, given the history
of a killer, continue in that vein? Or are we, in fact, more than
the mere sum of our memories? This business of you being a killer
was an unhappy coincidence. You have had dozens of lives before
now. You just happened to wake up while I was imprinting you with
this one.... It is our capacity for individuality, our souls that makes us
different from them. They think they can find the human soul if
they understand how our memories work. All they have are collective
memories. They share one group mind. They’re dying, you see?
Their entire race is on the brink of extinction. They think we
can save them."
"You are different, John. You resisted my attempt
to imprint you. Somehow you have developed their ability to tune.
That is how they change things. That is how they built this city.
They have machines buried deep beneath the surface that allow
them to focus their telepathic energies. They control everything
here, even the sun. That's why it's always dark. They can't stand
the light."
- and then Schreber described why he had been singled
out and chosen to help the aliens in their diabolical plan, as an
"artist":
"When they first brought us here, they extracted
what was in us. So they could store the information, remix it like
so much paint and give us back new memories of their choosing.
But they still needed an artist to help them. I understood the
intricacies of the human mind better than they ever could, so they
allowed me to keep my skills as a scientist because they needed
them. But they made me delete everything else. Ah! Ah! Can you
imagine what it is like being forced to erase your own past?"
- Murdoch was also informed that everyone's past history
was non-existent, as well as mementos, such as his guidebook with
drawings: "You still don't understand, John. You were never a boy, not in this place.
Your entire history is an illusion, a fabrication, as it is with
all of us. You made those drawings happen with your gift"
- simultaneously, Mr. Hand confronted Emma after
her release from police custody, and threatened to remake her as
a new individual named Anna, but first he kidnapped her and took
her as his captive hostage
- Murdoch's quest for the mythic Shell Beach with Schreber and Bumstead ended
up coming upon a fake beach billboard plastered on a brick wall at
the edge of the city - Dr. Schreber explained: "There is no
ocean, John. There is nothing beyond the city. The only place home
exists is in your head";
frustrated by the dead end, Bumstead and Murdoch grabbed crowbars and
attempted to bash through the brick wall; the
hole revealed that the 'dark city' existed as a contained force-field
environment in the vast void of starry outer space; Murdoch was confronted
by a group of the Strangers led by Mr. Hand ("And now you know the
truth!")
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Bumstead and Murdoch Breaking Through the Wall and
Discovering They Were Floating in Outer Space - Bumstead and One
of the Strangers Were Ejected Through the Hole
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- during a physical struggle, Bumstead
and Mr. Wall (Bruce Spence) were ejected through the hole and drifted
off into space, revealing a better view of the floating "dark city"
(a gigantic space-ship); Mr. Hand forced Murdoch to surrender
by threatening to kill Emma; Murdoch allowed
himself to be put to sleep, and was transported into the underworld
for a new "final phase" research experiment; the other human subject
testing no longer needed to be observed
- although the masses declared that Murdoch must die, Mr.
Book declared that while the "evolved" Murdoch was powerful and
dangerous, he must be implanted with the Strangers' collective
memories to become one of them, to enable him to share his secret
of human individuality with them: ("He can also lead us to what
we seek. What the doctor calls the soul....It is time to be one with
John Murdoch"); Dr. Schreber was ordered to implement the exchange,
but Dr. Schreber cleverly betrayed the Strangers; Mr. Book didn't
notice how Dr. Schreber deftly switched syringes and implanted memories
other than the collective memories of the Strangers into Murdoch's mind
Captive Murdoch Put to Sleep In Underworld For
a New "Final Phase" Imprinting
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Dr. Schreber's Switching of Syringes During the Implantation
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The Rush of Childhood Memories Into Murdoch's Mind After the Injection
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Dr. Schreber Had Also Been Inserted
into John's Memories to Teach Him to "Prevail"
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- as the memories rushed into his consciousness, it
was clear that the Doctor had inserted childhood memories of John's
early life, but in this case, he had also included himself as a character
in John's childhood who would provide specific training: ("All of
these memories have been fabricated to teach you about the Strangers...You
will find strength within yourself and you will prevail") - to teach
John how to fully utilize and control his superpowers
and abilities, and learn how to fight the Strangers and defeat their machines
- after awakening, Murdoch engaged in a one-on-one stand-off
against their advanced leader Mr. Book, illustrated by destructive
flashes of lightning between their two minds; Murdoch was able to
eventually destroy the underground world and machines of the Strangers
and defeat Mr. Book after a psychokinetic, aerial battle of massive
proportions that ended up high above the city; he was able to repel
a knife thrown at his forehead, and reverse its direction back toward
Mr. Book's chest, whose body then struck a major water tower explosion
that marked the end of most of the Strangers; as Mr. Book met his
demise, a growling red parasite emerged from his mouth
- Dr. Schreber congratulated Murdoch for his overwhelming
victory: "I knew you could do it, John. You have their power now.
You control their machines"; but then, Murdoch learned from Schreber
that Emma had been re-imprinted with a new identity as a theater
ticket clerk named Anna and wouldn't know him (and couldn't be changed
due to his destroyed memory storage lab facility); Murdoch was determined
- as a god-like being - to create a new world with his awesome powers
("I can make these machines do anything I want. Make this world anything
I want it to be. Just so long as I concentrate hard enough")
- Murdoch then began using his unique powers to 'recreate'
his dreamy past of Shell Beach by flooding the area within the force
field with water and forming mountains and beaches surrounding the
city; he was able to reestablish the ocean and coastal areas
- the Fremont movie theater where Anna worked as a
ticket clerk had been showing "The Evil," but "Coming Soon" would
be featuring "Book of Dreams"; at the end of her shift, she boarded
a bus to "SHELL BEACH"
- Murdoch continued to modify the landscape by creating
a promontory stretching out into the ocean with a lighthouse on top
and its revolving searchlight - the eponymous Shell Beach; Murdoch
was interrupted for one final conversation with Mr. Hand, who suddenly
appeared from the shadows and asked what John was doing; John answered
that he was "just making a few
little changes around here, is all"; Mr. Hand admitted that
he was dying from having been implanted with Murdoch's memories: "Your
imprint is not agreeable with my kind. But I wanted to know what
it was like, how you feel"; Murdoch reminded
Mr. Hand that his implanted memories were not his, but that they
were all manufactured and fake, and advised that the aliens had been
looking in the wrong place all along for the secret of humanity: "You
wanted to know what it was about us that made us human. Well, you're
not going to find it - in here. (He pointed to the middle of his
forehead) You went looking in the wrong place"
Encounter With Last Remaining Stranger, Mr. Hand
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Murdoch to Mr. Hand: "You're not going to find it
- in here"
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Tilting the City Toward Sunlight from a Star
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- as Murdoch turned away, he continued
to improve and modify the entire city by tilting it to bring
sunlight and warmth from a star; as he opened a door that led out
of the city, Mr. Hand was blinded by a sudden burst of sunlight; Murdoch
was able to vanquish any remaining Strangers
who were hiding or may have retreated underground and would die from
light exposure
- the open door led John onto a long pier over the sparkling
ocean that touched a white-clouded blue sky in the distance; he
was reunited with Emma in the bright sunlight at the far end of the
pier;
however, with new memories and identity as a woman now named Anna,
she had no recollections of his old identity. They strolled together
down the pier in search of Shell Beach to restart their relationship:
Anna: It's so beautiful here. So bright.
John: Do you know if Shell Beach is around here?
Anna: I think that's it just over there. I'm headed that way myself.
Would you like to join me?
John: Sure.
Anna: I'm Anna, by the way. What's your name?
John: John, John Murdoch.
Anna and John Meeting on a Sunny Pier Near Shell
Beach
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John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) Awakening in His Seedy Hotel
Bathtub
Murdoch Saving a Goldfish Floundering on the Floor After Breaking the
Goldfish's Bowl
Finding a Colorful Postcard in His Suitcase: "Greetings from Shell
Beach"
Murdoch's Momentary Childhood Memory of Shell Beach
A Warning Phone Call Received by John Murdoch From
His Enigmatic Psychiatrist Dr. Schreber (Kiefer Sutherland): "There
are people coming for you..."
Emerging From Murdoch's Hotel Elevator, Three Bald, Malevolent
Alien Beings Known as The Strangers
The Strangers with the Desk Clerk Inside the Room, Demanding
to Know Murdoch's Location
Introduction of Nightclub Singer Emma Murdoch (Jennifer
Connelly)
The Business Card of Murdoch's Psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Schreber
Dr. Schreber Meeting with Emma Murdoch
in His Office
Dr. Schreber's Crude Circular Rat-Maze Experiment
Detective Bumstead's Replaced and Crazed Colleague -
Det. Eddie Walenski (Colin Friels)
Det. Bumstead Viewing of Det. Walenski's Littered Office
With Det. Bumstead, Emma Murdoch Filing a "Missing Persons" Report
on Estranged Husband John Murdoch
John's Spiral-Shaped Magnified Fingerprint Pattern - Found in the Wounds Carved
Into Homicide Victims
Murdoch's Retrieved Wallet - He Found a Picture of His Wife Emma and
His ID
Creaky Billboard for Shell Beach "Come to Shell Beach
- The Water Is Fine!"
Murdoch's Wad of Newspaper Clippings About a Serial Killer on the Loose
One of the Strangers - Mr. Hand (Richard O'Brien) - Ordering Murdoch: "Sleep
now!"
The Strangers' Realization About Murdoch: "He can tune!"
The Death of Mr. Quick, Whose Brain Erupted With Parasites
Marriage Picture of Emma and John in Their Apartment
John Meeting Up With Femme Fatale Wife Emma In Their Apartment
- But He Didn't Know Her
Inspector Bumstead's Failed Attempt to Arrest Murdoch in the Hallway
of His Apartment with Emma
The Elusive Shell Beach in a Snow-Globe in Murdoch's Escaping Cab
The Strangers' Underworld Assembly Line to Manufacture Illusory Items
Dr. Schreber - A Traitorous Ally Working For the Strangers
Murdoch Attempting to Awaken Sleeping Individuals in a Vehicle: "Wake
up!"
Murdoch - The Only One Wandering Around and Witnessing the 'Sleeping'
City During The Mass 'Tuning' Event
Buildings Replaced With New Structures
Det. Bumstead Observing Emma Singing In Her Nightclub Act
Mr. Hand Volunteered to be Imprinted With Murdoch's Original Memories,
In Order to Track Him Down
The Creepy Mr. Hand: "I have John Murdoch in mind"
Murdoch Reading the Back of the Shell Beach Postcard, Sent by His Uncle
Karl Harris (John Bluthal)
A News-Stand Vendor Was the Same Individual as The Hotel Desk Manager
(Ritchie Singer) -
Evidence of Tampering with Identities During Tuning Events
On the Subway, Murdoch Noticed the Subway Rail System Map and the Location
of the Fabled 'Shell Beach'
Mr. Hand's Visit to Prostitute May's Place - on The Trail After Murdoch
Mr. Hand's Flashed Murdoch-Memory of Emma's Unfaithfulness to John
Detective Walenski Speaking to Murdoch at the Green Line Metro Station
Before His Suicidal Leap In Front of a Subway Train
At a Canal, Mr. Hand's Fascination With Emma Murdoch - While Using
Some of Murdoch's Memories to Entice Her
The Locked Entrance to the Aquarium: Neptune's Kingdom
Murdoch Locating His Uncle Karl Harris in Neptune's Kingdom
Slideshow: Murdoch's Childhood Home - at Shell Beach
Young Johnny Murdoch's Shell Beach Journal - With Blank Pages
Bumstead's Gift of an Accordion From His Mother
Mr. Hand Held At Knife-Point by Murdoch - And Forced to Explain The Aliens'
Plans ("We Need to Be Like You")
Murdoch Clinging to the Edge of a Building
In the Police Station, Murdoch Speaking to Emma - and a Breaking Glass
Window to Kiss Her
Dr. Schreber's Explanation to Murdoch and Bumstead of the Motives of
the Strangers To Swap Memories in Their Experimental Human Subjects
Flashback: Schreber Forced to Delete His Own Memories
The Discovery of a Fake Shell Beach Billboard on a Brick
Wall, At the Outer Perimeter of the "Dark City"
Mr. Hand Holding Emma Hostage to Force Murdoch
to Surrender
The Revelation of the "Dark City" Space-Ship Floating In
the Void of Space
The "Tuning" Battle of Minds Between Murdoch and Mr. Book
Murdoch Repelled a Knife and It Reversed Itself and Struck Mr. Book in
the Chest
A Growling Red Parasite Emerged From Mr. Book's Mouth
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