Rian's Forum

I REALLY REALLY like this, and I think it is, for the most part, very plausible.

However. How did Brendan sneak away from his own personality to search the library?

AND - The BIG one.

Em had to go through Brain to get the locker number. She wouldn't have gone through Brendan to get Brendan's locker number to leave Brendan a note.

Very nice theory though.

Shamus no one here is saying or forcing you to view the movie any deeper or differently then you did. What you saw and understood about the film is what you get from it..... But sometimes other people see movies as more then just a bunch of images and sounds.... But more so as art work. There is nothing wrong with enjoying a films surface, hell thats what comedy's are all about surface development for the a.d.d. attention span of today. There is nothing wrong with learning, viewing, admiring and understand others work is there?

What!?!


"Thou hast committed--"
"Fornication: but that was in another country;
And besides, the wench is dead."

just a very tenuous and possibly slightly silly observation but:

brendan. sounds a little like...

braindead

brendan, without the brain, is brain dead

x

holy crap...i just read through a lot of the messages on this post. i love everything i read so far and will definitely have to watch the movie again with these new ideas in mind. whew...i can't wait

First post:

I like the whole Brain/Brendan, Tug/Pin being used as literary tools to reflect aspects of similar people. However it is far easier to see Brain as being a persona within Brendan.

The only evidence that Brain actually exists to anyone other than Brendan is Emily mentioning him to Brendan. Even then this could be Brendan imagining those words himself (we are following Brendans journey after all), and Emily always knew the number. Alternatively Emily was referring to herself having to think to recall the number (which fits with the unusual language used by the characters in the film).

The strongest evidence that Brain isn't real are the shots of the football field and Laura's failure to notice Brain in the final scene. In all of the shots save for the one when Brain appears from Brendans head he is not visible. But given his seeming location you would imagine that he would be for both Brendan and Laura.

The whole 4:15 thing, although written into the script the arrival of the police at Pins was not seen. Sirens can be heard in the distance but they may or may not be coming to Pins. It is plausable that Laura called the police, a neighbour, having seen all the armed people rock up, or even Brendan after he escaped.

Having said that I do like the Brain Mastermind betraying Laura thing. Once she found out she was stuffed, she could have said to Brendan in his ear 'Mother (which we know) fucking Brain did it too' or something. This in turn explains Brendans direction to tell Brain to go home get some sleep so he can tail him.

I'd pay for watching this scene (Brendan tailing Brain while is sleeping) in a "Brick" sequel. Curious that the only person Brendan didn't argue with in the whole film was Brain. That's weird. And it would enforce the theory both were the same guy.

this is gonna be long, so bear with me, i just watched the movie three times in the past week, and I've also read every post in this thread, and i'm absolutely addicted now. And Rian, you are the shit and in my opinion the best director/writer of all time.
ok here goes my theory.
Brain is a real person. he is feeling used by Brendan who only needs him for information then discards him like a piece of garbage, acting as if he owes him nothing for his help. Brain gets fed up with this and decides to find a way to con Brendan into his whole mess. When Brain gives Em Brendan's locker number is when it all starts. Brain knew that Brendan loved Em too much to just walk away from it all, so he knew he would bite.
Tangent 1: The Brain and Brendan don't meet at the same spot every time, they meet at several different places throughout the movie.
Continuance of theory: I think that Brain and Laura are in this together, and Brain's being influenced by her (he likes her) and his mistreatment from Brendan to come up with this whole scheme to screw Brendan over.
Example: When Brendan calls Brain when Brain's in the library, Brain sound a little hesitant when Brendan asks him if Laura went straight to school after the incident at The Pin's. Brain says something like, "I mean she's not WITH me, but she's here," (emphasis on with intentional). The reason Brendan never figures this out is because he trusts Brain so much and he thinks he's closer o Brain than he really is (just like Em).
Another theory is that Brain never knows that Em is dead. Brendan doesn't tell Brain this because he doesn't want to tell ANYONE because he's afraid that it will leak out and he won't be able to find out what happened to her. When Brendan tells Brain in the library that "she's gone" I think that he really meant it as a metaphor that he was giving up on the whole situation. And when Brain says "can't raise her?" I think he means something like "don't think you can do anything about it?" The reason I think this is because after that Brendan and Brain convince Brendan to go find Em, not to find out how she died.
Also, in the final scene, Laura is not surprised to see Brain behind Brendan in the background because Brain is in on the whole scheme to screw Brendan over. When she whispers in Brendan's ear, it's as if she's rubbing it in Brain's face that she knows his secret, making him squirm. However, instead of telling Brain's secret, for all we know she really could have called Brendan a "dirty word," like "mother fucker," since everyone knows "mother" is the only word we can here when she whispers to him.

Facts that support the Brain theory:
1. Brain calls Brendan on a payphone. How did Brain know that Brendan was at that particular payphone at that particular time. (By the way, BRAIN calls Brendan, not the other way around, which voids the comment by someone else that Brain is never the one to call, and the phone rings this time, unlike every other time)

That's my theory, could be completely wrong, but it's just how I interpreted the movie. Please respond if you want to.

Oh okay, so was this long thing (sorry didn't read it) what BigDawg was referring to in the other thread when he/she said he disproved everything that has been proved since the end of the age of Enlightenment? My bad, I didn't see this before.

Welcome to the boards, still.

OK maybe I'm saying things that have been already said (sorry) but I couldn't wait and read all 10 pages of this thread. I HAVE TO SPEAK!!!! So here it goes:

OMG Is Brain the father of the child? Is he coming out of Brendan's head at the end (on the field) because Brendan is THINKING of him at that moment because Laura had just said his name....

And that does not exclude "BRAIN THEORY" to make it even more intriguing hohoho.

CONSPIRACY THEORY ALERT!!!

Hide the moon-landing set!

And the magic bullet!

And the pentagon-plane collision tape!

And Mel Gibson!

And all the broken sword games!

Not to mention the guy that made Capricorn One.

Oh, and the talking monkey.

I don't really have much time to read all the posts on this so someone should have already posted this.

If the brain isn't a real person that makes brendan completly off his tits.

That means that he likes to call himself on the phone and talk to himself?

How does his own subconcious chuck a phone at brendan.

If you watch A beautiful mind then you will know that the imaginary characters in that don't touch anything or speak to anyone else.

One thing that is interesting i suppose is that on the cinema poster the brain isnt featured but emily is and she is in it less than the brain. Although i think that you needed the lost star to sell more seats, no insult or anything just sayin.

So interesting. I noticed some tension between them but figured Brain was gay.

Ok, so the back and forth discussion seems to be pretty fizzled out on here, but I'll post anyway, in my middle of the night haze after seeing the movie for the first time. BTW, super-belated kudos on the film, Rian.

When I finished the movie I thought the Brain was the baby-daddy, and started looking online for confirmation/refutation of that. Now after reading 90% of the posts on here I think the Tyler Durden theory is intriguing, but I'm not quite buying yet. Lots of posters wondered why Laura couldn't see Brain on the football field. I say she did. That's why she asked Brendan if he knew all along who the daddy was. I think nothing stings like the truth, and Laura is more than capable of finding a FU moment that will be effective. That's also why Brain asked what she whispered to him. Obviously the context of her revealing Em was 3 months along would clue Brain in that Brendan was the father, unless he had good reason to suspect otherwise. We can see that Em still loved Brendan and (probably) wouldn't have said she didn't love him. This also provides motivation beyond just being a friend for Brain to help Brendan. He may have loved her also.

Is anyone still out there?
Am I lucid?

Paul

Hey Paul, welcome to the forum! It's always awesome to see new people discovering the movie and wanting to talk about it.

Y'know, I've always liked the theories about Brain, but I've never actually felt like any of them held water. To me, it seems pretty clear Brendan is the father. It's established several times that it's been "a few months" since Brendan and Em were together, so her being three months along kinda clinches it.

Is there anything else in the movie that indicated to you that Em and Brain were involved?