Jessup sees Jesus

That is correct. I still don't know what to make of it, except that Jessup is haunted by his father's death, which led him to lose his faith in God. So the religious imagery may symbolize his longing to find something to believe in (which he does, in his quest for the ultimate Self).


"As Balzac said, There goes another novel."

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I stumbled upon a clip of this hallucination on YouTube and was intrigued. I'm very interested in watching the film in its entirety now.

Having recently finished a course on Revelation at school that required a full 20 readings of the book, the images there are still very fresh in my mind. Here are some thoughts, in case you're still interested:

- The Lamb described in Revelation had both seven horns and seven eyes, a number oft-repeated in the book (Rev.5:6). They are said to represent the seven spirits of God, which are later confirmed to be the seven churches that Jesus addresses in Revelation 2-3. Additionally, the seven horns and eyes may represent omnipotence and omniscience. The same is the case with the lamb's head shown in the hallucination, whose eyes stare directly into the viewer even while Jessup's father is dying.

- In the Bible, this Lamb is representative of Jesus Christ, particularly with regards to his sacrifice. In Revelation 5:5, when the apostle John is told by an elder that the "Lion of the tribe of Judah" has triumphed, John turns expecting to see this Lion. He is confronted instead with a sacrificial lamb. This is one of the most important paradoxes of the Christian faith, that Jesus came not as the conquering king the Jews expected, but rather as a peaceful man who submitted to a brutal, humiliating and lonely death on a cross and shed no blood but his own.

- The lamb in the hallucination whose blood is spilt is the key to opening a book whose contents we get a quick, rather uninformative glimpse at. Whoever is opening the book has trouble doing so at first, but is made able to open the book after the sacrifice has been made.

-This book may be one of several "books" mentioned in Revelation. It may be the "book of life," which apparently holds the names of those who will be admitted to heaven to spend eternity in the presence of God. It may also be one of the books referenced in Rev. 20:12, books that hold the contents of each man's life and are used in the ultimate judgment.

-Although the film undoubtedly portrays a book, the image that best fits this description (a text opened by the blood of the Lamb) is found in Revelation 5, right after the Lamb is described as having seven horns and eyes. This is the scroll that initiates the series of judgments (seals, trumpets and finally bowls, all increasing in severity as Revelation progresses) that form most of Revelation and provide the most modern-day confusion.

-Like I said, I haven't seen the movie, but it would not surprise me if the events leading up to and occurring after this hallucination may connect to the beginning of some kind of judgment on Jessup. Oh, and I have no idea where the whole rape thing comes into play.

-The entire scene is shot with quick edits and is chock-full of bizarre imagery, very similar to the book of Revelation, whose narrative not only bounces from heaven to earth and back with dizzying speed, but also has proven to be extremely difficult to decipher because of its heavy reliance on symbolism. The purple haze that appears near the end of the hallucination appears to possibly be the beginnings of a mushroom cloud (a very common modern-day apocalyptic image).

Anyways, there are some thoughts. Take them for what they're worth. Like I said, I haven't seen the movie and this post was created 2 years ago, but I'm excited about seeing the movie now. The images presented are so like those of Revelation in that they are simultaneously beautiful in substance and meaning, but terrifying on the visual level.

... Watching this clip over and over again is starting to freak me out... =)