One solid reason the time-loop doesn't work and...

Therefore, these cops know about Fred killing Renee.

Not necessarily.

Given we understand the film as being composed of three segments (Fred I, Pete, Fred II), we're seeing Renee alive at the Lost Highway Hotel in Fred II. Also, when Fred arrives at his house and speaks into the intercom, there's audibly somebody picking up at the other end. Since it can't be Fred talking to himself, it can only be Renee. In this setting, we would assume that the cops know Renee only from her calling them to the house, to investigate the video tape situation.

And the reason why the cops would be coming to the house in the first place is the murder of Andy, the photograph with Renee in it and them consequently investigating a possible link between Andy's murder and the Madisons. Where they'd start chasing Fred only because he starts running.

E.g. look how the cops are approaching the house, more or less casually strolling along with weapons still holstered. That's not how you'd approach the house of a convicted murderer you're expecting to possibly meet there.

Fred is inside the house (with Renee alive)

The common understanding is that she isn't alive anymore during the opening scene. Most likely it's the morning following her murder, where Fred starts creating a straw man story in his mind to lock recent events out of his conscious memory.

And the "Dick Laurent is dead" intercom incident might really have been purely accidental, like it reportedly happened to Lynch in real life, thus providing a random starting point to base that alternate and distractional story on.

So that would be the opening scene, and the rest of the Fred I segment up to the face slap rather a flashback.

That said, a "time loop" interpretation doesn't fit anyway in several regards, and would rather be wishful thinking of a simplifying mind. Lynch himself, when confronted with this reading, answered that it would rather be a "spiral". His polite ways of saying that it's not at all what they had in mind when writing the stuff.

The opening song explains it all as David Bowie says I'm Deranged. Yes, Lost Highway is a story about a man who is completely deranged and has murdered his wife and the man she was cheating on him with. Basically the entire movie takes place in Fred's head as he sits on death row. In 'real life', Fred discovers that his wife Renee is having an affair with a man named Dick Laurent. He follows them to a hotel and sees them having sex. After Renee leaves Fred attacks Laurent and brings him out to the desert and murders him. He then returns home and after some time ends up murdering Renee. He's arrested, tried, and sentenced to death. However Fred is unable to come to terms with what he did. The first half of the movie leading up to his imprisonment is Fred's distorted memories of what happened as he awaits conviction. You remember when he spoke to the detectives and told them he likes to 'remember things his own way...not necessarily how they happened"? Well this holds true. He doesn't want to remember what happened but his mind won't let him. His guilt surfaces in the form of the videotapes, representing his snooping to learn about Renee's affair. The Mystery Man represents the actual crime, the violent murders. When he tells Fred that he's in his house, he means the murder that Fred committed. After his arrest, rather then deal with the truth of what he did, Fred goes inside his mind. In his mind he creates a new personality for himself, and in his mind he's released from prison and sent home to live in his 'new life'. However his mind won't let him forget and the truth begins to seep into his fake reality. His family and friends make reference to "that night" but won't speak of it. "That night", of course, is the night he murdered his wife. Dick Laurent appears as Mr. Eddy and then even Renee enters his dream world as Mr. Eddy's girl, the now blond Alice. Soon his dream world starts to clash with the reality of what he did, and when his dream world personality comes undone, he finds himself as Fred once again. The last part of the movie is Fred reliving what actually happened before he murdered Renee--finding Dick Laurent, confirming his wife's affair, and then murdering Laurent. He goes home to tell himself that Dick Laurent is dead and then leaves as the cops chase him. Now remember, this is all in his head and as he's driving away down the lost highway of his mind, in real life he's being lead to the electric chair, completely unaware of what's happening. When we see Fred in the car start to burn and twist and convulse, that's because in the real world, Fred's being electrocuted in the chair. The title Lost Highway represents his lost mind, unable to cope with reality as his minds wonders down the lost highway of his soul

The film and subject matter are based on a mental condition called psychogenic fuge. Which is a mental condition that occurs when an extremely traumatic experience occurs. The mind fabricates a new identity for the person to remove all memories of the trauma that were experienced. It is obvious that Fred Madison and his wife have a unspoken uneasiness about there relationship...is it infidelity, trust issues or is it just all in Fred's head? Whatever they may be you can tell that they are becoming more and more uncontainable by Fred...Also I must say this...the movie is shown out of sequence...David Lynch jumps the images and story lines. example: earlier in the film Fred Madison tells his wife, after an unsuccessful sexual intercourse session, about a dream that he had, he tells his wife that she was calling his name but he couldn't find her, Lynch shows shots of Fred walking the house looking for his wife and you can hear his wife Rene saying Fred, Fred, where are you...Then he says I found you but it wasn't you it looked like you but it wasn't you. Then we see the camera zoom in fast to a sleeping Rene who is awoken and screams in terror... Now if you watch the scene right after the kabuki man/Robert Blake scene, after Fred searched the house because he thinks someone is inside, we hear a phone ring and see the same exact seen that Fred said was a dream actually happen, you even see the close up of Rene saying Fred, Fred, where are you? As she looks into the blackness.....and Fred is wearing the same clothes he is wearing when he said it was a dream (obviously Fred remembers it as a dream not an actual occurrence, I like to remember things my own way. Not necessarily how they happened) ....Fred goes and retrieves the last video tape and then he watches it he sees himself in his bedroom with a dismembered Rene. When he is in jail he is having migraine headaches and is constantly tormented by memories of his dismembered wife....he cant sleep and its obvious he is becoming delusional....he reaches a breaking point and his mind fabricated this alternate persona called Pete Dayton. The scene with the blue light and his head shaking rigorously back and forth. Now removing himself and assuming a new mental identity(remember he is still in the jail cell his mind is just inventing a new reality for him) he is free to relive his life to the fullest. Pete is everything Fred wasn't a hit with the lady's, has tons of friends, very popular and has a lust for life.....nothing could be better till Mr. Eddy brings Alice(the blonde Rene)with him to the garage....Pete who is just a mental projection from Fred sees her and is immediately entranced by her...geee i wonder why? And instead of just being content with his "new life" he goes after his one addiction Alice/Rene. Its all *beep* and giggles in the beginning until Mr. Eddy and Pete's girlfriend find out whats going on....from there he gets himself back into the same pickle his mind tried to get him out of....this is all supported by the fact that at the end of the flick when Fred is being chased by the police we see him start to physically change in the face and his head starts shake back and forth and he starts to scream, the same way he did in the jail cell, until he vanishes off to his next identity.

NovaIncognito et al:

I've read about 100% up until the following discovery way back in about 2006, originally posted by me in the thread "A Key" which is probably long gone. Here it is, once again...

SPOILER ALERT!! I still think this works the best, at least for me.

Do not read unless you want a complete plot exposition with details:



There is a key in the film as to its meaning."

-David Lynch on Lost Highway


This is almost too easy. I could get real elaborate, but it's late and I just want to get this down because otherwise I'll never get to sleep. Besides, I don't want to give it all away.

Just watch the film with the following thoughts in mind:

Fred is a murderer. He had Dick Laurent killed because Laurent was having an affair with his wife, and Laurent was also the kingpin of a crime syndicate that included a pornographic film business, which used Fred's wife Renee in some of his films.

Why would anyone give Fred a message that "Dick Laurent is dead?" Because Fred needed to know this since he's the one who paid to have Laurent killed.

Andy killed Renee--or was at least an accomplice in bringing about her death. Why'd they kill Renee? Because they worked for Laurent and Fred had had Laurent killed.

The beginning of the film is pretty much straight depictions of actual events. Each tape delivered shows more of the house. What's the message being sent? "We're watching you." Why send this message? Laurent's loyal henchmen want Fred and Renee to call the cops to watch their house.

Why would the gang want surveillance on Fred's house? Because they're going to set him up to get caught "red-handed."

When Fred goes to play sax at night, Renee stays home. She's not just goofing off, though, she has a job. Andy has her starring in a new porn film, to be shot in Fred's "sound-proof studio." She has probably been doing these films for some time. Cute bit here--Fred plays sax, Renee plays sex.

They actually do make a film, but not the one Renee was expecting. They kill her and wait for Fred to come home. Then they film him discovering the body. I think, but not sure here, that Fred promptly goes bonkers after he sees the body. He doesn't know he's been filmed. He doesn't even remember seeing the body. He doesn't want to remember. This is his "madness" of denial.

They send Fred the tape of him with the body. All the earlier "surveillance" scenes are also on this tape. The scene with Fred standing in the carnage is the Big Finish. Fred is faced with the "evidence" of what he has seen, but he doesn't remember witnessing it.

I think the cops come to the house while Fred is watching the tape. Either that or he brings them the tape after he sees it. He says "tell me I didn't do it" because he really doesn't know. The line is also important because in a way he "did it" since by killing Laurent he brought on the murder of Renee as retaliation.

Fred gets convicted of the murder and is imprisoned, presumably on death row.

While on death row, he is tormented by his inability to figure out what exactly happened to Renee. He still thinks he might have killed her, but he doesn't know for sure. "Could it have been me?" he wonders. If it was someone else, he probably suspects why they killed her--but he suppresses this thought, because either way, he would be responsible. He’s so distraught he has terrible headaches and can’t sleep.

The prison doctor gives Fred a strong sleeping pill and tells him "You'll sleep now." And Fred does. He has a dream.

Mulholland Dr Spoiler Alert! (skip next paragraph if you don't want to see the spoiler)

Unlike Mulholland Dr, where the film begins with the dream, Lost Highway's dream sequence begins later in the film. Interesting that, in Mulholland Dr we're told exactly when the dream ends--the Cowboy tells Diane "it's time to wake up." In "Lost Highway" we're told exactly when the dream starts, the doctor tells Fred "You'll sleep now."

In Fred's dream, he wakes up in prison and is a different person. He gets out. He is now a capable young man who can go get revenge. He realizes in the dream how Renee was killed, and who did it. His dream self goes out with his "spirit guide" Alice, the re-incarnation of Renee, to kill Andy. She not only takes him to Andy, she also becomes his lover again and shows him where she, as Renee, had her liaisons with Laurent--at the Lost Highway hotel.

Alice has to leave, though. She tells Fred's dream-self that he'll never have her. Of course not, she's a phantom. The main wish-fulfillment of the dream goes sour and Fred turns back into his sorry old self, but his quest for answers continues. He finds Mystery Man in the same cabin where Alice disappeared. Mystery man is now his "sprit guide" in the dream. Mystery Man shows Fred how and where Laurent died. He even points out that Fred really killed Laurent, even though it was murder for hire.

How does the Mystery Man know this? Because he killed Laurent.

Fred hired Mystery Man for the hit on Laurent. Mystery Man is an accomplished assassin. "In the East, the Far East..." Fred doesn't know his name, of course. Hit men don't tell you their name.

In his dream, Fred goes back to his house and announces to himself that Dick Laurent is dead. His subconscious is telling him that he is a killer, and he must take responsibility. It's a double-edged sword. He got that bastard Laurent, but he also caused his own wife's death.

Back in the beginning of the film, it was Mystery Man who reported to Fred that Dick Laurent was dead. The job was done, and presumably he wanted to get paid whatever the agreed-upon completion fee was.

Fred winds up on the Lost Highway at the end of his dream, because his subconscious is telling him that his plan for revenge has come to nothing but endless pain. He screams and the light comes up. Fred is about to wake up back in his prison cell, screaming in agony.


“But keys are weird. There are surface keys, and there are deeper keys. Intellectual thinking leaves you high and dry sometimes. Intuitive thinking where you get a marriage of feelings and intellect lets you feel the answers where you may not be able to articulate them.”

-David Lynch on Lost Highway


So, the key is not the whole answer. The rest of the film's symbolism and meaning are "felt." But the key is important to beginning to understand.


"I rarely agree 100% with anybody on anything. Not even myself." GS