MovieChat Forums > Being John Malkovich (1999) Discussion > Can Someone Explain About the Vessels......

Can Someone Explain About the Vessels....

posted 10 years ago by Schlacker
1 reply | jump to latest

I just saw it for the first time and a few plot points I didn't fully understand. About the vessels:

1. How long can they stay there? Lester's body was pretty old. Does it mean they can stay until the body is that age?
2. How do the people know which vessel to go to? How did Lester know that the next vessel is Malkovich? Did the same portal at the office go into someone else's head before Malkovich?

Thanks a lot, enjoyed the satire aspects of the film but it'd be greatly appreciated if you can help me out.

"You built a time machine....out of a DeLorean?"

[–] Tychoxz 10 years ago

1) My guess is that they can stay there until the vessel dies of old age, whereupon they are spit unto the side of the highway and have to wait till the time they can go into the next vessel (44 years old). But yeah, I'm not sure why they think they can live forever doing this, they must age at the very least while waiting int he real world for the new vessel to come to the appropriate age.

2) They don't know, the portal does. Before Malkovich the portal went into Dr. Lester's head.