During the football scenes when Ben freezes time in the cafe area there is somebody wearing a hoodie that he presumes is frozen in time but then this person bolts out the room. Was this ever really addressed that there were other people who could freeze time and walk about etc as I can't remember how this was explained.
Thanks
Nope. That was never explained or explored. And I thought it kind of ruined the movie. Without that scene you could never really be sure whether he was actually stopping time or whether he was just imagining that he was. The fact that there was another person who could function in stopped time and that Ben was expecting that mean that stopping time was real.
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What Would Jesus Do For A Klondike Bar (WWJDFAKB)?
I liked how it was done. no explanation, just something thrown out there to make you go huh... and it in no way meant it was real, maybe he was just nuts and seeing people who weren't there.
And I think you'd also hate teh ending than? Him bringing her through also means either time stopping is real or he's gone nuts.
"Without that scene you could never really be sure whether he was actually stopping time or whether he was just imagining that he was."
After he kisses the girl in the end, she can walk about too. THAT would have 'ruined' it anyway.
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Every act of interest in life is carried out at your own expense.
I think it was all very nice; it doesnt have to round off at the end to make its point (like it sort of did, ill get to that)
The stopping time thing had no impact on the real world, it was just highlighting his ability to learn the moment, or learn how to appreciate the moments and use them to appreciate the beauty around him/us.
(otherwise he could have just run outside and hid behind a push to take a piss, and then said OH HAI - that must have been some other dood up there snogging the knob-head at the top of the stairs... how else would blondie explain it??)
The bringing of blondie into it at the end was metaphorical (i am choosing to believe) as in they are now connected and see the world in the same way - there is no actual time freezing (i know he grew a beard slightly, but this is just alluding to him desperately going over how to fix it in his head; he cant affect what he has frozen because of all the paradoxical corollaries that come with it)
Was it my imagination, or was the stripper at the party also wearing a hoodie to start with? And therefore was perhaps the same person?
shareYou got it totally wrong, upside down and backwards, as the time freezing not being real would have ruined the movie. You sad sad human being.
"Anyone who claims to be a feminist instead of a humanist is a tap dancing monkey."
It wasn't explored because it wasn't important to the story that he find the person in the hoodie. It was however important that he now realizes that he might not be the only one who can experience it. That makes him think that he could possibly bring Sharon into the frozen world and show her the beauty of life frozen in a moment of time. That would explain the last scene when he knew that he could bring her into frozen time.
shareI saw it as a warning to him that escaping into this fantasy world (I looked at him freezing time as a sort of day dream) all the time wasn't a good thing. If he wasn't careful he could get into trouble. I believe in the film he also mentions something about him not being alone and how that could be dangerous.
I remember a tv episode, maybe from the Twilight Zone. The man who freeze time saw ghostly shapes a couple of times. He was warned they were people who got trapped doing what he did and they might try to take his place to escape from this purgatory. And then he would be the one stuck in limbo.
It was The Outer Limits, an episode called The Premonition.
shareWow, I just watched this last night and COMPLETELY forgot about that scene. I kept thinking they would come back to it, but then I guess I just got interested in the rest of the film and forgot about it.
That is kind of lame, why even bring it up if you're not going to do anything with it? At least show who the other person was... The movie still would have been as good if he just "knew" that he could pull the girl through by kissing her. That's what I believe happened, and obviously I didn't equate it with the scene with the hooded guy because I didn't even remember it.
Open the pod bay doors, Hal
i think it was perfectly done ,it was never abt the identity of the other person it was just to elaborate the point that two people can exist in ben's stopped time
ABS
Yeah, boo to this.
You don't graft something in that touches on such a vital part of the movie, and never get around to explaining it.
I saw this film differently to about 90% of the people commenting in these message boards. To me the time-stopping wasn't meant to be taken literally, but was rather a representation of how an artist looks at the world - seeing the beauty and detail in every moment. The very first time-stopping scene was narrated with the line:
"So what is the art in making my shift go so fast? I imagine the opposite: that time is frozen."
So for me, the scene with the guy in the hoodie was all about introspection, and that maybe Ben should experience the world around him rather than just live as a spectator. During the scene he narrated:
"Was I spending too much time in this frozen world? It felt safe; untouchable. But how safe is anyone's world?"
For the end of this time-freezing scene he narrated:
"It's funny but the last thing I imagined was that maybe I wasn't the only one who could stop time."
I think it's significant that this whole scene was sandwiched between him staring at Sharon. So the time-line of my theory goes:
1. Ben starts to daydream about the world around him
2. Ben stares at Sharon
3. Ben thinks about how introspective he's been recently, and that maybe it's not healthy. He has the sudden inspiration that actually, he isn't alone: their are other artistic, dreamer-type people in the world.
4. Ben takes one last look at Sharon, and then stops daydreaming.
You're right, the time stopping was not literal. An an artist, Ben passes his extra time by examining the minute details caught within single, beautiful moments. The guy in the hoodie was an interruption to one of his introspective moments, something he put there himself. So why would Ben's mind add this to one of his frozen moments? He mentions later, "I thought about the night at the sports center when I had seen a person move when time was frozen. If other people could move within the frozen world, then maybe it was something I could bring Sharon in on." So perhaps he's telling himself that these frozen moments are not something that he should explore on his own, but instead they are something that he should bring to the world through his art, to bring other people in on what he can see.
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I thought it was a mannequin. It was kinda just right there, in a weird spot, and the face was kinda like gray-ish. This was right when he entered the room. Sort of made sense in my head lol. Moving people stop moving, non moving objects should be able to be moving, like mannequins. lol thats how I thought of it. But if it was a person, maybe different.
shareI took it as the guy in the hoodie was examining the minute details like he was and he recognized what he was doing, so in his mind he was freezing time too
shareNot to disagree with you guys or say anything, but:
In the earlier part of the film, when he's freezing time in the grocery store, he moves his manager from the office so that he can have milk thrown in his face. Now, if he's not freezing time...what happened there?
Also, I didn't see any need for the man in the hoodie in the film, so I was a bit meh when we didn't see who it was by the end. I mean, why not just throw a guy riding a dinosaur? Basically, my point is, if you can take that part out and not change the film at all, then there's no point in having it in.
I found this really frustrating. It is clearly a major plot point, and important to the whole concept. The fact that the person was wearing a hoodie made it mysterious..and indicated there was *a reason* for someone to wear a hoodie..... but the whole thing, including the nature of the hooded person, was left unexplained.
To me it indicated that it wasn't a dream, and that he could stop time, as he wasn't the only person that had the ability.
One day may be the writer will explain it! Still, a great little movie.
I think the mistake a lot of people are making is that you have to see everything literally. Sometimes the events of the story is only there to make a point or simply to set up something else. Some stories were meant to be taken literally and must follow its own logic. Other times, a scene is simply there to evoke a certain emotion or thought and needs no other reference. My interpretation is that the time stopping is a symptom of his hurt and loneliness from his break up, in addition to his artistic senses. Encountering the other person in time-stop was his realization that he isn't the only one with those feelings. This encouraged him to attempt a relationship with Sharon. A previous post mentioned a similar theory which I echoed here.
shareThe other person moving is significant in that it:
(1) Proves that it's not something just happening in his mind, that he actually is stopping time. If the whole thing is a metaphor for an artist examining detail (rather than actually stopping time), then someone else wouldn't be able to just move of their own accord - that goes against the concept.
(2) As he states, he realises that other people can exist in his stopped time moment. This gives him an idea as to try to share the experience.
Who the person is, is never explained, but it does it's job as a plot point, which is all it is meant to do.
I just finished watching the movie and I was just really scratching my head about why they would even have included that scene. It was really powerful because it completely changed the tone of the film, and could have really taken the story in a different direction. It's not that the actual story was bad, but I felt the potential in that moment. It was suddenly very creepy and mysterious, and while taking it in a horror movie direction would really have undermined the thrust of the film so far, at the very least it could have been an interesting take on the sort of emotional trauma which gave Ben his superpowers, through the lens of a new character. For a second I thought it might have been Suzy, which would have been a pretty amazing misdirection, to me. Still, even without that, it was too strong and interesting a scene to have as a throwaway. They should have cut it from the film as it stands.
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It wasn't ever explained.
The fact that someone else can stop time, as he does, indicates to Ben and the viewer, that he's not imagining it/dreaming/hallucinating. He can really stop time, it's a real power .. because someone else can do it as well.
If it was just *happening in his mind*... then the other person wouldn't be there.
It's also an indicator to him that he may be able to bring his girlfriend into it, as more than one person can see it.
Freakiest bit of the film, I love it.
shareNot freaky, LAME.
LAME not because it wasn't cool, LAME because it was the only coolest part of the whole movie, which speak volumes of how bad this is.
The director didn't have a clue as to what to do with this one, comedy? no, drama? maybe, college-kid-sex-fetish? possibly, but not likely... renegade artist? maybe.. sci fi? in your dreams...
sudently the only scene interesting gets abandoned for the same LAME dialog over and over again.
The only explanation as to why this other guy was there is to get you to "understand" that our character now knows, others can freeze time and this scene is there to justify him introducing her new girlfriend to this "freeze time" at the end.
Basically, this scene was put there to justify the ending, the fact that is never explain is sufficient to show you the incredible lame work in the script.
Alex Vojacek