MovieChat Forums > The Broken (2008) Discussion > Daniel McVey - evil doppelgänger? *conta...

Daniel McVey - evil doppelgänger? contains spoilers

posted 16 years ago by btvsrocks
7 replies | jump to latest

So all of the people present at the dinner when the initial mirror broke had an evil doppelgänger come to life and kill the person.

However what I was confused about was the brother, Daniel. One scene, where he is standing looking at his painting while the phone was ringing, led me to believe that his doppelgänger already showed up and "original Daniel" was dead. But then in scenes where he picked up the rolling oranges from his neighbour, when he came back home to find his wife (or gf?) dead and at the end when he sees his sister in this hospital and he runs away frightened, I thought otherwise.

What exactly was the status of Daniel? And if he was an evil doppelgänger, why would he run away all scared at the sight of his evil doppelgänger sister? And if he wasn't the evil doppelgänger (which seems to be the case), why was he spared?

Also, what was the point of the neighbour, Harry I believe his name was, dropping the oranges and not being able to say anything, with his wife peering from the doorway?

[–] Saberist 16 years ago

Daniel was just lucky enough to stay alive or his doppelgänger wasn't able to kill him. As for the neighbor, he was too afraid to say that there was something wrong with his wife. It was the doppelgänger who was peering from the door way.

[–] btvsrocks 16 years ago

Ohhhh... Thanks for the explanation about the neighbor.

As for Daniel, so I guess general consensus then is that in most parts of the film (or perhaps all parts, mayhaps not in the phone ringing scene but we're not 100% sure) it isn't the mirror image of Daniel.

So now I'm wondering whether an evil doppelgänger even came to materialize and if he did, he simply gave up trying to kill his victim?

[–] ELKronos 16 years ago

Remember it took the mirror Gina a bit to find the real Gina to kill. So it could have been that mirror Daniel broke out in his shop, or went to the shop hoping to find him to kill. Much like Gina at the start, the film just does not state when you are seeing life through one persons eyes versus another (e.g. we could have also been viewing both mirror and real Daniel at various parts of the film).

It also could have been that he was really caught up in his work and was too focused to answer the phone. I do not know about you, but there have been times when I have been so focused on work I did not even hear the phone ring. The problem with this, if it is the case, is that it would be seemingly a ruse to throw the audience off (e.g. make them think that he is a mirror version), but this did not seem developed enough to make that the case? Unless of course the intent was to lead people to believe that what he told Gina on the phone ("you live there?") was false, but even that is a pretty large stretch.

[–] bronzescag 16 years ago

I think Daniel staring at his painting like a doppleganger was just a red herring - we were supposed to believe he was already taken over by his double. I suppose this was done to create tension, but all it really did is create confusion. If I was the director, I would have cut that moment. It doesn't serve the film.

[–] mladomic 16 years ago

I think Daniel staring at his painting like a doppleganger was just a red herring - we were supposed to believe he was already taken over by his double. I suppose this was done to create tension, but all it really did is create confusion. If I was the director, I would have cut that moment. It doesn't serve the film.

damn intense music during that scene :-)

[–] lordofthelake 14 years ago

Weren't there 2 brothers? I think the one with the oranges was the second.

[–] nick-1036 14 years ago

He was warned by (evil) Gina, he was the only one who knew what was going on, therefore he avoided being killed. That's why they showed the scene of him running away at the hospital, he knew what to look for and knew she was the evil one.

Daniel McVey - evil doppelgänger? *contains spoilers*

Daniel McVey - evil doppelgänger? contains spoilers