LOST HIGHWAY

 
AS IF HE WAITS FOR THIS MOMENT ... EVERY DAY



SORRY ROGER EBERT ... YOU WERE WRONG 


"LOST HIGHWAY" IS THREE STRANDS OF DIFFERENT COLORED PLAY DOUGH ... MELDED, ROLLED ... BLEEDING ...

TOGETHER ... AN EXTRAORDINARY BRAID OF SOPHISTICATED FILMMAKING GENIUS  

LOST HIGHWAY 

Plissken Boon, once again, gets inside the mind of David Lynch


THE LINKS FOR: MULHOLLAND DRIVE - THE PRESTIGE - ENEMY ARE ON THE RIGHT - IF YOU THOUGHT YOU UNDERSTOOD THESE MOVIES, YOU MAY WANT TO THINK AGAIN

I GOT A LOT OF REQUESTS FOR MULHOLLAND DRIVE, AND FOR LOST HIGHWAY, AND I ENJOYED MULHOLLAND DRIVE SO MUCH, IT WAS A NO-BRAINER TO GIVE ANOTHER LYNCH FILM A GO

Today I read a review of Lost Highway by Roger Ebert - ugggh! - it was sad to see a respected film critic rubbish a movie just because he didn't understand it - after analyzing Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway, I believe that David Lynch, some time in the future, will go down, overall, as the cleverest writer / director in history - I recently watched his 2002 "Rabbits", and I believe that after no one seemed to get Mulholland Drive, Lynch filmed Rabbits (at his home I understand ) as a deliberate and cryptic clue to the movie, not so much so people would then get Mulholland Drive, but as a marker in time, a sort of checksum - a jigsaw piece that only takes shape, only fits, once all the other jigsaw pieces are in the right order ...

I haven't seen Inland Empire, but I am getting requests to analyze it, and, after the similarity in themes of Lost Highway, and Mulholland Drive, I have no doubt there will be a connection 

LOST HIGHWAY

The first things I would like to say about this movie

I loved it - I enjoyed this movie far more than I thought I would

It has two writers (David Lynch and Barry Gifford), and appears to be about a man having a deranged fantasy - so therefore I believe that there may be more than one "valid" interpretation of this movie, and it may be hard to "prove" them "rationally" right or wrong either way due to the fantasy nature of the plot - just one may be more satisfying than another

I came up with two basic scenarios (the main difference being in the interpretation of the first few minutes of the film - was it (a warped) reality... or not?), but the one I present here (and the one I like the best) is the one I feel answers all the questions within the entire context of the film - it has become obvious to me that interpreting a Lynch film is like calculating Pi - you can get close, but his mind is infinitely deep

After analyzing Mulholland Drive, and my conclusion - I was not expecting this - is another "signature" of Lynch's work beginning to emerge?


First impression: The similarities with Mulholland Drive are striking

Straight away, it was obvious we were dealing with a deranged mind (thank you soundtrack)

I will give my overall conclusion about Lost Highway - then follow it up with the clues / questions that led me to my conclusion.


LOST HIGHWAY      

SPOILER ALERT

The main character in Lost Highway is ...

   
THE MAN WITH NO IDENTITY ...

THE MAN WITH NO IDENTITY is insane 

He travels in an endless mobius loop on the LOST HIGHWAY ... looking to hook up with his fantasy woman, Alice Wakefield, who is a character from his favorite movie ... a movie he has watched many, many times.

He lives as "characters" ... from within his "movie catalog" mind ... in his mind ... (the whole of Lost Highway is a complete fantasy) .... and he has superimposed / overlaid another extended "reality" over the top of his movie catalog fantasy, trying to maintain a "disconnect" from his "reality" (which is really an "involuntary nightmare fantasy" from his actual past)

So there are four components to his world - his reality (he resides in an asylum - which we only get a momentary glimpse of) - his "inside the movie fantasy" - his "outside the movie fantasy" - and an involuntary "nightmare fantasy" of his actual past

Effectively, The Man With No Identity spends every waking moment living in a fantasy world to escape his reality (asylum) - but the three fantasy components of his world are in continual "flux" - continuously "invading" and "bleeding" into each other - no matter how hard he tries to escape his reality into a utopian fantasy with his dream woman, his inadequacy, anxieties, and "nightmares" always "invade", and his fantasy world implodes, forcing him to "re-invent" himself in a "re-booted, re-imagined fantasy" - time after time after time after time 

The Man With No Identity remembers things "as he remembers them", not as they actually may have happened ...

(He doesn't like cameras, because cameras never lie - they always "show" it exactly as it was - and that's not how he likes his "mind" to operate)

THE WHOLE OF "LOST HIGHWAY" IS MADE UP OF THE MAN WITH NO IDENTITY "REMEMBERING THINGS ... AS HE REMEMBERS THEM" - THIS IS THE KEY CONCEPT OF THE WHOLE FILM


IT IS A "STICKY MOSAIC" OF HIS MEMORIES ...
 
HE LIVES WITHIN HIS OWN SELF-CREATED "YOUTUBE CHANNEL" ... OF HIS MEMORIES ... CREATING FANTASIES HE PLAYS BACK WITHIN HIS MIND ...
 
BUT AS HE LIVES THESE FANTASIES ... HE ALWAYS BEGINS TO LOSE CONTROL ... THEY BECOME A "MOVING, UNSTABLE CANVAS" ... HE TRIES TO ESCAPE HIS OWN MIND ... BUT HIS MIND ALWAYS CHASES AFTER HIM ... AND RUNS HIM DOWN ... HE GETS UP ... AND RUNS AWAY INTO A NEW FANTASY ... BUT HIS MIND RUNS HIM DOWN AGAIN ... AND AGAIN ... AND AGAIN ...
 
HE CREATES FANTASIES FROM MEMORIES OF HIS FAVORITE MOVIE ... AND NEW FANTASIES MADE UP FROM MEMORIES OF HIS FAVORITE MOVIE AND HIS PAST
 
(BUT THESE MEMORIES ARE ALWAYS "AS HE REMEMBERS THEM")
 
... BUT HIS MIND ALSO PROVIDES IT'S OWN INVOLUNTARY "INVADING FANTASIES" FROM HIS PAST



                          THE COMPONENTS OF HIS FANTASIES

ONE COMPONENT IS - A FANTASY "INSIDE" HIS FAVORITE MOVIE (AS REMEMBERED)
 
THE SECOND COMPONENT IS - A FANTASY "OUTSIDE" HIS FAVORITE MOVIE - WITH FANTASY CHARACTERS AND SITUATIONS HE IS CREATING RATHER THAN REMEMBERING - BUT STILL CREATED FROM (AS REMEMBERED) MEMORIES OF MOVIES AND HIS PAST
 
THE THIRD COMPONENT IS AN INVOLUNTARY "INVADING" NIGHTMARE FANTASY OF HIS PAST ... A "STICKY ANACONDA" THAT WRITHES, CHURNS, AND TWISTS THROUGH HIS FANTASIES ... TYING HIS FANTASY WORLD INTO GORDIAN KNOTS ... THAT CHOKE AND SUFFOCATE HIM ... UNTIL HIS WORLD BREAKS DOWN, AND HIS MIND "IMPLODES" ONCE AGAIN
 
RENEE MADISON, FRED MADISON, AND DICK LAURENT ... ARE ALL CHARACTERS HE IS "CREATING" (RATHER THAN REMEMBERING) - FROM MEMORIES OF HIS FAVORITE MOVIE, AND HIS PAST ... BUT, AT ALL TIMES ...

"AS HE REMEMBERS THEM" ...
 
THESE THREE "FANTASY WORLDS" ARE ALL "BLEEDING" TOGETHER ... THE LINES BETWEEN THEM ARE VIRTUALLY INDISTINGUISHABLE
 
IN FACT ... PROBABLY THE BEST WAY TO THINK OF "LOST HIGHWAY" ... IS THREE SEPARATE "STICKY" "CAKE MIXTURES" ... TWO CREATED FROM HIS MEMORIES - OF HIS FAVORITE MOVIE (AS REMEMBERED), AND HIS PAST (INVOLUNTARY)  - AND ONE A NEW FANTASY WORLD, WITH NEW CHARACTERS AND SITUATIONS ... BUT A WORLD STILL CREATED FROM HIS MEMORIES OF HIS FAVORITE MOVIE AND HIS PAST ... CONTINUOUSLY "CHURNING" TOGETHER IN A MIXER ... "INVADING" EACH OTHER ... IRREVERSIBLY TANGLED ... BUT NEVER COMPLETELY MIXING TOGETHER ...

THE RESULTANT "MIX" ... IS "LOST HIGHWAY"
 
(LYNCH TAKES A SIMILAR 3 DIMENSIONAL CONCEPT TO ANOTHER LEVEL WITH "MULHOLLAND DRIVE" - WITHOUT THE "MEMORIES" ELEMENT)

IN TERMS OF "LOST HIGHWAY" - THE MAN WITH NO IDENTITY SEEMS TO REACH INTO THE "MIXER" (HIS MIND) EACH DAY ... TO EXTRACT A MULTI-COLORED STRAND (ROPE) OF HIS FANTASIES ... WHICH IS DESTINED TO BURN LIKE A FUSE AS IT "UNRAVELS" INTO AN UNCONTROLLABLE NIGHTMARE THAT WILL EVENTUALLY OVERWHELM HIM AND "IMPLODE" HIS WORLD ONCE AGAIN ... OVER AND OVER ....
  

The barn in the desert represents his home (his mind) ... and seeing it exploding and burning in reverse represents how he reinvents himself every time his fantasy world "implodes"

Lost Highway starts out with The Man With No Identity smoking a cigarette in a darkened room - possibly a prison cell, or more likely, a cell in an asylum

There's a noise - an automated skylight or similar opens - but The Man With No Identity isn't confined .... no .... he lives in his imagination, or more precisely, his recollection

And, at the moment, he's living in a house ... a house he has created from somewhere in his memories ... a house for the CHARACTER he is about to play ....

FRED MADISON

Fred Madison is the husband of ACTRESS Renee Madison, who plays Alice Wakefield in his well watched movie ....

The Man With No Identity is totally obsessed and infatuated with Alice Wakefield .... he wants her ... badly ...

Fred Madison looks exactly the same as The Man With No Identity ... because The Man With No Identity has no movie/life reference to base him on (and, of course, it is The Man With No Identity who is fantasizing himself into these Renee Madison/Alice Wakefield fantasies)

The Man With No Identity lives in his fantasy as Fred Madison ... but Fred feels awfully insecure and inadequate ... his wife Renee played Alice Wakefield ... who was the local mobster cum porn producer's mole ... 

(Porn producer Mr Eddy - The Man With No Identity has just killed the ACTOR who played Mr Eddy - Dick Laurent - "Dick Laurent is dead" - because this part of the fantasy is "outside" of his "fantasy" movie - it's an embellishment / overlay - so he kills the actor, rather than the character)

Alice Wakefield (played by ACTRESS Renee Madison) also starred in Mr Eddy's (played by ACTOR Dick Laurent) porn productions ... inadequate Fred Madison feels he does not satisfy his wife in bed .... he creates excuses (which become her excuses) for her not to accompany him to his fantasy job as a sax player, then creates scenarios where he believes she is being unfaithful, feeding his paranoia ...

(Remember, it is really The Man With No Identity's mind that is "piecing together" this whole "fantasy")

He resorts to leaving video tapes for her to find, threatening her by implying their house is being watched ... 

Eventually, Fred's paranoia leads to him butchering his wife, which is possibly a scene from a horror movie The Man With No Identity is familiar with (or, more likely, it may be the reason The Man With No Identity is on Death Row or in an asylum - at some point in the past, he butchered his wife or girlfriend)

Just after Renee calls out "Fred ... where are you?" - we see two shadows moving through the living room - this represents "Fred" (The Man With No Identity) is being followed by his "mind" (actually a schizophrenic part of his mind ... called "Mystery Man" ... because, in The Man With No Identity's mind ... it is always Mystery Man that actually does the killing) - then "Fred" is confronted by what he has done on the videotape - which is then "recreated" in his fantasy / flashback in full glorious "Technicolor"

(The "dark hallway" represents a "schizophrenic passageway" in The Man With No Identity's  mind) 

The Man With No Identity murdered his wife or girlfriend ... at some point in the past

(Note the identity of the butchered body is actually indiscernible - and has black hair - not red ... this may be easier to see in the prison "flashback" later)

(The Man With No Identity became Fred Madison because he really wanted the "pure" uncorrupted version of Alice Wakefield - the version that hadn't been having sex with porn stars - but his paranoia overwhelms him, and he finds that it's too late ... Renee is just as "corrupted" in his mind / fantasy as Alice Wakefield, and he believes he can't satisfy her in bed - his fantasies are always destined to become nightmares, and crumble ... he will never be able to hold on to Alice Wakefield or Renee Madison)

Note: The 23 Enigma - Fred's prison number is 47516 - added together these numbers total 23 - the numbers 2 & 3 are missing from the sequence 1 4 5 6 7

Arrested, convicted, and on Death Row for killing his wife, Fred Madison's world "implodes", and The Man With No Identity reinvents himself as another character from his movie fantasy - Peter Dayton, who is young and virile, and has an affair with Alice Wakefield (in the movie fantasy that The Man With No Identity is remembering)

The Man With No Identity also overlays his own fantasy (this whole movie is a composite of the original movie as remembered by The Man With No Identity, and "embellishments" - "made-up" memories based on his favorite movie/parts of his deranged mind - substituting the "inside the movie" characters - Alice Wakefield/Pete Dayton/Mr Eddy - for "imagined" "outside the movie" characters - Renee Madison/Fred Madison/Dick Laurent - but using his "as remembered" memories of the movie and his past, to create his (very unstable) fantasies - trying to escape his reality/nightmares/destroyed life ... in an asylum)

(There are three fantasy components to The Man With No Identity's world - "inside" his favorite movie with CHARACTER Alice Wakefield - "outside" his favorite movie with ACTRESS Renee Madison (which is actually a fantasy recreated from "movie scenes" and his past (both "as he remembers them"), as he has little knowledge of Renee Madison's real life) - and an involuntary "invading nightmare" fantasy of his past - all "glued" together inside his "insane reality" - as he desperately tries to "escape" his miserable life in an asylum ... all these "worlds" or "fantasies" are "entwined" and "bleeding" together ... the lines between them blurred and (very nearly) indistinguishable)

Pete Dayton plays out his role, which is basically from the original movie, but is embellished with "extras" from The Man With No Identity's imagination (read "movie catalog") - such as having a problem with his head, having a strange relationship with his parents, being watched by the police, and vague flashbacks of possibly butchering his girlfriend

(This is a man who is on Death Row (or, more likely, in an asylum) for butchering his wife or girlfriend - he has problems with his head - probably has / had a strange relationship with his parents (probably "dreams" about them getting him out of his incarceration) - and was probably watched by the Police because he was their main suspect for a time before his arrest - he was probably convicted of murder - sentenced to death - but possibly "escaped" Death Row because of his insanity - this in turn has led to his fantasies of "escape" and being able to "morph" himself into fantasy characters - I believe he is trying to "escape" his reality - escape his past - by "inserting" himself into fantasies - but the problem is - his past keeps "invading" his fantasies - causing them to "implode" and collapse - he can "run" in his fantasy world ... but he can never escape ... the "nightmares" and "insecurities" of his past always "invade" his fantasies ... he runs from his own mind ... but is continuously chased by his own mind ... he is trapped on the Lost Highway of his life ... a "mobius strip" he can never escape from ... try as he might ... he can never escape his crime)  

Pete Dayton has no other recollections, outside those The Man With No Identity has created for him, as evidenced when he looks into his neighbors backyard, and his lack of memory (because he is (based on) a fictional character from a movie - "embellished" by "fragments" from The Man With No Identity's past)

The secret that his parents won't tell him is - that they're not really his parents - they are The Man With No Identity's parents - they have just been "recreated" in his fantasy world as Pete Dayton's parents - the truth is - The Man With No Identity murdered Sheila

(You have to remember - Pete's parents picking him up from prison has nothing to do with the Alice Wakefield / Mr Eddy movie The Man With No Identity has "inserted" himself into (or his Renee / Fred Madison fantasy) - so it's also likely the whole situation at home, with his friends, and Sheila are just "embellishments" from elsewhere in his mind - possibly "reflections" and fantasies from his actual past - things "as he remembers them" - the evidence would seem to indicate that Sheila is his actual "victim")

(The movie appears to be set in 1996 (but it's not) - the prison (when was the last time California handed out an electric chair death sentence?) - the doctor - the prison wardens - when Pete is released from prison, all the vehicles - are 1960's versions - his parents cars in the driveway - their house - the cops watching him - the lounge suite - their clothes - the program they are watching on TV etc. - all 1960's - what does all this tell us? - The Man With No Identity was released from prison (because he only remembers it as 1960's or early 1970's ... he has no later memories of it ... indicating he didn't spend very long there) ... straight into an asylum because of his insanity - he is creating part of his fantasy from his "real life" before he ended up in an asylum - and those memories are of the 1960's - (anything later must be from watching movies and TV) - further evidence The Man With No Identity went insane (Mystery Man - schizophrenia? - his parents had "never seen" Mystery Man before (in his fantasy), indicating a sudden onset of mental illness) and butchered his girlfriend Sheila ... in the 1960's)

(The prison - the doctor - the problems with his head etc. - all probably happened - and he was released from prison ... to an asylum)

(So - The Man With No Identity's past seems to be from the late 60's (homelife) - early 70's (prison)  ... the Alice Wakefield movie seems to be set before the era of mobile phones, in the era of VHS porn (probably the mid to late 80's)  ... the Fred/Renee fantasy seems "stylish" late 60's but embellished with additional modern props like 90's era VHS and TV's - we also see Mystery Man with a 90's era mobile phone, at a "porn era" party with era-indistinct music ... but I suspect the "core" era of this whole fantasy (all three fantasies combined) is late 60's (due to the bulk of The Man With No Identity's life recollections being pre his late 60's incarceration) - and later-era props are embellishments from the "movie catalogue" in The Man With No Identity's mind) 

(What this also tells us - is that The Man With No Identity possibly has a VHS player and TV in his asylum cell (he uses (and is familiar with) a VHS player / tapes in his fantasy as Fred Madison ... but notice most of the props in his fantasies are from the 1960's (and black and white is a theme) - the only "updates" he has on the outside world ... are from the TV/movies he watches ... that is why so many of the props (he is familiar with and inserting into his fantasy) are from the 1960's ... I think The Man With No Identity is in his mid to late forties ... and murdered his girlfriend when he was around twenty years old ... that is why his parents are involved in his fantasy ... have you ever seen a movie where a man is released from prison ... and his parents pick him up? ... The Man With No Identity murdered his girlfriend ... when he was a young man)

(I believe The Man With No Identity murdered his girlfriend Sheila some time prior to 1972 - (California's death penalty was commuted in 1972) - 24 years before (the scenario depicted in) Lost Highway is (supposedly) set (1996) - Pete Dayton is 24 years old - Pete Dayton probably didn't have a disclosed age in the original movie ... but The Man With No Identity has created an age for Pete in his fantasy ... the year he escaped the Death Penalty ... and the year he "escaped" prison ... to an asylum ... Bill Pullman was 43 years old when he starred in Lost Highway ... subtract 24 years = 19 years ... the same age on Pete Dayton's arrest record ... which is an "embellishment" created in The Man With No Identity's fantasy)

(That's why The Man With No Identity has a "movie catalogue" mind ... everything "outside" of his experience from the 1960's is from movies (or TV) ... so things like the pool party / music etc. are all recreated from the "movie database" in his mind (in the case of the pool party, I think it is his vision of how movie stars would socialize in the 80's era of the Playboy Mansion) ... but big "personal experience" things like living in houses and driving cars ... are from his memories of his actual past)

(So his main "recollection" is from his favorite movie (starring Alice Wakefield) or his pre-incarceration past ... and it would seem both these "catalogues" are late 1960's and mid 1980's respectively ... The Man With No Identity was incarcerated late 60's / early 70's)

(Note: This is why Pete Dayton (The Man With No Identity "inserting" himself into his fantasy as Pete Dayton) seems unfamiliar with VHS porn - he turns down a porno tape from Mr Eddy (what 24 yr old red-blooded mechanic turns down a porno tape from a guy like Mr Eddy?) - Mr Eddy shoots VHS porn (mid to late 80's - 90's era) - The Man With No Identity isn't familiar with VHS porn - but he is very sexually insecure - this would indicate that the "projector" (60's to 70's era) porn is an embellishment to the Alice Wakefield movie (we see it in both the Alice Wakefield and Renee Madison sides of the mobius strip - so it is probably an embellishment (I don't think Pete Dayton, the virile stud movie character is sexually inadequate - it's The Man With No Identity who is sexually inadequate and insecure - and this actually confirms The Man With No Identity's insecurity, paranoia, and sexual inadequacy) 

Alice Wakefield is a fictional character from a movie ... we can deduce that Pete Dayton is also a fictional character from a movie ... but we can deduce the Detectives shadowing him are not from the movie (they see Dick Laurent and Renee Madison ... not Mr Eddy and Alice Wakefield) ... they have been "embellished" with Pete Dayton's details (on the dash of the police car) ... which leads me to believe that Pete Dayton's age and arrest record ... are actually part of The Man With No Identity's past reality

(We see a computer at the prison ... but I'm not sure about the "authenticity" of the arrest record it displays (or the computer) ... which is only a photo or still of an arrest record (The Man With No Identity is aware of, and has seen computers ... but he's never used one) ... we find out later that Pete Dayton is the number one suspect in the murder of Andy (because his prints are "all over the place") ... but the Detectives saying this are not part of the original movie plot ... so it's likely his arrest record is not from the movie ... but from (The Man With No Identity's) real life (past) ... hence The Man With No Identity was the one who stole a car when he was 19 years old ... and sometime after killed his girlfriend Sheila in a sleazy hotel (with the help of his (schizophrenia) friend, Mystery Man) ... and was sent to Death Row)

Pete Dayton has his dangerous affair with Alice Wakefield, and re-enacts the plot of the original movie, where he kills generic porn star / producer Andy for the scheming Alice ...

But his fantasy world starts to crumble, and he finds himself, momentarily, in the Lost Highway Hotel, as The Man With No Identity falteringly transitions from side to side of the mobius strip fantasy he is living in (mobius strips have two sides - an "inside" and and "outside" - in this case "inside" and "outside" of a movie-based fantasy The Man With No Identity has created for himself - both sides "embellished" with his past "reality")

Back on track, Alice and Pete travel to the desert barn to fence the goods ... 

Alice and Pete make love, and, through Pete, The Man With No Identity tells her how much he wants her - she rejects him, telling Pete he will never have her ... which causes Pete to feel inadequate, and he transitions back into The Man With No Identity ...

(Hence Mystery Man says "Who the fuck are you?" ... another clue that this man "has no identity")

Alice disappears into the recesses of The Man With No Identity's mind (the barn) ... and Mystery Man confirms she no longer exists as Alice ... "Her name is Renee" ... 

So we know ... Alice exists when The Man With No Identity exists as a character inside the "original" movie (where Renee Madison is Alice Wakefield) ... Renee Madison exists when The Man With No Identity is "outside" the "original" movie plot ... and we are "outside" the movie at this point, as Pete Dayton has transitioned back into The Man With No Identity ... Mystery Man knows The Man With No Identity as Fred Madison (both in bed with Renee, and at the pool party) ... but still says "Who the fuck are you?" ... indicating that our main character does indeed, have no identity ... perhaps our main character really does have no idea who he is (the reason he was transferred to an asylum?) ... and lives every waking hour as "characters" ... trying to escape his "Lost Highway" world

The Man With No Identity travels to the Lost Highway Hotel, which is just his embellished fantasy world - he knows that actresses always sleep with their co-stars, and his paranoia tells him that Renee is sleeping with her co-star, Dick Laurent, in this part of his fantasy 

Renee leaves in her generic film star car (another clue that Renee Madison is actually an actress), and The Man With No Identity kidnaps Dick Laurent, watched by Mystery Man, a generic horror movie character that lurks in the schizophrenic netherworld of The Man With No Identity's mind (effectively the barn) 

The Man With No Identity blames Dick Laurent for corrupting Renee Madison / Alice Wakefield.

The Man With No Identity takes Dick Laurent into the desert, and with the help of Mystery Man, kills him

(But killing Dick Laurent won't ease his paranoia, as we see later (in this "mobius loop") ... Dick Laurent is always "regenerated" because of The Man With No Identity's paranoia)

Mobius strips have two sides ... which flow together through a "twist" .., on one side of this mobius strip The Man With No Identity exists as Fred Madison / Renee / Dick Laurent ... on the other as Pete Dayton / Alice Wakefield / Mr Eddy ... the "twist" is the real life murder of his girlfriend (late 60's / early 70's) ... and his "escape" from prison (to an asylum) - (probably early 70's) ... but, because of his insanity and insecurity, The Man With No Identity's mobius strip is in continual "flux" - between all three components ... each "component" continuously "invading" the other two components ... creating an ever-changing, ever faltering, never-ending fantasy - Lost Highway

Lynch seems to love "mobius strips" - "composite" characters - and "3 dimensional" ("double/triple helix" type) plots (like "Mulholland Drive") ... these seem to be emerging "themes" as "signatures" in his work ... providing us with wonderfully "twisted" movies ... quite frankly, nothing has excited me more, in the last twenty years of watching cinema, than Lynch's "wickedly twisted" filmmaking
 
(I wasn't a fan of Lynch's work ... until I watched "Mulholland Drive" ... now I'm a massive fan ... and ruing that he hasn't made a few more of these mind-twisting masterpieces ... to my mind, not much else in cinema even comes close to the "buzz" these films now give me)


(I think The Man With No Identity's past reality - his parents and Sheila - are "invading" his fantasy as Pete Dayton - we see a "glimpse" of this when Pete can't stand the jazz music when working in the garage, and turns it off - all more evidence that The Man With No Identity played jazz (or liked jazz and aspired to be a jazz musician) and murdered his girlfriend Sheila ... some decades ago - The Man With No Identity had a problem with his head ... became insane ... and butchered his girlfriend Sheila)

Note: Just as Mystery Man actually kills Dick Laurent ... The Man With No Identity also "sees it" that Mystery Man (his schizophrenic creation) killed Sheila ... that's why his parents "saw" Mystery Man the night he killed Sheila (as his fantasy recollects anyway)  - and why there were two shadows moving through the living room when he "killed" Renee - one shadow was Mystery Man ... (remember - everything is fantasy - the only "reality" ... is that he killed Sheila ... a long time ago)

In this mobius strip ... one of the "twists" is that Dick Laurent always dies (The Man With No Identity always kills Dick Laurent) ... but then is always "regenerated" due to The Man With No Identity's paranoia (could The Man With No Identity actually be Dick Laurent? ... and kill himself over and over due to his remorse for his terrible crime?)

There are actually multiple "twists" in this mobius strip due to the continuous "fluctuations" between both sides of it ... identity changes are "twists" ... the intercom at Fred Madison's house creates a "twist" ... Dick Laurent being "regenerated" creates a "twist" etc.

The Man With No Identity's "world" is continuously in a state of "flux" ... with his fantasy "involuntarily" switching from one side of the mobius strip to the other every time he becomes overwhelmed by his inadequacy and paranoia ...

(Note: When Mystery Man gives Dick Laurent the small TV (as basically the explanation as to why they are about to kill him) ... it is Renee in the pictures ... she has red hair ... because this is "outside" of the movie plot - they are killing the actor ... not the character ... and blaming him for corrupting Renee ... not Alice)

He then travels to the house he has created in his mind for Fred Madison, to tell him that "Dick Laurent is dead" - the mobius strip cycle begins again, and we see The Man With No Identity "back" on the Lost Highway once again ...

(He doesn't "split" in two to become Fred Madison - this entire fantasy happens in his deranged mind as he continuously "drives" the "Lost Highway" mobius strip ... and mobius strips have two sides ... an "inside" and an "outside" - "inside" the "movie" and "outside" the "movie" in this case ... but both sides "embellished" with parts of his deranged mind)

When The Man With No Identity says "Dick Laurent is dead" ... he's not telling himself ... he's telling Fred Madison ... the (separate) character he is playing in another part of his mind (fantasy world) ... Mr Eddy's car is also Dick Laurent's car ... it exists both sides of the mobius strip ... and The Man With No Identity is "outside" of the movie plot at this point ... hence he's at Fred / Renee's house ... talking about Dick Laurent ... not Mr Eddy

The movie ends with the face of The Man With No Identity depicting his "psychogenic fugue" 

(Note that The Man With No Identity is now driving what appears to be Mr Eddy's / Dick Laurent's car ... indicating, that at this point, The Man With No Identity is in a "limbo" between both sides of the mobius strip ... the "Lost Highway"

(Remember he used the "Lost Highway" to "pick up" Pete Dayton when he transitioned from Fred Madison to Pete Dayton (he went from one side of the mobius strip to the other) ... the "Lost Highway" is a "limbo" space between both sides of the mobius strip)

SUMMARY

The Man With No Identity was an insecure and sexually inadequate young man who had problems with his head ... and he murdered his girlfriend Sheila

He was sentenced to death in the electric chair, but "escaped" prison to an asylum due to his insanity 

He has been incarcerated for three decades or so ...

He watches movies ... over and over ... of his favorite CHARACTER ... Alice Wakefield

The Man With No Identity is infatuated with Alice Wakefield

Everyday ... to escape his miserable existence ... and his past ... he creates fantasies for himself ... from "the catalogue" in his mind ... involving Alice Wakefield ... and the ACTRESS who plays Alice Wakefield, Renee Madison ...

But he can never escape his own mind ...  his crime, and his insecurity and inadequacy ... 

His destiny is for his mind to always invade it's own fantasies ...

He can never escape the Lost Highway of his mind ...

He continuously drives into oblivion on the Lost Highway ... chasing his mind ... and being chased by his mind ... two shadows chasing each other ...  

The Man With No Identity is lost ... on the Lost Highway ... of his mind ...    

NOTES / CLUES / QUESTIONS

THE OPENING SCENES

 I believe, that in the first few seconds of the movie - we see a glimpse of reality - the only reality in the whole movie ...

The Man With No Identity is in an asylum - and, just as the automatic shutter begins to open - we enter his fantasy ... as if he waits for this moment every day ...

It might not be intended, it might be meant to flow on from the fantasy "Lost Highway" of the opening credits ... but if there is any reality in this movie ... to my mind ... this is it ...

(BTW - I think the opening / closing credits, with the Bowie soundtrack, are fantastic - I don't even know what a "Grindhouse" movie is... but this seemed to remind me of Tarantino type "Grindhouse")

Fred Madison is looking into a mirror - apt because The Man With No Identity doesn't have an identity ... and this is almost to remind himself that he has now become Fred Madison ... whose life is, effectively, a reflection of images from The Man With No Identity's mind ... and what Fred Madison looks like (him)

Fred Madison listens to the intercom message, then looks out the window ... but The Man With No Identity has gone ...

Fred Madison looks a psychotic mess ...

Then we go to another time frame ... time in this movie is not specific ... because it is all just a fantasy ...

(Note the furniture and props ... are they "stylish" 1960's? ... I think they are (Lynch is taking a bit of a liberty with Fred Madison's house ... because I don't think The Man With No Identity lived in a "stylish" house ... but I suppose everyone has "aspirations" of how they would like (and fantasize) their house to be ... no matter what era they live in (and it is supposed to be a movie star's house) ... the bulk of The Man With No Identity's "real" memories are from the 1960's (and are working class) ... and things like the TV and VCR are just "updates" from his "movie catalogue")

(The white satin sheets on the bed when The Man With No Identity butchers his girlfriend perplex me ... the sheets are black when "Fred" first attacks Renee, and she screams and puts her arms up to protect herself - then, when we later see the aftermath, with an indiscernible victim (and a somewhat indiscernible "Fred" if you look closely - (could it be (a much younger) "The Man With No Identity"?) - the sheets are white ... is this to show us it's fantasy? ... to subtly show us that it's not actually "a real life" Renee who gets butchered ... it's just a fantasy recollection of another event (I think so) ... or just that these scenes are inconsistent "memories" being pieced together in a psychotic mind? ... because I think that Sheila was actually the victim, murdered in a cheap motel ... the same motel that Pete Dayton takes Alice and Sheila to in his fantasies ... but Lynch leaves himself a lot of leeway with the "remember things as I remember them" plot vehicle)

(So this would indicate that all "components" of The Man With No Identity's "reality" are continuously being merged and "folded" together like a cake mixture - churning in his mind - "Lost Highway" is very similar to "Mulholland Drive" in that it is a multiple "helix" playing out  - I have said before - Lynch is able to seeming effortless mold complex concepts like Play Dough - and both "Mulholland Drive" and "Lost Highway" are like multiple, colored Play Dough "ropes" or strands, rolled together - each compressed into a single multi-colored, multiple strand "rope" ... in the case of "Lost Highway" the "strands" are considerably melded and "bleeding" together ... the individual components are completely and irreversibly interwoven into each other ... for example, the lines between The Man With No Identity inserting himself, as Pete Dayton, into his own 1960's past, as he remembers it, and inserting himself, as Pete Dayton, into his favorite Renee Madison (playing Alice Wakefield) movie, as he remembers it, are indistinguishable)

(The Man With No Identity is inserting himself (as Pete Dayton - a young virile stud from his favorite Renee Madison (playing a character called Alice Wakefield) film, and parts of his life (as he remembers it - from the sixties) into a fantasy recreating (and embellishing) his favorite movie, ... or inserting himself into a fantasy living as actress Renee Madison's husband ... (the two sides of a mobius strip) - trying to "escape" his miserable reality and "have" Alice Wakefield - but his fantasies are always in "flux" -  invaded by each other, and his past (as a fantasy itself) - because of his mental instability and anxieties ... his fantasies are always unstable ... they erode, break down, and turn into "nightmares" ... and he is forced to "reinvent" himself and try running his fantasy "movie" over again)

(So - we see The Man With No Identity "insert" himself into a fantasy as Renee Madison's husband - it is invaded by his paranoia, inadequacy, and (nightmare) memories of his past (butchering his girlfriend) ... he then "reinvents" his fantasy, "inserting" himself as a young virile character (Pete Dayton) into his favorite Renee Madison movie (where she's cast as a character called Alice Wakefield) - but this is also invaded by his nightmare past (as a young man who butchers his insecure girlfriend) ... this also "implodes" on itself ...and he ends up back as The Man With No Identity, murdering the actor Dick Laurent, who he blames for corrupting his dream actress Renee Madison ... and then driving to her house to tell her husband Fred Madison (him, in these overlapping and interconnected "fantasy realities" going on (in his insane head) ... and, then he's back in the limbo space of the (never ending) Lost Highway once again ... a new fantasy about to start in his tortured mind)

(Just like "Mulholland Drive" - Lynch tacks a "symbolic" ending over the top of his mobius strip ...

(In Mulholland Drive we see the "all powerful" Winkie's hobo ("the one who's doing it"), Betty and Rita (poignantly, pointedly, very much like blonde twin sisters, laughing), and the crux of the whole movie, Silencio ... representing Hollywood, ... the woman with blue hair whispering the movie's most revealing and defining, final words ... "Be quiet!")

... symbolic, perhaps, of the O.J. Simpson "car chase", we have The Man With No Identity being pursued down the "Lost Highway" of his mind ... the whole movie a "psychogenic fugue" inside the mind of a man who, try as he might, cannot escape the scars of his unalienable culpability)

The concept of The Man With No Identity remembering things "as I remember them, not as they actually happened" means that all the lines between "movie fantasies" (inside the movie as Pete Dayton and outside the movie as Fred Madison) and his past reality (as The Man With No Identity and butchering his girlfriend) are considerably and deliberately blurred - inextricably "melded" and "bleeding" together (the "glue" being his underlying mental illness) - this is Lynch's genius masterstroke ... and it puts "Lost Highway" right up there alongside "Mulholland Drive" and "Inland Empire" as unsurpassed masterpieces in the history of cinema

(sorry Roger Ebert ... you were wrong!)

And talking of fantasy ... Renee Madison enters the living room ... and she is the quintessential fantasy (she's a "movie star" actress ... in present days terms, imagine creating a fantasy for yourself with, say, Angelina Jolie ... or Scarlett Johansson ... you start to understand this fantasy)

Renee Madison is just not "real" ... this is when I realized I was watching a fantasy ...

The fantasy woman to die for says she is going to stay home to "read" ... yeah right!

(I have got your "number" David Lynch ... you're just not gonna get "fantasies" past me)

Both Fred Madison and Renee Madison are actually being "projected" by The Man With No Identity - it's his fantasy ...

Then we see various scenes of Fred Madison's insecurity, his sexual inadequacy, and we are introduced to the schizophrenic side of The Man With No Identity's mind ... his "friend" - Mystery Man - who, as any good schizophrenic will tell you, ... is apt to pop up at any time ... sometimes working with you ... sometimes working against you ... but always scary ...

FRED'S DREAM

When Fred says he had a dream, and in the dream he looked everywhere for Renee, and couldn't find her ... this is about his paranoia - and is referring to his phone call from the club - the "phone" rang in every room - this was "Fred" looking "everywhere" for Renee ... then when he comes home, and finds her in bed, he refuses to accept that it's her ("but it wasn't you") - because his paranoia is telling him that she is being unfaithful (he "sees" her (in his schizophrenic world) at the club with Andy ... so he refuses to accept it's her in bed at home ... a symptom of schizophrenia is believing those closest to you are conspiring against you)

(Also ... cellphones were in existence in 1996 ... as evidenced by the scene with Mystery Man at the party (so this can't be from the Alice Wakefield movie I think is probably from the mid to late 80's) ... but Fred Madison calls Renee from a payphone ... another clue re an institution - he is not familiar with cellphones ... he has only seen other people use them (on TV) ... so he "uses" what he is familiar with ... a payphone - this happens throughout the movie ... he sees later model vehicles (in his 1996 Lost Highway fantasy... again from his "catalogue" of TV and movies) ... but is only familiar with driving (working on, and being in) 1960's vehicles ... and his memories of his parents house ... are 1960's - with black and white television programs ... the "barking dog" from next door is a "trigger" to his anxieties ... and was probably one of the "triggers" that "set him off" the night he took Sheila to a motel and murdered her)

THE DETECTIVES

The Detectives were obviously fantasy ... they stand in the bedroom, with a bed in it ... the same scene they have just watched on the video ... and ask "This the bedroom?" "You sleep here? ... in this room? ... both of yous?" ... Duh! ... that was us in the video ... - then one of them climbs on the roof to examine the skylight - yeah right!

"False alarms" refers to Fred's paranoia

MYSTERY MAN

Mystery Man is a schizophrenic element of The Man With No Identity's mind - and because The Man With No Identity is actually the one generating this fantasy, and all the characters we see, Mystery Man can pop up at any time, and be anybody's "friend" - and as we all know, a Lynch movie wouldn't be a Lynch movie without a weird character or two ... 

(The Mystery Man is a schizophrenic element, inhabiting the deep recesses of The Man With No Identity's mind, and, as such, has his own "personality" - but, ultimately, he is still a creation from within a fractured mind, and that is why his dialogue too, is sometimes mirrored across the movie / overlay fantasy, although in reverse (he gets inserted into the "movie") ... "We've met before, haven't we?" - remember, this is a "mobius strip", and the creepy little man has "met them all before")

(And, in particular, Mystery Man is actually referring to Sheila's murder when he says "We've met before, haven't we?")

ANDY

Why does Andy only have one name?

Renee Madison and Dick Laurent are "bone fide" actors - Andy is a "bone fide" porn industry "player" - and, as with a lot of people in the porn industry - his life style on, and off camera, is virtually the same

(Think Ron Jeremy - whenever you see Ron Jeremy in real life or in a porn movie - you just tend to see Ron Jeremy ... and there are some mainstream movies where famous porn stars, like Ron Jeremy, actually play themselves)

(Also - The Man With No Identity may not have familiarized himself with the ACTORS playing the lesser roles - we all can readily identify leading men / women - Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston etc ... but do you recall the names of the actors who played Goldfinger or Oddjob ... even though their CHARACTERS are very memorable)

PRISON

Nobody gets convicted of murder, sentenced to death, goes to sleep on Death Row, wakes up as another person, and gets released ... so it was obvious that this was fantasy... but I do believe that this shows us The Man With No Identity was on Death Row ... and "escaped" to an asylum ... because of his insanity

SKYLIGHTS / LIGHTS

Skylights and ceiling lights have significance in the film (they are actually incredible clues (particularly when Pete Dayton is in his bedroom - one thing that incarcerated people have a lot of time to do ... is study the ceiling) because I believe that The Man With No Identity actually resides in an institution (and has done for decades) ... also, when Pete Dayton is in his parents backyard (which is an embellished scene), there are cues that hint at an institution ... and the 1960's ...

PETER DAYTON

Peter Dayton cannot be a younger version of Fred Madison - they both exist in the same timeline - fake as it appears to be - 1996 - Peter Dayton is 24 years old in 1996 - Fred Madison is significantly older. He needed a past, so he could be identified, so the arrest record / car theft is just a plot vehicle to do this - it has no other significance 

(But note - Pete Dayton's birth date on his arrest record says 1972 - he is a fictional character from a movie - not just another incarnation of The Man With No Identity - and not the "original" murderer - ie. It was not Pete Dayton who murdered Sheila)

(But I do think, at times, Pete Dayton is "enacting" ("inserted into") a younger version of The Man With No Identity ... who murdered his girlfriend)

Notice that Pete's parents are watching an unlikely TV show in black and white ... it's because he is remembering ... the 1960's - The Man With No Identity has been incarcerated for decades

MR EDDY / DICK LAURENT

Again ... Mr Eddy is just so over the top, that he had to be a fictional fantasy ...
(1400 horsepower?)

Why do the cops recognize Mr Eddy as Dick Laurent?

Because the cops are an "overlay" fantasy - superimposed over the original "movie" plot that The Man With No Identity is recalling ... they are "outside" of the movie ... and recognize Dick Laurent as an actor (albeit a sleazy one), not the character he is playing ... but they see Pete as Pete Dayton because they have been "given" his mugshot / details ... as evidenced on the dash of the police car, particularly when one detective waves the mugshot in the other detectives face - it's a clue

One thing that was strange ... when The Man With No Identity cuts Dick Laurent's throat, Lynch appears to use a fake arm / hand ... why? ... is this supposed to be a clue that nothing is real?

(Mr Eddy's gun, also doesn't seem to be real)

(Also - Mr Eddy's car has done over 238,000 miles - and has both mph and kmph markings on the speedometer - very strange)

Why are cops watching Peter Dayton?

I think that the prison release was such a "Deus Ex Machina", that Lynch felt he had to let us down from that peak slowly and gently ... by providing an ongoing and engaging layer of mystery (that we think will be solved later ... but will actually just "peter" out) ... and misdirect us from the abrupt reality of the implication of the identity change / prison release ... (that it is all a fantasy)

(And I think The Man With No Identity was watched by the police as the main suspect in the murder of his girlfriend)

When Andy tells Fred Madison that Dick Laurent isn't dead, this "regenerates" Dick Laurent - Andy (the other threat to Alice / Renee) always gets killed in the "movie" fantasy - but, Mr Eddy obviously does not get killed in the movie plot ... so The Man With No Identity must always kill Dick Laurent, "outside" of the movie part of his fantasy ...

THE PHOTOGRAPH

Remember, Pete Dayton is not the "original" Pete Dayton ... he is an "embellished" version (actually The Man With No Identity) ... after he kills Andy, his world begins to crumble, as his paranoia and inadequacy (represented by the porn movie with Alice playing "large screen" overhead - overwhelming his fantasy) cause a "distortion" between the "movie" plot and the "overlay" fantasy ... hence his anxiety and disorientation ... and he, momentarily, is in a limbo middle ground ... he sees both Alice and Renee in the photograph ... then goes upstairs where his world again momentarily is in flux between both "sides" of the fantasy world he is living in ... then the transition is complete, and Pete and Alice go to the desert ... it doesn't affect Alice, because this is The Man With No Identity's fantasy, and, really, Pete is The Man With No Identity ...

(Note: When Alice gives Pete the large gun ... and says "stick this in your pants" ... it's another reference to The Man With No Identity's sexual inadequacy ... as is the porno movie with Alice playing "large screen" in his fantasy ... and it will again manifest in the desert when Alice tells Pete that he "will never have her" ... causing the transition back to The Man With No Identity) 

When the police detectives examine the photograph ... notice they are slightly removed from the other people in the room ... they are the four detectives we have already been introduced to ... they are "embellishments" to the original movie ... they only see Renee and Dick Laurent ("outside" the movie) ... but they talk about Pete Dayton because they have been "embellished" with this information (the mugshot on the dashboard in the police car) ... and, of course, Pete Dayton's fingerprints will be all over the crime scene, just as they were in the "original" movie ... the photo with both Renee and Alice shows us the "fragility" between both sides of the mobius strip - blonde Alice being present at Andy's death show us it was part of the original movie plot ... the detectives (embellishments) seeing only Renee Madison and Dick Laurent in the photograph now show this scenario is now invading and "embellishing" The Man With No Identity's "other side" of the mobius strip fantasy ... and of course, we are then back with The Man With No Identity as he tells Fred Madison (himself playing Fred Madison) that "Dick Laurent is dead" ... the mobius strip is about to start all over again

MOKES

Why does Renee say she met Andy at Mokes, and Alice say she met Andy at Mokes? 

Because just as The Man With No Identity has no physical movie reference for Fred Madison - (when Fred plays the sax at the nightclub, it's probably a reference that The Man With No Identity used to play sax at nightclubs (or dreamed about playing sax in nightclubs - he talks about a "dream") , and the "Luna" reference may be a clue to his insanity) - he also has no "life" reference for Renee outside of her movie role(s) as Alice ... so he improvises Renee's life from any reference he can ... and one of those references is her lines from the "original" movie he is recalling ... 

Andy plays pretty much the same role in Renee's life as he does in Alice's ... (he is a sleazy threat to both of them)

Note the car rides - Fred / Renee in a red convertible - Pete / Alice in a red convertible - the shots are very similar - The Man With No Identity is using his memory of the "original" movie (Pete / Alice) to create his fantasy as Fred / Renee

(The cars are similar, but not identical - because The Man With No Identity doesn't remember things "exactly" as they were - he remembers things "as he remembers them")

(If everything was "identical" - remembered exactly - it would give the game away - that is why Lynch created the "remember things as I remember them" plot vehicle ... this also allows The Man With No Identity to "modify" his "movie" fantasies "as he remembers them" - so cars and houses etc become props that he is actually familiar with ... it would seem that he murdered Sheila in a motel room ... Mystery Man made an appearance (just as he did when Fred felt sexually inadequate with Renee) ... and Sheila got murdered)

(Perhaps an "Oscar Pistorius" situation? ... another man with inadequacy anxieties and "problems with his head" ... spontaneously murdering his girlfriend)

SHEILA
 

If you look closely ... Sheila is "recreated" in The Man With No Identity's fantasy - just like Renee is "recreated" from movie scenes of Alice, Sheila is also "recreated" from movie scenes of Alice

Pete has sex with Sheila in the same motel that he has sex with Alice, and his inadequacy with her mirrors his inadequacy with Renee - and Renee is, effectively, a "recreated" Alice ...

Sheila's car rides with Pete mirror his car rides with Alice ... just like Renee's do ...

This would indicate that Sheila too is fantasy ... just like Renee ... but the difference is ... I think Sheila is real - it's just that she is already dead ... The Man With No Identity has already butchered her ... and he is just creating a "post-death" fantasy for Sheila ... like some form of alibi

(So my conclusion - The Man With No Identity murdered his girlfriend Sheila ... in the 1960's ... and his parents tried to cover for him ... by keeping their mouths shut ... that is why they are the people he "calls" into his fantasy to pick him up from prison)

(And, just as Mystery Man helped kill Dick Laurent in the desert, Mystery Man helped kill Sheila ... so his relationship with Sheila (that we see) is just some sort of embellishment after the fact ... because Sheila is already dead ... it's just that The Man With No Identity (as Pete Dayton) is trying to suppress that information from "invading" his fantasy ... and is creating a "post death" scenario for Sheila too ... hence the car parked in her driveway is a later model ... from somewhere in his "movie catalogue")

(Lynch seems to deliberately show us this later model car in Sheila's driveway)

(Note - all the vehicles that Pete or Fred actually travel in ... are 1960's versions ... even the bus and motorcycle - Lynch has gone to incredible detail in this film - I think Pete Dayton is following the plot of a "later" era movie when he's with Alice (where he saw later model vehicles) ... but he only has memories / recollections of actually traveling in (or working on) 1960's vehicles ... so perhaps he really was a young mechanic ... and The Man With No Identity's "I remember things as I remember them" means he is modifying the movie plot as he goes along, as well as creating his Fred / Renee fantasy ... so both sides of his mobius strip fantasy world, and his past reality, are all being merged across the entire fantasy of "Lost Highway")

(When Sheila says "I won't bother you or your family ever again" ... and runs off down the street ... I think this is "code" that Sheila is actually dead ... and we won't see her again - this is The Man With No Identity creating a sort of "alibi" for himself as he tries to suppress the "nightmares" already trying to "bubble up" into his fantasy ... his fantasy as Pete Dayton isn't supposed to be turning out like this)

(Renee / Fred have black satin sheets on their bed - the body we see is butchered on white satin sheets - this would indicate that it is not Renee that gets butchered (Renee is just a fantasy) - but it would also indicate that The Man With No Identity is "embellishing" what really happened when he murdered Sheila)

(We actually see red sheets / black sheets / white sheets on the bed - perhaps a clue to the three fantasy strands I believe make up "Lost Highway" - and that The Man With No Identity is remembering things "as he remembers them")

 So - the question becomes ... who got murdered? - and where?

I think we can work out that Alice and Renee (as we see them) are both fantasy figures ... and that Sheila, as we see her, is also a fantasy figure.

We can deduce that Alice is a fictional character from a movie ... and it's not her murdered in The Man With No Identity's fantasy (flashback)

So that leaves both Renee and Sheila as possibly existing in a past reality - but Fred / Renee both appear to be recreated fantasy figures, living within a fantasy world (created by The Man With No Identity ... who doesn't really know either of them)

The only one who can be linked back to the "real" world and The Man With No Identity, is Sheila ... and she was murdered in the sixties

This leaves the question ... where?

The likely answer is the cheap motel Pete Dayton takes Alice to ... but is the motel from the movie ... inserted into his "reality" with Sheila? ... or is the motel (from his reality with Sheila) inserted into his movie fantasy with Alice?

Either way ... the problem is the black / white satin sheets in The Man With No Identity's Fred / Renee fantasy ... where do these come from?

The only logical explanation is that the black / white satin sheets are not real ... the Fred / Renee situation is complete fantasy ... some parts of it created from other fantasies (like the porn star party and the car ride) ... but most of it created in The Man With No Identity's imagination ... of how actress Renee Madison would live (evidenced by the party, her silk underwear and satin robe, sleeping with her sleazy co-star, and her generic film star car)

So - the only "reality" in the Fred / Renee fantasy ... is that someone was murdered ... in the past ... Sheila - the sheets are fantasy ... Sheila was murdered in a cheap motel ... and the inadequacy The Man With No Identity felt with Sheila is being recreated in his Fred / Renee fantasy love scene

The Man With No Identity recreates the love scenes between Pete / Alice in the same motel ... but Pete Dayton was a stud in the movie ... so The Man With No Identity isn't inadequate at this point ... it's only when he goes to the desert, and pushes outside the boundaries of his "remembered" movie ... that his inadequacies once again overwhelm him ... leading to transitioning back into The Man With No Identity and then murdering Dick Laurent

It's very likely that the Pete / Sheila love scenes in the car are recreations of Pete / Alice from the original movie ... because Sheila is already dead ... and is, herself, being "recreated"

  DEDUCTIONS

If there was a murder - it happened in the 1960's

(Because someone was sentenced to the electric chair (1960's) ... and the prison is 1960's)

Assuming there was a murder

No one goes to prison and wakes up as someone else - so at least one of these two characters (Fred / Pete) must be fantasy

But both characters are in the same prison - where everything - the prison, the staff etc. - are 1960's - but the staff are talking as if it's 1996 when Pete Dayton is released - so we can deduce prison (Pete Dayton) is fantasy

So we can deduce that every scene with Pete Dayton in it ... is fantasy

So who was actually released from prison? - we can deduce that someone was probably released from prison - but because of what happens in prison ... we can also deduce that the only reason they were released ... was insanity ... and they went straight to an asylum

(So we can deduce someone is either still in prison ... or in an asylum ... because they weren't released in 1996 ... but we can probably eliminate prison ... because our "fantasist" only has memories of a 1960's prison)

Fred Madison and Renee have a VCR and 1996 TV - so we can also assume that these scenes are fantasy - because if Fred Madison committed the murder - he did not go to prison in 1996 - the murder happened in the 1960's ... 

So Fred Madison and Renee are also fantasy

So ... we have a murder that happened in the 1960's - but no identifiable culprit - hence ... The Man With No Identity

So any scene with Pete Dayton in it ... is fantasy ... so Alice, Mr Eddy, Pete's parents, and Sheila (as Pete's girlfriend) ... are all fantasy

We can also discount Alice as the murder victim ... because she is blonde


Renee is also fantasy (and we can deduce that Alice and Renee are the same person due to their "mirrored" scenes)


Mr Eddy is fantasy (and we can deduce that Dick Laurent and Mr Eddy are the same person)

We can also deduce that Sheila (as we see her) is a fantasy -  and also based on "mirrored" scenes of Alice Wakefield

(It's possible that some Alice / Renee scenes are based on Sheila ... but we know that Alice / Renee and Sheila are all fantasy as we see them)

So - all the characters - except for The Man With No Identity (who committed the murder in the 1960's) are fantasy

(We can deduce that someone is creating these fantasies - The Man With No Identity)

(We can deduce that if a murder actually happened ... it happened in the 1960's)

Logically, if a murder happened in reality, it is likely to be Sheila - she is the only character (along with Pete's (The Man With No Identity) parents) that we can physically link to The Man With No Identity - the only character we can take back to "reality" (before her death ... after her death she is just a fantasy) ... back to the 1960's

(And we know that Pete Dayton is a fictional / fantasy figure born in 1972)

So we can deduce that Sheila is fantasy only because she is already dead

Therefore, we can make a reasonable assumption, that Sheila is the actual murder victim 


MORE LOGIC

We have a mobius strip

Mobius strips have two "mirror-like" sides

On one side of the mobius strip we have:

Dick Laurent

Fred Madison

Renee Madison

On the other side of the mobius strip we have:

Mr Eddy

Pete Dayton

Alice Wakefield

Dick Laurent / Mr Eddy are the same person

Renee Madison / Alice Wakefield are the same person

(Not because they are played by the same actors ... but because they are associated as the same person in the movie ... the cops see Mr Eddy as Dick Laurent ... Pete sees both Alice and Renee ... and Mystery Man talks to Fred about Alice and Renee)

Logic would then tell us it is likely that:

Fred Madison / Pete Dayton are the same person

But we know the world they existed in (prison) is fantasy in 1996

(Because the world depicted wasn't 1996)

So it's (very) likely they are fantasy characters

created in the mind of our main character

A man we cannot identify

The Man With No Identity

(The common denominator)

The only characters we can associate with the era depicted

(1960's prison - house - TV program - cars - buses etc)

are Pete Dayton's parents (really The Man With No Identity's parents) and Sheila

(We can eliminate all the other characters as to actually living, as depicted, in the 1960's)

(We can actually eliminate everybody as living as depicted in the 1960's - everything is fantasy ... but it is depicting the 1960's ... so someone must have lived in this era to be able to fantasize it (The Man With No Identity) ... and the only people we can realistically associate with The Man With No Identity (in the 1960's) ... is Sheila and his parents (we can't link Pete Dayton and Fred Madison as the same person ... but we can link both of them as fantasy characters created by The Man With No Identity ... he is "impersonating" both of them)

So, again, logic would tell us that Sheila is his victim - and as she is already dead (his parents - Pete Dayton's blackout - Mystery Man etc are all clues to this) ... we can safely assume the scenes we see of Sheila are fantasy ... it's just the evidence suggests she did actually exist ... but was murdered ... 

(Why does The Man With No Identity create a fantasy character with a birth-date 1972? ... probably because that's the year his Death Sentence was commuted (he was given a "new life") ... California suspended the Death Penalty in 1972 ... maybe The Man With No Identity was shifted to an asylum then (because he only remembers a 1960's prison) ... (Pete Dayton was always going to be young and virile because The Man With No Identity has a sexual inadequacy problem) but I also think that the reason is to show us that Pete Dayton didn't exist in the 1960's ... he is a fantasy character (probably from a movie) ... and the real culprit ... is
The Man With No Identity)

(And if Pete Dayton is a fictional character from a movie ... and in the movie murdered Andy for the scheming Alice ... and his prints were "all over the place" (because they needed an arrest record to identify their main suspect in the movie) ... then that's why The Man With No Identity could insert it into his prison fantasy (which invaded his Fred/Renee fantasy) ... as part of his own "plot vehicle" to escape his nightmare ... and reinvent himself in a new fantasy)

THE MOVIE

Is the Alice Wakefield/Pete Dayton/Mr Eddy movie actually set in the late 60's? - is it the movie a disturbed and sexually inadequate teen watched over and over before murdering his girlfriend and being incarcerated for the rest of his life?

This would explain the lack of cellphones - the 1960's vehicles etc - the black and white TV and photographs etc - and the "remember things as I remember them" embellishments - because The Man With No Identity is trying to remember his favorite movie - a movie he watched many many times ... before he went to prison for murdering his girlfriend - he hasn't seen it since, but desperately tries to remember it in his fantasies

(The problem with this scenario is VHS videotapes - Mr Eddy (movie character) waves one around when he's talking to Pete Dayton ... and we know he produces porn ... and Fred / Renee use VHS tapes in a VCR ... what this tells us is that The Man With No Identity's favorite movie was probably made post mid eighties ... and that he must be able to watch movies in his asylum)

The Man With No Identity's "life memories" are from the 60's - anything from later eras he is inserting into his fantasies, he has gleaned from television / other movies etc

 

THE MAN WITH NO IDENTITY

The Man With No Identity creates the fantasy, and all the characters, from within his mind - but the problem is that his mind ... has a mind of it's own ... and instead of ending up in a Utopian fantasy with Alice, his psychosis always overpowers his fantasy, and he continually ends up feeling insecure, traumatized and disorientated, with his fantasy world collapsing about him ... so his destiny is to continuously drive frantically down the "Lost Highway" ... chasing his own mind ... and being chased by his own mind ...

So ... The Man With No Identity is in an institution - possibly for butchering his girlfriend ... he is insane ...

He attempts to live in a fantasy world, trying to block out his past, but, ultimately, always failing - driving on the Lost Highway ... chasing an elusive fantasy with his dream woman, Alice Wakefield / Renee Madison, but always finding himself running from an alternate, imploding fantasy ... as his insanity, insecurity, and paranoia always catches up with him ... he can never escape his past ... his past always "invades" his fantasies ...

(David Lynch mentioned O J Simpson in an interview, and something about: 

How could someone live with themselves after doing something so terrible?

O J Simpson was (miraculously) acquitted ... so, effectively, the murderer, is a man "with no identity")

(O J Simpson seems to have been on his own "Lost Highway" ever since ...)

The "23 Enigma" - do the numbers 2 & 3 actually refer to this:

(Could it be ... that the number "32" ... is "missing" from prison?)

  
(O J Simpson and Nicole Brown broke up over his infidelity and her subsequent realization that he caused her to have low self-esteem - pretty much the same situation with Pete Dayton and his girlfriend Sheila (note the comments Sheila makes evidencing low self-esteem)

MOBIUS STRIP 

This is a mobius strip - and mobius strips have an "inside" and an "outside" which continuously flow into each other - I have no doubt The Man With No Identity has murdered his girlfriend in reality, and resides in an asylum - and to "escape" his crime and miserable existence he is living "within" both sides of a mobius strip fantasy world he has created for himself (trying to escape his reality ... but his "reality" nightmares (of his past) continuously "twist" and "invade" his fantasies) - his fantasies always invade each other and create nightmare anxieties that "implode" his fantasy world ... to a limbo space netherworld ... the Lost Highway - causing him to continuously and involuntarily "switch" back and forth between the "inside" and "outside" of the insane mobius strip existence he has created for himself - continuously in flux, never catching his breath or a break, he is forever "lost" on the Lost Highway of his mind - his fantasies always crumble and dissolve, faltering back and forth - he keeps pursuing his "dream" of escape from the haunting "horror movie" of his past, which pervades his already miserable existence ... but he never gets to where he wants to go ... (he can actually escape his reality ... but his fantasies always rapidly melt and dissolve into nightmares) ... his destiny is sealed in the unending nightmare loop of his "Lost Highway" existence ...

MOTIVE

Why does The Man With No Identity kill Sheila?

In his fantasy, The Man With No Identity has a motive to kill Dick Laurent - for corrupting Renee and sleeping with her

But, to my mind, he doesn't really kill Renee - his fantasy of living with Renee is just "invaded" by his past ... that's why, in short order, he is punched in the face by the detective, and marched to a prison cell (things that probably really happened) ... with no elaboration ... he probably did have a problem with his head, saw a doctor, and, eventually, was transferred to an asylum

And I think that in reality, he had no reason to kill Sheila ... he's just insane ... he had a problem with his head ... his sexual inadequacy overwhelmed him while making love to Sheila in a motel ... and, suddenly, Mystery Man took over ... (just as Mystery Man "invaded" his fantasy when he was in bed with Renee ... and often seems to appear when The Man With No Identity "gets out of his depth" ... such as at Andy's "porn star" party, when Mr Eddy threatens him, and when Alice rejects him in the desert)

(Part of schizophrenia is feeling that those around you are actually conspiring against you ... and being paranoid and insecure, sometimes with a tendency for spontaneous violence ... and schizophrenia certainly fits with the identity changes and fantasy world)

SEXUAL INADEQUACY

We see evidence in the movie that a woman was butchered ... possibly in real-life ... possibly in some sort of fantasy ... possibly in a scene from a movie ...

but either way ... our protagonist, The Man With No Identity ... is "into" it ... either as the perpetrator ... or the voyeur

A man who butchers a woman is a very angry, disturbed man ... and I think Lost Highway is showing us a sexually inadequate one

There are numerous clues re sexual inadequacy

Fred in bed with Renee (Mystery Man makes an appearance)

Fred sees Renee with porn star Andy at the jazz club

Fred anxious at the party, where porn stars frolic naked in the pool (again, Mystery Man makes an appearance)

Pete turns down the porno-tape from Mr Eddy (The Man With No Identity doesn't want to see well-endowed men making love to women - particularly as one of those women may be his fantasy obsession - Alice Wakefield)

The gun to the head sex scene with other men watching is a fantasy of an inadequate man (just as rape is)

Sheila seems to have low self esteem

Pete feels anxious and inadequate when Alice tells him he will never have her - and he transitions back into The Man With No Identity (and again, Mystery Man makes an appearance)

Alice (with a big gun) says "Stick this in your pants"

Mr Eddy is a bully (again, with a big gun)

We see fantasy porn scenes playing - with both Renee and Alice starring

(Note - the porn is in black and white, beamed from a projector - The Man With No Identity has never seen color porn - his only memories of porn are from the 60's (VHS porn is unfamiliar to him as well) - just as he only remembers his parents watching black and white television)

Sexual inadequacy and mental illness (problems with his head) are prime factors in "disorganized" (unplanned, spontaneous) killings

THE ALTERNATIVE SCENARIOS

Basically the same as above - except Fred Madison is "real" - he killed his actress wife Renee because he couldn't cope with her intimate movie roles, lifestyle, and suspected infidelity with her co-stars - his jealousy, insecurity, and paranoia affected his mind so badly, he couldn't differentiate between "reality" and "fantasy" - he became insane - a killer, possibly a serial killer - and now resides in a mental asylum (or Death Row) ... but relives, in a fantasy world, his memories of reality, blurred with his wife's fictional movie roles - "Lost Highway" is still, for the most part, a complete fantasy ...

The problem with this scenario is the "weakness" of Fred's / Renee's "reality", and scenes such as their car ride, which "mirrors" the Pete / Alice car ride ... 

(Fred / Renee's "reality" is more likely to be just embellished with parts of The Man With No Identity's relationship with his  girlfriend prior to killing her ... he played sax in nightclubs (or wanted to) ... but couldn't handle his inadequacy and paranoia ... became schizophrenic ... killed his girlfriend ... ended up on death row ... but in short order "escaped" to an asylum - "escaping" from death row to an asylum may be the "catalyst" to his identity changes ... he sees himself as being able to "morph" his identity and "escape" ... it is also possible he still resides on death row)

OTHER SCENARIOS

It is possible (but not likely) that actor Dick Laurent and Fred Madison are the same person (Mystery Man "belongs" to both of them) - Dick Laurent is the one on Death Row (or in an asylum ... remember how "over the top" Mr Eddy is) - and killed his actress wife Renee Madison three decades ago - and is recreating himself as Fred Madison and Pete Dayton (from his asylum cell)

Dick Laurent ... who missed execution because of his insanity ... continuously "kills" himself ... over and over in his fantasies ... because he killed his actress wife Renee ...

(This also fits with a line in the movie that perplexes me ... "You and me mister ... we can really out-ugly them sum-bitches ... can't we")
  
So ... it's 1996 ... Dick Laurent has been in an asylum for three decades or so ... he is in his mid seventies

It's Dick Laurent that is sexually inadequate ... hence his fantasy porn world as both Dick Laurent and Mr Eddy (and the "Alpha male" behavior, gun to the head sex while other men watch fantasies etc) ... Fred Madison is the younger 1960's version of himself ... and Pete Dayton is a virile "stand-in" ... created in his mind when he was transferred from Death Row to an asylum

He "recreates" his real-life murder of his actress wife Renee Madison in the 1960's ... inserting the VCR / TV from his cell into his fantasy recreation ... and also "recreates" Renee as Alice Wakefield (a role she played) ... and recreates himself as a young and virile Pete Dayton ...

(I love this scenario ... it's so incredibly twisted ... and it brings a big smile to my face ... and makes me realize why I now love Lynch films so much)
 
The problem with this "gorgeous" scenario ... is that Pete Dayton seems to have a birth-date ... 1972 ...

The only way this scenario could work ... is if Dick Laurent was released from prison (to an asylum) due to insanity ... in 1972 ... and saw this as the "birth" of a new identity (Pete Dayton) in his fantasy world ...

(California suspended the Death Sentence ... in 1972 ... did Dick Laurent see having his sentence commuted as some sort of "rebirth" ... as Pete Dayton?)

So ... Dick Laurent is ... Fred Madison ... Pete Dayton ... and Mr Eddy ... he has multiple personalities (in the fantasy world he "lives in" every day)

(If I can wrangle this scenario ... as my "main" explanation of  "Lost Highway" ... I will do it ...believe me)

(The more I entertain this scenario ... the stronger it gets ... Mr Eddy's "sexual inadequacy" re his over the top Alpha male behavior is strong evidence ... although we have to temper this with the fact that Dick Laurent didn't seem to be having any problems at the Lost Highway Hotel with Renee (which was fantasy as well ... Renee's generic film star car being a big clue ... as well as Pete Dayton's "experiences" in the Lost Highway Hotel) ... so, on balance, and at this point, I still have to go with The Man With No Identity ... but the thing about Lynch films ... is that every time you watch them ... you see something you missed last time ... and I intend to re-watch his movies every six months or so ... that's definitely no hardship ... so you never know ... and because there is some ambiguity in this film ... someone else may even come up with a completely new scenario that fits ... and that possibility is exciting ... a movie with such intrigue is extremely rare ... just what is it going to take to get Lynch to make some more?)

(It's easy to get "hung up" on the possible O.J. Simpson connection ... but, (just as "Mulholland Drive" isn't the "mainstream accepted" dream) ... it's not necessarily the only "basis" for this film ... (Lynch is a genius at providing "smoke screens" for his movies)


I even came up with a "sex addict" scenario ... with Pete turning down the porno video like an alcoholic would turn down a drink .... but I didn't try to develop these scenarios any further, because The Man With No Identity scenario fits so well ...

From what I understand, Lynch and Gifford both have different interpretations of this movie, so to say there is a completely correct one would obviously be wrong ... but I hope I have given you an "insight" into Lost Highway, and an understanding of how it can be interpreted, so that you can formulate your own ... and experience the full, masterful, "vision" of David Lynch ...

(UPDATE: I have since heard an interview where Gifford clearly puts the interpretation of Lost Highway "squarely" in Lynch's "court")


(LOST HIGHWAY was the most ambiguous of the Lynch films I have analyzed - probably reflecting the input of two clever minds / writers ... but in a lot of ways also has the most exciting and intriguing plot ... and to my mind ... is a "moving" canvas)

(I think I've pretty much "nailed" "Mulholland Drive" and "Inland Empire" (apart from the "characterization" (composites) in IE that I think will be studied (and argued about) for many years to come) ...

(For both these movies I'm certain I've come up with the correct "keys" to unlock them)

... but, if I'm honest, I'm not quite as certain about this film ... all I can say is that I think I've done a (very) good job (the "key" I've come up with (The Man With No Identity) "works" well over the complete scenario) ... but there may be another "key" that works, possibly equally as well ... I wouldn't be surprised if someone came along with fresh eyes (the film's been out for nearly 20 years ... so I'm not going to hold my breath) and came up with a new scenario (another "key") that fits at some point ... and that both excites and intrigues me ... I'll certainly be trying to watch this movie with "fresh eyes" every six months or so)

"The Man With No Identity" certainly fits the "psychogenic fugue" description Lynch gives

Ebert said his hand closed on "empty air" - he couldn't grasp it ...

I would say ... you have to open and spread a bigger net to catch Lynch films ... your mind ...

Roger Ebert was wrong ...

"Mulholland Drive" gets more attention ... but "Lost Highway" is equally a mesmerizing showcase of Lynch's filmmaking genius ... and is right up there as a cinematic masterpiece ...

I will keep saying it ...

David Lynch is undoubtedly one of the greatest film directors of all time ... certainly the cleverest 

Thanks for reading ...