"Hello." "I'm Iain Softley, the director of K-PAX." "And I'm going to be talking to you  about some of the ideas behind the films that we shot in K-PAX." "The first scene is the scene where  Prot arrives." "And it's a very important scene in setting the tone  of the film and a lot of the themes, visually." "The title sequence gives some of those visual clues as well." "We shot this scene in Grand Central Station in New York over three days." "Because we had to shoot at night, we were dealing with a complete blank canvas  lighting-wise." "The idea, really, in the scene  where the character Prot claims to be  arriving from another planet on a beam of light  was to choose a location such as a railway station  such as Grand Central Station in particular, where  the light falls in pools and changes, so that  it's possible sometimes to see the beams of light as natural phenomena  or to see them as something that might be otherworldly or supernatural  or magical." "This is one of the big themes of the film  the way that reality depends on the perspective that you see it from." "In this scene we have the character of the Vietnam vet  who is obviously a believer  that Prot has come from somewhere else and actually believes what he's saying." "Whereas, the police and the other passersby  believe that they're just witnessing another homeless person." "Man, he ain't done nothing." "He take bag." "Hit." "Who took your bag and hit you?" "This man?" "No, it was some punks, man." "They came and ran off." "The fact that the lead character in the film claims  to be from another planet  1,000 light years away and that he traveled to Earth on a beam of light  and the fact that he can't tolerate  the strength of light on our planet  is a great gift really, because  cinema and film really exist as light  projected on a screen." "And to have, really, a character who sees light differently to us." "Something that we picked up on as a visual thing very, very early." "I have to ask you to come with us, sir." "Of course." "Freddy!" "Freddy, did you see this fellow come out of a gate?" "He didn't come from no gate." "The brother came from nowhere." " You know what I'm saying?" " Yeah, Freddy, I know what you're saying." "The idea was that if our eyes  were biologically, mechanically, optically different  and responded to light in a different way, how would we see the earth?" "A number of times in the film we see  overexposed images and out of focus images as if  we're seeing the world through the eyes  of somebody whose eyes work differently to ours." "This theme of flaring and defocus  and out of focus was something that we  sort of use as a little theme that underlies the title sequence." "One of the big pleasures of making K-PAX, for me, was  the opportunity to work with such great people on both sides of the camera." "Starting with the producer, Larry Gordon  and his fellow producers, Lloyd Levin and Bob Colesberry  right through the cast and the technical and creative collaborators that I had." "It was a wonderful experience." "Pigeon disease." "I've heard of that." "Another thing that's been bothering me is the food." "The cafeteria serves lukewarm food, full of germs." "When I start planning a film, I really try  and have as few preconceptions as possible when I start  and really allow the content to dictate the visual style." "After working on the script for a certain period of time  ideas then start to emerge." "Usually, I will thumbnail sketch these, and perhaps, get an idea  in key sequences, as to how the film will unfold." "At that point, I will bring in the creative collaborators." "In this case, I was lucky to work with John Mathieson, a cinematographer  and John Beard, a designer who I've worked with a lot before  on my previous films." "One of the big challenges in K-PAX was to present  the world of the psychiatric hospital in a compelling  sympathetic and fresh way." "There have been a number of films that have dealt  with psychiatry and mental health in the past." "But this was a film that takes place in the present day  and the psychiatric world is changing all the time." "One of the first things that I did in researching the film  was to make contact with very senior psychiatrists  in New York and Los Angeles  who went over the script in great detail and advised us on every aspect  of the production and the way that the patients were cast  as well as the principal character patients." "Also, the background extras were  cast with a lot of care and right through the costume and the mannerisms  and the way that they actually behaved." "This was all based on specific diagnoses of specific illnesses." " He's here, Doctor." " Thank you, Joyce." "Medical record 287, calls himself "Prot."" "Unlike some other films that have dealt with mental health  it wasn't an agenda of this film, to be a critique of the way  that people are incarcerated against their will  which has been the theme of some previous films." "This was really an approach that tried to make  the distinction between what we would call  people who are mentally in good health and people who are mentally ill." "We wanted to show that the difference between the inside and the outside  world, inside the hospital and outside the hospital, is not that different." " We're here to..." " May I?" "This was borne out by my visits that I made, along with the cast  and individually, to a number of mental hospitals  in Los Angeles and in the New York area." "In the mental hospital there are three different areas:" "There's the room where the first therapy sessions take place  between the doctor, played by Jeff Bridges, and Prot  played by Kevin Spacey, which are  really the rooms where one might consider normal conversations  taking place between doctor and patient." "The way that we block these scenes, we designed an office space  that had both a desk area and an area with couches." "And we changed the relationship between the characters in different scenes  depending on how much the character Prot  was getting under the skin of the doctor." "And sometimes he'll actually take a position in the room that will challenge  the doctor more than others." "What's really happening in the story, in the relationship between these two characters  is that they're starting to have an affect on each other." "Initially, the character Prot is challenging the doctor  and it's a process that happens very slowly, and rather subtly unfolds." "In this scene when the character of Prot takes the prism  and plays it in the beam of light in the office, the doctor is probably feeling  irritated and annoyed at  a patient who is taking a slightly high-handed attitude to him." "But he's assuming that this is part of the delusion that the patient has." "But as more and more surprising things unfold  the doctor is left with more questions than answers." "...because its mass would become infinite." "He never mentioned entities already..." "We chose wide-screen to shoot the film  really because I wanted the hospital to be a series  of spaces defined by light." "There are reflective panels in the hospital." "There are also transparent panels, and as the story evolves  we change the relationship  particularly in the ward scenes, between these different spaces." "And in the doctor's office  the way that light changes through the different scenes  compliments the way that the story evolves." "And for this reason we created an office that was on the corner of the building  that had light coming into the building on two sides." " Why is a soap bubble round?" " "Why is a soap bubble round?"" "For an educated person, Mark, you repeat things quite a bit." "Are you aware of that?" "A soap bubble is round because it is the most energy-efficient configuration." "Similarly, on your planet, I look like you." "On K-PAX, I look like a K-PAXian." "Prot, why did you want to come to our planet?" "Well, I've been here many times before." "But what brought me here first?" "I don't know." "Pure curiosity, I guess." "I'd never been to a Class BA-3 planet before." " Class BA-3?" " Early stage of evolution." "Future uncertain." ""And if I give all of my possessions..."" "In the ward scene, visually, we created a space where  there were a lot of reflections." "Not just on the glass of the walls dividing the different spaces in the ward  but also, we made a very highly-polished floor  so that, at times, it has quite a silhouette-like feel to it." "The idea was really to have an area where light can change very dramatically  even though it was an interior area." "An area that was either flooded by light or when  the blinds that we put everywhere so that we could define the space more  would change the light in the room." "We would notice the light changing." "In the patient scene also, I used  a combination of very close-up shots of the patients  sometimes with the patient in the foreground  who was speaking, being out of focus." "And the idea here was really to give a sense of people coexisting in their own  individual worlds." "The film has two parallel worlds, in a way." "The world that the doctor visits in the hospital and then  the world, outside the hospital, of his own family." "On the surface these worlds are separate  but there are a number of similarities and crossovers between the worlds as well." "It's another theme of the film that it's sometimes difficult to define  where one thing begins and another ends." "Where does sanity end and mental illness begin?" "And the film really is about challenging preconceptions  about the way we look at the world." "I should've caught the nearest beam of light." " Should've caught what?" " Nothing." "How was your day?" "There was a great idea that our costume designer, Louise Mingenbach, had:" "That the doctor's youngest daughter dressed in a very eccentric way that  if she continues to dress that way, in 15 years' time  she'll probably be admitted to a mental hospital." " Maybe sometime in August looked good." " Maybe." "Maybe we should start paying you for your time." "You got a family rate?" "Look, they published my letter." "I spoke with Natalie about going into the after-school program next year in case I go back to teaching." "And this morning my head fell off, but I sewed it back on with dental floss." " Waxed, of course." " Dental floss?" " Sorry, I wasn't listening." " Yeah, I know." "Let's just eat." "The train was late, I'm tired, and the city's dumping patients on us." "I know." "This scene really shows the shooting plan for the way that I  wanted to shoot a lot of the hospital scenes using  a combination of very wide and very tight shots  to accentuate the group dynamic and then  the individuals within the group." "If it's in the hospital, it's the different personalities  and if it's with the patients, it's their different  worlds that they inhabit." "The fact that we used anamorphic lenses  accentuated this sense of the person being in their own world when you are  close-up because the background defocuses very dramatically  on an anamorphic lens." "He traveled here from another planet." "What's your diagnosis?" "Jet lag?" "It also enabled us to use a lot of flaring  and John Mathieson, the cinematographer, chose particular lenses to  accentuate this and give a particular quality of flaring." "What about the Betazine protocol?" "The drug's on clinical trial." "You want to experiment on him before we have a diagnosis?" " Do you have some other idea?" " Well, he's not a danger to anyone." "How about getting to know him first?" "In the meantime, we have 10 new transfers to take care of." "You know, maybe what's wrong with him is that he is." " Is what?" " From the planet K-PAX." "This scene where Kevin eats the banana provokes much debate." "Yes, that is a real banana he's eating." "I don't remember quite how many he ate that day  he claimed to be suffering from a surfeit of potassium the next day." "Your produce alone has been worth the trip." "Could you tell me a bit about your boyhood on K-PAX?" "Where were you born?" "You were born, right?" "K-PAXians have babies?" "Yes." "Much like on Earth." "But unlike you humans, the reproductive process is quite unpleasant for us." "Could you compare it to something I might understand, like a toothache?" "It's more like having your nuts in a vise, except we feel it all over." "And worse, the sensation is associated with something like your nausea accompanied by a very bad smell." "The moment of climax is like being kicked in the stomach and then falling into a pool of mot droppings." "Mot droppings?" "A mot is a being much like your skunk, only far more potent." "If it's such a terrible experience, how do you reproduce?" "As carefully as possible." "What are you doing?" "You just reminded me of something I want to include in my report." "Your report?" "It's our custom to compile descriptions of the various places and people we encounter throughout the galaxy." " 'Morning, Betty." " Good morning, Prot." " 'Morning, Navarro." " What's up, man?" "Friedman. 'Morning, Maria." "I'm Vanessa." "One of the great things, really, for me  being lucky enough to have a script as good as K-PAX  was the quality of the actors we were able to attract even for relatively small roles." "In this scene there are four or five really extraordinary actors." "David Patrick Kelly who plays Howie  was first noticed in his role in The Warriors  which was also produced by our producer, Larry Gordon." "Sitting opposite Howie  played by David, in this scene, is Saul Williams  who as well as being a great young actor  is a rap poet and a musician  whose favorite film for a long time had been The Warriors." "Here we had both young and more experienced actors who  were working together in the hospital environment." "In this scene Mrs. Archer is played by Celia Weston, who's  had a very eminent career on Broadway for a number of years  as well as in television and film." "It was really great to be able to get such a wonderful  high quality of actors for the ensemble cast." "Good morning, Mrs. Archer." "Doris." "Well, I wasn't expecting any gentlemen callers until this afternoon." "Excuse me." "You have a place set for two." "Yes." "I'm expecting someone." "One of the big challenges in the hospital scenes  was to ground everything in reality and to rely on our  research and consultants to make sure that everything was plausible." "But at the same time to create, progressively, the sense of magic that was  beginning to envelop the hospital as a result of the presence  of the character of Prot." "And to give the audience the opportunity  to question whether this was something that was happening  in Prot's mind, in the minds of the patients  or if something was really happening." "The debate through the whole film is  how do you work out what is real?" "If you can measure something  as being real, is it real?" "In this scene, the Chief Medical Officer in the hospital is telling  the doctor played by Jeff Bridges that Prot's eyes work in a different way  to other people." "...ultraviolet." "Of course, Prot's explanation is that due to his planet's peculiar quality of light caused by its two suns K" " PAXians are used to light conditions much like our twilight most of the time." "Wait a minute." "Chuck, I didn't think human beings could see ultraviolet light." "We can't." "When I first discussed the film with John Mathieson  we had in mind that there would be many more visual effects that we would employ." "A number of ideas we had were to do with  enhancing or creating some effect  optically, visually, in Prot's eyes when he took his glasses off." "The more that we got into the film, I realized that  it was much more powerful that the audience would start to believe  themselves that he was somebody who he said he was." "Whereas on another level, there was nothing to suggest he wasn't just a normal human being." "I think it's that double perception, really, of the two possible stories  that are told in the film, that's really at the heart of it." "Well, Prot, I was hoping you'd tell me more about home." "Well, what would you like to know?" "Do you have a family on K-PAX?" "It doesn't work on K-PAX the same way it works here." "On K-PAX, we don't have families in the way that you think of them." "In fact, family would be a non sequitur on our planet, as it would on most others." "In other words, you..." "This is the first scene in the film where  Kevin takes his glasses off." "It's also the first scene where we perhaps get a sense of  a darker backstory." "The possibility of something other than the benign  visitor from another planet." "Somebody that may be from Earth with a dark past  or even somebody from somewhere else with a dark past." "On K-PAX, there are no wives." "There are no husbands." "There are no families." "I see." "These small changes in time presented, in the performances  the biggest challenge in the film." "There is a progressive sense of awareness and understanding  as opposed to specific and significant shifts or changes in gear." "In the first part of the film particularly there is  a slow, progressive change of perception." "A slow unraveling, as opposed to any big dramatic event  that provoked changes." "This required a lot of plotting between myself and Kevin and Jeff  as to what was happening at any one particular time, in terms of  what the actors thought about themselves, what their understanding was." ""A life for a life." Which is known throughout the universe for its stupidity." "Even Buddha and Christ had quite a different vision but nobody pays much attention to them, not even the Buddhists or Christians." "You humans, sometimes it's hard to imagine how you've made it this far." "This was one of the first scenes that we shot and  I think it really shows Jeff Bridges' wonderful ability as an actor  that he's completely involved in an everyday situation here." "Yet his performance is so precise." "There's incredible naturalism." "One of the things that surprised me working with Jeff is that I'd always loved  what seemed to be the effortlessness and the naturalness of his performance." "I hadn't realized quite how much precision and planning and detail  he puts into it." "I asked him quite early on  to give me a bit of movement, to get up from the table  and he was able, effortlessly, to incorporate it  and to add in little bits of improvisation:" ""Will you sit down, Steve?" And "Would you like a drink?"" "Without really changing his flow at all." "This is an important scene  because it shows the doctor in his family environment, but it also shows  that he's obsessed with his work and that he has a rift with his son  and he's starting to become obsessed with this patient." "Thank you, Abby." "You want to pass the potato salad, please?" "Another thing we tried to do with the family was  really make it a little bit chaotic." "I wanted everything to be very real and I would  sometimes spill drinks on the table." "Having children myself, I know that you can never sit down  with children without something being spilled." "Everything's a little bit chaotic." "The kids are watching TV when they should be doing homework." "There's something wonderfully loose and slightly  edgy about Mary McCormack in her performance as Jeff's wife." " What can I do you for, Dr. P?" " I have a patient." "Sit down." "I have this patient who seems to know quite a bit about your field." "You have a patient who's an astronomer?" "So, tell me about this patient of yours." "Well, he claims to come from a planet he calls K-PAX." " What kind of name is that?" " K-PAX?" "He says it's 1,000 light-years away, near the constellation Lyra." "Big head, green?" "About this high?" "I know the guy." "No, he's very convincing." "I mean, of course, he's human." "It's just that he's, well, he's the most convincing delusional I've ever come across." "And if I can prove to him that this K-PAX is just a figment of his imagination then maybe I can find out who he really is." "Sure." "I can give you a whole list of questions to ask your fellow." "Wonderful." "One of the things that's important about this scene  other than the way that we carry on the conception of the way we shot the film  with big close-ups..." "We were trying to get inside the mind of the character." "Ed Shearmur's music in the scene, which beautifully underscores the scene  is another one of the very important elements in this film." "I worked with Ed on Wings of the Dove." "As with Wings of the Dove, on this film I told him  very early on about the way that I wanted the music to work." "We exchanged ideas as to how we were to combine different elements  of the orchestral score to support the emotion of the film  with an almost ambient, slightly otherworldly  element, which would suggest both the child-like quality  but also the otherworldly quality of the character of Prot." "Prot told me to find the Bluebird of Happiness." "Prot told you." "It's a task." "The first of three." "I don't know what the other two are yet." "He'll tell me." "If I complete all three I'll be cured." "There, Ernie, maintain your breathing." "That's it." "Now, you see?" "There are none of the ammonia particles that you're worried about." "In the first place, I would be able to see them, and I don't." "Winged monkey, 7:00." "Yeah, well, take a bath." "Take a bath." "Ernie, would you excuse us for a moment, please?" " Good to see you outside, Ernie." " Thank you." " Ernie, you stink." " Prot it's one thing to be interested in your fellow patients." "It's quite another to make them think that you can cure them." "You seem overly upset, Mark." "To borrow a phrase from Navarro, "You need to chill."" "For your information, all beings have the capacity to cure themselves, Mark." "This is something we've known on K-PAX for millions of years." "Listen to me." "On this planet, I'm a doctor, you're a patient." "Doctor." "Patient." "Curious human distinction." "It's not your job to cure Howie, or Ernie, or Maria, or anyone." "It's mine." "Then why haven't you cured them yet?" "By the way, here are the answers to the questions you asked me." "I hope they meet your satisfaction." "This is a scene that I think is amusing from the point of view that  the fact that mobile phones are now so ubiquitous  means that when you're finding a location  to shoot a telephone conversation it gives you a lot more flexibility." "We found this wonderful observatory, the Mount Wilson Observatory  where there's, as you can see, this great revolving dome  and I was there on a location scout and somebody opened the door in the dome  and we saw this fantastic mountain panorama all around us." "I decided that, rather than do the conversation at a desk as it was originally  to give them, Steve, the astronomer  a mobile phone, and have him walk out on the gantry." "...nobody knows much about the possibility of planets in this star system yet." "It hasn't even been reported in any journals." "Tell me, honestly, did Duncan put you up to this?" "You know, like a joke?" "No, it's no joke, Steve." "Tell me, do you know of any missing astrophysicists?" "Can't say I do." "But there's one or two around here who'd like to meet your fellow." "Thanks a lot, Steve, I sure appreciate it." "Unlike you humans, the reproductive process is an unpleasant one for us." "In what way is it unpleasant?" "It's a pain." "This scene's a sort of transition in the film  that takes use of one of the visual things that we use  which is of globes and spheres." "It's a globe on the doctor's desk  that has a sort of microcosmic constellation within it." "Some of these  shots that we shot here were some of the last things we shot in principal photography." "I think we finished at about 4:00 a.m. And said goodbye to Jeff." "We were shooting a scene the next day with Kevin." "The idea of the alien balloon was a combination of two things." "I was in the hotel in New York and I looked out the window one evening  and saw a silver balloon just with an alien on it floating amongst the skyscrapers." "I also was looking at a Robert Frank book  who's an influence with his black-and-white photographs." "There was a photo that he had of a balloon  floating through the skyscrapers of New York." "The idea of that scene, which wasn't scripted  it was something that I storyboarded and put into the film  was to show the strangeness and wonder of everyday things on the streets of New York  through the eyes of someone who says he's from another planet." "This scene really provided  the biggest technical challenge in the whole film." "Not just in terms of the graphics  and the way that the graphics in the story have to coincide  but we had limited access to this wonderful location, the New York Hayden Planetarium." "So we had to split shooting the scene  between a studio reconstruction of the planetarium in Los Angeles  and shooting in the actual planetarium in New York." "I'm very impressed with the design of John Beard and John Mathieson's lighting." "I think it's not really possible to tell  which shots are shot in the planetarium in New York  and which shots were reconstructed in the studio in Los Angeles." "It's a pleasure to meet you, Prot." "I'm Dr. Becker." "This is Dr. Flynn." "Doctors Patel and Hessler." "Doctor, Doctor, Doctor, Doctor." "How many doctors are there on this planet?" "It's challenging also because, as well as it being a scene  where we have to coordinate computer graphics with live action  but also it is a very important dramatic moment in the film." "I remember talking to John Mathieson when shooting the scene." "We loved this location so much and chose a lot of different angles  and put together a sequence to shoot  and we realized that, unless we had dialogue happening  within some of these spaces, there would be a pressure  for them to be cut later on." "So I reblocked some of the scene  and had the opening encounter with the doctors  which was scripted to occur inside the planetarium  I put that on the gantry outside." "Which meant that the scene was notably going to remain intact  and we would have the full variety of the locations that we wanted." "Then, maybe you could show us how this light travel works." " You mean a demonstration?" " That would be fine." "Adios." "Aloha." " Well, when are you going to..." " I'm already back." "Where I come from, Prot, that's called the "Fastest Gun in the West" routine." "I think Kevin is really wonderful in this scene." "He's amusing  and plausible both as highly-sophisticated alien  with this incredible knowledge  but there is also this sense of playfulness that you don't really know whether  perhaps he is somebody who has an elaborate delusion." "There's even a sense  that, as his alien self, he might be amused with the fact that they  are finding it hard to decipher who he is." "He manages to change tone from slightly flippant and amusing  to having a great sense of weight and seriousness." "...if you could diagram on the light pad..." "The graphics for this scene were actually produced by  one of the world's most eminent astrophysicist astronomers  who was part of a team that discovered 18 new planets." "I think that's right." " Steven, could you input that?" " Already on it." "What's going on?" "I take it my calculations help explain the perturbations you've been seeing in the rotation-pattern of your binary star but have been unable to explain until this moment." "How..." "How could you know this?" "How could you..." "Every K-PAXian knows this." "Just as every child on Earth knows that your planet revolves around your sun." "It's common knowledge, isn't it?" "Again, like the Grand Central Station in New York  this is a working public building." "We had to shoot this through the night." "I think this scene that we're looking at now was completed at 5:00 a.m." "When the actors went back to their trailers to tear their makeup off  it was very dark and still." "When they finally left their trailers they were walking out into rush hour traffic." "There are savants who have painted flawless copies of Rembrandt who couldn't remember their own names." "You don't believe him, Steve?" "I don't know what I believe, Mark." "But I know what I saw." "The bluebird scene here, I think was  even more challenging than the planetarium scene to shoot." "We shot it over a number of days." "Again this was to do with really building an ebb and flow  almost like a piece of music to the responses of both individual patients  and make their responses consistent with their particular illnesses." "Most importantly, communicating the larger story of the fact  that here is, yet again, something that happened that may be coincidence  but is, perhaps, sowing the seed in many people's minds of the possibility  that there is some magic being woven by Prot." " Bluebird!" "Bluebird!" " Howie." "Bluebird!" "Bluebird." "Bluebird." "Bluebird." "Bluebird." "Bluebird." "Bluebird." "Oh, my God!" " Howie!" " Bluebird!" "Bluebird!" " Howie, get back here." " Bluebird!" "Bluebird!" "Hey!" " Do bluebirds bite, Sal?" " No, they don't bite, stinkhead." "Bluebird!" "Bluebird!" "Bluebird!" "Bluebird!" " Hey, Buzz, there's a bluebird." " Shit." "Disturbance on 2." "Howie's bluebird!" "Bluebird!" "Bluebird!" "Bluebird!" "For the doctor this scene provokes a reaction  that happens increasingly through the film, of opposite reactions." "On one hand, he's sort of half caught up in the wonder  and can't help but be affected by  the influence of Prot, but on the other hand, it's challenging him  challenging his authority and challenging his  professional ideas and his idea of conventional diagnosis." "There's this double thing happening in the doctor as the story is progressing." "He is, on one level, perhaps subconsciously, having his mind opened." "On another level becoming more and more disoriented." "Bluebird?" "There is a bluebird?" "Come on over." "Come on over here." " Come on." " That's right." "Help, yes." "Come on down the hall, Stevie." "It's okay." "Bluebird." "I know who you are." "You're the bluebird." "Good night, Bess." "The shot of the New York skyline, is really one of the  first shots that we have of what I call the "water-tower rockets"  that we see all over New York." "As the film progresses they  concentrate more and more on the water-tower rocket motif." "Another motif that is starting to become evident here is the  what we call the K-PAXian color palette in the production." "The purples and pinks and oranges and yellows." "These are the colors that Prot describes are predominant on his planet." "We actually use Maxfield Parrish paintings as references, which can be seen  in certain scenes on the walls." "There's a  Maxfield Parrish painting with this color palette, on the doctor's study wall." "The idea here is that the patients are really  progressively trying to create  trying to bring K-PAX to the hospital ward." "The hospital ward becomes more and more a place where  light is dimmer than light on earth." "And therefore Prot can takes his glasses off." "It's more  conducive." "It's more of an environment that would remind him of home." "They all stank." "And I tried to tell them, but..." "Not just the artwork that appears on the walls  that creates these tones that look like stained glass." "Purples and pinks and violets." "The blinds in the hospital are becoming progressively more closed  as if the staff as well as the patients are coming under the spell and wanting to create  a beautiful twilight world." "...in a gentle breeze." "Very much like your sugar plums." "I would like to smell that." "I would like to go there to your planet." "I'm afraid I can only take one person back with me when I go." "I had my weekly session with Sal today." "He says you're taking him to K-PAX." "I've heard from most of the patients on Ward 2." "They all tell me that they're going to K-PAX." "I wonder if it's a wise thing to be promising patients in a psychiatric facility?" " No, Mark." "This is one of John Mathieson's and my favorite shots." "The flaring that the  anamorphic lenses give us as we track through the chain-link fence." "But my time here is almost up, and I can't wait to get back." " Back?" "To K-PAX?" " Yes, of course." "Where else?" " You're planning to return to K-PAX." " You're repeating yourself again." "I have one trip to take up north and then I am planning to return to K-PAX." "Joyce gave me these strawberries this morning from her garden in Hoboken." "They are delicious." "You'll have to forgive me, but this is a bit confusing." " When're you planning on..." " I'm departing on July 27." "Why?" "Why July 27?" "Safety reasons." "I can travel on Earth without fear of bumping into someone traveling at super-light speed but beings are coming and going all the time from K-PAX." "It has to be coordinated." "You're telling me you're beaming back to K-PAX on July 27." "At 5:51 a.m., Eastern time." "This is one of  I think, four or five wonderful waking up scenes that Jeff has in this film." "And he really is a master of waking up." "You were just dreaming." " Daddy?" " Mark?" "Mark, what's going on?" "Daddy's okay." "Go back to bed." " Where is Daddy going?" " He's all right, his tummy hurts." " Daddy." " Get in bed." "I think the location that I only needed to see once  and decided it was going to be right, was this house, the Powell house." " When did you arrive on Earth?" " Four years and nine months ago." "It was a wonderful sort of 1940s  semi-Japanese influenced house." "It had some of the possibilities that I look for in a location, and that is space." "What is the matter with you?" "It had a lot of depth as well and the rooms were angled at  sort of 60-degree angles to each other so that you could look  quite deep into a room and then there would be a turn at the end  which made it incredibly beautiful." "But it was also very definable, rather like the hospital in a smaller way  with great walls of glass that could be opened and moved." "We could walk through the house and get inside and outside easily  which happens in a number of the scenes." "We spent a lot of time shooting interiors and exteriors of this house." "It all had wonderful possibilities offered by the actual architecture of the house." "Act natural." " Okay." " Okay." "Spaceman." "When he gets here, I want you to behave." "Why, is he going to zap us with his laser guns?" "I mean it." "I do." "Here." "Oh, Mom." " I can't believe I agreed to this." " I've tried everything else." "I want him to spend the Fourth of July with us." "To see if a normal family environment might bring something out of him." " Since when did we become a normal family?" " Please, Rachel." "Look, they're here." " I just feel uncomfortable." " Well, don't." "Joyce's son is on the high-school wrestling team." "And Betty's husband's an ex-cop." " Hey!" " Hi." "Hey, Joyce." " Hey, Betty." "Glad you could make it." " Thank you." "Same here." "This is my husband, Dominic." " He looks like Data." " That's right." "Embarrass him." "Welcome, Prot." "This is my wife, Rachel." "How do you do?" "Rachel, thank you so much for inviting me today." "Thanks for coming." " Watch out." "Watch out." " No." "Shasta, no." "Shasta!" "Damn dog's never liked anyone." "Okay." "Hey, kids." "Girls, girls." "Okay." "She says she doesn't like it when you hide her favorite tennis shoe and she doesn't hear so well on her left side so don't sneak up on her anymore." "No way." "Let's go get some lunch." "Let's have lunch." "Let's go back." "Let's go eat." "Looks good, Rachel." "Okay, you guys, come on." "Careful, Gabby." " All right." "Come on." " Anybody else want some?" "The preview process is  probably the hardest time in the making of a film." "On the other hand, it's great seeing the film with an audience for the first time." "Particularly when you realize the things that, en masse, they find funny." "It was surprising but  very gratifying to us, that as soon as the audience  in the preview, saw the big bowl of fruit, they knew exactly what was coming." "It was a great laugh in the cinema." "This, like the taxi scene, is really another scene that shows  the world through the eyes of Prot." "It's really almost like looking  possibly with great affection, but also, a sense of curiousness  at the world that we live in." "It's part of the journey that the doctor goes on  to sort of stop and look around a little bit more and be aware of  the life that he is living in and the family that he has and to connect with it more." "I still don't really know how the  props and photographer managed to take a photograph of Jeff and Mary that  looks so convincingly like a photograph, that was taken 15 years ago." "But all these photographs on the mantelpiece were actually  all done at this house at the end of rehearsals, just before principal photography." "There's a photograph on the piano of a young man with all the others." "That's Michael." "That's Mark's son from his first marriage." "How many marriages has he had?" "Just the two." "So far." ""So far"?" "I mean, he's not out to set a world record or anything." "But, the young man in the photograph, he's not here today." "No, he doesn't live with us." "You know, he's away at college and..." "One of the things we were concerned about when we started the production was  the degree of time that Kevin spent with glasses on, and what they would look like." "We did many screen tests and photographic tests  and looked at a number of different types of glasses." "What we wanted was something that wouldn't look too fashionable or retro  but that would have a little protection around the side of the eyes  for somebody who had eyes sensitive to daylight." "But also, the idea that at times we could see through  and get a glimpse of his eyes, even when the glasses were on." "For that reason we had a number of glasses made with different opacity on the glass." "Sometimes, when we come in close you see the eye through the glasses." "Other times we want a mirror reflection so the character is hiding  and it's the people watching him that we are more aware of." "No." "We don't have families on K-PAX." "You don't know what you're missing." "I'll get you some more lemonade." "Fourth of July." "Thank you for inviting me here today, Mark." "You're most welcome, Prot." "Come push me on the swing." "Okay, but first you have to hold on very tight." "You ready?" "This scene required very careful planning in rehearsal  and the blocking of what happens where because  there has to be internal logic to what point somebody would see something happening." "Jeff turns away so he doesn't see what's about to happen really soon enough." "And the movement of characters." "Some are inside the house, some coming from outside." "Who is in the proximity of who?" "It took us quite a bit of  organizing in rehearsal to plot it all." "We broke the action down very slowly and walked it through each  15-second element of the theme  to work out at what point the little girl becomes agitated." "Her mother hears that it's changed from  children playing in the sprinkler to something more worrying." " I'll turn it off." " Doc, I got it." "Prot, it's okay." "It's okay." "No, it's okay, Betty." " Where're his glasses?" " Over here." "I got them." "You're all right." "Prot." "You're okay." "Is that apple pie I smell?" " Sweetheart, you all right?" " Yeah." "He was pushing my daughter on a swing like he had done it 100 times before." "Not like he was some alien from K-PAX." "I saw him." "He was connecting with something." " Some kind of normal life." " That's not enough." " He's a violent patient, Mark." " He is not violent." "Something violent happened to him." "Something in his past." "He wasn't trying to harm Natalie, he was trying to protect her." " From the sprinklers?" " I'm not sure from what." "I need more than a hunch to go on." "Otherwise I have to send him upstairs." "We need to regress him." "Take him back into the past." "Find out what happened..." "One of the things that attracted me to the script when I read it  was the way that the story seems to take you in one direction then back again." "As the film progresses, each version of the story has equal plausibility." "That's in three weeks." "I think that he could become violent on that day." "Hurt himself, hurt somebody else." "I think up until the sprinkler moment  the audience will be believing, as a number of people in the story do  that there really is no explanation other than that Prot is a man from K-PAX." "Then the sprinkler incident happens and pushes the story back in the other direction again  that there was something traumatic in his past." "Has anyone seen Prot?" "He went up north for a few days." "North?" "Greenland." "Iceland." "You know he had a few countries left to visit before he could finish his report." "Don't worry, Dr. Powell." "He'll be back." "How do you know, Ernie?" "Because he took his glasses with him, darling." "When he returns to K-PAX, he won't need them." "Then again, just as sprinkler has suggested  that he may indeed be somebody who is just a mental patient  he then disappears from the hospital  throwing us into a state of openness to the possibility, again, that he is from K-PAX." "I'll have a great time explaining this to the State Board." "I got psychotics packing up their sneakers..." "Again the violet on the walls and on the blinds is becoming more evident." "What about city shelters?" "Have you checked?" "No." "No, I'm not telling you how to do your job." "Thank you." "The idea for the lighting hitting the prism  came from my home in London when and I was tidying away a glitter ball  that we had erected for my daughter's birthday party." "The sun came out from behind the clouds  and hit the ball that was just lying on the floor and showered the room in points of light." "I told John Mathieson this  and we agreed it would be a nice theme in the film to suggest  the possibility of magic in the everyday." "Dr. Powell, I presume." "Where the hell have you been?" "Newfoundland." "Greenland." "Iceland." "Labrador." "All right, cut the crap." "We've been looking for you for three days." "I believe I mentioned my taking a trip up north in this very garden." "Taking a trip?" "You're a patient here." "You don't leave here without a discharge." "And don't give me this beam of light shit, because I don't buy it." "What would you say if I were to tell you that I don't believe you took any trip at all to Iceland or Greenland or anywhere." "That I don't believe you're from K-PAX." "I believe you're as human as I am." "I would say you're in need of a Thorazine drip, Doctor." "On reading the script, the most compelling passages were the hypnosis sessions." "They really were fascinating to read  the way the doctor is delving and uncovering pieces  as a detective." "Deduction, really." "He's navigating his way through, asking the right questions to get closer  to who he assumes to be the primary personality." "I want to help you." "What we're going to be doing, Prot..." "We were also aware that, in terms of the amount of screen time  that these hypnosis sessions take up  that what might be compelling reading on the page  might not work the same way on the screen." "So we set about creating environments  that were very simple but would be conducive to hypnosis." "Two:" "I want you to use your imagination and imagine small lead weights on your eyelids that are just making them so heavy." "Again, a series of very close-up shots  that would draw us into the action." "Similarly, the fact that we had the possibility of a booth next door with  a glass division really gave more opportunities for the visual motif of reflections  which suggests we don't know which space we're in sometimes." "This plays to the theme of the film of, "What are you seeing?" ""How do you know what you're seeing is real?" ""It might be a reflection of reality, or a version, or a distortion of it."" "How do you feel?" "I think both Kevin and Jeff's performance in these scenes is absolutely stunning." "...nothing." "Kevin does a kind of virtuoso performance of going back and playing different ages  incredibly accurately." "He researched  and rehearsed with tapes of people at different ages  and analyzed how voices change." "A 7-year-old's voice is different from a 9-year-old's  is different from a 17-year-old's and a 29-year-old's." "I see a casket." "Silver..." "For Jeff, the kind of patience of his performance  and the concentration  but at the same time  the sense of his empathy for the patient." "And what's your friend's name?" "Not telling." "Do you know how your friend's father died?" "Jeff rehearsed his hypnosis technique using a tape." "We got our consultant to find a highly-regarded  psychiatric hypnotherapist in California." "We got them to read Jeff's lines." "Where is this place?" "Jeff practiced using these tapes." "It was so effective that I remember  he asked me to listen to him in his trailer  reading in the manner of the hypnotherapist." "I found myself on the verge of a hypnosis." "I would have gladly succumbed but I had a scene to shoot in about 10 minutes  so I had to snap myself out of it." "Where are you?" "It's nighttime." "We're in his house." " At the other boy's house?" " Yeah." "I want him to come outside." "Why?" "To look at the stars." "That's where I come from, you know." "Is your name Prot?" "Far from providing  the doctor with the answers that he wanted, which is to find the primary personality  even under hypnosis, the delusion continues  that Prot claims that he is Prot." "But he talks about this other character." "Do you know all the constellations?" "Yeah, most of them." "And does your friend know them, too?" "The other character is the person that the doctor thinks Prot is  but even under hypnosis he maintains the consistency of his story  that he is actually a visitor from another planet and he has a friend  who experienced different traumas." "Something happened." "That's why he called me." "He calls me when something bad happens." "Like when his father died?" "That's right." "How do you know to come?" "In discussing with Kevin how he would play this  we decided that, even though he was Prot  as far as he was concerned  he would nevertheless be physically affected because of the empathy that he had to his friend." "He would be affected by some of the pain that his friend was experiencing  and therefore would become emotionally involved  and really give us a sense  that perhaps, where did one person begin and the other end?" "Five:" "You're starting to come out of it." "Four:" "You're feeling more alert." "Three:" "Even more alert." "Two:" "You're becoming awake now." "And one." "So, when do we begin?" "It's already over." "The old "Fastest Gun in the West" routine." "Let's find the locations of all the slaughterhouses in the United States." "I mean, how many can there be?" "I don't know." "We eliminate the ones in or near big cities and we concentrate on small towns, rural areas." "Places where you can see the stars." "Joyce, we only have six days." "In this scene the light in the ward is really full twilight  with the light obscured by the patterns on the windows  and the patients are much more interactive than they were  in the first scenes, when they seemed to be in their own worlds." "Now they're very much acting as a group." "In a way  the rivalry between them could be seen as..." "The confidence with which they talk to each other can be seen as a sign of healing." "I was wondering if it was possible for us to have cream of wheat instead of oatmeal?" " Not again." " Howie." "There's really not much time." "I would like to propose an essay contest to decide once and for all who will go with Prot." "I've spoken with him and he's agreed to read them all by July 27." "If anyone would like to be considered, please state your reasons in a clear legible hand and return them to me." "One of the influences, in a subtle way, in the film is the visual style and framing  in some scenes of Stanley Kubrick." "I think the planetarium shots, the big wide shot  with the doctors on the gantry  is a sort of conscious nod to 2001." "I think these colors  and this sort of '70s style of set dressing is also that kind of feel  with the big wideshot held quite a long time  with the actors in a wideshot." "But also again in combinations with close-ups  and shots with reflections." " What's his name?" " Not telling." "Prot, I would like to know your friend's name." "I ain't going to tell you." "We have to call him something." "How about Pete?" "That's not his name..." "Because this is the second of three hypnosis scenes  we're giving a sense of progression here." "The first scene was shot on a dolly and I used a crane  for some of this to give more of a sense of fluidity and movement." "Particularly consistent with our research  we decided that Kevin would be able to open his eyes and move around in this scene." "He's got a girlfriend." "There's a problem with the girlfriend?" "She's pregnant." "He can see it coming right down the road." "You get married, have a bunch of kids, wind up in the job that killed your dad." "The whole idea, from the doctor's point of view, is to make him feel more comfortable." "To draw him out." "How did he put it?" "He hates the chains that people shackle themselves with." " We don't have all that crap on K-PAX." " All right." "Prot, listen to me carefully." "At one time we played this scene as if it were raining  and it is what is causing the water patterns on the exterior wall." "But I took away those specific shots." "I wanted it not to be so literal." "It is the reason there  and it's sort of a subliminal reason, if you like." "I wanted, almost, the visual environment and the ambiance to be more prevalent." "Prot..." "Well, it's 1991, according to your Earth calendar." "And your friend Pete called you." "Not for anything in particular." "He just wants to talk things over with someone every now and then." "Tell me about Pete now." "He's a knocker." "A knocker?" "The knocker is the guy that knocks the cow on the head so it won't struggle while they slit its throat." "I know." "Barbaric, isn't it?" "Does he still live in the same town?" "Well, just outside of town." "He's got a little place, but he's fixed it up nice." "It's got some trees, and a couple of acres and a river." "Reminds me of K-PAX, except for the river." "Tell me, did he ever marry that pregnant girl?" "Wow, what a memory." "My idea was, by putting the lights in the room, to create the ambience." "The doctor was also  creating a constellation through which Prot walks." "I didn't tell you her name." "Can you tell me now?" "Sarah." "Did they have a son or a daughter?" "Rebecca." "It's her birthday next week." "This is another one of those scenes that creates  a deflection from what seems to be the path of the story." "We're believing that Prot is a benign influence, and then  here is something that can be taken two ways." "Again, it's part of the duality that is madness  another form of sanity, and vice versa." "In this case, Prot has encouraged Howie  to strangle Ernie." "There's a positive outcome, which is that  Ernie ceases to fear death so much." "That is, I think, one of the challenging things in the script." "It's putting forward something, and saying:" ""How do we know what is positive and what is negative?"" "It challenges us to move away from preconceived ideas." "There isn't just one answer." "Life isn't simple." "Sometimes there are difficult and challenging things we have to face." "Well, when I stopped breathing, he lifted me onto the gurney." "He rushed me up here, they brought me back as quick as they could." "And when I woke up you know what I realized, Dr. Powell?" "Dying..." "Dying is something you have no control over." "Why waste your life being afraid of it?" "I'll sleep on my stomach from now on." "I'll eat fish with bones in it, I'll swallow the biggest pill you can find." "Bring it on." "I feel good." "That's terrific, Ernie." " See you at our session tomorrow?" " Yes." "I cured him, didn't I?" "Prot says one more task and I'll be cured, too." "And then, it's bon voyage." "This is one of the reflective music sequences in the film that  was designed, I think there are three of them in the film, as a way of  giving the audience an opportunity to reflect on  what has happened in the same way that the character  in this case, the doctor, is doing so." "He has  frustratingly got a sense that there might be something in the past through hypnosis." "He's come across the idea of  Prot perhaps having a dangerous effect on the patients." "But, at the same time, he is in this rather magical  kind of art room, with the space imagery, the K-PAXian lighting  somehow falling deeper under the spell of Prot." "Tell me your name, damn it." "I'm going to give you a specific date and I want you to remember where you were and what you were doing on that day." "Do you understand?" "Perfectly well, my dear sir." "The date is July 27, 1996." "I'm on K-PAX." "Are you sure?" "Quite sure, Governor." "I'm harvesting kropins for a meal." "Kropins are a fungi..." "This is a scene where  the real change happens and the camera style reflects that change." "We start off with dolly, which gives us very smooth moves  very considered composition." "As the scene becomes more unpredictable, we move into hand-held mode  which gives it an immediacy and an intimacy." "I'm now on Earth." "I'm with him." "Where are you?" "What are you doing?" "By a river." "In the back of his house." "It's dark." "He's taking off his clothes." "Why is he doing that?" "What?" "What is he doing?" "He's trying to kill himself." "Why does he want to kill himself?" "Because something terrible has happened." "Has he done something he shouldn't have?" "He doesn't want to talk about it." "Prot, I'm trying to help him." "I can't unless he tells me what happened." "He knows that." "Well, then why won't he tell me?" "Then you would know what even he doesn't want to know." "Then you have to help him." "Prot you have to help him tell me what happened." "He doesn't want to talk about it." "Are you fucking deaf?" "Time is running out for him." "Time is running out for everyone." "He jumps in." "He's floating." "Pulse is up to 140." "Respiration's at 30." "For God's sake, bring him back." "Right, listen to me." "Listen to me." "You can save him." "You're his friend." "I am his friend." "That's why I won't try." "Save him!" "No, I can't." "The current is too strong." "There's no chance." "Listen to me:" "You've helped a lot of patients here, Mrs. Archer you've helped Howie, and Ernie." "Help cure Pete, now." "Let's call it a task." "I want you to let me speak to him." "If he's listening I want him to know that he can trust me." "That if it was Sarah or Rebecca..." "Get in here." "No, wait!" "Wait, wait!" "Oh, my God!" "Oh, my God!" "It's okay." "It's all right." "I'll count backwards now from five to one." "And as I count, you'll become more and more alert." "On the count of one I'll snap my fingers and you'll wake up feeling refreshed." "Five:" "You're starting to come out of it." "Four:" "You're becoming more alert." "Three:" "Even more alert." "Two:" "You're starting to wake up now, and one." "Are you okay?" "Yes, feeling fine." "Okay." "This is a scene that originally took place on a deserted platform." "Most of the platforms in New York  in the city, are underground." "I wanted an opportunity to get outside of the hospital." "To get outside into the world." "We decided to reposition the meeting  with the homeless man on the train." "Jeff gets off the train at 125th Street in Harlem." "Is this area code 505?" "Where are you?" "New Mexico?" ""Salva..."" "Salvation." "Salvation." "There are a dozen Salvation Army shelters in New Mexico." "Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Roswell." "Wait a minute, there's one in Santa Rosa." "Santa Rosa." "Guelph." "That's pretty close to Santa Rosa." "What's the biggest local newspaper for that region?" ""Guadalupe County Observer, covering Guadalupe County."" "I think the existence of the Internet  has really changed the way that a lot of  detective elements in screenplays are now conceived." "Whereas people used to go to libraries and leaf through  records that way, or microfiche  now everybody knows that so much is accessible on the Internet." "That's a change that's really happened just in recent years." "His name is Robert Porter." "The reason we chose New Mexico  the New Mexico-Arizona border as the environment where  Robert Porter was from  is again, to suggest this proximity between the idea that  he may be from the West, but the environment he's from is also  in a sense, like another planet." "Robert Porter." "Here it is." "I do remember this case." "About the biggest thing to ever happen around these parts." "Quiet type." "As I recall, he was a real smart fellow." "Brainy." "Strong as a horse though, worked as a knocker." "Lived about 20 miles outside of town with his wife and child." "Sarah." "His wife's name was Sarah." "That's right." "Damn shame what happened." " You got time to take a ride?" " Yeah." "Like Dr. Powell's house, this was a wonderful location that we found." "There was something very haunting  and dignified about this derelict  homestead that, I think, two families had lived in  and left about 20 years ago." "Really, you felt all the things that had gone on there, which is exactly  what the story is." "And this absolutely gorgeous  Western landscape, almost Ansel Adams-like  almost too good." "It looks a bit like a painted backdrop, I think, at times." "I had detectives come down from Albuquerque to try and piece this one together." "According to the official story, Porter was at work when this drifter, Daryl Walker, came by the house." "He was a two-time parolee, looking for trouble." "There are two time periods in this sequence." "The flashback and the present day." "In order to effectively shoot this  we actually built a replica of this house in the studio, as well." "...Walker forced the two women into the house." "Raped the wife." "Then killed them both." "This was a sequence that, because of the  two time frames and the flashbacks, was pretty heavily storyboarded." "A lot of these frames are the frames that existed in my original sketchbook." "Really, we put this sequence together very early on  and didn't really change the cut much at all." "Snapped a grown man's neck like it was a twig." "For the flashback sequence, we used non-anamorphic lenses." "The lens was mounted at an angle, to create a sort of distortion  particularly around the edges, or vignetting, as it's called." "Can't say I wouldn't have done the same myself." "The feeling of the outside of this house is somewhat influenced by  photographs by an American photographer called Sally Mann who  took pictures of families in the American South in recent years." "The river's this way." "At this part in the story, it's really..." "Even though Jeff is existing in the present  and the character being played by Kevin, Robert Porter  who, of course, is just existing in Jeff's imagination..." "He's imagining him being in this house." "...a drowning, when the body was never found." "Even though he's imagining something that happened five years ago  it's almost as though  the two characters played by Jeff and Kevin are never closer." "We feel that never do their lives entwine quite so much as they do at this house." "This is really the crossover moment for Jeff's character  where the doctor is being taught by the experience of the patient  how much to appreciate his own life." "This was actually a scene that we added when we did some additional photography  to really underline that point, the comparison between the two families." "To make the transition back to the hospital a little less abrupt." "I'm sorry." " Don't do that again." " I won't." "What happened?" "I found what I was looking for." "You sure?" "Wish I hadn't." "Here we have the patients in full K-PAX mode." "The hospital's been decorated with a lot of space paraphernalia." "All of them convinced that, as the date, July 27, as the date  is approaching, it's on the eve of July 27  they're all completely convinced that Prot is going back to K-PAX." "If you don't mind putting mine on top." "Here, we return to the doctor's office, and the therapy session." "But it's a completely different tone  and atmosphere between the two characters  than the early sessions when  Dr. Powell was treating everything Prot said with such skepticism." "I doubt Freud ever tried this but when someone goes away, we send them off with a little toast." "Scotch okay, or would you prefer something more fruity?" "I will try the Scotch." "Well, here's to a safe journey." "The scene, as it exists now  is as it was originally scripted, with a couple of additions." "At one stage  I had a version of this scene where the doctor doesn't confront  Prot at all with the book  the book that he's brought back from New Mexico  evidence, in the doctor's mind, that he is actually Robert Porter." "The reason that, in one version, he didn't confront Prot  was, in a way, what he'd learned was:" "Why should he?" "If he was  a mental patient who had this delusion  why shouldn't we leave him happy in his delusion?" "But I think this version, particularly  with a couple of specific comments at the end  which give a clue to the resolution of the story  gives just a bit more shape, and a bit more closure  as we're drawing towards the end of the film." "Plants, animals, people, fungi, viruses, all jostling to find their place." "Bouncing off each other, feeding off each other." "Connected." "You don't have that kind of connection on K-PAX?" "Nobody wants, nobody needs." "On K-PAX, when I'm gone, nobody misses me." "There would be no reason to." "And yet, I sense that when I leave here I will be missed." "Yes." "Strange feeling." "You don't have to leave, Prot." "I'm sure there must be some way that I can help you to stay." "As one of us." "I will miss you, Dr. Powell." "I have to finish my report." "But I seem to have misplaced my pencil." "Take mine." "A much more efficient writing tool." "Adios, my friend." "Prot?" "I want to show you something." " That is Robert Porter." " Prot, that's you." "You and Robert Porter are the same person." "That's patently absurd." "I'm not even human." "Can't you at least admit the possibility?" "I will admit the possibility that I am Robert Porter if you will admit the possibility that I am from K-PAX." "Now, if you'll excuse me I have a beam of light to catch." "Oh, Mark..." "That line was a line:" ""Now that you've found Robert..." ""...please, take good care of him." That was added  quite late on in the process  as a way of giving more of an explanation as to what  is a possible interpretation of the end of the film." "I can't stand this!" "I demand to know which one of us is going with you." "I can tell you this:" "There are extra points for the one who goes to sleep first." "There were elements in this scene that were added really just  the night before we shot it, during principal photography." "What was added was the sense of Howie being given his last task  how he responds to this moment, I decided to play up much more." "His acceptance of the task he is being given and his disappointment  initially that he won't be going to K-PAX, but then his acceptance of the task." "The idea that Bess wins the essay competition  and that the reason that she goes to K-PAX  was again, something that was constructed." "I contacted Charles Leavitt, the writer, the night before I was shooting that sequence." "In the script, originally the essay competition didn't have a conclusion." "It was just Howie's idea." "What I built in was this idea that  Prot had decided it was the basis on which he would decide who would go with him." "The second half of this scene  the description of the restaurant with the ugly lanterns was added  later on in production." "That replaced a speech that Powell made about  reflecting on where he was in terms of his psychiatry." "We decided that, at this stage in the story  the change that had happened in his character was that he was appreciating his wife and  not taking his life, and family, and work, and world for granted in the same way." "So, we decided to make this moment much more about him  opening his eyes and responding and appreciating and acknowledging  his wife for having turned up with the Chinese food." " Hey, Ron." " What's up, man?" " $20 says he goes." " You're on." "Here we see the water towers as rockets motif coming to the conclusion." "The dream that Powell has  it could be a dream of New Mexico or K-PAX or both." "Both are really becoming the same thing in his mind." "Shit!" "Damn it!" "Two minutes." " I wonder where Dr. Powell is." " I'll buzz him." "One minute." "Here comes Dr. Powell." "He's moving." "Repeat." "He's moving." "What the hell?" "Wait for me!" "Son of a bitch." "Oh, God." "I did a little thing in this scene to underline the perception of the patients that  Prot had left and this was another character, this was perhaps Robert Porter left behind." "And it's a very subtle thing." "So subtle I don't think anyone notices it, which is a slight  prosthetic change to Kevin's nose." "Who's that?" "Beats me." "How did he get in here?" " That's not Prot." " Definitely not Prot." "Certainly not." "Prot's gone." "Where's Bess?" "Bess!" "He chose Bess." "Bitch." "Goodbye, Bess." "Good for you, home girl." "Bess went to K-PAX." "Patient 287, Robert Porter." "I wish I could say that Robert sat up one fine day and said, "I'm hungry, got any fruit?"" "Like most catatonics, he probably hears every word we say..." "This, again, was one of the first scenes we shot." "It was a very cold day in New York." "The light was very low." "We actually shot two alternatives of this scene  in different locations, in sunnier locations, right at the end of the shoot." "I always come back to this one, because I felt there was a sort of  dignity about it." "A sort of stillness  that really added dignity to the ending." "I don't understand." "It's like, people don't just disappear." "July 27." "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?" "Robert?" "These close-up comments at the end of the scene were added very late in the day." "Just a couple of lines." "The lines were originally delivered by Jeff out to the skyline of New York  but we brought him round  to face Kevin, which I think was a really good addition." "Another little touch that was added later on was, Jeff actually  used to just look at the glasses, but I like that he comes down and looks through them  wondering what the world really does look like through Prot's glasses." "The universe will expand, then it will collapse back on itself." "And then it will expand again." "It will repeat..." "Again, this was a scene we added very late in the day." "The way the film used to end was we went from  the ward through to  Jeff's garden in Connecticut, where he was looking through a telescope  up at the stars." "It was just a line from the book that ended the film, which was:" ""Sometimes at night I look up at the stars to look at the constellation Lyra and I wonder."" "I thought it was poetic when I wrote it in the script." "But, whenever I watch the film with that ending  it really felt just a little bit too  loose and inconclusive." "And so, I think the scene works really well." "It's a reconciliation or at the beginning of a reconciliation." "It's still a scene that shows it's going to be difficult  but perhaps Jeff and his son are going to at least try and have a conversation." "And it's back at the Grand Central Station, where the story began." "But I love the scene with the telescope so much that  I put it on at the end of the film, after the end credits." "And those people that are the ones that insist on staying  to the end of the end credits, will see  the scene with Jeff in the garden, looking through the telescope." "Which I think, adds another dimension to the film." "It really suggests that, in some way  the doctor believes that somehow a version of Prot did go back to K-PAX." "We were very pleased that Sheryl Crow offered us this song for the end of the film  because musically it had so much to do with the tone of the film." "It was really a convenient marriage." "Well, I hope you  stay through the credits and watch the scene of Jeff and the telescope at the end." "I hope that some of my comments, no matter how disjointed, have  given some insight to the making of K-PAX." "Subtitles :" "Filou ;-)"