Misunderstanding Lynch: A Loving Look at 'Lost Highway,' Part 2
Femme fatales, reverse explosions, and 'Pet Judge.'
Regularly Scheduled Disclaimer/Explanation:
Because this is the internet, I want to make this explicitly clear:
The following piece is not meant to be taken seriously. At all.
I’m a long-time fan of David Lynch (I even wrote about Twin Peaks: The Return for an entertainment site), and have been pretty heartbroken by his loss.
This is how I process grief and honor the work of a true artist. By lovingly joking about his weird, wonderful creations.
This is part one of Lost Highway.
Next up is Wild at Heart, which has proven surprisingly challenging. You’ll see why.
//cj//
Lost Highway: Part Two
Peter is still at work when Blonde Renee shows up. She’s in a white Marilyn Monroe white dress. She is distractingly hot.
Her name is Alice Wakefield.
She asks Peter if he wants to take her out to dinner. Peter fumbles, then politely declines.
The heels on Alice’s shoes are simply ludicrous.
Alice calls a few places for a cab to go home, until Peter stops her.
They stare at each other in silence for a long time. Like a really long time.
‘Maybe we should just skip dinner.’ Good thing Alice is smooth.
Peter and Alice go to a hotel and have very artsy sex.
The cops outside are a little impressed.
‘Fucker gets more pussy than a toilet seat.’ Out. Standing.
We zoom in on Peter and Alice’s eyes.
They exchange numbers, and hook up again at a hotel.
The cops are still following Peter everywhere.
We’re back at Peter’s house. It’s night. There’s a thunderstorm. Lightning slashes the sky.
Alice calls up Peter and says, ‘Meow meow, it’s me.’
I just needed everyone to know that.
Pete finds this charming. Ah, the mysteries of love.
You can’t see all of Alice’s face. There’s a panel of light cutting across her face, exposing her lips and a black telephone cradled against her face. It’s a haunting shot.
Alice tells Peter she can’t see him that night, because she has to go somewhere with Mr. Eddy. She warns Peter to be careful.
Peter sits on his bed. The room swirls in a circle. Alice’s disembodied head floats in the center. A black widow crawls up the wall. There are dead and dying moths in the light on the ceiling.
Peter keeps fading in and out, everything going strange and wobbly before snapping back into focus.
He goes for a ride on his motorcycle, which is a great thing to do when you’re having strange vision issues.
He doesn’t even wear a helmet. Come on, Pete.
Peter and Sheila have what looks like fairly mediocre hotel sex. The cops waiting outside in their car are having existential crises.
Peter gets home in the middle of the night to find his parents sitting in the pitch-black living room waiting for him.
The idea of Gary Busey sitting in a dark room in a sleeveless plaid button-down is fucking terrifying.
Sidebar: Gary Busey has a show called Pet Judge that is delightfully insane. I can’t tell if he knows it’s not a real courtroom.
The police called Pete’s parents.They want to know if he remembers anything about ‘that night.’
Gary Busey promises to keep any secrets about that night.
His parents say they already know. Pete and Sheila came home. That night There was a man with them. The man was a stranger to Gary Busey.
Gary Busey refuses to tell Peter what happened afterwards.
Cut to Pete running out of the house from earlier, chased by Sheila and his parents.
Images of something organic ripping open. Images of a corpse.
Pete is at work. Mr. Eddy drops by.
Mr. Eddy talks about how much he likes Alice. Casually mentions what he would do if he found anyone making out with her.
You can feel Peter’s testicles crawl back inside his body.
Blurred Pete transitions into Pete at home. He answers the phone. Alice is on the other line. This time, only her eyes are visible in the dark.
She tells Peter to meet her at the Starlight Hotel on Sycamore in 20 minutes.
It’s not a sexy meet-up. Alice is having a highly appropriate meltdown over the idea of Mr. Eddy. murdering them.
They make out. It doesn’t help, but it seems to make them happy.
Alice tells Peter about a guy who ‘pays girls to party with him.’ She thinks they should go rob him.
They could run away and be together. Forever.
This has been just a few days, mind you.
Pete’s first question is ‘have you partied with him,’ which shows his priorities are right in order.
Party Guy works for Mr. Eddy. They make pornos. Alice is in the pornos. And gets paid to go to parties.
Flashback of a younger Alice. She’s at an ostentatious mansion in Los Angeles waiting for a job interview. The entryway is ridiculous. Alice smokes a cigarette while she waits to be called in.
A guy guards the door. Another guy lifts weights.
Eventually they bring Alice into an even bigger room. Lots of red. Red carpet. Big fire. Bunch of old white dudes sitting around in red armchairs.
Mr. Eddy is one of the old white dudes.
Guard guy comes up out of nowhere and points a gun at Alice’s head.
Holy shit I forgot the soundtrack had Marilyn Manson.
Alice undresses at gunpoint while Mr. Eddy watches. Pleased, the gun is lowered. Alice climbs into Mr. Eddy’s lap. She reaches her hand to his face.
Cut to her hand on Pete’s face.
He asks why Alice didn’t leave. Accuses her of liking it. Because Pete is an asshole.
Alice offers to leave. Pete says I love you and agrees to commit a robbery.
Alice gives him instructions and directions like she’s had them memorized and has just been waiting to get them out. She’ll be upstairs with Party Guy, AKA Andy (Michael Massee). She’ll leave the back door open so Pete can sneak in. Alice will send Andy downstairs to get her a drink. Pete will bash him in the head.
This feels very Jeffrey ‘I have a great idea where I get to be an exterminator in a hot lady’s house’ Beaumont-esque. I’m not sure if that’s intentional or not. I kind of hope it is, and David Lynch just went, ‘fuck it, let’s make Blue Velvet with Nine Inch Nails.’
Sheila shows up at Pete’s house and beats the shit out of him on his front lawn while screaming about how he’s fucking someone else.
Gary Busey pulls them apart.
Pete looks up at his father and Sheila. They both blur for a moment. Sheila promises never to bother any member of their family ever again. Then she runs off with her arms flapping halfway up in the traditional ‘girl running off crying’ tradition.
Some dude who won’t give his name keeps calling for Pete. That’s not concerning.
Pete’s parents watch the phone call in silence.
Shockingly, it’s Mr. Eddy. He keeps asking if Pete is all right. He keeps smiling. It’s scary as hell.
Then he gives the phone to Uncle Fester.
Uncle Fester claims he met Peter at his house, same as Fred. Peter doesn’t remember.
Uncle Fester tells a scary short story that doubles as a threat.
Mr. Eddy takes back the phone, tells Pete he’s glad Pete is doing okay, and hangs up. I don’t think Mr. Eddy is glad at all.
Pete turns to his parents. No one is there. He’s alone in the room.
Pete starts to cry. I can’t blame him. Robert Loggia wants to give him horrifying driving lessons and his dad is Gary Busey.
As Alice directed, Pete takes the bus to the house on the night of the robbery.
He walks through the darkness to Andy’s house.
This whole movie is a love letter to Hollywood noir and even the architecture echoes the theme. Andy’s house is glamour and decadence and opulence. With palm trees.
Pete walks through the mansion, but stops when he sees a giant movie screen showing a black and white porno starring Alice.
There are clothes scattered all over the room. Pete can't stop watching the porno.
A door slams upstairs. Pete grabs a small statue and ducks behind the bar.
I’m sure I’ll regret admitting this, but I swear to fuck for a second I thought Andy was played by Ben Stiller.
Pete hits Andy on the head. Hard.
Alice walks downstairs in her underwear.
Andy wakes up and tackles Pete. There’s a scuffle. Andy ends up with the edge of a glass table through his forehead. It almost takes off the top of his head.
‘We killed him’ turns into ‘You killed him,’ really fast.
They still rob Andy. With his head sliced open like a filet.
The porno keeps playing in the background.
Pete’s vision goes all fish-eyed. He spins around. Notices something in a photograph.
It’s Alice and Renee next to each other, alongside Mr. Eddy and Andy.
Pete’s head starts pounding. Blood pours out of his nose.
Did Pete ever see a doctor after what happened?
Pete walks down a creepy apartment hallway. Lightning flashes in front and behind him. His face is coated in blood.
Pete opens the door to the room. 96. The room is a sickly orange red. Alice is there, getting fucked by a faceless figure.
The room vibrates with heavy metal.
I forgot how good this soundtrack is.
While Pete has been going through his little meltdown, Alice has gotten dressed and is doing the robbery bit.
She pulls a gun on Pete. Then laughs and puts it in his pants. Ah, love.
Alice goes on about how great their lives will be once they sell everything and get passports.
Incredible fucking shot of Andy with the table still stuck in his head.
Alice has Pete drive them into the middle of the desert in the middle of the night so they can go meet her fence.
Same shots of the highway as the beginning of the movie.
Footage of a cabin in the desert burning in reverse. We watch the cabin rebuild and the smoke turns white in a backwards explosion.
Alice and Pete show up in Andy’s car and head into the cabin. Unfortunately, they left the gun in the car.
Inside the cabin is mostly empty and completely unoccupied. There’s a mattress on the floor. It’s like a college guys’ room.
Alice and Pete wait outside in the dark.
‘Why me Alice? Why choose me?’ Excellent question, Peter. Should have asked it sooner, but you got there in the end.
She asks if he still wants her, which is frankly a stupid question. She’s Patricia Arquette.
Alice and Pete make out in front of the headlights of the car. Then they do it in front of the headlights.
Very white sex overlapped with the cabin exploding. Alice is lit like an angel or a goddess, glowing and barely human. Meanwhile Pete keeps assuring Alice that he wants her.
Sudden ominous classic noir movie musical sting.
Lighting and thunder.
‘You’ll never have me,’ Alice says. She climbs off our boy Pete and walks naked into the cabin.
Pete lies on the ground in a desperate, horny bid to understand what the hell is happening.
Finally, he stands up. Turning around slowly, the camera reveals not Pete, but Fred illuminated in the headlights.
The headlights on the car die.
Lightning bursts through the night.
The Uncle Fester dude is in the car.
The fence calls to Fred from the front of the cabin. When Fred looks back, Uncle Fester is gone.
Fred puts on his clothes and pretends he wasn’t just standing bare-ass in the desert.
Alice is not inside the cabin.
The fence is Uncle Fester with hair and less pasty face makeup.
Fed asks where Alice is.
Angry Uncle Fester tells Fred that it’s Renee, not Alice.
Uncle Fester pulls out a video camera and demands Fred tell him his name. He approaches him with the camera. Fred freaks out and books it to the car. The engine struggles to start. Fester reaches out. The engine screams to life. Fred does some hardcore donuts and flees.
He drives to the ‘Lost Highway Hotel,’ which is what I will name my firstborn child.
Renee and Mr. Eddy are there having sex. I think it’s Renee. Might be Alice. Fred approaches their door. Opens it.
Fade to black.
Renee leaves Mr. Eddy sleeping and heads out. Fred watches her leave through a window.
No, I don't know why he’s Fred all of a sudden. I don’t understand any of it. I don’t question David Lynch. I just accept.
The lightning in the background as Fred walks down the hallway of the Lost Highway Hotel is so beautiful it makes me weak.
Fred knocks on Mr. Eddy’s door. Proceeds to pistol-whip the living fuck out of Mr. Eddy.
I like the soundtrack, but the metal can be somewhat jarring.
Fred puts Mr. Eddy in the trunk of his car and takes off.
Angry Fester watches him through another window.
I’m pretty sure the hotel is a metaphor for something.
Pete drives to the middle of the desert in silence. Opens the trunk. Mr. Eddy jumps out bathed in warm golden light and dramatic music and tackles Fred. They wrestle in the darkness.
Mr. Eddy pins Fred and beats him. Fred fights back. Someone places a knife in Fred’s hand. Fred cuts Mr. Eddy’s throat. They both seem surprised by this.
Mr. Eddy lays on the ground. Looks at the blood coating his hands. Feels it pouring from his throat, warming his chest. He asks Fred, ‘What do you guys want?’
Camera cuts to Fred standing in front of the car. Next to him is Angry Fester.
Fester gives Mr. Eddy an old-timey video player. On it he sees a series of sexy Renee sex scenes. Apparently these are shown at Mr. Eddy’s kinky sex parties with Andy, so maybe my Eyes Wide Shut joke I made in the Blue Velvet piece was more on the nose than I intended.
Oh shit I forgot Marilyn Manson was in this. I think I blocked it out. It’s jarring. Should have cast Kyle McLachlan instead.
Then it turns into a snuff film. Someone murders Marilyn Manson. This just makes the horny rich people hornier.
Mr. Eddy finishes watching. The final shot is of Fred and Fester standing in front of the car.
Fester takes his camera back. He’s very fond of it. He shoots Mr. Eddy. Fred stands there, but helpfully.
Fester grabs Fred, pulls him down, and whispers in his ear for a long time. All is silence.
Then he’s gone, and Fred is alone. Fred puts the gun in his belt, and leaves Mr. Eddy’s body bleeding in the dust.
We’re back at Andy’s place. The police are there, as well as a number of well-dressed people.
Cops find a picture of Renee, Mr. Eddy, and Andy.
‘That’s her, all right,’ they say of Renee. ‘That’s Fred Madison’s wife with Dick Laurent.
‘There’s no such thing as a bad coincidence.’ I’m just going to quote the rest of the movie.
Cut to Mr. Eddy, lying in the desert with his brains blown out. The camera pans up along the horizon. It’s a beautiful morning.
Fred drives home in a black car.
The cops are still following him. Not when it would be useful, but the rest of the time.
Fred rings the buzzer outside his house.
‘Dick Laurent is dead,’ he says into the speaker.
The cops go to arrest him. Fred takes off in his car with the police in hot pursuit.
Cut to Fred racing down the highway in the desert with cop cars in pursuit.
The highway shifts from daylight to evening, once again returning to the original shots of speeding down the road.
Fred seizes. The cars get closer. Lights flashing everywhere. Fred’s whole body is vibrating, his face twisting and contorting, shaking faster and faster. Smoke appears to be coming out of him, and there’s a blinding white light. And screaming.
Fred’s face deforms and warps. Some Erasherhead vibes.
Cut back to the dark, unfathomable highway.
Roll credits.
I love this movie so much. I have no idea what the ending means. I have no idea what any of it means. Does it have to mean anything?
I have ideas and theories, but in the end they’re just conjectures.
I hope there are college film courses devoted to nothing but dissecting this weird, wonderful little movie. Lost Highway has it all:
Some of my favorite visuals.
Important driving lessons.
And Gary Busey.
//cj//