Talk:The Nines

Refactored irrelevant off-topic comments

In response to the below -- yes, a more in-depth plot analysis would be good, and that's what I came to this page looking for. However, Wikipedia really isn't a forum for philosophical musings, interesting and valid though they may be. That said, I think there's something significant to the initials of the characters' names. Someone mentioned that Gary/Gavin/Gabriel is "G" for "God". I also think that Margaret/Melissa/Mary might be "M" for "Man", and Sarah/Susan/Sierra might be "S" for "Satan". If you watch the film with this in mind, then the characters' actions and attitudes make a lot more sense. The film, as I saw it, is kind of an allegory for the relationship between God, Satan, and humanity. That's what I got out of it, anyway. - Dylan

It would be nice if we could add some more description to the plot and if somebody could elaborate on some of the philosophical musings in the film. It is not a perfect film, but it does warrant a more elaborate section on Wikipedia. 65.78.18.16 (talk) 08:33, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

I once took a picture of a former Disney-loving friend with his hand in a Geisha position, so when I saw The Nines, I was quite surprised to see the Geisha hand at one point in the film. Check the current issue of the National Geographic August 2008, page 4 there is a picture of a Bioko's monkey caught with a Geisha hand over its mouth, very similar to that of the one made in the scene. --LanguageSLO (talk) 16:39, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Funny because at the time I was very interested in this one CD from the group SCSI-9 - The Line of Nine. I wore glasses almost exactly like those in the Geisha-hand scene, before the film was made and I had to get a new set of glasses afterwards.--LanguageSLO (talk) 20:59, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Dear 65 78 18 16. In reply to your request for a warrant, uhh, oh so randomly posted on the eleventh of February. I'm of the philosophy that the musings of the film were quite clear. It's like the story of the Little Mermaid, or of any quaint Sponge Bob cartoon retort in philosophical terms. Ambiguous stalking of the innocent in an Indiana-Jones-and-the-Temple-of-Doom-ride creepy-because-ones-square-head-does-not-wobble-that-much-but-you-can-check-out-the-men sort of way, winds you up on house arrest. Recordings and hocus pocus driving scenes to and from Disneyland, in an Hybrid electric car like that, where you are making geisha hand mimicking signs to passer bys, leaves a permanent philosophy for permanent jail time. Any Harvard philosophers from 2002-2006 that were put on the side for a psychology display to describe this plot would most definitely agree. Just ask any Crimson editor, I'm sure they would agree. --LanguageSLO (talk) 16:02, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

Huh? --86.151.73.167 (talk) 20:23, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

I think a lot of people are missing the metaphor between the humans who create virtual reality (video games) and who decide to live in their games creating many characters and 'God' who create a reality and chose to live in it, creating many different characters. The name of his 'wife (?)' as Sierra and their discussion about video games is a big hint in my opinion. (Sierra Entertainment is an American video game developer). 21 September 2009

why r we here; where r we going?

i argue meaning is subjective and somewhat similarly - so is individual destiny. but our collective destiny is another thing entirely. "the nines" is a projection of a collection of spiritualists (not really a group - just a collection or subset). it makes the assumption that since individual meaning, reality, and destiny are subjective - so is our collective destiny. but i disagree. it would be nice to imagine we can shape our destiny with positive thought. but we are not so free. we do have limitations (those of us that are not 9s or 8s). i don't dispute the existence of 9s or 8s .. i would like to meet them ;) just to know what flavor they give reality. then again, maybe the whole concept is a fantasy intended to give us hope out of this hell-hole we have created for ourselves. riley martin does the same thing with his alien rescuers. i contend the only way to truly change reality is for ALL of us (especially those in power) to think positively about the future and ACT on those thoughts. spiritualists (god bless them) would have you believe we can change the future simply by willing it into being. ain't so. another collection of spiritualists believe we are here to learn (earth is our spiritual classroom). so thing's aren't perfect because we need to struggle to become 'perfect' (our path to enlightenment). from their perspective, we need an oppressive leadership so we have something to "see how evil that is?" and find a better path.. if there are truly 8s and 9s (not just on the big screen), i want to know who they are and how they tailor reality with their powers.. not so i can stop them (who could stop a 9 but another 9?) .. i just want to understand and see "the big picture" ;) i think a good question is: who are the 8s? what do they do? in the film, they are "koalas" who control the weather. a decent explanation can be found on youtube but .. it seems contrived. if 10 represents infinity, if 9s are the mini-gods who create universes within a grander universe, who are the 8s? supposedly, "normal" humans are 7s. so they must be special in some way ;) .. spiritualists would argue we're all special but .. that is also contrived - to make "us dust-motes" feel better than what we truly are: dust. can anyone say that we are not star-dust? star-dust dust-motes .. ;) wanting to be more.. pretty meaningless if we focus on that.. i prefer to think of us as chimps struggling to wake up from a nightmare. we can do it - if we do it together.&Delta (talk) 06:45, 22 December 2008 (UTC) don't get me wrong .. i love the movie .. considering the budget and shooting time-frame, it's a wonderful piece .. i love the music and casting was appropriate .. there isn't anything i would have done differently .. i watched again looking for 8s (in the scene where numbers are listed above the participants) .. could not see any .. i also paid attention to how many 9s were in the film: 4. which is quite a lot! :) right? one hostile encounter with one other 9 indicated "we're all trapped in here like you brother!" made me question - are there different levels of 9s? that's another good question i think.. the main character "G" (for god?) hehe has obviously incredible powers but the other 3 9s .. they don't display their powers at all in the film.. so .. it makes me wonder .. if there really are such things as 9s and 8s .. are there gradations of power within those levels? also one minor observation: 3 of 4 nines were white with one black.. no asians.. i know, no racial representation is "required" in a movie of this sort but.. if you were gonna include a black woman .. why not an asian dude? 8| just a "minor" observation.. overall, i love the flick :) sam.. oh ps - i wrote my own "avatar" version screenplay/script called The Avatar which can be found at [1] ..i watch again now;)..&Delta (talk) 04:50, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

I dont think this movie is meant to be a litteral metaphor in that human are 7's. I think they chose koalas as 8s to hint at that rather than choose dolphins and make it ambiguos. I think they are heavily playing on gnostisicm and the 10 dimensions theory. When cosidering the "G" god, "H" human, "S" satan character name corelation the movies metaphor is like gnositicism with a twist. Satan offers us the apple with the knowledge of good and evil while god wants us to remain ignorant and with this reality as a prison. The nines twist is that the viewer sees the movie from the prosepective of the "G"od like character as we are the concious observer. So the metaphor is that conciousness or "g" itself is trapped in this reality that it itself has created but is actually a multidimensional being that mistakenly believes the interpretation of the human mind. Satan is their to bring the apple of knowledge that this is not real. "H" represents the god within the idea of gnositism or the force that wants us to remain ignorant and trapped; in gnosticism the human form is the prison or vehicle of higher consiousness or self-awareness. While 10 is the the tenth dimension the whole of all possibilities, where all is one. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.217.17.189 (talk) 16:31, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

When I heard that Koalas were 8s I was sure this movie was a comedy. I tried to find funny stuff, but there were hardly any. Overall this movie sucked and was a flop/bomb at the box office right? This should be noted on the article to save people the anguish of watching it. Simanos (talk) 01:22, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

IP user, yes, it plays very heavily on Gnostic beliefs and Gnosis ("knowledge" thus the reality show's name "Knowing"). One error you made, though, is that it is not "H"-names in the movie but "M"-names (Margarette-Melissa-Mary, for "man").

The generalized gnostic beliefs (there was many variants) in a nutshell: there is a greatest god (the "10" mentioned in the movie) and several lesser beings created out of It (the "9"s in the movie). One of the lesser beings (who is the God of the Old Testament) created the material world — an imperfect world — in which fragments of the greatest god (the "10", using the movies terminology) were dispersed in the world, but mankind does not realize that some of them are greater and don't belong in the material world (in other words, using the movie's terms, not all mankind are 7s, but some are 9s but don't realize it). An emissary (ie, another 9; in the New Testament and in christian Gnosticism, this is called "The Word") is sent to the material world to give mankind Gnosis (knowledge) about The Truth (that they don't belong in this world) so that they can realize they are christs (small "C"), like the emissary, and thus cast off their eidolon selves (the flesh, their Twin/Didymus, their body of man) so that their daemon (their spirit, their body of god) can transcend out of this world. This isn't the best explanation, but it's the basic gist that the various gnostic beliefs share. In christian gnosticism, the emissary (The Word) is Jesus, but in some of the other forms, The Word was Satan (this movie takes this latter approach). The gnostics explained their beliefs in parable stories; this movie is basically built as such a parable story. — al-Shimoni (talk) 00:12, 8 November 2011 (UTC)