Kubrick's Game

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  “This whole time, I thought these repetitions were flawed writing. It continually happens in the film, but not in any other Kubrick film.”

  “Yeah,” said Sami. “It always annoyed me.”

  “Me too, but I’ve learned that repetition such as this is essential for penetrating the subconscious. Why do religions and cults use repetitive chants? Because they open the mind for a concept, belief, or behavior to take permanent root.”

  “What exactly are you getting at?”

  “I know this may sound crazy, but my working hypothesis is that Kubrick had become such a master of subliminal filmmaking, that perhaps the answer to the final puzzle will be revealed... in a dream.”

  A long silence ensued as Sami absorbed that proposal.

  “Are you serious?” was all she could muster in response.

  “Allow me to present the evidence.”

  Shawn was interrupted by the singsong Skype tone.

  Wilson Devereaux would like to join the conversation....

  “Sorry I’m late. I was on a critical phone call.”

  “With who? Your agent?” Sami rolled her eyes.

  “Even better. It was one of the directors of the Apollo 11 moon mission.”

  “What!” they both shouted in unison.

  “How did you manage that?” said Sami.

  “I spent the last three days making calls, getting bounced around, using my celeb status just a little bit. Right before the Skype session, he called me back. He wants to meet up and says he has information that could, and I quote, ‘change the course of history.’”

  Shawn and Sami sat dumbstruck as Wilson smiled broadly from the Skype video window.

  “Change the course of history? Why does that sound familiar?” asked Sami.

  Shawn jumped in. “Because it was the same thing Kubrick said in the film we watched at the Museum of the Moving Image.”

  “Exactly,” said Wilson. “I think this guy is another participant in the puzzle. He could even award us the final prize.”

  “Hold on,” said Sami. “After everything we’ve been through, have you considered this might be someone we can’t trust?”

  “Look, I went through hell and high water to find this guy. If it were his plan to mess with us, he sure didn’t make it easy to find him. If you guys are too scared, I’ll go alone, but this meeting is happening.”

  “When?”

  “Tomorrow night, at the Griffith Park Observatory.”

  “Isn’t the observatory closed on Mondays?” said Shawn.

  “To the public, but not to the astronomers who work there.”

  “What do you suppose he’s going to tell us?” said Sami.

  “Guys, I used to doubt all of that conspiracy nonsense,” said Wilson, “but now I’m starting to believe this fake moon landing theory is solid.”

  Wilson turned the camera around and showed them his wall. If it looked crazy last time, this time it was a work of sheer madness. Hundreds of frames from Kubrick films were pinned on all four walls, with lines of red marker connecting them to images of the moon.

  Wilson swiveled back and continued. “Based on the evidence, I have concluded that there are two possibilities. One: Kubrick staged and directed the Apollo 11 landing. Or two: Kubrick really wanted us to believe that he faked the moon landing.”

  Shawn shook his head. “The latter can’t be true. Kubrick wasn’t a prankster. He wanted to spread truth with his art, not lies.”

  “Aha! So it’s more likely that Kubrick did in fact fake the moon landing, but before we get to Kubrick, we must first prove that they were in fact faked. From my research, there are three convincing pieces of evidence. One is the still photos and film footage. In each, there are inconsistent shadows. On the moon there should only be one main light source—the Sun. Thus, the shadows should appear parallel to one another. Yet many photos look like this.”

  Wilson shared a wide-angle photo showing shadows of foreground rocks and the moon module at a forty-five degree angle difference.

  “Why aren’t the shadows consistent?” Wilson continued. “Because Kubrick used studio lighting! Second is the video we all know of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking, or rather, leaping across the moonscape. However, this does not make scientific sense. Walking on the moon would look and feel quite similar to walking on Earth. The only difference is that you would weigh three-fourths less. Think of how you move on Earth versus, say, a twenty-pound dog. The small dog doesn’t bounce around the Earth simply because it weighs less. There is still a tremendous force of gravity pulling it down. When experts have analyzed this, they have come up with one conclusion: Kubrick simply shot slow-motion footage of astronaut-actors running across a moon-like landscape. When played back, it creates an otherworldly effect.”

  Shawn and Sami watched the footage Wilson was referring to. While it seemed to make sense, Shawn remained unconvinced. Would the internet conspiracy nuts really know what walking on the moon was like?

  “Last,” said Wilson, “is what I believe to be the most compelling evidence. Skeptics decided to take stills from the moon footage and examine them under infrared and ultraviolet light. The findings were astonishing. I’m sharing the image.”

  Wilson sent an image that portrayed an innocuous moonscape in the foreground and odd points of light dotting a squared geometric pattern in the background.

  “Some thought the points of light were evidence that there were secret glass cities on the moon. One man even went on tour spouting this theory, but they were misreading what is a much simpler explanation. The background is a projection screen. At the time, large screens were created by stitching together smaller squares, and that’s what we’re seeing. Rows of small squares, just like a chessboard, are revealed when examined through more accurate light detection. The tiny lights are reflections caused by the projection system. When making 2001, Kubrick invented a new technique called Front Screen Projection or FSP. Using FSP, he was able to shoot all of 2001’s African savannah scenes on a soundstage. The telltale signs of FSP are clear dividing lines between the foreground and background. Sharing photos from 2001 that detail how he did this.”

  Wilson sent images from the 2001 savannah scenes that highlighted the obvious separation between foreground and background, which indicated a standing set with a projected image behind it.

  “Those backgrounds are all just projections. When we compare these images with stills from the moon landing, the same dividing lines become evident.”

  Wilson proceeded to send photographs taken at the Apollo 11 moon landing site. They shared a distinction with the 2001 scenes in which the foreground and background scenery was clearly delineated.

  “I think these curiosities are enough to at least call into question what we’ve been told,” said Wilson.

  “Look guys,” said Shawn, “I don’t want us to get off track. We’re not trying to be whistleblowers. I’m only interested in how any of this relates to our current puzzle. I’m sending it to you so we can work off it.”

  The moon conceals the hand of God. He’ll take you to the Land of Nod. And once the final bridge is crossed, find Q’s identity that was lost.

  “You’re right,” said Wilson. “I believe that for the purpose of the game, we must determine how Kubrick cleverly hid clues about the moon landing in his films. I’m sure you’re aware of the theory that The Shining is a cinematic confession by Kubrick of faking the moon landing, so I’ll cover that last. However, I found more evidence of the moon conspiracy in surprising places.

  “Before shooting of 2001 commenced, Kubrick met with NASA on several occasions to discuss the scientific details of space travel. These initial meetings were likely the catalyst of a continuing relationship. Rumor has it that NASA secretly funneled money toward 2001’s immense budget through MGM, but this came at a steep price. In exchange, Kubrick would have to work with the government to stage the historic moon landing that allegedly took pl
ace on July 16, 1969.”

  “Allegedly?” said Shawn. “Buzz Aldrin is still alive, along with many from mission control. Could they really have kept such a giant secret?”

  “I’ve studied 2001 more than anyone,” said Sami. “I’ve never noticed anything that would point to a moon conspiracy.”

  “Nor should you have,” said Wilson. “He shot it before working on the moon landing. However, all the Freemason symbolism we found in the movie could have been an indication of who he was secretly working with. After the televised moon landing, he found the galactic fraud to be unbearable. He began dropping hints in his films about what really happened, but couldn’t come right out and say it because he had signed a confidentiality agreement and was afraid for himself, his family, and his career, should he break the contract.”

  “So where did you find these hints in other films?” asked Shawn.

  “Let’s start with A Clockwork Orange. When Alex and his droogies encounter a drunken old man beneath a bridge....”

  Wilson cued a video clip to play on their shared screen. It was a bit difficult to understand through the old man’s thick accent, but Shawn and Sami listened as he bellowed, “Men on the moon and men spinning around the Earth, and there’s not no attention paid to Earthly law and order no more.”

  Shawn and Sami both looked astonished.

  Sami said, “I was just explaining to Shawn that Kubrick often used ‘The Creation of Adam’ imagery. The old man scene in A Clockwork Orange was one of my examples.”

  Wilson compared the two images and appeared to have gears grinding in his head. “Creation of Adam,” he said out loud to himself. “You realize what that is, right? It’s another CRM. CReation of AdaM.”

  “We hadn’t thought of that,” said Sami. “It could be a sign that we’re on the right track.”

  “What else did you find?” said Shawn.

  “I found nothing in Barry Lyndon or Full Metal Jacket. Of course, The Shining, in between those films, has clues in practically every scene. Then I found something amazing in Eyes Wide Shut.”

  “Hold on,” said Sami. “Why haven’t there been any puzzles within Barry Lyndon or Full Metal Jacket? Doesn’t that seem odd?”

  “Doesn’t seem odd to me,” said Shawn. “There were riots following the release of A Clockwork Orange in Britain. Kubrick and his family received numerous death threats. It got so bad, A Clockwork Orange was pulled from theaters shortly after its release and banned from any type of broadcast in England, a ban that wasn’t lifted until only a few years ago. Kubrick never imagined such terrible consequences. For his next project, he was keen to make something safe that couldn’t possibly stir up the masses again. He was all set to shoot Napoleon, but after the funding fell through, he went with the less ambitious Barry Lyndon, which is a beautiful but harmless period piece, during which Kubrick’s focus was entirely on technique and emotional storytelling. In terms of hidden meanings, it simply wasn’t an objective in Barry Lyndon.

  “As for Full Metal Jacket, I believe something similar happened. If Wilson is correct, the powers that be would have noticed all of Kubrick’s moon confessions in The Shining, confronted him, and frightened him to the extent that his next film, Full Metal Jacket, though dark and disturbing, was also devoid of hidden meanings.”

  “However,” said Wilson, “as he grew older and the burden of his secrets was weighing on him more and more, I’m guessing the itch for confession returned, not only with Eyes Wide Shut, but also with what I consider his true final film, A.I.”

  “A.I.?” said Sami. “But Spielberg directed that.”

  “Yes, but Spielberg was faithful to all of the storyboards that Kubrick had designed with the artist Christopher Baker, and stuck with Kubrick’s chosen plot points. While it was Spielberg at the helm, the imagery was all Kubrick. Hold on to your hats.

  “First thing I want you to look at is the scene from Eyes Wide Shut when Tom Cruise’s Bill confronts Sydney Pollack’s Ziegler. Ziegler admits to Bill that he was at the ritualistic party, even in the room when Bill removed his mask, and that highly eminent people were in attendance. He says, ‘If I told you their names, I don’t think you’d sleep so well.’ The attendance of society’s elite indicates that this was an Illuminati ceremony, and that Ziegler was one of them. Knowing that, pay close attention to how Ziegler’s words and actions reveal the hidden meaning in this scene.”

  Wilson sent them a link.

  “In this clip,” he explained, “Ziegler stops at the pool table and begins playing with the cue ball, which is a white sphere like the moon. It’s saying that the Illuminati had the moon in the palm of their hands. Ziegler ends the sequence by forming his hand in the shape of a pyramid, the primary symbol of the Masons, and places it on the ledge of the table. Kubrick angles the shot so the white cue ball is framed perfectly within the pyramid of his hand.

  “Immediately following this image, Ziegler proceeds to tell Bill that everything he saw at the party was ‘staged.’ That it was ‘a charade.’ Kubrick is telling the world that the moon landing was a staged charade perpetrated by the Illuminati!”

  Shawn was speechless. He honestly wasn’t sure if Wilson had gone completely off the deep end, or if he was a genius.

  “Wilson,” said Sami with a sigh, “what you’re doing is called projection. You have a pre-conceived notion of what you’re looking for and are finding it everywhere you look. I’m sure we’d find thousands of instances of white spheres that could represent the moon, but there’s no way to know that there’s any meaning behind them.”

  “Fair enough,” said Wilson. “I’ll admit this example was... subtle. However, I think Kubrick himself realized it was too subtle because nobody picked up on it. That’s why when he was planning his subsequent film, A.I., he hit the nail on the head. Watch this scene.”

  Wilson sent a link to the scene from A.I.

  “Here we see David the robot boy wandering the woods with Jude Law’s Gigolo Joe. As robots scavenge a pile of discarded parts, a gigantic moon rises over the horizon. It turns out the moon is in fact a projection on a hot air balloon. Exactly the same technique Kubrick would have used to project the moon’s background on a soundstage. At first, the robots are drawn to the moon, just as Kubrick was, but then hunters capture them and take them to be dismembered at the Flesh Fair.

  “After the incident, Gigolo Joe pulls David aside and warns him: ‘The moon is fake! It isn’t real!’”

  Shawn and Sami’s jaws dropped.

  “What more can you ask for than that?” Wilson continued. “Kubrick was telling us, ‘Hey, idiots, in case you didn’t pick it up in my previous films, the moon landing was fake! It wasn’t real!’”

  Wilson leaned back in his chair with a satisfied grin.

  Shawn and Sami clapped, acknowledging his findings.

  “You mentioned The Shining was a confession of the moon landing,” said Sami. “I actually haven’t heard much about that. Could you explain a little?”

  “I think I can quickly summarize,” said Shawn. “What piqued people’s imaginations was a particular piece of clothing Danny wears through the second half of the film, the Apollo 11 sweater. He’s wearing it when he enters the portentous room 237.”

  “It was a distracting article of clothing, to say the least. In a film imbued with symbolism and subliminal messages, it seemed like there must have been a reason behind it. The sweater was such a mysterious choice, it was even on display at LACMA, pinned high on the wall, as if it were a rocket blasting through the atmosphere.”

  “In Jack’s writing room, where he incessantly throws the tennis ball against the wall, awakening the evil spirits of the hotel, the same rocket ship design can be seen painted on the wall above the fireplace.”

  Shawn was on a roll now. “But what does all that mean? To fully process the metaphor, imagine that Jack’s character in the film represents Kubrick himself, someone who entered into a contractual obligation with pure intentions, even thinking it wo
uld be beneficial for his family, only to be driven mad by the evil he encountered. Yet, he is hopelessly obligated to fulfill the contract. Jack’s physical appearance reflects Kubrick’s own appearance over time. Both go from clean-cut and clean-shaven, to unshaven and unkempt, as the soul is corrupted. The external transformation mirrors the internal.

  “One of the most startling scenes is the interview scene. Jack enters the office and walks past the Quetzalcoatl image, possibly an indication that we are entering the office of a powerful Mason.”

  “Some say the interview represents Stanley himself being solicited by a top official to direct the moon landing. Check out this image I’m sharing.”

  Shawn sent an image of the hotel manager, Mr. Ullman, wearing his trademark red, white, and blue suit while sitting at his office desk, his fingers clasped in front of him.

  Shawn continued, “Note how Mr. Ullman wears red, white, and blue, and has an American flag on his desk. The pointed pen on his desk is a Freemason symbol and behind his head is none other than a double-headed eagle figurine. It’s the same one that we see resting atop the Red Cloak’s throne in Eyes Wide Shut, which we’ve learned represents a 33rd degree Mason.”

  “So what’s the whole room 237 controversy all about?” asked Sami.

  Wilson answered. “At a climactic moment in The Shining, Danny, wearing his Apollo 11 sweater, is drawn into room 237 by temptation, just as Kubrick was tempted by the challenge of staging a moon landing. When he emerges from the room, the Apollo 11 sweater is torn, and the boy is wounded and catatonic. Jack goes to investigate, discovering an attractive woman nude in the bathtub. This is said to represent Kubrick’s allure to take part in the Apollo 11 operation, thinking it would be something dangerous and sexy. But when the beautiful woman transforms into the ghoulish hag, that symbolizes when Kubrick realized the awful truth of the situation. When Jack’s wife asks what’s inside room 237, Jack says, ‘Nothing. There’s nothing in there,’ showing Kubrick’s adherence to the confidentiality agreement, even with his own wife.