Travicity
02-21-2011, 10:45 PM
Life Is More Fun with Multiple Personalities
Living with 2 or more voices in your mind isn't easy - people with split personalities are constantly fighting one another for dominance. It makes for great cinematic fodder. It also makes for a strange look at our favorite mutliple personality movies. Warning: spoilers ahead
25
The Lord of the Rings
Me: Whether they're part of a last minute twist ending or a complicated character qurik, multiple personalities have a long lasting legacy in the movie world - mostly because they're fun to watch. Take Smeagol, who was driven to madness by the Ring and turned into the shriveled Gollum. He eats fish heads and calls a piece of jewelry his "precious," but audiences can't get enough.
Him: He totally stole all that line from the novel Push by Sapphire.
Me: Lord of the Rings predates Push and the movie Precious by more than fifty years.
Him: Whatever, man. Look, I'm just glad we're back on speaking terms.
Me: You're going to be difficult aren't you.
Him: Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself.
24
Alice in Wonderland
Me: Tim Burton played up the jumbled mind and competing voices of Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter in this year's trippy 3D, CG Alice in Wonderland. The Hatter in Burton's version is inspired by the neurological damage suffered by actual hat factory workers, caused by deadly doses of mercury fumes.
Him: Like the planet?
Me: No, like the element.
Him: I was about to say, man, that'd be crazy if a planet could f*ck up your head.
Me: Well maybe in Wonderland that's still possible.
Him: It's pretty close to the sun.
Me: Shut up.
23
Black Swan
Me: Pushing one's self to perfection often comes with dire consequences. In Nina's case, her quest to embody both White and Black Swans in Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake sent her off the deep end, creating a competitive, devilish alternate persona.
Him: Who is hot.
Me: Who? Nina's fabricated version of Mila Kunis' Lily?
Him: Hell yeah. Man, if I had a split-personality, I'd totally want it to be a smokin' hot lady who visits me whenever I need to get my freak on. Who wouldn't?
Me: I forsee that last statement echoing in my mind, giving me nightmares for some time. Thanks.
22
Fight Club
Me: Occasionally, when the urge to punch surrounding pedestrians becomes insatiable, it's up to your bad side to come forward and peer pressure you into taking a stand.
Him: That's deep.
Me: Very - which is why something like Project Mayhem could only be conceived by the twisted brain of Edward Norton's Narrator and his alternate persona, Tyler Durden.
Him: Sh*t looks fun - would you ever want to fight club me?
Me: I don't want to fight you.
Him: No, fight club me.
Me: No, I am not going to "fight club" you.
21
Spider-Man
Him: Whoa, man, Green Goblin has multiple personalities and gills?
Me: No...that's skin. Norman Osbourne's just angry because his body enhancement experiment lost funding and he used himself as a test subject. Like steroids, muscle-toning gasses also lead to increased aggression.
Him: That's what he gets for having book smarts.
Me: There's nothing wrong with a pursuit of science, or self-sacrificing in the name of science. In a way, Osbourne is a lot like Marie Curie, except with destructive voices in his head.
Him: Boobs.
20
Sybil
Him: Man, now this is something I can really get behind. A purty lady.
Me: That woman was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder and was found to have developed 12 personalities over her lifetime as a result of early childhood abuse. In other words, what the hell is wrong with you.
Him: A purty lady is a purty lady.
Me: Sybil is one of the most accurate portrayals of multiple personalities on film, and the film, alnog with Sally Field's performance, went on to win four Emmy awards in 1977.
Him: Did she win hottest mental patient?
Me: That is not an Emmy award.
19
A Scanner Darkly
Me: Director Richard Linklater, tired of big budget, action-ified adaptations of acclaimed Sci-Fi author Philip K Dick's works, decided to tell A Scanner Darkly's humorous and dark drug story with the same rotoscoping techniques he used on his previous film, Waking Life.
Him: Man, those colors were crazy. All moving around and waving.
Me: Yeah...the style compliments the mind-altering effects of drugs have on the main character, which eventually splits his brain into two distinct people: an undercover cop and a stoner terrorist.
Him: That is craaaazy. All the swirling around and the colors...dude, the colors!
Me: I think we covered that.
18
Me, Myself and Irene
Me: The Farrelly Bros. have made their fair share of whacked out comedies, but Me, Myself and Irene takes the cake with its hard-R depiction of Jim Carrey battling his own personal demons. One minute, Charlie is a mild-mannered cop in a small Rhode Island town. The next, he's a fast-talking, sociopathic Hank, bent on destruction and vengeance on all that have wronged Charlie.
Him: Dude, multiple personalities really get a bad rap in movies. People are always trying to get rid of their second halves. Like they don't belong, or something.
Me: Funny you should say that.
Him: If you think that's funny then you need to go joke school, man.
Me: Maybe I will go to joke school...soon enough...
17
Mr. Brooks
Him: Kevin Costner has split personalities?!?
Me: Well, in the movie Mr. Brooks, yes. He plays a businessman who is convinced by a manifestation of his broken mind (played by William Hurt) to kill random people in Palo Alto. Thus, why I've never moved to Palo Alto and have a rabid fear of wealthy people.
Him: Oh, I thought this was Waterworld.
Me: The title clearly says "Mr. Brooks."
Him: Maybe it also has a split personality...called Waterworld.
16
Raising Cain
Me: You may know John Lithgow better from 3rd Rock from the Sun, but he's also made a lengthy career out of playing off-kilter characters on the big screen. Lithgow dabbled in multiple personalities in Raising Cain, where he plays a child psychologist who has developed an array of personas, after being traumatized by his father at an early age (also played by Lithgow).
Him: Even after dressing up in woman's clothing, John Lithgow is not as hot as Sybil.
Me: There's something very wrong about comparing abuse victims in terms of their attractiveness.
15
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Me: Sequels. There all about more, more, more.
Him: And more.
Me: And in the trilogy capper Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, producers finally gave the world what they'd been waiting for: not one, not two, not three, but a boat-full of Jack Sparrows. Death, apparently, forces you to confront all aspects of your personality.
Him: Whooooa. Does that mean when we die there'll be even more of us?
Me: That's why I must never die.
14
Superman III
Me: While mostmultiple psyches are all contained inside the brains of our lead characters, Superman suffered from severe split personality syndrome after a nasty piece of kryptonite divides the superhero in two. This is only one of many absurd twists Superman III introduced into the franchise, but watching Christopher Reeves fight Christopher Reeves remains a hilarious treat.
Him: I've done a lot of binge drinking in my time and I've never, ever, split into two people.
Me: Well, you're not from Krypton.
Him: Prove it.
Me: Based on the lack of existence of a planet Krypton or the fact that you're just a voice in my head?
Him:...prove it.
13
Secret Window
Me: Johnny Depp is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to multiple personalities.
Him: And Hot Topic t-shirts.
Me: In Secret Window he plays an author named Mort, who is being haunted by the Deliverance-esque countryman John Shooter. Turns out, John's just a figmant of his imagination and he really wanted to shoot his wife.
Him: Oh, I get it. So that would mean my name should be something like Frank Getlaid.
Me: Wha...no. Be qui--
Him: Get laid.
12
Hide and Seek
Me: Lots of people create imaginary friends at some point in their lives, but few have the creative mind and psychopathic rage to create them for others. That's what Rober De Niro pulls off in Hide and Seek, where he investigates his daughter's killer's invisible sidekick, who turns out to be his angry half.
Him: This is bullsh*t. How did De Niro's character never wake up from his black outs and realize he was actually the murderer? I'll tell you one thing, man - if I had a split personality, I'd at least be observant enough to see everything they changed when I was out of control. Or at least realize I had blacked out!
Me: How do you know? If blacking out is a hazy memory of nodding off in your office, then you'd never think twice.
Him: Huh? What? Where am I?
11
Haute Tension
Me: Marie thinks she's going to save Alex from a crazed killer murdering everyone in her family. Turns out, it's actually Marie doing the slaughtering and she's obessively in love with Alex.
Him: Niiiice. So there's some crazy kills and girl-on-girl action.
Me: Well, yes, but it's horrible, distrubingly graphic and tragic. This woman suffers from mental instability and uses a straight razor to cut up the girl of her dreams' family.
Him: You're a real party pooper sometimes.
10
A Beautiful Mind
Me: Even geniuses can suffer from split personalities, as Ron Howard's Oscar-winning A Beautiful Mind reminds us. Russell Crowe plays economics whiz John Nash who battled imaginary colleagues while developing Game Theory.
Him: He's really giving that little girl the cold shoulder.
Me: Well, she's imaginary. And he's trying to win a Nobel Prize.
Him: Oh, well, excuse me. Guess I'll just stop talking to all my multiple personalities now too.
Me: That'd be great.
9
Hulk/The Incredible Hulk
Me: Dr. Bruce Banner was a mild-mannered scientist whose genetic structure is altered during an experiment by gamma radiation. When he becomes enraged, Banner transforms into the less-than-helpful, big green Hulk.
Him: You can't go wrong with The Hulk, man. He's a real stand out guy.
Me: Any particular reason, other than he'll crush you with his giant fists.
Him: Well he's green, and normally, people aren't green.
Me: Wow. Maybe you do deserve that Nobel Prize.
8
Shutter Island
Me: Leonardo Dicaprio goes to investigate the disappearance of an inmate at the creepy mental institution Ashcliffe, only to uncover that the entire mystery is a ruse for him to uncover his own mental illness. He constructed the fantasy and his alter ego in his mind.
Him: Man, it's like an island resort of crazies. Like, paradise. No - like, Sandals!
Me: If you're looking for manic depressives and borderline psychos in need of lobotomies...
Him: That's kind of my type.
7
X3: The Last Stand
Him: Yes. There are few things better than an angry redhead. So hot.
Me: Jean Grey isn't just angry, she's been telekinetically devestated to the point of unearthing an alternate persona: Phoenix. In X-Men: The Last Stand, Grey is revived and ready to destroy everything in her path, even the her teammates. Cyclops lasts approximately two seconds before being disintegrated by his former flame.
Him: I could handle that. I unleash my own mutant power on the ladies, if you know what I mean.
Me: I understand what you are implying and proceeded to throw up a little on the carpet.
6
Primal Fear
Me: The drama Primal Fear takes the multiple personalities thread and stitches it into courtroom, placing Richard Gere in charge of Edward Norton's two halves: the accused, fearful Aaron and the rage-filled Roy. But it's all a sham: the reveal here is that Aaron is merely an elaborate fabrication created by Roy to get away with murder.
Him: I can't stand posers, man. Go all the way or get your face out of the garage.
Me: I've never heard anyone use that idiom.
Him: Don't call me stupid.
5
The Machinist
Me: If you ever needed a reason to go to bed at a decent hour, check out Christian Bale in The Machinist. Lack of rest takes its toll on his character Trevor Reznik in the form of split personalities, ones he believe are attemtping to kill him.
Him: Bale whipped a this crazy murder plot in his head and in the process lost, like, 100 pounds. Dude, this is the dieting option we've been waiting for!
Me: Yes, because I really wanted my ribs to show for bathing suit season.
4
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Me: In comic legend Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and its movie adaptation, the dueling minds of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are blown to monsterous proportions by turning the latter half into an enormous, savage man-beast.
Him: He's, like, part man, part beast.
Me: Thus, man-beast. Tripling his size gives him increased muscle mass than his literary counterpart, increasing his ability to duke it out with bad guys.
Him: "Increased muscle mass." Gay.
Me: Completely inappropriate use of that word.
3
I'm Not Here
Me: Todd Haynes' innovative biographical portrait of Bob Dylan split the famed rocker into multiple, fictionalized personas, all embodying one mind, one creative spirit. Each arc followed a different representation of the Dylan's life, sometimes crossing into real moments or reinterpreting them into new ones. The result is one of the few "split personality" films with a narrative structure to match.
Him: So Bob Dylan was born a black child and grew up into a white woman?
Me: It's a metaphor.
Him: A meta for what?
Me: I would try and explain it, but words don't appear to be your specialty.
Him: Dude, you know I'm a Google Image guy.
2
The Dark Knight
Me: Tommy Lee Jones did an OK job in Batman Forever, but Aaron Eckhart's Two Face in The Dark Knight takes the cake for villainous multiple personalities. After surviving The Joker's toxic trap, Harvey Dent takes to the street to seek revenge on all who have wronged him, always leaving their fate in the hands of his iconic coin. His "split" personalities are less evident than in the comics, but they're there.
Him: They have operations to help people like this. Take a little skin off the butt, slap it over those damaged areas.
Me: You're a doctor now.
Him: I accidently flipped to the Discovery Channel once.
1
Identity
Me: This may be the biggest twist of all, so be warned. At the conclusion of Identity, it's revealed that the residents of the shady motel that are being knocked off one by one are actually the personalities of a mental patient standing trial. It gets even crazier when he delves inside his mind to attempt to "kill" the murdering personality.
Him: This one hit real close to home for me.
Me: Wait - why?
Him: It just reminds me of that murderer personality that's been hiding in the shadows this whole time.
Me: Which murderer person--
Murderer: Hey guys, I'm a murderer.
Him: Twist!
UGO
Living with 2 or more voices in your mind isn't easy - people with split personalities are constantly fighting one another for dominance. It makes for great cinematic fodder. It also makes for a strange look at our favorite mutliple personality movies. Warning: spoilers ahead
25
The Lord of the Rings
Me: Whether they're part of a last minute twist ending or a complicated character qurik, multiple personalities have a long lasting legacy in the movie world - mostly because they're fun to watch. Take Smeagol, who was driven to madness by the Ring and turned into the shriveled Gollum. He eats fish heads and calls a piece of jewelry his "precious," but audiences can't get enough.
Him: He totally stole all that line from the novel Push by Sapphire.
Me: Lord of the Rings predates Push and the movie Precious by more than fifty years.
Him: Whatever, man. Look, I'm just glad we're back on speaking terms.
Me: You're going to be difficult aren't you.
Him: Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself.
24
Alice in Wonderland
Me: Tim Burton played up the jumbled mind and competing voices of Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter in this year's trippy 3D, CG Alice in Wonderland. The Hatter in Burton's version is inspired by the neurological damage suffered by actual hat factory workers, caused by deadly doses of mercury fumes.
Him: Like the planet?
Me: No, like the element.
Him: I was about to say, man, that'd be crazy if a planet could f*ck up your head.
Me: Well maybe in Wonderland that's still possible.
Him: It's pretty close to the sun.
Me: Shut up.
23
Black Swan
Me: Pushing one's self to perfection often comes with dire consequences. In Nina's case, her quest to embody both White and Black Swans in Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake sent her off the deep end, creating a competitive, devilish alternate persona.
Him: Who is hot.
Me: Who? Nina's fabricated version of Mila Kunis' Lily?
Him: Hell yeah. Man, if I had a split-personality, I'd totally want it to be a smokin' hot lady who visits me whenever I need to get my freak on. Who wouldn't?
Me: I forsee that last statement echoing in my mind, giving me nightmares for some time. Thanks.
22
Fight Club
Me: Occasionally, when the urge to punch surrounding pedestrians becomes insatiable, it's up to your bad side to come forward and peer pressure you into taking a stand.
Him: That's deep.
Me: Very - which is why something like Project Mayhem could only be conceived by the twisted brain of Edward Norton's Narrator and his alternate persona, Tyler Durden.
Him: Sh*t looks fun - would you ever want to fight club me?
Me: I don't want to fight you.
Him: No, fight club me.
Me: No, I am not going to "fight club" you.
21
Spider-Man
Him: Whoa, man, Green Goblin has multiple personalities and gills?
Me: No...that's skin. Norman Osbourne's just angry because his body enhancement experiment lost funding and he used himself as a test subject. Like steroids, muscle-toning gasses also lead to increased aggression.
Him: That's what he gets for having book smarts.
Me: There's nothing wrong with a pursuit of science, or self-sacrificing in the name of science. In a way, Osbourne is a lot like Marie Curie, except with destructive voices in his head.
Him: Boobs.
20
Sybil
Him: Man, now this is something I can really get behind. A purty lady.
Me: That woman was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder and was found to have developed 12 personalities over her lifetime as a result of early childhood abuse. In other words, what the hell is wrong with you.
Him: A purty lady is a purty lady.
Me: Sybil is one of the most accurate portrayals of multiple personalities on film, and the film, alnog with Sally Field's performance, went on to win four Emmy awards in 1977.
Him: Did she win hottest mental patient?
Me: That is not an Emmy award.
19
A Scanner Darkly
Me: Director Richard Linklater, tired of big budget, action-ified adaptations of acclaimed Sci-Fi author Philip K Dick's works, decided to tell A Scanner Darkly's humorous and dark drug story with the same rotoscoping techniques he used on his previous film, Waking Life.
Him: Man, those colors were crazy. All moving around and waving.
Me: Yeah...the style compliments the mind-altering effects of drugs have on the main character, which eventually splits his brain into two distinct people: an undercover cop and a stoner terrorist.
Him: That is craaaazy. All the swirling around and the colors...dude, the colors!
Me: I think we covered that.
18
Me, Myself and Irene
Me: The Farrelly Bros. have made their fair share of whacked out comedies, but Me, Myself and Irene takes the cake with its hard-R depiction of Jim Carrey battling his own personal demons. One minute, Charlie is a mild-mannered cop in a small Rhode Island town. The next, he's a fast-talking, sociopathic Hank, bent on destruction and vengeance on all that have wronged Charlie.
Him: Dude, multiple personalities really get a bad rap in movies. People are always trying to get rid of their second halves. Like they don't belong, or something.
Me: Funny you should say that.
Him: If you think that's funny then you need to go joke school, man.
Me: Maybe I will go to joke school...soon enough...
17
Mr. Brooks
Him: Kevin Costner has split personalities?!?
Me: Well, in the movie Mr. Brooks, yes. He plays a businessman who is convinced by a manifestation of his broken mind (played by William Hurt) to kill random people in Palo Alto. Thus, why I've never moved to Palo Alto and have a rabid fear of wealthy people.
Him: Oh, I thought this was Waterworld.
Me: The title clearly says "Mr. Brooks."
Him: Maybe it also has a split personality...called Waterworld.
16
Raising Cain
Me: You may know John Lithgow better from 3rd Rock from the Sun, but he's also made a lengthy career out of playing off-kilter characters on the big screen. Lithgow dabbled in multiple personalities in Raising Cain, where he plays a child psychologist who has developed an array of personas, after being traumatized by his father at an early age (also played by Lithgow).
Him: Even after dressing up in woman's clothing, John Lithgow is not as hot as Sybil.
Me: There's something very wrong about comparing abuse victims in terms of their attractiveness.
15
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Me: Sequels. There all about more, more, more.
Him: And more.
Me: And in the trilogy capper Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, producers finally gave the world what they'd been waiting for: not one, not two, not three, but a boat-full of Jack Sparrows. Death, apparently, forces you to confront all aspects of your personality.
Him: Whooooa. Does that mean when we die there'll be even more of us?
Me: That's why I must never die.
14
Superman III
Me: While mostmultiple psyches are all contained inside the brains of our lead characters, Superman suffered from severe split personality syndrome after a nasty piece of kryptonite divides the superhero in two. This is only one of many absurd twists Superman III introduced into the franchise, but watching Christopher Reeves fight Christopher Reeves remains a hilarious treat.
Him: I've done a lot of binge drinking in my time and I've never, ever, split into two people.
Me: Well, you're not from Krypton.
Him: Prove it.
Me: Based on the lack of existence of a planet Krypton or the fact that you're just a voice in my head?
Him:...prove it.
13
Secret Window
Me: Johnny Depp is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to multiple personalities.
Him: And Hot Topic t-shirts.
Me: In Secret Window he plays an author named Mort, who is being haunted by the Deliverance-esque countryman John Shooter. Turns out, John's just a figmant of his imagination and he really wanted to shoot his wife.
Him: Oh, I get it. So that would mean my name should be something like Frank Getlaid.
Me: Wha...no. Be qui--
Him: Get laid.
12
Hide and Seek
Me: Lots of people create imaginary friends at some point in their lives, but few have the creative mind and psychopathic rage to create them for others. That's what Rober De Niro pulls off in Hide and Seek, where he investigates his daughter's killer's invisible sidekick, who turns out to be his angry half.
Him: This is bullsh*t. How did De Niro's character never wake up from his black outs and realize he was actually the murderer? I'll tell you one thing, man - if I had a split personality, I'd at least be observant enough to see everything they changed when I was out of control. Or at least realize I had blacked out!
Me: How do you know? If blacking out is a hazy memory of nodding off in your office, then you'd never think twice.
Him: Huh? What? Where am I?
11
Haute Tension
Me: Marie thinks she's going to save Alex from a crazed killer murdering everyone in her family. Turns out, it's actually Marie doing the slaughtering and she's obessively in love with Alex.
Him: Niiiice. So there's some crazy kills and girl-on-girl action.
Me: Well, yes, but it's horrible, distrubingly graphic and tragic. This woman suffers from mental instability and uses a straight razor to cut up the girl of her dreams' family.
Him: You're a real party pooper sometimes.
10
A Beautiful Mind
Me: Even geniuses can suffer from split personalities, as Ron Howard's Oscar-winning A Beautiful Mind reminds us. Russell Crowe plays economics whiz John Nash who battled imaginary colleagues while developing Game Theory.
Him: He's really giving that little girl the cold shoulder.
Me: Well, she's imaginary. And he's trying to win a Nobel Prize.
Him: Oh, well, excuse me. Guess I'll just stop talking to all my multiple personalities now too.
Me: That'd be great.
9
Hulk/The Incredible Hulk
Me: Dr. Bruce Banner was a mild-mannered scientist whose genetic structure is altered during an experiment by gamma radiation. When he becomes enraged, Banner transforms into the less-than-helpful, big green Hulk.
Him: You can't go wrong with The Hulk, man. He's a real stand out guy.
Me: Any particular reason, other than he'll crush you with his giant fists.
Him: Well he's green, and normally, people aren't green.
Me: Wow. Maybe you do deserve that Nobel Prize.
8
Shutter Island
Me: Leonardo Dicaprio goes to investigate the disappearance of an inmate at the creepy mental institution Ashcliffe, only to uncover that the entire mystery is a ruse for him to uncover his own mental illness. He constructed the fantasy and his alter ego in his mind.
Him: Man, it's like an island resort of crazies. Like, paradise. No - like, Sandals!
Me: If you're looking for manic depressives and borderline psychos in need of lobotomies...
Him: That's kind of my type.
7
X3: The Last Stand
Him: Yes. There are few things better than an angry redhead. So hot.
Me: Jean Grey isn't just angry, she's been telekinetically devestated to the point of unearthing an alternate persona: Phoenix. In X-Men: The Last Stand, Grey is revived and ready to destroy everything in her path, even the her teammates. Cyclops lasts approximately two seconds before being disintegrated by his former flame.
Him: I could handle that. I unleash my own mutant power on the ladies, if you know what I mean.
Me: I understand what you are implying and proceeded to throw up a little on the carpet.
6
Primal Fear
Me: The drama Primal Fear takes the multiple personalities thread and stitches it into courtroom, placing Richard Gere in charge of Edward Norton's two halves: the accused, fearful Aaron and the rage-filled Roy. But it's all a sham: the reveal here is that Aaron is merely an elaborate fabrication created by Roy to get away with murder.
Him: I can't stand posers, man. Go all the way or get your face out of the garage.
Me: I've never heard anyone use that idiom.
Him: Don't call me stupid.
5
The Machinist
Me: If you ever needed a reason to go to bed at a decent hour, check out Christian Bale in The Machinist. Lack of rest takes its toll on his character Trevor Reznik in the form of split personalities, ones he believe are attemtping to kill him.
Him: Bale whipped a this crazy murder plot in his head and in the process lost, like, 100 pounds. Dude, this is the dieting option we've been waiting for!
Me: Yes, because I really wanted my ribs to show for bathing suit season.
4
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Me: In comic legend Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and its movie adaptation, the dueling minds of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are blown to monsterous proportions by turning the latter half into an enormous, savage man-beast.
Him: He's, like, part man, part beast.
Me: Thus, man-beast. Tripling his size gives him increased muscle mass than his literary counterpart, increasing his ability to duke it out with bad guys.
Him: "Increased muscle mass." Gay.
Me: Completely inappropriate use of that word.
3
I'm Not Here
Me: Todd Haynes' innovative biographical portrait of Bob Dylan split the famed rocker into multiple, fictionalized personas, all embodying one mind, one creative spirit. Each arc followed a different representation of the Dylan's life, sometimes crossing into real moments or reinterpreting them into new ones. The result is one of the few "split personality" films with a narrative structure to match.
Him: So Bob Dylan was born a black child and grew up into a white woman?
Me: It's a metaphor.
Him: A meta for what?
Me: I would try and explain it, but words don't appear to be your specialty.
Him: Dude, you know I'm a Google Image guy.
2
The Dark Knight
Me: Tommy Lee Jones did an OK job in Batman Forever, but Aaron Eckhart's Two Face in The Dark Knight takes the cake for villainous multiple personalities. After surviving The Joker's toxic trap, Harvey Dent takes to the street to seek revenge on all who have wronged him, always leaving their fate in the hands of his iconic coin. His "split" personalities are less evident than in the comics, but they're there.
Him: They have operations to help people like this. Take a little skin off the butt, slap it over those damaged areas.
Me: You're a doctor now.
Him: I accidently flipped to the Discovery Channel once.
1
Identity
Me: This may be the biggest twist of all, so be warned. At the conclusion of Identity, it's revealed that the residents of the shady motel that are being knocked off one by one are actually the personalities of a mental patient standing trial. It gets even crazier when he delves inside his mind to attempt to "kill" the murdering personality.
Him: This one hit real close to home for me.
Me: Wait - why?
Him: It just reminds me of that murderer personality that's been hiding in the shadows this whole time.
Me: Which murderer person--
Murderer: Hey guys, I'm a murderer.
Him: Twist!
UGO