K-PAX (film)

Infobox_Film
name = K-PAX

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caption = Theatrical Release Poster
director = Iain Softley
producer = Robert F. Colesberry
Lawrence Gordon
Lloyd Levin
writer = Gene Brewer
Charles Leavitt
starring = Kevin Spacey
Jeff Bridges
Mary McCormack
Alfre Woodard
music = Edward Shearmur

cinematography = John Mathieson
editing = Craig McKay
distributor = Universal Pictures (USA)
released = October 26, 2001 (USA)
runtime = 120 min
language = English
budget = $48,000,000
imdb_id = 0272152|

"K-PAX" is a 2001 science-fiction drama film about a mental patient who claims to be an alien. During his treatment, the patient/alien, "prot" ("rhymes with 'goat' and is not capitalized"), demonstrates an outlook on life that ultimately proves inspirational for his fellow patients and especially for his psychiatrist.

Directed by Iain Softley, the film stars Kevin Spacey, Jeff Bridges, Mary McCormack and Alfre Woodard. The film was based on a novel of the same name, itself similar to the 1986 Argentinian film "Man Facing Southeast" directed by Eliseo Subiela.

Plot

The story opens with a man who calls himself prot (Kevin Spacey), who mysteriously appears in New York City's Grand Central Terminal. When he claims he is an alien from a planet called 'K-PAX' via 'light rays', prot is handed over to a New York hospital psychiatric ward. A Manhattan psychiatrist, Mark Powell (played by Jeff Bridges), is given the task of treating and "curing" prot of his supposed delusions. Right from the first psychiatric session, Dr. Powell begins to discover prot's uncanny abilities and immense knowledge. As the story develops, Dr. Powell becomes quite attached to prot, and starts to believe his seemingly impossible claims. Prot even baffles some of the foremost astrophysicists with his knowledge of science and astronomy.

Once prot displays violent behavior at Dr. Powell's house, Dr. Powell decides to regress him to find out more about prot's past. Because prot has promised he will leave Earth on July 27th, it's a race against time for Dr. Powell to find out the real identity behind the enigmatic prot. Prot also promises that he will take one of the ward's patients with him, and encourages an essay competition among them to determine his choice. Unfortunately, Dr. Powell is only able to find out about the human whose body prot has been occupying who, according to prot, was his childhood friend who witnessed the murder of his own family.

After prot, while under hypnotic regression, reveals the emotionally painful incident which occurred at his home after coming home after working as a "cattle whacker" , Powell conducts extensive research which points to a small town in New Mexico. His investigation leads him to the criminal case of Robert Porter, who suffered the exact circumstances prot revealed in a remarkably similar location that prot had described in detail.

Upon returning to the hospital, Powell confronts prot with a photograph of himself labeled 'Robert Porter,' which prot dismisses. However, he asks Powell to "take care of him" [Robert] .

On the day of July 27th, Powell races to prot's room and after initially believing he has vanished, he finds him under the bed. At the same moment, the patients of the mental facility realize that Bess, arguably the quietest and least selfish of any of them, is missing, presumably never to be seen again.

Sometime later, Powell is seen caring for Porter who is now in a catatonic state. The film leaves the viewer undecided as to whether prot was a human all along and suffered a mental breakdown due to his tragic past, or if prot was a real extraterrestrial from K-PAX who took over Porter's human host to save his life.

External links

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