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And Then There Were None Identity Analysis

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The movie I chose to write about is called Identity. Identity was released in 2003 and was directed by James Mangold as well as written by Michael Cooney. The movie itself was based off of a book entitled And Then There Were None, a mystery novel written by Agatha Christie. The movie opens with a narration of Malcolm Rivers in which he says; “As I was going up the stairs, I met a man who wasn’t there. He wasn’t there again today. I wish, I wish he’d go away.” Malcolm Rivers is whom the entire movie revolves around. Rivers was on death row for several vicious murders he committed in an apartment building. He was scheduled to be executed the next day but there was evidence found that may prove that he was mentally unaware of what he was doing …show more content…

Malcolm Rivers has been diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder by his doctor. The notebook they found to be misfiled serves as evidence that he has different personalities and one of them may have committed the murders in the apartment building and not Rivers himself. While the trial is going on, there was a big rainstorm happening in a deserted area. Ten strangers were eventually stranded in a motel run by Larry Washington due to peculiar circumstances.. It began when Paris Nevada, a prostitute, drove down the road,one of her stilettos fall out of her car which later on impaled the York family’s tire causing them to get a flat. The York Family consists of George, Alice and their son Timmy. From there, Edward Dakota, a driver for Caroline Suzanne and a former cop, ran over Alice York with his car as he was trying to find a phone battery for a very agitated Caroline while the Yorks were replacing their tire in the road. Paris crashes her car while avoiding a flood in the storm and hitches a ride with Edward who is going to get help for Alice. He fails at this due to the flooding in all directions besides the hotel and ends up losing his car. This is where he confronts Lou and Ginny Isaiana asking …show more content…

The doctor attempts to speak to Malcolm but instead, we see Edward in the chair. That is when it is discovered that Edward Dakota is actually one of the ten personalities that lives in Rivers’ mind. The doctor is ultimately trying to prove that whoever was the ‘killer identity’ has been murdered as well meaning that Rivers is of no threat. This scene is what ties everything together. The ten strangers who were at the hotel are not strangers after all, they are the identities of Malcolm. As each of them die, a personality that Malcolm has dies as well. Each of the identities think that they are real people. That can be shown with the surprise Edward feels when he has a completely different face. The doctor explains to Ed that Malcolm has experienced a lot of trauma growing up and when a child is exposed to such trauma, the mind can split creating several different personalities. Context clues shown in the beginning of the movie backs the statement up. According to several newspaper articles and documents shown in the first three minutes of the film, Rivers’ mother was a prostitute named Callie Rivers. She abandoned Malcolm in a motel bathroom and he stayed there waiting for his mother to return. This can connect to the whole scenario the personalities are in. All of them are in a motel which is where Rivers was abandoned, one of the identities is a prostitute and all of them have the same birthday and are each fictional names that

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