A Psychoanalytic Approach to “The Game” by Zeynep Aydın

Characters

Nicholas, which is the main character of the film, is a 48 year old banker living a very boring almost monotone life which I believe symbolizes the vicious cycle. As the information given by the movie his father killed himself at the same age as well, successful rich guy that attempts suicide with jumping off from the building at the end of the movie just like his father confirms this vicious cycle in life dying without living. He does not have lots of friends he even lost his wife, he is basically alone and a successful guy. As a vibe that we got from the movie as well he is not an interesting person, not only he needs this game to start living his life, also the audience needs this game as well. But why does he interested in joining this game only in his 48th birthday and recognizes that his life is boring, why 48 exactly? When I searched for the numerology of the 48, I found out that it stands for “creative expression” it stands for both creative and methodical, but most importantly they believe that it is business oriented number. In Chinese numerology 48 means prosperity, which is good for business or wealth. It automatically increases the quality of life, and in that matters our main character has no issues with the money or with the business because we know that he is leaving a very good life. On the other hand there is lots of explanations about the angel number 48 and in psychic matters they believe that they will lead you to find your true life calling which is what exactly happen to the Nicholas. He understand that his life is boring and monotone then he decides to join the game.

More on the character of Nicholas, the most visible part of his character was his voice and hi tone of speech, he was almost too slow and too distant in his voice, it was so robot-like that when he is speaking it is unrecognizable to understand his emotions. His voice and tone of speech is an amazing reflection of his personality that we can get lots of information about his emotionless and robotic personality.

Also the pattern of the vicious cycle shows itself through out the film, in addition to what I have discussed earlier, in the movie where Nicholas is asked to complete some sorts of psychological, physiological and emotional tests, they show him 3 different cards and ask him to say a word associated with the cards, first card is a maze which is basically the game itself confirming that game is a maze and life is a maze, in a different perspective there is no meaning behind the maze as well, a maze can only describe a maze nothing more than that there is only a starting and a finishing point but the middle part is unknown an meaningless shapes, just like life itself where we can only know that there is a start and an end but the between those two points are unknown and shattered. The second card they show to the Nicholas was a woman, which was also in the movie as a bad waitress that spills wine on Nicholas and eventually we understand she is part of a game as well. The last card they showed to him was car falling down from a cliff, car type and everything it was almost identical to what Nicholas will experience in the future where he gets into a cap and they fall down to water with the car. Another example for this cycle can be where he was driving he sees a vision of a man at the rooftop when he arrives to his home, this man was actually was his father who jumped off and as audience we see a clear scene of this body laying on the ground. In the real life after the vision when Nicholas comes home knowing that he is rejected by the CRS he sees a man’s body laying on the entrance of his home, with that taking into account everything that will happen in the movie is something that has already happened in life or shown to the audience in someway.

Etymology & a Freudian Perspective on the characters

His not so formal younger brother Conrad who is a total prankster gives a card to Nicholas that will make him enter the game and believes that this game will be good for him. Looking at both of these characters, it feels like Nicholas represents superego that stands for morality and norms, Conrad stands for id that represents instinct and pleasure seeking behaviors while the game represents the reality balance for both, satisfy your pleasures in a social acceptable way.

Likewise another characteristically different point for both of characters is that, their names. Most of the family gives their children similar names, but in this movie their name is totally different Nicholas and Conrad which I believe symbolizes their differences in lifestyle and psychological traits. Meaning behind the name Nicholas is ‘victory of people’ which can be true if we look to the fact that when he understands the game it will be victory for both the audience and himself, or more hypothetically figuring out the game that we live in (thinking about the life we live as a game itself) will be the true victory of people. On the other hand the meaning behind the name Conrad which comes from ‘conja’ means bold and counsel, which is basically the role he plays in the movie, he gives Nicholas a bold invitation with introducing him to the game and tries to counsel his direction in life like a wise-counselor.

Cinematography

Life is a total puzzle, in the beginning of the movie Fincher uses a puzzle coming together, life being a puzzle is not such an unknown thing for us but in the trailer this puzzle evolves into something similar to a puppet in a human form. I believe that in life our free-will is almost non-exist, as humans we have been exposed to lots of stuff both in means of nature and nurture. Do we really have a free-will or do we all learn stuff from our parents, friends, media work etc. and eventually become puppet that lives in a game? Looking from this perspective and Fincher using this puppet and puzzle symbols really push me question about this aspect of life as well.

Most of the scenes in the movie was so thriller-like, at first we started with the vision of Nicholas’s childhood, we see his birthday and we see his parents, after the vision we see Nicholas splashing water to his face in the morning but the sound is too loud it is almost scary how screen is changes from the vision to this, it is awakening. Another thing I noticed at the beginning at the movie was his father, Nicholas’s father was played by the same actor who plays Nicholas in the movie, it is not like that the movie does not have enough budget to get another actor on the role which made me realize that it was done on purpose, which confirm my theory on how this movie tells a story about vicious cycle in a loop because of Nicholas’s distant character and his age makes the audience that he is almost identical with his father. When Nicholas was doing his morning routine they show us a golden watch which I believe was very critical for us to understand the relationship between Nicholas and his father. At the back of the golden watch there was a sentence saying: “On your 18th birthday, your fathers watch. Love Mother.”, if we look this from a wider perspective imaging being a 18 year old individual and receiving this golden watch it is almost reminds him how similar he is to his dad. He wears this watch everyday and he kept him very well for 30 years, also this proves that he and his dad did not have a chance to create a deep and healthy attachment and suicide of his dad created a huge traumatic experience for him and he involved into this very distant and careless personality. Through out the movie Nicholas continues to see visions about his childhood and mostly about his dad; he see visions of his dad standing on the roof and laying on the ground after he jumped. This trauma is triggered with lots of daily things that happens to Nicholas. At the same time, CRS send Nicholas aa note that says “like my father before me, I choose eternal sleep”, I strongly believe that this eternal sleep is a symbol that being alive but not being emotionally available and being in a mood of eternal sleep, actually it was one of the biggest clues about what the game is trying to achieve and it is to wake him up from this eternal sleep and break the vicious cycle and make him fill alive and awake.

Another thing that caught my attention is that the camera view while we are seeing Nicholas, we almost never see him from a close up, he is always far away distant from where the camera is sitting in a cold looking mostly empty rooms. As an audience this made me feel like we did not had enough chance to get to know him or basically we don’t know him enough, we don’t exactly know how he feels due to this distant camera view. Likewise, his office, his own house it is so big that it almost signifies how lonely Nicholas really is, this big house makes him look even smaller and all alone, we also understand this from the scene where at night Nicholas was doing something in the kitchen and everything he does created a very loud sound and an echo that symbolizes how big and empty the house is.

Current perspective on the movie

Lastly, my final projection on this movie is the civilization and technology. When the movie ends I had some questions about those topics as well. Imagine this, technology is developing very fast as well as the civilization, will humans become so caught up in the real life with technology and so robotic life that we will need a game in order to remind us that we are alive and we have feelings, to see this raising emotions we already have some ‘games’ providing us that, we have computer games we have Play Stations games and now with the technology we have; VR which means virtual reality at this age now as humans we have the opportunity to take a break from this monotone life and go to a world of adventures in virtual reality that is offered to us. We have Alexa to put inside of our home to ask questions and get some answers or basically have a daily chat so we don’t feel alone, humans are so crowded yet so alone in this world that this things come to the surface, raising those questions made me appreciate everything and every daily interaction that we have in life and I am very thankful for that.

Conclusions & Theories on the movie

Having a doubt is one of the main themes in this movie, while watching the movie it almost feels like you doubt everything which is what happens in real life as well. You started to find a meaning under every aspect every dialogue and you can not trust anyone in the movie due to the fact of the dilemma you try to understand whether it is a part of the game or real life. It can be described as confused and a stressed movie.

As a discussion, I believe that this movie strongly projects schizophrenia. If this was a movie that tells a story about a schizophrenic person, it would be a total match. The line between reality and the game is completely shattered during the movie, taking into account that in schizophrenia where the reality just divides into so little pieces that loses it’s whole and starts look different that leads to question what reality and truth is. While watching the movie we can understand how a schizophrenic individual feels, they believe that they are in a game, everything has a deeper meaning and they almost feel like trapped inside of the reality that is almost invisible to differentiate from a dream. After signing up to the game Nicholas’s behaviors completely change and lots of weird stuff starts to happen to him, which is like placebo effect. Like the episodes that will occur to an individual with a panic attack patient, us audience also feels like the reality and game is not different from each other it is almost too complicated to differentiate and transferred to the audience amazingly with visuals. Most of the scenes makes you question the reality and lives you with a doubt and almost we play the game with Nicholas as well trying to understand it, he got stuck in a elevator, his briefcase wont open, a man from the tv starts to talking to him about his game, wine spilled on him at the restaurant, even on those bits and pieces we create this tendency to associate it with the game and have a sense of fear during scenes that we become paranoid with Nicholas.

The first time that I have watched this movie I was so angry and think that I did not like the game. I was not satisfied with the ending and I mostly angry to this game they invented and thought what evil person creates this game. Watching it from the perspective that I have right now leads me elsewhere, towards the ending at the scene where Nicholas shot his brother while they were inviting him to the party in a celebration mood, Nicholas becomes so paranoid that he shots his brother, everyone come together around Conrad, except Nicholas, he was so caught up in the game that he does not even understand that he literally shot him and it wasn’t part of the game (which was the part of a game as we understand with the twist). It was not even a game anymore, for a game that ends up with you shooting your brother it is more than going far and that’s what I was angry for. But know this strengthens my point with forensic psychology as well, if someone has a psychological disorder can we blame them for attempting a murder. If Nicholas thinks that he trapped in a game can we believe that he is guilty for shooting his brother? For a movie to raise those kinds of question and some senses of fairness or overall basically anger is enough for us to understand that it is strong and a successful movie. After this scenes Nicholas attempts suicide and jumps off of the building, this game even pushes him to attempt suicide and at this point it was the strongest whether or not the audience can doubt it is a game or not, we see his falling from different perspectives in a slow motion that raises a lot of emotion, he sees his childhood and remembers different scenes from his life, at this point I believe the game changed him and he find the key with killing himself, because before the game he was not even living he was just alive. We also saw scenes from his childhood at the beginning of the movie as well, having this both at the beginning and at the suicide/ near death experience part of the movie shows that there is lots of things buried in Nicholas’s childhood that he is enslaved by, and he will be free by them with killing himself.

Another point to discuss is why lots of chaotic things happens in his birthday, or overall why do we celebrate birthdays? Birthdays has a meaning where they symbolize the luck, new invitations and wishes. It was the wish of Nicholas to get out from this boring life and he got on his birthday. With attempting to kill himself, I believe they give a signal about birthdays as well, even if you are not living or like Nicholas you may be emotionally dead attempting to kills himself, made him live more and more than before and now it was a real birthday for him like he was born for a second time. The scene after he jumps were he falls from this huge gorgeous space with big chandeliers he crashes to the roof and glasses fall down with him completely in pieces, in my opinion it was truly told a story about all of the movie and completed lots of parts together this big and glamourous life style basically is not living and it is full tragedy, also the pieces of glass all crashing down was a symbol of the broken pieces of the reality where he can not differentiate between what is real or not that eventually leads to his death both literally and hypothetically. After his dramatic jump with this slow classical music where the audience is burst with emotions, when he lands we understand it was part of a game because he landed on a giant smooth ground that have been already planned, when a strange man checks on him and says “Take it easy, it was quite a fall.” It literally felt like he was reborn, and as life happens we just fall and start living a life we did not choose. When his brother come up to him completely fine, Conrad says “Happy birthday, Nicky” which become an important quote for the movie that shows he is now reborn and it is the day that Nicholas is born and ”alive”. It was the only scene where they hug each other it felt very sincere, it felt like two people that are close to each other, Nicholas getting out of his dead state and start to living, made him raise his emotions as well and he became a person that is also emotionally alive too.

What game really is?

As audience we are searching for the answers with Nicholas as well, but I realized if we try to understand the game or find a reason for the game, we lost and miss the real point, which is exactly what happens Nicholas before the game as well, as game starts and reveals Nicholas’s true personality we see him doing his first break through which asking the house-lady about what kind of a person his father was which is his first break through and a sign of the game is really working. The story of why his dad attempt suicide is something that was never told, like Nicholas we don’t know why he attempt suicide, and losing your own direction on life searching for this is not helping you to become who you really are and it is what exactly Nicholas feels. The trauma of not knowing why things occur (in this case reasons behind his fathers death) becomes very obsessive that he most of the time show signs of a control freak and when the game does not reveal the reason and a logical explanation of what it is, he gains a chance to come face to face with his basic but most known trauma, in my opinion. About whether or not this game really works or it is all just a scam, we can identify the game works just by looking at Nicholas’s reactions, as the game gets harsher he starts to raising his voice and his voice almost become a voice that carries and emotions which was something that was not available before the game.

The game confirms what it promised, the game is literally an eye awakening experience at the start of the movie while Nicholas tries to understand what game is they tell him that “It is different for everyone.” which is parallel with the real life as well, the life that we live in right now we are in lots of games and puzzles and the struggles we go through is not same and different for everyone.

Also, they tell Nicholas that if something goes wrong with the game he can call them to ask for help but he can never ask the meaning of the game which is also true because I believe there is no meaning or reason behind the game and playing this and finding different symbolic keys will only lead into the true reason and meaning behind this game. At the same time while Nicholas is searching the meaning of the game he asks people who joined the game about what kind of a experience it is and he gets the answer of “Where once I was blind now I see” which truly presents the meaning of the game, if we consider all of the parts of the movie this summarizes exactly what Nicholas would feel as well. Blind to being alive and not seeing what is real or not, not appreciating life that was given it will disappear right after the game is over where he hugs and show affection to his brother. Another answer he gets while he was searching for answers to understand the game he ask so what is it and the answer “it is an eternal question”, this states that the game itself is similar to life itself which where we look for the meaning and trying to understand it from different aspects is an eternal question that have been asked since the beginning of the humanity.

In a basic form what game is that to individuals who has repressed their emotions or traumas, individuals that are emotionally unavailable or oppressed by their traumas and cant show any signs of affection are the target of the game, the creators care about only that part, anything beyond that such as the girl Christine or tricking him into thinking that the game was actually a scam, or the hired cab driver is all supplementary elements to make this experience more real creating a placebo effect to take the individual out of this eternal sleep state. The game pushes clients to face their own traumas in the simplest way possible which will step by step unlocks the person and woken them up. There is no script or such behind the game, as confusing as it sounds the game is just clients questioning whether it’s a part of the game or not and starts to appreciate things that are real around them, this is the key element that makes the game such an unique experience. To understand whether or not it works on the Nicholas can’t be examined by comparing his behavior before and after the game starts, for an example at the scene where he comes face to face death due to the cab driver driving car to the water, this first near-death life experience makes him break the first chain and opens his eye and increases his emotional reactions to face his traumas which audience has never seen before from the character, after this experience Nicholas for the first time asks Linda about his dad, showing that he starts to face his traumas, at the scenes where Linda replies and tells that he never asked this her before it gives a red flag that the first part of the chain is now broken and the game is working. Other things that are just happening in the background is a supplementary and protective factor for him, for this other near-death experiences he will see in the future we always have Christine with her which I believe was in order to prevent his chance of dying or getting shot in this extremely realistic death experiences , because she was always the one who tells him protective things that are critique but eventually saved him. To increase the level of traumas and give him a chance to face his true-self is another key point of the game. Nicholas is known as a rich and successful guy, but when they tricked him into believing that he got scammed by the game and lost all of his wealth while it was not real just made the game more eye awakening experience for him to appreciate what he had before. After he lost all of his money at somewhere he doesn’t know he tries to get back to San Francisco, when he arrives home it was shot so beautifully that we almost feel like he is breaking into his home. If we think that home symbolizes your own soul and your own self, with this game he is not only entering his house he is also entering his inner world and true self. In addition as a comparison from his old behavior to the new behavior we can clearly examine how his actions towards his ex-wife changes and he becomes a caring loving individual with the effects of the game.