Fire Walk With Me

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(Redirected from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me)

Fire Walk With Me is a 1992 movie directed by David Lynch and starring Sheryl Lee, Moira Kelly, Ray Wise, Chris Isaak and Kiefer Sutherland, as well as an appearance from David Bowie. The movie title is sometimes given as Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. In some countries, it was released as Twin Peaks: The Movie due to difficulty translating the term “fire walk”.

The film is a prequel to the cult television series Twin Peaks (1990-91), created by Lynch and Mark Frost. It tells of the investigation into the murder of Teresa Banks and the last seven days in the life of Laura Palmer (Lee), a popular high school student in the small Washington town of Twin Peaks. These two connected murders were the central mysteries of the television series.

Most of the television cast returned for the prequel, with the notable exceptions of Lara Flynn Boyle who declined to return as Laura’s best friend Donna Hayward (she was replaced by Moira Kelly), and Sherilyn Fenn, whose character was not featured in the film. Also, Kyle MacLachlan, who starred as Special Agent Dale Cooper in the TV series, was reluctant to return so his presence in the film is smaller than originally planned.

1 Critical and fan reaction
2 Synopsis
3 Trivia
4 External links

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Critical and fan reaction

Fire Walk With Me was greeted at the Cannes Film Festival with booing from the audience and met with almost unanimously negative reviews. The film flopped in the United States, partially because it was released almost a year after the television series was cancelled (due to a sharp ratings decline in the second season) and partially due to its incomprehensibility to the uninitiated. Many people, especially critics, found the film stylish but bewildering.

The film also disappointed many devotees of the TV series due to its darker tone, lack of humor and absence of resolution to the series' cliff-hanger ending.

However, in recent years, the film has experienced a small resurgence in popularity among Lynch’s fans, some of whom see it as the director at his best.

Lynch filmed a vast amount of footage, reportedly enough for a four-hour film; much of it never made the final cut (which was still longer than two hours). The missing footage remains the 'Holy Grail' for many Twin Peaks fans. The footage nearly appeared on New Line's Special Edition DVD in 2002 but was nixed over budget and running time concerns. In 2002 a French company called MK2 began negotiations with Lynch to include the missing scenes, properly edited and scored, in an upcoming Special Edition DVD. This has yet to appear.

After Fire Walk with Me was released, Lynch reportedly planned a second prequel, possibly utilizing footage edited out of the first movie. However, in a 2001 interview he said that the Twin Peaks franchise is “dead as a doornail.” [1]

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

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Synopsis

The film is divided into two sections. The first (about half an hour) follows two FBI agents (Chris Isaak and Kiefer Sutherland) as they investigate the death of a young drifter named Theresa Banks in northern Washington and deal with uncooperative local police. The two suddenly disappear just as a mysterious, long-gone agent (played by rock star David Bowie) reappears at the FBI’s Washington Bureau.

The second part, set a year later and considerably longer than the first, presents the last week of Laura Palmer's life. Laura (Sheryl Lee), a prom queen at Twin Peaks high school leads a dual life, using cocaine and working as a prostitute at a local sex club. This is partially due to the trauma and confusion of being molested by her father (Ray Wise), who was possessed by an evil spirit called "Bob" (Frank Silva). Laura’s best friend Donna (Moira Kelly) tries to follow her into her secret life.

Laura and Theresa were killed by the same person and the pilot of the TV series begins with the discovery of Laura's body. Laura appeared in the TV series only in flashbacks, but Lee also played Laura's identical cousin, Madeline.

The strange and unlikely events of the film are enhanced by the almost supernatural aura of the film.

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Trivia

Chris Isaak's role as the FBI agent investigating an earlier death in Twin Peaks with originally scripted to be played by Kyle MacLachlan's Special Agent Dale Cooper. However, Kyle MacLachlan was afraid of becoming typecast as the popular character and refused to be involved in the film. Eventually he agreed to play a small part.
Lynch has a small role as the partially deaf FBI Regional Bureau Chief Gordon Cole, reprising his role from the TV series.
For much of the filming, Lynch meant for some of the film’s dialogue to be incomprehensible to the audience, including the gargled speech of the man from another place and most of the dialogue in the loud night club scene. He decided to add subtitles shortly before the film was released, but not in time for the subtitles to be added to the British edition. This led to three plot points being lost on British audiences, making it even more incomprehensible.

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