The Ring

Question: The last person to take out the tape is Samera's father, Robert. Did he mix up the images on the tape, or did she put them on there in that order? Also, if he knew about the tape (clearly he didn't want to watch it) perhaps he watched it once and gave it to his wife so committed suicide and he lived, leaving the tape at the inn.

Answer: The tape that Richard Morgan was the last one to watch was not Samara's cursed tape; it was a tape that monitored her sessions at the Psychiatric hospital. The taped sessions were significant because it proved that The Morgan's knew of Samara's psychic photography abilities. I highly doubt Richard knew of the cursed tape beforehand. Once Rachel told him about the existence of the tape, he automatically knew what it was and who created it because Samara was still tormenting him from the grave.

Answer: She put them on there. It never says anything about the father doing it, but it does say Samara used her powers to burn the images onto it.

Answer: I think partly the hair was used to add to Samara's overall creepiness and conceal her 'scary' face until the close-up just before Noah dies. But also the Sadako/Samara characters of the Ringu/Ring story seem to be based on a kind of Japanese ghost which were said to be the restless ghosts of wronged females who died tragic or untimely deaths, and traditionally they are thought to appear as figures in white dresses with their dark hair worn covering their face.

Question: Why is there a lamb in the 'death tape'? I've seen this film at least 20 times, I've figured out everything else except the relevance of the lamb.

Answer: There were lambs on the hillside (near the red Japanese maple tree) that Samara was gazing at when her mother killed her.

Wasn't that just horses?

Answer: The lamb is normally associated with innocence.

Timothy Cheseborough

Question: After carefully reading all the mistakes and corrections written here, there's still something that bothers me: The Morgans lived on an island and yet Samara was killed in the shelter inn. So far so good. The question is: how did The Morgans find a lid for the well during this vacation (since the lid was nowhere to be seen during the shoving scene) and if so, how can they cover up a well in somebody else's property, and after solving that, there still remains a question of how come nobody noticed the little girl was missing (the inn keeper, the other people on vacation etc.) and how come a cabin was built around the well so conveniently. All the explanations don't fit. Something's still missing.

Answer: There's no reason to believe the inn was there before they dumped her in the well. In fact, all shots of the well at the time show no cabins or buildings anywhere. Most likely the inn was built on top of the area, probably even by the Morgans, in order to cover up the fact that they'd dumped a little girl in that well. Also, most of the people on the island, such as Samara and Anna's doctor, believed Samara was still staying at Eola County Psychiatric Hospital on the mainland. The doctor told Rachel that ever since Samara left, everything was better, so its likely the residents didn't care or give much thought to where she was, just relieved that she was finally gone and life on the island improved.

Answer: It is never explained if Shelter Mountain Inn already existed by the time Samara was thrown into the well. However, there are some clues that seem to indicate that it was a place the Morgans frequently visited. First, the tree that overlooks the cabins was significant for Samara so much that she burned its image: during her stay at the psych ward, at the barn under the wallpaper, and much later it was included on the tape. So, everything seems to point to the Morgans visiting the Inn several times. Also, when Richard Morgan asks Rachel where she had found the tape, she replies: Shelter Mountain Inn and he seemed to recognize the place right away (he knows that whatever Anna did to Samara happened there), so this could mean that it already existed but most likely there weren't many cabins yet. Years later, the owner must have built more cabins including the one over the well.

Question: Near the end of the movie, after Rachel leaves the apartment where her boyfriend got killed by Samara, she sees a young woman exiting the stairwell below her. Rachel is careful not to be noticed. Who is that other woman?

Answer: She was a girl that Noah worked with and was possibly dating as indicated by an earlier scene where the same girl kissed Noah in his apartment while Rachel was there.

Phaneron

Question: At the end of the movie, Aidan asks Rachel what will become of the person they show Aidan's copy of the videotape to as, according to the rule, in order for Aidan to be saved, he must make a copy (which Rachel helps him do) and show it to another individual. I want to know who? The second movie, which takes place about six months later, never clears this up. If Aidan is still alive six months after the events of the first movie, who did he show the video to in order to save himself? It couldn't have been his mother, because the rule says anyone who watches the cursed tape must show it to someone who has never seen it before.

Answer: A deleted scene shows the tape sitting on a shelf in a video rental store. It's safe to assume someone from that store rented it.

lartaker1975

Answer: There was originally a "bookend" plot where a convicted murderer goes to Rachel claiming he's "found God and has reformed", at the end of the movie she gives him the tape since she (rightfully) didn't believe him. This plot was scrapped when test audiences didn't understand and demanded more of the actor.

Question: If I've seen it correctly, you are supposed to save if you made a copy of the tape. But what would happen if you watch the tape again, do you have to make another copy then to prevent her coming out of the television?

Answer: No. The main character watches the tape several times looking for clues to solve the mystery, but only makes one copy and is still spared.

Phixius

Answer: We're not sure yet - most people believe it is because Anna Morgan made a deal with the devil to have a child. She shouldn't have been able to have children.

shorty30490

Question: When we see the tape, the very last image is of the well. When we see Rachel and Noah watching the tape, all they see at the end is the well, but when Aiden watches it Samara's arm starts to come out of the well. Why does she start to come out for Aiden immediately, but not Rachel and Noah?

Answer: Samara begins crawling out of the well in an earlier scene to show the progression of the curse. Probably, if Rachael had watched the tape on the sixth day of her curse, she'd have seen Samara crawl completely out of the well and then be cut off. We are seeing the case from Rachael's point of view; likely, Aiden did not see the last part of that scene because his curse had just begun.

Question: Where have I seen the actress who plays Noah's film student assistant/girlfriend before? She looks so familiar.

Answer: Her name is Pauley Perrette. She plays Abby in NCIS. Check out http://imdb.com/name/nm0005306/.

Josh Appelbaum

Question: Rachael made a copy of the videotape that kills people and gives it to Noah to watch. That means there are now two killer videotapes. Even though at the end of the film when she destroys the original, why didn't she destroy the copy that she made? With both tapes destroyed there would be no way for Samara to come back and kill more people. Granted Rachael still would have been killed, but she would also be saving a lot of lives.

Answer: Rachel is safe, since she has passed the tape on, but Aiden now needs to pass it on. If Rachel destroyed both copies, Aiden would have no way to do this, and would die. Also, based on background material, doing this wouldn't stop Samara: she can regenerate the video, either the same way the original one was created, OR at any point when somebody who has previously passed the tape on appears on a video camera.

Moose

Question: If the tape was made when the teenagers tried recording a football game over the well (the main theory), then wouldn't that mean that the four teens are the first people to watch/die from it? If so, how does Becca know about the myth of this deadly tape virus and phone call before Katie dies?

Answer: The theory is wrong. The tape was already there.

MasterOfAll

Answer: It is strongly suggested that the four of them were the first ones to watch the tape. The well was directly beneath Cabin 12, so Samara's spirit took advantage of the blank tape they were using to record the game to burn images into it thus creating the curse. Becca said that somebody from Revere had told her about it, and the high school girls from the funeral told Rachel that Katie was dating somebody from Revere. Rumors fly especially among teenagers. Josh (Katie's boyfriend) told people from his High School about the creepy tape they had watched over the weekend and it quickly spread to the point that Becca and several other teens knew about it.

Question: Samara made pictures while in the psychiatric ward (the tree, horse and person). Why is there a person with all of the hardware? And what is the relevance of the burning tree? I understand that Samara burned it into her wall, but how is it important?

Answer: The burning tree represents the sun going down behind that tree in the field near the cabin.

Timothy Cheseborough

Question: Why was the videotape made? I don't think it was ever explained.

Answer: The tape was never made as such, Samara projected the images onto the tape when the college kids tried to record the football match. In the original novel she is trying to spread her curse across the country - each person will see it and pass it on to another person, or two other people to be safe and so on until everyone is infected. There is no reason given - she is just angry with the world after her mother's death.

Shay

Question: It is shown in the flashbacks that Samara saw the tree before her stepmother pushed her down the well. Why then Rachel and Noah found a picture of that tree behind the wallpaper in the barn if Samara didn't see it while being kept there?

Answer: Because maybe that's the place she died in so that's the first place her spirit is going to haunt. Maybe she drew that as a ghost or maybe her dad drew it?

Answer: She makes a copy of the tape and shows it to someone else within the seven days. This is the only way to avoid dying.

Kara

Question: Why not just try every way possible (physically or spiritually, for example, pour holy water on them) destroy all of the tapes. Thus ending the cruse forever? Will that just make things worst?

Titanic

Answer: Destroying the only copy won't work because Samara can make copies with her supernatural powers. If destroying the copies could work her father would already had done it before.

Chosen answer: Destroying the only copy of the tape would prevent the curse from spreading, but the last person to see it who didn't make another would still die seven days out.

Phixius

I think this is the best answer. Also, at the end of the Japanese original movie, it says " - you have to copy it and show it to someone else within one week. And this someone else has to do the same. - So it never ends? - That's right, it goes on and on. But if you don't want to die, you'll do it, won't you?" This last sentence is so well said.

Question: Why is your face blurred in pictures one you've seen the tape? Just a sign that you'll be dead soon?

Ral0618

Chosen answer: Yes, the blurred faces do indicate that you've been cursed by the video. It has to do with Samara's face always being covered by her hair, which is also the reason behind infected people unconsciously scribbling over the faces of people in pictures. It also foreshadows the victim's fate (hence the distorted face) if they don't copy and send the cursed tape to someone else.

Shay

Question: I understand Samara "haunting" her parents, spooking the horses, killing everyone who watches her video as an act of revenge, but why then does she torment (or at least "talk to") Aiden? Aiden has visions of Samara days before his cousin is killed, and for some reason, she seems to interact with him a lot, though we never see it in the movie.

Answer: For some reason, I always thought that Samara started to show things to Aidan after he went to Katie's room during her wake. There, he sees a figure on the TV and the proceeds to tell Rachel that it's not Katie's room anymore (clever word play as Katie had died so nothing was hers anymore, but it also implied that Samara's spirit had taken over her room). Since Aidan was a kid just like Samara when she died, she probably attached herself to him and began showing him things and it seems to have gotten worse after Rachel watched the tape and was infected by Samara. As for the drawings showing Katie's death, Samara didn't show those images to Aidan. Katie herself told him that she was running out of time and possibly that she was going to die. This obviously caused a huge impact on Aidan prompting him to draw those pictures.

Answer: Aiden is psychic. He can sense Samara, though he doesn't understand exactly what he is experiencing.

Timothy Cheseborough

Chosen answer: He's a very independent child. Notice how he dressed himself (including tie) AND laid out his mother's outfit. Some children call their parents by their first names to exert their independence.

Timothy Cheseborough

Continuity mistake: Samara, as seen in the psychiatric sessions on the videotape, has a prominent gap in her front teeth - yet when she decomposes in Rachel's arms down in the well, the skull that is left has perfect teeth with no visible gap.

More mistakes in The Ring

Dr. Scott: You don't want to hurt anyone.
Samara Morgan: But I do, and I'm sorry. It won't stop. Everyone will suffer.

More quotes from The Ring

Trivia: When you see Samara standing in front of the well (before Anna pushes her in) she is singing the same tune as the music in the video.

More trivia for The Ring

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