Question: In the short story, Fred Evans (from the assurance company) fatally shoots Mort while Mort tries to kill Amy. Amy marries Ted. Does anyone know why this was changed? Has Stephen King commented on it?
raywest
21st Dec 2022
Secret Window (2004)
Answer: Movies often change details to achieve a different effect and/or add an element of surprise. In this case, it was to streamline the ending, giving it an unexpected dark twist and a sad fate for the victims which erases any sympathy for Mort's situation and his mental illness. Movies tend to like shock value and more gruesome scenes. It also leaves open whether or not Mort will ever be proved guilty.
I know that movies often have changes from the books - it's why I asked the question in the first place. I was wondering if anyone knew the specific reason behind this particular change.
25th Nov 2022
Secret Window (2004)
Question: Why did the inside of his cabin look like a tornado hit it, was the maid at the beginning just another one of his hallucinations?
Answer: More than half of the movie was through Mort's perspective so to him it wasn't that dirty and I think the maid was real but mabey hadn' t been there for a while then you can see the house through Amy's perspective, near the end of the movie.
Answer: Towards the end, the townspeople had shunned Mort and refused to provide him with any services, believing he killed Amy and the others. The maid was real and probably quit for the same reason and likely feared working for a suspected murderer. Mort, dysfunctional and sinking eve further into madness, was unconcerned about keeping a tidy house.
The townspeople didn't shun him until Amy, Ray and Ken disappeared. His slow descent into madness preceded that. I think she was a figment of his imagination as he slowly goes mad. Or, he fired her because he didn't want anyone bothering him.
Answer: Since Amy was the one to walk in on the mess, that couldn't have been why the housekeeper wouldn't come back. I think she was just in his imagination.
14th Jul 2022
Secret Window (2004)
Question: How did the pages of the magazine go missing? It did not seem like he switched to Shooter in between.
Answer: Mort removed the pages without realizing it. He believed Shooter had somehow got hold of the package, opened it, and tore out the pages before he picked it up at the post office. It wasn't shown on-camera that it was Mort who did that, as that would have spoiled the "big reveal" at the end of the movie. The audience is seeing it from Mort's perspective.
15th Jun 2022
Secret Window (2004)
Question: Why did Mort/Shooter kill Chico the dog? I don't think he wanted to upset Amy, because she never finds out that Chico is dead. She calls his name when she takes the divorce papers to the lake house, where Mort/Shooter kills her.
Answer: "Shooter" (actually Mort), killed the dog as a threat and a warning to Mort, implying this will happen to him if he doesn't cooperate. Mort, as himself, has no recollection of doing this and believed "Shooter" was threatening his life. Mort then reports it to the sheriff, which only fed into his delusion that Shooter was real and shows he's losing his grip on reality. It wasn't about Amy.
5th Oct 2021
Secret Window (2004)
Question: Why is there a Barbie doll on Mort's desk in the final scene in the house?
Answer: The Barbie doll is blonde, like Amy. Mort might have found the doll somewhere and handled it roughly because of his urge to hurt Amy.
Answer: One possible answer is that this may be an inside joke and a nod to Johnny Depp for being a Barbie Doll collector. He reportedly has a large Barbie collection, mostly of special editions and celebrity versions. He originally bought them for his daughter, but continued collecting even after she became older.
27th Sep 2021
Secret Window (2004)
3rd Mar 2021
Secret Window (2004)
14th Oct 2020
Secret Window (2004)
Question: What's the back story of Mort and his wife mentioning the previous stalker and how he paid him off? They also mentioned the people who only knew.
15th Oct 2018
Secret Window (2004)
Question: What's the point of the braces?
Answer: What I find ironic is the fact he tries to fix his teeth with braces hoping to minimize double-personality jaw mimique, while he grows and eats corn in the garden. Corn and braces are one of the worst possible combination in terms of comfort of eating. That was nice spice of absurdity to the story.
Answer: Mort had some problem with his jaw and eventually got braces to help correct it. I also read that it was Johnny Depp's idea for Mort to get braces, believing it added an interesting facet to his character.
Answer: As read in previous answers the jaw aches came about because of his imagination of Shooter. Shooter is taking over Mort's personality, throughout the movie it progressively gets worse and worse until the end where Shooter finally gets through to Mort and takes over. The braces are now a sign that Mort can no longer hold back Shooter, and it's shown because the braces stop the mannerism. (Shooter is the sole personality and no longer needs to push his way out, thus the need for braces and no more pain). He finally got his way. The true ending.
Answer: If you recall, Mort was kicked in the mouth after he had stabbed his wife in the leg. I'm thinking braces were the result.
18th Jun 2018
Secret Window (2004)
Question: How did the townspeople know about the murders?
Answer: Sheriff Newsome was actively investigating the disappearances of Amy and Ted, as well as Tom Greenleaf and private investigator, Ken Karsch. Newsome confronted Mort about it and knew enough to tie all four cases together. He would talk to the local residents regarding anything they might know. While these were still technically missing person cases, it was obvious to most that Mort had probably murdered them.
18th Nov 2017
Secret Window (2004)
Question: Why does the lady in the post office where Johnny Depp got his UPS package acts strangely when she sees him (I assume he was shooter in this moment) once again in the grocery? The lady tried to flirt with him before. I didn't get why suddenly she's too uncomfortable with him in that scene.
28th Aug 2006
Secret Window (2004)
Question: What is the meaning behind the Morton salt and other groceries that Mort buys at the end of the movie?
Answer: Mort Rainey buys the salt, butter, and napkins for eating the corn he grew in the garden above Ted and Amy's graves. The "Morton" brand of salt uses the advertising slogan, "when it rains, it pours." Mort Rainey's name can be translated to "raining death." The "Vanity Fair" napkins could be a refernce to Mort's personality.
The term Vanity Fair was coined (I believe first) by John Bunyan in 1678, as a place in a story called ‘The Pilgrim's Progress'. Mort is referred to as ‘Pilgrim' by a few different characters in the film, including himself, without much explanation until the serviettes. Brilliant. Vanity Fair in John Bunyan's story is a never-ending fair of frivolity, which is similar to Mort's charade of denial. Found this info when I searched the meaning of Vanity Fair on vocabulary.com.
Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress was also the inspiration for William Thackeray's 1847 novel, "Vanity Fair."
6th Jul 2005
Secret Window (2004)
Question: I didn't really get the beginning. How did Mort know the exact room where his wife was? And when Mort came in, why was Ted mad, shouldn't he be ashamed? After all, Amy WAS Mort's wife and he was sleeping with her. And when Mort was in the car and telling himself not to go back, was that another proof showing he was kinda psycho?
Answer: Mort followed Ted and Amy to the motel and watched which room they went into. Ted's reaction was a mixture of emotions: anger, shock, fear, shame, etc. It was a highly charged situation and considering Mort burst in screaming with a gun threatening to kill them, Ted's reaction seems normal under the circumstances. Mort talking with himself in the car is a subtle clue to the audience that his personality has more than one facet to it.
Ted had also convinced himself that Amy's marriage was already over when he met her. He later says this to Mort. So, by Ted's reasoning, he might feel that Mort had no right to be in their hotel room.
Answer: One reason was that the filmmakers wanted a more "realistic" ending. In the story (SPOILER ALERT), it is revealed that Shooter is in fact real, a supernatural manifestation borne from Mort's mind (à la The Dark Half). To keep the film grounded, it was changed in the film to Shooter being all in Mort's mind, a symptom of his split personality disorder.
In addition to your answer, I think the movie version makes the audience feel more sympathy for Mort. Amy is more "at fault" for having the affair with Ted. In the book, Mort considers how the marriage had issues before Ted. He wonders if his relationship with Amy never really "existed" anyway.