More Things That Happened

*More Things That Happened* is the title of the deleted scenes collection on the *INLAND EMPIRE* DVD, which runs for 75 minutes, on top of the film's three-hour runtime.

It is made up mostly of fragmented scenes without any clear narrative (although consciously edited by Lynch to achieve a mood). Many scenes are very short and inconsequential; however, several long sequences shed more light on themes and storylines in the film, or alternately raise new questions and mysteries. Some of the scenes may have been a result of Lynch's shooting style on the film, with no clear overarching plan or script. While Lynch trusted that all of the pieces would come together, some of these scenes, quite strong on their own, may have become casualties of the realization that they did not fit with the larger narrative of the film. As Lynch notes in the *Lynch* documentary, "Going down a certain path sends away lots of possibilities. Certain things won’t live in that world."

## Scenes

### *Sue's Reality*

Smithy comes home. Sue comes out in her bathrobe and says he’s awfully late. She goes to warm up dinner. Smithy asks, “Were there any calls?”

Sue takes the trash bag from the kitchen pail, and brings it out back to the garbage can.

Sue sits on the couch reading a magazine. Smithy angrily looks for his shoes, and criticizes the mess the house is in. Sue says she hasn’t had time to clean, between being pregnant and having a job, “and…” She pauses. At Smithy’s prodding, she finishes, “And getting more pregnant.” Smithy says you can’t get more pregnant; you get bigger. She says that’s what she meant, and points out his shoes in a corner. He asks what she meant by what she said, and she claims the doctor said she has to quit her job. Smithy puts on his shoes, and Sue asks where he’s going. “It’s 11:30.” Smithy pauses and says, “I wonder what I was thinking.”

### *Unknown Reality*

Torches burning all around an in-ground pool by a house; someone seems to be sitting at the other end of the pool. Inside the house is a a painting of a naked woman reaching up toward heaven; at the top, an angel’s wings and his arm, holding a sword, reach down. The woman’s feet are bloody. Below the painting sits the Phantom on a cushion on the floor.

He is in a lavish mansion with candles all around. A few people—seemingly partygoers—wander by in modern dress. A girl stands looking at some candles, but she sees the Phantom staring at her and walks away in fear. We follow her into a room off the main hallway. The room is thick with shadowy dancing people, with only a few bright neon signs visible behind them. There is low throbbing bass-heavy music playing in the room.

Back in the hallway stands the Lost Girl, or some version of her. A guy and a girl stare at her, seemingly worried or fearful. Another woman is giving her a similar look. Eventually, she approaches the Phantom and sits down. He begins speaking to her in Polish, but she says she doesn’t speak it. He switches to English and asks if she wants to buy a watch, and opens his coat, displaying several. The Lost Girl has heard about them: they are magic and bring good luck. “They tell time,” responds the Phantom. “What more do you want from a watch?” He says they only bring good luck if you give something. He tells her to give him $25 and to hold his hand for two seconds. She is uneasy. He promises her good luck, and that he will “look over” her. “Don’t you understand?” he asks. She says that things aren’t going so good for her, and she needs some luck, but he is creeping her out.

He says that what she heard made her curious, and now she has come to him. There have been many others. He says the watches will change her luck. She says he scares her, and she thinks she won’t buy the watch. “It’s your decision,” he says. She asks what happened to the others who bought the watches. He says they have what they wanted. She takes money out of her shoe and hands it to him. He holds a watch—and takes her hand, with the watch and the money inside. He strokes her hand.

Above is the painting: the woman’s bloody feet are on a cliff side, with a devilish arm gripping the cliff, seemingly climbing out of Hell.

Outside by the pool, an old man sits in near-complete darkness, with his hands over his face.

### *Sue's Reality*

Mr. K’s office. Sue talks about Smithy taking something hidden out of the bureau drawer one night, then getting into bed and turning off the light. Sue asked if something was wrong, then said his name, but she "couldn’t hear nothin’."

A light flashes on above a door in Sue's hallway. Sue walks out of the bedroom and walks through the door. Inside is a dark hallway with a red light at the end. She walks toward it. There are suddenly bright flashes of light, and a glimpse of a film projector seen from the front. Then Sue is in her front yard, with the flashing bursts of light still occurring. She does not recognize the street. She goes back inside. Despite the fact that Sue's house looks exactly as it should, she insists to Mr. K while recounting the experience that she was not in her house; she was in "some other place."

### *Nikki's Reality*

Possibly continuing from the prior scene, Nikki walks downstairs in her mansion and across the living room apprehensively. She then appears somewhere in Europe, wearing a different outfit. A train goes by some buildings; odd footage of strange beady water coming out of a faucet. Nikki runs on the street; a pair of blurry lights (possibly headlights) approach her. She walks. Then, she is in a hotel.

She goes upstairs, and peers into an open hotel room to find herself lying on the floor wearing sunglasses, with the phone off the hook and lying near her head. She seems incredibly out of it. Devon is on the line; the disembodied voice of the Phantom speaks to her in Polish, which she seems to understand.

Nikki insists that she didn't kill anybody, and says she has "never been there." The Phantom repeatedly goads her, asking if she is sure and if she understands. Devon asks where Nikki is and she says she doesn't know. Devon is confused and disturbed by Nikki's ramblings.

### *Rabbits*

Jack is listening in on Nikki and Devon's call. There is a horrible buzzing. Suzie yells, "There's something there!"

### *Nikki's Reality*

Nikki repeats Suzie's line, "There's some something here. Do you hear?" She sits up and looks around. The "other Nikki" who was peeking in the doorway is gone. The Phantom says, "It glows within me. Like gold." Nikki brings up “last night,” and Devon asks, "What about it?" The Phantom says, "It could have destroyed a dream, right?" Nikki begs the Phantom to tell her where he is, then begs Devon to see her. She begins masturbating. Devon says it's late, then adds, "Maybe we met at the wrong time." Nikki says, "I didn’t mean to meet you. I didn’t mean to meet anybody like you." Nikki says she can't sleep anymore. The Phantom whispers, “It wasn’t me… Maybe I fucked you a few times…” Nikki repeatedly demands that Devon, or possibly the Phantom, tell her the truth. The "other" Nikki is standing and laughing outside the bedroom. Nikki on the floor screams, “Will you stop fucking with me? Stop it!”

### *Sue's Reality*

Mr. K’s office. Sue says, “That guy…he’s been comin’ 'round. It’s like it was. You know what. Sellin’ watches again."

### *Nikki's Reality*

Nikki’s friend (played by Nastassja Kinski, who only appears in the end credits sequence of the film itself) sits in Nikki’s house speaking to her. She says she had the most incredible experience. It was "at Al’s." She was sitting at the bar in the back where the bathrooms are. A guy bought her a beer, He was married, but she didn’t care. He told her he was just passing through. His name was Billy. Pete was in the back, serving a beer to Sondra. Billy said, “I think I’ve met you before,” and although she didn’t want to fall for that line, she felt she had met him before as well, so she said it back to him. She “wanted him so bad.” He said, “I want you.” They went back to his room at the Harriston Hotel. Pete looked at her as she left, and Sondra eyeballed the man. The inside of the hotel was different. They must have changed the décor, she says: she didn’t know where she was, like she was dreaming.

### *Unknown Reality*

Jack walks in the hotel hallway from *Axxon N.*, now in full color. He goes through a door down a stairwell, and out another door in slow motion.

### *Sue's Reality*

Sue cleans up glasses and a bowl lying around the living room. She vacuums. She looks around, bored or tired. As she rinses glasses in the kitchen, Sandi sits on the floor of the living room flying a remote-controlled flying saucer while Lanni “shoots” it with a flashlight. The saucer crashes into the wall and falls to the floor. Sue goes out of focus and grunts in pain.

Late one night, Sue comes out of the hallway with a candle, in her bathrobe. She says, “There’s something here!” Smithy is in the darkness. He says he’s going out.

Sue sits in a chair in the living room, comatose. There are bright flashes outside. Day turns to night; Sue does not move. The flashes continue. They begin to take on more color and seem to contain images (mostly the Valley Girls walking/dancing).

### *Unknown Reality*

Either Devon or Billy lies dead on a street with a pool of blood coming from his stomach. (His clothing seems more like Devon's than Billy's.)

### *Sue's Reality*

The Cyrk Zalewski. Smithy does tricks with a horse in the tent. The tent seems dark and almost entirely empty, but a few people yell; one person claps.

In a lengthy sequence in Mr. K’s office, Sue talks about living with her sister, who gave her a little "shit shelf" in the fridge. She discusses the history of the red lamp, which she inherited from her mother, and then discusses her mother's insomnia, which led to her losing her hand in a press while working at a corn cob holder factory. She talks about her sister and her sister's husband "Kiddo" in detail, including a morning when Kiddo tried to crawl into bed with Sue. Sue then says that she was 41 in 1960. She’s freaked out because she lost a bunch of years. She figures she might be older, but that’s as "near as she can figure." She adds, “Some say I’m too tall.”

Shots of an abandoned warehouse or factory. Strange water or electricity effect.

The last major sequence is a long spotlight on Lanni, Lori, Chelsi and Dori, as they try to score drugs on Hollywood Boulevard while going through withdrawal. Dori is on the pay phone with a dealer, Gino. Chelsi stands next to her, telling her what to say. Lori is very spaced-out, wandering in traffic. Chelsi and Lanni fight, and Chelsi demands fifty cents or a calling card to call another dealer, and Lanni insists that she doesn't have it. Lanni laughs hysterically throughout the scene, and is incredibly antagonistic to the other girls. Eventually, Lanni solicits a customer in a passing car, and drives off with him. She returns later, having made fifty euros.

Black and white footage of a quiet LA street; shifts to color. Doris, barefoot, walks down the street toward Hollywood Boulevard.

Frozen shot of Sue sitting in the living room with Lanni, Lori, Dori, Terri, Chelsi and Sandi. The image splits horizontally into two images, then reassembles. The Girls all look over at Sue in slow motion. Close-up of Sue smiling in slow motion.

## Analysis

Sue's story of being disturbed by a photo with a man's arm peeking in at the edge of the photo may relate to the painting of two arms coming in from the side seen in the three Polish men's apartment, as well the painting above the Phantom, with the angels' arms coming in from the top and the devil's arm arising from below.

## Other Footage

The DVD also includes *Ballerina*, twelve minutes of moody footage Lynch shot in Poland of a ballerina dancing, which only appears in *INLAND EMPIRE* for a few seconds superimposed over Nikki's face near the end of the film. This footage also appears in Lynch's short "Scissors" (also known as "Absurda"), which he created for the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.

The DVD also features a hidden Easter egg deleted scene. It is another portion of Sue's monologue to Mr. K, in which she recounts a story about a one-legged eight-year old girl (presumably the Marine's Sister) escaping a "children's prison" by killing a guard. On a PC, the scene can be found by accessing the "Languages and Sound" menu and hovering the cursor over the muzzle of the gun and clicking on the silhouette of Jack Rabbit that appears. On a player, the scene is more convoluted to access: on the "Languages and Sound" menu, highlight "Off," then press Up and Enter. This freezes the menu for about two minutes. Once the menu resets/reloads, press Up and Right to see the Jack Rabbit silhouette in the gun muzzle. Then press Enter.

A further deleted scene from the film was released exclusively on *Room to Dream*, a promo DVD sold with ProTools editing software. In the scene, Koz Kakawski sits stoically in the backyard of Smithy's house with Lanni and Lori. Koz seems to be experiencing some sort of temporal displacement. Lanni says she thought Koz went to the circus, and he says he did. Yet, he is somehow "near here." Some sort of disturbance occurs, which suddenly turns day into darkness (and briefly makes Lori's eyes disappear). and Koz and the girls break into a somber love song called "It Happened."

## Trivia

* Jay Aaseng recounts the shooting of the scene of Justin Theroux lying dead in an alleyway: the crew ordered a pizza, and Lynch decided to scrape the topping off and smear it on Theroux's chest to create a wound. *(Source:* Room to Dream*, David Lynch and Kristine McKenna, 2018, Random House, pp. 417-18.)*
* Laura Dern says that she and Lynch were coincidentally both in Europe when he simply decided to shoot a scene. Over cappuccinos, he wrote the scene of Nikki speaking on the phone to the Phantom while wearing sunglasses, then the two of them shopped for her wardrobe and shot the scene in Lynch's room at the Hotel Renoir Montparnasse in Paris. *(Source: Laura Dern and Kyle MacLachlan in Conversation on 2023 Criterion Edition Blu Ray).* The exterior of this hotel, a favorite of Lynch's, can also be seen in Part 14 of *Twin Peaks: The Return*.