History Film / TheNinthConfiguration

* WouldHitAGirl: Kane, during the bar fight, grabs one of the female biker's head by her hair, and then kills her by slamming her against the wall. The second one was more lucky.

* InMemoriam: A dedication to {{Creator/Peter Vincent Galahad Blatty}}, (the late son of {{Creator/William Peter Blatty}}), appears after the closing credits. This only appears on the 2016 remastered edition. It strangely has the first {{Creator/Lorimar}} theme.

* ProductPlacement: Let's just say it's no coincidence Pepsi drinks are prominent in this movie. (See TroubledProduction below.)

* InMemoriam: A dedication to Peter Vincent Galahad Blatty, (The late son of William Peter Blatty), appears after the closing credits. This only appears on the 2016 remastered edition. It strangely has the first {{Creator/Lorimar}} theme.

* InMemoriam: A dedication to Peter Vincent Galahad Blatty, (The late sob of William Peter Blatty), appears after the closing credits. This only appears on the 2016 remastered edition. It strangely has the {{Creator/Lorimar}} theme.

* InMemoriam: A dedication to Peter Vincent Galahad Blatty, (The late sob of William Peter Blatty), appears after the closing credits. This only appears on the 2016 remastered edition. It strangely has the {{Creator/Lorimar}} theme.

* DrillSergeantNasty: Subverted with Major Groper who verbally abuses the inmates in this way, accusing them of cowardice or faking. Scenes such as the one where he pleads with Kane not to be made to wear a Nazi uniform for the inmates' production of ''The Great Escape,'' however, indicate that he is as traumatized by his environs and as close to breaking as anyone there.

* DrillInstructorNasty: Subverted with Major Groper who verbally abuses the inmates in this way, accusing them of cowardice or faking. Scenes such as the one where he pleads with Kane not to be made to wear a Nazi uniform for the inmates' production of ''The Great Escape,'' however, indicate that he is as traumatized by his environs and as close to breaking as anyone there.

* WouldHitAGirl: Kane, during the bar fight, grabs one of the female biker's head by her hair, and then slams her against the wall so hard, that blood appears on the wall behind her head. The second one was more lucky.

* TomatoInTheMirror: [[spoiler:Colonel Kane ''is'' "Killer" Kane.]]

* StealthSequel: WordOfGod states that this film is the true sequel to ''TheExorcist''. According to Wiki/ThatOtherWiki, the astronaut in ''The Exorcist'' is Captain Cutshaw, who has a mental breakdown immediately before a rocket launch and is committed to the asylum where this film is set. The original novel repurposes several pieces of dialogue cut from ''The Exorcist''.

* AscendedExtra: WordOfGod says that Captain Billy Cutshaw is the astronaut who was confronted by Regan in ''TheExorcist'' and was told that he would "die up there." ''The Ninth Configuration'' opens with Cutshaw suffering a nervous breakdown moments before a rocket launch, necessitating his stay at the asylum.

* StealthSequel: WordOfGod states that this film is the true sequel to ''TheExorcist''. According to ThatOtherWiki, the astronaut in ''The Exorcist'' is Captain Cutshaw, who has a mental breakdown immediately before a rocket launch and is committed to the asylum where this film is set. The original novel repurposes several pieces of dialogue cut from ''The Exorcist''.

* CaliforniaDoubling: UsefulNotes/{{Hungary}} stands in for the Pacific Northwest, where the asylum (a medieval castle that would look out of place in America) is located.

* MortalWoundReveal: After Colonel Kane saves Capt. Cutshaw from [[AllBikersAreHellsAngels the bikers]], Cutshaw carries the battered Kane back to the asylum wrapped in a blanket, but it isn't until he's alone that Kane [[DeathEqualsRedemption lets the blood-stained knife drop to the floor]] and begins composing a farewell letter.

''The Ninth Configuration'' is an obscure 1980 film directed by William Peter Blatty, based on his 1978 novel of the same name (itself a reworking of an earlier Blatty novel called ''Twinkle Twinkle, "Killer" Kane!''). Despite being a [[WordOfGod confirmed]] StealthSequel to Blatty's ''Literature/TheExorcist'', this story barely has anything to do with that film or its franchise. Instead, ''The Ninth Configuration'' is one MindScrew of a character study about the patients of a military insane asylum housing troubled veterans from TheVietnamWar.

* BullyingTheDragon: The patrons of a seedy [[AllBikersAreHellsAngels biker]] [[BadGuyBar bar]] decide that it's a good idea to mercilessly taunt and humiliate a pair of soldiers. One of the soldiers is {{Colonel|Badass}} [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Vincent "Killer" Kane]], an unbalanced walking death machine from TheVietnamWar. After suffering through monstrous indignities, he finally snaps and slaughters the entire gang of bikers, including the women, with his bare hands.

* PostHistoricalTrauma: The whole plot is driven by [[spoiler:Kane's trauma and remorse over the things he did during TheVietnamWar]].

->'''Colonel Kane:''' ''You're convinced that God is dead because there's evil in the world.''\\
'''Captain Cutshaw:''' ''Correct.''\\
'''Colonel Kane:''' ''Then why don't you think He's alive because of the goodness in the world?''

[[quoteright:329:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ninth_configuration_01_4944.jpg]]

''The Ninth Configuration'' is an obscure 1980 film directed by William Peter Blatty, based on his 1978 novel of the same name (itself a reworking of an earlier Blatty novel called ''Twinkle Twinkle, "Killer" Kane!''). Despite being a [[WordOfGod confirmed]] StealthSequel to Blatty's ''TheExorcist'', this story barely has anything to do with that film or its franchise. Instead, ''The Ninth Configuration'' is one MindScrew of a character study about the patients of a military insane asylum housing troubled veterans from TheVietnamWar.

The film centers on Colonel Hudson Kane, an Army psychiatrist and brother of a deranged Marine named Vincent "Killer" Kane. He takes over the asylum and meets eccentric patients such as Captain Billy Cutshaw, an astronaut who has been committed after a nervous breakdown. Kane begins having a series of nightmares related to his brother, leading everyone to wonder if he really is any saner than his wards. Then things take a turn for the weird.

* TomatoInTheMirror: [[spoiler:Colonel Kane ''is'' "Killer" Kane.]]

-->'''Colonel Kane:''' ''[[DespairEventHorizon You're convinced that God is dead because there's evil in the world.]]''
-->'''Captain Cutshaw:''' ''[[StrawAtheist Correct.]]''
-->'''Colonel Kane:''' ''[[ArmorPiercingQuestion Then why don't you think He's alive because of the goodness in the world?]]''

'''''The Ninth Configuration''''' is an obscure 1980 film directed by William Peter Blatty, based on his 1978 novel of the same name (itself a reworking of an earlier Blatty novel called ''Twinkle Twinkle, "Killer" Kane!''). Despite being a [[WordOfGod confirmed]] StealthSequel to Blatty's ''TheExorcist'', this story barely has anything to do with that film or its franchise. Instead, ''The Ninth Configuration'' is one MindScrew of a character study about the patients of a military insane asylum housing troubled veterans from TheVietnamWar.

Compare with ''ShutterIsland''.

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Kane]] in the original novel, but not in the film.

* HeyItsThatGuy: [[Series/{{Titus}} Ken Titus]] and [[Series/StElsewhere Doctor Westphall]] take over the asylum where [[Series/TheWalkingDead Hershel Greene]], [[Film/{{Scarface 1983}} Frank Lopez]], and [[Film/TheExorcist Father Karras]] are living!

* TroubledProduction: In the beginning. Blatty had trouble getting studio backing for a film adaptation of ''The Ninth Configuration'' and William Friedkin, who had directed ''TheExorcist'', was unable to join the production. Blatty's white knight came in the form of [=PepsiCo=], which supported half the film's budget with money from block funds in Hungary, where the film was shot. The rest of the money came from Blatty, who took up the task of directing the film himself.

The film centers on Colonel Kane, an Army psychologist and brother of a deranged Marine named Vincent "Killer" Kane. He takes over the asylum and meets eccentric patients such as Captain Billy Cutshaw, an astronaut who has been committed after a nervous breakdown. Kane begins having a series of nightmares related to his brother, leading everyone to wonder if he really is any saner than his wards. Then things take a turn for the weird.

* TheAtoner: [[spoiler:Colonel Vincent "Killer" Kane was a bloodthirsty Marine back in Vietnam, and Kane's guilt from his actions led him to assuming the identity of his psychologist brother in order to make a positive impact for a change.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Colonel Kane dies from the bar melee, but the reappearance of Cutshaw's Saint Christopher's Medal restores Cutshaw's faith in God and implies Kane has found peace in the afterlife.]]

** Kane is given a tour of the asylum in the beginning of the film, only to discover that his guide is a patient, not a doctor. This foreshadows that [[spoiler:Kane is himself a patient under the delusion that he's a doctor]].

* HumansAreBastards: Early on, Cutshaw takes the position that humans are only capable of cruelty to each other, and believes this means that God does not exist. [[spoiler:Kane's HeroicSacrifice and the mysterious reappearance of Cutshaw's Saint Christopher's Medal cause him to change his mind at the end of the film.]]

* MrImagination: Colonel Kane thinks he an Army psychologist who has been ordered to take over a remote military asylum. [[spoiler:The truth is Kane accidentally received a dispatch meant for his brother Hudson, assumed his brother's identity in order to escape the guilt of his actions in Vietnam by helping others, and is really a patient along with everyone else inside.]]

* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Kane has the stuffing beat out of him by a motorcycle gang when he remembers that [[spoiler:he is not an army psychologist, but his supposed brother and deranged Marine "Killer" Kane. Kane gets up and proceeds to deliver an epic, murderous unarmed beatdown to all the biker scum present]].

* StealthSequel: WordOfGod states that this film is the true sequel to ''TheExorcist''. According to ThatOtherWiki, the astronaut in ''The Exorcist'' is Captain Cutshaw, who has a mental breakdown immediately before a rocket launch and is committed to the asylum where this film is set. In the book series, several unused pieces of dialogue from ''The Exorcist'' were used in ''The Ninth Configuration'' instead.

* TitleDrop: Kane's monologue during his dream sequence.
--> '''Kane:''' In order for life to have appeared spontaneously on earth, there first had to be hundreds of millions of protein molecules of the Ninth Configuration.

** In the film's original ending (and the story on which it was based), Kane palmed the knife and committed suicide, but [[ExecutiveMeddling the studio insisted at the last minute]] on changing a line of dialogue to imply that he was actually stabbed in the chaos. (Some argue this was actually an improvement, since Kane's intended lesson - that humans are capable of selflessness - would be [[BrokenAesop broken]] by suicide.)