History Fridge / Pontypool

* At what point in the narrative does Grant's opening monologue occur? It references Honey the missing cat and suggests that "something's about to happen. Something big," but it's not referenced by anyone else at the radio station, especially in that it would be a remarkably strange thing to broadcast over a small town radio even for a mercurial person such as Grant Mazzy. Is it Mazzy's InnerMonologue? Or is it [[spoiler: the earliest sign that [[TheCallsAreComingFromInsideTheHouse the movie's script itself is "infected"]], and that the entity within English has already begun to interfere with the plot and stop it from making sense?]]

*** The credits' talking points even suggest that what happened in Pontypool could be a test run, and whoever or whatever started the virus is planning for something much bigger.

*** The credits' talking points even suggest that what happened in Pontypool could be a test run, and whoever or whatever started the virus could be planning for something much bigger.

* It's a small town, so everybody probably knows everybody else in some capacity. The obits that Grant reads are probably hard enough for Syd and Laurel-Ann to hear, but then Grant gets to a few Drummonds. Laurel-Ann doesn't seem to react to the fact that (likely) some of her close relatives are among the confirmed dead. [[spoiler: Although, this is just before she starts to succumb to the infection herself, so it's she's already losing her grasp on sanity.]]

[[AC:FridgeBrilliance]]

[[AC:FridgeHorror]]

* This troper always found it a bit odd that they'd speak French as a way to get around the issue with understanding words being a cause of infection. Although it works in theory, it always struck me as more of a temporary measure. The more obvious choice to me would be to speak Welsh. Not only is it very different to English it's also very uncommon; The Welsh-speaking Communities in Canada are, as far as I can gather, both small and relatively centralized to Ontario (In fact, Pontypool was founded by Welsh settlers and named after Pontypool, their hometown). Finally a lot of Welsh words fall into the Kill= Kiss Category when compared to English ones. For example the Welsh word "Ci" (Pronounced "Key") means "Dog"; "Moron" means "Carrot"; It just strikes me as very strange that people in a region where they use such an unusual language would instead choose to use a relatively widespread one to avoid a virus spread by words.
** Welsh ''would'' probably be a better language to speak to avoid infection, seeing as how it's not a romance language and is very far removed from English, but I think far fewer people know how to speak Welsh than how to speak French.
** You could also eventually quell a fire by spitting on it, but a hose is the better option. Welsh isn't helping anyone.
** Don't they manage to make the idea of speaking other languages besides English work anyways, though? Mendez figures it out by speaking Armenian, which nearly cures him.
** Welsh would help people insofar as it's far less common. French is common worldwide and, as the previous troper mentioned, it's a romance language. The virus doesn't pass through language itself, but through understanding the language, and less people understand Welsh than French. Viruses evolve, it would evolve to a more commonly spoken language before it evolved into Welsh. Of course it's not practical compared to French, but it strikes this troper as a more permanent solution and yet nobody even mentions the possibility.
** But either way, this is still FridgeHorror in that every language borrowed loan words from another language. So eventually, the disease will jump to every language.

** The word virus spreading in any major English-speaking city would instantly turn that city into a hellzone.

-->'''Grant:''' "Mrs. Frenchie's cat is missing. The signs are posted all over town: "Have you seen Honey?" We've all seen the posters...but nobody has seen "Honey" the cat."

-->'''Grant:'''"Mrs. Frenchie's cat is missing. The signs are posted all over town: "Have you seen Honey?" We've all seen the posters...but nobody has seen "Honey" the cat."

* In Grant's opening monologue, he tells us: "''Mrs. Frenchie's cat is missing. The signs are posted all over town: "Have you seen Honey?" We've all seen the posters...but nobody has seen "Honey" the cat.''" Later, the warnings from the government tell us that terms of endearment, in particular, are to be avoided, and the characters' experiences confirm that these are particularly "infectious" words. It's not hard to imagine that however long the "disease" of language lay dormant, it could easily have been awoken by people all over Pontypool seeing the word "Honey" plastered across multiple surfaces...

[[AC:FridgeHorror]]

* Dr. Mendez explains that [[spoiler: the virus takes effect when the listener not only hears the word but takes in its meaning as well. Though Grant states that it's impossible to hear a word and not take in its associated meaning, people do that all the time: often when they tune out when other people are talking. There are a couple of examples of characters being in the same room and hearing the same words from the same source but not everyone is affected.]] 1. When Lawrence and the Arabians do their spot on the radio, [[spoiler: only the girl is affected because she is listening deeply to the words she sings while the other singers and Grant are not really paying attention to the lyrics: the other singers are presumably singing on rote while Grant is just waiting for the segment to be over.]] 2. When Laurel-Ann [[spoiler: puts in the pre-tape that begins with the notice of Honey the missing cat, only Laurel-Ann is paying attention to the words to make sure that the tape is good to air, while Grant and Sydney are both preoccupied by Grant's panic attack.]] 3. When Sydney [[spoiler: is talking to her kids on the phone, all the occupants in the room are panicking and it doesn't register right away to Grant or Mendez what she's saying to her kids, while Sydney herself is too worried about her children's safety that she's automatically saying the words she shouldn't be saying.]]

* Dr. Mendez explains that [[spoiler: the virus takes effect when the listener not only hears the word but takes in its meaning as well. Though Grant states that it's impossible to hear a word and not take in its associated meaning, people do that all the time: often when they tune out when other people are talking. There are a couple of examples of characters being in the same room and hearing the same words from the same source but not everyone is affected.]]
** 1. When Lawrence and the Arabians do their spot on the radio, [[spoiler: only the girl is affected because she is listening deeply to the words she sings while the other singers and Grant are not really paying attention to the lyrics: the other singers are presumably singing on rote while Grant is just waiting for the segment to be over.]] 2. When Laurel-Ann [[spoiler: puts in the pre-tape that begins with the notice of Honey the missing cat, only Laurel-Ann is paying attention to the words to make sure that the tape is good to air, while Grant and Sydney are both preoccupied by Grant's panic attack.]] 3. When Sydney [[spoiler: is talking to her kids on the phone, all the occupants in the room are panicking and it doesn't register right away to Grant or Mendez what she's saying to her kids, while Sydney herself is too worried about her children's safety that she's automatically saying the words she shouldn't be saying.]]

** 1. When Lawrence and the Arabians do their spot on the radio, [[spoiler: only the girl is affected because she is listening deeply to the words she sings while the other singers and Grant are not really paying attention to the lyrics: the other singers are presumably singing on rote while Grant is just waiting for the segment to be over.]]
2. When Laurel-Ann [[spoiler: puts in the pre-tape that begins with the notice of Honey the missing cat, only Laurel-Ann is paying attention to the words to make sure that the tape is good to air, while Grant and Sydney are both preoccupied by Grant's panic attack.]]
3. When Sydney [[spoiler: is talking to her kids on the phone, all the occupants in the room are panicking and it doesn't register right away to Grant or Mendez what she's saying to her kids, while Sydney herself is too worried about her children's safety that she's automatically saying the words she shouldn't be saying.]]

1. When Lawrence and the Arabians do their spot on the radio, [[spoiler: only the girl is affected because she is listening deeply to the words she sings while the other singers and Grant are not really paying attention to the lyrics: the other singers are presumably singing on rote while Grant is just waiting for the segment to be over.]]