Line #1 Headscratchers/FourteenOhEight


1	!Per wiki policy, Administrivia/SpoilersOff applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.
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3	* After Enslin receives the ominous "Don't enter 1408" postcard, it's never brought up again, not even with Mr. Olin. What would he have had to say if Enslin had shown it to him?
4	** Probably something along the lines of "Good advice. You should listen to it." Assuming the room itself somehow arranged for the postcard to be sent, Mr. Olin probably wouldn't have raised that possibility, since it would've just raised Enslin's interest in the room.
5	** This actually raises a couple questions: who or what sent him the postcard and how did they/it know he would take the challenge?
6	* If Olin really wanted to keep anyone from ever using the room why didn't he just have the windows and door carefully covered up? Heck, if he really wanted to keep Enslin out why didn't he simply claim that the room was undergoing renovations? It's not as though the law states that the hotel has to provide that specific room on demand.
7	** Actually it does. This is made a big point of in both story and movie. (The logic remains for sealing it off. The renovations answer would quickly break down for someone as determined as Mike, though.)
8	*** In the story, Olin explains that the owners don't believe the room is evil and would fire him if he tried to seal off the room.
9	*** The story also explains that due to civil rights laws that prevent things like the managers putting minority clients into crappy rooms, anyone who demands a specific room at a hotel can get it, as long as it's not occupied. Normally, Olin doesn't let guests into 1408, but since Enslin insisted on that specific room...
10	** Possible FridgeBrilliance: What if they tried that, and ''it didn't work?'' The room can clearly warp reality within itself, so it's not unrealistic for it to have enough control in the general vicinity to prevent its supply of victims from being cut off entirely.
11	* Why bother to clean the room? That just puts the cleaning staff in danger for no reason.
12	** They're required by law to clean every room after a certain amount of time, whether it's been occupied or not. As noted above, the room has to be provided if demanded, and it can't legally be occupied if not cleaned. To his credit, at least Olin employed specific safety measures in having the room cleaned, and while declining to do so is the logical choice, it's not the practical one.
13	* How do we know if the ending is real? Is he really out of that room or is he still there, trapped forever? The ending could be all in his head.
14	** Remember, the room is malicious. Making him think he defeated it and is living a normal life again isn't really mean enough to go through all the trouble... unless it's giving an even lengthier HopeSpot where it's least expected.
15	* Hold on. Taking the time-loop theory into account, Lily arrives at the beginning of the hour -- 45 minutes before Mike contacts her on video-chat.
16	** That's assuming it is a time-loop. It seems more that time is whatever the room wants it to be. It didn't literally send him back to the beginning any more than it sent him forward to a burned room. It just sort of... made a new hour.
17	* At one point Enslin climbed out onto the ledge to escape and find that all the other windows of the hotel are just -- gone. Dumb question time. What if he'd just jumped or even fallen? Would he have died when he hit? Or would he have landed back in 1408's bed so it could torment him some more?
18	** Near the end of the film Enslin asks the room why they don't just kill him, and it explains that it likes to offer its guests free will. I like to think that the room only derives real satisfaction from guests choosing to kill themselves - if they do it by accident it's a bit of a cheat.
19	** Alternatively, he could've done it and died, same way the room somehow got someone to drown in chicken soup.
20	* Why does everyone dismiss the hallucinogens theory? Chocolates, pumped through the ventilation ...etc. A sufficient amount of prepared bizarre incidents (chocolates, toilet paper,...) complemented with the victim's imagination would be plausible for the film. As for Olin hearing and seeing things at the end, that happened after he touched the recorder, which could've still been carrying hallucinogens from the room.
21	** Because that [[DoingInTheWizard removes the mystery in favor of the mundane]], which defeats the enjoyment of the entire genre, as the film itself pointed out.
22	** For some it's unreasonable to accept that any amount of hallucinogens is enough to cause the trip that Mike went through chocolates appearing on his pillow or not.
23	* OK, so it has been established multiple times that some kind of law ensures you to be accomodated to a room of your choosing "if it is not occupied by another guest already". Hmm, Mr. Olin... I think I have a perfect solution for you. Let some "dead soul" occupy the room forever. "Dead soul" in the meaning of imaginary person. "Oh, you want the room 1408, mr. Enslin? I'm really sorry, that room is already occupied by mr. John Smith. And judging by his generous tips, I dare to say it will stay occupied for an unspecified length of time." You know, just... fight the room with it's own weapons. The room creating visions, hallucinations, depression and other mind rapes? Well, let's create an imaginary person that will reside there forever. [[Main/TakeThat Take that]], room. After all, I don't believe there's a law that prohibits a person booking a hotel room indefinitely, assuming he has money to pay. Hmm, what are you saying? That it is unfair? Well, too bad, room 1408, you have your fake constructs, and we have ours. And if someone gets too suspicious that just one person occupies the room indefinitely? Easy solution "Oh, I'm sorry, mr. Enslin, mr. John Smith checked out and mr. Oliver Goldberg is the new occupant. I'm very sorry, the room is occupied and therefore unavailable. Are you still interested in the Knicks tickets?"
24	** Given that the room seems to have some influence over its floor (the plate of food with flies around it), the room/whatever lives in it could possibly get angry once it realized it was being denied victims.
25	** Don't forget that the law in question actually has a certain purpose, and that a decidedly non-supernatural one. It would be worthless as a law in real mundane life if it was this easy to circumvent.
26	** And also , the owners of the hotel don't believe there is anything wrong with the room , and by booking it with "dead soul" , Olin has to somehow mange to make a believable trail of payment to cover the rent. Because the owners would expect that amount of profit to be shown on the paper.....Someone has to pay for the room , and it only take a certain length of time to reach the point that can't be covered under the carpet(or affordable) anymore.
27	* If the room itself is so much trouble for management to not allow anybody to book it, why just they didn't permanently change its role? Like storage room for example. Easy solution - keep there lots of useless stuff, put the giant "unauthorized personnel not allowed" sign on the front door and keep it permanently locked. Problem solved. No one sues. Are owners micromanage this hotel that hard to see the difference?
28	** Assuming the room is a reality warper, then any change of its internal layout or contents and the door could be undone. Even if it isn't, it likely then becomes "the storage closet of death" and anyone using it dies / goes insane. Then there's the "ordinal" argument: namely that whatever evil resides there affects not the geographic space, but whichever is the eighth room on the "fourteenth" floor, so now whoever checks into 1409 is at risk. Presumably locking it from the outside might be fine for a time; Ollin seems to have saved lives with the "booked" excuse for months if not years. However the room (or someone affiliated with it?) can communicate with the outside via post card, video chat, and presumably phone call. It might grow impatient and contact the owners, city inspectors about an unauthorized occupancy change, or do something else to get the change undone.
29	* Does that law compelling Olin to rent out the room exist in real life?

Context Headscratchers / FourteenOhEight