Headscratchers / It (2017)

• Bill doesn't stutter in the trailer. Did they simply choose lines where he doesn't stutter to use for the trailer, or does stutter-Bill no longer have a stutter in the new movie?
  • Re-reading the book right now, and apparently Bill's stutter was moderate prior to Georgie's death - it only became debilitating after he died. So it's possible they're playing up that aspect. It's also possible that they're making Bill's stutter situational for dramatic effect - he loses the stutter when he's with people he's comfortable with, like Georgie or the Losers, and gains it during times of great stress, like facing off against It.
    • The book also states that Bill's stutter was very mild around Georgie, so there's weight to it being situational.
  • "Until Georgie died, I stuttered moderately...After George died, it got a lot worse."
  • If you listen closely to a few lines, he does seem to have a very subtle stutter ("I s-saw something" in the first trailer and "G-Georgie wore galoshes" in the sewer clip).
• What is the point of the remake attempting to make Georgie's death a plot twist seem even remotely rational? He died in the book and died in the miniseries. The audience should already be expecting him to be dead. A better plot twist would be if Georgie was revealed to really have not been dead or the end being a cliffhanger that there may be a way to bring him back.
  • As explained on the main page, this particular change makes the film something of a Genre Throwback, though this Troper wouldn't be surprised if it's a case of Follow the Leader towards Stranger Things.
  • Apparently, it was done to make the rationale for the Losers seeking IT out more plausible— they're operating on hope, not revenge, and perhaps the loss-of-innocence theme was supposed to be stronger when Georgie's death comes as a shocking punch a la a "Shaggy Dog" Story.
  • Georgie's death isn't really a plot twist, as the only person who doesn't believe he's dead is Bill. Both Bill's dad and Eddie acknowledge early in the film that Georgie is gone. Bill's grief manifests in choosing to believe his brother might still be alive.
  • This decision seems to be made to give Bill a character arc. As the film is a Coming of Age Story he starts it off childishly believing that Georgie could still be alive, and through his Character Development comes to terms with the death. This also gives It an angle with which to attack Bill; if he believes Georgie is still alive, then It can trick him like It tries to do in the movie.
• Perhaps I simply fail at googling, but what is the source of the Losers believing Georgie was merely kidnapped by It? The only thing I've been able to find thus far is from the latest trailer, where Bill says "What if another Georgie goes missing?" This can certainly support that theory, but I had seen that trailer thrice already by the time I found out what it apparently alludes to. There must be more official sources that reveal it, because the line itself does not. After all, in the books the Losers know that Georgie is dead and they know that a lot of kids go missing, and they easily put two and two together and realize that those kids have been killed by the same monster who took Georgie's life. When I heard the line in the trailer I understood it as "those children who have gone missing must have been taken, and murdered, by the same being that killed Georgie - what if another child goes missing, who means as much to someone as Georgie meant to me?" Again, I don't doubt that them thinking Georgie was kidnapped and might still be alive could be true, I simply don't feel the trailer alone supports that conclusion. Bill seeing Georgie in the basement ought to be more than enough proof to him that his brother is not alive somewhere, wanting to come home.
  • For what it's worth, the pre-screened footage shown before Annabelle Creation features the scene of Georgie and Pennywise meeting at the sewer opening, and just before Georgie reaches to grab the boat out of Pennywise's hand, the screen smash-cuts to the title card. While this may edited differently in the final cut or simply be a case of Gory Discretion Shot (which would be odd given the film's R-rating), that they don't explicitly show Pennywise rip Georgie's arm off before killing him does provide credence to the "losers think Georgie's just been kidnapped" element.
    • In the movie itself, Georgie's parents and the rest of the Losers know Georgie is dead. It's Bill who's in denial and insists that he's only missing.
• Was the room with the tower of kill trophies and floating bodies supposed to be IT's true lair in the sewers? Also, does this mean the tiny door surrounded by bones, the cave, the Giant Spider, and the accompanying giant spider web will likely be axed from the sequel?
  • There's no reason it can't set up a new lair in the sequel. There's plenty of sewer to work with.
    • Confirmed in Chapter Two. IT's true lair is a large well with an asteroid crash site in the center.
  • Apparently an unused draft of the script had Bev floating up after being captured by Pennywise, seeing a shadowy figure with long limbs lurking through some sort of portal at the ceiling of the lair. There may be a lot more to that room that we haven't seen yet. And since the bodies were all floating down at the end, it's possible IT would just clear out all the bodies and collected objects to make way for a new lair.
  • Furthermore, IT's lair has a grate above it letting in sunlight from somewhere. Ergo, wouldn't it be possible to enter Pennywise's lair from above?
    • Who says it's sun light?
    • Earlier in the movie (I think when the bullies chase after Ben), the camera lingers on a sewer vent with a bars and moss even after the character in the shot walks out of the camera's eye. Possibly this could be the light coming from the ceiling and IT's lair lies below the sewer vent.
    • The sewer vent shown earlier in the movie is way too small to be the same source of light.
• Am I the only one who thinks the "adoption" of Pennywise and the Babadook as symbols as LGBT culture isn't a little wrong? The Babadook is a metaphor for mental illness, and Pennywise scares children, lures them, and kills them. Is this really what LGBT people want to be associated with?
  • You are taking it too seriously. The internet "adopted" Babadook as a gay icon after Netflix accidentally labeled the film an LGBT film. It was thrown in as a pair as a joke, but when a republican Christian got angered, people started promoting it just to be funny. The internet isn't seriously uplifting these figures as gay icons. It's a joke.
  • Furthermore, LGBT people (including fans of the film) are pretty divided — there are plenty of people who don't find the joke particularly funny for a variety of reasons (the stigma that all gay people are child predators, the murder of Adrian Mellon in the book, etc.) It's a meme, nobody voted on it.
• What was with that part after the kids finish beating the shit out of Pennywise and he clings the edge of the well repeating that tongue twister Bill repeats to himself to cope with his stutter, ending with "...Fear" before finally dropping down into the darkness?
  • A fair question. It's up to interpretation, but I read that final word as It feeling fear for the first time. Trying to imitate the secret of Bill's strength, not entirely comprehending that the phrase is just a talisman. He seems a little baffled within himself when he whispers the "Fear", which leads me to believe he's realizing how his own favorite seasoning feels.
  • Could the repetition of the rhyme be a last-gasp form of mimicry, like the way Pennywise mimics his victims' voices at other points? Pennywise might simply not understand the purpose of it, and the sophistication of his mimicry is sputtering out as he loses strength and the children become less afraid of him.
• How exactly does Stan get separated from the group in the sewer? People here keep writing that he "wandered off" but it looks more like he was teleported away. One moment he's in the tunnels with the others. Then Pennywise pops up, and Stan is suddenly alone in a totally different location. What exactly happened?
  • Just saw the film today and I have the same question. One second he's kneeling right behind everyone else, then he turns around and he's somewhere else. Yet It at no point shows the ability to physically teleport beings to other areas. It can alter areas and teleport itself anywhere it wishes for scare tactics, but It never moves anyone. Yet it seems as if teleportation is exactly what happened in Stan's case. The opposite of this is that he wandered off, but he himself seemed confused as to why no one else was around him, which wouldn't make sense if he had been the one to wander away from the group. Furthermore, why would he wander away from the group at that particular moment, when Mike was being attacked by Henry?
    • I read this as Stan's biggest fear changing from the spoopy painting to being left alone. All through the film after the initial haunting (which every character seems to get a taste of), Stan repeatedly says he's scared of his friends leaving him alone with the monster. When I watched the film I saw the reassurance of them all being there kinda be enough to comfort the other kids, but Stan's always the holdout. In the scene mentioned I just assumed 'It' used that fear as his foot-in-the-door and was able to make Stan's fear come true, 'It's MO. If it can create a reality where blood and hair are trying to kill you why can't it create a reality where one's friends abandon you? If that makes sense
  • In some ways, IT is playing mind games with not only with Stan, but with the audience as well.
    • When the group finds Stan, he's screaming about them abandoning him. It seems that there's a lot more to this scene than what we saw. It's possible the truth about what actually happened to Stan will be revealed in the sequel.
• When It appears to Bill as Georgie in the sewers, why does the illusion include his missing arm? It's not like Bill knew his arm was bitten off, and even if it was for the audience's benefit, it's hard to believe any viewer would seriously believe Georgie was still alive and running around the sewers to be in suspense as to whether or not he's the real Georgie.
  • It might have left it in the disguise as even in his denial, Bill could have been suspicious of seeing Georgie fine and intact after weeks of evading It in the sewers.
  • I think Georgie missing his arm gives the audience that slight bit of doubt and hope that the kid is still alive after more than six months. If he did have his arm back it would be certain from the beginning that it wasn't really Georgie.
• As noted under Spot the Thread, Bill catches on to It's disguise when "Georgie" refers to his paper boat in the neutral, rather than traditional female pronouns... except this makes no sense whatsoever. Not only is It at least five hundred years old by this point, it spent this time in a state where shipping is a major economic source. Wouldn't it be more likely that the real Georgie, after horrible trauma, would forget a minor detail, than It would make such a mistake?
  • It's not just the fact "Georgie" made a little mistake on boats, it's also the fact that deep down, Bill knows Georgie is dead and IT has taken the form of Georgie before as well. He's just coming to terms with the reality of his brother's fate and the thread helped him spot IT.
  • Georgie's initial mistake in calling the boat "it" isn't really a mistake at all — it's, after all, only a paper boat. The factor that turns it into a "she", a real vessel with a name, is the boys' imagination. Pennywise can't replicate the mindset that makes the boat more than an inanimate thing any more than Pennywise could authentically replicate Georgie's thoughts and feelings. All that aside, if nothing else the reminder of that tiny moment on the day of Georgie's disappearance might just jog Bill's memory of just how long George's been gone, the realistic odds he'd survive that long with only one arm, and how low-down Pennywise is for taking his dead brother's shape to yank on his heartstrings.
    • Isn't Bill's 'fear' that Georgie isn't dead? And that him and his parents abandoned little Georgie. So that's what Pennywise is being. I found the whole exchange more symbolic than literal to be honest, he pushed through the fear and accepted that his brother was dead. Which is grim, but it means he can't be standing in front of you guilt-tripping you about wanting to go home.
• What's up with Bev sticking the tape measure down the sink? Was she just trying to see if there was really anyone there or not?
  • For what it's worth, that was the reason she did it in the book after hearing voices.
  • If memory serves, she does it to see how deep the pipe goes to allow her to hear the voices so clearly. She wasn't expecting it to go anywhere near as far as it did, and that helps confirm to her that something is bending reality.
• How did Stan explain his injuries from the final confrontation with IT to his father?
  • "We were playing in the Quarry and I fell and hit some rocks."
  • "A dog bit me."
  • Of course, with how the other adults seem to be affected by IT's presence, it's entirely possible that his father barely noticed or otherwise wrote it off.
    • But It was defeated, so the parents weren't affected anymore until about 27 years later, won't they? So I personally think Stan really needed a good excuse for it, especially because he got treated for it.
  • Well kids rough house. A lot. They always end up with scrapes and bruises, and occasionally something worse. Stan could just say he fell off his bike when it tripped on something.
• Why didn't It start picking off The Losers as soon as they parted ways over their near death experiences at the Neibolt House? They're as scared as they're liable to be now, and unlikely to be in each other's company anytime soon, yet it sits with its thumb up its eldritch ass long enough for July to turn into August. It was just asking for trouble when it kidnapped Bev.
  • Because they hurt It. Quite a lot. In the house, the seven of them were able to come together and hurt It in a way It hadn't been before. It retreated because of that. Presumably It needed time to recover and come up with a new plan; It realised that popping up manifesting as the children's fears wasn't going to work anymore, so It needed a new strategy and kidnapped Bev.
  • Alternately It wanted to give them a Hope Spot, making them think they had won, so that it would terrify them all the more when Bev was kidnapped.
  • If It could have gone after them right after the incident then It would have. This sequence is Foreshadowing for It's eventual defeat. This is the first time the children have fought It together as one. They all banded together to fight back, which is what weakened it. The Power of Friendship is what will defeat It. It realises this so once It's recovered, It kidnaps Beverly in the hopes that will scare the children.
  • Right after this is also when It corrupts Henry into essentially a servant. It might have been afraid of facing the Losers again, so wanted to send a proxy after them to eliminate a threat. Henry doesn't go after the kids, maybe because It doesn't have fine control of him, but when Bev stands up to her father, It is attracted to her.
• I've read several times that John Oliver appears as an extra at a diner. I don't even remember a diner being in the movie. Does anybody know where I can spot him?
  • There is no diner scene in the film. I checked the deleted scenes and there doesn't appear to be one there either.
• After Pennywise bit his arm off, why didn't Georgie just use his remaining arm to help himself back on his feet to run away? In the moments before Pennywise grabbed him and dragged him under, he could've managed it.
  • He was in shock and terror of having lost his dominating arm; you can't get used to that so quickly, let alone if you're just a 6-year old child. And who's to say he would have managed it? It could just set off after him. It's no feat for a monstrous creature to catch up with an injured little boy.
  • I'll bet that if you're six years old (or indeed any age) and something rips one of your arms off, you're not going to be thinking about what to do next or how to use the resources you have left. You're going to be in shock, pain and terror that your arm was just ripped off.
• Something that bothers me a lot is how Pennywise captures Bill and starts to bargain with the other Losers until Richie grabs the baseball bat, ready to attack. Instead of killing Bill right there and there (by biting him or breaking his neck... anything at all) he just shoves him to the floor. Why didn't It just kill Bill?
  • It was trying to Break Them by Talking, offering the Losers a Sadistic Choice (and a deal on which It almost certainly would have reneged the first chance It got) to amp up their fear. Unfortunately for It, Richie and the other Losers decided they weren't afraid of It any more.
• How on earth would Henry Bowers survive that fall down the well if they do indeed bring him back. It'll probably be explained in Chapter 2, but til than, the way it was edited doesn't seem like something you'd be coming back from.
  • There's a chance that the sewer is running on Alien Geometries - Stan seems to get easily separated from the others thanks to some kind of change in the system. So maybe Henry looked like he fell down further than he actually did. Maybe he landed in some kind of pool that somehow softened the fall because It wanted to make use of him? We have to wait for Chapter 2 of course. Or maybe Henry did die and It will just use his form to torment the others.
• If I'm getting this right, It turns into the children's worst fears because it needs them to be afraid to eat them. But was It expecting, to use one example, Eddie to ever be more scared than right after he encountered the Leper for the first time at Neibolt? It kills other children right after scaring them; why does It scare the Losers then back off and give them time to recover?
  • Maybe he/she was still expirimenting against the protagonists, as they may have been stronger willed than his usual victims. But that's only a guess.
  • I reckon that the first scare was to put the idea in their head that It could attack again. Thus the children will be in fear that they could be attacked any day - and It can get them when they're even more afraid.
• Why don't the kids take Betty Ripsom's shoe to the police and tell them where they found it? They might get in trouble for going into the sewer but it's still a huge clue in Betty's case and lends credence to Bill's theory about Georgie's.
  • Because it's Derry, the police are probably hollywood cops. In other words. Completely useless.
  • True, but the kids don't know that yet, and it's not like showing them the shoe would hurt anything. And at the very least showing it to Bill's father might make him less dismissive of the Barrens theory.
  • The kids also don't want their parents to know where they've been. Eddie says "my mom will have an aneurysm" if she knows they're in the sewers. And at the age of twelve, getting in trouble with your parents usually overpowers rational thoughts on how to help a police investigation. Note that the kids are trying to look for a missing person themselves rather than trust the police to do so.
• How exactly is the old woman staring at Ben or the audience in the library terrifying? Her face is blurred so you can't see her. That's not scary at all.
  • Her face is blurred but you can still very much make out that the woman is standing there, staring, and smiling. It’s scary because 1) Ben isn’t aware of it but WE are and 2) it’s unnatural and out of place which means it’s Pennywise’s doing.
• Chapter Two states that IT has the weaknesses of whatever form it takes, which is why Eddie was almost able to kill IT when it was in the Leper disguise. So why and how did IT survive in the first film after Bill shot IT in the head with the bolt gun while it was disguised as Georgie?