What do you think of the character (Prot) in the movie 'K-PAX', alien or just a human acting as a 'k-paxian?

Answer 1

Well i wont top Ghost Orchid!!
I think the movie is meant to lead you either way, that's what makes it such a good movie is the fact you can discus and give your theories and both parties could be right, and for those fantasy lovers you got your alien part of it and for the down to earth watchers you can say it was all psychological.
Me i like to go the alien way it would be nice to think Prot was watching over his friend.

Answer 2

I just saw this movie again last night on TBS. I like the idea of the impossible. So I wanted to believe he was an alien or an alien lived inside of him. He better have been! :))) Entertain me with something different not some guy acting like alien.

Answer 3

I think it really was an alien. I mean it would be too much of a coincidence that the light would pass over the camera and the mute girl what just disappear like that.

Answer 4

Alien.

Answer 5

i didn't like the movie at all...i thought it was goofy. the prot character was just a disturbed human being who couldn't deal with the real world so he acted as if he wasn' t of this world.

Answer 6

It's amazing because my roommate and I were discussing this recently. Personally, I think the movie nudges us towards believing he's a real alien...the last time I watched it, I went kinda nuts and searched online for an analysis I liked. Here's the one that I found the most useful:

-------------------------

In K-Pax we are lead down two alternate paths, one of an alien and one of a crazy man. Only one of the options can be the correct one. So which one is it? Well I think we have all the clues to point us in the right direction.

In the beginning of the movie we are presented with clues to who Prot really is: resistence to drugs, perception of ultraviolet light, knowledge of a far away planetary system, knowledge of physics ( at least the appearance of ), etc.

There were some issues, which could have gone either way. First of all, the whole family issue. Most people who have seen the movie feel the fact that Prot, who claimed K-Pax had no families, was as a result of Roberts’s family being murdered. However a highly evolved alien culture might very well utilize a highly evolved form of socialism or communism to the point where individual families are not utilized for the raising or education of children. In fact Prot, in more or less words describes the "man eat man greed based culture" as being primitive. After all the family is where problems often start. On K-Pax EVERYONE TEACHES EVERYONE (Important clue to the movie). Prot was a good teacher to his peers at the tard-farm. The counter argument again being Roberts murdered family, and K-Pax was a place that convienently had no families.

Prot had intimate knowledge of a distant planetary system. Seemingly we finally have our evidence. Unfortunately under hypnotic regression later in the movie we learn Robert engaged in astronomy as a hobby, which was apparently the counter argument. Although discovering planets in other solar systems seem out of the realm of the amateur astronomer to say the least.

All this while everyone at the mental institution wants to go with Prot back to K-Pax. Prot makes it very clear he can only take ONE individual with him. Keep this in mind for it is needed to understand the ending.

At this point we are left believing he probably is an alien. And then our theory is crushed. His out burst at the Doctors house and the hypnotic regression, now point us in the other direction to a deeply disturbed individual who had his family murdered and attempted suicide by drowning (hence the freak out over the sprinkler). It seems that Prot is an invention of Robert to isolate himself from his traumatic past. Everything is now pointing to the fact that he is a human. The doc finds the pencil, talks to the sheriff of the town it happened in, and learns the body of Robert was never found.

We are left believing we now have our answer. He is a crazy man roaming the streets of America.

It is fast approaching Prots departure date, the staff of the hospital feel he might do something rash when he goes nowhere. A party is thrown and the doc finally confronts Prot with Roberts past. Prot is shown a picture of Robert. Unshaken, Prot will only admit there is a possibility he is Robert if the doc admits there is a possibility Prot is from K-Pax (could he be both?). Prot makes the shocking statement for the Doctor to TAKE CARE OF ROBERT WHEN PROT LEAVES. This is very important to understanding the ending. So at this point, we know, Prot knows Robert is staying.

The party for Prot is now ending and everyone is turning in their essays to be the one person to return to K-Pax. Bess crushes up her essay and does not turn it in. Prot finds the essay and takes it with the rest of the essays (VERY IMPORTANT CLUE).

Prots departure time is close and he is placed on a mild suicide watch. The doc. is supposed to be there in his room but he oversleeps. No one actually sees the exact moment. Robert is found under the bed, and BESS is gone. On Bess's bed we see her essay which PROT WAS THE LAST ONE TO HAVE POSESSION OF.

The Doc. continues to treat Robert (formally Prot) and Bess is never found. Learning from his relationship with Prot/Robert the Doc. decides to repair relationships in his life.

At his point, it all comes full circle. Prot was in fact an alien form the planet K-Pax. Prot inhabited the body of Robert as Robert was committing suicide. Explaining why under regression Prot was in fact Robert. In the hospital Prot claimed he could only take one person on his return to K-Pax. He told the doc to take care of Robert and chose the person who was finished with their life on Earth (Bess). She had no home much like Robert. Prot then inhabited the body of Bess, left her essay on her bed, and returned to K-Pax.

.... And while he was here, Prot was the Psychiatrist’s teacher, as well as a teacher to others. Much like it would have been on K-Pax.

After the credits, if you watch through them, you will finally see the doctor looking up at the stars through a telescope. Cluing you in as to what he felt in the end.

(User: Absolutzero)

-------------------------

So that's what I think, anyway...how about you? (And for the record, I'm a psychology geek, and I'd rather think it was all psychological.)

Best of luck and happy Kpax-analyzing!

Answer 7

I liked him and really believed the alien thing, even when I found out that he was just nuts, I STILL liked the character. I really like Kevin Spacey.

Answer 8

he better have been an alien or that movie was a waste of time to watch.

Answer 9

That's subjective. It's never really spelled out in the movie, so it's open to the viewer's own interpretation.

Answer 10

A mental retard that is what I think. I saw the movie twice.