First part…..really good………then ape man showed up and got bad
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Altered States
punkypwap — 18 years ago(August 23, 2007 10:54 AM)
The first part of this movie was really trippy and creepy and was pretty good. But when the apeman shows up things started to get really stupid. It seemed like movie became one of those old 60's/70's monster slasher movies with a bunch of dorky scientists sitting and walking around talking about stuff the audience barely understands and it goes on forever.
And something I noticed..the ending of this movie with William Hurt pounding against the wall to become his oldself reminded me of the ending of a-ha's video "Take On Me". Check it out and you'll see the resemblence. -
filMADicted — 18 years ago(September 01, 2007 10:00 PM)
this movie may i say is an astonishing work of visual art. absolutly beautiful.
i will say the apeman scene was kinda bad. the idea wasn't bad but the scene seemed really corney to me. omg that tweak out scene newar the end good god that is as close as it gets to a visual orgasm. -
achooJudasChrist — 18 years ago(September 15, 2007 12:51 AM)
I totally agree. The movie was intense and visually stunning until that apeman BS. The lame interpretaive running, the ricotta cheesy noises/screams he yelped, weren't his eyes electric blue also? Really lame especially since I thought it was a great film before all that ape crap. I would recommed it to friends but warn them that it get's pretty cheesy at a certain ponit but the 1st half is a must see
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gnolti — 18 years ago(September 15, 2007 05:12 AM)
The ape man takes up maybe fifteen minutes of the film. The story is after all about Ed Jessup's regression to the "First Thought", which is why the ape man is only one phase of the transformation. Maybe the scene could have been shortened, but it was essential to the process.
Sorry, I wasn't listening or thinking, whichever one applies. -
scarlettsdad — 10 years ago(November 11, 2015 02:09 PM)
I don't think he was an ape man, but a prehistoric man. The character had gone back to his "first form." That may be what you're all referring to as an ape man or what the radiologist called "a gorilla," but the two would be different.
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LorqVonRay1999 — 5 months ago(October 27, 2025 12:09 AM)
The first third of this film is outstanding, great acting, the story compelling.
Then the devolving into the caveman scene showed up. And from that point on the film fell apart, including the silly ending and everyone had to know he was finally going to tell her that thing he couldn't before.
I guess some scenes are trippy and meant to inspire, evoke emotions through images ala 2001. But even though some of those were well done it added very little to the film.
Lost in all that are some fine performances, particularly William Hurt. In the hands of a better director this could have been a masterpiece.