Fire Walk With Me: The Missing Pieces

There’s always been a dichotomy between Twin Peaks as originally conceived by David Lynch and Mark Frost and subsequent TP material; it was created to be a soap opera without a definite ending. This wasn’t unprecedented. Other soap operas have gone on for many decades and TP‘s closest antecedent, the horror/romance Dark Shadows, ran for 1,225 episodes (and two feature films). Lynch and Frost never wanted to reveal who killed Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), the show’s initial hook, but ABC wouldn’t allow the show to continue without the producers resolving this mystery. For Laura’s killer and rapist to be her demon-infested father, Leland (Ray Wise/Frank Silva), was probably more than ABC had bargained for. When Leland likewise kills Laura’s look-alike cousin, Madeleine, in a scene remarkable for its brutality in any age of TV history, it could almost be seen as an act of revenge against the TV executives.

1992’s feature film, Fire Walk With Me, is Lynch’s prequel to TP, showing the FBI’s investigation in the murder of the earlier eluded-to Teresa Banks (Pamela Gidley) and the bizarre, time-jumping appearance in the FBI offices of Philip Jeffries (David Bowie), to be continued in 2017’s Twin Peaks: The Return. The film then jumps ahead a year to the week leading up to Twin Peaks Season One’s pilot, concentrating on the life of Laura Palmer before her brutal murder.

Fire Walk With Me was a critical (at the time) and financial flop in the US. It was darker and stranger than your average TP fan was expecting or wanting. Because Lynch directed approximately four hours of material (almost as if he were directing a TV series again), half the material was left on the cutting floor (the film as released was a long 134 minutes). In order to focus the film on Laura and create a film short enough to be released in theatres, many scenes of TP regulars were cut from the film, This had the result (whether good or bad) of tilting the tone and mood of the film towards dread and horror.

As Twin Peaks was, several years ago, being prepared for Blu-ray and plans were bubbling for Twin Peaks: The Return, the decision was made for Lynch to compile and edit a feature-length film of scenes not included in FWWM, with new music composed for the film by longtime Lynch collaborator Angelo Badalamenti. The Missing Pieces premiered on July 16, 2014, in Los Angeles’ Vista Theatre. It contains more scenes than can be discussed or even mentioned in this review, but here are some of the more noteworthy:

  • An extended scene with Agent Desmond (Chris Isaak) and Sam (Kiefer Sutherland) at Hap’s Diner (the sign of the crying clown).
  • A wonderful scene of Desmond brawling and savagely defeating the corrupt and sarcastic Sheriff Cable of Deer Meadow (Gary Bullock).
  • Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) talking to Diane, the colleague he reports to throughout TW. She’s unseen. It’s almost sad seeing a happy Coop, a year before his doomed quarter century of brain-deadening existence in the Black Lodge. Otherwise, its a heart-warmer, bright and sunny.
  • We do see Sam (after Desmond’s disappearance) showing Cooper the letter found under Teresa Banks’ fingernail – the reason Cooper later suspects there will be one under Laura Palmer’s nail.
  • A (literally) electrifying Black Lodge scene with Bob and The Man from Another Place (Michael J. Anderson), which also incorporates ethereal figures similar to the “woodsmen” we see in The Return.
  • An extended scene with Philip Jeffries allows the film as shown in theaters to make much more sense; we see where he was before and after his bizarre appearance in Gordon Cole (David Lynch)’s office and he tells of being in the Black Lodge.
  • We finally enter the town of Twin Peaks proper. It’s funny now seeing Mike and Bobby worrying about they’re going to be paying back Leo’s drug money (such a long plot-line in Season One), not knowing he’ll soon be a Frankensteinesque zombie.
  • A delightful scene at the Palmer home reveals how the tone of FWWM could have varied; Leland (the real Leland) in a playful mood stomps into the dining room shouting “Hello Sarah. Hello, Laura. Where’s my Ax? I’m HUNGRRYYY!!” It ends with Laura and Sarah (Grace Zabriskie) in incessant laughter. Without this scene, the impression is given that life in the Palmer household is a non-stop horror show.
  • A very funny scene with banker Dell Mibbler (Ed Wright), Josie Packard (Joan Chen), Pete Martell (Jack Nance) arguing over the length and width of two-by-fours. It’s again heartwarming to see Josie in this prequel scene so unencumbered by her later dangerous intrigue (she later kills herself and becomes a drawer knob!). The scene is also melancholy, as it’s the last scene shot of Jack Nance in the TP universe (the actor famous for Eraserhead tragically died in 1996 after getting hit in the head by a brawling kid outside a donut shop).
  • An important scene takes place in the Hayward living room showing the love and acceptance Laura gets from friend Donna’s family. It’s so nice to see Mark Frost’s father again, playing Will Hayward and Mary Jo Deschanel as his wife. It also shows that he intuits there’s something wrong going on at the Palmer place.
  • Indeed, there is. A particularly creepy scene takes place under the infamous Palmer stairwell ceiling fan, where Bob begins taking control of Laura’s mind and body “I want to taste through your mouth”.
  • At night, Norma Jennings (Peggy Lipton) and Ed Hurly (Everett McGill) enjoy time together in his truck (in a scene that seems partly improvised), laughing and listening to music together; a stark contrast to Ed’s scene 25 years later in TPTR, alone in his gas station, eating soup from a cardboard cup, with Norma infatuated with a man trying to run (or take over) her business.
  • One of my favorite scenes: Leland leaves the house telling Laura, “Now, don’t forget, it’s Johnny Horne’s birthday today.” Several beats go by after he leaves; then Sarah sardonically says to Laura, “Don’t forget.”
  • A series of scenes with (future Bob victim) Theresa Banks help explain her role in FWWM. She’s showing initially contacted by Leland/Bob, shown wearing The Ring and shown blackmailing Leland.
  • The Missing Pieces‘ scariest scene involves no sex, gore or violence. Laura hides in her front yard bushes one night when Leland comes home. As he walks up the steps, he twice turns and looks directly at her in the bushes, with insane rage in his face; then both times continues walking as if he saw nothing.

Importantly, The Missing Pieces features scenes which also take place immediately after TP Season Two:

  • Annie Blackburn (Heather Graham) is shown hurried to a hospital emergency room where she tells her befuddled nurse that Dale Cooper is trapped in the Black Lodge. Like a scene from The Lord of the Rings, the nurse takes The Ring from Annie’s finger and mesmerizingly puts it on her own (presumably to become Bob’s next victim).
  • The scene ending Twin Peaks Season Two, with Dark Cooper smashing his head against the hotel mirror is re-shot and extended.

In its initial run, I was unhappy with the ending of TP Season Two, not realizing that the “real” Cooper was still in the Lodge and not realizing that this was a storyline which would continue decades later.

Fire Walk With Me: The Missing Pieces is available on both the Criterion edition of Fire Walk With Me and on the new Twin Peaks Blu-ray boxed set.

It’s hoped all The Missing Pieces, now that they’re properly restored, can be inserted into their proper places in Fire, so that the movie can be experienced as originally conceived.