The Machinist

The Machinist is a 2004 psychological thriller film directed by Brad Anderson and written by Scott Kosar. It stars Christian Bale as the title character, a machinist struggling with paranoia and delusion after being unable to sleep for an entire year. Jennifer Jason Leigh, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, John Sharian, and Michael Ironside appear in supporting roles.

The film drew attention due to Bale's commitment, having lost 62 pounds (28 kg) in preparation for his role. Upon release, The Machinist was well received by critics, with praise for Bale's performance, and grossed $8.2 million on a $5 million budget. In later years it has gained a cult status.^[5]

Trevor Reznik es un maquinista cuyo insomnio lo ha llevado a estar demacrado y solitario. Sus compañeros de trabajo terminan por volverse contra él cuando se ve involucrado en un accidente que provoca que uno de sus compañeros pierda el brazo izquierdo; Trevor estaba distraído por un compañero desconocido llamado Ivan. Sin embargo, nadie en la fábrica conoce a Ivan y no hay registros de él. Trevor encuentra consuelo en los brazos de Stevie, una prostituta , y con Maria, una camarera de un restaurante del aeropuerto que frecuenta. Lo persiguen imágenes recurrentes y objetos como el encendedor de cigarrillos de su coche adquieren un aire amenazador . Una misteriosa serie de notas adhesivas aparece en su refrigerador, representando un juego del ahorcado .

Estos incidentes vagos lo hunden aún más en la paranoia . Sin embargo, intenta entablar una relación con María. Se encuentran en un parque de atracciones y sube con su hijo Nicholas a una atracción oscura . La atracción comienza a mostrar imágenes cada vez más perturbadoras hasta que sus luces intermitentes provocan que Nicholas sufra un ataque epiléptico . Trevor sospecha que los extraños sucesos son un esfuerzo concertado para volverlo loco, al igual que ciertas pistas recurrentes, como una foto de Ivan pescando con Reynolds, compañero de trabajo de Trevor, que él interpreta como prueba de la existencia de Ivan. Otro incidente casi fatal en el trabajo provoca que Trevor arremeta contra sus compañeros; como resultado, es despedido. Cada vez más distraído y alienado, Trevor olvida pagar sus facturas de servicios públicos y le cortan la luz.

Trevor intenta rastrear la matrícula de Ivan. Cuando un empleado del DMV insiste en que la información personal no puede ser divulgada a menos que se haya cometido un delito, se arroja frente a un auto para acusar a Ivan de cometer un atropello y fuga . Presenta un informe policial con el número de matrícula de Ivan, solo para que le digan que el auto en cuestión es suyo, y que lo había reportado como pérdida total hace un año. Va a Stevie pero descubre la foto de pesca de Ivan y Reynolds enmarcada en su casa. La acusa de conspirar contra él con Ivan. Confundida, Stevie dice que la foto es de Reynolds y Trevor pescando, pero lo echa después de que él la insulta. Trevor va al restaurante del aeropuerto para Maria, pero le dicen que nunca han tenido una empleada llamada Maria. La camarera dice que ha atendido a Trevor todos los días durante un año, y, en todo ese tiempo, él habló tan poco que ella pensó que era mudo .

Trevor goes back home and sees Ivan take Nicholas into Trevor's apartment. Inside, Nicholas is nowhere to be seen. Ivan tells him "you know he's dead." Trevor, believing Ivan has killed Nicholas and his body is in the bathtub, kills Ivan, only to find the bathtub empty. He opens his refrigerator, which is leaking blood, to find rotting fish, matching those in the fishing photo, which he at last realizes was of himself with Reynolds, as Stevie had claimed; Trevor hallucinated Ivan in the photo. Trevor takes a rolled-up carpet containing Ivan's body to the ocean to dispose of it, only for the rug to unroll and reveal nothing inside. Ivan, unharmed, approaches Trevor, and laughs.

Back home, Trevor remembers that one year prior, when healthy, he ran over and killed a boy (Nicholas) after taking his eyes off the road to use the car's cigarette lighter, witnessed by the boy's mother (Maria). Trevor fled the scene, and the resulting guilt became the root of his insomnia, emaciation, and repressed memories. Ivan was a figment of Trevor's imagination, a manifestation of his guilt. He fills the missing letters on the hangman note, spelling out "killer". The next day, he briefly considers going to the airport to escape, but instead drives to the police, accompanied by Ivan, who bids him an approving farewell. Trevor enters the station and confesses to the hit-and-run. Police officers escort Trevor to a cell, where he's able to sleep for the first time in a year.

Despite its setting in California, the film was shot in its entirety in and around Barcelona, Spain. It was produced by the Fantastic Factory label of Filmax and Castelao Productions.

Christian Bale strenuously dieted for over four months prior to filming, as his character needed to look drastically thin. According to a biography of Bale written by his former assistant, this daily diet consisted of "water, an apple and one cup of coffee per day, with the occasional whiskey" (approximately 55–260 calories).^[7] According to the DVD commentary, he lost 62 pounds (28 kg), reducing his body weight to 120 pounds (54 kg). Bale wanted to continue down to 99 pounds (45 kg), but the filmmakers would not allow it due to health concerns. In fact, the target weight to which the 6 ft (183 cm) Bale dropped was intended for a much shorter actor, but Bale insisted on seeing if he could make it anyway.^[8] At the end of filming he was left with just six weeks to regain enough mass to be ready for the screen test for his role in Batman Begins, which he achieved through weightlifting and binging on pizzas and ice cream.^[9]

Brad Anderson hurt his back during filming and directed much of the film while lying on a gurney.^[10]

The name Trevor Reznik is derived from Trent Reznor, the founder and primary creative force behind the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, and the original script had Nine Inch Nails lyrics on the first page.^[10] Other Nine Inch Nails tributes include early press articles describing Reznik as experiencing a "downward spiral".

However, the strongest literary influence is the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky. In the DVD commentary, writer Scott Kosar states that he was influenced by Dostoevsky's novel The Double.

• The character Reznik is shown reading Dostoevsky's The Idiot early in the film.
• When Reznik is riding the "Route 666" attraction, one of the faux marquees reads Crime and Punishment.
• The number plate Reznik is reading from the red convertible (743 CRN) is the reverse of his Dodge (NRC 347).
• In Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, the character who is visited by a devil is named Ivan. In the 1969 film, Ivan and his devil are played by the same actor (Kirill Lavrov). At the end of the film, as Reznik is sitting in his cell, he's wearing a t-shirt reading "Justice Brothers".

The Machinist opened on 22 October 2004 in three theatres in North America and grossed $64,661 with an average of $21,553 per theatre ranking 45th at the box office. The film's widest release was 72 theatres and it grossed $1,082,715 in North America and $7,120,520 in other countries for a total of $8,203,235.^[2]

The Machinist has a score of 77% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 142 reviews and an average rating of 6.6/10. The critical consensus states: "Brad Anderson's dark psychological thriller about a sleepless factory worker is elevated by Christian Bale's astonishingly committed performance."^[11] On Metacritic the film has a score of 61 based on reviews from 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[12]

Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four and stated in his review for the film:

The director Brad Anderson, working from a screenplay by Scott Kosar, wants to convey a state of mind, and he and Bale do that with disturbing effectiveness. The photography by Xavi Gimenez and Charlie Jiminez is cold slates, blues and grays, the palate of despair. We see Trevor's world so clearly through his eyes that only gradually does it occur to us that every life is seen through a filter. We get up in the morning in possession of certain assumptions through which all of our experiences must filter. We cannot be rid of those assumptions, although an evolved person can at least try to take them into account. Most people never question their assumptions, and so reality exists for them as they think it does, whether it does or not. Some assumptions are necessary to make life bearable, such as the assumption that we will not die in the next 10 minutes. Others may lead us, as they lead Trevor, into a bleak solitude. Near the end of the movie, we understand him when he simply says, "I just want to sleep."^[13]

• List of Spanish films of 2004
• Fatal insomnia and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
• Insomnia (2002)
• A Beautiful Mind (2001)
• Memento (2000)

• The Machinist at IMDb
• The Machinist at Box Office Mojo