Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)

A young FBI agent disappears while investigating a murder miles from Twin Peaks that may be related to the future murder of Laura Palmer; the last week of the life of Laura Palmer is chronicled.

Director:

David Lynch

Writers:

David Lynch, Robert Engels

Stars:

Sheryl Lee, Ray Wise, Mädchen Amick

4 wins & 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sheryl Lee	...	Laura Palmer
Ray Wise	...	Leland Palmer
Mädchen Amick	...	Shelly Johnson
Dana Ashbrook	...	Bobby Briggs
Phoebe Augustine	...	Ronette Pulaski
David Bowie	...	Phillip Jeffries
Eric DaRe	...	Leo Johnson
Miguel Ferrer	...	Albert Rosenfeld
Pamela Gidley	...	Teresa Banks
Heather Graham	...	Annie Blackburn
Chris Isaak	...	Special Agent Chester Desmond
Moira Kelly	...	Donna Hayward
Peggy Lipton	...	Norma Jennings
David Lynch	...	Gordon Cole
James Marshall	...	James Hurley

Storyline

Essentially a prequel to David Lynch and Mark Frost's earlier TV series "Twin Peaks". The first half-hour or so concerns the investigation by FBI Agent Chet Desmond (Chris Isaak) and his partner Sam Stanley (Kiefer Sutherland) into the murder of night-shift waitress Teresa Banks in the small Washington state town of Deer Meadow. When Desmond finds a mysterious clue to the murder, he inexplicably disappears. The film then cuts to one year later in the nearby town of Twin Peaks and follows the events during the last week in the life of Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) a troubled teenage girl with two boyfriends; the hot-tempered rebel Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbrook) and quiet biker James Hurley (James Marshall), her drug addiction, and her relationship with her difficult (and possible schizophrenic) father Leland (Ray Wise), a story in which her violent murder was later to motivate much of the TV series. Contains a considerable amount of sex, drugs, violence, very loud music and inexplicable ...

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Plot Keywords:

surrealism | double life | incest | tragic female character | nonlinear timeline | 

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Taglines:

In a town like Twin Peaks, no one is innocent.

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Genres:

Drama | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong violence, sex, and drug content, and for language

Details

Country:

USA France

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 August 1992 (USA)

Also Known As:

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, Teresa Banks and the Last Seven Days of Laura Palmer

Filming Locations:

708 33rd St, Everett, Washington, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$10,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$1,813,559, 28 August 1992, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$4,160,851

Company Credits

Production Co:

New Line Cinema, CiBy 2000, Twin Peaks Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

134 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby DTS (DVD version) Dolby Digital (DVD version)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Kiefer Sutherland and Ray Wise later appeared on 24 (2001). Another 24 co-star, James Morrison, appeared in the sequel series Twin Peaks (2017).

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Goofs

Norma's hair is noticeably shorter than it was in the series, which takes place only a few days after the events of the film.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Gordon: [shouting very loud] GET ME SPECIAL AGENT CHESTER DESMOND OUT IN FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA!

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Alternate Versions

In Spain, there are two different dubbed versions: one of them, pretty rare and seen only on the TV channel Canal +, features almost all the same dubbed voices than the Spanish version of the series Twin Peaks , while the other, easier to find (but not much, being that in Spain the movie is hard to find any way), has no common dubbed voices with the series. None of these dubbed versions feature dubbing or subtitles for the Red Room and nightclub scenes.

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Connections

References Belle de Jour (1967)

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Soundtracks

Requiem In C Minor
Composed by Luigi Cherubini
Performed by The Ambrosian Singers and The Philharmonia Orchestra (as Philharmonia Orchestra),
Riccardo Muti, Conductor
Courtesy of Angel/EMI Classics
By Arrangement with CEMA Special Markets

User Reviews

The evil that (wo)men do

This remains my favorite of Lynch's "difficult" films of the last decade, which include "Lost Highway" and "Mulholland Dr." Absolutely no one can establish a mood of dread like Lynch, and this film is superlative in this respect. Images, sound design, and Sheryl Lee's near-miraculous performance all contribute to something much closer to a Horror Film than the genre with the actual namesake.

It seems that many fans of the Twin Peaks TV series were very disappointed with this film. I read over and over how "peakies" feel the movie lacks the "quirky, off-beat, kinda funny" tone of the TV series. Well, step back and consider something: the central themes of the movie AND the TV show are 1.) father-daughter incest, 2.) drug addiction, and 3.) murder. I guess we're all pretty desensitized, what with TV shows like "Law and Order" and Jerry Bruckheimer movies all purporting to give us action and thrills that are gritty and hard-bitten.

Lemme tell ya, that stuff ain't gritty and hard-bitten. Rape victims on TV shows are paper-thin stereotypes compared to the Laura Palmer of "Fire Walk With Me." Why? Because Lynch shows us the HORROR, the inescapable, fenced-into-a-corner hysterical inevitableness of a young girl who can't cope with her father's abuse of her, who then turns to drugs and increasingly can't cope with those either, and who finally sees the true tragedy of her life before it's even finished playing out. The wings disappear from the picture.

What "Fire Walk" offers in its portrait of evil and abuse is the full gamut of emotions, not just fear and anger (though there is plenty of that), but also aching, aching sadness, loneliness, abandonment. Lynch did a fairly good job of conveying this within the confines of a TV show with commercials (remember how the first half hour of the pilot was just people crying?), but in the movie he really gets to go town.

Incest and drug abuse are absolutely devastating. This movie is absolutely devastating, and so touches the truth.