The Nines

The Nines is a 2007 American science fiction psychological thriller film written and directed by John August, and starring Ryan Reynolds, Hope Davis, Melissa McCarthy, and Elle Fanning.

Three seemingly disconnected stories, revolving around the lives of a troubled actor, a television show runner, and finally a successful videogame designer are later shown to be intertwined in mysterious and unsettling ways.

The film debuted at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and made $63,165 in the U.S. box office through October 11, 2007.^[1]

All three chapters of the film are centered around three men (all played by Ryan Reynolds) who try to uncover the secret about strange happenings in their, at times overlapping, lives.

Part One: The Prisoner

Troubled actor Gary, who is wearing a green bracelet, is under house arrest living in another person's house as he burned down his own. The owner of the house is described as a TV writer away on work. While living there house, he is befriended by both a P.R. "handler", Margaret, and the single mom next door, Sarah, who seems interested in him romantically.

Gary becomes obsessed with the number nine, including finding a note in his own handwriting saying "Look for the nines". He finds it over and over: while playing backgammon, he rolls nines; while reading newspaper advertisements, he sees them everywhere.

Asking Sarah about the number 9 concerns her. She cryptically tells him: "I can get you out of here". He sees different versions of himself around the house, which unsettles him, so he breaks out of his house arrest barrier which in turn destroys reality in a blinding flash.

Part Two: Reality Television

Television writer Gavin is trying to get his pilot produced, for his TV show, Knowing. It is about a mother and daughter who are lost, starring his friend Melissa McCarthy as the lead. In a conversation about reviews and critics Susan, a television executive and producer of the show, tells Gavin to look for the nines, which he then writes on a postit, the same one Gary found in Part One. He also tells Melissa that he thinks he is haunted by himself.

In post-production, Susan pushes for Gavin to ditch Melissa, the unconventional lead of his project, in favor of a more attractive, well-known actress. This causes an argument between him and Melissa. He then discovers the proposed actress was actually cast in another show, which Susan already knew.

Now without a lead, as Melissa will not answer Gavin's calls, he confronts Susan about her knowing that his show would never get picked up and about him only being a subject on a reality television show. After a heated exchange, he snaps and slaps her.

Seemingly insulting his manhood for hitting a woman, Susan scoffs: "Do you feel like a man?" and walks away, which leads to him telling the reality TV cameraman to leave him alone. A pedestrian then asks him to whom he is talking, and it is shown that the reality television cameraman does not exist. He looks around and notices that everyone has a "7" floating above their heads and also that he has a "9" floating above his own.

A flashback shows Gary's P.R. handler, Margaret, telling him he is God, a nine like the angels, and humans are sevens (koalas, incidentally, are eights because they control weather). He created the world and can destroy it with a single thought. He exists in many different forms, none of which are real. Gary does not believe this and becomes distraught, which is the real reason he broke his house arrest barrier.

Part Three: Knowing

Acclaimed video game designer Gabriel's car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. So he leaves his wife Mary and young daughter Noelle to get a better signal on his phone. Meeting Sierra, she leads him off into the woods to her car, to supposedly give him a lift to the gas station. Meanwhile, back at the car Noelle watches a video on a digital camera of Gavin talking to Melissa from Part Two and Margaret talking to Gary in Part One. Confused, she shows her mom, who is also confused.

Meanwhile, Gabriel becomes ill as Sierra drugged his water with GHB. In all of the stories, as Sarah, Sierra and Susan, she has been trying to separate him from Mary/Melissa/Margaret and make him realize that none of these lives are real. She says that this is an intervention, and she and the other recurring characters have been trying to help him remember that he is not human, but God, who has absorbed himself in various human incarnations for 4000 years. She likens Gabriel's addiction to video game addiction. He is needed back home, a place that cannot be imagined with human thoughts or described in human words.

Gabriel returns to the car and the family goes home. Mary realises Gabriel has remembered his reality and needs to leave. He tells her that there were ninety different variations of the universe, and this is the last one. Gabriel removes the green string from his wrist and the universe morphs into something else.

At film's end, Melissa McCarthy's character married to Ben, to whom she had been married in Part Two, with Noelle as their daughter. Noelle tells her mother that "He's not coming back" and that "He put all the pieces together", and her mother finishes her sentence that this is "the best of all possible worlds."

According to August, the film was inspired by his experiences on his TV series D.C.. He developed the script further over the years, partially making it a quasi-sequel to his short film God (also featuring Melissa McCarthy).^[2] The movie was shot over 22 days in Los Angeles and two days in New York,^[3] with some scenes in John August's house.^[4] The movie was shot in a combination of video and film with everything being posted in high-definition.^[3]

• "You Keep Me Hangin' On" Performed by The Ferris Wheel
• "Trucha" Performed by Ghostman MC
• "Alive Transmission" Performed by The Shys
• "Hang On Little Tomato" Performed by Pink Martini
• "Is That All There Is" Performed by Hope Davis
• "Paper Plane" Performed by Persephone's Bees
• "Teenage Villain" Written by Keith Mansfield
• "Bang Bang to the Rock 'N' Roll" Performed by Gabin
• "Comet Samba" Performed by Cabaret Diosa
• "Monokini Ou Bikini" Performed by Georges Deligny
• "Romantico Bosanova" Written by Philippe Bestion
• "As Long as He Needs Me" Performed by Melissa McCarthy
• "Multiply" Performed by Jamie Lidell
• "Sugar Town" Performed by Juliet Turner
• "Myopia" Performed by The Skeem
• "Tears Coming Home" Performed by Sébastien Schuller
• "Chopin Nocturne 1, Opus 32" Performed by Danielle Luppi
• "The Other Side of Mt. Heart Attack" Performed by Liars
• "The Finish Line" Performed by Snow Patrol

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 65% based on 60 reviews, with an average critical rating of 5.93/10.^[5] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 52 out of 100, indicating "mixed or average reviews", based on 12 reviews: 6 positive, 3 mixed, and 3 negative.^[6]

Dennis Harvey of Variety wrote: "The Nines arcs from witty Hollywood insiderdom to a climactic metaphysical leap that may leave many viewers nonplussed. Nonetheless, there's more than enough intelligence, intrigue and performance dazzle to make this an adventuresome gizmo for grownups."^[7]

34th Saturn Awards nomination for Best DVD release.^[8]

• Official website
• The Nines at IMDb