Welcome to Thriller Recapped, Today, I will show you an American Psychological Thriller
film called “The Number 23”, Spoilers Ahead, watch out and take care.
The movie starts on the day of February 3rd, a man named Walter Sparrow is an animal control
officer, it’s his birthday and he is waiting for his shift to end, so he can meet his wife.
Then, a lady pages him for dispatch.
She seems to hate Walter, so she sends him 5 minutes before his shift ends to catch a
stray dog in a restaurant, he then prepares to trap the dog by telling him his life story.
Upon catching the dog, he is distracted by the name of Dog, Ned, and then Ned bites him
and manages to set free and escape.
Ned then goes to a cemetery, followed by Walter.
In cemetery he notices a grave for Laura Tollins.
Meanwhile, he is late, so his wife named Agatha is waiting for him, then she starts browsing
books, and she is mesmerized by a book titled, The Number 23, and she starts reading it.
He arrives there, she expresses how much he means to her, and she then buys the book as
a birthday present for him.
In background, Future Walter says that if he was never late in catching the dog, then
Agatha would have never red that book, and the chaos wouldn’t have started at all.
Later, they’re in the mood and they go to home to have a birthday sandwich, but the
kids are awake, so they stay outside, their son Robin, comes out and he interrupts them,
then they go inside.
He gives him a mug as a present.
Walter then starts reading the book, he reads about the main character, a detective in it,
who refers to himself as Fingerling.
The next day, he reads the chapter 2, Fingerling describes about his childhood in it, as a
kid he was top in his class, so that he can leave his home, He claims he loved his dad,
but he didn’t want to be like his dad.
Since, his dad was an accountant and he only cared about money, he says his neighbour is
the reason he became detective, neighbour’s dog used to come in their yard, and it was
his job to catch it.
He was prohibited from going to neighbour’s house, but he broke the rule on his 8th birthday,
and there he found the lady dead, doctors claimed that it was suicide, but he speculated
that it was done by a passionate serial killer.
And that’s how detective fingerling was born.
Then his wife interrupts him, and he asks her if she red this book earlier? and she
answers that the author is very creative.
However, Walter thinks this book has a lot of resemblance to his life as a kid, and it’s
like his childhood in it.
He shows her the book, and he mentions the incident of fingerling saying he went through
the similar events, and that is the reason he became animal control officer.
Their son gets home, and he asks If he is in the book and Walter continues reading.
In chapter 3, A woman named Fabrizia is Fingerling’s girlfriend, and they both are having a spicy
hormone sandwich.
The next day, Walter wakes up early and he goes to a park to read further.
In chapter 5, Fingerling is sent to a suicidal woman, she’s named Suicide Blonde, she is
about to take her life, but Fingerling tells her that it’s his birthday and he cannot
see anyone dying on his birthday, so she changes her mind, and she starts explaining her life
story to him, she tells him about her abusive ex-boyfriend.
She further shows him her writings on the wall about her theory on number 23, and she
believes that number 23 rules her world, she tells him that she was born on 23rd of the
month, and her favourite color is pink, which in the colour accent number is 23, she gives
more examples, he says he was listening to her, so he keeps her distracted from taking
her life.
He then cracks some jokes to make her smile and he leaves from there.
As he walks, she jumps from her apartment balcony to her death, fingerling is clearly
disappointed.
The next day, he went to see ex-boyfriend of Suicidal Blonde, and he is found dead as
well, he told Fabrizia about the apartment, and then she was turned on from the murder
scene and they had a feast there.
The more he researched about the blonde, the more he learnt about the number 23, even that
woman’s name alphabets on number had the total of number 23, Walter is stunned after
reading it, and he goes to the bookstore, he learns that the author only wrote one book
and there is no further information available about the author.
Later at home, Walter assigns numbers to his middle name, and it becomes the number 23,
and his birthday is 3rd February which is 23. and his social security number is full
of 23 as well.
He was born at 11:12pm and that adds to 23 as well.
She denies all theories and she reveals that in next chapter fingerling becomes a killer
but Walter is not a killer, and she wants to leave.
He then compares the wall colour of their house that it matches with the book cover,
further he claims that Fingerling met Fabrizia at the age of 23, and he met his wife at the
same age.
And they got married on 3th of October, which is also number 23.
Robin seems to be accepting his theories and robin calculates that their house number is
number 23 as well, and they moved on the date of 23rd, they both connect more and more dots
together.
Later, in chapter 7, the couple goes to a hotel, and they are told only room 23 is available,
and its 9:14 on the watch, which is also 23, Fingerling noticed all that.
Then they go to bed and Fabrizia is on fire, so she wants him to fantasize that he has
a knife, and he is about to kill her he says he can never hurt her, but she wants to fantasize
it.
From that moment, Fingerling started having nightmares about killing Fabrizia.
Walter gets a nightmare about Agatha as well; he counts the pair of shoes in their house,
and it adds to 23.
The next day, Agatha sees some notes written on Walter’s wrist saying kill her she is
concerned with Walter’s obsession, Agatha refers him to her friend, Isaac French, who
talks to him a bit, and Isaac speculates more to his theories by saying, blood takes 23
seconds to circulate, our planet earth moves on the axis of 23.5 which is 23 and 2+5, Isaac
speculates 23 is the number of devil and he suggests that Walter is being paranoid and
he recommends Walter to finish the book to find the answers he's looking for.
Isaac offers to speak to Agatha in the meantime.
In the book, Fingerling is pounding Fabrizia and counting the shoes, which is 23 pairs
of shoes.
Walter realizes they have 23 pair of shoes as well.
Fingerling tells his department shrink about his nightmares, and about the number 23.
Then Dr. Phoenix suggests he take a break from work, and he offers to speak to Fabrizia
as well.
Fabrizia does not find Fingerling's vacation appealing and she was turned on when he was
a detective only.
Later, after Fingerling discovers Fabrizia has 23 pairs of shoes he then destroys them,
causing Fabrizia to storm out of their apartment, calling him insane, she left the place at
9:14 which is 23, he thinks Suicidal Blonde died due to number 23, and now the number
is coming after him.
Sooner in his vacation time, Fingerling discovers Fabrizia is having an affair with Dr. Phoenix,
and he dreams of throwing Dr. Phoenix out of his apartment, Fingerling notices that
Dr. Phoenix was wearing a red tie, which is also number 23 in colour accent.
Walter remembers how Isaac wears the same tie as well, he begins growing paranoia of
Agatha and Isaac's friendship.
He then finds Isaac talking to his wife inside a store.
He then reads the book, In Chapter 21, Fabrizia and Dr. Phoenix are in a park, and they’re
seen having a hormone sandwich, Fingerling sees all this from the bushes.
Walter falls asleep and he has a nightmare that he's stabbed Agatha to death.
He wakes up fearing what's happening to him and his life, Walter then decides to leave
home for one night, leaving Agatha a note, that he wants to finish the book and clear
his head.
He then goes to the King Edward Hotel, and he decides to take room 23, the front desk
tells him that they’re experiencing some issues in the room.
However, he still takes it.
In the book chapter 22, Dr. Phoenix goes to meet Fabrizia, and he discovers a murdered
Fabrizia, stabbed to death.
Then the police arrest him, Fingerling flees the scene to a hotel where he, steps towards
the hotel balcony, mirroring Suicide Blonde's final moments.
The book ends abruptly, with no further information on Fingerling with empty pages.
Walter is that convinced the number had gone after Fingerling and now it’s going after
him.
Walter then spots Ned, and he decides to chase him, blaming the dog for making him late and
therefore having the curse in his life.
Ned runs back to the cemetery like last time and sits in front of a grave, Walter finally
catches Ned, and he looks at the collar, he learns that Ned also has number 23 in the
name, A priest arrives there and reveals that Ned is in care of a local church, since Ned
tends to visit the cemetery.
Ned recently favours a certain tombstone, Laura Tollins, who died on her 23rd birthday.
Walter is tired of the number 23; Priest reveals that they never found her body.
Walter goes back to home, and he realizes that the circumstances revolving Laura Tollins'
death is similar to the book's events and he believes Tollins' convicted killer is the
book's author, and the book is just a way of killer to confess things.
The next day, Walter decides to visit Kyle Flinch in prison, and he asks him what the
number means.
Kyle maintains his innocence that he didn’t kill her, and he denies both killing Laura
and writing the book.
Walter thinks about it, and he meets Agatha, and he explains that Since Kyle's name does
not add to 23, then he is convinced that he's innocent.
Robin, who has also read the book, finds two pages sticked together and he finds a hidden
address in it.
Hoping it's the author's address, the family send 23 empty packages to the address occupant,
in order to entrap them at the delivery office.
Agatha wants to be with him, and she assures him that he cannot hurt her.
The next day, they wait outside the post office, A suspicious looking man enters the post office
and when Walter confronts him, the man is suddenly terrified, telling Walter that he
should be dead, and he can’t be alive.
The man attacks Walter with a box cutter before slicing his own throat.
Agatha attempts to stop the bleeding and she tells Walter to take Robin home.
Before dying to his injuries, the man has notes written and he tells Agatha to go to
an institute.
Agatha calls Walter and she tells him that she will be home in a little while.
Agatha finds the man's former work ID badge, and she visits the institute, which is now
fenced off and abandoned.
She walks a bit, and she goes inside a room.
Sooner, she sees the room filled with notes, and she realizes that just like Walter, the
man is obsessed with the 23 enigma as well.
She then discovers a patient box labelled W. Sparrow which stands for her husband’s
name Walter Sparrow, but before she opens it, a figure approaches her from behind, and
she gets scared.
Meanwhile at home, Walter notices some hidden message in the book.
Then he and robin discover a secret message within the book, telling him to go to his
local park, and dig beneath its steps.
Walter and Robin visit the park, and they both dig beneath its 23rd step.
Sooner they discover a skeleton in it.
The two flee the site, then someone approaches the grave.
Walter calls the police from a phonebooth, However, upon returning the site they discover
the body has been removed.
The cop thinks they both are crazy, sooner Agatha arrives there with Isaac and she meets
them.
When driving home, Robin is raging out since they both saw the skeleton and he believes
in number 23 as well, but she denies it.
Ned is seen in the street, and he accelerates to run it over, but he couldn’t do it.
Walter then notices Agatha's muddy fingertips and realizes she might have moved the skeleton.
Walter confronts Agatha, believing she is the author who had murdered the book's publisher
to protect herself and removed the skeleton.
He then finds a knife in her purse.
After some pressure from Robin and Walter, Agatha admits only to moving the skeleton,
but she then reveals that at the psychic institute, she learnt that Walter wrote the book, she
shows him the box and the original copy of book with Walter’s name on it.
Isaac arrives there and Agatha shows Walter his old items, Walter begins partially remembering
his past and realizing it’s his items in the box, he then flees the home traumatized
from everything.
He goes to the King Edward Hotel.
Later, he rips down the wallpaper of room 23 and shockingly he discovers his past scribblings,
and the missing final chapter of the book, Chapter 23.
Walter reads and remembers the events that young Walter's mother killed herself, which
unfortunately, caused his father to do the same.
Walter's father, an accountant, failed to leave a suicide note, only his notebook containing
the 23 enigmas.
Few years later, in college Walter met Laura Tollins, they both started dating, she liked
spicy sausages a lot and she was turned on by danger and she fantasized to be killed.
Few weeks later, Tollins started flirting with her teacher Kyle Flinch, the man in prison
right now, to mess with Walter, upon seeing her cheating that brought back Walter's numeral
obsession with the number 23 again.
Tollins had an affair with Flinch, and she broke up with Walter writing him a note, but
Walter 'deciphered' her message in the note, and he was convinced that she was in danger,
and that the number wanted to kill her.
Later, Walter visited Tollins to warn her, but she threatened him with a knife and, she
made fun of him that he is pathetic just like his father and then she cut his arm.
Walter went into a disturbing state, and he stabbed her multiple times killing her.
Walter then fled with her body, and he proceeded to bury it under the park steps while Ned
witnessed it.
Kyle Flinch later arrived at her place, and he picked up the knife, incriminating himself.
Out of guilt, Walter arrived at the King Edward Hotel and began typewriting his suicide note
which quickly becomes the book, changing the details of his confession into a fantasy.
He removed the chapter 23rd from the book he wrote, and he wrote the true events all
over the room's walls, he was clearly in a disturbing state from the events, then he
jumped out the window to end his own life.
Walter survived his suicide attempt but due to his head trauma and survivors’ guilt
he was left with amnesia.
Walter was rehabilitated at the institute and after few months his brain blocked those
memories, he was then released and that’s how he met Agatha.
Meanwhile, one of his doctors had obtained Walter's novel and began to be consumed by
the number 23 obsession, eventually publishing it under the name Topsy Kretts.
Back in the present, Agatha finds Walter at the Hotel.
Walter remembers everything and tells Agatha he's a murderer, but Agatha argues that he
isn't the same person, and he was never a bad person, he was just sick and now he is
well, and a wonderful husband.
Walter is feeling guilty because a man is in prison the one his ex-had affair with.
Walter tells Agatha to leave before he kills anyone again.
Walter flees the hotel and runs into the street.
There, across the road Ned is staring at him.
As Walter stares at the dog a bus number 23 comes towards him at full speed.
Almost allowing himself to be run over, Walter steps out of the way at the last second when
he realizes his son is watching, not wanting to repeat the cycle his own father created
few years ago.
Walter then hugs both Agatha and Robin apologizing to them.
Later, A funeral procession takes place in front of Tollins' grave, where it is implied,
her body has finally been laid to rest.
And he finally understands that it's just a number, and he wants justice so Walter hands
himself in to the police, and he awaits sentencing and he is told a judge will likely go easy
on him due to handing himself in.
Then he sees the number 23 on the clock And the movie ends, let me know about your thoughts
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