Haute Tension: Encyclopedia II - Haute Tension - Clues leading to The Twist

Haute Tension - Clues leading to The Twist

At the film's conclusion, viewers discover that Marie is the killer; the insane truck driver is only her split personality. Alex, in turn, is abducted by Marie because she is the latter's love interest.

A la The Sixth Sense, "clues" were filmed within the story to keep viewers guessing before the film's infamous "twist", before it was unveiled. But (according to the supplemental commentary on the DVD release), due to time and budget constraints, most of them had to be cut. However, a few of these said "clues" do exist in Haute Tension, among them:

• The back of Marie's shirt reads, in Latin, Audaces Solum, or, roughly translated, "Boldly Alone", which alludes how Marie committed the murders. An alternative translation would be "Only the Brave", as in "None but the brave deserve the fair" from John Dryden's Alexander's Feast.

• Also, Marie tells Alex about her dream at the beginning of the film ("I was alone... but it was me chasing me...")

• When Marie tries to console Alex, Alex backs away in fear or cries out loudly. This scenario is repeated several times.

• When Alex's mother is murdered, her last words are, "why me?". Viewers ambiguously mistake the mother to say this out loud to no one in particular, but most likely she asks this question directly to Marie before she dies.

• When Marie is descending the stairs from her room we see a shot of her bare feet as she is climbing down the stairs. The soles of her feet are bloody just like the killer's boots.

• After realizing there's no phone outlet, Marie stares at a doll with a crack down her face, a symbol that a change of personalities or split has occured.

• The shot of the killers hands dispensing the bullets out the window are female hands.

• Marie strikes the killer in the exact same place she received her head injury in the car.

• The killer is aware of Alex's name, as he asks Marie 'Why do you care so much about Alex?'

Much like The Sixth Sense or the plot twist in The Usual Suspects, the "clues" in Haute Tension become clearer with subsequent viewings.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Clues leading to The Twist", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki