Magnolia: The Number 82

In my last post on P.T. Anderson's film, Magnolia (1999), I discussed the references to Freemasonry in the film, and how those references became somewhat of theme that seems to have no real meaning, i.e. something that happens. There is another prevailing element in Magnolia that is scattered throughout the film as a sort of Easter egg: the number 82, or simply the number 8 and 2 together. I am fairly certain that 82 occurs in more instances than I am presenting them, but the following examples are the ones I was able to catch in the last two viewings of the film; in fact, it is something I never noticed before watching the film again for the purpose of writing the Freemasonry post. Unlike the Masonic references, the number 82 has a more definite place in the film that is relevant to the plot and the general theme of "something that happens" — one might even say that the number 82 has "meaning" in Magnolia.

Magnolia begins with three stories of strange coincidences, all of which are based in reality, though with many dramatic changes for the film.

Prisoner No. 82 (presumably Daniel Hill)

The first story is "The Account of Hanging Three Men": Joseph Green, Stanley Berry, and Daniel Hill, who murdered Sir Edmund William Godfrey in the town of Greenberry Hill on the 26^th of November 1911. (There was in reality a man named Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey who was mysteriously murdered on Primrose Hill, near Regent's Park, London on the 12^th of October 1678). In the film the strange coincidence is that the last names of the three murderers (i.e. Green, Berry, and Hill) create the name of the town, Greenberry Hill.

The three men were hanged, and the last of whom — presumably Daniel Hill — is inmate No. 82.

Craig Hansen's airtanker, No. 82.

The next story is that of a scuba diver, Delmer Darion, whose body was found up in a tree after a forest fire. Darion was scuba diving in a lake when an airtanker picked him up out of the lake and dropped him along with the lake water onto a nearby forest fire. (This is an urban legend that has circulated since the 1980s, and though there is one instance of a scuba diver being injured by an airtanker collecting water, never has a diver been taken up into the payload, as it is nearly impossible for a human to fit through the small aperture). The pilot of the airtanker, Craig Hansen, had been playing blackjack in a casino the previous day, whose blackjack dealer was Delmer Darion.

The number on Hansen's airtanker is 82.

"All I need is a two."

"That is an eight."

Furthermore concerning Delmer Darion and Craig Hansen is that Hansen attacked Darion because Hansen lost the hand. All he needed was two, but Darion laid an eight: 8 and 2.

 1961 AAFS awards dinner starts at 8:20 P.M.

The third and final opening story is that of a fail suicide that turned into a successful homicide of Sydney Barringer. The account is told by Dr. Donald Harper at the 1961 awards dinner for the American Association of Forensic Science. (In reality the story is a fictitious one about a boy named Ronald Opus, and was given by Donald Harper Mills, president of the American Academy of Forensic Science in 1987). The banquet began at 8:20 P.M.

Sydney Barringer about to jump with the number 82 on the parapet wall to his left.

Barringer apartment, No. 682

The account given is that of a boy, Sydney Barringer, decides to commit suicide because of his parents constant fighting, which always devolves into threats of violence with a gun. Sydney jumps, but would have survived because of a safety net below, but was killed by a shotgun blast from his father's gun that struck him as he passed the window to his family's apartment. The gun is usually unloaded, but Sydney had loaded it six days prior in hopes that one of his parents would finally kill the other, but instead it killed him. Thus Sydney became an accomplice to his own murder.

On the parapet wall that Sydney jumps from is the number 82 laid out in rope. The Barringer's apartment number is 682 — the 82^nd apartment on the sixth floor.

The middle two digits of the phone number for Seduce and Destroy is 82.

The film proper starts off with a television ad of Frank T.J. Mackey selling Seduce and Destroy, a self-help program for men who want to get laid (essentially a how-to guide to getting out of what is now called "the friend zone", and finally laying the girl who only sees the man as a friend): the phone number for ordering a copy of Seduce and Destroy has the number 82 as the middle two digits (on a touch-tone phone these numbers would translate into the letters T and A — tits and ass? — as the phone number spells out "TAME-HER"). This may be stretching and twisting the case, but it is not without merit.

"...if you are this person, please leave me a message at box number 8-2."

In the same opening title sequence as the Seduce and Destroy ad is a clip of Officer Jim Kurring going about his morning routine. At one point he his watching a dating service on television, which is airing his own advertisement for a significant other. His advertisement ends with "...if you are this person, please leave me a message at box number 8-2."

Analog clock at just past eight o'clock; presumably 8:02 A.M.

At the end of the opening title sequence is a scene of Officer Jim Kurring in the morning meeting at the police precinct. The analog clock on the back wall is a little past eight, and is presumably at 8:02 A.M. This is probably stretching it a bit, but, again, it is worth mentioning.

82% chance of rain.

Following the opening title sequence the day's weather forecast is given: "Partly Cloudy, 82% Chance of Rain." It is an absurdly precise probability of precipitation.

All of these occur within the first fifteen minutes of the film, and they are really the last of the 82s in the film until it reappears again later as a Biblical reference.

A man in the audience holds up a sign with "EXODUS 8:2" written on it (left).

A sign on a bus stop has "EXODUS 8:2" printed on it (left).

Billboard with "EXODUS 8:2" printed on it (left).

There are three instance of 82's reappearance later in the film: first, when the television show, What Do Kids Know?, begins and a man in the audience holds up a sign with "EXODUS 8:2" written on, to which a security personnel confiscates it; then later — after the rain clears but before it begins to rain frogs — the same Biblical chapter and verse are seen in an advertisement space on the side of bus stop, and a few minutes later as it begins to rain frogs the same thing is seen printed on a billboard.

Exodus 8:2 reads:

"And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs."(KJV)

This concerns the portion in Exodus when Moses is pleading with the Pharaoh to let the Jews go free or God will send seven plagues (to which God deliberately "hardens" the Pharaoh's heart so that he will refuse, thus inevitably unleashing the plagues). And so it happens in Magnolia that it rains frogs — one of those strange, naturally occurring phenomena. So who is the "them" that needs to be freed in Magnolia? Given that the first time we see "Exodus 8:2" written is on the kids' show, so the "them" is probably the kids, or at least Stanley, who is poorly treated by his father and presumably forced to play on the show so his father can take the money his son wins. Stan — who is not allowed to use the bathroom and ends up soiling his pants — at one point refuses to play the game and says:

"This isn't funny. This isn't cute. See the way we're looked at? Because I'm not a toy. I'm not a doll. The way we're looked at because you think we're cute? Because, what? I'm made to feel like a freak if I answer questions? Or I'm smart? Or I have to go to the bathroom? What is that, Jimmy? What is that?"

The situation of the father taking his son's money from the game show, What Do Kids Know?, that is currently befalling Stanley Spector is the same fate that befell "Quiz Kid" Donnie Smith, who was later struck by lightning and suffered brain damage. While Donnie is vomiting in the bathroom at the bar he can be heard reciting Exodus 20:5: "...the sins of the father laid upon the children..."

In fact, one general theme of Magnolia is that of sinful — or simply terrible — fathers: Frank Mackey's father, Earl Partridge, left him and his mother while his mother was dying; Claudia's father, Jimmy Gator, sexually abused her as a child; Craig Hansen (the water bomber pilot that picked up the scuba diver) is an "estranged father of four"; Sydney Barringer's parents constantly fought, and their fighting inevitably killed him; et cetera.

Thus it may be surmised that it is the children who need to be freed from the wickedness of their fathers or "the good Lord bring the rain in"... which so happened to be a deluge of frogs. Of course, given the complexity of the film, these elements can be parsed several different ways and yield a variety of interpretations.

But this not to say that the number 82 is related to the "sins of the father", albeit in way it is; rather 82 is related to those strange things — those mysterious matters of chance — that simply happen, and they happen all the time.