SPOILER NOTICE! The following article contains important spoilers for Mr. Harrigan’s phone. If you haven’t seen the new Netflix movie yet, continue at your own risk!
Being a faithful adaptation of Stephen King’s novel of the same name, that of John Lee Hancock Mr. Harrigan’s phone keeps a plot element like an open question. While it is clear that Donald Sutherland’s Mr. Harrigan attacks the afterlife in the name of Jaeden Martell’s Craig, what is never directly explained is the meaning of the mysterious texts the protagonist receives from the dead. King and the director deliberately gave them the chance to act, but now the writer has played his part in what Harrigan is trying to say.
Stephen King posted a message to his Twitter followers yesterday asking them to read the meaning of Mr Harrigan’s text messages and in a follow-up tweet he said he would reveal his thoughts today. keep his word, King posted his opinion about what the eponymous character is trying to say:
Messages from Mr. Harrigan’s haunted phone … and remember, that’s just my interpretation; I was never 100% sure .CCCx = Mr. Harrigan’s love CCC aa = It hurts, it hurts (as in “Aahhh!”) CCC sT = Craig, that’s enough (almost everyone is fine, me too)12 October 2022
Stephen King’s interpretation of the third text message matches Craig’s reading at the end of Mr. Harrigan’s phonebut his thoughts on the other two are fascinating in their impact on our interpretation of “CCC sT” as “stop”.
If “CCCx” is an expression of affection, then Mr. Harrigan telling Craig to stop seems like a suggestion for the good of the teenager. However, if “CCC aa” is Harrigan communicating the pain caused by obeying Craig’s violent orders, then one wonders if the request stems from the hope of ending his suffering and being left alone.
Regardless of the implications of this explanation, the far better thing about Stephen King’s Tweet is his reluctance to say “this is officially the meaning of texting”, even though he wrote the novel that was faithfully adapted to Netflix. (opens in a new tab). If King had wanted regular readers to know exactly what his lyrics mean, he probably would have included that information in the prose. He deliberately left the question unanswered because he wants people to think about it and there are no wrong answers in that atmosphere.
Do we still have to look? Mr. Harrigan’s phone to deepen your analysis and grab the film, it’s now available to watch with a Netflix subscription. If you want to go back to the source, the novel is contained in Le bus if it bleeds (opens in a new tab)which was released in 2020.
For more information on Stephen King, you can find out the full story of adaptations for the big and small screen through my weekly Stephen King Adaptation column and read all the projects in the works through our Upcoming Movies feature and on Stephen King TV, which it is updated regularly. .
Source: Cinemablend
