Mr Nobody: pigeon superstition

Title: Mr. Nobody
Year: 2009
Director: Jaco Van Dormael
Running time: 133 min.
Country: Belgium




It is very interesting to find a non-pigeon-oriented film (I mean, not a documentary about pigeons) where the main credits are exclusively devoted to a beautiful dove. And of top of that, to illustrate how clever the animal is at solving complex tasks.  Indirectly, this scene also introduces us to "pigeon superstitious animal behaviour".

In the scene we can see how a dove is trying to catch a piece of food. Unfortunately, the tasty meal is too high and the bird cannot reach it.

Oops!!! The pigeon realises that the food is too high.

The suspense level dramatically increases when the dove notices the existence of a pedestal than can be used to reach a higher position but it is too far away from the food.

However, the dove is able to drag it using its beak, and finally, in a quite surprising way, leverages it to reach the tasty meal. From the bird's perspective, this is a happy end to the story.

The pigeon is dragging the pedestal

And finally gets the food

If this scene was not enough birdy propaganda, the film producers use additional time in the film's credits to  show more experiments (in black and white) showcasing pigeons solving complex tasks.  The complete scene can be seen here.

In the following experiment we can see the presence of superstition in pigeons. In the experiment, some food was automatically provided to the pigeons at regular intervals of time, with independence of the animal's conduct. What happened was that the pigeons seemed to associate the delivery of the food with the actions they had been doing before and, with the intention of obtaining more food, they continued  to perform the same actions

A happy superstitious pigeon.

The interesting thing about this theory was it's link with human behaviour.

The experiment might be said to demonstrate a sort of superstition. The bird behaves as if there were a causal relation between its behavior and the presentation of food, although such a relation is lacking. There are many analogies in human behavior. Rituals for changing one's fortune at cards are good examples. A few accidental connections between a ritual and favorable consequences suffice to set up and maintain the behavior in spite of many unreinforced instances. The bowler who has released a ball down the alley but continues to behave as if she were controlling it by twisting and turning her arm and shoulder is another case in point. These behaviors have, of course, no real effect upon one's luck or upon a ball half way down an alley, just as in the present case the food would appear as often if the pigeon did nothing—or, more strictly speaking, did something else.

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source:  Mr Nobody. Starring moment: 0:1:13.
• Pigeon activity: Pigeons and doves appear solving complex tasks and proving that they can exhibit complex behaviours. 
• Symbolism: High. This scene can be seen as a allegory of the different choices that one person makes in his life and how they change his/her destiny. 
• Relevance: Low. It is surprising to see how such pigeon-intensive credits have no relevance to the film's plot. 
• Training level: Medium. Some of the pigeons were subjected to an artificial environment that causes the behaviours described in this post. 

Matrix: are there pigeons in Matrix?

Title: Matrix
Year:  1999
Directors: Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski
Running time: 131 min.
Country: United States

Are there pigeons in Matrix?  This is a tricky question that requires some analysis. Firstly, I would like to remark that there are pigeons appearances in the film: during Neo's training, he and Morpheus enter a program that recreates Matrix. Suddenly, everything in frozen and Neo meets face to face with a reproduction of Agent Smith. In the following images we can see a couple of these feathered creatures behind Neo and two other more in from of him, far away.  The complete scene can be seen here. In the film scene Neo and Morpheus are more interested in the deadly agent than in the flying pigeons - logically. However, neither both of them are surprised about the pigeons' presence... which means that both of them are used to seeing pigeons... given that both of them come from Matrix. That means that yes, there are pigeons in Matrix. Otherwise, they wouldn't be used in this scene.

However, this answer raises another question that is even more intriguing: are pigeons real creatures in Matrix or are they mere software reproductions? A lot of analysis has been done on the agent role but a little attention was paid to the pigeon appearances and their significance in the film.

According to the Second Renaissance story of Animatrix, humans and machines fought a war that completely devastated the Earth and ended with mankind's demise. Humans, in a desperate attempt to deprive the machines of solar energy, completely darkened the skies. In the end the humans were defeated and machines destroyed all traces of civilization, enslaving the remaining survivors. Meanwhile, without light, all the vegetation died and the natural food pyramid collapsed killing all the living animals. The lack of plant life is a very depressing scenario that is also reflected in other movies like John Hillcoat's The Road (it is a shame that the birds that appear in this movie are not pigeons).

So... what about pigeons? There are two possible scenarios for their presence in Matrix:

• Scenario A: all the pigeons died during the war but the machines recreated them as software applications. That is, pigeons are mere artificial programs that are working for Matrix itself.
• Scenario B: a pigeon fancier survived the holocaust with his birds. After the war both fancier and pigeons were captured by the machines and subsequently enslaved. It is also possible that some urban pigeons survived alone. In both cases pigeons are real creatures trapped, like humans, by the machines.

 In the following sections I will analyze each scenario in more detail. 

Scenerario A: pigeons as artificial programs

In this scenario the pigeons are mere programs belonging to Matrix. Why are they used? Why not just leave them out? The straightforward anwser is to produce a realistic city recreation... in the end, a city without pigeons is not city at all, is it? However, there is a darker reason for using artificial pigeons: they can be employed as a surveillance system. In this hypothesis, pigeons are like agents, they work for Matrix but in a more passive way: instead of killing human rebels, they only gather information. For instance, when you are in any city or big town you can find pigeons everywhere...  now try to imagine that each one is recording and reporting your actions....terrible!! What about if we are actually in Matrix and pigeons are spying on us? After thinking about this, now I notice pigeons in a different and more sinister way.

Artist's concepcion of a surveillance Agent Pigeon and its dark shadow

Artist's concepcion of a surveillance Agent Pigeon

Scenerario B: pigeons as real trapped creatures in Matrix

In this scenario some pigeons survived the human holocaust and were captured with the remaining human survivors. Machines needed an alternative power source and discovered that humans could be used as batteries. Why not use pigeons in the same way? Of course, they would be smaller batteries, so pigeons have less power than humans, but they also have better reliability which can be advantageous.  For instance, they will never revolt against Machines. In this scenario pigeons will live in Matrix with infinite joy  populating all the buildings and not causing the system any problems.

In Matrix Reloaded, Neo meets the Architect and Neo affirms that the machines need humans for power. The Architect says that he is wrong, -there are levels of survival we are prepared to accept- he says. Is he saying that machines can use pigeons instead of humans?

In the real world some artists concieved a similar idea to this one:  to use a matrix of chickens for food production in industrial environments. A Chicken Matrix could be even more horrifying than the pigeon Matrix suggested in this scenario. 

Artist's representation of Neo-Pigeon waking up after eating the red bird seeds (maybe it finished both the blue and the red seeds). Neo-Pigeon discovers that both humans and his pigeon-colleagues are actually trapped in pods and used for power generation.

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source: Matrix  Starring moment: 0:57:20
• Pigeon activity: They are common pigeons flying in a square, as part of a Matrix recreation.
• Symbolism: I think that pigeons are used in this scene to prove the quality of the special effects. The complete scene is frozen. Without pigeons, some spectators would think that all the characters (including Agent Smith) are static. However, showing frozen flying pigeons proves that the whole scene is actually frozen, providing extra realism.
• Relevance: None. Pigeons are completely ignored by all the characters.
• Training level: Average. They fly away in a realistic way but they have little presence given that most of the time they are frozen.

Hard Target: a cocktail of Van Damme, violence and pigeons

Title: Hard Target
Year:  1993
Director: John Woo
Running time: 92 min.
Country: United States

What would you expect from a film directed by John Woo and starring by Jean Claude Van Damme?

Some action?  Sure

Plenty of violence?  Absolutely

Traces of romance?  Few (actually none in this film)

Any pigeons?  Tons of them!!!

This film includes several pigeon-related scenes which develop a significant role in the plot. In the film there are two sides: the goodies and the baddies. On one hand, we find Chance Boudreaux (Jean-Claude Van Damme). He is a hero who is helping Natasha in the search for her father. On the other, there is a group of bad guys commanded by the evil Emil Bouchon. This group eventually finds Mr. Chance and tries to hunt and kill him. In between, there are many pigeon appearances -always supporting the protagonist-. I summarize these appearances in three scenes that I think that are the most representative.

Scene 1, the dove's miraclous guidance

Chances respectful stares at the dove

Chance is at the place where the corpse of Natasha's father was found. He is looking for new evidence when suddenly a dove enters the scene.  Chance follows the flight of the dove, which stops on a wooden railing. We can see how the dove nods pinpointing  the evidence that Chance is looking for.

It is a general consensus that Jean Claude Van Damme didn't perform an exceptional interpretation in this movie but in this scene I think that he does pretty well: he seems to be very interested in the pigeon's behaviour and he shows a respectful attitude (as opposed to Woody Allen in Star Dust Memories). Somehow he knows that the dove is helping him and he appreciates very much this gentile help.

The dove shows Chance the criminal evidence that he is looking for

Scene 2, the martyr pigeons

The hunt for Chance is approaching the climax. He is cornered in an abandoned warehouse. Two John-Woo-style-bad-guy-pimps are chasing him driving motorbikes inside the warehouse. One of them (that we are going to call Bad Guy) stops and searchs for his victim, Mr. Chance. The Bad Guy is not aware of the presence of several pigeons above him. In parallel with this action, and pressed under the circumstances of a heavy vegetable-based breakfast, one of the pigeons poos on the helmet of the Bad Guy  (left picture). This is always a very disturbing event, but if you are a bad guy armed with a machine gun the consecuences can be fatal. This is the case of these innocent pigeons which were massacred under the indiscriminate revenge fire of this pigeon maniac. A bloody-feathered slaughter. After ending his revenge Chance appears in the scene and pronounces his famous and very deep phrase: Hey Pigeon!. The bad guy is unable to kill Chance (given that he finished all the ammunition firing at the pigeons) and Chance takes his time to kill the Bad Guy in a very terrible and painful way which I will avoid describing because it is not related to pigeons. The complete scene can be seen here.

The pigeon feels relaxes after pooing on the Bad Guy

The massacre of the innocent pigeons under the indiscriminate fire of the Bad Guy

Scene 3, the beginning of the killing rampage

After hiding in the deepest side of the warehouse Chance is ready to show his skills as a killing machine in a bloody rampage. Before starting the orgy of violence we can see him with a feathered friend. They are staring each other. I really like the complicity between this two characters.

Mr. Chance waits to start the killing rampage with his feathered friend

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source: Hard Target  Starring moment: Scene 1: 0:29:45, Scene 2: 1:12:57, Scene 3: 1:15:44
• Pigeon activity: The pigeons develop several roles. In scene 1 there is a providence dove that guides the protagonist. In scene 2 there are common pigeons that live in an abandoned building. Finally, in scene 3 there is a friendly pigeon that fraternizes with Van Damme.
• Symbolism: Again, each scene has a different symbolism. In scene 1 the dove represents the search for justice. Maybe even it could symbolise Natasha's father's soul guiding the protagonist. In scenes 2 and 3 they are common but friendly pigeons.
• Relevance: High. The pigeons help the protagonist in several parts of the movie.
• Training level: John Woo invested a large budget for using pigeons in this movie. Apart from the scenes commented on in this post there are many appearances of pigeons flying across the scenery. All of the pigeons are remarkably well-trained.

Thanks to Dogghound's Knight Grand Cross of the Wild Empire for suggesting this film

Blade Runner: I want to die with a dove in my hands

Title: Blade Runner
Year: 1982
Director: Ridley Scott
Running time: 112 min.
Country: United States
 



Roy's life is expiring and he can't do anything about that. Deckard is a mere spectator of his agony. But Roy doesn't want to die alone, or in the company of the evil man that killed all his friends. Roy chooses a pure friend during his agony. He chooses a dove. Rest in peace, Mr. Roy.

 I really like science fiction. I saw this scene many many years ago in my childhood and I still clearly remember this white dove in Roy's hands.

Note: I'm not mentioning Roy's memorable speech because this is a blog about pigeons.It can be seen here.

Roy's last speech

Pigeon flight

Details of the pigeon starring

• Source: Blade Runner. Starring moment:: 1:41:56

• Pigeon activity:  A dove resting in Roy's hand.

• Symbolism: It is very interesting to see Roy's character: a replicant that is a soldier and a killer. A tough guy that chooses a pure dove during his final moments of agony. Just try to imagine Rambo doing the same. However, I think that this act is very well performed in Blade Runner. My hypothesis is that the dove represents Joy's soul, leaving his dead body and ascending to... heaven?. I think that it proves that replicants have souls.
  

• Relevance for the movie: High. The dove is used to prove that replicants have souls. This is an important question that is raised during the entire movie. 

• Training level: High. This is a well trained dove.

King Pigeon Jr.

Game of thrones: is Daddy a pigeon now?

Title: Game of Thrones
Year: 2011 
Director: David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, Timothy Van Patten, Brian Kirk, Daniel Minahan, Alan Taylor
Running time: 55 min.

Country: United States
 


In the ninth episode, at King's Landing, Lord Eddard Stark's situation is becoming critical. In fact, he  is publicly beheaded in presence of his daughter Arya. During this tragic act, Arya can't  bear to see how  her father's head is severed and she looks at the sky. What does she see? A flock of pigeons. 

 

 

Details of the pigeon starring

Note: The following terms are related to the pigeons, not the girl. 

• Source: Game of Thrones. Episode 1x09. Starring moment: 55:00.  

• Pigeon activity:  A flock of pigeons flying away.

• Symbolism: I think it's interesting to relate the death of Lord Eddard to the pigeons. My hypothesis is that the birds symbolize the soul of Lord Eddard, which is now free to fly away from the insane universe of Game of Thrones. In this case, the presence of pigeons has an important significance because it is a point of relief for Arya.  My interpretation of this scene is that Lord Eddard's soul becomes a flying dove.  

• Relevance: The use of pigeons creates in Arya a relief from the traumatic experience of her father execution. Perhaps because of the pigeons she doesn't get hysterical and she eventually can escape from the Lannister clan.

• Training level: None. They are wild pigeons.

King Pigeon Jr.