Ghost in the shell: what a feathered surprise!!

Title: Ghost in the shell

Year:  2017

Director:  Rupert Sanders

Running time: 107  min.

Country: USA

In this film I was surprised seeing a fascinating futuristic mega-city in Japan, altered humans with all kinds of cybernetic artefacts and plenty of action. But it also depicts poverty, social inequalities, corruption and a lack of respect for human-rights. A very sad futuristic perspective that at least was compensated by a feathered surprise.

Mira discovers the abandoned house that hosts the pigeons

When amnesia-sufferer "Major" Mira Killian (Scarlett Johansson) is in the search of her forgotten past she discovers an abandoned house covered with several pigeons that have adopted it as a resting place.

We can observe several pigeons flying and others standing on the roof

This peace is interrupted by the appearance of Ms. Johansson and the subsequent extreme violence scenes. Because of this, the Japanese pigeons serenely fly away. Fortunately, these pigeons do not seem to have any cybernetic implants.

Another screen shot with a nice pigeon siluetee 

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source: Ghost in the shell. Starring moment: 1:23:24
• Pigeon activity: Even in a distant future, pigeons behave in the same way as today.
• Symbolism: Pigeons are used to provide more realism to the abandoned scene that is being displayed.
• Relevance: None. They only distract the protagonist for a short interval of time.
• Training level: Low. They only fly in the distance.
  

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. 

Predator 2: hunting humans, not pigeons

Title: Predator 2

Year:  1990

Director:   Stephen Hopkins

Running time: 108 min.

Country: United States.

Mike Harrigan is an LAPD Lieutenant who is in search of an alien which is slaughtering city inhabitants. Dorinda Seed is a female pigeon from L.A. She and her folks had a nice day and now are getting some rest on a roof (a place that they call home). In this sequence, Dorinda and Mike's lives are going to cross dramatically.

Mike is chasing the predator on a roof. He is very nervous, because this creature is a monster which slaughtered several colleagues of his. A common man would escape running away, but Mike wants to fix this mess.

On the other side of the corner, we find Dorinda and her friends, that are scared and fly away (scaring Mike too).

This is a nice picture of the pigeon, captured with its legs and tail feathers fully extended. This situation is also dramatic for Dorinda. It is not nice for a pigeon to fly in the darkness and it is ever worse, if it is flying in the middle of a violent duel.

This is not a pigeon, but the predator firing at Mike:

We can observe than when Mike returns fire, there are other pigeons flying in the background.

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source: Predator 2. Starring moment: 1:19:39.
• Pigeon activity: They are pigeons sleeping on a roof which are scared by a night duel between an L.A. policeman and an angry alien.
• Symbolism: It is interesting to see how pigeons are used to scare the movie protagonist and increase the film's tension levels. This is a typical ploy used in many action movies.
• Relevance: Low. Pigeons interfere with a human-alien duel, but they don't change the storyline.
• Training level: High. It is not easy for a pigeon to fly with poor light conditions. Here, they exhibit a very good performance. 

Special thanks to Jen for suggesting this film.
 

Pigeons from Hell: the dark side of the pigeons

Title: Thriller. Pigeons from Hell

Year:  1961

Director:  John Newland

Running time: 30 min.

Country: United States

In previous posts I affirmed that pigeons are peaceful and innocent creatures whose major fault is not being aware where to poo or to nest. Now, after watching this episode of Pigeons from Hell, I realised that I was wrong because pigeons are not as innocent as they are supposed to be.

In this episode pigeons are souls that leave Hell during night and roam around a deserted plantation mansion. This is quite perturbing, but when we discover that they just not leaving Hell for a short excursion, but they actually enjoy causing suffering to humans, we realise that we are facing a dreadful horror situation.

The sign on the left warns us about the undesirable side effects of feeding pigeons. The author probably tried to be polite by avoiding mentioning nasty pigeon actions. However, if we re-read it in the context of this episode, we realise that these things include actions like murdering or zombification (by means of voodoo). Dreadful. The following pictures correspond to an artist's conception about the contrast between angelic and evil pigeons.

Artist's conception of the contrast between pigeon angels and an evil pigeon from hell.

Regarding Pigeons from Hell, the original story was written in 1934 by Robert E. Howard, and first published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1938. Later, in the 60s, it was made it into an episode of the Thriller horror TV series. At the beginning of the episode, the narrator (Boris Karloff) warns about the evil nature of the pigeons. The video can be seen here. This is a fragment of his tale:

The swamp is alive. Crawling with creatures of death. Creatures that lurk, camouflaged in the undergrowth waiting patiently for an unsuspecting victim. And our young friend was alarmed by a flight of pigeons. Harmless, you say? Well, you'll see that he has good cause for alarm. For those were no ordinary pigeons. They were the pigeons from Hell. That is both the title and the substance of our story. Spirits come back from the dead to guard their ancestral home against intruders. Spirits that in life fed on evil, and now in death, return to feed upon the living

I think that it is a creepy presentation that doesn't prophesy good human-pigeon relationships. Pigeons appear at the very beginning of the episode. John Branner and his friend Tim Griswell are traveling by car and it breaks down close to a deserted plantation mansion. John decides to explore the area and when he approaches to the building he finds a flock of pigeons that mysteriously attack him.

John approaching the old plantation house. We can see the flock of pigeons in front.

John is scared by the pigeons.

When Tim reaches John, he asks him about what happend and John says:

John: There were  pigeons  all of  a sudden…they came right at  me, right at my face!
Tim: Pigeons! You sounded as if somebody were trying to kill you!
John: That’s just it! … It was like they were attacking me!

Due to low budget and old recording technology, this film doesn't have good special effects and the pigeons don't look very scary. However, there is some very good sound engineering work that makes the pigeon's cooing sound dreadful. The best example is when John wakes up, apparently under hypnosis and he goes upstairs to face his death. At this time, the pigeon sound is really horrific. John seems to be a nice boy, but after the pigeon's influence he transforms into a murderer zombie. This sequence can be seen here. I spent many years close to pigeons. More specifically, they were on the roof above me. I know what it's like to wake up by loud pigeon noises (probably mating songs). But the noise in this episode is different, it's a dreadful definitive sound... coming from the hell.  

In this film there is another important pigeon performance. When Tim returns to the mansion with the Sheriff, they found his car completely populated by these evil creatures. In the pictures below, you can appreciate the sheriff's face full of suspicion. 

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source: Thriller. Pigeons from hell. Starring moment: 0:02:35 and 0:41:15
• Pigeon activity: They are evil and they try to cause pain and suffering to humans.
• Symbolism: The symbolism is very important. They represent evil souls that roam around.
• Relevance: High. Pigeons are one of the key elements of the plot.
• Training level: Low. It is difficult to feature pigeons as evil-deadly creatures and it was even more complex in the 60s, without computer-aided special effects and a low budget. This is why the pigeons don't really seem scary. Actually, they usually seem to be more scared than the characters themselves.

Special thanks to Skelton Knaggs from The Classic Horror Film Board for this suggestion.
 

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.

Scanner Cop: telepathy and pigeons

Title: Scanner Cop
Year: 1994
Director: Pierre David
Running time: 95 min.
Country: Canada

David Cronenberg wrote and directed Scanners, a low budget movie which obtained a notorious popularity. There are several sequels and one of them (the fourth) is Scanner Cop. I have to admit that Scanner Cop is not a first-line movie but it has pigeons, and that matters.

Los Angeles Police Department is being decimated by brain washed murderers. Sam Stazia is a police officer who uses his telepathic skills to discover who is behind this police-killing rampage. During one scene, he is desperately driving through Los Angeles, looking for the bad guy's place. What does he find driving down the street? L.A. Pigeons!! What would happen if Sam uses his skill for establishing a telepathic link with pigeons?

Mr. Sam Stazia is driving through Los Angeles.

Sam meets pigeons on the street.

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source:  Scanner Cop   Starring moment: 0:55:35
• Pigeon activity: urban pigeons which are wandering around the road. 
• Symbolism: They represent the typical pigeons that you can find in every city. They are used to increase the realism level of the scene. 
• Relevance: None. They don't influence the movie storyline.
• Training level: It is not clear whether they are wild or trained pigeons. Taking into account the movie budget I would say they are wild pigeons that they unexpectedly found during the recording.

Battlestar Galactica: an other-worldly pigeon

Title: Battlestar Galactica
Year: 2004
Director: Ronald D. Moore (Creator), Michael Rymer, Michael Nankin, Rod Hardy, Sergio Mimica-Gezzan, Robert M. Young, Edward James Olmos, Jeff Woolnough, Wayne Rose
Running time: 50 min.
Country: United States

The legend says that in a distant part of our galaxy, thousands of years ago, humans lived on a planet called Kobol. Then, there was an exodus and humans inhabited a group of planets known as the Twelve Colonies. Caprica is an Earth-like planet belonging to the Twelve Colonies. It hosts the federal capital of the colonies.

Caprica city. A futuristic metropolis... with pigeons!!!

On Caprica, humans lived with an advanced technology level and created a cybernetic race known as the cylons. At the beginning cylons and humans lived together in peace and joy but they followed the same path towards a ruined relationship: while their romance was a comedy.... their marriage became a drama.

Mr. Adama Jr. A pigeon-maniac.

Anyway, we are not going to focus on the cylon-human relationship but the human-pigeon one. We will see that this is also another drama. One of the main characters in Galactica is Mr. Lee Adama Jr. At the beginning he is captain of the colonial fleet but later he becomes Vice President of the Twelve Colonies, having an active role in the series.  In some way, he is a hero…. but a hero with a dark past and a hidden hatred. In the picture on the left side, we can appreciate a spark of rage in his eyes.

During his youth (in the episode this is shown in a flashback) he arrives completely drunk at his apartment and finds a pigeon inside. Without thinking twice he grabs a broom and tries, unsuccessfully, to scare away the poor animal. In this case, his military training didn't help to solve the situation. 

It is very interesting to note one fact: humans emigrated from Kobol to Caprica… and they took all the valuable items…. technology, spaceships and pigeons!!! Actually, there are very few animals in the complete series and it is very remarkable to see as an exception, the pigeon appearance.  The complete scene can be seen here.

This is the first example in this blog of an unearthly pigeon. Are pigeons actually spread all over the universe?

 

Pigeon flying with wings fully extended while keeping an eye on Mr. Adama. Jr.

Pigeon observing Mr. Adama. Jr. It can't understand the hostile welcome that it receives.

 

Mr. Adama Jr. is prepared to attack the innocent pigeon.

The proof of the evil aggression of Mr. Adama Jr.

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source: Battlestar Galactica. 4x19 Daybreak  Starring moment: 0:30:40
• Pigeon activity: It is a typical urban pigeon which enters inside the apartment of a pigeon-maniac guy. It suffers a very hostile attack with a broom. I would like to remark that the pigeon suffers actual harm and we can see that it is very scared. This scene reaches levels of real violence that are comparable to the ones found in Borat.
• Symbolism: The pigeon is used to highlight that the supposedly honorable character has several weaknesses and he is not honorable at all. 
• Relevance: Low. The pigeon is only used to describe with more depth one of the characters.
• Training level: It is a stunt pigeon that suffers a real aggression and safely escapes. A very risky interpretation.  

Mars attacks: the pigeon that almost annihilates the human race

Title: Mars attacks
Year: 1996
Director: Tim Burton
Running time: 106 min.
Country: United States

Humans finally met aliens. There was great joy on the human side. Everybody was thinking about how we were not alone in the universe and that we had found new friends. Probably the aliens were also excited.... but thinking of a very different kind of friendship. We prepared a big reception in the Nevada desert. Everything was fine, the alien spacecraft landed, the Martian ambassador went out and the first contact was made.  General Casey started the greatest speech of his entire military career.... "On behalf of the people of Earth, welcome!!"

Lovely...... Everything was fine until we made a mistake: a peaceful-harmless dove was released by a pseudo-hippie. This dove apparently scared the aliens and they shot it down as well as most of the human attendees. In the end, the aliens only wanted an excuse to start a military invasion... exactly like us during many moments of our history.  The analysis of the President of United States is very funny: [...] this could be a cultural misunderstanding. Yeah. Maybe to them, doves mean war. We all saw how they reacted to that dove. It frightened them [...]   It is like in “Lost in Translation” but with evil aliens. The complete scene can be seen here.

Just one technical comment: for recreating the flight and death of the dove a computer-graphic representation was used instead of a real dove. This imagery is of very poor quality because in 1996 the software models were not well developed.

Details of the pigeon starring

• Source: Mars Attacks. Starring moment: 00:40:04

• Pigeon activity: It was held in the pacifist's hands, then it flew freely and finally it was shot to death.

• Symbolism: The dove symbolizes peace. A peace that was not respected by the aliens.

• Relevance: Very high. It was assumed that the dove triggered a large scale interplanetary war. Even the President of United States complained about this animal.

• Training level: High. It is a lovely dove that is used to being caught in human hands.

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.