Cigarette Burns Trivia Quiz

Answer: Hans Backovic

This story starts with the sentence "Film is magic, and in the right hands, a weapon."
Kirby Sweetman, a rare movie collector, is called to the estate of Mr. Bellinger, who makes himself known as a rare and obscure film collector. When Sweetman arrives (late) he is led to Bellinger's office where he notices the poster for "La Fin Absolue du Monde", a film notorious for its shady history. Kirby recites its past. Originally played at a film festival in Sitges, "La Fin Absolue" was an odd case. After the first screening, the theater erupted in violence, and many people were killed or driven insane as a result. Kirby states that the government took the film from its director, Hans Backovic, and destroyed it not knowing it was the only copy (being a work in progress). Backovic retired from filmmaking altogether because of it.
Bellinger points out the error in the story. The government never destroyed the film. Bellinger hires Kirby on in order to get the single copy of the movie since he was supposed to be at that screening. Instead, Bellinger passed up the chance, vying instead for a Vincent Price movie and missing the ordeal. A second time, he went abroad to view a screening, but the show was canceled when the theater it was housed in set on fire. After questioning Bellinger about a prop behind his desk (a pair of large angel wings from the film), Kirby is given a thorough set of records spanning the history of the film and he is shown Bellinger's shocking piece of memorabilia from the film: an angel with its wings cut off. Bellinger does this to prove that the movie is still out there. The angel states that it was once bound to the negatives of the film as soul is to flesh. If it were destroyed, it would know.
Kirby agrees with Mr. Bellinger's terms: $200,000, all expenses paid, and two weeks of run-time at Kirby's theater, which is in need of customers.

Answer: The Vogue

Kirby returns to the theater and takes a seat behind his desk. Quickly, he daydreams about himself and his wife, Annie, and a moment where they were taking drugs. Soon after, Kirby is brought back to reality by a friend who had just cut a cigarette burn out of a film reel. Kirby describes the deal he made with Bellinger, stating he couldn't pass up the offer. Later, Kirby sits down on the couch to begin reading over Bellinger's notes, but he is brought to remember his wife again.

This time, the flashback shows Kirby, Annie, and her father in the theater.

While Annie sits in the car, her father ends up writing a cheque to pay for the theater. He tells Kirby that the theater isn't their wedding gift- it's a loan, to be paid back when the theater is successful and when Kirby and his daughter get their acts together and stop doing drugs. Quickly, Kirby's mind turns to Annie, dead in a bathtub, her wrists cut and bleeding.

Answer: New York

The following day, Mr. Matthews stops by the theater to ask Kirby for his $200,000 loan back. Kirby tells his old father-in-law that he will eventually get the money, but repeatedly coming in won't help him get it any faster. Mr. Matthews tells Kirby that he has one week to get the money he needs, otherwise, he'll tear the place down.
Kirby later tells his friend that he's going to visit Hank A. Myers, a film critic responsible for reviewing the Sitges Film Festival and "La Fin Absolue du Monde". He makes this trip the first stop on his journey to find the film.
A few days later, Kirby arrives in Carthage, New York, at the doorstep of Mr. Myers. Although Myers is hesitant to let him in, all Kirby needs to do is mention the name of the film he is inquiring about before he is let in. Kirby asks for the press notes from the Sitges Festival, and Myers says that he has them. When Kirby looks at the piles of papers all around the room where Myers sits at his typewriter, he recites a piece of the film's review, and says that although he read the review many times, he still doesn't know what the movie is about. Mr. Myers states that Hans Backovic was a terrorist who played on the trust that filmmakers had with their critics and viewers, and it was all done on purpose to destroy the audience. Myers recalls the theater and the experience. He saw four people killed during the viewing, and he knew it would happen because Backovic told him in an interview before the festival. Kirby takes this recording. Myers also tells Kirby that his first review was a joke. Instead, he's been writing a new one, and it's comprised of the numerous stacks of paper around his house.

Answer: In his motel room in Paris

After speaking with the critic about the film, Kirby makes his way to Paris for more investigations. He finally listens to the interview that Myers had with Hans Backovic about his film while in his motel room, but during the recording, Kirby experiences his first cigarette burn- a quick flash of a ring of light, like one found on an old film reel. Kirby looks into his bathroom and sees a woman's shadow on the wall.

When he looks inside, he finds his wife in the bathtub with her wrists slit. As she screams at him in the center of a cigarette burn, he wakes up, discovering that it was all a dream. The following day, he speaks with a friend at a rare film archive.

As soon as he mentions the title, his friend tells him stories of other rare film hunters who have searched for "La Fin Absolue du Monde".

He offers him an office next door for temporary use, and tells him that the film can't just be found, it must be earned.

Answer: The cinematographer

Although Kirby determines that both the director and the cinematographer didn't die after the screening, his friend notes that the cinematographer, Patton League, went blind during the screening, and vowed never to speak of the film or Hans Backovic again.

The last person to speak to him about it went to the hospital for stitches from where he smacked them with his cane. Kirby's friend also states that Backovic died since the film's release, though he survived the premiere. As Kirby leaves, his friend makes a phone call that he overhears from the door, where he speaks of the film and its creator. That night, he returns to the archive for more information.

His friend tells him of his story, and reveals his hand. During a private screening in 1988, the film was played, and he ran the projector.

He lost his nerve and looked away before the film began. When the screaming began and he smelled the waves of blood, he attempted to stop the projector, but he saw the 'cigarette burns' and blacked out.

When he woke up, his hand was burnt into a closed mass. He gives Kirby a business card of a rare film collector who was given pieces from the Backovic estate when Hans died. He warns him not to call, but since Kirby has already seen the burns, he's become a part of it.

Answer: Vancouver

The following day, Kirby arrives at Rosny-sur-Seine, the location at which the business card directed, in a cab. The driver stops at an old warehouse and Kirby tells her to wait for him as he walks inside, following two large men. Inside, he sees who he was sent to visit, and beside him is a box marked "La Fin Absolue du Monde".

The man says that if he was sent to see him, the Kirby has already seen the burns. He also states that the film changes the people that it affects before saying that he always wanted to make a film, but disliked the fakeness of Hollywood. Kirby asks the man if he has the film, to which he replies "No".

He also asks if he would watch it, to which he replies "Of course". Kirby takes the opportunity to look into the crate, discovering screenshots of the film and an address; the location of Backovic's widow, Katja.

He makes a note of this for later, thinking that it may lead to more information. While he looks at the pictures, he is nabbed by the two large men and sedated.

He quickly blacks out.

Answer: An angel

When Kirby wakes up, he is tied to a chair. In front of him is the cab driver he asked to wait for him outside. The two large men are behind a rolling video camera beside him, filming the taxi driver, who is taped to her chair and unable to move. Quickly after, the man who drugged him walks in with a large machete, saying that a splicing table's blade can be used to create a lie or a truth, but it depends on who holds it, and although he holds a larger blade, Kirby should get the point. Quickly, he takes a swing into the taxi driver's neck, killing her and decapitating her head with a few more swings.

He says that the truth was captured in one long take, and the only actual cut was made to her. The point of this, he explains, is that when such an event is filmed, that film takes on a power to affect its audience in profound ways.

However, he implies, Backovic didn't only have a mortal life on the other end of the camera, but instead, it was a divine being of God- an angel. Such a film affected not only the filmmakers, but those who had a part in viewing it.

This is why everyone involved in searching for it is affected in such a way. After this, Kirby experiences a few more flashes of cigarette burns, and wakes up in the middle of the room, no longer tied to the chair. He finds the three men scattered around the room's floor. The one who killed the driver lay bleeding, but still alive. Kirby asks him who has the film, and the man replies with the name Katja. Kirby takes the screenshots from their crate and leaves the murderer to die.

Answer: True

When Kirby arrives in Vancouver, he quickly makes his way to Katja Backovic's house. When he enters the elevator, he presses the button for the top floor and hears electricity crackle above him. While he looks up, he finds his wife standing behind him and she asks him if he'll always look out for her.

He explains that she isn't real before feeling her cheek. The doors open in Katja's suite and she disappears. He slowly walks out and Katja introduces herself. She quickly asks if he saw something startling in the elevator before saying that he must really want the film badly to have come so far. No one else has made it to Vancouver in search of the film, yet she does have the copy.

They decide to sit down in the living room. Katja explains that the stories about the film, sadly, are true.

She also asks why he is looking for it. Although he says it's for a client, she says that it can't be the underlying reason.

Answer: Sins

Kirby tells Katja that he hasn't yet discovered who produced the film and Katja notes that she asked her husband the same question. She notes that the producers in turn produced chaos, sorrow, suffering, and famine. Kirby asks if she's referring to the devil, but she states that Hans always said that 'evil was evil, regardless of a name'.
She takes Kirby to Hans' old work room before telling him what really happened to her husband. During the last year of his life, Hans endlessly viewed the film. Obsessed with it, be went crazy, and on the way to get his wife in the bedroom, he stopped in the kitchen and grabbed a knife. Although Katja's neck was slit, it only disfigured her, and missed major veins. His own suicide was much more effective. Since then, she has had to watch over the film, fully knowing its power. Kirby asks if he can watch it, and he mentions the cigarette burns. Katja states that the film has already rubbed off on him, and he is marked by it. Now, he must watch it since it's too late. Kirby takes the film, which was on the shelf in Hans' workshop, and leaves.
When Kirby returns to Mr. Bellinger, he receives his cheque and heads on his way. Mr. Bellinger quickly takes the film reels to his private theater and places them on his projector. While his butler watches from the projection room, Mr. Bellinger takes a seat and begins his private screening.

Answer: Yes

When Kirby arrives back at his theatre, he finds the doors have been chained shut by his father-in-law and calls his friend to tell him he has the money. After the call, he receives a call from Mr. Bellinger about the film, and quickly rushes back to his client's house. What he doesn't know is that his father-in-law is following him the whole way.
When Kirby arrives, he finds Mr. Bellinger's butler inside with a knife in his hand and cuts all over his body. The man tells Kirby that he hopes that he gets what he deserves for bringing the film to Mr. Bellinger before stabbing himself in the eyes. Kirby quickly runs past to find Mr. Bellinger in the projection room standing behind the projector with a razor blade. Kirby asks if he needs help to which Bellinger says he doesn't, but he watched "La Fin Absolue du Monde" and he highly recommends it, though it's not really a movie so much as it is a coming attraction of the soul. Kirby asks why he called if he didn't need the help, and Bellinger says that he called since Kirby did a good job and he wanted to find another movie, but instead, he's been inspired to make his own. Bellinger then proceeds to reveal what he was doing with the razor blade by taking an end of his intestines and feeding it into the projector. Kirby runs out of the room while Bellinger plays through his 'internal film reel' and runs straight into the barrel of his father-in-law's gun. Kirby tells him that they shouldn't be here before the lights go out and Kirby has another flash of a cigarette burn. His father-in-law says that he spent days letting his business crumble while thinking about ways to get back at Kirby for what he did to his daughter. Soon, Kirby finds that "La Fin Absolue du Monde" is playing on the screen and he blacks out to another cigarette burn.
When Kirby wakes up, he sits bloodied in a theater seat while his father-in-law stands in front of the screen watching the horrible images of the angel's sacrifice. All the while, Bellinger's now-blind butler unchains the wingless angel in the other room.
While Kirby and his father-in-law watch in the theater, a cigarette burn opens in the screen and Annie walks out of it, naked and bloodied. Her father quickly wraps his jacket around her and she bites into his neck, saying she's hungry. Kirby finally realizes the truth. Neither Annie's father, nor he can let her go, and it's like they're killing her over and over until they die. Kirby kills Annie's father and stuffs the cheque from Mr. Bellinger into his mouth. He takes the gun from his pocket and sits back down in his seat. While "La Fin Absolue du Monde" still plays on the screen, Kirby looks up to see Annie smiling at him. He tells her that he loves her before putting the gun in his mouth and pulling the trigger.

A cigarette burn flashes as the projector finishes spinning its last reel. The freed angel takes its two reels in its hands and walks down the aisle of the theater, thanking Kirby on the way out for the film and what he has done.