Interpretation of 'Lost Highway' This is very random and disordered, but so is the movie... First, a few premises: Alice is representation of Renee: A picture showing both Alice and Renee is later revealed to be a picture of only Renee; both tell the same story of meeting at Mokes.  Dick is Eddy: The man called Eddy is called Dick both at the car shop and in referring to the picture.  Mystery Man is an alter ego of Fred: Mystery Man takes the gun out of his pants, shoots Dick, disappears, and Fred is shown putting the gun back into his pants; explains false house alarms; when Renee leaves Dick's hotel room, Fred is shown watching her out the window. When Fred leaves with Dick, MM is shown in the exact same shot looking out the window.   Therefore: Scenes in which Fred speaks with the Mystery Man are scenes in which he is talking to himself. First time: Fred speaks with MM, then asks Andy, "Who is the guy in black?" There is a shot of three men in black on the stairs and Andy answers that he is a friend of Dick's, though Andy was speaking of one of the other men and couldn't see MM. Also, the scene with Fred telling himself that Dick is dead makes sense, he is simply speaking to himself, again. Pete is an alter ego of Fred: Pete had first put the gun into his own pants, and is Mystery Man/Fred; Pete has a flashback of Renee's dead body; both have same conversation with MM telling them he has met them before in their own house.  There is no video camera. Fred is the MM/camera man and the videos represent his memory: Fred says he doesn't like video cameras because "I like to remember things my own way;" again, explains false house alarms; scene in which Dick is killed shows video shot of him being killed before he actually is (really, Fred was sharing with Dick his memory of him cheating with his wife Renee and the shots were him thinking about shooting Dick before he actually did). Dick was never murdered, it was only a fantasy: the first scene with Fred telling himself he killed Dick was not real. When he tells Andy that Dick is dead he is unsure. He is only unconsciously at that time thinking about killing him. MM is Fred's subconscious: Fred's memory/video footage is associated with MM. MM thus kills his wife and Fred is unaware at the police station. Later, memories of the actual murder scene as opposed to the video convince Fred that he did in fact kill Renee. MM and Pete are in Fred's unconscious, but gradually Fred becomes aware of his alter egos. First encounters with MM are frightening, but eventually they become more intimate. MM is Fred's violent alter ego and he helps Fred kill Dick. Then MM friendily whispers to Fred. Pete was an unknown fantasy until when Alice tells him he could never have her. Since Pete was unconscious, scenes with Pete's parents and friend's are unconscious ploys used by Fred in trying to make the fantasy real for himself. Also, Fred as Pete kills Andy for cheating on him with Renee, although he does not know then that this is why he so readily agreed to the plot. Pete was the sexual alter ego. As soon as his sexuality is lost (when Alice tells him he could never have her), there is no need for this alter ego. Double scenes: Fred telling himself that Dick is dead; the dream in which Fred dreams of killing his wife and when it actually happens (when Renee says "Fred where are you?"); flashbacks of killing Renee; the cabin; Renee/Alice telling how they met Andy at Mokes; Mystery Man telling Fred/Pete that they have met before at his house; flashbacks of Pete being "kidnapped;" room number 26; and the killing of Dick.  Therefore:           Fred first thinks Renee is cheating on him when she doesn't come to his jazz club. She is not home when he calls and he later remembers seeing her leaving the club with Andy. He then has a dream about killing Renee that then occurs in the exact same fashion. He then is arrested and winds up in prison. While there, he has headaches, is given drugs, and then has a headache so bad he starts shaking and screaming. Coincidentally, Pete then emerges. Therefore, everything what follows is a dream - This is vindicated by that fact that Fred has the same screaming and shaking headache at the end. He dreams that he kidnaps Pete and replaces himself in the prison cell. This would explain why his parents were afraid to tell him what happened (again, this is only his subconscious attempting to convince himself that the fantasy is real). The wardens then had to let him go (still part of the fantasy). So, angry that his wife had cheated on him with Andy and Dick, Fred fantasizes about cheating on a made-up girl seeing both Andy and Dick, Alice. Also, Fred also gets "revenge" on Renee by becoming the cheater in his new relationship with Sheila. Fred becomes Pete who has amnesia and doesn't remember previous events in his life. The fantasy therefore becomes more real for Fred because that is how it would happen if he were to change lives (he starts a completely new life, so it is necessary to "forget" everything that previously happened). Pete then cheats on Andy and Dick with Alice. When Alice tells Pete that he will never have her, the fantasy must end. But this is only a fantasy within a fantasy. After he can no longer cheat on Dick, he becomes Fred again, though still dreaming, and seeks to kill him. The fact that he kills him in hotel room 26,  the same room number in Andy's house in which Fred found Renee cheating on him (she says "don't you want to know why?")  demonstrates that both events were only fantasy. Dick is never really killed because Fred is put into jail for the murder of Renee and remains there for the remainder.  Problem: must assume that scenes with cops talking about Pete (when they find him in the jail cell, when they look up his file at the station, and when they find his fingerprints at Andy's) are also part of Fred's fantasy, a third person fantasy. This is somewhat of a stretch, but less of a stretch than any attempted interpretation of how Pete turns to Fred in the desert but is still a different person.