“You stole my story”

The film carries a strong message about plagiarism and stealing intellectual property. The story is a strong comment on the real-world crimes of that kind. Parallel to the reality, at the beginning of the film, Depp’s character does not take the threat of his alter-ego John Shooter seriously.  “When two writers show up at the same story, it’s all about who wrote the words first.” The seriousness of the conflict becomes obvious later, when after Mort neglect the warnings, his finds his dog killed in a brutal way. Another clue for his bi-polarity are John Shooter’s words: “This won’t end until one or the other of us is dead”, meaning that one of both personalities will eventually dominate upon the other. In “Secret Window, Secret Garden” Mort Rainey is tortured by a memory of him stealing a short story by a fellow student. So here stands the question: Had he ever written something original? This leads to a more general question from the real world: What motivates a writer to create original character?