FAQ

This resembles John Merrick being born!

During the time the film is set, mental illness and mental disabilities were significantly misunderstood. So blanket terms were often used. The term "idiot" was used to classify people with an IQ lower than 25. Essentially classifying them as unintelligent. Though as Teves soon learns, Merrick is very intelligent.

In the Extended Edition (in the USA coming in December 2024), the only scene after Merrick's mother recites Lord Tennyson's "Nothing Will Die" with stars, are the wild African elephants reused from the opening scene striking down Merrick's mother. After the elephant attack, we see the smoke/dust rising upward, with a baby wailing in the background ending the extended edition of the film.

The Elephant Man (1980/Extended Edition) is the last film with an extended edition of December 31, 2024 until the next films come with extended editions in the future.

The runtime of The Elephant Man (1980/Extended Edition) is 2 hours and 26 minutes. The release date of The Elephant Man (1980/Extended Edition) is December 31, 2024.

Yes. The extended scenes of animal species include lions and tigers being tamed in a cage during a carnival scene followed by African elephants (from the African island) used for riding, giraffes and zebras in a grassland, a leopard (with vultures, snakes, and monkeys) attacking a passenger in a train station, and peacocks outside of the hospital after Merrick's visit to the theater. The extended ending scene shows after John Merrick dies in his sleep and Merrick's mother recites Lord Tennyson's "Nothing Will Die" with stars, are the wild African elephants reused from the opening scene striking down Merrick's mother. After the elephant attack, we see the smoke/dust rising upward, with a baby wailing in the background ending the extended edition of the film. These are the extended scenes to make this film The Elephant Man (1980/Extended Edition) 26 minutes.

The commercials of The Elephant Man (1980/Extended Edition) will begin on December 20, 2024, and will be released with an extended version of the film on December 31, 2024 on DVDs and more media making it the last film with an extended version on 2024 until more films and TV series come out with extended versions in the future. Here, the commercials will show new animals including lions and tigers being tamed in a cage during a carnival scene followed by African elephants (from the African island) used for riding, giraffes (Reticulated giraffes) and zebras (Plains zebras) in a grassland, a leopard with vultures (Lappet-faced vultures and Ruppell's griffon vultures), snakes (Black mambas), and monkeys attacking a passenger in a train station, and peacocks (Indian peafowl) outside of the hospital after Merrick visited the theater.

Not exactly. According to the Wikipedia article on The Elephant Man, there are several historical inaccuracies that stand out. First, the events at the railway station happened before Merrick stayed at the hospital. Second, Merrick went to Europe on his own accord and was never kidnapped. Third, Treves never "rescued" Merrick from the completely fictional character of Bytes (who was "seemingly modelled after Robert Newton's characterisation of Bill Sykes in David Lean's 1948 film adaptation of Oliver Twist (1948)"). Additionally, in order for Merrick to speak there were several operations to facilitate his ability to talk. Merrick was also quite secure financially from the work he did in the freak shows-he would have been incapable of performing any other work in those days. Finally, his name was not "John" but "Joseph". In a 2011 documentary, Meet the Elephant Man, scientists examined Merrick's skeleton and determined that his death was accidental, caused by a fracture of the neck, and he died in the afternoon of 11 April 1890. He did not deliberately remove his supporting pillows and lie down to die after his evening at the theater. But Wikepedia has some inaccuracies,