Oh man, so hear this, I found this jewel and released a djinn. But then I accidentally wished that I got bopped on the head, and voila I sustained a massive concussion and now can’t remember a thing. Do you remember what happened in Wishmaster?
Pop Quiz Hot Shot!
1) The beginning of the film shows the origin of the fire opal. Where did it come from and why was it made?
2) After the death of her friend, Alex is moping about, and her sister is concerned. But Alex insists it is nothing like last time. What happened in Alex’s childhood that still haunts her?
3) We learn a little bit more about the collector who brought the statue which contained the Djinn’s gemstone to California. Why did he want the statue?
4) What final trick does Alex pull to defeat the Djinn using her third wish?
5) Name as many of the other wishes the Djinn grants throughout the film (by my count there are 14 besides the final wish) and what do they get instead?
Bonus Question: How long do Josh and Alex stay together after the film ends?
Answers
1) It comes from Persia from a time in which the Djinn was awakened. And it was made by a sorcerer to hold captive a Djinn who had cursed a city in an effort to force a third wish by the king (to save the city) and thus free the Djinn to take over and rule the world.
2) It seems like when they were younger Alex and her sister were caught in a fire that killed their parents. Alex had something like a mental break with nightmares and therapy. And, uh oh! Djinns are made from fire, what a horrid coincidence.
3) He collects forgotten gods. The statue is a statue of a monothestic God from Persia, which I think is abnormal because it was created after the rise of Islam in the area (or well after the fall of the culture that worshipped the god).
4) It is interesting, because the lore suggests that using the third wish should release the Djinn onto the world. But she wishes the crane operator wasn’t drinking on the job two days prior, which made all of the other events not happen. The Djinn remains trapped and the other wishes never happened, saving the world. Neat.
5) The king in the beginning wishes for the Djinn to show him wonders (and instead his subjects are turned into monsters). Josh wishes for his pain to end (and instead he is killed). A bum wishes to have the pharmacist get cancer and die (well … that happens). The lab tech wishes not to see the Djinn cutting the face off of a cadaver (and instead his eyes are sealed shut). The suit saleswoman wishes for cash instead of credit (that just happens), and then she wishes to be beautiful forever (and instead she is turned into a mannequin). The detective wishes to nail a career criminal who has walked a bunch of times (and instead he murders a bunch of people and is shot dead inside the police station). The security guard wishes to see the Djinn try and get inside Alex’s workplace (and instead he is turned into a pane of glass which the Djinn walks through). The owner of the auction house first wishes for an object to be 100x as valuable (that happens), and then for a million dollars (and instead his mother is killed in a plane crash and he gets a million dollar insurance payout). Alex wishes for the Djinn to kill himself (he can’t, although he goes through the motions), and then to know what the Djinn is (and instead he brings her into the gemstone to display his captured souls), and then she wishes to be back in her apartment without the Djinn. The doorman wishes to escape (and instead is put into Houdini’s Water Tourture trick). And Beaumont wishes to throw a party that goes down in history (and instead the guests are murdered in horrible ways).
Bonus Answer: Usually I’d be like “two weeks before she remembers why she friendzoned him in the first place”, but in this case it was true love … right up until he is diagnosed with a terminal illness a year after the events of the film. If only she knew where a Djinn was, but alas the events of the first film erased all memory of the Djinn and the stone. But there is still some cosmic connection, a knowledge of the alternate past that calls to her and leads her to the stone in the end, but also a deeply held (but foggy) memory of the dangers the Djinn holds. She plans it out. She’ll resurrect the Djinn once more. She’ll directly ask him to cure Josh’s illness. And then she’ll banish him back into the stone with her second wish, bing bang boom! Well, not so much. In her pseudo-memories of the first film she didn’t see the initial birth of the Djinn, and in that process she dies. Now it is up to Josh to save Alex and defeat the Djinn! Wishmaster 2: Reckoning. In the third film it is revealed that Alex and Josh, two people who died and were resurrected by the magic of the Djinn, had a child who is, indeed, a being from Djinn prophecy, the one destined to release the Djinn onto the Earth. That one is called Wishmaster 3: Prophecy. Bam, neat little series that.
I actually like that trilogy. Although I will say I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t think about how Josh is Half Past Dead until now! And he just might have a little power of the Djinn in him as he died and was resurrected by Djinn magic. That’s fun.
Bad Movie Twins 