“I constructed those two different types of characters. One which is controlling and very driven by his success and career. The other who is totally insular and is obsessive.”

is the controlling character alex and the insular one nigel? and if so, how is alex controlling and driven by success? this might be a stupid question, but i still have trouble understanding the characters and their personalities.

also, completely different question now: i don’t really understand why some people say that alex has a god complex (i can’t point out moments in the movie that insinuate that he has one). perhaps you don’t see him having a god complex but i saw several people talk about it.

thank you so much in advance🫶🏻

I think these two questions are very related, and hopefully we can answer both as a whole.

First: yes, Greg is referring to Alex as the controlling and driven character, and Nigel as the obsessive and insular one. I don't believe I've ever personally suggested that he has a god complex, but certainly I can see why someone would say that.

Nigel - "Insular and Obsessive"

I feel like these are pretty clear and unequivocal labels for Nigel. He's quiet, isolated, withdrawn, unreactive to Alex's provocations. Outside of Alex, we only ever see Nigel speak directly to other people twice--the offscreen cafeteria worker when he asks for more food and his parents when introducing them to Alex. The signs of an obsessive personality are everywhere. He pursues his interests with singular intensity and depth--his entire basement room is a testament to that. The painstaking process of collecting all the books, specimens, equipment, the stacks of notebooks filled with drawings and observations. His "bible" itself is another tangible display of his deep obsession with his own history and mythos.

Alex - "Controlling"

From the very first train scene, we know he is rebellious, risk-taking, adrenaline-seeking, rule-breaking, and acts as a ringleader to Josh and Raj. It's clear he's in charge of their little excursion. This carries through in his other interactions with them--even though Raj decides to opt out, Josh goes along with whatever Alex wants (even to the point of making a joke in bad taste that compares Alex to Hitler--thank god he didn't end up in politics like his dad wanted).

When Nigel is placed in his room, Alex's displeasure at this invasion of his space takes the form of anger, intimidation, threats, bullying. He tries very hard to bring Nigel under his control, and Nigel's lack of reaction to these attempts only serves to heighten his anger. Hence we have the escalation leading up to the train scene. Nigel's notes about Alex characterize him as "an egocentric megalomaniac with delusions of grandeur". There's been a lot of discussion about how accurate this description is, and whether Nigel was deliberately trying to antagonize Alex. Either way, Alex does display some egocentric traits--he seems to think very highly of himself and his own intellect, as we see in his argument with Reverend Donaldson.

When you consider that Alex's life is largely outside of his own control, it becomes easier to understand why he so jealously guards the one space that he can call his own, and why Nigel's presence there is so galling. The so-called "regimented discipline" his father imposes on him is nearly inescapable because he has no existence outside of the rigid structures of the school. He does find a taste of freedom from that existence for brief periods through his petty transgressions against the rules--sneaking out, stealing, joyriding, playing with minor explosives, fucking with teachers, etc. His decision to drug and kidnap Nigel to threaten him on the train is a manifestation of his increasing need to regain control over the one situation that should still be within his power.

Alex - "Driven by his success and career"

Alex is extremely intelligent and an excellent student. His father says he has one of the highest academic records in the country, and the discipline and structure Dr. Forbes enforces is meant to cultivate and maximize his potential. Alex knows (or believes) he's the smartest guy in the room at all times. When Nigel arrives on the scene, he presents a threat to that status. There is a deleted scene available on some versions of the DVD (in the UK, I believe) that I really wish had not been cut because it gives greater context for Alex's antipathy toward Nigel.

Like Minds Deleted Scene - Classroom

In this scene, Alex is clearly shook that his new roommate is outshining him, threatening his place as Number One Most Special Boy. Added to all the rest of the friction between them, you can see how it all came to a boil. The scene also recontextualizes the way Alex feels when he accepts help from Nigel on his homework and gets an even better score. His whole melodramatic "sold my soul" reaction feels more believable because he's once again confronted with the possibility that Nigel IS smarter than he is. Since his father centers Alex's entire value as a person around his academic career, this is an existential threat to Alex--if he's not the Best Student, what value does he have? Who is he? (All burnt-out, former Gifted Kids can relate, I'm sure.)

Alex - God Complex

When you put all these traits together, you have a boy with what appears to be an inflated sense of self-worth, one who deeply believes in his own superiority and entitlement. That is likely what people mean when they say he has a "god complex", or what Nigel means when he calls him an "egocentric megalomaniac with delusions of grandeur." He is largely self-focused/self-centered in a way that suggests an inherent narcissism, and some might come to the conclusion that he displays Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

I personally think that NPD is no more an exact fit than Antisocial Personality Disorder--he may display traits from either/both of these DSM-V lists, but neither diagnosis feels like it fits him exactly. I think Alex is a complicated guy with a lot of contradictions between his outward persona and his internal personality. He craves attention and wants to be the star of the show, but I don't think he entirely believes that he is the best, the smartest, the most exceptional. He puts on a good front, but underneath that mask is a deep well of insecurity and doubt and need for outside validation.

It's that exact vulnerability that makes Nigel's attention so potent for him. Alex projects an image of someone who firmly believes in his own superiority and power while desperately hoping someone will validate that projection. Nigel offers him true recognition--he sees beneath the mask to Alex's true self and understands and accepts that person as valid and worthy. He offers Alex an ideological framework that supports the self-importance and "delusions of grandeur" and aggressive, violent behavior as inherently right, underpinned by fate itself. Nigel tells him that he IS special, he IS chosen, he IS better and more important than everyone else. Nigel names him--Jack, rogue, knave, unprincipled man--and you can see an abrupt shift in Alex's demeanor and tone as this recognition pierces straight through his air of annoyance and disinterest. This is the moment that Alex locks in.

IF Alex has a god complex, I think it's largely because Nigel provided him with the mythology that enabled him to really believe and invest in his own godhood.

Of particular relevance to this topic is the fact that Greg pulled a LOT of inspiration for Alex and Nigel from the real life case of Leopold and Loeb. When you delve into L and L, you can see specific traits he used, although they aren't simple one to one correspondences.

Leopold and Loeb discussions:

More about Leopold and Loeb EVEN MORE about Leopold and Loeb Leopold and Loeb and Gestalt Inspirations - Rope

Further reading:

Alex's Violent Tendencies On Appreciating Alex Alex, Nigel, Beliefs Did Alex intend to shoot Nigel? Nigel accepting Alex unconditionally Alex: mastermind or just some guy? Alex's Mental Illness and CIA repression techniques Ian Forbes and his rigidity

This film felt like an exploration of symbolism. In a way it reminded me of the NBC show Hannibal, and Will and Hannibal's relationship. In both that show and this film, we see two queer-implied characters who share madness, and intellectual elitism. On its surface, the film presents itself as a police procedural framed around a horrific crime, the murder of a privileged student, Nigel Colby, and his roommate Alex Forbes as the main suspect. However, beneath the mechanics of the interrogations led by forensic psychologist Dr. Sally Rowe, the film seemed to me as a grotesque character study. It probes the terrifying realisation that true malice is rarely an isolated phenomenon. It's something that can be cultivated, shared and passed down like an unholy inheritance. Through its deliberate pacing, the film constructs a labyrinth of psychological codependency. It's preoccupied with four major thematic pillars

The subversive presentation of queer relationships and intimacy

The most important "detailed" of the film lies a deeply complex dynamic between Alex and Nigel. While the film never explicitly labels their relationship as romantic or sexual in the contemporary sense, it is saturated with a heavy homoerotic subtext that drives the narrative engine. The intimacy between the two boys is built on a seduction, psychological invasion and a collapse of personal boundaries.

When Nigel is introduced into Alex's controlled environment at the school, he represents an immediate threat to Alex's social supremacy. He's the golden boy, the son of the school's powerful headmaster. Nigel is his total opposite, he's an over outsider surrounded by an aura of morbid eccentricity and taxidermy.

The initial phase of their relationship is defined by the classic push-and-pull dynamic that closely mirrors a volatile and unacknowledged courtship. Nigel's intrusion into Alex's room is treated visually and narratively as a violation of privacy that borders on the erotic. Nigel colonises Alex's mind. He studies Alex, catalogs his habits, and intentionally provokes him to elicit a passionate response.

This tension reaches a boiling point in scenes where physical violence and emotional intimacy blur. When Alex aggressively confronts Nigel, pinning him down or screaming in his face, the camera lingers on their proximity. This physical violence between them operates as a surrogate for sexual release, a way for two repressed young men to touch, and engage in vulnerability they cannot express otherwise.

As the narrative progresses, the line separating Alex from Nigel begins to dissolve entirely. This is where the queer subtext transitions from mere attraction into something far more radical. The total erasure of individual identity in favour of a singular and shared entity. Nigel explicitly states that he and Alex are "like minds", two halves of a whole that the rest of the world cannot comprehend.

This thematic concept is visually reinforced through the film's cinematography. Director of Photography Nigel Bluck frequently used mirrors, reflections and tight framing to capture both boys in the same shots, making them appear as dualities of a single consciousness.

When they are together the external world fades into irrelevance. Susan represents the heteronormative path laid out for Alex, a standard metric of teenage normalcy. Yet, Alex routinely abandons her emotionally and physically, to return to the insular vacuum he shares with Nigel. The intimacy between the two boys is exclusionary. It demands the complete sacrifice of outside attachments, establishing a queer domesticity founded on mutual obsession.

The mechanics of shared insanity

The film explores folie à deux directly. This translates from French as madness of two, a psychiatric syndrome in which symptoms of a delusional belief are transmitted from one individual to another (yes, exactly like Harley Queen and Joker). The film brilliantly complicates the standard clinical definition by leaving the audience, and Dr. Sally Rowe, perpetually uncertain as to who is the inducer (inducteur) and who is the recipient (induis).

Initially Nigel appears to be the architect of the madness. His obsession with the Knights of Templar and the visceral mechanics of death, frames him as a classic case of sociopathic behaviour. He systematically breaks down Alex's psychological defences by introducing chaos into Alex's world, orchestrating bizarre ritualistic scenarios, and leaving cryptic clues that force Alex to think like him.

However as Dr. Rowe digs deeper into Alex's psyche during the interrogation sequences, the film reveals a much more disturbing truth. Alex was not a passive victim of Nigel's insanity. Instead, he possessed a latent, dormant malice that Nigel simply identified, and brought to bloom. The insanity here is not a contagious disease passed from a sick person to a healthy one. It's a resonant frequency. Nigel strikes a chord and Alex's mind naturally vibrates in harmony.

The framing device serves to highlight the fractured nature of Alex's reality. Eddie Redmayne's performance alternates between cold, and arrogant detachment and hysterical vulnerability. Through his performance we can see the terrifying internal architecture of this shared madness. Even with Nigel dead, his voice, and worldview firmly rooted in Alex's mind.

This shared insanity distorts Alex's perception of morality and guilt. He does not view the horrific events at the school as crimes or acts of madness. He views them as a grand inevitable experiment in human connection. The "insanity" explored here is highly intellectualised. It's an arrogant relationship that isolates the two from the rest of humanity, convincing them that they operate above the laws of human emotion, and ethics.

The macabre academic: the obsession with death

Death is not merely a plot point or the tragic end of a human life. It's an aesthetic pursuit and the ultimate medium for human transformation. Both Nigel and Alex approach mortality with detached fascination that strips it of its tragedy and replaces it with geometric beauty.

Nigel's primary hobby serves as the central metaphor for this obsession. Taxidermy is the act of taking something that was once alive, taking away its decaying internal organs and rebuilding it into a permanent imitation of life. For Nigel, this is the ultimate expression of control. Alive, creatures are unpredictable, while when dead and stuffed, they are perfect, unchaning and entirely subject to his will.

When Nigel kills and sends Alex these cryptic gifts, it is not merely a n act of cruelty meant to hurt Alex. In Nigel's mind, it's an act of love, and appreciation. Nigel is presenting Alex with an object of lesson, death is not the end of value, but the beginning of permanence.

The film elevates this obsession from a personal quirk to a historical systemic pathology by tying the boys' actions to the mythos of the Knights Templar. The historical backdrop of the school, combined with Nigel's deep research into medieval crusaders and their alleged heretical rituals, provides an academic justification for their ghoulish behaviour.

The boys see themselves as inheritors of an ancient esoteric tradition. They study death through history, philosophy and religion. This academic detachment allows them to experiment with human suffering as if it were a chemistry equation. When they stand over a dead body, they do not see a lost life, they instead see an artefact, or a monument to their own daring. A canvas upon which they can write their own dark mythology.

The eternal return: the continuation of the abusive cycle

Perhaps the most chilling dimension of Like Minds is its cyclical view of human behaviour and trauma. The film posits that evil is not spontaneous. Evil is a structure passed down through generations, THe micro-universe of the British boarding school acts as the perfect incubator for this transmission.

The cycle of abuse finds its origin in the older generation, specifically embodies by Alex's father, the headmaster. He is a man defined by brutal and unyielding commitment to image, legacy and institutional preservation. His relationship with his son is entirely transactional, stripped of any genuine parental warmth. He's expected to perform excellence to uphold the family name, and suppress any deviance or vulnerability.

This institutional emotional abuse creates an empty space within Alex. Unable to find any validation from his father, he seeks it out in high-stakes, dangerous dynamic offered by Nigel. The power plays, and manipulations, and the warfare that he inflicts upon Alex are simply refractions of the controlling environment established by the school's patriarchs.

The true horror of the story's conclusion lies in the revelation that the abusive cycle cannot be broken by intervention. Dr. Sally Rowe enters the narrative as an objective outsider and the voice of reason. However she systematically underestimates the depth of this infection.

By the film's end, it becomes clear that Alex has outmanoeuvred the system entirely. He has absorbed Nigel's disregard for human life, while successfully retaining his own armour of privilege. The final relegation reveals the death of Nigel was the final test of Alex's evolution. He emerges from the ordeal not as a victim, but as the newly reborn apex predator. He successfully navigated the crucible, transformed his trauma into absolute power.

A 3-day work in progress that i will never get around to colouring because i dont know how to do that.

Part 4 - Yorkshire 1

Yes, you can find parts of this DVD extra on Youtube, in varying levels of quality. I have it for you here, from my undisclosed source, in downloadable form. I only have 6 segments, and unfortunately the intro isn't one of them.

For more about Howarth - Filming Location: Josh's Grave

BTS Part 1 - Casting BTS Part 2 - Pre-Production BTS Part 3 - Australia BTS Part 5 - Yorkshire 2 BTS Part 6 - Music

This is possibly one of the LEAST crazy asks I've ever gotten--it's pretty logical given my obsessive need to archive everything.

I don't have one single post collecting all BTS photos, but I do have several for you to peruse. Here's a few different sets of promo stills and BTS photos:

Media: Still Photography by Sam Oster Media: Paper Bark Films - Promo Stills Media: Paper Bark Films - BTS Photos

Sam Oster was on the Australian side of the filming (all scenes with Toni Collette were filmed in Australia.) There's a whole other photographer who did the promo stills from the portion of filming based in England, but no BTS photos that I've seen. I've done some deep dive sleuthing on him, but haven't posted my findings yet. This is a good reminder to get on that, so I'll have another to add to this list soon. (So many planned posts, so little time, sigh.)

We also have these miscellaneous collections of photos gathered by longtime contributor to the Like Minds Tumblr and Tiktok fandom, @theoryofwhatnow (the link to their blog won't work currently bc they've stepped away from the community and their blog is now private, sadly). You'll see some overlap, but it's not all the same stuff.

One of my personal favorites from this collection is the promo still of Alex, Nigel, and Sally. So weird to see Nigel and Sally in the same place, but the placement of the two boys, with Alex right behind her and Nigel further back seems so perfect. Tt suggests that he's always there in the background whenever Alex and Sally are interacting--haunting the narrative.

My other fave is the candid photo of all four boys looking like perfectly normal high school kids just hanging out. Visions of a parallel reality. *cries*

@theoryofwhatnow Misc Photos - Part 1 @theoryofwhatnow Misc Photos - Part 2 @theoryofwhatnow Misc Photos - Part 3

I do my best to determine the proper accreditation/source for photos (or any other content I post), but it's a pain in the ass. The challenge with sourcing all the photos for the film is that all this material is 20 years old, and many websites have gone defunct in that time or the material has been taken down and is no longer accessible. There's a lot of reverse google image searching involved, as you chase a pic through a chain of Pinterest pins, random blogs, Tumblr posts, Livejournal posts, actor fansites, etc--none of which have original source links. You also have to deal with photos being altered and edited by random people for their own purposes and trying to find the actual original from that edited copy. It's all very tricky.

Hopefully that helps your "friend".

Please also explore the masterposts for more material you might enjoy, including several segments of the BTS video from the original DVD: