The number 82 in "Magnolia"

In honor of the opening of There Will Be Blood today, I went back through an earlier Paul Thomas Anderson movie, Magnolia, and grabbed a frame of every appearance I could find of the number 82. Click on the pictures to make them bigger:

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If you're unfamiliar with the reason why there are so many 82s in the movie: The answer is found at the start of the quiz game show sequence, in which an audience member is holding up a sign that is taken away by an usher (played by Anderson himself). You can see the sign on the left hand side of this frame:

Later, during the peculiar rainstorm that happens at the climax of the movie, the same Exodus 8:2 reference appears on billboards, store signs and bus stops everywhere:

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Go here for more Magnolia-related coolness.

Comments

[Juan]

I love that movie. There is always something new I notice everytime I watch it.

[P4blo]

So the movie trys to tell us that the misfortune of this people it´s a punishment from the heaven more than just chance?