PlayStation 2: The Third Place (David Lynch, 2000, USA)

The Third Place is an ad that David Lynch directed for the PlayStation 2 in 2000. The film opens with a man, played by Jason Scheunemann, walking down a hallway. Scheunemann's presence recalls that of Henry, the lead character in Lynch's Eraserhead. This hallway is initially cut with a shot of the camera flying through what appears to be some kind of biological material like veins. The man walks down the claustrophobic hallway, looking around him. On one side he sees a woman among the planets who shushes him. On the other side, he sees another man who appears as his doppelganger.

Suddenly voices come through the speakers, seeming to speak in Spanish, and coming from various directions. This creates a disorienting effect. The man looks at the various speakers. Then a cloud of smoke appears, again similar to what we have seen previously in Eraserhead. The man's head suddenly flies away, then returns to him. An arm then flies out of his mouth. The man looks forward to a wall of smoke and clouds and sees an apparition of himself looking back at him. The clouds disappear and then we are seeing four figures on a catch - the man character's doppelganger, another strange figure, an all-white figure, and the disembodied arm. One of the figures has a duck's head and tells him "Welcome to the third place." The film ends with the PS2 logan and a woman's voice yelling "Playstation 2! The third-place!" The Third Place is one of David Lynch's most memorable shorts and was part of a series of short films that PS2 commissioned for the release of the PS2 in the early 2000s. Many of these films very specifically mimic the style of David Lynch. The commercials were successful, and many people from that time can remember them.

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