The Man From Another Place

The Man from Another Place
'Twin Peaks' character
The Man from Another Place, seated center
First appearance	"Episode 2"
Last appearance	Fire Walk with Me
Portrayed by	Michael J. Anderson

The Man from Another Place (played by Michael J. Anderson) also known as "MIKE's left arm", is a character from the television series Twin Peaks, created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. He is an inhabitant of the Black Lodge, a realm of pure evil. Early on in the series, The Man gives Agent Dale Cooper clues to apprehending The Man's nemesis, BOB. He later makes recurring appearances in relation to the Black Lodge.

The Man from Another Place first appears in the series' third episode, in a dream experienced by Cooper. Although a spirit, he appears to Cooper as a dwarf in a red suit and dress shirt. In the dream, The Man gives Cooper a series of esoteric clues which ultimately prove helpful in determining the identity of Laura Palmer's killer, The Man's fellow Black Lodge spirit, BOB. One of these clues is a strange 1940s-style jazz dance, a sequence which makes repeated appearances throughout the course of the series. The series never made clear The Man's reasons for wanting to help Cooper, or his true identity.

Following Cooper's dream, The Man appears only a few more times: once with BOB, appearing to Cooper following the death of Josie Packard, and again at the end of the series when Cooper ventures into the Black Lodge.

The film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me expands upon The Man from Another Place's identity and his reasons for wanting to help Cooper.

Fire Walk with Me explains that The Man from Another Place is connected to MIKE, the faceless spirit entity who possesses Philip Gerard, The One Armed Man, in the series. The script explicitly states that the Man from Another Place is, in fact, MIKE's severed arm. In the series, the one-armed Gerard tells Cooper a story about having been BOB's partner until he cut off his own arm in an effort to relieve himself of a tattoo on the left shoulder that BOB also had. In Fire Walk With Me, The Man from Another Place tells Cooper, "I Am the Arm, and I sound like this." He then makes a whooping noise with his hand and mouth. Later, a similar-sounding siren accompanies the first appearance of Gerard. At the end of the film, when BOB enters the Black Lodge and stands beside his host, Leland Palmer, The Man From Another Place appears, standing beside Philip Gerard. At one point The Man From Another Place puts his hand where Gerard's arm used to be, linking up the Arm with its owner and making MIKE whole. After placing his hand on MIKE's shoulder, the Man from Another Place and MIKE speak in unison to BOB, stating "I want all my garmonbozia". BOB then removes blood from Leland’s shirt and throws it to the ground. The Man from Another Place is then seen slowly eating creamed corn, interspersed with close-up night vision footage of a monkey staring into the camera, which appears to be the same type of monkey as was earlier shown to be the face of Mrs. Tremond's grandson when he temporarily removed his mask.