The Ninth Configuration

The Ninth Configuration
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	William Peter Blatty
Produced by	William Peter Blatty
Written by	William Peter Blatty
Based on	The Novel The Ninth Configuration by William Peter Blatty
Starring	Stacy Keach Scott Wilson Jason Miller Ed Flanders
Music by	Barry De Vorzon
Cinematography	Gerry Fisher
Distributed by	Warner Bros. (original release) United Film Distribution (1985 re-release)
Release date	February 29, 1980
Running time	118 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$2.5 million

The Ninth Configuration (also known as Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer" Kane) is a 1980 American film directed by William Peter Blatty. It is based on Blatty's novel The Ninth Configuration (1978), which was itself a reworking of an earlier version of the novel, first published in 1966 as Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer" Kane!. The initial 1966 publication of the novel featured an exclamation mark at the end of the title, while all subsequent publications saw it removed.

The first half of the film has the predominant tone and style of a comic farce. In the second half, the film becomes darker as it delves deeper into its central issues of human suffering, sacrifice and faith. The film also frequently blurs the line between the sane and insane.

Sometime in the 1970s, "toward the end of the War in Vietnam", a large castle is used by the US Government as an insane asylum for military personnel. Among the many patients there is a former astronaut, Billy Cutshaw (Scott Wilson), who aborted a moon launch and was dragged screaming from the capsule, suffering from an apparent mental breakdown.

Colonel Kane (Stacy Keach), a former member of a United States Marine Corps special unit, arrives at the castle to take over the treatment of the patients. He meets Colonel Fell (Ed Flanders), who helps Kane acclimate himself to the eccentricities of the patients. Kane pays special attention to Cutshaw, repeatedly asking him why he did not want to go to the moon. Cutshaw refuses to answer but instead gives him a St. Christopher medal.

Kane falls asleep in his office and has a nightmare. When recounting it, he explains to Fell that they are the nightmares of his brother Vincent, a former patient and murderer who is now dead. Later, Cutshaw talks with another patient about Kane. Cutshaw suspects that Kane is crazy himself. He asserts that psychiatrists often go crazy and have the highest suicide rate of any profession.

Cutshaw talks with Kane again, and they debate God and the idea that there is a divine plan. Kane, who believes that the existence of a God is far more likely than humanity's having emerged from "random chance", argues that deeds of pure self-sacrifice are proof of human goodness, which can only be explained by divine purpose. Cutshaw demands that Kane recall one concrete example of pure self-sacrifice from his personal experience; Kane is unable. Kane takes Cutshaw to a church service, which Cutshaw interrupts with several outbursts, and Kane momentarily hallucinates. After returning to the castle, Cutshaw thanks Kane and asks him to send him a sign as proof of an afterlife should Kane die first. Kane promises to try.