Being John Malkovich transforms the ideas of screen theory into a narrative to draw criticism on the audience and break down concepts such as the male gaze and the cinematic apparatus. As the film begins, Craig lives in the imagination, spending hours with his art. Lotte suggests he go out and get a real job, which he does at Lester Corp. But the imagination in which Craig lives is stable compared to the "real" world, or the symbolic one, where everything is seemingly out of place or strange. . His apartment is full of animals; the office where he works is on the 7 ½ floor, located between the 7th and 8th floors with low ceilings; the people around him are all a little strange, but they perceive themselves as normal. When he enters the portal, he once again enters the Imaginary, finding that he prefers the stability and order of the Imaginary to the Symbolic. This is the symbol of films and the pleasure of going to see films. The real world we live in is chaotic and strange and makes people feel out of place. When we enter the cinema (through the "portal") we enter the imagery created by the films. There is a pleasant aspect in going to the cinema, in the escape from believing that the Imaginary is more "real" than the real world. Malkovich is a stand-in for the cinematic apparatus, and also for the object of fetishization. Casting an actor to play himself was a choice made by the filmmakers that plays into the self-aware nature of the film. It would have been easy to allow the portal to enter any average person, but since the film is an attempt to form a narrative around screen theory, it was necessary to cast someone like John Malkovich. The portal itself symbolizes… half of the card… an experience: $200 for fifteen minutes in the mind of John Malkovich. The first client tries to explain why he would like to be someone else, but Maxine cuts him off, uninterested in what he has to say. As word spreads about JM Inc., the line slowly starts to get bigger and bigger. People will pay good money to “be everything someone else can be.” And this is ultimately how the film industry works in relation to the viewer. Ultimately, films are a business that lures the viewer with promises of voyeurism and escape from the symbolic to the imaginary, for a fee. People will line up for the premiere of a new movie just like people will line up to experience the Malkovich. Ultimately the whole experience and everything profound we might take away from it, as Craig tells Lotte, “[is] just the thrill of seeing through someone else's eyes. It will pass.”