Sunset Boulevard was a critically-acclaimed film noir, starring William Holden, Gloria Swanson as "Norma," and Cecil B. DeMille as himself. Another character shared a name with FBI agent Gordon Cole.[1]
History[]
A scene from Sunset Boulevard plays on the Jones's TV set.
While Dale Cooper – who was in a catatonic state after suddenly appearing in Las Vegas in September 2016 – ate some cake, he began fiddling with objects on the table in front of him. One of these was a TV remote, which he used to accidentally turn on the TV. Looking up to see Sunset Boulevard, he took interest in the character Norma's line about getting "the old team together again." Upon hearing Cecil DeMille say the line, "Get Gordon Cole," something jolted in his mind as he recognized the name, prompting him to pause the movie. Hearing the crackling of electricity, he then crawled toward a power outlet and stuck a fork inside.[1] This action led to events that caused Cooper's eventual complete mental restoration.[2]
Behind the scenes[]
Sunset Boulevard is a 1950 film directed by Billy Wilder and is notably a favorite of David Lynch. In the featured scene, director Cecil B. DeMille (playing himself) is telling his assistant to contact studio executive Gordon Cole and tell him to no longer call Norma Desmond (Swanson), who is under the mistaken impression Cole is trying to buy the script she has written with Joe Gillis (Holden). The scene's use in Part 15 is something of a meta-joke: the Twin Peaks character Gordon Cole was originally named after the studio executive (played by an uncredited Bert Moorhouse) from the film.[3]
Lynch has claimed (albeit jokingly, and at least partly referring to himself) that Sunset Boulevard is one of Gordon Cole's all-time favorite films, and that he thinks "Someone had it before me!" whenever he hears his name spoken out loud.[4]
