View source for K-PAX

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A series of [[Science Fiction]] novels written by Gene Brewer, who also narrates the books in the first person as the protagonist, [[H. G. Wells]]-style. The books follow "Dr. Brewer"'s experiences with prot [''sic'', rhymes with "oat"], a supposedly delusional yet extremely convincing mental patient who looks like an ordinary, affable man but claims to be an extraterrestrial from a planet called "K-PAX".

The series contains four novels to date: ''K-PAX'', ''K-PAX II: On a Beam Of Light'', ''K-PAX III: Worlds of prot'', and ''K-PAX IV: A New Visitor from the Constellation Lyra''.

The first novel was adapted into a film of the same name in 2001, starring [[Jeff Bridges]] as the psychiatrist and Kevin Spacey as prot.
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* [[Aliens Speaking English]]: prot claims that English is easy to learn, at least when compared to his native language.
* [[All There in the Manual]]: Aside from the alternate perspective of prot's true identity between film and book, the book goes much more in depth on the backstories of the other patients and Brewer himself.
* [[Crap Saccharine World]]: Brewer considers K-PAX to be one. prot describes it as a utopia with no violence or war, no hunger, no crime, no government or currency, no pollution, everyone is a vegetarian, and everyone is a scientific genius free to travel the universe as they wish. Brewer sees this as meaning they're essentially wandering nomads with no sense of love or family structure.
* [[Crazy Consumption]]
* [[Crazy Enough to Work]]: prot's methods to cure Howie. At first Brewer muses that it makes sense to encourage an obsessive compulsive to focus on specific tasks over a long period of time. Then prot tells Howie to {{spoiler|cure Ernie of his fear of death, which he does by strangling him into unconsciousness and then reviving him, and it works}}. His final task for Howie is {{spoiler|to be ready for anything prot might request of him, eventually leading Howie to realizing obsessing over knowing everything is futile}}.
* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: prot in the film, snarky but not so deadpan in the novel
{{quote|'''Dr. Powell''' "What would you say if I were to tell you that I don't think you took any trip at all, to Greenland or Iceland or anywhere? That I don't believe you're from K-PAX? I believe you're as human as I am?"
'''prot''': "I would say you're in need of a thorazine drip, doctor." }}
* [[Demoted to Extra]]: The other patients in the film.
* [[Driven to Suicide]]: {{spoiler|Robert Porter, but he fails and the prot personality takes over}}.
* [[Humans Are Special]]: prot subtly slips into this in the film as he prepares to leave, where he tells Brewer that no one ever misses him on K-PAX when he leaves, but he senses he will be missed when he leaves Earth, and realizes he'll miss them too.
** [[Humans Are the Real Monsters]]: In the book however he notes humans are ignorant of the damage they do to themselves, their planet and other animals, and writes in his journal that unless a radical society shift takes place he doubts the species will survive.
* [[Law of Alien Names]]: Averted. The (uncapitalized) "prot" is a vowel ''shorter'' than its pronunciation would imply.
* [[Literary Agent Hypothesis]]
* [[Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane]]: The series and film revolve around the idea that prot could be alien or human, there's good evidence for both.
* [[Meaningful Name]]: "prot" is derived from {{spoiler|Porter, Robert's last name}}.
* [[Human Aliens]]: Subverted. See [[Starfish Aliens]] entry below.
* [[Schrödinger's Gun]]: The film and book both take different stances on their evidence that prot is human or alien. The book contains more in-depth hypnosis sessions that {{spoiler|1=have the Robert Porter personality come out and speak to Brewer, and flashbacks show a gradual growth in the detail of the world of K-PAX as he creates it in his mind, giving strong evidence that prot is just a split personality}}. The film leaves these two points out and has a greater focus on prot's inexplicable abilities, and twice when he would be "arriving" from his faster-than-light travel there's a glare of light and a quick cut away before he appears seemingly out of nowhere, giving a stronger implication that he's an alien.
* [[Starfish Aliens]]: Subverted. prot claims that K-PAXians are this on their home planet, but look like the most efficient creature of the places they visit. {{spoiler|It turns out that there's a bit more to it than that}}.
* [[The Stoic]]: prot in the film is universally calm and collected. Not so in the novel.
* [[Through the Eyes of Madness]]:  {{spoiler|When prot "leaves" in the end, the other patients comment that Robert Porter looks nothing like prot, implying they could see him for what he is}}.

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[[Category:Films of the 2000s]]
[[Category:Science Fiction Literature]]
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[[Category:Film]]