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In David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, the blue box is the central metaphorical and narrative "hinge" of the film. It serves as the physical manifestation of the boundary between the idealized dream world (the first two-thirds of the movie) and the grim reality (the final third).
Here is the specific significance of the blue box broken down by its function and symbolism:
The box appears toward the end of the "dream" sequence. After Betty (Naomi Watts) and Rita (Laura Elena Harring) visit the Club Silencio—where they are told "it is all an illusion"—they find a blue box in Rita’s handbag. When they return to Aunt Ruth’s apartment, Rita produces the triangular blue key they found earlier.
As Rita opens the box, Betty vanishes. The camera is pulled into the black void of the box, and the film transitions into the "real" world. In this sense, the box is a receptacle for the dream. Once it is opened, the fantasy can no longer contain itself, and the dreamer (Diane Selwyn) is forced to wake up to her reality.
In the "reality" sequence at the end of the film, we see the origin of the blue key. Diane Selwyn, consumed by jealousy, hires a hitman to kill her former lover, Camilla Rhodes. The hitman tells Diane that when the job is finished, she will find a blue key in a designated spot.
When Diane asks, "What does it open?" the hitman simply laughs. In the reality of the film, the key doesn't necessarily open a physical box; it is a signal of death. However, in Diane's subconscious (the dream), her mind constructs a box to match the key. The blue box represents the "truth" of the murder—a truth so traumatic that Diane has locked it away. Opening the box is symbolic of Diane being unable to hide from her guilt any longer.
In one of the final scenes, the blue box is seen in the hands of the terrifying, soot-covered figure (often called "The Monster" or "The Bum") behind Winkie’s Diner. This figure drops the box into a paper bag.
This suggests that the box—and the trauma/guilt it contains—belongs to the dark, decaying underbelly of Hollywood. The fact that the creature handles the box implies that the "truth" of Diane's actions is something discarded and filthy, yet it is the source of the nightmares that eventually drive her to suicide.
The blue box functions similarly to the mythological Pandora’s Box. In the dream, Betty and Rita are driven by a desire to solve the mystery of Rita’s identity. However, the "prize" inside the box is not a solution or a happy ending; it is the destruction of their world. By seeking the truth (opening the box), they release the reality of death, jealousy, and failure that Diane was trying to suppress.
No oversights detected.
In Mulholland Drive, the blue box functions as a symbolic object representing the repressed truth of Diane Selwyn's guilt and the transition point between her dream fantasy and reality. Narratively, it appears at the end of the dream sequence; when Rita opens it (after Betty has already vanished), the camera enters the box's dark void, signaling the collapse of the dream. In the waking timeline, the blue key is a signal from a hitman that Diane's lover, Camilla, has been killed. The box itself does not exist in the waking world but is constructed by Diane's subconscious to house the traumatic knowledge of the murder. The box is also linked to the 'Bum' behind Winkie's, who is seen dropping it into a paper bag, connecting the object to the dark, underlying forces of the film's universe.