The film was nominated in three categories at the 72nd Academy Awards: Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actress for Keener.

Lotte confronts Dr. Lester, who reveals that he is, in fact, Captain Mertin, who, having discovered the portal to a "vessel body" in the late 1800s, erected the Mertin-Flemmer building to conceal it.

If he were to enter the portal past midnight on that day, he would instead be trapped in the next newborn vessel, helpless inside the new host's mind.

This time, Lester has invited a group of friends to join him in occupying Malkovich once he turns 44, and Lotte warns them that Craig has taken control.

Discovering that Maxine has discarded him for Lotte, Craig swears to reenter the portal to take back Malkovich's mind.

Seven years later, an older Malkovich, now inhabited by multiple people, tells Sheen about Lester and his friends' plan to extend their lives via the portal, which now leads to the mind of Maxine's daughter Emily.

Craig, who entered the portal too late, is permanently trapped inside Emily, forced to watch Lotte and Maxine live happily together.

Film director David Fincher makes an uncredited appearance as Christopher Bing in the American Arts & Culture pseudo-documentary on John Malkovich.

[8] Writer Charlie Kaufman's idea of Being John Malkovich originated simply as "a story about a man who falls in love with someone who is not his wife."

Gradually he added further elements to the story which he found entertaining, such as floor 7+1⁄2 of the Mertin Flemmer building; among his first ideas, Malkovich was "nowhere to be seen".

[10] Hoping to find a producer, Kaufman sent the script to Francis Ford Coppola, who passed it on to his daughter's then boyfriend Spike Jonze.

[10][12] Single Cell producers Michael Stipe and Sandy Stern pitched the film to numerous studios, including New Line Cinema, who dropped the project after chairman Robert Shaye asked, "Why the fuck can't it be Being Tom Cruise?

[12][16] Filming took place primarily in Los Angeles;[16] specific locations included the University of Southern California campus and the Observation Bar on board the RMS Queen Mary.

[13] All tracks are written by Carter Burwell, except where notedBeing John Malkovich was given limited release in the United States theatres on October 22, 1999, and opened across 25 screens.

[35] However, as a result of Seagram acquiring PolyGram's assets, its film division was folded into a new entity named Universal Pictures International, with all projects in different stages of development now transferred to that company.

[38] In France, the film opened in December 1999 with a gross of US$546,000 from 94 venues and went on to further success due to positive reviews and word of mouth.

[1] Being John Malkovich was initially released in 2000 on VHS, both as a regular edition and a limited edition collector's set,[43][44] and on DVD, with special features including a theatrical trailer, TV spots, cast and crew biographies, the director's photo album and featurettes on floor 7½ and puppeteering.

[45] A special edition DVD, released later the same year, included the aforementioned features, an interview with Jonze and two behind-the-scenes featurettes.

The site's critical consensus reads, "Smart, funny, and highly original, Being John Malkovich supports its wild premise with skillful direction and a stellar ensemble cast.

Charlie Kaufman, the writer of Being John Malkovich, supplies a dazzling stream of inventions, twists, and wicked paradoxes.

The movie has ideas enough for half a dozen films, but Jonze and his cast handle them so surely that we never feel hard-pressed; we're enchanted by one development after the next".