Stanley Cavell on the film North by Northwest—
"The 'nothing,' or naught, in the ROT monogram equally appropriately stands for origin, so its simultaneous meaning is that the actor is the origin of the character and also the origin of what becomes of himself or herself on film. The further thought that the human self as such is both an origin and a nothing is a bit of Cartesianism that is conceivably not called for in the context of this film."
— Cavell on Film , SUNY Press, 2005, pp. 44-45
For another central O, see Four Gods in this journal.
The film's mistaken-identity plot involves a fictional character named Kaplan. For a real Kaplan, see a 2001 New Yorker piece.
For a related catchphrase, see Kaplan Boo.