It's been awhile since I've seen it, and I need help for another piece on The Passion of the Christ I'm writing. I want to contrast Gibson's opening scene in which Caviezel stomps the serpent's head with the temptation scene in Last Temptation where... well, where Dafoe DOESN'T stomp the serpent's head, but what exactly does happen there? How much time do Jesus and the serpent spend together? How close do they get? Does the serpent actually touch him, the way the serpent in Gibson's film starts to crawl onto Caviezel's arm? Does it in any way insinuate itself around him? Or is it pretty much just slithering around on the ground in front of him? Thanx.

Snakes first come to Dafoe when he goes out initially (into that desert camp where he talks to an old man who has already died that night). Then later, when he's in the desert and draws the circle and sits in it, among other things the serpent comes to the outside of the circle. It has Barbara Hershey's voice. It pretty much just tries to tempt him, then leaves.

I don't think anything steps inside the circle where Jesus is sitting -- not the snake, not the lion, not the fire, not the tree. Oh, but I think John the Baptist does.

The lion goes to step inside, but disappears as he does so. The tree is outside, and Jesus reaches out and takes an apple to bite, which leaves blood in his mouth. John kneels in the circle and hugs Christ, and we see a shot from behind, with blood streaming down John's neck (great moment, imo).