Don't let the single line lyric fool you. "Is There Anybody Out There?" is just as complex musically and visually as the rest of the album and movie. Though an explanation of the lyric is easy enough, with Pink calling out to anyone outside of his wall who might hear him, it is most interesting to see how the musical and even lyrical subtleties create an entire mood within one single grain, a single question. I mentioned in my original Wall analysis that Pink is pleading for help from the outside world. While this explanation would fit after coming out of the plea-driven "Hey You," it doesn't really fit coming after "Goodbye Cruel World," it's original position on the album. Using the sequence of songs in the movie, "Is There Anybody Out There?" takes on a different connotation that is more befitting to the whole narrative flow. Having just completed his wall, Pink immediately begins to see the drawbacks of his decision to disconnect himself from the world. And so "Is there anybody out there," rather than being a cry for help, is intoned more out of a need to reconnect with the outside world. In this light, his question as to whether anyone is "out there" is voiced more out of the need to know that the external world still exists, that there is life beyond his wall, rather than as the abandonment of all self-pride in a plea for help. Even if he realizes that he needs help, which I'm certain he does on some level, I'm sure he is far from certain as to how to actually obtain it.

The way the single lyric is sung also adds to the subtle defining of Pink's new emerging self. While Waters' sings the first couple of lines alone, he is soon joined by other voices singing in unison to create a haunting chorus effect. One conclusion concerning this chorus of voices is that these are the echoes, as in "Hey You," of Pink's solitary voice resounding off of the wall, thereby conveying aurally the expansiveness of the void and the enormity of Pink's construction. Another conclusion, and one that I personally lean towards, sees this chorus as foreshadowing of Pink's other personalities, mainly the dictator-like persona that will soon obtain life. As a result of his entrapment, Pink begins to decay psychologically, thus allowing the other facets of his personality free reign. While previous songs hint at the emergence of these other personas, "Is There Anybody Out There?" is one of the first songs to actually feature their emanation. Put simply, Pink's decay allows his darker tendencies to gain power over his mind. Keep in mind that I'm not suggesting that Pink has multiple personalities. Far from it. Rather, I think these other voices are more like auditory renditions of Pink's many facets, the fragments of Pink's personality that split from the whole as a result of one painful event after another. Although these personality fragments are evident in previous songs (for example, the warring sides of loneliness and rage in "Don't Leave Me Now"), they finally obtain their own separate voices in the unified chorus of "Is There Anybody Out There?"

In his 1979 interview, Waters described the song as "a mood piece." The solitary classical guitar backed by the quiet orchestra perfectly creates an ambiance of aloneness, musically highlighting Pink's realization of his isolation after the completion of his wall and before the eventual decision to regress and set things right. Aside from the repeated line at the beginning, Pink is voiceless throughout the rest of the song, perhaps daunted by the sheer size of his psychological barrier or uncertain as to how to proceed in escaping from it. Regardless, "Is There Anybody Out There?" remains one of my favorite songs off of the album and, in my opinion, one of the greatest (and expressive) acoustic guitar pieces in the modern rock history.

After a bit of "symbolic scrabbling" (as Waters puts iton the DVD commentary) with Pink scraping against his wall, the scene follows worn out rock star as he sinks to the ground before fading into a shot of the disheveled hotel room floor, now neatly ordered in complex designs. Out of all of the sequences in the movie, this particular scene seems to confound viewers the most. I've received innumerable e-mails asking what Pink is building, if anything, or stating that viewer's own opinions on his massive arrangement. A fellow named Gogul Leviathon sent me his own explanation of this scene, one with which I happen to agree the most. Rather than paraphrase his opinions and risk cutting an important idea, I'll just repeat what he said. "Concerning the thing Pink was constructing in 'Is There Anybody Out There?' I believe that it wasn't any thing or shape in particular, but rather something to show his need to live an ordered and organized (up to the point of mania) life. I'm sure you recall the absolute chaos of his apartment at the start of 'Don't Leave Me Now.' For Pink to transform this into a painfully accurate design shows the fragile and tenuous state he was in. Moving a Coke can a few centimeters, replacing the guitar neck he knocked, seems silly to anyone else, but to Pink, it was not only necessary but essential to have it perfect." Gerald Scarfe recounts that this scene came out of talking about "what you do when you're going off your head." One tries to reorganize life into a recognizable pattern. Oftentimes schizophrenics and others suffering from mental disorders "detect" patterns in everything from what people say to the movements of nature. Because of some fear or wariness about life's uncertainty, many obsessively try to give structure to the most random of events and circumstances. To borrow another line from the DVD commentary, it's "trying to make sense out of chaos." In a sense, it's another embodiment of Pink's dichotomous rebellious / passive personas. Like the rioter, one part of Pink's personality (the rebellious "we don't need no education" part) trashes his hotel room in a fit of rage. Yet like the policemen who try to quail the riots and restore order, another side of Pink's psyche (the persona concerned with the rules and social morals ingrained in him by the school teacher and his mother) steps forward and attempts to produce systematic organization out of the clutter.

Yet these polar sides won't continue warring within Pink for long. As the last notes fade away, the scene changes to show Pink shaving in the bathroom. After finishing with his face, Pink lathers himself with shaving foam and shaves his chest clean of hair. Unconcerned with the blood that dribbles from the cuts on his chest, he next opens the razor and splits it in two before the shot is replaced by that of blood dripping into the sink filled with water and foam. Pink, a hazy outline behind the condensation-covered glass, presses himself to the bathroom door before pulling it aside and revealing his new incarnation. He emerges from the bathroom (metaphorical womb) relatively hairless, a symbolic newborn created out of the decay of his isolation. It is in this metaphorical rebirth that the two previously warring sides of Pink's personality (rioter / orderer) merge into this new monster, Pink's most frightening alter ego. It is the birth of Pink the Dictator.