When the film opens with shots of L.A. (Lou would approve of the wide lens) there's something almost unreal about it, with what is almost an out-of-place heat haze making the whole city look like a mirage. Thus kicks off one of the film's central themes; the perception of reality. It gets a proper callout when Lou, stood in news studio, pauses suddenly, shocked at how fake-looking the background skyline on the news looks up close. The whole news industry, feeding us a version of our reality that isn't quite our own, ties into this, but beyond that it's emblematic of Lou, with him presenting the illusion of an ordinary man, spouting realistic ideals and putting across a false sheen of professionalism. The only ones who ever see beyond that exterior are those who explicitly challenge the image he's creating; Joe Loder mocks his lack of professional equipment and ends up in an accident of Lou's orchestration; Nina discovers his dark aspirations when she tries to restrict him; although Rick believe he was killed because he challenged Lou, the fact he claimed his boss didn't understand people will have played a part. By the end, when delivering the motivational speech to his new interns Lou looks 100% genuine, despite spouting the same empty ideals he did to the late Rick. Nothing has actually changed about him, aside from that his mirage of being "real" is harder to break.
