How was Leland wounded?

[Ross]

The traincar sequence in FWWM is pretty much a blur. But its implied that Leland is somehow wounded (we see his bloodied abdomen) which is later healed in the Lodge. And in the script, (and maybe the deleted scenes), he puts a towel in his shirt (to suppress the bleeding?), which he later disposes of (this towel is found in the series).

Any ideas how he was supposedly wounded? Did Laura fight back? This seems unlikely.

[nemo]

I remember, my first impression on that was, that this wound wasn't inflicted in a physical but materialized in some mysterious way. We see this wound on Leland's skirt right after the death of Laura Palmer. Afterwards it was healed in the Red Room by BOB and converted to garmonbozia being PAIN AND SORROW. This fact leads us to one possible conclusion: the wound appeared because of the murder as a materialization of a sense of pain and sorrow, possibly felt by Leland's sleeping mind and soul. Maybe one of the reasons, why BOB returned to the Lodge is that he didn't have only to deliver creamed corn, but had also to restore Leland's body for his future adventures, which he could only do by entering the Red Room.
Thus because he couldn't hold in such a big portion of pain and sorrow he had to go to the Lodge and give away all garmonbozia to heel the body to use it in future. It's just some sudden thought, which has come to my mind while writing this comment. But still I'm inclined to believe, that alone the fact, that Laura put on the ring forced BOB to return to the Lodge and give all creamed corn to it.
The other way how to explain the appearance of this wound is to suppose, that he inflicted it to himself being in agony, because in fact he didn't want to kill Laura. Perhaps this explanation is more close to the series, where the concepts of the ring and creamed corn were not completely developed. It's well-known, that the scene of the murder looked completely different in the series: for a long time BOB was trying to persuade Laura to give up by causing her pain and while he failed he could inflict some wounds to himself in desperation.
These are the explanations, which I think are quite plausible.

[rewak]

For some reason i always thought Ronette shivved him with something which is why he knocked her out

[Neosmith]

I didn't think it was a wound at all - I thought it was Laura's blood staining his shirt.

[Ross]

I didn't think it was a wound at all - I thought it was Laura's blood staining his shirt.

I used to think that as well! But the script specifically says its Leland's wound, and that it is healed in the Lodge. On top of that, the script also mentions the bloody towel that they find in the series was used. Which wasn't Laura's blood. Of course that got cut, so...

I remember, my first impression on that was, that this wound wasn't inflicted in a physical but materialized in some mysterious way. We see this wound on Leland's skirt right after the death of Laura Palmer. Afterwards it was healed in the Red Room by BOB and converted to garmonbozia being PAIN AND SORROW.

This makes sense. In the end it probably doesn't matter, as I think the whole point was that Leland was healed in the Lodge. And that this was not only physical, but perhaps mental as well. I think it sort of "resets" Leland as the much less "aware" Leland we see in the series.

[bosguy1981]

Maybe the deleted scenes from FWWM will explain it.

I have no idea how he got the wound, but it always reminded me of Cooper's wound (or his "flashback wound") in the Red Room in episode 29, where he's bleeding from his abdomen.

[Gordon]

It was self-inflicted, he used his own blood to write the "Fire walk with me" note...

[nemo]

It was self-inflicted, he used his own blood to write the "Fire walk with me" note...

What bothers me here, is that his wound is a way too severe to be self-inflicted to write his message.
I can't really imagine, that he stabbbed himself with a knife in his abdomen so that he had to go and heal it in the Lodge, where he didn't have much desire to go. I personally see it as part of the chain: ring - murder - pain and sorrow in the form of blood - garmonbozia. The function of BOB is to bring blood to the Lodge to convert it to creamed corn. I think, the reason, why LMFAP offered Laura a ring, was that he wanted to get his nourishment, which becomes accessible only after a murder is commited. So in this respect it was a kind of bargain. Laura got freedom from BOB at the cost of her life. It's pretty similar to the concept of ERASERHEAD in fact, where ,,YOU GOT YOUR GOOD THING, I GOT MINE". I always thought, that FWWM and ERASERHEAD shared many similar ideas.
But thinking about the whole thing once again I guess, Gordon's explanation can be very much credible.

[kingsoprano718]

I had a wild theory it was somehow connected to Coopers stabbing and the Lodge. It is very similar to Lelands and could be a representation of emotional pain and wounding. Or maybe I am just reading too much into it. BOB removes this from Leland and gives it to the LMFAP and I assume he would have done the same to Coop after he does the Lodges work as well and is returned to the real world.

[StealThisCorn]

Just wanted to add that, being that it is Leland's blood and we know from the series he used his own blood to write the "Fire walk with me" scrap, and we know from the film that BOB's initial goal in the train car was some kind of ritual to possess Laura Palmer, then could it be part of that ritual would have to be committing suicide as Leland, i.e. stabbing himself fatally so that, as Leland dies BOB can transfer into Laura? In the series, BOB has Leland commit suicide before he leaves, so I think that might have been it.

But then when Laura puts on the Ring and BOB can't possess her, he has to take Leland back to the Black Lodge and magically heal the wound, so that he still has a host, pulling out all the "pain and sorrow" to make up for the garmonbozia he stole from the Little Man/MIKE, which also seems to "reset" Leland in a way so that when we see him next in the series, he really doesn't remember any of it and acts much more normal for a while.