Some time ago, foreign media exposed the latest progress of "The Matrix 4" -
Director Nala Wachowski, starring Keanu Reeves and Carey-Ann Moss appeared on the set in Berlin to reshoot the film.
Not surprisingly, this sequel will meet you in December this year.
I believe this is also one of the most anticipated movies for global science fiction fans this year.
While waiting, I began to revisit the classics of the past and found that there was a relatively niche science fiction film that I had never talked to you about.
In my opinion, this film, which cost only $5 million to produce, can be ranked alongside Avatar as the best sci-fi movie of 2009 – "The Moon".
The story is set in 2035, which is not far from now, and the earth has survived the precarious energy crisis safely.
Because an energy company has set up a mining base on the moon to transport helium-3 from the far side of the moon back, solving the huge energy needs of human beings.
The male protagonist, Sam, is the only human employee stationed at the lunar mining base.
Accompanied only by an artificial intelligence named Gotty.
At the beginning of the film, his three-year contract expires immediately, and he is about to be sent back to Earth by the company to reunite with his wife and daughter.
But just then, Sam had an accident at outdoors.
When he woke up, he found another "Sam" in the base, who looked a little younger than himself, and said that he had just signed a three-year contract with the company.
Two people who are almost identical soon get into a dispute over "who is the original Sam"
But it doesn't make sense -
Because they are clones made by energy companies, they only have a lifespan of three years, and when they expire, they will be tricked into incinerators and destroyed.
The memories of their wives and daughters in their minds are also artificially implanted.
The task of the ai-powered Gotty is to regularly awaken new clones and ensure that they continue to keep the base running.
The company also secretly built a signal jamming station to prevent the clones on the base from contacting Earth and discovering the truth.
Just then, the human "rescue team" sent by Earth was about to arrive at the base.
The two Sams realize that once they appear in front of humans at the same time, there will be only one way to die, so they plan to awaken the third clone and start a desperate escape...
In terms of story setting, "Moon" has a lot of shadows of classic science fiction movies.
The clones' attempts to return to Earth after discovering the truth have appeared as early as 1982's Blade Runner.
Gotty, the artificial intelligence voiced by Kevin Spacey, is clearly paying homage to Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The suspenseful preparation, atmosphere creation and plot direction of the film always revolve around the topic of "self-awareness of clones", which is familiar to fans.
Sam Rockwell's performance of two characters also left a deep impression on the audience.
Many people think that the science fiction elements of "Moon" are not "hard" enough, especially compared with "Avatar" released in the same year, from the scene to the human setting is somewhat rudimentary.
The popularity of the film is far less than the director's later work "Source Code".
But in my opinion, the most brilliant part of "Moon" is precisely its "softness".
Through the science fiction setting, the director conducts an in-depth exploration of the ethical issues that may be caused by human cloning.
One of the most interesting episodes in the film is when energy companies implant memories into clones.
This memory, which comes from the brain of the "original Sam" on Earth and is screened and uploaded, is the entire motivation to support the clones' work at the base, giving them a sense of belonging and self-identity.
As long as he remembers his wife and daughter, he can survive three years of loneliness and return to the home of the earth.
However, this created "emotion" is essentially a programmed program that cannot tolerate bugs.
This is also why in the video sam saw, when the wife mentioned that "the daughter has a birthday next month", there are obvious traces of deletion:
Unbeknownst to him, Sam is already "Sam No. 5", and sam he later meets is No. 6.
At this time, the daughter of the "original Sam" on Earth was 15 years old, and his wife had died several years ago.
Therefore, when the programmed lies are debunked, the "memory" that originally allowed the clones to sustain them will completely destroy their spiritual will and become the deepest fear in their hearts.
When Sam No. 5 and No. 6 learn that their longing daughters have been accompanied by the "original Sam" for many years, they are swallowed up by a huge sense of despair - the home that supports them against loneliness does not actually exist in the end.
If the person next to my daughter is the real "Sam", then what am I?
At this point, the story of "Moon" has completed the basic discussion of the ethics of cloning, but the director did not stop there.
The plot of the last 20 minutes of the film is the key to the success of the entire film.
After the two Sams learn the whole truth, they ask Gotti to wake up Sam 7 and use his body to impersonate No. 5, who was in the accident, to deal with the human rescue team that is about to arrive.
Sam No. 6, on the other hand, decided to help No. 5, whose life was on the verge of end, quietly returned to Earth to reunite with his family.
The key part of this plan is that they must kill Sam 7.
This raises another topic worth pondering – are clones with implanted memories human?
From an energy company's perspective, all clones are tools in the service of humans— even if they have to be given human memories and emotions in order to make them work better.
In contrast, the real humans in the film do not show much true feelings, and come to kill them under the guise of "rescue squad" - always flaunting emotional humans, but they are more cold-blooded than machines.
From the perspective of the two Sams, every awakened clone is a human.
In their limited lives, they experienced the loneliness and belonging of being human beings.
In the first ten minutes of the opening, the director shows sam's daily work routine and highlights the accumulated loneliness in him.
His habit of talking to himself, the eager look in his eyes watching his wife's video, the happy look he had when he saw his daughter... It can make people have a strong emotional resonance.
If they did kill Sam No. 7, it would also mean denying their own human side.
So at the last minute, Sam 5 changed his mind and decided to return to the scene of the accident to welcome the end of his life, and let No. 6 take his place on earth - a cloned human who is regarded as a tool by humans, but has the truth, goodness and beauty that humans should have.
On the occasion of parting, the two recall the scene of meeting their wives together, which is also the most poignant part of the film.
The more highly their memories match, the more they can prove their clone identity, and the farther away they are from their home...
At the end of the film, Sam No. 6 destroys the signal jamming base station before leaving the moon, leaving the hope of survival to the Sams who will be activated in the future...
Who is entitled to deny that these clones, whom humans call "ruthless machines," have made the most human and heroic trade-offs on the cold moon?
Watching "The Moon" again, I found that there are many details in the film that are worth revisiting.
For example, Gotty, the artificial intelligence who assists Sam in his work, although he speaks in a tone similar to Hal in "2001: A Space Odyssey", he can show emotion through expressions, express apologies and sympathy like humans, and even make self-sacrifices in critical moments, allowing Sam to format his memory storage to save this escape.
Gotty has no human body, but has a good soul.
That's why Sam 6 says to Gotty – we're not programs, we're human beings!
For example, although Sam's wife Tess does not play much, it can be seen from the tone of her desire to stop in the video text message that Tess has a sense of guilt about the clones in the process of assisting the energy company to falsify her memories.
The root of this guilt lies in the fact that she has seen the so-called "tools" as real human beings.
Overall, "Moon" is a different science fiction film, in this story of clones as the absolute protagonist, the director still successfully shows the alienation and distortion of human nature in the process of technological development.
The most paradoxical part of human nature is that we always want others to fully understand what we are thinking, but when a person who shares memories and emotions with themselves, and even their hearts, appears, human beings begin to emphasize their unique sense of superiority.
The inhuman treatment of the "Sams" and their increasingly human nature remind us that if humanity continues to reject dissidents, it will eventually usher in a revolt.