Apple TV+ officially launched a new American drama "Total Invasion", starting from the landing of alien creatures on earth, investigating the most cruel truth, but also exploring the contradictions and complex and tangled emotions generated by human beings in the face of fear and even the end of life.
1. Not a clichéd post-apocalyptic drama
The Total Invasion series was written by the X-Men film series and executive producer of The Martian Rescue, while The Emmy-nominated director Jacob Ville Brugan, who was nominated for Black Mirror, was the director.
Alien species have landed on Earth, and humanity faces an existential threat. With 5 characters with very different backgrounds and identities, "Total Invasion" interlaces 5 story lines to explain how to place them in the face of displacement and the unsolved knots in their hearts. And trying to clarify the most brutal truth behind the incident, can they bear it?
2. Five characters, one destiny
Five characters, five life problems, one destiny
Sam Neil, the male protagonist of the Jurassic Park series of movies, plays Sheriff Jim, a retired and weathered veteran who notices that his life began to look different the day before his retirement began.
Iranian actor, Ghoshfi Farahani, plays Anissa, a first-generation Syrian immigrant with a background of medical knowledge, who has a son and a daughter.
The American Navy SEALs, played by Shamir Anderson, are stationed in the Afghan camp, brave and brave in battle, but hide a huge grief that can be broken at the touch.
A 12-year-old boy with epilepsy, played by Billy Barat, is always ridiculed and bullied by his peers and has a high sensitivity to extremely small changes.
Played by Shiori Kuna, Mizuki, a Japanese scientist in the space program, has to hide his gay love affair that is not recognized by his family and the society in which he lives.
The five protagonists, each at different stages of life, each with an unfinished mission and wish, is about to be destroyed in the face of alien creatures, and each family and partner may fall apart, but humanity is united at this time.
3. Is COVID actually a warning to alien creatures?
When this drama was written and filmed, like many film and television programs around the world in the past two years, it was difficult to escape the fate of rewriting and postponing the filming due to the ravages of the epidemic. The writers and creative teams also found similarities, so they made interesting connections between story and reality.
"The world began to silently walk towards our story", the screenwriter said, "The earth in the play was invaded by alien creatures, and now COVID is the alien species we are forced to face at this moment, which changes our life patterns and environment" Different threats, but bring the same fear, "Total Invasion" was not created to create panic, but to believe that even if people face the end of the world, the last bit of goodness in their hearts can be stimulated at this moment, but it just happens to encounter the epidemic and can resonate more.
Even Sam Neill exclaimed during filming: "This script is really like a magical prophecy!"
4. The theme is inspired by the novel "World War"
Inspired by British writer HG Wells's "War of the Worlds", even though countless films have been remade on this basis, Simon still uses this as a benchmark, and even changes the past presentation methods with Western white men as the protagonists, through the perspective of globalization, multi-ethnic, racial and emerging issues in the world are included.
5. Is a dazzled alien creature a projection of inner fear?
After several discussions, the production team decided to keep the alien details mysterious, focusing on creating mystery, intrigue, and ubiquitous tension. "Nano-organics" is the show's pronoun for aliens, who communicate by creating ripples on the surface of the skin, with the tongue responsible for smell. There are many tiny bumps on the appendages that can be quickly connected and spray viscous substances, sucking out the oxygen that humans rely on for their livelihood and releasing ammonia. The executive producer said, "The crew's goal is to see the alien creature as a character, a creature with flesh and blood, a heart and a feeling." The fluids through the magnets attract each other, like air disturbed by a shock wave, which is more eye-catching than the glare of the beam.
The setting and appearance of these alien creatures is obviously an attack, but the person is involuntarily pulled, alluding to each character's self-doubt and alienation from life. The seemingly glorious retirement life hides the bleakness of life's steps toward old age; the commandos think that abandoning emotions can make him thrive in the army, but the escape also makes the trauma more and more traumatic; at the same time, the self-and social identity of comrades is also mentioned in the play, and the misunderstanding of sexual orientation and work ability is actually a more difficult and difficult hidden in the face of the end.