Krishna
An Australian movie science fiction movie that is as good as it gets. The story is fascinating.
The story is brilliant, the dialog is completely intelligent and the various characters convincing, even if they are arguing for totally different things! Your point of view seems to shift around all the time and that makes for great viewing. Let us see the story.
In the future, when the mankind has gone into a devastating war that has all but wiped them out, the robot servants who looked after them seem to have taken over and seem to slowly be hunting the human beings to extinction.
However, in one underground bunker, secured from outside, there is a robot (actually they are advanced and so let’s call them androids rather than robot; but they are not the human looking androids of the alien or terminator series – these look like machines put together and infused with software that simulates consciousness) that seems radically different. This android has preserved a number of human embryos. At the start of the film, it selects one of them and incubates it to full term, whereupon a baby was born. The baby is raised by the android, teaching her (yes, it is a girl) everything, home schooling her, giving her tests to ensure that she progresses at a good level, and looking after all her needs – food, clothing, mental stimulation, the whole lot. That child calls the android ‘Mother’ – naturally.
She learns that the mankind’s destruction has made the outside world radioactive and no one can survive there without a protective full body suite.
I like it that they have not named the characters. The android is simply ‘mother’ and the girl is simply ‘Daughter’. Nice touch there.
And the dialog is brilliant and intelligent. For example, the child asks why she is the only one who has been grown and Mother replies that she needs time to learn how to bring up a child properly; when comfortable, she will create more children from the embryo bank.
The mother needs power to function and charges herself every night. This idyllic world is disturbed one day when the power fails and Mother is out, recharging. Daughter investigates and finds that a mouse is the cause of the disruption. It has chewed through the wires. She is excited because life must be returning outside their protected facility.
Mother, coming to when the power is restored, comes and incinerates the mouse, and tells Daughter that it may be carrying toxic stuff inside and is dangerous. The girl, unconvinced, goes out exploring, with her suite on, and finds a lady asking to be let in, suffering from gunshot wounds. Daughter brings her into the airlock and when the visitor, who is a surviving human (simply called Woman from hereon) asks for water and drinks it after removing her head piece of the suite, Daughter realizes that, contrary to what Mother said, the outside cannot be so polluted that you cannot go without a suite. Strike One. Then Woman tells Daughter that robots like Mother are the ones that are hunting humans. Daughter says that Mother is not like the robots and the Woman is fully sceptical. But Mother helps Daughter remove the bullet in Woman’s leg and helps her recover.
The Woman never trusts Mother, but the Daughter knows that Mother is a good android. She tries to convince Woman with little success. The Woman tries to convince Daughter that all androids, including Mother, are evil.
Mother takes weapons away from Woman. She thinks Woman is dangerous because the bullet taken from Woman’s leg was the same as the one Woman fired at Mother (initially, when she thought that Mother was one of the androids who were exterminating humans outside)
Woman later gets Daughter to compare the bullets and Daughter is puzzled to see that they are NOT the same but different. Strike Two against Mother’s logic.
Mother gives daughter the exam and when she passes with flying colours, she rewards Daughter with her choice of an embryo to give Daughter a Brother.
Meanwhile, Daughter grows increasingly suspicious and finds records to show that Mother had raised embryos earlier too and they ‘ended in failure’. When she checks the incinerator, she is shocked to find human remains of at least one young person. Strike Three.
So, when Woman asks Daughter to slip away and join the humankind, Daughter agrees. She sees that other androids in helicoptors are hunting humans and spraying crops.
The whole movie takes a distinct twist thereafter and the ending and the ‘real story’ are explosive. When you know the end, everything from the beginning makes perfect sense and gels together beautifully.
To say anything more would give away too much. This one is worth seeing for sure.
The casting is good but the story overtakes everything. The only surprise is finding Hillary Swank in this movie (as Woman) but overall, a great experience.
When a movie’s plot, narration and also picturization comes together so well, it is a joy to watch from beginning to end.
9/10
– – Krishna