Womb (film)

[Rolan Sacco]

Thefilm begins on a beach during a foggy day. A woman (Eva Green) is meditating while she is having tea on the porch of her house. She is in an advanced state of pregnancy. She knows that the father of her child will not return, but she thinks that perhaps her unborn child was the only thing she needed from him. She smiles ominously and begins to reminisce about the events leading up to that moment.

A love story is then told between two children, Rebecca and Tommy, who swear each other eternal love. When Rebecca departs suddenly for Japan with her mother, the two are separated. Twelve years later, Rebecca returns as a young woman to find that Tommy (Matt Smith) not only remembers her, but still cares deeply for her. The two begin a new relationship.

Tommy is a political activist fighting against the biotech corporations, who plan to open a new natural park populated by animals artificially created by cloning. Tommy plans to spoil the inauguration ceremony by letting loose rucksacks filled with cockroaches. Rebecca, herself a computer programmer of leak detection sonar software for underground storage containers, insists on accompanying Tommy.

Driving to the site of the new natural park through a lonely wilderness, Rebecca asks Tommy to stop the car so that she can relieve herself at the side of the road. Meantime, Tommy leaves the car and is struck and killed suddenly by a passing vehicle.

Rebecca and Tommy's parents are stricken with grief. Rebecca wants to use new scientific advancements to have Tommy cloned and thereby bring him back to life. She offers to be impregnated using Tommy's DNA. Though Tommy's mother objects, his father agrees to give Rebecca Tommy's cell material, but urges her to think through her decision carefully before proceeding. Rebecca, however, continues and conceives Tommy's clone in her womb. She visits original Tommy's grave while pregnant with his clone before giving birth by Caesarean section.

Tommy is now raised as Rebecca's son, and the two have a close relationship. Rebecca presents to him a pleo, an artificial living animal created using new biotechnology. Tommy and his playmates observe a neighbourhood girl and try to determine if she has a "copy smell" as the girl is a clone. The neighbourhood mothers display prejudice against "copies", expecting Rebecca to not let Tommy associate with them. Rebecca, though horrified, agrees in order not to isolate her son. Eventually rumours about Tommy spread, and Tommy is forced to celebrate his birthday alone with his mother, his playmates all being barred from attending by their mothers.

Rebecca moves to a more remote location with Tommy. Tommy begins to ask questions about his father, wanting to know how his father died. He buries the pleo his mother gave him for his birthday while out playing with his friend. His mother finds out and gives him back the pleo, which is now no longer working.

Years later, Tommy has grown as old as his original was when he died. As a result, he starts to manifest certain personality traits and interests of the original Tommy (such as his interests in biology). He is now the adult son of still-youthful Rebecca. When Tommy brings a girlfriend, Monica, home to stay with them Rebecca behaves jealously, to both Tommy's and Monica's bewilderment. Tommy struggles with what appears to be sexual tension between himself and his mother. The original Tommy's mother, now an old woman, arrives unexpectedly and stares silently at Tommy, who feels he recognizes the stranger. Frightened and frustrated by Rebecca's lack of explanation, Tommy lashes out at Rebecca, ignoring Monica, who quickly departs.

An angry Tommy demands answers from his mother, Rebecca, who gives him Tommy's original old laptop with photos of him and his original mother and father (the first ones he met before). Tommy throws his mother on the bed in confusion, and asks her who he is and why she did what she did. The sexual tension rises and they both end up having sex. From the blood on Rebecca's hand, it is implied that Tommy took her virginity in the process.

Written, produced, and directed by Toby Mcdonald, the 2005 National Geographic Channel film In the Womb uses the most recent technology to provide an intricate glimpse into the prenatal world. The technologies used, which include advanced photography, computer graphics, and 4-D ultrasound imaging, help to realistically illustrate the process of development and to answer questions about the rarely seen development of a human being. The following description of the images and narrative of the film captures the major points of In the Womb, and of embryonic and fetal development, as they are seen at the outset of the twenty-first century, depicted in only 100 minutes.

In the Womb opens with a glimpse of the mature fetus moments before she is ready to emerge into the outside world. The narrator explains that at this final stage, she is equipped with all of the faculties necessary for full function outside the womb. The main focus of the film, however, is the journey leading up to these final moments, a journey that begins with just a single cell. This journey is viewed intermittently throughout the film using 3-D and 4-D ultrasound scanning techniques which show the baby moving. 4-D refers to a string of 3-D images taken in real time (time is the fourth dimension), thus creating a movie of in utero events. In addition, the process is simulated by computer imaging based on observations, giving a vivid portrayal of embryonic and fetal development.

Three weeks into gestation, In the Womb simulates the embryo folding inward and elongating as the basic body plan is determined. An actual embryo at this stage is shown and a basic spine is visible. The top of the embryo, destined to become the head and brain, is indicated; this region has already begun to generate nerve cells by the fifteenth day of the pregnancy. These nerve cells will proliferate and eventually become the brain and the central nervous system. The heart forms soon after this, and twenty-two days after conception, begins to beat. This movement is initiated by a single heart cell which begins to beat and induces the cells around it to beat to the same rhythm. Close-up filming shows this pulse as heart cells proliferate and the organ continues to form. With the formation of the heart come thin veins and early blood cells responsible for transporting oxygen and nutrients; the blood in these veins moves to the beat of the heart. During the early stages of development the heart beats relatively independently, though its function will later be carefully regulated by the brain.

By the time the embryo is four weeks old, preliminary eyes have appeared on her head. These look like dark spots on a pale landscape of surrounding tissue on which the early contours of the forehead, nose, mouth, and other parts of the mature face can be seen. In addition, arm and leg buds emerge. The narrator mentions that even though thirty days have passed since conception, the embryo is almost indistinguishable from the embryos of other mammals.

By nine weeks, the nervous system has developed dramatically and starts to allow the fetus to move. Although this movement, shown through computer simulation, is not yet connected to the brain, it promotes agility and further growth. After this point, the body will gradually come under the control of the brain. This change also has the effect of regulating heart rate, which may increase to more than 150 beats per minute before cerebral regulation.

In the Womb also notes that, as well as providing a preliminary basis for diagnosis of complications, ultrasound scans also promote the development of parental attachment to the yet-unborn child. Ultrasound is thought to enhance the relationship of the child with the parents, both in infancy and later in life. At twenty-four weeks, this relationship could begin prematurely, for it is at this point that a baby could survive outside of the womb; though still small and underdeveloped, with appropriate intensive care, she could be considered viable. The greatest complications may arise due to the premature lungs, since the lungs only fully develop near the conclusion of the pregnancy and are filled with amniotic fluid until breathing begins.

I loved this movie. I immediately wanted to drag every black woman I know to see this movie. I wanted to take my sons to see this movie, so they can see what black women are capable of. I wanted to take my womb out of retirement and give birth to a daughter so that she can see this movie. I wanted this feeling to last for more than two hours.

The Baby Olivia project provides a medically accurate, animated glimpse of human life from the moment of fertilization. The story details her growth as she progresses from one developmental stage to the next, in preparation for her continued life outside of the womb.

The premise is that in the near future cloning is common, and the plot is that Rebecca (Eva Green) deals with the consequences of being pregnant with the clone of her dead boyfriend Tommy (Matt Smith).Tropes: Childhood Friend Romance: Rebecca and Tommy were close friends as children and promised to love each other forever. When they met again as young adults, they still love each other and enter a romantic relationship. One-Word Title: Relating to how Rebecca's womb is used to incubate the clone of Tommy, and how the story ends, with her pregnant, impregnated by the Tommy Clone. Parental Incest: Sort of. Rebecca isn't genetically related to Tommy, but she does give birth to him and raise him as her son, yet feels sexual attraction to him as he grows up and expresses jealousy of his girlfriend Monica. The Tommy clone himself develops confused feelings for the woman he grew up viewing as his mother. He ends up initiating sex with her, but leaves her soon after. Someone to Remember Him By: A complicated example. Rebecca gets impregnated with a clone of her boyfriend Tommy after he dies; although she raises him as her son, when he grows up Rebecca starts to view him more as a Replacement Goldfish for the original Tommy as opposed to her child by him. And then in the ending, she's pregnant with the clone Tommy's child. Was It Really Worth It?: Losing a loved one is painful indeed - but is it easier to bring him back as an 'abomination' which creeps his own parents out and causes him to be ostracized, and to stay single for a generation...only for him to not remember you, be unhappy about what he is, hate you for it then leave you? Or is it better to mourn him then move on?

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