Somewhere beyond the sea, a review is waiting for thee, 3.5 readers.
SPOILER ALERT: This is less of a review and more of a discussion, so if you haven’t seen it yet, go watch then come back and discuss.
It’s an alternate version of the 1960s, one where the technology for people to control robot replicas of themselves with their minds while their real bodies are asleep is possible. Astronauts David and Cliff (Josh Hartnett and Aaron Paul) are on a six year mission aboard a space station, so they use their replicas to carry on their lives back home on earth with their families.
The co-workers couldn’t be any more different. David loves culture and conversation, living in California with his family, he reads heavily, draws, paints, and goes to movies where he holds himself out as a hero to passersby who recognize him from the news.
Cliff is quiet and reserved, prefers the great outdoors, having moved his wife, Lana (Kate Mara) to a remote home in the wilderness. Chopping firewood and physical labor, tending to the property are his pursuits.
From time to time, the duo return to their physical bodies aboard the space station to take care of space business. During one such return, a Manson-like cult lead by Kieran Culkin in a scary bit of acting, breaks into David’s home and murders his family, payback they said for embracing the unnatural, i.e. allowing the robot version of David to be part of their lives.
Aboard the space station, the real life David is horribly broken, mentally and physically, forever psychologically damaged by the crime. He witnessed it through his robot body and even lost it during the murders, so now he is stuck in space, unable to return to earth via robot replica.
Feeling bad for their friend, Cliff and Lana agree to allow David to spend some time on earth using Cliff’s replica. At first, this is a welcome delight for David as he’s happy to just be on solid ground again, to see nature, to talk to people, to do anything outdoors really.
Ah but trouble ensues when David talks Cliff into allowing regular visits to earth via robot Cliff. Dave, while in Cliff’s bot body, starts falling for Lana. Lana is cultured, loves reading and the arts, and David pleads with her, pointing out that they have much more in common than she ever could with Cliff.
For a while, it seems as though David and Lana might fall for each other, and they might very well run off, leaving the real Cliff to suffer alone on the space station. As mentioned often, running the station is a two man job, so anyone left their on their lonesome will perish.
But Lana remains loyal. In fact, she’s outraged that David would abuse the trust they gave him when they allowed him to borrow Cliff’s double. She gives him a piece of her mind, and aboard the station, Cliff gives him another verbal tongue lashing. No more Cliff replica visits to earth for you, David.
SPOILER ALERT
The mission continues in space for awhile, until one day, David manages to swipe Cliff’s double while the real Cliff is busy. He does so briefly, but long enough to murder Lana and the couple’s young son. Real Cliff discovers this when he returns home in his double to find blood soaked walls.
Back aboard the station, David sits at a table, seemingly unremorseful by what he has done. He kicks out a chair, inviting a visibly angry Cliff to sit and talk. The implication is that David got his revenge for being rejected and chewed out, and knows he has Cliff painted into a corner because if Cliff kills David, he essentially kills himself for as we know, running the station is a two man job.
It’s up to us to imagine what happens next. Maybe Cliff is stuck working on the station for four more years with a psycho he despises or maybe he loses control, doesn’t care, avenges his family by killing David.
What lessons do we suss out? A) Sometimes the right thing is the unkind thing. Don’t trust people. Don’t let them into your life. Don’t let them borrow important stuff, especially your robot body. You think you’re being kind but you’re inviting trouble. Feel sad for someone who has been hurt, but save yourself.
B) Tech can put us in unnatural states to be avoided. You can’t be in two places at once and expect to take care of both parts of your life successfully.
C) Appreciate what you have. There are times when it feels like Cliff didn’t quite appreciate what he had with his family but sadly, knew what he lost when he lost it. Cherish your loved ones and go out of your way to protect them.
Other thoughts:
#1 – I thought it was unlikely that David would do what he did, given he went through the horrible murder of his family, felt bad about it so wouldn’t want to bring that pain to someone else. Then again one might say he was so broken that he was driven to do it by insanity. In the end, Black Mirror always brings a scary, horrific ending.
#2 – Aaron Paul does his best acting since Breaking Bad. Cliff seems like his usual moody, sullen guy baseline, but in the moments where he’s David, he captures David’s artsy pretentious mannerisms well.
Bookshelf Battle 