Science Fiction and Film - Essay Example

Science Fiction and Film John Baxter argues that science fiction is limited to two categories: loss of individuality and the threat of knowledge. The only problem with this statement is that not every science fiction film is open and straightforward about its message, so this may not always be clear with other films (Geraghty). Many viewers of these films may argue that these categories do not exist in the majority of science fiction films. However, it is usually there as an underlying message, especially the concept of threat of knowledge. The loss of individuality is a little more difficult to discover in many science fiction movies. The two films The Matrix and Contact display evidence that the above claim is true. Two of the greatest messages of The Matrix is the loss of individuality and the threat of knowledge - the two categories that John Baxter is convinced comprises of the entire science fiction genre. The premises of The Matrix is that human beings are kept in pods, feeding the machines as though they were batteries, while being given memories and experiences that are purely mental, as opposed to physical, which is a huge aspect of the human experience. While the human beings in the Matrix may appear to be individuals, living their lives and doing their own thing, they are all in the same situation in the real world. They are nude bodies, sleeping in pods, being fed memories while being completely unaware of this. There is no individuality in this film. The twist in The Matrix is that there are hundreds of people that are “free” from this imprisonment and understand what happened to them before they were able to be freed. Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus, to name a few, are among those that were lucky enough to be freed from the battery emporium of the machines. No longer connected to the contraption that feeds their minds memories that are not actually real, these people define what it means to be individuals. As they now have no part of what makes the other people lose their individuality, they act as a comparison/contrast against those that are still connected to the machines. The Matrix is a great example of what it means to be lacking individuality due to the fact that it also offers glimpses of the other side of the argument. Although the goal of the characters in The Matrix involves freeing themselves and others from the grasp of the machines, another goal can be seen as gaining back their individuality. The digital self that every human being sees is the individuality and uniqueness that they would have if the machines had not taken over. Unfortunately, since the machines did win the battle, one of the punishments of the human beings is a loss of individuality. They are now all the same, just like the machines that are keeping them hostage in their pods. These machines have no characteristics that set them apart from the other machines; in essence, they are in the process of turning the “sleeping” humans into nothing more than obedient machines themselves. The threat of knowledge is another issue that is touched upon throughout The Matrix. The Agents of the Matrix, the programs that go around and make sure that everything is functioning properly throughout the Matrix, also go after those that have discovered the secrets of the Matrix system. Agent Smith in particular seems to have a vengeance against those that are able to call themselves free; though not a human, Agent Smith has about as much freedom as the sleeping humans in their pods, which is to say none. The goal of the Agents is to make sure that the secrets of the Matrix remain secrets, and to take care of those that do figure out the larger picture. The Agents protect the rest of the sleeping humans from knowing what is really going on. The machine won the battle, which is how the Matrix began. The more that humans become aware of the changes that have been made to their world because of their loss, the machines would find themselves at the receiving end of a rebellion. As it is, a rebellion has already begun, started by those who have already been freed. The threat of knowledge is very important, and very real, throughout The Matrix. Not only are the Agents afraid of people discovering the program, but there is also the fact that many people would probably rather not know about their current situation. Neo, for example, was very edgy about being told the truth. He was told the truth by Morpheus, but then he was given the opportunity to take the pill that would essentially make him forget about what he was told and let him move on with the rest of his life. As humans seemed to have been oblivious to the existence of the Agents, it can easily be assumed that they are not needed much. They exist to fight more against Morpheus’ rebellion than other humans. Even when Neo was just just a computer hacker, searching for Morpheus, the Agents were still on to him. However, due to the lack of existence provided by the Agents, they clearly are not needed much. This may be due to the fact that the other humans would be more willing to stay in their fake reality and not witness what is really going on. Cypher, for example, was freed from the Matrix, but he regretted it. He wanted nothing more than to be back in his pod, oblivious to the difference between the real world and the Matrix. Ignorance is bliss - a phrase that was not only used in the movie but really does sum up the current situation. The humans seem to be at peace with the lives they were given and there seemed to reason to wake them up from this. The less people know, the happier many of them are. It is not so much that people like be ignorant and unaware; many just do not want to know the truth. They feel that they have lived one way for so long that it does not matter to them what is really out there. In the case of The Matrix, the knowledge that they can gain can eventually kill them. They might know what is really taking place around them, but now they have the threat of death by the Agent and the machines for knowing what they do. So, in this case, ignorance really is bliss. In Contact, Ellie follows the beat of her own drum. Even though her job description involves radio astronomy in the search for other life in space, she is the only one who seems thoroughly convinced that one day soon they will have made contact or picked up on other signals from another race. This drive pushes her through her work and helps her discover new ways to make contact with other worlds. When she and her crew do believe that they have made contact after picking up on signals, they discover that it had actually been a news broadcast from during the time of Hitler’s reign. While her crew becomes skeptical and almost embarrassed by the enthusiasm that had driven Ellie to this point, Ellie’s optimism only grows. It was not the message that they had been hoping for, but Ellie is even more convinced that the message had been sent back to them by another race. Though it is not too obvious throughout the film, Ellie was always at risk of losing her individuality. Despite her own strong beliefs, the majority of her coworkers tried to get her to lessen the strength behind them. They wanted to discover alien signals and messages as much as Ellie did, but they were being more realistic about the situation - there was nothing to really suggest that there were other lifeforms in the universe, nor was there anything to suggest that if there were other lifeforms that they would be trying to make contact with the human beings of earth. They had no proof that, if there were other beings, that they had technology powerful enough to send messages over a huge, unfathomable distance. Ellie, despite what others were saying, held true to her own feelings and emotions, firmly believing that they would one day come upon these other signals. After the crew does stumble upon the blueprints sent to them via a radio telescope, and after they build the machine, Ellie goes on a breathless, heart-pounding adventure. She makes personal contact with an alien through this machine whose blueprints were assumed to have been sent by that alien race. After this experience, she returns back home, only to be told by her coworkers and others who observed what was going on with the machine that nothing had happened. The experience that had taken Ellie eighteen hours had only been a matter of seconds for those watching the machine. They tried to convince Ellie that nothing had happened, that she had never left their sight and that not enough time had passed for something that massive and impressive to have happened. Furthermore, the camera that had been onboard with Ellie had lost its signal to her coworkers, so she did not even have footage to prove that anything had happened once the machine had been turned on. Ellie, the strong individual that she was, held firm to what she believed happened to her. She could not explain how it could have only lasted seconds or why the others had not noticed that something was happening to her, but that did not make her experience any less real. While her coworkers and boss were trying to convince her that nothing had happened, even suggesting that she had had a traumatic episode when the machine supposedly failed, Ellie continued her argument that something had happened. She would not let the beliefs of others take away from her the most amazing experience she had ever had. Ellie’s individuality, though not the aspect that saved her story and proved that she had been telling the truth, was what kept Ellie strong throughout the entire ordeal. She never once gave up on her argument, believing with ever ounce of her being that the experience she had had been a real one. After an investigation was undergone and a scientist declared that while they only witnessed seconds of the machine malfunctioning, Ellie’s camera, still working even though it was not transmitting audio or visual back to the base, had been recording for the eighteen hours that Ellie claimed had been her experience. The scientists were forced to believe that Ellie really had traveled to another world by means of a machine whose blueprints were provided to them by an alien race. They knew nothing of this world, but Ellie clearly had been gone for much longer than the few seconds they had witnessed. In Contact, the loss of individuality had to deal with personal beliefs and conformity (Telotte). The other scientists that Ellie worked with expected her to give up on her beliefs after numerous failures and doubts. Even when Ellie finally did make contact with aliens, the others required proof, and when they were not given sufficient enough proof, they tried to get Ellie to admit that nothing had happened. They tried to pull Ellie away from her personal beliefs that made her unique even to her own field of knowledge. The world in general is very similar to this scenario: millions of beliefs, yet everyone wants everyone else to believe the same thing. It are these thoughts that truly make people individuals. Ellie, however, was lucky enough to be strong enough to fight for her beliefs, thus being rewarded beyond imagination when she has her trip to the alien world. The threat of knowledge is a subtle one in Contact. Although the jobs and goals of the scientists are to find radio transmissions from alien worlds, there is still the underlying fear of what would happen if they actually did come upon something. What would that say about religion, or humanity, if alien life were discovered? This thought was a common one in the minds of the scientists. The entire world would be turned upside down if alien contact was made. It would prove that they were not alone in the universe, a thought that could be both comforting and unnerving. It seemed that a lot of the doubts towards Ellie’s beliefs dealt with the fact that many of the scientists themselves were not ready to make contact with other life. They were just as happy never finding other life, remaining to be the only intelligent species in the universe. It could be said that they did their jobs half-heartedly, just enough to show their bosses that they were working, yet not enough to avoid actually making contact with another race. Not Ellie. Ellie through herself into her work with every ounce of her being that she was able to. The contrast between Ellie’s ambitions and the lack of ambitions of her coworkers is an interesting, slightly startling one. Ellie was gung-ho about making alien contact, but her coworkers were indifferent, just doing their jobs as if they were any regular minimum waged task. Simply put, Ellie’s coworkers did not want to make alien contact. While others might have seen their doubt as a precaution, not trying to get too excited before realizing what they discovered, their behavior can also be seen as disbelief. They did not want to make alien contact, so they treated all of their false alarms - and even the one real event - as though there were bound to be hoaxes brought on by a rival country or space program. The knowledge of other life in the universe was a threat to a happily ignorant world. They were more at peace believing that they would never discover another intelligent race. The threat of knowledge of an alien race was one that would cause an uproar amongst the ignorant human beings. The threat of knowledge seems to be a constant in science fiction films, especially when they deal with discovering new life or new worlds, or if they are about to be told that their own world is not real. Science itself is shrouded by the threat of knowledge. As interesting as the studies are for finding alien life, most people would feel threatened if they found out that there were other species in our universe and in others. As previously stated, ignorance truly is bliss. The less that people are aware of, the happier they are - especially when science is involved. The world would be shaken up if a discovery proved that humans were not the only intelligent beings in existence. Similarly, the loss of individuality is common throughout the science fiction genre. Science fiction usually deals with people who have different ideas about the world, the universe, and life - ideas that can potentially change life as people know it. When others begin to feel threatened by the beliefs of others, they try to conform them to more mundane beliefs. They attempt to take away the aspects that make them individuals. If everyone believed the same things, there would be no need for science or the need to discover anything. John Baxter’s belief that science fiction is limited to two categories, loss of individuality and the threat of knowledge, can be found to be true. In every science fiction film, though they may be hidden or not very obvious, the loss of individuality and the threat of knowledge are all very real to the characters. References Contact. DVD. Directed by Robert Zemeckis. Los Angeles: Warner Bros. Pictures, 1997. Geraghty, Lincoln. American Science Fiction Film and Television. Paris: Berg Publishers, 2009. The Matrix. DVD. Directed by Andy Wachowski. Los Angeles: Warner Bros. Pictures, 1999. Telotte, J. P. Science Fiction Film (Genres in American Cinema). New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Read More