9. Conclusion

                After watching these eight movies I learned a lot of things about how posthumanism affects film and how society views posthuman concepts through film.

1.       Alternate Realities- There are plenty of ways to create an alternate reality, rather it be through dreams, machines, games, or medicine. Alternate realities are very dangerous. They are often used as an escape for people struggling to cope with life. This is a terrible reason to escape. We were put into this reality for a reason. Instead of giving in and running, fight back and improve your life. Alternate realities are also dangerous because of the thought of what is reality. People become different in different realities. Different realities have different sets of rules to abide by. The problem starts when people can’t separate those rules from different realities. Alternate reality separates you from being a human. Sometimes there are people who enjoy the alternate reality so much they will do anything to not have to leave it. There is a case to be made though for someone who is physically unable to enjoy this reality due to limitations. In that case it’s understandable to at least let them have some enjoyment of being able to do things they otherwise couldn’t. In the end though it’s this reality that makes us human and that’s what we have to remember.

2.       Technological increases for medicine- We’re living in a time of massive technological growth. If this continues who knows, we may be able to see some of these things. Some of these ideas could be very helpful medical advances. Artificial organs and robotic limbs can help people recover from sickness and injuries that normally people wouldn’t be able to. They can help prolong lives to lengths that before would be inconceivable. If someone has artificial parts though are they still human. How much of them has to be “real?” Who is going to control these inventions? If the private sector gets ahold of them they can set a very high priced market which would price out all but the elite. This would increase the divide between the haves and have nots. The second danger is the concept of immortality. How long should people live? It’s impossible for everyone to live forever. There simply aren’t enough resources to sustain an ever-growing population for eternity. How do you decide who lives and who dies? These technological advances can further medicines by leaps and bounds, but it also creates a struggle for power and resources. Humans aren’t meant to live forever, even if we have the means to.

3.       Other technological advances- We also see that there are other forms of technology that can be created. How far is too far in technology? We could end up creating things that we later regret. Everyone doesn’t need to be connected at all times. Too much technology keeps us plugged in. We need to get out and experience things. If we don’t we will lose our humanity. We’re already slowly becoming dependent on technology. If we had robots that could do our bidding we’d fall even more under technology’s spell. In a way we could create that which is our downfall.

4.       Humans not being on top of the food chain- Multiple times I saw instances where humans were no longer the dominant species. Usually it was because of a virus. It’s possible that the next step in being post human is to honestly not be a human anymore. Humans could evolve into something like a zombie, vampire, or machine.

5.       This could happen very soon- In the eight movies I watched they were set in, 2025, 2035, 2054, 2169, and four movies which were set in “present day.” It’s crazy to think about it, but these ideas were developed in futures that are, with the exception of 2169, very near. It shows that these ideas aren’t completely farfetched and could happen soon.

6.       People are intrigued by posthuman themes- People love seeing this kind of thing. Box office receipts clearly show that.

Movie	The Matrix	Inception	Repo Men	Daybreakers	Minority Report	28 Days Later	I, Robot	In Time	TOTAL
Budget	$63 Million	$160 Million	$32 Million	$20 Million	$102 Million	$8 Million	$120 Million	$40 Million	$545 Million
Total Gross	$463 Million	$825 Million	$18 Million	$51 Million	$358 Million	$83 Million	$347 Million	$174 Million	$2.319 Billion
Profit	$400 Million	$665 Million	$-14 Million	$31 Million	$256 Million	$75 Million	$227 Million	$134 Million	$1.774 Billion

People come out in droves to see most of these movies. All but one of them made a profit. All but two of them made a $100 Million profit. Half of them made a quarter billion dollars. For them to make that much money a lot of people have to see them. This means that people know the subject of posthumanism now. It’s showing that the idea is infiltrating mainstream society in a big way. Everyone watches movies. This is becoming such a large subject matter that it’s become very hard to find someone who hasn’t seen one of these eight movies. If anyone hasn’t it’s still a safe bet that they’ve seen a similar movie.

Works cited

"28 Days Later." Box Office Mojo. Ed. Ray Subers. IMDb, n.d. Web. 1 Oct. 2013. <http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=28dayslater.htm>.

"Daybreakers." Box Office Mojo. Ed. Ray Subers. IMDb, n.d. Web. 1 Oct. 2013. <http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=daybreakers.htm>.

"I, Robot." Box Office Mojo. Ed. Ray Subers. IMDb, n.d. Web. 1 Oct. 2013. <http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=irobot.htm>.

"In Time." Box Office Mojo. Ed. Ray Subers. IMDb, n.d. Web. 1 Oct. 2013. <http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=now.htm>.

"Inception." Box Office Mojo. Ed. Ray Subers. IMDb, n.d. Web. 1 Oct. 2013. <http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=inception.htm>.

"Minority Report." Box Office Mojo. Ed. Ray Subers. IMDb, n.d. Web. 1 Oct. 2013. <http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=minorityreport.htm>.

"Repo Men." Box Office Mojo. Ed. Ray Subers. IMDb, n.d. Web. 1 Oct. 2013. <http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=repossessionmambo.htm>.

"The Matrix." Box Office Mojo. Ed. Ray Subers. IMDb, n.d. Web. 1 Oct. 2013. <http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=matrix.htm>.

2. Inception- Revised

                I originally had other ideas for what I was going to write about for Inception. Then we watched eXistenZ in class. I noticed a lot of parallels between the two movies so I decided to redo my entry on Inception.

When you strip each movie down they are both about the same thing, multiple levels of reality tucked inside each other. For Inception it was levels of dreaming, by the end of the movie they were three levels deep in a person’s dream. In eXistenZ they used a video game that created a game within the game.

Both dreams and games offer the same medium though. They both are typical ways for people to escape reality. In a game you are literally given another character to be. One of the most popular types of games is a role-playing game. In these you assume the role of another character; your life is fleshed out for you. The only limitation is the game system. In dreams you are still you, but you can do whatever you want in a dream, your only limited by your imagination. In the end, both act as ways for people to escape the everyday struggles of life.

Both movies also address what happens when an artificial reality becomes so strong it blurs the lines between what’s real and what isn’t. Mal’s death happened because she had spent so much time in limbo she wasn’t sure what reality was anymore. She believed that dying would wake her up to the real world, but she was in it all along, her mind had just been corrupt by spending 50 years’ worth of time in dream world. We also see toward the end of eXistenZ the main characters slowly lose touch with what is a game and what isn’t. As there is a battle going on Allegra and Ted aren’t sure if they’re in reality or the game still. This doesn’t stop Allegra from killing people without a second thought though. Her excuse was all based around this being in a game. For her being in the game meant a loss of human morale. She wasn’t 100 percent sure she was in the game though so to keep that morale in what could have been the real world is slightly disturbing.

The ending of the two movies is where I see the most overlap between the two. In eXistenZ we see everyone wake up from the game (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3f521sUTaE). This seems to be the highest layer of reality now. As the shooting goes off though the very last shot is the man who played the waiter saying “aren’t we still in the game?” This is very similar to Inception’s ending scene (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnsahVaa_0Q). We see Cobb get back to the plane which is the highest level of reality and he gets to return home to his kids. He goes to spin his top and we see the top waver, but we never actually get to see if it falls down. This gives the idea of is Cobb still in a dream? Both these movies end with that same question of what is truly reality. This blurs the lines between realities even more. Throughout the movies we assumed that they were at least in control of their alternate realities. That is something that could be done one day in real life. Extreme alternate realities could be created. These end scenes bring up the question of how do you control these realities? Can you even control these realities?

That’s the mystery of these two movies. The plots are very different. This shows that it’s not just one sort of alternate reality either. Dreams and games are completely different. The underlying themes are the same though. Alternate realities are dangerous. They have their own sets or rules. Most importantly though, what happens when the realities start to blur? Or worse, what happens when the artificial reality becomes more desirable than the real one?

movieclips "eXistenZ (10/10) Movie CLIP - Are We Still In the Game? (1999) HD" Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 2 Oct. 2011.

Nolan, Christopher, dir. Inception. CD-ROM.

thequizandquestions "Inception - Ending Scene Full (5/5) (HD)" Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 7 Mar. 2013.