Imagine a world where crime has ceased to exist, where everyone is safe and healthy, where each individual can take seriously the exhortation to “be all that you can be.” Sound attractive? We might desire such a world, but a new film titled Surrogates takes an opposite point of view, showing a society in which technology has taken control in an attempt to make life “better.”
The action of the picture takes place a few decades in the future at a time when 98 % of the people on earth use surrogates -- extremely strong, durable, lifelike robots that do the actual living for people, allowing the real humans (their “directors”) to stay at home and not be forced to experience the rough-and-tumble of life. The surrogates were invented by Canter, a brilliant scientist who founded a corporation that now mass produces them under the slogan “Life … only better.” In this brave new world, you can make your surrogate be and do just about anything you like. If you’re bald and want hair, your surrogate will have it. If you believe yourself to be unattractive or even downright ugly, your surrogate can be handsome or beautiful – or even a different age or sex. All you, the director, need to do is stay home in comfortable surroundings, directing the actions of your surrogate and experiencing life vicariously. Heaven forbid that you should ever have to leave your house.
The chief director we get to know is a man named Greer (played by Bruce Willis), an FBI agent whose surrogate does all the work for him while he spends his days at home strapped to a machine, watching what the surrogate is doing and directing his efforts. The thing is, Greer is discontent with his existence, recognizing in some elemental way that he is missing out on life. One day he suggests to his wife that they take an actual – not virtual – trip to Hawaii to spend some real time with each other. His wife quickly rebuffs his suggestion, but Greer doesn’t have time to persuade her because he learns there has just been a homicide which he must investigate in his agent capacity -- or rather, that his surrogate must investigate. There ensues a series of events in which his surrogate is destroyed and Greer is forced to go outside into the real world in an attempt to solve the crime -- a terrifying experience for him. Meanwhile, we learn that Canter, the brilliant inventor of the surrogates, has become disillusioned with the world he has helped to create, now feeling that the only solution is to destroy all the surrogates and start over. The opposing actions of Greer and Canter form the film’s conflict.
The picture was directed by Jonathan Mostow, who also did Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Both films take a critical view of our increasing dependence on technology. Surrogates certainly isn’t explicitly a Christian movie, but it has underpinning values consistent with Biblical truth. In the words of The Prophet, a member of the two percent of the population who don’t have surrogates, “What you see is not what God made you for. We’re not meant to experience the world through a machine.” The film asks us to ponder whether we are becoming addicted, even enslaved, to technology. How much time do we increasingly spend accessing the Internet, texting on our cell phones, checking our Facebook accounts, and the like? How much do we experience the real world?
On the positive side, Surrogates is / has:
- Fascinating
- Thought-provoking
- Well-acted
- Some stunning scenes
On the negative side, Surrogates is / has:
- Violent
- Rather difficult to follow
- Some offensive language
Bottom line: Worth a look if you can set aside the language and ignore the violence.
Film Rating: PG-13
My Rating: 3 ¼ stars
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