Project: Reading Way Too Much Into Things Part 3

Trailer the fourth: Surrogates

In spite of my love for most things Bruce Willis, I can't help but comment on his upcoming film.



In a cross between Bubblegum Crisis, The Matrix, Dollhouse, anything written by Phillip K. Dick, and Robocop, people spend most of their time living as robots. Or, if you prefer, as living robots. It makes no difference were you put the adverb, the result is the same: people plug their brains into a machine that permits them to be themselves only in robot form. The benefits of this technology are made painfully obvious as everyone in the movie is good looking ans svelt.

Bruce Willis is one such personbot who may or may not actually be a real cop. His mundane existence is made much more exciting when people start dying--both as robots and as fleshbags. Now Bruce Willis must find a murder who is both cunning and well connected (pun intended!). The only problem is he's pushing 60 and the rest of the world is populated by 30-somethings who can't tie their own shoes without a computer. When the killer finally pulls the plug on the entire city, it's up to flesh-and-blood Bruce Willis to channel John McClane and shoot his way to the truth. The meta-narrative kicks in when we learn that Skynet is behind the whole thing and created Bruce Willis as an experiment to learn the value of life.