Difference between revisions of "UPGRADE"
| Line 4: | Line 4: | ||
Initially and adequately summarized — with «spoiler» additions — in IMDb Storyline, “Set in the near-future, technology controls nearly all aspects of life. But when Grey, a self-identified technophobe, has his world turned upside down,” by the murder of his wife and his own crippling to a quadriplegic, “his only hope for revenge is an experimental computer chip implant called Stem.”[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6499752/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_1] See for a number of relevant motifs including extensive police and other problematic surveillance, epitomized by drones and with the objective correlative of shots of technologically augmented eyes. The term “biomechanical” occurs in the dialog, and some featured characters are cyborgs, but with their fleshliness emphasized with shots showing the embedded mechanisms. The “Stem” implant in the protagonist is quite small, and that point is stressed, with the small size of the implant contrasted with its power over the protagonist’s body and the over-all computer-takeover trope, and Stem's ability to communicate with the protagonist through a figuratively large voice: cf. and contrast HAL 9000 in [[2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (film)]] and Colossus in [[COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT]]. For the healing, co-opting, and robotic movements of the protagonist, cf. Paul Verhoeven’s [[ROBOCOP (1987)]]; for the concluding shots, cf. the important 2015 film, [[EX MACHINA]] combined with the VR illusion of the ''classic'' Classic ''Star Trek'' episode “The Menagerie.”[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Menagerie_(Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series)] | Initially and adequately summarized — with «spoiler» additions — in IMDb Storyline, “Set in the near-future, technology controls nearly all aspects of life. But when Grey, a self-identified technophobe, has his world turned upside down,” by the murder of his wife and his own crippling to a quadriplegic, “his only hope for revenge is an experimental computer chip implant called Stem.”[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6499752/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_1] See for a number of relevant motifs including extensive police and other problematic surveillance, epitomized by drones and with the objective correlative of shots of technologically augmented eyes. The term “biomechanical” occurs in the dialog, and some featured characters are cyborgs, but with their fleshliness emphasized with shots showing the embedded mechanisms. The “Stem” implant in the protagonist is quite small, and that point is stressed, with the small size of the implant contrasted with its power over the protagonist’s body and the over-all computer-takeover trope, and Stem's ability to communicate with the protagonist through a figuratively large voice: cf. and contrast HAL 9000 in [[2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (film)]] and Colossus in [[COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT]]. For the healing, co-opting, and robotic movements of the protagonist, cf. Paul Verhoeven’s [[ROBOCOP (1987)]]; for the concluding shots, cf. the important 2015 film, [[EX MACHINA]] combined with the VR illusion of the ''classic'' Classic ''Star Trek'' episode “The Menagerie.”[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Menagerie_(Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series)] | ||
| − | The protagonist’s vocation is restoration of classic 20th-c. “muscle cars,” that are contrasted with Prius-like driverless cars | + | The protagonist’s vocation is restoration of classic 20th-c. “muscle cars,” that are contrasted with Prius-like driverless cars that become places of threatening confinement as their controls are taken over by the film’s antagonist(s). Throughout, note repetition of hexagons. For what one might make of it, note well that “Stem” is pronounced the same as “STEM,” the acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math courses in the USA[https://www.ed.gov/stem] and Science, Technologies, and Mathematics in Australia.[https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/stem/] |
Revision as of 22:52, 3 June 2018
UPGRADE (also known as STEM). Leigh Whannell, director, script. Australia: Blumhouse Productions, Goalpost Pictures (production) / BH Tilt and OTL Releasing (US theatrical release), Madman Entertainment and Madman Films (Australia distribution), 2018.[1]
Initially and adequately summarized — with «spoiler» additions — in IMDb Storyline, “Set in the near-future, technology controls nearly all aspects of life. But when Grey, a self-identified technophobe, has his world turned upside down,” by the murder of his wife and his own crippling to a quadriplegic, “his only hope for revenge is an experimental computer chip implant called Stem.”[2] See for a number of relevant motifs including extensive police and other problematic surveillance, epitomized by drones and with the objective correlative of shots of technologically augmented eyes. The term “biomechanical” occurs in the dialog, and some featured characters are cyborgs, but with their fleshliness emphasized with shots showing the embedded mechanisms. The “Stem” implant in the protagonist is quite small, and that point is stressed, with the small size of the implant contrasted with its power over the protagonist’s body and the over-all computer-takeover trope, and Stem's ability to communicate with the protagonist through a figuratively large voice: cf. and contrast HAL 9000 in 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (film) and Colossus in COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT. For the healing, co-opting, and robotic movements of the protagonist, cf. Paul Verhoeven’s ROBOCOP (1987); for the concluding shots, cf. the important 2015 film, EX MACHINA combined with the VR illusion of the classic Classic Star Trek episode “The Menagerie.”[3]
The protagonist’s vocation is restoration of classic 20th-c. “muscle cars,” that are contrasted with Prius-like driverless cars that become places of threatening confinement as their controls are taken over by the film’s antagonist(s). Throughout, note repetition of hexagons. For what one might make of it, note well that “Stem” is pronounced the same as “STEM,” the acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math courses in the USA[4] and Science, Technologies, and Mathematics in Australia.[5]
