11/10/07. Couple of add-ons and improvements to all the movies in this section.
1998 — 1999 had a cluster of movies emerge that all centered on the theme of fake reality, and could almost be termed “Project Awaken” for the timing of it all. It seems to be no coincidence that these movies all emerged during the same two-year time period. It was almost as if somebody decided it was time to kick things up a notch and initiate awakening on a mass level.
The Truman Show — 1998. Jim Carrey, Laura Linney, Ed Harris.
Unknown to Truman Burbank, (Jim Carrey) his life is actually the subject of a reality TV program, complete with actors and sets, watched by millions around the world. 
His friends, his coworkers, even his wife, are just hired actors playing a role. Adopted as an infant by a corporation, Truman (True Man) has been raised in the world’s largest artificially created city, underneath a dome so big it can be seen from space. His entire life has been monitored by cameras and broadcast on TV since he was still in the womb. He never realizes anything is amiss until a series of “reality glitches”, coinciding with unhappiness in his marriage, cause him to start questioning his life. Once he begins questioning things, there’s no turning back.
On the surface level, The Truman Show represents society’s current obsession with voyeuristic “reality TV” and TV in general. People put their lives on hold to obsessively watch their “favorite TV shows.” But like all the movies I look at in this section, there’s always another layer to it…
Key elements
Glitches. Part of what helps to initiate Truman’s awakening process are a couple of “reality glitches”, (production mishaps) which cause him to begin looking closer and questioning things. A lighting fixture falls from the sky out of nowhere and lands in the middle of the street; a voice on the car radio seems to be tracking Truman and describing the exact route that he is driving; in one scene, rain only falls (or rather, dumps) on Truman…and then follows him and tries to keep up with him as he gets up and begins walking! Truman spots his supposedly dead father walking on the street, looking like a homeless guy…and right as Truman approaches him, several strangers swoop in and shove his dad onto a bus in a moment of chaos; and the best of all — when Truman discovers that the neighborhood happenings run on a loop. If you sit there long enough you can watch the same scene repeat itself, over and over and over, all day long. Many people, myself included, have experienced reality glitches that can leave a person wondering what exactly is going on here anyway?
Christ-of, the man-behind-the curtain. Christof is the God-like figure who oversees the Truman Show and calls the shots. At the end of the movie, Christ of’s voice appears almost like God himself as he talks to Truman, his voice booming from an unseen microphone. “I am the Creator – of a television show that gives hope and joy to millions.”
[I just saw that a poster named Luke over at the Spiral Mountain forum posted a link to this write up, talking about this particular point in a one-sentence way that made me see something I hadn’t thought of before – He noted that Christ-of was the God in Truman’s manufactured illusion. It’s so simple, but it made me think about Christ/Jesus’ role in our reality. And all the wars and killing done in the name of Christianity, and all the fear and control tactics put into place over the centuries by those Powers That Be misusing and abusing the name of Jesus. So, this definitely seemed to be a purposeful symbolism meant to relay something about how Jesus Christ has been used in our own reality. Luke also noted something I didn’t catch but which is definitely worth mentioning – the way in which Truman appears to walk on water at the end of the movie, then walks up the stairs and ascends out of the fake illusion. Good catch!]
Manipulated phobias/manufactured deterrents. The producers of the show manufactured a series of events to create phobias that would later control Truman. His father was killed in a boating accident when Truman was a child, thus creating a fear of water. This later ensured that Truman would not be inclined to leave Sea Haven Island – because that would involve having to cross a large body of water. And anytime Truman has any “funny ideas,” something pops up to deter him, or to forcefully reaffirm the reality that exists around him. Which leads to…
Friend with the beer. I liked this one because it’s so funny, but yet, kind of accurate. But every time Truman was posing a threat by asking too many questions or acting unpredictably, his trusty best friend would be sent by the producers to distract Truman, toting a six pack of beer…at all hours of the day or night, to the point of hilarious ridiculousness. It was of course to steer Truman back into the sheep pen. Hang out, drink a few brews, talk brother to brother, and forget all those silly ideas and questions he’s got floating around in his head.
The domed city. Classic “Brotherhood” (Illuminati)-style architecture. Domes are used to capture energy for those in the esoteric know, such as Freemasons and other Brotherhood groups. The dome city is a common symbol, also seen in “Logan’s Run”, reviewed in the “Egyptian symbolism” movies section.
The moon. The studio where Christof works and where the show is produced is located in the domed city — disguised in the “moon” itself. In fact, it later becomes a spotlight when the town of Seahaven is running amok, trying to find Truman who has run off. The moon has figured prominently in myth and lore as that which governs our emotions and controls the mechanical aspects of man. See this article from Montalk.net for more information on this.
Water. As noted in my write ups for “Dark City” and “Logan’s Run,” water symbolically represents truth and emotions. Truman sets sail at the end of the movie, determined to make it out of Seahaven and get answers to what’s happening in his life. The producers create a storm to try to deter him, but he stubbornly hangs tight in a battle of wills…and finally wins out, gets his answers, and learns the truth. And it symbolically happens in the water.
Notable quotes:
“We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented.” – Christoff
“If his was more than just a vague ambition, if he was absolutely determined to discover the truth, there’s no way we could prevent him.” – Christoff
Summary: 
Analogous truth contained within The Truman Show involve the moon as governing control mechanism, (again, refer to article mentioned above); the fact that our reality is not what they try so hard to convince us it is; there are behind the scenes controllers manipulating things, “glitches” happen that can clue us in to this if we’re paying attention, and, if we truly wanted to wake up and learn the truth for ourselves, they can’t stop us. Freewill, after all. Most don’t want to wake up however, and prefer the illusion – a fact that was also mentioned in the movie. In addition, when people do start to wake up, the Matrix Control System has a habit of sending in the troops to swarm around the sheep posing a threat in order to steer them back into the pen with the other obedient sheep. And on a side note, I’ve known people who’ve supposedly witnessed reality repeating on a loop, like in the Truman Show, with “people” that were nothing more than background characters. Makes you wonder.
Dark City — 1998. Rufus Sewell, Jennifer Connelly, Kiefer Sutherland, William Hurt.
John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) awakens in a bathtub in a hotel room with no recollection of who he is or what’s going on. He soon discovers that he’s the suspect in a string of murders, and finds himself pursued by “The Strangers”, a group of cadaverous looking beings with other-worldly abilities. Also looking for Murdoch are his estranged wife, (Connelly) an Inspector, (Hurt) and a mysterious psychiatrist, Dr. Schreber, (Sutherland). But Dark City is just that — dark. A city that never seems to experience daylight, although nobody seems to notice or question it. Every night at midnight the entire city stops, as the Strangers perform what’s known as “Tuning.” As they gather in front of a huge clock, time stops. While things are on pause, the city is rearranged – new buildings form, old buildings are redesigned, people are injected with new identities via a syringe administered by Dr. Schreber, the psychiatrist who now works for the Strangers, doing their bidding. Then time resumes again, the city comes back to life, and people go about their business, none the wiser. Murdoch is one of the only people who is aware, an anomaly who woke up in the middle of a Tuning and now has the same abilities as the Strangers. As he wanders about Dark City trying to piece together the puzzle of his missing identity, he is able to witness of the true nature of reality. Now he just needs to get to the bottom of who the Strangers are, and what Dark City really is.
“Dark City” has a neat look, a mix of 1940s film noir with a little bit of Blade Runner. And out of all the movies concerning the concept of faked reality, this one in my opinion is actually the most accurate to what seems to be going on in this world. Believe it or not. “The Matrix” gets all the attention, but Dark City is the one we really should be taking a closer look at.
Key Elements
Mysterious (hyper dimensional) behind the scenes manipulators. The Strangers, a hive mind alien life form inhabiting the bodies of dead humans, are in charge of Dark City. They run the show, manipulating people’s lives like puppets, and can control time.
The City as an experiment. Dark City is not a real city on Earth. It’s a giant lab experiment being conducted by aliens, floating out in space. The few people who do awaken don’t know how long it’s been going on and have no recollection of a life before the City, or where they may have come from.
Timeline alteration. At the end of the movie, Dr. Schreber turns the tables on the Strangers when he is supposed to be injecting Murdoch with a new identity — he has added himself into the cocktail of memories that Murdoch receives from the syringe. In this altered cocktail, he gives Murdoch tips and advice that he can use to defeat the Strangers. It’s a nice (simplified) analogy of tinkering with the timeline by “going back” and inserting something in which alters the future.
How do you get to Shell Beach? Supposedly there’s a place in Dark City called Shell Beach…but nobody seems to know how to get there. Ask anybody, and they realize that they’ve forgotten, although they will rationalize it and defensively explain it away. Billboards show a picture of a sunny beach with a smiling woman, in full color — yet the sun never shines in Dark City. And the trains that supposedly go to Shell Beach never stop at the station, they just whiz on by. Even the cab driver can’t remember how to get there, but he’s not too concerned about it. I thought this was a nice reference to “asleep people.” A good chunk of our society seems to be asleep at the wheel, not noticing or questioning anything that goes on in this reality, and even getting defensive and angry if confronted with it all. Just like in this movie.
Tuning. Reminiscent of the idea of tuning forks and sound/vibration energy work used to move objects around and heal the body. In Dark City, when “tuning” occurs, the entire city shifts and changes, much like real tuning fork/sound and vibration work would be able to move and shift objects about. It’s also a reference to the way in which our reality is manipulated and changed and tinkered from stuff behind the scenes. On a related note is the concept of the Ark of the Covenant, which was supposed to be a devise that reshaped reality.
Past lives. Both Inspector Walenski and Dr. Schreber refer to the various characters that Dark City residents get injected with as being “past lives.” Just before Walenski kills himself by jumping in front of a train he gives a speech to John Murdoch about how everybody keeps getting changed around, playing different characters in these various past lives, and it keeps going and going and going…and there’s no way out. To me this sounded an awful lot like the reincarnational round and round we find ourselves in with our own “real life” reality. We keep cycling back, again and again and again, playing different characters, but who’s really controlling this show? And can we ever get out?
Being “re-set. As just mentioned, the characters of Dark City are given new lives and new identities. You could say that they keep getting “re-set,” sent back out into the world having lost the memory of their old lives and versions of themselves to start anew. This reminds me of the idea of overwriting timelines.
Water. Water represents purity, truth and emotions and of course, the strangers can’t stand water. ;) It’s Dr. Schreber’s safe haven for that reason. Many movies will feature the bad guys getting taken out by water – the Wicked Witch of the West, the Strangers, and I remember it happened at the end of “Batman Returns” as well, a big climactic battle at the end where water was involved. Why is this? Well interestingly enough, Robert Bruce, author of “Practical Psychic Self Defense” notes many times throughout his book that negative entities are repulsed by running water. In fact, they will become trapped in buildings or areas as a result, unable to cross beyond where the water mains are under the ground. He advises that if one is under psychic attack by neg beings to immediately get into water, such as a shower, or cross over running water via a hose or a water pipeline of some sort….and it’ll work like a dream. Water as a purifier, washing away corruption, is an archetype – think of the biblical Great Flood, and the destruction of Atlantis. Several disaster movies have featured corrupt humanity and its urban centers being washed away by tidal waves. Deep Impact, and The Day After Tomorrow to name two, both movies prominently featuring (corrupt, modern Babylon) New York City in particular being wiped out in close up detail by a huge tidal wave.
One always gets away. You can’t completely control them all…one always slips through the cracks and gets away. In this case it’s John Murdoch, but Detective Walenski also woke up, then went mad. There will always be those who wake up and see through the illusion, even if nobody else around them can. The controllers will never be able to fully control everybody and keep every last one in the pen.
Summary: Analogous truth involves Earth, and reality as we know it, as an experiment of sorts; behind-the-scenes, non-human hyperdimensional controllers who are outside of time, manipulating people’s lives like puppets; timelines can be altered and things “rearranged”, and the future is affected by tinkering with the past. Most of society is asleep, never aware of the truth, rationalizing away things that don’t make sense and stumbling along with blinders on. But there are always the few that wake up and see through things…
The Thirteenth Floor — 1999. Craig Bierko, Gretchen Mol, Vincent Donofrio, Armin Mueller-Stahl.
Douglas Hall (Bierko) and his colleague Whitney (Donofrio) have created a virtual reality world set in 1937 Los Angeles, although have yet to test it. When their project leader Hannon (Mueller-Stahl) is found murdered, Douglas soon becomes a suspect in the murder, with damning evidence that places him at the scene of the crime. Yet, he has zero recollection of any of it, he actually really liked his boss and considered him a friend, and nothing about his personality indicates that he has it in him to do such a thing. Adding to the mystery is Jane, (Mol) the beautiful woman claiming to be the daughter of Hannon – who never once mentioned that he had a daughter. Douglas discovers that Hannon had been entering the virtual reality world prior to his death, and decides to follow his lead to get some answers. He goes in thinking he’s going to find out the truth about Hannon’s murder, but comes away discovering the truth about the entire nature of their reality.
The movie doesn’t sound like much, but it’s very good, under rated, and usually overlooked. It wound up being overshadowed by The Matrix, which came out the same year.
Key elements
Virtual reality characters waking up to the truth. The “characters” in 1937 virtual reality Los Angeles are designed to look like their creator counterparts, but are not real, for all intents and purposes. They’re not supposed to be capable of independent thoughts and feelings. Yet somehow, it happens. Whitney’s virtual reality counterpart, Jerry Ashton, takes it upon himself to intercept a letter, of which gives him a tip to drive out to Arizona. And upon doing so, he encounters the literal “end of the world”…the point where mountains and scenery end abruptly, turning into digital landscape. This proves more than he can handle, and it sends him into an emotional tailspin with consequences. But none of this was even supposed to be possible.
Virtual reality within virtual reality. What’s really real? Is the reality you think you know just another layer in the program?
Summary: Analogous truth involves characters in an artificially created world having sentience, “waking up”, gaining independent sovereignty, and taking control of the wheel, as well as the concept of layers upon layers of reality on top of each other.
eXistenZ — 1999. Jude Law, Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Computer game designer Allegra Geller (Leigh) has designed eXistenZ — a virtual reality game system designed to plug into a bioport in the spine in order to interface with the user. While demonstrating it for the first time on a group of participants during the premier, Allegra dodges an assassination attempt that winds up damaging the unique, only-one-in-existence game system. With the help of marketing PR assistant Ted Pikul, (Law) she takes off on the lam, then lures Pikul to enter into the damaged game system with her, much to his reluctance. The eXistenZ game system itself is organic, with an actual umbilical cord for a cord and a pod made of real flesh that writhes and squishes and squeaks, grown from fish eggs that have been inserted with synthetic DNA. As a result, everything in the world of eXistenZ centers around the theme of mutated amphibians — it’s a filthy and grotesque dream world taken to the most exaggerated level, from the gun made of bone and dangling amphibian flesh that shoots human teeth, to the “Trout Farm” processing center and the Chinese “Restaurant.” It’s not a movie for those with a weak stomach. Don’t eat before you watch this one!
Key elements
Say the right thing to generate the right response. In the game eXistenZ, Allegra and Ted encounter characters that speak in repetitive loops unless the right response “prompt” is said to them.
Programmed character behavior vs. free will. Not long after entering eXistenZ for the first time, Ted begins experiencing urges that are not his normal behavior and saying things without knowing why he said them. Allegra tells him not to fight it, to just go with it, because they are natural character urges. “It’s something your character was born to do.”
Virtual reality within reality. Like “The Thirteenth Floor”, eXistenZ’s twist is that the game was really virtual reality within virtual reality. And just when you think that it’s over and the movie is back in the “real” world, the movie kicks you again with a cliffhanger ending that suggests that it all just might be another virtual reality layer.
Notable quotes:
“You have to play the game to find out why you’re playing the game.” – Allegra
Ted: “Freewill is obviously not a big factor in this little world of ours.”
Allegra: “It’s like real life. There’s just enough to make it interesting.”
Summary: Analagous truth involves being in an illusory artificial reality without knowing that you are — is the world you inhabit really real? Are things what you think they are? The idea that we have destinies to play out — things that “our characters” are born to do, and certain things have to be done and said to fulfill those destinies. And the big question — What’s the meaning of life? Why are we here? Well, you have to play the game, known as life, to find out! On a final note, there are people who won’t — can’t — respond to anything outside of their programming. I personally found that part of the movie most interesting, being that I’ve encountered people that seemed to operate in pretty much the same way; when faced with a topic that is “woo-woo” and outside the norm, their faces go blank…exactly as you see in the movie, like reality was put on “pause”…then they change the subject. Oops, you didn’t say the “correct” thing to them, you were too far out in left field, so the programming shuts down, or else “something” made them go blank. Only when you talk about “normal” things such as TV, sports, entertainment, shopping, food, and other mainstream stuff are they able to participate in the conversation and “come back.”
The Forgotten — 2004. Julianne Moore, Dominic West, Anthony Edwards, Alfre Woodard, Gary Sinise, Linus Roche.
Telly Paretta (Moore) is still grieving for the death of her nine year old son Sam who died 14 months before in a plane crash during a field trip. Then it happens — her husband and psychiatrist do a 180 one day, claiming she never had a son and fabricated his memory as some sort of delusion. One by one, pictures and memorabilia from Sam disappear, leaving Telly with nothing but her memories and conviction that he did exist…even if nobody else remembers, and all the evidence has disappeared. She embarks on a mission to get to the bottom of what’s going on, enlisting the help of fellow Brooklyn neighborhood resident Ash Correll, (West) who, like everybody else, has no recollection of Sam either…or his own daughter Lauren, who was friends with Sam and died along with him.
“The Forgotten” is slightly different from the other five movies mentioned here in that it’s not about “fake” reality — but it is about manipulated reality and hidden controllers, and reality not being entirely what it seems to be. This is a great movie that’s been overlooked and maligned by people that I consider to be doing “damage control” with their negative reviews. There are many parallels to “Dark City” with this movie – the lead character waking up to the fact that reality is an experiment being conducted by aliens, taking off on the lam to solve a big mystery and being sought after by her spouse, a detective, and a psych doc. So if one of them isn’t your cup of tea, then the other should work. ;)
Key elements
The alien manipulators/UFOs. At the end of the scene where Telly is being chased through the streets by the NSA, the camera turns upwards and we see a “cloud ship” in the sky. Right then, if you’re observant, you’ll know…whatever’s happening here involves aliens / UFOs. What I also liked about this was that it depicted the UFO in a more realistic light. Instead of the standard dancing, singing, musical Steven Spielberg UFO, we get the ominous cloud ship, disguised in the sky. A lot more realistic. This is the first time that I can recall seeing a UFO portrayed this way in a movie.
The NSA. This was the first movie that I know of to feature the NSA as the conspiratorial government “Them” behind things. Usually you only hear about the CIA, the FBI, all the standard unrealistic “yawn” fare. But the NSA? VERY realistic in that regard. The NSA is behind more than people know. And the fact that the NSA was working in cahoots with the aliens was even better. An NSA agent explains to Telly that they literally have no choice but to work with them. Cooperate or die.
Timeline manipulation/behind the scenes manipulators. Bit by bit, evidence of Sam disappears, and nobody around Telly remembers that he ever existed. Like in “Dark City,” the manipulators erase people’s memories and create new realities as they see fit, playing people like puppets for their own personal experiment.
One always gets away. Like John Murdoch in Dark City, our heroine slips through the cracks, she remembers and sees through things, even when nobody else can. One always gets away — or three, as Telly’s cohort Ash eventually wakes up, and Detective Ann Pope (Woodard) is able to glimpse the truth for herself as well. Manipulators can’t control them all. There will always be anomalies. That is why in our “real” world, there are those who are awake and see through the nonsense while the vast majority does not.
Notable quotes –
“You’re just a lab rat to them.” – Dr. Munce
Summary: Analogous truth in The Forgotten involves, once again, those behind the scenes hyper dimensional controllers, except this time, working in cahoots with certain factions of the U.S. government. People’s lives are manipulated and toyed with, government agents are involved in monitoring abduction targets, and pretty much nobody ever wakes up to what’s going on or questions things. Again, this movie and Dark City are so close and yet so different – one has a comic book film noir look, while the other aims for realism. I love both equally and highly recommend both if you haven’t seen them.
[On a side note – the names used in this movie always rubbed me the wrong way and struck me as being very weird – what kind of names are “Telly Paretta” and “Munce” and “Ash” and “Pope” ? Or “Eliot”…for the name of a female neighbor? Very odd. So as weird as this may sound, I’m wondering if there’s more to the name thing than meets the eye. I’d play around with it but I’m too lazy! So maybe somebody out there will figure it out.]
The Matrix — 1999. Keanu Reeves, Lawrence Fishborne, Carrie Ann Moss, Hugo Weaving, Gloria Foster, Joe Pantoliano
Click here to download Matrix Trilogy write up (PDF format)
© 2006-2008
Carissa Conti