1/16/09. Moved “The Island” write up from the “Other Interesting Movies” section to this section, since it fit more with the movies here.
1/16/09. New intro for this section.
1998 — 1999 had a cluster of movies emerge that all centered on the theme of fake reality. On the one hand, the idea of “question your reality” is a good one, considering the amount of mind control we’re subjected to since birth to get us to view the world the way The Powers That Be want us to view it. By this point in life, due to personal experiences and things I’ve been privy to, I firmly believe that things are not as those in control would like us to believe. However, the idea of “what’s real and what isn’t?” is also one of those big time tools used in mind control to get targets to give up on life and/or succumb to alter ego programming, etc., as explained in my “Mind Control Symbolisms and Programming Triggers in Movies” write up. Mind control/MK target Kathleen Sullivan, author of the book “Unshackled,” noted in her book that one of her MK programs was called “Otherworld” programming, where she was convinced that the reality she was occupying was not real, so therefore she was free to do whatever she wanted, because it wasn’t really happening anyway. And as noted in my own book, this was the same programming given to my MK target brother. So that’s something to keep in mind when analyzing the sudden emergence of these movies in the late 90s and into the 2000’s. Could be a coincidence and mean nothing at all, could be a mindful agenda, and if it’s an agenda then is it one to help propel mass awakening, or one to further people’s programming to get them in a confused state of mind? (again, see my “Mind Control….” movies write up for more on how that would work if you’re unfamiliar with the subject.) Either way, I still say it’s good to question your reality. ;)
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 “Other Interesting 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 the Montalk 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: Analogous 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 Island – 2005. Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Sean Bean, Djimon Hounsou, Steve Buscemi
In the middle of the Arizona desert in an underground former military bunker lies the world’s premier cloning facility for the rich and famous and elite. For 5 million dollars a person can have themselves cloned in the event they ever need the spare parts or a vehicle to give them a baby. 
The clones are known as “insurance policies” – but what the elite don’t realize is that they’ve been lied to. Their clone counterparts are not brain dead vegetables lying in pods as they’ve been told, but rather, fully functioning people being reared in a high tech utopian facility. The clone agnates are viewed as nothing more than a multi-billion dollar product – and the product is being lied to as well. They know nothing of their true situation and are kept obedient and unquestioning via some heavy duty mind control, implanted fake memories, holographic projections of a false outside world view, and a whopping lie that they are the fortunate survivors of a contaminated world unfit to live in. There is one thing though that keeps hope alive for the cloned residents and gives their existences purpose – it’s called “The Island,” supposedly the last uncontaminated place on Earth where “lucky” lottery winners get to go. Winning the lottery really equals harvest time for organs and body parts when their real world clone sponsor counterparts fall ill. One clone, Lincoln 6 Echo (McGregor) is a bit of an anomaly that has begun noticing things that the others don’t see, questioning his reality because it feels wrong, and poking around in search of answers. After secretly witnessing the deaths of one new mom and another “lottery winner” being harvested for parts, he realizes the truth of the situation and sets out to save his friend Jordan 2 Delta (Johansson) from the same fate after she too “wins the lottery.” Together they need to escape the facility and make it out to the real world, dodge both the cops and a hired mercenary team in hot pursuit (Hounsou), find their real world clone counterparts….then ultimately go back to the facility to rescue everybody left behind.
Mixing elements from many movies, including Logan’s Run, Cypher, The Matrix, Soylent Green, The Truman Show, Dark City, The Thirteenth Floor, They Live, and even an episode of Stargate SG-1, “The Island” is rife with meaningful symbolism. I’ll start first with a comparison to other movies and their shared elements. (These summaries aren’t meant to be thorough plot synopses, just a comparison of specific matching plot elements.) Also, when recently reading the Wikipedia entry for ‘The Island’ I saw that it also copied a 1979 movie called “Parts: The Clonus Horror,” so much so that the makers of “The Island” were accused of remaking the movie but without giving credit. They were sued, and wound up settling out of court for a seven figure deal, which is pretty telling. I hadn’t heard of or seen “Parts” when compiling the original plot comparisons noted below, so if you’re interested then click on the Wiki entry to read more about “Parts.”)
Logan’s Run. The main movie where most of the elements of “The Island” were taken, down to the characters’ names (Logan 5 and Jessica 6, L and J names followed by numbers), the regimented utopian society living in a mass lie, the premature killings of otherwise healthy people, and the lead male and female characters pairing up to escape out of the illusion, hooking up romantically, and then returning to save the rest that were left behind.
The Matrix. Humanity living a lie in a fake A.I. reality. People grown in pods in order to serve something else, acting as human batteries. Main male character Neo is an anomaly among the other pod people who senses that something is wrong and off about reality and questions things. After making it out of the illusion, he’s shown the truth about reality, then pairs with a female partner in crime Trinity to go back into the illusion and rescue Morpheus and also try to help the rest of the population and set them free.
Scene in “The Island” where the evil overseer Merrick is battling it out with Lincoln and refers to Lincoln as his clone name, 6 Echo. Lincoln responds with, “My name is Lincoln,” then proceeds to kick his ass. Same as in “The Matrix,” when Agent Smith refers to Neo as Thomas Anderson, and Neo responds with “My name is Neo…” then proceeds to kick his ass.
The Truman Show. Main character Truman Burbank living in an artificially constructed reality, unknown to him. Producers of “The Truman Show” have manufactured events in Truman’s life that will give him phobias and fears as a mechanism of control, the same way the so-called “contamination” in “The Island” is used to instill fear in the clones. Truman begins to wake up, noticing discrepancies and questioning his reality, which leads to him investigating and poking around to find answers. Christof, the producer of “The Truman Show,” notes that “We accept the reality of the world in which we’re presented”; Merrick, the overseer of the cloning facility, notes that it’s natural to question the reality we’re presented when thinking about the way Lincoln 6 Echo had been challenging his world and questioning things. At the end Truman is hellbent on uncovering the truth and making it out of Seahaven and attempts to do so…by sailing away on a boat. Lincoln 6 Echo’s big goal is to sail away with Jordan 2 Delta on a boat and escape.
Dark City. Population obliviously living in an artificially created city in a lie, being controlled by higher powerful beings. Main character John Murdoch is an anomaly who wakes up and sees through things; He escapes on the lam looking for answers, and is being pursued by the bad guys who want to take him out and put a stop to him. He has to fight back and defeat the bad guys and set everybody else free from the illusion.
Cypher. (Lead character, “Morgan Sullivan,” is trying to discover the truth about what’s going on around him and the intrigue he’s caught up in with the help of his female partner in crime.) His “former self” (who was privileged rich elite) designed a super high tech private plane which his new “alternate self” knows how to fly, even though he can’t consciously remember how he knows how to do this – exactly the same way Tom Lincoln is super rich and designed boats, fast cars, motorcycles and flying stuff, which his clone Lincoln 6 Echo begins having inexplicable knowledge of. Morgan is drawn to boats and has flashbacks throughout the movie of being on a boat, sailing free, same way Lincoln 6 Echo keeps dreaming about being on a boat he’s never seen before in his life. End scene of both movies involve the main male characters sailing away free with their female partners after waking up, learning the truth, conquering the bad guys and getting away. Both movies also feature the mind control technique of holding the eyes open while a series of visual images and audio commands is drummed into the brain.
They Live. An electronic frequency fence of sorts helps mask the truth about reality from the population. In “The Island” it’s a holographic projection that surrounds the cloning facility; in “They Live” it’s a broadcast frequency that masks the alien invaders’ true identities from the humans. In both movies, the male lead characters wake up to the truth and then go on a mission to take down the electronic frequency control in order to reveal the truth and free the population from the deceit.
Soylent Green. World has been contaminated, humans are being lied to (in this case, about the nature of what their food source, “Soylent Green” is) main male character pokes about and accidentally stumbles onto the horrifying truth. In “The Island,” the clone society is told that the world is contaminated and unfit to live in, main male character pokes around and stumbles onto the horrifying truth.
The Thirteenth Floor. Characters living in a reality that’s a lie; need to wake up and learn the truth. Both movies feature characters who have doubles/doppelgangers; In “The Island” the “not real people” clones are innocent and pure and more human and nice than their real-life, self serving, heartless counterparts. In “The Thirteenth Floor” the “not real” A.I. characters are more innocent and pure and nice than their real life self serving, heartless counterparts.
Stargate SG-1 – Season 4, Episode 410, “Beneath the Surface.” The SG-1 team have been abducted, re-programmed with new personality memory stamps (mind control), and are being held captive by the leaders of an off-planetary world they were visiting. Now they’ve being used as slave labor underground, beneath the Dome City that resides above. Neither the slave labor nor the Dome City residents know about each other. The slave labor, including the re-programmed SG-1 team, are being lied to about the nature of their reality in order to be kept as complacent, obedient workers, believing they are something they’re not. But here and there memories pop up and dreams give clues, leading them to start questioning their reality. They eventually wake up to their true identities, take down the bad guy leaders of the whole operation, and go back to show the truth to the rest of the slave labor population – Col. Jack O’Neill shoots the skylight out with his gun to let the sunlight pour through – and thus save them.
Maybe it’s worth taking note that so many of these movies have the same repeating themes. Is it a matter of not being innovative enough to come up with something original? Possibly, in some cases. (“The Island” seems to be part of the post 2000’s bad trend of endlessly remaking already existing movies instead of generating something new…..) But it’s also possible that something keeps trying to get a point through to us. Considering how much mind control we’re subjected to since birth and TPTB’s almost desperate attempt to make us view the world according to how they want us to see it, I find the concept of “question your reality” and what you think you know to be true to be an important one. One that can’t be reiterated enough, from however many angles.
Other interesting points worth mentioning
Two of the tag lines for the movie included “They don’t want you to know what you are” and “You Have Been Chosen.” Taglines always interest me for their possible real-world double meanings.
What’s in a name…
Tom – Thomas means twin; (think Neo/Thomas Anderson) Tom is a clone/twin.
Lincoln – Lincoln freed the slaves. ;)
Going back to rescue those left behind. Not only is this a repeating theme in several movies, as mentioned in the above plot comparisons, but apparently this is actually a concept that Rudolf Steiner talks about in his book called “How to Know Higher Worlds.” Following is an excerpts from that book which illustrate the parallels, (the voice narrating is supposed to be that of “the great guardian of the threshhold”):
“You have freed yourself from the world of the senses. You have earned the right of citizenship in the supersensible world. From now on, you may work from there. For you yourself, you no longer need your physical bodily nature in its present form. If all you wanted was to acquire the capacity to dwell in the supersensible world, you would never need to return to the world of the senses. [….] Some day you will be able to unite with my form, but I myself cannot find perfect blessedness as long as there are others who are still unfortunate! As a single, liberated individual, you could enter the realm of the supersensible today. But then you would have to look down upon those sentient beings who are not yet freed. You would have separated your destiny from theirs. But you are linked together with all sentient beings. […] You must share with the others the powers that you achieved with them. Therefore, I refuse to admit you to the highest regions of the supersensible world until you have used all your powers for the deliverance of your fellow world and fellow beings.”
If that doesn’t describe what happens in “The Island,” then I don’t know what does! As Merrick marvels at the end of the movie to Lincoln 6 Echo – “You could have taken over his [now dead clone sponsor’s] life. But you came back.”
“You’re Special, you’re the chosen one.” It’s the opening lines of the movie, and is a big part of the brainwashing techniques used in the cloning facility to convince the clones that they’re special and chosen for having supposedly survived the big “contamination.” But this is the exact same phenomena I noticed in my own abduction/mind control research – targets being told by their abductors, be it human or alien, that they’re “special” and “chosen.” In my opinion it’s deceptive manipulation, and I even warned about this in my book, “Chasing Phantoms,” although I realized it was going to fall on deaf ears for abductees who are caught up in the ego wank that it serves. So needless to say I found it very interesting to see this featured in the movie, and portrayed as a mechanism of deception and control no less.
The pyramid. Towards the beginning of the movie Merrick, the head of the cloning facility, is sitting at his desk shuffling through the computerized files on his desk top/computer screen…using a crystal pyramid control devise. Pyramid – Brotherhood of the Snake/Illuminati symbolism, pyramid of control, who’s really in charge of this reality, and so on. Speaking of which…..
The rattlesnake. Lincoln 6 Echo and Jordan 2 Delta encounter a snake on the side of the road after escaping on the lam into the desert.
Seeing the sunlight. Getting outside and seeing the real sun and sunlight for the first time is a big deal, same as Logan’s Run, Dark City, The Matrix Revolutions and the SG-1 episode mentioned earlier. “Finally seeing the sunlight” is a repeating theme, possibly tying into more of the Brotherhood/Illuminati Egyptian “Ra” symbolism. (and I theorize this due to the pyramid and the snake also being prominently featured, and the fact that Logan’s Run, the inspiration behind this movie, happened to be dripping in Egyptian symbolism. But if it wasn’t for the snake and pyramid then I’d attribute a different meaning to the sun symbolism.)
33. On a minor note, “33” appears in a roundabout way on the opening to the military bunker silo. It says “Silo 3” with another 3 next to it. 33. 33 is one of those numbers I talk about in my “Mind Control” movie section, and appears in many of these meaningful movies. Possibly indicates Masonic ties for the makers of the movie, I’m not sure. Wouldn’t be surprised, considering the pyramid and snake. ;) I’d be liable to be skeptical except for the fact they could have used any numbers, so why 3 & 3?
The President has a clone
Lincoln 6 Echo: (looking at a t.v. screen) “Who is that guy? I
know him, is he the community announcer?”
Tom Lincoln: “He’s the President of America.”
L6E: (pointing at the t.v.) “He has a clone!”
TL: “He’s an absolute idiot.”
L6E: “Yeah, I never liked him either.”
Funny bit in the movie that was apparently also used in “Parts: Clonus Horror” but maybe has a real life secondary meaning regarding George W., especially considering that the actor chosen to play the president bears an undeniable similarity to Bush, and the pointed “he’s an absolute idiot” add on. ;)
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 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. I think this is a good 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 like 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