Synchronicity (2015)

You can go a lot of different ways with time-travel stories.  You can have something complicated, like Primer.  Primer has so many timelines and days redone that it gets difficult to keep track of.  Then, you have some stories that are just one timeline.  Predestination is a story that’s told out of order and it’s up to the audience to figure out what it’s all about.  Similarly, Timecrimes is a story that’s retold several times, giving us more information as we go along.

Synchronicity seems to strive for a balance between the two.  It starts with a time-travel experiment that’s trying to get funding   Jim, Chuck and Matt are the scientists.  Klaus Meisner is the only potential source of an expensive material they need.  If the scientists can open a wormhole and  a signal comes through the wormhole, Meisner will know that it worked, thus providing the material that will eventually produce the other side of the wormhole and the  signal.  (Yes, it’s a bootstrap paradox at its simplest.)

Oh, I should also mention that things go sideways when physical objects come through the wormhole.  It proves that it’s viable, but what does it mean that someone seems to have come through and a plant mysteriously appeared in the lab?  The other end of the wormhole won’t be opened for a few days, giving everyone a chance to go crazy.

The conflict comes in that the scientists are interested in contributing to humanity’s scientific understanding while Meisner is interested in furthering the advancement of his bank account.  Meisner is apathetic towards most other aspects of the project.  Jim just wants to know what actually happened.  This leads Jim to make some questionable decisions, like potentially giving up his company.  It doesn’t help that Jim is having strange headaches.  Add to this Abby, a rather attractive woman that may be a little too involved in what‘s going on.  It’s enough to make someone paranoid.

This isn’t a light and fluffy movie.  The movie’s not overly heavy on sex and other adult themes, but I don’t think it’s a movie for children.  There are things that children either would miss entirely or possibly get a little freaked out over.  Those that have seen Blade Runner will probably see similarities in the aesthetics.  The director seems to have borrowed heavily from Blade Runner’s overall mood and/or soundtrack.

It’s also the kind of movie that might be too complicated for some.  I hate saying that you have to pay attention, as it sometimes feels like I’m saying you have to be smart.  However, it’s usually more in the sense that you really can’t be doing something else at the time.  There are all sorts of clues as to what’s going on that might be missed if you’re distracted.  As they say, the devil is in the detail.

IMDb page

Total Recall (1990)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

Douglas Quaid is a relatively boring man.  He works in construction.  He doesn’t really do much aside from go to work and go home.  He does have a rather attractive wife, played by Sharon Stone.  Lately, he’s been having these strange dreams about a mysterious brunette and has developed an itch to go to Mars.

His wife isn’t too big on the idea.  There’s not much to do there and the political instability doesn’t make for a safe trip.  After all, Mars was colonized basically to mine material.  Yes, they have things to do, but it’s really not much of a resort destination.  He considers a company called Rekall, which specializes in fake vacations.   It sounds nice, but one of Quaid’s coworkers advises against it.  He heard that the lobotomized someone not to long ago.

Despite the coworker’s advice, Quaid checks it out.  They have the ability to implant memories of any trip you want to go on.  For a little extra, you can assume a different identity, such as a spy or a millionaire.  They will even give you some trinkets to take home as souvenirs.  Sounds great.  Quaid signs up.  Problem is that he starts freaking out, saying all sorts of crazy stuff.

He eventually escapes only to find that nothing is as it seems.  The aforementioned coworker tries to abduct Quaid at gunpoint.  It also looks like his beautiful wife was actually sent there to keep tabs on him.  Plus, Quaid may really be someone named Hauser.  Quaid finds a metal briefcase with all sorts of money and documents.  There’s also a message from Hauser telling Quaid what to do in case someone comes after him.  He’s to get to Mars and look for some members of the uprising there.

There’s one small problem:  Cohaagen, the CEO/dictator of Mars, is after him.  Quaid has some information that Cohaagen doesn’t want getting out.  It could hurt Cohaagen’s hold on power.  His company does supply a lot of material to Earth.  It would be a shame if he lost it all.  Cohaagen sends some of his hired guns after Quaid, but Quaid manages to make it to Mars and meet the woman that he was dreaming about.

I remember first seeing this a long time ago.  It’s one of those movies that seems to hold up on later viewings.  It’s one of those movies that you can watch several times and see it different ways each time.  The big theme is reality versus perception.  Did Quaid really get his fake vacation or did it go horribly wrong?  If it was fake, how was it that Quaid was already dreaming about the woman he met?  Yes, it could be that he had dreams about some random woman and the fake vacation simply incorporated it, but there are a lot of other clues that would indicate that the trip was imagined.

This is not a movie for small children.  For starters, it’s very violent.  When Quaid goes nuts in the Rekall lab, he kills and/or injures most of the staff there.  When Cohaagen’s men go after Quaid, they will shoot anyone in the way.  (Quaid even uses one of the casualties as a shield.)  According to IMDb, the death count is somewhere around 73.  Many of the deaths weren’t incredibly bloody, but there are a lot of deaths.

Another thing that you might want to know about before viewing the movie is that Mars has all sorts of mutants.  This comes from the fact that Mars has no natural atmosphere, thus letting in all of the radiation that causes our DNA to change rapidly.  Many look freakish, but you do end up with some interesting mutations.  (It seems that a lot of people remember the prostitute with three breasts.)

I bought Total Recall through iTunes to watch while going on vacation.  (My parents and I were going from Miami to the Tampa area and back, so I had some time on my hands.)  The only reason I bought it was that it was on sale.  I could definitely see watching it again with someone else in the near future, though.  It doesn’t seem that long at 113 minutes.  I’d definitely recommend watching it.