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Dark City (1998)



         


Dark City is a 1998 movie written and directed by Alex Proyas. It stars Rufus Sewell, William Hurt, Kiefer Sutherland, and Jennifer Connelly. While it was not a box office hit, and is not a popular science fiction movie, it has considerable reputation. Film critic Roger Ebert is a well-known fan of the movie, and uses it in his teaching (Ebert also appears on a commentary track on the DVD).

The story begins with a man waking in a hotel room with no memory, which soon proves to be but one of many troubles. He is being sought by police, who believe him to be a serial killer, and also by a group of mysterious men with psychokinetic powers. Furthermore, something appears to be wrong with the world at large: time, memory, and identity behave in unusual ways. The film is dedicated to the memory of Dennis Potter, which may be considered a useful indicator of the style of the story. The style of the film might also be said to owe something to Expressionism.

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Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

Note: Perhaps as a result of a test screening, the movie actually begins with a voice-over narration that gives away several key plot twists.

John Murdoch (played by Rufus Sewell) wakes up in a bathtub at a hotel, having lost all of his memory, including who he is. He receives a phone call from Dr. Daniel Schreber (played by Kiefer Sutherland, in an apparent homage to the style of his father Donald Sutherland) urging him to leave the hotel immediately. According to Schreber, a group of men (who may not actually be humans), referred to in the movie as The Strangers, are coming to the hotel to find Murdoch. Murdoch escapes them, and shortly afterwards finds out his name and that he has a wife named Emma (played by Jennifer Connelly). Unfortunately, he also finds out that he is wanted for a string of serial killings, which he has no memory of and does not have the urge to commit.

He also starts to find strange things happening around the city, all of which seem to have some connection to The Strangers. For instance, he has noticed that there are times when everyone in the city falls asleep at the same time. He has also noticed that it is always night in the city, and that it is apparently impossible to leave the city. Apparently, Murdock was raised in the seaside resort Shell Beach, which everyone seems to know, but noone seems to know how to get there. And strangest of all, he has noticed that he has some sort of psychokinetic power, which the Strangers also seem to have.

Meanwhile, police inspector Frank Bumstead (played by William Hurt) is investigating the serial killings of which Murdoch is suspected. Bumstead's colleague who worked on the case before was apparently driven mad by something he discovered, and Bumstead soon begins to suspect that Murdoch is not guilty, but the victim of some plot. Murdoch is also being sought by Mr. Hand (played by Richard O'Brien), a Stranger who absorbs the memories Murdoch has "lost" (in truth, those of the serial killer that he is suspected of being) in order to track him.

Murdoch and Bumstead force Dr. Schreber to reveal that the city is a vast experiment conducted by the alien Strangers, designed to reveal an aspect of humans that the Strangers lack and need to survive (hinted at being the nature of the human soul). The Strangers put the entire city to sleep and, with Schreber's help, manipulate the memories of the citizens in an attempt to learn about nature and nurture. Sometimes, however, people wake up during the process and are left without memories. This happened to Murdoch, and also to Bumstead's insane colleague.

The Strangers kill Bumstead and capture Murdoch, and attempt to have Dr. Schreber overwrite Murdoch's memories with their own collective memory. However, Schreber manages to imprint Murdoch with a different set of memories, which teach him about his ability to shape reality just like the Strangers. Murdoch fights and destroys the Strangers, creates a sun and a sea for the city, and "recreates" Shell Beach. He then seeks out Emma, who (due to a memory change by the Strangers) is now called Anna, and no longer has any memories of having been Murdoch's wife.

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Similarities to other works

The film's style is often compared to that of the works of Terry Gilliam (especially Brazil), and there have been many comparisons between it and The Matrix (which was filmed shortly after Dark City, reusing some of its film sets). Fritz Lang's 1927 movie Metropolis was a major influence on the film. The plot also contains many similarities to Victor Hugo's Les Misérables. The random permutation of people's social identities is reminiscent of Borges's short story "The Lottery in Babylon".

References to Memoirs of My Nervous Illness by Daniel Paul Schreber (after whom character Daniel Poe Schreber is named) can be found in the film, notably in the use of his "fleetingly-improvised men" concept. The film also contains references to The Bible, with John Murdoch being an allegorical Jesus Christ. One reference that is of note is the number of the room John is in at the film's beginning — 614 — which is reminiscent of John 6:14, a biblical entry that refers to the coming of Jesus.

Also quite noticeable is the use of Cartesian philosophy. This tends to draw comparisons to other films made around the same time that made use of it, such as The Matrix, The Thirteenth Floor, and eXistenZ. While the idea that sensory experience could be manufactured by some form of virtual reality is not new in science fiction, Dark City addresses the (arguably more radical) question of memory. In Bertrand Russell's words, how can we be sure that "the world was not created five minutes ago, and our memories with it?"

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Awards

Dark City won the following awards:

It was also nominated for the following awards:

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Technical data

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See also

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