--- In [email protected], "matrixmonitor" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > ---Still, there's an ongoing challenge for you to predict the > stocks, > or manifest an external siddhi of your choice; something more > important than (say) communicating with lobsters (feature: "help, > help, don't boil me alive!!"). > On Next, this is based on a novel or short story by the SCI-FI > genius Philip Dick. (The "Minority Report") was also based on one > of his stories. > The basic idea in Next which makes it distinctive (as opposed to a > similar thriller, Deja Vu) is that there are alternative possible > futures, and the Cage character gets to "try out" any of them in > advance; i.e. the possible future which he personally selects as > being the most favorable. Then in his mind's eye, he carries out > that > possible future to it's conclusion and if it doesn't work, he tries > another. The catch is that the viewer doesn't know which of these > hypothetical scenaries is going to be the "real" one - any more than > the Cage character. > Also, in one scene, he can bifurcate into multiple bodies and > explore numerous possible futures all at once.
That's it exactly. The "vibe" that I got from the film was Philip K. Dick's, even though I didn't know while watching the film that it was based on one of his stories. It's the SUBTLTY with which it deals with "seeing the future" that I got off on. As you say, the reality of such a situation is that the moment you start fucking with the future, it starts getting all quantum mechanical on your ass and fucking back. The moment you realize that you have the option of choosing one path through the future you've "seen," you are also stuck with the need to check out the myriad other possible futures you *could* have "seen." As I said before, it's NOT a great film. But it contains great ideas. And in an era in which we really don't GET a lot of great films, for me discovering one that has a few great ideas in it is just a delight.
