The Beyond (2017)Technological innovation is consistently born from the need to overcome a fundamental hurdle of human existence, and sometimes means redefining how we view ourselves as a society or species. The Beyond is a high-concept science fiction movie presented in a documentary-styled format. In a very near future, a space anomaly suspected of being a wormhole manifests in the Earth's orbit; it is dubbed "The Void" by a global space agency appropriately called "The Space Agency". The presence of The Void--and the subsequent black, amorphous spheres that suddenly emerge around the planet--prompts the Space Agency to develop radical solutions in response to the potential threat of apocalyptic proportions it poses.
|
|
Within its svelte running time, The Beyond explores multiple fixtures in the science fiction genre--including travelling through a rip in space-time, transhuman cyborgs, and first contact with aliens. That all of this happens so swiftly speaks to how rapidly our concept of reality can be brought into question. The Beyond opens with a preview of an event a year from the story's starting point, as military units fire into the ominous black spheres that dominate city skylines. The director of the Space Agency, Gillian Laroux (Jane Perry), obliquely comments that they could never have predicted such an outcome, planting the seed of anxiety over some mysterious calamity on the horizon in the audience's mind. The Beyond follow this with the beginnings of a comparatively mundane documentary being made about Laroux, who frequently comes across as condescending and conceited, as though desperate to remind everyone that she is in charge. (Consider how she comically substitutes the word "perplexing" with "complexing".) Most of the other characters are also key figures in the space program, deliberating how best to analyze The Void after an astronaut named Jim Marcell (Julian Graham) vanished in the wake of the emerging anomaly. The Agency begins by sending an unmanned probe into The Void, expecting to get some data to plan their next step--which is always the foremost priority for the Head of Exploration Missions, Alex Grant (Nigel Barber). The Agency's lead cosmologist, Jessica Johnson (Noeleen Comiskey), identifies what appears to be another planet through the wormhole, which raises the hot-button topic about sending astronauts through The Void to make contact with potentially another sentient race. An astrophysicist named Professor Jakob Brukiehm (David Bailie) theorizes that it would be physically impossible for a human being to survive the journey, because the intense gravitational force would pulp the fragile human body. Tensions spike after the emergence of the black spheres, provoking fear and paranoia among the world's nations and peoples. This necessitates the reveal of an ultra-secret United States military project called "Human 2.0", which proposes that the human brain can be transplanted into a super-resistant robotic frame, while retaining all of the thoughts and personality of its precursor. The Space Agency suddenly finds itself positioned to redefine humanity and mortality in what might be their only defense against a looming invasion by inscrutable forces.
A recurring theme in The Beyond is how adversity forces society to reevaluate its priorities--as is the case with the Human 2.0 project, since transplanting the brain into a cybernetic vessel raises ethical quandaries. The project's synthetics engineer, Alice Lamont (Georgina Blackledge), explains the technical side of the procedure, citing that the goal is not to diminish the human component but to translate it as closely as possible into the full-body prosthesis. The surgeon responsible for the delicate procedure, Dr. Kuresh Patel (Ezra Kuresh), expresses his concerns about the rushed--even reckless--timetable for the candidates to acclimate to their new bodies before firing them off into The Void. The mission through the wormhole is presumed to be a one-way trip, so the clandestine operation invites only the most daring scientific adventurers, including an enthusiastic candidate named Carl Roberts (Tom Christian). Carl's interests in a new body are motivated in part by his paralysis from the waist down, confining him to a wheelchair. The screening process is complex and evaluates the candidates on levels including their fear, anxiety, excitement, and dedication--measured in percentages by a camera that gauges their acceptability. The candidates that when their brains are placed in a Human 2.0 vessel, their bodies will die. Because of the secretive mission, they cannot say goodbye to their loved ones, who will be told that they died in an "accident"--a ruse which questions of how the human race defines ethics in the face of potential annihilation. Despite the vetting process, Jessica proves to be the most qualified explorer and crosses the threshold into The Void. Jessica happens to be a family friend of Laroux's, and Gillian has to lie to her own daughter about Jessica's "death", knowing the truth to be otherwise. The Beyond explores the balance between scientific breakthroughs and the challenges that come with them, and the thought process behind the decisions to choose between ethics and survival. Because the characters are aware they are being filmed, they maintain a composure that sometimes feels artificial, although their true emotions--from ambition to fear--is visible in the actors' subtext.
Recommended for: Fans of a speculative science fiction story that covers a swath of genre tropes, presented as a documentary chronicling a turning point for the human race. The Beyond raises questions about the sacrifices that come with braving the unknown, and how we redefine previously immutable concepts of reality and ourselves in the wake of scientific breakthroughs.
A recurring theme in The Beyond is how adversity forces society to reevaluate its priorities--as is the case with the Human 2.0 project, since transplanting the brain into a cybernetic vessel raises ethical quandaries. The project's synthetics engineer, Alice Lamont (Georgina Blackledge), explains the technical side of the procedure, citing that the goal is not to diminish the human component but to translate it as closely as possible into the full-body prosthesis. The surgeon responsible for the delicate procedure, Dr. Kuresh Patel (Ezra Kuresh), expresses his concerns about the rushed--even reckless--timetable for the candidates to acclimate to their new bodies before firing them off into The Void. The mission through the wormhole is presumed to be a one-way trip, so the clandestine operation invites only the most daring scientific adventurers, including an enthusiastic candidate named Carl Roberts (Tom Christian). Carl's interests in a new body are motivated in part by his paralysis from the waist down, confining him to a wheelchair. The screening process is complex and evaluates the candidates on levels including their fear, anxiety, excitement, and dedication--measured in percentages by a camera that gauges their acceptability. The candidates that when their brains are placed in a Human 2.0 vessel, their bodies will die. Because of the secretive mission, they cannot say goodbye to their loved ones, who will be told that they died in an "accident"--a ruse which questions of how the human race defines ethics in the face of potential annihilation. Despite the vetting process, Jessica proves to be the most qualified explorer and crosses the threshold into The Void. Jessica happens to be a family friend of Laroux's, and Gillian has to lie to her own daughter about Jessica's "death", knowing the truth to be otherwise. The Beyond explores the balance between scientific breakthroughs and the challenges that come with them, and the thought process behind the decisions to choose between ethics and survival. Because the characters are aware they are being filmed, they maintain a composure that sometimes feels artificial, although their true emotions--from ambition to fear--is visible in the actors' subtext.
Recommended for: Fans of a speculative science fiction story that covers a swath of genre tropes, presented as a documentary chronicling a turning point for the human race. The Beyond raises questions about the sacrifices that come with braving the unknown, and how we redefine previously immutable concepts of reality and ourselves in the wake of scientific breakthroughs.