Cloud Atlas 2012
"Cloud Atlas" is an unwieldy, multi-layered tale intermingling six different stories in various time eras and locations into one connected theme, mostly through reincarnation, the impact of individual actions, and eternal yearning for freedom. It contemplates how lives, choices, and actions reverberate across the centuries to influence others in ways both profound and subtle.
1. The Pacific Ocean, 1849: The Journal of Adam Ewing
The story opens in the year 1849 with one of the protagonists, Adam Ewing, a young American lawyer traveling from the South Pacific en route for San Francisco, having been sent by his father-in-law to secure a business deal involving a slave plantation. Aboard ship, Adam falls ill with a mysterious sickness and into the care of Dr. Henry Goose, who claims to treat him but is actually poisoning him in an attempt to kill him and steal his gold. During his voyage, Adam discovers a stowaway, a runaway slave named Autua, who begs Adam to advocate on his behalf for his freedom. They make a connection, and Adam returns home transformed by what he has been through, and the atrocities of slavery, now committed to taking up the abolitionist torch. Needless to say, his father-in-law is thoroughly opposed to it, which just builds up the tension.
2. Cambridge, England, 1936: Letters from Zedelghem
In the year 1936, Robert Frobisher flees to Cambridge, England, because of some kind of scandal raised by his young, brilliant, but dissolute compositional genius. He finds work as an amanuensis for the famous, but aging, composer Vyvyan Ayrs. Frobisher is heavily indebted and desperate for his own mark; he finds the Ewing journal and is inspired by it. He starts writing his masterpiece, "The Cloud Atlas Sextet," and writes to his lover, Rufus Sixsmith, in a series of letters. But Ayrs attempts to steal Frobisher's composition; confrontation ensues. Unable to extricate himself from his troubles and finding no other solution to his predicament, Frobisher tragically kills himself but not before finishing his sextet, leaving behind a legacy through his letters and the music.
3. San Francisco, 1973: Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery
In 1973, Luisa Rey, a journalist in San Francisco, investigates a cover-up at a nuclear power plant after a chance encounter with an aging Rufus Sixsmith, who provides her with crucial evidence. As Luisa digs deeper into the mystery, her life becomes endangered because the conspiracy is headed by a powerful energy corporation that will stop at nothing, even murder. Through many near-death experiences, Luisa doesn't give up until she uncovers the corruption and saves countless lives. Throughout her journey, she finds encouragement in Frobisher's letters, which Sixsmith had kept all these years, and connection with those before her.
4. London, 2012: The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish
Timothy Cavendish is an aging, unscrupulous vanity publisher who, in 2012, finds himself in a comical yet dire predicament. In revenge upon his publishing the memoirs of a gangster, violent threats ensue at the hands of that gangster's associates. Fleeing for his life, he seeks refuge in what he mistakenly believes is a hotel but turns out to be a nursing home where he will be held against his will. This leads to a rather funny and poignant turn of events as Cavendish, along with the other residents, orchestrates a daring escape. Through this all, Cavendish narrates several stories of the past and draws an analogy with his life to believe that one such person could well find redemption.
5. Neo Seoul, 2144: An Orison of Sonmi-451
In 2144, Neo Seoul is a hyper-technological dystopia. Human beings are divided into two classes: "purebloods" and genetically enhanced clones called "fabricants," designed to serve them. Sonmi-451 is one of these fabricants, and she has been engineered to work in a fast-food restaurant. She gains consciousness about the oppressive system in which she lives after her rescue by Hae-Joo Chang, an individual who fought against the totalitarian regime. The twists and turns in Sonmi's life make her ponder over the meaning of her life and eventually turn her into the figurehead of revolution. Her story, recorded prior to her execution, becomes the beacon of hope to inspire future generations in their eternal struggle for freedom and justice.
6. The Big Island, 2321: Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After
This final story takes place on the Big Island, formerly called Hawaii, during a time when the year 2321 has become the standard. After a cataclysmic event, the world had continued to revert to a more primitive state. Zachry is plagued by visions of a demon figure known as "Old Georgie." A member of a pacifist tribe, the Valleysmen, his life is disrupted when Meronym, a technologically savvy woman from what remains of civilization, the Prescients, arrives seeking a communication station located atop a sacred mountain. Smitten with fears and distrust, Zachry decides to assist Meronym nonetheless. The two soon forge a deep bond, and together they face numerous dangers, including an extremely brutal attack by another tribe. Along the way, Zachry learns about the connectedness of all life and the hope that persists. The film actually concludes with Zachry as an aged man relating his grandchildren to this story, and, as a matter of fact, he and Meronym eventually escaped Earth to pursue their new life among the stars.
Epilogue: The Threads that Connect As the film concludes, it becomes evident that all the various stories, separated as they may be in space and time, are connected. Characters out of different ages can thus share the same soul, marked by a comet-shaped birthmark, and their actions ripple through time, influencing each other directly and subtly. The movie finishes with the message that even as individual lives are transient, the reverberations of what we decide continue to resound down the ages, influencing the world in ways we can never truly comprehend.
"Cloud Atlas" is an epic that pushes the viewer into considering the nature of identity, the outcomes of our actions, and the interrelatedness of all things across time and space.
Cloud Atlas 2012 Trailer
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