Critique on Surrogates
Robert Piccioli
English 225
Brian Davis
September 12, 2011

Critique on Surrogates The film Surrogates (2009), directed by Jonathon Mostow, was an excellent film with a powerful message for society. The message was delivered well through each aspect of the film and its elements. The film's main concept centers around the mysterious murder of a college student linked to the man who helped create a high-tech surrogate phenomenon that allows people to purchase remote controlled humanoid robots through which they interact with society. These fit, good-looking, remotely controlled robots ultimately assume their life roles, enabling people to experience life vicariously from the comfort and safety of their own homes. Online, you can hide behind an avatar and a lie of a profile and have complete anonymity. Expand that to real life, with a realistic looking robotic body, made in your own image, or not, and you have the world of "Surrogates." Most crime being a thing of the past, no more spreading diseases, racism and sexism gone and few, if any , consequences for your actions, (destroying a surrogate seems to be considered vandalism) all seem to take our own self centered, hedonistic, world of instant gratification to a whole new level. Throw in those who don't choose to keep them selves 'safe' by using robotic bodies living on reservations, seemingly shunning technology and being the subject of new racism, and you might think that you have a great vehicle for a truly meaningful and poignant tale about where our ever increasingly virtual world is going. Sadly, "Surrogates" just doesn't go there. Perhaps the graphic novel origins of this story needed a bit more fleshing out (no pun intended, well, maybe a little) before it was ready for the big screen. That's not to say that "Surrogates" wasn't a good movie, just not that good of a movie and a disappointment considering the subject matter.

The narrative structure of Surrogates is a five act structure which includes exposition, development, crisis, climax, and resolution. The plot of film goes in chronological order. The majority of the film takes place in the city of Boston. The story takes place in the year 2017, and during this time, the majority of people lived there lives through surrogacy. Surrogates are remotely controlled robots that are operated from the comfort of the operator’s home. These robots are usually made in their operator’s image, but they are perfect versions of them. People live their lives through these robots and there is a failsafe that allows the operators to be unharmed incase of any damage to their surrogates. Two surrogates were destroyed in a shooting outside of a night club, when they were shot with a weapon that uploads a virus to the surrogate, which corrupts the failsafe, and kills the operators. One of the victims turns out to be the son of the creator of surrogacy, Doctor Lionel Canter. It turns out that Jarod (Canter’s son) was using one of his father’s surrogates and that the crime was failed assassination attempt on Doctor Canter. Agent Tom Greer (Bruce Willis) is assigned to the case, which happens to be the first murder in years. The company that makes the robots, VSI, are the ones that are actually behind the assassination attempt because they know that Doctor Canter has changed his mind and is now against the use of surrogates. There are reservations of people that are against the use of surrogates, located in major cities throughout the United States. They are lead by man known as The Prophet (Ving Rhames). We find out that The Prophet is actually a surrogate used by Doctor Canter. Doctor Canter gets control of Agent Peters’ (Greer’s partner) surrogate by killing her and then gains access to the system’s mainframe. His intention is to upload a virus to the system that permanently destroy all surrogates and kill all their operators. Agent Greer breaks into Canter’s

mansion where Doctor Canter is operating the surrogate and manages to stop the upload and destroys all surrogates but without any harm to their users, which results in everyone having to use their real bodies again. The story has examples of external and internal conflict. Tom Greer had a son who died in a car accident, which caused a strain his relationship with his wife Maggie (Rosamund Pike). Since then Maggie does everything through her surrogate and Tom never gets to see his real wife, and she only comes out through the use of her surrogate self. In this movie society is completely different than how we know it today, people have become reclusive living there lives through there surrogates which are nothing more than high tech robots. Husbands and wife’s have no contact with one another only through there surrogates. In today’s society people play video games like The Sims in which they can be whoever they want and many of these people carry on relationships with other players in many cases this consumes their lives. It is the same principle for the surrogates they can be whoever they want and live they life’s that they always wanted. I could not imagine a life without having human contact and hiding behind someone else to me that is no kind of way to live. I believe that there is symbolism in this film and it is conveyed as a message to the audience. The surrogates are symbols of technology. Even though technology has its perks, we shouldn’t rely on it for everything. Technology makes things fast and convenient but it has a cost. In the movie most of the operators were all out of shape and sluggish. Technology allowed the surrogates to represent perfect versions of their operators, but this resulted in the operators neglecting their real bodies. People lacked hygiene and exercise. Technology is all around us.

It’s in our homes and workplaces. We even have it on our person at all time, for example smart phones. Nowadays we have so many forms of communication like texting, emailing, social networking, etc. and it less common to have face to face conversation. If you look at when we were children and had none of this technology to the children of today that have a ton of technological advances, they are so dependent on these items that they would not know what to do without them. People these days are going out less and socializing from behind their phones and computers. Children these days do not use their imaginations and play outside they would rather watch TV or play video games it is really quite sad. Surrogates (2009) had a lot of good actors. The star of the movie plays FBI agent Tom Greer. Bruce Willis is well known for roles in law enforcement. I would categorize him as a star/personality actor. He is star on and off screen. He is mentioned quiet frequently in the media. He is also known for playing these types of roles, and he always brings his personality to the table. Radha Mitchell plays the character of agent Peters. I would categorize her as a wild card actress. She has been casted in a variety of different types of roles and I think she pulled them off well. Ving Rhames plays the role of The Prophet. I would categorize Ving Rhames as a character actor. It is rare to see a good movie with him in a leading role. Most of his best movies, that he is well known for, are of him playing supporting roles. He is typically seen as a gangster, ex-convict, or a member of a law enforcement agency. One my favorite scenes is when Agents Greer and Peters investigate the murder of the other victim of the shooting outside of the night club. The actual surrogate that was shot with the weapon was a young blonde woman. The audience learns during this scene that the operator is a fat Caucasian male. In the beginning of this scene the camera has a long shot of Agent Greer walking into the victim’s home. Most of the furniture is visible and it is apparent that the victim lived well. He had beautiful furniture and the place was really nice and roomy. Agents Greer and Peters continue upstairs where they pass through a dressing room filled with women’s clothing and wigs. The dressing room was very well lit and there were plenty of dresses and accessories with vibrant and flamboyant colors. Then there is a scream and Agent Greer runs into the bedroom where we find the dead body of the operator laying in the remote access controller. The room is dark and lit with a red light. The lighting gives an unsettling mood especially because the characters have just discovered the dead body of the victim. Director Jonathon Mostow’s movie Surrogates (2009) was a great movie packed with action, suspense, irony, and special effects. The movie had a phenomenal cast and a message that society can learn from. It has a real message for today’s technology dependant society. Every element of the film worked harmoniously to create the over-all essence of this film. From the story to the acting; the cinematography editing, sound, style and directing; to the societal impact the message delivers to the movie’s audience; it all meshed well and I recommend this film for anyone who enjoys a solid action flick, and/or fans of the science fiction genre. The actors were all very good and up to the task of portraying themselves in robotic fashion . I thought Bruce Willis did a good job in the lead role(s) as FBI Agent Tom Geer (he also played his "surrogate" as a very low key robot). This movie could one day come to fruition with how high tech everything in today’s society has become. I think in this movie it showed how lonely and withdrawn society has become and that it was easier to live their lives through the eyes of a robot rather than deal with the tough day to day problems their selves. I thought this movie was well written and directed the concept of this movie is not that farfetched and could one day become a way of life for our society. I really enjoyed this movie and recommend it to all to see.

References
Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2011). Film: From Watching to Seeing. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. https://content.ashford.edu