It is the year 2027 and in this bleak, apocalyptic future, like most Hollywood futures are (like Terminator 2 or Judge Dread, for two), the world has been destroyed except for the United Kingdom. "The world has collapsed; only Britain soldiers on," says one news report. (But why do the Brits get to survive??) Anyway, all the other countries have been blown away, wracked with civil war or worse, which one news broadcast attributes to Islamic militants.
Most people try to get into the UK, the last safe haven. Even then, they don’t succeed. The government, acting like nazis, has ordered the rounding up of illegal immigrants, forcing them to live like animals in crowded cages not unlike concentration camps. However, the government is only deporting them, not killing them.
Armed guards patrol the streets of London, as terrorists are everywhere. There is one terrorist group, however, who has a legitimate reason for bombing buildings. They have something the world has wanted since 2009. A pregnant woman.
Women, since 2009, have not been able to conceive children, and nobody knows why. The world is dying.
This terrorist group in question, lead by Julian Taylor (Julianne Moore), has the girl, and recruits the help of Theo Faron (Clive Owen), to get transit papers for the young pregnant girl, Kee (Claire-Hope Ashitey), to get her to “The Human Project,” and island in the Azores where people are trying to procreate and save the planet.
But as Theo gets more and more involved, he realises that the responsibility of protecting the girl has fallen to him. not everyone wants the girl to save the world.
The auction is plenty, and the violence intense and all too real, but we only ever move forward in the story. We never learn why people can’t have children, we no nothing of the Human Project, and why the world is the way it is is only briefly attributed to violence from the Middle East.
Even the back-story to Theo and Julian is never explained, but then even the ice-cold relationship goes with the ice-cold chemistry between the two actors.
The film’s showpiece scene is near the end of the film where we follow Theo through a concentration city. The cinematography is almost exactly like the beginning of Saving Private Ryan, the camera right behind our hero, even being splashed with blood at times. The camera follows close behind as our hero dodges this and that, climbs and runs, jumps, etc, playing out like a war documentary shot on the front lines, jumping from foxhole to foxhole.
This adds to the thrilling pace of the film, which, from start to finish, is one gigantic roller coaster. One minute you’ll fall into a quiet lull, which will be broken moments later like a ton of bricks whacking you in the face.
The film paints a dark picture of the future, based on what’s going on in the world right now, but always tells us that there is hope. Indeed there is hope, never more amazing than the fact that it will all come a single, tiny baby. The film is thought provoking, to be sure, and a great popcorn flick. Worth your $10.
Is the movie worth your time to watch?
8/10 05-02-07
