1189 – Jumper (2008)

timespace coordinates: filmed in 20 cities / 14 countries from 2006 to 2007

Jumper is a 2008 American science fiction action film loosely based on the 1992 novel of the same name by Steven Gould. The film is directed by Doug Liman and stars Hayden Christensen, Jamie Bell, Rachel Bilson, Max Thieriot, AnnaSophia Robb, Diane Lane, Michael Rooker, and Samuel L. Jackson. The film follows a young man capable of teleporting as he is chased by a secret society intent on killing him.

In response to the film’s box office performance, director Doug Liman has spoken of his ideas for a sequel. Among them are that Jumpers can reach other planets and travel in time, as well as their capacity for espionage. (read more: potential sequel)

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A spin-off television series from the film, titled Impulse, was released on YouTube Premium on June 6, 2018. (wiki)

imdb   /   rottentomatoes

1182 – City of Lies (2018)

spacetime coordinates: 1997 – 2015 Los Angeles

City of Lies is a 2018 American crime film directed by Brad Furman and written by Christian Contreras. It is based on the book LAbyrinth: A Detective Investigates the Murders of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G., the Implication of Death Row Records’ Suge Knight, and the Origins of the Los Angeles Police Scandal by Randall Sullivan, about the murder investigations of Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. The film stars Johnny Depp as retired detective LAPD Russell Poole and Forest Whitaker as a journalist Jackson, with Rockmond Dunbar and Neil Brown Jr. also starring. (wiki)

release: reports surfaced that (…) the film may be being suppressed by the Los Angeles Police Department, who is implicated in the film, or other various players who do not want the film released.

imdb   /  Rampart_scandal   /   200

1172 – Knowing (2009)

timespace coordinates: Boston-area, 2009

Knowing (stylized as KNOW1NG) is a 2009 science fiction thriller film directed by Alex Proyas and starring Nicolas Cage. (wiki)

M.I.T. professor John Koestler links a mysterious list of numbers from a time capsule to past and future disasters and sets out to prevent the ultimate catastrophe. (imdb)

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(The video below may give away important plot points)

Ludwig van Beethoven’s 7th Symphony Major, 2nd Movement – Knowing HD

1167 – Equilibrium (2002)

timespace coordinates: 2072, Libria, a totalitarian city-state, was established by the survivors of World War III / the “Nether” – regions outside the city

Equilibrium is a 2002 American dystopian science fiction action film written and directed by Kurt Wimmer, and starring Christian Bale, Emily Watson, and Taye Diggs.

The film follows John Preston (Bale), an enforcement officer in a future in which both feelings and artistic expression are outlawed and citizens take daily injections of drugs to suppress their emotions. After accidentally missing a dose, Preston begins to experience emotions, which makes him question his own morality and moderate his actions while attempting to remain undetected by the suspicious society in which he lives. Ultimately, he aids a resistance movement using advanced martial arts (gun kata), which he was taught by the regime he is helping to overthrow. (wiki)

imdb

1135 – Us (2019)

timespace coordinates: 1986 – 2019 Santa Cruz, California

Us is a 2019 American psychological horror thriller film written and directed by Jordan Peele, starring  Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex, Elisabeth Moss, and Tim Heidecker. The film follows a family who are confronted by murderous doppelgangers known as “the Tethered”.

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themes and interpretations

Critic Jim Vejvoda related the Tethered to “urban legends” and “xenophobic paranoia about the Other”, (…) Journalist Noel Ransome viewed the film as being about “the effects of classism and marginalization”, writing “the Tethered are effigies of this same situational classism. They’re trapped—mentally and physically—and ignored”. Joel Meares of Rotten Tomatoes also noted that the Tethered, referencing the “we’re Americans” line, are representatives of the duality of American society, how some citizens can afford to live on top of the class system, while others are stuck in illiterate poverty. He also noted the title Us could mean “U.S.”, or United States.

The Tethered’s red jump suits and single glove were an allusion to Michael Jackson along with the “Thriller” shirt seen on young Adelaide, and Peele has stated that Jackson was “the patron saint of duality”. Peele referenced many other instances of 1980s culture, including allusions to The Lost Boys and Hands Across America, stating “Everything in this movie was deliberate, that is one thing I can guarantee you. Unless you didn’t like something and that was a complete accident”.

The film contains numerous references to Jeremiah 11:11, which reads: “Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them'” (NIV). Critic Rosie Fletcher commented on the context, with Jeremiah warning Jerusalem was facing destruction due to false idols, and expressed the opinion that the film’s characters also “worshiped the wrong things”…  (wiki)

imdb   /   rottentomatoes

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LUNIZ — I GOT 5 ON IT

1133 – Storm Boy (2019)

timespace coordinates: 1959 < 2017,  Coorong and Adelaide, South Australia

Storm Boy is an Australian drama family film based on the novella by Colin Thiele of the same name. The adaptation was directed by Shawn Seet and stars Geoffrey Rush and Jai Courtney. Thiele’s novel was previously adapted in 1976. (wiki)

imdb

1132 – Upstream Color (2013)

“I love to be alone. / The sun is but a morning star. / The wildest sound ever
heard makes the woods ring far / and wide. / Faint tinkling sounds borne to my ear. / Their roots reaching quite under the house. / Fearing that they
would be light-headed. / For want of food and also sleep. / Prevailing blue mixed with yellow of the sand. / Sunshine is the color of the water. / I used to wonder at the halo /
of light around my shadow / And fancied myself one of the elect.”

Upstream Color is a 2013 American experimental science fiction film written, directed, produced, edited, composed, designed, cast by and starring Shane Carruth. The film is the second feature directed by Carruth, best known for his 2004 debut Primer. Upstream Color stars Amy Seimetz, Carruth, Andrew Sensenig, and Thiago Martins.

Upstream Color is about two people whose behaviors are affected by a complex parasite—without knowing it—that has a three-stage life cycle in which it passes from humans to pigs to orchids. (wiki)

themes   /   Walden   /   imdb

original soundtrack