journal features

movie review - Upgrade

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Toronto, 2019.08.23

This is a near-future science fiction piece in which a car mechanic who loses his wife and the use of his limbs in an assault after his automated car crashes. He's convinced by an Elon Musk type to use experimental cybernetic implants to regain full use of his body. The mechanic agrees and it works. But only when the system is running - and crucially, under the mechanic's control. Because it's experimental, the Musk analog says that our hero must not reveal his situation to the world, so he remains wheelchair-bound.

Of course, the cybernetic system is self-aware and contacts the mechanic with an offer to obtain justice for the murder of his wife. And it's at this point that the movie starts to explore new ground as we have at least three players who partially control our protagonist's body: the mechanic, the Musk chap, and the system. The pursuit of "justice" starts getting bloody and also starts to raise a whole bunch of questions, as it turns out that the assailants were similarly "upgraded".

It took me a couple of tries to get into this thing but it was worth the attempt.

Recommended.

rand()m quote

One day you will take a fork in the road, and you're going to have to make a decision about which direction you want to go. If you go one way, you can be somebody. You will have to make compromises and you will have to turn your back on your friends. But you will be a member of the club and you will get promoted and get good assignments. Or you can go the other way and you can do something [...] for yourself. If you decide to do something, you may not get promoted and get good assignments and you certainly will not be a favorite of your superiors. But you won't have to compromise yourself. To be somebody or to do something. In life there is often a roll call. That's when you have to make a decision. To be or to do.

—John Boyd, US Air Force