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Did THX-1138 Already Happen? No, not that THX.

“Everything will be all right.” That’s what the machine tells THX.

I wrote about this movie already. Back when I first saw it, the idea of being controlled like that seemed crazy. Now, I’m not so sure, but instead of a voice, it’s a feeling, shallow as it is.

Which movie?

There are actually not that many people around me who have seen this movie, as it’s a sort of B-Movie/low-budget Sci-Fi/Film School/Art Film… but it is George Lucas backed by Francis Ford Coppola. The movie that got Lucas noticed, wasn’t it?

Featuring Robert Duvall, Donald Pleasance, and Maggie McOmie, this 1971 film school art project inspired the best episode (yet?) of Andor about escaping the depths of oppressive doom. That show struck a string.

Contemporary

LUH: “Are you not happy with me?” asks the female character to THX.

That line sticks.

Keep people happy, numb, exhausted, or busy (or at least distracted!), and they won’t fight back. It seems like that’s how it works now. Not with drugs (well, that’s another topic), but with apps. Bright, fun, addictive.

All designed to keep us scrolling, buying, and clicking… …feeding profits to investors and 401k-retirement policy holders, who don’t directly care about us at all because they’re at the other end of the war.

Reporting eachother as non conformists to arbitrary rules and laws to keep us all controlled, a big brother scenario with chrome faced sentries? What do they represent?

Stepping back

Back then, I thought, “Why would anyone let this happen?”

Today I think we subconsciously choose it. We let our phones track us, let computers freely learn our habits, let ads shape what we want through funnels of ‘content’ ad nauseum/infinitum.

Feels normal. Feels easy. Even younger generations are expecting lack of privacy by default.

The future in THX 1138 was cold, empty, and emotionless. Our present is loud, frantic, and endless.

But the result? Perhaps it’s the same.

As we make changes and alter our habits and patterns to make the life we’d rather have, perhaps it’s helpful to explore the warning shots from the past, and THX-1138 is loaded with warnings.

“Never before have we been so contented. Never.”

“Take your sedation.”

This could be the same universe as Logan’s Run, 1984, Blade Runner, Gattaca, Matrix, Brave New World, Snow Crash, The Island, the rebellion in Star Wars, the alternate existence in Severance, the recovering society in Silo/Wool/Dust, and so many more.