Surrogates 2009 (Reaction Paper)

*SUMMARY*

The movie opens with an intro explaining the back-story in detail. In 2017, humans live in near-total
isolation, rarely leaving the safety and comfort of their homes, thanks to remotely-controlled robotic
bodies that serve as "surrogates," designed as better-looking versions of their human operators.
Because people are safe all the time, and damage done to a surrogate is not felt by its owner, it is a
peaceful world free from fear, pain, and crime.

We next come upon a young teenage man taking to someone over the phone. After a weird nightclub
scene, we then see the teenager making out with a girl he had met in there. They're about to get it on
when they're interrupted by a mysterious man wearing a motorcycle helmet, who proceeds to shoot
the two surrogate-controlled civilians, then cause a massive car accident while making his escape on
his motorcycle.

Agent Tom Greer (Bruce Willis) is an FBI agent who, through the use of his own surrogate,
investigates the first murder in years. Turns out the teenager was none other than Jarod Canter, the
college student son of Doctor Lionel Canter (James Cromwell), the man who invented the surrogates,
and who uses multiple surrogates himself. Geer and his partner Peters (Radha Mitchell) visit the
home of the female surrogate's owner, only to find that she was actually a man, and that he is dead in
his own operator chair.

After the bizarre and horrifying turn of events, it's revealed that Greer had a son who had died in a
car accident, causing a strain in he and his wife Maggie (Rosamund Pike)'s relationship. Since then,
Maggie despondently restricts most of her daily activities using her surrogate.

The case grows more complicated, however, when several humans are murdered when their
surrogates are destroyed, something which is not supposed to happen, as the human operator is
normally safe from the damage done to his/her surrogate. Greer begins investigating the murder and
is lead to the Dreads, a group of humans led by a mysterious man known only as The Prophet (Ving
Rhames) who are against the use of surrogates. With the help of the system administrator, who does
not use a surrogate, Greer and Peters determine the identity of the murderer is a Dread named Miles.
Miles used a unique weapon to kill Jarod as well as five cops tracking him with the weapon. Greer
barely escapes death by the weapon. He survives by disconnecting himself from his surrogate as the
weapon is fired, and then resumes his connection to the surrogate afterwards. Although his surrogate
is physically damaged, it is able to pursue Miles before his surrogate is destroyed by the Dreads.
Greer is badly hurt by the weapon despite disconnecting. Maggie finds him in his apartment. Greer is
then taken to the hospital and survives, although his boss suspends him, Stone, and is not allowed to
use a surrogate while his actions are investigated.

At the Dread Reservation, Miles is approached by The Prophet who demands information about the
weapon. Miles is apparently killed by The Prophet or his lackeys. When Greer goes into the
Reservation, he stumbles upon Miles' funeral and then approaches The Prophet, asking about the
weapon Miles used. As Greer leaves the Reservation, it is revealed that The Prophet has the weapon.
Greer meets with Dr. Canter, again using one of his surrogates, who suggests the weapon was
manufactured by the military. Greer meets with a member of the military and learns that the weapon
sends a computer virus into the surrogates that shuts them down, but it also disables the failsafe
mechanisms and kills the operator.

A mysterious surrogate goes to the home of Greer's partner Peters and kills her, then transfers control
of her surrogate to an unknown party who uses it to go through the financial records of the FBI. The
Peters surrogate learns that Stone is apparently behind the death of Jarod, having been assigned by
the company that creates the surrogates to kill Dr. Canter, which he in turn assigned to Miles. Jarod
was using one of his father's surrogates and as such was mistaken for him. At the Dread compound,
The Prophet orders delivery of the weapon to Peters just before the military attacks. The Prophet and
his men are killed, but The Prophet is revealed to be a surrogate of Doctor Canter. The Peters
surrogate tricks Greer into getting information about the weapon from Stone's computer. The Peters
surrogate then flees from Greer, taking the information and the weapon. Greer chases her, but she
escapes and goes to FBI headquarters where she hooks the weapon up the surrogate network to kill
all the surrogate operators.

Greer calls the system administrator who reveals that Peters has taken him hostage. Greer heads to
Canter's home and forces his way into Dr. Canter's home to find him. At the FBI building, the Peters
surrogate forces Stone to come talk to her. Dr. Canter reveals that he is now controlling the Peters
surrogate. Stone confirms he did try to have Canter assassinated, and Canter kills Stone with the
weapon and returns to uploading the weapon's virus to all the surrogates. Greer makes his way
through Canter's mansion and finds Canter's many surrogates, which includes the one that killed the
real Peters. Greer then finds Canter (who disconnects from the Peters surrogate) who then reveals he
wants to destroy the surrogates so that real humans can return to their prior lifestyle. Canter has
already started the process through the Peters surrogate, and then he kills himself. Greer takes control
of the Peters surrogate. With the assistance of the system administrator, Greer insulates the surrogate
operators so they will survive even if the surrogates go down. He is then given the choice of whether
or not to save the surrogates. FBI troops storm the room as Greer decides not to cancel the
transmission before the Peters surrogate is killed. The virus from the weapon uploads and destroys
every surrogate worldwide, leaving his or her operators alive, but having to go back to using their
real bodies again.

Greer goes home and connects with his pale and unattractive wife in her real body. In the final shots,
media broadcasts reveal the surrogates are down worldwide and no one knows if they will ever be
able to be recreated again.[imdb.com]
*REACTION TOWARDS THE MOVIE*

As opposed to most of the robot movies made, Surrogates (2009) doesn’t really tackle
robot issues in an in-depth manner rather it was used more as an excuse to make a gritty action
film that while decent at first, it started to get dull as the show progresses. The mysteries in the
show were so terribly implemented that you won’t see the twists coming, of which you might
think is a good thing, but the way they were executed will make you feel like it’s not given an
inkling of cleverness and the writer seemed like he just pulled it off out of nowhere. The story
leading to these mysteries just doesn’t give any profound satisfaction to the viewer as there’s
almost no clues or foreshadowing that justify such events to happen. It was a really shallow
movie, in my opinion.

The theme of the film is also something that I never really find thought provoking at all.
“Robots make society go bad” or something like that are so overused already by other robot
films and while it’s not necessarily a bad thing since it’s very hard to be unoriginal nowadays
(given that we have so many entries in literature already), the way the movie presents the theme
is at best, and again, very shallow. The introduction built the world of the story in the mind of the
viewers decently but the way it was mixed with the plot progression didn’t go well as the film
tried to be serious at it at first but then, decided to just show off Bruce Willis badass-ness and
from there, it just went downhill with the ridiculous turn of events. Robots make humanity’s
capability regress and society stale is what the theme is all about and that’s pretty much it.
There’s nothing to ponder about it.

The drama was also not handled well. Some characters (especially Bruce Willis’ wife)
just failed to connect with me and are very hard to show empathy as they serve to only further
the plot rather than them being those that should shape the story. Others just appear by a few
minutes and then, they get killed off immediately. It really feels like the director was just trying
to showcase Bruce Willis’ character while disregarding almost all of the casts. The development
of the protagonist’s character over the course of the story was just fine and nothing too special. It
did well with how the protagonist conveyed his actions which actually made sense surprisingly
and that’s it.

To conclude, I didn’t really care much at all about the movie. It’s so incredibly dull with
nothing new to offer. Perhaps because it was made in 2009 and because I’ve been exposed to
other much better films since then, it made me feel an incredible lack of investment towards the
story itself. What I want to say is that the film didn’t age well. It might be decent or even great
for the audience back in its time but the overwhelming amount of great stories over the past 9
years make it seem like terribly directed movie in comparison.