Thursday, July 19, 2018

Now Showing: 2060

2060
Genre: Sci-Fi
Director: Marc Forster
Writer: Jack Slipter
Cast: Emile Hirsch, Richard Madden, Teresa Palmer, Ana de Armas, Laura Vandervoort, Jamie Lee Curtis, Paul Giamatti, Ingrid Bolso Berdal

Plot: In 2018, Max (Emile Hirsch) and Albert (Richard Madden), volunteer themselves for the first human hibernation experiment, but instead of being awakened 3 years later as planned, they wake up in the year 2060, in a post-nuclear world.

When they wake up, they believe at first that they are in a clinic following their hibernation. They are being taken care of by women, which they enjoy at the beginning, especially Max, who becomes attracted to Lamia Reno (Teresa Palmer). However they gradually realize that everything going on around them is odd. After explicitly asking to meet professor Kuppelweiser (the hibernation project chief), they are informed by Lamia and Dr. Berna that there was a war long ago, that all males have long been extinct, and that it is actually March 8th, 2060 (ironically, Women's Day). Max and Albert think that these must be hallucinations as a side-effect of hibernation and try to leave the room, but are electrocuted by a closed door. The men are under constant surveillance after this. Lamia informs them their society reproduces without males through parthenogenesis. During a briefing, Max kisses Lamia, for which she knocks him down and threatens both men with euthanasia if there is another attempt. However, the kiss causes Lamia's drug-inhibited passions to resurface, making her both confused and fascinated.

After several days, Max and Albert are permitted to go out to meet with Her Excellency, the supreme ruler of women. Waiting for her in the bio-sanctuary, they spot a tree with two tiny apples and eat them, being disgusted by synthetic food. At the meeting they ask what womankind did to mankind. The women reply it is not their fault, but Kuppelweiser's, who during the war invented an agent - the so-called M bomb - which was supposed to temporarily paralyze male genes, but due to an oversight wiped out male genes permanently. Max offers a proposal: he and Albert will serve as reproducers to restore the male population. But the women do not wish the old order to come back; Her Excellency points at the "sacred apple tree" and says it was planted by Arch Mother, and from which, when once in paradise, a male took an apple and seduced a woman by it, for which act all lost paradise forever. After noticing the missing sacred apples, Her Excellency becomes desperate and enraged and demands the men be taken back to their previous confinement and not be released anywhere.

Once again confined, the men grow distressed and plan to escape by damaging the electric power grid. They succeed but are caught and locked up again. The women provide them with their last chance: to submit themselves for "naturalization" - undergoing a sex reassignment surgery. When they refuse, a ceiling above the room opens, showing a huge assembly of women, which has to determine their fate. Albert and Max now face a humiliating trial while the women blame males for oppression, virtually all evil and vices, and praise their new society. They even distort history by claiming that the greatest scientists - such as Copernicus, Einstein or Pincus (one of the pioneers of parthenogenesis) - were, in fact, women. When Max and Albert are taken away, the assembly is to choose between forced 'naturalization' and 'liquidation' of men. The first option is passed by a margin of only one vote. In the meantime, the men escape again. Wandering through what Albert calls "a nightmarish skyscraper", they encounter other women, who have known no man, and therefore see Max and Albert as their "sisters", provoking humorous encounters. The men also discover the nest of "decadency" - one of the anarchist, "hippie" women's groups, who do not wish to be part of the oppressive regime, play loud music, and some engage in lesbianism. Max and Albert are caught as supposed government spies by them.The queen of this group is Diana (Ingrid Bolso Berdal). In the meantime, the pursuing regime forces attack, and subsequent chaos provides the men with an opportunity to escape. After escaping, the men stumble upon Lamia, who provides them with a way to see the outside - a periscope - and reveals that they live deep underground in expanded old mines. The periscope shows a dark, rocky landscape above ground, and sensors indicate high levels of "Kuppelweiser radiation", a side effect of M bomb. However it turns out that Lamia's plan was a plot to catch the men and force them into surgery. Lamia is congratulated by Tekla (Laura Vandervoort) and Emma Dax (Ana de Armas) for her ingenious plan, but they also inform her that their section will now be in charge of the males, which devastates Lamia.

In the hands of Tekla, the fate of the males is to be different. Their organs will be extracted for transplantation, and the remains will be tested for possible use of dead bodies for consumption due to a growing protein shortage. The chief surgeon, Dr Yanda (Jamie Lee Curtis), an old lady, is revealed to be Max's daughter, who now delights in taking revenge for his abandonment of his wife and child in favor of hibernation for his own profit. Lamia sabotages the surgery and helps the men escape as revenge for Tekla and Dax taking the men and her research. In the periscope room she threatens the guards by telling them that she will blast the whole block if they do not give her the code activating a capsule reaching the surface, while Max and Albert find and change into protective suits. The guards claim that only Her Excellency knows the password required; enraged, Max shouts "kurwa mać!" (a common strong Polish swear), and to the surprise of all present, the capsule is activated. Lamia changes into another protective suit and joins the men. While they explore the surface, Max suddenly bumps against an invisible barrier and is unable to go further. He takes a knife and cuts the fabric of the barrier, and a dazzling light appears. They all go through the hole and see a beach, with the periscope area being surrounded by a small circular structure. They then travel to a forest, but the suits are running out of oxygen. Suddenly Max shouts with joy and throws away his suit, seeing a flying stork and declares "if it can live, it means we can live too". After removing the suits, they find a cosy villa full of fresh food. While eating in the garden, they are found by Emma, who has been following them and, armed with a harpoon, demands their surrender, but she faints due to lack of oxygen. When she regains consciousness, Emma begins to fight with Albert; during their tussle, they accidentally turn on a TV and see an official government version of the events, including an interview with "naturalised" Max and Albert, who claim to be feeling very good and thankful. Emma is shocked, unable to understand such lies and all the strange environment "with too much air". Max goes with Lamia to a bedroom and tries to explain her what mating is, while Albert attempts to soften and comfort cold and now confused Emma.

Later, while resting in the living room, Max and Albert suddenly hear the familiar, distressing sound of an arriving underground lift and hide. It is Her Excellency who leaves the lift (covered in a locker) to feed her caged birds. When she opens a wardrobe, she is attacked by Max, who has hidden in it. During the ensuing fight, her breasts and hair are stripped, revealing that she is a male in disguise (Paul Giamatti), to 'her' panic and Max's disgust and rage. Max also removes an electronic necklace, which was converting Her Excellency's voice into an entirely feminine one. Her Excellency tells the men his life story - just after the war, when the League of Women took power, he was 4 years old; the few boys remaining were naturalised into girls, but he was hidden by his mother. Growing up in a female disguise, he joined the League and finally was appointed as Her Excellency. He was too afraid of the women to form a relationship with any and return things to normal. The radiation level was being exaggerated by official propaganda to keep the women underground where it was easier to rule them. Also, a special pill was designed to convert sexual desire into the desire for a career. The three make a deal: Max and Albert will not compromise Her Excellency's true identity, but they can stay in his home with Lamia and Emma. Later, Max and Albert, disguised as laboratory workers, put male gametes into the incubation center. Flashing forward to several months later, a nurse, routinely wrapping newborns in blankets, accidentally spots something which, to her utter horror,is a boy.


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