Movie Review: Surrogates

Last Thursday night, my wife and I decided to head to the cinema; with only a few movies currently interesting us, we selected the new Bruce Willis movie, Surrogates (PS: don't read any further if you want to avoid spoilers, or go to the Wiki link if you haven't seen the movie). We had seen the preview a few weeks ago and had decided that it might be worth watching.

The story revolves around worldwide use of a virtual "avatar" technology called Surrogates. In essence, technology was developed to help people who were paralysed or disabled by allowing them to experience walking and other physical skills virtually, through the use of a wireless neural interface and robotic surrogates. The technology caught on with the public, and due to the increasing use of surrogates in everyday life, reductions in crime rates have made their use practically "normal". The nature of the crime reduction is attributed to the freedom that surrogates have provided to the population; with the possibility to experience all that life has to offer without physical danger, there is no reason for crime.

The surrogates themselves are anatomically correct, idealized versions of their owners, although we quickly discover that this is not always the case. It actually becomes a major element in the story, as the use of surrogates can be likened to the puppeteer and the puppet; it is not always possible to know who is behind the puppet.

But there is a worldwide movement of humans who refuse to use this technology, and even refuse to interact with other humans who make use of this technology. In the movie, this is quickly touched on in news broadcasts indicating that "Dreads" have established outposts in all major US cities, and have banned the use of surrogates within their territories. This becomes a major plot point of the story.

As the story begins, we meet Agent Tom Greer (the character played by Bruce Willis), who is an FBI agent investigating the first murder in years. Like everyone else, Greer goes through everyday life through his surrogate, much like his coworkers and other people he meets. This murder seems especially suspect, as the victim, Jarod, is the college student son of the man who invented the surrogates and related technology, and who uses multiple surrogates himself (which we learn is illegal but not unheard of). The case grows more complicated, however, when several humans are murdered when their surrogates are "murdered", something which is not supposed to happen due to specific technological safeguards built into each surrogate. The technology is so reliable that it has been adopted by the military for combat use.

In effect, a discover that some humans simply refuse the surrogate technology, and even go so far as to refuse to deal with anyone if they are using surrogates. The plot quickly develops and we discover that a weapon has been created and used, which can effectively kill a user through their surrogate, a development which the authorities want to be kept quiet, as it would undermine the entire reason for the use of surrogates if users could be killed.

There are some fantastic visual effects in this movie, but unfortunately, the plot seemed a little lacking. By the middle of the movie, it is pretty easy to determine that some event will happen which will force the end to the use of surrogates. I just thought that it seemed a little silly to have such a sophisticated system, in use worldwide, to be so easy to disrupt. Even today's simple telecommunication technology is capable of this type of protection.

Nonetheless, the movie was visually entertaining, although we were both left with the feeling that perhaps we should have waited for this one to come out on video...