Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

I knew I couldn't resist writing about Dark City. It captured my imagination and ran away with it! It is an unforgettable film that left a haunting imprint somewhere in the back of my mind.

Where Is Mankind?

When I first caught this film on cable TV, I had missed the introduction and thus the mystery and surprise of it all was even better. I think it might have been better if its creators eliminated the opening explanation.

Right before the drama plays out we are told of an alien race, dying, and examining mankind to understand the human soul in hope of finding a way to survive. A portion of mankind floats in a city through space - unaware that their daily existence and memories are altered constantly for the sake of pure experiment.

As I missed this prologue of sorts, I was treated to the mystery of the pale-skinned strangers in black, to slowly discovering for myself the alien presence, explained well enough again through the strange human doctor (played by Keifer Sutherland) who both aids their work and longs to overthrow human enslavement. My ignorance made it possibly a better mystery.

A New Classic (You are alone)

One Mystery Channel introduction referred to Dark City as a new classic. It was a forerunner for the kind of film that presupposes entrapment in a larger world and man's endeavors to get beyond. In Dark City, the pretend human environment is backed by aliens, and one man who happens to have developed their psychic prowess is the only hope to go beyond and discover the truth - and to fight it.

It is a new classic because it is forerunner to The Matrix and The Truman Show. In the latter, Truman finds his world is really a television set and seeks to get outside it. In The Matrix, Neo - 'the one' - learns his world is a computer virtual reality, and seeks to get outside it and conquer it. Underlying them are themes that are not only similar to Dark City, but clearly draw from this earlier source. The Matrix even borrows the trench coat look modeled by Dark City's aliens.

The theme is perhaps significant in this present age where New Age thrives - another attempt to reach a new spiritual realm beyond the mechanistic world stamped down from the Industrial period, yet denying heaven or hell, existential in choice. There is a sense in these films of forging one's own reality - especially in both Dark City and the The Matrix. Traditional ideas of an absolute universe - with its moral and spiritual world absolutes have been neglected in favor of finding one's own truth.

Or maybe these themes speaks to the conspiracy theorists (X-file's 'lone gunmen') who live with a sense of the untrustworthy government/biased media, controlling the minds of the masses, while only the select few can, by intelligence and giftedness, overcome and fight back the darkness. The sense of isolation is wearying. There is no great amount of people rising up and patriotically fighting back - it is the lone hero or small group who can see what nobody else can. It's outlooks is as hopeless as it is hopeful.

Basic Plot

Night reigns in the small city while electric light casts it provocative shadows through windows, through door frames. It's film Noir 'look' is readily apparent, and it's protagonist and hero, John Murdoch, plays the role as if he is distant from everything around him, heightening the sense of loneliness. Waking up, and not knowing anything of his past, he sets out on an adventure to discover who he is. It would seem to reflect modern society that has chosen to forget its traditions and rediscover itself.

This adventure brings John in contact with various characters. There is the doctor who recognizes his unique ability to 'tune' like the aliens - a power of creation or 'reality engineering' to use the language of the Montauk experiments. The doctor wants John to develop the gift and fight the aliens. Meanwhile, an inspector believes John is a guilty murderer, (John wants to know is he really a psychopathic monster?) and his other half believes she has hurt him through an affair - but all the things they are supposed to be and have done - may never have happened... Finally, the aliens who also come to realize John can rival them.

Meanwhile, John develops one goal - to find Shell Beach - which seems to be some mythical memory from childhood - a place where the sky is blue and the sun shines. Why is the city eternally shrouded by night? John seems to recognize it's more than mere artistic taste on behalf of the film director. Perhaps the beach can show John his roots. And yet, the city ensnares him like some kind of maddening optical illusion. Why can't John find the way to the beach? The film's glory is in its detailed thoughtfulness both visually and psychologically.

The Ending

The ending makes most sense in light of its modern counterpart New Age philosophies - that mankind can be god-like. Yet it also tries to examine the link between who we are and what we remember - are we just biological machines that can be manipulated by altering the facts and events in our brains or by experimentally evolving us? Is there a human spirit apart from the mechanistic nature that can propel us onwards, and help us to recognize truth even when our brains are wiped clean? Are we the sum of our parts or is there more than meets the eye?

For as good as this movie is, I am sorely disappointed I never noticed its existence when it was out in the cinemas. I bet I'd have left the big screen version glowing.



Recommended: Yes

Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older