SUROGATE 2009
It works like this: In the year 2054, technology has reached a point that, instead of leaving their houses, everyone stays in and interacts with the world through idealized robot versions of themselves. Think Second Life or World of Warcraft except without the computer environment. These robots (the titular Surrogates) drive cars, hold jobs, go to bars and have sex while the user stays in and feels everything through complex circuitry.Everyone is perfectly beautiful and theres no danger for anyone. Any and all crime in the world happens to the Surrogate instead of the individual.
Of course there are naysayers who think that Surrogates are generally a bad idea. Nicknamed Dreads, theyve been relocated to government-sanctioned reservations where Surrogates are forbidden and they can live their lives in old-timey ways. Theyre the cyber-Amish.
The Dreads have even got themselves a spokesman called The Prophet who takes to the air-waves, warning humanity that its reached its final days and that very soon there will be a reckoning.
Our hero is Greer (Bruce Willis) an FBI agent specializing in Surrogate-related crimes who, despite using a Surrogate himself, sort of misses being a human being. He hasnt seen his wife in months outside of robot-sex and has just been paired with a pro-Surrogate by-the-book female partner, Agent Peters.
Their first case is a big one. Two Surrogates have been attacked (not altogether uncommon) but some has caused a power surge to actually kill the user remotely. I wont ruin the ending, but I will say that there are quite a few twists and turns in the last act. The script really plays with a lot of very science fictioney ideas and does it in a lot of very clever ways. Like a living chat room, not all Surrogates are who they appear to be and, like all film noirs, everyone has a hidden agenda.The best part of Surrogates, though, is the world it manages to create with all the little details. This isnt a one-note setup of what if there were robot people? Its thoughtful and intelligent in a way that most modern sci-fi isnt. Theres a scene where Greer, in his human body, steps into a bar and finds he cant even order a drink; they generally serve only Surrogates and never bothered to get a liquor license. At one point, he has to contend with a gang of Freak Surrogates teenage kids who have modified their robot bodies to include all kinds of bizarre features like wheels for legs and spiked skin. Other people have Surrogates designed to look like celebrities and many people use Surrogates of the opposite sex. Its touches like these that are fantastic but still have a lot of truth in them.
Likewise, its going to be pretty impressive to have the first half of the film star idealized robot Bruce Willis and the second half feature overweight human Bruce Willis. In this, I think Willis is probably a perfect choice for the role, playing both the blockbuster superhero as well as the everyman hero at the same time.
There are some little problems here and there. Ive grown to loathe expository future TV commercials and we get one of those here with a narrator blatantly describing how Surrogates work and why everyone should own one. Commercials arent like that in the present and with Surrogates as plentiful as they are its sort of along the lines of having someone saying, Cars are designed for personal transportation and can purchased in different colors and varieties! But thats small potatoes against a really strong screenplay.
Slated to be directed by Jonathan Mostow, Surrogates has what it takes to be both a commercial hit and a lasting sci-fi classic. Its very much a blend of Blade Runner and Minority Report and the only real issue is how strongly Mostow can turn it into something all its own. I have a lot of faith on that front; Breakdown ranks highly on my list of sorely underrated flicks and Terminator 3 was far better than it had any right to be.
So would you put your brain in a robot body? Looks like we have to wait till summer of 2010 to find out.
Surrogates was written by John Brancato & Michael Ferris and based on the graphic novel by Robert Venditti. This draft was dated 10/16/07
