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One Point 0 (Spoilers, but not in the first post) |
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 Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 1:51 am |
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This movie apparantly went way over my head. I finished watching it, and I am just sitting here trying to make sense of it, and I can't.
Can someone tell me what happened in that movie?
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| Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 2:56 am |
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Have you read SFAM's review?
Would you like to start with specific scenes or parts of the plot that didn't make sense?
_________________
-Just a thought-
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| Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 3:17 am |
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| illusivemind wrote: | Have you read SFAM's review?
Would you like to start with specific scenes or parts of the plot that didn't make sense? |
I did, but even they said they had to keep the review vague in order to keep from spoiling the movie. Some of the movies had a 2nd page that went into more detail, but I did not see that for One Point 0.
Eric
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| Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 2:07 pm |
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| erc1452 wrote: | | illusivemind wrote: | Have you read SFAM's review?
Would you like to start with specific scenes or parts of the plot that didn't make sense? |
I did, but even they said they had to keep the review vague in order to keep from spoiling the movie. Some of the movies had a 2nd page that went into more detail, but I did not see that for One Point 0.
Eric |
SPOILERS BELOW
Simon's appartment complex has become the focus of a corporate experiment by Farm Fresh. The experiement has two phases: In the first phase (the majority of the movie), they inject each of the tenants with nanobots who's function is to get each of them addicted to a specific product. In Simon's case, its Farm Fresh Milk. In the Apartment Manager's case, its meat.
From the corporation's standpoint, the first part of the experiment is a smashing success, so they get their courier to start up the second phase of the experiment. The courier tells Simon that he has bugs, and now requires an upgrade to eliminate the bugs, but in reality, the upgrade the corporation is putting into Simon is one that makes him buy ALL of the products, which Simon does. Unfortunately for Simon, he's clearly working with prototype "Proof of concept" type software that is totally bug-ridden. Like his fellow tenants, this ends up killing him.
Meanwhile, Howard (Lance Henriksen) is part of what might be termed the resistance - one of the last vestiges of defense against mega-corporations. Clearly the public services have become ematiated in this time. Howard's act of rebellion is to take the brains away from the bodies prior to the corporation getting their hands on them. Why is this important? The brains are what the corporation uses to determine how effective their software is.
As an interesting side-story, Simon is working on a program that is clearly related to the experiment. While it doesn't state so, my guess is this is security software from a rival company that is looking for a way of quashing the nanotech implants. This would explain why Farm Fresh decided to use Simon's apartment building (aside from the obvious fact that nobody cares if these people live or die) - they were able to infect Simon and the rival program at the same time.
But I do agree this movie is confusing at first. One Point O almost requires a second watching - I strongly suggest doing so. The first time through, in looking at the empty brain cases, I came to the conclusion that everyone "alive" were actually androids (the lighting almost makes it look like there were mechanical diodes there). This, I thought, was actually a more interesting storyline, but in subsequent viewings I realized this was not the case.
In any event, One Point O gives us perhaps one of the most dystopic views of a cyberpunked future, and worse, one that most of us can actually envision happening at some level. If a corporation could use nanobots to ensure sales, who here thinks that there wouldn't be a struggling corporation somewhere that wouldn't be tempted by this idea? What we're left with is an absolutely biting commentary on corporate advertising, and software development as well. When combined, we are the gunea-pigs (as we are today for software developement) for our own loss of freewill.
EDIT: And of course, the most interesting character in the movie is Udo Kier's robot, Alex. Alex isn't affected by the nanobots, and imbued with a modicum of sentience, is able to see what's happening. Clearly Alex is unable to change Udo's mind so he incessantly calls Simon in the hopes of convincing him that something untoward is happening. Truly, I thought Alex was terrific!
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| Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 2:36 pm |
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| sfam wrote: | | erc1452 wrote: | | illusivemind wrote: | Have you read SFAM's review?
Would you like to start with specific scenes or parts of the plot that didn't make sense? |
I did, but even they said they had to keep the review vague in order to keep from spoiling the movie. Some of the movies had a 2nd page that went into more detail, but I did not see that for One Point 0.
Eric |
SPOILERS BELOW
Simon's appartment complex has become the focus of a corporate experiment by Farm Fresh. The experiement has two phases: In the first phase (the majority of the movie), they inject each of the tenants with nanobots who's function is to get each of them addicted to a specific product. In Simon's case, its Farm Fresh Milk. In the Apartment Manager's case, its meat.
From the corporation's standpoint, the first part of the experiment is a smashing success, so they get their courier to start up the second phase of the experiment. The courier tells Simon that he has bugs, and now requires an upgrade to eliminate the bugs, but in reality, the upgrade the corporation is putting into Simon is one that makes him buy ALL of the products, which Simon does. Unfortunately for Simon, he's clearly working with prototype "Proof of concept" type software that is totally bug-ridden. Like his fellow tenants, this ends up killing him.
Meanwhile, Howard (Lance Henriksen) is part of what might be termed the resistance - one of the last vestiges of defense against mega-corporations. Clearly the public services have become ematiated in this time. Howard's act of rebellion is to take the brains away from the bodies prior to the corporation getting their hands on them. Why is this important? The brains are what the corporation uses to determine how effective their software is.
As an interesting side-story, Simon is working on a program that is clearly related to the experiment. While it doesn't state so, my guess is this is security software from a rival company that is looking for a way of quashing the nanotech implants. This would explain why Farm Fresh decided to use Simon's apartment building (aside from the obvious fact that nobody cares if these people live or die) - they were able to infect Simon and the rival program at the same time.
But I do agree this movie is confusing at first. One Point O almost requires a second watching - I strongly suggest doing so. The first time through, in looking at the empty brain cases, I came to the conclusion that everyone "alive" were actually androids (the lighting almost makes it look like there were mechanical diodes there). This, I thought, was actually a more interesting storyline, but in subsequent viewings I realized this was not the case.
In any event, One Point O gives us perhaps one of the most dystopic views of a cyberpunked future, and worse, one that most of us can actually envision happening at some level. If a corporation could use nanobots to ensure sales, who here thinks that there wouldn't be a struggling corporation somewhere that wouldn't be tempted by this idea? What we're left with is an absolutely biting commentary on corporate advertising, and software development as well. When combined, we are the gunea-pigs (as we are today for software developement) for our own loss of freewill.
EDIT: And of course, the most interesting character in the movie is Udo Kier's robot, Alex. Alex isn't affected by the nanobots, and imbued with a modicum of sentience, is able to see what's happening. Clearly Alex is unable to change Udo's mind so he incessantly calls Simon in the hopes of convincing him that something untoward is happening. Truly, I thought Alex was terrific! |
Thanks much for making sense of this movie for me. I would have never figured everything out otherwise.
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| Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 2:47 pm |
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| erc1452 wrote: | | Thanks much for making sense of this movie for me. I would have never figured everything out otherwise. |
NP 
Give it a go again and see if that explanation makes sense to you while watching.
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| Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 6:35 pm |
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Just watched this for the first time but will definately watch it again (maybe subtitled the next time to catch more of the subtleties...!
(Oh, and hello by the way, I just found this site when searching for discussions about One point O). Thanks for this rundown of the plot, I didn't catch nearly as much (should see it again...).
An interesting point is that in the version I watched the robot head was named Adam, not Alex.
And I'm not really buying your software theory although you could be right... I'm thinking more in the line that this code is actually for the nanovirus itself. Possibly that part of the code is now missing from the virus as Simon missed his deadline (the packages starts to arrive right after the deadline is passed, right) and that's what makes the code buggy.
(if you look at the actual "code" on the screen it shows some antivirus-stuff but I believe the screen dumps were'nt meant to be analyzed but was just some random unix-printout, definately web oriented in some way with the occasional matrix thrown in whenever we can actually read something, or the antivirus stuff could just as well be ways for the virus to get past protection)
Another interesting thought I had was that Howard isn't necessarily resistance but could actually be the one monitoring the program, collecting the brains... Just a thought though, now watching some parts again I'm certain that isn't it. Possibly a competing corporation though.
This one's very very Kafka and it's wonderful to see it work so well with the cyberpunk theme! The Trial 2004.
One mysterious question, though, is: how do the packages get in? And how do they disappear? Is this suggested anywhere through the movie? Hm... I just figured...probably they're built out of nanotechnology and may appear and disappear at command.
Well, just some random thoughts... Gonna browse this site now for more CP-films i might have missed.
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| Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2006 10:38 am |
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| MachineElf wrote: | Just watched this for the first time but will definately watch it again (maybe subtitled the next time to catch more of the subtleties...!
(Oh, and hello by the way, I just found this site when searching for discussions about One point O). Thanks for this rundown of the plot, I didn't catch nearly as much (should see it again...).
An interesting point is that in the version I watched the robot head was named Adam, not Alex.
And I'm not really buying your software theory although you could be right... I'm thinking more in the line that this code is actually for the nanovirus itself. Possibly that part of the code is now missing from the virus as Simon missed his deadline (the packages starts to arrive right after the deadline is passed, right) and that's what makes the code buggy.
(if you look at the actual "code" on the screen it shows some antivirus-stuff but I believe the screen dumps were'nt meant to be analyzed but was just some random unix-printout, definately web oriented in some way with the occasional matrix thrown in whenever we can actually read something, or the antivirus stuff could just as well be ways for the virus to get past protection)
Another interesting thought I had was that Howard isn't necessarily resistance but could actually be the one monitoring the program, collecting the brains... Just a thought though, now watching some parts again I'm certain that isn't it. Possibly a competing corporation though.
This one's very very Kafka and it's wonderful to see it work so well with the cyberpunk theme! The Trial 2004.
One mysterious question, though, is: how do the packages get in? And how do they disappear? Is this suggested anywhere through the movie? Hm... I just figured...probably they're built out of nanotechnology and may appear and disappear at command.
Well, just some random thoughts... Gonna browse this site now for more CP-films i might have missed. |
Hi MachineElf, welcome to cyberpunkreview (love the name)
And yeah, I agree that your explanation about the software being the virus itself makes sense as a possible explanation as well. To me though, this just doesn't fit into the corporate sleeze theme as easily - although it could absolutely be the answer (based on your comment, I need to look at the code more closely I think). As for Howard, it seems clear to me that he's opposite of the suits following everyone around and taking them out - he clearly seems to be the resistence.
In terms of getting the package in, my guess is it has to be the courier who's done this. He's been in Simon's apartment a number of times previously, so he must be working the distribution.
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| Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 5:08 am |
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| Quote: | | As an interesting side-story, Simon is working on a program that is clearly related to the experiment. While it doesn't state so, my guess is this is security software from a rival company that is looking for a way of quashing the nanotech implants. This would explain why Farm Fresh decided to use Simon's apartment building (aside from the obvious fact that nobody cares if these people live or die) - they were able to infect Simon and the rival program at the same time. |
Interesting interpretation. It would explain how the code ‘got infected’. Though my reading of it was that it was unrelated to the nano experiment but was a microcosm of the themes and society. The isolation (from worker to worker), fragmentation (no-one knows what the big picture is) and alienation (the warm & fuzzy work environment.
_________________
-Just a thought-
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| Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2007 6:04 am |
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Here's a great review as well (I stumbled across this) that helps put a lot of things in perspective.
http://www.sisto-act.net/onepointocommentary.html
Also, according to Wikipedia, "The film can be seen as a cautionary tale about the psychological threats that our modern culture and society face. Layered into the movie are other themes of modern society: alienation, psychic numbness, mistrust, the pressure to conform, and the dangers of consumerism and unmonitored technology. The two main characters, Simon (Jeremy Sisto) and Trish (Deborah Unger), walk around in a dreamlike zombie state, a metaphor for the numbing quality of a culture that sucks people's souls dry with more and more pressure to perform, to conform, to consume."
After watching it a few times, here's my thoughts:
Simon seems to be contributing toward the code for the very corporation who is distributing the virus. It's because he doesn't get his code in on time that it goes wrong (and why it needs to be ugraded with the second version the courier brings). I think Simon suspects this, because he asks his boss what the code was for, and the boss replies--none of us know, we only work on pieces! (or something to that effect).
It also seems apparent to me that the courier is working for them but is also a pawn, himself. This is why he comes across as the obvious suspect (for placing packages), as well as being the one to conveniently have the upgrade. He's also dressed in a menacing red, devilish color the entire movie (contrast this to the nurse, in white, who comes across quite angelic), yet he says (convincingly) that he's really sorry. (Yet another layer to the movie is the extended metaphors and imagery, especially in the use of color--or lack thereof.)
Also, for those who didn't notice, the guy that was stalking Simon throughout the movie was one of the "detectives" knocking on the door (the one with the hat).
At the end, Howard (Lance Henriksen) says he's going to take his "hard drive" and that he'll wake up very different. It seems obvious to me (especially with Adam in the movie) that in this future, artificial intelligence is a reality, and Howard (who is part of the resistance) is taking him to revive him in an artificial body.
In a completely different twist to everything I mention above, my housemate, after seeing it only once, came up with these thoughts: Once, on the phone, Adam (the robot head) says to Simon, among other things, "I've been trying to communicate with your brain..." My friend's thinking is that Simon (along with most of the population, in a Matrix-type of twist) are all androids (who don't know it?). This explains why the virus seems to spread between people and computers--and why Howard takes his "hard drive" (brain) at the end (to put into a new, better body (at the very end, Howard accuses the corporation of shoddy work, "it was better back in my day..." etc.). It also explains why when Simon (and everyone else) goes crazy, they have verbal glitches and stutters very similar to our perceptions of an android. I think this was deliberate.
In doing some additional research, my friend's theories seem to be a popular one, with others making connections between the Matrix and this movie. So there's probably something to that.
For me, it's going to be impossible to *really* know what the true spoiler of this movie is until someone posts the script online. (If I find it, I'll let you know), as much of the key dialog that reveals what's going on throughout the movie is much too quiet to be heard--I only got much of it after watching it a few times with the volume way up, and even then, I'm missing quite a bit. And the DVD doesn't provide closed captioning! Maybe they want everyone to take away their own interpretation--who knows.
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