But the youngest person who had just died was 18, and even assuming that fertility was declining over a number of years, that would still leave a lot of late-teen/20/30-somethings out there, and a percentage of them will be rowdy criminal types. I would imagine that older criminal types would jump at the chance to be part of the mayhem. You assume that EVERYbody would be working like good little bees, but when things are going to shit, and a feeling of hopelessness hangs in the air, a lot of those younger (and older) people might figure “what the fuck” and go, as Bryan so aptly put it “mad” (see, I agree with him about everyone going mad, but I thought it made the movie good, not bad).
Plus, the non-criminal types did have jobs and were working. Shops were still open, companies still were in business (look at all the advertising) and presumably a good percentage of those working were younger people and had a long life ahead of them, assuming they didn’t get blown up first.
Having not read the book (yet) I can’t comment on anything else. Wikipedia indicates that P.D. James is still alive (at 86 years old). Does anyone know what she thinks of the movie?
Hell, I’m 32 and if I knew for certain my race was going to be extinct in 50 some-odd years and that I would be doomed to grow older in a rapidly shrinking population, I’m going apeshit. What happens when there aren’t enough of us to form a police force? To run the water treatment plants? Keep the electricity on? Run the medical schools? When there aren’t even enough of us to pick up the bodies anymore? Eff that, no way, game over man. I’d be one generation from the end and I wouldn’t want to be there to see it get even that bad. So I’d figure rob or steal and live on steak until I eat some Quietus, or get killed trying. Going to work everyday just means I can check to see what time it is on my company watch when there aren’t enough of us left to care.
On the whole, I thought the movie was phenomenal. Absurd premise in re no more babies, obviously, but otherwise it was just outstanding. For me it’s a toss up between this and The Departed for best of the year.
I was deeply disappointed by this movie, and I don’t think that I’ve been so confused about the lavish praise for any film since Brokeback Mountain.
Firstly, back in my high school days, a low-rent Twilight Zone clone called The Outer Limits used to air on TBS at 2 in the morning, and I’m somewhat ashamed to admit that I eagerly awaited each new episode. One of them had the same premise as this movie. That episode was set in the United States, but beyond that it had a rather remarkable number of similarities with this film. While my memory may be fudging the details since I watched the TV show seven or eight years ago, it certainly seems that settings, scenes, and even some of the actors are almost identical between the two. While I’m aware that it may be a coincidence, it certainly dampened any enjoyment from Children of Men since I knew the entire plot from the start.
With that said, I still found this a mediocre film.
[spoiler]Discussion of the social and economic results of infertility is limited to the opening minutes. (The only witty moment was the grafitti at the train station: “Would the last person to die please turn out the lights.”) After the fifteen minute mark, it becomes a C- shoot-em-up. The hero has a certain object* at point A and must transport in to point B while various nasty people with bad aim try to stop him. Various minor characters are introduced and quickly gunned down. Action movie cliches arrive by the dozen:
The oldster who nobly sacrifices himself to give our hero a few more minutes to run away. Also the good guys who squander the sacrifice by sitting around to watch when they should be running away, but escape anyway.
The apparent bad guy who poses dramatically for ten seconds before revealing that he’s actually a good guy. (Honestly who did they think they were fooling? And what’s up with “You’re a fascist pig”? As if the insult codephrase isn’t the oldest trick in the book.)
The scary noises in the deserted building that turn out to be an animal.
The car that won’t start during the first two or three attempts, but finally gets going at the very last second.
The bad guys who yell “Don’t shoot!”
The bad guys who are completely incompetent at setting traps, coordinating their activities, or monitoring the good guy when they’re in his midst.
The bad guys who decide to hold a critical conversation in a place where they can easily be overheard, even when they know the hero is on the premises.
The sudden flairing up of fighting at precisely the right moment to save the hero’s life.
The good guy searching through a ruined building for the person who the audience knows perfectly well is alive, but the filmmakers still think they can fool us into believing that she’s dead by concealing her in the very last room at the end of the hallway.
The terrorist who admits that his cause wasn’t such a good idea right before he dies.
etc…
*Since Kee appears incapable of doing anything other than cowering, this seems like a fair way to describe her.[/spoiler]
Of course, we don’t know what the problem was, no one seemed to. However, the animals seemed to have no problem reproducing, so it might be possible to use chimp eggs instead of human eggs. No mention was made of what happened to all the frozen embryos that every fertility clinic on the planet surely has in abundance.
Well, the cause of the infertility isn’t explained, but it obviously isn’t a forever kinda thing because Kee does get pregnant. 18 years is just too short a time for the entire world to give and go to hell, I figure.
Interestingly, I’ve heard various notions about gestating babies in the wombs of cows and whatnot. It isn’t pursued currently because it’s icky and unnecessary. I bet that’d change real quick given this premise. Beyond the ubiquitous posters encouraging fertility testing and the vaguely-defined “Human Project”, there’s no real indication of any ongoing scientific research into the problem, when one would think it would become increasingly important, far more so than whether or not one’s country is full of heathen foreigners. It would have to be at least several times better funded than, say, the Manhattan Project. In fact, the international “arms race” wouldn’t be for nukes, but for viable ova and replacement wombs.
I just object to pointless madness being used to drive the story. It might have worked a lot better if the loss of fertility had happened, say, 30 years earlier and the pregnant woman was herself that age, making the situation even more desperate because even if she’s the first among many woman who have a chance to have babies, their own biological clocks are ticking fast.
Also, you’d think this world would have some positive elements, like women eager to have sex all day, every day, in the desperate hope of getting pregnant. It would be the computer geek’s heaven.
According to Wikipedia, both Children of Men (the movie) and an Outer Limits episode entitled “Dark Rain” were based on P. D. James’ original novel The Children of Men.
While it may have decreased your enjoyment of the movie knowing the vague plot outline from the start, and don’t think it’s necessarily a strike against the movie itself.
The movie is loosely similar to the episode of the Outer Limits? Well, it’s also loosely similar to the novel it was based on. I’ve seen plenty of movies that are based on novels I’ve already read, and I enjoyed those movies regardless (if they were good movies in and of themselves).
I read the novel some years ago. I seem to recall discussion about all sorts of things being tried, and all failing – even existing stored embryos just refused to develop.
A detail I liked in the book was that after almost two decades in a world without babies, some people were treating puppies and kittens like children – getting them baptised, walking them in strollers, etc. (Of course, plenty of people treat their pets like babies as it is.)
The movie was visually amazing, with the most extraordinary continuous shots I’ve ever seen.
My wife and I saw it tonight and enjoyed it immensely. I was very impressed by the long, slow shots throughout the move and the amount of background detail. I felt that filled in the space by left the sparse plot. It was a bit of a chase movie, but I didn’t mind, the actors, cinematography, and overall design more than made up for it.
However, one things bugs me, not about the movie but about some of the reviews I’ve read that claim…
That the terrorists are the good guys. Except for Theo’s ex, they spend most of the movie chaising the antangonists.
I’ve read more than one review that claimed this, and I just don’t get it. It’s not like this is a subtle plot point.
It’s just a sci-fi story… you can’t really think of every possibility and explain it’s presence or absence in the plot. Sci-fi is about taking an idea, imagining some consequences, and going all-out ahead on it. For “The Island”, it was “What if cloning could give you transplant organs, but they only worked if grown in a living body?”. For ‘Children of Men’ it was “What happens if there are no more children, and Britain is the only country left in the ensuing confusion/depression/madness”? I had no problem suspending my disbelief about infertility; it was the hook for the story and everything followed from there.
The only two plot points I didn’t get were: How Theo et. al. were tracked to Jasper’s? And (like Bryan Ekers asked) why was it necessary to stage a dangerous assassination en-route, when apparently everybody except those to be assassinated were in on the plot? Just do them in when they get to the farmhouse!
Other than that, while it wasn’t a stupendously awesome movie for the ages (like Star Wars 4/5/6, or Mad Max, or Back to the Future), I thought it was a really good movie. As was mentioned, very ‘documentary-style’ and gritty; that battery-to-the-face bit got a wince and an “Ow!” out of me too. :eek:
Diogenes the Cynic brought up the chase scenes, which I found myself leaning out of my seat for. The film-makers seem to have decided that European cars of the future are to be lightweight econo-boxes with lots of tech and no torque, because several times I found myself urging them onward as they slowly…slowly…slowly accelerated away from danger. A welcome change from the sparks-flying, tires-squealing, 2-wheel-cornering slaloms through crowded farmer’s markets you often get.
I’ve also got to say that nobody does government-gone-awry quite like the british (insert GWB joke here). 1984, Brave New World, V for Vendetta… they all make you go “How outrageously horrible!” but you can imagine how you get there from here. Rodgers01: I thought that there was a bit of imagery towards Nazi policies in the camps, especially with the bit where the guard takes Theo’s watch just before he enters the camp. I’d like to find the book here and read it to see if there’s more that I missed.
I suspect the Fishes had been following Theo for a while before they picked him up the first time (they said something along the lines of “we know he was here a few weeks ago” to Jasper when they showed up). So when they couldn’t find him, they started going places where he might feel safe.
They really needed Kee, and they needed her to not denounce the idea of an uprising. Kee trusted Julianne and Julianne wanted to send her to the human project. The only way to be able to convince Kee that staying with them was better was to get her out from under the influence of Julianne while still trusting them. They couldn’t do that if they knocked off Julianne in a way that let her know they were doing it.
Couple more questions: What was the point of Miriam getting yanked off the bus as they were entering the prison camp? They stopped the bus, harassed a couple people, then the bus was allowed to proceed to where it was supposed to stop. The cops just like being jerks?
How did the Fishes manage to find Theo, Kee and the baby right at the spot they were to board their boat?
Why were there dead cows everywhere? Mad cow disease? Too much livestock now the population is dwindling?
Dead cows? I thought those were burning piles of dead people. I was under the impression that so many people were committing suicide or dying by other means that it was just the easiest way to get bodies out of the city and disposed of.
That guy was a jerk no matter what, but when Kee started making noises (she was in pain due to being in labor) he wanted her to get up and off the bus. Miriam tried to stop him and it distracted him, so she was yanked off. He went back again to get Kee (I got that idea that as much as he hated immigrants, he particularly hated blacks) Theo acted like he could barely speak English, and pointed out that Kee had pissed on the floor of the bus. I forget the words he used. “Pissed” means drunk in England rather than urination. Kee hadn’t urinated, her water had broken, but that distracted the soldier again, and disgusted him enough to leave them alone.
I just assumed that the Fishes probably had insiders in the camp, or grabbed someone who would know and forced them to tell where the boats were. I got the idea that it was a major avenue for getting contraband inside the camp and probably for escaping too.
I didn’t notice the dead cows/people. I have to see it again. There are so many little details, such as the nasty-looking water pouring out of the drainpipe in the country. I saw that and felt sick.
Actually, not a single character who turned out to be “good” even touched a gun. And every main character who touched a gun ended up being “evil”. I’m not exactly pro-gun, but even I found this ridiculous. To at least have a gun on you in such a dire situation where everyone else is shooting seems like a no-brainer.
And the whole working in of the Abu Ghraib imagery seemed a little ham-handed. Yeah, we already saw all the rest of the “homeland security” images you put in earlier. We see all the parallels. We really don’t need you to force this into our faces. We’re not that daft.
