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A Scanner Darkly (2006)
In director/scriptwriter Richard
Linklater's visually-incredible,
black comedy and sci-fi conspiracy-thriller - adapted from Philip
K. Dick's 1991 science-fiction novel - a treatise about
drug abuse and the war against it in a future dystopic world - with high-tech
surveillance and rampant drug use and addiction (with a drug known as Substance D).
The remarkable aspect of the animated film was that
it was shot in computer-rotoscoped style, and it was unusual for
its graphic depictions of sex and nudity, first a fantasy view of
a waitress (Natasha Valdez) seen topless, and another scene of sexual activity:
- the film's plotline told about
a semi-distant, totalitarian future where 'Big Brother'-styled
surveillance ruled, and a brain-deadening super-drug called Substance
D had caused many users to become intensely addicted, hallucinatory
and paranoid with split personalities; the government had instituted
high-tech surveillance on the addicted population and the drug
producing and distributing underworld, and hired a number of informants
and undercover agents to deal with the invasive problem
- leading a double life, undercover narcotics cop
Agent 'Fred' (Keanu Reeves) (his real name was Bob Arctor) was
called upon to reluctantly spy on his friends; he was to report
his findings from the underworld to his senior officer-boss
'Hank'; one of his targets was Donna
Hawthorne (Winona Ryder), his cocaine drug-dealing, addicted girlfriend
who sold him Substance D; he wanted to learn the identity of her supplier;
to complicate matters, as Agent 'Fred', he was also ordered to
investigate himself (as Arctor)
- Agent 'Fred' was equipped with 24/7 holographic
surveillance cameras positioned in his own house in Anaheim (Orange
County); although he had a vision of living in the house with a
wife and two children (from his past), they had abandoned him;
as he monitored the tapes of surveillance activity, he wore an
identity-blurring, shape-shifting 'scramble suit' to protect himself
and his privacy
Agent Fred's (Bob Arctor) Two Druggie Housemates
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Housemate Jim Barris (Robert Downey,
Jr.)
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Housemate Ernie Luckman (Woody Harrelson)
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- Arctor was now living with two lazy housemates,
both drug-users who had problems of their own: Jim Barris (Robert
Downey, Jr.) and Luckman (Woody Harrelson); another of Fred's targets was Barris
- along with his drugged-up roommates using their
drug of choice - the deadly Substance D, Arctor was slowly losing
his identity, burning out, becoming paranoid, having cognitive
brain issues, and acting psychotic and crazy because of his own
addictive drug use in his undercover position
- he was also having problems with his coke-addicted
girlfriend Donna who refused his overtures for sex and physical
contact with him because of her own excessive coke use; Donna
asserted: "Look, I do a lot of coke. OK. And I just have to
be really careful because I do a lot of coke, so just leave my body
alone. OK?...I just don't like it when people grope my body and I
have to watch out for that because I snort so much coke"; instead, Bob
had sex with Connie (Lisa Marie Newmyer)
Computer Rotoscoped Fantasy Sex
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- as he rolled over in bed after
having sex with Connie, he momentarily freaked out when he imagined
not Connie, but Donna next to him; later, as he scanned the footage
of the sexual encounter on his six surveillance screens, it showed
him (in the top three screens) having sex in multiple positions
in fast-motion
- Bob's druggie pal and housemate Jim Barris ratted
on him to Bob's boss 'Hank', who was soon revealed, when removing
his scramble suit, to be Donna; she was part of a plan to have
Arctor become addicted and then committed to the New Path Recovery
Center (at the Santa Ana residence facility), where he would be
transferred to a farm to work with plants (including a blue flower
used to manufacture Substance D); he was to undergo tests, live
in a cell marked 4-G, and assume a new name - 'Bruce'
- in a scene set in a General Burger fast-food restaurant, Donna
(now code-named 'Audrey') met with her fellow undercover agent and
police officer 'Mike' (Dameon Clarke) (working inside New Path);
they discussed how the addicted 'Bruce' ("a burnt-out husk")
was being used to infiltrate into the workings of New Path; they
could then prove their case, once 'Bruce' was fully hooked and
could produce evidence against it, that New Path was manufacturing
and distributing the addictive substance ("It matters when
we can prove that New Path is the one growing, manufacturing and distributing")
- Mike further claimed: " ...there's no other
way to get in there. I couldn't, and think how long I tried. They
got that place locked up tight. They're only gonna let a burnt-out
husk like Bruce in. Harmless. You have to be, or they won't take the risk"
- however, 'Bruce's' addiction was quite a cost to
pay for their undercover work to shut down New Path; Donna/'Audrey'
was concerned that Bob /'Bruce' had been selected and sacrificed
- without his knowledge, to become a drug addict: "Yeah, but
to sacrifice someone, a living person, without them ever knowing
it. I mean, if he'd understood, if he had volunteered, but he doesn't
know and he never did. He didn't volunteer for this"
- Donna worried that 'Bruce'
(former boyfriend Bob Arctor, or Agent Fred) would never recover
and regain his former self; she also pondered Arctor's sacrifice
that she had caused; she assertively worried: "Look,
Mike I gotta get out. I can't do this again. I want it to end...We
are colder than they are"
- Mike espoused 'Bruce's' sacrificial
mission to Donna: "I believe God's m.o.
is to transmute evil into good and if he's active here, he's doing
that now, although our eyes can't perceive it. The whole process
is hidden beneath the surface of our reality, and will only be revealed
later. And even then, the people of the future, our children's children
will never truly know this awful time that we have gone through and
the losses we took. Well, maybe some footnote in a minor history
book. A brief mention with no list of the fallen"
- out at the isolated New Path
facility as 'Bruce' was working outdoors, he momentarily saw blue
flowers ("the flower of the future") hidden and growing in-between rows
of corn in the field; he reacted by commenting: "I
saw death rising from the earth, from the ground itself in one
blue field"; he plucked one sample to take with him to give to his friends (as
evidence for the authorities? or as a gift?) - he hid it in his
boot to later give to his friends during the next holiday: "A
present for my friends at Thanksgiving"
- the film ended
with an epilogue from author Philip K. Dick: "This has been
a story about people who were punished entirely too much for what
they did. I loved them all. Here is a list, to whom I dedicate my
love." It listed fifteen individuals
by name (one of whom was Dick himself) who were deceased or suffered
brain damage, vascular damage, or psychosis due to drug abuse: "In
memoriam. These were comrades whom I had; there are no better. They
remain in my mind, and the enemy will never be forgiven. The 'enemy'
was their mistake in playing. Let them play again, in some other
way, and let them be happy"
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Drug Agent Fred/Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves)
Boss "Hank" Wearing a Scramble Suit and Revealed
to be Donna
Bob's Girlfriend Donna Hawthorne/'Audrey' (Winona Ryder)
Audrey's Fellow Undercover Agent 'Mike' (Dameon Clarke)
'Bruce' Noticing Blue Flowers (Substance D Source)
Hidden in the Rows of a Corn Field, After He Infiltrated Into the
New Path Recovery Center
'Bruce' Plucking One Substance D Blue Flower From
the Corn Field - "A
Present For My Friends"
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