ssimulation theory postulates that reality may not be really real, but an illusion that we are unaware of and that we can possibly awaken, and it is an idea that has been investigated by everyone since Plato (with “The Cave”) and Descartes (with Meditations on first philosophy) to, more recently, Philip K. Dick and The Matrix. It is a fantasy of escape and slavery, liberation and manipulation, and one that explores our own experiences moving between states of consciousness and unconsciousness, in addition to getting lost in the fictional world of cinema. As such, this is the ideal subject for documentary filmmaker Rodney Ascher, who is after Room 237 (on The brightness-as a multifaceted puzzle box) and The nightmare (on sleep paralysis) once again ventures into unreal terrain with A matrix failure, a convincing look at the possibility that we are all avatars in a game that we cannot understand.
Dick’s speech in Metz, France, in 1977, entitled “If you think this world is bad, you should see some of the others”, forms the backbone of A matrix failure (debuting in the midnight section of the Sundance Film Festival on January 31, followed by a VOD debut on February 4). In it, the famous author of A Scanner Darkly, The Man from the High Castle, Minority Report, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (the basis for Blade Runner), and We can remember for you wholesale (the basis for Total Recall) confesses that a 1974 sodium pentothal dose for impacted wisdom teeth allowed him to have a “sharp flash” of a “recovered memory” about a world, and life, that was not his. Dick wrote extensively about this experience (known as “2-3-74”) in the posthumously launched Philip K. Dick’s exegesis, and also reported his fictional production, much of which struggled with the unreliable and volatile nature of reality while imagining future societies in a prophetic and moving way.
Dick was the modern godfather of simulation theory, and A matrix failure he spends considerable time with people who took his seminal writing, as well as Lana and Lilly Wachowski The Matrix, herself deeply indebted to Dick – from the heart. In Skype interviews with Ascher, these individuals appear disguised as bizarre digital avatars, including a lion in red-faced armor, a Mechagodzilla-like dragon in a tuxedo, a steamy alien in a cute space suit and a helmeted warrior with eyes and digital mouth. His appearances speak of his own belief in duels of realities (and identities), which was also born out of Elon Musk’s publicly stated belief that we may be living in an artificial simulation run by advanced beings, as well as a 2003 academic article from the University of Oxford professor Nick Bostrom (“Are you living in a computer simulation?”) Who advanced the hypothesis that we could be pawns in a hyper-advanced program that is recreating a past that has already happened (called “ancestor simulation”) or an entirely new alternative schedule.
The notions conveyed by these speakers depend on everything from anecdotal stories about their own break with reality, to arguments about coincidence, probability and synchronicities, to outrageous – and highly specific – speculations about the details of our simulation. Suffice it to say that not everything is convincing. He is, however, playfully perceptive of humanity’s continuing desire to explain great mysteries through spiritual concepts through scientific concepts about foreign kingdoms, higher powers of puppet master and technological exploration.
To his credit, one interviewee (Paul Gude, also known as the “lion”) admits that perhaps the simulation theory is just the easiest way in which his brain chooses to deal with the complexity of human existence. And in a previous scene, he admits that his VR-based theory may be the by-product of the fact that people always try to explain reality through the most advanced technology available at the moment. Showing movie clips, among others, The Wizard of Oz, The Truman Show, A nightmare on Elm Street, Vertigo, The thirteenth floor, The Adjustment Bureau, They live, Defending your life of course, The Matrix, A matrix failure suggests that films are the main vehicle for both creating and channeling these ideas, which are often rooted in feelings of loneliness, alienation and despair and, therefore, can result in particularly frightening consequences.
“As Cooke’s story makes clear, the danger of simulation theory is that if nothing and nobody is authentic, then ethical concerns about society and its fellow men are irreparably undermined, leading to potential chaos.“
This is most painfully conveyed by an extended sequence in which Joshua Cooke explains (through an audio interview, complemented by CGI recreations) how his passion for The Matrix, along with his abusive home life and undiagnosed mental illness, led him to murder his adoptive parents in an attempt to discern whether he was, in fact, living within the Matrix (his conclusion: “It confused me a lot, because it was nothing like i had seen in The Matrix. How much more horrible real life was. It kind of shook me ”).
Cooke was 19 when he killed his adoptive parents with a 12-gauge shotgun in Virginia and later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. It became known as “The Matrix Case” and, as Cooke’s story makes clear, the danger of simulation theory is that, if nothing and nobody is authentic, ethical concerns about society and its fellow men are irreparably undermined, leading to potential chaos. Unsurprisingly, the links between video games and simulation theory are numerous – Jesse Orion (meaning the alien astronaut) says he spent years doing little more than playing – and A matrix failure explores this connection by employing all types of computer-animated graphics (including Google Earth and Minecraft) to visualize the assumptions of your themes. Illuminating and fun, the playful digital form of the film reflects and reveals truths about its content.
Defined as Jonathan Snipes ’threatening electronic soundtrack, and also addressing the way déjà vu and“ The Mandela effect ”relate to its central topic, A matrix failure Ascher’s nonfiction study of ordinary fairy tales, scientific hypotheses and art analysis continues. Offering a chorus of voices that seek to decipher the puzzles of the universe and the atom through fanciful perspectives on the mind, the body and reality itself, his film is an enlightening and sagaciously critical investigation of our evolving perceptions of who we are, our deeply personal connection with the dreams of the big screen and our persistent search for knowledge about things we (still) don’t understand. It is a treatise on religious and scientific yearning, and on human impulses and aspirations, which also functions as a portrait of crazy conspiracy theories and mass illusion.