The following will contain spoilers, if you have not seen Cloud Atlas, then please watch the movie before reading.
“My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?” - Dave Mitchell, Cloud Atlas
Cloud Atlas, the new epic movie release by the Wachowski's, was one of the single most inspirational movies I have ever seen in ,my life. Not only were the technical aspects of the movie (cinematography, music, acting, ect.) incredible, but I believe that the message it delivers is powerful beyond knowledge. This movie can serve as a reminder for any rational thinker who might be mired in an age of superstitious nonsense.
Cloud Atlas is reminiscent of Inception in the way it's plot-lines are all mixed up. Character's lives shift in an out of the foreground and time is meaningless, in fact we find out in the end that the most primitive looking of characters actually lives far in the future. Yet, despite such a wild and complex cinematographic experience, there is a single thread that winds each character together, and it is this thread that makes the movie so special for rational anarchists and Scientists.
“Our lives are not our own. We are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.”
In the movie, the characters are tied together by finishing each other's sentences. Conceptually, however, the characters are tied by their "selfless" crusades for what they believe is right in the world. But this isn't a crusade that always ends in victory. Not every warrior gets what they fought for- yet the battle must go on. And Cloud Atlas does a fantastic job to encourage that struggle by actually giving the future characters peace and comfort. As the movie goes on it shows how the actions of the past inevitably affect the future and most importantly, how the future is much better off because of it.
The progressive improvement leads all the way to a complete collapse of establishment society, leaving primitive Tom Hanks with ultra-advanced Halle Berry to live in peace for ever and ever. A perfect fairy tale ending!
“Unlimited power in the hands of limited people always leads to cruelty.”
“The better organized the state, the duller its humanity.”
“All revolutions are the sheerest fantasy until they happen; then they become historical inevitabilities.”
It's almost as though the movie was written just to give heart to those of us who work every day to speak out against brutality and oppression. Indeed, with the Wachowski's also being the directors of The Matrix, a philosophical masterpiece which is now used commonly as an analogy for mainstream society, it is hard to believe that this sort of artistic message is an accident. This is the sort of art that the world needs. This is the sort of art that encourages greatness within this world.
So, even if we won't see the effects in our lifetimes, I hope you will renew your commitment to fighting for rationality and liberty with me, because...
“I believe there is another world waiting for us. A better world. And i'll be waiting for you there.”
I've got to watch this again! Last time I watched I was too sleepy and hadn't thought about this stuff you point out.
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