Transcendence

Year of release : 2014

Run time : 1h59min

Genre : Sci Fi / Thriller

Cast : Johnny Depp, Paul Bettany, Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy, Rebecca Hall, Kate Mara

Will Caster is a scientist who is doing research in the nature of sapience, having created a sapient computer,at home. He and his team want to create such a computer for the whole world,trying to create technological singularity,which actually means the point when artificial intelligence becomes uncontrollable and irreversible,but according to him, Transcendence.

The anti-technology terr0r1st group, 'Revolutionary Independence From Technology- RIFT' carry out synchronized attacks on AI labs,while one of their members shoots Will with a bullet laced with polonium.

Will has only one month to live, and his wife comes up with the idea of uploading his consciousness into their quantum computer. His best friend Max, doesn't think it's a good idea,as he thinks it would only be an imitation of Will. They do it anyway.

Will's consciousness survives death, and asks to be connected to the internet to expand. Max worries, telling Evelyn Will wouldn't speak like that. Evelyn throws him out .

Max is being kidnapped by RIFT,and asked to help them find Evelyn. Evelyn escapes, connecting what she believes to be Will to the internet via satellite . Being all over the internet,Will starts playing the stock market,purchasing land,becoming very rich,in literally ,no time.

Two years later, Will's consciousness creates a utopia in what used to be an almost deserted desert town, Brightwood. Never sleeping, he develops groundbreaking technologies in many fields starting from medicine, to energy, biology and ending with nanotechnology.

Problem is, the people he cures,and they are many, are 'infected' with this nanotechnology, which can not only rebuild them, bringing them back to life, once dead, but can also allow Will to hijack their mind,and control them. This is where Evelyn starts to suspect there's something wrong with 'Will'.

Max starts helping the t3rr0rists who kept him prisoner, and the government with Will's former team, want to shut down his project too. Question is, will they be able, as he has the technology to be always,everywhere,rebuilding, even the technology,in no time?

I personally liked the movie, and I remember how the first time I watched it I thought it was not Will, but SPOILER it's revealed at the end,it was Will all along!

I personally don't think one can upload their consciousness into a computer, and even if they can,they still die, which means ,what's in the computer is just a copy of them,at the time of death.

The movie was a box office flop, earning 103 million dollars against a budget of 150 million. Ironically, the script was on the 2012 Black List,a list of best unproduced screenplays in Hollywood (I'm not surprised by the outcome, because Stoker-written by Wentworth Miller- was number 5 on this list,at the time, and the movie was awful!).

The visual effects were good.

 

The acting was good.

Lukas Haas makes a cameo (he's the one sh00ting Depp), Cole Hauser, and Elon Musk (he's a blink and you'll miss it).

The soundtrack was good.

The movie is 30 days free on Amazon Prime, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, is streaming on Netflix with subscription, and is for rent / sale on Amazon, AppleTv, Cineplex, Fandango at Home, Fetch, RakutenTv.

Rating : Worth a watch !