#surrogates

WARNING!!!! This song has a lot of screaming in it, and this AMV has a lot of murder drones gore.

VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED I GUESS.

About time I made one for Murder Drones!

Song: Surrogates by Red

Made by me myself and I

..JUDGE ME ALL YOU WANT I LOVE THIS SONG AND THIS SHOW!!!!

Sorry.

Not really😏

I've been wanting to make this for WEEKS. And it's nice to do one that isn't rottmnt for once!

Sorry for all of the screaming......

I couldn't find a single AMV for this song.

SO I FIGURED WHY NOT MAKE MY OWN!?!?!

Hope you like it!!!

The LORD bless you!!!!

Lamentations 3:22-23

So in 2009, the science fiction movie Surrogates was released, an adaptation of a comic written by Robert Venditti, drawn by Brett Weldele, and published by Top Shelf Productions from 2005 to 2006. It stars Bruce Willis and James Cromwell, and has some interesting ideas before the conclusion ultimately botches things in a way that bugs me until this day.

OK, let me explain.

Within the setting, the Surrogates were originally created to act as a mobility aid for disabled folk (the creator himself being a wheelchair user), the idea being that the Surrogates acts as a robot duplicate of the owner that can be remotely piloted from home.

Unfortunately, the technology is co-opted by the military (who use it to effectively replace infantry with wave after wave of android drones) and by regular people, who in response to perceived threats of the outside worlds (it being the 2000s, basically terrorism being the main concern), start using the Surrogates as an alternative to going outside... With the added bonus that the robots were customisable (age, appearance etc. entirely the choice of the pilot), meaning that while the real you stayed at home, your ideal You would go do you job, go clubbing, play sports or whatever.

This brings us to the main actual plot, which consists of the original creator of the Surrogates feeling that his creation was a mistake, as its cut off human interaction, and he plans to release a virus that would destroy the connection between the pilots and their machines, thus making people interact with either other, by force.

Unfortunately, the protagonist of the film, an FBI agent played by Bruce Willis called Greer, actually shares these opinions, and while he doesn't allow the inventor to enact a version of the plot which could harm the pilots, he does allow the virus to forcibly severe everyone's connection with their Surrogates...

...a decision that is immediately followed by the sound of car crashes, as Surrogates cut cut off from their vehicles. And considering how Surrogates are also used in hospitals to do surgeries, drive ambulances, fight fires, and, y'know, active AS MOBILITY AIDS LIKE THEY WERE INTENDED, the implication is Greer's actions are still massively destructive, even if the film acts like it's ultimately a positive choice as it leads to disoriented people staggering out of their homes in their pajamas to ask each other what the heck just happened?

The movie certainly hits different after the Covid Lockdowns, considering its message was more one seemingly complaining about early social media, internet anonymity, and the increasingly stale message of how technically actually separates us, man.

This isn't the only piece of science fiction to use the idea of people having remotely controlled robot duplicates (they feature various forms in the Ghost in the Shell franchise, for example, with the main lead Motoko Kusanagi at times having multiples she uses at various times), but I can't help but feeling that the message it was trying to impart on the audience wasn't really worth the... y'know, in universe cost? What with all the deaths due to the lack of first responders, hospitals suddenly having no on-site staff to tend sick and injured people, folk potentially getting outed against their will if their Surrogate didn't match the gender they were assigned at birth etc?

Admittedly the gender stuff probably wasn't on the minds of the creators it being the late 2000s, but when your protagonist effectively ends the world (if not for himself, then a lot of other people) just because he feels lonely that his wife won't talk to him without her robot, I can't help but feel he's weirdly in the same ball park as the actual villain?

Or maybe a whole shaker of salt. Still interesting, though. Allegedly.