SURROGATES Living Remotely

It’s not difficult to imagine the futuristic scenario that Surrogates presents. I can already see shades of it in my present lifestyle: many of my relationships are being maintained online and all my jobs are being coursed through the Internet. My rough estimate would be that I spend 90 percent of my waking hours connected. And, if I don’t make any major changes soon, I’m probably going to turn into a mushy meat suit with a hyperactive brain.

In Surrogates, people live their lives through robotic bodies—a surrogate—they can control remotely. This means staying home in your pajamas and living vicariously, but safely, through high-tech machines that only has to contend with mostly reparable damage. The crime rates have dwindled to zero and most everyone looks good. But trouble is brewing in this futuristic paradise and, soon, we discover that using a surrogate does not necessarily make one completely invulnerable, especially when the military is involved.

Agent Tom Greer (Bruce Willis) is tasked to investigate the first murder in years. He and his partner Agent Jennifer Peters (Radha Mitchell), through their surrogates, uncover a plot to kill Dr. Lionel Canter (James Cromwell), the inventor of surrogates. But of course, things are not as simple as they look. How can they be, when surrogates are not always who their operators are?

As riveting as the science-fiction whodunit is the concept of life through surrogates. We get an idea of how surrogates have gotten in the way of human relationships when Greer almost dies after being shot by a military-developed weapon that sends a computer virus into a surrogate that, in a nutshell, can kill the operator. When Greer barely survives after disconnecting from the surrogate network seconds before his machine explodes on him, viewers are left wondering who will come to save him. He painstakingly crawls through the hallway—and knocks on his wife’s bedroom door. Apparently, his wife was just across the hall all this time, living her own life through her own surrogate.

We also see how surrogates have changed the dynamics of human relationships. Whenever Greer tries to talk to his wife about a subject she is not ready to face just yet, she simply shuts down or disconnects. It’s not hard to relate that to how easy it is shut other people out by not replying to instant messages or text messages. Or, by not logging on to Facebook. There are days in my household when around three of us are online on our own computers, in separate parts of the house.

Bruce Willis is back in his Die Hard element in Surrogates. I have to say, it’s quite refreshing to see a rough and manly man, even a robotic one, after a string of movies featuring Hollywood hunks as romantic leads.

I have a feeling I’m going to remember this sci-fi film for a long time. Two images in particular have embedded themselves in my brain. First, the surrogates bleed green fluid, which spurts out like blood when a body part breaks off. This creeps me out because at first impact, one imagines, “Oh, it’s just a robot.” But when the damage become bigger, the sight of the green blood can draw the emotion of sympathy. Apparently, it is that easy to win us—or, in this case, me—over with non-living things.

Second, when the surrogates break down, their operators—the humans behind the beautiful robots—step out for what seems like the first time in years. They are vulnerable and flawed and wrinkled and dirty, but all of it is real and beautiful. Remote is safe. But real is beautiful.

Note to self: Never let virtual life get in the way of real life.

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