Taglines: Everything is connected.
The reincarnation of a soul travels through time in an exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution.
Action, mystery and romance weave dramatically through the story, a time-shifting weave of six interlinking narratives, with diverse settings from the savagery of a Pacific Island in the 1850s to a dystopian Korea of the near future. Based on the best-selling novel Cloud Atlas written by David Mitchell. Featuring an all-star cast led by Halle Berry and Tom Hanks.
Cloud Atlas is a 2012 fantasy film written and directed by the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer. Adapted from the 2004 novel of the same name by David Mitchell, the film has multiple plots occurring during six different eras in time; Mitchell described it as “a sort of pointillist mosaic.” The film’s synopsis describes it as “an exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution.” Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, and Jim Broadbent star as part of an ensemble cast.
The film was produced by Grant Hill and Stefan Arndt, in addition to the Wachowskis and Tykwer. During its four years of development, the project met with some difficulties in securing financial support. However, the film was eventually produced with a $128.5 million net budget provided by independent sources, making it one of the most expensive independent films ever produced. Production for Cloud Atlas began in September 2011 at Babelsberg Studio in Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany.
Cloud Atlas premiered on 8 September 2012 at the 37th Toronto International Film Festival, and was publicly released on 26 October 2012 in conventional and IMAX cinemas. Film critics were polarized, causing it to be included on various “Best Film” and “Worst Film” lists. It was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score for Tom Tykwer (who co-scored the film), Johnny Klimek, and Reinhold Heil. It received several different nominations at the Saturn Awards (which focus on Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror), including Best Science Fiction Film. It won Saturn Awards for Best Editing and Best Make-up.
Despite expectations that the film could be a success, the film opened to only $9,612,247 from 2,008 theaters with an average of $4,787 per theater, ranking #2 at the U.S. box office, an opening described as “dreadful”. The film ultimately grossed $27,108,272 in the U.S. and $103,374,596 internationally for a total of $130,482,868.
About the Storyline
In the Chatham Islands, 1849, American lawyer Adam Ewing witnesses the whipping of a Moriori slave, Autua. Autua stows away on Ewing’s ship and convinces him to advocate for Autua to join the crew as a free man. Autua saves Ewing’s life before Dr. Henry Goose, hoping to steal Ewing’s gold, can deliver poison he claims will treat a parasitic worm. In San Francisco, Ewing and his wife denounce her father’s complicity in slavery and leave to join the abolition movement.
In 1936, English composer Robert Frobisher finds work as an amanuensis to aging composer Vyvyan Ayrs, allowing Frobisher to compose his own masterpiece, “The Cloud Atlas Sextet”. Frobisher reads Ewing’s journal among the books at Ayrs’s mansion. Ayrs demands credit for “The Cloud Atlas Sextet” and threatens to expose Frobisher’s bisexuality if he refuses. Frobisher shoots Ayrs and goes into hiding, using the name Ewing. He finishes “The Cloud Atlas Sextet” and shoots himself before his lover Rufus Sixsmith arrives.
In San Francisco, 1973, journalist Luisa Rey meets Sixsmith, now a nuclear physicist. Sixsmith tips off Rey to a conspiracy to create a catastrophe at a nuclear reactor run by Lloyd Hooks, but is killed by Hooks’s hitman, Bill Smoke, before he can give her a report as proof. Rey finds Frobisher’s letters to Sixsmith and tracks down Frobisher’s “Cloud Atlas Sextet.”
Scientist Isaac Sachs passes her a copy of Sixsmith’s report. Smoke kills Sachs by blowing up his plane, and runs Rey’s car off a bridge. She escapes but the report is destroyed. With help from the plant’s head of security, Joe Napier, Rey evades another assassination attempt, which results in Smoke’s death. With a copy of the report from Sixsmith’s niece, she exposes the plot and oil executives are indicted.
In London, 2012, Dermot Hoggins, author of a gangster memoir, murders a critic after a harsh review, generating huge sales. Hoggins’s brothers threaten the publisher, the aging Timothy Cavendish, for Hoggins’s profits. Cavendish’s brother Denholme tells him to hide at Aurora House. On the way, Cavendish reads a manuscript based on Luisa’s story.
Believing Aurora House is a hotel, Timothy signs papers committing himself; in fact, Aurora House is a nursing home. Denholme reveals to Timothy that he sent him there as revenge for Timothy’s affair with Denholme’s wife. The head nurse, Noakes, is abusive, and denies contact with the outside world. Cavendish escapes with three other residents, resumes his relationship with an old flame, and writes a screenplay about his experience.
In Seoul, 2144, Sonmi-451 is a “fabricant,” a human cloned for slave labor, kept as a fast food server in a dystopian Neo Seoul, Korea. She is exposed to ideas of rebellion by another fabricant, Yoona-939. After Yoona is killed, Sonmi is rescued by rebel Commander Hae-Joo Chang. He exposes Sonmi to the banned writings of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and a film version of Cavendish’s experience. After Sonmi is captured, Hae-Joo rescues her, introduces her to the leader of the rebel movement, and shows her that clones are recycled into food for other clones. Sonmi makes a public broadcast of her manifesto. The authorities attack; Hae-Joo is killed and Sonmi is recaptured. After recounting her story to an archivist, she is executed.
In 2321, the tribespeople of the post-apocalyptic Big Island of Hawaii worship Sonmi-451; their sacred text is taken from her broadcast. Zachry Bailey is plagued by visions of a demonic figure, Old Georgie. Zachry, his brother-in-law Adam, and his nephew Jordan, are attacked by the cannibalistic Kona tribe. Zachry runs into hiding and his companions are murdered. His village is visited by Meronym, a member of the Prescients, an advanced society using remnants of high technology, but who are dying from a plague.
Meronym is searching for a communication station on Mauna Sol to send an SOS to off-world humans. In exchange for healing Zachry’s niece Catkin, Meronym is guided by Zachry to the station where Sonmi-451 made her broadcast. Returning, Zachry finds his tribe slaughtered by the Kona. He kills the sleeping Kona chief and rescues Catkin, and Meronym uses her gun to save him from the Kona and is saved by Zachry. Zachry and Catkin join Meronym and the Prescients as their ship leaves Big Island. On a distant planet, Zachry recounts the story to his grandchildren and joins Meronym.
Cloud Atlas (2012)
Directed by: Lilly Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski
Starring: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae, Ben Whishaw, James D’Arcy, Zhou Xun, Keith David, David Gyasi, Susan Sarandon, Hugh Grant
Screenplay by: Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski
Production Design by: Hugh Bateup, Uli Hanisch
Cinematography by: Frank Griebe, John Toll
Film Editing by: Alexander Berner, Claus Wehlisch
Costume Design by: Kym Barrett, Pierre-Yves Gayraud
Set Decoration by: Rebecca Alleway, Peter Walpole, Stephan O. Gessler, Kai Koch, Nicki McCallum, Charlie Revai, Thorsten Sabel, David Scheunemann, Steve Summersgill
Music by: Reinhold Heil, Johnny Klimek, Tom Tykwer
MPAA Rating: R for violence, language, sexuality/nudity and some drug use.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: October 26, 2012
Hits: 114
