I am happy to admit that I was wrong about this film because, if you are a Republican, there is an awful lot to like! I can understand some of the critical complaints against the film, but it doesn’t warrant the rotten ratings it has received; what would warrant rotten ratings, from a Democrat/Liberal critic at least, is the way it skips the psychoanalytic double and goes straight for the psychoanalytic triple to lay serious charges at the feet of President Obama.
Snow (Guy Pearce) is seen to have shot an agent that he was supposedly protecting but the head of the investigation against him Langral (Peter Stormare) was actually seeing Snow in a mirror, hence, only seeing a part of what was really happening. Shaw (Lennie James) seems to be a good guy but when Snow hands him the briefcase containing state secrets that had gone missing, Shaw knows the combination; when Shaw opens it and sees there’s nothing in it, he’s mistaken: there is an invisible mirror in the briefcase, and just as Langral saw Snow in the mirror, so Snow sees Shaw in the mirror of the briefcase’s emptiness and knows that Shaw knowing the combination makes him the one selling out America. The false reflection of Snow committing espionage against America is countered by the accurate reflection of Shaw committing espionage against America. Why is this important?
Lockout does this throughout the entire film, consistently, delivering such a tight script that it's really enjoyable just seeing how the script plays itself out.
There are two sets of codes needing to be broken in the film: encrypted codes and identity codes (who is who). The briefcase combination is one code that has to be broken in the film; the other is the mysterious encryption “I see you, I foresee you,” which has to be figured out to get to the briefcase to discover who the real spy is. Why is this little game important? Because, according to the film, someone in a very high position within in the government is selling out on America, and Lockout is saying, “I see you,” and what you are doing, and that means “I foresee you” in what you are going to do. That person is the president of the United States, not just in the film, but in real life.
Please remember, that I am not intentionally grafting my personal political viewpoints onto the film: I will gladly admit to my interpretation of the trailer, how the film was going to use the prisoners to symbolize the Republicans who had re-gained control of the House of Representatives in the last round of elections, and the film was positing that American voters had acquired brain stagnation and now the Republicans were holding Obamacare hostage (the president’s daughter, that which he has “given birth to,” and bears his name, the health care program) and the near-sighted Republicans (the psycho inmate with a blind eye) were going to intentionally crash the prison into the eastern seaboard and destroy the United States. This is exactly the kind of insulting film I foresaw and I still went to go see it, fully prepared to have mud dumped all over me.
There are two sets of codes needing to be broken in the film: encrypted codes and identity codes (who is who). The briefcase combination is one code that has to be broken in the film; the other is the mysterious encryption “I see you, I foresee you,” which has to be figured out to get to the briefcase to discover who the real spy is. Why is this little game important? Because, according to the film, someone in a very high position within in the government is selling out on America, and Lockout is saying, “I see you,” and what you are doing, and that means “I foresee you” in what you are going to do. That person is the president of the United States, not just in the film, but in real life.
Please remember, that I am not intentionally grafting my personal political viewpoints onto the film: I will gladly admit to my interpretation of the trailer, how the film was going to use the prisoners to symbolize the Republicans who had re-gained control of the House of Representatives in the last round of elections, and the film was positing that American voters had acquired brain stagnation and now the Republicans were holding Obamacare hostage (the president’s daughter, that which he has “given birth to,” and bears his name, the health care program) and the near-sighted Republicans (the psycho inmate with a blind eye) were going to intentionally crash the prison into the eastern seaboard and destroy the United States. This is exactly the kind of insulting film I foresaw and I still went to go see it, fully prepared to have mud dumped all over me.
But that’s not what happened.
Hydell, the psycho inmate who starts the riot. There are some striking similarities between Lockout and Wrath of the Titans, for example, Hydell is the brother of Alex (the prisoner who assumes leadership and hunts down Snow and Emilie, pictured below) just as Hades and Zeus are brothers; chaos is unleashed when the prisoners take over the floating prison crashing towards earth just like Kronos is chaos being released in Titans. Whereas Kronos in Titans symbolizes the chaos of the American Revolutionary War, the prisoners rioting and the prison falling from the sky symbolizes the the general chaos that has been building as a result of decisions of the Obama administration; how can I prove this? President Obama basically ended NASA, the country's space program by ending funding for it and in Lockout, it's private companies that have been experimenting on prisoners for understanding long-term space exploration. I am a capitalist, but it seems the Obama administration (and Lockout seems to be making this point as well) is doing what it shouldn't (playing doctor) and not doing what it should (regulating outer space experiments). There will probably be a sequel, and the film does a great job of highlighting funding conflicts between Emilie's charity and the company funding the floating prison (it's privately operated, the government has nothing to do with it). The prison falling out of the sky and potentially onto the eastern coast of the United States is, again, the general and backwards chaos from the way the administration has handled the Constitution (the eastern seaboard of the US is where the colonies were born and where this country and our ideals were born). There's another aspect to him: he continuously reminded me of Noah (Adrien Brody) from The Village in his mannerisms and intellectual ineptitude. Just as the villagers in that film had sought refuge from the violence of life in seclusion, so the people of the US sought safety in secluding the prisoners in orbit, but the boundaries were breached (films will reference other films like this to extend commentary so it doesn't have to waste its own time, but can still provide additional dialogue with its audience). |
There's a great deal more that can be said, but this is at least a start, and one more film that aligns itself against Washington. Towards the end, the president is asked to give permission to launch an assault on the prison and he refuses because his daughter is up there; even after she tells him to blow up the prison, he still won't, and so Langral has overthrown the president's power to preserve the safety of the country; maybe, instead of playing golf this weekend, the president should go see Lockout...
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