By Peter K. Lam
The Surrogates Movie Teaser Poster
A recent SciFi Wire article believes that the metaphor behind the new film, The Surrogates, starring Bruce Willis, is an examination of how people struggle to remain human in an increasingly technologically dominated world. That’s an interesting stance on the film’s metaphor but I have another idea on the matter. The Surrogates is a metaphor for people living their “perfect” life thru someone else.
In society today there are various ways people are able to escape their own reality and live another life. Some times this is for fun but other times it is very real for the user. Over the last decade there have been numerous video games released where users are able to essentially create their own perfect self and “live” through them in a virtual world. The two most popular of these games are The Sims and Second Life.
The Sims is made mostly for fun and is usually played by most just for entertainment. Second Life, introduced a few years ago, is far more sinister and dark. Second Life creates a virtual world where people can go and pretend to be their perfect self. The game emulates real life so closely that some may say it’s almost a replacement of real life. There are businesses inside Second Life where you actually earn money which can be transferred to your bank account in the real world. There are even murders and other crimes in Second Life which at times have crossed over into real life.
The Surrogates takes this whole idea to a new level by allowing people to essentially stay at home and remotely control their “surrogate” to live their everyday lives. So this in turns lets people live their life as they would like without actually having to do it for real.
People these days continue to immerse themselves more and more in virtual worlds and not really connecting with people in the real world. People form virtual friendships, engage in virtual communities and become part of this whole virtual world without ever stepping away from their computers. Why do people do this? Perhaps its because being behind a computer is sort of a safety net so that they can engage in the life they like without having to deal with the consequences of doing the real thing.
I have not read the Surrogates graphic novel but I will try to pick it up some time soon. I’m sure there is a whole lot more to the story than the movie will take on. The general premise of living the perfect life thru a shell of a body is very interesting to me. Hopefully the film will paint a better ending than the endings we’ve seen far too often on the evening news.
