On its face, Captive State is an alien invasion movie with very few aliens. It takes place in occupied Chicago nine years after Earth surrendered to an invading species of aliens we call The Legislators. Rather than be annihilated, we accepted their rule and they brought world wide peace, increased economic disparity and a world wide drain on natural resources. The movie focuses on Collaborators who help The Legislators maintain control over the population, and dissidents who are trying to fight back without weapons, world wide communications and a world wide monitoring system that would make any authoritarian government and modern day spy green with envy. Forget satellites, every citizen is tagged with tracking systems, we have world wide CCTV and birds are now monitoring people. Those of you looking for alien battles and special effects blitzes will be disappointed, but captive state is a brilliant political thriller that just happens to be set in a science fiction setting. Its commentary on conspiracy theories, fake news, overreaching government, economic disparity and the responsibility of citizenship was fantastic. Will everyone get it? NO! In fact in the theater I heard two couples leave the theater saying, and I quote, “I don’t get it, you mean he was ______?”
The comparison to today’s political arena was not picked up
on by these viewers. If they could not follow the plot the rest of the movie
was probpably lost on them. I wanted to weep. I do not think this film is for
everyone, but it was an intelligent script with something to say. The actors
gave an excellent performance and it was not a whitewashed cast! There was just
enough alien action to qualify the movie as a science fiction film and enough
drama to keep the mind active. The twist at the end,will suprise some people.
It’s well done and it’s message, “you have to choose a side” is on point. “Long
as we fight back we got a chance,” sit back and just complain and we deserve
what we get.
John Goodman as always does an excellent job playing a weary
investigator torn between helping his partners son and hunting down the
disidents before they go after The Legislators again. Jonathan Majors and Ashton Sanders play two
brothers with diametric personalities. Rafe the older brother, played by
Majors, believes everyone must fight for the good of all. Gabriel plays Ashton
who is in it for himself and believes in taking care of your own first! As
these three try to negotiate the turmoils which arise as the dissidents plan
gets closer and closer to implementation, tensions rise and loyalties are
questioned.
SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON!
OK, so here is what I loved about this movie. Just as Zombie
movies are used today in college courses to teach about political and cultural
movements, this movie can be used to teach multiple subjects. The Legislators
political power was a classic example of big government. A fear many people
have today in this country. How far is the government impinging into our daily
lives, how much control do they have. What do they have the right to monitor?
The Legislators used methods we do not have, actual real bugs embedded in our
throats that allowed the government to monitor where every citizen went and
what they did. But many people worry about the government “bugging” our electronic
devices and tracking our movements and activities. The first thing The
Legislator did was to shut down the world wide web, cutting of global
communication except through them. This cut us off and isolated the world into
small pocket communities, except by dial-up. They also monitored all old social
media accounts and gathered up all of our visual media to review. Why would
they do this do you ask. Imagine what you learn by looking at the thousands of
pictures and videos a person puts on their media accounts. You learn what they
like, who they know and who they associate with. In this way you can figure out
what groups of people may be working together. Intelligence gather at its
finest. Paranoid yet? The Legislators also got rid off all weapons, making sure
they were the most power full beings on the planet. An argument many NRA and
gun rights advocates make against gun control. Oddly, without guns the
dissidents are able to take down an entire alien facility. Perfect set up for
arguing weather or not gun control legislation works. All of this was in the
movie but I did not sit their thinking about it while I watched it, I just
enjoyed it.It was not until after I saw the movie that I started thinking about
everything. For days comparisons between this movie and our current state of
affairs would just pop into my head. Am I thinking to deep into this film.
Probably! But that’s the fun of it. Sometimes a movie just gets into you system
and makes you think about more than the needle alien or the sound weapon they
used. It has an impact.
The Legislators have set themselves apart from humans and
limit access to only a chosen few. The only chance the disidents have now is to
strike from within. Frontal assault on their facilities in the past has failed
miserably. So by spreading conspiracy theories among the collaborators, using
false leads and outright fake news they put one of their own into a position of
power. A Trojan horse if you will. Their hope is a strike in Chicago will set
off a world wide effort against The Legislators around the world. I won’t spoil
anymore of the movie, you will just have to watch it.
Go see it now, bring a friend and prepare to discuss what you watched.
Captive State, PG 13
Directed by: Rupert Wyatt
Starring: John Goodman, Ashton Sanders, Jonathan Majors and Vera Farmiga
Release Date: March 15, 2019
Production Company: Participant Media, Amblin Partners
Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i68xCzI406A