KILL SWITCH

Netherlands/US, 2017, 91 minutes, Colour.
Dan Stevens, Berenice Marlohe, Michael Reus, Tygo Gernandt, Charity Wakefield.
Directed by Tim Smit.

The title sounds like the name of a horror film. It does not do justice to the film itself which is futuristic science fantasy and fiction, requiring an intelligent response from the audience.

There have been many films about alternate worlds, other dimensions. The language of this film is “Echo-world�. An entrepreneur (and there are several commercial seen throughout the film for his development of safe and abundant energy) sets up a scheme to create an alternate world which would harvest energy and store it providing sources for millennia.

The plot unfolds in a complex way, introducing the audience to the situation via a sympathetic pilot played by Dan Stevens caring for his sister and his traumatised nephew. He is waiting for “the jump� which will mean the creation of the echo-world. The film then uses the device of the handheld camera as a subjective way of communicating the pilot’s response to the failure of the experiment, some devastation, dead bodies, drones attacking, military type shooting. And, inserted into this, are flashbacks about his being recruited, interviewed, made part of the plan. The film uses all kinds of devices to indicate the technology, measurements and time, dangers and warnings on screen.

The pilot has a box which is rebooting which he thinks will be able to rectify the catastrophe if he can reach the energy tower. He comes across the woman who recruited him as well as a friend who says he has seen him die. There are also the armed protesters.

The audience gradually understands the pilot’s story, his involvement, the company and energy, the plan, its going wrong, the attempts to rectify it.

The audience has to work on understanding what has happened and the issues – and is left to speculate as the final credits roll.

Much of the filming was done in the Netherlands – and the city’s resemblances to Dutch cities.

1. Futuristic science-fiction? Parallel worlds? Other dimensions? An echo-world?

2. The title, not doing justice to the themes, sounding more like a horror film?

3. The special effects, the creation of a future world, recognisable cities (and the look of Amsterdam and Holland), homes and streets, giant towers, the water? The interiors, the laboratories? The details of the special effects for machinery, technology? The musical score?

4. The elaboration of the plot, the insertion of the commercials and the creation of energy? The plan to create an echo world? Commercial and financial interests? Saboteurs? The gradual opening up of the plot detail, the audience initially mystified?

5. Will, with his sister and nephew, the boy’s trauma? The hopes about the energy and the “jump�? The experience, the transition to subjective camera for Will and his observation of what it happened, the mayhem, the dead bodies, the mystery, the box and its light?

6. The flashbacks, Will and his story, Abigail and the interview, pilot, his role? The insertion of the flashbacks with the interview, working with Abigail and the team, the plan, the creation of the world, the injection of the energy and its hopes for millennia? His nephew, wanting to go home, his sister, Will and his plan?

7. Will in the alternate world, letters back-to-front? The box and it rebooting? The drones and the firing, the military? The encounter with Michael? His hostility, having seen Will die? Abigail’s reappearance? Being taken by the protesters, the attack and their deaths? Will and his wound, the surgery and healing?

8. The quest to take the box to the tower, the hope that all would be well?

9. The audience, the imagining of an echo-world, boundless energy for the future, human error, schemes, opposition, military action? What future?