Dir.
Vincenzo Natali, 2002, USA, 95 mins
Cast:
Jeremy Northam, Lucy Liu
Not a week seems to go by when a film comes along that in some way has been influenced by The Matrix (1999). After the release of the Wachowski Brothers' science fiction kung fu comic book movie, a plethora of imitators followed, with scores of films employing bullet time camera moves, neo noir visuals and amped up wire work in an attempt to enhance their story. Recent examples include Equilibrium (2002), which contained 'Gunkata' fighting, and Underworld (2003), a horror film that employed darkened visuals and elaborate gunplay. However, there's been a noticeable lack of sci-fi movies that have tried to duplicate the dense plotting and philosophical inquiry of the Matrix films. Cypher therefore comes as something of a surprise; not a startlingly original or groundbreaking piece of science fiction, but a film that puts a refreshing spin on such sci-fi staples as the mysterious, all powerful corporation, the fear of technology and the loss of identity. Cypher echoes the sci-fi films adapted from the stories of Philip K. Dick, such as Blade Runner (1982) and Total Recall (1990), wherein an ordinary working man is riddled with doubt and confusion about himself and starts to question his existence.
Cypher begins with Morgan Sullivan (Jeremy Northam), an 'average' guy who discovers that his life is not as normal as he thought. Sullivan volunteers to go undercover for the faceless Digicorp Corporation, who want him to attend some corporate seminars under an assumed name. Sullivan gets to shed his dull, everyday persona (much like Arnold Schwarzenegger's character in Total Recall ) and take on the new identity of Jack Thursby, a fictional corporate functionary created by Digicorp so that they can spy on their competitors. Sullivan relishes the clandestine assignments that he undertakes at a series of corporate functions, because they allow him to indulge in his dream of being a suave secret agent. But all is not what it seems. Who is the mysterious Rita (Lucy Liu) who keeps appearing at the seminars? Why is Sullivan continually plagued by headaches? What are Digicorp trying to get from their competitors? Sullivan soon finds the answers to these questions, and in the process he discovers some startling things about Digicorp, and himself.
Like the protagonist of Total Recall, Sullivan is an ordinary guy who happily signs up with a company to adopt the role of a secret agent, but discovers that the corporation that he put his faith in is not to be trusted, and that his life of suburban domestic bliss not what it seems. This paranoid scenario is a juicy sci-fi conceit, as The Matrix and Total Recall demonstrate, and for much of its running time, Cypher is an ambiguous adventure that promises to delve deeper into Sullivan's nightmarish predicament and reveal some truly unsettling things. However, Cypher gradually opts to take a more conventional route towards the end, with explosions, fistfights and elaborate CGI taking the film down the more familiar action movie route. Of course, this is a prerequisite of the sci-fi movie genre (as the elaborate set pieces in films like Total Recall and The Matrix demonstrate), but as the Cypher moves towards its conclusion, the complicated scenario that has been unravelled is ultimately wrapped up a little too neatly with gunfire and explosions. Director Vincenzo Natali also frequently jazzes up the story with elaborate camera moves, which although visually stunning, feel redundant. When the situation itself is so extraordinary, it does not really need these exaggerated, if technically impressive, visuals to prop things up.
Putting that reservation aside, there is still lot to enjoy here. Jeremy Northam gets to stretch his acting legs, simultaneously playing the average Joe, the suave gent and the confused corporate pawn to perfection. Lucy Liu - taking a break from the martial arts mayhem of Kill Bill: Volume I (2003) and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003) - gets to play a more ambiguous woman here; a shady character who somehow knows more about Sullivan than Sullivan does, but who doesn't give too much away to him or the audience. Like Steven Spielberg's sci-fi thriller Minority Report (2002), Cypher also owes a major debt to film noir . Like those classic Hollywood thrillers of the 1940s, Cypher has a convoluted puzzle box plot, a host of shady characters and the appearance of the mysterious and enticing femme fatale , and the film has fun putting a sci-fi twist on these noir conventions. Like Natali's earlier film Cube (1998), Cypher is an ingenious sci-fi movie with an intriguing Twilight Zone -style premise, making it a refreshing change from the glut of remakes, sequels and sequels of remakes that seem to constitute the mainstream movie landscape.
Martyn Bamber
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