Movie Review: Surrogates - PG13

cross-posted from A Catholic View

As the previews indicate, the story is set in the future, where most people (referred to as 'operators') have a robotic surrogate who lives their lives for them. The operator basically stays home in a lounge chair. They are connected to their surrogate by computer so that they see what the surrogate sees, hear what they hear, smell what they smell, etc. This has resulted in a substantial drop in crime rates, because if a surrogate is 'killed' or injured, there are fail safes in place to protect the operator.

The story opens with the murder of the son of Dr. Lionel Cantor, the inventor of the surrogates. Bruce Willis is FBI agent Tom Greer. Greer appears to be reluctantly using a surrogate for his job. He seems to want to live his own life. His wife also uses a surrogate, because it is how she copes with the loss of their son years earlier. Greer and his partner agent Peters are investigating the murder.

The investigation begins with a cult, led by the 'Prophet' (Ving Rhames), who doesn't believe in using surrogates. They also have a weapon that not only works on surrogates, but also on operators. It isn't too long before someone is able to penetrate the surrogate network and control other people's surrogates. This not only makes the investigation harder, but presents a threat to every operator.

Content Warnings: A sex scene early on, some gore and violence throughout.

Although set in the future, they are careful to not mention the year or to otherwise date the movie. Bruce Willis is very good. Very well done, and I highly recommend.

http://www.chooseyoursurrogate.com/