"Guardian of Eternal Life"
Since the epidemic caused the film shortage, I haven't seen a good film for a long time. But this one sure is!
Although in pursuit of realism, the action design in the film is not too dazzling, and although the storyline is compact, it is not tense and exciting; it is very commendable that this film can show rich ideas in a slightly old-fashioned concept.
1. One's own life determines the right and wrong of the world.
Everyone has their own life, their own experiences, their own starting points and desires, their own needs and reasons.
As an "eternal warrior" (to be precise, for a long period of time, can maintain the ability of immortality and regeneration, like some of the natural life we know before us). But they still have a different understanding of their own life.
The leader of the team, the Scythian Andy Romace - Andy, because she was the first to be born, not only experienced the longest loneliness, but also experienced the departure of her friend Joan (locked into an iron coffin by humans and sank into the sea) ). Therefore, although she is kind and just, and willing to save the weak, she also maintains a long-term calm and doubt about human beings. On the one hand, she agreed with Booker to help the CIA to rescue the students kidnapped by terrorists in South Sudan; Betrayed, almost the entire army was wiped out, and she once again realized that "even if the world is destroyed, I don't care". Although he has begun to lose his "regeneration ability", he still takes the lead for his companions.
Joe and Nicky, who have been in love with each other since the Crusades era, are not gay, but they are more in love than Jin Jian, because they have experienced so much together, they are companions that surpass their relatives, and they are also Gemini constellations of natural destiny. . Therefore, for them, the most important thing is to protect each other, and it is far more unacceptable for the other to be hurt than their own.
And Booker, who joined the penultimate, because of the pain of losing his child (the child even questioned his ability to live forever, but why he couldn't save himself), so he only wanted to solve the shadow of immortality, so that the sacrifices of his partners could "end" Sickness, End Suffering". So he agreed to cooperate with Copley and let his companions be guinea pigs, but turned out to be "traitors".
As for the newly joined Nair, she still can't get rid of her original world. She wants to return to her relatives and friends, even more than this "unfamiliar team" with "many killings". Until she really felt the "dream disillusionment" (that she couldn't go back to her past life at all).
The Guardians of Eternity do, and so do the others.
The CIA's Copley wanted to immortalize humanity. Because his wife suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and died tragically in front of him, as a CIA executive who could call the wind and call the rain, he was helpless. So when he first worked with the Eternal Guard, he had doubts about their identities. After verification, he discovered their super long lives, so he set a trap, tested their "regenerative function", and sent them to the mad scientist - Merrick. Hope Merrick can get the "secret of immortality" and save people like his wife.
As for the so-called youngest CEO in the pharmaceutical industry, Steven Merrick, and his strongest scientist, Dr. Kozak. The "eternal warrior" in their minds is nothing but a precious guinea pig, which can allow them to obtain huge wealth and honors such as the Nobel Prize, and of course, by the way, can bring a longer lifespan to human beings.
Everyone understands the world and treats others from their own perspective, with their own life experiences and experiences; almost everyone thinks they are right, and even chooses a more human side in the moral decision. .
This is where the problem lies!
2. Philosophical questions and religious answers.
who am I? where am i from? Where am I going?
Philosophy is boring, but the movie transforms these three boring questions into unusually easy-to-understand.
First question, who am I?
Eternal warriors, they know that they are special beings (of course, each of us is a special being), but they don't know why they exist. Why do you say this way? They know that they can live forever, which is a great power, and it can even be said to be "God's ability." Moreover, they seem to be able to save the world, uphold justice, and be worshipped as gods with such powers (as Andy said, she was once regarded as a god too. Think, born again Jesus). However, because they are different from ordinary people, they are "jealous" by ordinary people, and then "rejected" and "vendetta". Just like what Andy and Joan suffered, they accepted various death sentences. Although they did not die, they felt too much extreme pain. Even like Joan, he was locked in an iron coffin and sank to the bottom of the sea, and was constantly drowned and resurrected, accepting hellish punishment. Therefore, for them, the ability of immortality has become a "no benefit" ability.
The same is true in the real world. If we go well and achieve great things, then we will be the favored sons of heaven, and we will live forever if we think that we are entrusted by heaven. But we also encounter setbacks, even fatal blows, subversive experiences. This makes us suddenly lost and become lost lambs.
In this way, we will not know "who we are".
Second question, where am I from?
Clearly, the parents gave birth to them, just as they once had children of their own. However, it is obvious that they are not the same kind of people as parents and children (in fact, it is also like us, separated by different times). Their parents and children do not have their abilities. So where do they come from?
Andy, who claims to be the Scythian Ander Lomac, is a clear reference to Hector's wife in ancient Greece (her life is long in the story, after all). But there is no way to know where she came from. She has long forgotten her history, because it is too long. In her words: what matters is not what time stole, but what time left behind. She has forgotten the appearance of her relatives, but she cannot forget Joan's death.
As a result, whether it is from life, space or time to verify "where it came from", there can be answers, but it doesn't really make much sense. The only thing acceptable is that "existence is real, just as pain is real".
The third question, where am I going?
This question can be understood as going to heaven and hell, and it can also be understood as how to take the road of one's own life.
Just as there is no answer to "where from", there must be no answer to "where to go".
They've tried life full of justice, and they've even been willing to take risks for it. However, in their words, the reality is not so simple.
First, their behavior, human judgment is not uniform. In their words: (Are you good or bad?) Depending on the century, we fight for what is right in our own eyes.
Second, their behavior, the results are very questionable, they themselves are not sure. In their words: (We did nothing wrong, Andy, for justice.) But what does justice bring us, Nikki? What? Nothing! We did nothing! The world doesn't get better because of our efforts, it gets worse.
In the end, the choice they can make is the only choice. In their words: We can't decide when to die, never can; but we can decide how to live. And let’s be honest, Booker, you and I, we haven’t been doing well.
However, in fact, the film still gave questions and answers.
From the very beginning, Nair had doubts about Andy's killing. Indeed, for his own team, out of the hatred of the enemy and ourselves, he killed a lot of soldiers who came to round up the eternal life, and almost killed Booker's mercenary, which was justice. But so many people with flesh and blood, relatives and friends died, did it destroy human nature? In Nair's words: "The army trains our reflexes, trains us for thousands of hours to kill cleanly with two shots, but they can't teach us how to live with guilt...I saw you doing that in that church. Well, those corpses, are you asking me to do that? Should we do that? And we don't even know why (which is obviously Hamlet's mind and contradiction)."
Nair's questioning is actually a questioning of eternal warriors and traditional heroes. It is understandable for a hero to kill for the sake of the people, but is it acceptable for a hero to kill to save himself from harm?
And the answer in the movie is also very clear, the answer was found by Nair himself from Copley:
1916, Montenegro. She rescued a family of refugees whose daughter later discovered an early way to diagnose diabetes.
This, her grandson. 317 people were rescued, they were taken to escape the tyranny of the Cambodian Khmer Rouge, and hundreds were released from the Khmer Rouge death row.
This man, who prevented an accidental nuclear war in 1978, may well have saved humanity indirectly.
She saves a life, and two or three generations later, we benefit from it.
Obviously, Andy and others have always been lost lambs, but in fact, they seem to be doing it by accident and goodwill, but they are actually "implementing God's mission". In this way, they no longer have doubts about their own lives. It is also easy for us to understand, just as we find one day that we seem to be forced to do hard work and dirty work that we don’t like, but in the end, looking back on this experience, we have made our own life. We have no doubts about everything in our lives.
Therefore, the question of philosophy must be answered by religion. Where do we come from and where are we going? In fact, there is no need to ask, because "the road is under your feet".
Just as our birth determines our death, our existence determines our worth, and our actions determine our meaning.
Also as Andy and Nair said at the end: I think when I lost the ability to live forever, you showed up so I could see clearly. I can just remember...that feeling of indestructibility, that incomparable feeling, that you reminded me that there are so many worth fighting for.
Third, the ingenious layout must be tightly stitched.
In the film, many details are intertwined, and the seemingly unintentional plot is actually a deliberate arrangement.
For example, when Copley explained to the Eternal Warriors why he left the CIA, he also revealed his motive for betraying the Eternal Warrior.
For example, Booker explained to Nair the pain of losing his son (not only the loss of his son, but also his son's doubts about himself), and in fact, he also cooperated with Copley later and betrayed his companions as a foreshadowing.
For another example, Joan's role, on the one hand, is to connect Neil and Andy to better help the audience understand their encounters (it's easy to express the positive energy side of eternal life, but it is difficult to express the negative energy side of eternal life). ); on the other hand, it also gave the following easter eggs, the strongest foreshadowing for the sequel - a new villain is about to be born - a person who was thrown into hell by humans, drowned and resurrected continuously for five hundred years, right What kind of hatred will human beings have, what kind of terror will she create with her immortality ability, not to mention she also brought Booker into the team.
Of course, I'd love to see a sequel, but I don't want to put too much hope on it. After all, such a philosophical and good story is hard to have a surprise sequel. Unless Joan still loves humans and the challenges they encounter reveal deeper problems, is that possible?
2020-07-24
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