Tuesday, December 10, 2013

984: Prisoner of the Future (1982)

Businessman Tom Weston is brought to a warehouse by a political organization known as The Movement. Led by Dr. Fontayne, who spouts rhetoric from TVs conveniently placed on the street, his followers wear matching outfits and hang out near the TVs. So they're pretty easy to spot.  

Weston and some other businessmen are brought to a warehouse and told they are being held for their crimes and their sentences has already been decided.  The Warden urges Weston to confess, but he insists he's innocent of all charges. 

The only solution to his lack of cooperation is to strip the prisoners of their identity by assigning each a number, which is how they shall be referred to from now on.  Plus they will be subject to psychological  torture until they confess. Weston is locked in a cell and his only human contact is the Warden and a  minion who keep asking him to sign a statement confessing his crimes.

This is only a little over an hour long, and not the most interesting film.  It appears this was a pilot for a Canadian TV show.  There are rollerskating robots, a bust right out of Lionel Ritchies "Hello" video, and Weston's hair looks a bit powdery in the prison scenes, which sometimes gets confusing because it takes awhile for them to reveal that it's been ten years since he was imprisoned.

Font... of the future
Why Tom's wife is making a bust of Lionel Ritchie?
Matching outfits and a tv on the street? It must be the future.
Rollerskating robots.... of the future!
Computers... of the future

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