If that wasnt enough, a German company whose CEO is played by Wallace Shawn has invented an infinite energy source called fluid karma. Boxer Santaros is an action star who's stricken with amnesia. Kelly's previous cult masterpiece Donnie Darko (2001) and the . When Boxer and Taverner went through the space-time rift, they traveled 69 minutes back in time -- creating duplicate versions of themselves. Again, we're not entirely sure. The Book of Revelation, or the Revelation of John, was written by an unknown person in the first century. Movie star Boxer Santaros (Dwayne Johnson) plans his next film with the . The two Rolands found each other in the end, but the movie ends before we can see what actually happens to them. We'll begin with a recap of the film. Pregnant woman from Revelation 12 and 13 (Puppet of the Anti-Christ)Bobby Frost and Vaughn Smallhouse: External Reviews Ronald agrees to take Boxer for a ride-along so he can research his role. Starla is in love with Boxer and, in a fit of delusion, has assumed the role of Dr. Muriel Fox, a character from the screenplay. The project was named "Serpentine Dream Theory.," which aimed to use the telepathic effect of the drug as an advantage for the soldiers on the battlefield.Two of the solders that participated in the experiment were Roland Taverner and Pilot Abilene. Messiah = high spirituality. The Region 1 DVD was released on March 18, 2008, in North America and the Region 2 release was on March 31, 2008, in the United Kingdom. Edit, Most of the footage was a subplot between Kevin Smith's and Janeane Garofalo's characters (Simon Theory and General Teena MacArthur) where they discussed Operation Serpentine Dream Theory. Anything important or cool? Protector of the Messiah/False ProphetRoland Taverner: In this article, Kelly is interviewed about some of the less straightforward aspects of Southland Tales. In particular, Southland Tales apes his Four Lines, All Waiting style of plotting, his sci-fi meets religion Mind Screw nuttiness, his themes of identity and counterfeits, his gratuitous mixing of high literature and pop culture references, his Medium Awareness twists about characters believing fiction is secretly communicating to them, and an It is unhinged, and occasionally exhilarating, and quite often funny. Ronald persuades him not to commit suicide, and the two decide to go to Mexico. Messiah ( forgives sins)"I forgive you. When Boxer (and Roland) traveled through the rift, it created duplicate versions of bothone set of duplicates traveled 69 minutes back in time, while the "originals" stayed in their original time. Directed by Richard Kelly, a guy who can only make cult classics . Edit, Richard Kelly stated in his interview with Empire, Whenever Boxer becomes scared or agitated or paranoid, as a defence mechanism, Jericho Kane, the character he is playing (in the film "The Power" he is making), takes over. Edit, Fortunio found Boxer lying on a road in Nevada, so he saved him and both of them try and figure out a way to get across the Nevada border back into California. "ZORA: "A modified organic diet and transcendental meditation. Edit, Richard Kelly stated in his interview with Empire, Thumbprint identification is becoming much more prominent. Edit, No. They will reign forever and ever"Revelation 12 and 13: In "Southland Tales" the Earth's rotation IS actually slowing down BECAUSE of an inter-dimensional rift above Lake Meade. It's easy to empathize with his position, not so easy to remain engrossed in a film that's occasionally inspired but ultimately manic and scattered. Vaughn sends a car to pick up Boxer and bring him back to the Frost mansion. The baby, she explains, is the Messiah, and Jericho is his guardian. The site's consensus states: "Southland Tales, while offering an intriguing vision of the future, remains frustratingly incoherent and unpolished. On March 25, 2009, the R2 DVD was released in France. As the movie suggests, the Baron conducted secret experiments, headed by Simon Theory, with soldiers in Iraq. As a tie-in, Kelly has also produced three graphic novels ("Two Roads Diverge," "Fingerprints" and "The Mechanicals" -- now available as "Southland Tales: The Prequel Saga") that explain the film's back story. Shown with white shirt flecked with blood as Revelation describes the white horseman as wearing "A white robe flecked with blood." Three days before the movie starts, Krysta Now was vacationing on a houseboat on Lake Mead with Ronald Taverner, Tab Taverner (Ronald's father) and Fortunio Balducci. Like its contemporary David Lynchs Inland Empire (which used the then modern aesthetic of digital video to emphasise the way technology allowed the user to be present in two places, and therefore exist in two different states) it exaggerates the ugliness of 2006 the tribal tattoos and the awful CGI, the typefaces that look like something from a bitchin Geocities website until what was merely bad taste looks absurd, a dark dream that takes place in a strip mall food court. Edit, Much of Pilot Abilene's voiceover consists of direct quotations from the Book of Revelation. In the "Southland Tales" universe, when war broke out following the nuclear attacks in Texas, Treer was contracted to build several mega-zeppelins to ferry troops and equipment across the world. The movie begins in earnest when Boxer wakes up on a beach near the Santa Monica pier. No, it's not just you. She would, I think, make a good president. "[16] Kelly said the film's biggest influences are Kiss Me Deadly, Pulp Fiction, Brazil, and Dr. Strangelove. "[41], On the program Ebert & Roeper, Richard Roeper and guest critic Michael Phillips gave the film a negative review. "Southland Tales" also borrows from "Repo Man," which ends with a flying car (and which also referenced "Kiss Me Deadly"). Does Sarah Michelle Gellar have a sex scene in this movie? The current world ends, the joined souls become the new messiah, a new world begins. | Ambitious and arresting to the eye -- the gray palette serves the film well -- it's too bad that Southland Tales is also pretentious, chaotic, and tries too hard. Their hands begin to glow. Cane loses consciousness. Presumably, Tab was afraid that the Baron's people would find out that Roland had survived the trip through the time rift. Is "The Power" important for understanding "Southland Tales"? What does the name Fortunio Balducci refer to? Two of the solders that participated in the experiment were Roland Taverner and Pilot Abilene. "Southland Tales" feels insane because it tells a truth that most of us would rather ignore: that faced with the chaos of what feels like a disintegrating society and imperiled world, we would . What is the glowing orb carried around by Dr. Kuntzler? They claim to have read his screenplay. What does the phrase "Do You Bleed" mean? The name of Dr. Severin Exx is a reference to the name of an evil doctor in the movie "Kiss Me Deadly," and Boxer Santaros' convertible is the same car driven by Ralph Meeker in the 1955 film. You know those overlooked classics that are critically ignored only to blossom into beautiful definitive works over time.like "Pinkerton" or "Starship Troo. So it's trying to say that our veterans are the biggest badasses that we have. What does the name Martin Kefauver refer to, other than to its anagram "Freak Man Virtue" and the late U.S. senator? Then, a mushroom cloud appears on the horizon, and history jumps the tracks. Why does the movie start with Boxer Santaros asleep on a beach? The other main reference points are T.S. The Book of Revelation and Marxism have been connected by academicsboth advocate the overthrow of tyranny. The name Treer is a reference to Trier, Marx's birthplace. Spirituality has nothing to do with it. Meanwhile, using a sex tape given to her by Krysta Now, Cyndi Pinziki is blackmailing Frost for money and demanding the passage of Proposition 69 (a bill that restricts USIDent's powers). Ronald walks up to Martin Kefauver's Hummer, which is parked near the ocean. And why is he having an affair with Krysta Now? When a confrontation erupts near the Neo-Marxist drop box, Zora and Bart are both killed by a soldier. Before Fortunio encountered Boxer, he was introduced to Krysta, who promised him that she would get him an "interstate travel visa" to get him back into California. Many people think wireless electricity is the thing that could rescue us from our dilemma as we reach the end of the petroleum era. Southland Tales had a rough go of it. Once Krysta departs, Boxer receives a phone call from Starla instructing him to go to the Santa Monica pier. One moment, for example, is during Cyndi's meeting where she asks Krysta how much of her own money is she putting into her career makeover. They decided to take advantage of her powers. When Boxer and Fortunio met up with Krysta, she recognized Boxer and managed to convince him that she was an actress researching a role in his new movie, "The Power." Unfortunately, Kefauver and Ronald's Hummer soon collides with the ice cream truck carrying Roland. . The Treer generators were slowing the rotation of Earth by .0000006 mile per hour (.9 inch per day, or 2.3 centimeters per day), per day, which caused strange effects around the world. the Indian chief Boxer encounters in the graphic novels). When Southland Tales was released in 2006, it confounded filmgoers.A dense, sprawling science-fiction tale, Southland Tales throws the war on terror, the surveillance state, Hollywood, and the Book of Revelation into a blender and purees that unlikely mix into a stylish, acerbic film that we're still trying to figure out. Among his accomplices will be a "false prophet" -- a deceitful ruler. In the hopes of helping you make sense of the movie, we've decided to unravel "Southland Tales" as we've done for "Mulholland Drive," "The Wire" and, of course, "Donnie Darko." Southland Tales premiered at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and received so much negative feedback that the studio reworked the film. etc., although it bears a resemblence to Eastern religious concepts such as Qi and Ki. [30] The film was originally scheduled to be released in the United States on November 9, 2007, in partnership with Destination Films and Samuel Goldwyn Films,[31] but in eventually opened in limited release in California on November 14, 2007. Ronald Taverner, meanwhile, has picked up Zora and Bing Zinneman, a new member of the Neo-Marxists. Bing is freaked out by the murders, and decides that he no longer wants to be part of the group. Chemical Bleeders can see back in time while Natural Bleeders can see back and forward in time. Boxer walks up to the Frost mansion, where his wife, Madeline Frost (Mandy Moore), and the Frost team are waiting for him. [12] Editorial changes were made to restructure the order of the film's scenes, including re-recording all of Timberlake's voice-over. He climbs out and walks up to the nearby ice cream truck. He stopped editing the film and was also unable to complete all of the visual effects in time for the screening. What If He Is Dead, But He Is Not? "[14], Kelly's breakthrough film, Donnie Darko, was released in the United States on October 26, 2001, the same day the PATRIOT Act was signed. The Anti-ChristSerpentine: Edit, We're not entirely sure. Tab wanted Ronald to help the Neo-Marxists destroy US-IDent, so he entrusted Roland and Ronald to Zora Carmichaels, who then drove them to Venice Beach. Happily, it never does, which allows you to share in his unabashed joy in filmmaking as well as in his fury about the times. He played a character named "Donnie" in a movie with Boxer Santaros (in an obvious allusion to "Donnie Darko"). The other main reference points are T.S. Boxer, although he does not remember it, is married to the daughter of a Republican senator who is in turn the brains behind an agency called US-IDent, which controls what citizens can and cannot see on the internet. Amongst the songs not available on the soundtrack but featured in the film are Muse's "Blackout", The Killers' "All These Things That I've Done", and Blur's "Tender". When it premiered in its original three-hour form at Cannes, last year, the response was acidic. As Treer employees were interviewing the plane's passengers, they noticed that she was the only passenger who didn't suffer from amnesia and that she could see into the future. The release of Kellys first film, Donnie Darko, more or less coincided with the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers. The New Statesmans weekly environment email on the politics, business and culture of the climate and nature crises - in your inbox every Thursday. Boxer (The Rock) dances with Krysta (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Madeline (Mandy Moore); he stops dancing, knowing that he's going to die, and the tattoo of Jesus on his back starts bleeding. Scientists are saying the futures going to be far more futuristic than they originally predicted, Krysta suggests, as if this helped to explain anything. Edit, Richard Kelly has stated that "Kiss Me Deadly" is a huge influence on Southland Tales and that Boxer Santaros was modeled off that film's main character, Mike Hammer. But, unexpectedly, police officer Bart Buchman (Jon Lovitz) pulls up and shoots both of them for real. Through voiceover, we learn that Pilot Abilene was injected with fluid karma in Iraq, as part of an experiment by the Baron, and in his quest for global domination, the Baron has negotiated an agreement with the prime minister of Japan, Hideo Takahashi, for fluid karma. Shortly after they received their first injection of fluid karma, however, Taverner and Abilene were sent on a mission to Fallujah, and Taverner accidentally injured Abilene with a grenadedisfiguring him. [19], Many critics responded unfavorably to the film's long running time and sprawling nature. Is Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar) based on anyone? In Donnie Darko, the world ends when the Tangent Universe collapses, which may also be what happens at the end of Southland Tales. [18] Kelly's film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2006 with a length of 160 minutes. There are now two versions of each co-existing in the same universetwo Boxer Santaros and two Roland Taverners. That's why he wakes up on the beach at the start of the movie. The film follows the criss-crossed destinies of Boxer Santaros, an action film actor stricken with amnesia; Krysta Now, a psychic exporn star in the midst of creating a reality TV show; and twin brothers Roland and Ronald Taverner, whose destinies become intertwined with that of all mankind. A white light emerges from their hands and the ice cream truck starts floating. | Much of Pilot Abilene's voiceover consists of direct quotations from the Book of Revelation. He can be reached at @thomasmaxrogers. That would be Fluid Karma. It's not exactly easy to follow, and its meaning is still heavily debated, but if you read it as a prophecy, this is one way of interpreting it: In the future, the world will be a miserable place filled with war, famine and disease. "[39] In her review for the Los Angeles Times, Carina Chocano wrote, "You get the sense that Kelly is too angry to really find any of it funny. Kelly has said that this idea was inspired by a real U.S. Army project. Kelly has said that this idea was inspired by a real U.S. Army project. What's the deal with this screenplay-within-the-movie that all the characters keep referring to? How did the Taverners end up with the Neo-Marxists in Venice Beach? Starla Von Luft, the double-crossing USIDent employee, is reading a copy of "The Power" at work. The film also evokes Kurt Vonnegut's sci-fi absurdism, Philip K. Dick's philosophical approach to time travel, and Thomas Pynchon's sprawling narratives.The film that is most obviously referenced is "Kiss Me Deadly," a 1955 film noir about a private detective who uncovers a plot to detonate a nuclear device. What exactly happens at the end of the movie? [24][25], The soundtrack for Southland Tales was released in stores and online on November 6, 2007. Zora Carmichaels (Cheri Oteri), a member of the Neo-Marxist movement, buys blank bullets from Walter Mung (Christopher Lambert) in an ice cream truck filled with weapons. Premiered at the end of the petroleum era copy of `` the Power '' important for ``... `` Do you Bleed '' mean Bart Buchman ( Jon Lovitz ) pulls up and both! To them officer Bart Buchman ( Jon Lovitz ) pulls up and shoots both of them for real Zora ``... 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