The Titan

• April 8, 2018

Characters

Lt. Rick Janssen

Sam Worthington

Dr. Abi Janssen

Taylor Schilling

Prof. Martin Collingwood

Tom Wilkinson

A technologically competent production, this film explores the moral issues of a mission to save humanity by creating a super-being.

Plot

In the near future the Earth is reaching it’s oft-reported demise and becoming uninhabitable to humans. So the geniuses at military headquarters decide it will be able to modify humans so that they can live on the much-less-habitable moon of Saturn, and then transport them there.

Before you ponder the absurdity of mutating and moving several billion people, or just a few so that the abandoned masses can perish knowing that their tax dollars went to a noble cause, keep in mind that the mission is just a ploy to illustrate the injustice of the loss of self.

The mission continues. At least one human is transformed successfully, but in the process the transformed humans are attacked by military police and generally treated like lab rats.

The dehuminization of the transhumans gives the director of the project to opportunity to issue an ultimatum: discard your memory and humanity, or die and make room for the next test.

Dwelling Tech

This vision of the future includes an impressive array of clean and light dwellings on a sweeping desert vista. The world is crumbling towards it’s final death-throws outside this military base, but those deemed worthy are living in style.

The Southwestern lifestyle of cul-de-sac block parties with lawn sports, a scenic pool with underwater viewing port, and freshly grilled meat and vegetables harken back to Greek ideals of an epicurean garden, although this one with a field of view reaching a distant horizon, and beyond into the twilight of deep space.

This desert living does not suffer from light pollution, so the residents have repeating reminders of the space above the Earth, where they intend to make their new home. In some ways the modern living that they make in the Sonoran desert is a bridge to the modern dwellings they intend to make in space and on other worlds. They can’t actually see Titan in the night sky without a powerful telescope, and Professor Collingwood alludes to Titan being just the first stepping-stone for the human race and his transhumanist project.

The dwelling tech, as the professor says, is a combination of transforming hostile environments to fit humans, and transforming humans to fit new environments.

Ultimatum

Ultimatum: Near the end the director of the project says that the protagonist must receive an injection of a drug that will erase his memories, or he will remain too emotional and too tied to Earth.

This ultimatum seems to be the point of the film, but oddly it turns out to be totally unnecessary and the mission continues on with the mutated protagonist Rick Janssen standing on distant Titan and awaiting others.