Movies Mayberry Movie Club Week 24: Upgrade (2018)

[Cubo de Sangre]

Each week club members will vote on a film to watch. Then the following week we'll discuss it. Anyone is welcome to join in the discussions. If you want to become a member then let me know.

For week #24 the club selected Upgrade (2018).

Premise: Set in the near-future, technology controls nearly all aspects of life. But when the world of Grey, a self-labeled technophobe, is turned upside down, his only hope for revenge is an experimental computer chip implant.

Director: Leigh Whannell

Starring: Logan Marshall-Green

Starring: Melanie Vallejo

Trivia:
(via IMDB)​

• During the fight scenes, the camera often tracks Grey so that he remains in the middle of frame. According to director Leigh Whannell, this was achieved by hiding a phone somewhere on actor Logan Marshall-Green, which the cameras could then pair to and follow with as much accuracy as possible.
  
• At one point during the hacker building sequence, the Saw (2004) doll can be seen painted on one of the walls. Leigh Whannell, the director for this movie, also wrote the first Saw (2004) feature film screenplay.
  
• The film has drawn a lot of comparisons to another 2018 film, Venom (2018), but Leigh Whannell said he was not familiar with the comic book character before writing the film. Interestingly the lead actors of both films, Logan Marshall-Green and Tom Hardy, bear a striking resemblance to each other.
  
• One of the last sets of numbers STEM asks Grey to write down is "23.976", which is a reference to the exact industry standard frame rate of film.
  
• The movie is set in the US but filmed in Australia. At around 5:45, in the sequence where Grey has Asha follow him to Eron Keen's house, the Bolte Bridge over the Yarra River, Melbourne is shown from the air. The traffic on the bridge is driving on the right hand side of the road, as it does in the US but rather than block the bridge and have them control the traffic for the shot, they drove over the bridge on the left side as you would in Melbourne and simply reverse the image. This can be proven if you pull up the same angle in Google maps. However in the next scene where the two cars are driving on an undulating country road, they actually drive on the right hand side of the road. This is proven because as they are driving up to the top of a hill, the painted lines on the road show broken for traffic going up hill (safe to overtake) and solid for traffic going down (not safe to overtake). In reality this would be opposite.
  
• There is a scene where Grey is reviewing his dead wife's autopsy paperwork. When paused you could see his wife was born in 2008. At the time of her death she was 38. Which means this movie was set in the year 2046.
  
• In the first fight scene after Stem takes over Grey's body, you can see Grey use his hand to turn his head in order to dodge a punch. This is because Stem only controls Grey's body below the implant in his neck and therefore couldn't move Grey's head out of the way on its own.
  
• Upon quarantining Grey's mind into a fake reality and then executing Detective Cortez, Stem sucks its own finger to taste the blood and/or soothe the wound, exactly like Grey did in the opening scene when he slightly injured himself dropping the engine block back into his vehicle.
  
• The character Stem only presents itself as a voice in the movie. The word "stem" is Dutch for "voice".

Spoiler: Weeks 1-23

1. Rampage (2009)
2. Creep (2014)
3. Victoria (2015)
4. The House of the Devil (2009)
5. The Platform (2019)
6. Cam (2018)
7. Happiness (1998)
8. Audition (1999)
9. Up (2009)
10. A Scanner Darkly (2006)
11. Isle of Dogs (2018)
12. Naked Lunch (1991)
13. Scanners (1981)
14. Cube (1997)
15. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
16. The Trip (2021)
17. Eat Me (2018)
18. Possessor (2020)
19 Bronson (2008)
20. The Raid: Redemption (2011)
21. The Dead Don't Die (2019)
22. River's Edge (1986)
23. Joker (2019)

Members: @Cubo de Sangre @Dirt Road Soldier @MusterX @sickc0d3r @Tufts @Zer @NewJerseyNick @websurfer @revoltub

Honorary tags: @JayPettryMMA

​

 

[Fedorgasm]

I love this movie. I was amazed at what they were able to pull off with what was clearly a very low budget.

Most unique and original fight scenes too, that perfectly fit the story.

 

[KeithHackneyballpunch]

I came across this by accident on HBO.

I was pleasantly surprised. good little sci fi/revenge film.

 

[revoltub]

Second time watching and I think I like it more this time. It's more effeciently conservative with the action than I remember which totally works to its advantage. I loved the robotic style to the choreography. It's also conservative with its violence, and didnt go super all out with the R rating, which again I think works. I think maybe it could've gone a little more all out but again it didn't allow things to get over saturated. The pacing is also perfect, never a dull moment and it went by super fast. Loved the character of Fisk especially

But just one thing story wise.

Spoiler

if STEM was in control of erons company and eron himself, why would he tell eron to attempt to shut him down? And why would it need a hacker to take away the input guards? If he controlled Eron couldn't he have gotten him to do it?

 

[2fast2see]

Refreshingly great movie!

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

This was mostly enjoyable. Took about half and hour before it became truly interesting. Then much greatness as STEM did it's thing. Then it suffered trying to bring plot back into the mix. Can't say the ending delivered the goods.

Overall the concept was far superior to the execution. The acting was overall subpar.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

Like Scanners, I think whatever merit this film has is in spite of the lead actor.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

I'm expecting @MusterX to give a good compare and contrast of STEM vs. HAL.

 

[MusterX]

Sheesh, dark film with a dark twist, a horrifying ending, and real life implications for the future world humanity is currently building. Just strictly in terms of the film, i found it engaging enough throughout to keep my attention and keep me thinking. The film successfully created a futuristic world just out of our reach but not so far in the future it seemed unrelatable. Self driving cars, smart tech, drones, big brother style surveillance, all things that are from our current time period, but souped up.

STEM's ability to control Grey's body in various ways was obviously the star of this film, STEM is the star of this film even if we never see him. STEM is the villain and he's implanted inside the protagonist, Grey. I honestly never saw the twist coming. Even as it was being revealed I was unable to piece it all together until it was fully revealed that STEM was behind everything. From the initial car crash of Grey and his wife, all the way to the end of the film, STEM was in control of everyone. The darkness involved goes well beyond STEM's control of his human subjects because what STEM really wanted was to become human and he needed someone who didn't have any implants yet so Grey was a perfect fit for his new body.

I think what the film does best is hide its intentions by presenting Grey's mission to get revenge for the death of his wife as a red herring. Grey is being systematically broken down throughout the film by STEM. There were even points in the film where Grey thought he saw his wife, or dreamed of his wife but its not clear that STEM is planting these visions in Grey's head to weaken him toward his eventual demise. In the end, Grey is sectioned off in his own mind in a simulated reality which is a Twilight Zone level twist because STEM goes from simulated A.I. in a simulated world to fully human while Grey goes from human to living a simulation within his own mind being controlled by STEM.

Would purchase the Upgrade/10

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

STEM's ability to control Grey's body in various ways was obviously the star of this film, STEM is the star of this film even if we never see him. STEM is the villain and he's implanted inside the protagonist, Grey. I honestly never saw the twist coming.

Agreed. Might have to change my rating to a 4 now even though I found the overall execution kinda lacking.

 

[The Good The Bad The HBK]

That dude and Tom Hardy could be brothers

 

[MusterX]

The day is rapidly approaching when humanity will merge with its own technology. This plan has been in motion for decades already, billions have been spent, and we are almost there now. I can't find the old video that I'm thinking of but it discussed some of the coming problems associated with a society of have's and have nots. Who is going to be better equipped to succeed? A child with the newest chipset implanted or a child with no chip at all?

These "Upgrade's" won't just be to make us smarter, they will make us faster, stronger, and better than an unmodified human is almost every way. Here are some examples of what is currently going on within this eventual cyborg dominated society.

This video shows how learning will be a simple matter of downloading Matrix style directly into the mind. It also shows a monkey equipped with an N1 chip playing pong using nothing but his mind.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

The day is rapidly approaching when humanity will merge with its own technology. This plan has been in motion for decades already, billions have been spent, and we are almost there now. I can't find the old video that I'm thinking of but it discussed some of the coming problems associated with a society of have's and have nots. Who is going to be better equipped to succeed? A child with the newest chipset implanted or a child with no chip at all?

These "Upgrade's" won't just be to make us smarter, they will make us faster, stronger, and better than an unmodified human is almost every way. Here are some examples of what is currently going on within this eventual cyborg dominated society.

This video shows how learning will be a simple matter of downloading Matrix style directly into the mind. It also shows a monkey equipped with an N1 chip playing pong using nothing but his mind.

Frightening shit on many levels. But things like overcoming paralysis and controlling prosthetic limbs are fuckin' awesome.

 

[MusterX]

Frightening shit on many levels. But things like overcoming paralysis and controlling prosthetic limbs are fuckin' awesome.

I timestamped this so you could see the beginning of the explanation. Remember in Upgrade when STEM takes control of Grey's body? Keep in mind, this video is six years old. So ancient in terms of what we know how to do now, because tech moves extremely rapidly. Watch this shit.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

I timestamped this so you could see the beginning of the explanation. Remember in Upgrade when STEM takes control of Grey's body? Keep in mind, this video is six years old. So ancient in terms of what we know how to do now, because tech moves extremely rapidly. Watch this shit.

Interesting. Makes me wonder if that's really anything to do with the brain per se, and just the result of tapping into an electrical signal that's then amplified through the gadgetry. Electrical stimuli in the right spot can certainly make a muscle contract.

 

[MusterX]

Interesting. Makes me wonder if that's really anything to do with the brain per se, and just the result of tapping into an electrical signal that's then amplified through the gadgetry. Electrical stimuli in the right spot can certainly make a muscle contract.

Well, if you watched to the end.....he tells her to relax her hand and he moves her arm up and down but nothing happens and he explains because its not her muscle response stimulating his arm, its her brain telling his arm to move.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

Well, if you watched to the end.....he tells her to relax her hand and he moves her arm up and down but nothing happens and he explains because its not her muscle response stimulating his arm, its her brain telling his arm to move.

I did. And when he moves her arm it's not because of any internal stimuli (that would subsequently be transferred to the Miguel). It's impulses in the presenter's muscles, who is not hooked up to the machine, that cause the movement.

 

[MusterX]

I did. And when he moves her arm it's not because of any internal stimuli (that would subsequently be transferred to the Miguel). It's impulses in the presenter's muscles, who is not hooked up to the machine, that cause the movement.

Well, he says that its her brain waves making his arm move. It wouldn't surprise me at all if we are on the verge of tech that could allow one human to control another humans movements with the proper chip installed. That's where we are headed. Elon Musk and his Neurolink is just one example, he isn't the only one working on these computer brain interface systems. If you take into account VR/AR, and Artificial Intelligence, and Robotics, and Nanotechnology, and computer brain interface systems, it seems like we are moving into a time period beyond what you can even envision right now. Talk about Manchurian Candidates, the C.I.A. is probably salivating and you know the government has tech sometimes decades ahead of what is available to the public.

 

[FyrFytr998]

Good flick. Watched it a couple of times.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

Well, he says that its her brain waves making his arm move. It wouldn't surprise me at all if we are on the verge of tech that could allow one human to control another humans movements with the proper chip installed. That's where we are headed. Elon Musk and his Neurolink is just one example, he isn't the only one working on these computer brain interface systems. If you take into account VR/AR, and Artificial Intelligence, and Robotics, and Nanotechnology, and computer brain interface systems, it seems like we are moving into a time period beyond what you can even envision right now. Talk about Manchurian Candidates, the C.I.A. is probably salivating and you know the government has tech sometimes decades ahead of what is available to the public.

Agreed that lots of crazy shit is in the works and I have no idea what will become commonplace in my lifetime.

As for this experiment, I'd be far more impressed if the electrodes were hooked up to her head and she was somehow able to make the other guy move just by thinking it.