A somewhat slow-paced, thought-provoking, atmospheric and artistic ground-breaking dystopian sci-fi film
Directed by George Lucas
Screenplay by George Lucas, Walter Murch
Story by George Lucas
Based on "Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB" by George Lucas
Produced by Lawrence Sturhahn
Cinematography: David Myers, Albert Kihn
Edited by George Lucas
Music by Lalo Schifrin
Production company: American Zoetrope
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Running time: 86 minutes
Budget: $777,777
Box office: $2.4 million
Cast
Donald Pleasence as SEN 5241
Maggie McOmie as LUH 3417
Don Pedro Colley as the hologram actor SRT 5752
Ian Wolfe as the old prisoner PTO
Marshall Efron as prisoner TWA
Sid Haig as prisoner NCH
John Pearce as prisoner DWY
James Wheaton as the voice of OMM 0000
Read on for more.....(Spoilers follow below...)
This was the kind of optimistic and naïve sense of the future that pervaded my thoughts as a child in the 1960s. I believed that by the late 20th century we’d have colonies on the moon and on Mars, that we’d be traveling around in flying cars and that we’d be living on earth in a Star Trek technological utopia. With the first human footprints on the moon anything seemed possible and that a wonderful world of the future could be attained in which our scientific and mechanical dreams would come true…….
After almost six decades later journeying along a path consisting of a countless series and combination of ‘here and now’ possible moments in time, a different less optimistic and naïve probable future outcome may result for humanity. Our destiny may not lie in our confident outward advance into the cosmos, but may instead find us retreating ever inward into a subterranean global sterile, technological and conformist tyranny. A lot may depend on our choice of the combinations of myriad ‘here and now’ possibilities.
For now, let us turn the dial “to project us ahead in time” to just one possible future……..
Sitting at their jobs in central video control center is SEN 5241 and LUH 3417 who keep surveillance on the city and its population.
LUH’s male roommate is THX 1138, who works in a factory producing android police officers, the very technology that’s used to enforce his and the rest of society’s compliance with the laws.
TV monitor surveillance presents us with a distorted point of view shot from inside a small medicine cabinet. When the door opens, it reveals the face of a shaven-headed THX 1138. Somewhat ironically a male voice asks him, “What's wrong?” The answer to that question becomes blaring obvious over the course of the film, but in this instance, the answer lies in a bottle of pills. THX replies that he feels lousy and needs something stronger.
THX has been experiencing problems with maintaining his concentration at work. As he is working, a voice over the intercom congratulates THX and his fellow workers as there has been an accident in another competing sector that, “destroyed 63 personal, giving them a total of 242 lost to our 195,” in this work shift. Human beings reduced to statistics, human life placed at the disposal of the requirements of economics and the incidence of death being normalized. (“What’s wrong?”)
On his way home from work, THX stops by a store filled with yellow, blue and red hexagonal shapes, the colors of which stand in stark contrast to the all-pervading sterile whiteness of everything. THX purchases a red item which as we will see later, he discards without any hesitation. Despite the false promise offered by the colorful trinkets, they are symptomatic of the hollow and sterile nature of the consumer society that produces them. Produce, buy, consume. The individual’s function is to be a consumer of things which he is told he must want whether or not the things have any real value, meaning or function. They are simply exhorted to “Buy more. Buy more now. Buy and be happy.” (“What’s wrong?")
Just before reaching home, he stops by an Uni-chapel. He enters a small confession booth (one of many) that resembles a public telephone booth. As the door closes, an image which we might identify as being the face of Jesus Christ is illuminated by florescent lights. As if he were confessing his sins to a priest, THX relates his troubles stating that he is disoriented and can’t concentrate and that his mate is acting strangely. He also admits to needing more sedatives than normal.
We soon begin to realize from our own experience that THX is communicating with little more than an AI program or Chat bot equivalent that’s been programmed to provide prompts to elicit further communication and to provide standardized propaganda, platitudes and slogans as interactive-sounding responses:
“Yes, yes I understand.”
“Could you be more specific?
“You are a true believer, blessings of the masses, thou art a subject of the divine, created in the image of man, by the masses, for the masses.”
“Let us be thankful we have an occupation to fill. Work hard, increase production, prevent accidents, and be happy.”
As if to confirm our suspicions, we see a tape recorder playing back "OMM 0000’s" voice. God apparently has become a mass of wiring and electronics and THX like all members of society are “a subject of the divine, created in the image of man by the masses, for the masses.” (“What’s wrong?”)
Without drugs in his system, THX falters during a critical and hazardous phase of his job where he manages to drop some radioactive material. Someone in control center measures his biological signs and determines that he has a severe sedation depletion. A "mind lock" is then engaged on THX which raises the level of danger as he cannot pick up the material he dropped. Unless the mind lock is released, an explosion will result. After the release of the mind lock, THX makes the required correction to that work phase.
At THX’s trial, he is charged with “drug evasion, malicious sexual perversion and transgression.” Two lawyers debate the punishment, using few words robotically delivered staccato fashion as if they are themselves automatons. The subject of the “trial,” THX is not permitted to speak in his own defense. His guilt has already been determined and all that is to be decided is whether or not he is to be “destroyed” as a “source of sin.” THX is ultimately convicted, “pronounced incurable, and shall be conditioned and held in detention.” - The implacable logic of an insane system in which the real crime consists of defying the dehumanizing and conformist dictates of the State.
As an individual who has transgressed the norms of conformity and compliance of his society, THX’s treatment stands in sharp relief to the all-pervading whiteness of his detention surroundings.
THX wakes up with a start as he hears footsteps and begins to panic as they approach, growing louder and louder. Suddenly, a robot chrome-faced policeman appears holding a long electronic prod. THX runs frantically and futilely in circles as two more policemen appear also brandishing electric prods and proceed to surround him.
Slowly closing in on THX, the three robo-cops prod him with the long poles causing him extreme pain. The irony of this is not lost on us as it was THX’s job to work on and construct these very instruments of his own torture and imprisonment.
We next see THX sitting alone in a vast white room as viewed through a television monitor. He is strapped down on to an analysis table within a room full of mechanical and medical apparatus. The chrome and white enamel underscores the sterile, clinical and impersonal nature of his treatment which is a reflection of the kind of society that views people as little more than pliable lab rats. In the background two technicians talk casually about the equipment they are using, none of which makes any sense. As they play with the buttons and knobs, THX is thrown into convulsions and screams with pain while the technicians mildly talk about the different types of consoles they’ve used. This stands in stark contrast to the pain they are causing THX- a designation that removes his humanity and therefore any need for empathy. Impersonal technology is interposed between the technicians and the subject of their actions further removing the need to feel empathy for a fellow human being's sufferings.
What to do when faced with the crushing pervasiveness of an insane dehumanizing system? When legal recourse is meaningless as the legal framework reflects the insane logic of that system? When the broader population is rendered compliant by the medical, media and economic organs of power in service of the needs of the State?
Could it be up to the lunatics to take over the asylum?
• “The mumblings of an old man” who spent his “level-headed” life watching but never acting?
• The raging impulsive fool who’d jump up and down on a single robo-cop’s head? And then what?
• The rage-filled hot-head who longs “to thrash out, to tear down, to destroy and annihilate, to ravage, wreak havoc and plunder?” And then what?
• Wannabe leaders waiting for that “one idea” to “get us out of here” but in the meantime fall back on making stirring grand speeches and believing their own rhetoric while achieving nothing?
• Or perhaps those filled with the positivism of mindfulness and acceptance and so are able to fashion a “veritable paradise” for themselves right here in their prison?
It seems that THX is not interested in the mantra of “we're all in this together.” The ‘lunatic’ dissenters have been excluded from society and cast out into a purposeless white void of impotent irrelevance. Yes indeed, in this sense they are in this together and no doubt will never escape from whatever and wherever "this" is. THX, on the other hand is simply intent on being with LUH, the one he loves and on finding a way out – to leave, to opt-out, find the exit, to escape to another place.
THX with Sen in tow, eventually meet a hologram named SRT. The three men locate the exit only to discover somewhat surprisingly that it doesn’t have any alarms or locks. There is no need for any as it is the men’s lack of will to escape that was keeping them prisoner.
Beyond the white void and isolation of the detention area, the three men fall into and get swept up in the onrushing mindless tide of humanity – a metaphor for the individual’s predicament in that society. The current is too strong for SEN who becomes separated from SRT and THX.
Capture of the three felons is soon initiated and is to be determined like most things by economics in the form of a budget which must not be exceeded.
SEN makes his way through the maze of tunnels and boards a transit vehicle that takes him to the city limits. He exits the tram and proceeds further on foot but any bid for freedom is soon curtailed by the sound of the tram’s horn reminding him of his inability to function outside of the only system he knows.
SEN eventually makes his way to an area that seems to be devoted to televising services dedicated to OMM. We witness a pathetic Sen kneeling down in prayer to a false and manufactured media prophet of a false and manufactured State ‘religion.’ His fervent wish is to belong and be useful instead of feeling different. A monk soon notices that SEN is in the restricted area and has no identification badge. In desperation and panic SEN attacks him and runs off back to……..
……...the only system that will ever be known by the children that Sen watches as he sits patiently without purpose or direction waiting to be arrested. While he helps one of the children with his IV line connected to a small bottle that reads “advanced primary economics,” he tells the children gathered around him of his childhood where primary economics was a ten-liter bottle and took a week of lying in bed. Their condition is seen in terms of progress and of things seemingly getting better. Their sense of history does not extend to making comparisons, drawing conclusions and analyzing based on knowledge of alternatives to how life had been and could be lived.
While SEN is being escorted away by the robo-cops, SRT and THX are pursued by a couple of other members of the mechanical constabulary. In a control center room they enter, SRT and THX use the computers to locate LUH. Sadly, they discover that “LUH” has been reassigned number 66691 to a fetus in a growth chamber. Put simply, LUH has been "consumed" suggesting that she has been eliminated. She is not the only one as both men discover the existence of bodies with much of their insides missing! People are viewed merely as being an economic resource to be used, essentially mentally and physically harvested.
SRT wonders out loud whether holograms are supposed to understand things like “cybernetics, genetics, lasers and all those things.” It appears that it is not just holograms that “aren’t supposed to understand that stuff.” People may work with that “stuff” but are not meant to understand its nature, the inherent consequences it has for those who use it and the detrimental effect it has on society and those subject to it.
A bit later SRT and THX locate a couple of high speed cars which they intend to use to effect their escape. Unfortunately, SRT is unable to comprehend the controls of his car and crashes it into a support pylon. THX however manages to successfully drive through the tunnels while being pursued by a couple of robo-cops on motor cycles.
Eventually THX reaches the end of the tunnels and begins to climb up out of the city via a ventilation shaft. Behind him, the pursuing robo-cops call out to him to return saying they want only to help him and he cannot survive outside the city. Undeterred, THX continues to climb while the robo-cops have no choice but to return to the city as the budget allocated for recapturing THX has been exceeded.
As the film ends, we see THX-1138 emerge from the darkness of the tunnel and the artificial subterranean world below into the glowing natural light of the setting sun. A bird flies overhead signifying the existence of life and knowledge that all he has been told was a lie……..
The following is in the form of a ‘found’-style poem consisting entirely of dialogue taken directly from various scenes of the film:
What's Wrong?
What's wrong?
Almost the entire cast were required to shave their heads, either completely bald or with a buzz cut. Some actors were filmed having their first haircuts/shaves at unusual venues, which were used in a promotional featurette titled Bald: The Making of THX 1138.
To provide the large number of extras required, George Lucas contacted the Synanon drug rehabilitation facility where many recovering drug users were required to be shaved bald for the drug program.
Most locations for filming were in the San Francisco area, including the unfinished tunnels of the Bay Area Rapid Transit subway system, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley and the San Francisco International Airport. Studio sequences were shot at stages in Los Angeles.
The chase scene featured two Lola T70 Mk III race cars with the pursuing motor bikes being Yamaha TA125/250cc two-stroke, race-replica motorcycles. The chase occurred through two San Francisco Bay Area automotive tunnels: the Caldecott Tunnel between Oakland and Orinda; and the underwater Posey Tube between Oakland and Alameda. The cars reportedly drove at speeds of 140 miles per hour (230 km/h) during the filming of the chase.
The part where the motorcyclist crashes involved Stuntman Duffy Hambleton riding his police motorcycle full speed into a fallen paint stand. While performing this amazing stunt, Hambleton flew over the handlebars, was hit by the airborne motorcycle, landed in the street on his back, and slammed into the crashed car. Fortunately, it turned out that the stunt man was perfectly fine, apart from being angry with the people who had run into the shot to check on him and might have risked ruining the whole effect of the stunt.
The scenes of THX at work were shot in front of a functioning radiation containment chamber known as a "hot cell", which was used by those who handled radioactive materials such as isotopes.
THX's final climb out to the daylight from the ventilation shaft was filmed (with the camera rotated 90°) in the incomplete Bay Area Rapid Transit Transbay Tube before installation of the track supports. The actors made use of exposed reinforcing bars on the floor of the tunnel as a ladder.
The final scene, of THX standing bathed by the light of the sunset, was shot at Port Hueneme, California.
On completion of editing of the film, producer Coppola took it to Warner Bros., where the studio executives who disliked the final film insisted that Coppola turn over the negative to an in-house Warner editor, who cut about 4 minutes of the film prior to release. In addition to the cut, the marketing budget was reduced.
Many of the electronic sound effects heard throughout the film consist of telephone dial tones that have been pitch-shifted, and electronically modified.
The music playing during the end credits is the first movement from Johann Sebastian Bach's St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244.
It has been suggested that George Lucas named the film after his San Francisco telephone number, 849-1138 with the letters THX corresponding to letters found on the buttons 8, 4, and 9.
One possible explanation for the character names, THX, SEN, and LUH are that they are close homonyms for “sex,” “sin,” and “love,” the very concepts that set the characters apart from society.
The image of OMM in the confessional booths is a cropped image of Hans Memling's painting, "Christ Giving His Blessing" (1481.)
The letters "THX" we all well know as a cinema sound certification.
Some of SEN's dialogue in the film included excerpts from speeches by former president Richard Nixon in keeping with the era in which the film was made.
I found it somewhat difficult to establish a real connection with the characters and the story despite the film’s compelling premise. The film relied a lot on dialogue at the expense of an engaging story to carry the audience along. TXH 1138 has more of the feel of a rather slow-paced but thought-provoking, atmospheric and largely artistic experimental project.
THX 1138 PDF/Ebook (Link)
A dystopian future in which people are controlled through the use of android police and mandated use of drugs to suppress emotions.
A uniform and homogeneous world that suppresses
individuality and love.
A sterile bleak future where unquestioning conformity is the rule.
THX 1138 is a citizen of that future society living the reality imposed by the State until the time arrives when his perception of that reality begins to change.
Trailer
“Buck Rogers in the 20th century!
Buck Rogers, now adventuring in the amazing world of the 20th century.
By turning the dial to project us ahead in time...
...we're able to be with Buck and friends in the wonderful world of the future.
A world that sees a lot of our scientific and mechanical dreams come true.”
After almost six decades later journeying along a path consisting of a countless series and combination of ‘here and now’ possible moments in time, a different less optimistic and naïve probable future outcome may result for humanity. Our destiny may not lie in our confident outward advance into the cosmos, but may instead find us retreating ever inward into a subterranean global sterile, technological and conformist tyranny. A lot may depend on our choice of the combinations of myriad ‘here and now’ possibilities.
For now, let us turn the dial “to project us ahead in time” to just one possible future……..
….a future where sexual intercourse and reproduction are prohibited.
….a future where the use of mind-altering drugs is mandatory.
….a future where compliance among the citizenry is enforced.
….a future where emotions and the idea of family are forbidden.
….a future where uniformity is emphasized with workers required to wear identical white uniforms and have their heads shaven.
….a future in which people have been reduced to bits of data with identity badges bearing three letter prefixes and four digits instead of names.
Are you beginning to feel just a tad uncomfortable?
Sitting at their jobs in central video control center is SEN 5241 and LUH 3417 who keep surveillance on the city and its population.
“Take four red capsules. In 10 minutes, take two more. Help is on the way.”
TV monitor surveillance presents us with a distorted point of view shot from inside a small medicine cabinet. When the door opens, it reveals the face of a shaven-headed THX 1138. Somewhat ironically a male voice asks him, “What's wrong?” The answer to that question becomes blaring obvious over the course of the film, but in this instance, the answer lies in a bottle of pills. THX replies that he feels lousy and needs something stronger.
THX has been experiencing problems with maintaining his concentration at work. As he is working, a voice over the intercom congratulates THX and his fellow workers as there has been an accident in another competing sector that, “destroyed 63 personal, giving them a total of 242 lost to our 195,” in this work shift. Human beings reduced to statistics, human life placed at the disposal of the requirements of economics and the incidence of death being normalized. (“What’s wrong?”)
“Blue dendrites are only 47 credits, buy now”
On his way home from work, THX stops by a store filled with yellow, blue and red hexagonal shapes, the colors of which stand in stark contrast to the all-pervading sterile whiteness of everything. THX purchases a red item which as we will see later, he discards without any hesitation. Despite the false promise offered by the colorful trinkets, they are symptomatic of the hollow and sterile nature of the consumer society that produces them. Produce, buy, consume. The individual’s function is to be a consumer of things which he is told he must want whether or not the things have any real value, meaning or function. They are simply exhorted to “Buy more. Buy more now. Buy and be happy.” (“What’s wrong?")
“For the Party and for all, masses are what we are.”
Just before reaching home, he stops by an Uni-chapel. He enters a small confession booth (one of many) that resembles a public telephone booth. As the door closes, an image which we might identify as being the face of Jesus Christ is illuminated by florescent lights. As if he were confessing his sins to a priest, THX relates his troubles stating that he is disoriented and can’t concentrate and that his mate is acting strangely. He also admits to needing more sedatives than normal.
“Yes, yes I understand.”
“Could you be more specific?
“You are a true believer, blessings of the masses, thou art a subject of the divine, created in the image of man, by the masses, for the masses.”
“Let us be thankful we have an occupation to fill. Work hard, increase production, prevent accidents, and be happy.”
As if to confirm our suspicions, we see a tape recorder playing back "OMM 0000’s" voice. God apparently has become a mass of wiring and electronics and THX like all members of society are “a subject of the divine, created in the image of man by the masses, for the masses.” (“What’s wrong?”)
“They know. They've been watching us. I can feel it.”
At home, THX watches a holo-broadcast during which he masturbates. The video is of a police robot rhythmically beating a man, the sound of which pervades the scene, a constant reminder of what the state can do to the errant powerless individual who transgresses the established order of things. It seems also as if pornography and sadomasochism is used as a form of controlled release in conjunction with the mandatory use of drugs to keep the populace calm and compliant.
In a later broadcast we hear the following: “The theater of noise is proof of our potential. The circulation of prototypes. The golden talisman underfoot is phenomenon approaching. And in the history of now... all ethos are designed.” Language with structure and syntax but devoid of meaning and sense. This is the kind of babbling nonsense that washes over the viewing audience via the media broadcasts and this all-pervasive noise is apparently accepted as signifying…..something? Sound kind of familiar?
Meanwhile THX’s roommate, LUH secretly substitutes her pills for THX's medications, causing him to develop nausea, anxiety, and sexual desires. Unlike THX, LUH displays emotions, especially fear and anxiety and she is also “birth born.” LUH runs the risk of being arrested for “criminal drug evasion” for changing the drug doses.
THX suffers more and more from the chemical imbalance in his body brought on by the change to his drug intake. As a result, he can no longer adequately perform his duties at work.
A return visit to the Uni-chapel, merely provides THX with much the same series of mechanical replies from Omm along with exhortations to buy more and be happy.
THX eventually learns that LUH has been interfering with his medication in order for him to care about her, to have feelings for her, to reach out and touch her and to love her. Although THX did not want to get involved with LUH initially, now that the effects of the medication have worn off, he realizes that he does care for her.
Just by having sex and expressing their love for each other, THX and LUH are both asserting their freedom but are also committing a felony, an even more heinous offense than drug evasion.
It later turns out that SEN 5241’s roommate was eliminated due to some unspecified reason, and as he is impressed by THX’s sanitation rating, SEN wants him as a roommate. Of course, this will necessitate the removal of LUH from the picture via a shift change. Wishing to stay with LUH, THX files a complaint against SEN for an illegal shift pattern change.
“1138 suffering severe sedation depletion, which requires mindlock and arrest.”
“1138 THX is charged with violation appendix 445 to 613, index 78.7”
At THX’s trial, he is charged with “drug evasion, malicious sexual perversion and transgression.” Two lawyers debate the punishment, using few words robotically delivered staccato fashion as if they are themselves automatons. The subject of the “trial,” THX is not permitted to speak in his own defense. His guilt has already been determined and all that is to be decided is whether or not he is to be “destroyed” as a “source of sin.” THX is ultimately convicted, “pronounced incurable, and shall be conditioned and held in detention.” - The implacable logic of an insane system in which the real crime consists of defying the dehumanizing and conformist dictates of the State.
As an individual who has transgressed the norms of conformity and compliance of his society, THX’s treatment stands in sharp relief to the all-pervading whiteness of his detention surroundings.
Slowly closing in on THX, the three robo-cops prod him with the long poles causing him extreme pain. The irony of this is not lost on us as it was THX’s job to work on and construct these very instruments of his own torture and imprisonment.
THX is soon reduced to a huddled, quivering weeping ball of desperation by these dispassionate impersonal technological enforcers of the State’s will.
“1138Thx …..Diagnosis-compatible….. Rate: Excellent….. Exceptions: Left kidney.”
After the procedure while sitting alone, THX is found by LUH who tells him that she is pregnant. Their time together is brief, however because the police robots have come to take THX is to a detention center.
“Where you going?”
“I'm leaving.”
“Leaving? Leaving what?
You can't leave. You can't go.”
The detention center is like much of society - awash with the infinite vast monotony of whiteness. THX finds himself with several other incurable offenders, including SEN whom he earlier reported to the authorities.Could it be up to the lunatics to take over the asylum?
• “The mumblings of an old man” who spent his “level-headed” life watching but never acting?
• The raging impulsive fool who’d jump up and down on a single robo-cop’s head? And then what?
• The rage-filled hot-head who longs “to thrash out, to tear down, to destroy and annihilate, to ravage, wreak havoc and plunder?” And then what?
• Wannabe leaders waiting for that “one idea” to “get us out of here” but in the meantime fall back on making stirring grand speeches and believing their own rhetoric while achieving nothing?
• Or perhaps those filled with the positivism of mindfulness and acceptance and so are able to fashion a “veritable paradise” for themselves right here in their prison?
It seems that THX is not interested in the mantra of “we're all in this together.” The ‘lunatic’ dissenters have been excluded from society and cast out into a purposeless white void of impotent irrelevance. Yes indeed, in this sense they are in this together and no doubt will never escape from whatever and wherever "this" is. THX, on the other hand is simply intent on being with LUH, the one he loves and on finding a way out – to leave, to opt-out, find the exit, to escape to another place.
“It's a man. He's waving. He's waving to us.”
“Keep causeways clean. Save time, save lives.”
Beyond the white void and isolation of the detention area, the three men fall into and get swept up in the onrushing mindless tide of humanity – a metaphor for the individual’s predicament in that society. The current is too strong for SEN who becomes separated from SRT and THX.
Capture of the three felons is soon initiated and is to be determined like most things by economics in the form of a budget which must not be exceeded.
SEN makes his way through the maze of tunnels and boards a transit vehicle that takes him to the city limits. He exits the tram and proceeds further on foot but any bid for freedom is soon curtailed by the sound of the tram’s horn reminding him of his inability to function outside of the only system he knows.
“Things don't seem to make sense. Sometimes I see things get left out and they don't fit.”
SEN eventually makes his way to an area that seems to be devoted to televising services dedicated to OMM. We witness a pathetic Sen kneeling down in prayer to a false and manufactured media prophet of a false and manufactured State ‘religion.’ His fervent wish is to belong and be useful instead of feeling different. A monk soon notices that SEN is in the restricted area and has no identification badge. In desperation and panic SEN attacks him and runs off back to……..
……...the only system that will ever be known by the children that Sen watches as he sits patiently without purpose or direction waiting to be arrested. While he helps one of the children with his IV line connected to a small bottle that reads “advanced primary economics,” he tells the children gathered around him of his childhood where primary economics was a ten-liter bottle and took a week of lying in bed. Their condition is seen in terms of progress and of things seemingly getting better. Their sense of history does not extend to making comparisons, drawing conclusions and analyzing based on knowledge of alternatives to how life had been and could be lived.
“I don't know. It's a strange life.”
SRT wonders out loud whether holograms are supposed to understand things like “cybernetics, genetics, lasers and all those things.” It appears that it is not just holograms that “aren’t supposed to understand that stuff.” People may work with that “stuff” but are not meant to understand its nature, the inherent consequences it has for those who use it and the detrimental effect it has on society and those subject to it.
What's Wrong?
What's wrong?
It's a strange life
I always wanted to be part of the real world…...So I left.
So I left.
I left.
Yes, yes I understand.
Could you be more specific?
They know. They've been watching us. I can feel it.
Most men failed to realize that anything had happened at all,
So I left.
You are engaged in an unauthorized procedure;
Remain where you are.
Violation appendix 445 to 613, index 78.7!
Drug evasion,
Malicious sexual perversion
And transgression!
Take four red capsules.
In 10 minutes, take two more.
Help is on the way.
I wanna do the right thing.
You are a true believer,
I always wanted to be part of the real world…...So I left.
So I left.
I left.
Yes, yes I understand.
Could you be more specific?
They know. They've been watching us. I can feel it.
Most men failed to realize that anything had happened at all,
So I left.
You are engaged in an unauthorized procedure;
Remain where you are.
Violation appendix 445 to 613, index 78.7!
Drug evasion,
Malicious sexual perversion
And transgression!
Take four red capsules.
In 10 minutes, take two more.
Help is on the way.
I wanna do the right thing.
You are a true believer,
Blessings of the masses.
Thou art a subject of the divine,
Created in the image of man,
Thou art a subject of the divine,
Created in the image of man,
By the masses, for the masses.
I wanna go back. I can start again.
Let us be thankful we have an occupation to fill.
Work hard;
I wanna go back. I can start again.
Let us be thankful we have an occupation to fill.
Work hard;
Increase production;
Prevent accidents,
And be happy.
I can change. I can help.
Congratulations.
I can change. I can help.
Congratulations.
Be efficient be happy.
I always wanted to be part of the real world
…...So I left.
We're all in this together.
Things don't seem to make sense.
Sometimes I see things get left out and they don't fit.
Where you going?
I'm leaving.
Leaving? Leaving what?
You can't leave. You can't go.
We are not going to harm you.
Everything will be all right.
Changeable.
Alterable.
Mutable.
Variable.
Versatile.
Moldable.
Movable.
Fluctuate.
Undulate.
Flicker.
Flutter.
Pulsate.
Vibrate.
Alternate.
Plastic.
Please come back.
You have nothing to be afraid of.
I always wanted to be part of the real world
…...So I left.
You have nowhere to go.
This is your last chance.
He's waving. He's waving to us.
Source of sin!
…...So I left.
THX 1138 was director George Lucas’ feature film directorial debut. It was developed from Lucas's student short project film "Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB", which he made in 1967 while attending the USC School of Cinematic Arts. George Lucas may have adapted the idea for the short from a one and a half page outline called "Breakout", which was written by fellow USC student Matthew Robbins, about a man escaping an underground dystopian society.
Having won significant praise and attention for his unconventional short, Lucas was given the opportunity to direct a feature-length version starring Robert Duvall, produced by his mentor Francis Ford Coppola under his newly formed production company, "American Zoetrope." The film was finally produced in a joint venture between Warner Bros. and American Zoetrope. A novelization by Ben Bova was published in 1971 and a director's cut of the film was released in 2004.
I always wanted to be part of the real world
…...So I left.
We're all in this together.
Things don't seem to make sense.
Sometimes I see things get left out and they don't fit.
Where you going?
I'm leaving.
Leaving? Leaving what?
You can't leave. You can't go.
We are not going to harm you.
Everything will be all right.
Changeable.
Alterable.
Mutable.
Variable.
Versatile.
Moldable.
Movable.
Fluctuate.
Undulate.
Flicker.
Flutter.
Pulsate.
Vibrate.
Alternate.
Plastic.
Please come back.
You have nothing to be afraid of.
I always wanted to be part of the real world
…...So I left.
You have nowhere to go.
This is your last chance.
He's waving. He's waving to us.
Source of sin!
…...So I left.
**************
Points Of Interest
THX 1138 was director George Lucas’ feature film directorial debut. It was developed from Lucas's student short project film "Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB", which he made in 1967 while attending the USC School of Cinematic Arts. George Lucas may have adapted the idea for the short from a one and a half page outline called "Breakout", which was written by fellow USC student Matthew Robbins, about a man escaping an underground dystopian society.
Electronic Labyrinth THX 1138 4EB, Lucas's Original Student Film 1967
Having won significant praise and attention for his unconventional short, Lucas was given the opportunity to direct a feature-length version starring Robert Duvall, produced by his mentor Francis Ford Coppola under his newly formed production company, "American Zoetrope." The film was finally produced in a joint venture between Warner Bros. and American Zoetrope. A novelization by Ben Bova was published in 1971 and a director's cut of the film was released in 2004.
Almost the entire cast were required to shave their heads, either completely bald or with a buzz cut. Some actors were filmed having their first haircuts/shaves at unusual venues, which were used in a promotional featurette titled Bald: The Making of THX 1138.
To provide the large number of extras required, George Lucas contacted the Synanon drug rehabilitation facility where many recovering drug users were required to be shaved bald for the drug program.
Most locations for filming were in the San Francisco area, including the unfinished tunnels of the Bay Area Rapid Transit subway system, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley and the San Francisco International Airport. Studio sequences were shot at stages in Los Angeles.
The part where the motorcyclist crashes involved Stuntman Duffy Hambleton riding his police motorcycle full speed into a fallen paint stand. While performing this amazing stunt, Hambleton flew over the handlebars, was hit by the airborne motorcycle, landed in the street on his back, and slammed into the crashed car. Fortunately, it turned out that the stunt man was perfectly fine, apart from being angry with the people who had run into the shot to check on him and might have risked ruining the whole effect of the stunt.
THX's final climb out to the daylight from the ventilation shaft was filmed (with the camera rotated 90°) in the incomplete Bay Area Rapid Transit Transbay Tube before installation of the track supports. The actors made use of exposed reinforcing bars on the floor of the tunnel as a ladder.
The final scene, of THX standing bathed by the light of the sunset, was shot at Port Hueneme, California.
On completion of editing of the film, producer Coppola took it to Warner Bros., where the studio executives who disliked the final film insisted that Coppola turn over the negative to an in-house Warner editor, who cut about 4 minutes of the film prior to release. In addition to the cut, the marketing budget was reduced.
Many of the electronic sound effects heard throughout the film consist of telephone dial tones that have been pitch-shifted, and electronically modified.
The music playing during the end credits is the first movement from Johann Sebastian Bach's St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244.
It has been suggested that George Lucas named the film after his San Francisco telephone number, 849-1138 with the letters THX corresponding to letters found on the buttons 8, 4, and 9.
One possible explanation for the character names, THX, SEN, and LUH are that they are close homonyms for “sex,” “sin,” and “love,” the very concepts that set the characters apart from society.
The image of OMM in the confessional booths is a cropped image of Hans Memling's painting, "Christ Giving His Blessing" (1481.)
The letters "THX" we all well know as a cinema sound certification.
Some of SEN's dialogue in the film included excerpts from speeches by former president Richard Nixon in keeping with the era in which the film was made.
I found it somewhat difficult to establish a real connection with the characters and the story despite the film’s compelling premise. The film relied a lot on dialogue at the expense of an engaging story to carry the audience along. TXH 1138 has more of the feel of a rather slow-paced but thought-provoking, atmospheric and largely artistic experimental project.
THX 1138 is a very gloomy dystopian work in a similar vein to Orwell’s "1984" and Huxley's "Brave New World," along with films like "Gattaca" (1997). Such works force the audience to think and consider what exactly is happening, why particular choices are made and what it all means. A very difficult balancing act between this aspect of intelligent film making and the temptation to inundate the audience with constant on-screen action and infantile messaging.
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