In its first few minutes, "Transcendence" announces that somewhere in the near future, all of our technology will fail. In the opening of this sci-fi film, cell phones lie strewn across the street and keyboards are used to prop up doors, as people gather around barrel fires. It doesn't seem entirely bleak — people seem to be making do with whatever they can. But there is a pervasive, quiet sense that something has gone deeply wrong with humanity.
"Transcendence" then zips back several years, where we are introduced to our protagonists, a group of cognitive scientists and neuroscientists, led by Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp). They are less like scientists, however, and more like 21st century frontiersmen, hurtling forward in a quest to build a true artificial intelligence. Barely minutes after we've been introduced to them, the scientists are attacked by an anti-technology terrorist group known as RIFT. It initially seems Caster will survive his gunshot wound, but radiation poisoning in the bullet leaves him with weeks to live.
As he lies dying, his wife and partner Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) decides to save Will by uploading his consciousness into a computer using technology cobbled together from their work. Will's consciousness is soon networked to the entire Internet and grows and builds in startling new ways. Soon, old enemies — his fellow scientists, the anti-technology terrorist cell and the FBI — find a common goal: to stop Will and Evelyn before they are too powerful.
This is the first directorial feature from Wally Pfister, a cinematographer best known for his work on recent Christopher Nolan films like "Inception" (2010) and “The Dark Knight” trilogy. Nolan is listed as an executive producer, and his clean, new age science fiction influence is present throughout. Where Pfister borrows from Nolan in subgenre, however, he does not borrow in tone: "Transcendence" is a surprisingly quiet, contemplative film, with barely any action set pieces.
As a piece of speculative fiction, "Transcendence" is compelling, if unoriginal. It draws from a wealth of ideas across science and philosophy, incorporating them in an accessible way. Though some of the nuances are lost in the techno-babble, for the most part Pfister doesn't worry about explaining the specifics behind this technology. This is why, as a piece of science fiction, the film excels. It imaginatively uses the possibilities offered by cutting-edge science to ask deeper questions about our humanity. These are not particularly new questions — What is consciousness? What makes us human? Where does identity come from? — but like any good sci-fi film, "Transcendence" uses science to pose those questions in new ways.
What "Transcendence" is not, however, is a thriller. Although the foreboding soundtrack suggests something far more dramatic and apocalyptic, the film barely scales up from the initial scenes of scientists working quietly in their labs. There's no gunfight or massive catastrophe, and most of the action happens behind a screen or inside a small town. We know from the first scene that this story ends in a technology-less world, so the majority of the movie focuses on exploring how this future came to be. The story unfolds rather than builds, inviting the viewer deeper and deeper into the chaos of the Casters' actions.
While the subtle futuristic aesthetic of the film recalls Spike Jonze's "Her" (2013), its philosophizing core finds a much closer cousin in Ridley Scott's "Prometheus" (2012). Ultimately, "Transcendence" is more parable than anything. Its ambition oftentimes exceeds what this admittedly short story is able to achieve, but in a cinematic world where big questions are rarely posed so explicitly, Pfister's boldness is refreshing.
With a focus on such philosophical scope, most of the film's characters end up being narrowly and crudely defined, leaving some incredibly seasoned actors with very little to do: Paul Bettany and Morgan Freeman get only a few minutes to act as the conscience of humanity. Hall is the only actor to truly shine in the film, and her portrayal reveals her depth and nuance as an actress.
We know from the beginning that catastrophe is approaching, but "Transcendence" makes that journey interesting. It is a journey that turns out to be startlingly human, startlingly ordinary and startlingly heartbreaking. Sitting somewhere between horror and tragedy, the film is a fascinating meditation on consciousness, the desire for power, the mirror our technology offers us and our relationship with the harmony of the universe. It never fully matches its ambition, but such earnest, bold science fiction remains worth watching.
