Futureworld (1976)

Two years after the robot malfunction at Delos, the company has reopened with new safety protocols but visitors have been low.  To help restore confidence in the park, the company has invited the press to write honest articles or TV news reports that Delos is certain will be favorable.  Chuck Browning (Peter Fonda) and Tracy Ballard (Blythe Danner) travel together to the park.  They have a history though are not currently a couple.  Chuck had written a scathing article regarding Delos and is certain to be more skeptical than Tracy.  Prior to the trip to Delos, Chuck had a meeting with a former employee but the man is near dead when he arrives.  His last word is 'Delos.'  Chuck is going to dig deep.

Though Medieval World and Roman World have been reopened, Westworld remains closed as it reportedly saw the first robot kill a human.  Doctor Duffy reports that 50 guests and nearly 100 employees were killed during the malfunction.  Two new worlds - Spa World and Future World - have been added to the options.  Chuck and Tracy visit Future World which starts out with a rocket launch to a space station.  There are a variety of high tech games and opportunities to ski on Mars or walk on the moon.  And that mostly ends the park aspects.

Unlike the previous movie where the characters spent much of their time interacting in the historical setting while things slowly went wrong, this movie mostly abandons the theme parks in favor of crawling about the tunnel system beneath them.  Eventually, they stumble upon Harry Croft (Stuart Margolin), one of the few remaining human employees and someone who was working during the robot malfunction.  Harry knows his way around the tunnels and has access to every place.  Well, except for this one area.  Hmm.

As is painfully obvious by this point in the film, Delos is replacing high ranking or useful visitors with clones.  The newly created clones are instructed to dispose of their original.  Thus, we have Tracy vs. Tracy and Chuck vs. Chuck.  But it's an even fight since the replacements aren't superpowered robots.  Um, this doesn't seem like a good plan.  Gee, since Delos had drugged them and done hours of scanning on the unconscious targets, why wouldn't you just do that again and send the clone?  The mind-numbing stupidity of the plan immediately ruins the movie.

Yul Brynner returns in a dream sequence where he rescues Tracy from the red-clad med techs who scanned and probed her.  That was a weird and pointless tangent.

Mediocre.

Turn Off the Robot

Here is an interesting study about turning off robots.  When the robot begged to not be turned off, humans hesitated or even complied with the robot.  Does this bode ill for the future?  Probably not.  As robots become more common and people become familiar with how they operate, this experiment will likely flip.  Turning off a robot will become no more unusual than turning off the TV or a computer.  If only the folks at Westworld could have installed an off switch...

Westworld - Season 2

At the end of last season, the hosts had achieved sentience and were now rampaging.  The second season picks up from there and continues the multiple timelines to confuse the narrative.  Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) is searching for her father and also out to destroy humanity.  Bernard (Jeffery Wright) is suffering dementia, not sure what side he is on.  Maeve (Thandie Newton) is trying to reconnect with her daughter and discovering how to mind control any host near her.  The Man in Black (Ed Harris) has no idea what he is doing but is quite determined to get it done.  Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins) is dead but is still a ghost in the machine.

The big problem with the series is that our 'heroes' are robots.  Moreover, it is repeatedly demonstrated that they are reprogrammable robots.  Maeve becomes a genius because she moves a slider on her attributes page.  Teddy (James Marsden) is turned into a cold-blooded killer by altering a different set of sliders.  Hosts only have memories because the programmers at Westworld are too stupid to clear the cache files.  They have hundreds of unusable robots in the basement because they can't figure out how to put in a new hard drive or reinstall the operating system.

 

A second major problem is that humans are evil or stupid, often both.  In order to make the audience root for the robots, it becomes necessary to paint humanity as villainous.  Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson) gladly murders people if they stand in her way.  Robert Ford did the same last season.  If they aren't evil, they are stupid.  Simon (Lee Sizemore) offers to provide a rearguard so that robot Maeve can rejoin her robot daughter, thus following the programming that Simon wrote.  Simon walks into gunfire while spouting idiotic lines that he wrote for one of the hosts.  Look how much he has grown over the two series: from miserable jerk to a man who will sacrifice himself for a glorified toaster.

 

Next, why don't the humans have guns that will kill hosts?  It's like the guys in Jurassic World who didn't have guns that could kill dinosaurs.  You are here to fight the robots but didn't bring weapons that make you vastly superior to the robots?  Again, humans are just stupid.

 

When the human-robot war comes, I plan to be on the human side.  Westworld is on the robots' side.  As such, not particularly eager to see season three.

Westworld (HBO season finale)

Spoilers follow so be warned.

The 10th and final episode for the season has started a war between humans and hosts, explained the fate of Arnold, and even saw the retirement of Robert Ford.  The show has generally vilified humans while making heroes out of the robots.  Even so, I want the humans to win.

Perhaps I missed something but I am mystified by Arnold's thinking.  He holds that the hosts are conscious - or will soon become so - and that a life as a host in a repetitive loop which frequently ends in rape or death would be a hellish existence.  He tried to convince Robert of this but failed.  Okay, your partner wants to open the park.  In order to prevent him, you 'kill' all the hosts and commit suicide by host.  Why the suicide?  He mentions something along the lines that Robert can't recreate the hosts without him.  Okay, why does that require your death?  His reasoning is terrible.  Worse yet, Robert repeats it!  Shortly after Arnold's death, Robert sees that consciousness is coming but they need time.  Finally, the time has come.  The hosts have been achieving consciousness and 'going insane' and Robert has allowed it.  To signify that a new phase in Westworld, he has the same host kill him as killed Arnold.  What?  What is with these suicidal robot-builders?

So the bottom line is that a couple of men built robots and decided that the robots needed to be free.  Arnold thought genocide of the robots was the best option.  Robert thought that slaughtering the humans was the better choice.  In the end, we are expected to side with the robots in their effort to exterminate or subjugate the humans.  It's the next civil rights struggle.

 

On another point, there is the Man in Black, who proves to be an aged William.  He repeatedly says that Westworld is the most real thing but is annoyed that the hosts can't really fight back.  Humans always win.  Then how is this the most real thing?  Do you want to lose a gunfight?  Apparently.  Though wounded, he was still alive by the end and may have the opportunity to lose next season.

Many questions remain unanswered.  Why kill Theresa?  You've foiled her plot to get data out of the park via rogue hosts.  If you know you are going to launch Operation: Host Rebellion in a few days, why not let her live until then?  Why kill Elsie?  Elsie has shown loyalty to Bernard and is the person who uncovered Theresa's effort to smuggle data out of Westworld.  She is a clear ally and yet she is killed by Bernard.  To what end?  What exactly does Ford expect to happen now that the hosts are 'free' to kill humans?  They have the skillset of Old West characters and have likely just triggered a military response.  In that case, perhaps Ford is trying to cause a host genocide just like Arnold.  Also, we have seen Dolores express grief and guilt over killing Arnold and yet, now that she is sentient, the first thing she does is repeat that act by killing Robert.  Huh?

Like Game of Thrones, one of the charms of Westworld was not knowing the backstory, only getting glimpses and hints.  Unlike in GoT, the backstories here prove unworkable and generally stupid.  The great acting, outstanding sets, engrossing action, and plentiful nudity distract from the plot holes that litter the series.

As J. J. Abrams is involved, I know there are lots of additional 'mystery boxes' that have yet to be opened that may explain some of the issues listed.  However, he has a record of leaving gaping holes in plots in his Star Trek installments, Star Wars, and Super 8.  Why would Westworld be any different?  I doubt Michael Crichton would be impressed by this production.

Westworld (1973)

The movie opens with a commercial for the Delos Resort.  A spokesman interviews several guests who have just returned, each of whom offers glowing praise and agree that the $1000 a day price was well spent.  There are three parks: Roman World, Medieval World, and Westworld.  The spokesmen then says "Boy, have we got a vacation for you!"

After the commercial, a score of guests are aboard the hovercraft to Delos.  Peter (Richard Benjamin) and John (James Brolin) head to Westworld.  Peter is new to the park while John has visited before.  As such, some of the introduction and rules to the park are introduced by John explaining it.  Once in the park, Peter finds himself in a gunfight with the gunslinger (Yul Brynner).  His success thrills him.  Later, the pair go to a brothel.  Peter fully embraces the park after that.

 

Meanwhile, another story unfolds in Medieval World where the guest is having an affair the with queen and has been challenged to a duel by the black knight.  He also attempts to seduce a servant girl but is rebuffed.  She is instantly recalled for a full diagnostic.  In the control center, the technicians discuss the increasing failure rate of the robots.  The lead technician likens the spread of these failures to a disease.  Clearly, computer virus was not a thing yet back in 1973.  Of course, the failures turn spectacular and people start dying.

 

Obviously, the technology has not aged well.  The reel to reel computers, silly graphics on non-flat screen monitors, old style circuit boards, and so on subtract from the futuristic feel.  However, the story is strong.  Unlike in the HBO series, the technicians take the problem seriously and intend to close the park as soon as the remaining guests leave.

 

This film inspired later directors.  Arnold Schwarzenegger used Yul Brynner as a model for his portrayal of the Terminator.  Likewise, John Carpenter gave Halloween's Michael Myers the indestructability of the gunslinger.  Michael Crichton, the writer and director, came up with the idea during a visit to Disneyland when he saw the animatronic characters; Westworld is just a futuristic Disneyland?

 

Thumbs up!

Westworld

In the original Westworld (1973), which took place in the distant year of 1983, the robots go bad.  It was great stuff and Yul Brynner's gunslinger is the stuff of legend.  Of course, this was made when computer programming was comparatively primitive, the internet did not exist, advanced video games consisted of Pong.  It is a classic Michael Crichton creation that is ripe for reboot in our modern technological age.  Or is it?

 

The robots - called hosts - are far less mechanical than the ones in the original.  In fact, they appear to be assembled from some milky substance, starting with bones and adding musculature, ligaments, tendons, and so forth.  Precisely how they work is unclear as of the 3rd episode.  There was a flashback that showed a more mechanical version of the hosts as well a youthful Anthony Hopkins.  However, we do know that the hosts have programmed responses, the ability to 'improvise' conversation, and get updates from time to time.  Also, it is revealed that the hosts have been given knowledge of nightmares so that, if a technician forgets to wipe the host's memory, it can view its death or rape or such as a bad dream.  Ah, it is confirmed that we can wipe the memory.  They are just a big complex computer.  However, unlike a modern computer, these ones cannot be accessed remotely.  At one point, a host wanders off - it is referred to as a stray, indicating this is not uncommon - and park employees have to hike through the desert to recover it.  Once close enough, the technician was able to 'shutdown' the stray with a tablet.  Therefore, there is some wireless communication with the hosts but it is very short range.  This is probably a safety precaution; you wouldn't want some hacker in Russia taking over a host and wreaking havoc.  With this in mind, the story is preposterous.

 

If the hosts have programming and some are accessing old memories, just reimage them.  Modern computers are often reimaged to resolve all sort of intentional and unintentional errors.  Overwrite the existing operating system, programs, data, etc. with a clean copy.  Voila!  Good as new.  The very idea that the hosts are getting confused by accessing 'memories' from previous storylines is just crazy.  Since you can just erase all the programming and start from scratch, it makes no sense to retire the physical units.  The programming has clearly gone awry when hosts are waking up when not prompted and committing suicide by bashing in its own skull.  Such problems call for a return to the last restore point when the host was working properly but the park has to 'kill' all the problem hosts in a massive bloodbath - for the benefit of the guests - rather than just do the fix in much the same way they did the update.  Silly.

Then there is the effort to make the hosts as central characters.  Does the show want me to side with the robots who will rise up against their cruel masters or am I siding with the humans?  Well, I'm with the humans.  This is just a fully immersive video game for the superrich and it is hard to give the hosts more value - because they have a physical form - than all the digital characters in traditional video games.  Sure, the code is more complicated but it is still just a product of the code.

All that aside, I have enjoyed the show thus far.  It is possible that the expanding number of failures is intentional tinkering by the top programmers.  Anthony Hopkins character certainly seems to dismiss the problem entirely too readily.  Why is that?  I'm pretty sure we will find out.