A young man travels forward in time in an attempt to find a solution to
Earth's rapidly depleting supply of oxygen.
Review by
Ren Zelen
Directed by: Seth Larney
Starring: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Ryan Kwanten, Sana'a Shaik, Aaron Glenane, Deborah Mailman
In Seth Larney’s dystopian sci-fi Chronical: 2067, we find an Earth that has been ruined by pollution and climate change.
The air is so poisonous that people must resort to breathing artificially
created oxygen that they carry around in canisters. The synthetic oxygen
is manufactured by the Chronicorp corporation and, as capitalism still
rules, the oxygen and its equipment come in different qualities, depending
on how much you can pay.
However, disaster strikes even the capitalists as the constant inhalation
of the synthetic oxygen has created an illness set to ultimately kill off
the population.
The only hope for a cure comes in the form of time travel. If someone can
be sent to the future to see if humanity has survived and found a cure,
then they can bring it back to the decimated earth of 2067 and its dying
inhabitants.
Luckily, it turns out that scientists have been working on developing a
portal to the future. The time machine is called a Chronicom and the head
of the scientists is Richard Whyte (Aaron Glenane). He has
successfully sent an SOS message to the future through the portal, but,
imagine his astonishment when an answer comes back - “Send Ethan Whyte”.
The ‘Ethan’ in question happens to be his eight-year-old son.
The story is told in flashbacks but concerns itself mainly with the
grown-up Ethan Whyte, (Kodi Smit-McPhee) who, having lost his
father Richard and his mother in violent circumstances many years
previously, is now a tunnel worker for the city’s dirty and unstable power
plant.
He frets about his wife Xanthe (Sana’a Shaik), who is suffering
from ‘The Sickness’ - the terminal illness caused by inhaling Chronicorp’s
tainted synthetic oxygen. Ethan is working hard to make life easier for
himself and his ailing wife in a decaying society. Working alongside him
is his colleague and his oldest friend, Jude (Ryan Kwanten).
Suddenly, Ethan is summoned to the office of Regina Jackson (Deborah Mailman), Chronicorp’s Chief Technology Officer, who reveals to him that he has
been chosen to travel to the future in his father’s machine and be the
saviour of mankind.
Ethan is told that the scientists have enough energy to send him on a
one-way trip forward in time to see what kind of cure might be bought
back, but once there he has to find his own way home to 2067. Ethan and
the corporation are at a loss as to why the message they received from the
future had asked for him by name.
Ethan is unwilling to leave Xanthe, but she and Jude persuade him that
it’s the only thing to do - he has the chance to save mankind and so find
a cure for ‘The Sickness’ plaguing what’s left of the world.
Can Ethan find out why the future specifically asked for him? Can he find
a cure for their lack of real oxygen? Finally, can he find a way back to
his present world and save his sick wife?
When Ethan takes the mission and emerges into the far future, he finds
something entirely unexpected. He encounters a world covered in lush plant
growth… and stumbles across a skeleton. These two discoveries set in
motion a train of events which lead to some staggering and explosive
revelations where the truth is not what it seems to be, and where Ethan is
forced to make some hard choices.
Writer/director Larney has taken a clever premise and woven it into an
engaging dystopian sci-fi story. He plays with a vision of the future and
the notion of time travel, creating a twisty plot that should keep genre
fans engaged enough to see how its secrets unfold, even if some shaky
performances, odd editing and clunky dialogue might occasionally serve to
distract.
Chronical: 2067 might not have a huge budget, but Larney
makes exceptional use of what he has. Inevitably, every sci-fi film since
has been influenced by Ridley Scott’s vision of the dystopian future city
in Blade Runner, and Chronical: 2067 is no exception. However, after the
early part of the film with nods to the grimy, Blade Runner-like cityscape, the scenes after Ethan’s jump into the future which show
lush greenery overrunning decaying buildings prove a welcome contrast.
Considering its limited budget, the film does look pretty glossy, with
Larney employing a vision of the future that isn’t all fiery chimneys,
skyscraper-high ads and dingy apartments, but concentrating instead on the
beauty and value of our plant life and vegetation.
The film may present a dire warning about where mankind may be heading in
its disregard for the environment and the plundering of resources in the
relentless march of capitalism, but also offers some hope in the belief of
one man that humanity can have the will to save itself.
Chronical: 2067 is on UK
DVD/Digital from December 7th.
