This Week In Retro: Dark City (1998) (Patreon)

February 27, 1998: Stranger danger

by Diamond Feit

What was it about the late 90s that prompted so many filmmakers to question the very nature of our reality? I suspect the end of the Cold War and the rapid expansion of computers into our everyday lives must have made adults who grew up in the 60s and 70s disbelieve how the world could have changed so much in their lifetimes. Perhaps they wondered if a darkness lurked beneath the surface of our idyllic society, an unseen force pulling our collective strings and guiding our progress from the shadows. Once such speculation starts, it's easy to let the imagination run wild and lay the responsibility for altering humanity on supernatural or superhuman parties. Even a 1996 episode of Star Trek: Voyager got into the act, proposing that the technological boom of the late 20th century began when a 29th century time traveler crashed in California in 1967.

Whether an invisible hand coaxed executives at Warner Bros or a tremendous coincidence took place, the fact remains that the studio released three major science-fiction films in the span of 13 months where a hidden threat observed and manipulated the general public without their knowledge. You can probably already tell that The Matrix qualifies as one of these films, but Blade also touched upon these themes of battling a system beneath the system. As the eponymous vampire hunter from that film so eloquently put it, "The world you live in is just a sugar-coated topping. There is another world beneath it. The real world."

Yet in February of 1998, before either of those hit movies drew millions at the box office, there was Dark City, a neo-noir tale of a man with no memory trying to piece together the truth about his past and make sense of an unforgiving urban nightmare, all while forces he cannot understand seek to rein him in. While it may not feature any vampires or kung fu, the movie delivers plenty of action and surprises as it asks tough questions about what it means to be human.

At just 100 minutes in length, Dark City hits the ground running by introducing two of its central characters within seconds of each other, Dr. Schreber and John Murdoch. Murdoch wakes in a bathtub seemingly unaware of his location, identity, or even his own face. He hastily dons the first garments he can find in his dingy hotel room before the phone rings. A voice on the other end calls himself a doctor, insisting that John flee the premises immediately because "there are people coming for you even as we speak." Unfortunately, Murdoch doesn't stay on the line long enough to get any more information because he discovers a freshly-butchered young woman lying next to the bed.

Even if he hadn't lost his memory, nothing Murdoch sees on his way out the door makes sense. Everyone in the hotel lobby is fast asleep, even a woman standing in a phone booth. The man at the front desk wakes just in time to confront Murdoch about his bill, revealing that he only paid for three weeks which just expired minutes ago at the stroke of midnight. The clerk also gives Murdoch his first and only clue regarding his missing sense of self: He left his wallet at the automat.

With no other leads (and no money to do anything else) Murdoch hurries towards the automat, stopping only at a store window to introduce himself to himself in a bid to test the plausibility of his given name. I should mention at this point that the cuts in Dark City come fast and furiously, keeping the audience as disoriented as Murdoch and making every scene feel disjointed. Hence lead actor Rufus Sewell delivers a rapid-fire series of greetings to his reflection as he tries to guess his first name; the hotel ledger only listed his first initial.

Murdoch's circumstances only grow more concerning with each new tidbit of information he discovers. His wallet contains an ID verifying his full name as well as a photo of a young woman who he does not recognize. He finds an assortment of newspaper clippings in his coat pocket, all of them stories about a recent spate of unsolved sex worker murders. Before he can come to terms with the implications of this revelation, he is surrounded by a group of men who already know him by name. He struggles and manages to evade capture but one of the attackers ends up dead; Murdoch sees him fall to the ground where his head cracks open and blue ooze crawls out.

If you've never seen Dark City and my description thus far has your attention, I implore you to watch the film before we proceed, lest I spoil the experience for you. Indeed, the theatrical cut includes an opening narration by Dr. Schreber (Kiefer Sutherland) that outlines the entire plot before Murdoch even gets a chance to wake up! A 2008 director's cut omits the voiceover but also adds about 10 minutes to the film which don't improve upon the original. I recommend sticking with the 1998 edition and muting the audio until Kiefer appears on screen.

Over the course of a very long evening, Murdoch learns that his pursuers call themselves Strangers and they built the entire city as a means to study humanity. They have complete control over the infrastructure and the inhabitants; they can reshape the skyline as they see fit and can put all their subjects into a deep sleep at will—except Murdoch. His anomalous status enables him to see what happens when everyone else takes a group nap, as he witnesses the Strangers and Dr. Schreber rearrange people’s homes and clothes and even their minds via a nasty looking syringe that imprints new memories. As soon as each mass slumber ends, life in the city resumes without anyone noticing the difference—except Murdoch.

Faced with this first-hand knowledge about how the Strangers operate, Murdoch comes to question everything he has been told about himself, realizing that the identity he has spent hours trying to piece together is just another fabrication. A seaside childhood, deceased parents, a loving wife, her infidelity…all of it scripted and implanted by the Strangers. They wanted to observe a murderer so they set him up to play the part, giving him a tragic backstory complete with a ridiculously incriminating pocketful of evidence.

Yet Murdoch rejects the premise that having the memories of a serial killer makes him a killer any more than having memories of a wedding makes him a husband. Only by spending time with his alleged bride Emma does he grow closer to her, so much so that he surrenders when the Strangers threaten her. Despite knowing by that point that their past is pure fiction, John has already seen her make sacrifices that evening to help him and cannot abandon her just to save himself.

Murdoch's dilemma, while dressed up with a sci-fi twist, lies at the heart of Dark City's philosophical conundrum regarding nature vs nurture and how perception of our yesterdays dictate reality. Our personalities are forged through experience; if you could rewrite my past, it would certainly change my behavior, but would my present self completely disappear? If you swapped my memories with a retired ballplayer's and I woke up in their mansion, would I resume their life without missing a beat? If they in turn took my place in Osaka, would they share my passion for podcasting?

Dark City argues that human beings are more than the sum total of their engrams and that our choices in the present matter more than anything that came before. We see Murdoch grow from a confused fugitive to a confident hero during the course of the film because of who he decides to be. Emma, Dr. Schreber, the police, and the Strangers all influence his development but ultimately he chooses to fight for control of the city and then pursues a relationship with Emma even after she receives a new identity and no longer recognizes him.

Unfortunately, audiences never had a chance to see what became of John Murdoch or the Strangers as Dark City bombed at the box office, opening in fourth place and plummeting even lower each week that followed. Blade and The Matrix would go on to capture the attention of millions, each spawning franchises that remain relevant to this day. Dark City spawned nothing beyond critical acclaim and eventually found a cult following, although that has yet to translate into any further productions.

Profit hardly determines artistic merit, however, so when I saw this anniversary on the calendar I happily made time to rewatch Dark City. 25 years later, CGI effects notwithstanding, the film has aged beautifully and the message resonates even stronger with me today than it did in 1998. While I am positive no one has stabbed my brain with any syringes lately, I'm more comfortable with my self-worth and how I present myself to the world now than in my youth. I do spend a lot of time thinking about the past (this is Retronauts after all) but I refuse to dwell on decades-old decisions that left me dissatisfied; those memories do not define me.

And for the record, I don't believe that any amount of meddling would fundamentally change my personality or outlook on life, though if any billionaires are reading, I challenge you to try to prove me wrong with a generous donation. Go ahead, see what happens if I wake up in a new house, I dare you.

Diamond Feit lives in Osaka, Japan but is forever online, sharing idle thoughts about video games, films, and dessert.