Code 46 (2003)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0345061/


Definition:

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Code 46 Article 1 Any human being who shares the same nuclear gene set as another human being is deemed to be genetically identical. The relations of one are the relations of all. Due to IVF, ID embryo splitting and cloning techniques it is necessary to prevent any accidental or deliberate genetically incestuous reproduction. Therefore: I. All prospective parents should be genetically screened before conception. If they have 100%, 50% or 25% genetic identity they are not permitted to conceive II. If the pregnancy is unplanned, the foetus must be screened. Any pregnancy resulting from 100%, 50% or 25% genetically related parents must be terminated immediately III. If the parents were ignorant of their genetic relationship then medical intervention is authorized to prevent any further breach of Code 46 IV. If the parents knew they were genetically related prior to conception it is a criminal breach of Code 46.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_46

Next are two reviews that pretty much reveal the themes embodied in the movie. I have high-lighted, through boldfacing, the parts I considered relevant to a predictive programming oriented discussion. At the end of each high-lighted segment is attached a footnote number referring to an expansion written below the two following reviews.

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Code 46 is a love story set in a Brave New World-type near-future where cities are heavily controlled and only accessible through checkpoints.(1) People cannot travel unless they have "papelles," a special travel permit issued by the totalitarianistic government, the "Sphinx".(1) Outside these cities, the desert has taken over and shanty towns are jammed with non-citizens - people without papelles forced to live primitive lives.(1) William is a family man who works as a government investigator. When he is sent to Shanghai to solve a case of fake papelles, he meets a woman named Maria. Although he realizes she is behind the forgeries, he cannot help but fall completely in love with her. He hides her crime and they have a wild, passionate affair that can only last as long as his papelles: 24 hours. Back home, William is obessed with the memory of Maria. When the original investigation is inevitably re-opened a week later and William is sent back to finish the work he started, he tracks her down, only to discover she has been accused of a Code 46 violation(2) and any further relationship is impossible. Written by Anonymous In a near future, in a world ruled by a totalitarian government, checking of the genetic code is mandatory for any type of possible relationship between man and woman. (2)The investigator from Seattle William (Tim Robbins) travels to Shanghai to investigate the faking and stealing of special Visas called "papelles". The main suspect is Maria Gonzales (Samantha Morton), who works in the company Sphinx, but William falls in love for her and protects her. They have a passionate one night stand, and sooner they find that they are genetically incompatible to each other and they have violated the Code 46. (2)Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0345061/plotsummary

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It is the not-too-distant future, in a world which appears to suffer from overpopulation and large scale environmental degradation.(1) The population is divided between those who live "inside", in high density cities physically separated from "outside", where a poor underclasses lives. Access into and travel between the cities is highly restricted, and regulated through the use of health cover documents, known as "papelles" (1)in the global pidgin language of the day. This comprises elements of English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Italian, Urdu and Mandarin.(3) Residents of the cities venture outside at night and remain indoors during the day, as direct sunlight has become hazardous to their health, perhaps through ozone depletion.(4) The form of government appears to be somewhat authoritarian in nature, and society is regulated by various "codes". The eponymous code of the movie title prohibits "genetically incestuous reproduction", which may occur as a result of the various medical technologies which have become commonplace, such as cloning. (2) The main character is William Geld (Tim Robbins), an insurance fraud investigator based in Seattle who is sent to Shanghai to interview employees at a company known as "The Sphinx", which manufacturers insurance cover documents. William's assignment is to identify employees who are suspected of forging and smuggling covers. After interviewing numerous Sphinx employees, he identifies a young worker named Maria Gonzalez (Samantha Morton) as the cover forger. He is able to do this by means of a genetically engineered "empathy virus" which allows him to obtain unstated information from people if they voluntarily reveal something about themselves.(5) Maria tells William that she has the same dream each birthday: she is traveling the subway to meet someone she cannot identify. Each birthday she is one station closer to her destination, where she expects to meet the person she is looking for. William is captivated by her, and instead of turning her over to security, identifies another employee as the forger. William then follows Maria and they meet and begin an affair. They have dinner, then go to a nightclub. Putting complete trust in a man who could have had her arrested, Maria reveals how she was able to smuggle papelles out of her workplace. In the club they meet Damian (David Fahm), a naturalist who longs to travel to Delhi to study bats. He has applied for cover for eight consecutive years but has been refused each time. Maria supplies Damian with a papelle. William is upset by this and indicates that he should turn Maria over to the authorities, but Maria somehow knows that William would not do this. William explains that there are legitimate reasons why Damian is unable to obtain the proper clearances legally. However, Maria believes that some risks are worth taking to fulfill one's dreams and that no one has any right to interfere if those she helps are willing to take that risk. William and Maria then leave for her apartment where they spend a passionate night together. While there Maria shows William her "memory scrapbook" (an electronic booklet that records and displays video from the user's mind), which contains memories of her parents and close friends.(6) Other movies show her passing off papelles to various people. Maria says she thinks these people are beautiful and that their eyes are full of desire and dreams, and she wants to help them. As Maria sleeps, William finds a forged cover in her room and takes it. William's travel cover will expire the next day so he returns home to his family. On the way to the airport, he stops to give the forged cover document to a poor street vendor at the city's perimeter checkpoint, an act of humanity which could change the anonymous vendor's life. A few days later he learns that Damian died in Delhi after exposure to a virus to which he had no immunity(5), and it is known that Damian was able to travel there using a forged cover made while William was in Shanghai. William is reprimanded by his superior for not discovering the true Sphinx forger. He explains that he had trouble with his empathy virus and requests that someone else be sent. However, he is ordered to deal with the problem and to return to Shanghai to complete his assignment. Upon his return William discovers that Maria has gone. Her apartment is abandoned and the only clue to her whereabouts is an appointment scheduled at a medical clinic. He visits the clinic and using his empathic abilities learns that Maria was pregnant, but that the pregnancy was terminated due to a violation of Code 46.(2) William knows that this means Maria is somehow genetically related to him, but he has no idea how this is possible. William discovers that Maria has been taken to another institution to have her memory of the episode erased.(6) He travels there and talks to Maria, but finds her memory of him has been erased and she no longer knows him. He succeeds in getting the clinic to release Maria into his care by telling them she is a witness in his fraud investigation. After she is released William proves to Maria that she knows him by his intimate knowledge of her and by showing her her memory recording of when she gave Damian the papelle, which includes a shot of William. Williams tells her about the memory erasure, but denies knowing why it was done. He also tells her about how he didn't report her for fraud. Maria is disturbed by this information and becomes very distressed. William gives her a sleeping pill and while she is sleeping, he cuts some hair from Maria's head and takes it to a facility which provides instantaneous DNA analysis (similar to the one portrayed in Gattaca), and discovers that Maria is fifty percent genetically related to him, and that she is a biological clone of his mother, who was one of a set of twenty four in-vitro fertilised clones.(2) This knowledge does not affect William's feelings, but instead of going back to Maria he freaks out and decides to go home to his familly. However when he tries to leave he is not allowed to do so as his cover is now expired. William then realises that his only hope of returning home is to get a papelle from Maria. He returns to Maria's apartment and tells her about his inability to leave and she agrees to help him. She tells him she must acquire a papelle and that she will meet him at the airport later. She goes to work and obtains a papelle. While taking a train to meet William she remembers her birthday dream, and that he was the person she is looking for in the dream, and she remembers her feelings for him. She meets William and gives him the papelle and then tells him she remembers him. He decides not to leave her. William and Maria then travel to Jebel Ali in the Middle East, which does not require special travel clearance. The two hide out in the old city where they book a room. Here William reveals to Maria that as well as the memory wiping she has been given a virus that induces a terrorizing adrenaline rush in response to physical contact with the person who brought about the Code 46 violation.(6) However, Maria still wants to make love with William and so he ties her down to prevent her from fleeing once the adrenaline rush kicks in. Afterward, Maria enters a somnambulistic state also caused by the virus which forces her to report the further Code 46 violation to the authorities.(5) She is unconscious of this though William is aware of the virus's reaction. They then rent an old car and travel away to escape the authorities who are tracking them. William crashes the car while avoiding a collision with pedestrians and they are both knocked unconscious. When William awakes he finds himself in Seattle with his wife and child. He has no memory of Maria or the Code 46 violation, as all memories of her and their time together have been completely flushed from his mind.(6) The authorities had brought William before a tribunal, but decided the empathy virus had affected his judgment. He attempts to use the empathy virus to read his son's thoughts on the drive back from the hospital, but is unable to. Maria is more severely punished by having her memories of William loving her un-erased(6), essentially forced to remember him and exiled to the place she hated the most, the desert.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_46

The viewer is confronted with the following elements of predictive programming:

1. 
   Overpopulation is a given. Cities are cordoned off and inaccessible without special travel permits, called "Papelles" implemented through thumb or finger scanning. The viewer is made aware of a futuristic prospect of over-population and government control exercised by stringent travel restrictions.
   
   
2. 
   Code 46: Compelling regulations are put in effect regarding reproduction. The natural way to conceive children has taken a backseat and "in-vitro" ("test tubes") ways of conception seem to have gained prominence, while reproduction is subjected to restrictive laws. The viewer is made aware to the idea that the government will have more say in the specificity of the children you may want to have than Mother Nature.
   
   
3. There seems to be one global language spoken, a mixture of several widely spoken languages but predominantly consisting of English, and containing traces of Spanish and French. The emphasis of the presence of a global language seems to familiarize the viewer with the concept of globalization and unification a bit further.
   
   
4. The daylight seems have a toxic influence on the wellbeing of humans, in contrast with the darkness of the night which is bearable for humans. This theme seems to paint a scenario in which the world has fallen victim to its own pollution. A fashionable but no way scientifically endorsed cause for global pollution is humanly induced CO2 emission. The viewer may feel a certain sense of commitment to help reduce global pollution by accepting responsibility in contributing towards lessening CO2 emissions. As such, this theme is highly compatible with the whole Global Warming myth and welcomes the much touted but phony CO2 emission discouragement swindle dressed up as a remedy, called Carbon Tax.
   
   
5. Viral-based technology abounds. The society of the future seems to feature a versatile virus-mediated technology capable of manipulating (enhancing or restricting) the host of a virus in a number of ways:
   
   1. "Empathy viruses" function to obtain unstated information from people if they voluntarily reveal something about themselves to the carrier of this virus.
      
   2. Unauthorized visits to certain cities can be met with death if no prior immunity for locally prevalent viruses has been obtained.
      
   3. A virus is given to Code46 violators, which is responsible for causing violent adrenaline reactions in case recidivism should occur between two Code46 violators.
      
   
   
   
6. Memory retention can be manipulated by undisclosed neurological/ neurosurgical technology. That is, memory a person has of a specific event can either be wiped or, if they were wiped before, can also be restored again. This suggests that the process of the erasure of a memory actually consists of a reversible suspension of conscious access to that memory.
   
   The movie also alludes to a technology that enables retrieval of memories and place them into electronic storage devices.
   
   
7. 
   At some stage there's a woman revealing to the main character that she belongs to a religion she refers to as "Christian Science." Perhaps this is to make the viewer aware of any possible profound future merger between science and Christianity. Given its rather "progressive" tendencies nowadays, this may be the choice future garb the Roman Catholic Church may want to cloak itself in.