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STORY STUDY - MEDIUM: FILM - “Cloud Atlas”

Jeffrey Tung
Sep 4, 2017
5 min read

There’re plenty of stories out there exploring reincarnation of people, but it always seems to revolve around two stories. This week, we’re going to be exploring six.

Directed and written by Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer & Andy (now Lilly) Wachowski, and based on the novel of the same name by David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas is comprised of six short films interspersed in between one another. A tribesman named Zachry Bailey tells these stories at a campfire. Let’s begin.

In 1869, in the Pacific Islands, Adam Ewing arrives at Reverend Horrux’s slave plantation. One of the men he travels with, Dr. Henry Goose, is slowly poisoning him without him knowing so he can steal his gold.

In 1936, in Cambridge and Edinburgh, composer Robert Frobisher becomes an amanuensis (someone who writes the music while the other dictates it) under Vyvyan Ayrs. His time with him helps him inspire to create the “Cloud Atlas Sextet.” Ayrs takes credit for the music for himself as well as other compositions he will eventually make. He threatens to expose Frobisher’s homosexuality if he refuses.

In 1973, in San Francisco, journalist Luisa Rey is told by Rufus Sixsmith, Frobisher’s lover, that there is a conspiracy to create a disaster at a nuclear reactor. However, before he can give the report that can prove it, he is assassinated by a hired hitman. Luisa sets off to find the report on her own so she can expose the conspiracy.

In 2012 in London, elderly publisher Timothy Cavendish gains profit from Dermot Hoggins, a gangster and author. Hoggins’ brothers threaten Cavendish’s life for their own share of the profits. Cavendish asks his brother, Denholme, for help, and he sends him to hide out at Aurora House, thinking it’s a hotel. However, Cavendish learns that it is actually a nursing home, and he cannot leave thanks to the abusive head nurse, Ms. Noakes. He learns that Denholme did this to him as revenge for sleeping with his wife.

In 2144, Neo Seoul, “frabricant” (human clone) Sonmi-451 is liberated by rebel commander Hae-Joo Chang. She slowly learns of the outside world and the awful truth of the fate of fabricants.

In “Big Isle,” “106 winters after the fall” (Hawaii, 2321), Zachry Bailey is a member of the Valley tribesmen living in the post-apocalypse. His village is visited by Meronym, a member of the Prescients, an advanced society who uses technology. Her people are dying from a plague, and the only hope from them is to escape Earth. Her mission is to find a communications station to send an SOS message to off-world humans, asking for their help. Zachry agrees to help Meronym with her journey in exchange for her help in curing his niece, who has fallen ill.

With exception of the 1869 story, each story and protagonist inspires the next character in the next timeline: Frobisher reads from a journal by Adam Ewing, Luisa Rey meets Frobisher’s lover, Cavendish reads the manuscript of a novel based on Luisa Rey’s adventure, Sonmi-451 watches a film based on Cavendish’s experience in Aurora House, and Zachry and his tribe worships Sonmi-451 as a goddess.

All of the major characters are played by actors from a previous story; the only one present in some capacity in all six is played by Tom Hanks. The actors play characters that have some karmic retribution happening to him. The most obvious one is Tom Hanks, who plays Henry Goose, Ewing’s potential killer, but as time goes on he slowly becomes a hero in Zachry.

Then, there are subtle ones, like Jim Broadbent’s Ayrs who is keeping Frobisher near him, blackmailing him if he does otherwise, but in as Cavendish, he is now the one being held captive, and in his old home no less, as Aurora House used to be Ayrs old mansion. It’s never explicitly stated that all the characters played by the one actor are the same spirit living a new life, but their journeys certainly seem to suggest it.

There are moments in the film when something epic and impressive is happening, like say someone is releasing a sail from a boat or there is a laser gun fight happening in the future, it blends together, showcasing its theme of the circle of life. It’s just great editing.

The most controversial subject about Cloud Atlas is of course the casting. As you can tell, the cast itself is very diverse. However, it’s who they play in the film that’s the problem. The protagonists themselves are casted appropriately. But then you have the Caucasian actors appearing in the Neo Seoul segment playing Asian characters.

For me, especially as an Asian, it’s all about context, and it really doesn’t bother me for two reasons: 1) the main theme of the film is reincarnation. For example, the Neo-Seoul segment is about two lovers played by Doona Bae and Jim Sturgess. And guess what? In the 1869 segment, spoiler alert, they also play each other’s lovers as well. Both stories show the same journey of rebelling against the corrupt higher power in their life. This leads to reason 2) it’s not just the Caucasian actors playing Asians. Doona Bae plays a Caucasian woman in the aforementioned 1869 segment, as well as making a cameo in the 1973 story as a Mexican woman. Halle Berry appears in the other stories as a Jewish character and an Asian.

When the makeup succeeds, it works, but when it doesn’t, it REALLY doesn’t, to the point where it becomes uncomfortable at the thought that someone thought this was a good idea: the makeup itself AND the idea of executing this idea. That’s fair.

What ISN’T fair is only complaining about a Caucasian actor playing an Asian, but not complaining about the other ethnic mismatching that’s going on too.

The hate train can go on and on. The fact that the film is almost three hours long, can push the audience’s patience. This is to be expected from a film telling six short films, but like I said earlier: when it works, it works (ex. The Godfather) and when it doesn’t, it fails.

Cloud Atlas has the advantage (or disadvantage) of telling separate stories, each with its own unique genre. Timeline wise, the first three stories are directed by Tom Tykwer and the latter three were directed by the Wachowskis. Even if you don’t like the film, the level of teamwork is amazing, working to seamlessly create a film that works on a story and character level.

It’s a film that needs to be watched and re-watched in order to spot the details of each frame, and how that small visual detail can mean so much in relation to the other stories.