Alex's New and Hot

Hi, so last week during class I mentioned this really interesting anime movie made in Japan back in the 80s or 90s, called The Ghost in the Shell. It's basically become a classic in the anime world and that's why I was really surprised that no one else had seen it. Coming out of Japan, I think there are only a few movies that are definitely must sees and I think this is one of them.

Click here for the main website. Go down to Menu, then go click on Story and it will give you a rough outline of the premise of the movie.

Basically in the year 2029, humans have become so integrated with machines that it's really hard to say who is human and who is machine, especially after one of the top secret government projects (a virus to infiltrate the enemy) becomes self-aware. And I guess on this level, it's basically the plot of the Terminator, only done much earlier and in a much more meaningful manner, in my opinion. Anyway, the main character is basically a human brain, I think, and her body is completely robotic, all cybernetic, etc. Her body has camouflage and so she can become invisible at will. The other thing is that basically everyone in this society is so engrained with technology that the virus-gone-awry is able to hack people to commit acts of terrorism.

In any case, this is a great movie that I think everyone should watch at some point.

As a sidenote, there is a really interesting fight scene near the end of the movie, basically the climax, where they are in some run-down museum and the giant robot is shooting at the main character. And basically you see the bullets destroying the walls of the place, and in one part, you see the "tree of life" getting shot to hell. At the top of this tree is "homidae" or something, I couldn't really tell at that speed. But I'm pretty sure it's basically another allusion to the whole human evolution at an ever accelerating pace business.

You can see it in this Youtube video at 3:38.