Hugh Jackman on Reminiscence‘s dream tank: “Let’s just imagine that somehow it’s sanitary”
Hugh Jackman answers all our burning Reminiscence questions, from what the war wrought to how he would poop in "The Tank"
Film Features Reminiscence
Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Reminiscence. Don’t read on unless you want some of the movie’s major plot points ruined.
Reminiscence centers around the idea that, in truth, we’re all just longing for the past. Warner Bros.’ dystopian noir stars Hugh Jackman as Nick Bannister, a sort of memory concierge who, for the right price, is happy to put you in touch with simpler times. Here’s our own A.A. Dowd describing the process in his review:
“They slip on an electronic halo, settle into a bed of shallow water, and are lulled into a state of posthypnotic remembrance; they become like the Precogs of Minority Report, except that it’s not premonitions of what’s to come but vivid flashes of what already has that run through their heads and are projected holographically as they slumber, a little show for their hired conjurer of lost experiences.”
Sounds cool, but how would it all work? And how would Bannister—who decides to spend the rest of his life in the tank at the end of the movie—actually be sustained, changed, or exercised?
For an answer, we went to the source: Jackman himself. In the video interview below, he answers all our questions about the war that predates Reminiscence, Miami’s struggle with climate change, and about that darn tank. As he explains, “Let’s just imagine that somehow it’s sanitary. People can stay alive and live in this semi-comatose state within their heads, reliving parts of their life.” He continues:
“I think it’s somewhat sad, but also understandable that for many people, this life is just too much to bear. Maybe they have a terminal disease and they don’t want to live the remaining years in pain. They want to live there for whatever reason. I think it’s it’s understandable that people might want to do that. And at the same time, the movie is a cautionary tale. But let’s just assume there’s IVs. There’s somehow food.”
Reminiscence director Lisa Joy—who also co-created HBO’s Westworld—has a similar answer, telling us in the video below that “We talked about it with the production designer and we have all the tubes, but we were like, ‘We shouldn’t draw our eye to this facet of it, because we’re trying to focus on the emotion on the face.’” She elaborated, “For me, the liquids that the people are in are nurturing for the skin and the exterior body, but, yeah, they’d have to be fed through a tube and all sorts of nitty gritty that I chose to not focus for the film itself… It would basically be how we keep people in comas alive. You have to really help them regulate their bodily functions, and the tank itself is supposed to be a little like a sensory deprivation tank in terms of its viscosity.”
11 Comments
This movie was a stinker. And for me, it’s entirely because I have no idea why Nick would be in love with Mae at all (in lust, maybe), much less to the extent that he’d risk his career and his life to find her. She has no personality and apparently everything she told him was a lie. So I could not understand why he was so driven to solve the mystery of her disappearance and the entire story felt as shallow as a puddle. The setting and the style were fine, but meaningless in an unbelievable story driven by noir stereotypes with no meaningful personalities. Nick is hardboiled and in love for some reason. Watts is an alcoholic, with a crush on Nick, I guess? She’s also hardboiled. And Mae sings and wears dresses, and as a femme fatale, she must play the men around her to get what she wants. Bad movie that gave me no reason to care about any of the stereotypes. I mean, characters.
Okay then. No more noir for you.
I haven’t seen it, but it seems like the movie’s getting pretty universally panned, so I don’t think this poster is alone.
It’s classic Chris Nolan’s Brother writing: there’s a “concept”. Character depth is unnecessary, and, in fact, would distract from the “genius” of the concept (at this point, Jonathan Nolan would fart and then inhale deeply through his nose). She has no personality and apparently everything she told him was a lie.Is this a Lisa Joy Power Fantasy?
It’s just kind of sad because I loved Person of Interest. Maybe the restrictions of episodic network TV helps keep some bad impulses in check, or maybe like a lot of bands that spend 5 years on their first album, they just can’t follow it up.
It wasn’t bad but it could have been better, imho.
*some spoilers*I liked this movie more than most people seem to (give me all the flawed original, stand-alone, adult-oriented films in lieu of the glut of four quadrant franchise IPs please), but the ending sequence should’ve just not cut from the scene on the balcony through the story of Orpheus and Eurydice IMO. Cutting to old man in the tank and old Newton with her fam took away from the moment for me, and brought up unnecessary questions like the one this article is dedicated to, instead of just lingering on the characters’ relationship and leaving the details to our imagination.
Yeah that was kind of putting a hat on a hat, right?
Can’t watch the video but does he address how all those buildings are still standing in salt water?Interesting movie, could have been better but at under 2 hours it’s a decent watch if you like sci-fi noir.
This was a very bad movie. At first I thought the dialogue was intentionally awful in an attempt to channel some classic noire tropes. Then I realized it was just really bad. The tech makes no sense—how would someone’s memory be able to project a third-person view of themselves for Hugh Jackman to ogle?
Oh, and how the hell did Thandie Newton arrive at the bar in NOLA, like, five minutes after Hugh Jackman arrived? Did she follow him to the train station from a distance and get on the train far enough away to not be seen but close enough to be able to get off where he did? Did she hang out just outside the noisy bar until she was able to get the slightest aural cue that her boss was being drowned in an eel tank on the far side of the room? Did she successfully board the train with her guns, bypassing any and all security, or did she buy the guys when she got to NOLA and that’s why she was a little slower than him to arrive?
I know I’m focusing on just one scene, but the entire movie is made up of contrived, unlikely situations like this.
Sometimes less is more. With this, Inception, and Tenet, it doesn’t matter how all the technology bits really worked in that world. All they showed in Inception was a little device tacked onto someone’s hand.