Hacker Cinema
Anon
2018 · Film · 100 min
Directed by Andrew Niccol
Science FictionCrimeMysteryThriller
Set in a near-future world where there is no privacy, ignorance or anonymity, our private memories are recorded and crime almost ceases to exist. In trying to solve a series of unsolved murders, Sal Frieland stumbles onto a young woman who appears to have subverted the system and disappeared. She has no identity, no history and no record. Sal realizes it may not be the end of crime but the beginning. Known only as 'The Girl', Sal must find her before he becomes the next victim.
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11 comments on Hacker News
I would also add the Netflix movie "Anon" which came out in 2018:
In the near future, humanity lives in a technologically advanced, dystopian society. The government requires that everyone receive an ocular implant that records everything they see. The implant provides an augmented-reality head-up display to the user with information about anyone and anything they may see, as well as recording the user's view. Investigations into crimes amount to detectives reviewing video and assessing whether an alleged perpetrator is innocent or guilty.
Sal Friedland, a detective with the metropolitan police force, crosses paths with a young woman who appears to trigger a glitch in his ocular implant, as no data about her is retrieved. When he reviews his own record of that day, he finds that every single frame of her has been mysteriously deleted. At work, Sal is handed several homicide cases where the victims' own visual records of their deaths are replaced with the killer's point of view, thus hiding the killer's identity. At another murder scene, Sal chases the apparent killer only to nearly be killed when they hack his implant and change what he sees in real time.
"It's not that I have something to hide. It's that I have nothing I want you to see."
A great quote from an otherwise OK movie ("Anon").
From wikipedia surveillance movie list, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_featuring_surveillance, these might interest a tech audience:
Antitrust (2001) Anon (2018) Closed Circuit (2013) Eagle Eye (2008) Equilibrium (2002)
I loved Gattaca. I've seen it many times.
I tried to like Anon, but I didn't. Same thing with another one his movies, "In Time"
Andrew Niccol's movies are always thought provoking. Even his Netflix movie Anon.
Andrew Niccol's other sci-fi films, In Time and Anon are also very worth watching. In Time has the distinction of being the only film to make Harlan Ellison shut up.
He is the subject of the Lord of War movie by Andrew Niccol, who made Truman Show (gaslighting), Gattaca (eugenics), In Time (immortality), Good Kill (drone pilots) and Anon (privacy/hacking).
2022 - Kimi, After Yang, Crimes of the Future, White Noise, Official Competition, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Tar, Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon
2021 - Nightmare Alley, The Card Counter, Zola, The French Dispatch, Come True, Don't Look Up, I Care A Lot,
2020 - I'm Thinking of Ending Things, Mank, The Sound of Metal, Possessor, His House
2019 - Climax, Uncut Gems, Parasite, Vivarium, First Cow
2018 - The Clovehitch Killer, Prospect, Mute, Anon, Mandy, The House That Jack Built, Cam, Sorry to Bother You
2018 had a glut of Netflix sci-fi B-movies that I think are very solidly good if not so great. I think they're underrated so I included them. I might have also messed up on the years.
These are all films I've seen. There are many others that I suspect are even better that I haven't seen.
That's part of the world in the dystopian movie "Anon" - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5397194/
You can replay any moment in your life that your eyes saw or your ears heard... but so can the government.
Correction: duplicate movie reference above should have been Anon, available on Netflix.
> I hope that signs and signals can most fade away. Imagine walking through a city without street signs or advertisements or stoplights
Will that get us a Black Mirror episode where no door or amenity will function until you put the lenses in? LargeCorp was concerned at the potential loss of trade so lobbied for a city bylaw requiring them. Or perhaps the Netflix Anon movie where all buildings are covered with 100' high virtual ads?
Don't get me wrong I'd love to get back to a built environment usually only seen in older photos where every surface isn't required to be a marketing opportunity. I just suspect somewhere along the way to this beautiful future there'll be a bait and switch. Cue uBlock for Lens(tm).