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We are republishing this review in honor of the 10th anniversary of the passing of Roger Ebert . Read why one of our contributors chose this review here .

Even as I was watching "Cloud Atlas" the first time, I knew I would need to see it again. Now that I've seen it the second time, I know I'd like to see it a third time — but I no longer believe repeated viewings will solve anything. To borrow Churchill's description of Russia, "it is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma." It fascinates in the moment. It's getting from one moment to the next that is tricky.

Surely this is one of the most ambitious films ever made. The little world of film criticism has been alive with interpretations of it, which propose to explain something that lies outside explanation. Any explanation of a work of art must be found in it, not taken to it. As a film teacher, I was always being told by students that a film by David Lynch , say, or Warner Herzog, was "a retelling of the life of Christ, say, or 'Moby Dick.' " My standard reply was: Maybe it's simply the telling of itself.

Yet "Cloud Atlas" cries out for an explanation, and surely you've noticed that I've been tap-dancing around one. I could tell you that it relates six stories taking place between the years 1849 and 2346. I could tell you that the same actors appear in different roles, playing characters of different races, genders and ages. Some are not even human, but fabricants. I could tell you that the acting and makeup are so effective that often I had no idea if I was looking at Tom Hanks , Halle Berry or Jim Broadbent . I could tell you that, and what help is it?

I could tell you that each segment is a refashioning of the story contained in the previous one. That the same birthmark turns up in every period of time. That a repeated motif is that all lives are connected by a thirst for freedom. That the movie was inspired by the much-loved novel of the same name by David Mitchell . That in the novel, the stories were told in chronological order, and then circled back again from end to beginning. That the movie finds its connections through the reappearances of the same actors in different roles and deliberately refers to one story from within another.

Now are you wiser? I'm treading water. And now could follow a very long paragraph introducing and describing the different characters played by the actors. But you would lose your way all the same, because many of the performances and disguises are so cunningly effective. I could tell you that Halle Berry's work as a mid-1970s investigative reporter works well for me, and the gnarly wisdom of Tom Hanks as an old man telling tales is the most impenetrable.

I despair. I think you will want to see this daring and visionary film, directed by Lana Wachowski , Tom Tykwer and Andy Wachowski . Anywhere you go where movie people gather, it will be discussed. Deep theories will be proposed. Someone will say, "I don't know what in the hell I saw." The names of Freud and Jung will come up. And now you expect me to unwrap the mystery from the enigma and present you with a nice shiny riddle?

Sometimes the key to one movie can be suggested by another one. We know that the title refers to early drawings of the shapes and behavior of clouds. Not long ago I saw a Swedish film, " Simon and the Oaks ," about a day-dreaming boy who formed a bond with an oak tree. In its limbs, he would lie reading books of imagination and then allow his eyes to rest on the clouds overhead. As he read a book about desert wanderers, the clouds seemed to take shape as a ghostly caravan of camels in procession across the sky.

I was never, ever bored by "Cloud Atlas." On my second viewing, I gave up any attempt to work out the logical connections between the segments, stories and characters. What was important was that I set my mind free to play. Clouds do not really look like camels or sailing ships or castles in the sky. They are simply a natural process at work. So too, perhaps, are our lives. Because we have minds and clouds do not, we desire freedom. That is the shape the characters in "Cloud Atlas" take, and how they attempt to direct our thoughts. Any concrete, factual attempt to nail the film down to cold fact, to tell you what it "means," is as pointless as trying to build a clockwork orange.

But, oh, what a film this is! And what a demonstration of the magical, dreamlike qualities of the cinema. And what an opportunity for the actors. And what a leap by the directors, who free themselves from the chains of narrative continuity. And then the wisdom of the old man staring into the flames makes perfect sense.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Cloud Atlas (2012)

Rated R or violence, language, sexuality/nudity and some drug use

172 minutes

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Movie Review: Cloud Atlas

Cast: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess Director: Tom Tykwer, Lana Wachowski and Andy Wachowski “Our lives are not our own. We are bound to others, past and present. And by each crime, and every kindness, we birth our future.” Based on this very thought, the Wachowski siblings (The Matrix trilogy) along with Tom Tykwer (3) gives us this marvel of a film Cloud Atlas.  Based on David Mitchell’s beast of a novel by the same name, the film revolves around six stories that take place between 1849 and an apocalyptic future. Although, the characters change as per the story but the actors playing them remain the same. So Halle Berry plays a crime reporter in one story, while in the other she belongs to a post-apocalyptic world. But in all these stories she does come across Tom Hanks, who also plays different characters in separate life times. That goes for all the other characters too – An idealist lawyer (Jim Sturgess) on an epic sea adventure or a shallow con artist (Ben Wishaw) who dreams to design a musical masterpiece or even a futuristic freedom fighter wanting to spark a revolution against human fabrication. All of these characters are connected in a spiritual space which depicts how the consequences of doing good and evil eventually affects the world. Yes, it’s a complex storyline. The first few minutes of Cloud Atlas might even seem baffling. But one needs to pay close attention to know the motif of the film and understand the characters and timelines they belong to. The rest of the film simply narrates the journey of all the characters in their respective eras. And even if the narrative is non-linear, it isn’t jarring, so as to not disturb the understanding of the viewer. Cloud Atlas is actually six films in one. It’s a historical, musical, comedy, sci-fi, post-apocalyptic and the last one is a hybrid of each story nested inside the other. As a tale from the past, recorded in the present and found in the future. Slavery and barbarism, religion and philosophy are some of the major themes. Biblical references are aplenty too. The dialogues laced with philosophical connotations present a unique view about life, death and humanity. The larger-than-life approach which the film takes proves to be a big boon for the actors. One gets to see Hugh Grant as a cannibal and an oil tycoon, Jim Broadbent as a sea captain, maestro and a corrupt publisher, Doona Bae as a fabricant and an American woman. They play multiple roles and are remarkably believable with each one. The Wachowski’s have done it once again. They’re known to fearlessly present their ambitions on a platter. After the Matrix trilogy, their choice of Cloud Atlas comes as no surprise. Considering, the humongous scale of the subject and the challenge of making a movie which comes along with it. Needless to say, the Wachowski’s along with Tom Tykwer have injected so much character and life into this project that not for a single moment you feel disconnected from the film. Although, the only word of caution is that the film clocks close to 180 minutes of runtime. It might test your patience at points when characters go through a sense of redemption and the narrative slows down a bit. But if you’re hooked to the story then you’d be the first one to protest against an interval. Cloud Atlas makes for an exceptional movie experience. Brave and unconventional, this multi-layered human drama’s ambitions are unique and so is the approach. 

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Movie Review – Cloud Atlas (2012)

February 22, 2013 by admin

Cloud Atlas , 2012.

Directed by Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski. Starring Tom Hanks, Hugo Weaving, Halle Berry, Susan Sarandon, Hugh Grant, Jim Sturgess, Ben Whishaw, Jim Broadbent, Keith David, James D’Arcy, Xun Zho, Doona Bae and Zhu Zhu.

An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution.

If ever there was a film that would test the limits of film criticism and analysis, it is Cloud Atlas : a meandering, swirling, talky movie of such epic proportions and ideas, it’s a test of steel and nerve just to experience it, let alone try to write a review of it.

The Wachowski Siblings, who over recent years have not only treated us to some visually stunning movies, have been keen to share their thoughts with the world. Be it religious, political or even trying to crack the keys to the universe and why we are here, they have become synonymous with over-complex and overly pretentious efforts of late. So it’s no real surprise that they found themselves making Cloud Atlas . With the support of Perfume director Tom Tykwer, this seems like a match made in heaven, even with the rich, dense prose that David Mitchell put into his award-winning novella.

Weaving a rich tapestry of people, places, time and space, Cloud Atlas charts six different stories through time. Beginning on the South Pacific in 1849 at sea with the crew of a venturing ship, it journeys through the 1930s, 1970s, 2012, 2144 through to an almost “after-Earth” apocalyptic 2321, as the remains of what was Earth has fractured into a tribal state.

The book told the stories in a Russian doll-like narrative, with the stories told in order before wrapping back on itself. Here, it’s in a much more film-friendly narrative and all the richer for it. It’s a beautifully directed and designed film, with all the visual style and skill you would expect from messers Wachowski and Tykwer.

As they move backwards and forwards through the stories, like the chords of the story’s Cloud Atlas sextet, they sweep majestically and gracefully through time and space. Disorientating as that may seem, the film never loses focus, as the directors intertwine the fates of those who purvey it with such grace, it’s hard not to be swept up in its visual majesty. It’s without doubt the most visually rich film so far this year, and will take some beating artistically to scale the heights that the directors have here.

Complementing the wonderful visuals is the cast, who have never been put through their paces quite like this. In various strands, and in various different bits of make-up, it’s hard to go in depth and describe the acting and actors throughout the film.

What can be said is this: Tom Hanks is Tom Hanks, assured and reliable as ever; Halle Berry gives her best performance since Monsters Ball ; and Hugh Grant is great too, despite being very oddly cast as a cannibal in the 2321 strand.

Everyone brings their a-game here, but the standouts are Ben Whishaw and Jim Broadbent. Together in the 1930s strand, both play off each other brilliantly, with wonderful wit and warmth as musician and aide; separately, they continue this pattern, and both steal the show whenever they are on screen.

If there are quibbles, it’s in the film’s length: at a whopping 180 or so minutes, it feels like a long old slog at times. The 2144 strand, while visually stunning and performed well, is the most arduous to endure, and is the one story that could have had a little more judicious editing. In addition, some of ideas and themes throughout can at times seem overly preachy and “rammed down your throat”, as it a Wachowski’s stable.

Quibbles aside, Cloud Atlas can still stake its claim as this year’s most visually stirring film, almost magical in its imagery and settings, and will give plenty of food for thought for all after the credits have rolled.

Flickering Myth Rating : Film ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie ★ ★ ★ ★

Scott Davis

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Cloud Atlas

An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples acro.

Genre: Action ,  Drama ,  Mystery

Director: Lana Wachowski , Tom Tykwer

Actors: Halle Berry , Hugh Grant , Tom Hanks

Country: United States

Duration: 172 min

Quality: HD

Release: 2012

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Cloud Atlas (2012)

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Souls Tangled Up in Time

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By A.O. Scott

• Oct. 25, 2012

In 1849 a businessman on a Melville-esque sea voyage in the South Pacific battles a mysterious illness and shelters a runaway slave. In 1936 Robert Frobisher, a penniless young composer, flees Cambridge for Edinburgh to join the household of a vain and temperamental maestro. Four decades later an alternative-press journalist risks her life investigating safety problems at a nuclear power plant.

In our own day a feckless book publisher finds himself trapped in a nursing home. Sometime in the corporate, totalitarian future a member of the genetically engineered serving class, a fast-food worker named Sonmi-451, is drawn into rebellion, while in a still more distant, postapocalyptic, neo-tribal future (where Sonmi is worshiped as a deity), a Hawaiian goatherd. ...

That last one is a little more complicated, involving a devil, marauders on horseback and the possibility of interplanetary travel. It is also where the spoilers dwell. In any case, these half-dozen stories are the components of “Cloud Atlas,” David Mitchell’s wondrous 2004 novel , now lavishly adapted for the screen by Lana and Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer.

“Cloud Atlas” is a movie about migratory souls and wayward civilizations, loaded with soaring themes and flights of feeling, as vaporous and comprehensive as its title. Big ideas, or at least earnest intellectual conceits, crowd the screen along with suave digital effects and gaudy costumes. Free will battles determinism. Solidarity faces off against domination. Belief in a benevolent cosmic order contends with fidelity to the cruel Darwinian maxim that “the weak are meat the strong do eat.”

Describing this movie, despite its lofty ambitions, can feel like an exercise in number crunching, and watching it is a bit like doing a series of math problems in your head. How do three directors parcel six plots into 172 minutes? (And how much might that cost?) Which actor — most of them inhabit several roles, in some cases changing gender or skin color as well as costume, accent and hairstyle — tackles the widest range of characters? What is the correlation between a musical phrase and a comet-shaped birthmark? How many times does Hugo Weaving sneer?

Maybe the achievement of “Cloud Atlas” should be quantified rather than judged in more conventional, qualitative ways. This is by no means the best movie of the year, but it may be the most movie you can get for the price of a single ticket. It blends farce, suspense, science fiction, melodrama and quite a bit more, not into an approximation of Mr. Mitchell’s graceful and virtuosic pastiche, but rather into an unruly grab bag of styles, effects and emotions held together, just barely, by a combination of outlandish daring and humble sincerity. Together the filmmakers try so hard to give you everything — the secrets of the universe and the human heart; action, laughs and romance; tragedy and mystery — that you may wind up feeling both grateful and disappointed.

Though the six sections flow together more or less seamlessly, it is also possible to divide the movie into Wachowski and Tykwer halves. Mr. Tykwer’s contributions are those that take place closer to the present — they concern the composer, the journalist and the publisher — whereas the Wachowskis leap back to the past and forward into the future. They are less concerned with efficient storytelling than with the maximization of spectacular and intellectual impact, with blowing your mind and explaining the cosmos. The Wachowski chapters are bigger, grander and noisier, while Mr. Tykwer’s are tighter, funnier and more emotionally resonant. The tale of Frobisher is perhaps the only piece that could stand alone, a perfect novella of artistic rivalry, sexual misbehavior and poetic despair.

Considering it in isolation is difficult, however, and contrary to the film’s design. A major difference between the movie and its source is structural. Mr. Mitchell nests his plots inside one another, splitting each one to make room for the others and making his book into something like a set of Russian dolls or a turducken . Mr. Tykwer and the Wachowskis — abetted by the heroic editing of Alexander Berner — have abandoned this symmetrical literary design, opting for the more cinematically manageable technique of crosscutting. The narrative strands are woven together, elegantly plaited and quilted at some points, tangled and snarled in others. Connective tissue is supplied by music (composed by Reinhold Heil, Johnny Klimek and Mr. Tykwer), by voice-overs and visual echoes, and also by the reappearance of the same actors in elaborate but nonetheless transparent disguises. Mr. Weaving, for example, memorably pops up as a devil, a Victorian capitalist, a sadistic female nurse, a corporate-totalitarian bureaucrat and a hit man.

Zachry the goatherd is played by Tom Hanks, sporting facial tattoos and speaking in a futuristic pidgin. (In Zachry’s language, “aye” means “yes,” “cog” means “know” and “true-true” means “very true indeed.”) Mr. Hanks also plays, among other roles, a scientist who aids the journalist’s investigation, a London gangster and a 19th-century quack attending to Adam Ewing, the ailing South Seas traveler. (That poor fellow is played by Jim Sturgess.) The muckraking journalist, Luisa Rey, is Halle Berry. She also appears as Meronym, who visits Zachry’s island as part of a delegation of technologically advanced researchers. And she is almost unrecognizable as Jocasta Ayrs, married to the temperamental maestro, played by Jim Broadbent. He is, elsewhere, a ship’s captain and the luckless publisher Timothy Cavendish.

You see what I mean about quantity. Simply enumerating the rest of the cast members and saying what they do would turn this review into a Domesday Book of postmodern film acting. And identifying the flavors of ham they import to the proceedings would require an advanced degree in charcuterie. There is, in any case, a lot of acting here. It is delivered by the bushel, by the truckload, by the schooner, and the quality varies.

Mr. Broadbent is, as ever, delightful, and Ben Whishaw is perfect as the witty and passionate Frobisher. Hugh Grant indulges in some sly, vulgar villainy, with impressive prosthetic teeth, and Susan Sarandon floats through a few scenes trailing mists of love and weary wisdom. As Sonmi, the South Korean actress Doona Bae is a haunting, somber presence.

Sonmi awakens from a life of grim deprivation — a condition of slavery that is horrible to contemplate and horrifyingly easy to imagine — into an awareness of the possibility of freedom. The tale of how she recovers her humanity (and the cost she pays for it) becomes scripture in Zachry’s time, and her fate is also the allegorical key to the rest of “Cloud Atlas.” In every chapter powerful forces work to constrain, exploit and otherwise suppress the individual and collective desire for liberation. Alliances form between victims and sympathetic members of the race or caste in power, and even when their efforts are doomed, they manage to keep some hope alive for the future.

Mr. Tykwer and the Wachowskis emphasize the spiritual rather than the political dimensions of Mr. Mitchell’s novel and at the same time make his meanings less elusive and more accessible. Perhaps too much so. “Cloud Atlas” aspires to be a perception-altering head trip in the tradition of “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “The Matrix.” But instead of leaving you trembling in contemplation of metaphysical mysteries, it succumbs to the term-paperish explication that weighed down “V for Vendetta” and the second and third “Matrix” movies. Its reach is admirable, but its grasp is, if anything, too secure.

For a movie devoted to the celebration of freedom, “Cloud Atlas” works awfully hard to control and contain its meanings, to tell you exactly what it is about rather than allowing you to dream and wonder within its impressively imagined world.

The movie insists — repeatedly and didactically — that a thread of creative, sustaining possibility winds its way through all human history, glimmering even in its darkest hours. A beautiful notion, and possibly true. But unfortunately not quite true-true.

“Cloud Atlas” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It has nudity, violence and sexuality, past, present and future.

An earlier version of this review misidentified a “Cloud Atlas” character who is drawn into a rebellion. She is Sonmi-451, not Sonmi-351.

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• DVD & Streaming

Cloud Atlas

• Action/Adventure , Comedy , Drama , Mystery/Suspense , Romance , Sci-Fi/Fantasy , War

Content Caution

In Theaters

• October 26, 2012
• Tom Hanks as Dr. Henry Goose, Hotel Manager, Isaac Sachs, Dermot Hoggins, Cavendish Look-a-Like Actor and Zachry; Halle Berry as Native Woman, Jocasta Ayrs, Luisa Rey, Indian Party Guest, Ovid and Meronym; Jim Broadbent as Captain Molyneux, Vyvyan Ayrs, Timothy Cavendish, Korean Musician and Prescient 2; Hugo Weaving as Haskell Moore, Tadeusz Kesselring, Bill Smoke, Nurse Noakes, Boardman Mephi and Old Georgie; Jim Sturgess as Adam Ewing, Poor Hotel Guest, Megan's Dad, Highlander, Hae-Joo Chang and Zachry's Brother-in-Law; Doona Bae as Tilda, Megan's Mom, Mexican Woman, Sonmi-451, Sonmi-351 and Sonmi Prostitute; Ben Whishaw as Cabin Boy, Robert Frobisher, Store Clerk, Georgette and Tribesman; Keith David as Kupaka, Joe Napier, An-kor Apis and Prescient; James D'Arcy as Young Rufus Sixsmith, Old Rufus Sixsmith, Nurse James and Archivist; David Gyasi as Autua, Lester Rey and Duophsyte; Susan Sarandon as Madame Horrox, Older Ursula, Yusouf Suleiman and Abbess; Hugh Grant as Rev. Giles Horrox, Hotel Heavy, Lloyd Hooks, Denholme Cavendish, Seer Rhee and Kona Chief

Home Release Date

• May 14, 2013
• Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski

Distributor

• Warner Bros.

Movie Review

Humanity’s fate has always hung suspended between two opposing forces: freedom and oppression. At any moment—in ages past, in this very hour, and in the future—the courageous or craven decisions of individuals have the power to tip the balance. That’s the assertion in Cloud Atlas , an epic saga mapping the influence of individuals’ choices through six stories spanning five centuries.

It begins in 1849. A lawyer named Adam Ewing visits a preacher’s plantation in Hawaii and finds his conscience awakened when he witnesses how slaves are mistreated, including the whipping of one named Autua. On his return voyage to San Francisco, Ewing discovers Autua has stowed away and needs his help. Ewing eventually decides to lend a hand—a fateful decision, as he’ll need Autau’s help to save him from a doctor who’s been poisoning him to steal his gold. It’s a dramatic tale Ewing recounts in a journal …

… that ends up in the hands of an aspiring composer in Cambridge, England, in 1936. There, Robert Frobisher informs his gay lover, Rufus Sixsmith, that he’s seeking employment as an amanuensis (a musical transcriber) for a famous composer named Vyvyan Ayrs. Frobisher hopes the association with Ayrs will ignite his career. It doesn’t. And when the older man learns his assistant is gay, the information becomes blackmail fodder. Despite that predicament, Frobisher writes his magnum opus, “The Cloud Atlas Sextet,” a haunting work that vanishes …

… until it’s rediscovered by an investigative journalist named Luisa Rey in 1973. Rey believes a nuclear power plant in San Francisco is a ticking time bomb, and an aging Rufus Sixsmith seems key to unraveling the mystery. But he’s killed before he can help her. And Luisa fears she’s next. It’s a story Erin Brockovich would have loved, and one that Luisa records in a book …

… that publisher Timothy Cavendish is reading in London in 2012 when he suddenly finds himself in need of a large sum of money to deal with a crisis. He seeks the help of his rich-but-miserly brother, Denholme, who tricks Timothy into signing himself into a care facility for the aged—a facility from which he cannot escape. It’s an outlandish story that eventually gets filmed …

… and watched 132 years later by a “fabricant” in the Korean city of Neo Seoul. There, consumers are served by manufactured clones. One of them, Somni-451, labors as a slave-like fast-food server under the oppressive Unanimity regime. Until, that is, she’s rescued by an agent of the Union resistance named Hae-Joo Chang, who opens her eyes to the truth that her cloned kin are eventually “recycled” as food for other fabricants. Somni-451 and Chang try to overthrow the regime, recording a video message to all those fighting oppression …

… which helps explain how, 200 years after that, Somni-451 has become a goddess worshipped by a primitive group of survivors of humankind’s nuclear apocalypse living in Hawaii. There, Zachry and his tribe struggle to sustain life and to keep a tribe of cannibals known as the Kona at bay. Twice a year, though, they see the ships of another group of survivors, the mysterious, high-tech Prescients. And now the Prescients need Zachry’s help to reach an outpost atop a mountain in a haunted forest.

It’s a cooperative effort that could ultimately determine whether humanity lives … or perishes.

[ Note: Spoilers are contained in the following sections. ]

Positive Elements

Cloud Atlas grapples with the struggle between those who cherish freedom and those who would extinguish it. It focuses on oppression based on nearly every sociological classification possible, including race, sexual orientation (more on that below), economic status, age and how people are born (fabricants vs. the “pureblood” in 2144).

Arguing for slavery, Adam Ewing’s father-in-law warns, “There’s a natural order to the world, and those who upend it never fare well.” But Ewing rejects that logic and is determined to challenge a status quo that enslaves people. Other characters confront the oppressors in stories that range from the ridiculous (Timothy Cavendish breaking out of his assisted-care facility) to the risky (Luisa Rey battling a huge corporation) to the revolutionary (Somni-451 seeking to overthrow a totalitarian regime). At one point we hear, “Only those deprived of [freedom] have the barest inkling of what it is.”

Somni-451 suggests that a person’s method of creation shouldn’t determine his dignity: “No matter if you are born in a tank or in a womb, we are all pureblood.” She also hears a co-worker say, “I’ll not be subjected to criminal abuse,” which becomes another refrain of resistance throughout the story.

Several people say, “Our lives are not our own. From womb to tomb, we are bound to others. Past and present. And by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.” That’s Cloud Atlas’ main message: Every person matters, every decision has consequences. Reinforcing it, someone opines, “The nature of our immortal lives is in the consequence of our words and deeds.”

Spiritual Elements

Facing execution, a man says, “I believe death is only a door. If it closes, another opens.” He’s hinting at reincarnation, not heaven, as the film moves souls from one body to the next through the centuries, changing gender and race along the way. Cloud Atlas uses this spiritual premise to suggest that our decisions in each successive life impact our lives—and others’—into the future.

Two characters have dreams in which they have memories of past lives. One starts out as a would-be murderer but ends up a hero centuries later. The film thus indicates that moving from evil to goodness throughout ones’ incarnations is possible. Before committing suicide, Frobisher tells Sixsmith in a letter, “I believe there is another world waiting for us. … And I’ll be waiting for you there. … I believe we do not stay dead long.”

Of course, Hebrews 9:27 counters all that with, “Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.”

Several characters believe truth is worth living and dying for. One suggests that truth is singular, and that to believe there are multiple truths is incorrect. Ewing prays and reads his Bible. And it’s his faith that apparently motivates him to work for slaves’ emancipation—in contrast to the Rev. Giles Horrox, who believes slaves are fundamentally inferior. A conversation between them includes the question, “If God created the world, how do we know what things we can change and which remain inviolable?”

In the future, Zachry’s people practice a primitive-looking native religion that includes shamans who perform rituals. Zachry is haunted by a green, devil-like entity known as Old Georgie, who tempts him. Old Georgie employs biblical allusions when he whispers, “You’re Judasing your own kin for a piece of a‑‑” and describes a woman as a “Jezebel.”

The fabricants in Neo Seoul are indoctrinated by their masters to serve customers with religious zeal. At the end of their careers, they’re led off in a ceremony communicating (falsely, it turns out) that they’re going to receive some kind of spiritual reward.

Sexual Content

Frobisher and Sixsmith kiss. Frobisher’s bare backside is visible when he gets out of bed. He later tries to seduce aging composer Vyvyan Ayrs, who mocks him, saying he has no interest in “a little buggering.” Ayrs implies he has the power to destroy Frobisher because he knows about the younger man’s homosexual habits, labeling the man a “pervert,” “sodomite” and “reprobate.”

Frobisher also has sex with Ayrs’ wife, Jocasta. We see her bare back as she gets in bed, and the sides of her breasts as they have sex. It’s implied he performs oral sex on her.

A female clone named Somni-351 has sex with a man (they’re mostly clothed, but sexual movements are obvious) as Somni-451 watches. Later, Somni-451 engages in graphic sex with Hae-Joo Chang. Her breasts and bare rear are visible in a lengthy scene that includes explicit sexual sounds and movements. Timothy Cavendish recalls nearly losing his virginity to a teenage girl. She’s shown naked in bed with a sheet mostly covering her bare back. He’s shown covering his genitals with a nearby cat (with comedically disastrous results) when they’re discovered by her parents.

Female fabricants’ breasts are visible as they dress for the day. And they’re routinely subjected to leering looks, suggestive gestures and carnal touches. We hear several sexual references and double entendres.

Violent Content

Frustrated with his inability to live openly as a gay man, Frobisher puts a gun in his mouth, and we hear him say in a voiceover, “Suicide takes tremendous courage.” He pulls the trigger and kills himself. (We hear the fatal shot.) Before killing himself, Frobisher shoots Ayrs.

Fabricants wear death collars that can be activated via remote control. When one fabricant rebels, her restaurant manager presses a button, and an artery in her neck is punctured, killing her. All fabricants eventually get euthanized by a bullet-like shot to the forehead. After that, they’re decapitated (offscreen) and their bodies hung on a conveyor in a factory (onscreen) to be “recycled.” Thus, in a scene very reminiscent of The Matrix , Somni-451 sees a warehouse full of bodies as Hae-Joo Chang tells her they’re used to feed new fabricants. Somni-451 concludes, “So, they feed us to ourselves.”

Chang and Somni-451 engage in multiple futuristic chases and shootouts through Neo Seoul that claim the lives of enemy fighters via bullets and explosions. A final shoot-out between Union and Unanimity forces leaves most of the freedom fighters dead.

We see several brutal killings (including throats being slit) in conflicts between Zachry’s tribe and the cannibalistic Kona clan. One man is shown eating a fresh victim. Combat includes physical beatings and people being shot with crossbows. A young boy is shot and killed. An energy weapon is used to kill several Kona warriors. One of the Kona combatants tries to cut Zachry’s head off, leaving a wound from his eye to his neck. Zachry does the same to another Kona warrior, nearly sawing his head off with a knife.

Autua is whipped mercilessly. An author tosses a book critic off a skyscraper roof. (The camera watches his bloody impact many stories below.) An assassin shoots a man through the mouth. A woman’s car gets forced off a bridge into water. A shootout and car chase wreak havoc in downtown San Francisco. A man shoots a woman’s dog; she later kills him with a blow to the head with a wrench, them pummels his body with it.

An airplane explodes. A bar brawl results in a dislodged tooth. A man is killed when he’s hit in the head with a trunk full of gold. There’s the threat—and then the residual reality—of nuclear holocaust.

Crude or Profane Language

When actor Tom Hanks appeared on Good Morning America to promote Cloud Atlas , host Elizabeth Vargas asked him to talk in the thick accent he used for one of his roles in the film. Tom’s response? “Oy, mostly it’s swear words!” He did end up dropping an f-bomb in that interview. And in the movie? More than 20 f-words and about five s-words pop up. Characters misuse Jesus’ and God’s names two or three times each, and God’s is paired with “d‑‑n.” We also hear “b‑‑ch,” “a‑‑,” “h‑‑‑,” “p‑‑‑y,” “bloody” and “ruddy.” Derogatory and/or obscene slurs include two uses of “n-gger,” one of “wetback” and one of the c-word.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Characters smoke cigarettes and consume alcoholic beverages throughout.

Other Negative Elements

A man on a toilet is intimidated by men who shove a plunger in his face. Several folks justify an aggressive lifestyle by saying, “The weak are meat, and the strong do eat.”

Cloud Atlas is on a very short list of films I’ve seen that prompted me to say afterward, “I’ve never seen anything quite like that before.” Actress Susan Sarandon felt similarly when viewing clips. “I just thought … this looks like the trailer for every film a studio is doing for the entire season,” she said. And she’s right. In terms of scope, genre and sheer storytelling audacity,  The Matrix creators Andy and Lana Wachowski (the latter known as Larry before a sex-change operation), with help from director Tom Tykwer, have crafted a movie that David Mitchell, the author of the book on which it’s based, once said was unfilmable.

Thematically, Cloud Atlas reflects on the importance of freedom and cost of securing it. It sends inspirational messages when it insists that every individual’s choices can have an eternal impact and every person has intrinsic worth. But it ultimately knows nothing of the God of all inspiration, and offers no judgment for evil choices made in a man’s lifetime. There’s no salvation here. No Christ. No Savior. Just another chance to, perhaps , get it right in another life.

Some characters do make moral progress over the course of multiple lifetimes. But we’re never given any hints regarding why.

Not that this epic’s muddled spiritual worldview is its only problem. Not even close. A gay man’s despairing suicide is meant to lash out at the moral code of the day, and in the process dangerously and disturbingly romanticizes killing yourself—especially given the suggestion that suicide is a path to a better place. Add to that graphic depictions of sex, grisly bloodletting and harsh profanity, and this film makes even the Wachowskis’ violent Matrix trilogy look relatively restrained by comparison.

Adam R. Holz

After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.

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Cloud Atlas Reviews

Cloud Atlas tells a huge story in ways that often felt personal and small.

Full Review | Oct 3, 2022

Cloud Atlas will confound and maybe even aggravate some unwilling to, quite simply, “go with the flow.” But others will find what few have: a bold, technically awesome, and thematically enduring picture whose arrangement and ambition are unprecedented.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 21, 2022

It’s a highly ambitious picture that pulls off an incredibly clever storytelling technique. But it could also be viewed as a three-hour grind that features many of the Wachowski’s familiar self-indulgences.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 19, 2022

I was hypnotized by Cloud Atlas.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 23, 2022

Its a film unlike any other ever madeone that explores the fluidity of sexuality and genderand a thrilling cinematic experience. The Matrix may have put the Wachowskis on the map. Cloud Atlas proves their real brilliance.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 20, 2022

Far from a block that fits neatly into any sort of structured agenda, Cloud Atlas is a symphony of emotion that plays the synapses and the spine...

Full Review | Sep 10, 2021

[There's'] far too many actors in this town to have to bother paying Tom Hanks $100,000,000 and putting him in nine hundred scenes as different ethnicities and races.

Full Review | Aug 31, 2021

There were so many prosthetic noses.

For all its jabbering about the "connectedness" of humanity, the film never makes any kind of point

Full Review | Jul 2, 2021

As a work of art, Cloud Atlas is no success. The film founders under the burden of its makers' various, perhaps contradictory ideological concerns.

Full Review | Feb 12, 2021

It's like a treasure hunt to uncover the nuggets of brilliance hidden beneath the tangled mess of six interweaving storylines.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Dec 1, 2020

A messy, ambitious film that blends science fiction, philosophical rambling, and impressive narrative prowess, with stunning visuals, and engaging stories and characters.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Jul 15, 2020

Cloud Atlas manages to weave these stories into a thought provoking, beautiful and a boldly ambitious sci-fi film.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 15, 2020

Cloud Atlas is a glorious reward for readers who've slogged through a brilliant but flawed novel, and the soundtrack is the cherry on top of the icing on the cake.

Full Review | Jun 30, 2020

One of the best science fiction movies I have seen this year. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Jun 25, 2020

A daring extravaganza of images and themes, a film that asserts itself as worthy of repeated viewings, not only for its quality, but its generously expansive scope.

Full Review | Aug 5, 2019

Yes, Cloud Atlas is massively ambitious, and impressive. But as it labours to clarify its own confusion, mapping every last nook of narrative space, any sense of real mystery is obliterated by platitudes about freedom.

Full Review | Jul 31, 2019

While Cloud Atlas has its flaws, there are plenty of moments where I found myself seeing the big picture and fully realizing the weight of every storyline linking to one another throughout time.

Full Review | Original Score: 7.5/10 | Jul 2, 2019

Tykwer and the Wachowskis clearly aimed for the stars, and while the final product ultimately falls short, there is still quite a bit to admire in the failure of their epic folly.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 8, 2019

I wouldn't call The Cloud Atlas pure cinema, but... the mix and mash trumps the balderdash.

Full Review | Feb 25, 2019

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Review: Cloud Atlas

The movie blends events happening in six different storylines dating from ancient 1849 to a futuristic 2346..

Cast: Tom Hanks,Halle Berry,Jim Broadbent,Hugh Grant,Hugo Weaving,Jim Sturgess,Doona Bae,Ben Whishaw,James D’Arcy,Susan Sarandon

Director: Tom Tykwer,Andy Wachowski,Lana Wachowski

Indian Express Rating: ***1/2

The Wachowskis have a thing for science fiction and for sort-of exploring man’s quest for freedom against order. It’s easy to see why they would be drawn towards David Mitchell’s novel Cloud Atlas,with its grand theme of mankind separated by ages and time but not by the general ideas of freedom and love that propel it.

The Wachowskis and Tykwer do a commendable job of mounting the concept,ditching the novel’s linearity for a script that seamlessly blends events happening in six different storylines dating from ancient 1849 to a futuristic 2346. And,in an interesting twist,you don’t know what came before and what followed — it could even be an endless cycle repeating itself through time.

However,where the film flounders is in its endlessly preachy tone and in it beating down its message of “no man being alone and being connected to others from womb to tomb”,through a relentless 164 minutes. What is obvious from its various episodic stories,which are remarkably different from each other and yet strikingly alike,is never left to chance.

Having put in $102 million into what was considered an un-filmable project,making it one of the most expensive independent films of all time,the three directors (also the producers and the screenplay writers) apparently didn’t want to take the risk of their message not getting across.

The actors play different characters through the ages and it’s a prosthetic marvel if you can get Hugh Grant to play a merciless tribal cannibal. The filmmakers obviously had their fun with hiding some of those well-known actors in some of those roles,switching their races and genders along the way. A birthmark inherited through generations is the other physical continuity.

But it’s when the film is not trying too hard that its best story comes forth. It involves two gay lovers in the 1930s,one of whom puts together a haunting composition he calls ‘Cloud Atlas Sextet’ while separated from his forbidden love. That segment,with Whishaw and D’Arcy,could have been a movie in itself.

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'Cloud Atlas': You're Better Off Reading The Book

David Edelstein

Zachry and Meronym are only two of the combined 12 characters Tom Hanks and Halle Berry play in Cloud Atlas . It is a challenge that bests both actors, according to David Edelstein. Jay Maidment/Warner Bros. hide caption

Cloud Atlas

• Directors: Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski
• Genre: Drama
• Running Time: 164 minutes

Rated R for violence, language, sexuality/nudity and some drug use

With: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant

First I need to talk about the book, because it's not as if Cloud Atlas the movie came from nowhere — and if you think it's only the movie you want to know about, I think you need a context for what's onscreen.

Author David Mitchell writes exquisite pastiches, and Cloud Atlas is in the form of six distinct and enthralling novellas set in six different eras with six different literary styles.

First comes the journal of a 19th century lawyer for a slave-trading company, then a series of early 20th century letters from a down-and-out composer who apprentices himself to an elderly musical giant. We jump to a 1970s paranoid conspiracy thriller; then a 2012 tale of a debt-ridden publisher tricked into signing himself into an old age home. In a totalitarian future, a South Korean restaurant is staffed by female robots called "fabricants," a couple of which are beginning to think for themselves with tumultuous social consequences. The last story is set in a post-apocalyptic future in which some denizens are hunter-gatherers, others cannibals.

From story to story there are echoes, counterpoints, variations, characters in one time aware of characters in the previous one through print or film or oral history, so it's as if a baton is being passed. The idea that everything in the universe is connected doesn't come from a character's speech — it seeps into you as you read.

Jim Broadbent and Ben Wishaw, seen here as Ayrs and Frobisher, also play five roles each. Both put forth stellar performances. Reiner Bajo/Warner Bros. hide caption

Jim Broadbent and Ben Wishaw, seen here as Ayrs and Frobisher, also play five roles each. Both put forth stellar performances.

The movie, directed by Andy and Lana Wachowski and Tom Twyker, doesn't have discrete episodes. Every one of its stories is interwoven with every other — it's an epic hash of crisscrossing fragments tied together by music in a vain attempt at fluidity. I found it disjointed, distractingly busy; unlike the book, it telegraphs the theme from its first scene on.

The main actors have parts in all six stories, often in egregious disguises. They're a very uneven stock company. Tom Hanks speaking in a subliterate patois opens the film as a post-apocalyptic tribesman, then shows up with a putty nose and snaggle teeth in the 19th century — and so on. I like Hanks but when it comes to transforming, he's no Peter Sellers. It's always, "Hi, Tom!"

The even less versatile Halle Berry is primarily a gossip-rag reporter who ferrets out chicanery in the nuclear industry. Hugo Weaving plays sundry one-dimensional villains while Hugh Grant manages to embody a cannibal in war paint without losing his English lockjaw. Korean Doona Bae is the "fabricant": She has a lollipop head and a lithe body, but it's hard to detect much under the surface. There is one fine performance — Jim Broadbent as the publisher, and one splendid one — Ben Whishaw as the young composer.

Movie Reviews

Navigating the shift from complex to cineplex.

But the dialogue is full of flashcards and placards. Hanks gets to sum the film up in the episode in which he's a nervous nuclear scientist with blond hair in love with Berry's reporter.

Cloud Atlas is never dull; it's like a series of clunky but energetic B-movies inflated by lines like "Separation is an illusion" and "My life exists far beyond the limitations of me." It's certainly passionate. You can see why the Wachowskis were drawn to the book. They've expressed a belief in the transmigration of souls, the body but a weak and temporary vessel. And politically, they're radical: For them, every age has oppressors with unchecked power who preserve artificial boundaries — racial, sexual, economic, spiritual. As in The Matrix, the answer in Cloud Atlas is: Free your mind. Once you do there is but one possibility: Overthrow the Man.

My own mind was too dismayed by all the howlers in the dialogue and acting to be freed — the movie is too literal-minded to be a good head-trip. But I should add that audiences at the Toronto Film Festival premiere reportedly stood and cheered for 10 minutes. With its busy transitions and metaphysical heft Cloud Atlas could be this year's Inception . You'll travel farther, though, if you read the book.

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Netflix's new sci-fi flick 'Atlas' charms with old-school heroics and rousing mech fights (review)

T he best way to describe Canadian director Brad Peyton's ("San Andreas," "Rampage") rousing new sci-fi movie is to say that "Atlas" represents the best video game movie ever made for a video game that doesn't specifically exist. 

Well, that's not entirely true for this Netflix gem, which was released last Friday (May 24), because Peyton's futuristic feature integrates deja-vu DNA from video games like "Titanfall," "Mechwarrior," and "Armored Core" — titles all locked and loaded with thundering mechs engaged in heavy metal combat, or "Pacific Rim," the 2013 movie directed by Guillermo del Toro. 

Happily toting a nostalgic '90s-era filmmaking vibe, " Atlas " harkens back to bolder times in Tinseltown, when action-adventure flicks reigned supreme with solid plotlines and focused themes, crafted by fearless filmmakers with a taste for this flavor of crowd-pleasing product that's perfect for a summer movie season kickoff.

In the negative climate of today’s hypercritical focus on only the worst elements of any film, we’re here to tell you that "Atlas" is a rewarding blast from the past. It boasts impressive performances by its likable cast, inspired action sequences, and breathtaking visual effects, confidently led by a spirited director who understands the bulletproof mechanics of traditional three-act structure.

Related: 'Atlas' stars Jennifer Lopez and Sterling K. Brown on AI paranoia and their film's emotional core' (exclusive)

After a swift setup, we begin in the year 2071, after Earth was decimated by an AI uprising orchestrated by the android terrorist Harlan (Simu Liu), whose past is linked to a top-notch data analyst named Atlas Shepherd (Jennifer Lopez). Harlan flees Earth to the planet GR-39 in the Andromeda galaxy , where he’s finally located 28 years later. A search-and-destroy mission is mounted by ICN commandos, with Lopez tagging along due to her former associations with this rogue artificial human created by her scientist mother (Lana Parilla) at Shepherd Robotics.  

Heading out with a rough-and-tumble special forces outfit led by Col. Elias Banks (Sterling K. Brown), Lopez must survive by forming a bond with her battle mech's interface personality called Smith (Gregory James Cohan), attempting to overcome her aversion to AIs in order to apprehend and destroy Harlan before he can return for a second strike to wipe out humanity.  

Detailed production design here cares enough to let you poke around a bit, but never by sacrificing story, pace and character. There’s a strong narrative through-line at work in "Atlas," paired with genuine emotional stakes if you allow it the chance to work its charm and magic.

"Jennifer read the initial draft, and she found it emotional and very engaging," Peyton told Space.com. "These types of films [are] what I like to do. I like worldbuilding. I love action-adventure. Basically everything I do is like an adventure film, it's just wrapped up in a different subgenre. That has to do with growing up in the '90s, when you have Lucas, Spielberg, Cameron, Ridley Scott all at their A-game."  

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Besides the terrific foursome of fully invested stars in Jennifer Lopez, Sterling K. Brown, Mark Strong and an especially sinister Simu Liu, another notable addition to the cast is British actor Abraham Popoola, who delivers an imposing performance as Harlan's brutish AI enforcer, Casca Vix. 

"Atlas" is a gorgeous-looking film, and one of the reasons is the scintillating cinematography by its Academy Award-nominated DP, John Schwartzman. To say that this veteran has an impressive resume would be a grave understatement, as his cinematic sorcery has graced blockbusters like "The Rock," "Armageddon," "Pearl Harbor," "Seabiscuit," "The Amazing Spider-Man," "Dracula Untold," "Jurassic World," "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker," and "Jurassic World: Dominion."

"I really loved working with John, and I think he and I will end up doing a lot of projects together," Peyton said. "He’s the correct personality for me in terms of a creative and really knowing cinema and how to make things dramatic and grounded. He was such a creative partner because he quickly got on board with the idea that I wanted the movie to feel real and lived-in and a little bit gritty in places. I definitely challenged him, and he definitely wanted to kill me on some days. Both he and Barry Chusid, the production designer, had to work hand in hard. It had to all feel grounded, and that meant a lot of practical lighting was designed into the sets."

In between the steel-on-steel scrapes, "Atlas" does stumble into some muddier, cliched moments trying to decide if artificial intelligence is still something immensely beneficial, sufficiently benign or an evolving technological beast to be feared. Calling the film formulaic, however, is to cast aside the undeniable truth that viewers can still enjoy "Atlas" as harmless escapism with a predictable rundown of timely AI themes that don't feel too heavy or ponderous.

"I'm very aware that I've just scratched the surface of Atlas' character and who this person is," Peyton added, when asked about a potential sequel. "I actually think Harlan is a little misunderstood, and I’d love to explore more of his side of the story. I started jotting ideas down into an outline as I was finishing up the movie. I just love the whole world of these ARC suits and the ICN and the Rangers. Wouldn’t it be so cool to see a 'Top Gun' school for people trying to become Rangers? That would be reason enough alone for me to go back to this world."

Unless you’re the sort of caustic movie fan who relishes ripping apart every honest filmmaking effort, there’s nothing wrong with strapping into the carnivalesque thrill ride of "Atlas," which recalls classics like "Aliens," "Terminator 2," and "The Matrix."