Religion in Science-Fiction: Looking Back to Understand a Technological Future
Denis Villeneuve’s 2021 adaptation of Frank Herbert’s ‘Dune’[1] and Alex Garland’s 2014 film ‘Ex Machina’[2] do not immediately seem to have much in common. But both involve notions of how a technological future may unfold through long-held belief systems and flawed human tendency, interestingly presenting futuristic themes through looking to the past.
The visual conventions of each film are largely antithetical, providing contrasting backdrops on which their respective stories can be told. Alex Garland presents a ‘dazzlingly good-looking technological thriller’[3] about Caleb, a computer programmer who wins the opportunity to engage in Turing Test sessions with the impressively intelligent AI machine, Ava, created by Blue Book entrepreneur, Nathan.
Meanwhile, Denis Villeneuve presents the classic 60s science-fiction story, Dune, with impressive gusto. Described as a ‘slow-burn space opera’ which ‘fuses the arthouse and the multiplex to create an epic of otherworldly brilliance’,[4] Dune is by no means understated. It follows the story of archetypal hero, Paul Atreides, whose family is given control of the planet Arrakis which possesses a valuable hallucinogenic drug nicknamed ‘spice’ that aids space travel and has life-enhancing properties. It is implied throughout the film that this planet is Paul’s destiny as he goes on a life-changing journey to discover who he really is.
The Creation story allegory is apparent throughout Ex Machina, with Nathan making Ava as if in his own image, e.g. using his Blue Book search engine to create her intellect. As if to spell it out for us, Garland gives Ex Machina’s three protagonists biblical names, Caleb, Nathan, and Ava (derivative of Eve). The title itself is also a reworking of the Latin phrase ‘Deus Ex Machina’, meaning ‘a God from the machine’; Nathan is a characterisation of the God who creates Ava, the machine, in a modern-day Creation story.
Ex Machina’s Norwegian setting of Nathan’s sleek home-office serves as a thematic device to portray a pseudo-Frankenstein’s Castle. In nineteenth-century science-fiction tales like Frankenstein, ‘the appearance of the monster is invariably tied to a Romantic over-reaching, the attempt of some human scientist to tamper with the divine order.’[5] This metaphor of ‘playing God’ holds potential when exploring ideas of creation, control, and humanity’s place in the world, answering the question of whether we have the right to create life to the point of a technological singularity.
Caleb says to Nathan that ‘if [he’s] created a conscious machine, it’s not the history of men, that’s the history of gods’, which Nathan later spins, ‘self-mythologising’[6] and saying, ‘If I’ve invented a machine with consciousness, I’m not a man I’m a God.’ Much like Frankenstein, he is enamoured with himself and his ability to create ‘life’, but everything about Nathan’s creation is contrived; he surrounds a Garden of Eden and Tree of Knowledge in glass, placing it within his dark, oppressive home while real nature is right outside. What Nathan has created only mimics life and outsmarts him in the end. He is thus revealed to be no such God; to follow the original Latin phrase from which the title is derived, ‘Ex Machina’ could be interpreted to mean ‘a machine without a god’, emphasising the inherent absence of such a figure.
Towards the end of the film, Ava stabs Nathan as she tries to escape, the symbolic killing reminiscent of Nietzsche’s metaphor of god’s death at the hands of science. Nathan staggers away and the camera follows him as Ava fades to a blur, keeping Nathan in the foreground. This scene arguably rewrites the narrative; in a modern understanding of the allegory, Garland seems to critique the traditional Creation story of Eve’s betrayal and places the focus on the creator’s transgression, showing how filmmakers can utilise these narratives to explore current anxieties surrounding technology.
Dune similarly utilises religious ideologies in Paul Atreides’ journey to becoming the Kwisatz Haderach: the ‘chosen one’. Paul goes on a messianic journey, reminiscent of those present in many other science-fiction films, including Star Wars (1977, 1980, 1983)[7][8][9], Blade Runner (1982),[10] and The Matrix (1999),[11] to name a few. Much like the Creation story we see alluded to in Ex Machina, the Saviour story is one of the foundational myths of Western civilisation, and beneath the sublime and sonorous science-fiction epic that is Dune, there lies an intimacy and sense of destiny bound up in the formation of this messianic narrative.
When Paul first tells of his dreams about Arrakis and the Fremen, a place he’s never been and a people he’s never met, the music rises, sounding faintly Middle Eastern and providing a sense of destiny in a ‘far-off land’ where he feels he belongs. Suspicious of Paul’s abilities, The Reverend Mother calls him into a dark, imposing library to test him, a scene which powerfully instils the idea of destiny within the film’s ideology. The scene is psychological by nature; Paul will have to use mental strength alone to survive, hardship and adversity being common characteristics of the Saviour ideology.
We then see cut-aways to fire and heat, reminiscent of Arrakis, Paul’s implied destiny. The images seem to transcend space and time, making no sense to us now but suggesting an implicit future importance. A powerful female voice simultaneously penetrates the tension, igniting a sort of awakening coming from deep within Paul. As Zimmer expresses, ‘It’s really the women that craft the destiny of everybody.’[12] Despite Paul being the ‘chosen one’, it is the feminine power of the Bene Gesserit that has created him. Thus, Villeneuve puts a modern spin on a traditional male-oriented religious narrative.
However, there is an indication that Paul will not be the chosen one they had hoped. Jessica says that ‘for thousands of years [they] have been carefully crossing bloodlines to bring forth […] a mind powerful enough to bridge space and time, past and future.’ They have been breeding to create a messiah, making it a calculated endeavour, not destiny. Like the hallucinations the mystical ‘spice’ produces, Paul’s visions are also not real. He is presented as a sort of messiah figure, but, akin to Nathan’s creation of Ava, the ‘prophecy’ seems paradoxically artificial.
Despite having contrasting aesthetic goals, with the quiet, subtle artistry of Ex Machina and the large-scale spectacle of Dune, the use of religious ideology is something that ties these science-fiction films together. The science in both films contextually grounds the narrative, while religion provides a theological subtext about human nature and our place in the world. As ‘Aristotle’s original intention [for genre] was descriptive, not prescriptive’,[13] these films are able to mobilise similar themes within very different worlds, all the while placing them firmly within the science-fiction genre, as they present the future by ultimately looking to the past.
By Lily Roberts – Film Pathway
References
Cover Image: https://girishmhatre.medium.com/god-and-physics-in-the-time-of-the-virus-42e239025914
[1] Dune, dir. by Denis Villeneuve (Warner Bros. Pictures, 2021).
[2] Ex Machina, dir. by Andrew Garland (A24 & Universal Pictures, 2014).
[3] Mark Kermode, ‘Ex Machina review – dazzling sci-fi thriller’, Guardian, 25 January 2015. Available from:https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jan/25/ex-machina-review-mark-kermode-alex-garland-vikander [accessed 6 Jan 2022].
[4] Xan Brooks, ‘Dune review – blockbuster cinema at its dizzying, dazzling best’, Guardian, 3 September 2021. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/sep/03/dune-review-denis-villenueve-venice-film-festival[accessed 6 Jan 2022].
[5] Rick Altman, ‘A Semantic/Syntactic Approach to Film Genre’, Cinema Journal, 23 (1984), 15-16.
[6] Mark Kermode, ‘Ex Machina review – dazzling sci-fi thriller’, Guardian, 25 January 2015. Available from:https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jan/25/ex-machina-review-mark-kermode-alex-garland-vikander [accessed 6 Jan 2022].
[7] Star Wars: A New Hope (Episode IV), dir. by George Lucas (20th Century Studios, 1977).
[8] Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (Episode V), dir. by Irvin Kershner (20th Century Studios, 1980).
[9] Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (Episode VI), dir. by Richard Marquand (20th Century Studios, 1983).
[10] Blade Runner, dir. by Ridley Scott (Warner Bros. Pictures, 1982).
[11] The Matrix, dir. by Lana Wachowski & Lilly Wachowski (Warner Bros. Pictures, 1999).
[12] Darryn King, ‘Conjuring the Sound of Sand and Spice’, New York Times, […] 2021, p.C1(L). Available from:https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A679919819/AONE?u=univbri&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=bc8276a2 [accessed 20 Dec 2021].
[13] Edward Buscombe, ‘The Idea of Genre in the American Cinema’, in Film Genre Reader III, ed. by Barry Keith Grant (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1986).