Let's talk first what's good about this 2003 British film set in a dystopian future. In some ways screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce was ahead of his time by questioning the mantra plaguing us now in these current dystopian times: "trust the science." Indeed in Code 46 Boyce suggests that in the future "science"-specifically gene alteration and DNA technology-will be utilized for nefarious purposes.
Code 46 is a law enacted by governments worldwide to prevent sexual reproduction between certain classes of people. Specifically, people who are related to one another through the cloning of fetuses.
In this film, the protagonist, insurance investigator William Geld (Tim Robbins) is violating the law when he has sex with insurance company employee Maria Gonzalez (Samantha Morton), 50% related to Geld's mother due to the aforementioned cloning technology. Like the PCR testing in our own time, DNA testing here is used to legitimize draconian regulations of the state.
And just like the current discriminatory distinctions between "vaxxed" and "unvaxxed," the world of Code 46 posits a separation of those on the "inside" and those "a fuera" (on the outside). In order to be a part of legitimate society, one must obtain a cover (essentially insurance company documents) sanctioning travel. The "cover" is akin to the current call for "Digital ID passports."
Code 46 cleverly introduces a "global pidgin language" in which English (apparently the universal language of the future) has been altered through the introduction of words and phrases from other languages (particularly Spanish). Hence your cover now consists of papeles (Spanish for papers)-passports which permit the previously alluded to permission to travel.
Despite all these prescient predictions of things to come, Code 46 turns out to be pretty much an ordinary love story. William travels to Shanghai where he is tasked with discovering who has issued fraudulent covers. He discovers it's Maria who is committing illegal acts providing "papeles" but promptly falls in love with her and blames someone else.
When Williams must return to Shanghai it becomes clear that both have been found out. Together they try to escape but eventually they're caught and the state erases William's portion of his memory related to his errant behavior with Maria but allows him to resume his happily married life back in the States.
Williams' bad behavior is blamed on an "empathy virus"-it would have been much more interesting had screenwriter Boyce suggested that the virus wasn't real and simply medical science propaganda inculcating a superstitious belief among a brainwashed populace.
Maria's fate is more draconian and sad-they allow her to keep her memories but she's banished to the outside where she'll pine away her days thinking about the now memory erased William.
Robbins and Morton effectively convey the lovers living in a dystopian nightmare-although just about everything that happens proceeds at a snail's pace.
The government's attempt to address "public safety" in the future stems from the dreadful consequences of medical and scientific interference with the natural order (the use of cloning technology creates the real possibility of birth defects due to the reality of artificially induced incestuous relations).
As a result, the film effectively gauges the underlying authoritarianism inherent in a science that brooks no dissent and arrogantly seeks to fiddle with the field of genetics (leading to untold suffering). Today the hubris of mainstream science also seeks to "play around" in areas which also are fraught with immense danger.
But perhaps the current time is more insidious as the threat to public health is based on wholly speculative theories which are not permitted to be challenged-soon perhaps we will have our own "Code 46" which will enshrine the tyrannical dictates of the state leading to the disappearance of our fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the Founding Fathers of a once great nation.
Code 46 is a law enacted by governments worldwide to prevent sexual reproduction between certain classes of people. Specifically, people who are related to one another through the cloning of fetuses.
In this film, the protagonist, insurance investigator William Geld (Tim Robbins) is violating the law when he has sex with insurance company employee Maria Gonzalez (Samantha Morton), 50% related to Geld's mother due to the aforementioned cloning technology. Like the PCR testing in our own time, DNA testing here is used to legitimize draconian regulations of the state.
And just like the current discriminatory distinctions between "vaxxed" and "unvaxxed," the world of Code 46 posits a separation of those on the "inside" and those "a fuera" (on the outside). In order to be a part of legitimate society, one must obtain a cover (essentially insurance company documents) sanctioning travel. The "cover" is akin to the current call for "Digital ID passports."
Code 46 cleverly introduces a "global pidgin language" in which English (apparently the universal language of the future) has been altered through the introduction of words and phrases from other languages (particularly Spanish). Hence your cover now consists of papeles (Spanish for papers)-passports which permit the previously alluded to permission to travel.
Despite all these prescient predictions of things to come, Code 46 turns out to be pretty much an ordinary love story. William travels to Shanghai where he is tasked with discovering who has issued fraudulent covers. He discovers it's Maria who is committing illegal acts providing "papeles" but promptly falls in love with her and blames someone else.
When Williams must return to Shanghai it becomes clear that both have been found out. Together they try to escape but eventually they're caught and the state erases William's portion of his memory related to his errant behavior with Maria but allows him to resume his happily married life back in the States.
Williams' bad behavior is blamed on an "empathy virus"-it would have been much more interesting had screenwriter Boyce suggested that the virus wasn't real and simply medical science propaganda inculcating a superstitious belief among a brainwashed populace.
Maria's fate is more draconian and sad-they allow her to keep her memories but she's banished to the outside where she'll pine away her days thinking about the now memory erased William.
Robbins and Morton effectively convey the lovers living in a dystopian nightmare-although just about everything that happens proceeds at a snail's pace.
The government's attempt to address "public safety" in the future stems from the dreadful consequences of medical and scientific interference with the natural order (the use of cloning technology creates the real possibility of birth defects due to the reality of artificially induced incestuous relations).
As a result, the film effectively gauges the underlying authoritarianism inherent in a science that brooks no dissent and arrogantly seeks to fiddle with the field of genetics (leading to untold suffering). Today the hubris of mainstream science also seeks to "play around" in areas which also are fraught with immense danger.
But perhaps the current time is more insidious as the threat to public health is based on wholly speculative theories which are not permitted to be challenged-soon perhaps we will have our own "Code 46" which will enshrine the tyrannical dictates of the state leading to the disappearance of our fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the Founding Fathers of a once great nation.