Everyman Sees the Future, Finds Love, and Saves L.A.
- Krueger, Joachim I.
Reviews the film, Next directed by Lee Tamahori (2007). Philip K. Dick (1928–1982) was the mad genius of science fiction. In many of his stories, he posed fundamental questions about human nature and psychology in a way that only science fiction writers can. Hypothetical realities are inaccessible to experimental research, but they can cast light on the reality we are stuck with. Next, written by Gary Goldman and others and starring Nicolas Cage, was released in the United States on April 27, 2007. The story that led to Next was The Golden Man (). Before considering the movie under review, let's review the story. In The Golden Man, Dick posed the question of what it would be like if one could see the future. The golden man is a postapocalyptic mutant whom the authorities want to eliminate, a future-seeing being who is superior and will ultimately replace regular humanity. Dick worked methodically through the implications of this premise. A being who can perceive the future has no reason to reason. The government agents temporarily get hold of the golden man, scan his brain (Dick saw the neuroscientific future), and find no frontal lobes. Unlike other favorite Dick creatures, the golden man has no use for memory. And why should he? If memory serves to guide predictions about an uncertain future, being able to perceive the future makes memory unnecessary. Likewise, the golden man does not need emotions (here Dick missed an opportunity to point out that the golden man has no amygdala). If the function of emotions is to prepare and energize behavior with uncertain outcomes, someone with perfect knowledge does not need them. Next has not fared well with the critics. The cast is average, not stellar. Nicolas Cage is at home in the role of the likeable everyman who just wants to be left alone and live. Although the movie does little justice to Dick, it is entertaining. Cage and his supporting cast succeed in having some fun with the paradoxes of prediction. “Here's the thing about the future,” Cage says, “Every time you look at it, it changes. And that changes everything.” This is the point of the Oedipus effect (not the complex; ) and the secret of cat. It is also the bugaboo of participant observation. Once you look at X, you will never know what X would look like if you were not looking. That makes you wonder: Would Next be a better movie if you did not watch it? (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved)