Cloud Atlas (film)

Cloud Atlas
Directed by	Lana Wachowski Tom Tykwer Lilly Wachowski
Written by	Lana Wachowski Tom Tykwer Lilly Wachowski
Based on	Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Produced by	Grant Hill Stefan Arndt Lana Wachowski Tom Tykwer Lilly Wachowski
Starring	Tom Hanks Halle Berry Jim Broadbent Hugo Weaving Jim Sturgess Doona Bae Ben Whishaw James D'Arcy Zhou Xun Keith David Susan Sarandon Hugh Grant
Cinematography	John Toll Frank Griebe
Edited by	Alexander Berner
Music by	Tom Tykwer Johnny Klimek Reinhold Heil
Production company	Cloud Atlas Productions X Filme Creative Pool Anarchos Productions
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date	8 September 2012 (2012-09-08) (TIFF) 26 October 2012 (2012-10-26) (United States) 15 November 2012 (2012-11-15) (Germany)
Running time	172 minutes
Language	English
Country	Germany United Kingdom United States
Budget	$100–146.7 million
Box office	$130.5 million

Cloud Atlas is a 2012 epic science fiction film written and directed by the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer. Based on the 2004 novel by David Mitchell, it has multiple plots occurring during six eras in time. Cast members perform multiple roles in these time periods.

The film was produced by Grant Hill and Stefan Arndt, in addition to the Wachowskis and Tykwer. During its four years of development, the producers had difficulties securing financial support. It was eventually produced with a budget between US$100 million and US$146.7 million provided by independent sources, making it one of the most expensive independent films ever produced. Filming for Cloud Atlas began in September 2011 at Babelsberg Studio in Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany.

It premiered on 8 September 2012 at the 37th Toronto International Film Festival, and was publicly released on 26 October 2012 in conventional and IMAX cinemas. Critics were polarized, causing it to be included on various "Best Film" and "Worst Film" lists. It was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score for Tykwer (who co-scored the film), Johnny Klimek, and Reinhold Heil. It received several nominations at the Saturn Awards, including Best Science Fiction Film, and won for Best Editing and Best Make-up.

Plot

The story jumps between eras, spanning hundreds of years, until each storyline eventually resolves. Writings from characters in prior storylines are found in future storylines. Characters appear to recur in each era, but change relationships to each other. Slaves or abusers often change roles, suggesting reincarnation or other connection between souls through the ages.

In the Chatham Islands, 1849, American lawyer Adam Ewing is waiting for his transport ship to be repaired. He witnesses the whipping of Autua, an enslaved Moriori man. Autua stows away on Ewing's ship, having noticed Ewing’s sympathy, and persuades him to advocate for Autua to join the crew as a free man. Autua saves Ewing's life before the ship’s doctor, Henry Goose, can poison Ewing and steal his gold under the guise of treating him for a parasitic worm. In San Francisco, Ewing and his wife Tilda denounce her father's complicity in slavery and leave for New York to join the abolition movement.

In 1936, English composer Robert Frobisher finds work as an amanuensis to aging composer Vyvyan Ayrs, allowing Frobisher to compose his own masterpiece, "The Cloud Atlas Sextet". Frobisher reads from Ewing's journal among the books at Ayrs's mansion. As the sextet nears completion, Ayrs demands credit for it and threatens to expose Frobisher's bisexuality if he refuses. Frobisher shoots and wounds Ayrs and goes into hiding. Frobisher finishes the sextet and shoots himself before Frobisher’s lover Rufus Sixsmith arrives.

In San Francisco, 1973, journalist Luisa Rey meets Sixsmith, now a nuclear physicist. Sixsmith tips off Rey to a conspiracy to create a catastrophe at a nuclear reactor run by Lloyd Hooks, who secretly promotes oil-energy interests. He is killed by Hooks' hitman, Bill Smoke, before he can give her a report as proof. Rey finds Frobisher's letters to Sixsmith, just as Frobisher had found Ewing's journal earlier. She tracks down Frobisher's obscure sextet in a record store. Scientist Isaac Sachs passes her a copy of Sixsmith's report. Smoke kills Sachs by blowing up his plane and then runs Rey's car off a bridge, destroying the report. With help from the plant's head of security, Joe Napier, Rey evades another assassination attempt, and Smoke is killed. With a copy of the report from Sixsmith's niece, she exposes the plot and has Hooks indicted.

In London, 2012, gangster Dermot Hoggins murders a critic after a harsh review of his memoir, generating huge sales. Hoggins' brothers threaten the publisher, the aging Timothy Cavendish, for Hoggins' profits. Timothy's brother, Denholme, tells him to hide at Aurora House. On the way, Timothy reads a manuscript based on Rey's story. Believing Aurora House is a hotel, Timothy signs in, only to discover he has unwittingly committed himself to a nursing home where all outside contact is prohibited; Denholme reveals that he sent Timothy there as revenge for an affair with his wife. Timothy escapes with three other residents, resumes his relationship with an old flame, and writes a screenplay about his experience.

In 2144, Sonmi-451 is a "fabricant", a humanoid clone indentured as a fast food server and implied sex worker in a dystopian Neo Seoul. She is exposed to ideas of rebellion by another fabricant, Yoona-939, who has obtained a clip of the movie about Cavendish's involuntary institutionalization. After Yoona is killed, Sonmi is rescued by rebel Commander Hae-Joo Chang, who exposes Sonmi to the banned writings of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and the full film version of Cavendish's experience. Hae-Joo eventually introduces her to the leader of the rebel movement, and shows her that clones when 'freed' are actually recycled into "Soap", food for fabricants to keep them acquiescent. Sonmi makes a public broadcast of her revelations before the authorities attack, killing Hae-Joo and recapturing Sonmi. After recounting her story to an archivist, she is executed.

In 2321, the tribespeople of a post-apocalyptic Hawaii worship Sonmi; their sacred text is taken from her recorded testimony. Zachry Bailey's village is visited by Meronym, a member of an advanced society called the Prescients. Prescients use nuclear powered ships and remnants of high technology, but are dying from a plague. Meronym is searching for a forgotten communication station on Mauna Sol to send an SOS to off-world humans. In exchange for healing Zachry's niece, Catkin, Meronym is guided by Zachry to the station where Sonmi made her recording. Returning home, Zachry finds his tribe slaughtered by the cannibalistic Kona tribe. He kills the sleeping Kona chief and rescues Catkin before he and Meronym fight off the other Kona tribesmen. Zachry and Catkin join Meronym and the Prescients as their ship leaves Big Island. On a distant planet, Zachry is married to Meronym and recounts the story to his grandchildren.

Main cast

The protagonist of each story is indicated in bold.

Actor	Pacific Islands, 1849	Cambridge / Edinburgh, 1936	San Francisco, 1973	London, 2012	Neo Seoul, 2144	Big Island, 106 winters after The Fall (2321)
Tom Hanks	Dr. Henry Goose	Hotel Manager	Isaac Sachs	Dermot Hoggins	Cavendish Look-alike Actor	Zachry Bailey
Halle Berry	Native Woman	Jocasta Ayrs	Luisa Rey	Indian Party Guest	Ovid	Meronym
Jim Broadbent	Captain Molyneux	Vyvyan Ayrs	N/A	Timothy Cavendish	Korean Musician	Prescient
Jim Sturgess	Adam Ewing	Poor Hotel Guest	Megan's Dad	Highlander	Hae-Joo Chang	Adam (Zachry's Brother-in-Law)
Ben Whishaw	Cabin Boy	Robert Frobisher	Record Store Clerk	Georgette Cavendish	N/A	Tribesman
Doona Bae	Tilda Ewing	N/A	Megan's Mom, Mexican Woman	N/A	Sonmi-451, Sonmi-351, Sonmi Prostitute	N/A
Hugo Weaving	Haskell Moore	Tadeusz Kesselring	Bill Smoke	Nurse Noakes	Boardman Mephi	Old Georgie
Hugh Grant	Rev. Giles Horrox	Hotel Heavy	Lloyd Hooks	Denholme Cavendish	Seer Rhee	Kona Chief
Susan Sarandon	Madame Horrox	N/A	N/A	Older Ursula	Yosouf Suleiman	Abbess
Keith David	Kupaka	N/A	Joe Napier	N/A	An-kor Apis	Prescient
James D'Arcy	N/A	Young Rufus Sixsmith	Old Rufus Sixsmith	Nurse James	Archivist Park	N/A
Zhou Xun	N/A	N/A	Talbot (Hotel Manager)	N/A	Yoona-939	Rose
David Gyasi	Autua	N/A	Lester Rey	N/A	N/A	Duophysite
Robert Fyfe	Old Salty Dog	N/A	N/A	Mr. Meeks	N/A	Prescient

Other cast members who appear in more than one segment include Martin Wuttke, Brody Nicholas Lee, Alistair Petrie, and Sylvestra Le Touzel. In addition, author David Mitchell makes a cameo appearance as a double agent in the futuristic Korea section.

Production

TBA

Music

The soundtrack was composed by director Tom Tykwer and his longtime collaborators, Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek. The trio worked together for years as Pale 3, composing music for several films directed by Tykwer, most notably Run Lola Run, The Princess and the Warrior, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, and The International, and contributing music to the Wachowskis' The Matrix Revolutions. The music was recorded in Leipzig, Germany with the MDR Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Leipzig Radio Chorus. The music was orchestrated by Gene Pritsker. Pritsker also adapted the score into a stand-alone six-movement symphony for orchestra, the Cloud Atlas Symphony.

The film contains approximately two hours of original music. WaterTower Music released the soundtrack album via digital download on 23 October 2012 and CD on 6 November 2012.

Reception

The Cloud Atlas soundtrack received critical acclaim. Film Music Magazine critic Daniel Schweiger described the soundtrack as "a singular piece of multi-themed astonishment ... Yet instead of defining one sound for every era, Klimek, Heil and Tykwer seamlessly merge their motifs across the ages to give Cloud Atlas its rhythms, blending orchestra, pulsating electronics, choruses and a soaring salute to John Adams in an astonishing, captivating score that eventually becomes all things for all personages".

Daniel Schweiger selected the score as one of the best soundtracks of 2012, writing that "Cloud Atlas is an immense sum total of not only the human experience, but of mankind's capacity for musical self-realization itself, all as embodied in a theme for the ages."

The film's soundtrack was nominated for the 2012 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score, and for several awards by the International Film Music Critics Association, including Score of the Year.

Release

TBA

Marketing

TBA

Home media

The film was released on home media (Blu-ray, DVD and UV Digital Copy) on May 14, 2013.

Reception

TBA

External links

Template:Wikiquote

• TBA
• TBA
• TBA

Template:Tom Tykwer Template:The Wachowskis Template:David Mitchell