Cell is about an artist who is far from his estranged family when a worldwide disaster wipes the brains of everyone who is on his or her cell phone and changes them into violent flocks of humans that adhere to eusocial, i.e. insect or birdlike behavior, in their effort to either convert or destroy other humans who were not subject to the pulse. Cell is the artist’s journey to his family and to hopefully save the world. Along the way, he forms relationships with other survivors. Cell stars John Cusack, who plays the central character, and Samuel L. Jackson, a fellow survivor. For Stephen King fans and film buffs, Cell is the second Stephen King film adaptation that the pair has been in, the first being 1408.
We live in an amazing era. Every week, we have TV shows that offer cinematic quality storylines, performances and special effects. The big screen has considerable competition and sometimes a movie fails before it gets out of the gate because of the unavoidable comparison, a failure in marketing or a shortfall in execution. Cell is certainly not a successful film adaptation of the Stephen King novel with the same name although it utilizes the book’s premise to great effect. Cell may not be a solid, entertaining film that comfortably fits in a genre such as horror or sci-fi. Critics dismissed Cell as a derivative zombie film. I understand that Cell is not a satisfying film, and the critics are not wrong if Cell was a zombie film. The Walking Dead is way better even though the opening sequence is impressive (side note: I would get converted because of my Bluetooth, and mom is constantly calling me).
Cell is NOT a zombie film. Cell has more in common with 28 Days Later. Cell is a provocative, oneiric film that may have an ambiguous ending that leaves some viewers frustrated and asking questions, but these questions retroactively add texture and complexity to the film’s earlier events, which may have initially seemed straight forward, but are more surreal and demanding of analysis. Cell requires repeat viewings in order to fully answer those questions and appreciate it. I think that the answers are there, but the answers are subject to interpretation. Cell is an engaging work of art that tackles the nature of existence as an individual in a digitized world and compares and contrasts the rich internal imagination in the individual world with the disappointing reality of being like cattle in the real world.
I watched Cell three times. During the last viewing, I turned on the commentary, which I rarely do. Normally I get annoyed when a movie gives too many possible explanations regarding what happened, but if it is done well, and the ambiguity is earned within the storyline, I love it, especially when the end is so bleak.
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Cell never explains where the pulse came from, and instead of assuming that it is a terrorist attack, I think there is an excellent sci-fi meets (super)natural atmosphere to the movie that the pulse exists with or without technology, but technology just facilitated a way for more humans to hear it. Cell has plenty of visual references to the Dark Tower and The Stand, but also reminded me of Banshee Chapter, which references a H.P. Lovecraft short story in which human’s brains are vulnerable antenna ready to receive otherworldly transmissions and become possessed. What if the apocalypse against individual humanity had been occurring long before the pulse attack?
My theory is supported by the fact that Cusack’s character has been drawing the Raggedy Man long before the pulse attack occurs, and pulse survivors later see the Raggedy Man in their dreams. If you prefer a supernatural explanation, Cusack’s character is a prophet before a great evil occurs. If you prefer a scientific explanation, the pulse is a natural evolutionary jump from individual human consciousness to a hive existence, but some people take longer to succumb to the next jump, and that transition has a different internal representation for every individual. I wondered if Cusack’s character was converted earlier, and the entire film was his imagination, but the final scene shows that he did drive the truck of explosives to the tower so the movie objectively happened up to a certain point.
I think that Cell is a supernatural sci-fi apocalyptic flick. How can burned cell phones or cell phones still ring after they have not been charged, especially since no one can use them to make a call without being converted by the pulse? There are two possibilities: it is a group delusion and/or supernatural. The stack of burned phones resembles a burnt sacrifice and acts as the mark of Cain on the survivors after they commit mass murder of those converted by the pulse. There are references to Psalm 40:11-15 uttered by Jackson’s character complete with a Pulp Fiction Biblical fictional addition, “For here lies the dead, the dust of the earth.”
The bar scene has a lot of off-handed, tipsy dialogue, but paired with the main character’s drawing, there is the idea that there is an attack by a demon called Arama, the demon of big data, whom they see as the Raggedy Man, but is in fact not a real man in the physical world, but someone who appears in their dreams and slowly possesses destroys their soul. That “fucker” pulls people into the flock at moments of great ego, vanity and super individuality. The cell phones are emblematic of people living in their own world, but each person is actually alone and separate from each other even when they are grouped together like cattle at the airport. This scene is reprised in the final scene.
Cusack’s character achieves all his dreams alone at the worst moment in the worst location. It is not technology that makes people vulnerable, but extreme individual ambition. As Cusack’s character’s desires change, he wants to save his family and be the hero, he stops living in reality, and his individual external self dies as shown by his vacant almost Michael Myers masklike visage. I think that people become vulnerable to the pulse when they sleep and dream similar to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which is why the survivors dream of the same thing. Maybe Orpheus and Amana are the same person? Perhaps this explains why the first ice cream driver did not want to sleep and was able to warn the artist that his son was a trap. When the artist finally hears his son’s voice at the tower, it is too late, he is converted. His son’s voice is a delusion and is actually the pulse.
The haunting image of Cusack’s character imagining a blissful happy ending with his son, but actually endlessly running in circles is inherently disturbing. In his mind, he is the hero and happy, but in reality, he is empty, out of control, compelled to run in endless circles until he dies like some demented Mecca, which actually occurs in real life and are called ant tornadoes. When he initially was running in the opposite direction and being trampled, his soul was lost. I did not realize the following point until I listened to the commentary, but his delusion of a happy ending is actually a worse ending than the viewer can initially imagine. He has revealed the survivors’ plan to the opposition! No wonder people hated the bleak ending even if they didn’t understand it. Isn’t that the nightmare of our existence? We feel like these special unique individuals, the star of our own movies, but in reality, we are helplessly unaware that we are wearing red shoes and dancing to death en masse.