Rupture is about Renee, a single mother, played by Noomi Rapace, who is forced to confront her fears in a nightmarish scenario and decide how she will live and who she will be after she discovers something about herself. If you don’t like Rapace, who is famous for playing the titular character in the film adaptations of Stieg Larson’s The Girl book series and being the star in the dreadful Prometheus, then you probably should not see Rupture. A perfect gauge for whether or not you will like Rupture is if you appreciated Rapace’s performance in Prometheus despite hating the film.
I think that Rupture was widely panned by critics and viewers because it has a sci-fi premise, which is more a metaphor than a fully fleshed out concept so by the end of the film, you have more questions than answers, and that can be an extremely dissatisfying experience. Overall I liked the film because I enjoyed Rapace’s performance and did not know what was happening for the majority of the movie, but once I realized it was entering self-help territory about overcoming your primal fears and transcending to the next level of your existence, even I rolled my eyes a little.
Rupture is The Experimenter meets David Cronenberg body horror meets Tony Robbins in the end. Renee was extremely relatable and final girl worthy. I can see why she was cast in Prometheus. Despite her size and vulnerability, she displays a scrappy, practical intelligence that does not strain suspension of disbelief. Unfortunately when Rupture goes from being a character study to asking questions about identity and its relationship to biology, it loses momentum and offers no real answers. Unlike Split, the reveal is anti-climatic. While Renee’s relationship with her son is her motivation, she would be innately interesting with or without a son. What made her move here? How did she end up with that asshole and what made them break up? She can change a tire and is comfortable working on electric wiring. What else can she do? She is a cool chick and the most interesting person in the room. Renee and Jamie Lee Curtis’s Laurie from Halloween could brunch and trade war stories.
Steven Shainberg, who directed and was one of the writers of Rupture, intended to make the film the way that it is. The establishing scenes that depict her relationship with her son become crucial as Rupture unfolds. There are no hanging threads. The film has a highly stylized, distinct look in all three acts. I could detect the sadomaschist aesthetic from Secretary seeping into the second act of Rupture, which is effectively disturbing in a different context. Shainberg is clearly interested in women emerging from repressive situations and evolving into the most dominant version of themselves, but his trajectory is a little off in Rupture’s final act. She passively resists in comparison to her earlier actions.
Like most people, I have questions, and it is times like this when I miss the IMDb message boards.
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So while the people captured and released because they do not transcend or “rupture” believe that aliens abducted them, it is actually former human beings who evolved into a new species after having a terrifying experience and are trying to artificially recreate that experience to increase their numbers to prepare for the upcoming environmental apocalypse. Where was the building where they kept people? Was it night when we saw the external shot or another dimension (I think the first) because it was really dark—like Dark City dark? We know that this has been occurring since the early twentieth century, and they have yet to be able to reproduce, but how did they get the funds to create a place like that and the knowledge or am I wrong and are they aliens? Just because Renee is one of them does not automatically mean that she is going to star in The Bachelorette and start having babies regardless of the biological imperative. I know that it is hacky, but if she is the only one who can reproduce, I wanted her to gradually begin to flip the power dynamic and become the boss, the Queen Bee.