By Kai Bridges
On March 26 many students gathered to watch the French animated film Mars Express hosted by the Horizons French Film Festival. The film was introduced by Dr. Jenna Harte, Assistant Professor of General Education.
Harte, the event coordinator, is also a first-year writing professor. Since 2016 her favorite part about her field is discussing Artificial Intelligence and the future.
She also enjoys discussing persuasive writing. With a professor so passionate about the topics Mars Express explores, she began a fun discussion towards the end allowing everyone to talk about their favorite part. She encouraged students to express what confused them the most. Some students talked about their favorite character, while others raised more philosophical questions related to what was shown in the film
The film followed the story of an AI future taking place on Mars. The private detective protagonists Aline Ruby and Carlos Rivera were set to track down a criminal, Roberta Williams, who has been releasing androids to freedom. Roberta manages to escape their grasp, until a new intriguing case is opened up by a worried father. His daughter, Jun, has gone missing. Because of Roberta’s intelligence in jailbreaking androids, Aline and Carlos find themselves needing to partner with her for the case.
As the plot unfolds, the trio discover Jun has been living in secret with an android replica of herself, both struggling to make enough money to survive while keeping her education funded. While Jun has subjected herself to having her memories wiped for cash, which the film refers to as “brain farming,” the android Jun was working at a strip club, with a nearby building being a front for the brain farming scheme.
While trying to safely escort Jun out, officials discover her location along with the duo and quickly execute Jun before they could get far. This devastates Aline enough to break her sobriety streak. The motif of alcoholism remains a prominent theme for the rest of the film, until her final scene with Carlos where they plan to take Aline’s boss, Royjacker, hostage for taking advantage of androids for his own success.
However, the plan backfires when Carlos is held up for too long against the Organic guard, and Aline is shot and killed attempting to hold Royjacker against his men. With a bittersweet end, all androids initiate an international protest to leave Mars and all humans behind, except for Carlos, who joins them.
For the next film in the Horizons French Film Festival, stop by the Nursing Building on April 17 at 6 p.m. for Orlando: My Political Biography.