HGrubbs: Love, Death, and Robots "Beyond the Aquila Rift"

     By far, my favorite short film we watched was “Beyond the Aquila Rift”. Not only was the technological side of it phenomenal–I mean come on, those weren’t real actors?--but also, the CGI and animation of even just the alien and the hive was incredible. I also really admired the idea behind the “sleep tanks”. I took a lot of the film metaphorically, and I think these tanks really served as a foreshadowing in a sense of what “Greta” would do for them. Written by Alastair Reynolds, Philip Gelatt, and Tim Miller, and directed by Gabriele Pennacchioli, Dominique Boidin, and Léon Bérelle, the short aimed to tell a riveting, yet chilling story differentiating simulation from reality. The short depicted the main character, Thom, and his crew waking up from their sleep tanks. Upon awakening, Thom’s seeming ex-lover, Greta, greets them and informs them that they hadn’t landed where they intended. After a whirlwind fling with Thom, and a gnarly fight with Suzy, Thom begins to unravel the simulation, realizing that Greta was not being entirely truthful about where they were. Reluctantly, “Greta” reveals the truth to Thom, that he is living in a simulation as his body is slowly becoming emaciated and wilting away after his ship had landed in an alien cave. 

I think what appealed to me the most about this short film was the real controversy behind what “Greta” was doing. I think even in real life, a lot of us can allow ourselves to drift in and out of “simulations” to avoid our own personal realities. Many can cope with drugs, alcohol, sex, media–anything really–to avoid having to face the ghastly reality of the state of their life or situation. I found it really interesting how this idea of living in a “simulation” is so heart-wrenching in our world, we see it as something where we feel for those people and just want to help them out of the pain that leads them to live on their “medications”, whatever they may be. However, in the film, putting these people in these simulations is what is compassionate. Even before “Greta” came into play, the sleep tanks allowed them to essentially stop time and preserve themselves physically as they traveled for lightyears, just like how “Greta” essentially stopped time and preserved them mentally and emotionally as they aged in her hive. The alien “Greta” told Thom that she really cared for every soul that landed in her cavern, and “medicating” them with false realities is seen as an act of love. Of course, avoiding the reality of a draining family, societal pressures, and a bad love life is very different from avoiding the reality that you’re dying in a horrifying alien cave next to your already dead or dying friends. Therefore, I don’t believe that it would ever be justifiable to allow someone to medicate themselves into oblivion like “Greta” did, but in the context of the film, I found the act of love to actually be quite beautiful. 

As for how this translates to the future, I just hope we never reach a point in our society where we’re advocating for people losing touch with reality simply to avoid making them face the reality of their situation. “Greta” gave them a safe haven by medicating their minds, and I hope we as a society are capable of serving a real safe haven so people never feel the need to turn to false ones. And on a less deep note, I think sleep tanks would be totally awesome for our space exploration!