In seeking of a Sanctuary ...

I have been debating whether or not to contribute but here it goes. This is my take on the movie. And I guess it's meant for those who are interested in maybe a different aspect of it.

I'll try to keep it as short as possible and only mention the things relevant to the point I'm trying to make.

I'll just jump in.

I think most viewers won't agree but I think that the actual Sanctuary was the Dome City itself.

It provided shelter, the ecological stability, food, electricity. It was built to ensure the future of the human race until such time when the outside-world fixes itself.

When the main computer malfunctions due to the logical-paradox it is all over.

The computer had over 1,000 unaccounted runners in the system and was "convinced" that by this time some sort of "sanctuary" would be established if the runners never came back. I think this is also the reason the computer gives Logan this task to find it in the first place - it thinks it could be time for humans to retake the Earth.

The truth is all of those 1,000 runners were frozen by the slightly-maniacal Box. Some viewers see the dialogue with Box unneccesary - an old fashioned Bond-like approach of villians before killing someone.

In reality, we learn that Box was freezing sea food, most likely for Dome City's folk. He also says: "Then it stopped comming." and later "Then you came."

Given that line of dialogue, it's safe to assume that the food supply has all but stopped. Obviously Box was designed to preserve food so it can later be used. It shouldn't come to no surprise then, that every human he came in contact with was also frozen in the process - it was his purpose after all.

If I skip forward to the point where the old man is being guided to the Dome City, we also hear some important information.

"We lived in most of these houses.

But they became too small for us...

...and ran out of mice, I guess."


"I used to come fishing here...

...but somehow all the fish died.

Long time ago, now."

What he's telling the youngsters is that basically all food resources have gone. So Box was telling the truth. Sea food was gone, fresh fish were gone, even the roddents were gone.

Ofcourse none of this mattered because none of the people in the Dome City had any idea that you had to actually provide for yourself when you're outside. In theory, they could be taught by the old man to hunt and farm and everything else. In reality, there would be nothing to work with in the first place. The old man was living on peanuts and who knows what the cats were getting.

The old man and his cats would be the last remains of the past civilization.

(We do see a small lizard briefly but they mostly eat insects and insects rarely go fully extinct.)

The last part of the movie was painful to watch. The young folk gathering around an old man, touching him and studying his features. The only one they've seen and the last one they'll ever see. And all the smiling and joy makes it just more tragic. I could only imagine the surprise of let's-say-a-thousand people when they actually wondered into the wild and found absolutely nothing for themselves. These were practically spoiled children, 30 or not. And now they had nowhere else to go. Their Sanctuary was destroyed.

However - is it better to live in a logically constructed lie or is it better to die and knowing the truth?

Given this option, I have no idea what a 30 year old pampered child might choose, so I won't even bother speculating.

But since the Dome City was designed to ensure the future of a human race as a whole and wasn't about the individuals in it ... well, the computer did operate on logic, and as far as the survival of the species went - it did a good job. It kept the population number under control because it had to - if you start overpopullating in a closed Dome, then you really have a problem. So the creation of a fantasy Renewal ideology was practically necessary. And none of the fantasy-dwellers had any idea of actual human history or anything related to their race, so it was a must to create an entirely new world for this separate civilization. If they had known about their past or what happened outside and how life looked like then, none of it would be possible.

Looking from the perspective of the struggle that the human gene lives on - not an entirely stupid system, although it seems somewhat hearthless.

The computer was making sure it all went according to plan - for every death, another newborn; an equillibrium. All the while distracting the popullation from questioning their existence too much - hence all the sex and devil-may-care attitude. Also, the older these children would get, less they would party around and have more time to think.

As that old saying goes: "Don't trust anyone over 30."

And the Carrousel was an invention similiar to that of a Roman Empire which hosted gladiator face-offs at the Colloseum, most famously. All this was done to distract the public from seeing what their lives really are. Interestingly so, the average life expectancy for a gladiator was 28.

I didn't see this like most people did I guess. Logan should've listened to his Beloved Wife when she begged him not to go back. But like a child, with no information about how he might survive and didn't even had the slightest idea about what survival really is, he heroicly went to save his people. He asked the old man all sorts of silly and unimportant questions, which shows the childish nature. And an old man was a bit of a forgetful loon as well, so he couldn't really teach that much. The things he did say however, were not even acknowledged or replied to (the two quotes above) but were monologues.

At least the death in City Dome was usually quick and painless. Starving to death, however - that's another story.

This was a Gordian knot that was supposed to be untied rather than cut.

And as the old man said:

"Nothing sadder than a dead fish."