MovieChat Forums > Screamers (1996) Discussion > The real story?

The real story?

posted 16 years ago by Vader999
15 replies | jump to latest

WARNING: Long post with SPOILERS. Short version: Trying to explain some of the story we don't see and the not so obvious reasons behind the plot.

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First time through the ending became very muddled for me and the twists just felt tacked on for twists sake. Random screamers popping out of nowhere and their incredible ego as well as delaying to attack and revealing later screamers types to the Alliance base till the end of the movie when they've been around for ages.

However thinking it through I came up with the following. I'd be interested to know of any flaws, other ideas or how the book shapes up. The only P Dick novel I've read is obviously Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, which to me doesn't share a real similarity with Bladerunner. So my version of events:

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The Screamers took over and destroyed the NEB the 6-12 months before the movie is set (tying in with the Alliance seeing no NEB activity). Whilst trawling through all the data in the NEB databanks they came across some information that the Alliance had a secret site with passage back to Earth. There is a chance that they also tried to initiate contact with Earth as a means to spread to other worlds but were found out resulting in Earth sending Jeffersons squad to nuke the place as things had gone too far (although Jefferson was fed and believed the story he iterated).

Having a legion of drones they find the site and drill through but are unable to either program the flight or fear failing at gaining launch and landing clearance with Earth. They then sabotaged the crane and planted the teddy as a just in case measure to safeguard their booty in case things went wrong.

Thus they began their scheming which we see unravel in the movie...

The Screamer AI sends out the message to the Alliance for assistance. The NEB soldier who miraculously makes his way across the desert to the Alliance base only to be torn down at the last second was in fact a Screamer, set up just to get the message there. They could have hand delivered the message but it might have led to too many complications with questioning of the soldier by the Alliance. The next screamer we meet is the Type 3. Its sole purpose is to be set up to be killed to ensure Becker, Jessica and Ross gain Joe and Jefferson's trust.

Now let me explain a bit about Becker and Ross. We know Jessica is a Type 4+, lets just consider anything this advanced a type 4, they have a self sufficient AI although still working for the good or with orders from the central screamer AI. Becker IS a type 4 also, not a type 2. He has the self sufficient AI as evidenced when interacting with the group however I believe that the knock he receives from the plutonium nuke blast messes up his programming and it reverts to a type 2 kill mechanism. It could be he simply used the old type 2 programming himself to take Jefferson out of the equation and leave Jessica free to get Joe to set up the flight but that doesn't explain him wanting to kill Joe later. Ross simply has to be a screamer, I doubt the other 2 just decided to help him out and let him shack up with them. We know they can bleed and the stunted vocabulary as well as the other 2 joking (remember self sufficient AI) that he shares the face of the type 2's could mean he is a 2. He could well have been a screamer they unintentionally bump into which Becker may have thought would be of some use but later decides it to be a mistake. I still can't think of anything really concrete for Ross's inclusion and death.

So they set off with showing J&J the NEB base having already ensured there is nothing concrete they can glean from it, maybe the chip scanner was functional to divert attention to a type 2 instead of the Commander considering more advanced versions. Meanwhile the Screamers send a main force to finally take over the Alliance base to ensure the Commander is forced down the avenue of using the shuttle. Communications by the fake 'Chuck' are intentionally dumbed down for Joe to recognise that screamers have taken over and to not put himself into a dangerous situation. The Type 3s are used as the defence force simply because they pose no real threat with their speed, just enough to scare them away from the base.

However the nuke is not something they planned for and Becker takes a severe knock causing his programming to malfunction and revert to a remnant of the older type 2 kill code still in there. Nothing of interest till they get to the hangar apart from Jessica's 'awakening'. Once access to the hangar is granted by Joe and they are inside they are confronted by Chuck. His over inflated ego and desire for revenge leads me to believe that he is indeed the reconstructed Becker but being a self sufficient AI is ignoring the master AI's original plan and just fulfilling his bloodlust. Attacking and killing Joe just after access was granted as part of the original plan would not have left room to plant the bear. Jessica 2 is either a hunter to take care of the rogue Becker/Chuck, the tracker placed to ensure the plan was carried out by Jessica 1, or possibly the intended model for the flight. End of story.

Thanks for sitting through the long post, add anything you want.

[–] Spifflock_Holmes 16 years ago

Pretty good.

I personally still think it's more likely that Becker is a Type 2 -- there's nothing in the film to indicate that all a Type 2 can do is lie on the ground and pretend to be wounded -- but it's all the same to me if he's not. (As I mention in other posts, though, he could also be an "evolved" Type 2, a "Type 2 Revised" if you prefer.) And your suggestion that the nuclear blast causes him to revert to Type 2 programming is very clever.

I also don't think Ross and the NEB soldier at the beginning are Screamers. I can't absolutely rule out that the Screamers have developed a model that resembles human beings so closely that their corpses (or the hands of their corpses) can't be told from the real thing, but it doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the movie.

But I think you've got the timing and the skeleton of the plot pretty much right. Nice summary.

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The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

[–] J_Weezy 16 years ago

It's more than likely the NEB soldier in the beginning is not a screamer. It's more than likely that Marshall Richard Cooper (NEB Commander) did send out a peace treaty a few days prior to Hendricksson and Jefferson's trek. And it's likely that the NEB messenger was not alone; he was either with a small squad that got tore up by Screamers as they journeyed, or the lone soldier was in fact alone because all of NEB HQ was done for.

In either case, it takes a few days to get across the tundra between the two HQs. I think we can assume that, because Joe and Ace stopped for at least one night, where they met David.

So, it is very possible, and probable, that NEB and its commander could've been overrun and killed by Screamers during the NEB soldier's trek to Alliance HQ. So Jessica and Becker took over the place. And maybe the Screamers had gotten so advanced, that it was hard to tell a real person from Screamer--maybe this is why Ross is still alive? Or maybe it's because the Screamer had become so self-aware (as in Jessica's case) that they had feelings for Screamer and Human alike. They learned to love and kill one another (Screamer on Screamer).

But I really like the theory on the teddy bear being planted in the escape pod. It seems like the only logical explanation.

[–] Spifflock_Holmes 16 years ago

So, it is very possible, and probable, that NEB and its commander could've been overrun and killed by Screamers during the NEB soldier's trek to Alliance HQ.

That could well be it. Another possibility is that Richard Cooper had already been replaced by Becker (who was wearing Cooper's face) and that Becker is the one who sent out the NEB soldier in the first place. That would explain why Becker lets Hendrickssson and Jefferson in so easily when they show up with the message. (Maybe NEB HQ had already let in a David, too.)

I guess we'll never know precisely what happened, but I like either explanation. But I think it fits well with the overall plot if the Screamers had at least infiltrated NEB HQ some time ago.

Hell, maybe both explanations are right: maybe Cooper had been replaced by Becker a while back, and he and the other Screamers waited until the message was on its way to Hendricksson before they slaughtered everyone else.

Either way, the presence of the teddy bear in the escape pod does seem to show that the Screamers have manipulated all the events in the film. I don't think there's a chance for them to plant it after Hendricksson arrives, so it must be there already when he shows up. And if they could get inside that secret compound and plant a teddy bear in the pod, I guess they don't need Hendricksson to let them in -- but they may well need him to activate the pod: that chair seems to be coded to his biosignature too.

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The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

[–] J_Weezy 16 years ago

Here's yet another theory:

In the end Jessica is down below watching Hendricksson fight the Chuck/Becker Screamer. During that time another Jessica had to have descended before Joe did after the fight was over and the gantry way was clear of the launcher.

And the "good" Jessica didn't start fighting the "evil" Jessica until it went after Joe, reinforcing the fact that Screamers had evolved highly enough to love even humans, and thus kill other Screamers. But furthermore, it offers another way that the teddy bear got placed in the pod.

Jessica was first to see its interior, as she told Joe that there was only one chair...with one life support system. She knew this.

And then...he tries to make her go instead of him. Then, the other Screamer appears. The "good" Jessica then says, "I tried to tell you."

So in my mind, it means both Jessicas collaborated to place the teddy bear in the pod, so that the "species" of Screamers could flourish on Earth, and, possibly other worlds too. The Screamers, at this point and after everything that had transpired on Sirius 6B, seem smarter than humans in that they are forward thinkers that consider the survival of their own species, even though they can war with one another as well. Deep.

And, assuming this fact, it also means that if the teddy bear knew what was good for it, it wouldn't try to harm Joe on their way back to the San Fransisco spaceport. Unless it was a very "dumb" Screamer model.

What do ya think?

Don't be a post whore.

[–] Spifflock_Holmes 16 years ago

What do ya think?

I like it. So on this theory, when does the teddy bear get placed into the escape pod? Has one of the Jessicas gotten in ahead of Hendricksson somehow, or does the second Jessica just follow them in and put the teddy bear into the pod at some time we don't see? (I prefer the latter, because the Jessica with Hendricksson seems pretty happy that the door is keyed to his biosignature: my impression is that she says she's with the right guy because the Screamers can't open it themselves.)

Anyway, yeah, I like the whole implication (which is pretty faithful to PKD) that the Screamers are "evolving" to the point that they're all but indistinguishable from humans psychologically -- albeit perhaps, as you say, more forward-looking and with an arguably better sense of the "big picture" as regards their own survival.

I'm not sure what to expect the teddy bear to do "after" the movie. We've seen Hendricksson playing with the teddy bear earlier in the film, so we know he's probably not going to think it's a Screamer in its own right even though he's bound to recognize it as having belonged to one. Why is it moving? Could it be just making sure it's positioned somewhere in the escape pod where he's likely to notice it? Or is it "dumb" enough to kill him? I don't know.

(Heh, this all reminds me somewhat of the endless discussions about John Carpenter's The Thing about who was assimilated when -- and I have to say that, as with that film, I like it that we can't tell for sure. The fact that we're not given enough information to reconstruct exactly what happened, or to project exactly what's going to happen next, seems to me to be deliberate and to add to the effect of the story.)

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The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

[–] mairhart 16 years ago

Great theories here, everyone.

My own thoughts:

1. Becker was an advanced type of screamer with its own custom chip that Hendricksson observed was written in an unknown language. When the entourage returned from NEB to the Alliance base and nuked it, the Becker screamer sustained damage that would become obvious to the others, and so it had no choice but to adopt a Type 2 strategy.

2. The Chuck screamer, the Richard Cooper screamer, and the Becker screamer are all the same or similar advanced type of screamer: Infiltrators with the ability to acquire the faces of humans and (possibly) mimick their voices long enough to gain trust and grant admission to the simple but deadly David screamers which have the ability to replicate (or be replicated) rapidly.

This model knew a bit of the real Chuck and Hendricksson's history -- during their final confrontation, "Chuck" mentions the bar on Point Reyes. So, how did the screamer acquire real Chuck's knowledge and face, and when? Perhaps after Hendricksson and Jefferson departed for the NEB base -- or perhaps before the movie began.

[–] J_Weezy 16 years ago

Maybe the basic Screamers, the ones that treverse the dirt, were "listening" in on Joe and Chuck just before Joe/Ace's trek to the NEB HQ?

Great movie, as someone said, because it keeps you guessing for more.

[–] Vader999 16 years ago

I was about to argue but I'm going round in circles on alot of points (ie if one thing isn false then that means I need to reconstruct the whole premise I'm building the story on and so on). First watch through I thought this was a fairly straightforward flick heh. A sign of a great movie is to keep itself in your thoughts long after you've watched it.

[–] b-shovelton 16 years ago

I'm not sure if any of you remember this, but Hendrick's actually takes off his "Tag" and tosses it on the cockpit 'dashboard' next to the Teddy Bear... Now, there were also three endings to me movie.

Theatrical (cinema): Where after he does that, the camera slowly pans out, then blood sprays all over the cockpit
Video: Ends as he throws his 'tag' on the dashboard
Television: Ends as he shoots off into space, you don't even see the Teddy.

Now, my take on it is this... When Hendrick's throws his tag on the dashboard the Teddy moves because it's trying to get away from it, it wants to stay hidden until it gets wherever the pod is going (Earth? Another Ship? Who knows). OR, the Teddy never even knew that Hendrick's was in the pod and only realised it when he took the Tag off... Perhaps the Teddy wasn't supposed to be there at all, but a David (Which seemed to be programmed to 'Hide and wait'), found a way into the compound (Vent shaft or something?) and placed/lost the Teddy in the pod before something happened to it?

Also, wasn't the injured 'Type 2' constructed by NEB, not the Alliance? I remember something about them saying "The NEB tried to make their own Screamer, but it was flawed... It would cry out in pain from a wound, even if it was just a scratch", so really... It wouldn't be a Type 2, but a NEB Type 1.

The 'tag' not working in the NEB base? Well, the upgraded Screamers could have evolved past the point of sensing 'heartbeats' or figured out a way to neutralize the tag.

Uhm, been a while since I've watched it, so that's all I can think of right now.

[–] Spifflock_Holmes 16 years ago

Also, wasn't the injured 'Type 2' constructed by NEB, not the Alliance?

Neither. It was constructed by the Screamers themselves, as were all the types from the "Type 1 Revised" onward.

I don't recognize the "flawed . . . just a scratch" line.

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The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

[–] b-shovelton 16 years ago

It was when they were in the NEB base, they were talking about it. It was why after the guy shoots the (stolen) Mini-Nuke at the base the main character hears the NEB soldier crying out in pain/yelling for someone to help him and he scrambles to his feet when he hears the kid yell out something like "I'm commin!". Realizing that the mound they were behind would protect them from any real injury he realizes that the guy is a Screamer and tries to warm the kid before it was too late.

Unfortunately the kid gets killed then the Screamer does.

[–] Spifflock_Holmes 16 years ago

It was when they were in the NEB base, they were talking about it.

I don't recall that specific line. I'm sure you must be talking about the conversation that ensues in response to Hendricksson's question What other type? That's when Ross tells him about the Type 2, which pretends to be a wounded soldier and lies on the ground saying (Becker pitches in at this point) Help me, help me. That's what clues Hendricksson in later that the "wounded" Becker is a Screamer. (And the NEBs didn't build the Type 2; Ross, who is a NEB, says the NEBs thought the Alliance built it.)

I don't remember anything about the NEBs trying to build their own Screamer and I don't remember anything about any Screamer being "flawed" and crying out in pain at "just a scratch." Can you be more specific about where the line appears?

(EDIT: I just watched it again last night and still didn't hear the line to which you refer. As for the NEBs buiding their own Screamers, the only mention I heard is Jefferson's remark to Hendricksson about the new "animal" type of Screamer they encounter while they're with David Edward Dearing: Jefferson suggests that perhaps the NEBs built it. Did you ever think of that? But of course it emerges that the NEBs didn't build it; the Screamers have been evolving on their own. And at any rate, that Screamer isn't a Type 2.)

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The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

[–] b-shovelton 16 years ago

My bad, I guess I misheard the part where they were talking about the Wounded Soldier. It has been a while since I've seen it.

[–] kimdealslover 16 years ago

I've never thought of Ross as a Screamer. The guy is pretty much tricked into repeating things (the entire scene is played out that way too). He's used as an asset by the Screamers as a way of gaining trust; much like when they snipe the kid. It's not like he poses much of a threat to them and instead of killing him straight away, the Screamers learn that humans have uses. Which leads on to the messenger at the start. Also a human character, but ultimately used by the Screamers.

I don't think the Screamers had much of a plan in the first place. It's very much evident through the creation of Types, that they're only just learning new techniques and experimenting. The escape pod is pretty much a last ditch attempt for them. The improvisation and mistakes made just highlights the similarities of the advanced Screamers and humans (and adds weight to Joe's argument that they're becoming more like us).

Becker's speech also leans towards the theory that the Screamers didn't really have knowledge about other Types advancing other than their own. Hence why I think nobody knew about the Teddy Bear model at the end. That just got there by its own accord.

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"Now...where was I?"

[–] 16 years ago

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