MovieChat Forums > 400 Days (2016) Discussion > Whatever it was, it was not a simulation...

Whatever it was, it was not a simulation, and other notes

posted 9 years ago by nubbage
4 replies | jump to latest

I've read a lot of pet theories with decent evidence saying this was all a simulation and everything was planned. No. Just no. Maybe it was up to a point, but then no. This whole movie centers around the fact that humans are unpredictable and go crazy with the right stimuli (isolation, drugs, mental instability). But a simulation of this scale (the 2nd act) requires a lot of accurate and precise predictions about what the subjects will do. For example, how could you possibly predict what direction the crew will chose to walk after leaving the ship? The timing of the fight with Zell so he dies the exact moment the clock reaches zero? The fact that the crew decides to leave or return at all? Taking the act to the point where people are stabbed, beaten, strangled and ultimately killed? Having the budget to build a Truman-show vast fake world, but having to re-use actors from the press conference and porno mag?

Just think of it this way: A controlled simulation - as opposed to a dream, hallucination, hypnosis, or an actual sudden global catastrophe - is the only answer where things have to all add up and make sense, and nothing in this movie completely adds up and makes sense. Now you ask, "but what about the ending, doesn't that support the simulation theory?" Yes, it supports it, but it can be explained in other ways too. That's the great part about dream/hallucination, anything goes.

Some other notes I'm just throwing out there

1. The guy in the prison cell with Theo is the butcher from the town that Theo ends up strangling. I hadn't seen anyone else point this out. So, whatever "this" was, it seems to have started well before getting on the ship.

2. I haven't seen anyone try to explain the gifts the crew were given, and I feel those are a big clue.

3. You can't trust anything the ship's information systems tell us, or the people reading those systems. So many people here are using it like gospel. The oxygen levels aren't necessarily low. The dust isn't necessarily moon dust. That said, if those two facts are true, it certainly supports the cataclysm theory.

4. About that cataclysm...I've read a couple of reviews/comments that say "why would an explosion on the moon cause oxygen levels to drop on Earth?"...Forget the moon, we don't have any reliable info on that. But, what we do know is that something has caused the sun to be blocked out. So, unless you're 6 years old, you should know that plants need sunlight to product oxygen. If a chunk of moon was knocked to Earth and it was large enough such that the resultant dust would block the sun, oxygen levels would definitely drop.

5. It was not a dream/hallucination/hypnosis of one or two people. I've read it suggested that Theo and Emily were the only real people (or in some cases just Theo). No. There were plenty of scenes where Dvorak and Bug were alone and I refuse to believe the filmmakers were THAT bad. This theory hinges on Zell telling Theo that it was always just he and Emily. Ok, so Zell is now a reliable source of truth?

[–] tecnogaming 9 years ago

I think you pretty summed up all points about this movie and a very good and valid points I may add... but in this case, I think you're being smarter than the movie script actually is.

I think they didn't plan this very well enough and there are some serious plot holes to leave you guessing if it was a simulation or not. Based on what you said, It's fairly easy to guess that this was all real, definelty I'll agree with you but, seeing as they producers seem to left it ambiguous, I think the real explanation is that the script is a mess and didn't produced a reasonable explanation for either scenario, not because they want you to guess, but because the script wasn't good enough.

Honestly, the movie felt really weak in the second act, incredible weak, dialogs seems to last forever and the whole second act seems like filler, that's really sad considering the first act was top notch.. feels like they started out great, but didn't knew how to ended it properly, so they just ended it like that.

Alex Vojacek

[–] thulk01 9 years ago

Do you have a theory?
It didn't seem like a simulation but some of the minor things added to it for me, like the town guy's earpiece, and the girl from the magazine cover being in the town (that would be a pretty ridiculous coincidence if it weren't a simulation).

And in response to your point #1 about it starting before getting on the ship, what's your theory about that?

[–] natedaug-654-143634 9 years ago

I think your point about Zell's death happening at that precise moment leans it MORE to the possibility of it being a simulation. Makes more sense than a co-winky-dink. What are the odds bro?

[–] tsromdal 9 years ago

Nice topic.
It is odd how things that are off in the movie, are taken by some viewers to mean that it was a simulation, even though events are so much off it could not have been a simulation.

Take for instance the girlie magazine. The idea is what? That the Kepler company:
A) wanted to make a simulation that was as realistic as possible. They therefore somehow created their own publishing company to make photo shoots with a great number of girls, write articles, and the whole production process, so they could put 5 magazines in the ship. Then proceeded to hire the same girl as in the magazine, even though they had gazillions of USD, thus spoiling the whole illusion.

- instead of
B) stopping by the corner shop and buy 5 actual magazines that were, you know, not fake, and therefore quite believable.

I bet someone will then say no, the purpose of the fake magazines was exactly to let that one guy realise that it was a simulation (as indeed it was a simulation), to blow his mind. But it never adds up. It is just convoluting things to make them more convoluted.

It is clear the crew were hallucinating a lot (blood and dead sons everywhere), and we have to deal with what input there is coming from their twisted minds. I believe not much in the movie is really "real".

"I am like Cryptonite for men. Cryptonite dipped in cellulite."