Slipstream

Plot synopsis:
Slipstream is set in a dystopian future, following a global environmental disaster. A voice over at the beginning of the film explains that a doomsday event, the "Convergence, has destroyed the balance of the world's weather systems, with the result that the jet stream has expanded to the planet's surface, with the surface scoured by winds far surpassing anything ever seen before, destroying cities and entire nations. Many bizarre communities have survived in the valleys and caves, some regressing to primitive states, others embracing advanced technologies. Many are isolationist and some are attacked by marauding bandits. Ground transport is no longer possible due to the atmospheric conditions, but skilled pilots can travel by air, following the fierce winds and travelling with their flow, a practice known as "riding the slipstream". The remnants of society have therefore become airborne; most now reside on high precipices or in caves beneath the howling Slipstream. It is also stated that nobody has ever been to the ends of the Slipstream, because atmospheric conditions there make human survival impossible.
The film opens with an unnamed man (Peck), running down a canyon, being harassed by an aeroplane, which drives him onto a precipice. The plane lands and its occupants, two bounty hunters, Will Tasker (Hamill) and Belitski (Kitty Aldridge), chase the man and shoot him through the arm with a grappling hook. The fugitive looks at his arm, but seems intrigued rather than distressed. Tasker pulls on the rope, and the man tumbles down the side of the canyon, but once again is not harmed. Immediately after his fall, the fugitive recites the words of famous World War II aviator and poet John Gillespie Magee, Jr., "I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth - put out my hand and touched the Face of God.", from the poem High Flight.
The bounty hunters take the man prisoner and fly to a busy civilian airstrip, where he stands beside them, handcuffed, as they eat in the airstrip's diner. There they encounter Matt Owens (Paxton), a hustler and smalltime arms dealer. He makes a pass at Belitski and she nearly breaks his arm, and he then tries to sell contraband grenades to Tasker. It is then revealed that Tasker and Belitski are part of the remnants of a law enforcement agency, trying to keep the peace in what is left of society. Byron is wanted for murder, and they are bringing him to justice. Tasker seizes Owens' weapons, but as the pair are leaving, Owens kidnaps Byron so that he can claim the large reward for himself, and they flee, but not before Belitski shoots Owens with a dart, both poisoning him and planting a tracking device in his body, enabling Belitski and Tasker to follow the fugitives.
Owens and Byron first fly to Owen's home, Hell's Kitchen, where Byron heals a boy blinded by cataracts, and Owens begins to wonder if Byron is more than he appears. After getting lost, they land at the home of a cult of cave-dwellers who worship the Slipstream and who have recently been under attack by bandits. Byron attempts to help, lifting a heavy milling stone off the cult's leader, Avatar. Avatar, in his dying breaths, curses Byron as being part of the out-of-control technological advancements that lead to Convergence. The cultists decide to let the wind decide what to do with him, and tie him to a massive kite. The bounty hunters arrive in the middle of a windstorm, and Owens bargains with them to work together to get Byron down. Tasker reveals to Owens that Byron is an android. After a rough landing from the destroyed kite, Belitski allows Byron and Owens to get away, diving back into the deadly windstorm to search for her partner. Another visitor to the valley, Ariel, helps Byron and Owens escape the scouring winds, and convinces them to give her a lift home. Ariel takes them to her people, a group of hedonists, who inhabit a fortified underground museum. Byron's knowledge and appreciation of the museum's ancient contents lead to Ariel becoming emotionally attached to him. Byron and Ariel spend the night together in an African Savannah exhibit, while Owens gets drunk and hooks up with a local girl. The local girl helps Owen decide to free Byron, who has become his friend. Later, Byron explains more of his past, revealing that the man he killed was his master. Byron also excitedly tells Matt that he has slept for the first time, and that he dreamed of a land at the end of the Slipstream, inhabited by other androids.
Soon after, having tracked the trio to the museum, Tasker and Belitski force entry, killing the guards and some of its inhabitants. After beating the Curator (F. Murray Abraham), Tasker forces the rest to find the fugitives. Byron is captured, and Owens is knocked down. Belitski confronts Owens and shoots him in the chest with a dart; Owens retaliates by knocking her out, and handcuffing her to a bed. She wakes and tells him that the dart is the antidote to the poison. He sets off after Tasker. A shootout ensues in which Tasker kills Ariel. Enraged, Byron pursues Tasker to his plane. Tasker shoots Byron, to no effect, so he then tries to run Byron down as he takes off, but Byron manages to jump on, and smash his way into the cockpit. The pair struggle, but as Byron is on the verge of killing him, Tasker quotes the Magee poem and Byron relents. He then attempts to regain control of the damaged aircraft by using the control wires, but he is unsuccessful, and it crashes. Tasker is killed, but Byron, being an android, survives. He returns to the museum to find that Belitski and Owens are now a couple. The film ends with Byron leaving to seek his 'promised land'.

Tags: psychedelic, murder, violence, flashback

Review:
Hopkins has his own meaning for the film, but we're expected to form our own.This will doubtlessly be a divisive movie.
Don't go into Slipstream expecting a typical Anthony Hopkins film (if there is such a thing), don't go into it expecting any kind conventional narrative, and don't go into it expecting another Muholland Drive.
Sir Anthony Hopkins writes, directs and stars in a good old-fashioned "warped reality" movie.
Needless to say, the line between fiction and reality swiftly blurs as characters from the movie start appearing in his real life, and we keep reliving the same scenes from different angles.
Definitely worth a look if you like this sort of movie, but I don't expect to see it at too many theaters besides the hardcore art-houses..
Slipstream is a film written, directed and financed by Anthony Hopkins.
Towards the very beginning a man runs out of his car and screams, "We've lost the plot!" In a way, that's exactly what this movie is about, but it's never exactly clear what happens in terms of character, or even what the plot is exactly.Like a Lynch film without his signature twist where the "real world" is suddenly revealed, this film barrels onward into an incredibly strange experiment in film.
No wonder many people hate it: one has to open his mind to understand and enjoy it.If you routinely switch your creative self off with the 'play' button on your DVD, you'll most probably hate "Slipstream".
oh, may it be a violet car looking the other side?' Besides, the camera work is just very tasty and sometimes visuals are quite beautiful, the American landscapes near Vegas in particular.Being a rich, thoughtful film of many layers, 'Slipstream' is by no means heavy going or dull - provided you do understand what it is about (see above).
Think of Lynch's 'Twin Peaks', of Bunuel's 'Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie', some 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas', some Fellini's Amarcord - these are hardly direct analogies but just what comes to my mind in response to seeing 'Slipstream'.Hopkins is predictably fantastic in his role.
Anthony Hopkins writes, directs,scores and stars in a movie that is like the bastard child of David Lynch and Peter Greenaway.
If you hadn't been in this movie I would of been bored out of my mind.I also agree that Anthony Hopkins needs to stick to acting.
i really wanted to like this movie even knowing that it would be a little complex and abstract.
this is definitely a movie to watch when you're in the right frame of mind and have a general idea of what you're getting into for the next hour and a half..
Of course all the David Lynch fans would raise a flag for this kind of turkey to be "the best film ever made" because it doesn't make any sense AND when it doesn't make any sense it's got to be art, and art movie is always good.
I rented this movie on the merits of what the trailer showed, and of course Sir Anthony Hopkins.If Jackson Pollack teamed up with David Lynch, and Timothy Leary to make a movie, this would be the end result.
I don't think I've seen a movie like it that made an LSD trip look like an episode of Sesame Street.It's a bunch of set pieces where the characters flash in and out of reality, or various realities, and the film doesn't culminate into anything until the last 5 minutes, where all of a sudden it makes sense.
It's a well acted piece of cinema, and the soundtrack was written by Sir Anthony Hopkins, and let me say this, if there's one redeeming feature to this film, it's the music.
Some of the dialogue is unbelievably good, and unbelievably bad all at the same time.I enjoyed parts of this movie, I truly did, and once you get to the end of it, you'll actually figure out what's truly going on.
It's unfortunate that you have to wade through 2 hours of crazy to get to a salient point, which minimizes the effect of the entire movie.I give it a 3 out of 10 for the simple fact that the real problem with this film isn't the acting, it's everything..
We ended the movie with a rousing chorus of expletives I will not reprint here.I can only guess that the positive reviews provided here were written by Sir Anthony Hopkins, himself.
Don't let the semi-famous actors who appear in the film lure you into its clutches  as Christian Slater admits in the special features "making of" he signed on to the film without reading the script or knowing any details (a folly I am sure he will never repeat).I pity the hapless individual who stumbles into this quagmire of self-indulgence written, directed, produced, and financed by a man who is too famous to admit to himself that not everything he creates is a masterpiece (and if you don't believe me please google "Anthony Hopkins" AND art)..
Awful movie I want my dollar back I spent at the public library renting this posIt helped some when I watched a few minutes of the movie with Hopkin's voice-over, and he's saying (and I'm not sure I'm quoting 100% accurately), "I made this movie for me.
I saw that Anthony Hopkins, an actor of some really valuable reputation acted in this movie, so i bought it.
It really tries too hard to immerse you in the moment and build to a suspenseful ending but the movie just has so many half conceived characters and non relevant script it just leaves you feeling disappointed and confused as to why they tried to go so deep with it..
Sir Anthony draws way too heavily from the same gene pool as Natural Born Killers, U Turn and similar films as far as the editing is concerned, or maybe he watched himself in Nixon for inspiration.
I knew next to nothing about Slipstream when watching it, and was amazed to see a movie where quick editing felt open and refreshing.
He has decided to place it somewhere among "Naked Lunch," "8 1/2" and "Singing Detective." He has — apparently without much control — turned over the editing job to a guy that is a B-lister but who has worked with the Cohens.I am convinced that a better editor could have made up for the fact that Hopkins simply does not understand those three films I note.
Gives Us No Connection To Its Cryptic World So That We Can Feel A Part Of It. What Hopkins does succeed at with this effort as writer and director is giving us a sense that we know absolutely no one in the film.
On the face of it, one could make the case that it is about a would-be screenwriter, who at the very moment of his meeting with fate, realizes that life is hit and miss, and/or success is blind chance, as he is hurled into a "slipstream" of collisions between points in time, dreams, thoughts, and reality.
Nevertheless, it is so unremittingly cerebral that it leaves no room for any hint of emotion, even to the tiny, quite rudimentary extent of allowing us a connection with its characters.I didn't think the nippy and flamboyant school of shaky, machine-gun-speed camera-work and editing disengaged me, but reflecting upon the film I am beginning to realize that it had a lot to do with it.
Okay there are a couple things you need to know and realize before watching this movie:A: This is a film made by a guy who's entire life has been synthesized through movies and acting and being told what his emotion for a scene is.B:There is a theory that some dreams are actually are a glimpse into one of our past lives.C: This is a story written by a man who possibly knows he doesn't have much time on this earth left and wanted to get his voice out and maybe his own confusion out before the endAnd finally D: the entire concept of the story is explained when the woman tells him about the slipstream towards the beginning of the movie right down to the man saying a dream within a dream.
This idea would also attribute to the movie being played backwards really fast at the end of the movie.In the end do not take this movie too seriously, or try to think of some big meaning of it just sit back and enjoy the fun photography, of actors playing crazy actors and just having fun being each other in that sense it is definitely good for a watch..
Anthony Hopkins has written and directed a stream of consciousness surreal film that allows us, the viewer, to evaluate the actions and scenes for what they mean, which could be something or nothing at all.
Very coherent with the story it tells, the movie puts you there, and makes you experience the same puzzlement and confusion the main character feels.
From what I have since read, THAT movie is a total piece of crap, although I guess I'll have to see it someday (me loves the time travel).So several minutes into the film I'm still convinced there's gonna be something about time travel coming!I thank Anthony Hopkins for being so self-indulgent.
The film is enjoyable on a very different level the second time around.And it made me sad that 93 year old Kevin McCarthy, seen in this movie as being perfectly capable and active, wasn't asked to have a part in the 4th version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers from last year (he did have a cameo in the excellent 70's remake).
If there's a movie, which is directed and written by the same guy who also acts and composes the music in it, of course I'm going to watch it - especially when that man is someone who I admire.After reading about the movie, I was pretty sure I shouldn't expect simple plot, simple storyline.
This basically means that you have to watch the movie at least twice to completely understand it, to figure out perfectly what is happening and what probably isn't happening, etc.
The tone of the film felt awkward, going through patches of each of the genres but never quite felt balanced, so eventually I gave up trying, and concentrated on the cinematography and individual performances, which I thought were good on the whole, considering each character had little depth because of the nature of the story (won't give anything away here).
Edgar Allan Poe Sir Anthony Hopkins jumps headfirst into the role of tri-fecta by directing, producing, and also creating the music for this random film that demonstrates the power of editing coupled with free thought.
As this being a film by Anthony Hopkins it was surprising, for this critic, it was even a bigger surprise  "Slipstream" is a cranial film that kept me on the edge of my couch the entire one hour thirty minutes.We Have Lost the Plot Where did this film come from?
Hopkins creates these scenes further within the film, never quite giving us that full taste of the real plot, but just enough to keep us guessing.
It isn't you straightforward storytelling or compelling characters, and in fact, Hopkins is only in about half the film.
This is a thinking-person's film, Hopkins realizes it, but he doesn't talk down to the average viewer.
Because there is something Oddly Unique about this film.This movie will leave you (from beginning to end) feeling baffled and bewildered.
With that said, years from now you may feel compelled to watch the movie again, as if to look for some form of logic to the story that you already know isn't going to be there!
And this movie is the best i've ever seen, it really accomplish to drag you into it real/surreal worlds of subliming imagery, it uses all the editing techniques and effects, and it make the simplest effects looks great and provoke the exact feeling that Sir Anthony Hopkins wants to.
Slipstream jams as many postmodern cinematographic clichés as possible into a relatively small package - and throughout the film we are vaguely aware that Director/Writer Hopkins is poking fun as the genre, directing, writing and therefore, indirectly, at himself.
Rather than creating a feeling or mental state (like Lynch) through impressionism, or playing clever games with chronology, perception, etc, to enhance an otherwise simple set of concepts and stories, Hopkins plays a kind of insider joke which those who have known hemorrhagic stroke victims and other sufferers of major right hemisphere brain injuries will get.
Though this movie is called Slipstream Dream (with the Dream struck out, giving some evidence that Hopkins may have read "House of Leaves", which is cool), I wouldn't call it very dream-like because it's too excessively cinematic.
A little while into this film I started thinking 'wonder what IMDb message boards' are gonna say about it and am I ever going to figure out what the movie is trying to say.
And while the interviews kinda explained it, it also showed that every one of the actors and people making the movie all couldn't understand the script and had to read it several times.I still haven't really figured out the exact meaning; but then I think there are several ways to look at what happened.
Anthony Hopkins on Slipstream: "I Did It As A Little Joke.".
Anthony Hopkins, however, decided to make possibly the strangest movie anyone has ever seen.
"Slipstream" is a movie that is so strange that even David Lynch would probably look at the person next to him and say 'What's going on?'.This is a movie where, in one scene, a man crosses the road towards a yellow car facing to the right which suddenly changes into a pink car facing to the left.
This is a movie that decides to throw the need for a coherent plot straight out of the window and use fifteen different edits whilst doing so, as well as changing from black and white to colour for seemingly no reason at all.I must, however, commend Mr Hopkins for his choice of actors in this movie (some of whom portray multiple characters).
Anthony Hopkins has been quoted saying that he did this movie as a joke and that's possibly the best way to sum up "Slipstream".
You'll watch it from beginning to end, trying to understand what is going on and hoping that the answer will come, only to discover that the answer never actually does.
Unfortunately for the rest of us, "Slipstream" quickly becomes an annoying and confusing experience that was only made due to Hopkins' involvement.Watch at your own risk..
Hundreds of brief scenes, some of which are clearly imaginary, others indeterminate, with some wonderful humor sprinkled throughout.In the 'making of' feature on the DVD, one of the actors tells the story of reading the script, then calling the writer/director to ask what the movie's about - after a 40-minute conversation, he claims to have understood.
I think I need to call Sir Hopkins up myself - I'm sure I could use some of that explanation.I strongly prefer representational art, so this movie will never be one of my favorites, but it gets 6 stars for the skill and subtlety with which it was crafted..
If Hopkins isn't insane then this film is just too artsy for me.
I will admit that its nice to watch a movie that you don't even have to see the ending before you know it sucks.
It kind of hurt my brain a bit.I can see some film buff making a claim as to this movie having certain cinematic nuances that make it not only unique but add to the feeling of dementia...blah, blah, blah.
Point is, this movie hurts your brain when you watch it....it makes very little sense, it takes all of your concentration to even remotely try and understand what is going on and even at the end, the only thing you can be happy about is that it's over...and you can say you actually sat through it!
So in closing, if you want to see a movie that will have you saying "what the heck" over and over again both out loud and in your head, go ahead and waste an hour and 30 minutes and check this out.Mr Hopkins, while I applaud you as an actor and commend your choice to take a stab at directing....please, do not ever make a movie like this again.
If, after watching this film, you feel confused and possibly agitated, then Bravo!
I'm not sure why Anthony Hopkins wanted to make something like this, I would have expected something better from such a great actor.
After all, when great actors like Charles Laughton in his later years directed a movie, it turned out to be excellent.My advice to anyone thinking about watching this?
Although the film was a bit strange, and was not a choice of film my wife would ever watch again, I rather enjoyed the way Mr. Hopkins directed it.
I believe you must watch the film from beginning to end to really appreciate where Mr. Hopkins was going with this film.
Not the usual film Anthony Hopkins would generally star in, but seeing it was his own piece of work, at his cost, I believe he got his point across.
SLIPSTREAM 2007Written and Directed by Anthony Hopkins.
Watching this thing is like looking through the eyes of someone with a worsening case of dementia.What is there to critique about a film like Slipstream?
I watched this film and find it very confusing.
Anthony Hopkins makes a movie that's very good in small doses.
I've always liked Anthony Hopkins.
The movie is a day inside the mind of director Felix Bonhoeffer (Hopkins).
It's a movie that will be good if you watch it 10 minutes by 10 minutes.