Cloud Atlas

***Cloud Atlas*** is a 2012 German-American epic science fiction film.

## Synopsis

An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution.

## Plot

In the Chatham Islands, 1849, American lawyer Adam Ewing witnesses the whipping of a Moriori slave, Autua. Autua stows away on Ewing's ship, where he convinces Ewing to advocate for Autua to join the crew as a free man. Autua saves Ewing's life before Dr. Henry Goose, hoping to steal Ewing's gold, can deliver a final dose of poison he claims will treat a parasitic worm. In the United States, Ewing and his wife Tilda denounce her father's complicity in slavery and leave to join the abolition movement.

In 1936, English composer Robert Frobisher finds work as an amanuensis to aging composer Vyvyan Ayrs, allowing Frobisher to compose his own masterpiece, "The Cloud Atlas Sextet". Frobisher reads Ewing's journal, which he has found with the latter portion missing, among the books at Ayrs's mansion. Ayrs demands credit for "The Cloud Atlas Sextet" and threatens to expose Frobisher's homosexuality if he refuses. Frobisher shoots Ayrs and goes into hiding, using the name Ewing. He finishes "The Cloud Atlas Sextet" and shoots himself before his lover Rufus Sixsmith arrives.

In San Francisco, 1973, journalist Luisa Rey meets Rufus Sixsmith, now a nuclear physicist. Sixsmith tips off Rey to a conspiracy to create a catastrophe at a nuclear reactor run by Lloyd Hooks, but is killed by Hooks's hitman, Bill Smoke, before he can give her a report as proof. Rey finds Frobisher's letters to Sixsmith and tracks down a record of Frobisher's "Cloud Atlas Sextet." Isaac Sachs, another scientist at the power plant, passes her a copy of Sixsmith's report. Smoke kills Sachs by blowing up his plane, and runs Rey's car off a bridge. She escapes but the report is destroyed. With help from the plant's head of security, Joe Napier, Rey evades another assassination attempt, which results in Smoke's death. With another copy of the report obtained from Sixsmith's niece, she exposes the plot and oil executives are indicted.

In London, 2012, Dermot Hoggins, author of a gangster memoir, murders a critic after a harsh review, generating huge sales. Hoggins's brothers threaten the book's publisher, the aging Timothy Cavendish, for Hoggins's share of the profits. Cavendish's brother Denholme tells him to hide at Aurora House. On the way there, Cavendish reads a manuscript of a novel based on Luisa Rey's story. Believing Aurora House is a hotel, Timothy signs papers committing himself; in fact, Aurora House is a nursing home. Denholme reveals to Timothy that he sent him there as revenge for Timothy's affair with Denholme's wife. The head nurse, Noakes, is abusive, and denies contact with the outside world. Cavendish escapes with three other residents, resumes his relationship with an old flame, and writes a screenplay about his experience.

In Seoul, 2144, Sonmi-451 is a "fabricant," a human cloned for slave labor, living as a server at a fast food restaurant in a dystopian Neo Seoul, Korea. She is exposed to ideas of rebellion by another fabricant and friend, Yoona-939. After witnessing Yoona being killed for rebelling, Sonmi is rescued from captivity by rebel Commander Hae-Joo Chang. He exposes Sonmi to the world, including the banned writings of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and a film version of Cavendish's experience. They are found and Sonmi is captured. Hae-Joo rescues her, introduces her to the leader of the rebel movement, and shows her that clones are not freed at the end of their contract but killed and recycled into food for other clones. Sonmi makes a public broadcast of her story and manifesto. The authorities attack; Hae-Joo is killed in the firefight and Sonmi is recaptured. After recounting her story to an archivist, she is executed.

In 2311, Zachry Bailey lives in a primitive post-apocalyptic society on the Big Island of Hawaii. The tribespeople worship Sonmi-451; their sacred text is taken from the broadcast of her manifesto. Zachry is plagued by visions of a demonic figure, Old Georgie. Zachry, his brother-in-law Adam, and his nephew are attacked by the cannibalistic Kona tribe. Zachry runs into hiding and his companions are murdered. His village is visited by Meronym, a member of the Prescients, an advanced society using the last remnants of high technology, but who are dying from a plague and whose only hope is to leave Earth. Meronym's mission is to find a remote communication station on Mauna Sol, to send an SOS to off-world humans. Catkin, Zachry's niece, falls sick; in exchange for saving her, Zachry guides Meronym to the station where Sonmi-451 made her broadcast. Returning, Zachry finds his tribe slaughtered by the Kona. He kills the sleeping Kona chief and rescues Catkin, and Meronym uses her gun to save him from the returning Kona and is in turn saved by Zachry. Zachry and Catkin join Meronym and the Prescients as their ship leaves Big Island. On a distant planet, Zachry finishes telling the story to his grandchildren and joins Meronym.