THX 1138

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

THX 1138 (1971), produced by Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope company, is based on George Lucas’s college project. It shows his early interest in science fiction and the threats to freedom that he later explored in the Star Wars films. Here Lucas uses a depressing futuristic landscape, like 1984 and Brave New World, to comment on contemporary situations.

The pervasive white setting removes all color from life, presenting a sterile existence, devoid of variety and individuality. Everyone having shaved heads adds to the feeling of uniformity. The whole world is self-contained in a windowless environment contributing to a sleek, modern version of imprisonment. The holograms seem distorted as do some communications, creating a feeling of disorientation and alienation for the audience. The robot policemen presage our current apprehension about AI taking over the world.

The Director’s Cut version opens with a bit of Buck Rogers footage, which was shown like other short serials in movie theaters many years ago. The selection paints a future that is optimistic, stressing the benefits of scientific technology. What follows is the inverse of that prediction. Even the opening credits run backwards, suggesting that technology may advance but not the state of humanity.

Robert Duvall plays THX 1138 whose work consists of constructing robots which adds to the dehumanization process of the populace. People no longer have distinctive names and instead are assigned alpha-numeric codes, demonstrating how humans are just parts in a governmental machine. The State anesthetizes the population, like the use of Soma does in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. A female voice states, “if you feel you are not properly sedated call 348-844 immediately. Failure to do so may result in prosecution for criminal drug evasion.” It may sound like the opposite of current attempts to stamp out illegal drug usage, but the opioid crisis in the United States generated billions of dollars in legally sold drugs.

Individual desires are suppressed, probably because they ignite passion that could lead to personal satisfaction not controlled by the State. Therefore, sexual activity between individuals is considered “illegal.”

After 63 workers die, a voice tells the other people at the plant that the total for the section that suffered casualties is “242 to our 195. Keep up the good work.” The state dismisses the loss of workers to industrial accidents, since it prioritizes the whole, not the individual.

THX 1138 has anxiety about his life. He goes to a sort of confessional, called a “unichapel,” which has an image of an enlarged face of a man. IMDb says that it is a picture of Hans Memling’s “Christ Giving His Blessing,” quite a desecration of a religious painting as sued here. The man in the picture is called OMM, which is like the Hindu and Buddhist religious chant for serenity, another satiric thrust as used here. THX must sign in by repeating “Blessings of the state, Blessings of the masses,” and extolling “the Party.” There are many sayings repeated in the movie, like “Thrifty thinkers are always under budget,” which remind one of the proper responses in The Handmaids Tale that are a form of mind control. The stress again is not on the individual, like what is encouraged in a Communist or Fascist world. There is a voice that just repeats the prerecorded impersonal messages, “I understand,” and “Yes, fine.” THX says he couldn’t concentrate on the job, that his mate is acting strangely, and he doesn’t feel well. The film takes the idea that “confession is good for the soul,” and shows how the State utilizes it in an impersonal way for its own purposes. No matter the problem, the voice says, “Work hard, increase production, prevent accidents, and be happy.” This world’s religion is consumerism, which apparently should make you “happy” no matter the emptiness a person feels. THX has heard all of this before and starts to exit the booth early showing how this activity is not making him “happy.”

LUH (Maggie McOmie) is his mate. THX does not interact with her but instead watches a naked woman dancing on a screen while he uses some device that helps him masturbate. It appears that the State determines how sexual energies are channeled into nonpersonal activity. There is a holographic video of a robot policeman beating an individual. The image seems to encourage acceptance of violence against individuals. The robots emit soothing voices while they brutalize people, which creates a discordant, satiric effect. Another video that is supposed to be funny jokes about getting a vehicle and running into a crowd. The indoctrination here is that human life is dispensable. THX says the video is funny, but does not laugh, as human response is deadened.

He keeps going to the automated confessional saying he is not well. He says he only shares space with LUH. Subconsciously he is rebelling against this marginalized existence. She shows tenderness when he comes back to their domicile. They make love but are under surveillance so intimacy is not private here. She has substituted medication which allowed him to be affectionate and wants him to stay off the drugs so that they can escape and live in the “Superstructure,” which we learn about later.

SEN (Donald Pleasence) is a coworker who can manipulate computers. He says his roommate was destroyed which he says was “inconvenient,” a cold way of describing a loss. He summoned LUH , had a talk with her, and said he now wants THX to be his roommate. He says THX rates “very high in sanitation,” which fits in with this sterile environment as a priority. SEN wants conformity to the norms. THX considers SEN to be in violation of manipulating roommate selection, which shows he wants to stay with LUH and is showing resistance against manipulation, something which is unusual for this world.

THX files a violation against SEN, but being in drug withdrawal, he falters at work using radioactive material. He is arrested for drug usage violation. He is tried and the prosecution argues, “We must not continue to consume these erotics. We must exterminate the source of sin. Economics must not dictate situations which are obviously religious.” The State condemns sex as a “sin” which it must “exterminate” as an impediment to the hive-like operating system of this society. Conformity is its religion. The prosecutor says that the loss of THX to the workforce is not an excuse since the “sin” is so reprehensible. The State limits personal freedom to comply with its own dictates of social order.

It is determined that THX is to be held in detention and conditioned. Black-uniformed policemen prod him with shock sticks. He is forced to take pills, electrodes are used to monitor his brain activity, he is injected with chemicals, and other intrusive acts are done. They take control of his motor activities, and he is in the fetal position which shows how THX is forced into an infantile state so that any adult aspects can be reformed. There is voiceover from technicians who are experimenting with his bodily functions, dispassionately making him into a lab rat. IMDb states that Lucas has this scene to show his animosity toward doctors after his own near-fatal car crash when he was younger.

LUH enters the white cell where THX resides and states that she is pregnant. They joyfully have sex but then police robots enter. THX resists but is paralyzed by them. SEN and others are added to the detention area. There is one individual who appears mentally challenged and there is a dwarf, or “shell dweller,” who lives in the outskirts of the city. It seems outsider types who don’t fit in with the norm established by the State are removed from society. SEN is there because THX reported him. He gives speeches that IMDb notes are from President Richard Nixon’s speeches as Lucas satirizes what politicians were saying at the time the film was made. There is an attempted rape of one of the females and the destruction of one of the robot cops. It seems that extreme control over certain individuals creates an equal and opposite antisocial reaction by some. (The robot police are awkward, malfunction, or just fall down sometimes, which makes them appear as android Keystone Cops).

THX and SEN wander very far in the vast white landscape. The film becomes even more surreal as they encounter a third individual, a hologram, SRT (Don Pedro Colley) who decided to escape his confining existence. His plight mirrors the actual citizens. They exit into an area jammed with citizens bumping into each other. The documentary that accompanies the film states that Lucas feared “the empire crushing humanity.” Obviously, this idea flourishes in the Star Wars films. THX and SRT escape into an embryo-growing compartment, which conjures up how individuals are produced by the State in Brave New World.

Police androids search for SRT and THX in maze-like walls of electronic equipment which suggest manipulation and restriction. During the hunt for THX there is always a cost-estimate analysis being heard as to whether THX is worth the effort. The two then enter a morgue where the insides of the dead have been harvested for apparent recycling. Those servicing this area even have their faces whited-out, and they appear like ghosts, giving the whole scene a haunted appearance, as if all that is left of humanity are apparitions.

SEN enters the area where the monks of OMM exist. He prays to the oversized portrait of the Christ-like figure, apparently wishing to change and go back to the community. But a monk realizes SEN has no ID since he is a prisoner and SEN attacks the monk.

THX and SRT tap into a computer and discover LUH has been “consumed,” that is, reprocessed as a fetus to be grown as a new individual subject to the State. The technology here is frightening as it reduces individuals to new parts to be developed for society.

SEN in the trams underground encounters children playing a game which has them moving in unison to block their companions as they run through the group. The scene suggests a no-escape maze, symbolizing this culture. Apparently, SEN will be apprehended, but the audience does not see this act.

THX and SRT steal highly complicated sports car vehicles. SRT slams into a post, implying the overly technological world can be destructive. THX rockets through the underground expressway followed by android cops who, again, malfunction. (It is funny to hear a voiceover saying that a “Wookie” was run over, foreshadowing the Star Wars character).

It becomes too costly to continue the pursuit of THX, and the cops are called back. He climbs up a ladder lining a shaft. He is warned that he cannot survive outside, which turns out to be a lie. THX reaches the surface where there is an oversized sun greeting him. It is an escape from an underground hell to an ascension into the natural world. But whether he can flourish there is left unanswered.