- Content: “Too Derivative and Excessive”
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What You Need To Know:
ZONE 414 makes the most of its low budget. The performances are good, and the story somewhat engrossing, but the resolution is too abrupt. As a whole, the movie is too derivative and adds little that’s really new. It asks provocative questions about God, sin, desire, human identity, and the purpose of life. However, it doesn’t give simple, comforting answers, despite a somewhat happy ending. ZONE 414 contains some strong foul language, explicit nudity and extreme violence, including an example of bloody vigilante justice.
Content:
Strong, slightly mixed pagan worldview where vigilante justice solves the plot problem and resolves the conflict with the villain, mixed with some redemptive, moral elements asking provocative questions about God, sin, desire, human identity, and the purpose of life, but few conclusions are reached, plus a homosexual reference when one character tells a male customer it’s okay if he wants a male android, and a man talks about being a god of power
12 obscenities (mostly “f” words) but no profanities
Some very strong and strong bloody violence includes man shoots female android in head point blank and peels back her skull to take out computer module from the center of her skull, young woman shown with someone choking her and hen putting a plastic bag over her head (camera cuts away), villain has been murdering androids and taking their body parts to construct non-operable android body (movie implies villain is sadistic), female android is shown with scars on her face, female android cuts her arm and reveals some glowing circuitry under her arm and then punches the cut and her artificial skin reunites, a corpse is discovered, villain is shot dead in cold blood, threats of violence, and female android has a stalker, and a private detective is punched by the stalker when the detective chases after him
Implied prostitution and streetwalking with androids, some sexual references, and one character tells a male customer it’s okay if he wants a male android
Upper female nudity of androids in two scenes, one female android wears a see-through blouse in another scene, and upper male nudity
Some alcohol use
Smoking tobacco and marijuana; and,
Lying, it’s discovered that a young woman pretended to be a female android but ended up killed, and a man admits he bought the pills for his terminally ill wife to kill herself, but later says he should not have done that.
More Detail:
David Carmichael, a troubled ex-cop turned private detective, must pass a violent test to be interviewed by Marlon Voidt, the wealthy, creepy creator of androids designed to service every desire of rich people. The government has limited the interaction between the androids and humans to an isolated urban colony. Marlon’s brother, Joseph, serves as Marlon’s gatekeeper, and he’s almost as creepy.
For $2 million, Marlon wants David to track down his runaway daughter, Melissa, and bring her home. He points David in the direction of his best creation, an android named Jane. Jane agrees to help David track down Melissa, but only if he agrees to help her stop a male stalker who’s been leaving menacing phone calls for her. The Voight androids aren’t supposed to have any human emotions, but Jane seems truly terrified by the menacing phone calls.
David’s hunt for Melissa turns up some disturbing truths about his employers and the creepy woman who gives the androids their assignments.
ZONE 414 has echoes of BLADE RUNNER, the classic 1982 science fiction movie, but with a lower budget. The filmmakers try to make the best of it, however, by creating dingy sets mixed with some modern-looking living spaces and hotels. The performances are good, and the story is somewhat engrossing, even though the resolution is a bit abrupt. As a whole, however, the movie is too derivative and adds little that’s really new.
That said, ZONE 414 asks provocative questions about God, sin, desire, human identity, and the purpose of life. However, the movie doesn’t give simple, comforting answers, despite a happy ending at the very end. Also, the resolution of the plot problem about what to do with the villain is too violent and cold-blooded. Ultimately, it renders ZONE 414 unacceptable. ZONE 414 also contains some extreme bloody violence, explicit nudity and some strong foul language.
