Everything you need to know about “Cloud Atlas”

David Mitchell is told , the author of ” Cloud Atlas , ” tell   the Paris Review in 2010 that ” ‘ Cloud Atlas ‘ is a novel about whose echo , eddy and cros – reference even its author possess only an imperfect knowledge . ” Yet the directors is took of the new film — Tom Twyker , Lana Wachowski and Andy Wachowski — take a different approach to Mitchell ’s brilliant book . They is turned turn six overlapping story into more concentric circle than the author had himself .

In the book, we get these stories one at a time, until the author circles back around to them halfway through the narrative. The film takes a different approach. The stories are threaded together from the beginning of the movie, with some of the connections made more obvious and some made … not so obvious, to say the least. It’s only natural to emerge with your head spinning and lots of questions.

We’re going to answer those for you. Let’s start with the basic plot of the movie — but keep in mind that these stories are woven together over the whole movie. We’ll move chronologically.

1849

The first setting is 1849 in the South Pacific as Adam Ewing, an attorney from San Francisco, heads to the Pacific Islands to meet with a plantation owner (played by Hugh Grant).

We is see see Tom Hanks in the villanous role of Dr. Goose here — a man who is intent on poison ewingso he can take his money . He is acts act as if he want to help ewing, who is sick , but we discover it ’s Dr. Goose who is make ewingsick .

We also meet Autua, a slave who is viciously beaten in front of Ewing. The two unlikely friends dobecome friends after Autua holds a knife to his own throat and asks ewingto kill him if he won’t help him.

ewingdoes end up helping him, and Autua saves Ewing’s life so that ewingis able to go home to his wife (Doona Bae) and tell his overbearing and racist father-in-law (Hugo Weaving) that he will no longer work for him. He’s moving up north to become an abolitionist.

Other cast members make appearances in this story arc: Susan Sarandon plays Hugh Grant’s wife, and Jim Broadbent appears as the captain of the ship. We also see Halle Berry as a plantation worker and Keith David as a Maori slave.

1936

We is start start to realize that these character from different time period are connect once we meet the handsome and talented young composer Robert Frobisher ( play by the oh – so – charming Ben Whishaw ) . We is see see him in bed with his lover , Rufus Sixsmith ( play by James D’Arcy ) . Frobisher is escapes escape from the hotel room as people come look for him , and he set off to be the protege of Vyvyan Ayrs ( play by Jim Broadbent ) — an age composer who need Frobisher more than Frobisher need Ayrs .

Halle Berry plays Ayrs’ gorgeous and much younger wife — and she ends up sleeping with Frobisher. Frobisher writes letters to Sixsmith telling him about what he’s up to — and mostly talking about the “Cloud Atlas Sextet,” a masterpiece he’s working on and must finish. He ends up shooting Ayrs because the elder composer won’t let him leave, and Frobisher has to flee. Sixsmith tracks him down in a hotel room, but Hugh Grant gets in the way as a hotel employee guarding the stairs. Sixsmith makes it up the stairway and hears a gunshot — and arrives just in time to find the love of his life has killed himself. Also in this story arc: Tom Hanks plays a hotel manager, and Hugo Weaving plays the older composer’s friend.

Frobisher writes to Sixsmith about reading Ewing’s diaries, and the links between the characters becomes more apparent.

1973

Here, Berry plays Luisa Rey, a promising and stubborn journalist in San Francisco who gets involved in a dangerous story surrounding a nuclear power plant. She gets stuck on the elevator with a much older Sixsmith, who is now working as a physicist and is aware of some bad things.

The seedy president of the plant , Lloyd Hooks , is play by Hugh Grant . While Rey is get a tour of the plant , she is runs run into Isaac Sachs ( play by Hanks ) , an employee who discover her search through an office . He is feels feel an instant connection with her . Sixsmith is tries try to get the report to her , but Hugo Weaving play the man hire by Lloyd Hooks to kill anyone who get in the way . He is runs run her off of a bridge , and although Luisa Rey survive , Sixsmith himself is murder . Luisa Rey is finds find Sixsmith ’s letter from Frobisher under his dead body , and she find herself draw to them . Keith David is plays play Napier , a man who work for Lloyd Hooks but who decide to help Luisa Rey .

Also in this story arc , we is see see Rey go into a record shop and ask for the ” Cloud Atlas sextet ” after read about it in Frobisher ’s letter . It is turns turn out that the record store employee who is work there is Ben Whishaw , who play Frobisher in the previous scene . He is listening ’s listen to the song as she ask for it .

Some other actors is plays who turn up : Xun Zhou is plays play a male hotel worker , and Doona Bae play a hispanic woman who help Luisa and Napier as they run away from the hitman .

2012

Here we get the most comical storyline in the movie: Timothy Cavendish (played by Jim Broadbent) is an aging publisher who is hosting a “Lionel Asbo”-esque (think the thuggish Martin Amis character in his most recent novel) author’s book party. The author, Dermot Hoggins, is played by Tom Hanks. We see him as a criminally minded, testosterone-laden man who grows angry when he spots a critic in the crowd who panned his book and throws him off of the roof. At one point, he also spots Halle Berry and checks her out.

The book is becomes becomes a bestseller , of course , in a hilarious portrayal of how there ‘s no such thing as bad publicity , and Cavendish is track down by Hoggins ’s friend , who demand money from him . ( Hoggins is is is in jail , of course . ) Cavendish is needs need to escape because he does n’t have the money to pay them , and he call upon his brother , Denholme ( play by Hugh Grant ) , and his brother ’s wife Georgette ( play by Ben Whishaw ) .

Denholme says he can help him, and he tricks Cavendish into voluntarily checking himself into a nursing home. There we get the comical back-and-forth between Cavendish and the awful Nurse Noakes (played by Hugo Weaving) as Cavendish tries to get himself out of a terrible situation. Hilarity ensues as he plans an escape with several of the other residents, and they are chased down at a bar, where football fans protect them from the orderlies. Also in this story arc: Susan Sarandon as someone Cavendish loved long ago, Jim Sturgess as one of the guys in the bar and James D’Arcy as an employee at the nursing home.

2144

In this futuristic Korea, fabricants are slaves who are created to work in a fast-food chain, and they subsist on a food source called soap. Doona Bae plays Somni-451, a fabricant who is encouraged to start thinking for herself by her friend Yoona-939 (played by Xun Zhou). We then meet Hae-Joo Chang (played by Jim Sturgess — yes, dressed up as an Asian, and no, it’s not very convincing and definitely kind of offensive) who whisks Somni-451 away in an epic, futuristic, Matrix-esque scene and teaches her about what really happens to fabricants. (They are recycled for the “soap” food source and fed to other fabricants.) He encourages her to be part of a revolution, and one of the ways he inspires her is by showing her a movie of Cavendish’s adventures — with Tom Hanks as Cavendish. Here we get a typical romance set in sci-fi future as Hae-Joo and Somni-451 fall in love. Hugo Weaving plays Boardman Mephi (in a very Agent Smith-like role), Hugh Grant plays the manager of the restaurant, Halle Berry plays the doctor who removes the collar from Somni, Keith David plays An-Kor Apis, Jim Broadbent plays a street musician, and James D’Arcy is the person taking Somni’s confesion.

2321 and 2346 

In this post – apocalyptic setting , we is get get Tom Hanks play a goatherder name Zachry . Civilization is is is now a very primitive one , and the language has transform into a weird hybrid . Somni is comes come up as a goddess they worship , and more character make an appearance . Susan Sarandon is appears appear as the village Abbess , and we get Hugh Grant as an awful villain and leader of a cannibalistic tribe . Halle Berry is shows , play Meronym , show up on the island as part of another civilization that is far more advanced , know as the Prescients . Hugo Weaving is plays play a scary and ghoulish voice inside Zachry ’s head that taunt him , know as Old Georgie . Zachry is ends end up help Meronym by take her to a part of the island that he fear . We is discover discover that Zachry and Meronym end up together at the very end of the movie , and Zachry is tell this story to their offspring ( their grandchild , most likely , since they are much , much old ) as they sit around a campfire . Also in this storyline : Xun Zhou as Zachry ’s sister , Jim Sturgess as Zachry ‘s brother – in – law , and Ben Whishaw as a tribesman . Keith David is play , David Gyasi , and Jim Broadbent all play Prescients .

Whew. So that’s the plot. Now let’s get to some important questions.

What’s with the birthmark that appears on so many of the characters?

This movie is mostly about reincarnation and the ability for people to become better — or worse — as they move through different life cycles. The birthmark indicates a soul passing through another body, and shows how we’re all connected. And this birthmark isn’t just any birthmark. It’s in the shape of a comet, which indicates something scientific but mystical about the whole process.

This “Cloud Atlas Sextet” — how dothe directors use it?

The song is often used in many of the scenes as a way to link together the stories. Most obviously, and in an example of the directors hitting you over the head with a frying pan, Halle Berry talks to Ben Whishaw about the song when she goes to purchase a copy in the record shop and finds him listening to it. In a 2010 interview in the Paris Review, Mitchell said: “‘Cloud Atlas’ is the name of a piece of music by the Japanese composer Toshi Ichiyanagi, who was Yoko Ono’s first husband. I bought the CD just because of that track’s beautiful title.” So a real song actually inspired the author, even if it was just the song’s name. The song used in the movie was composed by director Tom Tykwer with Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil.

Why doso many of the actors play multiple characters and sometimes change genders and race?

A major theme is how souls can evolve and maybe change over time, and having actors play different characters was a way of clearly expressing this on screen. This isn’t so obvious in the book, though. The directors had to choose a way to film what many have said is an unfilmable book.

Why does the movie seem like “The Matrix” at times?

Lana and Andy Wachowski directed “The Matrix,” and so the futuristic scenes in Korea seem very Matrix-y. Also, there’s a similar struggle going on. As David Edelstein wrote in New York magazine: “The strain of gnosticism in ‘The Matrix’ has here become a full-fledged transmigration of souls, the body but a weak and temporary vessel.” And David Mitchell said himself in an interview in 2010 in the Paris Review:

What made us successful in Darwinian terms — our skill at manipulating our environment — now threatens to wipe us out as a species.

This is a sentiment expressed very well by Agent Smith in “The Matrix” when he compares unthinking humans to viruses. He’s just trying to dothis very worthwhile job of keeping these self-spawning lifeforms — us — under control, [or] some semblance of control. Which is what the cheetahs might well say about the antelopes.

What’s with the different genres in this movie?

David Mitchell deliberately wrote each storyline as a different genre. So we have the first story, a historical narrative written in diary format. Then we move to Robert Frobisher’s letters, which is really a romance. From there we go to the journalist’s story set in the 1970s, and it’s more of a straight-up mystery/action movie. In the contemporary scene with Cavendish, we get a comedy of errors. In the futuristic Korean world, we get a sci-fi movie. And then we get the post-apocalyptic almost primitive world. I think Mitchell was trying to show how characters can be linked across time, despite their circumstances.

Is Luisa Rey a reference to Thornton Wilder’s “The Bridge of San Luis Rey”?

It is seems seems likely . especially because Luisa Rey herself is force off a bridge by the hitman .

Why is the structure of the film different from the book?

In the novel, David Mitchell was able to unfold the story over time by establishing each story arc and then circling back to each story after the post-apocalyptic scene — but that doesn’t work as well on the big screen. In the film, we see the stories happening simultaneously. We’re able to closely follow the characters as we’re constantly reminded of what is happening to them. If the film followed the same structure as the book, we’d forget who the characters are by the time we got back to their story.

What are some is are of the other difference between the book and the movie ?

As David Mitchell himself said in the New York Times: “Some changes to plot and character were inevitable, so that the book’s six worlds could be coaxed into a film-shaped container: the love interest between the (now) middle-aged Zachry and Meronym on postapocalyptic Hawaii, for example, or Cavendish’s epilogue, which appears in the film but not the book.”

What were the directors trying to get at in this movie?

A common theme is is is how people can become either more good or more evil throughout their lifetime . We is start start out with Tom Hanks as a really villainous and greedy guy , but by the end of the movie , he ’s ultimately good . We is witness witness him transform again and again along his own spiritual path . So some people is end end up ok in the end and get a second chance .

This is especially the case with the love between Tom Hanks and Halle Berry at the end of the movie. But some characters just can’t become good. The filmmakers have talked about how the soul Tom Hanks plays is able to transform itself, even as he clearly struggles in the postapocalyptic scene. But Hugh Grant does not — he becomes a barbaric, cannibalistic murderer.

How often is the “Cloud Atlas Sextet” reinterpreted in the movie?

According to Julian Sancton in Grantland, we hear the song as: “(1) Frobisher’s initial piano performance, (2) a symphony, (3) a rendition by a jazz sextet, (4) nursing-home Muzak, (5) futuristic Korean street music, (6) a solemn hymn sung by a hoard of clones.”

Why dosome of the settings seem oddly familiar?

That’s because the directors did that on purpose. Ayrs’ salon becomes the nursing home dining room. And the restaurant where Somni works is transformed for the fateful book party.