Answering the call to, “What do you do when you have a decent sci-fi idea, but only one set?” Tony Elliott made ARQ, a film which may give you pause to reconsider our inevitable future dystopia; bad as it might get, you can only die once, right?
Suppose that wasn’t true. Suppose every day the clock reset and everything you did in that particular day reset as well? The one thing that doesn’t reset is your mind. We’ve seen this done before and done slicker in both Groundhog Day, and more thriller-relevant in Edge of Tomorrow, but Tony and the Lost ARQ didn’t have a Tom Cruise budget, much less Tom Cruise, so they got one of those perpetual motion machines from a science museum, called it a deadly MacGuffin, and let a higher-purpose robbery play itself out over and over and over again. But don’t kid yourself, this is essentially a low-budget interpretation of Edge of Tomorrow.
We can tell it’s the future when Ren (Robbie Amell) awakes and looks over at his holo-clock. Look! It’s all the annoyance of a glow-in-the-dark digital without any of the machinery. Why, this has to be the future! Oh, rats, it’s a sucky Canadian future where all the land is cold and dead, but that’s ok, there’s no point in going outside anyway: the air is poison and all the oil is gone. Canada, I’m not going to tell you how to make your dystopia, but I was hoping there would at least be ice hockey.
Within thirty seconds of “wakey-wakey-life’s-a-mistake-y,” Ren and (girlfriend?) Hannah (Rachel Taylor) are attacked by thugs and tied back-to-back in basement chairs. The thugs then ask for money (“credits,” it’s the future) to support their local charity, small business venture, or rebellion … I forget which. Then they leave for a time convenient
enough for Ren and Stimpy, er, Hannah to escape, throw a parade, and start up an indie rock band. But in the process of ridding themselves of the intruders, Ren dies. It’s ok. He’s up again at 6:16 and the cycle is ready to repeat, not unlike a bad sitcom. If you missed it the first time, don’t worry, there are at least ten more iterations in the 88 minute Ren-time.
I’m theoretically a fan of this combo dystopia/Groundhog Day thing – it’s not just about getting the day right; it’s about getting the future right: Do Ren and Hannah belong together? Who should have control of Ren’s perpetual energy machine (The ARQ)? What do you suppose the connection is between the MacGuffin and its biblical namesake (look, you don’t name something “ARK” and pretend there’s no biblical connection)? I was with ARQ a while, but eventually the lack of progress got to me. There’s only so many times you can repeat the same scenario in the same room before you want there to be some radical change of pace. The science/subplot in the film also took too long to develop; even by the end, I still was stuck wondering what Ren and Hannah truly considered the best future. You could call this a case of a screenplay being too clever for its own good, or chastise me for being a lazy viewer, but dudes, for the ideas to stick, you gotta get out of the basement.
In the future, we’re all in the dark
All around is environment stark
Yet there’s hope through the gray
Turn the tide and the day
Rebellion … is a lost ARQ
Rated R, 88 Minutes
Director: Tony Elliott
Writer: Tony Elliott
Genre: Our screwed future
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Lazy set designers
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Optimists
