百年50部英文燒腦電影賞析：[5]Dark City 移魂都市

John Murdoch(RLifus Sewell)awakens in a hotel bathtub, suffering from amnesia. He receives a telephone call from Dr. Daniel Schreber(Kiefer Sutherland), who urges him to flee the hotel from a group of men who are after him During the telephone conversation John discovers the corpse of a brutalized, ritualistically murdered woman, along with a bloody knife. Murdoch flees the scene, just as the group of men(known as the Strangers)arrive at the room. Eventually he learns his real name, and finds his wife Emma Murdoch(Jennifer Connelly). He is also sought by police inspector Frank Bumstead(William Hurt)for a series of murders allegedly committed by Murdoch, who cannot remember killing anybody. While being pursued by the Strangers, Murdoch discovers that he has psychokinetic powers like them, and he uses these powers to escape from them. Murdoch moves about the city, which experiences perpetual night. He sees people become temporarily comatose at midnight, when the Strangers stop time and alter the cityscape, as well as people's identities and memories. Murdoch questions the dark urban environment, and discovers——through clues and interviews with his family—that he was originally from a coastal town called Shell Beach. Attempts at finding a way out of the city to Shell Beach are hindered by lack of reliable information from everyone he meets. Meanwhile, the Strangers, disturbed by the presence of this human who also possesses psychokinetic powers, inject one of their men, Mr. Hand(O'Brien)with Murdoch's memories, in an attempt to find him.

Murdoch eventually finds Bumstead, who recognizes Murdoch's innocence and has his own questions about the nature of the dark city. They find and confront Dr. Schreber, who explains that the Strangers are endangered extraterrestrial parasites who use corpses as their hosts. Having a collective consciousness, the Strangers have been experimenting with humans to analyze their individuality in the hopes that some insight might be revealed that would help their race survive. Schreber reveals Murdoch as an anomaly who inadvertently awoke during one midnight process, when Schreber was in the middle of fashioning his identity as a murderer. The three men embark to find Shell Beach, which ultimately exists only as a billboard at the edge of the city. Frustrated, Murdoch tears through the wall, revealing a hole into outer space. The men are confronted by the Strangers, including Mr. Hand, who holds Emma hostage. In the ensuing fight, Bumstead, along with one of the Strangers, falls through the hole into space, revealing the city as an enormous space habitat surrounded by a force field.

The Strangers bring Murdoch to their home beneath the city and force Dr. Schreber to imprint Murdoch with their collective memory, believing Murdoch to be the final answer to their experiments. Schreber betrays them by inserting false memories in Murdoch which artificially reestablish his childhood as years spent training and honing his psychokinetic abilities and learning about the Strangers and their machines. Murdoch awakens, fully realizing his abilities, frees himself and battles with the Strangers, defeating their leader Mr. Book in a battle high above the city. After learning from Dr Schreber that Emma's personality is gone and cannot be restored within her body, Murdoch utilizes his new-found powers through the Strangers' machine to create an actual Shell Beach by flooding the area within the force field with water and forming mountains and beaches. On his way to Shell Beach, Murdoch encounters Mr. Hand and informs him that the Strangers have been searching in the wrong place—the head——to understand humanity. Murdoch opens the door leading out of the city, and steps out to view a sunrise that he created. Beyond him is a dock, where he finds the woman he knew as Emma, now with new memories and a new identity as Anna. Murdoch reintroduces himself as they walk to Shell Beach, beginning their relationship anew.

約翰·默多克(盧夫斯·塞維爾飾)在一間酒店的浴缸中醒來，發(fā)現(xiàn)自己喪失了記憶。這時一通神秘電話打來，對方自稱是丹尼爾·舒伯醫(yī)生(基弗·薩瑟蘭飾)，告知默多克有一個組織正在追殺他，并催促他趕快離開酒店。就在通話期間，他發(fā)現(xiàn)身邊有一具冰冷的女尸，旁邊還有一把沾滿血跡的刀。在神秘組織(亦稱異族人)趕到酒店前，默多克逃離了現(xiàn)場。后來他逐漸了解到他的真實身份，找到了他的妻子艾瑪·默多克(詹妮弗·康納利飾)。雖然默多克根本不記得自己殺了人，卻因涉嫌一起連環(huán)兇殺案被偵查員弗蘭克·巴姆斯特德(威廉·赫特飾)追捕。在被異族人追殺的時候，默多克發(fā)現(xiàn)自己具有與異族人一樣的超能力，也因此成功擺脫追殺。默多克在這座永無天日的城市中穿梭，發(fā)現(xiàn)每到午夜時分，異族人會將時間停止，交換人們的身份和記憶，讓人們進入昏迷狀態(tài)。默多克開始懷疑這座黑暗城市的真面目，通過種種線索和與家人的對話，他得知自己來自于一座名叫“貝殼沙灘”的海濱小鎮(zhèn)。默多克努力尋找“貝殼沙灘”，但是城里所有人都不曾記得如何到達(dá)。與此同時，異族人的計劃因同樣擁有超能力的默多克的出現(xiàn)而受阻，他們將默多克的記憶植入其中一位異族人腦中，試圖將默多克找到。

后來，巴姆斯特德警員調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn)默多克是無辜的，也開始懷疑這座黑暗城市的真面目，他和默多克一起找到了舒伯醫(yī)生，得知異族人是寄居在人類尸體里的一種瀕臨滅絕的外星球物種，擁有共同的意識。他們拿人類做實驗，研究人類不同的個性特征，試圖找到拯救種族的方法。舒伯承認(rèn)自己幫助異族人在午夜進行實驗，那天在把謀殺犯的身份植入默多克記憶的過程中，默多克意外地醒來。于是，三人同行開始尋找“貝殼沙灘”，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)城市邊緣的一張海報墻后，有一個通往外界的洞。撕開海報墻，異族人出現(xiàn)在眼前，其中一位名叫漢先生的異族人劫持了默多克的妻子艾瑪。在接下來的打斗中，巴姆斯特德和一位異族人不小心從洞口掉了下去，這也揭露了這座城市的真實面目——用力場置于空中的一個巨大懸浮空間。

異族人把默多克帶到他們在城市地下的基地，逼舒伯醫(yī)生把異族人的記憶植入默多克腦中，認(rèn)為這樣能達(dá)到實驗的目的。舒伯醫(yī)生偷梁換柱，把他童年的記憶換成多年訓(xùn)練習(xí)得的掌握超能力和運用異族人機器的記憶植入默多克腦中。當(dāng)默多克醒來時，便發(fā)現(xiàn)自己會靈活運用超能力，他解除了束縛，與異族人戰(zhàn)斗，并在一次城市高空戰(zhàn)斗中戰(zhàn)勝了異族人首領(lǐng)伯克先生。舒伯醫(yī)生告訴默多克，艾瑪?shù)膫€性已經(jīng)失去且無法復(fù)原，默多克便決定運用自己的超能力和異族人的機器建造一座真正的“貝殼沙灘”，他用水將力場籠罩的地方淹沒，建造了高山和沙灘。在去“貝殼沙灘”的途中，默多克遇到漢先生，告訴他異族人通過人腦去了解人性的做法是錯誤的。默多克開啟了通往另一座城市的門，踏入自己建造的“貝殼沙灘”。陽光普照，他的妻子艾瑪正站在面前的碼頭，如今她的名字叫安娜，擁有另外一個人的身份和記憶。默多克又一次向她介紹了自己，兩人攜手走進“貝殼沙灘”，重新開始一段新戀情。