History Analysis / Pandorum

At its core Pandorum is post-apocalyptic science fiction centering around ecology and methods of survival. Ecology is the study of interaction among organism and their environment with topics of interest is the number of organisms(population), competition between them, evolution, adaptive behavior, and predation. As one of the characters state "It's just survival of the fittest...Or maybe it's the brightest", a phrase is widely used as a catchphrase for any topic related to evolution by means of natural selection. It has also be used as a synonym to other dialogue mentioned in the film such as "every man for himself" and "dog eat dog" both which describe egoistic competitive situations. They're all summed up as the The Law of the Jungle which some believe should apply to humans believing that social process resulted from conflicts in which the fittest or best adapted individuals, or groups, would prevail. Such a philosophy is referred to as Social Darwinism. Earth was overpopulated causing humanity to try and establish civilization on Tanis to ensure survival. Paranoia is a survival mechanism as its the fear of potential threats, that and with accelerated evolutionary survival of the fittest created a species with troglofaunal adaptations and characteristics such as albinism and heightened sense of smell due to the ship's low sunlit environment that live by the ideological form of survival of the fittest.

Gallo's paranoia caused him to see human civilization as a threat and the movie ends showing the population of Tanis being "1213" with an ellipsis appearing after it implying that numbers is going to grow and history is going to repeat itself. Christian Alvart did state that he wanted to rise questions about humanity with this film and this seems like partially a Malthusian commentary if you ask me. The ending echos the beginning showing the "technological evolution/ symbolic foreshadowing)" of space travel and showing the human population number evolving, growing. Throughout history, populations have grown slowly despite high birth rates due to the population-reducing effects of war, plagues and high infant mortality. During the 750 years before the Industrial Revolution, the world's population increased very slowly, under 250 million. The population reached a billion by the beginning of the 19th century. Technology is another aspect of civilization which as it grows so does living conditions, which leads to a growing population, Malthusian trap as its called. Malthusianism is the theory that population tends to increase faster than resources unless things such as moral restraint keeps the population growth in check or war reduces the population, called Malthusian catastrophe. Social Darwinism happens to be based on the Malthusian concept that humans require competition in order to survive in the future and the film seems to be a metaphor that ideology.

! Survival of the fittest & Noah's Ark

[[http://commentaryandcritiquing.blogspot.com/2013/07/pandorum-loveletter-to-hp-lovecraft.html Read this article.]]

[[http://anarchyreviews.blogspot.com/2013/07/pandorum-loveletter-to-hp-lovecraft.html Read this article.]]

! Survival of the fittest & Civilization vs Savagery

! Civilization vs Savagery

On its surface Pandorum is an homage to old stories by Lovecraft featuring madness and cannibalistic creatures that descended from humans. It also takes after old generation ship stories, namely The Starlost. According to director/co-writer, Christian Alvart, the film is meant to be an allegory for earth and that each character represents how civilized he/she is and how much they are all about survive. I think he did a fine job at it. Underneath that surface Pandorum is a complex story about survival and it uses its characters to showcase multiply survival strategies. The film establishes that the will to survival is what lead to the events of the film. Title cards show civilization's space achievements and at the same time the grow of the population. Its explains that in 2174 Earth is facing an overpopulation crisis and resources are thin. Referred to in the film as a Noah's Ark(metaphor foreshadowing!), Earth launches its greatest creation, a sleeper ship named Elysium to send 60,000 people to colonize an Earth-like planet named Tanis to ensure humanity's survival, which would take up to 123 years. The ship receives a transmission spoken in several languages saying "Your all that's left of us. Good luck, God bless, and God speed"(more metaphor foreshadowing!) to three astronauts on the ship. This isn't a national project but a global one as we see with the presence of a Vietnamese agricultural expert named Manh(Cung Le) who speaks no English and German genetic engineer turned mugger Nadia(Antje Traue). This is the survival strategy of cooperation as every nation at came to work together for the future of humanity.(Trivia: Elysium, was apart of the underworld in classical mythology. It was the resting place for heroes where the memories of their "earthly lives" were erased.)

The film then cuts to two astronauts named Corporal Bower(Bower Foster) and Lieutenant Payton(Dennis Quaid) who have awakened in a hyper-sleep chamber due to power surges with the ship now seemly abandoned and the ship is in a state of utter savagery. Bower gets mugged by Nadia and is almost eaten by cook turned cannibal named Leland (Eddie Rouse). The reason for this is because it is every man for himself, as tribal man-eating pale creature who display super strength that have set traps all over the ship (who are shown far too quickly). Now instead of cooperating for survival, people are competing for it. So Bower tries to reestablishes solidarity among the others so that he can jump start the reactor before the ship dies with everybody else on it and reunite with his beautiful wife.

Meanwhile, Payton in the chamber encounters one of the three astronauts from the beginning of the film, Cpl. Gallo(Cam Gigandet). The corporal claims he had to kill his two other team mates in order to defend himself because they had developed space madness called Pandorum. A rare condition that results from long periods of space travel triggered by severe emotional stress and causes nose bleeds and severe paranoia. It previously caused the captain of another sleeper ship to believe the flight was cursed, ejecting all the passengers into space, including himself, dooming them all.

The effects of Pandorum are explored even further when the origin of the creatures are explain. What happened on the ship is shown in murals on the walls in Leland's lair. Who tells a story he heard from other passengers. The murals show that there was indeed a struggle among the three astronauts after receiving the transmission and founding out that earth mysteriously vanished. Which ends with Gallo killing the other two like he said. However, lightning bolts depicted around his head suggests that there is something going on inside his head and blood is painted around his nose. This spooky scene suggests that he developed Pandorum. This is apart of the lovecrafian horror trope that some truths are too much for people and causes them to go mad. Bower heads towards this road when his memories start return and he remembers that his wife decided to not come with him on the ship. Meaning that she had vanished along with it.

Then we reach the metaphor I mentioned earlier as Gallo is referred to as both God and the Devil in the story. He would then awaken other passengers depicted with Pandorum and manipulate their fatigue mind to fight to the death and feeding on the weak in the hold of the ship. Eventually, Gallo went back into hyper-sleep and as he slept, over the course of 923 years the descendants of the cannibalistic passengers(NOT the original passengers like viewers believe) had adapted to the conditions of the ship and evolved into a different species, but still fighting and feeding on the weak. This was due to a DNA-modifying enzyme given to the passengers during hyper-sleep that was supposed to help speed up evolution and hasten their adaptation to the conditions of Tanis. This concept is summed up as "survival of the fittest". From the dictionary: survival of the fittest n. "Natural selection conceived of as a struggle for life in which only those organisms best adapted to existing conditions are able to survive and reproduce."

Leland even uses this phrase in the film. As he puts it, "Its survival of the fittest or maybe the brightest" when he tries to kill and eat the others. But instead of adapting in a biological sense it more behavioral. He says that he wouldn't have survived for years if he had heart. Now there is emphasis put on that statement as the female lead survived months and her survival strategy is robbing other passengers of their supplies, leaving people behind when danger shows up, but is not nearly as savage as Leland. She also don't trust anybody else because others could do the same and/or worse due as it is a competition for survival. Which becomes evident when Leland tried to eat the trio and she's the first one to realize what's going on. Then you have Mahn on the other hand who has more civilized than both Leland and Nadia as he puts his life on the line for others, much makes him very likable I might add. But his morality made him hesitate and it leads to his demise by the hands of a Roswell Alien-like creature child when he complemented killing it. Leland had adapt to his conditions and be like the savages that surrendered him, because if you don't adapt to you die like Mahn did. Leland facial expressions shows signs that he is ashamed at what he has come when Bower tells him that no one was going to judge him, that he did what he had to do to survive, and I can somewhat sympathize with him.

Near the film's climax it is revealed that Payton isn't really who he thinks he is and that Gallo is Payton's hallucination of his younger self. When Bower confronts him remembering what his lieutenant really looks like the effects of Pandorum start to catch up to him and Gallo tries to manipulate him like he did with the passengers. He states that his motives for his actions were that he wanted to create a new world. Telling him that civilization is what "*beep* up their planet" (referring to the overpopulation crisis) and they should abandon concepts like law, order, and morality in favor of a raw natural state where life eats life. That humanity was now dead. This is another Lovecraftian horror element, anti-anthropocentrism(humans are insignificant) and misanthropy(hatred/contempt/distrust of humanity or human nature).

There is clearly a two sides of the same coin thing going on here with the protagonist and antagonist. They both want survival but have a different way of approaching it. Another theme in the film is Civilization vs Savagery. Gallo believes in the former, that strong should survive while the weak are left to die, as overpopulation is solved in the wildness with the presence of predators. Meanwhile, Bower believes that there will always be law and solidarity goes a long way. Another way Bower is opposite to Gallo is that believes human is significant. He almost gave up when he found out the truth about his wife but Nadia reminds him that they were meant to go on and that they were meant to survive. Gallo was a demonic god as he is referred to in the film. As he destroyed what was left of the old civilized world and replaced it with a new savage one like a reversed Noah's Ark. However, Bower gets to play God this time in the traditional Noah's ark story and sends a flood washing away Gallo's world and starting anew one.

Pandorum emphasizes on survival of the fittest, with cooperation vs competition as a major themes in the film. There are also lovecraftian horror elements, such as characters rarely if ever fully understand what is happening to them, and often go insane if they try as we see with Bower, Gallo, and the ancestors of the creatures. Gallo's madness caused him to become what is best described as a social darwinist extremist. He doesn't believe in order and morality have a place in society, but survival of the fittest/might equals might, where the strongest would survive and flourish in society, while the weak and unfit would be allowed to die in a savage game. We get an example of this game twice in the film with the descendants of the passengers, the Hunters. The first being the fight scene between Bower's group, while the others watched at a distance and feed on the loser, giving the winners a chance to run. We see this happen again between the cannibal leader and Mahn, where he hands him a weapon. Its all a necessary game to these creatures, their ancestors, and Gallo to keep overpopulation from repeating itself. As in the wildness overpopulation is solved by predators feeding on their prey.

Dehumanized socially, the passenger's children's children would be dehumanized physically. This is another meaning of survival of the fittest, evolution/adaptation, and the cannibals are not the only ones to adapt. As Leland put it, "Its survival of the fittest or maybe the brightest" who wouldn't have survived for years if he had heart(aka morality) and became a cannibal like the creatures. Now there is truth put on that statement as the female lead (Nadia) survived months and her survival strategy is robbing other passengers of their supplies, leaving people behind when danger shows up, but is not nearly as savage as Leland. She also don't trust anybody else because others could do the same and/or worse due to the fact that it is every man/woman for him/herself. Which becomes evident when Leland tried to eat the trio and she's the first one to realize what's going on. Then you have Mahn on the other hand who has more of a heart than both Leland and Nadia as he puts his life on the line for others. But his morality leads to his demise as he dies for showing mercy to a hunter child. In order to survive you have to adapt to your environment, Leland had to become like the cannibalistic heartless monsters to survive, but if they don't adapt you die like Mahn did.

Gallo was both God and Devil. Creating a new world like a deity but is more like the Devil for getting people to abandon their morals. While Gallo is stands for one aspect of survival, competition, while Bower stands for cooperation which is another aspect of survival. In the end solidarity helped them accomplish their mission, the survival of the human race with Bower getting a chance to play God himself with making humanity start anew by sending a flood to wash away a wicked world like in Noah's Ark.

Plot Analysis- Pandorum emphasizes on survival of the fittest, with cooperation vs competition as a major themes in the film. There are also lovecraftian horror elements, such as characters rarely if ever fully understand what is happening to them, and often go insane if they try as we see with Bower, Gallo, and the ancestors of the creatures. Gallo's madness caused him to become what is best described as a social darwinist extremist. He doesn't believe in order and morality have a place in society, but survival of the fittest/might equals might, where the strongest would survive and flourish in society, while the weak and unfit would be allowed to die in a savage game. We get an example of this game twice in the film with the descendants of the passengers, the Hunters. The first being the fight scene between Bower's group, while the others watched at a distance and feed on the loser, giving the winners a chance to run. We see this happen again between the cannibal leader and Mahn, where he hands him a weapon. Its all a necessary game to these creatures, their ancestors, and Gallo to keep overpopulation from repeating itself. As in the wildness overpopulation is solved by predators feeding on their prey. Dehumanized socially, the passenger's children's children would be dehumanized physically. This is another meaning of survival of the fittest, evolution/adaptation, and the cannibals are not the only ones to adapt. As Leland put it, "Its survival of the fittest or maybe the brightest" who wouldn't have survived for years if he had heart(aka morality) and became a cannibal like the creatures. Now there is truth put on that statement as the female lead (Nadia) survived months and her survival strategy is robbing other passengers of their supplies, leaving people behind when danger shows up, but is not nearly as savage as Leland. She also don't trust anybody else because others could do the same and/or worse due to the fact that it is every man/woman for him/herself. Which becomes evident when Leland tried to eat the trio and she's the first one to realize what's going on. Then you have Mahn on the other hand who has more of a heart than both Leland and Nadia as he puts his life on the line for others. But his morality leads to his demise as he dies for showing mercy to a hunter child. In order to survive you have to adapt to your environment, Leland had to become like the cannibalistic heartless monsters to survive, but if they don't adapt you die like Mahn did. Gallo was both God and Devil. Creating a new world like a deity but is more like the Devil for getting people to abandon their morals. While Gallo is stands for one aspect of survival, competition, while Bower stands for cooperation which is another aspect of survival. In the end solidarity helped them accomplish their mission, the survival of the human race with Bower getting a chance to play God himself with making humanity start anew by sending a flood to wash away a wicked world like in Noah's Ark.

Pandorum emphasizes on survival of the fittest, with cooperation vs competition as a major themes in the film. There are also lovecraftian horror elements, such as characters rarely if ever fully understand what is happening to them, and often go insane if they try as we see with Bower, Gallo, and the ancestors of the creatures. Gallo's madness caused him to become what is best described as a social darwinist extremist. He doesn't believe in order and morality have a place in society, but survival of the fittest/might equals might, where the strongest would survive and flourish in society, while the weak and unfit would be allowed to die like savage animals. We get an example of this game twice in the film with the descendants of the passengers, the Hunters. The first being the fight scene between Bower's group and one of the hunters without a spear to even the odds, while the others watched at a distance and feed on the loser, giving the winners a chance to run. We see this happen again between the cannibal leader and Mahn, where he hands him a weapon. Its all a necessary game to these creatures, their ancestors, and Gallo to keep overpopulation from repeating itself. As in the wildness overpopulation is solved by predators.

Dehumanized socially, the passenger's children's children would be dehumanized physically. This is another meaning of survival of the fittest, evolution/adaptation, and the cannibals are not the only ones to adapt. As Leland put it, "Its survival of the fittest or maybe the brightest" who wouldn't have survived for years if he had heart(aka morality) and became a cannibal like the creatures. Now there is truth put on that statement as the female lead (Nadia) survived months and her survival strategy is robbing other passengers of their supplies, leaving people behind when danger shows up, but is not nearly as savage as Leland. She also don't trust anybody else because others could do the same and/or worse due to the fact that it is every man/woman for him/herself. Which becomes evident when Leland tried to eat the trio and she's the first one to realize what's going on. Then you have Mahn on the other hand who has more of a heart than both Leland and Nadia as he puts his life on the line for others. But his morality leads to his demise as he dies for showing mercy to a hunter child. In order to survive you have to adapt to your environment, Leland had to become like the cannibalistic heartless monsters to survive, but if they don't adapt you die like Mahn did.

Gallo was both God and Devil. Creating a new world like a deity but is more like the Devil for getting people to abandon their morals. While Gallo is stands for one aspect of survival, competition, while Bower stands for cooperation which is another aspect of survival. In the end solidarity helped them accomplish their mission, the survival of the human race with Bower getting a chance to play God himself with making humanity start anew by sending a flood to wash away a wicked world like in Noah's Ark.

Pandorum explores multiply aspects of survival of the fittest, with morality vs survival and cooperation vs competition as a major theme in the film. There are also lovecraftian horror elements, such as characters rarely if ever fully understand what is happening to them, and often go insane if they try as we see with Bower, Gallo, and the ancestors of the creatures. Gallo's madness caused him to become what is best described as a social darwinist extremist. He doesn't believe in order and morality have a place in society, but survival of the fittest, where the strongest would survive and flourish in society, while the weak and unfit would be allowed to die like savage animals. We get an example of this game twice in the film with the descendants of the passengers, the Hunters. The first being the fight scene between Bower's group and one of the hunters without a spear to even the odds, while the others watched at a distance and feed on the loser, giving the winners a chance to run. We see this happen again between the cannibal leader and Mahn, where he hands him a weapon. Its all a necessary game to these creatures, their ancestors, and Gallo to keep overpopulation from repeating itself. As in the wildness overpopulation is solved by predators.

Dehumanized socially, the passenger's children's children would be dehumanized physically. This is another form of survival of the fittest, evolution/adaptation, and the cannibals are not the only ones to adapt. As Leland put it, "Its survival of the fittest or maybe the brightest" who wouldn't have survived for years if he had heart(aka morality) and became a cannibal like the creatures. Now there is truth put on that statement as the female lead (Nadia) survived months and her survival strategy is robbing other passengers of their supplies, leaving people behind when danger shows up, but is not nearly as savage as Leland. She also don't trust anybody else because others could do the same and/or worse due to the fact that it is every man/woman for him/herself. Which becomes evident when Leland tried to eat the trio and she's the first one to realize what's going on. Then you have Mahn on the other hand who has more of a heart than both Leland and Nadia as he puts his life on the line for others. But his morality leads to his demise as he dies for showing mercy to a hunter child. In order to survive you have to adapt to your environment, Leland had to make compromises and become like the cannibalistic heartless monsters to survive.

Gallo was both God and Devil. Creating a new world like a deity but is more like the Devil for getting people to abandon their morals. While Gallo is stands for one aspect of survival, competition, while Bower stands for cooperation which is another aspect of survival. In the end solidarity helped them accomplish their mission, the survival of the human race with Bower getting a chance to play God himself with making humanity start anew by sending a flood to wash away a wicked world like in Noah's Ark.

Pandorum explores multiply aspects of survival of the fittest, with morality vs survival as a major theme in the film. There are also lovecraftian horror elements, such as characters rarely if ever fully understand what is happening to them, and often go insane if they try as we see with Bower, Gallo, and the ancestors of the creatures. Gallo's madness caused him to become what is best described as a social darwinist extremist. He doesn't believe in order and morality have a place in society, but survival of the fittest, where the strongest would survive and flourish in society, while the weak and unfit would be allowed to die like savage animals. We get an example of this game twice in the film with the descendants of the passengers, the Hunters. The first being the fight scene between Bower's group and one of the hunters without a spear to even the odds, while the others watched at a distance and feed on the loser, giving the winners a chance to run. We see this happen again between the cannibal leader and Mahn, where he hands him a weapon. Its all a necessary game to these creatures, their ancestors, and Gallo to keep overpopulation from repeating itself. As in the wildness overpopulation is solved by predators.

Gallo was both God and Devil. Creating a new world like a deity but is more like the Devil for getting people to abandon their morals. While Gallo is stands for one aspect of survival of the fittest Bower of course stands for solidarity/cooperation which is another aspect of survival. This aspect helped him accomplish their mission, the survival of the human race. Ironically, Bower gets to play God himself with making humanity start anew by sending a flood to wash away a wicked world like in Noah's Ark.

Pandorum explores multiply aspects of survival of the fittest, with morality vs survival as a major theme in the film. There are also lovecraftian horror elements, such as characters rarely if ever fully understand what is happening to them, and often go insane if they try as we see with Bower, Gallo, and the ancestors of the creatures. Gallo's madness caused him to become a moral nihilist and an anarchist extremist. He doesn't believe in order and morality have a place in society, but survival of the fittest, where the strongest would survive and flourish in society, while the weak and unfit would be allowed to die like savage animals. We get an example of this game twice in the film with the descendants of the passengers, the Hunters. The first being the fight scene between Bower's group and one of the hunters without a spear to even the odds, while the others watched at a distance and feed on the loser, giving the winners a chance to run. We see this happen again between the cannibal leader and Mahn, where he hands him a weapon. Its all a necessary game to these creatures, their ancestors, and Gallo to keep overpopulation from repeating itself. As in the wildness overpopulation is solved by predators.

Gallo was both God and Devil. Creating a new world like a deity but is more like the Devil for getting people to abandon their morals. While Gallo is stands for one aspect of survival of the fittest Bower of course stands for solidarity/cooperation which is another aspect of survival. This aspect helped him accomplish their mission, the survival of the human race. Irony, Bower gets to play God himself with making humanity start anew by sending a flood to wash away a wicked world like in Noah's Ark.

Pandorum explores multiply aspects of survival, with morality vs survival as a major theme in the film. It also has lovecraftian horror elements, such as characters rarely if ever fully understand what is happening to them, and often go insane if they try as we see with Bower, Gallo, and the ancestors of the creatures. Gallo's madness caused him to become a moral nihilist and an anarchist extremist. He doesn't believe in order and morality have a place in society, but survival of the fittest, where the strongest would survive and flourish in society, while the weak and unfit would be allowed to die like savage animals. We get an example of this game twice in the film with the descendants of the passengers, the Hunters. The first being the fight scene between Bower's group and one of the hunters without a spear to even the odds, while the others watched at a distance and feed on the loser, giving the winners a chance to run. We see this happen again between the cannibal leader and Mahn, where he hands him a weapon. Its all a necessary game to these creatures, their ancestors, and Gallo to keep overpopulation from repeating itself. As in the wildness overpopulation is solved by predators.

Gallo was both God and Devil. Creating a new world like a deity but is more like the Devil for getting people to abandon their morals. While Gallo is clearly an agent of chaos Bower of course stands for order, believing that a little solidarity goes a long way as he puts. Cooperation is another method of survival and it accomplish their mission, the survival of the human race. Irony, Bower gets to play God himself with making humanity start anew by sending a flood to wash away a wicked world like in Noah's Ark.

Morality vs survival is a major theme in Pandorum. There are other themes like order vs chaos and lovecraftian horror elements, such as characters rarely if ever fully understand what is happening to them, and often go insane if they try as we see with Bower, Gallo, and the ancestors of the creatures. Gallo's madness caused him to become a moral nihilist and an anarchist extremist. He doesn't believe in order and morality have a place in society, but survival of the fittest, where the strongest would survive and flourish in society, while the weak and unfit would be allowed to die like savage animals. We get an example of this game twice in the film with the descendants of the passengers, the Hunters. The first being the fight scene between Bower's group and one of the hunters without a spear to even the odds, while the others watched at a distance and feed on the loser, giving the winners a chance to run. We see this happen again between the cannibal leader and Mahn, where he hands him a weapon. Its all a necessary game to these creatures, their ancestors, and Gallo to keep overpopulation from repeating itself. As in the wildness overpopulation is solved by predators.

Dehumanized socially, the passenger's children's children would be dehumanized physically. This is another form of survival of the fittest, evolution/adaptation, and the cannibals are not the only ones to adapt. As Leland put it, "Its survival of the fittest or maybe the brightest" who wouldn't have survived for years if he had heart(aka morality) and became a cannibal like the creatures. Now there is truth put on that statement as the female lead (Nadia) survived months and her survival strategy is robbing other passengers of their supplies, leaving people behind when danger shows up, but is not nearly as savage as Leland. She also don't trust anybody else because others could do the same and/or worse due to the fact that it is every man/woman for him/herself. Which becomes evident when Leland tried to eat the trio and she's the first one to realize what's going on. Then you have Mahn on the other hand who has more of a heart than both Leland and Nadia as he puts his life on the line for others. But his heart leads to his demise as he dies for showing mercy to a hunter child. In order to survive you have to adapt to your environment, Leland had to make compromises and become like the cannibalistic heartless monsters to survive.

[[http://devilmayhem666.blogspot.com/2011/09/pandorum-review-spoilers.html My in-depth review of the film.]]

[[http://devilmayhem666.blogspot.com/2011/09/movie-reviewanalysis-pandorum.html Read]]