Katalog posthumanistycznych lęków w filmie Przestroga Agaty Alexander

Abstract

The article contains an analysis of the science fiction film Warning (directed by A. Alexander, screenplay by A. Alexander, J. Kaye and R. Michaelson, USA–Poland 2021), which aims to determine the meaning of its structure and the motifs contained therein. As the author of the article claims, the film is an intellectual and artistic projection of the moral, existential and social consequences of technological development, especially of digital technologies. It shows a vision of the society of 2028, in which the fourth industrial revolution has already occurred. Androids, the transfer of consciousness, immortality, hybrids of religion and technology, and the resetting or virtualisation of memory no longer surprise anyone, so the effects of their use in everyday life are shown from the perspective of ordinary people. The film plot is made up of six micro‑‑stories, divided into parts and simultaneously developing, which, by presenting the existence of an individual in a technocratic world, also become an exemplification of a post‑‑humanist discourse permeated with fear and distrust toward the unreflective admiration of progress. The stories presented in the film create a kind of a “catalogue” of possible threats generated by technology, thus becoming yet another extremely current voice in the discussion about the state of modern civilization. A satirical and grotesque view of the near future supported by a catastrophic and apocalyptic imagination and a moral and didactic orientation determines the specificity of Warning’s narrative.